Best posts made by Sparks

@Auspice

@Ominous said in FS3:

@TimmyZ said in FS3:

I think the young prodigy argument is overrated though.

I use age-based expertise arguments all the time as my go-to reason for why I dislike almost all XP systems and prefer it to be age based. My issue isn't young prodigies. If you want to play an 18 year old Olympic world champion, go ahead. I have issue with the 18 year old world champion, who is also a renowned surgeon, has been admitted to the US Supreme Court bar, is a Colonel in the US Army, and has a starring role in two summer blockbusters, which is also when their fourth album will be released.

An 18 yo can be amazingly good at something. A 40 yo can be good at about a dozen things.

This is actually the thing I like best about classic Traveller's chargen system: aside from the fact that you can legitimately die in character generation, it is very tied to age.

The simplified form of how Traveller character generation works is that you make your baseline character, start them at about age 16 or so, and then go (for instance) "I want to be a survey scout exploring uncharted star systems". And you flip to that career in the sourcebook, and make some rolls. Depending on the results of those rolls, you might do really well as a scout (get promoted, find new resources you can use) or you might do only okay, or you might completely wash out and get fired and need to find a new career path. (Or you might die, and start chargen over with a new concept.) Then you advance your age, get some new points to add, and choose your next thing to do for two years. You get skills/resources/hooks as you advance in age, but you also have more and more chances to die along the way.

When you decide "Okay, I'm done, no more career rolls" that's the age -- and backstory -- of your character all nicely set up for you.

Someone who is 22 will not have nearly the skills, resources, or life experience of someone who is 40. But someone who is 40 may also have a lot more enemies than the 22-year-old, or may have been seriously injured along the way and have a replacement limb, or whatever else.

I've always sort of wanted to see a MU* coded to do something like that for character creation. It would almost certainly be wildly unpopular, but I'd love to see how it worked out.

I mean, another alternative would be a database which stores all the information, and has an endpoint that retrieves the database in each format. So you have, say, /worlds/v1 that returns revision 1 of your world format, and if you have to change the format to add extra stuff you just add /worlds/v2 that returns the data in revision 2 of your world format . And if they're backed by the same database, the data stays up to date in both. You could even have a way to report outdated or dead games, or submit new ones.

At which point, you've basically rewritten a minimalist Mudstats type service, admittedly, but mudstats with an API you could poll in your client.

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

half the pizza had been eaten so someone clearly chose it on purpose

(I can probably keep replying just with blobmoji all day.)

I did not mean to derail the advertisement (sorry!) with brainstorming, and Social Combat is relevant to more than Arx anyway, so I made a different thread for that.

@pyrephox said in Make Evennia 'more accessible' - ideas?:

@sparks Remember that it doesn't have to be the BEST resource. Just one that lets the prospective coder (who, remember, maybe doesn't actually enjoy coding, but just wants something functional enough to do what they do enjoy, i.e. design the game) fumble their way through something that works.

I added some links and more verbose comments to the (currently) final source example, which I desperately hope helps.

Look, all I'm saying is that pepperoni, pineapple, and black olive is the pizza of the gods.

Sausage and pineapple is an abomination against all natural law, order, and reason.

ETA:

@Too-Old-For-This said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Also... no oregano. >.>

@HelloProject said in Progression: Time/Resource rather than XP:

Presumably, couldn't this system essentially be used with any sort of attribute or skill system 0_o? It seems like you can easily plug it into whatever you damned well please, even really exotic stuff.

That was the idea, yeah. On Lost Stars it was built too heavily into the codebase to be extricated as a separate chunk; for 2.0, I'm building it as a more general toolset.

@griatch said in Make Evennia 'more accessible' - ideas?:

• If you want to do line-by-line explanation of a code (beyond normal code-comments), I think it's usually better to explain the lines in text after the code - as you yourself note, long inline code is making the whole thing look very overwhelming when in fact it's just a few lines of actual code. If it's hard to track, I'd suggest to use after-line comments with, say numbers (# 5) and refer to them in the text afterwards.

Hrm. Fair point. Though I admit, I'm starting to think more and more that a sample game with inline comments (albeit less comprehensive) and a tutorial on changing that existing code might be better than a tutorial that starts from scratch and doesn't have a convenient file to follow along with.

