|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 19, 2020 18:49:28 GMT -9
In that vein, a question for the Soloists out there. What ideas/mechanics have you encountered that have made the biggest improvement on your solo gaming experience? “Improvement” in this case can mean anything. For example, adding to the fun, the realism, autonomy of opponents, gameplay flow etc. For me, it's mechanisms that trigger random events that add to the interest. I was into games like TUNNELS & TROLLS for many years, because it had a large suppy of solo games. But, because they are based on choices, there is only so much variation that can happen. The adventures are essentially programmed. Even games such as Chronicles of Arax from Crystal Star Games tried to add some randomness by using dice rolls to determine the next paragraph to go to. But, with Chronicles of Blood, the wargame, there is a random event feature that you apply to your side which can really mess things up if you're unluck enough. I've even been thiking about adding more such mechanics that can affect both sides to really remove any sort of predictablity from the games. I know I tend to drone on about Chronicles of Blood, but it's one of the few games, as a solo player, that I haven't printed up loads of stuff for, played a game or two, sighed with boredom and then never touched again. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 19, 2020 18:35:25 GMT -9
They're pretty neat.
Reminds me of when I went to Skara Brae in the Orkney islands. What struck me was that if you remember the Flintstones' cartoon, where nearly everything in the houses was made from rock, it was. The village was about half sunken into the ground (intentional) and all the buildings had stone roofs, stone shelves and even stone furniture!
I've been to museums with old stuff, old castles nigh on a thousand years old, even lived in house that was built in the 1600s, but to be in a house that was over 5000 years old and if you just repaired the roof, would still be livable in (though not very comfortable), was quite amusing. Yabba dabba doo!
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 19, 2020 8:51:52 GMT -9
Hey There CthulhuIf you open the PDF in GIMP (probably works with other programmes as well), you can save each page as an image and colour it in on your computer.
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 19, 2020 8:49:08 GMT -9
Hey! I'm a Christian and I don't want the bars closed. But I understand that you were referring to those 'christians'. It was taken from a Finnish joke, where they refer to Christian Democrat party, who are a bit prudish. My mother is a Lay Preacher in the Church of England and I think she'd be one of the first out on the streets with flaming fire-brand is they banned booze...  |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 18, 2020 22:17:39 GMT -9
Confusing news about politics
Everyone has got what they wanted!
The 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 got the borders closed
The 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘴 got the planes grounded
The 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 got the shop shelves emptied
The 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 got more business support
And 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴 got the bars closed!
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 18, 2020 18:33:07 GMT -9
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 17, 2020 11:06:01 GMT -9
That's the inherent limit of raster images, if you blow it up, the individual pixels will become more apparent so that you will need to use filters (stamp and cutout work if you have them). Not wishing to steer you away from Inkscape (I know several folk who bounce from one application to another to get the results they need), but for GIMP, if you create you figures at two, three or even four times the final size, even at a modest resolution, such as 300 dpi, when you are ready, you then scale down to the size you want. You may lose some small details, but then again, if you worked at 1:1 anyway, you wouldn't have had them to start with. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 15, 2020 10:20:57 GMT -9
One other thing - because it deals with "units", you can have as many or few figures as you want. I once read a play-test write-up where some one followed all the rules about what unit types to use and so on, but applied them to single figures, so it became a one-on-one skirmish game. The result was a still very playable game.
