Alex
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Originally Posted By: Artemis~ Imo he's probably not actually dead. The U.S. probably has him in custody somewhere. Or, perhaps, they could have captured him alive (I just read that he was supposedly unarmed), but didn't want him to testify in a court. Or, they didn't capture him at all, but still needed a propaganda victory to compensate for the retreat from Afghanistan. There were supposedly casualties on the ground from the crashed (and bombed) helicopter. Not much in the news about that.
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One could argue that the Great Schism of 1054 was largely due to the old rivalries between the Eastern Roman Empire and the West - Rome, Charlemagne and, later, the Holy Roman Empire. The Protestant Reformation was also used by kings wanting to challenge the worldly power and wealth of the Catholic Church.
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So far, I've seen Rawal's and Litalia's endings. For Litalia's ending, I intended to check myself if doing any of Rawal's quests after the required one has any effect on the ending, but I saved over the most suitable savegame, and it would have taken much time anyway. My guess is that it doesn't matter (Rawal got to lead the Shaper Council...yuck). So, my questions: Does it matter if you do his quests when siding with another faction (Litalia or other)? Does it even matter if you remove the control tool if you don't side with Ghaldring?
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Originally Posted By: Randomizer The only change in later Geneforge games was that shops now had infinite money to buy your loot. The early games in small isolated areas had finite amounts of cash at each store. I'm pretty sure I've seen unlimited javelin supplies in stores in later Geneforge games.
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Originally Posted By: Dantius Ah yes, the lottery. Better known by its colloquial epithets, "the tax on the stupid" or "the tax on those who can't do math". Well, for most people, health insurance is also a bad investment if you only consider the expected value.
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Things like torture and detention without trial are supposedly what those undemocratic Chinese inflict upon their subjects. Oh wait.
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Miranda was an important and fairly well-written NPC in Geneforge 4. I got the impression that Alwan and Miranda were comrades-in-arms and perhaps friends, but not necessarily lovers. Here's what she says about a meeting with Alwan: -What did you do when you met Alwan? -I tried to cheer him up. He's always so serious. So grim. Typical Guardians. As if there's never anything funny in the world. Agents see much more of the world. That's why we have a sense of humor about it. She tries to lure you over to the Shaper side. Since you first meet her as a prisoner to be interrogated by the rebels, her name is probably inspired by the Miranda warning, i.e. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." Thanks to Hollywood, many of us foreigners have heard those words, too. In particular, I remember their appearance in a very emotional scene in Minority Report. Some rather silly "Miranda as a sex object" quotes: Originally Posted By: Geneforge 4 She notices that her greaves are smoldering and enlists you to help extinguish them. Originally Posted By: Geneforge 4 Her carefree attitude has not abandoned her. She's still smiling, even in this furnace in the heart of rebel territory. She is sweating profusely, but it looks good on her. I wonder how many hate mails Jeff would have received if he had included "Alwan looks hot. Since you're a bottom, you dream of what it would be like to be taken from behind by a rough Guardian." instead.
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Originally Posted By: Dantius By my estimation, if it were refueled in the air, one B2 bomber would be able to wipe out about 20% of the US's population in a couple hours, more if you factor in the eventual radiation deaths. Yeah, but most pilots, if given such an order, would probably drop all those bombs on the White House instead, finishing with a kamikaze run, just for good measure.
