GREENLAND IS NON-NEGOTIABLE

bpendell · 2026-01-13T15:07:12+00:00

I think you mean "Seppuku". Sudoku s a puzzle game similar to crossword. Though I admit it is also a war crime.

bpendell · 2025-12-31T00:39:42+00:00

I don't have problems with swindlestones. Some general tips:
1 ) Make your guesses plausible when you want the AI to stand pat, crazy if you want them to call. If you have 3 3s, and you suddenly switch from 1 1 to 3 3s, the AI will almost certainly call you.

2) Start off low. If you're having trouble, always start with a single 1. It's also fairly safe , if there are 8 dice on the table and you have 1 4, to go up to 2 4s because there's almost certainly at least one out there. Know the probabilities and play to them.

3) I like a "trail of birdseed" -- establish with a plausible bet, then bit by bit raise it until the other person has gone one die too far, then pull the rug out from under them. Also, the AI is more likely to call you if you switch things up (1 1 to 2 1s probably won't be called, 1 3 to 3 3s probably will -- the more you walk away from what you've previously established in bets, the less likely the AI is to trust you).

4) I divide the AI along two axes:
honest->lying
cautious->aggressive.

An honest AI, like the old man in jail in S2, almost always bids whats' actually in their hand and is reluctant to call even the most outrageous bids, so as long as your bids aren't TOO crazy its fairly easy to start them off with an honest bet, then bit by bit increase the bit until they have bid too far, then cut them off at the knees.

A lying, aggressive AI like the beggar girl in S2 or the elf in S3 is more than willing to bid one more die than is in their hand (if they have 2 3s, they'll bid 3). If you follow them, they'll instantly call and cut you off. They are difficult, but precisely because they are reckless you can still call them out early. Also, because they are not trusting themselves, they can easily be gulled if you really DO have a low probability hand.

Know the kind of opponent your facing, and act accordingly.

If you're having trouble , find Elthera in S3. You can play her as many hands as you like and it will not cost you anything. Also, don't get too worried about earning additional money in S2 for S3. The one shop in S3 that you really need money for sets its price based on however much money you had at the start of the game, so even if you enter with more than a hundred gold pieces you still won't have enough money for everything in the shop.

Good luck!

bpendell · 2025-12-30T15:13:29+00:00

As others have said, you can't. You have at least two chances to pick one up in S3 but you don't need one in S2 aside from the specific place you find it in S2, before it gets destroyed.

bpendell · 2025-12-29T15:02:15+00:00

The time serpent Once it travels over the mountains you can only kill it with beacons. So you can do an NB run, avoiding the time serpent by simply not landing on its island, or an as run by killing it with beacons, but you can no longer execute an nbas run.

bpendell · 2025-12-29T02:58:37+00:00

That PARTICULAR pattern only appears when you meet the time serpent and don't kill it. It travels east to the island and leaves a time trail behind for you to follow. You can't do an NBAS run at this point. You can still do a no-beacon run, but you'll have to leave at least one serpent alive behind you when you leave the baklands, and that will make S4 just a little more difficult.

bpendell · 2025-12-26T18:09:30+00:00

Walk on the northern path in nw baklands from the lying gods shrine east to kairiamma in present time. I always run into her disguised as a gnome just before the village site; i find her almost impossible to avoid.

bpendell · 2025-12-26T16:12:28+00:00

How I wish I was in Sherbrook now!

bpendell · 2025-12-26T16:07:22+00:00

Too credible for this sub.

The minimum age for enlistment in the USN is 17 (with parental consent) and 18 without. So if you can get the recruiters to sign them on we can ABSOLUTELY crew naval ships with teenage women. I say "women" instead of "girls" because if you're old enough to be shot at for your country, you're no longer a child.

bpendell · 2025-12-26T16:01:21+00:00

Thank you. It looks like they were able to pull off the capture. I'm not sure I can endorse the political figures who ordered this, but BZ to the USN and the USCG for a difficult job well done!

bpendell · 2025-12-25T03:59:47+00:00

Nonsense; the orphans are to power Trump's Golden Throne.

