Today I got killed during an enner fight, and had a life saved, and - I didn't even noticed that - I lost my head (and survived!). I only saw this when the message about the head dissappearing came up while I was happily munching away the dead Enny.



Also, that's utterly irrelevant, but after I got Loricatus pissed, I was happily running around and stabbing stuff with a banana peel dagger +5 (including killing Rondol with it). Until it rotted away, that is

Yep - gotta be careful

Attnam laws are so harsh... you can't even vomit on random people.

Seriously... when was the last time you got seriously hurt by a door explosion? I can't really imagine dying as a result of it, unless you're extremely careless and/or desperate.

It worked with wolves for me. Maybe it's a bit random.

Personally... I'm against that. It's just not in the spirit of IVAN. Although perhaps there should be some more neutral creatures, ignoring you unless you hang around for too long, and maybe monster infighting - kamikaze dwarves blowing up zombies, goblins fighting hedgehogs, etc.

(easy to do in theory, I guess, just split monsters into teams, eg. "undead", "neutrals", "demons", "animals" etc - the downside would be that the monster behaviour as it is will cause most enemies to kill each other before you have a chance to see them)

But I think the most useful thing would be fixing the AI of pets and friendly characters - that'd just make them more useful.

Ps. I've just downloaded Incursion and - wow. Complex. An RPG where you create character for several minutes, more than how long you can usually survive

Dolphins with high intelligence - isn't that yet another Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe reference?

In wizard mode, if you possess some other creature, you can talk to yourself for some very funny lines.

If you are near two or more NPCs and want to chat with them, and then press "." to choose yourself as a target, you talk to yourself - apparently, this also abuses intelligence.

Also, tell me what you will, but kicking chests when they stand against the walls gives a higher chance of opening them. I kicked a big chest to no avail the whole bloody corridor, and as I kicked it against the wall, the lock broke.

Edit: One more: Petrus' wife #4 is blonde... she has more charisma than the other ones, but half the intelligence

Nice! I've read HGttG, a long time ago, and I didn't remember the eddies

Masamune and Muramasa in the CVS are both references to Japanese swordssmiths, which are also made popular by various j-RPGs (Final Fantasy and the sort).

Also, I had some fun with Andy's Anagram Solver... nothing serious, but just for kicks, some of the more funny anagrams:

Ischaldirh - radish lich / chili shard / hard chilis
Tweraif - fat wire / wet fair / fit wear / tar wife
Oily Orpiv - privy olio*
Golgor Dhan - Arnold Gogh
Sherarax - Sarah Rex
Richel Decos - screech idol / lecher disco / delhi soccer
Huang Ming Pong - nagging on hump / hugging Ann mop
Guugzamesh - zeugma gush
Enner Beast - bane enters / ban entrees / eastern Ben
Haedlac Galladon - loaded Callaghan / a God-led Callahan

Then again...

Adolf Hitler - dollar thief / filet harold
Jesus Christ - chess jurist
George Bush - shoe bugger

* "olio" is apparently Finnish for "thing", so "privy olio" does make a bit of sense... Compare ADOM "si" for "strange item". Holybanana is also one of the dev's nickname.

Also, Tweraif contains letter for "fire", "air" and "water", but I doubt it's significant.

Yeah, I remember seeing that post... Mjolak references Mjolnir. Turox may reference Turok, the game series. No idea about Vermis or Saal'Thul - oh, and CVS holy hand grenade of Antioch is also obviously a Monty Python reference, complete with the voice counting to three.


Yup! I wonder if there are any more - as I mentioned, the "world is a flat pancake resting on Valpurus" may also be one.

Oh, and Mithril is a Tolkien reference, but it's pretty common in RPGs of all sort.


"God's away on business" and "Misery's the river of the world" are both songs by Tom Waits, apparently!

http://www.ripcat.free-online.co.uk/waitshtml/godsawayonbusi...
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/tom_waits/misery_is_the_ri...

By the way, my image of invisible stalkers was absolutely ruined when after a long dying spree I started to name my characters bizarre names, and the one I named "Masturbator" turned into an invisible stalker after drinking from a fountain several turns into the game.

Currently, having deciphered Voktsovadil, I'm wondering whether some other names may be anagrams... Tweraif or Oily Orpiv, anyone?

I'm also wondering about the following:

"When I was here, I wanted to be there, when I was there all I could think of was getting back into the dungeon." - Shop Guard

(also Apocalypse Now, maybe?)

"Humie friend. Many mommo we kill. Many spider we eat." - Goblin

(I was thinking Gollum from LoTR, but may be wrong)

"I am the Great White Hunter. Get out of My way!" - Hunter

Oh, and by the way, I love how IVAN combines all these with a brilliant and distinct atmosphere and world of its all... something that some reference-heavy games often can't balance.

Edit: LMAO! Read Neerc Se-ulb backwards and don't you dare tell me you don't get it

Hey, I got bored and decided to list all the outside references in IVAN I could find... in the dialogues, mainly, there are some other ones obviously in this great game (hattifatteners, etc.).

"The belt of levitation is really useful for large people!"
- Huang Ming Pong

Dune reference (Baron Harkonnen and his levitation belt)

"New Attnam, shit, I'm still only in New Attnam. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the dungeon."
- Rookie Guard

Apocalypse Now reference.

"We are the Imperial Guard. Bow."
- Elite Guard

I'm not quite sure, but isn't this Star Wars reference?

"The Wise know that the world is really a square pancake which He carries on His back."
- Priest of Valpurus

Reference to Hindu/Arabic/Discworld beliefs.

"Can you believe it, the dude tried to take from us our natural right to carry a spear in the street!"
- Hunter

An obvious Second Ammendment reference.

"You will install the One OS. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilited."
- Pure Mass of Bill's Will

Star Trek AND Microsoft reference!

"Leg bone is connected to the hib bone, hib bone is connected to the rib bone..."
- Skeleton

The song reference.

"'Tis but a scratch." and "That's just a flesh wound!"
- Dark Knight

Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference.

"I see dead people."
- Necromancer

Sixth Sense reference.

And my favourites:

"Vodka strong, but meat rotten."
- Ivan

A reference to an anecdote in machine translation, where "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" was turned into the above when auto-translated into Russian and back to English.

"Ivan meet Vladimir first in magic test area near Voktsovadil."
- Ivan

Voktsovadil is an anagram of Vladivostok.

Anything else? I may have missed something

Edit: Oh, yes. The Gods' and archangels' names are all obviously Latin words (apart from Scabies, I guess), which most folks know about. "Vesana", as in Genetrix Vesana, is also apparently a Finnish word for "sprouting". "Genetrix" in Latin is a fancy term for "mother".