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
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Question for Administrators and Moderators in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, January 2 2006 03:55
Profile
To me the nuance between generality and miscellany is that generality aspires to cover all possibilities, whereas miscellany is content with any sufficiently random subset. Hence we could argue that in Misc we were allowed to discuss anything, but now in General we are required to discuss everything. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Reptile Island (spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, January 2 2006 03:42
Profile
If I can rudely wrench the topic back to Reptile Island for a moment: I have only found one quest related to the island this time, but I seem to remember having two before. Any reminders would be appreciated. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Kolokh on Torment (spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, January 2 2006 03:39
Profile
I suspected that would be true, too. My singleton mage is still languishing back in the Formello of an alternate universe, but I should get back to him. People have murmured darkly about Kolokh as the inevitable nemesis of singletons, but I bet that the hit-and-hit-'F' tactic familiar to all Geneforge Agents would make short work of Kolokh for a singleton mage, as long as they had good Quick Action and/or Gymnastics. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Kolokh on Torment (spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, January 1 2006 17:46
Profile
Nothing very earthshattering to report, but this was a fun battle. I went in buffed up well, including Mindshield and Prismatic Shield (which I had just learned from X). I was holding my own and whittling him down, to a small fraction of his hit points in fact, until my Prismatic Shield wore off, and he suddenly KO'd my fighter and priest in quick succession. My hasted mage saw how things were going, fired an Acid Spray at Kolokh, and then abandoned my frozen archer to his fate. She just left and closed the door. The demon's mighty powers do not extend to doorknobs, so she was safe. She popped back in to lob a few Lightning scrolls, to help the acid in its work. A few rounds later, she was walking out with the flaming sword. This tactic born of desperation would in retrospect have made the whole thing a lot easier if used from the start. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Happy New Years and Insane Food! in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, January 1 2006 07:24
Profile
Here's some fun trivia about modern timekeeping: atomic clocks use bungee cords. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Unique Item Locations. in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, December 31 2005 03:23
Profile
I don't remember getting Mercuric Leather from Swamplouse; but maybe I sold it. I did definitely just get it from Nociduas. Did someone mention the Pearlescent Band you get from the Cotra Eyebeast? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Nociduas (spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, December 31 2005 03:20
Profile
Nociduas is a tough cookie on Torment: his ice rays are nasty, he has more hit points than the Nimitz, he drinks healing potions, and his demon spawn thing is also very tough. But he is quite vulnerable to Terror, even from a wand. The weird thing is his reaction to terror: instead of running away, he stays put, and chugs at least six speed potions each round. He manages one nasty ice ray per round too, despite his terror; but just the one. With all that speed, you're expecting to get blasted with four attacks the next round; but terrified Nociduas just uses all his extra speed to drink more speed. With Augmentation and Enduring Armor from the nearby birdbath, even wimpy characters can survive one hit from his ice ray, and so you can keep grinding him down. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| They Do Exist in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 28 2005 23:30
Profile
Fuzzily remembered from last year's astronomy course: The giant planets are mostly gaseous, but are thought to have solid cores. In a sense they have liquid layers, but no ocean surfaces: at the high temperatures and pressures deep within these planets, vapor just gradually thickens into liquid, without any sharp transition, as pressure rises further. One should probably speak simply of 'fluid', without specifying liquid or gas. No significant amounts of water ice have been found on Mars's surface. The visible ice caps are mostly solid CO2. But there are lots of geological features on the surface that look just like features on Earth that are caused by water erosion, and some of these features can be plausibly dated as not all that old, geologically speaking. So there is speculation that Mars has had copious flowing surface water recently enough that significant amounts of Martian water might still remain in underground reservoirs. I'm not really sure how serious this speculation is, though. For all I know, it might be based largely on NASA engineers' regret that the Rovers can't drill. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Like Anyone Cares... in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 27 2005 15:50
Profile
What reins? RWG is a mammoth run amok, pounding down anything in its path, and carrying its puny passengers along on the ride of their lives! Yeee-haaaaa! Well, would you believe it's a mouse that does sometimes stir, just not right now? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Like Anyone Cares... in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 27 2005 05:12
Profile
Maybe he left because his mystic powers informed him that a lull was at hand. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The End (Spoiler Warning) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 27 2005 03:01
Profile
Wikivernum, hmmm. An Avernum mash-up. A character editor is one thing, rewriting the whole game but using Jeff's engine is probably quite another. Obviously no-one can stop you from doing this quietly among friends, but if I were Jeff I'd definitely take whatever steps I could to squash a public venture. I don't know much about copyright law, but I expect it might empower some good squashing in such a case, even if no profit were involved. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 26 2005 06:22
Profile
No. No. No. No. What it does offer is: better 3D, Geneforge-style (in fact, all too Geneforge-style for many old Avernites); big, wide-open world -- no separation between town and country, no zones; the main thing: a lot of interesting battles, in an engine that admits a wide range of tactical twists. Especially if you play on Torment, you have to think about how to build your party, and how to attack different enemies. You could almost say it's more of a strategy game than an RPG. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Skunky Joe (SPOILERS) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 17:27
Profile
