October | 2011 | Emerald Tablet: Home

Every October I take stock of the games I have played over the years with friends on Tuesday. Although it has not always been on Tuesday nights, my friend Wade and Joe have tried to get together at my house almost every week — probably only a handful of times of the last year we failed to get together. More so, it was my very good friend Wade that has not been able to get over, rather than my friend Joe as a collective whole.

Most of our gaming nights have been occupied with playing CIVILIZATION IV. Most of them have been with one or more of my mods that I have written for the game, which includes Age of Discovery, Extreme2, or Multiverse.

I am not sure what anyone will walk away with this information, but I post it mostly for posterity. We had a great year playing games.

This new cycle has been kicked off by returning to EVERQUEST II but I am sure we will settle back to CIVILIZATION soon enough.

I salute this year in gaming:

10-11-11 Great night playing Everquest II
10-05-11 No game because of studying for a test. Next week we are going to try and play Multiverse.

09-28-11 Played Extreme2 and it was tough – too tough?!?
09-20-11 Played Thomas War with slight modification — fun
09-14-11 Played the original Thomas War mod. Tough! Thinking of making a few small changes to the base game to toy around with. Lumberyards, meaningful roads, Composite Archers (+25% attack)….

08-30-11 Some problems late in the game, crashing. Also some issues with units if you don’t have oil. Changed it to needing specific buildings and having oil gives you a bonus to the production of units.
08-17-11 Finished game. Was very fun. We played it almost to the very end!
08-10-11 Continued our Modern Era game – awesome fun. Joe and I slugging it out with all the original AI still in the game.
08-02-11 Played a game on Modern era – a continuation of the prior week. Had great fun. Joe and I was slugging it out with the AI. At 9 PM we lost power for an hour. Joe went home and we called the game – started working on the next update to Extreme2. Wade has not come over in months, but my den is not set up any longer for more than 1 friend at a time. We could make it work, I guess, but it would be cramped.

07-27-11 A huge upgrade to EXTREME2 and had a blast playing in MODERN era. Will continue tweaking rules next week!
07-20-11 Started a new game after I was butchered in a fun older game started over the internet. May update my mod here before we play again. I also want to play some good old fashion RPGs. Found out that starting at different eras can actually be fun way of experiencing the game!
07-06-11 Didn’t do any gaming, per se but looked at another designer’s module in NWN. Very interesting, but after 6 years of developing there are still huge gaps in his mod. The guy needs to finish it and just release it. We had fun though, looking at stuff. Started a bit of Neverwinter Nights.

06-28-11 ExtremeMod ended with the computer AI winning. So we started back on the Extreme2 game we had going. That was fun. Talked about NeverWinter Nights.
06-22-11 Playing a great match in ExtremeMod – he is the Aztec and I am the Celts. We will lose but it’s great fun.
06-14-11 Good night and we finally have two adversaries that will be around into late into the game. Hitler and Mayan; Joe is the Elamite and I am the Indians (from India).
06-09-11 Moved to Thursday tonight, since I was gone off to the lake. Should be fun, if Joe does not get over then I will try and read some more Caesar.

05-31-11 Finally got to play a game and it was real fun. Played an older game that was further along and finally did one that worked for me and Joe – huge battles with cheering and bravado all around. No Wade yet.
05-25-11 No game.
05-18-11 No Game.
05-11-11 Played a bit of Age of Discovery, but there was some issues and kept crashing. Then played Extreme2 and having a blast. Still no Wade.
05-04-11 Extreme2 is done for several months – uploading it tonight. Will work on Age of Discovery next. Fun game last night with only Joe, Wade didn’t come over.

04-27-11 New Game with New Rules. No Wade
04-19-11 Just Joe and I, continued a game from the weekend. Having fun at it.
04-13-11 No game. May not game for a while.
04-06-11 Finally had a game. Great Fun.

03-39-11 No game.
03-22-11 No game because of the weather. Wade called and said he would like to start coming over this weekend again. Maybe next week.
03-15-11 Played Extreme II – I was Hitler and Joe was Xerxes. Had a lot of fun but decided to restart because the AI seemed at a large advantage with being on a handicap.
03-09-11 Played Extreme II – starting a re-make of my mod with more emphasis on UU and UBs and less on tech and vanilla units.
03-02-11 Actually had a fun night with EXTREME mod and an older save – not sure if we will when but we can play it until the end more than likely. Here in a month, I will return to writing for my Mod. In my desire for Spring, I am writing this month all in GREEN.

Thoughts of Re-Making Age of Discovery starting with the Thomas War mod.

02-23-11 No game. Joe has a big test. I played Everquest; still seems fun.
02-15-11 Tried to play the Age of Discovery, but there is something just wrong about the game. Keeps crashing. Might start a new mod – Extreme2.
02-08-11 No game again because of Joe and school.
02-01-11 No game because of the SNOWMAGEDDON of 2011. Maybe next week.

01-26-11 Wade didn’t get over again last night; partly the weather but mainly due to the fact we needed to run through the game fast. Found many problems with the mod, but making progress.
01-19-11 Didn’t have Wade over; Joe and I played my new mod “Age of Discovery”. First run was ok but need to tweak the game and add in more units.
01-13-11 Wade skipped on us, so Joe and I played Civ IV. Had fun but realized that the mod is so top heavy that it is impossible to get the AI to behave correctly.

12-28-10 Got together with Wade and Joe and we played Version 3 of my Mod with all the new ATLANTEAN stuff in it. Had a blast and everyone was yelling and screaming over their victories and defeats.
12-21-10 Just Joe and I since Wade’s machine is not working. Played Civ and had fun.
12-14-10 Great fun with Wade and Joe again playing Civ IV. We have a hot game going on and looking forward to doing it next week.
12-07-10 Played Civ again and started getting ideas on how to make it better.

11-30-10 Played EQ II last night instead of Civ. Good time but my shoulder and arm hurt terribly. Wade didn’t come over last night, but maybe next week.
11-23-10 Played EQ II last night instead of Civ. Good times and my arm is so sore this morning from clicking – like the Diablo Syndrome. I did find a new model I want to add to Civ Mod so maybe I will work on this holiday season.
11-15-10 We didn’t play Civilization today instead played EQ II. Good time. John White got Civ IV and perhaps we can have him over one night to play. Need to arrange a time for Wade to come over for dinner (Chrinese).
11-09-10 We didn’t play Civilization today instead played EQ II. Good time. Putting Civ IV on the back burner for a couple of months.
11-01-10 We had to start a new game because I made some major revisions to the mod. Wade started out strong, and to both Joe and I we were amazed that he was holding his own towards the end of the night. Joe was back on top throughout the night because he has the system down pat – which shows to me that the game has a certain logic to it and once you know it, there is no challenge to it. I guess it is time we move on to a new game on Monday.

10-26-10 Continued the game for another week – we could still lose this one. We feel the AI even though sometimes underscored can still put up a nice fight. We all did well, even Wade who finally started catching up – even though he is a utter coward and never fights anything period.
10-19-10 First game we have continued for one week to another in ages! It is very exciting and still up for grabs, although I think we can beat them unless they pull a rabbit out of their hats and win by Space Race or something. I am nearing Steampunk Technology – never had that before so it will be interesting.
10-12-10 New game. Joe, Wade, and I got a new game going. Wade is doing horribly, but won’t listen to advice. Joe and I struggle for third place. Should be exciting game.
10-05-10 New Month! Just Joe and I played. Wade needn’t come over for awhile. Had a tough night with multiple restarts. Learned allot about the game and made some good notes.

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