06/23/13

Civilization V: The Guide to Mods

Chris Mohon, 23 June 2013

Your Guide to Civ V Modding Madness!

I am a gamer.

Like so many of you, I started gaming at an early age, pushing cardboard pieces around on colorful maps, shooing the family cat away, and rejoicing when the alien technology plucked out of the Roswell UFO crash resulted in a brand spanking new Commodore computer on my desk. Because really, of all the wonders that a computer can bring into your life, what’s better than computer gaming? Ummmm…..well, keeping in mind that this IS a family website, anyway…..

Without a doubt, no game has stolen more hours of my life away than Sid Meier’s Civilization series. I’ve logged in over 500 hours on Civ V alone, and I’ve played every previous version at least as much. Back in the days when a new top-of-the-line computer was obsolete within a year, two at most, occasionally  a game came along which drove otherwise rational gamers to upgrade their computers so they could play the darn game. Civilization II-III and Panzer General 2 were responsible for many pitiful explanations (by that I mean begging) to my wife as to exactly why I needed a new graphics card and more memory or the Holy Grail, a new machine!

Clearly, I’m not the only Civ junkie. Every new Civ is an automatic best-seller, but the most telling thing about the game is perhaps the devotion of the fans who create mods, civilizations, maps, units and scenarios for the various Civs. As thrilling as Civ has always been to me, the opportunity to add units and maps of my own preference to Civ is the icing on the cake. Dreadnaughts, air ships, helicopters, nuclear carriers and subs, panzers, giant Mechs, Celtic kings, and Southern Generals, huge maps of the real world and detailed maps of fantasy kingdoms, most of these things have found their way into proper Civ games at one time or another, with many being initially created by fans to be inserted into a very moddable Civ universe.
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06/22/13

Origins 2013 – Costumes!

Brant Guillory 22 June 2013

One of the more entertaining benefits of game conventions is checking out the excellent costumes that some folks wear to the show. This year’s Origins was honestly lacking in full-on costumed convention-goers, but a great many people were sporting something, like a set of steampunk goggles, or a set of antennae on their head. I didn’t notice as many animal tails hanging off of people this year, however.  There were a few WH40K pictures that I’ve seen since Origins, but I didn’t see them while I was there.

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The demo team for Catalyst’s Leviathans game were most decked out in some nice costumes.

 

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Steampunk costumes continue to be popular.

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06/21/13

GARPA 21 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #21 – Dan Pinkham and Lloyd Sabin

GARPA is now 21 … old enough to drink here in the US. These online tech articles grow up so fast. Make sure before you take GARPA out to hoist a few that there is a designated driver. And here take this … no no, shut up and just take it, you never know when you’re going to need it. Better safe than sorry I say, and I’ve seen GARPA’s taste in women. Just hang on to it and if needed GARPA will let you know, trust me.

And now … the best in crowd-sourced PC, board, miniature, and card games. You know, to pass the time until you go out drinking and carousing with a more mature (and on the hunt) GARPA.

PC Games

Data Dealer by Cuteacute

$560.00 pledged of $50,000.00 goal, funding ends Thursday, July 11.

Yes Cuteacute is a terrible name for a studio, I agree. But the developers are Austrian so that explains it and gives us a good reason not to mess with them further.

GARPA21-DataDealerOn any ordinary day, the idea of Data Dealer would be a great one: run your own social network and collect millions of online profiles and other bits of potentially secret information. Note that Data Dealer does not place the player in any sort of governmental role…you’re in this just for the thrill of learning millions of tiny little secrets and finding millions of virtually closeted-skeletons. And of course monetary profit! Millions of dollars of monetary profit!

Data Dealer is browser-based and there is a beta version available right now at the appropriately named www.datadealer.com. The developers have been working feverishly to get the game in the state it’s currently in…the Kickstarter campaign was started to get the game in a final state and make it available to as many people as possible.

Take the role of a positively shady information age tycoon and run every kind of online company you can think of: mobile apps, dating sites, search engines and social media are all available to you. But those components are just the beginning.
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06/20/13

Warlock Four-Player AAR

LongBlade: Sometimes I think working here at GrogHeads is like living in Valhalla. We fire up wargames, fight all day, at the end of the evening retire for some rest, pour a drink, and chat on our forums. Then we get up the next day and do it again.

In this AAR four of our forumites have taken up the sword and are playing a four-player multiplayer game of Warlock: Master of the Arcane. Although I know their real names (and they’re good ones) we’ll file each of these reports under their nom de guerres on our forums so that folks can direct any questions to them there without confusion.

MetalDog appears to be the instigator of this particular game (no surprise to any of us who follow the forums regularly) and he’s the guy setting up the game. I’ll let him set the scene from here:

MetalDog: Choosing the parameters.  Not sure how well versed everyone is, so, I chose Normal Difficulty.  Ten minute Turns should be enough time and you can only win by eliminating your rivals.

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The map is cylindrical allowing movement East to West over the border of the minimap and is made up of continents.  There are four total combatants and three other worlds.
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