"It's Alive!!!" [maniacal laughter amidst thunderstorm]

So it comes time to add a little artificial life to the scenarios, and what better to start with that a corpse. Quickly Igor, fetch the electrodes .... and now we need a BRAIN, fresh brain... herein lies the problem. Each of the environments [MUD, MOO and SecondLife] use completely different methods, but in-keeping with a narrative, I thought it best to plan out what was in the poor decomposed lady's brain. So, I planned a KEY WORD TREE:
Now the way of a KEY WORD TREE is somehow you get an initial prompt [for Ms Maria Marten, her initial phrase is: "What happened? Where am i? Is that you Will?" as she is dead, right ... still with me ... this is the talk file of a bewildered ghost coming to terms with the fact that she is dead] and in that prompt is a number of words, some of which are KEY words that lead to other phrases, they themselves containing other key words and so on. So it is a way of encapsulating a divergent conversation in a non-linear way - akin I guess to the concept of a hyperlink [not that that concept will ever catch on].

Once the talk was brainstormed [have I mentioned how much I HATE MSWord - used an organisation chart, and swore at it all morning while it did almost but not entirely exactly opposite to what I wanted - you get what you payed for] I then set about creating life ... quick Igor, throw the switch and raise the platform...

MUD first: In overview, I have to create a monster [settle Igor], customise it's names, flag it as a woman, undead, a talker, give it a description and an initial talk string, some RPG char stats and then save it with a numeric index [that I prepared earlier]. I then teleported to the room the monster will live in [a good old shallow grave - see previous posting], popped a copy of that indexed monster, permed it into the room, saved the room and Bob's your Aunty we have a talking monster ... not quite. Although the monster is flagged as a talker, I have to deposit a talk file into a special folder on the server that contains the keyword and responses separated by hard returns [but that is UNIX, right, you know this ... lol, my FAVOURITE line from the Jurassic Park movie where a shiny teen sits at a pooter, turns it on with aggro velociraptors opening the doors beside her and up pops a bewildering graphical mess and she says ...."this is UNIX, I know this" - laugh, I tell you], and then we have a live talker - "It's ALIVE muhahahaha!". The script I used to do this is here: MUD Maria Marten Script

Now to MOO: In overview, I create an instance of a generic bot, named "Ghost of Maria Marten", travel to the room she will live in [again shallow grave], drop her there [when you make something other than a room in MOO, it is automatically in your inventory], then LOCK it into the room [this saves some well meaning thieving mongrel coming in and picking it up and carting it away with them ... yes, it happens], then remove the already defined vocabulary [a generic bot is a turing conversation engine, with keywords, random responses and question responses and grammar patters able to be defined via command line]. then I add each of the keywords, followed by their responses [and I realise that the responses are not as rich as I normally make a MOObot respond, usually I apply 2 or 3 responses for each keyword - might revisit that - that way two people can converse with the bot and get different responses each time], then I ACTIVATE the bot and ... "It's ALIVE muhahahaha!" - this was all done at command line in the MOO because I can, and because some of it has to be commands, some of the process can be mouse-driven however. The script I used to achieve all this is here: MOO Maria Marten Script

And finally to SecondLife: In overview, I find a comfy chair, beside a pool and entertaining show to watch while I drag my camera to where I want the character to be [actually walking or flying there is just so yesterday], create an object, shape and texture it to look like a human - actually, no, i lie - I made a cube primi and will worry about something that looks vaguely human later. Then I r-click, edit, contents and add a SCRIPT object to this primi containing a variant of a script originally written for me by Azwaldo [see previous postings - love your work mate] with all the appropriate keywords and keyword decisions with response actions edited syntactically into the object, select a channel for that critter to chatter on, touch the object and - "I'ts ALIVE muhahahahaha" - all done with point and click except the scripty thing which is textual. The script I embedded in the Maria Marten object is here: SecondLife Maria Marten Script

And what did I learn from this - apart from "it's a hell of a way to EAT a rainy day and some bandwidth" - remarkably, the character creation process in all three environments is very similar conceptually. Sure the syntax and convention differs but starting with a plan, I was actually surprised how it was possible to take the MUD version and using good old search-and-replace wrap that stuff up in the code and commands for each of the three environments.

Comparing and contrasting the artificial lifeforms: The SecondLife critter is least lifelike - I have not got any animations yet, it does not yet even vaguely resemble a person but is a functional container for dialogue-based content. The MOO bot is cleverest in it's conversational construction - when I add randoms and question responses also you will be able to talk to it as you would another player in MOO, and it will get clever in sentence construction remembering what was said previously - when I add the animated graphics for icon and multi-media components of the bot it should be quite satisfying to deal with. The MUD talker is by far the most configurable, and when I talk to her, my mind seems to fill in the gaps - I find myself empathising with her plight and I know that is odd, as she is a bunch of words in an arcane interface and not even any colour ... but that is my brain, not yours. This whole theory of "multiple intelligences" suggests we all have preferred interaction and learning styles, so I should not be freaked out that a bunch of words speak to me at my level, just as you should not feel guilty for preferring to click on something ...

What is next - rinse and repeat, and then some artefacts to add richness in all three environments. Nice to see some progress, say hi to your mum for me. "Igor, we now have enough LIFE for a tennis match - break out the raquets and iced lemonade - tennis anyone?"

Textualization

In methodologising a space, I find that once I have a clear picture of it my head, I am able to describe it, right down to minute details, which has always sorta wigged me out. I am not sure where this comes from, certainly I am a text-based RPG fan, but it is a form of writing I seem to have some talent for. So, after a hiatus where life, assessment and marking got in the way, my brain was free enough to begin to flesh out the details of the actual space that "The Red Barn Mystery" will take place.

Now call me old fashion, but I started at MUD - and, having already built the space, imagined what it ouwl dbe like to be there. Decided arbritrarly that standing at the front of the barn and looking towards it was NORTH, then SWE is fixed - useful when describing surrounding details. I then fired up my wordprocessor [let's face it, writing tools are writing tools, and my spolling is not whert it used to be, then again, it probably never was] but had to dumb it down - font to COURIERNEW, 8 point, maxxed out the margins, set up a ruler:

*app 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456

...and began the process of textually describing the rooms, one by one. Now my MUD convention is to include a juicy descriptive paragraph [maybe 5 lines, 80chars long] on what it is like to be there, what it looks like, what smells and sounds are detectable, sometimes an attempted interpretation of what is being seen, and sometimes allusions to the available ways you can travel from this point. The descriptions I wrote [ linked here, for your convenience ] were very satisfying and in may cases exceed 10 lines - if reasoned that the textualisations provide vital clues for the user to gain an impression of their surroundings - therefore teh richer I made the text, the more vivid the mental imagery I would create. Initially I thought this decision was fraught with writers block and waffle, but on reading them back they are rich and representative of what I wanted to say - certainly what I currently imagine. Knowing back-story can be an empowering thing for a writer - the minutae that will be used later make good writing fodder, well, that is my experience at least. As I composed a room description, I tweaked it to fit in 80 char chunks [a pain, but that is how they are delivered in-game] and then composed append statements to get them to stick to my current room:

*app You stand in the main body of a cavernous timber barn, old straw crunching
*app under your feet. A dim oil lantern flickers overhead casting odd shadows
*app that seem to dance amongst the hand-hewn timbers of the roof space. The barn
*app runs roughly west-east, with a stock enclosure to the east, fresh manure
*app gently steaming in the cool damp air. Saddle and harness gear is visible to
*app the northwest and the straw is swept clear of a timber trapdoor set into the
*app floor, a large rusted iron ring providing its handle. An unsophisticated
*app pane glass window is set into the east wall, it's glass frosted with grime
*app and age, allowing a shaft of eerie light in from outside, visible only
*app because of the swirls of dust kicked up as you walk around. Soft noises
*app from penned livestock makes you feel comfortable and safe.

..then pasted the block into the room, *saving my progress as I went. The resultant environment already has the feel of a dreary farmhouse and surrounds, and that interests me, because the text produces clear pictures in my head.

Experiencing the environment through a client [pictured is SimpleMU] the space is tangible and delicious.

Given that I now had textual descriptions of the world I am building, it made sense to add these also to the MOO version of the scenario. Fortunately, MOO and MUD are similar enough that, with a little minor tweaking [good old search and replace], I was able to use command-line to quickly add the same textual descriptions to the same rooms:

@set here.description to "You stand in the main body of a cavernous timber barn, old straw crunching under your feet. A dim oil lantern flickers overhead casting odd shadows that seem to dance amongst the hand-hewn timbers of the roof space. The barn runs roughly west-east, with a stock enclosure to the east, fresh manure gently steaming in the cool damp air. Saddle and harness gear is visible to the northwest and the straw is swept clear of a timber trapdoor set into the floor, a large rusted iron ring providing its handle. An unsophisticated pane glass window is set into the east wall, it's glass frosted with grime and age, allowing a shaft of eerie light in from outside, visible only because of the swirls of dust kicked up as you walk around. Soft noises from penned livestock makes you feel comfortable and safe."

I had already been in SecondLife and done a virtual photoshoot to capture images or views of each of the places in MOO/MUD scenarios, so the pictures and textualisations marry to provide a multi-modal representation of teh space [like how I slipped in an "English" term? subtle hey, will spare you the priviledging of the discourse as my dominance is fading :P].

After a ripper post-marking and reporting afternoon discussion over a cup of tea with Dearest Mrs Noisy [a co-consirator and fellow loony], we brainstormed plot points and discovered that there were conceivably actually four [4] viable suspects in this drama - all of them will be represented and clues leading to them will also be embedded - what was clear to me was that the trial process actually applied in 1826 began with teh conclusion and worked backwards - now correct me if I am wrong that that is arse-about. My sceario will require players [dang, what do i call participants?] to collect the evidence before jumping to an informed conclusion. We also discovered possibilities of introducing another cultural group - The Romany [as english "Gypsies" preferred to be called] is a rich and diverse culture, with well organised social structure and, surprising, strict moral code ... can we use that, yes we can.

So what is next? Making the monsters [oops, automated characters] and objects [or artifacts] they add richness and interactivity. I took Mrs Noisy for a little wander in the MUD, and show her how monsters can talk, act independently, trade interactively, follow a script of pre-determined actions, be richly descriptive [and also kill you if you are a noob] so that for MUD at least offers some fascinating richness opportunities also. MOO bots will use the same conversation engines I build for MUD, and SecondLife will use modified script versions of the same conversation engines as well - this co-development thing is interesting as many elements can be utilised across platforms [allbeit obeying local syntax and within local limitations].

Had to laugh, returned to my SecondLife scenario to find a visitor had parked a helicopter and a hover board on ym hillock, and I could not move them as I am not the owner of the land. In a related issue, I find I cannot place vegetation where I want it, again because I do not own the land. I will, when my bandwidth is less restricted, create some flexi-primis and map some tree foliage to their bumpmaps so they actually look like trees - unlike the hilarious lollipop-like things I currently have as placemarkers for major trees. need some hedges and dry-stone walls, will experiment on aesthetics when the mechanics are more complete.

I will keep you [my adoring readers] posted..... tap tap tap ... is this thing on?