@Coin It looks like nothing to me.
(Can someone move it, please? )
@Coin It looks like nothing to me.
(Can someone move it, please? )
When it comes to IC neighbourhoods (and I'm not talking about the grid size here), it's probably better to plan for a small playerbase and expand as needed than have to deal with swaths of domains being vacant.
Not only is it better overall to see them fleshed out than spread thin but the artificial scarcity of such resources will increase real estate value. After all if there is a ton of it per PC then it'll be taken for granted; they can, after all, get as much as they want. If it gets claustrophobic it might be used to generate RP, which would probably be a good thing.
@thenomain Of if you're into the utopia aspect of Star Trek then this show is definitely going to piss you off. It's way grittier than anything Trek has ever seen before.
@tempest An idea I had when I was mulling a game was to log every conversation in the game, encrypt it on the go with all the participants' passwords (*) and store it in a database.
If there is a complaint filed then any of the participants can concede to unlock the records (**). Then the full conversations can be shown in a tamper-free way, digitally signed and everything.
I don't know if this is creepy or not, but it takes away the he-said she-said as long as it happened in-game.
(*) Yes, a malignant coder can still get around the limitation in multiple ways but that's a given even now - all this ensures is they can't do it after the fact.
(**) Yes, malignant staff can still just ignore all the evidence if themselves or their friends are involved, but that's a given even now.
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. It's probably its last season but damn this final arc is fun.
@Darinelle said:
Constant, unrelenting darkness is almost never sustainable (except IRL). What's the point of a dismal death march?
Theme is the key to everything, and theme is very rarely set by an entry in a wiki page, post or document.
The most major factor is your actual playerbase and their culture, and new games absolutely come with pre-built cultures. For example it's obvious entire nWoD spheres come with baggage since it's the same players each MU* inherits who were usually playing in them before. So if they're used to ultra-cutthroat political Changeling but your goal for theme is a fantastical adventuring faerie tale cooperative Changeling, you'll have an uphill battle.
Then it comes down to Storytellers. Do you have any? Are they cooperating with you, is communication happening? Some STs really like combat so if you want to run a VampSphere focused on subtle manoeuvring, devastating verbal jabs or Elder/neonate contrasts and all the plot that gets thrown involves hordes of Brood ripping throats then I hope you like the sound of throats ripping.
It would stand to reason that players would be attracted to the kind of game you (as staff) want to run but that's not the case. Look at us here - the question that keeps getting asked is "what is the Next Big Thing going to be?". There are a ton of people who want to jump ship from the crapfest that is TR these days and are just waiting to see if others take the plunge first, if its staff are deemed sane, if their policies involve no deal breakers, if they have the right spheres. Once they make that move they will define that new MU's culture as much or more as its staff possibly will or even can.
So embracing the community isn't just a good idea, it's the only one that makes sense, otherwise you're swimming against the current. Because yes you can absolutely change culture but it'd only happen over time and through day to day effort. When every +job, most PrPs and staff mandate points the way the playerbase will slowly adjust to it - but it's what you do, not put on (even a great) wiki that will count towards that.
Conversely it's where TR truly failed. They are posting one thing but then doing another.
Doing the footwork to buy a new bicycle. Argh. You have to have a PhD in bicyclology before you can tell anything for sure as you wade through obscure part numbers and terminology. Questions such as "so uhm, why is this cool looking bike $200 more expensive than that cool looking bike?" are answered with "well, better parts". No shit, really? So what kind of better are we talking about? Is it actually $200 worth of better? Is it "$500 HDMI cables are better than $20 ones" better?
"Well, they are lighter" they say. Notice they never ever tell you how much each bike weighs even though it's the whole freakin' point of everything! But okay, so it's lighter - by how much? 50 grams? So I'll pay $200 for 50-100 fewer grams of weight then put on a jacket or grab an extra fork for my lunch to waste the difference?
I mean there has to be a breakpoint in the quality curve after which adding better parts is subject to steeper diminishing returns but when I put the question to Google? There are two answers, each more precious than the other. "It depends since that's different for each person" is one - thanks, man! That makes everything clear. But the second one is even better - "ask your bike store what better fits you". So you mean ask the people who want me to spend more money how to spend money efficiently, because that works so well for every other aspect of life.
Meh.
@sunnyj Topic moved to a nicer neighbourhood!
@Coin Your mom is a Tolkien nerd.
@alzie said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
@arkandel said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
@lithium said in Yes! More Micro-transactions! (Activision, WB Games and EA appreciation thread):
Buy to play is dying? No. It's just not as absurdly profitable as it was. It is still profitable if the company is ran properly.
GW2, still profitable.
WoW, still profitable.
Hell even original EQ and EQ2 are still profitable.Is WoW buy to play? It has a monthly subscription, and you can buy some things (not terribly important) which grant advantages, such as gold.
I think the worst thing you can buy on WoW right now is an instant leveler but that doesn't really allow you to win the game since you still have 0 knowledge of how to effectively play your class.
You misspelled best thing! I hate levelling.
But to also be honest, levelling doesn't teach you anything about playing your class in any environment worth a damn at max level - there's no reason to maximize your DPS rotations, your intended spec is possibly different than what you're using to level up (you can level as a healer for example but it's hardly the best way), there are no raids, little PvP if any, and in 5-mans everything dies too fast.
You're just killing 10 bears, rinse, repeat for 110 levels.
@HelloRaptor said:
Though the Architect sequence in Matrix was fine with me too, so. >_>
You are literally Satan.
How are we not talking about how fucking amazing Westworld is, like, all the time?
Every one of the last three episodes was the best one so far... it's going from strength to strength.
So what do you think is going on? (I propose a 2-day spoiler-free period after each new episode - so we can discuss them on Wednesdays since they air on Sundays).
@tragedyjones My heart can only take so much.
I read the Hobbit when I was in sixth grade and was absolutely blown away, and then the friend who lent me the book told me there was 'more to it' and handed me the Fellowship of the Ring. Holy shit, I spent that entire night reading it, it was the first time I ever lost sleep over a book - and it was so worth it. It single-handedly made a lifetime fantasy fan out of me.
I've read The Return Of The King 20+ times (in fact it's been a while, I should put it on my Kobo).
@tragedyjones said:
and the finale was almost as satisfying as Age of Ultron.
The finale was really well written. Excellent dialogue, and Kyle MacLachlan killed it.
@Three-Eyed-Crow said:
Staff actually need to get some fun out of their games. It's very different than player-fun. It often comes with bullshit and work that offsets the fun.
Yeah, that's correct. Basically it's the rough equivalent of running your own table-top game at your house; a player only needs to show up, but you need to have the place relatively clean beforehand, there has to be a table with enough chairs for everyone, you need to make sure the new guy doesn't clog your toilet, and on top of the mundane logistics you need to actually prepare a story for the RPG itself.
It can be fun, it's a different kind of fun though, and it's not for everyone. Cultivate a thick skin and be patient.
I think at a certain point reusing a very heavily modified existing system might actually make things worse - that is, harder and more confusing - than using a completely custom one. It's more complicated in a way to think "okay, this is Mage but this doesn't exist, this is different, that is called the other thing, and..." than to cope with something brand new from scratch.
Perhaps take all the spells themselves - the effects, descriptions, etc but without any of their mechanics - from Mage and/or other similar products to form your initial library of spells then wrap a system around those.
It can still give you a nice early boost without tying your hands or shoehorning your square-shaped intentions into a round-shaped result.
@tragedyjones It's okay. Just know you are a bad person making bad decisions and you suck. No hard feelings. NONE.
@Tempest The similarities between the Demon Cycle and the Wheel of Time are pretty astounding, aren't they?
@munsell said in Need Coder for Political Vampire Game:
@Arkandel that was pretty good advice there i hadnt thought of that. I'm not too sure what will attract a coder. Basically, i would like to have an expansive grid and also Necropolis that consists of ghost stations, wwii bunkers, secret nazi projects, and spy tunnels that lead to east berlin.
That can help, even only to show your creativity. Attracting coders is only different than getting players to give you a chance in one way - you need to do it upfront, before there's really that much of a project in progress in place for them to appreciate. You're basically asking a person who's probably qualified and has professional-grade skills to put them to work for your game - tens of hours' worth - to make it possible, so the main question you have to answer for them is ... why your MU*? How serious are you? How do they know you'll even still be around in a few months when they finish?
I was also thinking of a travel system through the U-bahn, so that travelling around feels more immersive. There will have to be a blood system, like Rfk where you go to territories to hunt. I'm also thinking of some kind of blood harvesting or blood bank where ghouls can get blood for their regnant, and where vampires can pay their landlords in blood. We also want to have Prestation. Some kind of boon system would be nice. Maybe even a system that displays your "stock" and whether you're going up or down, and general trends. I dont know if the last thing will be possible or not!
And this is one of the exact things you can do right now... write down your system. Not "there will have to be a blood system" - write it down, specifically, the ins and outs of it in simple English. Coders like specificity - design the system you want them to implement for you, and be ready to answer a lot of questions that haven't occurred to you... because they will need those answers to do it.
In other words, don't go to a programmer with hopes and dreams. Go to them with a design.