May sees a return to normalcy but a significant increase in my real-life workload. The focus of this late May update will be on the impact the pandemic has on things for the past few months. I will specifically be focusing on the state of the website, the status of the EDCE tournament, and some personal impacts the situation has had on me and my plans going forward.
Tradelands – April Updates, Mining Frustrates
The Roblox game Tradelands performed a string of updates in April that have modernized the graphics while also applying some updated game functionality. One of the changes is to sync weather across all servers while also making storms last longer. Today, I am going to break this down statistically and attempt to determine if the recent updates have changed the profitability of mining.
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MLB – Blake Snell Expedites the Professional Sports Dilemma
As you may have guessed, our sister site at MLB Leagues has been dealing with an unprecedented crisis facing all public sports right now. Today comes the announcement that Blake Snell will refuse to play if MLBPA accepts an agreement presented by the MLB owners to open baseball for the July season.
I want to take a quick side step and talk a little bit about this dilemma and what it means to the future of baseball.
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Civilization 6 – Season Pass First Thoughts
This week Firaxis has announced that it will be offering the New Frontier DLC Pack for Civilization VI. It’s the latest addition to a trend in gaming DLC’s that have been slowly creeping across the industry. Is this pack really worth the $40 they are asking you to pay for this DLC? How does it stack up across other similar offers in the industry?
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Civilization 4 Colonization – We The People Mod Update 2.8
Civ4: Colonization has been an on and off favorite of mine since its release in 2008. I also enjoy this game because of it’s simplicity in game play – you win the game winning a War of Independence and that’s it. Behind this simple concept is the Civilization 4 engine which allows for the significant amount of customization for which the franchise is well known. Despite being released over a decade ago, the game continues to enjoy a cult-like following from its mod community that has kept the original concept alive by modding in aspects that keep it in a modern state. At the time of writing this, there are a few mods still in active development which have updated the game. I recommend to anyone who enjoyed the old Civ4 games and own a copy of Colonization to revisit some nostalgia.
Today, I want to specifically talk about a mod for this game called We the People. At the time I write this, the latest update was on April 23rd and includes 54 updates in the last update alone. I have a lot of respect for these modders who have worked to keep this updated, and are willing to take community recommendation (a feat in itself, I can tell you from experience) and implement them. They have truly turned a rather obscure and independently released modification of Civ4 and turned it into a full capable game that competes against other titles being released today.
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MUD Random Map Generator Version 0.0.4 Uploaded
I have uploaded the newest version of the MUD Random Map Generator on EDIBLE. You can view it here. The changes are almost all behind the scenes with the biggest change being I have integrated the MUD Random Map Generator into the new MapScript API. This update will automatically generate the map file for you instead of relying on the previous manual process. It also allows integration within the EDCE interface with just a basic understanding of how to compile the in-game scripts.
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Stepping Back Into the Light
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve connected to the outside world. The initial panic and urgency as the world shut down has subsided. In its place is an acceptance of what a steady state looks like for the foreseeable future. With it will return a resemblance of normalcy to my own life as it becomes clear what the next few months will looks like for me.
March Update
Not 20 days ago I had a completely different update in mind for March. I was going to post on Friday the 13th, the first back to back updates on unique days in one year. I had plans to do some new modding while also exploring some creative ideas I had. This week, the world seems to have been turned upside down. The WHO pandemic announcement followed by the CDC acknowledgment were the first pieces to a domino effect that seems unstoppable.
Unfortunately, I don’t know where this leaves me other than I have been recalled into lock down. This is the first time in recent memory where this hasn’t been voluntary. It also means the updates going forward will be uncertain.
Random Earth Map Version 0.2.0 Uploaded
I have completed an upgrade to the Random Map Generator. It’s available on EDIBLE or with the original REM link here. This change replaces the previous version since the output has not changed and the maps are backward compatible. The main change was meant to improve the performance of the map generation process which was causing some browsers to freeze. This update should provide a much improved experience.
Good Progress This Week
I was able to make some good progress this week on some improvements to the Modern Units Database as well as the script drawing the Random Earth Map. I’m hoping to get some of these updates posted this weekend. In the event I don’t, here is a quick update for this Leap Day.