Wednesday, January 2, 2008

What am I working on again ?

Happy New Year 2008 everyone ! No holidays for me after all... and on top of being at RL work while others were resting, I kept myself pretty busy working in SL as well. So let's see...

Update 1.12 is done, and a few bugs have been spotted. Firstly, I had chosen to lighten the displays in order to get away from the dreaded stack-heap collision (Lockable is always about to explode, it's so big), and have changed the way the timers are shown. By doing so, I have introduced a bug that resets the timers every 24 hours. It's only a display bug, the timers are not actually reset (hence Long Timer, Autolock et al still work) but it's annoying. Secondly, the Give Keys plugin still crashes when there are more than 9 people in 30 m, which happens quite often in Pak. This is a bug I thought to have fixed long ago, and an easy one, but it's still there. Go figure. I'd also like to iron out the RL compatibility scripts and to make them shut up when you're not using the custom viewer. It is easy to do but not reliable because of the random time the avatar takes to rez when first logging on. And there are other features I'd like to add later. So 1.13 (or 1.14 for the superstitious) will be in order.

The Banishment Project (Program ?) is my number one priority. I don't talk about it much these days but I'm working hard on several technical aspects of it. Firstly, the Bane helmet, which took me some time to perfect, is now done and looks... umm... weird. It's a sculpty, black and slightly shining, designed to roughly look like a head with a nose... and that's it. It does look good but so out of this world. I know the one in the novel is just a featureless ovoid shape but I like this shape better (ovoid was looking too dull). It looks like an unfinished statue head, lacking eyes, mouth and hair. If I can I will post a pic or two later. Secondly, the Custodian script is under works and is starting to get big... I can't give too many details but what it will do is both monitor the wearer, punish her by progressively reducing some of her abilities (hear, see, move, touch) according to what she does, where she goes and what the Operator says, and link to the Spy plugin so the they can use it remotely. Oh and just so you know, I am making it as hard and mean as possible. This thing is programmed to make your life miserable, you'll know what I mean when your hearing becomes gradually harder along the time you spend near civilians. Or when your Custodian becomes jumpy and picky because you're scoring too many Violations. And these are but examples. I'm not a sadist, but I get an evil grin every time I code on that thing. It's going to be quite a challenge for every Bane, trust me.

The viewer has been added new features for 1.05 (not released yet but soon). It can now prevent the user from adding and/or removing pieces of clothing, either all of them at the same time or only some specific parts (you can lock shoes, or a corset, or whatever you like). This feature will be great when the Banesuit is sealed, there will be no way to remove it. It can also prevent the user from reading notecards (a popular request from isolation fans), they can be sent and received but neither opened nor previewed, at all. That too will be a good thing for Banishment. And it can prevent the user from opening the inventory windows, and closes them when the restriction takes effect. Nasty and very extreme. Use with caution. I have a couple more features to add before releasing (maybe a way to prevent the user from sending chat messages over any channel but some specific ones) but that shouldn't be too hard. I don't think I'll do the "no-stand" one now though, as it requires me to find a way to force the user to sit somewhere, and I'm not even sure I can do that. I'd also like to base it on Windlight so it looks better.

Finally, I'm not only working. As many of you know already, I've been owned by Miss Candy Delacroix for the last month, and am enjoying it greatly. She is amazing, and can make it hard and enjoyable at the same time. I spend most of my time isolated from everyone but Her, but not enough to cripple friendships or business. As She's not online at all times, I take the occasion to work on my things, hence me being rather productive lately. We're both learning a lot from this experience and She understands me easily, as She's like me a true switch and a bondage fan. I remember Coventina used to say "true Mistresses are true slaves"... it takes a sub to Dom the right way, if you see what I mean. Oh and before you even think about bothering my Miss, don't ask, She is not a professional and is not going to take anybody as a slave. This is between us only.

Marine

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm very faszinated from you banishment project and I hope you will give us more infos soon.

Happy New Year for you, and thanks for your work.

Anonymous said...

Hi Marine,

seems you are busy as normal ;-)
I just finished the book Eudeamon and i must say "wow", it really goes to my heart. At several points, espacally to the end, i needed to wipe my eyes.
So i am really looking forwar to your Banishment Project. I don't think I would make it so long to find my Eudeamon, but i am really fascinated on the idea of isolation it will create. I desperatly like to try it.

In big admiration
Sinje

Marine Kelley said...

Thank you you two :) Yes Sinje the novel really stays in your mind days after you've finished it, and that's why I'm taking my time to make the SL experience as real and rewarding as the "real" one. But being isolated in a Banesuit will be hard. It will be f*cking hard. Trust me. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

Will the notecard and inventory locking features be optional components to the RL viewer?

DEspite being toally isolated at all times from anyone but my Owner, I am required by her to write stories and make items for her, to keep me busy.

So I kinda need those functions, if possible.

Marine Kelley said...

People don't know what they want. They want total isolation and scream when they can "cheat" by sending notecards and when I prevent that, they scream because they're going to be isolated. lol.

It will be a toggle in the custodian script. Otherwise how will the Bane write her thoughts to be sent to the Operator ? Hmm ?

:p

Anonymous said...

I must admit I also use notcards to send messages to others when I am gaged. But i see it more like writing on a paper and give it to somone or wrting a letter. Even when your cuffed your able to do that. And its a painfull proceess compared to normal chat.
Anyway, i will welcome when sending of notacards can be inhibited espacally when you can toggle it to suit the situation.

Talking abaout banishment: In Sl you can allow people to track you on the map. As bane you just dissapear. Friends shoudn't be able to look at the map and come to comfort their friends. So maybe there is a point to think about this feature.

Anaxa McMillan said...

Hi

I like to know if the new version will be WL only. my PC is not fast enough for WL and crashes easy.

Anaxa

Marine Kelley said...

Ah. This is good to know. I want to compile under WL indeed (because it looks better and one day or another the regular viewer will switch to WL), but so far the source code is incomplete and I don't want to waste my time trying to fix LL's libraries.

Can you perhaps lower the visual settings so you can stay online without crashing ? Or is WL totally hopeless on your computer ?

Anaxa McMillan said...

i can answer with a question

whats the point of WL when i need to degrade to lower graphics then the normal viewer?

soubi_ said...

Marine,

I left you some IMs a while back in-world, regarding a similar viewer that I have been working on. I'm not sure if you got them. In my own viewer, I have added the ability to cause the sub to sit on a particular object (in addition to the no-stand flag). From your description I'm not sure if you were trying to figure out how to do that or how to find an object appropriate to automatically make them sit on. I'd be happy to share my method. My viewer also has some other "remote-control" type aspects to it. Anyway, drop a note here if you're interested in collaborating and I'll contact you again in-world.

Marine Kelley said...

Anaxa : I want to upgrade to WL because eventually everyone will want that too, if you can lower the graphics to stay close to how they look now without crashing, all the better, but most people would benefit from better graphics.

Soubi : I'm not sure I have received your IMs, sorry... Yes I'm interested indeed, provided you force the avatar to sit down on an object by giving its UUID, because that's how I want to do it.

Anonymous said...

this is kind of in response to something soubi said.

Is there a way or is anyone working on a way to force a slave to sit on or in an object and locked to it? i think it would be wondeful to be actually locked into some of the amazing toys and equipment around SL. realease by either a timer or someone with a key would be perfect.