mandag 24. februar 2020
søndag 23. februar 2020
torsdag 20. februar 2020
Guild Ball New Resin Models Review
So after Captain Con all the Guild Ball talk from my buddies got to me and I'm completely hyped for the game all over again. It's odd, it was roughly around this time last year that I had the same thing happen to me as I go back and look through the blog posts. I guess I just have to accept that my love for Warmachine and Guild Ball will wax and wane for seemingly no reason.
But since I am interested in the game, I wanted to pick up the minor guilds for the main guilds that I already own. This meant picking up Navigators and Miners. What's more is that Steamforged surprised us all and released new captains for 4 of the original guilds, one of which is for a team I own: Yukai on Fishermen.
Since I had to skip out on game night tonight, but I did get time to build the models which arrived I figured I'd put up a review of sorts.
It wouldn't be Steamforged if there wasn't some kind of oddity with how the models were being released.
The good news was that the Captains were being released individually, not in a big box that had models for various guilds! Sweet!
The bad news was that it was basically direct only! Boo!
I tried to order through my FLGS, but when they had setup their retail account on SFG's website, they were effectively ordering at cost which seemed...odd? As it ended up, they couldn't order for me since the models I wanted were out of stock at the time and since they weren't making any money on the sale it seemed like a waste to try and line up when the models would pop back in stock AND I'd have to get over to my FLGS to effectively put a web order in for me that they weren't even going to get a cut of. In the end, I simply placed my order through SFG once the models popped back into stock a day or so later.
The last odd bit was that the Miners guild and all the new captains were being released in resin. I have not yet really seen any of SFG's resin minis. The rationale according to SFG was that Miners had such big models that it made sense to use resin, and they were obviously having problems getting the PVC models out of manufacturing in China.
That last part is a bit of a shame since I'm an absolute huge fan of SFG's PVC models. I have Blacksmiths and now Navigators and the fact that you open the box and can use them with zero assembly or fuss is amazing. The sculpts are solid IMO and they've painted up nicely so far.
So what about the resins? Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. It seems like the original Games Workshop Finecast models when they originally released. It feels like a kind of soft/fragile resin.
Here's my assembled set of new models:
The models don't look particularly bad, especially not 3 feet away, though there are a few rough bits.
The first issue I had was stability. When I had seen my friends Yukai model at game night last week, they were kind enough to let me play a game with it to try out their new rules. What immediately struck me was how light and flimsy the model felt. It doesn't help that the model attaches to the base via a single leg connection.
As you can see below, both Yukai and Spade both use the single leg connection. It looks cool, but that's just touchy and is begging to come off the base.
My solution was pinning through the leg as deep as I could manage without damaging the model. I then pinned through the base itself, which is tad shorter height wise than the usual base height you'd expect.
In both cases I went right through the base immediately and after pinning through I had to cut off the paperclip pin and then file down the bottom to make it flush. You don't want to go tearing up the nice neoprene mats we play on.
Once I did pin through the leg and base, the models definitely feel a bit more solid. I highly recommend it.
In terms of quality, I'm conflicted. Yukai looks good, but the model had a bit of odd flash that had to be shaved off the chin/neck which was a bit tight.
There were some definite issues with Fissure (the Tank), at least on the back of the model which was a bit of a mess and required a bit of cleaning. I'm sure the paint job can hide a lot of the problems here, but the back isn't anywhere near as pretty as the front. It's odd, because from literally every other angle the model is gorgeous IMO! It's a Metal Slug that plays murder-soccer, I was 100% sold the second I saw the render.
The other odd thing was that on the large bases the texture for the base looks kind of ill defined. There are also a good amount of mold lines to clean up which I'll have to go back and do. It's not the end of the world and nothing I can't fix up with paint and basing materials, it's just a little disappointing.
On the plus side the guild comes with a tiny little tank-ball. ITS ADORABLE!
Final thoughts
Based on a podcast interview with Double Dodge, CEO Matt Hart spoke about the problems they've been having with production and the desire to just hit a release date and knock a release out of the park, no delays.
On that front, they nailed it. While the captains did fluctuate in and out of stock, I was able to order both Yukai and the Miners guild on March 1st. It did take a week for SFG to get it out the door, shipped March 8th, but then the package made it from the UK to New Jersey by Tuesday, March 12th. I understand I was in the second wave which is what caused my delay. If you had ordered as soon as the models went up on pre-order they were arriving very promptly.
The cost on the captains isn't bad. $15 for a single blister is pretty much standard and I didn't think twice before ordering. The Miners box was a bit more of a stretch. It was $80 for the resins plus terrain and (tank!) ball. Given that the old 6 player guild boxes used to retail for $75 and were metal models, I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been better to just do the Miners in metal if they had to meet production.
So while they're able to hit the date, the models are in what feels to be a worse material than the PVC, require assembly, can feel flimsy, and are as expensive as metal without being metal.
On the other side the model designs are great, the rules are nice, and the problems aren't anything an experienced modeler/painter can't solve. If I had seen what I'd get before I ordered I'd still have bought them all over again, though it does feel a bit steep for what you're getting. In the end, I like the game and company enough that I was going to buy the models.
