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I'm glad you survived. And I know what you mean about the human mind. I was in a bad wreck once, and even though I couldn't feel my legs and my car was all smushed, all I was thinking was, "Where are my eyeglasses?" I was asking the paramedics who were trying to load me in an ambulance if they'd seen my eyeglasses anywhere.
Thank the Gods for Saving Throws and Seat Belts! Glad you escaped relatively unscathed
Dang, that looks like a really bad accident! Glad you are okay. Really sucks about the care though, but at least you got out of it in one piece!
Awesome to see this progress so quickly! What Goblinz suggested for handling combat seems like a good idea, but other than that it's hard to give feedback from a players' point of view at this early stage of development.
I really do think that this project has a ton of potential, so best of luck to you! ;) I'll follow the development with interest, and I look forward to seeing this module evolve further.
--TehRei
I'm going to keep playing the game and forget I read this. Such absurdity never even crossed my mind until now.
I'll see if I can fix it. Or come on #tome at irc.rizon.net some time.
Thank you for your input. I'll see what I can do with your idea about battle implementation. I think that there still should be a main class that controls the battle flow and register the choice selection dialogs when player input is required.
I gladly would make a thread on the forums, but I can't register. The registration page says that my e-mail is 'not allowed to be used'. I did contact the developers on this problem (used the 'Contact' page on this site), but haven't received a reply yet.
I think this is a neat demonstration of what is possible. You have gotten to a nice point to progress from. Before you get to far into specialties I would suggest not using the dialog box for the combat. I think teleporting the player to an arena and spawning allies will work better from a user stand point. Plus you can take advantage of more t-engine features like particle effects. I hope you make progress and make a cool game.
you should also start a thread in the forum for this
That's a lot of time spent killing pixels,we could have worked out a plan for world peace in that time.......but where's the fun in that? ;)
That is a lot of time. But time well spent! :P
This makes you extremely effective in producing good time!Wish you lots of players and donations ;)
Well, it's hard to call them racist when they truly are superior in many ways. They simply want to preserve their bloodline- and in the fictional world of ToME (as in most fantasy worlds), blood and race do a lot more than physical features and whatnot- race gives significant powers and abilities, many of which are directly linked to each race's unified culture. Not being very racially-aware in such a world would be a serious drawback.
The in-game lore deliberately shows Highers as being racist, being obsessed with pure blood and occupying higher positions in society through unfair means. But then pretty much every race has some elements of racism to them - the only difference with Highers is that they are racist against other human types, which has unfortunate parallels with the real world. But those parallels are still deliberate, and are not meant to be any stronger or weaker than the racism and segregation shown in other races. All races in Maj'Eyal are meant to be "human" in personality, to reflect the thoughts and motivations that drive us in the real world, both the good and the bad. If the game makes one think of racism in the real world then job done, I say. Just have to realise it's meant as a reflection, not a statement.
Wow...I didn't expect this. Found it by chance through googling, I was looking for info on the ToMe setting change...
I can't resist commenting however, since I feel that unfair accusations of racism shouldn't be passed over.
Not only are they wrong in themselves but they are damaging in that they might make justified accusations of racism be taken less seriously.
The fact that Maj'Eyal is a fantasy world *IS*extremely relevant.
For one, the existence of different human races with significant differences makes it a world where *racialism* is true - which is required by, but does not imply or by itself justify *racism*.
I'm saying that being able to envision different 'human races' with different 'abilities', while a necessary component of racism, is not by itself racist, just like being able to think of sex differences does not make one a sexist.
Look at it this way - if in the real world there was a small ethnic group were EVERY member possessed a specific special powers other groups didn't have - please look to the Higher base talent for an example of , and then the advanced ones - then our discussions of racism involving that group would likely be very different, don't you think?
Luckily, our world doesn't work like that.
Which is actually why I think that exploring racism in this kind of game would be, while not offhand wrong, something to do very carefully.
Because fantasy races DO have significant, obvious differences, which is usually the point from a game design perspective.
I'm saying that while racism in Maj'Eyal wouldn't be good(well, duh, it's racism), it could certainly be more *understandable*(less obviously wrong?) than in the real world...hence using it as a metaphor for THIS world racism could be, well, dangerous?
Because Highers *are* different and not just because of culture.
They're NOT people like ourselves - hell, Cornacs aren't that either when you look at what some of them can do with the proper class(and that doesn't count as magic - look at Zerkers and Unstoppable, for example).
Yes, the hair color difference is a bit annoying, I have to say, it was a lazy way to differentiate them.
Oh and don't forget that playing someone inherently superior 'just because' IS a significant part of many fantasy games - yes, you may train very hard, but often you are some kind of fated/predestined hero...ToMe is nice and very 'progressive' about that, as you're just an adventurer.
Also, 4 things to consider if you really care about 'race' in ToME:
1)Highers aren't really superior, and this was already brought up. Being superior would imply being better in every way, hence they would have an extra cat point(and perhaps no exp modifier - if you believe it represent learning difference and not simply balance)
It is true that the 'Higher' name is then deceptive, but then that might be simply how they call themselves or are called by Cornacs.
2)Halflings technically would likely be
Human, as there is a mention of a Higher and Halfling breeding with no magic involved, and we have no reason to believe this 'hybrid' is unfertile.
3)If you *MUST* see Highers as equivalent to a possible real world human group, I feel the closest match would a genetically altered bloodline to have slightly superior physical and remarkably superior healing abilities and eyesight- but which ended having a slight learning impairment(loss of the cat point).
Would their *existence* by itself make the world racist, or racism justified?
4)There are technically another two human subraces which aren't playable. One would be described as 'dark skinned'(the Sholtar).
While I think having them playable would be nice, I suspect that them becoming available as PCs and having different racial talents than Cornacs and Higher would cause even more complaints, wouldn't it?
All of what you mentioned is possible. As a general rule any thing that is grid based can be done with the t-engine. The question is whether its more work than starting from scratch. The t-engine can already do control of multiple characters (just see summon control). Random encounters are easy to add to the game though they do get annoying. And you get to choose what happens when the "player" dies. for example in cheat mode you can keep resurrecting. I can make minor changes and have that work in non debug mode. If you want help try hanging out on the tome channel at irc.rizon.net #tome. generally someone will be able to help you
It's not spoiler-y enough to warrant it's current place in my opinion. I agree with your suggestion.
My understanding of programming is fairly limited, and I haven't ever worked with lua, so I don't know how much my input is worth, but here it is anyways ;)
The T-engine is pretty damn flexible. Point number 1 and 2 in your post should most definitely be do-able, but it would take some work. Obviously one would have to approach that project differently from making a roguelike in the T-engine. There wouldn't be as many shortcuts (at least I don't think so) as if you'd make a roguelike -- generating levels, handling combat, movement, turn order and so on would probably be very different from how it's done in ToME4.
Point number 3 sort of goes without saying if you want a non-roguelike RPG.
Unfortunately I can't really help you with the programming, I would if I could though. But if you've actually managed the basic components maybe you wouldn't need too much help in any case :)
Good luck to you anyway! If you do make some progress I hope you'll write another blog entry.
--TehRei
That's basically what your point sounds like to me. Not that it isn't partially a valid point -- but it seems very contradictory to me.
They have magic in their blood, yes, and they don't want to intermingle with Cornacs in order to remain "pure". However, I believe the definition of racism is to classify certain ethnicity's as you put it: "a different race of man". That's the part that made wigdaddy uncomfortable, and that's certainly racism.
Now you could say that keeping the two races separate would not mean racism, much like a law that was in force in the US until 1954. I suggest you read up on that in order to get some understanding about why that philosophy is today considered flawed (in addition to racist).
As I said in a previous comment however, Highers are likely not as superior to Cornacs as they perceive themselves to be. What I mean by that is that Highers are sort of racist, but the setting of Maj'Eyal is not.Anyway I'm getting fed up with this debate now, so I'm probably gonna leave this topic alone for now. I do agree that Highers being blond Caucasians is likely a coincidence though.
Have a nice day
--TehRei
The thing about Highers is that it's not that they were selected from birth in a litter of cornacs, it's that they have innate magic in their veins, and they want to preserve it, hence the refusal to breed with Cornacs. If the game was being racist, it would have something along the lines of 'Highers were going to be Cornacs, but they were born blond and they are better then the dirty Cornacs because of it'. They're a different race of man, and need to be treated as such. The blond hair in the Shockbolt tileset is there to distinguish the race, and I think it's pure coincidence.
Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse, but I wanted to voice my opinions on this, even if they might be a little unclear. To clarify, my point is that Highers, even if they're humans, they have the magic in their blood that makes them different enough to separate from Cornacs.
I don't think there's anything particularly spoilery in this section. Shouldn't it be moved into Game-play?
Huge thanks to whoever it is updating the whole wiki! Even though I don't need this information so much anymore it's nice to know that any and all newer players will have access to more current information.
<3 u long tiem
This page is currently rather vague, which may be appropriate, as its not under the "Spoilers" section. But I think there is a place for a more detailed list of exactly how things work. Should that go under pages for the individual resources?
Some of this has already been covered in my response to Grey and others, but I'll go over it again anyway for clarity. it was certainly never the narrative depiction of racism that I was concerned with. Quite the opposite, I consider that laudable and would like to see more of it, particularly where the Highers and Cornacians are concerned.
The game mechanics and presentation were what I felt bore some examination, not because I felt they were intentionally racist, but because I think they may have ended up looking that way accidentally.
Not everything about the Highers' superiority is presented as simply being their own opinion of themselves - some of it seems to be presented as objective reality. They really do have many traits that make them superior to Cornacians, which is what necessitates the experience penalty for playing them. Some of them are even called "racial" traits explicitly.
Your quote is accurate, and you're correct that the implication was quite serious. That made it all the more important, however, for me to establish a productive dialogue on the matter. I believe I have succeeded in that goal. I do apologize if anyone was offended by my remarks; such was not my intention. For what it's worth, I signed up to be a Silver Contributor to this game weeks ago. Obviously I must not hate this game or the wonderful man who created it, I have a voluntary monthly autodebit straight from my bank account to his!
As I've stated explicitly a few times now, I wasn't accusing DarkGod or anyone else of being a racist. He really obviously isn't. Full stop.
I was pointing out that some of the material in the game could be *perceived* as racist because of the way in which it is presented, particularly at the very beginning. This was probably something that should at the very least be looked at, don't you think? Like I said in the original post, I know I can't be the only one to see these similarities.
It's even clear to me where the accident occurred; the Highers are based on the Dunedain, who are in turn based on Atlanteans. The Aryans themselves were likewise supposed to be descended from the people of Atlantis. One of the discrepancies, however, was that the Dunedain, unlike the Aryans, were not blond; when the Shockbolt interface made the Highers' hair blond, it accidentally increased their resemblance to the Aryan race. Is this resemblance intentional? Of course not! But if I saw it, others will too, and doubtlessly these concerns will be raised again.
At some point, someone even more inexperienced with the game than me will come along and accuse DarkGod of racism for real, exactly as belmarduk imagines I am doing. And then the media might get ahold of it and turn it into something bigger than what it is, and all kinds of fallout will result.
I personally would not like to see that happen, because this really is a wonderful game with an uncanny level of social awareness, and for it to have its reputation slandered in that way would be unforgivable.
I think you're right. Thanks again for all your valuable insight, TehRei. I'm going to go ahead and put up a disclaimer at the top of my post to prevent any further misunderstandings.
Edit: I'm trying to, anyway. Anyone know how to get around the line break error when using the Filtered HTML setting? I like all the formatting options, but turning my long-winded post into one big unreadable paragraph again is simply not an option. :P
Other Edit: Decided to learn how to use MediaWiki instead. Guys, if nothing else, it's been educational. B]
I used the word "Aryan." It's a completely different term. The Aryan Nations are a white supremacist group started in Idaho in the 1970s. The Aryans were the supposed ancestors of the Germans in Nazi ideology, descended from the people of Atlantis. You might want to read things more carefully before responding to them, belmarduk. You've had the wrong idea about me from the beginning.