Long time, no post.
Hey all. While I don't really have much time for playing, developing, checking forums, etc. lately, I still really love to read Creatures blogs. It's a small but still satisfying way I can indulge myself in a hobby I don't have a lot of time for any more. So while you still shouldn't expect much from me for a while, I did go ahead and update the Blog List to make it a little easier for others to view and for me to keep updated.
This version of the list automates just about everything thanks to feeds-- all I have to do is maintain a spreadsheet with the names and feed urls for each blog while the scripts take care of the rest.
That said, I have noticed the scripts being a little quirky, so I'm not sure I've quite found the best solution yet.
Sometimes blogs and posts vanish from the feed. This happens when the feed goes to update itself and for one reason or another can't connect to those blog feeds at the moment. So far, I've only seen this happen occasionally with certain self-hosted blogs, so it may just be an issue on their end (the hosting servers might be slow or bogged down or something). Either way, it's very temporary and the next time the script goes to refresh the feed, assuming it connects just fine, the posts come right back.
The other issue is that sometimes the Blog List itself loads slowly, partially, or not at all (returns an error). So far, reloading the page once or twice seems to take care of the issue, but if any of you are having more persistent issues, please let me know. If nothing else I might just put up a backup html list in the meantime-- I do want this list to be something easily accessible to everyone.
Lastly, if you notice any blogs missing from the list, please leave a comment so I can add them. While redoing the list I did prune some blogs that have since been deactivated or removed, but there is a chance I accidentally removed something I shouldn't, so make sure all your favorites are there at least.
Thanks all. I look forward to all the nornish craziness that will cross my feed reader in the future, and I hope I have more time to add to it myself soon.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Monday, February 11, 2013
Creatures Caves Downtime
So if you guys have not noticed recently, Creatures Caves is temporarily under construction as Rascii, the all-powerful weaver of the lovingly hand-coded wonderfulness that CCaves runs on, upgrades the servers to a more recent PHP version.
A lot of us consider CCaves the heartbeat of the community, but during this minor hiccup, there's still plenty of ways to connect, certainly not the least of which is the CC Chat! If IRC isn't your thing, keep up by following community blogs, and you won't have to miss a thing.
If you have a blog, help spread this news around; it may take a bit of effort, but there's no reason we can't still all stay in touch while we wait!
A lot of us consider CCaves the heartbeat of the community, but during this minor hiccup, there's still plenty of ways to connect, certainly not the least of which is the CC Chat! If IRC isn't your thing, keep up by following community blogs, and you won't have to miss a thing.
If you have a blog, help spread this news around; it may take a bit of effort, but there's no reason we can't still all stay in touch while we wait!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Creatures Heatmap
I know, I've been totally inactive lately, sorry.
I haven't much to show for myself, but I have been working on this:
It's the buggiest and slowest thing in existence right now and I'm not sure it'll ever be in a releasable state, but it's functional, at least. It's just a sort of overlay that tracks where creatures hang out over time. The yellow-to-pink areas show where creatures have spent more time, and the green-to-blue areas where creatures rarely linger. Not too surprisingly, the hotspots are where the food is! Ignore the floating orangish blocks; just one of many bugs.
I may do a few studies with this in different metarooms to find out what parts of the rooms creatures are using and which they might be totally avoiding. It might also be used with different breeds of creatures to see which ones tend to travel around more. Any other uses you guys can think of?
I've also been considering re-starting Hera in a different world and with a slightly different twist, if anyone is interested. I'd like to ask you guys though: do you prefer "world update" sorts of posts to be in picture-and-explanation format, like most of my posts, or might you prefer a video format?
Lastly, a post over at Grendel Man's blog reminded me that there are a few areas of the CC that need attention. Sadly, there's really not a whole lot of activity in the community lately, let alone motivation to contribute or help out. I'll admit I've kind of been stuck in the same rut. I've been brainstorming an idea that I hope might kick us into action, but it's going to be up to you: Would you be willing to contribute something to the community as a means of earning agent releases for all? I've posed this question on Creatures Caves, and would be really interested to know what you guys think.
And for all you reading this... thanks for not giving up on me just yet!
I haven't much to show for myself, but I have been working on this:
It's the buggiest and slowest thing in existence right now and I'm not sure it'll ever be in a releasable state, but it's functional, at least. It's just a sort of overlay that tracks where creatures hang out over time. The yellow-to-pink areas show where creatures have spent more time, and the green-to-blue areas where creatures rarely linger. Not too surprisingly, the hotspots are where the food is! Ignore the floating orangish blocks; just one of many bugs.
I may do a few studies with this in different metarooms to find out what parts of the rooms creatures are using and which they might be totally avoiding. It might also be used with different breeds of creatures to see which ones tend to travel around more. Any other uses you guys can think of?
