Priorities to do before the 31st (roughly descending order):

• Complete a new reset while saving all three survivors - done
• Bank 100/40/40 energy - done
• Unlock computer lab - done
• Get a slags medical id - done
• Map out the tainted shoreline - done
• Complete as many potentially-relevant/necessary quests as possible:
  • The Protest - done
  • Dr. Myers Quest for chemistry experimentation - done
  • Boris's Hunt - done
  • Coding Assistance?
  • Problems on the docks?
• Stock up on consumables - done
• Gain as many stats as possible to make combats easier.

Am I missing anything?

But who will prove themselves best prepared for the unknowable? Post you predictions for the upcoming content here, and if you prove to have the oracle's eye, you will win all our admiration, and perhaps something else as well.

Predictions must be entered in this thread before the rollout of the quest, and will be judged starting on August 10th. Accuracy is of course important, but boldness will also win you points. "Each survivor will have a separate quest line" will likely lose out to a more creative prediction even if it is only half-true.

Examples:
"We'll meet a friendly bearded NPC to teach us a new type of crafting."
"At least 2 new uses for the tome of binding will be introduced."
"The animosity between the fishfolk and the fae will be at least partially explained."

PRIZES (categories judged by Vholes)

Overall Best: 1st pick from below (each list is one prize)
Most Accurate: 2nd pick
Most Creative-but-Believable: 3rd pick
Zaniest: 4th pick

• 1 mummy mask, 1 wrapping pants, 1 torso wrappings, 5 organ transport boxes, 5 panacea pills, 20 each of comm of the dead, creepy clown statue, staring shard, bloody hook hand, list of names

• 1 each of reindeer sweater, New Year's blowout, green glass ornament, painted snowflake, tiny gift, frigid scarf, silk top hat, snowy cookie tin

• 25 piles of cut Nova and 5 piles of red flakes

• 50,000 credits

(anyone may substitute their prize for 25,000 credits instead)
(prizes might increase, will never decrease)
(EDIT: enter as many predictions as you like. If you're eligible to win an additional prize after the first, I will give you 10,000 credits instead and allow the runner-up to select a prize)

In addition, considering Kinak's penchant for obscure content, the first person whose prediction is discovered to be eerily accurate after prizes have already been given out will receive a custom flak jacket and a candy bowl as a medal of mysteries solved and remaining.

For PvP, some attack types cannot be defended against effectively.

Without rare/donation/one time content, here is the best bonus attack or bonus defense you can get from equipment you can modify these more with effects, but for the purposes here equipment will show what I'm talking about.

Etheric: Defense: +25, Attack: +27, Difference: 2
Fire: Defense: +13, Attack +10, Difference: 3
Melee: Defense: +16, Attack +19, Difference: 3
Ranged: Defense: +13, Attack +17, Difference 4
Stealth: Defense: +11, Attack +21 Difference 10!

Stealth Power can be boosted by another +20% with Soft Wind, which puts it even more beyond the pale compared to the other options. Please, add more (and more powerful) stealth defense options? This seems to take some of the balance out of PvP.

Cheers!
Kinak

Regardless, I'd like a place to keep junk that isn't my inventory, and I already have a perfectly good apartment that seems to be perfect, narrative-wise. It would also cut down on the bandwidth needed to load my inventory each time. So please, give me somewhere to put my junk.

And here's a link to a bigger version. Much like the game itself, the image has a couple of hidden secrets. I actually made this pic a while ago, and recently dug it up. I haven't had a chance to log in to the game recently, but I hope to soon.

Let the questions… begin!

Cheers!
Kinak

It's in Hudson, up in northeastern Ohio, from October 14th to 17th. It seems to be a pretty happenin' place (the Con, not the town). They have an entire event category for Debauchery. That's gotta count for something.

Lyz and I will definitely be there. Puyo's still up in the air, but presumably she'll be moved by then and we can drag her along :)

So if you happen to be in that neck of the woods, I'd love to meet folks. Otherwise I'll be busy working on my pitch and hopefully snagging some new players.

Cheers!
Kinak

I'm not posting this now because it involves any urgent issues or anything. It just so happens that I have some time set aside for Metroplexity and no special goals in-game to make me linger over my turns, so I have time to take a step back and write up some stuff I've been thinking about for a while. I started off just thinking about alcohol, but it led me to some concerns about the way drugs in general figure in the game mechanics right now.

There already is an MMORPG where alcohol is a big deal and has detailed game mechanics devoted to it. Here in Metroplexity Eclipse is our drug of choice and we like it that way, KoL-boy!

