Subject: That's allll on the software.
Author: Huinesoron
Posted on: 2020-05-03 13:50:00 UTC

All I've hardcoded for the PPC fire lizards is the colour - everything else is randomly generated.

I've just been trying to get the program to tell you what sort of name you'd have to put in to see the daily dragonlet again. It turns out, uh... you can't. It works by adding the value of the name's letters together to make a random seed; Zora is seeded with 444, for instance. For the daily dragon, the lowest seed that you could use to replicate today's dragon is, um... 815716.

That means the shortest name you could starts with a string of over 1500 Zs. Maybe not, then?

It gets slightly better if you don't care about eye colour and background, but today's dragonlet still needs a name 10x longer than the text box will allow. So we won't be doing that, then...!

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Daily Pernese Fire Lizard generator by Huinesoron on 2020-05-02 19:43:45 UTC Reply

(The blame for this goes entirely to Neshomeh and Iximaz for mentioning it, and to Agent Lou for badgering me.)

Have you ever wanted to be greeted every day by a shoulder-sized dragon? Of course you have! Who wouldn't? And now, thanks to the magic of technology+art, you can!

Fire Lizard Generator

... probably. If you use Google Chrome, you can. If you use Firefox, you probably can. If you use Microsoft Edge and have updated to the new version since January, you can. If you use older versions of Edge, or Internet Explorer, you still can... but you'll lose some of the effect. (Specifically, all the fire lizards will be blue with blue eyes, because HTML canvas filters aren't supported on older Microsoft browsers.) If you use something else, I would love to hear whether it works for you!

As an added bonus, if you type in a name, the generator will show you the fire lizard that name belongs to! Try some of the PPC's resident fire lizards, or invent your own! You can even share the best ones you find - the same name will always produce the same result. (For the record, gold and green fire lizards are female, bronze, brown, and blue are male. The generator can't tell what you're aiming for with a name, though - sorry!)

Technical types - if there's anything you think could be improved, please let me know! Getting the canvases to align right on both PC and mobile has been a pain in the elbows, and I'm really disappointed that the filters mean I can't put everything on the same canvas and make it right-click saveable...

PS: Oh... and check out Beauty and Zair while you're there. :)

This is pretty cool. by QuantumMelody29 on 2020-05-05 19:48:30 UTC Reply

No idea if I have any need for randomly generated fire lizards at this point, but it is pretty cool!
Oh Lolus. U so derp. by Scapegrace on 2020-05-05 15:39:46 UTC Reply

The Notary is probably wondering where he went that he could pose like that, the little drama queen. Oh well, as long as he's back in time for his kebab. Obligate carnivores they may be, but I have a cat that eats Brussels sprouts so a triple combo chicken shish wrap with all the salad and Day-Glo orange burger sauce for a fire lizard is comparatively normal. Especially when it's Lolus, who is the Notary's special boy.

Her very special boy.

He is rock stupid but bless him he's trying his best. =]
Tangent: Did you know there was almost a DroP TV series in 1999? by Neshomeh on 2020-05-05 05:09:51 UTC Reply

This exists.

I.

Uh.

That voiceover.

Those effects.

What?

{X D

TBH I feel like I may have seen something about this before, but I may have blocked the memory. I am absurdly glad this didn't happen. In fairness, the woman they have as presumably-Lessa looks the part pretty well, though!

~Neshomeh
I... oh. Oh my goodness. by Iximaz on 2020-05-03 02:45:00 UTC Reply

I... got a gold.

I got a gold.

I would've been happy with a green or blue, but, uh. Wow.

Hello, Zora. Welcome to the family. <3

She's lovely! by Huinesoron on 2020-05-03 07:42:24 UTC Reply

Head frills + wing frills is one of my favourite combos, so you've got a good one there. :)

hS

It's really cool! by Iximaz on 2020-05-03 11:57:43 UTC Reply

I loved getting to see your interpretations of the PPC's lizards, too—they're soooo cute. :D

That's allll on the software. by Huinesoron on 2020-05-03 13:50:00 UTC Reply

All I've hardcoded for the PPC fire lizards is the colour - everything else is randomly generated.

I've just been trying to get the program to tell you what sort of name you'd have to put in to see the daily dragonlet again. It turns out, uh... you can't. It works by adding the value of the name's letters together to make a random seed; Zora is seeded with 444, for instance. For the daily dragon, the lowest seed that you could use to replicate today's dragon is, um... 815716.

That means the shortest name you could starts with a string of over 1500 Zs. Maybe not, then?

It gets slightly better if you don't care about eye colour and background, but today's dragonlet still needs a name 10x longer than the text box will allow. So we won't be doing that, then...!

hS

One thought by Tomash on 2020-05-04 04:49:32 UTC Reply
Is to show the random seed and let people enter it directly.

Another one, and one that allows for more randomness in the named lizards, is to do something other than just sum up the codepoints for the names on the input, is to multiply each letter by the relevant power of a relevant constant.

For example,
```
const N_TYPEABLE_ASCII = 127 - 32; // 127 being backspace and everything 31 and below being control characters
const TYPEABLE_SHIFT = 32; // 32 (space) is the first typeable character, we want it at 1
function to_dragon_seed(name) {
  var ret = 0;
  for (var i = name.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    ret = ret * UPPER_BOUND + (name.codePointAt(i) - 31);
  }
  return ret;
}
```
If you used a scheme where you uppercased the first letter, shifted name[0] down by 65 ('A') and the rest down by 97 ('a'), and used a scaling factor (N_TYPEABLE_ASCII above) of 26), you could represent every seed value up to 2^32 in seven letters (and if you're seeding with, say, current time, you can go modulo 2^32 without much trouble)

OT, Board tech question. by Neshomeh on 2020-05-05 14:15:09 UTC Reply

I've been wondering, would it be possible to add a date beside the [Edited] tag to show when the most recent edit was made? Or maybe have it viewable on hovering over the tag, so as not to have clutter in the event of multiple tags? It would be helpful in cases where posts get edited multiple times.

Cheers,

~Neshomeh

It would be possible by Tomash on 2020-05-06 08:15:11 UTC Reply

though I can't tell from an immediate look at the code whether or not we actually collect that time, so we might only be able to do this going forward.

My first thought about what to do with that info is to put it on the notice when you click on the edited post.

That would be spiffy. ^_^ by Neshomeh on 2020-05-06 15:10:17 UTC Reply

It would be nice to have a "new information here" signal for edits after the first right on the main page, but I recognize there may be practical limitations on that.

A timestamp on the post itself to indicate when it was last modified would be great.

~Neshomeh

Would it be possible... by Huinesoron on 2020-05-06 15:52:49 UTC Reply

... for the 'new post' dot to refresh when a post is edited? That wouldn't work for very new posts, but for older ones being edited it would.

hS

Thanks! by Huinesoron on 2020-05-04 08:05:47 UTC Reply

I think your more-randomer-seed suggestion is good, but at this point I don't want to break the named dragons already in place, so I think I'll have to stick with the current one. (I guess I'd have to add a name-value calculator if I used it, too, to let people actually find a name that fits?)

Letting people enter the random seed, though: that could work. Or rather, letting people enter a yyyy/mm/dd formatted date (coded to only work for a date in the past) to bring back their favourite dragons. I might do that. Thank you!

hS

Yeeeee! by Neshomeh on 2020-05-03 02:19:52 UTC Reply

Agent Neshomeh: *is tackled to the ground and locked in the closet before she can say a word about canonicity*

This is adorable and fun. Thank you! I'm happy to have helped inspire it. ^_^

Would you consider specific requests at all?

Also, uh, what about the one the Lichen Impressed? I've been calling her "Greenie" in my head, since the Flowers are rather uncreative at naming things in general, but did you have another idea for what to name her?

~Boarder Neshomeh

You are most welcome. :D by Huinesoron on 2020-05-03 07:52:01 UTC Reply

So what's the canonicity problem? The designs are based on the two main UK cover dragon designs - we got the very smooth version for the later books, but the earlier ones come with wing + head frills and outright holes in the wings (plus beaker mouths). Actually, the earliest covers are just sort of covered in streamers; I decided that was a bit too out there.

If there's an issue with anything other than that, I can probably fix it!

I'm happy to take requests for hard-coded colours - that's all I've done for the other named flizards (yes, Zair naturally comes out singing, it's adorable!). I'll pop Greenie in later today. So far I've done every PPC fire lizard on the Wiki, and every Canon fire lizard on a Pern wiki (forget which).

