itch.io

Hey, this is the new forum for Lisien.

I can answer any questions you may have here.

Nah, that preview build was terrible. Just use the new release.

I don't want to make a new release quite yet, because I'm waiting for some dependencies to update...but, this preview build might make your sims run faster. Worth a try.

uh. I forgot to add the new dependency to the Android version. oops.

try it again now...

Here it is!

I have some ideas for a Ren'py-like subset of the Kv language that a lot of Elide is written in... do you have any particular Ren'py features you'd like?

Oh, those instructions don't help very much on Android, do they.

Because the @engine.method store isn't editable in Elide.

I guess I know what I'm working on next!

The design of the rules engine was influenced by Ren'py's Dating Sim Engine. At the moment, if you want to make a Ren'py game with sim elements, that's probably a better option, since it's been used in games that are still sold on Steam. I haven't used it myself, though.

Here's how to add choices for the player to pick from in Elide.

It turns out this release also breaks some basic functionality of Elide, like creating places. I'm working on it, as well as tests to prevent it from happening again.

I make the Life Simulator Engine. It's not just for tabletop, but I think it might be useful to game masters who want to simulate something that's a little much to do with dice. Take mass combat, for instance; sure, there are many systems that let you abstract that, but suppose you don't want to, and would like to game out exactly what everyone's doing on the field until the moment the players decide how their characters act. Then, input that as a change to the simulation...and set it back to simulating on its own.

That's a lot of work, though, and I'd like to get something done in time for this jam. So I'll be adding features that make it more convenient to use Lisien in tandem with a tabletop system, not as a virtual tabletop per se, but a database for the game master to use in tracking the game state, and which can take over procedural elements if the GM wants. I may even be able to save them having to write actual code, if I know enough about what they'll need.

I happen to be interested in the game Reign, so I think I'll make a One-Roll Engine die roller for Lisien, and then try using it to automate some smallish political feud from the examples in those books. It could run between sessions, and set up the plot for the next one. But, if you're a game master, and you think Lisien could help you run your game, tell me how, and I'll see what I can do.

The instructions say to click the Download link, but there isn't one. Only "Run game".

If you mean for me to run the game and then press Ctrl+S, please write that instead.

Ok, here's a build I've observed to import a game, quit out of it, and then load it again https://clayote.itch.io/lisien/devlog/1024426/v0218-no-really-fix-importer

Now the regular "Load game" function is broken. aaaaa

It kind of looks like I had it working last night and then threw away my own fixes by accident. Try this one (removed)

ugh, it's happening for me too, now.

Nothing I've changed should've had an effect on importing from older versions.

I'll get to debugging...

Did you download from MEGA or itch? There was another sorta last minute fix in the itch release

Anyway, please upload your logs somewhere. I'm very confused.

https://bpa.st/ works fine

I think this will fix imports https://clayote.itch.io/lisien/devlog/1023430/v0217-fix-importer

Ok, I've found an issue where sometimes "importing" just starts a new game. Is that a problem you're having?

Can you send me your logs? That's the `elide` directory on your SD card.

Thank you very much. I'm glad you like it, and eager to play whatever you and your dad come up with.

Released the fix later than I'd like because of an unrelated issue.

Would you like to keep in touch over some other medium? You're my second actual user ever, and I'd like to support you however I can.

And, I gotta do another release same-day, because the New Game button broke again. I need more tests for the frontend.

Real release coming in a few hours, preview here: (removed)

Released!

Right, so, I went to write the new features for reordering rules and rulebooks in the Elide frontend, and hit a super critical issue importing games that demands a bugfix release...but I also got buttons to reorder the rules working, so I may as well add those too. The real release will be in 4-6 hours because my tests are slow, but for you, a preview build: (removed)

Ok, so, "the backend" is the `lisien` module for Python. Pretty soon it'll be running in like a web server or something, but I've put it in the same process as Elide, the Android app you're using, for now. And that backend already has the feature you want, so the next update only requires me to write code for the buttons and stuff...not necessarily trivial to do, but it doesn't require any major changes to the data model or the overall design. So like, give me a week or so and I'll have a new release out with that feature and at least a log viewer.

There is a feature in the backend that lets you change the priority of rules. I just haven't exposed it in the frontend yet. Since it turns out you need it, I'll work on it.

Ah, I did write some examples, but they're not in the Android build! Silly me.

Here, this is a zip file containing a variant sim of the Parable of the Polygons example from the README:

(removed. these are on Lisien's main itch page now)

Here's another zipped sim demonstrating pathfinding and some really basic user input:

(removed)

You should be able to use the "Import game" button to load these into Elide on Android. Let me know if anything weird happens, and do try to get the elide directory full of log files zipped and uploaded somewhere I can get it.

Huh. It broke for me, too. Weird, I swear it was working at the time of the last release.

Please let me know if this version works for you: (deleted, because of the v0.21.3 release)

If it doesn't, please look in your file manager for a folder named "elide" full of log files and send them to me.

Are you running it on Android, or desktop?

Sorry, the Android build isn't working. I'm working on it...

Overwritten & Intricate Character Backstory TTRPGs:

• Universalis totally eliminates the distinction between player and game master. You use irl coins to buy authorship over plot elements as you want to write those particular ones, and let the other players deal with the rest. There's a "scenes" mechanic, in case you want to actually play a role, but you shouldn't feel obliged.
• Reign has a single game master, for mostly traditional tabletop roleplaying, but has a whole extra system for statting out political groups that your characters may lead, be part of, or negotiate with. So if a player wants to gain advantage in Reign, they're best served by a backstory that ties them into some such groups, so they can convince the GM that they can call in the right favors...or armies. The "Company" rules are deliberately loosely coupled with the rest of the game's systems, meaning you could bring them into an ongoing D&D campaign unchanged.
• Microscope is GMless like Universalis, but has a more specific framework for gradually filling in the history of the setting. Appropriate as a Session 0 for a more traditional game, like Reign.

Yep, works for me!

On the other hand, it turns out that the PC version is also Linux compatible. I think that might be the way Ren'Py exports games by default? So yeah, you can just check the penguin next to that one, as well as the window.

Heads up that the zip files are not marked for the platform they are compatible with, which prevents either of them from installing through the itch app

That github link gives me a 404, but this one works. Looks like the . at the end of the sentence ended up a part of the link

https://github.com/aucchen/petrograd_1917

Lisien is agnostic about how the frontend should look. For this jam, I imagine the game resembling Kudos 2.

I make Lisien, a very alpha development tool for life sim games. I've always wanted to make a Sims-like set in a post-capitalist future. If you like that idea too, and have good ideas about gameplay systems for it, I'll help implement them, and take care of the inevitable problems with experimental technology.

Lisien it is!

Thanks to https://webb.page for the name suggestion.

Not really, it's just annoying.

Thank you for making Spinnortality!

This is a pretty minor bug in the Linux build, all told.

Sometimes, when I launch Spinnortality with certain other apps' windows open, Spinnortality will appear in the Cinnamon taskbar as a second window of those apps.

So far, this has happened with Freetube and Whatsie. I'm running both of those via Flatpak, if that makes a difference?

I'm on Linux Mint 21.3.

Yea, for my future planned events, I keep track of a point in time before which things are considered to have "really happened," and any change after that gets assigned to a "plan," just a set of changes really -- that way if things don't go the way the plan describes, I can cancel just that one plan, and just the parts that haven't happened yet.