Silver Blades

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by manikus As to other interests of, shall we say, a more esoteric nature, I am quite steeped in the study of conspiracy theorists and their theories. I'm not into conspiracy theories persay, it is more like being a journalist reporting on the people interested in those theories, why they believe them, etc. Yes, I am a true uber-geek. :

Join the club! lol. Have you checked out my Forum yet? It's still pretty new right now so I haven't really started jamming it full of all the crazy stuff I've been collecting over the years but eventually I get around to that aspect of it. The conspiratorial aspect that is. That was one of the major themes of the Forum from the start and there are already Forums in there of that nature but as I said I haven't been focusing on them yet as I have so many projects going on.

I was a huge fan of the X-Files and you will see a big influence from that department in any games I create I am sure. My favorite aspect of the X-Files series was much more the conspiracy angle than the monster of the week angle though I enjoyed those too. I've also done a lot of serious [non-fiction] study of conspiracies over the years. Hopefully I am wise and sober minded enough to separate the fact from the fiction.

Maybe the wisest thing to do is to treat it all as fiction and material for making cool game plots [even the stuff I suspect really is or could be true]. Afterall, if any of it really is true, I wouldn't want to become the next target of some secret shadow organization who sees me as a threat trying to expose them. I don't have the backing of a government agency like the FBI to protect me like agents Scully, Mulder and Dogget and Assistant Director Skinner did.

Then again, for that same reason they probably wouldn't even pay me any mind at all since I have zero, power or influence in the world. Thats one thing I thought was stupid about the movie Conspiracy Theory. What was so special or threatening to the conspiracy about Mel Gibson's character? Because he just happened to hit on one small nugget of truth in his small time publication [even smaller than the Lone Gunmen] which was so full of insane paranoid non-sense that nobody ever took him seriously.

That wasn't very realistic to me. I think it's presidents and other high profile figures of authority and widespread influence who are the prime targets of assassination, intimidation and defamation of character and not your average individual with a relatively insignificant circle of influence.

Interesting stuff to think about anyway.

[manikus]

I try not to think too much about conspiracy stuff (real world) but love that aspect of literature, movies, etc. That's not to say that I'm not interested in the real world stuff, I just try not to think about it too much. (You'll go crazy.)

I feel like I know far more about certain 'situations' than the average bear. When I was working on my Bachelor's, back in the early 90's, I did work study for a Rhetoric Professor who was writing a book about the JFK assassination and the media handling of it. I got to fly to TX and walk around Dealy Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository, taking notes and what-not. I've interviewed people claim to have been there and looked at some interviews the Professor did with people who were there and were involved with the newspaper. It was amazingly interesting. This gets combined with all the books on the subject that I've read, the Warren Commission Report and the report from the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and well, I've definite opinions about what didn't happen.

I'm also a big fan of the X-Files, especially the conspiracy episodes. I'm looking forward to next month when the movie comes out. I have to say that I'm rather fond of the Lone Gunmen. I know they were slated to get a spin-off series...did that ever happen? If so, I'll have to track down those episodes.

As for the movie Conspiracy Theory, I thought it's revealed that the Gibson character isn't just a nut, but an asset that's gone underground. The whole thing about him buying that particular book is something he was programmed to do by the CIA (or whichever acronym it was).

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by manikus But, if you ask them, or watch any daytime talk show in the US, it is us who never listen.

I think it must be some sort of feminist conspiracy. lol. I totally relate to the glazing over of the eyes effect - if all women are anything like my wife I can kind of understand why some cultures have always forbade women from positions of power or mass influence. Then again, there are plenty of men who have held office in America who I think suffer from this low tolerance for or low receptivity of deep thought. So I guess the feminist conspiracy theory is flawed. lol

Originally Posted by manikus I haven't been doing much maille making recently, playing on the computer too much, and that whole school thing.

Do you mean making your own medieval armor? I remember wanting to join the society for creative anachronism when I was in grade school, lol. HAve you ever watched those great webisodes of The Gamers? After I saw those I got that old urge all over again to do real live reenactments and role playing. And it would be awesome to do it for a movie that you could afterward edit and add special effects and music and cut scenes and narration and so on. Man, I wish I had more people like me around here. Maybe there is but we just dont ever meet because my type tends to spend most free time in front of the computer. Lucky for you guys huh? lol.

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by manikus I'm also a big fan of the X-Files, especially the conspiracy episodes. I'm looking forward to next month when the movie comes out. I have to say that I'm rather fond of the Lone Gunmen. I know they were slated to get a spin-off series...did that ever happen? If so, I'll have to track down those episodes.

Yeah, it was cut short though. I have every episode of X-Files, Millenium and Lone Gunmen on my HD. The Lone gunman didnt last very long. Only 13 episodes that I know of. Not even a whole season. They pulled the plug on it not long after 911 went down. Did you know that the very first episode which aired well before 911 was actually about a scenerio that describes 911 almost perfectly? Pretty wierd huh?

I think Chris Carter really tapped into something during his years of work on researching conspiracies and such for creating the world he set all of his X-Files episodes in. Like he had his finger on the pulse of the dark undercurrents at work in the world to such an extent that he could actually predict something as huge as that. Well that is a better notion than the alternative anyway. That maybe he was in on it. lol.

He did say he felt responsible for it when he first heard of it because his first thought was that whoever did it got the idea from the Lone Gunmen pilot. Thats why the show was pulled apparently, including the X-Files. The X-Files was supposed to go on with Agents Dogget and Reyes who were still pretty new to the show and so must have had contracts which still had plenty of life left in them. Unlike Duchovney who's contract was already up [the reason for his leaving].

I am looking forward to X-Files 2 too, though I am a little disappointed that Carter decided to make it in the tradition of the monster of the week episodes instead of continuing the show's conspiratorial mythology.

Originally Posted by manikus As for the movie Conspiracy Theory, I thought it's revealed that the Gibson character isn't just a nut, but an asset that's gone underground. The whole thing about him buying that particular book is something he was programmed to do by the CIA (or whichever acronym it was).

I don't remember. I'll have to watch it again. Guess that makes sense that if they could program him they would program him to be a nut-job no one would ever take seriously in order to protect whatever secrets they want to hide. But did he choose to go underground? Or was he forced, sort of the CIA's demented version of being fired? lol

[Arminius]

Sorry to keep throwing up post after post here but I was just reading that UANL article mentioned earlier Better Encounters by Han and a question came to me. How closely does DC follow the inner workings of FRUA? Is it close enough that I could actually follow all of the advice or suggestions both covered in UANL's and in the actual FRUA manual itself - such as the tutorial? That would be really cool if it did. That would be really useful for helping people new to DC as well.

P.S. Speaking of sequals.. @Manikus, hows the Silver Blades sequel going? I'm so looking forward to that!

[manikus]

I'll definitely see if I can track down the Lone Gunmen shows.
I thought the X-Files was cancelled after the ratings went too low. I know there was talk that whole last season that Fox had been losing money on it, which is why they didn't try to keep Duchovny. Hmm, sounds like we have a conspiracy right here.

[manikus]

In doing my remake, I've started with the original maps/levels from Secret of the Silver Blades and I'm modifying them as I see fit for my story.

If anyone is interested in the original maps/levels that I've created (but am not going to use) I can make them available to you. These are not completed levels, as that is not why I created them- there are just two or three different walls used to get the shape of the level. There are no events, etc., but they might be a nice starting place if someone wanted to do a remake of Secret of the Silver Blades. if you're interested in doing something like this, you can PM me and I'll send them to you.

Progress update:
The new "New Verdigris" basic level is finished.
The new "Well of Knowledge" basic level is finished.
4 new walls and an overlay added.
5 snowy/icy backdrops added.

[basic level = art and non-story events such as shops, etc.]

[Shadow Stranger]

If you are converting data from the original Gold Box format to the new Dungeon craft variety, one approach I have found useful (in similar situations) is to take the data file one zone at a time and run it through a custom – designed spreadsheet. Said spreadsheet converts it into the new format. I actually do this with the Exile and Avernum shareware games of Spiderweb software but the approach is easy to adapt.
Of course you need to have mostly decrypted the data structures of the original format.

[manikus]

This is a good idea, but I have done nothing to decrypt the data from the Goldbox games format, or the Dungeon Craft format for that matter. I mostly just play one for a while and then map in the other. In the case of Secret of the Silver Blades, I have very detailed maps from the vast amount of time I spent playing the game when I was younger.

[Shadow Stranger]

Ah yes, graph paper and pen: "pace 1, pace 2, pace 3, pace 4, pace 5, pace 6, thus this bit of wall is 6 squares long".
This is different, this is unlike anything that I have seen before. In the game file “mon1cha.dax” the game writes Hill Giant as “H I 254 L 5 G I A N T".
The 254 means that the next letter occurs twice, the 5 means that there are 5 + 1 = 6 more letters in the name.
I don’t know that I will succeed in decrypting this but I sure will have fun trying to do so.

I count 70 monsters from Basilisk thru Frost Giant.