Daily Update 314.2015

Changes:

  • Wyrmling temperature increases if angry, up to a maximum of 400K.
  • Pools temperature increases to match Wyrmling temperature.
  • Magic ice cube won’t melt below boiling temperature.
  • Player can’t enter pools if too hot.

Bugs & Problems:

  • Nothing new.

Factions

Thinking a bit about factions, a critical element of the later stages of SRPG. ‘Faction’ in this context is meant technically, by the following definition:

A faction is a non-exclusive collection of NPCs with a set of shared behaviors or traits.

You might notice that this definition sounds a lot like a Component. It is, and indeed there will be a ‘Faction’ component. There will also be more specific components that inherit/require the base Faction component. An individual NPC can have multiple factions.

For example, Gary the Blacksmith might have: Townsfolk, Human. The Townsfolk faction means he has knowledge of certain things (like the Baron, and the identities of most of the other Townsfolk), while the Human faction means he probably won’t go near Goblins if he can help it. He’s not as welcoming of new experiences as you or I.

Factions are useful for a lot of things, including common defense. If you attack a member of the Guard faction, other Guards in the area will intervene. If you clean up the forest, the Ranger Bob faction will have an improved opinion of you. If you REDACTED the REDACTED, the aethernauts will never forgive you.

TIL

Things I learned today:

  1. The default Scrabble dictionary on Facebook doesn’t accept “causation” as a word. Turns out it has very few words above 8 letters.
  2. I still like pizza.
  3. I need to communicate better when scheduling D&D. Lost about an hour of potential play time. Session went well though.
  4. I’d like to learn Go (the programming language).

D&D Prep

I’ve been mixing up the way I prep for D&D a bit. For a while I was running mostly freeform, but I’m not yet a great improviser, so I’m finding it helpful to lay out the skeleton of the session in advance.

  1. Party probably returns to safe house
  2. Rebel leader outlines recent events and strategic options for managing local rebellion
  3. Party picks a quest or two, which can be social or combat-oriented
  4. Party screws up the quest hilariously
  5. XP!

I have a few options outlined:

  • Social: Attend a fancy party with the city’s elite, some of whom may be friendly to the rebel cause.
  • Social: Make contact with skilled local individuals. For these, some kind of payment or favor may be needed to acquire their assistance.
  • Social: Gather information.
  • Combat: Go assassinate someone who has it coming.
  • Combat: Take out a strategic target (weapons depot, research facility, etc).

Long-term effects:

  • Factions grow or shrink in local influence based on the players’ actions.
  • New allies and new enemies are made.
  • The rebellion gains or loses valuable resources and personnel.

TIL

Today I Learned:

  • XML Sitemaps (something search engines use to more quickly scan a website for content) have a limit of 50,000 items per file. But…you can nest files (i.e. include them from other files), which makes me wonder why that limit is there. Makes it a hassle to generate sitemaps, that’s for sure.
  • I’m not good at Rocket League. That said, I got a compliment for my weird-but-effective methods.
  • Invoker is one of the most boring Dota heroes to watch.

Daily Update 308.2015

Changes:

  • Added a ‘Cheat’ module for debug commands. First command is a teleport command to jump around the world. Should speed up certain types of testing.

Bugs & Problems:

  • Nothing new.

Source

Expanded my GitHub a bit today. Uploaded the current SRPG source (more as a backup than anything else), along with a couple older projects (like my GM Calculator).

High Stakes

I think the stakes are too low in SRPG. The player is advancing through the game, solving puzzles and overcoming challenges, but with little to motivate them. There’s a slim possibility of death at a couple points, but it’s easily recoverable.

Something needs to be done about this.

I’m considering a few ideas for penalties due to failure, separate from total failure states. Injuries, losing equipment, etc. Something to keep the player focused on the ramifications of their decisions.