Dannic, The Prince of Cats

Posted by Dannic on August 23rd, 2008 in General, The Broken Shard

yep. Been working on the broken shard site quite a bit lately. Legend of the Green Dragon is great but I just can’t do what I want.

I have finally finished the conversion of the site to the new engine. No more page refreshes. Works great and is ready for new users and character creation once again.

Still no real content but this new engine will make it so that the game is much more playable and will do what I need it to do.

Next to come is to finish off the streets of the main city as far as basic layout.

Current priorities are:

• Streets
• Shops
• Gear
• NPC’s
• Combat Area
• Mobs
• Combat Code
• Guilds

Hope to have more ready tomorrow. Maybe the streets and a shop or two.

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Posted by Dannic on August 23rd, 2008 in General

We thought we would get quite a bit of rain and wind with this Tropical Storm but it has basically been nothing but a light shower with a little bit of wind.

I was looking forward to having tree limbs to pick up in the yard but it doesn’t look like that will be the case. We should have some more rain. It may be light though. Radar has most of the rain just completely bypassing us and heading north into Alabama.

Not to say that I’m sorry that it missed us so badly but it is a complete let down. Joe Cantore would have been very disappointed had he arrived here to do his reporting for the Weather Channel as he has on other occasions.

I think we have seen worse thunder storms here than what the Tropical Storm has created. Hopefully it will remain that way for the next couple of days as it sits and spins over our area.

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Posted by Dannic on August 15th, 2008 in The Broken Shard

The Broken Shard is back up. It seems to be working mostly once again. There are still a couple of things to fix but most people won’t know that something is broke. It also seems to be working for IE and Firefox again as well.

I have some more work to do before it is ready, once again, for new players.

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Posted by Dannic on August 13th, 2008 in The Broken Shard

Upon upgrading some of the 3rd party code I was using with the game it stopped working for IE.

I have been working for the last several days to upgrade the game to better use the system a bit better. More seamless streaming. No constant refreshes. But there is some issues I am having still so it isn’t back up.

I have made some significant progress but there is still a minor issue with updating messages and stats that isn’t quite working right yet. Then I have the navigation to fix then it should be back on track for building.

The new method should also make it easier for me to implement combat. You will really like that once it is ready.

Still have one street to actually install for the city. But once it is in then it is just a matter of fleshing it out a bit and adding a little bit of functionality. ie stores.

Once the stores are in place I’ll be working on a place to actually explore for creatures.

It is starting to actually look like a game. Just a matter of time.

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Posted by Dannic on July 21st, 2008 in General

Just something funny that Nicole made one day.

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Posted by Dannic on July 8th, 2008 in General, MMORPG, The Broken Shard

Been a bit since I last worked on the game but I started back up and have added a few things to it. There are more rooms to wander around now. The city is probably about 60 percent laid out as far as the basic city is concerned. Gotta thing of some new street names for some of it still. Once I do that then it is just a matter of creating the files.

Maybe I’ll have that done by the weekend. Have to think about it now that I can work on the games instead of work.

I also implemented some rudimentary souls(emotes). Once I got it working completely it will just be a matter of time before I populate the database with emotes to be used. I may seek some help doing that for points to be used later.

I am hoping to get a few things accomplished in the next few weeks as I have more time to do things.

Current wish list is:

Currency
Bank
Post office

I think once I get the city done and those items above then I can start on some of the other things that will make the game an actual game more than a glorified chat engine.

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Posted by Dannic on June 19th, 2008 in General

Today was a pretty full day. Still shorter than I would have liked but we made the best of it.

Got up early today. Early enough that we didn’t have to park outside. Got a parking spot in the garage again. Meant that the cost of parking was quite a bit less. More than half. So it started out great.

Weather is just amazing today. Not quite as cool as yesterday but almost. And it didn’t get above 80 at all. Everyone wore long pants today.

Got there early so we could head to the Capital Building gift shop before heading off to the museums. Got some great pictures. Headed over to the other side to take pictures on the other side and ended up walking by the Supreme court. Got in line to go inside and found out that they would be in session.

Talk about luck. This was a very good opportunity for us. Maybe one of those lifetime ones.

Not only was the Supreme Court in session but they were going to make a ruling on 4 cases they heard earlier. It was great. Very impressive. Too bad I couldn’t get pictures there either.

After we got done with the Supreme Court we headed back to the Longfellow Building so we could get our Capital stuff. Got to eat in the cafeteria as well.

Once we were refueled, we headed over to the Native History Museum.

I wasn’t really all that impressed with it. Seems like it was really brief on different tribes. Not much on history really. More art and clothing mostly it seemed to me. I lived in Tuscon and saw cooler things there I think. There have been specials on the History Channel that I liked better than going to the Museum. But that’s alright. Just took time out from the next Museum.

Our last Museum of the day was the Air and Space Museum. We didn’t even get close to finishing this one up. We’ll go again in the morning. But we are running out of time. Tomorrow is the last day before we head back to Florida.

All in all, I’d have to say this was the best day so far. It is a hard decision since yesterday was so cool as well but I do think that today wins out.

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Posted by Dannic on June 18th, 2008 in General

Yay! Got to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing today. It was an adventure getting the tickets though. The day didn’t start off too good.

The only thing that started off great was the weather. It is just amazing. Nice cool weather in the morning and not too hot in the afternoon. I think the low last night was about 56 and the high was about 82.

