Initiative Revision: Turns Out There Were Problems, Adventures in Amateur Game Design, Part 14

It turns out there was a significant problem with the initiative system that I had devised. I know, I'm disappointed too. The original system had every player with a speed attribute. Every turn their speed would be added to their initiative and the player (or NPC) with the highest initiative takes their turn and their initiative is set to zero.

When I coded up an implementation to work this system, things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. I'll illustrate the problem with an example. Say you have to players with speeds 5 and 9. You would think the player with 9 speed to go almost twice as often as the player with 5, right? Nope.

Player 1: 5. Player 2: 9. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 5. Player 2: 18. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 5. Player 2: 18. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 5. Player 2: 18. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.

So they actually get the same number of turns. In a multiple player situation, the system better approximates the expected number of turns, but there are still some very serious inconsistencies. So I had to revise the system. It is now an old-type Final Fantasy system. Everyone's speed still adds to their initiative, but now a player gets a turn whenever their initiative reaches 100. After they take their turn, 100 is subtracted from their initiative. Naturally, if nobody had an initiative over 100, their speeds are added again.

I modified my code to use this system and the actual results produced were consistent with my expectations and desires for how it should work.

Pretentious Ass Art Installation

Last week, while on my break at work, I tweeted "Is there public domain pornography? #NaggingQuestions". After that, I realized that the word 'pornography' just flew through all of my coworkers. This gave me the thought, "Is digitized pornography in non-video form still pornography?"

The installation would have a speaker, a screen and a wireless transmitter of some sort. Each source would be projecting a pornography file in different ways. The screen would flood a series of '1's and '0's across the screen. The speaker would interpret the file as audio static and play it. The transmitter would broadcast the file's contents out into the open air.

Then, towards the exit would be a small booth, something like one of those curtained off voting booths. Inside would be a monitor with a cover over it and a trash can next to it. You could then see what was being shown to you, just not in the proper format. The trash can is if you can't handle it. I have a particular video in mind.

You see, all the mediums are reflecting the same information. The difference between the others and the video is that when viewed as a video, our brain recognizes certain patterns that it can piece together as being pornographic. It's all the same information, but only one is pornography.

While discussing this idea with Sarah I realized that art installations are basically culturally accepted trolling. I think I may have found my calling. What will be my masterpiece, my Mona Lisa? How will the world remember me?

NatOctoBlogMo

This October I'm starting a yearly blogging initiative NatOctoBlogMo, for National October Blogging Month. The name is a variant on NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month), and the idea is similar. The goal of NatOctoBlogMo is to promote small blogs and get more people to write them. The requirements of NatOctoBlogMo are simple.

1. Participants should post at least 1 blog post per day.
2. Participants should post a constructive, conversation-contributing comment on at least 1 blog post per day.

The first requirement is all about setting a goal for yourself and meeting it. The second requirement is about encouraging and participating in the blogging community. Receiving comments on your blog is one of the greatest motivations to write more. The goal isn't to get people to just write for a month and then fall off the map. The goal of NatOctoBlogMo is to start them on something they can enjoy for a long time. It's for them to make new friends and build the blogging community. Commenting on other people's blogs will do exactly that.

Do you have a blog that you haven't updated in ages? Do you have a great blog idea that you always wanted to get started? Get started again. What constitutes a blog post doesn't have any requirement. If you like to draw, you can post a drawing a day. If you like to write fiction, work on short stories. If you write music, post a small clip each day. You can do whatever you want.

If you don't already have a blog there are tons of places where you could make one:

• http://www.blogger.com
• http://www.wordpress.com
• http://www.tumblr.com
• http://www.youtube.com (you could do a video blog!)
• ...and many more.

If you have a twitter, then use the #NatOctoBlogMo hashtag whenever you make a post and use it to keep track of what other people are doing. Let's make this a great Blogtober!

I'll be blogging about gaming, math, my life, and amateur game design.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 13: Josh's Castle

This is a short campaign idea. In The Magician King (spoilers coming) there is a character who ends the book as a King of Fillory. Josh is very into pop culture, D&D and all sorts of other nerdy things. I imagine that as a King of Fillory, he would design a castle filled with all sorts of pop culture reference monsters and scenarios to test its invaders. Making your way through to the end you fight him in a battle where he spouts of trite lines from action and fantasy movies and eventually teleports away, leaving some treasure behind to reward you. Being a benevolent king and videogame lover, those who are defeated are not killed. They would merely be captured or returned to the front of the castle to try again.

This scenario idea would be great because the players would get to laugh about the references, metagame using their pop culture knowledge and have a fun time collectively enjoying the things they all love. All of this could happen in a way that would be consistent with the world's design. It could serve as a one-off sidequest, as a location that is frequently returned to to delve deeper into, or as the launching point into a very deep story where things are not all that they seem to be. It's a fun, fill as you want, idea that I really like.

Imagine fighting off Weeping Angels, Daleks, Cave Trolls, Nazgul, a Balrog, Storm Troopers, Death Eaters, Beholders and anything else you can dream off that you've maybe always wanted to fight. I think it'd be awesome.

It's your fantasy's fantasy.

The Presidential Election

My change for the presidential election (and for any elections for a single entity body). First, abolish the Electoral College, these days it just leads to situations where we have unintuitive results such as the 2000 election, where Al Gore had a larger popular vote yet George W. Bush still won. The president represents the nation as a whole and should be elected as such.

The other problem with the presidential election comes from its voting. A normal popular vote system is very simple to implement and explain but it leads to unintuitive situations. Many people can't vote for who they'd really like to vote for because they'd feel their vote would be wasted. This has historically been a problem for Independents and the Green Party. Coming into our next election, it may be a problem for conservatives given the split between standard Republicans and the Tea Party may cause a fragmentation of their voter base that will work in the Democrats favor.

I advocate the use of the single transferable vote system. Using this vote for our system, each voter ranks as many candidates they want to support in the order they want to support them. So their first choice would be #1, second would be #2, third would be #3 and so on. They can rank as many candidates as they want.

When the votes are tallied, each vote initially goes to their first choice candidate. Then, it is decided if it's impossible for any candidates to win. For example, if the total number of people who picked a candidate (at any ranking) is less than the current number of votes for the current highest candidate, then that person could not possibly win. Any impossible winners are then removed from the running and their votes are redistributed to whatever the second choice on the ballot is. If there are no impossible winners, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is dropped and the ballots redistributed. Redistribution continues until one candidate has more than half of the remaining votes.

This system would give independents and third parties greater support since people can vote for them without 'wasting' their vote. Our current, simple voting system only works perfectly when there are two candidates. There is no perfect voting system for multiple candidates but there are certainly better ones than ours. Ours, because it works perfectly in a two-candidate system, has forced our politics into a two-party system, making it very hard for anyone who doesn't fit into one of those categories (or isn't willing to change their beliefs to fit into them) to be elected.

Donkey Kong Country Returns Impressions

I bought Donkey Kong Country Returns recently because it was on discount at Walmart.com and you are lucky if you can find a Nintendo game for less than $40. I've played through the first two areas (being a group of stages) and I'm very conflicted about it.

I've had very good experiences with Donkey Kong games in the past, having just avoided Donkey Kong 64. Most recently, I played all the way through everything in Donkey Kong Country 2 and before that I've played through all of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Both of those games are very different from Returns.

Unlike in DKC2, you can't use your partner as a weapon or a platforming tool. When you get Diddy from a Barrel, your life is extended and his jetpacks help you stay aloft longer, but you don't jump higher. If DK takes too much damage, Diddy goes away. In single player mode, you never get to play as Diddy.

The movement is slower, the mid-air readjusting is slower. It doesn't feel like it's in the same series as DKC or DKC2. It feels like it's a different game that's just aping the style of Donkey Kong Country. But, I've started the third area recently and it's definitely growing on me. I've give my full impressions of it when I finish it and have played the co-op. I'm enjoying it, I just with it had more of that Donkey Kong feel. 

Stories from the Past: The Nintendo Website at Summer Camp

Why did you forsake me!?

It was the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I was at a summer camp at UCA called Summer Discovery. It was the kind of summer camp where you take classes. One of the classes I took was on computers and the internet. We had a project we had to do where we had to pick and present a website to everyone else in the class. 

For my website, I had chosen the Nintendo website. So I spent the few class periods before getting ready, navigating around and making sure that I knew where everything was. Except I was really anxious about presenting the Nintendo website. 

Why was I anxious?

I didn't want people to think I was a geek/nerd/dork. Yes, I was very self-conscious about my video game playing habits, especially around girls. And, seeing as the girl-that-I-liked-at-summer-camp was also in the class with me, this gave me great anxiety. I remember trying to think of or find a different website that I could do, but nothing seemed good and it was too late.

Then the day of the presentations came, and I remember going up to the computer that was having its contents projected onto the screen and typing in the url. 

http://web.archive.org/web/19970606094131/http://www.nintendo.com/hallway/index.html

Enter

Oh no. What? This is wrong. This is all wrong.

They had redesigned their website so that it was different that day! Now, not only would I seem like a terrible NERD, but I'd seem like a terribly unprepared NERD. I fumbled around the site for a while, having trouble with it's newer, sleeker design. Fortunately, the words that showed different categories still meant the same thing. 

