SOCL

Check your listing of Wonders of the Ancient World. Yes, except the Colossus of Rhodes may or may not have been real. There is not extent evidence to prove its existence. And, as JH mentioned, it created by way of modern engineering compared to, say, the Parthenon, the Great Pyramids (your example!), or the Easter Island heads. An entire city in the mountains, where the construction was based on hauling rocks from miles away into the mountains, built by hand, and hardly touched by the modern hand. Sure, it's not a wonder. Yeah, except this is a personal opinion. The other objections were based on comparative analysis.

Mitth, check your encyclopedia entries. Did they update? Because mine did not. My planets changed, yes, but the encyclopedia entries are all of the old ones. This may not have been the solution we were looking for, though it does take us one step closer. UPDATE: I tried uploading the cards afterward and continued to get the 'list too long, truncated!' message, which means the encyclopedia entries are too long... So is this a case of not being able to have your cake and eat it too?

Ah-ha! So that's the order! Load cards and then run Setup. I'll report it to the team.

I'll try it out tomorrow and get back to you guys.

I would do it...but I'm not sure I want to do a fifth install in one day. Have you tried doing a "Partial Install"?

Well, I did another uninstall/install, and no change. Still the same. Hopefully one of the team fellows with more knowledge will happen by and give us a solution.

IC: "K'olar." The voice came like something out of a dream. Electronic, hollow, unfriendly, unnatural. Like something out of a nightmare. And it spoke Mando'a. Did he actually dream in the joha'buir? The father language? It wasn't something he'd every really considered, but it seemed natural, except... "K'olar." There it was again, more persistent, and still in Mando'a, but it wasn't the fact it spoke Mandalorian so much as its accent. How awkward it sounded speaking the joha'buir. It didn't sound natural, at all. He'd spent his whole life speaking the native tongue, communicating with other Mandalorians, so had he been wrong in thinking he actually knew how to pronounce the words? How to enunciate? Maybe he'd been overconfident in his skills, but that didn't-- "K'olar!" Again! "Come here. Come here. Come here!" Where was he supposed to-- And this his eyes opened. Slowly at first, bright light shooting stabbing pain back to his brain, and instinctively he closed his eyes again. He took a breath and opened his eyes again, and there was the light again, a bright star beam directly into his eyes, burning into his retinas. What bloody world was this? Had the scarheads decided to torture him on Nkllon and leave him to the system's primary? Well, at least it'd be a quick death. "K'olar, Mando." He shook his head, exasperated. Wherever that voice was coming from, whatever crazy nightmare this way, it really didn't matter. Then a thought crossed his mind: what if he was actually awake? What if he'd started going crazy? Worse: what if he was not only awake, but hearing voices? Was this the way his life ended? On the surface of some sun going insane? This couldn't be happening! He was still young--didn't even have a wife to annoy him, a family to waste time on! Not even a farm! A farm! He'd always wanted a farm! All the best Mandos had farms! It wasn't fair! It just wasn't-- "About bloody time." The sun winked off, and he blinked at the spots. "It's been an hour." It was that voice again, though wherever it was coming from, he couldn't tell. He blinked rapidly in succession, doing his best to make the spots disappear. He reached for his eyes, to rub them--nothing. Had he lost his arms? He writhed-- "Calm down, Mando. Disorientation is normal. It'll wear off in a few minutes." The voice seemed to consider him a second. "Your arms are fine. They've been bound at the wrists. Don't struggle too much or else the wire will start eating into your wrists." He stopped moving, for the first time noticing the sharp pain around his wrists. He flexed his fingers again and felt something warm oozing over his fingers. Something stirred behind him and he whirled his head around. He saw a dark object, roughly humanoid in size and shape, move across his vision, but he still couldn't focus his eyes past the red and white spots. "Idiot," the voice said, again from where the sun had been. "Bloody moron, you're bleeding." He turned back to where the voice was and slowly made out another, identical black, roughly humanoid silhouette, two others flanking the first. Defels? A whole pack of them? He looked around him and saw some more movement in the distance, or maybe he was imagining it... Maybe it was a Vong trick. He tried forming lips, but found his mouth gummy and hardly responsive. "That's another side effect," the voice said. "We gave you enough to bring a bantha out of a coma." With a wet smack, he managed his lips apart, and slowly formed words. "Wh-Who are--" He stopped mid-sentence. He'd was replying in Mandalorian. This fellow was speaking Mandalorian! "You're Mando?" There was a long pause, his vision clearing more and more, and suddenly he realized he was looking down the barrel of a blaster. And behind it, sighting down a small tactical scope-- "Not quite," the fellow--the Stromtrooper!--aiming the blaster replied. "We rescued you from the Vong." This time, it was in Basic. "And now I'm an Imperial prisoner?" All the bluff and dream-state gone from his voice, leaving nothing but bitterness and anger--all in Basic. "You expecting a thank-you?" The Stormtrooper, or Scouttrooper, or whatever these black helmets were called, seemed to consider him a moment, then lowered the blaster. He noticed, though, that the fellow didn't take his finger off the trigger. "What's your name?" "Frank Palpatine, you?" he spat, tugging at the restraints. He could imagine the trooper grinning, but then, the blaster still nominal aimed at him, if only in his general direction seemed to belay any amusement. The helmet moved fractionally from side to side, studying him. "You plan on letting that wire cut your wrists off?" "Whatever it takes to escape," but he did stop struggling, all too aware of the blood flowing from his wrists. "Look, we Mandalorians keep to ourselves. You Imperials keep to yourselves, and we respect that. So what's this about? You trying to cause an interplanetary incident--" The stormtrooper gave a sharp, sudden laugh, made all the more startling by the helmet's voice amplifier. "Don't presume to dictate to me the ways of the Galaxy, Mando. Besides, if you wanted an incident, you got it when your glorious leader signed on with the scarheads, or should I say the Yuuzhan Vong?" He felt the skin around his lips compress and narrowed his eyes. So that's what it was all about: revenge. Lord Mandalore made one...practical decision, and the whole galaxy was up in arms. First the Republic, now the Empire? They already had bounties out for them, probably all government-hires and privateers, so maybe the Empire's elite wasn't so far-fetched. Still, why did the Empire care? Why was he asking himself and not them? "Why do you people care what we do? I don't exactly see the Imperial Fleet fighting the invaders." "That's right, the fleet at Ithor belonged to the other Empire," one of the troopers grunted. "Yeah, and look how well that worked out," he said with a grin. "Good thing that wasn't your Emp--" He was cut off by a mouthful of mud, and only a nanosecond later did he realize there was a boot against the back of his head, pushing his face into the dirt. A sharp stabbing pain followed, shooting down his head and across his forehead, and he was brought up by a clenched fist in his hair, a vibroblade suddenly appearing at his throat. The first stormtrooper seemed to watch him in amusement, then approached and bent down at face level. "Let's make something clear, Mando: we don't need you. As far as some of my boys are concerned, you're nothing but dead weight, and I'm inclined to agree with them." "Then why did you rescue me?" The stormtrooper paused a moment. He might have been grinning, but then, he might not. "Bait. Vong bait. When they hear of a Mando working with the resistance, they'll do what it takes to get at you. Cooperate, and you'll be live bait, and might even survive. Don't, and you'll do as dead bait." There was something funny about the way the stormtrooper spoke, something different from the way every other Imperial spoke, and yet strangely familiar... An inflection in his voice. An accent... The stromtrooper stood and motioned the one with the vibroblade away. Years of wearing a helmet and using a private commlink told him they were speaking to each other. Finally the first trooper looked back down at him. "What's your name, Mando?" He hesitated a moment. It wasn't like that information was secret. Besides, maybe word would get back to Micus and he'd come to rescue him. "Saith." "Saith," the stormtrooper repeated, pronouncing the name in a perfect imitation of the Concord Dawn inflection-- Saith's eyes grew wide, but before he could say anything, the world went black. OOC: Sorry about the length and sudden change in narrator. It'll probably go back between Veriol and Saith, depending on the situation. Oh, and that scene where Saith is flipping out and crying about a farm--if that comes across a little silly and humorous, it's meant to. I certainly never intended that sort of flipping-out to be dramatic. OOC UPDATE: A much improved E-55 blaster carbine

"Checkbox" character? I've uninstalled and reinstalled Rebellion three times now. At no point have I got the Coruscant to become Wayland, and Yavin Coruscant.

