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Re: Synergy's Massive Topic in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 21:02 Profile #3
Really, I killed this for a reason. There is no further point to discuss these matters publicly as the main proponent has made it entirely clear he no longer wishes to discuss them.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Nothing Plus Nothing Equals Nothing in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 20:26 Profile #66
I don't see a point to this thread anymore...too bad...

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Harmony East Docks in Geneforge Series
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 18:16 Profile #5
Yes, Jeff intended to be possible to kill Hoge here, but it is difficult. If you do, another Shaper (Mooralis) will take his place in future events.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Golden Forge in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 18:13 Profile #1
Click on it, a window will pop up, put the correct combination of items in the box on the right, and hit the combine button.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Nothing Plus Nothing Equals Nothing in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Tuesday, December 12 2006 23:02 Profile #28
quote:
Tell me the dominant attitude and perspective of this country isn't that we are essentially at the mercy of, and the victim of our genes, and that we are stuck with the lot we are handed? Virtually everything I read in the media and hear out of the mouths of my fellow citizen reflect this viewpoint.
Your fellow citizen does not know the difference between voltage and current. Point is the general public have a lot of misconceptions with how things work in just about every scientific discipline.

Most geneticists (and biological sciences) are pretty certain genetics is not the end of the story. Environment affects genetics in a very non-linear and subtle way. Slight changes in diet early pregnancy can lead to significant changes in the offspring, this is fairly well known among researchers in the field.

I would not say biology/medicine has not evolved when it clearly has, perhaps you have a different definition of fundamental, but I can say the same for physics as well. You keep talking about things that work better in vague terms. I want examples. Tell me specifically about medicine needs to be changed.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Ridiculous droppings in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Tuesday, December 12 2006 21:09 Profile #24
quote:
Originally written by Synergy67:

I'm increasingly curious about this. Can someone explain to me how a random number generator would not in fact generate truly random numbers?
Random number generators use an algorithm and are given a starting "seed", usually an arbitrarily large number. This algorithm is recursive in that the input is the last entry and hence affects the output which is next entry.

What defines "random" is that the sequence of numbers are evenly distributed between 0 and 1 (the unit bounds; to get a different number, you may simply manipulate the result) and exhibits no skip, pattern, or repetition.

No sequence meets these requirements perfectly. Typically some seeds can lead to these subtle patterns. One often can get higher fidelity results by using lots of different seeds. As for lacking repetition, all of these algorithms repeat, but typically not until after 10^30 (or much, much more) numbers given an appropriate seed.

To get a more "random" number, typically the CPU pulls from the clock. In some applications, such as games, this is desirable. In scientific applications where replication is vital, a known starting seed is desirable.

So basically, a CPU is completely a deterministic thing when functioning properly. We humans need to coax it to give us a "random" number.

[ Tuesday, December 12, 2006 21:10: Message edited by: *i ]

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Nothing Plus Nothing Equals Nothing in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Tuesday, December 12 2006 20:26 Profile #12
quote:
Get over yourself, Kel. It's the tired bias of the godlike "scientist" against the philosopher's approach. "You can't possibly know what you're talking about, examining, questioning, commenting on what the sciences of the world are saying if you haven't been initiated into the secret rites and terminologies of the scientist."
Watch yourself here Synergy, this is definitely not called for. You are officially warned. Now onto more relevant things...

quote:
You don't have to be a scientist to get the basic concepts being discussed here: whether particles in physical contact or energy from a distance can trigger cell behavior. The realities of the universe, I believe can be expressed in very simple conceptual terms, even if they are amazingly complex in every aspect once dissected.
You are correct, things can be expressed in very simple conceptual terms, but that does not make them necessarily useful. Very simple conceptual terms often leads to misunderstandings and misapplication of the science.

What physics does tell us is that there are four fundamental forces. All interactions must follow one (or some combination of) these. Just throwing around energy as such a loose term, while justifiably correct, is not all that useful.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Nothing Plus Nothing Equals Nothing in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Tuesday, December 12 2006 20:15 Profile #8
quote:
Stareye, I'm not sure what more to give you. I'm a philsopher, ponderer, gadfly sort, not a scientist. I'm interested in the essentially philosophical approach to how we choose to focus our science and practice in a field. There is a philosophy that informs and shapes any science.
While you are correct, philosophy informs and shapes science, it is impossible to have a worthwhile discussion if you do not understand the science itself. Energy is a rigorously defined concept in physics. If you don't understand how it is defined and can make up your own definitions, there really is no point of discussion.

quote:
Do we or do we not accept that all things are composed of energy, emanate some form of energy, and that energy in various forms and frequencies has the power to effect change when it interacts with other matter (which is of course actually an interaction with other energy)?
On its surface, you are correct, but horribly simplistic.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Nothing Plus Nothing Equals Nothing in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Tuesday, December 12 2006 19:51 Profile #3
Whoa, this is nothing like the physics that I've learned...I need you to define energy. There is no such thing as just raw energy, it always has a physical manifestation, whether it be in photons, nuclear mass, molecular bonds, kinetic energy, etc. I need you to define your terms with rigor before we can discuss this.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
A Strange Chill in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Tuesday, December 12 2006 09:43 Profile #4
Actually it is every third time or so you visit the place if you check the script.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Ten in General
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Monday, December 11 2006 18:04 Profile #6
Celebratory topics are okay when used in moderation...

