:Staff Journal

July 10, 2005

SJ 005 - Long Overdue Updates

Wow, I am a hypocrite of the highest sort.. I bitch at the Imms
for not keeping an updated Staff Journal and look at me.. Oy.

There's a tremendous about of stuff going on over on ToD, we've
pretty much shared most of it with everyone but I want to list
it here.

First, a welcome to our new Immortal Vondur. Don't ask who he
is, he'll tell you when he's ready. He'll be coming up with
some RP stuff to keep people occupied and although he may be
a new Immortal, he is a seasoned player.

There are still two open slots for Immortals and three people
who have yet to get their 10 day audition. This is my fault,
I've been caught up in other stuff and I've been remiss in
getting these people up there with us. Sorry about that, I'll
try to be more attentive in the future.

We came to a major decision regarding Chuck a couple of weeks
ago, I want to discuss this in detail. Chuck is pretty much
a completely different mud than the main port. There is a
huge amount of finished and unfinished code in Chuck and only
18 of the same stock areas.

The problem has been working on two ports at once. We've
added the clan spell system into the main port and a lot of
other pithy new code changes and areas. Add to this every
time I would get into something in Chuck, something would come
up on the main port.

Up until recently, the plan has been to add the main port code
to Chuck and do it that way. That's been the plan for the 5
years Chuck has been in the making.

We have just changed that plan.

After much discussion with the Seal, it was decided that it
would make more sense to take what's in Chuck and add it to
the main port, piece by piece. Yes, this is going to be a
huge amount of work but Meathe has proven he can handle any
obstacle tossed his way (except perhaps Kaiko's recent lust
for his Sealy manhood).

The areas in Chuck present a problem we are working on. There
are 143 areas in Chuck, only 18 stock ones remain. Much work
has gone into these areas and coming up with a way to port
them from one to the other is looming upon us. We are adding
some major code to the main port and hopefully this will make
it easier to move areas. I personally have 83 areas in Chuck,
the idea of re-linking them all gives me hives.

Currently in the main port the plan is this... Meathe is
busting his humpus to add 4 'things.' I call them things for
now, I'll expand in a minute.

Once these 4 things are done and in the main port, we will
then open a mirror copy of the main port on another port and
this new port will become the future of Time of Darkness. New
code will stop being added to the port everyone plays now and
it will all be about the second port.

This is also when the beta-testers and builders will finally be
called to active duty. The new mud will NOT go live until it
has been tested, raped, assaulted and beat on in every way
possible and those who ask to build will also be asked to beta
test. Beta testers and builders will be rewarded with one
Apostle character once the new mud opens (I'll explain that
in another post).

The 4 things that are being worked on now will be used
in the main player port, people will be able to enjoy them.

And by now, you're probably wondering what the 4 things are
so let's get to that.

1. Object and Room Progs: What we are adding here are
fully functional object and room progs. Short of common sense
things that are mob-specific, rooms and objects will be able
to do all mobs do. This makes for amazing possibilities for
area quests, clan mazes and other good juju. This is also a
large and complex deal to add as we have custom commands for
our builders to add and progs are confusing enough.

2. Seasons/Climate: This serves a few purposes. We
use weather as one of the possible elements of item corrosion
so that's one. Weather will also be able to damage players,
for example getting hit by lightning in a storm or bonked on
the head by a hail stone.

The system works two ways. A builder has an option to set a
climate for an entire area in the aedit. This will disallow
any other weather conditions except for what fits with the
selected climate. For example, I would want to make the area
with the ice bats climate frozen. Now inside frozen I would
use the weather system to determine what weather conditions
I want to use. The 12 months of the mud will be broken down
into seasons and weather conditions will look something like:

Weather Patterns:
Spring Weather
1. rain showers
2. thunderstorms
3. fog
4. calm sunny day
5. overcast

Summer Weather
1. arid heat (heat patterns shimmer in the air)
2. humid heat
3. hot sunny
4. warm breezy
5. thunderstorms

Autumn Weather
1. chill winds
2. fog
3. overcast
4. sleet
5. rain
6. heavy wind/thunderstorm

Winter Weather
1. biting windchill
2. frost
3. hail and sleet
4. light snow
5. heavy snow
6. heavy wind/heavy snow (blizzardish)

This also has great potential for season-based area quests,
I can see Nav getting giddy already.. It will also add some
RP-reality to the overall game, would you stand outside IRL
in a lightning storm and fight with someone?

(Meathey, don't have a heart attack here, I know I didn't
really explain it right but this is an overview. It's ok)

3. Item Corrosion: Again adding more realism to
the game, item corrosion is being added. Not all items will
corrode and corrosion will not be something that will wreck
your precious eq in a tick.

