ps501

I guess its sad that I only know 4 of those (Drnkn, Deluged, Zilents) all were good players imho in the day.

egad....

We get it Gunwounds. Man is Evil, Wicked, immoral and that everyone who thinks differently than you is going to hell. All people who don't worship as Gunwounds does are stupid. Too bad your in the minority in the world, but yes, in your own mind your right as always.. Fact: Kansas Did support Bush in the last election Fact: Bush is a Christian your Fact: People in Kansas are Stupid Conclusion Since everyone in Kansas is stupid, and they vote for Bush, and Bush is Christian, Christians are stupid. Anyone can make massive generalities. Doesn't make them correct. [in Homer Simpson voice] mmmmmm Beer

So what were the chain of topics that were the most interesting?? (can you identify one or two of your favorites?) I agree, listening to gunwounds thump his "all that don't believe like me are going to hell" preach'in is old Further it would appear that there is little interest in debating business/economics and the like. Well since there has never been a truly communistic state - how could you have a debate on that? Aside from that little issue, communism is a great theory, but man being what man is prevents communism from ever happening (Also prevents democracy from happening). It is also interesting to watch what US corporations are doing to ultimately undermine US power in the world through economic actions. (AKA WAL-MART effect) Wal-Mart? Satan incorporated? Its also curious to see places like the Dominican Republic where the line beween the proletariat and the bourgeois are so well defined. (Ever want to see the amazingly poor live just a bit from the amazingly wealthy, Where the wealthy are driving inflation up at such a rate that the working (and non-working) poor can't afford a common chair. I know of no other place in the world that can come close to showing it like you can see it there)

Dude, show me a demographic that is paying 50% margin for assembly for a PC. Those margins haven't existed since the 1980's. The game isn't multi-threaded, therefore there is not a significant advantage to running more than a single processor.... Aside from perhaps trying to mask some personal shortcomings ;D However that said, I'll run a little speed test later this week.

Is this a CPU processor issue, or a graphics card issue? Is there a recommendation to avoid the dreaded lag?

Well here is a question for the masses. It would appear that my older Emp comp won't play this game well; and the ones I have that will I don't use for gaming. So the easy solution would be to get a new gaming PC; AMD or P4? (Which proc and is 3.0 fast enough or is faster really needed) Is a Geforce 6600 256MB PCI Express sufficiently over the needs of the game Which Sound card; presumably some version of Creative Labs but which? I'm assuming just a single 7200RPM drive is fine Assuming 1GB PC3200 RAM is sufficient Anything else I should be considering? In short, sure I could buy the lastest Alienware PC, but its not in my style to buy bleading edge technology. I rarely find a point to do so. Personally I like to acquire 'just behind' the wave, but not too far behind that your doing it every 3 months. Thoughts/suggestions?

only in a free world

If you really want to go to Mexico, there are much nicer places to be than Cancun. Playa Del Carmen is just a bit from there, and has significantly fewer tourists. Of course the humidity will just get to you anywhere in that part of Mexico. You can also consider the Dominican Republic. Very impoverished nation somewhat stable government. You can easily get a place in Casa De Campo (Its a nice 7000 acre resort origionally founded by the Gulf and Western company. Has a nice international airport on it too. And regardless of uprisings from the citizens nearby, the resort is well protected with very well armed security guards. Good food, outstanding golf, nice people, fair scuba diving) Of course the humidity will get you there too. Personally, Bonaire or Curacao are a great choice. Both have great food, aren't overly a tourist-trap destination (Like Aruba), virtually crime free, have virtually non-stop winds that keep the humidity low, stable dutch influenced governments, great food, very nice people, and have easy travel restrictions. It is both easy and hard to live there though. You either must have a Dutch passport, or you have to open a business. Otherwise you are prevented from working on either island. However they have recently relaxed many of their visa restrictions, and you can now stay on the island as a tourist for up to 365 days. At the end of that time, you simply re-apply for a new visa (or live there illegally). The islands are also not in the hurricane belt, so thats nice as well.

Well unless its either crabgrass, or the newly re-engineered buffalo grass. Both will survive significant traffic and continue to thrive.

So before you go and dissuade the fact that God couldn't have a Daughter. And perhaps it was a bad analogy. My point here was Jews, who have been around longer than Christians, are still waiting for the Son of God. Christians, who have been around for some 2000 years, believe the Son of Man was sent Muslims, that have been around for some 500 years, believe JC was just one of many profits. Mormons, who have been around for some 200 years, ... Get the picture You have chosen to jump on the 2000 year old belief, and believe all others are flawed. I hate to tell ya, that Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Hindous, Budda's, Witnesses... They out number Christians... Could a minority be right? sure. Could it be wrong, sure. There is only one true way to know. Die and see what happens. Otherwise its one Faith against another. One Opinion/intrepretation vs another. So lets say that the Jews were correct, and the Son of God hasn't come yet, but he really arrives tomorrow. Does your belief system allow for that possibility? Could you possibly change? Your basing your belief system on Faith, and a belief that this 2000 year old Christian book is the only correct true source. What if its not? To take this one step further. There are many baptists, who are christians, who believe in the rapture. There are many Catholics, who are christians, who don't believe in the rapture. Two different sets of Christians, Same Holy Book, different opinion. So you talk about Discernment vs The Line. So what if two people read the exact same King James Bible (or pick your favorite version) Both pray, and believe that Jesus Christ will save them. Both have Faith in JC and work daily to strengthen their faith. After years of intense introspection, one believes that going into a bar is a sin, the other doesn't. Whos right? Are sin's in your book subjective to the person's own action? Though it would seemingly appear we've strayed way off the origional topic. I'm still of the opinion that Pascal's wager is only refers to the afterlife, not this life. If God doesn't exist, I'm dead when I'm dead, might as well go as hedo as I want. That is a far cry from "status quo" side of Pascal's equasion.

Does anyone know (or admit to) who ever used the NIC drt4 on WOL? That was the only guy that really ever rubbed me the wrong way, we only played one game, 1v1, and he lost. I've never seen someone react like he did. All though the game he kept IMing smak (which is why he probably lost) "Your gonna die" "you play like a girl" "Why don't you just run home to momma" like non-stop. (sound like any player of old to you?) Only after my Minos and sards were in his base, did he really lose it and get irrate.... (Since Erjin999 guessed correctly who the 1st guy was, not really hard, I'm just curious if anyone knows who the 2nd guy is/was for all I know they were one in the same, but I'll prob never know)

Guns - Here is where you and I must absolutely disgree. You think I'm bashing Christians. Show me where I'm attacking "Christians... as greedy corrupt bastards" as you suggest, becaues you cannot. This is because I'm not attacking Christians. You'll not find a quote from me that says that Christians are absolute morons and deserve to be shot. So please don't continue to twist my words around to suit yourself. If you must say I'm attacking something then I attack corrupt Religions. Religions are the perfect opiate for the masses. And I'm not talking about the obvious Made for TV mega churches where you are saved by giving $1000. I define a corrupt religion as one that doesn't practice the basic principles that it teaches. I personally believe that the Catholic church does NOT practice what it preaches. Period. "If a man lies next to another man as he would lie next to a woman..." Ever heard that quote. So why does the Catholic Church allow a child molster to remain in its ranks? Sure you can quote a bad apple in every barrel. And if your believe the Catholic Church, priests as child molesters occur no more often than men in the general public. But you know what? If I see a bad apple, I throw it out. I don't keep it! What good does it serve the naked, starving man to own the worlds largest private art collection? If you read history, the Catholics have caused more death and distruction in the name of God than any other religion I'm aware of. Or take it to the basic, if your a Catholic, why must you receive the "Blood of Christ" from a golden challice? A plastic cup would allow you to receive the offering just as well as a $1000 cup. Total waste of money. That $1000 would feed more than one thousand people. (Of course if you define the Catholic Church as one of your mega churches, then I guess we are in agreement here) As for your views on my senarios I provided of being legalistic in nature. I know so many people that practice the Mormon Faith, and they would list every one of those scenarios as a sin. A person shouldn't go to a bar. There are other places to get sustance. Knowingly going to a bar, especially where there is marajuana being smoked is not acceptable. This is a very strict interpretation of what my mormon friend Jake calls "the line" As soon as you can identify "the line" then you turn around and walk away. If someone shows you "the line" walk away. Always look for "the line" in your deeds, words, and actions. Stay away from "the line" That is a very simple way to look at each one of those senarios. Now I'm not saying its correct. But that is one view point; and I don't disagree with it. It works for him well. You seem to take the point of, in your heart, you didn't want to get stoned, but you saw nothing sinful about walking into a bar to order a hamburger. Getting stoned was an unintended consequence, and therefore isn't a sin. You know what? I don't disagree with this either. It seemingly works well for you. Now are you saying that Jake the Mormon is an idiot for thinking this way, because you think that God will look into the persons heart and make the determination of if its a sin or not... What if Jake is correct, and your wrong. So therefore you've been willingly and knowingly sinning all these years, even though your heart was clean and clear and your thought it wasn't a sin. Isn't this a principal of Pascal's wager. Align your self with God. Knowingly sinning, to me, isn't doing a good job of alignment. Yes? Shouldn't you take the high ground and say "just in case its a sin, I won't do it" Or do you have a scenario where both of your are correct? or is the Sin somehow subjective? AKA its a sin in God's eyes for Jake to do those things, but its not a sin for Gunwounds to do those things - under the premise that Jake does call those sins, and you do not? I mean thats a dangerous road "I didn't think it was a sin, so therefore it isn't. You however did think it was a sin so therefore it is to you, but not to me" Ok so next is where I really feel compelled to understand you further. In your last reply you stated " So are you telling me that if Jesus Christ was here and said that, you'd do it. But because he isn't phyiscally here (that we are aware of) you won't? Please tell me I'm reading this wrong or taking your words out of context. You still do have that chance. "Wherever two or three are gathered in My name I am in their midst" (And I'd love someone to point me to the verse I'm speaking about here) That was one of the guys problems with what Jesus told him to do. He said something to the effect of "Where do I live, eat, etc" Jesus provided him with the answer and the ability to damn an entire villiage if they rejected him. If I believed that, I'd sell it all, preach the word, and I'm sure when that long haired stinky scary looking dude knocked on your door asking for a meal and a place to sleep for the night, you along with most people would tell him where he could go and refuse to feed and cloth him. No, I do know its impossible to *legislate* morality. Too many years and beers in college over that topic. Separation of Church and State is a very good thing. It is, however, NOT impossible to follow absolute moral law. Many Orthadox Jews do. Many Muslims do. So do many others. However each one of them follows their own moral law. The Jews have different rules than Muslims who have different rules than Gunwounds does. Do I declare a victor in the moral conflict. No. I don't believe that any one of them is more correct than another; Further if one of those moral absolutists cannot respect the others view point, than I