I started a new game, but the Empire still has Coruscant as its home and Yavin for the New Republic... Let's see... After I installed the Reloaded file and found Resource Hacker, etc. Then I went to RebEd, loaded the "Rebellion_Reloaded_Beta" file. Then I went to the Reloaded folder and double-clicked the "enable_movie_patch". I get the funny feeling I must have missed something... EDIT: The briefing is correct for me also, but the names remain old-school. This may simply be a point they haven't got to yet.

Hmm... I just did everything from the very beginning, from uninstalling everything to loading Reloaded. I still have the planets named as you mentioned, budious--the same way I had them before. Did you do anything differently this time around?

Funny, because he does Mac adverts. Unless I'm thinking of the wrong fellow...

Have you been able to upload this, or did you do this by using RebEd and changing the names? I don't have Coruscant renamed as Wayland, and Yavin remains Yavin, not Coruscant. How did you manage the change?

Your planets got renamed? Coruscant, though not in the correct location, should still be the Empire's capital, etc. Did you do this after the installer?: 1. Open RebEd 2. Click "Load Settings" 3. Locate the file "Rebellion_Reloaded_beta" (you can load a copy to your RebEd folder, or you can just click the question-mark button next to the file location and find the file in your Rebellion Reloaded folder) 4. Click "Load" button 5. If you get a pop-up message, just click "OK" 6. you should get a "Settings Loaded" message; click "OK" That should be it. If you want to check on the system/sector names, go the "Galaxy Mapper" bit and find the "Prackla" sector--Coruscant should be within it.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r36/SOCL3/Ackbar_cerealmotiv.jpg

Did he use a Mac?

Jahled, you speak for both me and my father, and my father's a Christian minister! Christ Redeemer? As compared to Stonehenge or the Parthenon in Athens? Or how about Easter Island? Odd choice.

Woo! I am Dr. Frankenthread! I recently read through the NJO duology of novels Enemy Lines. Well, in it, there is mention of a Force nexus underneath the spot where the Jedi Temple had been located. It gave Irek Ismaren/Lord Nyax insanely cranked up Force powers. I wonder if the over-the-top nature of the Force in this game has something to do with a Force nexus... Perhaps the same one from Enemy Lines...

OOC: Yeah, Tofu, that's you in commando form. Don't worry, most of my stuff won't be action--rather, the effects and implications of action. I just wanted to start with one good shot-em-up scene. Thanks for the compliment, by the way. UPDATE 1: For those of you who are curious/crazy like me, here are some references: -Wookieepedia article about Storm commandos -E-55 blaster carbine (I created this one) -better image of a Stormcommando UPDATE 2: Well, I just finished reading through this thread. Fantastic stuff! I see now, though, what you meant by taking your idea, Krytos. Sorry about that. I'll change the parameters of my story and the parameters of the Imperial commandos' mission so that it doesn't seem to parallel, if not copy yours. I am on Nal Hutta, though, but my mission is a little different from that of local resistance...well, you'll see.

