Tag: games

DevGame programmers wanted

If you’re a Unity programmer, you took the DevGame course, and you’re interested in a VOLUNTEER dev project, email me. We need two more programmers for a wargame DevGame project; we need one focused on UI and the other on AI.

The Wardog’s Coin, in detail

And considerably more detail than you’re probably suspecting. It’s rather like the start of a wargame ruleset.

In the interest of speed, Ulgor left his siege train behind but still possessed a potent force of heavily armored orc boar riders. Unless a means was found to neutralize this force the elves and mercenaries would be forced to retreat. In desperation, a risky plan was hatched and the ensuing night raid is an exciting part of story. The Sergeant and a companion are drafted to raid the boar corral, carried aloft and inserted into the camp by hawks, flown by elven mage/scouts. Depositing the conduits for elven magic around the boar corral, the Sergeant accounts for half the boar order of battle but his companion’s efforts are fruitless. This is enough to convince the Elven king to chance his luck and make a stand, defending the first village in his realm instead of abandoning it to the invaders.


Despite the loss of half his heavy cavalry Ulgor continues his advance the next day. The story resumes after the Sergeant rejoins his company and prepares to meet the final wave of attacks. The initial attacks only consisted of goblin conscripts whose sacrifice was intended to tire the defenders. This last wave consisted of goblins in the vanguard immediately followed by the boar riders, heading direct for the mercenary company, holding the weakest part of the line (despite being in the center the section of ditch to their immediate front is the most shallow). Ulgor’s tactics are simple, easily anticipated but still feared by the elves and mercenaries alike. The goblins are to soak up elf defensive fire, the boars will punch a hole in the line, followed closely by heavily armed and fresh orc warriors.


 The map below shows the positions of the various units as the goblins begin the final charge. Of note, this is the only battle map, fictional or historical, to contain the words “Big Arse”

The Wardog’s Coin is included in Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy & Other Stories.

Various and sundry

  1. We have need of a research intern for a one-time job tracking down authors. If you’re seriously interested, email with RESEARCH in the subject. DONE
  2. We want to hire someone who is very knowledgeable about a) computer and video games, and b) role-playing games to write questions for our trivia games. We want about 1,000 of the former and 2,500 of the latter. If you’re seriously interested in one or the other, email with Q:VG or Q:RPG in the subject. We already have a lot of (a) thanks to the volunteers, but I just don’t have the time to finish off the list. For more information, reference this post. A word of warning: it’s more work that it looks like, so if you’re not borderline OCD, it’s probably not for you.
  3. A slightly longer excerpt from THE CORRODING EMPIRE, now on preorder at Amazon, has been posted at Castalia House.

The first number produced by the extrapolated algorithm was off by one-ten billionth. There were nine zeros behind the decimal point. It was a tiny error, all but impossible to detect unless one was looking specifically for it.

The second number was off by twice that. Two in ten billion. Or, rather, one in five billion. One might more reasonably fear being struck by lightning. On a cloudless day. Indoors.

And yet, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the size of the error that mattered so much as the fact that it existed at all. Somehow, Geist concluded, even though it was impossible, the data set must have become garbled. Garbage in, garbage out. He had run the extrap-algo more than a million times in the past month, using it to check and and re-check Orland’s agro-surveys. But there was no denying it. Somewhere, somehow, something had introduced an unknown variability into the process, but whether it was to be found in the data or the equations, he did not know.

He spoke in the direction of the softly glowing pseudo-door.

“Dr. Orland,” he said, “Got a minute?”

The door evaporated, revealing an attractive young woman in custom blue-green shimmering Chrysoletts, sitting with her feet up on her multi-tiered desk. She was reading something which, judged by the guilty expression that flashed across her face, had nothing to do with biogenics.

On a related note, this Amazon search may amuse you. And on a completely different note:



I THINK I’ve got this one

There have been three distinct back-and-forth swings, but thus far, I think I’ve got the upper hand again in S18. Ender has one last chance to take the building, but I don’t think he has enough good order troops or supporting firepower to crack it and still move troops in to take control.

So far the heroes have been DER KOMMISSAR in R2, the conscripts in O5, and the MMG squad in P2. DER KOMMISSAR is definitely receiving the Hero of the Soviet Union for his efforts in turning back not one, but two fierce attacks before being forced to retreat to the building being utilized for rallying the troops. I’ve been annoying Ender by quoting Falco and sending YouTube video links to Falco songs every time DER KOMMISSAR throws back another desperate German attack or shakes off a 2MC.

And yes, that should be an Area Acquisition counter in P3. Fortunately, the AT gun may not be necessary, as the two unbroken squads in O5 are facing a 1MC and the Prep Firing MMG maintained rate. Ender isn’t out of it

UPDATE: It’s over. One German squad in O4 survived the MMG, which overheated and broke after maintaining rate three straight attacks, but heroic conscripts killed the leader to break it with an LLMC, and the squad in O6 broke the LMG-equipped squad, both with 4-evens leading to 1MCs. I was able to advance three squads plus the 8-0 into P3, so after Ender’s other leader failed to rally, he conceded, as there was no way a 7-0 and a single squad with an LMG was going to be able to dislodge me from both building hexes and control them.