There are a fair number of alcohol-related items and effects in the game. Most of them made their appearance pretty early in the development process, and I think it shows a bit. Some of the alcohol effects seem like a little more of a stretch narratively than some of the more recent content. For example, when I first started playing it struck me as weird that drinking whiskey made me stronger, even more so since getting drunk on other sorts of alcohol doesn't. One general cause of this oddness is that there's no real generic "drunk" effect in Metroplexity, although No Pain does specifically mention alcohol and comes from most alcoholic drinks. But you don't get it from consuming a clearly alcoholic whiskey bottle and do from consuming a (presumably) non-alcoholic painkiller. It bugs me a bit that alcoholic drinks are treated more like magic potions rather than different sources of alcohol, which should have pretty much the same effect no matter how you get it. Compare this to the way all the different varieties of Eclipse give you some energy of Etheric, depending on how concentrated the dose is, and possible additional effects on top of that. I was willing to cut the rum flask some slack for being an item you could only get while Etheric, and hence possibly imbued with special powers, until I saw that your gang smuggler can also get it for you. Unless he only gets it from Eclipse-fueled Ghost Ship expeditions, I guess …

When you're dealing with somebody who can regenerate necrotic tissue faster than Spider Venom can kill it off, the amazing thing is that alcohol has any effect at all. Maybe its effects are relatively so minor that it slips through? Compared to Eclipse, it's pretty weak stuff … Or maybe some of the less narratively-satisfying effects are peculiar to our character's unique body chemistry rather than effects that normal people experience? Although why one kind of alcohol would have a certain effect and not another (e.g. +3 Strength from Whiskey Drunk vs. +2 Strength, +4 Will from Rum Addled) is still mysterious. You could tell a story about trace impurities or something, I suppose, but that doesn't strike me as a super-plausible approach.

Now, I realize this is a game where you can throw the same grenade an indefinite number of times but in most cases if you want to re-read a book you have to go get another copy. (And for good reason! Keeping track of ammo is a drag, and it's nice not having quest items hang around to clutter up your inventory after they've served their purpose.) So game mechanics > tiny niggles about realism. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing the description for No Pain reworded a bit, or the things that give it standardized somewhat. Or maybe some special text appended the first time you enter The Happy Hour highlighting how alcohol seems to affect you differently than it does most other folks.

At any rate, I have a lot of alcohol in my inventory, and I never use any of it. I could donate it to my gang stash, I suppose. but it'd be nice if at least occasionally I'd have occasion to use some of it for its effects. This is actually an issue I have with most of the drugs in game right now; more on that below. Now, maybe nothing needs to be done about alcohol. The Happy Hour is a bar, so of course there need to be alcohol items for them to serve there. So maybe the in-game drinks are there more as necessary scenery than a source of useful buffs. But I have some specific ideas about ways to make alcohol more interesting. Well, actually, I mostly just want to mention that a game that features both Norse mythology and poetry prominently really needs to work in this myth somehow. (Viking drinking horn unearthly item?) Or maybe some kind of Alcohol Tolerance skill, which would soak up the first two Body from alcohol each day and thereby encourage people to use booze? Or, in a somewhat sillier vein, a Drunken Master skill or technique that let you do crazy stealth/evasion moves?

Misery: -noun. 1. wretchedness of condition or circumstances. 2. the state or practice of being a miser

Here's a list of all the Drugs Mag has used in the last couple of months:

• Cut Nova
• Eclipse (mostly in liquefied form because I'm too hopelessly suboptimal to take turns to craft soaked to save Body; occasionally plain old garden-variety when I just want to get the primordial seas bonus from Sushi and/or summon something with Urban Lore)
• Omnicola (very occasionally, when it's a few minutes before rollover and I don't want to cap out on Body)
• Blood of the Ancients, to make sure I beat a Twisted Raven

That's a pretty small subset of the already vast pharmacopoeia Metroplexity has to offer. There are several reasons why those are the only drugs I use, some of them due to my own quirks, and some of a more general nature.

1. Let me just say upfront: I'm a packrat and a miser. If a game has any sort of potentially useful item that's consumed on use and in limited supply, I tend to try and amass a big stock of it, just in case I need it. And then I rarely use any, 'cause I don't want to be out of it later, when I might really need it. Sometimes this makes sense, as in the case of strange eyedropper, which take a lot of doing to obtain. Most of the time it doesn't, as is the case with (among many other things) tough cloth. But, this brings us to …

B. I haven't reset in ages, so my stats (and, hence, hit points) are so high, and my deck so stuffed with powerful techniques, that barring some kind of PvP stunt, or running around in the bird outfit or something that totally kills my combat effectiveness, I have very little need ever to buff up for fights. This won't be true of many characters, but it does lead us to …

III. Crafting/farming high-grade drugs takes energy, and using them takes Body, which could be used to get more turns instead of a drug effect. So the opportunity cost of getting a buff from a drug is pretty significant even for drugs whose Body cost is low.

