Face the Leup!

More tweaks and tinkerings:

* You should notice in the armor store that you can now see the stats of your current armor when choosing whether or not to buy a new armor item. I'm going to be introducing a similar addition to the other stores and such soon.
* You can now edit the description of your personal equipment using the Revise option in the stores.
* Tweaked the graveyard fighting slightly to reflect modifications in the code. Also made it so that spirits gradually regain soul points over time as they chat and move about...
* The Garrett Battle Academy now features a Battleground where you can practice your skills in combat on a variety of practice dummies. Combat against these dummies is graded, and will eventually provide access to the Moonlight Arena, where combatants can take on new and dangerous challenges.
* Added in a stub for the Moonlight Arena. Nothing is functioning there yet, although you'll get different messages depending on what you have.
* Also fixed a bug in the arena healer that resulted in a 'no way out' situation - sorry about that! Still tinkering with that section, so if anything else goes funny in the Academy (or anywhere else, for that matter), let me know.
* Got tired of having to clean out thirty to fifty spam messages within the petition viewer (I mean, really, who actually makes bots just for the purpose of spamming a game with 'Mail Problem' messages that contain porn ads?), so I'm working on a solution to ban them. This means that anyone banned by the system will now also be banned from making petitions, hopefully. If this goes horribly wrong and now you can't get in, contact me via email at wizardofaus@labarc.com or via AIM at Aus the Gamer.
* Cleared out the ban list, with the exception of the IP that keeps spamming the petition system.
* Added a display board to the village - not only does this advertise the various services of Valexville, but it also provides a quick way to get to practically every location in town.

Just to let you know, I've turned PVP combat off temporarily, pending upgrades to the PVP script to take the updated statistics into account.

I also found a bug that made skill experience for weapons NOT accumulate. As you're supposed to earn experience with a weapon as you use it, this has been fixed. (Eeesh.)

Furthermore, I've been meddling with the way that the skills -- those powerhouses that they are -- work just a little bit better, depending on those statistics you've been spending attribute points are. If you have particularly high attributes in certain areas, your skills will last longer and be a little more effective than you're otherwise used to.

Finally, Seth now acknowledges when you're carrying huge bagloads of gems, and bears this in mind when setting his prices.

So someone poked me to point out that there were a few game bugs that needed fixing. Turns out that while I'd done occasional bits of work here and there, in some cases I never uploaded the changes, and in others I'd never finished the changes. So I went through and fixed some stuff. Case in point:

* I had added attributes to the game, which you can upgrade from your status screen. They have a small, but significant influence on your combat capabilities. The problem is, when I was rewriting the section of the battlescript that uses these, I managed to simultaneously break armor and armor effects - resulting in monsters being able to pretty much kick your ass regardless of how cool your armor was. After puzzling through the battle script, I found the problem, and fixed it. Armor now works as it was intended, which should mean less being repeatedly splattered by forest monsters of a comparable level. (It's still no excuse not to upgrade your armor and buy new and shinier things.)

* I fixed a ... well, not exactly a bug, but a game exploit involving the Polish sold by Enchantments for Less due to the maximum value increase being set too high. It's now been set to a somewhat more reasonable number. The price of the Master Polish has also been increased, due to its ability to affect all of your equipment and its slightly higher average increase in value.

* I should probably point out that there are currently two functional versions of LotGL in operation; one is at http://labarc.tokimi.net and the other is at http://www.labarc.com/LotGL/. In my more organized moments, this means that I can upload and test changes on one server without screwing things over for the people on the other server (at least until I know that what I'm doing works the way it's supposed to.)

* For those who might be wondering, yes, LotGL does use ad banners, mostly on the off chance that it'll actually do some good if people find them interesting. However, if you don't want to deal with the things and aren't particularly inclined to use an adblocker plugin on your browser, you can shut them off by setting the 'View Ads?' option to 'No' in your Preferences section. (You can access Preferences from the Village Square.)

