: I was basing my faith in the Light purely on the
: existence of the cycle. If the beings that control it
: are as powerful as they seem to be, the Light
: literally could not lose.
But in my theory, the Head is [one of?] the being[s] that control[s] the cycles, and thus it is his actions which make the victory of the light inevitable. If the Nine hadn't listened to him, I'm sure something else could have been conjured up to insure their victory, but giving them some questionable advice which forces their actions against the Dark is the path of least interferance. Obviously, the cycle-creator[s] could just blink, nod, and make the forces of the Dark vanish, but that would certainly raise some questions.
: Actually, I think it would be *neutral* specifically from
: the Nine's point of view. Yes, the Cath Bruig empire
: was destroyed by the cycle. But so (probably) was the
: Trow empire. So was the period of domination of the
: Myrkridia. For every Light power that was tragically
: destroyed before it could bring peace to the whole
: world, a Dark power was mercifully destroyed before it
: could annihilate the planet.
I agree that the Dark races would have been there, but I suspect that the forces of the Light would prefer to control their own destiny, have the possibility of destroying the Dark races for good, rather than have some unknown party making sure neither is completely destroyed. Yes, the Dark forces would be there, but without the Leveler they would just be a bunch of nasty animals romping around, unorganized and succeptible to Light attacks. (The Trow seem to be an exception, but they aren't really a Dark race, they're a questionably neutral race, fighting in their own self-interest. Humans could form an evil empire just as easily as the Trow did).
: Look. In the middle of a desperate and losing war with
: the undead, upon which the fate of the continent
: depends, several thousand warriors decide to forget
: about the war, mutiny, and kill their own leaders to
: protect a disembodied head who's been advising them
: poorly. That's not liberalism gone overboard--that's
: mind control. Or at the very least, the Head's been
: working (magically or not) to recruit supporters.
: Severed heads don't have much natural charisma.
They may have believed that the Head was their only hope of victory, despite his questionable motives and actions. You've been arguing this yourself, that some people would want to follow him even after discovering his nature. The people attacking the Head could have been seen as crazy to them, seeking to destroy their only change of survival, and the people defending the head wouldn't be rebelling, they'd be the "sane" ones trying to save the world.
[holding-back-civilization cycle theory]
You know, upon further examination, this actually makes quite a bit of sense. But it doesn't exclude my Head-is-[one of the?]-cycle-starter[s] theory either.
: Have you done this yet?
No, I've been gone all weekend. I'll do it now...
Ok, this is odd. It shoots like a normal arrow, until it hits something, where it splits into a couple arrows. When hitting the ground, you just see several broken arrows instead of one. When hitting an enemy, it just does more damage. Perhaps Bungie never implemented it fully, leaving some improper behavior in there?
: I'm curious
: too. My guess is, at the beginning or midway through
: flight, the arrow "unfolds" into a whole
: shower of arrows aimed in slightly different
: directions. In Fear terms, it detonates immediately
: into a projectile group containing many ordinary
: arrows, the same way a Myrk Giant throws a projectile
: that immediately becomes a bunch of explosive skulls.
That sounds more like it. Perhaps it does do so, but all the arrows are going in the exact same direction. If you can edit PROJ tags with any skill, I suspect you would be able to fix it to that they are on slightly different arcs.
: Now that I think about it, that would look really
: cool. I think I'll post a mini-plugin for Myth II on
: the Mill in the next few days, enabling archers to use
: the "magic" arrows.
Sound cool. I look forward to it.
[correction on multiple attacks]
Ah, ok. Thanks for the info.
: Sounds like fun. I can't do squat with TFL, so it would
: have to be a Myth II scenario (which you'd probably
: want to do anyway because of all the Myth II perks,
: like fire.)
Yes, that's what I planned to do anyway. Nobody makes anything for Myth:TFL anymore, instead just porting any Myth:TFL elements they want to Myth II instead.
: However, I'm afraid I've got no experience
: with map-making, and a lot of the third-party editors
: like Amber don't work too well on my machine. I could
: probably do most of the necessary Fear work, though
: (which is the easy part of the job, I know). Maybe we
: should ask around for someone who's interested and
: good with Loathing and the third-party editors. Even
: if we can't do a whole scenario, I'm sure a plugin and
: a couple of maps would give players a lot of pleasure.
I only planned it to be a small scenario anyway. So far I've got planned:
L01: Defend town from Brigands.
L02: Head north, save friends from Brigands.
L03: Lure horde of Thrall across Brigand path.
L04: Rendevouz with Skrael army.
L05: Use Skrael Army to hold off Thrall horde.
L06: Seek aide of the fir'Bolg.
L07: Destroy Wight farm to gain fir'Bolg aide.
L08: Head north with fir'Bolg.
L09: Defend Skrael palace.
L10: Seek aide of Griffins.
L11: Escape from Trow prison camp.
L12: Defend Stair of Grief from Trow forces.
L13: Defend Stair of Grief from Myrmidon forces.
L14: Scout south with Dwarven Baloons.
L15: Defend against Dirigible ambush.
L16: Destroy Dirigible farm.
... and all the story and level design info behind those levels. That's about 2/3 to 3/4 of what I would like the whole thing to be. And even if we can't do the maps, we could always just do the units and build one netmap to play them on.
