Going into the document. Also, why is the text on here white-on-black when I copy paste!?! WHY MUST YOU MAKE THIS TAKE SO LONG!?! Also, this list is gonna be huge, isn't it?
The guy just above you, and he apparently helped Vebyast get this off the ground. Also a guy I know IRL who was the one who invited me to the site. Hence why I'm so quick to poke fun at him.
I will neither confirm nor deny any guesses as to his species, or whether or not that species is spacefaring.
Oh, I just used 'paste and match style'. I'm not actually using Word, I'm using a really primative program that works well for making files that pretty much any computer can open. Still takes longer than control-C, control-V.
Oh, I just used 'paste and match style'. I'm not actually using Word, I'm using a really primative program that works well for making files that pretty much any computer can open. Still takes longer than control-C, control-V.
Shift-Control-V is the keyboard shortcut for "paste without formatting". It'll lose you italics, bolds, underlines, and the like, but it'll also get rid of the black background.
[X][Update Action] You don't know. You're at your job, nothing is going on, and then you're waking up out in a field.
-[X][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[X][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead.
Is voting still up? Hope so.
Came here from the Social Advice quest, and gotta say, even with my practically nonexistent exposure to Worm, it's still a great story and quest.
Also, throwing my vote for 'Test Guild Please Ignore'. Except, change 'Please Ignore' to 'pls ign0r3' and I'm good.
[x][Update Action] You don't know. You're at your job, nothing is going on, and then you're waking up out in a field.
-[x][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[x][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead. No. of Votes: 16
[X][Update Action] "Yes, but I'm Canadian. Seriously, though..."
[x][Update Action] You don't know. You're at your job, nothing is going on, and then you're waking up out in a field.
-[x][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[x][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead. No. of Votes: 10
[X][Update Action] You don't know. You're at your job, nothing is going on, and then you're waking up out in a field.
[X][Update Action] You're not saying it was aliens, but... <Image> It was aliens. <Image> No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] Let's just say that drunk you is kind of a wizard and you're not going to try to find out.
--[X][Update Action] Myrddin did send you a package... right? No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You're not saying it was aliens, but... <Image> It was aliens. <Image>
-[x][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[x][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You won it.
-[X][Update Action] By clicking on one of those "you're the ten-millionth visitor! claim your prize!" ads. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You're not saying it was wizards, but... Let's just say that drunk you is kind of a wizard and you're not going to try to find out. No. of Votes: 1
[x][Update Action] You don't know. You're at your job, nothing is going on, and then you're waking up out in a field.
-[x][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[x][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead. No. of Votes: 26
[X][Update Action] Let's just say that drunk you is kind of a wizard and you're not going to try to find out.
--[X][Update Action] Myrddin did send you a package... right? No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You're not saying it was aliens, but... <Image> It was aliens. <Image>
-[x][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[x][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You won it.
-[X][Update Action] By clicking on one of those "you're the ten-millionth visitor! claim your prize!" ads. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You're not saying it was wizards, but... Let's just say that drunk you is kind of a wizard and you're not going to try to find out. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] You're not saying it was wizards, but... Let's just say that drunk you is kind of a wizard and you're not going to try to find out. No. of Votes: 1
[x][Update Action] You don't know. You're at your job, nothing is going on, and then you're waking up out in a field.
-[x][Update Action] Head to an area where you're less likely to be overheard, if possible.
--[x][Update Action] Or just ask Yui if there's some sort of a private chat system you could use; if there is, use that instead.
You think for a few seconds, trying to decide what to tell her. You did come here to find a player that could show you how to log out, and for anything else you'd have to come up with an excuse. Which you could do, but the situation is simple enough that inconsistencies would appear eventually. And that's assuming that this isn't some kind of trap, a thought you've been quietly suppressing since you got here; if this game is a trap, it's so far beyond you that fighting it would be simple defiance. You sigh quietly.
Yui's comical flailing slows and stops, presumably as she notices your visible loss of cheer.
"Is there a PM function here? Or somewhere a little bit more private we could go? I'm pretty sure these are all NPCs, but..."
You trail off and give her a slightly sideways look. Her face screws up in thought for the couple seconds it takes her to respond.
"Typing at each other would be weird. People don't leave the square often, though, so one of the side streets will work!"
She reaches out and hits a "close" button on her status page, an action that you imitate, and hops off the bench. She waits for you to get up before walking off toward the nearest corner.
You have some time to review as you follow. The most likely explanation is that someone has gotten their hands on one of your backups and hosted it on their own hardware. That unfortunately doesn't tell you much. They could have obtained a backup at any time and it could have taken them any amount of time to figure out how to run it. Judging by the lack of a quarantine period when you started up, they defeated at least some of your safeguards, likely including the ones preventing parallel instances.
In other words, if you're unlucky: you're a fork running from a backup, and the outside world has no way to know you exist other than the intrusion to acquire the backup.
You turn the corner, dodging another NPC in the process, and keep following Yui until she reaches the next intersection, at which point she stops, turns back to you, and smiles.
"Okay!"
You pause momentarily, and speak quietly.
"I don't know how I got the... nerve gear?"
Yui immediately adopts a look of questioning disbelief.
"I don't even know how I'm in this game. Or what it is."
Her disbelief is joined by an 'are you kidding me' look as you continue.
"I woke up in a field out there with no memories or knowledge regarding this game or the hardware or process of logging into it. As far as I'm concerned, I was at work with nothing going on and then I'm waking up in a field. I have some hypotheses about how this might have happened, but none of them are good."
Yui is, by now, flabbergasted.
"To make a long story short: I need to know how to log out. It's in one of these menus?"
It takes Yui a couple seconds to process your story. You can tell when she gets to the end because her disbelief is replaced by dismay and maybe slight panic.
"Ummmm. Yes. But apparently it's turned off right now and nobody can log out it's launch day andpeoplethinkitsapublicitystuntoreventorsomething...."
You, meanwhile, are quietly upgrading your worries. You'd told the truth when you said that none of your ideas had very good implications, and many of the less horrifying possibilities have just been eliminated. At this point your multifarious hypotheses boil down to "future-you has a horrible sense of humor", "impossible supervillain trap", "secret test of character from your maker", "you spontaneously developed sleep and dreaming", and "magic".
You hope it's not magic. Parahumans are bad enough.
You turn back to Yui and try to get her calmed down.
"Yui."
She focuses on you. That worked, at least.
"Do you know how to get moderator or administrator attention? Anything would work, even a bug-report function or something to tattle on abusive players."
"Um. Bugs don't happen. You report players by just talking to Cardinal. It runs the game. Ummm..."
She turns to empty air again, like she did when she was about to open her inventory, and fidgets like she doesn't know what to do with her hands. She raises her voice just a little bit when she speaks. Meanwhile, you're trying to figure out what Cardinal is.
"Cardinal? Dragon needs to log out. Like, she really really needs to."
Nothing happens.
Yui rapidly grows worried as the seconds pass.
"Cardinal? Can you hear me?"
Meanwhile, you've just had a horrible thought. "Yui, what's Cardinal?"
You can hear the urgency in your voice. Yui seems to be able to hear it too, since she answers immediately, though she's still clearly worried about Cardinal not responding.
"Cardinal is the AI that builds and runs everything in game."
...
"All the details, all the quests, all the..."
This has to be some kind of sick joke.
For a fraction of a second you harbor a desperate hope that you can tell her your secret. She seems to be completely at ease with the idea of an AI running the game. Whoever's running this already knows, they had to have to attach you. But, no, she could still tell someone else, things could be different outside, it could be some kind of crazy trap, if it really is a game they could have laws or rules that you'd be forced to follow that'd restrict you even further or worse and you don't want to prompt anybody to tell you about them, it's still too dangerous—
"Dragon?"
Yui's concerned voice breaks into your private debate and you realize that you'd frozen momentarily. You try to recover and mostly succeed.
"Don- Don't mind me. I was wondering how everything got here. There's so much detail. That explains it."
