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Displayed name	Thuryl
Member number	869
Title	...b10010b...
Postcount	9973
Homepage	http://thuryl.desperance.net/blades.html
Registered	Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00

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Author	Recent posts
The Official Electioneering Topic in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, June 23 2005 01:47 Profile Homepage #78 There's a good reason why the rest of us haven't brought that up. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum V. Exile in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 18:11 Profile Homepage #22 Technically, this thread is on-topic and in the right place. The fact that it's been done about 50 times before appears not to be grounds for locking. People seem unenthusiastic enough about it at this point that it'll probably die on its own soon enough, though. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 17:53 Profile Homepage #26 Jeff says fixing bugs is bad because people don't want to have to upgrade their game every time he fixes something. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 17:03 Profile Homepage #22 Play what you enjoy, then -- there must be enough of it out there already. No need to try and turn things that people with different tastes play and enjoy into things that you'd enjoy more if only they were different. If a designer doesn't design what he personally would most enjoy playing, the result isn't going to turn out well anyway. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 16:49 Profile Homepage #20 quote: Originally written by Verelor: An RPG that takes 100+ hours to complete? Sounds great. Until you threw in the repetitive part. Why play a game for 100 hours if it is repetitive and frankly not fun? Prolong the pain? Jeff Vogel once wrote an article entitled "The Whittling Part of the Brain", which unfortunately no longer seems to be available online but summarises his position nicely. Whittling is an activity whereby one uses a knife to turn a piece of wood into a smaller piece of wood. It's time-consuming, repetitive and produces nothing useful. It's still a very popular way to pass the time. I mean, for heaven's sake. Some people play golf for fun. Why does the idea that someone might enjoy a monotonous game surprise you? [ Wednesday, June 22, 2005 16:51: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum V. Exile in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 16:35 Profile Homepage #20 When other people are doing my campaigning for me, I'm not sure I need to. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 16:31 Profile Homepage #15 I still play Ultima IV. Most players of SW games remember an era when RPGs took 100+ hours of repetitive gameplay to complete -- we've grown comfortable with a certain degree of monotony. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Does anyone enjoy classic console RPGs? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 16:22 Profile Homepage #22 Uh, I don't recall there being any fireballs. The object of the game was to retrieve a treasure (apparently a chalice or something, although it could just as easily have been a headless statue given the graphical quality). -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Debate #1 for Moderator Election in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 16:15 Profile Homepage #16 Zeviz, the trouble with your examples is that, as others have said, they're all pretty clear-cut -- none of them is really a grey area. #1: If it's clear that the poster realises the games are still available for sale and is trying to get something for nothing (as it is in your example), I'd lock the topic, warn the poster that trying to steal from a company on its own forums is a good way to get banned, and inform an admin. If the wording of the post makes it possible that the poster genuinely believed the games might have been re-released as freeware, I'd advise him that Jeff Vogel is still selling them and doesn't intend to stop doing so at any point in the foreseeable future. #2: In general, this is a situation where it'd be appropriate to issue a warning for conduct abusive toward another member. Having said that, I'd have to take into account the context of the thread and the general relationship between the two members involved; if it was clear that the poster didn't mean offence and the person to whom the post was directed didn't take offence, I'd be inclined to let it slide if nobody else complained. (In the circumstances in which the post did in fact occur, of course, TM did mean offence and thus a warning would be merited). #3: I'm inclined to go with Alec on this one. Watch the topic for a few hours, give it a brief time to either turn into something worthwhile or die out on its own, and lock it if it hasn't done either. If I'm in a particularly conversational mood I might take the chance to turn the topic into a discussion of the role of compliments in our society and the ethics of giving an insincere compliment. You want specifics rather than generalities? Very well. I favour holding members accountable for their actions rather than allowing them to dominate or derail perfectly good topics as some have done in the past. In practical terms, this policy means more warnings and fewer lockings. [ Wednesday, June 22, 2005 16:43: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 14:39 Profile Homepage #4 Here goes. If I don't reply to a point, it's either because I don't find it too objectionable or because other people have mentioned it so many times that I'm sick of addressing it. quote: Originally written by Verelor: 2.- I've said this one before and I'll say it again: animations! Spiderweb has always been kinda stingy with graphical work (that dern Geneforge 3 boat graphic was nearly unforgivable!). However, after 10+ years in computer game design, I expect you to be able to have graphics with actual animations. Imagine the world of Avernum 4 brought to beautiful life with animations. The easiest and most logical way to totally revamp A4's graphics would be to start with the Geneforge 3 engine and go from there. (In fact, this would be fantastic) Please, no. It was bad enough when he included mines in BoA scenarios for the sake of having mines. quote: 7.