Hey, all.

So, in my wanderings of the highways and byways of the internet (in this instance one of my usual tours of TVTropes) a couple days ago, I stumbled upon a brief description of and a link to Aetheria Epics.

What caught my eye was this:

...I am a game design student, and have been a DM for the last couple years. The list of things that intrigue me more than dynamic narrative is a very short list. I popped the main page into my bookmarks toolbar and headed off for my weekend work.

Last night, I was sitting at my computer, pondering what archive I would trawl through while putting off some work, when I glanced up at my 'to read' list (extending fully across the toolbar with a few entries in the dropdown menu at the far right) and spotted the link to this comic. I glanced at the clock. I had a homework assignment due this morning that I had basically not started on, although it seemed to promise a quick conclusion (a false promise, as is usually the case with coding projects), and the 120 or so comics in the archive seemed much more surmountable than submerging myself in 12 years of Sluggy Freelance dailies, or however much Digger actually has in its messed up archive system.

Taking to this archive with gusto, I read through all of the different polls that had gone on since the comic's start. I wished for nothing more than having found this a few months ago. Well, that, and I wished I wasn't procrastinating on writing code to generate a torus of R radius with N cylinders at the time, but as I said, I was intrigued. I thought through the different possibilities that had been passed up and the plot arcs chosen, and I wished I had been able to chip in my own two cents on the decision-making. I was drawn in by the evident group-crafted voice of the protagonist, and the smudgy stylistic art fit the webcomic-as-RPG theme beautifully.

After making it to the most recent, you can bet this comic has made it into my webcomic Circuit folders--Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, five copies. I read more webcomics than anybody I know (70+ in the Monday circuit folder alone, and that's without what I read of the Keenspot circle), and now, with this on the bottom of those folders, I think I'm going to plow through the rest of them just a bit quicker so I can see if this thing's updated that much sooner.

There's no other way to put this. This is just amazingly done.

As much as my friends may complain that I recommend too many things to them, they still get my short list--the comics, games, books, and movies that I found to be nothing short of excellent for some reason or another. It's an even rarer thing for me to pop onto a comic's forum for any reason. The very nature of this comic guarantees that I will link all of my game design buddies to it.

I'll probably stick around on this forum for a while. Only really been a member of three in the past--an old defunct RP and chat one run by friends, the GitP forums (the Homebrew section of which I still drop into from time to time), and the Dominic Deegan Keenspot Forum, the snarkiest little corner of the internet I've ever seen. Haven't jumped through to see what you guys get up to around here, but that'll probably have to wait until I no longer need to finish off this reading on Modernity.

...I can see this becoming an unfortunate but awesome problem.

Welcome!

Wow, I must say I'm quite flattered you think so highly of AE. I'm always glad to have a new reader, but a new forum contributor is a nice bonus!

The fact that you're a game design student particularly intrigues me, though. It wasn't long after starting AE that I started to see that the decisions I assumed the audience would make weren't necessarily the ones they did. From this I started to think about how the votes probably say some things about the general psychology of my audience. Seeing the kinds of decisions people make in this context and the kinds of things people do and don't want to see happen might be useful if I were making a consumer product of a similar sort. It's kind of like product-testing or consumer polling, but it's live. Anyway, I basically thought "if I were designing a game, it'd be cool to know some of this stuff".

I guess what I'm getting at is that keeping an eye on what people vote for may someday help you out when you're designing a game.

Regardless, have fun and post often! :)

I did not click the TVTropes link :D

Welcome Sildraug ^_^ Make sure to check out Circumstances of the Revenant Braves (also by Kristof) before you go around saying AE is the best thing since sliced bread ;)

Wow. (It might be just the excess of Supreme Commander, but) I really enjoyed reading this introduction! Welcome!

Probably wise, if you're at all familiar with the time-sinking nature of that site.

Well, it's on that to-read list, you can be sure of that.

Good to know those creative writing courses are paying off. Thanks.

...Supreme Commander?

welcome!

That's definitely the longest intro post here, and that probably deserves some kind of prize.

I thought you'd be the hundredth member when I saw this, but apparently you just missed it. Now I can't help but wonder who is member #100...

Hey, welcome to the forum. You intro impressed me... and slightly depressed me, my computer was performing maintenance, so I read it on my PSP. Not a fun task, with a small screen, but it was worth it.

