Best posts made by Auspice

Also, we have had our first PC death!

It is almost fitting it was The Penitent. It was very exciting. I stayed up too late. But I did not expect that KILL SCENE to hit my screen when it did.

There are a few people who have to be consulted today (due to being offline, but in range of the events) about how things might roll out for their characters, so there may be more deaths in the fallout.

Shit, meet fan.

But really, I am loving this concept. I've always wanted an episodic game where things can shift around. We have so many MU*s now that don't even make it a year because peoples' attention span doesn't last. I think this may be the perfect answer.

@Macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I don't want to hear about Yoga, or CBD oil (Which I was using, and was helping, until I could no longer afford it), or this miracle snake oil, or diet or... whatever.

I will admit, this was like, 20% of the reason I quit Facebook. I'd have people message me with the 'Oh I know you have fibro and I wanted to tell you that my sister's friend's aunt's boyfriend's sister with fibro went on a gluten free diet and it cured her fibro so you should totally do it!'

And ofc if you tell them no you're a terrible evil unappreciative person who is then subject to an hour of guilt-tripping for not listening to their advice.

Let me take care of myself and do what I need to do for my own body kthx.

@gryphter

I was really relieved that you and The Visionary felt that way. Because when that scene happened and we (myself, Capitalist, and Penitent) realized you two were also in the trailer... we had a moment of "oh shit" because of the huge effect the actions would have on you guys.

The fact that you both were excited to get to react to it and make your decision was pretty awesome.

@Tinuviel said in RL Anger:

@Ganymede I'd also like to vehemently object to the idea that strippers and prostitutes need to "clean themselves up and fly straight." Those you associated might well have done, but let's not tar entire professions with the same brush.

100% agree. Have known plenty of strippers who went that route because they got to choose their own hours and for a lot of people? That's the only fucking way to get through school.

So many jobs out there go 'We don't fucking care what time you have classes.'

But stripping? Pays well and many clubs let you decide what days you work. Most strippers I've known are doing it to get some fucking awesome degrees without student debt.

One of the things I find amusing is that Conrad and I discussed a lot of possible outcomes and situations for whether Maata or Conrad died first. Or how it definitely could not be Maata and Madison both dying before Conrad did (which is why I tried to give Madison one of my bonuses to save her in the explosion!).

We deliberated on how yes, it would be important that they were present for each other's death if/when it happened.

How the other would react and process it. What they would be like in the aftermath.

We never once considered that they'd die at the same time.

tbh maybe it's terrible and horrible and people will block me and hate me for this

but I just want the guys who hang out at my bus stop and harass me and shout at me to stop and go away

I hate feeling uncomfortable and leered at and harassed while I'm just waiting for the bus so I can go home

I think Doors are a good step. There are a few issues, but they are not insurmountable.

1. People do not understand the Doors system. You would need a good tutorial, staff & STs who understand them.
2. You would need to make sure players are all on the same page that they have to use them. That a social roll does not mean oop! the successful persuasion roll means they win! No, it means they got through a door. You do not get to just cross your arms, stomp your feet, and say NO. But you have to give a little. You get to decide HOW you give, but you do give because they did succeed and they did make it through a Door.

I think those two things are possible. But the 2nd one means that the players on the losing end of the Clash have to be understanding.

And you know what? If you get the asshole who goes 'homg no I get everything I want!'

guess what? They just went against the rules. They lose. Too fucking bad.

@Rinel said in Why We Don't Make New Friends Anymore (Or Creepers Do Creepy Things):

@Auspice

It sounds like Fred was...

naughty

I am much much much happier with the awkward 'So, uh, our characters hooked up in the past and I just wasn't sure how to approach it. It doesn't have to be anything moving forward through.' page

than someone jumping all over my character IC when I pick up a roster char.

Like, that's win. That's how you do it. Because I don't want to make you feel weird or even a bit sad if we RP together and I'm RPing as if we're meeting for the first time. I'd rather be able to hash it out (was it a one night stand? are they friendly? how long ago was it?) and see how we gel moving forward as RP partners.

You did good, whoever you are. I get that awkward page was awkward, but as far as picking up a roster char goes and having people with past (romantic) connections paging me... You did the best yet. Bravo.

One of my top anxieties is missing my bus stop. It's part of why I hate taking the bus. I am always, even after taking it on the same route for months (and even with things like how Google Maps can alert you when your stop is coming up), afraid I will miss it.

....today I had a brief 'Modern Day Belle' moment.

I've been re-reading (due to an RL Book Club) a book I loved when I was a teenager. This morning, I got absorbed enough in it on my commute that I absolutely would have missed it. Except I've been seeing the same driver, nearly every day, for five months.

He stopped anyway. And even gave me a few seconds (since headphones) to realized he had done so.

That man is a gem.

@sparks said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

@groth said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

@saosmash said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

People definitely know that modeling exists, though. This is a reduction in numbers from people using the command before.

Before people could run the command in the privacy of their own homes couldn't they? It's a pretty big ask for most people to have to be at a big event to run a command.

I do think the intention of making it so people were modeling actual outfits (not just privately modeling things named "-" or "shirt" or "for model" that were then immediately recycled) by making you model in front of others kind of backfired in ways we didn't intend; seeing the use of modeling go down (even though the rewards are potentially higher) suggests people don't like the idea of public scenes being required.

So I'm probably going to back out the public aspect of modeling as part of the prestige changes I'm working on.

As Apos suggests, though, we're still going to want to come up with some kind of public fashion thing so that people can engage with the system in public, and some way to incentivize real outfits over throwaway. Ideas are being tossed around by staff, but they still need to "gel" a bit more before I think they can be detailed here.

What if the item has to have been worn for X number of days first? To represent it having been seen by a certain number of people?

That way they don't have to be in a public (aka big and overwhelming) scene to represent it being witnessed in public, but it will represent that 'being in public' aspect.

Then if someone is wandering around on grid with 'for model' on their person, they will get appropriately teased.

ETA: Then you could someday consider some sort of gossip add-on where NPCs might comment: 'I saw JimmyJoBob walking through the market wearing <high prestige modeled item> the other day.' for rooms they passed through while wearing the item during the days leading up to when they tripped the model code.

Then they really don't wanna name it some stupid throwaway name. No one wants to be remembered for wearing 'bootz 4 da model code.'

@insomniac7809 said in Should Rinel become smol birb?:

https://www.audubon.org/news/when-bird-birb-extremely-important-guide

omg I love that Audubon has a whole article on birb

@tinuviel said in Ideal Scene Length?:

@derp said in Ideal Scene Length?:

Nor do I think scenes need to strive for any sort of 'resolution'.

I would argue that we don't need a narrative resolution, but we do need an 'end' point for the scene. Otherwise they can (and do) carry on far too long. I'd far prefer short and snappy than long and drawn out most of the time. I don't have the free time to invest in marathon scenes anymore.

No you hang up.

One down, one to go. I wish I could've started this daaaaaaaaays ago but shipping issues meant I didn't have the yarn until yesterday and I need the finished product tomorrow evening.

Trying to get at least halfway through the second glove before bed. 9 rounds to go.

Most games have always handwaved that stuff. And done things like 'women can fly gold, brown, blue, or green,' 'men can fly bronze, brown, blue, or green' and 'you can be whatever sexuality you want' (well, up until the 2010's, some did still press that metallics had to be straight....).

It just made sense really. Dragons have their own broad, wide range of personality. There's no reason to force sexuality alongside 'em ffs.

@tek

@Thenomain said in When To Stop Listening To Those Voices:

@silverfox said in When To Stop Listening To Those Voices:

@Apos said in When To Stop Listening To Those Voices:

It is simple. Don't think too much about your own character.

^^^ That, that, that.

Doesn’t. Work. Half. The. Time.

Sorry but it doesn’t. It is not a trivial thing for some people (for me people, but I’m not alone here) to just adjust to the group.

I actually need to agree with Thenomain (for his points, yes, but also for something else). Just the other day, @Apos, you made a post in the Gripes thread about people assuming IC strife was for OOC reasons.

This is why people can and do think too much about their character. It's why I have, before. It's why I've hesitated on the enter key on an action I know my character would take because those voices flare up in my head and I think: 'would this person be mad at me? I don't know them, at all, but... are they going to get angry OOC? Are they going to think I hate them? Is this going to make them run to Staff?'

Because of situations like the one Apos vented about, sometimes we anxious people do think a lot about our characters. I lean pretty heavily on friends to not only read over poses, IC communications, and IC plans... but also to push me to do them. The anxiety is always worse with people I don't know.

So I don't think that advice really works, unfortunately. Speaking as a major anxiety-sufferer. The 'don't think too much about your own character' sounds good in theory, but it doesn't work in practice. What does work?

Trust your friends. And I mean friends. The people who have been there through thick and thin. The people who have proven themselves. The ones that aren't selfish. The ones that will tell you how it is. The ones who can take the truth themselves without breaking down. If they tell you yes, go for it: go for it. If they tell you that you're going too far, pull back.

But the anxiety monster is a very multi-layered thing and it is a master of prediction and multi-tasking and it will lay out every goddamn possible scenario for you and then FREAK OUT ABOUT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. So any 'don't think about' or 'calm down' or 'forget about the small things' ... these don't work. But 'trust in the people that have proven themselves' - this one does. At least for me. Even if sometimes they have to kick me in the ass to move on an action that I should take for the betterment of my character.

Coworker: "Auspice, Auspice, you have to try this, it's so good. It's the best thing I've put in my mouth all week."
Me: <trying so hard not to say anything>
Coworker: "...and you know how much I put in my mouth."

(it was homemade fudge, btw, and it was delicious)

making my bed was the solution for boycat.

He's been happily flopping around on it all evening. Guess the OTHER familiar smells of all my STUFF wasn't enough. He needed the bed.