Dikiyoba

The only thing that bugged me about their design, is their legs. Seriously, they're like spiders.

I gotta admit, I was expecting humans that... actually looked human-like. It looks like the Mane Six got teleported to the world of Arthur instead of a human world.

But it's not like Dikiyoba is even remotely the target audience, so whatever.

I would go to the original Avernum Trilogy and join the group that must exist to track adventurer reputations. Whenever an adventurer party came into my area, I'd follow their every move, and then pass along the details of every heroic exploit (and occasional evil act) to everyone I'd meet. Or I'd be a messenger, who carries the knowledge gathered by the adventurer-followers to every corner of Avernum, including to some normally hostile groups.

The network must exist in Geneforge too, only following young Shapers and lifecrafters everywhere instead of adventurers. Dikiyoba doesn't want to join that network, though, because watching Shapers/lifecrafters slaughter whole villages and betray their own side isn't nearly as fun as watching adventurers slaughter bandits and rescue prisoners. Also, the accuracy of the Geneforge messengers isn't nearly as good.

Spider Silk : Evolution and 400 Million years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig: Excellent book for the layperson, fairly good but too basic for anyone who already understands evolutionary principles, stupid title. I think Craig's Spiderwebs and Silk is the same information aimed at an expert audience. The combination of two authors, one a writer and the other a specialist, works well here. It has one of the best explanations of natural selection I've seen, and a better-than-average explanation of genetic mutations. But it stays tightly focused on the evolution of the spider, rather than spiders' natural history. Probably should be titled Spider Silk: 400 Million Years of Evolution to make its evolution-only focus more obvious.

(A dozen middling books later...)

A Gap in Nature by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten: It's a rather sad read, since it deals entirely with human-caused extinctions (well, I lie a bit, since two of the 100-odd extinctions in the book were caused entirely by natural disasters). The writing is mediocre and sloppy, but there isn't a great deal of text, so that doesn't get in the way too much. The information is well organized and the criteria for included vs. excluded species is clear. The art is what really makes the book shine, though. Each painting is gorgeous, extremely detailed, appears to be highly accurate, compelling, and did I mention that they're really pretty?

Dikiyoba.

Pylons drop crystal because their shells are made of it. Spawners are mushroomy tentacle things. I don't see much similarity.

It depends on what the pylon creature inside the crystal shell looks like. Unfortunately, I don't think we are ever given much information on what a pylon creature is. It's just simple, and possibly gooey. It could be anything.

Dikiyoba explains the gemstone drops by assuming that spawners need gemstones in order to shape creations. Shapers use a lot of crystals in their more advanced magic and shaping machinery, so it's not too far fetched of an idea.

is there a creation that whines about this geneforge rubbish being in general? If so, that one

Congratulations! You're an unsellable trowel!

Dikiyoba had to reference it somewhere, and is not at all sorry.

—Alorael, who would be a rotghroth for, um, medical reasons. Weeping acid pustules are no joke!

I think you're more of a patchwork, given the mishmash of SW memes about you.

The creation that Dikiyoba is should be obvious.

Why don't these guys just go to the Olympics and win every single gold medal that's available in fencing?

Because fencing is an entirely different style of swordfighting with an entirely different weapon?

Dikiyoba.

It's insane to argue that abortion is bad, not having abortions would be better, but we should have them anyway. Pro-choice people don't go around saying abortions are great, but when pressed I think we all have to acknowledge that they can be good and that's why we want them allowed.

It's perfectly logical to argue that abortion is bad, in an ideal world there would be no abortions, but legal abortions are less bad than forced births, children growing up unwanted or without proper resources, pregnancies that cause health problems or death, and the deaths, injuries, rapes, blackmail, and financial extortion that come with illegal abortions. But that's not my point.

It's good that abortion exists, but it's bad that it needs to exist (especially since it's so easy to bring the number of needed abortions down). You prefer the former perspective, I prefer the latter. But we both agree that no pro-choice people think of themselves as killing unborn babies, or take pride in the number of abortions performed every year. But it is fairly common among certain strains of Christianity to characterize pro-choice people that way. (Alas, I cannot find the Left Behind quote about the Planned Parenthood employees who were sad they could no longer perform abortions because of the Rapture.) That's what irks me.

Dikiyoba.

That's not a strawman. A bit irrelevant, since supporters of abortion don't consider fetuses lives and don't consider them killing, but not a strawman.

