Square Tiling Of A Sphere, Part 1/3

I almost always work on 2D game maps, but occasionally I get intrigued by planetary maps. I'd like to make a planet that uses a grid. The topology of a sphere requires a few things:

1. Moving east or west you eventually wrap around the world → easy
2. Moving north/south you eventually reach a pole, and then all directions are south/north → medium
3. Wrapping around the world east/west is shorter near the poles than near the equator → hard

Some grid games like Civilization will let you wrap east/west but not north/south. That acts like a cylinder, not a sphere. And some grid games will let you wrap north/south just like you wrap east/west. That acts like a torus, not a sphere. A tile grid game that acts like a sphere is hard!

A few years ago I played with hexagons covering a sphere. The main idea was that although there are some pentagons scattered around, we can hide them by making the map generator produce impassable terrain (deep oceans, inaccessible mountains, lava, etc.) in those areas, so you can never get close to the pentagons. Also, we have to divide the planet into regions that get shuffled around as you move around. While I was working on that I found some other things I wanted to try, but I didn't try them right away. Why?

I have three kinds of projects:

1. My "main" projects (hexagonal grids, pathfinding, etc.) are about making high quality explanations. I'll spend a lot of time on these. I usually understand the topic reasonably well.
2. My "gamejam" projects like this one are about exploring new things. I'll spend a limited amount of time (hour, day, or week) on these. I usually don't understand the topic that well.
3. My "art" projects are about making something that looks cool.

Since I limit my time on each of the "gamejam" style projects (marked with an /x/ in the URL), once I run out of time, I'll stop, and make a list of things I want to explore later. For the hexagons-on-a-sphere project, I wanted to try squares-on-a-sphere, but didn't have time. I decided to explore that topic last week. I started with HEALPix, a layout used by NASA for placing quadrilaterals on a sphere, but I concluded that it's overkill for my needs. NASA also has the COBE quadrilateralized cube, and there are several other layouts to try. But I'm out of time, so those will be in a future "gamejam" style project. As often happens, I realize towards the end that I should've read more papers first, but sometimes I don't know what to look for until after I've tried implementing something.

Read about covering a sphere in square tiles

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The Intellivision Amico - Can A "Family Friendly" Console Succeed?

The Intellivision Amico in Metallic Pearl, courtesy of Intellivision Entertainment

Who remembers the Intellivision today?  Some readers with a sense of history will remember the console as the first console to seriously compete with Atari 2600 before the video game crash of 1983-84.  A few may even have had one when they were younger, have one in their collection or played one at some point in their lives.  To the general public, also-ran pre-crash consoles like the Intellivision barely register in its memory.  Intellivision is posed to make a comeback with the Amico console, a console built with the laudable goal of getting families to play video games together.  But it is a very different market that Intellivision is trying to make a splash compared to ten years ago, never mind forty.  Can the Amico become a success when it is scheduled to launch next year?  Let's explore its prospects in this article.

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You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.

Movie Reviews: Captain Marvel, Green Book, Juliet, Naked, Colette, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, Aquaman, Ralph Breaks The Internet, Mary Poppins Returns, Like Father

See all of my movie reviews.

Captain Marvel - It's not the toxic male mob intent on trashing this movie because it features strong women characters (some of color, no less) that gets me. It's the well-meaning but clueless regular men (and women) who don't get that a female superhero movie doesn't have to a) be exactly like a male superhero movie or b) feature a woman who has to listen to, love, or get saved or supported by a man.

"Vers" is a Kree, a humanoid with a past that she remembers in glimpses in her dreams. She is fighting as an elite Kree warrior against the "terrorist" shape-shifting Krulls, and told by her mentor and the world's AI that they gave her her special powers (shooting energy blasts from her hands and other things, that other Krees don't have) and will take it away if she can't control it. During a mission she is kidnapped by Krulls and crash lands in 1990s Earth, where she discovers many secrets about the past and the war she is fighting. Eventually she turns into Captain Marvel; this is late in the movie but not a big spoiler.

The naysayers who say that Brie Larson doesn't exhibit enough emotion didn't watch the movie. Okay, maybe she doesn't play CM as a vulnerable helpless naif, or make us feel her struggles too much, but she exhibits fear, doubt, confusion, happiness, joy, anger, and everything in between. She's just freakin' strong and powerful, she's generally in control, and she's angry. Captain Marvel has nothing to prove after being lied to and finally regurgitating the lies. She spent six years in a civilization that treats men and women equally and she doesn't know anything about being a second class citizen. She is a powerhouse and a warrior. And so, in a more human way, is her female friend Lashana Lynch, a pilot who skillfully flies a rescue mission and shoots down enemy ships.

