Jessecka exclaims, "hello and Welcome to tonight's Meet and Greet!"

Jessecka exclaims, "Our guest tonight is none other than the creator of our dataspace, Bella!"

Djentsch claps

Leonix claps

Angelfowl claps

Bella has bought you a Rigellian gin and tonic. As you reach out to take it, the pale blue fluid moves restlessly in the glass.

Zand claps

Fancy applauds.

Cup applauds

Catspaws claps her paws together

Bella smiles

Nightdroid throws popcorn

Dunavant applauds

Catspaws whispers, "New record...52 players!"

Leonix claps his rather green hands togeather..what did you expect for a bio droid

Icey smiles

Jessecka says, "I would like to remind everyone that we will begin with a short interview, afterwhich I will open the floor for questions, please save those questions for then"

Angelfowl says, "sweet"

Zand says, "54"

Jessecka smiles, "I think we are breaking records tonight as well :)"

Jessecka says, "Ok everyone, let's get started....please remember, it is early in the morning where Bella is"

Bella says, "3am"

Jessecka smiles, "we apprecitate you waking up in time to be with us Bella :)"

Roselie says, "Thanks for doing this Bella"

Icey snickers something about drunk and in bed or still at a pub..

Aillas asks, "are you in the UK Bella?"

Bella says, "yes"

Jessecka says, "Like I said, thanks to Bella for getting up for us tonight, and let's get the interview started"

Bourbon asks, "who has the duct tape ?"

Jessecka asks, "So it seems you are writing a book Bella, would you care to share with us something about that experience?"

Icey hands bourbon the duct tape

Bella says, "well it's a book on game design"

Jessecka gasps, you don't duct tape demi-goddesses.

Bella says, "a number of people have been on at me for some time to write on"

Jessecka nods.

Bella says, "and this spring I got cornered and ran out of excuses"

Jessecka says, "Ok guys, let's clam down.....let Bella talk please"

Bella says, "so I've just sent a sample chapter to the commissioning editor"

Bella smiles, "who sent it back with lots of suggestions :)"

Jessecka giggles.

Bella says, "which I'm working on now"

Bella says, "it's designed to be a text book for the new courses on computer game design that are springing up at colleges as part of"

Bella says, "computer science course"

Bella says, "except that this one is supposed to be readable"

Djentsch chuckles

Gearjammer giggles

Hitman smiles.

Jessecka asks, "You sent me a chapter to go over, and I must say, it wasn't what I expected. Although I'm not very technical, I got into reading it. How hard was it to make it more readable?"

Bella says, "we are also, assuming it definitely goes ahead going to commission some cartoons from Robin Evans to go in it"

Bella says, "it's not that difficult, my narrative style is quite reasonable - the difficulty is making it textbook like without losing the narrative"

Jessecka smiles.

Bella says, "and I have been designing games for 20 years"

Bella says, "so I do know something about the subject"

Bella says, "the main problem is that"

Fancy grins.

Bella exclaims, "there is no 'theory' of game design for lecturers to teach, so I'm having to make it up as I go along !"

Jessecka winks, "I'm sure making up things can't be that hard for you Bella ;)"

Bella says, "it's not as easy as it sounds"

Jessecka says, "I'm sure"

Bella says, "I also have to invent exercises for the student"

Bella smiles, "that isn't a problem, but I also have to provide the teachers with sample answers :)"

Jessecka laughs.

Jessecka asks, "so what got you into writing this book?"

Djentsch thinks that they will need simple answers as well

Bella says, "I'm trying to do it so that each chapter covers a topic in 'theory' and then has a case study looking at the theory"

Bella says, "difficult to say - I already do a lot of writing. Not just Winding Down each week, but other incidental material"

Jessecka nods.

Bella says, "I wrote a 'Cthulu' short story for Age of Adventure"

Bella says, "I keep meaning to put that up on the web site, since Age is on hold for the time being"

Bella says, "writing a book was, I guess, a natural follow on"

Bella smiles

Jessecka asks, "I also noticed that an article that you had in Winding Down once about women in role playing games was posted on the MudConnect as well. Do you have a other articles post on sites?"

Bella says, "well I have quite a lot of reviews published in a magazine called CVu - that's a printed magazine - most of them also go onto my web site"

Bella says, "and I sometimes do talks - usually on programming topics"

Bella says, "later in the autumn I'm giving a talk about Linux to the Oxford branch of the British Computer Society"

Jessecka smiles, "cool :)"

Djentsch says, "wow"

Bella says, "classic fed was one of the first production programs to run under Linux"

Icey exclaims, "interesting!"

