alway

They are probably special homing cannonballs then! Or magnetized so the gunpowder attracts them like in Indiana Jones!

The only reason they hate it is it has a tendancy to change more rapidly and a previous version of a page is not easily accessable. Which means you could be plagarizing for all they know. As far as accuracy, a study done by Nature 4 years ago came to the conclusion it was really no less accurate than Encyclopedia Britanica. Oh, and happy Pi Day! 3.14159265358979323846264338

If all else fails, wikipedia it! According to the wiki article on rapiers, they were meant for 'civilian self defense and dueling.' They were known in Spain as a 'dress sword.' So they were essentially the equivalent of a child's BB gun. They were meant for show rather than use, and while they could be used, they were really not effective as an instrument of death. They only had to be light and fast, since they were meant to be a person's only defense in both civilian use and in a duel. On th

[quote who="weissengel86" reply="8" id="2099753"]I think we fell into the second dark ages once we started using CE and BCE instead of AD and BC. Our Dark Ages have only just begun people think the middle ages were bad wait until PC police become a government agency. Technology, especially networking, makes centralization of power easier not harder. I think society and technology will radically change in the future so science fiction beyond the next 30 or so years is completely speculative.<b

I have also seen a ship 'just explode.' My guess would be a good ol' cannonball up the exhaust po... er, gunpowder storage room. That is a problem in ships of the era... wood + flamable materials for coating the wood + room full of gunpowder = mild fire hazard. Oh, and Phalnax, of course he has an account to play online with! After all, the game requires a Steam account to install.

[quote who="Parasky" reply="4" id="2098417"] 2000 years ago it was 9 AD. Beginning to understand civil life? The Roman Empire was at its peak! And the Romans are anything but primitive. [/quote] Yes, the problem with western history is we did fall into a dark age. The world essentially fell apart around 300-400 CE with the fall of Rome and really did not begin to progress again for 1000 years. If you really look at things, progress didn't really start to be made a

Far Cry 2 - Looked pretty, but the gameplay is horribly repetetive.

I tried the trial (10 days I think?) and couldn't even stand playing it after the 2nd or 3rd day. Traveling just takes way to long, even for the required 'learning' missions. On one mission I forgot various components (it did not inform me they were needed) and so had to spend 3 hours going back and fourth between a pair of stations in different systems. 3 hours during which autopilot did EVERYTHING. The game has long travel times for balance... But they should at least give you something to

I personally am starting with C++ and got a very helpful book which IMO does a great job of explaining the concepts. "Beginning C++ Game Programming" by Michael Dawson. Unfortunately I have been unable to get a decent book concerning Direct X programming with C++, something which is needed after that book since it only deals with running out of comand prompts. Oh, and avoid "Beginning DirectX 10 Game Programming" by Wendy Jones. It has caused me nothing but headaches. Even the example program

I wouldn't be suprised to see Mars colonies appear before 2050. After all, that is the goal of the new NASA craft 'Orion.' NASA hopes to get to Mars by 2020, and so at most it will take until 2030.

[quote who="General Homsar" reply="5" id="2096191"] I think you're being a tad extreme here. We humans have a violent history--I'm not denying that--but the discovery of alien life would be momentous. I mean, we'd have to be pretty scientifically adept to explore space in earnest, right? So why would we spend centuries researching interstellar travel, build a starship, and go all the way to another planet just to kill the natives? I think we'd at least study whatever we find,

[quote who="Phalnax811" reply="2" id="2096066"] I think we will find other life out there somewhere. This discovery (mutual? sentient?) will stir people's emotions to want to colonize space. We have killed this planet far too long. We should colonize ones already dead if not space itself (space stations). Then if we come in contact with sentient advanced aliens, we better hope they are friendly or the movies like Independence Day, Starship Troopers etc. will become

I think you are to conservative. Look back at the past 100 years for example. We had barely invented flight, let alone space travel. To say we will just be starting to get out of our solar system to me seems silly. Technology is increasing at an exponential rate (so far) and I would expect it to continue growing exponentially for a very long time. I would say it will take no more than 500 years for us to develop the technology to easily leave the solar system. My best guess would be closer to

From what I understand it is just after the fall of the arnor, when the younger races are just getting a foothold on their planets. However, to my knowledge it had mainly been implied they are related rather than flat out stated by anyone at Stardock.

