The Character Manager core engine is still in QC but in the meantime I've been fine-tuning it and continuing to work with other GameMasters with implementing it into their scripts. I intend to spend the rest of the week seeing how it will tie into the actual Character Manager system but first I need to finish adding all the new options for all the features and making sure they look okay in a player's LOOK description.

I'm also looking at DIRections for Alexandria and Gamlebyen. Oddly, I had these done 4 ½ years ago but I don't know if they were tested and QCed so they were never released for some reason! With the update to Alexandria I need to review them to make sure they're correct anyway.

I'm also working on updating the website with RSS news feeds and XML data with a brand new domain name. I will be redirecting you to the new website once it's been properly set up so be prepared to reset your bookmarks.

Eeeps! I neglected to keep things up to date each week so be prepared for quite a bit of news.

First of all, there was a good deal of discussion over the potential addition of a Blood-loss system being added to combat. One of the things we insisted on the developers doing was to gather feedback before coding began. I added a survey item (type SURVEY 8 in-game) for feedback and wanted to thank players for responding. We also added some info about the changes to the forums and would love to hear details from those who have questions about it!

Now I know that somewhere amid my ramblings I made players a promise to get the Character Manager updates finished by March. I guess I missed that deadline but I'm relieved to say that the core engine is being entered into QC right now! I had the chance to help a couple of our GameMasters with specifics of its various features and so far the feedback has been fairly positive. That's more than what I could have hoped for so I'm fairly happy with things so far.

After the core engine gets through QC then I can start tweaking what might be hundreds of scripts within the game to use the new feature system and to tie it directly into the New Character and Reallocation scripts.

This week I hope to add in a small tweak to combat to allow more than one hand-worn brawling weapon at a time. I've QCed a couple of new Ambush combos for Leonius and he has 4 more in QC already now that he's getting used to them do I'll also be taking a look at those.

The phrase "concept overload" has been slam-dancing through my mind as I negotiated all the functions and subroutines that govern the Character Manager and the player Feature system. The sheer amount of data and coding involved had me curled up in a corner of my room in a fetal position for most of last night. I curiously took a peek at the definition of "concept overload" on the web and found an interesting ancient link to Tamboura's Sanctuary.

Today I re-addressed the testing which had not been proven successful initially and finally negotiated my way through the new subroutines until I got it working. I congratulated myself by taking a moment to QC weather for Midgard and Egypt, which is a break compared to the complexity of the scripts I had been working on. More tweaking and testing is needed though.

I mentioned on January 20th that I had a list of 12 points to address before I'll call the Character Manager "done". This week I crossed off 5 1/2 of those which was a huge task! I still have some testing to do on the 5 points I updated though. For all I know the changes I made could require days of troubleshooting.
I also did some QC work (gold panning was released and the TIME verb was tweaked a smidge) and polished up work on the Mentor Cupid's Day event which is ready to roll on the 17th. This week I'll be testing the changes I made so far and if all goes well then I'll move on to some of the more frivolous tweaks that need to be made.

I'm currently struggling to establish a usable way for GameMasters to mark how and if an option should be displayed. Some options are QCed and some are not. Some are permanently deleted. Some are for use in the Character Manager and some are only usable in combination with certain spells or alchemy formulas. Some are only approved for use by GameHosts and/or GameMasters. Some might only be allowed for premium account members. I hope to answer how to do this and code it within the next few days. I also hope for world peace but only time will tell if either comes to fruition!

So I took it easy last week. I wrote out a list of exactly what needs to be added to the Character Manager so that I don't overlook anything.

This week I worked on the part of the system that sets the default values for the different races. It was an ugly mess thanks to a decision I made early on involving the structure of the system, but I entrenched myself and got it done. I also altered one of my earlier plans on differentiating player-accessible features and Staff-only features as well as features that are or aren't available within the Character Manager. This means I have to go through all 9 1000+ line long scripts and make sure the validation tests are updated. I still have 12 points to address before I'll call it "done".

I spoke to Jubalee tonight about some of the Character Manager issues. She helped me come up with the best solution possible and now I'm ready to code them up. I'm also going to be calling on other GMs to help enter all the options of all the Character Manager's features. This will leave me to focus on coding and getting the system finalized.

I also built a small area and scripted several items for the Mentor Cupid's Day event. I expect to be getting some final item requests from the mentors before the end of this week so those will need to be added before I submit everything for QC.
I've also been doing clean-up around our properties after the ice storm 2 weeks ago. Many trees were down, several of which were completely uprooted and my body is aching from all of the chainsawing and wood removal. I got half the property done today but was so worn out I crashed in the afternoon and didn't wake up until dark. Time for a small break!