Myself in a nutshell:

Anyways, I'm Allen?, and I'm into physics, the arts*. I'm attempting to become an artist, so I can make a half decent webcomic, that's not going so well. I often go into tangents. For the next two weeks I'll be complaining about marching band, or at least be grumpy at it. Overall I try to be a helpful, flexible, moderately easygoing guy... and a wise guy.

I'm happy that you find AE great, and really glad you joined the forums. It's nice to new readers finding themselves at Aetheria Epics.


I apologize in advance but I usually edit my posts a bit. I try to make it clear where I do it, but I bet it's somewhat confusing.



*Humor, music, and some drawing too.

Edit: finished my post.

Yeah, some things I just do in fugues, so you'll see some big posts from me. Like in anything to do with gaming homebrew.

I prefer #101 to #100. It's palindromic. Although the perfect square is tempting. Too bad I wasn't 121.

Welcome.

I read your intro on a friends computer while my computer was running some updates (hardware upgrades tend to do this to me) so I didn't have a chance to make a post on it. I play DnD (though not as much as I'd like to), I read webcomics as well, I think I'm encroaching the 100 mark on my bookmarks list...

I like candy, smiling, rainbows, and swords.

Lately I've been spending a lot of my time tinkering with gadgets/electronics/appliances. It's pretty fun poking into stuff. Putting on safety equipment is always a hassle but is worth it because I look totally sweet in it. When I'm not busy being awesome or doing awesome things I do slightly less awesome stuff.

Aha, I just hijacked your into thread. Your intro thread is great and by hijacking it I become even greater than before.

But anyways, it's nice to get new members.

Woo, finished my greetings post. Sorry about that.

I'd prefer 101, over 100 because of the phrase _______ 101. Overall I think I'd like either 108, or 789 the most.

Haha, I agree that 101 is superior. Both for the palindromic properties and the ____ 101 thing. Member 101: It's an entry-level course on being a member. Sign up today!

I enjoyed this :lol:

Man, been awhile since I've done entry level ANYthing. This ought to be refreshing.

Let's see, some other stuff about myself...

By heritage, I'm mostly German, with some French and Icelandic mingled in. I'm a big guy, about 6' 4" or so, bulky, brown haired, blue eyed. Working on a bit of a beard.

'M something of an intellectual dabbler. Gotten some writing courses, some business stuff, do some spriting in my free time, tried a bit of voice work, done plenty of coding. Heavy on math logic and physics logic after getting two years of calculus back in high school. That's been a help.

I'm an avid gamer, as many of you probably guessed at this point. A PC gamer since age 4 (LEMMINGS!), these days when I'm not pining for the golden days of yore and the era of the joystick (X-Wing, Tie Fighter, X-Wing Versus Tie Fighter, Descent, Freespace, Mechwarrior 4, and a number of others I'm likely forgetting), I'm often playing Source mods (been getting into Empires recently), freeware, Left 4 Dead, and a few older reinstalls from games I've dug up (Majesty, Dawn of War, some Fable).
Get a lot of use out of my DS--been playing Puzzle Quest: Galactrix recently and been greatly disturbed by some of the plot points they've brushed over and then ignored. Also played FFTA2 for a good long time before accidentally lending it to a friend over the summer. Said friend has been working on maxing his clan at this point, and also has my copies of Megaman Battle Network 3 - 6 to play through. I tend to lend out a lot of games.
I play console stuff, too, but not a whole lot. Played some Valkyria Chronicles on my roommate's PS3, but haven't in a while. Also gave Brutal Legend a shot.

I fence, these days mostly saber, although I've fenced epee and foil as well. Been fencing for a few years, but I'm only OK because I tend to fence for a few weeks and then stop for longer. Being a lefty helps.

I used to read a lot of Star Wars books, but have moved on to more general scifi. Read the first few Dune books, the Ender's Game series, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, the Forever War, and a few other classics like Brave New World. Most recently burned through the first three Ciaphas Cain novels. Don't read much fantasy, although I have a number of friends who insist I should. Maybe when they catch up on the comics I've recommended to them.

Don't watch much anime. Or read much manga. Watched and read the older versions of FMA, and enjoyed both. Watched a few kiddie ones back in the day, like first- and second-season Digimon and Pokemon. I tend to not catch much from our Eastern friends, some by choice, some by coincidence. I won't deny that there is some good stuff in the massive volume of me-too manga and animu, but, well, I have my reasons.

