Every so often, I get this sudden urge to clean things. Usually this involves work around the computer area in between the living room and dining room. There is some spectacular feeling of accomplishment after you clean something to near-perfection. In this instance, it reminded me of a few Laws of Cleaning that don’t ever seem to change.

1. Formula 409 is the greatest cleaning solution the world has ever seen. Turns photocopiers and printers dressed in standard gray into dazzling-white, brand-new, state-of-the-art pieces of technology. You wouldn’t believe how much much can get stuck to your hardware if you’ve never used 409.
2. Staples are the most annoying random junk you can run into while cleaning. Because they hurt and tear whatever material you’re using to clean surfaces.
3. Keyboards are icky. Very icky.
4. If you prefer to use cheap paper towels for cleaning, prepare to get a lot of them.

Still cleaning, but my feet have been hurting for standing on them for 8 hours straight or so. Before the cleaning, I took some time to change some computer arrangements. As a note, I have my desktop tower sharing a keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor with the main computer through some unorthodox KVM/A switch. And, everything runs through an old power center.

• Added my RCA Wireless Headphones to my computer, along with a Y cable splitter so I can use the monitor’s built-in speakers if I need to. Now I can finally use them again instead of having them sit in a box.
• Snaked my USB headset cord down the back so that I would stop running over the cord with the computer chair. It also now is hidden in the space behind the flatscreen monitor.
• Changed permanently replaced the main mouse with my mouse. Also finally added the USB to PS/2 adapter that I had been too lazy to find and install.
• Installed one of my surge protectors behind my computer, which is plugged into the Auxiliary 1 switch on the power center. It supplies power to my tower, my wireless base station, and… the… scanner… oh yeah…
• Put the scanner that was sitting on the dining room table to some use by placing it on the boxes next to the computer chair. Snaked the power cord from behind my computer and threw a crack between some desk furnishings, barely able to plug it in and still have a slight amount of slack left.

So, now I’m done with dusting, and might do some more tomorrow. Probably the dining room itself. Fun fun. Time to go batfloog crazy on the scanner again.

I’m a beta tester for the Tsukihime Translation Project (and no, you’re never going to get a leak from me), and one of my first assignments was to do a final, penultimate proofing of several script files. Now, serious proofing isn’t something to be taken lightly, especially when you figure that thousands of people are going to be reading this stuff.

Anyways, I’m trudging away at the script files, trying to get them done as expediently as possible. One enthusiastic member of the BL Game Project is… well, I’m not too sure how to describe it. My best, honest guess is that he’s developing a sort of power complex and isn’t really approaching members in a very diplomatic or even cordial fashion.

Now, I think this person is a good person and a hard worker, but sometimes certain people aren’t at their best in certain positions because of the way they do things. I told him that he needed to stop being a pest, since people have lives outside of the BL Project. Too, the situation is more complex than that.

• Person A was being yelled at.
• A was waiting on B to finish.
• B has been thinking of the problem at hand.
• B has also been busy with at least two other aspects of the BL Project.
• B has a real-life project that he’s working on, which ostensibly would have a strict time schedule.

One of the major headaches I’ve had to deal with (and will have to continue to deal with) is when people’s egos become bloated via their character in the game. It’s annoying when you start getting some really imbalanced or munchkinized player characters. Here’s some notable issues that came up.

• One person wanted/wants to be an incredibly smart and talented spellcaster and fighter.
• One person was a spellcaster who wants to wield an incredibly destructive sword and have all the necessary skill to use it at it’s fullest extent. And the direct apprentice of a certain TYPE-MOON character.
  • Barring the character just mentioned, they wanted to be a spellcaster that was hideously powerful, and more powerful than their teacher, too.
  • Worse, their view of that TYPE-MOON character is fundamentally flawed, basing it on a flawed adaptation that TYPE-MOON denies ever existed.
  • Even worse, said person is actually pretty dense (has knowledge, but no sense at all), yet wants their character to be very knowledgable and wise, knowing the best thing to do in all situations. Right.
• One person wanted an echelon/support hybrid who wants to become the single most popular and all around useful character in the game.
  • Said person has/is trying to establish himself as a de facto ruler of an entire realm. For no good reason, really. 
  • Said person doesn’t shut up about their character, or their huge entourage.
• One person wants a frontline fighter who wants to deal incredible amounts of damage in a short amount of time without much effort. Their weaknesses are either insubstantial or character-breaking with not much of a median in between.

Yay, I ranted about it. Creating a Character Template will make people want to overpower themselves, as does creating a Skill Template. It’s all ego and self-pleasuring. Unfortunately for me, I can’t really do that myself, since I’m designing the mechanics, trying to balance characters, and trying to serve as a model for how other character sheets.

(You think this story is convoluted? You should see my other stories.)

So, earlier, he had really really wanted a finalized Character Template and Skill Template. Story-wise, the incomplete Character Template was fine, and the Skill Template was really only for battles and such, which were out of his scope. But, that’s what he wanted, and he wouldn’t stop whining unless I make one. So, I stop my proofing work, dig out my notebook, and start creating a skill template. It grows larger and larger. It becomes very detailed and very scary. So I deem that a Skill Encyclopedia Template, and quickly draft up a Skillbook Template for easy viewing. This is over the course of two nights, I think. A short period to draft skill templates for an RPG engine that’s still hasn’t been fully designed, in any case.

It’s all done, and even write down stuff that’s in my notebook on the Wiki. Now, I’m back at the beginning of my story. I don’t want to hear any more “do this,” especially since I create a lot of stuff as well as organize things. I have obligations to help get a Tsukihime translation out as fast as possible, seeing as it was delayed by nearly a year for absolutely STUPID reasons.

So, I get quite irritated when someone tells me to do something, even half-jokingly, when I’ve recently done a lot of stuff related to it and am currently busy doing something far more important. Worse, they have no idea about the full implications about what their asking.

To create the Skill Template, it starts out with the Battle Mechanics. The basic design was drafted a while ago. Next was creating the relationship between Basic Stats and Derived Stats. Level gain, max level, and differing ranks between characters (a mage with low Endurance versus a tank with very high Endurance vs your average hero), and finding elegant but sufficiently detailed numbers. Now we’ve got a basis for Health Points, Tech Points, and Magic Points. Next, I have to dissect possible attacks. Attacks have various costs associated with them, and can have side effects. An attack hits something, and it has certain elemental properties, a certain damage equation, a certain effect that’s applied to their attack, a certain effect that lingers on. And that’s just like, one hit. Granted, a lot of attacks will be one hit, but not all are like that, and a good system should be able to accomodate the complex procedures. These are computers, which can compute things near instantaneously, not pen-and-paper RPGs where simplicity plays a HUGE factor. And “effects” is a whole other story, too.

::yawn:: I’m tired. Maybe I’ll work on Project T some more. A celebration for finishing my main run through my assigned script files for the beta.

One of the things that interest me a lot about programming is worldcrafting. The fellow over at TYPE-MOON, Kinoko Nasu, has held my interest for a long time with his universe based on the power of concept, differences between 魔法 and 魔術, and elaborate backstories. His entire system is complex beyond most people can dream of, and (for the most part) it seems to work.

In any case, one of the little projects I work on is a doujin RPG game loosely based off the Beast’s Lair boards that I frequent. Well, frequented, since I’ve had little time to head over there and browse as of late. Anyways, I’ve become somewhat responsible for creating the general battle mechanics for the game, which I largely based off of classic console RPGs and the Nasuverse itself. Of course, I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into until it was too late.

Though, tiring as it is, it’s actually interesting to dissect how life works and try to emulate it. Mainly, for me at least, it gives me a better sense of appreciation about the laws of order in this world. Especially when trying to program in something like a Reality Marble. Oh god.

I’ve come up with a few theories of how to tackle this, but, with worldcrafting, I always like to do two things: create maintenable code and apply a philosophy to it all, which most of the time involves emulating real-world laws and paradigms. So, with something complicated as a Reality Marble, which can change anything, it becomes sorta’ difficult dissecting things like processes and customs and rituals and smacking someone upside the head.

Hopefully, someday, I can survive this project and actually attempt to create an actual Nasuverse in code. A long, long shot, but who knows. If and when I do, I’ll dedicate it to EvoSpace for ultimately getting me into this entire mess, and to Arai for showing me the horrificly splendid details of it all.

Well, I’ve actually done it; I’ve created a blog like all 50 billion other people in this world. I’ll probably use this space to show how great my ambitions are and how little I have to show for it. Eh, oh well. On with the show, I guess.