Did You Know?

Omei

This thread is where I and my fellow Immortals dump little tidbits about the game that you may not know about. You may also feel free to drop interesting facts about lore, events, mobs, or other fun stuff that you think people would enjoy! Without further ado:

Did You Know...

• The humgii in the Sentaari guildhall doesn't like @Macian very much, and will vomit on him.
• There are only 5 accessible pianos in Aetolia.
• There are 53530 rooms in the game at the time of this writing. The exact number is never perfect since rooms can be generated by so many different things (tents and dens are big culprits, or @Moirean going on a building spree). Owing to how our room vnums are stored and cleared internally, room #1 is in @Macavity's haven. Another fun one is #50000, which happens to be in @Phendegwen's!
  
• To transform the Aalen forest, @Haern used a special command called HAERNFART. Using it would set a room's state to "haern_fart", which was checked against for the conversion. Consider getting out that gas mask the next time you wander through the Aalen.
  
• There are 28 diseases in the game, but only 13 that players have ever seen! You may not even realize you were diseased, since the disease system itself is abstract and can be used for some interesting tricks, like boosting attributes.
  
• The three hobo NPCs in the Tsinkin Municipality are named after Aetolia's current and past producers: Orson (Josh Olson, old-Varian), Remi (Eric Lamy, Galleus), and Dunkirk (Michael Duncan, Razmael). Oleis has a difficult last name so he didn't get an NPC.
• The dancing bears of Spinesreach are a deceptively fancy piece of work! Their script (referred to as a prog) is 427 lines of code, but what you might not know is that they are just a fancy reskin of a jukebox we have in the Pools.
• If you think 427 lines of code sounds impressive, consider that the master AI for the raiding Nazedha mobs was several scripts running in tandem, one of which was over 2000 lines!
  
• Aife, the Blacksmith doesn't care for @Larissa, and will snark at her instead of the usual friendliness. She never denies anyone service, however.
• Most of the Gods have a throne that will kill any mortal who sits in it. Many of us tweak our thrones the way you might work on your car in real life, making it into a sort of arms race to see who can kill someone in the most spectacular fashion.
  

Arbre

Omei said:

• There are only 5 accessible pianos in Aetolia.

One of them is in my haven!  : D

Moirean

Ostria used to do similar snark at me if I tried to get a sign carved by her, due to a long ago incident with signs left around Duiran instructing forestals how to cure their afflictions (the answer involved joining Spinesreach).  >_>

This is a cool thread. More, more, it's fun hearing admin secrets :P

Aishia

those cure mobs used to say stuff to Arbre.

Noon

Go to Spines and ASK GUARD SIGFRIED.

R.I.P. Siggy!

Arbre

Aishia said:

those cure mobs used to say stuff to Arbre.

Still do, but it's only Vellis.  Unless Someone added more and I go too fast to notice.  Inform me, so I have more to show off.

Sessizlik

Now I'm curious about all the diseases. There should be more of them afflicting the chars. Would be fun to see everyone run around to find a cure!

Ferrik

Omei said:

Did You Know...

• There are only 5 accessible pianos in Aetolia.

Noon said:

Go to Spines and ASK GUARD SIGFRIED.

R.I.P. Siggy!

Ha! That's kewl!

While you're doing that! GREET GUARD and include the word 'Music' in a question!

Daskalos

There used to be a mob in Shastaan that would scream MURDERER at Daskalos everytime he ran by, and if you said Daskalos in her presence, she would accuse Daskalos of being a babykiller. Thank god they nuked Shastaan, that got old trying to explain it to every newb citizen.

Iosyne

Ooh, fun! I have a few tidbits to share.

Did You Know...

• In Duiran, there is a hidden area that requires a small offering in order to enter. This place not only has some unique atmospheric messages, but a shale floor that players can CHALK the image of various Dendara spirits on.
• Also in Duiran, the mysterious waldgeist spirits who wander the Oak have a particular soft spot for the birds in the tree's massive canopy, and will revive them should they be slain.
• There are 250 "official" quests in Aetolia! Not all of these are available to players - some are for future content, or restricted to certain organizations - but 250 is still quite a big number, considering we rolled this system out less than a year ago. Some of the available quests have had as few as 0 completions, and some as many as 28,925 (holy smokes). Take a look around Sapience (with CONFIG QUESTS_ALERTS ON), and see what you might have overlooked!
• Many of the newer mobile additions to Aetolia come equipped with the new dialogue system. What you may not know is that some of these dialogue options are irreversible, and may put you permanently on a mobile's personal hate list. Be careful what you say! Aetolia is an RPG, at its heart.
• Most of the Gods have, at one time or another, had to deal with a failed script in the middle of an event, and consequently panic. This leads to one of us Macguyvering something quick and dirty (and awful, from a script quality standpoint) using an item in our inventory and forcing its action. This has gained its own term up here in the Pools - "tunafish it" - courtesy of @Dhar. 
• Speaking of awful scripts, the amount of time @Omei spends coding ridiculous Gods-only jokes/gags borders on the obscene.

Slyphe

Failed scripts in the middle of events are the absolute worst. To anybody that was there for the Tainhelm event, you witnessed a perfect example of me having to tunafish something. The code that was supposed to respond to an item being buried (the sapling) decided it didn't want to work, so I had to change it to respond to somebody touching it instead.

