God out of the machine

Way way way back in the early 2000's (oh god it was more than a decade ago?) there was a game called Deus Ex, or Dear Sex as one of my friends in a more surreal moment though I was saying, was released.

This game is astonishing.

For the time it was graphically ahead of the curve.  Reflections and effects that worked on almost any machine at the time.  I was especially lucky back then rocking 2 Voodoo 2 graphics cards for my 3D gaming pleasure.  Yes it was decadent but it was also utterly delicious.  But it wasn't the graphics that really drew me into the world it was the narrative.

What made it especially great was something I'd never seen before in a game not even adventure games of the time.  There was a moment early on that I discovered something in this game that I never had expected or even assumed was possible in a game.

This moment was when I walked into the ladies toilets just after the first mission and came face to face with a woman walking out of a cubical.  She was indignant that I was in the wrong room and quite rightly so being a male security agent in the ladies lavatory.  That wasn't so special but it was later on when at the briefing I was already on route to when the call of nature, or the gamer desire to look behind every door, kicked in and the head of the division I was reporting to finished the briefing with a dressing down for being in the wrong toilets.

I'd never seen something like that before and rarely seen it since.  It was an early lesson to the game that was an indicator that actions really did have consequences, even in the digital world.

This is why online accounts suck

Years ago a game came out by the name of Spore.  It was hugely hyped and the early videos looked so interesting.

Sadly the game that EA released bore only a passing resemblance to what was described.  It's still fun but it's not the game build around evolution more intelligent design.

There is a great feature where your creatures can be shared and appear in other peoples games and indeed when you try to start the game it will nag you to log in as well as pointing out how much better it is to be online.

Now this game has draconian DRM which thankfully didn't prevent me from installing and playing offline.  As crap as that is, this is a different problem.

Patches are delivered by the EA download manager which has now been replaced by Origin.  It's like a poor version of Steam.  Again poor but not the issue in question as I can get patches from slightly more roundabout ways.

No today's problem is what happens with your email address linked to an account no longer exists.  A while back MyRealBox used to provide free POP3 email but over a year ago they discontinued the service.  So I have an account for EA linked to a dead email address neither of which have been used in about 3 years.

I think you can see where this is going.

There is no way to find out my EA account password without the email account.  I can't transfer a game I own to an account I do have access to.  All I can do is create yet another email account somewhere else and get the customer service to change the email address on the account.

Why is this?  Surely I own the license to use the software not the fictional persona that exists only on EA's servers.

Table Top Gaming

So I've been playing table top RPG's of the likes of DnD since some time around 1991.  It was when I set off to senior school and discovered the joys of the war-games club.  Really by that point it was the table top RPG club and war games never really got a look in.

I perhaps came at the hobby backwards because before then I did live action role-playing since some time in the mid-late 80's.

I had quite a dry spell going through university because I couldn't find a game but after that I've played and run more games than I can really track.

What does all this have to do with tonight's post?

Well I wanted to talk a little about my plans for an up coming game.

This is being run for a group I used to work with (mostly) who either have never played, have played in the dim and distant past, or have never played GURPS.

This adventure they will be running through is tried and tested over many many years.  There used to be a role playing club called The Portly Pixie.  They had a complex that could be rearranged quickly to form new passages and could be set up for different adventures.  Sadly they no longer operate their fantasy adventures but they have published the adventure portfolio as well as the original rules for the live action game.

This means that I can use those adventures for this group who never had a chance to experience them originally.

This map is the first part showing the village of Sham and it's surroundings.

Sepia for that genuine 1800's look on a pseudo medieval world...

Artemis the return

This Monday we revised Artemis with enough players for a full crew.  It defiantly changes the game with a full compliment.

We repositioned the Coms station to sit next to the captain where he could more easily see the main screen to direct the NPC starships as well as more easily communicate the available missions to the captain.  I find that if Coms and Helm are too close they can dictate the course of the mission cutting the captain out of the loop.

The interesting sector maps as well add much more to the game as well.  Nebula affecting sensors, Singularities, making areas hazardous.

The game remains fun especially with the harder difficulties and the different ships to use but it isn't without a few things I would like to see.

Using the Jump Drive needs a pretty animation when you enter jump space.  At the moment the screens all black out briefly.

When Red Alert gets activated the siren is good I would like to see more of an effect on the displays of the different stations though.

At the moment with the random map placement it is possible that star bases can spawn inside asteroids.  IT doesn't destroy them but it does rough up your own shields as they grind against the rock while you try and dock.

Along with this would be some better AI for the enemy ships.  At the moment they close on a star base till they can attack it or the players interrupt them.  This does mean they often fly into mine fields.

My final wish is for more control in the Games master screen.  At the moment you can talk as if you were anyone and that's about it.  Some control over the ships a big like an RTS would be nice and possibly give them some ability to move a bit quicker a little.

