Blackberries

Blackberry, a word with multiple meanings in the current day world. Sadly the better one is slightly forgotten, but as it happens these puppies grow by the thousands near where I live.

It was weekend, the sun was up, I needed something tasty and healthy for dessert. So heck, grab a long stick (broomstick) and hammer a decent size nail or two into it. Grab a bucket or leftover ice cream container and you're good to go!

It took just 15 minutes and a few scratches along my arms. (These are the wild and thorny kind unfortunately) But either way, these little suckers had a date with my blender today.

Now, since I had a ton of these things we're going to be making something interesting with them. First of all Smoothies! And secondly, some syrup which will go nicely on some vanilla ice cream later tonight. You know you want to try it, and you know you won't be getting any from me. So be prepared to pick and make your own ;)

Preparation

Before starting it should be said that you need to wear your finest white shirt for this, and preferably need to wear it tomorrow. Blackberries are notoriously colorful and the effect on your shirt will surely impress everyone you know for many weeks to come!

Step 1 should be obvious to everyone but it still pays to explain why it's here. I just picked a whole bunch of fruit from the (cough) wild and unspoiled countryside. (Or rather a big bush near a bicycle path) There will be spiders, bugs, snails, and birds all over and who knows what they did on or near the berries.

While picking it's important to leave behind the obviously bad ones, e.g. green, red, purple and furry shriveled ones. The juicy black ones you end up taking home will on occassion have a red in there, just pick out that tiny grain of red or white as it'll be sour and will increase the acidity of your end result. Pick out and clean up to improve the quality of the end result and dump them into a sifter of some form or another then splash with plenty of water. I'd recommend not using the direct water from the tap but instead have the water hit like a lid and then use that to direct the water onto the berries. This way you'll prevent crushing the berries and spilling some of the juice you want.


In case you were wondering, step 1 was "wash those things", because they are dirty.


Step 2 is abusing them to death, and in case you were wondering, does it blend? Yes it does.

Blend them for a minute or two (depending on your blender) until you get a nice consistent and very colorful slurry. In case you are tempted to add sugar at this point already - don't. You'll lose some of the sugar in step 3 otherwise.


Obviously I'm not intentionally advertising either Princess or Ola in this picture on the right, since they aren't paying me for writing this. Unfortunately... But I'm too lazy to blur out their icons. If that's a problem for anyone - just don't click the picture, hah!

Step 3 is optional, though I recommend doing it since drinking the juice like this is going to have the effect of you eating as many berries "and seeds". The homan body is not capable of processing seeds, at all. Meaning you'll get constipated like something bad if you plan to make a habbit of this, or eat a lof of them in a short period of time. To fix this potential problem you need to find an empty pot and a sifter with small holes. If you don't have a sifter then an old rag (clean and washed obviously) will do the trick as well. Keep scraping the seeds from the bottom using a spoon to ensure the liquid can keep flowing. Lightly tap the sifter on the sides of the pan/pot or your knuckles to speed up the draining process. The leftover goo can be thrown away, or used to take revenge on someone with a lovely white shirt.

Now comes the interesting part. What do you want to make from the filtered slurry? For now I'll give you two options, though a little creativity goes a long way. I'm sure somebody will figure out a way to mix this into a cake somehow.

Step 4 should be done a.s.a.p. because you'll spend most of the day cleaning after yourself otherwise. Rince everything you don't need anymore with water, or at least put water into it. If fruit juice dries up it gets remarkably hard to remove.

Blackberry Smoothy

Hot weather makes sure that ice cream is more tasty than in winter. Strange no? At any rate (Again, ignore the Ola brand logo on the right, it has nothing to do with me not getting paid to write this, but everything with me being lazy about editing images.) you simply put the mixture back into the blender (I recommend rinsing it with water first to get rid of any leftover seeds) and then adding a good few scoops of vanilla ice cream. Or even strawberry ice cream if you feel like mixing up some flavours.

Alternatively a good bunch of plain water ice cubes from your own freezer and some milk will do the trick as well and is generally the healthier option. If you dislike sour, you shouldn't be eating these berries to begin with, but to soften the bite you can add sugar to improve the taste to your liking. Simply blend the ingredients some more and you'll have 3-4 nice and cold, refreshing blackberry smoothies!

Blackberry Syrup

Ice cream can be eaten in many ways, but syrup can also be used in many ways. Put it on ice, put it on pancakes, mix it with a smoothy. The preparation steps are still similar, but as you may know, syrup has a much higher viscosity level than plain blended juice. The easiest way to achieve this will be to evaporate the water and adding sugar. A lot of sugar. In this case I'm using cane sugar, but powdered sugar or regular sugar will do the trick. Just add as much as you feel will dissolve, but not so much that your teeth will drop from your mouth on drinking a few spoons.

Heating up the mixture will ensure the sugar will dissolve more easily into the juice, with the added benefit of pasteurizing the mix. In other words, you'll kill most bacteria that might still have been in there, and ensure the resulting syrup should have a long life in your fridge to be used for many weeks to come. You'll need to do this on a low fire for at least half an hour, while stirring. I hope you got some music to listen to meanwhile.