Yeah, that's the same impression I got (about Rogue Planet) and I've heard the same sort of negative stuff about The Joiner King. Still, I'm going to go ahead with Dark Nest. I'm interested to see how the Chiss figure into all of this. I'm already 40 or so pages in, but it's not really all that well written--so far, at least. I'm trying to stay optimistic. It's only three books, then it's on to Betrayal! By the way, is anyone else excited about Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor? (2008 release)

OOC: I'm not fantastic with action sequences, so this is my first attempt. The rest of the story will be a little different from this, but it introduces the characters, their situation, and a little bit about their mission. IC: "A--ah!" He cocked an eyebrow in the general direction of the grunt, letting the 360-degree directional view on his HUD to whirl in that direction. Off to his right, a pair of commandos scrambled up the embankment, lugging the "package" behind them, the metal box dragging in the mud. "You gents need help." "Bloody--what? No, sir, we've got it." Veriol shook his head. Stormcommandos were nothing like the regulated regiments of Stormtroopers or even the regular infantry, they were the best of the best who didn't give a damn about anything besides accomplishing the mission. In any other unit of Imperial surface forces, an cry like that would have earned one a dressing down from three nearest sergeants. Here, it didn't matter. Do the job. "You kriffing--be careful with that!" One of the commandos, brandishing the insignia of a Master Sergeant on his shoulder, stood from his place and slid the rest of the way down the embankment. Roughly shoving one of the commandos away from the package, he pulled the metal box the rest of the way up the dirt mound to the top. The commando who'd been pushed away watched in something between awe and exasperation, then shrugged. "Hell, Sarge, if I'd known you would done it for me, I would have let you bring it the whole way." Veriol snorted a laugh and shifted his attention back down the opposite side of the embankment, towards their target. "People who act like little girls get the rest of us killed," the Master Sergeant, Killian, called back over the comm. The commando, Cris, just laughed and assumed his place on the other side of the box. "I'm just glad we won't have to keep dragging this thing around." "Don't get your hopes up," Veriol said, keeping his gaze fixed on the target ahead of them. "We may have to bring it back out." "What?" Cris called back. "Sir, is--?" "Shut it," Veriol called back. The macrobinocular view built into the helmet's HUD showed not activity around the target, but then, how they hell were you supposed to tell the difference between activity and simple life? The whole bloody building was living and breathing! That's what made the scarheads creepy. Not the scarring or the coral growths on their slaves, but the fact they lived inside living, breathing creatures. Did they use tongues for mattresses and eyeballs for windows--? "Contact," a deep voice came over the comm. "Captain, it's on the move." Veriol pulled himself a little higher on the mound, all too aware that much higher would give his position away. Then he spotted it. It was a giant lizard, it's back covered with warriors and those volcanoes they used as turbolasers. For the last two weeks they'd been watching this place, trying to find the best moment to strike--and this was it. Two lizards lived here, working on rotating patrols. "Idiot scarheads," Killian grumbled as he lugged a rocket launchers over his shoulder. The lizard disappeared down a forest road and into the swamps of Nal Hutta beyond. They had approximately twelve minutes before the other one returned. It wasn't much time, but it would do. Veriol scrolled through the heads-up display and brought up the unit status view. With the flicker of his eyes, he deleted the entries for the twenty-nine troops he'd already lost and minimized it to the lower right corner. "All right, gents, you know the drill. In, deliver, and out. Chrono's ticking." He paused, giving the barracks another once-over. "Fire-support on my mark. The rest, let's go." No shouts, no battle cries. Nothing like what the action-holos showed of soldiers charging into battle. Sure, they ran, carbines and rifles raised, but they still held the element of surprise. "Fire!" Two dozen white smoke trails streaked overhead and slammed into the side of the building. The ground shook as chunks of what he could only describe as bark flew in every direction, opening enormous gaping holes in the building's side. "Grenades!" The commandos closest to the hole tossed in yellow concussion grenades. The shock wave nearly knocked him off his feet, and if not for the helmet's audio-dampers, would have rendered him deaf. "Take, take, take!" he shouted