4k

This is not helping the development of my Clan Lord projects.

The Twenty-One

I am about to undertake a major Clan Lord project.  The first step of this major project is to undertake another major project: updating the processes of the NPC training scripts.

This has been on my To Do list for some while, but only recently have I felt confident (and competent) enough to move forward with this huge undertaking.  This lead me to wonder: what else do I have on my To Do list?  While having lunch at a restaurant, I took out pen and paper and began compiling a list of open (outstanding) projects.  I was both impressed and horrified to see twenty-one items listed.

Some of the items on the To Do list are low priority (like creating a new Boss AI), while some of the projects are overwhelming in scope (like Healer subclasses).  They're all on my radar, and I've started initial first draft designs on all of them.  But it was this one particular project that I mentioned to another GM and was delightedly surprised to hear the GM commit 110% to this project.  We contacted a script helper, who also surprised me with his enthusiasm for the project and committed to the project on the spot.

So.  Big things in the pipeline, and we'll see it all "Soon!™"  As the other GM and helper begin with starting points of design, I have started the process of reviewing the training scripts.  My goal: have one less project on my To Do list.

Random Dungeons

I am arriving a little late to the party, but I recently purchased Torchlight (the original version, not Torchlight II: the sequel is not yet available for the Mac, at least not on Steam).  I have been playing it for some while now, and I enjoy it.

I am not obsessed with it as I was with Diablo II, even though the two games have similar game play and goals (fight monsters, get loot).  The 3D graphics are gorgeous, and the interface is simple.  I don't quite see the point of pets, but I find it entertaining to teach them spells.  There are plenty of quests to do, but it did not take long for me to grow bored by their repetitiveness ("kill a boss", and "return an item" are the two more common quests types).  A little more variety in quests would have been nice.

However it has been the randomized dungeons which has me thinking back to a project which I had started over two years ago: random instances, which would allow multiple groups to enter the same dungeon and not encounter each other.  I have given this subject a little thought, and want to apply it to my current major project.  Or should I say projects.

With our player base shrinking, instances are becoming less necessary.  But for me, it's a challenge in making it happen.  And making it happen – or making any of my projects happen – is a challenge!

Out With The Old

I have been wanting to update certain scripts in support of an upcoming theme-related update (and before you ask: I am sorry to say that it is not subclass-related).  This weekend, I was able to commit some time to updating two scripts, which involved retiring some old technology on which the scripts relied.  I also added some exciting, cool new features (and that is a very biased opinion on the features), and developed one new script to work in conjunction with these older scripts.

I still have a little work to do on these scripts.  They work just fine, and the enhanced functionality of these scripts could lead to a fun, quest-filled themed update.

The Exclamation Point

The past several days have been a lot of fun for me.

Last Friday evening I was working in my GM office, compiling a punch list for my V756 deliverables, when another GM stopped by.  We started chatting about a project on which we were working together.  The chat slowly morphed into a teleconference: a collaborative assembly of the project components which lasted a little over four hours.

This was a new — and very positive — experience for me, as I typically assemble my update materials alone.  It was great to have a collaborator ask and answer questions: do we have these files ready?  Did we include this NPC?  Do we have all of the artwork that we need?

Collaborating with this GM has added an exclamation point to an already fun project.

Vanishing Act

I will be largely AFK for all of next week.  This is significant for me in that the V756 deadline is next Friday.

If I want to have any materials ready for submission, then it is in my best interest to have everything ready by this Sunday evening.  And I certainly do have a project that needs to go in this update.

Update V747

... is in my rear view mirror, but I find myself watching the mirror rather than watching the road.  While I can not change any of the content that I have submitted (60+ areas: my helpers have been busy!), I can still upload and edit data files.  I am not yet satisfied with some of the scripts, so I have been uploading changes well past the Friday deadline.

There is still a little smoothing to do on one portion of one script, and I hope to have that resolved by the time the server reboots on Wednesday evening.

