Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

[Flipz]

Protip: if you make a ginormous set that covers more than 6 32x32 baseplates, don't include moving objects, people, or other iterative features that will force you to render the set upwards of six times (at minimum).

That said, it's a kick-megablocks set, and I'm really looking forward to you guys getting to see it--especially considering how bloody long it's taken me to build.

[Pyrovisionary]

Protip: if you make a ginormous set that covers more than 6 32x32 baseplates, don't include moving objects, people, or other iterative features that will force you to render the set upwards of six times (at minimum).

That said, it's a kick-megablocks set, and I'm really looking forward to you guys getting to see it--especially considering how bloody long it's taken me to build.

The advantage of real pieces. And your quest was promised for May this year!

[Palathadric]

Protip: if you make a ginormous set that covers more than 6 32x32 baseplates, don't include moving objects, people, or other iterative features that will force you to render the set upwards of six times (at minimum).

That said, it's a kick-megablocks set, and I'm really looking forward to you guys getting to see it--especially considering how bloody long it's taken me to build.

I disagree. If you're going to build a set as ginormous as that, you want to get as many renders of it as you can.

You use LDD, right? May I ask how long the renders take (I assume you did them in POV-Ray).

Protip: Don't even bother rendering transparent pieces bigger than 1 x 1 bricks.

[Flipz]

I disagree. If you're going to build a set as ginormous as that, you want to get as many renders of it as you can.

You use LDD, right? May I ask how long the renders take (I assume you did them in POV-Ray).

Protip: Don't even bother rendering transparent pieces bigger than 1 x 1 bricks.

Haven't done the renders yet--my specially-constructed rendering rigs have both died in the process of trying to render the smaller sets. I've just finished a third rebuild of the rig, and if it dies this time I'll just beg bbqqq to render them on his monstrosity of a machine.

[Palathadric]

Wow, that's harsh on your machine. May I ask what kind of piece count you've got there?

Edited November 28, 2013 by Palathadric

[Flipz]

Well, the cobblestone floor alone is in excess of 3,000 pieces, and I have NO clue how many are in the building itself...

I'm going to guess at least over 9,000.

Also, have I mentioned that I hate the rich text editor? It adds WAY too much needless formatting, basically doubling the amount of time it takes to run Rounds.

Incidentally, Kinto, Karie's stats are by FAR the worst of the three party members in terms of formatting problems. I've been working on this for over an hour and JUST NOW finished fixing everything.

[Palathadric]

I haven't used LDD in a while, it doesn't give you a piece count? SR 3D Builder does.

[Kintobor]

Incidentally, Kinto, Karie's stats are by FAR the worst of the three party members in terms of formatting problems. I've been working on this for over an hour and JUST NOW finished fixing everything.

Hehe... you don't say?

[Endgame]

I get the feeling my excessive copy-pasting is to blame for that one!

[Kintobor]

I get the feeling my excessive copy-pasting is to blame for that one!

Oh, oh, a scapegoat! Right over there! He's to blame!

[Flipz]

I get the feeling my excessive copy-pasting is to blame for that one!

Oh, oh, a scapegoat! Right over there! He's to blame!

It's both of you, really. Heroes copy-paste into their Statistics topic (instead of quoting, then copy-pasting and then cleaning in the plain-text editor), then QMs copy-paste the already-messy stats from Hero Statistics back into their Quest, and then copy-paste from post to post instead of quoting--and then Heroes copy-paste THAT mess back into Hero Statistics. It leads to gradual degradation, sort of like scanning a picture and then scanning the result, and then scanning THAT result, etc. etc. etc. Eventually, you're going to end up with little more than a muddled mess that ends up breaking the editor because there's thousands of extra characters in there that don't need to be.

