Sleeping Dragon

Originally Posted By: Alorael Not even England at the height of its imperialistic hubris referred to Britain as a continent. That would be too much of a stretch. Only because there were so many things that were bigger than it was. Perhaps land-masses don't get bigger than Terrestia, perhaps the Geneforge planet is as big as our moon. *Gets a particularly annoying Disney World song stuck in her head.*

If you go by the total number of cities in Terrestia, you end up with something rather small. Australia doesn't have so many cities, but Terrestia isn't 90% uninhabitable... yet. I'd say it's very small, like Britain, if not smaller. It's difficult to tell because you can't really get an idea of how big the cities are either. If we're talking Londons and Romes, then it could be bigger. But if they are modest sized cities and a huge capital we haven't seen on the west coast, Britain sounds about right. Edit: It is actually much smaller than that (like Manhattan sized even) if we take into account the fact that we can see the cities and rivers clearly from the overhead map, assuming that picture is supposed to be photo quality.

I agree with Dikiyoba on that, the game specifically says pretty much those very things when you first use canisters, doesn't it? And Alorael, what I meant was that I've seen anti-evolution arguments that basically said even the tiniest physical change (perhaps a slightly longer neck as something evolves towards a giraffe) from one generation to the next would require so much perfectly correlated compensation from the entire rest of an organism's body that such changes are virtually impossible to happen by chance. I agree with you, though, as far as believing these things are in fact possible. I figure life's been around a long time, and humans have trouble coming to terms with all that stuff that happened before we even existed.

You're probably right with your Bioshock analysis, Lenar. That would explain why everyone is always trying to get adam from the little sister, despite it almost always resulting in certain death. In Geneforge, however, it not so much the addiction that makes you insane as it is the canisters themselves physically effecting your mind. They definitely change one's personality, making them irrational and quick to anger. If you use too many, even your own character will be unable to talk through certain confrontations, resorting to violence instead because they can't control themselves.

Good point, Alorael. In fact, I think I've seen that very argument used in attempts to disprove the theory of evolution.

When people who are exposed to radiation have children with birth defects, isn't that a result of changes the radiation made to their child's genes? If simple radiation can accidentally cause people to be born with arms they shouldn't have, surely we could engineer this happen if we wanted to?

I played this game for xbox, and wanted to note the similarities between it and Geneforge. In Bioshock, people can alter their genes (not with magic but a sort of science) to have powers such as shooting lightning, fire, or even bees. The main difference is that Bioshock takes place is modern times. Well, the 1950s, but still. The most striking similarity, however, would have to be the fact that getting too many of these genetic modification makes people go crazy. I thought that the fact that this was a common theme in both games was most interesting. Why do you suppose both story writers correlated genetic modification with insanity? Could it be because a large group of Americans have such a cultural distrust towards genetic engineering? I just thought this might be interesting to bring up. Feel free to voice your own thoughts.

I would have played it.

Patrick's Tower. I don't know what I would do without unlimited access to all human knowledge, so as far as Avernum goes, a big library would probably be ideal for me. Patrick seems like a good guy to work for, cool people are guaranteed to pass through the tower all the time, and the area is one of the safest in Avenum (if this is real life we're talking about, I would probably never leave the Great Cave for fear of dying horribly or worse). If I can't live in the tower, I'd live nearby. Not Almaria though, I always imagined that place being like Amsterdam for some reason, nice to visit but you don't want to live there.

Edit: Oh, never mind.

I like the new version. The old one looked too soft to represent the hardened fighters that their race had become. I do wish Jeff had kept the wings, though. Those were kind of an important plot device in the earlier games, it was strange for him to remove them, or, at least, be okay with whoever the artist was removing them.

She really is more a rebel than she is a Shaper in the traditional sense. The only difference is that she is able to operate through more official channels, being a council member. Her methods are still disapproved of by the rest of the council, and she can only convince them to follow her by undermining them first. She really is a rebel in every other sense of the word. That plus the fact that I was forced to do terrible things for the rebellion simply to keep my reputation up with her faction. Probably my last favorite part of the new game.

I was just researching mythical English Monarchs and just thought I'd mention that both Cordelia (of Shakespeare fame) and Pinner were both on the list. Could just be a coincidence, but a more knowledgeable Spiderweb player might want to check it out when they have time to see if they can recognize anyone else on there.

Oh, I didn't realize all that happened. Makes sense I guess.

Sure, I suppose you can. Once you've left the mountains he lives in, it is not necessary to ever return to him unless you really want to. Of course, killing a member of the Council means you will only be able to join the rebellion or the trakovites.

If you fight Sammann outside he can still turn green and use the sun to heal himself (truly shaping has no limits). I hate it when I move to draw him inside/outside and if I don't move far enough in/out, he'll blast me from the doorway and continue healing himself. Then when I finally do get him where I want him I only have a few rounds before he changes to be able to heal himself again. He does more damage than just about anyone in the game (his creations seem to do an unusually large amount of damage too), and I always use whatever my most powerful spell is at that point nonstop, so I always run out of both health and essence in that battle. I hate the idea of using my pod stockpile right before the final battle with Ghaldring, so I always end up cheating instead.

This battle isn't too difficult if you patiently take it one step at a time. Whatever you do, don't head to the center until you are absolutely ready. Head straight North first and speak to Astoria, ignoring Ghaldring's infinite creations, as the Shapers at the gate seem to deal with them just for now. Next move East, taking out the northern two drakons on your way. Keeping close to the wall, collapse the Eastern passage and deal with Greta. Keep hugging the wall South, then West to destroy the southern two drakons. In the southwestern corner, you can enlist a bunch of wingbolts to add to your army, whom I found to be very helpful in the final assault. Back North to Astoria, ignoring the battle happening along the western wall. Enlist the kyshaaks in the corner room by Astoria before telling her to launch the final assault. If you move with your reinforcements and rush for the pylons first, the two armies should all distract each other while you disable all four without too much trouble. Then just concentrate on Ghaldring, since when he dies, it's all over. Edit: I found Sammann to be a lot harder. I haven't been able to beat him yet without excessive cheating.

Did you challenge Addison in conversation or did you just attack him? Not sure if that's relevant or not but if it is a bug that might explain something.

I feel like Alwan is somewhat justified in that he believes the destruction of the drakons and drayks will actually be more beneficial to the well being of other life forms of the world. He's is correct in a sense, though personally I would much sooner take the risk of negotiating with the drakons before trying to wipe out their race. Alwan would probably say I'm too weak to do what it takes, though I prefer to think I'm just strong enough to not resort to his methods.

Thuryl indeed has a legitimate point. I suppose I hold the optimistic view that one day, through either technological or cultural advances, we may no longer need to exploit those species. I feel it is better to hold out for this scenario however distant or unlikely it may be, rather than to wipe out the species and regret it forever. When they're gone they're gone, and I consider that a far greater crime than any atrocity that could be committed against a living species. 'Preserving biological diversity' makes it seem like such a clinical argument, when really I mean it as something more than that. Especially with Geneforge, where you are dealing with sapient species. You would not only be destroying biological diversity there, you would be destroying cultures.

Taygen is worse because his goal is to wipe out a number of species with no intent of ever bringing them back. Meat eaters at least keep large permanent populations of the beasts they slaughter.

*check's Aran's location on a globe using poor knowledge of latitude and longitude* Ah, well here in America, Greys are the generic alien. I don't really know much about it either, it seems to just be a name given to the grey, big eyed, skinny aliens that everyone seems to like to report in their crazy abduction descriptions here. Now they're used in movies and TV a lot, surely you've seen this type of alien before somewhere.

I believe Alorael is referring to the generic alien species from popular culture. One must admit to at least the aesthetic similarities. Though you'd never catch the space men in glowing fungus ponchos.

I know that much, at least, being a fan of Bjork. Is Bjorn a common name in Massachusetts?

Well, I'm not from Scandinavia or Iceland (where just about all your examples are from), and neither is Jeff. Bjorn is most definitely an uncommon where we're from, though I can't speak for you, I suppose. It's also a funny name, probably since a 'b' followed by a 'j' is so uncommon in the English language. Though now that you've made me analyze it, it's not funny anymore.