Now it's official! EmuStation 3D is here.
If you love to play the good old games in your PC with various emulators and you want to browse through them in a great new way then this program is for you.
Emu Station 3D is a program developed entirely in Gamemaker for PC. I have started working on this for fun and I thought I would keep it for myself (lol) but in the progress it looked very usefull and great so I decided to make it available for everyone.
Emulators or any roms are not included. The program works with the file associations.
You can add games where you can set the title, game (rom) location, cover and screenshot.
You can also download covers and screenshots from the program's browser. (it's a really fast and usefull feature)
In another video I will add a tutorial on how to add games in to the Emu Station.
EmuStation 3D v1.0 is available to download from the official website here: http://emustation3d.blogspot.com
iRolling Cigarette HD
After many requests the most popular virtual rolling cigarette app is now available for the iPad with stunning HD graphics!
★ iPad version only ★
Roll your own cigarettes and then smoke them, or learn how to roll in this very realistic game!
It is also a good way to stop this bad habit.
iRolling Cigarette teaches you step by step how to roll a cigarette with great photorealistic graphics.
When you have your cigarette ready then you can smoke it.
Or you can just smoke one from the beggining without the need to roll one.
Features:
- Easy step by step guide on how to roll the cigarette
- Amazing photorealistic graphics
- Roll a cigarette and then smoke it or you can smoke one from the beggining
- Realistic smoke effect
- Cigarette reacts to accelerometer orientation changes
- Ashes will fall when you shake the device
Steps:
1. Add the cigarette paper
2. Fill with some tobacco by moving your finger over the paper
3. Add the filter on the lower part of the paper
4. Move your finger up and down on the left part of the paper to add a streak of saliva
5. Then move the rolling paper from right to left to complete your cigarette
6. And finally smoke it and enjoy!
(the app is also available for the iPhone users. Look for iRolling Cigarette)
★ iPad version only ★
Roll your own cigarettes and then smoke them, or learn how to roll in this very realistic game!
It is also a good way to stop this bad habit.
iRolling Cigarette teaches you step by step how to roll a cigarette with great photorealistic graphics.
When you have your cigarette ready then you can smoke it.
Or you can just smoke one from the beggining without the need to roll one.
Features:
- Easy step by step guide on how to roll the cigarette
- Amazing photorealistic graphics
- Roll a cigarette and then smoke it or you can smoke one from the beggining
- Realistic smoke effect
- Cigarette reacts to accelerometer orientation changes
- Ashes will fall when you shake the device
Steps:
1. Add the cigarette paper
2. Fill with some tobacco by moving your finger over the paper
3. Add the filter on the lower part of the paper
4. Move your finger up and down on the left part of the paper to add a streak of saliva
5. Then move the rolling paper from right to left to complete your cigarette
6. And finally smoke it and enjoy!
(the app is also available for the iPhone users. Look for iRolling Cigarette)
Pokemon Tower Defense: v5.0 is out! Another week of attempting multiplayer!
Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! Click here for more info.
Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!
What's new in v5.0
v5.1 is now out on the blog. Blog post on monday for official release! Enjoy!
Level cap to 70 (100%)
Removing Shiny Horsea that are hacked, and then adding Shiny Horsea for adoption (100%)
Multiplayer (100%) - First map, premade teams, can't change moves, randomly either attack or defend, attackers win if they carry the old rod back. Attackers have 1000 energy to use. Defenders win if they don't let the attacker carry the old rod back and the attacker is out of energy. Winning or losing has no rewards or penalties.
Putting a new pokemon up for trade on my Account samO (100%) - Shiny Horsea is now up for trade on my samO account!
Added new moves to the Pokemon Center Move List (100%)
Removed odd looking reflection on pokeball on the main menu (100%) - :)
Top 10 Forum Questions of the Week!
1. Xehanorto: How do you plan to handle the water routes later in the game? Route 12 was easy as it had the bridges, but for the Seafoam Island routes it will be difficult.
That's a really good question, I don't really know the answer to that right now. They might require a pokemon with surf to travel them or I might give you a boat or something to travel in.
2. Robert Conley: Do you have any plans to add more speed multipliers to the game?
No, I think what we have is fine. Any faster and you might as well just give out free leveling and free shinies.
3. Ayso24: What would you say is your main motivation for creating such a fantastic Tower Defense game? And one with Pokemon no less? Are you just a HUGE fan of Pokemon or was it an idea that you thought might just work? Is it the fans or the joy in making something that actually is of great quality that pushes you for greater heights in PTD awesomeness?
I'm a huge original Pokemon fan, I haven't played all the recent ones as much. Creating games is more fun for me than playing them. I've been wanting to make a pokemon game for a while but too afraid of getting shut down and with this one I just went with it. At this point in the game the fans are really the big motivation to finishing it. I feel that I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish but obviously it's not completed yet. Without fans I wouldn't finish this game.
4. gogogogo99: Well since your delaying shiny hunt and reimplementing the old way, I got a new question, will there still be a dogs quest? The reason you said there would was because you took out the dogs and shinies, is there still a dogs quest even though they are still in the wild?
I don't think there will be dog quest. I don't want every player to get a dog. If every player pays for a dog then I can live with that lol.
5. Miss X: You've added the avatar chat. What will be the next step towards multiplayer?
Next step is what's happening this week, which is the first map with pre made teams.
6. Ninja God: How many Mews and how many dogs exist in the game? Or if you don't wanna go that specific, Which are there more of?
I think they are pretty close with dogs edging Mew out. It's close cause Mew has been around a lot longer and but dogs have more since you can get them in the daily code.
7. awesome2awesome/Link: To not be boring the heck outta veterans of PTD by doing repeats of mystery avatars, can you put a section in the avatar store in which the previous mystery gift items will be bought? For example in the game corner, so that newer players can obtain them as well?
