bogus standard candidate

In this screenshot you can see a new boss. I wonder if that green stuff to which he is. . . melded? merged? part of him? might be a energy crystal or some such thing. He is being powered by, or at least at the intersection of four different power points. What is it, though? It almost look like a Thad, but I doubt it's that. Not a servant mind either. Or maybe it is a Thad that merge itself with a crystal in order to acquire more energy. There's a women called Litalia who's a traitor and we may join her at some point. She speaks of the destruction of your (our?) school and how this is not an isolated incicident, but will spread everywhere. Why did she leave the Shapers? What hwas her betrayal? How does this connect with the events in the previous GF games, if at all? I like the new choices, character wise. More genders, it seems, and now you can use bracelets and necklaces (you couldn't in GF2, right?)

Kind of sort of in topic but not really: Why can Agents change their colors? Is this a dye? Is this part of whatever training or thingy that they undergo when they become Agents?

We have no Spring Break here. Universities have different schedules too. Some are trimersters, some are semesters, some go the whole year long. The closes you get to a spirng break here is the time in between trimesters, if you go that Uni, or Holy Week which is happening now as I write this. I work as a teacher (the horror! be thankful you'll never be one of my students ) and this was it as far as vacation. I did nothing. I had a birthday on Tuesday, saw three films, and played GF1. That's the extend of my exciting week

Not me, man. I live far from Ohio, but I like the Pretenders song about as well as Neil Young's if that's any consolation. And I've known a couple of people who spent time there. I've also driven through the state. But that's as close as my contact with Ohio gets. Sorry. Next week it is, then. I was hoping for a weekend thingy, but week day works just as fine. Man, the screenshots look cool indeed. I love the way the island looks. And the fact that we have some islands will make the game, I think, flow more nicely than the other two (though I liked them too). I also noticed there are new graphics for the areas, I mean the little square thingies on the island.

Raise Dead. All big blessing spells. Total Healing. I hardly ever summon anything in games where I'm not playing a singleton, and even in those only rarely. Spells that inflict heavy damage on multiple enemies. Heartshock, but tended to fail more often than not.

I don't think it comes from robbing the Castle, but it might. You, my friend, have the Uber Curse, also as the Dread Curse. You should take it off, it has nothing to do with items. You get it off simply. Just go to the Tower of Magi and talk to Mother Clarisse, she'll take it off. (at least I think you've got the Dread Curse, it sounds like it)

Thank you very much Kel. I'm reading them now. (Good thinking about your thread, Trinity, it'd be nice to use for comparison.) If I'm not being too annoying in this request: Kel, Seletine, Khoth: could one of you move the thread that dealt with recommendations for GF3 to this forum? I believe that's in GF2. The reason I'm asking for this is because, like with Trinity's thread, this might be interesting to have around here so people can see what things made it and which didn't. Thank you. And take care!

Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, as far as I know, are completely different worlds. Within the realm of rules and such, they both also had slightly altered rules from the main AD&D system. I've never read any Forgotten Realms book except the self titled first one written by Douglas Niles way back in the late 80's. My only knowledge of that world comes from the Black Isle games.

That's precisely what I meant, Trinity. I was indeed referring to how they survived basically using diplomacy and pitching rival Ottoman princes against each other as well as ingratiating with different courts in Europe to ensure their survival. If I'm not mistaken and my memory doesn't fail me, they pretty much invented the "modern idea" (or at least its first germination) of diplomacy, and the term "Byzantine" refers, again if I'm not mistaken, to their often convoluted dealings. It all ended in 1453, though. (Apropos of nothing: There's a very cool book called Justinian by H. N. Turtletaub aka Harry Turtledove. He also has the series of Hellenistic Seafaring Adventure which are cool. There's also, Justinian: Last Roman Emperor by G.P Baker which is good. And, finally, a cool book about the Fourth Crusade (my favorite of them all, for many reasons) by Thomas Madden and Donald Queller. I'm biased because Dr. Madden was a professor of mine and I remember his Byzantine class as one of the high points in my education. I actually cried when we saw the fall of Constantinople, first and only time I've done it in a class. Signing off, Romantic Byzantine Fan.)

Well, faithful believers, don't lose your faith on Forge Friday yet. We still have a few hours until Midnight. Tweet tweet tweet. And just think, we could be talking about Venus days here.

