Alstein

That's a pretty blatant smear job. Reclassification means the ISPs won't be able to tier off content without government approval- in other words, your ISP could make you pay $20 extra per month to access Steam, or Youtube, and if the other ISP in your area matches (and they would collude), your boned. Especially since municipalities are being targeted for bans on building their own broadband to prevent this sort of thing (already succeeded in North Carolin

I was able to get an 8-core with AMD R7 not building it yourself for 1400 two months ago. That said, what you should spend comparatively more on depends on what type of gamer you are- I wanted something that would play next-gen strategy games and PC fighting games well, so I skimped a little bit on the graphics card and hard drive. (and PC fighting games generally can run on toasters, so no real issues there)

Could this pushing of the fans cause issues for laptop gaming down the road?

I'm not sure which is more painless these days, a one-time phone home or an activation. Both are pretty painless, though I hope GalCiv3 doesn't require the second activation that other Stardock games on Steam have (it seems pointless now- only a minor nuisance, but still pointless since Steam does that and there is no non-Steam version anymore) I can understand why Stardock keeps its current system- it's perfect for their non-game stuff. It just

The thing is, in regards to Heavenfall: the ISPs try to block government intervention, because they're on record as saying that hurts their profits. They get more profits by offering inferior service. They have incentive to not improve service due to a lack of competition. That's why the Koch Bros and their ilk work so hard to block municipal broadband. (they banned it in North Carolina outside of a couple of cities) Not sure if is passed, but

I'm skeptical the FCC will do anything. It's going to come down to a bribing contest, or Google's going to have to go national with Google Fiber.

Astroturfing positive reviews- you would have been found out (especially as obsessive as some people were at the time) , and it would have made things worse. It was a good call to not do what you were thinking of doing. A couple of years after all that mess, I actually did get to read the book. I have no clue what those two were on about. That said, the best revenge is living well when it comes to these sorts of folks.&nbs

Actually had this moment last weekend with the ice storm. Ended up just not getting Pizza that day and cooking instead.

The AI can't play them, so I'd rather it not try to.

True, even if a country is homogenous, make it large enough and it will stop being homogenous. (See the differences between Northern and Southern culture in the US- it really is two Americas)

I doubt there are laws against this- because Microsoft and Stardock have worked together before, (Wasn't it on W7?) and I believe Dell has at one time used a pre-bundle of SD products (At least in some form) Hopefully Microsoft gets it right, but W7 is just fine as an OS, and still avaliable, so W8 isn't necessary , and won't be for a few years. Microsoft won't make W8 and W9 both stink, that would threaten Microsoft's position- they ca

So you're saying the South was completely annihilated in 1860? Some areas were, but nothing like modern warfare, and the level of infrastructure in the South was poor enough that it didn't do all that much. A victorious CSA would have been ruled by tinpots with high levels of inequality. There would be no democracy, and the economy would collapse within 20 years. (and they'd probably try to start a war and get stomped to boot) T

Warlock isn't the main competition next year- it will likely be AOW3 instead. This is another reason why I don't think this is a particularly good idea. I'd rather see Stardock concentrate on GalCiv3, and plan a new fantasy IP for 2016 or so. (Fall From Heaven remake might have name value, or a full-fledged sequel. I wouldn't mind some silly faux-Japanese fantasy strat game either)

Exploits to me are things a human can do that an AI cannot.

My opinion is that it should only be brought back as a new game, not using the current engine, and even then, you probably would be better off with a new IP instead, or doing a Fall From Heaven 3.

I'm hoping nothing makes me want a console this time that won't come out on PC. The thing that irks me the most about consoles is that they are pay-to-play for online. (The Wii U isn't, but it's irrelevant to non-Nintendo fans)

what's really needed is buffed lvl 5/7/9 heroes, and when you get beyond that, free lvls for the heroes you get afterwards

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="24" id="3424136"] Quoting glupor, reply 14 Quoting Frogboy, reply 13I am penalizing the dumber AIs by giving them less stuff. This is a significant change from stardocks age old philosophy of a non 'cheating' ai except at extreme difficulties. Not really other than in the sense that the AI is being cheated against (i.e. getting less stuff). I'll be somewhat surprised if people are able to beat the

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="56" id="3422643"] BTW, next time someone says the US should do something because (country in Europe does it) ask them why the EU itself doesn't do it? You want to talk about wealth disparity, look at the EU. Compare the stats of Bulgaria (an EU country) with that of say Germany or Sweden or France. While wealth inequality in the US is much much much better than it is in Europe (again, Europe, not a cherry picked country in Europe),

[quote who="StevenAus" reply="2" id="3423150"] Note, it is still a very small percentage of "us". Most of the LH gamers are very happy with the improvements. But there can be 1000s of people happy, and just a few negative comments which don't represent the majority that sink the ship. Players are not an amorphous blob, but they still get considered as one group.[/quote] One can also make negative coments while being happy, out of a desi

Honestly, I think this is the right call, and I don't mean that in a way to shaft fans of LH. I'm trying to look at it objectively. I noticed some improvements, but LH is still at its core- about war. Probably as it should be. Did seem that AI hardcoding determined warmongering heavily (I'm ok with this, but it was to a bit too much of a degree) I think what people want out of diplomacy in games is a way to prev

Got backup fightstick, Soul Calibur 5, and Tekken Tag 2 for $60 total. Then, I get a deal I didn't want- an $1800 car bill.

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="2" id="3419903"] One of the biggest changes you'll see in the AI is data mining. Simply put, player ship designs and tactics are going to be stored on the cloud so that the AI can do data mining on it. I don't plan to actually design the ships this time around but instead look at the stats of the global player force and pick from that. So the top Drengin player won't be the hard coded AI player I put in but more like the top

The real issue isn't that these countries are small, it's that they are more homogenous, and in Norway's case, has oil riches. That said, just because those countries are small doesn't mean you handwave those ideas. Just because the US is a large, heterogenous countries doesn't mean those policies won't work, or that our current policies do work. If you took this argument to its logical conclusion- it would state that

[quote who="Jafo" reply="52" id="3414642"] Quoting Frogboy, reply 51Who are these "people" who think that the only thing keeping the government from rolling over us is the 2nd amendment. I smell a strawman. Me too. I'd like to think the US Govt is 'above' rolling over its citizenry ....and doubly that no amount of personal gun-keeping is empowering enough to intimidate the world's most powerful/significant Govt. All sounds like &#39