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Oct 6, 01:06 AM: Fantastic Contraption
Fantastic Contraption is a physics puzzle game you can play on the web. Each level has the same goal with different obstacles. You have a limited build area but in that area you can have as many machine parts ads you want provided they all fit. You build different “contraptions” to reach your goal.
I was watching something on G4TV and one of their little break segment featured this game. I love it! I played thru all the levels over the weekend and now I’m jones’n for more. I would love to see a second version of the game with more parts to use.
Spoiler Alert!
Here are a couple of my completed machines that I’m pretty proud of, but you might want to wait until you try the level yourself before you look at them.
U-Turn – I think this is my best one! Once I got the concept together it worked better than I had imagined.
Unpossible – It was Bob who had the final piece to bring this one together. I think this was the hardest of them. I had several different designs that did not work but each one gave me a component of the final contraption.
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Sep 17, 12:11 AM: Hand of God
I’ve been reading some of the new paladin spells for Wrath of the Lich King and I found a change that some of you may be very alarmed about.
When the new spell/talent go into effect there is be no more ‘Blessing of Salvation’ (the threat reduction buff)!
They have taken the blessing spells and divided them into two groups. Many of them will stay blessings and work exactly as they do now Might, Wisdom, Kings, Sanctuary but the rest of them will become hand spells, Protection, Freedom, Salvation, Sacrifice. This is a major change in that a target can have a blessing spell and a hand spell on him at the same time. This is a great improvement.
The problem with blessing like Freedom, Sacrifice that to use them you have to remove the blessing that is already on the target so in a lot of cases it would do more harm than good. Now I know you could argue that it just take a little coordination on the part of the pally to put the first blessing back up but between the time and the extra mana it’s just not gonna happen.
The only real drawback to these changes is that we are loosing Blessing of Salvation and I think this is going to be a huge handicap for a while. The blessing reduced all threat generated by 30% while it was on and you could put it on everyone. The individual blessing lasted 10 minutes and the greater lasted 30 minutes. The Hand Spell reduces the targets total treat by 2% per second for 10 seconds and each pally can only hit one part or raid member once every 2 minutes.
I’m thinking about just stopping the use of the blessing now so people get used to it. That way I would still have it if there was someone in the raid that just had no ability at all to control their agro. If we wait until they make the change then it will be gone and it will be do or die with the agro.
BTW – the new spells and talents will be introduced before the expansion is released.
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Tags: Warcraft, Paladin, Games
Jun 10, 02:30 PM: Colonization
2K Games Announces Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization™ for Games for Windows®
Sid Meier’s Classic Colonization is recreated as a new stand-alone title in the Civilization IV® universe
New York, NY – June 9, 2008 – 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today that Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization™, the next offering in the award-winning Civilization IV® universe, is currently in development at 2K’s world-renowned Firaxis Games development studio. Conceived from the ground up to take advantage of the Civilization IV engine, Colonization will be available fall 2008 exclusively for Games for Windows®.
“We’ve received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. “The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game.”
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May 2, 12:49 AM: Gin Rummy
Gin (or Gin Rummy) is a simple and popular two-player card game created by Elwood T. Baker in 1909. Gin, which evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker (according to John Scarne), was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but not as spontaneous as knock rummy.
Gin is played with a standard 52-card pack of playing cards with Aces are played only as low.
The objective in Gin Rummy is to score more points than your opponent. The basic game strategy is to improve one’s hand by forming melds and eliminating deadwood. Two types of meld exist:
- Sets of 3 or 4 cards sharing the same rank.
- Runs of 3 or more cards in sequence, of the same suit.
A player’s “deadwood” cards are those not in any meld. His deadwood count is the sum of the point values of the deadwood cards— aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and others according to their numerical values. Intersecting melds are not allowed; therefore, if a player has a 3-card set and a 3-card run sharing a common card, he can only count one of them and must count two cards as deadwood.
Dealership alternates from round to round (the dealer to the first round is usually determined by cutting the deck; low card deals). The dealer deals a ten-card hand to his opponent and himself. The 21st card, the upcard, is placed face-up in a central location known as the discard pile. The remainder of the pack, placed face down next to the discard pile, is called the stock pile. The non-dealing player has the option of taking the upcard and playing first. If he or she does not, the option to take the upcard passes to the dealer. If the dealer does not want the upcard, play proceeds with the non-dealing player taking a card from the stock pile.
On each turn, a player:
- draws either the (face-up) top card of the discard pile, or one card from the stock pile
- may “knock”, ending the round, under certain conditions
- discards one card from his or her hand onto the discard pile
Play continues, in alternating turns, until one player knocks or only 2 cards remain in the stock pile. In that case, the hand would end in a draw.
In standard Gin, a player may not knock unless he has 10 or fewer points of deadwood. He must knock if he has 0 points of deadwood (known as going Gin or having a Gin hand). To knock, the knocking player ends his turn by discarding as usual, announces that he is knocking (generally by simply placing his discard face down), and lays his hand out with the melds clearly indicated and deadwood separated. The other (“defending”) player is then entitled to lay off any of his deadwood cards that fit into the knocking player’s melds.
For example, the knocking player has a meld of three Kings. The defending player has a King as part of his deadwood. He can lay off that King, reducing his deadwood count by ten. If the knocking player has gone gin, however, the defending player is not allowed to lay off.
The number of points awarded for bonuses may vary from region to region. No matter what the bonus amounts are, points are scored in Gin for the following:
Knock Points – after a player knocks, and the lay offs are made, the knocking player receives a score equal to the difference between the two hands. For example, if a player knocks with 8, and the defender has 10 deadwood points in his or her hand after laying off, the knocking player receives 2 points for the hand.
Gin Bonus – after going Gin, a player receives a bonus of 25 points plus the entire count of deadwood in their opponent’s hand. There is no chance to lay off when a player goes Gin.
UnderCut – (sometimes called underknocking) occurs when the defending player has a deadwood count lower than or equal to that of the knocking player. In this case, the defender scores an undercut bonus of 25 points plus the difference between the two hands. (In some rule sets, the bonus is only 10 or 20 points, or is not awarded in case of a tie.)
Game Bonus – once a player has acquired 100 points (or some other agreed upon number) the match is over, and that player receives a Game Bonus of 100 points.
Line Bonus – (also known as a box bonus) is added at the end of the match. For every hand a player won during the match, 25 points is added to their score.
Big Gin – prior to knocking, if all 11 cards in a player’s hand form a legal gin, the player can retain the extra card as part of their hand, and is awarded an extra 6 points per the “Big Gin” bonus.
Shutout Bonus – if a match is completed with the winner having won every hand, the points for each hand are doubled before adding the Line Bonus.
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Mar 19, 08:12 PM: Celebrant
Hey, this is my friend! Click the image to read the artical.
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Aug 24, 05:58 AM: Answer... Buzz Aldrin (question)
And the question is…
“Who was the second man to walk on the Moon?”
I’ll post a new “answer” on Monday. How to play.
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Aug 22, 05:52 AM: Zero Punctuation
OK, a link on Penny Arcade lead me to this:
That was the text that went with this video:
Check out Yahtzee’s site
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Aug 17, 05:22 AM: Answer... 202 (question)
And the question is…
“What is the telephone area code in Washington DC?”
I’ll post a new “answer” on Monday. How to play.
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Aug 13, 05:18 AM: Answer... 202
The answer to this weeks question will be…
“202”
Can you guess the question?
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Aug 11, 02:13 PM: ICTC - Index Card Trading Card game
The basic premise here is create a card game around the idea of every player making his own cards. What you find here are instruction to make your cards, how to form a guild and get your cards approved, and how to battle and win cards from other players.
You are a combatant in the great struggle. You must forge yourself a deck so that you can challenge other combatants and learn their secrets.
How to make a card
All ICTC cards are made from white 3”x5” index cards with at least one side completely bank. The other side can have anything you want (lines, grid, color, etc.). The reason for this is that one side of your cards must match the cards of everyone else who ever plays the game so that if you trade or win cards from another player that card wouldn’t be unfairly identifiable in your deck. The plain blank side of your card is considered the back of the card.
The face of the card is divided into 3 zones the top, middle, bottom. All cards must contain the following information in they designated zone. The top must have the card type and cost. The middle must have a description of what the card does. And the bottom will have the approvals. Certain types of cards will require other details to be included on the card.
The face of the card can have other things on it as well like the name of the card and artwork as long as it does not obscure another player’s ability to read the card. Cards can be made by hand or printed with a computer or any way you want to do it.
Card Type
There are 4 types of cards and you will need to make yourself several of each kind. The card types are Action, Flash, Power, and Soldier. The card type must appear in the upper right corner of your card.
