Best posts made by Thenomain

We are currently at 1,291,196 characters of code, including comments and how-tos and help files.

It takes a lot of work to look this good.

1. Hello again, @ArmedCarp
2. Hawaii Five-Point-Zero?

I'm happy to take some credit for this, but even with the system being easy to get to the 'ready to go' state, staff can still hang you up on explanations for your 5 in Dexterity, for your power selection, for your background not matching your stats, no background, and so forth.

As a coder, my job is to make staff's job fast-er, to write into code any business rules. Only staff can take the efficient tool and use it efficiently. Sometimes I code for my particular staffing philosophy (the dark flag is ignored for 'staff'), but administration's actions can turn any code into a pile of poo by not using their own business rules.

Truism: A tool that isn't used is a paperweight.

My name is Renee Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

@Cobaltasaurus

TV. Too interesting for many Mu*s.

Edit: It was "kid that crooked partner was grooming into a drug lord stabs her" that pushed me to TV. This is a nuanced little bit of plot. If this is being pulled off on a Mu*, with either PCs willing to give up that much authorial control or staff able to run an NPC that dedicated, I would love to know where.

Hello, Thenomain as Coder here, with some questions for the lot of you, looking for constructive input.

Someone asked me to look into CofD System'ing Beast: The Primoridal. Well, they introduce a new kind of merit: Advanced and Epic. 'Library (Advanced)', for example.

I have a problem. My code system gives '(...)' a very specific meaning. Library can be taken multiple times, once per mental skill, so you can have 'Library (Science)' and 'Library (Occult)'. I can't do 'Library (Advanced)' without twisting the baseline code inside-out.

"So Theno," says the straw-man you who I use as a sounding wall, "why not just make the merit 'Library Advanced'." Because, Mildly Constructive Soapbox Sock-Puppet, the system has no real way to know the difference between 'Library' and 'Library Advanced' unless you type out at least that last 'A'. e.g., 'stat/set Library A=2'.

"That's not too bad", you say. Yes, I reply, but there's also Iron Skin (Advanced), and Fast Reflexes (Advanced) and both Direction Sense (Advanced) and Direction Sense (Epic).

The same thing works in reverse. 'Epic Direction Sense' would need to be entered as at least 'Epic D' for the system to see it as unique.

Thoughts?

@Arkandel said in Fear and Loathing:

Are you guys planning to use 2.0 books as they become available or are you only using the 1.0 versions anyway? I'm referring to things like updated Bloodlines, Kiths, etc.

How dare you raise my hopes that these will be released by the end of 2017.

<end tangent>

@Misadventure said in RL things I love:

I tried really hard to listen to game design podcasts.

I find game design easier to read in small bits where it can have focus, not rambling. Rambling game design is hard to listen to. And so:

http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com

@Misadventure said:

Or color code those as Green, Purple, Orange.

I hate you.

@Rook said in CyberSphere Recruitment Drive:

First sentence had the word 'MOO' in it. I'm out.

So you'd rather it be a MUCK, huh. Really. A MUCK.

Are you now, or have you ever been, a furry?

My character contracted vampirism within the first hour of gameplay,

Fucking Bethesda.

@ThatOneDude said in Finding roleplay:

But if you don't go to events, what do you do in RP?

Rescue damsels, fight monsters, spend my loot on ale and whores. The same kinds of things that you do during events, only without the pressure that we're on a time crunch and that the Plot Must Be Resolved. I also get to socialize and plot and plan for greater deeds all on my own time. This last part is extremely important because I don't have time to just sit around and do everything. I can't (both because of my job and mental incapability) RP through a phone, and I have made promises for coding to people who have offered to pay me in everything except for RP--with the exception of the crew at Bump in the Night, to whom I'm grateful.

(Note, this doesn't include the people who RP with me for free, most of whom are awesome people and all but a precious few at least are giving.)

See, in the days before PrPs, people would either get together and have something happen and that leads to something else happening and so on or so forth, or staff would. I do not like the concept of PrPs for reasons above, but to re-state in this context are because they seem to be formulaic and that's not what I'm into.

I am, to vent a little, frustrated at the Fallcoast Changeling plot going on right now as it's pretty much a matter of: Show up and participate to the forgone conclusion. Some people are way okay with this, and good on them, but for me there's no mystery, discovery, or agency. We're watching staff transform the sphere under the IC threat of "if you don't bad things will happen", knowing that the changes will happen anyway and nothing bad will actually happen. Well, nothing bad that I can't pretend my character isn't involved in anyway.

So I do anything else instead. Involve myself in the opening of a new safe spot for Changelings? A++. Waiting an hour to pose one line how I am throwing rocks over the wall at the bad guys knowing that the good guys were destined to save the day anyway? D- See Me After Class. And I feel really bad about feeling this way because I know a shit-ton of work went into this, and I know that enough people enjoy it that I should just shut up and let them have fun. To you guys? This is nothing new from me. I'm just venting as an example and you can ignore this, or you know where to find me.