Some things you can do while waiting for GF3 to come out (this may apply to Windows users as well): (in no order, letters used for convenience) a) Read a book series. You may read Neal Stephenson's rather elegant alternate story series Cryptonomicon/The Baroque Cycle. Or Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Or maybe all the volume of the Encyclopedia you have in your home. If you have none, you may visit you local library for one. Become a member of the Audobon society, if you're not one already, and dedicate the time to bird watching. It soothes the senses. c) Purposely eat garbage food (or literal garbage) so you become exceedingly sick and are taken to a hospital. Alternatively, you may inflict enough physical pain upon yourself so that you end up in a coma for a short while. Just make sure before you do so that you plan it accordingly to spend just a few months and ensure that the Supreme Court and the President of your country will use your state as an excuse for political schemings. d) Practice quilting. Quilting is an often misundertstood and unappreciate art form which many cultures relegate to women. Sillyness! It's fun and you can quilt a GF world if you will, or one/more of the zones from your favorite GF game. e) Take a road trip to Seattle to visit the headquarters of Spidweb, inc. Once there you can give Jeff and his family a nicely baked apple pie and ask him to invite you to his basement for an exclusive tour of GF and the upcoming A4. If you live near Seattle, you should take a road trip to Portland, Maine where you will pay a visit to Stephen King, give him a nicely baked apple pie and ask him to take him to his basement for an exclusive trip of his serialization of the GF games, King style. f) Pretend you are a lamp post. Disguise yourself as a lamp post, place yourself in a busy corner and take caustic notes about the nature of humanity. These you will later publish in a small book of no less than 200 pages, half of which must be non-sequitur photos, and rightly expect it to be a bestseller. You will have to do book tours through places without internet connection. This should keep you busy for a while. g) Adopt a young child. Adopt him/her and raise her/him. If possible adopt an adorable pair (or triple) like the ones in Desperate Housewives This should keep you busy for a while. Then do something not quite horrible so that social services take them away from you. h) Learn a dead language. Etruscan preferable. i) Learn to speak a dead language. Some form of Cuneiform preferably. j) Write a treaty on how Nearthentals wrote in the shores of beaches, thus explaining while no writtern record of their existence exists. k) Tie yourself to a chair. Make sure you don't live alone, or if you do tell someone you're going to do this. You'll need feeding. Also, don't forget that your body needs to dispose of waste products. Perhaps it's better if you tie yourself to the toilet, but if you, please remember to lift the outer lid first. l) Rent and watch the following series (in DVD or VHS, as the case may be): Farscape, Classic Trek, X-Files, Simpsons/Futurama, The Prisoner, The Avengers, all of the Gary Anderson stuff, Buffy/Angel, Friends (if you must), etc. You know your taste better. m) Write your own version of Blades of Geneforge in Logo n) Construct the world of Geneforge, or as much of it as you can, using Legos, Mega Blocks and other similar products. Mecano is also recommended. o) Move to a monastery of your choice. p) Go on a hunger strike. Express to Jeff in a polite e-mail that you will not eat anything other than Spam until he releases the version of the GF3 for your system. q) Solve Format's theorem. r) Disprove all of Stephen Hawking's points. s) Or, for that matter, analitycally and theologically and other "ally" the different points in all major religious books from all major religions. t) Download BoA or BoE and write a scenario for them that will resemble your idea of GF3. u) Start a chicken farm in the roof of your house or building. v) Shoot your own movie version of GF3 without any budget whatsoever with the help of your friends and a few local unemployed actors/hopeful actors and send it to the next Project Greenlight (correction: write the script for it, you'll shoot it if you're chosen. Remember it must be made for less than one million dollars) w) Summon Nyarlathotep and play a game of chess with him by the shore of a lake. Remember that when it is over, he will take you with him for a tour you may not want to partake in. x) Managed to get captured and be sent to The Village (not the one in the dumb movie) y) Why? z) This one is intentionally left blank so you can add your own recommendation. Salud!

Today. That way we have the weekend to play the demo and Monday to make tons of orders and the whole week to play and not do any work (must start to think of excuses to skip work, btw.) Or. . . Monday/Tuesday so during the week, where free time is more difficult to come by we can play the demo and the order it before the weekend and do a marathon, play it all the way through so we can finish it up by early April and then start clamoring for G4 when will it come out!?! Or, it's actually been out for about a months, in pirated places. These people are packaging the game under a different name and selling it like crazy in Nambia where GF (actually under the assumed name it has there) is not only a national pastime, but the government there is using it, seriously, as a pattern for their future state. I just don't know. But I'm fairly certain that before I get to see Monsieur Vader rising I will have seen the answers to all these questions, many more, and quite a few new new unaswered ones. (I also think "Kingdom of Heaven" is going to spark certain controversy which will help it get a strong first week (maybe two weeks) until it completely plunges down. Critics will love it, though. They sure dig that Malick fellow. (Icshi: Hah! Another person likes Monk Hah! Although I liked it better with his old assistant. I hate SG. Shivers)

The "save" function in games, or if you the "back in time" affects reality. It's in many a ways a necessary evil, you need to be able to save: you may want to turn off your computer, or be sure your hours didn't go to nothing due to a power failure. However, this godlike power is a reason why PCs in many games are more powerful than their NPCs counterparts. The reasons listed by Drakey, are also important: the leaders of the sects are all busy doing their civic duties as well as conspiring to remain in power or amass more power by bureaucratically giving certain tasks to others. They may not think they have the time, or wish to risk their lives, going around cleaning an area of nasties, after all they can relegate that authority and have someone else do it. They have, after all, a guard that protects them (or should) This instinct of self-preservation may be a reason why many NPCs are not as powerful as the PC who, with the help of cheats, walkthroughs, difficulty levels, and saved games they can be more gung ho as to the adventures they have. These reasons are not very good, though, since they separate the reality of the world from the fact that it is a fictional world you visit for a while, unlike those who live in it. In these games it's almost as if the PC is basically a person who is connected with certain divine powers that other characters don't have. At least in the GF games the adventure is not linear, there are certain places where you simply can't go because the dangers are too powerful for you. How about the other games where you just happen to always face creatures that are adecuate to the amount of work/exploring/killing/adventuring that you have done?

Icshi: I like your idea that a sect splits up into two different ones, maybe depending on the palyer's choices throughout the game. Well, a fifth sect could be the Council. Not a rebel Shaper, not just a Shaper who's there on behalf of the council. I mean a branch of the actual Shaper Council (maybe asking for the Council itself is too early and too much at this time) Another sect could be another group from that world. We know about the Scholai, but I bet there are other people in that world that are not aligned with the Shapers. Only that this time instead of being castways who used too many canisters, they are simply exploring that part of the world. Maybe like a "phantom menace" type of deal. They don't play a heavy role in the plot (they still play their part) but their importance is more in their omnious nature.

I think behind that door was nothing else than a brand new Shaper transportation vehicle, or a trip for a Shaper and three creations to the wonderfully restored Limpia Island (formerly Sucia Island) which has become a selective Island Resort for the rich and famous. Once there you can see how Serviles who wander of the set path live in the wilderness. . . you can explore ancient ruins where your kids can play and have fun while they are watched by friendly and unobtrussive shades of green. . . you can even visit the labs where animashapes will give you exciting information about the dark and awesome days of the Geneforge (one of the most famous "urban" legends in the Shaping world.). . . and much more. Either that or a a NPC who will be the fourth characetr choice for players of G4: Shaper Richard Simmons!

Cool beans! The end and the beginning are near! But, wait. . . isn't there first a beta testing before the official release? Maybe we still have a couple of weeks of waiting? And that's for Mac. Why does it take three months or so to compile the software for Windows? I know nothing of this process. Doesn't Code Warrior has a faster way? What does Jeff have to do in order to compile it for Win? Take into account different Windows operating systems, etc?

Besides the darn little kid (which was funny, and Geneforge is in short supply of kids, Avernum had a few here and there ), I thought the new group of serviles is an interesting option. What kind could we see now? The basic three in G1/G2 covered three basic responses towards authority. What about a conspirator kind of Servile group? I guess what I have in mind is a Servile group that is similar to the Bizantines after they returned from exile in the 13th century. This could be the group that the balloon creature that we discussed in another thread. Hmmm. Or maybe not. I'd like to see Smart Ornks. Talking, trading, conniving Ornks. We fought some rather tough ones in G1. I'd like to see a city of them.

I'd sure love to find out what's behind that door. I'd like to see the Scholai making a return. I'd like to find out a little more about the repercussion of that old war that happened when the ancestors of the Shapers went insane with the power they had "mastered" (?)

Hi. Going a little off-topic to respond to Icshi's question aboutin which order to read Dragonlance/i]: Begin with the Dragons trilogy: /Dragons of Autumn Twilight/Dragons of Winter Night/Dragons of Spring Dawning. (those were the first written and rather wonderful, at least from my residual memory as a teenager) Then, you can read the Twins Trilogy: Time of the Twins/ War of the Twins/Test of the Twins These three are. . . brilliant. You shouldn't skip the first three since they introduce the band, including the twins. I hated Hickman and Weiss (well, mostly Weiss) SF. Don't judge them through those books. Finally, if you enjoy those books, you may want to give it a try to a couple of other trilogies they wrote: Darksword. I loved this as a kid, but I don't know if I would now. I remember little (except being very excited when they came up with the "Darksword Adventures" which were RP rules, if I remember correctly) There's another trilogy whose name I forget but it had an arabian flavor. Anyway, hope that helps, and sorry about the off-topic.

I don't know about that equality (Magery = Intelligence), but I doubt it. Magery is difficult to get, you can't train in it in a Training Hall, and you need to buy the points (fairly expensive too!) The only thing I can tell you, sos, is that Magery makes your spells more powerful. WHat the numbers are behind that change, no clue. (Still, if you can, give your mage a few points. I always give it five just for the sake of it.)