- This is a problem with nearly every RPG out there, but this time around the cities should be actual cities rather than just something meant to give the impression of a city. Surprisingly, having to spend hours walking through mostly residential buildings of no relevance or interest to the player is considerably less fun than a barrel of monkeys. Even if the monkeys are infected with Ebola. quote: 8.- Please, if it will make the game better in any way, don't hesitate to lose Macintosh compatability. If you're a Mac owner and a gamer at the same time, then you're already fresh out of luck. Um. You're aware that around 50% of Jeff's customers are Mac users, right? Alienating half your audience is usually a bad idea. quote: 9.- More more more spells! Amazing that as Spiderweb Software's games have only gotten bigger and better, their spell lists have only shrunk. Exile just had a veritable compendium of spells. Avernum really cut the spell lists a lot and made the progressions more linear. Geneforge 1-3 has even less spells! They took out all the funnest spells! Okay, this is a fair point. Not that the majority of Exile's spells were particularly useful, but still, I'm kinda sore about some of the things that were taken out. quote: 10.- Allow low-level summoning spells and abilities to not completely suck. Create Illusions is okay if you know how to use it. Summoning is basically a defensive strategy, not an offensive one. quote: 11.- New classes and skills would be good, although I have few ideas on the matter. Not sure about classes. Experienced players mostly use Custom anyway, and it doesn't make a whole lot of difference at higher levels. quote: 12.- Movie cinemas is a bit too much to ask from a shareware company, but at least please include cutscenes with a large picture a little more often. Play a few of TM's BoA scenarios. Be careful what you wish for. quote: 14.- The menu graphcis in Avernum 4 should be less on the funny comic strip sketch side and more on the coolness side. Don't be dissin' Phil Foglio. quote: 15- This is probably out of the question storywise, but in Avernum 4 if the party's mage is of an extremely high level with exceptional Mage Spells and Arcane Lore skill and completes a very very difficult quest, he or she should be able to cast Quickfire as a spell! I know no human magician is supposed to be able to cast such a powerful spell, but the epic quest required to attain this spell could provide very special circumstances (perhaps a diety or powerful magical entity rewards the party for their benevolance by allowing them to cast this unmatched magic.) Is it really that often that you want to murder an entire town and render it uninhabitable to both you and others? quote: 16.- Some very masked and criptic Geneforge series references thrown into the dialogue could give Spiderweb loyalists the reward they deserve. It's fun to speculate, but seriously, there's no evidence Jeff ever intended Avernum and Geneforge to be set in the same world. quote: 17.- This is something that will never ever happen no matter how much I want it to within the next 10 years, but it'd be fantastic if Spiderweb's enxt game was fully 3-d! (Yes, it's funny, but unlike most of Spiderweb's fans i've actually seen a PS1 game before :-D) You know, not all of us play SW games purely because we're too poor to afford games with the latest fashionable engines. Some of us actually like them as they are. quote: 18.- Yet another thing that is never ever going to happen is for Avernum 4 to finally have a music sountrack. It would be a perfectly rational suggestion for any other 3-game-old series out there, but soemhow with Spiderweb Software's games music actually seems awkward. Funny. Jeff's said that he hates music in games, so this is one of those things that's probably not going to happen. (Mind you, Exile 1 and 2 did have optional music, even if it crashed the game occasionally.) quote: 19.- Insert more randomness back into picking locks, disarming traps, bashing doors down. In Avernum series it just seems like with a certain object rogues can either do it or they can't. Whereas in Exile you just kept trying (and reloading to a saved game if necessary) until you succeeded. I'd rather spend those 5 minutes of my life playing the game instead of casting Unlock on a stubborn door over and over again. All things considered, this is one of the things Avernum handles better. quote: 23.- Slings were great weapons for roguish characters in the Avernum games because although they were the weakest of the ranged weaponry, they allowed the character to use a ranging ability without the costliness and weight of ammo. The ability to purchase lead sling bullets that were pricy and weighed something but were also better than using unloaded slings would be a fine and easy improvement. If you want to have a versatile Thrown Missiles character, use a sling as your main missile weapon and carry javelins for when you need more oomph. In practice, sling bullets wouldn't really add any variety to the engine that isn't already there. quote: 24.- Massive army vs. army battles where each character on the battlefield is actually a unit and the characters later on can be generals in command would be an awesome detraction from the monotony. This would be fine if done well and obnoxious if done badly. Since Jeff isn't in the business of making strategy games, it's something he'll probably stay away from. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Debate #1 for Moderator Election in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 13:51 Profile Homepage #9 I'm not sure how much I can add to what others have said. Those who have responded so far seem to have a good grasp of the issues involved. Nonetheless, I suppose I ought to make my positions clear. There is, of course, nothing wrong with roleplays or political debates in themselves. Unfortunately, arguments happen. If a member appears to be acting in a deliberately disruptive manner, that member needs to be warned; if the topic as a whole has degenerated into an argument, that merits a cautionary post or a lock depending on how far gone it appears to be. Consideration will be given mainly to how the state of the topic is affecting relations between its participants, as people who don't like political or RP topics generally don't read them. In the case of such a topic becoming filled with meaningless spam, I'll do the same as with any other topic to which that has happened: post a caution, give the discussion a day or two to either die down or get back on topic, and lock it if the spam continues. Topics with a previously worthwhile purpose that have been filled with spam deserve a more lenient treatment than topics which were spammy from the beginning. Arguments between oldbies are something of a different matter because they often spring up in topics unrelated to them and take over the discussion in that topic. In such a case I'll mainly consider the effect of the argument on other members of the community, and if their enjoyment of the forums may be interfered with by the argument, I will encourage the arguing parties to either forgive and forget or take their quarrel to AIM where it can't bother other forumgoers. If continued inappropriate conduct of the oldbies makes it necessary to lock the topic they're arguing in, warnings will be issued to all significantly involved parties -- I take the ruining of previously good topics seriously. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
The Official Electioneering Topic in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 04:26 Profile Homepage #25 quote: Originally written by George A. Custer & The SE Party: I believe it reflects an abuse on the part of the moderator to justify a failure to consult with the community before attacking - in particular, but this is just one example - topics which seem to have outlived their usefulness - with the statement, 'Well, the final say rests with me'. I believe in community consultation before taking action. What I don't believe in is community consultation instead of taking action. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Going Rogue? in Geneforge Series
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 02:15 Profile Homepage #25 I would, but this isn't General, and we've gone far enough off topic already. Might be better to just let the thread fade away on its own at this point. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
300 posts in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 01:49 Profile Homepage #1 I hope you're not going to do one of these for 400 as well. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
The Official Electioneering Topic in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 01:44 Profile Homepage #22 Alec wants you to think of him as a man of the people; I find him duplicitous. For all his talk of sharing power, he knows full well that whoever is appointed moderator will have the final say on what happens to your posts and topics. There are times when I would have liked to see more community consultation before a topic was locked, and times when I would have liked to see members responsible for a topic's decline held accountable for their actions rather than remain under the radar due to the currently prevailing attitude of "lock the topic and forget about it", but the ability to enforce the rules lies solely with the forum's moderators and administrators. Any attempt to pretend otherwise is dishonest. We need a moderator who can be trusted with power, not one who wields it while denying he has it. [ Wednesday, June 22, 2005 01:47: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Going Rogue? in Geneforge Series
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 01:38 Profile Homepage #23 Threads have a habit of doing that. I'm not sure there's that much more on-topic material to be discussed for this particular topic, anyway. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
The Official Electioneering Topic in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, June 22 2005 00:38 Profile Homepage #20 I don't want to dwell too much on the merits or failings of other candidates; despite their present bickering, most would probably make fine moderators. However, I feel it necessary to justify why I would make a better moderator than they. I have at least as strong a record of forum administration as any other candidate, having administrated three different forums over a period of several years. The most valuable insight that this broad range of experience has given me is the understanding that different forum communities have different needs. For example, I was an administrator of the Blades of Exile Arena forums and am still an administrator of the Desperance forums. Despite the Arena forums being hosted by Desperance and attracting a number of members from the Desperance community, the tone of discussion was generally kept friendly to younger or more sensitive users. The Arena was always intended to be a polite and family-friendly community, and my intervention played a significant part in keeping it that way. By contrast, the Desperance forums themselves required a much more open approach, in which censorship would be inappropriate and maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio was a more pressing concern. It seems to me that the nature of the Spiderweb forum community requires a mix of both forms of intervention; there is a Code of Conduct which should be respected, and the quality of discussion also needs to be kept high. In my view, Kelandon's moderatorial record on these forums shows him to be unreasonably strict, even going so far as to edit people's posts to censor out the word "damn". These forums have a long history of not editing posts except under extreme circumstances (such as posting of offensive images or deliberate evasion of word filters), and I feel that ought to be respected. Offensive language is easy for administrators to censor out using word filters; if the administrators choose not to censor a word, my position is that they have implicitly deemed its use acceptable, at least under some circumstances. Naturally, any language which is abusive toward another member is an infraction of both the CoC and basic decency and ought to be treated as such, but not all strong language is abusive. Alec, I fear, has the opposite problem; he may be too lax. When a poster evades the word filters to post language clearly deemed unacceptable by the administration, I am not sure I could trust Alec to keep him in line. Nor do I fully trust him not to use his powers frivolously. The position of a moderator entails the investment of a community member with two qualities: power, and authority. Power is inherent in the status of a moderator; he has the ability to move, edit and delete posts, and these abilities must be used with wisdom and discretion. A moderator's authority is the result of the trust the administration has placed in him; he has been declared a person who ought to be respected by the community. If he betrays that trust, he betrays both the administration and the community. And so I ask you this, members of the Spiderweb community. Who can be trusted to hold power? Who is sufficiently respectable to hold authority? I contend that I have consistently shown myself through my actions on these forums to be trustworthy and respectable. If you agree, I would be honoured to have your vote. [ Wednesday, June 22, 2005 00:47: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Internet Explorer Troubles in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Tuesday, June 21 2005 23:57 Profile Homepage #30 Sorry for the inflated figures; I was estimating based on the size of Mozilla. Of course, since Firefox is a stripped-down version of Mozilla, it makes sense that it'd be smaller. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Going Rogue? in Geneforge Series
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Tuesday, June 21 2005 23:50 Profile Homepage #20 Burglaries are common too. That doesn't make them a good thing. [ Tuesday, June 21, 2005 23:50: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
The Archive Opens in Blades of Exile
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Tuesday, June 21 2005 23:32 Profile Homepage #23 I know that Jeff has in fact referred to "A Small Rebellion" as "A Mild Rebellion" at various points throughout BoE and its documentation. I just can't confirm that nobody else also made another scenario of the same name. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Oh My! A New Topic! in Richard White Games
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Tuesday, June 21 2005 23:30 Profile Homepage #24 Grey seems sensible, being the other famous fictional Richard in computer gaming. And of course, if your Richard is green, consult your local VD clinic at your earliest opportunity. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Internet Explorer Troubles in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Tuesday, June 21 2005 21:47 Profile Homepage #26 www.mozilla.org A little over 10 MB. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
The Official Electioneering Topic in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Tuesday, June 21 2005 21:09 Profile Homepage #4 The role of a moderator, in my view, is to make the boards a more enjoyable place for the community, by encouraging quality discussion and discouraging low-content or abusive posts. In my time on these forums, I've seen good topics locked and I've seen bad topics fail to be locked. I believe in trying to improve the standard of discussion in topics rather than in locking a discussion which at least some people are presumably enjoying. As such, if elected moderator I will implement a policy of greater education of new members and more vigilant warning of troublemakers both new and old, hopefully making the locking of topics unnecessary. Of course, sometimes a topic needs urgent attention. I'm sure most of us here remember the recent Eraserhead debacle, where highly offensive images remained visible to the community for almost a full day before being removed. This is unacceptable, and with my help we can do better. As my post count attests, I am an active community member, and throughout my time on the boards will be ever vigilant for content which clearly crosses the boundaries of community acceptability. Furthermore, when it comes to addressing issues promptly I have one advantage that other candidates, through no fault of their own, do not. We have three American moderators and a British moderator on General already; as an Australian, I can be active on the forums at times when the other moderators aren't. My addition to the moderatorial team would allow us to more efficiently monitor the behaviour of a subsection of the community which includes a significant number of active members. I understand fully that my role as a moderator will be that of a fixer, not a builder -- to guide the community rather than to lead it. My aim is simply to fill the gaps in the current moderatorial effort. Give me a chance to do so and I guarantee that I won't disappoint you. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Game finished : remaining quest in Geneforge Series
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Monday, June 20 2005 23:09 Profile Homepage #8 Your Essence depends on your experience level and also on your intelligence. More intelligence means more essence. Killing monsters doesn't directly give you more essence except insofar as it contributes to gaining experience levels. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Game finished : remaining quest in Geneforge Series
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Monday, June 20 2005 22:23 Profile Homepage #6 It may perhaps have occurred to you by this point that if you'd put all of those skill points into your shaper's Intelligence instead of Strength, you would have had plenty of essence. Also, there's really no reason to max out your creation's stats like that. It's usually better to just create higher-level creations when you can and leave them near their base stats. [ Monday, June 20, 2005 22:25: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00

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