Now, like I suggested above about alcohol, maybe many of the drugs are there more as scenery than something we're actually expected to use. And some drugs are crafting components, useful even if we don't ever use them in their base form. (Pep Pill > Caffeine Powder, anyone?) Still, I think the fact that body can be converted into turns is the key to making most other drugs unattractive. I'm not sure what can be done about this. Some sort of caffeine tolerance that builds up if you use too many turn-granting items might force us not to use all our body for extra turns, but that'd be annoying and also effectively split Body into Body (buffs) and Body (turns), which might be too complicated. Also, that wouldn't stop us from using most or all of our non-caffeine body for Etheric, either to get the special encounter, fuel techniques, or just burn off with Urban Lore. The same problem would crop up with some kind of skill that reduces the effective body cost for drugs across the board, unless it somehow excludes the big ticket ones, e.g. a skill specific to alcohol like I suggested above. Or, heck, some kind of drug fiend skill that gives you benefits, but also some penalty if you don't pop a bunch tranquilizers or mushrooms or other "fun" drugs each day.

This being Metroplexity and all, where there are lots of little hidden bonuses and Easter eggs everywhere, it might also be that the "optimal" drugs I've been using aren't really as optimal as I think.

As such, I kind of wanted to open the floor for discussion. I get a lot of nudges that X or Y was unbalanced, too complicated, or too hard to spade but it's hard to get a general feel for things.

My goals for each item have been more or less:

• Single coin items are cool but basically low-maintenance and easy for me to design (or ride along like the tacke box).
• Two coin items are content wrapped in enigmas wrapped in more content.

And I think things have been going pretty well. But I don't design them for me, so I'm not really the one that gets to say :)

My only real concern going forward is that I'll feel a little weird with twelve items available at Zack's and every reset. I have a germ of a thought that might be cool (and I'd want to implement before the Survivors' Quest if I do), but I'm curious to hear if it bugs anyone else first.

So, yeah, feel free to unload your comments, concerns, problems, or questions.

Cheers!
Kinak

I've been fooling around on the low road, and the failure punishment is even harsher than I thought. If there's a shred of mortal mercy in your heart, do you think we could at least land facing the stairs to the 5th floor instead of bumbling in the direction of the lower floors? :P

Vholes

So, this probably isn't what you want to hear, but this totally reminds me I wanted to change it so that you fall off if you fail at the high road.

Signs of mortal mercy, apparently very low :)

Cheers!
Kinak

Ouch. Well, we haven't fully figured out how the low road works now (see Two Roads & discussion page), but let's try to figure out how best to get through it.

I. Etheric + etheric defense + high road: The originally preferred method, but now that there are three of them I find Entrapping Gaze is likely to finish you off. Maybe if you happen to pick up Light of the Eye? (I haven't tried that.)

II. non-Etheric + ranged defense + defensive techniques + high road: Since helidrones' attacks are easier to block (with Dive for Cover / Cinematic Dodge), a defense-heavy deck has a good chance of getting you through. A bad hand will doom you though, especially if you were unlucky getting or don't have access to platelet boosters, red flakes, and staring shards. And now that failing means falling to the fourth floor, this method has lots of swing in it.

(NOTE: if it's possible to boost Reflexes high enough to run away after a bad hand, things could improve. But with three opponents, that might be unfeasible. And trading your staring shard for a comm of the dead (if you even have a choice) might not be the wisest move.)

III. low road?? Needs more spading. Unless there's a way to force a particular attribute test, this is going to be just as much as a crapshoot as method II.

Also, is reactive defense now changed to be like I suggested a long time ago where it is able to soak a lot of damage really well, but sucks for small amounts of damage?

Note: The siren is not commentary on SQL.

Cheers!
Kinak

- Glass

Here's good.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's here.

Cheers!
Kinak

- Glass

If there are enough questions I might even have time to 'cast out this weekend. Otherwise I'll leave it open for a while and see what I can shake loose with the ruckus around May's unearthly item.

Cheers!
Kinak

Whether it means that the painter needs to be alive, or Dave needs to be alive, or, for some reason the poet I'm not sure.

I could also see it ending up being an extension of the conversations with David about the Ghoul king his interest in binding monsters and such.

Discussions include the upcoming side quest and shirts (the link for which is up on the devblog now) and a whole bunch of other goodies.

Cheers!
Kinak

Cheers!
Kinak

Now that that's taken care of and I'd like to keep my mind on the quest I'm working on, so I'll be skipping this month's. Ironically, while deciding this I got a really good idea for the next item.

Cheers!
Kinak

We could even add semicolons to divide different levels of requirements, or more simply just have a semicolon between the "no requirement" group and the rest of them.

Simplest way to deal with different stat requirements would be to ignore the difference: A 6-strength requirement would be in the same group as a 6-will requirement.

E.g. the following row from ranged power could read:

Unnecessary? Too much work for too little gain? Now that I've made the example I'd have to say the biggest problem with it is the lack of standardization with the equip requirements†, which could mean updates in the future and even more work. But I'll leave this post up since I've typed it.

†(for instance, the wired sidearm is significantly better than the retooled rifle, but only the latter has an equip requirement)

Cheers!
Kinak

Mistakes this time around (so far!):

• forgetting to talk to Mikhail at the start of the run. Maybe I just had atrocious luck, but I'm not sure the friendly bum will show up the second time if you haven't done this. :P
• stuffing my face with ancient candybars before remembering I had a hideout.
• getting 5 Eclipse tablets in the sewers without noticing before taking them for the fairy.
• charging into the gates of the Slags without an air filter
• charging out of the gates of the Slags to rest shortly afterwards, which lead to much pwnage by the additional 2 wall turrets on attempting to get back in, and much detouring to get around that
• opening the locker in the bioresearch when I already had a scrubs outfit
• forgetting about explosive bullets until right before the damaged buildings
• forgetting to take Eclipse before taking the high road
• several times, running away from combats with the winter spirits effect active

(The consumption of several piles of sushi rice and a rum flask, on the other hand, were deliberate acts highly necessary for the proper amount of whimsy)

It's fairly complex, so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a bug or two. That said, there's enough going on, it's probably worth trying to spade things a bit before you really label things bugs (unless they're, you know, huge PHP errors or something.

Happy spading! And happy normal-use-slightly-later-for-people-who-don't-want-to-be-involved-in-spading!

Cheers!
Kinak

P.S.: Sorry for releasing the item at a weird time, I just didn't want to wait another day when we're already so close to the end of the month.

Thrills, chills, delays, illnesses, darknesses, questions, answers, and lists of things that are longer than they need to be! Get your copy today!

Edit: Sorry for the coughing. Still a bit plaguey.

Cheers!
Kinak

I'd be willing to pay for the services of course. Name your price. Would you like any fish? I've got 150 bluegill. :)

(Also, I'm wondering if a "trade" forum would see any use? - our gang has one that gets used fairly well, but it'd be nice to extend your audience a bit sometimes.)

EDIT: Also, does anyone know if you have a program installed, but not enough processors to run it, do the bonuses still apply?

• separate request and display, and only request when character pane was referred to.
• no alert when level array is empty or doesn't exist…

Notes:

• gets updated every time the character pane does - makes two xmlhttprequests, so it could be taxing, not that I'm paying any
• uses regular expression to match changes to the level string, and saved into an array, so you get a ordered level list(unless you switched off the script somehow and left a gap)
• Saved in JSON format - JSON.parse will go bonkers if argument passed is not valid
• uses html5's localstorage instead of GM_set/getValue(not sure chrome supports them yet, could check; GM_xmlhttprequest is supported thou)
• there might be a hiccup at the start, getting values initially

 // ==UserScript== // @name Show skill level // @namespace http://www.fakeurl.com.de // @description Displays your skill level in character pane // @include http://www.metroplexity.com/character.php // ==/UserScript== (function(){ // skill(string): skill name to save as, and to display as // search(string): querystring of skill's href // display(boolean): display skill level in character pane if true function request(skill,search){ GM_xmlhttpRequest({ method:"GET", url:"http://www.metroplexity.com/desc.php"+search, onload:function(x){ if(x.status!=200 || !/<B>Skill Level:<\/B> ([^<]+)</i.test(x.responseText))return; var level=RegExp.$1; var store=localStorage; var saved=JSON.parse(store.getItem(skill)||"[]"); //console.log(saved); var len=saved.length; if(len && level!=saved[len-1]){ alert(skill+" level up!"); saved[len]=level; store.setItem(skill,JSON.stringify(saved)); document.getElementById(skill).textContent=level; } else if(!len){ saved[0]=level; store.setItem(skill,JSON.stringify(saved)); document.getElementById(skill).textContent=level; } } }); } function display(skill,search){ var table=document.evaluate('//table[last()]', document,null,XPathResult.ANY_UNORDERED_NODE_TYPE,null).singleNodeValue; if(!table)return; var tr=document.createElement("tr"); var td=document.createElement("td"); var b=document.createElement("b"); var a=document.createElement("a"); a.setAttribute('onclick','desc("'+search+'")'); a.textContent=skill+":"; b.appendChild(a); td.appendChild(b); tr.appendChild(td); td=document.createElement("td"); var level=""; var store=localStorage; var saved=JSON.parse(store.getItem(skill)||"[]"); if(saved.length)level=saved[saved.length-1]; td.textContent=level; td.id=skill; tr.appendChild(td); table.appendChild(tr); } // assume skill level only changes when character pane was referred to if(document.referrer){ request("Chess","?s=5-Chess"); request("Fishing","?s=19-Fishing"); } //console.log(document.referrer); display("Chess","?s=5-Chess"); display("Fishing","?s=19-Fishing"); })(); 

