Nothin' Much

I’ve never been much of a fan of VTTs in the past as they are always limited and things are likely to degenerate into the old table top arguments of “you can’t see that – yes I can” style conflict. This one, Wartop, changes all that. In doubt about whether you can see something. Just drop the camera down to the level of a model’s head and take a look. Why has nobody ever done that before? It’s so bloody obvious!

So, having watched a little bit of the development of this application, I decided to give it a try. Have to say, I’m impressed.

Okay, so from an unbeliever, why suddenly am I showing any interest in a VTT? Simple, I and my friends cannot always meet at times that are convenient to us, or dedicate the amount of time necessary to a physical table top game – whether skirmish or war. Having to pack stuff away also does not help. Even with photographs of the field, it’s never going to go back precisely the way it was.

This solves that problem. We can set up a battlefield, set up combatants, save the whole thing, and off we go at our convenience. We can then save progress for a later date and get on with our lives. No mess, no fuss, no time wasting packing stuff away or setting up again. So much easier.

With some of the things that I’ve heard are coming down the line to this application, I confess I’m rather excited for the future. Some very cool stuff is going to arrive over the next few months that I think will make this the go-to VTT for skirmishing and war-game.

Worth the money? Absolutely.

For those who stumble on this post, the link to take a look at Wartop and view some of the content and demos is WARTOP Have fun.

I wonder if the Reaper has a timetable and attempts at least to adhere to it. Or whether they are more like UK Railways and have a time table that was made up over a couple of beers on the back of a napkin. Just to be completely ignored while everything runs late – if it runs at all.

Whatever the case. The Reaper is late and I am getting fed up waiting for the bastard.

So, it turns out that yes, I am an idiot.

I was getting frustrated with the length of time it was taking to print OpenLock stuff and then the extended time cleaning it. So, just out of bloody minded annoyance I tried printing in on my FDM without supports. Well, colour me surprised when it printed just fine. So, erm…. Huh? Mostly this stuff has it’s own pillar supports in the lock holes, not all of it, but mostly. Those that don’t still print but with a little bit of a mess in the lock cavity. A couple minutes with a diamond file and it’s clean and clear, and print times are easily 50% less.

What a muppet.

I suppose if I had bothered to hunt the internet for information on OpenLock I would have discovered this earlier, but I didn’t.

Is this a lesson in look first? Or think first? Whatever, happy now, and rooting around on my Terrain drive to find all those things I wanted to print but didn’t.

So, as mentioned in a couple other posts, I’ve found some creators that make my life easier in that they produce modular building parts that fit in with the game systems I use. Adaptable models that fit anything and everything from Cthulhu’s Victorian period up to and including Post Apocalyptic and Cyberpunk genres.

It is a little tedious that everything has to be re-scaled before printing so that it fits in with the 28mm scale I use rather than the default 35-50mm that these things fit. I’m guessing that in the main these things are intended for use with the GW (Games Workshop) “heroic” scale which starts around 35mm and goes up to 55mm for named heroes. Almost none of it fits the scale I use.

Not an issue as such. I mean, it’s a simple matter to re-scale the open lock and other building stuff to 75% to bring it closer to an accurate size. It’s also easy to re-scale 32-35mm figures to around 87% to bring them closer to the scale of my collection. So, people who want higher levels of detail are happy, and I can just carry on playing with the scale dials to get it all down to the size I want.

Thing is, there’s no need for scale creep. With higher resolution printers available at affordable prices, it’s possible with 4K, 6, 7 or 8K printers to get high levels of detail on surprisingly small items. So, why the scale creep? I figure it’s to fit in with the GW scaling of scenery, vehicles and other stuff.

Being one of the few exceptions out in the world who doesn’t buy anything from GW because of the extreme cost and small model packs of their products, unlike most people I don’t have growing collections of GW stuff. Those who do I guess want models which fit in with what they have.

So, why the whining then? What am I complaining about if it’s no problem re-scaling stuff? Well, simple really. I object to a company ruled by greed who charge excessive amounts of money for small pieces of plastic for a hobby that is primarily populated by young people controlling how things should look.

In the case of GW, I’m guessing that they need to increase the size of their models as this is one of the few ways of increasing detail. Looking at their large named models there is an impressive amount of detailing on the figure. With buyers wanting better details on the smaller figures as well, it is easier to simply increase the scale than to look at re-jigging their entire production process.

I often use Tamiya as an example of excellence in plastic modelling when comparing other companies and their complete lack of effort. But, Tamiya work at 1/35th as their chosen scale, and they seem to use a particularly fine – if brittle – type of plastic. GW use what to me seems to be a cheaper form of plastic, and their figures are a lot more chunky and bulky. No real comparison can be drawn really, one is highly detailed and consistent, the other is getting bigger, chunkier and more detailed and the buyer is getting less for their money.

While I doubt that will affect 3D printing in any great way, the scale creep does. I’ve seen one creator shift from 28 to 32 and then 35mm over the space of a year. Keeping an eye on this, and compensating for that prior to printing keeps me on my toes. The same applies to scenic items.

