Welcome to House Tardis
This website was created
Right now, the primary purpose is to support HTCS – the “House Tardis Combat System” / “House Tardis Crafting System” / “House Tardis Character System”
What’s all that then ?
HTCS is supposed to be :
In pushing for those goals, HTCS uses the following concepts:
Check out the HTCS User Guide
Project Status:
10/29/2011 -- HTCS 1.10 released to the wild. Bug fixes for 1.09, mostly. New menus reformatted to be easier to see and read, fixes to questing, and the "I updated and it wants me to update again" fixed. Issues with medical, the phantom injury, and the coordinate shout are fixed. Issue with /5SetStats fixed
"Shared Animation" is flaky, but workes for somet hings. For example, you can hug and kiss. Animations which involve one avi on top of another don't work right, so you still can't get your groove on... the animations happen , but the avi's don't line up. Still working on it.
There might still be an issue in some situations with "/5teach" . If you run into that, please drop me an IM, I'm trying to pin it down.
Drag works nicely... and I've discovered it to have a second RP/Fun purpose: when you and your sweety are dancing via a dance machine, you can do a "Fred & Ginger " across the dance floor .
8/15/2011 - been a long while since I updated this Nine Months. . HTCS 1.09 is struggling through the final stages of gestation.... It's been a rough nine months, lots of sickness and trouble RL. The HTCS theme song, though, is "Still Alive."
With 1.09, we see the introduction of a new menu system - hopefully more user friendly , with many of the /5 commands being moved to menu buttons. Salute to Jeanie Weston for the menu graphics.
Much coding to further implement "TaLa" behind the scenes - which is meaningless unless you know TaLa is "Tasking Language" , a sort of mini-scripting language that can be used to make quests, items, tools, new abilities and powers , etc without lots of changes to the meter. We can even make magic spells in it....
11/20/2010 : After much head-banging and testing, HTCS 1.06 has finally been released. If you have an older shovel or survey tool, please contact Baroun for replacement with new that works with the new resources. Resources and crafting are running well. The Forums have a blurb on Farming as well. And if you're really brave, "/5XBio,On" or "/5XBio,Off" control the Extended Biology features.....
8/22/2010: It's like the old days -- HTCS 1.05 released, and Scout Sunday run with class on using Survival Flag... at which point, the /5 Find command failed. Oops. Changes had been made to it to allow Flags other than Survival to find 'things', so if you've got an idea on usage, let me know. Follow-up release of 1.051 is now out and about. Sundry goodness for players - Vac (Vacuum, ie, space) damage is no longer as massively lethal. Some armor fixes, some weapon fixes. Best of all: Experience Point (XP) handler is now much cleaner, and is database driven which means it's much easier for the Dev Team to set up new skill flags, stat improvements,brags, etc that come from continued play. Also a mod for Crafting which will allow new things to be made based on the qualities of the material, rather than the material name. For example, if you're making a house, you could use wood or concrete blocks or metal panels, so long as the ingredient had the flag "Structural" . Base code in place to be able to create toxins to add to foods , so that's in progress.
7/15/2010: HTCS 1.04 released. Lot of new features between 1.00 and 1.04, please check out the User Guide for more info
1/1/2010: HTCS IS LIVE -V1.00 released to the wild at 12:30 PM Eastern time. Welcome to the future.
12/24/2009: It's a Christmas present for all the good folks out there... 0.996.
Bugs Addressed:
/5VALIDATE now returns not just that they're wearing the meter, but a code based on stats. You can check to see if the person who has just put on the meter actually set it up
Combat vs people who didn't set up stats should now work right. In the past, the damage handler crashed, and just never applied damage making them zombies.
/5 reset should now clear a Crusade/quest in progress so you can start over or do a different one
Armor is now tracked better , reducing the problem of logging in with armor on, the meter resetting to zero, taking armor off and having a negative armor
News reporting works better
Should keep wounds over a crash or logout
Damage tracking is a bit cleaner and easier on the poor victims
Crafting fixes and enhancements - there is now a boat-load of things that can be crafted. Note to self: next pass, add boat so that people have something to put crafted items in.
12/5/2009: 0.995 released.
