Modding frenzy!!!

Winnings: $694

Here's a spooky moment from yesterday (Saturday): I wander past Co8, check down the bottom to see if Gaear has shown up yet, and there are just two names:

ShiningTed, 0rion79

Hmmm, I wonder what shenanigans await this development. O well, on to more interesting things.

I was unable to partake of St Pat's day in a befitting manner, as per what I said on the forum, since I had blown all my money the night before. I had just finished winning back the $600 I lost before I left for Malaysia - in fact, I was $30 on the happy side of par and closing in on the pleasant mark of being $1500 ahead overall, when I hit a run of monumental bad luck.

Now, my system is not predicated on good luck - I can have bad luck and still win. 'Hoping for a winning streak', as most people do when they gamble, is a mug's game - the returns on roulette are calculated with this in mind, and the numbers even out so that the house is paying back less than it takes in, so winning streaks are less profitable for the player than losing streaks are for the House. Only 3% or so - 1 in 37 - but enough. The odds are against you, and just hitting a winning streak is hard enough anyway. Since my system takes a little over an hour to do a full cycle (and I try to run two cycles on any given trip to the club, with a beer break between) I get to spend a LOT of time just sitting there watching my fellow gamblers, and let me tell u, I see a LOT more people put money in than I see take it out. A scary, depressing lot more. I would smash NSW's reliance on gambling revenue in a heartbeat if I could, even if it put me out of a profitable past-time. But I digress. The point is, I see a lot of people betting, hoping they will hit a winning streak, and it doesn't happen very often.

My system does well when I have a winning streak, but even on a losing streak I can still win. All that is required is I NOT get hit by a CATASTROPHIC losing streak - these come along very rarely, and the system is designed so that even if one DOES come along, the chances are I WON'T be backing it (I will be on the other side, cleaning up).

But not this day...

This day I got nailed fair and square, losing a further $800 [sigh] Bugger. Still nearly $700 up, and rethinking the whole situation. Yvy asked me the other day if I had a gambling problem - its a fair question. I don't think so, but u never do when u r winning (and sometimes not even when u r losing). I guess how I react next will show the depth of my character. For one thing, I am back to running simulations, lots of them.

The silver lining? Well, I expected to win and have money in my pocket! Since I didn't, my Friday plans for St Pats and my Saturday plans to head to the club after work and watch the Eels game (broadcast from Hamilton NZ) both got scuttled. Instead, I stayed home and modded. Hacked in the new maps I wanted to add (just two more to go), did some sectoring, and started redoing the guards (and adding new ones) to include the new armour, capes etc. Very nice!

Hopefully will have the maps finished tomorrow, including the Worldmap Icons (did the Thorp map on Friday and was running around on it testing, opened the WorldMap, and it was in exactly the right spot! Gratifying :-) then on to the swamp map for Allanon. Once that is done, can finally get the existing dlg files etc in order, and do a release. The plan for the release is to have basically all the characters in the game, erm, in the game - well, for the opening part of the game (the Outer Bailey with all its various buildings) and then people who want to contribute will have their desired NPC already mobbed in, and can get straight into the dlg (will also have assigned dlg file numbers). Of course people can feel free to fiddle the mobs if they think the character should be tall, short, dressed differently or whatever.

Still feeling very confident: nice to have issues like the worldmap graphics and the guard's armour dealt with by the initiative of folks in the community. Ideally, I would like to 'manage' this in such a way that it can carry on without my specific input - currently feeling far too dictatorial for my liking. To this end I am going to add a sticky on 'how to get involved' once the new release is up, and a thread where the latest versions of files can be kept.

O and I don't get paid til Thursday so I can concentrate on the mod without having the urge to wander off to the club. Too smokey down there anyway. Lets see how the simulations go.