I would definitely be hesitant to tell my newer to the hobby friends or less hobby inclined friends to order the Miners guild vs. any of the PVC boxes which are amazing in both value and quality in contrast.
In the end, I do hope SFG is able to sort out their production issues since I think their PVC products are excellent when it comes to minor or new guilds.
Conversely, if this is how we get single blisters of new captains or models, I am 100% behind the approach if it's what allows the releases to work economically for SFG. Having seen/held Veteran Boar, the models is much more solid than Yukai, but it's also just a bigger model so it's easier to execute I suppose.
People Behind The Meeples - Episode 209: Alex Wolf
Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers. Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before. If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!
| Name: | Alex Wolf |
|---|---|
| Email: | alex@spielcraftgames.com |
| Location: | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
| Day Job: | I am a data analyst at an insurance company. |
| Designing: | Two to five years. |
| Webpage: | Spielcraftgames.com |
| BGG: | Spielcraft Games |
| Facebook: | Spielcraft Games |
| Twitter: | @spielcraftgames |
| Other: | For Glory on Kickstarter |
| Find my games at: | On Kickstarter |
Alex Wolf
Interviewed on: 8/13/2019
Last summer at Gen Con I got together with a few other game designers for a few hours to chat and play a few games. One of the games I played was For Glory by Alex Wolf. This was a fun deckbuilding and arena combat style game that blended some interesting combat mechanics with very unique deckbuilding elements that seemed to blend elements from many other deckbuilding games into its own interesting combination. Be sure to check out For Glory on Kickstarter today! Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Two to five years.
Two to five years.
Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I started designing tabletop games without a particular reason. I just started having ideas and started doing the work to get them out of my head and into the world.
I started designing tabletop games without a particular reason. I just started having ideas and started doing the work to get them out of my head and into the world.
What game or games are you currently working on?
I am about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for what will be my first published game, called For Glory. It's a 2-player game about building a gladiator school, sending gladiators to different arenas, and fighting arena battles in Ancient Rome. The focus is on the arena combat system. Players use a deck-building mechanic to build a network of patrons, recruit gladiators and train them in various tactics in preparation for the arena battles.
I am about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for what will be my first published game, called For Glory. It's a 2-player game about building a gladiator school, sending gladiators to different arenas, and fighting arena battles in Ancient Rome. The focus is on the arena combat system. Players use a deck-building mechanic to build a network of patrons, recruit gladiators and train them in various tactics in preparation for the arena battles.
Have you designed any games that have been published?
Not yet.
Not yet.
What is your day job?
I am a data analyst at an insurance company.
I am a data analyst at an insurance company.
Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.
Where do you prefer to play games?
Literally anywhere.
Literally anywhere.
Who do you normally game with?
I play a lot with my wife, Bobo. There is also an awesome gaming community here in Omaha, and I play with loads of friends that I've met over the years at various local game stores and board game cafes.
I play a lot with my wife, Bobo. There is also an awesome gaming community here in Omaha, and I play with loads of friends that I've met over the years at various local game stores and board game cafes.
If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
I usually go for medium-heavy games, in terms of strategic depth (as opposed to complexity).
I usually go for medium-heavy games, in terms of strategic depth (as opposed to complexity).
And what snacks would you eat?
Salisbury steak
Salisbury steak
Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
Sometimes. All kinds.
Sometimes. All kinds.
What's your favorite FLGS?
All of the FLGSs around Omaha are awesome.
All of the FLGSs around Omaha are awesome.
What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
My current favorite is Imperial by Mac Gerdts.
My current favorite is Imperial by Mac Gerdts.
What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
I think all mechanics can potentially be used effectively. I don't have a favorite. When a mechanic works in a game, it just works.
I think all mechanics can potentially be used effectively. I don't have a favorite. When a mechanic works in a game, it just works.
What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
Diplomacy. The mind games in Diplomacy are some of the most fun interactions I've had as a gamer, but it's an event if it ever gets played.
Diplomacy. The mind games in Diplomacy are some of the most fun interactions I've had as a gamer, but it's an event if it ever gets played.
What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games
Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games
I like to design Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games
You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.
When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
I basically always have the idea faucet turned on, and sometimes an idea pops out. The theme and mechanics are pretty intertwined usually.
I basically always have the idea faucet turned on, and sometimes an idea pops out. The theme and mechanics are pretty intertwined usually.
Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
When I am not being inundated with information from the internet, ideas flow pretty freely.
When I am not being inundated with information from the internet, ideas flow pretty freely.
How do you go about playtesting your games?
My wife is my number one playtester. I also constantly invite friends to play, and I am a member of the Spielmasons, a group of game designers that help each other develop games here in Omaha.
My wife is my number one playtester. I also constantly invite friends to play, and I am a member of the Spielmasons, a group of game designers that help each other develop games here in Omaha.
Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
I like to work alone, because I need to spend a lot of time just thinking.
I like to work alone, because I need to spend a lot of time just thinking.
What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
There are a lot of challenges, but the biggest one is probably sticking with a game for the time that it takes to develop it (well over a year for me), and not getting discouraged when a play test uncovers a big problem with the mechanics.
There are a lot of challenges, but the biggest one is probably sticking with a game for the time that it takes to develop it (well over a year for me), and not getting discouraged when a play test uncovers a big problem with the mechanics.
