Peebles' Perfectly Pointless Popular Prattle - Random Banter #211

[Coidzor]

Eh, I've found leftover Easter candy in stores a week after the holiday.

Undiscounted? Or was Koorly's statement British for there no longer being any in the store because everyone had snarfled it up?

[AtlanteanTroll]

I just don't even have words. In prestigious college: need to be taught balanced approach and decision making being important.

Remember, my young Sheep, I love working my resume. Also, small chance that stuff would ever make it on to more than the resume I have with everything on it. (Working at McD's is on there, and I'll laugh my ass off it ever shows up on one of my applications.) I've got enough trouble keeping the most relevant work to a page.

I've spent a not inconsiderable amount of time figuring out how to pass off playing chess, spending all my time doing Gilbert & Sullivan, and even arranging forum meetups as CV-worthy things. All to do with being organised and working as a team but taking initiative where necessary.

I assume you've seen the little image about how to make a weekly D&D game resume appropriate?

Definitely. I was merely poking fun at how the most literal interpretation to me prehaps wasn't exactly what AT was aming for.

What Thufir said. Though I wouldn't all what I'm writing a CV, and neither would those looking to hire me.

[FinnLassie]

Me? Inactive? Nooooo, couldn't be...

Spending my winter holiday week sleeping on different sofas, and tonight I will be heading over to Glasgow... maybe for yet another sofa, or a nice guest bed... I dunno, randman is responsible for hosting me. I wish I was able to have a chill holiday, but that won't happen 'til Easter... or summer... or at all.

[LaZodiac]

Me? Inactive? Nooooo, couldn't be...

Spending my winter holiday week sleeping on different sofas, and tonight I will be heading over to Glasgow... maybe for yet another sofa, or a nice guest bed... I dunno, randman is responsible for hosting me. I wish I was able to have a chill holiday, but that won't happen 'til Easter... or summer... or at all.

Oof, that sounds rough. Have fun at Randman's though!

[Durkoala]

I'm still looking for music that gives off a feeling of saying farewell before a long (and possibly risky) journey, hint hint. I really want to get this finished; don't make me get out the guilt trip.

Yeah but I'm just nervous about it is all. I try to draw in like, Photoshop, but it never looks even remotely good. I don't even know where to start!

Draw on whatever you want! I'm partial to pencil and paper myself, but I'm having scanner issues atm. If you're looking for subjects, it's your project, you can just start out by copying things you like/hate (and doodling on them). It's a learn to draw thread: nobody's going to expect the Edge Chronicles or Where's Wally? levels of detail.

That's a fun mental image to imagine. For whatever reason, I imagine the sheep being tied to a balloon as well, and floating upward, restrained only by your string... I need to go to sleep. What kind of charities do you donate to?

Nah, we have to keep the sheep on the ground to attract the people with the money. While a floating sheep would get people's attention, a pettable sheep gets people to come up so you can shout about needing money at them.

The farm itself is a charity! We use money from people to keep things running, especially now that there's been government budget cuts.

I hate the smell of goats. And horses. Most farm animals, actually. Along with bad-smelling fish, those are my least favorite smells. I'd say that gasoline/petrol and vinegar are my favorites, which is weird, seeing as how many people dislike those smells.

Goats are not the sweetest-smelling of animals, but I like them anyway. I'm generally fine with horses and cows, provided that they're clean, but I'm with the majority on vinegar. Petrol is in between: it's exotic and oily, but also rather toxic, if that makes sense.

The worst animal smell is either a well-rotted muck heap or ducks, FYI.

Was the family alright? How did you capture her? I'm assuming you got her, and that there's no rogue pony roaming the streets of England.

The family were fine and, while the pony escaped from me, she was recaptured. She probably would have come back when she was hungry anyway, but there's a lot of things that could have happened in the meantime so the quicker we got her back, the better.

Who knew that cows are so smart? The people paid for the animals to get paid either way, and even if they didn't get to do it themselves, they still got to see something pretty cool, so at least they got something out of their investment.

