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Terror's Martyr in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #20
Crickey, Eaglet! With friends like that, who needs enemies? I'll tell you what though. One of the nicer things about growing up is getting beyond the pettiness and meanness of confused, insecure, ignorant kids taking out their neuroses on each other, while they try to figure out who they are.

Of course, the flipside is that then you get to deal with the pettiness and meanness of confused, insecure, ignorant adults taking out their neuroses on each other, while they try to figure out who they are.

Oh, never mind.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Beta Testing Testing One Two Three Four in Avernum 4
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #0
I meant to ask this a good week ago. I've been wondering a few things about the beta testing process, assuming this general information isn't confidential.

Can anyone answer me the following?

1) How many people typically beta-test a Spiderweb game?

2) Is it actually fun?

3) Is it tedious and repetitive?

4) Is there a reward for the hard work besides the privilege? (i.e., a free copy of the game when you're done?)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled deprogramming.

[ Tuesday, October 04, 2005 21:52: Message edited by: Synergy67 ]

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A4 ItemsA4 SingletonG4 ItemsG4 ForgingG4 Infiltrator NR Items The Lonely Celt
Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Kissing a girl in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #45
Alex, we're lucky to have you around. You've got a gift my friend, and it includes regularly making me laugh. Seriously skewed sense of humor, man. I love it.

An' in case yer wundrin'...ENFJ here.

[ Tuesday, October 04, 2005 06:44: Message edited by: Synergy67 ]

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Name everything in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #38
quote:
Originally written by Chief Spider watching The Simpsons:

Washington State Fake ID
Christopher, the Mukilteo Police Dept. have been duly notified and are on their way over...er, just as soon as they get done with the K9's sniffing cars in the ferry line for bombs.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Avernum 4? in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #350
I'm really surprised to not see any posts about this at all today but...

...for anyone concerned, NDA's for beta testing Avernum 4 have been going out today.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Kissing a girl in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #26
Well, my basic point still holds, I think. Because women are permitted more leeway with physical contact and intimacy in general, when they get drunk, they are more likely to indulge in something like kissing than two drunk guys. If two guys do it, for most, it will have definite and irreversible implications. If two women do it, it might not really cause any stigma and be written off as "a moment."

At least, that is the perception, even if not the reality.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
The Isle of Big-Ail in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #28
No denying it--a lot of people just plain love getting into a good verbal scrap. It is everywhere on Usenet and internet forums, no matter what the subject matter. I certainly enjoy a good debate myself. I don't enjoy acrimony, though I still sometimes get more heated than I want (like when playing through Canopy, heh).

I choose, however, to not tolerate disrespect for others. Clearly TM possesses a fierce intellect, and apparently he is a tireless contributor and generous in a variety of ways as well. I think it's a shame to see such talent marred by disrespect and antipathy turned against people here.

As much as I admire ability and creativity, I'm ultimately for the underdogs in life. I hate to see people with formidable abilities who are on top of their game turning their weapons with malice against other people. There is a conceit in that behavior which sickens me. It's also such a waste of energy that could be put to much more productive use. It is good for any of us in life to learn humility.

I haven't crossed paths with TM myself. I'll refrain from forming any further opinion of him in the meantime. Everyone deserves a fair shake.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Kissing a girl in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #23
In American culture it is acceptable for women to be much more physical and intimate with one another than men are permitted. Two gals kissing doesn't have nearly the implications of two guys. If you're a male who appreciates femininity and pulchritude, then watching two women kiss is a pleasurable enticement.

I have a further suspicion why a number of women sometimes resort to such experimentation, notwithstanding drunkenness. We've created such polarized role models for men and women that women may have a hard time finding men who meet their needs for intimacy--emotionally especially, but also perhaps physically--and for communication. Men are essentially trained by our society's ideals to be lone bastions of self-reliance, are we are not really permitted to show signs of weakness. This means we have a lot of bottled up men with inner insecurities and fears of failure, but no one to really safely discuss such things with.

I think gender issues are some of the most central issues to address to really improve our society. Girls kissing is a pretty sight, any way about it.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
The Isle of Big-Ail in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #18
quote:
Originally written by Knot Eye:

quote:
Originally written by Synergy67:

[quote]Bring back TM
So we can resurrect inane, blighty-tongued bickering and "improve" the dialog?

He has created many scenarios in both BoA and BoX, and by removing him from the community we are hurting ourselves more than him.

EDIT: Removed the more rude parts and a long speech.[/QB][/quote]TM is still making his scenarios, is he not? What's the difference?

