Raithe

I keep waiting for more news on Tron Evolution... now since it's supposed to be out before Tron Legacy hits the cinemas. (which it does in early December-ish).. I've been expecting to hear a little bit more about the game then is so far out....

Hm, as I recall.. Tzimisce FLeshcrafting... If you've got Vissiccitude at a high enough level, there's an ability that lets you conglomerate several different people/creatures into one being.. (there's also a Ritualised version using Koldunic Sorcery that does the similar). If you ghoul someone/thing by feeding them blood, they still need access to regular food, but they will start to get an appetite for more..bloodier things. Generally turning a little more predatory. But remember, the bigger the creature is..the more blood its going to require from you regularly to keep it ghouled... There was a Tzimisce Methusaleh who created the Cathedral of Flesh over millenia that sounds like what you want to do in a smaller scale.. and that actually fed by catching/eating animals/insects etc that wandered in... but that's going to be a little harder to try in London. I'm guessing you'll be playing in the modern day setting? The Victorian London is quite fun as well and had a few useful London maps.. Also one point to consider, if you're planning on really playing around with fleshcrafting in that sort of sense beyond the casual "yank and tuck" approach.. you will need to put some skill points in medicine to get a grasp of anatomy and such.. You can stretch the flesh and viscera, bone and sinew all you want (and it can be fun) and while the supernatural resilience of ghouldom helps.. you still need to keep some form of organs working... It's just that in mass-monsters you can have multiple hearts/lungs/stomachs etc all connected up in one big glorious mind-bending creation... Oh and since you're going Tzimisce, remember you could have access to the Revenant families.. (ghoul bloodlines the Tzimisce have cultivated over millenia...)

To be fair.. DA2 is meant to start off shortly after Lothering was razed.. so , hm, The Arch-Demon was around, and wasn't killed for some time.. So Hawke and family have escaped from Lothering and were fleeing elsewhere when they get attacked. With the whole.."narrative trick" that Bio seem to be pulling, let's make a stab at it and guess you have the exagerating storyteller talking about the Arch-Demon turning up..because some dragon-type arrived on the scene.. and since it's not that heroic that "Flemeth, that manipulative and quite possible evil witch-woman turned up in Dragon form and saved the hero's ass in exchange for future favors.." the story gets shifted into "the arch-demon turned up looking like a dragon".

Hey, Romeo Must Die is an amusing film. Maybe not a "good" film, but it's entertaining all the same... Aaliyah was a bonus for it.. and she's about the only reason to watch Queen of the Damned..

Something that's a more "general" approach rather than Roman specific.. I've got a copy of The Timecharft of Military History. I'd recommend it. The first half of the book is a continuous timechart from 3000bc to modern day, divided into geographical regions (The Americas, Europe, The Middle East, South-East Asia, India, China and Japan, and Africa), and listing key battles, the generals who fought in them, the kingdoms/empires/nations that were in existence at that point in time, and assorted useful info.. The second half is more of a breakdown, brief biographies of the "great commanders", key battles, and including a variety of maps of said battles, and a few further in-depth flowcharts of specific wars. Great for getting an overview, and narrowing down specific information to look into and research elsewhere.

To be fair to the French.. they actually had a much better reputation (military speaking) before the 20th century... With a couple of standout moments ..Quebec... Agincourt... They were actually quite competent for a fair few centuries. Although one of the funky things of historical posits.. If the French king hadn't spent so much money supporting the American Revolutionaries to spite the English, the French economy wouldn't have gotten so screwed.. and that, combined with the shining example of the American Revolution succeeding, was a big factor in the French Revolution kicking off.. which led to Napoleon rising to power. It can be interesting to trace some causes and consequences back..... The tv series Rome, yes it is good at providing the general sense and feel of the times..but they did mash up some of the history and characters a fair bit as it ran on..

I have to say.. the parents have to shoulder a large portion of the blame for the way that girl turned out / self-destructed / got pushed along...

It's always nice to see such careful thought put into responses..

And in fact a lot of the scientists of the day received funding from the Roman Catholic Church. I know it's a popular stereotype that the church was purely anti-science over the course of the middle ages and into the renaissance.... but that's more "mythic" then actuality. They had good days and bad days.

Hm... I just can't seem to keep playing more than an hour without taking a break from Civ V... Which just feels wrong for a game of Civ...

