lashtal

It is that time of year again. It has apparently been a very long 2 years.

I am intending to speak with the Archives Elf when I am able.
 
I invite all those who have signed to be present for the discourse. I would that diplomacy and mutual respect be observed, so please do not attend if thou thinkst it were otherwise - especially as the Elf is the one who may grant favours, not ourselves.

I am aware that there may be others who also wish to ask favours of the elf, including favours of knowledge. As Aia of the other-realm is quite aware that her clock is shifted for inconvenience, if there were aught who would wish audience of the Elf, please post within this thread of thine intent, that I may ask the Elf on thy behalf if thou wert absent.
Blessings.

The log so far:
[04/01/24 15:35] :Aia waves to Fyrd's likeness
[04/01/24 15:36] Aia:I do wish thou couldst have been here for this.
[04/01/24 15:40] Aia:Wherever thou wert, I hope happiness has followed thee there.
[04/01/24 23:47] :Chewett bows
[04/01/24 23:48] Sunfire:you will be missed, old friend and mentor
[04/01/24 23:56] : Mallos throws the dice and gets 3
[04/01/24 23:59] jakubhi:I miss you Fyrd
[04/01/24 23:59] Death Ray:I don't even know what to say, for the last 15 or so year's ... we meet here on MD. And created a friendship and bond.
[05/01/24 00:04] Chewett:Things change, things don't, but our friends are still here
[05/01/24 00:04] Death Ray:One of very few long lasting friendships to be immortalized here in MD....
[05/01/24 00:05] jakubhi:I still remember the hangman word games he used to organise
[05/01/24 00:06] jakubhi:I liked them
[05/01/24 00:08] Invie:Goodbye, Pickle Meister.
[05/01/24 00:11] Aksel:He really put in the effort into MD, handheld me around in early days and was always there to help and make new content. Was expecting him to show up any time now, quite sad
[05/01/24 00:16] Chewett:He inspired questions, ideas, quests, and many other things
[05/01/24 00:20] lashtal:His generosity was sincere, detached. He would spend days just to help someone run a quest. I was in debt back then and I will forever be.
[05/01/24 00:21] lashtal:Thank you Fyrd.
[05/01/24 00:21] jakubhi: *gives everyone a hug* This is not a good night, but I wish you peaceful dreams
[05/01/24 00:34] :Aamon starts taking notes to keep record of the memorial
[05/01/24 00:38] Aamon:Would anyone care to share some words and or memories with Fyrd?
[05/01/24 00:40] Aia:I am honoured to have known thee and to have worked with thee on so much. Thou wert truly one-of-a-kind in wit, generosity, and vision.
[05/01/24 00:42] Aia:Rest in everlasting peace, dear friend.
[05/01/24 00:42] :Aamon notes Asia's words
[05/01/24 00:43] Aamon:Would anyone else have words or memories to share?
[05/01/24 00:45] Aia:If there is one regret, it is that thou didst never see the likeness we created of thee in thine honour.
[05/01/24 00:46] Aia:We shall miss thee now and evermore.
[05/01/24 00:49] :Aamon records Aia's words
[05/01/24 00:51] Aia:There is one last thing I should like...
[05/01/24 00:51] Aia:Here is the last clicky that thou didst provide for me.
[05/01/24 00:51] Aia:It is fitting that it is a lamp.
[05/01/24 00:53] :Aia places the lamp at the base of Fyrd's pedestal
[05/01/24 00:58] Aia:May it shine evermore in thy memory.
[05/01/24 00:59] Invie:You were always ready to help out a fellow player. You welcomed many new players with your guidance and quests. Be sure that we will continue to guide new players to your garden.
[05/01/24 01:11] Chewett:I will take an acoustic remains later
[05/01/24 01:11] Chewett:All I wish to say is that I am very sad
[05/01/24 01:12] Aia:We all are, but let not that trivialise the weight upon thyself.
[05/01/24 02:16] Death Ray:It was truly a blessing to have come across such a person. The impressions he's left behind with is will forever remain
[05/01/24 02:29] :chriselnenepr Notices he has arrived late
[05/01/24 02:31] chriselnenepr:I simply want to share that Fyrd has been a great help to our community. He always encouraged players to take a more active role when it comes to participating in quests, creating them, or simply just tending to his bug garden
[05/01/24 02:32] chriselnenepr:I am happy to have met the happiest pickle meister in the realm and the many quests he has created to further our enjoyment of the realm.
[05/01/24 02:32] chriselnenepr:Although a bit sad some of his unfinished works may stay as such, but will forever be memories we will hold dear
[05/01/24 02:33] :chriselnenepr Places some flowers near Fyrd's statue
[05/01/24 02:33] Chewett:We can finish some of his plans I have some of them
[05/01/24 02:34] :chriselnenepr smiles
[05/01/24 02:35] Chewett:Goodnight all, I must rest
[05/01/24 02:35] Chewett:I have posted the log as it stands, and will continue to log and post it
[05/01/24 02:35] Chewett:Be well my friends
[05/01/24 02:36] chriselnenepr:Be well and good night! I hope we can make some of those plans a reality
[05/01/24 02:51] Lazarus:Good night, Fyrd. I am grateful to have blessed by your presence all these years.
[05/01/24 02:52] :Lazarus bows
[05/01/24 02:52] Lazarus:Farewell
[05/01/24 02:54] :Aamon notes everyones words
[05/01/24 07:32] Death Ray:Heart breaking, im sure we all know he'd been in his element with the curret event going on. I was aware he was away. And tbh... i thought that it was him, as the voice...
[05/01/24 07:58] Death Ray:Another thought, Magic Duel must have meant a lot to him considering a family member reached out to us...
[05/01/24 11:31] Chewett:His son said "I know he loved playing and contributing to your game."

A brief summary of discourse that I have had with @jakubhi - posted with permission:
Jakubhi's ideas:
- Lifting the magic that sticks down the presents may also lift the magic within the present, rendering it without value.
- The magic within the scene may be fueled by the heat-veins; perhaps temporarily pausing the flow may weaken the magic sufficiently to move the presents
- Could it be possible that Memory Stones would absorb this magic holding the presents in place?
 
Aia's ideas:
- Agreeance that lifting all magic without limit would cause loss of the value of presents
- Rather than attempting to lift the magic, one could attempt to merely cause the opposite effect - for example, a hypothetical potion of extreme unstickiness (which comes with its own issues such as how to get this potion to stick to the presents to cause the desired effect)
- Worry about other temporary magic-weakening as mentioned above to also weaken the effect of said presents
- Thoughts about Memory Stones not working in the above manner. If they did, however, what would prevent them from absorbing the magic inside the presents as well?

lashtal
(sorry for being late)

I second Ledah's request, although my reasons are different.
I know nothing of the trades he mentioned, but during the years I wasted a good amount of time "mentoring" so called new players, only to discover they were alts.

In addition to this, i want to say something about mentoring new players when they are in fact undercover vets, as this happened to me many times and i admit its frustrating.
 
It is frustrating, but if you think about it better, an "OK" alt, should be allowed to go through this process to. In many cases there are fossilized vets, that suddenly realize they lost connection with how md works, and want to experience it allover again, including how to it is to be a noob and work their way from the ground up..and this is fully allowed. Maybe one day you will want to experience this yourself, and you will understand why i support this kind of thing.

I'd suggest to have Ledah replace the elf he killed.
All we need is a nice costume and a proper make-up, I bet Confused Santa won't notice the difference. 😄

I am quite in agreeance that the creature pool should be altered significantly. Perhaps it would be reasonable to do so based on days of activity or some other similar measure of progress. I am happy for creatures whose creation I have been involved in to be added to the pool provided they are appropriately rare.
Permanent buffs (Friend slots/Heat spheres/creature age/creature heat as the current examples) are reasonable provided they do not trivialise other methods of progress in these areas.
I would suggest removal of the temporary combat buff and replacement with some temporary spell appropriate to the season. (For example, everyone clicking the tree gets three temporary casts of some spell that heals everyone in a certain location?)
Of wishpoints: I am not opposed to a single wishpoint (or fewer - e.g. one per every two players) being granted given the paucity of them presently.
 
I think it would also be interesting if one of the gifts bestowed some benefit to someone or everyone else who was present at the tree. This would promote staying present at the tree (as a combat target as well as being present for social reasons). Perhaps one of the gifts could be "everyone present receives 1 max AP", for example.

Mayhap, one would have a present which has a chance of awarding a wishpoint, and a chance of receiving something of this sort?

This is a detailed list of all the current chat commands as of today. Its likely that i will add many more over time and that this post won't be updated, but for now this is the complete list:
 
All the green text is to be replaced by actual values
 
/play tictactoe with playername
opens a dedicated interface to play tic-tac-toe, experimenta game interface so demonstrate interactive capabilities of chat commands
 
/match with playername
opens a dedicated interface for an experimental, nonfunctional minigame, its where i work on chatcommants interactivity experiments
 
/buzz playername
opens a very annoying popup to the target player the also buzzes acoustically, do not abuse
 
SHUT UP playername
classic to MD, the ability to silence anyone you consider for whatever reason you consider, the right to have silence is fundamental in MD
 
/shutup playername
same effect, shuts up the target player preventing him from talking in chat, casting spells, etc
 
*gives number trophies to playername*  [unfinished]
gives trophies (heads) to target player. We call it tophies here, and not heads, to avoid obvious linguistic issue
 
/givetrophies number to playername*  [unfinished]
same effect, gives number of head trophies to target playername
 
/giveitems numberxitemname to playername*
transfer given number of items to playername. Example /giveitems 5xStone to Muratus del Mur
 
*presents itemname for price*
present the item as if you would want to sell it for the given price. Many do not know to sell their wares, so AI can help
 
/presents itemname for price
same as above, presents item for sale in a nicely formulated text
 
*looks for playername*
enquire about a playername
 
/seen playername
same as above equire about when player was last seen
 
*asks about playername*
different syntax for whois
 
/who is playername
different syntax for whois
 
/whois playername
find out some details about a player, to help you better understand who you are dealing with
 
/whereis playername
info about the whereabouts of a player
 
/where is playername
different syntax of whereis
 
/mood playername
use advanced AI to determine the current mood of a target player based on his recent interactions 
 
/isdoing playername
use AI to determine what a player is currently doing, only using info from the chat not actual activities 
 
/joke subject
Advanced AI to tell a joke about a subject, in the context of the recent chat discussion
 
/reply
Use AI to quickly reply to whatever was spoken in chat 
 
/reply playername
Use AI to reply just to a specific player in the context of the current discussion
 
/sum
Use AI to summarize the current discussion
 
/whatsnew
tell a summary of what was officially announced recently
 
/whatsnew week
tell a summary of all announcements within a week
 
/whatsnew month
tell a concise summary of all announcements within a month
 
/ann subject1,subject2, etc
Highly advanced AI to process the announcements in a given context or timeframe about a subject
Example: /ann what happened to Blackshade Rider, within a year
If this command does not work, it means the subject and context are not specific enough. The AI can not learn the entire announcements list but it can parse it in steps, first finding all the announcements in a given context, then processing them logically. 
 
/how question
Use the knowledge learned from the Questions and Answers -> How do i? forum section, to answer whatever question you have about the game that starts with /how
 
/what question
Use the knowledge learned from the Questions and Answers -> How do i? forum section, to answer whatever question you have about the game that starts with /what
 
/why question
Use the knowledge learned from the Questions and Answers -> How do i? forum section, to answer whatever question you have about the game that starts with /why
 
/adventure Story name, first logic to filter, more specific question, short keyword
/adventure Story name1|Story name2, first logic to filter, more specific question, short keyword
story name = the name as it is written in adventurelog, or similar
first logic =  extract a first round of results to learn from
second, more specific question = a question asked in the context of the first logic results
short keyword = to further limit the query and help the AI grab only the relevent context, you can specify a word that must be contained in all the records if looks for. Don't make it too complex, as it will search for the string as is. A good ideea for keyword is to use a name, something that shows up in all the story pages you are interested to analyze
Use advanced AI to go through the adventurelog and solve a mistery, or even compare a complex situation. The syntax is more complex than other chat commands, but this is very very powerful tool
Example usage: /adventure the traveler|tales of the cube, how does the Traveler or the Shade Sentinel change, How did the traveler meeting the shade sentinel in Story 1 affect both of them? /adventure the traveler, How did the traveler meeting the shade sentinel affect both of them? Wodin seems to be a good fit for the compare type of question as he shows up in "The Shade Ballance" and "Golemus Wizard quest" /adventure The Shade Ballance|Golemus Wizard quest, what does Wodin do in this story, What relation is between what Wodin does in Story 1 and what he does in Story 2,Wodin  /adventure The Shade Ballance|Golemus Wizard quest, Wodins summoning, Who knows how to summon Wodin Ullr?,Wodin  
 
/trade itemname for price
write a sales pitch for selling the item for the desired price
 
/solve
Use advanced AI to determine what could be solved from the latest chat lines, maybe a riddle, or a puzzle or question, then answer it
 
/help
show a limited list of all the chat commands, i say limited because there is a technical limitation of how much text can be shown there, and it can't fit all info
 
/help question
ask a specific question
 
/howto question
answer a specific question
 
/pm playername: message
send a personal message to the target playername, directly in their inbox, and leave a roleplay remark about this action in the chat
 
/msg playername: message
same as /pm
 
Note some are in roleplay syntax *...*
 
 
 

(Adding from Ann. Log, I think they belong here too)
Moving between scenes.
/gl (go left)
/gu (go up) -> /gf (go forward)
/gd (go down) -> /gb (go back)
/gr (go right)

and its done!
 
syntax is double asterix in front of the trigger word: **silver
the output contains asterix in front and at the end (*message*), to be similar to how you would write your own mood texts, hopefully this will be a hint
there is also the option to add a word or more after the trigger word, and for some moods this will direct the text towards that target, for example **greet nobody 
 
@jakubhi very nice ideea btw!