It's a strawman because very, very few, if any, pro-choice people hold the position that abortions are a good thing. No pro-choice person goes around thinking, "Yay, 50 million unborn babies killed this year, what a great benefit to society!" Pro-choice people typically view abortion as a morally neutral thing, or as a bad thing--the least bad thing given the alternatives, but still a bad thing.

Dikiyoba decided to point it out because it is so ridiculously irrelevant.

And if we think it so terrible, why end so many lives before they've had the chance to start? For the benefit of the mother? For the benefit of the unwanted fetus? For the benefit of all mankind through avoiding overpopulation? Enough of the world thinks that there is enough benefit in ending potential life to justify ~50 Million instances every year.

Strawmen are bad. Quit using them.

Dikiyoba.

Though actually it's more kind of, "Come back and tell me again how to run the whole universe, after you can make even a tiny-ass fish."

Done. Where is your huge-ass fish now, God?

And to save everyone else the effort, Dikiyoba already checked; there is no animal called an ass fish, huge or otherwise.

A giant pillar of fire in America? You'll have thousands of scientists and meteorologists and master illusionists explaining it away as natural phenomenon or a hoax.

A significant percent of those scientists and meteorologists (and illusionists, although I'm not sure why they're rushing in to explain the fire, unless the fire started in a magic shop or something) would be Christian, of course. Plus followers from numerous other religions with a God or gods or some other agent capable of supernatural intervention.

Dikiyoba.

Sssernk [turn 6]

Summary

Power Available: 11

Actions taken:

• 
  Lift glacier - [shape Climate, 2 cost]
  Place ice - [shape Climate, 2 cost]
  Add ice - [shape Climate x2, 4 cost]
  Tundra - [shape Climate, 2 cost]
  

Power Remaining: 1

Running Bonus: +3

Actions

Lift glacier

Sssernk strains to remove the glacier blocking the ocean's access to the algal sea. He finally lifts it away, and the two bodies of water rush forward to meet.

Place ice

Then Sssernk places the remains of the glacier in the northern ocean with the rest of the pack ice.

Add ice

Sssernk continues adding pack ice in the northern ocean.

Tundra

The frozen ocean sends bone-chilling winds across the nearby island, changing it into a tundra.

VOTE TO ADVANCE: Dikiyoba votes YES

Sylae, I have sort of corrected the Plateau-River thingy, I'm not convinced about the "Rivers can't span a whole continent thing" though, so it's up to you if you wish to do something about it.

In real life, water can only move down elevation, and never up elevation. So rivers always start at a high point (like a mountain slope) and end at the lowest point they can reach (usually an ocean). No river can travel from ocean to ocean because oceans are already the lowest point and water would have to travel uphill to form a river, which it can't do. However, some mountain ranges are found along one edge of a continent (not directly on the coastline, more like 50-100 miles inland), and if the water falls on the inland side of the mountain range, it may have to travel over most of the continent (always traveling downhill) before reaching an ocean.

(Also, don't forget that the plateau was cursed to -1 earlier, so the water source is blessed to 0, not to +1. It really shouldn't have any special properties, just normal ones.)

---

Dikiyoba votes NO to advancing. There's still a lot of blank space on the map, after all.

Sssernk [turn 5]

Summary

Power Available: 9

Actions taken:

• 
  Seafloor spreading - [shape land x2, 6 cost]
  

Power Remaining: 3

Running Bonus: +3

Actions

Seafloor spreading

Sssernk feels compelled toward land in this new world. He retreats into the deep ocean, not stopping until he reaches the ocean floor. He burrows deep into the mud and rock until he reaches magma, creating a line of volcanic ridges and hydrothermal vents through faults and weaknesses in the rock.

---

Dikiyoba.

everyone

 

i'd just like to point out that some of the river topography on this map is getting ridiculous

Just about everything else on the map is ridiculous and unrealistic. I mean, perfectly round mountain ranges? Tundra closer to the equator than tropical rainforests? This game is not going to generate an accurate fantasy world.

Dikiyoba.

Sssernk [turn 4]

Summary

Power Available: 15

Actions taken:

• 
  Caves - [shape land, 3 cost]
  Pack ice - [shape climate x2, 4 cost]
  River - [shape land, 3 cost]
  Wetlands - [shape climate x2, 4 cost]
  

Power Remaining: 1

Running Bonus: +3

Actions

Caves

Sssernk finds a section of rainforest and noses at the soil and bedrock beneath the trees. He transforms the bedrock into the remains of long-dead sea creatures: limestone. The rainforest's streams and groundwater quickly erode several massive cave systems and inumerable smaller caves. The caves fill with bats, tiny blind fish, long-legged insects... and who knows what else might find a home in the eternal darkness?

