Newtopia Shot #2

ID:23276
 
Nov 23 2006, 5:31 pm
Keywords: design, newtopia, picture


I only have the badger graphic done, and I think it looks worse than the original Hedgerow Hall one. Plus, I was looking at the Hedgerow Hall one quite a bit so it's almost a copy job. =P

At the very least, however, you can see a little bit of the Sanctuary grounds. The Newtopia Sanctuary is a burrow, and this is part of the surface. There's a stone walkway around the outer confines of the Sanctuary, which gets interrupted at the edge of the stream there. All of the furniture is, of course, installed onto the ground on the surface so you can't just walk away with it. (Besides, tables and stools are "bulky objects" and I don't have the code in place to be able to carry those anyway. ;-))

You can also see a practice mat. The surface of the Sanctuary is not a sanctuary zone so you can fight up there all you want, although when NPCs are introduced you can bet they'd be pretty ticked if you were fighting around the endowment lands -- or, heaven forbid, hunting around the endowment lands -- unless you were standing on that mat.

When walking over the shallow water, your icon will dip a little bit into the water. When walking into medium-depth water, your icon will dip a lot into the water. You can currently walk into deep water too, since I don't have swimming code in place yet, but it will of course eventually require swimming (with potential to run out of Stamina, inhale water, and drown).

If anyone would like to contribute a new set of graphics for the Badger, Shrew, Rat, Mouse, Fox, Rabbit, Squirrel, and Hedgehog, I would do favours. Like, you know, wink wink nudge nudge favours. No, not really, but I'd be happy at least.

For those who haven't seen the first screenshot, it's here. The old screenshot just shows where the stream shown in the above screenshot ends at the Newtopia Sanctuary inlet. I'm still using the HrH badger icon as a placeholder there. The Sanctuary Inlet is on the western side of the Newtopian peninsula. (Oh, that reminds me. Newtopia is a peninsula. If you didn't know.)
Nov 23 2006, 5:45 pm
The game looks very pretty.
Nov 23 2006, 6:44 pm
When will it be ready for testing?
Nov 23 2006, 6:48 pm
Evi of au wrote:
When will it be ready for testing?

I have a bad habit of breaking deadlines, so I've been deliberately withholding saying any.

If I were to really crunch, I could have it in a state somewhere close to the old Hedgerow Hall before Christmas, but temet nosce -- won't happen.

I dunno, really. Problems I have are the fact that I have ADSL, which gives me decent download speeds but pathetic hosting speeds -- if I had good hosting speeds, I'd probably host the alpha versions quite frequently, possibly even allowing people to tool around while I was developing. As it stands with a pathetic hosting connection, though, I have to get something into a highly playable state before I host it or else it'll be sorely disappointing; people don't like enduring lag unless there's a lot to do.

I've been stating two months (so, mid-to-late January) for a reasonably playable state and a possible host session, but if you quote me on that, I will hurt you. Politely, of course. I'll work on interrupting your nerve signals first so the pain doesn't affect you too much. ;-)
Nov 23 2006, 6:50 pm
Alright, I'll be there on the first test day!
Nov 23 2006, 8:20 pm
Count me as second in line! I don't think I could ever thank ol' JT enough for bringing this style of gameplay back to BYOND. If you ever need anything in the way of terrible fiction written up (racial histories, descriptions, etc.) please send me an e-mail (my address is on my member page). I will literally bend over backwards to help in the development of this game!
Nov 23 2006, 8:23 pm
Sadly, writing is one of the things I'm best at. But I appreciate the offer. =)
Nov 23 2006, 8:27 pm
Jtgibson wrote:
Sadly, writing is one of the things I'm best at. But I appreciate the offer. =)

We'll see about that!

Quills at dawn!
Nov 24 2006, 5:34 am
How is that a sadly?

On another note...

Have you thought about how you're going to deal with troll prevention? At this point it seems like you're only dealing with people who want to worship you for starting up this project, but I'd hate to see you lose heart if you do start hosting. Not really a major design issue (and I kind of hate to bring it up), but it is something to keep on the backburner.
Nov 24 2006, 7:47 am
This sounds awesome, I'll be sure to play it the second it comes out.
Nov 24 2006, 10:56 am
Troll prevention never burned me out on the original Hedgerow Hall, so my best guess is that I'll handle it A-OK on my own variant. =)

I don't have any of the administrative features programmed just yet, but my intention is to have a "Sauron System". The Eye doesn't watch you unless it has reason to, at which point the Eye can perceive a lot about you. =)

Characters who enter the game are marked for review. Administrators are instructed to treat every new player as a potential roleplayer and will give one-to-one help using a mindwhisper system regarding how to improve the character to meet (or preferably well exceed) the minimum guidelines. Characters can enter the game immediately upon creation, however -- the review process is designed only to weed out the bad eggs, not to waste admin time by going over everything with a fine-toothed comb. A review shouldn't take an administrator more than 10-15 seconds, but that doesn't mean that a player should have to sit waiting in limbo while an administrator is chowing down on some Cheetos.

Any time a character modifies his "true identity", it is (will be) also flagged for review. The alter identities that are made possible with Foxes' skills are also flagged for review and are edited or deleted outright if they don't pass lustre. Players can/will lose the privilege of using alter identities, too, if they consistently abuse it.