The naysayers who claim that CM doesn't learn or grow also didn't watch the movie. Okay, the turning points were sometimes a tad rushed, but it's a Marvel movie; for crying out loud. Compared to other Marvel movies, this was Shakespeare. Everything about her confusion, her gradual uncovering of the truth, and her turning points are well presented in the movie and make sense. (How she got her powers - and lived - doesn't make sense, but then neither do any of the other Marvel superhero origin stories.)

One way to analyze if the movie works is to ask if the movie would still be good if the sexes were swapped. The answer is hell yes. But it's far better to have women as the lead characters, because so few movies like this do. It's high time that girls had some uncompromising, independent, unsexualized, strong role models.

Everyone involved in this movie did a great job. It has the most real character development and character relations I've seen in a Marvel movie since Iron Man. Within the context of Marvel, the plot flows seamlessly into the rest of the MCU (without the hanging threads that Wonder Woman left in the DCU, for example). CM is a real superhero, like Superman. A fun watch. Ben Mandelsohn also bring fun to most scenes he is in as one of the Skrulls.

Green Book - Based on a true story of a low-class Italian bouncer who drives a black, fancy piano virtuoso across the deep south in 1962. Mahershala Ali plays the somewhat ridiculous Doctor Donald Shirley who is invited as guest of honor in places where he is typically not allowed to sleep or eat. Viggo Mortensen is nearly unrecognizable as his driver, who starts off as a crude racist but ends up ... well, you'll have to see.

The story is okay, the acting and everything else is good. The movie creates a relatively safe space to encounter racism, with only a little violence and general racism. It's more a road movie and a culture class of refined vs uncouth. I don't know that the movie deserved an Oscar for best picture, but it was solid enough, if a tad predictable in some places.

The ending scene is unbelievable as Hollywood movies tend to be.

Juliet, Naked - A very good romantic comedy. Duncan (Chris O'Dowd) is a fanatic blogger who obsessively tracks information about one musician, Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who disappeared many years ago. Duncan is more interested in his hobby than his girlfriend, Annie (Rose Byrne), who ends up in contact with Tucker behind Duncan's back.

Like in many romantic comedies, it's hard to figure out how the girl ended up with the guy in the first place. Not that Duncan is horrible, but he's not a great match for Annie. The scenery is a small pretty, port town in England crossed with some scenes in London hospitals and studios. The movie is mostly laid back.

It's sweet and calm, with an original screenplay that goes in a familiar rom-com direction with some original, unexpected confrontations along the way. Well worth a watch.

Colette - Keira Knightley plays the eponymous writer in a now-familiar story of a woman writing under her man's name, who takes the credit, until she has had enough of that, thank you.

Keira is a firehouse in some movies (Pirates of the Caribbean, Begin Again) and out of place in others (Pride and Prejudice, The Imitation Game). Here she is closer to the latter, unfortunately, unable to give the role the kind of gravitas that would make a more interesting picture. Her character is too straightforward. The plot is too straightforward. Colette's lesbian encounters were not scandalous at the time, because no one knew about them, and they are not scandalous to us today, so that part of the plot doesn't really add much substance to the movie.

It's not bad, and it doesn't drag, but it wasn't very memorable.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Actually a good movie. The critics somewhat miss the mark here. They didn't like that this was an interim chapter of a movie that sets up the next one(s). In this regard, it's something like HP 5 or 6, but without the tournament or shock ending. Basically, if there had been a shock ending, the critics would have been mollified. The problem is that we're not invested in the characters, so that kind of an ending wasn't really possible.

Queenie, Jacob, Newt, and Tina, as well as a host of other characters, all congregate in Paris (and some other places) to chase after the smarmy Grindelwald, who is assembling an army to attack muggles, and the reborn Credence who has some kind of part to play. Dumbledore is also involved in some short scenes that don't give us much information.

They abandoned sense regarding Queenie's character and reduced her to a plot point "good witch turns bad" using the flimsiest of plot elements: they shoehorned Jacob back into the movie as another plot element. That part was kind of a mess, which I bet JKR could have done much better in book form than it ended up being on screen. As for Newt and Tina, yeah, it's a little hard to figure out why Newt is the hero handing this mission, instead of a pack of competent, trained aurors, but whatever. I also give "whatevers" to a few of the other random plot elements.

