Philocthetes

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="6" id="2248024"]Thank you for the explanations. Altough I still find interesting (less now than before) the idea of limited resources, I get a better idea of why those limited resources could be very bad for the game.[/quote] I agree, and want to emphasize the "could" in "could be very bad." In the Utopia of All-Pleasing Software, I'd like to see resource models have a bit more 'realism' on the finite-renewable axis. But I try to never fo

[quote who="psychoak" reply="8" id="2246634"]I think one of them should edit three fingers and a thumb, that would be a good avatar.[/quote] Talk to the Hand.

I've tried to ignore this thread for 3,417 replies. Someone or something should be banned by now...

I'd still prefer a succession system of some sort, but if we can't have that, I'm also still basically for dead channler=game over. But I really like the idea of making an exception for channelers who want to do something in advance (i.e. make some at least moderately long-term investments) to give themselves a possible exception to this general rule. My pre-beta hope for the game is that channelers will face an ongoing, competing set of goals that entail demands for both mana

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="24" id="2246287"]...An immersive game requires immersive answers. Wiggling your fingers and saying "it's because of maaaaaagic" every time someone demands a deeper explanation doesn't create a living, breathing, immersive world, it kills it. [/quote] I couldn't agree more with the first part, and the finger-wiggling crack is just plain silly. I made direct reference to the wide range of really old dragon lore already in the world specific

[quote who="psychoravin" reply="19" id="2246065"]...It should take the WHOLE team, the WHOLE army, the WHOLE faction to win not just one overly powerful character.[/quote] I can't quickly find the quote, but I'm pretty sure that the devs are aiming to let us have our cake and eat it too. Something about a grand three-way fight between an essence hoarder (the superpowerful spellcaster you don't want to see), a 'small' force with a crew of strong champions, and a truly massive at-the-ga

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="21" id="2246085"]True. One thing I would like to see it true dragons, which are forces of nature, and some sort of lesser reptile-like entity that still vaguely resembles a dragon, in appearance if not power. These lesser beings are still "mortal" in GWSicord's sense of the word, and can be a sort of minor opponent. Maybe even some sort of animosity/relatiobship between them and the real dragons.[/quote] Hmmm. Maybe something like wyverns as a sort of drag

Friends don't let friends type when tipsy, but you can apparently get away with it if none of your friends are around at the moment... Wasn't thinking about Chester the Molester at all when I coined ursinophile. Yes, the Yogi line is sort of a grammatical navel-dive. Yes, real bears definitely love honey--I've seen lots of examples on video. Previous silly typing is just more evidence that if I fit in anywhere, it's the cheap seats in the peanut gallery, way in the back but st

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="7" id="2243883"]certainly on big deals or debates its a good idea to help show feedback. Since usually its the loud peanut gallary that are heard, rather than the majority[/quote] This makes me want to see some questions about how often folks read vs. how often/much they post.

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="19" id="2245926"]... Well, certain dragons can be "immensely" powerful without being so few that it's impossible for them to maintain an effective breeding population (are we to assume that they are going extinct at the time the game is played?) ... I hate it when beasts or monsters are simplified to such a degree that they only exist to be slain or gawked at (for instance, the monsters that sit around in a dungeon with nothing to do except w

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="8" id="2243367"]...what exactly are you suggesting? Wouldn't "honey" be more appropriate? ...[/quote] Well, sweetie, I didn't mean the double-entendre but it works for me if you're Southern enough to understand that that sort of sugar is mostly about affection, not sex. The world definitely needs more of that sort of sugar. And, yes, honey would make for better prose. I was just trying to be all strat-gamer/modeler/whatev

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="13" id="2243879"]... but then we'd be down 1 alpha player (you need to include what happens to his seat in the case he wins before the deal is made)[/quote] It goes under Free Parking. The next person to land there gets the slot.

