alanschu

I used body mass because there's a correlation between the amount of force that you can put into your jump and your body mass.

How'd you miss the social engineering equivalents??? :D I suppose there was a bit of charm with the voice overs for the technologies. I like the idea Civ 4 has with making the Technologies less...required. If you want to research something that has two paths towards it, you only need one of the prereqs, so it won't end up with every civilization having the same technologies all the time. They possibilities of different leaders for some countries will affect how those counties are played. Louis XIV will play France differently than Napoleon. And it sounds like they are adding a lot of individual flavour for the leaders, even of the same country. FDR has a very distinct and appropriate style of music, and it's individual to him. Plus, there's variations of it depending on the progress of your era, with it sounding more primitive in the early years, but having a more modern sound later in the game. I guess they're also bringing back the Wonder videos too. I also like what they're doing with the map. You can quickly tell what tiles are being worked on without having to go into the city map, as well as being able to tell what improvements, and especially wonders, exist in a city. I'm curious what the Great Wall would look like Apparently, in an attempt to streamline the game, the early builds of the game didn't even have the city view window, with everything being done from the main map. Although the testers complained, and they added it in if that's your thing (I'll probably be in there a lot ). I'm curious how they're going to work with religion, and I'm very interested in what they're "social engineering" equivalents are going to be. Actually, the more I discuss it, the more I'm excited about this game. And since it's been in development since 2003, I'm optimistic about it being released by the end of the year. On a final note, I've heard Sid himself is taking a more direct approach to the game. While not in any lead design positions (since he was Lead Designer/Programmer for Pirates!), it sounds like he's taking a much more proactive role in the game design now, much like he was when Firaxis was first formed (and Alpha Centauri hit the scene). Because of this, I'm confident the game will certainly be fun

The "3D terrain" is meh IMO though. Did it actually have a tangible effect on the game? It was still a 2D grid that govered the game. Civ 4 truly has 3D terrain (although I'd imagine it's still tile based). And the Social Engineering (which was great) is exactly what they are doing for Civ 4. No more set "Democracy, Communist" societies. You set the policies for personal freedoms, security, and whatnot, in virtually the exact same way as Alpha Centauri. I believe there's 5 different areas with 5 different choices each. One of them is even slavery, which has various bonuses for production. The neat thing is that Emancipation, while having no specific bonuses penalties to your state, creates unrest in all states that have slaves. It kind of makes me wonder: have you actually looked into the game? They are also (finally) having the AI fully respect your borders (since that was a huge complaint), and if you want, you can even shut your borders down if you want to be an isolationist. The only way they can enter your borders is by declaring war. The unit workshop was neat, and I liked building planes that had colony modules on them, but for the most part it just let me build units of specific offensive/defensive values. I don't think this tangibly affects things in a large way over Civilization. My favourite thing about Alpha Centauri was the United Nations stuff. Being able to vote on allowing disallowing certain things, setting up solar shades and whatnot was actually quite fun. And the social engineering

Nope, because I don't care about this movie/sound patch. Furthermore, I see no reason why they would respond to me, when NO game developer/publisher would. That's the difference though. I understand that they won't respond to me, and make no presumptions as to why they should treat me any differently from any other average joe fan. I have zero expectations of them responding, particularly after the sh!t I saw them try to fight through on the Black Isle Forums. But it would have better guarantees of them actually reading it than posting on a message board. Especially if they don't give a sh!t about their fans and never visit it.

I'll start with some quotes: "My hit....no effect???? Must need bigger sword" "Go for the eyes boo, goooo for the eyes!! RAAAAAARGH" - Minsc "I'm a sword ok....not an axe. I don't cut trees." - Liralcor (sp?) "Your right.....I wouldn't shoot a friend" -Sam Fisher "Damn you Avatar.....DAAAAAAAAAAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" -Guardian (Ender ought to know that one ) *note, the first time I heard this one I positively had chills run down my spine....the way the line is delivered is perfect and I just knew I hadn't seen the last of this guy...and the next time I saw him....he'd be pissed. '"Sam, it would seem as though the boat has been rigged with an Alarm System." -Lambert "Don't tell me....three alarms and the mission is over?" -Fisher "Dammit Fisher, this isn't a video game. Just be careful!" :D' Some favourite moments (some of this is repeats from that other thread) The buildup music for the failed copy protection check in Space Quest IV (maybe it was III)...it starts up, just like it had earlier, getting faster and faster, and suddenly....it slows down to an anticlimactic dull pace. Investigating the murders in Ultima VII Investigating the defacement of the statue in Serpent's Hold in Ultima VII Reaching the Black Gate in Ultima VII Defeating the beast in the tetrahedron in Ultima VII Travelling the world in Ultima VII Baking bread in Ultima VII Doing virtually anything I wanted in any particular order I wanted...truly a non-linear game...none of this "it's non-linear because there's sidequests, despite the fact that the plot plays through exactly the same way no matter what, and I must always do plot point A before plot point B in order to progress the plot" crap, in Ultima VII Learning about poor Spark in Ultima VII Pretty much anything in Ultima VII Ultima VII: Part II Dupre's Sacrifice Unleashing the power of the Daemon Sword Realizing the special abilities of the Serpent Jewellry Seeing what the Guardian does to those that fail him The evil eyes of Iolo in Shamino's castle (also sent chills down my spine) Some Deus Ex stuff Virtually everything about Deus Ex Half-life (and just in case anyone hasn't played it, which they really really should) Seeing the cataclysm in the "tesssst chamberrrrr" Acquiring the crowbar Acquiring the pistol Acquiring the much needed ammo for the pistol Encountering a Bull Squid for the first time (holy fark!) Watching an enemy get sucked up by a barnacle. The sequence of events that lead up to the Tau Cannon Some Half-Life 2 garb: The battle against the striders Dog! Ravenholm! The creepy guys in Ravenholm. The fact that Ravenholm scared the crap out of me. The fanboat chase scene when my favourite Half-Life 1 music started playing! Nova Prospekt I could go on...but I won't

My problem with "civ" is that it's old. I played Civ v:1 on a friends comp waaaaaaaay back when.... well way back when for me. I also played it as a rom on my comp a few years back. I also played the living heck out of Civ 2. Civ 3... was an abomination. Between the "same ol' same ol'" factor and the fact they've lost their touch... I've no desire to buy a game I know will bore me. <_< <{POST_SNAPBACK}> How is Alpha Centauri different? I own and love Alpha Centauri, but the gameplay is essentially the same IMO. It's just on a different planet (with fungus!!!!)

That sucks I'll take a quick peek and see if I can see anything, but I'm not promising anything

It's clearly you haven't played the piles of filth out there that are way worse than KOTOR 2. I didn't say THE patch, I said A patch. I could not care less about a movie/sound patch. Again...you act surprised? But I'm sure you on your high horse would admit it if you did it. Did you lambast Half-Life 2 for it's ending? Or Halo 2? Or the rest of the games out there released in the last year that have vague, open-ended endings? Not that I think it's a good thing, but open-ended, vague endings seemed to be the 'in' thing right now. Blame the purty graphics that everyone demands. With the big bux world of the video game industry, publishers are going to try to milk a succesful seller as much as humanly possible. Yes, because it's clearly Obsidian's choice for when to release the game. This stunt is clearly all their fault Welcome to the world of small developers in big bux land. For the record, Obsidian blamed nothing on Lucasarts. And if NWN2 is crap, they won't blame Atari either. Odd. I don't remember any comments about the "oh so wonderful" ending. But hey, I guess it was Obsidian's idea to create all this creative content, only to toss it all aside for the current ending. Clearly, as artists, that would be something that they would want to do. You'd get your point across better with a written letter, to both Obsidian and Lucasarts. Spam their email addresses. After all, clearly Obsidian and Lucasarts don't give a **** about their customers....why on earth would they visit the message board then? At least with a direct email/letter, you'd have the right target audience. But I guess you'd rather tell me how this game is so exceptionally unique for it's unfinished ending, and how you've never purchased a game with a crap ending before or blah blah blah.... Again, if you're so angry.....why are you telling ME about it?

Of course he'd say that.....since MJ12 wouldn't want to announce their existence. So naturally they have "him" say that MJ12 is just a drug induced hallucination. But that's where they win! You have to keep informing the masses. The truth shall set you free! And only when we have convinced the masses that MJ12 is real, they will no longer be able to...

Centrifugal force is the phantom force. It makes you think that you are moving to the outside of a spinning object. What you really feel is the wall pushing you inwards, towards the origin of rotation. You get the feeling of moving outwards because inertia wants to keep you moving in a straight line. Centripetal force the real force that causes the acceleration. F = ma. If you have acceleration, you have a force. It's what changes the direction part of your vector. Any time an object changes it's inertial state, (remembering that velocity is a vector quantity with magnitude and direction....I accidentally forgot this myself earlier) a force is required. That's where Newton's 1st Law comes in (Law of Inertia). Centripetal Force is specifically F = m * v^2/r, and v^2/r is the centripetal acceleration (as shown by equating the two equations to get ma = m * v^2/r where masses cancel and you get a = v^2/r). I would think that that would require an absolute space plane though. If something is static, with zero forces acting on it entirely, then it would simply maintain its inertia. It would be moving in one specific direction and not stop (unless it hit something).

Where did you hear all these "confirmations?"

Hmmm, try renaming them so that the game doesn't find them, and give it a try. If it doesn't work, you can at least put them back without having to reinstall. It's possible the game may just overlook them not being there. Aside from that, I'm not sure how else to approach the problem.

It wouldn't work well in maintaining public support for the war though.

any way to delete them? Or are they on the CD?

Trusting his instincts with the snags you some influence as well.

The ultimate test is to try it on a different computer that still uses an ATI card....not an nVidia card. You changed two variables when you did that (your computer, as well as video card). If it dies on a different ATI card machine, then be pissed at ATI.

I remember hitting a jet with a tank shell in BFV. That was great :D

Units will still get defensive bonuses for being in easily defendable terrain. However promotions can give you bonuses to fighting in these terrain types....which I'd imagine might make you a super defender if you had that sort of stuff as well. I've heard that their new implementation is better for preventing such goofy things as "man with stick beats modern tank division" type stuff.

Not quite sure I follow what you are trying to say.

I remember reading that site. It was a riot. Their rationalizations for everything was priceless. I don't know how anyone could have actually believed that garbage. But hey, I guess it makes sense for Earth to be the only flat planet in our solar system

This is the first game I've played that was so clearly unfinished and full of bugs. Every other game I've played hasn't been this extreme. Those companies had the decency and enough respect for the customers to deliver a finished product.... Obsidian and LA didn't. They shipped the game well knowing that it wasn't finished and they still had the audacity to demand full price. I payed 350 kr. for a faulty product and they don't even have the decency to make available the necessary patches! They don't give a s*** about their customers.... it's just like 'Hey they bought it! We tricked them and it worked! And so what if they complain and they say it's faulty.... F*** 'em! Okay... next project!'.... that's how I see it. They have moved on and they don't give a rats @ss about us! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I suspect you don't have the most diverse library of PC games. Should have been there when Ultima IX was released...Oy! What will you say though....if a patch is released?

It was smart. He needed Anakin to wipe out the Jedi Council to push him further along the path of the darkside. As for the rest of the Jedi, why waste your time trying to kill them when you can quickly and decisively wipe out many of them all at once. I doubt you'd take them out yourself as you say you would. Palpatine recognized the Jedi as his only legitimate threat, and he can only be at one place at one time. With all the Jedi being in remote locations, he's going to have to planet hop, and go around executing the Jedi. During which time, the OTHER Jedi would regroup and reorganize. Sidious isn't an idiot....he knows that catching the Jedi off guard is the best way to eliminate them, not by going after them one by one. Oh, and for the record...I did vote for Mace :D I just feel that Palpatine wasn't actually trying his hardest, but if he was, I still think Mace would have chance. I'd pit them as being pretty evenly matched...one would win probably by chance.

Penn and Teller had a funny show (Bull$#it) addressing the Moon Hoax. Always good for a laugh they are

Wrong. That would be true if the planet wasn't under the influence of any forces. Inertia will never cause a body to go on or continue on a trajectory which isn't linear. To change a planet's orbit you would have to deal with the gravitational pull of the Sun, rather than the planet's inertia. And about Newton's laws, well, every law gets outdated sooner or later. Which doesn't mean it's no longer valid to deal with situations within the original parameters upon which the law was formulated. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Point taken. The fact that the Planet is in orbit and changing it's direction (since velocity is a vector, with magnitude and direction), indicates clearly that there is a force being applied to it (ye olde centripetal force). Sorry about that. And I wasn't discounting Newton's Laws as being invalid. But people place so much weight in the world LAW and THEORY, when in fact Einstein's Theory of Relativity is more all-encompassing and accurate than Newton's Laws, particularly when objects begin to reach extremely high velocities. I get sick of people that often discount relativity since "it's just a theory." It's just a theory the same way that gravity is just a theory. Newton's Laws still work, and are simple to use, for low velocity conditions...which entails the vast majority of events that interest most humans. Even then, relativities equations for motion (IIRC...it's been a while since I took the course), basically look exactly like Newton's, except for the gamma factor. Since at low velocities the gamma factor pretty much becomes 1, it becomes a non-factor.

As taks sort of touched on, the inertia of an object is exactly the same. An object at rest prefers to stay at rest, and in motion prefers to stay in motion and all that jazz. The motion of the planet is in a slightly elliptical orbit around the Sun, and it prefers to stay that way. It would not be any easier to change the motion of the planet than if it was completely motionless (compared to what? Ahhhh, the absolute reference frame...where is it? :D). I funny little sidenote about Newton's Laws and Einstein's Theory. People put too much stock in the words "Law" and "Theory." I took a course on special relativity (I can just imagine the complexity of general relativity), and I basically got the impression that Einstein's Theory of Relativity more accurately predicts the motions of the planets than Newton's Laws. Something about Mercury getting close enough to the sun that either a combination of the speed of mercury and/or it's close proximity to a huge gravity well and therefore affect it's journey through space-time is not accounted for in Newton's Laws. We were always off by a bit :D