More Moondial Madness!!!

Yeah,..I like the idea of having a cool, huge one of these rotating in the depths of some basement too... What I need to sell Starr on is the time it would take for me to make a specialized chamber just for it!

So the whole "access the skydome" thing was really sort of a convenience and concession to allow the Moondials to have two "states" of display without actually making it a two-state object (which comes with the baggage of needing to send data from the activating client, then up to the server, then back to each client of everyone on that server every time a multi-state object changes states (otherwise different players would experience the same object in different states all at once, which isn't preferable for the sake of functionality)...

You see, what I originally wanted is for the Moondial to have two states; (1) the functionally accurate state that shows the true location and the (barely moving to the naked eye) speed of the celestial bodies... and (2) a state where the Moondial displays all its elements spinning beautifully and visibly in an artistic whirling display much like the gigantic orrery in Aughra's Observatory in the Dark Crystal (though not quite as dangerously fast... ^_^)...

Because of the data problems with every map instance of a multi-state object (as mentioned above), Finn and the programmers believed the best way to allow the Moondials to have a chance to be seen in both ways would be to simply have it reference a skydome for it's rotational data if there was one in the scene, and if no skydome was there to be referenced it would instead animate based on some basic rotational scripts built into each orbiting child object... If players wanted it to be accurate, they would place it above-ground in a scene with a sky... If players instead wanted to see it visibly spinning in some cool way on display, then they could simply place it into an underground chamber (such as a basement or lot in an underground city) so that they and their guests could watch it peacefully spin...

That's how it works currently, but it's possible that somewhere down the line we might find another way to make Moondials function the way I originally wanted them to, without as much of a potential problem...

I'm so glad you're enjoying the look of these, and of the versions that are in progress!

Scottie ^_^

 

Thanks for pointing that out! But maybe still remove the tacky charms and put the engravings on the top ring and the sun attached to the bottom? It just doesn't look like a "moondial" to me with the virtue symbols.

 

How about this: it displays accurately by default but if you double click it then it animates (and doesn't just spin around once) and if you double click it again then it goes back to the default mode. In other words, make it work like a light; you can turn it on and off but the state isn't persisted.

 

There may be a time when we have the opportunity to assign tasks related to fully preserving and re-introducing functional (or at least generally presentable) art elements that Richard has required us to change and iterate upon as the game progresses, but I guarantee you that there is no time in the schedule for that kind of thing now...

Rest assured that reservation is happening simply because each iteration is saved in a state that we could eventually go back to, save off as a separate asset, set it up as it's own prefab and deco object with the proper nomenclature, and attach any legacy code to it so that it works to a limited extent (or at least doesn't break the game), but as you can imagine, this process takes time, and would need to be done piece-meal for ONLY those things worthy of such attention. Such as if they were really considered worthy enough to put on display in a "museum" of our past efforts...

During our current efforts to launch the game with everything functional and representative of Richard's desires (such as the changes made to these particular objects) we really must expend our resources and efforts only on the limited subset of tasks required by Richard and Starr to make this happen... Anything we have targeted as requiring iteration must change as needed, and any "looking back to see what needs to be revived from its preservation" can only happen after we've achieved our primary launch goals and begun to hopefully move forward and on to future hopes...

Scottie ^_^

 

Unfortunately the main ring you're referring to (which is the Sun Ring) moves differently and separately from the Constellation Ring (much as the actual celestial bodies do in our game's sky), so those must be two entirely separate objects within the Prefab deco... Since the Sun Ring was already visually established by Bob and Stephen early on, and Richard's desire was to preserve that look, he requested that the separate Constellation Ring appear outside the Sun Ring as a thin little band with the constellation icons attached to it...

Scottie ^_^

 

Yes,...we actually played with several different sizes until Richard settled on the size you see now... He didn't want them too small, because then you become unable to read the runes, but too big, and they begin to "outshine" the other celestial objects... In the end, it simply became a matter of Richard's personal tastes... ^_^

 

I understand fully of the balance of time in the matter of moving things forward, but I will mark this thread as something to watch and bring forward when at a more appropriate venue.

