Doll Maker's Diary, Part 20: A Mythical Endeavor and Other Doll Creator Games

Doll Maker's Diary, Part 20: A Mythical Endeavor and Other Doll Creator Games

One of my recent side projects in the Heroine Fan Art Creator was to depict at least one of the STAR Agents as mythical deities or warriors. Even though the story takes place in the present day, I could not resist the temptation to ask the question, "What if the STAR Agents were taken to ancient times where gods and warriors reigned supreme"? I started off with the oldest one, Tiffany Ward, before moving on to her closest friend, Katie Parker, having taken a liking to the whole idea early on. So here they are, clad in armor befitting of a goddess - or an elite soldier in ancient times, come to think of it.

Above: Artwork depicting Katie Parker and Tiffany Ward as archers from a long-lost age. Below: The same characters as ancient mythical warrior goddesses.

I was generally pleased with the result; in particular, Katie looked very much like an angel in the first picture, even though she did not have wings. Then again, considering that inhabitants of Heaven tend to be depicted mostly in gold and white outfits, it makes perfect sense. Both of the warrior goddess artworks, on the other hand, were done primarily in the respective character's favorite color.

Given that the results I obtained were very appealing, it should not be too difficult to imagine applying a similar costume to the doll of your choice. Speaking of myth and legend, there are several other games from DollDivine (the programmer of the Heroine Fan Art Creator) which convey a similar feeling. The Tudor Dress Up Game gives you the opportunity to create a doll in the style of Victorian-era royalty, while the Lord of the Rings Dress Up Game, with its options to create wizards, dwarves, and elves in addition to regular humans, is reminiscent of, well... Lord of the Rings. As for the Game of Thrones Dress Up Game, it easily captures the feel of the HBO series it's based on. There's also a Goddess Dress Up Game where you can create scenes themed after Greco-Roman mythology. However, if ice-skating princesses are more your thing, the Snow Queen Scene Maker game will suit you just fine. Finally, despite having a much more recent period theme (the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, if I am not mistaken), the Velvet Dress Up Game gives you a chance to make a doll which might as well resemble a goddess if you choose the right combination of items and colors. Here are some examples of sketches I made with them.

Above, from top: Examples of artworks made using the Goddess, Lord of the Rings, Tudor, Game of Thrones, Snow Queen Scene Maker, and Velvet Dress Up Games.

And last but not least, I would like to announce a Happy New Year to anyone making virtual dolls with anything from Doll Divine. To that end, my New Year's resolution is clear: I must explore these Flash games further in order to find out all the possibilities that await me. So watch this space.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 55: New Year's Resolutions

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 55: New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to all my fellow Automationeers! Here, I will share my New Year's resolutions as an Automationeer. They are as follows:

• Host another CSR round. Having hosted a CSR round once for each of the past three years, I know what it's like to take the reins of this wonderful recurring competition. It's challenging, for sure, but getting it right makes it very rewarding indeed. To have any chance of hosting a CSR, one must either win the previous round or explicitly state that they are ready to host the next round if none of the users finishing ahead of him/her are able to. I have never achieved the former as yet, but it could happen this year - or it might not. Which is why my next resolution is more realistic.
• Try out the latest Content Update for the UE4 version. After what seems like an eternity, the UE4 release will receive lots of new content (fixtures, car bodies, etc.); some of it will be ported over from the earlier Kee Engine version, while the rest will be completely new. This will give me a prime opportunity to...
• Improve my car exterior design skills in Automation. There's a whole forum thread dedicated to Automation car design, and even though it only covers the 90s, the 2000s and the 2010s (so far), it's still very useful when creating designs from these . Anyone - including you and me - can visit it here if they need advice: http://discourse.automationgame.com/t/tips-and-tricks-to-automation-car-design/24960
• Enjoy the benefits of any bugfixes that result from updates. By this, I mean that the bugfixes will make certain car bodies easier to work with. Specifically, most mid-engined bodies cannot accommodate very large engines for their size due to a bug in how engine bay size calculations are handled. Hopefully this will be fixed in short order, along with several others.
• Improve my engineering skills in Automation. This is the area of the game where I am strongest, but I still feel like there is room for improvement. Knowing which engineering (which covers the chassis and engine tabs) and trim choices work best for the demographic(s) and market(s) you're aiming for is the key to developing a highly competitive car in Automation, especially in the campaign mode, where you take control of a whole car company over several decades.

There are other things I would like to accomplish as an Automationeer in 2019, but the five items I have listed above are the most important of all. In the meantime, stay tuned to see whether or not I keep any (or all) of these New Year's Resolutions - I promise you it will be an exciting journey.

