Katuko

IC (Mevi, Ta-Koro, Turaga's chamber): "You tell me," Mevi said as she rose to her feet. "This Toa is out cold, and she appears to be grievously injured. Turaga, what exactly happened here?""I'm afraid I only know what you know," the Turaga answered. "This Toa stumbled in the door not a minute before you entered yourself. If anyone holds answers, it's her."Mevi looked back down at the Toa. One of the guardsmen nudged her with his foot, but Mevi shot him a glare and that made him back off. She turned to the newly arrived guard, whom she now recognized as Tarotrix. If she weren't mistaken, she had once scouted for his squad on a mission to fend off a settlement of infected Rahi. That had gone rather well, and even though Mevi wasn't a fan of his aggressiveness, she respected the Matoran as a good warrior."We will have to get her to a medic or healer," she said. "...But first, do you have any news on the escaped murderer, Tarotrix?"

OOC: I skimmed the last few pages, but I missed that. It's kind of hard to keep up with all the stuff that's going on. IC (Mevi): Mevi suddenly became aware of the pained moans coming from behind her. At first she thought one of her fellow guards had run into the doorframe or something, but as soon as she noticed the injured being on the floor she gasped."Mata Nui! Who's this? A Toa? What happened?"She got no real answer, but she didn't wait for one. The Ta-Matoran quickly walked over to the Toa of Water and kneeled down besides her. The Toa looked terrible. Mevi noticed a large scar on her chin, and her armor looked way too small. Frowning, Mevi gently shook the Toa's shoulder to see if she could get a reply out of her."Hey, are you all right?"

Because the Horsemann's axe is a reskin of the Eyelander, and the two function in exactly the same way. This includes the "head" mechanic, even though it's not mentioned in the weapon's description. For every head you take (a kill means automatic decapitation) with it, you gain +15 max health and additional move speed (8%) up to a maximum of 4 heads. For every head you also gain +10 damage to a shield charge hit, from its base 50. This bonus goes up to 5 heads. The Demoman's eye also glows brighter for each head he takes. Decapitating an enemy Demoman will steal his heads as well, so you can sometimes gain more than one head from a kill. So in effect, it all boils down to whether you find the axe cooler than the sword or not.

OOC: I'm just gonna jump straight into the apparent action here with my new character.IC (Mevi):The doors to Turaga Vakama's chamber burst open, and in came four Ta-Matoran. The one in front, the only female in the group, bowed her head respectfully, but hastily, before speaking."Turaga! The guard managed to pursue the murderer to the edge of the village, but then he managed to cross the bridge moments before it was lowered! Rumors has it he fled up the mountain, but we have not been able to locate him."Mevi rubbed some dust off the lens of her Akaku."I tried to search for him with my telescopic sights, but there are so many rocks and cliff faces out there it'll be almost impossible to find him now. What should we do, honorable Turaga?"

IC (Madrihk):Madrihk had been skulking around Le-Koro for some time now, looking for supplies. He was disappointed in the scarcity of useful stuff. Apart from weapons and food that they already had covered, there was little else of interest. He therefore settled on gathering intel, and decided that it would be useful to know about the current Rahi situation. Turaga Matau would know, he was certain.When he reached the Turaga's hut, however, he saw that there were already several visitors. Trakuda, his fellow Ko-Matoran, was there, along with a few other Matoran. Madrihk didn't really have an interest in their conversation, but he stayed to listen and wait for his turn to see the Turaga. Surely he would sooner or later find a foreign Toa more interesting than mere Matoran and their petty problems...

Yeah, Xanatos wins hands down. Heck, TV Tropes named the whole "complicated plan" article after him, so a ridiculously convoluted masterplan is now known as a "Xanatos Gambit".

