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Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #84
My bad, I thought he did it by hacking the data files. Then I wish that this was supported, which I know it is not.

And since PC users constitute roughly 50-60% of the Spiderweb-user population, a scenario feature that doesn't work for PCs is useless. I suppose I could just *do* it and figure out how to get it to work for PCs later, but the concept frightens me.

I stand by my request, inasmuch as this method doesn't necessarily work.

[ Wednesday, May 05, 2004 14:16: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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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
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #84
My bad, I thought he did it by hacking the data files. Then I wish that this was supported, which I know it is not.

And since PC users constitute roughly 50-60% of the Spiderweb-user population, a scenario feature that doesn't work for PCs is useless. I suppose I could just *do* it and figure out how to get it to work for PCs later, but the concept frightens me.

I stand by my request, inasmuch as this method doesn't necessarily work.

[ Wednesday, May 05, 2004 14:16: 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
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #82
Not exactly a call, but I'd like custom sounds without having to hack apart the BoA data files. I was looking through E3's sounds with ResEdit, and there's some good stuf in there that we can't use, because we can't add sounds.

[ Wednesday, May 05, 2004 14:14: 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
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #82
Not exactly a call, but I'd like custom sounds without having to hack apart the BoA data files. I was looking through E3's sounds with ResEdit, and there's some good stuf in there that we can't use, because we can't add sounds.

[ Wednesday, May 05, 2004 14:14: 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
Happy Beltane! in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #47
The U.S. is a representative democracy. It could also be called a democratic republic. The difference between that and a normal republic is relatively minor in appearance, but it is significant. It was designed as a republic, originally -- well, a union of states that were each republics -- but it has ceased to be that way. It's probably best described as a representative democracy, now.

We do have initiative and referendum laws that give some aspects of a direct democracy, too, but they are scattered at best.

The U.S. Constitution is the longest-running written constitution in the world right now, if I'm not mistaken. (Anyone know anything to the contrary?) That is, indeed, pretty darn successful IMAGE(smile000.gif)

[ Wednesday, May 05, 2004 12:56: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Over my rather deceased cadaver. Rrrrrrr. in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #56
quote:
Well quite frankly I'm sure even Alec could come up with something better than most of the societies we have nowdays.
quote:
We are discussing something which is not complete yet. To offer the entire plan yet would be stupid as it is not yet complete. And even then I need to iron out the feasabilities.
So then clearly it is not so easy to devise a system that is more functional than the ones that we have, which was my point at the beginning of this discussion.

But the problem runs deeper than this. I have outlined a few problems that are fundamental to your system and your method of thinking, and I have raised important questions that you still have not answered, and anything that develops from your statements above will have to jump over some serious hurdles to deal with these issues. (In what way will your government function better than the ones in existence now? How will you make your government genuinely able to resist corruption other than just through complexity, since you have thrown away the informed consent of the governed? And so on.)

And finally:
Hypocrisy, n. : 1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness.
When has such an act been committed anywhere in here? I can't recall ever having professed beliefs, feelings, or virtues that I do not possess, and I have not observed others doing so.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Pssst... it's a secret in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #47
quote:
while Alorael is not posting on his normal account
Erm, Alorael is posting on his normal account. He's just changing his displayed name.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Over my rather deceased cadaver. Rrrrrrr. in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #53
My apologies to anyone who is still bothering to read these posts, but I just can't do it. I can't let this slide. I should speak to a psychotherapist about OCD.

quote:
Mind may be over matter, but this is hypocrisy.
WTF are you talking about? What is hypocrisy? To whom are you speaking, and about what?

Semantics isn't what's pulling down your arguments (which is not spelled arguements, but arguments). Their inherent flaws are bringing down your arguments. Your incorrect usage of words just isn't helping, that's all.

(Remember that I said that I'd let the "elegant" thing slide to begin with. You just told me that I was wrong, which caused it to be an issue.)

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Happy Beltane! in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #40
Does FBM remind anyone of the worst parts of UA collected, amplified, and then turned [EDIT: even more] British somehow?

quote:
Strangely enough, I've never been to uni.
Possibly because you are 15.

quote:
Even if I do, I am unlikely to come across that in anything I might take.
Intro-level political science or history classes often include Hobbes. They like to toss in Locke and a few others, too. I don't know about British universities, but American ones like to include them because our Constitution was heavily influenced by their philosophy. The political arguments I've made on this board in various topics tend to be influenced by these theories, too.

quote:
It is the systematic elimination of all unneccessary hierarchies of power. It is a process, eventually leading to a world where none calls another master.
This sounds similar to certain forms of democracy. I suppose their methods are completely different, though.

[ Tuesday, May 04, 2004 14:47: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Pssst... it's a secret in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #41
Huh. I just noticed that Alorael is an anagram for Real AOL. Subliminal advertising, Your Postliness?

SMoE = Sir Motrax of Exile, although I don't know the story behind SMoE trying to steal Alorael's identity. Gather 'round the fire as Uncle Alorael tells us...

