Face the Leup!

More tinkering

wizardofaus — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:54:40 GMT

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.

A few quick tweaks

wizardofaus — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:14:19 GMT

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.

Scientific progress goes boink?

wizardofaus — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:11:08 GMT

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.)

In testing...

wizardofaus — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:02:39 GMT

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.

Legend of the Green Leupak is down!

wizardofaus — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:52:15 GMT

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.

Anything counts as work if it uses bandwidth. Right?

wizardofaus — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:24:49 GMT

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!)

Forest modifications

wizardofaus — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 01:32:52 GMT

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.

Updates, musings, and tinkerings

wizardofaus — Wed, 31 May 2006 21:49:26 GMT

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.

Lab Arc Designs now seeking quality writers/ roleplayers

charisma — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 23:34:53 GMT

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

Player guidelines:
Interested players must be....

* 18+ and demonstrating a basic maturity
* Drama-free, friendly, dependable, able to play well with others
* Good writing and grammar skills, no chatspeak
* Interested in character/plot development
* Capable of playing well-rounded, non Mary-Sue Characters
* Experienced gamer, or novice/less experienced, but willing to learn

What we offer:
* Mellow, accessible, friendly GMs contactable by AIM, email or IRC
* Dynamic storylines that change and evolve according to character actions
* IRC chat , both OOC and IC
* Great NPCs, rich settings, detailed histories
* Excellent players with wonderful characters, and great writing skills
* Assistance as needed with characters, storylines, etc.
* Freeform games, some with rules system options

Current Games:

New Graceland

Time running: Brand new, just about to start!
Your GMs: L and Aus
Format: Play takes place by post on Greatest journal, and also via chat
System: Freeform
Based on: Song lyrics
Characters: Characters are created from song lyrics from any era and genre
Game time: Real time game, but setting is a retro-new look (think The Incredibles type of a world. Fifties look, but modern things like computers and cubicals)
Premise: Elvis left this world in 1977 and founded New Graceland, a town where he could live among the music he loved. When a musician creates a character-driven song, that character comes to life and exists in New Graceland so long as his song is being sung somewhere in the real world. Songs (and the characters based on them) can be from any era or genre.
Upcoming events: The game will be starting as soon as we get enough characters to play in it, so come on down!
Needed: Any character based on a song lyric! For an example, see The Mariner , taken from The Decemberists' Mariner's Revenge Song.

End of the Line

Time running: Over a year
Your GMs: L, Aus, Niki, Rick, Jim
Format: Play takes place by post on Greatest journal, and also via chat
System: Freeform, with an option to use the BTVS Eden system to make a character sheet
Based on: Loosely based on the Buffyverse future, in NYC in the year 2013
Characters: All originals
Game time: Game runs on real time month and date wise (there's a calendar of events to help players keep up), but in the year 2013
Premise: The year is 2013. A group of supernatural entities (primarily vampires and demons, some lychantropes) called The Guardians has come to a position of power in the world. Humanity can either choose to live in ignorance of their true nature or resist. There are two resistance groups, plus a 5th column resistance within the Guardians themselves. The game isn't entirely apocalyptic, however - there's a focus on the characters themselves, who are trying to live their lives while fighting the good fight.
Upcoming events: The mysterious goth club, The Requiem, is having a band/musician contest called Requiem Idol. A good way to intro a character into this game would be as a contestant in this event.
Needed: Basic humans, some non-humans - maybe a lychanthrope or two, more resistance splinter groups, fifth column members....

