The new circus area

[Davairus]

Post about it here.

[Amdorin]

Sweeeeeet. I won the juggling. I listened to music, rocked with the beat, and kept the rhythm of juggling

So far so good, and those daggers HURT! hahah

Edit: Cannon Ball calamity, yeah yeah! Well...I may be a bit biased to that one,

[marsd]

Those daggers are bugged, apparently Jaran was multi-killed by each of the daggers that flew toward him.

First time was when he lost (which is perfectly justified), but the other 5 times were cus of the flying knives.

[Davairus]

Yeah.. that obviously wasnt intended. The event is supposed to be the most dangerous event but not kill 5-6 times. I think I hit some kind of processing limitation. Anyway, its been disabled (the multikills that is).

[Static Impulse]

So that's what that ringmaster was yelling about... He's really annoying. I'll have to check it out though. And perhaps avoid those dagger jugglers....

[Davairus]

I've tracked down everyone who died a bunch to the jugglers and reimbursed them, so no harm done... there is a fair bit of depth in this area besides the basic games, you guys have only scratched the surface so far, so I'm going to add a quest in here later to help guide you along.

edit: Also made "Dangerous Daggers of Death" a little easier, less damage and shorter smoke bombs.

[crazyhorse]

Davairus, your daggers thing made me feel outrageously stupid. I am now in the course of changing chars so I dont get fucked up so easy by those damn daggers.


Mullet = Stupid.

My self esteem has dropped a whopping ten points.

[theobserver]

I felt the same way after I couldnt understand the instructions.

[Davairus]

Well I thought it was relatively simple to understand. But I'm a physics major.

Vanisse has beaten it, IIRC. There are five other easier games to try.

[Vanisse]

i didn't get a trophy and i might've caused a freeze when i finished
i still have no idea how i won that.

[crazyhorse]

Absolutely priceless. Lol. Vanisse you are awsome. Hahah.

[Davairus]

Ok this is the deal behind the new circus area for anyone who wishes to know.

I've noticed for a while that my attention seems to swing between getting things done for potential newbies (i.e. people who don't even play the game), and then throwing something together for the high levels (i.e. the people who play the game an awful lot). Which is obviously neglecting one group at a time as I focus on the other, and I really can't say I noticed much results for my laboring. For example, I spent about 100 hours on a newbie mudschool, which kicks ass to be honest, but the average guy trying the mud out doesn't spend more than 5 minutes in it before he goes to wander off and get pawned by some beggar. And Winter is possibly the least visited area around despite all the work I've put into making it accessible again. I have four brand new high rank areas gathering dust. Because I haven't seen Winter even visited too much, I can't see the point putting them in.

So I felt like I'd break from the usual routine this time and aim an area at people who play casually ..which is where the vast majority of players at AR seem to be found, even vets still make guys that stay out of 50. The circus is thus aimed at people who're inside the 30-40 range. Its been a very good turn-out, I see high levels checking the area out anyway, but I also see the people who its made for going in there, having a bit of fun, and merrily crapping themselves over "dangerous daggers of death". Yup, you can't fool me, I know deep down you are loving that peril, like the masochists you really are.

These are the familiar elements you'll be used to seeing:
* evils can level on the performers (very nice place to go after nymphs)
* the damage formulas are calculated to be tolerable for 30-40+
* rares in the area are also aimed at 30-40 range, you'd probably have to be desperate to still want them at 50
* some rares are WILD, others are requestable
* there are some objects to find, by exploring description for "holes"

Also I decided to depart from the usual exp/mobprogged quest model to do some really unique "events", which is what sets this apart from every other area in AR. I was worried this would be a miss (basically, I had to pour in hours of coding to get the games in, unlike the mobprog 5 minute jobs) and that it'd just flop and wouldnt be worth the time or customization I've done. Also I have been concerned with the limits of a text interface - its just not easy to represent things in text that work much more easily in a graphical environment - I have recieved quite a bit of feedback that some things are just "confusing". So far though it seems to have been worth the trouble because the area is a lot of fun, and the text environment sorta works out fine, since the target audience is already familiar with it.

Onto the events.. (if I refer to them as games, ignore that, what they are is "events" as you'll see in your affects output)

Beginners

High-dive Hijinx: This one is a whack-a-mullet inspired event. Basically you climb the ladder and then throw yourself off, into a barrel. I was thinking of having some guy hold up a card showing what pose to do as the guy dives, but I decided to keep it pretty simple. So basically you just dive off and hope for the best, no skill involved. Everyones a winner.

Combustible Cannonballs of Calamity: This is the big brother of the high dive, I won't give the game away here because its really kind of easy (like the diving was) once you've figure it out. This game tests your observation skills. The price of failure is quite high.

Intermediate

Joyous juggling: As Amdorin already pointed out, beating this game is just a matter of getting the timing right. Its a fairly low-risk game, the first one I'd expect you to meet in the circus. It'll take a while to master. That's really what juggling is supposed to be like.

Teetering on Tightrope: This is sorta an advanced version of juggling/trapeze, to beat it you just finish the game before the timer runs out. Easier said than done, because that time was decided by having a pretty good player play the game repeatedly to find a nice difficult time.

Experts

Hazardous Heights: Now this one's kinda tricky. Like the juggling, it takes a good sense of timing. However its over more quickly (in fact if you swing too long, you'll get pawned).. basically a high-risk game but not terribly brutal. Think of it as juggling on crack I guess. It

Dangerous Daggers of Death: This is the main event and you should be ready and willing to die when you try this one out. (I definitely wouldnt recommend it before you have beaten all the other games, and a healer to keep you alive would be nice, since you're pretty much stuck in the game until you're dead or victorious).

To keep things interesting, there is an evil clown who sabotages the events. He's there to stop you taking too long and hogging the games, he's also there to cause obfuscation sometimes, and generally make a nuisance of himself. He's a typical loveable cowardly villian that spices things up a bit. Unfortunately I haven't done a very good job of this part of the area (i.e. telling the story behind the place), that will be something I shall remedy over the weekend. Basically its a drow that wants to sabotage the circus, to drive it out of business. I will improve this aspect of the area this weekend.


So ..I think thats everything. I set out to create an area which was unique, accessible, useful, multi-purpose and most importantly of all, fun, for people who just play casually. It took about 2 weeks, including the time taken to conceptualize the area and the periods I spent feeling "blah" from working so hard on it to get it out there..

These are other people who deserve credit:

- Vanisse, helped me out with room descs a lot, and inputted ideas, testing the zone out
- Vhrael, Sethronu & Torkalen, who did most the playtesting & bug hunting for me
- Jeradan (thanks in advance), for adding some fluff
- Ronus gave some area-related input

[formalism]

[Davairus]

Guess I broke it enabling talking. But dont worry it'll be back to normal soon.

[Jamus]

Shhhhhh!

...yeah, you can just walk south and it doesn't do anything to you.

[Davor]

This sounds amazing, can't wait to check it out. Its concept is quite original and amusing as far as mud areas go.

Well done Stu,

I appreciate the effort.

[Static Impulse]

Well with my new character, I've done every event in the circus (cept the daggers of death), and so far I think it's a cool area. Completely unbefitting of the medieval type era of the game, but still cool. I especially like the sideshow tent with all the people in it. Say their name and get a prize! Great stuff, and keep up the good work.

[Poo Man]

Damn, reading this I have to make a new character and check it out. Dav, you come up with some pretty twisted ideas. I still remember when you turned the bench that was at NS into a bed of nails and a newb sat on it and died. Can I join your Official Davairus Fan Club?

[Davairus]

The concept of circuses easily dates back to Rome actually, with athletes fighting lions for their lives and whatnot. Several of the components that are part of a circus performance (tumbling, juggling, rope-dancing, for instance) can trace their roots back more than two thousand years. Also jesters and fools (in other words, clowns) were very important in medieval europe as satire for the customs of the day. The ring itself is a little later invention, but I'm not worried about it.

And if you want to join the fan club just change your signature to "___ of the Official Davairus Fan Club". (You can choose what to put in)

[Flying Hampster of Doom]

In a world enthralled by magic and held by might, who can say what would have been invented and when?