Wednesday 28 August 2013

Lessons learned from play testing: Moving Forward

Good Wednesday everyone!

I come to you today from one of my favourite places in my home: a nice warm bath!

So today I would like to wrap up what I've been up to with CRYPTS and the plans moving forward:

...
...
...

Ok, so I don't have any plans, literally none at all.

This is the reason why it's taken me a lot longer to get this post out than I intended, instead of having a 'direction' to head I have a check list, and it's quite short.

1). Amend the loot cards to take into account changes
2). Complete the starting 6 card deck
3). Amend the QuickStart rules keeping in mind what changes I've had to make.
4). Create more Beasties, Bosses and Encounters
5). Publish this as a beta version

From there there is working on the CRYPTS Dungeon Companion, which should work like the MaliQuest one did, only the Monster Manual (which I never got around to properly working on) will feature the rules cards for the beasties.

And of course there is the Aspect system, and the Paths (Law, Bones, Elemental and Blood).

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So, I am hoping if you are reading this you are at the very least curious about how the game is going to look, and maybe would be interested in taking part in my own beta testing?

If the answer to that is yes then I would implore you to get in contact with me through the usual channels:

Twitter - @doctorloxley
Email - doctorloxley@hotmail.co.uk

I will then short list you and once the first few steps are complete will email the files out for testing.

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In the meantime please look forward to the upcoming episode(s) of New Fairbank Radio where the crew and I alpha test the game!

Until then, stay safe and see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Lessons Learned from play-testing: Game 2

Good evening everyone!

So earlier today I shared with you in brief how the very first game of CRYPTS went, and it was fun however very easy once the caster had the epic DPS spell.

So how did the second game go?

It was interesting to say the least.




First things first, I nerfed all damage on all weapons, this was done by making all weapons roll only 1d6 for damage, in doing so this drastically reduced the amount of medium and critical damage that was being dealt, this was good!




Next I changed how AoEs worked to make damage from that a lot lower, and as the game progressed I also reduced the range of AoEs, suddenly the OMGWTF power of the Epic Spell was replaced by "this is better than the other spells, but isn't auto win" which was the intent.

Then I made a fundamental change to encounters, now every single door started a new encounter, even if that door lead to an encounter, this began some on the fly rules generation, when the encounter was for 9 Imps, but space for only 8!

But it wasn't long before the damage started piling up on the Posse, and I made a critical mistake - I had not informed the party how to Resurrect by use of Blood Shards, and as such they had used up all their shards so when the melee member died, we had no way to bring her back.

Following on from her death, in the next room the caster also met his untimely end and the game was finished.

But what did I learn from this? Other than ensuring players knew about Shard management, groups need to make use of healing, as a couple of concessive criticals from a Skeleton brings you very quickly to your knees.

And thus ended game 2 and this post!

Join me later for an overall - moving forward post!

Until then, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Lessons learned from play testing: Game 01

Good Tuesday everyone!

I trust if you were off this bank holiday weekend that you had a good time!

I know I did, if not only because of two very interesting alpha testing games of CRYPTS!

The good news is that both of these games were recorded, and I will be editing and posting these episodes for your listening pleasure in due course.

So what happened?

I'll try to answer this in as constructive manner as possible:




Game 01:
This was a game where there were a total of 3 rooms separated by corridors.

The first thing I noticed was that corridors became pointless, just wastes of General Actions to walk and open doors.
- This was addressed in game 2.

Secondly, after the Posse's caster got lucky and an epic DPS spell dropped after the first room, the encounters became SUPER easy, this was down to the high amount of damage being out out in an AoE causing many beasties to die in one hit.




This needed to change, and was looked at in Game 2.

So what else was noticed, for starters lots of very useful weapons were dropping quite quickly, but I knew this would happen.

You see in a normal game you should have 60 cards, of these 30 are common, and 6 are 'no loot' cards, meaning you have a 50% chance of getting common items and a 10% chance of nothing at all.

In this game however the ratio was completely off, we were looking at about 25 cards in total, and there was equal distribution between common, uncommon and rare, meaning you were just as likely to walk away with a rare item as you were a common one.
- This will be worked on and getting the ratio right is important, but my focus for these games was less about that and more about "does the game work?"

You see my biggest fear was that the combat mechanics over all would just suck, however I am pleased to announce that our of everything, the combat mechanics including the Blood Shard re-roll system shined as the best part of the whole thing!!