Into the Black

Time running: About six months
Your GMs: L and Aus
Format: Play takes place by post on Greatest journal, and also via chat
System: Freeform, with an option to use the Serenity RPG by Margaret Weiss productions to make a character sheet
Based on: the Firefly universe, before the Serenity movie
Characters: Canon and originals
Game time: Episodic- about a month of character time is assumed to pass between episodes of the game. Far future setting.
Premise: Three ships are currently in play - the Serenity, the SS Walden, and the Starflare. Each ship has its own goals and story in every episode. You have the option of creating your own ship (particularly if you are joining with a group of friends), or joining one of the existing ships.
Upcoming events: Each of the ships is currently planetside working on a job - many opportunities to get a new character onboard.
Needed: Mr. Universe, Badger, members of the Cobb family (other than Janye and Matty) for an upcoming visit to their hometown, any original or mini-canon characters you can think of

Miittilagart

Time running: A few months
Your GM: Niki
Format: Play takes place by post on Live Journal, and also via chat
System: Freeform, with option to create d20 modern character sheet
Based on: Creepy small towns everywhere, Norse mythology
Characters: Humans, residents or newcomers to the town - any age
Game time: Real time, current time and date
Premise: In the seemingly peaceful small town of Mittilagart, Iowa , a small group of citizens attempt to reclaim their freedom and reality from a group of ancient demons
Upcoming events: March 8th - Founders day picnic
Needed: A member of the Heinrich family (one of the founding families descendants), any others

Coming soon - Arcydea, a richly developed fantasy world with play taking place at the Legarro Academy of Magic.

Browser-based games
Legend of the Green Leupak - Harken back to the days of door games in this Legend of the Red Dragon derivative!
Set in the world of Nexus, this browser-based game is great for monster slaying fun.

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

Bah, I say.

wizardofaus — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 06:51:05 GMT

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.

Newbie bonus, attributes, etc

wizardofaus — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:47:16 GMT

I've added a Newbie Bonus to the game -- in short, the next new day for each character results in their recieving 10 attribute points to spend on the attributes of their choice, one gem, and 500 gold pieces. This should help out newbies with their first few days in the forest.

--

Yes, attribute points. Now, when you gain a level, you earn three attribute points, which you can spend on an attribute of your choice. Attributes... well, honestly, I'm testing the formulas for using them. Suffice to say that they'll determine attack, defense, special defense, speed, and charm (as well as other variables) in combination with your current equipment.

Next project - getting them to do that in combat, followed closely by 'getting the new equipment options to work.'

Tinkering and testing...

wizardofaus — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 05:21:31 GMT

Tested out the battlesystem script - so far, no major problems. Tested it with a new account, purchasing acceptably good equipment, and all seems fairly okay for the moment.

Advertising has been removed from the site -- though I did get one payment from them, upon attempting to collect on my most recent payment, I was informed that my account had been closed. Charming. If you have interest in advertising on our site, feel free to send me an offer.

Modified the monster upgrader so that it has a slightly less than perfect monster distribution. Overall, this should work out to a lower-powered monster (to make up for the increased power of monsters when you take armor coverage into account) -- however, this is only a test measure.

Still running.

wizardofaus — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 15:02:50 GMT

Apparently I should go sleep-deprived more often. I'm working on converting the clothing to meet the new system (which means, for one, the prices go down, and for two, you can wear boxer shorts without actively getting a penalty to your defense. Hey, if you wanna stroll around nearly naked, that's your funeral when the monsters catch up), and rescripting the armor shops, etc, to handle the expansion in the sheer amount of statistical joy.

If I don't pass out first. Hehe.

(Oh, and after some serious hammering -- my tests of the revised armor / damage systems seem to be working, at least the parts I'd wanted to have up and running. After I add in the new armor types, I can give it a more thorough testing...)

WAY overdue

wizardofaus — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:39:53 GMT

Heh. After one hell of a slump, I've decided to get back to work and try to get things running again.

Why? Well, simply put, this is probably my favorite bit of coding, and at the moment, the only one that's still relatively likable -- and it's still unfinished, which always bugs me. Add that to the fact that my financial status is getting pretty damn grim, and the fact that my banners actually pay me (yes, I'm desperate to the point where a measly couple of bucks from a banner actually changes my financial status, it's THAT bad), and, well, I'm back to work.

So what the hell am I doing?

Well, my last post was in regards to Battlescript v 3.0. In short, at the moment, I'm testing out some of the mods I made to the script (new armors, and how armor coverage affects defense/sdefense/etc.)

