Little side project that I have been meaning to get to. I wanted to create a Settlers of Catan board to hold all the hexes in place. I also wanted it to have a leaf, like a table leaf that would insert into the middle of the board for the 5-6 player expansion. The leaf feature complicates the project quite a bit. I engineered the thing in my head and went to work after spending $50 on tools and materials. Here are the results:
Rough cut of the board pieces. I just traced around the hexes when I had them laid out on top and shaped the funny looking angles so it would hold the leaf in place and so the retaining tabs would be in the right place in both modes.
Here’s a video demonstrating the slide:
Gluing on the retainers:
Painting…
More painting…
Finished board in 3-4 player mode. Note that the leaf is held securely in place underneath the board so it exists as a single unit in both modes.
And 5-6 player:
Fun project overall, really just a prototype. This board will be the prize at the next Catanament! I hope to make another one out of better materials now that I have all the kinks worked out of it.
-Aaron
I am so angry right now at the banks and how the rich are abusing the entire country like it is some Farmville game and the number in their bank account matters more than the future of America. I am so mad in fact that I have set up a plan to eliminate my debt by October of this year and pull all of my money and support from them at that time. I refuse to enable them. I will be buying everything in cash or a similar form from that point on. This is not a “New Years Resolution”. This is a life revolution! This is me, adding my voice (really my money, which is the only voice they care about anyway) that I will not be part of their serfdom. I will not accept debt as part of my life. Cutting the cord my friends.
-Aaron
There are some changes in the Incursion 1.1 patch to PI that really make PI easy to do and it remains a profitable eve profession that takes very little time to do, especially if you have things set up. It seems the major hurdle for most players is the daunting task of researching what they want to build and setting up their installations in a very efficient manner. I thought I’d write this guide to help out my corp mates and anyone else who happens to read this.
There are some good ways to set up PI and a lot of bad ways to do it. One of the common strategies I see people use is to try to manufacture tier 3 products on the same planet the tier 2 resources come from. I think it is a far better strategy to just produce 1 tier 2 resource per planet and have a separate planet or two to manufacture the tier 3 and 4 commodities. It takes more hauling to do but I believe it yields more end product over time. Before you do anything, have a plan. Find out what planets are available to you by using dotlan and then figure out what you want to build using the planets available to you by using the Eve planetary interaction materials diagram. Ideally you will harvest one planet per resource and have a couple planets left on barren and temperate worlds to manufacture everything. This may require more than one character if you are manufacturing a lot of different products or some tier 4 stuff.
I will start by demonstrating my process for setting up a resource harvesting installation. Start by scanning out a spot with the resource you want on it.
You can plant the command center pretty much anywhere. You don’t even need it to have a link. You do need to upgrade it now since the new patch and the level you can upgrade it to is dependent on your command center upgrades skill. Next you want to drop your extractor. After dropping the extractor you will create the extractor heads by clicking on the blue dots at the left of the window that pops up when you install the extractor program. On the right, be sure to select which resource you wish to collect. Also see in the screenshot below the two extractor heads that have some red numbers. That is because they are overlapping and causing some loss. You can move the heads around at any time so just adjust them until none of them are touching. The slider indicating extractor area size also indicates the amount of time the program will run and you can start and stop a program at any time. Very cool because you can log on, stop all your programs and adjust them to the amount of time you will want to reset them again but you are not forced to wait for the end of the program.
Now you will set down a storage facility and a space port launch pad thingy fairly close to your extractor. This matters a lot on gas planets but not so much on other planets. On gas planets, long links cost a whole lot of your power grid. Link them up from extractor to storage facility to launch pad like in the image below and upgrade the link from the extractor to the storage facility as many times as is needed to route the installed program to the storage facility. In the case below I had to upgrade the link 4 times.
Now just place a bunch of basic processors around the storage facility until you run out of power grid. You will need some power left over to create all the links which will go to the storage facility. It is okay to link two or three of the processors in a chain to keep the power grid cost lower.
Next, install the schematic to convert your base material to your tier 1 material and route the product directly to the launch pad (not the storage facility) and route the incoming base material from the storage facility to each of your processors.
Now you can run your extractor programs over and over until the launch pad fills up with finished product. The reason there is a cargo facility in the middle is to act as a buffer for the incoming materials so there is no waste when you extract more than the processors can handle and the product is routed to the launch pad so it does not fill up your buffer. To collect your product you need an industrial ship and you need to enter the system and export the goods from the launch pad to the customs office where you pick it up. You would then take it to your manufacturing planet and import it to the planet to manufacture all your goodies or just sell the tier 1 product.
The above scenario assumes a wormhole or 0.0 planet. Depending on the amount of materials that can be extracted, you may have to adjust your ratio of processors to extractor heads so your processors are always running but you are not overflowing your cargo facility. After setting up a planet like the one above, setting up a manufacturing planet should not be much of a stretch. If you have any questions or comments about this guide, feel free to email me in game out out of game.
-Groggy Swagger
This weekend we are going to watch the fireworks from the bay. I am going to stuff more people on my boat than I ever thought possible, we’ll see how that goes. If you are one of the people coming, we leave at 6pm, try to carpool and bring life vests if you have them.
It has been a while since I posted. A little busy I guess. I created a thing that will soon be for sale and I am really excited about that.
Pirate Fest is very soon (July 16th-18th)!
