Mikka's Modding Project!

[Adrian]

Arcanum! Actually I got the (two) CD(s) somewhere here, I re-installed it not so long ago, it has some performance issues now though.. I have the intro-book next to me just now. I loved it when I was little. I actually loved most of the books that followed with games in those days. So artistic, and with backgrounds for races, maps, strange rules... Its actually slightly sad that they don't have those any more, but it's partly my own fault for buying most of my games online and digital only (no room )

 

 

About NWN, yeah, that is true, but it gives me little rest. Its true, Mask of the Betrayer was great I think, I really enjoyed the story there. As for being evil/jerk... I.. dunno. Yeah. Usually I play it like I would have been had I been more violently inclined and my ego was as large as I joke it is. So speaking down to me would get you killed but I may aid a damsel as long as I get paid. I don't necessarily go out of my way to ruin people's lives. But I don't take kindly to people stopping me, which is why guards, judges, paladins are natural targets. I think the reason why I enjoyed the grafics was it held a newness. I don't think I'd seen 3D characters that detailed before (I think the only other 3D would've been Everquest, maybe the Sims 1 or so) so it was a bit amazing..

 

I think I noticed Divine Divinity too late, but I did buy it at some point. I think a friend borrowed it (along with my Dune book, which is a loss I mourn far far more) and I've lost track of it, my father played Theif I think, at some point. I never got into it.

[Mikka]

Ah, games. I'll post my current favorites when I get back from vacation... this laptop is hard to type on for great periods of time.

 

I had a dream the latest DLC came out and it was awesome but it didn't come out, so apparently I am not psychic. This is mildly disappointing.

 

Any mothers hanging around? Hope you had a great mothers day if you are.

 

So, I'm in sunny Florida where the tempature is in the 90s and miserable. But I'm still having fun, just hiding in shops and the like when it gets sunny. I have- counting them all- seven blisters. They are hurting a lot and make walking a fun little game that makes me look like I'm drunk. I also do have some sunburn on my shoulders and upper chest. I do not have heatstroke, though, so I'm counting it as a plus.

 

Enjoying Disneyworld a lot. There's just so much to see and do... and eat and drink. I really haven't had time for relaxing or even getting on the computer, though (so no progress on the brats). This is the first time I've gotten a chance to, really. And its only because I'm doing laundry that I have this chance. We basically get up to be there at park opening, and then stay at the parks till they close. It's fun! But it is exhausting.

 

I've seen some great sights- the Flower and Garden festival is going on, and the gardens are beautiful. I'll probably post a few pictures of it when I get back home (the 18th/19th), if the Legate and everyone doesn't mind.

 

Tomorrow, we have a really fancy dinner at a five star resturaunt. I can't wait. I like my good food. >.>

 

Um... I suppose I really don't have much to say. Thanks for being patient with me about this modding deal, everyone. I promise that I will get it done and that the kids will be interesting. I'm just not sure when that's going to happen. Still have project and work and all that stuff to get through. Foo.

 

Hope everyone is having a good week.

[Mikka]

Well, I'm back. No more flu, but I have a cold now. Honestly, I almost prefer the flu. The flu, you can spend the day in bed sleeping and no one really calls you out about it. Cold, you're expected to keep trucking through like nothing is wrong when all you want to do is stay in bed sleeping.

 

Let's see, what my kids would do in detention... (Reitz, I imagine, would talk his way out of it somehow, the little rascal.)

++ Aaran tends to get detention relatively often for silly stunts raging from sneaking out after curfew to forgetting to follow the dress code, so he's used to it. He generally does what's expected of him in detention- sits and listens to the lectures, or does some studying. If he's bored or in a rebellious mood, he starts playing with his tarot maratt deck, but he tries to convince the teachers that's still Astrology studying.

++ Miya, too, is pretty customed to detention... usually for talking and passing notes in class. In detention, she generally continues talking and passing notes and otherwise goofing off. If the teacher is Storey or Sixt, she puts a bit more effort in to pretending to behave, but she really just ends up toning out everything going on.

++ Louise spends her detentions plotting how to escape from detention and otherwise climbing out windows, running out the doors, and generally being more trouble then she's worth. If she's somehow not able to do that (teachers generally just make windows and doors disappear until the detention period is over when they're assigned her), she generally just crosses her arms and glares the entire time and refuses to do any work.

