Posts made by faraday

@auspice said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:

Well, FS3 is an Ares module, it's true, so stripping out FS3... It's possible it'd be doable. What I love about Ares is that it's an out-of-the-box MU*.

FS3 is a plugin like any other and designed to be optional. Disabling it involves a couple mouse clicks on the plugins configuration screen.

Ares could certainly handle a D&D system. It has a database (noSQL instead of SQL but the same basic idea.) There's no need to put all the static gear and skill tables and stuff into the database, though. Ares has config files for that. Easier to edit through the web portal admin screens and faster to load.

@ashen-shugar I did an interactive tutorial for the FS3 combat system. The Ares tutorials are interactive, but require a game. I could have done them with javascript like the combat one but it just wasn't worth the effort.

@thatguythere Yeah, I think once you compiled the list of everyone saying what they think is a dreadful faux paus, the poor new player would be navigating an impossible minefield of things that might piss somebody off.

While that's probably an accurate depiction of the new-person MU experience, I don't think it's all that helpful.

@thenomain said in Make it fun for Me!:

That is, this is me reminding everyone that people "win" at games for different reasons.

Yes, but my point is that some of those forms of "winning" are IMHO very poorly suited to the type of environment posed by MUs. (Others may disagree.)

It's like... I can be a competitive over-achiever by nature, but that's a crappy mentality to take to an improv acting troupe, right? If I always have to be the star of the show, my character always has to come out on top... that would be super-obnoxious, wouldn't it? That's all I'm saying here.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said, "You 'win' these games by telling the best story", but the key word in that sentence is story, not best. Different people will disagree with what resolution is "best", and there needs to be some way to resolve that. But when the focus is on the story and not on any one player's individual player-centric goals, then everyone wins.

Which I don't think is very different from your statement that "the game trumps staff and players alike". Because what is the game if not a collective story?

@surreality said in Make it fun for Me!:

The reason I steer away from sportsmanship is that it implies adherence to 'the rules' (including 'avoiding fouls'), and a lot of the worst actions are entirely permissible within the scope of the rules of a game

I actually have the opposite view of good sportsmanship. It goes beyond the rules and is more of the "good faith" notion that you're describing. Shaking hands and saying "good game" after the game has nothing to do with the rules and everything to do with being a good sport. Adhering to the spirit of the game (i.e. in hockey, don't do anything to hurt your opponent) more than the letter of the rules ("But that wasn't technically a slash, ref") is being a good sport.

@three-eyed-crow said in Make it fun for Me!:

You 'win' these games by telling the best story, and sometimes that means ceding the stage to someone else or taking a loss that dramatically rich down-the-line.

Yes, this +100.

And I think this is where platforms like Storium have an edge over MUs and their RPG-drenched history. Because let's face it - the goal in an RPG isn't to tell a good story. It's to win. Level up. Get better gear. Defeat the Big Bad and be a Big Damn Hero doing it. That mentality is largely incompatible with a persistent 24/7 world that lasts for months and involves dozens of strangers.

Storium has its flaws (serious flaws) but the thing I really like about it is the emphasis on the story. When you overcome a challenge, you win control of the story. A chance to temporarily steer it in the direction you want. And the very nature of the game forces you to use both strengths and weaknesses in meeting those challenges.

@apos said in Make it fun for Me!:

Some games just can't decide if they are competitive or a collaboration

@apos That's a problem, sure, but even competitive games expect a certain degree of good sportsmanship.

@auspice said in Make it fun for Me!:

We play games that are, by their very base concept and nature, cooperative. Yes, you should be enjoying yourself, but you come here to enjoy yourself with other people. Not at the expense of other people.

That's where the line is for me too. Of course everyone wants to have fun - I mean, that's why we play games, right? The issues arise when someone selfishly insists that their fun is the only fun that matters.

It's no different, fundamentally, from playground rules. Don't hog the ball. Take turns playing what everyone likes so they'll take a turn playing what you like. Don't go into crazy-competitive-cutthroat mode if everyone else just wants to play casually. Stuff like that. It's really not hard, it just requires being considerate of other people.

@icanbeyourmuse I think everyone is responsible for their own fun, but in a cooperative storytelling environment there has to be some degree of compromise. If the GMs aren't having fun themselves, swiftly you'll find yourself with no GMs. If the GMs don't run things that are fun for players, you'll quickly find yourself with an empty MUSH.

That said, I don't think every MU has to cater to everyone. BSGU was very combat-heavy and there wasn't much in the way of social/non-combat plots. (Of course there was social /RP/ but that's different.) Similarly, I can imagine a game that's 100% political/social stuff where all combat is off-camera with massive armies. There's nothing wrong with having a limited focus, as long as you're up front about it.

@ixokai said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:

I'm curious, when you say 'thats not 3rd edition' it makes it sound to me like the only Shadowrun mushes anyone has ever done is 3rd edition. Is that assumption true, and if so, do you know why?

