Sunday, 4 June 2017

upcoming vehicles statcards

howdy!
so, after a long time harping, and kavetching,
phil. one of the locals, has begun work on the new old-school statcard for staggered activation.
we only had the turbolaser turret until recently,
and I'm still looking for some token overlays to make it look real nice,
but here's a few WiPs.




We're playtesting these at the moment, hence the blank SA's and omitted Staggered Activation overlay.
These are print-ready and are 2 regular statcards combined. we'll see how they print, and may make printing accomodations for the split down the middle.
however, these should be much easier to store, and we only lose 8% or so of the area compared with that irregular sized actual staggered activation card.

We will be making turrets, emplacements and all with the staggered activation jumbo card format too. the Turbolaser will come in different varieties.
For Staggered Activation 1, you could fit that onto a regular statcard, for things like a turret emplacement.

Hopefully, we'll be able to make flyers and tile wars all work in a staggered activation way.

Friday, 2 June 2017

The Ultimate Game Controller

Howdy!

so, this was a recent topic of discussion at freethinkers,
and I found it profound on a number of levels.
It is guaranteed to induce an existential crisis.

Imagine, a custom reprogrammable controller,
a memristor controller, which you can program read-writably,
so as you can set the time interval, and you can share these programmable settings with friends via an SD chip reader or microSD...

|concept sketch humorous comic-book-fake-ad image pending|

I call it "The Ultimate Un-Useless Controller"
or, the Chindogu controller,
and the premium decadent version would be, the Oblomov
or "the existential crisis"

Are you sick of having to push buttons for your videogames?
Are you sick of paying for content hidden behind a microtransaction paybarrier?
it's a thing of the past! now, you just do it once, and let the AI controller work with the AI in your game, to complete it all for you!
 Now you can get on with life and let the unuseless machine mine itself, you can watch the world of world of warcraft and a lets play review, regurgitate that.
------

as humorous as that was,
I can see this would actually have some utility in some RC and starfighter game controllers;
the controller could be fed telemetry from damaged flight mode, and allow you to 'limp' more effectively when the vehicle in game is damaged, without the tedious 'wiggle' of the reaction sticks etc.
this controller is mounted on a gyroscopic arm, and the controller is self-righting, and can be configured to record precisely the piloting movements (see Laredo in Galaxy Quest hehe).

I also see an immediate application in Music, as evidenced by Ben Heck keyboard...
in moog and random pattern recognition between OEIS and other sequencing sources...
even simulating that random error rate.
particularly, a memristive halbach thomson's lamp switch: memXORiff gate entanglement could allow other patterns and timings than just the thomson's lamp, all within the same circuit without needing a whole heap of other gates and modules.
its a musical "typewriter's paradox"... 

dang, thanks L Chua, A Nugent and H deGaris!
you hinted at all of that, and more, and made it possible!

Monday, 22 May 2017

Treknological bashes

Howdy.
apologies for not making more content here publicly available.
I intend to redress that at some point.

I digress,
after a Trek RPG session,
I've managed to take some concept kitbashes from the other players.
and, they're happy to share it with folks so, here goes;

a Strider/Akula/Akyazi saucer, with a Saladin or Apollo nacelle and hull.

|image pending|

a Jester class saucer,
with a saladin nacelle.

Above: an oberth-Saladin hybrid project, I'm wondering what a deflector in the middle might look like.

an Ent-F hull with the Legacy style nacelles and saucer.
|image pending|

More to follow soon I hope,
as one of the locals is something of a great kitbasher or artist to be kind enough to share these images.

disclaimer;
trek is a roddenberry CBS thing, distinctive likenesses remain theirs - this is from a pen and paper FASA roleplaying game and the new modiphius trek game, so it's all good.

Sunday, 5 February 2017

Reflections on Netiquette and forums

Hi there folks.

Today was unfortunate, and a clear signal that
I need to change where and how I spend my time online.
This will mean I no longer feature FO4 related content here or elsewhere.
Any mods involved with me, will never be hosted at that domain.
I will not deal with that forum in the future.
Apologies to third parties and mod projects I was involved in ---
any future involvement will need to take place at other locales.
You have methods and means of reaching me, as many of you already have (and I am appreciative of. thank you for your support in this testing time).

It's not you or I, it is very much them.
There was never a we or an us, it was
one rule for some users, another rule for other users.

At a popular gaming-mod hosting site,
I was harassed and intimidated via PM and via public post,
for incorrect formatting and 'weird' expression of ideas. Publicly, just shy of being told to "shut up and leave".
specifically, my sentences were graded for having not been formatted in a
justified and 1.5 line space manner. I was unaware that it was so formal a context, and was unaware of constraints.
My psychological mindstate was also 'evaluated', by persons grossly unqualified to do so.
(I was mocked for having a william shatner style of speech, and for being long-winded, by several users).

When I politely requested people refrain from that abhorrent conduct,
and asked those people for an apology, for delimiting my free speech
and telling me how to conduct myself... they had a second bite at the cherry.
I responded to their public admonishment in kind.
I have screenshots of all correspondence and the website, in addition to the wayback machine.
I am 100% in the right on this issue, I have sent that matter to others for review.

