Thursday, December 13, 2018

Quick Update

I was lazy when I uploaded Albia² apparently and missed a small error. I also had to change the archive from .rar to .zip which hopefully works better for you guys. Link has been updated.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Broke and chronically ill

Well I couldn't pay my copay today for therapy. Luckily they let me pay next time.

I desperately need support so if anyone could donate so I could pay my medical bills I'd gratefully appreciate it.

Hopefully I'll stream today and maybe earn your pity for being so sick.

https://www.paypal.me/ChristineShara

Thursday, December 6, 2018

I Am Alive Somehow

I need to have a serious conversation with you.

Earlier this year I almost killed myself.

Being chronically ill and trying to work full time made me sick and made me so sick I almost died.

What choice did I have? We can barely afford food right now on one income, so I have been begging friends and family for money to keep us afloat. I was fired in January and have been struggling to find work, not because I'm ready to go back but because I have to. I shouldn't be working, I can tell you that much. My body is in so much pain and in January I probably would have killed myself because my psych meds were not being well monitored at the Cleveland Clinic, even though I was doing everything they told me to do. I struggled to get them to listen to me about the meds not working, or how I needed a better time for group just to get access to my medications, but since I worked nights it was impossible to go to group. They wanted me to be there at three or four in the afternoon and they didnt have times earlier or later, which was like asking a regular day worker to show up for group at 1AM. I just wanted to have psych meds so I wouldn't kill myself. As much as group therapy helps in some situations, it wasn't enough for me and when I asked to have more one on one therapy I was refused. Instead of using all the tools I wanted to use for my own mental health I was being told no? Why?

This is not an unusual story. Chronically ill people have to deal with the struggle between being too healthy to get disability and too sick to work. Most people need to divorce their spouses otherwise they wont get their SSI, which is a bunch of shit. Our society is built around making profits, and if you cant make profits, you cant survive.

Only here in the US do people go into debt because they are sick and cant help it. Capitalism makes you pay for everything. Eyes not good at reading? You have to pay for glasses. Hard time getting around? Pay money for a medical grade cane. Want a tiny robot to vacuum your house for you? its only like a couple hundred dollars, we don't care if your legs don't work, only lazy people don't clean their own house. Have to work in bed? This table only costs 120 dollars because its got wheels to push it out of the way when you need to sleep. Not everywhere is wheelchair accessible, which limits access to houses, restaurants, things we need. Things human beings need. Vets missing limbs aren't getting their fucking check for defending this country. If you can afford insurance, you still pay a deductible to get access to your meds at a discounted price, which you still have to pay for, and if you cant afford it, NO ONE CARES.

I paid off my credit card in April. I have almost hit the limit at the end of this year. This card I only use for necessities like, taxes, medication, medical appointments, and food. I literally cant afford things I need to survive because I cant work, but I cant work because I have the bad luck of shitty health. I literally worked myself to near suicide, got fired, lost all my meds, lost my health insurance, lost every fucking thing in my life that gave me hope.

I have good insurance now, thanks to my spouse, and I still racked up all this medical debt just trying not to kill myself. I don't know how I survived not having psych meds for so long. I was sure I would die at any point because I thought I would finally snap from the excruciating pain and end everything. Once I got on insurance, I was able to see a doctor, get my psych meds, get my meds to help me walk through the pain I experience every day, and get to appointments to try and figure out what is causing my chronic pain. I have fibromyalgia diagnosed already, but I suspect something else may be related to the extreme bone and joint pain I feel all the time. So far I just have a diagnosis as chronic pain and we're struggling to find ways to deal with it.

I dont want to die anymore. I still feel pain all the time and little helps it. I'm trying to find things to do but chronic illness means I can only do a little each day. I have little hope for my situation improving and I don't think I'll be able to get disability on the fibromyalgia and chronic pain diagnoses alone. I'm trying to find answers but there's little I can do. This is a sad story but not that unusual.

I have a friend who worked herself to exhaustion. She lives in chronic pain. She also uses up all her sick days and takes time off without getting any money so she can keep her job and have enough hope to survive. I have other chronically ill friends who work themselves to the point of passing out before they will stop because they cant. We cant stop working because we wouldn't be able to get treatment just to survive. My mom should probably be retired by now and has a ton of chronic illnesses, but she still works because she cant afford to just stop. I've talked to people online who have chronic illness and are struggling to get SSI, but because they worked in the past several years they aren't eligible. No one that is chronically ill can just stop working and still get support for their health. We are completely and utterly fucked in the land of opportunity that is the United States of America.

