I’ve been working on this encounter-based version of Le Morte D’Arthur for about a year now, but have not bothered to write any design diaries, because I was in an exploratory mode. I suppose that I should have kept some diary entries, but I was always too enmeshed in too many projects to spare the time.
I spent most of my time during the first three months reading up on sixth-century Britain, the Romano-Celtic people, the Saxons, and all the rest of Europe during this time. I wanted to communicate the feel of those times to an audience with overly romantic notions of what were truly ugly, desperate times.
I also spent a lot of time just writing encounters whenever an idea came. But I had to take long breaks as I tried to help others learn the technology, by teaching my course on process versus object and programming Wumpus. But I am moving those tasks to lower priority; top priority is now LMD4.
I have already written about 150 encounters. I realize now that I need a way to organize them so as to be able to plan. I have therefore grouped them by temporal sequence. In the process, I have abandoned the notion of semi-randomly skipping through them so as to provide enhanced replayability. Now they will simply move in direct sequence.
Here is the current Encounter List:
1 Intro1
2 Intro2
3 Intro3
4 Intro4
6 MerlinStands
10 RainyDay
12 ToArmorica
13 Chuckball
14 MerlinPlague
15 RideWithGuenevere
16 WaterWheel
17 SagramoreBeatsBoy
18 Yanikk
19 BuriedCoins
20 VisitSagramore
21 SiarlisIsAngry
22 Wedding
23 Excalibur
24 AgriculturalPlanning
25 BattleOfCotyaeum
26 RepairingTheRoof
27 GueneveresBath
28 IntroToBrennus
30 15thAnniversary
31 TheGreek1
32 TheGreek2
33 TheGreek3
34 TheGreek4
37 MerlinStars
38 BloodyTunicle
39 Coquette
41 MordredWeaving
42 BrennusCrying
43 Londinium
44 Falcata
45 Beltane
46 Beach
47 BrennusPesters
48 Clovis
50 HorseKillsBoy
51 NeifionTheBard
52 NeifionsFirstTale
53 NeifionsSecondTale
54 NefionsThirdTale
55 NeifionsFourthTale
56 Latrine
57 RiannonAndBrennus
58 Invictus
59 ToorchTruith
61 NarinaDies
62 MaredAndMyghal
63 WineMerchant
64 ColdNight
65 Judgement
66 MealtimeSagramore
67 GuenevereSex
68 RiannonAndBrennus2
69 GalahadInterceptsRaiders
72 Cutana
77 CompromisedAttack
78 FailedAttack
79 WaitingForKay
81 KayArrivesLate
82 ArriveHomeAfterAborting
83 WaitTooLong
84 LateAttack
85 ArriveHomeAfterMildSuccess
86 MildSuccess
87 TheAttack
88 CounterAttack
89 ArriveHomeAfterFailure
90 Constantinople
91 Ard
91 FinishHim
92 PrisonerTrouble
93 SaxonRaid1
94 HorseDumpsArthur
95 DikeWorkers
96 BlessTheBaby
96 TwoLovers
97 HorseRace
100 SummerSolstice
102 EiraVersusFfleur
104 TristramsCriminal
106 TheAppleThief
108 AsleepOnTheWatch
110 FoolSlugsArthur
111 JudgingTheAttacker
114 Uptar1
116 Uptar2
118 Uptar3
140 MordredInsubordination
142 MordredNoTaxes
144 MordredExecutesTrespasser
146 MordredBadmouthsArthur
152 War?Council
160 LancelotVisits
178 War!Council
180 ReconnaissanceResults
201 Gawaine1
202 Gawaine2
203 Gawaine3
211 Kay1
212 Kaye2
213 Kaye3
214 Kaye4
215 Kaye5
216 Kaye6
217 Kaye7
221 Bors1
222 Bors2
223 Bors3
224 Bors4
225 Bors5
231 Galahad1
232 Galahad2
233 Galahad3
234 Galahad4
271 Tristram1
272 Tristram2
273 Tristram3
274 Tristram4
275 Tristram5
276 Tristram6
277 Tristram7
278 Tristram8
301 ShowdownBattle1
302 ShowdownBattle2
303 ShowdownBattle3
306 ShowdownBattleRightFeint
308 LeftFlankFailure
310 ObservingBattleGalahad
312 ObservingBattleSagramore
314 ObservingBattleGawain
318 ObservingBattleTristram
320 ObservingBattleKaye
322 ObservingBattleMordred
331 BattleGalahad1
341 BattleLancelot1
342 BattleLancelot2
343 BattleLancelot3
344 BattleLancelot4
345 BattleLancelot5
369 BattleAftermath
370 BodyCounts
499 Long Walk Down A Short Spear
These are roughly arranged in the degree of dramatic importance attached to each one. However, this is only a hand-waving guess; the next step is to formalize this by calculating the sum of the modifying values for the pValues in the antagonist’s reaction to the option. Before I can do that, however, I must first enter all of those values. I have already done so for a few, but now I must do it for all of them. Once I have accomplished that, I can build a sort into the program that will sort them by dramatic import. Dramatic import should be concomitant with the sequence number.