Yeah, I doubt I'll revisit old Mystery Gifts and try to include the avatars in different spots.
8. Ninja God: Could you possibly make it so that there is a send all pokemon to profile button on trade center?
Yes, all in due time.
9. Do you plan on adding Waterfall as an HM or only is it only going to be learnable by Goldeen and Seaking?
Probably add it as an HM at some point.
10. Grim Reaperchu: Will we be able to catch any legendaries more than once?
One per profile. Three per account.
Go to our forums to submit your questions that may show up here on the blog!
That's what I have for you this week, expect me to update this more often this week, and as always let me know what you think!
What's new in v5.0
- Level Cap Raised to 68 - closer to 100!
- New Mystery Gift Pokemon- Birthday Victini! You guys voted for which Legendary you wanted as a special gift just in time for my birthday.
- Added Raikou, Entei, and Suicune's level up attacks and relearn attacks - If they were previously in the game any new moves will be added in the next update.
- Bug Fixes
- Fixed when a shiny shows up highlight the speed back to 1x
- Changed the background color of fainted pokemon so that it doesn't match the leveling up color
Where can I play?
- Play here on the blog by clicking on the "Play PTD!" tab.
- Download the EXE, SWF or APK by clicking on the "Game Downloads Link" tab.
- PlayTowerDefenseGame
- FreeWorldGroup
- Gamerfish
- OneMoreLevel
- NewGrounds
- MiniJuegos
v5.1 is now out on the blog. Blog post on monday for official release! Enjoy!
Level cap to 70 (100%)
- New Moves (100%)
- Me First (100%) - Mew
- Change level cap in game (100%)
- Change level cap in saving code (100%)
- Implement new level cap in Trading Center (100%)
- Lava Plume (100%) - Entei
- Searing Shot (100%) - Victini
- Incinerate (100%) - Victini
- Endure (100%) - Victini
- Flame Charge (100%) - Victini
- V-create will be learned at level 98 for Victini.
- Fusion Bolt will be learned at level 99 for Victini.
- Fusion Flare will be learned at level 100 for Victini.
Removing Shiny Horsea that are hacked, and then adding Shiny Horsea for adoption (100%)
Multiplayer (100%) - First map, premade teams, can't change moves, randomly either attack or defend, attackers win if they carry the old rod back. Attackers have 1000 energy to use. Defenders win if they don't let the attacker carry the old rod back and the attacker is out of energy. Winning or losing has no rewards or penalties.
Putting a new pokemon up for trade on my Account samO (100%) - Shiny Horsea is now up for trade on my samO account!
Added new moves to the Pokemon Center Move List (100%)
Removed odd looking reflection on pokeball on the main menu (100%) - :)
Top 10 Forum Questions of the Week!
1. Xehanorto: How do you plan to handle the water routes later in the game? Route 12 was easy as it had the bridges, but for the Seafoam Island routes it will be difficult.
That's a really good question, I don't really know the answer to that right now. They might require a pokemon with surf to travel them or I might give you a boat or something to travel in.
2. Robert Conley: Do you have any plans to add more speed multipliers to the game?
No, I think what we have is fine. Any faster and you might as well just give out free leveling and free shinies.
3. Ayso24: What would you say is your main motivation for creating such a fantastic Tower Defense game? And one with Pokemon no less? Are you just a HUGE fan of Pokemon or was it an idea that you thought might just work? Is it the fans or the joy in making something that actually is of great quality that pushes you for greater heights in PTD awesomeness?
I'm a huge original Pokemon fan, I haven't played all the recent ones as much. Creating games is more fun for me than playing them. I've been wanting to make a pokemon game for a while but too afraid of getting shut down and with this one I just went with it. At this point in the game the fans are really the big motivation to finishing it. I feel that I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish but obviously it's not completed yet. Without fans I wouldn't finish this game.
4. gogogogo99: Well since your delaying shiny hunt and reimplementing the old way, I got a new question, will there still be a dogs quest? The reason you said there would was because you took out the dogs and shinies, is there still a dogs quest even though they are still in the wild?
I don't think there will be dog quest. I don't want every player to get a dog. If every player pays for a dog then I can live with that lol.
5. Miss X: You've added the avatar chat. What will be the next step towards multiplayer?
Next step is what's happening this week, which is the first map with pre made teams.
6. Ninja God: How many Mews and how many dogs exist in the game? Or if you don't wanna go that specific, Which are there more of?
I think they are pretty close with dogs edging Mew out. It's close cause Mew has been around a lot longer and but dogs have more since you can get them in the daily code.
7. awesome2awesome/Link: To not be boring the heck outta veterans of PTD by doing repeats of mystery avatars, can you put a section in the avatar store in which the previous mystery gift items will be bought? For example in the game corner, so that newer players can obtain them as well?
Yeah, I doubt I'll revisit old Mystery Gifts and try to include the avatars in different spots.
8. Ninja God: Could you possibly make it so that there is a send all pokemon to profile button on trade center?
Yes, all in due time.
9. Do you plan on adding Waterfall as an HM or only is it only going to be learnable by Goldeen and Seaking?
Probably add it as an HM at some point.
10. Grim Reaperchu: Will we be able to catch any legendaries more than once?
One per profile. Three per account.
Go to our forums to submit your questions that may show up here on the blog!
That's what I have for you this week, expect me to update this more often this week, and as always let me know what you think!
Becontree iPads project - week 4
This week at Becontree Primary School we have struggled to find time to use the iPads. As Christmas is approaching quickly, we have been in the middle of many Christmas play rehearsals, making Christmas tree decorations and also making hall decorations.
It has been assessment week this week and all children have been completing their termly maths and writing assessments. We have used the iPads this week for maths lessons. Once the children had completed their maths paper, they had the opportunity to play 'Math Drills Lite'.