Okay, this still means diddly squat in terms of visual effects, I know. But hey, at least I'm working on it again. -=grin=- Hopefully the next post won't be weeks or months from now.

If you actually play LoGL, and like it, do me a favor. Toss me an email at somenameaus@yahoo.com and say so.

If you play it and don't like it... well, hopefully I'll be able to change your mind sometime soon.

Currently working on...

wizardofaus — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 19:01:32 GMT

Well, at the moment, I'm revising the battlescript (to what I call version 3.0) so that it will deal with the following game concepts:
-- Statistic-derived attack damage: In short, this means that you can cut things more effectively if you have high strength, while a high dexterity means you'll be more accurate in your archery.
-- Range in combat: Ranged weapons are getting programmed in; monsters will be capable of using ranged weapons themselves or closing in for the kill; ideally, 'running' will now just further distance you from your opponent, which may or may not result in an escape. (This will require revision of many pages, but hey, it'll be fun. Wouldn't you like to run ten paces from an enemy and shoot him to death while he lumbers towards you?)
-- Weapon and skill-based accuracy: Not just for ranged weapons (where accuracy plays a pivotal role), but for close weapons as well; a cumbersome, inaccurate weapon may inflict incredible damage IF it hits, but missing constantly will make it much less valuable.
-- Blocking, parrying, and dodging: Dodging already exists, in a manner of speaking, in the game; this concept will be expanded, and parrying (using your weapon to deflect attacks... if you have a suitable weapon) and blocking (stopping attacks entirely with your shield) will be added. In general, the defense style most likely to work will be chosen automatically, or the defense type to choose may be determined randomly from those available. However, the option will likely exist for you to focus on a particular defensive style to the exclusion of others; fencers may prefer Parrying, whereas burly warriors may prefer to Block, and practically anyone can enjoy the benefits of Dodging.
-- Armor coverage: In short, armor has a coverage rating that determines just how effective its defense is going to be against a particular attack. Skimpy, revealing chainmail garments are likely to be greatly attractive and alluring, but less likely to stop a sword from plunging into your stomach, for example.

I'm also considering a few other little ideas, like dual wielding (if you have two weapons of the same general type and have a high skill in that weapon type), but the above are those I'm working hardest to get in. For those who are curious, yes, gaining levels in weapon and other skills does often increase those 'statistic' things - and more weapons and armor are on their way, and need to be added to the status screen.

Also, you may notice that a banner has been affixed to the end of the output area; if for some reason, an inappropriate banner shows up, please report it to me and I will deal with it (and probably give some form of very nice reward for it). If you don't want to see banners at all, take heart -- there is an option in the Preferences menu (from the Village Square) to shut off advertisements. However, every banner viewed has a chance of adding to your current bank balance / subtracting from your current debt - why? Because it's a nice thing to do. So there. I wouldn't expect to earn a living off of it, but it's a nice little thank-you for indulging me in my poverty.

Oh, and speaking of banner ads, if anyone happens to want to advertise, let me know and we'll work out a deal, eh?

Behind the Scenes...

wizardofaus — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 23:05:54 GMT

For those wondering what Aus is up to (aside from trying to eBay things off so we have food money... stupid disability...), I'm working on a few different things more or less at once: expanding the equipment selection, figuring out how to de-equip equipment without making it cease to exist utterly, and adding a new section to the Training Academy letting you get in fights with practice dummies (and, if it works, getting graded on your results.) Consider all of this 'what I want to do' rather than 'what is done, though some of it's already being added:

-- I want to add cloaks, bracers, amulets, and rings to the game. Aside from giving it that old-school D&D charm (which I'm always in favor of), I also want to provide a bit more versatility... not to mention, I'd like to put a ring on my finger and still be able to use a shield, for example.

