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The coming Avernum rewrites


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Careful, you don't want to start a flamewar.

 

Back on topic, I find these days on a laptop, without a numpad, that I cope fine with using the mouse for moving, but the keyboard is still helpful for casting spells. Actually, I don't have a mouse either, it's really just a swishy thing (it has a proper name, but I don't care to learn).

 

The next generation of Avernums should support touch screen.

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Click to reveal..
Windows is a pane in the glass.
As for rodents, I hate mieces to pieces.


HAHA! I almost fell out of my chair at that. That was hilarius. Though im off topic, speaking of macintosh and windows, what about lennux? the only game that has that is exile 3...Jeff should write the games for that too

EDIT: read the edit below |
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Jeff doesn't write games for Linux because the market for Linux games is essentially zero. No gamers rely on Linux without access to some other operating system. A few may just use Wine, which is a compatibility layer that allows Windows programs to run under Linux, and my understanding is that Spiderweb games usually run with Wine.

 

—Alorael, who will point out that Jeff didn't even port E3. Someone else did it, and Jeff has said that the sales made it an experiment not worth repeating.

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Linux is too much like Unix; it makes for a great platform for databases servers, web servers and mail servers. Those are some serious applications, and the X-windows drivers are just barely adequate to display GUI driven installations and admin functions. (Linux has better graphics than Unix, but IMO still not up to gaming standards.)

 

Windows and MAC are personal machines, with graphics drivers far superior to those in 'server land'. As such they are more capable of playing games.

 

It does not surprise me that there is, for all practical purposes, no market for games in Linux land.

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Basilisk Games makes Linux versions of its Eschalon series but only because the games are written in a language that creates a Windows, Mac, and Linux version. Even then it takes work to get the Linux version to run on several different Linux platforms without bugs.

 

Jeff could compile his C++ source code to run on Linux, but there isn't enough market to make it worth the time and testing to make sure no bugs creep into the program.

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Harehunter, your post would be more convincing if Mac weren't itself a Unix-based operating system. The GUI is not a core part of Linux and can vary by distribution, but no distro has the resources of Apple or Microsoft and thus the results aren't as pretty.

 

The bigger problem is simply market share. Microsoft won the operating system wars early and solidly, and Windows has been ensconced as the lion's share of the market ever since. If you are going to develop software for one operating system, it'll probably be Windows to maximize your potential users; if you're going to port, adding Mac OS will give you something like 95% of all computers. There's just not enough margin and too much effort in porting to Linux.

 

—Alorael, who really does consider this a kind of brand lock-in. OS preferences and strengths aside, Windows has more software, so many people stick with it. Because they stick with it, Windows gets more software. The more stable, powerful, and secure Linux and Unix operating systems are shut out. It's not as bad now as it was ten or fifteen years ago, but it's also hard to avoid using Windows or its software entirely.

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While it be true that MAC is now based on Unix, there was a time that it was a proprietary OS which was engineered to be a powerful graphical workstation. In the early days of MAC, they were arguably a far more powerful tool for graphics design than were the PC's of that day. When Apple rewrote their OS to the Unix engine, of course they continued to have a graphics engine as powerful as they ever had.

With regard to my remarks regarding linux and unix as not being regarded as gaming machines, I speak from my experience as a database administrator. We run all almost all our enterprise databases on unix. I do have a few Oracle databases running on Windows, but that is only to appease the technical support reps for the third party software we use. Oracle on Unix, very stable. Oracle on Windows, problem children. My only experience with Linux is as a cheap solution for database servers sent to remote locations. 95% of my interaction with these servers is text based only. My only use for the GUI is for the few times I do an install. Updates are almost always text based. Xwindows is adequate enough for some games such as Avernum, but not for the intense graphics of a lot of other games, and not with out a great deal of additional work; not cost effective.

With the perception of Unix/Linux being considered 'work' servers, there just isn't going to be much demand for games in that environment. The few people I know who run linux at home (count them on one hand), use a Windows Virtual Machine if they want to play games, or they have a Wii or an Xbox.

I think Jeff to be smart to realize that Linux is not going to produce enough of a market to justify the extra cost to port to it.

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Yes, that's what I'm saying. The number of Linux users is tiny, and the number who don't have another OS for gaming is tinier still. No money in it!

 

—Alorael, who has to get out a pet peeve as well. It's Mac, not MAC. It's not an acronym, it's a shortening of Macintosh, like the variety of apple (the fruit as well as the computer).

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Yes, but you are only one of many, many people on SW and you are one of the youngest members at that. You aren't going to understand everything, and that's okay. You can use Google to help understand things better, or just move on to discussions that you do understand and participate there.

 

Dikiyoba.

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Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba
You can use Google to help understand things better, or just move on to discussions that you do understand and participate there..


Yeah, both Google and Wikipedia are your friends. simple.wikipedia might also help, too, for some of the more technical topics where the regular Wikipedia articles get technical fast. As a rule of thumb, if you don't feel you have a solid grasp of the topic after a few minutes of looking, don't participate in the discussion- it helps keep you out of the hair of other members who might not appreciate having their discussion interrupted by someone who doesn't know what's going on.

For the record, I don't intend these comments as insults, but as a few helpful tips to help you get acclimated towards the forums and their general atmosphere. You'll do fine, it just sometimes takes a while to get used to the particular culture of a specific messageboard, especially a small and insular one like Spiderweb.
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It's fine to ask if you don't understand something and a simple Google or Wikipedia search doesn't help. Communicating with people is still what the internet is for! But if you don't understand most of what's being said, saying so doesn't add anything to the topic.

 

—Alorael, who thinks that there is an age limit. The total age of all active Spiderweb members must never exceed 32,767, or darkness and woe will engulf the land for an aeon.

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Originally Posted By: Secrets of space
—Alorael, who thinks that there is an age limit. The total age of all active Spiderweb members must never exceed 32,767, or darkness and woe will engulf the land for an aeon.

This has only been temporarily postponed since Salmon and Saunders are absent. Now if Alorael leaves we might make it through the decade without worry.
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Quote:
As a rule of thumb, if you don't feel you have a solid grasp of the topic after a few minutes of looking, don't participate in the discussion- it helps keep you out of the hair of other members who might not appreciate having their discussion interrupted by someone who doesn't know what's going on.


While there are many who become annoyed with innocent, uneducated queries, I find it refreshing to have a younger persons perspective on, what is to me, an old subject. Talking about historical topics, refreshes the excitement I had in those early times. Plus it never fails that I will get a question that jolts my 'reality' and puts everything I knew about the topic in a different perspective.

When I was growing up I was taught that the only really stupid question is the one that was unasked. If you don't ask, you'll never know. Stupid questions are far more easily handled than stupid mistakes that were made because one was afraid to ask.

To the loyal servile of sasuke uchida, I encourage you to seek knowledge by all means possible. Asking questions is certainly a good place to start.
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When you are having a conversation with one person in real life, you can usually ask all the questions you need to.

 

When you are in a classroom full of people, somebody might get annoyed if you ask so many questions that you monopolize the class's time.

 

Taking that one step further: on a message board where many hundreds of users read each topic, there is definitely such a thing as asking too many questions. Try google first, especially for simple questions. Ask questions when they are more complex and more likely to be interesting to the above hundreds of users.

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Hare hunter, you spelled my name wrong... I think I'm changing it after this post... Anyway, why do you need google when you have an army of thousands of question answering people? Thats like eating the crust off of a PB N' J and throwing the rest of the sandwich away.

 

EDIT: O.k. name now changed. So if everyone could just call me Trenton...

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Originally Posted By: Trenton Uchiha, rebel servile.
But how can a web site know your age when its not part of the registration.

Actually, it does it through IP tracing, sophisticated demographic database-mining, and text analysis. In the event of greater than 5% uncertainty, agents are dispatched to verify.

But that's irrelevant, because eschatology means the end will come whether or not you believe in it. It's scientific! (You'll note the -ology suffix!)

—Alorael, who thinks the better description is a conversation among many people. If one keeps interrupting with questions that are already known by everyone else, it sidetracks the conversation. In a real conversation, though, it's unavoidable. On the internet, there are other sources of information.
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Uh, okay... The website uses sophisticated software to analyze your internet connection, your location, and your posts to determine your age. If your age cannot be determined with 95% certainty, Spiderweb Software's agents are sent to figure it out. They are equipped with suits and dark glasses, but standard protocol requires them to don an appropriate disguise before coming within 15 miles of a target.

 

—Alorael, who only needs 15 more posts to hit the big 19k!

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Originally Posted By: Let me Alorael that for you.

—Alorael, who only needs 15 more posts to hit the big 19k!


So that is why this berating is taking so long,
don't you feel even a bit ashamed for abusing your power for such an insignificant thing?

Try googling this: How much of a light wave is a photon?
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Originally Posted By: Let me Alorael that for you
Uh, okay... The website uses sophisticated software to analyze your internet connection, your location, and your posts to determine your age. If your age cannot be determined with 95% certainty, Spiderweb Software's agents are sent to figure it out. They are equipped with suits and dark glasses, but standard protocol requires them to don an appropriate disguise before coming within 15 miles of a target.
\
HAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHA! HA! HAHAHA! YA RIGHT! So a bunch of strange men, sent from either jeff or his people, wearing suits and shades, and with a disguise, will just follow me around, trying to figure out my age by listaning...

Yeah not picturing it

Originally Posted By: Let me Alor-you know what, screw this. Im just saying alorael
—Alorael, who only needs 15 more posts to hit the big 19k!

OH MAH GAWD! EVERY ONE DUCK AND COVER SHE MIGHT ACTUALLY BECOME A POSTERONI AT THE END OF THE YEAR! Then we are all screwed
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Originally Posted By: Let me Alorael that for you.
Uh, okay... The website uses sophisticated software to analyze your internet connection, your location, and your posts to determine your age. If your age cannot be determined with 95% certainty, Spiderweb Software's agents are sent to figure it out. They are equipped with suits and dark glasses, but standard protocol requires them to don an appropriate disguise before coming within 15 miles of a target.


So that's who those guys were. I was starting to get worried about them, but if they're from Jeff, they can't be too bad...can they? wink

Post # 537 cool
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Quote:
OH MAH GAWD! EVERY ONE DUCK AND COVER SHE MIGHT ACTUALLY BECOME A POSTERONI AT THE END OF THE YEAR! Then we are all screwed

Please don't type in all caps. It's the Internet equivalent of shouting in the middle of a conversation. It's rude and it's irritating.

Also, Alorael is a he. (And he'll never get the Posteroni title, just like he'll never get a custom title. tongue )

---

Originally Posted By: Erasmus
So that is why this berating is taking so long,
don't you feel even a bit ashamed for abusing your power for such an insignificant thing?

Try googling this: How much of a light wave is a photon?

Please tell Dikiyoba this is a joke that Dikiyoba doesn't get.
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Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba
Please don't type in all caps. It's the Internet equivalent of shouting in the middle of a conversation. It's rude and it's irritating.


Sorry, just did it for effect.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba
Also, Alorael is a he. (And he'll never get the Posteroni title, just like he'll never get a custom title. tongue )

Really? hes only got like, what, a thousand more posts? He will make it! (sorry for the gender mix up...it's just so hard to tell with people that change titles every day)
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Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES
No, if he gets close, Postaroni will just move up further.

Nothing like shifting goal posts.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba
Also, Alorael is a he. (And he'll never get the Posteroni title, just like he'll never get a custom title from Drakefyre. )

FYT
Alorael did for a few days give himself the custom title, "It feels like cheating."
Drakefyre was the admin responsible for giving out the much sought after custom titles. Drakefyre made it a point to never give one to anyone that asked for one and for some reason never gave Alorael one out of all the older members.
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I've given myself several custom titles. They're not the same, though. For the record, *i has also given out titles, and at least on one occasion it was by request, so there were options. I have too much pride to take them.

 

But not too much pride to ensure that I never have Postaroni in my title.

 

—Alorael, who inches closer post by post. His inevitable progress cannot be arrested. Also, he's thirsty.

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