Vince

It's not about the book itself, but about the concept, the idea of such ships, of entire generations who will be born, live, and die during the voyage, never seeing anything but the ship, their only purpose is to procreate and pass down the knowledge. I don't know why but I find it fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Heinlein didn't invent the genre, but he definitely popularized it.

Not officially (too much work, as I have to tweak each and every submission* (without changing the concept)), but if you really want to add your own character, sure. PM me your idea and we'll take it from there. * here is an example: A submission (part of): 1. Why were you so eager to go to Saross in the first place? “I needed information to complete an experiment on magical energy currents. I was ignorant of the dangers of the void back then. I wish I still was.” 1. Why did you need this information so badly?” Go to “Convincing to Talk” 2. [lore] “That is very specific information. Your experiment must have been well under way if you knew what to get, and could only get it at Saross.” Abukar’s brows furrow, as he looks at you again. “I can see you are a seeker of knowledge, as I was back then. Curious and ignorant, and yet... How fortunate you are.” his voice trails off and he stares at the distance, lost in his thoughts. 1. “What were you experimenting on before going to Saross?” Go to “Explaining the device” ... - Explaining the Device “If you must know, I was researching on magical energies, and how to detect them.” He smiles humorlessly and shakes his head in disbelief. “I dreamed of discovering a way to explore the Abyss.” 1. “Did you find a way?” “Somewhat. I have created a device that reads the energy currents within the Abyss, but it remains unreliable. I went to Saross to learn how to improve it. Two of my apprentices died on the way and my only reward was this,” he gestures at the telescope and closes his eyes. 1. Can the device still be used? “Theoretically, as long as you did not come close to areas of intense magical energy. The device would be fried before even coming close. A previous apprentice was brash enough to think he could still use it, so he stole a prototype from my workshop and ventured into the Abyss himself. He never returned.” ... My tweak (very rough, first pass): “What did you seek at the library?” “Knowledge, what else? I was trying to solve a problem and I hoped that the great library of Saross might shed some light on it. I was mistaken.” “What kind of problem?” “I was working on a device to detect energy fluctuations. It could detect random deviations with eighty percent accuracy, but couldn’t handle larger and more frequent fluctuations. Obviously, I miscalculated somewhere, but the nature of the old world’s magic is hardly a well-explored field these days. One has no choice but to make assumptions, which lead to setbacks and disappointments.” “I thought that magic was gone from the world.” “Then you thought wrong. The Magi are gone, but the magic they unleashed is still here, lurking in our own backyard, waiting for the right moment to strike. How do you fight that which you can’t see? How do you stop that which has been prophesized to come?” “Our own backyard? You mean the Abyss?” “What else? We’ve accepted the Abyss and learned to stay away from it. We speak of magic that haunts it without any understanding of what it is and why it’s still there, centuries later. Yet any force that affects the physical world can be detected and measured, even if it’s invisible to the naked eye.” “This device, do you still have it?” “So, you wanted to explore the Abyss?” “Prophesized?” “I’ve read the glowing words etched by the last of the Magi in a hidden chamber, deep below the great library. They spoke of terrifying things, things not of this world but of the void between the stars. They will return one day and claim this world as their own. It has been written. It will come to pass.” “Have you told that to anyone?” “Why do you think they call me mad? Knowledge is a heavy burden. Abukar’s brows furrow, as he looks at you again. “I can see you are a seeker of knowledge, as I was back then. Curious and ignorant, and yet... How fortunate you are.” his voice trails off and he stares at the distance, lost in his thoughts. “This device, do you still have it?” “It’s not for sale.” “So, you wanted to explore the Abyss?” “Yes, but not the way fools do it, with sheep, “mystical” charts, and divining rods. The dangerous spots have abnormal energy spikes, so all you need to do is construct a device that can read them. Easier said than done, of course, but the paths worth traveling are never easy... ... As you can see, I take the concept and work with the author to develop it further, expand if necessary, add pieces that the author couldn't know, fix assumptions that don't fit, etc. We don't just take submissions and throw them in. This way the style and the content are consistent. Well, the only logical option (since all the events and fate of what's left of the Old Empire will be defined in the first game) would be exploring the Qantari kingdom - the other major player in the pre-war events - and see how they fared. So, let's say there was an expedition sent before the events of the first game, which would place you in the role of a stranger in a strange land. The Qantari were based on the Aztec culture and would be an interesting setting to explore.