-Aaron
I am considering getting rid of or reducing my storage space. The only problem is, there are items in there that I don’t really want to give up. That means I would have to find temporary homes for them. So, please let me know if you are interested in having any of these items in your house on loan:
- Coffin shaped coffee table (opens like a coffin, you can put stuff like TV remotes inside)
- Coffin shaped book case. Converts into an entertainment center
- Black and red triangle shaped desk. Has a LCD monitor arm for mounting your computer screen. You are welcome to re-paint it if you wish.
- Brown leather daddy chair. Ultimate gaming/reading chair, very comfy.
- Queen sized futon matress. No springs, fiber fill. You can have this if you want it.
- Super nordic loft bed of awesomeness. This is the bed that has 5 feet of clearence underneath. It is extremely sturdy and the best bed I have ever owned. Also looks very evil with the four bed posts looking like talons and each talon has a ring attached to it for no particular reason. The futon goes with this so if you want the bed you can take the futon with it.
Please let me know if you are interested.
-Aaron
Now that I have a family car (for reasons other than having a family) I thought it might be funny to use it to my advantage. Here is the sticker I have come up with:
I was thinking of making the kids into question marks or something but I thought that might make the joke too complicated. Input? Ideas?
-Aaron
Things that have happened in the last two months:
- Had my car broken into, macbook stolen
- Bought a new macbook pro
- Bought a new car
- Registered a fictitious business name
- Started researching survival and putting together my kit
- Scheduled this year’s Pirate Fest
- Learned a lot about WordPress
Those are the big things. I had a giant to-do list that I made and ended up completing most everything on the list. It was a real motivator! The survival thing will be happening soon, I am reading the SAS manual right now and it’s chalk full of great information.
In other news, I finished a bunch of games. Mass Effect 2 was awesome. I really loved the story and the gravity of choices. It’s the type of game where you feel like you are sitting down to act in an action movie. Dragon Age was also a great game. At first, playing the game I thought it was a little awkward, but then I realized, “Hey, this is fantasy Mass Effect!” After that I had a bearing on how the game should be played and I really enjoyed it. Found out that Ticket to Ride is an XBLA game. They did a great job with it but so far I am getting ym ass kicked online. Need to re-think strategies. Also got an XBLA game called Shadow Complex. A lot like Metroid, really good game btu I am not done with it yet. Finished Borderlands. Really enjoyed the game though I think it had its flaws. A low variety of enemies was first and foremost, stat overload on the weapons kind of got annoying and the inventory system was a bit of a mess. Considering trying Bioshock 2 but I am not yet sold on it. Also playing a little World of Warcraft again … don’t judge me.
-Aaron
Kevin, the Ragged Clown, made a list of things that he wants to get done in his lifetime. What a great idea! Certainly not a new idea, but something I should certainly be doing. Without further adieu, here is my list (subject to change).
Things to do:
- Survive in the wild alone for 7 days
- Sail to Monterey
- Sail to Baha
- Sail to Hawaii
- Sail around the world
- Own a tall ship
- Get a tattoo
- Visit
– Scotland
– England
– Ireland
– France
– Australia
– Amsterdam
– Germany
- Learn to fly a plane
- Own a motorcycle
- Join a secret society
- Search for treasure
Things to make:
- Submarine
- Underground house
- Viking long hall
- Gun
- Sword
- Modern armor
- Car
I am hermitting up. There are too many things I wanted to do this year that I didn’t get to do and I will be making up for it next year. The first of those things is the Monterey trip. I am going before new years, alone if I have to. I have from Christmas to New Years off so it will be happening. Only the adventurous need apply. We will not be turning back because it’s cold or you are geting little splashes of water on you.
The second thing is Scotland. This year we went to Cosamel and that was a lot of fun. Next year will be Scotland. One of the problems is I have this crazy vision of what a trip there should be like and it differs from what other people consider a vacation. I want to travel light; backpack, all items with me at all times. No suitcases full of crap. No hotel reservations. Have a long list of things we might like to visit but no set plans. Kevin is giving me lots of good advice about this. I originally wanted to go with a sleeping bag and tent but he suggested against it, saying B&B type places will work much better and are plentiful as long as you are there when school is in.
Current list of activities (will update as submissions are made):
The Broads
The B&B that my ancestors owned (Gramma gave me the details)
Islay
Edinburgh
Stonehenge and other henges
Battlefiels: Bannockburn, Stirling
Castles
Current tentative dates: May 29th – June 13th. This would require 9 days of time off if you get Memorial day off.
So, if this sounds like something you would like to do, let me know.
One of the ways I am sort of saving up for this trip is to not drink anymore until the trip. That’s pretty extreme and I am sure there will be events that will present beer to me in great quantities for free that I won’t be able to pass up but the idea is to save money by not buying beer all the time. Let’s see how that works out.
In other news, we are playing Diplomacy again. The world has no other game as serious and emotional as this game. What a thing it is.
-Aaron
My latest obsessions include watching TV series’ that I once avoided but now seek out because I have exhausted the Netflix library. This currently includes Smallville, Hercules, Sliders, Survivor and a few other odds and ends. Ones that I have finished in this way are Always Sunny in Philadelphia, SeaQuest, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory and a few others that I cannot remember at the moment. Fun!
Now, THIS is something that I have been obsessing over as well. Thanks to Wil Wheaton for pointing this talent out to me. She made a CD that I am probably going to buy, also I see this girl going on to do great things.
Yesterday I went sailing with my neighbors on their Catalina 30. It was great to be on a boat where I am not the one who has to pay attention. It was also neat to check out their cool boat. So much room! I think I want to move up soon.
-Aaron