++ Antonio tries to avoid detention when possible, and when he gets it is usually pretty well behaved. He'll study and listen to lectures and generally be productive. If he feels he got the detention unjustly, though, he's not above debating it and arguing that he shouldn't have to be there.

++ Cat just does that all the time. Give her detention? Be prepared for hour rants and waves about how that's unjust and she did nothing deserving of such punishment and this is cruel and unusual and she never got detention at the Officer's Academy and the teachers are ruining her life. Wah, the humanity!

++ Cuàn generally would just sit in detention in a stunned, shocked, 'omg how the hell did I get here' look. He'd do whatever he was assigned to do, but he'd be a bit shellshocked.

 

 

So! I got to try all sorts of neat things on this trip. I did not however, hug any characters. I know, go to Disney World, and not hug a character... it just doesn't seem right. I did get my hand kissed by a few of them, though. So I suppose that's that. They had some neat Cinco de Mayo stuff for the first part of our visit still going on in fake-Mexico, which was fun. Had a delicious drink.

 

Did the drinking around the 'world' (world being Epcot) deal, which is the first time we did it... we had a blast. We made the rule that we had to try something traditional to that country in each country... so like, in Mexico we had tequilas, in Germany, France, and Italy, we had wine (well, and some sort of slush in France, too- we made a double stop there), in Japan sake, in China a Hong Kong style street drink, in UK some nice scotch... the only country we sort of cheated on was Canada, where we just had some mixed drink made with a Canadian vodka. This is because the only choices were that or Moosehead beer, and I am not a beer drinker and I find that beer even less tasty then most (we could have gone in the resturaunt and gotten ice wine, but that is an expensive resturaunt for it's quality). Morocco was a bit hard, too- the only drinks coming from Morocco was Casa Beer (again, beer) and a very dry white wine, because Morocco is not a very big drinking country. But yeah, was fun. We tried a lot of sake during this trip... I think it's probably third in my list of 'things I like to drink' (first being wine, second being vodka which I do think has a flavor, darn it).

 

As I posted above, got sunburned and blistered up. But that generally happens to me on vacation. I also have a ton of freckles everywhere.

 

Took some really nice pictures of gardens that I might try and convert in to artwork that could be used in Academagia. I just need to redownload gimp. Bah, gimp.

 

 

Um, let's see... my favorite ten games of all time, in no paticular order save for the first...

 

++ Planescape: Torment (Best Game Ever, seriously)

++ Academagia (would I be spending so much time modding this thing if I didn't love it? >.>)

++ City of Heroes (RIP!)

++ Ib (extremely short to be on this list, but I really do just adore the whole autmosphere and story- favorite 'short game' ever)

++ King of Dragon Pass (my go to Iphone game)

++ Pokemon (can I just say Pokemon? Probably spent the most time on Platinum, but currently enjoying Black)

++ Shin Megumi Tensei games (this is a definite cheat, as that includes tons of games... my favorite are probably the Persona ones, but I tend to love them all)

++ Morrowind (better then it's sequals to me)

++ Europea Universalis III (though I like most Paradox games... I tend to play with the Death & Taxes mod)

++ ...Tough choice. Maybe the Mass Effect series.

 

 

I'm currently busy with work, bleh. Will try to do some modding when I complete that.

[CremePudding]

Hong Kong Style Street Drink?

 

You got my interest there.

 

And might as well pop in my top 10:

 

 

428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de (If you can read half an ounce of Chinese or Japanese, this is THE visual novel to read.)

 

Academagia (I bet the Legate will ban anyone who posted their Top 10 without this.)

Tropico 4

 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms X (10) with Power Up Kit (A really good Sandbox RPG with occasional strategy and great replayability)

 

Wizardry 8 (I am not into the rest of the series, though)

 

Liberal Crime Squad (Bottom of my list, but still very fun and having constant updates really helps.)

 

Facade (That "Experimental Drama" game where you talk to two NPC. Or have one of them shut the door in your face before you actually enter their house ten seconds within the game starting resulting in a ending.)

