Tiy's IRC Q&A

Dibs on foruming this.

This is the tweet that caused all hell to break lose, and wayyyy too many people to join the IRC. And with that, he decided to do a Q&A. All info is subject to change.

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Q: Tiy, what is your favorite color?

A: I don't understand how people can have a favorite color.
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Q: How large are the gaps between the tiers of technology from beginning to endgame?

A: New tech is available to find in each new sector you unlock as you progress through the game. Whilst of course armor and weapons get stronger and do new and interesting things. I'm trying to keep tech useful enough that it never just gets outright replaced by something objectively better. So there's not so much a gap, as there is new gameplay opening up.
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Q: Will there be sliding, gripping to edges, diving, sprinting and other things that can contribute to combat?

A: That's exactly one of thing Tech does, it adds movement options. I don't want to spoiler too many of them because finding new tech is a great experience. But you'll be unlocking all kinds of fun movement options
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Q: Is there more work in progress with the physics systems?

A: Well we're always tweaking the physics. Obviously physics massively affect the feel of the game and that's incredibly important. We're still tweaking gravity changes from planet to planet.
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Q: How customizable are ships? I know you can place furniture and other things, but what about extra sections, different hull pieces and such?

A: Right now each race has their own ship design. The layouts of each ship at the same, we wanted the leave them wide open for players to do their own thing. As you progress you unlock additional space and the ships get a fair bit larger. And then you're right you can build and place objects inside them to really get your own look. I think we need to put out some images of just how different you can make the ships look, it's pretty cool. You can invite other players to your ship too to show them off.
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Q: Will you be able to use more than one move per melee weapon?

A: Right now each weapon class swings in it's own way. We're considering adding a secondary attack when you hold down the attack button. But I'm not sure if that will be in for release yet. Some weapons have mods that make them do very different things. Example, a hammer mod lets you smack the ground and create a shockwave that travels along hurting enemies.
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Q: In one stream i noticed you zoomed out to get a better view of your area. Is that a function you amy allow users to have? at least in item form?

A: Right now you can move the camera around a little by holding ctrl, you're going to get items that let you move the camera a lot further, sort of a 2d scope style zoom. Whether or not we'll let the players use the zooming in/out, I'm not sure yet. I think it's likely we'll at least restrict it a lot if it's still there. Being able to see miles in every direction isn't great for gameplay
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Q: Will there be brewing and some kind of potion system? like strength, jump boost etc...

A: There will likely be a system a little like a potion system. Though they won't actually be potions you're creating. Originally we were planning for them to be cocktails, mixed in a space station Cantina. But honestly that's massively subject to change. It might be a post release thing. I'm also interested in a potion system where you can choose to either drink each potion for a buff, or throw the potion like a bomb for an offense effect. We'll see.
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Q: Any estimates on how the system requirements will be? Will the game be demanding or easy to run?

A: Right now it runs at a very solid 60fps on an entry level macbook air, which is relatively low spec. That's with the current build which is completely unoptimised. We're likely going to get it down lower. But I don't want to promise anything right now just because it would restrict what we can and can't do development wise.
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Q: How are you balancing melee and ranged combat? Will there be any defense, or mobility restrictions that come along with certain weapons?

A: Armor (In general) is specifically built to either buff your defense or your energy reserves. Energy reserve are largely used for ranged combat. So if you choose to go the ranged route, you'll really need to stay out of the fight. If you're running melee you can jump in and take a lot more damage. Both will have their positives and negatives and hopefully they'll compliment eachother nicely. On top of that... Our tech system works in such a way that, rather than collect items and have to manage them in your inventory. You collect chips that unlock tech on your character. Once unlocked you can equip / unequip tech on your ship. What this means is you'll need to think carefully about which tech you bring with you to a planet, you can't bring it all and swap it in and out as the situation demands it. Some of the tech lends itself better to melee play, some of it lends itself better to ranged play. You're going to have to plan for the trip.
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Q: How will the chat be setup in the finalized game? Such as, will each planet have a localized chat or will there just be one global chat? Also, inclusion of a personal message system?

A: There are going to be various chat channels, party chat, planet chat, universe chat, etc. Maybe "Guild" or "Corp" chat, if we implement that by release.
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Forever: Will water freeze?

Tiy: Bartwe, we can make water freeze on snow planets right?

