Terraria

[Brad]

Crazy multiplayer, sidescrolling, building, adventuring game. I am getting addicted to it I think. And I haven't gotten into the complicated stuff like wiring traps to levers or pressure plates, lava, grappling hooks, giant eldritch monsters (cthulu's eye?) or goblin invasions.

We should get a Randomland server so we can start working on a giant castle base.

[Nick]

For just the few hours I have played I think I like it. Courtney might even be able to get into it. He likes monotonous tasks like gathering tones of stone to build a house

I did a little reading and it looks like the game gets a lot harder when someone on the server gets 200+ health. Also, daemons and walls of flesh.


I will get a Terraria server running for randomland. Running on linux even! Many people have done it as it seems to play nice with mono. I might have to update the linux install on the server from oldy-moldy centos-5 to nice new Fedora or Ubuntu though. Or just compile mono from source

I like the idea of an always on, ever persistent world to be terrorized by.

Its hard to believe that the game took less then a year to create and release. Is that a testament to XNA? Or is it just that simple of an engine? 

[Nick]

Dedicated server is up!  After some fiddling with mono and a server overheat while compiling, it is up. Always on, persistent building collaboration!

Connect at the normal address on the normal port. If it wants a password you know what to use. If you don't know what to use and want to play just send me a message and I will share :-)

[Jacsveus]

Awesome game really. It's simple but rather complicated and challenging at the same time. I've really enjoyed playing it with you two...which rather surprises me. It didn't look terribly great from what I saw in the pictures on Steam. So yeah, thanks to Brad for convincing me it was worth the $2!

It's more expensive now...but if Courtney ever had the time to play he might just like it.

[Nick]

Anyone have a preference for voice comm software? It would help with organization, though I suppose its not necessary.

TeamSpeak seems popular, as does skype. Or there is Mumble if you want open source. Not having the voice server hosted on our server would be preferable.

But...

With TeamSpeak it looks like the server gets the stream and then transmits it to the other people. With just 3 or 4 of us this will not be an issue (as I would be using local bandwidth for receiving and sending.) I really wish quest offered better DSL out here.  But it should work ok as long as people are not broadcasting constantly.

[Jacsveus]

There is Ventrilo as well...which actually almost worked on my old dialup. I doubt it uses much if any noticeable bandwidth. But most people I hear of use TeamSpeak or Skype. Being able to talk is much quicker than typing and helps with organization, I agree. That game can be rather confusing.

I always think I sound like an idiot on the mic, but I would probably get over it. And being that I am usually here all day and rarely using up all my internet I could in theory host a server if anyone cared to do so.

[Nick]

We could pass around the world files and take turns hosting it, that way I wouldn't be the only one who enjoys the lag-free local connection.

Ventrilo looks like as good an option as any. Seems to have good windows and linux support as well as being free. I am willing to give that a try.


Regarding the oddness on the server last night (Cody and I were falling though the ground and having strange glitches) It seems that it is a bug in the tshock version of the terraria server. I don't know if it is limited to just when its running in mono or not, but I will set up a windows XP install in a virtualbox until they get it ironed out.

[zourtney]

Wow, that looks crazy. But cool, for the fact that you could do tons of creative stuff. I wonder if they have plans to port this to other systems as well. Maybe I'll install Steam on my desktop this weekend.


...wow ok, in a effort to find a word to explain the new retro-synth music on the game site's trailer video, I came across the most random music video, complete with impregnating guitar blasts...I think the 80s music sound is getting cool again.

[Jacsveus]

Scary thought that the 80's could be coming back. Scarier thought that the music in the trailer is the same music that plays all the time in the game.

And Nick got our Vent server working last night. He didn't have a mic but Brad and I did. It was fun!

[Brad]

I think we should attempt some hardcore characters. Start over on a new world and see how long we can actually last. Would make you play game much differently if death was permanent.

[Jacsveus]

Indeed. That could be interesting. I'm not sure I have the skill to stay alive for very long though.

[Nick]

Sounds like a recipe for madness! The first time you are killed by a poison dart from off screen that a skeleton set off... We will have to actually fear the blood moon... actually dig pits to protect ourselves... and have one person mine while another fights off intruders.... I am for it!

Another thing to note is that in the next release there will be options for creating other-dimensional or hostile worlds (not sure on details yet.)

----

I set up a new medium sized world at port 7778. It is using the newest version of the tshock server (V. 3.4.5.0106) so I can run it on linux. They supposedly have most of the bugs worked out now. Hopefully there will be no armor stand corruption and random teleporting into the ground.  Let me know if there are any bugs and I will move it back to the official server on windows.

• It will not let you connect with anything  but a hardcore character (or it shouldn't)
  
  
• Server side inventory is enabled (for extra hardcoreedness) It will freak out if you try and bring any items in you did not get from the server (no logging into your other world to grab some armor, the server will throw a fit)
  
  
• !!! IMPORTANT !!!! Think of a password and then use the command  "/register yourpassword" and then "/login yourpassword" to play.
  The server wont let you move until you have registered and the logged in. So far it seems to remember your IP, so you only have to do this when playing from a new IP after the first time. And you only have to /register once ever (I hope).
  
  If this gets too annoying I will disable the server side inventory. Or if for any reason anyone does not like it. I am kinda unsure about it as it just seems like extra overhead. It was created to stop people from public pvp servers from cheating. But I don't really care in out case. I trust you all not to grief each other
  
  It was, in fact, too annoying and is now disabled. Also we are running the official server again as the tshock one is still too buggy.
  
  
• Use a hardcore name! It's fun and campy! Examples are Crash Nighfall or Chuck Grinder!  I'm sure you can think of better though.
  
  
• Spawn protection is on because the 3rd-partry (tshock) server seems to like putting in the ground under the spawn without it. I will try reducing the number of blocks around spawn to make it less annoying (its nice to spawn in a shelter)
  

Other game-play styles we might try are only allowing one bed and playing medium-core (so you always have to spawn back at the start but don't have to create a new character) this would add more of the extra difficulty that hardcore does with a little less of the tediousness.

[Jacsveus]

This hardcore mode is pretty hardcore. Nick has forgotten a few times that he needs to breathe air, but otherwise I would say we are doing fairly well! I still think we should convince Court to play. Even if he didn't run off and kill everything with us I am sure he could still have fun. Probably not in hardcore mode though.

[zourtney]

Yeah, I'd prefer not to play on my desktop though...just not as much fun for some reason. And doesn't it cost a few dollars?

[Jacsveus]

What would you prefer to play it on? I am not sure if it is released for anything but the PC at this time. And yes, it cost $10