* I had added new armor options to the game (cloaks, bracers, amulets, rings...) -- but hadn't quite finished building them. In particular, I never actually coded the shops to sell them, but did add some cloaks and amulets to the database. This wouldn't've been a problem if not for the fact that Rick can actually detect and sell these items on occasion - despite not being properly coded to equip these items appropriately to your character. (At least one person stumbled upon this glitch and left a petition.) I've set it up so that Eric will no longer attempt to sell you these items until they're working properly, so hopefully this bug won't occur again.

* I did some adjustments of the game's internal mechanics, as well -- most notably, inflation, the process by which certain prices increase and decrease. In short, the more gold there is lining people's pockets and bank accounts, the higher prices rise to accommodate this. This means that prices on inflation-affected shops vary from 75% (the cost when nobody has money) to 125% (the cost when there's a huge amount in the local economy).

* And finally, I also did a bit of tinkering with the newday script so that random events occur a little more frequently, and so that the underlying systems that keep the game running run a bit more smoothly. (In short, the gold supply that monsters draw from has been improved, and various unfortunate and unpleasant events by the forces of leupdom should crop up a little more visibly.)

I've reopened the game, so to speak, but warn you in advance that the problems are NOT gone; we're still working out what's wrong. Play at your own risk, for the moment. Most of the normal functions of the game seem to remain functional.

Argh! I had some things to try on Legend of the Green Leupak, and apparently several of the game's tables... have just ceased to exist. I'm not sure whether this is going to spread further to destroy more tables, so I've backed up the remaining portions of the game, and made the site inaccessible to users until I get it fixed one way or another.

Sure, I'm slacking, but at least now you've got another source of slack when you finally run out of energy or get killed. Right?

Today, my procrastination knows few bounds, but I did edit a few things today, which would count as work if only I could figure out how to get someone to pay me hourly for it. Anyhow, noting that a few of the pages are now woefully out of date, I'm going through and cleaning things up. This will not improve your game at all in any measurable way, but it brings me satisfaction nonetheless.

Okay, one of these things that's actually relevant is that I'm working on the Battle Academy's library. ("The what?") The Garrett Battle Academy was originally a place you went to before being allowed to attain the next experience level. After a while of tinkering with the system, I gradually removed this feature, allowing adventurers to earn their levels 'in the field', as it were. (This also meant I could use effects that take experience levels away without the trainers being seriously confused.) The Academy remained closed for a while, but I decided that I still wanted to do something with it... and thus the trainers took on a new role, training people in skill in a particular weapon. However, there is also a library, that provides some information about the game itself... and that's what I'm tweaking. (Incidentally, if you're a new player who's reading this, check out the Library and read the books!)

So I sat down to play for a bit, and came up with a few more easy tweaks - I think I've gamebalanced 'em, but if not, there'll be a whole lot of killhappy adventurers running around for a bit.

1) The 'Take a Rest' option now grants more fatigue when you do find a nice place to rest. In addition, the chances of finding an ideal spot improve as you get closer to the village (or put another way, get worse as you get closer to the Leupak's Clearing). However, occasionally you will lose a point of energy from 'false alarms'... and of course, there's always the chance of a fight with something that can kill you.

2) Wandering around the village can slowly restore your fatigue. Slowly.

3) The way in which Skeleton Crew inflicts damage has been modified slightly; it still isn't greatly useful against larger creatures, but it will actually occasionally hurt them now.

After a rather lengthy hiatus (I blame that whole 'going back to work and catching up with major debts' thing), I'm finally starting to work on the Legends of the Green Leupak game. I probably should be working on a few other projects, too...

Psyche Tamer -- A virtual-pet sort of site, where you and your Psyches go forth and kick the ass of evil. At last count, it was started (you could create Psyches, and buy objects from the shops), but I took a break from it.

Delver -- A dungeon crawler to end all dungeon crawlers; ideally, this game will contain 1,001 levels of trouble, a boatload of treasures to find, NPCs that try to outrace the PCs, and a grand prize to whomever manages to complete the game. I have the concept on paper, but haven't started work on it.

