aaron's blog

As you may know, development on this game has been in spurts. The latest slump has been due in part to a final crunch to get my new book Drupal Multimedia ready for publication, and working on a new (and simpler) game engine at 5 Second Game.

Don't fret: I do intend to get back to work here as well, although I'm going to meander down a different path on the way.

It's now (sort of) possible to create characters, rooms, exits, and move around in RPG. I've been breaking up the code into various contributed modules, introducing in the newest release: RPG Action, RPG Event, RPG Skill, and the rudiments of a ruleset built on top of Drudge: MUDSlinger, which introduces basic combat. I've been adding new hooks to allow modules to interact more simply to create more complex results. I'm also moving things in the direction of Drupal 6.

When this is all up and running, I see the "final" version being something like this:

A new user to the site sees the welcome message, a big "Play Game" button, and a status of the current game state (player rankings, completed quests, etc.) There are also links to wikis, blogs, and forums, as well as the various group pages (when public).

The depiction of the Spindowners site is meant to represent a post-singularity environment. However, in many ways, the people living in the substation are the people left behind. Although post-human compared to people living in the early 21st century, even the most intelligent, wealthiest, and most privileged are little more than mites compared to the minds that continue to transform themselves throughout the galaxy.

Morbus posted an article about map making over at Drupal. Some parts are a bit technical, but anyone who hasn't already seen that might want to take a look. I haven't decided entirely how maps & rooms will be here, it obviously will depend to a large extent with how things develop with the Game API. I'm intrigued about the graphical nature that Morbus seems to intend. I had been thinking only in terms of text links. This might allow Spindowners to come roaring into the early 90's...

Obviously, much of the timeline for Spindowners depends largely on the timeline in which the Game API is developed. I hope to have an initial game in progress by this summer, although it will be in a rough form. By the fall, we might be able to call it a late alpha or early beta. We might have to have a game reset once or twice before the final launch early 2007.

So that's a rough idea. Meanwhile, character creation should be started by February. You'll be free to play around with that and give feedback once it's up. Maybe soon after that, we'll have a location or two up that you can even explore around in. That'll help us all get a better feel for the game as it evolves.

change the type of government/society
change the name of the government/society
change the stated mission of the government/society
discharge a listed member(s) from the government/society
accept a listed member(s) into the government/society
change the title of an active leader
elect a new leader to replace another leader (only allowed during government's election period)
impeach an existing leader without replacement
change the tax rate (from 0% to 20%, in 0.1% increments)
change the daily salary (EC only) of a single leader, or of all leaders
give a single amount (EC, Property, Item) to single leader/all leaders/single member/all members

When a new group has been created, a private forum will be created for them. Only characters who have joined the group & have been accepted by the group's rules will be allowed to view those forums. When a charter has been created for a group, the creator may set group membership with one of the following options:

* anarchy - anyone may join without any approval
- no leaders
- government may be changed by 51% of active members approval
- anarchy never changes automatically
- anyone can make a referendum to change the government (which is the only allowed referendum in an anarchy). it passes only with majority of active members approval

Here are the plans for the forums:

Web Annoucements

important news

In Game

governments (each has their own)
• private leader announcements
• member announcements
• public announcements
• leader referendums
• member referendums
• petitions

Meta-Game

rules
• suggestions
• clarifications
• characters
  • classes

  • races
  • attributes & skills
  • advantages & disadvantages

setting
• substation-x
• galaxy
• backstory

characters