Posts Thanked By User

1

Roleplaying / The Misfit Brigade

« on: March 18, 2012, 11:33:13 am »

Here's the idea I came up with during my vacation. It's based partly on some perma-death servers from the past, as well as mixafix's suggestion about level range.

The Concept

The world is rife with uncertainty and unrest. The common folk are struggling for their very survival on a day-to-day basis. With resources scarce, some are offering up the only commodity they have, themselves. Forced into situations outside the norm, some of them discover a tenuous link to the heros of lore. Some succeed in this new life, many more fail and return to more mundane lives.

An unknown group, powerful and well-funded, begins to take advantage of the situation. They begin gathering these misfit commoners into a cohesive group, imposing strict, some would say military, order. The result is a small fighting force, right now but a seed but with the potential for powerful growth.

What will this growth result in? Who is orchestrating the dance of this force? Good or evil, helpful or power hungry?

The Rules

• Must be 1st level to join. The first month of play, levels may be gained at will up to 5th.
• One level gained per month at most after the first month. The idea is to keep a tight level range within the group.
• Each player may have up to two PCs in the group at a time.
• Only one soul strand to lose. The loss of a soul strand will trigger the PC's inherent self-preservation, forcing them to return to the mundane life of a commoner. The PC must be deleted. This is meant to build in some turnover of PCs within the group. (Should this be changed to five deaths instead of a soul strand?)
• No gear allowed beyond what is for sale in Center's NPC shops. Recovered items from drops are not allowed either. Magical items will be awarded for service and leveling.
• All travel must be done in groups of three or more. This is an RP group, not a leveling group. Travel is unrestricted along routes and in areas that are non-combat (eg. travel between Center and Hempstead and Vehl is allowed so along as combat is avoided).
• Grouping with non-Misfit PCs is allowed with the following restrictions: Three Misfits must be in the group, and the non-Misfit PC(s) must hire their services.
• All expeditions must be put on calendar, with a follow-up trip report posted. (Details to follow.)

The Goal

To establish a framework that fosters adventure with an emphasis on RP and character growth, rather than levels.

2

Just for Fun / 12 creative ideas that will change your lives!

« on: March 13, 2012, 11:58:42 am »

Here you go

3

Important Layonara Announcements / Forum/LORE/IRC downtime this weekend

« on: March 08, 2012, 05:40:15 pm »

Greetings everyone,

This weekend I'll be transferring the forums, LORE and IRC over to our new server. I'm going to begin late tomorrow night around 11PM Eastern. My plan is to move IRC over first to be able to use it as a tool to communicate the progress on the forums and LORE. I'll also be using Twitter to confirm progress of the migration.

LORE character updates may be temporarily broken when the transfer is moved over but will be remedied as soon as possible. I don't foresee a need to shut down the NWN server but it's possible it might be required in case I've forgotten something.

I expect the whole process to take between 4 to 6 hours but if everything goes well it may be sooner. Of course if I run into hitches it could also be longer.

DNS migration may also cause propagation issues but that's out of our control. Basically this means that when we change which server the web address forums.layonara.com points to it takes some time for the global system to be aware of this change. Hopefully it will propagate fast so there's no concerns on Saturday but if there are I'll provide some technical help to temporarily alleviate the issue.

I hope all is well with you and your loved ones.
-orth

4

The Silver Buckle / A Flyer Goes Up

« on: February 29, 2012, 10:03:04 pm »

[SIZE=16]On this middle* day of Mar
Who watches behind silken mask?
As friends gather round the bar
What knife waits behind the cask?

Who killed the owner of this Inn?
Who will find the final clue?
Webs of intrigue round us spin
Who will find out?  Will it be...you?[/SIZE]

[/I]
[SIZE=16]

Ides of Mar - A Silver Buckle Event

Twenty-One Mar at seven-thirty in the evening.

Masquerade dress expected.  Magician being sought to shape you into your wildest dreams...and there will be a mystery to solve.[/I][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[SIZE=10]
*Yes, I know the Ides of March is the fifteenth, a critical person cannot make that day.  Just pretend, darn it![/SIZE]

5

Ask A Gamemaster / How can you rp when everything is more powerful then you

« on: February 26, 2012, 07:26:04 pm »

I have been wonder about this. The leveling is slow and people keep saying it isn't about the levels, but the problem I'm having is I can't properly rp when everything when everything is more powerful then me. I found that it is not about the levels once you get to a higher level and everything isn't more powerful then you. I don't like having to grind for exp but if I want to be able to rp with people I need to at least be about to hold my own in a fight so I'm not a burden on the people I'm rping with.

The layo world is not very kind to low level characters and it takes forever to get to the point where you can actually start doing things. So how can you properly rp when you can't really do anything.

6

Important Layonara Announcements / Tech Update and a Request For Donations

« on: February 18, 2012, 04:55:51 pm »

Hi everyone,

I've made my decision about server hosting and we're not going to see as much down time as I suspected. We do have to transfer the web/lore/forums/irc to a new server but I suspect that will only take a late night downtime of those services, I expect that will be taken care of some time in the last few days of February.  The NWN servers are going to stay as is and as far as I can think, they will not need any sort of downtime.

While I worked on cutting some costs with our host provider I decided to pay for an entire year for all our servers. This comes at a much bigger front end cost of course, but in doing so I save 10% for the full year. This means we're committed to at least another year of all of our servers.

Now I know we haven't had the Donation Tracker working. I was hoping that by creating a manual PayPal donation campaign then whoever donates can post a reply to this thread (unless they wish to be anonymous) and I will confirm their donation with my gratitude and a virtual hug. I'm not looking for any specific target dollar but if I could get back $500 over the year from the community it would be fantastic. There's no timeline for this, so if things are tight right now I understand, but every little bit, even $5 helps!

For convenience I've created links to pay in four different currencies, AUD, CAD, EUR and USD. There is an area on PayPal to add a personal message, please include your forum or character name so I know who's who.

Donate to Layonara in AUD

Donate to Layonara in CAD

Donate to Layonara in EUR

Donate to Layonara in USD

Thanks to everyone for helping and once this server migration is complete I look forward to working hard on the new community site.

Best wishes,
James

7

Rumour Has It / Prunilla's Bountiful Harvest

« on: February 16, 2012, 05:48:53 pm »

Travelers may begin noticing second-hand chests set up in the poorer sections of Mistone's cities and villages. Sometimes a local citizen stands by the chest, offering passerby a free meal or a mild elixir of healing. In other smaller villages, the chest sits unattended.

The contents of the chest most often is fresh baked bread with perhaps some smoked fish or bottles of juice. In all, though, a small parchment placard rests within adorned with a pressed and dried clover. (Very careful inspection might reveal tiny fingerprints from the creator embossed in the glue holding the clover.)

8

General Discussion / Hola! :3

« on: February 15, 2012, 01:49:16 am »

I'm thinking about getting back into layo. I took a pause because of college, and while I'm still at it (Words cannot express my hatred of operational amplifiers), I've made some time for myself... and I got tired of FUS'ing chickens to death. So time to get that lovely NWN reinstalled. :U

So as always, imma be a pest and ask if someone knows what the current files I need for layo to run are. I can look them up myself, I just would like to know the version number so I can do my search. It'd be a bonus if someone would post a thread that might cover some rather world shaking events... so I can catch up. :3

Also, how is everyone doing?

9

General Discussion / Lower levels traveling with higher... do it!

« on: February 14, 2012, 06:48:19 pm »

My thanks to 'mixafix' for running point on a brief trip to Krashin. The xp for Honeybee was modest, but significant to a 6th level PC. We did not go deep into the caverns, but instead collected a few gems of that were ICly important to her and then retreated back to Mistone.

On several other occasions, Honeybee has accompanied much higher level PCs on their ho-hum gathering of CNR ingredients; she usually averages 1xp on these trips per kill. Significant not for the xp but instead for the "rp currency."

Thankfully she's a cleric of Prunilla where, "Their objective is not truly to cleave through hordes of evildoers, but  instead to annoy and distract until the stronger can deal with the  threats." Thank goodness (and pie!) for the stronger!

10

Just for Fun / I, am your father. Nooooooo!

« on: February 14, 2012, 02:16:04 pm »

http://forums.layonara.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=143266&limit=recent

11

Just for Fun / tree little pigs in then 1700?

« on: February 11, 2012, 05:50:24 pm »

John Branyan - The Three Little Pigs - YouTube

shared to me by a friend on facebook.

12

Layonara Server / Continued thanks for player tools

« on: February 06, 2012, 06:03:57 pm »

I continue to be impressed by the usefulness of the player tools available here on Layonara. Specifically, the Quest Creation Scroll and the blank parchments. If you want to see an example of them put to use, just jump to Center on Mistone and check out the chest and NPC.

I'm happy any time to assist should you want to use them yourselves in-game. Examining the quill or question creation scroll gives very thorough explanations. I suggest trying them yourself in some out-of-the-way corner of the world to get the hang of things.

Thanks again to the creative server team!

13

Just for Fun / What Rapid Shot Looks Like...

« on: February 05, 2012, 01:25:26 am »

...in real life.

This is one of several reasons to be scared of archers.

14

Layonara Server / Version 3.30.8 is online!

« on: February 01, 2012, 09:01:04 pm »

[SIZE=32]Version 3.30.8 is online![/SIZE]
 
 Hello all, it's been a while and there are some things that needed some attention, so here goes...
 
 Please note there are no downloads required for this update.
 