If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
Rick and Morty. Actual history is a pretty sweet IP though, and the license is free.
Rick and Morty. Actual history is a pretty sweet IP though, and the license is free.
What advice would you like to share about designing games?
Have an idea? Make a prototype and play test now! Literally right now.
Have an idea? Make a prototype and play test now! Literally right now.
Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
This is what I have currently crowdfunding: For Glory on Kickstarter
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: Too many
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: Way too many
This is what I have currently crowdfunding: For Glory on Kickstarter
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: Too many
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: Way too many
Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
All of the ones that I know about
All of the ones that I know about
And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!
Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Starship Troopers. Diet Pepsi. VHS.
Starship Troopers. Diet Pepsi. VHS.
What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
What do you mean, besides tabletop games?
What do you mean, besides tabletop games?
What is something you learned in the last week?
Theseus was the dude who defeated the minotaur.
Theseus was the dude who defeated the minotaur.
Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
All, Sci Fi, Sci Fi
All, Sci Fi, Sci Fi
What was the last book you read?
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Do you play any musical instruments?
I dabble in synth and guitar.
I dabble in synth and guitar.
Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
I once ordered a thin-crust pizza from Papa John's.
I once ordered a thin-crust pizza from Papa John's.
What would you do if you had a time machine?
Visit past and future civilizations, just to look, but I would get sucked into some plot that would end up ruining the present and whatnot. I mean, I'd like to think that I could resist changing stuff, but I know myself well enough.
Visit past and future civilizations, just to look, but I would get sucked into some plot that would end up ruining the present and whatnot. I mean, I'd like to think that I could resist changing stuff, but I know myself well enough.
Are you an extrovert or introvert?
Both.
Both.
If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
Superman. Perhaps not as exciting as others, but I'd want to be ridiculously overpowered. Lol.
Superman. Perhaps not as exciting as others, but I'd want to be ridiculously overpowered. Lol.
Have any pets?
Not at the moment.
Not at the moment.
If you'd like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here's your chance (I can't guarantee they'll read this though):
Shout out to all of the play testers out there. You are the real heroes.
Shout out to all of the play testers out there. You are the real heroes.
Just a Bit More
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions! Is there anything else you'd like to tell my readers?
Be sure to check out For Glory on Kickstarter right now!
Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html
Did you like this interview? Please show your support: Support me on Patreon! Or click the heart at Board Game Links
, like GJJ Games on Facebook 
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. And be sure to check out my games on Tabletop Generation.What Is SOMA's Safe Mode?
Tomorrow we will be releasing SOMA for Xbox One and along with this comes Safe Mode. This is a new way of playing the game that will also be available via Steam and GOG at the same time.
Since we announced Safe Mode there have been a lot of questions about it, so we thought this would be a good time to answer some of those and to clear up a few things. Here goes:
What is Safe Mode?
It is a version of the game where you cannot die - you are safe from harm. The game's various creatures are still there, they just won't attack you. If you've heard of the SOMA Steam mod "Wuss Mode", by steam user The Dreamer, then you should know the basic idea. The important thing to point out is that we don't simply turn off the creature's ability to attack and harm you. Instead, we've redesigned their behavior. Our goal has been for Safe Mode to not feel like a cheat, but for it to be a genuine way of experiencing the game. So we've considered what each creature should be doing, given their appearance, sound, and voice.
You can pick between Safe Mode and normal mode when starting up a new game.
Is the game still scary?
This obviously depends on what scares you, but the short answer is: yes, the game is still a horror game. However, since you can explore without a constant fear of failure, you will no longer have that type of tension. For people who aren't great at handling that aspect of horror gameplay, their journey through SOMA will be a lot easier in Safe Mode. But if it is the overall atmosphere that gets to you in a horror game - and, above all, the central themes - then game will still have plenty to be scared of.
What is the major difference in gameplay?
All of the puzzles, events, and so forth are still there. The big difference is that you'll no longer have to sneak past enemies. You don't need stealth in order to complete the game. Monsters might sound and act more threatening if they spot you, so there is still an incentive to being careful, but it's no longer mandatory to keep hidden. This will also allow you to explore some of environments more carefully.
Why release it now?
We actually considered releasing something similar at launch, but chose not to because we felt it would make the core intent of the game too unfocused. As people started to say that they really wanted to play the game and experience the philosophical sci-fi narrative, but couldn't because of the monsters, we started considering doing something about it. People liking the "Wuss Mode" mod was a good sign that we could solve this. However going back to a game you have already completed is not tempting so we put it off.
What eventually tipped the scales was the Xbox release where we wanted an extra feature to make the launch more interesting. Adding some sort of no-monster mode felt like the best option, and so Safe Mode was born! It also felt like it had been long enough since the original release, and the intended version of the game had been played and evaluated enough. Adding a new play mode wouldn't be a problem.
Will it come to PS4?
Yes! We hope to have it ready about 2 months from now. Sorry for not releasing it now, but a couple of issues have kept us from doing a simultaneous launch of Safe Mode.
I hope that clears things up! Let us know in the comments if you have any other questions!