-- I'm considering removing Viva Potions, and instead build a Potion Belt. With the Potion Belt, you can equip any potion you want and drink it (though using anything in your inventory that isn't on that belt still counts as using up your normal attack.) [This is likely not going to happen anytime soon, if only because monsters use those things, too, ya know.]

-- The Practice Dummies; there's five of them, and they're meant to let you have an opportunity to fight opponents of varying difficulty without worrying about getting killed. You're graded on your performance; passing all five dummies gives you access to the Moonlight Arena (which, in turn, similarly lets you pick fights without worrying about getting killed, for the entertainment of the masses.)

-- Adding charm to normal weaponry and armor, as a reflection of whether that high price is because the weapon in question actually does something, or whether it just looks really pretty.

-- Adding ranged capability to weapons, so you can get in fights at a distance.

-- Adding an additional Coverage rating of Complete, and making Coverage have an effect (so that skimpy chainmail bikini might be tough as anything, but it's less likely to actually get in the way of an attack...)

-- Adding armor defense types - flexible, rigid, magical, energy, and spectral.

-- The dreaded 'armor / weapon damage' rule might return, in some format. Relax, if I do it, it'll only be because I've figured out how not to make it a pain in the ass.

-- EVERYTHING has the potential to provide special powers. Including pants.

-- Item location; ever get the urge to try to change something into a completely different item? Well, if this works, you'll be able to. (Of course, I'd advise that you wear an item in the location you're supposed to... wearing a ring on your head won't really help you.) Plus, I kinda want this tag in there so that one of my other ideas will work...

-- Storage Closets. My idea on getting pieces of equipment unequipped so that you can give them to other people, sell them to an NPC, buy them from an NPC, and even just keep them in storage so you can change between pieces of equipment that suit the occasion. In short, Families get a Storage Closet, and individuals may get storage closets by upgrading the size of their backpacks.

-- Gems in general are going to see more use. Thus, the amount of gems average per player required to drive down the rarity of them as a whole will be increased (to the point where every player would have to be carrying around hundreds of them in order for them to rate as Incredibly Common.)

-- Adding a third weapon slot - I was originally planning two weapon slots plus a ranged weapon slot, but why not let you make that determination on your own? Yes, ranged weapons can be used at close range... but weapons meant for close range are more likely to be accurate.

-- Adding a scroll/book slot - so you can equip a one-use spell scroll (or a repeated-use book) in order to give yourself some magical attack boosting without having to deal with years of magical training. Of course, easy power isn't cheap, but such is life.

-- Adding an Enhanced Innate Weapon slot. This one takes some explanation; as you may know, you always get an innate weapon - your fists - even when you don't have any other equipment. This weapon inflicts crushing damage, and isn't really all that great. But if you happen to want to be a dragon with awesome fire breath, or a demon with razor talons, before now you had to use one of your normal weapon slots for this; whereas this particular weapon slot would be specifically for the use of that sort of innate weapon, thus giving you a customizable personal weapon that you'll always have. (Note that this won't be anything easy to upgrade, but upgrading and customizing this second innate weapon will be possible. Also note that your regular Fists will still be an available option.)

-- Consolidation: The Enchantments for Less store is likely to eventually take over the task of enchanting and modifying existing equipment; this means that you won't have to wander all over the place to customize your current equipment, and also means that Eva, Kai, and Sylvia will have more time on their hands...

-- Item Generation: Which in turn means that they'll be able to provide this service instead; if you specify what you want from them (say, a suit of armor that gives 20 defense, zero special defense, only -5 to speed, and is enchanted to give regeneration), you'll get a price - you pay it, the item's yours. Customized equipment, back in business. Furthermore, using the Storage Closet concept listed earlier, NPCs can buy items from you and, assuming they have room in their Storage Closet, put it there for others to purchase at a later date. Someone else's used equipment might seem a little less than desirable, but usually it should be a little bit cheaper than buying one of those newly-generated pieces of equipment... And yeah, I know, if I'm going for realism I should also make it so that this item generation takes time. Still, somehow I suspect people are big on instant gratification.