If you think that the lack of anything to do with a computer game "hurts" anyone, then I wonder what your values in and take on life must be. As fun or addictive as computer games can be, they are entirely unimportant, and in fact tend to detract from real living, real people, real relationships, real challenges with real rewards.

TM is technically proficient at scenario building. Everything else I have observed about him gives me nothing else I can, in good conscience, celebrate or admire. It violates what I value to promote anger, rudeness, vileness, ego, and hatred. Life's too short to squander it on bad attitudes and bad energy. It may take a while to come to that conclusion, but it will come, even if only at the very end of a life.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
The Isle of Big-Ail in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #11
quote:
Originally written by Kingy:

This is possibly the most retarded thing I've read today.

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Bring back TM

So we can resurrect inane, blighty-tongued bickering and "improve" the dialog?

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
[insert n00b karma post title here] in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #6
Pssst....don't tell anyone, but...the karma here is bogus! See, in real life you create your own karma. But in the skewed universe which is these spiderweb boards, your karma is doled out by the curious, spurious, or furious hands of others who know you not.

If it turns you off, you can turn it off. You can make everyone here see stars, or you can blot them out forevermore. Seize the day--er, night. Crappé Di-urn.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
The Isle of Big-Ail in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #6
I had to boost him a star

A) because it was just a bit clever and amusing, and he DID bother to concoct this writing for someone's entertainment.

B) because he lives in Mukilteo...which is about 15 miles north of me (Kirkland) and where I take the ferry boat to see my parents on Whidbey Island, WA.

P.S. Hey Christopher, did you appreciate Paulsbo and Bremerton in Avernum 3? Oh yes, and we got Townshend, one of the salesmen(?) somewhere too. (Inside jokes for Spiderweb locals).

[ Saturday, October 01, 2005 20:54: Message edited by: Synergy67 ]

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A4 Item Locations A4 Singleton G4 Items List G4 Forging List The Insidious Infiltrator
Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Second scenario for a newbie in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #6
quote:
Originally written by Muji:

Hehehe... ;)

Sounds intriguing... and scary.

Should I be scared? :(

Mad Ambition is fairly entertaining actually, but you might want a Valium first. It's not a particularly sane or sensible world. Its creator may be a most likely candidate for something like, say, the Hitler Youth.

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A4 ItemsA4 SingletonG4 ItemsG4 ForgingG4 Infiltrator NR Items The Lonely Celt
Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Second scenario for a newbie in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #2
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

You could give Mad Ambition a shot, too, if you were in the mood for the indescribable experience of a TM scenario.
Oh, it's describable. I broke my thesaurus looking up slightly more diplomatic synonyms for "despicable" though. ;)

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
what party do you use? in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #11
The nice thing about Sickness Prone is that it doesn't seem to make any significant difference but you get the experience point boost.

Drake--you had a no magic singleton, or were you describing two different parties?

The first game I played before I got better at differentiating certain skills had the usual two fighters, a priest, and a mage, but the mage and priest wound up with good melee skills and ten strength and were quite useful at hammering away at foes. I often didn't bother to use magic at all in combat by that point. When using truly four physical fighters, some of the fun and challenge is focusing more on what it takes to get powerful weapons and armor. You save money not buying spells and Magery too.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
what party do you use? in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #5
Party formation is probably one of the more interesting discussions to have around here, because there are so many possible variations, making for very different kinds of games.

I'm trying a new experiment replaying Avernum 1. We're going to be good little PC's which means no nasty mage magic is permitted. There will be no stealing things which are Not Yours. I have a melee fighter, a pole fighter, an archer/thief, and a priest. The archer gets nimble fingers. The melee fighter gets fast on feet and the pole fighter gets strong will.

The two fighters and the archer are all sickness prone which leaves them with around +5% level up. The priest is sickness prone and has brittle bones--having no need to be a natural mage. I think his level up rate is around +30%! He is going to ramp up levels at a lightning pace and become very powerful.

Everyone will have decent levels of bow skills eventually. I find archery to often be very effective and useful in Avernum, contrary to a number of opinions stated otherwise here. I understand archers were less effective in Exile, which may be part of the reason they get neglected.