I was then banned for being a 'spambot/flame griefer'.
My contributions and content was deleted. summarily, without possibility for review or further correspondence.

Several former fellow users felt the need to refer that matter for review.
As a result,  I am no longer wanting to be in those spaces.
They "win" - it is their name on the door,
and they can't handle 'weird' or 'different'.
It is their loss - they lose what I brought to the table - I know they said it was useless and nothing,
though the collaborations and friends I made prove quantifiably otherwise.

They are YOLO TLDR, and are reading-averse. That is not my issue in the slightest.
they're happy to sit through hundreds of hours of advertisements elsewhere, but cannot skip past
890 words which aren't formatted to their satifaction?
and I'm the bad guy for having pointed that out?

Let me be clear.
At the first instance, I requested people utilize the Private Message feature,
to provide feedback of a critical nature. They insisted on ignoring my wishes or requests,
in flagrant disregard for other people or their feelings - in short, they were quantifiably inconsiderate.
After having a Code of Conduct and Terms of Service leveraged against me,
I then proceeded in kind and by the book.

I never told them how they may speak, or where they could post what.
I didn't come to them, and admonish their conduct.
I didn't cyber stalk them across EVERY FREAKIN THREAD, and no-one held a gun to their eyes and forced them to read whatever I contributed.
They could have ignored me... they chose to be that way, and to go on a vendetta.

------
I feel strongly that a cliquish culture exists there,
it is that insidious hipster-gamer-poser subculture - sorta like morality or fashion police,
thought police etc.
and that these people misrepresented the way in which they conducted themselves.
Just to get rid of that "improperly formatted writing..."
how pathetic. that is the height of fascism,
and enjoy that while you can.
some people, they do 2 or 3 things, and they suddenly believe
they have powers to impose things on other people...

well guess what, you don't.
You do not have the right to tell me how I may speak, if I am not doing any harm,
and no-one else complains...
you do not have the right to be a grammar-aryan and fascist, and tell me in my recreational spaces,
how I must conduct myself. that is a blatant Is/Ought paradox...

in over 20 years of internet and real-world customer service relations,
I have NEVER had such poor service or conduct,
and never experienced such overt censorship in my life.

They don't know me. They don't 'care' about me, as a fellow user or even as a human being.
it was all a pretense to get rid of an inconvenience from 'their' place.
Even the elderly behave better than this when staking out their 'territory'.

-----
Onwards and upwards.
I am glad I have an answer, and will certainly inform my praxis in other areas
based on this dreadful learning experience.

Good riddance to bad company,
and hopefully other mod-places are more of that collaborative and fun environment which initially was the appeal of other forums and places.
There is a world of options out there, and I frankly don't need that
crud in my YOLO TLDR.

Saturday, 29 October 2016

odd fringes near twilight in-game

I had some issues recently after uprating NMM to the present version,
though most were easily solved.

except this one.
notice a weird fringe on the edges of the power pole, the roof of the red rocket spa,
and the roof of the manager's penthouse?
it only appears for ~1hr in game near twilight.




Above: a screen cap of early red rocket spa (PC version).
foreground - managers house rebuilt into 'penthouse'
midground left - inner wall and over-ramp prior to no-clip internal elevator overhaul... 'any door anywhere' is an awesome mod! - make the above-ground internal portions ploppable, and only the 'balconies' external - you save a lot of space and get more frame rate.
background center - the above-ground portion of Red Rocket Spa and Resort...
middle, near red-rocket sign - nothing is in that shipping container that you cannot see the garage anymore because of...

I'm thinking this could be a few things;
as I've tried porting this save to other systems to test it in higher end and lower (if you can believe it)
than the system this one is from...
and it could be -
a sign the graphics card of this 2011 computer from which this screendump is on its way out, or worse... the processor cores could have an issue...
worse case scenario.

or, it could simply be associated foible with the
'cel shader mod' which enhances the cartoony features.

we'll figure it out soon enough!
once we figure this one out,
I can troubleshoot the General Atomics Galleria mod.

NB:
here's a few 'any mod any weapon' combos.
Any Mod, Any Weapon is by far one of the most awesome FO4 mods yet known.

 Above: the best pocket plasma chaingun in the game?
59 or 81 round magazine... 1 in 4 shots is free, and you've got a 1 in 16 chance per shot of 'goo-ify',
in addition to 1 in 8 magazines being refilled free...
without the scope or sights, this is 2.5lbs.

the game gets confused as to what color the puddle/ash oughta be - blue or green?

 Above: "Dirty Harold", it can be possible to mod it so it has 2 unique features + kellogg's sidearm + 4 mod slots... that makes this a portable fatman with no collateral damage...
survival mode and "any mod any fail" + weapons durability and 'unreliable ammo" mods,
still, this is one of the better weapons. easier to repair than piperifles, mostly.

 Above: "The Baker's Dozen" - none of that flimsy wooden crud...a full charge can take down a deathclaw. with the EC pack, it gives you a very high fire rate, but burns through ammo cells.
with the EC backpack... you burn through fusion cores slowly, and power cells quickly... you will definitely injure friendlies when this is on 'full auto' mode.