I recently came across this blog by an author I enjoy (L.E.Modesitt, Jr) and it made me ponder on this... I was curious what other forumites might consider on the art of political compromise in the 21st century..

I managed to keep my City of Heroes going for two years before letting it slip away..... I think the next mmo I'll dip my finger into will be SW The Old Republic.. just to see how it handles.. and to practice my SW Geek-on.. But thats safely some time away..

Your hemorrhoids are flaring up again, eh? The proper response is "How appropriate, you fight like a cow." More the being kept running on various other things that the joy of life has been pelting me with... Although I have to say.. I managed to get in a couple of hours on Civ tonight... but I'm just not getting the old, addictive, "just-one-more-turn" from it...

I look at it as the bigger the culture.. the harder it is to adjust the cultural thinking.. Which is represented by the increased cost to those cultural aspects...

Of course... with the release of the "Ultimate Edition" of DA.. that combines with DA:Awakenings, and every single piece of DLC.. for the price of $60... How many people will this encourage to wait an extra year or two for the Ultimate Edition of DA2...

That makes 0 sense to me.. the larger you are > your world culture should be not less. But to get the Cultural Victory you need to complete 5 of the trees of "Tradition, Freedom, Liberty, Honor, Piety" etc.. and for every city beyond the first.. the total cost for each new one is increased by 15%.. So the more cities you have..the more is needed and the longer it takes... The question is where you can find the balance.

Technically.. I should be playing some Civ V... but I haven't been able to really sit down with it since last Friday...

Never knock the good effects you can get reading a book to a lady... especially in a comfortable, but slightly intimate setting.

Frankly I stopped shopping at Game years ago.. their selection of pc games was minimal.. a couple of shelves amidst a store of console games. That's what started me using Amazon to pick up my games...

Hm, 3.5 Eberron? If Eberron, Goblinoids have the whole.. Grand Ancient Civilisation fallen to ruin.. so Goblins can work as pc's... If you're working with a warforged.. I'd say pick a level or two of Artificer to help out on the "repair/craft" side of things. Whether Mounted Combat would work in that position.. that's something you'd have to talk with your GM about. Some guys I know would allow it..others wouldn't. It'll come down to GM fiat. I'd say Ride & possibly Balance and Climb would be useful skills to have depending on how small your character is and how big the Warforged you're climbing up and down on... Although you have to remember Warforged are Intelligent. They aren't just Golem types.. They're a playable pc race... So is this warforged another party member, or some npc type?

Isn't that all part of the fun of gaming?

Hey, the "we advanced aliens can't commit warfare for ethical/philosophical/neurological reasons, so we're here to get you humans to fight for us" has been used in way more sci-fi then just ADF's... Really? Which ones? I just like the notion that to some other species, I'm an ogryn. Tanya Huff's Confederation series.. - The Elder species are involved in a war and find humanity , offering to "uplift" them if they're willing to serve as military because as "advanced , moral beings they can't physically handle combat themselves.". They later discover a couple of other "young species" which can fight, but since humanity was first, it's the reason the Confederation Military is based around Human Marine design... A few of the Baen authors have done similar.. John Ringo's Alldenata saga for one (mm roast-suckling damn-beast...) Way more might sound hyperbole now.. but my memory has decided to blow chunks .. I know I've read a batch over the years that have used that to some degree or another.. .

Eh, I don't think it was a great roleplaying game... but it was a fun cinematic game. It might not have satisfied my rpg itch..but I had fun with it, and enjoyed more of than I disliked. And that's the key point about a game. I can see what I consider flaws..but it was still fun.

Hm, now I've only managed to play a few hours of Civ... but I'm finding the computer seems to take an awful long time moving other civilizations... It feels like I'm spending more time on the "waiting for other civilizations" than I am on my own turns... Almost as if I was doing a multiplayer on CivIV rather than a single player game.. Anyone else noticed this or do I just have too much junk running?

One thing to consider.. if that's the "opening sequence" of the game, we've already been told it's the insane, over-the-top, hero-kills-with-a-touch ...before you get the flash to the storytellers arguing over how it really went.... and then it goes back to more "realistic" combat. Or at least, not so crazy-anime-uber-killer style. Until there's more shown about both sides of the coin...