The totally bestest thread ever (for random stuff)

[Shade]

@woodie: Ouch, that really does sound bad, I can relate.

Regarding Egoboo, yeah, what AoD said, except to be quite honest, none of the versions that were re-written in C++ or whatever it was ever actually reached a state that felt remotely playable to me. At the same time, past 2.6.8, a lot of new features were added and the game's design was changed in a lot of ways (e.g. with how abilities work, the inventory system, or the whole "pause between attacks" thing), not a lot of which really "worked" as far as I'm concerned - that is, they worked mechanically (...for the most part), but imo a lot of them detracted from the game rather than adding to it.
We just lacked any real focus (in the end everyone had a different vision of what the game should be), as well as more people who were capable of working with Egoboo's messy old code, so I suppose this was destined to happen. As AoD said, building an entirely new game like Egoboo probably would have been both easier and given much better results than trying to port the existing engine, and even for that we probably would've needed more people with programming skills.
It's a shame, but there's nothing we can really do but move on.

[Agent of Dread]

The weird foible of Egoboo (and SoulFu, even moreso) is that Aaron essentially built it in spaghetti code to make editing and modding more accessible at a very basic level, but it resulted in high-level changes sometimes being near-impossible.
I think the part that I find the greatest shame is that open source "culture" doesn't really seem at all the same as it was in 2010, let alone 2005 or 2000, but the way it used to be, used to look on things like the Zippy homepage, was what gave me the sense of wonder and excitement that drew me here as a youngster in the first place, and now that I'm at a point where I could feasibly contribute actual assets or code, the ship has long since sailed.

[woodmouse]

Yeah, I guess the death of Egoboo was inevitable... it's just a huge shame, especially since the last "stable" version is actually unplayable thanks to the bugged-out hitboxes. New people might discover Egoboo every day, but they'll give up on it and think it's worse than it ever was because of that. If just that was fixed, then there could be some (even if faint) hope of the game's development getting "new blood" and for an Egoboo renaissance to become a reality. Except that apparently new people can't even register on this forum anymore, so... I guess it's been decided that Egoboo is dead.

Honestly it's just really sad, I could go on forever about it. I'd be a completely different person without Egoboo and without this community, and I don't think I'd like being that person. There could be tons of weird 13-year-olds out there right now, feeling exactly the same way, and discovering Egoboo and then finding out that they can't even discuss it with likeminded people, and as a result going down a darker path in life than they would otherwise. Not saying I'd be begging for hordes of random 13-year-olds to swarm this forum, they'd probably be really annoying and just as incapable of contributing to the development of Egoboo as I was back in the day (if not more so because they were born with smartphones in their hand), but you know what I mean.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, some vitamin D might actually help your skin, so getting outside could be worth it if you can. Good luck with it either way.

Ouch, that really does sound bad, I can relate.

Well, it's basically healed now. The antibiotic cream really helped. I'm still going to apply it tonight and maybe tomorrow, but yeah.

I feel your pain on that politics stuff too. The right wing is still in power in Australia and it looks like it'll stay that way for a while because our left wing can't present a leader that isn't equally as bad.

Here in Finland, we do actually have some pretty nice leftists, but the problem is that the majority gets put off by their progressivism on issues like immigration and environmentalism. There's also that the only thing most Finns eat is meat (potatoes, rice, falafel, etc. don't count as non-meat because they taste good ), so the aggressive anti-meat stances of some left-wing politicians who push for better policies on the protection of the environment and whatnot are kinda off-putting. I'm glad Niinistö became president when he did because Finland needed someone who encouraged compromises and told everyone to chill out, and admittedly Finland wouldn't have been ready for a gay president (Haavisto, the guy who came second, is openly gay), but I wish he'd be succeeded by Haavisto because A) he's an environment-friendly leftist and B) having a gay president would be cool and I think we'd be ready for it now.

Not that the president has much legal power anymore (which is good in case there'll be a rabid white supremacist or religious fundamentalist or whatever elected at some point), but there's an undeniable influence on people in what the president says. Niinistö has almost disappeared from the public eye after having a baby, at a pretty inconvenient time... oh well, it's not like politics should be the most important thing in life. And it's not, at least for me.

[Agent of Dread]

For a while I was thinking about trying to build a game myself that was similar to Egoboo in the LttP/top-down-adventure-cross-RPG style, keeping in things like the unique starter modules for each class and tackling the "palaces" in roughly the order of your choice, since I do think that there's a lot of core fun and excitement at Egoboo's heart... and would love to see that heart in a package that meets more of the current standards for things. It didn't really get off the ground though since I've been busy with my girlfriend/life and focusing mainly on drawing outside that.

[Cimeries]

I know what Woody's talking about Re:growing up with Egoboo. I think I owe my English skills and my aptitude with computers and coding to this project and the community, and I'm glad I took part in it. It definitely shaped the person I am today. The PnPs were also a big creative outlet for me and I had a lot of fun with those. I still read through them every now and then.
I definitely see all of you as my friends, even though we've never met in person.