 Changes:

• Dogma and deity relations information added to Shrine to Prunilla in Center
• Fort of Last Hope has been rebuilt
• Forest Giant cave terrain adjusted to lessen the exploitable pinch point
• House remodel for 150 Krandor
• 150 Krandor moved to Port Hempstead
• House remodel for 151 Port Hempstead Fields
• Completely remove the last dependence on the old Talus Listener (voice commands) (1)

Fixes:

• Restore missing transition to Shadison Viper temple exterior
• Fix the number of uses for Stuffed Rice Cakes (2)
• Fix infinitely repeating encounter in the Great Forest
• Fix blueprint resref for the Black Pony creature, which prevented it from properly spawning
• Fix damage on Flame Strike
• Fix exit from North Point Craft Hall
• Fix missing auto-close scripts in North Point areas

New stuff:

• New go-between area to connect the Fort of Last Hope, its Outskirts and the Shadison Viper exteriors

Notes:[LIST=1]

• [SIZE=10]The Talus Listener system was what we used to process voice commands before NWN version 1.69.  Since then, we have been using NWN's built-in chat handling events in parallel. Using NWN to handle chat is both faster and works with more characters. Though primary processing has gone through NWN's handlers for some time, we still relied on the Talus system to manage a list of command verbs that were stored in a configuration file on the server. This update removes the need for this and brings that function to be fully internal to NWNScript. As of this update, the /o syntax for voice commands will no longer be functional.[/SIZE]
  
• [SIZE=10]Existing Stuffed Rice Cake items will not be automatically affected.  This fix only applies to newly-crafted Stuffed Rice Cakes.[/SIZE]

Thanks this time go also to Alatriel, Eorendil and Script Wrecked for their contributions as well as everyone who made suggestions or bug reports.
 
Enjoy!

15

General Discussion / Late as usual, but here to stay: New series starting in Februrary

« on: January 31, 2012, 07:44:50 pm »

We wanted to start it, oh, a month earlier, but alas, vacations and work and that thing called life has somewhat slowed us down. But never fear! The series is on the calendar now! The show starts February 14th, though we'll be dropping some lines in the rumor thread before that to get the juices flowing.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to drop some here. We'll also be starting a long running series forum a little closer to the actual start of it all. In the meantime, I've got a bit more paperwork to do....

16

General Discussion / "Center" is beautiful!

« on: January 28, 2012, 09:56:04 pm »

I'm very impressed by "Center" area. Great to see everything co-located with lots of variety of corners to RP in. Kudos to the designer.

17

Just for Fun / Awesome montage

« on: January 26, 2012, 05:59:14 am »

This guy makes some pretty awesome video's

Medal of Honor Cat - YouTube

18

Just for Fun / Happy Australia Day!!!

« on: January 26, 2012, 12:00:03 am »

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN IF:
 * You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.
 * You're liable to burst out laughing whenever you hear of Americans "rooting" for something.
 * You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'.
 * You believe the 'L' in the word 'Australia' is optional.
 * You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas.'
 * You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.
 * You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.
 * You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.
 * You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.
 * You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.
 * You believe that cooked-down axle grease makes a good breakfast spread. You've also squeezed it through Vita Wheats to make little Vegemite worms.
 * You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.
 * Beetroot with your Hamburger... Of course.
 * You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' And "Living next door to Alice".
 * You believe that the confectionery known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.
 * You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.
 * Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language.
 * You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, While 'scuse me' is always polite.
 * You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.
 * You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle and a seat belt buckle becomes a pretty good branding iron.
 * Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.
 * You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac cookies'.
 * You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'.
 * When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.
 * You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in -o: arvo, combo, garbo, kero, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto, goodo etc.
 * You know that there is a universal place called "woop woop" located in the middle of nowhere...no matter where you actually are.
 * You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer, because it tastes like . But we let the world think we do. Because we can.
 * You have, at some time in your life, slept with Aeroguard on in the summer. Maybe even as perfume.
 * You've only ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, rad, sweet - to mean good. And then you place 'bloody' in front of it when you REALLY mean it.
 * You know that the barbecue is a political arena; the person holding the tongs is always the boss and usually a man. And the women make the Salad.
 * You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not.
 * You understand what no wucking furries means.
 * You've drank your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam.
 * You own a Bond's chesty. In several different colours.
 * You know that roo meat tastes pretty good, But not as good as barra. Or a meat pie.
 * You know that some people pronounce Australia like "Straya" and that's ok.
 * And you will forward this list to other Australians, here and overseas, realising that only they will understand!!!
 Have a ripper Australia Day everyone

19

Just for Fun / That's how they get in your mindz!!!

« on: January 16, 2012, 02:23:12 pm »

The Cat Hat on MSN Video

20

Roleplaying / A new year's thanks

« on: January 09, 2012, 05:12:46 pm »

...to all the folks filling up the calendar with things from char development to impromptus and quests.  Nice to see options!  Guess I'd better do my share with another Buckle event...