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 15, 2020 7:47:28 GMT -9
when i play wargames instead is soloplaying the most of the time..... so i use my own ruleset with square grid May I recommend Chronicles of Blood? It is very easy to play and has a neat "random element" in it - it is possible lose, even playing against yourself!  so i got bored to go that far and the guys there were sh***s.... ^_^  |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 14, 2020 1:53:17 GMT -9
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 13, 2020 10:49:17 GMT -9
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 12, 2020 22:36:38 GMT -9
To be honest, I hardly play anything, as there isn't really anyone to play with and solo games get dull very fast - part of the fun of RPGs is getting into character, but when you're on your own, it's pointless. Solo games are just preprogrammed adventures or just become excersises in dice rolling... Wargames with good mechanics can be fun, but still without the occassional real-life opponent, it lacks something. I actually enjoy making (and modding) the figures and models. Having said that, when I do play, I use Chronicles of Blood from Crystal Star Games for fantasy battles and Don Glewwe's Beer and Pretzels Space Marines for SciFi. A couple of years ago, I found Victory Point Games Strike Force One, which although is for two players, can be played solo as well. I have since also found The Drive On Metz. Neither seem to be available any more, but I found all the files for The Drive On Metz from the Victory Point Games website and so made up the pieces myself - Reading about these games, it seems they have been offered free at various conventions and were published in at least one magazine, so I didn't feel too guilty about making my own copy... I bought and made up all the parts for Dave Okum's Darkfast Dungeons. I started to play, one evening, but things seemed a bit complicated. I think this weekend, I'll sit down with it and pop up the video on YouTube. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 11, 2020 23:50:16 GMT -9
It happened again this morning. The first two images I looked at open in a new tab, but the original tab ehich was on the forum, bounce to the Unibet website.
One thing I realised is that it only seems to happen twice per visit. So, if I stay on the forum and view other images, then it won't happen again.
I think it is something to do with the postimg website. While trying to find anything about it, I found this, seemingly unrelated post from reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/8sudxp/1368744_1468195_postimgcc_postimageorg/
It seems that postimage-dot-org is not adverse to underhand tactics.
Anyway, I found that the browser I am using at the moment has Pop-ups and redirects allowed, so I switched it off.
For Chrome 80, to switch them off:
Settings -> Privacy and security -> Site Settings -> Permissions -> Pop-ups and redirects
Set to "Blocked (Reccomended)"
I will also do this on my home PC, and I'll keep an eye on if it happens again.
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 8, 2020 10:18:44 GMT -9
Oh, we have all that. But, if you pay by cash, if it's 1 or 2, or 6 or 7, they round down, 3 or 4, or 8or 9, they round up. For card payments, you pay the exact amount. I once offered a cashier an Irish 1-cent coin, when the price ended in 6-cents, but she looked at it dubiously, rounded down to five and gave it back to me.
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 8, 2020 7:28:41 GMT -9
It just happened again on RH Worldbuilding's post RH Worldbuilding Fantasy Paper Minis, the image of the Dwarf Lords (Link postimg.cc/6T7vZNdt ), but not with any other of the images in that post. I tried it several times. The first two times it went to unibet, the next, to some other "news" website about gambling. After that, it didn't happen. I even tried reloading the forum page, but it still didn't do it. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 8, 2020 7:21:16 GMT -9
Euro-cents are coppery, and magnetic...  The smallest coin we have here is the Five (Euro)cent and anyway, hardly anyone here (in Finland) uses cash anymore... I think steel washers would be more economic (and easy to get!) |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 8, 2020 0:09:23 GMT -9
After all that, I have recently found that my external harddrive, which is at least ten years old, is now suffering failures. Where I though a load of photos were safe, many are corrupted. In this digital age, it seems nothing is truly safe. Magnetic and electronic media gets corrupted (Hardrives and USB sticks) and optical media, such as CDs and DVDs degrade. What to do? Print it up and seal it in a light proof, air tight box? At least by the time the chemicals in the ink degrade the paper, you'll be dead 'n' buried a looong time, so no-one can nag you about the lost pictures... My next job is to try and find a decent data/image recovery programme. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 5, 2020 0:39:51 GMT -9
I see you have removed the tab at the bottom. Personally, I would suggest you keep it, as many people use the tab to mount the figure onto bases.  |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 4, 2020 9:59:49 GMT -9
EXCELENT!!! PS We don't say " s k a v e n " here. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 4, 2020 0:16:30 GMT -9
If you need any help, either myself or I'm sure any of the other reguar forum denizens could write a quick "How to..." for doing various things in GIMP.
