by Tom Larcombe
Aaron allowed himself to drop into coding. The workstation he was at becoming his entire world as he started to create the code for unique masterworks that Crafters could make in their specialized areas once their skill was at master level. He knew that was going to take him longer than a single session, but he wanted to build the framework for it first.
Once he had the general framework for that skill, he also went in and added a number of other perks for the Crafter classes, as well as adjusting skill chances for them, rearranging and adding to the very generic set of skills that they'd been most likely to obtain.
When he had the framework for all that set, he did one last thing. The one thing every single player he'd talked to had agreed on. He pulled a copy of the code for skill acquisition and with a few added lines of code gave the players the option to choose not to learn a skill when the acquisition code triggered.
The basic stuff that Tom and the team had written would go in soon and so would the skill acquisition change. The more advanced changes Aaron was writing wouldn't go in for quite some time, not until he was finished coding them and satisfied with the result. Those would probably get added in small chunks, whereas all the code he'd just commented and the skill acquisition change would go in as soon as the code was submitted for review and passed review.
So maybe a day or two on that stuff. All the simple stuff there should make the players happier, the Crafters especially, although I'm sure we'll get some grumbling about the limitations we're adding to them also. But we need to keep the game balanced while making the Crafter classes more attractive and this should be a good step in the right direction for that, Aaron thought.
~ ~ ~
Eddie tried to get going early the next morning. He was out of bed before Tiana got up and quickly grabbed his breakfast, then he headed to the crossroads. Even with as early as he was up, the construction crew was already at work when he got there. After ensuring that everything was going the way it should he stole the cart and ox. The foresters were due to have it in less than half an hour, but he left a message to tell them it would be a little late since he needed it for the moment.
Paul was supplying the finished planks for the town hall, but there were also a fair number of rough hewn ones needed as well, The staircase up out of the basement was one of the areas that called for those, so he was going to make sure he had the lumber he needed before Tiana and Jern finished the back wall.
A quick run out to the farm and a few minutes loading with the help of Brandr and Osmond had him on the way back to the crossroads again. After he'd passed the inn, but before he made it to the town hall site, he heard running footsteps behind him.
“Sneaking out on me are you?” Tiana asked as she caught up.
“Nah, just wanted to make sure I had everything I needed to finish off the stairs out of the basement. I figured those would make the other walls for it significantly easier to do and I wouldn't feel like a fifth wheel standing around staring at you and Jern as you worked.”
“You know that's not the case. Once you were helping yesterday things went much more quickly,” she said.
“And once I got the dumbwaiter in I cut down the amount of time I was saving you guys by a lot, so now I've got something else to do that's still useful.”
Tiana shook her head.
“Were you like this out of game? Always doing something?”
“Except when I was depressed at being out of a job. When I got depressed I just sort of hung around my apartment, but when I was working, yeah. My very first job taught me to always stay busy, because if I didn't the manager would find something for me to do. You know the old 'time enough to lean, time enough to clean' line?”
She shuddered.
“I don't know it from personal experience, but I knew quite a few manager types that I could see saying it and meaning it,” she said.
Eddie wondered, again, at what sort of background she'd had in the real world. A lot of what she'd told him didn't fit into his idea of the world. His idea was based first on a lower middle class upbringing, at least until his parents died. He'd only been moved out a year when that happened. They hadn't left him much, and what they had, he'd squandered. Then he'd been scrabbling to keep his head above water ever since.
From the tidbits he'd gotten from Tiana about her life out of game, her upbringing was far different. Even the fact that she was in a test program using the Light Online pods which was conducted by the company itself suggested that she, or her parents more likely, had connections among the rich and powerful. He knew she'd said her doctor heard about it and recommended her, but thought it more likely that the doctor told her parents and they pulled some strings to get her into it.
He couldn't see the pragmatic company that had drafted him and Karl right back into legitimate testing that mirrored the illegitimate testing they'd originally been brought on for passing up the chance to earn some favors owed from the rich and powerful.
Eddie realized that he was probably being a bit cynical here, and Tiana was still walking beside him, so he tore his mind off that train of thought.
“So yeah, I was that way a lot of the time, but not always,” he said. “Heck, part of what I was always doing was playing a game. Depending on how you look at it now, I'm always doing something since I'm in Light Online constantly.”
She elbowed him.
“You know what I meant. I've got to go check in at the temple. You good to unload on your own? I could probably get you some help.”
“Yeah, I'm not going to stack it nicely, I'm going to unhitch the ox and tilt the cart back. Let the lumber spill out. I'll be using most of this today, so it's no big deal if it isn't neat and tidy. I'll stack the leftovers later on when I'm done with the stairs.”