A low simmering fire is key here. Much as you might be tempted to do so, you do NOT want a big bubbling mass of red dye all over your kitchen. Just go with "bubbles are bad", "steam is good" and keep stirring that spoon all the while to ensure the bottom doesn't turn to caramel. As long as you see steam coming up, that means water is evaporating and the juice is getting thicker. Be sure to scrape the sides into the mixture so and then before it cakes there permanently.

Near the end the amount of steam should be getting less and less, thats the time you want to turn off the fire and move the mixture into a glass bowl and leave it there. As it cools down the viscosity should improve a bit further. Once it's cooled down enough, put some foil over the top and put it into the fridge.

If you've left it there a while it's quite likely you'll end up with a skin on top. Or simply put "jelly". You can mix this into the cooled down syrup with a fork or re-heat it before using to melt the skin. At any rate, you're pretty much set to use the result as you see fit.

Note that while this example was made using blackberries, you can use try doing this with cherries, strawberries, redberries, raspberries, cranberries or even oranges if you so feel like it. The process is mostly the same. Blend, filter, add sugar and evaporate water.

On closing I'd like to leave you with this image of the end result.

Burning down the house

I have no idea how the following french restaurant can be as dense as they are, but 'lo and behold, they managed to go ahead and surprise me.

According to this article, a fellow (food) blogger was dragged to court for posting a "negative comment" about a place she had dinner. REALLY now France? What the flying hoohoo is up with that?

The restaurant in question is called "Il Giardino brasserie in Lège-Cap-Ferret". If you feel like googling them and adding a nice little review of your own to the growing list of 1 star reviews, feel free! You are entitled to your opinion after all. Freedom of speech,. or as I like to call it, adding your stone in the bucket they tied onto their own legs before jumping in the river.

Some snippets from the reviews so far, I think these people worded it pretty well.

- When someone posts on the Internet that they had a horrific experience, they end up in court. Should you spend a few bucks in a good dinner, go somewhere else. The boss sued a critic. Please avoid this place at any costs.

- Restaurant is terrible, if you go there and have a bad experience be ready to be sued if you decide to post it online. Avoid this restaurant all together as they are contributing to the censorship of the internet, and going against everyone's right to Freedom of Speech. Bet their food is terrible anyways...

- If I could give less than 1 star I would, it's hard to believe there's anythign about this place that's worse than the food but the atmosphere takes that prize, it feels like you're an extra in an Orwellian world nothing can be less than double-plus good or the owner comes out and throws a hissy fit before taking you to court.

- Worst restaurant ever, cause the owner doesn't know the Streisand effect and created a court rule against the freedom of speech. There isn't much with a taste more disgusting that this.

The Streisand Effect

What IS the streisand effect you may ask,  well, wonder no more, as wikipedia explains all very well: 
- The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.

And, that is exactly what they managed to do by dragging her to court. Supid, and unforgivable. It needs to be punished obviously. They want a streisand effect, they can have one.

Funny enough, you'd think people know about this thing by now? Megaupload, The Pirate Bay, Nabster. All sites that have grown big and wide (though not all are still around) thanks to being dragged to court, or put behind a censorship filter. And the days and weeks after each attempt to block or censor them, you'll notice a huge increase in traffing in their google trend. Again and again. The internet is a funny place.

So, what did they actually write about this restaurant in question? Well, you can probably find the edited version on the blog in question, but the juicy bits will be gone thanks to the idiot judge, or restaurant owner depending on your point of view. Aside that, it's in French, xD Though I guess you can use google translate.

Some snippets I managed to find (google translated so,. weird), it's a very neat review, no sweating, just critical:

- When we arrived, the first waiter asked, logically, if we wanted to eat outside or outside, and as there was a lot of wind, we opted for inside, and so went we install a table. Immediately, a harpy in fluorescent jacket on the coat stares us to scold to move us without authorization (while, and one, we had one, authorization, and two ... I do not yell at me too by servers in general - per person, however, but at least when I'm the customer). In short, it does not start very well, but the misunderstanding up, it slips through our menus. And the first fatal error which will result everything else: it does not ask us, as is the custom, if we want a drink. However, an appetizer, we wanted one (as very few customers obviously, but still, it is our right anyway). Comes a second waitress who took our order, but always ask us if we wanted a drink (logic: his colleague was supposed to have done), we are therefore obliged to ask (we wanted).

- And it continues. While we drank comes the boss, unfriendly despite what she will say well (next to the Café Marly servers deserve the Palme d'Or of courtesy), just tell us to let us know when we want our dishes because they already come to throw a steak and that if it should last 1/2 hour in our history, it would be nice to say. We try to explain our concern, and to point out that, for us and for many years, is the source of the problem in many restaurants that servers have more tables and FHLMC they vadrouillent in the wind, so it is no longer any order and reigns utter disorganization.

- Conclusion? A restaurant where we will go over because the boss thinks he's a diva (although, seriously, it is not the owner of Chez Hortense, either), one of the waitresses would be well advised never to work in London because it is not likely to be able to live his tips, and we care about the customer and the business sense is approximate. I urge you to note your blacklist if you're in the neighborhood!

Burning the place down

In short, they went in and got asked if they wanted to sit inside or outside, got yelled at by a waiter. Didn't get asked for what drinks, get yelled at by the manager, get bad pizza, and left a bad review. Hardly a reason for any restaurant to drag someone to court I'd say!

Freedom is a right near every person in Europe and America has, and should be entitled to. Now, in the past it's shown and needs to be noted that while you have a freedom of speech most websites are privately owned and your comment may be removed on certain forums - as is their right. But, on your own blog - that's mostly your own domain.

So, show your support and add a nice destructive review to the restaurant in question:
- "Il Giardino brasserie in Lège-Cap-Ferret"
Or drop by the blog in question and add your support
- Les Chroniques Culturelles.
- The original blog post (in French, so use google translate).

One for bonus points: Here's another blogger's view on the matter.
And Tweakers.net (Dutch). Another bonus

Monday Music

It's monday, that's no excuse for music, but neither is it an excuse NOT to post music!
So there!
 Racing games nowadays are a lot more realistic than they were back then, easier to control as well. Left, Right, Gas - That's it. Some had guns obviously (death rally ho!) but the simplistic controls meant that any tool could learn to control the thing in a few minutes. Nowadays, launch up anything as simple as Mario Kart and it'll take you ages to really get the hang of.

Let's kick it off today with some good old classic game tunes.

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (Amiga):



Just because I can, Lotus 2 as well:


One two, THREE! This is a remix, but good in it's own right:


Let's stay in the theme of racing music a bit longer.
Super Cars 2:


Off the racing games and into the best R-Type clone/remake you'll find to this date.
Project-X:


Side scrollers are nice, Xenon 2 is also among the "list of stuff you should know":


One more V-Scroller, Battle Squadron:

Candied Cinnamon Apple Chips

And now for something completely different.

Home made "Candied Cinnamon Apple Chips"

You have a craving for something to snack on and have a giant stash of potatoe chips in the cupboard, as well as two apples. A moral dilemma. Apples are healthy, chips are not. What will you grab? Mind, though apples are "healthy", most contain an average of about 19 grams of sugar.

At any rate, instead of defaulting to opening a bag of chips full of fat, let's bake some apples. (And we'll add a ton of sugar to make them just as bad if not worse, but at least twice as tasty!)

Apple chips are surprisingly easy to make, though they do cost some time.
I assure you it's well worth the wait though.

Ingredients

* 1-2 Apples (Any brand)
* Cinnamon (Optional, but very tasty)
* Powdered Sugar (Optional)

Tools

* Apple drill
* Thin slicer or potatoe knife
* Oven capable of 225'F or 105'C
* Clock, timer, stopwatch or mobile phone with alarm clock

Preparation

1. Wash the apples
2. Core the apples (not mandatory, but it'll make slicing them a lot easier)

3. Pre-heat the oven to 225'F or 105'C. Don't change the temperature as we want them to dehydrate, not turn them to charcoal.
4. Slice the apples very thin. About 1 mm is just right. (That is about 0.04 inches for all you folk with the weird ancient metric system) If you have a potato slicer or thin slicer, those will generally have a good size by default.
If your thin slicer isn't quite the same width as your apple then you can slice the apple by twisting it on the blade like you were twisting a screw, this way you'll get a nice long single slice which you can then break up into the desired shapes. (See image below)

5. Apply the cinnamon and sugar. This can be done in two ways depending on your preference.
5.1. Pre mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon into a bowl, the put each apple slice in the mixture before putting it ready for the oven.
5.2. Lay out all the apple slices (as I did in the image below), then richly apply the cinnamon and sugar on one side.
6. Insert the apple slices into the oven and leave for 1 hour.

7. After 1 hour, turn the slices around and set the clock for another hour. You'll notice they're probably still a little soft. The next hour will fix that.
8. Remove the slices from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes.
9. Dig in!

Variations

* Instead of 2x 1 hour, bake 2x 0.5 hours for a more chewy effect.
* Using "Granny smith" apples instead of sweet apples will add a nice sour bite.
* Soaking the apples in vinegar for a few hours before dipping them in salt instead of sugar and cinnamon.
* Using granulated instead of powdered sugar will add an extra crunch.
* Using bananas instead of apples is perfectly possible. Make sure you use the "Plantain" type though.
* Peach, pineapple and pear are tasty variations as well.
* Use stevia extract instead of powdered sugar.

RPG Maker Tutorial Part 3

Also see Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Hope you've checked out the first 1-6 chapters so far, or this part might be a bit tricky. Either way, on to the next part!

7. Doors 2.0

Some fun with editing existing events and switches.
Let's add a grumpy character - how would you feel about random heroes just barging into your house all day?
I sure wouldn't like it!

Find a house in your town and add a door (quick event creation -> door).
Now, we'll modify it by not having the player go to a new area, and some text shouted at you by the owner, as below.
* We copy the animation (move route), and reverse it.
* Add a switch to indicate you've tried to open the door once.
* Add a conditional based on the switch, to show the grumpy character yelling at you.
* Play the close sound.
* Remove the transition stuff.

Result:

@> Play SE: 'Open1', 80, 100

@> Set Move Route: This event (Wait)
:: $> Turn Left
:: $> Wait: 3 frame(s)
:: $> Turn Right
:: $> Wait: 3 frame(s)
:: $> Turn Up
:: $> Through ON
@> Conditional Branch: Switch [0003: Grumpy Town 1] == ON
@>Text: -, -, Normal, Bottom
:: Back again?! I told you to go away!
@>
: Else
@>Text: -, -, Normal, Bottom
:: What are you doing here?! Go away!
@>
@> Control Switches: [0003: Grumpy Town 1] = ON
@> Play SE: 'Close1', 80, 100
@> Set Move Route: This event (Wait)
:: $> Turn Right
:: $> Wait: 3 frame(s)
:: $> Turn Left
:: $> Wait: 3 frame(s)
:: $> Turn Down
:: $> Through OFF
@> 

 

See if you can re-create it for your own town.
As an extra exercise, see if you can change it into a "self switch" instead of a regular switch.

8. Moving NPCs

Everyone just standing around like idiots makes the town look a bit "dead", so let's add some moving npcs.
Dogs, cats, messengers running around, old people shuffling.

Go to the event layer (F6) and add a new event. Select a random person from the "people" graphics (or monsters, or actors, as you see fit). Next, you will have to look at the two sections: "Autonomous Movement" and "Priority". Set the "Type" to "Custom". This will unlock the "Move Route..." button, press it and add a simple path. Don't forget to enable/disable the walking animation, so it looks like the character is actually walking instead of gliding.

For example:

$>Walking Animation ON
$>Move Right
$>Move Right
$>Wait: 60 frame(s)
$>Move Left
$>Move Left
$>Move Up
$>Move Down
$>Wait: 60 frame(s) 

 

This will cause the NPC to move in a repeated L shaped pattern before returning to his original position.
Next, the "priority" section. By default this is set to "Same as Characters". This means the player will block NPC movement, and vice versa. If the player is blocking the NPC's path, it will pause it's loop. If you set it's priority to be above, or below players, then movement will not be blocked either by the NPC, or by the player.

If you wish to make it look as though a NPC just walked into a house, you can set the: "Transparent ON / Transparent OFF" flags when you have them walk into a house door.
Note you can make monsters use this behavior just as easily, and have them react to "player touch" to initiate a battle.

9. Two way Bridges

Bridges are cool, but a bit tricky to make. If you tried creating a canyon, and spanning a straight bridge across it you'll notice a few problems.
* You probably can't walk "onto" the bridge if the tile on the edge of it is the cliff edge tile.
* If you didn't use the cliff edge tile, then you can probably walk "under" the bridge, and straight onto the cliff face where the bridge is attached.
* If you walk under the bridge, you'll walk onto it !

Worry not, as all these problems can be fixed, but it does take a bit of work to set up initially. Once it's up and running you can copy this technique to your heart's content across your entire RPG.

Take the image below as a guideline.

The colored dots won't appear in RPG Maker, they were added with paint.net as a reference. Each color represents an event, which can then be copy and pasted onto the dots with the same color. Let's start with the black, yellow and blue dots.

* Black: Create a new event, and set a graphic (Tileset-B at the bottom of thte list has some good bridge elements). Set the priority of the event to be "Above Characters". Next is something you might not have done before. At the top of the edit event dialog we select the "New Event Page" button. This will create a new event page which we can then modify and set special conditions on. In this case we need to add a "switch". Create a new switch and call it "0004:bridge" (or other number if available). Lastly, on this new event page set the priority to be "Below Characters". That's it, just copy this event to create the base bridge.
* Yellow: In order to prevent the player from being able to walk off the sides of the bridge we need to block the sides when the player is on the bridge, and remove that barrier if the player wants to walk under the bridge. Create a new event, and set the priority "Below Characters". Next we add a new event page and on this we set the priority to be "Same as Characters". On this second page we also set the switch condition just like on the black event (0004:bridge)
* Blue: To prevent the player from walking onto the cliff from under the bridge we will create a blocking event that works much the same as the sides of the bridge - but in reverse. Create a new event and set it's priority to "Same as Characters", then like the yellow event we create a new event page and add a switch condition to "0004:bridge" and change the priority. In this case "Below Characters".

That takes care of the bridge itself, now all we need to do is ensure the switch gets turned on and off when the player walks near or away from the bridge. That is where the green and red events come into play.
* Green: Create a new event and add a new line to it's contents "Game progression -> Control Switches", set "Bridge = ON". Also important next, is to set the "Trigger" (found below the priority field) to "Player Touch".
* Red: Copy the green event you just created (you can ctrl+c, ctrl+v on just about anything you like). And edit the control switches line to "OFF". As an extra you can set a switch condition on this event that checks "0004:bridge is ON", but this is somewhat redundant.

Finally, copy and paste the events into the correct position to ensure the player always walks onto them. Then playtest your newly created bridge.

Credit to Keile (MMOC forums) for the initial guide & test project.

To be continued.

Calling all Bloggers!

So, I was poking around the net looking for some of
my favorite old WoW blogs and much to my surprise the majority was dead or missing entirely. No posts in over a year, or simply replaced by a placeholder site.

Sad days,.

Obviously we all know WoW is on a decline, and it's been a good year and a half since the last expansion, but still. Surely there's some "stuff" worth posting about other than just WoW? I wonder where the shift in writers has gone off to. Surely not Tumblr, since, well... Just looking at it makes your gray matter decrease in size much like reading 2 line Tweets from twitter. It's shit.

I could guess Youtube and perhaps Twitch since there's money to be had there, but what is wrong with some good old classic "writing"? I'm curious to see how many of the people who started around Vanilla or The Burning Crusade are still writing (even if you're not playing anymore).

So, calling all WoW (and related) bloggers, where have you all gone?
Or even, where do you think all the others went to?

I'm planning to write a nice big post sometime later to highlight the WoW related blogs that are still active and running, feel free to drop me a line if you'd like to do a link exchange and get your blog linked from there. Just link to "this" post or blog in the meantime.

Music

Time for some music.

You'll have to excuse the randomness of my tastes, but hopefully you'll enjoy some of these!
Sometimes you just have one of those days when LOUD is the way to go.

First one is by Aknotronic, one of my WoW guild's members.


Nonpoint-Bullet with a name:


Disturbed The Sickness (Album:


U recken - Tania:


Crystallize - Lindsey Stirling:

RPG Maker Tutorial Part 2

See this post for part 1. It contains chapter 1, 2 and 3 of the tutorial.

4. Combat

Now that you've got a basic way to design the world your game will take place in, it's time to make travel a little more interesting.
Again, most avid gamers will recognize this as "random encounters". There's multiple ways of implementing combat in your game, some examples:
* Random encounters - (almost any 2d rpg) you walk around in world areas and dungeons and suddenly... "A wild Pikachu appears", then combat starts.
* Static creatures - (FF Mystic quest) any non world area may have creatures standing around as actors, talk to them to start combat. This allows the player to avoid combat if he chooses.
* A combination of the 2 above. (random in world, static in dungeons)
* Active creatures - (Lufia) instead of standing around, monsters move and can walk towards the player to attack them. This would require some scripting.
* Active creatures, and active player attacks. (Secret of mana, zelda, diablo) Live action - the player can attack creatures without being thrown into a turn based combat screen. This would also require some scripting, which we'll not cover in this guide at this time.

For now, let's look at the random encounters.
Static creatures are fairly easy to add and we'll cover that soon as well.

If you haven't done so yet, add a map that will serve as your "world" map. You should know how to do so by now.
Make sure you add a transfer event to go there from your town, and back from there into your town.

Open the Region editor (F7), and make some areas around the town. For example you could set region 1 to nearby grasslands, region 2 to some forest, and region 3 to some nearby hills. (you can't walk on mountains by default)
Next, in the map box, right click on the new map and select "map properties".

On the right you right click (or double click) in the "encounters" box and select Slime*2. By default the troop will then appear across the whole map. Let's set it to appear in a specific region only. If you wish the monsters to appear more often, raise the weight from 10 to a higher number.

Now would be a good time to test your newly added monster encounter.
Seems to work right?

Let's cover that static monster next.
Go to your town map and open the "event editing mode"(F6).

Right click on the map and select "New event".
Double click the "graphic" and select something from "Monster2" the blue slime for example.
Double click the first line of "contents" on the right and select from tab-3 the "battle processing" button.
Then, select the "Slime*2" again.
Ensure the "trigger" (in the bottom) is "action button". This will ensure if you press space next to the monster, you will initiate the attack. (Also see below how to hide the monster after defeating it)

Time for another test?
Using these 2 combat encounter techniques you'll be able to add some basic excitement to your game.
(You have to keep in mind that the story will obviously be the most important part)

5. Story

As just stated, the story is important, but... how to tell a story in a game?
NPC interaction will get you a long way, your character will move through the world you create and talk to NPCs to gain quests, new party members, and be sent off to rescue the kingdom or world from mortal peril.

NPC Types.
* The nobody: One or two lines of text - if any.
* Chatterbox: The NPC that wants to tell you a ton of things, and has you smacking space because you don't care about it. Much like the nobody, these guys are pretty straightforward.
* Innkeepers and vendors: You already know how to make an innkeeper, we'll get to vendors later.
* Quest NPCs: NPCs that activate a condition in order to progress through the game
* Party members: Most RPGs don't let you start out with a full party, you find these along the way, and after meeting a certain trigger they will join or leave your party at a later time.
* Static monster: Monsters can talk as well - certain bosses or villains for example will have more dialog than plain mobs. Explaining the evil master plan as you sharpen your sword, or taunting you at your inability to prevent the next event. (You already know how to make a static monster, see above)

So, let's add some text.
In order to create a NPC with some dialog, you once again create an event (F6 mode again).
Right click somewhere in town and first select a proper graphic. (Much like creating a static monster, you create a static NPC)
Next, Add a new event content (right click, insert) and select "Show Text" from tab 1.
You can then select a face graphic to show the actor you're talking to, or leave it blank for generic NPC or the narrator.
Fill in the text you wish to show.
I put up a dog here, so I added the text "Woof".

You now have a generic "nobody" NPC.
To create a chatterbox, simply insert extra text lines. (or select the batch entry checkbox)
Note: To simulate chat between your character(s) and the NPC in question, simply set the character portrait, or prefix the text with the name of the NPC you want to indicate is saying the text.

If you wish to give the player some interaction, you can insert the "show choices" message.
When you add the choice, you'll notice the contents branches into a "when yes" and "when no", under each of these choices you can then add more text, or special actions, such as giving the player an item, or adding/removing a party member.
If you wish to create a false choice to which the player MUST agree, even though he's given a choice of yes and no, you can create a so called "loop" (also on tab 1).
Note that after adding a loop, you have to add a "break loop" in one of the choices, or the player will be stuck with the NPC.

Example:

@> Loop
@> Text: 'Actor1', 1, Normal, Bottom
:: Could I tag along?
@> Show Choices: Yes, No
: When [Yes]
@> Text: 'Actor1', 1, Normal, Bottom
:: Thank you, let's go!
@>Break Loop
@>
: When [No]
@> Text: 'Actor1', 1, Normal, Bottom
:: You can't say No to me!
@>
: Branch End
@>
: Repeat above
@> Change party member: add [Natalie]
@>

Beside adding party members this way, you can also set "switches", which may be used to determine other NPC reactions (for example to allow you dungeon access).
Or transferring the player to another map.
And many more things.

If you used the above "add party member" example, you'll notice the NPC will still be seen standing there, after "bringing her along". This is obviously somewhat counter intuitive. So, let's add a switch.

6. Switches

Switches control events, such as you pulled the magic sword from the stone, defeated the crypt fiend, talked to the dog, entered the graveyard, and so on. Using switches you can control the game progression and make new areas or party members available for your hero to discover.
Keep in mind, adding a LOT of switches will quickly make your RPG's script more complex for you to manage, so it's recommended to give clear and easy to understand names to each of your switches, so even if you come back and start editing again a month or two later, you'll know what the switch does, and why you added it.
For example:
* Crypt Boss Slain
* Party Natalie Available
* Party Natalie Added

Lets alter the above script by adding another NPC to the town, which makes the other NPC "available", and then change her dialog so you don't make her available a second time. After all, if you pull one switch, you reset another.

The basics would be:
* You enter town (or talk to a certain npc), raise switch "Natalie available".
* Natalie should now be visible to talk to, and get added to your party.
* After adding her, the initial switch that set her as "available" should now no longer be possible to re-set, otherwise you'll be able to see her in two places at the same time.

To make this, we edit the above existing event and click the "..." button next to the "Conditions-Switch".
Let's name the switches and press OK:
* 0001: Natalie Available
* 0002: Natalie Added to Party

Next, we set the condition switch 0001: Natalie Available to the above script which allows you to add her to your party.
And, to the bottom of the script we insert two new script lines:

@> Control Switches (first tab, game progression): [0001:Natalie Available] = OFF
@> Control Switches (first tab, game progression): [0001:Natalie Added to Party] = ON

This way, the event won't show up until she's "available", and she'll be hidden after completing the event.
The second script line will be used by the NPC or event that makes her available.

To ensure she's made available only once we insert a "flow control -> conditional branch (Tab 1)".
In the dialog that follows we have it check the switch "0002: Natalie Added to Party" is OFF, in the first line of the branch.
(In the "else" statement, you could add a different response, such as "Oh hi Natalie" - to indicate the NPC recognizes she's in your party).

There is however a much easier way to programming an "add npc" event.
It just takes 2 simple steps. (You can still raise the "natalie available" switch to make the event show up in the first place)
The first step, is to create the event and have the event respond on the player talking to the npc as usual. After adding the new party member however, you can set the "Self Switch A" on the event, instead of using event "0002: Natalie Added to Party". Then on the event, add a second event page (see the buttons at the top) and on this second event page just add a check for "Self Switch A is ON". That's it.
You can make the second event page as fancy as you like, for example by adding a brother or sister to the npc to take their place and talk to the player, or a grass pile, or even a sign post saying "I've gone on an adventure.". Be creative.


To be continued.

RPG Maker Resources

So, RPG Maker is on Steam for a reduced price for just one more day - if you haven't gotten it yet, now's your last chance in a while. Unless you just want to pay the full 70$ for it,.. but, 1$ is better than 70$ surely?

To get you started with the software we'll be posting the quickstart guide here. Today we'll start with some of the basics.

There's a few extra information / resource sharing spots that may get you started (I'll list some more stuff later).
* Official - feature list

Community:
* Rpgmakervxace.net
* Rpgmakervx.net
* Rpgmaker.net
* SteamCommunity.com
* Steam DLC Guide

Resources:
* Resources on Deviant Art
* Rpg-maker-artists.deviantart.com
* VxResource.wordpress.com
* Rpgmaker.net/resources
* Rpgmakervxace.net
* Rpgmakervx.net
* DivisionHeaven
* VictorScripts

Tutorials:
* Rpgmakerweb

1. Getting started

Upon first launching the software you'll be facing an ocean with a character in it.
If not, no worries - the first step to take is to click: "File -> New Project".
Select a good spot to save your first game or "RRVS_TestProject", and hit ok.

Now, if you weren't facing a small lake before, you should be seeing it now. You'll probably have the urge to press some button or jump into drawing right away - resist that for now.

In the bottom-left there should be a panel with your "test project" name, and "MAP001" under it.
Right click here, and select "load sample map". This folder should provide you with a ton of inspiration and play-things with which to learn the initial basics. For now I'd recommend just picking "Regular Town" and setting the zoom factor to 1/2.

Press F6 to enter event mode and right click the middle of the map. Select "set as starting position -> player".
Next, delete "MAP001" and hit the green arrow (F12) in the top-right of your screen.
Note: Across all your maps, you can only always have "one" player starting position. This will be useful for testing your maps.

At this point you'll launch the game, and get control over the character.
If you used the small town as sample map, you'll quickly notice you won't be able to enter any buildings. We'll get right into that.

2. Transfer and Door Events

If you're an avid RPG player, you'll know there's multiple areas, towns, overworld, dungeons etc which make up an RPG. To switch between these different maps, we need to create "Transfer Events" or doors in the places where you wish to allow the player to do this.

First, we add another map (easiest for now) just right-click the bottom-left field again and add a sample field. A good choice would be "InnF1F". Your sample project will now have 2 maps. Feel free to select it and see how it looks.

Next, we create the actual transfer event.
Go to your main map and ensure you're in event editing mode (F6).
Right click a doorway and select "Quick event generation -> Door". Click the "..." icon next to the destination, and sele
ct the other map (InnF1F if you followed the above steps), then select the starting position on that map and press OK.
Note: Doors work exactly the same (meaning you just walk into it), except they show a "door" in the place where the transfer event is initiated from.
Press OK again to close the dialog and finalize the event.

Let's play test the new event and see if it works! (F12)
If you now walk into the doorway, you'll be transferred to the new map, but,. no way back yet.
See if you can create it before continuing to the next chapter.

Usage tips
* To allow your character to transfer between the large map and town, it's advised to use transfer events.
* To transfer from town to interior or between interiors and dungeons, it's recommended to use a door event.
That's not set in stone obviously, as you can have houses with open doors use transfer events - be creative, use what you think looks good.

3. Innkeepers and Chests

Since you've used a "quick event" just now, I'm sure you'll have noticed the other two choices there, so let's handle those as well.

Go to the "InnF1F" map that you've got in the map list, and once again ensure "event editing mode" is active. Find a good spot for your innkeeper (even through a single wall will work, so you can put the innkeeper behind a counter) and right click to place him. Yo
That's it! Creating an inn has never been easier.

Obviously while testing your character will not have any gold, so for the time being it's a good idea to put up a treasure chest.
There's a quick event for this as well as you've no doubt noticed. Right click near the innkeeper and select "Treasure Chest". Set the content to be 10 gold or so.

If you want, you can select items, weapons or armor in the same manner.
You can obviously create and review items as well - just press F9 to open the game database.

To be continued.

RPG Maker on Steam

Today marks the end of the Steam Free weekend for RPG Maker VX Ace.

If you haven't already given it a try - now's your chance! But, even if tomorrow comes along the guys and girls over at Humble Bundle have a once in a lifetime deal for you that's even better! In this the bundle for this week, you can get RPGMaker VX Ace for only 1$ - the software is normally sold for 69.99$. Plus, the bundle includes some art, and a few games as well. Aside that RPGMaker has 3 steam card drops, which you can sell for about 0.30$ - so the actual price of the bundle is about 0.70$ - this is a steal. If you haven't already done so - I highly recommend getting it for yourself, and maybe a few friends as well.

Among the games you get in the bundle is Skyborn with art from Britt aka Saehral. Worth 1$ on it's own easily.

So, if you've got yourself RPG Maker, and now you need help figuring out how to actually "make" that RPG you always dreamed of playing. Well, I'm working on a quickstart guide, and will share it with you here obviously. But, it takes time to write and fix up. Meanwhile I've got a decent start available on the MMOC forums where you can join in on the discussion.

How online games can make a better world

Ok, so this is not my title, but rather one from TED (Think Exchange Debate), in this case the speaker Jane McGonigal.

As such, before reading the rest of this post, I encourage you to view this twenty minute video discussing how online games can make a better world. It's an interesting study, and one that affects YOU right NOW, and possibly in the future as well.

So, that may seem far fetched right? Well, if you watched the video by now you'll be psyched with the idea or what may come. Sure, you're not likely to be part of the solution to world hunger, or third world poverty just by playing World of Warcraft, but there've been several studies on WoW players in the past. There's just something about having a dozen million players to analyze and pick the brains on.

She's a bit optimistic in some regards, such as "players are the best they can be while playing a game", that may be true for a limited few, but some players change from average joe, to Killy McStabbin when they enter a game and become the world's biggest dick who brags about everything and PK's low level players. If that's the "best they can be", then surely the local police department should pay this average joe a visit before he turns those intentions to the real world?
Maybe average joe's personal goals are just different from other players, and he enjoys bullying in-game, because he's bullied himself in the real world, and can thus get a form of revenge on others.

I suspect she's mostly referring to cooperative teamplay in raids, after all, that's the one time in the game where a mass of players does come together with a common goal. Namely, defeat raid bosses and get better loot.
That's not the only reason, as there's also the guild administration (officers, guild leader, loot council, etc), of pvp groups, and small 5, and 10 man dungeon runs, even battle-grounds. Battle-ground are an interesting topic to be fair, as looking at the old Alterac Valley (back when it was still 40 man, and could take hours, even days to complete properly). You had a group of players with a common goal: Winning. But, in order to win, they had to cooperate.

Now, in any decent guild you'll have a raid leader, possibly a tactician, and maybe an officer for each class, you know, structure.
But, if you throw together 40 people with little to no structure, it will take a lot longer (and it was bloody well fun I can tell you) regardless of the common goal. After an initial "rush" toward the perceived goal and rebound, the group will split up. Some few may rise to give directions to the general crowd, some may run off and go do their own thing to attend to their own immediate needs. (fishing in Alterac Valley was not unheard of, much to the annoyance of the other players) Stealth crews and pushers, eventually the battle would be won or lost and some monetary reward would be given to all attendees.

What about raids though? Isn't it in some way possible to trace back everyone's goals to a smaller more personal need for self improvement? e.g. loot? A guild leader made a guild because he didn't want to put in the effort of joining a different guild, or because he has trouble with authority, or so he can have priority on certain loot thoices. All players in the guild play one or multiple characters to improve their chances of loot on a certain character. The healer is keeping the tank alive, so he stays alive, so the dps can do their job, and so the boss dies and maybe gives him a share of the loot as well. Everyone has their task in a raid - but it's not so much "problem solving" in the game rather than solving the "social problem" of cooperating with all those other players. THAT is the real task of the higher ranking players in a guild. Keeping all the kids sharp, happy, give them enough loot, invite them to the raid often enough to stop them from running off to another guild. It's a tough job I can tell you, and not always one that's appreciated properly.

People are greedy about their personal goals like that.

Can you really make a 1.5 billion gamers work together somehow, to solve real world problems? Not without rewarding each and every single one of them for their short term input in some significant manner. They all want their "loot" and achievements. No, they won't get +1 strength or +1 public speaking added to their stats, but how about money? If you manage to pay / sponsor gamers, give them free gametime, or vacation time hardware upgrades, or "points" of some kind to show their improved status as a problem solver. Perhaps it will start to seem more interesting.

What sort of games are we playing nowadays though? MMORPGs are a large portion, but certainly not the only one, and certainly not one of the most practical or even easiest to apply to a real world scenario. Think about zombie apocalypse and survival games, skills like that (if properly emulated) may give you an idea of what to expect in such a scenario. Or how about dota/rts games, could they be considered combat scenarios or even templates for the military to use somehow? How about farmville, or the sims, or simcity,. easier to find practical applications for those on the shorter term. Angry birds surely not, or flappy bird, same problem. The best way to analyze players is to be a part of the experiment yourself.

How about the best way to discover a needle in a haystack? e.g. the seemingly unfindable black box of flight mh370. Could a search like that be compared to players hunting for diamonds in Minecraft perhaps?

Personally I'm more into Terraria or Starbound than Minecraft, but you get the idea.

How do you think the future of gaming might be used to put our minds to a collective use to improve the world? Will Blizzard's new project "Titan" be as successful as WoW? Will it be analyzed by external parties in the same manner?

Let's play Ultima

Ever wondered where MMO's started out from? Well, wonder no more! It started from some multi-player chat room, completely unrelated to Ultima, Wow, Everquest or most other games, it got followed up by some few 2D flat ugly shit you don't want to get close to in this lifetime, but eventually... You'll get to Ultima Online. Now, don't bother with the current version that EA (Electronic Arrrrrse) wants you to install and pay money for, but rather look around for a Free 2 Play version. Because face it, why would you pay money for an inferior version, with bad support, a dying community, and features that most active players are asking for should be reverted and removed because it no longer feels like the UO they enjoyed playing.

So, what should you try? Well I'm just glad that you ask. UO:F, or simply Ultima Online Forever. Would you care for a summarized featurelist perhaps? I'm sure you won't mind. If you don't care, just skip to the next chapter.


Features

* Player Housing. Yup, even you can have your very own little private piece of the server, no charge. You'll still have to earn enough gold to pay for it, but it'll be yours forever. Even a castle perhaps?
* Very balanced Non Consentual PvP System. You caught a guy stealing your lemons? Take off his head! Don't like the name of the new neighbour? Take off his head! Some miner calling you a retard? Take off his head! New guy running around in shiny armor? Take off his head and claim the armor!
* Extensive community based crafting system. The NPCs will sell you some basic leather and weapons, but for the big stuff you'll want to go to your local crafter, or just kill someone for his armor.
* Make your own character class. No restrictions! (other than a 700 skill point total roof) Bard with thieving skills, Swordfighter with alchemy and lumberjacking, mage with animal taming, healer with fishing and cartography, anything is possible!
* Bounty system. Obviously players killing others does not go completely unpunished, after 5 kills your name turns RED and you are free to be attacked without penalty by others. You can hunt red heads for a bounty and turn those in for gold. (even bargain with the original owner) And stealing from another player (hide, stealth, peek in pack, take what you want) will allow you to be attacked. But a good thief always knows how to get away ;)
* No instances! Anyone joins everyone. Enter a dungeon and you may find somebody there farming in your favorite spot. Team up, or kill him while he's busy with a monster. Just watch your back, next time he may return the favor.
* It's FREE. Granted, EA would like you to think otherwise, but you can play the game now and not play a single penny for it. Even the creator of the game, namely Sir Richard Garriott de Cayeux has paid the game a visit. While EA removes any references of UOF from it's facebook page on a regular basis.
* Animal Taming. No pokemon shit here, you get to tame your very own dragon and have it bite other players and animals. You got to feed it pigs on a regular basis though. Alternatively, a free horse, nightmare, giant beetle, polar bear, walrus, chicken, dog, cat, wyvern, the list goes on.
* More skills than you'll ever use. Fishing, Cartography, Lockpicking, Wrestling, Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Herding, Begging, Arms Lore, Sword fighting, Healing, Parrying, Alchemy, Mining, Spirit Speaking, Meditation, the list goes on for a while really.

As they say, it's free, so what do you have to lose?