Lusternian Divine AMA
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@Shedrin I don't really play any other PC games... the mobile games I play nowadays though are: Words with Friends, Crystalux ND, Blendoku and of course Pokemon Go.
Books: Wheel of Time series, Katherine Kerr's Deverry Series, most anything involving Brandon Sanderson (he got me hooked with Elantris, loved it!) and the Dragonlance series.
Books, I don't actually get to read as many as I'd like to with as much as I work, but my favourite authors at the moment are Pratchett and Gaiman (separately. Together, not so much; Good Omens kind of lost its appeal about a third of the way through the book for me). I do have a huge soft spot for a lot of authors I read when I was younger though: R.A. Salvatore, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind (if I ignore about half of what he's written), L.E. Modesitt Jr, Philip Pullman, and so many more; back until I started working, my nose was usually in a book in my spare time. Most of what I end up reading these days seems to be reference manuals, documentation, and occasionally the player's handbook and GM guide for various tabletop games.
I'm sure a pattern can be seen in the above somewhere if one looks hard enough.
What are your favorite mortal adventures, plots, schemes, events, hijinks or shenanigans to catch wind of?
@Shaddus
Absolutely everything by Sanderson. Ancillary series holds a very special place in my heart, I read it once a year. Everything Lovecraft purely for the language. Beyond that Aasimov and Prachett.
And Bae Doona would be a perfect Czixi
@AllGods: most of us have a good idea of your persona's pet peeves/dislikes. What are some of your personal pet peeves when it comes to dealing with players?
@Thax: since this is probably never going to be asked in-game, do you have any sort of demigod powers/stole type items in the works any time soon?
@Drocilla: I've often implied to @Nikkakorra ingame that your goblet has Finkinora (sp) essence in it, among other things. What's actually in it?
@AllGods - If the Gods had a dance off in-game, do you think the God you're playing as would rank in the top three? What style of dancing would your character pick for said dance battle?
A serious question...
@AllGods - What is the one question you dread being asked by players the most?
I would, of course. I can disable everybody else's ability to emote. Joking aside, Mysrai or Isune would definitely win I think, and my style of dance would be standing in the corner sipping spiked punch.
As for the question bit, I'm generally open, but anything I'm not allowed to talk about always freezes me up a bit. I've been (usually in a roundabout way) asked about issues, purchases, and future plans that aren't entirely public, and I always feel bad about giving canned responses because I like being helpful in general. Also, occasionally, somebody accidentally asks if something I'm already working on secretly behind the scenes can be implemented, and I can't say "we're already doing it," and it just eats me up because I know hearing that would just make somebody's day probably.
What do you do, IC or OOC.
@Ianir How have you found the transition between Iosai and you? Also, who picked your name? (Curious why another "I" name) And finally, have you found the players to overall be welcoming?
Players have been fairly welcoming. The only time I have felt unwelcome whatsoever is when I hotpatched monk damage and some things that were said in the heat of the moment made their way back to me. Also, the map lag hotfix that lasted a week got somewhat frustrating after a couple days for similar reasons. But that's all part of the job, really, and I never really expected to have a 100% approval rating when my priority is 'keep things running smoothly as often as possible'.
My name was picked by the advanced generator at http://rinkworks.com/namegen/ - I believe I used '(I)ss' - I is a tradition for anomaly names since Iosai.
Isune was one of my favourite gods pre-Hallifax, and unfortunately interactions between my character and yours are unlikely at this date.
The eye of Dylara materialises in your hands and flings itself around your neck, tightening incomprehensibly until it is irremovable.
Perfectly clean, this eyeball has been wrenched from the socket of Dylara. It has been animated by some unusual force, constantly looking around itself as if in shock or fear. It is bathed in a light covering of white flames that roll endlessly over its surface. A single chain of empyreal metal pierces either side of the eye, allowing it to be worn around the neck.
@Fyler I've always had a tough time with handling Avatars (and by extension, cults). I want it to be special for people who really invest in the RP of the Order but worry that if many people get it, it will make it less special. With cults, the system is even more restrictive because there is a hardcoded limit (or so Eventru told me once upon a time) and even without one, low order populations is essentially a limiter in the amount of cults in an order. If someone goes dormant that essentially locks out a cult and the options are to be okay with that or cost someone tons of essence taking it away when you're not sure if they plan to come back and you may still really want them to have it.