Bartwe: Eh, sure.

Tiy: There you go.
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Q: Tiy seems to want interaction with objects to be a pretty big thing, will we be able to sleep in beds and sit chairs? As well use those tents?

A: Yeah, you will. I don't want to say too much about what each of those things does yet, because it might change. But they'll be useful. Even sitting.
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Q: Will there be some sort of Line of Sight system where you can't see illuminated rooms if you don't have a unblocked sight to the light/source of light? There is a thread in the Suggestions>Mechanics for a better explanation of it the thread is called "Lights Line of Sight." Will there be Materials that blocks lights, making the room inside dark unless you are inside it?

A: We're probably not going to have line of sight, whilst it has some nice gameplay implications it ends up making the game look quite ugly. I think you actually get more out of the atmosphere when you can see the environment around you.
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Q: Will there be diplomatic missions? Such as allying yourself with a king of a planet, requiring certain gestures, reactions, manners, etc to get the approval of certain races or NPCs?

A: The missions will be varied and interesting. That said they are more in the platforming / action vein than the RPG / Dialogue choices vein. There will be missions in which you make/assist allies. But it won't really depend on your dialogue choices or gestures. The cool thing about that though is the director system we're aiming to put in post release. Server moderators will be able to set up and control their own missions on the fly, possessing npcs and making them talk/behave/attack/etc, anything a player can do. So rather than dialogue choices, you can have a real dialogue :) and it will be seamless.
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Q: Will you be able to see other planets, moons, asteroids and such rising while you are on a planet?

A: Yes. :) The sky on the planet reflects the solar system view from your system navigator. If you find a planet with 4 moons around it, those same 4 moons will be orbiting the planet whilst you're on it. Or if you go to one of the moons, you'll see the planet and the other 3 moons in the sky.
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Q: Will there be explorable abandoned space stations/ satellites/etc? I'm sure this was talked about at some point but confirmation would be nice.

A: There will be explorable "man" made constructions found off planet yup. We're experimenting to see just how much procedural generation we can bring to them at the moment, but they will be there.
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Q: Will there be a friends list system, or usage of Steam friends, to enable some social features like populating your galaxy with all your friends worlds?

A: There won't be a friend system in game. We don't feel it's required given that the game is running on private servers rather than a large central server, MMO style. Outside of the game.. I'm not sure if I can talk about that yet. Sorry! There will be a party option in game though.
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Q: How will wires work? Will you need power sources, or anything else?

A: Right now wires are about connecting a trigger to an output, and some funky stuff in between for more advanced wiring. In terms of electricity/generators being required/wired up to electrical objects to make them run.. We've been discussing it, it's not hard to implement. We're worried it would alienate some players in terms of difficulty. Perhaps we'll add it as an optional mode post release.
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Q: I was wondering if you could share some insight as to the shaders Starbound uses to achieve the lighting? (or if it even uses shaders)

Omni: Ha, that's more of a Kyren question than a Tiy question, currently we're using two types of lighting algorithms one for spread lights the other for point lights. They're implemented in software, not as a shader.

Tiy: This is a Kyren question. She wrote the lighting and is actually interested in writing up exactly how she did it. Sadly I don't think she's around at the moment. But I think a detailed explanation will be up eventually. Also I dropped popcorn on the floor and my cat is eating it.

Omni: I've worked a bit on making the lighting algorithm faster, but it's currently a cellular algorithm, which is rather slow, and we have some trouble with the texture upload time on certain video cards. I don't know if we're going to revisit the algorithm, it's good enough as it is, but it's more expensive than I'd like it to be, if that makes sense.

Tiy: If you're looking at implementing something similar in your game, give me a shout afterwards and i'll see if I can poke Kyren into helping you out.
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Q: Modding API, how will it be implemented? Manifest+Lua or unmanaged DLL?

Omni: The answer to that is actually both. Certain systems use Lua, like the scriptable enemies. But the main modding API will be accessible via DLL, like normal.

Bartwe: Also objects use Lua, or simply JSON.

Tiy: It's worth mentioning how moddable the game is right now to people who aren't into programming. With most of the games content defined in very simple and easily readable configuration files. Someone with zero programming knowledge could create a biome, weapon, monster, etc etc very very easily. And they wouldn't need to compile anything or use any special tools.
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Q: Will you be able to craft tech, or is it only available through loot?

