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Friday, December 30, 2005

Exactly what is WoA? - Friday

You've all heard about it time and time again, so what exactly is it? Here's what I've got on the main intro page. "Set in a fantasy period, World of arl is a 'postal wargame'. You are a leader of a country, every week you give orders to that country. The orders are gathered from all the countries in the game and the outcome decided by the Custodians. The outcome is decided from the extensive, yet easy to learn and grasp, game rules." Yes, it's a game and it's run on the internet over a forum. It's full of great people, at the last count there are at least 58 players from all over the world. Every week they post orders and make sneaky dealings with each other. Every weekend they find out what happened and if their sneaky dealings were sneaky enough. So far I've had very few people say that they don't like the game. People that do say they don't like it are listened to and their input taken, the game is then changed for the better based on what they say. I feel that this is what sets WoA apart from other games, the playerse make a difference. I suppose you're probably wondering what the goal of a player is. Well, that's not easy. It all depends on their team, and we've had a lot of very interesting teams. I'll list them below and what they appeared to set out to achieve Zeroth Order: Pretty much the complete and utter ahnilation of every single other team. Coel managed to frame several other people for his work before he was found out. He was helped in large due to the rather vague nature of the game and his experiance at it. Owing to almost all players asking, the game has now become much more precise, though little is certain. Taranaska: The burning of all magic users. This is an interesting one as Magic is a key force in WoA, thus requiring some smart play from Taranaska. They are led by a Dutchman called Markpieter and have survived a whole three worlds, a feat matched only by two other teams. Navarites: The general taunting of anything they like. This team started as a spin-off from a warhammer team and changed radically. Each game the players teams may spend evolution points, Arakasi (now also a Custodian) spent his points on wings. Owing to his work in the game at advancing towards it he could afford it and became the first flying team. He also showed the players what could be achieved with some imagination (as if the Zeroth Order's massive Decimator wasn't enough). And finnally the Lords of Chaos: General World Domination. This group of 4 core players has been a strong team since world 1 and almost won it. In fact, they may well have won it had they not been betrayed. Ironically they won world 2 due to the other side being a target of massive betrayal. They experiment very well, they even built a floating city (it crushed a whole fleet in world 2) and spent their evolution points on breathing underwater. So, there's no end to the goals you can set yourself (some are more fun then others) and so far, almost no limits to the game. And if you find a limit we can always extend it (based on player voting). If this report has piqued your interest, come give us a visit.

Our Boiler Our Boiler, when set on the wrong temperature makes a low vibrating annoyance of itself. I can Annoyance Factor - 8 Weirdness Factor - 8 Volume Factor - 10 Ease of Creation - 2 Average - 7

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Family Holiday - Thursday

I got up at 0730. The reason was that at about 0815 we left for Somerset for my Nan and Grandad's. We got there and I got another bit of money for some stuff (It's going towards a server and possibly some speakers). My Uncle and Cousins arrived (more money) and we made lots of jokes. The subject of these jokes shall be today's story. Nana Duck Due to being rather stupid at the age of 3 (Family Response: Not much has changed) I used to call this Nana, "Nana Quack Quack". This is because she lives on a farm and had lots of ducks. My Mum decided that 'Nana Duck' was slightly more dignified and a better choice so it was used. Nana Duck (and Grandad Duck) had two children. My Dad and Uncle Brett. She won't admit it to us but she's very proud of them. Hence every time we go down there to visit we make fun of her and it is here that I get my sense of humour from. The ceiling at the farm are low, they look like they're designed for really short people. To increase the problem Nana Duck hangs Christmas decorations very low. When we got there we spent 5 minutes pretending to strangle outselves on them, knock them down. After that we spent 5 minutes rearranging them. When my Uncle and is children arrived it really got funny. Dinner was an excellent affair. Nana Duck managed to 'miss count' the number of people and not make enough Yorkshire puddings (everything else was fine...). The adults therefore didn't get any and they made lots of fun of her for that. Before we left she mentioned that she reads my blog and that she tries to talk to me telepathically and she hopes I can hear her. I don't think she needs to go into a home yet, but the time is approaching fast....

Squeeking Brakes We had a long drive back and the wheel squeeks on the family car. It's a loud squeek as well. Annoyance Factor - 7 Weirdness Factor - 5 Volume Factor - 8 Ease of Creation - 4 Average - 6

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

My first adventure on a Web Forum - Wednesday

I need to get up earlier, I got up at 1300 today. Maybe I'm just trying to catch up on all that sleep I miss at Uni? I spent today improving more areas of the WoA readme, messing around on Candy Crisis and generally neglecting my studies. Tomorrow I've got a nice long car journey and plan to use it to design my AI for my Othello game at the end of the year. My first adventure on a Web Forum By a certain 'Nightbringer' (I know his real name) this might be called "That git locked me out of my forum". He is of course very wrong. Nightbringer had this forum, and, being the sort of slow witted person that he is promoted me to Moderator on it after I got loads of people to join it. At this time I had been using Web Forums for under a month and was not the best person to be a moderator. Nightbringer had some sort of holiday and decided to leave me as resident Admin. During the time on the board we had been planning for a big warhammer campaign. We decided it'd be a cool idea to get the evil side organised and so I started 'fixing' stuff. Within an hour of logging onto the Admin control pannel I had (without realsing) removed the Admin status of both myself AND Nightbringer. When he got back from holiday he was not best pleased but took it in good humour and decided that it was okay for me to be a moderator where I could stop spam, but not wreck the board. He also got someone in to sort out my mess. More recently when I installed my new forum he made a lot of snide jokes about it when it didn't quite work at first. I think I deserved them. I don't know that he reads this so I'm pretty sure that I'm safe. And remember, you don't need to be logged in anymore to post comments