While using 'Math Drills Lite', the children were told to use the adding and subtraction mode. They therefore practised their adding and subtraction skills. In this app, the problems are presented vertically rather than horizontally, as the children are familiar with. This was an advantage of using the app, as it gave the children the chance to see that calculations can be presented in different forms. Once it was explained that the problems were the same as they were used to and that they were just written differently, the children could answer them successfully.
As we only have six iPads, a group of six children used them first and the rest of the class played Maths games on 'Education City', which is an Internet based program that we have subscribed to at Becontree Primary School. Once the group of six children using the iPads had finished their game, they were rotated with children playing 'Education City'. This was repeated until all children had had a chance to use the iPads.
The children enjoyed using the iPads and used them very sensibly and carefully. All children accepted that they would have a turn using the tablets and play 'Education City' and were happy to give up the tablet at the end of their turn.
Next week, we are going to try and incorporate the iPads into more of our lessons.
Week 1 – Android tablet project commences at Christchurch Primary School
On Wednesday 9th November we started our trail of using 6 Acer A500 Iconiatab tablets, running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).
The ICT dept. was handed the tablets to set them up, before anyone could use them all 6 of the tablets needed to be setup with a Google account to be able to register it with Android’s App Market.
Unfortunately we had a few problems with setting the tablets up with proxies setting. Honeycomb settings for proxy are hidden when you first start up the tablets you need to download an app on the android market called any cut, this allows you to view and edit the proxy setting. All internet equipment needs to have proxy settings at our school as our internet is provided by LGFL. However this problem with the proxies can be overcome by using an internet connection without any proxies. In our case we took the tablets to next door at our council’s teacher’s centre who don’t use proxies on their internet. After the app was installed the tablet was fine with our internet and WI-FI system.
Edit - With the newest update this is no longer an issue and the proxy can be set on a per connection basis. No extra apps are needed.
The tablets were introduced to 6B a year 6 class at our school. 6B used them for experience in playing educational games and surfing the web on a different format. The class enjoyed the idea of a different way of going online and using the apps.
The ICT dept. was handed the tablets to set them up, before anyone could use them all 6 of the tablets needed to be setup with a Google account to be able to register it with Android’s App Market.
Unfortunately we had a few problems with setting the tablets up with proxies setting. Honeycomb settings for proxy are hidden when you first start up the tablets you need to download an app on the android market called any cut, this allows you to view and edit the proxy setting. All internet equipment needs to have proxy settings at our school as our internet is provided by LGFL. However this problem with the proxies can be overcome by using an internet connection without any proxies. In our case we took the tablets to next door at our council’s teacher’s centre who don’t use proxies on their internet. After the app was installed the tablet was fine with our internet and WI-FI system.
Edit - With the newest update this is no longer an issue and the proxy can be set on a per connection basis. No extra apps are needed.
The tablets were introduced to 6B a year 6 class at our school. 6B used them for experience in playing educational games and surfing the web on a different format. The class enjoyed the idea of a different way of going online and using the apps.
Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 15 - HTD Thursday's, Progress Update, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Thursday!
HTD Logo WIP
Today is just a small update since it's Thanksgiving. I just wanted to give a brief rundown of our progress and some changes.
First, a reminder about the HTD day change. Sam was posting the PTD post later in the week at first but recently has been posting it on Monday because it works out better with his current scheduling of the weekly PTD update. Having the PTD post on Monday then immediately having the HTD post on Tuesday squishes things together. To remedy the problem we're going to change things a bit and have the PTD post on Monday and the HTD post on Thursday to have a better spread on the blog.
Next up I just want to say we're making pretty good progress on HTD and should make the late December release date as planned. We have some additional maps (the cave is multi-level) in the works by Kevin, Sam is adding more mechanics and features, and I'm working on the design of various things including the Tier 1 elemental and class moves and audio. So things are moving along nicely!
And last but not least (although it's a little late) Happy Thanksgiving!
All feedback is welcome and encouraged! You guys are a lot of help so be sure to let us know of any suggestions or ideas you have in the comments and thanks for all your help thus far!
-Dan
Pokemon Tower Defense: v4.9.6 is out! Birthday gift! Multiplayer! Weekly Progress!
Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! Click here for more info.
Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!
What's new in v4.9.6
As you might or might not know the plan is to have a multiplayer map available for the next update. You can read a lot more about it on the previous PTD blog. I'm not sure when the update will be done, there is much to code, design, and test before it can come to light and last week I didn't even get to start on it. This week is even more difficult due to the Thanksgiving here in the states. Also my birthday is this Saturday, so you can say that I will be busy this week besides working on the update. I will try my best but I'm not sure when it will be done.
Speaking of Birthdays! So instead of asking you guys for a gift (I want a jet plane! lol jk) I want to give you guys a gift for just being awesome and supporting us here. I can't decide on what to give you guys so I will make a poll as usual. The gifts I have in mind are:
Celebi - Psychic/Grass - Gen 2
Jirachi - Psychic/Steel - Gen 3
Shaymin - Grass - Gen 4
Victini - Psychic/Fire - Gen 5
I can guarantee you these pokemon will not show up in a different mystery gift so choose wisely. Also you get to keep them forever once you get it!
On to the weekly progress list:
Multiplayer Map (10%) - This is not happening this week.
Special Birthday Mystery Gift (100%)
Bug Fixes (100%)
That's all I have for now, have a fun week, as always let me know what you think! Sam out! I will let you guys get first this time :D
What's new in v4.9.6
- Level Cap Raised to 66
- New Mystery Gift Pokemon- Horsea and Seadra!
- Added pokemon attacks to the trading center pokemon - Thanks Nssvelocity!
- Added Shiny Icons to the Trading Center so you can identify shiny pokemon easier
- Added a better description to Silver Wind - It wasn't missing buffs, the attack excludes accuracy and evasion. Changed the attack text.
- Added Hydro Pump as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City)
- When a pokemon faints don't remove him from your party turn their button red, except on the 3rd challenge level - Thanks George C and others that suggested this in the past!
- Haze not removing the accuracy drop-Thank to all that reminded me of this.
- Fixed Stealth Rock being able to miss - Thanks Justin for letting me know!
- Fixed a bug with Trading Poliwhirl for Jynx - Thanks Micah and others for letting me know!
- Highlight which speed and zoom you are currently in - Thanks all who suggested this!
- Added Dig as a TM (only usable after you beat Pewter Gym)
- Fixed Sand Tomb not showing the correct weakness color - Thanks MagZ!
- Added Dark Pulse as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) - Thanks Jarret!
- Fixed not being able to put secondary type Flying types into Flying only spots - Thanks Arturo!
- Added a better description to Moves that can cause instant KO, detailing that they won't hit pokemon higher level than you.
- Fixed Harden being misspelled in the Trading Center
- Added a minor security fix - Nothing to see here, move along.
- Added a star next to shiny pokemon in the Pokemon Center
- Fixed a typo on the move Acrobatics - Thanks Daniel!
- Fixed an issue with prize pokemo
- Fixed an issue with not being able to request a pokemon past level 62 in the Pokemon Center - Thanks Anon!
- Fixed an issue with moves like Fire Blast, Shadow Ball, and Zap Cannon from working properly in faster speeds
- Allow players to change their password in the pokemon center - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Where can I play?
- Play here on the blog by clicking on the "Play PTD!" tab.
- Download the EXE, SWF or APK by clicking on the "Game Downloads Link" tab.
- PlayTowerDefenseGame
- FreeWorldGroup
- Gamerfish
- OneMoreLevel
- NewGrounds
- MiniJuegos
As you might or might not know the plan is to have a multiplayer map available for the next update. You can read a lot more about it on the previous PTD blog. I'm not sure when the update will be done, there is much to code, design, and test before it can come to light and last week I didn't even get to start on it. This week is even more difficult due to the Thanksgiving here in the states. Also my birthday is this Saturday, so you can say that I will be busy this week besides working on the update. I will try my best but I'm not sure when it will be done.
Speaking of Birthdays! So instead of asking you guys for a gift (I want a jet plane! lol jk) I want to give you guys a gift for just being awesome and supporting us here. I can't decide on what to give you guys so I will make a poll as usual. The gifts I have in mind are:
Celebi - Psychic/Grass - Gen 2
Jirachi - Psychic/Steel - Gen 3
Shaymin - Grass - Gen 4
Victini - Psychic/Fire - Gen 5
I can guarantee you these pokemon will not show up in a different mystery gift so choose wisely. Also you get to keep them forever once you get it!
On to the weekly progress list:
Multiplayer Map (10%) - This is not happening this week.
Special Birthday Mystery Gift (100%)
- Graphics (100%)
- New Moves (Postponed) - New Moves are Postponed until next week
- Implement Stats in game (100%)
- Implement TM/HM (100%)
- Implement in Trading Center (100%)
- Implement in-game (100%)
- Implement in saving code (100%)
- Implement in trading center (100%)
Bug Fixes (100%)
- When a shiny shows up highlight the speed back to 1x (100%)
- Change the background color of fainted pokemon so that it doesn't match the leveling up color (100%)
That's all I have for now, have a fun week, as always let me know what you think! Sam out! I will let you guys get first this time :D
Playing about with basing
In an attempt to vary my fare I've begun to seriously think about how to rebase my Italian Wars collection. Here are some figures newly mounted on MDF bases. The bases have not been finished because I'm still not entirely sure; I have not decided how to base most of the infantry armed with missile weapons.
All stands have a frontage of 45mm. Infantry stands are square. Close order cavalry stands are 60mm deep. Skirmish order cavalry stands are 90mm deep - you'll be surprised by the result I think.
A brigade of Spanish coronelas.
This one is eight stands strong. Four arquebus stands backed by two pike and two sword and buckler stands - in this case a total of 35 figures (the sword and buckler casualty takes up double the room of a live one!). This represents 1800 men (3 - 4 coronelas).
Landsknecht pike square
16 stands of Landsknect pike for a total of 96 pikemen. This represents about 5000 men.
All stands have a frontage of 45mm. Infantry stands are square. Close order cavalry stands are 60mm deep. Skirmish order cavalry stands are 90mm deep - you'll be surprised by the result I think.
This one is eight stands strong. Four arquebus stands backed by two pike and two sword and buckler stands - in this case a total of 35 figures (the sword and buckler casualty takes up double the room of a live one!). This represents 1800 men (3 - 4 coronelas).
Landsknecht pike square
16 stands of Landsknect pike for a total of 96 pikemen. This represents about 5000 men.
Gendarmes
This is a typical four stand unit of cavalry representing about 400 heavy cavalry.
Stradiots
A typical four stand unit of light cavalry representing 400 men. The unit has the same frontage as a heavy cavalry unit with the same numbers. This is because I believe light cavalry formed up in a 'cloud' rather than a regimented skirmish line; if they came to grips they would 'bunch'.
The photo below shows a heavy and light cavalry unit in combat. I think this works.
iPads for Starters
We decided to use the iPads in maths lessons for a couple of weeks. It has been quite difficult to plan their use into lessons this week, mainly due to so many lessons being taken over by Christmas rehearsals. Because of this, we decided to use the tablets during maths starters.