A: Tech is only available through finding tech chips. There are items with unique uses. Some of those may be craftable, but they differ from tech in that you have to actively use them, like a sword or chainsaw.
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Q: How will crafting work? Will machines make it over time, or will it instantly be made?

A: Crafting works in a variety of ways. There's basic crafting that can take place at any time, should you have the ingredients you need and the blueprints required. There's crafting that requires certain facilities and 3D printing. All of them are more or less instant.
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Q: Does the sea level vary on different planets?

A: Yup! Along with the depth of the ocean, etc...
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Q: What do you think is the coolest feature in the game right now?

A: This changes for me day to day as new things are implemented. But objectively.. I suppose just being able to jump aboard a ship and explore a huge galaxy is awesome. Being able to land on any planet. It feels huge. Also, one thing I love that hasn't really made it across very well in videos etc is atmosphere. Our artists have done an absolutely wonderful job there. And our sound guy. Jungles feel like jungles, oceans feel like oceans. Being deep in a cave is spooky, light flickers and dances, ambient sounds are emitted from a whole plethora of objects. There are a ton of tiny touches but it all adds up and becomes super absorbing.

Bartwe: Armagon and the music guys made awesome stuff.
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Q: Are the bosses randomly created or are they already made?

A: The plan on bosses right now is to have a premade boss at the end of missions and procedurally generated sub-bosses appear on planets. We'd like to do procedurally generated bosses eventually but we want to keep the tight, pattern based gameplay that premade bosses offer and writing procedurally generated bosses that can do that is going to take some time. So probably post release for the generated ones.
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Q: How does the pet system work? (Capturing, raising, etc...)

A: Ok so, I don't want to talk too much about the raising part, that's up in the air. But you're able to obtain an item that captures creatures that are low on health. The creature is then tied to the item, which can be traded, stored, etc like any other item. However you can only recall the creature if the item is equipped in 1 of 3 special creature slots. And you can only equip the item on your ship. If the creature dies it returns to the item and you can only bring it back by visiting your ship again. This is all in place to stop someone spawning 100 monsters and basically coasting through the game. Man that sounds very Pokemon... But there are some big differences, we'll show those off a bit later.
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Q: How ranged are the planet formations (I understand that there is random colour/texture elements) but what about lets say a planet with very low gravity can be made up of just floating piles of land mass that are short but deadly drops between them.

A: Ok so let me talk a little bit about how our terrain system works... When the game assembles a planet, first it picks a biome. Our planets are kind of Starwarsy in that most of the planet has a single theme. Our engine very easily handles multiple biomes per planet, but we felt each planet was far more unique when it was limited to a single theme. Tatooine for instance would have been far less interesting if it were a planet WITH a desert. So, the planet has a biome. Then it adds mini biomes. These are small biomes that make sense in the context of the larger biome. An example of a mini biome would be an oasis on a desert planet. Then it chooses a "terrain style" for the planet. These are things like mountains, canyons, hills, flats, and so on. Right now there are quite a few, and we're going to add a lot more. Don't get me wrong, these aren't predrawn terrain shapes or anything like that. These are settings for the terrain generator to make sure it produces terrain of a particular "style." It is still very much procedurally generated. After that, the engine starts cutting out tunnels, caves and whatnot. Some of which work their way into the overground, inside mountains, etc. To create even more unique shapes. After that, it adds liquids, water, acid, lava, etc. After that, it creates underground layers. Each underground layer is made up of its own materials. TECHNICALLY each underground layer is its own biome. But they're not quite as distinct as overground biomes. It's mostly about the tiles, the ores, etc. After that the game adds something we call "microbiomes." Microbiomes are interesting. Essentially they're premade block patterns that the game spawns as if they were bushes or trees. For instance, we may have stone spikes built out of blocks. The engine will then place those spikes across the ceiling in various caves. Or we might have a pond with stepping stones across it, the engine will find a way to blend that in. Afffterrr that, the engine places detached mini biomes underground. These are rare underground biomes with much more character than the average underground layer. Crystal caves for instance.

Omni: A bit of clarification, it sounds like we generate the entire planet at the same time. We don't. What actually happens is the WorldGenerator only generates the sectors where you go, as you need them. So all of this happens in a cohesive manner across the planet through the use of clever algorithms.