Avernum master: If you ever get a chance, play the demo for Nethergate. It's fun and you'll find a place in the demo where you'll meet some old friends of yours from A1-A3.

I liked both at about the same level. G1 seemed to have more of a. . . solid plot, I suppose. You were stranded, there was something weird with the Island, and Trajkov was around causing problems. The three sects represent three basic principles of followership (shaped word ). I have no clue what the plot for G2 was, I don't remember it. I remember wandering around doing quests and joining and betraying alliances, but that's about it. It feels like G2 came years before G1, at least for me. G2 felt a little like E3/A3, wandering around doing stuff. But, I enjoyed doing that stuff and wandering around. I'm going to go on a leap faith and quite a limb here and say that my favorite is G3

I think that creature creation in Geneforge 2 is similar to that of G1. You do have more variety and there may be some tweaking as far as statistics, but it keeps within the same ballpark. If you have a creature since the beginning of the game, and you've been taking care of it, raising the stats and so on, it will get very powerful. On the other hand, some of the later creatures are awesome, though. When I played both games as Shaper I had a Fyora for the longest time. But, when I was able to create drakes I got rid of the fyora and had an army of only drakes, but that's just me. When you can create more powerful creatures see how they perform as opposed to the one you have and see if they fit your game play better.

No kidding. Even with Frank Herbert's book I got tired after the third. They seem to stretch on forever about little reason to do so. I didn't even bother to read the stuff written by B. Herbert and Anderson. In general, I don't find Anderson that good a writer (actually, I've always thought about him as, at best, a decent collaborator, at worst a hack. I've seen little stuff by him that is truly original, mostly I see him him working in other people's universes. But, there seems to be a market for spin offs out there.) Though I loved the first books in Asimov's Robot and Foundation series, I didn't care for his latter ones. The Sword series by Saberhagen weren't bad, but I guess that also deteriorated. Moorcock with his Elric? I only read the first, what do you guys think? I stopped reading Eddings after the Malloreon series, has the rest of his stuff been any good? I think Zelazny kept pretty true to himself. I like all the Amber books. The second series is different from the first so it didn't seem repetitive. There's a great series going on right now by George R. R. Martin, the "Song of Fire and Ice." There are three books out and the fourth will come out. . . someday (it's been four years!) I think that's one of the best fantasy series I've ever read, what do you guys think? Raymond Feist is also pretty constant with the quality of his output. His worst stuff is readable and his best is very engrossing. He has kept the same style throughout his career, and even the Krondor trilogy which wasn't as hugely epic as others was a lot of fun, I think. There's this cool series that began a couple of years ago, "The Vampire Earth" by E. E. Knight. It offers a different take on Vampires, which I think is nice. It takes place in a post-apocalytic world, and many times while I read it I felt like I was in "Fallout." If you like that kind of adventures, I recommend it. You may find a copy in a used book store, if you don't want to risk spending the money for a new copy.

I don't want to go on a rant, but I think Jordan has gone downhill in a calamitous way. Take every single time that Wiley E. Coyote had fallen down a cliff, add them together and multiply them times the money (in pennies) inside Fort Knox. His first five books were neat. The Sixth one was absolutely boring and meandered through pointlessness like an expert for about 900 pages, until in the last 100 or so it threw a little action to cover the insane stillness from the previous 900. Or so. Book seven and eight ignored, in many ways, what had happened in the previous six, began completely new threads, stopping or simply """improving""" previous arcs by adding unnecessary complications. Book eight did little to quell the messes done in seven. Book nine I couldn't read until I saw how it made a friend of mine, a grown man, cry in desperation and total, complete, sadness at seeing how a potential great series had been raped. The series suffers of: "Hey people love my stuff, I'm just gonna keep writing more and more and more and more and more and more and never ever ever ever reach any kind of resolution for anything. And, IF by any weird chance I do reach a resolution to an arc, I'll make sure it is completely worthless and will just start another arc right there to keep my faithful servants and salves keep on making me rich." Maniacal laugh in high decibels then ensues. Sensoround! Digital extreme system! Holographic too! No one has any clue when this series will ever come to an end. At this rate, it will have to be continued by some other author since, to be sure, Jordan won't finish it in his lifetime, unless he hires a cleaning team and they tie every single crazy arc into a neat package in a book or two. Bah. I, too, spent three or four days, doing nothing but reading the first six books in a row. I slept and kind of ate during that time (only the lack of acceptable diapers forced me to go to the bathroom) It was a big dissapointment. It turned a flower lover hippie into a sad, sad cynic. Icshi and anybody: Not telling you not to read it (what do I know, in the end) but wait until you are old and have retired, maybe by that time the series will be over. Or, if you're old and retired already, wait until you're older and have a desease that doesn't let you leave your house. Maybe by that time the series will be over. Anyway. This is just my opinion. I could be wrong.