EroLich

Hello everyone, 

it's time for your regularly-scheduled update and I have a hell of a lot to share with you, so let's get this party started, shall we?

I have a few things to talk to you about today, some updates and preview images, and because it's Guam, some talk about typhoons. And, as they are a colossal pain-in-the-ass, let's get those typhoons out of the way first. I don't have a good history with tropical cyclones, they certainly aren't my favorite thing (link is my experiences with Katrina I shared quite some time ago). The guys at the National Weather Service are saying we're going to get nailed by a typhoon going by the name of MangoHut. (Ok, it has a real name that means mangosteen in Thai or something.) Typhoons are the grown-up version of Hurricanes, something like a 30-mile-wide tornado. They say the five category scale used in the Atlantic isn't big enough, it'd need 7 categories, so we use a modified version and start calling it a super typhoon after it gets big enough.

And basically, this stupid fucker is coming directly at Guam. I got to see some fancy graphics today, and basically all these different weather models and whatnot decided to have it come directly over Guam. If so, it'll be the strongest storm to hit here in over 15 years. Luckily, it seems that the forecast track--I literally just pulled up now--has drifted north a little bit, and shows the storm being weaker. 

Hopefully it just veers of course to the north or dissipates or something, but we've been preparing out here in case it doesn't. There isn't really much in the way of outside help when we get hit out here, in the mainland United States, linemen and electrical vehicles/technicians/etc. as well as other workers can come from neighboring states to help out. Here, we have what we have.

Also, the local electric utility Guam Power Authority has managed to explode (literally) two power generators in the last year alone, and a lot of the electric grid hasn't had much maintenance since it was last scoured off the island by a storm. So, they're saying that we'll be out of power for weeks, some areas two months or more. Hell, we had a good thunderstorm a while back and some places up north lost power for days. Our network is so reliable, we seem to average an outage every other day, though thankfully they're mostly shorter than 30 minutes.

Fortunately I was able to use some connections and secure a generator via the Navy, though the emergency management office is saying there's a good chance there won't be reliable running water in my area for some time... Internet will likely be out until cell towers are repaired and powered with generators, but then will probably be slow as fuck thanks to everyone trying to use the already slow cellular data network.

So yeah, here's hoping that it just spots a tasty floating trailer park or something somewhere up north, and goes that way instead!

I'll try to keep in touch as best I can, I may not be able to make very spiffy posts or do a mid-month release thanks to data issues, but I shouldn't completely drop off the face of the internet. And if I do, it's just because things are more retarded here than we thought. I live in a home resembling a bunker, basically exterior walls and roof made of 15 to 18 inch thick (38-45 cm) steel reinforced concrete. We also have 5mm reinforced aluminum storm shutters. So we'll be fine... just likely hot, sweaty, and bored. 

Better News:

I've been working as normal on AW, though today in particular was busier than usual, and I have some prep work to do tomorrow and Monday. I created an automatic backward compatibility system for game saves, now that the data structure has stabilized the way I want it. It won't work with saves prior to 14.1, but from here on out it should let you play with old saves without too much issue, or having to manually click the link to the old backward compatibility tool. The new version is essentially automated, so doesn't depend on me writing in new code for each new release. It will basically just fill in any missing variables with default values, allowing you to play normally. 

I also started transitioning the character menu over to the passage-independent system. It looks a lot nicer this way, but is still a work-in progress. 

Note that the body image there is some placeholder art I made, and not permanent.

Also, going along with the new Omni System are some of the icons made by our mad Tsar Besty. They're pretty neat :D

Less "un" more "dead"

I mentioned in an earlier post that I seem to have tachycardia, and I have some more information about that. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and realize that it's time for me to make some changes. I've been working like crazy for the past year, honestly too much. It's so easy to get sucked into what you're working on when it's something that you're passionate about. But I suppose it's also surprisingly easy for that passion to cause you to veer towards obsession.

Just to be clear, I'm not giving up on AW or anything ridiculous like that. I'm just trying to do what's best for the game in the long-run.

So the tachycardia is a thing that has apparently been getting worse over the last year. It started off mild, but at each visit to the doctor in the last year my heart rate has been getting faster and faster. Those of you who also spend time on Discord may have read one of the times I talked about having a dizzy spell or tingling extremities. As it turns out, that's pretty typical for the type of tachycardia I have developed.  My resting heart rate is over 100 bpm for a good portion of the day, and I've seen it reach 155 (sitting, no less) during the last release period. My O2 sat was down at 82 at that point. 

With this sort of condition, part of your heart has "extra" beats, beating too fast. Usually this triggers the lower ventricles to beat as well, which is necessary for proper blood flow. If it starts happening too fast, however, the heart stops beating properly or in sync, and it becomes inefficient at pumping blood. This lowers the O2, and causes the symptoms I mentioned above. The dangerous part is that when your body isn't getting enough oxygen in the blood, it tells your heart to beat faster... this can start a runaway situation apparently.

As concerning as this condition is, it's apparently quite reversible. The cause in my case seems to be the effect of accumulated stress and fatigue. Basically, I've been literally working myself to death. So I should be fine as long as I stop doing that. I need to get more rest, spend more time relaxing, and work on stress reduction activities/techniques. My doctor wanted to know if I could quit working on the game, and I was like "not gonna happen" so we settled on some restrictions and plan of action.

Basically, it amounts to cutting back how much time I spend working on AW. So now I'm not allowed to work more than 10 hours in one day, including things like my day job. Usually I get about 7 hours of AW work in on a 9 hour shift, so that puts me at about 8 hours a day. I suppose the important thing is that if work goes to shit, I can't make up that lost time in the evening. I also have to take at least one day completely off per week with no work at all. The last thing is more practical, while I can participate in the discord tomfuckery and generally have fun outside of my "work hours", I'm not supposed to let myself get dragged in to answering questions, solving technical problems/bugs, etc. outside of those times.

So basically, I'm going to work on AW about 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. less if it's a busy day at work. That still adds up to 40+ hours per week, but it's a far cry from where I was at with 12 to 13 hours per day every day on AW. 

Because of the reduced time, I'll probably need to focus my efforts more. I've put together this survey to see where you stand on different aspects of development, and where your priorities are.

As always, thank you so much for your support!

ThaumX o7