 Above: "you get my point" - this can add cumulative damage per consecutive hit on target, and stun or +50% limb damage. a very nice weapon, and the unfolding animation is pretty funny. it has an 8ft reach, 6ft more than the regular ripper.

 Above: an old friend. the Varmint Slayer rifle returns.
you can get versions that have 2 legendary slots + Reba II's stats.
I still prefer this version though as I lucked out and got a suppressed suppressor variant.
ultra quiet, perfect for survival mode...
though, on survival mode, this is a difficult implement to keep repaired...

Thursday, 13 October 2016

bounty posters misc 2

Howdy,
here's a couple of rough bounty posters from local RPG.
Folks enjoyed playing these encounters, so hopefully you'll enjoy them as well.

They're decoupages adapted from the sketches under cca3 at dA.
the robobrain sketch is by user 'octo_three"
the protectron sketch is by user "twisted_little_mind"
I believe both are now defunct accounts.
the font is "FETTECKE FETT" - the idea being it's either from a damaged typewriter, or a post-war block-writer.

Feel free to use these as prompts for your own RPG scenario, or to add weathering etc. Printing them out and roughing them up by folding them, teabag etc really makes these look like they're printed as a palimpsest over old newspaper and old-ish - a local gamer did just that, and it looked EXCELLENT!

nb: I do not own fallout or related things, these are shared for fans for fan use etc.
Bethesda or H Ellison or somebody owns fallout itself.
Support official fallout-y things, and H Ellison.

 Above: Rusty is a scrap robot from the pre-war, who's had a torturous life.
the rust (robo-arthritis) and Rusty's morals mean that Rusty now
just wants to see whats at the bottom of Boston Bay. (in a nod to Bicentennial Man).
Maybe the Tea is still there...
Rusty travels slow, even for a protectron.
Rusty's maker though will front a lot of caps to have rusty returned.
You can;
-say that you couldn't find rusty, and return a piece of rusty to the quest giver.
-defeat rusty and hand over a piece of rusty for 200 caps,
or with C 10,
-you can convince Rusty to go home and collect 3000 caps.

(Rusty is valuable for a few reasons, which the player can use to leverage against the owner;
beneath all the parts, Rusty is an ex-pre war military protectron, or a 'vet'...
The current owner is not the original owner of Rusty...
Rusty knows a few access codes and loadouts of various places.
Rusty's arm functions as a PipBoy for various locations - hence, will protect the wielder from being attacked thanks to the friendly FoF transponder)
Rusty makes for an interesting companion also.)

Above:
Nancy is a pre-war robo-brain... a secretary from before the great war,
she had a gift for organizing and working under tight deadlines or difficult situations...
she may have been an attache at Anchorage.
 She was part of a program to retain talent in the event of disaster, for continuity of service.
 over time she has become no-longer solely in control of her body...
If Nancy is not in control of her body, then... who is?

The player arrives at a settlement to find this notice.
the residents hear noises in the night, often a woman shouting or apologizing...
the residents believed it to be a deathclaw, until sending out hunting parties,
 they'd seen it for themselves.
A large robo-brain unlike others previously seen.

The town asks the player character to slay this 'beast'.

The player can;
- destroy Nancy, and bring back the brain-dome for the reward. negative karma, though increased settlement affiliation (discount to the stores at that settlement)
- using electrical or ion attacks, immobilize Nancy and have a conversation -
she will tell her side of the story,
and the player will be able to trace the signal.
The signal comes from either -
a raider settlement using Nancy to soften up targets before raiding them,
or, an unattended child in a base.
or, the institute.

Nancy is then able to be 'repaired', so she once again has control over her own body.
Nancy is then available as a player companion.
returning to the settlement where the quest is issued will lead to dialog;
nancy will speak with a settler and apologize for 'what happened earlier, she wasn't herself'.
nancy will then give the settler a potplant with a wilted plant,
or an empty vase.
-----

Thanks again to Phil, Peter and Morgan.
RPGing is fun, and you made FO:RPGing even more fun!

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Intermittent SWMinis statcards cont.

Sometimes,
stat-blocks come along that folks make,
and those stats need a card to match the awesome.

So, here's a couple from SWMgamers or from SWMbloomilk.

DUM(b) series droid, based on awesome stats by General Grievous of bloomilk.
 above: a crude adaptation, though it'll do. Paratus-mirror squads all shriek in terror, and are suddenly silenced by this piece.
DUM droid, or... doombringer?

 Repeating Blaster Turret Emplacement, by local gamers.

Annihilator Droid, B series.

General Rohm Mohc, Eccentric Genius
coming soon.

Anti-Materiel Flak Emplacement

Desert Hopper/Average Airspeeder

Wookie Ornithopter

Sluggakken Matriarch.

-----

Can I also take a moment,
to thank everyone who's been downloading and playtesting the statcards.
between here, bloomilk and imgur/tumblr, its nearly 80k - wow!
The local game group and I, it's phenomenal to see so many folks enjoying and improving muchly,
these cards we cobble together.
I'm impressed with the ideas the local brains trust comes up with,
and phil deserves a shoutout for the photoshopping.

Would a different format for basic card layout be something folks would want?
more shadows or embossing for the layers?
anistropic front plates/art panels for the rare or super-rare cards?

This game can be very cheap to get into -
under $10 USD covers nice quality tokens and all statcards,
and for $50USD, you can make very nice custom miniatures with bases,
and from there, its up to you to play as you like it.

There is a lot of life in SWMinis yet, and a lot of people are discovering the game,
so I hope this translates into even more custom stuff in the near future!

Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Low Res Bounty Hunter Gameplay 1

Howdy!
I've posted this elsewhere also, though to celebrate the re-release of Bounty Hunter,
we've got this alternate ending on Bogden: what if Montross had won instead of Jango?




Above: This alternate ending was humorous, as were other outtakes.

It kinda makes me wish that choices actually mattered in this game, and that there were sandbox elements... and before you start, Spiderman 2 and JK:JA were of the same era...

Sadly, only the PC version has a loyal modding community which has brought the graphics up to par with the state of the art in visuals... I will be sharing soon a montage vid which compares Boba in the new Battlefront, to Jango from Bounty Hunter...
People were complaining that the New Boba has lame powers compared to this game. I agree to an extent, though the new boba has 8 times the flight time.

If only Boba could use his flamethrower more like Jango can in this game - that'd be awesome!

A few friends have noted a 'continuity thingy" with Bounty Hunter...
prior to having been to Kamino, Jango utilises Kaminoan Sabre Darts as a weapon in Bounty Hunter... this would either make for a nice coincidence, or Kaminoan Sabre Darts are more common than Dex led Obi-Wan to believe...


Disclaimer: footage above from SW:Bounty Hunter, you can get on PS4 and PC(HD) now! Get it now, before the new Fett film makes it kitschy-expensive.
star wars elements were property of Lucas and Lucasarts, before the dark times, before the Disney...
this footage is used for the purposes of critique and review, as per Berne Convention and Copyright Act '68, so Infudgement Enforcers fear not! I bought this re-release, and the original, and the comics etc...



Saturday, 31 October 2015

composite experiments 2

Hi all!
recently, a composite image craze is taking the model making world by storm.
So, I tinkered a little and came up with these for the tetrahedron.

 Above: Tetrahedron (tactical form) explores a nebula near the Nekrit Expanse.
Nebula background is a remix modified from "Spectral Scent" by aRchAng3lZz of devart, under CCA 3. Visit aRchAng3lZz and support them so as they can keep making space stuff!

Above: again with the 'special' effects - this time, an attempt at spherical lens distortion, motion blur and the 'transwarp tunnel' effect. Is the tetrahedron emerging from a transwarp conduit, or transwarping away to report a threat to the collective?

Again, special thanks to Mark 'Jim Kirk' and DefiantClient for their how-to guides,
and extra special thanks to aRchAng3lZz, who makes outstanding spaceart and needs more support to make even more space concepts.

intermittent statcards 12

Howdy!
a few new-ish statcards are headed your way, care of the local game group and their awesome ideas.
If you've got some ideas, be sure to send them this way in the form of comment or a private message

without further ado; Duros Slicer v2.7
Above: The Duros are some of the few species capable of holding interstellar co-ordinates in their minds, in thanks to their Eidetic memory and 'knack' for maths and astrophysics.
most other species require specialised astrogation buffers or astromech droids to hold hyperspace co-ordinates, or the Force, to navigate vast interstellar distances.

Restraining Bolt was found during playtesting with save 11 to be too annoying, so this was lowered to save 8 and found to be just annoying enough hehe (usually, it was a Gonk droid that was hit with the restraining bolt to prevent extra attacks etc.

Sunday, 25 October 2015

intermittent statcards pt 11

Howdy,
here's a few more custom statcards!
Thanks for the renewed interest also - I'm pleased to say that on bloomilk it has exceeded 30 000 page view, elsewhere it is ~48 000 and downloads per statcard stays high around ~100/month
which is pure awesome! Thanks for enjoying some statcards.
If only you'd leave feedback or requests, or even better, links to your own statcards and custom minis! Especially for any concrit feedback you may have... because you've got some great ideas out there.

 Above: A Gundark Alpha Pack Leader, v2.0

Locals were complaining that there weren't many critters, and that the damage output of existing critters hasn't kept pace with the state of the power creep in the main 'competitive' game... voila! this thing turns the 22 point CotF Gundark into a 180Dmg melee beast!
Above: a rare Octuptarran.
Ocula was an awesome thing from "Small Soldiers" - looking like a cool-er variant of Larvox (that is, until the GL movie version of Larvox) - and, since the Octuptarra droid looked a lot like Ocula,
it only made sense to make an 'Octuptarran" resemble the droid.
The back story is fluff, but paints the Skakoans (Wat Tambor etc) as being techno-slavers, who tinkered to make the "Octuptarrans", as distinct from the Argus-Panopticles style monsters or the Medusa styled monsters which in the 'canonical' universe, lead to the name of the Octuptarra Droid.
The Skakoans also meddled with the Nelvaan warriors, and perhaps the sudden Skakoan fascination with GMO stemmed from Darth Plagueis? (who had manipulated the IGBC for a long time, prior to Palps becoming involved...)


