Quiconque

Yeah -- though it seems he previously attempted to implement rehabilitation rather than jail time, which I think is at least slightly mitigating.

Civilization: In the battle of socialisme ou barbarie I prefer socialisme, even if it has to take the infelicitous form of civilization. Revolutions: "Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering." -- Tom Stoppard (though some are less trivial than others) Word Rescue: Not actually a fan. It's not great as a platformer, not great as an educational tool, and its graphics lack the je ne sais quoi that some of its contemporary software had. I also object to the fact that it literally vilifies those who can't read -- not a constructive setup for a kid who's struggling to learn to read to encounter. Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes: HATE. Nonsensical and cliche at the same time. A lame attempt at looking "foreign" that just doesn't work. Gilmore Girls: I've repeatedly tried to get into it based on recommendations and comparisons to Buffy, and have never managed to. It feels a little self-indulgent and oblivious to me. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Possibly my least favourite book I had to read in high school. I remember very little of it and am honestly not sure how much of it I did actually read. Nelson Rockefeller: I don't agree with him on everything, and am not generally a fan of the moderate, incremental approach. Nor am I interested in celebrating the rich merely for being generally decent people. But he does seem to have been rather more decent and genuine than many politicians. Paprika: I'm pretty neutral on this spice. Dogs Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Slartibartfast Disco File compression Sliced bread Ducks Working out Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World Sock puppets Penguins Civilization 70's prog Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Cats Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Posting games Subinfeudation Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Peanuts (comic) Xian Skull (item) Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Word Rescue Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Galactic Core Gilmore Girls Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz Tess of the d'Urbervilles "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Novelty mugs The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Anchovy pizza The Crusades Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

Civ II: Yeah, I put some hours into this once upon a time. Flawed, but it sure had enough going to be fun at the time. Spam (meat): Eh. Has become sort of a cliche. Goldfish: Eh. Have become sort of a cliche, but at least providing some interesting metaphors. Twilight Saga: On the one hand, no. On the other hand, also no. Poorly written, insulting to the genre, and especially painful coming as it did on the heels of a much more intelligent pop culture vampire phenomena. Dogs Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Slartibartfast Disco File compression Sliced bread Ducks Working out Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World Sock puppets Penguins 70's prog Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Cats Solidarność screenshot Civ II Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Posting games Subinfeudation Goldfish Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Peanuts (comic) Xian Skull (item) Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Galactic Core Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Novelty mugs The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Twilight Saga Anchovy pizza The Crusades Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

This happens in any case where any character can take multiple manually triggered actions in swift succession, including out of battle: if you do them fast enough in terms of real time, one can "get lost". This bug has been around for many, many games, perhaps as far back as Geneforge 1.

Is it a boss? Bosses get special protections against a lot of stuff that non-boss enemies -- even the same type of enemy -- don't get. This is hard-coded and not even in the scripts.

