Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dwarf Fortress: Lokumuker: Spearwaved
The fortress site has been selected. This time around I have chosen to go with a relatively flat section of terrain with a stream moving through. The fortress name is Lokumuker, which means Spearwaved. It hails from the wonderfully named civilization of "The Silvers of Whipping". Here are the location details via screenshot.
Dwarf Fortress: Histories of Magma and Unfortunate Accidents
Lo and behold, a new version of Dwarf Fortress has arrived with gifts of angry bees. I have been contemplating working on my own DF LP story, but as the current recent version of DF is bound to have some bugs, I think I will ease into the entire process with a chronicle of my first v0.31.19 fort instead. Naturally a newly generated world was necessary for this project.
The world gen parameters that were produced from my selections under "Create New World!"
[WORLD_GEN]
[TITLE:CREATE WORLD NOW = 555155]
[SEED:1000012205]
[HISTORY_SEED:1543671375]
[NAME_SEED:3851569142]
[CREATURE_SEED:2313768212]
[DIM:257:257]
[EMBARK_POINTS:1274]
[END_YEAR:1050]
[BEAST_END_YEAR:1050:-1]
[REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
[CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:0]
[ELEVATION:1:400:1600:1600]
[RAINFALL:0:100:400:400]
[TEMPERATURE:25:75:400:400]
[DRAINAGE:0:100:400:400]
[VOLCANISM:0:100:400:400]
[SAVAGERY:0:100:400:400]
[ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[RAIN_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:3:1:2:3:4:5]
[VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[MEGABEAST_CAP:150]
[SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:300]
[TITAN_NUMBER:66]
[TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
[DEMON_NUMBER:52]
[NIGHT_CREATURE_NUMBER:52]
[GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:24:244:0]
[EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:24:244:0]
[PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:12]
[PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
[COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:4]
[VOLCANO_MIN:4]
[REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:252:1:1]
[REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:252:1:1]
[REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:1008:3:2]
[REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:2016:2:2]
[REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:2016:1:1]
[REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:63:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:126:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:2016:3:2]
[REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:2016:3:2]
[EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
[RIVER_MINS:100:100]
[PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
[OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
[SUBREGION_MAX:3500]
[CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
[CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:100]
[CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:100]
[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
[HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
[HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
[LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
[CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
[CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
[MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:80]
[NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:120]
[ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
[SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
[TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:160]
[TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
[SITE_CAP:375]
[PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
[ELEVATION_RANGES:33000:4032:2016]
[RAIN_RANGES:2016:4032:2016]
[DRAINAGE_RANGES:2016:4032:2016]
[SAVAGERY_RANGES:0:8256:16512]
[VOLCANISM_RANGES:2016:4032:2016]
Here is the map of Ospazsmata: The Windy Realms
I will make another post once I have selected a suitably Fun site.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Death Knell of Warhammer Online
WAR is shutting down two more of its US/NA servers shortly, transferring any remaining characters to one of the last two servers in that region. Just two servers left... how far WAR has fallen, neh? I really do feel a bit sorry for those folk who have actually enjoyed playing WAR as it has existed... especially having to suffer through so many server transfers, one after another. Some folks have lost their chosen character names repeatedly... not fun I imagine.
This recent news does make me wonder when, if ever, the plug will be pulled on this project. Is the game even making enough money to sustain the servers that will be left running? Hard to say, such figures are not typically available to the public at large. It is a real shame that much of the promise of WAR was never realized; much of it cut and left on the development floor never to see the light of day.
My biggest longterm grievance with WAR is the removal and cessation of development of the other four racial capital cities. Without those the war effort in WAR was changed dramatically from three independent warfronts to a single warfront. This caused a lot of problems, with folk hopping from one racial pairing to another (leaving no thought of fort & keep defense) to sack undefended areas. It also lead to massive congestion at the Tier 4 end-zone fortresses as well.