Yeah, animals can be surprisingly clever... and also really dumb.

This story just convinced me that there needs to be a sitcom about the lives of British geeky farmers. Sorta like The Office, but on a farm. It even comes with its own laugh track!

Each episode would probably start with our most senior member (head of livestock) saying 'Did you see what the last picture on the farm facebook page got?'

For last april fools he put up a terribly photoshopped picture of hippos in the duckpond.

Agreed. I'd rather be likened to somebody busy with their work, even if they are a bit of a recluse, than be called a stupid yuppie.


I could imagine. Being responsible for so many animals probably requires as much mental fortitude as physical. I had a hard time taking care of goldfish and hamsters, so to have to do that but for many more, much harder to take care of animals... all I can say is that I respect you, Durkoala.

Does Yuppie mean something different in america? It sounds like the opposite of hillbilly to me.

Well, I'm just a voluntary farmhand. It's other people who have to do the complicated stuff.

[Teddy]

I'm still looking for music that gives off a feeling of saying farewell before a long (and possibly risky) journey, hint hint. I really want to get this finished; don't make me get out the guilt trip.

Hmm, I haven't exactly got the largest music collection, so I might not be able to dig up exactly what you're looking for, but it's an atmosphere which sounds like it should run tangental to some of the collection I'm trying to build, so I'll try.

Eyes Closing is normally put on my Tranquil Aftermath list for when I'm done with something exhausting and find myself in a sort of vacuum, but I guess it might catch the mood, at least if they consider the possibility that they're never going to see eachother again.

Idly listening through that album, I guess Men of Honor could work too, but the mid section might perhaps emphasise the adventure a little too much...

[Cuthalion]

It's a bit more complicated than that: I volunteer at a city farm one day of the week, but my actual current job is at a stables/riding school. Both places have been swamped with children/families because it's the half-term break this week. I generally like children older than four, but this has been just exhausting.

They're both pretty fun places most of the time, but there's a lot of manual labour, animal handling (general rule: small farm animals are better because they're easier to push about and store, small horses are worse because they're more agressive and harder to groom), dirty jobs, bad weather and hay/straw everywhere involved. If you can get past that it's very rewarding keeping the animals healthy. It's generally easier to form a close bond with horses, and you don't have to send them off to be slaughtered, but on the other hand, goats. and sheep, cows, ferrets, rabbits, beardies and tarantulas. They all have their quirks and the variety and randomness is a great part of farm work, unless several crisies happen at once.

The farm is where we've been trying to get the Pokémon Card match happening, because most of the staff there are massive geeks. I've never been so happy to have a terrible joke shot down with the phrase "<Durkoala>, no more physics jokes!", because they understood it.

Is that why you have animal pictures?

[Amidus Drexel]

Other replies possibly forthcoming. Honestly, I'm kinda busy right now.

I'm still looking for music that gives off a feeling of saying farewell before a long (and possibly risky) journey, hint hint. I really want to get this finished; don't make me get out the guilt trip.

Hm. Kinda hard to find one that really fits well where the farewell isn't explicitly for impending death instead of a journey. Unless you want those. I can probably find a couple dozen of those.

Here's what I could find by digging through my computer's library. I've got some more that are only tangentially related - if you want everything I can think of that's even close to being relevant I can do that too.
Achilles Last Stand - Led Zeppelin
The Czar - Mastodon

[FinnLassie]

Woo Glasgow.

Caffeine. Why did I have caffeine.

It's like 2am in Finland. I usually go to bed around 10pm there.

Only midnight here. Caffeine was a mistake. Can't fall out of sleeping schedule.

[LaZodiac]

Draw on whatever you want! I'm partial to pencil and paper myself, but I'm having scanner issues atm. If you're looking for subjects, it's your project, you can just start out by copying things you like/hate (and doodling on them). It's a learn to draw thread: nobody's going to expect the Edge Chronicles or Where's Wally? levels of detail.

