ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I finished the Master Map of the Eighth a few weeks ago. I've been sitting on this announcement while I waited for CafePress to ship me a map poster so I could see what it looked like on paper. I wanted to be certain it wouldn't have some embarrassing defect. Now to tell the complete truth, my map looks flawless! There isn't a hint of amateur in it, and that surprised me. Also, it didn't dawn on me how giant 35 by 23 inches really is. Look at this photo of the poster looming up behind me.



Fracking huge! There are about 150 labeled landmarks including cities, rivers, holds, lakes, mountains, swicks--I crammed it full of details. Not content to leave the margins empty, I added text descriptions of the six continents. Here is an excerpt to give you an idea:

Glorthorredians take pride in doing things the hard way. For instance their Hundred-Foot Wall, that encloses nearly the entire continent, could probably have been about fifty feet high and made a perfectly suitable defense against floods and skrekken. Generally, they are a serious people, and can be expected to honor an agreement, but not to laugh at a good joke. In trade exports, they are giants. Glorthorred functions as a factory machine, with busy citizens inside its metal walls producing a neverending stream of goods. These are systematically routed to waiting ships, and launched to foreign ports for sale.

We shouldn't make the Glorthorredians sound like they're all business. Your typical Glorther is an avid stump collector, travelling to exotic locations on weekends in search of unusually-shaped tree stumps he will uproot, drag home, and proudly affix to his walls. That's only just one example, from the many popular pastimes (three, since last we counted) that people in Glorthorred enjoy.

Now, if you wanted your own Master Map of the Eighth, you could certainly buy it from CafePress at any moment that suited you. But also! Also! ...You could win a free map (or any other item of your choice from the DROD Store) by entering the "Five Suite Speaking Grounds" contest, which needs an entry from you by February 15th. So there's still a reasonable amount of time to put an entry together and win the contest. EDIT: Deadline for submissions has passed.

I also think that our comrade Nillo deserves some attention for the nice little "DRODer!" game he created. You control a Beethro-like character and defend yourself from attacking red triangles in a test of reflexes. I think DRODer! shows some promise. Yay, Nillo! We will all say you were an impressive character, if anyone asks.

-Erik

[Edited by ErikH2000 on 02-15-2004 at 02:26 AM GMT: About 150 labeled landmarks--not "hundreds".]

[Edited by ErikH2000 on 02-16-2004 at 07:55 PM GMT]

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Wow, Erik, that photo is awesome! I think I'm going to have to invent a new word to describe it: spiffertastic! Definitely something I'd be proud to hang on my wall.

Oh, and the map's not bad either.



Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Is there a list of placenames and holds available somewhere, for those of us who don't have any money?

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

Hear, hear!

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Nillo
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 548
Registered: 01-04-2004
IP: Logged

Whee, I'm in the news!

____________________________
“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

Nillo wrote:
Whee, I'm in the news!

Actually, it probably deserves a whole topic all to itself.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
Is there a list of placenames and holds available somewhere, for those of us who don't have any money?

We'll get an online version of the map up on the site at some point.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

Ooh, the gauntlet has been thrown.

I'll one-up that: It'll be up on the site within two hours from this post.

Ha! Punctuality! I live on the edge!

Matt

[Edited by Mattcrampy on 02-13-2004 at 07:38 PM GMT: Stop the clock!]

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

Well, we're waiting for 2:34 then.....

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

3...2...1... and time's up, and not a map to be seen. I'll let it go this time, my friend...

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

Unless he put it up secretly.....

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

Or I put it up in the Stories section, with all the other Eighth-related material. Here's the link. I've broken this link twice now, but it should work (unless the fiels are still transferring over).

Yeah, I should change that button. It's more Eighth than Stories, now. And heck, I even went and changed the directory name while I was at it.

Also, I did make the deadline - I think it took me an hour. But that's only because I had the content right here already. Of course, no-one can prove it, because the couldn't see anything, apparently.

Matt

[Edited by Mattcrampy on 02-14-2004 at 05:31 PM GMT]

[Edited by Mattcrampy on 02-14-2004 at 06:08 PM GMT]

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Mattcrampy wrote:
Or I put it up in the Stories section, with all the other Eighth-related material. Here's the link.

I just ran the link, and got a picture of Beethro walking off in to a pile of skulls.

Edit: It looks like the entire Stories directory is empty, with the excetion of Odor_to_joy.ogg. I'm confused.

[Edited by DiMono on 02-14-2004 at 05:54 PM GMT]

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

Sorry, I decided afterwards to go and break the link while doing some routine maintenance. Because I'm an idiot.

Anyway, the Stories directory is now called TheEighth. I'll fix the link.

Matt

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

The link in this thread works fine, but now the link from the www.drod.net front page is broken (the one of the sidebar, the one inside the text is fine).

[Edited by eytanz on 02-14-2004 at 07:22 PM GMT]

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 783
Registered: 09-02-2003
IP: Logged

This map is great! How many of the user holds did you manage to get in there?

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

eytanz wrote:
The link in this thread works fine, but now the link from the www.drod.net front page is broken (the one of the sidebar, the one inside the text is fine).

[Edited by eytanz on 02-14-2004 at 07:22 PM GMT]

Thanks for that - fixed.

Matt

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

The_Red_Hawk wrote:
This map is great! How many of the user holds did you manage to get in there?

Thanks, man.

I didn't use everybody's hold names, just ones that sounded right to me. Let's see we had... Claythro Tower... Tomb of Nomb... Temple of Kurath... Smallsome Swicks... Maybe one or two more I'm missing. There are references to a few other holds or hold authors, i.e. Blorn, Pithlitville.

Also, I should correct my previous statement about there being hundreds of labeled landmarks. The number is closer to 150. It sure seemed like hundreds when I was filling them in. I should also point out that something like half the names are used from the map entries submitted in the mapmaking contest of last month.

-Erik


____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Two things.

First, I found a typo in Oyst: the higlands, in the center of each piece, and th lowlands surrounding

Secondly, and more importantly, is it cool if we random architects take some names from the map and build holds around them? No, I don't have any in mind yet, but should the inspiration arise are you guys cool with that?

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

DiMono wrote:
Secondly, and more importantly, is it cool if we random architects take some names from the map and build holds around them? No, I don't have any in mind yet, but should the inspiration arise are you guys cool with that?

That's no problem. Go ahead!

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

First, I found a typo in Oyst: the higlands, in the center of each piece, and th lowlands surrounding

I spotted a typo in your typo: 'higlands'.

Anyway, I ran the spell-checker over that text. Fixed.

Matt

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
IP: Logged

Mattcrampy wrote:

First, I found a typo in Oyst: the higlands, in the center of each piece, and th lowlands surrounding

I spotted a typo in your typo: 'higlands'.

Anyway, I ran the spell-checker over that text. Fixed.

Matt

I did a copy and paste, my friend Fixed is fixed though, so I'll stop caring about this typo if you do.

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

Deal.

To save this post from the hell of redundant posts, I'll say that I plan to update the Eighth article in the next few days with some extra information that Erik has come up with (and I'll probably add some in myself).

It's secret.

Matt

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?