[quote who="crashmatusow" reply="5" id="2094513"]"A power surge of great magnitude has been detected." Well, in a world(s) where it costs FAR too much to place a simple surge protector in Crew member's consoles (BSG, Star Trek, etc.) i can see how this could be causing the issue. [/quote] Haha! Ya, they like making computers spontaneously explode don't they... I can't think of many shows/movies where they don't explode when the ship is taking fire. Probably a remnant o

Ya, this thread would be somewhat pointless if it loads so fast there is no loading screen. [e digicons]:grin:[/e] But looking at past Stardock games, it will have a loading screen on starting or loading a game which will last aproximately 30 seconds to 1 minutes. Since Stardock games only have 1 load screen as opposed to the hundreds in Total War, they also would only need a fraction of the number of quotes.

[quote who="FearlessDefiance" reply="13" id="2091381"]Great game so far. Miffed about the constitution. Txt seems a bit small in the game though. Really enjoying my game so far. No problems either. [/quote] Ya, I would have to agree with the text being to small. That and in many cases there is just to much of it! I for one feel very compelled to read any text which appears on my screen... Which means I spend half my time reading the description text on units and buildings!

Well, dynamic music is just a step or two beyond the music in most games, where in a big battle the music gets more epic. For example, in SoaSE if you zoom way out or are looking in a peaceful well the music is much calmer. In a big battle, the music shifts dramatically and becomes much more fitting to that setting. Dynamic music just takes that one step further and has different parts of the music change according to different variables rather than the whole of the music changing based on a

ah, ok thanks!

Hehe, we can't complain to much about AI turns though. After all, it should be the AI complaining about our crazy long turns! [e digicons]o_O[/e] On another note, does anyone know if the Steam downloaded ETW comes with a manual?

[quote who="WildBoarPie" reply="3" id="2090773"]Couple of other things: - The game Warlords Battlecry 3 (which is great, and has been permanently on my hard drive since v#1, even tho an older 2D game - presumably recognised greatness, as it's on Impulse ) - Had rather good loading screen 'history snippets' that were little slices of gameworld lore presented in faux-documentary historical style. I quite enjoyed this - although hilariously now the game is 5 years old you have to read

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="6" id="2086089"]but you dont zoom INTO the leaf itself. [/quote] Aw... so we don't get to watch water being sucked through the veins in the leaves? *pout* So by the sounds of it I was somewhat correct when I said it will be similar to SoaSE zooming. A very far out level (cloth map) which is highly abstracted, A level in which things are icons, the 3d model level, and a more detailed version of the 3d model level. All of which zooms

I at least want my games to come with manuals. Correct me if I'm wrong (and please tell me where it is), when you order something on Steam, you won't get a manual. No paperback, no file. While this isn't much of a problem on self explanatory games like Left4Dead, when it comes to the Total War games I recently got from them (Empire and Rome Gold which came with it free) manuals are essential. I am half way through a Rome campaign, and I still think there are quite a few bits of information I

Perhaps a procedurally generated game... Generated based on thought patterns in your brain telling it exactly what you want. It would essentially use some sort of device to read your mind, and then put it all together to figure out exactly what it was you wanted to have in the game. Then it would generate said content. It would take into account both concious and subconcious, so you would not only have what you wanted conciously but also what you didn't even

Yes... Sound effects and music are often overlooked by the player since it is something that is more in the background. However, music really does set the tone in a game. Good music can make or break a game, without the player even realizing it most of the time. Customizable music might be good... But IMO not really worth the effort. Most people just run I-tunes in the background if they want different music, so a built in system would be more hassle than it is worth. Especially since yo