Well, we're halfway through it and I just figured now would be a good time to update all the stuff that is or was or maybe going on with this blog. If you're still here, thanks for staying! If you're new, hey welcome! If you're on your way out the door for a pack of smoke or to get the milk, see ya soon dad!
So here's the rundown.
This is a hub for all the crazy/mundane/weird/eyerolling roleplay writing stuff that I think I'm pretty decent at. On good days. It's been a year since I had my surgery and I have literally killed a third of myself. Now to just keep him dead. Which is hard as my brain is in a good/bad place most of the time to match my body which is in a good/bad place, but I'm keeping it together. Most of the time.
So if you're interested in a collab, are collaborating, or going 'where the hell did that guy go' I'm still here and I'm getting it back to form. Ish. I promise I'll try not to let you all down if we're interacting or will be at some point, which I would love to do!
Now that that's out of the way, here's where I'm playing these days!
THE BLOGS
@sailsonaseaoffate - My Spelljammer blog came true! Fantasy based sci-fi adventures with Treasure Planet vibes that I do my best to stay with the setting though as with all lore I make my own! I do what I want. Either way, this is where most of the Candell family has found a new home on the remade Wayfarer as they search through Wildspace for a way home for some, a new home for others, or bringing that final piece back to their puzzle. New foes, new ships, plenty of sarcasm, and lots of face punching. Adventure among the stars with a multiversal family of rogues and swords!
@conduitdreams - Cyberpunk is getting closer to reality than we ever thought possible, which is both very exciting and terrifying. I'm hoping to lean more into the exciting part of it, but horror and terror are common themes for me as well. Pulling a lot from cyberpunk epics such as Bladerunner, Strange Days, and Cyberpunk Red/2020/2077, I've been doing my best craft my own little slice of synthetic neon dystopia to build a few stories from. Midwich is a floating city built in the Gulf of San Andreas after the great quake that split California from the mainland essentially making it's own free floating city-state. Where most see it as the end of the world for golden state, it has done but flourish thanks to move and now is the ultimate producer of food supplies as well as other natural resources. New trade markets had to be made and with it came the creation of these middlemen cities that processed items from place to another. It's very loose setting in my head that is welcome for more voices and ideas to help flesh it. Come run the net and see with artificial vision searching for a soul!
@acrowamongsparrows - Steel for men, silver for monsters. I love horror. I love fantasy. I love the Witcher. Would I call myself a superfan? No. I would I call myself a big fan? Hell yes. Do I know all the minutia and information about the world? Good god no. But I did make my own witcher and I did piece together a 'Scooby-doo' crew for him to battle all sorts of things that go bump in the night. I am no lore god (I do respect it though) but these are our stories and I feel like we should be able to tell them how or why we want to. So, if you'd like to hunt monsters, beat up elves, and dodge vampires join me as Eld of Kovir travels with his nephews into the depths of monstrosity.
ON HOLD
@thedreaminghunger - I had high hopes for Oplisca and wandering the cosmic horror I built up around her with the mythos and the bits of Warcraft butchery that I'd clung too. But I just can't seem to get a hold of it. I'm not sure I have enough level in pure weird to truly give her what she needs to become the monster I see in my mind for her. Traversing the multiverse in search of herself so that she can consume them and grow in power in the many eyes of her 'Love'. Maybe I'll get there or if someone has an idea to push my feral end of space witch into stratosphere I dream of.
@memoriesofivalice - My poor FF14 characters, I had a big cast and a lot of my mind when I tweaked and created them all for this MMO. I loved the game but I found myself spending most of my time alone and just kind of got tired of the story grind. I joined a great guild of storytellers and people, but my heart just couldn't get into it. As much as I distance myself from WoW, it still hurts me so deeply after everything that happened and continues to happen with them. Maybe I'm tainted with MMOs. Maybe I should revamp to just be a Final Fantasy blog and do my own thing with people. I mean there's 16 of them and only like two really connected by sequels. I hope an idea comes because this cast deserves to not be forgotten. Or maybe rebooted at least.
@withanemeraldeye - 'Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow.' I used to play a lot of Conan Exiles and I honestly can say I watched Conan the Barbarian once a month when it's streaming as I love everything about sword & sorcery. Pulp fantasy has always been huge for me to match with the incredible art and style presented by such artists Sanjulian, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, and the king himself Frazetta. So making a brutal pulp fantasy character was inevitable for how much I dig the simple but exciting concept. But it's been quiet here for me and that breaks my heart for what I put together for Voldrin in the Exiled Lands fighting for survival with the Black Sword across his back. I hope I can get back into it again.
FUTURE
I am interested in anything or anything to collaborate on. You wanna do an urban fantasy adventure? Let's do it Dresdan style. Airships and moncoles? I'm there. Transdimensial time travel with Quantam Leap infintie lives? That sounds really cool and I would love to explore it. We run a coffee shop for people in the urban heart of a Pacific Northwest City? That sounds a lot slice of life, but I am intrigued on what it may bring.
The skies the limit for me and all we need is to do is say 'Hey I got an idea!'
So, that's me. It's 2023. I need to be creative. So do you.
Hello! We’ll be hosting another special event that’ll last for a few weeks, it consists of Hardboot & Pyrus swapping personalities with any character, major or minor. If you want this to happen with your ask, Add to your ask (swapped) At the end of it, and we’ll make the gif as soon as possible! Thank you for your constant patience with us, Keep your asks coming!
Love: L
I've made it to level 40, I guess I get a mount and extra talents. I'm still waiting for something to rear it's head appropriately for that.
So far it's not.
But if you're arriving or been for some time expecting me to do something that I say I'm gonna do, well shit. I'm sorry.
This blog is hub for all my would be writing stuff and delusions of roleplaying/collaborating with other writers in the comforting hellscape that is Tumblr. Once again I'm sorry as I can't make any promises of getting better at it.
Still down a third of myself from last year but the fear is growing as my waist kind of gets settled and muscles continue to atrophy with my growing apathy. My brain is still on a downswing as much as I fight at it punch drunk and mildly stoned.
As sad and angst laden this may be, I'm just in a mood and figured I should do a quick update as we're well out of 2023.
Onward to the content and hopefully a constructive manic episode or two.
THE BLOGS
@eldridgecandell - This is it. She ain't much, but she's the one that died and came back that I keep trying to focus on. Join me on a short explanation:
Eldridge Candell, Inquisitor of the Order of Embers, has returned to Azeroth from beyond the Veil and bein lost in the great Astral Sea. As the worlds began to collapse and the collective haze that had been the Shadowlands Conspiracy blew away so did Candell into a new world.
But it wasn't his.
Never should be or could be. He belonged where he had always been doing the thing that he was truly good at. Unfortunately that road would have be walked alone and with a whole new slew of problems. Missing students, apathetic governments, bureaucracy, and the general march of time as age catches up to any soldier.
This blog focuses on Eldridge primarily but it is not exclusive to him as I suffer/revel in alt-aholism causing me to make up a diverse cast of characters to play with the witch hunter. From Cheryl Duun a disgruntled and lost Inquisitor; Josiah Nubern a fellow apprentice of Candells who has gone over to the edge; the wandering vengeful shadow of Alfred Klaudin, a Forsaken zealot who refuses to give up his Dark Lady. More remain and are open for interaction as I make up a new cast list for them all if anyone is ever interested in playing with my version of the Order of Embers.
ON HOLD
@acrowamongsparrows - an AU of Eld as a Witcher; the show burned me so hard but every once in awhile I look at the books and wonder.
@conduitdreams - cyberpunk with robots and mecha; it just never really took off like I wanted it to or hoped others might have been interested.
@withanemeraldeye - sword and sorcery pulp adventure based around a lot of Conan Exiles and lore; another quiet experiment that is in the back of my head
@sailsonaseaoffate - the final resting place of Zexx Candell and his family, letting them sail off into the sunset among the stars in my version of Spelljammer; I might go back to it as well depending on what strikes me
@memoriesofivalice - my poor Final Fantasy 14 story blog for an AU Zexx and company; big plans but no execution as I just couldn't get enough into the game
THE FUTURE
That more or less sums up where I am at in February of 2024. I'm trying but stumbling dragging as much as I want to be productive and creative. I'm so sorry for all those I've let down in the work and play, maybe I can make it up to you and prove I've got something to say. Just need to figure out what can charge me up. Ideas are always welcome and patient words of affirmation are always gratefully appreciated.
Hello, I’m just here to put a restriction on myself, I’ll only be making GIF textboxes on special events such as the one being played out now. It takes me a lot of time to make the GIF textboxes, and I'm not sure if in doing it the right way, I do it frame by frame. Anyway! The event will last for 2-3 weeks, Please make the most of it!
Love: L
I’m working on cutscenes for Hardboot right now, on top of other life stuff. I’ll probably post a few screenshots of those, but not the whole cutscenes because spoilers. I built a system for making cutscenes in my engine using a simple interpreted language(I seem to use those for a lot of things), and I’ll just have to see how well it works for what I want to do. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make complex shots using it, but I don’t know enough about cinematography to make complex stuff anyways. I’ll be keeping it simple and hopefully it’ll turn out alright!
Whoops, looks like I neglected my devblog for a few months!
Yeah, that’s not a good thing, and I know. I’m still trying to finish the game of course, but a lot of real life has been getting in my way lately. Finding time and spare motivation to work on the game has been difficult, and not a whole lot has gotten done. Don’t worry though, that doesn’t mean the game isn’t going to get done, or that I’m going to abandon it to work on something else. I may have been busy, but I’m still as determined as ever to see this through to the end, no matter how long it takes.
That end isn’t far away at all, in fact it’s laughable how much I’ve been dreading doing so little. Sure, the last 10% of a game is 90% of the work, but I don’t have much longer until I’m at that last 10%. Once I get there I can polish it as much as I see fit, and call it done anytime. I have a lot of other game ideas but I’m suppressing them until this one is done.
Look out for more updates soon. I’ve found some more time to work on this game and although I’ve all but given up on having a time frame the game should be done by, it’s always hanging over my head and I’m not gonna get over that until this is done.
Tooltips, button indicators, and maps(in progress)!
This week I decided to start making the inventory a little more user friendly, by 2 means I've always intended to add. First, I added tooltips, so now you can hover over an item's icon and see what it is. I might add more to tooltips later, like adding descriptions, and icons, etc. Second, I added indicators to tell you where a button in the inventory will send an item. With the buttons all being "+" and "-", it's a little obscure what it's supposed to do. "- drops the item? unless you have a building window open, but only if the building takes that item?" - Imagine trying to figure that out without any help. I'm thinking of also adding a little tooltip to give a short description of what will happen to the item, not just a little red or blue indicator. "Dropped" or "Send to refinery" come to mind, which might make things JUST clear enough to work.
On top of that, I also started working on maps. I'm trying from scratch this time, as I now have a different approach, one which is far more promising. The simple way to put it, is maps are going to be as easy to place as a button, just say "I want a map of ____ size at ____ location, and I want it to focus on _____ room location, at _____ zoom level....". This way, I can set up maps, minimaps, and functional maps(You've died select a respawn point) in one swoop. I might also add a bitmap for which things to show, like you, your companions, any buildings or bases you have, regions and region names, if I get bored enough, I may even do GPS navigation in game.
Other than that, just various bugfixes, did some more multiplayer testing, just development stuff. This week, I'm really excited to work on those maps, so expect something prettier by next week!
