Posts made by Arkandel

@bobotron What happens if you pick a PB whose actress then has a topless scene six months down the line? Do you need to look different now?

@apos said in Alternative Formats to MU:

it seems to me that a core reason for its popularity is the already existing softcode that can be plugged into it. It's significantly easier to set up a sandbox and get going there than anywhere else, along with a great many people familiar with it that are willing to pitch in.

It's part of the appeal. Maybe half of it. I think the other half though is definitely that the existing playerbase is easier to set up for it; there are a lot of people who already know the rules, the setting, are familiar with concepts and themes, so staff only needs to do the same thing everyone is used to (including themselves) to get going, instead of having to explain how everything works.

This is reflected in some wikis which are basically minor rewrites of old wikis, down to CGen syntax and policy documents.

@sparks said in Alternative Formats to MU:

They RP in Discord. On Tumblr. On forums. In Google Docs. And if I want to RP with them, I need to go there. It's eye-opening how many people are RP'ing that way; the number of people doing Tumblr RP probably dwarfs the userbase of this board. The number of people doing forum or Google Docs RP almost certainly dwarfs the entire MUSH/MUX playerbase.

Speaking for myself and my own experiences which will obviously vary, I don't care about the amount of RP that's taking place or the number of people participating in it when the quality is as low (or at least dramatically inconsistent) as I have seen.

I've tried roleplaying on WoW and it was disheartening. The tools simply aren't there (255-character limits, reduced ability to backscroll, text being hard to read while stuff's happening in the background, etc) but also the people themselves... well, I wasn't impressed.

Similarly experiments with Google Docs didn't pan out very well. I remember when ES put something up a long time ago - maybe offline/turn-based play isn't for me, but I just found I wasn't looking forward to participating, and without the familiar momentum of RP carrying scenes forward I didn't care enough to try.

For me RP needs to be real time. Again, it doesn't mean this is the only 'valid' way to do it, but that's what would work for me.

@jaded said in Good or New Movies Review:

@arkandel
There's Jedi in it. At least one Dark Jedi. Some space combat too. Pew pew.

Strangely I feel better now.

For starters, I will delete any post on this thread which actually provides links to or instructions of how to obtain copyrighted material.

So, MUSH-dom uses a great deal of proprietary systems, adopting them or even using them verbatim from books written for table-top RPGs.

Do you usually buy them or obtain them from Somewhere Else? Do you do find you're doing that right away or once you have play-tested them for a while to ensure you like them or that you're sticking around in the game(s) that use them?

What's your annual budget like for gaming material that you use for MUSHing (which doesn't need to be exclusive of course, if you're also using the same books for table-top as well)?

Are we a freeloading community?

@tat said in Alternative Formats to MU:

@arkandel said in Alternative Formats to MU:

For example what I had in mind for a GM was to let them create a 'room' in advance or even on the fly; give them different terrain icons they can interject into grid squares, allowing for the visuals of combat to be complete clear to the players, and for ranged powers (including hitting people under cover) and movement rates to be handled automatically. Just point and click, zero need for memorization.

This is a SUPER interesting idea! We're been using Google Draw for years to have interactive maps during messy combat scenes so people can reflect where they are and see where enemies are. Imagine having that integrated into the ACTUAL game.

I had most of it done... I was just looking for a free library of terrain icons at the time. It's not even that hard at that stage.

The 'killer features' a web interface unlocks are very interesting. But the amount of work needing done upfront is... discouraging. I have no idea how @faraday pulled Ares off, it was a massive project. I'm used to working in teams, since tackling this on requires too much of an investment (for me).

@faraday said in Alternative Formats to MU:

What I object to is expecting people to learn all these game-specific +-commands with crazy syntaxes.

I really think once people play a web-only game done even half right and see the advantages they could have and have been missing all this time they will never be able to play a telnet-based version again. It will ruin that experience.

For example what I had in mind for a GM was to let them create a 'room' in advance or even on the fly; give them different terrain icons they can interject into grid squares, allowing for the visuals of combat to be complete clear to the players, and for ranged powers (including hitting people under cover) and movement rates to be handled automatically. Just point and click, zero need for memorization.

@sockmonkey said in Good or New Movies Review:

When can we start speculating and talking about Last Jedi? I mean, yeah sure, I guess all the cool people are like Star Wars, whatever, pfft but I can't waaaaaaaiiiiiiitttttt....

pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood

The first person to spoil TLJ in a non-spoilery thread earns eternal damnation.

Also, the second person.

I want a web-only 'MUSH' more than anything. But it's too massive a project for me to tackle on my own - I already have a job coding stuff in the mornings - and when I looked for help there was none.

For what it's worth I had a rudimentary PHP/MySQL web sockets setup working with navigatable rooms, a back end editor (on Ajax and everything ) and I was starting to put together a GM room editor when the reality of my situation struck me.

I feel this is the kind of project which would either take one exceptional person willing to spend quite a bit of time on for a year or two, or a small team splitting tasks up... unless we collectively get lucky and someone else creates a platform for a different reason which we can co-opt for our own purposes.

Oh, since I forgot to mention this...

It's commonplace at the gym, right at first, to feel like you don't belong, or that people are watching/judging you. Some are more self conscious about these things than others, and it doesn't help to point out the vast majority of gym-goers don't give a shit about anyone else but themselves, or that the only shape they'll look at is their own in the mirror or maybe the cute person across the room (bouncing the image off of five mirrors first, of course).

What might help is that if you have company it mitigates that initial feeling a lot. A PT will establish you, a friend will help you feel like you're where you should be, and either way it just works out.

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

See, that's the thing. I would -like- to focus on strength training because I have an injury that prevents me from doing high-impact cardio at my current level (ankle is too fucked to run right now but is stable and can easily bear steady, low-impact weight)

Yeah, for strength training that's a good idea.

My suggestion would be to still look for someone who knows what they are doing. Don't let them keep you on machines for long - junior PTs prefer them for a host of reasons - they are easier, catchier for the eye if you are a gym owner, and it's simply less work for them to let you crank out 10 reps on an incline machine than to teach you how to bench press. But the latter is by far a superior training tool.

You'll make mistakes either way. That's okay. Part of the fun is figuring out how you are fucking up and what to do about it.

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Does anyone have any experience with personal trainers?

Yup.

I am thinking of looking for one, but I honestly don't even know where to start. Do certifications really make that much of a difference for the cost increase? Are certain certifications better than others?

A lot of certifications don't mean much because chains (such as Goodlife in Canada) churn them out by the shitload. It takes them a couple of weeks and a hefty fee paid to the mother company and they get one of those, which doesn't amount to much at all.

It doesn't help that most gyms will cram PTs down your throat, whether they are good or not. A "free consultation" for an hour is basically a marketing opportunity for them to have your ear for that long, and at least at first you don't know who's going to be much good for you.

A way to go about this is to look at yourself and answer some basic questions...

• What you can start with is figuring out what your goal is. Is it to lose weight? To gain something (flexibility, strength)? General conditioning?

• What is this worth to you? How many hours per week are you willing to put into it? How much money are you willing to spend? You should be aware ahead of time since it will absolutely come up when you are deciding on whether to give it a go.

The goal of any PT theoretically is to bring the trainee to the point where they are no longer needed. That's what the best of them will do - start you on more hours, then ween them out as you become more proficient with form and confident in your limits, until you want to go further.

Do you need a PT? That depends on your current level of fitness and general experience. Personally I got a lot of traction out of reading articles, watching a lot of youtube videos by reputable people, subscribing to subreddits (/r/fitness is pretty good, for example) and then hiring PTs for short bursts to go over my form and correct specific issues.

Another factor is that many gyms offer classes for free. Depending on what you want to do (say, yoga or pilates are pretty common) you might get traction out of those, at least while you determine what you want to do.

A third factor, if you can manage it, is getting a workout partner; they are worth their fucking weight in gold; they are the ones who sometimes make the difference between "meh, I don't feel like getting off my ass today" and "shit, it's more of a hassle to call and cancel than just put my shoes on and go". Plus, y'know, your buddy might be able to help you with some tips too if you find someone who's slightly more advanced than you are - for the price of buying them a beer after.

Whatever you do, don't commit to a long term plan with anyone, about anything, until you know it's for you. The best workout plan or PT are useless if you don't do them. Start slow (and they'll always try to give you discounts for more commitments, it's gym-running 101), see if you like it. You need to like it. If you don't like it you won't do it, not in the long term, and the long term is all that matters.

Edit: You can also consider an online PT for hire. I know Stefi Cohen's program is very good for instance, at least for the kinds of stuff they cover, and they will go over your form through videos for a fraction of the price. Plus there are communities you can join, etc. It might be worth your while.

There's probably a better thread than this, but...

I always liked Batman with Catwoman, and the latest comic series is hitting it out of the park. Batman Annual 2 in particular was amazing, and I'm digging everything about the series; the direction is fun, the writing is on point, the artwork is doing it for me.

@auspice You're welcome.

@thenomain Apparently cats do know their name. Scientists proved that (... htf do you become a cat-studying scientist?).

However they just don't give a shit, which we don't need to be cat-scientists to realize.

While we're on that subtopic, I dislike any system that lets players unintentionally screw themselves over while trying to make a competent character.

So I'm not referring to, say, merely not twinking/optimizing, or creating a PC who's well rounded, or specifically giving them drawbacks ("a glass jaw boxer"). But something closer to nWoD 1.0 character generation where if you just bought things in the 'wrong' order you could put yourself at a significant drawback compared to someone who knew what to purchase with freebies instead of XP.

CGen shouldn't be a trap.

@auspice Any advice for less-than-active players to get back into the flow? What's a good starting hook at the moment? Or should we weather the storm (har-har) until after the holidays?

@thenomain said in Muxify Bug:

@skew said in Muxify Bug:

Remember that time over a year ago when I pointed this out, and @Thenomain replied with "works fine in mac"?

http://musoapbox.net/topic/143/muxify-mu-code-editor/20

Still works fine on a Mac. I don't know what you guys like about not spending tons of money and being able to play video games on a computer for.

Some of us spend no money and aren't able to play video games on a computer! But at least we have tintin++, right?

@derp said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Still, I changed all the passwords to all the things to be safe, and was going to submit a ticket until Blizzard was like 'Lol no take a picture of your ID and send it to us.'

A few years ago someone did steal my Battle.net account briefly. And yes @Misadventure, I was using a Blizzard Authenticator (the physical one at the time ), a nice password, and they never got hold of my e-mail address let alone access to it.

No, this was more fun. Somehow they used my real name (or a version of it, not the formal one that goes on official papers) and contacted Blizzard directly with a photoshopped Quebec driver's license with a random picture on it and my name. I'd never even been to Quebec let alone had a driver's license from there! But the Blizzard rep was like "dur-hur, here you go" and just changed the e-mail address to whatever that person told them to.

I retrieved my account within a couple of days by producing, y'know, actual evidence I'm who I am but it goes to show there's really no technical substitute for good ol' fashioned social engineering when it comes down to circumventing security.