Necris Omega

 

I want to try lutefisk and hákari at some point, for a certain value of want, but I haven't yet.

 

... I was going to say, coming from the extremely Scandinavian portions of the mid-west, I wouldn't normally be exposed to much "weird" or "ethnic" foods. Then this reminded me of the bizarre, sometimes literally, intentionally putrid foodstuffs our viking fore-bearers "enjoyed."

I can't recommend lutefisk I'm afraid.

Unrelated, but I've also sampled some reptile meat at one point - Gila monster and rattlesnake. I can't recommend them either.

Some people live and breathe programming, but when the going gets tough... I definitely can understand where he's coming from.

UI and graphics can get particularly nasty, mobile support can be a complete mess, and when you start jumping platforms... I've had a taste of having to singleton a company like Spiderweb's technical sector. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, honestly.

I guess I never really could care much about Kyass simply because... We all knew how that was bound to end. You work really really hard, pour all your efforts into that cause, and years later an invading vengeance army slam-dances the whole thing apart like the Incredible Hulk at a hoedown.

Still, I did appreciate the addition. I wish AII:CS had something that extensive, and I have high hopes for AIII:RW when the time comes.

I'd put AII:CS over A:EftP, but that's largely because a) it's my favorite installment in the series, and some of the changes put in to "bridge the gap between installments" are... extremely objectionable in my eyes.

But other than that, I agree. I think the latest remakes capture an uncanny blend of modern advancement and respect for their origins.

While I do agree that Avernum 4 & 6 were the weakest of the series due to the abrupt style change, I think it worked for Avernum 5.

That said, I do kinda hope that when Jeff goes back and redoes those because technology has passed them by, he throws up his hands and gives them an "outdoor" world. Avernum just doesn't work when it's compressed like that.

The problem I have with the Stormcloaks is that... If the Empire couldn't beat the Thalmor, what makes them think Skyrim alone could? ... Granted, the Reguards held them off to a point, but the Thalmor seem like the sort of thing you need an international coalition to overcome, rather than piecemeal resistance.

Other than that, and the racist undertones, though, I'm pretty pro-Stormcloak. As far as I'm concerned, the notion that Talos is a god was cemented in Oblivion, and even if they don't like my furry/scaley/elven self, they didn't actively try to lop off my head. Kinda hard not to take that personally.

I don't know... however it's handled going forward, I just hope Elder Scrolls VI either puts dealing with the Thalmor once and for all first, or takes place after that's happened in some satisfying fashion.

I think by and large a portion of the Monroe Doctrine was an attempt to limit spillover of Euro-Asian conflicts to the Americas. Granted, this had happened to an immense extent by the time said doctrine was put into place (see "The American Revolution") but as history would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, the far, far, far worst was yet to come.

Strange that only a couple decades later our "LEAVE US ALONE!!11" policy would be completely subverted as we put a proverbial gun to Japan's head and demanded they knock off their own isolationism.

I think the idea of Kingdoms has had better press simply because they're generally less "invasive" (a kingdom is generally recognized as a long standing country with a unified history/culture), and their leadership is generally less... overwrought? Empires always encompass disparate cultures, usually in very lopsided arrangements. Emperors are far, far more likely to set themselves up as outright gods, where as kings have more of a track record of stopping at divine right, not direct divinity.

Yes, there have been a plethora of truly despicable kingdoms, and yes, but "empire" is so much more prone to widespread abuses and general evil that the term just leverages itself to "evil" with greater ease. Add in a literary propensity to root for the underdog for drama's sake, and... well, it's easier to count the number of NOT evil imperial powers in fiction than otherwise.

And even if it's not underground prison, it's the Empire that's about to chop your head off, like in Skyrim.

To be honest, I always found it refreshing that the Empire in the Elder Scrolls wasn't inherently evil like in seemingly 99% of every other invocations of that term in fiction.

... And a whole lot of non-fiction references, come to think of it.

One other thing to put Avernum squarely in Bethesda's court is... well, the concept. Think about how so, so many of their games begin.

"So the game begins sealed away undergrou--"

"Sold!"

"... I was saying, the game begins sealed away in an underground priso--"

"DOUBLE SOLD!"

I mean, I remember playing Dragon Age: Origins and being impressed with the team dynamic. Maybe BioWare could do something good with Avernum.

 

Although, of course, Geneforge would be perhaps an easier fit. Lots of opportunity for real character development, factions, they could probably come up with an AI that would be equally as good as just controlling your own creations... I've always thought that Geneforge had the best character development anyway.

Eh, I hear "team dynamic" and immediately go to Avadon when it comes to Spiderweb games. Avernum is really in it's own, kind of "Legacy" class by modern standards with it's multiple character customization set, and "party AS the character" mindset. I'm not sure what there is that it can be compared to off the top of my head.

Actually, no, I take that back - the closest thing I can think of in that realm in "recent" times is Legend of Grimrock. But that's being intentionally retro so I don't know if that counts.

I think we've just been throwing up studios which most closely fit the Spiderweb Gameplay mold. And, well to be honest...?

Really, this whole idea came to me while in Skyrim's Blackreach - just looking around at all that subterranean glory, I couldn't help but imagine Avernum so deeply rendered.

The gameplay wouldn't fit at all, but I still think it would be cool to see.

i guess obsidian doesn't really count as an aaa studio, since they'd be out of business by now if not for kickstarter

 

still probably the best answer, though. as relatively-big-name studios go they're the closest to working in the same territory jeff does

Yeah... maybe "AAA" is a little too restrictive.

I suppose I could have said "anything bigger than just Jeff and Mariann" but that might have the opposite problem of being too broad to have any real meaning. :x

Still... Maybe Larian? I've bashed them before, but I'd certainly take them over Obsidian.

Let's pretend that the head/owner of some ultra high-end studio finds Spiderweb, falls stark raving in love with its games, and floods Jeff with money until he either sells the rights or drowns like Scrooge McDuck with a cramp.

Who'd be the best choice for what series?

If a new computer is getting only 40Mbps over wifi, it's probably the router not the adapter. Does your router support 802.11n?

It was actually replaced with a Tri-band model.

When I say "only," that's compared to other machines on the network, which got almost twice the speed.

Also, changing from the internal to the dongle upped the rate by 4x. Maybe I'm just sitting in a dead(ish) zone somehow...

Maxes out at about 40mbps. I should get a new wireless adapter - the one built into this machine is pretty weak.

I'm rarely "cutting edge" on these things (like I said - my last machine had only 8 gigs) but ideally this should last me a good long while.

Unless technological innovation and development stop, a circumstance that would likely come about only at the fall of civilization at this point, that memory will be used.

You know - Eventually.

What are you planning on doing with 64gb of memory?

I was considering getting into 3D modeling. The scales I work with in only 2D were enough to overload my system.

... Would also help if I used a program that wasn't put out at the turn of the millennium, but never mind.

Besides, anything in technology that's overkill now will inevitably be insufficient sooner than expected. Even if Moore's Law has been slipping, "only 64 gigs?" will come. Look at it this way - WIndows 10 Home is actually addressed for double that. Pro and up? 512 gigabytes of RAM.

Anyone needing that much RAM is probably a supervillain.

Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor (4x 4.00GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - was running an early generation i5

64 GB [16 GB x4] DDR4-2400 Memory Module - 8x the memory I was running previously

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti - 6GB - EVGA SuperClocked - Single Card - replacement for an ATI Radeon HD 6800 which self-immolated in protest of being replaced

256GB SanDisk Z400S SSD - 2x what I was running previously

2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive - 2x what I was running previously

Windows 10 Home - Up from Windows 7

It's a significant upgrade! ... except for, you know, the "going to deliver Putin some bad news" download speed I got goin' on here...

