Centauri's Thoughts

Flux has been a busy world this past August!

Not only have some of the RPG areas been hooked in, and new weapons made available (Battle Ax), But a lot of little things have been fixed which were not working correctly (Fruit bearing trees and bushes, Hidden rooms 'Wall of Fame').

The Bank has been changed to allow customers to make their own accounts. Suzette the Sexy Barmaid has been added to FluxBarOne.

Flight Operations gained the long awaited Flight Ops and a control tower above it with views in 8 directions.

The entire 'Outback' has been implemented (some 30 rooms).

The Main Beach in the Outback has an interactive FirePit, which you can feed fuel to keep the fire burning.

The Glass Walkway (from Level 3 to Condo Ave) can now view the people in the Main Promenade.

The Chess Set is now more complete.

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All in all, a busy month of programming. The experience should be MUCH better than before, and helpful suggestions by a few new(ish) users makes it better.

I have no idea *why* August tends to be the month of all months for FluxWorld Development, but over 4 years, this has been proven to be the case.

In Fluxworld, after designing pre-programmed failures into the equipment after some set amount of time (10,000 hrs usually), it became apparent that with all of this built at roughly the same time, it was all failing about the same time.

To slow or change this, a new verb was added for maintainers, called refurbish. It pays almost as well as a true fix, but is based on the MBTF (Mean Time Between Failure) and the actual hours since the last fix or refurbish. If actual time in use is 5,000 hours on something with a 10,000 MTBF then 50% of the fix amount is paid.

This optional verb can be used to clean up some older equipment to prevent a string of failures on the Grid. This also adds to some of the realism of the simulation, as the goal is to keep the grid up and running at capacity or better.

TheGrid always evolves as we add power sources and drains to it, from the solar sources which have to account for daytime and cloud cover, the the windmills which must be ever-mindful of the breezes.

Just learning how to manage the Grid on an hourly and daily basis is useful instruction.

While working within the FluxWorld power grid, and enhancing the system, I have come to understand some interesting things while simulating a live power grid with loads.

Even though my system knows all of the loads and all of the sources (which a real-time power grid may not), there is always room for management. I can see why the implementation of a “smart-grid” is so important.

I spend my time managing turning sources on and off as needed, for maximum efficiency.

Even though my loads dont change from day to night, they very well could, and because of solar and wind power, my sources change as well.

The effective management of energy resources on the grid by not putting more power than is needed on the wires, and yet, not having insufficient power (causing brown-outs or black-outs) is indeed an interesting ad tricky balance. Of course, the “brute-force” method of ensuring there is never a black out is to over-power the grid all the time. Unused power sits on the wires as “potential”, but it was still generated and used resources to put it there.

None of this, of course, speaks of storage. TheGrid is TheGrid, and has never utilized storage (like a battery). There are a few methods I have heard of, like pumping water up into a reservoir at night, to generate power during the day, but thats about it. There is just no good (efficient) way to save off terawatts or petawatts of energy at this time.

As we use more and more energy, all of this will become more critical, if we are to survive.

After taking some time away, this weekend was filled with walking, flying, exploring, note-taking and killing some Sneeds, Trils, and Mepons as a fun diversion. Along the way, there was some fixes and fine-tuning to many things (as always).

Many areas and objects were looked at, from pets to area expansions. More fruit bearing trees and bushes added so that somewhere, there is now pickable fruit of some type available all year round.

There is always room for more area expansion, new objects, and refinements.

Some recent changes: Certain caves for mining now defined under the celestial class of rooms rather then #173. This gives them the touch and smell verbs in addition to sounds.

Mail verbs fixed after ISP change.

Some fine tuning with Mag-Lev trains in docking.

As usual, a hundred other experiments are going on all over in FluxWorld.

The web pages for FluxWorld detail more about the changes in the system, now that it has been running almost 3 years.

There is much to discover (including the mini-quests). Between the added RPG, edible (and throwable) food, mining, power station repairs, etc. - There is definately a lot going on. All this doesn't include the 2 moons, or the ability to actually go there.

Its kind of hard to compete with the 3D graphical environments these days, but the text-based has an appeal all its own. Good thing I didn't created it for anyone except myself (primarily), or I might be disappointed. Its been, if nothing else, a good learning tool for Object Oriented Programming.

Multiple ships and types now exist with decks and corridors and cabins inside. One even has a Heliport that can be landed on.


Many named docks are now ready for land and building expansion as Ports of Call.


The structure of the first 1/4 of the space station is now complete, and spaceships have the ability to go there. This is only the merest start tho, as there is only the basic structure, and this is only one destination.


The Industrial Complex is still in the planning stages, but Fridays research showed the design of copper smelting, and of Bauxite ore (aluminum) processing. This will be in addition to the Main Fusion Reactor.


Most of the maps are correct, some need updating. New ones are being built for new areas.


Details are being added to rooms that can have details in a slow but sure manner.

The ships can now ply the river and pass the piers in a totally sequential manner, both up and down the river. Additionally, some ships have rooms inside them, and so are like real ships themselves, and this will grow more in time.


Also now built is the support for space ships, and there are a few test ships and one place (so far) to park. This is sure to grow over time as well.


Once the Industrial Complex is built, a rail system of some sort will also be put in.


Al of this is still just framework for a LOT of building possibilities, as each pier on the river can lead to a whole city, and each port in space can lead to a space station. Theoretically, each of these could be as big as all of Fluxworld is now. We'll see how the development goes.

The past weekend saw Ship and River and Dock work. Also, the beginnings of the fictitious 3 story dream mansion.
Condo Ave is connected by the 2nd floor of Kepler Plaza to the 3rd floor in the main complex.

2 new docks built for the shipping area, and each of these can expand into land and building use now, they are really only accessable by water at this time.
The industrial complex needs to be fleshed out better, with floorplans and general layout.

As if this isnt enough to work on, the definition of 'Space' (like theSky and TheRiver) is another layer, and is needed for the spacecraft to be built, and destinations above ground. There is to be an orbiting space station or two. We can test Zero Gee and rotating stations in this manner.

A lot of the core functionality is now in and working over at Flux-II. The rest will be continued building and testing.
Some newer ideas for objects these days include ships that will navigate waterways sequentially. (The aircraft move about in a random manner). Setting and maintaining this sorted list will prove interesting, and the need for maps will be even more important.

Ultimately, there will be places only reachable by air or by sea, and not walkable nor drivable. This will especially be true for the newest type of place, only accessible by spacecraft. The foundations have already been laid for this in a few places.
Each day more functionality is added and enhanced.