• All of these aspects (commands, command sets, locks etc) have more detailed explanations in the Evennia manual. You can't be expected to explain the full depth in this tutorial so it's a a good idea to add links to those for people to conveniently dive deeper if they want.

Yeah, I definitely should scatter a few more links throughout. I just need to find the right ones.

• 'Python is not 'just' a "functional programming language". It's very much an object-oriented language (supporting functional paradigms). While that distinction may not matter to complete newbies, it may throw newcomers with no Python knowledge but general programming knowledge for a loop.

This is true, and I probably should clarify it (and maybe cover a little of the basics of what object-oriented programming languages even are for those who don't have basic programming knowledge).

• When you use the @set command for the first time it would be good to explain why that now works and refer to the place above where the Attribute is set up (it's mentioned in the in-code comment but reading the text it feels like the @set comes out of nowhere).

That one worries me less, because MUSHers are already familiar with @set to set attributes. But it's still a fair point.

• It's not recommended to use filter (nor map) in modern Python code. These can always be written using a list comprehension, without any lambdas:

I admit this one was a conscious choice to go against the grain. I chose to use a lambda there because I'd already explained lambdas in the sorted example, and I didn't really want to write a section on list comprehension too, since I worried about confusing people with too many concepts in short order.

You're probably correct, though, that it makes more sense to just bite the bullet and add the explanation, since it is the better way to do it.

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

I have yet to find a bujo method that works consistently for me. Partly because I see these amazing, gorgeous layouts people do and the hate of my own lack of ability to make something so good creeps up...... on top of the 'I spent hours on this but it looks like hot garbage'

I love bullet journaling, but I am bad at it.

I had this problem too, honestly. I was just doing very bland and sort of messy pages, and it made me keep drifting away from my bujo. But I've finally discovered the joys of stencils, washi stickers and washi tape, and my housemate's stash of washi sticker inkjet paper with which I can make my own stickers. Also metallic markers. I cannot draw for shit, but I can sure as heck stencil.

My August theme in the bujo, for instance, will be gaming. And I've got a bunch of sort of watercolor imagery of dice, minifigs, game controllers, and so on which will be printed on washi sticker paper and placed in the bujo to accent various pages. I'm going to borrow some of my housemate's holographic d20 washi tape. I've got stencils with nicely dramatic fonts suitable for a gaming theme; where I do not do headings as washi stickers on the inkjet, I will use stencils instead.

I have found now that my bujo is pretty, I use it more consistently.

Sure, and I think a simple 'lie' or 'manipulate' command has its place. Just like I can check my combat stats for a quick "Yeah I just want to see who rolls higher" sort of contest. But there are places for actual coded physical combat, too.

And the same way, if I hold a secret that can get you killed, I don't want someone rolling 'lie' and saying, "Oh, Arkandel said you had some information of his he wanted you to share with me" and then I blurt out your secret on the basis of a single roll and pose. I'm guessing you probably don't want me to do that either.

Those are the scenarios that result in "Hey, is there a staffer available?" and potential bitterness.

@tehom The more I think about it, the more I think a sandbox game with existing code and then a tutorial that walks through a change to that code—like you had suggested earlier in the thread—might really be the better way to go for a starting thing. Because the tutorial, while it's better than nothing, is really covering way too much all at once.

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

Where do you get your stencils? I've considered those.

Amazon. There are approximately 8 billion journal stencils. This is the main set I use.

ETA: You can also find interesting custom-made stencils on Etsy, as well as custom-made washi tape.

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

Do you do a full-month calendar page? That was what always took the longest for me. Sitting there with a pencil and ruler meticulously making lines, then going back over them in pen and... eesh.

Nope. My full month is a list; numbers down the left-hand margin, with the events written in beside them.

The page that takes me forever is my habit tracker because, yes, I do a grid and then color alternating lines with a light marker. And then label the page and add stickers. (This time I added a watercolor space whale that went nicely with the shades of blue I used as the dominant color on the page. I used a very interesting style of outline stencil from that set I linked above, drawn in black ink for the page label, and a metallic purple marker to fill in the outline afterwards.)