An Update Update

The deadline for V744 has come and gone, and I did not submit content for this upcoming update (my last update-less update was V723).  I am happy to report that, although no content was delivered by me for this update, work continues on projects!

One of these projects requires two critical scripts to power the quest/event, and I finished one of these scripts late Saturday morning (I admit that it was the easier of the two scripts).  I was unable to submit this script for the V744 update because the areas which rely on this script required updating to reflect the latest changes within the script — and those areas were also updated late Saturday morning, far past the submission deadline.

V747 will be a busy update for me!

Heel Draggin'

My heels.  I'm draggin' 'em.

Truthfully, that is a little misleading.  Pesky real life has been demanding more of my attention as of late which in turn is restricting time for my projects.  My delivery deadline for V738 is next Friday; I will need to review my list of projects and determine what (realistically) can be delivered by this deadline.

I dream of one day having a thematic update, as practiced in Team Fortress 2.  How cool would it be to see "The Mystic Fireball Update"?  (And before you ask: no, there are no plans for a Mystic Fireball Update.)

I like the idea of a thematic update, and wish to make it one of my project goals.  It's challenging to reach my goals when my heel are draggin'!

Where Were We?

Right then.

Now that the Bawkmas content has been (mostly) delivered for V732, I can return my full attention to my projects.  I wish that I could remember which project last had my full attention!

Spamming Me With Science

I came home late Friday night/Saturday morning (boy's night out, don'tchyaknow) and instead of going directly to bed like a good little yapper, I popped online for a moment just to see if anything was happening.

And something was happening!



Slarty was in the fairgrounds sitting very quietly.  I suppose that alone is debatable if it qualifies as "something happening."  But! what Slarty was doing was debugging his latest project: the Clanroid Informer!  And in the name of quality assurance, we sent out some status alerts to test the new application:



Sorry about the spam!  We did it... FOR SCIENCE!

The Next Big Project

Now that I feel reasonably comfortable (and secure) with my upcoming silly quest, I have returned my attention to two larger projects that have been simmering on the back burner for some time (and by "some time" I really mean "several years").

One of the projects involves a moderately complicated structure, one that I had discussed in brief.  I was contemplating on including instance dungeons, but after a little lot of thought, I believe that I have settled upon an approach which emulates the uniqueness of an instance while circumnavigating the complication of managing instances.

The other project is a rather massive undertaking – massive for me that is, as none of the puzzle technologies exist.  All of the scripts to power this adventure need to be designed and implemented.  The design of this project is still being revised as I try to find that magic balance between fun and complexity whist reducing the tedium common to repeatable quests.

Then there are all of those smaller projects – several small, silly side quests – that still await attention.  I shall make an effort to squeeze those into updates as time provides, but my attention is now on the next big project.

The Trial Run

The past several days have been busy for me IRL, but I still make time each day for Clan Lord projects.  In fact, I spent some time yesterday creating illustrated instructions for my newest helper, as I am (arguably unfairly) throwing him into a new, challenging project.

Under typical circumstances, a new helper would be assigned some easy-to-do introductory projects in an effort to acclimate the helper with design processes of Clan Lord.  The learning curve varies from person to person, as does the attention span.  After discussing the conceptual project mechanics with the helper, he understood right away what I was trying to achieve (which partially concerns me, because sometimes I don't understand what I am trying to achieve).  I then gave him the unglamorous assignment of entering the data tables for the project – and there is a lot of data for this project.  And this assignment is just for the test project – a smaller, trial run version of the real project.

While he's doing that, I can turn my attention to finishing the rewrite of my silly quest.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I have taken a new helper, and I think that he may be smarter than I.

While we are waiting for the set-up dust to settle, I have given him a small task to perform: write some jokes that will make me laugh.  We shall see if he is also funnier than I!

I am excited and hopeful that this new helper can bring some fresh perspectives to my growing list of projects.  Moreover, I am hopeful that we now have a chance to actually finish these projects!

