Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • Ion storms in Femme Fatale


      In exploring the details of Femme Fatale, I found a rather amusing little - no, shouldn't call it bug - rather - inconsistency.

      Ever thought of having half a dozen ion storms as escorts???

      Quite simple: when you do one of those disaster rescue missions, try not to completely bugger up the ion storms (there's a short phase between the moment they're still 'alive'
      and the moment they're totally 'dead'!), and afterwards you can board them like normal ships.
      And they're surprisingly good at defending you against enemies.

      It's just a bit weird that when you send them onto your enemies, they confirm with human voices....

      Comments anyone?
      Maybe Martin Turner himself?

    • Here's something I downloaded from holovid.

      ::: Time Stamp 2782 21 Nov 08:00 Earth time

      ::: MERMAIDS OF SPACE THREATEN SANITY OF PILOTS

      From our roving reporter. Sightings are being reported around the galaxy of a starship which appears to have attracted its own Ion storm. Some have connected this with a space traveller who can be found in bars across the galaxy claiming that ion storms speak to him in 'human' voices.

      "We were talking about the difficulty of hiring a good pilots in the Belaspelon system" said an eyewitness "when this crazy guy leans across and says he's found an escort no-one can touch. Then he tells this story about an ion-disturbance that talks to him. He even invited us up to his ship to have a look, but we all backed away from that."

      Experts have connected these stories with a phenomenum known as 'space-madness', similar to the effects that long sea-voyages had on mariners when mankind was confined to Earth. Stories of mermaids following a ship and calling to the sailors in human voices were once common on Earth.

      A leading Ion-ician dismissed the stories. "Space pilots will tell any old tale." Said Dr Zeef Zackman of the Rigellian Institute today. "There is no way this could happen, so it isn't happening."

      However, another expert theorised that the effect could be achieved with skilful use of tractor beams, force fields and vector thrust. A spokesman for the Magellan Confederacy today claimed that Magellan pilots have been in possession of this technology for many years. However, these claims were in turn dismissed by Zackman. "If the Magellans had them" he said "we would know about it."

      Ends

      ------------------
      M A R T I N • T U R N E R

    • ROFLOL Martin
      By the way, I must have been hit by space madness because I could fancy such an escort 🙂

      ------------------
      "I have to go home to see if there's a new president."
      — President Clinton, bidding farewell to Hanoi

    • Delightful.

      Is that an amusing little sideline of the plot (i.e. to be found somewhere in the game), or did you have a few minutes to spare to quickly ... erm ... (I'm basically half-English/half-German and bilingual, but sometimes a German expression comes to mind qucker: the German expression is "es sich aus den Fingern saugen", i.e. to make something up instantly) suck that holo-vid feature right out of your fingers?

      I only got on to EVO fairly recently, and enjoyed it for a while, until the endless "smash this fleet" and "bugger that enemy" missions which seem to keep the younger faction(s) of the EVO community quite happy (judging from the discussions on this Board and some other plug-ins I've tried and abandoned, either because the story was primitive, or because they were insanely bug-ridden, and I don't have the 'hacker's' background to do anything about them) started boring me a little, and the mere sound of the Red Alert bells was almost enough to let me quit the game.
      What a pleasure to discover "Frozen Heart" and "Femme Fatale"!
      Well, sure, you have a lot of rather serious enemies one is supposed to wipe out, but your plug-ins add such complexity to all the 'action' that it's worth spending the time blasting away at all sorts of "nasty bastards".
      One factor, actually, was also rather important: language standards! EVO itself is quite all right in that respect (some plug-ins aren't!!!!), but FH and FF go yet a bit beyond that level.
      The amount of potentially interesting games which spoil the fun (for me) because of their crippled language.... and in addition to that, living in Germany, one doesn't only get the crappy language, but also the software companies don't bother employing good translators (e.g. your humble servant, the Galactic Punk.....) but think it's enough to run everything through some translating programme. Extremely bad results are the German versions of Civilization II and Pax Imperia. Those messages in there make me want to puke!

      But both FH and FF got such a grip on me that I just had to get through with them, and I don't think there are very many aspects left that I've missed - unless you've hidden them so well that one only stumbles across them by accident (e.g. the ion storm escorts - I only found at the end of one battle with them that one still had the grey corners around them and out of curiosity tried to 'board' it - hey presto!)
      By the way: at the end of the FF storyline, when I finished off the Nexus (with about 1/2 mm of armour left on the bar of my severely upgraded Cobra!), a long string of empty systems opened up, ending in a pentangle of - yet again - empty systems. How disappointing after going to all that trouble of waiting around for ages for the fuel scoops to tank me up again.
      The 1 - 2 - 3 planet hailing trick didn't work, there were no alien ships around - is there anything to be discovered there, or is that just a little teaser for upcoming projects?
      Or were you simply in a bit of a wicked mood when you put those systems in?

      Anyway, enough blabber, I'm eagerly awaiting further projects of yours!
      And please don't wait for Ambrosia to finally release the new EV. It seems to me that all the teams of people who've been busy with (supposedly) very ambitious Total Conversion plug-ins have shelved their projects, and I have a suspicion that they're all waiting for the new EV, but don't want to openly admit to this.
      Keep up the excellent work, when you're not too busy becoming MP (as I gathered from the Board). I'd be interested to know which party. Your EVO works vaguely point at certain principles of yours, but I'd be at a loss to guess from them which party you might find ok to join.

      Will there ever be any major alien factions in your galaxy? It seems to be quite solidly divided between various groups of descendants from human colonists, apart from the 'alien wreck', which in FF has also been taken over by humans.
      One aspect of FH and FF which disappointed me just a little was that all civilizations seem to employ (more or less, with a few exceptions, e.g. the tachyon technology) exactly the same technologies, although they have very different ship designs. Some aliens would be sure to change that.

      A fan of your work
      The Galactic Punk.

    • Oh forgot: addition to above message:

      Living in Germany, I really enjoyed the planet "Kohl"!

    • Nothing like a good cabbage...

      GP, can you explain the Conjunktiv case to me?

      ------------------
      "I know Kung Fu"
      "Show me"
      • AIM: CrazyJ617 • B-net: Flatulence • (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro &default;=8")Search(/url), inc •

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Flatulence:
      **Nothing like a good cabbage...

      GP, can you explain the Conjunktiv case to me?
      **

      You're right. Just made some rather nice cabbage stew for dinner. But not 'Kraut' style, but .... erm .... Galactic Punk style, with Eastern European influence.

      Just in the remote case you happen to be vaguely serious-ish about 'Konjunktiv': no use explaining it over the Internet. If you know the grammar basics, and can't get a grasp on it, the only solution is to to spend quite some time with native speakers or in German-speaking countries.
      Supposing you're male: get yourself a German girlfriend. My Russian got close to 'native-speaking' after a two-year relationship with a girl from Moscow.

      ------------------

    • heh... I started to type "Conjunctive" and then half way through, switched to german.

      Oh, I was serious..... German cases are the most freakin' hard to figure out. From the way I see it:

      Present: wurde + infinitive

      Past: wäre/hätte + past particible

      Past & Model: hätte + infinitive + model

      ?????

      ------------------
      "I know Kung Fu"
      "Show me"
      • AIM: CrazyJ617 • B-net: Flatulence • (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro &default;=8")Search(/url), inc •

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Flatulence:
      **heh... I started to type "Conjunctive" and then half way through, switched to german.

      Oh, I was serious..... German cases are the most freakin' hard to figure out. From the way I see it:

      Present: wurde + infinitive

      Past: wäre/hätte + past particible

      Past & Model: hätte + infinitive + model

      ?????
      **

      Oh Scheisse. He's serious. That's worse than having the piss taken out of me.
      Thing is: I picked up German in Krautland (family moved there when I was 5), and at school refused to take grammar seriously - driving teachers to desperation: good grades except when specific theoretical grammar questions were asked, I was always hopeless there, for every language I did. So I can use languages correctly from instinct, but I'm useless at explaining grammar. That's one of the reasons why I gave up teaching. I could discuss little usage / semantics details with you for hours, but GRAMMAR???