We have been working on doubling and halving this week so we used 'Epic Math' (a free app) to practice. I spent some time before the lesson, looking for apps with specific doubling and halving practice but did not find manage to find anything promising. Since then I have searched again and found one app (called 'Doubling and Halving' and also free) which I will try out with the children in the coming weeks. 'Epic Math' allowed the children to practice their 2 times tables.
I found that although the children were engaged during the activity and mostly collaborated and shared well, they seemed sometimes to be guessing answers rather than thinking or working them out. I wondered whether the children were focussing more on the element of 'game' rather than the learning objective. It will be interesting to see if the children feel that using the iPads helped them learn, or were just fun to use.
In order to give the children something to compare using the iPads to, I planned one lesson this week with the mini laptops using Education City. The advantage here was that there are enough netbooks for the children to have one each. It was interesting to see that, even though they had a computer each, the children still chose to work together in many cases. The level of work related talk in both lessons was high.
The iPads worked well in the maths starter but as the children were sharing between 4-5, the starter took quite a long time and ended up eroding a chunk of the main lesson. Being super organised with what you want the children to achieve (which app to use, how to get started with it etc...) is key here.
Blog news.
Poll
What would you like to see here? I have not asked you all recently, in fact the last time I asked there were only a couple of dozen (if that) people following this blog. Since then the numbers have mushroomed somewhat. Time for a poll!
Punic Wars Project
My summer has been a whirlwind this year, and for the first time in many a year I have fallen behind in my project work - namely the Punic War armies. I'm a few months behind schedule. I have only painted 1800 figures out of the 2100 or so I had to paint by the end of this month (still not bad for two years work). In the past I have been very strict on deadlines but, as there were events occurring beyond my control (including the suicide of my sister), I have decided to give myself a break. The project has a new deadline. It will finish before the end of March 2012. That should be enough time to finish the Spanish army (approx 350 done, 200 to go) and the last bits of the African side of the Carthaginian army (approx 270 done, 100 to go) plus some odds and sods including terrain.
Ager Sanguinis Punic Wars - Ager Proelii
Ager Sanguinis Punic Wars is currently at Miniature Wargames. All of the writing and photos have been done and handed on to Andrew Hubback. I think it will be published in the next couple of months - probably for Christmas. This is a full set of rules weighing in at 12,000 words (there or there abouts) that are to be published as one article (centrefold pull out) with cover page and card stock. It will be published under the title AGER PROELII (Field of Battle). If you liked Ager Sanguinis for the Crusades this is well worth picking up for upgrading that set of rules with some new and interesting ideas, many of which Peter and I used when fighting our recent Crusades campaign on the Isle of Fob.
Next Year
Next year I will be project free. In the last six years I will have painted over 5000 28mm figures for myself plus several other bits besides. This does not mean I'll be idle though. My plans for next year (and the year after?) include the following:
7th Armoured Division November 41 at a ratio of 1:5 in 15mm (figs purchased).
15th Panzer Division November 1941 at a ratio of 1:5 in 15mm (figs purchased).
Seven Years War collection upgrade, including a total rebasing and increase from 16 to 24 man units, plus the painting of about 500 new figures (figs purchased) to beef up the unit numbers. This collection was created in my pre-project days.
Italian War collection upgrade. This is mainly a rebasing job, but somehow I've managed to pick up about 300 extra figs on ebay over the last four years so a bit of new painting.
Ancient Naval in 1:600. Just a few Xyston bits and pieces to do for this including about 20 ships to bring the fleet up to 120 vessels. I actually have to put my hand in my pocket for this one.
Project planning: Peninsular War. I'll be starting to collect the figures for this shortly. My plan is to part fund the collection with some article writing.
Thank You
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement in the comments section, not to mention the page hits every month; which are currently averaging over 8000. They have kept me at it this year - especially at some of the hard parts.
James Roach
What would you like to see here? I have not asked you all recently, in fact the last time I asked there were only a couple of dozen (if that) people following this blog. Since then the numbers have mushroomed somewhat. Time for a poll!
Punic Wars Project
My summer has been a whirlwind this year, and for the first time in many a year I have fallen behind in my project work - namely the Punic War armies. I'm a few months behind schedule. I have only painted 1800 figures out of the 2100 or so I had to paint by the end of this month (still not bad for two years work). In the past I have been very strict on deadlines but, as there were events occurring beyond my control (including the suicide of my sister), I have decided to give myself a break. The project has a new deadline. It will finish before the end of March 2012. That should be enough time to finish the Spanish army (approx 350 done, 200 to go) and the last bits of the African side of the Carthaginian army (approx 270 done, 100 to go) plus some odds and sods including terrain.
Ager Sanguinis Punic Wars - Ager Proelii
Ager Sanguinis Punic Wars is currently at Miniature Wargames. All of the writing and photos have been done and handed on to Andrew Hubback. I think it will be published in the next couple of months - probably for Christmas. This is a full set of rules weighing in at 12,000 words (there or there abouts) that are to be published as one article (centrefold pull out) with cover page and card stock. It will be published under the title AGER PROELII (Field of Battle). If you liked Ager Sanguinis for the Crusades this is well worth picking up for upgrading that set of rules with some new and interesting ideas, many of which Peter and I used when fighting our recent Crusades campaign on the Isle of Fob.
Next Year
Next year I will be project free. In the last six years I will have painted over 5000 28mm figures for myself plus several other bits besides. This does not mean I'll be idle though. My plans for next year (and the year after?) include the following:
7th Armoured Division November 41 at a ratio of 1:5 in 15mm (figs purchased).
15th Panzer Division November 1941 at a ratio of 1:5 in 15mm (figs purchased).
Seven Years War collection upgrade, including a total rebasing and increase from 16 to 24 man units, plus the painting of about 500 new figures (figs purchased) to beef up the unit numbers. This collection was created in my pre-project days.
Italian War collection upgrade. This is mainly a rebasing job, but somehow I've managed to pick up about 300 extra figs on ebay over the last four years so a bit of new painting.
Ancient Naval in 1:600. Just a few Xyston bits and pieces to do for this including about 20 ships to bring the fleet up to 120 vessels. I actually have to put my hand in my pocket for this one.
Project planning: Peninsular War. I'll be starting to collect the figures for this shortly. My plan is to part fund the collection with some article writing.
Thank You
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement in the comments section, not to mention the page hits every month; which are currently averaging over 8000. They have kept me at it this year - especially at some of the hard parts.
James Roach
Famous last words - Isle of Fob campaign ends
The Isle of Fob campaign ended last night during campaign map play. Following an end of turn double on the first initiative roll of the night, Peter elected to play the first three initiative points he won first in the hope of drawing a card to raise revenue (National Will Points) but the card was not there. I played two Lull cards back to back and Peter won the second; he played his Lull card - big mistake - and lost it. I played a Tactical Advantage card declaring it as Nation Morale, which you can do on a won Lull. But then Peter rolled his blue D12 scoring 11 - "Only a 12 will do then" I said.
Peter read the rule regarding failed nation morale whilst at zero national will points and scoring odd: The nation sues for peace and total victory is awarded to the other side. The Seljuks, on their last legs, had somehow bluffed the Franks into evacuating the Isle of Fob.
VICTORY!!!! VICTORY!!!! VICTORY!!!! VICTORY!!!!......I could go on.......
VICTORY!!!! VICTORY!!!! VICTORY!!!! VICTORY!!!!......I could go on.......
Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 14 - HTD Release Date! Armor & New HTD Day Too!
Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Tuesday!
HTD Logo WIP
Today I'd like to officially announce HTD's release date, which some of you may already know about. Then I'll discuss some thoughts on the armor in the game and HTD's day change.
First, I would like to announce that we've decided to shoot for a HTD release date of late December. Keep in mind this will be like version 0.1. In other words, it'll just have some of the core mechanics and other things for you to play around with. We like to release the games when they are very early in development in order to give you guys as many chances as possible to participate in helping us make the game. This also helps us to gather feedback every step of the way. So I hope everyone is looking forward to it as much as we are!
Now onto the armor. I just want to clarify that I'll be talking about armor specifically, not accessories like rings or trinkets or weapons. We'll definitely have those as well but that'll be a different post.
Armor will certainly play a large role in HTD. After all, everyone likes gearing up their characters with new armor, acquiring new loot, and sometimes even just collecting sets. We intend to have a lot of armor in the game of all types. It won't all be available right from the start of course but we'll be trying to add some every update.
As I mentioned before there will be various types of armor but they'll generally fall into light, medium, and heavy categories. However, everyone will be able to wear them, it's just a matter of what stats you end up getting from the armor. Generally the defense values of these armors will correlate to their type, i.e. lighter armors have lower defense and heavier armors have higher defense.
There will certainly be more stats than just defense on armors. Since everyone is able to wear the armors, and your class being dynamic to how you spend your skill points, it means you can have classes like a monk who might wear cloth and a battlemage who might wear plate. So not all cloth will be geared towards casters and not all plate will be geared towards warriors.
Here's a list what we have in mind for the armor pieces the characters will have:
- Helm
- Shoulders
- Chest/Arms
- Gloves
- Legs
- Boots
Most (if not all) of these pieces will change cosmetically on your character as well. We know some people like having the option of disabling the helm graphic but still having it equipped so we'll have that for sure.
Here's a cool sketch from Kevin showing his concept of the Human Male in Cloth Armor:
Human Male in Cloth Armor Concept
Now about the HTD day change. Sam was posting the PTD post later in the week at first but recently has been posting it on Monday because it works out better with his current scheduling of the weekly PTD update. Having the PTD post on Monday then immediately having the HTD post on Tuesday squishes things together. To remedy the problem we're going to change things a bit and have the PTD post on Monday and the HTD post on Thursday to have a better spread on the blog. We already have this HTD post for this week so the next one will be on Thursday of next week.
So on that note I give you, HTD Thursdays! :P
All feedback is welcome and encouraged! You guys are a lot of help so be sure to let us know of any suggestions or ideas you have in the comments and thanks for all your help thus far!
-Dan
Pokemon Tower Defense: v4.9.1 is out! and Weekly Progress!
Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! Click here for more info.
Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!
New Story Level - Saffron City - Hurry and get Maruto to the hospital!
New Mystery Gift Alakazam Avatar!
Shinies are back in the wild! - Shinies are back in the wild just like they used to be, the shiny popup will show up just like before and will stay on until you click on it.
Went back and made the game less grindy for new players - Each level has bonus exp for pokemon under a certain level. If you pokemon training on that level is under the bonus cap then he will receive twice the experience.
Added Zoom In and Out - After countless request Zooming In and Out is now in the game.
You can now choose from the speed options independently instead of having to cycle them.
Fixed Thunder missing when it's raining.
Fixed Solarbeam graphic when the speed is not x1
Fixed Doubleslap not being removed from the target in certain occations.
Added an Opening Song to the game!
The next update is v5.0 and I wanted to do something special for it since well it's v5! What can be more special than Multiplayer? Well nothing! So v5.0 will have a multiplayer map that you will be able to play. Now multiplayer is something that is not so simple to make. We have to take it one tiny step at a time. For one the service that I use to host multiplayer charges based on bandwidth use. Now the avatar chat was a test to see how much bandwidth would be used by something simple like a chat room. On a really active day the chat will use about 1GB of bandwidth which is actually quite a bit. Now imagine a multiplayer mode of the game with people playing constantly. Yeah it's going cost a bit. In fact I think a fully working multiplayer mode that is free (meaning no restrictions to only paid users) would easily be over 1,000 dollars a month to keep up. Right now the plan I'm in I pay 25 dollars a month for the multiplayer (avatar chat servers) so let's see how far our plan can go. If we go over the bandwidth limit of the account I will have to shut down the multiplayer for the month or limit access in some way.
