Right; here goes! It's closing day for Imperium 22 - One-Track Mind (unless I'm looking at the date cross-eyed or something) and my report is posted in the usual place. There are a few plot/character elements in my story that really should have been expanded more, in my self-critical opinion, but I've been in a big time crunch lately (real-life things) and so will have to let it stand; for the missing class discussions and so forth, as with so much else in classic Orion itself, just use your imagination! (Still one of the reasons I love this game.)

I enjoyed this one quite a lot; thanks very much to KnTenshi for sponsoring the game!

I played this (Dan Quayle of the Americans, with worse-than-useless traits, UU, and UB) too after T-hawk said he was playing it. I finished a couple weeks ago but didn't get around to posting this until now, seeing as how there isn't a reporting deadline for a later shadow game like this.

I spent one turn moving the starting settler 2S, 1E, keeping the cow within range and with the added bonus of starting on a river plains hill. Shame there is no potatoe to go with that cow. I decide that, hey, we want religion, like much of the modern Republican party. So I decide to try to get a couple of the early religions myself, building a couple warriors then a worker while researching Mysticism -> Polytheism -> Mining (speeds up Masonry and gives my worker something else to do) -> Masonry -> Monotheism. This successfully gets me the dual holy HinJew city as hoped. I pick up Sailing and some gold from huts, but nothing else of note.

Now, the more religion, the better! For this, I want to build both Stonehenge and the Oracle to build up enough GPP points to spawn an early Great Prophet that can bulb Theology; I need both because Quayle's Addled trait is -50% to GPP, which I found to be a pretty serious penalty, and easily the worst of the four negative traits Quayle gets. To reliably get Stonehenge on Monarch requires building it before any settlers, I do this and it completes in 2450 BC. A couple settlers follow while I'm catching up on basic worker technologies, and they go here:



New York isn't in a great long-term location, but it claims a bunch of resources and is a good short-term city site. Boston claims horses and the wheat I didn't know I missed moving away from the starting location, and is one of my intended major production cities. I'm also finally researching Bronze Working so I can claim some metal.

Saturday is the HA bounty, I'm sucking at leading GvG vs splits, and the meta is infested with R/As. So I suggest getting some fame in a no-split environment with a counterbuild to the R/A madness.

Got thoughts up here so far, will refine soon. Looking to start at 3 PM EST. I'm hoping to use something near this slot for regular weekly outings, so let's see how that plays out this week.

As came up in the Adventure 38 discussions, I've written an analysis of the productivity of banks in Civ 4. You can find it here and hopefully achieve enlightenment:

http://www.dos486.com/civ4/index/bank.shtml

you got a really really bad hard drive? Just listen ..

So based on the other poll and discussion in game, I decided to go with the second style. It just has this regal feminen warrior quality to it. So here are some looks based on what people mentioned to me. I want the Silvery Blue hair because, well, its an anime thing...you know characters with blue hair and stuff like that (if you've ever watched anime). I also figure this is a good way to take everyone's mind off the other topic and have some good old fun. Ultimately though, I'll end up choosing what I like, but I just want an idea of what others think. So no one's voice in this thread counts more than my opinion for my character. So much for RB democracy, huh?

You'll note that the only difference is the skin color which gets darker as you scroll down. I also dyed the torso part of the armor to give an idea of what I would do for the overall look. My final decision will most likely be based on one of these 4 styles. And I'll probably hold my vote to the end to see if anyone brings up any good points.

NOTE: Thanks to fox and him trading with me, I got myself a torment shield.

Style 1



Style 2



Style 3


Style 4

For 30 some years when I first came to Penticton, this is the second time I went out to see the Ironman race; and first year I went out and enjoyed the 5 days long Peach Festival, concerts every night and all

I had to wake up before sunrise and WALKed to the event since it would probably be more trouble to drive there with all the road blocks and parking space wasn't going to be a easy find. That's quite an endurance challenge for this out of shape ex Olympic torch bearer ;p

It has been 9 hours since the winner came in and it will probably be another 2 hours before the last guy gives up. On with the pictorial:

With the sound of a bang, all the lemmings jumped in.