A kind of Magic

I've been playing Magic the Gathering since the revised edition. That'd make it some time around 1994 is memory serves. I've not bought more physical cards in a very long time but I do enjoy the occasional digital game.

Until today.

I picked up the very reasonably priced "Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013" as a pre-order because I have had some much fun with the earlier titles. And in the nearly 20 years I've been playing the game I have never been so bored as I was tonight.

It's not that it is a bad edition, far from it, the rules are enforced well, it is graphically and feature rich. But it also has a deck that while it may be incredible cleverly constructed it is just dull to play against.

This is the first battle you face in the 4 way free for all chain. I'm talking about Ajani, here's the game in action Yes that's him with 265 life and myself with 300. Now bear in mind you start with 20 and digest that for a moment. You can also see that he has 12 cards left in his deck and I have 62. You can win this game by not only beating your opponent into the ground but by making them run out of cards. What you can't see from this is the fact that he has a spell that when cast gets shuffled into his library, at the same time it's going to summon an army of cat people.

Now fair enough this is a perfectly valid strategy. He also has two creatures that heal him for each creature that enters play and another two that gain a token for each time he gains life. The animation time for one of these events is about a second give or take. Now he casts a spell that will bring in 21 cats. So we wait a second for the spell, then 2 seconds for each cat to give him a point of life and then for each point of life another 2 seconds to add the token to his creatures. EACH cat put into play takes 6 seconds so each turn I spend just over two minutes waiting for the computer to sort it's maths out with it;s fancy effects. The delay is important because you may be able to interrupt. When you don't want do, perhaps because it would give you no advantage, you just have to wait. And Wait. And Wait.

So the game is at a stalemate, neither can win until my card which grants me victory for having more than 40 life, is drawn. The fact that it awards you victory for 40 life and you can see my life is at 300 here should be a massive warning sign.

This is a great edition of Magic: The Gathering. But which idiot thought it was a good idea to put this deck in it?

Monday night is games night

I have a group of friends I regularly meet on Monday nights for gaming. I've known most of them in one form or other for going on 18 years now. We play all sorts of games from board games to RPG's, we even tested the 4th edition of D&D.

Until last Monday night we had never turned it into a digital gaming session.

It's more surprising when you look at the constituent parts of the regular group. Of the five present last Monday two make their livings writing software another maintaining network infrastructure. Of the remaining two, one collects all gadgets he can. Finally we have the one member who isn't a technophobe so much as one who would rather everything is powered by steam.

I sent out a message to the group to let them know Monday night was going to be different and each should bring a laptop and to prepare for some science fiction action.

This action was Artemis.

We used the TV of our host to be the Captains main view Screen while the rest of use crowded around the dining table and set up out laptops to be the crew.

This game is a network co-op game that simulate the bridge crew of a starship. Each player takes control of a station and is responsible for the operation of it with limited, if any, visibility of what the other stations are doing.

Never in my life have I seen a co-op game with such a necessary level of teamwork. Left 4 Dead doesn't even come close.

The Capitan has no direct control and can only view on his screen what his officers provide for him.

Helm can control the flight of the starship including warp or jump drive, depending on your settings.

Weapons is very self explanatory and is focused on dealing death.

Comms has to ordinate request for assistance from the allied ships and star-bases in system. They are also responsible for requisitioning supplies and getting enemies to surrender, or just winding them up.

Engineering manages the relative power levels and limited coolant based on the demands of the ship at that moment. They also can direct the damage control teams around the ship to repair systems.

The last station is science. They have the most powerful scanners that can view inside nebula as well as identifying the enemy ships from across the sector.

We had time to play three rounds with only one crushing defeat against us when we attempted a mission with a underspeced ship.

The real charm of this game was that someone not incredibly into PC gaming was immediately able to drop into the roll of Captain and start issuing orders. Next time we will try and get Helm and Weapons in front of the captain with the other stations behind him. That way Comms will have to talk to the captain directly and navigation decisions can't bypass him as easily as we did.

It's also very interesting to see how at different times people are dominant. Out of combat it's all Comms and Science plotting and scanning making demands of Engineering and Helm, Weapons will be sitting quietly loading his torpedo tubes based on the information about the next targets. As soon as the shields go up Helm takes over demanding bearings and ranges from Science, Weapons starts shouting to engineering for more weapon power and the two start to work as ruthless killing machine. There is nothing quite like plotting and executing a mid combat jump to drop you right on the tail of your pursuers.

Engineering has the most passive and relaxed station in my experience but they do grow obsessed with energy levels and wastage caused by frivolous use of warp speed.

I'm usually careful in my recommendations of games, everyone's tastes vary so much. But if you can get 5 or 6 people in the same room with laptops and a nice big screen for the commander (star fleet uniforms optional) then I urge you to buy it. There is a free demo which only gives you access to Helm and Weapons along with the captains view. The final reason you should buy it to give it a go they have a 100% money back guarantee, you don't like it say so and get a refund. It's pricey when seen as a bulk buy but it's not much between 7 of you.