Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a fantastic musou game that sits down and really works on the Dynasty Warriors formula and I recommend it to anyone who played prior games, even if they were burned by DW9.

The story gets a proper dedicated focus instead of being relegated to mission and character cut-scenes, and works hard to tell the saga of the Downfall of the Han with a combination of historical accuracy, Romance of the Three Kingdoms embellishments, and Dynasty Warriors flair. Respect is shown to what were formally comic relief characters such as the tragedy of Zhang Jiao and the morph of Dong Zhuo into a truly menacing manipulator.

Gameplay is harder and no longer winnable by mashing X/Square. You need to combine light and heavy attacks, Battle Arts, blocking, dodging, and your Musou attacks (which now come close to being full screen wipes) in a far more skill-oriented system. There are less than ten weapons this time around, but each one has a massive moveset and all are completely differentiated from each other in style and gameplay.

Some things did miss the cut, like playing as historical characters instead of the new protag John Musou (who himself is probably the weakest part of the game), but the work done on the gameplay and story more than makes up for it.

@dvoraen AI is an interesting (read: frustrating) topic that comes up at my job quite often. I can usually sort those trying to get it brought in into one of two categories:

• A C-level exec that wants it so they can slap “Powered by AI” on the product.
• A stressed junior/mid developer who wants it to do their job for them.

Setting aside misunderstandings around what AI actually is, both of the above are fueled by a lack of comprehension of the problems they’re facing in their day-to-day life.

The C-level exec wants to sell and thinks a shiny sticker will do just that. But the issues with what we make (and there are always issues in product development, that is a fact of life) have nothing to do with a lack of AI, nor will adding AI provide any tangible benefit. Asking “how do you want to use it in the product” usually results in a blank stare and instructions to just get it done. The only success I’ve had at stopping the AI implementation bandwagon is telling C-level how much it costs to build, run, and maintain.

The biggest issue that I can go into specifics about is that implementing AI in the way our execs often ask will run us afoul of GDPR. Not might. Will. I cannot elaborate further.

For the dev, working under Infinite Crunch, they see an easy way to work faster and more efficiently. They don’t have the time to assess the code being produced by the AI let alone their own code in the grand ecosystem of the product as a whole. Ninety percent of the time, when a dev asks me for a copilot license, their code is actually pretty good. The problem is the gigantic tech debt and clashing design differences etc etc, stuff that needs to be solved by a manager wielding the Refactoring Mallet.

The manager, however, is usually too busy telling C-level how much AI integration costs to build, run, and maintain.

I sound sour about this, and I assure you, I absolutely am. AI is a scalpel being sold as a hammer, and the only people who stand to gain anything from AI implementations are the ones selling it to hapless C-level execs who don’t know better.

In conclusion, there is a detailed (and deliciously crude) blog post I often refer people to when the AI conversation comes up for the umpteenth time. At the very least it’s good for a laugh. https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/

@kalakh This is the variant I’ve seen

We were once told on AoA that we needed knowledge:Tatooine at 50 (out of 100 max) or greater to know what a Jawa is.

The great thing about broad strokes backgrounds (aka Schrodinger’s BG) is that you can fill things in retroactively as they arise in story. It also makes it much easier to write in the moment.

So go as vague as you like, justify the skills loosely, and fill in gaps before approval if staff asks for them.

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Have you actually talked to him about any of this? Like, directly? Casually?

Yeah, a few times way back if it came up while we were talking about other things. I’d get various permumtations of “I worked really hard”, or complete silence. I think silence was actually the best result I got, 'cause then I could fool myself into thinking he’d listened to me. Then… history would repeat, and eventually I just didn’t try.

Most of the time he’d built something no one wanted or cared about and then got upset because no one wanted or cared about it, because he never really looked at what his player-base wanted or cared about. Some form of coded space combat was requested for years, in that time there was an alcohol system, vendor randomisation/rarity, a hugely growing space grid that was never used, endless Mandalorian handouts, beskar, the time-skip, etc.

The first indication the grid would receive that he’d made something was when it was suddenly live.

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

The Naval Captain thing is open to anyone! No XP, Noms, or what-have-you required! You can also make a General or Wing Commander if you like! Just wanted to make sure people didn’t have that impression about it.

It is now, thanks to your actions. I don’t know whether or not you raised it as a concern to them, but I’m going to assume someone noticed and therefore the change was made. My point was the part before that, where another player took offense at you trying to play a character that could actually interact with the new system simply because you weren’t starting at zero. That’s never sat well with me and I saw it a scary number of times on that grid.

I can’t and won’t tell you what to do or what to think, that’d be disrespectful. I say the below because it’s what I experienced over eight years, and I got off pretty lightly compared to others. I will always do my best to provide clarity but with a disclaimer that I might not avoid bias, since I’m still a bit crispy from my time there.

Crap is being applied to the wargame system because it is another over-tuned Thing in a long line of additional over-tuned Things to be rolled out without any real consultation, consideration, or internal testing. This’ll be interesting to the player-base for about a month or so, then GMs will get either bored or frustrated and start doing it their own way.

