Necris Omega

Avernum's been a 4 party standard since... Well literally Avernum's existed. I honestly don't think I'd want any fewer characters, less I miss out on a potentially fun build. Some days I actually miss Exile's 6 person party for all the room it gave you to mess around with builds n' stuff. Even if your dual mace wielding nephil archer wasn't the Smashy Legolas you'd hoped, you've two other melee characters to fall back on.

Originally Posted By: Jerakeen I suppose it's too much to expect that election procedures could ever be standardized across the country. Yeah, probably... though it would be an excellent step towards not only preventing fraud, but the possibility of online voting.

I think the world will end just shortly after this changes to "OMG!!! D:" Then we'll all have seconds to curse the mad scientists who've doomed us all before being consumed by a negatively charged mass of strange matter, or some other exotic quantum phenomena that wasn't supposed to happen or be possible.

I for one enjoy Jonathan Coulton's version of by Lenard Cohen

Given the downright legend making levels of disapproval people have for congress at this point, I see the Republican's wining simply because there are fewer of them to lose - at least in the case of the Senate...

While I try not to be so terrifically closed minded, and I am something of a social conservative in many respects, I cannot foresee myself voting for any of the Republican nominees regardless of who gets on the final ballot. I am no dyed in the wool Democrat, nor would I ever be, but when the only alternative is a party I still haven't forgiven from their last presidency (not to mention the shenanigans they pulled in my home state)... We need an alternative vote system, that's all I gotta say. Well, okay, I could go on, but I won't.

Even if all the infrastructure, funding, staff, and other logistics were in place to make it work, from what I've seen MMO can't really encompass the depth and detail of a true Spiderweb game. Even if Jeff COULD develop and run an "EverAvernum" or a "World of Geneforge", it really wouldn't be the same, couldn't do the originals credit, and aggravate all us fuddy-duddies who like our niche indie RPGs just the way they are dagnabbit.

The greatest compliment I've ever received? My Advanced AI teacher considered my work in that class, one he described as "post graduate level" deserving of offering me an independent study. Sadly, I had to turn him down as I was graduating sooner than such a program would reach completion, but I'll never forget it.

Originally Posted By: daily Grind The alternate-universe years have blunted Erika's edge a bit. But hopefully they've honed her skill, and maybe this time she can even make it through the endgame of A3 in an alternate ending. —Alorael, who means she can make it through in a way other than not participating. That's boring and rather atypical for her. I always thought the absolute best way to make the Original Avernum's fresh for us old timers would be to completely twist the plot around at major intervals just to really throw us off. Imagine if Avernum: Ruined World suddenly decided the dragons were the ones behind the plagues after everything was said and done. Yeah, new flashy graphics and game mechanics are all fine and good, but sucker punching the "I've seen this all before" crowd right in the plot basket would shake things up more than anything. ... not gonna happen, sure, but it's fun to think about.

I could easily be wrong, as I've a penchant for being wrong, but wasn't one of the issues Jeff brought up with the next potential Avadon being a desire to remove the gender-specific class restrictions?

Hm, a... fun Golem Factory? Now that'd be a challenge to design, I think. By it's very fundamental and even optional nature, it really seems more of a challenge dungeon than a fun one - like Redbeard, but placed more appropriately. Then you start digging into "fun vs. challenge" and how much of one = the other... it's just a messy quandary. I'unno. It's been so long, I can hardly remember my own reaction to the original - Was the Factory in Avernum more entertaining/less frustrating than the one from Exile? It'd be a point in Jeff's favor if he was going in the right direction.

Jeff's just one programmer vs. an army, nay, a LEGION of hackers - people who'll do it, not necessarily because they want a free copy of the game, but because the idea is like climbing a mountain. They do it because they can and because it's there. Jeff himself has written extensively on the subject, and for all intents and purposes he seems to have made peace with the inevitable. His goals now are more making his system more convenient for people to purchase rather than elaborate anti-piracy schemes, which is why he's kiboshed the "send me your code and I'll send you the key" idea because that was a hassle/too complicated for some customers. Reports on the success of Avadon are very positive, so I'm certain he'll continue the trend. Really, as long as Jeff's games are good enough to buy and get enough exposure, he'll do just fine, piracy be damned.

