Just in case no one reads the stickied thread "Members & Time Slots"...I'll clutter up the forums with a new thread and post a little about myself.

GW Invite Name: Seijin Tetsujin / Seijin Ronin

AKA:
Muneyoshi Shinkage W/Mo - currently Mo secondary, originally Nec secondary. Those are the only two I really use and have some skills unlocked for them. But I can eventually do the other professions too, will just take time. Currently went through the whole story with him. Just needs Titan's Source, and some SF quests.

Kiy Terrell R/E 20th - My original character because I LOVE rangers and I LOVE mages. But I found it was hard to find groups in the latter stages of the game and I got pissed off, so I started my warrior and finished before my ranger. Currently he's stuck in Thunderhead Keep.

Keilarra Starhealer Mo/N 20th - Made her because monks are soooo sexy. Actually I did it to see what monks have to go through when playing. I honestly love being a healing monk. I find it fun and relaxing not to have to find targets to kill. Plus if I find a jerk I can just not heal him. Currently she has just gotten passed ascension.

Availability:
Usually I'm on any day of the week, mainly at night after 8 pm PST. My time is usually dependent upon my work schedule. Weekends I will rarely be on during the day because I usually work a full shift from around 12-8pm. If I have a day off, I might be on all day.

My Guild Story:
I've been in about 10 guilds now. About half I left, the other half I was kicked out. The one's I left were usually too small, rarely any guild interaction, no real team feeling or helpfulness to newcomers. The one's I got kicked out of were usually helpful, but really PvP oriented. So I got kicked mainly because I didn't participate in PvP.

Realms Beyond:
Thus far I've had a lot of fun with the guild members that I've met. Actually this is the MOST interaction I've had with any one guild and its members. Everyone seems helpful and knowledgable about the game. I'm really looking forward to being a big part of this guild. Oh yeah...I love the capes...as I told one of the members, a lot of other guilds have capes that looks like they were designed by clowns.

I’m buying a set of 500 chips for an (ex) father-in-law I have a LOT of respect for. I’m not much of a “chip” poker player—in my low-rent games quarters make good chips and dollars and fives make good plaques that draw the “oooohs” from the players.


The problem is, it is a special series with 8 distinct chips, and I want them all in the set, but don’t know how to break down that many chips into 500 properly.


I’m thinking 100 100 100 50 50 50 25 25.


Does that sound workable?

He normally plays a 4-6 person game.

For any chip aficionados, I’m talking about the Nevada Jacks American Beauty chips. If I was buying for myself, I’d go for the Paulson Pharaoh’s Club chips, but the American Beauties are just right for him, composite or not.


Bonus question—These are NCV chips and not strictly in traditional colors—would anyone have a cow over me breaking the above numbers into Pink/Light Blue/Red (100), Green/Orange/Purple (50), Black/Red White Blue [coolest chip *ever*] (25)? The Orange has to go somewhere, and I’m flipping the Purple and Black because the gal on the Black is holding a gun, which *has* to be worth more than whatever-the-heck the gal on the Purple is holding 8-).


Thanks for the help.

--jack

This looks encouraging:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civi...l?page=158


Ooh, more map types.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civi...l?page=164


The lands look pretty good to me.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civi...l?page=161

I will freely admit I am a packrat of the worse kind. I have been keeping a few useless items just because they look useless-but-cute and especially some cursed items even when I have no room to pick up drops anymore.

I have 3 such cursed items I do hear people asking for from time to time, and finally bothered to sell one. Here's a screenie.





The one I sold for 10K has Blood req. He offered 8 and I asked for 10

The thing is, these focus items are quest rewards from Pre-school. City of Ascalon, I think. I think there are -20 health ones in Post searing too.

So I am left wondering how much more I can get for the one with Healing req. And, I thought low health monk is a thing of the pass since the nerf on protection.


KoP

Hi

An issue has arisen in our household recently that I would like to discuss with some of the other parents here.

The topic, as described above, is charity fund-raising within the school system. This particular one, the Terry Fox Run/Walk, raises money for cancer research. But the issue is more global than this specific charity. How do you feel about curriculum time being spent on any charity? Do the schools your children attend have any similar efforts ongoing?

For background, I am inserting below the letter I just wrote to the Media Relations Officer of my own school board - the Toronto District School Board.



I would like some information, please, about the way that the Terry Fox Run/Walk has been handled at the TDSB.

My concern arises from the negative response one of my children has received at his lack of fund-raising participation in this endeavour.

My husband and I have discussed the Terry Fox Run/Walk at some length. Our conclusions are thus:

1) The goal of curing cancer is laudable.
2) Terry Fox himself is a genuine hero, and a worthy role model for our children.
3) We have grave concerns about how the Canadian Cancer Society allocates its research funds.
4) We do not wish to give financial support to an organization whose spending habits we are uncomfortable with.

This has led to our decision to bar our children from entering into fund-raising efforts for this event. This is a matter of our own consciences. There are many worthy goals that charities spend money on, and we feel that we should encourage our children to spend their energy and money on other ones than the Terry Fox Run/Walk.

With this in mind, it has occurred to us to question the participation of our school in the Terry Fox Run/Walk. I am wondering how this particular charity managed to insert itself into the TDSB so that school time is used to support it. As it stands, my children have three choices. They can join their classmates for the actual Run/Walk, eschewing an afternoon of classes (not counting the pep rallies that precede it). They can sit out the afternoon in the school, with supervision but no actual schooling. Or they can stay home.

Would you please explain to me how it came about that one specific charity, out of the many candidates, managed to displace curriculum in the TDSB this way? A brief history of the participation, including the level of authorization, would suffice.

I will be discussing separately the issue of the negative response with the teacher involved.

Thank you for your help in explaining the larger issue.

My schedule has been the same for years.
Mondays and Tuesdays off. Tuesdays are usually better since back in variants nights.
Any other days will have to be after 9:30 PST

Post your prefer time slot anyway, we may just be able to have 2 team and merge them on the rare occassions.


As always, I will pick last as to what character I will make, so the others can play their more favorited classes and I will fill in what is needed. I will even play a variation of Demi Maul E/W as a warrior tank if we need one

Just to name a couple things why a E/W can make a good tank
-Pump Mist Form and hope the party can make good progress in that 18 sec time slot
-Bring Thunderclap and keep mob knocked down around 18 seconds (Thin Air can maintain his lvl18 TC for its 22 seconds duration. Funny How I built Thin Air just to do that then later realized Demi Maul with the E/W classes might be better afterall. But it will kill Demi not to use maul)
-Stackable armor buffs
-Bonetti Defense to regain mana


Anyone with ideas as to what would make a viable team please feel free to propose a mockup. All I know is, we need healers


KoP

http://www.gameshout.com/podcast/

Jeff Briggs, Sid Meier, and Soren Johnson for about an hour. I thought it might be dull or overly sanitized, but actually I enjoyed listening to it.


- Sirian

If you haven't seen it already, CivFanatics has released the complete (or almost) tech tree for Civ 4. Also, as you might know, there are multiple paths you may take. What will be the most favoured route? Will there be some specific "ToE" strategic route? (Atomic Theory and Electronics)? We can only wait. The release date is also set for October 24. See the tech tree here: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/techtree/

My friend was over the other day, and I showed him (URL deleted) It is a site with cheats, bugs, dupes, etc for guild wars. He told me it was against the rules for gw to do this. Is this true? I am used to cheating on video games for my whole life, so I was sort of shocked to hear this.

Lets get naked!

Here’s a few issues we need to address.

A naked character does not play with PuG – It is sad enough that even with a “normal” character a PuG can make you feel totally useless, that you are just there to fill up party size limit.

Playing with other restricted characters – Playing with other with similarly restricted (in difficulty) characters should be okay, and of course, with a team of naked characters.

Solo Naked Character - Some quests and missions requires multiples of human drivers, at which time, the options are:
Acquire help from other players and as little as possible. You should play a key role.

Skip the quest or mission if there are ways around the area.

Henchies
The use of henchies should be ok so long as there are no melee henchmen. Soloing with non-tank henchmen will ensure the player to be involved, at least at first contact. Furthermore, if we feel henchies maybe too powerful, We can limit the party size to no more than half of the maximum allowed party size when using any henchman.

Minions are allowed

Armor
No armor allowed, of course. The only concern to this rule is that the Mursaats’ Spectral Agony spell may make a solo non-infused naked character impossible to play. Maybe one piece of base starting armor should be allowed when the character earns the right to be infused – for modesty reasons, of course. ;p Though a chest piece would be the obvious choice, which body part you want to cover is up to you. So keep your starting outfit in stash.

The one piece of infused armor is only legal where Mursaats are known to be found.

For a team of naked characters, I would like to see no infuse allowance until we have the opportunities to play with the Mursaats a few times before we decide.

No shield or focus items

Weapon
No weapon at all – characters cannot use melee and bow skills, and, all characters will go into melee range without attack when a skill is not keyed up for use...

Starter weapons will allowed warriors to melee, and rangers to use their bow skills while still keeping with the spirit of the rules. However, I would like to see that only primary warriors can use melee weapons, and only primary rangers can use bows. Furthermore, rangers are stuck with their starting bow, and, warrior are stuck with their starting maul. Warriors can acquire a sword or an axe if faster attack rate is preferred over slightly more damage from a hammer, but the sword/axe must be of base minimal damage without mods.

Non melee characters can equip their starting wand or staff else it will go into melee range but does not attack.

Comments, suggestions, anything I left out?


KoP