I've also been considering re-starting Hera in a different world and with a slightly different twist, if anyone is interested. I'd like to ask you guys though: do you prefer "world update" sorts of posts to be in picture-and-explanation format, like most of my posts, or might you prefer a video format?
Lastly, a post over at Grendel Man's blog reminded me that there are a few areas of the CC that need attention. Sadly, there's really not a whole lot of activity in the community lately, let alone motivation to contribute or help out. I'll admit I've kind of been stuck in the same rut. I've been brainstorming an idea that I hope might kick us into action, but it's going to be up to you: Would you be willing to contribute something to the community as a means of earning agent releases for all? I've posed this question on Creatures Caves, and would be really interested to know what you guys think.
And for all you reading this... thanks for not giving up on me just yet!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
A 16-bit Color Switch
Just thought I would share this really quick in case it helps anyone.
In most cases, when you go to run DS under windows, your computer will tell you to switch to 16-bit color if you haven't. This can be pretty frustrating, especially if you prefer to stay in 32-bit color. I recently went searching for a way to fix this, and this is what I came across. Of course, try this at your own risk; everyone's computer setup is different and I only know what works for me, so don't hold me responsible if you screw up your computer.
There's a little command-line application called QRes that makes switching color-depth from the command line possible. Download it, put the exe somewhere (I just put it under C:\ for sake of ease), and create a batch file (that is, a plain text file with the extension changed to .bat, see this guide for more info if you've never created batch files before) with the following simple text:
C:\qres.exe /C:16
engine.exe
C:\qres.exe /C:32
Obviously, if you don't put qres.exe in C:\, you'll have to change those paths to match. Save the batch file in your DS folder, and create a shortcut to that batch file on your desktop, start menu, wherever you want it, and run DS from that shortcut whenever you want to play.
If all goes well, your screen will flicker a bit as it changes to 16bit color, and then DS will start. After you exit DS, you'll get more lovely screen flickers as your screen changes back to 32bit. Then you can carry on as normal.
This works great for me under Windows 7, and I imagine it would work fine for older versions too, but I haven't tested it outside of my specific situation.
If you have any problems feel free to mention them here-- I might not be able to answer them but I'm sure there are people in the CC that know more about this stuff than me. Maybe this will spark people to come up with an even nicer solution.
In most cases, when you go to run DS under windows, your computer will tell you to switch to 16-bit color if you haven't. This can be pretty frustrating, especially if you prefer to stay in 32-bit color. I recently went searching for a way to fix this, and this is what I came across. Of course, try this at your own risk; everyone's computer setup is different and I only know what works for me, so don't hold me responsible if you screw up your computer.
There's a little command-line application called QRes that makes switching color-depth from the command line possible. Download it, put the exe somewhere (I just put it under C:\ for sake of ease), and create a batch file (that is, a plain text file with the extension changed to .bat, see this guide for more info if you've never created batch files before) with the following simple text:
C:\qres.exe /C:16
engine.exe
C:\qres.exe /C:32
Obviously, if you don't put qres.exe in C:\, you'll have to change those paths to match. Save the batch file in your DS folder, and create a shortcut to that batch file on your desktop, start menu, wherever you want it, and run DS from that shortcut whenever you want to play.
If all goes well, your screen will flicker a bit as it changes to 16bit color, and then DS will start. After you exit DS, you'll get more lovely screen flickers as your screen changes back to 32bit. Then you can carry on as normal.
This works great for me under Windows 7, and I imagine it would work fine for older versions too, but I haven't tested it outside of my specific situation.
If you have any problems feel free to mention them here-- I might not be able to answer them but I'm sure there are people in the CC that know more about this stuff than me. Maybe this will spark people to come up with an even nicer solution.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Quick note regarding the GB forums.
So um. I guess at you guys have probably noticed by now, I uh, didn't really have the motivation to get anything CCSF-related done. Sorry ._.
But it's been brought to my attention that the Garden Box forums have been broken, for... months. You guys need to tell me these things, or I will never know to fix them ._.
Anyway, until I can figure out how to get the activation emails to send again, I've disabled the activation requirement and am instead keeping out spambots with a question-answer captcha detailed in this post.
I've also wiped all inactive accounts so if you created an account during the "broken" period and never got an activation email, you'll have to re-register.
If you guys have any problems, leave me a comment here and I'll get back to you.
But it's been brought to my attention that the Garden Box forums have been broken, for... months. You guys need to tell me these things, or I will never know to fix them ._.
Anyway, until I can figure out how to get the activation emails to send again, I've disabled the activation requirement and am instead keeping out spambots with a question-answer captcha detailed in this post.
I've also wiped all inactive accounts so if you created an account during the "broken" period and never got an activation email, you'll have to re-register.
If you guys have any problems, leave me a comment here and I'll get back to you.
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