Messages

61

General Discussion / Re: Star Trek: Discovery (and the Orville, I guess)

« on: 18 Nov 2017, 01:50 »

The Iraq war was a pretty big deal, and fewer than 5,000 American soldiers died. Fewer than 200 British soldiers died, and over here it is widely viewed as having been a disaster. So in a more advanced world in which (we hope) war is less common, 80,000 deaths is enough. Surely?

I do think that the Klingon prosthetic are a problem, although I like the design. They should have ADRed all the Klingon dialogue. They seem to have solved the Buffy vampire teeth lisp, but nasal sounds come out weird. I love the idea of the Klingons speaking Klingon, but L'Rell seems to be the only one who gets near to it sounding natural. Most deliver dialogue as a series of meaningless barks.

62

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: AdventureX 2017 - Dates & Kickstarter

« on: 14 Nov 2017, 20:10 »

Wow, I completely missed it

Too bad, there was no reminder here. Were the talks recorded?

Sorry you missed the livestream! Technical problems (that weren't our fault) meant that Dave Gilbert's opening talk wasn't streamed. But it was recorded by Adventure-Treff and should appear on their YouTube channel. All the other talks were recorded, with (hopefully) improved audio equipment. They're available on twitch for a while, and we'll clean up the picture and sound and put them on the AdventureX YouTube channel over the next weeks.

For anyone who missed the drama on the Saturday morning: even though we had tested it minutes earlier, the lectern in the auditorium stopped working just before the first talk. So we had to move the entire conference from the 120 seater into the larger auditorium next door, running 30 minutes behind schedule. This is something we didn't want to do, because we'd rather have a 120 seater absolutely packed out (with lots of people left outside playing games) than a 250+ seater looking half-full (with fewer people left to play games). None of this was ideal, but we had no alternative. I hope it didn't impact too negatively upon the exhibitors' experience. The room change is also why the videos from Saturday have piles of tables and whiteboards everywhere -  we weren't expecting anyone to see them!

In spite of this, I felt that the talks were some of the most inspiring and thought provoking we've had. The feedback I've heard has been very positive.

63

General Discussion / Re: Stranger Things 2

« on: 12 Nov 2017, 00:27 »

I liked it, and I'm glad you enjoyed my performance as a small girl.

I did feel like the dramatic tension was sort of spent by the final episode, though. It sort of felt like a neat wrapping up of threads, rather than the resolution of a perilous situation.

64

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Adventure game puzzle-related question

« on: 29 Oct 2017, 10:47 »

I'm with Radiant that the rock needs to be a flint for the puzzle to be fair. For me, it would depend on how naturalistic the artwork and tone are. In a cartoonish adventure - definitely, no problem. In anything more realistic than Broken Sword, it would be a stretch.

65

General Discussion / Re: Star Trek: Discovery (and the Orville, I guess)

« on: 18 Oct 2017, 17:43 »

I tried the Expanse. Does it get better after the pilot? It seemed overly Canadian to me, like there's this vein of cheap sci-fi shot in Canada -- Travelers, Continuum, etc. -- that are built on a budget (few effects shots, mostly bottle episodes). It seemed very reminiscent of that, so much so that I switched it off about three quarters of the way through the pilot. Also, regarding Discovery's dialogue, I haven't had a problem with that, but if you're saying the Expanse does it better, I can't agree. The dialogue I witnessed seemed laboured and packed with clichés.

If you found the pilot a little dry and meandering, then I'd suggest you press on. However, if you just didn't like it, you made the right call.

Apart from Miller's trilby hat, I didn't find it to be heavy with cliché. As a series it's full of obvious choices that almost no sci-fi shows actually deal with. Gravity only works when you're moving. Moving really fast hurts. Forcefields don't exist - missiles punch holes in space ships and all the air gets sucked out. Belters talk like Afrikaner South Londoners.

Also, the Expanse's characters are given interesting things to do while they deliver expositional dialogue. They're at work, or in conflict. By contrast, the first two episodes of Discovery are heavy with characters standing across desks or in front of screens explaining things that they already know to each other. It's not as bad as the first episodes of Babylon 5... but not many things are.

But over all, hooray for sci-fi on TV!

66

General Discussion / Re: Star Trek: Discovery (and the Orville, I guess)

« on: 16 Oct 2017, 15:00 »

I'm moderately enjoying Discovery, though I'd prefer if it had fewer lens flares and more ethical quandaries. The Expanse, on the other hand, is so good. Almost every dialogue scene in Discovery could use Chrisjen Avasarala saying "Get to the f****** point."

67

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 07 Oct 2017, 15:54 »

I'm not assuming he's done the thing he'll be impeached for YET.

