Lord Safey

I live in Louisiana Which is a southern US state along the gulf. The summer 90's are consider the norm and we have a high humidity (which makes it so much worse). Day's that reach 100's are not rare. August and may are the most miserable months of the year to attend school and we don't close school down because it gets a little hot. God help you if your air conditioning broke down. Even the oldest schools in the poorest and smallest towns had air conditioning. Its pretty much considered a necessity. When ever I hear supporters of year round school I can't fail to think back to my days riding a hot miserable school bus stuck in traffic in the months of may and august. They won't put air conditioning school buses until some poor kid dies of heat stroke.

You be may be able to say he was sane and perhaps rational. I doubt however the he and the US could have found grounds to negotiate. My understanding of what cause him to attacked us is we provided evidence to the saudis that iraq was going to attack them and then asked for our assistance which we gave and what set him off was he didn't want American troops in a Muslim nation. The issue is that people can have vastly differently world views and while there views make sense in there own mine it makes for having sympathy of another situation more difficult. Also peaceful negotiations will never happen if both sides don't think the have any to gain. I see little that the US could gain from negotiating with Al Qaeda and vis versa.

The reason I hear for making hollow point is that they are used for hunting large game. Not sure how that claim holds up under examination.

In my endings Rawl usually take control I think that mainly has to do with quests you do that allow others involved in such politics to discredit her (such as giving others evidence of the road the rebels use to ferry serviles out of shaper territory)

Martyr's provide motivation. Strong leaders or, a least the impression of it, are need to channel that motivation. While he may have had little to no say in the day to day or even in the month to month operation of al qaeda but, others in his organization drew upon him as source of their authority. I think there could be significant in fighting for his position (unless they are to scared to want such a position) which could distract them from there goal and in the long run disenchant current members. He provided direction and motivation. Now he only provides motivation. I say that is a win.

If I am not mistaken, wars have been started because of people disagreed what martyrs have said.

I would put Sucia about the size of Hawaii.

Terraforming Venus, main issus is the we can't find any water their, other wise just dump some heat resistant cyno bacteria and wait a bit would be enough to terrafroming it. They would in theory slowly convert the greenhouse gases to something breathable. That throw something between venus and the sun to bring the amount energy reaching venus to earth like levels. The hardest part in this is bringing vast oceans of water to Venus. Mars on the other hand in theory has everything it needs for life to live accept for heat. Currently the best bet is for self supporting self contained habitat structures one these worlds. As far as I can tell their would be plenty of volunteers for such missions. Even with no prospects of going back. The main issue is the idea of sending some to such a life, even if the want it.

While I am uncertain how feasible this may or may not be I think this: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=22108 might make some good food for thought.

To make any money off it you have to drive the cost of space travel. Right now the cost of traveling back and forth from space, will eat any profit you would have made and then some(excluding the occasional research project or communication satellite).

Suppose this shows that technical expertise and common sense don't correlate.

be nice

Custom is a bit strong of a word. The main difference I remeber was we made a custom list for him to choose his powers from. Not say you couldn't do it using psionics just saying it didn't work out for me and if I was to try again I just wouldn't take that route

Spell slots represent the magical might a shaper is capable of. Beyond that I might have the number of creatures a shaper can control some how related to the characters will save modifier. Control of a creature I would prorably make a check when ever a creature is under significant duress (level drain, ability damage/drain, or less then half its hitpoints) a opposed will save against the shaper. If its a magical effect (charm person and the like) that take control of the creature, the shaper would make the save for them. I also give penalties to will saves in general based how many creatures he is controlling.

I tried the psionic route and we broke the game beyond recognition. The DM had to keep ramping up the difficulty to try balance it. At level 3 we were facing a epic level challenge. He allowed the other party members to be Gestalt (and I wasn't) and they still couldn't keep up. Even if we went back and fine tuned the class, its still be horribly overpowered. If I was to do it over, it would be a wizard/sorcerer spell. The spell would conjure a geneforge creature and while the creature would be permanent you would give up the spell slot used to make the creature until you either dismissed(adsorbed) it or it died. The first tier creatures would be second level spells. Shaping would be far to broken to be first level magic (except perhaps the weak worms/crawlers). Might also make a prestige class that is shaper like. Although even this might not be balanced.

I been interested in see this works. I tried once a failed miserably.

I was simply trying to consider what the poster of the question would consider Family friendly. I was not try to suggest that homosexuality was something to be talk about only in whispers. As far as not pointing out the others I simply did not notice them. I'm a pretty dense individual and only noticed that one because someone else pointed it out to me.

I think in one of the avernum games that it was vaguely hinted at a pair of women had a less then traditional relation ship. Besides that the only thing that could see is lots of the blood and violence conveyed through text and crude graphics.

The only instances I have seen shapers messing with necromancy the play they did in usually gets sealed of and quarantine kind of stuff.

You attack him till he is dead.

SOT I have no doubt that that Humanity will survive the coming shortages, it is a matter of how well. Wars, plagues, and famines also litter history as well. Their also been a few instances I can think of were nations either went to war or collapsed due to lack of resources. So no the world won't come to and end but will it be a world you want to live in.

I think I remember reading somewhere that Jeff doesn't like reintroducing PCs in later games. In geneforge 5 you go into the forbidden mines/lab to try to find uncover the assassination plot, you found out that a Shaper (Guardian I think) 50 years ago made a golem imbued with a demon and then fled. In geneforge 2 any of the power hungry shapers at head of the various factions research facilities would fit the bill. I think the Barzhites even had demon imbued golem go rouge. Their was a hermit/neutral shaper too that is good candidate. In geneforge 3 The hedge wizard in the mined woods on the first island is passable candidate as is the other student from your school you find on the last island. The only passible candite in geneforge 1 is the shaper who set himself up in the protoshaper ruins. I wouldn't rule out the Jeff intentionally making it some one not seen anywhere else in the series period. I think he left it vague, with it not quite fitting anyone person seen elsewhere in series, just to keep us guessing.

Your Mother

Hate to be judgmental but that is obsessive.

Lets take copper for example. It is a widely used metal and is useful for an number of things. Recycling methods have a less then 100% return rate,. It used it power grids, other electrical systems, plating ship hulls, transportation of drinking water and more. Copper has unique properties that make it ideal for these tasks. To replace copper you would either need to find another material capable of doing all these task. However more likely you would have to make do with a large number of substitutes which at best would be mediocre substitutes. Power grids take a significant blow to efficiency and produce more heat which causes electronics to be more difficult to cool and wear faster and need to be replaced more often. Sea going vessels will need to spend more time effort,and energy maintaining their hulls. Copper is a material that is resistant to the growth of microbes is ideal for plumbing. Also its becoming a lot more scarce.