Above: A request for a while now... a Desaan to rival the Katarn-BattleMaster.
Fringe and not sith, because Desaan was not really Imperial nor Sith... he was a warlord all his own.
Tavion will be Sith Faction though.

EDIT:
prototype card layout for Sith (NJO era)

Saturday, 10 October 2015

intermittent stat card update 9

howdy!
here's a few more statcards from the backlog;
credit where credit is due, without the locals playtesting these and coming up with great ideas,
I'd not have statcards to collaborate on and make.
Great work team.

Above: Jawa Chieftan, a variant anyhow. v2.3
Costing is still being adjusted, but as soon as we get "Closed Ranks" and the CE's sorted, we'l re-up with the definitive version = )

Above: the name may be a place holder, but this concept is to be a generic force battery (for use in larger point games, where Yoda is not quite enough). The price point works out to be around 70, but,
we found even with Lightsaber Style Mastery, this piece ended up dying more often than not, so lowered the cost until it was competitive.

 Above: Aerial Droideka v 3.7, notorius from the Jedi Starfighter games series and comicbooks.

The Aerial DD is a tricky affair to price, because it has a couple of negative features to balance Blaster Barrage. Shields X as opposed to Advanced Shields or Reflective Shielding etc allows more survivability, tempered by Fragile which prevents you from shooting or moving at 24 squares...
Scarce Material ensures you do not have too many in your squad, and a base attack of 1 attack means this is going to be difficult to have high damage output.

Previous versions had Limited Programming (you can NEVER benefit from SAs or CEs of any kind for any reason), Programmed Target and Emplacement. We found nobody ever chose them over the regular destroyer droid, or the k-series droid or the octuptarra droid...

This variant should cost 42-47pts, but, by pricing it a little less, it will hopefully be just different enough to be something new to choose without being too broken.
These things were annoying in the videogames as many have recalled, so hopefully the miniatures variant lives up to that background lore hehehe

special thanks to devart user "Kogane801": your outstanding sketching skill are the stuff of legend.
(and, your other works resemble Osamu Tezuka's stuff)

EDIT:
 Above: an iron knight v2,

The iron knight was originally part of this set, but playtesting hadn't finished until recently.
Extra thanks to kogane801 and to Rex Moonwielder 1995's variant of iron knight for inspiring this revision.
This also comes in a regular saber variant which has draw fire instead (and is based more upon the Jensaari Defender)

Thursday, 13 August 2015

musical composition musings... 3a

So,
there have been a few things on the musical front,
that people wondered how might be achieved - and it has been a lot of fun locally to attempt to collaborate to compose some things.
I have to confess; I am not terribly 'musically literate' - I am not trained as such, and do not read sheet music (I dabble, and play by ear).
That said, as eclectic as other facets may be, so too are the sounds somewhat altered - I'm in quest of variants of other things often - and am fascinated by non-standard sounds.

Preamble aside,
a friend and a couple of other friends in a local band were wanting more 'experimental' compositions to play - and I recommended they look at Barry Gray's alternate compositions,
and of course, the Dr Who theme.

Barry Gray's "They walked on the Sun" is quite seldom heard, moreso even in medley with the Thunderbirds b variant - perfect for 30 piece band etc. Oboes, clarinets, and cellos would be mainly needed, as would alto and tenor sax, and tuba/trombone. A euphonium would be also appreciated, or a french horn. The counter melodies would be great to have fiddles and a sabkh-ur...

As to Dr Who's theme...
the Big Finish rare alternate (which was inspired muchly by Williams ST:Ep V bespin duel soundtrack) was cool,
but I was particularly fond of a person called Roy Budd, who, along with the London Philharmonic, made a variant which collected all other 'alternate' variants. That was a fascinating combo also...
It comes as no surprise to many 'in the know', that the Dr Who theme is taken from a Veda... it is an oriental prayer hymn, part of a mantra, and very much in the 'regeneration' theme of the show...

The internet compilation inspired in me a want to hear a variant which contains musical styles from all the cultures of earth - just because (and not for cosmopolitan imposed, and effacing reasons, but to prove that people can make a temporary union of convenience and make awesome music across cultural divides). This version, would also aim to set a world record - largest orchestra AND longest orchestral song played in one sitting! We can dream, right? 

Moving away from the heady lofty variant to a more practical route,
I've always wanted to hear a variant, which achieves much of the sound complexity with people.
  based on the musical glass, (percussive glass also for the time vortex part)
with a choir (preferably seniors and a mixed) and the musical saw for the 'synth',
teak snapping... tambourines and 'musical bottle caps', musical spoons,
the bag-pipes, an organ...
improvised cymbals
alto, tenor,
trombones,
muted trumpet,
bongos,
euphonia and french horn. (English horn, oboe and clarinet for the Doctor's leitmotif)
Musical triangle, glockenspiel, glass muted xylophone.
Timpani, Grande Cassa, and taiko drums.

the whirring noise achieved via two sets of strings and wood-wind sections,
alternating between staccato and pizzicato (I need two sets, to reduce the chance of wrong notes AND be fair to the players)
The wind noise could be achieved via a leafblower or two, along with the choir making the (fwooooosssshhhhh) 

This composition would be based somewhat on Henry Hall's alternate works, along with Roy Budd's alternate orchestration, with a few new improvised moments by yours truly.
I'd also then switch to a more synth-y version,
inspired by Daft Punk, Phil Collins/Genesis, Nobuo Uematsu, and the Youtube "What if Vangelis made Dr Who?" -
a faster paced and 'asymphonic' composition, with discordant cacophony and different patterns/doppler effects.

That concludes this particular musing,
and hopefully you find it as interesting a concept as several local bands and orchestra members thought.

-----
what orchestral music ideas have you had?
how would you achieve the "Tardis" noise, if you couldn't use synthesizers?

Wednesday, 12 August 2015

even more stats 6

It's been a productive gaming session,
and we feel they're finally ready, so another wave of customs is upon us again.
We look forward to seeing the minis you make for these also.

 Above: Slugakken, a slow and calculating race - these would ultimately form a Separatist Holdout in the outer rim, along with several other baronies. A contingent were present on Ord Mantell during the Clone Wars, and a minor party were at The Battle of Muunilist - procuring schematics and droid manufacture licensing...
 Above: v4 of Max Rebo - probably undercosted -looking forward to feedback and concrit on this piece. A great proxy figure is the Pepsi Max Rebo Bottletop (if you can get one for less than $25USD), or the Hallmark bauble figure.
Above: Friends love Gundam, and specifically ZGOK (they're marginalised in the show, but they look so cool) - inspiring many Japanese friends into Robotics/cybernetics --- moreso even than Astroboy. Although this is a 5 story war robot, the Bandai Gashapon/bottle top ZGOK is a great proxy for miniatures scale. If you have access to the intermediate scale, or the 3 & 3/4inch figures - those too would be fun.

 Above: special thanks to D.A. User, "Kogane53", for your awesome sketches you encourage some to pastiche - you are awesome! If people enjoyed the kogane-inspired stat cards, support Kogane.
The Mibit are Ishi Tib racial enemies, but otherwise are peaceful creatures.

Friday, 7 August 2015

what's a few more statcards amongst friends? pt 5

Here we have some collaborative customs from the local game scene;
a younger, fearsome Yoda - as a young jedi knight or master, but not yet the awesome leader and powerhouse later -

Above: This card is for the Yoda figure from Epic Duels.
Intended more as a force battery and force canceller, he can also be very damaging in close combat,
with Use the Force allowing up to 14 attacks (assuming 12 Force Points in the tank), with a 1 in 85 chance that from those 14 attacks, he gets another 2-3 attacks.

To balance this, and his awesome CE, Yoda is a force ascetic and force empathic, he takes 10 DMG each time an ally with a force rating dies.
Karmic Mettle can also harm Yoda more than it helps, for his "Force Redirect 2" power.

That said; this Yoda also represents the Old Republic times, when Yoda was tempted by the darkside, or collaborated with a few places to preserve their sovereignty and prevent their amalgamation with the Republic, during his time in the Agricorp and as a Sector Journeyman Selector (Yoda did a hundred years or so voluntary service in the expeditionary arm of the Agricorp, and discovered the broadest array of force-sensitives in the history of the order --- adding to the diversity of the order).

Yoda's Rivalry would go by the era antagonists as per the rulebook, so often,
he can't team up with characters the fan would know to be outright evil... that said, Yoda did team up with some sith cultists or Dathomir Sith Sorceresses or Witches; trying to redeem them etc.
That empathy, and the ability to reform from a few mistakes, are why Yoda speaks with authority when cautioning Luke later - Yoda walks that fine line.

This is v3, and I personally prefer a less combative, more force powers based Yoda
(+0 ATK, +0DMG, force heal, force redirect, force cancel, mind trick, force repulse)

We're keen to hear the feedback - if you think this is too alt or 'fanboy/fangirl' ish, I'll be sure to convey any constructive criticism and encourage alterations =)

 Above: Tahl, Jedi Master(-ess?) Image is a pastiche; I'm amazed this awesome Noorian jedi wasn't more prominent in the past.

In game terms, Tahl is better when teamed up with Adi Gallia or Qui-Gon.

In narrative, Tahl was an awesome Jude Watson creation.
Tahl is versatile, fast, and taught Adi Gallia how to use Niman along with other techniques.
Tahl was prematurely killed, and not only did she take her peace-bringing skill set with her... she took the fighting spirit Qui-Gon had too. Qui-Gon was not the same afterwards, and some conjecture that because Qui-Gon missed Tahl, he wanted to lose his fight with Maul. It is also conjectured that Tahl shared the "Whills" technique with Qui-Gon, who in turn shared that technique with Yoda, Obi Wan, Ferrus etc...
Tahl may have learned these deeper secrets from her time in the archives of the order, and possibly from a captured Sith Holocron (hence, why she did not more broadly share the technique, and also why Anakin may have later been able to learn it).

Tahl was a long-lived Noorian, and was some 200 years old around the Phantom Menace era -
she had a deep respect for Qui-Gon, but their relationship was strictly platonic. Tahl suggested Qui-Gon take a sabbatical from the Order to reflect on whether he could accept that. Qui-Gon, at first despondent with unrequited feelings, later returned and overcame his earlier feelings to develop a better friendship.

Tahl was a unique, 'Grey" jedi, and preferred to be pro-equity - she recruited many force sensitive beings from all kinds of backgrounds; including those others within the order might consider 'dark jedi' or too old to be trained.
Ferrus Olin would later recall that were it not for Tahl's outreach, perhaps not as many Jedi would have survived the Purge.
Tahl also helped to negotiate many truces and peaces - notably an early cease-fire in the Stark Hyperspace conflict - Tahl's approaches would inspire Obi-Wan in his role as a mediator. 

Wednesday, 5 August 2015

even moar statcards, part 4

Here's another batch of stat cards;
simply scale to 64mm W x (|2x88|+/-|1-3|)mm L, and print at 600DPI. Watermark if your printer smooshes the kerning, and you're set!

 Above: not the greatest picture, but it is intended to represent the Heavy DRK1 Turret Droid. This is v2, so its still a work in progress.
 Above: These were fearsome opponents from many videogames and comicbooks, so these are rare but useful to counter pesky jedi. You'll want to keep these from line of sight, as you can bet they'll be missiled and grenaded if they're in line of sight...
 Above: a great sketch found on DA in the style of the Tartakovsky show, so locals came up with this. A very heavy-hitting anti-personnel turret, yet, it is not very mobile at all. The stats aren't quite as good as WotC official droids either, so they're still more useful in many situations, and aren't entirely replaced by this.
 Above: a cool looking rare droid from the Expanded Realm of Star Wars. Having only 50HP will easily kill this otherwise OverPowered droid, and in playtesting, Force Repulse and reflect/redirect and Soresu style easily countered this droid. Ion weaponry also easily took care of this droid, and Jawas with Jolt/Scramble simply stunned the droid and ignored it until last. So, it's very much a niche droid. That said, with GG:DAC, it makes a great Dynamic Duo...
 Above: The Generic form of L8-L9, which is somewhat less useful compared to other options in the same points range. The ability to move 14 and attack is nice... though this is v2, so future versions may have Scarce Materiel to reflect their rarity, maybe no more than 3 on squad at any time?
 Above: A blatant redo of a previously lame unit. This will still not replace the other variants of battledroid, but will be handy in some themed squads, along with the Aerial Battle Droid variant...

Above: I don't know why the Kerning messed up in GIMP... anywho, here is a statcard to match the Epic Duels figure. If she doesn't move, and is attacking an unique enemy who has not yet activated, she can do: +23ATK for 20+10+10 DMG, with a 1 in 258.349.. chance that the second attack disintegrates the opponent or adds +60DMG. She basically will hit anything she can see on a 2+, and if that's not enough... she can take the stats of an adj medium or smaller living character. It is intended that, if Zam does this, and the character she takes the stats of has more HP, she can "heal up" to her new HP cap --- so, she could take the SA from a Gundark or Durge, or Regenerate... etc... and their DMG stats... but she loses her shooting ability...
oh... and it's not guaranteed to work, and from playtesting, it will often kill her when she desperately tries to shapeshift too late in the game...
(an allusion to what she tries to do in AotC; shapeshift to a form which is immune to the toxic dart).
this is v2, so it's also a work in progress, but locals feel this doesn't make the other Zam's any less attractive options, because this is one of the more fragile variants.

Enjoy, and thanks for all the feedback! I hope people all around continue to enjoy what StarWarsMinis has to offer, and I am happy to also make Transliteration Cards into your preferred language - English isn't everything hehehe

Monday, 3 August 2015

droids ahoy!

Droid Stat cards inbound, which are somewhat different to other variants elsewhere

 Above: A generic sight in Battlefront and elsewhere, this was a fun concept borrowed from an older custom set on Bloomilk. Unobtrusive is the lesson learned from the Mouse Droid fiasco... and with Limited Programming, compensates for the potentially broken Turbolaser Beacon... (but, those were fun on the Bespin map, and will be fun in the new battlefront). 9 pts for auto 30-60dmg? 18 points can kill most beatsticks or vehicles from playtesting, it was mostly causing friendly fire though.
 Above: "Many Hands Make Light Work" is supposed to quickly activate multiple adjacent allies with "Industrial Repair" (including, Itchtoki Tech specialist, jawas, Verpine Tech, Human Scientist etc...), to all quickly team up, at the risk of being activated for nothing - these droids could really help quickly get things re-assembled, especially if used in a swarm. The trade offs are, must have mounted weapon, and the risk you might activate 8 allies who could otherwise have attacked or fled for gambit etc... There will be a variant which uses "Swarm Repair" or similar. Another variant involves a "when defeated, place token" system, where certain characters can make a check to turn the junk into another unit (a junk droid etc)... that was deemed too complicated after 3 years of playtests though hehehe.

These will keep your droids in the fight!

