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 |
|---|---|
| should i? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 16 2005 23:17
Profile
Also sprach Sauerathustra. The spectrum of opinions also extends to people like me who think there's a ton of cool stuff after the reg barrier, so if you like the demo at all you should find the rest of the game well worth the price. [ Friday, December 16, 2005 23:19: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| No tool ? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 16 2005 23:11
Profile
Plaster. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| This thread is a spoiler. in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 16 2005 12:23
Profile
quote:How do we know how much preparation went into her first getaway? We do know that her preparations at her final fortress have been more hurried, and teleportation is probably pretty hairy stuff. And there's no reason to assume that pylons have to work equally well or easily both ways. Sheesh, people. In a game with all kinds of outright magic, it seems to me that there is bound to be enough wiggle room for rationalizing things like this. Work with the man a bit. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| No tool ? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 16 2005 00:30
Profile
I just imagine that the 'unconscious' characters are given emergency first aid by the survivors, and then continue as walking wounded. They are revived enough to move (and carry all their stuff) but incapable of anything more, so they hobble along and keep up, but at a safe distance. This makes me feel okay about finishing battles that take out some of my party. It was an exciting fight the time my wounded lone survivor ran back to town pursued by the shade that had been conjured by the enemy spiritist before we killed him. Much more fun than save-loading. If you do have 'deaths', though, DON'T read any spell books! If your caster is incapacitated at the time, they won't gain the spell point; and they won't be able to get it if they come back to the same book later. So leave the book unread until you can return with everyone revived. Oh yeah, about opening doors: in my first game, it happened to be my nephil mage who had all the tool use points. So I had no trouble at all opening any doors in the game with Unlock, even though my Tool Use was only about 12 or maybe 14. If you really like opening every door, this is the way to go. If you're worried about losing magical offense from having to divert your mage's skill points to tool use, give the mage a big extra ration of knowledge brews to compensate them for their extraordinary services to the party in busting stuff open. [ Friday, December 16, 2005 00:34: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| This thread is a spoiler. in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 16 2005 00:17
Profile
Machina ex deo, I believe. But actually it might make good sense for Rentar-Ihrno to have made her own pylon, to transport her agents from her fortress out into Avernum. The question remains as to why she doesn't just use this transportation capability to escape again herself. Presumably magic capable of creating these pylons would have no trouble over the trivial fact that a crystal soul can't walk over and touch one. Perhaps it requires more or different magical infrastructure to transport a crystal soul than an ordinary mortal, however, and Rentar-Ihrno had built a mortal-insertion portal but hadn't yet finished her own escape route. This would imply that she put a higher priority on continuing her offensive, through insertion of mortal agents, than on ensuring her own last ditch survival. This strikes me as entirely plausible for her: she is certainly obsessed with revenge, and very possibly too exhausted to be all that keen on living to fight another day if she is defeated yet again. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Numbers in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 15 2005 12:47
Profile
Hey, if you can do such a good chromosome, can't you make Alorael's sniper rifle look more intimidating? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Fossils & Diamonds in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 15 2005 11:51
Profile
Huzzah! The explanatory motto is a nice touch. Maybe we should make the logo bigger. You can blow things up and then refiddle the resolution with Gimp, by interpolating pixels; it would probably work. I'll give it a try at some point. Surely such trivial enlargement will not impair the authenticity of the icon? I hope? We're still not at the bottom of the heap. I take it that it is just the renewing of the push that is 'and done'? Even so, it is appreciated. We shall sink triumphant in the end! -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Fossils & Diamonds in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 15 2005 01:09
Profile
Can't we get Richards 'Who am I?' logo, linked to above, to replace the 'Chromite Software' logo at the top of the forum? Or at least join it (preferably below rather than beside)? And can we renew our push to have RWG moved to the bottom of the forum list? We deserve it more than SubTerra. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 15 2005 01:01
Profile
It's a long series, and although some books are better than others, it doesn't go downhill. It was one of the middle ones that won a Hugo, I believe. Enjoy. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| So What Makes a Torment Capable Party? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 14 2005 13:28
Profile
Yeah, I think you can probably finesse this guy by playing with ranges, keeping your priest terror-free in the background. My problem was that I didn't know how bad the guy really was -- you know, it takes a few rounds to check for vulnerabilities to all the different types of attack -- and while fumbling around taking out his companions I let him get close to everyone. He's still going to be a pretty bad dude, though, whatever you do. When does the hurting start, on Torment? I've just reached Formello, and it has been easy enough so far -- easier than the first time through on Normal, when I didn't know what I was doing. Hey, though: I'm really not looking forward to hearing those strange scratching sounds around here. They were bad enough on Normal. Maybe Daze will help ... -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| First Impressions in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 14 2005 13:22
Profile
Hitting "f" toggles combat mode as usual. Divinely touched gives you points in Blademaster and Magery, adding more points every few levels. It might do even more than this, but this is pretty good. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| So What Makes a Torment Capable Party? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 14 2005 00:15
Profile
That Vahnatai Lord wasn't so tough. After a couple dozen rounds I got into a rhythm where only half my party was fleeing in panic at any one time, and the other two kept on slowly chilling him to death with the wind of near misses. Okay, actually he was tough. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 14 2005 00:05
Profile
One of my Vorkosigan series lists Moon as the copyright holder. Either that's an embarrassing misprint, or there was a serious poker game at some point. Or the two are ONE AND THE SAME! Well, I've seen a photo of the two together ... at least according to its label ... on the internet ... Hmmm. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Worst Game Ever in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 13 2005 23:59
Profile
As I believe I mentioned once before, I once wrote a game that was intended to be incredibly horrible. The project failed, in that ithe game became a family cult favorite. But objectively speaking it was really bad. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Reactions - SPOILERS in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 13 2005 05:40
Profile
I think the Craftmaster can make it for you. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Reactions - SPOILERS in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 12 2005 12:38
Profile
Not being familiar with the previous Avernum plots, the unoriginality of the overall plot outline didn't really strike me. Logically speaking Jeff's major villains are reasonable choices, though, no? Rentar-Ihrno was a thread left hanging, as I understand. And if Dorikas is Hawthorne reloaded, well, where did Hawthorne come from in the first place, anyway? (I am aware he was Emperor, but I mean that a culture which generated him might well pop up another one before too long.) Granted, logic isn't everything, and people could have hoped to be astonished before realizing it was inevitable, rather than going straight there. On the other hand, surely the plots were pretty original on a slightly finer scale. Sea monsters and shades wouldn't have been my first idea for attacking Avernum, but the paranoia reactions were both plausible and effective. The crystal contacts with vahnatai factions were spooky. And Dorikas's orchestrated insurgency, which was initially hard to disentangle from Rentar-Ihrno's plot, can't have been something an Emperor like Hawthorne would have had to do. I liked the upstairs and downstairs, and the numerous tactical surprises. I really hated those chitrachs that would pop up out of the ground at you. My only real complaint is that the game just got a too easy towards the end. From the giants on, I'd say, at least. Dorikas and the last Vahnatai Lord were nasty; everyone else was kind of a pushover, especially on Normal. But maybe it was just that, having figured out how the game worked, I should really have upped the difficulty level. Overall I was very impressed. [ Monday, December 12, 2005 12:39: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 12 2005 12:20
Profile
Anyone mention Philip K. Dick? I haven't actually read many of his books, but I thought The Man in the High Tower was pretty impressive. I'm told that all Dick's books have one moment at which everything turns upside down; in that one, that moment is at the very end. EDIT: Thanks to Tyranicus for pointing out that the eponymous architecture was a castle, not a mere tower. Eat your heart out, Icshi! [ Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:32: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Cheats ? in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 12 2005 07:29
Profile
Experienced Avernites are going to find A4 pretty easy at first, because the early game seems to be balanced so as not to frustrate inexperienced players on Normal difficulty. I had lots of Geneforge experience on high difficulty before beta-testing A4, but no Avernum experience to speak of. Going through the first time, I found Normal in A4 to be reasonably challenging: frequently tense and occasionally quite tricky. Now I'm doing it again on Torment, but with a properly designed party and greater tactical wisdom, and I'm barely raising a sweat, up to Fort Draco. On the first time through, though, the game got quite hard for me for a long middle stretch. I'm not entirely sure that I will find it harder this time through, or that experienced players will; but at this point I think that there will indeed be a dramatic increase in difficulty. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Fossils & Diamonds in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 11 2005 23:25
Profile
Ladies and gentlemen, our order has been vouchsafed a new logo, from the most unimpeachable of sources (namely, the mighty madness of Icshi, who is able to create eight-year-old websites retroactively):  To see this image in its original context (that is, the context freshly conjured from the void by Icshi's arcane arts): Richard's Home Page, circa 1997. [ Thursday, December 15, 2005 11:54: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Just hit the registration barrier. in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 11 2005 23:10
Profile
The game is pretty darn' big. It's hard to even remember it all. As for the giant lands across from Fort Monastery: this is definitely a case of 'so near and yet so far.' -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Fossils & Diamonds in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, December 11 2005 04:49
Profile
Admit it, Ichsi: Rock Solid didn't exist until yesterday. The force is strong in this one. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 9 2005 13:40
Profile
Yeah, Wolfe is famous for 'slingshot endings', but what this really means is that his plots sprawl so awkwardly that he can only wrap things up with an abrupt twist. Some fun stuff, but the beginnings are always the best parts. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Requests for future games in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 9 2005 13:36
Profile
Hmm, people were just rejoicing that at least there were no Vlish in A4: I guess this was premature. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 9 2005 10:59
Profile
Yeah, I gave my own little encomium for Mr Cook somewhere on these boards a few months ago. The original Black Company trilogy is still in bookstores, occasionally, after about 20 years. Hard to achieve without doing something right, unless you're L. Ron Hubbard. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| INTJ? ESFP? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 8 2005 20:34
Profile
Hmm, I remain INTP, as for many years, but quite a bit less pronounced T and a bit less pronounced P than before. I've heard it's typical for people to move more to neutrality as they age. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |