taks

btw, i decided it was better to "earn" the 18/00, then simply cheat in the books to raise my stats as i saw necessary after i started. that way, i at least got to roll for a while, pretending that i got what i deserved. f/m/t requires some good stats, you know... i may dual imoen immediately. not sure how i want to play my other party members yet. taks

eh, battle is painstaking. you have monsters to fight, and then you have the members of your own party to fight as well, trying to make sure they don't trigger traps or run off down the corridor past the three monsters that are ganging up on you to engage a whole new set of enemies... can't count how many times neeshka would begin to disarm a trap, then give up and run to battle the approaching baddies, setting off the trap SHE KNEW WAS THERE! comedy gold. tony k is definitely going to get a DL out of me in the future. perhaps SoZ will have some AI mods of its own? taks

exaaaaactly. short answer: pain in the arse. you're right, sand, and i did not know about the AI mod till recently, but i'm done playing NWN2 for a while. BG for now. gawd i've played that one an awful lot of times... sheesh! taks

they only stay put for 1 round if you have "follow the leader" checked in the behavior AND you don't move out of sight. once you get out of sight they'll stay put either way. i should add, all bets are off during battle as they'll always rush in to do their thing after 1 round of staying put. taks

that gives all 18s, right? no, not all 18s, just all 18s in the stats that i need with average scores everywhere else (so not max-maxing, but avg-max i suppose). besides, if i cheat in my stats then i didn't "earn" them, hehe. give a man a sense of honor, please! taks

turn-based solves all those issues since you go around and set everyone up anyway. of course, then it wouldn't be real-time, either... taks PS: yes, that's what we need, the real-time vs. turn-based debate! haha!!!

i finally watched saw III. meh. i heard it was gory but not as scary/suspenseful as the first two. i found it to be neither and i saw the ending coming a mile away. the first one had that "holy ****" aspect, and the second one hit on my all-time worst fear: needles. when that chick jumped into the pit of needles and started screaming i almost passed out. i couldn't watch. i've heard the 4th one is pretty good. guess i got to wait till it hits showtime. watched pulse not too long ago, too. sorta boring. it seems like my wife and i watched the new house of usher, too, and she got bored and went to bed. apparently it picked up towards the end but i don't remember the details so i'm guessing it still wasn't all that great. i saw the original with vincent price eons ago and loved it, but i was a big vincent price fan as a child so my judgement is biased. taks

one squat for the morning constitutional, maybe? taks

yeah, but i have not time limits and i'm patient enough that i can sit down there and roll all freaking day if necessary. recall, i have a wife and a 5-year old son. 4 hours in the man cave hitting "reroll" is no sweat. heck, 4 hours with a pair of pliers to my left nipple is no sweat, for that matter. i hit 90 last night with a dwarf but he had only an 18/90 STR. i want someone that doesn't need gauntlets of ogre power. taks

oh, btw, for MC's benefit, i'm starting another round of the BG saga. granted, as i recall, MC only plays a heavily modded BG2, but the spirit is the same and i will carry these buggers into BG2. i'm going for overkill 18/100 STR fighter with a 19 CON and 18 DEX i think. oooh, maybe i'll even do a f/m/t multi-class (which means only an 18 CON since i have to do a human). i've never done that before. i just have to roll till i have the uber stat monster (which takes a while). 90+ is my goal since i hate min-maxing. i just want to max-max. taks

uh, the cat thing sounded way gay. i couldn't do a pull-up now if i wanted to. maybe if there was a nice butchered cow thing at the top of the pull-up as a reward... with some chili and cheese on it and some fries, also with chili and cheese. yeah, maybe then. ooh, some of krookie's bacon, too. taks

at the beginning of the next round, yes, they all follow. it's heartbreakingly stupid sometimes. they should be perma-commands, IMO. of course, there's alway puppet mode, but that sort of defeats the whole concept of "AI," doesn't it? you can also turn off the "follow the leader" option as well, but that's a pain, too, since you constantly have to re-order them every time you move and DO want them to follow. i guess progress is a catch-22 of sorts. taks