Bella grins

Bella smiles, "not many people know that :)"

Jessecka smiles, "Ok, now, I know everyone showed up because you MIGHT give us a few hints about player planets which might be coming soon. Why don't we discuss that for a bit? :)"

Bella drawls, "I know nothing...."

Jessecka laughs.

Icey laughs

Djentsch chuckles

Aqueous grins

Jessecka winks, "please don't say that, we are scared now ;)"

Angelfowl giggles

Bella drawls, "well, obviously player planets are coming soon..."

Bella says, "we've more or less got the bugs out of the location and message editors"

Catspaws perks up

Bella says, "my main worry on that front is what we are going to do about non-Windows users"

Jessecka nods.

Aillas has left.

Icey snickers, "make them buy windows:)"

Bella says, "because of the way fed2 works it's probably not possible to do an online editor similar to classic fed"

Jessecka asks, "have we had much progress with anything that will help our mac users?"

Djentsch thumps Icey with his I-beam

Bella says, "no - not at the moment"

Bella says, "but we are still looking into it"

Jessecka nods.

Adamas says, "I think the Windows demographic is large enough to not worry about mac users. :D"

Leonix says, "Windows = God :P"

Jessecka smiles, "every player counts Adamas, and we care about each one :)"

Bella says, "I'm currently reviewing and compiling a list of what needs to be done for the server code to implement player planets"

Djentsch usese both mac and windows

Bella says, "we actually have quite a large number of mac players"

Roselie is a Mac user.

Jessecka agrees with Bella.

Bourbon laughs

Bourbon says, "opppp, sorry"

Adamas retracts his last statement. :p

Bella says, "I'm hopeful that they will soon have their own front end, and that there will be a web based fe"

Wildweasel says, " Mac = off-brand"

Scratch smiles, "Im a mac user when it rains:)"

Bella says, "but those are volunteer projects, so they are outside of my control"

Bella says, "the authors have day jobs to do as well as working on the code"

Jessecka is still waiting on Dj to send her a new mac for her birthday. ;)

Djentsch thumps the weasel

Roselie thumps him too. Hard.

Icey snickers windows good... ;)

Jessecka asks, "well, anything you would like to let us know about player planets? Like any of the restrictions to ranks, or other things we might find interesting?"

Bella says, "The main thing initially needed for player planets is to code in a duchy that includes sol and all the new player planets"

Bella says, "but there are also other things"

Bella says, "like the stuff to give owners control of their economies"

Bella drawls, "well it's obviously a bit more complex than classic fed...."

Leostada says, "definately"

Bella says, "but you start off with a basic allocatio of locations for your planet, and that increases as you move up the PO ranks"

Bella says, "another difference is that you will, at the high PO ranks have the opportunity to have a second planet in your system."

Leto faints

Jessecka says, "oooo, nice"

Bella says, "also as you get higher you get access to more sophisticated planet building tools"

Gearjammer fans Leto

Leto regains consciousness

Icey says, "very nice.. much better then classic"

Bella says, "duke/duchess equivalent ranks will also have the option of aving a bio asteroid in their home system"

Bella says, "aving=having"

Leostada says, "that sounds like fun :-)"

Jessecka smiles, "so, as you gain ranks, you could have up to 2 planets and an asteroid....cool :)"

Leostada asks, "and there's something new about that angel?"

Bella says, "players won't have access to all of the events that we use in Sol, but what they will get at higher levels is most of the facilities"

Bella says, "for instance, one of the events allows you to trigger an event at a specified time in the future"

Jessecka nods.

Bella says, "another allows you to change links between locations on the fly"

Icey interesting..

Bella says, "the change lasts until reset"

Catspaws flicks an ear

Angelfowl smiles "Thats so cool...."

Leostada raises an eyebrow

Leto faints again

Jessecka asks, "and this is an example of what we can do?"

Jessecka winks, "or might be able to do if we make it that far ;)"

Catspaws thinks about the effect of that on macro dumpers

Hitman has left.

Catspaws starts to grin

Bella says, "yes - the events stack together you can call one from another to build up more complex things"

Jessecka smiles, "mmmm, this could be fun :)"

Bella says, "actually it's a bit misleading to call them events"

Bella says, "what they are is system scripts, an event is a collection of scripts that run one after the other, and there are scripts that can call other events"

Bella says, "you can call other events unconditionally, or if certain conditions are met - like if the person entered a location and they came from a specified location"

Jessecka nods.

Bella says, "it is more complex than classic fed, but it's also a lot more powerful"

Leostada says, "call different events depending on which direction they enter from? hmmm"

Jessecka says, "Ok guys, time for Q and A....now, if you want to ask a question, please raise your hand. Let's remember that it is very early in the UK, so I'm gonna limit Q and A tonight to 20 mins"

Jessecka asks, "anyone have a question?"

