~ Novelty's January monthly report ~
This is 2 days late. Blegh. Sometimes life just catches up and pulls the rug from under my feet. I simply hate that. I can symphatise with the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
Shepherds
All the VTES shepherds are gone of course... and so are most of the players. There was a new shepherd this month - mistfits. He's been doing what he's supposed to be doing although I have no idea how good he is at it.
gNet BOT
I didn't get much time to work on the BOT this month. Subsequently it has a huge list of unanswered questions. I'll leave them there. Most of them are just nonsensical anyways, but there are some pertinent ones in there that will have to be handled at some point.
Forums
Final Twilight got added this month as a new forum as well as Coin Wars. Sideshow's icon was added as well. The latter 2 aren't open to the public yet.
Games
I didn't exactly do what I wanted to do this month, but a lot seems to be done this month.
AVPVT Aliens vs Predator vs Terminator
While working on Final Twilight, I noticed a few oddities in the AvP files, so those got cleaned up. Some defects were fixed as well over the month.
B5 Babylon 5
Players were complaining about the G'Kar (V)'s absence of Psi, so I added that as well as the ability to remove the entire discard pile from play.
BOWL Bowling
The game is almost ready now. 4 more major scripts and it should get into playable closed alpha soon.
ELEM Elemental
This game was featured this month and a few people played it. One of them gave some suggestions, some of which got added into the game.
FTWIL Final Twilight
This was the distraction of the month. A request in the new game forum lead to a playable game within 3 days of coding. The game is now in public testing and is fully playable. It also has all the cards.
GOFSH Go Fish
Three cardbacks were added to Go Fish this month, including that for Final Twilight.
MND Magi-Nation Duel
Elder's Legacy had some typos corrected and Shadowsfall finally completed its complement of 12 cards on the engine. The game has been gaining some popularity again and more typos has been discovered.
February 2005 Plans
The only thing I did last month that I said I'll do is MND. That continues this month.
Bowling should be finished this month. Four more scripts will be written sometime between now and the 10th - the game will go closed testing then. It'll go public testing probably a week after that to be a new game in February. There will be an AI in this game.
I've scheduled to do the Borders special icons this month. Might as well get them done since they are simple (relatively).
Final Twilight needs a few more tweaks for this month, including better graphics to track money and moren, pay and play and card attachements. The first could probably be done this month.
MND needs minor tweaks to Shadowsfall... and the addition of Tainted Glimpses.
HumAliens is still waiting for its expansion to be added. However I'm going to push this back down to optional for February due to the fact that the game isn't very popular.
Hyborean Gates should get the scans finished this month. Realistically speaking, the spoiler will hit the optional list.
The regular optional - Go Fish cardback updates will still be retained for the month.
So, prioritised games for this month:
1. Bowling - get playable 10th February, public by 17th February
2. Hyborean Gates - scan by 28th February.
3. Borders - add in icons for Draw 5, Wild, Reverse, Skip and Draw 2.
4. Magi-Nation Duel - add in the first few regions for Tainted Glimpses. Fix Shadowsfall Promo typos.
5. Final Twilight - update moren and money counters.
O. Add Go Fish cardbacks when available.
O. HumAliens - Second Order updates.
O. Final Twilight - update Money and Moren counters
Rest of the Year Plans
Aliens vs Predators (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) - Bold text takes the next priority now that the images/icons are fixed. This will be done in March. 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) - After the icons are added the game wouldn't any more major updates.
Bowling (BOWL) - Once it gets into public testing, there should only be minor tweaks left foreseeably and especially to the AI.
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.
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 June 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) - The game is dead, but there's still work to be done. Hopefully, the New Order would be an Online only expansion to be added soon.
Hyborean 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 will probably be done in the second half of the year. 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 nipa 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) - The battlesite cards needs another looking into. Also card attachment would be a bonus here. 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
March - B5, FIRE, FTWIL, GATES, HALN, WS
April - FIRE, MND, TRIAD
May - URLND, TRIAD, AVPVT (Terminator)
June - WSS1, AVPVT (Terminator)
July - PAD, WSS1
August - PAD, WSLS
September - WSLS, WS (Stormwatch)
Shepherds
All the VTES shepherds are gone of course... and so are most of the players. There was a new shepherd this month - mistfits. He's been doing what he's supposed to be doing although I have no idea how good he is at it.
gNet BOT
I didn't get much time to work on the BOT this month. Subsequently it has a huge list of unanswered questions. I'll leave them there. Most of them are just nonsensical anyways, but there are some pertinent ones in there that will have to be handled at some point.
Forums
Final Twilight got added this month as a new forum as well as Coin Wars. Sideshow's icon was added as well. The latter 2 aren't open to the public yet.
Games
I didn't exactly do what I wanted to do this month, but a lot seems to be done this month.
AVPVT Aliens vs Predator vs Terminator
While working on Final Twilight, I noticed a few oddities in the AvP files, so those got cleaned up. Some defects were fixed as well over the month.
B5 Babylon 5
Players were complaining about the G'Kar (V)'s absence of Psi, so I added that as well as the ability to remove the entire discard pile from play.
BOWL Bowling
The game is almost ready now. 4 more major scripts and it should get into playable closed alpha soon.
ELEM Elemental
This game was featured this month and a few people played it. One of them gave some suggestions, some of which got added into the game.
FTWIL Final Twilight
This was the distraction of the month. A request in the new game forum lead to a playable game within 3 days of coding. The game is now in public testing and is fully playable. It also has all the cards.
GOFSH Go Fish
Three cardbacks were added to Go Fish this month, including that for Final Twilight.
MND Magi-Nation Duel
Elder's Legacy had some typos corrected and Shadowsfall finally completed its complement of 12 cards on the engine. The game has been gaining some popularity again and more typos has been discovered.
February 2005 Plans
The only thing I did last month that I said I'll do is MND. That continues this month.
Bowling should be finished this month. Four more scripts will be written sometime between now and the 10th - the game will go closed testing then. It'll go public testing probably a week after that to be a new game in February. There will be an AI in this game.
I've scheduled to do the Borders special icons this month. Might as well get them done since they are simple (relatively).
Final Twilight needs a few more tweaks for this month, including better graphics to track money and moren, pay and play and card attachements. The first could probably be done this month.
MND needs minor tweaks to Shadowsfall... and the addition of Tainted Glimpses.
HumAliens is still waiting for its expansion to be added. However I'm going to push this back down to optional for February due to the fact that the game isn't very popular.
Hyborean Gates should get the scans finished this month. Realistically speaking, the spoiler will hit the optional list.
The regular optional - Go Fish cardback updates will still be retained for the month.
So, prioritised games for this month:
1. Bowling - get playable 10th February, public by 17th February
2. Hyborean Gates - scan by 28th February.
3. Borders - add in icons for Draw 5, Wild, Reverse, Skip and Draw 2.
4. Magi-Nation Duel - add in the first few regions for Tainted Glimpses. Fix Shadowsfall Promo typos.
5. Final Twilight - update moren and money counters.
O. Add Go Fish cardbacks when available.
O. HumAliens - Second Order updates.
O. Final Twilight - update Money and Moren counters
Rest of the Year Plans
Aliens vs Predators (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) - Bold text takes the next priority now that the images/icons are fixed. This will be done in March. 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) - After the icons are added the game wouldn't any more major updates.
Bowling (BOWL) - Once it gets into public testing, there should only be minor tweaks left foreseeably and especially to the AI.
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.
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 June 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) - The game is dead, but there's still work to be done. Hopefully, the New Order would be an Online only expansion to be added soon.
Hyborean 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 will probably be done in the second half of the year. 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 nipa 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) - The battlesite cards needs another looking into. Also card attachment would be a bonus here. 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
March - B5, FIRE, FTWIL, GATES, HALN, WS
April - FIRE, MND, TRIAD
May - URLND, TRIAD, AVPVT (Terminator)
June - WSS1, AVPVT (Terminator)
July - PAD, WSS1
August - PAD, WSLS
September - WSLS, WS (Stormwatch)
posted by Novelty @ 9:41 pm
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