japherwocky's posterous

pMob->hit[DICE_NUMBER] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->hit[DICE_TYPE] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->hit[DICE_BONUS] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->mana[DICE_NUMBER] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->mana[DICE_TYPE] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->mana[DICE_BONUS] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->damage[DICE_NUMBER] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->damage[DICE_TYPE] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */    pMob->damage[DICE_NUMBER] =   0;   /* ROM patch -- Hugin */

Now, in the olc_save.c file, it write two sets of XdX+x style stats to each mob, in this line:

fprintf(fp,"%d %dd%d+%d %dd%d+%d %d %d %s\n", pMobIndex->level, pMobIndex->hit[DICE_NUMBER], pMobIndex->hit[DICE_TYPE], pMobIndex->hit[DICE_BONUS], pMobIndex->damage[DICE_NUMBER], pMobIndex->damage[DICE_TYPE], pMobIndex->damage[DICE_BONUS], pMobIndex->hitroll, (int)pMobIndex->dam_mod, attack_table[pMobIndex->dam_type].name);

And, what I realized after looking at the first snippet was that of course.. if that's right, there's nowhere in the olc_save that's writing a mobs hit points and mana points.

sheesh.

so I rewrote that olc_save.c snippet as:

fprintf(fp,"%d %dd%d+%d %dd%d+%d %d %d %s\n", pMobIndex->level,    pMobIndex->hit[DICE_NUMBER], pMobIndex->hit[DICE_TYPE],    pMobIndex->hit[DICE_BONUS], pMobIndex->mana[DICE_NUMBER],    pMobIndex->mana[DICE_TYPE], pMobIndex->mana[DICE_BONUS],    pMobIndex->hitroll, (int)pMobIndex->dam_mod,    attack_table[pMobIndex->dam_type].name);

no crash :)

EDIT: Well.. it still crashes, but the issue might be from editing Limbo.are; other areas seem to work OK.

What are the odds that a legal effective interrogation of a key Al-Qaeda operative would have led many highly respected professionals in the US intelligence community to risk their careers by leaking top-secret details to the press?

What are the odds that the CIA would have sought to destroy tapes that could prove it had legally prevented serious and dangerous attacks against innocent civilians? What are the odds that a president who had never authorised waterboarding would be unable to say whether such waterboarding was torture?

What are the odds that, under congressional grilling, the new attorney-general would also refuse to say whether he believed waterboarding was illegal, if there was any doubt that the president had authorised it? The odds are beyond minimal.

Any reasonable person examining all the evidence we have - without any bias - would conclude that the overwhelming likelihood is that the president of the United States authorised illegal torture of a prisoner and that the evidence of the crime was subsequently illegally destroyed.

The tricky part to write is the part that loads mobs in rooms, and gives gear to the mobs.. the UI and the file format just don't sync up real well. I'm torn between storing area files straight into an XML format from the web front end, and trying to keep things in the ole' format.

XML's just much more elegant for storing data. Consider a mob wielding a sword, in a room.

<room vnum="1">You are standing in a room!    <mob vnum="1">A mean ole mob.        <item vnum="1" loc="wielded">A nasty sword!</item>    </mob><exit dir="NORTH" vnum="2" /></room>

OK, in related news - I'm trying to pull out the areas that are really nowhere close to usable, and plug in some of these areas that actually look pretty good.

Valley of Dra, I think will plug in nice at the south end of that road, or near the Horde cabal somewhere. (Free food, zoder :P) Haon Dor is set up to link, between rooms #6151 and #235; but it's a funny little newbie zone, without anything of any real value. I guess, there's a giant strength pot.. Thoughts? For now, it's on the bench.

The trend toward fewer conflicts reported by peace researchers since the early 1990s now seems to have been broken. This is shown in the latest annual report “States in Armed Conflict,” from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at the Uppsala University Department of Peace and Conflict Research. The findings worry the researchers. The Middle East is the region where peace initiatives are most conspicuous in their absence.

BAGHDAD - Blood-splotches on walls, chains hanging from a ceiling and swords on the killing floor — the artifacts left a disturbing tale of brutalities inside a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq torture chamber. But there was yet another chilling fact outside the dirt-floor dungeon. Villagers say they knew about the torment but were too intimidated by extremists to tell authorities until now.

But more spectacularly, I was trying to clean out some of the unused areas and stumbled upon ulfarm.are! The classic Udgaard Loke's farm!

Anyhow, it may very well be broken or something, but I patched it in anyhow. Keep an eye open! (Also tempting to attach the oldschool sewers to it.. whaddya think?)

First up, the obligatory warmup joke.

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I hope you all enjoyed the holiday reception at the White House as much as Laura and I enjoyed it. We took an inventory of the silverware, and this year only a few pieces were missing -- so, like, if you see Gregory, tell him to bring them back.

I think recent days have been a moment that the country can be proud of. In the past few days we have stopped a tax increase on the middle-class families, we improved our energy security, we delivered relief to struggling homeowners, and we funded our troops.

It continues for a while, where Bush shifts focus onto all the areas that he's disappointed in Congress; i.e., where he's not getting his way, and then it's on to the best part: Q & A with the press.

Q Vladimir Putin has just been named Time Magazine's Person of the Year...

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I'm looking forward to seeing him at the alumni meeting of the "men of the year," or the "persons of the year." I don't know when it's going to be, but -- look, I presume -- I haven't read the article, but I presume they put him on there because he was a consequential leader. And the fundamental question is, consequential to what end? What will the country look like 10 years from now?

But we can't dwell in the past!

And we got a lot of priorities for next year. And one of my priorities -- this is -- I understand this is a bone of contention, but one of the priorities is to make sure they don't run up the taxes on people. And my attitude is, if you run them up on one area, it will become a habit that will be hard to break, and then they'll try to run them up on other areas. And the reason I feel strongly about that is I don't want to undermine the economy by raising taxes.

There's some areas where we can work together, like reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, although I will warn Congress that -- in that the current bill doesn't expire, if they try to weaken the current bill, I'll veto any attempt to weaken it. But I believe we can strengthen it. I spoke to Senator Kennedy on this issue, and Congressman Miller and Senator Enzi and Congressman Boehner about how to strengthen No Child.

Oh hey, speaking of the war, remember 9/11?

... And if we forget the lessons of September the 11th as a nation, we will be naive or blind to the realities of the world. And the best way to confront these folks in the long-term is to defeat their ideology with one based upon hope -- and that's one based upon liberty. And that's what you're watching unfold. It's necessary work and it's hard work. And it requires determination and effort and commitment. And so part of our efforts is to convince others, one, the nature of the world in which we live; two, that we're in an ideological struggle; and three, we will prevail -- because we've got the ultimate weapon against those who can't see anything but terror and murder as a way forward, and that is freedom.

we will prevail -- because we've got the ultimate weapon against those who can't see anything but terror and murder as a way forward, and that is freedom.

Hell yeah! Sic'em Freedom!

THE LAKOTA SHALL PREVAIL!

So!

As of Revision 11, every sacrifice is rewarded with obj->level * 61 gold coins!

Need some cash? Go slaughter some zombies!

After a short car ride to a building at the airport, Bashmilah's clothes were cut off by black-clad, masked guards wearing surgical gloves. He was beaten. One guard stuck his finger in Bashmilah's anus. He was dressed in a diaper, blue shirt and pants. Blindfolded and wearing earmuffs, he was then chained and hooded and strapped to a gurney in an airplane.

...

He was then placed in a windowless, freezing-cold cell, roughly 6.5 feet by 10 feet. There was a foam mattress, one blanket, and a bucket for a toilet that was emptied once a day. A bare light bulb stayed on constantly. A camera was mounted above a solid metal door. For the first month, loud rap and Arabic music was piped into his cell, 24 hours a day, through a hole opposite the door. His leg shackles were chained to the wall. The guards would not let him sleep, forcing Bashmilah to raise his hand every half hour to prove he was still awake.

Assassins, I think, should be the 'hiding' class. I think thieves are the 'utility' class right now.

warriors/aps/paladins are the melee/bash classes.. though necros can dish out some melee too. Thieves, I'm going to jack up knife a little, so their strong suit is flee/knife for fast twitchers.

Assassins.. got backstab.. which I like. I think a stealth class needs to have that one big old attack. But also either a solid DoT, or maledictions.. CF did the malediction route.. I don't know.

I'm thinking more 'ninja', big stealth (hide anywhere), big opening surprise attack (backstab), and super agile defense - dodging spells, etc. The mongoose of RS. And I think demonfire needs.. like a 1:2 chance of an immolate sort of effect. Also interesting.. what if each melee hit did like -5 max hp, and it stacked.. so if they kept fighting you, and fleeing, you could only heal up so much.

Not sure how to code that.

What's the deal with cabal items? Phalanx/Scion have containers, it seems.. but nothing in them. Horde has a description for a chest. Do cabal items work?

While I'm on the subject, I think the official cannon balance is going to be scion/bounty v. phalanx v. horde. So Scion is kind of like Empire, trying to raise massive bounties against all the phalanx / hordes. So, the balance should end up being.. like, Scion's #1 priority is Phalanx, Phalanx's #1 priority should be Horde, Horde's #1 enemy is Scion.

So, to juice the numbers a little, I think we make 3 impbots for Horde, 3 halfling bots for Scion, 3 sidhe bots for Phalanx. I'll think about this.

By the way, bounty has, by far the most nuts powers. But you have to land kills to get to them. Also on the TODO list, sacrificing corpses needs to give coins. gold/coins needs to shift towards "points", and that will make a good incentive for mobkilling. And people have been complaining about high healer prices.. I think something on the magnitude of level of corpse * 10 coins. Corpses must store the level, and I need to figure out how to load gold.

But not tonight.