Last nights were improved dramatically by the lack of lucid cannabilistic Batoru Rowaiaru scenes. Yay. So I feel somewhat better today though still in need of a little bit of sleep catch up. I think the rain helped too. The roof on my little room is tin I think, so the rain is quite loud upon it, but in a good way.
Archive for February, 2009
Weirdness
27
Feb
Today was just all kinds of weird. And not the good sort of weird.
I think it mostly stemmed from me and my mood and just seemed to radiate out effecting most of what I did. I tried to get into roleplaying a couple of times to see if it would help but without much luck.
I hope I can shake it soon, there’s still a lot of code I want to do before Monday and I’ve only one more day ‘alone’ with Ewan to enjoy before my Mum returns from her hiatus on Sunday.
Or maybe at this stage I should just put the code aside for the weekend and just try to have a bit of fun before I get back into the grind of things.
PS. I know it is probably bad, but there is some small satisfaction in the fact that my personal blog gains more hits (double) per day/week/month than the website of my ex-husband’s game.
Snuggling Ewan
26
Feb
So, I got lonely and got Ewan up out of bed to snuggle. He wasn’t asleep anyways for some weird reason, despite it being 1am. Not that he was crying, he was and has been playfully chatting away in his cot for the last three hours (yes… three hours). He’s now sitting up on my bed and pulling tissues from the box and no doubt making international calls on my mobile. I think he’s in the over tired state where everything is absolutely hilarious and he can go from extremely happy to extremely upset in the blink of an eye. Thankfully for now, it is the extremely happy and snuggly side I get.
vNPCs now Purchase from Shops
25
Feb
Another update to the code that has been needed for a long time. Basically vNPCs are the various people that make up everyone who lives in Seahaven. The city is literally teaming with thousands of people, going about their daily lives, making purchases, selling things… but obviously this would be impossible to represent in code. We can’t make thousands of mobs and it would .. well just be too spammy.
What I have done is put in place a system where items are brought regularly from shops by these vNPCs and the coin placed in the store room. The items are brought at the shop’s sellrate (settable for you by staff) and the chance of an item being brought is dependant upon the value. So lower valued things are sold more often and higher valued items less. The more variety you have in your storeroom the greater chance you have of selling things.
As a result the old system of having a wage to represent these NPC purchases has now been removed. If you have one and think you shouldn’t, please let us know ASAP.
Work Hours
25
Feb
An update I’ve been wanting to do for a while, finally gave myself a kick up the ass and did it. Basically rather than work hours restoring once a day.. and it sometimes working sometimes not, it now gradually goes up over time like health, stamina and focus. Dexterity increases the rate at which it goes up. There is no longer any mass increase at midnight.
Tattoos Are Great Aren’t They?
24
Feb
I have one on my hip. It is a small ankh and I’ve had it for a number of years now and never regretted it even for a second. I’ve been long wanting to get another and whilst I haven’t yet, what I have done is added a new skill to Dark Isles (which is a part of a much larger injury system which is currently being worked upon): Tattoo Artist.
It is very heavily tied in with dexterity and makes use of patterns which the tattoo artist can apply to themselves, or offer to tattoo another person. The other person can either accept or decline the offer. Accepting it results in a permanent inking on their body.
Tattoos are linked to the wear locations and are covered up when items are worn on the relevant places. For example, a shoulder tattoo would be covered by anything on the shoulders, body or about the body.
Patterns initially will be available for purchase and can be reused, but eventually we want to tie this in to an artist skill, which the tattoo artist could learn themselves or perhaps purchase off other people.
Tattoos take work time, and the more complex the tattoo, and the lower the skill, the more time it is going to take tom complete.
If your character has a tattoo currently in their description, talk to staff about getting this transferred into the new system. You will need to provide a description of the tattoo between 1-3 lines in length.
