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Everything posted by Nephil Thief
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Anyone know where the Unicorn Graveyard dungeon is? I've never been able to find it.
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I didn't actually expect a sympathetic response, or any response really... Err, thank you. Very much. I mean it. But it was my fault.
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Whoops, right you are! Fixing momentarily. Edit: on an unrelated note, how does almost everyone here grow their hair so long and pretty?! I always lose patience with it before it's even past my ears.
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7EgLkt64WtabUV1UWdTMWFXUXM/view?usp=sharing I don't know where I'd be without cats. [Edit: fixed link, whoops]
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So... I realize I'm still a bit of a stranger here, but... I want to apologize for the various times I've hijacked threads on social privilege, etc. with my own whining and personal issues. That was really not cool. I should have given people space and been respectful, instead of seeking reassurance at others' expense. Mea culpa. I'll do better.
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It's been a long, long time since I watched television... Let's see... Earth: Final Conflict was good while it had an interestingly ambiguous protagonist, then they got a new guy who was a total Mary Sue. Sigh. Enterprise and Star Trek: Voyager, ugh, awful. Star Trek: The Next Generation, some very good episodes, far too many awful ones. Notice a pattern? Star Trek: Deep Space 9 didn't feel like Star Trek, and I think that was a very good thing. Firefly, hmm, I have mixed feelings. When it's good, it's good. But a lot of times, it falls into the very stereotypes it supposedly tries to subvert. See the ending of Jaynestown for a good example of this, or the whole character of Jubal Early. Who is John Doe was good and creepy until the title character discovered martial arts and went all Mary Sue. Sigh. More recent stuff? Well, I once saw five minutes of The Walking Dead. Most of it was some huge musclebound guy beating up three women at once, followed by them getting rescued by another huge musclebound dude, with loud rock music in the background. Because zombies aren't gritty enough I guess? Anyway yeah, how about no thanks.
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Euroclydon - that sounds a lot like some of the stuff I went through, after I dropped out of college. And am stilll going through, really. That sense of not knowing who I am is familiar. Likewise the apathetic contemplation of suicide. Please do stay with us. I know it's hard to see, but you are worth something. *hugs*
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Wow. Sorry! I was taking it as a given that the US skews way to the right, but didn't realize how far to the authoritarian right we skew even by current UK standards.
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https://www.politica...-7.88&soc=-6.77 Economic Left/Right: -7.88 Social Liberterian/Authoritarian: -6.77 For whatever that's worth. My answers on some things would skew more authoritarian by the standards of a multiple-choice test. To be honest, that is in part from observing my own lack of scruples at times; I think I'd be doing more good in the world if I were mandated to, rather than just on-and-off encouraged. And likewise, less ill if some of my worse habits were actually illegal. (Not an excuse, mind. But.) [Edit: for some reason I find it amusing, given the above, that my current forum title is "Mercenary."] Oh, and on a different and rather depressing note: https://www.politica...-7.88&soc=-6.77 I'd heard the UK's left kind of imploded last year (and read all about it on a very acerbic blog), but... wow.
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http://i.imgur.com/Vum0h9u.png These days I use Linux exclusively... not so much because I like it, as because there is no alternative. (And I'm not letting you see my desk. There's so much stuff on it that the bottom layers of paper are starting to compost.)
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[Edit: deleted, thought better of it. Dumping one's existential nausea on a public forum is also unethical. Sorry, all.]
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- philosophy
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Classic BoE editor CPU churning when editing terrain
Nephil Thief replied to Prince of Kitties's topic in Blades of Exile
Found the problem! Finally! Additional Features menu -> uncheck "Terrain Animations Play" -> no more CPU churn. I would suggest this feature be turned off by default, but I'd bet it doesn't cause nearly as much resource usage in the cross-platform port. -
This scenario is like a James Bond novel written by C.S. Lewis. No, really. It derives a lot from Christian concepts, and even from Christian conspiracy theories. The thing is that, while the latter would probably strike me as toxic in a modern setting, it seems entirely appropriate for epic fantasy; especially this epic fantasy, set as it is in a vast bureaucratic empire. The messianic story fits okayish; the creepy conspiracy notes fit like a glove. Or, rather, a steel gauntlet. My main criticism is that there's too much of the messianic and too little of the conspiracy, especially towards the end. The scenery is great, too. The city of Keptus feels legitimately old. The Prazac Dam all but hums with modern energy. The Spine really does feel like a beautiful-but-dangerous mountain landscape. For the limited scope of a 2D game, this is an impressive feat. I would say this scenario definitely deserves a BEST rating, rough edges notwithstanding. Also I kind of hope the author found a career in writing or game design or something, because he has got some serious talent.
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Ah, my apologies for the redundancy then. Also, seriously, thanks for porting it.
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Just something that needs to be noted: the above depends on the MSVC++ 2013 library. That version of the library will not install under Wine. Linux users will need a Windows partition or virtual machine - probably Windows Vista SP2 or later. I don't know if MSVC++ 2013 can install on XP, either.
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Just an idea for the new scenario format... It would be cool to have integration with a distributed content tracker, such as Git or Mercurial. Instead of just a tarball with files, a scenario could be a Git or HG repo in a tarball; while working on it, the scenario editor would untar it somewhere. Or maybe it could be untarred before being played/worked on. Or something like that. It might be a bit late for this, but it would be nice to be able to track one's development history on a scenario, etc.
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KITTIES ARE BEING FLUFFY TOGETHER YAAAAAAYYYY (Cagney is on the left, Lacey on the right)
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@msazad: and that is why I wish nation-states would just go away already. "The ends justify the means" will be the end of humanity some day. I don't care which government it is, I honestly don't care, blowing people to smithereens because they're stuck in the wrong place is wrong. @Slartibus: agreed. The problem is that figuring out what to do can be really hard, when every action you take may damage someone. Even people who try very hard to do the right thing will not necessarily be effectual about it. @Goldengirl: ironically I think you're basically saying what I was trying to say, but more coherently (and with less white-boy rage). And @everyone - I'm done here. I can't move in these circles. I try hard, but at the end of the day I'm just another selfish human being, and my pretentions of being "progressive" or "an ally" are just that - pretentions. I wish I could be like you guys, but right now I need to focus on functioning day-to-day and not getting suicidal again. For now, so long. P.S. @Goldengirl You're awesome for asking all the hard questions. I hope you succeed at... everything, really. @Lilith I know I don't know you, like, at all, but I have a lot of respect for you. Seriously, best of luck. I wish I had your integrity.
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I rather expected that analogy... I guess what bugs me about this stuff, is the combination of a) "If you're not wholly with us, you're against us" and "Violence is sometimes necessary to get things done" which both have their points, but in combination read to me as "If you're not wholly with us, we might consider you an appropriate target for violence." In the US at least, radical politics has killed far fewer people than reactionary politics, so I guess I might be being a little alarmist here... I don't know. I guess I want to see some acknowledgement that even people with messed up opinions are not irrideemable. Whatever. OTOH, half the times I come home from work, I see homeless people sleeping just outside Bank of America's gilded marble doors. I don't know, I probably shouldn't have opened this discussion...
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I'm not sure I should post this, but this forum seems to be full of highly educated political radicals... So here goes. We know the stability of day to day life for middle class people, particularly middle class white male people like me, is heavily dependent on being white, male, and middle class. And we want to do something about that, right? I mean, I want to. Or so I'm inclined to think. But then the question becomes "How much are you willing to give up?" and I'm afraid to lose my privilege, or at least that's what everyone says, and I'm pretty sure it's true to some extent. But. Let me post a sample of someone else's post here: But wait! By the same token, my tax money funded the mass murder of civilians in Iraq. Every time I buy from a US based company that pays taxes (and some do, believe it or not) I'm supporting war crimes. And yes, I know this. A lot of people know this. But you try not paying taxes. You'll wind up in prison, and you know what US prisons are like. The point there, though, are those two words: "dirt bag." By that logic, probably over 50% of American citizens qualify as some variety of "dirt bag." You know what happens when you declare large swaths of people to be fair game? Go on, guess. It's happened plenty before. But, you might say, human lives in Iraq and Palestine also matter. And of course you'd be right. Does that justify considering 50+% of Americans complicit in war crimes and therefore deserving of punishment? Iraq under Saddam Hussein committed war crimes. Can Iraqis who lived through that be considered complicit, and therefore effectively evil? If you completely throw out the concept of mens rea while maintaining that punishment is necessary, you need to be aware of what that entails. To be candid: there are people who I love who are not very privileged, and there are people who I love who are quite privileged. I don't want to see any of them die. Not by revolution, not by the jackboots and billy-clubs of reactionaries, not by anything. I know politics-as-usual is already killing people - lots of people. People who might also be someone Iove, but for the luck of the draw. I do care. But I'm not going to put my faith in a revolution. And if you tell me that that makes me a reactionary, and therefore a bad person... Then you are entirely missing the point.
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I'm really sorry, Lilith. That must be hard like I can't imagine. I've seen other people get messed over by absurd immigration policies as well, though not usually to such an extent. I'd say it's definitely worth caring, but also worth recognizing that covering every single base is more or less impossible. But that is purely IMO.
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Wow. That's horrible. I'm sorry. I would have thought Australia was better about that, too. I hope things get better for her (and for you).
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I agree with this, but also feel that it runs into some practical problems for people living under a greedist system. Ideally the state would be competent and humane and actually deal with this stuff, but it isn't and doesn't, and that's not likely to change for some time. (Though gods know, better people than me are trying to change that.)
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The problem is that this really hinges heavily on the definitions of "dirt bag" and "holding people accountable." The intersection of "bad person" being too broad, and "punishment" being too harsh, is lots and lots and lots of people being harmed in the supposed name of justice; which gets you right back to square one. So, I'm curious how you define those terms. What kind of accountability is warranted? If most people are criminals, and crime requires punishment, what do most people deserve as punishment?
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I think almost all human beings are complicit in evil. On the other hand a) Dedicating your life to having zero negative impact is ultimately less helpful than accepting some negative impact, and trying to do more good by more people despite it. I realize that's very hard to stomach, and also very hard to live up to, but I think it's the only way to go. (Not that I do a particularly good job at it, mind...) There are many degrees of "being complicit," and not all of them should qualify as crimes against humanity. c) Likewise, I think there's a need to differentiate between "complicit in evil" and "deserves punishment." Especially when "punishment" necessarily consists of something harmful to a person. Seriously, I think the idea that justice == vengeance is incredibly dangerous; taken to its logical conclusion, everyone alive would deserve some kind of punishment. A healthy society needs a concept of forgiveness, as well as one of judgment. Re charities, I know it's popular to point out (a la Oscar Wilde) that keeping the poor alive won't change the system that keeps them poor, but, but... it's still keeping them alive, and that counts for something. Also IMO, whether a charity qualifies as abusive depends on its practices and its efficacy, not on some ideological constant that all charities are bad. (Sorry, not trying to be rude here; the Wilde thing is a sore point with me.) Anyway, that's my thoughts on the matter. [Disclaimer: I have clinical depression and OCD. The above may contain some rationalization in the interests of my own day-to-day survival. You have been warned.]