Haha, very subtle Durkoala

Also for those curious, May 1st MARCH 1ST ZODI IS BAD AT MONTHS is probably when the next game thread is gonna start.

[Peebles]

Operation move into new apartment complete. Sleep time now. Or at the very least, moving fewer very heavy things up and down stairs time now. I'm past caffeine, maybe I'll hibernate for a few days.

On the upside, I'm already set up to the blocks complimentary wi-fi, so no need to sort out an internet provider. Well, I say free, part of the maintenance contract, but still nice not to have to bother. I can now concentrate on boxes.

And boxes.

Boxes.

Box....es...

Damn. You'd think after moving so many times I'd be used to unpacking and stuff. But nothing beats rummaging desperately through seven or eight boxes looking for a spoon.

[VincentTakeda]

I'm so used to having to move every year that I've stopped unpacking at all. I just have a henge full of boxes that follows me from place to place. I'd put them into storage but that also costs money and I dont want spiders and other buggies left to run rampant all over all my stuff unsupervised...

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I'm so used to having to move every year that I've stopped unpacking at all. I just have a henge full of boxes that follows me from place to place. I'd put them into storage but that also costs money and I dont want spiders and other buggies left to run rampant all over all my stuff unsupervised...

I know what you mean - in 10 years I've moved 11 times. Now that I'm married, the decade of moving should be abated. I hope...

[Peebles]

Seven times in eight years for me. It is kind of fun, but doesn't get any easier with practice. I'd be able to live out of boxes if I was a better, more organised packer, but I'm really not. Too much stuff, not enough time, and a generous sprinkling of can't be bothered to prepare properly.

On the upside I've uncovered my fruit teas, to go with my earlier found spoons. Now I just have to wash one of the two cups I've managed to find so far and we're go.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Yeah, I definitely get into the procrastinations swings as well. Except it's usually on or off. And very seldom forgetting, for better or worse...

I tend to have to do lots of little things at once, and in the kerfuffle things can slip the mind.

Don't worry, my charger lies on the floor under the radiator a metre to the left of me, and I always carry my camera in the belt.

Teddy: Scout extraordinaire. Then again, I'm about the same, my charger for the Zen rests on top of my Big Box of Who. And my currents reading books are under the bed.

As someone who has to deal with the whole brunt of problems caused by a lack of standards on a daily basis, I'll say no, we really don't.

Don't worry, they're not shoddy shortcuts, these are ones developed in a place where an error causes no problems whatsoever.
And shortcuts developed over time are usually okay.

Yeah. I bought a small bag of tea mix for its wonderful scent some days ago, but sadly, scent doesn't translate to flavour, so it'll probably take some time to get to the bottom of it...

What flavour?

It's not already on massive discount?

It's been over a week, though.

Discounts in the UK tend to be harder to get on seasonal stuff. They only put some of the Blatantly Christmas Fare up for discount a few weeks ago. It tends to be staggered discounting or not done at all.

Going along the Tyne would not be any part of a sensible journey home for me, unless I actually bought the chair somewhere on the quayside, and I don't think they sell chairs there.

Se-nse?
What is this 'sense' of which you speak? It sounds frightfully dull.

Everyone seemed to like it as far as I could tell. I certainly enjoyed it: the take was original and creative, it was well acted and well sung, with an assortment of truly amazing bits. And the bits I didn't like were all short, unless you count my show-wide frustration that the bar had been set so high for future directors since that might include me.
I'm not sure if it was as late as six, though it was probably around six by the time I got to sleep (I distinctly remember lying awake for a while overheating).
Yeah, an hour or so after I made that post and sent a message to the Yeomen directors telling them my favourite bits from the show I went to bed, and got up again a bit before 7pm to have dinner. Then went to bed again around 1am or so and got myself on an entirely sensible sleep pattern. Let's see if I can make it last more than a week.

Well elucidate, good fellow!
It might have been closer to six than not, but it was definitely quite late.
How's the sleep schedule going? Still 'sens-ible'?

