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Zeviz

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Everything posted by Zeviz

  1. Steam Power, Communication Satellites, and The Internet, are just the first examples of disruptive civilian technologies that I could think of. However, at least the last 2 of them were initially developed using military funding, so I guess it also proves the point that military usually has the budget to research things that civilian companies and agencies couldn't afford.
  2. Hi, everybody who said "Hi" to me. Does somebody want to let me know major news over the last few years? (To avoid further derailing this thread, my email is still zeviz1 at yahoo.)
  3. Better late than never. PS It's kind of ironic that I found this thread about online anonymity (among other things) as a result of googling my [online] name.
  4. On Linux, and I guess OS X, you can go into directory that contains your files and run the following command: sed 's#www.geocities.com/zeviz1/#newhost.com/zeviz/#g' -i * More generally, the syntaxis is: sed 's#String to replace#New string#g' -i Filename EDIT: Crossposted with Niemand, but mine also includes -i flag that allows input and output files to be the same.
  5. Originally Posted By: Arancaytrus Links on your site aren't broken, per se. But you appear to have three different game sites which do not link to each other - requiring an archiver to enter each URL separately. They should be linking to each other from the links section, so if your automatic downloader follows all links to things under the same account, it should pick them up. (And if they don't, I'll fix it when I find a new host.) Thanks for mentioning dreamhost offer. Not sure if I want to pay for hosting of things related to games I haven't played in a while, but I guess I'll have 2 years to decide if I take the offer now.
  6. Originally Posted By: Arancaytrus ... on sites cloaked by index.html we must rely on internal links (which Zeviz and Caligula show to be awfully unreliable). ... Which links on my pages are broken? I had a couple backups originally, but that was several hard drives ago, so I am not sure if I still have files from my pages. So if you downloaded them, could you send me a copy.
  7. Can Anama members and Gladwell's servants attack their faction leaders? Does Gladwell automatically learn the real role of people he recruits? (If not, how does his compulsion work?) Looks like this will be an interesting game to watch. I have no idea what I would do as some of these characters, so it's interesting to see what strategies players will come up with.
  8. Originally Posted By: feo takahari Originally Posted By: Thuryl Originally Posted By: I burn alongside the books. Just finished We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin Hey, synkarius: you should read this book instead of Atlas Shrugged. It's better in every way, mostly because it wasn't written by a raving loony. Myself, I thought Zamyatin came off as a bit extreme, if not necessarily a "raving loony." I was particularly irritated by how he seemed to take it for granted that anything he considered dystopian would be considered dystopian by the reader. The society as a whole was abominable, true, but individual aspects he mentioned and dismissed in a throwaway fashion left me intrigued when they were supposed to repel me (for instance, the harnessing of water power on a massive scale, which Zamyatin seemed to view as crass exploitation of nature.) ... We had a very strong effect on me when I read it, because the society described in it is a good portrayal of what the "bright communist future" we were building in USSR would actually look like. Even though USSR had collapsed by then and I was living in America, this book was one of the reasons I realized that even in theory "bright communist future" might not be as bright as it sounds. As for individual details of the book, I don't remember them because I read it too long ago, but your hydro-power example is a valid bad thing that happened in real life: The famous Volga river (one of Russia's most famous rivers) has been turned into a series of swamps by too many dams. And similar things (although on smaller scale) happened to many other Russian rivers.
  9. Goldenking, that is a nice story, but it contradicts the history given in game. Contra, I had pulled out text for that area onto a webpage at some point. Let's see if it's still around... Here it is. (Warning, this is obviously a spoiler for one of the biggest secrets of Geneforge 1. If you'd rather discover it for yourself, don't click the link.) http://www.geocities.com/zeviz1/Geneforge_secret.html
  10. Quote: Originally written by Student of Trinity: ... Here's my speculation. Shapers could easily stamp out rogue shaping throughout their lands, by spreading swarms of spy-bird creatures that simply sniff out essence. Whenever some odd loner's basement starts to reek of vinegar and magic, an Agent pays the village a visit. Monarch is just beginning to cackle over his first few rabid Fyoras, when suddenly he finds it's searing orbs for breakfast. Mopping up afterwards at this stage will only take a mop. ... I suspect they don't do it for the same reason no modern society keeps its citizens under 24/7 video surveillance: 1. The citizens wouldn't be too happy. 2. The people in charge wouldn't be too happy with being watched either. (Even if only the Watchers are watching each other.) 3. This wouldn't work, because it's not that hard to make a completely sealed underground laboratory. (Or, rather, it's sufficiently easy to do if you can construct a secret underground laboratory in the first place.) In this case, biological weapons are a better comparison than nuclear ones. Quote: Originally written by Contra: ... Problem is, Canisters make you inte an arrogant, ravaging madman who can't accept anything but submission and uttermost "respect" from anyone who isn't as "pure" as they are. In essence; Exactly like the Shapers, except the Shapers can actually controll themselves if they have to. ... This is a very good point. I suspect most of the Shaper arrogance comes from the fact that when you can create or destroy life with a wave of your hand, it's hard to not feel superior to mere mortals, especially the creations whom you could create or destroy at will. Based on the history from ancient temple in Geneforge 1, it seems to me that Shapers started out as a kind of Trajkovites: survivors of the devastating shaping wars that destroyed the old Sulica civilization, who tried to impose strict controls on Shaping to prevent the repeat of such disasters. However, as SoT describes, that control was never as firm as they'd hoped for, and eventually one of the experiments got out of controls, producing canisters at the time when they could do the most damage.
  11. Quote: Originally written by Goldenking: The Rebels are not alone in loosing rogues upon the population. The Shapers were the ones who loosed all of the rogues in the Forsaken Lands, along with areas of Burwood. More imporatantly, the Shapers were the ones who sent the clawbugs into the Dillame fields, driving away the farmers and nearly killing them. Undoubtedly some did not run fast enough. Is this from Geneforge 4? I was referring to Geneforge 3. (I haven't finished #4 yet.) Either way, this makes Rebels no better than shapers. And probably worse, because rebels started this practice first. Quote: Your second point is debatable. We haven't heard much about a Shaper's background before the school, so I'm going to say that this really can't be proven. Although, based on the actions of the Shapers (taxes, mostly), and the general eliteness of the Shapers, I'd say it's more of a plutocratic method of selection, allowing you to rise on your own merits once you're in the ranks. My conclusion was derived from NPC interactions in Geneforge 3. I don't remember the exact text, but there was something about failing student sent back to her human village, and other indications that shaper apprentices are children of regular humans, rather than Shapers. As for taxes and so on, there are plenty of people in USA who complain just as much about evil Federal Government taking too much taxes and ignoring their needs. (People always complain about taxes, no matter where they live.) Quote: Your third and final point is unlikely, to say the least. The Shapers didn't keep many books on Shaping, as it is said in basically every game. It's mostly just coded notes and word of mouth. Which makes it more likely the Trakovites will succeed, although that is still a dauntingly collosal task. In the unlikely event that the Trakovites actually do destroy all of the canisters and Shapers/lifecraters, it is extremely unlikely that books and notes would be spared the torch. Even if Trakovites start burning at the stake anybody suspected of harboring forbidden knowledge, they will be no more successful than Spanish Inquisition was at eradicating "heretics". Knowledge and ideas have proven pretty hard to destroy. And that's even without the added insentive of huge power that comes with shaping.
  12. First, I agree with SoT's last post: Riots, rebellions, revolutions, and resulting civil wars are very nasty even in the real world. (Even the relatively gentle American Civil War included episodes like Sherman's march that destroyed everything in its path.) Once you throw weapons of mass destruction into the mix, you get the total devastation described in the Geneforge series. With that said, Geneforge Rebels seem to be equivalent to the most extreme elements of RL society: indiscriminate attacks against univolved civillians "just to steer things up" wouldn't be accepted by most of the RL revolutionaries. (Here I am referring to Rebel practice of filling areas with uncontrolled rogues that drive farmers away from their fields, killing anybody who doesn't run away fast enough.) Another thing in Shaper's favor that everybody is forgetting is that they are neither a race nor a cast. From what I've seen in the games, Shaper society is a form of meritocracy, with Shaper schools accepting regular human children from any social class, and positions of power being earned rather than inherited. This makes Shaper society almost as liberal as ancient Greek Democracies, where only male citizens could vote and slaves were treated no better than Geneforge serviles. While citizens of shaper lands have no right to vote, they seem to have at least as much opportunity for upward mobility as citizends of modern USA. As for the Trakovites, I have only two words: "Sulica Island". The Shapers themselves tried to suppress "dangerous knowledge" and you can see the mess that resulted. I can see the plot of Geneforge 10 as: "In a society where all shaping is punishable by death, a young student stumbles upon ancient texts that contain forgotten secrets. But he is not alone in his discovery. Unimagined horrors are attacking remote villages, and this discovery might yeild a clue to their nature..." (Some unscrupulous people discover well-hidden books on shaping and proceed to take over the world, because everybody else is too weak to oppose them.)
