Profile for Student of Trinity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Student of Trinity |
| Member number | 3431 |
| Title | Electric Sheep One |
| Postcount | 3335 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| More Games for PC in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, March 18 2005 11:34
Profile
Lost Souls is indeed worth playing, just not worth porting. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Anyone tried this? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Friday, March 18 2005 09:23
Profile
Hmmm, I'd like to try the Shaper alternative. I bet it could be made to work well, since magic doesn't cost Shapers too much, and they can also wear the enhancers. I don't understand your reference to Parry, since in my experience you have to have very high levels of Parry before you can rely on it to prevent opponents hitting you. Your Easss example is certainly a classic -- I always wondered why that Rhotghroth was there, and now I know -- but it has also got to be the single best case in the whole game for your strategy, since you have exactly two enemies, one is physically very strong but mentally mediocre, and they start out close to each other. Overall, I'm sure your mental Agent strategy is an effective alternative, but I'm not sure it's superior to the traditional speed-and-firepower Agent. Two other questions: Do you get much use out of Mass Madness? And, do you think that Terror and Dominate could be effectively used without going whole-hog into Mental Magic? That is, would it be worth it for me to just put a few more points into MM for my traditional Shapers and Agents, and get some occasional use from T and D? Or do those spells only come into their own if you specialize enough to reach quite high MM and SC? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Anyone tried this? in Geneforge 2 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Friday, March 18 2005 09:23
Profile
Hmmm, I'd like to try the Shaper alternative. I bet it could be made to work well, since magic doesn't cost Shapers too much, and they can also wear the enhancers. I don't understand your reference to Parry, since in my experience you have to have very high levels of Parry before you can rely on it to prevent opponents hitting you. Your Easss example is certainly a classic -- I always wondered why that Rhotghroth was there, and now I know -- but it has also got to be the single best case in the whole game for your strategy, since you have exactly two enemies, one is physically very strong but mentally mediocre, and they start out close to each other. Overall, I'm sure your mental Agent strategy is an effective alternative, but I'm not sure it's superior to the traditional speed-and-firepower Agent. Two other questions: Do you get much use out of Mass Madness? And, do you think that Terror and Dominate could be effectively used without going whole-hog into Mental Magic? That is, would it be worth it for me to just put a few more points into MM for my traditional Shapers and Agents, and get some occasional use from T and D? Or do those spells only come into their own if you specialize enough to reach quite high MM and SC? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A Geneforge 3 Forum? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Friday, March 18 2005 08:55
Profile
Just you wait until you see the new fifth tier creations in GF3: big yellow chesspieces. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Did you stay loyal? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, March 16 2005 04:38
Profile
Except, alas, that no-one is left to oppose you at that point. About the only chance to enjoy all that power is in toasting the Sholai guards at the final docks. You can save the Inner Crypt to the end, but the one time I tried that was disappointing. On the one hand, the swarms of high level creations there actually did remain a problem. I still had to stay in combat mode; if I tried to just stroll through I still got owned, despite all my Geneforged might. On the other hand, the one set piece battle was disappointingly brief, and the reward was small potatoes after the Geneforge. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Did you stay loyal? in Geneforge | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, March 16 2005 04:38
Profile
Except, alas, that no-one is left to oppose you at that point. About the only chance to enjoy all that power is in toasting the Sholai guards at the final docks. You can save the Inner Crypt to the end, but the one time I tried that was disappointing. On the one hand, the swarms of high level creations there actually did remain a problem. I still had to stay in combat mode; if I tried to just stroll through I still got owned, despite all my Geneforged might. On the other hand, the one set piece battle was disappointingly brief, and the reward was small potatoes after the Geneforge. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Anyone tried this? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Tuesday, March 15 2005 06:41
Profile
I'm very impressed: a whole new strategy. The first question I have, though, is how your (Mental Magic + Shaping) Agent compares to a (Shaping + Mental Magic) Shaper. Overall your style seems more like what I'd think a Shaper should be, so I'd be a bit surprised if you couldn't do the same thing a bit better starting with a Shaper. If I understand rightly, you use both Magic and Shaping but little Melee, so I'd actually expect the Shaper's combination of strong Shaping and moderate Magic to do better at it than the Agent's strong Magic and weak Shaping. I wouldn't say immensely surprised, though, because I could imagine that the Agent works out better because you need sky-high levels of Mental Magic or Spellcraft to be able to Dominate Eyebeasts consistently. That's why I've never gotten much juice out of Terror and Dominate, I expect -- there's a threshold before they really pay off. What sort of levels do you need to make these spells work in the various stages of the game? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Anyone tried this? in Geneforge 2 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Tuesday, March 15 2005 06:41
