madrigan

Just for fun, here is Google Translate's Latin-to-English translation: Hello world! is here to cancel meals. Preset congue fear. Product lor but by arrows for Consequat viverra.

Originally Posted By: The Mystic Originally Posted By: madrigan No learning is useless. Then could you please tell me what profession makes use of diagramming sentences? This question has been answered by others, but my point is that no knowledge needs the justification of a relevant profession. Knowing more makes your mind and your life bigger, even if you never use it at work and it never makes you a single cent. I hated diagramming sentences too. I could almost always tell if a sentence was constructed improperly, and how to fix it, but I could rarely tell you the grammar rule that made it so.

Originally Posted By: Soul of Wit What the Romans said about the Titans: conculcent occidere manducare I think it's funnier in english

I think someone mentioned it on a "Favorite Lines" thread. But I'm on my second playthru and it was funny this time, too.

I couldn't see the shimmering either. The first time I tried this fight, I gave up after 10-15 min of accomplishing nothing. The second time, I discovered that you can use the mini-map to figure out which Zhossa is the real one. When you get the message that you have damaged the real Zhossa and he has disappeared, watch the map for the next one to appear. That should be the real one. Or, this doesn't work and I was lucky. One tactic that seemed to work in conjunction with the map was using the Rod of Attraction to draw all the Zhossas in close, and then blasting them all with multiple area attacks. With luck you will pop all of them and that makes it easier to see what is appearing where. It helps if you have a hellhound to pitch in.

As far I know you do not control the combat order. It is related to dexterity and possibly level.

Isn't there a point in one of the recent Avernum games where you can flirt with an NPC? I think one of the dialogue options is "Is there anything else at all I can do for you?" or something.

Originally Posted By: Horror wears a human face There are also people who are just misinformed, unaware of their own errors, and who would benefit from an argument as well. Don't write people off for being ignorant; that's curable. Being vicious isn't, but don't attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity, as the saying goes. This may be somewhat true in the case of the young, but in an industrialized democracy it's mostly myth. Most ignorant people are ignorant by choice. Nearly everyone has access to actual information on the Internet or at a library. They can choose to avoid those things, or use them to acquire falsehoods, or to learn facts. When facts are scary or inconvenient, many people simply choose to believe lies. This is why it's a waste of time to argue with people who have decided to believe something ridiculous, unless you are doing it just for your own edification.

Originally Posted By: Lt. Sullust Most of what you learn in highschool will turn out to be useless. You might disagree with your Algebra 2 teacher, but really it's more important that they know how to use available technology to get the answer they want. In the real world you're just going to flip out your phone and plug it in anyhow. No learning is useless. All of it is good for your brain, and all knowledge can enrich your life. Learning is good for more than profitability.

Originally Posted By: Clocknova But then again, it seems that this whole game is about questioning my status as an unfeeling agent of an all-powerful institution. My comrades have each already acted in ways that a Hand of Avadon typically would not, and I have assisted them in doing so, meaning that my past behavior is already outside the norm for an agent in my position. Perhaps I am finally fed up with everything and have decided to take a stand right here. It could happen. It does happen. If I had been put through what my poor character has been put through, I might just snap and decide to go Rambo on these bad guys. You never know. Heh, that's true. But the game is very frustrating if you approach it that way, as you have noted. I will also note that Rambo did not snap because he had begun to question the government or the military, but because a bunch of badged thugs decided he wasn't good enough to buy a sandwich in their town and then subjected him to physical abuse. Also, he didn't go suicidal. He proceeded very rationally once he decided to fight back. He very specifically did not run right at the National Guard troops. I suppose it would be cool if your character could go rogue and escape into the wilderness, and then wage a one-man guerrilla war against Kellemdriel, but that's a bit too much to ask from this game.