It's still pretty fun, pretty magical, mostly makes sense, is well-paced, has some clever and thrilling moments, and takes its time doing world-building ...something which other directors could learn from (*cough* new Star Wars *cough* all comic book movies *cough*). I'm not saying I'm going to run out and see it again in the theater, but I'll happily watch it again when I re-watch the whole FBaWTFT series.

Aquaman - Actually ... meh. Lots of men with irrelevant supporting women. That's par for the course, mostly, but the men are not interesting. They yell, pose, and fight. The spectacle and effects are pretty and overwhelming sometimes, but it all comes to a lot of posing and fighting, and nothing interesting in the way of plot or characters.

Queen of Atlantis runs away, or gets washed away, and meets a human who runs a lighthouse. They have a baby, Aquaman, who grows up (in too-little screen time) who goes to claim his crown in the sea. To do this he has to find a magic trident, while being pursued by a human in a magic suit who is upset that Aquaman didn't save his criminal father from dying, as well as the current lord of Atlantis who wants to kill all the humans for dumping garbage in the ocean.

On the one hand, it's nice when the bad guys have reasonable motivations (taken too far). On the other hand, do we really want to be rooting FOR dumping in the ocean? Or oppression of black people around the world (Black Panther)? Or overpopulation (Avengers Infinity War)?

Visually beautiful, frenetic, and kind of insane is the best that can be said about it. It's like Thor underwater, with a laser light show. Not on my list of great comic movies.

Ralph Breaks the Internet - Ralph and Princess Vanellope are video game characters, as you know from the last outing of this franchise. They get sucked into the Internet, and try to find a (real world physical) component to fix Vanellope's arcade game (and then the money to buy the component), and then they get into fights and races with hot gaming chicks and computer viruses.

It mostly makes sense if you don't think about any of it too hard (take one small aspect of a real world concept, pretend that it makes sense for a video game character to deal with or manifest, repeat ad nauseum). It's entertaining. It tries hard to have relatable characters, but they are just flat pixels on which to give a few life lessons and say jokes. The room full of hip Disney princesses was fun, but I couldn't help feeling that even this scene could have been better. Actually, just following a bunch of updated, feminist Disney princesses, free from the constraints of their movie plots, would make a great movie.

It tries hard, but ultimately it's just okay.

Mary Poppins Returns - Emily Blunt makes a nice Mary Poppins. She lacks (deliberately) some of the warmth and sentimentality that Julie Andrews had in the original, but makes up for it with a no-nonsense strictness and charm that gives her a more otherworldly, appealing magical quality. Lin-Manuel Miranda is good as the sidekick with an accent almost as bad as Van Dyke's was.

In this story, The Banks children are grown up with children of their own. They are facing financial problems that will cause them to have to leave their house. If only that lost bank deed with the proper signature would turn up to save the day. In the meantime, where is light-heartedness and fun to be found any more?

It's hard to judge this kind of thing as an adult with grown children. The original Mary Poppins was not one of my favorites: I loved the songs, but the movie was mysterious and dragged on on occasion (what the heck was that whole plot about women's votes? (I asked as a child)). This movie was at least as good, with inventive animated sequences and songs that pay homage to the original without duplicating it or being too "modern". On the other hand, maybe modern songs would have been a better idea for modern kids, like in The Greatest Showman?

I liked it.

Like Father - Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer play their charming selves in this so-so romantic comedy without the romance; is there a genre for parent-child relationship movies?

Rachel (Kristen) is an overworking always-on-the-phone bride who is left at the altar by her fiance for bringing her phone with her to the altar. Her estranged father (Kelsey) who left when she was five showed up to the wedding and then again a few nights later. They get drunk and end up on the cruise she was supposed to have gone on with her ex-fiance. They fight, they try to bond, they fight, they bond.

It's all predictable, down to the expected karaoke scene, the just-when-it-looks-like-everything-is-going-well-they-fight fight, and the last minute change of heart. Kristen and Kelsey carry the movie with their talents, and the usual assortment of nice location shots and the not-too-odd irrelevant cruise guests along for backdrop. No surprises makes it a little dull, but there is nothing very wrong with the movie and there are some laughs.

Download Tekken 6 Full Version For Pc

Download Tekken 6 Full Version For pc

Tekken 6 Full Review

Welcome to Tekken 6 is one of the best fighting game especially for fighting lovers that has been developed  and published by Bandai Namco Games.This game was released on 26th November 2007.

