alanschu

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO OLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

While being distracted in his desire to eradicate Luke.

I've heard that the ending of War of the Worlds is a pretty accurate representation of the book.

Hahahaha. I have played the demo, but I still haven't had a chance to pick up the regular game. I'm too busy being distracted with Hearts of Iron 2 at the moment. And I'm about to dust off my old copies of Close Combat.

Same thing happened, but in the opposite way, for Silent Hunter 3. Silent Hunter 3 gets corrupted graphics from water splashes and whatnot while trying to use the UZO, but ATI users don't suffer these effects...on nVidia users. Having said that, I must be a lucky ATI user. The last ATI card I had problems with was horrible performance on my Rage Fury. I don't get artifacting, I don't get texture glitches, I certainly don't get desktop crashes or stability issues. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I also do not tweak or overclock my card in any way :\

Olaf takes first. Tarquin is second. Jake's a distant third, and Rip's in another Time ZOne!

My favourite part of the Star Trek: 25th Anniversary was intentionally flying to the wrong star systems to take part in some crazy fun space battles.

Glad to see you gave the game a try. They are really addictive after a while. My friend got me on BF1942, and it was great. He was a fantastic pilot (particularly at dive bombing), and I became a pretty good tank driver, able to engage enemies accurately at long ranges while moving. I would secure flags and take care of infantry, and he would provide air support, taking out anti-tank vehicles and providing recon for me. We had it down to a T on some of the desert maps like El Alamien and Gazala.

Hehe here's hoping. I was always disappointed with the level of reciprocation in Civ and AC. I don't remember either game opening up with the planet busters after I did for them. Hopefully they incorporate something similar to the UN in Alpha Centauri. I loved the ideas of proposing a Solar shade and other stuff like that. And having your cities domed in case of planetary flooding was also cool. AC was definitely a cool game (I'll have to remember to grab it when I go back to my parents' place to pick up Close Combat 2 & 3).

I wouldn't consider it a waste of time, especially considering that 26 leaders for 18 countries clearly means that several countries are going to be less developed than others, which puts me in mind of an unfinished game. 468 leaders would be a great idea. One leader dies, and then his sucessor takes over, and so on, like an actual civilisation. Why have five civs with only one leader? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Because it's not the focus of the game. Some of them likely have one leader because finding suitable, secondary leaders for some of the classic civilizations was probably more difficult to do. Particularly for civilizations like the Zulu and whatnot. 468 leaders, given the focus of games like Alpha Centauri and Civilization, would be of limited success. Games like EU2 (which I really like, along with Hearts of Iron 2) can work more with multiple leaders. Paradox didn't need to create a diplomacy screen with animations and whatnot for the leaders. In fact, I don't even think they had pictures in EU2 (they do in HOI2 though), so it's a lot easier to simply have a different leader. I can't remember....but how much did the leaders affect your game in EU2? I know Hearts of Iron 2 they have a tangible effect, but spending time creating music, animations, and all that other fun stuff that adds flavour to the game (which it sounds like you enjoyed in Alpha Centauri) would be very, very expensive. I find it hard to believe that you'd rather have 468 leader names rather than fun, interactive leaders with unique scores and all sorts of flavour to make the game more fun (which is Firaxis' goal for Civ 4.....they're trying to make it fun and flavourful). Trying to have a heirarchy of leaders wouldn't make as much sense in a Civ game than in EU2. EU2 covers the scope of a very narrow range of time compared to Civ. EU2 is supposed to be a game set in an accurate historical time, that plays out in whatever way you like so as to create "what if" scenarios and add a twist to history. Civ 4 is supposed to span from 4000 BC to 2050 AD, and since they allow for nations such as Germany and America to exist in 4000 BC (or any other nation really) shows that they aren't looking for that kind of accurate detail. And trying to find 26 leaders for some of the nations like the Zulu or whatnot would probably also be time better spent elsewhere...like making the game more fun and adding the flavour and whatnot to the game that you like so much. I'd much rather have them continue all the work they've done to make the world seem less static and much more alive and representative of the civilizations that occupy it then spending time researching who would be appropriate leaders for the game. I think it adds much more to the fun to be immersed in the world as a whole than the smaller details. Those are best left to games that focus on them, like EU2 (P.S. I always preferred the Austrians....I'm not really sure why though...Maybe because I sucked with Navies. Ottoman was fun as well!) After reading up on Civ 4, to have reservations about based on not liking Civ 3 seems too narrow of a view IMO (although people may have other reservations about it, which is fair). It sounds like the game is trying to be much more of a "fun first" type of game, with improvements upon the good stuff, and finding ways to replace the "unfun" stuff from previous games. I really like how they are trying to incorporate the excellent ideas from Alpha Centauri as well (really looking forward to their government model!). Never did like the Morganites though. I guess I just found it wierd to play a game where the focus was exclusively on making money. I usually played the Gaians or the Spartans.

No it doesn't. It's 26 leaders in the game. Try to have a unique flavour for 468 different leaders would be very expensive (and a waste of time IMO). It sounds like something better suited for a mod (which the game is also being designed to be very moddable).

Deciding to ignore Russia while playing as Germany in Axis & Allies. Instead of the defacto strategy of blasting their way to Moscow, I captured the Southern States and focused on Africa and Operation Sealion. This severely confused the Soviet player, who honestly didn't know what to do with his huge infantry army in Moscow. It's not a strategy I typically employ (I usually have more success trying to get Moscow), but it was hilarious listening to the Russia player think out loud for what to do as he had no idea what to do in that situation. Meanwhile, my Japan ally picked up heavy bombers and devastated the Pacific fleet, while my airforce blew the crap out of Britain and I blitzkreiged over Africa, securing the very useful ICs down there to build up my forces for eventually pushing towards moscow and pounding G.B. into submission. Plus, getting jet fighters was a boost. Axis dominated with the 6's on tech rolls :D

Agreed. And the best way to make sure that you hit your target audience (in this case Lucasarts/Obsidian), is to make sure they receive your complaint. The message boards (especially if the developer/publisher truly doesn't give a sh!t) is probably not the best place. It becomes like politics. A written letter to your representative carries the weight of many times more people than just the person that writes the letter. It's sort of a law of averages. People tend to find the most convenient way of doing things. Posts on a message board are simple, and will carry less weight because they can be done with relatively little cost to the person posting it. Furthermore, the anonymity of the internet further weakens posts, where it becomes more difficult to trudge through the filth that is junk, and what is sincere. This problem is amplified due to the simplicity of posting. Trolls don't write letters. It's too much time, and actually requires a small financial investment for a stamp. Not worth the trouble. Persuing more professional means of communication reciprocates a more professional response. But how many people here are willing to actually take the time to do something more than post junk on a forum? I'll do it if someone else does? :D But isn't that always the way it is?

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.