  13. Quote: Originally written by The King: ... On the other hand, most of the work is just a matter of editing the scripts and possibly changing the font, which isn't all that hard. ... I just checked, and the game's font can't represent Russian characters. So a fan translation isn't going to happen either. (Unless Jeff decides to modify the game to accept Russian characters in scripts.)
  14. So resistances granted by individual items are multiplied, rather than added together?
  15. I guess this means the Citadel gets evacuated as soon as you start the caravan quest, probably the moment you guide them across first map. You didn't miss much anyway. (The reward is nice, but not worth reloading from a much earlier save.)
  16. Thanks for answers and advice. I have another question: What does percentage for armor and resistance mean? Does 50% resistance actually block half the damage and 75% resistance block 3/4 of the damage, or are the numbers just random "more is better" kind of thing?
  17. I downloaded the game recently and have a couple question: 1. Which items should I hold on to for collection quests? My inventory is overflowing with iron bars, shaper equipment, etc. Please don't say who or where is asking for them, but just tell me what I shouldn't sell. 2. Does the timer on map screen have any effect on the game? By the way, it looks like the hype about the game was largely justified. I like the new inventory system (no more dropping everything when combat starts) and growth of power seems to be well balanced. I can't say much about story yet, but at least it's not another shaper apprentice.
  18. You get equally semi-random text whenever you Google anything. The text you see under the search result link contains just a few words of context for your search term, rather than any kind of description. In this case "Drakon Fortress" is the Alt-text for image at the start of the first paragraph, so Google, viewing the page in text-only mode, sees those words as the start of the first sentence.
  19. 1) Which is your favorite Avernum game? Avernum 2 2) What is your favorite melee weapon class? Swords, dual-wielded by my ambidexterious fighter. (Some things were more fun in Exile.) 3) What is your favorite missile weapon class? Slings, because they don't require tons of ammunition. 4) What is your favorite spell in Avernum? Major Blessing (or whatever the Avernum equivalent is called) 5) What spell did you like in an earlier Avernum game, but was removed in a later sequel? Field spells in Exile were fun to play around with. Especially anti-magic fields. 6) What is your favorite dagger/sword? Anything that works for chopping off heads. 7) What is your favorite spear/pike/halberd? Anything that works for chopping off big heads. 8) What is your favorite bow/crossbow? Anything that works... 9) What is your favorite thrown missile? Razordisks are fun because they are exotic weapons associated with Vahnatai. 10) Which enemy type do you hate the most? Lots of spiders (web, web, web, ...), or magic users that summon legions of weak monsters, making battles last forever. 11) If you could stand-in for any character in the game aside from the party, which character would you choose? Trajkov (*spoiler for Gf1 removed*) 12) If you could stop or change one event in Avernum, what would it be? Any of the demon summonings. 13) Who is your favorite character, aside from the party? see #11 14) Which Black Shade did you like the most? (A4) I didn't like A4 enough to meet any of them. 15) If you could destroy one being in Avernum, who/what would it be? Rentar-Ihrno, so the plots would get better villains. 16) Who is your favorite dragon? Motrax. 17) What type of armor do you prefer? (Leather, chain mail, etc.) Mithril chainmail. 18) Aside from adventuring, which profession would you take in Avernum? mage 19) Do you prefer to fight enemies, or would you rather flee? fight 20) What reasons do you have for becoming adventurers? adventure 21) Who is your favorite mage/priest outside of your party? Motrax (dragons have access to both mage and priest spells) 22) Who is your favorite villain? Trjakov (he is a villain if you play as a loyalist) 23) If you had the chance to have a cameo of yourself inserted in any of the Avernum series, would you take it? Who wouldn't? 24) Who was the most annoying non-party character in the Avernum series? not sure 25) What is your favorite city in Avernum or the Empire? not sure 26) If you had just one character in your party, what skills would he/she be trained in? Priest/fighter/mage (although I never completed any Avernums with a singleton, so I am not sure if this skill mix would work) 27) What's your favorite Xian Item? which ones were there? 28) If you could travel to any of the continents on the surface, which one would you choose? Imperial capital must be an impressive place. 29) Which skill do you think is the MOST valuable in the entire Avernum series? not sure 30) Which skill do you think is the LEAST valuable in the entire Avernum series? not sure 31) What is your favorite Avernum cuisine? Is this the question where we show our sence of humor by saying "weird meat"? 32) If there was one thing you could add to the Avernum series, what would it be? Exile's spell system, with all the fun spells. 33) What's your favorite special item? Orb of Thralni 34) Do you have your characters wear pants? Only if they give a stat bonus. 35) If Avernum had lost the Avernum/Empire War, what do you think would've happened? Retroactive change of all sentences from "exile" to "execution".
