Aran

Originally Posted By: Yahoo Important Announcement After careful consideration, Yahoo! has decided to close GeoCities later this year. You can continue enjoying your GeoCities service until then — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll share more details this summer. For now, please visit the help center for more information. (via Slashdot) I believe there are many, many little dusty Blades fan sites that still remain on Geocities, and most of them have been abandoned. Isn't part of Saunders' Canal story still on Khoth's site? Then there's Motrax' - not SMoE's - graphics archive including some old midi tunes. The list goes on. In the interest of preserving hard-to-find BoE scenarios and ancient graphics archives before they vanish altogether, I would suggest a Pied Piper-like effort to list these sites and back them up with wget. If possible, a central archive would be nice - I think scenarios and graphics are Blades derivatives that cannot be copyrighted, but I don't know about the design and page content. Also, if you own an old Geocities site yourself, this is probably the point where you want to log back in and download its contents to your drive - and if you still use one, perhaps look at another free host (I'd suggest Freewebs, but I don't know if they still host uploaded HTML files like they did in 2004). ---------------------- Geocities sites that need archiving I'll update the list in this post. Alphabetically by username for sites that can be archived using only the www.geocities.com/$user URL. - bihrno - blyceum - em770 - frahhamn - gaiuscatullus - jonahzahndi - skyle_jc - solberg85 - talonsa - terrorsmartyr - tracihedlund - zeviz1 Others, and additional pages not linked to from the root page (this will get a lot more complex than it seemed at first): - Rosycat: http://www.geocities.com/dead_penned/blades.html - Arancaytar: http://www.geocities.com/arancaytar/frameset.html - Luz: http://es.geocities.com/falcata2/ - Olly: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arena/3134/ - HYZ: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Bunker/8684/, - Paul: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Chasm/1581/ - SNL: http://www.geocities.com/dallen22c/secretninjalair/ - Lazarus: http://www.geocities.com/lazarus989/myscenarios.html - Zeviz GF Editor: http://www.geocities.com/zeviz1/geneforge_editor.html - Zeviz Nethergate: http://www.geocities.com/zeviz1/nethergate/ - Zeviz Subterra: http://www.geocities.com/zeviz1/SubTerra/ - Caligula: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Cauldron/2000/boe.html (SEE ALSO gaiuscatullus - he's got his own account) - Caligula: http://www.geocities.com/gaiuscatullus/spqr.html - Caligula: http://www.geocities.com/gaiuscatullus/scenpro.html

For the next generation of the Blades Forge, I am trying to accurately classify all types custom graphics along with their various dimensions. I can vaguely remember some weird caveat about BoE item graphics. According to this caveat, even though the item graphic is a 28x36 slot like all other types in BoE, only a specific segment of this slot - 18x18 or something - is actually displayed? The Blades docs I checked say nothing about this, and I'd have to find my CD to test it. Any BoE gurus know if this is real or garbled nonsense? Edit: Since the core graphics seem to fill 28x36, this would have to be a bug - but we all know BoE is not exactly free of those.

I've read at least the first tale in the original (though it was so long ago I forget which tale it was - possibly the fat monk's). It really is more enjoyable that way, at least assuming you have a dictionary nearby. That hem hath holpen wan that they were seke. But as memorizing old verse goes, it's weirder that I can still bring up (with atrocious spelling) parts of hwaet we gardena in yeardagum. Theot cyninga [...] ellen thremedon. [...] that was gode cyning. I only know what half of it means.

The pattern for me is that I get a Discworld novel whenever I'm at the train station waiting for a long-distance ride, which is unfortunately kind of rare. But since it's happened a second time after only two weeks, I now own (and have already read) Feet of Clay.

Originally Posted By: Justin Dagna I know I would gladly pay $5 for user-developed adventures in Geneforge. Each purchase could be divided so that $1 goes to Spiderweb, $1 covers transaction-level costs and $3 goes back to the third-party developer. Jeff deliberately chose not to commercialize scenario distribution (and as far as I know prohibited designers from selling Blades scenarios) to avoid liability. Spiderweb Software does not have the infrastructure to vet every single scenario for playability and quality, and rather than suffer dissatisfied customers they made scenarios entirely free. Now that there is such a large collection of works, Jeff could distribute a "BoA Gold Edition" with hand-picked scenarios. Maybe BoA bombed because it just didn't offer enough value at the time?

Yeah, I think I get it now. Some of Terry's books are like Sudoku, once you pass the midway point things start falling into place. Anyway, this line is solid gold. "Don't worry. I'm on your side. A violent death is the last thing that will happen to you." Yes. Yes I suppose it is.

Continuing my completion of the Discworld series, I have no bought Hogfather. I'm about halfway through it. So far, unfortunately, I'm not getting it. Basically, an assassin is trying to kill (or has killed? huh?) Santa Claus, Death is standing in for him, while new anthropomorphic personifications are springing up like mushrooms at Unseen University. I hope I get a grip on the story before it's over. It is, in fact, rather like Thief of Time but with even less explanation along the way. It confused me so much it gave me a headache. Or possibly I have the flu, and the causal relation is reversed. The conclusion here is that whenever Susan Sto Helit shows up, things get muddled. But even though the overall plot eludes me, the little bits and pieces are genuine Terry and rather enjoyable. Except for Mister Teatime, who is creepy.