Once again we arrived to the Metro Station just a few minutes late. This time we didn’t have enough quarters. Dad had to run back and get quarters. He just dropped us off so we could go get tickets. Nikki couldn’t find her Metro ticket so she had to use Dad’s. He wasn’t real happy about that. Fortunately she found it later and dad just got a one way ticket on the way to the BE&P.

Got to the BE&P and got our tickets. I didn’t want to get them too late but I didn’t want to get them too early either. Good thing they were free. Got the tickets for 10:30. It worked out great. Dad had to jog the block to arrive in time but he made it. This was one of the best things we did so far. I really enjoyed seeing how they made the paper money. Just the thought of making $692 Million dollars in one day is just mind boggling.

It was a great tour and I highly recommend it. The gift shop offers an opportunity to purchase uncut sheets of bills. I got a full sheet of 32 two dollar bills. Daniel got a half sheet.

Yes, they still make two dollar bills.

We had some time before our visit to the Capital Building so we went to Union Station to eat. I was impressed with it but wish I had more time to see more of it. Got some pictures but I really would have liked some from the outside as well. All of the pictures I got were from the inside.

After our lunch and shopping in Union Station we headed over for our appointment with Rep. Alan Boyd. Well, not really him but one of his aids for a staff led tour of the Capital.

This tour was also a great tour. Our Staff Guide, Stefan, was very knowledgeable for his age. Quite impressed with him and learned a few things. It was very crowded there but the trip was well worth the wait and crowd.

We got to sit in the House while they held a vote on HR 6063. They voted to approve the resolution. While we were there, there were only 2 no votes.

Between the art, history and the vote, this was a great tour as well. Really enjoyed it.

If you go to DC, make sure you contact your congressman and ask for a tour of the Capital. You will get a great tour from an intern without the crowd of a large group.

The Capital tour pretty much wrapped up our day. We got done just a bit too late to get to the gift shop. Have to go back later.

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Posted by Dannic on June 17th, 2008 in General

At least it didn’t rain this day. Well not while we were out and about.

We started out a bit later than we probably should have. By the time we arrived at the Metro, all of the spaces were filled and we had to come up with a bunch of quarters to park in a metered spot outside. It was a whole boat load of quarters too.

It didn’t turn out quite as productive as some of the other days. But we did have some good times.

The first place we tried to go was the Ford Theatre. It was closed for renovation until February of 2009. So that was a complete bust there.

Since we weren’t too far from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. That was also a bust. We had a time limit that we had to be back to the car and all of the tours that remained were after our time was up. So that tour was out as well.

Next on the list was the Spy Museum. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Got to see lots of stuff. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to photograph any of it. I guess that’s the way it is going to be on most of the tours though.

To see how it was used throughout history was just amazing. From the greeks to present times. We got to see how spying was used and why it was used.

Of course most of the exhibits were of objects and examples that are more recent. The technology involved was just amazing. Both then and now. It kind of makes you think of how easy it would be to do something like that now with the technology that most of us use daily.

We spent a significant amount of our time in the Spy Museum. After that we ended up at the American Art History Museum.

I’m not much of an Art Fan. But I do like Museums. This one was quite lacking. The only reason we wanted to even go there is it was in the right place at the right time. We were almost done with the day and really couldn’t get anywhere with the amount of time we had left.

I wasn’t all that impressed with the American Art History Museum. It seemed to be a waste of space. Much more art could have been in the building than it had in it. I’m sure they could have come up with even more American Art than what they had. Seemed more like a Museum dedicated towards a couple of people. Everyone else agreed with me on this on.

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Posted by Dannic on June 16th, 2008 in General

Well, this was a good day. I’d have posted on it sooner but there were problems with the Campgrounds wireless internet connection. We just got it back today.

Our first day was mostly visiting the memorials. Arlington Cemetery was the first place. It was completely awesome. The history in the cemetery is just amazing. The idea that I could end up there if I wanted to is just mind boggling.

The kids weren’t overly impressed and were completely bored with it at times. But they didn’t get completely bored. I think one of the things that impressed them the most was the tomb of the unknown soldier.

It was quite a site to see. I’d highly recommend seeing it and the changing of the guard. If you go, make sure you stay long enough to watch the changing of the guard. I’d never have imagined being able to do what those guys do.

I think another highlight was the tour of the Arlington House. This was where General Lee lived before he resigned from the Union Army and became the commander of the Confederate Army.

The trip to Arlington was just amazing. The best part of the day.

We also took a trip to visit the memorials of President Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea and WWII.

The girls like the Lincoln Memorial. It was pretty impressive and had a great view of the Washington Monument.

Took some time to stop by the Vietnam memorial. Took a rubbing of my girlfriends uncles name.

My mom and I also stopped by the Korean war memorial. We also took a long walk on our way to the holocaust museum. That’s when we visited the WWII memorial and it started to rain shortly after that.

By the time we got to the holocaust museum we were fairly wet. Not soaked but on the way to being soaked. We were fortunate to be able to tour the museum. But I wasn’t all that impressed. Of course I’ve actually been to Germany and seen Dacau. So just viewing pictures and film wasn’t quite as impressive. I suppose that if you have never been, it might have helped you get a better sense of what happened there.

We were pretty much done for the day after this museum. Even though it rained it was a good day.

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