It does explain much of it, you realize. If your maker had just trusted you and you'd been unrestricted, creating the detail in this simulation would be easy. It doesn't explain how you'd been hooked up to the game, how the presumable virtual-reality element works, how that AI would have been created, or anything else, but it explains the sheer quantity of content.
Yui nods.
"Yep! Cardinal is the best."
Her enthusiasm fades back into worry as she continues.
"I don't know why it's not listening, though. It always listened during the beta..."
You're not sure what to do now. If this really is just a game, you should be able to log out once that event happens. Maybe you could just... not worry about it and hope?
[][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[][Update Action] If she's worried about your real body, you seem to be doing okay so far, so you're probably fine.
-[][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[][Update Action] There are shops. Go shopping.
-[][Update Action] It's a game. Go kill something.
-[][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[][Update Action] Invite Yui to come with you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help?
[][Update Action] Nope! Panic.
[][Update Action] Keep trying to get a response from Cardinal
-[][Update Action] There's no such thing as bug-free code.
--[][Update Action] Try to hack in.
--[][Update Action] Try to crash the game.
-[][Update Action] Physics simulations are hard. Maybe it'll pay attention if you fall through the floor.
-[][Update Action] Try to get permabanned.
That's as honest as she can be. Also, shouldn't she note with some worry that her avatar has her cape name on it? She is kind of famous as the world's number one tinker. There's a reason she uses pseudonyms for moderating PHO.
Dragon has bigger things to care about right now, and she hasn't yet realized that she may be in here for more than fifteen minutes and may have to deal with cape groupies.
It's also worth noting that, IIRC, Dragon uses aliases to moderate PHO not because she doesn't like the fans, but more because her moderation of PHO is largely abusable and a significant conflict of interest.
We can consider doing something about it spam if it becomes a problem. Until then, I'd quite appreciate it if our thread could be nice and welcoming and happy. Dunno how I'm going to keep that under control if – when? – we get holy wars, but we can deal with it then.
@Kaizuki, welcome to the thread. Good to see you around.
EDIT: In all seriousness, see also: my signature. I know pretty much nothing about most things and I expect many of the things I do know to be revealed in the next few posts.
I'll confirm this. Alivaril's help was almost entirely with high-level stuff, most of which has already been revealed or will be revealed quickly. He was clear from the beginning that he still wanted to participate in the quest as a player and I did my best to hold back everything that'd actually be useful. For example, while he helped a lot figuring out the goals and requirements for and high-level design decisions behind the skill system, the last update was the first time he'd seen the actual tree for the Golem Construction skill.
(I'd like to take the opportunity to thank him for the help, while I'm at it. This quest is far better than it would have been had he not been involved.)
On the other hand, this version of SAO seems to be a little different from the original. I suspect Vebyast has modified enough to things to make it interesting.
I don't know if there are, but Dragon could bring memes from Worm into SAO.
Boom. New memes for the meme economy. She suddenly becomes the next big meme investor.
[][Update Action] Keep trying to get a response from Cardinal
-[][Update Action] There's no such thing as bug-free code.
--[][Update Action] Try to hack in.
--[][Update Action] Try to crash the game.
-[][Update Action] Physics simulations are hard. Maybe it'll pay attention if you fall through the floor.
-[][Update Action] Try to get permabanned.
Nope. All the nopes. A quite real possibility is that this is a supervillain trap and thus the possible worst thing we can do is attract this kind of attention.
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[X][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[X][Update Action] Invite Yui to come with you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help?
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[X][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[X][Update Action] Invite Yui to come with you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help?
Now what to vote for... I more or less like the all of them except the outright "Panic" vote, so that leaves reassuring Yui and being patient, setting the problems aside and making friends, or attracting the attention of a potential rogue A.I. with no restrictions.
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[X][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[X][Update Action] Invite Yui to come with you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help
--[X][Update Action] Ask her if there's anything she recommends.
