W Tactics

- open source strategy ccg

complete dev kit released

Mar 8

by snowdrop in General | comments

Up until now a little magic and sweat has been required to make our template file display as it should. This hasn’t been a bug, rather it was the result of how files are imported into Inkscape. Because of the way the program handles the paths it’s best to use relative ones within Inkscape. By having all files that the template requires in one main directory we enable the template and finished cards to display properly within Inkscape on any system, independent of platform or paths.

This has now been done and all you need to start producing cards for your own rule set of WTactics is included in this development package. Just un-tar it, and start getting busy! :) Since the template has been done in the SVG-format it’s very easy for you to add new containers, move the old, resize them, change colours etc etc. Only your imagination & your rule set is the limit to what you can do with it.

The dev kit includes: The SVG-file where the template and card-assembly is done, the card art, the fonts dlgzand a short readme-file explainig how to use it all once you have downloaded it. Please read that file.

Much pleasure, and don’t forget to get back to us with your creations so we can publish them for you (granted you have also developed a rule system that go with them ofc). Also drop us a line if you need support – we’d love to help you out and reply as soon as elvishly possible.

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lackeyccg patch released

Mar 8

by snowdrop in ORC | 1 comment

I’ve finally managed to put together a patch for LackeyCCG, which makes the game playable online, for free. :) Here are some screenshots:

Notice
Please keep in mind that this will be of no use to you if you actually intend to play the full game since a) the rules for this game don’t exist yet and b) all cards are not included (yet) in the patch.

This patch is intended only as a proof of concept and it’s primary purpose is to aid whoever is interested in developing rules for WT. Since LackeyCCG is like a virtual table, it really doesn’t enforce any rules at all, making it easy to play the game however you feel like, and in effect it helps the development process.

Get it
To get the patch you need only follow these simple steps:

  1. Install LackeyCCG. It runs non Windows & OS X, as well as in Linux under Wine.
  2. Run LackeyCCG.
  3. Enter Preferences.
  4. Auto-update >> Update from URL >> http://chaosrealm.net/wtactics/lackeyccg/updatelist.txt
  5. Once it has finished updating, exit LackeyCCG, and then start it up again.
  6. To get the most recent card images you can either a) open Preferences and press the “download missing images”-button or b) start using the deck editor – it will download each card as you use it.

Update it
Whenever huge enough and important updates are made to the patch, and there will be soon enough, we will write about it on the site. To then update the patch you have to 1) erase the whole patch from your LackeyCCG-directory (i.e. /LackeyCCG/plugins/WTactics) and then 2) repeat the process above.

In the future update will be a lot smoother using Lackeys built-in checksum system, but for now that’s a waste of time and this is the way to go.

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orc re-vamp & a tool

Feb 24

by snowdrop in ORC | 1 comment

the ware
First I’d like to introduce a nice new tool I discovered that’s called Dia. It allows us to create nice flow charts easily and a sample of the original rules concept turn/phase sequence can be seen here to the right. Dia is open source of course and available for lovely Linux among other OS:s. I’ve added the link to it in our FAQ and recommend everyone with the need to try it out.

the vamp
As anyone that has actually playtested the orginal rules concept (orc) has surely noticed it’s not working out and has some serious and fatal issues.

1. victory points รก la shapes
The main problems it has is that the victory point system – which enables a player to get points for creating an empty shape in his opponents army – does not play together very well with the fact that a player can recruit freely every turn (even if he/she pays for the recruit). Most of the different empty shapes never occur because the opponent will mend the holes in his/her army by recruiting a new unit.

Using shapes for any kind of victory condition has proven to be very tricky to accomplish. I’m probably abandoning that idea for now, but would gladly revisit it should anyone have some good input on it.

The concept of shapes can, in any case, be used as a requirement for some types of ability payments: The more we want to limit the use of an ability without having to make much more expensive in marked cards, the more incentive we get to ask for a payment in a shape, i.e. [c] instead of [2].

2. overpriced
Most cards are overpriced. All creatures should probably have their cost lowered with 1, and many of the abilities are also too expensive. This will be fixed in the next revision of the elfs.

3. AP:s goodbye?
There may be good reasons to ditch the AP:s, allow unlimited number of attacks (but still just 1 per creature due to the fact that attacking marks a card) but limit the number of movements to just 2 per turn.

4. attack system
I’m not impressed at all by how I devised the attack system and will look at alternatives. The thing which bothers me the most and which is related is the admin it takes to keep track of HP of each character. If possible I’d fool around with letting everyone have just 1 HP and use some kind of MTG approach instead to lessen admin work and add elegance to the system, if I can also still keep the effect of Rows and Spatial placement in the game.

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