Random Inspiration

Have you ever experienced the sensation of an idea passing by you?  Have you ever been deep in thought on a subject, and you have a sudden, random flash of insight on something absolutely unrelated to the topic on which you focus – and the idea is gone just as quickly as it came?

I experienced this today.  I was thinking of something totally unrelated to Clan Lord when I suddenly had an idea for a Clan Lord quest.  The experience was rather surreal, like starting awake from a deep sleep and losing the memory of a dream.  As the idea faded from my mind, I went to my computer and hastily typed the idea.  Later this evening I refined this idea and have started drafting outlines for the supporting scripts.

I have been working on a large area for a while now, and although the project has been creeping along slowly, the overall project has been missing a cool central quest.  Today I found that central quest – in a rather sudden, random sort of way – and I am really excited about the idea.

I am very inspired and motivated right now, and that's all that I'll say.

Weather Report

Instead of taking the day off and relaxing like most Americans on this Labor Day, I spent today catching up on cataloging and resolving bug cases.  While I managed to organize all of the cases from V663, I noted that there are still outstanding cases from V660 that have yet been organized.  I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

One of the personal goals achieved today was organizing the bugs related to weather, which included comparing and closing duplicate reports.  The most popular weather-related bug report has been of the "it's raining indoors" variety.  For those who are curious, here is the list of the unique areas that we have so far:

• The small safe caves in Sasquatch Valley
• The lower level of The Meshra Cave
• Both PF trees in The South Forest
• Elendil Fa'ril's tree in The Meadow
• The small cave in the marshy section of The Wetlands (this one is debatable; this small area could be a gorge bottom instead of a cave)
• Arial's Hut near The Northern Plain
• The tree in the Old Cemetry
• Ehmboff's hut in The Estuary
• The small hut in wooded section of The Wetlands
• The tunnel near the Myrm Highlands
• The tunnel in The Spirit Wood
• The safe cave in The Northwest Forest
• Geisela's hut near Kitty Beach
• The tunnel in The Northern Plain leading to the chamelopod area 

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to file a weather report.  It is much appreciated.

Chaos!

This evening involved cheap, silly fun – but fun nonetheless!

The Potion Of Disguise

While holding a fairgrounds chat prior to the update, I entertained myself by throwing disguise potions at several of the attendees.  This item has been around for a while – it was created circa V321 – and I admit that I have never seen disguise potions available in game (I should also mention that I never saw oak bashers available in game, so your experiences may differ from mine).  I had wondered as to why this item has been unavailable for so long.

Allow me to begin by stating that there's more to designing an item than "what can the item do?"  A designer should think ahead on how the item will impact the game.  Personally, when designing an item, I do not think "what cool things will this item do," but instead I tend to take the cynical view of "what can go wrong" and "how will this item be exploited?"

Having said that: the potion of disguise is a frivolous toy.  The technology that powers this potion is similar to a butterfly's kiss.  The change of appearance is temporary and cosmetic; it does not actually change the race of the player.  One may not quaff a potion of disguise and then enter a tree on KI which one would normally not have access.

If the potion is harmless, then why is it unavailable?

It may be that the potion is simply confusing.  If you see a character with a human icon and their /INFO reads that they are a thoom, then that is confusing.  It may have been decided that such a situation conflicted with the expectations of the /INFO command, and therefore the potion of disguise brought more trouble than fun to the game.

Another reason why this item may not have made its way into the game is because, like a bottle of paint, one player may use the potion upon another (unwilling) player.  We've all grown accustomed to our personal character's appearance, and I can understand how some players may not appreciate having a change forced upon them.  A player who wishes to avoid a butterfly kiss may move away from the butterfly, but that is harder to do with a thrown potion of disguise.

In truth, I do not know the reasons why the potion of disguise was never made publicly available.  But as a designer, I have some ideas.

RSVP

As a follow-up to my discussion of games within games, I wanted to mention one of my favorite web games: RSVP.

The premise is that you are hosting a dinner party and you, being a good host, must keep everyone happy.  This is achieved by seating matching guests next to each other.

This game has everything that makes a game enjoyable: simple premise, very simple rules, even simpler game play, and a lot of planning and thinking.  The retro look and jazzy lounge music are all bonuses.  And there is no time limit!  This is, in my opinion, a well-designed game.

You may play RSVP online here.

Bugday Is Now!

You may have heard from another player, or experienced for yourself, that a health-poison bug was introduced into V666 which impacts the ranger's shape-changing ability.

The problem originates from several of the support scripts which manage temporary changes applied to a player's stats.  For example, when a ranger morphs into a vermine, all of the ranger's stats – atkus, detha, regia – temporarily change for the duration of that morph.  These support scripts oversee and manage those changes.

Up until now there had been handshaking between the numerous scripts – or perhaps a better description would be to say that there had been "silent nods of acknowledgment" – on how to manage changes to a player's histia stat.  This arrangement worked well enough for morphing rangers but less so for stonegirdling champions: champions using the stonegirdle continued to experience situations which would invoke health-poisoning.  We tried to correct this problem within the support scripts for V666.  It appears that the problem has instead been transfered from champions to rangers – so champions: you're welcome!

We're aware of the issue, and we are working on a swift solution.  On the bright side, this bug is certainly keeping in the spirit of V666: it is, without question, hellish.

Welcome to V666.

While UpdateGM commenced the process of initiating the update, I stayed out of the way by chatting in the fairgrounds for a while.  Paramedic had some insight on the gerbil wrangling process:



Details about V666 may be read here. Have fun exploring!