Leonix says, "I do"

Jessecka says, "Ok, leonix"

Djentsch gets his I-beam ready

Bourbon laughs

Leonix says, "What made you start federation...and how did you come up with the ideas for it."

Icey says, "i got one"

Icey frowns, "opps :("

Bella says, "I used to GM a role playing game called 'Traveller' and I've always been a SciFi fan since I was ten years old, so in some ways it was a natural"

Bella says, "actually it wasn't the first game I wrote"

Catspaws lifts a paw

Roselie asks, "GM=Gamemaster?"

Bella says, "yes"

Jessecka asks, "Icey was next I think, Icey?"

Bourbon thumps Icey

Jessecka smiles, "Icey, wake up :)"

Icey says, "in regards to the marcos or addtional events on players going from one location to another, in regards to macro dumpers if they find away to do this, will this protect the Po"

Icey smiles, "sorry long question:)"

Bella smiles, "I've no idea - that will depend on how how clever the planet owner is :)"

Jessecka grins.

Jessecka asks, "Catpaws?"

Bella says, "you will be able to ban people from your planet though"

Roselie says, "and how clever the dumpers are"

Vorlar says, "But who would ban a sexy journalist"

Bella says, "without going through ib"

Catspaws asks, "I am going to ask the question we're all wondering. What will be the requirements to promote from financier? ANd the cost of a link?"

Jessecka smiles, "oooo, a planet ban? Kinda like a big Ignore for your planet? Neat :)"

Bella says, "it will be a PO command"

Zand raises his hand

Bourbon waits for Cats question to be answered

Bella says, "I really haven't decided yet cats - but it will probably depend more on getting othr companies to manufature the initial infrastructure for you, as well as paying slarti for the terraforming"

Bella says, "ie if you annoy the industrialists and manufacutreers you could have problems"

Jessecka says, "so, promoting will depend a lot on relationships and ties to other players"

Catspaws asks, "Slarti's always been greedy. Any idea how greedy he is now?"

Bella says, "yes - that's the case"

Djentsch thiks that you better start making friends now

Bella says, "everything you have plus 10%"

Djentsch even thinkgs

Catspaws snickers

Nightdroid winks, "What are the inputs for a friends factory? ;)"

Roselie giggles at Bella.

Jessecka agrees with Dj.

Bella says, "enemies"

Wildweasel sees blackmailed groats coming his way in large denominations

Icey says, "one more question please"

Bourbon says, "laughs"

Jessecka says, "Ok, Zand I believe was next"

Zand asks, "How soon will we have to start worrying about getting shot at?"

Catspaws notes Bella's as good at dodging questions as she ever was

Bella smirks

Jazir smiles

Bella says, "I hadn't even really thought about that yet Zand - my assumption was that people want planets in as their first priority"

Zand exclaims, "I hope they do!"

Jessecka asks, "Ok, anyone else?"

Zand says, "Thanks"

Bourbon raises hand

Jessecka asks, "Bourbon?"

Bourbon asks, "Bella will there be a tool in place like Genesis for planet building ?"

Bella says, "that is what the tools I was talking about earlier are"

Bourbon says, "ok"

Jessecka says, "Ok, next? we can get a few more questions in before time is up"

Nightdroid asks, "Can I ask one?"

Jessecka says, "Nd, go for it"

Bella says, "oh and btw - early next week there will be a new command for factory owners - 'split stock'"

Nightdroid asks, "There used to be some kind of planet checker that made sure your planet met certain criteria before it could go into the game... anything like that planned?"

Bella says, "which makes a two for one share issue"

Djentsch rasies his hand

Bella says, "yes ND - otherwise the game will crash every time someone puts a new planet in"

Jessecka asks, "Ok, do you mind explaining the stock split a bit more Bella?"

Bella says, "there will in fact be two checkers"

Bella says, "one you can run on the files off-line, and one that runs before the planet goes into the game"

Bella says, "in the first instance"

Bella says, "I will probably make people send me their files to go in at reset so I can test them on the development version first"

Bella says, "this is so that I can see what needs to go into the checker"

Nightdroid nods

Nightdroid says, "Thanks."

Jessecka nods.

Bella says, "once that's fixed I will add some auto upload facility"

Bella smiles

Bella says, "the stock split is a way of making more shares. Every one who has shares gets a new share for each one they already have"

Bella says, "the shares are all then worth half of what they were previously."

Jessecka asks, "there has been a big debate I know about Financiers being able to buy stocks without permission, and new CEOs scared that they can't buy into their own company. Will the stock split help this in anyway?"

Bella drawls, "which means that people will have more shares than they are allowed to buy..."

Bourbon asks, "does the broker then get 2000 shares? or will 1000 be avail to offer ?"

Bourbon says, "opppss raises his hand"

Jessecka has given Bourbon a warm tickle.

Djentsch rasies his hand again

Stuverats says, "Hmmm. Maybe now I can actually buy some shares"

Bella says, "but nothing will happen to those shares until they sell some at which stage they won't be able to buy more as long as they are over the limit"

Jessecka asks, "Dj, you had a question?"

Bella says, "if the broker has 1,000 shares these will become 2,000 - of which 1,000 will be available for sale"

Cup says, "cool"

Djentsch asks his question while waiting for Bella to thump him

Bella drawls, "you have to leave the broker with 1,000, because two times zero equals zero..."

Djentsch says, "is there a need for Financiers to issue dividends? and if there isn't, why does their company display still show disaffection"

Bella drawls, "because I never got round to taking it out...."

Bella asks, "next?"

Jessecka giggles.

Angelfowl giggles

Stuverats raises his hand

Djentsch says, "thank you"

Jessecka smiles, "Ok, Stu, you go last babe :)"

Aqueous laughs

Bella grins

Catspaws grins

Stuverats says, "Will there be some limit to how many shares a financier can hold? Cause I'm seeing the same 6 or 7 companies hogging all the stock."

Bourbon says, "it's called kissing up Stu....lol"

Bella says, "I hadn't intended there to be, but if it is a real problem I can look at it a bit later"

Stuverats winks, "Well, it's hard for me to kiss up when there's no shares to buy. ;)"

Bourbon says, "try snogging....hehe"

Jessecka smiles, "Ok, we are running out of time, so I get to ask the last two questions of the night :)"

Catspaws says, "Purring works too."

Fancy smiles.

Jessecka says, "first off, I've been told that you can be quite forgetful Bella"

Jessecka grins.

Bella drawls, "I don't remember ever being forgetful..."

Freya laughs

Djentsch chuckles

Jessecka winks, "now, I was wondering if you might tell us about the time you lost a Tuesday I think it was ;)"

Fancy smirks.

Gearjammer giggles

Bourbon chuckles

Bella says, "Tuesdays are crummy days anyway - who would miss one if it wasn't there"

Djentsch wonders how you lose a day

Jessecka has given Bella a cool tickle.

Bourbon asks, "but did you have to do it the week I was on vacation ?"

Bella says, "actually when you work at home it's very easy to lose a day"

Freya nods

Jessecka grins.

Bella says, "there isn't really a seperate weekend"

Aqueous laughs

Bella says, "especially for us, since the weekend is the busy time"

Bella rolls her eyes

Bourbon tickles Bella with a feather duster

Jessecka says, "Ok, one last question, and I'll let you go back to bed Bella."

Jessecka smiles, "we always ask this of every single Meet guest, so I HAVE to ask you.......what is your most embarrasing moment in the game? :)"

Jessecka wants details please.

Bella asks, "in fed?"

Jessecka says, "yes"

Bella says, "I don't really know"

Jessecka winks, "Ok, just give us any embarrassing moment, we'll be happy ;)"

Bella says, "oh I suppose it was discovering that I'd codedd a chunk of the solar system with east and west reverse"

Jessecka laughs.

Bella says, "reversed"

Catspaws snickers

Djentsch missed that one

Bourbon asks, "you do that too ????"

Jessecka winks, "east and west are easy to mix up......I guess ;)"

Bella says, "I always get them mixed up, but usually I pick it up before it goes live"

Jessecka asks, "anything else Bella before we finish up?"

Bella smiles, "no - I guess not :)"

Jessecka smiles, "Thank you Bella for taking time to join us tonight :)"

Jessecka has given Bella a passionate hug.

Bella smiles

Dunavant applauds

Bourbon smiles, "Fed II is great :)"

Aqueous stands and claps

Catspaws claps her paws together

Jolia claps

Fancy applauds for Bella.

Jessecka smiles, "and thank you everyone for joining us for tonight's meet and greet :)"

Nightdroid throws more popcorn

Leto uses his comm unit to simulate a full round of applause

Djentsch applauds

Aqueous whistles loudly

Bourbon claps

Zand whistles

Jessecka exclaims, "and I think we even broke a player record tonight!"

Bella says, "yes - it was 57"

Cup applauds

Jessecka exclaims, "yay!"

Bella grins

Jessecka exclaims, "Join me next Sunday night at 10pm eastern for Kick the Can, the game where you get a chance to kick someone's Can, most of the time a member of Staff, and in two weeks another edition of Meet and Greet!"

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