(visnet) Staff Kinaed: Anyone else want to attend the OOC Chat today?
Beronica queries, "Am i the only one who came?"
Saama has been transferred in by Kinaed. [OOC]
Azarial is just breathing hard.
Kinaed claims, "Nope, but given the wholist, I'm not expecting a huge turn-out."
Beronica waves to Saama.
Temi nods at Azarial.
Kinaed says, "I wonder what sort of crazy stuff we can pass with only 2 members of the pbase here to discuss... >.<"
Azarial says, "So i need two onsets and a second wearoff."
Kinaed gives Beronica some coins.
Temi states, "Not strictly necessary, but I'd take it and fill it out."
Kinaed gives Saama some coins.
Azarial nods at Temi.
Azarial says, "Certainly make testing this easier"
Kinaed whispers in an aside to Beronica and Saama, "They're talking herbalism affects."
Temi claims, "Geras requested we put cheeseman on the itinerary."
Azarial says, "Though stating looks like I still didn;t get it set right."
Kinaed states, "Okay."
Kinaed asks, "Can I get a volunteer to scribe (ie, post the log on the forums)?"
Saama says, "I need to get into herbalism on rhis character"
Kinaed nods at Saama.
Kinaed says, "I imagine it'll be pretty cool."
Azarial states, "As much grief ass it has been on this part, I really hope so."
Azarial anticipates a long testing cycle, longer than typical.
Beronica states, "I just need enough mats and a test subject and we can do it."
Temi grins at Beronica.
Temi says, "Well, I'll do a round of testing before I let stuff out."
Kinaed states, "Temi, would you mind posting the log of this on the forums? I'm using a web client that I cannot cut/paste with."
Temi claims, "Sure."
Temi nods at Kinaed.
Kinaed says, "Awesome, thanks."
Azarial says, "Admittedly, I did find six core files this morning."
Azarial claims, "Taht does tend to reduce pop counts for a while."
Azarial tends to lay low afetr a bad set of crashes.
Kinaed states, "Okay, today's agenda:
- Staff Updates
- Player Heartbeat
- The Cheeseman
- Player Topics"
Kinaed muses, "Anyone have anything they want to add to the agenda to make sure it's talked about?"
Saama muses, "What is the cheeseman?"
Temi claims, "He's a wandering peddler."
Beronica states, "Wandering shopmob"
Azarial says, "He was uite the thing a while there. his popularity seems to have faded some"
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Kinaed says, "Okay, with nothing else to add, let's get started. I'll go first with Staff Updates. I haven't been here, I've been Christmas-ing with my family."
Saama claims, "What does he sell"
Beronica trails off, "Like everyone else..."
Kinaed claims to Saama, "Cheese."
Saama shuts up and listens
Kinaed claims, "And whatever else his owners put in his shop."
Azarial says, "He did sell cheese, and some tried to suggest wine, but I don;t know what became of that"
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Azarial was christmasing and writing code.
Temi states, "Yeah, there was wine too."
Kinaed claims, "I still need to review Places code, still being lax because I've got time whilst Az does his bit with herbalism. That's it for me. Az, you're up."
Azarial claims, "I've been hacking on the soft affects code for temi, refining how it will work so she can start stringing objects up with the basics. Some of it is stubbed out, and will need special code down the road; this is just the overarcing system to apply it properly with all the nifty strings and things."
Azarial says, "Also fixed a few crash bugs, and a few inconveniences dealing with the astral."
Beronica questions, "Like not being able to use 'mattack?""
Azarial states, "Tweaked a recent spell, as well; i overlooked a few spots that limited the usablity of it."
Azarial claims, "Yup."
Azarial claims, "Should be resolved."
Azarial claims, "I went on to the grid with my colossal water fox to test that one out and trace it. should wokr fine"
Beronica cackles a little. "I can finally get rid of that eagle..."
Saama claims, "Heh"
Azarial states, "Rpxp should earn while rping in the asstral now, too. but I did not test that"
Azarial ganked a vibroeel in some shop.
Saama declares, "What! Yes! Yay!"
