106 billion people are thought to have lived on this planet so far.

Here’s a graph with some interesting stats on that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ww4f/4108672641/sizes/l/

Rush Limbaugh has been hospitalized with chest pains.  As usual, left-wingers are out there hoping he dies.

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2009/12/limbaugh-hospitalization-brings-out.html

The decade is over in less than a day. EnGadget has a great article on the top 10 gadgets of the decade.

>> EnGadget

Keyboard Launchpad is a marvelously useful utility. But its UI is pretty long in the tooth.  I was wondering what sorts of features and changes users would like to see?

Would anyone like to sketch together ideas on how they’d like to see its user interface changed?

As the new year approaches, we’re starting to look forward to the DesktopX 4 beta.

So what are the goals of it?  Well, to be honest, the goals are pretty modest: Strip out the parts that are difficult to work with and build it back up.

Stripping it down

First off, DesktopX comes with several plugins that I have asked to be removed:

Any plug-in that doesn’t work on Windows 7 with UAC on would be removed.  The existing DesktopX library would be renamed “DesktopX legacy” and only new creations would be supported.

The source code for our plugins would be made public so that the community could take over their development since, unfortunately, there just aren’t enough development resources available these days to work on such things.

If users wanted to use that code to make weather and other types of plugins to make it easier for people to create new gadgets, that would be great.

The Future: Building it up

Instead, what I would like to see would be Python to be adopted as the means to creating “plugins” that DesktopX could then read in.  Essentially, DesktopX scripting would move to Python and away from JScript or VB Script.

You could still use other scripting languages as well but we would move away from VB Script being the default.

Clicking on the “New” Script would open up the user’s default editor associated with DesktopX (preferably a python editor).

For 4.0

But for 4.0, we’re looking to clean it up. Fix long-standing issues and get to a more solid foundation from which to build on with Windows 7 being the focus for future development.

Coming up with crazy new hobbies in your mid-30s provides an interesting challenge.

2007: Radar Detectors / Radio scanning.

2008: Beekeeping.

2009: Dietary Supplements

So looking forward, I have some new hobbies I’m looking at taking up.

1. Bats.  That is, putting up bat houses and such.

2. Gardening. Though more specifically, conservation and natural restoration.

3. Guns.  I’m having a hard time with this one because in the age of video games, guns lose a lot of their interesting aspects (i.e. shooting a target or whatever).

4. Survivalism. There are sites dedicated to discussing what to do when you need to “bug out”.

5. Solar Power.  I subscribe to Home Power magazine. Love the magazine.  When I get into debates with AGW advocates, it becomes pretty obvious that they really don’t understand that solar power, wind, etc. are not viable alternatives.  It’s Oil. Natural Gas. Or Coal. (don’t get me started on Nuclear, it’s a viable alternative in theory but let’s not kid ourselves, it’s impossible to get them built).  But I am a big believer in solar power as a means to help decrease our need for energy.

6. Botany.  I’ve been slowly building up my library of books on plant identification. My wife got me “Weeds of the Northeast” for Christmas this year. 

I’m leaning towards bats for 2010 right now.

I have to say, I really like what Microsoft has done with Office 2010 so far.  Better across the table.

The Outlook update is much welcome (and much needed).

One of the things that amazes me is when programs lack even 128x128 icons.  WindowBlinds and DeskScapes had this boo boo which we are fixing for an update in the next couple weeks.

But Apple’s programs? Really? Shame on Apple for that.

Better late than never!

In part 1, we talked about quests in general.  Now it’s time to get to the heart of the matter.

Step #1: CLASSES of quests

As one player put it, quests have to be broken up into components. Think of these as the building blocks of a quest (or “bricks” as one user put it).

How are quests initiated? Here are the ones that come to mind:

1. Some tiles would contain an object that when a player enters that tile, triggers a quest event. These tiles would appear on both the cloth map and full map. We’ll call these MAJOR quests.

2. Random events. Player hits turn, and there is a chance that a quest opportunity may come to the player without having to do anything. We’ll call these MINOR quests.