Since we announced Safe Mode there have been a lot of questions about it, so we thought this would be a good time to answer some of those and to clear up a few things. Here goes:
What is Safe Mode?
It is a version of the game where you cannot die - you are safe from harm. The game's various creatures are still there, they just won't attack you. If you've heard of the SOMA Steam mod "Wuss Mode", by steam user The Dreamer, then you should know the basic idea. The important thing to point out is that we don't simply turn off the creature's ability to attack and harm you. Instead, we've redesigned their behavior. Our goal has been for Safe Mode to not feel like a cheat, but for it to be a genuine way of experiencing the game. So we've considered what each creature should be doing, given their appearance, sound, and voice.
You can pick between Safe Mode and normal mode when starting up a new game.
Is the game still scary?
This obviously depends on what scares you, but the short answer is: yes, the game is still a horror game. However, since you can explore without a constant fear of failure, you will no longer have that type of tension. For people who aren't great at handling that aspect of horror gameplay, their journey through SOMA will be a lot easier in Safe Mode. But if it is the overall atmosphere that gets to you in a horror game - and, above all, the central themes - then game will still have plenty to be scared of.
What is the major difference in gameplay?
All of the puzzles, events, and so forth are still there. The big difference is that you'll no longer have to sneak past enemies. You don't need stealth in order to complete the game. Monsters might sound and act more threatening if they spot you, so there is still an incentive to being careful, but it's no longer mandatory to keep hidden. This will also allow you to explore some of environments more carefully.
Why release it now?
We actually considered releasing something similar at launch, but chose not to because we felt it would make the core intent of the game too unfocused. As people started to say that they really wanted to play the game and experience the philosophical sci-fi narrative, but couldn't because of the monsters, we started considering doing something about it. People liking the "Wuss Mode" mod was a good sign that we could solve this. However going back to a game you have already completed is not tempting so we put it off.
What eventually tipped the scales was the Xbox release where we wanted an extra feature to make the launch more interesting. Adding some sort of no-monster mode felt like the best option, and so Safe Mode was born! It also felt like it had been long enough since the original release, and the intended version of the game had been played and evaluated enough. Adding a new play mode wouldn't be a problem.
Will it come to PS4?
Yes! We hope to have it ready about 2 months from now. Sorry for not releasing it now, but a couple of issues have kept us from doing a simultaneous launch of Safe Mode.
I hope that clears things up! Let us know in the comments if you have any other questions!
onsdag 19. februar 2020
All For One Revisited -- Again
It's now been about 17 years since David Brain first sent me a prototype copy of All For One, can you believe it?
The last time I had played the game was maybe back in 2012 at a protospiel event. I might have played it one more time since then, but to be honest, I don't remember if I did.
Well, I decided to bring it back to life at my last weekly playtesting session of 2019, and since I didn't remember what changes I was considering, we played it as-written (circa 2012). Then we discussed the game, and I brought it back out today, and played 2 more games, with some significant changes. Good news: I think the changes were for the better!
Since it's been so long, I'll run down the basic rules as I'd write them as of right now:
Setup:
As before, place the plot tokens and character figures in their home spaces on the board.
Shuffle mission cards and deal 4 to each player.
Give each player a reference mat and 1 One For All card.
Deal each player a secret goal card (using only the ones for the appropriate player count).
Set a pile of VP tokens in a supply
NO GUARDS AT ALL
Game play:
On your turn, you have an Action phase and a Draw phase.
Action phase:
During the Action phase you can do any number of actions from the following list, in any order (most are limited to 1x/turn):
a1) Move (1x/turn): Choose any 1 character and move them up to 3 steps. You may double back, but you must stop the move action upon encountering another character. If carrying a Horse, may choose to have the character ride instead, moving exactly 4 steps, jumping over tokens and figures.
a2) Pick up tokens: While moving, you may have the moving character pick up any number of tokens in the spaces you visit by discarding 1 card for each. Note that when riding, you may not pick up the tokens you jump over. Characters have no capacity limit. (you may pick up the a token in the location of another character you encountered - wording above might make it sound like you can't since I said the move action ends)
ONCE PICKED UP, TOKENS ARE NEVER DROPPED. In order to move them to another character, a Demand action is required (see below)
b) Demand a plot token (1x/turn): If 2 characters are in the same location, you may have one of them demand a plot token held by the other. In this case, a duel ensues to determine the outcome. Note: You do not have to use the same character that you moved - more than 1 character can act on your turn.
c) Complete a mission (1x/turn): Choose a character. If the conditions of a mission card in your hand are met, you may complete the mission with that character (some missions require a specific character to do them). Receive points based on the type of mission and the tokens you deliver (see below), and then bump 1 of that character's favored story tracks per token delivered (max 1 bump per track per mission). ONCE A TRACK HAS MAXED OUT, IT'S COMPLEMENT TRACK IS ALSO LOCKED IN AND NO LONGER MOVES.
c1) Duel missions: 3vp (and draw 1 card)
c2) Character delivery (either/or): 4vp for 1 token, 6vp for both
c3) Any Character mission (2 req'd): 5vp
c4) Standard delivery (req'd/bonus/bonus): 4/6/8vp for 1/2/3 tokens
d. Play One For All card for some effect:
d1) Play when completing a mission to gain an additional 2 VP
d2) Play when picking up tokens to cover the discard cost of all pickups this turn (so max 3 tokens, since you can move up to 3 steps)
d3) Play during a duel for 3 offensive moves (or during another player's turn for 0 offensive moves, but you get it back immediately)
d4) Play during the draw phase of the turn to draw 2 additional cards
d5) Play to immediately end your turn (skipping the draw phase) and start another. This allows for a 2nd move action, a 2nd demand action, or a 2nd mission.