I have student debt to pay off still, a car, rent, my one credit card, and utilities. I dont think I can go back to work because I'm not functional enough most days that I could put people in danger. I miss my job and my friends I had. I almost died but before I broke from the pressure and exhaustion and pain, I was hopeful.

Now I just hope I can get out of bed the next day, to do one thing I like; play a game, read a book, make some art, even just play with my bird.

I want to share with you my logs from the past year. I even recorded how many steps I take now, and bad days I take maybe 300 steps in the entire day. But there are many days that you can see where I take more than that, even at a a level 8 pain. It's not that the pain isn't that bad, its that I have to do things that day, regardless of the pain.

I just wanted to tell you all why I have been missing for a while. Why I haven't been active in Creatures lately. I think if you see what I have been struggling with, maybe you can soften any attitudes you have towards your own friends and family with chronic illness.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/thmq9v7800qffg2/1544063237981_Christine_Sharas_PainScale_Report.pdf?dl=0

Edit: I have my medical marijuana card btw, don't hate on that.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Short update

I been working on some of the insects for Albia² and have had some success. I also added a link to my download onto the blog, and a link for donations because I been working on this stuff for years and could use the support.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

The 17 script improvement

I am happy to see that this bug that used to occur in the old Creatures 1 world has been fixed in my new world, Albia². The process was interesting to figure out and I wanted to share what I did with you guys.

I'm going to start with showing you the improved script. This is for my banana, the one that is growing on the tree by the lighthouse.

scrp 2 18 2 17dropimpt 3aim: 0,apprtoucwait 4mesg writ _it_ 4wait 10pose 73wait 5snde chwlmesg writ _it_ 0pose 74wait 7pose 12wait 4mesg writ _it_ 5impt 0wait 20dropdoneendm

The important bit is I added is the drop at the end which is in bold. The drop command tells the creature to drop anything its carrying. It's used right in the beginning, and you can see this in game when a creature carrying something spots something it wants and anything its carrying is dropped immediately. If you have the eye viewer on, you usually see it look at an object and then when it decides to go for it, it drops all its holding.

There is also this small problem with carrots. When a Norn eats a carrot, sometimes it will hang on to it when it turns into a seedling even though its supposed to go back to the ground. This happens because its become deactivated after a norn eats it, and until the carrot is dropped, it will remain deactivated so the norn cant eat it again while its regrowing. Some norns just keep trying to eat the carrot they're holding even though they cant, and wont pick up another object. Its also important to note that all the regrowing foods included in C1 aren't actually removed from the game, it just moves it to another spot where you cant see it, before making it go to back to the garden. Lemons do this too.

I modeled my script after the in game scripts because anything I tried to make was too buggy or just didnt work the way I wanted. But if I wanted to use those scripts, I needed to fix the problem where creatures wont drop the item for long periods of time and almost starve. My solution was to get the creatures to drop the object once its done interacting with it.

This spot is probably the best spot because its right before the done command, where the creature will start to think about something else and is finished with the object. So far its been working wonderfully, for all the regrowing foods I have. I hope you can enjoy it too!

Monday, April 2, 2018

Albia²

Albia² V-1

I have spent several years and my idea is finally almost done.

There are still many things that are not finished that I have not included. I will be adding these at later dates as I finish them.

The world allows 48 norns, any creatures can breed together, like in Terra Nornia.

I have included a variety of plants and mushrooms to add to your world. There is not enough room in the scriptorium to include every object I made, so after I give you the basic world, it's your turn to personalize your world.

I will have a website showing what each object does to your norns.

My next update is going to have delivery food and weeds.

So here is all that I have included!

I cleaned up the MU files and included them in the sounds folder. I was annoyed with the amount of static I would hear when I tried to play on my computer. Be sure to keep the original MU files in a safe place just in case you don't like my edited sound files.

One of the vendors is the Oven, by Freya. All her original code is there, I only added a few lines to install my own foods too. I have used Figs beer keg to help norns refill their beers.

I highly suggest using No Eggs Birth, which I have included, because then you don't have to deal with overly curious Norns messing with your eggs, and you can delete the incubator. Speaking of the incubator, I have used Terra Nornias Incubator. I have also used muppetboy's Grendel Mother.

I love this game and I hope you will love it too. I know there are bugs, and I appreciate anyone giving me any feedback on it. So far I have found many and fixed a bunch but I am also using the Creature Caves forum for feedback. I hope you like it as much as I did!

Link

<3