      Well, I'll try to give you an opinion (i.e. no guarantee for completeness and accuracy!)

      NOTE TO MODERATORS: NO, I'M NOT INTENDING TO SET UP MY OWN PRIVATE LANGUAGE TUTORING SERVICE - JUST THE QUESTION APPEARED, AND WHAT AM I GOING TO SAY? PISS OFF AND LOOK IN YOUR GERMAN GRAMMAR BOOK??

      You're getting me to pick out my f*cking grammar dictionary I haven't touched in years! It's actually got a thick layer of dust on it.....!
      By the way: I don't think you should take Konjunktiv too seriously except for grammar exams: it's quite busily dying in Germany. A lot of Germans have serious problems with using it correctly.

      OK here's your Free Online German Tutor:
      (meaning that the following is a lecture and will sound/read like one: pompous!)

      First of all, Konjunktiv is not a case, but a verb form - And not a time/tense as in present/past/future, but a way of expressing (in the present/past/future) that you're not quite sure whether what you're saying is definite / likely to happen / true.
      But I suppose that's been explained to you. But you can't look at it in the way you listed the three possibilities in your message. There's no definite "this-or-that Konjunktiv form" + "this-or-that verb form", there's only rules as to which combination of forms to use when your whole sentence is in the present/past/future. There are even possibilities without any verb following, e.g.(indirect speech):

      Gretchen sagte, Fritz sei ein Arschloch.

      (example of current typical German colloquial usage replacing the above correct form: Gretchen hat gesagt dass der Fritz 'n Arschloch is.)

      And there are, depending on the tense of the whole sentence, simple Konjunktiv I and Konjunktiv II forms and the famous "will habe gehabt werden sein sollen" complex forms, always in connection with the main verb of 'action' in the sentence.

      Example of using the same form in various tenses, in indirect speech:
      Sie sagt, sie werde den Lehrer erwürgen.
      Sie sagte, sie werde den Lehrer erwürgen.

      Konjunktiv I (sei / habe / werde / wolle etc.) is mostly used as indirect speech (someone saying in the present/past/future that something happened or someone did something), and Konjunktiv II (wäre / hätte / würde / wollte etc.) as the way of saying that something is intended / wished for / unlikely.

      The thing is I can't give you sure-fire constructions (yours are partly incorrect, and only examples), even my "Duden" grammar dictionary won't even attempt that. All I can say is that you have to know your German tenses with all its habens and seins and werdens and other auxiliaries very well to be able to incorporate the Konjunktiv forms properly.
      Once you've mastered the tenses, getting them into the Konjunktiv forms is simple.

      Hope that's not only confused you. If you have any more specific questions, I'll try to answer them, possibly on a different forum. For obvious reasons, I won't reveal my e-mail address. I'll have a class of 5000 students of German eager to pass their exams within 10 minutes after posting my e-mail address on this Board. And also, if I happen to piss off people with my opinions on EVO, I'll have a pile of hate mails. No thanx!

    • Hmm... yes, that did confuse me. Oh, you better believe that I'm forgetting Konjunktiv a second after tomorrow's test.... thanks again.

      ------------------
      "I know Kung Fu"
      "Show me"
      • AIM: CrazyJ617 • B-net: Flatulence • (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro &default;=8")Search(/url), inc •

    • I'm afraid it's just a piece of fun, and has no bearing on the plot — and, yes, I did make it up 'es sich aus den Fingern saugen' (although we say in Dutch, 'uit de mouwen schudden').

      However, this is exactly how the Rigellians and Magellans would react to this one.

      Glad you liked the bits of German. So far nobody has managed the Turkish (to my knowledge).

      As far as politics is concerned, I'm not really going to discuss it on the board. However, if you look around the world of the Frozen Heart, and then look at which political parties there are in the UK, you should be able to work out which is which. Alternatively, you could check their websites to see which are their candidates.

      The aliens all vanished about fifty-thousand years ago, at least from this corner of space. However, I did sketch out a plotline where you do meet some. It may appear in a future plugin, or it may not.

      The technology of Femme Fatale is actually more advanced than in Frozen Heart. I may take this a little further.

      Anyway, glad you are enjoying.

      Regards

      Martin

      Quote

      Originally posted by Galactic Punk:
      **Delightful.

      Is that an amusing little sideline of the plot (i.e. to be found somewhere in the game), or did you have a few minutes to spare to quickly ... erm ... (I'm basically half-English/half-German and bilingual, but sometimes a German expression comes to mind qucker: the German expression is "es sich aus den Fingern saugen", i.e. to make something up instantly) suck that holo-vid feature right out of your fingers?

      I only got on to EVO fairly recently, and enjoyed it for a while, until the endless "smash this fleet" and "bugger that enemy" missions which seem to keep the younger faction(s) of the EVO community quite happy (judging from the discussions on this Board and some other plug-ins I've tried and abandoned, either because the story was primitive, or because they were insanely bug-ridden, and I don't have the 'hacker's' background to do anything about them) started boring me a little, and the mere sound of the Red Alert bells was almost enough to let me quit the game.
      What a pleasure to discover "Frozen Heart" and "Femme Fatale"!
      Well, sure, you have a lot of rather serious enemies one is supposed to wipe out, but your plug-ins add such complexity to all the 'action' that it's worth spending the time blasting away at all sorts of "nasty bastards".
      One factor, actually, was also rather important: language standards! EVO itself is quite all right in that respect (some plug-ins aren't!!!!), but FH and FF go yet a bit beyond that level.
      The amount of potentially interesting games which spoil the fun (for me) because of their crippled language.... and in addition to that, living in Germany, one doesn't only get the crappy language, but also the software companies don't bother employing good translators (e.g. your humble servant, the Galactic Punk.....) but think it's enough to run everything through some translating programme. Extremely bad results are the German versions of Civilization II and Pax Imperia. Those messages in there make me want to puke!

      But both FH and FF got such a grip on me that I just had to get through with them, and I don't think there are very many aspects left that I've missed - unless you've hidden them so well that one only stumbles across them by accident (e.g. the ion storm escorts - I only found at the end of one battle with them that one still had the grey corners around them and out of curiosity tried to 'board' it - hey presto!)
      By the way: at the end of the FF storyline, when I finished off the Nexus (with about 1/2 mm of armour left on the bar of my severely upgraded Cobra!), a long string of empty systems opened up, ending in a pentangle of - yet again - empty systems. How disappointing after going to all that trouble of waiting around for ages for the fuel scoops to tank me up again.
      The 1 - 2 - 3 planet hailing trick didn't work, there were no alien ships around - is there anything to be discovered there, or is that just a little teaser for upcoming projects?
      Or were you simply in a bit of a wicked mood when you put those systems in?

      Anyway, enough blabber, I'm eagerly awaiting further projects of yours!
      And please don't wait for Ambrosia to finally release the new EV. It seems to me that all the teams of people who've been busy with (supposedly) very ambitious Total Conversion plug-ins have shelved their projects, and I have a suspicion that they're all waiting for the new EV, but don't want to openly admit to this.
      Keep up the excellent work, when you're not too busy becoming MP (as I gathered from the Board). I'd be interested to know which party. Your EVO works vaguely point at certain principles of yours, but I'd be at a loss to guess from them which party you might find ok to join.

      Will there ever be any major alien factions in your galaxy? It seems to be quite solidly divided between various groups of descendants from human colonists, apart from the 'alien wreck', which in FF has also been taken over by humans.
      One aspect of FH and FF which disappointed me just a little was that all civilizations seem to employ (more or less, with a few exceptions, e.g. the tachyon technology) exactly the same technologies, although they have very different ship designs. Some aliens would be sure to change that.

      A fan of your work
      The Galactic Punk.**

      ------------------
      M A R T I N • T U R N E R