Screenshot

System Requirements of Tekken 6 For Windows PC

• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/ Windows 7 ( 64 Bit )
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 or later.
• Setup Size: 700 MB
• RAM: 1GB
• Hard Disk Space: 1GB

The Journeyman Project - Maximum Wave

Written by Reiko

Agent 5 Journal #2: "I've managed to avoid the distortion wave and retrieve the unaffected archive of history. The computer then determined that there were three separate interference events in the past that changed the flow of time. So far, I was able to save Dr. Castillo and destroy a murderous robot, but I've still got a lot of work to do, and it's not going to be easy. I'm going to have to put forth maximum effort to outsmart whoever it is that's caused all this damage!"

To review, I have to prevent three major changes in history: a missile launch toward Gorbastan from a NORAD base in 2112, the destruction of the Morimoto colony on Mars in 2185, and the death of speaker Enrique Castillo at the 2310 rally in Australia. Together, these three changes tipped the balance and prevented the Cyrollans from offering humanity membership in the Symbiotry.

I have no idea at this point how interlinked the solutions to each time period will be, nor how difficult they'll be, so I anticipate having to take a look around each one before I figure out what I need to do. I'll start with the earliest time.

That's one weird-looking robot...

I materialize in 2112 in a small room facing a doorway. In the doorway stands some kind of robot, which immediately taunts me, saying I'm no match for it, but it loves a challenge. Is this my nemesis, or is it some kind of remotely-operated drone or something? The door closes and the robot is gone, but immediately I get a notification that sleeping gas has been detected. I start turning around a little, and spot something that looks like it could be a gas mask or something, but when I grab at it, I'm immediately dumped to a death screen. Somehow I was caught by security, although I'm not even sure what I did. Surely I didn't succumb to the sleeping gas that quickly. Never mind, let's try a different time first.

Another robot??

I travel to the rally at the science center in 2310 next, appearing in a different sort of room, a bit bigger. In the doorway stands something else that looks more like a person in a suit, but still sounds like a robot. This one also taunts me, saying it's been expecting me, and this time it shoots me with a tranquilizer dart, which appears in my inventory after I pull it out of my suit. The robot thing shifts to look like a person in a lab coat, who disappears through the doorway. Some kind of door reappears behind it, and then I'm free to move around. (If I try to follow it through the door, though, I immediately collapse and fail, but I can move around inside the room for as long as I need. Adventure game timing!)

Tranquilizer Dart inventory item

I look around and determine that the room is full of equipment, most of it helpfully labeled for my convenience. We have a Compound Analyzer, a Prototype Holograph called ARES, a Molecular Compositor, a Compound Synthesizer, and (not labeled) two different video log displays.

Log choices recorded by Elliot Sinclair

One log shows someone examining a rat that's had something inserted into its brain, which apparently is going very well, with no sign of infection. I'm not sure of the significance of this. The other device offers me a list of three different log files recorded by Elliot Sinclair about his critical discoveries. The first two seem like they could be the basis for the disappearing doorways, with some technobabble about being able to morph elements into other elements, except for the noble gases. The third one is about his very first successful time distortion, which presumably led to the development of the time machine. It's interesting background material, but I suspect that if I come back and do an optimized run to improve my time, I can skip all this.

Analysis of the tranquilizer dart contents

The Compound Analyzer looks useful, though. When I poke at its screen, it turns on and asks for an object to analyze. I give it the tranquilizer dart, which it determines to be a substance containing a "Dimenhydrinate based liquid tranquilizer." It sends the data to the Molecular Compositor, which is over by the doorway. When I walk over there and face the device, I hear the same malevolent robotic voice taunting me again. Weird.

This tranquilizer's antidote will be related to Thorazine.

The Molecular Synthesizer Interface screen labels itself as belonging to Sinclair Laboratories. I have no idea why this lab is located so close to the stage where Enrique Castillo is about to speak at the rally, but it's convenient. I guess it's a science center, but still, a place for a large group of people to meet is usually not very near high-tech laboratory facilities.

The synthesizer tells me antidotes are available, based on Thorazine (which is apparently a real drug that is used to treat various psychological issues), and asks if I would like to build one. Well, certainly, that's exactly what I need right now. Apparently I have to build three different variations on the base molecule by testing the options to see which are stable.