into the comm, rushing in behind the others. Blue and red bolts sizzled through the air, but it was quickly apparent the scarheads had been caught off guard. Most of them lay on the ground bleeding from ears, eyes, and nostrils. Those were easy: Double-tap to the face and no more worries, Killian often said. It was the ones with amphistaffs he didn't like. "Clear." "Clear." "Room clear." The reports came from all over the building. It had gone much faster than he'd expected, and the unit status only showed one commando in the yellow, the rest green. "Team 3, where's the package?" he called, moving towards the rear-most room. Nine minutes. "On our way, sir," Cris called back. "What's the status of the prisoners?" he commed, kicking past dead Yuuzhan Vong. "Found them, sir. Two dead, one knocked out." Veriol felt his eyebrow twitch. The idea had been to free the prisoners. He shouldered past taller commandos into the rear-most room. Lined against the far wall, held by their wrists and ankles by blorash jelly, were two Rodians and dark-complected human. The human was the one still breathing. He looked the man over, and froze when he saw the tattoo on his right forearm. Taung. Eight minutes. "Here, sir," Cris reported from across the building. Veriol held his gaze on the human. What the hell was one of their kind doing here? He should just let the scarheads have him and do whatever they pleased. "Sir?" the commando next to him asked. "Do we bring him with us?" Leave him to rot! "Get him lose and extract him back to camp." Seven minutes. "Uh, sir. I brought the package." Cris again. "Start the activation process," he returned into the comm, then switched to voice amplifier. "If he fights, kill him." The commando working to free the prison stiffened, but nodded. "I need the key-code, sir," Cris called over the comm. "Needy, needy, needy," another commando, Perron, commented. "Not enough that you're here, is it?" Veriol stepped back into the first room, the one with the hole in its wall and found Cris and Perron standing around the metal box, it's armored top open. He walked up to it and punched a few numbers into the keypad. With a hiss, another top opened revealing five white canisters inside. "Leave one." "Oh, damnit! I knew this would happen," Cris said while moving to comply. "Hey, Sarge, you want to help me get this thing out of here." "Cris, shut up and get moving!" Killian's voice came over the comm. From the back room emerged six commandos, one of them carrying the prisoner over his shoulder. "Any sign of the lizards?" Veriol asked, glancing out the entrance they'd made for themselves. "Nothing," the deep voice of Hegerty returned. "You've got three minutes, sir." Veriol nodded. "Killian, I'm sending Team 2 across." The six commandos from the back rooms took the hint and made their out the hole. He watched them go, the commandos of Team 3 covering their exit. "Cris, what is taking so bloody long?" Perron asked. "Patience, patience," Cris called back. "Wouldn't want me to make this thing go off now, would you?" Veriol turned back. Cris was hunched over one of the white canisters, the top hemisphere open, revealing a timer mechanism inside. Perron slammed both tops of the box shut. "At least it won't weigh as much." "Stop your whining," Killian called back from his place across the clearing. "Captain, Team 2 has reached position." "Begin withdrawal," Veriol said, eying Cris. "Team 2, continue out. We'll meet at the rendezvous. Team 3 and I will pull back and meet up at the camp. Team 1, make sure you cover us." "Sir, lizard's on the way," Hegerty commed. "ETA, one minute." "Cris!" Perron hissed. "Huh? We're in a rush?" Cris came to his feet and ran back to the box. "Could have fooled me." "Hard contact!" Hegerty's voice came again, shouting. In the background Veriol could here blaster fire. "Team 1, cover fire. We're out!" Outside, the night erupted into blue and red bolts. White streaks of smoke streaked dangerous close overhead, hopefully slamming into the lizard off to their right. Cris and Perron ran in the middle of the team, lugging the metal box along. The rest of Team 3, Veriol among them, laid down additional fire on the warriors dismounting the lizard. "Hegerty, you better be out of there!" Veriol shouted. "Roger that, sir," Hegerty called back, panting. "We've set up a turret drone. They're closing on that." By then, Team 3 was across the clearing, flipping, crawling, and otherwise sliding over the embankment into the muddy ditch beyond. "Cris, what's the timer set on?" Veriol called. "Two minutes." Veriol cringed. "Extract. Back, back, back." A minute later, the Yuuzhan Vong outpost collapsed into a heap of dead matter. Warriors grabbed at their throats, cough in an attempt to breathe. Seconds later, everything in the clearing, warriors, lizards, structures, and foliage, wilted and died.