IC (Madrihk):"Of course."Feeling a bit restless, Madrihk decided to let recruitment handle itself for a while. He moved the sign onto the branch he had been sitting on, then hung his list of names besides it. He carved another line into the sign before leaving. ""SEEKING ADVENTURERS FOR LARGE-SCALE ISLAND TREK.PURPOSE: LIBERATION AND ACQUISITION OF LAND FROM MAKUTA'S HORDES.PAYMENT: HONOR, GLORY, NEW PLACES TO LIVE AND WHATEVER LOOT THAT MAY BE FOUND.SIGN UP HERE. GENERAL ORIENTATION WILL BE HELD LATER TODAY."That done, the Toa of Ice stalked off to "find" some supplies.

IC (Madrihk):"Niiice..." Madrihk said as he looked at the forming item. His mind quickly formulated a plan for squeezing some profit out of the situation, but given that they were in the middle of a jungle he doubted fruit would sell for much. Instead, he simply wrote down Vompran's name on his list (making sure to add "skill: food dispenser" after it) and then clasped his hands together."Well, then," he said, invigorated, "That's three of us. The other one went to take care of some personal business, feel free to do so too. We won't be leaving until everything is in order."

If anyone wants to join a group my character is setting up, get moving to Le-Koro's main square. The purpose is to gather a team, then set off into the land along the south-eastern coast between Le- and Ta-Koro. The group to fight off Rahi, then establish a new "village". With this as a base of operations, a new community, independent of the elementally affiliated Koros, shall be made. A major kick in the face for Makuta, no doubt. We shall see if it draws his attention...

It was scheduled to happen in one of the books, but that part was cancelled for some reason. Greg still released info on that part of the story, and I think it stuck as canon.

Can Teleport be used in gas form, though? Most likely it can, but then you would think other Makuta would have used it to escape as well, such as Tridax.

IC (Madrihk):"I am going to acquire most of the supplies myself, but it would be great if we could all work together on that part," Madrihk said. Mentally, he added:Acquire, as in "pilfer from the inn"...Out loud, he continued:"We are going into almost unknown territory here, and I have no doubt that this trip will take weeks."He put away the enlistment roster and pulled out another sheet of paper."Right now we only got this," he said with a weak smile, and showed the paper to the Toa before him. It was blank, save for one word at the top: "Backpack.""Jokes aside," he continued, "we have nothing. The plan was to travel light, and gather resources on the way. I guess we all have our own skills and weapons already, and we don't need all that much food given that we can find it in the forest. Our main worries are being overwhelmed by Rahi or something, really."Madrihk fished out the name list again."I never caught your name," he said, in an inquiring tone. Seeing several people passing by who had just entered the village, he also made certain to move to the side so that his sign would be more visible to the newcomers."SEEKING ADVENTURERS FOR LARGE-SCALE ISLAND TREK.PURPOSE: LIBERATION AND ACQUISITION OF LAND FROM MAKUTA'S HORDES.PAYMENT: HONOR, GLORY, NEW PLACES TO LIVE AND WHATEVER LOOT THAT MAY BE FOUND."

Just sort the server list by map name, then browse down until you find cp_manor_event. Choose any server that does not include tags like "respawntimes", "increased_maxplayers", "premium", "bots", etc and you should be on a decent one. Most Manor servers will always be a bit chaotic, though, due to everyone scrambling for gifts and the Horsemann and whatnot. If you want to play a match with me, send me a PM. Always happy to meet a new player (as long as they're not totally insane). The Haunted Metal is used for special Halloween craft recipes. Note that since it's an achievement item, you can only get it once! Therefore, you must choose to craft either the Horsemann's axe or one of the two Halloween hats (Spine-Chilling Skull and Voodoo Juju). The hat craft is random as always, but if you get one you don't like you can trade it for the other, most likely. Personally, I'm going to craft the axe. Heh, I actually have the Haunted Metal from last year, but I didn't bother to "waste" metal on what is essentially a re-skin weapon. Didn't find the hats too appealing outside of Halloween either.

I.C.Vompran"I'll volunteer for the job."IC (Madrihk, Le-Koro): Volunteer number two, and it was a good one. Madrihk could tell from the Toa's blue and green armor that his element was Plant Life, something that would be very useful when traversing the forest on the way to their eventual destination. He nodded once to the newcomer as a greeting and smiled."That's great! We really need someone like you if we are to get through the jungle. I'm Madrihk: Toa of Ice and leader of this trip. Tell me a bit about yourself and I'll have you signed up in no time. Also tell me if you have any questions. I'm writing up a formal plan for our journey, but it's a bit variable until we got a full team."