EQ can be corroded in up to 3 ways; time, weather and certain
types of attacks. Items will corrode as designated by the
builder but will allow ample time for players to get to a
mob to fix their item. These mobs will be in each hometown
and the cost to repair an item will not be a high one.

4. Arena Revamp: To put it bluntly, the arena system
sucks. What began last night as discussion about stripping
clanspells in an arena fight brought about the revelation that
the arena system sucks. It sucks less in Chuck.

A few things need to change. The insta-trans from accepting
a battle into the arena being the first one. After a player
accepts there should be a tick pause for clanspells to be
stripped and to give the player a chance to re-spell or to
re-sanc or whatever might be needed after the clanspell goes.
People should have to walk to the arena to watch and not be
frozen during battle.

I know people have asked for arena betting. We had it once
before and to be honest, I have yet to see a way around the
cheating it creates. It becomes a quick way to make plat and
that's not what it should be. We are open to ideas if any of
you have them, how can we implement an arena betting system
that won't let people use it to get rich quick. We've already
tossed about not letting clannies bet on clannies and setting
a bet limit so no one gets rich (50 plat or so).

And those are the current big four. You'll be seeing more
of these as I have created a new category called "The Future
of ToD" and this is where I'll be posting to keep track of
things for myself.

As always, please feel free to comment or question here, I
will answer here, I can't promise to answer on the mud. As
things move along I'll be spending more time in the other
port and less time on the main port so use this blog and
ask what you want.

There, staff journal update done! Now I can get back to
harassing all the other Imms except Meathe to get back to
their own staff journals. Once a week, guys.

Huzzah!

Posted by Kali at 09:44 PM | Comments (1)

April 02, 2005

SJ 004 - Sort of Back

(Loky, this is because you asked for it on the forums)
(Shamra, thank you for your comment, it touched me)

Well.

After being down for a full week ToD is back, minus one Kitten Goddess. I have not logged on since it went down on the 23rd and I can't give a date when I'll be back. So if you pray and are told I'm not there and haven't been, it's true.

I won't go into details of why it went down or why it came back. I got some email that managed to penetrate my armour so I decided to bring the mud back even if I wasn't there.

I'm not saying I'll never be back. Things happened and words were or were not spoken and it just made me realise that for the first time in 6 years, I either needed to take a break or there was no way the mud would ever come back. I have faith in the staff that they'll have no problems handling anything that should arise and I'm not impossible to get in touch with if need or want be.

I have a roleplay post to stick in here I've been working on, something to tie in the downtime and my not being around. I'll get to it sometime before the end of the world.

The mud was brought back for the players. Even if there are only five of you on the who list, the mud was brought back for you. In reponse to the things I heard from you. I never would have thought I would let it run without being there, I've been every bit the completely involved owner for 6 years but it seemed selfish of me to keep it down for my own personal reasons.

So this is just a short one for now, a thank you to the people who cared enough to take the time to come to me and a small clarification of where my head is at with regards to the mud right now.

Now go kill some IOoDS.

Posted by Strega at 01:53 PM | Comments (1)

March 13, 2005

SJ 003 - Stagnant

Woke up sneezing and stuffy, I swear this house is the house of the neverending cold in the Winter. Yug. Woke up too damn early, this 6 am sleep and 8:30 am wake up is a bit much. Stupid cat, first sign of a blue sky and he thinks it's Spring and time to go outside and frolic. That's fine, just go frolic somewhere else!

I haven't done much with the mud lately, just haven't had the urge. Darkstar asked last night if any of the players actually read these staff journals and it made me think. I'm sure a few do, the ones who care will take the time to read them and that's who we do this for.

I've been at this mud stuff a long time now, 6 years is a long friggin' time. I'm not totally burned out but there's something not right with my thoughts. Losing an Immortal always gets to me and to lose one because they've become insensitive and cruel is an even bigger bite. I don't care how long a person has been imming for someone else, it's not the same as being the owner and to assume it is is arrogant and incorrect.

I'm about ready to wipe Dominion and a few other clans, I'm greatly disappointed in the way the clan has handled itself and the blog. When I do get back to the swing of things in the mud it will be understood that if we can put the time and effort into the code, the players can return the favour. Keeping an up to date blog was a requirement for leadership and I'm only seeing IOoDS do their part.

The numbers are down lately too. Bothers me a bit, I know it's not just us but yes, it is disheartening to come on and see two people on the who list and those who log on only to log right off. Why go through all the code and work if no one gives a crap, ya know? But I just wrote the news about that so I won't go into it too much right now.

Why hire new Immortals when there's no one for them to Imm over?

Why post info in forums when no one goes there?

Why post info in blogs when no one reads them?

Why work new code when no one's around?