Draw phase:
Draw 2 mission cards from the deck.
You may play One For All to draw 2 additional cards.
Then reclaim your One For All card.
Max hand size = 8 cards (including One For All). If you have more than 8 cards, discard mission cards until you have only 8
Game ends when all 3 story tracks are maxed out
Duels:
Duels between characters are triggered by Demand actions and by Duel missions. In any case, when you trigger a duel on your turn with a character (the one making the demand, or one of the two in the duel mission), you choose one of that character's story tracks to fight for. Announce the chosen character, the nominated track, and if applicable the token being demanded (and maybe from whom, to help other players out).
All players must play 1 card simultaneously, then reveal. Blue cards are worth 1 offense (2 if it's that character's signature move), red cards are worth 1 defense, white cards (riposte) are worth 2 defense. Add up all offense and all defense. If there is more offense than defense, the the duel has been WON. If there is more defense than offense, the duel is LOST. If there is the same amount of offense and defense, then the duel is TIED.
If WON: NOMINATED track is bumped. Token IS moved in the case of a demand.
If LOST: OPPOSITE track is bumped. Token IS NOT moved in the case of a demand.
If TIED: NO track is bumped. Token IS moved in the case of a demand.
One For All card played by active player is worth 3 offense.
One For All card played by any other player is worth 0 offense, and they get it back immediately.
Abilities and Signature Moves: as before. Aramis' ability to avoid guards must change (since there are no guards now): You may discard a card to move beyond another character. If that proves too useless, maybe it doesn't need to cost a card.
--- End Rules ---
So the big differences from before are:
1. No guards at all
2. 8 card hand
3. Draw 2 cards per turn instead of 1
4. Pay cards to pick up tokens (making that more intentional)
5. No such thing as dropping tokens or hand-offs, it's all just demand actions
6. No "active character" for the turn - you can act with different characters in a turn (move Aramis, demand with Athos, complete a mission with MiLady)
And to clean up some exceptions:
7. Make all Meeting missions into Duels (so they're all the same)
7. Make all Meeting missions into Duels (so they're all the same)
8. Allow riding a horse over dashed lines (ferry crossing and catacombs)
Both 4p games we played today took about 60 minutes, and this mix of rules seemed to work really well.
I added a few connections on the map, and I think a few more might be in order. Might want to sort of revisit the whole map and also the mission cards to make sure that (a) named locations are sort of evenly spaced out (ideally not less than 4 steps between any 2 named locations), and (b) based on token starting locations, no missions are doable on the first turn (at least not without using the One For All card for extra actions)
Due to the higher hand size and extra card draws, the deck almost ran out in our 4p games, and I suspect for 5 players it would definitely run out, so more missions are needed. I'd begin by making more missions with Horses as required or bonus tokens.
I think this is a big improvement over the previous version with respect to fiddliness and rules overhead. It feels good to see some progress on this game -- the biggest disappointment of my game design career is that nothing has ever come of this game.
Sharpen Your Programming Tools
Programming is like any other craft, whether that be engineering or woodworking or auto repair. Every craft has its tools that must be learned and maintained in order to do beautiful work and make wonderful things. In the craft of programming, one of the main tools we work with is programming languages. The more languages we know and the better we know them, the more versatile and valuable we can be as programmers and the better our solutions become. Fortunately, it's extremely easy to find websites to help you practice with programming problems and build up your skills with the languages you already know or bring you up to speed on languages you're trying to learn. They're so easy to find that it may be a bit overwhelming to pick one and settle in to actually work on some problems. Here are some of my favorite (free) sites—and why I like them—to help simplify that decision.
RubyMonk is a nicely designed site that introduces Ruby and leads you on a journey through the language's various features from objects to metaprogramming. It's part tutorial with explanations of all of the language concepts that it covers, and part practice with additional exercises to solve after you've read the material. Throughout the tutorial are lines of code that you can run to see what they do, and other places where you're asked to enter your own code to accomplish certain tasks to participate more in the lesson. These input areas also act as scratch pads where you can experiment with the Ruby language to your heart's content. It's a great, interactive way to learn the language, and one of the better implementations of this concept that I've seen. I particularly enjoyed the Zen master and apprentice theme throughout. It was quite calming and relaxing, making for a pleasant learning and practicing experience.
Continuing with the Zen theme, this Ruby practice site takes you away from the internet by having you download a set of files that are set up as Ruby test files. After making sure that Ruby is installed, you simply run each file in Ruby and see what the output looks like. It will tell you how the first test in the file fails, and then you have to go and fix the code to make it pass. You continue in this way along the path to enlightenment. It's pretty slick, and the progression of the problems was well thought out and nicely done. Whereas RubyMonk has the advantage of having everything work in the browser, Ruby Koans has the advantage of making you work in a more realistic programming environment, and its focus on the testing culture of Ruby is an added benefit.
This is probably the most clever of the sites in this list. The Python Challenge starts off with a couple fairly simple puzzles, but then quickly ramps up the difficulty level. For each puzzle you're given an image with a clue, and you have to figure out how to edit the URL to advance to the next level. This set of puzzles is extremely entertaining. I felt like Indiana Jones, or maybe Benjamin Gates from National Treasure, while trying to solve these puzzles, putting the clues through different Python functions and coming up with different ways to manipulate them in order to find the right next step. The site even helps you out with extra hints when you're on the right track but haven't fully solved the puzzle, yet. It's very well done, and I highly recommend giving it a try. Don't go looking for how to solve the problems, either. It's much more satisfying to do it yourself. Like Ruby Koans, you're own programming environment is required.
This site is a straight up problem solving site for the Clojure programming language. Each of the 156 problems has a set of tests that should pass if you fill in the right code in the editor and run the tests. The output when your code fails is pretty sparse, so you'll either need a local Clojure environment or an online REPL (the link on the site is dead) for debugging and experimenting. The problems range from simple fill-in-the-blank problems for learning syntax to fairly difficult mathematics and algorithmic problems. Once you've solved any given problem, you can look at how other people have solved that same problem, but only for people that you've followed on the site. It's easy to choose a dozen or so people that have solved all of the problems from the site's Top Users list, and scanning through others solutions is a great way to learn new tricks in any programming language. We'll see this feature pop up in a number of the other sites here. I especially liked 4Clojure's simple, clean interface and the nice set of puzzles they have to solve with a good range of difficulty for learning the language. They do have some bumps in the road, with some problems seemingly out of logical order if you proceed through them numerically. Some earlier problems require syntax and functions that you learn about in later problems. The elementary, easy, medium, and hard problems are all mixed together, too. But, for the most part it works well, and solving the medium and hard problems was quite satisfying.
If you want to try your hand at Prolog, this is a great site for doing just that. I would imagine these problems could be solved in a similar manner in Erlang and possibly Elixir as well, but beyond that, we're probably getting too far from a logic language for the problems to be the kind of challenge that they were intended. Come to think of it, miniKanren—a logic language built on top of Clojure—may also work here. Anyway, this is a great set of problems for buffing up your logic programming skills with a nice progression in material and difficulty, and there are solutions for if you get stuck or just want to see if there was another way to solve the problem. It's another bring your own programming environment site with just the bare-bones problems and solutions provided. The meat of this site is in the problems themselves.
Okay, what gives? I say this is going to be the polyglot section and the first site I list is another Ruby site. Well, Ruby is in the title, but it's not at all restrictive. You need to use your own programming environment, so you can solve the problems in whichever language you want. The solutions on the site are given in Ruby, but the result of running the program for each problem is known, so you'll know when you've got the program working in any other language. What's nice about these problems is that they're more like miniature real-world programming problems instead of the standard textbook exercises of most sites. This site was run with a new problem once a week for three years before switching management over to a different person and a mailing list, so there are 156 problems here to solve. That's still enough to stay busy for quite a while, so have fun exploring the standard libraries of your favorite programming language to efficiently solve these problems.
Codewars is one of the more fully-featured sites on this list. It has huge sets of programming puzzles, called kata, for about 20 different languages, and the number of kata is constantly growing because users can submit their own kata for others to solve. The kata are ranked by difficulty level, and you get different amounts of experience for solving different levels of kata. There are no specified tracks to the kata; it's somewhat arbitrary what order you'll solve them as you're free to choose the next kata at every step. As you gain experience, or honor, you advance up the ranks from 8kyu to 1kyu. It's a nice gamification that keeps you going to solve more kata at higher difficulty levels, if the challenge and satisfaction of solving programming puzzles wasn't enough already. In addition to the huge selection of puzzles, you can look at other users' solutions, and discuss them through comments on the site. It adds a nice social aspect to the puzzle solving as long as you can keep the conversations civil, as we all should do in programming debates.
Exercism.io is similar to Codewars in that it supports a ton of different languages, and there's a social aspect to looking at other users' solutions and commenting on their code. Here it's encouraged to critique other people's code in a constructive and respectful way in order to try to help your fellow programmers improve their skills. Through your analysis and others critiques, you should also improve. It works pretty well, too. Compared to Codewars, there's less puzzles for each language, although more are being added all the time, and Exercism.io takes a serial approach to solving the problems. It's also done offline rather than on the website, so you'll download a little script to get started that pulls down the first problem for whichever language you want to practice. You solve the problem in your own environment, check it against a set of tests, and submit it with the script from a terminal. Then you can go on the site and review other people's solutions. It's a different way of doing what Codewars does from your own computer, and it works surprisingly well.
