The Joke's On Me

I threw the switch and opened this year's April Fool's Day ("AFD") area.  While I was busy doing some last minute fussing, I noticed within the player window that one player's name had suddenly changed.  I went to investigate and I found, to my horror, that the old Angbang area was now opened.



This came as a surprise to me, because this was an area which I had not opened!  I did a quick check and discovered that (somehow) the portal leading from the current AFD area to town was not leading to town — as indicated within my copy of the world file — but instead was leading to the old AFD Encore Nexus.



Ugh.  I quickly applied a patch so that the exit portal to town actually lead to town.  I would have left the old Nexus area opened, but some of the areas within the encore required preparation (and bug fixes) which simply had not been prepared (nor fixed).

I hope that this is the only joke played on me for this update!

Bawkmas

It occurred to me that the V732 update will take us through the Bawkmas holiday season.

All of my priorities for the upcoming update have changed.

Trick or Tsrrin

I spent a little time this evening hiding some costumes in the land.  Not a lot; just a few.



Have fun looking!

Tricks and Treats

Sunday, October 31st at 11:00am PT.  That will be the date in which we'll hold the Clan Lord Capture the Flag event.

We'll play for an hour or so.  I am really looking forward to it.  Costumes shall be optional.

Raising Hell

One of my regrets for V666 is that I did not have adequate time to raise hell.

I had envisioned daily invasions throughout this update.  I wanted to run some large scale undine attacks upon Puddleby and its surrounding areas, attacks that would originate from places such as the Undine Hut or the Dark Chamber on Ash Island.  I had wanted to create buzz and excitement throughout this update.  Six hundred and sixty-six versions is a phenomenal achievement for a MMORPG, and I had wanted it to be memorable for its hellish invasions.

I still have a couple of days remaining to raise a little hell.

Crashing A Fancy Dinner Party

Thanks to all who participated in Stinkfist's fancy dinner party this afternoon.  I think there was a point in which we had over 70 people online, and that was very pleasant to see.

Mark Your Calendars

I have returned to my current RL project which shall be commanding my time for the next week and a half.  I want to get ahead on my RL responsibilities so that I may make time for some upcoming CL activities:

• Operation Fancy Dinner Party, scheduled for the 12th
• Trip to Trillbane, scheduled for the 19th 

Both events sound like a lot of fun and I want to attend them, providing that I get my RL chores done.

It's Not A Distraction If Town Is Endangered

I met up with another GM this evening, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: I have to finish testing a script this evening.
OtherGM: I think I'm going to invade town.
Me: !
[OtherGM throws some Darshak in town.]

And that was it for me.  I just can't ignore a good invasion, and as a result I got zero testing accomplished this evening.  While I may not have gotten any work done, I instead managed to have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs, and I hope that the Defenders of Puddleby had as much fun as I did.

Winning Through Losing

I enjoyed a small diversion this evening by ambushing a group's hunt.  I had started by sending a large force upon the group.  I then set up a secondary force in a flanking position, followed by a tertiary group in reserve to cut off any retreats.  I was convinced that I could rout the players and force a retreat from the area.

Even with this strategy, I still got defeated – all the while making a sincere effort to vanquish the group.  There were enough surges and retreats throughout the battle that the outcome of the battle was never obvious; there were numerous times when I thought that I had finally defeated the party when a couple of healers and a fighter would break off, regroup, and rescue the fallens.

Even though I lost the battle, I still consider the event a victory: it was fun, there was a lot of group participation, and I felt pretty good about running a challenging battle.

Now all I need to do is balance the monsters!