Molecule-building minigame

It takes me several minutes to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing here. At first I thought I needed to connect the pieces to specific places on the main structure, but eventually I figure out that I just have to get the right order. In fact, the correct order seemed to be the same for all three molecules. (Later I redo the sequence and verify that this is the case: the pieces are just presented in a different order each time, but the correct order is the same.) Once I drag all six pieces onto the base in the correct order, then the variation is complete and I go on to the next one. Once I have three variations, then the synthesis is complete and the physical antidote is available behind me in the Molecular Synthesizer.

Whew, that's better!

Antidote inventory item

When I pick up the antidote vial, it's automatically administered, so I don't have to worry about succumbing any more. Now I can freely walk around the corridors outside of the lab. The complex seems to be sort of like a hotel / conference center, with many rooms, some of which are identified as belonging to specific people. The door behind me indicates that the lab is Enrique Castillo's room, and he'll be speaking at the rally, which of course I already knew. I find a door for another participant in the rally, but I can't enter that room the way I can the lab. Down the corridor, I find a label that says Auditorium, but I can't do anything with that either. I also have to be careful not to go too far. A few places give me a warning that says I detect people up ahead. Like the cliff warning, if I keep going, I get caught by security and encounter a failed ending.

Is that the robot from earlier?

I wander around for a bit and eventually find a door labeled "Auditorium Electrical Access". When I open it, I hear Dr. Castillo announced to speak, and I see what looks like a person aiming a gun down at the stage of the auditorium from a catwalk. Here's where I can stop him! There's no warning about detecting people, though, so I move forward into the access alcove. The person turns to face me. Uh-oh? There are two things in reach: something labeled "Fire Control Access 7" that I can't seem to do anything with, because it has a padlock on it and a cable on the right with a large label: "Danger High Voltage".

Now it's a fried robot!

I pull the cable out, and the end starts sparking. Then the person turns back into the robot. I guess it has some kind of technological illusion? I click the cable again, and this time I'm able to connect it to the catwalk, where it electrifies the robot. The robot crashes to the floor in front of me. I click on it and open up the head area, where if I'm quick, I'm able to pull out two new BioChips, one for optical memory, and one for a power shield. Then the robot self-destructs, and all that's left is a stun gun, which I also collect. Great, I have some offense and defense now.

BioChip - Shield item

Stun Gun inventory item

The notification screen gives me two new notifications: "Mission update: Dr. Castillo's assassination has been prevented; his life is no longer in danger." And: "Temporal rip status: RESOLVED. All anachronisms eliminated. Prepare for auto-recall." I'm then automatically returned to the Pegasus device in the present time.

So I guess I've managed to complete one of the three time periods. That was actually a little easier than I thought it would be given how quickly I died in the first time period. But I don't yet know if that was the optimal solution or if there are other alternate solutions. It's possible that I didn't use a non-violent solution given that I electrocuted the robot, although I don't really understand if it was a robot that looked like a person, or if it was a person in a robotic time travel suit, or what. I don't know what I look like when I've traveled back in time either, but given that the robot self-destructed, I'm assuming there wasn't a person in there?

Elliot Sinclair's video

Back in the Pegasus, I can see that the temporal rip in 2310 no longer appears as an option since the situation has been resolved. The other thing to note here is that the Optical Memory BioChip, which is for storing video data, already had a video on it that I could access, called the "Mercury Objective". In it, we see a rather insane-looking Elliot Sinclair ordering someone ("Mercury") to go back in time and eliminate Enrique Castillo by making it look like an accident if possible, but if not, doing it anyway. That's rather interesting. Elliot Sinclair was the inventor of the time machine, but apparently he's rabidly anti-alien and wants to change history to eliminate any chance of joining with the Cyrollans.

What's particularly odd about that, to me, is that this seems like almost the same plot as Journeyman Project 3. I'm getting ahead of myself, of course, but in JP3, Elliot Sinclair shows up again to interfere with the Cyrollan initiative. I'm going to make a prediction that, at the end of this game, he ends up disappearing into the past and avoiding capture. Maybe his hit man can be brought to justice, though, if there is one other than the robots?

To get all the death sequences, I of course restored back and replayed parts of the rally a few more times, and in doing that, I found one certain bug and at least one inconsistency. The first time, I saved the game right after I applied the antidote, while I was still in Sinclair's lab. When I restored that save later, the game acted like I was jumping into the time period for the first time, showing me the robot sequence, including shooting me with the tranquilizer dart again. I already had the antidote in my inventory, but I couldn't use it. Maybe I should have tried making it again, to see if I would have ended up with two antidote items or something. I started the area over and this time saved outside the lab, and then I had no trouble.