believe something is inherently lost. A state cannot legislate morality. Doesn't work. Never seen it work. Invariably person "a"'s morality conflits with "b"'s and oops now you have a problem if its legislated. You speak as if Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and died for our sins. I bet I'd be hard pressed to find a devout Jew to go along with that. I also bet I'd be hard pressed to find a devout Muslim to call JC more than a prophet, one of many. So from a timeline perspective you are going on a 2005 year old believe and faith. Which is fine. Judism is older. Many christians would say that Jesus came to us to show us the new path, the new way, the new religion. Follow Christ. So if you believe this, then great. However the Prophet Mohammed came after the Prophet Jesus. And now Mohammed is now showing is the new path the new way.... Further, the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr., came after Mohammed... So now the Mormons have the new way... I think its great that you picked a path. Many haven't. Is it part of your belief system that you absoutely cannot be wrong in your faith, and that the path you picked is absolutely the correct one and that all Jews, Muslims, Hindou's, Mormons, Satanists are doomed to a lesser fate in the afterlife than those that have identically aligned with your path? I don't buy it. What if suddenly, apparently, the Daughter of God comes to be on earth. oops the Bible doesn't mention the Daughter of God. What if this is now we have the "old", "new" and "current" testiment. What if She performs miracles, clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, cures cancer for all humankind. Preaches the "current" word of God. Then She gets killed by the anti-Daughter of God movement. Would you believe that God could have had a Daughter? and what if a new budding religion comes out of Her teachings? Would you change to the "current" or stay with the 2005 year old version? Suddenly in the year 3000 people are debating why some are only following the teachings on the Son, and not the Daughter. Just as we are debating that you believe the JC has the *only* path to salvation; and I disagree. P.P.S. Actually from when I really played the game, I can think of many more prolific "kickers" than you. (Heck if I had $1 for every time I saw Youko kicked...) And I can think of many that were less polite about it than you too. (and I'm not saying your polite ;) ) So don't read something into what I'm saying, especially when I say it wasn't written with you in mind. While your statement could be true in today's game; its not from my perspective of yesterday's game true to me. Now as a 'better late than never' attempt to clarify my earlier remarks, I stopped referencing Spectral vs Guns after my 3rd paragraph, Where I started, "Personally, as stated before," I should have made it clear that my intent of writing was to the general and not the specific. Though in re-reading it, I can see how one could see it as a long Gunwounds rant. [off topic] One final thought, and I know that racism is high on Guns hit list. I was recently sitting next to a very polite gentleman of African Decent. He was working on a power point presentation, and I read one the headings of his slides. In typical confrontational fashion I stopped doing my e-mail, and launched powerpoint, and made one minor search/replace changes to his topic and asked him if my sentence was, in his opinion racist. My sentence read "White Leaders of our Communities must enable, empower the White man to ensure he achieves gains" I asked him if he thought that was a racist comment. He emphatically said yes... Talked a bit about how he was working to eliminate racism in the world, etc, blah, blah, etc, etc... then I pointed back to his slide "Black Leaders of our Communities must enable, empower the Black man to ensure he achieves gains". I asked him if he thought his sentence was racist.... Needless to say he didn't change his slide, nor continue to work on it, nor did he speak to me for the rest of the flight. He just sat there in silence. Me, I got a refill on my vodka tonic and went back to e-mail. My point? (well I often have no point, its part of my charm) but even those that are working to end a thing, may be in fact fostering the very thing they oppose.

Well I'd argue that more than 50% of the world is politically influenced by the USA. Being the #1 loan shark of the world; providing the most aid, etc. Many countries couldn't do the things they do without USA aid. Now I'm not saying that Romaina would fall apart without US aid or bases, but still an extra 100million in economic gain to have a US base is a tempting prospect. I don't think (but I'll leave it to a German or Italian to reply) that German or Italians feel their soverenity threatened by a US base being there. But I do see your point. I'd not want a [insert country here] base in my back yard either.

Well as long as scouting with your MCV, and wall building is still the way to go, then I think I'll be back in my old form in no time. ;D (That was so funny, I recall once with a game against Apollyon and Mr Dozy, Apollyon actually did scout with his MCV. He (I think) was in the corner on fishers, I was in the 2nd "power rock" on the top center. just after I completed my factory, here is Apollyon's MCV in my base. Completely funny. *sigh* some good times were had by many.) It will probaby be a month or more before I have the chance to reinstall. I'm still in one my rental homes waiting for my new house to be complete; and a such I have absolutely no idea where my install CD is.