-- Adding a healer to the Academy - mostly as a matter of convenience considering that people are probably going to get whomped on there, and well, it makes sense to have a healer on staff. Odds are, the healer's prices will be consistent regardless of who you are (unlike Charla, who tends to play favorites...), but he will only heal, rather than selling potions, and likely only offers the single service.

-- Since Seth already sells rings, it only makes sense that he should sell them when they become equippable items. However, if you attempt to give a ring to another player, a special condition occurs:
Rings from another player generally recieve a name (example: Arc's Gold Ring) to symbolize who gave them. They also will have a Special flag symbolizing the 'love' of the person who gave it. Be advised that if you attempt to change the name, the Special flag will be removed! (Likewise with any 'bought as a gift' sort of thing... change the name, and if the 'to you with love' flag exists, it will be removed.)
You can only give one piece of equipment at a time through the mail (most likely).
Wearing a ring given by someone who isn't your spouse is perfectly possible... though probably not so safe for you if your spouse notices! (Shaya and Rico being the obvious exceptions.)

-- Likewise, amulets will likely end up in Seth's sales cabinet; bracers will end up in Eva's store; cloaks will end up in Sylvia's store; scrolls and books will end up in Enchantments for Less.

-- Also needed: a nice normal grocery store, for people who don't want to travel out to Nef's Cottage every time they want lunch, and aren't fond of the cooking in the inns and pubs of Valexville.

-- Shaya and Rico may give special items to people they really want to look out for (Rico more than Shaya -- he's just more compassionate of a person.)

-- The joy of attributes: Attack, defense, special defense, and speed are already derived attributes to some extent, and this will only become more so as I begin modifying 'attack boosters', for instance, to boost strength instead, and change the formulae that produce final values so that they instead reflect the new versions of all of this stuff. This also means that charm is going to recieve a well-overdue adjustment from constant statistic to derived statistic.

-- Not sure if I mentioned this above... I'm also considering giving items a quality rating of some sort. So that you can tell the difference between really cheap crap (that's likely to break easily) and that superstrong duralloy ultrametal that won't break even if the wearer is utterly vaporized in a napalm shower. (It also means that cheap, easily breakable stuff is also cheaper to buy -- and more likely to stop working when it takes a serious beating.)

Whew, quite a bit. Now here's hoping I actually get some or all of that stuff working, eh?

Oh, and in case you were wondering - yes, I'm trying to sell things on eBay at the moment, including a 1st Edition Deities and Demigods -- yes, the one with Cthulhu in it and a 1st Edition Manual of the Planes. Check them out, make a bid if they interest you, or give a donation by clicking on the button below, if you've got the time and the cash handy. Every little bit helps.

Or if you're feeling particularly generous and tolerant, but don't actually want to spend any money, give this link a click. It's my promotion page - it's got a few banners on it, but no popups or anything else truly annoying - and the faster I can reach payout on the two advertising programs I'm involved in, the sooner I can see whether or not they actually pay, and thus whether or not it's an incredibly wasted effort. (Technically, I should be recieving payment from Paid to Promote next month... here's hoping.)

Whoops!

wizardofaus — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:13:32 GMT

Forgot to add an exit link to the 'pray to Gareth' page -- he might be evil, but it's really not nice to keep characters locked up there forever. The page has been fixed, and anyone who sent a petition in on it has had their navs reset; if you log in and you still can't get free of where you're at, the exit link should appear after you write a comment.. er, prayer.

Sorry about that!

Advertiser note...

wizardofaus — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 02:29:52 GMT

Testing out a new advertiser in the pay-per-impression field; hopefully it works out. If it tries anything weird, though, I'm gonna pull it.

Temple of Gareth added and other changes

wizardofaus — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 00:23:04 GMT

The Temple of Gareth has finally opened in Darken Row; as such, Shaya is free to focus on her work, and is no longer distributing her darker favors. On the other hand, a new priestess of Gareth, Sebrina, is at the Temple of Gareth, taking on the mantle of go-between for the worlds of the living and the dead.