I'll be writing more about this, including more info on game 2, and an over all summary later on, but for now, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thursday 22 August 2013

Am I 'That Guy'?

Good evening all,

So I just read an interesting post on Eric J's blog: http://www.ericjgames.com/2013/08/that-guy-ruins-games/ talking about a trope in gaming called being 'that guy'.

This got me thinking, how do you know if you are 'that guy'?

Does worrying about being 'that guy' mean you automatically aren't one? Or does it fall under the remit of "if you're worried you might be, you probably are"?

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Let me tell you a little bit of personal history here, something that most of you probably already know about me:

I suck at table top games.

I always have.

When I first properly got into tabletop I lost every single game I played, literally every single game. Never won one.

Because of this I was forced to learn to enjoy losing, to turn losing into a game, and try to achieve more than I did the game before, or achieve 2 out of 3 objectives, essentially complete personal objectives, and so become a winner in that respect.

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There are lots of reasons for this, the main part is how I problem solve, I see hundreds of different possibilities all at the same time but have no efficient way of working out which is the best possibility to use, because of this I get possibility paralysis, I see so many choices that I can't decide on so I don't do anything.

The equivalent of taking pass actions for 'x' number of turns.

So how do I deal with this? I don't think about possibilities, I instead just roll the dice and see what happens, and let almost random actions play out.

I must admit, this is fun for me, and when I play relaxed games, usually where the aim is just to rumble in the centre of the board, roll some d6s and flip some cards, I have a great time and me and the opponent can't use this game as a stimulus for the 'real' activity for the night, kicking back, and being social.

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But what happens when I play someone competitive? This is interesting, the game becomes really I enjoyable for me. A none-pleasurable experience.

I actually dislike playing competitive games against competitive people, and when I hear people from any game talking about the great combos they can use to smash the opponent into the ground, I can't help but think "what a dick", regardless on if they are being a dick or not.

Let me give you an example:
This time last year i was in a tourney for Malifaux, I had Chompy out and was attacking a Convict Gunslinger.

I had managed to generate enough Onslaught attacks to nearly kill the Convict, and my current attack was a straight damage flip. I had the option of cheating the flip down, leaving my opponent on 1 Wd, healing Chompy for 1Wd and 1 more Melee attack left available, and a 13 still in my hand, I was guaranteed (pretty much) to kill him, and in doing so I could heal 2 wounds rather than 1 for killing him outright.

I thought long and hard about it, and them decided just to kill him outright. Why? Because I knew that if the tables were turned and someone did that to me, I'd have thought "what a dick!"

I have since mentioned this to many other players who I regularly play against who I enjoy playing against, and almost universally they agree that I was wrong, that the tactic to gain +1 Wd by prolonging the suffering of the opponent was the right thing to do and I potentially robbed the opponent of a more competitive game.

And this leads onto the next point, by avoiding competitive play, but seeking out new players, am I being 'that guy' to them who will eventually ruin their game?

That seems like a good place to leave it, so on that note, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Prepping for an Alpha Weekend

Good Thursday everyone!

Before I start today I would just like to say how much I love the rain, without a hint of sarcasm or irony, I love the rain! It's soothing and cooling and just makes me feel so much happier!

And now on with the show:

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So I've mentioned this over twitter and here a few times, but this weekend is due to be the official alpha showing of CRYPTS!

Sarah and I are visiting our friends for a covered BBQ weekend and in the evening I'm going to be giving this a trial, I have a small Encounter deck, I have a small number of Beasty cards printed along with Boss cards and a makeshift Loot deck.
- this is where things start to fall over, the loot deck has pretty much just as many common/uncommon/rare as each other, it's only Epic that is lower, and even then there are 4 rather than the intended 5.

But I'm not worried about the loot deck, or the fact that players are just as likely to flip a blue item as they are a grey item, the reason is that the aim of this weekend is to test if the rules work, are they easily follow able? Are there any glaring issues that need adjusting, and most of all, is it fun?

As long as the answers are Yes, No, Yes, then we're ready to move to Beta when I try to build the actual 60-card loot deck, more Beasty cards, and their corresponding Encounter cards.