Then the resultant hostility from Cujo will follow, because now he has been slighted by the ungrateful players that don’t want to use what he worked so hard to create. The issue with this is that he didn’t create it. Hadrix/Reverberate did. It follows his normal pattern of doing nothing until the demands are too loud to ignore.

It’s elicited a mass groan of “oh not again” because over the decade or so that a lot of us experienced AoA, the above happened time and time and time again.

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Someone disapproved of someone coming in without starting from the bottom of the ladder, and I was flabbergasted that they would care since the org had very little activity.

…yeah, that happens. You’ve encountered AoA’s tall poppy syndrome. If you try to rise up above the dinosaurs, you will be pulled back down unless you have powerful friends. The fact that you needed staff fiat to start in a position where you can actually play with this new system (which is otherwise locked only to dinosaurs) is both common and unfortunate.

Many players tried many years to inspire positive change only to run headlong into brick walls, to the point where the advice given to GMs was often “run what you want as long as Cujo doesn’t care”. Change must come from the top as well as the bottom to meet half-way, and the majority of the current staff are corrupt and disinterested in little more than their own egos. And that’s not even starting on the sex pest problem, which is the original impetus behind this whole thread in the first place.

I wish you the absolute best on that grid. I really do, and I say it genuinely, without a hint of sarcasm, condescension, or irony. Nobody should be forced to stew in negativity and I pray for your sake and the sake of all the other folk that came after us that you and they are allowed to play the game that you want. Never lose sight of what you want to do and strive to do it with the people you enjoy.

And good luck with Aryn.

It’s not just multiple alts, but those alts connected multiple times. For example, Sumi in the past used to connect all her alts from three-to-five different devices, meaning over a dozen connections from one player. That’s the number WHO looks at, and the number iberia.jdai.pt sees.

@MisterBoring this is the same game that made a DL-44 identical in stats to a DL-18.

Four uses of the term “meant to”. This is standard fare, Cujo creates a blueprint and with it, usually without communication, comes the expectation that blueprint is followed.

As is tradition.

@RightMeow said in MU Peeves Thread:

I miss RPing. I’ve filled my hours with other things, but I miss logging on and writing stories with people. I also miss the daily chatting with people I use to chat with about random stuff.

However, the idea of making a new character makes me feel like I don’t have the mental energy. Then I’m not sure how well my RP will be after the ‘break’ I’ve been on.

Anyways, in conclusion – if we’ve RPed at all, you’ve been on my mind and you rock - so thank you for writing stories with me.

I don’t post here very often, if ever, I’m mainly content to just lurk and read and keep up to date.

But this hit me like a brick.

I’ve got no game to play on right now and haven’t for over a year. Part of it is because I’m picky, another part is trust issues, and a third is a general lack of time. But every so often, at least twice a week, I think back and I miss logging on to a grid, seeing the familiar faces, and getting stuck into a bit of chaos.

I’m despondent that the last game that I invested a lot of time in went up in a sea of toxic flames, and I’m saddened by the lack of anything equivalent out there that’s similar in systems and size. I miss the people I don’t talk to anymore, and I miss playing in a codebase I understand.

I would love to find a game out there that fits my specific niche, but at this point I’d have to loosen my stifling standards and try something new.

I think I’ve been sitting on this for a long while, and I needed to let it out.

I’m gonna go out on a soon-to-be-removed limb and say Mortal Kombat 1 if he’s into fighting games. Plays like an absolute dream and looks amazing.

I’m pretty sure there’s some ancient BattleTech code sitting around out there. I stumbled across it… many many moons ago.

I was Nathaniel the priest/Paladin, with two scenes under my belt before the game went under.

Will there be a Demon: The Descent-style go loud option? I’m all for a sudden shift to horror as a mess of wings and eyes yells “BE NOT AFRAID”.

Imagine the need to experience sheer terror, but being unable to, because not doing so has been commanded of you.

I judge my neighbourhood’s lawns as I drive past.

@STD said in What original theme interests you?:

Not mentioned in the list, but damn would I like some kind of Spycraft MU. Everyone is an Agent or works for the Agency. More 1960s crazy mad science trying to take over the world with frickin’ mind control lasers than modern slick spy stuff.

I would be 100% down for a '60s-era pulpy spy thriller game. Lean hard on the zany concepts played totally seriously.

But then again I’d love a Danger 5 MUSH, so

@Mercutio The question was super-general, and the Graph DB issue is an interesting one. You could say the same thing about trying to code a near-MUD in Penn (what I’m doing). There are easy ways, but it’s the road you’ve taken, and I respect it a great deal.

Out of curiosity, why ArangoDB instead of something like MariaDB? Disregard, you’d have the same problems as MySQL if you went with MariaDB.

I should probably actually play the game, that way my “How did you do this?!” questions will make more sense lol

This entire concept around complex systems built in Penn that aren’t necessarily RP-inspired intrigues me, and not just because I’m doing the exact same thing. What are some of the coding/technical challenges you’ve come across?

It’s probably sad to note that the number has dropped over the years, especially as I join outwardly-promising games only to see what’s going on under the hood.

Of course, when the box is a lie and someone points it out, the general response is usually some variation of “Hey look, a scapegoat, let’s ban him!”

So it’s about a two. To the point where I explicitly don’t read the blurb anymore.