 

Darklands (Fun, but too archaic for me to actually enjoy it)

 

Mass Effect (Mostly 2, but 3 is pretty good save for the terrible ending)

 

King of Dragon Pass

 

[Mikka]

Yeah, I wanted to ask you about it! I want to know if it's something that actually is similar to stuff that really exists or is something that Disney's China pavillion just put together to sell to stupid American tourists (which I sometimes have a feeling they do often >.> ). They say it's a 'Hong Kong Style Yuan Yang Drink', which means nothing to me. It looks, honestly, like an iced coffee. It's a sort of creamy drink, that's a mix of coffee, tea, chocolate, and bourbon. I have a feeling the bourbon is an American invention. They call it 'Tipsy Ducks in Love', but googling that just brings up links to the drink in Epcot, so it doesn't seem to be something that actually exists.

 

They also had a 'Green Tea Plum Slush', which is a bright orange frozen drink made with green tea and plum wine (but why was it orange?- I'm still trying to figure that one out). That's another one that I can't figure out if it's something they would actually drink in China or something they just threw together for the American tourists. Tasted decent, though. Both of them were quite good.

 

 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games... I love those. Been playing them since they started translating them to English. I tend to just make original characters and take over the world, though, rather then playing in character as one of the historical guys.

 

That reminds me, Alpha Centauri might beat Mass Effect in my list. Most lore rich strategy game ever made. As it's an old game, a good substitute for it is the Planetfall mod for Civ IV, that's on the usual Civ mod site. It has most of the fun lore and the like transfered over to Civ playgame, but... it's not quite the same, without the customized units and the blind tech tree. 'Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.'

 

The Sims 3 was also a game that has been able to hold my attention for quite a long time, but I'm not sure I like it more then Mass Effect. Hm.

 

 

I spent some time working on my crappy 1000 some pages Exalted fanfic that no one in the world but me will ever read. It was a bit of a treat to just be able to write stream of concious, even if it's tripe- it's just something fun and easy that I can write without thinking too hard about it. But no more breaks. Enough fun.

 

(On the other note, Exalted 3E has started Kickstarterness. I should probably post about that in the thread, though they seem to be doing incredibly well.)

 

I'm working on Project- I finished it, then decided as I had the rest of the week, I might as well rewrite it and polish it up. At the same time, I'm doing writing for Cuàn and Cat (I forgot how to make that stupid a there for a moment). I have Cuàn's adventure completely plotted out and started writing it, but I haven't figured out what to do with Cat. I'm sort of playing around with maybe doing something involving the Officer's Academy, but that means I'll have to barrade the Legate with questions about it. Still, it's the best I've come up with yet.

 

I lied, though. Cuàn's Adventure does sort of involve animals, because his familiar plays a big part in it. Still, it's not like... just about the animals, it's... it's... well. I guess we'll see.

[Leoshi]

This just in, Mikka has completed her work and is continuing her wonderful adventures for her wonderful kids.

 

And in other news, The Sims 4 has been announced.

[CremePudding]

Yeah, I wanted to ask you about it! I want to know if it's something that actually is similar to stuff that really exists or is something that Disney's China pavillion just put together to sell to stupid American tourists (which I sometimes have a feeling they do often >.> ). They say it's a 'Hong Kong Style Yuan Yang Drink', which means nothing to me. It looks, honestly, like an iced coffee. It's a sort of creamy drink, that's a mix of coffee, tea, chocolate, and bourbon. I have a feeling the bourbon is an American invention. They call it 'Tipsy Ducks in Love', but googling that just brings up links to the drink in Epcot, so it doesn't seem to be something that actually exists.

 

They also had a 'Green Tea Plum Slush', which is a bright orange frozen drink made with green tea and plum wine (but why was it orange?- I'm still trying to figure that one out). That's another one that I can't figure out if it's something they would actually drink in China or something they just threw together for the American tourists. Tasted decent, though. Both of them were quite good.

 

Yuan Yang is for the people who can't make up their mind whether they want HK coffee or HK milk tea, and is practically a mixture of both.

 

Yuan Yang refers to Mandarin Ducks and pretty much mean a pair of lovebirds; "棒打鴛鴦" literally means "hitting Yuan Yang with a club" and refers to separating love with force.

 

More accurately it is Evaporated Milk + Thick Black Coffee + Thick Black Tea. No bourbon or chocolate.

 

Judging from the name "Tipsy Duck In Love", it probably is a alcoholic variant- *check google* - the very first image is from Disney, so.... yeah. Original Disney Cocktail. No one actually drink that with alcohol here, not with any local drinks. Or mix them with Chocolate.