Azarial claims, "Taht it was not was a bug; a slightly anticipated issue with the major revamp on how rpxp worked. if it does not, i will need to poke it again. and I am not sure if the prompt reports rpxp properly while avataring or shadowing."
Azarial claims, "I guess those are what they call edge or corner cases of the code."
Azarial shrugs eloquently with more tail than shoulders.
Temi grins.
Beronica states, "I need to drag my hubby astral with me to try it out."
Azarial says to Temi, "I see them talked aboiut, but I have no idea what the difference betweeen a corner and an edge case"
Temi wonders to Azarial, "Just how far off the normal it is?"
Azarial says, "I have been ignoring less than critical bugs, and a few mods to some earth spells with regards to the major changes to herbalism."
Temi claims, "I think corners have two edges."
Azarial states, "Maybe? Iunno."
Kinaed asks, "RPxp should work whenever RP is happening. Are there any other cases where the new RPxp code might not be working?"
Azarial states, "That would make sense."
Azarial states, "Mmm, nope. I figure a shadow is an edge case, and an avatar is a corner case; two shadows, as it were, edging together."
Kinaed claims, "I can understand 2 people rpyelling not getting XP though."
Kinaed states, "Yeah, I think those cases do need resolved, sorry."
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Azarial says, "Yes. rpyell is a weird thing. people want parsing of it, but dang. that's not easy. nothing has been written to properly handle multiroom parsing, and then there are the considerations."
Azarial says to Kinaed, "I hvae been waiting for peope to complain and tell me it's broken"
Kinaed states, "I probably wouldn't view that as worth the effort required to fix given how hard it would be and how rarely people actually do a full RP scene that way."
Kinaed questions, "Okay, anything else, Az, or do we move on to Temi's update?"
Azarial states, "I think i am done."
Azarial claims, "And i might have a tech call."
Kinaed says to Temi, "You're up. :)"
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Temi claims, "Okay! Not too much to report. My parents have just left after breakfast so I should be back onto normal availability. I'll start releasing concoctions a couple at a time as I get hem desced up as soon as the base of that system is working and solidified."
Temi claims, "I also have seed bags left, so if anyone hasn't gotten one yet, I'll probably do that through the end of the weekend."
Beronica muses to Temi, "Can I have the extras?"
Temi exclaims to Beronica, "Nope!"
Beronica pouts...
Kinaed chuckles.
Temi says, "Okay, back to you."
Temi grins at Kinaed.
Beronica trails off, "Though I am going to track down that Marrill girl and get her temijul seed..."
Kinaed muses, "That wraps up staff updates, and so we come to Player Heartbeat. How's RP been of late? Anything staff could/should be doing to support it?"
Beronica trails off, "I'm adopting the other child character..."
Beronica states, "But about what you would think for a Holiday week."
Saama states, "I've loved the RP"
Saama states, "Had a lotttt of mage rp this week"
Kinaed states, "Awesome."
Beronica states, "I've been seeing those beacons rock the Astral a time or fifteen."
Kinaed trails off, "Someone told me beacons were useless..."
Kinaed muses, "Are they?"
Temi says, "Well, if you want to be found, you can't do it from in the wilderness."
Saama says, "I find them bad, but everyone seesm to find me when i do it"
Beronica shrugs her shoulders a bit. "Not really sure since I do not use them, considering how underwraps I'm keeping that part of me.
Kinaed asks, "What do you mean, you can't do it from the wilderness if you want to be found, Temi?"
Temi claims to Kinaed, "It just says an astral beacon from the wilderness. That's too big to narrow down to where they are."
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Temi claims, "More helpful within the city that has smaller zones."
Kinaed says, "Well, I guess this is a head's up to mages that it'll be hard to get someone to find you in the wilderness until you're quite close to them."
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Azarial questions, "Close enough to scan, or what?"
Kinaed muses, "Anything else to add before we go on to the Cheeseman?"
Azarial doesn't remember how the beacon works at close range
Beronica asks, "Is there a way to just get a directional from where you are located?"
Temi questions, "Maybe we should add a yell affect in the astral too?"
Kinaed claims, "It'll give you a room name."
Azarial states to Beronica, "Mmm, no"
Azarial claims, "Not wihtout snapping the grid to a grid."
Beronica trails off, "Sounds like too much work..."
Temi says to Beronica, "We don't have relative directional information. Travel actually tries to compute routes on the fly, searching out for the first matching location it comes across, rathr than knowing anything."
Azarial says, "Oh, I wrote something to do that once on another mud. it;s mostly automatic."
Kinaed says, "I think we need to accept that the pathfinding problem is a tough one. Though Az, it might be worth posting something on the Mudconnector forums about ideas re: how to tackle it."
Azarial claims, "I was reading stuff on the gamasutra site; pathfinding is tricky at all levels."
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Kinaed claims, "Pass me those links sometime? I'm interested."
Azarial says, "But more so in that we don;t have a way to say what;s relative to what, and exits don't have to follow a coordinate system."
Azarial says, "I;ll try to find them. it;s been a while."
Kinaed asks, "A coordinate system?"
Beronica trails off, "Perhaps zoning off the wilderness might help. Like the Mountains west of Lithmore..."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Azarial claims, "In some ways, that would be harder."
Kinaed claims, "I'm not sure how easy/hard it is for us to break up existing zones into smaller ones."
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Kinaed states, "Manually, it probably isn't too crazy hard."
Kinaed says, "Just time consuming and boring."
Beronica trails off, "And figuring out which rooms should go in what area..."
Azarial claims, "Mostly moving vnums around consistently. then there;s the mob overlaps on vnums, objects, etc."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Kinaed states, "Anyway, again something where there's not necessarily a great benefit for the difficulty. We'll keep it in mind that there's an issue there, however."
Kaerrick has been transferred in by Kinaed. [OOC]
Kinaed gives Kaerrick some coins.
Azarial asks, "Doesnt; rpyell work in the astral?"
Kinaed claims, "I think it does, or it used to."
Azarial claims, "Though that only goes what, two rooms? three? ass the rat walks, anyways, versus the crow flying. crows need that snap grid"
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Saama says, "Hello someone o/"
Kinaed states, "Okay, so we've covered staff updates, player heartbeat, and are at Player Topics, where we have agreed to talk about the Cheeseman."
Kinaed queries to Temi, "What did Geras want us to talk about re: Cheeseman?"
Beronica states, "They must be hiding...Hey, Sikod."
Temi claims, "So.. Cheeseman has been player owned and operated, but the owner is ono longer there."
Beronica sigh "Never mind...
Temi states, "So, he wants to save the cheeseman."
Beronica sinks low into her seat.
Kinaed queries, "Is his inventory resetable?"
Kinaed queries, "I don't have an issue with just making him a random wander shop that isn't owned for the time being with infinite inventory?"
Temi states, "I suppose ideas would be for staff to take it over, or turn him into a standard mob shop, or put him up 'for hire' in the real estate office, with a provide your own backroom."
Temi states, "Don't know what people would actually like to see, if they liked the player stocking of it or such."
Kinaed claims, "Staff taking it over would be infinite inv in my mind. Not sure how we can 'for hire' him easily if that's expected to change."
Beronica says, "I always though he was a wandering mobshop. I did not know he was a pshop."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Kinaed claims, "I think to the outside, it won't matter."
Azarial has gone IAW.
Azarial has gone AFK.
Temi states, "Basically, we'd just sell him and swap is backroom vnum to someplace the player owned."
Kinaed claims, "I'm not for putting up a special construct that staff will have to manage, etc, to either pass him around to players who are interested or to manually restock him."
Beronica asks, "What about turning the abandoned restaurant pshops into general mobshops?"
Kaerrick speaks suddenly, breaking from his hiding spot.
Kaerrick says, "I dont really have any idea how shops work so its hard to have an opinion."
Lei has been transferred in by Kinaed. [OOC]
Azarial claims, "Converting old shops would be good."
Kinaed says to Lei, "We're discussing what to do with abandoned pshops, and Cheeseman in particular."
Kinaed nods at Azarial.
Beronica suddenly glomps onto Lei. "LEI!!"
Kaerrick has returned from IAW.
Temi states, "I think there's a tavern available for sale at the real estate office at the moment"
Lei states, "Ahhh. I saw some of that chatter on the ooc chan."
Beronica trails off, "Plus the upstairs lounge at the Bluebird..."
Lei snugs Beronica.
Kinaed claims, "I guess if it's just like selling a phome, there'd be no reason we wouldn't allow seeing pshops."
Temi nods at Kinaed.
Temi states, "Cheeseman is a bit of an odd situation because he doesn't come with a shop he's situated in."
Beronica queries, "Who was his owner?"
Kinaed says, "And his owner is in-absence."
Larna has been transferred in by Kinaed. [OOC]
Larna stops using a porcelain doll in a blue damask gown with wide brown eyes.
Saama has reconnected.
Larna puts the following into a thick, coarse linen satchel, fit with wide leather straps:
[12692]a porcelain doll in a blue damask gown with wide brown eyes
Kinaed states to Larna, "We're discussing what to do with abandoned pshops."
Larna says, "Yeah"
Kinaed claims, "That said, I guess I can go for posting Cheeseman as a pshop with other sellable properties, and we might want to add abandoned pshops to that list or convert them to automated shops."
Kinaed questions, "Perhaps it might be case-by-case?"
Larna claims, "Ok then well believe it or not but i reckon they should maybe be turned into npc shops or turned into ruins or something"
Kaerrick muses, "So...just so I know...Do pshops make their owner any money? And they have to stock them personally, right? Does the coin for purchased items just appear in their bank account or the back room of the place or what?"
Temi says, "If you stock it personally, you get all the coins that are paid for it in the back room."
Saama wonders, "Can i be returned?"
Kinaed claims, "Appears in the back of the place, and whether or not they make money is a bit of an economical question."
Saama has been transferred out by Kinaed. [OOC]
Temi states, "If you put them up for more than you pay, it makes you money."
Temi says, "For each sold."
Kinaed gives Larna some coins.
Victyr has been transferred in by Kinaed. [OOC]
Victyr strikes up a conversation with a giant stuffed teddybear.
Kinaed gives Victyr some coins.
Beronica claims, "And the prices cannot be haggled down like in a mobshop."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Beronica strikes up a conversation with a giant stuffed teddybear.
Kinaed says to Victyr, "We're discussing what should happen to abandoned pshops."
Larna studies the Places Spec.
Kinaed gets the Places Spec.
Larna looks at the Places Spec in her hands.
Kinaed gives the Places Spec to Larna.
Kinaed states, "Ah, you already have one. Oops."
Victyr nods to Kinaed, " Ah ty."
Kinaed claims, "Feel free to provide us any feedback on that spec. Once herbalism is finished, Places is the next work."
Larna states, "Oh hey vic didnt see you there"
Kaerrick wonders, "Yeah, seems like a straight forward equation... But the thing is, if you do one thing now it kinda sets a precedent...if a pshop gets abandoned at this point what is normally done with it? It just goes empty?"
Kinaed nods at Kaerrick.
Kinaed says, "It's also hard for us to know when a shop is abandoned."
Temi says, "With some shops, they've gone up for sale at the real estate office."
Kinaed says, "Right now, we don't codewise link owners to phomes, shops, etc."
Temi says, "With others, they've been removed."
Beronica says, "Well cheeseman should be made into an npc shop."
Kinaed states, "Albeit Az has been asking me to create a management system for awhile."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Kinaed says, "Then we'll consider that the vote and do that."
Kaerrick says, "Would it be hard to code something to alert you when a pshops backroom is empty? Seems like that would warn you theyd been abandoned."
Temi states, "That wouldn't even mean it, if it was a shop with quick turnover."
Larna claims, "I think there should be a small codewise indication like a name in the desc or something"
Kinaed trails off to Kaerrick, "Unless it's sitting there for ages with that black pudding no one wants to buy..."
Kaerrick claims, "On DI we had a command that would tell us how many total items and different items were in each pshops backroom."
Kinaed nods at Kaerrick.
Kinaed claims, "Might be good to add to an ownership management system."
Kaerrick says, "Black pudding is pretty bleh. White pudding is tasty, though."
Kaerrick says, "If you like liver."
Victyr states to Kinaed, "Why not make it simple, the shop is not considered abandoned until taxes aren't paid."
Temi says, "That's what we do now."
Kaerrick wonders, "There is a 'laston' command here, isnt there? To tell you the last time a character logged on?"
Temi states, "Three months of unpaid taxes, and when we get around to reclaiming after that."
Kinaed states to Kaerrick, "It's part of your 'whois <name>' info."
Larna asks, "Speaking of that whois info what tyoe of things should i out on it?"
Kaerrick says, "Then, not to make more work for you, Az, but a command that gives you a list of pshops, what their total items, different items, owner and owners last log on would make it pretty easy to manage shops."
Kinaed queries, "Perhaps we should also add taxes to pshops?"
Kinaed claims to Larna, "Whois Kaerrick has a good example."
Larna says, "I think pshop taxes is a good idea personally add a bit more realism"
Temi says, "I think they have taxes now if they are player owned, rather than guild owned."
Victyr says to Kinaed, "Makes sense, I mean it's just like a phome"
Beronica says to Kinaed, "I get charged taxes for my shop."
Kinaed queries, "Why wouldn't we tax a guild-owned shop? *headscratch*"
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Larna trails off, "But its also a store and they have higher tax rates ... maybe slap a tax on them depending on then number of items i suppose i dont know just an idea"
Temi claims, "Because we don' have guild taxes."
Victyr pays the merchant's guild taxes, sortof.
Kinaed states, "Need to add those, otherwise the darn things proliferate when guilds don't want to re-use what they've got and we end up with oodles of abandoned shops as their owners fade in and out."
Temi says, "We also don't really like doing guild-owned things, and we haven't been adding new ones, but they are something the merchants have some legacy ones."
Kinaed nods at Temi.
Victyr thinks Lithmore needs a good raging fire to get rid of alot of the abandonedunused shops.....
Larna wonders, "Should i drop the spec in my inv or what?"
Kinaed claims, "Okay, 15 minutes left. I think Cheeseman will become an NPC. Other pshops may be sold by their owners on the real estate boards, but staff will only convert abandoned ones without legitimate, active owners."
Kaerrick claims, "I also think its a zero sum game. Icly I am sure the guilds pay some sort of taxes but it is balanced out by benefits that arent coded either. Big hole in the cobblestones in front of the hospital? Who pays to have that repaired? The crown, from the taxes it took in from the physicians. "
Temi nods at Kinaed.
Kinaed nods at Kaerrick.
Kinaed says, "I think we're a long way from realistic."
Kinaed queries, "Our next agenda item - Player Topics. Anything on your minds?"
Kaerrick claims, "Well, there is a point where coded realism gets in the way of a good time."
Kinaed nods at Kaerrick.
Kaerrick trails off, "Yeah, I was just thinking...."
Kaerrick claims, "I baked two cheesecakes last night and, really, one was enough."
Kinaed questions, "Mail me one? Think it'd last in the mail? Sugar preserves things, right?"
Kinaed licks her lips.
Larna states, "Not well enough i dont think"
Lei claims, "TMC vote counters reset on the last day of the month - we gotta stir up another vote frenzy for January."
Kinaed nods at Larna.
Kinaed claims to Lei, "Thanks for reminding us."
Kaerrick claims, "But there are worse problems top have then an extra cheesecake....and If I deep froze it to -30 or so then mailed it express, packed in insulation, it would still be frozen when it got to you."
Kinaed states, "We've been doing well with the voting, thank you everyone who is taking the time to help us out."
Larna claims, "I voted just the other day"
Kinaed asks of Kaerrick, "Can you actually do that?"
Beronica states to Larna, "Should vote everyday."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Kinaed claims, "If you can vote every day, that'd be great."
Victyr voted before logging on.
Larna claims, "I should yes but meh"
Kinaed asks, "Is the vote link on the wholist too much?"
Lei says, "I think it's super. :D"
Beronica states, "Just right."
Larna says, "Lol nice thing on the wholist beronica"
Victyr exclaims to Kinaed, "No, it helps when I'm at home, I don't get on through the website, so when I type who, i'm like ' Oh yeah!'"
Lei claims, "Voting is hugely important for getting new players - I think it's okay to be adamant about the fact that we love and want new players."
Kinaed states, "Is anyone willing to write a review of TI for Mudconnector or elsewhere? We pay a reasonable sum of QP for those."
Kinaed nods at Lei.
Larna trails off, "I could do it but i dont know..."
Kinaed states to Larna, "If you're not comfortable, it's okay not to. But we'd deeply appreciate it."
Larna says, "Oh no im comfortable with it lol problem is i am only using a phone"
Kinaed nods at Larna.
Victyr could give it a shot, " Are there any 'rules' or whatever?"
Temi claims, "Anything that's not clearly trolling we'll pay out for."
Larna wonders, "Speaking of qp did you guys check out the typo i checked in?"
Kinaed says to Victyr, "No, just write a decent, truthful review. We'll give QP even if it's not the most uber positive one ever. It's more about giving us exposure, and if it gives prospective new players a reasonable idea of what to expect, good and bad, that'd be great."
Kinaed says to Larna, "I've read all of the typos, but I haven't resolved all of them."
Beronica asks of Temi, "That reminds me is recipe 748 Roasted Coffee Beans supposed to cost zero energy?"
Larna claims, "Fair enough then"
Temi says, "Delilah has been a bit busy with the holidays and she usually gets to the typos before I do, but I think I saw it there."
Temi claims to Beronica, "Nope! Probably not."
Kinaed says to Larna, "When we resolve a typo, we usually give out QP saying 'typo fixed', so you'll know."
Larna questions, "Well actually a player thing uh my adoption with beronica and victyr ... how long will that take.do you know?"
Kinaed questions to Beronica, "Who is the Reeve you have working on it?"
Larna says, "I mean just curious thats all"
Kinaed smiles at Larna.
Kinaed nods.
Beronica claims to Kinaed, "None yet, since RP wise I am wanting the rest of the family to meet her first."
Kinaed claims, "Btw, I'm grateful for the two people who have created advertisements for TI, even though they're not here."
Temi claims, "It's not something staff sets a time limit or expectation on, so depends on how quick the RP progresses."
Victyr claims to Beronica, "Matt won't be around for a bit, and don't know when riley will log back on"
Kinaed questions, "I'd love it if anyone else can help out. Has anyone noticed any new players who have stuck around out of that?"
Beronica says, "Mainly Mathew, but the player is a bit on a hiatus right now until the new year."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Kinaed queries, "What about that player, Lynn?"
Larna says, "Makes sense i suppose lol but my weight is an issue lol i can only carry a tiny load"
Kinaed says, "Anyway, it's good to hear that the money we've put into advertising hasn't gone to naught."
Kinaed queries to Larna, "Did you want to go back to chargen to increase your strength?"
Larna states, "No thats fine i mean she is only 5 so it makes sense"
Beronica states to Kinaed, "She's five."
Kinaed claims, "Or even swap some stats with a staffer? As long as you're cyan, you can alter your chargen decisions."
Kinaed nods at Beronica.
Kinaed states, "Okay, well... OOC Chat time is up in one minute. :)"
Beronica says, "My son has trouble with moving a full gallon of milk."
Kinaed states, "Thank you all for coming."
Kinaed claims to Beronica, "So do my girls, yep."
Lei waves to Kinaed.
Larna says, "Lol i changed my stats already i mean i started weighing just 13 pounds lol"
Kinaed asks, "Did I forget to give anyone their gift?"
Larna asks, "What gift?"
Larna looks at a book in her hands.
Kinaed says, "The 100 silver."
Beronica claims, "I believe anyone that came in after me and Saama."
Larna begins to count their money.
Lei begins to count their money.
Kaerrick states, "You forgot to give it to me like 40 times."
Kinaed gives Lei some coins.
Kinaed gives Victyr some coins.
>
