Deacon_Raptor
-
Posts
148 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Deacon_Raptor
-
-
I use FireFox. Of course my "bug" could just be that Tim never saw it
-
I dont know about 404 errors, but I sent Tim (DarkAngel Tim) a PM almost a week ago now I think and I haven't heard back yet.....perhaps another/related PM bug?
-
Indeed.
Silence, sweet, golden, silence. (hear the crickets peeping?)
-
mmm....call the spambulance
I saw one really old forum once, where like veryone had over 10,000 posts. It was nuts o.O
-
Shania Twain - Up!
-
Or him, yes. PJ took a middle-of-the-line approach, so that the movies would appeal to the most people they possibly could. Many people were offended by some of his choices however.........esp. the whole Frodo/Sam/Faramir thing. Now, what PJ did to that cycle was all fine and well, but it did not have anything todo with Tolkien's view. Once again it comes to PoV. PJ's view of that cycle, that he reproduced on screen, is probably very true to what WOULDVE really happened. That it likely exactly how events wouldve played out. However, Tolkien's view was much more....hopeful, I guess you could say. Less realistic, but still, Tolkien's PoV is what really mattered, and that is why it pissed a lo of people off.
-
Wasn't there a Canadian based site that did the same thing?
It is probably legit, I don't know though....all I have heard are rumors.
-
Well if we are getting into that.....
We might as well lead off perhaps with the definition of creativity. What exactly is creativity?
Dictionary.com:
1. Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals.
2. Productive; creating.
3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing.
Now thats all well and good, but what does it mean to create something?
Dictionary.com again:
1. To cause to exist; bring into being. See Synonyms at found1.
2. To give rise to; produce: That remark created a stir.
3. To invest with an office or title; appoint.
4. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort: create a poem; create a role.
To cause to exist, to produce through artistic or imaginative effort. To make something that did not exist before it was made. That is not a purely chemical process. Call it divine intervention, call it mystical forces, call it whatever, it is an abstract thing that no matter whether science correlates creativity to chemical X, will always involve ethereal forces that people are not ready at this point to understand.
Of course now I am running perilously close to the brink of starting a discussion of what is the Soul, which could go on for pages and pages lol; but it is essentially the same discussion. The day science can manipulate the soul is a sad day indeed, and it would show that science has overstepped its bounds. Creativity is something else IMO, like the soul, that should not be meddled with.
But back to the originl discussion here for a bit; what do you think influences creativity? Chemical balances/imbalances? Mood? Just random things via placebo effect?
-
darn.....sorry I missed getting in the middle of this discussion.....too bad I was on vacation over the weekend lol
Science is all well and good for practical things. However, when it comes to attempting to discern things that are metaphysical, such as ghosts, and the depths of the human soul, etc...science falls horribly short. At this point in time at least, science has no way to probe things beyond the physical.
So, something like what influences creativity, for example, is something that science atm cannot probe. Creativity is a very abstract thing......it is not something you can pour into a test tube and measure.
-
You can see things 2 different ways.
Either: Gandalf/Saruman/Orcs used gunpowder, or else they used magic. Or smoe combination thereof....i.e Gandalf/Saruman used magic, while the Orcs used gunpowder.
No way are there cannons in Arda. That is my vision of it anyways, is as a classical Swords & Sorcery world, limited technology of any kind. Orcs had some basic form of explosive, but that doesn't have to be gunpowder. There are several other substances that can be used to make an explosion.
In the end though, as I said before, it all comes down to how YOU, the reader, interprets things. My vision of Arda does not match BerenV's, or Enarwaen's, or NaurwenT's, or J.R.R.'s, or Christopher Tolkien's either.
-
Personally, I don't like it. I don't want to have all villagers killed by falling trees. BTW anyone with something what can be seldom called intelligence can estimate where will tree fall quite well.
Another idea:
What about stamina and different speed for walk/run/charge (yes I like Total War series)?
ES did that for AoE3 too........except then for the same reason they took it out. Falling trees killing enemy mil = cool. Falling trees killing all your woodies = not cool.
I personally did not like the Total War series, however, I recognize it as a seperate form of RTS. To me, as a hardcore Age of... RTS'er RTS will always be simultaneously managing econ and mil, and micromanaging both. The Total War series of games is a stunning combat machine, far superior to anything Age of... has ever come up with, however, that is because Total War, with no econ, can focus entirely on military combat action.
