Profile for Kelandon

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Hardiness and Armor in Avernum 4
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Friday, March 31 2006 14:16 Profile Homepage #17
Spiderweb games are notorious for behaving differently on different machines that appear to have identical specs. Talk to anyone who was a part of the BoE Arena for an earful about this.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Friday, March 31 2006 12:44 Profile Homepage #79
Again, fluid is not the same as non-existent.

The fact that people have used pseudo-science to classify races doesn't prove that races don't exist any more than Aristotle's pseudo-scientific laws of motion prove that Newton's laws of motion are wrong.

The fact that some people are of mixed or complicated race doesn't prove that race doesn't exist any more than the fact that some people's sex is more chromosomally complicated than simply XX or XY proves that sex doesn't exist.

The fact that there are social and cultural factors ("gender") involved in sexual identity doesn't disprove that sex exists in a biological sense, so why would social or cultural factors involved in racial disprove that race exists in a biological sense?

[ Friday, March 31, 2006 12:46: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Friday, March 31 2006 11:53 Profile Homepage #76
quote:
Originally written by Siegfried der Waelsung:

As a matter of biological science, it is a settled issue that there is no such thing as "race."
This is just factually not true. Scientific studies have suggested that race is not a tremendously important trait — it certainly doesn't split humans into three difference species, as some pseudo-scientists once suggested — but it certainly does exist.

And it's not a settled issue, either; the higher rates of certain genetic diseases among certain races (sickle-cell among those of African descent, for instance) is far from completely explained, much less "settled."

The concept of a "Western canon" is fluid, but it is certainly not meaningless. The fact that Russian authors may or may not be in such a canon doesn't change the fact that Japanese authors (Tale of Genji, anyone?) or crappy European authors (Aethelweard has now become my classic example) are not in such a canon, and Shakespeare definitely is.

EDIT: Whether such a concept is useful or not is another question, though.

[ Friday, March 31, 2006 11:58: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Friday, March 31 2006 11:29 Profile Homepage #73
"Western" does not equal "from Western Europe." Compared to, say, China or Japan, Russia is a "Western" entity. And not just geographically.

[ Friday, March 31, 2006 11:30: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Friday, March 31 2006 09:30 Profile Homepage #66
quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:

Christopher Marlowe was a better writer than Shakespear, but how many people remember anything but his Faust?
Marlowe was not a better writer than Shakespeare. It is probably true that his plays were better than the plays that Shakespeare wrote at a comparable point in his career — if Shakespeare had died after only his first seven or eight plays, we might remember him for Richard III and Taming of the Shrew, but he probably wouldn't have gotten much acclaim. However, if Lebron James died now, you wouldn't say that he was a better basketball player than Michael Jordan, would you?

But I've read Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage, too, and if you want to denigrate Shakespeare's works by calling them derivative, you must do the same for Dido.

quote:
Originally written by Siegfried der Waelsung:

who would care about the earlier legends of Tristan and Isolde were it not for the opera (or "music-drama," if you prefer)?
As far as Tristan and Isolde, that story goes back a long ways, and many versions are considered classics. You may not care about the predecessors, but that doesn't mean that no one does. Malory wrote a version of it, for instance, and you can't say that nobody cares about Le Morte D'Arthur.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
How to change the Marching order? in Avernum 4
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Thursday, March 30 2006 22:09 Profile Homepage #1
Press "Train." Up near the top, there's an option for moving the current character down in the order.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
bahsikava machinery in Blades of Avernum
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Thursday, March 30 2006 22:06 Profile Homepage #3
If this person is really talking about the first room, then none of those things will work. Open the town's script (t8Machinery.txt), and change this:

beginstate START_STATE;
if (tick_difference(tick,get_current_tick()) >= 4)
{flip_terrain(30,46);
tick = get_current_tick(); }
break;
into this:

beginstate START_STATE;
set_terrain(29,41,15);
if (tick_difference(tick,get_current_tick()) >= 4)
{flip_terrain(30,46);
tick = get_current_tick(); }
break;
Leave the town, revert the lines to their original form, and re-enter the town.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Just because we all love census topics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Thursday, March 30 2006 21:57 Profile Homepage #24
quote:
Originally written by Dominican Desire:

What is the weirdest thing you've ever seen? I can't recall, but it must've been on MTV.
What is the weirdest thing you've done? Can't recall.
What is the most humiliating thing you have ever done for money? To be honest, working at Sigona's was the worst. A job that makes one homicidal is humiliating no matter how (in theory) dignified it may be.
What is the most humiliating thing you would ever do for money? Make an offer.
If you could travel back time, what historical event would you like to witness “live” and why? The Trojan War. Because maybe it was just some little raid on some pissant city, and maybe it really was as cool as they say, and it would be nice to know.
If someone made a movie about your life, what would it be called? Hot, Young, Running Free, A Little Bit Better Than I Used To Be. Or Something.
If you were a meal how would you describe yourself? I imagine myself being pizza, but I'm not sure why. Maybe because I'm hungry for tomato sauce and cheese right now, and I can't think of any other kind of food.
Have you ever gone a whole day without wearing underwear? Not that I can recall, but that doesn't sound like the sort of thing that one would remember.
What is the stupidest thing you’ve ever bought? Not sure.
If you had to kill a SW member, who would it be and why? Drakefyre. Let anarchy reign free!
If you had to pick between TM or Alec, who would you pick? and WHY?(You can't ignore the question, you can't answer neither, and NO it's not for killing) Oddly enough, TM.


[ Thursday, March 30, 2006 21:58: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
15,000 Coin Limit? in The Avernum Trilogy
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Thursday, March 30 2006 07:53 Profile Homepage #3
Buy spells in the middle of selling your items. You're going to be buying them anyway, and if your gold is maxing out, it's not like you're strapped for cash.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
BIG concern, need an answer ASAP in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Wednesday, March 29 2006 14:35 Profile Homepage #12
You know, some mammals lay eggs. This was the cause for the question about sliths, whether they were indeed reptiles or were mammals.

I think we concluded that they have some internal systems that more resemble mammals than most lizards, but they are fundamentally reptiles.

Nephilim, on the other hand, are clearly mammals, being a mix between humans and cats. Whether they are more human (two nipples) or more cat (eight) is an open question, but I'm inclined to believe that their exterior physiology lends itself to humanoid shapes.

That's a vote here for two.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Tuesday, March 28 2006 10:32 Profile Homepage #36
I suppose I should've said that RJ ended all doubt with the last several books, even for those who might've been tempted to put him up there with the greats for the first few books. I don't think that 1-5 of the Wheel of Time are really classics, either.

EDIT: After I did a little paging around on Wikipedia, the most recent book I've found that I think is considered a mainstream classic is Beloved (1987). I can't stand Toni Morrison, personally, but she has received so much critical success that I think it's fair to call this book a classic.

EDIT 2: Another possibility: Love in the Time of Cholera (1988).

[ Tuesday, March 28, 2006 10:41: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Earth Slopes Needed in Blades of Avernum Editor
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Tuesday, March 28 2006 09:36 Profile Homepage #16
Oh, good god. I just figured out why so many of the graphics in the Louvre come out horribly blurred. People submit them as JPEGs and compress them.

Brett should accept PNGs. I think he does, although he doesn't say so on the site.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Earth Slopes Needed in Blades of Avernum
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Tuesday, March 28 2006 09:36 Profile Homepage #16
Oh, good god. I just figured out why so many of the graphics in the Louvre come out horribly blurred. People submit them as JPEGs and compress them.

Brett should accept PNGs. I think he does, although he doesn't say so on the site.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Tuesday, March 28 2006 09:30 Profile Homepage #34
Even Ender's Game is from more than twenty years ago (just barely — 1985). Orson Scott Card has written other really good books within the time frame, though, such as Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996), although I'm not sure that they'll ever be as famous as Ender's Game.

Robert Jordan's first six or seven books of WoT are pretty classic, but the last three or four have just been milking the series for all it's worth. I still buy them when they come out in paperback, but I think he killed any possibility of being up there with Tolkien when he decided that he was just going to make as much money off of it as possible.

This is probably heretical, but I think that Michael Crichton compares favorably with some of the classic nineteenth-century pop writers — the ones whose books were serialized — and some of his work falls within the period: Sphere (1987), Jurassic Park (1990), Rising Sun (1992), etc.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 21:20 Profile Homepage #26
I meant for the student to use in the essay, not for the test designer to use on the reading passages.

They can't use anything that's still copyrighted (i.e., Tolkien) on the reading passages, so that's right out.