This puzzle site is the essense of a programming puzzle site. The problems are simply math problems that you could solve by hand, if you wanted to, but trust me, you don't want to. Take the first problem as an example: Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000. I could calculate this answer by hand, but honestly, I'm going to write code to do it. You can pick any language you want of course, and when you've solved it, just submit the answer to the site. Your time from seeing the problem to submitting the solution is logged, and you can go to the forum for each problem to discuss it and see how others have solved it. Many problems aren't even solvable on a computer if you just try to brute-force a solution. They require additional thought to make the code efficient enough to solve the problem before the Earth gets swallowed up by the Sun. On the other hand, there are some problems for which closed form solutions can be found, so keep your eye out for those! This is a challenging and engaging site, and it's ever so satisfying to solve a particularly difficult problem in an elegant way. They're always adding more problems to the list, too. It's currently up to 683 problems, so get crackin'!
This site is a running list of programming exercises with new ones added on Tuesdays and Fridays every week. The exercises are intended to be solved with Scheme, and that's the language the solutions are given in. But of course you can solve the exercises in any language you like. This site has been going strong since 2009, so there's plenty of exercises to choose from. The chronological list only goes through 2013, with 491 exercises there, but they keep going after that, up to the present day. You can either go back through the history and try to solve them all, or use the site to consistently practice the most recent exercises starting today. Either way, there's a ton of stuff here to keep you busy and help you improve your programming skills in any language you want.
Well, there you have it, ten of my favorite sites for sharpening your programming tools. They run the gamut from introductory tutorials for specific programming languages to huge lists of fun, challenging puzzles for any language under the sun. There are tons more sites like these out there, probably many more great ones that will help you become a better programmer. The important thing is to find a couple sites that have engaging enough puzzles to hold your attention and help you level up your skills, and keep at it. Putting in that effort will noticeably improve your programming abilities in addition to being rewarding in its own right. I know I'll be working (playing?) through a few of these sites for a long time to come.
Monoglot Programming Puzzle Sites
These sites focus primarily or exclusively on one programming language. They tend to be great for getting started in that language or practicing the basics of a language that you're not that strong in, yet. However, they can also go deep into their chosen language because of the focus on a single language.
RubyMonk
RubyMonk is a nicely designed site that introduces Ruby and leads you on a journey through the language's various features from objects to metaprogramming. It's part tutorial with explanations of all of the language concepts that it covers, and part practice with additional exercises to solve after you've read the material. Throughout the tutorial are lines of code that you can run to see what they do, and other places where you're asked to enter your own code to accomplish certain tasks to participate more in the lesson. These input areas also act as scratch pads where you can experiment with the Ruby language to your heart's content. It's a great, interactive way to learn the language, and one of the better implementations of this concept that I've seen. I particularly enjoyed the Zen master and apprentice theme throughout. It was quite calming and relaxing, making for a pleasant learning and practicing experience.
Ruby Koans
Continuing with the Zen theme, this Ruby practice site takes you away from the internet by having you download a set of files that are set up as Ruby test files. After making sure that Ruby is installed, you simply run each file in Ruby and see what the output looks like. It will tell you how the first test in the file fails, and then you have to go and fix the code to make it pass. You continue in this way along the path to enlightenment. It's pretty slick, and the progression of the problems was well thought out and nicely done. Whereas RubyMonk has the advantage of having everything work in the browser, Ruby Koans has the advantage of making you work in a more realistic programming environment, and its focus on the testing culture of Ruby is an added benefit.
The Python Challenge
This is probably the most clever of the sites in this list. The Python Challenge starts off with a couple fairly simple puzzles, but then quickly ramps up the difficulty level. For each puzzle you're given an image with a clue, and you have to figure out how to edit the URL to advance to the next level. This set of puzzles is extremely entertaining. I felt like Indiana Jones, or maybe Benjamin Gates from National Treasure, while trying to solve these puzzles, putting the clues through different Python functions and coming up with different ways to manipulate them in order to find the right next step. The site even helps you out with extra hints when you're on the right track but haven't fully solved the puzzle, yet. It's very well done, and I highly recommend giving it a try. Don't go looking for how to solve the problems, either. It's much more satisfying to do it yourself. Like Ruby Koans, you're own programming environment is required.
4Clojure
This site is a straight up problem solving site for the Clojure programming language. Each of the 156 problems has a set of tests that should pass if you fill in the right code in the editor and run the tests. The output when your code fails is pretty sparse, so you'll either need a local Clojure environment or an online REPL (the link on the site is dead) for debugging and experimenting. The problems range from simple fill-in-the-blank problems for learning syntax to fairly difficult mathematics and algorithmic problems. Once you've solved any given problem, you can look at how other people have solved that same problem, but only for people that you've followed on the site. It's easy to choose a dozen or so people that have solved all of the problems from the site's Top Users list, and scanning through others solutions is a great way to learn new tricks in any programming language. We'll see this feature pop up in a number of the other sites here. I especially liked 4Clojure's simple, clean interface and the nice set of puzzles they have to solve with a good range of difficulty for learning the language. They do have some bumps in the road, with some problems seemingly out of logical order if you proceed through them numerically. Some earlier problems require syntax and functions that you learn about in later problems. The elementary, easy, medium, and hard problems are all mixed together, too. But, for the most part it works well, and solving the medium and hard problems was quite satisfying.
