I agree with Sessine. My first impression is I'm not a big fan either. Unless you're about to attack someone in PvP, I'm not sure why knowing what the armor they're wearing, or their mount, is useful. How much will the role-players be able to configure it?

re: the head's up display CMJ is proposing:
If it's player configurable, good.
Otherwise, sounds like a lot of diddle (IE, extra work, for those unfamiliar with this particular Northwestern bit of regional slang).

Here's what I'd need on a HUD.
Level, weapon, armor, and no. of DKs.
Character description (player authored).
Perhaps user-supplied bio-avatar, unless that results in dick-pix, which I think it's safe to say, few of us need, owning one ourselves.
Hatsize, tats, and other crapula, not necessary.
~CTP

PS: Thought the clockwork beetle was...sessinated. So few others use italics.

Marley the clockwork beetle is not mine. He was a wedding present from Zolotisty to Tor NaGoth, and he accompanied Tor closely for a good while before developing a taste for occasional independent exploration.

CTP, why would you want a HUD with that kind of info for social interaction in the chat boards? If you're contemplating PvP, the player bio is still accurate, and but a click away -- and it will give you all that. For banter, role-playing, and dramatic presentations, it seems to me it is much better to allow players to create their own personas, and these should be of course allowed, but not required, to match their game stats. In other words, leave room in the game for costumes.

(As for the gender makeup of the player population here... Erm. This is the Internet. I think you are assuming information about your fellow players that you do not, in fact, have.)

New thread for the commentary icon stuff.

BTW, we're about 40% female. Which is very, very unusual for a PBBG.

What's this "we" stuff? I for one am 100% ... uhm, whatever sex I am. And as those squirrelly theorists tell us, gender is a completely different issue.

Not done anything on Season Two for the last three days or so.

Thursday night I went out with some friends. Ended up staying over; got home Friday morning. Went to a family gathering Friday evening, 'cause Nan's going in for a hip operation (combined with her other hip, jaw and eye she must be about 30% bionic woman by now). Unexpectedly, went from the family gathering to a party in Crewe, and then, unexpectedly again, went to a training seminar the following day (five hours of training while hung over - mmm!). Had my exam for my belt, and will find out on Friday whether or not I've got it. Woo!

Anyway. Just thought I'd come on and give you guys an ETA and an update - tonight I plan to work on getting a framework up for folks to put in their mount ideas. ETA is more like March than January - some aspects of the game, most significantly the plot, have to be very carefully done. I hope to open up the server for basic playtesting to a few people some time this month, with a public beta in January.

Hmm... Adding the capability for each mount to have different terrain costs on the World Map was easier than expected. So maybe we shall have some underwater / scrambler / flying mounts, after all.

Updated the suggestion box in the wiki.

Just about done with the additions to the World Map that allow us to do freaky things with our Mounts. Now I must work on a client's website. And then, by the Gods, I shall sleep.

And I was wondering why I wasn't achey the day after training. For some reason I've gotten some kind of "delayed reaction" thing going on, here.

Ow.

Ow ow ow ow ow.

Well, I can barely bloody move, so it looks like I'll be Season Two'ing today.

Is this where the idea for the Gauntlet came from?

re: Terrain types & mounts.
Holy F'ing S, Dan!
I know I was b***hy re: your screenshot, but this codefest you've been on sounds like many flavors (31, and then some) of awesome.
Congrats, and hopefully we may see amphibious mounts in the v. near future.
Oh, and it'd called DOMS for a reason (delayed onset of muscle soreness). It owns you, 48 hrs after the great liftening of weightage. Caused by lactic acid, so, lots of water for you.
Best,
~Crash

What I'm doing right now, and what I was doing yesterday:

Sweet fuck all. The achiness I assumed was down to the training turned out to be the onset of a particularly nasty 'flu virus. I've not felt this bad in fucking years.

Tried to do some work on the player-selectable difficulty module, and kept on making silly mistakes. My brain is boiling, and I'm not up to any strenuous brain-sweat activity.

Basically I'm bloody miserable, poor, cold, and feeling pathetically Emo.

This kinda put things in perspective a bit, and I'm gonna try to cheer up and get some work done tomorrow.

And then I'm gonna CUT MYYYYYYYYYSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELF!

Nnnnnnng. Bad flu virus. Baaaaad flu virus. Leave our Admin alone!

Bed rest, sleep as much as you can, stay hydrated with ginger ale, fruit juice, chicken soup, and other liquids with electrolytes. If your temp shoots over 38.8C despite over-the-counter fever remedies, call a doctor. And when you're feeling a bit better, don't try to do too much, too soon -- relapses are no fun at all! The Island will still be here when you're all the way back to your normal good health.

I totally agree with count sessine- give yourself a break to recover! If you don't, you can cause yourself a serious illness, such as Heart and Liver deseases. So take a nap, dude! ^^

Best wishes, hope you get well soon!

Greets, DD

Why do I suspect that we will soon be encountering "Deadly Flu Virus with Debilitating Achy-ness" as a jungle monster?

And I shall rename my weapon 'chicken soup' in honour.

What am I doing right now, Improbable Island-wise?

Fuck all.

The player-selectable difficulty has been done for a few days. Since then, I've taken a day job in retail. It amazes me how normal, sane people go completely bloody loopy when Christmas rolls around. And they all come in my shop, and try to kick off, and I laugh at them.

Woo yay for Christmas retail.

Anyway. The "Insert Coins" MOTD didn't work. Seems I need an actual, real crisis to generate any kind of money in December, not just a simple "Um, guys, I'm a bit skint, can you spare a buck or two?"

I'm not really surprised that this month is tight - people have better things to spend their money on than imaginary cigarettes, this time of year. Still, the scale by which people are not spending money has taken me by surprise. It's the 18th, and I'm still paying off the server bill which comes in on the 4th of each month. If I don't get enough to sort it out and put the game back in the black, I'm either going to have to beg my friends and family for money to keep it going, or shut down Improbable Island on the 4th of January.

(don't panic! I've no doubt it'll come back! Worst-case scenario is that the Island is closed from September to May each year. Y'know, like theme parks?)

Let's break it down; I've got £29 in my PayPal account, £85 rent due on Tuesday which I pay weekly, £65 in my wallet, about £20 in coins. Nothing in the bank account. Season Two is roughly one-third done, and I'd like to get it finished by February. I'm working every day until Monday, and then I'm looking for another job. My landlady's dad was kind enough to put me on the insurance on his van until the 27th of December, after which time I'll be trying once again to get money together to MOT / tax / insure my own van.

If I get a day job after I'm done with this one, Season Two won't get done by February. No way, not a chance in hell. If I don't get a day job, I won't be able to pay rent, never mind server costs. Christmas presents? I don't even want to think about that right now.

I knew that the game would fluctuate in its income, but to go from the dizzying heights to the extreme (as in, actually costing me money) lows like this is quite troubling. So, your feedback please: why aren't you, personally, giving me money right now?

a) It's Christmas, man. Family and friends come first, y'know?
b) I'm a bit worried about the recession. Actually, "Worried" is something of an understatement - I'm shitting myself inside-out about the recession. Like you, CMJ.
c) You don't have anything I want. I have plenty of cigarettes already, and nothing that involves Donator Points really catches my eye.
d) Dude, you think you're skint? I live in a wheelie bin and eat rats. Not even healthy rats; I think the last one had some sort of plague. It was all mushy.
e) There seems little point in donating until Season Two is done, given that you're most likely gonna do another stats reset.
f) Something about spending real money on imaginary shit really, really doesn't sit right with me (in other words, "I am ninety per cent of the world's population").
g) I've already donated, and I feel I've done my bit.
h) I don't have a credit card, debit card, or bank account.
i) I'm worried that I'm supporting an unhealthy lifestyle for you. Maybe for both of us.
j) I'm worried that if I donate, and the Island goes away anyway, I'll have spent that money for nothing.
k) I don't think you've been providing enough regular content and code updates to justify my giving you much money. I don't give money to other websites that update more frequently; why should I give money to you?
l) I already donated, and I like to think I've done my share.
m) I've already donated, meant to donate a little bit every month, but I've just forgotten.
n) I was going to donate, but then you changed something and I didn't like how you changed it.
o) I keep thinking of donating, but just never get around to it.
p) I keep thinking of donating, but there are three fucking Donator buttons and I'm a bit confused to say the least.
q) I keep thinking of donating, but then I wake up.
r) I'm saving up for a large purchase or expense, and have to be careful with my money.
s) I want to donate, have done so in the past, and would do again - but yikes, that guy just got laid off from my department, and there are rumours about more layoffs and I think I might be one of them, and I've just bought a new telly and my wife's pregnant and the car's broken down all at once... Yeah, playing II is an escape from real life, but to be honest, just between you and me... Right now? I play it because it's free.
t) Where the fuck did I put my wallet?
u) I'm sorry. I can't. I just can't, right now, and the reasons are personal.
v) Um, dude? It's a game. It's a text-based game. I play it for fun, I don't want to get drawn into a fight to keep it alive. Like you say in your rules, don't take it seriously - for me, that means not letting it creep into my real life, and allowing it to lighten my wallet is allowing it to creep into my real life, thus forcing me to take it seriously, thus breaking Rule Two.
w) I just won't - I'd tell you why not, but we'd be here all night. What you're doing is basically a high-tech version of street performance, and something about giving money to a complete stranger for providing what is essentially a waste of time, however entertaining, goes against one or more principles that I hold dear to my heart.
x) It's unlikely that I'll ever be able to donate, and I'm not at liberty to say why.
y) Just no. Sorry, no. There are good reasons why not; they might be personal, philosophical, financial or logistical, but I am not going to discuss them right now, especially not with strangers.
z) OTHER. That magical, mystical OTHER, that I will tell you about in my post.

I will not think any less of you for providing an honest answer that falls in any category from A to Z above. They're all good, valid reasons for choosing not to donate to an online game. There are probably hundreds of other reasons to not donate, and only a handful of reasons to donate, so don't feel bad if you've got the "I really should have a custom title by now" title.

Some statistics for you:
37.04% of players have 100 or more Donator Points (spent or unspent, and you can assume the same for the following statistics - this means that they've donated a dollar at some point, or recruited some players).
11.32% of players have 500 or more Donator Points.
8.91% of players have 1,000 or more Donator Points.
5.57% of players have 2,000 or more Donator Points.

Bear in mind that those players seen above, particularly the one in twenty twenty-dollar-or-more donators, will have made their points up over two or three donations, maybe a fiver every other month or so.

(damn, if everybody who played gave me a fiver a month, I'd be able to justify spending all day coding for the Island...)

Anyway. Things that would make you, personally, more inclined to give me some money, and what we can do to raise funds, and how we can ensure that we don't end up having this conversation again, same time next year. Discuss.

Option Z): I'm living off the wallets of my friends while I search for another job that will support my nasty habits of school, repairs on my damn truck that currently won't go above 20kmh, and of course the terrible habit I have of eating anything to survive.

Everyone else, get donating!

@Rosin: Rice and butter! Stew! Bananas! All filling, cheap food.

(I hear ya, man - I was once so skint I lived on the free hot chocolate from the vending machine at work, for five days. Chose the extra-milky option. Result. )

Garn it, just lost a long and poignant post.

Summing it up - I will donate again. Christmas is obviously a terrible time for us as well but I'm sure a tenner won't be missed too much, if it helps. I'd like to protect the island, if at all possible, and I wonder if there is anything else, or different that could be done to ensure it's survival - something I'm sure you've considered in the past, but discounted as being too distasteful, or selling your botty to the man.

You can't and in fact shouldn't be expected to do this all yourself, and your efforts are appreciated. The important question is, therefore, what do YOU want to do?