Enoch

Well, as is often the case with patches, that "next week" turned into "three weeks from now." You can now see the change list and get it here. If there's still interest in doing a new succession game around here, I'd be happy to get things started. However, I'll be off on the left coast visiting with my fiancee's family until Monday, so somebody else is welcome to kick it off if they can't wait. In the meantime, lets decide on some settings. I think "Prince" is probably a good difficulty to start on-- the last one was on Noble, but BTS is generally easier than vanilla Civ4 because the AI trades less and techs slower (although I don't know if that is still true after this patch). I'm thinking that one of the new map scripts would be appropriate. Perhaps "Big and Small"? Standard speed and 'normal' map size is probably best. Any preferences on Civs/Leaders?

Radiohead -- Thinking About You

Well, the modern economy is not so dependent on natural resources as it once was. Local median incomes and per-capita GDP is probably the best measure of how well a state or region would do on its own. The Northeast would do pretty well by itself, as would the Pacific coast and parts of Texas & Florida. The rest of the country less so. One interesting way to view the federal government is as a funnel of funds and resources from the parts of the country that are economically productive to the parts that aren't. Places where per capita income is high contribute more to the Feds in taxes than they get back in services. The opposite is true in less developed states-- they get most of the farm subsidies, military bases, federal highway aid, etc, but pay less in taxes because their incomes are lower. If the Northeast seceded, people in the South, Midwest, etc., would face either dramatic tax increases or large reductions in federal spending in their states. (Oddly enough, places who benefit the most from the federal government tend to elect politicians who want to reduce its size. Ungreatful bastards!)

Thanks, I enjoyed that. Waits + Old-school Letterman = extra cool. R.E.M. -- Cuyahoga Take a picture here, take a souvenir...

If I start a new character in NWN2 now, will I be able to take a MotB PrC in the base NWN2 campaign when I install it in a couple weeks?

I'll won't dispute that Giants management hasn't been all too shrewd over the past decade or so, and, every NFL team has a substantial share of dumb players. But have you ever met any actual Eagles fans? You know, the guys who threw snowballs at Santa Claus, cheered Michael Irvin's career-ending spinal injury, were so drunk and violent in the stands that the city had to set up a courthouse in the Vet to deal with them all, booed the team's selection of McNabb in the draft, and routinely trash the best thing that has ever happened to their franchise (the aforementioned McNabb) on local talk radio? By comparison, Giants fans look like Nobel Prize winners. And all the Jets fans in the NY area are either Giants fans who couldn't get season tickets, or from Long Island (pronounced "lawn GUY-land").

Panicking yet? (Personally, I doubt the Chargers are in serious trouble-- they're still easily the best team in their division, and the schedule gets much easier over the next month. But the regression of their OL and the craptacularity of their secondary could be issues come playoff time.) My real reason for resurrecting this thread is to post one of the most remarkable football-related pictures I've ever seen. During the KC-MIN game this weekend, a drunk fan ran out onto the field, and was subdued by security. The security guards got some help from an unexpected source: (Here is the KC Star's commentary on what happened.) (Edit: And is the Youtube clip.)

The shadow-portal thing makes me want to replay "A Link to the Past."

Bowie Song by Flight of the Conchords I like the Robot song. "The humans are dead!" "I think that they're dead." "The humans are deee-ad, It had to be done So we could have fu-un." "Affirmative. I poked one. It was dead." I like the version of the Bowie song from the HBO show better than the earlier stand-up version. The opposite is the case for "Humans," however. My favorite bits from the show are and it's sequel, . Before getting sidetracked into Conchords stuff, I was listening to: Lee Morgan -- Totem Pole

Some Stephen Crane: (I put them in quote boxes to separate different pieces.)

I'll cop to this particular guilty pleasure. Jordan was great at setting up mysteries that his readers couldn't quite figure out, and the world he thought up was richly detailed and interesting (though admittedly derivative). Also, his skills at building up the reader's excitement to a satisfying climax were quite keen (although WoT spaced these climaxes out a bit too much). His writing, however, was weaker when he tries to resolve little riddles he slipped into his work. And his drive for detail tended to kill the reader's sense of wonder and mystery that fantasy novels require. Every time he'd introduce some ancient empire, unusual artifact, interesting minor character, etc., he'd inevitably ruin the mystery by explaining it's history/properties/dress size in full. He was incapable of creating, say, a Bombadil without spelling out exactly who and what he is later on. Fantasy novels work best when the reader has to exercise his/her own imagination, not when they know they can simply wait patiently for the author to more fully explain his imaginings. Really, the series starts to decline after the first 4 books. Nothing later in the books lives up to Rand's experiencing the Aiel history at Rhuidean and Perrin's scouring of the [strikethrough]Shire[/strikethrough] Two Rivers. That's not to say that I'm not still looking forward to seeing the final installment. There are a few little riddles that are bothering me and I'd like to see the answer to... (I'm looking at you, Verin!) (Edit: Okay, how the heck do you do a strikethrough on these boards?)