Before then however I will be sending the abridged Alpha version to our good friend And from the Soulstone Train podcast.
- And has been very kind and agreed to give CRYPTS a play through after taking up D&D and enjoying our adventures in podcasting with the game MaliQuest, so once I return from this weekend, I'll be editing the QuickStart rules (I am already aware of some issues like where I refer to the GM as Sheriff rather than CK or Keeper) and anything else from this weekend, then packaging it up and shipping it out via email. Thankfully the cards at the moment take only about 30 mins to cut out, put in protectors and/or laminate. I know this because I did it last night, so this shouldn't cause And too many problems.

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I am a little annoyed with myself that I haven't been able to paint my Imps, Skeletons, Zombies, Giant Spiders or The Demon Seed, but then I haven't really had the opportunity or interest in sitting down and painting post Salute (4 months ago).

This does mean that I'll be going to this weekend with unpainted models, half painted by someone else Spiders and WiP Demon Seed, but that's ok, if anyone asks this is all Alpha testing! :D

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So that's all from me for today, and possibly all this working week. I may be posting over the weekend, but that's doubtful, and I am also hoping that we can get a NFR recording made while we're there considering all 4 of us will be there, but we'll see how it goes.

Until next time, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Boss Generation: CRYPTS

Good Tuesday everyone!

There's a lot of things I want to say today thanks to listening to some podcasts, but these things would just result in me bitching, and in the spirit of being positive and junk I'm avoiding that.

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No instead today I want to talk around the idea of Boss generation for the game CRYPTS!

So for this weekend's playtest I want to create two bosses. The first is a duo team, The Demon Seed and Nanny, the second is The Butcher.

Today I'd like to talk about how I've been going about creating Bosses.

For me, boss creation is done in the exact same way as normal beasty creation. The first step is always coming up with a theme, be it an example of a model that you love, or perhaps just a concept idea.

Both bosses I am currently working on are examples of these.

1). The Demon Seed & Nursey
These two are models that have rules based around the models.







The first is a model that I picked up at this year's Salute, called the Little Lord and the second is of course one of my favourite models, the Weaver Widdow.

Now I don't think I need to explain their boss names, and instead should go into the remit of what you should expect from these characters.

The Demon Seed
Now this dude is such a characterful model, but more so than anything he is a baby in a carriage. Yes he is evil with tentacles, but still a baby in a carriage none the less, his abilities need to represent this, so for him you should expect a tentacle attack, but he would not have any +modifiers on this attack, because he's a writhing baby, not an accurate attacker.
Next we have his baby-ness, so he needs a PBAoE (Person Based Area of Effect) which originates from himself, this would be called something like Damned Crying, it's a magical attack that does damage only on a critical hit (which would result either brain brushing or damage to your ear drums) but most importantly reduces the number of GA (General Actions) available to you.

So here we already have a model that puts out a crying AoE and hits with tentacles.

So onwards with Nursey. She is simple, she's the protector for the Demon Seed, but how does she do that? Well for starters she has a parasol, so she gets a melee attack based on that, nothing major, but with an auto taunt thrown in to grab attention.

Her game mechanic is to protect, so she needs armour, her model is that of a monstrous bug woman, so she can reduce incoming damage by 1, but she is also a nanny, so needs something else to reflect that...

This brings us to her magic attack, Bag of Infinite Horrors, where for 1GA she can reach into her bag and try and bring something out, it may be a feather duster, it may be a medical doll that heals all Posse members within X" for 1 HP, or it might be an Imp or Giant Spider!

So now we have the Seed and Nanny, but how are they tied together? Currently we're looking at what is essentially 2 separate models who have a loose tie in theme.

This is where you bring in an idea often seen in MMOs such as WoW: Enrage!

Enrage: Demon Seed
If Nursey is killed while The Demon Seed is in play, The Demon Seed gains the Enrage effect.
- When enraged damage from tentacle attacks, and Damned Crying is increased.

Enrage: Nursey
If The Demon Seed is killed while Nursey is still in play, Nursey gains the Enraged effect.
- When Enraged, Nursey's Toughness and Armour is increased.

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So what does this leave you with? You have a duo boss team who play off each other with their abilities, one protecting the other who is not very strong but can semi tank, while the other puts out a semi amount of damage through its tentacles, but also limits your GA available, but in order to bring them down effectively you want to try and lower their HP at the same time, as when they die they become a lot stronger, and having them enraged for a long time is not good.

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So there we go, an example of a boss pair, but also the organic growth of where their attacks and spells would come from and how further ideas/suggestions can be expanded on.