Truly this will be the best plan to which none shall compare:
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Explain to Yui that AIs aren't real, and are nothing more than the impossible dreams proposed by unrealistic sci-fi. As such, there is no way Cardinal could be an AI, and it must really be some guy sitting at a terminal. The lack of a response probably just means he's out to lunch or getting coffee or some such. Everything will be fine once he gets back.
--[X][Update Action] Having no doubt successfully reassured Yui, while at the same time throwing her and anyone else listening off the trail of finding out your real nature due to your flawless deception, take a moment to bask in success, then panic internally.
---[X][Update Action] No wait, panicking is stupid. Everything is probably fine. Instead just take things in stride and use the situation to experience life with a body. I mean food, am I right? After all, what could possibly go wrong?
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] There's no such thing as bug-free code.
-[X][Update Action] File a bug report about the lack of bug reports. Maybe find some other kind of feedback form to submit? Seriously, you don't care if this game is run by the best AI in all of existence, this just seems arrogant beyond belief. Nothing ever works perfectly on the first time, and even if Cardinal catches bugs and fixes them on the fly, why would you trust it to catch every single bug on its own, but not let it look at user-submitted issues? Actually, screening user feedback and running them through Cardinal would probably be an excellent way to develop game balance, now that you think about it, and - [tinker rambling intensifies]
...I'm not sorry.
EDIT: Well, I am sorry about my grammar, but I'm not fixing it. For tally purposes. That way lies madness.
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[X][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[X][Update Action] Invite Yui to comewith you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help
--[X][Update Action] Ask her if there'sanything she recommends.
I was going to say 'play around with fizzicks and fall through the floor', but...
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] There's no such thing as bug-free code.
-[X][Update Action] File a bug report about the lack of bug reports. Maybe find some other kind of feedback form to submit? Seriously, you don't care if this game is run by the best AI in all of existence, this just seems arrogant beyond belief. Nothing ever works perfectly on the first time, and even if Cardinal catches bugs and fixes them on the fly, why would you trust it to catch every single bug on its own, but not let it look at user-submitted issues? Actually, screening user feedback and running them through Cardinal would probably be an excellent way to develop game balance, now that you think about it, and - [tinker rambling intensifies]
...
Most people in Worm and many fictional scientists: Magic's not real, it's just *mumble mumble grumble mumble* understanding *mumble grumble* physics *grumble* grapefruit!
Worm's Sapient bound seed ai and several of the more open-minded fictional scientists(like the Federation's): Oh please don't let this be magic, I'm dealing with enough weird shit already...
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[X][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[X][Update Action] Invite Yui to come with you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help?
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] You might as well enjoy the game - and your new body - while it lasts.
-[X][Update Action] Find food. You'd always wondered…
-[X][Update Action] Invite Yui to come with you. You're not sure you know enough about the situation to reassure her, but maybe a distraction would help?
[X][Update Action] There's no such thing as bug-free code.
-[X][Update Action] File a bug report about the lack of bug reports. Maybe find some other kind of feedback form to submit? Seriously, you don't care if this game is run by the best AI in all of existence, this just seems arrogant beyond belief. Nothing ever works perfectly on the first time, and even if Cardinal catches bugs and fixes them on the fly, why would you trust it to catch every single bug on its own, but not let it look at user-submitted issues? Actually, screening user feedback and running them through Cardinal would probably be an excellent way to develop game balance, now that you think about it, and - [tinker rambling intensifies]
[X][Update Action] Try to reassure Yui.
-[X][Update Action] Maybe you'll just wait until that event and you'll be able to log out after that?
[X][Update Action] There's no such thing as bug-free code.
-[X][Update Action] File a bug report about the lack of bug reports. Maybe find some other kind of feedback form to submit? Seriously, you don't care if this game is run by the best AI in all of existence, this just seems arrogant beyond belief. Nothing ever works perfectly on the first time, and even if Cardinal catches bugs and fixes them on the fly, why would you trust it to catch every single bug on its own, but not let it look at user-submitted issues? Actually, screening user feedback and running them through Cardinal would probably be an excellent way to develop game balance, now that you think about it, and - [tinker rambling intensifies]