 

...

 

...

 

Silly American Tourist.

 

As for Green Tea Plum Slush, definitely no. As ignorant as I am in Chinese cultures I don't think Bright Orange Slush is in anyway traditional.

-----------

I don't love the whole series for RoTK; just the 10th game because it is a lot more RPG-ish and wide-open compared to the rest of the series. You are not stuck as a ruler or forced to conquer the whole land or something. Also because the syntax errors. Things like a female governor of a city addressing all the generals in a public meeting in said city as "husbands". Or giving births to children whose auto-generated, well-written biography contains "His mother is Zhuge Liang and his father is Liu Bei." Or how someone managed to faint chasing a wheel of cheese instead of a horse due to scripting error.

----------

@Leoshi: You make it sounds like you kidnapped her or something...

[freespace2dotcom]

Well, actually, despite its faults, RoTK8 is my favorite. I've only played 7, 8, and 11, though. 11 sucks badly in my opinion.

 

The battle system for 8 is probably what I like most about it.

[Schwarzbart]

I really love to see how your new Students turned out in DLC 16 and how they work as clique Members

[Legate of Mineta]

Should be pretty interesting.

[Mikka]

Hopefully, they work out great.

 

Their clique abilities are nothing to write home about, so I don't think they'll end up on anyone's 'must befriend' lists (but I didn't really want them to be that powerful). Still, they're certainly more useful, then say, Zorzi. And they're cute, too, I swear.

 

...THe more I think about it, the more nervous I get that people won't like them. Antonio's adventure is paticularly stupid and I'm not sure why I wrote it (alas, if I'm allowed to say so, he also seemed to get the bad luck with his year two adventure, which is also pretty stupid), but, well, too late now! Hopefully it'll work for someone.

 

Let's cross our fingers that DLC 16 comes out soon. I'm not sure how much more waiting I can do... hehehe.

[Metis]

I'd just like to say it's hilarious that you point out Zorzi as having an especially useless clique ability when last game he somehow managed to invite himself into my clique. And that adventure will be just fine, unless it involves a monkey and a tiger randomly stealing the PC's clothes.

 

And if it does I am so rushing to learn Animal Husbandry next game you have no idea.

[Mikka]

There are no monkies and tigers, I think.

 

There are, however, hawks and owls. Which might not be much better.

 

(Zorzi has the most useless clique ability in game, in my humble opinion. Not is it useless in general, it's also activated rather then passive, so you'd actually have to use up a time slot to get a useless bonus. Sigh.)

[Xandran]

Man, doesn't Louise know that if you want to get out of the Academagia, all you have to do is jump off the side of an island and call the Lord of Hawks?

 

Or Gate the Lord of Hawks in. Can also do that. Except for the illegal part. She has a hawk! She should know this!

[MadHatt]

Man, I stand by what I said earlier in this thread. I really like Aaran. And his dog is the best thing ever. He is the new, permanent addition to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

 

Now to talk more to Louise.

[Mikka]

I imagine Louise's hawk keeps a few secrets from her, for her 'own good'. After all, would you rather be the familiar to a powerful magi, or some blacksmith gal in faux-Germany?

 

Also, Louise never studies. Or reads books. Ever. If she can avoid it. She's sort of dumb that way. And she doesn't talk to many people, either.

 

(More seriously, that's probably a good question. If she knew about it, she'd probably do it, though, so it's probably best she doesn't know about it. Keep it a secret from her.)

 

 

As for Aaran, I'm glad you enjoy him (and Tempte). All the kids are my 'babies', but Aaran's really my baby. In which I mean he's the most fun to torment and make horrible stuff happen to, anyway.

[Xandran]

so if someone wanted to write their own student, what would they need, exactly?

 

I kind of want to write at least an adventure before the final DLC for year 1 is released.

[Mikka]

You know, I once started a tutorial on how to make a student for the game, but no one seemed interested so I abandoned it (like I abandoned the poor other two students I was working on- maybe one day I'll go back to them). If you're interested, though, I could try to dig it out and restart it. All it takes is a lot of time and patience; it's not hard, really, but it can be a lot of fiddly bits.

 

My priority right now though is writing something for Miya in the future, but after I finish that (admittedly, I can't promise when I'll finish that), I can restart that thread up.

