metadigital

Dunno Steve, I don't recall it. But there are numerous Expert Systems (and Decision Support Systems, or Executive Support Systems, etcetra) on the market, and some (like Internist) fit perfectly well on a 386, so I don't see the hurdle in making a game engine able to learn. Even if the limiting factor was using LISP (or some other Neural Natural Language processor), the developers could create a seperate "learning engine" that operated either in parallel or batch (at the end of a game) to perform the analysis of the moves and attribute rewards accordingly. Or am I too hip for the room?

Just don't operate it in the bath ...

I wasn't going to be that blunt, but yeah, if it isn't an nVidia or ATi, then chances are it won't run KotOR ... after all, it's a DirectX9.0b game!

I concur; a simple Expert System would learn the tactics from the human players, or from its own performances, over a short period of time. It needn't be a supra-genius out-of-the-box, either, I would find it interesting to watch the AI learning how to play better ... it could even provide lessons for the player, as well, either in real time or on a "replay" (what ever happened to that feature ...)

The scariest thing about Super Mario Brothers (This Ain't No Game, It's a Live-Action Thrill Ride! Can two plumbers save the world from going down the drain?) was not Bob Hoskins playing Mario (how peeved would you be to play Luigi, the lesser known brother of the star of video games world-wide?) but Dennis Hopper playing King Koopa. Or was it that it won two awards ?

:p" <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What were you doing to those pigs, Kaftan?

I used the "higher apes" adjectival clause because we genetic cousins have the mental faculties to manipulate our meta-environment, but I agree that it requires more than the tools to get the job done. A lot of (most) people are quite content to work within a given social system, regardless of their initial position within it. As George Bernard Shaw said, it requires the unreasonable man to change the status quo ...

I applied for the Air Force when I was still at school. Upon completion of the entire day of testing ("Why do you weant to be in the Air Force? Write a four hundred word essay. Twenty minutes. Go."), I found out that I hadn't been successful. I read my debrief report to my brother (who was a Captain in the Army at the time), and he responded: "All the aptitude, none of the attitude." Who cares if I didn't know the difference between a Mig and a B-52? I wanted to fly fast! <_<

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I wonder if the author of that quote is aware of the difference between causal and correlatory?

How can you be an unenlisted crewman?

My German teacher at school pointed out the utter precision that can be undertaken with the language, too. He told us how it was perfectly acceptable to write a sentence that went for several A4 pages. (The closest I've come to such a thing in English is Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding.) As for how they do it, AFAIK they just trasncribe a concept from thought to paper, just as Morgoth noted, above. English borrows more heavily from the classical roots (Ancient Greek and Latin), with less than a tenth of vocabulary coming from Germanic languages. (Trivia: PKD was noted for using the reverse ratio of German : Classics in his novels.)

I love latin; that was one of the attractions to my attempting to learn Italian ...

Another one of my favourites. :cool: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> For some reason; I never liked Animal Farm. Oh yes, I did get the meaning and intertextuality, but I never fancied it as clever as most deem it to be. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Um, it's a very cute story, really. And I really enjoy the weft and warp of the prima facie fable with the profound satircal social deconstruction. Still, it doesn't hold a candle to 1984; that has to be one of the best novels ever written. That's kind of hard to write for when Darth Traya (Kreia) gets killed in both the LS and DS ending of TSL. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Zombie Traya! Yes. This is a good idea that incorporates the

That sounds like a candidate for the animals on the Australian emblem.

I can't wait. There are few who deserve blind faith; Mr Spector I shall allow myself the pleasure of anticipating his next work.

Another one of my favourites. :cool:

True, that and the fact that British pools all seem to be about thirty foot long, makes for poor swim training (I feel like I'm in a particularly franetic wash cycle, with all the spin-turns!) ... And of course most of the beaches are so poluted that they make Bondi look clean ...

Fact is stranger than fiction. As per the Sacculina Carcini, above, the fish don't get much out of the transaction; just eaten! It's more a spuer-effective weapon developed by the parasite, than a good mutually-beneficial symbiotic relationship, so No, fish: bad. My point about the cat toxoplasmosis link is that the bacteria exists in people; we just don't know if it has the same effect on humans ...

) Yes, in the orgy of CGI-enabled Jedi-Sith comfrontation, a.k.a. the prequel trilogy. Of course, they could always make an RPG using the primary protagonist of SW: the astromech! You'd be forced to manipulate / cajole / convince / encourage others to your cause, rather than run in all-lightsabres-blazing ...

Oh my gods, it's so true! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> He's a true hero: humble and unassuming, taking no medals or credit, just the happiness of his friends fates and the contentment of a job successfully completed. He is a lowly astromech that has to work with the incorrigible deeply-troubled and troubling humans of the galaxy to bring about his original master plan, which is not attainable through the meagre powers of a disposessed member of the last underclass ... ... It's such a shame that GL couldn't even leave R2 alone in the prequels: why did he have to give R2 jet-powered flight? <_<

... And was boring, too.

I regard the whole matter as a piece of modern (performance) art: as long as it gets people discussing the subject matter, then it is good art. So, if a few more people read 1984, then that can only be a good thing. (nice pic)

Businesses, when operating at best efficiencies, tend to keep their capital invested somewhere. So, although it doesn't seem like a big deal, doubling fixed costs at the beginning of the development cycle would mean that cash isn't available for something else (whether that's a new title or the Executive Superannuation Fund top-up), so there is definitely a feduciary decision to be made. Are you suggesting the second game would have both FS AND non-FS, and just include lots of narrative paths? Or a seperate "Han Solo" type adventure / RPG spin-off, set in the KotOR universe? Because if you want the former, I'd say it'd make more sense to combine them into one game. I guess a seperate game that doesn't have the protagonist as a FS in the SW universe might sell (heck, SWG managed to do it, without the dynamic of a first-person narrative to glue it together). Certainly I think FS are too over-powered, so a game where they are few and far between would have some scope for real role play and adventure.

Very tough on the back, though, so be careful. Swimming is regarded as perhaps the best single activity (the water supports the body, whilst sapping the heat and massaging the internal organs as you swim). Gotta love an exercise that compels you to finish on pain of death

When you say "takes a turn for the Sci-Fi", I assume you are using Sci-Fi as a perjorative and, further, you are implying a B-grade-film-type-Sci-Fi, as in poorly executed green-monsters-with-bug-eyes? Because a good, well executed SF RPG / FPS is an excellent game. I haven't played more than the demo of Far Cry, I thought it was okay, but I didn't like the long load times and the plot didn't really grab me.