Originally Posted By: feo takahari Just received a stern lecture from the smartest girl in my school OH. So the way to get a smart girl to notice you isn't reading something heavy, but something she considers crap. I wish I'd known that back in high school. (sigh)

Quote: [not] start a series until it's finished ... Robert Jordan Good luck with that. If GRRM pulls that, he will be turned into Beric Dondarrion.

Originally Posted By: Frank. Several more Discworld novels. Going Postal is probably my favorite so far, with Small Gods not far behind. Dikiyoba was slightly disappointed by Guards! Guards! though. Confusing a female dragon for a male one is quickly becoming a cliche. Going Postal and Small Gods are on my top three as well, but Making Money is now on spot two between them. I used to be more of a Death/Rincewind fan, but Moist is just awesome. Moist is like Rincewind in that he fakes his way through life, but where Rincewind runs away and mistakenly stumbles into sort-of-not-quite-saving the day, Moist bluffs to win (and does).

Please note that laptops have no numpads. Or at least none that can easily be accessed. There is a special lock that will switch the 789uiojkl (or somewhere in that region) square to numlock, but it's no easier to handle than just using the number row instead of numpad. ADOM trained me to know which numbers are which directions, even when they're all in the same row...

I started out with Exile III, and I have never quite gotten used to the interface of E1 and E2. It's not that it's retro - I love ADOM and NetHack. It's just clumsy in some occasions, and I never really felt immersed. That is why Exile III remains most memorable (and therefore favorite) in the Exile series for me.

Originally Posted By: Thuryl for Jeff "engine limitations" usually means "I'm too lazy to figure out how to do this". Well, he did code the engine himself...

Leaving us to wonder: What would be the point of a registration where the code you need to enter is displayed right next to the field, for free?

The knowledge that an actual human is processing my order is worth at least several business days to me. Automated stores make mistakes, and from what I've seen it seems that the companies who use them have lousy tech support for such aberrations. Of course, there's nothing wrong with a semi-automated system that sends out registration codes and keeps a human in the loop about it - and the really dreadful WTFs are only generated by companies with lousy inter-department communication, like telcos. One department thinks you have canceled your plan, the other thinks they have connected you, a third thinks you are overdue on your bills and a fourth is cutting you off for being over your traffic limit. With only three employees, Spiderweb just isn't likely to do that.

That would be wiki number three.

Actually, if the bell happens to generate a clean single-frequency wave, you ring an identical bell at the right place and the right time and cause a destructive interference. If you then stand at the right place between the two bells, you will hear nothing. Does that count?

The Louvre contains detailed instructions for making "PC"-type graphics, yet the editor documentation mentions only two different grades of detail in sheets: Large ("NPC" on the Louvre) and Small ("Monster" on the Louvre). I know that the Louvre database (and its instructions page) were created long before the release of Blades of Avernum, when it might not have been clear what graphics could actually be customized. Do the large "PC" type sheets have any applicable use in scenarios?

I reread half of my Terry Pratchett books, most recently Going Postal and Making Money. Moist von Lipwig is just awesome.

I recently reread both of my Barrayar books, Cordelia's Honor and The Warrior's Apprentice. There is so much depth to these books that I found something new in every reading. I started out with the Apprentice back in 2002, then bought Honor (which is actually the first) in 2005, and have re-read both of them more than once alternately. Too bad I'm so lazy I haven't gotten around to buying the rest of the books yet. There are quite a bunch.

What did you have to add to this topic? (Other than that it turns out that yes, Erika was Ghaldring.)

Originally Posted By: Nikki. throwing your pants on Rentar's floor" [...] and blah, blah, blah. Out of context, it is anyone's guess whether the purpose of "blah, blah, blah" is to preserve the family atmosphere of this forum.

Originally Posted By: Slarty Bjorn Lynne's earliest SW credit is G4, which was released 11 years after the Halls of Chaos were created. So this seems unlikely. A4, which features "Under the Bard's Tree" was released (for Mac) one year before G4. Avernum 2 also features music, but it may not be Bjorn's. The point remains, however, as long as the Halls of Chaos were in the Exile series, which predate music and sound effects more complex than "Rar.". Edit: MobyGames' Bjorn Lynne profile (erroneously?) dates his A4 credit in 2006. It still predates G4 by just a bit...

Originally Posted By: Nikki. Originally Posted By: Slarty Cordelia the character predates Cordelia the infant, though. (I think. Right?) One would hope so, what with the nipples and all. If you prefer the idea that Jeff named his daughter after a character from his games, sure. (Or maybe, he just likes the name...)

So does the actual "death" happen before dead_state is triggered, meaning that dead_state code cannot cancel death? Is there some attacked_state? In A4 I've occasionally had dialog messages appear when attacking something, but only when initiating a battle. So I'm not sure if a boss could, say, heal itself when killed. But hey, that's why video games came up with "boss forms". Just play the death animation, then place another monster that looks completely different (and much more badass). Repeat as needed. It makes perfect sense!