99 Prolog Problems
If you want to try your hand at Prolog, this is a great site for doing just that. I would imagine these problems could be solved in a similar manner in Erlang and possibly Elixir as well, but beyond that, we're probably getting too far from a logic language for the problems to be the kind of challenge that they were intended. Come to think of it, miniKanren—a logic language built on top of Clojure—may also work here. Anyway, this is a great set of problems for buffing up your logic programming skills with a nice progression in material and difficulty, and there are solutions for if you get stuck or just want to see if there was another way to solve the problem. It's another bring your own programming environment site with just the bare-bones problems and solutions provided. The meat of this site is in the problems themselves.
Polyglot Programming Puzzle Sites
These sites allow the user to solve problems in numerous different languages, sometimes any language they want to use is fair game. The nature of these sites tends to focus on the problem solving or puzzle nature of programming as a result, since general problems can be solved in any language.
Ruby Quiz
Okay, what gives? I say this is going to be the polyglot section and the first site I list is another Ruby site. Well, Ruby is in the title, but it's not at all restrictive. You need to use your own programming environment, so you can solve the problems in whichever language you want. The solutions on the site are given in Ruby, but the result of running the program for each problem is known, so you'll know when you've got the program working in any other language. What's nice about these problems is that they're more like miniature real-world programming problems instead of the standard textbook exercises of most sites. This site was run with a new problem once a week for three years before switching management over to a different person and a mailing list, so there are 156 problems here to solve. That's still enough to stay busy for quite a while, so have fun exploring the standard libraries of your favorite programming language to efficiently solve these problems.
Codewars
Codewars is one of the more fully-featured sites on this list. It has huge sets of programming puzzles, called kata, for about 20 different languages, and the number of kata is constantly growing because users can submit their own kata for others to solve. The kata are ranked by difficulty level, and you get different amounts of experience for solving different levels of kata. There are no specified tracks to the kata; it's somewhat arbitrary what order you'll solve them as you're free to choose the next kata at every step. As you gain experience, or honor, you advance up the ranks from 8kyu to 1kyu. It's a nice gamification that keeps you going to solve more kata at higher difficulty levels, if the challenge and satisfaction of solving programming puzzles wasn't enough already. In addition to the huge selection of puzzles, you can look at other users' solutions, and discuss them through comments on the site. It adds a nice social aspect to the puzzle solving as long as you can keep the conversations civil, as we all should do in programming debates.
Exercism.io
Exercism.io is similar to Codewars in that it supports a ton of different languages, and there's a social aspect to looking at other users' solutions and commenting on their code. Here it's encouraged to critique other people's code in a constructive and respectful way in order to try to help your fellow programmers improve their skills. Through your analysis and others critiques, you should also improve. It works pretty well, too. Compared to Codewars, there's less puzzles for each language, although more are being added all the time, and Exercism.io takes a serial approach to solving the problems. It's also done offline rather than on the website, so you'll download a little script to get started that pulls down the first problem for whichever language you want to practice. You solve the problem in your own environment, check it against a set of tests, and submit it with the script from a terminal. Then you can go on the site and review other people's solutions. It's a different way of doing what Codewars does from your own computer, and it works surprisingly well.
Project Euler
This puzzle site is the essense of a programming puzzle site. The problems are simply math problems that you could solve by hand, if you wanted to, but trust me, you don't want to. Take the first problem as an example: Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000. I could calculate this answer by hand, but honestly, I'm going to write code to do it. You can pick any language you want of course, and when you've solved it, just submit the answer to the site. Your time from seeing the problem to submitting the solution is logged, and you can go to the forum for each problem to discuss it and see how others have solved it. Many problems aren't even solvable on a computer if you just try to brute-force a solution. They require additional thought to make the code efficient enough to solve the problem before the Earth gets swallowed up by the Sun. On the other hand, there are some problems for which closed form solutions can be found, so keep your eye out for those! This is a challenging and engaging site, and it's ever so satisfying to solve a particularly difficult problem in an elegant way. They're always adding more problems to the list, too. It's currently up to 683 problems, so get crackin'!
Programming Praxis
This site is a running list of programming exercises with new ones added on Tuesdays and Fridays every week. The exercises are intended to be solved with Scheme, and that's the language the solutions are given in. But of course you can solve the exercises in any language you like. This site has been going strong since 2009, so there's plenty of exercises to choose from. The chronological list only goes through 2013, with 491 exercises there, but they keep going after that, up to the present day. You can either go back through the history and try to solve them all, or use the site to consistently practice the most recent exercises starting today. Either way, there's a ton of stuff here to keep you busy and help you improve your programming skills in any language you want.
Well, there you have it, ten of my favorite sites for sharpening your programming tools. They run the gamut from introductory tutorials for specific programming languages to huge lists of fun, challenging puzzles for any language under the sun. There are tons more sites like these out there, probably many more great ones that will help you become a better programmer. The important thing is to find a couple sites that have engaging enough puzzles to hold your attention and help you level up your skills, and keep at it. Putting in that effort will noticeably improve your programming abilities in addition to being rewarding in its own right. I know I'll be working (playing?) through a few of these sites for a long time to come.
torsdag 13. februar 2020
Brave Browser the Best privacy-focused Browser of 2019
Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.
An extremely productive year for Brave
Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.
Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.
The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.
Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:
"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"
Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.
Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now
If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.
The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.
AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.
For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.
Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.
Earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) with Brave Web Browser
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