Bi-Weekly Rant
20
Feb
I seem to feel the need to do this and vent every couple of weeks. And today is the lucky day. 2.42am and I’m not asleep because I can’t seem to wind down from something that happened late yesterday.
I had to get Ewan up from his bed at 11.30pm last night, because he was still awake and had pulled his sheet completely off. He had been asleep, but woke up because my Mum decided that 11pm was a good time for her to hang washing out in the carport right outside of his room. If the noise didn’t wake him, then the bright light turning on and off (it runs on heat sensor) would of been. And he didn’t resettle. But surprisingly enough, this wasn’t want upset me. That … in some form or another, I am almost used to.
So, I was fixing up Ewan’s cot and Mum (who was still up cleaning and recleaning everything because of course, I never do anything good enough) wanted to hold him whilst I did this and got a bottle ready to resettle him. I come back up to get him and I can tell my Mum is looking a little sheepish and she declares to me he has given him his first hair cut and cut some of his curls off so that she can keep them as a keepsake. Then she gave me one of them to do the same.
Someone who isn’t a Mum might not get why this is a big deal to me. Or maybe I am just being crazy and over-reacting, but this isn’t a one time occurance. She had kids, she had my brother and I. She’s gotten the chance to do this all before with us. This is the second time around for her. I wanted to be the first one to cut his hair. Instead, not only was I not… I wasn’t even there to see it. And there have been loads of other things over the past 18 months that I have wanted to do, some I have managed to be able to, but often not without a lot of fuss from his Nan-nan because she wants to do it.
Talking to her about it is extremely difficult. She doesn’t get it. Hell, she doesn’t even think I am a good Mum and is very vocal about telling me so. Certainly she has never told me anything but. And even if I told her, she tends to ignore me and do it anyways with Ewan. I’ve told her before.. don’t give him x because it’s too little and he’ll choke on it.. five minutes later I return and she’s given it to him and he’s choking. Or me telling her not to feed him so much chocolate and marshmellows, she just completely ignores me. Or not to wash his clothes and sheets because she picks up stuff that hasn’t been worn and does them. I get frustrated doing things for Ewan when she constantly redoes everything I do because in her mind it isn’t good enough.
Ultimately I guess that is what it comes down to.. it is less about me being upset about this specific event, and more about me feeling out of control here and out on a limb.
What choice do I have? It is not like my Mum has other accomodation options. Nor would she be able to cope emotionally if I did ask her to move out. And if it came down to that, there’s no one here to help support her through such a thing.
Code Updates This Week
20
Feb
Another couple of major updates.
Firstly the more recent one. Restring. Help Restring for more information about how to use it, but basically it gives experienced crafters the ability to customise their product in a small way. You can’t change materials, or completely alter colour. But you can make something red, burgundy and alter the wording. Give it a bit of flare and all that. Alchemists can also label vials.. which is always handy.
The next one is a conceal skill. This isn’t to conceal yourself, that’s what cloaks and masks do currently, but rather to conceal a exit that builders have marked as concealable. Your skill at this is saved on the exit and when someone searches, it is compared to their search skill and perception.
There has a fair bit of work done on the magic orb system too. I would say that it is about 80% done. And a few experienced players have been given some orbs to try out, test and iron out the bugs before I work on the next stage. Bugs have been found (some of the effects don’t save past a copyover/reboot) and will be worked on. Overall, very pleased about how it is going.
The weather system has been upgraded and you should see some more variations to the weather and weather more fitting the season.
Combat code had a few fixes. Basically there was supposed to be a penatly for those who have low health when it comes to both attacking and being attacked. This wasn’t being applied properly, now it is. Yay.
Inventory, in particular how many things you can carry in your inventory has had a huge fix. The -value bug that showed up should not occur now. Coins no longer count towards inventory. And the maximum amount you can carry is now applied properly. Crafters will need a reasonable dexterity… it is one of your main attributes so don’t neglect it. If you have, and want to move a couple of attribute points around so you can craft again, contact a staff member to discuss.