Profile
I'm very impressed: a whole new strategy. The first question I have, though, is how your (Mental Magic + Shaping) Agent compares to a (Shaping + Mental Magic) Shaper. Overall your style seems more like what I'd think a Shaper should be, so I'd be a bit surprised if you couldn't do the same thing a bit better starting with a Shaper. If I understand rightly, you use both Magic and Shaping but little Melee, so I'd actually expect the Shaper's combination of strong Shaping and moderate Magic to do better at it than the Agent's strong Magic and weak Shaping. I wouldn't say immensely surprised, though, because I could imagine that the Agent works out better because you need sky-high levels of Mental Magic or Spellcraft to be able to Dominate Eyebeasts consistently. That's why I've never gotten much juice out of Terror and Dominate, I expect -- there's a threshold before they really pay off. What sort of levels do you need to make these spells work in the various stages of the game? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| new slightly edited editer in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 13 2005 19:48
Profile
quote:Eats, shoots and leaves. We read 'save as if ...' as 'save, as if ...' when it should have been 'save as, if'. This is a nice example of something. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| new slightly edited editer in Geneforge 2 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 13 2005 19:48
Profile
quote:Eats, shoots and leaves. We read 'save as if ...' as 'save, as if ...' when it should have been 'save as, if'. This is a nice example of something. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Anyone tried this? in Geneforge Series | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 13 2005 19:41
Profile
Does specializing in mental magic mean using Strong Daze a lot? If so, it isn't really surprising that she's powerful. A baby could clear Inner Gazak-Uss with Strong Daze and a sharp rattle. But if you're actually getting good mileage out of Terror and Dominate, I'd like to hear more. I've never found any use for those spells. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Anyone tried this? in Geneforge 2 | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 13 2005 19:41
Profile
Does specializing in mental magic mean using Strong Daze a lot? If so, it isn't really surprising that she's powerful. A baby could clear Inner Gazak-Uss with Strong Daze and a sharp rattle. But if you're actually getting good mileage out of Terror and Dominate, I'd like to hear more. I've never found any use for those spells. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Article - Rollick in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Thursday, March 10 2005 16:20
Profile
I don't have time for BoA, but I'm interested in the theory of gaming, so I've been following this thread. I like Thuryl's new terms very much. There are many dimensions to a scenario, and linearity is just one axis. Thuryl's rollick-grit axis is just a slightly rotated co-ordinate system, but I think it's a better one. My own years of design experience were in live RPGs, and for me rollick and grit resonate immediately. I'd be prepared to argue that rollicking/gritty is the most significant bit in the long binary number describing a scenario. What would the next bit be? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Article - Rollick in Blades of Avernum | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Thursday, March 10 2005 16:20
Profile
I don't have time for BoA, but I'm interested in the theory of gaming, so I've been following this thread. I like Thuryl's new terms very much. There are many dimensions to a scenario, and linearity is just one axis. Thuryl's rollick-grit axis is just a slightly rotated co-ordinate system, but I think it's a better one. My own years of design experience were in live RPGs, and for me rollick and grit resonate immediately. I'd be prepared to argue that rollicking/gritty is the most significant bit in the long binary number describing a scenario. What would the next bit be? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Corata's new body in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, March 9 2005 09:06
Profile
Poor old Corata is just toast, and spectral toast at that. I forgot about his quest for a new body, but it isn't a real quest, just one of those spooky little touches that make GF good -- like the Barzite ghost in the GF2 Demonic Depot. Later in the game you may find a further reference to Corata's fate. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Corata's new body in Geneforge | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, March 9 2005 09:06
Profile
Poor old Corata is just toast, and spectral toast at that. I forgot about his quest for a new body, but it isn't a real quest, just one of those spooky little touches that make GF good -- like the Barzite ghost in the GF2 Demonic Depot. Later in the game you may find a further reference to Corata's fate. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| An Organized Geneforge 3 Wishlist (Please Read Jeff!) in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, March 9 2005 09:00
Profile
Well, not every one of these wishes is everyone's wish. Some of them would be quite good, but for a lot of them I wouldn't be at all disappointed if Jeff chose to go in other directions. Many would only complicate a game that is nicely clean and simple, without really adding anything wonderful. I hope Jeff doesn't add those ones. And some would actually be quite bad, in my opinion. Probably the very worst game would be one that tried to please everyone. Maybe when GF4 starts getting underway, what we should do is determine, by a series of discussions and polls, the few features that the greatest majority of players want most. If we got something like that to Jeff early in the design cycle, it might be quite useful to him. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| An Organized Geneforge 3 Wishlist (Please Read Jeff!) in Geneforge Series | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, March 9 2005 09:00