I've spent a not inconsiderable amount of time figuring out how to pass off playing chess, spending all my time doing Gilbert & Sullivan, and even arranging forum meetups as CV-worthy things. All to do with being organised and working as a team but taking initiative where necessary.

How would one put organising meetups as a CV thing? Aside from bossiness?

An integral part of CV-writing is to make everything sound more impressive than it actually is.

Also known as: lying without telling an actual falsehood.

Me? Inactive? Nooooo, couldn't be...

Spending my winter holiday week sleeping on different sofas, and tonight I will be heading over to Glasgow... maybe for yet another sofa, or a nice guest bed... I dunno, randman is responsible for hosting me. I wish I was able to have a chill holiday, but that won't happen 'til Easter... or summer... or at all.

How long for?
Give randman my best.

Seven times in eight years for me. It is kind of fun, but doesn't get any easier with practice. I'd be able to live out of boxes if I was a better, more organised packer, but I'm really not. Too much stuff, not enough time, and a generous sprinkling of can't be bothered to prepare properly.

On the upside I've uncovered my fruit teas, to go with my earlier found spoons. Now I just have to wash one of the two cups I've managed to find so far and we're go.

The most moving I've done was from uni and back - and I didn't really bother unpacking during those times anyway. And it was annoying because the rules stipulated that you basically had to completely pack up during the holidays and bring it all home. Or keep it out of sight which usually meant shoving all the books in boxes under the bed and trying to find an out-of-the-way spot to shove most/all of your clothes away.
Well, that and we moved house when I was eight.
And all things going well, I should be moving more or less halfway around the world for a while by the end of summer.
But since uni I've been living out of one or two boxes and a suitcase, it's fairly easy to do really.

Ooh, which flavour tea?
I'm contemplating apple and pear tea myself. And buttermint. Never had apple tea, and I do like buttermint sweeties so I'm torn. Again.

[Peebles]

I've got apple and elderflower brewing, probably my favourite. Never had a pear fruit tea though, I don't branch out much from what I know I like.

Go for apple. Then mix the two. It may end up being a beautiful accident!

[CurlyKitGirl]

I've got apple and elderflower brewing, probably my favourite. Never had a pear fruit tea though, I don't branch out much from what I know I like.

Go for apple. Then mix the two. It may end up being a beautiful accident!

Never had apple and elderflower, what's it like? I'm often willing to try new things - okay no, I'm sometimes willing to try new things. As long as they're not expensive. And are food based. Or tea based.
Okay, mostly tea based.
And alcohol based.

I've had a few fruit teas with apple in them; apple and strawberry was it? And, of course, apple, vanilla and honey; but it's the pears that intrigue me. I'm not really a fan of pears in most cases, but apple and pear tea sounds like an interesting experiment. It has the potential to be quite autumnal.

EDIT:
Nice avvie by the way, did you draw it yourself or was it a commission? I can't see who drew it in your sig, so I'm curious.

[Durkoala]

First, thanks to everybody for the music. That's going to be a big help, as so far I've just been playing The Breaking of the Fellowship on repeat and trying not to think in terms of hobbits.

Hm. Kinda hard to find one that really fits well where the farewell isn't explicitly for impending death instead of a journey. Unless you want those. I can probably find a couple dozen of those.

Hmmm. It's a journey into the unknown with a high risk of death (in fact, much higher than is believed), so some of those may work as there is a feeling of possibly saying goodbye forever .

Is that why you have animal pictures?

Yes. It does mean that I've only a limited amount of animals to take pictures of (and most of the sheep look pretty similar), though, until we get some more.

Haha, very subtle Durkoala

Also for those curious, May 1st MARCH 1ST ZODI IS BAD AT MONTHS is probably when the next game thread is gonna start.

Honestly, Chris Riddell is a fantastic illustrator and I couldn't think of any anime or manga at the time, like Soul Eater. The early Edge Chronicles caught at my imagination like nothing (apart from China Mieville) has since, and it looks rather unpolished compared to his later work. I'll stop now, as it's very easy to oversell the series. Google image search Wyrmweald for some of his recent work with dragons.