Umm, see people drowning over there? You 2 suppose to patrol, not flirt! Heck, I should volunteer for that.




Quite a crowd, this is just on my right hand side, then there's the left, at my back; and that's just at the starting point. Thousands lined the streets along the route. Note the crowd along the treeline across the top.




Winner of the swimming portion. It's funny to see some of them coming out of this race and go pee.




Am I too close? The security gives me dirty looks. Funny how you slap a uniform (a Tshirt in this case!) and they think they are the supreme authority. Ok, maybe it's just my problem with authorities. ;p




Time saving tactic - striptease on the run.




How close am I to the action? You can tell I am using wide-angle and at water level




Think I am worried getting ran over while I am in a crouching position? I am not even in shorts. Better be prepared next year, you idiot.
Probably would not have gone in the water if I remember I walked.




Alright, I have had enough, next idiot to splash me is a dead Ironman. Is that a fish, dinner?




IRONDUCK! Peking duck for tonight, yums!




Hand me the Excalibur!




Okay, that's like right in the eyes. Who did that?




Points to his left, "It's him!"




Caught ya. You are going down, bud.
Last seen running up Okanagan beach with a camera stuck up his behind.




Damn itch...




He laughs at the short guys




If only Janet Jackson knew about nipple band-aid...
What's up with that? Can't afford a wetsuit? Water too cold? Sharks? Or, self-censorship?




If a face can launch a thousand ships, how many ships can a balded head launch? Okay, that was mean, but he could have said "excuse me"




Stay down, boy!




"I would rather be skiing"




Hmm, let see.. if I go real slow they wouldn't force me to come back next year... If E=MC, um was that square or cube....




WORNG WAY, bud. What's in that bottle!?




Who took a bite off my chocolate bar!?




Took awhile to find this spot. So I slowly wedged my way in the crowd and worked myself in front, getting this shot set up waiting for THE winner to come in.




Excitement built as the pace car entered the picture and the crowd started to roar. Good going, not much behind record time.




And the winner is... that runner in the background. He's more than a block away and I can't get a focus lock on him. Not before, WTF, you are not suppose to turn and take that route!!! I have been waiting at this sweet spot for an hour, I had it all setup...



Every Ironman should carry a portable radio so they know they lost and not waste (some of them) another 9 hours trying to catch up still running after midnight.

Edit: American Jordan Rapp captured the 2009 Subaru Ironman Canada triathlon when he crossed the finish line in 8:25:13
(should have came my way, bud, it would have shaved 5 minutes off)

OK, so some of you know that I want to do an extreme makeover on Mune. Fox seems to like what I did with Kiy. And considering I think almost all male warrior armors are ugly, and that I don't really use my actual female warrior nor do I want to progress her through the campaigns, I've decided it would be easier to just let Mune have a sex change.

And before any of you say I should change my name too, there is no way I'm doing that. The only way to change your name is to pay $15. And that's ONLY to change your name. So its pretty stupid unless you hate your name.

For those of you that don't know, when doing any makeover or sex change, you can choose from any of the faces, hair, skin color, etc. from any of the compaigns that are linked to the primary profession of that character. Unfortunatley I don't like a lot of the faces from most of the campaigns for female warriors. I think I like the prophecy ones the most. So all I'd really be changing is the hair style, and maybe the color. Right now I have these two styles I'm deciding between.

Style 1:


Style 2:


And I already paid for the extreme makeover token or whatever, so not going through with it is not an option. Therefore I only offer these options.

READ EVERYTHING before you vote, this is a little complicated because we have three alternatives here, and therefore you get a first and second choice...

See these threads for how this issue arose and pros and cons discussed by members.

Now what we are voting on...

No Change/Existing System: Members are invited to the guild if/when an officer chooses to do so. Promotion to officer happens when an existing officer deems it appropriate. Demotion happens due to inactivity (as decided by GL or possibly an agreed upon timeframe), and they are repromoted upon resuming activity.