She gave him a smile, leaned in and gave him a kiss, then broke off to head for her temple. Eddie unloaded the cart, then led the ox and cart back to where the foresters normally picked it up.
“Sorry about that, needed some extra lumber for a project and didn't want to carry it all by hand,” he said when he got to them.
“Our pleasure. It's nice to just sit around and get paid for it,” one of the foresters said before getting elbowed by another.
Eddie laughed.
“Don't worry about it. It was my fault, you'll still get your full day's pay. Just try to make sure we get a normal days' worth of planks still, okay? Thanks guys, your efforts help an awful lot. I just wanted to let you know.”
The chief of the forester crew gave Eddie a nod.
“Our pleasure there too. It's nice to be helping others and getting paid on top of it.”
“All about the coins,” Eddie said. “I get that, I understand it totally, but when it's also something nice for other people? Even better.”
The crew chief nodded agreement as he took the reins of the ox and started the crew moving towards the section of light forest they'd be working in.
~ ~ ~
As Eddie headed back towards the town hall site, he heard Jern hammering away to make the finished stone. At least he thought he did. When he got within sight he saw that it was Tiana hammering away to finish the stones and did a double take.
He didn't know why he'd assumed it would be Jern, except maybe because that was what the dwarf was doing yesterday, but he was also sure that he wasn't going to mention his wrong assumption if he could avoid it. He was sure Tiana would take it wrong and assume it was because she was female that he made the assumption, and he wasn't sure that she would be wrong.
Better to just not mention it at all, he thought.
He walked over to her and waited for her to finish the stone she was working on.
“Jern down in the basement?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“He's not here yet. Why do you think I've got a few of these finished ones piled up here?”
“Oh, yeah,” Eddie said, mentally berating himself for not even noticing the small pile of finished stones.
“
I just thought that if he got a point in masonry for making these yesterday, maybe I could today,” she said, grinning.
“Now that makes a lot of sense. I bet you do at that, it's certainly a new way of using your masonry and the game seems to reward new ways of using skills more liberally than doing the same thing over and over,” Eddie said.
She nodded at him and selected her next stone to cut.
“I'm going to go down. I think there are a few points where I can start work already since the support beams get set into the floor down there.”
“Yeah, Jern came down and cut the corner on three stone intersections yesterday. I think that's where those will go,” Tiana said, as she eyed the stone and placed the chisel.
“Alright, I'm headed down then,” he said.
Eddie walked over to the rope and slipped down it. A few moments was all it took to find the holes for the support beams so he climbed back up and picked the three planks he thought would fit best. He knew the game would secure everything tightly on completion of the building, but he still liked to get things to fit as best as they could on his own before that.
It took him a few minutes to get the first one placed. He'd had to try to figure out a way to keep it standing once it was in there, but his efforts were for naught. Once he had the first one upright, he went to grab the pieces he'd been planning on using to keep it upright, only to find that they weren't needed. The stone was only six inches thick, but apparently Jern had also used the chisel, or something, to pack the dirt down where the support went in. With a foot of the plank at the level of the floor or below, it was more than happy to just stand there on its own.
By the time he finished placing the third plank, Jern had arrived. Eddie watched as the dwarf scrambled awkwardly down the rope.
I imagine he likes rope climbing only a little better than he does swimming, Eddie thought as he watched him.
“Eddie lad, good to see you. Looks like I'll be building a wall next. Your lass beat me to the cutting.”
Yeah, she said she thought that she might be able to get a point in masonry for cutting them like you did yesterday,” Eddie replied.
“She did say that she'd gotten one for working with the finished stones also, so maybe she and I will both get a skill increase today if we're lucky.”
“We can only hope, right?” Eddie said.
“That's true, but we can also work hard to make it happen,” Jern replied.
Eddie couldn't argue with that so he didn't even try. Instead he went over to put notches into the support planks where the ones that would rest in the wall and come horizontally out to them would join with the supports.
Eddie waited until Jern finished the back wall before doing any more work on the stairs. He wanted the back wall registered as a completed portion first. He might have been able to work on it sooner, but he wasn't sure and he didn't want to screw it up. Once Jern had finished he started putting in the horizontal supports, joining them to the vertical ones. The stairs went quickly after that, and when they called a lunch break Eddie had the stairs finished, and the back wall and one of the side walls were also completed.
“Starting to look pretty decent down there,” Eddie said. “I'm thinking about turning the basement area over to the guards that come back with Bjorn, use it as a base for patrols. What do you think?”
“It's convenient to the crossroads, which appear to be the center of the area you're expanding through, no?” Jern asked.
Eddie nodded.
“It just made sense to me to use the crossroads as the center. That gives us four roads to build along without having to do any major roadwork. Although I might see about upgrading them from dirt to cobblestone at some point. At least near the crossroads themselves.”