Pack ice

Sssernk returns to the northern ocean and freezes the sea, spreading pack ice far and wide.

River

Then Sssernk heads south, burrowing and slithering inland. Fresh water erupts from the soil and air all around him, creating a mighty river.

Wetlands

The new river often overflows its banks, giving birth to every kind of wetland imaginable: marshes, mires, wet meadows, and shallow lakes, each one teeming with life.

---

Dikiyoba.

Okay, this thread was on rather shaky ground to begin with, and now it is so very done.

Dikiyoba.

Sssernk [turn 3]

Summary

Power Available: 6

Actions taken:

• 
  Sandstorms - [shape climate, 2 cost]
  Coral reefs - [shape land, 3 cost]
  

Power Remaining: 1

Running Bonus: +3

Actions

Sandstorms

Sssernk appears far to the east, in the sea near the sandy desert. He directs the wind to bring sand into the sea, to keep it shallow and nutrient-rich. The winds also generate periodic sandstorms that make the desert dangerous and impossible to map for any mortal.

Coral reef

With a suitable climate in place, Sssernk creates life. Corals grow, generations within a day, until coral reefs form. A few reefs even breach the ocean surface and form desert islands. Hundreds of colorful fish come into being, followed by seastars and anenomes and clams the size of coconuts. Sea birds form colonies along the desert coastline, creating mounds of guano.

---

Dikiyoba.

the comments are nearly all spam, which makes the situation even sadder. what are the figures on spidweb's piracy?

Jeff doesn't know and basically doesn't care, since there's no way for him to make that number go down and he's better off taking care of actual customers instead of fruitlessly combating piracy, and that's about all that can be said on the subject.

Dikiyoba thinks the saddest thing about it is that the actual game is... well, not that good.

We have to ask why normal Drakons and Drayks even have wings now, but you could probably handwave it away with heat regulation or somesuch. They are cold-blooded.

This is old, but one of the loading screen creation charts says that drayk wings are vestigial, which means drayks definitely can't fly, and since drakons are basically bigger drayks, they aren't going to fly either. (Presumably, drayks have some now extinct flying creation in their ancestry, or the first drayks were a lot smaller and could fly.)

Dikiyoba.

Sssernk [turn 2]

Summary

Power Available: 9

Actions taken:

• 
  Current - [shape climate x3, 6 cost]
  Precipitation - [shape climate, 2 cost]
  

Power Remaining: 1

Running Bonus: +2

Actions

Current

Sssernk swims along the coast, continuing to create a current as he goes. Behind him, the ocean suddenly teems with life, from plankton and kelp through hundreds of fish, crustaeans, and shellfish through sea lions, sharks, and dolphins to baleen whales. He coaxes the current back out to sea and around until it meets up with itself. He dimly remembers people, and how some of them used to travel in great currents. All is good.

Precipitation

The current helps create clouds, rain, and fog that blow inland. The coniferous forest changes, creating massive redwoods, redcedars, and kauri hundreds of feet high and carpeting the ground in mosses, ferns, orchids, and rhododendrons.

---

Dikiyoba changed a few minor things on the map/legend. If you object to the changes, or see something Dikiyoba missed, let Dikiyoba know in the OOC thread.

Sssernk [turn 1]

Summary

Power Available: 5

Actions taken:

• 
  Pack ice - [shape climate, 2 cost]
  Current - [shape climate 2 cost]
  

Power Remaining: 1

Running Bonus: +1

Actions

Pack ice

Sssernk wiggles into the world, landing with a gigantic splash in the northern ocean, bringing some of the chill and ice of his previous habitation with him. Ice floes drift together until pack ice develops in a section of the northern ocean.

Current

Sssernk dives deep and swims south, displacing huge amounts of warmer water and letting cooler water fill in his wake. He only stops swimming when he senses he is near land.

---

Dikiyoba.

-There's no increased cost for created nonstandard races, except at GM discretion. Don't be OP. If you think your race might be OP, ask.

Does OP stand for overpowered?

Dikiyoba is interested.

Never. I'll be here long after Most of you are dead and withered away.

Most people who qualify as oldbies or straddle the oldbie/midbie divide are dead and withered away, but their spirits continue to post anyway.

Besides, Dikiyoba thinks newbies have more fun anyway. All that energy and vigor, so you can dodge the oldbie canes and heal quickly after flamewars, plus a short attention span that everything fresh and exciting. That's why Dikiyoba kills two newbies every week and collects their blood in order to stay alive and unwithered (it doesn't work, but murder is always fun).