Plus, if you were to limit the amount of potential content to remark on, that would invariably reduce the amount of content you respond to, and thus your rate of posting would sink.

... did I miss something? Since when did Spiderweb release... TRAILERS for their games?

Better one's patience than one's appendix I always say. As to text-only games... eh, I've played a few, but this is an issue the modern state of gaming and I agree on. Yeah, it'll have it's hardcore, diehard fans, and more power to them. Me? I'm just not one of them.

... maybe staffing a ship with fat people means they have to waste less energy on any sort of artificial gravity system?

That's fine. I'd rather wait and end up with a Hawthorne fight that fun and engaging, rather than another Redbeard, which was like gnawing through a cinder block.

Well the lack of gravity does promote muscle dystrophy, so while a person in space may not necessarily be jigglier, they will overtime become squishier.

To a devoted fan, a round of good acting is something to write home about. To an experienced actor/tress who may do far more than mere voices, it's just a paycheck he/she doesn't have to wear a costume and/or makeup for. Then again, that might not necessarily be nothing to write home about either. I can only imagine how Tim Curry must have felt going into voice acting after roles like It and Darkness.

You know you've done something right when the name of your company comes to define an entire subgenre. That said, while I'm all for the Bioware model, I still think the classical approach of the old Avernums has its place too. Call it nostalgia-bias if you want, but I find that not all "modernization" is necessarily a good thing. To find the classic "virtues" of RPGs gone by, you have to either go back to old titles, or hope an indie company like Spiderweb puts out something like, well, this. Maybe. Not being of the Apple persuasion, I won't know how "classic" these re-re-releases are for sure some time. But I have my hopes.

Eh, isolation discourages rebellion. Also group think and bandwagonry.

Sounds more like you're looking for something similar to what D3 is purported to do. The only randomness you really get in Avernum's been the classics - Drops, Random Wondering Monsters, and "Rolls" to see how awesome/terrible you are. I'm not sure it really needs anything more elaborate than that, and I don't see it happening this time around. Maybe in A2CS or A3RW Jeff'll have the mechanics down well enough to introduce something to that effect, however. This time it's a lot of fine tuning a new(ish) engine.

Maybe they could play a bigger role, however, like perhaps instead of mere holidays we get entire festivals, or something. Definitely more prior notice and explanation would be nice too. Especially in the case of High Alignment, when every blade turns from broadsword into Bazookasword...

By science or religion, we're all doomed... Actually, no, I take that back, as I don't really have a good grasp on whether or not some of the far Eastern religions have their own "apocalypse". Buddhapocalypse? ...

So this morning my computer starts up with a sound the likes of which made every neuron in my brain associated with computer hardware scream in tandem. Taking off the case's side panel, I find that, much to my repeating dismay, the fan on my video card has died. Again. Now, I've already been thinking of replacing my current machine (or at least the majority of it's grotesquely outdated parts... so the majority of it) but this really takes the cake. I was on the fence about a new video card along with a motherboard, CPU, memory, case, and OS what with having recently replaced the fan and installed a new heat sync on it. Now, however, that fence has summarily collapsed. As I type this, I've a floor fan pointed directly into my open case, holding my Radeon 4850 HD at a working 50° C whilst my files back up. I've nothing running to tax it, but I really don't see myself running, say, Skyrim in a few weeks on this poor crippled card. Thus, sadly, it needs to go. SO then... between the two titans of video cards, what's the suggestion? I've worked with both and run both brands to the melting point (my nVidia at the time had no temp. sensing fail safe to shut it down, so it literally WAS a melting point) and can't profess a strong preference.