I was trying to optimize my path the second time through, so I just made the antidote as quickly as possible and then went directly to the robot and disabled it. Afterward, I noticed that my score was actually significantly lower this time: I'd ended up with 50472 after clearing the rally for the first time, with about 60% energy left, but now my total was only 43090, with more than 90% energy left. I went back and poked at a few things to see if some of the optional items like viewing Sinclair's logs gave more score points, but I couldn't find anything. I have no idea why my score was higher the first time, as I thought being more efficient and using less energy was supposed to result in a higher score, not a lower one. Am I wrong? Is this another bug? I also tried waiting until my energy was much lower (below 25%) but my score afterward was even lower, around 38k, so that seems consistent with efficiency = good.

BioChip - Optical Memory item

I also noticed that while most of the items I got in 2310 were listed as being found in the "World Science Center," the Optical Memory chip's location is listed as "NORAD VI." What's that about? I wonder if I'm really supposed to have gone through the time periods in order and gotten the Optical Memory chip first from 2112, and then perhaps later the chip just updates with more videos. It probably won't matter, but it seems like a minor bug.

BioChips: Interface, Mapping, Pegasus, Optical Memory, Shield
Other inventory: Transport Card, Journeyman Key, Tranquilizer Dart, Antidote, Stun Gun
Time travel trips: 2 (plus a failed trip to 2112)
Score: 50472 (first time); 45604 (later)
Session Time: 1 hr 45 min (not including half an hour to run out the energy in 2310)
Total Time: 3 hr 15 min

Deaths: 6 (total: 9)

"Curiosity killed the time traveller."

#4: If for some reason you stick around in 200 million years in the past long enough for the suit's energy to be depleted, you'll get a unique ending labeled "Pterodactyl": "You succeeded in escaping the bounds of time and space to travel 200 million years into the past, only to be eaten by a Pterodactyl. Next time you should heed the warnings and move a little faster, genius." This is actually pretty hard to do, as I had to just sit around for about ten minutes for the energy to fully deplete. In the comments on the previous post, Niklas suggested that it was possible to get eaten by dinosaurs by interacting with something in a cave, but I was unable to find any other interactions in the area. As far as I can tell, this is the only other death in that time period. If I missed something else, do let me know.

I barely touched anything!

#5/6: If at any time I succumb to the sleeping gas in 2112, or run into people in 2310, I get a "Caught by Security" ending: "Out of energy and in the hands of law enforcement offices, you have been escorted to the jail cell which is to serve as your new home. Had you paid attention to the warnings, it may not have ended this way." I didn't get any warnings in 2112, other than the sleeping gas, and there's one place in 2310, just past the electrical access alcove, that gives no warning at all.

"Ten-step poison"

#7: In Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, there's a poison, usually applied to arrows, that's called "ten-step poison." It's called that because the victim will only be able to take ten steps before succumbing. There's apparently also a real pesticide that's called Tres Pasitos, or "three little steps," because mice will succumb that quickly to it. That's what this tranquilizer dart feels like if you try to leave the lab without acquiring the antidote. The ending is called "Poison Dart": "Despite your best efforts, you could not resist the life-draining exhaustion which crept over you. You have perished."

I'm so dead...

Laser fire at close range

#8: If I stand around and watch the assassin for too long, he first fires at the stage, presumably killing Enrique Castillo, then he shoots me. The ending is "Laser Blast": "The concentrated blast of the robot's weapon cut through your layers of defense like a warm knife through butter. He had no regrets."

I also included the previous moment before the ending screen to note three things: first, the completed map of the area in the lower right; second, whatever it is (the ending calls it a robot, anyway) appears as a person when firing at Enrique Castillo, but shifts back into a robot form to shoot at me. And third, the padlock that had been on the fire control access is suddenly gone. I have to wonder if there's anything else I could have done with that. Did the laser also shoot the padlock off? Seems like it's too late to make any use of it once the robot has already shot Castillo, though.

I'm lost in time again...

