members

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 10:35 pm

Well, it's certainly interesting how this group is slowly growing. I'm glad I've put together something usefull, and I hope it will grow. I always thought that the one community meeting place should be made. We have Ians message board but it doesn't seem as popular as it used to be and I hope that does not happen here as well. So I ask that when ever someone comes up with a decent idea to keep this community alive or more interesting to feel free to share it.

here are some things I was thinking of doing:

1. Adding community links or perhaps to beowuufs page which has all the links to everything around anyway.

2. Adding more DM graphical content like dm inspired smileys and such.

3. Monthly competitions? Things that inspire you all to do something cool wih the community? Building the super DM puzzle level or something. What to give as a reward is the question. Perhaps a Poster print of some yet to be made Dm Artwork. Saying you are a DUNGEON MASTER. Which would be mailed to you.

any thoughts on those?

sucinum · Post by **sucinum** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 10:55 pm

id really love the dm-smilieys

and i think the main-problem with ians board was the advertisement...next to the point, that almost everything was said about dm

i still lurk it sometimes, because it was my roots to this dm-community (remember me beeing named only as guest?).

Post by **Lunever** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 9:41 am

Hmm, could you maybe add a link/information about the IRC-channel #dungeonmaster at quakenet.org not in some hidden thread but somewhere better visibly, maybe even an additional information in the memberlist about the IRC-Nick usually used by each member?
It has been becoming a bit silent in the channel lately and I'd like to meet more of our already small dm-community online from time to time.

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:37 pm

I like the idea with the dm-inspired smileys! Good one...

Making some competitions might also be interesting, but keep in mind not all people are programmers here nor even expert builders, so maybe it should be more on a theoretical level?

What might also be nice is a team competition (one person designing, a second building): just one level (apart from HOC if necessary), quickest way to solve it (by ticks or time, whatever) wins. That should be not too much of an effort and rewarding to see the videos. (Assuming CSBwin, of course). Maybe a month is too short though to inform all the non-regulars and get a decent amount of levels for a competition.

The problem of keeping the flow is in my view that most regulars are old-timers to the games and don't have many questions any more. It adds up to designing/playing new dungeons, working on various clones and editors and testing/bugfixing those. This is probably not what "newcomers" find fascinating to read in a forum, because it's often inside language, on a meta-level or based on a thread that was written ages ago in a completely different forum that does not even exist anymore

So my vote goes for "new" ideas (like the smileys!): DM T-shirts? ("I survided "Amber's Matrix level"

) Anbody good enough to make graphics? I'd by one for sure if the price was reasonable! For example we could ask Paul/George to build in a certification at the end of CSBwin/RTC to check, which dungeon you just finished, so you could have a printout diploma. That would also be a nice add-on.

There are sure more ideas floating around...

Regards, PitD

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 5:07 pm

smileys I would be willing to do. The T-shirt, though neat, can come up to copyright issues and I don't want to deal with that. It would need to be absent of the words "dungeon master" at least in the form of the orriginal logo. The poster would have been a inexpensive reward for me to do. Just the cost of printing and postage. A T-Shirt is much more.

As for what to do for a contest beyond dungeon building.. I do not know. The fastest time to completion contest deal has been done time and again already. What the community needs more of is content, so this is why I suggested dungeon building.

oh well, to early for me to think about such things.. off I go.

moo

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 5:26 pm

What would you set for an aim with dungeon building? In the end, every dungeon is there to be played, so which other measure than success in finishing it (be it time, wounds, treasure collected or monsters slain) is there? Ingenuity of building is all fine, but "newbies" would stand little chances against experts building their tenth dungeon already because of all the additional programs they know and can handle pretty well by now...

Regarding the T-Shirt, I did not have it in mind as a prize, but more as a possibility for users to make one by using graphics presented/collected here (devoid of original logos, of course) or even let them print for a reasonable prize if they wished so.

Regards, PitD

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 2:21 am

well, the idea would be to make a single level. To make a full set would be insane. The basic idea is to have a goal and it's a matter of making a good trap or puzzle. Once enough would be collected they could be used to make a big multi level dungeon for future players to enjoy. It's fun and it benefits the community.

moo

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 8:27 am

Well I agree with the single level (see above, I posted the same!), so maybe the competition could go along the lines of giving a theme for the dungeon and then offering the various levels to builders, constrining them to special monster types they have on a certain level. (random drawing who gets which ?)

For example, a theme could be: dungeon without monsters. I think the 3D maze was a very good example, but then only one person could make that, otherwise it would never work. But you get the drift...

So shall we collect proposals and start out with a first try? What about the "team" idea to also enable non-experts to participate in such a contest?

Regards, PitD

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 8:53 am

well there is still an issue with building of levels. What tool can be used to make RTC dungeons? RTC being the most currently versitile version of DM aside from DMJ perhaps. However with Alan so busy right now I think you'd get better support for RTC anyway.

I don't want it to be a big pain in the butt to make a level.

moo

Post by **Lunever** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 11:34 am

But we could also have a gaming contest for George's global Hall of Fame, couldn't we?

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 7:02 pm

The only tool so far able to make RTC dungeons apart from RTC text exiting itself is DMute 1.4, using it to cenvert the files afterwards.

Regards, PitD