Also, Divine Blessing has been exchanged for Divine Transformation -- which transforms your character in a manner which pleases Gareth. This basically takes an average of five stats (charm, speed, attack, defense, and special defense - when attributes are in, it'll use those instead), and anything that's below that number by a significant amount gets increased (anything really high gets lowered, to a lesser extent.) This also may change your race or gender under certain circumstances... be careful.

There are two other options in the Temple of Gareth -- 'inscribe your prayers' gives you the opportunity to pray directly to Gareth (who may or may not be interested in what you have to say), and a mysterious chalice offers a disturbing drink to the faithful. Consume with caution...

The 'Candy Surprise' favor, however, still shows up (now in Shaya's main menu) - since that's more a function of her personal habits than of Gareth's.

Oh, and while I was at it, I fixed (well, I think I've fixed) something that was supposed to be working already and ended up not such; spirits, charm, and/or favor are supposed to increase under circumstances that give you the 'Shaya's Protection' or 'Rico's Passion' buff, but thanks to a misplaced break; command, well, it wasn't. So now it should. And the inn code's a bit slimmer and faster for all of it.

Expansion Pack

wizardofaus — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 22:20:50 GMT

Yes, for a trial payment of only $29.99...

Just kidding. Anyhow, as you may have already noticed, the sub-armor section (gloves, shields, helms, and boots) is recieving some significant expansions in selection, bringing affordability in high-class armor to the common adventurer. Well, okay, the best things in life are still expensive, but that isn't new, is it?

The most particular modification was in the way shields work (and how they cost) -- in short, the shields that were on sale are considered to be 'wood/leather' for purposes of weight and defensiveness, and other materials' weight and cost are then factored to create new shields. This creates instances, for example, where you might see a Stone Tower Shield - with a whopping 42 def, 20 sdef, and -80 agility. (Yes, carrying a gigantic shield made of stone is not bright. On the other hand, that 42 def costs only 2,880 gold coins... will you take the risk?)

Also, at least for the time being, armor and clothing are sorted by cost rather than effectiveness (as there are now many more factors to bear in mind when selecting your armor.)

Can't see all of the new goods? Well, if your base attack is below a certain point (I'm changing this to your strength attribute later, but that's not ready yet), you can't use the heavier stuff - the things that cost your agility. So if you want that Stone Tower Shield, you need a high base attack (at least 68) in order to pick it up. Yes, this means using lots of potions if you want to get there without waiting for 68th level. It's a five foot tall shield made of stone, it's heavy. This only applies to the village -- Rick will sell you anything, regardless of how dangerous it might be to your personal health.

However, using things that are much, much too heavy for you to wear can catch up to you -- as you'll notice that if your speed is reduced to minimal levels by your armor, you get fatigued much faster than usual.

However, as new players in particular might rejoice about, your daily energy level has been increased by 40 points - which means much more forest time (and should hopefully counterbalance the fact that even cheap armor is heavy to most new players.) This change has been instituted in the newday and nefar's (restoration) area; if any other areas need to be adjusted that I forgot, please let me know.

Also, though this will be a moot point sooner than later, Hero Points can now be spent on Special Defense and Speed, if you earn them.

And furthermore, the lineup of trainers in the Garrett Battle Academy has expanded (and the current class offerings have more than tripled.) Go check it out.

Added one quick feature...

wizardofaus — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 04:35:45 GMT

Now you can sell ingredients to Nefar -- this might not seem like such a big deal, if you discount that Nefar happens to give better deals on ingredients than Rick! This might assist Nefar in making new potions soon...

Bugslayer!

wizardofaus — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:09:21 GMT

Fixed a bug in the status screen that made it fail utterly if you didn't have a master taken. (That's a little harsh for an attendance penalty.)

Fixed two bugs in the training academy:
-- One which made you able to visit your master when you had no master (and thus either crash, or gain skill in skill #0, which does absolutely nothing.)
-- One which made you unable to join a class if you had never used that skill before, even if the minimum skill requirement is zero (which all of them, for now, are.)