I think I took out about 3/4 of a page of excess formatting from the battle post, all told--about half of it from Karie's inventory. (Oddly, her stats themselves were mostly fine.) The next-largest source of odd formatting was from Skrall's bows--every time the color changed, it put in two color tags for plain black text and regular font before the proper color tags kicked in, and commas and dashes each got their own individual formatting block (before I cleaned it up, of course.)

The moral of the story: quote, don't copy, and clean your stats in between Quests.

Now I'm going to go start on 81's battle results. ...though I bet there's a bunch of cleaning to do there, too.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Flipz

[Endgame]

Now I'm going to go start on 81's battle results. ...though I bet there's a bunch of cleaning to do there, too.

Much appreciated, Flipz! Your set is almost out of the oven.

[Cryos]

Maybe I'm just thick, but what exactly do you mean by "cleaning stats?"

Edited November 28, 2013 by Cryos

[Palathadric]

Nice reminder for me to check out my stats. I cleared out quite a bit of trash there.

Maybe I'm just thick, but what exactly do you mean by "cleaning stats?"

Use the "Toggle Editing Mode" button and you'll see the post you're editing in BBCode. You'll find that there is a lot of formatting numbers and letters that needn't be there.

[Flipz]

And Quest 81 round is run! Also, I think I know what I'm getting Em for Grogmas this year.

Nice reminder for me to check out my stats. I cleared out quite a bit of trash there.

Use the "Toggle Editing Mode" button and you'll see the post you're editing in BBCode. You'll find that there is a lot of formatting numbers and letters that needn't be there.

Additionally, all those extra characters and numbers increase loading times and make it more difficult to get the formatting you actually want when it's time to change it (i.e. running battles).

[Brickdoctor]

Finally.

Well, that was a terribly slow quest. I cannot apologize enough nor can I thank you enough for sticking with it. I hope the rewards were appropriate for a quest of that length.

I will say this: I know that many of the delays were either my fault or none of our faults. But one or two of you seemed to make a habit of being annoyingly impatient, and I also saw more than a few complaints about how you weren't going to be able to get back in time for some other quest. I don't care where the fault lies for any delays; you are still the one in control of your own responses, and you made a commitment to the quest just as much as the other players and the QM did when you signed up. To repeatedly state how much you want this quest to end in order to get onto another quest is, in my opinion, entirely disrespectful, especially considering that, despite the delays, the QM had not abandoned the quest and was trying his best to finish it after circumstances out of his control had caused the quest to run longer and conflict with his schedule.

[CMP]

I don't care where the fault lies for any delays; you are still the one in control of your own responses, and you made a commitment to the quest just as much as the other players and the QM did when you signed up. To repeatedly state how much you want this quest to end in order to get onto another quest is, in my opinion, entirely disrespectful, especially considering that, despite the delays, the QM had not abandoned the quest and was trying his best to finish it after circumstances out of his control had caused the quest to run longer and conflict with his schedule.

Agreed, absolutely, 100%. Poking a QM when things are slow is reasonable. Trying to force things along just to gratify your own character is just a slap in the face to them.

I enjoyed following along the Quest. It was lengthy (but then, all your Quests are) but the freeform concept was quite interesting to see unfold, and the sets were, as usual, phenomenal. :thumbup:

[Kintobor]

I'm fine with people asking how long will a quest take before signing up. It's during a quest where I take annoyance, particularly with the Marketplace Quest and the Baltarok trilogy as of late. You signed up for a quest that the QM has put a lot of effort into. If you don't get back in time, tough luck, deal with it. You made an obligation to the quest you're on.

From what I saw, 77 was good. I didn't see enough to get a full perspective, but I did enjoy watching what I saw.

[Waterbrick Down]

I checked in off and on on Quest 77 and the presentation, story, and characters were top notch as always Brickdoctor. It did seem to lag at times, but as you've stated, most of that was out of your control. I think for all of us QM's the best strategy is to respond if possible even if we can't make an update, just so folks can be kept in the loop.