If the other capitals had been implemented as originally designed, these problems may have never existed. Combining them together as they did certainly did lead to players clustering together more, which caused massive problems of course. The game was designed from the beginning to have people more spread out... so I really must wonder at the sheer stupidity to make such a sweeping design decision and to not have gone back and re-worked the other aspects of the game that were so dependent upon this facet.
As I doubt any kind of funding exists to re-built WAR to fix all the varied problems. Heck, folk are still complaining about PQ's that are horribly bugged... that were reported as problems back in Beta!
WAR is dead. May Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online not suffer the same fate.
This recent news does make me wonder when, if ever, the plug will be pulled on this project. Is the game even making enough money to sustain the servers that will be left running? Hard to say, such figures are not typically available to the public at large. It is a real shame that much of the promise of WAR was never realized; much of it cut and left on the development floor never to see the light of day.
My biggest longterm grievance with WAR is the removal and cessation of development of the other four racial capital cities. Without those the war effort in WAR was changed dramatically from three independent warfronts to a single warfront. This caused a lot of problems, with folk hopping from one racial pairing to another (leaving no thought of fort & keep defense) to sack undefended areas. It also lead to massive congestion at the Tier 4 end-zone fortresses as well.
If the other capitals had been implemented as originally designed, these problems may have never existed. Combining them together as they did certainly did lead to players clustering together more, which caused massive problems of course. The game was designed from the beginning to have people more spread out... so I really must wonder at the sheer stupidity to make such a sweeping design decision and to not have gone back and re-worked the other aspects of the game that were so dependent upon this facet.
As I doubt any kind of funding exists to re-built WAR to fix all the varied problems. Heck, folk are still complaining about PQ's that are horribly bugged... that were reported as problems back in Beta!
WAR is dead. May Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online not suffer the same fate.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Dwarf Fortress: It takes Skill
Dwarf Fortress is lots of Fun. Sometimes one has unusual amounts of Fun. For example it is always a lot of Fun when the Clowns honk their noses at you and invite you down to the Circus. Wheee.
&
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
More God Games Please!
I have long been a big fan of god games. Populous, Powermonger, Black & White, various Civ-type games (Stronghold! Dwarf Fortress! etc.) heck one could even list Actraiser in there. Alas there is a definite dearth of additional games of this type coming out in the near future. To the best of my knowledge, the only one on the horizon is From Dust.
The Black and White games had a certain charm of course, but they were sorely lacking in terrain modification and editing; something I consider to be a staple of god games. Throwing villagers (and feeding them to your creature) is all fun of course, but I really wished I could have altered the terrain of the levels I played upon.
The Fable series of games has a similar feel IMO. With Fable 3 allowing one to become king, I wonder if Divinity is in the future of this series?
Really looking forward to From Dust; especially as terrain editing is the big feature. Hopefully it will be out sometime later this year, or early next.
The Black and White games had a certain charm of course, but they were sorely lacking in terrain modification and editing; something I consider to be a staple of god games. Throwing villagers (and feeding them to your creature) is all fun of course, but I really wished I could have altered the terrain of the levels I played upon.
The Fable series of games has a similar feel IMO. With Fable 3 allowing one to become king, I wonder if Divinity is in the future of this series?
Really looking forward to From Dust; especially as terrain editing is the big feature. Hopefully it will be out sometime later this year, or early next.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Movie Rant: The Rite only made $14,789,393 & Movie Food at AMC
Caught a showing of The Rite over the weekend. Good. Very good in fact. I was darn surprised thus to find that it only took in ~$14,789,393.00 over the weekend box office. Was the movie not advertised well or something? I would think a lot of folk would like to see a movie with Anthony Hopkins that is about demonic possession.
That being said, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes... well that sort of movie. It's good. Worth full movie price IMO.
On the subject of movie theaters... one of these days more mainstream theaters (I'm looking at you AMC!) will come to realize that they need to improve the quality of their food. Popcorn full of kernels and shells that get stuck in one's teeth, hot-dogs floating on a lake of grease within their hot-dog holders. Yuck.
