~ Novelty's August... and September... and the rest of the year ~

No, I haven't posted this in the wrong forum, but since I have no confidential infomation left anymore in the report, I thought I might as well bring it out into the open for all to see how busy I am on most days with my "Novelty from CCG Workshop" hat. That is of course in addition to the other real life things I have to do... and yes, I do have those.

For all those non-Ghosts out there, I do an end of the month summary every month in the Haunted Mansion (or used to anyways, until today) and I detail out the outstanding plans for the next 3 months and the proposed plans for the rest of the year. I also keep a blog devoted to my CCG doings and I try to updated that on a daily basis. Apparently it has a following of at least 2, maybe more.

Without further ado:

Mentoring
Didn't pick up anyone new to mentor this month as well.

Tournaments and Leagues
The league started by arderialite (Lord Pic) seems to have died midway. People just lost interest, and the rules for the league was a whole lot more complex than what it could have been. Also, Pic seems to have gotten CCG leagues confused with sport leagues, which are completely two different styles of competition.

Shepherds
At least 3 more people signed up to be shepherds, all 3 for Yukk. Quite a number of people have learnt Yukk in tours. TRajedy has already missed one out of his first five tours with no advanced notification on the forums.

gNet BOT
The BOT is still being "intell'ed up". I recently added the B5 deckbuilding rules to the BOT. More and more technical questions are being asked and since about a week or two ago, there has also been requests for game rules and clarifications via the BOT. It would be up to the individual leads to add those if they choose to do so.

Games
Like last month I'll only report the games that had an update this month:

Babylon 5
The new custom set, The Vorlons, were added this month for playtesting. All cards have the appropriate images from the TV show. Tweaks to The Vorlons were the focus of the month, including automation for specific VO cards.

Go Fish
A minor interface tweak was added at the beginning of the month. This game plays really smoothly now.

Magi-Nation Duel
The long awaited automation for Bottled City has been added. The custom cards have had some minor revision as per playtester comments and three new custom cards have been added.

Portable Adventures
Further tweaks in the adventure interface were carried out this month, including the fact that the adventures now recognises what cards are being played.

Quartet
Quartet is to date the only new game for August (although Abduction might join the ranks soon). The game is playable, but due to an unsatisfactory amount of time spent playtesting it, it's not as smooth as Go Fish.

Wildstorms
There's only two upgrades to Wildstorm, both in relation to ultimately automating Setup.

September 2004 Plans
I've had a busy August and I think I'd like to take my "vacation" time this September, so consequently, I'll scale back on the usually very ambitious plans I include in this section. The adventure automation is still outstanding from PAD and that needs to be done ASAP. Also, MND still has the last few months of playtesting left for Elder's Legacy and I'd devote the remainder of my time to it this month. Hamlet has an errata, and I also needs to add in legality checking which was originally scheduled for this month.

One small loophole needs to be closed in Kings - it is currently possible to place a card into an area already containing a card if you click close enough to the card. Also the translations needs to have the Deck and Next Card in the correct language.

So, in list form, with priority from highest to lowest:
1. PAD - Finish up adventure automation - by 30th September.
2. MND - change background by 2nd September, custom cards ongoing.
3. HAMLT - add errata and legality checking.
4. KINGS - close loophole and fix translations.

O. Add Go Fish cardbacks when available.
O. Wildstorms - Complete setup automation. (Optional)
O. Complete Triple Triad scans. (Optional)
O. Start Bowling gML. (Optional)

Remainder of 2004 Plans
Babylon 5 - The rest of the year would be to figure out automations for Babylon 5. Still on the list of things to do is the automation for replacement and the automated influence tracking and automated initiative determination. Those would take quite a lot of time that I'll have to schedule to be set aside.

Also, The Vorlons is being finalised by the end of October, which means it changes colour from olive/gold to blue in November. Consequently, I'm dedicating November to update game, including the graphics/images for the game - some of it has "placeholder" images for the time being that will need to be updated. Also, the schemas all need to be tweaked to make them as close to the real cards as possible... and the cost "football" icon needs a better scan IMO. Another thing to look out for would be bold text on the cards. I have an idea of how that could be done, but it'll need some work.