Nothing overly fancy. We wanted to offer (at least that's what we shopped around for) a high-quality box, map, spiral-bound, color manual with concept art, post-war history, factions, and such. I still remember the time when manuals were fun and worth reading.

I think that Cook is at his best when he writes stand-alone books or the first books in future series. The Tyranny of the Night (of the Instrumentalities of the Night series) wasn't bad at all, but the second book was disappointing. Same with the Black Company. The book feels like a great sketch of a setting, factions, characters, cool backstory, etc. Cook doesn't waste time on unnecessary details and it works in one book. What do we know about the Lady? Not much. What we see, we see through the eyes of Croaker who was a physician in a small company fighting in a big conflict. His viewpoint is limited by default. I like the siege chapter and war-like reports about which Taken ended up dead. "There was a battle of powers that night, but I missed it. I do not know for whom it was a greater disaster. We lost Moonbiter, the Faceless Man, and Nightcrawler. Only Nightcrawler fell to enemy action. The others were consumed by the feud among the Taken." It's simple and it works. The style doesn't call for expansive descriptions of epic battles or even details. This style only reinforces the narrative and shows the war from Croaker's point of view. He isn't a hero, a chosen one, or a fighter of great renown. He is an ant who could be squished like a bug by any of the Taken. The books ends with Soulcatcher's death and the Company working for the Lady directly. It's perfect. Then he decides to write more and that's where things start falling apart. Croaker and the Company become more important, the Lady becomes less godlike, and by the time they become a happy couple, you can hardly recognize the series. We were planning to, but the initial pre-orders were kinda low, so I'm not sure now. The problem is that the smallest run (that offers good quality) is 500, and I'm not sure there is enough interest. Choices. Meaningful choices require skills & abilities and consequences. Thus, a good RPG with have a robust character system, choices (translating into non-linearity and multiple solutions), and consequences to show that the choices do matter.

Bonus to Block/Dodge or specific weapons will become a THC bonus/penalty. Successful CS attacks in text-adventure mode will add a CS% during combat. Non-combat bonuses will be handled on a case by case basis, sometimes adding to a skill, sometimes adding to your succes in certain conversations. None at the moment due to time constraints. After R4 is out, we'll evaluate the feedback and see where the weak areas are. For example, we added Feint to make the dodgers more mobile and allowing them to escape being surrounded without running around, triggering opporunity attacks and wasting APs, and we added more 2handed weapons attacks to give 2handers more options in combat. I'd certainly like to see more tactical options. Didn't have time. Do elaborate. Yep. The quality goes down with every book, but then again The Black Company was really a self-contained story, rather light but entertaining. It didn't have the potential for an 'epic' 10-book series.

