Maybe maybe. I'm more than open to the idea of players submitting things like mounts, monsters, equipment and so on. But the bulk of the writing that's going to take up the... (checks) 367.58 hours is plot-related stuff, including sub-stories, side-missions, character development and so on. In other words, the secret stuff that's gonna be a surprise.

Working on the Servo Arms speciality, having a cup of tea. Deal or No Deal is on in five minutes, and I like to have it on in the background while I code.

Epaphus, loving the new icon.

I wanna test the beta!

Patience. Let me grow it a bit before I go showing it off to people.

(apologies for length)

Half four in the morning, and I can only be doing one of three things - writing, coding, or talking to Emily. Tonight, it's actually writing! Yup, I got tired of fooling with the Clan Buffs mechanics and decided to write the text for the first subplot. Let's hope it goes well.

If you're looking for beta testers, sign me up! I work an overnight job where I have a lot of time on my hands, and I'm used to smashing my head against a brick wall with little payoff.

(yes, I already have my own blindfold and cigarette. Why even ask that question...nevermind!)

Still writing. I'm nearly done with the first sub-plot.

Here's a sneak preview. I think this was too good not to share.

Have you considered professional psychological help? I love it!

The Mister Stern subplot - the first subplot that the player reaches - is now complete and tested. Now, to have a smoke and a cuppa and decide what to do next.

Didn't even get to the tea and ciggy...

Screwing around with an experimental commentary system. The idea is that you'll have a little set of icons next to your name in commentary areas, which will show your hat size, tattoos, race, gender, that sort of thing.

Mind you, if I actually make this module work as hoped, I can see it generating a simply hilarious amount of server load. That'd be extra database queries per line of commentary, every time the commentary refreshes... Hmm.

So that's what a penis is for. And to think, all these years I've been peeing through mine.

Sorry for the repost, but I don't seem to find an 'Edit' button around.

Just wanted to say...
* comes in with flying goggles, a saucepan in his head, and bubble wrap all around*
Sign me in for beta testing if you need it!

The thing about javascript tooltips is that they still need to perform the database query.

I've got a working prototype and I've just tested it on the S2 dev server, and it's not too bad. Certainly a lot less load than that bloody bastard AJAX chat thing. Here, have a screenshot.

EDIT: I'm gonna see what I can do with the datacache to try to speed this up a bit. We're looking at about a hundred database queries per village chat page in NewHome with the new system, versus fifty on the old system. Mind you, that's fifty queries refreshed every fifteen seconds regardless of whether the player has finished reading - or, even, nipped out to make a cup of tea. :-/

Right, javascript and php don't really share much.

It seems nice, although it seems like it will reduce the chat space to half..

And I wasn't seeing the problem from the right perspective (yeah, you actually need it to be constantly updated, not only when the player is writing).

Anyhow, with the tooltip (and I'm not specifically advertising this, it's just an example) wouldn't the queries be done on-demand instead of continuously? You'd actually just see someone's profile when you actually wanted to (Ok, that's pretty much what we have now, but it could be made faster...).

Aye, that'd be pretty well what we've got now, minus a page load.

Got that bitch down to 60 queries using the datacache. Woo.

Hm. My reaction to that screenshot?

Way to smash the illusions needed for theatre and other fun role-playing into the ground and stomp on them hard. Until they're dead, dead, dead.

With that, for instance, Marley can't be a clockwork beetle. You're going to tell everyone, with every line he buzzes, that he's just one more human Newbie indistinguishable from every other Newbie. And DON'T ANYBODY EVER FORGET THAT FOR SO MUCH AS AN INSTANT!

Will you at least let the damn thing be off by default, so that those players who hate illusions will have to consciously choose to strip them away?

(Oh ...and if it was off by default, that might also help control the server load....)

Edit window passed...

Deep breath. Okay. As you can tell, my first reaction was that I don't like it. At all. But if you are going to go ahead with this, then... I hate to say this, but... I have to admit that the ability to buy a lie on that line would be something you could really sell for Donator points.

Not a lie. Call it... a costume.

If you did that, it would change from being utterly destructive of illusion, to being something that I would actually... um... rather like.