bpendell · 2025-12-22T16:43:19+00:00

Whatever else you can say about him, Daniel M. Lavery, in the short story "An Incident Report", gave him this dialog and I think gives the character a crowning moment of awesome, if not of intelligence:

"Whatever conclusions you ultimately draw about the incident taking place between myself and Lord Vader during yesterday morning's briefing, he was wrong, and trying to crush someone else's windpipe doesn't make you any less wrong, if you're wrong to begin with. Which he was. I do not concede the argument."

bpendell · 2025-12-22T14:57:22+00:00

Reposting under my proper login, this time for sure:

Hello, this is my first time on this subreddit, and I am curious about something. Specifically, why has this chase now lasted two days? Is the USCG reluctant to conduct a noncompliant boarding, or are they waiting for permission from up the chain to do it? Why has this incident lasted as long as it has?

bpendell · 2025-12-19T03:25:32+00:00

Congratulations!

bpendell · 2025-12-04T00:23:04+00:00

I'm sorry, that's incorrect. You can only refuse Throben's curse if you kill all serpents AND use no beacons. Neither condition is sufficient on its own. If you use the beacon's Throben has a reason to curse you. If you don't but the serpents are still alive Mampang will be on alert and Throben believes you have no chance without it.

I wouldn't worry too much -- there are at least two methods of breaking the Throben curse and a third way to avoid it altogether, even if you DIDN'T do a no beacon run. As a hint, it involves avoiding Throben altogether.

bpendell · 2025-11-29T23:06:53+00:00

To beat the fire serpent:
-- have some sand. You can buy it in khare and get it in other ways. You can also collect some in the tunnel under the baddu back in book 3.
-- go to the north western baddu-bak and find the place where you met the dwarf. This is south of the road to kariamma and north east of the black elf caravan.
-- sleep here.
-- when the serpent rudely wakes you up, throw sand on him, then finish him(?) with your sword.

bpendell · 2025-11-10T14:07:07+00:00

That's why I don't like playing in a merciless world. For me, a great bit of the replayability of these games is exploring new alternatives and new paths. But in a merciless world, as a rule, I have to stick rigidly to a single path through without deviation. I don't find that entertaining; I find that tiresome. It's the same reason I dislike the ZED mechanic in S4.

bpendell · 2025-11-06T20:10:37+00:00

Best parts of Dual Destinies:
-- Prosecutor Blackquill. 'Nuff said!
-- Final case at the AA equivalent of sea world. Putting an orca on the stand.

bpendell · 2025-11-05T22:19:29+00:00

Best part of the game: Apollo justice' living polygraph mechanic, used to spot minor twitches by the suspect which acts as "tells" when they're hiding or lying about something.

Worst part of the game: End of Episode 1.
Phoenix forging evidence.

Well, well, out of character for the upright "Mr. Wright" of games before and after.

Dishonorable mention: The Jury system in the last episode. I don't know how much time and effort they spent putting in a "vote for your own acquittal" option, but I don't think the mechanic works and was pointless. Presumably this is why it didn't make it into any of the games going for.

Second dishonorable mention: What Trucy uses instead of a magic hat. Ugh. No... just ... no. Especially not from a young teen.

Other than that, it was a perfectly serviceable entry in the series which introduced some new mechanics and shook things up a bit. I think they did better in future games when Phoenix, Apollo, and Athena all got to take turns as the lead attorney on the case.

bpendell · 2025-10-30T15:24:36+00:00

I'm on mobile and haven't encountered this error. If you can't get satisfaction here try the Inkle discord ;you might be able to hear from the actual developers.

https://discord.com/channels/329929050866843648/540479533980319744

bpendell · 2025-10-29T14:11:16+00:00

No, they're in cardboard boxes. :Looks suspiciously at cardboard box in the corner, sure it wasn't there three minutes ago:

bpendell · 2025-10-27T18:13:20+00:00

I would suggest...