as long as you don't have sand along unloading every fire-based spell on top of your head (with D&D hardcore rules), yes, you probably could. otherwise, your spellcasters will be feasting on BBQ bard that evening. taks

i'm so sorry, and a bit envious. i probably couldn't drink a case of beer in a month, probably not even a year, any more. i wish i could. to that i am envious. that you no longer feel the urge to get drunk is a shame. to that i am sorry. taks

hmm, profound. i feel more like a bottle of camp soap since i don't use shampoo. i woke up today on the couch, then moved to bed. i cried because of this. why? because i did not wake up in the mountains in my tent as i did both saturday and sunday. sigh... at least i still have the memories (and maybe even some pics) of the drive through cottonwood pass, near the collegiate peaks in colorado. the pass takes you over the continental divide, which is pretty amazing no matter where you are (i've skied across it, hiked across it and driven across it, and it's always breathtaking). taks

overall, i agree, but there are quality differences between manufacturers, which really do make a difference with multi-GHz signals running around on the board. cut a few corners on any one of a number of board design issues and it might not work as well. i think the takeaway that i'm getting at is that someone should at least pick a known high-quality manufacturer, i.e., a manufacturer you've had good luck with previously. taks

Someone looking to put together something cheap that doesn't need high end components? hehe, to which one must then note that needing something cheap necessarily implies the use of linux. hehe, maroons those foxconn folks are. it would be interesting to hear from a legal type on this issue. i find it hard to imagine that there would be any anti-trust issue since linux is free. even companies such as red hat don't actually sell linux, they sell support for linux. seems like a definite grey area here. taks

congrats... taks

yeah... well, i've been posting on BIS/Obsidian boards for nearly 10 years now. yes, sluggo, john has a big noggin. you ought to see him now, hehe. of course, i have a size 8 head, too. taks

tomorrow is the bday camping trip to collegiate peaks campground. happy happy joy joy! taks

well, according to the article: taks

i haven't followed the whole aliens thing closely enough the past decade or so to really keep up on the latest developments (other than the kewl shows on tv, which don't count as "following the story"). whether or not mitchell is reputable is, well, obviously debatable, but i hate discounting someone in one area simply because of his associations in another. assuming such a possibility is true, there are lots of reasons. one, maybe they were told to by the aliens. perhaps they've "intervened" with other species in the past and immediate and full disclosure turned out badly. two, maybe the governments really are concerned that full disclosure could turn out badly. i'd call it a low likelihood that they're looking out for us, however, given my natural distrust of bureaucracies, hehe. i'm guessing something more sinister if it is not option #1. something x-filesish. who knows. if mitchell is correct and our technology is that far behind theirs, it's hard to really say what they would know w.r.t. space travel. maybe wormholes are really possible. maybe faster than light travel is possible. maybe our entire concept of how the universe works, e.g., relativity, is flawed in ways we simply cannot comprehend (yet, if ever)? of course, this is all moot if the original assumption is incorrect, i.e., that there are little grey dudes visiting us (or even in existence). taks

stunning development... i hope it's not a hoax, i hope mitchell ain't demented or suffering from alzheimer's and i hope that today ain't april fool's day! http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5001021,00.html discuss! i should point out that whether or not this is legit, this is one area of "paranormal" things that i have always thought of as possible, but completely unproved. taks

yeah, hamburgers and such. taks

perhaps simply resilient? yes, i'm quite tiny at 6'3", 225 lbs. don't let that cute little mug fool you. i do need to update my avatar. this picture is over a year old. john has a much more sinister look about him now that he's 5. sinister in a sort of "awwww, look at that cute little... wait a minute, what's he doing?" way. i was up last night at my actual time of birth, 1:30 a.m. (though actually, i was born in central, not mountain, time zone), and my wife came home from her pool league and gave me a card. some joke about a remote control that was rather humorous. i felt... vindicated. i made it to 40. wow. taks