The Wyld Hunt

Said the Llama king, and a whole truckload of fun got on it's way.

Todays release, brought to you on Anathema's third anniversary, isn't as entertaining, but could prove somewhat useful at least.
I've fixed some bugs and added a new template (for Outcaste DBs - fittingly, as you'll see soon) and Onii has send over code for the Black and White Treatises. He's now working on stuff related to the equipment DB, in case you wonder.

Be advised that his code is mostly unchecked by yours truly, and that I preserve the right to remove it without further notice, possibly rendering parts of your character unsuitable for further use. Of course, I'll try to keep that from happening, but you never know.

Take care, everyone.
-Urs

Finally got the new release out of the door. Took me much longer than I wanted to, especially with the slew of identical bug reports that came in over the last few days. I hope things are fine now.

Not much to report, apart from that. Tried Vampire: DA once. Disliked. Ups and downs aplenty at work. I'm still not sure what to make of it. We'll see in due time, I guess.
What else? Ah! Final Fantasy XII is great fun, best FF game in ages... ever since... FF... VII? Nah, no heresy in this LJ, so it's VIII. IX sucked, X sucked, X-2 didn't quite qualify, and XI? What shall I say, I'm not the MMORPG type.
When I'm not playing or coding, I'm watching Spielberg's & Hanks' "Band of Brothers" these days. It's a WWII-themed show in the vein of Rome and Deadwood, and it's friggin Whoa!, especially for a war-nut like myself.

And I'd love to get my hands on Super Paper Mario, but there's a bug in the euro-release and I don't want to exchange my disc and all that.
-Urs

Dear audience,
I apologize for the ongoing silence.

Each minute I spend typing up posts is a minute I cannot spend coding, and given the amount of fun I'm having, it appears to be a minute wasted.

Thanks for your ongoing support
-Urs

Edited for clarity. I didn't mean to sound enigmatic or provoke questions, just to apologize for not keeping you informed.

I have recently noticed that, when I spend an extended amount of time with a fixed group of people, I invariable find someone who (I think) the group would be better off without. Or at least someone who (again, my thought) should strain to fit.

With a given group gathered, the person with whom I conflict the most - or maybe who is involved in most conflicts in total - is my odd man.
From that point onward, everything negative he or she might be involved in appears much more prominent to me, which leads to more (maybe silent, nonverbal) conflict, and finally to the inevitable clash, after which one of us will leave the group for good.

Let's assume I stay. If we define groups from their composition (as opposed to, say, their purpose), the group isn't the same anymore - it's a new group, which leads us back to the beginning: Soon enough, there will be another odd man...

Why is this, I ask myself? I believe that this perception is born from the conflict inherent in every social construct, minor as it may be, and my -possibly everyone's- pursuit of a conflict-free environment. That pursuit alone wouldn't be a problem, but with the pattern I perceive it leads to the ultimate in prevention: isolation.

I imagine this (or at least a very similar) pattern scales up to the largest groups and could be found even among nations.

Certainly, this is not limited to myself. Maybe some philosopher or psychologist has studied and written about it? Could there even be a name?

Or something like that. Just noticed that SF.net has is yearly awards up and running.
Do you think we deserve a honorable mention? Head right over to sf.net/projects/anathema, cast your vote and spread the word!

Heads up: There's a new release waiting. A detailed changelog is included, so I won't type it up once again. :)

Enjoy
-Urs

Some of you might remember, although it's been a while.

I promised to upload a guide on accessing the SVN repository to the website. Spurred by Clinton, whose  last name I unfortunately forgot and cannot look up here on my trusty laptop, I went ahead and did it.
Even more, he, without any background in software development, found the instructions to work, so they might actually make sense. They are up on the download section of the website. However, I suggest you take the disclaimer to heart.

What else is new? Thanks to Jontu's help, Immaculates are coming along fine. I hope to have even the Cheraki done for the next release, which might be ready as soon as next week. Some other interesting things are done, too, but I'll keep those to myself, lest the release announcement will bore you.

I wonder, and you might as well, why this post wound up here as well as in Malfeas. Simply put, I feel more at home here. Nice crowd and all that. (Now, huddle up everyone, winter is coming.)

Cool news:
I just learned that democritus6 got the top score on his final exam. Jubilations are in order.
*Straightens up* I salute you.

Emotional news:
I just found out that code can make me cry. I'm way too attached to this project.

Technical news:
I've achieved quite a bit over the last few days, consolidating and improving stuff all around the Charm Cascade controls.
democritus6, jontukontar, chrisvenus, thanks for your cool ideas.
Thanks as well to the crowd at ECR who made me act on them.

Today, we celebrate the release of Anathema 1.2.

*celebrates*

Maybe, we could also celebrate the newly created Anathema Livejournal Community, malfeas.

*celebrates*

And then, while we're at it, how about some more celebrations celebrating our intentions to open up the Charm system (and officially announce that it's possible what Jontu has done) and also make Anathema more customizable in the Character Template department come the next version.

*celebrates*

Now, off to bed everyone.

You might want to skip this post if you're not technically minded.
I've had a train right of thought about Charm costs.

Executive Summary: I believe to have solved the last nagging problem with Anathema's Charm format in shy of 3 hours. All that remains is proof by implementation.

A mostly unformatted braindump follows. C&C, please.

======

STREAMLINING THE CONTAINER ELEMENTS

* The <cost> element contains everything else. The distinction between <temporary> and <permanent> was more hindring than useful,
given that few permanent costs exist and the single common one (xp) is obviously permanent.
* If an expense (apart from XP) is permanent, we could model this by adding an attribute: loss=PERMANENT to the cost element in
question and have that attribute default to TEMPORARY if omitted.
* The <cost> is no longer mandatory. Omission denotes "none" instead of causing an exception.

JUST FOR YOUR INFORMATION: CORE ELEMENTS OF CURRENT FORMAT
<essence>  (which should really be called <motes>
<willpower>
<health> (can have an optional attribute type=(Lethal|Bashing|Aggravated))
<experience>

PROPOSED NEW FORMAT:
<cost type=XXX>
with possible types m, wp, lhl, bhl, ahl, xp. The abbreviations are straight from the 2e core rulebook,
but we could also use expanded forms like motes, willpower, lethal, bashing, aggravated, experience.
If the element is omitted, only one additional attribute "cost" is allowed. That attribute contains the
resource key of the text to be printed, e.g. <cost cost="PermanentStaminaPoint"/>

Types of cost entries:
FIX AMOUNT,                 5 motes
BASE AMOUNT,                 5 motes or more / 5+ motes (We should use this opportunity to unify the notation.)
LINEAR AMOUNT,                 5 motes per enemy
LINEAR AMOUNT/DICE,         1 mote per 3 dice
LINEAR AMOUNT/SUCCESSES,     2 motes per 1 success
FIX AMOUNT + LINEAR AMOUNT, 2 motes + 3 motes per arrow
ALTERNATIVE FIX AMOUNTS,     3 motes or 5 motes
FIX AMOUNT/TEXT,             1 mote to summon or banish
SPECIAL TEXT:                 Varies, Special, None  
COMPLEX TEXT,                 Depending on the mood of the Scarlet Empress' last mortal lover.


Points of note:
* Is there a point in having both Varies and Special, appart from their appearance in the various books?
Is there a case where Special just denotes "too complex to write in the header, but fixed nonetheless?
* COMPLEX TEXT is the format described above as using the <cost cost="XXX"/> format. Could be replaced by
Varies or Special, if desired.
* ADDITIONAL costs or ALTERNATIVE costs could be entered as compound elements <addition> <alternative> and
combined at runtime to give the human-readable text.
* Multiple cost types with the same linear factor, e.g. "1 mote per pot, 1 wp per pot, 1 l health per pot",
could be rendered as "(1 mote, 1wp, 1 health) per pot" and modeled via a combination element:
  <combination factor="pot">
    <cost type=motes amount=1>
    <cost type=wp amount=1>
    <cost type=lhl amount=1>
  </combination>

SIDE NOTE:
Do we still need the "exalt" attribute on top of every charm? For type specific charms, this is pure redundancy. as the charm file is registered for the type in question,
the information can be retrieved from other sources.
For MA charms, it is only used to determine the different looks styles. This is a non-
issue in 2E, where everything looks alike. In 1E, we could either duplicate the frames for the various types to achieve
independence from character types (and select the frame based on the Martial Arts-level)
or have the types rendered in a single type of (duplicated) frame. (Siddy, I presume, given their predisposition towards MAs).

jontukontar has gone to some length to document Anathema's charm format. His entry might be of interest for those longing for a more in-depth explanation.

This is an excerpt from my Google notebooks on Anathema:
"Dragon-Blooded: 
* Charms.
    Enter.
    Mind Special IDs. 
    Mind def. from anath. not alien. 146
* Templates
    Test.
    Enter."

And that's it. The preludes over, Charm system revised, Sheet done, Flaw ready. No more excuses.

I got half of the DB charms as a submission, so that's partially covered.

Since I intend to have the release ready the week past the Christian High Holy Day, I might settle for less than all templates and have them added via quick data packs later on. Same for the Immaculate MAs. That's excellent plugin stuff anyway, now that everyone knows how to create them.

Here's my current estimate: Release 1.2 "N... something" with Dynastic DBs and all core DB Charms is ready 15/04/07, shy over two months after the last release and still way short of the three months barrier, just as I hoped.

Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?
-Urs

For month, I've been talking about plugins here, but despite the cries for a plugin system that arose when the program was still in its infancy, noone hooked up and did something.

Until now. Anathema contributor jontukontar has started a small project, which will not only give you some additional Charms, but more importantly will document how to add Plugins to the program. His examples are all taken from Scroll of the Monk, so even the less technically inclined might find it worth their while to head over to him and grab his latest files.

Meanwhile, I spent some more time tweaking the Charm handling system and hope to finish it soon, finally leaving the stage of preparations for DB2. All that's left afterwards is entering data and testing, which, given my constant lack of spare time, will probably take most of April.

I did some coding over the week, to finally realize my vision of handling the aspect-dependent charms in DB2. It turned out to be quite cool, making the system more elegant than it was before. I found some problems with "Exclusive" MA-charms on the way and fixed them long before they could trouble anyone (well, actually it could. If you have an Eclipse Caste Solar with Terrestrial Hero Style learned, you may have noticed). Which lead me through some classes I hadn't visited in a 1000 revisions, with some pretty odd code.

And so refactoring began.

This weekend, I switched and turned and twisted the heck out of the way special charms (all those with more than a simple clickable frame) are handled, hiding their specialties and finally reaching a state where they are known to only a single class at all. I'm all bouncy about this, because the code is *THAT* cool, but most of you will probably only care for a collateral result that happened to pass along the way:
From now on, you won't notice a difference between special and standard Charms in the interface. Click a special Charm, and it's learned with a default setting (first effect/first dot), allowing you to skip past the details if you don't care.

I didn't intend this. Honestly. It just happened, making it even cooler.

Next: Character sheets for DB2.

I can't do Charms on weekdays, I've learned, and I am not sure whether I value my weekends more than some utopian promise I've made to an anonymous public. For now, I've uploaded the first data pack. It's just a single style (Falling Blossom) but it's a style more than you had before.

I'm open for suggestions as to the order of styles added, by the way, so if there's something pressing (which doesn't required coding), tell me.

Back in Karlsruhe for the weekend, and dead tired at that. Work is taxing, even more because there is a strong divergence between my preferred work hours and the core hours expected in the team. Which makes it quite easy to work overtime, but I could imagine better. I miss afternoons filled with fun.
Add in weekly travel and .. well, you Americans will probably laugh it off as a short trip, so never mind.

Cut to the chase: There won't be an update tomorrow. I've not finished setting up my computer in Berlin and thus done nothing over the last week. There are some pages of spells ready for release, but I'd like to have something more substantial. I hope to gather some more energy and get a little more organized starting Monday, so maybe I'll be able have something ready next time I post here.

We'll start another attempt with our on-off-campaign "whenever you're ready", and unfortunately, "you" in that case means "me". Gotta prepare stuff, and get the ball rolling. What's cool about it? There's a feature that's been on our minds for ages, and a recent talk revealed a more pressing need for it than I had expected.
All things considered, it should be easy (in fact I have it all laid out already), but I still have to take the first step.

I wonder whether I should visit Manowar's upcoming concert in Berlin. It's ten minutes walking distance from my flat, and I still love their music. Then again, it's loud and large and tiring as well, where I ache for silence and comfort and peace.

Gods.

Fun times, where art thou?

Making good progress on DBs lately. I believe to have all areas reconnoitered, and hope to have the sole remaining tricky one (those Charms I mentioned) done by the weekend.

Which is not my reason for posting.

I'm moving to Berlin, Germany, soon and am looking for a game. Any game, actually, doesn't have to be Exalted.
I've experience with most mainstream systems in their next-to-latest editions, and am eager to try several not-so-mainstream ones. In other words: If it's cool, I'm game.
I'll be in town from Monday to Thursday, and will play in either English or German.
If you know something or someone for me to contact, drop me a line, will ya'?

Edited, to prevent confusion: By 'game' I mean group, and by 'group' I mean a gathering of cool people to play with.
Edited, to prevent mockery: I'd love to play with people all around the world, but my time is limited and travelling beyond the Fringes of the Tapestry (to read: outside of greater Berlin) is not an option.

Thanks!
-Urs

It's up and hopefully running: Anathema 1.1.1.
I fixed the crap out of 1.1 to get things right. Let me know if I succeeded.

Those keeping track of such things might remember my promise to update Charms and stuff more frequently, so here's to you: Terrestrial Hero Style is included.

-Urs, out

You never felt so much negative power before/
when you discover the connection of money and war

Now, everyone, how about we open up our collective Manuals of Exalted Power: DB and rip out page 169? Yeah? Great. I love you all.
If you'd rather read your books than burn them (I don't have the exact quote from Indy III at the ready), look at Dragon-Claw Elemental Style and the order of learning defined. Is there precedent for this?
What's more - does anyone know which of the two Disarming Strike Pranae is the One True Disarming Strike Prana - the one from the DB book or the one from Scroll of the Monk?

Apart from that I'm coming along with the database problem, but I need to wait for some answers from the DB's developers.

and so I don't. Just have a look at our bug tracker, if you care.