Besides that the first multiplayer map will be a simple attack/defend map. One player will attack and the other will defend. To start with everybody will have a preset team available to them but eventually you will have your team available to you for use in multiplayer.
The thing about multiplayer is that it's going to take more than a week so this week the update is going to look really empty because I'll mainly be working on multiplayer and that will take more than a week. So this weekend I will release v4.9.5 and then the week after we will get v5.0. This also allows me to rest a little. It's been a lot of back to back updates with little to no rest in between. So even the great Sam gets tired ;)
Multiplayer - First map (0%)- This is for next week!
Distribution (0%)
Allow players to change their password in the pokemon center (100%) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Level Cap Raised to 66 (100%)
New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%)
Added Shiny Icons to the Trading Center so you can identify shiny pokemon easier (100%)
Added a better description to Silver Wind (100%) - It wasn't missing buffs, the attack excludes accuracy and evasion. Changed the attack text.
Added Hydro Pump as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) (100%)
When a pokemon faints don't remove him from your party turn their button red, except on the 3rd challenge level (100%) - Thanks George C and others that suggested this in the past!
Haze not removing the accuracy drop (100%)-Thank to all that reminded me of this.
Fixed Stealth Rock being able to miss (100%) - Thanks Justin for letting me know!
Fixed a bug with Trading Poliwhirl for Jynx (100%) - Thanks Micah and others for letting me know!
Highlight which speed and zoom you are currently in (100%) - Thanks all who suggested this!
Added Dig as a TM (only usable after you beat Pewter Gym) (100%)
Fixed Sand Tomb not showing the correct weakness color (100%) - Thanks MagZ!
Added Dark Pulse as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) (100%) - Thanks Jarret!
Fixed not being able to put secondary type Flying types into Flying only spots (100%) - Thanks Arturo!
Added a better description to Moves that can cause instant KO, detailing that they won't hit pokemon higher level than you. (100%)
Fixed Harden being misspelled in the Trading Center (100%)
Added a minor security fix (100%) - Nothing to see here, move along.
Added a star next to shiny pokemon in the Pokemon Center (100%)
Fixed a typo on the move Acrobatics (100%) - Thanks Daniel!
Fixed an issue with prize pokemon (100%)
Fixed an issue with not being able to request a pokemon past level 62 in the Pokemon Center (100%) - Thanks Anon!
Fixed an issue with moves like Fire Blast, Shadow Ball, and Zap Cannon from working properly in faster speeds (100%)
Just wanted to thank you guys again for all the support, even if you just started playing and visit us or if you were here since the cap was level 10. I personally could not have made it this far without you guys. Thanks! As always let me know what you think!
New Story Level - Saffron City - Hurry and get Maruto to the hospital!
New Mystery Gift Alakazam Avatar!
Shinies are back in the wild! - Shinies are back in the wild just like they used to be, the shiny popup will show up just like before and will stay on until you click on it.
Went back and made the game less grindy for new players - Each level has bonus exp for pokemon under a certain level. If you pokemon training on that level is under the bonus cap then he will receive twice the experience.
Added Zoom In and Out - After countless request Zooming In and Out is now in the game.
You can now choose from the speed options independently instead of having to cycle them.
Fixed Thunder missing when it's raining.
Fixed Solarbeam graphic when the speed is not x1
Fixed Doubleslap not being removed from the target in certain occations.
Added an Opening Song to the game!
Where can I play?
- Play here on the blog by clicking on the "Play PTD!" tab.
- Download the EXE, SWF or APK by clicking on the "Game Downloads Link" tab.
- PlayTowerDefenseGame
- FreeWorldGroup
- Gamerfish
- OneMoreLevel
- NewGrounds
- MiniJuegos
The next update is v5.0 and I wanted to do something special for it since well it's v5! What can be more special than Multiplayer? Well nothing! So v5.0 will have a multiplayer map that you will be able to play. Now multiplayer is something that is not so simple to make. We have to take it one tiny step at a time. For one the service that I use to host multiplayer charges based on bandwidth use. Now the avatar chat was a test to see how much bandwidth would be used by something simple like a chat room. On a really active day the chat will use about 1GB of bandwidth which is actually quite a bit. Now imagine a multiplayer mode of the game with people playing constantly. Yeah it's going cost a bit. In fact I think a fully working multiplayer mode that is free (meaning no restrictions to only paid users) would easily be over 1,000 dollars a month to keep up. Right now the plan I'm in I pay 25 dollars a month for the multiplayer (avatar chat servers) so let's see how far our plan can go. If we go over the bandwidth limit of the account I will have to shut down the multiplayer for the month or limit access in some way.
Besides that the first multiplayer map will be a simple attack/defend map. One player will attack and the other will defend. To start with everybody will have a preset team available to them but eventually you will have your team available to you for use in multiplayer.
The thing about multiplayer is that it's going to take more than a week so this week the update is going to look really empty because I'll mainly be working on multiplayer and that will take more than a week. So this weekend I will release v4.9.5 and then the week after we will get v5.0. This also allows me to rest a little. It's been a lot of back to back updates with little to no rest in between. So even the great Sam gets tired ;)
Multiplayer - First map (0%)- This is for next week!
Distribution (0%)
Allow players to change their password in the pokemon center (100%) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Level Cap Raised to 66 (100%)
New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%)
- Graphics (100%)
- Shiny Graphics (100%)
- New Moves (100%)
- Dragon Pulse (100%)
- Implement Stats on the game (100%)
- Implement TM/Relearn Moves (100%)
- Implement on Trading Center (100%)
- New Evolutions (100%)
- Graphics (100%)
- Shiny Graphics (100%)
- Implement Stats on the game (100%)
Added Shiny Icons to the Trading Center so you can identify shiny pokemon easier (100%)
Added a better description to Silver Wind (100%) - It wasn't missing buffs, the attack excludes accuracy and evasion. Changed the attack text.
Added Hydro Pump as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) (100%)
When a pokemon faints don't remove him from your party turn their button red, except on the 3rd challenge level (100%) - Thanks George C and others that suggested this in the past!
Haze not removing the accuracy drop (100%)-Thank to all that reminded me of this.
Fixed Stealth Rock being able to miss (100%) - Thanks Justin for letting me know!
Fixed a bug with Trading Poliwhirl for Jynx (100%) - Thanks Micah and others for letting me know!
Highlight which speed and zoom you are currently in (100%) - Thanks all who suggested this!
Added Dig as a TM (only usable after you beat Pewter Gym) (100%)
Fixed Sand Tomb not showing the correct weakness color (100%) - Thanks MagZ!
Added Dark Pulse as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) (100%) - Thanks Jarret!
Fixed not being able to put secondary type Flying types into Flying only spots (100%) - Thanks Arturo!
Added a better description to Moves that can cause instant KO, detailing that they won't hit pokemon higher level than you. (100%)
Fixed Harden being misspelled in the Trading Center (100%)
Added a minor security fix (100%) - Nothing to see here, move along.
Added a star next to shiny pokemon in the Pokemon Center (100%)
Fixed a typo on the move Acrobatics (100%) - Thanks Daniel!
Fixed an issue with prize pokemon (100%)
Fixed an issue with not being able to request a pokemon past level 62 in the Pokemon Center (100%) - Thanks Anon!
Fixed an issue with moves like Fire Blast, Shadow Ball, and Zap Cannon from working properly in faster speeds (100%)
Just wanted to thank you guys again for all the support, even if you just started playing and visit us or if you were here since the cap was level 10. I personally could not have made it this far without you guys. Thanks! As always let me know what you think!
Mediterranean church completed
Well, it works for me!
BTW, the tombs are movable. They are for dividing the church yard into separate 'village sections / deployment areas'. I did part of the yard unturfed; I fancy putting a statue / fountain here at some point in the future; and it breaks up a large area of 'grounds' quite nicely.
It was painted with artists yellow ochre acrylic (from a tube), ink washed in very dark brown, then dry brushed with shades of magnolia emulsion paint. The roof was painted with enamels. Stained glass, brickwork and doors were painted with inks.
It was painted with artists yellow ochre acrylic (from a tube), ink washed in very dark brown, then dry brushed with shades of magnolia emulsion paint. The roof was painted with enamels. Stained glass, brickwork and doors were painted with inks.
Italian Wars / Peninsular War buildings
OK, so you've seen this building constructed, but now it is finished. I like 'modular' village / town sections where the space to put the troops (yard or garden) is built as part of the model - any troops in the yard count as defending the whole section; this makes fighting for built up areas easy to work out.
Now you've seen this one finished, here are some more at the built but need finishing stage. The first are all constructed using Warbases building blanks with additional balsa and Will's Pantiles. The last building, the church, is of my own design but makes use of Warbases windows and doors.
A residential building, possibly the inn.
Another residential building.
The Forge. A simple building with bags of space out front. Not all buildings need to be complex.
A stable block. I have not decided if I should use this as a small building on its own or add it to a future building complex - so it has no yard.
Scale wise, the tower is 24cm tall. The churchyard is just over a foot square.
I reckon two or three more buildings will see me for all of my 'horse and musket' Mediterranean needs.
Pencils versus iPads
This week our focus with the iPads was to create sketches of Guy Fawkes, to tie in with our ‘Eye on London’ topic. This work also linked to our modelling and simulations unit in ICT.
The objective for the lesson was ‘to investigate and use a variety of materials and techniques to create artworks’. As well as using the iPads, the children also used a variety of sketching pencils of different grades. They explored the different marks and shading they could create using these.
On the iPads we used a free app ‘Finger Sketch’. This has a range of tools which automatically produce different sketching effects. The free version does not have an eraser or undo tool. Saving work requires taking a screen grab using the power button and home button at the same time. The free version also has ads appearing at the bottom of the screen, but these are fairly unobtrusive and when not connected to Wifi they did not appear at all.
Because we have 6 iPads we split the children into groups of 6 and made it clear to the children that they would all have a turn. We told them that they would each have 10 minutes to create a drawing on the iPad and we put a timer up on the whiteboard so that they could see the timing was fair. We were very impressed with how sensibly the children used the iPads and how they were happy to pass them on when their time was finished. Even children in the last groups waited patiently for their turn and no one fussed about being last. When they were not using the iPads, the children sketched with pencils.
 |
| iPad sketch by Marcus |
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| Pencil sketch by Marcus |
All the children enjoyed the lesson and were engaged, whichever activity they were doing. The children tried very hard and made very good attempts at using the sketching pencils as well as the iPads. Generally the children found it more difficult to use the iPad but preferred this method to create their images. The finished pictures are generally good and look like Guy Fawkes although we felt that the pencil drawings were generally better than those produced on the iPads and the children agreed that the got better results with pencils. This could be due to more practice with pencils than iPads.
Next week we will be using the iPads for maths and reading and spelling workshop.
Campaign Report
At the coastal battle of Barinaeum the Seljuk army was smashed. Following this battle the Seljuks came close to folding during subsequent campaign action.
At the winter battle at Ghazzan, with the last resources available (and at zero National Will), the Seljuks managed to rescue the situation. The national will of the Franks was shattered and the new Malik of Fob was given new hope of final victory.
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