Quite a while ago, I got a bit roughed-up for wanting people to stop using the phone "tech" when they talked about this game on account of my conviction that names are a big part of style/feel. I yield to the pragmatic side of the objection--it is just simpler to use modern language while brainstorming on a forum. But I still really do hope that the game UI never uses the string "tech." On a related note, I wish I could find the post for a link, but I could just about swear that early

[quote]Where is Jonny5446?[/quote] Very good question, and right-on call to reference the Wild Spaces thread.

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="5" id="2243229"]... It was like climbing a mountain and we both happen to have stopped on ledges near each other and I tossed over a share of my brownies as a show of good faith even though we are racing to the top and the brownies might be all the sugar you need to beat me.[/quote] Trust an ursinophile to go and try making sugar a pirmary resource.

Beg pardon, but the context makes me feel obliged to mention that hull as a gender type is not a binary variable. Modeling support for androgynes and neuters would enable all sorts of modding fun, ranging from (anti)politically-correct satire pieces to serious efforts focused on a particular fantasy author.

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="25" id="2242622"]... As for the plan - it does take effort to set up, and it requires much more frequent and detailed communication between the testers and the dev team. And if they're going to do that, why would they gamble on how many people would be actively involved in the plan? ...[/quote] I can think of one answer quickly: They might really only want a few tens of viable volunteers and a pool of a 100 or so candidates might be necessary to find that

[quote]So why complicate the plumbing?[/quote] I don't know about 'complicate,' but I'd just like to be able to start a battle with whatever they call manual control, do some basic moves/orders to help ensure that my advantage isn't wasted or at least that my knowledge of enemy weaknesses is well-used, and then turn over to auto-resolve when the 'hard parts' are addressed if I don't feel like running the whole thing myself. That's how MoO2 felt for me, and that's the only thing I regu

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="23" id="2242556"]Spartan's bit we both quoted, and your pitch for trying it for Elemental [/quote] I half-thought that, except Spartan said notning about a bug database. But now I'm a bit lost about why you went from having a test plan to talking about how the volunteer testing pool is selected. Wouldn't it be useful to have a plan even if only a minority of the random volunteers were likely to take it seriously? I can easily see why you might wan

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="21" id="2242536"]As much as I support that ... [/quote] Please clarify the pronoun reference here. What is "that?"

[quote who="Druez" reply="14" id="2242523"]... Umm that is cool and all, but I thought all of us who prepurchased the game would get into this first phase of the beta. At least that is how the website reads...[/quote] Everyone with a pre-order will have access to the first public beta, but there will also be a limited-participation alpha . The current 25 June date for the alpha makes me suspect that the tentative July date for the full public beta will be la

[quote who="Spartan" reply="16" id="2242463"]... Anyway, I would like to see a focused itemised testing list, an organised bug list and general system issues one as well time requirement expectations for the alpha. I would also like to see the selected people broken down into specific teams with weekly objectives. This is so so SD can get the maximum development benefit from the course of action at hand for the commuity. ...[/quote] Sounds like maybe this hasn't happened yet even for

If you can keep the questions as clear and simple as the functional ones (i.e. everything but the Camps stuff) in your first survey, I think the devs might be interested in the project output. And even if they don't care, I suspect plenty of us peanut gallery folks would be interested in the responses.

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="9" id="2242245"]Have they actually said it'll be NDA'd? I know Frogboy long ago mentioned that there would be an invite-only closed test under NDA, but seems plans have been changing a bit since then so I'm not sure if the alpha will be under an NDA or not. ... Pretty much for that reason I doubt that there will be an NDA just for the alpha. SD tends to want to let them stick, as in they don't lift them after the game's release, even. ... [/quote]

Ranking other folks? Egad, I have a hard enough time with my ambivalence about the karma system (and am glad to see hints that it is out of the criteria for the lottery slots). Plus, there's the 'problem' of folks who often drive me up the wall with some of their typing yet also reliably give me rewarding hmmm... moments. Is that helpful of them or just weird taste in forum typing on my part? Ranking myself? I actually got a semi-serious chewing out once from a friend who was