Zonorhc

Yay, Thought Police! Doesn't the US have a First Amendment for a reason? From what I've heard, it's been largely overlooked in recent years. Bloody stupid. It's not the school's business what the students think or say about it. If the students are saying that one thing or another is bad, then bloody well do something about it rather than trying to censor the comments. Personally, I think that the school in question would rather that students didn't post anything that would give a negative image of their institution, because it'll mean the potential loss of income from overly suggestible parents. What's next, the bloody Inquisition?

"Scimmy"? Feh. No matter how poor JAGeX is when it comes to weaponry, I think that at least they'd know how to spell the names of the bloody things. Oh, and don't you think that the fact that it asks for your username, password and bank pin in an EMAIL is a little fishy? You know, just a bit? Oh, and let's not forget... "... to thank your for the dedication..." "... Depending on you activity log..." I think that a real British company would at least know how to use their own language.

Oh yeah, Sahara was teh sux, though not quite up there with the D&D movie. Actually, the only redeeming factor of the $10 I spent to watch that travesty was the fact that it was somewhere out of the rain and sufficiently boring to make out in.

The first Dungeons and Dragons movie. Oh god that was poor. It still gives me nightmares, but not the awesome I-just-saw-an-awesome-horror-movie nightmares. It's the type of nightmare you get after seeing something really disgusting but not really scary. Ohmygodapartofmejustdied.

Please get my quote the bloody hell out of your sig.

When there are other alternatives to acquiring music? Feh, no.

I posted something like this a while back, but it had a little more detail. It was pre-RS2, though, and I never got around to updating it: http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?p=594 ... ht=#594024

I only cannibalised the ideas for the leg articulation and the insignia plate on the torso. And yeah, dreadnoughts are awesome. Thanks for the comments.

You could be able to examine the ground and a small screen would appear showing the quality of tracks in a 3x3 square section of the ground around you. You'd be able to see differences in footprint shape depending on gear worn, weight, speed or the print's age. The screen should replace the minimap to show that you're paying less attention to the environment around you to follow tracks, and you could start tracking by hitting a button that switches the minimap for the "tracking map". Also, if individual prints aren't labelled, that makes it even more fun as all someone has to do to escape a tracker hot on their heels is to run through a crowded area and hope that someone else muddles up his tracks before whoever's chasing him catches up.

I think that if the UN or USA were to take sovereignty away from a country over such a prominent geographical feature, it would have been televised at the very least. The diplomatic procedures would have leeched millions from taxpayers' money. Nobody would like it at all.

I did this over a few hours as art for my D&D campaign setting. It's a depiction of the siege of a castle being broken by a Kalarus (basically a big mech that causes lots of hurting and pain). Comments are appreciated, and no, I'm not going to do it in colour. I have sanity.

Does JAGeX claim that the crystal bow is rigid enough to be used as a sword? I don't think so. It's a bow, not some poorly thought-out "multi-weapon". As for JAGeX itself, this wouldn't be the first time I've said that JAGeX has a huge problem with equipment designs.

Probably some sort of magic-augmented biological construct. It does grow out of a seed, does it not?

Eat your own words. Imagination has a tendency to come pre-packaged with enough sensibility to know when an idea wouldn't work. Flexibility is important to bows because that's what make the arrows fly. It's as important in longbows as in shortbows, and even more so in the former because of the length of the shaft. Shortbows are designed for fast, hard-hitting shots, while longbows are designed for range, with their power augmented by gravity. The less flexible the bow, the more likely it is to snap. Even bows with heavy pulls have to be flexible, though they're reinforced and made of composite materials to increase tension and flexibility at the same time.

Oh, I'm open to ideas. Just not poorly thought-out ones that violate suspension of disbelief with a morningstar then leave it in the gutter to rot.