I suppose to put it another way, my RP is mainly those things that happen between major events, and occasionally during them, occasionally causing them, just on nobody's schedule but my own.

@DownWithOPP

....

Why don't we have more web based combat setup systems? I mean, besides that most hosting systems can't process this.

Okay, my current setup:

1. Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
2. Static Mesh Improvement Mod
   (leaves a strange untextured bit on weapon sharpening wheels, but otherwise nice)
3. Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Mod
   (I'm probably going to remove this, as it now feels like I'm traipsing through a much more temperate climate)
4. Skyrim Flora Overhaul
5. Vivid Weathers
   (I don't know if this or True Storms would be better)
6. Wet and Cold
7. Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul
   (everything sounds more natural and less "recorded in a warehouse" now)
8. Unread Books Glow
9. Ethereal Elven Overhaul
   (I really, really, really hate Elder Scrolls elves with their low-polly hatchet-faces)
10. Cutting Room Floor
11. Open Cities Skyrim
12. Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul
13. True Eyes

Yeah, really I don't need to have a different game experience, since I've never finished it once anyway. "Darker Nights" is probably the only other game-changing mod I'd install.

Well, until SkyUI is ported. SkyUI was downright fantastic.

Oh yes, and the Achievements Mods Enabler, linked to by @Derp. Only for us PC users, but what in there is going to make it easier for me to earn mods? Really only the Elven Overhaul so I don't have to suppress a gag reflex when playing the game.

A re-link: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/245/

--

p.s., while the vampirism thing is really annoying, I appreciate a game having the chutzpah to force conditions on a character that you have to play around. now if it would only tell me what the hell a "black soulstone" is. Yes, I looked it up on my own, but it's certainly not explained in context.

@Ide and @Ninjakitten remind me the last way I find RP:

• Go to a place that seems interesting to me and announce that I'm there.

@faraday

My WoD Initiative code works very similarly, but there are a billion little setup things that supernatural beings can do, and coding an intelligent Mu*-side interface for that isn't sunshine and roses, either. Rounds, turns, minutes, hours, scenes, advantages, disadvantages, etc. etc. I mean, if I wanted to code combat to that level, I'd code a Mud.

@dontpanda said in Skyrim Special Edition (also, Mods!):

Maybe I'm legendarily thick, but I don't see anywhere to get new mods for this thing. Or, am I truly stupid and we just use the ones we had for the original?

It sounds like you're on a console? Otherwise: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/

Pretty much the place to get mods for a whole lot of Triple-A games out there, even if they're not technically moddable.

@Arkandel said:

The answer seems simple: If that person wants priority for the new sphere they can drop their first alt. It's not a dick move, any more than making someone else wait with no alts is.

Telling someone to drop what they are doing for a chance to do something else seems, yeah, like a dick move.

Players who aren't engaged with a super sphere aren't necessarily not doing anything, either, but the suggestion doesn't affect them at all. Keep in mind the suggestion doesn't affect those without a major template.

@Paris said in Fate's Harvest BETA Live (Full Open Soon):

@Thenomain said in Fate's Harvest BETA Live (Full Open Soon):

Partially to piss off @Wretched,

Two words: mariachi hobs.

One word: Wings.

@Bobotron said in FATE/FUDGE RPGs?:

@Jennkryst
Yeah, that's where I'm coming up flat. The concept of removing Aspects from it and using the raw mechanical bits.

Aspects are the point of Fate. Without Aspects, Fate is a pretty standard and honestly bland kind of system. You might as well roll 1d6 - 1d6. Woo.

Aspects themselves rely on the Fate Point Economy, which is a (mostly) closed ability to invent or invest in things on the fly, and to invent them on the fly you have to suffer hardships or put yourself in danger.

You can engage an Aspect for free if you created it with an amazing success; Jenny's "bruised ribs" example, otherwise you need to spend one of those Fate Points. Usually.

The details of these, as @WTFE mentioned, depends on which version of FATE. There are essentially three: Fate (Spirit of the Century), Fate 2 (Dresden Files), and Fate Core (everything after). All of them are high action. They can be dialed to bloody, but in a Conan the Barbarian kind of way; bloody and heavy metal.

Evil Hat's stripped-down Fate Core is called "Fate Accelerated", and it's pretty much only Aspects.

I, er, may be a fan.

edit:

FUDGE, from which FATE was first derived, was not a game system as much as a framework to create game systems, much like @faraday's FS3. You can do a lot with the framework, but much like Risus, you must put in what you want to get out.

Fate was built to be a more traditional RPG setup, where you have systems telling you what you get out of it, a systematic gaming engine. You can twist this knob left to make that NPC bleed, but it's mostly set up for you. FUDGE demands that you build this engine yourself.