#9: If I wait long enough at the rally to expend all my energy, I end up with the "Encarcerated" ending: "Behind bars and out of energy, you must now live out the rest of your life in the past. Maybe you can start a support group for the temporally displaced." This takes quite a long time, actually, at least half an hour. The rate that energy declined was about 1500 per second when at 200M years in the past, but in 2310, it was about 300 per second. Maybe it takes more energy to maintain the suit when it's farther back in the past? The other quirk with this ending is that I only get the "General Exploration" 5000 points, plus a "Finale" award of 15000, for a total of 20000 points. The other endings all showed my current score up to the failure moment. I'll have to check the other two time periods later to see if the out of energy ending is the same there.

And that's as far as we'll get for this time. CAPS are also available for the first person to find a repeated typo within one of the screenshots in this entry. I'll be back next time with my exploration of the base on Mars in 2185.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

WIP - "Rescue Of Hommlet" - Playtest Weekend

Having written stolen and mashed up rules to create a Chainmail/Book of War hybrid Frankenstein monster, I wanted to make sure that the thing played well, and I wanted to see what comes up that I hadn't thought of.

And I wanted to give the model a shakedown, to see how it would be used by (hopefully) friendly faces before taking it to GaryCon to sit next to two other Greyhawk games taking place with the same topic - the goings on of the Temple of Elemental Evil and the infamous Moathouse.

But first... picture porn of the model! I've made progress since the last model update from early December.

      

It felt really good to get the model to a point where I could play with it. Obviously, a lot of work left to be done, with painting details, making the mucky moat and surrounding terrain. The comments I got from players was very positive!

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Playtesting - I had three concerns with the scenario and rules:

• Will the rules work in reflecting that we have figures that represent single characters (1:1 scale) and figures that represent troop units (~10:1 scale)
• With using the forces as represented in the module T1 - Village of Hommlet, is there a huge mismatch?
• What surprises do I need to account for that devious players will come up with?

I ran one session on Saturday for Chris and Alex, two of my D&D players and members of the Northern Illinois Fantasy Miniatures Association. On Sunday, I ran a session for my D&D player Derek.

 

I'm happy to say that I got tons of great feedback from my very patient friends! Overall, they all expressed enjoyment with the scenario and with the approach of playing "D&D" with Chainmail as the battle mechanism. It became clear that what we had was more of a skirmish game than a huge battle. That turned out to be OK!

If you go and look at the rules, you can see a number of tweaks and approaches that I've adopted to reflect lessons learned. Here are the three big ones:

I. Having a character figure that isn't a superhero somehow take out a troop unit figure with just a single dice roll didn't feel right. The character should be a lot more threatened when they go against a unit of soldiers [1].

To solve that, I took this approach:
1. If the battle is troop unit figure vs. troop unit figure, or character/creature vs. character/creature, roll number of dice equal to Fighting Capability (FC) of unit. Count hits. This is standard Chainmail or Book of War.

2. If battle is troop unit figure (representing 10 soldiers) vs. character/creature, scale the dice. Roll # of dice representing FC of unit multiplied by number of soldiers left in figure. Count hits against character. Character rolls number of dice equal to their Fighting Capability.

So, Rufus the Fighter is facing a figure of bugbears. He has an FC of 6. He is attacking as Heavy Foot (HF) and the bugbears are defending as Armored Foot (AF). In my rules, he needs a 6. He rolls 3 6 1 1 2 5, so he scores a hit! That means a bugbear will be a casualty out of the unit.

The bugbears return the favor. Their FC is 2. The figure represents ten bugbears. So the player for the bugbears would grab TWENTY six siders and roll. The bugbears attack as HF and Rufus defends as AF. With twenty dice, the chances are likely for at least 3 to 4 hits, so Rufus might be in trouble here...

THIS felt right, even though it would be murder on the characters - as it should be! Up to about Superhero level, a single character is taking huge risks to get involved in an Aragorn-esque fight against a bunch of baddies.

What helped was the adopted rule that magic armor removes a dice from each roll. So if ten bugbears are rolling 2 dice each, Rufus's magic armor made that 1 dice. Which, magic armor should have that effect. So this felt right as well.

It does mean I'm going to have to track the "hits" on a troop figure from characters. So that as the character whittles away at the troop unit, it grows less and less effective in attacking, meaning less dice to attack with. I'm OK with that right now, but I'm still considering if this is the approach I want to take.

I may revert to the approach of Chaos Wars and represent units as multiple figures - so it will look like a 1:1 game, although troops on troops will still be adjudicated at a 10:1 scale. I'm not sure yet.