EPILOGUE: Closing Words That was nine cycles ago. I have had a lot of time since to travel and learn about the things that had led to the present. Arborea is a pleasant place as my father had promised, though it did, by its very nature, instill a wanderlust and a desire to experience everything that life has to offer. It only made sense to join the Society of Sensation. The Sensates provided all of its members with access to all the knowledge the faction had ever shared within itself - four centuries of stories and experiences from across the planes. They had been forced to relocate to Arborea after the Faction War in Sigil two cycles ago, and while organisation was still mostly improvised since the death of Erin Montgomery Darkflame, the Sensates nevertheless retained their love of life. I did, too. Ar'sith'kla was the first memory I shared with the faction. It was where I had grown up and where I had lived until the day he bore me away from it. I still remembered the smell and sound of the place, with its forges constantly at work and battles ringing in the distance. It was disciplined, tyrannical and constantly at war - everything that Arborea wasn't. It was also home. It would always be home to me, no matter how much I favour the glades of the Eladrin's realms. Avernus, I could barely remember. I had been tired through our entire journey, and he always kept my attention focused on our next destination. The most distinct memory I had of Baator's first was that fire storm that he had shown to me before we left. It was beautiful in the way that rain or fire are beautiful, though it was both and neither at the same time. Then we had hidden under the ridge by the Styx as we waited for the fiends to pass. And then there was the journey on boat. The oarsman I knew could hear my thoughts as easily as I heard its, and we spoke at length without him ever noticing. I listened to his thoughts as well. I could not have said at that time for certain what I thought about him, what he was doing or his motives. I was quiet for that entire trip, though Zalsharkhan and I spoke regularly. The marraenoloth did have uncharacteristic emotion, and most of it was from regret or disappointment at its fall from grace. It had aspired for greatness as all of its kind does, though its nature was tempered by something else - some aspect of its id which struggled against the ego, telling it that there was more to the planes than just power, and over time it had shaped the daemon's psyche as a blacksmith tempers the edges on a blade. The marraenoloth's mind was far different to the other one's - Kalhazar. The ultroloth I had not fully encountered until we had met it as it barred the Arborean gate. Even before that, though, I had forgiven him for what he did, for in the ultroloth's mind I had seen it all. My father had signed a deal with the Baatezu for my protection, even though he knew that it would mean exile to Avalas. He had settled in Ar'sith'kla for that same reason. Mother had agreed with him, though reluctantly even as she was the one who had told him of her vision. She had known that Kalhazar would come for me, and only under the Baatezu's contract would we be safe from the ultroloth. She knew that the greatest danger to me would be a yugoloth, and my final salvation would be at the hands of another fiend. She had thought that this meant the Baatezu, and while incorrect, she was not far off the mark. The demon nabassu, Ulmshans, delivered. My father was to die under his orders, for he had struck a deal with Kalhazar, what deal it was I would never know. In a loophole in the Baatezu contract, it would only apply with certainty for as long as a part of the signatory party lived, and mother had died already in a collision. If father had been removed, then the Baatezu were only obligated to protect me in word. As I knew, Ulmshans delivered, in the form of him. In a way, I had already been saved by fiends, firstly the Baatezu, then nabassu, followed by the marraenoloth, and lastly, him. Kalhazar would have gained power from me; how, I would not know. All I know is that he had prevented the ultroloth from doing so. Belief shapes the planes. He told me that in the Madhouse, and Zalsharkhan had mentioned it in passing. The marraenoloth believed that it could remove itself from the chains of its yugoloth nature, and it had succeeded. It sank into the Styx as its final deed, and I do not doubt that it would take countless millenia before it would once again reach the same height of power it had had, if it yet retained the id which had shaped it. I had heard the diminuendo scream of its mind as it burst through Kalhazar's, and the ultroloth's memories were not denied for me as they had been for itself. It had believed that its greatest strength was in its raw, unbridled power, and that was true. Out on the planes, belief shapes reality if it is strong enough. My father had believed that I would be protected even with the Baatezu's loophole. He made sure of that, and made my father's belief truth. I knew him better than he knew himself. He would claim to be a mercenary with a convoluted sense of honour and duty, though in truth he was a simple man with a good heart. He never once thought of a reward for helping me, and in his memories he had never cared about wealth so long as he could help someone. That was the reward in itself, his id told his ego. He never admitted it, though he never denied it. It was probably the reason why he avoided the wasting sickness. It could not play on his desires and fears to pull him into its despairing embrace, because his id fought it while the ego remained silent. He would only claim that he had simply served in the War for far too long. He knew that once he had served, he would always fight on one side or the other of the War, and nothing could change that. Yet he still wished for redemption. He knew that he had done a lot of things that he could not forgive himself for. I could hear him praying quietly in the back of his mind to whatever powers would listen, almost constantly. He did not want to die with the guilt he bore, alone in the dark when his time came. He always wanted that one thing - forgiveness. Nothing ever had the power to give it to him but himself, and the idea never once crossed his mind. Always looking outwards, to someone else for help, because he did not believe that he had any power over what he had done. I wished that I could give it to him. I journeyed to Sigil, City of Doors a few cycles ago, and found my way to his house. He had wanted me to have something inside, a dusty old box filled with his wealth. He knew that it would not buy him forgiveness. He told himself that it would afford him a better house, and that his only reason for seeking out Ulmshans was to secure more wealth for himself. He did not need that. What he needed was an excuse to wander the planes for a while longer, to justify to himself why he was leaving all his wealth behind. He never cared for the wealth. What he wanted were answers to questions that he would not ask. So he helped me, and I never once thanked him for it. I thanked him once for sparing my father's life, but never for helping me to where I am today. I found his sword in the Madhouse last cycle. It was in the square where the portal was, and I was guided there by another Bleaker, a human this time. The Madhouse never changed its routine. Still caring for the ones who had cared for the ones before them, then lapsing into their melancholy for the next generation to care for them. The square had not changed, either. The sword was there. He wasn't. Nobody whom I had aksed ever knew what happened to him. I know you're out there, somewhere. You still want to find answers to your questions, and you still want to find forgiveness. You will keep searching, but you will never find them until you look inside yourself and believe that you can help yourself. Belief shapes reality out here - you told me that yourself. When you've done that... come back to me. I will care for you. - Emma The tiefling slipped the page back into the blank book. He had found it in atop a small table in a house in the Lower Ward. He sat in the quiet cavern in Pandesmos, one with the stone floor torn as if by some immense plough and on the banks of the Styx. That was where it all began, wasn't it? That house... No. He didn't know. But the house had seemed so familiar, and that note, that letter... whatever it was. It was all so familiar, but he could not place it. He scratched a jackal ear. The wind didn't blow in this cavern anymore. That was strange, the Bleakers said, and they did not see the point of it. The wind had stopped once before in this cavern, then returned for only a few minutes before dying away entirely. They said that that was thirty cycles ago. Something had happened here. It was all so familiar. She cared, didn't she? Told you she wouldn't leave you... No. Who was she, exactly? She wrote that letter or message, but who was she? He only knew her name. Was it even meant for him? He didn't know. The Styx rippled. A skull grinned up at him. Look, he's smiling. He finally did it, huh? You thought the old 'loth would never do it. 'Loth? He didn't know any yugoloths. He scratched absently at a jackal ear and licked his fangs. He didn't recognise the skull at all as it peered up from the murky depths. It used to have red light in its eyes. He didn't know that. Maybe you should find her. She might have meant for you to find it, after all. You'll know where to go. No he didn't. He didn't even know if the girl even existed. He glanced at the empty scabbard on the ground beside him. Why did he have that? He didn't remember ever having a weapon of any kind. The Styx rippled. Or, you know, you could just sink yourself in there. You're almost two centuries old. Your time's up anyway. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe he wasn't supposed to die yet. That was strange. He barely remembered the past few years, let alone his entire life. He looked over the page once more, flipped it over. Watch the Spire, cutter. Strange he hadn't noticed that. It was written in larger letters, too. Spire? What did that have to do with the message? Spire? Spine? Spine... the empty book? He turned it over and read the spine. Blood Warrior Strange. The book was empty. Probably one of those things that weren't supposed to be read, or just weren't written at all. Maybe it was a story that was yet to be written, reserving itself a spot in reality just in case. Yes, that made a little more sense. Whatever. He sighed, and threw the book into the water. It sank heavily. He folded the message, and threw it in as well. It floated for a while, then disappeared under the water. The empty scabbard? Useless. Toss it in. Absently, he scratched an ear. You know, it might not be too bad of an idea to die now. It has been almost two centuries. Too much time to keep track of. He couldn't remember a damn thing, anyway. Presently, a jackal-eared tiefling sank into the depths of the Styx in a windless cavern in Pandesmos. Well, you know she was always there for you, even in spirit. Who? You know... her... I can't remember. That usually happens when you take a dip into the Styx. Hey, a question before I go? Yeah, alright. One. Who am I? A Blood Warrior. Another question? Alright. What's that? Damned if I know. You never wrote the book. ~ Fin.

