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M
ark is famously difficult to schedule time with. It's not that he's
unfriendly. Rather, that he's the busiest guy in the World, and he
guards his time appropriately. I was unusually privileged
to spend an afternoon chatting at his apartment overlooking the Park South,
to the accompaniment of his very inconsiderate neighbors.
Occam:
Jeez, how can you sleep with those people next door?
Mark:
I can't. But, I've never been a strong sleeper anyway, so they don't make that
much difference.
Occam:
I'd like to ask you about your queue of major new features. What's big
that you're working on or planning now? And when will you be releasing it?
Mark:
You're right that new features have to be queued, because they often involve
dependencies which have to be brought online in specific order. The queue right now
pretty much goes: Banks; Inns; Citizenship; Player Houses; Currency Conversion;
Warrior Role; Healer Role; where Banks and Citizenship are necessary for
features which follow.
This tends to evolve a bit, but that's the queue right this moment.
Occam:
Let's talk about each of the features you mention. What will Banks bring to
the City that doesn't exist today?
Mark:
In the short run, banks need to exist to facilitate Inns. There needs to be a simple way to
debit visitors their ongoing "rent" when they're not here in
TriadCity to pay it in person. So we need to make a
behind-the-scenes change to the way your banked Dinars are
accounted for, which moves them to actually-existing financial institutions
independent of your personal presence. This particular change will be
transparent to you. All of your commands will remain the
same: you'll continue to check your Balance at ATMs, etc. etc.
But, you know, we build things "iteratively" in TC. What I've
just described is enough to facilitate Inns, so that's all we'll bring online
in the next little while. In future, Banks will grow up to be a pretty
complete financial system including interest, loans, different kinds of accounts,
and in fact three different Banking organizations -- one for each Third, naturally
-- with different and competing characteristics.
Occam:
Interesting. When will they be ready?
Mark:
The simple, first iteration will be online very shortly, another day or two
of outworld time. Advanced iterations aren't that urgent, so it'll be a bit.
Occam:
Inns?
Mark:
Inns will allow visitors to rent private rooms costing
a certain number of Dinars for a certain length of time. This'll be helpful because
it'll provide a temporary space where visitors can stash gear
between visits.
The ability to store your stuff already exists. The complicated piece is
billing you the recurring rent. As noted, the system needs access to your
bank account when you're not around; so that's step 1. All's well if there's
enough Dinars available to make the rent. But, what if there's not enough?
What happens to your stuff? Innkeepers will be required under the
laws of the Thirds to respond in various ways. Typically they'll have to hold
your room for a certain time, after which they'll be allowed to auction your
items to cover your arrears. They may or may not get to keep the auction
proceeds: under NorthWest law, for instance, they'll be required to deposit the proceeds
into your bank account, after covering their own out of pocket expenses. Whereas
in NorthEast, the Dinars are all theirs. At the same time, they'll have to
provide you with statements of your account whenever you want them. So as
you can see, this is a bit involved. It'll take a lot of testing before
going live.
Occam:
How much will the rents be?
Mark:
Up to Poobah. Presumably, they'll vary depending on location
and quality of the rooms. Inns like all businesses will have taxes to pay, so that'll
have an impact.
Occam:
Will Inns be available as player businesses?
Mark:
Yes, eventually. Not right away of course.
Occam:
Citizenship?
Mark:
Citizenship is formal allegiance to one of the Thirds, including
acceptance of the responsibilities entailed. It's a precondition for permanent
Player Houses, and other good things. It also implies certain obligations,
which can be as simple as taxes, or as complex as the obligatory public service
required by NorthWest from time to time. As usual this will not come
online all at once, since there's so much involved. It'll start small and
be built up over time.
Occam:
Player Houses?
Mark:
Private dwellings which belong to characters individually. Like Inns,
they provide storage space for gear between logins. But, unlike Inns, they're
purchased outright, not rented; and as the private property of the owner, they
allow a great deal of personalization which Inns do not provide. For example,
the owner(s) will be able to customize the room descriptions, direction
descriptions, and items found in each room. Eventually, owners will be able to
rent them out to other visitors; or sell them outright. There will be a per-room
charge of some number of Dinars, varying with quality of location and number of
rooms. Once again, we'll implement the basics and add details over time.