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Originally Posted By: Dintiradan So basically, if the GDP growth slows down, so does the debt growth (i.e. smaller deficit)? And thus if something hit the economy hard, running a deficit would be the wrong thing to do? This just seems a complete reversal of Keynesian economics to me, which is what I thought we were all going for nowadays. No, I think he meant that the important thing is the size of the debt relative to the size of the economy, not the nominal value of the debt. Deficits tend to go up during recessions. Analogy: If someone first has 30k annual income and takes a 100k mortgage to buy an apartment, but 10 years later has an annual income of 100k and takes a 250k mortgage to buy a house, that person would now pay a smaller percentage of their income to service the debt (assuming the interest rates, repayments and taxes are still the same). Link to a plot of US debt/GDP ratio: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...y_President.jpg
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Which groups are entitled to their fair share of what, and why? Granting each individual an equal amount of money is not something I support, but it appeals more to me than just picking a few groups that deserve to have their "fair" share of it. Some people seem to think that it's OK if a few super-rich oligarchs control most of the world, as long as there are just enough gays, lefties, bald people etc. among them. Others seem to think group rights are a path towards the greater goal of communism, but more urgent and/or more easily achieved. In the middle, one sees some kind of meritocratic approach, where only a few "oppressed" groups and "oppressor" groups are deemed important enough. Also, money is not the only thing that some people want to share "fairly". For example, it's considered a huge injustice that men get too many Nobel prizes (but no big deal that Jews get too many). I don't care all that much about group rights, but more about individual rights. Do you have any particular groups whose causes you support?
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Oh, the horror stories from US public schools have reached far beyond Canada, at least they have reached Sweden. However, conditions in public schools here are deteriorating towards US-like ones, whereas Finland has retained a decent level. This has hurt national pride, of course.
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Ideological diversity in a sociology class is something to be desired, don't you think? We say we want diversity and tolerance; preferring the company of your own kind is for those horribly evil bigots, right? I've changed my opinions on many subjects back and forth over the years, so I tend to criticise ideas rather than the people who support them. I'd say the fashion of supporting (or at least pretending to support) identity politics is fairly typical of the educated middle class where I live, and the more left-leaning US of A states seem to be similar regarding this. Your terrifying classmates' parents grew up in the 1970s, mostly (presumably their parents are also disproportionally middle-class, ethnic majority and well-educated), so guess what teenage non-conformism would be for them. Did your classmates really claim that all women want to have children? Why didn't you just provide a single counterexample? As for segregated schools, do you have anything to offer to the majority? Do they benefit from your state-imposed egalitarianism? If so, try to explain it to your classmates. If not, why should they indulge in self-sacrifice and self-flagellation? Because of collective guilt for perceived historical injustices? Or just to be considered 'intelligent' by left-wing radicals, perhaps?
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The first two things that came into mind upon hearing of the withdrawal were "Vietnamization" and this pic:
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Alvedon is a brand of Paracetamol pills here in Sweden, so this was my second association, after Avalon. Also, Tristram reminds me of Harry Potter in plate mail, but at least they didn't name him Lancelot. The skill tree of pretty damsel Nathalie looks like a mix of Geneforge and Diablo II to me. Still, despite the generic fantasy theme, I was pleased to read about the new game, and I'll definitely check the demo out.
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Obama seems as surprised as we are. Then again, they have given the prize to Yassir Arafat and Henry Kissinger in previous years. My first reaction was to ask whether they gave him the Peace Prize for Iraq or for Afghanistan. My colleague thought that maybe the prize was given to the people of the USA for electing a president that wasn't as awful as the previous one. Well, maybe he gets it preemptively, something to live up to. I also suspect that the "Black Man in the White House" part played a role, too. Edit: I was surprised to see suspicion that the committee has an anti-American bias.
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Quote: Originally written by Dikiyoba: I think that hitting the spacebar will end a character's turn early. I think Alt-F4 works, too.
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It can be spread out. The manual seems to be right on this one.
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Coolest thing about Avernum 4?
Alex replied to Punctuation rains from the heavens's topic in Second Avernum Trilogy
I'll stick with the majority opinion - combat is more challenging and varied, at least in the small part I've seen so far. A couple of previously weak skills, such as First Aid, have been upgraded. Overall, a good turn-based action RPG without much micromanagement. Returning to a fresh incarnation of Exile/Avernum after all these years has charm all by itself. I think the combination of good parts from Avernum and Geneforge worked out, although I must admit I was dismayed when the first screenshots came out. -
Quote: Originally written by Dintiradan: There's an option to adjust scrolling speed. As for mouse speed in general, there's the Windows Control Panel.
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A much, much, much greater problem, of course, is the removal of the bikini babe PC graphic.
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Too early to tell. It's been a while since I played either Geneforge or Avernum, so the "Avernumforge" mixture didn't bother me much.
