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[EagleV]

I agree. Someone should give this man a pineapple.

[Neonivek]

I guess if there is anything your descriptions lacked it would be... hmm... description. (I am trying to be constructive, please feel free to throw away anything I am saying here)

If describes methodically exactly how the creature looks like if it was looked at by a robot or scientist.

Yet in a world where you may be looking at the creature with your own eyes the description would probably take on a different turn.

Possibly a descriptive description, ugh for SEVERE lack of a better word, would probably bring a lot of flavor especially for the "sum everything up" aspect.

I'd say the descriptions could differ if the character looking at them was "afraid" or "not so" but that would be a lot of work.

I mean if a creature is a monsterous beast forged from the souls of murdered children then I want to hear about how the earth cracks beneith its feet, how the air sucked through its nostrils is torchured through its wicked abrasive chest and all that. (Ugh, I can't describe things for beans)

[3]

My personal stance on the issue isn't that the problem lies in the descriptions being too mechanical; it's that they're in the wrong order. In the most recent example, the first thing I see is "it may or may not protect a territorial demense". Well, that's all very interesting but I don't know what it is that may be protecting a territorial demense (other than a name and the fact that it's "a creature"). Eventually there's mention of an approximate weight, which is good, but that doesn't excuse the fact that when I think of a wolf or turkey or whatnot size and weight are some of the last things that come to mind.

So, yeah, I'd be more comfortable with the "recognisable elements" being placed near the top of the listing. Of course, that might not work out just at this moment (the current categories are logical enough for while the game's under development).

[nenjin]

I agree the descriptions should follow a hierarchy. Size, major features, minor features, behaviors.

[Neonivek]

Well if you want to be technical...

It would be Size then Face (though color would probably be between that). Though that is only because we are human.

[Lord Dullard]

I'll work with some of this tomorrow, thanks for the input. The first paragraph of descriptions right now is actually intentionally out-of-order as a result of me seeing if I could randomly shuffle the sentences and have them come out sensibly (obviously, I couldn't).

As for making descriptions less mechanical, I could probably do that, to some degree. I'm not sure if this is the right section of the game for it, though; I would prefer to write a separate type of look/glance function for generating descriptions based on the initial impressions that an adventurer encountering it would probably get. 'This creature is huge <followed by short description>. Its posture is distinctly aggressive and threatening. It is producing a low growl. It...'

Right now I'm way too tired to mess about with any code. Sleep. Code tomorrow. Cheers, folks.

[Lord Dullard]

I've been irked today with Wordpress problems. I'm considering just going ahead and starting to throw a website together if only because it'll make things easier to organize; working with the very limited amount of functionality offered by free WP blogs is very irritating.

[Acanthus117]

Lord Dullard, I wish I could donate to you, man.

This shit looks awesome

[Knight of Fools]

yay, word press.

I'm fine with the descriptions at the moment, since they seem like something you'd read out of a book.  Obviously the "glance" feature would be a character's first impression of most creatures (unless he did some heavy duty studying before hand), and then he'd go read more about the creature in the library if he wanted to.  Otherwise, the "glance" could sum up the character's knowledge of the creature from local lore and legend, and could expand as the character studies or encounters the creature more often.  Glances can also give differences between different creatures (Such as a particularly large or strong one) and current states (As you alluded to above).

"This is an incredibly large Apple Fritter, a food noted for its flat shape and small apple chunks.  It is renowned by locals as incredibly delicious when served with hot chocolate for breakfast.  It is currently resting quietly on a paper plate."

[Lord Dullard]

I've adjusted the hierarchy in creature descriptions to follow a more logical pattern. Basic creature stats/derived stats are now generated and modified by all existing morphological traits, although I haven't worked out exactly how I want to display them, yet. For that matter, I think the creature descriptions that are currently serving as placeholder front-pages for bestiary entries will probably be moved to a separate 'physical description' page, with the front page changing to something more akin to an all-around summary for the creature being viewed. It will most likely consist of some basic stats and prominent characteristics (whether physical or behavioral) for which the creature is known, its areas of occupation, mention of any important legends dealing with the creature, etc. The tabs for more specific areas will contain all of the additional information and also expound upon whatever info is found on the summary page.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The stats are for the same creature in the first screenshot. The derived stats are calculated using the formulas in this post. Armor Class has a base number that is modified by traits; the base number itself is derived from the type of body covering a creature has. Skin and feathers give the lowest base AC, followed by fur, then scales, then an exoskeleton. AC is also modified by shells.

Obviously this isn't actually how I'm going to show a creature's stat sheet, but I haven't even begun to fiddle with how I want to set things up for that, and I'm struggling with a lack of inspiration at the moment. I think I may save it for when I have the rest of the code pertaining to creature spread fleshed out, which I can start on today.

Oh. Also visible in this screencap is an annoying grammatical error I need to pick out that deals with body cover and differentiating between the associated singular/plural nouns used (i.e. fur vs. scales). I'll fix that today, as well. Said bug is also responsible for the repetitious selection of skin traits.

[Lord Dullard]

Taking a bit of an excursion into establishing subspheres/biomes to provide additional diversification during creature gen; I'll also need them to be established to complete creature descriptions and summaries. Sadly, I have to work today, which means I won't get as much done as I'd like. At some point this week I may be filming a video for Kickstarter. We'll see.

(Oh, I fixed the issue with cover types.)

[Nistenf]

This looks amazing

[Lord Dullard]

I've taken the last few days to finish a couple of projects. The first was a rewrite of the language generator; I ditched everything I've done so far and went with a completely new algorithm (I was getting incredibly sick of the awful names being generated by my prior hackneyed attempt). Languages now require a list of names (of any length, though theoretically longer lists are better) upon which to determine a set of rules for letter selection, but the upside is that this will allow people to mod in their own language base files very easily. So far I've thrown together two for testing purposes and they're both doing beautifully; one for Gaelic and the other for Finnish. The language generator will also be capable of mixing and matching languages/rules by way of selecting multiple input files. Here are some examples of generated names:

Finnish-based:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gaelic-based:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The algorithm itself was actually FAR simpler to implement than anything I've tried up until now. I think I'd like to compile twenty-five to thirty name lists; I'll probably use everything from real languages to various fantasy sources to produce a good variety to start players off with. Since the names are easy to generate, a bit down the road methinks I'm going to implement a separate function for actually creating suffix and prefix lists and then developing different dictionaries based on them for every in-game language. I know very few players are actually going to bother to get way in-depth with the procedurally generated faux-languages in their worlds, BUT the added depth will be a bonus, and if implemented correctly it will give smart players clues about things that their character would be able to recognize ('Hey, I've seen that word before, it means 'danger' in such-and-such language, right?').

The other project I've been involved in has been the shooting of a Kickstarter video. That's not completely finished yet, and I've still got some more work to do, but it's close.

[Fniff]

Hey, after the language generator what are you going to do next?

Also, I am so happy you did Gaelic. Irish person here.

[Levi]

Heh, it almost generated my real name.  That is a good sign that its working.