#bigbadupdate

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSim/

Big Bad Update on Main!!! (Which means NPC Update is finally done!!!)

Guys! Guys! Guys!!! We did it!!! We have 13 (arc number secured) big bads in the system causing all sorts of chaos, the carapaces have been thoroughly fleshed out, and a SHIT TON of bugs (especially in AB) have been squashed thoroughly unless their improv comedy routine is on point.

I know this update took way longer than the rest of 'em, and part of that was IRL shit sure, but this is also the most ambitious update yet and I am so super fucking proud of it.

BTW big bads spawn in response to specific events in sessions (such as being grim dark and having access to dutton items), so have fun trying to figure out how to find them all ;) ;) ;)

Next Steps

First up is the fact that the Big Bad Update represents the final major update (which was kinda planned cuz Big Bads are the finale, right?). Nearly every remaining feature can be implemented via the shiny new AI ENGINE, barring gnosis for new fanon classpects.Which leads us to

THE FUTURE

. Basically, I've been working full time on Farrago (mostly SBURBSim) for a year and a half now and its finally time to jorb again. Gotta get my sweet, sweet capitalism on. But you guys do not even KNOW how fun working on all this has been, and I am definitely going to keep doing this as a hobby. SO, my focus going forward is going to be equally divided between:

processing new content for

DollSim

adding more canon big badsworking on SBURBSim's EpilogueFleshing out this

spooky thing

Breaking them down, processing doll uploads takes like...half a day? That's going to represent a much bigger chunk of my work when I'm only working on weekends or before bed going forward. You all are such talented artists though, its amazing how many doll parts you create!

At the same time, the Big Bad Update is hella extendable and adding new Big Bads to the system doesn't even really need a full deploy. Me and Shogun plan on sprinkling some in throughout to really flesh out Paradox Space.

Meanwhile the FINAL FEATURE of SBURBSim will be the ModUpdate. I already have a proof of concept thrown together, but the goal is for people to be able to completely customize a session, right down to adding or removing carapaces from it. Customizing players will REALLY get hard core in terms of setting sprite and quirk and land and even their AI. And yes, plenty of extra fanon classpects will be added. AND as a final feature, the Rendering Update will finally integrate with doll code (assuming it turns out to be feasible once initial tests go through).

Basically there is just something really satisfying about SBURBSim's Epilogue being a celebration of all the great ideas and work you all have done these past nearly two years. ModUpdate will be MUCH smaller of an update, but not working on it full time means it'll be out when its out.(I wonder if SBURBSim's epilogue will be out before Homestuck's???)

And finally gee I wonder what that spooky thing is and how it relates to

The Land of Horticulture and Essence???

Hell yes this is the kind of ask I can get behind :) :) :)The Big Bad system is centered around a simple form that’s I tried to make easy to use despite the complexity. (It will be heavily featured in SBURBSim’s Epilogue). 

Basically you spawn an entity, and then add individual AI modules to control when the Big Bad will spawn in a session (such as “a grim dark player has a dutton item” or, “the session ID is this specific number”), and what the Big Bad does inside a session (which can add text to the screen, too).  

You can even see that the module has a datastring (just like a doll), and the entire big bad does, too.

So looking at those two screen shots, its an AI module set in the “summon” slot, that displays a little text blurb (with some scripting) , and triggers when there is at least one target that Is Alive, is picked Randomly (some some of the living will be ignored), and has an Ironic item in their sylladex or specibus.  When the module is activated, it instantly kills the target.

Here it is in the sim: 

The AI Engine is officially complete! Between IRL shit and how fucking ambitious it was it took 5 months, but here we are! Next up is starting to seriously focus on the final big bads, including the three contest winners:

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle.html?target=Zingo_The_Clown http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle.html?target=Duthulhu

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle.html?target=The_Cone

The goal is to get them an a handful of Shogun designed Big Bads in, then to swing back around to stabilize AB (she has a memory leak or some shit and crashes browsers after too long) and do a general stability pass.   If everything goes right (and there is no more huge irl shit flare ups) we might have the Big Bad Update out before halloween! This is EXTRA good because spookoween is when Dead Sessions came out and it just seems thematically appropriate. 

Winners are The Cone: 

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle.html?target=The_Cone

Duthuhhu: 

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle.html?target=Duthulhu

and 

Zingo the Clown

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle.html?target=Zingo_The_Clown

Look for the winners in a SBURBSim session soon!

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/BigBadBattle

Wow there’s a shit ton of entrants in there. I feel too lazy to even make a script to count it for me. I even have all of them with JR Comments on how feasible a given Big Bad would be to code.

I expect to collaborate with @peak-of-villainy  (who is obviously taking point with Big Bads) to whittle shit down to finalists, and then let the discord vote on which final 3 should make it into the sim (along with any and all other Big Bads I add in). 

http://farragofiction.com/SBURBSimE/index2.html?seed=612 Just like Lord English, she’ll be in rare sessions as well as this canon one.

Those aware of particularly canon sessions might notice a new big bad in town.

He hijacks the narrative to speak in first person and just kinda ruins everything for everyone. He’ll show up in session 1025, as well as the rare natural session as well. (protip, he especially likes multiples of 1025)

Hey peeps, just wanted to touch base with those of you not on the Discord and also not following along at home on the Experimental Branch: I’d say the Big Bad Update is 75% done. 

We have a huge AI Engine, designed to make pumping out Big Bads as easy as possible as well as fleshing out the carapaces.

ShogunBot is successfully talking with AB and letting Observers find their favorite BigBads.

And AB has been sped up like fuck after I finally realized there were hundreds of Carapace Royalty running around for some damn reason.

Remaining Tasks:

* In refactoring the Sim to make AB more stable, I accidentally made her forget what combo sessions are. I need to work on that.

* The AI Engine still needs to have the ability to spawn a minion, as well as to set the Big Bad’s initial stats and inventory. 

* Big Bads need to be spawned and polished, including the ones that resulted form Contest Winners. 

* The entire system needs a once over to make sure there’s no glaring bugs or balance issues. 

Once the Big Bad Update is Live on Main, I’ll work on quickly polishing up the Session Customizer, which allows you to give your ocs items, fraymotifs, customize parts of their land and sprite, as well as giving AI to them and the carapaces.

End goal for the session customizer is for people to be able to share text files of their custom sessions, as well as having those sessions stored in local storage just like WigglerSim saves. 

And of course, after that I’m dedicated to getting the rendering update finally out so we can actually use dolls in SBURBSim.

Now, to address the Elephant in the room, I can’t actually estimate how long all of this will take. IRL Shit remains a thing, and the stress from all that makes working on a project as big as SBURBSim difficult.  When I took my Hiatus a few months ago its because every minute spent on SBURBSim was breaking it worse and worse instead of fixing anything. That’s why I switched over the Land of Horticulture and Essence instead, to clear my head. When I returned to SBURBSim, shit that was impossible before has been going pretty quickly.