Titanic Two-Tone Tales Take Two
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Yes that's right I'm giving another shot to 4TMU* This time around we're using the Ares engine and are going to be using the much lauded and more simplified traits system.
While personally I hold a preference for the wild talents system we used last time, and the dc heroes before, things just didn't work out with the playerbase. The people spoke and I heard you loud and clear: No complex systems that take an age to learn.
So this time around I'm doing a basic setup of the traits system porting over the old grid and adding on an entirely new grid, the city of Metropolis.
This time around we're going to be leaning heavy into the stylistic divide between the cities of Metropolis and Gotham (Gotham is still going to be Staten Island as it was last time with Metropolis being mainland NYC)
We're going to out the door be welcoming both DC and Marvel characters to the 1930's alternate history setting.
This dev post is mostly me saying: Yes the game is in development, and I am posting this to make certain I actually get off my backside and get to work making it a reality.
Now the setting is alt history Dieselpunk Interwar period. So prohibition is still in full swing, the great depression is a distant blink in some poor stockbrokers eye mobsters are everywhere and the world is still rebuilding form the utter catastrophe that was the first world war.
To non returning players the concept is fairly simple: The golden age of super heroes started during WWI and the death toll was apocalyptic. With superman level super powered persons on multiple sides along with gritty trench warfare leaving much of the world nomans land.
We're going to be toning back the post apocalyptic feel of the prior version of the game and more focus on the high fantasy world of the 1930's.
Metropolis is the city of the future portable video phones for long range communications, brilliant white skyscrapers painting clear blue skies. Flying trains traveling from one building to the next hauling people to their jobs wealth in all directions.
Gotham, formerly Staten Island is a dark reflection of the City of Metropolis. Where those too poor to work in the City of Tomorrow dwell. The Factory workers, the poverty stricken the downtrodden. Smokestacks miles high pump endless black tar into the skies causing a perpetual night of smog that blots out the night providing the perfect cover for the creatures of darkness to roam. While the poor choke on smog in rat infested crime ridden hovels the wealthy elite live in the lap of luxury in penthouse suites high above the smog able to see the sky in all its glory. Mobsters rule the city and the occult (Vampires, Zombies, Mutants) roam the perpetual night blinded streets of the Rotten Apple.
Abject poverty right beside some of the wealthiest people in the nation. Needless to say tensions are high.
Metropolis mostly focuses on the high level super heroics of people like Superman, Iron Man, the big guns. Where as Gotham is the more gritty heroes like Batman and the occult types lurking in the darkened shadows and twisted wrought iron spires.
As I make progress on the game I'll post further information. I'm also free to answer any questions about the game be they clarifications of differences between the old game and this new venture or something different all together.
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Looking forward to it! Diselpunk/Retro superheroes is a neat take on the whole thing. Pretty much everything else has been tried.
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Hell yeah! Can't wait to see this come back.
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Are you using the old website & address for the relaunch?
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I will give this game a try!
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@Runescryer We're going to be transferring server addresses over to an Ares address which has kindly been paid for by a generous donation, I will be doing what I can to transfer info from the old wiki where appropriate to the new one which I will link when it is in a presentable state.
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Is this going to be on an AresMUSH?
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Yes it is, and we're going to be using the Traits system instead of Fs3. This means the player experience will be very similar for people to the average supers place of old with the lovely log posting features granted to us by using an ares mush webzone!
I think it'll really improve the game for the better.
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New Wiki is seeing some serious work done, and we're making significant progress on porting over the grid. Minor work done onto the chargen side of things however once work goes full on that part of the project should only take a few hours at most.
I'm doing some redesigns to elements of the Gotham grid and will be spliting gotham into two hubs Upper and Lower Gotham with the two hubs representing the above smog and bellow smog sections of the city.
Work on new rooms for metropolis has also begun starting with the colloquially known Suicide Slums. However keep in mind Slums are in the eye of the beholder, and for a town as rich as metropolis in our setting. Well let's just say anyone in lower Gotham would kill for one of the Metropolis Suicide Slums
Edit1: More wiki work done finished porting over old wiki content, and adapting for the modified setting. Character sheets from the old mush are not being ported.
Edit2: Wiki transfer is done, working on several completely new entries. Been putting off the busywork of transferring the rest of the old grid manually from the old DB. Going to spend tonight and tomorrow working on character generation, trying to work slow so I don't burn myself out since the actual server building part of this is mostly a solo process till we launch.
If anyone knows a good way to strip the grid from a DB that would help out a lot.
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Today as a halloween spoop to myself I went through and finished character generation. Currently I'm doing some test character generations to try my best to break it horrifically so I can go back through and fix it.
All that is needed now before I launch is to add a few new group descriptions port the old grid and add the new Metropolis grid.
After that we'll be able to launch.
My main issue is honestly that the grid port is going to pretty much just be code money work. Scroll through old DB coppy room desc build room repeat over and over and over. I really don't want to do it but at the same time those of you on the old grid will remember fondly the scale of it and the detail that went into each room.
Or perhaps you'll hate it since most rooms had an overly long description showing off the area.
Edit1: If anyone wants to hop on now before the grid is finished please just send me a private message and I'll let you in on the closed alpha. The going is going to be slow but I think it's all going to be well worth it in the long run. This is also a good time to reserve that special character you want!
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Got our first wave of testers in to check things out and things have been going fairly smoothly so far. Already made some modifications based off of initial feedback that should reflect well once we're ready for a full launch.
Edit1: Fixed minor bug that caused look command to crash client
fixed the fix that caused the look command to kick back a timezone error
Fixed bug which made it so apps could not be reviewed
Fixed bug so that on approval character sheet would be deleted
Fixed bug where entering grid would send client into recursive loopEdit2: Got a fancy login screen for people to feast their eyes upon, I think folks'll like it. We also hammered out some details of the timeline and really got to knuckling down into things Still trying to stall on transferring the grid, buuut at least I'm getting a lot of work done.
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Progress report: Fixed bug which barred characters from being able to be approved.
Fixed bug that made every player get the admin flag
Fixed bug which deleted characters at the end of chargen
Fixed bug with demographics meaning half of demographics wouldn't show up
Fixed bug with recursive code causing log size to bloat
Fixed tag for if characters were FC's or OC's
Added full timeline of game events
Added frame of detailed events of great war to show differences between the real first world war and in game events
Avoided working on porting grid.
Made login screen even more prettyful with lovely colors
Removed Fs3 after testing showed it would be too much work to have both it and the traits system.