Again on the whip. It's useless against plate armour. It's good against armour that only partially covers the body or no armour at all. Sure, you can disarm or pull someone off-balance, but you're not going to deal any damage to a man wearing full plate. A whip's barbs just don't pack the weight and sheer power of a longsword. On scimitars, they're useless against heavy armour as well, since they rely on the curve to focus power rather than weight. Back to the idea. Now, you suggest that you turn it around and use the [bleep]es on the inside of the curve to hurt your enemy. What's the point, then? All you have there is a glorified club with [bleep]es. Terrible idea. Firstly, it's on the inside of the curve. That sort of blade is only effective on the kukri, because it's short and the curve is quite significant - about 60 degrees - as well as heavy. Next, [bleep]es. An arry of [bleep]es is terrible for dealing damage with. [bleep]es snap off or get ground down. You said you wanted a sword. Swords don't have [bleep]es for a number of reasons. One is that [bleep]es are utterly useless. Two, swords are for cutting, not piercing with a bunch of glorified nails like some sort of shiny club. [bleep]es also ruin structural integrity because they necessitate having notches and grooves in the blade, and act as points for an opponent's weapon to catch on and disarm or destroy the weapon. That's bad, in case you were wondering. Hence, if you want a feasible close-combat weapon, you'll have to do a number of things. One is that you make it rigid in all aspects, which means that it can't be used as a bow. Next, remove the [bleep]es because they're useless beyond compare. Then you cut with the outside of the curve, or if you want to keep cutting with the inside, shorten the blade by a lot and make it thicker as well as making the curve larger. That would also make it useless as a bow. There are a number of good reasons why no civilizations have ever created a bow that could be disassembled for use as a pair of swords. I suggest you look into those.

