Sunday, November 30, 2008

iMac purchased after refund, thoughts of Desktop Publishing...

Vista was so bad, I returned both computers that I've had with it. I got a cash refund, and I purchased a basic iMac with 1GB of RAM which will be be upgraded with more so I don't experience too much slow action while painting with Corel Painter X! I'm still learning the Corel Painter X, and GIMP doesn't run near as well on the Mac as it does with the PC... But I'll figure it out soon enough. I can't wait to export the hex grids as .psd files and import them into Painter... Should be interesting. I'll try and get a legal sized sheet of 3/4" hexes here sometime. I'll post the .png file, and see about what I can do to have a .svg (Inkscapes basic scalable vector graphics file) available for download on my Deviant Art page.

Considering the way the economy might be going and the threat to gaming, it might be worth a look at self publication and open source/Creative Commons licenses online. If one can print a good game, one can establish a board game globally! Here are a few games that are down loadable after purchase, and have kept the spirit of these games alive long after print publication was ceased for whatever reason:
Starfire was a game my Dad had lying around, and is just about impossible to find except on E-Bay and Boardgame Geek at premium prices, or in questionable condition... If at all... However, a guy bought the license, and rules are updated and current with many problems fixed, and now its still available if you want to purchase and print it yourself!
Ground Zero Games still sells miniatures, and even print editions of rules. However, you'll more than likely buy they're miniatures if you read the rules first... And so they've published .pdf files for download for free to get you hooked! Excellent plan!

So if you have ideas for gaming, these are great examples of how to publish in a rough economy. Will you see money? Maybe... I'm going to attempt making maps for fun though. If some rules come to mind, I hope to contribute to the free games already available! Money isn't all its about sometimes, though it sure would be nice. Perhaps the open source computer program system is what the gaming world needs to look to for survival. Form foundations and request donations for continued development while maintaining a day job and letting things circulate freely as long as due credit is given to the creators... Of course, this doesn't work like the software world in every aspect. But its an idea.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Vista Sucks, avoid at all costs... Medieval Total War II: Kingdoms, buy on sight!

Sorry about the lack of updates of this blog lately. I should have some here shortly. However, I made the mistake of 'up-grading' to a desktop computer with the virus known as Microsoft Windows Vista... So I'm resolving that mistake with the company who made the computer, in fact, I'm on my second Vista box... I've already returned on unsatisfied to the retailer...

...on the good news side however, I have Corel Painter X on the way in the mail box. How does this effect gaming? Well, Corel Painter X is the top of the line RASTR graphics editing program on the market able to simulate painting in most traditional media virtually flawlessly... While exporting multi-layerd files in .png or .jpeg or .tiff formats where GIMP and Inkscape can be used to add stuff to them. In other words, I can paint terrain! Should prove an interesting challenge. Mainly for the fantasy or science fiction based surfaces. If I want modern, I'll dig up imagery from web and throw on a hex grid... However, I want a a unique map of some exotic world like Mars as described Edgar Rice Burroughs Warlord of Mars trilogy, or the some ice ball moon like Europa... I will have the ability to paint it. And then once I figure how to put the grid on it in Inkscape or GIMP, expect a tutorial or walk through!

I'm also plugging my way through a few books about Medieval Scotland, on top of getting distracted with Medieval Total War II: Kingdoms Britannia campaign... Worth every penny for this version of one of the finest computer Turn based strategy/Real Time Tactics (optional!) games produced.

Medieval Total War II is based on the game engine found in Rome Total War, and the rest of the Total War series. These games provide a turn based strategic map where you use your armies to capture important cities to command various regions on the game map. The Real Time Tactics (really just real time strategy, however, its a tactical battle map...) option is if you want to resolve a battle yourself involving your armies instead of allowing the computer to auto-resolve. This is a fantastic feature, however, it can really lengthen your game to command every battle. My recommendation is to command the battles where you don't have a good general present; those times when its just your units with no characters to lead them! The Kingdoms expansion the the Medieval Total War II game adds four new campaigns, all of them localized to particular theaters in the medieval world. So far I've played Britannia which focuses on the British Isles,(the countries of Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, and Norway on the northern tip of Scotland, the Orkney Islands and McKay/Sutherland...), and the Americas campaign (New Spain, Aztecs, Mayans, and New England and New France vying for power in Central America and the South East of North America).

Addictive like the rest of the series!