From the looks of it I think the assessment that Egoboo's code is too messy and dated to work with is correct. For an old game like this to attract new players it needs to be playable and moddable, and Egoboo isn't moddable in a way that is accessible to new players. Even in the domain of content creation, the're a pretty big barrier-of entry, especially for module-making.

I think Egoboo deserves a well-earned rest. One could recreate the entire thing from the ground up, but at this point, a couple decades later with an entirely different group of people, you may as well make a new game out of it.

So, AoD, if you ever decide to get that thing off the ground, hit me up. I'd like to give that a shot and help with what I can.

Re: PnP, I can play, but I can't host a game. I don't think AoR will ever continue, so unfortunately that's another concept and another folder full of lore that won't be used.
I think the combat mechanics and the way monsters are treated in the system (with each "species" having unique mechanics, different strategies and combat features) was a good call, and I'd actually love to see and play something like that myself.

I'll share my notes from AoR sometime soon so you can see some of the other monsters that were planned and what their deal was, designing them and coming up with the scenarios was a lot of fun for me.

[Agent of Dread]

That's sad news, since I really liked our characters and how they were shaping up. But, you can only do what you can do and so on.
On the other hand, I'm happy to keep the offer of trying my hand at a new PnP standing. If we confirm two players then it's on, should we want it to be.

Regarding making a game, my motivation for any one project really comes and goes with the wind, so I wouldn't be bold enough to appoint myself to start up that kind of thing, but...

[Shade]

Re: PnP, I can play, but I can't host a game. I don't think AoR will ever continue, so unfortunately that's another concept and another folder full of lore that won't be used.

welp

On the other hand, I'm happy to keep the offer of trying my hand at a new PnP standing. If we confirm two players then it's on, should we want it to be.

Sorry, I'm occupied for the foreseeable future. I'm afraid the age of PnPs in this community has come to an end once and for all - you're probably better off finding a new group to play with.

[penguinflyer2222]

@AoD, Cime:
I'd like to play a PnP, if you want.

[Agent of Dread]

Cime, your spell's potency only increases.

How's things, 2222?

[penguinflyer2222]

Things're fine, I haven't been up to much lately.

But when I saw that you guys wouldn't have enough players for a PnP,
and all the stuff about Egoboo and the forums being basically dead (even though they are, basically), I figured I should do something..
I mean, it's not like I'm doing anything else. So it'd be fun to see if I can be not-terrible at playing a PnP, I guess?

And I still work on Egoboo stuff sometimes, not that it amounts to much, but I am having fun figuring out how to parse the files (data.txt, level.mpd..)
And I still draw stuff, if anyone cares, but I haven't even figured out where to host an avatar, so...

I dunno, I guess that's it.
Though I guess I should say I've been keeping up with the forums since before Aria of Ruin started (when everyone just sort of showed up), and I did enjoy reading it. You guys know how to do PnPs.

[Agent of Dread]

I use imgur for all my misc. hosting needs, it's pretty useful (though I just ignore the public gallery/memes stuff). I'd be happy to see some of what you've drawn!

And I agree, what we got to play of Aria was really fantastic. Cime's approach to putting together his games is what inspires me to try.

[penguinflyer2222]

Okay, so after a few days of being lazy, I finally decided to try imgur, so:
Now I have an avatar, (it looks like Link, but it's based on concept art of Linkle from Hyrule Warriors, where she looks like Link),
and I uploaded a drawing of Sheik (also from Hyrule Warriors).

Spoiler: Tall image (it's scaled down though)

Sure, whatever.

[Agent of Dread]

Ohh, those are nice! I think you did a great job getting in all the small details of Sheik's outfit; I sure as hell don't do well fitting in that much stuff.

[penguinflyer2222]

Thanks; but at least your art is original, right? I usually just copy off official art.
Plus, yours is more polished (or actually finished, or whatever).
But anyway, maybe I'll post more stuff later.
...I kind of wonder if I should post stuff somewhere else, like deviantArt or something, but eh, whatever.
I'll just keep practicing.

[Agent of Dread]

I'm happy if you think my stuff looks polished! That's the kind of thing that naturally grows the more you draw, though.

I couldn't give a good assessment of deviantART since I haven't been active there in a great many years, but I imagine its core issue, being that all the feedback goes to the people who don't need it anyway, hasn't changed.
I post my stuff to Twitter & Facebook now, but those sites have a much more social structure which suits "growing a brand" more than growing in an art community, so they're certainly not for everyone. (And I wouldn't recommend Facebook anymore, since its algorithm seeks to tax businesses advertising there by throttling small, independent folks, for some reason... )
I've heard that Newgrounds is coming up as a very feedback & growth-oriented community, but that also means sharing space with a lot of adult content of varying tastefulness. I haven't been enticed enough to take that plunge.

But yeah, practice is the best thing for it. And I'm always happy to give pointers or anything if you want!