keira

(xpost crf) As many of you may know, we have been working on a new server, one unlike what we usually do. This server is a variant of the traditional "factions" server. Two worlds, Efram and Alashgan, compete for limited resources in an ever-cheanging universe. Each player selects what world they will join, and each world chooses their own leadership, rules, and policies. As such, this server is largely considered an op-free environment. Each city is responsible for maintaining their own peace and safety from both nature and the opposing city. Op-interventions will only occur for spamming, cheating, and other such meta-travesties. This server uses a modpack, the URL for Technic is http://www.technicpack.net/api/modpack/eleren . You can access the server at te.calref.net:25605 (this is pre-programmed into the modpack, however). It is recommended that each city makes available 'recruitment' threads in the forum, so that new players have ideas for who they would want to play for. Summary of the new mods: - Biomes o Plenty - New Biomes. Pretty much like EXBL from Sopris, but more biomes - Lycanite's Mobs - Adds lots of new mobs. No longer just skeletons and creepers! - Mapwriter - Rei's Minimap, but newer and better (If you are getting lag and have a bad computer, this is probably the cause. Feel free to disable it) - Damage Indicators - Health bars for enemies. The server goes online in 15 minutes!

now i feel like an asshat my college roommate had to deal with mechanical keyswitches.

I prefer a mouse, or in some cases, a gamepad (Gamecube via USB, to be specific). The touchpad thing does seem a bit off but the great thing about computers over consoles is that you can have whatever weird setup works for you and that's perfectly okay

The problem is that the vast majority of environmental damage is not caused by the average person, it's caused by industrial processes. I mean, it's nice and all that jimbo wants to use paper bags at the grocers, but that's nothing compared to the damage caused by industry. Unfortunately, since profits are usually a bottom line both for a company and for individuals, industrial uses are going to continue to cause great harm for the forseeable future. jimbo is quite the environmental warrior until he finds out his Whatsitcalled is going to be an extra ten cents. A great example of this is in copper mining. Back in the day you could just leave your slag wherever and it was okay. Then at some point the US government decided that that wasn't the best idea and said you had to actually clean up after your smelting processes (those hippie bastards!). This, coupled with other EPA regulations, has made it so that the standard now is to just ship the raw ore across the Pacific to China and smelt it there. even if you end up shipping copper ingots back to the US for production, it's still cheaper. Unfortunately China apparently doesn't care much about pollution, so this process will continue for the forseeable future. Until the US and other countries enact legislation to forbid shipping raw ore across to China to smelt (which, on the off chance it somehow got past mining lobbyists, would probably just result in all domestic mining being shut down), this will continue. jimbo's wont support it because it'll raise the costs of things a negligible amount for him and god forbid we uh dont destroy the only place remotly hospitable for us to live.

i uh guess i should post this sorry Bekora Tiquo Human Mechanic XP: 30 (Advancement 6) Wounds: 0 Fatigue: 0 Power Points: 10/10 [spoileralt=Skills and Derivatives] Agility: d8 Smarts: d10 Spirit: d4 Strength: d4 Vigor: d4 Investigation: d10 Knowledge (Engineering): d10 Knowledge (Geography): d8 Notice: d8 Repair: d10 Riding: d8 Shooting: d8 Spellcasting: d10 Streetwise: d6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 4 Charisma: +0 Pace: 6 Arcane Background (Magic): 10 PP, 3 powers MacGyver: May improvise temporary gadgets Scholar: +2 to two different Knowledge skills Steady Hands: Ignore unstable platform penalty; Running penalty reduced to -1 Gadgeteer: Once per session, can create Weird Science object from spare parts Machine Empathy: Can touch structure or mechanical device to get flash of insight into creator's intentions. +2 bonus to all Repair or Knowledge (Engineering) with device. Once per session, may hold a device and learn something about creator (draw card, Signs and Portents in Horror Companion) Ageless: All negative effects of Elderly nullified. No need to sleep, can make natural healing rolls (1 p/d), receive +2 Vigor rolls to hunger/thirst/env rolls. Elderly: Pace –1, –1 to Strength and Vigor die types; +5 skill points for any skill linked to Smarts Loyal: Bekora tries to never betray or disappoint her friends Stubborn: Bekora always wants her way Parasited: Bekora is host to an Ammat-Xan parasite, and may have to roll Spirit to avoid Compulsions. [/spoileralt] [spoileralt=Gear] Horse Crowbar Hammer 20 yards of rope Iron spikes (10) Shortbow Quiver Barbed arrows (20) [/spoileralt] [spoileralt=Spells] [spoileralt=Chain Lightning (custom power, based loosely on Bolt)] Rank: Novice Power Points: 3 Range: 12/24/48 (+special) Duration: Instant Trappings: Electrical arc An electric current originates from the caster and passes through a series of enemies. A normal success hits two targets, which must be within 4 units of each other; each raise adds another target, which must be within 4 units of the previous target. All targets take 2d6 damage, and Chain Lightning ignores up to 2 points of Armour. [/spoileralt] [spoileralt=Forcecage (based on Damage Field)] Rank: Seasoned Power Points: 4 Range: Touch Duration: 3 (2 PP/round maintenance after duration expires) Trappings: Electrical field An electric field envelops the target, dealing 2d6 (2d8 with raise) damage (2 AP) to anyone who contacts them in close combat. If the target attacks unarmed, add Str+2d6 (Str+2d8 with raise) damage (2 AP). Target can also touch (+2 Fighting) to do 2d6/2d8 damage (2 AP). Grappled opponents take field damage every attacker's round. If target becomes very wet (as in heavy rain or having a bucket thrown on them) field will short out, disappear, and deal 2d6 (2d8 with raise) damage (2 AP) to target. [/spoileralt] [spoileralt=Summon Elemental (Summon Ally)] Rank: Novice Power Points: 3+ Range: Smarts Duration: 3 (1 PP/round maintenance after duration expires) Trappings: Creates an elemental servant under the control of the caster. [spoileralt=Lightning Spirit (Seasoned-rank lightning elemental)] Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Pace: 8, Parry: 7, Toughness: 5 Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d6 Special Abilities Elemental: Having no discernible body parts, the lightning spirit normally suffers no additional damage from called shots. It is also immune to fear, intimidation, disease and poison. Assault and Battery: The lightning spirit can batter itself against enemies to shock them. Treat this as a natural weapon inflicting Str+d4 damage with 1 point of armour piercing. Anything that strikes the spirit with an unarmed attack, makes a successful grapple attempt, or otherwise touches it with an unprotected body part also automatically takes damage as if struck by this attack. Capacitance: The lightning spirit is animated by electrical energy. A very powerful shock can short it out, but lesser currents only energise it. It effectively has Improved Arcane Resistance against electrical attacks (+4 Toughness and +4 bonus to opposed rolls). In addition, any electrical damage that fails to inflict at least a Shaken result on the elemental will cause it to recover from Shaken status if it was already Shaken. Chain Lightning: With a successful Shooting roll, the lightning spirit can launch a ranged attack equivalent to the Chain Lightning spell.[/spoileralt] [spoileralt=Lightning Wisp (Novice Rank lightning elemental)] Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d4 Pace: 10, Parry: 6(+2), Toughness: 4 Skills: Fighting d8 Special Abilities Elemental: Having no discernible body parts, the lightning wisp normally suffers no additional damage from called shots. It is also immune to fear, intimidation, disease and poison. Assault and Battery: The lightning wisp can batter itself against enemies to shock them. Treat this as a natural weapon inflicting Str+d4 damage. Anything that strikes the wisp with an unarmed attack, makes a successful grapple attempt, or otherwise touches it with an unprotected body part also automatically takes damage as if struck by this attack. Hover: The lightning wisp levitates several feet above surfaces and is therefore unaffected by most terrain. It can also hover across any gap that it can cover in a single turn's movement. Capacitance: The lightning wisp is animated by electrical energy. A very powerful shock can short it out, but lesser currents only energise it. It effectively has Improved Arcane Resistance against electrical attacks (+4 Toughness and +4 bonus to opposed rolls). In addition, any electrical damage that fails to inflict at least a Shaken result on the elemental will cause it to recover from Shaken status if it was already Shaken. Small (Size -2): The lightning wisp is a pulsating orb that grows no more than one foot in diameter. All attacks against it suffer a -2 penalty, giving it an effective Parry of 8 against melee attacks and meaning that missile attacks must roll a 6 or better to hit at short range. [/spoileralt] [/spoileralt] [spoileralt=Charge (Smite, modified with increased range and PP cost)] Rank: Novice Power Points: 3 per target Range: Smarts Duration: 3 (1 PP/round maintenance after duration expires) Trappings: Charges a weapon with electricity Increases the target weapon's damage by +2, or +4 with a raise. May affect up to five targets. [/spoileralt] [/spoileralt]

/me sends healing beams and antibodies

Sorry, fixed If anyone else needs a pdn change too just let me know. Some of y'all change your pdns too much

time for me to offer some advice to all the youngfolk that are popping up nowadays if you wear your hat backwards you are a blithering idiot the only thing higher than your waistline should be your credit score the only time you should go clubbing is if you are a barbarian in a role playing game not that you should play those they make your eyes fall out remember, if you post your geneforge or nethergate on the internet its there forever. you wouldnt want an employer seeing that would you always take the bus if you can. jesus took the bus young man dont give me that attitude. if you cant take the bus and have to drive dont be a punkass blasting music. if you have one of these in your car the noise will literally cause your eyeballs to vibrate out of their eyeholes. especially if you listen to that satanic rock and roll. there are even some buses so strong they can carry entire airplane wings and remember, when you have kids of your own you'll need to give them advice, just like im giving you advice. so you should do what i do and head down to your basement. once youre there you can step over all the cats and copies of usa today from 1986 and type up your advice on one of these bad boys. and now i will be handing this topic over to my fellow responsible adults who im sure sure will be able to give some advice as well

Aran's site still seems to be down, so I vomited up a quick chart generator until it's back online: for where the labels are a bit condensed, there's a stupid big version too.

Economic Left/Right: -7.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.36 i cant remember what my last results were but i think i'm getting more extreme. because i really need to be more extreme

that special pointer idea is pretty nifty. i knew about the 300-310 range SDFs being internal use, but are they just used like that because jeff couldn't be bothered to give those settings their own construct in the save file, essentially? If so yeah, it would probably make sense to reserve the whole Stuff Done array to designers, and maybe add another array for internal stuff. hell, just copy-paste and make an "Internal Stuff Done" or something. I mean it's probably not ideal but i don't think filesize/memory limits are really a concern at the current state of computing, especially at the level of resources BoE uses right now

i dont see how what you are saying is relevant but 'how' is kind of important i mean if you cure aids by killing everyone who has aids, that's going to have a different effect than, uh, making a cure and/or vaccine. i mean yeah there's some variable scope to the "result" in question. i guess you are saying from a global scope, if fate's result equals free will's result then yeah i guess it doesn't matter how. i mean i'm sure there are plenty of philosophy majors looking to ponder that and i'm sure i'm too stupid to understand the ramifications of such a discussion but from a standpoint of practicality it doesn't make a difference in how the universe operates at the scope of reality edit because i'm an ass: w/r/t "Our lives are infinitely more complicated and complex than we can [ever] control". Just because you can't control something doesn't mean it is being controlled by someone else there's no engineer on the freight train of life. i guess there's some pretty deep implications there

Maybe it's the point of view of a high-schooler taking AP English I remember taking AP english a long time ago, and it being a small school a large percentage of my grade level was in the same class. i noticed a lot of spillover when these people has conversations with "the unwashed masses" which was kind of funny.

are you actually nalyd's alt account I mean you can go around screaming EVERYTHING IS ARBITRARY AND THAT IS SIGNIFICANT SOMEHOW but when worse comes to worse everyone in the world will try to fight "fate". in this case you have literally zero way of knowing if you are fighting or going along with said "fate". you might be, you might not be, does that change the fact that you'll continue doing things?

consumer-grade routers use your standard "tube" antenna, which beams out wifi juice in a donut-shaped thing around it. many people are morons and "point" the antenna on their access point to the device they want to give the most wifi juice. this is what the wifi juice looks like if your antenna is pointing straight up. if your AP has an internal antenna then it's probably built to be attached to your wall vertically. attach it to your wall vertically. laptop antenna are usually a wire loop going around the perimeter of your monitor. this means for best results position your machine so that the monitor is "square on" facing the antenna. your nose, monitor, and router should all be in a line, basically. also, see if you can't tear out the obstructions. barring that run something like `watch iwconfig wlan0 | grep signal` (linux master race) and see what position gets you the most wifi juice. there's not really any software solution to a problem with the physical transport medium of the protocol. if you are in an urban area switch to a channel that doesn't have everyone and their dog on it (your AP should do this automatically). most of the other settings, things like MTU and such, are fine As They Are And You Should Not Touch Them. also, try getting rid of some of the viruses that are taking up bandwidth, and stop downloading stuff in the background. maybe ask the brother to not stream Important Financial Documents while you game, since video usually has a thing called QOS which is basically "hey i'm a packet for a video and all y'all other packets suck so move over" which, uh, yeah. remember that while a higher frequency means more bandwidth, it also means it can't get through obstructions as well. so if you don't need wireless-n speeds (if you are using a 4g modem, you probably don't) then try turning that radio off and falling back to b/g, which will have comprable speeds in reality, but less packet loss from signal degredation. also it sounds like your internet is coming from cell service which means that all those things i just said about position apply to the modem/base station system too. good luck. it would help to see if your modem has a diagnostic setting to tell you which channel, base station, and such it is connected to. if you cant get that then ask yourself what carrier you have and where you live.

here's another thing does it really matter i mean lets just say im predetermined to get axe murdered. does that change the fact that i am going to try and not be axe murdered? if presented with a situation and you say "WELL THIS IS MY FATE I AM DONE", then IMO you are a blithering idiot. there is no evidence showing that there's a "server seed" for the universe, but of course there's not really any evidence there's not. (aside: hey that sounds exactly like another argument that gets thrown about a lot) personally i think that there's enough randomness and entropy in things that it makes things, uh, random, which kind of throws a spanner in the cog of things. i mean if you want to track atoms and photons and all that other stuff making "pseudo-random" things that supposedly we could track and tell the future with (or whatever) then ok, you go ahead and do that, meanwhile in the land of more useful things we could be wasting our time on.

There's always a choice, its just that sometimes it doesn't seem like it because the other options are all horribly stupid. I mean if you want to say everything is predetermined and that you'll make whatever choice then ok. If I'm predetermined to get hit by a bus then that really sucks, but if I didn't try to not get hit by a bus then why should I even bother doing anything

Go for it

why does the egg have to be as big as the current baby size? if we're popping out eggs just make them a bit smaller and have smaller babies. i mean im not an expert on babies but they already appear to be useless and helpless for several years, whats like six more months of growth thrown on top of that

Out of curiosity, I noticed that your dialogs are styled using CSS. That's done through SFML, right? What does it use as a rendering engine (i.e. would we be able to do fancy css3 stuff with dialog elements?)

aaaaaa so many commits :sybeam: I'd volunteer to help out with dialog conversion, but unfortunately I don't have any way to do Mac development. So unless I figure out how to virtualized an osx, I might only be able to help from a logistical standpoint

The ones Jewels made go very nicely with the inventory menu buttons. Maybe make the onclick effect match as well?

Hmm, I don't use irc much, but I might pop in from time to time. I usually spend all day in the calref xmpp lounge, though.

Hmmm...what are the technical limitations of the engine? Would it be able to accept alpha-channeled PNGs? If so, I have a neat idea I could try and make happen. Edit: sniped, nvm. Jools's look better than my idea.

Semi-related: I recently watched a TV miniseries called Generation Kill which was a TV adaptation of a book by a Rolling Stones reporter who was embedded in a USMC unit when they went in and did the whole Iraq thing in 2003. Curious if any military SWers have watched/read it, and what their thoughts are on how it portrayed the invasion?