Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this “Praetorian Golems” thing, and let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride. I started out with absolutely no clue what I was doing, just a vague idea and a whole lot of enthusiasm.
Getting Started (and Failing a Lot)
First things first, I needed to figure out what I even wanted to make. I mean, “Praetorian Golems” sounds cool, but what does it actually mean? I spent a good few hours just brainstorming, sketching out some truly awful drawings, and basically getting nowhere fast.
My initial plan was to build some kind of… automated defense system. I’m not even sure. I had this image in my head of these big, clunky robots patrolling, but I had zero experience with robotics or AI or anything even remotely useful.
I started by trying to cobble together some basic circuits. I grabbed a bunch of wires, some LEDs, a breadboard I had lying around… and promptly fried the LEDs. Oops. Turns out, you need to, you know, actually understand electricity before you start plugging things in randomly. Who knew?
- Attempt 1: Fried LEDs.
- Attempt 2: Short-circuited something (I still don’t know what).
- Attempt 3: Managed to make an LED blink, but it was super dim and pathetic.
Pivoting (Because I Had To)
After realizing that my initial grand vision was way beyond my capabilities, I decided to scale things way back. Instead of building actual robot golems, I figured I’d try something a bit more… manageable. Software!
I’ve dabbled in coding before, nothing fancy, just some basic Python scripts. So, I thought, maybe I could create a simulation of these Praetorian Golems. You know, a little virtual world where they could roam around and… do golem things.
I spent days wrestling with Python and a game development library called Pygame. I followed some tutorials, copied and pasted a bunch of code I barely understood, and slowly, painfully, started to get something that resembled a game.
The (Slightly) Working Prototype
After many late nights fueled by instant noodles and frustration, I finally had something that worked! It wasn’t pretty, not even close, but it was something. I had a little window with a few blocky shapes that I could move around. These were my “golems.”
They didn’t do much. They just kind of… existed. But hey, they existed on my screen, and I made them! That was a huge win in my book.
Next Steps (and More Inevitable Failures)
So, what’s next? Well, I definitely want to make these golems do more than just… exist. I’m thinking maybe some basic AI, so they can patrol a set path. Or maybe even interact with each other. I don’t know, the possibilities are endless (and terrifying).
I’m fully expecting to run into more roadblocks, more bugs, and more moments of wanting to throw my computer out the window. But that’s part of the fun, right? Right…?
This whole “Praetorian Golems” project is a constant learning experience. It’s messy, it’s chaotic, and it’s probably going to take me forever to get anywhere close to my original vision. But I’m learning a ton, and that’s what matters. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll actually have those clunky robot golems patrolling my… virtual… apartment.