Most of the big-name SR games predate 4th ed so they were just built that way. And although the rules are immensely streamlined in 4th, many of the old diehards don’t like the associated world upgrades that resulted from them trying to update a theme written in the late 80s to incorporate 2010 tech.

@ixokai said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:

So I'm not looking for an easy thing to start with, but something people find interesting/missing.

I've just seen a lot of folks interested in potentially running a Fate MU*, and I really don't think it would be quite as "easy" as you think - especially if you include the web chargen component. But you know better what sort of project you're looking for. I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other, just clarifying why I brought it up.

@ixokai Fantasy Flight Games - the one with the funky dice used in Star Wars and their new Genesys generic RPG.

And Fate may be simpler than most, but there are still some nuances in chargen with the skill pyramid, and some unique mechanics with compels and stuff to model... the stress track... stunts... I think it would be a good starter project for learning a new language. And people would probably use it.

@ixokai I'd love it if someone did a FFG or Fate plugin for Ares, as I think both of those fit the overall feel of the other systems. (Like, you could technically do WoD in Ares, but so much of the built-in code is geared around an open, freeform environment it kinda feels like that would be jamming a square peg into a round hole.)

@ixokai I didn't realize emacs installed all that junk - I just hate vi and had it installed as a convenience. I can remove it. We'll hash out the redis thing on the Ares forum.

@ixokai said in AresMUSH Updates:

which seem to support my instinct, it looks like you have a data model for action skills. But for the life of me I can't find where they're defined to mimic such a setup for a different RPG entirely.

Okay, I can add a few more details about that. But basically - you can do it however you want.

A data model makes it easier if your abilities have their own properties (like FS3 has ruling attribute, rating, XP spent, last learned, etc.) but not every system needs that level of complexity. You can store everything in a simple hash, just like the traits example.

Similarly, FS3 is designed to be configurable without touching the code, so the list of abilities are stored in config files - config_fs3skills_action.yml and so forth. But for a system you're designing for your own game, there's probably no need to do that. A simple Ruby array in the code could suffice.

I really don't think there is such a thing as a "simple" RPG skill/stat/RPG system, which is why I don't feel that a concrete example is going to help anyone. They'd all be as complex as FS3 - and you've already got an example coded for that.

@griatch said in AresMUSH Updates:

I'd not be too fixated on the "1.0" version number though.

Thanks. While I agree that the stability is more important than the actual number, I do think that in the software world numbers have meaning. People generally have certain expectations from 1.0 no matter what you say (ETA: I meant no matter what the software publisher says.. not you specifically!) Then again, there are always exceptions - how long was Gmail in "beta"? Is it still? Heh.

Seriously folks, can we not even have a discussion about freaking IP Addresses without resorting to name-calling and hostility?

And people wonder why some of us think these forums are toxic.

@ixokai - I wrapped up my earlier response into a Replacing FS3 tutorial in the coding section. Hope that helps.

@surreality Oh, sorry - I guess I misunderstood. Nevermind then!

@surreality said in What's your identity worth to you?:

So if someone told me "Hey, update your home network so that this guy you don't know can connect via IPv6 to your home server to play an online game" I'd:

Me: "I'm offering something free under the terms I'm comfortable doing so, and no more." (The end.)

@surreality - I think maybe you've got Ghost's point backwards (or I'm seriously missing something here).

Ghost wasn't saying that you, the benevolent game-runner, need to do anything with your router (let alone spend $120 - or any money at all) to enable their fun.

The point was that a benevolent game-runner hosting a game on a PC on their home network was potentially opening themselves up to security vulnerabilities if they didn't follow network precautions. And if Ghost were that game-runner and some player complained that those network precautions prevented them from connecting to the game via ipv6, Ghost would tell them to pound sand.

There's no entitlement here.

@ghost said in What's your identity worth to you?:

Game Owners: From IP information to email addresses, what are the current standards of collection?

For Ares - your last IP and an email address (if voluntarily supplied) are stored until your character bit is destroyed. On some games, that may be forever.

I believe this to be appropriate use. Your email is attached to your account so it makes sense that it would exist until your account was deleted. (Of course you can always manually wipe it when you leave a game.) Most privacy standards recognize that web providers (the closest analogy to MU servers) are allowed to collect IP addresses for security reasons to protect against and pursue security violations. If someone's hyper-conscious about people accessing their IP address, they should use a dynamic VPN.

@rnmissionrun said in AresMUSH Updates:

It was the date of my last post in this thread prior to today, so Dec 7th.

Ah, yeah, I should've thought to check the backscroll. The install scripts were still a work-in-progress then, and as I mentioned at the time my primary focus was on documentation...

@faraday said in AresMUSH Updates:

So, y'know, people who are not me will actually know how to use it.

Anyway, if you prefer waiting until the 1.0 release that's groovy. I'm not generally a fan of being a beta-tester myself with most things, so I don't hold that against anyone!

My only point was that things are in a much better state now than they were a few months ago. And if anyone is still having issues either installing it or figuring out which end is up, I'd love to know about it so I can make it better.