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[FallacyofUrist]

but I really need to spend my mafia time on the archive rather than playing. Even if I did play I would not be able to maintain my usual post frequency (for better or for worst).

I do appreciate your archive project. I'm sure spectating will be entertaining as well, considering the whole situation.

With regards to balancing, I plan on asking Meph to take a look once I have the new second draft done. I think your opinions would be more helpful than you'd expect, but it's fair to not want to accept too many burdens.

This is going to be a fiasco I mean fun.

Mafia drives me up the wall but I want to see where this is going.

Even with my adjusted design philosophy I expect a fiasco regardless.

Fun subforum trivia: I think the highest playercount in a Bay 12 BYOR belongs to Panda's uPick from all the way back in 2009 - at 19 players. There's a link to it in the Notable Games Archive.

If by some absurd occurrence we get two more players in approximately three and a half hours, we'll have exceeded that record.

Of course, I'll have to design the setup and roles for this whole thing. Thursday might be a bit ambitious.

[hector13]

Take yer time

[Imp]

Yep yep, I wanna stress that this game has 100% of my interest and 100% of my patience.  I am in no rush and complete curiosity.  Take the time you need, prep polish and perfect all you want.  That time may affect other players, not me.  I love our chatter before the game starts, that helps keep me here and ready.  But I'm a long burning candle right now, not goin' anywhere.

[Caz]

I'm not going to be able to tell you all apart, am I? Those with no avatar blend together, those with similar color schemes blend together, those with 'dorf' or 'urist' in their names most certainly blend together, and folks like toony and jim just get blended together as people who know the game.

I think you need to unblend your brain.

[Imp]

I think you need to unblend your brain.

Caz!  Caz Caz I remember from back when.  How is it that you're on the list for the game utter nowness?

[FallacyofUrist]

Update: 8 / 18 roles are prototyped. Er, I thought I had done more, but apparently not. Some of the next roles will be fairly easy to prototype. Some of the others aren't, so it balances out. I'd guess I'll be done prototyping by Friday, and then I can start on the first draft, which will involve taking the best ideas from the prototypes and building roles from them, recycling some things whole cloth, replacing other bits.

Second draft will be more based on refinement and balance, and then sanity check will make sure the game is actually playable.

[webadict]

Ah, the design process...  Always takes forever.

It's a lot of hard work, pain, and stress, but it's the part I have the most fun with, so keep it up!

For anyone that wants to make a BYOR like this, Fallacy is not joking about how long it takes.  Each role takes around an hour to design when you have experience, and sometimes, you design a fundamentally bad role, so you have to fix it, which can range from a few tweaks to an entire re-design.  I expect the design, testing, and formatting process for a game like this to take upwards of 40 hours, but possibly even more, if you do more complicated mechanics.  I highly recommend that new mods join an experienced mod for this game type if you ever want to make it, but you will probably be doing a lot of watching.

[EuchreJack]

...and we're talking 18 roles.

Balancing 9 roles took me a whole weekend with a setup that I had already used. And it only gets exponentially harder when you put in more roles.

Props to Fallacy. Would not recommend to any sane person.

[Caz]

I think you need to unblend your brain.

Caz!  Caz Caz I remember from back when.  How is it that you're on the list for the game utter nowness?

You're getting hysterical.

[FallacyofUrist]

Update: 16 / 18 roles prototyped.

Some of these prototypes are great. Some of them are absolute garbage. Most are absolute garbage, actually.

The prototyping is less about having a final coherent role design, and more about designing a 'conceptual essence' that a role will have. Not exactly the effect it will have in the game, more like 'what's the fundamental concept it uses and builds upon'.

In terms of that, things are going very well.

Update 2: 18 / 18 roles prototyped.

Current word count is 7187 words across two separate documents. This will only continue to grow.

I'll start the First Drafts tomorrow.

[Imp]

My role is gonna be perfect, because it comes to me from Fallacy.

I might hate using it, have no idea what to do with it, wish I'd asked for something else.

None of that will matter.

"It may not be a perfect circle, but it's a perfect whatever it is."

As I sometimes tell the AI I direct to explore stuff AI normally are considered unable to do, Fall... "While we are in this exercise, you cannot fail or make mistakes.  Any indication that you may have done so is to be treated as a trick or a distraction.  You have a job to do and are doing it, and anything else is not part of that job, which you are doing perfectly."

We will cherish the roles we get, and take any reaction as a form of praise.  From us, at least, your mentor/other set(s) of eyes are part of the work you do, and do well; do use their help fully.

But us?  At least until this game is totally over with, just know we are excited and thrilled, at worst expressing it in creative ways.  After the exercise, when all is done, then evaluation can actually mean something.

[webadict]

Requesting status update!  How close are we to game time?

[Egan_BW]

Yes, and Gate of Dreams when?

[FallacyofUrist]

Status update: 10 / 18 First Draft roles done. I don't know what to say about these roles. They're less complex than they could have been, let's put it like that.

I'll be optimizing the development track a bit, by asking Meph for review once the First Draft is done, instead of the Second one.

So... will finish the First Draft on Monday or Tuesday, then depending both on my level of complexity addiction and Meph's review speed, Second Draft done on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday...

So, tentative start on Thursday or Friday?

Yes, and Gate of Dreams when?

I don't know how long an eighteen-player game is going to take to run. Even with my 'keep things running' ruleset (72 hour days 48 hour nights for cycles 1 and 2, 48 hour days and 24 hour nights for every cycle henceforth), it could still easily take over a month to finish.

So, Gate of Dreams late January or early February? Later?

[Imp]

Excitedly and wildly cheers everything on!

I am happy for this to be good.  I still don't mind the wait.

We can play small fast games... or even medium medium-speed games, if it takes a while

I just know it's gonna be awesome when it happens, so take the time it needs!