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Monday, December 11 2006 18:03 Profile #45
Theoretically I have 1 and only half of 2. I have the ability to program, just not the time to do so for this.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Any way to check my reputation? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Monday, December 11 2006 06:02 Profile #1
The guy who gives the Dumping Pits mission in the Therile Colony near the beginning of the game can give you an estimate of what your reputation is. Note that there is only one variable controlling this, so helping the shapers hurts your standings with the rebels and vice versa.

You could always crack open the scripts, find the flag, and try to get it to display by modifying it if you really want.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Greta bug in Fens in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Sunday, December 10 2006 13:44 Profile #3
Did you give the papers to the Shapers?

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
help is appreciated in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Sunday, December 10 2006 10:32 Profile #2
You need to recover the kiln ruby from Purity Workshop B for Agent Mouawad. I admit I did this quest even while working for the Rebels just to get this item.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Lost Registration Key in Tech Support
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Sunday, December 10 2006 02:15 Profile #2
Just so you know, Jeff is on vacation right now so he may nto be able to dig up a new key for you until he gets back.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Sunday, December 10 2006 02:14 Profile #32
As part of it, yes. Ideally there is much more to be done to make the layout a lot more streamlined.

It would be interesting to finally be able to crack open the Blades of Exile and Editor code. I can think of several things right now that could be fixed or limits that should be changed (50 node limit, I'm looking at you). Of course, much depends on the source structure iself. First priority with BoE, I feel, should be the OS X and Vista (in necessary) ports.

Hopefully, when Jeff gets around to releasing the BoE source, he will be nice enough to advertise it on his website as an open source project. We should probably set up something on Sourceforge or something to keep things organized.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Reviews Received in Blades of Avernum
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 20:23 Profile #3
Play as much as you are able, as with previous contests, ideally you should finish, but just getting a good feel for the quality of the scenario is sufficient for the preliminary judging.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Reviews Received in Blades of Avernum
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 17:27 Profile #0
Below are the reviews I have received, if only the name is listed, it means I have received all of them I need. If you have sent them and they are not there, I did not receive them and please contact me ASAP. As before, please send the reviews to blades8contest@hotmail.com[/url] by December 16, 2006. If people need more time, I will extend the deadline and push thngs back a bit.

Bain Ihrno
Ephesos
Gizmo
Kelandon
Lazarus
Salmon
Stareye
Terrors Martyr
Tyranicus
Thuryl

All scores have been received! Good work.

[ Sunday, December 17, 2006 07:31: Message edited by: *i ]

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 17:17 Profile #27
Then there was Islands of the Wheel also, which came out fairly early. I recall within the first two weeks there were already two scenarios: Island Visitors and Arena of Death. Both sucked, but they were there. Point being, almost instantaneously we had a fairly large number of user scenarios. Keep in mind standards were a lot lower back then.

Blades of Avernum, on the other hand, has only 22 scenarios total on the Spiderweb tables. We're now almost three years from the release, that's a production rate of less than 10 per year.

I agree on the suggestion of packaging the Editor with the game, or at least making it very apparent on the download page rather than making users go to the scenario workshop, whose link is an obscure one near the bottom of the page.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 15:56 Profile #24
I'm not saying it is the problem, but part of it. With BoE, you could quickly point to 30 other scenarios to play, BoA does not have that luxury so you have to rely more on the demo.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 15:02 Profile #22
Pirating of the source code is a concern, but not much really. Although the Geneforge engine takes a lot from BoA, there have already been significant changes and enhancements made to the basic scripting engine. Sure, one could theoretically rip off the code and enhance it, but at some point it becomes easier just to write your own the way you want.

I think what could help with BoA is what I said, take a look at BoE, a very successful product. We need something to integrate everything into one nice application like that. You click a button, it loads up the dialogue nodes. Another one it brings up the special states with the ability to make your own basic ones with nodes. An area for special items, quests, shops, etc. What it comes down to is a single application to do everything.

I agree with Kel, we need to sit down and decide. I think, however, that the key is there needs to be additional improvements in the Editor itself. We can put up as many tutorials as we like, but if we cannot reduce the amount of effort it takes to write a basic BoA scenario, then we have accomplished little.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Glitch in the Fens in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 11:35 Profile #1
Well, since you cheated and then did a bunch of things you should not have done, I doubt there is any way to save this. Go back to an earlier save file.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor
*i
The Establishment
Member # 6
 written Saturday, December 9 2006 11:03 Profile #19
The architecture of the more advanced design of the BoA style than the BoE style lends itself to a much higher learning curve. In BoE, you have one compact file all done with nodes. In BoA, you have lots of little files all with their own scripts. Although the BoA model is more desirable from a software designer standpoint, I feel it is less so for a general scenario design tool.

An appropriate compromise would have been something that would read in the relevant files as needed. Users could script with traditional BoE style nodes, but a more advanced user could customize the script. In the end, Blades of Avernum forces the designer to keep track of lots of little compartments and such. Blades of Exile's biggest strength, I feel, was its compactness and ability to write a scenario with very little effort.

I think something such as a Blades Editor could work in the future if attached to a much larger game. One way to implement this is to hard code in the game a maximum town number or zone the player could enter without registering. Additionally, only the default game would be accessible so user scenarios would not be playable.

To summarize, I see two problems with the BoA model:

1) Too spread out of an interface, needs to be compacted for ease of use. Theoretically, this could be done for the BoA Editor with much effort.

2) A suboptimal marketing strategy of one small playable scenario. Big games tend to make the bucks.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00

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