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Where should I start designing?


Rosycat

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I joined The Lyceum when Solberg started complaining to me that he was being banished. I asked him where The Lyceum *was*, and here I am today. (Well, more accurately, I visited The Lyceum, played Redemption, played An Apology, and *then* decided to stick around. But that's being pedantic.)

 

So yeah, mid-late '00. Alcritas was having trouble with his short contest, so TM came to the rescue!

With Unbalanced Accounts.

 

Oh yeah, and then came the Megasite...

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Actually, it sounds like a good idea. If there was a valid site with everything from Blades, it would be a good resource. However, I'm guessing that the people that tried to create it were horrible at it in some way and/or the site was badly designed or couldn't get good webspace or something. I'm still curious...

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It fell through for several reasons. Certain people had trouble actually doing anything, satisfactory hosting never was found, and it was basically redundant. It doesn't really kill people to go to a couple different sites to find what they need.

 

Anyway, the work I did on the Megasite ended up becoming the BoE Graphics Database; that was lost to a server crash and I never felt like rebuilding the database by hand, for understandable reasons.

 

The Megasite was a solution in search of a problem, and overambitious at that.

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So is there a good graphics archive yet or is this something that is still needed?

 

I want to contribute, yet I know that my gameplay intrests go in spurts. 1year on ET, 6 mo. for rollercoaster tycoon, 3 mo. at HSX.com, now back for BoE. It's hard for me to stay in one place for extended times but maybe the responsibility for a site would stick me.

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Quote:
Originally written by There is only love in my house:
But it hasn't been updated for two-three years or thereabouts.
He says he thinks he updated it about half a year ago, but he's not sure. I just sent him an original NPC, some stupid geometric monsters, four slimes, and some paintings though. If anyone wants them, ask me.
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I feel very much like a scared newbie, which I am, but maybe I'll dare to post.

I remember Aceron's board and posted there and recognise some names from that time, I just left it even before the board itself did (which I found out later). For some reason I gave up BOE for years. Then I came back and there was suddenly a community and lots of people and I was lost and so far the only posts I've had courage to make have been questions about scenarios I'm stuck in. Mostly I'm a happy lurker.

 

And back then I created one scenario. I played it again some time ago and it was truly awful, especially the language. It's funny to read the few reviews it's had, they weren't very positive but more than it deserves. Most likely it will be the last scenario I create. I found the scenario file on my computer and it was created in December 1997 (does that sound right?) so I guess that I was around then.

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I remember when the Spidweb Boards were running some other forum software. Then there was a big topic about switching to UBB and how it was going to become a conspiracy like EZBoard.

 

I ventured around in the BoE Webring and was obsessed with the Knights of Ni page. I looked into the Desperance, but it was too crazy for me.

 

I've been lurking for so long, you wouldn't imagine. By the way, I've revealed my birthday and age before on my old account. I swear it'll be worth it if you can remember!

 

EDIT: Yay, page 4.

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Oh, sorry, I didn't realize there was more than one.

 

This is the one who re-downloads BoE every few months because he finds the idea of exploring and potentially building little grid-based worlds hard to resist. Then he usually posts something while he's here, gets flamed, and leaves for another few months.

 

Not that it has anything to do with the topic of this thread.

 

Drakefyre: Back then, people didn't have to register to be on the forums, so they could post under any name they wanted, and people were always pretending to be someone else. :p

 

(And if you think that's bad, you should have seen the admin controls on that forum. Its a wonder it survived with as little moderation as it did.)

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Hmm. If you really are Aceron, your writing style's changed a little. On the other hand, if you're not, you're someone who knows a fair bit about Aceron's boards. On balance, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. You'll have to forgive our skepticism; pretending to be you is the new fad now that pretending to be Jeff Vogel is out of style.

 

Well, I for one hold no hard feelings toward you. Nice to see you back here.

 

Oh, and I'm Thuryl/LRTDeM.

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Oh boy. Everybody note, as similar as TGM's post above looked to mine, it is not the same. :p A striking resemblance, though, a bit different number in the moniker, the same title, only 9 account numbers away, and nearly the same number of posts. There is a difference, though. :p

 

Oh, and Aceron, you won't remember me; I'm a "n00b".

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Gizmo--I'll always keep the trusty ol' ben4808 in my sig (or a very long time, anyway). I do like to play with my moniker every once in a while, but not near as much as Alorael, or lately, Thuryl. Specifically, I change it every 150 posts, so I'm stuck with this one until the 450 mark.

 

The 4808 is a long story. When I registered with the MSN gaming zone, I tried the name "ben", but of course, it was already taken, and "ben4808" was one of the main suggestions, probably because it was one of the only 4-digit numbers left after the name. *gulp* But anyway, I've kinda stuck with it when I registered here.

 

EDIT: Oh, and BtW, the number 4808 is strikingly close to my 18th birthday, ironically. I never really thought of it that that way. wink

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Hee hee. Aceron causes a much bigger stir when he shows up at the Lyceum than here. People here don't even know who he is. He's this guy .

 

Hey, Aceron, if you're interested, I highly recommend checking out some of the new BoE scenarios. Some recent highlights: Areni, a short fun tactical-challenge scenario that is rather different from anything that you would've seen three or four years ago; Nebulous Times Hence, which is longer and equally different from anything that preceded it; Emulations, also rather different and particularly well-told; Adventurer's Club 3, the largest scenario ever made for BoE; and a whole variety of others, too.

 

I think we'd all be interested to hear what you think of the newer scenarios. And Areni even uses one of your old graphics.

 

Also, with regard to Ben and his names: I have no trouble figuring out that it's him. TGM just doesn't seem remotely similar.

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Quote:
Originally written by Aceron:
Drakefyre: Back then, people didn't have to register to be on the forums, so they could post under any name they wanted, and people were always pretending to be someone else. :p

(And if you think that's bad, you should have seen the admin controls on that forum. Its a wonder it survived with as little moderation as it did.)
I know - Caligula and I were fairly large culprits, but the open IP address made it easy to tell the difference. And I had a board of my own - the admin controls for all ITW boards left a lot to be desired.
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I seem to remember my own entry to the community was to make an appeal for flying toaster graphics for a scenario, which Drakey kindly supplied. That scenario never saw the light of day, and looking back at the unfinished version, I'm very glad it didn't. Since then, I've dipped in and out of the community, in more or less alignment with having a busy schedule.

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(Never change your e-mail on an ironycentral board to a nonexistant address.)

 

Anyway, BoE bothers my conscience too much to play it for long. But every once in a while the combination of grid-based castles, statistics, fantasy worlds, custom graphics (I draw my own PCs), exploration and artifact hunting gets the better of me.

 

This week's party consisted of Laen, Fen, Prout, Gamina, Eris and Astire. They went through about 10 scenarios, concluding with another failed attempt to finish The Lost Expedition, for the 4th freakin' time. Of course, at level 50, they were serously uber, with Laen and Fen doing around 150-200 damage per attack and Astire doing anywhere from 120 to 300, the rest doing 100-150 except for Eris. With attacks like that, who needs magic? I'd go without it if the darn game (and darn scenario designers) didn't require you to have Unlock and Move Mountains all the time. They also had anywhere from 60 to 140 armor each, which is pretty ridiculous. I advise everyone to avoid Bandits 2.

 

I still never found any items of infinite light. I fought the urge to make my own scenario, just so I could include one.

 

Anyway, last night the overwhelming references to demonic stuff got to me and I deleted it again. Byebye BoE. At least for now. I've discovered that you can practiacally play it registered with a few minor adjustments to the download from Spiderweb's site, so deleting it doesn't always help much. Maybe Jeff should just release the source code. It'd be fun to mess around with. :p

 

Oh yeah, things I hate: Special item NPCs, Scenarios that give you tons of overpowered weapons and armor, but no "useful" items, Bookshelves with specials that teach everyone spells, scenarios that kill the party in an effort to remove their inventory (which deletes items, is handled ungracefully, and doesn't take multi-charge Life Saving items into consideration), and scenarios that REQUIRE the Unlock, Move Mountains, or Word of Recall spells to be completed, since I much prefer parties with no magic users whatsoever. The items they find along the way provide all the strategic advantage I need.

 

I still have no idea how to get out of the cell in Shadow of the Stanger. I cheated. I hacked my party's coordinates and landed on the other side of the bars.

 

I also hacked a number of scenarios with custom item graphics, so that I'd get to keep the items afterwards. I can't stand losing my hard-won items when the scenario ends.

 

So, that's about it. The only people here who I remember are Drakefyre, Dragyn Bob, and Stareye. Don't know who the rest of you people are. Byebye.

 

And Luz is my new favorite BoE artist.

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Wow, Aceron. I find that pretty revelant to me except for the god party and deleting BoE every once in a while. Scenario designers make scecarios that require magic such as Unlock and Move Mountains because they see no reason that somebody would want to play it without magic, I think.

 

As for the Anama contest, remember that the Anama still use magic, just not the mage variety. However, if such a contest was started, I would have trouble finding time to design a scenario because of school, homework, etc. I hope to complete at least one scenario in my lifetime, though. :rolleyes: Oh yeah, and we'd a good name for it. (The contest, I mean.)

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I'm a devout Christian, and BoE doesn't bother me at all. Okay, there's 'demons'. But they aren't anything like real demons. You can hack them to death. In Quests of the Spheres, there's one who died from natural causes. I think the scenario Demon provides a pretty good explanation of the BoE demon, which shares pretty much nothing with real demons apart from the name.

 

I think there is often a tendency among Christians to be over-sensitive about anything spiritual or supernatural. We all accept violence is a bad thing, but that doesn't mean Ben-Hur or The Passion of the Christ are inherently evil films. And given that we believe that a supernatural realm actually exists, one is forced to wonder why so many Christians are so opposed to anyone actually dealing with it. I know some people who think Lord of the Rings is evil - and it was written by a devout Catholic.

 

Anyhow, I'm just saying that there's no argument against using Demons in art that really stands up to logical thought. Because they're evil? See above point about the Passion and Ben-Hur. Spiritualism? For Christians, surely the spiritual world is just another set of facts. Besides, I'm sure Aceron and others wouldn't consider Frank Peretti's "This Present Dankness" to be morally bankrupt. Gross inaccuracy? While the vast majority of representations of demons (including and especially the BoE one) are incredibly inaccurate, so are Disney films when it comes to animals, or just about any movie regarding violence.

 

One argument that could stand up pretty well is "It's wrong to glorify evil". I can see this one as a strong defensible position. However, BoE doesn't do this. The Demons are the baddies.

 

Anyhow, This is all pretty much irrelevant to me, as I see Blades demons as purely ficticious inventions that only share a name with the actual things that everyone worrries about - much like the 'priests' in BoE.

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I was talking about conscience, not religion. And whatsmore, I was talking about my conscience, not yours. But if you want to get into religion, here's all I have to say about that:

 

Deuteronomy 18:10-12

Psalms 11:5

 

If you think its okay because its "just a game", well, that's your problem. Bye.

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Hmm. For anyone who's lazy, from the RSV because I don't have a KJV handy:

 

"There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before you." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

 

"The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates him that loves violence." (Psalms 11:5)

 

No magic and no violence... I think that still leaves The Election okay, among the few that I've played. Surely there are more puzzle-based scenarios.

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Quote:
Originally written by The Great 4808:
Wow, Aceron. I find that pretty revelant to me except for the god party and deleting BoE every once in a while. Scenario designers make scecarios that require magic such as Unlock and Move Mountains because they see no reason that somebody would want to play it without magic, I think.
That's because, statistically speaking, most BoE players are neither psychotic fundies nor the children of such.

Aceron, do you have anything of merit to say anymore other than "I used to be important, I know some people here! also magic and demons are evil"?

If you don't want to deal with such material, play Civilization or something instead of playing games in a genre that includes it as a matter of course.

In fact.

Quote:
Originally written by Aceron:
I used to be someone! Pay attention to me! Please? I'm so lonely...
Fixed your typo.
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Djur, no need to attack him.

 

How do you seperate conscience from religion? I can't. My religion is central to my beliefs about what is right and wrong. If I believed that God didn't exist and that we all evolved, I'd believe that there was no right or wrong, and I wouldn't feel guilty about anything. But then, maybe that's just me.

 

Obviously, you disagree with me over a few points. That's okay. I was simply putting forward my view on the issue, seeing as I'm usually the voice of conservatism around here - I've been involved in gosh knows how many debates over on the General board about homosexuality, abortion, animal rights and whatnot.

 

I wasn't in any way trying to justify witchcraft. We both agree that's a bad thing. My point was simply that an artistic representation of a bad thing is not necessarily a bad thing in of itself - citing the Passion once again, we watch the Son of God as he is brutally murdered. That's a bad thing - doesn't make it an evil movie.

 

Regarding the second passage, I presume you're making the point that violence is bad, and BoE involves a lot of virtual killing, so BoE is bad. It's an understandable point of view. Personally, it's like a chess game for me - I enjoy it for the tactics. I very much doubt anyone does enjoy it for the 'violence', such as there is - there's a million 'better' games for that. There are one or two scenarios that seem to delight in the gore and have detailed descriptions of violent scenes - New Life and Burned to the Ground come to mind. I don't enjoy these, or pretend that there's nothing wrong with them. But that doesn't make the medium bad.

 

Anyway, you have your own opinions, and I'd be suprised if anything I said changed your mind at all. I'd be willing to continue this discussion if you are. Regardless, nice to have you drop by again. You could stick around, you know. However you feel about BoE itself, you can still chat with those who do play it.

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A bit of both, really. Being a farmer means I'm constantly confronted with the harsh realities. I've seen thousands of animals die, because of humans, because of other animals, and sometimes because of their own stupidity. My religion and worldview shapes what I think and feel about these things.

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