Dintiradan

Divorce is yet another method of unringing a belle. C'mon people, there must be more yet!

I should probably reread We again. Read it years ago (as in, before we took communism in school), so most of it would have gone over my head. I do remember liking it; reading it was just a result of me cruising the Sci-Fi aisle in the local library, looking for an intriguing cover. Never read any Rand, though I do have second hand exposure from Neil Peart and Terry Goodkind. As for the latter: I haven't reread the early books in the Sword of Truth series, but was Goodkind espousing Objectivism even then? Bits and pieces get introduced as the series progresses, but is this gradual introduction intentional, or was it something Goodkind decided to tack on once he was established? Click to reveal.. The first book had Darken, who was not the nicest guy, y'know? The second book had Goodkind slapping everything into a religious framework. Instead of just being a big meanie, now Darken's a servant of the Devil. The third book extended the theme of how believing in God is a Bad Thing. Also, it introduced Jagang, who at this point is a cunning brute who wants to destroy magic, and thus weaken the power of both God and Satan. Of course, Goodkind is anything but consistent: by the sixth book, Jagang is a firm believer, and wants to destroy magic because it's blasphemous. He's also an evil commie. So he's well and truly an Objectivist by book six. But again, is he intentionally Objectivist in the first book? Spiritualism and the like are good things then.

Not distracting at all, Narayan is a place, not a person. Just an odd coincidence, is all. Click to reveal.. Basically, Myst III features this angsty dude named Saavedro. He's a little put out because these two brothers trashed his home Age (pocket dimension) named Narayan. So he concocts this convoluted revenge plan against their father, Atrus. Of course, the execution doesn't go as planned, and you're the one who gets trapped in his vengeance. Saavy doesn't realize you're not A-boy until the very end, which is odd because he talks to you through a window near the beginning of the game (maybe he's nearsighted?). Normally, you'd be happy to help your good friend Atrus, but for the previous two games you've had to deal with the fallout of his bad parenting and bad childhood, respectively. The pompous jerk should solve his own problems for once, y'know? (Despite what I've said here and elsewhere, it is a good game.)

Forgot to mention this earlier: Narayan is an Age in Myst III. Don't know if this is intentional: is Narayan supposed to be a commentary on grumpy Saavedro?

Like Lazarus said, it's very easy to go overboard with complexity in BoA. Conventional wisdom states that your first scenario should be very short: one or two outdoor sections, and several towns. I'd almost disagree, a first 'scenario' should be one town and exist solely for getting feedback from other designers. But I'd advise against listening to me: I'm hardly a BoA designer, and don't practise what I preach. RE: Joined NPCs: I remember this discussion coming up before, and I proposed something but never tested it. What if you create your own version of basicnpc.txt, with a conditional in every state to see if the creature is a joined NPC? Do joined NPCs use basicnpc.txt for all states other than DEATH_STATE, or do they use some internal, inaccessible script?

Getting around to reading my backlog of books, instead of adding to them. Shredding the Public Interest and Democracy Derailed by Kevin Taft. Watchmen by Alan Moore a while back. Don't know what will be next. Night class starts again in January, so probably back to flashcards on the bus.

I should have told people I'd be looking for typos with astring; a whole lot quicker that way. I'll be sending over my report later tonight (hopefully). Finished too late last night to send it over then. The thing that would require the most time fixing is the frightening state of apathy and lack of concern for a fellow neighbour in the towns. When you attack a citizen, not only will the other people in the town not leap to defend their compatriot, they'll actually assist you in the massacre. Click to reveal.. I even wiped out everything in the Perilous Path, depraved monster that I am. Got a level up out of it too (perks of having everyone Completely Inept and Brittle Bones/Sickness Prone)! They still kept on making noises, so I must have missed one somewhere. ;-) (I was also able to steal whatever I wanted, so melee characters end up pretty strong by the end of the scenario.)

I'll test, but only on the condition that the title is actually a Rush quote.

EDIT: For reference, I began writing this before Ephesos' post. How good of an painter are you? Not a master, I'll bet. If you want to be a great artist, you'll need to practice. Now imagine that every time you made a painting, you were blindfolded. You can guess what your painting looks like, but you'll never see for yourself until the blindfold comes off. Are you really going to give that painting to someone else and expect them to hang it up on your wall? Making a scenario is unavoidably complicated (though to be fair, it's not nearly as complicated for Blades of Avernum as it is for some other toolkits). No one sits down and designs a scenario, and then tests it. You make a bit, then test it, then make some more, then test again. I don't want to discourage you. By all means, play with the editor when all you have is an unregistered copy. Get a basic feel for it. You'll want to know what it's like before you shell out your hard earned to register your copy of Blades. Just realize that no one is capable of writing a working scenario without testing it. I program for forty hours a week. Sometimes I write code, but the bulk of my time is spent testing and inevitably fixing it.

The Editor is a separate download, and is available for download here. Since the code for the Editor is available, an improved scenario editor was made, which can be downloaded here. The main improvement of this editor is that the map is displayed in 3D (isometrically), the same way you see it in the game (the original editor displays the map in 2D). The 3D Editor is highly recommended; even if you don't like the 3D view, you can switch back to the 2D view. If you are a Mac OS X user, you can try Niemand's improved editor, available here. Not being a Mac user, I can't speak for how good it is, but by all accounts it's an improvement over the first 3D Editor. Good luck designing! EDIT: Just noticed that you only have the demo, not the full game. You are able to use the Editor even if you don't have a registered copy of Blades. However, you cannot play the content you create unless your game is registered.

