Hey guys, I meant to post a long entry this weekend but somehow I managed to wake up sick Saturday, and my condition has not improved. I did browse through the sprite pack folders I have, and I got further then I thought last year, and I'm debating on how much more I should do. Basically, I have a ton of airplane sprites, but most of them don't have damage states or anything, so I'm tempted to PhotoHack damage decals onto them so at least users will have another state of the sprite to work with. Plus, I need to make a bank of missiles and afterburner animations, but I don't think that will be very hard.

Anyway, to celebrate not being able to function at normal human speed, I bought Panzer General II from GoodOldGames (Gog.com). Well, I had planned on playing Panzer General 3 since I found a copy at a thrift store, but it turned out to be in that awkward stage in game history where they went from well-done 2D graphics (sometimes prerendered stuff) that still look acceptable to horrendous early 3D graphics ("But 3D!!!" someone shouts from 1998). Anyway, Panzer General II is one of the best turn-based strategy games ever made, and it's one of those games I periodically replay and that never let me down. Plus It's super nostalgic getting out the old strategy guide appended with my own notes, which feel like surprisingly thoughtful secret messages from my past self.

Okay, one more thing, I did complete another airplane (which I plan to show the "making of" later), the J-20, the Chinese maybe-kinda stealth fighter prototype:



Also, don't forget to check out the spaceship design rant's comments (entry before last), we ended up having a belated but extremely interesting discussion about what space combat would really be like.