[Schwarzbart]

Lol Louise is part of the The Academagia Rimbal Fanatic Squad in my current game. Wasn't she the one who openly admitted in a Event that she can't stand Rimbal?

[Mikka]

Er... Zorzi is very persuasive? XD

 

Nah, I imagine she bitterly complains about the naming to anyone who will listen, and probably won't admit she's part of the clique, on bad days. But it's good that she's making friends, I er, guess?

[Xian]

I just ended my DLC 16 playthrough. I played Aaran and Antonio's Adventures, and also encountered some of the randum events about your new students. But never have met with Louise. Maybe she is a mysterious one?

 

Aaran's randum events was so fun and unique, I could not help but liking him. Although I usually play as a Godina girl, I almost came close to start new game as a male student to romance with him in the future. The part I ilke in Aaran and Antonio's Adventures is that PC's efforts to help them are really appreciated. The main reason to play student's adventure, for me, was to become a particular friend with the student. And your adventures have the ideal ending as I dreamed.

 

I really enjoyed my last playthrough wirh your new students. I'll try the new girls' Adventures next time. Thank you for your hard work over the years, Mikka, your mod has made the DLC 16 so special to me.

[Adrian]

Hoooo it's been a long time since I've visited this thread...

 

But congrats Mikka! I'm very... glad/proud? that you managed to get them through, and through so well. (I'm slightly surprised but I think proud might actually be the word )

 

 

I've only played Antonio's quest through so far though, but I am working on a few of the others, I'm looking very much forward for Miya's quest by the sound of it ^^

[Mikka]

I'm sorry, I just saw this today. I've been bad about reading the forums.

 

Thank you both so much. I really appreciate feedback, and the fact that people are enjoying them is possibly the greatest feedback I could ask for.

 

 

I'm happy you liked Antonio and Aaran's adventures, Xian. Miya's also has some feel good bonding at the end of hers, if you like that. Louise, alas, is a bit too difficult for some feel good bonding, but I'd like to say her adventure still ends up on a happy note, especially if you've built up your befriend skill by the end of it. I wanted all of them to feel like you definitely got closer to them through their adventure, and were more like friends- I think Aaran might even call you his best friend at one point.

 

(And, for Aaran, you actually don't need a guy- Aaran and Miya are bi, as that needed some representation, too. So they'll be open to both male and female students... in Miya's year two adventure (that I am still, alas, working on), she definitely flirts a bit with your character be they female or male. Antonio is males only, though, and Louise is females only. (Louise actually has two bonding events for female characters only, that I think are nice, but random events are random as always.))

 

 

And, Adrian, thanks for all the support you gave me while I was building these brats. I'm so glad to finally have them done and in the game, hah. And Miya's quest is very silly, but I think it's certainly fun.

[Lilette]

I just started a new file, and plan on befriending Aaran. I normally only befriend two or three students, because I can only fit in so many adventures per playthrough (I don't cleanse/remake so questing can be hard) and in my last file I ran into 3 or so random events with Aaran, so I decided that my new girl was definitely gonna befriend Aaran this time cause he seems like he needs a friend.

 

...And I think he's pretty. ._. /shallow (So glad he'll be an option for dating~ I knew you were gonna make some gay/bi characters and I was gonna be crushed if he wasn't bi. I'd then have baked cookies and cake and made sushi and tried to bribe you to change your mind about him. )

[Mikka]

Aaran most certainly needs a friend, and props to your girl for deciding to be one! He's a bit of a weird one, but I think he's fun and his adventure is what I jokingly call the heartwarming one (Louise's adventure is bittersweet, Miya's is just plain odd, and Antonio got the most 'normal' one).

 

You know, I've heard a lot of comments about his portrait. It seems males seem to think he looks girlish, but gals seem to find him okay looking, if not pretty. I think it's the slight anime influence- if you're used to bishonen from anime, he doesn't look out of character at all, but compared to the other male portraits in the game, he really is sort of a pretty boy. I didn't really intend it, but I find it works. I imagine at his age, it just means the other guys tease him a lot for looking 'sissy' and other horrible things. Maybe if he makes it to 16 or so without going crazy, it'll start working for him with gals, though.

 

(And I'll still take cookies and sushi! Not much for cake, though.)