“It'd be a good plan once there are businesses here,” Jern said. “Less dust flying around once you get them to stone from dirt.”
“Plus, if there's lots more wagon traffic in the area, and I know you want trading to go on here, the roads won't get all rutted out from all the wagons and carts,” Tiana added.
“Okay, so add making the roads cobblestone at some point to my list,” Eddie said, making a mental note.
“I don't think you have to worry about it any time soon, lad,” Jern said. “You've got lots of people, but not so many businesses yet.”
“Give it a little bit. All our construction crews, well except for Paul, are working on houses right now. Once they're freed up, I bet we see a bunch of new businesses springing up,” Eddie said.
“I do hope you're right,” Tiana said. “I'd swear we have enough people around here now to qualify as a town instead of a village.”
“I wonder what we're at now,” Eddie said, “Population wise that is.”
“Somewhere around a hundred and eighty,” Tiana replied. “My acolytes have kept a rough count of the people that are in and out of the temple. So it might be off if they counted anyone more than once, or if any of the new inhabitants haven't stopped in at the temple.”
“That many?” Eddie said. “I'll need to be employing at least...”
He thought for a moment, doing the mental math.
“At least forty-five people, and that assumes your numbers are correct and we don't get anyone else showing up before then.”
“Well, if you add in the construction crews, you're probably close to that, no?”
“Yes, but after the building boom is done I'd have to keep them hired on, but with potentially no work for them, or the only work competing with Paul. I don't want to do either of those.”
“Miners?” Tiana asked. “If they're living here they'll count as inhabitants, and if you hire them for the mine then they're employees. Ones who ought to pay for themselves, no?”
“I'd hope so,” Eddie said, “but the few I talked to weren't too interested in going back to the mine. The goblins are happy to work it still, but not the humans. Maybe we need to start a quarry or something? Get better quality stone than we're using? See if they can churn out the finished stone like we're using here. I bet we can get lots nicer buildings if we use finished stone and finished planks. We'll see when we finish the town hall.”
“See, you'll figure it out. But now, lunch,” Jern said.
They'd arrived back at the inn. There were still lots of players around during the swap meet hours, but not as many as there were originally. Plus, Eddie had heard a few players commenting on the marketplace that was being built, wondering if they'd be able to hire stalls in it and if it would be worth their while. So the swap meet attendance was down a little, but there were still a lot more people around at lunch time than there were back when he first opened the place.
They settled in for a leisurely lunch before heading back to the town hall.
~ ~ ~
Once Jern had finished the next wall Eddie could start putting in the floor for the ground level of the Town Hall. He needed to place a few supports, made from rough-hewn planks, in the floor of the basement, but Jern had made the sockets for those supports yesterday as well. Eddie quickly put in the supports and then started working with the finished planks. As he laid the floor, he discovered they were much easier to use than the rough-hewn. The floor went in quickly and when Eddie had half of it placed he caught his notification light flashing. As suspected, when he pulled it up he found out that his carpentry skill had advanced again.
You have upgraded the skill Carpentry to (12). Some mighty adventurer you are, building houses and the like while adventure awaits.
Eddie shook his head. Sometimes the snark that came along with his system messages was dead on, and other times, like this one, all it made him want to do was laugh.
I enjoy the carpentry. I like doing things with my hands, creating things. I never claimed to be a mighty adventurer, he thought.
Then he got back to work. He had to stop before completing the floor because the last wall wasn't quite complete yet. It looked like they were going to run short on stone, so once more he walked north a
long the road to fill his inventory with stones he thought could be made into finished stone.
When he got back Tiana had already run out of the stones they had and Jern needed about twenty more to finish off the wall. Eddie unloaded and Tiana started cutting again. Before long the last wall was finished and Eddie continued working on the floor of the first level, which was the ceiling of the basement, until he'd completed it.
The work looked half-decent, but Eddie knew that when the building was finished, the game would make its checks and either it would be come a near perfect copy of what was on the blueprint or part of it would, somehow, be lacking.
Paul had told him about the one building he'd made that had failed. It had looked perfect, but Paul had leaned against one wall before checking to make sure of its quality and had it collapse under him. Since Paul had related that story to him, Eddie had made a note of each section in the blueprint and gone through testing it section by section when done.
He'd also trained the carpenters he was teaching to do the same, just in case.
Because it would be completely humiliating to have something fall apart on whoever it was made for, Eddie thought. Never mind the potential for injury.
Once he managed to finish off the floor, he looked around and grinned to himself. Working with finished planks was going to make a huge difference in the appearance of the end result. In the main, Eddie was more a function over form type, but in this case he was feeling that both were going to be equally important since it was going to be a public building.