Ya know, Skunky Joe is actually quite easy to take out early, even on Torment, if you get the drop on him. Which of course you can, if you just creep along the north wall of the Eastern Gallery. Be blessed and hasted, hit and run so he chases you, then hit Joe with a couple of Slows, and maybe charm one of his archers. Don't let him get a shot off, or he'll wipe your whole party fast. This gets you Lightning Spray a little sooner, which is nice. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The End is near... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 17:17
Profile
Just a blip, I think. There's a pretty decent theory of gravity, actually, and it has been around for nearly a century: general relativity. It doesn't seem to play well with quantum mechanics, but it does do a nice job of explaining gravity in terms of spacetime geometry. Why not zombies with giant lasers, and make everyone happy? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Early Gear in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 17:06
Profile
That's not exactly the pukka Avernite way. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 03:55
Profile
I tried two different singleton, I forget on which difficulty level, up to Fort Draco, then quit both after hearing horror stories of the exp wall. Up until that point, the divinely touched warrior-priest was rather tricky, but the fast-footed nephil natural mage was a complete breeze -- he just Icy Rained everything in his path, and stormed through without raising a sweat. I think I got him to Formello without the slightest difficulty at any point. Maybe I should have kept it up, but my own previous experience with the difficulty hump in the Eastern Gallery made me a believer in the problem before encountering it, and I didn't want to put in hours of playing time that would only leave me hopelessly doomed somewhere around Mertis later on. My guy was quite the glass cannon, and I'm not sure how feasible his hit-and-run tactics would have remained as the enemies got tougher and his level threw out an anchor. On the other hand, maybe it would have been fine if I could just have kept up his quick action, since he could stay Hasted forever and do the old shoot-hide-repeat Agent dodge, to effectively hit anything infinitely many times before it hit him. Hmm. Maybe I'll give young Macavity another try. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Bug/oddity (possible spoilers for Spire) in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 23 2005 04:20
Profile
I figure the game is doing its best to implement the idea that if you betray Annatolia while she is still in power, her whole town has to follow her lead, but if you do succeed in killing her, most folks don't actually mind. Too bad it can't turn off town hostility after the Queen dies. Or could it? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| If I Could Make My Own Fantasy Game... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 23 2005 03:44
Profile
I kind of liked Pillars of Garendal, though. Without really being able to explain why, since there was literally nothing to it but running around (really a LOT of running around) and madly pounding the X key whenever you ran into anything animate. I think the music was nice, and without looking really good it looked somehow friendly and homey. It's as though it tricked me into feeling that it had been written by my little brother or something. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Game Life in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 23 2005 03:37
Profile
Yet it looks as though all the PCs are giving perpetual fascist salutes. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Chemistry at home, part 12 in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 23 2005 03:31
Profile
Thuryl was once shipwrecked on an island strewn with green, glowing canisters. 'All science is either physics or stamp collecting.' -- Ernest Rutherford, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. (He was probably just bitter because the Nobel committee of that benighted era thought his nuclear transmutations counted as chemistry. He was, of course, a physicist.) -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| What would you do with a billion dollars? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 22 2005 08:25
Profile
If those count as buying a country, sure; but then buying a gun and robbing a store counts as buying the stuff you steal. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| What would you do with a billion dollars? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 22 2005 00:46
Profile
At least for now, the concept of buying and selling does not really extend to industrialized nation states, let alone planets. With what currency would one pay, when states mint their own money? How would you persuade an entire population to hand over their sovereignty in exchange for any amount of printed paper? One might perhaps be able to buy a sufficiently isolated country, by monopolising its external trade to the point of being able to exercise decisive influence on its internal policies. You wouldn't be able to extract profit from the country, though, since your means of control is outspending the place. And your control would be limited by the inhabitants' options of emigration, or reversion to autarchic subsistence. These are not entirely silly questions, because it's actually a major problem in macroeconomics to understand the economic differences between households and nations. Buying and selling, borrowing and lending, are in some ways similar but in other ways quite different, when they are done by nation states instead of by individuals. Corporations are sort of in between, but actually a lot more like individuals than like states, because the legal status of a corporation fundamentally is that of an individual. (That's what incorporation means.) [ Thursday, December 22, 2005 00:47: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Chemistry at home, part 12 in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 22 2005 00:19
Profile
Schrodinger, is it that you have almost finished your doctorate, or that your doctorate is in a subject which is almost chemistry? Just what is this 'fun' quantum physics that doesn't involve equations? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Our Anthem in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 21 2005 00:39
Profile
Next year's Word of the Year: implantcasting. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A4 Hidden Skills [SPOILERS] in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 21 2005 00:35
Profile
I'm presuming that this is true for all spells, not just Unlock, and that the only advantage of unlocking Magery is that it gives you a second Spellcraft that starts back at low point cost. Is Blademaster perhaps similar? On the other hand, I tried an experiment with a lowish-level priest casting Repel Spirit, and seemed to get significantly higher damage with (Spellcraft, Magery) = (0,2) than with (2,0), everything else unchanged. There were fairly large random fluctuations in this damage, though, and I didn't get too large a sample of shots each way (fighting Hrickis). So my result might have been spurious. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |