~ Novelty's February Monthly Report ~
28 days this month... and I think I've done more this month that the past 3 combined...
Shepherds
This is the last month I'm going to report about the shepherds... they have been coming and going way too fast. As of today, there are 4 shepherds... or maybe 5.
gNet BOT
No time to work on the BOT this month. There is probably a bazillion stupid questions there as well as some not so stupid questions there waiting for answers. Maybe when things settle down and I get more time I'll finally get to sorting those questions out.
Forums
Tempest of the Gods was made public again. Highlander and Terminator got new forums this month, although traffic on those forums are close to nil. It's been a while since game which has no PLs has had a forum, but I thought those 3 definately deserves something for display on the forums. Added a whole load more for games which have a potential to be adapted on the engine. Most of them are dead games with no big following though. Cardbacks are required for some of those forums.
Games
This is a busy short month... not many games seems to have been updated, but of those that has changes, those changes are usually very significant.
BORD Borders
Borders didn't get the special icons, however the popup text got a make over and they now show if a card has a special function.
BOWL Bowling
Game was made public this month sans AI. One player mode works correctly. Two player mode runs into a bug with the delay that takes place while sending stuff to the server. This will have to be corrected at some point. Also, Ed wants the pins to be actual visible dice. I guess I'll have to add that in as well.
FTWIL Final Twilight
The graphics and the function of the game had some further tweaks as the game marches from being a "no-frills" to being a licensed game. The server isn't accepting any updates though, so it hasn't been uploaded yet
HALN HumAliens
A number of New Order cards were added this month.
GATES Hyborian Gates
I've scanned all the cards that I have for this game this month.
MND Magi-Nation Duel
5 Regions of Tainted Glimpses were added to the engine. This together with the Shadowsfall upgrades, were the main focus of work here on this game.
March 2005 Plans
This should be a busy month. I had to turn everything topsy-turvy because Ed requested that Portable Adventures take some priority with the Encounter automation.
Bowling needs a bug fix this month for 2 player mode to take into account of the lag with the server. Also the images needs to get updated with actual dice images as opposed to what they are now.
Babylon 5 needs to finally get the bold text in for all the cards. This will be a major upgrade for minor benefits.
MND Playtesting of Shadowsfall will result in modifications to those cards... and the addition of Tainted Glimpses continues this month, definately with KT and Weave and hopefully with Arderial and Naroom.
HumAliens and Second Order should definately be finished this month.
Hyborian Gates needs to get spoiler-ified, cards needs to be clipped and processed for the engine this month.
Wildstorms needs codes that will remove the battlesite from play or to return it to the Battlesite pile. Add attachments support to the game.
The regular optional - Go Fish cardback updates will still be retained for the month.
Once the next version of the engine is out, Kings (all 3 versions), Reversi and Checkers will need an update to remove all the ugly owner names.
So, prioritised games for this month:
1. Bowling - bugfix by 18th March
2. Hyborean Gates - spoiler and images by 31st March.
3. HumAliens - Second Order updates by 24th March.
4. Babylon 5 Bold text by 31st March.
5. Magi-Nation Duel - add in the next few regions for Tainted Glimpses. Update Shadowsfall Promo if and when necessary.
6. Wildstorms battlesite modifications and attachment support by 31st March.
O. Add Go Fish cardbacks when available.
O. Automate Portable Adventures encounters.
O. Kings, Reversi and Checkers needs to have all the ugly owner names removed for the next version of the engine.
O. Download Terminator images from the internet.
Rest of the Year Plans
Aliens vs Predators and Terminator (AVPVT) - Add Atmosphere cards and create the Planetfall scenario. Get Terminator scans from website, add it to the engine and create the 2 additional scenarios, as well as the Terminator scenario(s). Quite a bit of work here, but between Ravage and Ryan(Rekkon), I hope to get everything up and ready by the end of the year.
Babylon 5 (B5) - 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.
Borders (BORD) - Game is fully functional. It should probably get promoted to Now Playing soon.