Profile
Well, not every one of these wishes is everyone's wish. Some of them would be quite good, but for a lot of them I wouldn't be at all disappointed if Jeff chose to go in other directions. Many would only complicate a game that is nicely clean and simple, without really adding anything wonderful. I hope Jeff doesn't add those ones. And some would actually be quite bad, in my opinion. Probably the very worst game would be one that tried to please everyone. Maybe when GF4 starts getting underway, what we should do is determine, by a series of discussions and polls, the few features that the greatest majority of players want most. If we got something like that to Jeff early in the design cycle, it might be quite useful to him. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| An Organized Geneforge 3 Wishlist (Please Read Jeff!) in Geneforge 2 | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, March 9 2005 09:00
Profile
Well, not every one of these wishes is everyone's wish. Some of them would be quite good, but for a lot of them I wouldn't be at all disappointed if Jeff chose to go in other directions. Many would only complicate a game that is nicely clean and simple, without really adding anything wonderful. I hope Jeff doesn't add those ones. And some would actually be quite bad, in my opinion. Probably the very worst game would be one that tried to please everyone. Maybe when GF4 starts getting underway, what we should do is determine, by a series of discussions and polls, the few features that the greatest majority of players want most. If we got something like that to Jeff early in the design cycle, it might be quite useful to him. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| playing a guardian? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 6 2005 08:42
Profile
Checking the FAQ confirms we're both right. Quicksilver boots dock Strength, Quicksilver Chitin and Chain reduce Spellcraft, and Quicksilver Plate only lowers attack strength. The Emerald Chestguard is great because it only penalizes Couture. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| playing a guardian? in Geneforge | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 6 2005 08:42
Profile
Checking the FAQ confirms we're both right. Quicksilver boots dock Strength, Quicksilver Chitin and Chain reduce Spellcraft, and Quicksilver Plate only lowers attack strength. The Emerald Chestguard is great because it only penalizes Couture. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Concentrated Linearity Debate (New Voices Welcome to Participate and Vote) in Blades of Avernum | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 6 2005 08:33
Profile
Not only is linearity a continuum, but sometimes it's even hard to put the relevant issues on a single line. Instead of analyzing whether linearity or nonlinearity enhances quality most, I too easily find myself invoking quality to decide how linear a story is. For example, a really good subplot can enhance a main plot, and even though it can stand very well on its own as a story, it is even better as part of a larger story. (This can be so even if the way the sub- and main plots resonate is not directly a matter of plot -- I'm not talking about a sub-quest whose completion is necessary for a main quest.) A good subplot will thus feel nonlinear at first, but in the end it will seem linear. Ascribing the greatness of such a scenario to either linearity or nonlinearity seems perverse in such a case: it has all the advantages of both. On the other hand a proliferation of meaningless options in a pointless world can also seem nonlinear at first, but linear in retrospect, because in retrospect every choice has the same ultimate consequence, namely nothing you care about. Looking to either linearity or nonlinearity alone, to explain why this scenario is so awful, is again a poor choice of conceptual tools: it's bad because it's both, in bad ways. The unambiguous connection that I do see between quality and linearity is that I think only a nonlinear game can be really great, but only a great game can afford to be very nonlinear. After all, if a game isn't good enough to deserve a lot of replaying, it may as well not bother having significantly different outcomes. If you can't pull off a great nonlinear game, far better to scale back to something more linear, than to put out a nonlinear mess. And that isn't even necessarily a reflection on designer skill; there probably aren't so many basic scenario ideas that really have the legs for nonlinear greatness. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| playing a guardian? in Geneforge Series | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 6 2005 07:48
Profile
In GF1 at least, and I think in GF2 as well, what Quicksilver reduces is Strength, not Spellcraft; and that does hit Guardians. Has this been changed in GF3? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| playing a guardian? in Geneforge | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Sunday, March 6 2005 07:48
Profile
In GF1 at least, and I think in GF2 as well, what Quicksilver reduces is Strength, not Spellcraft; and that does hit Guardians. Has this been changed in GF3? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| desperate for GF3 in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Friday, March 4 2005 08:20
Profile
For that reason if for no other, a home schooled Ph.D. is not widely respected in today's job market. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |