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Displayed name	The Immortal
Member number	4
Title	BANNED
Postcount	6936
Homepage	http://www.geocities.com/terrorsmartyr/
Registered	Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00

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Article - Choices and Linearity in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Thursday, April 8 2004 20:34 Profile Homepage #17 Not entirely true- Bandits 2 -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Basic but Vital Tips in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Thursday, April 8 2004 19:06 Profile Homepage #4 Bump, since Jeff didn't get this article in his most recent run-through. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Basic but Vital Tips in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Thursday, April 8 2004 19:06 Profile Homepage #4 Bump, since Jeff didn't get this article in his most recent run-through. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Roses of Reckoning (BoA) is Released! in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Thursday, April 8 2004 11:06 Profile Homepage #23 Fixed the link. Whoops. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Roses of Reckoning (BoA) is Released! in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Wednesday, April 7 2004 19:44 Profile Homepage #9 Stug? Did you read the readme? You have to un-stuff the graphics. The errors you received most likely had to do with the slew of custom dialogue pics I loaded not working. I thought that I made sure to say in ALL CAPS to UNSTUFF THE GRAPHICS OR ELSE!!!, but you can't expect players to be responsible. sigh EDIT: Okay, screw it. Despite the fact that making the file a stuffit increases its size by a whole megabyte, I'm stuffing the whole thing so the precious graphics won't be screwed with. Bah. [ Wednesday, April 07, 2004 20:00: Message edited by: Tentacle Monster ] -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Roses of Reckoning (BoA) is Released! in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Wednesday, April 7 2004 14:27 Profile Homepage #4 Wow, Creator- Thanks for letting me know what the "TM" in "TM Revolution" stands for. Believe it or not, I've listened to Takanori before- although only one song, Heart of Sword ~Before Dawn~, third ending theme to Rurouni Kenshin. (What can I say? I'm an otaku.) Anyway, BoA is fairly good. I might just end up using it instead of BoE entirely, even if I support the actual purchasing of BoE. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Roses of Reckoning (BoA) is Released! in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Wednesday, April 7 2004 13:29 Profile Homepage #0 http://www.geocities.com/pomo_stud/alt_scenarios/Roses.html Obviously, I encourage you to play. Seeing how it's the only scenario not pre-packaged with the editor, I have a hunch that you might. ;) Note that this scenario is NOT a port from BoE- except for the outdoors, this scenario was re-built from the ground up, including most of the plot. People who have played the BoE version will notice many similarities, but also many more differences. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Poetry in General
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Wednesday, April 7 2004 11:18 Profile Homepage #71 Okay, I've made two more poems: The Blackboard 1 + 4 = 10 2 x 3 = 11 10 / 2 = 2.22222... 1 + 6 = 10 2 x 5 = 13 10 / 2 = 3.33333... Multiply both sides of an equation by zero. Then for all solutions, will not zero equal zero? * * * Judgement Day That is my verdict in this court of law Calculated by men smarter than I That I am resigned to the place * * * ^_^ EDIT: Damn, forgot that we don't have [u] tags. [ Wednesday, April 07, 2004 11:21: Message edited by: Tentacle Monster ] -------------------- Rate My Scenarios! Streila Spies Unbalanced Accounts Inn of Blades Echoes Echoes: Assault Echoes: Black Horse Echoes: Pawns Bandits Echoes: Combat/Skirmish Two Strands Bandits II: Ballad of the Red Star Roses of Reckoning (BoE) Corporeus The Claim Roses of Reckoning (BoA) Nebulous Times Hence Emerald Mountain Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Poetry in General
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Wednesday, April 7 2004 03:32 Profile Homepage #70 The Trampoline Falling through the air Spiraling upwards My feet up in the air Boing! ^___^ -------------------- Rate My Scenarios! Streila Spies Unbalanced Accounts Inn of Blades Echoes Echoes: Assault Echoes: Black Horse Echoes: Pawns Bandits Echoes: Combat/Skirmish Two Strands Bandits II: Ballad of the Red Star Roses of Reckoning (BoE) Corporeus The Claim Roses of Reckoning (BoA) Nebulous Times Hence Emerald Mountain Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Are there any ???? in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 17:41 Profile Homepage #2 And everyone wants Rakshasi. In their PANTS. ^_^ -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Basic but Vital Tips in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 16:05 Profile Homepage #2 Eighteen scenarios... Not enough... Must keep designing... twitch -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Basic but Vital Tips in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 16:05 Profile Homepage #2 Eighteen scenarios... Not enough... Must keep designing... twitch -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Basic but Vital Tips in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 15:43 Profile Homepage #0 Obviously, scenarios can differ in many ways, but all good scenarios essentially have some things in common that every designer should pay attention to: 1. Limit your outdoors. Place yourself in the shoes of a player. You open a scenario called "Quest for the Sword", or something. The opening town is decent. Then, when you emerge into the outdoors, you're swamped by a massive, empty world with only one town in each outdoors section. Not a good idea. When you're making a scenario, lots of outdoors may SEEM like a good idea, but it rarely is. A scenario can take place in less than 10 outdoors sections, no matter how large the scenario is. Not only will you not be able to provide +20 interesting outdoors sections to provide, but it will be a burden on both yourself and anyone playing your scenario to wade through that many. Slice your outdoors down a bit, it pays off in the end. And also, as a rule of thumb- an outdoor section should have at least one town in it, preferably more. 2. Limit your combat. Immediately after finding the dungeon in "Quest for the Sword", and quite annoyed after traversing simultaneous outdoor sections for fifteen minutes, you (the player) stumble upon a dungeon. Inside that dungeon, there are many rooms. These rooms exist, of course, to hold lots and lots of monsters. Not interesting monsters either, just lots of them in tedious fight followed by tedios fight. As a designer, this may SEEM like a good idea, but it's not. Players will want to fight a limited number of monsters in any one dungeon. Either make the monsters they fight interesting, or don't place many of them at all. 3. Plan Ahead: Endings are a GOOD thing! Blades was made so that you could dream up your own adventures, and there's nothing wrong with doing so. What you need to do before you begin a scenario, however, is make sure that your scenario has a clearly defined STARTING and ENDING point. If you don't know how or where your scenario will end, you will most likely end up creating a large, fluid puddle of a plot rather than a unified storyline. As a designer, this may SEEM like a good idea, but it really isn't. A shorter scenario loses focus of its objective if it swamps itself down with too many menial sidequests, whereas a larger scenario can have a few sidequests, but requires more focus and planning to be successfully executed without deviating from the plot laid out for it. Sidequests and other types of missions are not the end of the world. They should be, however, either little in number or related to the plot. You don't need to draw every town or dungeon before you make it, but always keep in mind how that dungeon or town will advance the plot. Scenario design is tricky, but if you approach it with a modicum of sanity, then it becomes much easier. -Terror's Martyr -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Basic but Vital Tips in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 15:43 Profile Homepage #0 Obviously, scenarios can differ in many ways, but all good scenarios essentially have some things in common that every designer should pay attention to: 1. Limit your outdoors. Place yourself in the shoes of a player. You open a scenario called "Quest for the Sword", or something. The opening town is decent. Then, when you emerge into the outdoors, you're swamped by a massive, empty world with only one town in each outdoors section. Not a good idea. When you're making a scenario, lots of outdoors may SEEM like a good idea, but it rarely is. A scenario can take place in less than 10 outdoors sections, no matter how large the scenario is. Not only will you not be able to provide +20 interesting outdoors sections to provide, but it will be a burden on both yourself and anyone playing your scenario to wade through that many. Slice your outdoors down a bit, it pays off in the end. And also, as a rule of thumb- an outdoor section should have at least one town in it, preferably more. 2. Limit your combat. Immediately after finding the dungeon in "Quest for the Sword", and quite annoyed after traversing simultaneous outdoor sections for fifteen minutes, you (the player) stumble upon a dungeon. Inside that dungeon, there are many rooms. These rooms exist, of course, to hold lots and lots of monsters. Not interesting monsters either, just lots of them in tedious fight followed by tedios fight. As a designer, this may SEEM like a good idea, but it's not. Players will want to fight a limited number of monsters in any one dungeon. Either make the monsters they fight interesting, or don't place many of them at all. 3. Plan Ahead: Endings are a GOOD thing! Blades was made so that you could dream up your own adventures, and there's nothing wrong with doing so. What you need to do before you begin a scenario, however, is make sure that your scenario has a clearly defined STARTING and ENDING point. If you don't know how or where your scenario will end, you will most likely end up creating a large, fluid puddle of a plot rather than a unified storyline. As a designer, this may SEEM like a good idea, but it really isn't. A shorter scenario loses focus of its objective if it swamps itself down with too many menial sidequests, whereas a larger scenario can have a few sidequests, but requires more focus and planning to be successfully executed without deviating from the plot laid out for it. Sidequests and other types of missions are not the end of the world. They should be, however, either little in number or related to the plot. You don't need to draw every town or dungeon before you make it, but always keep in mind how that dungeon or town will advance the plot. Scenario design is tricky, but if you approach it with a modicum of sanity, then it becomes much easier. -Terror's Martyr -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Beta-Call for Roses of Reckoning in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 13:18 Profile Homepage #21 Midknight- I sent it to you. It's only 4.8 megabtyes, you should have gotten in. How much space can your mailbox hold? -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
BoA Update 4-5-04 in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 17:47 Profile Homepage #3 Hunh! I thought you went AWOL years ago. Bonk! -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
BoA Update 4-5-04 in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 17:47 Profile Homepage #3 Hunh! I thought you went AWOL years ago. Bonk! -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 17:27 Profile Homepage #22 quote: Heh. This quote is going up on my wall. The idea that anyone writing a game would purposefully put fun second is, I admit, alien to me. You're assuming that fun and story are not synonymous- Perhaps in my initial post, I partitioned the two off unfairly. I like a good story, and have fun playing through it. Redemption has a spiraling-downward, head trip into doomsday narrative. It was one of the first ten (IIRC) scenarios I played, and my standards haven't been higher since. Johnny Favourite (admittedly, a warning in advance: Play this one at 1 am in the morning or later, no sooner) is nothing but a movie roughly transposed into Blades of Exile. There's no action, no real puzzles, except for perhaps figuring out how to get a different ending. I liked playing it, and it even stands on your Solid Adventure's table with a 4.3 Also on your Solid Adventure's table (4.6) is Chains, a scenario with almost no combat except for some menial fights against weak undead- it's story driven with a few quirky puzzles attached, nothing more. To Live in Fear has a 4.1 on your tables. It's a movie scenario: The player does nothing, and yet by what the movie does alone, it's regarded as solid. (Two other movies have also scored Election, a scenario based only on a well-built pretense and a poor cameo of "Mayor Vogel" ( ;) ) has a 4.5 in spite of its utter lack of combat. Other scenarios- namely virtually everything by Alcritas, Quint, and many others- contain fair ammounts of combat, but are also story-driven. Redemption, as I have stated earlier, is one of the most story-driven scenarios (even if it uses a Nintendo-esque style for combat :) ). My point is thus- Of course you have plenty of people who are eight year olds looking to hack things up. Let them play Za-Khazi. Or better yet, let them play At the Gallows by Stareye, also known as "Exile IV". The eight year olds who like swinging around their Ultra Mega Power-Rangers Demonslayer +50 to save busty damsels from big bad Haakais laden with phallic horns and spikes will always be there. They're easy to please, and couldn't tell the difference between Marvel Comics and The Things They Carried. (They're also the ones that litter your First Efforts table- go figure.) You give this demographic as much attention as it needs, but merely on an idealogical basis seem to neglect the more mature consumers who buy the buckets of fast food that get dumped into your cage each night. :P Marketing BoA as a medium to kill demons is well and good, and I'm not saying you should stop. I'm just saying that you *and* potential designers (ie. the ones who go about designing rooms full of alien beasts led by ultra haakais and the like) should also keep in mind that the parents who buy these games for their eight your olds might just be playing these games for themselves as well. PS- Za-Khazi as the third "pre-packaged" scenario for BoE was a horrible move in general. What better way to turn off the more "mature" players (who will make up your designing base, believe it or not)? PPS- http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=001356 -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 17:27 Profile Homepage #22 quote: Heh. This quote is going up on my wall. The idea that anyone writing a game would purposefully put fun second is, I admit, alien to me. You're assuming that fun and story are not synonymous- Perhaps in my initial post, I partitioned the two off unfairly. I like a good story, and have fun playing through it. Redemption has a spiraling-downward, head trip into doomsday narrative. It was one of the first ten (IIRC) scenarios I played, and my standards haven't been higher since. Johnny Favourite (admittedly, a warning in advance: Play this one at 1 am in the morning or later, no sooner) is nothing but a movie roughly transposed into Blades of Exile. There's no action, no real puzzles, except for perhaps figuring out how to get a different ending. I liked playing it, and it even stands on your Solid Adventure's table with a 4.3 Also on your Solid Adventure's table (4.6) is Chains, a scenario with almost no combat except for some menial fights against weak undead- it's story driven with a few quirky puzzles attached, nothing more. To Live in Fear has a 4.1 on your tables. It's a movie scenario: The player does nothing, and yet by what the movie does alone, it's regarded as solid. (Two other movies have also scored Election, a scenario based only on a well-built pretense and a poor cameo of "Mayor Vogel" ( ;) ) has a 4.5 in spite of its utter lack of combat. Other scenarios- namely virtually everything by Alcritas, Quint, and many others- contain