Also, have a look at his political (and not so political) (actually, don't bother with the political ones. They're both out of date and make things look a lot gloomier. Still usually funny if you're in the right frame of mind, but it's best to stick with the sillier stuff) cartoons on his website: he's got a great sense of humour. Especially the Illustrations for Unwritten books.

[LaZodiac]

Honestly, Chris Riddell is a fantastic illustrator and I couldn't think of any anime or manga at the time, like Soul Eater. The early Edge Chronicles caught at my imagination like nothing (apart from China Mieville) has since, and it looks rather unpolished compared to his later work. I'll stop now, as it's very easy to oversell the series. Google image search Wyrmweald for some of his recent work with dragons.

Also, have a look at his political (and not so political) (actually, don't bother with the political ones. They're both out of date and make things look a lot gloomier. Still usually funny if you're in the right frame of mind, but it's best to stick with the sillier stuff) cartoons on his website: he's got a great sense of humour. Especially the Illustrations for Unwritten books.

Aaah, okay. I'll be sure to take a better look at all his stuff later.

[enderlord99]

Today, within a span of under forty minutes, I met two people for the first time, guessed the relationship between them was of the "friendzone" variety, and had my guess confirmed to be correct.

This despite my having terrible social skills.

Weird, right?

[HalfTangible]

I had an idea for a video game. It simultaneously sounds awesome and like something someone would try only if they were insane.

So... medieval strategy game, in the vein of Dark Crusade or Warcraft. instead of straight up factions like you'd find in traditional strategy games, you get three slots: Military, Technology, and Faith. Each would have a drop down menu that puts certain units and skills into your army. Military would select overall units, buildings and what you generally think of when you consider strategy game factions. Technology would determine your upgrades, overall aesthetic and your more advanced units. Faith would determine your magic units, hero units and possibly global abilities.

Example: Elite Military, with Air Technology, and Ice Goddess Faith. Your faction would have powerful units, but very few of them. They would be focused on air power, and their magics would slow enemies and cause damage and...

...Well, okay, it's a work in progress. The idea is that you can mix and match different slots to produce an entire faction that suits your particular playstyle. It'd be an absolute nightmare to balance (and program, and art, and the billion other things that go into a game) but I think it'd be interesting.

[Solse]

Alright, I finished my first character design for my video game. I'll post it soon. I've been experimenting with cel shading, and so far, it's been looking good! Now, I need to focus on redrawing the character in 3/4ths perspective, as that's how the character would look in the game itself. So far it's been good, but I need to work on the hair looking more like it did in the original drawing and on making the arms in the correct position.

Nah, we have to keep the sheep on the ground to attract the people with the money. While a floating sheep would get people's attention, a pettable sheep gets people to come up so you can shout about needing money at them.

Maybe you could only inflate the balloon *just* enough to let it hover above the ground, but not so much that it's not pettable. That'd be the perfect mix of attention drawing and pettability!

The farm itself is a charity! We use money from people to keep things running, especially now that there's been government budget cuts.

That's cool! Not the budget cuts, though. That sucks. Is your farm still faring well?

Goats are not the sweetest-smelling of animals, but I like them anyway. I'm generally fine with horses and cows, provided that they're clean, but I'm with the majority on vinegar. Petrol is in between: it's exotic and oily, but also rather toxic, if that makes sense.

The worst animal smell is either a well-rotted muck heap or ducks, FYI.

I dislike most animals', especially horses' smells, mainly because they all smell like "well-rotted muck heaps", in my opinion. Granted, if I spent more time around animals, I'd probably change that opinion, but I'm too grossed out by the smells to have the chance to change that opinion. Ducks aren't that bad, though maybe I've just forgotten what they've smelt like.

The family were fine and, while the pony escaped from me, she was recaptured. She probably would have come back when she was hungry anyway, but there's a lot of things that could have happened in the meantime so the quicker we got her back, the better.

