Tigranes

You're exactly right. It's a bargaining chip that only favours the U.S. and that's the primary reason they won't get out of there. I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks US troops' physical presence acts as a real deterrent is mistaken about this particular situation. It is an extremely small deterrent. In the case of the Korean peninsula, any sort of invasion by NK would be a suitable casus belli for America and the world - so they don't need "Americans are dying" excuse. South Korea has economically become too important to 'let die', in any case - not 'essential to the world's survival' (but then, US isn't, either), but highly benefitial to the capitalist market. And what with China and Japan all round, and SK's own army, well... no. Not much of a deterrent. Perhaps in the 50's and 60's. Not anymore. Which is why it's sad when you know that a tiny, minuit portion of that American army acts in a way that is less than proper, especially regarding harrassment.

Most items can be put in the chest by opening the chest, then drag/dropping the item from your inventory to the chest grid. I would assume that this was attempted, and ended in failure. Check for any messages that come up at the bottom of the screen when you try this. As I remember, if it's a plot item / undroppable item you do get a yellow message notifying you of this fact. If not..?

That's because all of Darth Vader's emotions can be expressed through a quick fist to the face.

Doesn't say much for those 'other games', does it? Arcanum was alright just because it was so paltry with points in the first place, though it did break later on.. but then, the game was pretty darn open-ended in terms of where you could go. With a game as linear as the OC (as opposed to FOs, TES or arcanum), objectively not relatively it was pretty poor.

I learnt basic when I was 7, I remember it was pretty horrible. Though it still gave me some satisfaction when I could create basic mathematical applications. I'd say that starting with C++ isn't as difficult as it might seem. I picked up one book, some NWscript guides (yes, I know NWscript is different), and combined specific toolset script knowledge with fundamentals and how-things-work from the C book, and was able to do quite a lot of stuff. Standing on crutches, of course, but it did get me interested and I plan to do the same with NWN2, though hopefully with a bit more structure. I couldn't even go out and say "I know C" to anyone, though, really - but even then, it was obvious that if you're willing to stick it out and go thorugh the hellish bug-checking and trial & error, try to understand how everything works and fiddle, it's not too difficult.

For the Christian, it's not a big deal. Whether one wears the cross necklace or not has no bearing to one's faith. Furthermore, if it's a dress code issue it's a dress code issue. To be sure, both sides could try and cooperate more, but still. For the veil.. again. It was only during the rise of the fundamentalist movements in the early 20th century or so that the veil became so widespread. Before, it was a small sector of the Muslim population that chose to wear it. There needs to be a consistency; if the religion dictates one MUST wear it or something at all costs, then there is debate; if it is not required, then there is no debate.

Some hard metal bands are worse than Justin Timberlake. Anyway, try reading the paragraph instead of my one sentence.

A lot of people enjoyed HOTU. I finished HOTU but thought it was just mediocre... better than NWN OC, but nothing to write home about. I suppose I coudln't care less about Fenthick or Aribeth or Neverwinter because I hated that campaign with a passion. It wasn't terrible, it was well polished and mediocre... but it was so 'dead'. Nothing in it had life or passion.

Yes. There's a reason Ive lurked there for over a year. And got my share of meatspin url masks. :/

To quote the Codex: the first official Bethesda F3 image will have the statue of liberty sticking out of the sand. i'm fine with east coast as long as they dont fook it up with all the references to freedom and all.

probably the point in the last paragraph: -> Bush did not act as a representative of the American people. He did not act as a representative of any nation. So where's this 'democracy'?

It'll go gold this weekend.

Hm. If I referred to letsryde as feminine, dunno. I must have mixed something up there. Anyway, I would hope that's not the only response to come out of that post. I know some of you are capable of reading long posts. *looks at meta* I won't even bother to respond to Volo, because Volo is awesome and I will lose.

Not at all. As someone who's fiddled with NWN Toolset before, I can definitely see it being possible. But on BG2's level and scope, it'd take about as much work as BG2. And BG2 was just stupidly big in terms of the work it took. One of those games that actually did most things on the design document. Epic levels are another thing. I've been saying this since the TOB days; the game needs to change at epic levels. You can't have the same game as pre-20 post-20, or it becomes an unbalanced, stupid, boring diabloquest. You need to get some of this epic stuff. I think we can do it now or very soon. Get a stronghold. Lead an army. If you're a mage, actually make golems and enchant objects (not items), etc, etc - not just your silly items to have Continual Flame. Lots of stuff on reputation. That's how you play an epic character, not the exact same person you used to be in the exact same world, just with +3 of stuff. NWN2 could make a decent attempt at it IMO, because it can do all the post-20 stuff in an expansion and concentrate that particular campaign on making it truly 'epic'. Since who doesn't see a post-20 expansion coming?

BG2 didn't mind if Imoen died permanently. I think it depends on the story, and some stories, such as BG Saga, succeeded in one where the main thread can be supplemented by companion stories and companion stories can also interconnect, but they can also be removed. It was clearly designed from fairly early on with the aim of permanently dying / removed party members and their having a big role in the story. I'd put NWN2 down to a little bit of 1/ not designing the story, whether intentionally or unable to, to do the same; 2/ most games not being able to be as gargantuan a project as BG2. edit: speaking of NWN2, shouldn't it be Gold by now? I thought their latest release date was twenty-something of October.

Colrom *was* rude, but that does not destroy his argument entirely. I have every respect for those who volunteer to do something I don't foresee myself having the courage to do; and even if I do this does not make them, individually, any less salutory. And with all that respect in mind, I believe that a soldier's perspective has great value in a discussion about any war thanks to information and perspective only they can offer; but that is exactly and only that. That should not mean a soldier's perspective influences as emotionally in such judgments, or they have more bearing on a principally political matter than anybody eldse's. And I don't believe letsryde wanted to exert that sort of unfair influence, but rather simply express what she felt from her situation. Is us saying the war was wrong, or the war should have never happened, detrimental to soldiers? I don't believe so. If we say 'well it's our soldiers in there now, we have to support the war' then it is a logical fallacy, it is unfair on the soldiers and it is dangerous. To say that a death sentence shouold never have happened, and to oppose the judge's ruling, is not to trivialise or undermine the sufferings of that dead innocent; to say that Katrina aid efforts were ill coordinated (or whatever disaster) is no disrespect to the individual people's efforts at aid. It is a comment aimed at the managerial level and is perfectly valid and respectful. That said, let me enter the current discussion at hand. We've got the death toll coming up again. Does it really matter if it's 600,000 or 200,000? Sadly, it does to the wider world - but should we individually let that matter? Should even three thousand innocent Iraqis have died? No. And the question is not even 'it's better than people dying under Saddam's regime'. The moment a powerful nation such as America illegally, callously and without wide international backing forcibly destroy a nation's sovereignty we allow ourselves to be faced with a powerful conundrum; will we become like those who are so blind in their own sense of right or wrong we seek to superimpose it on everyone else - will we become like fanatical evangelists or madmen, or cultists or whatnot, but with more power? Or will we become theoretically consistent but practically intolerable, allowing what we see as depravities to continue? Both are bad choices; but for the US, the choice was made without public consent, and for the world, without any consent. Why, yes, George Bush was diplomatically elected. But in 2000 he was saying things on TV like "nation-building is wrong", US shouldnt meddle in other nations' affairs, and pretty much the antithesis of everything he said after 9/11. That's the man, who piggybacked the Mission of God stuff, americans voted. They could not have counted for what happened after 9/11, a slow, creeping development of military involvement. Nothing was sudden. I cried expletives as soon as Bush's first speeches regarding the specific elimination of Al Qaeda were expressed, and feared the destruction of at least one nation's infrastructure under Ameircan 'liberator' troops. Not all American troops are bad; perhaps none are bad; and certainly by our standards they've done a lot of good as well as bad. American troops, mostly, are not bloodthirsty or 'evil'. But my point stands, and I hope we can see that. People who cried foul such as I so early were seen as simply over-reacting, and perhaps that might have been true had things happenedd a little differently. As it is now... would Bush have been elected in 2003, if he advocated war on Iraq even without UN sanctions? I doubt it. So who's really in control in this democratic world we claim to build in Iraq?

You can use original music with Tutu. You can also use original UI and original loading screens. The only thing you would miss out on by not playing the original first is those little quirkinesses or exploits that come with every particular engine or production. TBH, there aren't that many that Tutu destroys, if you enable things like unlimited summoning and ranged damage rebalance (and walking speed).

More than two. Volo wins the world.

When talking not about the website but about the methodology of 'counting bodies'; It's a way, but not a good way. Its not as if you have a team of people scouring the countryside for.. uh, bodies. If they rely on public reports, some people will not report deaths. Some bodies will be 'taken care of'. Some bodies will be deep in the countryside or in mountainous areas. If you dont know about a death and the body isn't easily found then you would completely miss that, etc, etc. Cluster samples using people with death certificates run into a similar set of problems regarding 'hidden' deaths, but they draw somewhat closer , if not by much, by getting away from the needless obsession with the physical body. As I say, both ways will be biased. And if faced with 30,000 and 600,000, it will be somwehre in the middle. Probaly 100,000-200,000.

That's true, but in that case what's really the point? Total War games are already full of easy opponents, they dont need more time-wasting fodder. The only gameplay benefit this could have is 1/ A more dynamic campaign map experience with culture conversion, more involvement with landscape, propaganda / deceit, etc. Somehow I dont see that happening in a xpack to a RTW engine. 2/ Guerilla warfare. Again, I don't anticipate such a major break from the design foundations the engine was based on. I suppose they could either give you very few troops (not really fun in this case), and/or have you compete against other European powers. But I've seen waht they do with 'canon fodder' troops in BI and I wasn't impressed at all. TW is for classic European battles and nothing else until it upgrades its engine instruments.

I suppose German developer? I have'nt even heard of the game. :/ When was it released?

Because the only kind of 'covert' warfare Total War deals with is hiding in tress and (to a limited extent) behind buildings. It also deals mostly with open battles with set armies. We're going to either see native Americans line up in a nice line composed of "Aztec Bowmen", "Aztec Spearmen" and stuff (to which I dont really see a point), or ... I don't know. How *would* it work?

Bleurgh. The Total War engine can't handle native American warfare.

I HATED goto. And it's really a stupid deus ex machina how you really can't get rid of his device.

XP had that "cant move OS to other comps" thing but to a much lesser degree. I remember examining it on my new PC aaages ago, before reformatting with 98SE. It wasn't too strict, really, and it was eventually bypassed. It has also been slashdotted, though I don't know how reliable that makes it. Anyway, I used 98SE till 2005, when I wanted to use a couple of Adobe programs (Audition? or their movie one? cant remember) that needed XP for something. I don't expect to move to Vista for at least 3 years.