I hope everyone had pleasant holidays! I personally had visits to relatives, a dinner party and the whole shebang.

I managed to start integration of the Character Manager core system into player usage scripts between all the holiday hubub going on this past week. It's been slow going since I'm uncovering issues I hadn't foreseen ahead of time. Those issues are being resolved but they do slow me down.

I also managed the end of the Solstice Tree Contest and made plans for an upcoming Mentor event for Cupid's Day. I've also been asked to help design a website for a small business so there's been a lot of study into the latest website design techniques and philosophies as well as researching my customer's options on the best web host for his needs.

This week I hope to begin testing the use of the new player features on myself. I don't expect it to be quite ready for testing but I want to be sure that the theory and core of the system works before I fine tune it.

I've been watching the progress on the Solstice Tree Contest for some time now. It seems that so far we have one clear leader in the field! The other contenders are pretty much tied for second place with few trees actually located. Maybe they're waiting to pounce on their guesses and steal all the glory?

Last week was from Tartarus. The ice storm in the northeastern USA hit my home and power was out for 2 1/2 days straight, leaving me with no electricity and no drinking water. Power came back on for some of Tuesday night but was taken back down while they worked on restoring power to other homes nearby.

The good news is that this gave me time to plot and plan the next phase of the Character Manager. In the past couple of weeks I completed the core of the system (and there was much rejoicing.) So this time out of the game was used to ponder and outline what needed to be done to integrate it all into the player-character systems. So far this week I've been testing the use of a rarely utilized and mostly misunderstood coding command that I'll be needing for the Character Manager. GM Bontinor was up with me holding my hand through my initial scripting attempts until 3am last night but in the end I think we beat the code into submission.

Since this is the holiday weekend coming up I'm preparing for other New Years change-over stuff before going away from Monday untl Wednesday or so to see family. Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

So far this has been a productive week although things took longer than I had hoped. The Solstice Tree Contest was started with a lot of last minute entries that needed to be QCed and it took me nearly all week to hammer out three scripted prizes for it and to test the items before putting them into QC.

I also did some work in preparation for another upcoming mentor solstice event which further delayed me by a day but was sorely needed for the event and gave me the chance to work out some problems with one of their systems.

The past couple of weeks have been about preparing for the holidays. I've been pushing players to enter the Mentor Solstice Tree Contest and have QCed the entries for the start of the contest tomorrow including work on the prizes for the winners.

As you can see, I've also made extensive updates to the website design as well as having helped a smidgen with items for the Gods Fair. This week I intend to finish up on the prizes for the contest and get back to work on the Character Manager updates.

I've been anticipating the busy schedule of the upcoming holiday season which involved creating and troubleshooting a PHP SQL-driven website for my family to organize our Christmas gift lists. I also reviewed the code for the Mentor Solstice Tree Contest and made sure it was ready to go for this year's contest. Players who give a tree description can now name their trees something other than just "a SomethingOrOther tree". It's possible that I might add optional room atmosphere messaging to give the trees even more flavor sometime soon. See NEWS 29 in game for more details.

It was a busy week, but a productive one! The mentors had their All Hallow's Eve event with which I helped. There was some personal business too but between that and Halloween I managed to virtually complete the GM side of the new Features system for the GMs. I still need to add some usability features and to to do some thorough testing but this has been a productive step in its development.

I took a break for a few days and just as I went to get back to work - BAM! My Operating System crashed followed by a request for reactivation. I won't point fingers, mainly because I'm sick of pointing my finger at this OS but you can guess which it is. It took two days of re-installing over a dozen times and making several recommended fixes to get it working again. The good news is that in the meantime Comcast updated their web pages although using their blog system might not be an option. Further research is needed.
For now I'm back to working on the Character Manager.

I've been playing around with my site menus, trying to get a system that was easy to update and cross-browser independent. In the meantime my ISP (Comcast) will be adding blog functionality to their web pages so these news items will become a part of that system once it's functional. Expect the link to the Character Manager page to be working by tonight!

My last project was to release the Smelting craft which can be used in the Plataea area.  Some initial issues have been resolved thanks to Quinlax's feedback and similar feedback from GameHost Voogie.  See the in-game NEWS 21 for notes about the release.
The support scripts for the upcoming role-playing event that I spoke of last week are in QC and I've moved on to working on the new Character Manager system.  The goal of the new system is to make the creation of new characters easier for new players and to help ease any confusion about in-game commands and the effects of their choices in the Mangler.  It will also attempt to enhance character appearance and will require a free mini reallocation of appearance choices for all characters which will give you a taste of the changes and hopefully some enjoyable features that were not available before.