You're right, I'll buff it. it's not like there are too many water breathing powers anyways.

Note that he only spawns if there is a certain amount of players on the server (10). He also gets more HP the more players there are, to balance the amount of damage he takes. Make sure to strike him with melee shortly before his death (and then survive until he dies) if you want the Haunted Metal.

Yeah, I see where you are coming from. It's just so much easier for me to continue on the same track than having to stop and learn some brand new techniques. I'll see what I can do, though. Heck, maybe I'll just fling together a simple multiplayer mini-game for you while I work on the "full version".

Norwegian is my mother tongue, but I've been learning English since I was young. I'm not always perfect in my pronunciation, but I dare say that I have better grammar than certain native speakers I meet.

Many games are like that, I just named the ones I'm the most familiar with. The thing about multiplayer is that its code relies on passing info back and forth between two different systems, and before I start doing that I would rather have things working on one system. For example, none of the elements incorporate proper animations. That means I have to rewrite part of the code when I add those in, and that would essentially mean twice the amount of work if I had started multiplayer since I would then need to modify the net code as well. The melee system also lacks shields and other stuff, while there are some bad glitches regarding movement, so that's another few reasons to push multiplayer down the list. Time zones would probably keep me from operating a server at "prime time", even though I spend a lot of time in front of the computer. I'm in Europe, so that's half a day of difference from America (though I have no idea where most of you are from).

IC (Madrihk, Le-Koro):The Matoran went running off, apparently quite eager to get started. Madrihk smirked. This was going even better than he expected. The Toa of Ice had thought the would have to persuade potential team members a bit more before they would be willing to come along, but if he could find some more enthusiastic adventurers like Trakuda, it might not be so hard to get going after all. Madrihk jotted down the Matoran's name on a list. He would have to keep things organized. He briefly toyed with the idea of making everyone sign a contract in order to secure their loyalty to him, but he figured that that would almost require him to pay them. Still, it was a tempting idea... but one that would only serve to make them dislike him. That wouldn't do. He needed a team that was loyal out of respect, otherwise they would object when he started nudging them down the gray and then the dark path towards his true goals... With a sigh, the Toa put the list into a bag he had recently "acquired" - along with the money he had used to buy his other supplies, incidentally - and kept waiting for more applicants.

IC (Madrihk, Le-Koro):The Toa of Ice nodded approvingly."Tools... if you don't have your own, I'm sure we can get some for you before we leave. Since I'm in charge here..." ( Madrihk thought it best to point that out quickly) "...you just tell me what you think we need and I'll put it on my list. Now, for your question: Our destination is not set in stone. Depending on who joins this group we might end up in different places. I was thinking we would march east, however, and somewhat south."He pulled out a map and pointed."As you know, we are here in Le-Koro, smack in the middle of the jungle and swamps. Ta-Koro lies here, near the foot of the volcano. But this area here..." - he traced his finger around the south-eastern coast - "...is mostly unoccupied and only home to roaming beasts. We will gather a team, then force our way into that land and claim it as our own. The servants of Makuta will try to stop us, but we shall prevail."Madrihk rolled the map back up and straightened his back."Once there, we will have to fortify our position to avoid being overrun. But once we've done that, we will have a new village on this island. With that as a home base, a fortress, we can then move to take back other parts of the island. But that's more of a long-term plan, of course."The Toa leaned forwards, almost imperceptibly."Does that sound good to you?" he asked.

In code: 39DLL, as I mentioned earlier. A "simple" matter of sending packets of data back and forth and making sure the events on each player's screen syncs up. From the player's point of view; I'd do it like the Source Engine does: One player sets up a server, then the others see it in a list and select one to join. Any player can then set up a server with their own settings, and I don't have to keep a server running 24/7. The downside is that if that player drops out, everyone drops out. Of course, this is a problem with any LAN game, so I'm not really worried.

