Posts made by Darren

Dammit. I upvoted @Ghost twice in the same thread. This is a dangerous precedent

I don't use YT as much as I used to, but there are nevertheless a few channels that I like.

Mobile Tech Review: Lisa Gade reviews new tech-- phones, laptops and other things.

TechMoan: Yet another good tech channel.

Good Mythical Morning: Yeah it jumped the shark years ago but I still enjoy it.

DG Podiatrist: Like the Toe Bro only not annoying, female, and with a sweet British accent.

@TNP said in Trivia for Health:

Grapefruit juice can react very badly if mixed with the wrong drugs, either negating them or increasing the toxicity. Google for more info.

I learned the hard way that my blood pressure meds and grapefruit juice do not mix

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

Currently within arm's reach on the coworker's desk:

Peanut Butter
Classic M&Ms
Peanut
White Chocolate Peanut
Crispy
English Toffee Peanut

;.;

Wow that's... a hell of a lot of candy to have on your desk.

@Auspice Was just in WalMart and they didn't have any I did pick up some of the caramel ones though.

Wait there's coconut ones?

@faraday said in Learning Ruby for Ares:

I was reminded that I did a blog post awhile back on the Ares dev blog awhile back about learning Ares code by starting small and reinventing a few wheels before working up to tackle a major project. Might be of interest to some.

While I did indeed jump straight into the big projects, the coding tutorials were actually a huge help! I had tried getting into Ares several times before and each time I was quickly overwhelmed by the complexity (and I have 20 years of experience with MOO, MUSH, MUCK, LPMUD, etc so it wasn't like I was coming in completely "cold". It was still overwhelming).

This last time, I worked my way through the basic coding tutorials and they really helped me learn the system. Ruby was a different story. I was able to figure out the basics just by looking at the code, but ultimately I did have to invest in a Ruby book to learn some of the not-so-obvious things such as code blocks, modules, and how only nil and false are considered False (which actually caused me no small amount of frustration because I use short-circuit evaluation in my code quite a bit).

I highly recommend that anyone interested in learning to code for Ares, start with those tutorials. They'll definitely help ease you into what is a fairly complex game engine.

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

it's wrong how good peanut butter M&Ms are

Clearly you have not yet tried the Caramel ones!

The only geeky collection I own is this one.

The real beauty of it is, once you figure out how models work, you can apply that knowledge to Evennia, too since they're quite similar.

from django.db import models
from evennia import ObjectDB

class Weapon(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=256, null=False, blank=False)
    type = models.CharField(max_length=256, null=False, blank=True, default="Blaster")
    ammo = models.IntegerField(default=6)
    character = models.ForeignKey("objects.ObjectDB", null=True, on_delete=models.SET_NULL)


> py from guns.models import Weapon; gun = Weapon(name="Pistol Mk II", character=me, ammo=10, type="Pistol")

Yep very handy indeed, and something I only picked up on after reading some Ruby tutorials.

Basically she means that Ares doesn't have anything like MUSH attributes which allow you to store random data on any object. Persistent data needs to be stored in a database model and the model will have to be designed specifically to hold the data that you want to store. Fortunately models are fairly easy to work with!

Here's an example of a model that I am working on now for my Space system, just to give you an idea:

module AresMUSH
  module Space
  
  class Console < Ohm::Model
    include ObjectModel
    include FindByName
    
    attribute :name
    attribute :name_upcase
    attribute :desc
    
    index :name_upcase
    
    reference :location, "AresMUSH::Room"
    reference :player, "AresMUSH::Character"
    reference :ship, "AresMUSH::Space::Ship"
    
    before_save :save_upcase
    
    # -----------------------------------
    # CLASS METHODS
    # -----------------------------------
  
    def self.dbref_prefix
      "C"
    end
    
    # -----------------------------------
    # INSTANCE METHODS
    # -----------------------------------
    
    def save_upcase
      self.name_upcase = self.name ? self.name.upcase : nil
    end
  end    
end

@Derp said in Learning Ruby for Ares:

@Darren

Is your inventory system on Github? Would you be willing to share it? I've been thinking of starting one for my own game next, trying to tackle the ins and outs of design, and I'd love to see what you've done with yours.

Not yet. It's still missing some things (like commands for give, drop, get, etc) which I haven't needed since it's just me working on the game by myself. That, and I let myself get sidetracked by the space system (which, admittedly, is much more fun to work on).

Updated to add:
Honestly, now that I've done it, I'm thinking about not using it since objects are really little more than just "desc" holders and there are other ways to do that without needing real objects for it.

I started with an inventory system, which I promptly scrapped because it was a bad idea to mess with stuff in aresmush/engine/aresmush/models. I've since re-implemented it as a standalone plugin. After that I did a space system for a Firefly game that I am still working on and off. Next was a domain system for a L&L style game which I am also still actively working on.

I had no experience with Ruby before this but I've been working with Evennia for close to 2.5 years now and that experience made it super easy to pick up Ruby.

Meanwhile I just paid $28 for a drink and a large pizza because I was too tired to cook when I got home from work. And then I only ate 3 slices >.<

@Auspice said in Depression Meals:

a couple slices of cheese shared with the cats

Your post reminded me of how, when I was a little kid, I would ask my Mom for cheese and mustard sandwiches for lunch when everyone else had pb&j, ham or some other lunch meat.

@Ghost said in Depression Meals:

@Auspice said in Depression Meals:

I'm still so glad I broke myself of buffets years ago.

Too many days in my early twenties of getting stoned AF and going to Cici's or a chinese buffet.

Indian buffets are pretty unfair, IMO.

If you go to an Indian restaurant/buffet, then you can have everything you want (biryani, naan, etc) for $12 and unlimited plates. But if you want ONE meal (say, just Chicken Korma) then they unleash this weird TIERED PRICING payment thing that results in it coming to around $17.

Curry chicken? Yes.
With rice? Yes (cash register sound)
With naan? Yes (cash register sound)
One naan or two? OMGFUCKOFF.

Of course you're paying more, you're ordering à la carte.

@Auspice said in Depression Meals:

@Darren said in Depression Meals:

Take one box of Kraft Mac n Cheese. Use half & half instead of milk, real butter, 2 slices of Kraft singles plus a couple of slices of sharp cheddar (or Velveeta if you like it gooey). Prepare the mac 'n cheese, then toss in two or three hot dogs that have been cut into quarter inch circles, and one of those tiny single-serving size cans of peas. Combine well, nuke for a minute, then enjoy! You can swap out the hot dogs for half a can of Spam that has been cubed and fried until crispy on all sides.

I do this except with a can of chili.

Hmm, sounds interesting.

Take one box of Kraft Mac n Cheese. Use half & half instead of milk, real butter, 2 slices of Kraft singles plus a couple of slices of sharp cheddar (or Velveeta if you like it gooey). Prepare the mac 'n cheese, then toss in two or three hot dogs that have been cut into quarter inch circles, and one of those tiny single-serving size cans of peas. Combine well, nuke for a minute, then enjoy! You can swap out the hot dogs for half a can of Spam that has been cubed and fried until crispy on all sides.

Don't know if you are aware, but there is a pretty complete Savage Star Wars game on the net. I used it as the basis for the Chargen I worked on for my scrapped New Republic era game.