For being only six turns, it was a good back-and-forth scenario. Other than failing to deploy his demolition charge, Ender played pretty well, and had DER KOMISSAR broken instead of his two leaders, he might well have won. On the other hand, if one squad hadn’t self-rallied, I might have been able to push forward far enough in the south to have eliminated, rather than merely broken, two entire platoons of first-rate German troops for failure to rout.

As others have learned in non-ASL contexts, I tend to favor an aggressively reactive defense. Those with the eyes to see can probably observe the double envelopment taking shape, albeit with a hard center rather than a soft one.

They ALWAYS get it wrong

See, this is why you should never talk to the media. First, they always get it wrong. Second, if they really want to get a quote from you, they’ll just stalk social media.

The full character of the burgeoning politics of platforms remains to be seen. But right-wing movements have found early traction and see opportunity. Even as farce, Kjellberg’s performance has been illustrative, and a small number of eager observers say they hope that, as backlash mounts, it will be galvanizing. “If Pewdiepie wasn’t #AltRight before,” Vox Day, a former video-game designer and an alt-right leader posted on Gab.ai, a private, Twitterlike service popular with the movement, “he is now.”

I note, with some amusement, that I a) have been promoted to “alt-right leader” and b) just delivered a finished computer game that I designed and executive produced last week. This was the first DevGame course team to go pro, by the way, so congratulations, Team Elveteka.

While we’re on the subject, here is a character image from one of our several computer games currently in development, Divine Right, that the artist just sent me this morning. Yes, wargamers, THAT Divine Right.

A Bundle of Holding

This is an excellent deal for role-playing gamers from Autarch. I have Domains at War and backed the Sinister Stone Kickstarter, and it’s all extremely well done. I’m not much of an RPG guy, but I know good game design when I see it, and Alex is very good.

We are pleased to announce that our friends at Bundle of Holding, driving their enemies before them and hearing the lamentations of their spouses and Significant Others, have launched the Adventurer Conqueror King System Bundle, featuring the Adventurer Conqueror King System. The offer is available here:

This discounted offer brings you almost the entire Adventurer Conqueror King System product line as DRM-free .PDF ebooks. For just US$9.95 you get all five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $40):

  •     Adventurer Conqueror King System (retail price $10): The complete corebook with comprehensive, integrated support for play across all levels of a campaign. (Previously presented in the November 2013 Old School Revival offer.)
  •     ACKS Player’s Companion (retail $10): Add 19 new ACKS character classes, and get under the hood to create your own classes.
  •     Domains at War: Campaigns (retail $7.50): Chart your heroes’ rise to power with these rules for comprehensive military actions among kingdoms.
  •     The Sinister Stone of Sakkara (retail $10): This ideal introductory adventure highlights everything ACKS brings to your gaming table.
  •     Auran Empire Primer (retail $2.50): An introduction to the official ACKS campaign setting, a not-yet-fallen empire in late Antiquity ripe for conquest.

And if you pay more than the threshold price, you’ll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with seven more titles (retail value $55):

  •     Dwimmermount (ACKS version, retail $10): Autarch’s colossal 400-page science-fantasy megadungeon and campaign setting. Includes the Dungeon Tracker (retail $10), Map Book (retail $7.50), and Illustration Book (retail $5). (We presented the Labyrinth Lord version of Dwimmermount in the November 2015 OSR +4. The supplements are new to this offer and work with both versions.)
  •     Domains at War: Battles and Troops and Terrain (retail $7.50 each): Conduct the landmark conflicts from your Campaigns actions as easily as you run character combats.
  •     Lairs & Encounters (retail $10): More than 165 ready-to-play monster lairs, plus rules for creating and advancing monsters fit to challenge a kingdom.

And Help Pay For a Cure Disease Spell

Ten percent of your payment (after payment gateway fees) goes to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. The UMDF is a charity near and dear to lead designer Alexander Macris (that’s me!) My wife, Amy, was the first player to run a bladedancer in the Auran Empire. She is now so sick with mitochondrial disease that she can’t even play tabletop RPGs with us at all. Her illness has no cure and only limited treatments; the UMDF is trying to change that for her and countless other sufferers around the world.

Click here to get your Bundle of Holding now.

Remember, women NEVER LIE about rape

I cannot believe this. I am LITERALLY shaking with rage right now. This woman was RAPED and yet neither her husband nor the police believe her. WOMEN NEVER LIE ABOUT RAPE!

Police say a young woman has lodged a formal complaint that she has been raped – by a Pokemon. She told officers that she had been sexually assaulted by a giant Pokemon in her apartment in the Russian capital city of Moscow.

The married woman, whose name has not been released, had reportedly been playing Pokemon GO before she fell asleep. She claimed that she woke up to find a huge Pokemon lying on top of her body and says it was raping her.

The woman says the Pokemon disappeared when she jumped out of bed – but says the Pokemon GO app on her phone could still detect the same virtual character’s presence on her bed.

She woke up her husband to tell her what had happened who told police officers that he did not believe her and told her to see a psychiatrist. Russian news website Bloknot reports that the police did not believe her either.

If you don’t believe that Pokemon rape is real, you are part of the problem. Pokemon is rape culture.

Star Citizen: a backer’s perspective

An old school Wing Commander fan explains why he backed Star Citizen and why, despite being a critic of Derek Smart, he has reluctantly come to conclude that Derek appears to be more or less correct:

After the initial crowdfunding campaign they kept promising more and more stuff. Not only had the game gone from being the “spiritual successor of Wing Commander” (a single player game), it was blowing up to be a full MMORPG. And I was fine with that. At first. I was so fine that when they showed off the Retaliator bomber I loved it and dished out $225 for one. And the idea of being information smuggler sounded cool so I dished out money for that too. But then as they continued to get millions of dollars every month I kinda saw it getting out of hand. I fully realise I know very little of what it actually takes to deliver a game and I know it takes a lot of time to make a game. A delay can easily be a year. But when they were promising new features, new ships without actually releasing much I kinda saw the problems of this ever being released. If they take two-three months to get a ship to “flight ready” and they keep coming up with 7-8 new ships every year, how are they ever to get done? If they add new feature to the scope before releasing the basic ones promised during Kickstarter like trading, how are they ever gonna get done?

And during July of 2015 Derek Smart happened. He’s a game maker who has tried to pull off these grand space games for years and never really made it. Which means he knows some of the pitfalls of even trying. He started criticising the “Star Citizen” project – very vocally, bullyuishly, annoyingly, contrived, “deliberately wanting to turn everything into a bad thing” way. And he got very personal against Chris Roberts, his wife and his lawyer (that all co-founded the studio) in a way that was really uncool. But he always stopped right at the border of lying or making shit up. Yes, he twisted everything into a negative thing. And I was right there to point out the actual facts. But the problem of trying to argue with him was the fact that “CIG” (the studio making the game) never managed to prove him wrong. They never managed to shut him up by stepping up to the plate and deliver. Instead, they made his case stronger by coming up with more irrelevant features (plants anyone?), more subscriber flare, more ship-concept sales, more of everything except actual game content. An all this while constantly missing “estimated” release dates that they themselves estimated and set.

Then they went ahead and wrote a new Terms of Service that we have to accept. Which is fine, Blizzard does it all the time. But I actually read those things, it’s a result of working with lawyers for 8 years – I actually read before I sign. And in this Terms of Service they had removed any accountability what so ever, every chance of demanding a refund. It was basically a carté blanche for them to sail away with the $117+ million they had gotten from backers and as long as the company CIG was still “active” and stating the game was still being worked on (without ever actually delivering anything) then we had no rights at all as consumers. I really wasn’t OK with that. So I refused to accept the terms of service. That had the side effect of me not being able to login to the so called “game”.

 Hey, I assumed Derek was full of it too at first, but that was a consequence of my complete ignorance about what he’d been up to since the Battlecruiser 3000 AD days. After he appeared on Brainstorm last year, and convinced a number of game devs, who were far more dubious about him than the average gamer can likely understand, that he knew what he was talking about and that there were intractable problems designed into the development plan, I freely admitted I’d misjudged him.

I even invited him to speak at DevGame, which he did, and where he was a hit with many of the larval game developers there.

The ironic thing is that I’ve known and liked Chris for a long time. I even tried to help him get funding for the Wing Commander reboot, and I could have easily been an early team member of Star Citizen; he was very interested in using my psychological AI approach for the AI-controlled wingmen back when it was still going to be a Wing Commander-style game.

But no amount of doubts about Derek or respect for Chris changes the facts on the ground. They are what they are. And repeatedly, they have demonstrated that Derek is correct, the skeptical industry observers are correct, and the final meltdown is coming into view. This TOS fiasco looks exceptionally shady to me, and likely marks the beginning of the end.

However, Chris may have one last maneuver in him. Derek and I were discussing this – Derek was initially of the opinion that there is no way out – but it’s what I would do if Chris unexpectedly asked me to rescue the project.

  1. Freeze all game development and release all game dev personnel.
  2. Take the massive amount of footage and effects and turn them into a movie.
  3. Release the movie and pray for sufficient success to provide the funding for developing a new Wing Commander-style game of the sort that people wanted in the first place.

It’s a Hail Mary, but it’s the one approach for which Chris still has the resources, and perhaps more importantly, which still has the capability to provide outcomes that will keep everyone more or less happy, employed, and out of prison. Movies are much simpler than games, particularly big budget games, and although the chances of Chris making a good movie that will be successful enough to kick out the $25 million needed to remake Wing Commander are slim, slim is always a damned sight better than none.