Originally Posted By: Clocknova However, since I tend to place myself in the role that I am playing, I prefer to make in-game choices based on what I would do in that situation, not what I think some other person whose movements I am controlling would do. That Blademaster on the screen there is me. Would I run, or would I make my betrayer answer to my blade, no matter the consequences? Of course, in real life, if I were being hunted by an entire army of men and beasts, I'd run my ass off. But the idealized me that inhabits whatever RPG I happen to be playing would never, ever do so. You can envision your character however you like, of course, but I think the complete question is not, "What would the idealized me do?" but "What would the idealized me do if he were a Blademaster from Avadon under these specific circumstances?" The Blademaster is not a Klington warrior or a lost soul with a death wish. He's a highly trained elite government agent. Is running towards an army and getting killed what a RW example of this sort of person would do? A C.I.A. field operative, or a Special Forces soldier? I think it's not, because if you are killed in this way you cannot complete the mission. Obviously, it's none of my business how your conceive your character. If you want to stipulate that your Blademaster is a time traveler or a Wookiee, that's up to you. I do think, though, that the game world limits what characters make sense. So I'm just suggesting this because this approach helps me enjoy the game.

You can try to educate your sociopathic peers, but don't do it for their sake. You are in the class to learn the material and get a grade. If arguing with them will help with those things, then do it. Otherwise, don't bother unless you just want to sharpen your own arguments. You will probably get more out of talking with the instructor than you will out of arguing with people who are grossly, and perhaps willfully, ignorant. In my experience, there are some people who just won't understand what you are talking about, because they are incapable of empathy or because they are happier being ignorant and vicious. Don't spend a bunch of energy on them. Spend it on yourself and on other people who share your values. As you get older you may find it easier to minimize your interaction with the kinds of people who drag you down.

While attacking the Titan stronghold, the Monitor in charge of the Kva troops was killed. Once we reached the entry to the inner fort, I was informed that the soldiers blamed me for the death of their leader, and then they just left me there. (Of course, I knew that they would have done that even if the assault had gone perfectly. But anyway.) As the soldiers walked off, one of the archers took a path such that a wolf inside the fort entered his "field of vision." He returned to the fort and helped me kill a few things, then left. Truly, the warriors of the Kva know how to put duty ahead of their personal feelings.

Originally Posted By: FnordCola The world needs to push back, and behave like an actual world, in order to give the decisions I make any meaning. If I try to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring, I ought not succeed simply because I am the protagonist, and if my small, elite squad charges an entire damn army, they ought to get the Bolivian Army Ending they deserve. I believe A4 and 6 had an automatic "YOU DIED" ending if you attacked the King.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Originally Posted By: Clocknova ...but I still hate that moment. It's lazy writing. I love Jeff's games, but I'll always hate that. It's why I loved Morrowind. Story? What story? I want to go fishing then go cave diving then go swimming then climb that mountain then kill that guy then be a pirate then join a guild then. . . You get the idea. Wait, how can you complain that having one plot track is lazy writing, then advocate having no plot track? I understand why some people might prefer one or the other, but it seems pretty vain to me to say that writing is lazy just because something about the story's format is not how you like it (in this case, linearity). Perhaps we should distinguish between lazy writing and lazy design? I don't think this is either, though. Personally I just assume that since the characters don't know they are in a game, they have no way of knowing what is going to come out of that castle, so they would run until they know what is going on. At this point in Avadon, the characters don't really know who has framed them, or why. And from their perspective, combat isn't turn based, so there is no time to think about it. Better to flee until you can return in a somewhat more favorable tactical position.

Ok, so Avadon II in 2013?

Is there a time frame on the new Avernum versions?

That's true, I recall reading that some units in Vietnam had a designated guy who was particularly good at finding things like this. But the base equipment Avadon gives Hands is like the U.S. Marine Corps sending their infantry out wearing baseball caps, armed only with revolvers, and then expecting them to scrounge or buy rifles, ammo, and transport to Iraq. Avadon's practice is so extreme that I don't think it can be compared to the RW phenomenon you're describing. The amount of resources necessary to train a hand must be very large, it makes no sense to underequip them so severely. They do get infinite arrows and shuriken, though. And Avadon doesn't consider the Hands to be underequiped. It's intentional. That is quite different from RW military units where a unit is underequiped because of cost or incompetence. The idea of giving your elite troops inadequate gear as a matter of policy seems so ridiculous that it takes me out of the fantasy a bit. Really the only Spiderweb games I've played where it makes sense for the characters to have lame gear are A1 and maybe A4 and G4.