Action cards can be almost anything and they are how most things get done in the game. They can affect the other players in the game or the cards they have in play. You can use them on yourself and your other cards and some of them will just stand on their own. Action cards can only be played during the action phase of your own turn.
Flash Cards can be played at anytime on anyone’s turn. They generally either help or hinder what is going on in the game at the moment. The only limitation on flash cards is that they cannot have a lasting effect; all flash cards played must be discarded by the end of the current players turn.
Power Cards are the currency of the game. Almost every card will have a cost that you have to pay to put that card into play. The exception to this rule are the power cards themselves. You can put one power card into play each turn during your power up phase (see below) and you can only add one power card to play per turn unless you have a cards that says different. As a general rule a power card that generates one unit of power per turn will have zero card cost.
Soldier Cards are the real heart of the game. You need soldiers to attack your opponent and defend you from his soldiers. Soldier cards are deployed during your action phase; you can deploy as many soldiers as to have power enough to play but soldiers are not able to attack in the same turn they are deployed unless a card says otherwise. All soldier cards must have a combat rating (see below). The combat rating must be the first thing in the card description. As a general rule the card cost of a soldier card will be equal to or greater than the combat rating.
Card Cost
Almost every card will have a cost that you have to pay to put that card into play. You use the power from your power cards and other sources to pay the cost. Some cards will just require power in general, some cards will require a specific type of power but most will require a combination. Power comes in 6 varieties Red, Green, Black, White, Blue, and Purple. The colors are just to separate the power and any color can represent anything you like but here are some general guidelines for choosing colors. Red is the color of fire, heat, and rage. Green is the color of nature and the earth but also money and greed. Black is death, decay, and pollution. White represents peace, healing, and the sun. Blue is water, wind, and winter. Purple is the color of royalty, chaos, and the machine.
(alt colors #1) Red, Green, Blue, and Purple, Yellow and Orange.
(alt colors #2) Red, Green, Black, White, Blue, and Colorless.
The card cost should appear in the upper left corner of your card. Cards that just cost general power will simply have a number. Cards that cost power of a certain type will have a number and a letter, the letter indicates the color of the power. Each color is represented by the first letter of its name except for black, which is marked with the letter K, since both black and blue begin with the same letter and the letter K does not appear in any of the other names.
For example you have a soldier card showing 2K+4 in the upper right corner to put this card into play you will need to spend two black power and then four more power of any king that is available.
It’s possible to create a card with a variable cost marked with an X. If you want the variable to come from general power use X or +X, if the variable must be of a specific type of power then the X with be followed by the color.
For example you create an action card to set another card or player on fire and do damage. The more power you put into the card the more damage it does but it requires 2 red power to get started. The card cost would be 2R+X. Another example would be a flash card that poisons a soldier and the damage he takes is equal to the amount of black power you pay into the card. The card cost would be XK.
When assigning a cost to your card please keep in mind that you want a fair and balanced game, the more power full the card the greater the cost. Ultimately you can put any cost you want on the card but if your cards are all high power low cost it’s not likely anyone will want to play with you. As a general rule the cost of a card should be one to activate the card, plus one for each point of damage the card can do, plus one for each power and ability the card has, minus one for each restriction. Soldier cards automatically have the restriction of not being able to do anything the same turn that they are deployed. Flash cards do not require an activation point.
As a general rule if a card costs more than 2 power to deploy, at least 1/3 of the required power should be of a specific color.
Card Description
The card description explains exactly what the card does. The description can be anything but must be complete. As a general rule if the description does fit on the card then it’s too much for one card to do. Powers and abilities that are shared by more than one card can be denoted with a keyword. Once a keyword is established and defined then the full description doesn’t need to be on every card just the keyword.
For example you crate a soldier card that has the power to fly and describe this power that when he attacks another soldier can only block him if that card can fly too. After making several cards with this same description you can define a keyword “Flight” so that any card with the word flight on it can only be blocked by other cards with the key word flight.
The card description should also have the cards color. The color of the card should match the color of the power in the card cost. It is possible to have multi-colored cards of colorless cards.
The description will also have any restrictions you place on the card. You might want to limit when or how the card is play and even add conditions that need to be met for the card to remain in play. Restrictions will low the cost of the card and make your deck move manageable. Restrictions will also make it easier for get other players to approve your cards.