Bows use the tension of the ENTIRE weapon to propel their projectiles. If you have a majority of the weapon as a rigid element (ie, something that would actually be useful as a melee weapon), then you're relying on the midsection of the bow for power. That isn't going to happen unless you're using a torsion-powered weapon such as a ballista. Conversely, if you have the whole thing flexible enough to be used as a bow, it would be nigh onto useless as a close-combat slashing weapon. In case you didn't know, you need your weapon to be sturdy enough and heavy enough to actually slash with. If you use a more flexible blade, which would mean a thinner blade, then you're best off using it as a piercing weapon, like a rapier. As for the whip being used as a weapon - of course it's not used as a battlefield weapon, which is where JAGeX screwed up with its idiotic whip idea. However, employing whips to harm people isn't a bad move, as not every peasant you'll find is going to be wearing a full suit of platemail. A whip-user with any idea of what he's doing will know to aim for exposed areas in any case, to let the barbs of the whip do the most damage they can - this means the face or arms. On an armoured target, all you'll be able to do with a whip is restrict their mobility, and even then it wouldn't be too effective. You'd be better off going in with a dagger and ramming it into the joints. Stringing the weapon would require that there is something to loop the string around. If those things are going to be used as swords, you won't be looping it around the entire thing because it'll have an edge, which means you'll have to have a hole in the blade. A hole in your blade isn't a very good idea for a number of reasons. One is that it weakens the entire section of metal where it is drilled. Secondly, muscular action after you jam it into someone's torso will delay you a little while you pull out, and that half a second could cost you your life. Lastly, it screws up balance like nothing else. Got a curve on your sword? good on you. But remember that bows are almost straight when unstrung (unless it's a recurve bow), so having a curve in the weapon before you even string it is only going to mean that you'll have a lot less tension in the weapon. If your curve isn't THAT large to begin with, then you'll need flexibility in the blade to get it to bend. Which you wouldn't want on a slashing weapon. Another point on this is the fact that if you do intend to use the bow, then you will like to remember that materials are a lot more flexible on their flattest surface - which in this case would mean the sides of the bow. Since you want to use the back edge of the sword as the inside of the bow's curve, then in order to be able to get any flexibility out of it - which, as I've already pointed out, is a stupid idea to begin with - then you'll have to be stretching the other side, namely, the blade. Bad idea. You're going to need a better reason than "it doesn't have to make sense" or "magic" to get this idea across. Otherwise, scrap the idea of having a bow that you can turn into a pair of swords. It's stupid beyond belief.

Well, there goes suspension of disbelief. That whip deals more damage because it relies on flexibility and that sharp tip to deal KE damage, as ALL whips do. The fact that it deals more damage is a show of how JAGeX's weapon designs are far from... rational. It might magically amplify the user's speed, whatever. But your excuse that "it's flexible and rigid at the same time because of magic" really takes suspension of disbelief and craps on it.

They can be used one-handed, but not for prolonged periods of time unless the wielder is ridiculously strong. Also see the European hand-and-a-half sword, which was basically a katana, only actually reliable and useful in combat. As for the idea, no. It wouldn't make any sense at all. First, you have the fact that the separate parts could be used as melee blades. Next, you say that when attached, they can be strung together and used as a bow. Tell me this - where would you loop the string on an edged weapon while keeping its structural integrity intact, and how would it be useful as a melee weapon if it had the flexibility required to be an effective bow?

I'd say the Warhammer 40,000 universe deserves a movie far more than Halo, myself. It just isn't in the mainstream, hence the lack of interest. It would be nice, though, if they made a movie FOR THE EMPEROR.

Peter Jackson is the executive producer, not director. Just be glad it isn't Uwe Boll.

Nothing special, really. Repetitive composition, bland backgrounds and renders which aren't even your work to begin with.

no its just making the transition from part cult to full cult That is what established religion is composed of.

I suggest you make your chapters quite a bit longer. Keep going though, I'm sure this will get somewhere.