Yes, I should... and I'm working on it. It's just that I'm putting most of my effort into learning how to *use* Malleus at this point in the timeline. Like, 95% to 5%. It's part of the plan.
Also, have you noticed how absurdly durable Devices seem to be? It takes a lot to damage a properly designed, properly calibrated Device... and much more to actually render one inoperable. That, and they come with self-repair abilities. Repairing Mal isn't likely to be an issue for a long time.
I forgot to name who I was talking about. Yes, 'him' refers to Malleus; I'll clear that up on the SB edit.(I actually have a tab of DW open when I do the SB rewrites, just so I can catch all the errors I promised to fix.)
**********
Entry 47 (Day 820)
...okay, that was difficult.
I ended up spending two more days trying to write that freaking program... before doing what I should've done in the first place, and going to Uno. Had it back by the end of the day... and I suspect that it only took that long because she had other work to do.
Incidentally, Tre told me that Uno favors breakfast pastries- specifically, a specific flavor of scone, using a remarkably tart berry from one of the non-administrated worlds. Taking that side trip to buy a pound of fresh berries, bring them to her favorite bakery, and bring the results (still warm from the oven) back was probably the best idea I could've had.
I'll treasure that smile for a long, long time.
Anyway, I got the program, checked it over (partly because it's a good habit to be in, partly to learn how it functions, and partly to see what Uno's programming looks like), and fired it up.
Whoa.
I thought I was ready for the experience, having learned to detect Sein. I thought that keeping track of opponents that couldn't swim through solid walls would make things easier. I was wrong- unbelievably wrong, really- and paid the price for it.
By the end of the first day, I'd 'earned' a score in the negative triple digits. Didn't even know the program was set to handle negative numbers- that alone taught me a few more programming tricks- but it is, and it did. The problem was that I'd gotten... inventive... with the list of potential 'enemies' the program could use.
It started out easy enough. The generic TSAB mooks were more like arcade shooter enemies than anything all that threatening. I'd usually manage four or five of them in a row before getting tagged... and I think I went up as high as eight, once. So, of course, the program began to throw in curveballs.
At first, it threw in Enforcer-level mages. They weren't too different or too difficult, once I'd learned that some of them would spawn in flying, and some would shield themselves. Then came the M-Drones; also not too hard.
I started cursing Uno when the ninja began to appear. Couldn't believe that she'd implemented all the enemy options I'd come up with. Then I started cursing myself, as I remembered what else I'd put in the system.
My score got really bad when the Bloodsuckers, Predators, and Specters began to appear. Only four hours into that phase, I'd lost every single point I ever earned... and then Alma showed up. Yeah.
Five minutes later (because Alma is FAR more terrifying 'in person' than I'd expected), I had the program offline, and was rejiggering the enemy selection and pacing code.
Twenty minutes after that, I was reverting all my changes. Turns out that there was just a glitch in the difficulty settings- one misplaced decimal point in the dynamic difficulty function. End result? The program got tougher to clear at a rate one hundred times faster than expected; fast enough to go from the base setting to the highest setting in four hours flat.
I suppose I was asking for a bug like this. Shouldn't've named the highest setting 'Superhuman'.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Also, have you noticed how absurdly durable Devices seem to be? It takes a lot to damage a properly designed, properly calibrated Device... and much more to actually render one inoperable. That, and they come with self-repair abilities. Repairing Mal isn't likely to be an issue for a long time.
I forgot to name who I was talking about. Yes, 'him' refers to Malleus; I'll clear that up on the SB edit.(I actually have a tab of DW open when I do the SB rewrites, just so I can catch all the errors I promised to fix.)
**********
Entry 47 (Day 820)
...okay, that was difficult.
I ended up spending two more days trying to write that freaking program... before doing what I should've done in the first place, and going to Uno. Had it back by the end of the day... and I suspect that it only took that long because she had other work to do.
Incidentally, Tre told me that Uno favors breakfast pastries- specifically, a specific flavor of scone, using a remarkably tart berry from one of the non-administrated worlds. Taking that side trip to buy a pound of fresh berries, bring them to her favorite bakery, and bring the results (still warm from the oven) back was probably the best idea I could've had.
I'll treasure that smile for a long, long time.
Anyway, I got the program, checked it over (partly because it's a good habit to be in, partly to learn how it functions, and partly to see what Uno's programming looks like), and fired it up.
Whoa.
I thought I was ready for the experience, having learned to detect Sein. I thought that keeping track of opponents that couldn't swim through solid walls would make things easier. I was wrong- unbelievably wrong, really- and paid the price for it.
By the end of the first day, I'd 'earned' a score in the negative triple digits. Didn't even know the program was set to handle negative numbers- that alone taught me a few more programming tricks- but it is, and it did. The problem was that I'd gotten... inventive... with the list of potential 'enemies' the program could use.
It started out easy enough. The generic TSAB mooks were more like arcade shooter enemies than anything all that threatening. I'd usually manage four or five of them in a row before getting tagged... and I think I went up as high as eight, once. So, of course, the program began to throw in curveballs.
At first, it threw in Enforcer-level mages. They weren't too different or too difficult, once I'd learned that some of them would spawn in flying, and some would shield themselves. Then came the M-Drones; also not too hard.
I started cursing Uno when the ninja began to appear. Couldn't believe that she'd implemented all the enemy options I'd come up with. Then I started cursing myself, as I remembered what else I'd put in the system.
My score got really bad when the Bloodsuckers, Predators, and Specters began to appear. Only four hours into that phase, I'd lost every single point I ever earned... and then Alma showed up. Yeah.
Five minutes later (because Alma is FAR more terrifying 'in person' than I'd expected), I had the program offline, and was rejiggering the enemy selection and pacing code.
Twenty minutes after that, I was reverting all my changes. Turns out that there was just a glitch in the difficulty settings- one misplaced decimal point in the dynamic difficulty function. End result? The program got tougher to clear at a rate one hundred times faster than expected; fast enough to go from the base setting to the highest setting in four hours flat.
I suppose I was asking for a bug like this. Shouldn't've named the highest setting 'Superhuman'.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.