  20. Talking about staying away to avoid spoilers, please don't include spoilers in thread titles. (For example "What did you think about [important character]'s death?" could be a spoiler even to people who just look at the forum's main page.)
  21. Quote: Originally written by *i: ... There are very minimal amounts in the atmosphere, unless in the Geneforge world everyone talks with a high pitched voice. ... Servile (*speaking in squeaky, high-pitched voice*): Hi, you are cute.
  22. If I remember correctly, in Geneforge series luck has an effect on chances of getting gems, monster parts, and monster-specific items such as clawbug shield. If the effect on loot is similar in A4, you aren't going to see it until you fight many dozens of battles against monsters that have a chance of dropping rare items affected by Luck. (To give you an idea of rarety I am talking about, in Gf games you could play through entire game without getting some of these creature-specific items, and even with high luck you'd only get a couple throughout the game.)
  23. Quote: Originally written by *i: I've said this before, but personally I'm ready to see something totally new. Don't get me wrong, I like Geneforge and Avernum, but I think it's time for a nice standalone game like Nethergate. I agree. I generally dislike long series, because quality tends to degrade over time and even if it doesn't, I prefer to read/watch/play something new. Even the best story gets stale if it's milked too much. I'll probably try a demo of Gf4, but it would have to be better than any previous games (a very high bar to cross) for me to register it.
  24. Quote: Originally written by Micro Phage: ... Basically I was waiting for enough feedback to help make the best, most versatile, editor I can, wasn't sure about permission (the scripts used are copy righted) to make editor itself available widely... Ah, that makes sence. If I am not mistaken, Jeff told Croikle (the maker of original Geneforge Editor) that it was ok to distribute, as long as he clearly indicated that the editor was unofficial and unsupported, so everybody else just assumed that this permission applied to their editors as well. (And since Jeff had obviously seen the editor threads and didn't complain, this assumption is probably correct.) Quote: PS Have you checked the editor out? It would be great if you had some time to do so and give some feedback. Thanks again! Sorry, I don't have A4 registered. (I am not too enthusiastic about the game.) Quote: PPS Member 335's posts and style and the constant name changes and signatures specifically addressing every post/reply kinda makes it seem that "-" is like a title or something. Definately gives the impression you are talking to 2 different people in same post/reply. Will use only "Alorael" in future. Heh... It's a strong enough impression that maybe I was subconciously thinking: "-Alorael, who's reply to a PM, got Micro Phage..." ... Yes, I thought you might be making a joke about "that -Alorael, who guy". However, his name is just Alorael. He started changing his displayed name some time ago to protest something related to custom titles, and liked the changes so much that he still keeps going. EDIT: Your page looks good. For the editor, it might be good to include the disclaimer about editor being unofficial and unsupported, along with brief summary of instructions on how to use it on the page from which the editor is downloaded. If Google picks up your page, as it picked up a couple other editors, it would be helpful for people to see these instructions and disclaimers before downloading.
  25. Quote: Originally written by Micro Phage: ... My intent was for people to have access to it only through this forum. But, in retrospect, it's still that way because I haven't posted about it anywhere else. ... PS And major thanks to the ever amazing mysterious -Alorael who's reply to a PM got me pointed in the right direction to fix this! I am curious, why do you want to make your editor available only to those who visit this forum? (If you are trying to increase forum membership here, making a home page with a link to this forum sounds like a more effective idea.) PS Alorael's name doesn't have a dash in front. He just starts his signature that way.
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