That being said, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes... well that sort of movie. It's good. Worth full movie price IMO.
On the subject of movie theaters... one of these days more mainstream theaters (I'm looking at you AMC!) will come to realize that they need to improve the quality of their food. Popcorn full of kernels and shells that get stuck in one's teeth, hot-dogs floating on a lake of grease within their hot-dog holders. Yuck.
Dark Musings: WoW & the Old Gods
I quit WoW quite a long time ago, back before the Burning Crusade expansion to be precise. I did try BC briefly to check out the new areas, but only gave it a couple of months. However certain things I find very interesting have drawn me back into WoW with the release of Cataclysm.
While some may contend (and I can certainly agree) that many aspects of the game have grown easier and more casual with time; the relative level of dark & nasty stuff in-game has increased quite a bit. Sure folks got a taste of some of this stuff with the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj a while back, but the Lovecraftian inclusions have never been so high in-game as they are right now.
Being a fan of eldrich & cosmic horrors, I was naturally very keen to check this content out for myself... and so I am! Hah!
Of course at this rate I may end up trying WAR again... another game I said I would never go back to. Time will tell.
While some may contend (and I can certainly agree) that many aspects of the game have grown easier and more casual with time; the relative level of dark & nasty stuff in-game has increased quite a bit. Sure folks got a taste of some of this stuff with the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj a while back, but the Lovecraftian inclusions have never been so high in-game as they are right now.
Being a fan of eldrich & cosmic horrors, I was naturally very keen to check this content out for myself... and so I am! Hah!
Of course at this rate I may end up trying WAR again... another game I said I would never go back to. Time will tell.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
WoT MMO: Character types I hope are playable
Everyonehoping for thew WoT MMO likely has their very own list of hopeful character classes and options. Here are mine.
Darkfriend: Yes, you guessed it. How could I think of a WoT MMO and not think of the potential for playable Darkfriends? In theory this type of playable character would be a secret option; as revealing oneself to be a Friend of the Dark would be a very bad idea in most circumstances. Would make for some really interesting PvP scenarios I would wager; though this type of issue would be a hot topic I would wager, as many folk would not like getting betrayed by their teammates at some point. Tricky, no?
Spying aside, I would really love the chance to work ones way up (through politicking and murder of course) to the coveted rank of Dreadlord. Heck, given the option I would pull down the Chosen themselves and strive for Nae'blis. Where do I sign to get access to the True Power?
Children of the Light: No I am not kidding. One of my all-time favorite characters in the Wheel of Time series is one who died off in the second book. Geofram Bornhald (and later Galad) are excellent examples of what the Children should be like. Would be a heck of a lot of fun to play IMO, rooting out Darkfriends, dealing with political and civil unrest... as well as outright militant forces of the Shadow as well. I think, given the option, I would choose a more normal Child of the Light as opposed to one of the Hand of the Light. Naturally being an Inquisitor has its appeal at times, but not always.
Shadowspawn: In an ideal situation a WoT MMO would be designed as a massive RvR game, with plenty of PvE and PvP opportunities. In such a situation certain types of Shadowspawn, namely Trollocs and Myrddraal. After all, as PvE opponents these entities would fill a role... mostly well enough. But it would be darn hard to script up Myrddraal; that is a job I think could be better handled by actual players.
Darkfriend: Yes, you guessed it. How could I think of a WoT MMO and not think of the potential for playable Darkfriends? In theory this type of playable character would be a secret option; as revealing oneself to be a Friend of the Dark would be a very bad idea in most circumstances. Would make for some really interesting PvP scenarios I would wager; though this type of issue would be a hot topic I would wager, as many folk would not like getting betrayed by their teammates at some point. Tricky, no?
Spying aside, I would really love the chance to work ones way up (through politicking and murder of course) to the coveted rank of Dreadlord. Heck, given the option I would pull down the Chosen themselves and strive for Nae'blis. Where do I sign to get access to the True Power?
Children of the Light: No I am not kidding. One of my all-time favorite characters in the Wheel of Time series is one who died off in the second book. Geofram Bornhald (and later Galad) are excellent examples of what the Children should be like. Would be a heck of a lot of fun to play IMO, rooting out Darkfriends, dealing with political and civil unrest... as well as outright militant forces of the Shadow as well. I think, given the option, I would choose a more normal Child of the Light as opposed to one of the Hand of the Light. Naturally being an Inquisitor has its appeal at times, but not always.
Shadowspawn: In an ideal situation a WoT MMO would be designed as a massive RvR game, with plenty of PvE and PvP opportunities. In such a situation certain types of Shadowspawn, namely Trollocs and Myrddraal. After all, as PvE opponents these entities would fill a role... mostly well enough. But it would be darn hard to script up Myrddraal; that is a job I think could be better handled by actual players.
* * *
One tricky spot of class development does come to mind: Aes Sedai and Warders. Should Aes Sedai be playable, would you want a Warder pet, or playable PC Warders? The advantage to a NPC pet is that they would be available whenever the Aes Sedai was actually playing. The advantage of player-characters Warders... well is that people would get to play as Warders naturally.
NPC companions are not unthinkable IMO. Depending on how SW:TOR does when it comes out, folk may grow to like the idea of companion NPCs more in MMO environments. Personally I have always enjoyed 'pet classes' when they are done well, but if they are mishandled they are a pain in the ass.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Playable Khornates: Blood for the Blood God!
Sometimes I wish there were more video and computer games in which one could play a Khornate-style of character. One of the big disappointments I had with WAR (Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning) was that the playable Chaos faction was Tzeentch only. It was especially annoying once we were able to see how cool the Khornate mobs and areas in-game were. Ahh well.
At least it looks like the playable Chaos characters in Dark Millennium will be Khornates. Old news in theory, but still very exciting. Outside of the Dawn of War series of games and the occasional game like Darksiders, there is not too much out there IMO.
Age of Conan can come close at times, save for how petty the questing and such could feel at times. Great combat system in that game, a shame it suffered from various other problems. WoW, alas, has never really felt like it had a comparable option; perhaps the Death Knight Hero class, but I have never played one. The basic Warrior class certainly doesn't feel right.
Certain styles of action brawlers sometimes can capture part of this feel. The upcoming one where you play as a Space Marine looks pretty cool IMO, even if the playable option looks to be Ultramarines. Heh. Perhaps the PC version (if there really ends up being one) could end up with some mods that allows one to change their appearance to other chapters.
The recent Fallout games (3 and NV) were pretty darn good in this regard. There were a ton of fun Warhammer-themed mods for Fallout 3, a number of which got ported to NV pretty swiftly. Easy to do for just the textures and graphical mods of course. Slightly harder to do something like Enclave Commander naturally.
At least it looks like the playable Chaos characters in Dark Millennium will be Khornates. Old news in theory, but still very exciting. Outside of the Dawn of War series of games and the occasional game like Darksiders, there is not too much out there IMO.
Age of Conan can come close at times, save for how petty the questing and such could feel at times. Great combat system in that game, a shame it suffered from various other problems. WoW, alas, has never really felt like it had a comparable option; perhaps the Death Knight Hero class, but I have never played one. The basic Warrior class certainly doesn't feel right.
Certain styles of action brawlers sometimes can capture part of this feel. The upcoming one where you play as a Space Marine looks pretty cool IMO, even if the playable option looks to be Ultramarines. Heh. Perhaps the PC version (if there really ends up being one) could end up with some mods that allows one to change their appearance to other chapters.
The recent Fallout games (3 and NV) were pretty darn good in this regard. There were a ton of fun Warhammer-themed mods for Fallout 3, a number of which got ported to NV pretty swiftly. Easy to do for just the textures and graphical mods of course. Slightly harder to do something like Enclave Commander naturally.
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