I'm trying to do some work from home today, and I'm discovering that I'm really, really bad at it.

In the meanwhile, I found the original succession game thread we did. It's still a fun read: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=40269

DOOO IT If we do, I'd suggest waiting a bit. There's a new patch due out next week, and I think it'll be easier to run if we're all on the same page, version-wise, when it starts off.

Back when vanilla Civ4 was all the rage, we had an interesting succession game going on around here for a little while. It didn't last very long (and everything took forever because whoever set it up used a huge map on marathon speed), but it was a neat way to see how others played the game.

Romeo Crennel is clearly following the Bill Belichick Master Plan: 1) Get head coaching job in Cleveland 2) Start a QB controversy 3) Get fired 4) Go back to your old job as your mentor's defensive coordinator 5) Get selected as the next head coach of that team when your mentor retires 6) Quit immediately, and go coach a division rival instead 7) Win 3 Super Bowls. Steps 1-3 are practically in the bag at this point!

The Giants are strenuously objecting to ESPN's report on this matter. (It wouldn't be the first time that Mortensen didn't know what he was talking about.) They maintain that Eli did no major damage, and can play once the pain goes down. Although a "contusion to the A-C joint" is technically a separated shoulder, they say he could be back next weekend. Here's a link to one of the team beat reporter blogs explaining the situation. The bigger concern is Osi Umenyiora. I think he's the best player on that defense, and he'll likely miss at least a month.

Being a Giants fan, I echo that sentiment. Really, though, I think that neither of these teams are particularly good. Last night's game is what you get when you have 2 teams with some very good WRs and TEs, decent QBs and OLs, and deeply flawed defenses. Egad, the Giants Linebackers and Safeties couldn't cover their shadows on a cloudy day. And, as bad as the Giants' safeties were in coverage, the ridiculously overhyped Roy Williams was worse. (Hey, at least the Giants are only paying their safeties a few hundred grand a year-- Roy Williams is stealing piles of Jerry Jones' money in return for his craptacular play!) And I didn't even get to the injuries. You guys lost the only legitimate NT on your team for the season. We lost our best pass-rusher for probably 2 months, our starting RB for at least 3 weeks, and the Battleship U.S.S. Lorenzen actually had to throw a few passes!

The trip was still a "maybe" kind of thing when I proposed a couple months ago. And we're paying for our share, so it's not that much of an incentive, anyhow. But, yeah, I finally stopped putting off making it official. My future sister-in-law is actually throwing us an engagement party this weekend. Now we get the unenviable experience of trying to simultaneously wrangle both of our families. I'm beginning to realize why weddings take months of planning to pull off... Edit: And, to keep with the "what's going on" theme of the thread, I just got frustrated at a faint-but-noticeable irregular ticking noise coming from my computer case. I popped open the side and figured out it was the 80MM fan in the front. Shut down, took the front panel off, knocked it around a bit, put it back (rotated 90 degrees from its original orientation) and now it's working quietly. It's amazing how annoying those teeny-tiny noises can be.

I got an award at work, for a project I put a lot of time into back in July. Yay! 10 extra hours of paid leave! That'll certainly help me save up leave time for the "Destination Christmas" that my fiancee's family is planning in Hawaii.

Hehe. I hope the Bears take him down a peg or three. I've crossed over to the darkside this season and accepted a last-minute invitation to join my brother-in-law's fantasy football league. My week 1 opponent's team features Mr. Tomlinson. Plus, it's fun to see Norv Turner's "disappointed" face.

I usually have my "bad seeds" join a crusade - they get alot of Chivalry points, command points and law bonuses - makes them very valurable in a "short" amount of time .. and if their are somewhat disloyal they usually gain 2-3 points there as well due to being so chivalours.. Besides it's all the more Epic when Roger the Honourable meets Jebe the Tyrant. I once played a campaign as Sicily-- if you play it right, you can get an alliance with His Hatness on turn 1 and a crusade against Tunis shortly thereafter. I put every one of my generals into the crusading army, and took the fortress after a few short turns. My entire royal family got at 5-6 command stars, piety ranks, and chivalry ranks inside of 10 turns. It was beautiful. Has the expansion done anything to adjust the purchase price of territories? (Not the bribery cost-- I mean the price you get if you offer to buy/sell provinces in diplomacy.) They came far too cheaply in the vanilla game. I recall that the optimum opening move for every Italian faction was to buy Bologna from the HRE for about 1000 septims over 7 or so turns. This gives you a city that will earn at least that much (even unimproved), plus a stack of free mercenary x-bows that you can turn against your fellow Italians.

Thelonious Monk -- Well, You Needn't

For what it's worth, please accept my belated "thanks" for your review. I'm still a bit leery about MotB simply because I'm sick to death of the D&D ruleset. But I trust your opinion on the characters & story, which I'm hoping will make the game a worthwhile experience. Now I just have to get around to finishing the original campaign... (My main character stalled at the keep battle.)

Gorillaz - Dirty Harry.