The Front Burner

Yesterday I spent some time running around in Puddleby, and bumped into a couple of GMs who happened to be online at the same time.  After exchanging our greetings (which were largely just a bunch of juvenile insults: "Hey, I see that you're still ugly!"), one of the GMs and I fell into discussion about one of the larger projects which had been placed on the back burner.

While the details of project are unimportant, the point of my mentioning this is that I have been thinking about the project since my chat with the GM.  In fact, I spent the better portion of this morning outlining the logic of the super quests.  I have not compared my new notes to my old notes on this project, but I already know that the new ideas are better than whatever I had previously put to paper.  This creativity excites me and drives my desire to redevelop this project.

I am in the process of competing my silly quest, and once that has been removed from the front burner, then I will have room to move this massive project forward from the back burner.

Another Update Completed

I have made a lot of progress on the scripts for my silly little quest.  While I was unable to complete everything in time for the V726 deadline, I must say that, overall, I am pleased with the progress that I have been making on this project.  Heck, I am pleased that I am making any progress on this project!

This evening was deadline evening, and I spent my evening assembling my content for V726.  The materials which I submitted were for a couple of projects in development, and both were produced entirely by one helper.  It will be a while before we see either of these new areas in game, but both of the new areas are shaping up to be ambitious projects.

Hitting the Books

I've been working away at a frivolous quest – one that I have been wanting to do for some while.  The primary quest item is a "smart" item, and by "smart" I really mean "Zo smart", in that it has special data that it needs to track, kind of like how a healer's shirt is smart enough to remember how it's been dyed.

The nuts and bolts of the quest are working well enough, and I am trying to polish it so that it will be ready for V726.  That means that I have only two days to complete debugging.

The Drawing Board

I'm back at it.

In between gaps of buggy coverage for Apple's live iPhone event, I spent time revisiting projects that I have not touched since May of this year.  Most of my time spent was reviewing notes and procedures – lots of "this code is sloppy" and "this can be done more efficiently" and the occasional "whoa, I must have gotten dumber over the summer months because this is way too smart to be my code!"  And this was all from reviewing just one project consisting of six core scripts!

One observation has been that NPCs don't really recognize Puddleby Knights outside of the Hall of Chivalry.  Personally, I think that it would be cool to have an NPC say "Greetings, Sir Yappy," for all of my friends to hear.  I would like to expand the acknowledgment of such organizations, and the NPCs seem like a good starting point.  If I'm clever about it, I could expand that acknowledgment to associations.  How cool would that be!

Cobwebs

I'm covered in them!

I am reviewing all of my uncompleted projects.  Sheesh, I have a lot of unfinished stuff!  Time to start moving things from the "To Do" list to the "Done" list.

Right then!  Where were we?

That Eureka Moment

After rooting around for some old notes relating to some current projects, I found a stack of notes concerning the design of a complex quest which I started over a year ago.  The rediscovery of these notes annoyed me, as I was reminded how I had started this project in earnest and allowed it to slip down The List.

The basic premise of the quest is a logic puzzle which needs to be different for each visiting player.  The overall design of this quest is really hard, and it is at times like this I find myself wishing that I was born intelligent instead of gorgeous.  My tiny brain struggles with the organization of the quest's concepts, which I analogize as playing 52 Pickup with all of the cards facing down and being instructed to only pick up the red cards (I guess that would make it 36 Pickup).  The red cards need to be in a different arrangement when I play, so that the previous player can't just tell me the positions of the red cards.

As I reread my project notes, I began to recall why I abandoned this quest: it was simply too complex for my ability as a designer.  But, on the other hand, the idea for the quest is such a cool idea.  It pained me to let this idea languish On The List.  I brought out some blank paper and, as the saying goes, went back to the drawing board and started afresh.  This was Tuesday night, and I spent the remainder of the week jotted down notes and ideas.

Today I had a flash of insight – a sudden, surprising idea which actually caused me to shriek "that's it!" aloud.  I believe that I found a way organize this quest in such a way that would enable me to script it.  I am very excited (and relieved!) to have experienced that eureka moment which propelled this project forward.