That's all good all around. Also, I just noticed a weird quirk of the English language. When referring to groups of people, British English uses plural verbs, while American English uses singular. Now that I think about it, I've heard plural verbs for teams and ships' crews as well.

Yeah, animals can be surprisingly clever... and also really dumb.

One of my aforementioned hamsters was like that. Smart enough to escape, dumb enough to not realize the big picture -- that without our care, she'd die. I guess that's how animals are.

Each episode would probably start with our most senior member (head of livestock) saying 'Did you see what the last picture on the farm facebook page got?'

For last april fools he put up a terribly photoshopped picture of hippos in the duckpond.

Ooh, and then it would zoom in on the picture until it filled up the whole screen and then it would launch into the intro! This show writes itself!

Does Yuppie mean something different in america? It sounds like the opposite of hillbilly to me.

What do you mean it sounds like the opposite ... *looks up definition* ... weird. I thought it was hillbilly. I have no idea why I thought that. Creepy.

[Peebles]

Never had apple and elderflower, what's it like? I'm often willing to try new things - okay no, I'm sometimes willing to try new things. As long as they're not expensive. And are food based. Or tea based.
Okay, mostly tea based.
And alcohol based.

I've had a few fruit teas with apple in them; apple and strawberry was it? And, of course, apple, vanilla and honey; but it's the pears that intrigue me. I'm not really a fan of pears in most cases, but apple and pear tea sounds like an interesting experiment. It has the potential to be quite autumnal.

EDIT:
Nice avvie by the way, did you draw it yourself or was it a commission? I can't see who drew it in your sig, so I'm curious.

Apple and elderflower is pretty nice, makes it a bit richer and enhances the apple IMO. I've got apple and strawberry too, that's probably my favourite but I'm trying not to drink that all the time otherwise nothing else gets a look in.

In terms of alcohol I will try pretty much anything, though having tried chocolate beer I wished I'd drawn the line somewhere. At least now I now there is something in this world that is not improved by chocolate.

Yeah, I made the elf archer myself, though a few folks in Arts & Crafts suggested plenty of tweaks that have resulted in her looking halfway decent. I got fed up of waiting for someone to take up my request and decided to have a go myself.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I had an idea for a video game. It simultaneously sounds awesome and like something someone would try only if they were insane.

So... medieval strategy game, in the vein of Dark Crusade or Warcraft. instead of straight up factions like you'd find in traditional strategy games, you get three slots: Military, Technology, and Faith. Each would have a drop down menu that puts certain units and skills into your army. Military would select overall units, buildings and what you generally think of when you consider strategy game factions. Technology would determine your upgrades, overall aesthetic and your more advanced units. Faith would determine your magic units, hero units and possibly global abilities.

Example: Elite Military, with Air Technology, and Ice Goddess Faith. Your faction would have powerful units, but very few of them. They would be focused on air power, and their magics would slow enemies and cause damage and...

...Well, okay, it's a work in progress. The idea is that you can mix and match different slots to produce an entire faction that suits your particular playstyle. It'd be an absolute nightmare to balance (and program, and art, and the billion other things that go into a game) but I think it'd be interesting.

I'd play it.

[enderlord99]

The idea is that you can mix and match different slots to produce an entire faction that suits your particular playstyle. It'd be an absolute nightmare to balance (and program, and art, and the billion other things that go into a game) but I think it'd be interesting.

While I'm not sure, I believe that functionality is called "deckbuilding elements," even though it doesn't necessarily involve cards of any sort. Either way, it sounds pretty cool.

I also have an idea for a game, though I intend to be enigmatic about it for a while. Speaking of which, how does it make sense that people in games like Don't Starve know their own sanity level... wouldn't it make more sense if they couldn't judge that at all, and were poorer judges of their own wellness and hunger when it was (invisibly) lowered?

[Teddy]

I tend to have to do lots of little things at once, and in the kerfuffle things can slip the mind.

Yeah. I'm actually really easy to distract when I'm focused (contradictory, I know), so I tend to stay away from any small things which I could do...