...Upon which point two people decided to touch it, which I wasn't ready for (see: no throttle on the messages, since you can only typically bury something once) and we ended up with all of the messages being displayed across the whole area twice!

Damariel

Did you know...

• The Kerrithrim mob still exists in its own separate room. We haven't touched it for fear of crashing the game if anything happens to it. That thing is tied into some serious game code.
  
  
• The Nazedha AI prog, previously mentioned by @Omei, is at current estimate the longest and most complicated prog in the game. The puzzle cube runs a close second, at 1165 lines.
  
  
• Some of the rooms mentioned in @Omei's count are unreachable, and include legacy areas from Achaea that were never connected to the game when it was copied over - for instance, the Shala'jen Monastery exists in Aetolia.
  
  
• The singing Praexi from the Delve festival, Altan Dula, is a shout-out to the Irish folk band Altan, and the mob's last name is shortened from one of their songs, Dúlamán. Irish folk was also the style envisioned for most of the songs she and her band played.
  
  
• In addition to Kalsu, Aetolia has constructed languages for Tsinkin, Earthen, and ancient Dwarven. Tsinkin was based on English, with the addition of a drunken slur and incorporated slang, Earthen draws primarily upon Hebrew, and ancient Dwarven is inspired by Old High German.
  

Omei

Iosyne said:

• Speaking of awful scripts, the amount of time @Omei spends coding ridiculous Gods-only jokes/gags borders on the obscene.

You are carrying 18753 gold.
You aren't wielding anything in either hand.
You are holding:
"redeye289321"           a Red Eye Orb.
You are wearing:
You are holding 1 items.

Online play item. Invade another world. (Only Covenanter can use the item while 
Hollows cannot) Defeat the master of the world you have invaded to acquire 
humanity. The Darkwraiths of Kaathe use this orb to seek humanity and plunge 
further into dark. Perhaps they are more human than we?
It weighs about 14 pound(s).

> use redeye

Searching for world to invade...

*wait wait wait*

Invading another world...
Invading another world as dark spirit

Just before you can finish reading the awesome flavor description of the loading 
screen, you are flung across the world.
Pools of Creation.                                     (POOLS)
[ room spam goes here ]

Invaded the world of Iosyne

It even has a 35% chance to say "Failed to invade"

Toz

Try 90% and you're playing on PC.

Sessizlik

Is the quest alert supposed to work on all new quest people? I tried passing one I know is a new quest giver and nothing happened. Does it have to be a quest you have yet to perform?

Iosyne

You have to have not ever completed the quest for the alert to pop up.

Haern

Did you know...

• That our prog system can be restarted? Yes, that's right, folks! We can restart every single prog in the game and have them fire off probably 10,000 error lines in addition to undoubtedly triggering Kerrithrim's fateful return. Boy, wouldn't that be fun.
• Did you know that our producer made a terrible error while a Celani? You should ask him about "Wedric's sheep".
• Did you know that I have more white hair than I ever did once I took up the Albedos project? [weeping intensifies]

Draiman

I got one of those diseases once. It was herpes.

Maghak

- It's traditional for at least one major mistake to occur per event. If nobody messes up, the tension rises...
- @Eyolf's lodestone and the not_takeable flag are my own personal Hell.
- There are at least three INCREDIBLY EXCITING projects in the works... that can't be fired off until other projects are rolled out.
- Working a forty hour week and actively developing for another game make it very difficult to find time for aforementioned projects.

Omei

Awww this thread got real.

Eyolf

@Maghak My arms are just so comfortable, denizens just leap right into them.

Moirean

Omei should post more tidbits, if only so I can stare at the hypnotic signature.

Chakrasul

Did you know..

• Out of the 28 diseases in the game, 2 are tied solely to Chakrasul.
• Chakrasul's temple is huge. It numbers approximately 125 rooms.
• There are hidden areas in Chakrasul's temple. Some of them are only accessible by Order members. Some of them are accessible by interacting with the item within particular rooms correctly. Some of them are accessible if you provide the correct corpse to offer.
• Everyone in the Pools is a multitasking genius.
• There is a very special chain that is used to welcome all new Celani to the Pools.
• We have a lot of shit laying on the ground in the Pools. They are mostly the leftover mobs and items used in our events.
• You know those moments when you believe you're having a one-on-one interaction with your God? Don't be so sure it's really a one-on-one conversation. Sometimes, other Gods in the Pools would randomly pop by and stay in for the show!
  

Piper

You can just sub the gods as Statler and Waldorf and it'll work.

Macavity

@Omei I totally saw that #1 vnum in my haven a month or so ago, and was like AWESOME!!  I am NEVER DELETING THAT ROOM EVER!!!  LOL

Oleis

Did you know: On average, at any time, I have three or four sets of code for separate projects, all in different states of completion.

Slyphe

Did you know: On average, at any time, of those three or four sets of code for separate projects, all in different states of completion, Oleis finishes one of said projects every 5 minutes?

Disclaimer:

Above may have been a slight exaggeration. 

Omei

Did You Know...

• @Xavin is always wrong, and must sometimes be punished. We have a special means of smacking him on the nose.
  

Teani

*newspaper*

Did you know that sometimes the room description will speak of something and the item actually exists in the room, but is invisible (won't show up on IH).

Omei

It's a little misslier than that.

Xavin

Omei said:

Did You Know...

• @Xavin is always wrong, and must sometimes be punished. We have a special means of smacking him on the nose.
  

So mean