IC:Madrihk gave the Matoran before him a quick once-over. A Pakari-wearer, white, but with dark blue feet. Madrihk furrowed his brow. A Ko-Matoran. Not good, given his status as an outcast. Still, he couldn't remember having ever seen him before, so he guessed that the guy had been away for some time.Just as good, he thought. Out loud, he said:"Of course, my friend, anyone can join as long as they contribute with something. And don't worry: I'm not picky. Being able to fight is a plus due to the nature of this trip, but it's not a must as long as we have a few more warriors with us. If you have any other skills, they are welcome as well." He smiled. "The only people I won't take right now are cripples or lazybones, but you don't look like either, so I guess you're good. My name's Madrihk, by the way. What's yours?"

D'oh. I see.General info to y'all: Make a shortcut, never ever ever move the *.exe of a program unless that is the only file the program actually needs. In this case, moving the executable breaks its link with the music sub-folder, as well as making the DLL incapable of loading. That DLL is the backbone of the save/load system, so I would have expected the game to throw an error right away because it couldn't initialize vital functions. (Though I've turned off standard error messages for the public releases because out of the few I'm getting I know what they are and the bugs I cannot find are those that don't spawn messages in the first place.)Also of note: Characters files can be placed anywhere on your computer. You can move the character folder if you want. but the music, INI DLL and the executable itself must have the configuration they do now: EXE and INI in the same folder, music in a sub-folder named that.@alpha123: Adaptation actually has a form of underwater breathing already. It may be a bit hard to notice, but Rahkshi of that type lose air a lot slower than others. This should also work for choking from freezing and eventual air/vacuum powers.The trailer is now up on Vimeo, by the way. Link in the first post.

OOC: Haven't gotten any further conversation out of Laki, so I'll move on for now.IC (Madrihk):"...Thanks," Madrihk said, having gotten the info he needed from Laki. The Toa of Ice said goodbye, and limped onwards towards Le-Koro's clinic, where he got his leg patched up. After nearly a full day's sleep at an inn, Madrihk felt revitalized. His leg still hurt, but at least he didn't limp anymore. He also felt that his elemental energy was nearly full again. Even so, he would make sure not to overexert himself. The last solo trip through the jungle had nearly killed him, and he had no idea who he could trust in this foreign region. It looked like the commuity was rather friendly, but he had heard rumors of people fighting each other and not just Rahi. Once you got out of Le-Koro itself, into essentially lawless territory, anything could happen. But if anyone found out who he was, he would most likely not be safe in the village either. The best thing to do would be to leave quickly and keep traveling, but that was too dangerous. A real dilemma...Madrihk felt a growing idea in the back of his head. The only place someone like him could feel safe were places where he would be accepted. But a murderer wasn't easy to accept for most of those who would be willing to form communities, and the rest would not be trustworthy themselves... Therefore, Madrihk felt the need to be in charge. If he made the laws, then he would be safe from them. But still: Someone would surely want to dethrone him sooner or later. In that case, he needed protection. But who would be both trustworthy and willing to protect him? The Toa pondered this question for a while, until he came to a conclusion.With a flat wooden board in hand, Madrihk strolled out of the inn, carving some words into it with a sharpened rock. He drew the attention of several Le-Koronans as he carried the sign across the treetop village. He sat down on a branch running close to the "ground" and placed the relatively large sign next to himself."SEEKING ADVENTURERS FOR LARGE-SCALE ISLAND TREK.PURPOSE: LIBERATION AND ACQUISITION OF LAND FROM MAKUTA'S HORDES.PAYMENT: HONOR, GLORY, NEW PLACES TO LIVE AND WHATEVER LOOT THAT MAY BE FOUND."With a confident smile, Madrihk leaned back against and waited confidently for the first applicant. He knew that someone would eventually sign up, for there were few warriors who could resist the call to adventure. The only question that worried the Toa of Ice was: Once they were gathered, would he be able to make them do as he wanted?OOC: Yeah, recruiting whomever here. Madrihk's not picky at this point in time.