Lightning Spray uses the same dice as longbows (1-4). It does, to be clear, about 5/7 the damage that Arcane Blow does. If your Lightning Spray damage was "mediocre", that's because your mage was not built with a single-minded focus on damage the way your archer was. As far as crit chance goes, mages get access to literally all the same crit chance boosters that archers do -- they can wear the same equipment. They are less likely to put manual points into Lethal Blow, but that's not exciting: since crits just do +50% damage, that means a point of Lethal Blow is +2.5% to average damage output. (And if a mage wants to ignore Resistance, as your archer did, or perhaps ignore Hardiness instead, they certainly could put those points into Lethal Blow.) The thing is, there aren't very many situations where you really care about ST damage and only ST damage. Here's what I ran with in A3RW: All PCs are mostly identical, but the first two are priests and the second two are mages; differences will be mentioned where they appear. 4 Humans (obviously). Stat points ALL go to Intelligence. No Endurance. It's truly not worth it after the very early levels, and you can just play carefully there. Skill points: Mage Spells or Priest Spells (as appropriate) up to the level needed to cast the most useful spells currently available. Tool Use to 5-6 for mages only. Edged Weapons to 8 and Hardiness to 10 (raise together) as a priority for survival and for Adrenaline Rush access. Early money should be spent on just a few key spells, then weapon training, getting 1 PC at a time up to 15 for AR. (Money also needs to go into buying Arcane Lore; this can even be done after 1 or 2 PCs get AR, as just that makes a huge difference for a while.) Priests put points into Parry when available. Once all that's done or mostly done, each character boosts Spellcraft to 8 and Resistance to 10 (raise together). Mages can eventually pick up some Parry as well. Eventually, train Hardiness and Resistance to 12 (and Parry, for priests). I did not go for First Aid + Magical Efficiency, but you certainly could work it in there, perhaps by using trait slots on Nimble Fingers. You certainly can and should buy training in both skills. No manual points into Arcane Lore (buy Vahnatai Lore instead) or Cave Lore. Key Traits: Improved Intelligence (everyone) Parry Mastery (priority for priests) Swordmage x2 (priority for mages) Blessing Focus (priority for your Haste caster and your Protection/War Blessing caster) Eventually: Elemental Focus; Recovery; Good Health, Robust Health, Perfect Health Optional but convenient: Negotiator Equipment: Priests are in front and can just armor up, though make sensible choices for to-hit purposes (pants over greaves, etc.) Mages can wear a surprising amount of armor even without Swordmage. Prioritize big pieces: everyone should wear the best chest armor available, and eventually the best shield. Other than that avoid too much to-hit reduction. Definitely wear a longbow, as that 10% crit chance applies to spells as well (sigh, such lazy item/ability construction). Key Spells to Buy Early: War Blessing (to level 1 on 1 PC) Call the Storm (to level 1; primary purpose is board control, not damage) Curse the Land (to level 2) Mass Curing (to level 1 on 1 PC) Mass Healing (to level 1 on 1 PC) Ward of Steel (to 2) Daze (to 2) Haste (to 2 on 1 PC) Icy Rain (to 2) Lightning Spray (to 2) Capture Soul & Simulacrum Cloak of the Arcane (to 2 on 1 PC) Since you abhor SP use, you will also want to boost Bolt of Fire and perhaps Smite. Basic strategies: 1. Control the battlefield. Enemies without ranged attacks, like ursagi, can be completely disarmed by combining Daze (which essentially guarantees Ensnared at level 2) with Call the Storm (which guarantees knockback). By using geography to your advantage, this can also keep enemy archers and mages out of range for a few turns, enough time to set any fight up to your liking. In outdoor battles, it is often helpful to have everyone fall back 1-3 squares on turn 1 in order to facilitate this. Summons are also quite valuable on Torment -- they aren't going to do a lot of damage but they are great at distracting your enemies. (Simulacrum, of course, can be incredibly strong if you capture the right souls.) 2. Control the odds. Buffs are key and so are debuffs. Curse the Land level 2 is amazing: it not only delivers strong magical damage, it also curses the enemies significantly (and likely curses any enemies behind it, since they rarely seem to pathfind around field effects). Take the time to buff before combats, and to renew buffs when they wear off. This is the reality of this game engine; don't fight it. (Although you don't even really need Haste level 3 on every PC once you have AR.) 3. Control your angles. If you play around with cone spells and learn how to target them in order tweak their AoE, you can generally hit LOTS of enemies while avoiding party members. More often than not, I actually find them to be better for targeting purposes than circular area spells. When your first party members act, THINK AHEAD about where your later casters will want to be firing from... you want to position everyone in a way that won't step on anyone else's feet. 4. Control your metabolism. Adrenaline Rush is still extremely OP. Once everyone has it, there will be few enemies that survive your first turn. Also, not only does it cost nothing, it reduces SP consumption by allowing you to cast multiple cheaper spells instead of one really expensive one. Adrenaline Rush is the real reason that +AP stuff like Gymnastics, equipment, and BF is not the end-all be-all. Getting 3 actions on turn 1 is more than enough for most battles, and for the few where it isn't, you can take the time to make BF land. 5. Control your destiny. If you are really that worried about running out of SP and don't like going back to town (or simulating it with "imdrained") then just buy and/or craft energy potions, and drink them.