Fallout, Planescape, Arcanum, Darklands, Realms of Arkania 2. Michael Moorcock's Quarzhasaat's atmosphere, Glen Cook's The Tower of Fear's factions' dynamics, Cook's The Black Company's series overall atmosphere and the link to the past, China Mieville's The Scar's certain elements. If you like Cook, read The Tower of Fear. It's better than everything else he's written combined. The book is pure poetry. Edit: Since we're talking about books now, here are some recommendations: My list of top 10 "must read" mind-fucking-blowing fantasy/sci-fi books (in no given order): 1. Joe Abercrombie - The First Law trilogy - fucking loved it. The first book starts slow and could be hard to get into (I bought the second book first, then the third, and the the first - that's the order I recommend reading these books) 2. Brian Ruckley - The Godless World trilogy I rarely talk to writers, but these two guys (Ruckley and Abercrombie) have impressed me so much that I've actually had very good discussions with them. My mini review of the Godless World: - grim and realistic setting. It's a harsh world where war brings suffering, not glory; where both ambitions and mistakes of the powerful are paid in blood. - realistic and mortal characters. People die. That's just how it is. The lucky ones live longer. I really liked Rothe and was sad that he died, but it was fitting. He had been through a lot, had been wounded many times, his luck and skills helped him made it that far, but the odds were against him and so he died. Great scene! - factions. You have this conflict slowly growing into a huge war, yet both sides are focused more on acting against different factions within each side, weakening each other, and preventing other factions from making any decisive moves. Brilliant stuff. Neither side is good. Neither side deserves to win. Human flaws are well developed in the characters and explain perfectly why everything is going to hell. Even poorly thought through good intentions lead to making the situation much worse. The young Kilkry unfit-to-rule Thane is a wonderful example of that. I like his passion and his sense of honor, and he's definitely a "good" character, but the road to hell - not just for him, but for his people as well (loved the thin ice analogy, btw) - is paved with good intentions. Again, brilliant! - Orisian. I disagree with "he's an underdeveloped character" sentiment. I think he's perfect. Maybe people expected to see him as a savior, as a cliche "young boy discovering his mighty powers and saving everyone", but he isn't. Sure, he's the best man for the job, since there is nobody else at the moment, but to me he was a perfect portrayal of boy who's lost in a war and trying to find his place. - choices & consequences. The powerful Shadowhand agrees to bring down some minor kingpin in exchange for an elegant political assassination, gets almost killed as a result, which in turn leads him to being captured and turned into a puppet. Superbly "designed". Overall, things don't just happen in the books. They happened because someone made a mistake, an error in judgment, didn't think something through, etc. You can easily trace all turns to some point where they could have been easily avoided, but human flaws are an unstoppable train, unfortunately. - motivations. I disliked Wain for killing the Lannis child, and yet as I was reading she became less of a bloodthirsty villain and more of a victim of circumstances, of her upbringing and beliefs. The Lannis Blood had to be finished. There was nothing else to it. I liked her in the end and was saddened when she was killed. .... 3. R. Scott Bakker - the Prince of Nothing trilogy The Prince of Nothing is a series of three fantasy novels by the Canadian author R. Scott Bakker, first published in 2004, part of a wider series known as "The Second Apocalypse". This trilogy details the emergence of Anasûrimbor Kellhus, a brilliant monastic warrior, as he takes control of a holy war and the hearts and minds of its leaders. Kellhus exhibits incredible powers of prediction and persuasion, which are derived from deep knowledge of rationality, cognitive biases, and causality, as discovered by the Dûnyain, a secret monastic sect. As Kellhus goes from military leader to divine prophet, Drusas Achamian, the sorcerer who mentored Kellhus, comes to realize that his student may well be the harbinger of the Second Apocalypse. 4. China Mieville - he wrote several books, but the Scar is by far the best and anyone who likes being immersed in worlds completely different and alien should read it. No book has managed to conjure such powerful visuals. 5. John Christopher, 1956, The Death of Grass A virus hits rice at first, then all grasses (wheat, barley, oats, rye, etc). Famine follows and mankind quickly forgets about 4,000 years of civilization. Survival of the fittest at its worst. In the book a family guy starts leading a small group of survivors to a hidden valley, but things change: "John begins the novel as a thoroughly decent chap, a middle class civil servant and father of two. By its end he has murdered and executed a number of people, including - in a shockingly disturbing scene - an innocent woman whom he shoots in the face with a 12-bore. He leaves London a liberal humanist, and arrives in Cumbria a proto-Durwinist, interested only in those actions that will most efficiently permit the survival of himself and his group. ... The people he eventually shepherds to temporary safety in the valley are the forerunners of the biker gangs in the Mad Max cycle, or the gangs that roam McCarthy's The Road. " 6. Roger Zelazny - the Lord of Light (one of his best books, in my opinion); won a number of awards. The opening lines: "His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit." - Pure poetry "The gods are a starship crew who subdued a colony world; developed godlike--though often machine-enhanced--powers during successive lifetimes of mind transfer to new, cloned bodies; and now lord it over descendants of the ship's mere passengers. Their tyranny is opposed by retired god Sam, who mocks the Celestial City, introduces Buddhism to subvert Hindu dogma, allies himself with the planet's native "demons" against Heaven, fights pyrotechnic battles with bizarre troops and weapons, plays dirty with politics and poison, and dies horribly but won't stay dead. It's a huge, lumbering, magical story, told largely in flashback, full of wonderfully ornate language (and one unforgivable pun) that builds up the luminous myth of trickster Sam, Lord of Light. Essential SF reading. " --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk 7. Tad Williams - The Otherland The story is set on Earth in beginning of the 22nd century (some hints to a character's age relating to WWI, as well as a mentioning of the recently celebrated new millennia suggest that the story takes place in the first decade), in a world in which technology has advanced somewhat beyond the present. The most notable advancement is the widespread availability of full-immersion virtual reality installations, which allow people from all walks of life to access an online world, called simply the Net. Tad Williams weaves an intricate plot spanning four thick volumes and creates a picture of a future society where virtual worlds are fully integrated into everyday life. 8. Steven Erikson - the Malazan Empire - these books are something else. Epic is the right word to describe it. He's written nine books and it's a rare case where the quality is consistently high and the imagination of the author doesn't seem to run out at all. However, these books can overwhelm you, so I wouldn't start with them. 9. Neil Gaiman - try "American Gods" and "Neverwhere". 10. Monument by Ian Graham "The big man's name was Ballas. It was time, he decided, to get himself some money." A promising beginning that turns into a very good story. The setting is fairly interesting - a Church controls all; corrupt as fuck, they deal with criminals when it suits their needs and protect their interest by killing indiscriminately and nailing heads to the "holy oak" trees, but the story is focused on Ballas, not the world itself. Ballas reminds me a lot of Gulliver Foyle (The Stars My Destination). Much like Foyle, Ballas is awakened by the story's events and given purpose, even though it's as primitive as surviving. He's a lowlife thief and murderer, and not a good man in any definition of the word. He kills a local crime lord (Ballas was trying to sell an item he stole from those who helped him, but the deal went wrong and some people ended up dead), who was under the Church's protection. To make a point, the Church makes it a "holy crime" - a crime against the Church and its agents, which makes Ballas a public enemy #1 and sends him on the run. When they fail to catch him, they raise the stakes and issue an edict of annihilation, making it every man's duty to kill Ballas on sight. It's a great book, if you dig "dark fantasy" and "heroes" that aren't heroes at all.

Our magic is very different (from what comes to mind when you read the word magic) and much closer to technology. There are no spells, mana, and such. Our magi are 'scientists' of that time, not magicians or conjurers, so one can easily assume that the fallen Empire was a lot more advanced and resembled ours. As I've mentioned, the upcoming release will bring much clarity.

Thanks. And thank you for posting all the updates and keeping people informed. We (or at least I) would rather work on something different. So far, we're planning to do a party-based dungeon crawler set in the AoD world (TB goodness for combat connoisseurs) and a 'generation ship' sci-fi RPG (provided that AoD sells enough to keep us in 'business'). Tired of the uncertainty, mostly. We worked on the game for more than eight years, which is a long, long time. I don't regret it, naturally, and won't regret it even if the game fails, but it's hard not knowing - after 8 years - if it's something I can do for the rest of my life. Well, I suppose we'll know soon enough. No. Would be cool (very Planet of the Apes), but we took a different direction. You'll see when R4 is released. In the first 'chapter' (Teron and its satellites), you've heard some stories, which could be interpreted in different ways, saw the much more advanced 'ancient technology' in the mine, but you didn't see much as the focus was on the local squabbles. In the second chapter (Maadoran & Co) you'll see a lot more and the new and old stories will gain some context. You'll get a lot of answers, which, hopefully, will create more questions.

First, thank you (as in people in this thread who actively give a fuck) for the support. Much appreciated. Second, yes, the comment was about the game, not R4. We're aiming to release R4 by the end of the month. We added a bunch of new testers yesterday (one last push) and released a new build. I'd say that by now most scripting bugs are fixed and we're focusing on 'transition' issues (from one town to another, leaving early, betraying and looking for jobs, etc) and balance. There's still a lot of work to be done, but the remaining time should be enough. Any questions, just ask.