[Zepher]

BD, I don't feel I have to tell you my obvious complaints with the quest. It was too long, and with not enough padding. I know you had issues up front, but they seemed to extend for months. I would have personally preferred a longer pause up front, and then a quest that ran smoothly from there on in. Those 48 hour breaks really get to me, and the lack of auto-rolling, etc. You spoke of commitment, and there is a commitment for QMs to update every 24 hours. Once or twice it's fine to miss, but it got pretty consistently over that amount of time.

That being said, I know I was impatient, and I apologize. I always feel like it's such an awful thing to do as a fellow QM - we know the work involved and we still whine. I agree that those who speed up your quest to get back are particularly unfair, and I hope I never came across as that, but I do know that I was impatient all the same, so I apologize.

Sets were... of course, absolutely stunning. Some were re-used more than I would have liked, but that's a-okay. The only reason it bothers me is that the sets are so beautiful - the more we ring out of you, the better. Your characters are always improving. I thought a lot of them were fun, though I wish some of them spoke more. You have a tendency for lots of characters without delving into them as much, which is too bad because ALL of them intrigue me. I think if they spoke more to us and to each other, you'd be golden. That being said you did build quite a few strong characters I hope to revisit.

My other major complaint, which is RARE for you, is that sometimes I felt a little lost as to the surroundings - where the hell did our NPC allies go at the end for the Mopag battle? How did we communicate in the hex battle? Was I on a horse sometimes? These are things that would really help us role play, and though I know that it's not the biggest deal for you, it is for some of us, and helping us enjoy the game to it's fullest extent is part of your job.

To my fellow questers - we all ebbed and flowed with the slow quest, but over all I had a great time with all of you. I'll give you further thoughts soon, in another post.

My main point of the post is, of course, thank you. QMing is a job. It is time consuming and challenging and a lot of work. Doing it is really a huge favor to the community, and you always do a good job, even if not always your best job. I really thank you for the time and for sticking with it, even when the world got in the way. It means a lot, and I'd love to give your quests another shot when you feel prepared again. :thumbup:

[Pyrovisionary]

I don't see how 77 was too long.

[Palathadric]

<p>It was about the same length as 69, but it moved along slower. It was still a great quest and one that I would have liked to go on if I had gotten the chance.

[Pyrovisionary]

It was about the same length as 69, but it moved along slower. It was still a great quest and one that I would have liked to go on if I had gotten the chance.

Same here. I like the pretty pictures.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Pyrovisionary

[Chromeknight]

Big thanks to Doc for taking Nerwen and for the great quest.

I did enjoy myself and I hope I wasn't too narky about updates.

As I said a couple of times, the delays weren't the issue for me, but the non-communication of delays. It's a fine point, and if you're stuck without any access, I guess either are difficult.

Thanks also for letting me voice Calaryl, especially at the end with Throlar.

I've more to say about fellow questies and so on, but I'll leave it for the moment, I need to reread the quest from start to finish.

[Sandy]

Thank you for the adventure Brickdoctor! It was great to finally participate in one of your quests! I realize it's a huge challenge to host a quest with as many options as yours do, but you somehow make it seem rather effortless on your part. I don't know how you do it!

I have to admit that I was a bit lost at what we were supposed to do at times, due to the open-ended structure and the long span of time the quest lasted, but I hope that all in all I kept Ellaria consistently siding with the original citizens of R'kilf. I'm not sure if there were that many options on how things could have ended - the different factions were a bit too clearly jotted down as the "good guys" and the "bad guys", and the heroes chosen for the quest were a pretty lawful group (aside from a certain dwarven individual). In the grand scheme of things, the quest's task was less epic than usual, but I really didn't mind that we were helping out one village instead of trying to save the entire world.

I have to applaud Chromeknight and Zepher for keeping the threads on their hands and steering the rest of us towards accomplishing our goal. One day I'd like to test out being a party leader myself, but this time I was happy to be a follower.