Above: Darth Maul is both a 'Sith" faction and a "Separatists" faction, so locals made a compelling argument to make his personal scout droids fringe with Rapport. These may be restricted to only Maul via errata... but, they're nasty... they swarm and jolt... just like in Jedi Power Battles or elsewhere in the Black Sun slaying comics. Can't go past a 9pt unit which gives a Maul +2 attack against anything within it's line of sight - this will replace super battle droids or security battledroids in many Maul builds.  If you like this, you'll like the " Darth Maul's Heavy DRK-3 Assault Drone"

There'll be more to follow for sure,
and hopefully now a style exegesis is completed, I'll be making more visually consistent stat cards.
They print nicely in full color max DPI at home, or as watercolored/watermarked Grayscale too.

Friday, 31 July 2015

Late Stats 3b

We've got another and more experimental batch here -
they've been playtested since 2013, but still aren't finalised.

 Above: Adi Gallia was a formidable jedi combatant, though this version is her inspiring by being effective at combat, rather than the General/Tactician she was also known in the E.U. as
 Above: Ithorian Jedi, but which doesn't efface the Roron Corrobb from the Tartakovsky Clone Wars. Makashi Style helps counter other non-unique Separatist Darksiders and increasingly the witches subfaction.
Above: A Councillor from the TPM to AotC era, J'Mikel was killed by Aurra Sing. This prototype omits "Diplomat" and "Aggressive Negotiations" in favor of Force Thrust and Mighty Swing at the behest of playtesters. (Yes, Force Thrust was an 'official run' force power)

I've had some questions recently on how I cost things -
I use a formula from SithFan, and I also do comparative analysis on similarly costed pieces,
and the other playtesters assist me by keeping an eye on potential combinations and synergies, which is a 'wildcard' that can increase or decrease a cost of a figure.
Most of my cards will be overcosted - and that is the safer side of caution to be on, better than too cheap hehehe

If there's some pieces you think are disproportionate - I'm looking forward to hearing a playtest feedback or specific problematic interactions.
Above all, thanks for all the support - I've been playing this for near on 8 years, and to have so many people request more cards or enjoy printing them has been awesome.

Stay tuned for some really well-made fan cards for the custom Borg and Fringer stuff for ST:AW also - some local fans have been kind enough to make them for the Tetrahedron, because they were so smitten with them - I'm speechless (and for a wordy guy like myself, that's pretty rare hehehe),
thanks! = )

-------
Do you have a request for custom miniatures or statcards?
feel free to leave some ideas here or on Bloomilk or All Scale Trek, or even Lead Adventure.de

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Late Stat Cards 3a

Howdy,
more custom stats, a variation on a theme hehehe.

 Above: It took forever to find a decent image to make this custom, a fun card.
 Above: perfect image from DevArt exactly matches the custom I made for 2 ARC's with Rotating/Rotary? Blaster
Above: A decent-ish shooter, but his CE cuts both ways - it removes other CE's to prevent broken combos, and boosts ARCs into death machines. This represents Fordo at his best, and is 'ultimate' fordo, not the phase 3 armor fordo seen later. Avoid Defeat will make those ARCs nasty prospects, and the original default ARC will only be 15 points, an intimidating prospect.

Above: A type of translucent sentient mangrove, these species propagate by asexual splitting. Overpowered as a miniature? maybe.

More to follow, and you can check out others on Bloomilk.

Monday, 27 July 2015

Late Stat Cards 2

Howdy!
So, a few folks requested some statcards to accompany various customs,
and I'm happy to dabble and honor that request (since you asked kindly).

 Above: Xanatos (pronounced: Zah-nah-toz, as opposed to Sa-na-toss, or Kx-ana-tos, or Xena-tos), Qui-Gon Jinn's first failed apprentice, and main antagonist of the Jedi Apprentice novels.
Above: T4 Turret droid, of Jedi Power Battles and TCW fame. These things were formidable but super-rare due to the high cost of production and high losses when freighters carrying these were intercepted by the Republic and confiscated.

 Above: Droidekas, as they were supposed to be.

EDIT: due to popular demand, a revised variant of the DD has been 'remastered'.
see if you can spot all the differences between this version and the remastered one. 




 Above: perfect for recreating some scenarios, the CE may be overpowered, yet it punishes separatist players if they abuse the effect with a chance of instant death...
 Above: a redo of a classic golden oldie, to represent the later versions. These are approaching what the rebels and the empire have access to. I don't think it renders the old version useless, because they're cheaper.

Above: These are fun. They're nastier, and being the cost of 3 or 4 droids, but with damage output that is 2/3rds of that, most will choose the other versions. This could be fun to bring in via reserves though. I use the Knight Models figures and the Epic Duels figures to proxy these.

 Yaddle, at her survivalist best. This piece and Tsui-Choi, Jedi Survivor make a GREAT dynamic duo, as does Yoda + Yaddle.
Above: If this looks like a beast, remember that it is a shooter-rich environment, and these were annoying in RotS the game. A slight mod to one of Surf's best customs.

More to follow, enjoy!

NB:
art elements sourced from DevArt over the years, and are their respective owners IP - no infudgement intended, these are for use freely with the SWMinis game.
SWMinis, remains the property of WotC 2004-2010.
SW and SW elements, the property of Disney corp (a subsidary of WeylandYutani), again, no infudgement intended as these are freely for use with an out-of-production boardgame (from the 'legends' timeline)