Few Officers: the officer list will be made smaller, through either a system of volunteering, or on a rotating basis. There will be some minimum objective requirements such as being in the guild for a specified length of time, and likely having a forum account and/or posting in an appropriate thread, and we may add a few others. Otherwise gaining officer status does not depend on judged merit beyond activity. In either case officers will have a few responsibilities, such as doing invites/guests/kicks as desired by members, I.E. they generally push the buttons rather than making decisions.

All Officers: all active members are automatically promoted after a set time of being in the guild (2 weeks?), possibly contingent on them getting a forum account and/or signing up in a specified thread, or a few other objective requirements (like say not being 8 years old). All officers can hand out invites, guests, etc.

Note that both few/all officer change proposals will make entry to the guild easier, since essentially all members can extend invites. Regardless of who is an officer, more members will also have access to officer powers, since in the few-officer model officers must execute their powers in accordance with member desires.

As shown here all the details are not hammered out, but we need to decide on a general direction before debating the specifics

I know a number of people might prefer one or the other change, but would definitely prefer either change over doing nothing, so the resulting vote is trying to cover all opinions without splitting it unfairly. The first choice is indicated with a 1:, the second with a 2:. Correct me here if I'm wrong in describing how the multi-votes are resolved. The least popular first choice will be eliminated, and those voting for it will have their second choice (if they made one) promoted to first and entered in contention among the remaining first-choices.

Here's a collection of ill-formed ideas of mine, maybe it will inspire someone to flesh them out or do something useful.

General philosophy statement: I don't think the customary ban on PvE-only skills makes sense anymore. With the pve/p split anet have thrown balance out the window and there are a number of completely overpowered "regular" skills now, and those need to be considered too when one feels motivated to ban PvE skills. There's also a bunch of EotN skills that aren't that strong which could be a fun source of variety. E.G. the reasoning behind ele variant encouraged various support and elemental pve skills, while banning the absurd damage ones like pain inverter, finish him, even technobabble.

On the other hand I'd still keep consumeables banned by default unless you're going to do the legwork to integrate them properly. This is mostly because it feels lame that some money can get you past a hard part, but at the same time if you balanced your variant around consets used constantly, it would get pretty expensive. The DP-reducers aren't necessarily so objectionable, but things like celerity, or a tank stacking +100 HP bonuses are. Against everything I just said, there is the point that consumeables could be a safety valve against getting stuck on one particular mission.


Beyond Nudists

Concept: use "cursed" items, a form of nudists that heroes can play

Rules: wear full armor, but must use 5 superior attribute runes. Casters must use a "high set" at all times (+15 energy/-1 regen wand and focus). Possibly ban all % health damage reducers (shelter, prot spirit, etc.) DP-reducers/morale boost consumeables allowed.

Issues: Not sure how to handle physical attacks or ritualist items. There are drawbacks on physical weapons but they are really minor, and it's not necessarily fair that dervish/sins get 4 pips. Could boil down to an imbagon keeping people alive (it could still be difficult in hard mode, but EVERYTHING would depend on the imba...) at the same time, not sure a blanket ban on PvE skills is good.


Monster masquerade

Concept: attempt (and fail) to infiltrate/spy on monsters; a simple way of playing monster skillbars, and get the feeling you beat enemies using their bars but with superior tactics.

Rules: your skillbar must come from one of the monster types in whatever area/mission/dungeon you are attempting. Each player must choose a different monster type, and it must be a regular monster in the zone (not boss-only). To that bar, players may add a rez (signet or within monster class), the starter heal from their monster's class (heal sig for warrior, orison from monk, etc.), and a "secret weapon" (skill from outside the monster's class - possibly pve) Additionaly you must wear a holiday helm (preferably one that looks the part.)

Issues: a real mess with the advanced EotN double-profession monsters... should be some compensation vs monster-only skills too like PvE skills in their place.... healing is also very limited in most monster groups... and I dunno if people like having such fixed bars.