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan I refuse to buy the game when it comes out on Windows unless someone can assure me that I can punch at least one reporter in the stomach. You have to hit Shift-Seanpenn

If Avadon is going to be stingy with equipment, then it's inevitable that the Hands are going to take side jobs, all or some of which represent bribery depending on your point of view. I know there's an in-game explanation for why I have to buy or find most of my own gear, but I don't think I buy the explanation. If you underpay or undersupply your elite agents, they are going to beg borrow or steal in order to get by. Has any real-world military or government agency operated in this way, when it was operating properly? These days some American soldiers have to buy some of their own gear, but that is seen as an organizational failure, not as a way to motivate the troops. I know that in some ancient and medieval cultures soldiers had to supply their own weapons and armor, but that meant you had to be affluent to be a soldier. Avadon recruits people from all economic classes to be Hands, and then won't give them all the gear they need. It would be more surprising if there wasn't much bribery.

You have to admit, though, their behavior isn't unrealistic.

I think the question is more properly "Avadon right or wrong?" Though Redbeard has run Avadon for most of its existence, I think that his style and methods are most likely the product of the particular legal, political, and historical circumstances within which Avadon was created. The structure of and relationships between the major institutions -- Avadon, Council, and Pact -- severely constrain the approaches which any Master of Avadon can take. Avadon has been granted almost unlimited freedom to act as it sees fit in pursuit of its mission, the member nations are mutually hostile and culturally rigid, and the Council is apparently incapable of action. Given the power and responsibility that has been granted to the Master, and the fact that the alternative is much worse, I don't think Redbeard could do things very differently. This is unfortunate, but it is more a reflection of the game world as a whole than of Redbeard's character. The moral issues that disturb me are not related to Avadon's overall mission, but to some of the smaller-scale details. The cultures of Lynaeus apparently consider torture morally justifiable. None of them like it when they're the victims, but few people seem to actually be against it. There is also a general acceptance of revenge killing and of open belligerence for its own sake. I think these sorts of things are immoral and corrosive, but again, Avadon's use of torture and extrajudicial killing isn't Redbeard's unconstrained choice, it is what's expected. Actually I'm not sure there is "judicial killing" in Lynaeus. On the other hand, it appears that almost everybody thinks bribery is inherently wrong, so presumably it is simply Redbeard's choice to allow it go on. He may be expected to seize, kill, and torture people, but bribery is not acceptable. This seems odd to me, but the game world is quite different from our own. Representative democracy is not supported by the majority, even in principle. The Kva has a detailed legal code, but it doesn't seem like any of the other nations do. Even the people of the Wyrldrym, who appear to have the most egalitarian culture on the continent, are violent and vengeful. So in short I am comfortable supporting Redbeard under the present circumstances, because I think the alternative is worse. However, I think that a three-hundred-years-in-the-future Lynaeus with the exact same system would be headed toward a general collapse.

Thanks. Odd, I went through the whole Wretch Warrens mission. You know, I think I got the Neray quest after I did the Wretch Warrens. I shall return to the site of my earlier success.

I have the quest from Tartram to find Neray. I traveled to the location near the dragon's cave in the Jhereth Deeps where I encountered her last time. She isn't there, and there's no trap door. Am I remembering this wrong?

Yes, yes, Master1 is young and doesn't know everything. All young people are like that. I'm well into middle age and I'm still pretty ignorant, just like everyone else I know. It doesn't do any good to repeatedly lecture the boy/girl. Life, not strangers on a computer game forum, will teach him/her how to live. He/she wants to have a nicer computer. That's an unimportant thing in the context of the universe, but so is the precise terminology used by a young person when discussing hardware and whether we have made sure that the young person really and truly understands socioeconomic class and personal finance to the satisfaction of Spiderweb forum posters.