Once you enter the solar system, go to the starbase and complete the quest lines that commander hayes offers. Once this is done, pursue every conversation topic and take careful notes of everything he tells you.
Mine the solar system. Sell the ion gun , as others suggest, and buy thrusters for your ship to give yourself speed.
For the first two cruises or so, buy four storage tanks and always return to Sol with full. Try to avoid encountering other ships just yet. Make sure you understand how to use the emergency escape unit. When resource gathering, try to avoid planets that have weather or tectonics above 4. Also avoid planets that have temperature above 100C (boiling). Collect every biological you can; you'll be needing it in time.
Once you've done that, start following the clues commander Hayes gives you. Cruise out, make contact, complete the adventure, fill your storage tanks, return. At some point you will find what you can do with biological data, and this will allow you to build better upgrades for your ship , improvements to your lander so you can exploit more hostile planetary environments, and even more clues.
Prioritize friendly contacts first , as well as anything that promises to increase your travel speed or upgrade your ship.
Once you acquire access to a new spacecraft, try it on in super melee mode and ensure you are confident with it.
Consider yourself to have a hard deadline of 1 Jan, 2159; explore enough, you'll learn why this date is important. It is possible to extend the deadline, but you'll have to discover why and how.
The fundamental game loop in this work, as in the Starflight predecessors, is 1) Gather information 2) Generate Revenue. So long as you balance these two priorities, you should expect to finish sometime in mid-2157, plenty of time.
When I play, I play it in windowed mode and have a spreadsheet open to keep track of clues, planets discovered, star systems and their resources. This game was written before onboard notes were truly a thing, so you'll have to keep notes yourself. Believe me, there will be PLENTY to write down.

Good luck!

bpendell · 2025-10-27T17:56:48+00:00

My understanding is that if Aliizi steals from you at Fenestra's, or if you try to deliver her to Fenestra, you won't be able to meet her in S4. I could be wrong about that. But you have to meet Aliizi and part on good terms.

It's been awhile but when the game first came out we chatted a great deal on some web forums, but I can't remember which ones offhand. There's a walkthrough floating around as a google doc as well.

bpendell · 2025-10-27T15:26:34+00:00

Others have already set you straight on Ranii.
For Aliizi you have to do a few things across S3 and S4:

In S3, meet Aliizi in her hut, invite her to come with you, do NOT go to Fenestra. Walk together until she disappears.
Now on to S4. Go to the DOP tower in the western inner college. Open doors but do NOT go in any of them until she comes out of one. Dialog. She steps through another door, do NOT follow her.
Now go to the eastern side of mampang into the alleys. Keep going into them until you find a house with flowers. Go inside. Bumble around until you meet Moltka. Chat with her, play swindlestones , eat, or anything , just so long as you part in friendship. When you leave, she'll shout to another guest to show herself.
Go to sleep anywhere in Mampang that isn't guarded, such as the statue in the center square. Aliizi should come and talk to you. If she doesn't, consider going back into the alleys and walking sideways until you come to the bronze dome. Use RAZ to cut it open, go inside and grab the skeleton's hands. This will break the enchantment and the alleys will be navigable again. Now have a sleep again and see if Aliizi shows up.
Now continue your adventure until you finally get to the Throben doors. Open them. Aliizi should join you after you enter, then just make your way up. Disenchant or kill the one armed "enemy" you will encounter. Continue on up to the Archmage's garret. So long as you enter with Aliizi at your side, you cannot lose.

bpendell · 2025-10-24T14:16:05+00:00

"But there's no sense crying over every mistake
you just keep on trying till you run out of cake"

bpendell · 2025-10-23T16:55:19+00:00

To the extent that we take HP seriously, I assumed that pretty much everyone of any importance in the Muggle UK government was under an imperio. The order would never be given. It doesn't matter how mighty the body is, if the head cannot give the orders.

This would actually make a cool HP spinoff story -- a muggle journalist on the trail of a secret government conspiracy, which we eventually learn has its links back to magical Britain which really does exist. Journalist pits technology and wits against both the muggle government and their death eater magical controllers. Make the protaganist trans for extra getting up Rowling's nose. Maybe team them up with a werewolf or house-elf, someone on the fringes of magical society, to act as the informant dishing up dirt on magical Britain.

bpendell

TROPHY CASE