 

There really is no "top" or "bottom" ring... There's the outer Constellation Ring,...and then an inner Solar Ring (which is the wide, flat ring that was originally there when Bob made it, which we want to preserve "as is")...

And of course, there are ways that each of the constellation "charms" could possibly be made more elegant, but doing so (while still keeping them dimensionally substantial at a larger size) would require an expenditure of polygons that I was dissuaded from when I suggested it...

The bulkier-but-simpler "placard cutouts" matching the Devotionals were determined to be the way to go (with the exception of the magical projections re-using the art of the skydome overlay, which will define the more "ornate" Moondial versions")...

Scottie ^_^

 

I like your idea better. It might easier to code the way they have it now but it just doesn't make any sense to rely on location to determine how it functions. Instead you should be able to have a button or switch to toggle which mode you want the moondial to be in.

 

You just described it becoming a "multi-state object" (like the two-state "light" you mentioned), which we must avoid due to the "client-to-server-back to all clients individually" data issue I mentioned earlier... If it were as simple as a light, that might be OK, but since we're talking about multiple, independently-rotating objects that must go to and from a state of very specific data to match our skydome, it becomes potentially nightmarish...

The only way that it might be possible to do it this way without invoking the pain (i.e. server problems as that data is tossed back and forth), would be to unlink any changes from updating on the server except for the person activating it... Of course, what that would mean is that only the one person changing its state would get to see that state change... To mere observers, nothing would change at all... And this would apply to all such placed decos, across the entire scene, throughout the entire server... Only actively clicking said object would let it change for you,...and only you... This was discussed as an option, but it was met with sour regards...

Scottie ^_^

 

Of course! Reminding us later of cool things to consider doing after we survive a successful launch is a luxury that I truly hope we'll all enjoy!

Scottie ^_^

 

If the programmers can eventually figure out a way to achieve this without sadness, I'll certainly champion it... ^_^

 

That's a cool idea, and assuming it eventually gets the "go-ahead" it would also allow the deco to be functional since bell-towers like this are generally placed above-ground.... Of course, the only size likely to fit in this structure would be the "room-sized version".... I'd have to check the scale...

Scottie ^_^

 

These are out of this world! Fantastic job and thank you

 

You're very welcome! Hopefully the next two versions will turn out nicely too! It'll be fun to see people getting around to crafting them... And it'll be extra cool to see the giant ones when they start appearing here and there in the world...

Scottie ^_^

 

Still one of my favorite pieces of deco.

 

I am continually in awe at the work of @Scottie , Well done sir! Well done indeed.

The only thing (at first blush) was the symbols on the outside seem a *tad* too large. Outside of that though...and again.. I hate to be a downer here...is that it takes away from the rarity of the original does it not?
I paid a fair amount of $ to obtain one as I thought "woah.. these are flippin cool and (with an eye to what I perceived to be future functionality) I had to get one but if everybody can have one now it seems to devalue the original "rare" piece.

It's different than say the poster of a Van Gough in my room vs the original. I'll never forget the 1st time I walked into a room at the MOMA and literally got goosebumps looking at the real deal.


Mind, I love the thing...I stood there clicking mine like a little kid. I just hope this isn't the continual way of things.

 

I certainly get where you're coming from here but it's not the functionality that makes an item rare.. but the literal rarity of the specific item. Anyone can have a craftable moon dial.. but only the backers have THE Darkstarr moondial. Believe it or not the player market cares about those distinctions. I mean for crying out loud.. in UO I saw a piece of horse dung sold for 1 million gold! Any rational mind would say "what the hell??? It's a piece of crap! Literally! It's not worth anything!" But the fact that it was hard to come by in game apparently made it valuable.

 

I just had another thought.. regarding the large ornate version.. in addition to maybe allowing it in a basement.. what about roof tops? Such as a Knight's Benefactor home or larger? In further contemplation.. what about as town décor?

I almost feel like having one of these is a necessity as people will expect me to have one.

 

I'd love one for the roof of my Tower of Knowledge, as well.