The Don't Fix The Shark Competition!

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AuthorTopic: The Don't Fix The Shark Competition!
BoE Posse
Member # 112
Profile #0
Hang tight, the bizarre title will be explained in due time. Jeff, I'd appreciate it if you read through this.

As BoA has just arrived for Mac and is on the way for us Windows users, some of us over at the Lyceum have been kicking around an idea for a novelty competition for BoE. Since BoA is supposed to give us much more power and free us up as scenario designers, we thought a good way to celebrate it's release would be to go to other extreme.

We all know the movie Jaws. The story goes that when Spielberg went to shoot the film, he couldn't get the mechanical shark to work very well. To avoid putting a horribly fake shark on screen, he had to shoot the film keeping the main threat off-camera almost completely. Interestingly, this gave the movie a lot more menace and he ended up with a much better film than if he had been able to make it the way he wanted.

Self-imposed restrictions on design could make for a very interesting contest. For example, a designer might try to make a scenario that takes place entirely outdoors. Or one that features only four characters. Or even one that *gasp* uses no nodes.

The entries will be judged not only on the quality of the individual works, but on how extreme the restrictions the designer placed on himself were and on how well the scenario performed in spite of them. In other words, a great scenario that is restricted to five towns may well lose to a fairly good scenario that includes no text. Designers are free to choose their own restrictions.

I posted this here, as it occurred to me that Spiderweb might like to put up a copy of BoA as a prize. This would work well for everyone, I'm inclined to think. The winner would be talented designer, so putting a copy of BoA in his/her hands could only improve your business.

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Rate my scenarios!

Areni
Revenge
To Live in Fear
Deadly Goblins
Ugantan Nightmare
Isle of Boredom
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00
This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
Profile #1
I object. How did Alec get to Queensland and in what swamp is The Creator buried?

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The Empire Always Loses: Never Proved to Be a Contributory Factor to Stomach Cancer
Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #2
Alec's in Queensland now? That's far too close for comfort.

Also, was that reply intended to make any sense at all?

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #3
Alec has gone to the Creator's house, killed him, and is now using his account.

BtI has missed the discussion on the Lyceum.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
BoE Posse
Member # 112
Profile #4
1) I see nothing in my first post that suggests Alecism.

2) I don't live in Queensland. I've been in South Australia for the last four years.

3) You would be very hard pressed to find a swamp in the part of Queensland I used to inhabit.

4) Does responding in this manner mean I am completely bereft of a sense of humour?

5) This is totally and utterly off-topic.

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Rate my scenarios!

Areni
Revenge
To Live in Fear
Deadly Goblins
Ugantan Nightmare
Isle of Boredom
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #5
quote:
Originally written by The Creator:

4) Does responding in this manner mean I am completely bereft of a sense of humour?
I'm not sure how you can say this. I mean, even Revenge had completely inappropriate moments of comedy, to say nothing of IoBo. :P

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
BoE Posse
Member # 112
Profile #6
...and for those who didn't get the joke, there it is with subtitles.

Please, can we focus on the matter at hand?

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Rate my scenarios!

Areni
Revenge
To Live in Fear
Deadly Goblins
Ugantan Nightmare
Isle of Boredom
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #7
You'd probably be better off emailing Jeff.

[ Saturday, March 20, 2004 16:27: Message edited by: Drakefyre ]

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy
Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet
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You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3898
Profile #8
One question:

If the prize is a copy of BoA, how do you intend for someone to complete the competition without a copy of BoA? I mean, nobody can program and test properly unless they already have it. Unless you mac users know something I don't.

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~Note : The professional newbie's advice should not be taken seriously, or at all.~
LINKAGE
Posts: 364 | Registered: Saturday, January 17 2004 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #9
Read the post more carefully. It's a Blades of EXILE scenario design competition.

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 511
Profile #10
Well of course a Windows user would think of this. It's inconvenient for users of OSX because we'd have to boot into Classic to play these scenarios, and then the resolution is all ****ed...my monitor won't even go to that low a resolution or low number of colors without BoE forcing it too...and then Aqua looks like ****.

BoE is incredibly inconvenient these days.
Posts: 7 | Registered: Saturday, January 12 2002 08:00
Guardian
Member # 2476
Profile #11
It's a strange progress that reduces you to playing only the latest and newest outputs.

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Polaris
Rache's A3 Site reformatted 2/3 done
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Posts: 1828 | Registered: Saturday, January 11 2003 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #12
You can actually force your monitor into 256 colours manually by unchecking "only show recommended resolutions" in the Monitors panel under System Preferences. It still messes up the window backgrounds in Aqua, though.

Oh, and BoE is SUPPOSED to throw up a window *asking* you to change resolution, and continue anyway if you refuse, but I don't get that window either. You may have to hold down Command or Option on loading, or failing that delete your BoE preferences.

As for the time it takes for Classic to start up, yeah, that is a bit of a nuisance. But since there's really no good reason to turn modern computers off, just leave it in sleep mode overnight and you won't ever have to worry about waiting for Classic (or even OSX) to start up again.

[ Sunday, March 21, 2004 22:55: Message edited by: The Soviet Onion ]

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 455
Profile #13
Moving/trashing the Blades Prefs does indeed get that resolution-setting dialog back, and I've had no difficulty running BoE in a small window without decreasing resolution or depth (though I'm using 10.2.8; dunno about Panther) -- Aqua stays its millions-of-colors self in the background.

Oh yeah: Don't Fix the Shark is a swell plan.

[ Sunday, March 21, 2004 23:43: Message edited by: Boots ]

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Forgive them, for they are young and rich and white.
Posts: 265 | Registered: Saturday, December 29 2001 08:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #14
Classic loads very quickly for me, and it's really not that much of a problem.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
====
Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy
Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet
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You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Warrior
Member # 126
Profile Homepage #15
Self-imposed restrictions, you say?

I suppose it would be possible to create a scenario that takes place entirely in one huge city, as well as the caverns, catacombs, and sewers beneath it. No world-map at all. I could link up muliple "town" locations directly side-to-side, I suppose. In a grid pattern, maybe. There could be thieves and back-alley thugs you could fight in some places. There could be important people like mages or politicians living in cool halls and towers in certain spots, and they could give you tasks and quests. Access to the crypts and catacombs beneath the city would be through stuff like secret trapdoors, secret passages, or manholes... and who knows what critters you'll run into down there.

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Fly beyond the ocean, over the mountains, past the moon and across the face of the sun, never to come home again.
Posts: 161 | Registered: Monday, October 8 2001 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #16
quote:
Originally written by Captain Uglyhead:

Self-imposed restrictions, you say?

I suppose it would be possible to create a scenario that takes place entirely in one huge city, as well as the caverns, catacombs, and sewers beneath it. No world-map at all. I could link up muliple "town" locations directly side-to-side, I suppose. In a grid pattern, maybe. There could be thieves and back-alley thugs you could fight in some places. There could be important people like mages or politicians living in cool halls and towers in certain spots, and they could give you tasks and quests. Access to the crypts and catacombs beneath the city would be through stuff like secret trapdoors, secret passages, or manholes... and who knows what critters you'll run into down there.

Trouble In Mendor, Election, and (to a lesser extent) Inn of Blades.

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Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
BoE Posse
Member # 112
Profile #17
An Apology is better than any of those.

You could do it, and you could make a very good scenario - but you wouldn't pick up many points for restricting yourself.

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Rate my scenarios!

Areni
Revenge
To Live in Fear
Deadly Goblins
Ugantan Nightmare
Isle of Boredom
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #18
I don't think it's much of a restriction at all - plenty of scenarios are town-only, and I think it's easier to work without worrying about outdoors.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy
Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet
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You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Warrior
Member # 126
Profile Homepage #19
Sounds like it's back to the drawing board!

Maybe I'll dust off an old idea of mine...

Please tell me if this's been done before:

A small, northern-ish outpost sorta place, with expanding towns nearby, and plenty of unexplored forest is threatened by a deep, long-lasting winter, and lots of zombies, too, among other things. I'm consdering calling it "The Dead of Winter." Oooh, isn't that just spine-tingly-dingly?

I can crank in restrictions later on, but that's the basics.

[ Wednesday, March 24, 2004 11:48: Message edited by: Captain Uglyhead ]

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Fly beyond the ocean, over the mountains, past the moon and across the face of the sun, never to come home again.
Posts: 161 | Registered: Monday, October 8 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 764
Profile Homepage #20
You should save that cool idea for a proper scenario to do it justice, do it on the BOA competion perhaps?

But as a restricted scenario, how about a world with not one person, enamy, person sighting or sound of birds.......? Abit like 28 days later, but without the infected.....

my pic of the rage:
:mad:
-|-
/ \

[ Thursday, March 25, 2004 11:01: Message edited by: lost_king ]

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"I come back to you now, of the turn of the tide"--Gandalf Greyhame in the two towers.
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Posts: 237 | Registered: Sunday, March 17 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #21
A scenario with no monsters could be interesting. A bit short on combat, but interesting.

I'd like to point out that even though the point of the contest is really to come up with ridiculous restrictions, quality is necessary as well. I could make a scenario using only two terrain types and one special node, but it would not be good at all. While one can't create the greatest scenario ever while operating under restrictions, some degree of actual fun has to be maintained.

—Alorael, who thinks some designers would have their works improved by leaving out special nodes. To all who cannot write messages properly and all who believe that it is appropriate to throw around party death nodes with no warning or explanation, those designers would include you.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 801
Profile #22
If "only town" has been done, what about "only worldmap"? Think the first French trappers in North America. There'd be natives you could choose to kill and take their hides or cooperate and trade with... That would be another interesting restriction, no currency. Just furs, poor, nice, and excellent. Although I'm not sure there were furs in BoE. Also, the training system would have to be messed with.

Another interesting restriction might be "only quickfire". Because if quickfire ever really got out of hand...

[ Friday, March 26, 2004 20:57: Message edited by: Bowen ]
Posts: 9 | Registered: Saturday, March 23 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #23
You'd be able to make a wonderful scenario without combat I imagine, with BoA even more than BoE, because of the better scripting options available (traps, text, animations, puzzles, etc.)

I also think you could make a scenario that makes no use of dialogue - all questions and responses are in the form of pop-up messages that come up when you get near to the person.

"Do you want to talk to this person?

- Yes.

- No."

Mh, quickfire. You could set it so that every single town you enter has quickfire as soon as you do, and you have to conduct any business as quick as possible before the persons you want to talk to are killed.

Or a tribute to a bug in Exile 3: All NPCs are hostile initially and you have to charm them to talk to them. I don't know if it works with BoA, but it sure does with BoE.

[ Saturday, March 27, 2004 07:45: Message edited by: Arancaytar ]

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Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 801
Profile #24
I was thinking more, quickfire on the worldmap. And if you don't stop it soon enough, it reaches critical mass, and the atmosphere catches fire, like they thought would happen with the atomic bomb. Of course, it's possible a conflagration on this scale would leave a cave system with only one entrance untouched, because there'd be no draw.

You know, I thought of it as a joke, but this seems more and more like something Erika would do.
Posts: 9 | Registered: Saturday, March 23 2002 08:00

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