Tiy: Right yeah that's true, the entire planet isn't generated at once, these are settings for the planet being chosen. The planet is generated chunk by chunk, that way you can travel from planet to planet without any loading screens. The engine also chooses a location to place a dungeon, chooses which dungeon parts to use to make a unique dungeon layout. It chooses the temperature of the planet, what color the blocks are, what the gravity will be, if you need special equipment to breath and there's a bunch more stuff going on. But people are going to get mad if I keep talking about this question.

Omni: Because we control the RNG very carefully we can ensure that the same sector is generated each time it's requested. Which means we save a lot of diskspace by saving the delta of the generated cluster.

Tiy: Essentially we save the differences, not the entire planet.

Omni: ie, it works more like the new Minecraft than Terraria. Though, I'm not sure about if Minecraft saves differences.

Tiy: I don't think it does, I think it stores the entire world.

Omni: As it's generated. I just know it's generated by chunk. Oh well. Anyway, it should be fun seeing what the community comes up with to search world seeds.
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Q: Is the game Multi GPU capable and able to work with multiple threads with CPU?

Omni: We are very multi-threaded. We <3 threads. Asset loading is threaded, client and server are separate threads, each planet is a separate thread, etc. Single planet, local game runs 12 threads I think
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Q: Are you going to add volcanoes to the game?

A: I'd like to see volcanoes at some point, it wouldn't be hard. It's the kind of thing we could easily do with our dungeon system. Or our microbiome system.
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Q: Will there be hired mercenaries?

A: Not by release. It wouldn't be impossible to add, I think it's one for our post-release suggestion thing. Post release I'd like to set up a forum for requests, where players can upvote requests they like the sound of. And we'll implement some of the top requests.
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Q: Will the vehicles in the game be customizable/able to be built as you see fit? How far is the system for vehicles developed?

A: Right now the vehicles aren't customizable, but there will be a fair few of them. Post release I'm wondering if we can come up with a system that lets you build a vehicle from blocks, but we'd need to look into that more closely before we're sure.
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Q: Will there be the ability have building servers where all building items are avalaible for use?

A: That would be really easy for us to throw in. I guess we can do that. I'd kind of like to do it a little while after release though, leave people to discover everything first.
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Q: Will there be logic gates for wiring?

A: Yup.
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Q: In followup of world gen, is every world, on a set co-ordinate generated in the exact same way, if not, what are the differences? What is concrete and what is randomized?

A: It will be more or less the same. We've been wondering if we should randomise the location of loot. There are good for and against arguments for that. But generally yeah they're the same, we want you to be able to make a discovery at a particular set of coordinates and share it.
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Q: What kind of administrator tools will there be for managing servers and keeping players in check and to help defend against trouble makers?

A: This is a hard one, we will include some tools. You'll be able to kick and ban people of course. But I know that people want more. It's a really difficult thing to deal with. No matter how far you go people are going to find ways to grief servers or cause trouble, so it's about going far enough to stop the majority of it, but not spending so much time on it that the game itself suffers. A lot of administration / protection tools also often end up making the game complex or frustrating to play for someone who doesn't know the community/server/tools inside-out. So I think we'll finish the game off first, then take a measured shot at admin tools.
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Q: How's the sneak system looking? (I asked this one! :D)

A: Sneaking, we're still deciding whether or not that's a direction we want to take the gameplay. If we implement it, the walk key will enable you to approach an enemy from behind to do additional damage, or avoid it entirely.
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Q: Will there be a place where you can modify the mobs on a planet, like a DNA-Lab to mix monsters to create new ones?

A: Given the way monsters are generated, it wouldn't be very difficult for us to add a system that lets you splice the DNA of two creatures and get a third that shares traits from both. Whether we'll have that for release or not though I'm not sure. Not before beta at least. I guess the problem with that feature, and similar features is that with a game like this there are just an endless number of cool features you could add to the game. To get the game out there and into peoples hands, we have to just stop picking up new features at some point. And right now we're working to a set list. But we're 100% going to be revisiting all of these suggestions post release.
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Q: How deep do oceans get? Does the content in them change as you go deeper?

A: For oceans, content changes as you get deeper. The ocean floor is awesome.
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Q: What's the funniest glitch you guys have run into?