Life in Review -- My idea of a review site; unfortunately, it's only marginally functional (if by functional one means 'you can view one review and that's about it') due to lack of work on it.

And of course, Legend of the Green Leupak, which while still a good and functional game in its own right, has many aspects that I need to finish (like its skills system.)

Although it isn't entirely imperative for our continued operation, the time has definitely come to start seeking people for the following positions:

-- Site Artist. We definitely need an artist willing to make artwork for Legend of the Green Leupak (and various Lab Arc projects in general.) Unfortunately, unless Lab Arc Designs turns into a paying venture, the only payment available for services would be space on our server, and possibly a labarc.com email account if you want one. Interested applicants should email admin at labarc dot com for further information. Please include 'Applying: Site Artist' as your subject so my filter knows what to look for.

-- Game Moderators. Although not entirely necessary, it would be very nice to know that someone is taking care of my game(s) when I'm busy dealing with my family life and real-world environment. Therefore, if anyone is interested in applying for the position of Game Moderator for LoGL, please contact admin at labarc dot com for further information. Please include 'Applying: LoGL Game Mod' as your subject so my filter knows what to look for.

And now, the updates - a few small ones to get started.

First, after noting a complaint in the Odds and Evens Casino, and checking the numbers, I did decide to raise the hunger bonus value of the casino food/drink somewhat (stew from '30 to 60' to '50 to 100', and ale from '2' to '6 to 15'). As a general rule, the inn food is still cheaper, especially if you're well-liked enough to be able to haggle down the price.

Second, mostly out of whimsy, I added a rare (and expensive) Diamond Rose to the choices available at the Odds and Evens flower stand. It's expensive, and only available to the charming, and is guaranteed to show your loved one that you care. (Caveat emptor note: Flowers from the flower stand have no physical effect on your game, much like in the real world.)

Third, again mostly out of whimsy, I added a few additional hallucination effects, so you might notice a few new lines and effects the next time you get sent into a hallucinatory state.

Fourth, I changed one of Rico's 'singing' effects; there's a random chance that he'll sing 'U G L Y' to you if you ask, but now if your charm is high enough, you'll get a different effect. None of these changes are severely practical, mostly just making sure I've still got the editing potential.

Considering my overall work ethic and cluttered plate, there's no guarantee that this means I'll be back to regular work, but if I see there's interest, I'll probably keep working. Hope to hear from you soon.

The Lab Arc Designs group currently runs the following games, all of which are now seeking applications from qualified applicants. Contact us via email at ourlostprophet@gmail.com , or by AIM at Lab Arc Designs to arrange an interview, or follow the directions as listed on the individual game's website. Note: If you would like to become a player in multiple Lab Arc games, you only need to apply once. Once you've been accepted, you can play in any of our games ever, for LIFE, unless you someday start to suck.

Great settings, unique games! Please read on....

About Lab Arc:
Lab Arc GM/Mods are writers and gamers with years of experience behind them.
We have been running online games since 1997.
Check out our website at www.labarc.com

( What we're looking for, what we offer..Collapse )

( Our current games - creepy small towns, revolutions in NYC, Firefly, music magic, and more...Collapse )

We also run a couple of RPG advertisement communities you should be aware of - buffyrpers for Buffy/Angel rpgs , and serenityrpgs for Serenity/Firefly and other space-opera or western themed game ads.

You can also join our Lab Arc Designs community, arcology to keep up on the latest news about our games and projects.

We'd really love to get some new players- don't be shy! We're quite friendly, and you're welcome to contact us over AIM at Lab Arc Designs for information on any of the games or to make an application.

Hope to hear from some of you soon!

--L

Well. Apparently, tokimi.net has done something bizarre that I haven't quite figured out yet -- it added spaces to all passwords for some inscrutable reason. This problem can be fixed manually by clicking the 'forgot your password' link to get in, and then going in and changing your password, but right now I'm going through and fixing accounts.

Also, labarc.com apparently can now do PHP code. This has interesting implications for the future.

...and yes, I get weird patterns of work. That's just the way I am. Heh heh.