Borders - Borders needs an update to enable the "Reverse" card (which is the Reversi card) to work. This is waiting for the next build of the engine, unless I go the complicated route. Either way, it needs time. Current play = October.

Bowling - The gML still needs to be started. It will "borrow" heavily from Yahtzee. Since I'm taking "vacation" this will go back a month. Expected public: End of October.

Elemental - The tidal wave automation ihas long been outstanding. I think it's possible to do this now, but the script is going to be rather complicated. No schedule for this. Not a high priority since the game works well without the automation and I don't want to introduce something that would introduce errors. It will be done when I can find the time and the motivation.

FastBreak - The game is beginning to feel a bit "low tech" now, eventhough it did have a few innovations (when it was first made). Could do with more playtesting and more inprovements, but until I find the time and the motivation, this isn't going to be done anytime soon.

Go Fish - What do you do when the game plays well and is bug free? Nothing I suppose. However, it'd be getting a minor facelift soon - a tiny crab will be added which will allow an 5 more players to play the game simultaneously. I doubt we'll ever get 13 players into a Go Fish game, but who knows? The schedule is undermined at the moment, and it's not high priority. It could be this year, it could be the next. As usual, cardbacks will continually be added to this game.

Hamlet! - Besides legality checking this month, there isn't anything else.

HumAliens - The game is dead, but there's still work to be done. Hopefully, the New Order would be an Online only expansion and that has to be done... in October.

Hyborean Gates - Work is scheduled to start in October. Probably will be public by November.

Kings - The closing of loopholes and the language checking versions should put Kings onto a "Now Playing" status. And guess what? Kings is a perpetual free game since it's one play only... and only one player.

Magi-Nation Duel - Custom cards are still ongoing and I think people are rather used to the gameplay. The only other thing that can be done is to track how energy is gained and used up. However that is a monumental task since every card does it differently and there are many modifiers... which means it's not going to get done. I think I might also add in something to shuffle all creatures back into the deck for Dream Rift. That's as much automation as I'd be doing...maybe tonight, maybe sometime this year.

Portable Adventures - After the adventure automating, the other major area would be Encounter cards. I have a rough idea of how to automate these, but they seem rather inconsequential to the whole game, so they might not get done until I get the time and the motivation. In addition, there are two card sets that will be added near the end of the year so those will get priority.

Quartet - More playtesting is needed on this game. Not much improvements will be made until further playtesting is carried out.

Reversi - nipa needs to add a left click to place piece ability, but that's of extremely low priority.

Triple Triad - Scanning has started, but I have no idea when I'll have the time to do this. Hopefully it'll all be scanned by November. I only have 1 - 90, so if anyone wants to scan in the rest of the 18 cards, for me, they are most welcome. Please PM me for more details.

Urland - It could use some scoring automation at some point in the future, but not this year.

Wildstorm - Complete automating setup. Watch out next year when I add my custom StormWatch expansion.

Wildstorm: Set 1 - The WSS2 update is still planned, although it hasn't gone ahead. The game also needs and auto-score if the defender wins. This will be done with the WSS2 update. ETA: Next year.

You Need Drew's Truck - I'd like to automate moving the truck, and automate the initial placements of the donuts. Not this year though, unless I get the time.

Yukk - This game feels rather low tech. After working on Portable Adventures, I think it's possible to put everything in one view... but again not this year.

So a monthly summary:

On Hold - ARC, BTECH
September - PAD, WS, HAMLT, KINGS
October - BORD, BOWL, HALN, GATES
November - B5, TRIAD
December - leftover to clean up the other stuff.

Wildstorm: Legends Solitaire (CCG) is still one of my hopefuls. Kings was built just as a demo platform to show that it's actually possible to do this game. I have most of the cards, but time is the limiting factor. Maybe next year, I'll put it on my plate.

No more new licensed games for me this year, unless it's the Urland Expansion or the 2 Portable Adventure Expansions or an Interactivities Ink game. I've a full load for the rest of the year.