Doll Maker's Diary Holiday Special

Doll Maker's Diary Holiday Special

With Christmas just a week away, I figured that now would be the right time to make a holiday-themed artwork on DollDivine's X-Girl Creator. It did not take long for me to come up with the idea of the four founding members of the CRASH Alpha Squad having a Christmas party in a penthouse at night, with their special abilities on display as a substitute for an actual Christmas tree covered in lights. This being a Christmas-themed project, I felt like there should be plenty of red, white and green with some gold added for good measure. So here it is.

Claire Hayes, Ellie Watts, Kayla Brooks and Alexa Lowe sending you their best holiday wishes.

I would also like to take this moment to also send out my best holiday wishes to all the Automationeers, Infinite Space explorers, DollDivine designers and board game enthusiasts out there.

And as another gift, here are some artworks I made on the Heroine Creator showing the first four characters in STAR Power dressed up for a Christmas party.

Above, from top: Tiffany Ward, Katie Parker, Jessica Burton and Michelle Hawkins bearing gifts this holiday season, symbolized by a glowing magical rose, each of which has a different color.

Last but not least, here's a preview of the new characters I will introduce to CRASH Chronicles in 2019.

Above, from top: Some of the new characters due to appear in CRASH Chronicles in 2019 or later.

With that, I wish everyone a happy New Year, and I'll see you again in 2019.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 54: The Shrike Strikes Back

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 54: The Shrike Strikes Back

After a series of poor results in recent CSRs, I skipped CSR88 voluntarily, knowing that the theme for the next one would be more to my liking. And much to my relief and joy, it was. But before we get to that, here's a rundown of its premise.

Some time in 1991, an East German woman named Janny is unexpectedly coping very well with living in a reunified, democratic Germany, devoid of the austerity that characterized her earlier life under a communist government. Her previous car wouldn't cut it anymore, so to reward herself, she seeks to buy a compact convertible which is attractive, fun to drive, practical, comfortable, and above all cheap to buy and run. However, she had only $9000 to spend, and on top of that, the production unit and engineering time limits for the engine and trim were fairly tight. Due to my expertise in building budget cars, I jumped at the chance to build an entry - but this time I decided to put a bit more care into its design and engineering than in any of the past few rounds in which I entered, and it showed.

The Morton Shrike 1.8 Cabrio - a small convertible so cheerful it won't let you down even on a rainy day.

After several hours, I came up with a small, curvaceous car, which I called the Morton Shrike 1.8 Cabrio. This was the predecessor to my CSR87 entry, but unlike that car, it had an all-iron, single-overhead-cam, normally aspirated, 16-valve 1.8-liter inline-four developing a modest 100 horsepower mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. Combined with the conservative suspension tune, brake setup and small-diameter tires, this resulted in the Shrike Cabrio being more of a casual bruiser than a back-road bruiser. Even so, it still felt lively enough to cut the mustard as a fun car, as we shall soon see.

As time went on, more and more users showed off their entries, but I remained as confident as ever. By the time the deadline had passed, the entry list had swollen to a staggering 42 entries. This would be a nightmare for most users to process, but the host promised that the whole review phase, from the initial reviews to the final results, would all be completed. And indeed they were - although due to work commitments, they took somewhat longer than anticipated. Eventually, however, my patience was rewarded when the list of finalists was announced - and much to my relief, my little Shrike was among the 11 cars which had been shortlisted.

With the remaining 31 cars having been rejected for falling short in at least one of the major criteria, it was time for a more thorough examination of the finalists, and the only way for Janny to do that was to do a brief test drive of each one. It was during this stage that the Shrike really came into its own. Janny found it to be attractive, well-equipped, and reasonably comfortable with a modicum of sportiness. However, although this was true of most of the finalists (to some extent), the Shrike managed it better than most. Thus, after further deliberation, the bright yellow Shrike remained in contention along with seven other entries.

In the end, the Shrike claimed a tie for second with the Solo Checker, with the FAAL Mesaia taking the overall win - but only just, and even then it had a manual gearbox for sportiness' sake at the expense of drivability and comfort, although in all honesty, it was still a doddle to drive, as Janny had expected it to be. I suspect that the only thing holding back the little Shrike was my decision to use pricier all-season instead economy tires - but they were so narrow, and wrapped around such small wheels (14 inches in diameter), that they were still fairly cheap. Even so, I remain proud of my entry for this round for several reasons. Not only was this the first time I was a finalist in any CSR round for a long time, I had just returned to the contest after skipping the previous round.

Above: The FAAL Mesaia won CSR89 by the slimmest of margins, but the Morton Shrike ran it very close... Below: ...as did the Solo Checker.

As mentioned above, the reviews and results took quite a while to complete, but at least I could look back on one of the most compelling low-budget CSR rounds thus far with a mixture of joy and relief, now that it has come to an end - later than expected, no doubt, but still satisfactorily concluded nonetheless. Speaking of which, the user who hosted this round couldn't manage it the first time he assumed hosting duties; we are grateful that he learned his lesson this time around.

This concludes my summary on CSR89. More posts about CSR are forthcoming, so stay tuned.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 53: A Budget Build Example

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 53: A Budget Build Example

In my first few months as an Automationeer, I used the game mostly for building high-end, high-performance cars, but after seeing several examples of low-end, mass-market cars on the forums (usually from the CSR thread), I decided that I had to try my hand at building budget cars, with a low base price and, more importantly, reduced PU/ET values compared to more upmarket machinery. Working with a limited budget (in terms of price, production units and engineering time) was a challenge for sure, and involved some trial and error, but eventually I was able to get the hang of it, especially since I realized that building budget cars is an important part of an Automationeer's skillset. Now that I have improved my entry-level car-building skills, I will share an example of a low-cost car which I recently made. Specifically, it's a trim originally intended for CSR86, but one which I ultimately rejected for being too slow.

Looking at the model tab, this budget car seems like an ordinary vehicle for an ordinary market.

We'll start off with the model tab, where the construction methods, materials and suspension for a whole range of trims are determined. I went with a galvanized steel monocoque with partial aluminum panels - a cost-effective method for most mass-market cars, and one which still provides decent environmental resistance. This being an affordable economy car, I used a transversely mounted engine, strut suspension up front, and a torsion beam at the rear.

Above, from top: Family, bottom end, top end, fuel system, and exhaust tabs for the 1.2L triple used in the budget build.

As for the engine, it's an all-iron, single-overhead-cam, in-line three with four valves per cylinder - a dual-overhead-cam, alloy-block equivalent was too expensive. Moreover, variable valve lift (which allows one to set two separate cam profiles, one for low RPM and another for high RPM) was not fitted due to the extra cost it would require. For economy's sake, I used a mild cam profile, but one which would still provide just enough power to keep the car from being too slow. In addition, I fitted multi-point fuel injection with a single throttle body and a standard intake, along with short cast headers and dual reverse-flow mufflers to keep costs and loudness down. However, I was forced to install a high-flow catalytic converter to bring the power output up to the desired level - and even then, only just. Finally, I used the leanest possible air/fuel ratio and highly advanced ignition timing to maximize economy.

Above, from top: Gearbox, wheel/tire, brake, aerodynamics, interior, safety and suspension tab overviews for the little econobrick.

Next is a quick look at the trim tabs. With a four-speed automatic transmission geared for economy and an open differential, it wasn't the sportiest car on the market, but it was easy to drive in all conditions - a trait further reinforced by my decision to fit narrow, small-diameter steel wheels and hard compound tires. The brakes - solid discs up front and drums at the rear - were standard fare for a car of this size. No undertray was fitted, and only a small amount of cooling was provided for the brakes, while engine cooling was limited to just above what was required to avoid a reliability penalty.

The interior was suitably sparse, with a basic two-speaker stereo and tape deck for in-car entertainment, while standard safety systems of the era were fitted. No driving aids were used in this build, however, due to cost reasons and also because the car was too slow to benefit from (or require) them. Finally the suspension, incorporating progressive springs, mono-tube dampers,  was set up to be soft and comfortable, without being too wallowy, although sportiness was not on the agenda, in complete contrast to the older high-performance trim I also made for this particular car.

Above, from top: Competitiveness charts for all demographics in Gasmea, Fruinia and Archana respectively.

When all was said and done, the car retailed for just $7300 in-game (not counting markups), and thanks to running on regular (91 RON/87 AKI) unleaded gasoline, was eligible for sale in Archana, the poorest region of the five currently present (and so far the only one in which higher fuel grades are not available). Its rock-bottom base price made it extremely competitive in various low-cost market demographics across all regions. The only real problem with the car was its decidedly underwhelming straight-line and cornering performance - but then, people seldom buy this kind of car to go fast or take tight turns like a madman. In fact, its easygoing nature encourages calm, careful driving, especially around town where its small size is a boon on narrow streets.

This concludes my overview of one of my recent budget builds. I also made a slightly older, yet far sportier, hot hatch trim of this model - but this one may well be obsoleted when the Lite Campaign V3 build transitions from an open beta to a public release.

How Infinite Space Influenced CRASH Chronicles, Part 1

How Infinite Space Influenced CRASH Chronicles, Part 1

CRASH Chronicles, a series of short stories I recently created, owes a lot to the Infinite Space trilogy of roguelike games, which I like very much - and continue playing to this very day. Here, I will show are some of the more important ones. Some of these references are actually derived from content which, despite being omitted from Sea of Stars, the latest game in the series, is still fondly remembered. So here goes.

CRASH Commander Claire Hayes (shown above in a variety of outfits) is known primarily for her psionic abilities.

First up is CRASH Commander Claire Hayes, who underwent training to utilize her psionic abilities prior to founding the CRASH Alpha Squad. Her expertise in psionics somewhat reminds me of the Zorg from the Infinite Space trilogy; this race of small bipedal alien beings is best known for their "bizarre mental capabilities", as the games put it. Specifically, Zorg fighters can teleport themselves during combat, taking themselves to the opposite side of the battlefield in combat, with the caveat that they are always pointing in the same direction before and after teleporting. Zorg helmsmen, meanwhile, can fold space within a distance of two parsecs to instantly transport a flotilla to a nearby star, with a short cooldown period (2-3 weeks, depending on the game) between folds.

A Zorg helmsman folding space. This is where I got the idea for one of Claire Hayes' new abilities: Psionic Shift.

With this in mind, I now have plans for Claire to acquire a similar ability. Called Psionic Shift, it allows her to instantly go to a particular location within a short distance, but with a short cooldown period. Also, just like the Zorg fighters, she cannot change direction while teleporting - a limitation explicitly stated in the manual to the tie-in tabletop game Eat Electric Death!. Although this ability was not present in earlier chapters of CRASH Chronicles, I plan on introducing it in later ones.

Ellie Watts has the ability to make her foes Eat Electric Death.

Next we have Ellie Watts' introductory quote: "Eat Electric Death, tyrant scum!" I chose this as a means of paying tribute to one of the most powerful weapons in the entire Infinite Space trilogy, the Particle Vortex Cannon. Speaking of which, its description ends with a quote from the old arcade game Tempest 2000: "Eat Electric Death, alien scum!". Moreover, firing it will release a glowing sphere of energy which releases a powerful lightning bolt at any target it passes. In the future, I think Ellie Watts should be capable of doing exactly that during combat - a fitting addition to her abilities, and one which she could learn after some advanced training.

The Particle Vortex Cannon (shown here being used in support of a Garthan Frigate armed with two Cobalt Torpedo Tubes) is essentially ball lightning in a can. It should come as no surprise that I referenced it when creating Ellie Watts; it is one of my favorite weapons in the entire Infinite Space trilogy.

Ellie Watts was the first character I created in the X-Girl Creator, but she wasn't the last. She wouldn't be the only one either - far from it, in fact. Having already introduced Ellie & Claire, I chose to create another team member to complement them. That character, Kayla Brooks, also had a set of powers strangely reminiscent of the Infinite Space Trilogy.

Kayla Brooks can detect anima signatures from several feet away, and packs a nasty punch to boot.

Earlier in this series, I stated that Kayla Brooks could sense the anima (life force) of nearby living organisms. This is exactly what the Snailopus (inexplicably absent from Sea of Stars, strangely enough) is capable of, but apart from this and its inability to smell, this creature's sensory suite is identical to that which us humans possess. Moreover, a snailopus feeds by devouring the anima of its prey, thereby making it "animavorous", as supplementary material puts it. However, Kayla Brooks does not need to feed on another person's anima to survive, and can even restore someone else's anima as long as they are still living.

The Snailopus' unique ability to detect anima served as the inspiration for one of Kayla Brooks' powers.

Kayla's unique ability to recover from injuries more quickly than usual also brings to mind one of the most useful devices one can find in any Infinite Space game - the Multibot Repair Drone. Compared to the cheaper Hyperfoam Injector, it can repair ship hulls and onboard systems more quickly and efficiently, making it highly sought after whenever it appears. In fact, the Yellow Kawangi Dreadnought, Urluquai Station and Primordius are the only ships or space stations to have it as standard equipment, making them more difficult to defeat. As an homage to this, I plan to include a story arc where unscrupulous individuals hatch a plot to reverse-engineer her advanced healing capabilities and use it for their own evil ends. Naturally, Kayla will do anything she can to prevent this from happening, lest the balance of power swing further away from CRASH and its agents.

The Multibot Repair Drone can repair any ship very quickly and effectively - hence my decision to use it as the inspiration for another one of Kayla Brook's abilities.

In addition, one of Kayla's ranged attacks is called "Nova Cannon", in reference to a highly powerful weapon used only by the Yellow Kawangi (unless the player "creates" it from a Timeless Bauble). Just like its namesake, it fires slowly and only ever travels in a straight line, but moves very quickly across the battlefield, and delivers immense amounts of damage with each direct hit. This makes it more useful against slow-moving targets than fast ones.

Behold the Nova Cannon! Its immense damage per shot and long range more than make up for its slow fire rate. No wonder it is my favorite weapon in the game, period - even more so than the Particle Vortex Cannon.

Finally, let's move on to the fourth and last of the original members of the CRASH Alpha Squad, Alexa Lowe, whose uncanny ability to create a decloaking field around her can potentially be a lifesaver in desperate situations.

Alexa Lowe's decloaking field can reveal anything that's cloaked within a short distance, making them more vulnerable to attack.

Alexa Lowe's decloaking ability is reminiscent of the effect bestowed by a rare artifact known as the Eye of Babulon. In combat, it confers the player a considerable advantage whenever AI-controlled flotillas have at least one cloaked ship deployed. In such situations, the Eye will reveal the location of every cloaked ship on the battlefield, thus obviating the need to wait until these vessels have decloaked. Given that cloaking techniques in CRASH Chronicles can mask the user's anima, psionic, and electrical signatures, Alexa would thus be able to detect anyone or anything which is cloaked, unlike her teammates. That said, personal experience in Sea of Stars and its predecessors has shown that stray shots (such as those from a Particle Vortex Cannon) can still hit cloaked targets, and in some cases, destroy them outright.

The Eye of Babulon, which grants players the ability to detect cloaked ships in combat, served as the inspiration for Alexa Lowe's primary ability. Without the Eye, it would be impossible to detect the Necrodrones launched from Primordius until they decloaked and opened fire on your fleet.

This concludes a rundown of CRASH Chronicles' references to the Infinite Space trilogy, as far as the original four members are concerned. However, there may be more references to come as additional characters are added, so stay tuned for any information regarding these future developments.

Doll Maker's Diary, Part 19: Guy Fawkes Day Edition

Doll Maker's Diary, Part 19: Guy Fawkes' Day Edition

Since today is Guy Fawkes Day in Britain, I would like to showcase some fireworks... in the form of some artwork depicting CRASH Agents clad in full armor (specifically, the redesigned CRASH Suits), guns drawn, and with their special powers active, as if they were ready for battle (which they ought to be). I'll start off with the original four members: Claire Hayes, Ellie Watts, Kayla Brooks and Alexa Lowe.

Left to right: The four original CRASH Agents (Claire Hayes, Ellie Watts, Kayla Brooks and Alexa Lowe) in their redesigned CRASH Suits. Alexa now has dark brown rather than black hair as a result of having dyed it.

Next up is a draft for the designs of the newcomers which are to be introduced in a future chapter - specifically, one in which the CRASH Alpha Squad rescues some previously unknown superhumans from being exploited by a group of greedy arms dealers and smugglers. These potential victims of this scheme soon realize how dangerous the smugglers' plan would be had CRASH not intervened, and quickly decide to join the agency.

Here are four of CRASH's new recruits, all of whom are expected to be introduced later on in the CRASH Chronicles storyline.

Further down the line, I plan to expand the cast even further with yet another quartet of CRASH Agents, which will join the team in preparation for a story arc in which they are forced to enter a tournament against their will, culminating in a final round where the X-Girls have to fight each other. Here is a draft of the characters which will be introduced in this arc.

Another quartet of X-Girls, this time intended for a planned tournament arc.

Each of the newcomers will have their own set of special abilities, but also have a limited energy pool just like any other CRASH Agent. As such, they are also trained in melee combat and firearm usage, in keeping with CRASH Protocols.

Just to reinforce the fact that today is Guy Fawkes' Day, here are a few screenshots from Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars, which served as one of the inspirations for this series:

Above, from top: a Nova Cannon destroying an Urluquai Carrier; an Urluquai Deep Hunter exploding after being hit repeatedly by a Calatian Destroyer's Proton Blasters; and a Zorg helmsman using a Particle Vortex Cannon to provide assistance for a Garthan Frigate armed with cobalt torpedoes.

This concludes the rundown of my plans for CRASH Chronicles. Stay tuned for further updates on this series.