StoryCasting
So, I was like at that film camp thing for ten days, which was very... intense.
Days were long, relative to what I'm used to, essentially ten hours of work a day separated by lunch and dinner breaks. Oh, and it was for nine days straight. Ugh.
It was actually very educational, but it wasn't the kind of stuff that I'm interested in- filmmaking is still much less interesting to me than game-making. It was overall fun and I learned a lot, but holy shit it was hard work.
That's about all I can say without getting into boring personal stuff.
SL9 [frustration]
Here she is, my temperamental beauty...(I should stop personifying dangerous things):
Click for bigger.
So... I ordered that badass-looking G36 SL9 offa Ebay right before I left for StoryCasting, and it came while I was gone. I actually had my parents bring it when they picked me up, I was so excited.
I got it out and fully assembled as soon as I could, and it's pretty damn cool to hold, probably because it's so damn long.
So after I went home and charged the battery(after making sure it was discharged), I put it in and sure enough, after about 10 shots on automatic, SCRREEECCH!!!. Fuck.
I spent most of today fiddling around with the gearbox, in the process learning intimately how an airsoft gun works... or doesn't. Right now I have a gearbox (sans mysterious un-placeable spring) connected to a battery sitting on a table, and I've narrowed the problem down to bad DC Motor/Gearbox meshing, or a bad motor. I think I'm gonna try messing with that tomorrow, I'm straight-up sick of trying to fix it for now.
I also contacted the Ebay store, but I think they have Mondays off, because there was no one answering the phone at all except an exceptionally difficult to understand machine("Prezh tvoo for Gvavz-rr-zzzhh!" Awesome!).
I also Emailed them about returning it, but curiously failed to mention that I have totally torn down and re-assembled the gearbox(twice!).
(the above portion was written two nights ago)
Ok, I managed to make the gearbox and motor mesh correctly by the classic engineering technique of wedgin somethin' in thar with a hammer. It worked beautifully for a while, but then a BB got jammed in the Hop-up, which I had probably screwed up when I was trying to fix all the other problems.
Alright, everything is fine, nothing is broken.
The gun in it's current condition works awesometacularly(sp?[nvm, not even a word]). It has a high-capacity magazine, so it has 300 BB's in reserve compared to 40 for my old gun. It's fairly accurate, but I haven't checked the range really. I can tell you that I can rip any soda can a new one, as it were, from at least 15 ft away. I'm kind of afraid for my friends the next time we play...
Example:
Ouch is right. [evil]
New Game-Fortress of Terror
So, if you've been keeping up with Sir Sapo's journal, which is finally back(there's a link right under my journal banner), you know that we're working on another interim project just to get back into the swing of working. I of course want to get back to Angels 22 as quickly as possible, as I love the crap out of that game still, but the detour is still fun.
I of course, am still the shit and drawing tiny pixelated things. I haven't had much time since inception to work on stuff, but hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have a significant chunk of work done.
Ok, here's a montage of the accomplished textures, most of which are showcased in the screenies in Sapo's journal:
Somewhat in connection with the next section, I've been drawing a few guns for the game in a large format, for the HUD mostly. Coloring them has been kinda hard to resist, but that really adds nothing to the game, so here's they are in their Black and White glory:
SOCOM pistol, your standard equipment.
The SL19 -this one looks vaguely familiar...
A rocket launcher, standard equipment for fighting in Labs and the like,
How are you supposed to fight Zombies without a Magnum? Well, you aren't.
Books, bitch!
After my parents picked me up, we went to Coas(sp?) while we were still in Las Cruces(the nearest city where the camp was). It's basically a huge used book store, where you can exchange used books for store credit.
We have a lot of books, and my mom's somewhat obsessive about getting rid of stuff we don't use, she also volunteers at a thrift shop which people donate books too, but that doesn't sell them. In short, we've turned enough books in that we have enough store credit that we never have to pay more than say, 50 cents for a book for the rest of our lives, the way their system works.
So, utilizing our mad cred, I loaded up on Cold War, Airplane, and Gun books, which added up weighed about 30 lbs, or like 12 Kilos for you crazy foreigners!
I has pictures:
We got, from top to bottom:
-Enlarging NATO: The Russian Factor -good research for the Angels 22 and new game backstory)
-World War 3: A Military Projection -Obsolete, but ditto. Nuclear war casualty diagrams FTW!
-The Battleships -Side interest, though it has some relationship to my spaceship style(anybody remember Axis Shift?)
-Advanced Technology Warfare -Sweet 80's book about supposed future technology, like lasers in space and super-secret stealth planes. Kind of interesting as now this book is almost totally irrelevant.
-21st Century U.S. Air Power -Aptly the only book out of this collection actually published this century. Good, fairly current overview of US aircraft. (Angels 22 stuff)
-The Great Book of Bombers -Fairly new, has good long descriptions of bombers from way back when until now.(Angels 22 inspirational material)
-The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ammunition -Good research material for any game that involves bullets(any game I would play).
-The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Firearms -Good research material for any game that involves guns(any game I would play).
-The Illustrated Book of Guns - Like the previous one, but better illustrated and organized, if less in depth. Old automatic pistols just look so cool to me, they're so different...
-Great Book of Modern Warplanes -Covers less subject matter than it would have you believe; only a few US fighter designs, but the airplanes that it does have are covered in such enormous detail that it's probably the first think I'll read about if I need to know about any US fighter from the 70's.
Here are all of them laid out and open on our dining room table, along with Gulag Archipelago, the book I'm reading-reading at top right:
Sometimes I wish I was me so bad...
Oh wait!
Suckers.
DeviantArt
So my DeviantArt Account remains popular, although I'm afraid I don't really interact with the rest of the 'deviants' too much, I kinda sit there and accrue comments and favorites.
I think it'd be nice for you guys if you just wanted to look at my art without all these boring text characters getting in the way. It's also there if you wanna see older stuff, as our webspace is still down...
Also, if you're on there, plz be ma friend? Or don't, it's ok to be douche, it's a free country.
An SR-72?
This could probably fit in that "New Cold War" thread in the lounge, but I'ma gonna put it here.
Anyway, so my dad gets this military-industrial complex magazine Defense News at work (he works for the AF in the Civil Service), and brings old issues home for me to read. Usually, most of the stuff is boring, about various business deals, but sometimes it's actually about new equipment, which I find interesting.
The new one he brought me probably had the coolest news ever in it, albeit vaguely sourced...
The News In Question:
An SR-72? Article Scan
Anybody who knows what the SR-71 should be getting really excited, and anybody who doesn't needs to read that wikipedia link.
Basically, the SR-71 is the coolest airplane ever made. Ever. And they're making a better one.
Ok, I have to volunteer the crap out of some trail tomorrow, but I'll probably post something small this weekend.
-Goodnight !
Some key points:
Software firms that move like this are rare.