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

Also: I did not know there was such a thing as washi tape paper. Man the things I could do with that. I might need a printer and some of this at some point!

Eyep. It's very dangerous.

(Though I feel like this is verging on getting into "we should make a thread for bullet journaling if we don't have one already" territory.)

@Apos said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

I think 4 people at the siege battles would have died if we were using current code, so be a little careful there.

I am now wildly curious who those four were, I admit. (I'm certain one was Tikva, who I saw go unconscious twice.)

@kodiak said in Automated Adventure System:

I could jump over the chasm super easy, but had no way to bring them across.

This was enough of a problem in at least two of the test runs that I added an assist <direction> command which rolls wits+leadership to come up with a party strategy, and thus reduce the difficulty of the obstacle in that direction for ten minutes.

@too-old-for-this said in Automated Adventure System:

@cari I haven't actually seen a stealth type thing in the shardhavens yet, but I am waiting to see if one is added! I do remember asking if someone could stealth their way through the combats. XD

I also added a sneak <direction> command that—provided there's no obstacle blocking your way—will allow you to make a dexterity+stealth roll to sneak into the next room; if you succeed, the chances of a monster spawning on you go way down, while if you fail, you make enough racket that the chances go up. And since I'm tuning it so that the chances of a monster spawning in are highest for the first person to enter a room, there might be value in sending a sneaky-sneak in first to scout.

I also have two that don't really apply to me.

I have learned to cope and focus (which is admittedly way easier on the ADHD meds), but my coping mechanism tends to lead to a very interrupt-driven method of functioning; if I am in that mode at work and you bring me something new, I will shift to work on that and then return to the original thing afterwards. Unfortunately, I often then find it hard to return to the original thing. So the "can't switch tasks" only really applies when in hyperfocus, but "cannot switch back" is constant. I have one context switch in me per half-day, I think. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, make me use it and I'm going to never be able to context switch back to the original task.

I can cope in chairs; I don't like it, unless the chair reclines, but I can cope. (Couches, though, I am incapable of sitting normally on.)

@Pyrephox said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Roz The idea that anyone is even able to contemplate getting level 6 skills is, in itself, crazy to me, and a sign that maaaaybe XP has gotten out of hand.

No, see...

There's no way I'm getting a level 6 skill. But I can xp/cost to see what it would cost me.

So, a level 6 skill on Aislin would cost 1966xp. I will never be able to save that up. But I thus know, because the base cost is 1000, that my XP tax is 96.6%. Meaning I have enough skills that every skill I get costs me 196.6% of the base cost. A 10xp skill would cost me 20xp (19.66 rounds up). Etc.

Conversely, Hana is not a jack of all trades. A level 6 skill on her would cost me only 1000xp according to xp/cost, meaning she has no XP tax. (Not surprising; she's very focused on smithing, so has far fewer skills than Aislin.)

That's how people talk about level 6 XP costs.

I don't know anyone who has seriously even considered buying level 6, much less who could do it without saving up for like 7-12 months of spending XP on nothing.

@quibbler said in Automated Adventure System:

Just in general, can confirm there is a place for squishy nerd characters who can, say, solve riddles. I just got stuck at some places that required jumping or climbing or other physical things.

Yeah, seeing the party get temporarily separated by the pendulum obstacle for a few of the test runs is why I added assist, so that a) squishies can be helped past physical obstacles that haven't been surmounted for everyone, and b) to make leadership an important party stat.

Yeah well, people can whine about the series not being exactly like the games, but this is an adaptation of the books; I (and other book fans) will endeavour to shout louder than they do if we have to.

I mean, adaptations are never 100%; the Expanse isn't a perfect retelling of the books, but it keeps the spirit of the story intact (no doubt because the authors are heavily involved with the show). If we get something that's along those lines here, it doesn't need to be a completely accurate retelling of the Blood of Elves saga. As long as it keeps the spirit of the story—which is, arguably, that the family you find and make along the way is more important to who you are than bloodline or prophecy, and "destiny" will ruin your life if you let it—then I will be happy.

@Auspice I can do something like that in A2, but how would you want it visualized? Just a list of spawns in that world alongside the input window? Or two tab bars, where one of them is the world and the other is the spawns within it?