Why care if no one else does?

Sounds like drama, I know it sounds like drama but it's not. I was accused by a heartless excuse of a human being of 'sounding like you're at a funeral' but it's really not drama. It's just matter of fact. I find it depressing when I log into my mud and see two people on. When something is depressing you have the choice to let it depress you, change it or walk away from it. There's no shame in closing a mud after a 6 year run, hell most muds don't last half that time. So it's not drama, it's just genuine wondering if it's time to let it go.

I actually had a player go on a tirade about Napoleon's still being around as an Immortal and then proceed to tell me his opinions of how bad the candidates who applied for Immortality were and then give me quite the condescending "Immortality holds no interest for me anymore." Holy mother of all pompous asses.. Things like that eat away at a person when you hear it too many times. No one offered you immortality, why do you feel the need to tell me it holds no interest for you? So amazingly arrogant.

No, Napoleon has not been made a staff member. He is still around because quite frankly he's an intelligent and entertaining guy who had brought some laughter into Jamaica. The accusations of cheating are insulting to my entire staff, I think we would know if a 105 is cheating and ToD auto-logs a lot of commands such as set, load, restrings, renames, etc. When it's time to go, he'll step down and into IOoDS leadership and is more than invited to apply for an official spot. But that's really not any of anyone's business now, is it? HA! Some people have to opine on anything.

Nine people applied for Immortality, when the hell was the last time we had 9 people on the who list? If I were applying for Immortality and the game was in a lull, I would be there as much as possible trying to liven it up. Needless to say none of the nine have knocked me off my feet with their effort.

I miss Squiggy, were Squiggy around I'd probably Imm him as one of the three. He got me, he understood everything I ever said to him and even with the bitter arguments, there was a genuine bond. There really isn't anyone else I connect to in the same way (nothing like that, pervs) and I miss it. I've been having a real crisis of faith as far as people are concerned lately and it only makes me appreciate even more the few that are for real and that's you, Squiggy. I'll save the crisis of faith for another entry.

I don't expect many people to read this. The Imms will and maybe one of two of the morts but I don't expect a crowd. I don't need a crowd, I needed to get this off my (ample) chest and clear my head a bit. It's six days till my birthday, there's a lot in my mind and I needed to sort this out.

I guess I'll figure it all out as I go.

Doobie doobie doo.

Posted by Strega at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

SJ 002 - MIA

I haven't been around since Sunday, wonder if anyone's even noticed I'm not there.. *snickers to herself* I finally came back to Dobbs Ferry, hard to believe I've been up at my parents since December 20th. Went pretty damn fast for almost two full months.

There's been a whole lotta stress in here since I walked in the door Tuesday afternoon. I haven't even put anything away, there's 4 boxes full of Christmas presents all over the living room. Haven't checked email much, made blogs, done a damn thing.

I would like to thank Coyote for kicking the mud the other night, thanks Dawg..

I have to motivate. Get the piles out of the living room and get to work. Too many areas in Chuck have my name before them. I used to love building so much, not sure why I'm so stalled. I have to answer the people who replied to the Imm job posts on the forum. I haven't forgotten you people, I'm just having problems re-adjusting.

I really would like to see Chuck done by the Summer. Summer seems a safe time to guesstimate, it's still far away enough to not seem real but I know it's not that far. But 83 areas are not going to build themselves.

No, I haven't forgotten the clan halls, Dult. So much to do..

I guess it's time to come back and get to work.

Posted by Strega at 02:55 AM | Comments (1)

February 14, 2005

SJ 001- About the Staff Journal

Welcome to my Staff Journal.

So many people have asked me about owning a mud, particularly one that has crossed over its sixth birthday. They have asked me about the day to day of it and how we Immortals come to the decisions we do.

This isn't going to be where I reveal every trick I've learned, far be it for me to deprive anyone of that 'baptism by fire' feeling. This is the OOC section of the Kali blog, this is where Kali the Admin will post.

I have a world of work to do in Chuck, I'll be posting on it here as it moves along and as I make progress. I have a search going for a few new Immortals, I'll be commenting on that here. I have players I want to throttle sometimes, I'll be posting about them here.

I'll be posting successes and failures and hopefully something witty will sneak in here and there. Owning a mud is certainly a trip and being a hands-on owner only makes it better.

This is an inside look into 'Titler's' mind and what comes out of it. And who knows, maybe something said here will inspire the next great Chuck idea. In any case, if you're still reading this I thank you for caring.

I don't want to talk on the mud about what is posted here. Read at your own discretion and don't cry to me if you don't like what you see. People have asked me why I'm such a bitch at times to them, perhaps this will offer a bit of insight into what makes good Immortals turn to uber-bitches.

Posted by Strega at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)