Bugs addressed:
The incredibly annoying "Every time I breathe the *#&#@! thing is updating!" problem , where the meter doesn't realize you are wearing 0.994 and it shouldn't get a new 0.994 for you
"/5 Slay Firstname Lastname" should now work
"/5 Enslave" problem has been addressed , I think it's dealt with... if it doesn't work for you, please contact Baroun Tardis by IM , or email Baroun@HouseTardis.net
Crafting involving charcoal should work correctly now
Faction should be kept on meter reset
Change to damage computation to make arrows,bolts, thrown knives, and other projectiles less destructive.
GorFree flag now gives some additional defense benefit, since Goreans live in a high-combat environment
Changes to make /5do - /5stop - /5release work more cleanly
There's a pending known issue concerning folks trying to wear the meter at HUD/Center 2 ... it rotates and mutates the meter, and it's never quite itself again. I'm working on it.
12/3/2009: Over 150 users now!
Last night's medical talk went well, some good ideas came in that are being implemented.
Goodies for the doctors include "Stabilization Serum" for the folks in Gor, and "IV" for everyone.
The IV, once set up, will sit next to a patient and treat shock for 5 minutes until it goes dry. It needs to be set up by a Medical-3 or better, and is 'piggy backed' to the work the doctor is doing - it needs medical oversight to keep working, so to speak.
Both items still need some testing.
The vendor in the Marketplace at Kasra near the Tahari and the vendor in DeChau are still the best places to go hunt for HTCS products.
12/1/2009 : 0.993 is in produciton, will move to 0.994 soon. Major bug fix for 0.994 is "Boiled Eggs" - certain food items which are a transmutation rather than creation aren't edible.... such as boiling eggs.
Upcoming :
Faction Stipend - this is a tool for Faction Heads to pay HTCS-RP money to everyone in their Faction. If you're not factioned, you don't get paid.
Destroyable Buildings - Jeanie Weston is setting up some destroyable HTCS buildings for the Gor Setting. For the SciFi setting, I've got a pre-fab building and a weather station that are destroyable. The weather station is also a faction point source for scientific types.
Combat Armor: Chami's made some excellent Traveller combat armor, with laser rifle. This is now being folded into HTCS
Weapons: Beretta 9mm (left and right hand) , Walther PP, LAW rocket, Springfield '03, Assault Rifle, Cane, and Blade are in final test. I just need to set up a vendor. All provide for skill level increase and XP counting.
Event: HTCS Medical demo for Gor, Kasra Green Caste University, 5PM SLT Wed Dec 2
11/20/2009 : Put 0.992 into production last night. Count today shows:
Strongly suggest that ya'll "faction up" - if you'd like to start one, contact Baroun Tardis by IM or email Baroun@HouseTardis.net . The running rate for starting a new Faction is L$100 per Flag your Faction has. Faction Head can /5teach them to other folks, so for an investment of around L$1000 to L$2000 you can get your whole Faction set up with abilities. This is about a 10-30% increase in combat strength, up to a 5x increase in healing, plus communication and crafting advantages. This also puts you in the running for bonus Brags, Flags and goodies as Faction Scoring comes in.
Request for Sim Owners: Planning a new meter function called "/5where" which will list HTCS-Friendly sims. The intent is that the person can either do a "/5where" and get all sims, or do a "/5where (genre)" (where gor , where firefly ,where traveller, etc) and get a list of locations with SLURLs that allow teleporting. If you would be so kind as to drop me an email with your sim's name, genre, and SLURL, I'd appreciate it.
New features in 0.992:
HTCS money is in play now.
Hoping to have finished beta-ing the vendor, and then put them up for sale to the general gaming public.
Currently, there's a vendor in Kasra near the Tahari ,and another in Dechau
11/1/2009: Put 0.991 to production this evening. New features/fixes:
10/27/2009: Last night, 0.990 went into production. Bug fix for the "damage/heal/immortal" bug Allen found , but also enabled 5 extra mini-prims on the meter. These are "Head, Right hand, Left hand, Belt and Backpack" , and will link up with newer HTCS objects that are worn on that body part. For example, wear the 0.990 meter, then wear a "Snub Pistol 2.2" and the "Right hand" prim changes to "Draw Snub". Touch it, and your weapon is drawn,and the prim changes to a menu specific for that weapon (semi/auto/safe, ammo type, holster) . The intent is to move away from having bunches of draw commands and gestures and such.
10/9/2009: At 20:00 SLT (or so) , the quest was finished and tested, and I rolled out 0.982 early. Yay!
Comment from Allen Kerensky (one of the folks who's been helping out on this in a big way) after adding Info spots to the quest and re-testing: "(I) let some folks know that the quest was up and that I had delicious yummy bread and they did not"
HTCS bread clears all current Hunger points and wounds, and also acts as a small heal on other wounds.
