Resources, gathering, and making things, are all part of the "projects" feature I'm currently working on. Next thing after that is eating (and starvation).

So have you started an Alpha? - Juding by their comments, people are actually playing it. In which case, may I join too?

Pretty neat, but I don't know if I'd play a game like that (never played Cantr). Can I try it out as well?

My second character seemed to have missed part of a conversation (or someone is talking to herself)

Whispering has been there from day one. To whisper to someone, select his/her name in the dropdown right above the talk box, then talk. Currently, whispering is completely invisible to other characters, so that's probably the reason you've missed part of a conversation. But I will make it so that there's a random chance of others noticing the fact you are whispering, and a smaller chance of others overhearing your conversation. This is a bit harder to implement than what I have now, and there are more important things to do, so bear with me.

Sure thing. See your private messages for account details.

What's the travel speed? Will I keep moving along the road if I log out? And who built these roads, anyway?

EDIT:

Is there a way to see the overall map that you've explored so far, or will I just have to remember the way if I want to turn back?

EDIT:

Is in-game time slower than real life time?

It was a rhetorical, in-game question.

EDIT:

So it will take about six (real) hours to go anywhere?

No. It's there because I copied the login page from another project, but the way I had implemented it there was kind of half-broken (i.e., it doesn't scale well at all). Implementing a version that works is on my list. I think I should just disable that checkbox for now.

Definitely. Currently, I add items types and projects through SQL statements (or phpmyadmin), but I will absolutely make a nice web interface for this - even if it's only for myself, because the process is quite tedious.

As a hack, you should be able to drop it and hope nobody else gets it before them. That said, I don't think there's really any justification to trade items yet...

Soon. First I'll need to finish the first raw version of the whole projects thing. It's taking a tad bit longer than I had hoped, especially because I really really need a useable maintenance interface, which turns out to be pretty tedious.

When that's done, I'll make a generic two-way inventory control that would allow you to move items between inventories. I can then use this for all situations where two inventories are involved: Trade, picking up and dropping, putting items into projects, and maybe stealing.

Speaking of which:

I was actually thinking of a stealing feature. You could choose to "snatch" things or take them using brute force. With the first option, each attempt would give you a list of items you happen to come across while secretly rummaging through the other character's bag, then you'd select one, and a roll would determine whether you succeed, or the other character notices your attempt. Your "snatching" skill would influence your chance of success. The brute force approach would only be available for items that are publicly visible (larger items), the other character would always notice, and your success chance would be rolled based on the strengths of you and the other character. So if you're really strong, you can just take things by brute force, but everyone will notice; if you're good at snatching, you have a chance of stealing without being noticed, but it's much lower than the brute force chance.

Another thing I've been thinking about is signatures. When you write a note, you will have the option of signing it; while your signature doesn't tell anyone your identity directly, it will be recognizable, and by comparing it to another signature, it can be verified. This would allow for enforcable written contracts, as well as bank notes and such. Technically, it's probably going to be a randomized bezier line pattern rendered onto a PNG image and tied to your character.

Physical properties are another thing I've been thinking about; however, a graphical representation, while doable, would contrast heavily with the otherwise text-based character of the game, while a textual representation is really really hard to get right without making it look artificial. So I'm not sure yet how far I'll go with this one. Things like height, posture, hair color, etc., are definitely possible though, and they would probably give enough clues to distribute character descriptions in-game. Automating the whole "looks like X" thing isn't something I see myself implementing though: It's going to be a pain to get right, and I don't see much advantage over manually checking a character's properties against a written note.

So far it does