A few months ago I tried to repair the balloon as well.
If I remember correctly, there was an issue related to paper (being labelled "item" instead of "resource", or was it the other way around...).
Long story short, the amount was not showing correctly, but I was assured the balloon would get the right amount and work as intended (I think Fyrd mentioned that).
Anyway, should you feel stuck, keep in mind there is another way to leave the island and reach the mainland.
Best of luck.

AND THE WINNERS ARE:
 
Wishpoint for discovering interesting ways to manipulate the heatflow, and by that helping me better understand what possible uses this interface could have:
Ailith, Aelis, Aia, Iashtal, Kyphis, Sunfire
 
And the top score for the positive reactions to your creations posted here on the forum:
 
Aelis: 17
Ailith: 9
Aia: 9
Iashtal: 8
Kyphis: 7
Sunfire: 2
Ledah: 1
chriselnenepr: 1
 
The heat spell goes to Aelis!
I was not convinced by your GOTR coat of arms attempts, but some of you got 90% there. I will not give a reward for that yet, because i am sure someone some day, will create it better, and the reward for that would have been a 'joker card' for place in the ally... but next time.
 
Thank you all for participating, i will start dispatching the rewards in-game, and announce it.
 
 

Wings
I like the symmetry in this one. It's the best "circular frame" I got so far. To get this one, I pulled a continuous stream from the bottom and another from the top, with a slight difference in length on the latter. The trick is not to pull all the way to make the streams meet. I left some space between them to create the center shape.

I personally prefer the current mode as the attempted shape keeps form better and the faster motion has very interesting side effects (e.g. sudden creation of separate shapes, interesting shapes on outskirts of main shape that fan out or add to existing shape)

For the GOTR badge, I had a few goes:
First I concentrated on the roots and slowly guided the heat to the shape in one movement to achieve this:

Then a few more attempts saw the root shape good but unable to add the trunk or top of the tree:

Then I tried to start at the top left of the trunk, draw down then the roots and then to the top right of the trunk all in one go:

This seemed to work better so had quite a few attempts and this part of the badge can be recreated again and again:



I wait til the shape solidifies more then patiently try to draw the top part of the tree, which of course is the most difficult as there are leaves etc:

This attempt turned into an angry face:

The branches appeared on this one but still can't find solution to leaves: 
This attempt went wrong and the angry face came back:

So here I am at the moment:

Will try and get the top bit better, if anyone can improve on this please post as tbh it's quite a fun challenge.

A first attempt at the GoTR challenge:

 
And a second attempt, using a similar technique:

 
Given that creating flow will eventually devolve into something somewhat less orderly, I found it was useful to capture these images well before they settled. Additionally, touching up abnormalities will tend to create more heat, which will decrease the contrast. Nonetheless, the touch-up of the second image resulted in this, which perhaps has more semblance of the alliance logo.

People that get a wishpoint for their creations and/or efforts to explain how they might be reproduced are:

Ailith, Aelis, Aia, Iashtal, Kyphis

for now. 
 

This contest ends within a week, and i will be more strict for future creations.
 
And there is a change: I am boosting up the rewards, but remove the reward for less awesome creations. I had to change this because many posted trivial creations that maybe look nice but they represent not big effort to reach them.. so, its either wishpoint for creating something very cool and at least trying to explain how to reproduce it.... and i am adding a winner reward, a spell, for whoever gets the most likes (counting any sort of positive votes)
(a spell? what spell? .. the heat spell. If you already have the heat spell, you can pick any other except admin spells, summon and chase)

 

Smile! I created these "teeth" by placing short currents downward opposed by short currents upwards.

The whole thing collapses after a few seconds so it took me quite a few tries to get it to work satisfactorily. Below is what the above turned into after a further 15ish seconds.

Please welcome the allmighty One-eyed Whatever!
 

Exercises in symmetry, trying to obtain a Chewbecca-ish face:

Staring contest

On another attempt I got the left one to get a really nice "eye". Unfortunately the other side looked terrible, so I cut it out:

Exercises in symmetry, trying to obtain a Chewbecca-ish face: