Topics

1

Role Play Theater / A Change Of Plans

« on: February 07, 2016, 11:42:53 AM »

Hey, fuzzles.

I'm toying with the idea of running an interactive story in style of the classic Infocom games and all the similar creations from before and after.

If you're not familiar with the classics like Adventure or Zork, it is quite different from a typical RP because it's primarily single-player, there's no stats, rolls, or similar, and the focus is on pushing a story forward with your actions.
If you think "adventure game" by now, well, that's where the genre name came from, I believe.

The main difference here is that instead of a pre-created game, I'm going to wing it with not much more than a basic outline.

For the other big change, I plan to replace the classic "one command at a time, and examine everything because all information is hidden until you look for it" approach, with more of a tabletop (forumtop?) style, where you describe more of your planned actions ahead. With my sleep and work hours being what they are, waiting for me to answer after every single move would make it unpleasantly slow.

So, instead of "open drawer. <wait for reply>. Search drawer's contents. <wait for reply with list of them>. Pick up book. <wait for reply>. Read book.", you'd go like "Open the drawer, check what's inside. If there's a book, read it, also check out if there aren't any batteries for the flashlight".

I'd then respond with answers to all this, plus mention whatever else's interesting. And don't worry about rushing into a trap by doing this - you will be told the book's glowing with strange runes, and asked if you're sure you want to open it. :)

It still won't be super fast paced, but hopefully I can do well enough for you to enjoy.
I apologize up front to any of the professional writers visiting our forum.

As far as multiple people playing, I expect the storyline to fork and go down various routes for each of you - same as if one person would replay the game many times and make different choices each time.

Aaaand if you'd rather try the classics on your own pace instead, here's one site that allows you to play them online. http://www.web-adventures.org/





A Change Of Plans
An Interactive Improvisation
Release 1 / Serial number 160207 / Foxform v0.00; Library from around the corner



At the Progress Bar

You have found this cozy little bar the previous time you've been changing flights here on the Orvac Station.
Its off-the-main-path location makes most of the crowd miss it, leading to plenty of free seats and a pleasant atmosphere.

You're sitting by the far end of the counter, just about ready to order.
The bartender's leaning on the counter couple of feet away, chatting with another patron.
Deeply textured, powerful music is playing from speakers concealed along the walls.
Your backpack is on the floor next to you.

2

Random Insanity / In an atmosphere of pure chloride...

« on: January 23, 2012, 01:51:44 PM »

... no one can see how badly a fox's fur clumps up.

3

Writer's Guild / Headache

« on: October 11, 2011, 03:59:12 PM »

Hey, got a minute? I believe I've promised to tell you what I know about my past some day, haven't I?
Eitherway, right now I have a headache huge enough that talking about it shouldn't make it worse, so...

Let me warn you and apologize up front... it won't make sense, it will sound like an excuse-plot for bad game, and probably make your head hurt as much as mine does already.
You can stil back off, you know...?

Well, all right, your call. Take a seat, or something. If you want a drink, kitchen's over there.

All right. So, let me start from the most recent end, because I know the most about this one.
First thing I remember from this life would be falling down from above the tree level, getting slowed down by all the branches, and hitting the ground right in front of a surprised group of wolves. Long story short, I was in a park in the capital. They called security, which took me for at best a refugee, at worst a spy, and pulled down... then, upon realizing I'm unlike the normal foxes here suspected me of being a Genoworks project or something, and handed off to the Akaelaes to get rid of the problem.
Took a while, but I've got things straightened out. I was genuinely surprised at how welcome I was in there. Settled down, felt at home. After a while, I've started doing what I shown to be good at; I've joined the security forces, did some... actions over the years, progressed to the special unit... been there during the Teraplex war, too. Did some tinkering and played with their electronics in the free time, too. I'm honestly still surprised they did trust me despite so many unknowns and unusualities about me, but I've never been more happy before, too  At some point, they gave up on trying to find out just where I came from, and shrugged it as non-issue.

Much later, when spending time at the Academy, well... something happened.
Later I've found out that at that very moment they've blown up an energy core on the other side of the campus. Anyway, according to what I've been told, I've just blinked and disappeared. Apparently the one theory anyone raised in the short meantime was that I after all was some off-shoot of a black fox, and like all of them who haven't been trained to deal with their abilities, well... just killed myself in an outburst of energy.
What really happened? Well, I've been curled up in the very same place where I've been just a moment ago, except it was on a different Mars... one without the Academy, and without anyone to hear my screams anywhere near. That was when I've became aware of all the other, well, lives or however should they be called. Threads? Existances? No blasted idea... But, well, try to imagine you standing in a room, talking to people, and suddenly they and the buildings aren't there, there's only you, huge empty red desert, and all the "memories" of your own other pasts in your head.
Now I think it might be not a bad thing there wasn't anyone else around at the time... at least this way only one hurt was me.

I didn't know what happened; after some time I've thought that maybe I've just... moved... to another "life" like all the others... but then I've realized that I see all the other ones still unfolding, but this one I've supposedly just left is not there, it's still "my" past... well, of course I wanted to go back to where I was settled and happy for last thirty or so years.

But first I needed to find out whre and what is this place. Well, turns out it was also in the middle of terraforming process, but this one was done by a bunch of Earth corporations, treating the planet as their own playground, and treating the people in there like trash. Well, you can probably guess how they reacted when "colonists" (and I use this term loosely) decided to claim independence? Yeeeeeep.
Let me tell you it this way... I really liked that when I was with the Akaelaes, for once the good guys were the largest and best equipped group. But, had to make do without much resources, and without my (t)rusty lift... fawks, you won't believe how I missed it sometimes. Not even as much for its (notable) combat value, but out of sentiment for all the time and events it carried me through.

Upon hearing "Hey, we've got our second fox", I of course had to ask... and well, that's how I met Donnie. I'm pretty sure we'd get along even if I was a badger and he a meerkat or whatever... but as it is, the fox team happened, and was crucial for the resistance to tilt the odds.
After things calmed down a bit, we went to more regular work, for ourselves, on contracts... just another bunch of specialists for hire on this dusty planet.
Well, one day I've had a nightmare, and woke up knowing what to do to get home. No, not wherever I started from. I mean, back to the Mars I was before I ended up on this one.
I was torn; didn't want to leave my friend, did want to get back to where I felt I belonged to the best. Well... in the end result we've found out that a little silray hugging me farewell went along with me, but none of our clothes did, so it was a bit of an awkward moment.
Which became weirder when I found out that in this dimension, just a few minutes passed.
I'll spare you the mess that we got trying to explain this all; someone we all knew well and who had... experiences with off-plane travel said it's nothing alike to hers, "and much more sideways", whatever that'd mean. I gave up on trying to understand her long ago. No one, not even her, had any idea what's going on with these "memories of past lives", of mine.

So I'm back where I wanted to be, my friend hitched along, but seems to be enjoying the tech we have in here... nd that'd be about this current existance of mine, and the only one I really am any sure about. Still, it may all be fake... I might be some kind of GW creation with everything else being faked into my head... but at this point, it's less probable than the other explaination.

So, I guess I should explain what I mean by past lives, then...
I honestly don't know if they should be called past, actually. Or lives, for that matter.

See, they all have a start like this one had... I was just appearing somewhere, kind of lost, and trying to get along in the world. "At the same time", tho "time" is a very wrong word to use here. But just as I am sitting here talking to you, these "past foxes" are also doing things right now; one's studying for an exam, one's just asleep after holding watch on a moored starship, one's working in a foundry, one's working on a database, and the last one... blast it, I wish I'd have a pizza right now too... erm, nevermind.
Anyway, I'm sure that they, unlike me, don't have any awareness of each other. And, I don't remember any kithood; either as part of one of those "lives", or separate.
Now, why do I call them "past", and not "parallel" or such? Because there are connections between one to the other. I have some scars under the fuzz... I "remember" how some of them happened in one of the pasts, so I may assume that memories where I have it come from after this event, and the rest is from earlier times. I may be wrong about it, of course, but that's the most logical. Also, right now, Lt. Tvorsk is serving as the second officer on his third ship in the career, VSN auxillary corvette awkwardly named the Comet's Tail; somehow, I've stumbled over this ship in this existence, and apparently I'm the registered owner of it since quite a long while... and when I was leaving that Navy I was a Lieutenant Commander. Speaking of, I look really stupid in a uniform... hello?
Are you still with me?

* Tvorsk waves paw in front of your eyes...

Oh great, I've broke another one...

* Tvorsk shakes you and sighs loudly as you blink.

All right, I think I should stop here, then...

* Tvorsk grins vaguely.

Is this all true, or am I talking random stuff to make your head hurt just as mine does? That's up to you to decide.

4

Random Insanity / Complete the joke

« on: September 11, 2011, 12:06:01 PM »

Inspired by chat today.

Three pooltoys and a plushie walk into a chat room...

and then what? Post your ideas!

5

Random Topics / Random imagined thing...

« on: August 02, 2011, 02:49:33 PM »

So, well, we were exchanging random songs with Trask, and I've ended up putting a visual I had since a few years into words for the first time.

Posted with Trask's permission.

(19:02:17) Tvorsk: Not sure if I ever linked this to ya. Title is crap, but song's really cool, if you can stand electronic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJoWn3Nq7qE
(19:03:05) Tvorsk: Honestly, I have a whole odd visual imagined for it... to sum it short, "a trans-dimensional train".
(19:04:00) Trask: Wait a moment....I listened to this band before. :P
(...)
(19:47:16) Tvorsk: All right, so, to say what I promised.
(19:47:30) Tvorsk: It's quite long and complicated.
(19:48:07) Tvorsk: So, there's that old abandoned... building. Part-underground.
(19:48:17) Trask: *nids*
(19:48:19) Trask: Nods*
(19:48:27) Tvorsk: Btw, this all comes in first person perspective. ;)
(19:48:32) Trask: Nid haha. I wonder what nid would mean...
(19:48:38) Trask: Gotcha!
(19:49:17) Tvorsk: I'll be saying "I", tho honestly I didn't think of the person as "me" in any way. It's just easier.
(19:49:28) Tvorsk: So I approach it, look behind warily...
(19:49:31) Trask: *nods again*
(19:49:57) Tvorsk: The feeling  is that I was chased a long way by Some People, and I hope I lost them now as I'm sneaking in.
19:50
(19:50:58) Tvorsk: Well, the building is some kind of old rail industrial/repair facility.
(19:51:05) Tvorsk: Abandoned.
(19:51:30) Tvorsk: I get in and through, and somewhere far in (and down) there's something that definitely doesn't fit the image.
(19:52:30) Tvorsk: That is, a futuristic looking train. In perfect condition, facing the tracks out.
(19:52:45) Tvorsk: It's not a surprise, I knew it'll be there.
(19:54:14) Tvorsk: I put hand on the panel, open the cabin door, get in. It's dark inside, I reach to a power switch board and turn the main breaker.
19:55
(19:55:44) Tvorsk: Only now the song starts, actually. ^^;
(19:56:30) Trask: Hehe. *nods*
(19:56:36) Tvorsk: "Camera switch" to some kind of undescript object (never really tried to imagine in in any particular way. It's odd, but it was more like a dream - I didn't think it up, it just came with the flow). It slowly starts to get spinned (it's suspended on an axis) by the external motor or something, and something inside starts to glow faintly.
(19:57:37) Tvorsk: As you may or may not have guessed, this thing will spin up and glow faster and faster as the intro progresses and music gets faster. ;)
(19:58:22) Trask: Got it. :P
(19:58:34) Tvorsk: In the meantime I turn other stuff up, and so on.
(19:58:37) Tvorsk: Readouts go up.
(19:59:14) Tvorsk: Then there's that muffled part that breaks into the main song, right?
20:00
(20:01:07) Tvorsk: Well, at this point we're already moving, slowly, on auxilliary power, and rolling out onto the tracks.
(20:01:30) Tvorsk: When this muffled fragment happens, well, that energy source's glow kind of "charge up", and at the first beat it shoots out a beam of energy into the receiver (and keeps streaming it). And, we hit up to speed. :)
(20:02:03) Trask: Sounds cool so far. :)
(20:02:42) Tvorsk: Well, then there's quite a long-ish part of speeding up. The music there very much reminds me of wheels clicking on the track, and the movement itself.
(20:03:39) Trask: *giggles to himself* I like trains. :P
20:05
(20:05:00) Tvorsk: Oh yeah. This is what I wanted to show you. A wallpaper I used... five years ago, if not more.
(20:05:04) Offering to send Blue Harvest_b.png to Trask
(20:05:19) Trask: Cool! yes, I wanna see it.
(20:07:03) Transfer of file Blue Harvest_b.png complete (I've uploaded the pic in question to here)
(20:07:19) Trask: Oooooo!
(20:07:25) Trask: That is awesome. :)
(20:07:32) Tvorsk: I know. Sadly, it's small.
20:10
(20:10:37) Tvorsk: Okay, so then there's that bit of additional electronic clicks (equipment powering up), coming up to that whistling up part with muffled zappy-things,, right? Followed with more of the "train track sound", just moffled, and then this... high pitched thing comes in, alone for a while and then  the main rhythm joins.
(20:11:13) Trask: *nods*
(20:14:04) Tvorsk: Okay, so as I said, it's a closeup to some machinery powering up, then camera goes outside and away from the train, thus the sound is muffled, and we see how the train projects an interdimensional gate in front of it, far away, then runs into it. Then the electro-horn sounds come in.
(20:14:09) Tvorsk: That part is... interesting.
(20:14:40) Trask: I can imagine it is. :P
20:15
(20:15:45) Tvorsk: Yeah. Camera switched back in to first person perspective. "I" am standing at the front control panel, my hands are on the throttle and the wheel.
20:20
(20:21:04) Tvorsk: As we enter the gate and the sounds come, each of the tones (and you know they're fast) make the whole image change. As in, the things behind the window, the layout of the controls, and the hands that hold them. Originally, they're human ones, right? But the "blinks" have just about everything. Paws, tentacles, long odd fingers, some kind of force fields, you call it.
(20:21:50) Trask: *nods* Neat. :)
(20:22:01) Tvorsk: The idea is that while there are bajilions of parallel universes, your form is matched into equivalent what-would-be-you when you cross the border.
(20:22:31) Trask: I like that idea, I could see that.
(20:22:56) Trask: Also, be right back, mom needs me. :P
(20:23:02) Tvorsk: I've read something similar somewhere. Not exactly this, but I have that distinct feeling I derived this idea from something.
(20:23:14) Trask: *nods!*
(20:23:22) Tvorsk: And yes, I know Jonas wrote some stories like that recently, but well, I have that image since years. ;)
(20:23:52) Trask: Hehe, I see. :)
(20:24:07) Tvorsk: Okay, so after that crazy switch everything calms down, right?
(20:24:09) Trask has gone away.
(20:24:20) Trask: Keep going, I will be back in a moment. :)
(20:24:24) Tvorsk: WAIT.
(20:24:28) Tvorsk: Almost done.
20:25
(20:25:38) Tvorsk: So, well, we arrive, in a different world... I take paws off the controls, the engine shuts down, I get out... and see a castle in the background and a party of foxes with swords and crossbows to "greet" me.
(20:25:48) Tvorsk: Note I said paws there. ;)
(20:28:25) Trask is no longer away.
(20:28:28) Trask: Back.
(20:28:41) Trask: Hehe, awesome!
(20:28:47) Trask: Fox party would be the best ever!
(20:29:12) Tvorsk: So well, I guess that'd be one way to fanfic my way into Caerreyn.
(20:29:31) Trask: Sounds like it could be Caerreyn.
(20:29:38) Tvorsk: Tho well, the part where the original operator was a human from Earth doesn't quite fit. ;)
(20:29:57) Trask: Haha, yeah.
20:30
(20:32:08) Tvorsk: So, well, that's what's my visual for the song. ^^

6

Game Room / Magic Workstation - anyone wants to play MtG?

« on: July 30, 2011, 01:01:16 PM »

Magic Workstation? What's that?
MWS is an old, buggy, but free to use program allowing you to play the card game of Magic the Gathering over the internet.
It provides you with a card database, a virtual "game table" to play on, and some basic mechanics; it's up to the players to follow and enforce rules as they play, quite like with the real life version.

Why would I want to use it?
Because the alternative is official Magic Online, which costs pretty large money to play (you buy card packs just like IRL, except you don't end up with real cards in your paws).

I meant, why would I want to play MTG?
Well, it's a fun game, albeit a complex one. Quite a few fuzzies in the chat do play it, or at least did at some point. I didn't play a match since quite a few months.

Okay, then...

* Tvorsk grins.

Installation
Okay, so.
First of all, grab the installer. Just click the "Magic Workstation 0.94f" link in the blue table near top.
Run the installer. If you're using Vista, Seven, or newer, DO NOT INSTALL IN "Program Files". Use C:\MWS\ or other such location that's not a "protected directory".
Do not run it yet (uncheck the box on last page of installer).
Get the gamepack. Install it.
Now, just in case, run Start -> Programs -> Magic Workstation -> Autoupdate MWS.

Then we need the database and theme update. You will want to check this website every now and then, and get updates.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/software/mws/5-mtg-masterbase
The RAR contains three files:
Master.mwBase
Data\Rulings.dat
Data\Sets.dat
You should extract it to the C:\MWS directory (or wherever you installed the program). NOT C:\MWS\MasterBase. It should ask whether to overwrite files for each of the three, you must say yes.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/software/mws/6-mtg-themes
Both of the ZIPs contain a single mwTheme file. You need to put these files in MWS\Themes, overwriting the old ones that are there.
Yes, theme updates are semi-mandatory.

Also, some guides may tell you to update rulings inside the program. Do NOT do it. If you'll do it, you won't be able to load the program anymore, as it can't fit the current, huge card database and the rulings list in memory anymore.

