Owenmoz

Well, all intros I've seen say they did. And they show really cute, small fyoras and lizard-like creatures in intro and ending pics.

Imagine a shaper circus with battle alphas fioras and other beasties doing tricks. And being taught how to make a proper bow. Must look amazing.

But then creatiom rights and stuff. Serviles might find it demeaning. But doing tricks is markedly less tiresome and dangerous than building stuff. Not to mention its fun.

But yeah. Pet fioras were possibly the cutest things in the whole series

Ok, I'm just gonna say now that I'm sick of listening to people who haven't played half the Geneforge saga argue about things that depend on the half they haven't played. G1 and G2 have by far the most exposition about the basics of shaping. The later games spend little time on those issues because they assume, correctly, that they will be old hat for most players. Play G1, especially, then argue this point.

 

To be honest i have been playing geneforge for more than ten years(2003 i think) and played the whole series multiple times. I also thought it was a question of game mechanics. Only notable things, were i thought ammount of essence in the player didn't exactly mean shapers had different ammounts of essence but simply it was the ammount of essence a shaper of your standing/level is able to control but then addopted creations in g2 sorta contradict me on that? And shapers creating stuff in battle was a reference to fading creations i think. So i honestly have no staunch stance on the art of shaping. There are some discrepancies along the line. On stuff like the rebelion, the geneforge, drayks and drakons, shaper history and evolution of creation rights i would agree with your stance of discussing it. But in all honesty, actual shaping isn't that glued to previous games. They only spend considerable time explaining some creations. I think 2 and 3 explain 4rth tier detailedly. 1 explains 1st and 2nd detailedly. All seem to explain drayks. Glaahks and battle alphas recieve least mention i think. in any case, shaping is relativelly easilly discussed with people that haven't played the whole series.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

Wasnt there a mention in geneforge one that essence was like clay? Also due to spirit city and heustess and clois, initial shaping was not dependant on essence but then it wasn't really shaping it was magically altering an allready living being. Go figure the whole shapping thing is more complicated and less set on stone than the rest.

==========================END SPOILER========================

Edit: In short. My personal belief is that shaping by the player isn't limited by essence but by the shaper's ability to control them which grows over time. But the only way to reflect that in the game is through limited essence. I do however wish they could allow you to create more with the marked atribute that they would be rogue at creation as you can't control them. Would be a valuable lesson when you try to create something really powerfull and it kills you. I also believe that the shaper does know how to create stuff during battle it's just that in the earlier games it wouldn't fit. As long term creations are favored, but then there is introduction of charged creations in geneforge 4 that sorta work through the same principles so it has to be mostly due to balancing.

 

 

i mean, you don't have to do a thing just because one person said so. use your own judgement as to what they contribute to the work.

Good point. But im still ways away from completing it. Just measly 20 pages I'll figure if their mention is relevant in time. But as i said i don't think they'll feature in the story even. Its not aimed that way.

The reason why asked is because i want to make a quality book and no better judge of what that is than a reader

 

 

GF5, Unbound. Came up while I was fighting something (I was level 11-12 or something) and I didn't see the creepy ba... son-of-unidentified-father before he made an attack ... and wiped half my creations before I knew what hit them. I got spooked for a month, not just a moment.

 

"Alhoon scares easy!" You may say.

"Alhoon was careless!" You may say.

"Alhoon was unlucky!" You may say.

I am not alone. Oh, no. I am NOT alone.

have shared my terrible, terrible fate. You listen the at 5.22 the haunted laugh of someone that learned what true desperation tastes like.

I have to agree first unbound appearance in g5 was alarming and surprising. I died sometimes before actually realising it was an unbound.

Sooo. I'm assuming i shouldn't include dragons in my book... Well they werent supposed to be included anyway. But nice to know. I'll erase the mention.

Actually i disliked drakons in g2. They were all strikingly rude. 3 and 4 gave dragons personality in all honesty. And yeah humanoid winged lizards seems more acurate than dragons. And lets remember they used essence orbs in the earlier versions. And unlike the traditional dragons these have a human kind of power as opposed to mythical power. And their way of thinking is also very human albeit having their own culture and politics. They don't have the whole alien way of thinking that tolkiens dragons have(i figure that realistic mortality comes in play here. Other dragons are seriously biologically immortal or absurdly long lived. The drakons while though are very very mortal. Naturally scales and innate ability to breathe fire or do basic magic makes them thougher. But one one one drakon versus shaper are around evenly matched i think.)

So all in all. While dragons are a cliche and drakons weren't scary i don't think the idea conveyed was the traditional overplayed thing.

Also agree with alberich about demand of original creatures. They are great. But not necessary for good fantasy.

Like several here, I stayed away from Vlish because I just didn't like them.

 

 

But the one creature that really scared me...was my first glimpse of a Drakon in GF 2.

 

 

He came up to demand tribute when I was still pretty weak and I got spooked just for a moment...one of the best moments in the series.

Come on dude! The first drakon you see in g4 is actually scarier. But as a whole they arent scary. Maybe the concept. With their calm calculative inteligence. Innate magic and ability to shape. Lost that on g5.

I'm not entirelly sure of your situation but im assuming moving out on your own its not an option. You could search for other similar companies or another house in the same company(even if they are as mentioned, irresponsible there is a chance other houses have better conditions and roommates). But my main advice is, don't go to great lenghts and spend money on any form of legal action. In my experience the person with more money and contacts wins. It's not fair but thats how the world works. If you can get someone to do it for you pro bono however it's worth a shot. Last option is what lilith said; publish the pictures online and hope it gets viral. But i hope it doesn't come to that and you find a way to solve the problem.

Not a refference. Will have free time and free internet in a month

Ok. That's a big collection. Jellied calf foot seems intimidating a bit.

So weirdest things i've eaten include: roasted field rat(better than chicken i tell you), cooked snail(i personally don't like it), a kind of grasshoper roasted also known as camarão voador/flying shrimp(really good), vegimite(not my favorite condiment), i don't think there is a kind of sea food i've never eaten and some people find it weird. The one other thing that might be weird i've eaten was caviar( I prefer the red one honestly, black one tastes like butter)

On vegetarian side it includes my two least favorite foods although not really weird. There is, eggplant and watermelon. Can't stand either. But there is plenty of weird food made of veggies, there is a thing called cacana idk the name in english, there is a dish that is famous for being good called mucapata(greengrams rice and coconut milk cooked and mixed together), pumpkin leaves might be considered weird(although still good), casava leaves(i personally dislike it but many others like it), chicory is a bit agressive too. I could go on but the realm of vegetarianism is not free from weird food xD

As for my favorite dish its very hard to pinpoint. I like a lot of food abd travelled a bit and grew up to very different kinds of food so to make a list would be tiresome. But i guess first to come to mind is zambezian chicken. Which is chicken roasted with coconut milk and some other conventional spices, when done right you end up with a well seasoned juicy roasted heavenly delight. Favorite vegetarian dish. Mushroom and cream casserole i think.

 

 

I mean yeah, they were pretty worrying too. They never felt as alien though, probably because they're very reminiscent of beholders from D&D. I got a fair amount of exposure to them through various Baldur's Gate games. Vlish also show up much earlier when I'd feel much weaker.

Ah unfortunatelly i was born too late for baldur's gate. I like other bioware games though.

But yeah flying killer calamary feels too alien. And touché on them appearing much earlier. But i did enjoy killing them.

Also i remember saying most cases here. Lots of stuff are bad in excess. But some are only bad if the being that has them is bad. In their own they are just a tool. I can use a spoon to it i can eat a spoon to rob a bank. The spoon isnt bad(although excess spoons are to be avoided) the spoon is just a means to an end. The end is dictated by an array of things including your personality, upbringing, creativity, morals etc... for instance the glofish. Using our knowledge of genetics we created this perfectly useless being. Not a good or bad thing in terms of well mostly usefullness. But they are neat. With genetics we also created some usefull stuff like production of insulin using microbes. Using genetics we also have the bad sides such as proponents of eugenics. The knowledge of genetics didnt create any of those. We did.

Also see zaego. Give computer excess storage space and excess information. The computer will do nothing with it. It lacks a conscience.

Excess happiness is bad, yes. There's a psychiatric symptom called "euphoria" which can be caused by psychosis (particularly mania), as well as heroin and other street and prescription drugs. In a state of euphoria, everything seems great and nothing seems bad. This can lead to risky or dangerous behavior, neglecting one's job and activities of daily living, etc.

 

Sadness, stress, anger, and anxiety, in moderation, are necessary to maintain motivation. The supreme happiness of euphoria overpowers those emotions and can lead to violent, gruesome death.

Honestly idk about that. Seems legit. But even if not so. If you have a too happy life(not to the point of being outward unhealthy) you won't be ready to face a lot of situations. Sadness anger etc.. are emotions everyone should have just because as social beings it is important to learn how to deal with these feelings and situations.

 

And yeah, I didn't expect them to hug me like a hero. But that's not keeping their promise. Guardian Crowly remembered (I hope) our deal. And the deal was not "do everything" but "find what's going on in the North".

 

 

In GF5... I betrayed a lot of people. Practically every faction requires you to sabotage the rest. Which includes betrayal. The way I killed Alwan made me feel ... dirty. (I won't say more because of spoilers)

 

 

So, is there a script command to get rid of a creation without turning it rogue?

Was he alive by then? Because if he was i need a long conversation with that shrimp placenta :@

Ok but technically you owed alegiance to none. So sabotaging others isn't really betraying them. Oh but killing one other person in the same faction is very very pleasing to the soul.

Yeah im the worst person to deal with scripts. I end up owing money when i tamper the money scripts. Mess up every spell if i mess with one etc... I don't think there is such a script. But maybe you could alter your save file making it look like you never had a drayk? Just make sure to make a copy. That can mess the game up i think.

it's kind of hard for me to judge what other people on this forum would find weird about my diet. my mother's side of the family is Ukrainian and she grew up poor so liver and kidneys were always a normal part of her diet, and of mine when i was growing up in turn.

anything involving raw meat can be pretty confronting too, the first time you encounter it. since you mentioned Ethiopian food, i've had and enjoyed kitfo, which is basically spiced minced raw beef. but on the other hand, most salami is basically uncooked meat that's been fermented, and people in Europe or the Anglosphere nowadays would think of that as a normal food, so it's not just about the content of the food but the familiarity. my mother grew up in a time and place where most people thought of even spaghetti as an exotic foreign food; growing up, she quickly learned to keep her mouth shut about her own diet around other kids at school. heck, as someone who grew up in Australia Vegemite is a completely normal condiment to me but i've encountered lots of foreigners who are baffled by it. so it really does come down to what you've had experience with, i guess.

 

okay that was all sort of rambly and nonresponsive. what else have i had that people might find weird. i guess i tried stewed pig's feet at a Malaysian restaurant once? they were okay. i've eaten stir-fried crocodile, that was pretty good, but i feel odd about calling it a weird food because, like, protein is protein, you could make the same dish with calamari instead and the taste and texture would only be a little bit different

My familly from Grand dad's side is ukranian he used to make a mean salo. My mother is russian and i tend to generalise eastern european food as "potato, beetroot, cabbage, cucumbers, dill and acid healthy stuff" its daunting really xD just kidding. I will eat anything. Never eaten kidneys tbh, but i do love livers. Add some cream onions and garlic you get actually something nice.

Ah raw meat, i think only if you count sushi and kitfo( last orthodox christmass a familly had me over) i've tried. But raw raw nope. And I will murder people if they serve me raw pork(just raw pork though) Also salami is smoked which sorta "cooks" it. And jesus i have a vegimite flask thingy dating 2008 back home. My dad likes it though.

Ok pig's feet i've seen somewhere. Never eaten. Stirfried crocodile i could eat it at a restaurant nearby but im always broke xD but simce you say its good I'll put it on my list. Honestly know some folks that have eaten girafes and hipopotamus(apparently very good) too. I think on the same restaurant. Its called carnivore.

Yeah when it goes down to it food is food and when you're hungry it holds even more true

My favorite dish is called Sisig from where Im from. Its a pork dish using parts from the cheeks and ears, some fat and liver. Sometimes brains are put in it. Lots of onions. Some hot chillies. Everything diced and cooked on a sizzling plate. Perfect with a bottle of cold beer.

 

I forgot to mention that all pig parts are cooked over fire first.

Thats a lot of pig man! And pig brains beats anything i've eaten. Is it tasty?

If you did weak unbound trajkovite ending its the rebels that behead you. In the shaper ending if you went heavy on canisters and all the way pro rebel except killing the unbound come on you didn't expect being hugged like a hero did you?(ok i did i remember, all shocked at their ungratefull atitude realy. But with miranda and alwan and pretty much anyone that could vouch for you dead its realistic that were just rounded up with the rest of the rebels) There are better pro shaper endings though.

And wasn't miranda in charge of that quest.

So much simpler in 5. No betraying anyone really makes you feel good.

Edit: bro i feel you so much on absorbing drayk thing. "Yeah thinking smart being that chooses to follow me i will unmake you because i now know how to make a bigger, better you. I feel really bad about it. But its like... Bigger and better. Sniff sniff." I usually make time and level up and get trinkets and belts to allow for other creations. Or just put on a poker face.

Ok because in my neighbourhood there is a sizeable ammount of ethiopians i ended up getting dragged to their cusine. Which usually involves a lot of lemon and a lot of spices. So as i wolf down a plain piece of injera. It got me thinking. Which are the weirdest* dishes you folks have eaten along with your favorite ones. I'll post mine bellow soon.

*by weird i do not mean to demean any culture or their food, i simply am trying to get a better knowledge of unusual dishes and a light hearted laugh here and there.

I'm so sure that in most cases here its not the excess of the thing that is bad. Just the humans that hold the thing in excess can be bad. In which case is as i said above. A bad person will still be bad if they're broke and dumb and starving and busy and stand alone etc... Its human. A computer with excess knowledge or the internet for that matter can't be evil. Its only people that can.

Also i really second almost everything blxz has said.

I actually had a big, inspiring response to you. But the batery died and since then im just not sure my answer will be as perfect. So imagine i made a convincing argument will ya?

Jk, jk.

Short version though was like yeah starting up as a rebel origin i would probably feel the same way too. The shapers specially moseh and some other people sorta turn me off. And man did i hate the whole barrier thing. Its like holing the surving rebels in and then systematically purge them. But all in all i really hope you get to replay geneforge 4 after you're done with 3.

Also nah... Crowley was cool. He even gave you a necklace from his own body. Hell i havent done that to people i was romantically involved with. In all seriousness try to see it from his point of view having in mind that you are possibly a geneforged servile(which are expected to be fully obidient to shappers no matter what) that he was willing to deal with you and even bother explaining his points to you are comendable specially since loyalist shapers don't understand the geneforge all that much. What they know is that it gives you power with no training on how to use it and it can cause severe side effects. When you first meet him, for all he knew you were very possibly another monarch. Yet he deals with you and asks you for help. And on aziraph he treats you much better. Cept he's sick.

Anyway. I think lastly its worth to note that despite being very arrogant and principled shapers usually don't fight dirty(took the unbound to get there) and they keep their promises. He wouldn't have backstabbed you as soon as you help no use.

Just watched one episode of this. Remind me to watch the rest in exactly one month will you?

Knowledge is knowledge. Power is power. They can be used for good or for evil. But the quantities don't matter. A little knowledge can be used for evil too. On it's own Knowledge isnt bad in excess.

CANISTERS! *SLOBBERS AGRESSIVLY*

jk

Knowlesge comes first to mind

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That's why I like them. They're one of the really alien looking creations. They're one of the only creations I'd ever actually feared. Those, along with other things like servant minds, turrets, living tools, the strange flora, etc, make the world especially interesting for me.

Im sure fighting a big floating eyeball that's also crazy and also can shoot killing energy and kill you with a thought is scarier. The glaahks are also scary but highly impractical they'd have to be lightning fast at stinging you otherwise you could doge and trip the thing

Honestly, vlishes creep me out. And then I come here and see people suggest you make seven of them in G3.

 

But maybe they would taste great barbecued.

Delicious Vlish seems to have had the same idea when creating his account.

As an avid fan of seafood i would agree. Maybe thats why it feels wrong. Its floating killer seafood on earth that is smart. Its like food trying to subjugate us. Imagine telepathic brocoli trying to eat us. Imagine the brocoli now mostly lives underground and it hunts us like the worms from dune. Fear the man eating brocoli! But even mighty owen has to agree 7 vlish asap makes you nearly untouchable in geneforge 3. Not that i ever tried. But i know for one the normal artila is more powerfull than a roamer by the time you get the roamer if you got the artila asap.