Barbarians Redux

Concept: way simpler implementation of BAR that is just a tweak on Samurai; mostly ends up as yellow-way

Rules: no spells, binding rituals, or forms; only norn PvE skills (BARs not trusting of other outsiders) - must use all white gear (white weapons, no insignias or runes)

Issues: it's alot of effort/inventory to set up characters for all white, but has a fairly minor gameplay effect in GW. Most touch skills are questionable (vampiric bite), but some aren't (shove/grapple) and alot of them are bad anyway. Signet mesmers are likewise questionable, but dolyak/heal sig fit perfect. Very reliant on at least two paragons to keep people alive with synergizing shouts, which could be an issue for large human teams. Completely uninviting to casters.


Undead Legion

Concept: in many systems (like D&D), heal spells actually HARM undead... so healing is very limited here. Mostly an excuse to play a low-healing variant.

Rules: Healing skills are banned, with these exceptions: life-stealing, health gained when damage done (vamprism), regen (undead are known for their resiliance!), life transfer (infuse health, or stealing from spirits) resurrection (brings you back with x% health) Must wear a holiday headpiece that looks the part (zombie mask, maybe demon mask)

Issues: this really is quite insane... people will end up as death nova sac outlets to generate minions, and be brought back instantly with unyielding aura... again risk of becoming overly SY-dependent, although minion/spirit walls are a good solution and very in-flavor.


Completely Overpowered

Concept: focus exclusively on "overpowered" skills that "take all the challenge" out of GW... see how easy it is to rely *just* on them

Rules: your skillbar is three PvE skills, an elite, and a rez. Consumables encouraged, but only one party-effect can be active at a time (choose between ghial, celerity, and salvation - not all three at once)

Issues: certain overpowered builds still work (Focused Anger - Drunken Master - Air of Superiority - Save Yourselves) (Selfless Spirit - Glimmer of Light) (Asuran Scan - YMLAD/You're all weaklings - Discord) albiet more boringly because you don't have all the fun utility stuff added on. Then again that stuff could be really important, and being stuck on such one-dimensional characters ends up adding more challenge. (WTB prot spirit!) Not especially hero friendly.


Diablo II

Concept: we're impatient for D3, so lets shoehorn D2 playstyles where they don't fit (GW) To really feel like old times, "rush" to bosses at the end of dungeons.

Rules: 7 D2 classes, one class per team (but probably two paladins). Each class has idiosyncratic skill lists to encourage D2 playstyles. Skills are only permitted per class if they are explicitly listed. All kinds of self-heals also allowed, as are morale-boost consumeables. Examples so far:

Necromancer: may use necro hexes, but not on an already hexed target (curse limitation). May use skills that inflict poison. May use skills that exploit corpses if they don't create more than one undead (no bone minions/shambling horror/AotL)

Paladin, P/W version: may use shouts and chants, but only one at a time on self (E.G., must end Anthem of Flame on self before you can use Stand your Ground - this is the one-active-aura limitation) May use any signets, stances, and attack skills for swords and axes. One blocking skill required.

Paladin, Mo/W version: may use any maintained enchantment, but can only maintain one type of enchantment on the party at a time. May use divine signet and all smiting prayers. (RoJ = FoH, reversal of damage = holy bolt, etc.) Same warrior skills allowed as for P/W.

Amazon: all ranger skills except beast mastery, traps, and interrupts are allowed, spear mastery is also allowed. While wielding bows, conditions are limited to burning and cripple. (fire/ice) While wielding spears, only poison is allowed. May use juggernaut summoning stones (valkyrie)

Issues: not very unified. 1:1 skill corrospondence is possible to map out, but that seemed even more complicated and unnecessarily restrictive. Modifies in-game behavior, which requires more discipline than setting up skills/equipment. Some archetypes are primary/secondary combos which limits which characters can play. Need decent healing support without resorting to true healers (the game relied on potions) Not much resonance for non-diablo people (a fair number of active players now.) GW seemed to have ripped off D2 enough that it's not all that different either.