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
L'Internationale (1 Mai) in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #13
I'm wondering if it isn't about time that we refresh the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots again. We're studying the 1960's and 1970's in my U.S. History class right now, and I have to think that we're ready for another social upheaval pretty soon. Perhaps this generation is too cynical, though; maybe it will be the next one that will do it.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Over my rather deceased cadaver. Rrrrrrr. in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #48
I debated putting in the effort to do this for a good five minutes or so, but in the end, my irritation won.

quote:
I deal in practicallities
Good. Then you'll recognize the implications of my statement about your theory being utopian.

quote:
I have thought up a system of governance better than the one we presently have, specifically it would WORK better than the one we have
In what sense do you mean that it would work better? It would be more fair? Just? Efficient in continuing the day-to-day tasks of government, like building roads and such? More efficient policing the country? Or what? Since you have given no details of the system, we can't know this.

quote:
It is very difficult to change the core fundamentals which govern it
This is nothing new. Look at the United States. A constitutional amendment needs two-thirds majorities in both houses of the legislature and ratification by three-fourths of the states. This has only happenes twenty-seven times in two-hundred fifteen years (and excluding the Bill of Rights, seventeen times in about two hundred years). That's pretty darn hard to change.

quote:
Elegance doesn't HAVE to be simple
Note the definition posted above.

quote:
in this case it is, the whole point being, if you know what to look for it's simple, if you're swinging wildly at random, complicated
Sure. Whatever.

quote:
NO, the governed will know exactly what's what, just that they will not understand certain parts of it
If they DON'T UNDERSTAND certain parts of the government, then they can't give INFORMED CONSENT to it.

quote:
I'll be damned if it turns into a police state
Are you ready for hell? Because a police state is exactly where this is headed, and your disbelief will not stop that. I'm telling you that no system is, has ever been, or will ever be immune to corruption. And if people don't understand how the system works, then they won't know how it's going wrong when it does go wrong. This will allow problems to persist far longer than if people understand the system.

quote:
Self-belief is not an ideology. It is a form of confidence that is key in planning. Worst case scenarios are all well and good, but if you believe that something won't work, then it might not simply because of that belief.
Self-confidence is important. Most political leaders wouldn't have done anything useful without self-confidence. But "total self-belief," which you said you possess, is a serious problem, especially among political leaders. What is self-belief? It is the belief in the rightness of one's own actions and judgments. What is total self belief, then? It is the unquestioning (and unquestionable) belief in the rightness of all of one's own actions and judgments. This leads to an inability to admit mistakes, which causes people to repeat those mistakes and exacerbate the situation.

quote:
I do make mistakes. Every human being does. But dwelling on the negative is not a good idea.
Then you don't have *total* self-belief. And although assigning blame and activities like that can be quite useless, developing contingency plans in case things don't work the way you expect is extremely important.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Exile Fan Games in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #17
You could go to Jeff's sources and use them the same way that he did, though. I don't know what they are, but I think there are myths of underground kingdoms and various things from which Jeff "borrowed" to make Exile and Avernum. Then you could have a story relatively similar to Exile without worrying about any sort of copyright or anything. You could probably even "borrow" the lizard men and cat men, too, if you wanted.

Someone more versed in mythology than I am could probably tell you where these stories come from. I only remember vague references in something I read once. Norse or something, I think.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
What is your alls problem (I'm not mad anymore) in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #35
Okay, then. It would be rather bizarre to flame him for sending a story by request.

Just a few things, because I haven't made it very far in yet. First, nephils are traditionally (in Avernum, and I presume in Exile, too) cat people, not bird people. Second, it would probably be more correct to say that the sliths are humanoid lizards, not half-human and half-lizard.

And woah... Anaximander's got a badass streak that he never showed in E3/A3. I always knew there was something pent up inside waiting to burst out.

Anyway, this story looks like it shows potential more than it is a great story by itself. Keep writing, and you'll pen some cool stories someday soon.

I will keep reading it and will post more thorough comments once I'm done.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
What is your alls problem (I'm not mad anymore) in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #33
I'm a little unclear. Is it okay to post reviews of it here, or should we PM Slasher?

Sorry. I feel like this has been explained, but I'm not sure.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Babysitting released in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #30
Playing with a level 1 4-person party on Torment, I had to reload about ten times before I beat K and D. My guess is that I'm about average skill level.

My method: give the mutating wand to the priest. Haste everyone and bless the fighters before going through the door. In the first turn, use the fighters to kill the guys on ground level in front of me, the priest to mutate the mage and priest on the raised area, and the mage to slow K and D and ice-lance the archers. This left K, D, and an archer still alive, and they were slowed.

The next turn, my fighter switched places with the archer using the Wand of Translocation. I hacked K up first. I think I had to fireball him and possibly ice him, too. My other fighter took down the archer. By that point, with just D left, I had no trouble.

I had to talk to Khoth before I figured out to do this, though. It's a hard fight.