Your sister running up the stairs at 1200 When you are trying to lie in, you do not like this happening. Annoyance Factor - 10 Weirdness Factor - 0 Volume Factor - 8 Ease of Creation - 2 Average - 5

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

My first attempt at spot cream - Tuesday

Of course I've tried spot cream before, it's just a good title for today. Plus it's the title of today's story. Teifion's First attempt at using Spot Cream Around the start of my second year of sixth form it dawned on me that it might be nice to get a Girlfriend. For some reason this thought struck me much later than it appeared to have struck my classmates. Unlike many books say, I did not suddenly notice girls everywhere, I happen to be observent when I want to be. Suffice to say I was very spotty then, I'm still a little now, but it's much better. My Mum being the helpful person that she is found something that was meant to be quite good. It was a packet of cloths and you'd wipe them over your face, spots would go soon and you'd look awsome. Well, I've serious doubts that the last thing would come true but, no pain, no gain. I applied the cloth on wednessday morning. Wednessday afternoon we had some sort of presentation thing, I thought I did pretty well, even if I did talk a little fast. After the presentation thingie I had psychology. For whatever reason, there were I think 3 Boys in a class of 15 (one of the Boys left a bit later or had already). For those unsure of Wales, the rest were in fact, Girls. After a while they managed to ask why my face was so red. I was puzzled, surely my face was not red, for I hadn't been embarissed all day. One of them commented that I looked sunburnt. We paid no further heed to it (I wasn't getting embarissed at all) and I went home. My Mum also commented on it, she also asked if I had washed my face after using the cloth. I had to apply skin moisturiser to my face for the next week before it looked better. Everybody had thought (to my annoyance) that I was embarissed to give the presentation that Wednessday. As a side note, the spots didn't vanish.

Balloons rubbing together Get two balloons, rub them together. End of 'how to make' section. Annoyance Factor - 10 Weirdness Factor - 6 Volume Factor - 5 Ease of Creation - 9 Average - 7.5

Monday, December 26, 2005

Boring day, too late for a story - Monday

I got up at about 1200 and spent the rest of the day playing a little CC and writing revisions for some WoA stuff. I also had a Christmas dinner at my Grans. It was lovely.

Car Alarms Assuming it keeps going it's pretty annoying Annoyance Factor - 6 Weirdness Factor - 4 Volume Factor - 9 Ease of Creation - 0 Average - 4.75

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas - Sunday

I awoke late, mostly because I wasn't that fussed about getting the presents right away. However, I don't like being smelly so got up and washed. My family and I opened our presents together (taking it in turns) and I'll list what I got and from who later. My Grandmother and Uncle Steven came over just as we finished so another round of present opening ensued. Shortly after that Auntie Laura and her boyfriend Anton came over. It should be noted that I didn't talk to the Swedish Anton all day so don't get them mixed up. Anton isn't used to family gatherings of the size we are, but he's getting better. Lunch was great and delicious too. After lunch I mostly played Candy Crisis against the computer and then Anton. I've gotten up to level 11 out of 12 and the computer moves so fast it's amazing I managed to score points. The blocks also fall so fast that the down key becomes unused. Candy Crisis is very similar to Tetris (figured I should clear that up). Later in the day I completed the Divination and Psychic lore write-ups for WoA. I also played a little more Candy Crisis. Also worth mentioning is that Lord Vivi from WoA nas a Skype phone. Skype is the telephone service over the internet. It was amusing. My Presents ~ Lots of Chocolates and sweets - Lots of people ~ Thinking Putty - Parents ~ Bike Lock - Parents ~ Toiletries - Parent (are they trying to say something?) ~ Book: The Timewaster Letters - Auntie Laura and Anton (not the Swedish guy I talk about) ~ Book: AI Game Programming Wisdom - Parents ~ Book: O'Reilly's Book on AI ~ Dilbert and Know it All mini Calendars - Gran and Auntie Laura and Anton ~ Max and Paddy's Road to nowhere wall calendar - Coel ~ Luminous Jacket - Mother ~ Underwear - Parents (again, are they trying to say something?) ~ Soft Cat toy - Auntie Laura and Anton (it's really soft) ~ Electric Razorblade - Uncle Steven and Sue ~ Plastic Feet for the laptop - Parents ~ Travel bag - Uncle Steven and Sue ~ LOUD bike horn - Parents (aparently airhorns are considered TOO loud) ~ Money - Auntie Margaret and Uncle Steven

Swansea Accent Okay, I lie, it's not annoying. But it is very amusing to make jokes about Lord Vivi's Swansea accent. Annoyance Factor - 1 Weirdness Factor - 3 Volume Factor - 5 Ease of Creation - 3 Average - 3

Guess who spent the last 12 hours playing games - Saturday

Well, Cernunnos won the current World of Ar, I however wasn't too fussed, I wanted a good night sleep, well morning sleep anyway. When I got up at 1200 ish I had a haircut (it's why I got up) and now have nice short hair. I spent the rest of the day messing with the forum, not writing for the blog and playing Candy Crisis. Note: You no longer need an account to leave messages, you can leave them from any computer