Doll Maker's Diary, Part 10: The Initiation

Doll Maker's Diary, Part 10: The Initiation

Here are some scenes I made on the X-Girl Creator website to show how the CRASH Alpha Squad came to be.

Ellie and Claire in their training outfits, with the latter offering some advice towards the former.

The first scene, shown above, takes place after Ellie Watts receives a letter from an unknown sender about a "Crash Draft". As it turns out, the sender is CRASH Commander Claire Hayes, who seeks to re-form the Alpha Squad by recruiting new members after rogue superhumans begin wreaking havoc across the globe. After meeting Claire for the first time, she is ordered to undergo basic training as part of her efforts to become a CRASH agent. The picture above shows the two X-Girls (a term coined by the website's users for any characters they make using the X-Girl Creator) in their training outfits, with Claire about to brief Ellie on her first set of training exercises.

Ellie and Claire in their battle suits, prior to the advanced training phase.

This leads to the second scene in which Claire gives Ellie advice before she undergoes advanced training, where Ellie gets her first chance to use her newly acquired powers and fight alongside an ally. Ellie passes this latest test with flying colors, but is warned that she would not last long on her own - hence Claire advising Ellie to visit a lavish party at a penthouse, as shown in the next scene below.

Ellie and Claire at the penthouse, about to commence their search for allies.

In the third scene, Ellie and Claire begin their search for candidates for CRASH's Alpha Squad. Eventually, they manage to recruit several other X-Girls, before returning to CRASH HQ, where the newcomers also undergo training to become CRASH agents. The remaining CRASH Alpha Squad members will receive their own descriptions, so stay tuned.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 41: Back on Track... Again

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 41: Back on Track... Again

After CSR73 had concluded, I found myself in the enviable position of hosting CSR74 because none of the five users who finished ahead of me back then wanted to be the next host. Since the last two rounds had an off-road theme and were set in bygone eras (1959 for CSR72, 1986 for CSR73) I decided that the next round should be about trackday cars, and set in the recent past - 2005 to be exact. This decision was not made lightly, but it proved to be worthwhile, given that I had done some actual testing beforehand by making some examples of track-ready sports cars. Only when I decided that the premise behind CSR74 was viable did I actually launch the round.

The backstory behind CSR74 was simple. I played the role of a trackday enthusiast who had just sold his beloved MX-5 to a like-minded enthusiast after several years and wanted to step up to something faster. This seemed like an easy task given the liberal budget of $30,000, but it proved to be anything but, since the judging criteria included a flying lap time at Laguna Seca Raceway, as well as a challenge factor, in an echo of CSR25. This number would be obtained by dividing a car's sportiness value by its drivability value, where a higher value means that the car will be more challenging to drive around the track. However, I would accept a car with high challenge factor if it was fast enough around the track. On the other hand, a low challenge factor will be more easily justifiable for cars with slower lap times.

During the submission period, I was deluged with lots of entries from enthusiastic Automationeers. However, it took me some time to find a car that really nailed the brief. A more worrying concern was that many of the cars I received were ineligible for some reason; however, I was quick to explicitly state exactly why they were ineligible via a PM (private message), and offered to accept revised versions of these entries which complied with all the rules.

When all was said and done, I had received 36 entries. Normally this would present an immense logistical challenge, but I went to the trouble of typing a draft of a review for each individual entry while submissions were still open, saving myself some effort later in the process. However, just before the deadline, I realized that one of the entries I had received came from a user whose copy was pirated, and for integrity's sake, I decided to ignore it. At any rate, I pledged to deliver all the reviews and the final results no more than 72 hours after the deadline.

For this round, I chose to deliver the reviews in the form of short remarks for each car, followed by a verdict and whether or not it would go through to the next round. I would also state each entry's lap time and challenge factor. And so I started work on all of the reviews for the 35 valid entries - a time-consuming task, but a surprisingly enjoyable one nonetheless. I was eventually left with a shortlist of 13 entries after the reviews were complete, before turning my attention to what the top five entries would be.

After further deliberation, I decided that anything which was either off the pace compared to its nearest rivals, or had a challenge factor outside what I deemed to be an acceptable range (0.8 to 1.3, to be exact), would no longer be in contention. This left just five cars for me to choose from: the Righello, Grand Motors Spite, Bowen Danio 510R, Caliban Type SC TO and CVM SC32.

Above, from top: Bowen Danio 510R, Caliban Type SC TO, Righello, Grand Motors Spite and CVM SC32

I kicked off the final phase of judging by placing the SC32 in fifth, having found it to be too challenging to drive compared with the other finalists. The Spite was the next to go; its live rear axle may have made it easier to maintain, but limited its abilities on track. The Righello, meanwhile, took third place for being the fastest of the three front-engined cars in the top five.

That left just two cars, and of those, the Caliban claimed a honorable second place for being easier to drive than the other finalists, and making the most of its supposedly underpowered engine. Ultimately, though, its lack of speed held it back, allowing the Bowen Danio 510R to take the win. Given that the Danio was the fastest of the top five entries without being too difficult to master, this should not have come as a surprise.

Interestingly, the shortlist I made for this round was dominated by naturally aspirated, rear-wheel-drive cars, and in fact this configuration was the only one used by all five finalists. The reason was simple: back in 2005, I realized that the combination of a normally aspirated engine and a RWD drivetrain provided the purest form of driving thrills available on the market. To this day I still believe that NA RWD performance cars, while less common now than they were then, are as alluring as ever for that specific reason.

And so my third attempt at hosting a round of CSR ended successfully. The round immediately after this one would be a change of pace, and proved to be just as engaging - but that's for another post. In the meantime, I'll leave you with one more screenshot of the Danio.

A fitting end to CSR74 - the winning entry (the Bowen Danio 510R) did everything right in my view, whereas everything else fell short (either by a little, or a lot) in at least one of the judging criteria.

Doll Maker's Diary, Part 9: Heroine Creator Update

Doll Maker's Diary, Part 9: Heroine Creator Update

Although I have pushed my Heroine Creator project on the back burner recently, I have not forgotten about it entirely, and in fact have produced some new artwork for the four characters planned for it - although I may add more if I want to. So, without further ado, here they are.

Two of the characters from my Heroine Creator project: Katherine Parker (left) and Tiffany Ward (right)

The doll on the right will henceforth be known by her married name, Tiffany Ward - a change I made to reflect the fact that she got married before the storyline began. However, I have kept her short hair in keeping with her nature as a tomboy. Mrs. Ward also is on good terms with the other three characters shown here on this post. One of them, Katherine Meyer, now goes by her married name of Parker; she is represented by the doll on the left in the above picture, and her favorite color is blue, as shown above.

In addition, the second character I created after Mrs. Ward will now be called Michelle Hawkins, and I have reverted her facial features to what they were initially. The fourth character shown on this post, Jessica Burton, will be left as-is, at least for now. They are shown here in the picture below.

Two more characters from my Heroine Creator project: Jessica Burton (left) and Michelle Hawkins (right)

Ms. Burton's favorite color is red, while that of Ms. Hawkins is yellow. Neither of them are married, however, unlike Tiffany or Katherine. At any rate, this completes the list of characters from my Heroine Creator project.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 40: The Fight for Freedom

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 40: The Fight for Freedom

Lately, I have begun to turn my attention to interests other than my small but exciting library of Steam games; however, I have not completely forgotten about them. It was no surprise, then, that I tackled CSR73 with enthusiasm, despite the fact it was the second round in a row to be themed around off-roaders. Now, don't get me wrong - as an Automationeer, I have a preference for building premium performance cars for wealthy demographics - but I also relish the challenge of designing affordable off-road trucks. After double-checking the rule set, I finally felt confident enough to start work on my CSR73 entry.

The storyline behind CSR73 was as follows: In 1986, the death of the Archanan Premier threw the whole country into chaos as various factions began to fight for leadership. The Dalluhans saw this as a chance to secede and declare independence. To aid in their bid for secession, the DLF (Dalluhan Liberation Front) made a request for a fleet of cheap and cheerful technicals - essentially light off-roaders with the ability to carry personnel, small arms, high-explosive weapons and assorted equipment. 

These vehicles had to be reliable, economical (not just to buy, but also to run - fuel was scarce in Dalluha back in 1986, hence the DLF's preference for low quality fuel), practical and affordable, with sufficient off-road capability and utility to meet the needs of the DLF as well. Moreover, they also had to be easy to drive, light enough to be easily airlifted into battle, and small enough to fit into confined spaces. Safety and comfort were only slightly important compared with the other criteria; sportiness and prestige would not be considered. In addition, although the DLF wanted their technicals to be butch-looking on the outside, they wouldn't want them to look like actual military vehicles, and they had to have a catalytic converter as standard, as well as having a maximum loudness value of 40 - anything more and the Archanans would be alerted to the DLF's presence very quickly. Finally, the technicals had to be very cheap to develop and build: the PU/ET limits for this round were set at 30/40 for the engine, and 75/20 for the trim.

And so I decided to reimagine the MUD Ouray - a pickup truck I had made shortly after the release of the UE4 version of Automation - as a possible contender for the DLF's requirement. The trim I submitted was powered by a fuel-injected single-cam straight-four, running on low quality fuel. Although it was finished in a gloss beige color scheme, it was fitted with only one aftermarket accessory - a set of bull bars. And thanks to its bare-bones specification, it cost just $8700.

The Ouray in question.

Given that an earlier generation of the Ouray had been rejected in the preceding CSR round for being too dull on the outside, I took more care when designing the exterior for this one. Its blocky styling lent itself well to the use of simpler, squarer fixtures. As such, I needed less time to feel satisfied with the 1986 Ouray's styling. I also used an independent front suspension, believing that the extra comfort it conferred would mitigate any loss of off-road capability. With the design and engineering phase now complete, I submitted my entry without much hesitation.

Thus, I felt confident that the Ouray would safely make it past the first round of cuts by the time judging began more than a week later, and indeed it did. Despite its size, the DLF had a favorable opinion about the Ouray - it looked the part, didn't use too much fuel, and was really easy to drive. In fact, it was one of only seven vehicles in a field of 29 to pass muster. The others were either ineligible, or were technically eligible but fell too far short in certain criteria to consider for final evaluation.

Speaking of which, a few days after the field of finalists was set, the second phase of judging was just as challenging as the first for the host to carry out. But this part was definitely well worth the wait. Much to my disappointment the Ouray finished sixth of seven finalists, although it was exactly what I had been expecting considering that it didn't have a live front axle, which would have provided more ground clearance and hence improved its off-roading abilities. It was obvious, though, that the battle for top honors would be between two trucks from two different budget brands: the Bush Hiro B and the ZAR 2616 Export.

Technical candidates: Bush Hiro B (top) and ZAR 216 Export (bottom)

In the end, the ZAR 216 edged out the Bush Hiro, in an echo of the result of CSR63 - the designers of both cars finished in the same positions then as they did now. The ZAR's off-road capabilities turned out to be slightly superior to those of the Bush, and it was similarly affordable - hence its convincing victory in CSR73.

This round was one of the most compelling off-road-themed challenges since CSR19, which was set in the same year. However, given that this round used the latest UE4 game build, I had extra incentive to design and submit an entry, given my poor showing in CSR72. And, as was the case back then, I managed to book a spot in the final, but was ultimately held back by unwise design choices. Even so, my confidence remains intact, and I am now looking forward to the next round with enthusiasm.