@Shaddus One of my biggest pet peeves is weird player conspiracies about how the admin are evil and out to ruin the game. I've (directly, not just as the general "all admin") been accused of only caring about taking money from players because I'm a greedy money grubber who doesn't care about the game (P.S. I am an unpaid volunteer). I've been accused of punishing someone for obvious and egregious rulebreaking because all the admin are out to get them. I've had former admin tell me really weird accusations players have made in clans that make absolutely no sense... I've developed a decently thick skin during my tenure as an admin but that stuff always gets to me.
As to fun items for the order, I do have plans to release some but the Guild Overhaul is my main priority right now, and I have limited time to spend on Lusternia, so they probably won't come along for awhile. If I hadn't started building my godrealm before the overhaul was announced, even that would still be unreleased.
@Selenity I am the Dance Machine.
@Shuyin Mostly I just roll my eyes and walk out. That happens often enough that it's no longer even remotely surprising to walk in on something like that.
@Arix Nothing exciting has happened in mine, although I was really surprised to find so many severed heads the first time I visited it after my release.
@Ianir What's it like being a lead coder in a mostly non-coder or non-professional coder workforce like Lusternia's?
In fact, driven by mad inspiration I've recently progged a system I've nicknamed Godline [Bling] which lets gods send IC messages to their orderling's order items in the hopes it will let me get in touch with Dro's Order easier during times when my hands are full.
As well, being the lead coder, I also have to manage all the other coders (except Roark), including reviewing their proposals, reviewing every single line of code they write that goes into the game, helping them sort out their own projects, and doing occasional check-ins on their code. And this is on top of my own projects, on top of fixing bugs that require immediate coder attention (e.g. when somebody got stuck in a weird flux of being in dreamform and being not in dreamform yesterday night, and I had to go in and modify their character directly in the live game), and on top of learning how to do all the other admin-y things and trying to be generally helpful.
And when I do finally get to sit down and just code, it's amazing - One of the other coders has seen my personal code setup and can testify, between tmux, VIm, both with -very- heavily modified rc files, running in fullscreen in easy-on-the-eyes Solarized Dark, where I can just sit and go at it for hours jumping between panes and file tabs without ever taking my hands off the keyboard and just lose myself, as if the world doesn't exist and there's nothing but me and my project.
It's chaotic, it's never-ending, it's exhausting, and I love it.
I'm a pretty huge fan of grand strategy/4x games. Not necessarily because I'm all that amazing at them, but because I always enjoy the stories that come out of my flailing about.
Like almost everyone else in the Havens, I'm a big fan of most of the fantasy genre, but those by Sanderson, Martin, Jordan (except Crossroads of Twilight, because who the heck thought that having the entire first half of the book essentially be a rehashing of the last part of the previous book was a good idea), and Roth are highest on my list. Outside of fantasy, I really enjoy histories and biographies.
It's actually kind of neat...there's a whole lot of media cross-pollination in Havens. One of us will rave about a new favorite game and another will decide to try it out and get hooked. It's how I was introduced to Mass Effect and Dishonoured (Thanks @Drocilla!) and League of Legends (Thanks @LiterallyAllOfYou).
I was actually looking pretty hard at Charune for awhile as I really liked his RP. Ultimately, though, I decided that I wanted to build a concept tied to an elemental plane and came up with the Pyresmith.
@Selenity My least favourite questions are those based around obscure lore that I then have to panic-check before answering, or questions about Jadice's past with other divine that she's not directly associated with (so basically anyone other than Xyl, Mysrai, Hoaracle and Manteekan), where I'm worried I'll contradict something that's canon but not well-known. Mostly this stuff is fine but the occasional curveball is a harrowing experience!
@Shaddus My pet peeve is typoing with players, especially when it's clear I've mucked up the syntax of a command like an emote, as opposed to a spelling error. No one ever comments (well, not that I can hear, anyway) but it's always embarrassing. Plus what @Thax said; trust me, if admin were out to get you, you'd know.
@Shedrin Like @Yomoigu, I enjoy strategy games. Also city-builders, and the occasional JRPG or FPS-RPG.
If you were a type of cheese what would you be?
Edit: I don't have a real question since mine was already asked, so this is what you get.