68

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 07 Oct 2017, 12:18 »

Pence may be more predictably grim, but he's lacking entirely in charisma and media savvy. Trump's election was one in which symbolism outweighed facts. In terms of symbolism, if Trump doesn't face a Nixonian comeuppance, it will be a real tragedy.

69

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 07 Oct 2017, 10:03 »

You can't simply pluck a democratically elected leader away because you don't like them.

Unless you're the CIA...

70

Editor Development / Re: Recovering an AGS project from a different version of the editor? (Solved)

« on: 25 Sep 2017, 20:16 »

That worked! That was so quick, thank you!

71

Editor Development / Recovering an AGS project from a different version of the editor? (Solved)

« on: 25 Sep 2017, 20:07 »

Hello!

I'm not able to load an old project in AGS 3.4.0 P4. I made the game back in 2014 using the "Custom Resolution" version of the editor Crimson Wizard was working on. It was the basis for a live comedy show which I'm doing again on Thursday. I naively hoped to update it: but I get this message.

---------------------------

Input string was not in a correct format.

If you cannot resolve the error, please post on the AGS Technical Forum for assistance.

Error details: System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.

   at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)

   at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)

   at System.Version..ctor(String version)

   at AGS.Types.Game.SetScriptAPIForOldProjec t()

   at AGS.Editor.Tasks.SetDefaultValuesForNew Features(Game game)

   at AGS.Editor.Tasks.LoadGameFromDisk(String gameToLoad, Boolean interactive)

   at AGS.Editor.InteractiveTasks.LoadGameFro mDisk(String gameToLoad)

This is the version info from Game.agf: <AGSEditorDocument Version="3.0.3.2" VersionIndex="7" EditorVersion="3.3.0 CR">

Is there anything I can do to manually edit the Game.agf file to make it palatable to 3.4?

72

General Discussion / Re: What breaks your immersion?

« on: 07 Sep 2017, 13:20 »

I don't know why people get upset at protagonists talking aloud to themselves or the player - it was good enough for Shakespeare. For a naturalistic game, an internal monologue is a much better idea. But I can't see why you'd be irritated by a Guybrush Threepwood soliloquy.

73

General Discussion / Re: What breaks your immersion?

« on: 05 Sep 2017, 20:00 »

For me in sci-fi/fantasy, it's the use of idioms, words and phrases that don't make sense in the story world. I've been complaining about an orc saying the word "menu" for years, then recently someone made a meme about it and went viral. And I sulked.

74

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 19 Aug 2017, 20:00 »

The thing that I find most infuriating about this is that it wasn't a Nazi rally. It was a "Unite the Right" rally bringing together neo-Nazis and other flavours of right wing nutbar. How galling it must be for American Muslims to see the president cry "bad apple" after a Nazi murdered an innocent woman

The comparison of Confederate monuments with Washington or Lincoln (Edit: Fake News) would be intellectually dishonest, except that nothing Trump does is intellectual. Lincoln and Washington are admired (rightly or wrongly) in spite of their racism. Confederate heroes are revered specifically because of their racism.

In other news I'm starting a petition to reinstate Jimmy Savile's statue. After all, we don't want to erase history, do we?

75

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 19 Aug 2017, 13:44 »

Update: it is now raining.

Thanks, Killary!

76

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 19 Aug 2017, 11:11 »

It's also fairly sunny today, so all due credit to Trump for that.

77

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 18 Aug 2017, 01:00 »

He's saying that your assertion that America is no worse off isn't supported by the evidence. This thread is full of examples of things that are worse as a consequence of Trump taking office. I'd be interested to know how those bad things are balanced out by the good things you think the President has achieved.

78

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 17 Aug 2017, 09:55 »

I think the foot has to accept some responsibility for being shot.

79

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 28 Jul 2017, 14:59 »

Perhaps we're talking at cross purposes. I would say that politics is not something that can be separated from history and society. I'm struggling to think of a sphere of human interaction outside what you call the "influence of politics". When I say race is political, I don't mean that the Republicans or the Whigs invented it. I mean that race is related to human organisational and governmental structures.

80

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 28 Jul 2017, 12:52 »

I'm not sure we can pin down exactly when politics started happening in human history.

However, we only have to look a few hundred years back to find writers contrasting the "English Race" with the "French Race". These are racial identities not many contemporary writers would subscribe to. Our concept of race has evolved, and modern racial identities have been created. In some ways, organically, and in some ways deliberately. The Nazis constructed a racial identity inspired by German Romanticism, and in opposition to an anti-Semitic, racialised view of Judaism. The Nation of Islam teaches that white people are a race of degenerate "devils" created by an evil scientist with the aim of subjugating black people and Islam.

These identities didn't just develop organically, they were created.