EDIT: The reason these scenarios are declared the levels that they are is just that someone like the Creator will come along and beat some incredibly difficult scenario with a level 1 party. Thuryl has been known to do that too, and Imban, and a handful of others. The people who've been playing Blades for years and years have a huge influence on how things get labeled.

[ Monday, May 03, 2004 16:57: 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
Happy Beltane! in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #30
quote:
That is an arguement you would lose.
Only if you define "losing" as walking away from an idiot.

quote:
it's just usage of bad grammar will generally get you ignored.
Yes, and "let alone the grammar" is atrocious grammar. You speak in an incredibly colloquial British manner, and "'capital-T Truth' let me guess, you also believe that the government always make the right decisions? Seriousness?" is damn near impossible to read.

"Foster social mores," on the other hand, is a completely idiomatic and correct English phrase.

quote:
the majority of the high-ups in the Republican party are, in fact, Jewish. Donald Rumsfeld for one. That, not anything else, is the main reason for the lax policy on Israel's land grab.
Funny. I thought our policy there was a result of our long-standing alliance with Israel. Have Jews been running the American government for decades, then?

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Over my rather deceased cadaver. Rrrrrrr. in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #44
quote:
You pass judgement on the second quote, yet that and the third was a whole point. Vis, the second comment was... pointless?
My comment was not pointless, because I am saying that any number of defenses will not create a system that is "nigh on impossible to turn it to your own benefit or predjudice." I am saying that in the real world, this is virtually impossible. The comment about your ideas being utopian is simply to say that, by imagining that you can make a system to which no one will substantitively object, you must be imagining a world in which everyone's needs are completely satisfied, a perfect world, a utopia.

But let's follow the reasoning here. You propose that your system will enter a state of being that you call a "steady cycle," which is characterized by the quality of being unchallengeable because it is elegant, ie complex, to the point that no one can manipulate it. Essentially, as you wrote it, steady cycle <= unchallengeable = elegant = complex.

Complexity is the only defense against tampering that you mentioned. However, now you say:

quote:
And complexity alone IS a shoddy defence, that's why it is not the only defence. But to make people of the other defences would be - stupid. To make aware is to offer circumvention.
This is the same reasoning that has led to the most brutal police states in history. Simply put, you would impose a government on citizens without the informed consent of the governed. This puts you squarely in the same mode of political thought as Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler. And in order to allow you to do this, people would have to trust you to create a good system. Once you are no longer the leader, people would have to trust your successors. And I'm saying that even if you are good, your successors might be bad. And if no one except for you and your succeeding leaders knows what the rules are, then how will anyone know if leaders break them?

quote:
You will find an extreme few with any self-belief nowadays. EXTREMELY rare to find one with total self-belief. I believe in me.
This puts you in the same ideological camp as a cult leader. Your belief is more dangerous than helpful. It is important to recognize one's ability to make mistakes and to attempt to rectify them.

By the way, Dictionary.com: Elegant. A highlight: "Combining simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design" (emphasis added).

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Seeking beta-testers. in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #8
What's going on with this? Was I just not selected for testing, or has Eldiran been waylaid by elite Avernite special ops and taken to prison camps outside of Almaria?

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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
Exile Fan Games in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #10
quote:
Jeff has taken a hard-line stance against fanfiction.
What exactly did he say about it? Because I gather that Exile fanfic has existed for years, and people keep making it.

quote:
You'll note that in the BoE docs, Jeff specifically warns against scenarios that mess with established characters and locations.
I remember reading this somewhere, but I can't find it now. It's making me nervous, because my scenario for BoA is significantly based off of a small subplot of A1, and while I don't really care on general principle if Jeff bans it -- if Alcritas could make the Za-Khazi Edit and TM can make Corporeus, then Spiderweb be damned -- I would like to enter it in the Scenario Contest. Do you know where he says this?

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #78
The call char_on_spot sounds like it does something quite like this. I haven't tried it to know all the ins and outs of it, though.

--------------------
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
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #78
The call char_on_spot sounds like it does something quite like this. I haven't tried it to know all the ins and outs of it, though.

--------------------
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
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #76
A call that would display a missile animation. Something along the lines of
void put_missile_animation(short source_x,short source_y,short dest_x,short dest_y)
in the same general feeling as put_straight_zap.

--------------------
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
Calls that we wish existed in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #76
A call that would display a missile animation. Something along the lines of
void put_missile_animation(short source_x,short source_y,short dest_x,short dest_y)
in the same general feeling as put_straight_zap.

--------------------
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
What is your alls problem (I'm not mad anymore) in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #2
quote:
And then you guys came in and went ballistic and said all this crap about me.
You really shouldn't take it that seriously. Pretty much everyone was joking. You posted that you had a story to send to people, and a bunch of people posted that they wanted it, and then a week went by and you didn't send it. Naturally people were a bit befuddled, and some teasing ensued.

Well, and then there's Alec, but you shouldn't take him too seriously.

If the story exists, I'm guessing everyone still wants to read it, so you could eliminate a few problems simultaneously just by sending it.

Ahh, what the heck. Send me one too. My e-mail is in my profile.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00

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