3. Some tiles would have objects in them that when the player interacts with them would trigger the quest event. These would only be available on the full map (players will be able to move within a tile without using up a move on the full map because you can zoom in).  We’ll call these INCIDENTAL quests because they won’t have a game-changing effect.

Step #2: MECHANICS of quests

Here we define the building blocks of these quests specifically.

• Timers. Quests must be completed within a certain time limit.
• Satisfying the quest requirements:
• Kill N creatures.
• Find Object O
• Return object X.
• Rescue character Y.
• Perform Action Z.
• Obtain Q of a particular item.
• Collect items A, B, C…G
• Destroy V
• Kill character T
• Rewards / Consequences
• Get Item
• Get Ability
• Get Money
• Get Spell
• Get Access to Area
• Trigger new Quest
• Trigger new Unit(s)
• Assign unit(s) to your side
• Trigger new object on map
• Get Marriage Proposal
• Get Experience
• Participation
• Just the Hero
• Full group hero is in. (i.e. the whole freaking army he’s in)
• Requirements
• Does it require an adventuring technology?

Step #3: EXECUTION of quests

This is where we decide how these should be implemented. There are 3 obvious ways to do tihs.

One way is to simply code these in C++ but that eliminates modding.

Another way is to implement in XML which makes modding very easy but makes it hard for us to add additional quest types we haven’t thought of.

And finally, they could be implemented in a scripting language (Python) which makes it possible to create new quests but harder to mod.

I’m leaning towards combining the latter two.  Python used to script the mechanics with XML used to provide the actual quests.

Step #4: ACTUAL quests

Quest 1: Kill the rats
Type: Incidental
Trigger: On main map, player can zoom in on a city and see a “!” above one of the buildings. Player can then select one of his heroes and take them there which triggers the event.
Content: “Oh please help me, rats are infesting my Inn. If you can kill them, I’ll gladly give you 20 copper. Will you accept?”
Execution: Player is taken to a tactical battle with rats in the Inn. Only the Hero is allowed in.

Quest 2: Rescue Princess Genica
Type: Minor
Trigger/Conent: Upon the beginning of a new turn, a local noble has asked you to save his daughter Genica from a group of marauding bandits who are operating out of the ruins of one of Curgen’s old fortresses to the East.
Requires: Adventuring Level 2.
Execution: On accepting, a fortress is added to the map to the east. Only an army with a hero can attack it. If successful, you have the opportunity to wed Princess Genica.

Quest 3: Recover the Dragon’s egg
Type: Major
Trigger: Dragon icon on the map, when a hero-equipped army intersects tile, triggers event
Content: The Red dragon of Sythia is outraged that a manling has stolen her precious egg. Dragons only have offspring once a century or so. The dragon agrees to join your kingdom if you recover her egg. The egg was stolen by Calorax the Warlock who lives somewhere in the far north in the Pilgen mountains. Sythia does not know where Calorax is exactly but knows that the Witch of the Swamp knows someone who might know.
Execution: On accepting, a hut is added to the map in a swamp nearby.

Quest 3A: Dragon’s egg part 2
Content: Upon reaching the witch, she tells you that she has a map that will take you to Calorax’s lair that she agrees to give you if you bring her the scroll of Poisoned Claws which she knows is near the bottom of the old dungeon of Harpok to the south. She points out that in getting the scroll, you will be able to make use of that spell as well.
Execution: On accepting, the dungeon of Harpok appears on the map.

Quest 3B: Dragon’s egg part 3
Content: Upon entering the dungeon, you discover that a demon that fled to these deep places of the world after the cataclysm has taken refuge there. You can choose to battle the demon or exit and return later. If you battle the demon, the tactical battle screen comes up and you fight it out. If you win, you gain the scroll which you can then return to the witch. Returning to the witch gets you a map which triggers the fortress of Calorax to appear on the map.

Quest 3C: Dragon’s egg part 4
Content: Your army reaches the fortress of Calorax that you must conquer to rescue the egg. If you’re successful, you get the dragon’s egg which, if you return it to the dragon nets you the dragon (or you could sell the dragon’s egg for money elsewhere) who becomes a unit in your army.

So these are the kinds of things we’re thinking about.  Please feel free to add to this and discuss.