I trust you enjoyed this glimpse behind the CRYPTS curtain, and until next time, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Sunday 18 August 2013

A roundoff for the week

Good Sunday everyone!

It's hard to believe that it was nearly a week ago that I shared with you my plans for this week.

Well this week is now coming to a close, and with it a lot of fun that was had.

So as projected my eBay order for Reaper Bones undead and goblins arrived on Tuesday, and I spent ages trying to bend them back into the correct shape, this was not going the way I wanted it and many of then were at very bad angles, which I have since read was as a result of how they were packed by Reaper.

So after some research, I found out that leaving them in a bowl of boiling water is supposed to return them to their original shape. I did this and was amazed to see in a matter of seconds entire models that were massively bent, straighten before my very eyes!

These have all been put aside now, and with hope will be worked on this week after work in preparation for the bank holiday weekend.

Then we came to Wednesday, the day I had budgeted to spend working on CRYPTS, and boy do I have some fun things to show for it!

As a little preview for you, I'm happy to showcase:


The Giant Spider!

I now have a small number of beasties including Giant Spiders, Imps, Skeletons and Zombies! I also have some weapons in the form of ranged weapons, melee weapons, spells etc.

Now this stuff is in no way ready for release, but the hope is to test it at a friends BBQ I'm going to next weekend, and at the very least see if things like the combat or similar works.

Of course we then hit Wednesday night and with it came the opening of the Wyrd store online, my order was placed including:
Hamelin, The Ratcatcher
Necropunks
Copycat Killer
Doppelganger
Primordial Magic
Tuco
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
The Depleted
All of this came to just over $100 so I am very much looking forward to the inclusion of the Miss Steamborg.

This then carried over to Thursday where I was super happy to see the following:


This is a photo taken from the new V2 book, and I am super happy to see myself and my wife included in the beta testers! I'm very happy to see my name in print!

So that was it for all the fun war gaming news! I hope in the next few weeks to give you some more news on my adventures in The Secret World, and next week I intend to also bring you an update on the first alpha test of CRYPTS!

Anyway, that's all from me for now, so until next time, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Monday 12 August 2013

A Week of Plans!

Good Monday everyone!

Today is the start of a week off from work for me, and with it comes a week of planned activities!

Today is comprised of dealing with chores so that they are out of the way.

Tomorrow is looking to be a gaming day with the wife - something I'm really looking forward to.

Wednesday is CRYPTS day! I'm taking the Moo to day care, and while the wife has a nice long lay in, I will be doing more work on CRYPTS.
- This plan is simple, create a small selection of weapons/equipment, along with a small selection of monster stat cards, and spawn cards, all in preparation for a test game that I'm due to give a go over the bank holiday weekend.

There will be initially no Aspects or Paths, but at the very least the Aspects will be added shortly after the loot deck is in its first stage.

Then comes Thursday where the wife and I are coming into London and chilling in Camden.

Friday is wind down, more gaming, and a lunch in town.

Throughout the week I hope to get some painting to do.

I have the Demon Seed CRYPTS boss to do, 10 Giant Spiders, and a selection of Imps and Undead (which should be arriving shortly via the mail).

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Well that's it for me! Gotta get ready to head out and do more chores like the week's shopping etc!

Stay safe everyone! And I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Wednesday 7 August 2013

A family that slay together, stay together! - Plus more GenCon info

Good Wednesday everyone!

First I would like to say that I have the best family and friends ever!

Last night a good friend of mine, who I admit I don't talk to enough, helped me figure out the problems with my headset that was putting a stop to my podcast was in fact my sound card! He will be getting one massive shout out when we record next - should be next week.

Next we have my fan-fucking-tastic wife who I have just found has gifted me a copy of the latest Resident Evil while it's 50% off on Steam. We have next week off together and I predict a lot of this game being played in Co-Op, lots of zombie killing, and you know what they say, a family who slay together, stay together!

****************

Now, last night Wyrd put up more info about upcoming releases that will feature at GenCon this year. Included in this line up beyond the previously shown Tara and Lady J is:



Seamus' crew: Shadows of Red Chapel.



Lilith's crew: Mother of Monsters



Rasputina's crew: Children of December



And the Vick's crew: Hired Swords.

Now I'm not going to go into detail about what I think of these, but one thing I will say, I think the sculpts look better than the art for once, and some I may pick up in the future. It won't be at GenCon, but that's because I have $60 of v1.5 metals to buy before they go out of circulation!

What about you though? Will you be picking up any of these or the ones from yesterday - just for reference:





If you will, why? Are you looking to replace old models? Perhaps these are models you don't own and want to move into a new crew or new faction?

Let me know!

And on that note, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Wyrd GenCon releases

Good Tuesday everyone!

Today I would like to show you some new sculpts/art of products available at GenCon from Wyrd:




First up is Nightmare Edition (NE) Tara retailing at $80 and available only at GenCon.



Next we have Lady Justice's crew for $45 but will be available for general release around September.

Let's keep in mind that the v2 Malifaux book will be $40, and any Faction decks will be $8 each.

I know some people were looking to get Tara, the book and a couple of decks, however now that would look to be between $120 and $150 depending on how many decks.

Personally this is too rich for my wallet, but at the same time others are saying it is perfectly reasonable.

So what do you think?

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Sunday 4 August 2013

Hobby Sofa: Episode 02

Just a quick update to everyone!

Hobby Sofa Episode 2 is now you!

You can grab it here: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-02_1669 or via an iTunes/RSS subscription.

Enjoy!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

The Adventures of Geek Dad: Inevitable Mess of Sickness

Good Sunday everyone!

It's been quite a while since a Geek Dad post, and I thought it was time I tackled an issue that has been ripe in my house hold for the past couple of months:

Illness and the mess that follows

You see ever since my youngling started attending Day Care roughly this time last year we've been inundated with runny noses, bad tummies and all manner of horrible viruses, and the reason I am convinced is because of other children.

It's strange, my daughter was around 6 months when she first started day care (give or take 3 months either side) and until then she had not once experienced a single runny nose or upset tummy.

Since attending day care, that is an extremely reoccurring event.

I don't blame daycare, it's not their fault, no I blame the other parents, the ones who arrive to pick up their kids with cigarettes in hand moaning and shouting at the top of their voice about how much they hate their ex-husband.

But anyway, all of that aside, the end result is my little Moo has been very unwell the past year, however if it wasn't for her 'mess' you'd never have guessed.

But at the same time, I am reluctant to blame it all on viruses, as the hot weather hasn't helped either.

You see just like me and my wife, my little one doesn't do we'll with heat, and I do not see it as a co-incidence that during the heat wave she also was suffering from a spat of vomiting.

This is the first type if mess that we've encountered that is illness related. Something that is quite horrible to watch, to see the shock and surprise in her eyes and complete lack of understanding as to why it is happening, but then the quick relief that follows once it is all over.

Next up is the poo. The torrent of horrible, foul smelling mess that just seems to cling to everything, but other than this, she is still her usual self, running around like a mad woman, laughing and giggling.

It's strange and something I can not relate to, for as soon as I get ill, I feel horrible, and laughing and giggling us the last thing I want to do.

And this was what happened last Monday. Unfortunately the entire family ended up coming down with a tummy bug, and the Moo wasn't allowed into day care as a result.

It was then that the strangest of things happened, despite never wanting to leave the loo, or move my head from a sick bowl, I did. Not only that but I entertained my daughter, fed her, changed her and bathed her before putting her to bed and resuming feeling sorry for myself.

I don't know how it is possible, how someone can go from being physically unable to move from feeling so weak, to being able to completely look after their youngling and not need to worry about themselves at all.

It's one of the things that I love about being a parent, it has meant that some things I previously would have been unable to deal with, without actually being sick myself (vomit and poo for example) I can now deal with with the upmost of ease.

On that note, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Friday 2 August 2013

CRYPTS: Legend of Infernis (Plus general chit chat)

"Anyone who's ever been down the Crypts has a story to tell. Some talk of beasties as black as the shadows around them, while others talk of entire rooms full of stolen wealth and treasure.

None of these stories are as we'll known as that of Infernis.

Some say it is the name of a horrendous demon who spends it's days and nights smelting all manner of frightful weapons. Others say it is the name of the forge itself, a place as hot as hell itself and bathed in living flame.

I can not say what I truly believe, but I do know that countless numbers of posses have lost their lives in search for Infernis.

I do have my own theory however, nothing ground breaking, but it explains why the demons' weapons cut like hot steal and burn like fire...

Souls...

That is what Infernis is, be it a demon or destination. Anything born at the hands of Infernis is infused with the souls of those who have fallen in the Dark Below.

I knew it as much on that day the Sheriff brought back his blade, the same one he flaunts at every Awakening. That blade is infused with the souls of the men he travelled with.

My only concern is who did the infusing?

- Dr Loxley"

Good Friday everyone! (You know, I love that one... Friday!).

So I bring you this short bit of narrative, nothing substantial, just a bit of fun to kinda explain the epic weapon currently planned for the CRYPTS loot deck: http://newfairbank.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/loot-decks-odds-n-ends.html the Infernis Axe.

But I had an idea the other day, and I'd welcome some feedback on the idea...

What if CRYPTS had a monster spawning deck, where every time a new encounter began a card was flipped to see what would spawn?

Again we'd be looking at about 60 cards, and these would contain all manner of combinations of beasties, from a single Skeleton Archer to 1 Greater Demon and 3 Lessers.

This is just something that I'm toying with at the moment, and I know it's been mentioned before.

Perhaps, and this is something I'm thinking could be an idea... What if each card had 3 things listed on it? An easy encounter, a medium encounter and a hard encounter? That way the CK (Crypt Keeper for those who've forgotten) can continue to tailor the game to a lesser extent?

In theory this spawn mechanic removes the need for planning, but if players are low geared or well geared (or perhaps small/large in number) then the CK still has some control.

I hope this sounds like a good idea.

Of course there is the issue of model selection, I want people to play this game with a selection of models from almost any range, I suppose there is no reason why proxies can't be used, and as long as the limit it say, 60 cards in a deck, there is no reason why I can't create 100+ and the CK can remove/use what is needed dependant on model selection.
- plus doing that allows me to later release more beasties and just let the CK choose to use or not the new rules!

On that note, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thursday 1 August 2013

New Fairbank Radio on temporary Hiatus :(

Good Thursday everyone!

Today I bring you the sad news that after two weeks of radio silence New Fairbank Radio is on temporary hiatus.

Now just to be clear this has nothing at all to do with any if the drama that's been going on. I've left all that behind and am feeling very positive about the future.

No, instead to explain this, let me take you back about 5-ish years.

Me and my MMO guild decided it was time to invest in some voice chat, not to improve our skill or anything, but mainly so we could mock one of our number who to this day, after about 7-8 years of knowing, owning a headset and connecting to chat programs, still refuses to talk, even though we're friends with him in real life.

Yes James, I'm talking about you...

Anyway, I've always had problems with voice chat, and the first gaming headset I had, it had the strangest problem with making me sound like a dalek.

Anyway, after some time I decided it was time to invest in a better headset, and it was a nice one (for the price) but I never used the mic, and after about 5 years of use I finally decided to do so, when it turned out the mic socket inside the headset didn't work.

This was annoying.

So trying to get more involved in the current war gaming crowd I used the mic from my webcam, the terrible quality of this can be heard in my 2 hour interview with Jon on the Malifools. The audio quality is terrible!

So I bought another headset, this one digital.

It was great and despite having a few audio balance issues was able to start recording my own podcast! Yay!

But then disaster struck! Within about 3 months of use that headset broke, and I had thrown away all my proofs of purchase etc!

So back to the drawing board, and I pick up my current headset. The audio quality is perfect! It's fantastic! But then things go downhill, I quickly find that again the mic is not perfect, and it starts crackling, and the audio sounds like I'm talking through a fan.

Great... But still, resetting the drivers, or messing with the sampling quality in the mic settings was fixing it, so I left it as-is.

Yesterday, after trying to test the mic to make sure everything is ok for tonight's recording of Hobby Sofa I find that even after 30 mins of tinkering I am unable to get the quality I need to record.

Well... Damn!

So I put in a request, and am currently awaiting DHL over the next couple of days to collect the headset and a new one be sent out.

The good news is that my wife's headset is available for me to use tonight, so no worries there. The problem is that it means we can't both be on our podcast, and I would rather put NFR on hold than record without her.

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So that's that.

Once my borked set is picked up and the replacement has arrived then we'll be able to resume with NFR, but until then, I'm afraid you'll only have the monthly Hobby Sofa to keep you company.

- On that note, a quick reminder, if you would like to join us on the sofa, please let me know. We're recording at 20:00 BST tonight and would love a guest speaker!

Take care and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley