I had this application called "Elvis Decoder Ring" once. It was cool. I have no clue what it did, but it probably used a super secret AES algorithm or something.
What we need is some sort of... "Cythera Decoder Ring." That way we could decode all these letters and numbers and stuff.

Okay, I know, people are making a big thing out of gay marriage, but you don't have to bring this to Cythera. It's a game! An old one, at that.

Half Truth, on Jun 28 2005, 03:38 AM, said:

I am psycho or does this theory explain a lot of unanswered questions.
View Post

The only question you need to ask yourself is if you have feelings towards... Nevermind. I got ya.

I want a bucket override, so I can put anything in a bucket. I want to put cheese in a bucket, a table in a bucket, Magpie in a bucket, Odemia in a bucket, hell, I want to put Mater Theia in a bucket. This, I believe, can only be accomplished in a TS; Cythera will only let me put milk or water in a bucket. It won't even let me mix milk and water, so I can get half-and-half.
"Putting wine in a bucket is a crude and boorish thing to do."
Damn it!

Cythera will always hold a special place in my heart because of it's atmosphere.
The only thing I can think of that kept it from gaining the popularity of EV is the modularity aspect. Who knows? Warrior Kings has worse graphics, yet a lot of people play that. I know, MMORPG versus CRPG, and god forbid if Cythera ever becomes an MMORPG... (Not going to happen in the first place)
I digress. It would be real fun if Cythera had the modularity of PoG. I have been detached from this universe for a while, though. Has anyone 'ported' Cythera to Coldstone? It would be difficult without an editor. Perhaps that's the best we could hope for, an editor that would ease the port of Cythera to the Coldstone game engine? I'm sure there are topics on this...
After a quick search, it seems Talos has taken this on as a project?

Imagine if this could become the EV of RPG's! Glenn would be among the gods!
Blobbo!
I mean, Bravo!

Pfft to Harry, I want this. Or Harry and Cythera X. Or Cytharry X. Imagine- Stave-al Guns, or Swivel Chars.

You're right, I'm surprised I didn't catch that:
"This is a prerelease version of Delver, not indented(sic) for distribution. Delver is a computer role playing game engine created by Glenn Andreas."
I don't see how that can help us, though. It still belongs to Glenn Andreas and will always until he dies. Now, short of killing him, there is probably no way to get a Cythera II using the Delver engine. It's obvious Mr. Andreas has dropped the project, he ascended into the pits of depression, he is drinking his life away while his imagination is leaving him and becoming part of mine. Probably something along those lines. First he taunts us with this wonderful engine and then he clutches it saying "No! It's mine! You cannot have it! Not until I die! I've got copyrights!! Copyrights!!"

What happened to the old GAndreas? The one who answered, quote:
"Fortune and glory. And fun. I basically see myself as a storyteller with an unconventional way of telling the story. And as a job, it is sure more fun than things like printer drivers or internet firewalls (not that I didn't learn a lot from both those pursuits, but they weren't intrinsically fun)."
Egads! He said the word 'fun' three times! Since when does he say the word fun? I'll tell you when: When he wrote the word 'functionality.' Just once, as far as I can see.

Now, for an idea nobody wants to hear because it's so radically stupid--It would never happen. Well, here goes: Once ASW and Beenox work out the issues with CGE, maybe Glenn could work with Beenox to integrate Cythera's innovative features so he and us could design things that are similar to Cythera in Coldstone, which would be more developed than his present editor. Hell, I'd pay $100 for that. That's right; double the price. He could even include Cythera's graphics and maps in a converted version on the CD as it's 5th birthday is coming up in about six months. I know what you're thinking: "Gee, DataSpot, why do you come up with such stupid ideas to top off your controversial and inane comments?" I'd then reply: "Gee, you mind person... You're mean." and the mind person would go on to say... Something in response, as this is a two-way conversation and we're reciprocating, something my girlfriend doesn't know how to do, all she does is smile and giggle, which makes me speak in run-on sentences with the pauses thrown out because they aren't used by the listening party, which is boring after a while.

So, what are some things Cythera has that aren't in Coldstone?
I can list two things: The text box in dialogue and NPC party members. Also, can one pick locks (with percentage of opening) in Coldstone? I'll bet that there is a script that can make this happen.

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(url="http://"http://www.johnforster.com/ART_NINE.html")Article Nine(/url)
Peace through technology and technology through peace.
(url="http://"http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/") The world understood as only a computer could. (/url)

Well, skip the Mission Critical part, then; I understand where you guys are coming from, and I guess the idea works better when your system just has six buttons and a d-pad. That flagging idea is a good one; perhaps command, shift, option, or control keys would change the mouse into a different pointer: one to toggle map-stickiness, and the others to be user assignable to certain bags that the user or the npc's in your party have so when an item is clicked on it is sent to that bag.

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(url="http://"http://www.johnforster.com/ART_NINE.html")Article Nine(/url)
Peace through technology and technology through peace.
(url="http://"http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/") The world understood as only a computer could. (/url)

I would have to say that almost everybody and everything about Cythera was interactable, and that makes it a very good game indeed. I've played several other RPG's, and the level of detail of this game surpasses all of those games. I was surprised I could milk goats then make butter, or make flatbread, or attempt to fill a bucket with wine, turn lights on and off, lock and unlock doors, the list goes on... One thing you said, Cody, that wasn't quite correct was that things do disappear, especially when left outdoors or in most towns and places. Land King Hall is one exception. I don't like this that much, especially since you can leave your crolna (or kelp) somewhere and never get it again; which isn't good, because if that was your second piece of kelp or your crolna you just lost, you just lost something else: the game. I guess that's why PoG won't let you drop mission critical items.
While I'm on the subject of items, I once saw in that certain popular children's game for that little hand held console a feature that automatically organizes your person's items into different pockets on a bag. If applied to the new Delver engine, I imagine one pocket could hold Oboloi, others could hold Potions, Mission Critical Items, or Weapons & Armor.
People also seem to like to organize their notes. Notes could be organized by date taken, person speaking, or your own categories, such as under missions. Perhaps notes could be dragged into the missions tab to appear under the pertaining mission.

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(url="http://"http://www.johnforster.com/ART_NINE.html")Article Nine(/url)
Peace through technology and technology through peace.
(url="http://"http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/") The world understood as only a computer could. (/url)

Sounds like there are some very interesting ideas floating around, and Pallas brought up a good point, but then again, Pallas may have made Glenn bite his tongue; I'm surprised he's been as open as he has. It seems to me that although everybody would love to see a Cythera II in any form, Mr. Andreas just doesn't want to do it right now. I know that it can be done; how else are other Ambrosia products being done? Now it's apparent that unlike other great game developers such as FantaSoft, Delta Tao, and most notably Spiderweb Software, Ambrosia doesn't have RPG's (with the exception of the almost-RPG Escape Velocity) on the top of it's list, or on any list, which doesn't surprise me. <sigh> I guess that's the way it is.
I eventually realized I'd have to get my RPG fix elsewhere, and although not nearly as good as Cythera, two of my favorite RPG's are the Avernum and Geneforge series.

And no, I just played Clan Lord to get the experience of different RPG's. It seemed to me one step up from Angband, graphics-wise. Of course, Diablo was basically Angband with graphics. The gameplay of Clan Lord seemed to have been pretty good, though, because Delta Tao updates it every now and then, and people play and pay for it. MMORPG's seem pretty popular nowadays. I've only played Diablo II, but from what I take from it, the storyline suffers from this feature. Of course, that's just from playing one game that isn't considered by some a massively multiplayer RPG, I may be wrong, but that's my theory as to why He doesn't want to make a multiplayer version.
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(url="http://"http://www.johnforster.com/ART_NINE.html")Article Nine(/url)
Peace through technology and technology through peace.
(url="http://"http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/") The world understood as only a computer could. (/url)

(This message has been edited by DataSpot (edited 02-01-2004).)

I think a better sequel would integrate the first Cythera with the second's storyline, so you never leave the land after you cure Alaric; It would be like completing the first half, and the second half is the same land but differences, such as an increase or decrease in monsters (perhaps the arrival of sylphs or undine to fight) as well as characters having a different attitude, and different houses having different power. Sure, Alaric would have more control over things now, new challenges should arise, perhaps freeing the island of the threat of the scylla or uniting all of the elements under peace -- I imagine a new LKH which has a compass, and Alaric would be at the centre, then in the corresponding directions around the compass there would be the Seldane with earth & mushrooms, Undine with pools of water, Ignae with lava, and Sylph over the starry abyss.
Some quests that should be added to the first part are:
Rescue/Find Larisa
Use the Timeflux book to bring the wine of the Northshore Vineyard back to regularity, and thus be able to fulfill the wine contract
Aw, heck, I just did some 'gravedigging' (as some call it) to get some ideas. Sorry about my posts, this was five years ago, okay? I was, like, 10 years old. (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum5/HTML/000111.html")http://www.ambrosias...TML/000111.html(/url)

From another thread I got this information (quoth Glenn Andreas):
"To say that the editor is buggy and not user friendly is an understatement (I believe I can still crash it by typing command-Q while in certain dialogs, for example, and there are other times that if you switch to another program it will pretty much require you to reboot your machine). However, the underlying architecture of the Delver engine is pretty flexible (for example, there is even the ability to make the correct file and drop it in the folder with the app and completely replace anything, including the UI).

The biggest problem isn't adding in new items, new UI, etc... but how to handle the maps. For example, let's say that you wanted to add a cellar to a building in town (and that cellar might lead to a bunch of tunnels or something). Well, suppose we wanted to have that trapdoor locked, and put the key in a given chest. Now what if the player has already been in the room with the chest, taken the chest, and then destroyed it, where does this new key go? On the floor where the chest was? Is the key destroyed with the chest?

Or suppose we add a building, behind a locked door, and part of the plot is to figure out how to get in the building. How do you prevent the player from just walking to where the building will be when the add-in is applied, quit, and then apply the add-in?

The only safe way to handle this is to permit new add-ins to only appear when the game is restarted, but how many times do you want to start the game over to use the latest add-in?

If we can't do this sort of thing right, our energy is probably better spent elsewhere (like trying to fix the leak in my basement)."

I do think it's reasonable to ask people to restart their games once a new plug-in is created. In my opinion, it would be better to play the game from the start with all the extras.

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(url="http://"http://www.johnforster.com/ART_NINE.html")Article Nine(/url)
Peace through technology and technology through peace.
(url="http://"http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/") The world understood as only a computer could. (/url)