Didn't get anything particularly new done - it's my wife's birthday, sorry. -=grin=-

As usual, if any bugs do come up, use the Petition system and I'll get them fixed as soon as possible.

Edit: While I was at it, also polished the status screen up a bit more.

More skills to train at, and so on...

wizardofaus — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 05:10:48 GMT

Now there's a full set of basic training classes for various weaponry -- drop in to the Garrett Academy and train up! Incidentally, skill development will result in attribute increases as you go up in levels (this has already been tested, and it works!)

What does all of this mean to Dark Arts, Thievery, Magic, and Leupslayer skill?

Well, when I complete the Attributes section of the game (where your damage, defense, speed, etc, are determined by eight attributes, where alchemical effects, strength training, etc, get their own sections, and so forth) and when I get the Skill-Based Abilities coded in (for example, if you're very good at Swordwork, you might get a Whirlwind Strike, and so forth), I'm going to launch a skill reset.

This basically means that points in any skills (including the big four above) will be converted into experience points that you can choose to put into skills of your choice (however, the above four skill areas will be gone, though some or all of their skills will be absorbed into the new classes.)

This also means that attribute points gained before the official release will be cleared out (relax, they won't do a whole lot until then either.)

This ALSO means that Hero Points (the archaic form of permanent reward for defeating a True Green Leupak) will be removed entirely / will no longer be useful. On the other hand, part of the attribute implementation allows you to improve attributes when you gain a level. Don't worry, it'll balance out.

Banners, and their lack

wizardofaus — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 02:00:20 GMT

Pulled the banner out of the commentary code, and instead put it into the mail and interact sections. I'm testing out building my own advertising routine, for one, because it's a neat trick, and for two, because in all honesty I want to test out how it works. (Yes, for those of you who've been keeping score, I'm also working on building a game called Psyche Tamer.) As such, one concept that I'm testing out is simple: every time you view a banner advertisement, you have a chance (it isn't guaranteed) that you might recieve a gold coin in your bank account. I might change this to something more substantial and beneficial if the concept works out well -- I've always wanted to do something to support people for supporting me, after all, without being unfair to everyone else.

The current banner has only 10,000 impressions, and will cease to display when the impressions run out (or when you turn the banners off. -=grin=-) Hopefully, this'll confirm whether the whole advertising thing is worthwhile... or whether it's just mildly irritating. And on a side note, if anyone else happens to want to advertise (either here or on Psyche Tamer, it's all good), send me an email at somenameaus@yahoo.com and we'll work something out, eh?

Oh, and here's how to disable banners - it's in your Preferences section.

Hear ye, hear ye...

wizardofaus — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 22:48:22 GMT

A new kind of item has been added to the game - items that can raise the value or power of a piece of equipment. They will eventually be sold in Enchantments for Less, and may also be found in Rick's possession. The items are:

Weapon Polish
Armor Polish
Helm Polish
Shield Polish
Glove Polish
Boot Polish
Master Polish
Crystal Star
Crystal Sword
Crystal Breastplate
Crystal Shield
Crystal Cap
Crystal Boots
Crystal Gloves
Crystal Sun
Crystal Moon

---

Items that raise item value generally give a percentage (yes, this means that a weapon that's worth 50,000 will see more improvement than a weapon worth 500). Items that raise power directly add to power, in general.

Now for the fun part - or, the 'giving things away for free' part. For the next week, I'm going to give away the aforementioned, free, to anyone who sends Ye Olde Mail to Arc. Only one mail will count per day. How will I determine who gets what? Simply put, the first person to send mail gets Weapon Polish, the second gets Armor Polish, and so on down the list. I'll keep doing this until a week has passed, or until I've given away at least five of everything (that's a total of 80 free items), just to get the ball rolling (and let other people test them out.) Remember, you must send Ye Olde Mail to Arc to recieve something, and you can get up to one free item per day, just by sending a letter.