Happy spading! …Vholes(yesterday)

Todos

• Want it to count energies/turns/item uses…?
• narrow down cases when skill level get updated

Sorry scheduling's gotten so botched between me being sick, vacation, and going back to work. I'm still working on a neat bit of side quest lead-in to the Survivors' Quest, but it'll be a bit while I adapt to my new schedule.

Cheers!
Kinak

I just finished my first day back at work, which is nice for a lot of reasons, the biggest of which being not worrying about finances anymore. It's also awesomely ironic that one of the guys I trained back in the day is doing my refresher training coming back :)

Things really seem to still be for coding after work. Actually, if not for the same Kinak-is-kind-of-a-spaz issues that plagued me last week, I'd probably have gotten a bunch done.

Mostly just wanted to say not to worry about the whole job thing. That said, I have no earthly idea what the schedule going forward looks like. Honestly, I'm not really sold on trying to schedule myself to begin with. It's just a bother.

Anyway, the next thing out will be a neat little sidequest that connects some old threads into the Survivors' Quest. Hopefully this week (of course I say this right after saying I don't like scheduling). I'll be releasing that separately, then the main quest proper.

Cheers!
Kinak

First, though, we'd like to see how many people would be interested or able to do it. Some details before you decide:

The contest winners would be determined using the marvellous Al's marvellous script here: http://wiki.metroplexity.com/forum/t-223036/gm-script:adventure-logger-online-database , which can now log energy totals. There is the option to make your data private, so it would only be available to Al and the contest moderators. If you're fine with people watching your adventuring, though, you can contribute to a massive growing database for spaders and interested persons to peruse, which is also awesome.

The contest will definitely have two tiers, unearthly and earthly (one with donation items allowed, one without). So if you don't have any of the fancy stuff, you'll still have a shot at the prize (most likely 2 unearthly coins for the winner of each category, plus miscellaneous goodies for the runners up).

So, who's interested, and when could they do it? Keep in mind that the Survivor's Quest is semi-scheduled to come out in a couple weeks, so this might be our last chance to hold a contest during the beta reset phase. Hey, another reason to join: you'll probably even get a goody from Kinak for being on the reset boards when it's all over!

The help file here has most of the details about it but to summarize:

• Each turn you take, it saves a copy of the page, along with your current stats and bonuses at the time.
• You can password-protect your logs so that only you can see them, or only your gang can see them (or everyone can see them).
• You can browse your logs (as well as anyone else's who decided to make them public) at this site I made. (You can search for specific opponents or text if you like)

To note: this is still somewhat experimental and not working perfectly yet. There are a few known problems but feel free to let me know if anything pops up or if you have any suggestions.

My gang has been using this for a few months, so it's been mostly tested. We have nearly 50,000 adventures worth of data so far! Thanks for the testing and data. I've gotten great use of this to calculate opponent's stats: nearly all of opponents stat table is thanks to data collected from our gang. You can help spade too!

EDIT: This is kind of broken at the moment. Use at own risk.

If this message persists for more than a few minutes, please contact the site operator so they can investigate. If you are the site operator, please log in to our member interface to check for system problems before reporting this issue.

It said it should last a few minutes, but it's been a few hours. Just thought I'd post about it just in case.

EDIT: Disregard, back up

Just want to make sure everyone gets to play with their ooze without having to wait for Kinak to wake up and fix it. It looks pretty neat so far. :)

Lots of teasers about new content along with a sneak peek at my hopefully adequate audio editing skills. And a surprise twist at the end!

Cheers!
Kinak

As usual, I'll close this thread off when we've reached a critical mass of questions and answer them in podcast form.

To pre-answer a question, the Survivors' Quest is looking more like mid-march now. That still depends a lot on me not screwing up the schedule, but I just straight lost two weeks being sick.

Cheers!
Kinak

Storywise, it can swing either way. Mechanics-wise, I see a couple factors. One is it could potentially get interesting to have a surefire way to get a cold coin effect without spending Energy — either if there's (eventually?) something specifically related to the effect, or if (this is a stretch) acquiring/'pulling' a beating sludge heart turns out to be a useful strategy to get fire defense and etheric power. :P

On the flip side, Kinak might not be happy with a surefire way to get a cold coin effect, particularly if you have multiple hearts and can have it on permanently. Even more so with born of sorrow (we still don't know if those have the same 'morality', correct?). A somewhat artificial 'only triggers once per day' could alleviate this, I suppose. ('Can only use all your hearts at once' is also artificial and allows mall trickery.)