Sliced bread: I love bread, and slicing it definitely makes it more manageable on many levels. Cats: My mileage varies. Perhaps not surprisingly, I get along best with cats that act like dogs. And I can think of a few fictional cats, like Jiji, that are pretty cool. But I rarely hate cats. Hey, at least they aren't humans. The Crusades: Sorry, this is going to be a singular ranking -- I don't know enough to rank most of them individually, and I feel pretty comfortable saying that they all suck pretty spectacularly. Subinfeudation: I'm not sure what I could really be reacting to here -- I guess it beats alienation -- but I do appreciate the fact that Wikipedia uses a snapshot of the Bayeux Tapestry for its feudalism info box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ8A5gRe_Dw Dogs Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Slartibartfast Disco File compression Sliced bread Ducks Working out Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World Sock puppets Penguins 70's prog Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Cats Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Posting games Subinfeudation Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Cabaret (film) Peanuts (comic) Xian Skull (item) Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Galactic Core Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Novelty mugs The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Anchovy pizza The Crusades Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

Let me get this straight. You ask me to rank a language you find beautiful. I don't happen to find it beautiful. You then lecture me about my aesthetic judgment, assuming that it is based on an inaccurate impression of the language -- rather than the fact that our brains and ears grew up being trained by entirely different phonemic inventories and morphophonemic patterns. You also link me to four songs that are supposedly more like "everyday Russian spoken by people." Unless said people are living in a musical, this is really crazy: singing sounds very different from everyday speech no matter what language we're talking about. Yes, even if it's not accompanied by an orchestra

Slartibartfast: “Let’s just go down to the party,” said Slartibartfast, “for whatever reason.” He stood up, shaking his head. Galactic Core: Sorry, RW, this game wasn't my thing. Xian Skull (item): Sylak's Talking Skull was clever and novel. Xian Skull was a rerun with a worse name, even if the chassis was still solid. Johnny Cash: I disliked him less before he ruined "Hurt" so egregiously. (I wouldn't even mind that so much if so many people didn't think it was the better version.) Vinyl records: I would make such a good vinyl snob. Never got into it though, and I don't even own a record player. I do enjoy the hisses and pops though. Russian literature: A great tradition. Hard to argue with Dostoyevsky, and I've always appreciated Vladimir Mayakovsky. Peanuts (comic): Inoffensive. Penguins: I can only hold Morgan Freeman against them so much. Sometimes it's hard to believe they aren't actually anime characters that have come to life. Working out: I am extremely lazy, but I actually really enjoy working out. First Trilogy games: I'm not sure I care to eventually include every single SW game here (especially as a lot of them will clump closely together) but I will pick and choose a few of these nine releases to use. E2: High water-mark for Spiderweb. E3: Bright, engaging, loose, and spread out. A2CS: A game with a great story and engine that became a bit bland due to failings of balance and unfortunate retcons. Still a good game, of course. Dogs Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Slartibartfast Disco File compression Ducks Working out Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World Sock puppets Penguins 70's prog Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Posting games Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Cabaret (film) Peanuts (comic) Xian Skull (item) Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Galactic Core Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Novelty mugs The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Anchovy pizza Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

Speaks to the mainstreamification of board gaming. There went the neighborhood.

"2500 things": From a cursory perusal, it looks random and unfunny. The Evil Overlord List: The opposite of the Barber Paradox -- good answers to real lacunae. And I admit that one of those World of Avernum RPs left me with good associations for it. BGG Top 10: Once upon a time, this was a better list. Not even that long ago. Yet now, Terra Mystica is the only remnant of these better times. (Le Havre, once the pride of the land, has been pushed to #34.) Now the top 10 has unfortunate extremes: the calculated strategy of the immobile Twilight Struggle on the one hand, and the flaring up of recent co-op legacy games on the other. And another thing, get off my lawn, it's not a space you can land on. Dogs Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Disco File compression Ducks Ice cream Northern Lights 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Evil Overlord List Sock puppets 70's prog Slarty Ranks Everything Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Posting games Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Cabaret (film) Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Novelty mugs The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Anchovy pizza Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