This party idea falls one short of another idea I have, and I wonder if anyone has attempted or suceeded with it: making a party of all fighters and NO magic at all, using only potiions perhaps. Can it be done? I may have to find out after this jaunt. All brute force and physical skill.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Bahs help in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #12
Disabling the Save function takes control of our game-playing experience out of our hands too completely for my taste. I sure wouldn't like it, becaue I like to keep progressing through a game and sometimes simply make dumb mistakes at times. Sometimes it's an extremely inconvenient trip to find a healer if someone needs resurrecting.. I suppose it's up to the player if one wants to play with no reloading to redo things. It would make for a much longer and probably more tedious game. As I 'm saying, it's a really tricky aspect to think of actual enjoyable and workable ways around.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Bahs help in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #10
Hmm, that sounds like a good strategy. I have a party of two I'm using for Bahs, and wound up switching my PC's around so the mage/priest got possessed and my warrior was able to sneak around past her to deal with the cause.

Those scenarios you named must be for Exile? Sounds like a nasty trick.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
iCome, iSpam, iWin in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #88
grarrrrr....dat darn double-post

[ Sunday, September 25, 2005 18:28: Message edited by: Synergy67 ]

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
iCome, iSpam, iWin in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #87
quote:
Originally written by Johnno:

Not a new troll, a returned troll.
This should not surprise us. Trolls are known to be especially primitive and crude beasts. They frequently wander habitually back to familiar places over and over no matter how much punishment this invites. Scientists theorize that this is because trolls become disoriented and insecure when confronted with new and unfamiliar situations. Should you attract the dull attention of one of these clumsy brutes, it can be readily distracted by shiny objects, as long as you don't wave them about too quickly. The most mysterious, and seemingly magical quality of the troll is that by ignoring one, it is possible to make one disappear forever.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled deprogramming.

[ Sunday, September 25, 2005 18:28: Message edited by: Synergy67 ]

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Avernum 4 Mac Beta Testers needed! in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #23
I didn't realize intoxication was a prerequisite for participation in the Spiderweb boards. Come to think of it, that DOES explain a number of posts I've seen around here however.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Bahs help in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #7
Well, I suppose you are right, Kel. I wish more often the tricky parts of Avernum in general could be won by improvisation and cleverness with the resources on hand, rather than resorting to many repeated attempts. I sure have made my share of repeated attempts at various points in all the games.

I'm not sure how such a game would be designed or if it even practically could be. It would be fun to try to create that kind of challenge though, preserving the illusion of a truly continuous story which real adventurers could make it through...you know, much the opposite of the sort of challenge TM in particular likes to concoct. ;) At the least, maybe something in the game would provide information about what you will need to do to defeat adversaries who use unexpected, lethal tricks. Of course, it is kind of fun to be slaughtered by something horrible and unexpected and then figure out how to try it again and be victorious. I suppose, with the way it works, we could look at combat more as a puzzle, along with the actual puzzles in the game.

Anyway, it's a weird gaming contrivance nearly any kind of video or computer game has used from day one...multiple lives. How else could it be done, after all?

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Avernum 4? in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #287
I just noticed the two new screenshots of Avernum 4. I think the graphics look fine, and it appears we are a little more zoomed in on our PC's.

I will be very happy as long as it is still possible to use the keyboard to move around. Clicking mouse buttons to move space by space is more likely to induce carpal tunnel than pressing four or five different keys. In fact, I always prefer to use keys rather than the mouse for game shortcuts. I think good software in general permits both. Lousier software makes you do a lot more work with a mouse to get things done. It's great if there will be both.

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Avernum 4 Mac Beta Testers needed! in General
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #21
Well, yeah...why be number two when you can be number one after all? :)

I see Drake mentioned elsewhere that we can probably expect replies if we are accepted to beta-test about one week after they close submittals for testing. So, the question now is, when do they stop taking applicants?

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Bahs help in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #4
I am very near to this showdown in Bahs myself, but have been taking a break from finishing the scenario. Suddenly I found myself bored fighting golems. Actually, it appears I must contend with more undead before the drake.

Aha, I knew from peeking at other posts or reviews that at some point your lead character gets turned against you in Bahs. I thought that was over with early on in the lower caves when your lead disappears and turns against you near the evil altar. Apparently, then, Kel has inflicted this challenge upon us twice, eh?

So, what I am wondering then, not having actually fought this last battle yet, is how could someone expect to walk into the fight and actually through strategy on the fly manage to defeat the dragon and stay alive? Is there any way apart from learning the hard way that your lead will likely kill you and subsequently reloading and "cheating" by rearranging your PC's and taking away weapons in advance? This seems really hokey to me. I'd like to think I could win a fight without having knowledge of the experience in advance and traveling back through time to try again.

[ Sunday, September 25, 2005 16:39: Message edited by: synergy67 ]

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Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00

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