Teddy: Scout extraordinaire. Then again, I'm about the same, my charger for the Zen rests on top of my Big Box of Who. And my currents reading books are under the bed.

It would probably make more sense if I told you to that that's where all the electrical cords from all the electronic apparatuses in that corner of the house converge, so it's just unplugged and swept off to the side when I'm not using it.

Don't worry, they're not shoddy shortcuts, these are ones developed in a place where an error causes no problems whatsoever.
And shortcuts developed over time are usually okay.

No, those are really the worst. Ugly hacks are plenty but short-lived, and everyone, really, agrees that they should be undone. Shortcuts developed over time become standards to some and conflicting with others, and will forever be the spark of eternal holy wars...

What flavour?

A few fruits and flowers. I can't remember which, though...

I had an idea for a video game. It simultaneously sounds awesome and like something someone would try only if they were insane.

So... medieval strategy game, in the vein of Dark Crusade or Warcraft. instead of straight up factions like you'd find in traditional strategy games, you get three slots: Military, Technology, and Faith. Each would have a drop down menu that puts certain units and skills into your army. Military would select overall units, buildings and what you generally think of when you consider strategy game factions. Technology would determine your upgrades, overall aesthetic and your more advanced units. Faith would determine your magic units, hero units and possibly global abilities.

Example: Elite Military, with Air Technology, and Ice Goddess Faith. Your faction would have powerful units, but very few of them. They would be focused on air power, and their magics would slow enemies and cause damage and...

...Well, okay, it's a work in progress. The idea is that you can mix and match different slots to produce an entire faction that suits your particular playstyle. It'd be an absolute nightmare to balance (and program, and art, and the billion other things that go into a game) but I think it'd be interesting.

Hmm, I think the hardest part in creating such a game will be to ensure that the different characteristics won't feel bland and generic. The different combinations must synergise with eachother in unique ways so that I won't have to feel like I've played everything after having tried out each characteristic once. Games which try this "build your own faction" approach often suffer from sacrificing the character of the faction without adding enough variance for the players to build their own.

While I'm not sure, I believe that functionality is called "deckbuilding elements," even though it doesn't necessarily involve cards of any sort. Either way, it sounds pretty cool.

Not quite, I think. Deckbuilding is more the concept of acquiring singular elements (often over time) to add to your faction, whereas this is more of a theme select...

I also have an idea for a game, though I intend to be enigmatic about it for a while. Speaking of which, how does it make sense that people in games like Don't Starve know their own sanity level... wouldn't it make more sense if they couldn't judge that at all, and were poorer judges of their own wellness and hunger when it was (invisibly) lowered?

Well, the reasons are often for a better gameplay. Consider it the same school of design as the one which decides that a bullet wound isn't immediately incapacitating unless it hits some form of body armour. There are a lot of players out there who enjoy realism on the form of low information feedback, but the body of players who don't vastly outnumber them.

ION:
I think one's concept of time and expected effort might be a bit skewed when leaving school at 01:30 is "a little late". But I must admit that it was nice to get a few hours of peace and quite for myself. Okay, perhaps not that much 'quiet', the electrical central in that room is really loud...

[enderlord99]

Y'know what? Screw being enigmatic!

Well, the reasons are often for a better gameplay. Consider it the same school of design as the one which decides that a bullet wound isn't immediately incapacitating unless it hits some form of body armour. There are a lot of players out there who enjoy realism on the form of low information feedback, but the body of players who don't vastly outnumber them.

The game I'm planning to make is a semi-hardcore first-person Roguelike. There will be seven different resource-stats to maintain, six of which (Mana, Life, Stamina, Food, Water, and Air) are displayed at all times in the form of bars on the HUD. The display-bars will not necessarily be completely accurate, however: they will deviate by a constantly-fluctuating amount that can be up to {[100%-(current_sanity/total_sanity)]/2} such that when your sanity's near-empty, the displays are near-useless, but when your sanity's completely and perfectly full, they're completely and perfectly accurate

The seventh resource-stat, Sanity, can only be (directly) viewed at all under special circumstances, such as while under the effects of very specific (and not particularly common) spells or items. In addition to the deviation on the other stats' displays, Sanity will affect view-distance, and a few other things.

