Best posts made by Sparks

@wizz said in Automated Adventure System:

@sparks said in Automated Adventure System:

Wrapping a shardhaven journey into an 'expedition' which you need to actually ICly fund before you can embark on your adventure, and which will track what sort of things you found.

This is really cool, but the one thing I'm curious about is how this part will translate for commoners. Does this mean commoner characters will need to find wealthy patrons to fund any expeditions, or are they the kind of funds a small group of not particularly wealthy individuals could scrape together quickly?

It will depend. My current intention is that cost is related to Shardhaven difficulty level and how many people you take. Take 4 people to a lower difficulty Shardhaven and you can probably scrape together the funds. Take a bigger party, or go to a more difficult Shardhaven, and the cost goes up. If you want to outfit a large party to go to a high-level Shardhaven, some fundraising RP to find a wealthy backer might be necessary.

It is definitely my hope, though, that High Lords and other wealthy sorts will want the things that can be found in Shardhavens—particularly materials for the upcoming magic system—and so will want to fund expeditions even if they're (hopefully) too responsible to run off and get potentially eaten themselves!

@Auspice said in RL things I love:

@Ganymede said in RL things I love:

@Auspice

Maybe you should do that, then.

Already did. >.> I had a publication picked out for once I got feedback and made... well, the edits I expected I'd have to make?

... but apparently there are none, so...... off it's gone.

If people wanna read it, I can message the dropbox link. >.>

I will happily read, if you want more eyes on it. Or even if not, just to read!

That wouldn't be too hard. I'll make a 'multi line tab' option for A2 as I flesh things out.

@saturna said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@friarzen said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

A Sunrunner game is a really interesting idea, but I'd have to go back and re-read the source novels...it's been...30 years? since I read the first trilogy.

@Herja @Sparks

There is no way in hell I have time to help build a Sunrunners game; I'm behind on GM'ing on Arx as it is!

(And I'm pretty sure @Caryatid should've been tagged there too, as she's a fellow Sunrunners fan.)

@Kanye-Qwest said in RL Anger:

So I have to have foot surgery if I ever want to be able to walk, dance, run, or do yoga again without pain. BLEH

Augh! Sympathies. I do find walking in particular useful to be able to do, and I imagine you do also.

@faraday said in Spawns and How You Use Them:

I'd be curious to try out having a chat window at the bottom with poses at the top. Not sure if I'd like it so not a big deal or anything though. Random kudos: I love Atlantis!

This actually could be done in A2, if I expose the functionality. See, A2's new spawn/windowing system isn't just "here is a spawn, and a window of them" but rather made up of several things.

A window contains 'pages' (think of them like spawns; that's what they're still called when exposed to the user) and an 'index' (the normal spawn visualizer lists). But unlike A1, a spawn isn't just a monolithic block. Pages have a 'layout', and that layout contains 'blocks'. Output window is a 'block'. Input window is a block. World info is a block.

Right now, programmatically, it's easy in A2 for me to go, 'instanciate a new input block, and add it to this page' and have the layout account for it automatically. So it wouldn't be hard to make something where the spawn had two output blocks.

Atlantis 1, internally, was basically 'client construction kit'. Atlantis 2, internally, will be even moreso; once it's done, it should be easy to design new styles of spawns and new types of content blocks.

@Auspice - if that's the 3 we got here (I.e. FF6), the answer is both acceptable and correct.

@sunny said in RL Anger:

@saosmash Pfft. Peeeeew (like a BAD smell) wallop (like the hitting!).

Do the Puyallup!

@Cupcake said in Spawns and How You Use Them:

If anyone knows how to make spawns with MUSHClient, a step-by-step guide would be super helpful.

I got you covered.

@Auspice said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@Sparks

Ohhh yeah. I forgot the SJ element.

That'd be a tricky aspect.

Dot's right. Und any plan vere hyu lose hyu hat iz?

@arkandel said in RL Anger:

Everyone in my company is using whitespace instead of tabs. They are monsters, and I am surrounded by them.

Plz send help.

Four space indentation or death. This is the hill I die on.

(I kid. Mostly.)

@Kanye-Qwest said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

So make people desc their own, in shops! that was a key tenet of the shop design.

I try!! People say that, no, they were really hoping for a custom piece that would surprise them. And I do like seeing people happy when they receive them. I need to learn to say "no" better.

@Jaded - I'm Hana, for my smith. I run the Storied Blade, and I'm presently underwater on commissions.

@falsgrave said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@Sparks I love the cells ideas. It gives the PCs a lot of agency as opposed to a formal and organised military-style faction that you see in post-ESB Rebellion or NR factions.

One thing I've seen is that if you have some shared thing between all the PCs, it becomes far easier to reach out to others and include others. If everyone's serving on a single ship in an SF setting a'la BSG, if everyone's in a single mercenary company, if everyone's in a single Rebel cell, etc.

If you all folks have in common is "you live in the same city" like the average WoD game and such, then it becomes really, really easy to splinter into a bunch of different little sub-groups.

So not only do I like the Rebels-era setting, but if everyone's in a single Rebel cell there's a ready-made excuse for them to interact. No "okay, what do we have in common to RP about" questions.

@surreality said in RL things I love:

My inner 5 year old also lost it, and I choked on my coffee, when listening to the mission control blow by blow, because so help me god, 'Falcon Heavy' really does not sound like Falcon when spoken very quickly over a radio, apparently. (The link here, it's reaaaaaally glaring in the first few seconds. Actual spit-take. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/videos/95856359-132.html )

The successor to the Falcon Heavy—the one needed for a manned mission to Mars—is actually known as the BFR. B is big, R is rocket, you can guess the rest yourself. (It should be ready for test launch in 2020.)

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

People expecting crafters to make awesome descs is just part of the culture, dating back to Firan.

Usually you weren't paying a crafter to make whatever they're making. You were paying them to throw a sick ASCII dragon in the desc (or whatever).

If you didn't actually do descs, you tended to not get business as a crafter.

Yeah, I played a weaponsmith on Firan, too—Chinnon Sokairik—so I knew what I was in for in that sense. And I actually enjoy crafting.

But I do need to encourage people to use +shop more.

I have a partially-done drop-in (well, drop-in provided you have the other Pax<whatever> libraries on which it depends) Ares-style scene system for Evennia that I started writing, uh... like last fall. I just have had no time/energy to really work on it lately.

I probably should finish it...

@auspice I feel you on the migraine complaint today. So much.

The HVAC and florescent lights make me want to cry today.

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

@Sparks This is the first game I encountered ascii desces in a weapon or item. I find that...strange, actually. So I would not expect ascii art. Just...a good desc.

Well, there's also +shop, where you can walk into a crafter's shop, bring the materials—in the case of a sword, for instance, that's four ingots of whatever material—and provide the desc yourself, but get to use the crafter's dice.

I would like breathable air back in my city, thanks.

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

I'm gonna be honest. I wish people would be happy with just some cool ASCII design. That is way easier for me than coming up with detailed descriptions for 7 separate pieces of the same armor set. Although I do charge a 1000 silver per item fee on custom items.

My friend keeps telling me I'm underselling myself >_>

Edit: To clarify I made the mistake of doing leatherwork, so those complete sets will take a lot out of me!

I honestly think that for armor, people should be okay with a 'set desc' used on all the pieces. Because daaaang.