SBURB + Early Programming-esque Mechanics

[sumiwrecko]

i'll move this or consolidate this thread into some other pre-existing thread if it doesn't fit here, but i'd bring up the fact that sburb, along with the mechanics that we were familiar with before (captchaloguing, fetch modi, alchemy, pretty much all of sburb and it's little intricacies) were kinda shafted once the shift in attention went from the game to more interactions between characters and relationship stuff

i may be either a purist, or just biased considering that stuff interests me, but i find that it's always cool to speculate on what was or could've been, and how people could play around with the concept that hussie had laid out, even if they weren't that big a deal- having people expand on SBURB and its components/gameplay elements is even more exciting

do you have a favorite meta concept/gameplay mechanic? have you ever made your own fetch modi or supplementary sburb machinery? would you ever want to see a resurgence in the little computer science/programming tidbits that homestuck was originally known for?

[Cyber-Fan]

I wish Collide had had at least one character weaponizing their sylladex again. Huge missed opportunity that would have been really easy to include.

[sumiwrecko]

pretty much, yeah- it just seems like they were completely dropped (and on that same note, so did fraymotifs, only to be picked up only once, really)
seeing the usage of the modus + the sylladex seemed like an extra component of strategy that, while complicated, also lent to a more interesting text adventure vibe

On the side, seeing the supplementary SBURB machines, like the punch card shunt for the alchemiter, or that weird grist ejecting machine near the end of HS was also kinda interesting
at the very least, i kinda wondered what some reasonable additions to those machines be, either for quality of life stuff or just to create crazy fuckin super expensive items

[PilotBlackSmith]

I like how the chumhandles follow the lower camel case, which is the standart for naming objects

[rookie1978]

Only thing I never liked was fetch modus. They were really fun, yes, but theyre also hard to write for and make even less sense then normal sburb mechanics. Fetch modi were only useful for when homestuck was still pretending to be a game with the user input bar, because then users could make silly mistakes and end up flinging all of John's items out at once, which is hilarious. The fact that there's no user input makes it kinda dry and I can't bring myself to try and come up with convoluted fetch modi for every one of my fantrolls.

The rest of Sburb is cool though

[sumiwrecko]

Only thing I never liked was fetch modus. They were really fun, yes, but theyre also hard to write for and make even less sense then normal sburb mechanics. Fetch modi were only useful for when homestuck was still pretending to be a game with the user input bar, because then users could make silly mistakes and end up flinging all of John's items out at once, which is hilarious. The fact that there's no user input makes it kinda dry and I can't bring myself to try and come up with convoluted fetch modi for every one of my fantrolls.

The rest of Sburb is cool though

i can sorta get where youre coming from? the point of modi seemed to be to make getting items pointlessly complicated, but i think the idea of them being something you buy commercially doesn't make it too absurd to have a very basic modus
i like how hussie kinda laid out these things, and maybe unintentionally/intentionally left them basic (to an extent) to let other people make their own freely

[calamityCons]

The alchemy binges were some of the best parts of Homestuck for me. I'm a sucker for dress-up games and I'm a creative person to the bone, so seeing the WHACKY SHIT that these dumbass little kids thought would be cool is really exciting.

I love seeing the fucking ridiculous weapons.






I love seeing the gorgeous collection of kickass outfits.






And of course, who could forget MAGNETIC WODKA?

[PilotBlackSmith]

The alchemy binges were some of the best parts of Homestuck for me. I'm a sucker for dress-up games and I'm a creative person to the bone, so seeing the WHACKY SHIT that these dumbass little kids thought would be cool is really exciting.

Honestly I think some of the alchemized outfits are better than the god tier outfits
the Heir, Maid, Lord and Knight outfits are really kino though

[calamityCons]

Always wondered why the kids didn't ever make cooler outfits by combining their God Tier clothes with their previous clothes. A tuxedo version of the Heir of Breath pajamas would be fuckin SICK.

[JakeMorph]

even if they weren't practically useful to the story, the sylladices and alchemy were all essential to one of the running themes in Homestuck about things being represented by broad platonic concepts. now if only that were explored more in the text and not just in the commentary for the books...

[sumiwrecko]

exactly fuckin that
all the alchemy was my favorite, and i kinda wish i could doodle a bit so i could come up with a lot myself
a few years using the overseer project kinda lit that spark in me

along with the sylladex and those other early conventions, i missed seeing stuff like the echeladder
ultimately unimportant bc those stats were just a facsimile of the RPG standard of levelling up, but damn if it wasn't cool seeing those upgrades and names
I always kinda wished I had the quick wit for those rung names tho

[PilotBlackSmith]

it's a shame we didn't get to see the ultimate alchemy weapon
the FUCKER



HOW DO YOU EVEN HOLD THIS THING?

[sumiwrecko]

with a good grip
(holy shit thats absolutely massive)

[calamityCons]

You take that shit and you whap it around like you're the rotor of a helicopter blade.

[JakeMorph]

probably wouldn't be all that difficult to wield if you sized it down with an alchemiter add-on; which intelligently segues me into something I was thinking about last night while I read back through Act 4 on a whim. the add-on shunts for the alchemiter are probably THE most underappreciated and underutilised aspect of the whole punch card alchemy system. being able to customise items is one thing, but being able to customise the technology that MAKES the items could have had some really cool applications, especially when combined with, say, the technology trolls already have at their disposal.

one can definitely begin to understand why andrew really started to reign in the punch card stuff once that was introduced.

[sumiwrecko]

probably wouldn't be all that difficult to wield if you sized it down with an alchemiter add-on; which intelligently segues me into something I was thinking about last night while I read back through Act 4 on a whim. the add-on shunts for the alchemiter are probably THE most underappreciated and underutilised aspect of the whole punch card alchemy system. being able to customise items is one thing, but being able to customise the technology that MAKES the items could have had some really cool applications, especially when combined with, say, the technology trolls already have at their disposal.

one can definitely begin to understand why andrew really started to reign in the punch card stuff once that was introduced.

FUCKIN EXACTLY
such an underused utility yet its capabilities increase the possibilities tenfold
kinda makes me wonder if the alchemiter needs any other components other than what we'd seen

[calamityCons]

Portable alchemiter...!

[JakeMorph]

portable alchemy is definitely the obvious one. given how quickly the jump was made to portable computing it's almost surprising computers and alchemy machines never ended up getting combined. hell, jade and a bunch of the trolls had hologram computers... dave had a machine that projected holograms of stuff he was going to create... this shit writes itself!

[calamityCons]

THEY COULD MAKE SO MANY PRETTY OUTFITS AND KICKASS WEAPONS ON THE FLY OMGGGGG

[egg]

What I really find to be a wasted opportunity is that they never... really like, make ANYTHING after their initial alchemizing sessions. It's really jarring to see God Tier Dave wield the same god damn weapon he used several acts ago.