Same is true of Total War's opposite, the SimCity series. That series is almost entirely about economic and building management, with little to no military interaction.
The Age of... games, as well as Warcraft, and other such "true" RTS's, will always be doomed to mediocrity for both the ranges. They have to maintain some form of balance between econ and mil, and cannot do either *really* well.
Anyways, that was kindof uncalled for I guess lol, but hey, its true IMO.
Age of Mythology had a rock-paper-scissors system, and I personally did not really like it.....it was way too simplistic. Any idiot can learn a R-P-S system, it takes somebody with true intelligence to master a more complex system, such as the one that was found in Age of Kings.
-
Of course it isn't. You have to play it online to get real enjoyment out of it.
-
And some of that probably has to do with their vision of the Dwarves, they see the Dwarves as a tinkering race, as experimenters. I don't know how (if at all) familiar you are to the world of Warcraft (not referring to WoW, just the mythos of Warcraft in general); but that is how they view dwarves I know. I.e. an Alliance unit is the Dwarven Rifleman....they are the ones who experiment with gunpowder and techonology.
Now this flies in the face of Tolkien's mythos, however it offers a possible explanation.
-
So then you have no beliefs? Or just don't care to get into discussing them?
-
Or, another alternative would be to randomize the phases of the moon. So say one night (via a holographic window display or some such) it would be a full moon, the next, a new moon, the next 3/4 moon, the next, full again, then 1/4, new, full, full, new, 1/2......and so on. And then see if that makes a correlation.
-
Greetings and Salutations.
-
I just started rereading the Silmarillion for the 7th time last night.....and it occured to me reading the first few pages (for the first time o.O) how crucially important Tolkien must've viewed music. And the kind of music as well. The way he wrote about the braying, discordant theme of Melkor reminded me of what he must have thought of the music of his day. Has anyone else got this impression as well?
-
Wondering if any of you have some tips to offer on hanging icicle lights (XMas, the ones that hang from the gutters)....
My icicles are a particularly pernicious variety....very beautiful but sheer evil. They are in the form of snowflakes....actually its like a plastic snowflake, with lights behind it. The trick is, I am terrified of heights....but last year I found a pole-thingee at Lowes, that allows you to put icicles up from the ground. Anyways, here I am now lol. Got the pole, (works like a charm putting the clips up, even if you arent scared to death of heights I recommend it that, it seriously made putting the clips up a breeze), got the icicles, etc.
So I get out there, I start putting them up, and soon Im entrenched in combat with the darn things getting tangled 20-30 feet up. Then the only answer is to take them all down again, fix them, and then try putting them up again. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
Any tips?
-
Of course no game can ever be true to Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Every person, who has ever read LotR, has come up with their own version of Middle Earth. No person's view of Middle Earth will ever completely match Tolkien's.
Case in point is Mythos' view of how the architecture looks to him. To him it doesn't look right, but to the people doing the design for the dwarvish architecture, you can be sure they are doing it the way they picture it.
-
@Klaas
That is very true, what you said about how some Muslims came for peaceful reason to grow their businesses, etc. And I am perhaps being unfair.....or I did not make my point correctly. You decide. Some Muslims have no interests in politics or reclaiming their prior territory, some of them, nay probably most of them, are just fine.
However, that is NOT Islam, or at least it is not "true" Islam. I believe the media calls ti Fundamentalist Islam, Im not sure. I don't pay much attention to those idiots at all. "True" Islam was a warrior's religion. It has NO place in modern society. It is an outdated mode of worship. When it was "new", say from 700-1000, it was a very potent force. It was a warrior's religion, through and through. It had no interest in peaceful contacts, no interest in learning about other cultures (and indeed when European technologies began to overtake their own, they could do nothing about it becasue they would not associate with outsiders). It only had interest in conquering other nations.
I dont know what the fanatic extreme-right is saying, nor do I care really. I have my own worldview, my own party. I have no use for Republicans or Democrats, left or right. I only go by what I believe is right.