A: We once had a glitch where if you open the navigation screen, then teleport down to the planet, it didn't close. So you'd have access to the navigator whilst you were on the planet, not your ship. And when you chose to fly to somewhere new... Twilight zone. Basically the planet tried to fly to another planet.
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Q: Earlier, space battles were mentioned, was the ship that was to be customizable for the FTL combat the shuttle? Or another ship entirely?

A: Earlier today I was asked about ship to ship battles and whether we had any plans for that post release. I mentioned that if we were to do it, rather than have the player control the ship and fly it around in say.. a top down view. It would work a little like a multiplayer FTL. Where each player on your ship can run around, man guns, fix shields, etc. If we implement that, it would be your customizable ship that would engage in the battles.
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Q: Does the color of a solar system depend on the difficulty?

A: Nope, color has no bearing on difficulty.
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Q: Are you going to add natural disasters? For example tsunamis?

A: I'd like to have an event system, we'll see.
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Q: Will there be large-scale mech battles? Possibly on the scale of Halo 3's scarabs? (Marketh debriefs him about scarabs.)

A: Never played Halo 3, but... Mechs don't get that big. It wouldn't look great on the block-based terrain.
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Q: How will looting be handled? Just item drops from dead enemies? Anything to stop loot stealing or insta-grabbing?

A: We havent implemented any kind of special private loot yet, we'll have a chat about making loot drops only appear clientside, but I'm not sure it's going to be a huge issue with private servers
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Q: When we reach end game content will we always be able to search for better and more powerful gear and enemies?Will end game be generated in infinite levels or is there a cap?

A: Equipment in Starbound only gets so powerful, but level 100 planets will always be difficult, regardless of what equipment you have. And we have got an end game in mind.
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Q: Will non-planet celestial bodies (asteroids, moons, etc) be able to spawn dungeons? If so, will certain types of dungeons be unique to non-planets?

A: Yes and yes.
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And as a bonus, Molly posted a picture. http://instagram.com/p/U7FRT-rRi9/

Tiy also posted a new monster during the Q&A.

 

This. Hundred time this.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

 

Hammer mod sounds awesome!

 

It's currently going on. Feel free to participate, folks. Just head on to Starbound's IRC = http://playstarbound.com/live-chat/

Very interesting stuff going on. ^^

 

Just a heads up, if you're in IRC and you want to discuss this in IRC, the channel is muted. We've created a backup channel, it's #starbound-backup.

 

This is me right now, look at IRC, look at at furom, smell at twitter. SO MUCH AT ONCE!
(From Tiy's twitter)

 

I want to like this, but I refuse to give you the satisfaction. I am not your puppet! /r/firstworldanarchists

 

[18:05] <@Marketh> [22:53:44] <Star|> Q: how will wires work? Will you need power sources, or anything else?
[18:06] <@Tiy> Right now wires are about connecting a trigger to an output, and some funky stuff in between for more advanced wiring. In terms of electricity/generators being required / wired up to electrical objects to make them run.. we've been discussing it, it's not hard to implement. We're worried it would alienate some players in terms of difficulty. Perhaps we'll add it as an optional mode post release

 

Oh wow this is all amazing, but,

This is what impresses me most of all. I don't know how they did this but I am absolutely in love with this feature. It is easily my favorite feature so far.

 

Hey guys, the Q/A is still going on, just so you know.

 

I seems like I should much update the wiki in a while...

 

Alrighty, not sure what the question was, but here's something worth mentioning from the IRC:

 

I forgot all about the wiki...

 

Blue needs to update the announced game info, haha. Here's TONS of stuff Blue.

 

Excited, especially for differences from Pokemon.

 

I really hope someone posts the IRC logs on here when this is done.

Also, on another topic, there's gonna be microbiomes. Basically stuff like crystal caves, stepping stones over rivers, bushes, etc. Too lazy to copy-paste everything on here though.

EDIT: Also, logic gates.

 

[17:57] <@Ordona> [18:08] <Kiofspa> Will there be logic gates for wiring?
[17:57] <@Tiy> yup
yay

 

I've been recording them done for far, but I'm getting tired so I might just throw out the part complete IRC logs.

 

Q: What is your cats name, and what type is it?

[11:02] <mollygos> roger sterling, and i think he's a mix of american short hair and egyptian mau.
[11:02] <mollygos>