Next step, run the program, and cross your fingers for it to load.
Wait for the "evaluation" countdown to go to 0 and turn into OK.
Close the tip of the day box.
Select View -> Deck Edit Mode. It's much more practical for actual playing; Library Mode is cool if you're using the program to catalog cards you have for real, and such.
Tools -> Preferences. Tick "High Quality Image Generation" on the first screen. Then on the Image View tab switch all three options in lower half to the opposite setting. That is, external pictures first, full image, fulls first, respectively. Click OK and hope the program won't crash. It does that sometimes.
If it did, restart, and do the settings and mode switch again.
Close it, start again, go to Tools -> Preferences -> Interface, and switch Graphic Theme to Old Magic or New Magic (depends if you like the "old style" card, or the new style cards more). If program crashes after clicking OK, delete the MWS\Custom Sets folder and try again.

All right, at this point you are ready to play, except all the cards will look bland, and ugly, with just text and no picture. If you're okay with this, you can skip the next section.

Pictures
There are two types of pictures available. Crops, and Fulls.
Crops contain only the art for the "picture window" at top of card. The card frame, and the text, is drawn by MWS, and looks, well, generic. On the other paw, it's easy to read, and the images take less disk space (and download time).
Fulls are scans of the whole card, in quite a high resolution, which then are displayed in their whole glory.

Eitherway, go here: http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=445 . Huge post is huge, but you're interested in links to two mediafire folders, soon below the "2. Direct Downloads" header. One has crops, other has fulls. Don't bother with the torrents, they're a hassle to rename and rearrange for MWS use later.
Preferably, you'd want all of the zips from the folders, but if you're going to play some particular card set for start, you can get just those and they'll be enough for a while. Rule is simple - when there's no card picture available, MWS displays the "generic" card with text.
Each of the downloaded ZIPs contains a single directory, called for example "M11" or "LRW". You need to put that directory in MWS\Pics. There can't be an additional directory level (like when you rightclick and do "Extract to <archivename>")!
Good path is for example C:\MWS\Pics\M11\<images here>.
Tokens are an exception (they're packed separately on the download site). Tokens from all editions go to a single folder, Pics\TK. If you have more than one file of the same name (and different pictures), just add numbers, and MWS will be choosing one at random. So, like Pics\TK\Dragon1.full.jpg, Pics\TK\Dragon2.full.jpg, so on.


Setting up a deck
File -> New Deck, Then choose cards from Library on the left, using the arrow buttons. Blue right-arrow adds card to deck, i.e. cards you will play. Green one adds card to sideboard, i.e. cards you may choose to swap cards from deck with in between games in a series of games. Red left arrow removes card. Gray up/down arrows switch cards between deck and sideboard.
Once you're happy with your choice, you should save your deck. MAKE SURE the last list you clicked was the deck, not the library. The "(XX/X) Cards" at top should be blue. Then click File -> Save Deck/Library As. In the "Save As" window make sure the filetype says "mwDeck". If it says mwBase, you're saving your library, not your deck. Cancel, click deck, try to save again. Yes, it's a stuuupid caveat.
Generally, you don't want to save your library, as we're working with the MasterBase of all the cards ever, not "own library" of cards you have for real.

Okay, hmm, what else here... There are quick search boxes at top of both lists. Also, there's a cool filter in View -> Simple (Apprentice-like) Card Filter. It lets you to limit the libray list to for example cards that are lands, cards from a particular edition, or creature cards with the creature type of "fox". It's a floating window, and sometimes likes to get hidden under the program, or such. At worst case, restart MWS, and it should appear somewhere you can catch it. Also, to reset the filter you nee to click Clear, then Apply. I was confused by it at start. ;)

Connecting.
Game -> Connect to Opponent.
You have two choices. One is to do a direct connection. At least one of you two needs to know how to set up a server with port forwarding. The port in question is 4747. In that case, one person clicks Wait on the Wait tab, and gives the forwarded IP address to the other. The other player puts it in the text field and clicks Call.
The other choice is to use the mwsplay.net lobby. You just Call it, then set up a game. Other person also Calls it, and joins your game. The caveat here is that you can't make a password protected game, so a random someone can join your game before the intended player does. Disconnect in that case and try again.
CAVEAT: There is no "heartbeat" between the clients. If you don't move stuff on the table, don't use the internal chat, etc, the connection is idle. Some routers (ESPECIALLY LINKSYS) kill "idle" connections after barely 5 minutes. That's evil, yes. But it also means you may get silently disconnected, and not notice until you'll make your next move and get a "Player Lost" message. So, be active. Talk. Move cards on the table (or in hand) randomly. When connection is lost, you can't "rejoin" the game, it's ended.

PLAYING
All right, MWSPlay module is running, you are connected... what now?
Well, play like a real game. Roll who starts, draw cards, play them.
Generally, a good idea is to play for the first few times with someone who already knows the program, and can guide you.

Once you call a win, you can start a new game without restarting by choosing File -> New Game. In that window, you can change your nickname and the "I'm ready" message displayed in gamechat. Yes, that means in your first game ever you will start as "Player". You can also load a different saved deck, or swap sideboard cards (the Sideboarding button). Both of you two have to click File -> New Game to proceed, btw.

Few hints:
- Check out the menus at top.
- Right click each of the big icons on the left, to see options available.
- Right click the playfield, and the Hand area (row at bottom of screen) to see options available.
- Once you have cards in hand, and on table, rightclick them too.
- To end turn, doubleclick the end turn icon at end of the the center bar.
- Doubleclicking a card on field taps it.
- The options you have on cards change depending on what turn phase you are in - for example, you can highlight cards to attack (red outline) when you're in attack phase.
- To draw an attack arrow (red), rightclick a card, then drag to the target card (or the other player's head-and-life box) and release mouse button.
- To draw a defense arrow (yellow), rightclick a card, then drag to the target card (or the other player's head-and-life box) THEN press Shift, and release mouse button.
- Always first click the card in question, then, optionally, hold Shift and click other cards, then draw arrows. Otherwise, you may end up drawing arrows from a ton of card at the same time because Shift was considered to be selection.
- To clear all arrows so you can draw them again, press Control-Backspace or play with the turn stage bar back and forth.
- Enchantments can (and often should) be attached to other cards - drag and drop such card onto the target, and it'll "slide" under it. You can attach them to opponent's cards too, in the same way.
- You can also hand your cards to opponent by dragging them to his half of table. This happens when he took control of your card, for example.
- The little "..." button at bottom of chat box allows you to customize the predefined chat buttons below. Btw, the "End my turn" button is just that - a chat - it doesn't do anything to the game.
- ... maybe post your own tips in this topic?

7

Writer's Guild / D-Minus-grade stuff... don't read for your own sake!

« on: November 03, 2010, 07:00:55 PM »

See... on Monday Medik squeezed out from me a promise that I'll write something...
I had zero idea what to type, wandered around my memories idly, then came up to a picture idea that never happened... so well, this led to an image which actually didn't end up in the final version but was used as separate parts in other ones, (the fox climbing a virtual tree in the "real world", the engineer going "No one will ever believe me"),
and then I started writing trying to arrive at that end...





"Okay, that would be it for the night", the tech said dropping a report sheet on the shift supervisor's desk.
"Thanks, Mitch. Everything as usual?", he responded.
The man shifted his weight from one leg to another, with an expression of discomfort. "Well..."
" 'Well' what? I'm tired, get to the point!"
"See, I saw something weird on the floor... Almost like a dog's tracks... but how could it get here?"
His manager chuckled. "You're really trying to get yourself off the night shift, huh? Well, if you have seen anything at all, it were probably shadows or skid marks... things look weird in the hall's lighting." He looked at Mitch for a moment, then shuffled some papers on his desk. "Thanks, that'd be all... and you still are supposed to be here tomorrow at 9pm."
"Good morning then, Mr. Edwards..." the worker sighed and slowly left the facility. "It sure looked like tracks. Small dog, coyote, something like that..."

***

"Mitchell! Hey!", a vaguely familiar voice approached from behind.
He raised his head from the tangled mess of Cat7, and recognized the annoyingly friendly HVAC guy. "Stan? What are you doing here? The maintenance window isn't until next week!"
"Well", the contractor tilted his head, "I hoped you could tell me which one of you guys has a shedding cat or something like that... We had an alert in Sector 3's air filters..."
"Wait, what? Why cat?"
"Well, I don't know, but the residue looks like some kind of fur. Gray, mostly. Someone had to carry it into the hall on clothing... unless you recently allowed employees to walk their dogs in the clean area?", he grinned, believing he just made a great joke. "Hey, why are you looking at me this way? You have a chupacabra running free in here, or what?"
"Nothing... it's nothing. Gray, you said...?"

***

Mitch's groan drowned in the monotoneous noise of fans and equipment in the all. "Damn it, four separate modules going down on one night... must have been a bad batch...", he thought, trying to verify that the replacements aren't gonna be immediately destroyed by a damaged backplane. Suddenly, he heard a few faint clicks - a sure sign of a dropped screw bouncing into some hard to reach corner.
"Just great...", he started to complain, then jerked upright as his voice triggered a rapid series of louder clicks... moving away down the corridor?
"Crap, it's middle of the night, I'm supposed to be alone..." he thought, but moved quickly from between the racks to look after the sound. He might have seen a tiny glimpse of movement at the far end, but he wasn't sure... after all, it could be a trick of shadows animated by his own movement.
"Daaaaamn...", he quickly pushed the modules into their slots, and sighed in relief at the green status lights. "Right, I'm getting outta here..."

***

"Nothing..." he sat upright from the CCTV screen he was bending over for last hour. "No one entered, no one left, no fluctuations even below the alarm level on the motion sensors... and cameras say I was alone..." He shook his head and wondered if he's going crazy. And if so, why...
The phone ring made him jump. Trying to steady his breath, he answered. "CK-1 facility maintenance, Mitchell speaking."
"Hub Ops here! Listen, there was a MITRE report just now. There's some new worm spreading around quietly since a week or so. Reverse engineering just identified all victims are gonna start DDOSing random places from their lists at midnight Pacific time."
He paled. "In three minutes?! What am I supposed to do, pull network cables from all the Windows boxes the datacenter? I'm just a night shift tech, I don't even have passwords to the Junipers!"
"We have the whole co-lo section already cut from the Internet gateways and we're contacting customers now. Sit back, grab popcorn and watch the internal network melting down in the meantime, I guess...", the caller sighed tiredly.
"Ha ha, very funny... well, thanks for the warn-" the beeps informed him the call has been ended.

***

A moment later, nearly all of the few thousand of colocated Windows servers were happily saturating the recently-upgraded fiber, repeated attempts to access outside world and the negative responses zipping over the fiber with speed of light. Mitch snickered, "Guess I can consider this an unplanned stress test...", while, suddenly, one of the sources turned quiet. "Aaaand, we have the first crash caused by the overl...huh?" he halted as he noticed the regular hearbeats and SAN traffic is still there.
Just then, next machine returned to seemingly normal operation. "Guess the worm gives up after a few minutes...", he shrugged and laid back. "Either way, not really my problem..."
Ten minutes later, a thought popped into his mind. If it would be a case of a timer or something in the malware, he'd see hosts returning to normall all over the place... while right now, last three rows of Sector 1 were clean, and the first two machines on rack 1-4-1 just returned to normal... "Almost like someone would walk down the row and fix them one by one..."
The realization struck suddenly, making him jump out of chair, stumble, return back for the wireless terminal tied into monitoring, and run for the entry lock.

***

As he was sliding his card through the inner door's slot, herealized he should have check the cameras... oh well, too late now.
He sneaked deeper inside, hid between the racks, and watched as the hosts closer and closer to him became fixed...

Suddenly, something small jumped into the corridor he was concealed in. He held his breath and watched. It had four legs, pointy ears, a muzzle, and was covered in gray-ish fur all over, except for the outer port of the bushy tail, which was black, and some reddish markings. "A... fox?!" he thought.
The animal's ears suddenly turned, its head and eyes following quickly. Focused, it prepared itself and pounced.
Mitch blinked. Did this... thing... just flown THROUGH the locked cage door and half-way into one of the computers?
The fox backed out from the server, with something small in its muzzle... it threw it up in the air, catched back as it fell, and swallowed.
Quick peek at the terminal on his knee confirmed that this machine's network traffic fell down to idle levels. As the creature trotted thorugh the closed cage as it wasn't there back to the alley, he noticed the faint glow emanating from its whole body. "Holy shit..."
The glowing fox's eyes perked, and it looked in his way.
Mitch swallowed and started to move slowly out of his niche. "Don't be afraid..." - he looked at the small fluffy creature - "I don't know what are you doing, or how, but if this is not a dream, I either am crazy or would be called crazy if I'd tell anyone what I just saw... so I'm not gonna tell anyone."
He backed out of the alley and looked back. The fox was staring at him. "By the way, my name's Mitch", he said and left for the office.

***

"I think you drove here unnecessarily, the stuff's all back in order now...", he greeted the techs that arrived later.
"What? How?"
"No idea, I didn't touch a thing, they just gradually stopped... maybe the worm hit a bug in its own code and crashed...", Mitch shrugged.
"Boss, he's right... there's no trace of the thing nowhere in these" - one of the techs interjected.
"Huh... okay then, finish deploying the patch for the hole, and let's go back to beds... and you call the hub, thell them they can get this place back online."
The night tech smiled to his thoughts, "Thanks, foxie..."

***

The Spirit of Urocyon trotted down a corridor in Sec3, his tail wagging happily. He took a turn between the racks, looked, and saw what he expected to see... one of many seemingly identical machines, differentiated only by the number 10 stickered to its front.
His den.
He stretched, yipped with content, and jumped inside.
As he was climbing an R-tree, he felt the flow of sync packets... they were on the Internet again, things were just going to get busy.
He raised head lazily, watching the fuzzies coming in...
* Tvorsk pets the server, "Hope you enjoyed the rest during the outage?"
He murred and let his tongue roll out. "You'd be surprised..." he thought.





So, well... yeah...
Sorry for making y'all see it, but... I did warn you in the thread title, didn't I?

Also, I misunderstood Medik with a funny result...

(23:43:46) Medik Jackal: I may be able to raise up a few fuzzies a grade below me...
(23:44:10) Medik Jackal: My English teacher wants me to write a first paragraph for a story, and she'll give it to her students for them to finish...
(23:44:16) Tvorsk: Ha ha
(23:44:16) Medik Jackal: So I could influence it quite a bit
(23:44:30) Tvorsk: Noooooooot evil
(23:44:40) Medik Jackal: Hehe, indeed!
(23:44:56) Medik Jackal: Any ideas? Because I need to include a few of us fuzzies from CF :P
(23:47:08) Tvorsk: I'd say that'd be quite a bad idea, honestly... stick to "generic" characters, even if only because then no one will feel hurt or angry for how "he" ahs been played or not in the story.
(23:47:33) ***Medik Jackal nods...
(23:47:43) Medik Jackal: Well, now I have even less of an idea >.<
(23:59:00) Tvorsk:
I woke up and looked outside. It seemed it was going to rain soon, so I should hurry up to catch some food. Muttering unpleasant comments about the weather, I quickly put a bag of stones and the slingshot in my hip pack, and tied the sheathed knife to left forearm.
I walked out, took a deep sniff of the morning breeze that pleasantly stroked my fur. "So where are you today, breakfast?" I laughed, dropping to four paws and starting into the woods.
(...)
(00:01:03) Tvorsk: Gives the idea of an anthro good enough?
(00:01:31) ***Medik Jackal thinks he MUST write this story... if you don't
(00:01:38) Tvorsk: Sure, the species is unspecified...
(00:02:04) Tvorsk: Oh, I thought you meant you lost the idea for the "first paragraph start".
(00:02:14) Tvorsk: Was trying to show you some example.
(...)
(00:10:12) Tvorsk: Either way, it's a very loose opening... all we know or want to know is that's a furred anthro that uses tools and such, but can and likes to run on all fours. Could be just about any species. So, well... if you really want to write something... feel free to. And free in both meanings

So, well, seems both of us is going to try to expand this beginning. If any of you is insane enough to try the same... have fun?

8

Game Room / Players: Would you be interested in contributing to a game server payments?

« on: September 20, 2010, 06:23:47 AM »

This is not a topic officially approved by Virmir. I'm just curious.

(Inspired by talk in chat yesterday)

Do you think that the idea of some of us raising together money for a second Linode that would act as a game server is feasible?

A Linode 512 is $19.95 per month. It can easily handle a few instances of a TF2 server, and from what I heard around should lift up the memory hog that is Minecraft server too. Quite possibly both of these together, and maybe even more stuff you'd want/need, tho we'd have to try to know for sure.
It offers a good reliable service on a high-performance machine with guaraneed slice of processing power available, and a professional datacenter Phat Pipe two hops from main backbone. Sure that should stop your complaints about lag on Virmir's narrow-upload DSL?

Now think about it... if ten people would be interested, it's $2 per month for each of them. If five, well, it's still "only" $4. Of course, if soemone'd want to contribute more, or pay $12 for three(six?) months up front so there's no "paypal fee larger than what I send" ridiculousness, it all sure could be arranged... but that's a song for later.

For now, keeping in mind that we would HAVE to have these twenty bucks ready each month, no ifs or buts, would you be interested in such a project, and could you afford to contribute? If so, how much at most?

Not making it a poll, because I don't want to see 20 anonymous YES votes then no one standing up to them... no offense meant >.>;

9

Art Gallery / DRAW A FOX! episode 0.4 - 2010-01-22 - "She had to lie there all day."

« on: January 18, 2010, 06:20:09 AM »

Fuzzies tell me to draw
Poking me about it from time to time
So, well... I did my best
This is what I drawn, ohh now my paw hurts...

I can't sketch
I can't draw
But I had to do it, had to DRAW A FOX
I can't scan
I can't ink
I just scribbled this - so what do you think?

Episode 0.0 - 2010-01-18 - "Who let him near a pencil?!"
Episode 0.1 - 2010-01-19 - "Poor little cub..."
Episode 0.2 - 2010-01-20 - "Black always looks good."
Episode 0.3 - 2010-01-21 - "Foraging... for a sketchpad?"
Episode 0.4 - 2010-01-22 - "She had to lie there all day."