Tabletop, I used to play (and still have my) Wood Elves of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. More recently played Tau. I like shooty army tactics.

Wow, you're just a fountain of information!

Holy crap, one of our members, Ryuu (who's computer is severely broken at the moment, which is why he isn't the one posting this) has been asking every new member since AE's inception whether they can do sprites or not because he is very interested in making an AE RPG using RPGmaker. He will be quite pleased to see that a sprite artist has finally wandered in. :)

Aha, I figured you did something along these lines from on all of your technical swordplay talk.

For as much as I enjoy writing, I should really read more fiction. I used to a lot in highschool and even university, but I haven't read many novels in the past few years.

I understand when people distance themselves from anime and manga. An enormous share of it is crap and the fans are annoying. It helps to consider them as mediums rather than as a genre. A live-action sci fi film has more in common with an animated sci fi film than it does with a live-action romance. In the same vein, an action-oriented anime series has more in common with an action-oriented live-action TV series than it does with an anime series about a loathesome teenager surrounded by a harem of air-headed girls.

For this reason I cringe inside every time I find myself telling someone "I like anime". What I actually like is animated programming of various genres that appeal to me in different ways, most of which come from Japan due to it being the country that produces the most animated content aimed at age groups other than children. But not only is that a mouthful, but it tends to require more explanation and usually people just don't really care that much.

I hope you're not badmouthing Clannad there, young man :P

Unfortunately, that's because there's so many people who still don't know anything about anime. Y'know, I'll use that as an excuse to watch even more anime - so I am more qualified to teach them :D

OK, I'm done spamming this thread.

----------------
Now playing: Shugo Chara! Kokoro no Tamago Full Version
via FoxyTunes

Hah, that's excellent, those Bard Game sprites might actually be put to work!

I'm a member of my Game Design Club here, and I was on a team working on a parody RPG. We had a lot of design work done, a world and cast thoroughly planned, a plot with a few different possible paths, a touch of intrigue, all of the character skills planned out, enemy lists...

And then our coders quit when it came around to working on the map editor. The very first bit of coding anyone had to do.

I had put together parts of a tileset already by then, and was really hoping to be able to put that project down as a success later. No such luck.

Lemme see if I can find any from here at the lab...

...Apart from what I posted to the forums for the project, looks like I don't have any of it here. I'll stick some of it up when I get back to my apartment.

All harem, actually. But I have heard that Clannad as a romance is quite moving.

That's too bad, Silraug. It sucks when you depend on people and they let you down.

agasdgghlksdjvsiojvzxvjxolvjzsdpifzdsiogfsoifhsiofshf

I LOVE YOU

Since Ryuu hasn't been around lately, and I saw him on MSN, I told him.


He was happy...is an huge understatement.

Oop, looks like he beat me to it.

That.
Only "I like anime" is a bit simpler, and most people I talk to wouldn't budge easily on their views on anime.

XD Best response to an intro thread ever.

Yeah, there's that too.

I understand that anime and manga are both media forms and not genres in and of themselves. That said, there are a number of common threads to the two that I simply don't care for. Which isn't to say I'll wave off any series suggestions out of hand--I just have learned not to go looking.

And on the subject of Bard Game--they had every right to leave the project. -shrug- I just wish that we wouldn't need to go recruiting in order to keep our work from going to waste.



This was from when I didn't quite know how to split up tiletypes correctly for getting rid of the grid. I made way too many cases. I know better ways now.





A couple trees.

Also got a riverbank tile and some building fronts somewhere. The building front stuff likely wouldn't fit, if we're going to be working on an Aetheria game--the Bard Game had a tech-heavy theme in the starter area. I'll dig 'em up if people are interested enough.

...Also did some walk cycles for a heavy weapon guy by the name of Vulture that seem to have vanished. Hm.

....(so would you be object to making sprites of the AE characters)

I kind of figured that request would come up eventually.

Link me to a formatting page for the spritesheets and I'll see what I can do. I'm guessing you need a 4x4 with standing along the left, but I haven't worked with RPG Maker's recent stuff.

I may be (really) late with this but welcome! Also, thanks for bringing DnD into my forum life. You may ask of me any one favor at no charge. The rest are $5,000,000.00 a pop.

What a value!

I think I remember him telling me he used XP.

This was from a chat awhile back of course.

...Screw it, it's been long enough. I'm just going to assume he's using 32x32 tiles and get started.

that works because I really have no idea about format or anything :V