+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Olympia Times times@olympia.rt.com |
| November 10, 1993 special edition |
| |
| alpha turn 48 "Long live Olympia" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Olympia II PBM
-= currently in alpha test =-
olympia@rt.com
* * * *
To stand up straight and tread the turning mill,
To lie flat and know nothing and be still,
Are the two trades of man; and which is worse
I know not, but I know that both are ill.
-- A.E. Housman
* * * *
I'm pleased to say that the alpha test has been running more smoothly
than I expected. Bugs are being found at a rate of about one per week,
and I hope to add some new features shortly. I have no plans to stop
the alpha test anytime soon.
It's reassuring to see that, even in its unfinished state, Oly II is
holding the interest of the playtesters. The Olympia I beta test ran
for 42 turns; Olympia II's is at 48 turns and counting.
What I'm thinking of changing:
o Olympia needs NPCs. I would like to have several NPC races,
each controlled by a player. The NPC races would have different
objectives than ordinary players. I have half of a prototype
Undead faction coded. Hopefully NPCs will add color to the game,
and more challenges for the players.
o Most of the players who commented on what I thought were
awkward quirks in the city/province tax base rules said,
"Leave it alone, it's not broken."
o The way production from mines changes with depth is a bit
strange. I would like to fix this without disturbing the
other features of mines which seem to work well (increasing
depth with mining activity, cave-ins, repair work).
o NP's pile up too quickly at the start of the game. It's a
no-brainer to oath-1 your nobles, no hard choices have to be
made about which advanced skills will be studied, and most
players can make more nobles than they care to control.
Proposed new system:
Beginning players start with 12 NP's.
New nobles always cost 1 NP -- no progressive cost.
Nobles can be reclaimed to get 1 NP back.
Players receive 1 NP every eight turns.
NP requirements for advanced skills remain unchanged.
New order scheduler written
---------------------------
Summary:
WAITs now complete as soon as their condition is satisfied.
New command precedence scheme should make order writing easier.
I have replaced the old, creaky Olympia order scheduler (with parts dating
back to the pre-Oly-I engine) with a shiny new DWIM module. As the order
scheduler tends to be involved with subtle synchronization bugs, be on the
lookout for problems over the next few turns.
Here are two problems the new scheduler will fix:
#1:
top: move xxxx
move yyyy
move zzzz
bot: unstack
recruit
Problem: bottom unit doesn't execute its unstack until the top
unit has carried it far away.
#2: 1: > wait condition
1: Wait finished: ...
2: > move
Problem: The wait command doesn't notice that the condition
has been satisfied until a whole day has passed. The command
following the wait always starts a day later, even if the condition
was satisfied in the zero time phase.
The new scheduler has a notion of command precedence which should eliminate
the need for WAIT TIME 0's in many cases.
I will be augmenting the rules to document these new features soon.
Here is a quick overview:
Each command has a priority of 1, 2 or 3.
All pure zero time commands*, and the WAIT command, are
priority 1.
The MOVE command is priority 2.
All other commands are priority 3.
* A pure zero time command is an order which always takes zero time.
This does not include an order which may sometimes take zero time.
For instance, UNSTACK is always a zero time order. However, RECRUIT
is not, even though RECRUIT may terminate immediately under some
conditions.
The order scheduler will first try to start priority 1 orders.
Only when no more priority 1 orders are ready to start will a
priority 2 order be started.
In other words, the order scheduler will not start an order at a
higher priority when an order may be started at a lower priority.
Orders at the same priority are resolved in location order, as
before.
How this is good
----------------
Consider three units stacked together, top, mid and bot:
top: move ec69
yew
mid: unstack
recruit
bot: recruit
These should be executed in the following order:
mid: unstack # unstack is prio-1
top: move ec69 # move is prio-2
mid: recruit # recruit is prio-3
[top and bot arrive at ec69]
top: yew # yew is prio-3
bot: recruit # recruit is prio-3
The UNSTACK happened first since it's a priority 1 command. The MOVE
went second. When top and bot finished moving, there were only priority
three commands left, so they ran in location order.
Hopefully some of you will understand this, and will help me to write
a clearer explanation. :-)
There were only a few submissions for the Times. We'll have to wait
for the beta test to have enough material to publish regularly.
ALL OLYMPIANS TAKE NOTE!!!!
Baron Blood been Bumming you Out?
Rich's Monster been mugging your best units?
Have no fear!
Roack's Rangers are currently available for whatever military needs
you may have in Greater and Lesser Atnos. We specialize in
providing quick response using elite guards and archers.
No job too big or small!!!!
Contact us through 3637@olympia.rt.com and let us rescue those who
may be prisoners. Extremely reasonable rates! Limited
Partnerships available upon approval! Sign up now before our
resources are booked!
Roack
Roack's Rangers
A corporate partnership.
*********Items Sought************
One of our order has just discovered the language of the Ancients
and is offering compensation for the knowledge to create empty scrolls.
Contact the Collective 568 if you have any information.....
Need something shipped far and near? Contact John [3500] and he
will see to it that you will get your goods and/or people to far
away places.
Ships leaving immediately for destinations in Greater and Lesser Atnos,
West Camaris, and Torba Bacor.
All places have been visited and some local information could also be
given on each place.
Trans-Sea Shipping,
John [3500]
Senior Captain......
Here one of the reports that I get:
Olympia turn 48 report for Gamemaster [200].
Season "Dark night", month 8, in the year 7.
Interesting attribute counts
----------------------------
char ability shroud: 0
char hinder meditate: 0
char project cast: 0
char quick cast: 0
loc shroud: 0
loc barrier: 0
Skill use counts:
-----------------
count who skill name
----- --- ----- ----
7 ??? 9141 Scry location
5 ??? 9101 Meditate
4 ??? 9529 Train wild horse to riding horse
4 ??? 9530 Train wild horse to warmount
4 ??? 9564 Mine gold
3 ??? 9563 Mine iron
2 ??? 9115 Detect gates
1 ??? 9116 Jump through gate
1 ??? 9117 Seal gate
finished unfinished
+----------------------
galley | 13 1
roundship | 9 0
tower | 11 2
castle | 3 2
mine | 7 1
inn | 2 0
temple | 0 0
nobles region
------ ------
135 Lesser Atnos
31 West Camaris
31 Greater Atnos
8 Atnos Sea
6 Charrick Island
6 South Sea
4 Torba Bacor
2 Areth Lorbin
2 East Camaris
1 Merinth
1 Gulf of Broen
1 Pentaria
======
228
12/240 gates found (5%)
570/7356 provinces visited (7%)
296/2750 sublocs visited (10%)
55% visible, 44% hidden
45% of visisted province's sublocs found
60% visible, 39% hidden
228 chars: 190 oath (83%), 10 fear (4%), 18 contract (7%), 10 unsworn (4%)
Comments:
---------
1. The balance between the large roundships and the cheap galleys
appears to working. One ship isn't completely favored over
the other.
2. The only structure which may have problems is the inn.
Still, with its limited usefulness, it's good to see that
at least a couple were built. Temples don't count since
they're a hook for the as-yet unimplemented religion system.
I've heard that castles may be too expensive, but the stats
show that there's at least a few players with the resources
to build them.
3. After 48 turns, only 7% of the world has been seen. The
giant map is working. :-)
Another good sign is that less than half of the features
available within provinces have been explored.
4. Oath loyalty is overwhelmingly favored over fear and contract.
I attribute this to NP's being too plentiful. Hopefully
restricting NP's will non-oath loyalties more attractive.
5. The number of gates found is wrong. From the reports I've
had, the Gatecraft subsystem appears to be very popular.
6. It looks like the rest of the magic system is being ignored, however.
(Note the lack of anyone using any of the features represented in the
"Interesting attribute count" section. No personal or location shrouds
or barriers are in use. I will need to find ways to make these other
magical schools more appealing.
Current player list:
num faction idle
--- ------- ----
301 Undead kingdom 48
Rich Skrenta
418 Kine
Joshua Kronengold
419 Runelords of the Blood Mo
John Dolan
448 Grey Tazmanians 1
John R Carr
464 Master Bogomil's Family
Jim DeGon
472 The Tripartite Council
Montgomery Box
551 Iconia
Jay Heyman
568 The Collective
Allan Flanagan
592 Roack's Rangers
W. Erik Bruvold
656 Blue
Bill Lee
660 Silverhorn
Harold C. Payson
679 Mercia
Christopher M. Yearsley
681 Curumo
John Sloan
778 The House of Blood
Charles E. Craig
815 Team One
Stephen Kirby
816 Oleg's Orangutans
Greg Lindahl
827 The Northern explorers 1
Thomas Hansson
869 Champions Eternal
David S. Kerven
895 The Silver Daggers
Brevan Miles
900 Morgan's Riders
Scott D. Cate
