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Update to the Darkstarr Moondial!

Discussion in 'Developer Work and Blog posts' started by Scottie, Oct 7, 2016.

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  1. redfish

    redfish Avatar

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    Would be cool to have a planetarium somewhere in the game too... an enclosed dome with a lit/glow-in-the-dark starmap on the inner side of the dome, a large orrery, and large telescope... maybe on some cliffside..
     
  2. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    There never really was much of one.. if you may recall with Starr joined Portalarium they did the moondial and metronome for.. whatever reason. Starr actually at one point indicated he wanted the moondial renamed. If you look closely though at the serpent in the original design.. the serpents bends in the same direction as the Chaos Serpent.. which I thought was pretty cool.. but there's no lore or anything.. just promotional items with his name attached just because.
     
  3. Sir Frank

    Sir Frank Master of the Mint

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    Starr's interests include time and music. He collects watches. Hence the moondial and metronome.
     
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  4. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    Ah! Don't recall them explaining that at the time but then again it was 3 years ago. :) Nice little bit of trivia there.
     
  5. redfish

    redfish Avatar

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    Well then there's the fact that his character is supposed to fly around in a clockpunk airship... so I'd suppose he's some type of tinkerer?
     
  6. ThurisazSheol

    ThurisazSheol Avatar

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    doesn't the 'lore' say that he too is an outlander of sorts, and applied his knowledge/powers to achieve his goals, searching for some sort of treasure? i could have sworn i read that somewhere.
     
  7. redfish

    redfish Avatar

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    I'm guessing he is an outlander just like Lord British is :D But I didn't read what you're referring to, so I don't know..
     
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  8. ThurisazSheol

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    it MAY have been in some fanfic on the forums here, so it may not be canon, but i do remember reading it....hm....
     
  9. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Well, he pretty much has to be an outlander unless you accept that all NPCs are ageless as part of lore.. which it isn't.
     
  10. ThurisazSheol

    ThurisazSheol Avatar

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    seeing that it is some sort of parallel-ish universe (wormhole used in the intro video), the laws of time/aging may actually be different here, so it is potentially possible at least, that these npc's are realistically both younger and older than they are depicted 'in the flesh' in the game here...all based on which piece of canon is used.

    as one non-canon example:
    my character ages very slowly, and by my personal calculations is over 900 game-years old. that was achieved due to the physical and otherwise stresses he's gone through while he's travelled to different parallel worlds/universes across the games from the MUD days to now. he's advancing in years by now, looks-wise, finally, as his body still ages as that of earth standard which is almost always slower than game-time.
     
  11. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    Aging in SotA has always been the same approach as Ultima.. time flows at a different rate on each world and we age according to our home world with the official ratio in SotA being 1:24. Which is why in New Britannia outlanders are so long lived compared to natives.

    There is no explaining why the NPCs don't age and I think it'd be a mistake to try. They don't age because it's a limitation of the fact it's a game. Trying to come up with lore to explain it would be like saying.. You are literally you in-game despite the fact that the game dictates your backstory and encourages you to behave in ways you never would. (Among other notable flaws). Sometimes you're just better off not explaining what shouldn't be explained.
     
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  12. Black Tortoise

    Black Tortoise Avatar

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    Very cool. Cant wait to see these when they animate according to planets in the sky.
     
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  13. Jaanelle DeJure

    Jaanelle DeJure Avatar

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    I don't remember exactly how I knew but I am assuming I read something somewhere in the release notes that gave me the impression that the moondial wasn't considered to be in a final state.

    I think a great deal of that information is out there, but is not being utilized to the fullest extent therefore people often seem to make a "placeholder" of sorts in their mind rather than take the time to seek out and consume the information that is already there.

    I'm going to take a wild guess and say even if they put the suggestion in big bold letters for people to go through and read all the release notes most people wouldn't take the time to do so.

    Interestingly, this doesn't stop said people from spending loads of time generating massive walls of text in the forums, and then expecting that the devs take massive time out of their day to parse through it all. :confused:

    Still, it might be worth putting the suggestion in new player guides (if it's not there already) that going back and reading through the release notes is a great way to get a solid sense of where things have been, where they are going, and roughly how long it is going to take to get there.
     
  14. Jaanelle DeJure

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    Jaan is well over 100, but don't let her know I told you that! ;)

    She descends from a line of Druidesses known for great longevity- or very tall tales depending on who you ask. Rumors exist that there are a small few of her Order that predate the Cataclysm... but most believe they are no more than that... rumors.

    As for Jaan, some suspect she is really an Outlander suffering from a sort of delusional madness. But she insists she is Novian and can get very irritated if people question her on that...
     
  15. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Not sure it was the release notes. I think it was in the thread showing off the updated moondial. I remember a comment about how the dial wasn't yet synced to the sky and how it might be later. I've always had the impression that was always the intent.
     
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  16. Jaanelle DeJure

    Jaanelle DeJure Avatar

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    Ah you are right... it was the 7/23/13 Update of the Avatar.
     
  17. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    I have to say @Scottie, this thing looks fantastic!
     
  18. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    @Scottie You are the man! The moondial is one of the coolest items in the game and your work just further exemplifies why! Keep it up my friend! :)
     
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