II. Magic and the different classes. At first, I was struggling with how to interpret the various bonuses and minuses from the gear that the inhabitants of Hommlet and Moathouse have with them. Through testing, we agreed to use the approach from "Compleat Chainmail" - if the defender (against ranged or melee) has magic armor, attackers remove a die from their roll. If attackers have a magic weapon, they add a die to their roll. This worked well for a convention game approach.

I also had to dig through OD&D history, original booklets, supplements and the Strategic Review articles to fill the rules and approaches for things in T1 that don't come in OD&D/Chainmail as written. Things like how to implement Elmo the Ranger (riff off the Ranger article from Strategic Review Vol 1, #3), the Druid Brother Smythe and his spells (look at Supplement III, Eldritch Wizardry), how does Lareth's Staff of Striking work in the Chainmail combat rules (riff off of AD&D/DMG description of the staff and have the player opt to improve a hit to be two or three, while spending charges).

That was a fun exercise in looking at how iconic classes were built, and how AD&D was still a similar game to OD&D in that you could easily use magic items from one in the other.

III. Crossbowmen are murder! The basic scenario has the Forces of Woe at the Moathouse, prepared with full knowledge of the approach of the Forces of Weal. This means that logically, the ranged forces are going to be on the ramparts, ready to shoot down any who approach. It's a sound tactic, used effectively through history. In the first game, I had written down the wrong range for crossbows, using the heavy crossbow range of 24" versus the actual range of 18". I also had two figures of crossbow units on the ramparts, to represent the 20 Guards of the New Master.

Had we run with the rule of multiple dice x FC of troop units versus single characters, I doubt that many would have survived the approach!

In the second game, I reduced the number of New Guards with crossbow to 10 soldiers (1 figure) only, but even with that, they murdered the approaching forces of Weal - taking out both single figures of mercenary bow and militia bow, then the elderly farmer captain armed with a crossbow.

The one factor in both situations was that the crossbowman had cover on the Moathouse's ramparts while the forces of Weal were out in the open.

I have a solution that is tied to the description of the terrain around the Moathouse.

A scrub of thorns, thistles, weeds, and shrubs grows thickly along the edge of the track which leads to the ruins, and even the track is mostly overgrown and cluttered with fallen branches and trees.
...
After two miles of distance, the land begins to sink and become baggy, as the track turns more northerly, and tall marsh plants grow thickly where cattails and tamaracks do not. Off to the left can be seen the jagged silhouette of the moathouse.
...
The bogs here stink, and the vegetation appears dense and prolific, but somehow sickly and unhealthy, creepers and vines throwing their strangling loops over the skeletons of dead saplings and living bushes alike. The rushes and cattails rustle and bend even when only a slight zephyr blows over the marsh, and weird bird calls, croakings, and other unwholesome sounds come faintly across the fen.

I had been saying that the only place where normal movement can happen is on the path/track to the moathouse. If you go off-road, you are in that thick scrub and vegetation, therefore you move at half movement. My fix here is to give anyone in the weeds the benefit of cover as well.

So it's a tough choice, go slow and with benefit of cover, or go fast and possibly get cut down. I think this is a good tactical choice, so I will leave the forces as-is, and playtest this approach.

Plus, I get to make more terrain! Scatter terrain to represent the bog/swamp around the moat.

There are a lot of other lessons and tweaks from the play-test, but these are big ones. I'm really glad I did the testing, it's going to make my Greyhawk game that much better.

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Researching Greyhawk is interesting for me, because it's such hallowed, well-trodden ground in D&D lore. The Battle of Emridy Meadows and the Temple of Elemental Evil are well-known and beloved. This has led me to approach this scenario with a lot more preparation and thought than I normally do with my "plan a little, play a lot" approach. 

I want players to "feel" like this is OD&D/Chainmail and that the game is accurate, for the most part, to how T1 - Village of Hommlet sets things up. Judging by how my testers reacted, they weren't all that familiar with Greyhawk, but they enjoyed the experience. So I'm hopeful!

As a reminder, if you want to see what I'm doing, here are links to my documents on Google Drive:

Rules - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zLoQ7Kks-uv_-OJKmfHmeiYdvpm1NLaBNEPOpYAQQGA

Order of Battle - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jB3d_lzssqH4kcHi0vh3fvMOct8wMdIj1UqCcV-1XWc

[1] I blame Daniel Collins (of Delta's D&D Blog) for converting me to the view that many of the 'single person versus an army' fantasy scenes are just really unrealistic. I feel like it's a better game when I keep that in mind and take that approach.