Repainted Barbarian Warrior

During the early phase of my painting journey, I painted a set of miniatures that came with the special edition of Civilization V. Some turned out better than others, but the worst was this barbarian warrior. When I looked at the figure more closely, I realized that my choices back then made no sense--I'd painted a fur green, I mistook some exposed musculature for clothing, and so on. I fixed those mistakes and added some drybrushing to give the figure more definition. 

I'm most pleased by the beard and mustache. With agonizing patience, I used my tiniest brush to paint in those details by hand, rather than attempting to drybrush them on. This way, you can actually see his lips between the mustache and beard, an effect I've never accomplished before this. Now that I know I can do it if I'm patient and careful enough, I'm going to attempt this technique more often. 
 

Borders in Civilization VII

In the Civilization games, players attempt to lead a culture's progress from ancient times to the near future. Since Civilization III, the games have drawn borders around your cities to indicate the fluctuating borders of your nation. Generating culture with libraries, works of art, and so on, cause your borders to expand outward. 

Unfortunately, to date the Civilization games have drawn borders using a pretty simple formula: your culture generation slowly fills squares or hexagons out to an arbitrary limit. This method doesn't really reflect the way borders are created in the real world. 

Civilization VII should be released in the next couple of years, and I'm hoping that border generation might be more sophisticated. It would be nice if the game drew borders along natural barriers such as rivers or mountain ranges, in combination with lines of latitude or longitude. Even better, perhaps the developers could add a negotiation element to the game, where you meet with other leaders to determine boundaries in disputed regions. And of course, borders will shift during wars, a mechanic that already exists in the most recent games, but using the imperfect square/hexagon formula. It would be more interesting if borders ebbed and flowed with the tide of combat...

I'd also love to see a way for nations to peacefully merge or break up, as sometimes happens in history. And maybe a one-world government could be a new victory condition as you make borders disappear, one by one...

Nooooooo

I just finished an epic game of Civilization, in which I finally accomplished a feat I'd been pursuing for decades, but never had the patience, until now, to finish: build the Cape to Cairo railroad on a huge map. I did just that a couple of turns ago, but at the same time, far away in eastern Asia, my Giant Death Robots were mauling cities. I accidentally won a domination victory, and I was so stunned I forgot to take a screenshot of my lovely railroad (which actually encircled the entire continent!) and my almost fully-coloured-in African continent.

Sob. 

Aluminum Conundrum

I've played Civilization V for years, but only now did I suddenly notice a logic problem within the game. Aluminum is a strategic resource that you need to build certain units. If you fail to mine aluminum, you won't be able to build those units. However, you can build up to five Recycling Centers in your civilization, and each Recycling Center produces a bit of aluminum. If your civilization hasn't mined aluminum, where is this recycled aluminum coming from? Hmmm...

My Favourite Games (Atari ST Era)

Back in 2016, I wrote about my favourite arcade games, my favourite console games of the second generation era, and the Atari 8-bit era. Once the family retired the Atari 400/130XE, I moved on, midway through university, to the 520ST (and eventually the 1040 ST).

For the first time, I had a computer with two monitors: one black and white Atari monitor, and a colour Commodore 1702 monitor that needed an adapter to work with the ST. Most (though not all) of my favourite games were presented on the colour monitor:


This is the big one, the game whose many iterations have consumed more of my leisure time than any other: Civilization. Civilization for the ST came out during the brief time I lived in the Bleak House of Blahs, and the hours I spent in my basement bedroom playing this game of scientific progress and world conquest consumed a significant chunk of that halcyon era. With pottery you can make granary, and yes, that barbarian phalanx will indeed sink your battleship.



Dungeon Master was, perhaps, my favourite ST game before Civilization came along. It was a first-person dungeon crawl with a huge underground world to explore, a great team of adventurers to bring along, fast-paced combat, creepy monsters, tricky puzzles, and plenty of food, weapons, and treasure to collect. I remember being pretty desperate for food before I was able to compel myself to eat one of the "worm rounds" I'd scavenged from a giant caterpillar thing.



Sundog was a fantastic space trading simulator/roleplaying game in which the character you create inherits a small cargo spaceship and some starting cash. That's all you need to explore the stars and start trading, hoping to earn enough money to upgrade your ship, repair damage from pirates and other space hazards, and buy other supplies. My friend Pete loved this game so much that he brings it up once in a while, lamenting the lack of a modern-day version. 



Speedball was a fast-paced future sports game, one that reminded me a lot of the game they played on Battlestar Galactica in the 1970s. Gameplay was simple but elegant and smoothly animated; the graphics and sounds were great as well.



Falcon put me in the cockpit of an F-16 bristling with a weapons load that I put together myself for each mission! Though not as complex as today`s flight simulators, Falcon was certainly more complex than its competitors of the day, with very impressive graphics for the time. I got pretty good at blowing up bridges and tanks, not quite as good at shooting down enemy fighters.

SPECIAL BONUS GAME

Preparing today's blog brought some old memories back to the fore, including the many hours I spent on the Atari 130XE playing Star Fleet I: The War Begins. I believe I worked my way up to Lieutenant Commander before trading in the old 8-bit 130XE for my 520ST. 

Will I Build a Civilization to Stand the Test of Time?

Much as I love the various Civilization games, I must confess: I'm a terrible player. Throughout my career as a virtual head of state, victories have been few and far between. I continue that ignominious record with Civilization VI; so far, not only have I lost on Settler level difficulty (the easiest), I couldn't even defeat the single enemy found in the tutorial mode. I guess I'm just not cut out for shepherding my people to the promised land... 

Civ Weekend

Although my copy of Civilization VI appeared midweek and I did play for a couple of furtive hours on Tuesday night, I'm devoting this weekend to exploring the highly anticipated game in full as soon as I finish posting here tonight. It astounds me that I played the first Civilization on my Atari 520 ST back in 1992, when Ron and Allan and I were living in the Bleak House of Blahs. I wonder if I'll be around to play Civilization XII in about 50 years...well, not if I sit on my butt all the time playing Civilization, I suppose! 

How Does a Phalanx Destroy a Battleship?

On the far side of the world
In lush lands untamed by modern empires
My lookout spots a mighty phalanx
Armed with shield and spear
My officers and I gather on deck
To marvel at this vision of times past
We laugh as the barbarians hurl spears from the beach
Most fall short, crashing into the seas
But one, carried by an ill wind,
Plugs an exhaust port
And kaboom

Aiieeee, the Jury

When I left the Alberta Legislature behind last May, I suspected that it might be a while before I landed another job. I've been fortunate enough to land some freelance writing assignments and a really wonderful online tutoring job for one semester at Grant MacEwan, but a full-time job still eludes me nine months later.It's been a frustrating process, but I remain grateful because I know other Canadians have far greater obstacles to happiness. I'll find the right position, but I have no right to expect it to happen overnight.

The purpose of this post is not to whine about my job search, but to highlight the little curve balls life tosses from time to time. This morning I confirmed that today's EI payment was my last. Alarming news, yes, but I knew it was coming, and Sylvia and I made plans long ago in the unlikely (or so I thought) event that my benefits ran out before I'd found another job. I filed away the news, returned to my job search, and found five positions that each sounded quite appealing. With another batch of applications bravely assaulting the fortifications of HR filtering software, I felt as though the day hadn't been a total loss.

A couple of hours later, Sylvia asked me to take her to Tim Horton's for her signature medium mocha ice cap supreme. On the way we picked up the mail, and...

"Why do I have a letter from Alberta Justice and Attorney General...wait, are you kidding me? Is this a jury summons?"

I tore open the envelope and there it was: a summons to appear at the Court of Queen's Bench for jury selection.

I can't decide if this is the best timing in the world, or the worst. On the one hand, I'm unemployed, so there's really no better time to do my civic duty. And it's a duty I take very seriously; if it turns out that I'm chosen during jury selection, I'm ready to serve. More than that; I'd be proud to serve.

On the other hand, what do I do if a prospective employer offers me a job while I'm sequestered? "What a great offer! I can't wait to start working for you! Er...can I start six months from now, once this trial is over?"

Of course I'm painting a very improbable scenario. The odds of being picked are very slim. The odds of the trial lasting more than a couple of days are slim. And the odds that an employer will make an offer at the worst possible moment are slimmest of all.

...this is exactly what's going to happen, isn't it...?

Pitts the Elder

Meme Master

My old friend Allan is enjoying some Internet fame at the moment thanks to a simple but clever observation about the exponentially increasing graphic complexity of computer games. I'm not surprised that Allan's found a wide audience (nearly 500,000 views as of this writing!), because I remember the very passionate conversations we had on the topic back when we were living in the Bleak House of Blahs.

At the time my favourite game was Civilization - the first one, seen above. I played it in my basement room on an Atari ST with relatively primitive graphics. Around the same time I remember visiting Tony to play Wasteland on his IBM-compatible, while Allan used his Amiga to experiment with the then-cutting edge Video Toaster. We often wondered how long it would be before computer games were completely photo-realistic. We're not there yet, but I'm sure that in another twenty years Allan will need to post an updated graphic, one that places the Skyrim image on top and something with fidelity we can't even imagine on the bottom. I can't wait to play that game!