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 3, 2020 23:49:56 GMT -9
If i could make the backs may i present this kind of style into the contest¿? or is imperative crate a pc document to work with¿ There are rules, or at least preferred guidelines on how to present images for challenges, but if your's doesn't meet any requirements, you'll be given advise - or maybe chased down the street by an angry mob wielding pitchforks and flaming torches... I don't see anything wrong in you drawing by hand, then after either scanning or carefully photographing them, a quick tidy in an application such as GIMP. For example, I took your photo of your Skaven figure, cleaned up the black edge, made a mirror image (because there is no back view) and scaled it to about 24 mm (a human figure would be 28 to 30 mm depending on your preference) at 300 dpi:  |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Mar 2, 2020 8:54:15 GMT -9
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 29, 2020 0:07:59 GMT -9
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 25, 2020 7:57:58 GMT -9
have you tried casting with non-molten metal instead like resin ? freaks the significant other a whole lot less. Sort of! I once used some two-part epoxy-resin to make a wheel for a model that the part had been lost  I first made a mould by pressing an original wheel into Blu Tack. I gave the original part a light coat of cooking oil to prevent it sticking into the Blu Tack and also so that the resin doesn't stick either.  I gave it about two days to fully cure.   Once cured and removed, you can see there were a few air bubbles in it. They might have even been gas from when the glue dried. I filled the holes with more resin and filed off the lip from the edge that was at the top of the mould.   Left: new wheel Original part : Right I wouldn't use two-part epoxy-resin again for anything other than I've lost a critical part!. If I were to make a lot of items, I would use rubber for the mould and proper resin bough from an art shop - it flows better and so is less likely to bubble. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 23, 2020 22:40:18 GMT -9
I've decided to go for the 40 mm base front. Not because I meet some DBA rules Nazi, but looking at web searches, it sort of suits the figure size, even for paper minis.
I use damage dice, I have these dinky little 6 mm ones, which fit nicely on the bases of individual 25/28 mm figures, so they'll fit on 40 x 15 mm trays.
|
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 23, 2020 20:31:36 GMT -9
It happened when I clicked on the first image in the thread Factoria Tabletop´s showcase!. ( Image link) After not being able to replicate the issue yesterday, I tried again this morning and lo and behold, it happened again:  Clicking the Back arrow on the browser tab does return it to the forum page, but it is annoying. |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 23, 2020 10:16:10 GMT -9
I have just started making up a batch of mesper / Permes' Ancient Warriors Set 2 - Persians. I have started with the archers.  I don't really follow any strict basing rules, as I only play solo, but I was wondering if anyone else does. This came to mind, because while I reading up how Persian archers were organised, I also did a few searches to see how people base them for wargaming. The funny thing is, that from what I read, it seems you had the spear guy with a big shield in front of nine archers:  Source: www.wikiwand.com/en/SparabaraBut, I never found anything similar searching for based wargame figures. Because I have started using 24 mm square bases, I decided to put two figures per base and then just arrange them in rows and count the whole lot as a unit  Though, if I do more "historical" type figures and even battles, I may switch to 40 mm frontage. What do other forum denizens do? |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 23, 2020 8:54:47 GMT -9
Strange stuff!  And even stranger is that I can't get it to do it again. Yet the first time I noticed it, it happened every time! |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 23, 2020 7:11:31 GMT -9
When I click on the image preview of an image, postimg.cc opens in a new tab. Then when I close the tab, I'm back with the forum. A few minutes ago, I was viewing a post, I clicked on the image preview and postimg.cc opened in a new tab. But, this time, the original tab, which was open on the is forum jumped to an online betting site! I tried it a couple of times and it happened every time.  Is this now the normal behaviour for postimg.cc? Or is something that just affects me? EDIT: Strangely enough, after posting this, I clicked on the image preview in this post and it didn't happen... |
|
|
|
Post by alloydog on Feb 21, 2020 23:32:11 GMT -9
Found the problem from Proboards; ProBoards' forums are transitioning to HTTPS instead of HTTP. While this should not affect the majority of the forums, there may be a small few where images now appear 'broken' and not show.
If you are experiencing this issue of images not appearing, then this means the site hosting your images does not support HTTPS.Not sure how I can help at present, I'll keep looking though. It looks like that is the problem. I visited the URL for one of the images and yes, it is just http. I tried visiting it with the prefix https, but got a warning from my Chromium browser that the website could be unsecured:  |
|
