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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2014 13:50:33 GMT
Or how do you portray different in-game mechanics when writing, imagining, or reading about mindcrackers in a verse where minecraft is treated as real life. Things such as death, injuries, potions and enchanting, communicating, and the world beyond Mindcrack (e.g. other locations and people not in the Mindcrack world map). How do you like to portray them and how do they compare and contrast with real-world workings? Discuss away and take this in whatever direction you so please.
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Post by silvercheers on Sept 26, 2014 6:29:29 GMT
I have so many things to SAAAAAAYYYYYYYY about this! This is one of my favorite things to do, even if it can get frustrating trying to sync up the details into something coherent and reasonable and having to change some on a per-story basis to fit the requirements.
So like, respawn first, because (for me) that's a fairly clean-cut topic. My implementation is essentially the same as the Minecraft one, if you die, you pop back up in your last sleepy place (or spawn, if your bed was unavailable) in a minute or two. What happens in between is where it gets fun. It's really hard to imagine death without consequence (aside from location and inventory loss), so excruciating pain is also involved. Enough pain that if you weren't already dead, you'd probably die from sheer agony. That adds a pretty strong incentive to try to survive, even if you're at a figurative 1/2 heart. Also adds drama and fun! Also also, because of the glitchiness of Minecraft its not unreasonable to make the respawn system unreliable. Sometimes it takes longer, and there's always a chance, small as it is, that they'll die for good. No body. Their dataform lost in the Void. (Or, in the case of Poker, they don't naturally respawn and have to play a game with Deathbris in order to come back.)
Speaking of hearts, those are actually kind of weird to translate. Usually I ignore natural regen, it's way too quick for my tastes. Wounds heal like they might in reality unless under an unnatural effect. Hearts are the unit of life, they measure how close to death you are (very hard to measure quantitatively, so I either leave that to the magic of in-story gadgets or don't reference them at all), not the necessarily the severity of an injury (eg, broken leg is pretty serious, but not life threatening).
Effects come in a lot of flavors. Usually I write potions tasting like evocative memories, different for different people. Like, a regen potion might "taste" like the first time you felt a caffeine rush, or the feeling of the sun on your skin in the cold months. Strength might taste like something that reminds you of being powerful (like sweat. eww). Etc, etc. I've actually got a half-completed story in my files that focuses on potions and the potential dangers of mixing and matching reagents (here's a hint, you get some pretty nasty poison variations more often than you get a potion that combines the effects of regen and invisibility, sure wouldn't want to be an unwilling test subject for that, not at all... *cough*). Ah, yes, the matter phase of splash potions depends on the comedic value of drenching a small person (sorry, Ads). It ranges from a cloud of magic sparkles to a liquid. The swirls indicating the effect show up as normal, although potions that effect specific parts of the body (eg. night vision or jump) have the swirls concentrated around the region of effect (eyes and lower body, respectively).
Beacon effects invoke a slight tingly feeling while in use, but I don't have much to add to those except that they and their pyramids look far more future-techy in my brain.
I'm not sure if I've ever written enchanting, but I imagine it involves large amounts of floating runes, a great deal of concentration, a bright flash of violet iridescence, and ancient books. Also, it feels like music might play a small role? Maybe I will write a story about enchanting as a partner to my story about potions.
Inventory has two options: either hammerspace with access through a gadget (or bottomless pockets, or wherever Danny Phantom hides his thermos, or a bag of holding), or they have to carry everything. I find a combination of the two works best, most items that you might gather from a mining or exploration trip would go to hammerspace, tools and weapons can be holstered and sheathed on the body, and things like buckets have to be carried. Sometimes I shunt the buckets and things to hammerspace too, but can you imagine trying to grab a diamond out of there and accidentally sticking your hand into a bucket of lava? Corollary to the both idea: if using inventory access via gadget it might just be best to put everything into hammerspace.
Ooh, communications are fun. Usually I just give them wrist-gadgets to act as a HUD. They allow for text communication (private and global), have a built in mic and speaker (both detachable and attachable to the appropriate area of face for convenience and sneaking purposes), heart gauge (optional), effect monitor, inventory access (if hammerspace inventory applies), GPS, time, and a short range radar that only shows the location of players (can be modified for range and what it picks up).
Okayokayokay. The Void. I freaking love the Void. I have lots of theories. My favorite is that the Void is the entropy sink of Minecraft. It's what allows the land to extend for so far. The Farlands are a result of Void spillover. It's also what allows for the respawn mechanism. Falling into the Void is pretty much insta-death because you're basically being torn apart by pure chaos (I hear you saying "but isn't she studying engineering? why is she refusing to science correctly?" and my answer is "Minecraft: I DO WHAT I WANT"). That pain during respawn? Your data is being pulled out of the Void and reconstructed. Every little one and zero is feeling the raw chaos of the Void. Yeah. Second theory is that the Void is the underworld of Minecraft. Instead of fire, the theme is a terrible, whipping wind driven by the spirits of the dead (or rather, ghost data imprints from each respawn). Affectionately named Void Wraiths, they're the cause of Void damage. Side theory to the second theory, the Void is limbo (in the case of Poker). The Void damage is just a protection mechanism, to prevent anything living from entering limbo (the dead, or at least dead-waiting, are quite welcome).
The End is either a "safe zone" (*snort*) located in the Void, or located in a far-off galaxy (aka, The Place Where Kurt Is No Longer Allowed To Point His Telescope). Universally it includes some amounts of non-Euclidian geometry and not-quite-rightness. The ground glows for no discernible reason and the sky is so grainy because the stars are so far away (because the space around it is so warped).
I don't really have a universal idea of what everybody is doing in Minecraft as a whole, but the following is the first structure I came up with and I tend to pick and choose parts of it for my other Minecraft-set things. Essentially, the members of Mojang (pre-Microsoft, dammit) are the royal family (and other important castle people like advisers) in the kingdom of Minecraft. They've got lovely reality warping powers and like to play around. (Notch is king, but he doesn't do much with Minecraft lately so Prince-Regent Jeb is the current ruler. His chief adviser is Lord Dinnerbone.) Modders have been granted limited reality warping powers, for use in specific areas. They're called the oh-so-imaginative Knights of Mod... You know what? Imma just copy pasta some of my notes.
King Notch rules over Minecraft with prince-regent Jeb, chief adviser Dinnerbone, and other company members in Castle Mojang. Notch turned his eyes away from Minecraft to work on other projects for the time being, and Jeb currently rules the land (which is why he’s prince-regent now). All in Castle Mojang have reality-warping powers that allow them to perform “updates” to the land.
The Knights of Mod are the modding community. They have limited reality-warping powers and are only allowed to use them in specific areas, as per order of the king. The various countries of Minecraft can request certain areas be set aside for the knights to use their powers. In the absence of King Notch, the Knights of Mod are commanded by Sir Direwolf, despite him having little to no powers to speak of.
Mapmakers are the various ruling persons of the lands they create.
Lord Vechs presides over the Super Hostile Lands with his friends/enemies/victims/pawns Sir Joe, Lady Cleo, Lady Rosie, etc. He likes tossing them and any interesting travelers into the Super Hostile when bored. He doesn’t have many actual subjects. They all usually leave as quickly as possible.
Captain Sparklez is the leader of a small traveling theater group. Sometimes this theater group’s travels take them to other dimensions, but they try not to concern themselves too much with that. He is actually the king of a far-off land in disguise, but that’s secret! The meeting of Captain Sparklez and Sparkles* generated much confusion until they found out only one of the two Sparklez/s* could sing.
Mindcrack is a self-governing country founded by Guude. They initially had no government at all until King Notch told Guude to take charge because half of his friends could easily blow up the world (“Damnit, guys. Who did the thing?”). They have some land set aside for Feed the Beast and Crackpack modifications.
Guude was once the Lord of Forohfor and a Knight of the Lost Link (Knights of the Lost Link are the survivors of the Great Lost Link Tragedy, they were knighted by King Notch). He gave up his titles to go adventuring through the Super Hostile lands with Bdoubleo (who was a bard until then). Eventually they gathered together a group of people and created the country of Mindcrack.
Zisteau is an underling of Lord Vechs. When thrown into the Kaizo Caverns by Vechs, he used a humble sign as his weapon. Intrigued, Vechs occasionally casts enchantments on it when in a particularly less evil mood. After battling his way through quite a bit of the Super Hostile Lands, Vechs let Zisteau go to the country of Mindcrack as an ambassador, under the agreement that Zisteau would come back and run any bit of Super Hostile whenever Vechs asked. Somewhat renowned for pioneering the “Advanced Lighting Technique.” As a zombie pigman, he’s a bit taller than the rest of the Mindcrackers.
Docm was a creeper who didn’t want to die. Instead of activating his fuse, he attempted to remove the explosives from his body, replacing bits with robotic parts (lots of pain was had). He hangs out in Mindcrack and with the Zipkrowd. As a creeper-cyborg, Doc is a little shorter than most everyone else (except Adlington).
Nobody, not even BTC, knows what in hells BTC is. Current theories point in the direction of skeletonized-wizard, and some suspect necromancy played some hand. (Adlington, while similarly a mystery, is in a different situation. Adlington knows that Adlington is Adlington, and that’s all that needs to be said.)
It is said that both Etho and Lord Vechs received tutelage under Master SethBling, before Etho set out on his own and Vechs decided to develop an evil laugh.
FyreUK are a builders and architects guild, renowned for their remarkable ability to build beautiful cities in mere weeks.
The citizens of Minecraft are, of course, all the players and LPers (and NPCs where applicable, although their respawn abilities are a bit hit-and miss).
Frankly I'm so tired right now that I can't concentrate enough to remember other stuff. Sorry for the length of the post, I REALLY LOVE this stuff.
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