10/8/2009 - Now up to 45 users. Thanks for your support!
Coming up for this weekend (hopefully) will be release 0.99. Main meter enhancements are to the "Crusade" functions, since they're tying into the Resource/Crafting and everything else is working fine.
There's now a 20,000 square meter area in the Weber sim that's becoming an HTCS play area. Plentiful resources : apple tree, wheat, corn, grapes, a well for water, and (in test) potato and carrot patches. By the end of this weekend, the new adventure/quest ("Crusade" is a big grandiose for this one) will (hopefully) be done: helping "Cookie", the guy in the cook shack, make bread. This'll give two Brags ("Baker" for demonstrating knowledge of how to bake, and "Bread" for the quest), plus have a bonus of your own Field Kitchen so you can cook on your own expeditions. As part of that, the grain mill behind the cook shack works.
There's a kitchen in the cook shack that works, and the galley in the Sierra starship (parked in Weber) is coded so that it turns on when you touch the stove. When on, it acts as a field kitchen, hot stove for cooking ("Burning " resource), water source, salt and spice rack. Any projects that need those resources are covered when working in the ship's galley.
In the House Tardis building (aft of the parked starship, with a solar panel bolted to the roof) is a NanoFac. You need to make sure it's powered up by touching it before using (it runs off the solar panel) , but when running, it acts as every known tool in HTCS plus "Burning" - so your serious crafting needs are covered.
Many of the above items are for sale -you can buy them right there. Prices are around L$50 to L$250 an item, not too outrageous. Perms are Mod/Copy/Notrans for purchased items. If you craft something, it'll be Mod/NoCopy/Trans (typically). For many things, damage is tracked, so the not being able to copy a crafted item is an issue if you think your deployment spot could get raided.
Allen Kerensky has started a line of HTCS blades, with various skill/flag/faction mixes, and has a shop in Weber and another in Kasra. Allen's also working on the NPC/AI and making some plants that are better looking.
The "10mm Snub Pistol" and "10mm Revolver" are coded and tested - I'll be putting up a vendor for them in Weber this week. Both are scripted for a full load in the weapon (20 rounds for the pistol , 6 for the revolver) plus two spare loads before you need to find an "Ammo Can" (or remove/re-attach) .
With something to shoot, you need targets - "Vulo"/"Chicken" are Alpha test, in Weber. There's two in a pen. Killing one gives a "Vulo Carcass" that can be cooked, or used to make stew, or sundry other things.
9/30/2009 - And, of course, a patch: 0.981. It shouldn't affect play, most of the time - it involves heat and cold and food and drink. One thing that should amuse : the Fairlight security drones do "heat" damage, which the meter tracks as a heat ray. You get thirsty if brushed with the beam, and burns if hit full on. A bit of serindipity found in play testing - somone rez'd the drones, they locked on to me and started shooting. Imagine my surprise when HTCS began describing wounds that I wasn't expecting to see. ....
As September closes, the combat aspects of the meter are pretty much done. October's goals are to crank out other devices that are fully HTCS enabled.
For example, in Alpha Test is the "Blade" - a Traveller weapon somewhere between a large dagger and a small short sword that's commonly used in shipboard fighting where you don't want to accidently put a bullet into a tank full of explosive fuel. The HTCS Blade is a fairly normal sword, a bit slow compared to some... but if you have 8 or more on Strength or Dex, or certain Flags , then the weapon becomes faster and reach increases. Similarly, if you have low stats or certain flags, the weapon gets worse. Ranged weapons - bows, guns and even energy weapons - are scripted and at the start of Alpha test.
Another biggy in October is to get the full set of Crafting tools built, tested, and in the hands of the users, along with enough resources to make them fun to play with.
9/29/2009 - 0.98 delayed. Sorry folks, family health and Real Life issues. Added "Drowning" if you're underwater too long, and of course the "Swim" flag to allow swimming. Also tested the new "Weathermaker" ,which will be available to folks with areas they want to run adventures in. The Weathermaker allows hot and cold weather - heatstroke, thirst, frostbite, chills, and hunger effects.
9/24/2009 - Going to bring out 0.98 this weekend. UPP load , fixed. Crafting done, tested, works. Major resource expansions. New Survey tool, new Shovels (low tech, less effective survey tools), new melee weapon. Changes to damage computation... all kinds of wonderfulness
9/9/2009: Lag issue in UPP loading. Works right 95% of the time, most people never notice. Added code to make it 100%. Will be part of 0.962, unless I push it off until 0.97 ... After a long conversation with Allen Kerensky, came up with a major expansion to the Crafting portion. This is coded, but untested. Will test, and if it works, produce an 0.97 release.
9/6/2009: Discovered error in Brag loading. Fixed with 0.961, today's release. I feel funny about a daily release, but in this case it was writing inappropriate entries to the Brags. HTCS is now on the high-speed footing.
9/5/2009 : Joelle Tardis kicked off the ball. HTCS 0.96's release went to "every sim owner I know" , and interest went through the roof
9/1/2009: Several changes
8/30/2009: An exciting week!
8/23/2009 : There's now an ATM in Splintered Rock for Imperial Credits.
8/22/2009 : HTCS Meter 0.95 is "in the wild". Additions include passed animations and moves, which leads to things like handcuffs, bungi jumping, rock climbing, the tether line back to the ship when EVA, magic spells that make people fall down, folks gasping and choking when you release nerve gas, being able to pick up and carry your injured buddy to safety, and all that good stuff.
HTCS crafting is chugging right along. I'm looking for people to help with the resource and crafting part - the scripts are done, and work nicely. I'm just swamped.
I got ahold of an open source for "TCS", the Terra Combat System . I'm considering adding the ability for HTCS to read TCS attacks. I've got concerns about weapons that do both kinds - I need to make sure the meter doesn't count the hit twice.
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8/19/2009 : Numerous adds last night, and they've led to some new thinking about resources and using them. In short, the new "wilderness survival" skill will allow you to work on resources without a Nanofac - you can knock a branch down from a tree, kick it to where you want it, and then use it to build a camp fire, or break it up and make a lean-to for shelter. You can take the hide from a dead animal and make a tent, or use cloth to do so. Currently adding the ability to cook meat or plants over the camp fire, and to build fires from surveyed chemicals such as petrochem. Still need to add animations for some of those actions.
Also, Trader Brawling was added (untested) , along with hooks to add other (future) martial arts.
Testing on the "Health Club" is going apace - still need to spend time building some better looking equipment for it.
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8/17/2009: Spent yesterday doing much coding and testing. HTCS Meter V0.93 is now "in the wild", with a large number of new features. "Make UPP" is now fully integrated into the HUD rather than a rez'd box. Brags work nicely, as do the Flag. The commands "/5 teach" and "/5 invite" work. Thirst tracking is now tested, and works in the desert in Splintered Rock. You can get an "Imperial Crown Cola" from the vendor and 'DESTROY THE THIRST' . "/5 drink" looks for local (Linden) water, or hits HTCS water (ie, use survey tool to find water, collect, drink)
Also spent last night coding the new "Safe (HTCS)" and "Safecracker (HTCS)" which is a method of hiding clues or prizes for role-play events. You can put the item in the Safe, which generates a random 4 digit combination. Wear the Safecracker HUD and then guess at the combo with "/4 1234"... the HUD lights up green lights for each correct digit in the correct spot, yellow for correct in the wrong spot, and red for digits which aren't in the combo. When you get all the digits, it pops a menu and offers what's in the safe.
First attempts at "HTCS Health Club" - these will be various items such as weight machine, excercise bike, dojo mat (for doing kata). They'll allow you to work out once per day in that catagory. When the number of daily workouts set for that item is reached, you'll get a one point boost on the relevant stat. (Ex: 14 days on the weight machine gives +1 strength). Script worked fine, but the build/animations stink to high heaven...
Still need to expand the martial arts modes - Trader, Brawler, etc.
Need to add some more flags for other factions.
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8/12/2009 : Changes made, will upload to SL tonight and test.
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8/11/2009 : HTCS Meter 0.9 was given to selected alpha testers. Damage, Healing work. "Make UPP" enhanced and installed in the HUD so that if you don't have a UPP, it rez's the maker and you can set up. Faction head devices built for some factions, tested. "Broken Wings" quest modified to give a 'Brag' when completed. Very few remaining issues before releasing upon an unsuspecting populace.
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8/9/2009: "Make UPP" device built. This allows the player to set their stats, and update the database. At the moment, this is slightly useless , since the HUD/Game Play device doesn't yet read the database. Watch for the "HTCS Meter 0.9" in the next week or so