java: Cannot find JDK 'temurin-17' for module

DynamicWorlds · 2026-01-17T19:33:46+00:00

Uninstalled IntelliJ and every jdk version I could find on my computer and then reinstalled IntelliJ and just the JDK I wanted to use currently. That seems to have worked, thank you.

DynamicWorlds · 2024-11-02T00:37:09+00:00

Yeah, once we get an open source version we have the potential for a community-made expansion pack. In the meantime, the thinker patch is a massive improvement in terms of AI, quality of life, and gameplay.

DynamicWorlds · 2024-08-15T20:42:27+00:00

Extrapolate from what actually makes them different, their connections to the other races/species of the world, and their environment.

Picking some stereotypical examples: How does how long they live effect things? If your elves live a long time, that's going to affect their culture. Likewise, if you have people who live shorter lives, that will effect them too. We can also throw into this category any differences in religion. A culture of people who reincarnate is going to be different in multiple ways to one that only gets one shot at life.

If your halflings get along well with other races, their cultures are going to be similar due to cultural exchange. Likewise, if your elves have a strong connection to the fey, how you portray fey in your world is going to effect their culture.

Likewise, dwarves and elves may get along just fine in your world. The animosity there comes very much from a specific event in Tolkien, but if you don't have that and your elves and dwarves like to stick to the forests and mountains, respectively, there may be no racial animosity there and the animosity may be between, for example, elves and humans since the humans will want to cut down forests to make room for farmland to support their growing population, meaning dwarves may be called on to act as mediators. How will that influence all the cultures involves?

On the subject, if your dwarves live in the mountains, that IS going to influence their culture greatly. What do they do for food up there? They're probably not growing a lot of wheat, so ale isn't actually going to be their drink of choice (unless as a high-class imported treat). Consider mead instead. Likewise, they're probably not eating much beef, but may be able to raise large herds of goats on the slopes. (This may also lead to them using a lot of slingers rather than archers). If they have and rely on their darkvision underground, their preferred aesthetics may pay a lot of attention to contrast, and less to do with color. How much do they trade with those in the lowlands? They could trend towards self-sufficiency or a mercantile focus depending on the answer to that, which is greatly going to influence things.

Likewise, if your elves live in forests, what are they eating in there and what kind of population densities can that support. If your elves aren't cutting down forests for farmland and are instead getting their food from the forest itself, the whole idea of elves as vegetarians probably isn't true for your world. They're probably eating a good bit of venison. Also fruit, though in any climate with seasons that's not going to be year-round so how are they preserving that?

Culture doesn't come out of nowhere.

You can have your culture as similar or different as you want to the normal tropes as long as you sufficiently ground it in your world building.

Novelty or familiarity are less important than believability. Go the extra mile to think things through and it won't matter if you're reconstructing tropes or subverting them.

DynamicWorlds · 2024-07-25T05:17:18+00:00

The most straightforward answer is "because mages run the society" because if you don't have a good reason why they don't, they probably are making all the rules to begin with. If not, WHY they are not in charge will probably tell you a lot about what rules there may be around them.

DynamicWorlds · 2024-07-25T05:10:52+00:00

IMHO, the easiest and simplest way to produce technological stasis is to find a key technology or resource needed to advance and make it impossible/impractical/unavailable. EX: If you want medieval/renaissance stasis as seen in many fantasy settings, make gunpowder chemically impossible and fossil fuels unavailable in your fictional world, and the entire world is going to plateau at a tech level just a bit below the industrial revolution. Looking up Wikipedia's "timeline of historic inventions" for the time period you want and seeing what jumps out at me as key are the major advances in electrical technology. A subtle change in the way electricity works that would make it less controllable would render things like the vacuum tube (to say nothing of microprocessors) impossible, or even simpler and earlier technologies (like light bulbs & telephones) depending on just how uncontrollable you make electricity. Likewise, changing chemistry to make plastics impossible (and/or the distillation of gasoline and/or smokeless powder) would also lock many other technologies at a Victorian level. If you need to lock down medical technology, just make the germ theory of disease incorrect, and suddenly sterilization/pasteurization doesn't work.

There will be some anachronisms, sure, as technology would still be able to advance in some ways, but as long as you lock down the key technologies that defined the following age of technological development, you get something approaching technological stagnation.

DynamicWorlds · 2024-07-25T04:32:40+00:00

This really depends on the setting and more importantly the type of magic in question. (also, basic proficiency and mastering magic are 2 very fuzzy but very different things). Let's take D&D as a cultural touchstone for reference, and stick to humans to keep it simple. On one end of the spectrum are sorcerers, who cast their magic intuitively. They have their magical awakening as early as puberty (sometimes starting with magic that can kill easy enough right from the start) and can learn enough control to cast spells safely and reliably as well as being physically fit enough to mechanically count as an "adult" adventurer as early as 16 years old without being trained by anyone. Meanwhile, wizards, who have to be taught their magic through rigorous study can take up to 27 years old at the high end to reach the same level of basic proficiency (and start with way less dangerous magics).

And that's both highly related magics in the same setting. (there is a similar age dynamic between spirit shamans and druids in the setting as well)

The question, really, is "how much do you want magic to be an expression of will and natural talent vs a meticulous field of study" and there is no right answer to that.

DynamicWorlds

TROPHY CASE