It's fast! And powerful! And liquid cooled! And has a high end graphics card to replace the one that burnt out and had me performing emergency surgery at 11:30 pm at night! And isn't running an obsolete OS! And has an awesome case with doofy lighting that looks like it could have come from Lo Pan's hide out, but I still love it! And... is horribly, horribly bottle necked with a wimpy connection behind just so, so many software downloads and updates...

... Oh well.

It's still awesome.

Avernum may be one of the more extreme cases of exile, but you have to give Geneforge credit - the "creator, creation" relationship is still pretty unexplored, particularly when compared with the idea of banishment. Even then it's mostly relegated to deities, or "elder races" or the like, not contemporary political powers. As Shapers, they're not just the ruling political force - they hold a position generally reserved for Gods and the extremely godlike.

I guess Battle Alphas are one of the more "generic" monsters Geneforge has to offer, but really... it's a high-end biogolem. In most settings, a generic golemn in and of itself is a big deal. In the midst of all of Geneforge's menagerie it's easy for that fact to get lost in the shuffle, but overall the Battle Alpha is still pretty unique.

But in A3 you don't see much horror from the Empire, nor do you hear about it. Which could mean that Avernites just have an axe to grind, except the beginning narration of A1 makes it clear that it's almost arbitrary, as do many of the NPCs you meet. A5 doesn't address it much one way or the other that I can recall.

 

—Alorael, who does think there's some self-evident problem with banishing enough people to populate a kingdom, and then having those people be apparently decent and hard-working enough to support the existence of that kingdom, in internal peace and without any rebellion, for years. The closest thing is the Abyss, and it's relatively small and still not all that bad. That's a demonstration that the Empire was gleefully throwing away productive members of society.

The only thing that springs to mind on the subject of A3 indictments of the Empire are the few Nephilim encounters that reference how the Empire has gone all PETA on them. Even that is less a "omg, the Empire is being terrible!' and more, "omg, the Empire has done terrible things!"

Gale does seem pretty ridiculously, murderously corrupt, but that seems less a reflection on the Empire as a whole and more a local problem.

The Black Fortress fiasco also hinted at some political jockeying, but that's hardly the hardcore, Caligula-esque evil I think the previous installments hint at.

"I have a genetically mutated exploding cow made of magic. Your argument is invalid." ~ Geneforge

I'd actually argue that Exile(/Avernum) is the most unique world Spiderweb created. Geneforge's mechanics don't really stand out any more than Exile's; they are all traditional fantasy mechanics with different names, and the manage-your-recruitable-or-custom-units-(probably-monsters) genre has been going strong since the mid 90's. The detailed backstory and atmosphere of life in the caves, and the societies that emerged there, IMO separate Avernum more from standard fantasy worlds than Geneforge's shapers and creations. In both cases though the setting of the original game is a lot more unique than what we get later on -- Geneforge, of course, gets a lot more humans, while Avernum gets the surface and post-peace Avernum, and in both cases it's more Monty Hall fantasy and modern grit and less of a unique world.

Eh... I'd say while Avernum might be the most extensive and detailed, Genefore still beats it soundly in terms of conceptual uniqueness. Avernum's pretty straight up fantasy with some unique elements, but Geneforge is this conceptually divergent sci-fi hybrid that I at least have basically nothing to compare it to.

I'm not saying Avernum isn't my favorite Spiderweb series - I'll defend it to my dying breath. But really, how much of it, if it hasn't been done before, has at least been done since? Avernum, while still very unique compared to what I'd consider "main stream" (Dragon Age, Forgotten Realms, ect.) is still awash in many staples of the genre.

I just think that if you had to compile a list of things that are truly unique, or even largely unique to Avernum, that list would be a whole lot shorter than what Geneforge has to offer.

Geneforge can be clunky, but it is by far the most unique series Spiderweb has ever put together. For a lot of people, "weird" has value in and of itself.

I'unno. It took me a long while to warm up to the series, and I honestly am not sure I ever actually finished it, but the more I look back, the fonder I think of it.