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General Discussion / Re: Did you ever pirate Star Control 2?
« on: March 09, 2010, 08:15:13 am »
Definitely was a pirated copy the first time I got it. I feel bad about it now...
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Off Topic / Re: New Movies
« on: March 09, 2010, 07:51:05 am »Quotehistorical revisionism
Hehe, yeah I remember watching that film with the folks and at a certain point we just collectively went "Oh... not based on actual history then". It was pretty well near the end, I'm sure you can figure out which scene I'm talking about
I think I might have an inkling...
It was good to see Christoph Waltz win supporting actor for his role.
I just watched "the Reader", which was pretty good, if depressing, though one wanted to punch a couple of the leading characters on a number of occassions for their rampant stupidity/cowardice/super-lameness. It did kind of have "Give me and oscar!" written all over it though - sex and Nazis and learning disabilities all together seems to be over-egging the pudding a trifle.
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Off Topic / Re: What are you reading?
« on: March 09, 2010, 07:46:38 am »Apparently this is something that pisses Australians off.
This, on the other hand, is an excellent way to piss me off...
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Off Topic / Re: What are you reading?
« on: March 03, 2010, 01:59:02 am »But honestly? I prefer the yellow cheddar that comes in a brick and would make any self respecting cheese connoisseur shudder..
Yeah. While I don't mind fancy foreign cheese every now and then, my favourite has to be a nice, crumbly, vintage/super-tasty cheddar. Yum.
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General Discussion / Re: My best win yet
« on: March 03, 2010, 01:55:47 am »
Against the AI, some ships (such as the Jugger or Avatar) can wreak untold amounts of havoc. Generally I find that donig well against the AI often relies on getting one of these ships early, and not running into any of its counters immediately.
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General Discussion / Re: Battle Thralls/Fallow Slaves
« on: March 03, 2010, 01:53:40 am »There was a really good explanation posted on UQMF back when, which went something along the lines of "Ur-Quan see everyone else as inferior, and wouldn't permit an inferior slave race to kill an Ur-Quan". Both sides treat aliens as objects, it's just a question of whether you stick those ants that are annoying you in a glass bowl or if you squash them outright.
While I think this is an excellent idea, do you think that it's all Ur-Quan aboard the Dreadnoughts during the doctrinal conflict? Someone has to pilot the fighters, after all.
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Off Topic / Re: Things your country doesn't "get"
« on: March 03, 2010, 01:50:29 am »
I'll slag off my current country of residence, as I can't think of anything from home at the moment.
The Irish do not understand how to cross a road. At all. I'm a big fan of the old jaywalk now and then, but the Irish will just stroll across right in front of you, making no effort to hurry up even if you're heading straight for them. Any tooting of the horn, or acting like they might want to get out of the fucking way, or use the pedestrian crossing five meters away, results in an incredulous, aggreived look, as if they're perfectly entiled to amble along at a snail's pace through heavy traffic. I don't understand how they survive if they're holidaying somewhere like Italy or Spain.
The Irish do not understand how to cross a road. At all. I'm a big fan of the old jaywalk now and then, but the Irish will just stroll across right in front of you, making no effort to hurry up even if you're heading straight for them. Any tooting of the horn, or acting like they might want to get out of the fucking way, or use the pedestrian crossing five meters away, results in an incredulous, aggreived look, as if they're perfectly entiled to amble along at a snail's pace through heavy traffic. I don't understand how they survive if they're holidaying somewhere like Italy or Spain.
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Off Topic / Re: New Movies
« on: March 03, 2010, 01:44:39 am »
Just saw "Inglorious Basterds" on DVD. For some reason I expected it to be all serious and shit, being about WWII and all, but it's pretty Tarantinoey. Some fantastic, tense dialogue scenes (the opening scene, and the one meeting their contact in the bar), and some outrageous over the top violence (though not as much as one might expect). As for the historical revisionism that some are getting their panties in a twist about, eh, it's a Tarantino movie, what did you expect?
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General Discussion / Re: Battle Thralls/Fallow Slaves
« on: February 18, 2010, 02:30:47 am »
I'm on the fence about the "are old battle thralls turned into fallow slaves" question. I think it's possible to let them stay free, as long as a few Ur-Quan or trusted thralls are around to keep things under control. To save effort and quote myself:
Such favoured thralls would have an interest in maintaining the Hierarchy system, and perhaps only a few Ur-Quan would be required to keep an eye on things.
As for the Doctrinal Conflict: In a way it was not a fair contest, as the Kzer-Za were not allowed to use The Path of Now and Forever to it's full extent. They've been enslaving races for thousands of years, but when it comes to the crunch, for some stupid reason of honour, or tradition, they can't use their huge empire to their advantage.
Which I think is stupid, as outlined above. Imagine the difference that a few Terminators, or Eluders, would have made in the Doctrinal conflict. I guess you could argue that this does suggest that all the former battle thralls were eventually slave shielded, but I'm not entirely convinced.
Quote
Quote from: Me, in another thread somewhere.
It seems that fear of the Ur-Quan keeps things working pretty smoothly most of the time - but if they not around then things fall apart pretty quickly.
Perhaps in other parts of the galaxy where races have been under the Ur-Quan for hundreds or thousands of years, there are trustworthy thralls who can keep matters under control in the absence of their masters. But in this neck of the woods, the thralls have only been conquered for a few decades, not nearly enough time to develop any sort of relationship other than one based on fear of annigilation.
Such favoured thralls would have an interest in maintaining the Hierarchy system, and perhaps only a few Ur-Quan would be required to keep an eye on things.
As for the Doctrinal Conflict: In a way it was not a fair contest, as the Kzer-Za were not allowed to use The Path of Now and Forever to it's full extent. They've been enslaving races for thousands of years, but when it comes to the crunch, for some stupid reason of honour, or tradition, they can't use their huge empire to their advantage.
Quote
It doesn't make sense to leave Dreadnoughts behind in conquered areas, since those are the only ships that can be used for the doctrinal conflict.
Which I think is stupid, as outlined above. Imagine the difference that a few Terminators, or Eluders, would have made in the Doctrinal conflict. I guess you could argue that this does suggest that all the former battle thralls were eventually slave shielded, but I'm not entirely convinced.
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Off Topic / Re: Doctor Who
« on: February 16, 2010, 02:21:45 am »I take it you haven't seen this then? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB1gB6K-2A
No, I hadn't. Pretty funny. I find Catherine Tate hilarious in small doses.
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Off Topic / Re: What are you reading?
« on: February 12, 2010, 01:54:41 am »Well, what Heinlein books did you read? There's Early Heinlein, and then there's Later Heinlein. And there's a pretty big difference between the two. Starship Troopers is Early Heinlein for sure.
Okay, looking through his catalogue I'm pretty sure it was "the number of the beast". I could have sworn I'd read more than that but that's the only title I recognise. I don't think I got more than halfway through the book - just too disjointed and didn't grab me at all. I'm guessing it counts as Later Heinlein? Is the early stuff better?
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Off Topic / Re: Doctor Who
« on: February 12, 2010, 01:50:12 am »
I can't take her seriously. I just imagine her saying "am I bovvered?" to every alien they meet and can't stop myself giggling.
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Off Topic / Re: Songs that have been stuck in your head
« on: February 11, 2010, 08:33:30 am »
"Little Lion Man", by Mumford and Sons. Still enjoying it though.
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Off Topic / Re: Doctor Who
« on: February 11, 2010, 08:25:10 am »
In these modern times I'm afraid that I can't get past the shitty special effects and hammy acting, no matter how good the story is. Though I used to love it as a kid. Pertwee is the Doctor for me!
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Off Topic / Re: What are you reading?
« on: February 11, 2010, 08:23:11 am »if you want I suppose I could start a new thread and do some more in depth quoting and we could chat about different ways of getting well and unwell.
You should do that.
Before that, I finished Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Wow. That movie was indeed nothing like it, at all. A very interesting book, though I somehow missed all that controversialness about it.
To my shame, I've never read Starship Troopers. I should do something about that. I have read some other Heinlein, though, and found it very much not to my taste.