[ Monday, March 27, 2006 21:22: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Where is she??? in Avernum 4
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 19:45 Profile Homepage #1
If you're talking about who I think you're talking about, she's not actually inside the city limits. She's west of the town, in the small settlement outside the walls.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
I was wrong... in Avernum 4
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 18:21 Profile Homepage #3
I'm inclined to agree with Tyranicus. Shaper Lord (currently "Drakey"), change your name.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
I want to try designing with BoA in Blades of Avernum
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 16:17 Profile Homepage #1
quote:
Originally written by Grignard:

If I could get a couple working towns, an interesting story line, a couple working dungeon/objective areas, and some basic usefull scripts I'd be happy.
That is exactly what's recommended. Keep it small and simple.

Be sure to read the Designer FAQ and check out the linked utilities. There's a great deal of BoA resources out there, although some take some digging.

Probably the best way to learn how to script is this:
1. Read a little from the docs to get a general sense of how it works.
2. Look at other people's scripts that do similar things to what you want (putting dialogue on the screen, for instance).
3. Refer back to the docs to look up what's going on in others' scripts.
4. Write a tiny bit of your own code.
5. Test that little bit of code to see if you're getting how it works.
6. Repeat until you've made a scenario.

And, of course, if you have any questions, post them here.

[ Monday, March 27, 2006 16:19: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
The Unexpectable Unconformities in The Avernum Trilogy
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 15:02 Profile Homepage #14
quote:
Originally written by Dintiradan:

The whole glowing fungus thing always confused me. Was it the Vahnatai or Erika. I think it was the Vahnatai, and Erika, being egotistical, claimed that discovery.
The games don't actually say for sure, as far as I know (and I looked). I'm inclined to believe that it was the vahnatai (or some other magical race pre-dating the humans in the caves), but we can't know.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Modern day classics in General
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 13:14 Profile Homepage #9
Tolkien didn't write any proper science fiction, did he? I thought he was strictly fantasy.

And yes, I agree that Orson Scott Card is one of the best writers of recent years.

EDIT: And if we define "classic" as "not stupid to reference as literature on a standardized test" (which, as far as I'm concerned, is good enough :P ), Tolkien, Clarke, and others are already there.

[ Monday, March 27, 2006 13:18: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
old vs new version in Nethergate
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 11:08 Profile Homepage #1
Where did you get this newer Nethergate?

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 10:43 Profile Homepage #175
quote:
Originally written by Reve:

The indoor/outdoor unification:
- It was an interesting experiment, but I think I prefer the way it was in the previous games. It just feels so much bigger in the previous games, and the towns are so disproportionate in size.
Agreed.

quote:
The lack of elevation:
- This added a whole new dimension to the previous games (literally, heh).
I felt that this was very lame. I think that this is what you mean, too.

quote:
No food:
- This is also definitely an improvement
There was food. It just didn't work the way that it had in previous games. In Exile, you needed it to live. In Avernum, it allowed you to rest (but if you felt like walking back and forth outdoors, you never needed to use it). In A4, it healed you.

quote:
No boats:
- Obviously the different exploration boats give you is more fun.
Yeah, I missed boats, too.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Silvar Pylon et al in Avernum 4
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 10:39 Profile Homepage #1
About the Silvar pylon: it's in the city, in the far south, next to the river, in the center of the town. The world map in the forum header may be of some use to you.

As for the other things, I have no idea.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
The Unexpectable Unconformities in The Avernum Trilogy
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Monday, March 27 2006 10:28 Profile Homepage #8
In Jurassic Park, it was amphibians, not lizards (reptiles). I have no idea if any reptiles can.

The Triad's membership changes relatively rapidly (check my notes on my site for a few mentions of changes), and the ET isn't necessarily supposed to be consistent with the AT; for one, Jeff changed the dates, so that the settling of Avernum and the war against Grah-Hoth happened more recently compared with A1 than the settling of Exile and their war against Grah-Hoth compared with E1.

In A1, Erika says, "These passages wouldn't even be lit if I hadn't created the fungi that emit light, and I don't even get credit!" However, Solberg says, "The one thing she [Erika] didn't make was the glowing fungus on the cave ceilings. It's amazing, magical stuff, and was already here when the Empire found these caves." I'm inclined to agree with Solberg on this one.

Sliths were in the caves before humans and nephils, and they definitely ate fish — they still eat fish in most of the barbarian settlements in Avernum, I believe. That's part of the reason why they always live near water, the other part being that they need water to reproduce, apparently.

There's even a reference in A4 to A3's and E3's two different golem factories, but I forget what it was.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00

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