Raithe

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...

And I pay for my tv license and satellite tv... but I hardly ever watch anything except when I download tv shows when they're shown 6-8 months earlier in America and then choose to watch them when I have time rather than when the tv schedule says they're on... What I do find annoying music wise... is that if I go to Amazon.com there are music albums sold via digital download that you can buy for $4.. but they won't allow people outside of the States to buy/download them... and then Amazon.co.uk sell the same albums for

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...

Well.. because the parents went to the police over the matter.. both kids got cited with "underage sex" so there was the illegal aspect of it..regardless of how much it's "teenagers being teenagers". People have lines they'll cross to protect family. Especially dad's over protecting daughters. Dad's scare daughters boyfriends all the time, it's part of the job of being a dad.

The trouble is reminding yourself that there is so much stuff we don't know and have yet to understand. Things change. Science changes. Take the amount of simple "health" issues that have changed over the years, and biology is a bit easier to understand than physics. Given the vastness of the universe, the odds of there being some other form(s) of intelligent life out there have to be fairly good.. but the question would be.. if some alien intelligence is advanced enough to travel through interstellar distances.. why would they want to visit us? Apart from wanting to shut down the obscene amount of crappy reality-TV we've been beaming out into space for the last decade...

Yes.. to consider one point.. the French have always gone on about their higher safety standards (according to the law) for vehicles, but they don't actually enforce them as much.. while the UK has lower standards but rigerously enforces them. Note a few years back when we gave spot MOT's to French truckers as they crossed over, and they were all failing them miserably.. One of the those wonderful "political" byplays with the EU and the French truckers wanting to go on strike... Oh, and unpopular unless you're a French farmer or a Belgian bureaucrat..