Welcome, welcome. Now, let me direct everyone to this thread, created with welcome-backs in mind. In any event...

Everything? I always thought you might be something else SOCL I think I have lost my powers to BEAK.

OOC: Sounds good, Tofu, and don't worry, my Imperial characters are a part of the a resistance, it's just there's has more to do with politics. Think American Green Berets training guerrillas to fight oppressive governments. Now throw some Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now elements in there, a healthy dose of My Thirty Year War (about a Imperial Japanese resistance holding out in the Philippines well into the 1970s afterward World War II) and start to map out what's going to happen to these commandos. I only wanted my characters, at least the main one, to focus with yours because your character is a Mandalorian Supercommando, or was one, rather. My main character has something a hate and love for Supercommandos, which I planned to reveal in my contribution. It would only involve the very slightest bit of interaction, mostly in a quick encounter, conversation, and moving on. But if you decide against it, that's fine. I have other ways of working the fellow's past it in. And now, before you say anything, he's not a Supercommando-turned-Imperial. It's far more complicated than that... I'll get to work with my contributions tonight.

Sadly, because of sites like this one, I already knew essentially everything that was going to happen in the NJO, deaths and the aforementioned Vong/Force issue included, I simply didn't know how it happened. SPOILERS follow: I must say, I was thoroughly disappointed by the way Shimrra died--very suddenly and anticlimactic, as well as Onimi's brief reign as the undisguised Supreme Overlord, not to mention his own sudden and somewhat let-down of a death. In any event, the novel was good, but not that good. The ending to the war I felt was far too rushed and brought the Yuuzhan Vong history to a rather strange conclusion with the sudden acceptance, but then again, real-world history has shown that strange things happen, so I'm not adverse to accept these things, Vong/Force issues included. It's not the way I would have done it, but then, I'm not the author, nor do I work for Lucasfilm or Del Rey. They do it their way and I'm willing to go with it because, fact of the matter is, I can't change it. My final verdict on The Unifying Force: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Better than an average Star Wars novel (3), but not that much better. Alright, enough rant. Now I can breathe deep with relief (heh, a rhyme) for I have at long last COMPLETED THE NEW JEDI ORDER! A task six years in the making! WOO YAY! So, what to read next? I'm considering blazing on, forward in Star Wars history to the Dark Next Crisis, but all this talk of Zonama Sekot and such had me curious to read Rogue Planet, however; I get the impression Rogue Planet doesn't so much focus on Zonama Sekot, the Far Outsiders (Yuuzhan Vong), and Vergere as it does vaguely allude to the NJO in the midst of a completely separate story. For those of you who have read Rogue Planet, and without spoiling it for me (without proper warning), is this a correct assessment, or does the novel warrant a reading? In any event, my "default setting", if you will, is set to move on to The Joiner King (and I'm looking forward to it!), but I figured Rogue Planet is, at least by my understanding, significantly tied to the NJO. In many ways, reading it would round out all of the parts of the NJO (save the short stories Emissary of the Void, The Apprentice, and Or Die Trying, none of which actually catch my attention), at least the novel/published portions. Reading Rogue Planet would give me a breather before I dive into the Dark Nest trilogy, which inherently sets the stage for the Legacy of the Force novels. Even so, I'm at something a cross-roads here and would like some feedback/opinions on how perhaps to proceed. Some other Star Wars book news: The official character (Dramatis Personae) list for the upcoming Death Star novel was released. On the list, and this will certainly amuse Paul as much as did me, is a certain copper-red-haired Admiral we all love. Highlight further if you just can't wait! DAALA!

HA! I seriously doubt that! Having worked in many bookstores, I can tell you that hardcovers from retail bookstores do not come down! Additionally, novels like Heir to the Empire which when released were only $5.99 or so do not go up when comparable novels today are at $7 or $8. @Tofu: I might be able to help you with a copy of Boba Fett: A Pratical Man... PM or Facebook me and we'll talk.