By Alorael: Quote: Wikipedia is the iconic wiki Boo! Also, fixed the title.

Went out and bought a bunch of books today. From a used bookstore, I got Shredding the Public Interest by Kevin Taft, Reflections of a Siamese Twin by John Ralston Saul, Life, the universe, and everything by Douglas Adams, A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan, and A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. The last three I've already read; just bought them cheap because I already own other books from those series. From Chapters I bought V for Vendetta and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Things the Grandchildren Should Know by E. The last one was short enough to be read in one evening. I really don't know why I buy books so often (or rather, buy a whole bunch at once). Still haven't finished all the books from my last buy. Yesterday, someone casually asked me, "Played any good video games lately?" Just seemed rather weird.

Actually, when I was writing the Windows version of astring astring, I believe I found that 254 was the maximum allowed number of characters in a string, not 255 as documented. I'd have to verify. It's been a while, but I believe that my astring checks this. If it does, I sure don't want to touch that code to make it do so.

Even Window's Notepad has go-to-line functionality (CTRL-g). Wordpad does not as far as I know.

By The Lurker: Quote: Dintiradan - I screwed up. Strong Back merely substracts 2 from your encumbrance, rather than halving it. Even so, I don't remember seeing something like this. Makes the trait a fair bit stronger than I thought.

Bahssikava was designed and released before Exodus, which would make Exodus a sequel.

Strong Back also halves encumbrance? Is this documented? I've never read that before.

Of course, fixing this in one work in progress means removing and then repainting all the fog terrain in one dungeon. Oh well.

Thanks for reminding me. My sister still has my copy.

:-(

feo: Tolkien hardly holds a monopoly on us-versus-them in fantasy. Which reminds me, I still have to read Goodkind's latest. Last book I bought was Democracy Derailed, by Kevin Taft. I've only read the few couple chapters. Clearly lays out what is wrong with the effectively one-party state in Alberta. I'm looking forward to the end where he'll make his pitch that the Liberals are the answer. If Alberta will ever change, it'll come from the Big Tent being split up, not from another being set up next to it. That, or maybe the SoCreds will come back or something. But right now, most of my reading is Hebrew flash cards.

Because, verily, rmunroe is a god, right?

Is it possible to write a statement that describes its own deconstruction?

(Youpi for reading on the bus!) George Orwell - 1984 What can I say? Good. Read it. Michael Crichton - Next This isn't meant to be a standard novel. Crichton jumps from plotline to plotline for each chapter, and most arcs last two to three chapters. He does a decent job of interweaving them. It's not really character driven, as most characters are present for a chapter or two, but the ones that last longer are good. Dave was suitably disturbing, though Gerard was a bit over the top. Crichton ends the book with an author's note, detailing what he thinks about genetic research in the States (much of the novel uses unreliable narrators, so it's possible - though not likely - to miss his point). All in all, one of Crichton's best works. Michael Crichton - The Terminal Man Crichton putting his M.D. to work. A fictional glimpse into a research hospital. The subject matter doesn't seem that avant-garde, and then you realize the book was written in 1972. William Gibson - Neuromancer With regards to setting and atmosphere, this book is brilliant (it is one of the granddaddies of cyberpunk, after all). The whole cultural mishmash is great, though it's par for the course nowadays (I kinda wish more of the plot took place in Night City instead of The Sprawl and Freeside). However, the novel suffers in the character department. Pretty much all the characters lack any real personality and/or motivation (I know it's intentional for Armitage and Wintermute, but still...). For instance, Maelcum just sits there for most of the book. The characters seem to woodenly follow the predetermined script, and other than Case, most don't really have a good reason for doing what they do (I'd always assumed Molly was paid to jump Case's bones first thing). Is it worth reading the rest of the Sprawl Trilogy? The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - Douglas Adams Meh. If you want great Adams, read the first two books of the Hitch Hiker Trilogy. I don't know if it's the setting or the subject matter, but this book just didn't do it for me like the aforementioned books did. It's not just a change in taste; I reread The Restaurant at the End of the Universe a while back and enjoyed it just as much. The climax and resolution for the book was also weird. It just ends, the central problem solved. We aren't told how it was solved, or what the repercussions of certain events were. The book just comes to a sudden halt. Now I'm on Lee Strobel, though I might start doing homework on the bus rides soon.

(Would have been posted earlier. Server was slow. At least now I can update my code.) How important is it that you use variables? What AvernumScript really needs is arrays, but you could be able to hack it out with SDFs. Code: // i is an integer/short// min_index is an integer/shortmin_index = 0;i = 1;while (i < ARRAY_LENGTH) { if (get_flag(ARRAY_LOCATION, i) > get_flag(ARRAY_LOCATION, min_index)) { min_index = i; } i = i + 1;}// The SDF with the minimum value will be located at (ARRAY_LOCATION, min_index It would be easier if AvernumScript actually had arrays. Or functions. Or macros. Or for loops. Or pre/post incrementing. Or-