Noticed --moved

Just in case anyone accidentally stumbles upon here I don't really use this blog anymore. I have a wordpress install set up at http://www.biomancy.com

Artemis' last stand

The people of the village began to notice strange things happening around Artemis. They were frightened and confused. They liked Artemis, but what she was doing was hurting the community. No one felt safe anymore and what is the community for but the safety of its members. Artemis had to be stopped for the greater good.

The three strongest men in the village were chosen to go confront her and ask her to leave. Or make her, the people didn't really care as long as they could feel safe again once it was resolved. Luc was among the three chosen, he felt this shouldn't be happening but he had no choice. He couldn't go against the wishes of everyone...could he?

Eventually he submitted like he always did and went to talk to Artemis about leaving. He tried to be calm and sympathetic when she refused, not wanting to leave her home but the others were not so patient and began shouting and threatening. One of them struck Artemis hard across the shoulder with a small club and she cried out in pain as her left shoulder was knocked painfully out of socket. Luc spun quickly and gave a quick kick to the kneecap of the attacker, shattering it and making the would be opponent collapse to the ground. The other man had the presence of mind to back out of Luc's range and grab a spear from a nearby townsperson. Not willing to get close enough to inflict any heavy damage, the frightened man circled Luc and jabbed weakly scratching Luc over and over. Artemis made it to her feet and tried to help Luc with a few small jets of flame but the pain in her left arm made it difficult to aim. Luc began to slow down as he bled out of his small wounds and began to receive even more as he tired. Getting desperate Luc gathered a hand full of dirt and tossed it into his opponents eyes. Blinded his foe dropped the spear and Luc was able to get it and impale its former wielder. The crowd split inbetween fleeing for their lives and rushing Artemis and the clearly ensorceled Luc. Desperate, Artemis reached into the power stored in the crystals, the power in herself, and all of the warmth in everything around her. The air grew very cold as a rush of air moved from all directions towards Artemis. She could feel herself going numb as she fought to shape this enormous amount of energy she had drawn into herself. Eventually she lost her hold and there was an explosive force as warmth suddenly returned to the world. As the world faded from view her last vision was of the village she'd fought to be allowed to stay in burning to the ground.

Construction...

what would be a good mini-game or mini-game mechanic for building a building(anything from a lean-to to pallisade) in an rpg-ish type setting?

Research

One of the systems I'm pondering including in project paradigm is a generic research system. But thinking on it, it seems that most things the character/avatar could research and find out it'd be better to push up to the player themselves finding out. Two materials making a stronger material if mixed, the properties of various materials, all can be found out through trial and error and would, in my opinion, engage the explorers(http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm). My friend J suggests that there are some things that can't be discovered that way, like writing. Even if I do include this research system, I'm unsure of how it should work out.

Working out Ideas for AI and social influence in a game. I've been a bit inspired by Stacy Marsella and want to use something similar to PsychSim in a game setting. I think it would be a great way to bring influencing the characters of a game into play without it being totally scripted like KOTOR or other similar systems, or silly and/or arbitrary like dancing to make up for killing someone's daughter in Fable 2.

If anyone cares Marsella's work can be found here: http://people.ict.usc.edu/~marsella/publications/bytopic.html

Unity

playing around with unity recently and it looks good so far. A nice blend of pre-built stuff and flexibility from the looks of it. Maybe I will finally get to proto-typing some of the stuff floating around in my head now. here's hoping!

Level 0 crafting -- Simple machines

Player is walking from point of interest A to point of interest B. The go through a gorge to try and save time. A boulder is in there path stuck between a point where the rock faces narrow. Our intrepid player shoves against the rock but it is too heavy. Not daunted our player finds a rock and a sturdy branch nearby. They then proceed to place the rock near the boulder and wedge one end of the branch under the boulder, resting on the rock. Pushing down on the other end they lift the boulder enough for it to roll free. Any unfortunate people or creatures on the other side of the boulder may get squished.

Congratulations you got much better at *mechanics*!
Congratulations you got slightly better at *trap making*!