Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: SalmonGod on January 08, 2011, 02:34:33 pm

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/A_Rocket_Powered_Prosthetic_Arm_999.html

I would love to see prosthetics in dwarf fortress, from hook hands/peg legs to full steampunk.  The latter should require masterwork mechanisms and a complex production line.

This would be cool, even if it was limited to hook hands and peg legs.

Although there should be some way to fix a hammer/axe/pick/mug/whatever in place of the hand.

A hand permanently replaced with a mug?... that would be epic dwarfness!

My problem with mount and blade is that I always die if I try to actually fight in combat, thus ruining the point of the game for me. I do best if I sit back and let my army fight, which is boring.

The best way to actually get involved in the fighting in singleplayer is go heavy cavalry with two throwing weapons, shield, and the longest lance you can find.  You can practically win battles on your own this way.

A while back someone made a thread announcing the founding of Certainfailure.  I wonder what happened to that one?

Been away for a couple days.

The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.

Not that Manning's intentions were good so much as they were petty and stupid... "Oh, I'ma get them militaries by stealing all these random messages sent by people who were not them to people who were also not them and sending them to a random third party!" He was disgusted by small, isolated incidents he felt his direct superiors mishandled, so he stole documents from an entirely different branch of US operations and leaked them, without regards for their contents. In doing so, he put his head on the chopping block, and, quite hilariously, accomplished exactly nothing that he wanted, aside from a smug sense of self-importance.

I don't get this.  You're saying absolutely nothing here but a bunch of random negative assumptions about the character of a guy you know very little about.  I suppose attributing his actions to good intentions is also an assumption, but it would seem more likely that it was an act of conscience than a petty attention-seeking scheme, considering the consequences he surely knew he faced.

You also - and this is the really big thing I keep trying to drill into your head - don't understand that humans are inherently self-serving.

I hear this every single time I ever say anything the least bit idealistic or positive about humanity in general.  I might believe it if it was something I only heard occassionally, but this is the argument I get from every misanthropic cynic I ever encounter. 

A endorses necessary evils as self-defense against B's actual evil.
B endorses necessary evils as self-defense against A's actual evil.
If A and B would attempt at least enough trust to communicate properly, they'd discover they amount to a very sad, pathetic scene. 

Then there's the No True Scotsman you keep pulling, where someone is only "acting with their conscience" or "with good intentions" if you personally agree with what they're doing. I suppose it really is inconceivable that anyone could ever think something you don't like is morally right, so obviously everyone that does anything you disagree with is evil, because I mean, what's right is just so glaringly obvious to everyone, not to mention universal...

Yeah it basically is.  Respect and kindness are quite universal and intuitive, if requiring a little effort once in a while.

Golden Rule.

Yes I know the counter to the golden rule.  "That means if I like to be kicked in the face, that I should kick other people in the face, right?"  No.  You may know someone who enjoys golden showers, but you most likely would not appreciate one uninvited.  Just as you would prefer others have respect for your needs and preferences, you should make every effort to have respect for other's.  It doesn't take rocket science to understand that most people don't like to be kicked in the face, thus you shouldn't do so unless invited to.  Problem solved.  Golden rule upheld.  Simple.  Universal.

Relevance to the discussion:  People don't like to be lied to or taken advantage of.  People like to know when these things are being done to them.  Corporations/governments around the world have lied to/taken advantage of people.  Manning/Wikileaks are letting people know.  One is acting according to golden rule.  One isn't. 

Also, on the subject of whether the information released is worth anything. 

1.  You seem to have completely forgotten about the war logs, which is also attributed to Manning and was most certainly not trivial.
2.  Why is it that the same people who call the leaked information trivial are also the same people who shamelessly call for Assange/Manning's blood?  Doesn't add up.
3.  Also, yes a lot of this stuff was previously known, but not in a substantive capacity.  For instance, everybody knew that civilians were dying in the wars.  However, scale and ratios were hotly disputed for years.  Now many of those disputes have been put to rest.  No more disputing sources or willful ignorance excused by lack of official information.  The only question now is how many deaths aren't reported at all.

How many people have bought an iPad this year...although many of them do not often use the device if you consider the price of the product...and the main reason is the clever marketing and image campaign of  Apple...they are Apple-fans..so what it's the difference to Justin here...do you hate then also Apple ?

How many people are fans of big sport clubs and player, be it soccer, football or baseball and how many money do those sport guys get because 'the mass' likes those sports (and I do not so) and for many of the fans it's basically 'their' life, which is irrational for me...because for me personally any soldier, policemen, physican has 1000x more value than any of those sports guys but they earn the same factor less. Should I now start to hate those sport guys?

This is funny because the IFad and spectator sports in general really get on my nerves, for partly the reasons you listed.

21 Felsite, 130

"Umm... shit.  Hey!  Anyone out there!  I kinda trapped myself in here!"  Bridgesoars shouts over the walls of the fortifications she just completed.


Fleshring stops cutting trees nearby to check it out.  "Hey!  Find yourself standin on the wrong side, did ya?  I'll get some help, don't worry."  He turns to go looking for a miner, and notices a strange white puff to the southeast.  He watches intently for a moment, and catches a glimpse of glistening tentacles.  "Illithid!  Everyone inside!  We're under attack!"

Above-ground workers begin swarming towards the ramp, as two squads of illithid break cover and begin the assault. 

"Hey!  You trapped in there!  I'll still get the miners to dig you out!"