Now, to be fair to all creators, there is no empirical standard at this scale of gaming. There is nothing that actually says “This is 28mm,” so it’s all a bit of a shooting gallery anyway. It’s just unfortunate is all. With space and money at a premium and ever decreasing amount it seems rather sad that so many creators are increasing scales rather than just increasing quality. Modern 3D printers can handle a considerable amount of fine detail, so there is no real need to increase scale to compensate. There is virtually no difference on my 4k printer to the detail level from 35-28mm. I’m hoping to buy a better printer in the new year, which will make the difference even less noticeable.

Costs

At the end of the day, for me anyway, cost is everything. As an example, I’ve been going through the Neo Osaka set that I have with a view to printing that for a Cyberpunk game. With the other city buildings I have as well as the growing collection of OpenLock stuff from Thingiverse.

So, one floor piece from Neo Osaka at the default size takes 3hours and 27minutes to print with a 0.4mm head at 0.1mm layers (yes I know the line height is smaller than needed, but I rather prefer the smooth finish). The same piece, scaled to 75% takes 1 hour 43 minutes and a consequently smaller amount of material. That in itself is important. Less time means less electricity and less material – so, saves money. This being of vital importance in this day and age with the current financial climate. The pieces printed fit the smaller scale of my “28mm” figures and it all takes less room on the game table, which means I can put more on the table to make it a more packed and “city like” environment for the players.

At the end of the day 3D printing has improved so much since the beginning, and the cost of the printers is dropping all the time – especially when improvements are released. Scale creep seems nothing more than pandering to a market force that really needs the power taken away from it. If games workshop want to increase scales to fit their version of heroic, let them. But take away their market power by letting them do it in isolation.

I would have thought that creators would think about the cost of materials – especially resin – and reflect that in their product rather than following along the bunny trail of GW scaling inanity.

Oh well, who cares? Right? I can simply re-scale things and ignore this creeping nonsense. So I’m whining about nothing and it will make no damn difference in the end.

True.

At the end of the day though, it’s not me who is getting hurt by this scale creep. It is the new-comers to the hobby who don’t yet realise that they can scale things to suit their gaming areas, who – and I have noticed this with several people – who are discarding their older gaming models as they are “too small” and don’t fit with anything anymore. So they are getting hit twice. Once for their original investment – now discarded – and second for the extra cost of materials used to print the larger scales

At the end of the day, rather than levelling or getting cheaper, the cost of producing the toys with which one plays games is increasing in line with scale creep. For no real, justifiable reason. That, I suppose, is what I’m whining about.

It’s been somewhere over 17 years since I last ran or played in a role playing game.

That kind of hit me earlier as I was painting some figures for Cyberpunk.

My wife has mentioned from time to time about running a game again but I’ve always dismissed it as neither we nor our friends have any time spare – what with families and other responsibilities. But, while trying to remember how to paint – yes, that’s been sitting idle for about the same time, if not longer – I realised that we don’t need a group to play.

So, I began plotting and planning and pondering. Most games set in this sort of genre are pretty much solo games. The Deus Ex series, Cyberpunk 2077 and several others are all single player. So why couldn’t I set up a campaign for just my wife?

That’s right, absolutely no reason whatsoever to stop me.

So, that’s what I have started to do. Not that you all out there give a flying monkey’s sweaty left testicle what I am or am not doing. I just decided to share what was, to me at least, a revelation.

Game night was always a social event. People would gather, we’d drag out the munchies and beers – or they would bring beer and we’d make an evening and half a night out of it. This was a regular thing, every weekend – being the most convenient time as people could lay in on Sunday and catch up with themselves. Then we all started breeding and bringing new victims into the world and it all got shelved.

I know my wife misses the social evenings but I don’t. But then, I’ve always been comfortable in my own skin and in my own company. I’m not a loner, I just don’t need company around me.

It’s been a long time, our kids have grown up and left home. one at University earning a doctorate, the other trying for her first degree – and doing well so far. The house is quiet, and there are no demands on our time aside from caring for my elderly mother. But, once she has gone to bed we mostly don’t see her until late the next morning.

So, that leaves our evenings just to ourselves. Okay, we can’ go out as somebody needs to be here in case we are needed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t occupy ourselves. Over the last year or so I’ve bought the Zombicide series (not the fantasy issues). Death must Die – a Cthulhu mythos game and a couple other things that looked interesting along with the current editions of Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. Personally I prefer Cyberpunk, but my wife prefers Shadowrun – so, it will most likely be one of those I will use. On other evenings I think I will dig out the other games we wanted to play but never have – winter does bring a lot of cold, wet and unpleasant evenings with it. So a nice ‘real’ fire, hot coffee and a few hours spent playing games. Sounds like a plan to me.

As my wife caught me writing furiously the other day as I set up some street gangs, contacts and scenario ideas she is now aware of my plans. The nice thing about it all, she started smiling. When I asked why, she answered with “I wondered if you were ever going to take the hint.” Typical woman, always manipulating…..

But, she’s right, it’s been long enough and it’s time to get back into something more interesting than the shit that’s all over the tv channels. So sick of that crap I’ve read a record number of books this year.

Well, time to read some different books.