fair ammounts of combat, but are also story-driven. Redemption, as I have stated earlier, is one of the most story-driven scenarios (even if it uses a Nintendo-esque style for combat :) ). My point is thus- Of course you have plenty of people who are eight year olds looking to hack things up. Let them play Za-Khazi. Or better yet, let them play At the Gallows by Stareye, also known as "Exile IV". The eight year olds who like swinging around their Ultra Mega Power-Rangers Demonslayer +50 to save busty damsels from big bad Haakais laden with phallic horns and spikes will always be there. They're easy to please, and couldn't tell the difference between Marvel Comics and The Things They Carried. (They're also the ones that litter your First Efforts table- go figure.) You give this demographic as much attention as it needs, but merely on an idealogical basis seem to neglect the more mature consumers who buy the buckets of fast food that get dumped into your cage each night. :P Marketing BoA as a medium to kill demons is well and good, and I'm not saying you should stop. I'm just saying that you *and* potential designers (ie. the ones who go about designing rooms full of alien beasts led by ultra haakais and the like) should also keep in mind that the parents who buy these games for their eight your olds might just be playing these games for themselves as well. PS- Za-Khazi as the third "pre-packaged" scenario for BoE was a horrible move in general. What better way to turn off the more "mature" players (who will make up your designing base, believe it or not)? PPS- http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=001356 -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Beta-Call for Roses of Reckoning in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 14:42 Profile Homepage #19 Sorry, but after I said that I had sent it, I meant that I had way more than as many beta-testers as I needed. The reason that you didn't get it is because I didn't send it. -_- -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 13:28 Profile Homepage #3 quote: Originally written by Spidweb: I would only warn people not to let the tail wag the dog. Most people play Blades to beat up monsters and get phat lewtz. I'd disagree with that, and so would many Blades-players. For example, your scenario that is more plot-strong (A Small Rebellion) has fared well on The Lyceum's Comprehensive Scenario Reviews: http://pub26.ezboard.com/fthelyceumfrm27.showMessage?topicID=29.topic While simultaneously, Za-Khazi run let the dog wag the tail clear off of its butt and suffered extraordinarily for it: http://pub26.ezboard.com/fthelyceumfrm27.showMessage?topicID=30.topic Za-Khazi failed horribly because it existed only for hacking up monsters and picking up loot. You'll see that most of the comments are fairly constant in their criticisms. The purpose of Blades is to tell a story FIRST and make a fun game to play SECOND- that's why scenarios such as Election, Corporeus, Chains and Quintessence are rated highly whereas scenarios such as Grey Moon: Hand of Darkness, Spy's Quest, and virtually every scenario by Brave Sir Robin are rated significantly lower. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Monday, April 5 2004 13:28 Profile Homepage #3 quote: Originally written by Spidweb: I would only warn people not to let the tail wag the dog. Most people play Blades to beat up monsters and get phat lewtz. I'd disagree with that, and so would many Blades-players. For example, your scenario that is more plot-strong (A Small Rebellion) has fared well on The Lyceum's Comprehensive Scenario Reviews: http://pub26.ezboard.com/fthelyceumfrm27.showMessage?topicID=29.topic While simultaneously, Za-Khazi run let the dog wag the tail clear off of its butt and suffered extraordinarily for it: http://pub26.ezboard.com/fthelyceumfrm27.showMessage?topicID=30.topic Za-Khazi failed horribly because it existed only for hacking up monsters and picking up loot. You'll see that most of the comments are fairly constant in their criticisms. The purpose of Blades is to tell a story FIRST and make a fun game to play SECOND- that's why scenarios such as Election, Corporeus, Chains and Quintessence are rated highly whereas scenarios such as Grey Moon: Hand of Darkness, Spy's Quest, and virtually every scenario by Brave Sir Robin are rated significantly lower. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Beta-Call for Roses of Reckoning in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Sunday, April 4 2004 16:25 Profile Homepage #13 I sent it without omitting the .com previously, I'll try it again now. Perhaps your mailbox is full? If you have AIM, log on and IM me at TerrorsMartyr so I can try transferring it to you by those means. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Special Encounter to Leave Town? in Blades of Avernum Editor
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Sunday, April 4 2004 15:58 Profile Homepage #7 If it works like its BoE equivalent does, then yes. (This kind of node is used to connect the caves in VotDT to the surface.) -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Special Encounter to Leave Town? in Blades of Avernum
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Sunday, April 4 2004 15:58 Profile Homepage #7 If it works like its BoE equivalent does, then yes. (This kind of node is used to connect the caves in VotDT to the surface.) -------------------- * Posts: 6936 \| Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00

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