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[exolyx]

Another few questions among many,
about an eating system-
1) Will there be one in the first version?
2) If so, will meat be edible raw? or will you need to cook it into something?
3) would there be more recipes available as your skill gets better?
4) would you be able to create your own recipes?

about writing-
1) Would there be books throughout the land in the first version, with brief randomly generated descriptions of what they are?
2) would you be able to write your own?
3) would you be able to leaves notes to yourself in certain areas, like near a cave reminding you of something, and would there be randomly generated notes from "adventurers" of other races (or your own) where in front of a large cave (or dungeon) giving a hint about what is inside like enemies, loot, and traps? Where if it's in another language you can try to translate it but may screw up, telling you about a different enemy that isn't there, or wrong location of trap, OR getting it translated by a member of your party?

[Girlinhat]

Wait, you can climb a dragon's leg?

[BishopX]

Wait, you can climb a dragon's leg?

The blog post mentions climbing creatures as a dev goal of 0.2, and gives dragons as an example of a big creature which you won't be able to hit everywhere from the ground. I think the two go hand in hand.

[Little]

Excited for the demo! Glad to see this is coming along nicely! 

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

So me (a human) would climb as fast I can walk? This seems odd to me. I know I can't climb a ladder as fast I can walk an equivalent distance, and presumably cliffs and dragon legs are harder to climb than a wooden ladder.

I agree that the climbing mechanics are probably very intuitive, I just couldn't follow them in blog form.

Hmm. Good point. Maybe you should be default climb one square every other turn?

are we going to have to be human, or can we be from different species? (I think this has already been asked)

also, about your modding (or probable lack thereof), hand it over to an internet community, and there WILL be mods.

Humans only; and you're very confident, but I have to intention of making the code open, nor indeed making the code particularly clear (in fact, it may even be deliberately obfuscated, since I don't want all game mechanics to be transparent). If people STILL mess around with it, then I guess they deserve to mod it

Another few questions among many,
about an eating system-
1) Will there be one in the first version?
2) If so, will meat be edible raw? or will you need to cook it into something?
3) would there be more recipes available as your skill gets better?
4) would you be able to create your own recipes?

about writing-
1) Would there be books throughout the land in the first version, with brief randomly generated descriptions of what they are?
2) would you be able to write your own?
3) would you be able to leaves notes to yourself in certain areas, like near a cave reminding you of something, and would there be randomly generated notes from "adventurers" of other races (or your own) where in front of a large cave (or dungeon) giving a hint about what is inside like enemies, loot, and traps? Where if it's in another language you can try to translate it but may screw up, telling you about a different enemy that isn't there, or wrong location of trap, OR getting it translated by a member of your party?

Thanks for all the questions! Some replies:

1) No, 0.0.1 will not have eating and similar (similarly, no corpses will appear, as those need to implemented into an eating system); 0.0.2, which I plan to have out only a couple of months after .1, will have mechanics like eating, sleeping, encumbrance, stamina, etc etc.
2) Yes, and cooking; I have a draft of fire mechanics, but they won't make it into .1, but .2 might have the ability to construct campfires. Maybe!
3) Heh, that's a nice idea. I'll think about it
4) I... don't see why not. Depends on what I decide about flesh and similar of mythical creatures. Hmm...

Writing:

1) 0.0.1, no-where near. I need to have histories generating, which is a target for 0.1.x (indeed, the target which will move from 0.0 to 0.1). 0.0.2 has the stuff in the development plan; .3 is going to have a lot of work on other kinds of items, menus, usability etc, and then we'll probably be moving onto 0.1.0 with the addition of basic histories to the game.
2) I... don't know. That's a very interesting idea, though. What kind of uses do/could you see for that?
3) I've had an idea for something like that, but I really like the idea of notes being left around. And yes, definitely, you'll be able to mistranslate things if your skills aren't high enough, but it hadn't struck me to have potential enemy/creature mistranslations! Great idea - consider it added

Wait, you can climb a dragon's leg?

The blog post mentions climbing creatures as a dev goal of 0.2, and gives dragons as an example of a big creature which you won't be able to hit everywhere from the ground. I think the two go hand in hand.

Yes indeed!

Excited for the demo! Glad to see this is coming along nicely! 

Thanks!

[Leatra]

So me (a human) would climb as fast I can walk? This seems odd to me. I know I can't climb a ladder as fast I can walk an equivalent distance, and presumably cliffs and dragon legs are harder to climb than a wooden ladder.

I agree that the climbing mechanics are probably very intuitive, I just couldn't follow them in blog form.

Hmm. Good point. Maybe you should be default climb one square every other turn?

What about making the climbing speed increase as you increase your climbing skill and dexterity? And the failure rate should decrease and monsters should have trouble with getting you off them as you get more skilled. Adding a climbing skill is essential for assassin characters. I don't expect a fragile magician to climb onto dragons and I expect archers to be better at climbing hills.

[Clownmite]

Hmm. Good point. Maybe you should be default climb one square every other turn?

Just have the game advance 2 "turns" whenever you make a climbing move?

[Leatra]

are we going to have to be human, or can we be from different species? (I think this has already been asked)

also, about your modding (or probable lack thereof), hand it over to an internet community, and there WILL be mods.

Humans only; and you're very confident, but I have to intention of making the code open, nor indeed making the code particularly clear (in fact, it may even be deliberately obfuscated, since I don't want all game mechanics to be transparent). If people STILL mess around with it, then I guess they deserve to mod it

I'm confident because unless you do the thing of making unique coding that no-one else understands, someone out there will rip it to shreds, find out what does what, and change something, it may just be an unofficial patch, or it may add other creatures, odds are, it will be modded.

I'm sure that's what's going to happen if your game catches enough attention (and it will) since we are talking about Bay 12 community. If I had to bet for the first mod, I would bet for a mod that adds dwarves as a playable race. If the game had any real graphics, we would see a mod that removes all the censors from the game like 2 seconds after it's release.

[Man of Paper]

are we going to have to be human, or can we be from different species? (I think this has already been asked)

also, about your modding (or probable lack thereof), hand it over to an internet community, and there WILL be mods.

Humans only; and you're very confident, but I have to intention of making the code open, nor indeed making the code particularly clear (in fact, it may even be deliberately obfuscated, since I don't want all game mechanics to be transparent). If people STILL mess around with it, then I guess they deserve to mod it

I'm confident because unless you do the thing of making unique coding that no-one else understands, someone out there will rip it to shreds, find out what does what, and change something, it may just be an unofficial patch, or it may add other creatures, odds are, it will be modded.

I'm sure that's what's going to happen if your game catches enough attention (and it will) since we are talking about Bay 12 community. If I had to bet for the first mod, I would bet for a mod that adds dwarves as a playable race. If the game had any real graphics, we would see a mod that removes all the censors from the game like 2 seconds after it's release.

And then Deon would add genitals.

[WraithLord24]

And then Deon would add genitals.

I laughed so hard at that, that I woke my family up.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

So me (a human) would climb as fast I can walk? This seems odd to me. I know I can't climb a ladder as fast I can walk an equivalent distance, and presumably cliffs and dragon legs are harder to climb than a wooden ladder.

I agree that the climbing mechanics are probably very intuitive, I just couldn't follow them in blog form.

Hmm. Good point. Maybe you should be default climb one square every other turn?

What about making the climbing speed increase as you increase your climbing skill and dexterity? And the failure rate should decrease and monsters should have trouble with getting you off them as you get more skilled. Adding a climbing skill is essential for assassin characters. I don't expect a fragile magician to climb onto dragons and I expect archers to be better at climbing hills.

Hmm, that would be ok. For now, though, it's still one move = up by one height, but I realize that might need changing to every other turn as default.

Hmm. Good point. Maybe you should be default climb one square every other turn?

Just have the game advance 2 "turns" whenever you make a climbing move?

Ah, can't have that, otherwise you "miss" a turn and wouldn't be able to respond in that turn! Being able to climb every other turn would work, but climbing taking two turns wouldn't.

I'm confident because unless you do the thing of making unique coding that no-one else understands, someone out there will rip it to shreds, find out what does what, and change something, it may just be an unofficial patch, or it may add other creatures, odds are, it will be modded.

I'm sure that's what's going to happen if your game catches enough attention (and it will) since we are talking about Bay 12 community. If I had to bet for the first mod, I would bet for a mod that adds dwarves as a playable race. If the game had any real graphics, we would see a mod that removes all the censors from the game like 2 seconds after it's release.

And then Deon would add genitals.

I laughed so hard at that, that I woke my family up.

Well, I don't know what you mean by unique coding; I am intending to make it deliberately confusing before release, anyway. Additionally, every creature has entirely unique AI, which is another reason I think it is going to be difficult to mod because you won't be able to construct a creature with similar traits to other creatures very well. Similarly, there isn't any species menu, and every single creature responds to 'humans' as a species, so other species would have to be added to each of those. Basically, the task will be significant - though it's only a question for the future, as there's very little gameplay in 0.0.1 anyway to be worth modding . Also, ha - I'm quite glad it's only ASCII now...

And, lastly, a quick update on this week's work: http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/2012/06/18/pre-alpha-update/

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Wow. One of the remaining technical issues was the time it takes to load maps with lots of z levels, like mountains. But now... I've just sped it up by ~95%+, because I discovered something deeply, DEEPLY stupid about the way it was previously being done. Awesome. It now takes a few seconds for even the tallest mountains!

[monk12]

*high five*

It has been said that only coding can make you feel so good about realizing how stupid you've been. I don't remember WHO said it, but it's certainly true enough that it stuck with me.

[Rowanas]

Heh. Definitely. Few things are as purely, un-equivocally enjoyable as realising where you've been going wrong, and that you know how to fix it.

[Clownmite]

Wow. One of the remaining technical issues was the time it takes to load maps with lots of z levels, like mountains. But now... I've just sped it up by ~95%+, because I discovered something deeply, DEEPLY stupid about the way it was previously being done. Awesome. It now takes a few seconds for even the tallest mountains!

Any chance you can elaborate on the specifics? I might add z-levels into my game eventually.