Along the way, I have marvelled yet again at the time Anne decided nine fire lizards just wasn't enough - she needed to give Menolly a tenth off-screen, and do nothing with him ever.

hS

Ohhh, I get it. by Neshomeh on 2020-05-03 14:54:14 UTC Reply

Didn't realize you were basing the designs on the covers. They're not actually described with most of that ornamentation. ^_^; They do have dorsal ridges (less prominent between the wings), forked tails and tongues, and head knobs, like dragons; the head knobs are less pronounced than dragons'.

Taking the excuse to pull out the good ol' Dragonlover's Guide, it says original-model fire-lizards had tridactyl front paws in a pincer configuration best suited for catching fish. Kitty Ping altered them to have pentadactyl "hands" (as the dragons would go on to have), supposedly making it easier for them to go for land prey, too. (I guess the back paws still have just three toes, though? The book says real toes, not claws, but I don't know what they're getting at with that; they're definitely equipped with claws, since people wear shoulder pads to protect themselves from said claws!) Also, the head knobs became slightly more pronounced, the noses became flatter (the original models had blunt {i.e. not wedge-shaped?} faces), and they became leaner but slightly larger overall.

You asked. ^_^; But I don't think removing variety is any fun at all, plus now I know they're based on official ~~if wrong~~ art, so I'll put Agent!Me back in the closet now. {= )

Two requests, then: back in my RP days, Jenni had a pair. Cain was a brown, and Jaythe was... well, she was silver, because we had some non-canon colors. >.> The explanation was a retrovirus that altered the genome, if it helps. Silvers were females almost on par with golds, generally smaller; the dragons would choose to either clutch or flame... but a light green would do very well instead, I think!

I haven't even thought about trying to generate one for myself, now. How the heck am I supposed to come up with a good name when I don't know who it's going to belong to? ^_^

~Neshomeh

So some of this is fixable. by Huinesoron on 2020-05-03 19:56:12 UTC Reply

I can't add things at this point without mucking up the hardcoded fire lizards, but I can tweak the art.

Specifically, I can turn the "horns" graphic into a "head knobs" graphic. They're a bit like giraffe ossicones, is that right? Only laid further back? I can also add a couple of extra fingers.

Other than that... I think a lot of the variation in the art is justifiable!

1/ Lack of dorsal spines, lack of head knobs: a sign of youth. Those are exactly the sort of thing that only becomes prominent with age.

2/ The two nose designs were intended to be 'mouth' and 'beak', but they also work as (an attempt at) 'blunt' and 'wedge', so perhaps the 'blunt' model is a throwback.

3/ The frills... well, like you say, official art is justification enough. Failing that, perhaps they're the post-Thread Pern equivalent of fancy pigeons. ^_^

As far as the named f'lizard generator goes: believe me, the issue had occurred to me! But a build-your-own dragonlet generator (like the TARDIS generator) would be a different project.

One thing Kaitlyn realised immediately you can do with it is get it to show what you would be like as a fire lizard - Huinesoron is, appropriately, flaming - and I considered labelling it accordingly. I could still do that, and tweak the 'owned' f'lizards to fit, but I'm not sure how I'd cope with Menolly's. Randomise which one you get, maybe?

Oh, speaking of people with multiple fire lizards... Cain and Jaythe are in now. I think you'll like them. :)

hS

Head-bumps and fingers are finally fixed. :) (nm) by Huinesoron on 2020-05-24 14:54:00 UTC Reply
Awww, you. by Neshomeh on 2020-05-05 05:19:16 UTC Reply

How did I know you wouldn't take the out on the recolor? She's gorgeous. Thank you. And Cain looks very well, too. I'm amused that they both ended up with spines and fancy-pigeon frills, which really fits perfectly with them being from an AU future with genetic aberrations. Much love. ^_^

I think smooth ossicones laid further back is the right idea for the head knobs, yeah.

And, let's see... Neshomeh is a light green fire-lizard with blue eyes, frills, no ridges, smooth wings, raised tail and forelegs, in the mountains. Pretty! ^_^

~Neshomeh

Evidence I've got no business griping. by Neshomeh on 2020-05-03 15:28:11 UTC Reply

Behold the Old Fire-Lizard Art. Head knobs are where? Tail is what? And I have to pull out the original drawing to tell that I used a three-claw model for all the feet, because the file is too small.

My best dragon pic was supposed to be a watch-wher. Also, no comments on the alleged human in the picture, please. {X D

And then there's this guy, who speaks for himself. ... I actually still quite like him, doomed to fangirl hell or no. ^_^

... I gotta finish that pic of Derik and his dragon someday, do the thing properly this time.

~Neshomeh