Card Approval
This is an optional rule but a strongly recommended one. When you create a new card you will want to show it to a couple of other players and get them to “sign off” or approve the card. This is to again ensure that you have a fair and balanced deck. Ultimately you will have at least 2 decks of cards a master deck and then your play deck. The master deck contains one copy of each card you have ever created and each of those original cards will have the approvals on them. Your play deck is the cards you actually use in the game.
You may want to form a guild with other players to make the card approval process easier. A guild can be any number of players organized in any fashion. Small groups of people may want to just meet discuss the new card then vote. Larger group may want to have officers and form an approval committee.
When 2 players meet for the first time it is customary for them to present their master decks for review. Your opponent may at this time request that some cards be excluded from play if he feels they are unbalanced. This is considered very rude if the card has been previously approved by know players but is not uncommon if the two player have no pervious history. As a general rule at least 2 individuals or one guild should approve each card.
Card protection
You have every right to duplicate the cards that other people make by making the same or similar cards yourself but each player has the right to reserve of protect up to three cards. Keep a list of your protected cards with your master deck. The cards you protect are for you alone and other players may not create similar cards. You can change your protected cards at anytime but keep in mind once a card is unprotected it can never be protected again. You make the decision to protect a card at the time it’s created or at least before you show it to anyone else.
Game play
To begin a game shuffle you cards then offer your deck to your opponent to cut. After the decks are cut each player flips the top card from his deck face up. These cards become the kitty; the player that wins the hand wins the cards in the kitty. Compare the cost of the cards in the kitty the player whose cards has the highest total cost goes first. In the event of a tie flip the next card in your deck and add it to the kitty. Repeat this process until one player has a higher total. Each player deals himself 7 cards and then the game begins.
The game play is pretty simple. Each turn is divided into 4 parts Power-Up, Action, Combat, and Regroup. You begin your turn with your Power-Up Phase in this phase you will draw a card and reset all the cards you have in play (see below). Also in this phase you may put 1 power card into play as a free action assuming you can pay the cost of the card (most power cards have a zero cost) but you may one put 1 power card into play each turn. Next you move to the Action Phase, in this phase you may play as many action cards as you have power to use. Once you are done playing any action cards for this turn you may declare Combat if you want but you don’t have to. After combat if any is complete you regroup and finish your turn. In your Regroup Phase you remove any temporary effects or cards that expire at the end of the turn from play and discard if you have more than 10 cards in your hand.
Most cards will need to be activated to use their powers; soldier cards become activated when they attack. When you active a card turn it sideways so you can tell the used cards from the cards that are still available. At the beginning of each turn, in your re-arm phase, you turn your cards upright or reset them.
Combat is divided into 3 sub-phases Charge, Defend, and Damage. In the Charge Phase the player whose turn it is declares which of his cards will be attacking and who they are attacking. You may choose to attack any soldier in play or the opposing player. Although each soldier attacks simultaneously each is considered and individual attack. In the Defend Phase your opponent assigns which of his soldiers will block your attackers. An attacker can be blocked by any number of defenders and a soldier that is being directly attacked can choose to block a card other than his own attacker. Once all the attackers and defender are in place you enter the Damage Phase and determine who lives and who dies. A cards combat rating is both he damage it cause and how much damage it can take. Any soldier that takes damage equal to or greater than his own combat rating dies any is placed in his controller’s graveyard. Any time 2 cards battle they do damage to each other equal to their combat rating. If more than 2 cards are involved in an individual exchange it sis the player that is dealing the damage that decided how that damage is distributed.
For example you opponent attacks you with a soldier card with a CR3. You decided to have 2 of your soldier cards, both with a CR1, block the attacker. You opponent decides how his damage is divided up. He decides to do 1 point to the first defender and the other 2 point to the second, killing them both.
Damage does not roll over. In the example above the second defender took 2 points of damage even though he only had a CR1. The extra point is lost.
Winning
You win the hand (and the kitty) by “killing” you opponent. Each player begins the game with 25 health or hit points. You are “dead” when you run out of these points.
Development Notes
- ICTC is pronounced “ick tick”.
- I’m on the fence as far as the colors for the power types but this I a story driven feature and will not effect the mechanics
- Still need to add a section on suggested cards enough to make a 30 card deck.
- Might want to provide a list of keywords and definitions.
- Might call the player “Card-smiths”.