Bridgesoars resigns herself to quietly watching the battle unfold through the arrow slits.  Another illithid squad leaps out from hiding to surround Dunescloistered, who is torn apart in seconds.  Everyone else makes it safely inside, and the gate is raised to allow the military some time to respond.

The crossbow squads take up positions at their fortifications for the first time in a major battle.  In the midst of the commotion, a snatcher is found sneaking in the barracks, right in the midst of all those soldiers.  Staffrun chases it into a corner and dismembers it as the rest of the militia continues preparations.  Soon, they begin gathering on the surface.

---

Meanwhile, illithid swarm past the Southwest archery box.  Threehalls begins firing off bolts, causing minor injuries to the passing abominations.  Something dawns on him after a few seconds.  "What... did none of you grab any bolts on your way here?!"

Gorgeworker scratches his nose... "No sir..."

"Gorge!  Duck!"  Rockbears charges, wielding his crossbow as a club, as a shadow envelopes Gorgeworker.  He's tackled to the ground by an illithid that had levitated over the wall.  It holds Gorgeworker down and lashes at him with its tentacles.  He swings his crossbow frantically in front of his face and fends them off.  The other arches start clubbing the illithid with their crossbows, and it stands up and throws Gorgeworker against the opposite wall.  Before he can recover, or the others can catch up, it leaps on him again and digs its tentacles into the small of his back.  They wrap around his spine and tear out a vertebrae, paralyzing his lower body.  Threehalls pelts the thing with a couple arrows and the others beat on it with their crossbows.  It throws them all back with an invisible force, buying itself enough time to fly away again.

Threehalls continues firing bolts at passing invaders, crippling one.  Rockbears kneels beside Gorgeworker  "Hey... you ok?"

Gorge grunts and props himself up slightly with his arms.  "Umm... I don't know... it doesn't hurt.... I can't move my legs... oh god... it doesn't hurt... I can't move my legs!"


---

The illithid reach the gate and begin pounding on it with their fists and gibbering in an incomprehensible, eldritch tongue.  Fleshring calls down the ramp  "Lower the gate!"  The illithid seem to understand, as they back away from the gate just before it comes crashing down.

The battle begins.  Fleshring stands back for the time being, to give his troops a chance to practice and prove themselves.


Showeredgate is the first dwarf injured, an illithid grabbing his leg with its hands, wrapping its tentacles around his ankle, and nearly tearing his foot off.  The dwarf is grounded, but still fighting.  He makes a deep gash in the illithid's leg.  It makes several more grabs at him, batted away with his shield, before succeeding in grabbing a hold.  His arms are held down as its tentacles probe his armor for weakness.  The snake beneath his armpit and stab between his ribs, writhing around and squeezing his lungs.  He cries out in pain, breaks his sword arm free, and stabs it in the back, tearing apart its lung.  It jerks back, releasing him of its tentacles.  He doesn't hesitate to lunge forward and cut off its head with a powerful sweeping motion of his red steel short sword, earning his first kill

Atticbeaches, Staffrun, Tradetongues, and Wheelsblocked have a much easier time, storming through the enemy hacking, stabbing, kicking, and punching with playful ease.  Staffrun claims the second kill of the battle (the first going to Threehalls), splitting a skull in half with his =adamantine battle axe=. 

One illithid is knocked unconscious, and several dwarves descend on it, attempting to finish it off with their formidable red steel and adamantine weapons.  They strike at its head again and again, and every time a different image of a weapon erupts forth from its forehead and shatters as it blocks the strike.  (OOC:  I've seriously never seen this kind of thing before.)


Soon this distracted group is surrounded and set upon by the other invaders.  Fleshring orders them "Ignore it!  Defend yourselves, dumbasses!"  He charges into the battle, deciding the odds have turned against them and it's time to knock them back to their favor.  The illithid are quickly scattered, and only two escape in the following chase.  Baldedgilds suffers two major wounds, including a paralyzed soldier, but no casualties.

what's with metalheads thinking they're some sort of intellectual elite? most metal is as cheap as mainstream music, but louder. i listen to some metal, but the whole *uh, i'm cooler cuz i listen to noisy music, metal4eva \m/!!* is ridiculous

that is not to say bieber's music isn't terrible, but to extend it to all that is mainstream is unfair.

I don't hate anything just because it's mainstream.

I have to say, though, that metal, at least the metal I listen to, tends to tackle intellectual subject matter, do lots of experimentation, and try to evoke an emotional response from the listener beyond "hey this is catchy I think I can dance to it."

There's definitely some cheap, over-commercialized metal out there... but far less than any other genre.  Though I think that may be different over in Europe where it seems like metal still enjoys some popularity.  The genre is almost completely forgotten here in the U.S.

Quote from: SalmonGod on December 26, 2010, 07:12:23 am

But you're narrowing the scope of good intentions, which is specifically what I was speaking against.  Good intentions for a specific group of people isn't good intentions, it's selfish and conceited.  "The world would be better off without ___" isn't good intentions for humanity as a whole because ___ are a part of humanity.

The counterpoint to that is, let's say some nutbags threaten the rest of humanity, and the *only* way to stop them is to kill them. They're still human, so surely that's bad for humanity, right? So is it still good intentions? More importantly, are the actions therefore good?

Now, think about how easily that form of logic can be applied both to actions on both sides of the debate, and you'll see why this has always been such a deep philosophical problem through the ages.

This is why I'm a (technical) pacifist.  Violence should only ever be a very last resort and only on a personal level.  Nutbags are a minority, and if the decent majority didn't buy into the massive marketing efforts that are required to move any population to war, then they would be a very harmless minority.