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tex here. Years ago, when I was in college, I was the only guy from Texas, so I think I picked the Unix user name 'tex' for myself. I've sort of hung on to it, even though I live elsewhere in the United States these days.

I wandered on to wtactics.org because I was having some nostalgia about Magic: The Gathering. I want to play a CCG-style game with my friends, but I'm openly hostile to the CCG business model these days, you see. Googling for "open source tcg" landed me here.

I've played a lot of other games of all kinds. I think I've done more D&D than anything else, but I'm also a big fan of the high-end board game market, sort of the German-style or Eurogames thing. Interestingly I tried to play a couple of CCGs before they got remade, Star Trek and Middle Earth.

Once upon a time I played a lot of video and computer games, but lately console gaming is too Hollywood and computer games have just plain died. Wesnoth has a special place in my heart though; I think I've been playing it off and on since 0.7. So, I'm intrigued by the notion of Wesnoth source material getting into a CCG.

I have to say, this WTactics business appeals to me because I had the same idea for tabletop roleplaying a few years ago, regarding copyleft/open source and games. It never went anywhere, but I finished a Beta edition. That and a tabletop strategy game of mine is on my website:

http://zuggers.org/

I haven't updated that stuff in quite some time, but it'll give you an insight into my "gaming brain" I think.

Hi Tom!

It's really nice to see you. Even nicer it is to know you've joined "the revolution" years ago.
Take a look around, try to feel comfy.
We - when I write this, I mean mostly snowdrop - have just ended a major overhaul after an infection - resulting in ceasing our blog for a long time, probably also morale loss, and until recently - no new faces arriving.
We're waiting for Cardscape to start with the real deal - that is card creation, in the meanwhile we're tackling some minor tasks, currently we're working on general abilities for our creatures.

I can't recall when I last saw RPG set in (La)TeX, thumbs up for the clean feel.

Howdy Tex & welcome.

Read a couple of pages of ORP... amazing work and dedication from your side! I hope you've posted it to boardgamegeek and more RPG-oriented forums/wikis.

I wandered on to wtactics.org because I was having some nostalgia about Magic: The Gathering. I want to play a CCG-style game with my friends, but I'm openly hostile to the CCG business model these days, you see. Googling for "open source tcg" landed me here.

+1. The business model that has conventionally been used by CCG/TCG companies is horrific for many reasons outlined in our wiki.

It is also what pushed me away from continuing investing time & money in MtG and other commercial CCG:s: I knew it would always take an investment to stay competetive and renewed, or that the game would probably perish within 1-3 years when it couldn't compete against the few titans around, leaving me with cards that lost all their monetary worth and a dead scene.

WTactics isn't anywhere done yet, but if you want to join the dev. process and speed it up plus insure a good game is really created then this is an opportunity ad we sure need the manpower. I think we're safe to say you seem exprienced of game dev. and that we'd benefit from your participation.

Hi!

I'm new here too, it's nice to know that I'm not the only non-project-creatorwho's interested in this!
I had a glance at Orp and Galaktikos - Orp looks kind of similar to a system I came up with a while back (in as far as it has zero-average Body/Mind/Spirit stats), but WOW you made a lot more effort than I did!

*Wheels turn in brain*
I wonder if Galaktikos could work as a mod for Battle for Wesnoth...?
I think it's doable, the engine can theoretically do almost anything that uses a hex-grid and is turn-based...tricky code though as every aspect of play is different...hmmm...a job for a L O N G rainy day I think!

Back on-topic, WOOHOO I'm not the new guy any more! Welcome!

Hello everyone, and thanks so much for the warm welcome. I'm glad the server issues have been resolved; I was worried the project was sorta ailing and I'm glad it seems to be healing now.

Q_x wrote:We're waiting for Cardscape to start with the real deal - that is card creation, in the meanwhile we're tackling some minor tasks, currently we're working on general abilities for our creatures.

Okay, is there a list of things to do someplace? I think I looked around for an issue tracker like bugzilla or the like but didn't find anything.

Q_x wrote:I can't recall when I last saw RPG set in (La)TeX, thumbs up for the clean feel.

snowdrop wrote:Read a couple of pages of ORP... amazing work and dedication from your side! I hope you've posted it to boardgamegeek and more RPG-oriented forums/wikis.

Honestly, it hasn't been playtested. I have no idea if the wacky timing system is functional at the gaming table. Right now I'm stalled on that actually, having a real test of the system. But maybe the BGG people can help with that, I never even thought of it . . . hmm.

I think we're safe to say you seem exprienced of game dev. and that we'd benefit from your participation.

Well, an endorsement from the project lead is a good thing! Thanks so much; I'll do what I can.

The Other wrote:I had a glance at Orp and Galaktikos - Orp looks kind of similar to a system I came up with a while back (in as far as it has zero-average Body/Mind/Spirit stats) . . .

Have you ever played the tri-stat system? Honestly that's who I st--er, borrowed the idea from.

Regarding Galaktikos as a wesnoth mod or total conversion . . . man, that's a lot of work. I'd rather do it up in VASSAL or something that's really made for the purpose.

Back on-topic, WOOHOO I'm not the new guy any more! Welcome!

FNG reporting for duty, SIR!

Things to do are kept more or less in our heads, and every urgent/major/community task was mentioned on our blog, which is now missing all the history:
working on abilities
thinking about new cards and related ideas - from what I remember we were working on Red Banner before ditching old version of Cardscape, and Gaian were more or less test-ready (http://wtactics.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gaia_Cards ).
fixing whatever we feel that may need fixing
and, as always, correcting wiki
If you feel like it, you may also join one of software projects.I'm not a coder, nor good at writing, so I only provide feedback when asked.

I'm also spoiled a bit with commandline, I miss using Linux day-to-day really badly.

Q_x wrote:Things to do are kept more or less in our heads . . .

This is my kneejerk reaction:



As the project grows, an issue tracker, or something, is going to become more and more necessary. There's another todo I can claim for myself if folks think it'd be worth it.

Okay, is there a list of things to do someplace? I think I looked around for an issue tracker like bugzilla or the like but didn't find anything.

There is none. We tried to use one a couple of times but the tasks are often hard to write down/be expressed (which is strange..) and since only me and Q_x have been doing the main template/rules/art-handling/site-work there hasn't been a real need.

If you guys are up for it we can give it another shot. Maybe use trac, by registering a "fake" project at SF?

snowdrop wrote: If you guys are up for it we can give it another shot. Maybe use trac, by registering a "fake" project at SF?

Please, no. I'm all up for tracking issues, but I think something less intricate as trac would suffice. I'm trying to be brief, so I'll not list my arguments for stating such here (unless prodded).

[damn it, my thoughts are bleeding into the realms of three active forum topics]

I think the best thing to do is evaluate our current situation meticulously. I can't help but think the current work flow is rather cumbersome. If we could streamline our tools, I think it would reduce maintenence costs, which would in-turn reduce the amount of introductory material we need to generate for new-comers, which would intuitively reduce the barrier-to-entry for submitting contributions (whatever that might mean).

I have a few thoughts about the matter, and I'll be posting a thread in regards to it soon.

I suggest we continue this discussion somewhere outside my HELLO MY NAME IS TEX thread. : ]