Messages

46

Other Games / Re: Dave's Galaxy

« on: December 28, 2011, 01:30:49 PM »

And I think he's lost a lot of planets over the past days.

I hope we're all remembering his colonies up at 1583.8,1555.0? I think by the time any of us can properly get there (I have a fairly useless colony a short distance away) he'll be very solidly entrenched.

47

General Talk / Re: Ron Paul

« on: December 26, 2011, 11:38:56 PM »

So when will the actual election start?

Define "election". If you mean "when do they start campaigning", then probably January 2009. If you mean "when can people vote", I think that's November next year - an American can probably give you the exact date.

America is still the world's strongest power, on practically every scale

I'm not too sure about that to be honest. Their political weight has been subdued a lot lately, especially with the "last minute" agreement on raising their debt ceiling. That made a lot of countries a little annoyed as it seemed like America was just a big child stamping its foot. Their involvement in Libya wasn't as great as it could have been, they took much more of a back seat in that. Now you're pulling out of Iraq whilst other allies are still there. America's power is failing and, to be honest, I would say China is the world's most powerful at the moment. Just look at their stance on Libya, a lot of countries decided not to get involved because China was the first to say "no, we don't want to". China also holds a darn lot of American debt (as you noted), as well as debt in many other countries. They've also offered to put up money for the Euro crisis. So what they say has a lot of weight from intimidation in Europe and a lot of weight from admiration in Asia. Their military is probably just as well armed as the American military, except they have the funds to be able to deploy it if they wanted to.

But yeah, they're still one of the strongest and always will be - the geographical & population size of the country is too great for it not to be an important player in the world.

Or default, of course. Which, while it many ways it would be catastrophic (especially in terms of what it would do to US retirement funds and pension plans, and Chinese ones), most research has suggested that defaulting on debt in large economies with market power, especially if followed by credible policy change, has comparatively small side effects (comparatively, of course, referencing hypothetical costs of paying the pre-default obligation plus future interest).

Possibly missing out the psychological effects though. Americans come across as very patriotic, much more so than most of the world (let's not get into who is and isn't patriotic though). That level of faith in their country on being "the strongest" in the world would leave ordinary people devastated should the US ever default on its debts. Suddenly the great nation isn't so great, it can't live up to its promises. I would expect that to have a great effect on the ordinary man or woman. So whilst policy changes might aid a default the effects on the people would be felt for many years to come and, whilst I can't find evidence to back this up, I would suspect that it would effect peoples' ability to get themselves out of any holes they may have gotten in to.

48

General Talk / Re: Ron Paul

« on: December 25, 2011, 10:06:13 PM »

Outside view on USA politics.

Democrats: Owned by corporations. They pass laws to help the corporations.
Republicans: Owned by corporations. They pass laws to help the corporations.
Third parties: Might change things, but the population seems happy enough with their corporate sponsored two party system.

Agreed. Here in the UK we don't get loads of news about the US elections until they happen, but I have seen that both parties are constantly spending money on campaigning with that money coming from corporations and generally making a lot of noise without much backup. I've also seen the Republican candidates seem to be fairly crazy and out of touch: 999 tax plan, moon mining bases, joking about $10k bets, forgetting what their policies are.

Whoever gets elected next year is going to have a tough four years. America seems to be waking up to the fact it isn't the world's greatest super power any more and I doubt it's going to go down well when it's bundled together with debt, the style of public politics over there and general anger about living standards decreasing/not improving greatly for most people.

With regards to polar opposites, the UK seems to go in cycles. Our parties started on the left and right, came into the middle and they're now going back again. Some people might say it's because of how the funding system works here (a small few giving a lot of money to the Conservatives, trade unions giving money to Labour, not many funding the Liberal Democrats). As the for the US, from the outside it seems that the Democrats are just right-of-centre with the Republicans being right (some being far right). Not having lived there myself, I'm not sure how accurate that is as that would imply that there's very little appetite for leftist polices.

I guess if people are pissed off enough, they will actually vote for a third party.

UK's Liberal Democrats. 3rd party, now part of the government at the last election. But now they're really far behind in the polls. However you would be surprised how many people still think otherwise in a First Past the Post system: "why should I vote for [3rd party]? They have no chance of getting into government, so it's a wasted vote". Somewhere with a proportional system (most of Europe), you'll find there isn't a "3rd party" in the sense of "useless party".

49

Other Games / Re: Dave's Galaxy

« on: December 24, 2011, 01:22:21 AM »

Hehe, maybe my poor support for larger empires is actually a good thing.  It's a limiting factor in and of itself.

Definitely. It'll help when the game picks up more. Seeing a couple of massive empires might put some newer players off, but if a lot of people are around the same size (even if they are fairly large), they'll realise it's achievable and stay.

50

Dwilight / Re: Southern War of Nobility (Civil war in Madina)

« on: December 23, 2011, 10:36:00 PM »

Any update on the war? I'm taking a bit of a break from BM whilst life is hectic so not able to take part in taking back our grand city from the stinky rebels!

51

Other Games / Re: Dave's Galaxy

« on: December 16, 2011, 07:40:26 PM »

I'm back! For a few days, at least. Until I have to go away again for just shy of a week.

Came back and all my planets had under 10mil population, I'm guessing that's just some sort of really long inactivity thing kicking in since I've seen populations fluctuating on inactive planets before.

Added Kagurati to the front page. Welcome to DG! You seem to be rather well isolated there. Your nearest BM ally is Gustav Kuriga (Komurov) to the north-west of you, he's orange-brown. You only have to go through 1 empire (ruff48) to reach him so between you, you could easily bridge the gap between your empires

Also, shame on all of you! Nobody has asked Qyasogk if he would be interested in playing War Islands, a turn-based strategy game in which you fight against 2/3 other players to conquer an island by force, having only your strategic knowledge to guide you. Or even asked him if he wants to play Battlemaster, a roleplaying game in which you control the world around you through political intrigue, military force or maybe even the influence of your God. Both of which he would really enjoy, if only anyone would ask him.

EDIT: Also, loving the new fleet changes. I actually built a nice little fleet with SBS in it since they're now fairly cost effective. I could still build a fleet of Cruisers that had more fire-power than the SBS fleet, but it was a much nicer gap now (and they had a lot more defence). Plus, since it would have to be a fleet of Cruisers of a much larger size, I think that when it came to a battle, the SBS would win (over several battles, of course). I realise this is just one observation of a rather large change, but if it's anything to go by I can see these changes really making a difference to how we all wage wars!

EDIT EDIT: <3 the lack of a scout defence. Now that I'm safely able to defend, that is.

52

Beyond / Re: Status

« on: December 15, 2011, 05:11:44 PM »

I'm still interested, but I'll reserve my answer for a while. Starting a job on Monday, so I'll see how I feel with coding at work and then coding at home before letting you know for certain if I can help out.

EDIT: Btw, my Unity experience is still limited, however it seems fairly easy to use. I didn't really pick it up much back when I last posted. I did all the tutorials they provide a few weeks back and they seemed really easy to do.

Maybe if you say what needs doing, people can put their hands up and say "yeah, I'll give that a bash"?

53

Other Games / Re: Dave's Galaxy

« on: November 30, 2011, 12:19:14 AM »

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, won't be able to access Dave's whilst I'm away.

I've set up some defences so hopefully I won't lose anything whilst I'm gone. If I do get attacked, you're all more than welcome to avenge my losses

54

BM General Discussion / Re: OOC Clans

« on: November 27, 2011, 01:37:03 PM »

Finally, if you already quit your realm, then what is your point in later coming here to complain? I think you screwed up your own game by walking out in the middle when you still had a chance at recourse.

I didn't read the original post as a complaint, more as a question about how to deal with it in the future. Crescent knows the action (s)he took wasn't the best and needed advice on how to deal with it should it arise again.

55

Other Games / Re: Skyrim

« on: November 27, 2011, 12:08:57 PM »

With 100 enchanting, +enchanting potions, and crazy +enchanting items, you can get up to 100% off on destro robes, which means you can infinitely cast master level spells with no mana loss. It's not even gamebreaking on Master.

You sure? In the video I saw of a guy doing that, he was still losing magicka, just really slowly. I think it's probably capped at -85% like most things.

56

Other Games / Re: Skyrim

« on: November 26, 2011, 08:13:01 PM »

For things that don't die when I run out of mana

You should try getting some clothing that brings the cost of spells down. Or get the perks in Restoration in that increase magicka regen.

Level 68 now. Most of my skills are higher than 60. All my combat skills are maxed out. I should really.. stop.. this game...

Hah, I thought I'd spent a lot of time on it. Level 53 myself. Although I haven't been switching armour/weapons/magic around, so I've been using things I've got 100 skill in for a long time. Might just suddenly change to using light armour with double handed swords. Then change to destruction magic/shield combo.

A conjurer looked pretty cool.

It's rather over powered. Once you get the perk for 2 summons at once, you can just walk through dungeons even on master difficulty. I think summons level with difficulty too, so at the moment I'm summoning two master difficulty Dremora Lords and just sitting back with a bow, occasionally going in with my mace if I get bored.

57

Far East Island / Re: Rebellion in Arcachon

« on: November 26, 2011, 08:06:45 PM »

Maybe Veleno would be interested in Sasrhas?

You can ask her, but you'll get some fluffy answer since I'm going away for two weeks in a few days. So although "yes" would be the answer, it wouldn't be fair to take the position and then go away a couple of days after being given it

As for Arcachon.. what's the deal? I feel like once the loyalist's beat the rebels, they'll just rebel again, eh?

I had it explained to me, but I don't understand without being there. As far as I can gather:

Elections happened. Knights happy, Lords not happy. Lords rebel, get their guy in. Knights rebel, get their guy in. Rinse. Repeat.

58

Other Games / Re: Skyrim

« on: November 26, 2011, 05:13:10 PM »

Have you guys been using any mods? I've not had time to check any out, but I've had a few recommended to me:

Craftable arrows:
http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1178#content

A few extra craftable things that were in the game, but left out:
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1020#content

Coloured map markers:
http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1327#content

There are a few texture packs that come highly recommended on that site too, but I would imagine using a lot of them can cause a lot of lag for some cards so it's better to go through and decide yourself if you want them.

59

BM General Discussion / Re: OOC Clans

« on: November 26, 2011, 03:33:27 PM »

If you think they're clanning and ruining the fun for everyone else, tell them. They might not realise they're ruining everyone else's fun.

If they still don't change, then it's a case for the Magistrates/Titans

If you can find an IC way of getting rid of them, even better because then we can all stay within the spirit of the game and it might even make them participate with the rest of the realm.

60

Other Games / Re: Dave's Galaxy

« on: November 26, 2011, 12:37:17 PM »

I surrounded his planets with blackbirds and kill most of the stuff he sends out.

Nice. How close do you think you are to moving in and taking the planets?