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Occam:
Currency conversion?
Mark:
The ability to use outworld currency to buy Dinars.
Occam:
Ah! Intriguing. So, adventurers will be able to more easily purchase
the most expensive TriadCity items, and etc.
Mark:
Exactly. Including businesses and other high-end expenses.
Occam:
I think everybody understands what the Warrior and Healer Roles are. Seems to
be a lot of work to bring a new Role online. Why is that?
Mark:
Varies by Role, but the time-sink tends to be the fact that
new Commands often touch existing ones in ways which have to be carefully
considered. A very simple example might be the "Hide" Command, which
is available to Rangers and Thieves. Nearly every other Command requires a
certain amount of adaptation for Hidden characters. Can you Look at a Hidden
character? If a Hidden character Laughs, what do the people in that room hear?
Does that character remain Hidden?
The work isn't so much difficult per se, as it is detailed: you have to make sure
you've found all the locations where adaptations must be made to existing features.
And the only way you can do that is through testing. Incidentally this is
where we tend to introduce most new bugs: tweaking existing things
to add new features.
Occam:
These are the major systems planned next. But you also do a lot of ongoing,
smaller-scale work, I think?
Mark:
Yes. The priority is always bug fixes. We're determined to keep TC as bug free
as we possibly can. Then secondarily, Poobah requires a lot of small features
and other tweaks in an ongoing way, and I try to make a point of helping him
whenever possible.
Occam:
How does the feature queue become established? That is, who decides what order new
features will be implemented in?
Mark:
There's no formal procedure. Largely, it's what makes sense to me based in large
part on Poobah's needs. But there's a lot of consideration given to feedback and
suggestions by visitors. We read the Suggestions BBS very closely, LOL. All the
bulletin boards, in fact. The truth is that TC's characters know the details of the experience
far better than I or any Immort ever could. So we try very hard to take seriously the things
players say.
Occam:
Can you mention examples of features which were implemented based on character
feedback or suggestions?
Mark:
Sure. The OOC channel; about half of the Social Commands; group experience;
the multiple bulletin boards; changes to the way Follow and Group work;
replies displayed below bulletin board messages; enhancements to Value;
the Empty Command; really a bunch of stuff.
Occam:
You used the word "Immort" a moment ago. You're one of TC's very few
immortals. The only ones I know of so far, in fact, are yourself; Qim; Abelard; and,
achem, me. Can you explain what an Immort is?, and how they're created?
Mark:
Immortals are the basic low-level adjudicators of disputes between characters. They
work for a higher authority than the three Thirds, and are independent of them.
The term "immortal" is a misnomer, because any of us could be killed: we
have no special immunity to violence or other mayhap. The term is inherited from
earlier tradition, and IMO we should think seriously about jettisoning it for something
more expressive of it's TC reality. "Adjudicator" is kind of formal, but
more accurate. Immortal powers include the ability to appear anywhere in the world
without walking there; the ability to discretely monitor visitor behavior; the ability
to create and dispense items; the ability to reset character attributes; and a very
limited ability to impose disciplinary sanctions on miscreants. Fortunately, we
haven't had many of the latter, so these disciplinary powers are extremely limited.
With luck they'll be able to stay that way.
Occam:
How does one become an Immortal?
Mark:
Invitation. If you seem like a strong candidate, you'll be approached.
Not many are needed right now, so please don't be offended if you have
the Immortal ambition and nobody asks you. There'll be more in time.
Occam:
Of all the features you've designed and built so far, what's your favorite?
Mark:
A lot of TC's basic idea is the imposition of elaborate subjectivity on the
characters. I very much like the fact that if you and I walk into a room together,
we might not see the same things. I'm especially keen to develop this further,
after more of the basic features are in.
Occam:
What are you most looking forward to programming?
Mark:
I think dreams would be high on my list. The idea of interesting, non-standard
forms of consciousness in general are intriguing. Dreams, astral travel, clairvoyance,
intoxication. And I'm very very keen to program death and afterlife experiences.
Occam:
Thanks for your time!
Mark:
Sure thing.
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