The Xavier Files: It finally occured to me that Dinti might have been submitting this as an item for the list. I believe my opinion is adequately expressed above. Cyclops is awful and is in a franchise that has no shortage of interesting characters. I appreciate the endeavor but my disagreements with it are hard to get past. Posting games: I mean, it depends. A lot of them are stupid. Some of them are fun. Metahumor: Again, it depends. —Alorael: I've always admired its versatility. Bark spider: I guess it's interesting? I'm afraid that all I can think of is "Can block creatures with flying and creatures with islandwalk." "Lackadaisical": I appreciate its specificity and utility as a descriptor, but don't love the sound of the word, and kind of hate the "ck" in the spelling despite understanding why it's there. There are more interesting ridiculous etymologies. Cabaret (film): It's fine. I can see why it's been a touchstone for so many people, but it's not really my shtick. Dogs: <3 Sans-serif fonts: I like fonts in general, I guess. I can think of other characteristics I respond to (positively or negatively) but I don't think I have very strong reactions either to serifs or to not having serifs. Myself: I know I said basically anything goes, but I think ranking people we interact with on a personal level (as opposed to a professional, public one), and rating them rather than some interesting thing they did, is a bad idea. Dogs Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Disco File compression Ducks Ice cream Northern Lights 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Sock puppets 70's prog Slarty Ranks Everything Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Posting games Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Cabaret (film) Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz Novelty mugs The Xavier Files KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Anchovy pizza Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

A guaranteed 2 shots per turn from Sniper requires TWENTY points of Sniper. Yes, you can reach this, but it takes some serious effort, and you're certainly not going to get it on more than one character. Whereas other routes to guaranteed 2 shots, like cheesing Haste, take less investment and can apply to the whole party. Those 10 points (or whatever) that you manually spent on Sniper did nothing relevant except contribute to those guaranteed 2 shots. I understand the convenience of never needing to cast Haste, but 10 skill points (plus other sources) is quite a cost for convenience! To be clear, I think it's awesome that you were able to tech out your archer so well and that they performed so well for you. I just object to the assertion that they performed better than a spellcaster in the same role would perform. While it's true that Arcane Blow and the like eat up SP quickly, Lightning Spray is quite efficient at 10 SP. And not putting those points into Sniper (and putting them into Spellcraft instead) frees you up to buy Resistance -- the clear answer to "the godawful AoE elemental damage effects" that you saw so much of. Your spellcasters might have hung back, but there is no reason they have to take that role in A3 -- they can access Hardiness and wear good armor just like the warriors can, when properly prepared for it. And if you don't mind moving them into less isolated positions, the difficulty with using cone spells effectively vanishes.

As an "olive branch" you hand me the very unfunny joke of Cyclops in a #1 spot? (Almost as unfunny: Gambit at #12.) Yikes.

On 2/21/2018 at 10:27 PM, Electrons are Eigenmetric Solitons said: On 1/12/2007 at 3:16 PM, Scorpius said:

Lots to go through here so I've skipped over some that I have no real reaction to. C++: as programming languages go I'm pretty happy with it. Russian: I like languages in general. Since I don't speak Russian I'm going to have to go with my reaction to its sound and tone, which, unfortunately, is not great. But for perspective, I speak English, which rates as one of the ugliest-sounding languages in empirical tests of people who don't speak related languages. Cyberpunk: I have a soft spot for this, at least the old school version of it. Steampunk: This, on the other hand, always manages to seem like a pretentious puff of nothing to me. Dieselpunk: When genre names start to become too specific for their own good. (See also stonepunk, clockpunk, decopunk, etc etc) Elfpunk: I don't love this particular blend. I feel like it doesn't do justice to either element, really. Cait Sith: I actually love Cait Sith on a lot of levels. It's a great story, and the character itself is a great integration of the original cat sidhe inspiration, the cheesy cait sith monster adaptation, and the themes of FF7. They Might Be Giants: They've done some good stuff but I was never really that into them. Lady Gaga: A lot more interesting than your average pop star. Still a pop star. Ducks: Ducks are great. As a creature that can travel on land, in the water, and in the air, they take on a lot of meanings in folklore. Also, they generally sound annoyed, and it's hard for me not to empathize with that. Vultures: They have their place, but it's hard to separate them from the intense metaphorical meaning we attach to them. Wings (band): No, we did not need a soft rock version of the Beatles. Runtz: Their shells always seemed excessively hard to me, and they have a weird kind of sweetness that -- I dunno. Puggsy: A pretty generic platformer. Novelty mugs: A contradiction in terms -- they are so far from novel... Jeff Vogel: Despite whatever criticism I might express at times -- I am good at expressing criticism -- I am on the whole pretty positive about Mr. Vogel, who has contributed far more to the world than he has mucked up in it. Dolphins: As far as I can tell, a lot of what we think about dolphins is just what we project onto them. I'm pretty dolphin-neutral. Sock puppets: I support sock puppets, even if no sock puppet will ever be as cool as His and Her divine sock puppet. Turnips: I do not like them. Handlebar mustaches: not only do I think they look incredibly stupid, I actually appreciate their total inversion, the horseshoe mustache. Good grammar: generally an aid to communication. You know, Triumph, that I am a staunch descriptivist -- but since this is just "good grammar" itself and not rashing on bad grammar, I can be down. Chrono Trigger: FORTHWITH I SHALL SLAY MAGUS AND RESTORE HONOR! Slarty Ranks Everything: Ugh. THANKS DINTIRADAN. The presence of this item on the list moves this item further down the list Georg Cantor: He's no Berkeley, but he's cool. Bertrand Russell: I find Russell insufferable. Some of that may be projection. We have plenty in common. But I am not a fan of the reduction of everything to an analytical formulation. The Barber Paradox: This is the analytical philosophy equivalent of that stupid Let's Make a Deal puzzle everybody's middle school math teacher attempts to trick them with. It's cheap. All shaggy dog stories don't go to heaven. Sigh. Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Cait Sith Disco File compression Ducks Ice cream Northern Lights 70's cars Georg Cantor C++ Good grammar Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Linux Lady Gaga Jeff Vogel Sock puppets 70's prog Slarty Ranks Everything Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 They Might Be Giants Dolphins Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies Puggsy Russian Angry Birds Alf screenshot Vultures The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice Dieselpunk Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series Runtz Novelty mugs KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk Wings (the band) Steampunk Turnips Anchovy pizza Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

A3:RW definitely has the most magical equipment in shops of any Spiderweb game in way more than a decade. Which isn't saying much. But there are a few pretty nice buys here and there.

80's fashion: Ultimately, no, despite there being some good elements in there. Ice cream: I do have a sweet tooth. My Little Pony: Ultimately, no, despite there being some good elements in there. Disco File compression Ice cream Northern Lights 70's cars Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Linux 70's prog Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies Angry Birds Alf screenshot The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice My Little Pony 80's fashion The Let's Play series KISS Anchovy pizza Birthdays

Saunas: I guess I'm pro-sauna? Sure, why not. Who doesn't enjoy a day at the baths. Angry Birds: No thanks. I guess, as a pop culture phenomenon, it could certainly be a lot worse. Salty liquorice: haven't eaten it. It sounds a little scary given what else ammonium chloride is used for. I'll have to make a guess here. Linux: I guess on principle I can support this. Northern Lights: Hard to object to these. Neat enough. Disco File compression Northern Lights 70's cars Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Linux 70's prog Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies Angry Birds Alf screenshot The post that asks me to rank itself Salty liquorice The Let's Play series KISS Anchovy pizza Birthdays