Then I wanted to die. I just wanted to die. I went to the back of the classroom and just tried to not be noticed. Honestly, nobody probably realized that I had no idea what was going on. Nobody probably thought I was a dork either. My self-esteem was pretty low back then, and I was really self-conscious. 

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 12: Mage Abilities

100% not the aesthetic I'm going for, but just so cool. I love the Black Mage image search results.

The mage abilities was probably the easiest to come up with. It turns out that the limitless possibilities of magic make it easier to design. I decided to change the general philosophy of the trees a bit to open up more design options. The pet tree became the summoning tree. Enhancement is going to have a melee mage type spin to it also. I've also had some recent revelations that will allow me to squeeze those cool support spells into the trees without making them feel like they're taking the place of a good combat spell.

Arcane

Main Spec Ability: Explosion - a damaging AOE explosion that occurs at range.

In no particular order:

• Blinding Light
• Dazzling Wall
• Magic Missile
• Illusion
• Slow - slows a target
• Teleport - a personal teleport
• Telekinesis - a sustained telekinesis (not fast)
• Exploding Bead - a time delay damage spell 
• Cut - a magical slice through the air
• Mage Hand - an instant telekinesis (upgradable to be an attack)

Summoning

Main Spec Ability: Summon Companion - a permanent, magically enhanced companion. Can be dismissed and resummoned if killed.

• Summon Demon - temporary demon assistant
• Summon Golem - temporary golem (tanky)
• Summon Minor Architecture
• Floating Disc - a floating disc, usable for transport
• Conjure Food and Water
• Mend Ally - heals a summoned ally
• Dancing Sword - a sword appears to attack on behalf of the caster
• Spike - fires spikes
• Summon Clothes - upgradable to bind enemies
• 10th ability

Enhancement - Many of the abilities start as personal buffs but can be upgraded to be castable on others. Some start as castable on others.

Main Spec Ability: Buff - quite literally. Extra dice added to all actions and a speed increase.

• Change Self - alter your appearance
• 2-Ton Hammer - your weapon strikes as if it weighed more. Upgradable to knockback or deal massive damage to fixed structures.
• Resist - An aura that absorbs damage from certain elements
• Mage Armor - A deflection shield that increases your defensive capabilities
• Quick Feet - you move faster
• Close Wounds - heal
• Alacrity - increased turn speed
• Beam Attacks - Your weapon fires deadly beams at your enemies when you swing it.
• 9th ability
• 10th ability

There's always stuff left to come up with...

Weird Dream

I had a very strange dream Monday night. I've been told that to ensure the maintenance of my...reputation?...I should leave part of it out, which I will. It wasn't bad, but let's just say that part was the weirdest part and I was confused about it even in the dream.

Sarah and I were leaving our old apartment complex (except it didn't look like our old apartment complex) and were remarking how shitty the place was and how much shittier it had gotten since we left. She still wanted to stop at the diner there. I didn't want to stay because I didn't want to get recognized for being the best player on the darts (or lazertag or some other weird sport) team. I had apparently acquired some fans.

The next thing I remember, Sarah and I are trying to get rid of this miniature clothes washer that we had. Our plan was to sneak into people's houses and try to install it without them knowing. We were currently attempting to do so at a frat house when one of the guys came up.

"Are you Doug?" he asked.

"Yeah....I'm Doug."

"Cool, Brad said you'd come and install our washer. I'm glad to see you came."

At this point, Brad came in.

"Who's this?" Brad said.

"Isn't this Doug?"

"No."

At this point, I yell for Sarah and I to run. We grabbed the clothes washer (because we could only apparently get rid of it if the people didn't notice) and ran.

Wake up to the sound of a cat making noise at five o'clock in the morning.

I just found an old shell of a blog post that I had apparently meant to fill in the details but never did. It was titled "Weird Dreams Volume 2" and all it contained was:

Pottermore


Neil Patrick Harris


Joel McHale

 I don't remember anymore.

Death

An elderly friend of mine died yesterday. She fell in her kitchen, where she laid for seven hours before she could reach her lifealert button (which she kept in her pocket, instead of around her neck) and the paramedics could come. She received great emergency care and surgery to fix the broken bones, but succumbed to infection a couple days later. We had time to see the inevitable end coming, which dampened the effect that it had on us.

This is the first personal death that's happened to me as an adult. The last one was my maternal grandfather when I was 12 or 13 (I think) and before that my paternal grandfather before I can remember. It's certainly been a unique event. It hasn't really been sad for me yet, but I suspect that will come.

The experience so far has been more contemplative really, causing me to think about my own future death, as well as other things.

I don't have a good conclusion for this. It's just going to end.