Philocthetes

I admit I kind of harrumphed when I saw the Sins Dev Journals area start appearing at Elemental. I love GC2 and I don't think I'll every like real-time anything. But I almost wish the latter weren't true now because the short UI critique you provide is very interesting. I know you won't be doing GC3 for a long while, but I trust you're planning to apply lessons learned via Sins to the Elemental project.

[quote]Speaking of Nazgul, how about in addition to using spells, you could craft an item which, when equipped by a champion, had a chance of corrupting them to your side? Then you just quietly "leak" that item into the world and see what you catch. [/quote] We can't even drop 'excess' inventory like a 3rd speed ring yet, but I've long liked the idea of being able to forge cursed items and leave them for rivals to collect. For Fallen sovereigns wanting to enhance a champion w

[quote]If undead are in, I'd vote for military units consisting only of the mindless ones, and the sentient undead being restricted to champions. In fact, it would be cool if there were spells that could be used to corrupt a living champion into an undead one, with associated costs, bonuses, and weaknesses.[/quote] That sounds like good fun to me. When you say "corrupt a living champion" are you talking about enhancing someone already with your faction or stealing a rival's champion?

[quote who="Dr Guy" reply="26" id="2531820"]p.s. I should confess to having too much fun referring to the textbook Civil War as the WoNA. For the longest time, it was a term that tagged someone as an unrepentant supporter of the Confederacy. I do it just to tweak the noses of northern liberals. ... [/quote] Funny that. I learned the phrase from a liberal whose people are from West Virginia (technically Northern...) but raised him in Central Florida (effectively Nor

[quote who="KellenDunk" reply="70" id="2531450"]So I would say the penalties would be entirely DM dependent. How exactly is he punished and by whom? We do know he retains hi abilities, though. Personally I like this better than the old method that proscribed exactly what to do with classes who has strayed.[/quote] Thanks for the info. It seemed DM-dependent in the old days to me, but that was because the DM had to decide when to invoke the blunt-force ugly mechanics.

[quote who="MichaelCook" reply="15" id="2531445"]Anne Rice and her take on Vampires set the course. The beauty and mytique, how they can be so more human than us and yet so less? ... 99% of undead should be mindless, I agree. I never really understood the undead agenda, so they take over the world, all life is extinguished, and then what? [/quote] I'm pretty sure Bram Stoker did the first widely-read romantic vampire. Dracula was both a bodice ripper and a horror stor

[quote]The Illinois Constitution has a specific requirement that every 10 years a referendum line be placed on the ballot asking to call a convention. [/quote] I've taught a handful of courses on state & local and the main thing they taught me was just what unsung heroes specialists in this area are. Even getting a decent sketch of all 50 states at the top level would need a lot of study time, and learning 3-5 good local level stories for each state would be another, probably tall

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="68" id="2531241"]In 4E Paladins can be of any aligment. They are mostly Good but there are no limitations now. So, for example, The Raven Queen, neutral Goddess of Death, Winter and Fate has her share of neutral Paladins.[/quote] Well that sounds like an improvement to someone like me, who hates levels and classes in my RPGs. Hope a paladin of any stripe still takes a major stack of penalties for abandoning the faith, though.

[quote]I for one would actually also enjoy seeing strange lines of inheritance such as third cousins only or children fathered outside of marriage being more desirable to rule (the sov usually sleeps with and has kids with a single (wo)man, but they aren't heirs, who have to be produced with somebody else who's there for only that purpose).[/quote] Broad flexibility in custom faction options would be fine by me, but for the canon factions all I'm hoping to see is a 'modest' amount of

[quote]Unfortunately I think that is why the Feds have taken to usurp the states these days[/quote] As a Southron boy with kin way back on both sides, I'm not as fond of states' rights as some might think. Plus, just thinking in sloppy system-theoretical terms, all of us owe a great deal of our safety and prosperity to the steady rise of national standards since the end of the War of Northern Aggression. On the rhetorical side, the states's rights talk also often rings hollow for me b

[quote]I think those are sub-categories of the "Rated R+ Elves"[/quote] That could cover the Drow too, now that you point it out. Harder to scare the MPAA with gore and torture than it is with sex, but not impossible.

[quote]tnx Tridus... But Nerhesi (see up there) got it at February, 7 (yesterday) and did it in time... Am i late, or does he got a key earlier?[/quote] Looks to me like Nerhesi's talking about a system rebuild, not a recent pre-order.

[quote]But if it is implemented it should also be possible to be able to significantly influence/corrupt the heroes. (Hallo paladin, come to the dark side, we have cookies!)[/quote] The idea of being able to counter-recruit champions sounds neat, but I'd expect strong alignment differences to make the process much more difficult than with champions who are closer to thinking like a 'normal' member of your faction. I don't know what the later AD&D editions might have done to paladi

[quote]I can also foresee a Harem Manga mod*. Those who know will understand.[/quote] Probably still too early in the 21st to expect Yaoi and Bara mods, though...

[quote]There is a second way - just get the states to initiate it. Congress does not always have to lead on the issue.[/quote] Congress definitely takes ideas from state legislatures--the 50 'labs' thing is one of the best things about federalism. Just seems much easier to work on one legislature instead of 50, at least in my wildly implausible scenario. Frankly, I can't think of anything that would scare any legislator, state or federal, more than the idea of a convention to

[quote]they snaked aquaducts all over the place.[/quote] I would love to have aqueducts (water supply in general) be part of the game, but I'm one of those weirdos who loves pretty much any micromanagement that isn't tediously repetitive. The 'snaking' in Elemental is nothing like an aqueduct system. If anything, it's sort of an anti-version of how preindustrial cities connect to distant sources and then see secondary population sites develop along the road or canal. In the bu

[quote who="Bravenue" reply="2" id="2529264"]... Have never played TBS before, though, mostly RTS. ...[/quote] You might want to try some demos and/or discount copies of TBS titles you see mentioned around here first. Some folks really like both types of game, some folks like both but sorta prefer one over the other, and at least a few of us seem to strongly prefer one form over the other. I've tried several RTS titles and even own a discount maxi-pack of the game with the zergling ru

[quote]With several features unique to both, you should never find that the game is only playable at some arbitrary zoom level (there's always a playable portion game at whatever zoom level you're at)[/quote] Does this mean that for the players with very low-end machines, some features like maybe quests or tactical battles will not be playable? A large chunk of my GalCiv2 playing time was zoomed-out because the 3D stuff wrecked performance on my 'out-dated' box, but n

[quote who="lifekatana" reply="18" id="2529098"]Wait GW swicord, are you left or right? [/quote] Yes, I think so. But then again, maybe not...

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="12" id="2529058"]Tired Of People Not Using Full Words [/quote] Like so many innovations that are now common in daily life, this wretched habit was born in the military. Now we'are all part of the SNAFU, and it's just getting MFU on account of all the thumb-typing on tiny devices. Plus, Scoutdog's been beating that dead horse so long that even he's probably getting tired of typing like a civilized person [e classic];)[/e]

[quote]Certainly an option, but any time you're handing control over to the AI you walk a fine line betwee 'reducing mcromanagement' and 'the game is play'g itself. [/quote] I'd actually like it if I could set some rules along the lines larienna describes (and many more) and let the game play itself if that suited my mood. Even more, I'd like to be able to train my own automation as I learned the game and developed my playstyle. I'd have a few war wins in the GalCiv2 Metaverse if it w

[quote]I did not mean to imply that the war created both parties, only that the war set them on the path to being the only 2 parties.[/quote] I'm a structuralist on this point. The particulars of party history are secondary to the fact that we have a House with single-member, winner-take-all districts and a Senate with essentially the same structure because no state has two senators on the ballot in one cycle. No doubt that the national Democrats owed a lot to Lincoln, and perhaps mor

[quote]For example would a player seeking military dominance, once they truely have dominance and are just going through the motions to end the game feel extra pressure and determination because they simply don't know exactly what stage the other players are at? Or would it still be a chore to finish up?[/quote] Re the mop-up chores question, it really depends on how good the UI will be at minimizing repetitive tasks. As a non-competitive singleplayer type, I very much like the genera

[quote]So snaking actually happens in real life, whacky as it may seem[/quote] That's actually one of my problems with it for Elemental: it feels a bit too modern. Snaking like that and city walls don't mix well, for me anyway.

[quote]You know, the completely free 3D modelling program?[/quote] Yes, folks around here taught me that name. I just thought the plain pun was irresistable. Plus, even though I appreciate open system design very much, I'm not happy to see so many beta critiques and suggestions dismissed with some kind of "well, mods will fix that" answer.