Bowling (BOWL) - More playtesting is needed for this game especially after the fix.
Checkers (CHECK) - This is another "no frills", "low-tech" game at the moment. It would probably get upgraded once I have the time, motivation and ideas, but for now it's playable and that would have to do.
Elemental (ELEM) - The tidal wave automation has 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. Also the next build should see hotspots being added to the game.
FastBreak (FB) - 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.
Final Twilight (FTWIL) - New cards are being added on a regular basis so those will have to be coded in. A pay-and-play system and card attachments are also in the works. This game was originally intended to be "no-frills" but since it's now getting licensed, it'll have to move beyond that.
Firestorm (FIRE) - New licensed game for me to do for 2005, for July public release, or at least that's the plan.
Go Fish (GOFSH) - 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 undetermined at the moment, and it's not high priority. As usual, cardbacks will continually be added to this game.
Hamlet (HAMLT) - There really isn't much to do on this simple game except more playtesting... and perhaps a tournament or two. Hamlet is one of the few of my licensed games I'll consider ready for Now Playing status.
HumAliens (HALN) - Once New Order has been added, all that there is to do for this game is massive playtest.
Hyborian Gates (GATES) - Hopefully this will go public in April. It's going to be another "no frills", "low-tech" game though so it might lie fallow until someone with more enthusiasm and ideas comes along to take it over.
Magi-Nation Duel (MND) - 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.
Portable Adventures (PAD) - The other area to update would be the Encounter cards. I have a rough idea of how to automate these, and because of a request from Ed, will probably be done in April. In addition, there are two card sets that will be added near the end of the year so those will get priority when they are available.
Quartet (QUART) - More playtesting is needed on this game. Not much improvements will be made until further playtesting is carried out. The game seems stable though.
Reversi (RVRSI) - Since Tomi added the left-click functionality and upgraded the images, it's done and has been upgraded to "Now Playing". No work required.
Triple Triad (TRIAD) - Scanning has finished, but I have no idea when I'll have the time to code this. There is also a rather good site to play it online anyways, so it might be moot to adapt it to the engine... but it'll make a good distraction for one the the months when I need a distraction. I only have cards 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 (URLND) - It could use some scoring automation at some point in the future, time to be determined.
Wildstorms (WS) - There's the plan to add my custom StormWatch expansion sometime this year, probably in the second half of the year.
Wildstorms Legends (WSLS) - This game is going into the queue after Bowling, Firestorm, Hyborean Gates and Triple Triad. I guess that makes it a November public release game.
Wildstorm: Set 1 (WSS1) - 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. Schedule: June - October.
You Need Drew's Truck (YNDT) - I'd like to automate moving the truck, and automate the initial placements of the donuts. I'm going to wait for the grid system that Ed has promised though before working on it.
Yukk (YUKK) - This game feels rather low tech, but it works well. I think I'll leave it as it is.
I have way too many games on my plate. No new game announcements from me until at least until June, unless it's a game like Final Twilight which will be a one week distraction.
2005 Plans
April - FIRE, GATES, MND, PAD
May - ELEM, FIRE, URLND, AVPVT (Terminator)
June - WSS1, YNDT, AVPVT (Terminator)
July - WSS1, TRIAD
August - WSLS, TRIAD
September - WSLS, WS (Stormwatch)
High Priority for next 3 months (after March):
* Automate Encounters in Portable Adventures
* Make Hyborian Gates beta
* Card templates for Silk Road and playtest. Finalise rules.
Medium Priority:
* Firestorm
* Add Terminator to AvPvT
* Add bold text to B5 cards
* Finalise Shadowsfall Promo Magi for MND
In between Medium and Low Priority:
* Add hotspots to Elemental
* Automate YNDT truck moving
* Automate scoring in Urland, add hotspots
* Add AI to Bowling
Low Priority:
* Triple Triad
* WS Legends
* WSS2 expansion for WSS1
* Stormwatch expansion for WS
* Atmosphere for AvP
* Crab to Go Fish
No Priority:
* Highlander
* Tempest of the Gods
* Armageddon
Shepherds
This is the last month I'm going to report about the shepherds... they have been coming and going way too fast. As of today, there are 4 shepherds... or maybe 5.
gNet BOT
No time to work on the BOT this month. There is probably a bazillion stupid questions there as well as some not so stupid questions there waiting for answers. Maybe when things settle down and I get more time I'll finally get to sorting those questions out.
Forums
Tempest of the Gods was made public again. Highlander and Terminator got new forums this month, although traffic on those forums are close to nil. It's been a while since game which has no PLs has had a forum, but I thought those 3 definately deserves something for display on the forums. Added a whole load more for games which have a potential to be adapted on the engine. Most of them are dead games with no big following though. Cardbacks are required for some of those forums.
Games
This is a busy short month... not many games seems to have been updated, but of those that has changes, those changes are usually very significant.
BORD Borders
Borders didn't get the special icons, however the popup text got a make over and they now show if a card has a special function.
BOWL Bowling
Game was made public this month sans AI. One player mode works correctly. Two player mode runs into a bug with the delay that takes place while sending stuff to the server. This will have to be corrected at some point. Also, Ed wants the pins to be actual visible dice. I guess I'll have to add that in as well.
FTWIL Final Twilight
The graphics and the function of the game had some further tweaks as the game marches from being a "no-frills" to being a licensed game. The server isn't accepting any updates though, so it hasn't been uploaded yet
HALN HumAliens
A number of New Order cards were added this month.
GATES Hyborian Gates
I've scanned all the cards that I have for this game this month.
MND Magi-Nation Duel
5 Regions of Tainted Glimpses were added to the engine. This together with the Shadowsfall upgrades, were the main focus of work here on this game.
March 2005 Plans
This should be a busy month. I had to turn everything topsy-turvy because Ed requested that Portable Adventures take some priority with the Encounter automation.
Bowling needs a bug fix this month for 2 player mode to take into account of the lag with the server. Also the images needs to get updated with actual dice images as opposed to what they are now.
Babylon 5 needs to finally get the bold text in for all the cards. This will be a major upgrade for minor benefits.
MND Playtesting of Shadowsfall will result in modifications to those cards... and the addition of Tainted Glimpses continues this month, definately with KT and Weave and hopefully with Arderial and Naroom.
HumAliens and Second Order should definately be finished this month.
Hyborian Gates needs to get spoiler-ified, cards needs to be clipped and processed for the engine this month.
Wildstorms needs codes that will remove the battlesite from play or to return it to the Battlesite pile. Add attachments support to the game.
The regular optional - Go Fish cardback updates will still be retained for the month.
Once the next version of the engine is out, Kings (all 3 versions), Reversi and Checkers will need an update to remove all the ugly owner names.
So, prioritised games for this month:
1. Bowling - bugfix by 18th March
2. Hyborean Gates - spoiler and images by 31st March.
3. HumAliens - Second Order updates by 24th March.
4. Babylon 5 Bold text by 31st March.
5. Magi-Nation Duel - add in the next few regions for Tainted Glimpses. Update Shadowsfall Promo if and when necessary.
6. Wildstorms battlesite modifications and attachment support by 31st March.
O. Add Go Fish cardbacks when available.
O. Automate Portable Adventures encounters.
O. Kings, Reversi and Checkers needs to have all the ugly owner names removed for the next version of the engine.
O. Download Terminator images from the internet.
Rest of the Year Plans
Aliens vs Predators and Terminator (AVPVT) - Add Atmosphere cards and create the Planetfall scenario. Get Terminator scans from website, add it to the engine and create the 2 additional scenarios, as well as the Terminator scenario(s). Quite a bit of work here, but between Ravage and Ryan(Rekkon), I hope to get everything up and ready by the end of the year.
Babylon 5 (B5) - 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.
Borders (BORD) - Game is fully functional. It should probably get promoted to Now Playing soon.
Bowling (BOWL) - More playtesting is needed for this game especially after the fix.
Checkers (CHECK) - This is another "no frills", "low-tech" game at the moment. It would probably get upgraded once I have the time, motivation and ideas, but for now it's playable and that would have to do.
Elemental (ELEM) - The tidal wave automation has 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. Also the next build should see hotspots being added to the game.
FastBreak (FB) - 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.
Final Twilight (FTWIL) - New cards are being added on a regular basis so those will have to be coded in. A pay-and-play system and card attachments are also in the works. This game was originally intended to be "no-frills" but since it's now getting licensed, it'll have to move beyond that.
Firestorm (FIRE) - New licensed game for me to do for 2005, for July public release, or at least that's the plan.
Go Fish (GOFSH) - 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 undetermined at the moment, and it's not high priority. As usual, cardbacks will continually be added to this game.
Hamlet (HAMLT) - There really isn't much to do on this simple game except more playtesting... and perhaps a tournament or two. Hamlet is one of the few of my licensed games I'll consider ready for Now Playing status.
HumAliens (HALN) - Once New Order has been added, all that there is to do for this game is massive playtest.
Hyborian Gates (GATES) - Hopefully this will go public in April. It's going to be another "no frills", "low-tech" game though so it might lie fallow until someone with more enthusiasm and ideas comes along to take it over.
Magi-Nation Duel (MND) - 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.
Portable Adventures (PAD) - The other area to update would be the Encounter cards. I have a rough idea of how to automate these, and because of a request from Ed, will probably be done in April. In addition, there are two card sets that will be added near the end of the year so those will get priority when they are available.
Quartet (QUART) - More playtesting is needed on this game. Not much improvements will be made until further playtesting is carried out. The game seems stable though.
Reversi (RVRSI) - Since Tomi added the left-click functionality and upgraded the images, it's done and has been upgraded to "Now Playing". No work required.
Triple Triad (TRIAD) - Scanning has finished, but I have no idea when I'll have the time to code this. There is also a rather good site to play it online anyways, so it might be moot to adapt it to the engine... but it'll make a good distraction for one the the months when I need a distraction. I only have cards 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 (URLND) - It could use some scoring automation at some point in the future, time to be determined.
Wildstorms (WS) - There's the plan to add my custom StormWatch expansion sometime this year, probably in the second half of the year.
Wildstorms Legends (WSLS) - This game is going into the queue after Bowling, Firestorm, Hyborean Gates and Triple Triad. I guess that makes it a November public release game.
Wildstorm: Set 1 (WSS1) - 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. Schedule: June - October.
You Need Drew's Truck (YNDT) - I'd like to automate moving the truck, and automate the initial placements of the donuts. I'm going to wait for the grid system that Ed has promised though before working on it.
Yukk (YUKK) - This game feels rather low tech, but it works well. I think I'll leave it as it is.
I have way too many games on my plate. No new game announcements from me until at least until June, unless it's a game like Final Twilight which will be a one week distraction.
2005 Plans
April - FIRE, GATES, MND, PAD
May - ELEM, FIRE, URLND, AVPVT (Terminator)
June - WSS1, YNDT, AVPVT (Terminator)
July - WSS1, TRIAD
August - WSLS, TRIAD
September - WSLS, WS (Stormwatch)
High Priority for next 3 months (after March):
* Automate Encounters in Portable Adventures
* Make Hyborian Gates beta
* Card templates for Silk Road and playtest. Finalise rules.
Medium Priority:
* Firestorm
* Add Terminator to AvPvT
* Add bold text to B5 cards
* Finalise Shadowsfall Promo Magi for MND
In between Medium and Low Priority:
* Add hotspots to Elemental
* Automate YNDT truck moving
* Automate scoring in Urland, add hotspots
* Add AI to Bowling
Low Priority:
* Triple Triad
* WS Legends
* WSS2 expansion for WSS1
* Stormwatch expansion for WS
* Atmosphere for AvP
* Crab to Go Fish
No Priority:
* Highlander
* Tempest of the Gods
* Armageddon
posted by Novelty @ 12:12 am
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