Birthdays: a reminder of the fact that we were born. Awful Vitamin C supplements: of questionable medicinal value, and generally weird-tasting File compression: it's neat. I support all forms of translation, encapsulation, and abstraction KISS: uhm, well, there are plenty of bands I dislike more Disco: gets a bad rap, no pun intended. Has more musical substance than people think. And it was the victim of an actual hate campaign, as a result of racism and homophobia. And if nothing else, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-LEBc2sO8 70's prog: this is a pretty broad category and includes some amazing stuff as well as some deplorable stuff. As musical styles go it's not bad 70's cars: definitely more stylin' than today's 70's movies: American or foreign? I guess it's not really my favourite decade either way -- certainly outclassed by by the 60's and 80's, in both categories, in terms of stuff I like. Disco File compression 70's cars Speedy Gonzales screenshot 70's prog Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Vitamin C supplements 70's movies Alf screenshot The post that asks me to rank itself The Let's Play series KISS Anchovy pizza Birthdays

I feel like finding those monsters has been a hassle in all three incarnations of this game. Ah well.

Based on previous games, "lethal blow" and "critical hit" are actually the same thing -- so from the above numbers plus presumably a base chance of 5%, you might have 94% to crit. Sniper isn't actually inconsistent in interacting with Haste -- rather Sniper and Haste trigger the same effect, a -4 AP cost to use your action effect, but it will only trigger once on a given turn even if you have both Sniper and Haste. This is the real problem with Sniper: even if Haste is irrelevant, it's a very cheap spell that is basically equivalent to having 6 or 7 points of Sniper. That said, 1150 damage before armor is indeed pretty high! Let's unpack this... Longbows use d4s. At level 33, figure 50 from Dex (with items, traits, etc), 17 from levels, 16 from the weapon, 12 from bows, and rounding up to 100 for convenience/item bonuses, that's a base of around 100-400 damage, clustering fairly closely around 250. But let's assume these are good-ish rolls and go with 275. Now for the percentile bonus: 10 from Nephil, 9 from traits, let's say 56 from Sharpshooter (w/ items), 51 direct from items (note that 25 are from the Fury Bow, not an early find). That's about a +125% bonus, so it'll take us to a base damage of around 620. If you have Cloak of Bows active, which perhaps Entropic does, that would boost it quite a bit higher -- in A:EFTP, level 3 CoB was an additive +50%. War Blessing helps too. Depending on the Cloak and which of my other assumptions were accurate (or not), 1150 does sound plausible, either with +50% from crits as used to be the case, or perhaps altered crit mechanics. Here's the thing: basically all of the same numbers can apply to spells as well. You miss weapon levels, but get more from Spell skill, and a higher die size for top tier spells (1-6 for Arcane Blow and Divine Retribution). So that's around 350, percentile bonuses somewhat lower (15 traits, 20 spellcraft, 41 items) -- multiply it out and it takes us, again, to around 620. Basically parallel buffs. And spells can crit too, though admittedly a magic-user is much less likely to have manual points in Lethal Blow, so crits may be less consistent. Seems like a small price to pay for the ability to hit multiple enemies at once, personally -- not to mention the flexibility to be able to do stuff besides attack, when needed. It's true that mages won't have the high dodge rate; OTOH, archers who go after the full suite of missile skills would have a hard time finding points to reach Resistance.

Ironically, Avernum 4 ends up in the tepid middle too. It might be the worst SW game in some ways, but not in every way -- and that doesn't actually make it a bad game. Speedy Gonzales screenshot Solidarność screenshot Avernum 4 Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Alf screenshot The post that asks me to rank itself The Let's Play series Anchovy pizza

The penetration thing doesn't apply since SW changed the default resistance rates.

...good lord, I didn't realize that scenario was ever actually finished and released. Anyway, while I definitely found your rendition amusing, it seemed like the accent was constantly shifting; I think some of your other characterizations are better. As for your LP's, well -- I think they are generally good quality LP's, but as you know, I find some of the assumptions you make in them confusing and frustrating. Speedy Gonzales screenshot Solidarność screenshot Pineapple pizza The rendition of Slarty's voice in the Let's Play Alf screenshot The post that asks me to rank itself The Let's Play series Anchovy pizza This seems like a good time to observe that the suggestions so far have been pretty mild -- nothing I feel very strongly about has really shown up yet.