It may well be more trouble than it's worth… but I felt the suggestions forum was getting neglected. Feel free to add suggestions for what else could potentially be added to the list of evil acts. :)

Being able to click on "Gang Warfare" or "Hideout" to see only entries from that section would be convenient (though unnecessary) too.

Blarghgh and I are both experiencing the problem.

As with any donation item, it's a bit more than it appears. And, as with any two coin item, its "more than it appears" is a bit more than it appears.

On the other hand, it should be a bit easier to figure out than some of the other two-coiners. I've said that before, though, so we'll see :)

Cheers!
Kinak

Vholes

Ha, when you said

A reduced chance of killing said previously mentioned greens, flowers, and vegetables.

I was thinking you would have combat penalties against writhing masses and vengeful turnips. I'm such a violent person.

Argeth

Actually that raises some interesting debate VHoles, are the writhing tendrils plant? Animal? Bug? Are they more like a land version of the kraken, or more like an ant lion or ambush spider? Or one of those 'strangle vine' things that turn up in almost every fantasy game, with a big maw? How do we get the items out when we 'kill' it? Do we just grab the stuff it was using as bait? Grab whatever is left in the shattered maw? Rip open the 'body'? If it is a plant or underground animal, could we dig it up and make use of the chunks/roots?
While we're on the subject <here's a skill suggestion>:
Xenobiologist
 The Ether surprises you much less now. The rules are different, but there are still rules in biology.

Vholes

The question is, /are/ there still rules in etheric biology? Etheric chemistry seems reliable, but it's difficult to examine how a twisted hound works when it immediately collapses into dust.
Taking suggestions on what to call ether-sciences. xeno- doesn't seem quite right as a prefix. Loto- or zizipho- would refer to the narcotic lotus plants in the Odyssey (which had a rather different effect, true).
Ziziphobiology?

Argeth

So obviously we need to chop the hound into the largest still living chunks we can. I figure we can start removing limbs, and simply cut open the torso while it thrashes around. Hm. Maybe just some kinda drug. Or maybe a modified spider venom?
And as far as I recall, things so far seem to follow 'apparant' rules. (Ghouls need energy, not nutrition, and can thus consume nearly useless things but end up more gaunt. Hounds are crystalline, that's where they get the spikes and claws, but they're constructed of larger elements (Crystal Spike, Hound Crystal) and the components seem to want to rejoin (Artificial Hound Crystal), so there's likely something about the dust itself. Tendrils appear to be part of a larger item, with tough mouth openings, but are rendered almost useless by attacking and removing the tendrils, which wither surprisingly quickle on death. Likely using some form of internal fluid pressure to compress itself for ambush predation, and then expand out the tendrils to grab and contain a meal. Serpents are large aquatic predators, basically a more 'dangerous' form of evolved eel. Sort of reinforced by being able to fish up Serpents, as they're obviously not incredibly intelligent, just lunging for an available, moving 'prey' object. But their battle style does imply a bit of hunter intelligence. I'm not going to try to figure out how Messy or the Faeries fit into that, though.)
And I suppose that could work… Although technically the creatures are 'real', just alien. I think. Storyline, head confused.

Vholes

I'd argue that your description of "apparent rules" is meaningless scientifically. From Dr. Myers' research and our own observations, these phenomena clearly don't fit within our current system at all: reactions inexplicable in our understanding of chemistry occur, and creatures formed from crystalline motes display sentience. And as far as I'm aware, we have no explanation for the 'energies' that interact with the shining glasses, crystalline flame, and many more subtle artifacts.
The real question is whether Ziziphic (Aliatic?) science can be reduced to a more general set of rules. Do the ghouls exist as they do because the artist's psyche created them that way, or did they have to meet other requirements of the aetheric world? We've seen no abstractionist sending unrecognizable monstrosities out into the world, which implies that there must be a more concrete reaction in someone's mind (creator's and/or observer's). It's difficult to say how far this can go, however: did a madman or fanatic cult create the sewer mutants or the mushroom men, or are they more vague manifestations of the entire city's imagination?
Looking at it another way, does the aetheric world exist as a separate location? It's conceivable that certain forms become manifest because they are literally being summoned from elsewhere rather than spun out of nothing. Perhaps some of these beings are even capable of traveling to our world independently. If this whole scenario is the case, it seems likely that there is some 'warping on arrival', perhaps caused by the collision of the two worlds (see rumors of Midgard experiments into Aliarobotics, or the abandoned subway). This would explain the apparent close connection between our nightmares and these 'hallucinations'; it could well be that these common nightmares of ours stem from earlier, weaker interactions with the aetheric world, however.
Many questions and many possibilities for the new year.

Wyrd

I would argue that Allology and its specialisations (Allobiology, allo-energetics, etc) at this point might very well have more in common with Geisteswissenschaften than any exact science due to the mutable, unpredictable and largely inscrutable nature of etheric manifestations, and, perhaps even more so, its odd connection the mind. We can describe its expected behaviour and theorise about the strange laws that govern the field of allology, but until we know much, much more, we cannot set down exact rules.

Argeth

Geisteswissenschaften

I realize that's probably the formal name, but as a German speaker I need to wonder why they complicated 'Mind Sciences' by using the Germanic version. (Geist: Ghost or Mind, maybe even 'spirit' depending on usage, with Mind being the more likely in this case.)
And I think that's what I mean. While it's chemically unusual from an existing standpoint, they react consistently. That is, every time we put the crystal motes into an eclipse suspension and add more motes, they attempt to join up. Every time we dissolve a tissue/scale sample of a serpent in acid, it converts into nitro. Chemically speaking, we should be able to track and isolate these factors. Similarly, the crystal tree seems to react very similarly to hound crystals, reacting to the presence of the 'etheric energy' as it were, only using it from an ambient sense rather than a direct infusion. The difference between photosynthesis and a hunter. As for the image of the lady, I think that's more of an imprint caused by a large amount of etheric energy focused on a single person. (Avatar of Flames. Which was so totally your fault. :p)
I'd call this further interest in seeing what other 'plants' are in the ether, as so far we only have one version, and from the 'branches' it could be a pine tree or deciduous… and we have no way of comparing. (Crystalline leaves? The unending absorption seems to imply an 'Evergreen' sort of existance)
Also, going from one of the Abstract Sketches… There's overlap, but there's also 'infusion'. There are wild hounds, and then there's hounds that have infused themselves into ideas. Technically speaking, there should be some way of isolating what makes that overlap if we can get a look at the blueprints.

Vholes

I can see three factors that could make a simple analysis of new Allological laws difficult. One, an extreme sensitivity to the surroundings and presence of other etheric energies: silver and 'ectoplasm' react in some places, but not with the dark specter†. Crystals show no sign of sentience unless part of a larger mass, and possibly only in a particular canine-like shape. This is what Wyrd brought up, but it is not insurmountable; it simply requires the same refining of tools that any scientific field undergoes constantly.

What I see as more problematic is the influence of the mind on these phenomena. Our data on etheric encounters has been too localized in time and space to investigate this problem. Is there an unknown fisherman who is responsible for the laws governing the serpents, byproducts of his imagination according to the contours of his mind? If this hypothetical imaginer dies, or perhaps if a more general group belief in sea serpents is transformed gradually, will the laws change? Will the serpents disappear, or more troublingly, will the same chemical reactions not hold? The effect of the mind seems so important here that I would not be surprised to see chemically identical reactions produce different results in the presence of an experienced etheric traveler††. This would be most worrying scientifically if it introduced another variety of the Observer Effect: is there anything we can use to study the mind that the mind does not interact with?

The third factor is that all our researchers are high. >.>

†Wait…. that needs testing! :)

†† black silver ingot, shining ingot

Argeth

The effect of the mind seems so important here that I would not be surprised to see chemically identical reactions produce different results in the presence of an experienced etheric traveler.

Actually I need to shoot down this one. This isn't altering the chemical reaction so much as it is introducing a means of recognition. That is, the difference between Simple Coding and using an Advanced Interpreter. You don't realize the way it can be used until you understand it a bit better (Or in the case of the interpreter, have something else to understand it better). The skills themselves reference the use of Silver being the most vital part, literally, learning that silver is useful for what it is. It's just the path of use (destruction, mercy) that defines the interpretation of the use (Nightmare fuel, a dangerous destructive element, or the Ectoplasm which can be gained from the souls you 'freed').

I do need to admit that the entire research staff being high is negative… but avoidable. High concentrations of Etheric Energy (Halloween 2009, the Charnel House) seem to allow those not on the stuff to interact with it. The only negative would be needing to dose an entire apartment complex + in order to even develop a small tear.. and then the risk of focal energies (Again, Avatar of Flames) would put the entire situation into jeopardy. (Yeah, I'm looking at you people who didn't give her a castor pill)

And while the information is limited, and might be dependent on mental influences, that should make some instances much easier to track than others. Urban legends, horror stories.. while we only have a direct link through Urban Lore, the indirect links on things like the Quad Killer imply there's only a mild control. Of course, that's two way, did we dream them up, or are the stories based on them? The Ghoul King claims to have been created from Eclipse (Kingly Favor) but the Quad Killer claims to have been a 'bad dream' and the Vigilante claims to have faced him multiple times before. (Vigilante recording)
The way the influences hold… I think it maintains some consistency across locations, so it's likely that the only way ALL creatures would change is for EVERY person to alter their interpretation. But so long as there is a vaguely held fear of serpents on the water, ghost ships, etc, the idea can coalesce when Eclipse is in it. That may even be the further interpretation of the ghouls. Have you ever walked into an abandoned building, and just… felt everything around you? It puts you on edge, every shadow, every creak and groan makes your skin crawl, and you become hypersensitive to what 'may' be lurking rather than what is. So an abandoned warehouse becomes a charnal house, the further unknown of the underground then brought to life separately by the artist, his drugged up state perhaps leading to the bleed over. Or perhaps his drugged up state only lead to the creation of the King.. who then locked the Artist into the deal. But that gets circular, how much power was needed to open the 'gap' for the ghouls and the fire, and could a single person really cause that themselves?

Vholes

There is more to research than the lab, Argeth… the Herald is an expression of etheric influence in our world, and I am proud to have been there when it was ushered in. I admit I don't have much more to say on the current state of Allology, although I believe a logical step would be to develop relations with a reasonably intelligent and nonhostile allotic race — perhaps the mushroom creatures, if we find a way to communicate with them.

Hopefully I'll actually be able to get something done today or tomorrow, but we shall see.

Cheers!
Kinak

It doesn't really matter of course, and if you want to nitpick, the skull would also be wrong for the tendrils and the flying eye (one eye socket too many and the other too small), etc., but those are at least organic and a skull does fit somewhat.

Feedback welcome as usual.
Get it here.

I'd love to take credit, but I was probably just talking fast because of my cold :)

Cheers!
Kinak

So, I guess this will probably be a bit of a retrospective/forward-looking piece in addition to the usual questions.

Cheers!
Kinak

Also feel free to maybe point out things in this thread that aren't considered by the game evil/negative and should be, as I've got him to "Fix" cheating at pool to be evil already.

I post a lot here in Suggestions. I want to make it clear: I'm not complaining. I love the game how it is. My suggestions are just little tweaks I think could add a little more to the game or make it a bit more interesting/friendly to help draw in new players. We can always use more players and I encourage everyone to do what they can to attract them. Make my creature GROW! +10 points for the reference. ;)

Merry Christmas, Joyous Festivus, and Happy Saturnalia to all. :)
~M

So here's my idea: make Do Nothing a universal technique, that can fill any chain spot, and be allowed to add them to your deck like any other, with no limit. The downside is that it's universally worse than other techniques; everything else at least does SOMEthing. It would dilute the good techniques but at least help overcome the above-mentioned problem.

Any input?

I have a few other ideas here: First, running could take an extra energy and be guaranteed. If I get beat to hell and will have to rest anyway, at least this way I can keep my HP for the same energy cost.

Alternately, running could be guaranteed but only happen after the first round (subround?) of combat. The enemy gets a free hit, but if you can survive that, you get away with your remaining HP.

Another option would be to keep it how it is except for PvP. Sometimes I'll be in an area and come across an opponent I know I'm doomed against, one of the real power players, whom I didn't know was there. Again, I should be rewarded for knowing when I'm outgunned. The downside here is making the useful gang warfare encounters available to people who don't want to fight… so maybe it could only be the first time you meet someone? or once per zone? I dunno.

Combined with any of these could simply be a much greater than current chance to get away, as opposed to guaranteed. I don't like that since you're already imposing additional penalties.

I think my favorite is letting the enemy get a free hit but otherwise getting away.

I didn't make it on the leader boards but the Christmas spirit of generosity was definitely in the air - I've never seen everyone work together so generously, with everyone in our gang sharing the loot and supplying those on the leaderboards with more supplies. ;)

As with halloween, the combats were just the right difficulty level to make it a challenge: hard but not impossible, combined with the pressure of it being only limited time content makes for some very interesting battles. Hard enough to really make you think about your gear/techniques setup and bring out some stuff I don't normally use. Plus the various new technique mechanics made for lots of interesting stuff to spade.

Thanks Kinak and a merry Christmas!

(Also, a suggestion: if Frosty Claw + Frost Breath = Gnarled Claw, then Bloody Icicle + Serpent Strike = that viper attack that the fanged snowmen do. Cause, you know, inch-mile and all that.)

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the upgradable items were really neat.

Edit: On an unrelated note, the name of the D&D setting I couldn't remember is Birthright. I knew it would come to me eventually :)

Cheers!
Kinak

~M