Posts by Drakon

I agree with Franco. For years I simply played vanilla FL and then modded versions of the game in SP. The key to getting players new to Freelancer is for SP to be so excellent that if/when they do log onto the server it's everything they expected and hoped it would be.

It is an interesting topic really. The findings point to ice deposits all over the surface of the moon - namely concentrated in the polar regions. Luna is still drier than a desert, but it's still quite the exciting find. There is speculation that NASA also discovered this during the Apollo program decades ago, but failed to realize that traces of water in the samples were from the moon itself and not contaminants from Earth. What space exploration turns up never ceases to amaze. I agree by the way, Spiky, but sadly enough even the Space Race itself was funded to pursue weapon systems, popularity and support from the public, and to assert geopolitical clout. That more pure, scientific drive for discovery seems strangely absent from too many cultures around the world. Maybe one day that will change, but for now most people seem to only care when there are practical, immediate applications for a discovery. :\

Diablo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Space_nations.svg

Only the US, Russia, and PRC can put people into space on their own right now, but many nations have made achievements in terms of probes, satellites, and the technologies necessary to advance further.

Good video Spiky - you had put up such a good fight, too. The file itself was a bit large, but worth seeing.

I had no clue this was a new OS - I thought it was just a re-branded facelift of Vista. xD

There seems to be a bit of a consensus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=078BGtKNL1o

I live two miles south of a town with 14,000 people in it on a small alfalfa/thistle/tumbleweed field so badly eroded that it's parched, sun-baked dust and clay. The closest I've gotten to a cultural immersion here is to sneak up to a bison ranch, squint, and pretend like it's 500 years ago. Or that time I rode a train. Or lurked in the forest and came across an abandoned homestead property. You stop for a moment and are awestruck if a building features an elevator or a third floor. Seriously. When I want to see something cool it tends to involve several hours of travel. Erfurt might be so good that it's inspirational. Or not. But I'm trying to be motivating here! *grins*

(of course, that's tiptoeing around the fact that there are three mountain sub-ranges within eyeshot of where I'm sitting right now, and foothills close enough that I could walk up to them in a few minutes and take an absurd number of pictures of them, instead :P)

Ignoring Bitzy's insistence on using the same pun three times I am a tad surprised. Erfurt seems to be a rather interesting place, OP. If I were there I'd certainly get drawn to the Krämerbrücke and the cathedral (mostly to take an absurd number of pictures)... and that's before I'd even know where the hell I am and what there is to see. Maybe it'd do you some good to wander around and take in the local sights a bit. It's easy to take for granted what one has nearby. It can be nice to rediscover things from time to time.

At least I respect you, Lucy. It didn't occur to me that you could be stereotyped up until this point. xD

This is creepy. Don't you want to... I don't know... do something about it before he tries to find your house? xD

Quote

Originally posted by SWAT_OP-R8R
midlive...? wtf?
what are you talking about?
do you know more than i do?
i still have a few centuries before that happens

Damn - German health care is even better than I thought.

If I see so much as one whip or leather strap somebody is going to be sorry.

Agreed on all counts.

I'm not sure what causes it, but my notion has been that part of the high ping comes from geographic locale. Crossfire's server is in Germany, where if you're within a few hundred miles there's really no excuse to have a ping more than 100. Overseas in the states, however, pings can easily be twice that figure or even higher. There are probably other factors involved that I don't understand, but the server is pretty much quarter of the way around the world from you.

To answer the original question, I am interested in being a smuggler and used to be very good at it... but now have other RP constraints that forbid it (namely, I would need to torpedo myself). Good luck finding some people for it, Huor.

OP has made it clear that the RP rules haven't changed. There's nothing to discuss about mercs because the rules have all been there this whole time. Bearing that in mind, I took an interest in the side-conversation.

Spiky's explanation was quite rational I thought, and smuggler clans do not exist because the other RPs can smuggle without it being their declared role on the server. It is like how there is an absence of purely merchant clans on account that almost everyone trades on one of their alts anyway. Even as I cop I can defy pirate demands for fines and continue trading without getting killed or stopped. If I can do it with prisoners and H-fuel, why can't a smuggler manage the same feats with BMG? Legality of trade has become irrelevant compared to overall lawfulness (i.e. pirates are also smugglers, police are also merchants, and mercs + FLs go both ways and live with the consequences). Is that not an accurate depiction of how it has worked? At any rate, it really doesn't matter. All of the RPs get used in healthy portion despite the overlap.

I am a mental anomaly. A second glance, maybe, but no staring.

Never seen that one before :o

Not to mention the suspense is what keeps people at the edge of their seats. Hinting at small spoilers is cool, but give away too much and the mod will be anti-climatic when people get around to playing. Expectations are important to assert control over... so that when the time comes they are surpassed.