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mrimer
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icon Advances in Abovegrounder Cartography (+5)  
Empire report:

Abovegrounder innovations

The typical delver relies on a certain reckoning sense in order to maintain direction and distance from the entrance to each level in a hold (colloquially called a "dungeon" in some abovegrounder nation-kingdoms). Consequently, the construction and maintenance of mapping devices and products is not needed for delvers in the pursuit of their work. The serendipitous byproduct of the delving sense is that delvers are naturally contained within the area of their contractual work. Unfortunately, this historical trend is starting to change.

We hereby announce recent advancements in abovegrounder cartography. These developments result in delvers not having to rely on a personal, localized sense of proximity and direction in order to navigate the spaces of the Beneath. Please be advised that it is imperative for Imperial Relations to take appropriate precautions, precognizant of the fact that delvers will be travelling to areas not readily accessible or proximate to their labors of contract.

One such cartographical artifact has been retrieved from a shiny disc, distributed exactly six cycles ago to a select group of smitemasters. A mimeograph of said artifact is reproduced here for your reference.



Expect similar works to appear with increasing regularity in the future. Of course, none of these relics are expected to provide bearing on the general outcome of the Grand Event and Forthcoming Way of Things. We do not suggest or encourage any change in plans centered around preparations for the Grand Event or any ancillary or latent ramifications.

Precisely yours,

173rd Adjutant, Abovegrounder Relations and Cultural Artifacts

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

[Last edited by mrimer at 07-11-2012 01:17 AM]
07-11-2012 at 12:35 AM
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slimm tom
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Oh boy, I guess this is where the new Empire policy of distributing all reports twice comes in.
07-11-2012 at 12:37 AM
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mrimer
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slimm tom wrote:
Oh boy, I guess this is where the new Empire policy of distributing all reports twice comes in.
Heh, that's right! In fact, all Class I memos must be disbursed in triplicate!

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
07-11-2012 at 01:14 AM
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Damien
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Nice.

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07-11-2012 at 02:33 AM
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Banjooie
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icon Re: Advances in Abovegrounder Cartography (+1)  
So...I'm gathering...we're getting some kind of Overworld system?
07-11-2012 at 07:25 AM
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mrimer
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Banjooie wrote:
So...I'm gathering...we're getting some kind of Overworld system?
Glad you asked! Yes, that's exactly right. A hold will support having any number of overworld maps, displaying user-provided custom backgrounds. You can now have level exits go to an overworld map. Script commands are used to dynamically configure area entrance points and the music playing on each map. You can also configure the graphic for entrance points, choosing a stock monster or character sprite, or your own custom tiles. You will even be able to provide tilesets with looping animation. Other features are also supported for entrance configurations, like configurable graphical feedback for how area names are displayed, and whether areas are locked or unlocked, or new/explored/completed. It will be pretty flexible.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

[Last edited by mrimer at 07-11-2012 07:35 PM]
07-11-2012 at 07:27 PM
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The Architest
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Mrimer,

today is the day you have made the day of an DROD player.

I can't wait. I am excited! :Notworthy
07-11-2012 at 07:40 PM
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Moo
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I think Mrimer is a pretty cool guy. Eh adds cool features and doesnt afraid of anything.

Click here to view the secret text

07-11-2012 at 08:01 PM
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Damien
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So does that mean that TSS will have that kind of map?

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07-11-2012 at 08:39 PM
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Banjooie
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Good. Now.

Take that explanation of the feature, and edit it into your post, below the fluff piece.

And then just do that, all the time, whenever you guys are announcing new features, because making people guess is remarkably silly.
07-11-2012 at 09:28 PM
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mrimer
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Banjooie wrote:
And then just do that, all the time, whenever you guys are announcing new features, because making people guess is remarkably silly.
Aw, man, I thought you guys *like* the in-character announcements that we've made over the years about new stuff going into the games. At first, I was all about to type "Here's a cool new feature going into 5.0..." And then I thought, "Nah, people have come to expect more than that. It's not like I'm making everyone go crazy with guessing for a year like in a bar game or something." So, uh, how about I just let you and Jatopian fight this one out. I'll sit back and watch.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

[Last edited by mrimer at 07-11-2012 11:08 PM]
07-11-2012 at 11:08 PM
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mrimer
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Damien wrote:
So does that mean that TSS will have that kind of map?
At least one. Probably more.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

[Last edited by mrimer at 07-11-2012 11:09 PM]
07-11-2012 at 11:09 PM
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slimm tom
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I like these in-character announcements, and I would hate to see them disappear. It's certainly canon enrichment.
07-11-2012 at 11:17 PM
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gamer_extreme_101
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Banjooie wrote: And then just do that, all the time, whenever you guys are announcing new features, because making people guess is remarkably silly.
This does not represent the views of the forum as a whole. I always enjoy in-character announcements.

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07-11-2012 at 11:49 PM
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Moo
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gamer_extreme_101 wrote:
I always enjoy in-character announcements.
Me too. And it's not like it's hard to "guess".
07-11-2012 at 11:54 PM
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Damien
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Banjooie wrote:
Good. Now.

Take that explanation of the feature, and edit it into your post, below the fluff piece.

And then just do that, all the time, whenever you guys are announcing new features, because making people guess is remarkably silly.
Yeah, that sounds cool. Make announcements in-character, but with an OOC statement as well so that we (read "I") don't get confused.

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I tube, you tube, we all tube !
07-12-2012 at 03:40 AM
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Jatopian
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Damien wrote:
Banjooie wrote:
Good. Now.

Take that explanation of the feature, and edit it into your post, below the fluff piece.

And then just do that, all the time, whenever you guys are announcing new features, because making people guess is remarkably silly.
Yeah, that sounds cool. Make announcements in-character, but with an OOC statement as well so that we (read "I") don't get confused.
I support this compromise. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be fighting Banjooie over.

____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator
07-12-2012 at 05:49 AM
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Banjooie
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I like how apparently I said 'below the fluff piece' and then none of you paid the slightest amount of attention to that.

The in-character announcement is fine, just put a clarification somewhere. That is legit what I'm saying.
07-12-2012 at 09:32 PM
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mrimer
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Banjooie wrote:
I like how apparently I said 'below the fluff piece' and then none of you paid the slightest amount of attention to that.
You're right, I completely missed that. My apologies.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
07-12-2012 at 11:31 PM
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Zaratustra00
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Banjooie wrote:
because making people guess is remarkably silly.

I was like "man you must be new here" but then I see a 2004 in that profile and I am like, "what"
07-13-2012 at 03:48 PM
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Banjooie
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Zara, I've been violently against Caravel's policy of 'make it as hard as possible to learn anything about the new games' since there were new games to have a policy for me to be violently against.

Of people who actively post on the forums, I get that I'm like the only one who feels that way. I'm okay with that.
07-13-2012 at 08:59 PM
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bwross
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Banjooie wrote:
I like how apparently I said 'below the fluff piece' and then none of you paid the slightest amount of attention to that.

You might want to read your post again. It can easily be read as "Okay, keep the fluff we have and add the explanation. But just do the explanation from now on." This happens because there's a lack of clarity about what "that" is... technically, it ties back to "edit", but it doesn't really make sense to talk about doing edits to posts that don't exist yet, so people are forced to deal with the dissonance. And given your tone about the fluff being "silly", it's not surprising that they jumped to "that" being just do the explanation part you wanted added and not the fluff at all.
07-14-2012 at 04:40 AM
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Banjooie
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Are you suggesting that sometimes English is ambiguous, or that the guy whose repeated sole interest in DROD is 'I really like the worldbuilding parts' is violently angry and confused at more worldbuilding.

'But Banj,' you say, 'We shouldn't be expected to remember everything you say, ever, because that's ridiculous'. Yes, yes it is.

It is almost as ridiculous as trying to score points on me because my post can theoretically be misread when we've already moved on from that part of the conversation, out of some bizarre desire to further derail the thread when the result of victory can't possibly net you anything worth the time it takes to have an elaborate argument over /semantics/.

(edit: I never said the fluff was silly. I said the thing wherein we have to keep guessing or playing ridiculous time consuming games or clicking on bars to find out what the devil Caravel is talking about is silly. But it's okay, english is terrible, I know)

In other, actually relevant to the thread news (If you'd like to join in to the current conversation, Ross, feel free) , I'd like to note that this feature is actually pretty cool and I look forward to it, even if every single idea I have with it seems to inexplicably involve playing the Yoshi's Island overworld theme.

I am willing to sacrifice ever having my hold put on the Holds board in order to play that song on an overworld.




[Last edited by Banjooie at 07-14-2012 09:36 AM]
07-14-2012 at 09:34 AM
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Maurog
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Anything not obtained through clicking the bars or gathering clues from obscure images hidden in the darkest corners of the forum is not canon.

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Paint the sky in crimson red!
07-14-2012 at 09:53 AM
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bwross
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Mellow out, Banjooie. I wasn't trying to "score points", whatever that means to you. Just pointing out that you shouldn't be surprised with how people took your post because of the tone (I never said you said the fluff was silly, but that your tone did). There's no need for "point scoring" at my expense with all that invective... I'll give you them.

And I meant to add some more solid content to the post, but I was short for time so I went with a short post because, to me, it didn't seem like things had moved on enough that I couldn't make a quick comment on semantics. Language is a hobby of mine, I can't help exploring why things go wrong in communication because it's a type of puzzle, and thus fun. Which is all my post was intended to be.

Personally, I like the fluff. And I like it without explanation automatically attached to the bottom of the same post. This is a puzzle place, some of us like to think about things a bit before they get revealed. A follow up later if nobody gets it within a few days is fine by me.

And, of course, overmaps are a good idea. Ever since things moved away from numbered levels going down to locations across, the game has been asking for some better navigation methods that help position things with the geometrically minded (GatEB really confused me when things got flipped at Englos Keep... I left from the North immediately and had to return). It sounds like it will be a nice dynamic system. I imagine that exits on an overmap will also be able to link to other overmaps. It might also be interesting to have the possibility of overmap exits leading into different holds.
07-14-2012 at 02:56 PM
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mrimer
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bwross wrote:
I imagine that exits on an overmap will also be able to link to other overmaps. It might also be interesting to have the possibility of overmap exits leading into different holds.
Yes, overworld map entrances can lead to other overworld maps as well as levels. So, you can have them go to separate holds, as long as the holds are all part of the same .hold file.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
07-14-2012 at 11:41 PM
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Damien
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bwross wrote: This is a puzzle place, some of us like to think about things a bit before they get revealed. A follow up later if nobody gets it within a few days is fine by me.
Or writing the explanation as a spoiler, maybe.

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07-14-2012 at 11:51 PM
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The spitemaster
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Ummm... I think that it would be really cool if you could add the ability to add holds to the overworld map after it was released.

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Last night upon a stair
I met a man that wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would stay away
07-15-2012 at 12:33 AM
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Dischorran
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Take a wrong turn on the overworld map and find yourself in one of Rheb's or Jutt's holds? That would neat and/or scary.

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07-15-2012 at 12:44 AM
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The spitemaster
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You would be able to link a large number of holds in a cohesive whole. It would be interesting to say the least. It also wouldn't change anything to those who had already played those holds.

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Last night upon a stair
I met a man that wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would stay away
07-15-2012 at 01:15 AM
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