[Teddy]

The game I'm planning to make is a semi-hardcore first-person Roguelike. There will be seven different resource-stats to maintain, six of which (Mana, Life, Stamina, Food, Water, and Air) are displayed at all times in the form of bars on the HUD. The display-bars will not necessarily be completely accurate, however: they will deviate by a constantly-fluctuating amount that can be up to {[100%-(current_sanity/total_sanity)]/2} such that when your sanity's near-empty, the displays are near-useless, but when your sanity's completely and perfectly full, they're completely and perfectly accurate

The seventh resource-stat, Sanity, can only be (directly) viewed at all under special circumstances, such as while under the effects of very specific (and not particularly common) spells or items. In addition to the deviation on the other stats' displays, Sanity will affect view-distance, and a few other things.

Could be interesting. Got any ideas for the gameplay too?

[enderlord99]

Could be interesting.

Thanks!

Got any ideas for the gameplay too?

I'm not sure what this question means (even though I feel like I should be) so I think I'll just say some more of the general ideas I have for the game, as well as expanding on the ones I already mentioned.

Spoiler: Details on the seven resource stats

Show

In addition to the effects mentioned earlier, lowered Sanity can create sounds of monsters that aren't even there, and make monsters that are there become silent. On top of that, when it reaches zero, your character goes completely stark-raving-mad and you get a game over.

Mana is purely a resource used for magic. It recovers more slowly the lower it is: the current mana available doubles every minute (over the course of that minute, and up to the value of your maximum mana)... meaning that a half-full mana meter will refill completely in one minute, but an empty one won't refill at all (not on its own, at least.)

Stamina affects speed, and can kill you of exhaustion if you run out completely. It uses the same recovery mechanic mana does, and is lowered by heavy exertion (including sprinting and lifting heavy things.)

Food and water both decrease at constant rates; water does so somewhat more quickly. If either is below one half, you do not regain stamina; if both are, you start losing stamina and sanity at a variable rate; the lower food is, the faster stamina lowers, and the lower water is, the faster sanity lowers. If one is completely empty, you also start losing life, rapidly; if both are, you die instantly.

Air runs out like food and water, but much faster; it only does so when you can't breathe, however. It recovers when you can breathe again, though at a constant rate, rather than the "doubling every minute" that stamina and mana do. If you run out, you die.

Life is self-explanatory: if you run out, you die. It does not recover automatically, and is generally the thing that's lowered by monsters' attacks (and other sources of injury.)

Another major element to the game will be a strange, ominous smoke that seems to sap the strength from people and drive them mad. Mechanical effects of standing in smoke, not counting the obscured vision and the lack of breath, are that stats regenerate slower and degrade faster, with the symptoms becoming more severe proportionate to the thickness of the smoke. Smoke can be dispersed by powerful magic, but only temporarily.

Further ideas are, of course, welcome.

[Thufir]

Well elucidate, good fellow!
It might have been closer to six than not, but it was definitely quite late.
How's the sleep schedule going? Still 'sens-ible'?

Elucidate on what exactly? What was good about it? What I didn't like? Why I'm bothered by the overly high bar? I mean, I could copy over what I sent to the directors for a start I suppose. It's been a while since anyone was actually interested in the details of shows I saw or performed who didn't also see them, I'm not used to it any more.

How would one put organising meetups as a CV thing? Aside from bossiness?

Scheduling, maybe some sort of liaising (as in like going between people and saying, "Hey, you guys both need to share a hotel room, share with each other"), maintaining records (Of people's games, dietary preferences etc), that sort of stuff.

Also known as: lying without telling an actual falsehood.

Also known as one of my most practiced skills. It's years since I told a direct lie; I just omit pertinent details if I want to avoid passing them on.