And on the issue of slavery, I know others did it first....it was a powerful force backin the days of Rome even, and before. Ancient Egypt used slaves as well. But what is so contemptable to me about the chiefs, was they that sold their own people, and they sold them for like 2 beads a person. I forget the exact figure my book quoted, but it just shocked me to my core. Imagine Pres. Bush selling out the eldest son of every family in America to an overseas nation as slaves, for 5$ a head.
Now, people have sold out their families and suchlike before; it was fairly common (disgusting as that is) in the Middle Ages, where people (esp. women) were sold off to pay debts, but my point was in the context of blacks thinking they should own the world because they are black........and also off-topic. Thus, I will stick to the topic (as best I can
) now. -
Concept art
in News
And that is the real point of a community for even fan-based game developers.
People like Beren and I (among others), while not part of the development team (yet anyways, who knows, maybe one day?) canhelp keep yas on the straight and narrow anyway
-
Did you ever get this figured out? Would be interesting to know what caused it.
-
I, am embarrassed of my government, IE ... abu ghraib , Bush,WMDs, and intelligent design…etc
But you guys have left one point out…..YOU are bunch of filthy Infidels, who are unworthy of occupying the same air space as the true believers.
Why should they assimilate with You in the first place ?
Anyways….
Having known a few north African Frenchmen, the cries of racism seams to be a theme and I would tend to agree with them. Despite the Utopian BS of the French government.
The Best educations seam to come from Europe, yet the most affordable seam to come from “The great Satan”
Dispite all of our blameing each other...I’m confused…….
Which one of our governments are the worst?
They are all bad. Power corrupts, and anyone who doesn't believe this is a fool. The trick is balancing the power with good individuals who are resistant to corruption, something which is lacking in every gov't I can think of.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sick to death of these idiots on the news and other places talking about how France is getting what they deserve. Thats just great....follow through with that logic and suddenly you find France being overthrown, and these Muslims in control of France's nuclear arsenal. Brilliant. And makeno mistake, America is next, or at least is next down the line at some point; after the Muslims have had their minor victories.
As an active student of history (got a 5/5 on my AP World His test this past May
), it is blatantly obvious to me that the Muslims have grown enough again that they are tryingot take over the world again. For the period after 1000, up until ~1300 I believe, the Muslims controlled almost 2/3 of the known world. And, something most people don't know, or if they do know they hide it quite well, is that it is a tenet of Islam that whatever Islam claimed or controlled at one point, they MUST reclaim. That is how their religion works. It is not a matter as simple as, Die you infidels. I mean, yes they hate America, and the liberals have all but opened the door to them, but they will "reclaim" the regions they once controlled first.And of course there are cries of racism. Racism is a crutch, nothing more and nothing less. True racism is a horrible thing, however, by and large the people who walk around crying about racism are just using it as a crutch, the exact same way Gaming Experts do when they are defeated. If you beat an expert player, he will undoubtedly list off 5 reasons why he list, and at least a few of them are bound to "This is OP, that is OP." Racism protests are the same way. Its like all these blacks who roam around whining about how they should own the world because they were subjected to slavery and racism and yada yada. Its so funny though when you think about it, in a sick way though I suppose, that the blacks were the ones who started the European-American-African slave trade. Various African chieftains sold out members of their own, and neighboring tribes, in exchange for gunsand baubles. In a very real way they deserved exactly what they got. Now, I am not condoning slavery, far from, however the original crop got what they deserved. Naturally the whites were going to keep pushing, it is the way of human beings, we find a good thing, and we ride it until it collapses. It breaks my heart thinking about all the blacks who were born into slavery, and died in slavery. They didn't have a choice in the matter. However, the original chieftains who sold their own people for baubles deserved exactly what they got.
-
Hey Cheezy hows it going? Havent seen you since testing for the wolrd map
For me its more of a decent -> better -> best -> better -> decent progression. Like one time as a (weak I know) experiment, I did the same drawing on a new moon, and then on a full moon. The drawing on the full moon was about 10x better, it was incredible. Not that my drawing on the new moon wasn't good, it just wasnt great. So I would say like Cheezy said, more than being like bad on a new moon, its more like a creative boost on a fulll moon. Like the nearer a full moon, the more of a boost creatively I get.
And, dont forget there are many many things in this world that cannot be explained scientifically.
Age of Empires III
in Gaming Discussion & Match-making
Posted
Why not? It works fine for me.