Bay 12 Games Forum

I used to really like the BoingBoing website, but the quality has gone down so far lately that I don't really want to read it any more.  Anybody else happen to know a good "Random ass cool stuff" aggregator that has RSS feeds?

I'm thinking about doing a better job of organizing my files on my home computer. 

I'd like to be able to have a bunch of folders in windows explorer that are synced/backed up offsite in a semi-invisible manner.  I'd like those files to be encrypted client side, and stored in an encrypted state on the offsite storage.  Ideally I'd like it to be pretty easy to use. 

I think dropbox might have something like this, but the encryption is important to me.  I don't want the NSA to find all my ISIS-grandma porn.   

I'm also open to software I can run on a server.  I've got a web-server I can use if it comes down to it.

Does something like this exist?  Any recommendations?

PCGamer recently reformatted their website to be incomprehensible to me, so I'm looking for a new website to get my pc gaming news from.  At the moment I'm down to just Rock Paper Shotgun.  Anybody have a good suggestion? 

I'd like:
1)  A linear format of posts, like rockpapershotgun.
2)  No (or minimal) console news.  Just PC stuff.

So, I need to attach a bunch of wires to a bunch of led inputs (looks like this), but I despise soldering.  I'm just awful at it.  My hands are way to shaky and clumsy, and I can never get the wires to attach to the inputs and I'm afraid that because I spend so much time trying to attach the wires that the heat from my iron will bust the leds.   

So I need an alternative that is a bit easier.  Any suggestions would be helpful!  I was considering using blue sticky-tack, but figured I'd check here first in case somebody knows a reason why I shouldn't do that, or has a better idea.

Save me Bay 12, your my only hope!   

I don't usually make posts like this, but I had an idea that I wanted to run by people before I get started.  About a week ago I decided to try to teach myself to use the Unity engine to make games, as I've been spending way too much time playing games and I've been in the mood to do something a bit more creative.  To my surprise, its been going rather well! 

I've been making a simple 2d running game where you constantly move forward and need to jump over pits and dodge things while collecting powerups, while being chased by an enemy.  Its nothing complicated but its helped me understand the engine, and I've made so much progress in such a short time that its boosted my confidence to the point that I'm thinking of making another "not too ambitious game" once I finish this one up.

My idea is to make a top-down advance wars style turn based strategy game where you attempt to take over a dungeon.  Units will be things like warrior, cleric, archer, troll, etc.  The graphics will be simple because I'm useless at art, I was thinking of making it using the oryx roguelike tiles.  The second screenshot in the link is how the graphics would probably look.  I'd like to make it both singleplayer and multiplayer(although I haven't tried out the unity networking stuff yet).

That is all probably a month away before I get started, but I wanted to see if that kind of game appeals at all to people?  Would the lo-fi graphics be too big of a turn off?  Is a strategy game set in a dungeon too weird? 

So, my apartment has a mouse living in it.  I've seen him out of the corner of my eye a few times previously, and figured he was just wandering in from one of the other apartments.  Then one day I saw him pop out of a closet, run around my computer chair and then run back to the hallway closet.  I investigated the closet and found mouse droppings inside.  He's apparently living in there.

I don't want to simply clean the closet, because the mouse will probably just run off and come back later(And probably be happy I cleaned his home).   I don't want to set a mousetrap, because the little guy is freaking adorable and I don't want to kill it.

So I devised a trap to catch the mouse.

A plastic bowl, a paper towel tube, and a piece of cardboard.   I taped the tube to the bowl to allow a path to the top, and then loosely attached a piece of cardboard to the end of the tube like a little diving board.  Ideally the mouse would walk along the diving board, and it would collapse and the mouse would fall in. 

Day 1:
I read that mice like peanut butter, so I put a little peanut butter at the start of the tube, at the end of the tube, in the bowl, and on the diving board.  Trap was placed at a corner of the closet door, in hopes that the mouse would try to keep to the dark corners.

Day 2:
No result.  I added some raisins and cheerios to the bowl, and put a tiny piece of cheddar cheese at the top of the tube.

Day 3:
Noticed that the crumb of cheddar was missing, but everything else was untouched.  Could this be a classic stereotypical mouse?  I put a slice of Havarti cheese in the bowl itself.

Day 4:
The whole slice of cheese was gone, but no mouse!  Not only is this mouse a unashamed stereotype, but its apparently able to escape my trap with ease!  Did it feast on the cheese entirely and then escape, or did it manage to drag the Havarti off to its closet lair? 

A new trap is constructed.  No fancy diving boards or peanut butter smears this time.  A larger metal bowl, which should be harder to get a grip on is used.  The tube is attached to the top as before, and a large piece of cheddar is placed at the bottom of the bowl.  And I've added a secret touch to prevent any escape.  At the bottom of the bowl is a small pool of olive oil, which should make his little adorable grippy feet unable to climb anything.  Mwahahaha.

Day 5:
Mouse didn't take my bait.  Maybe he's in a food coma from the slice of Havarti from yesterday?  Maybe he realizes that jumping into a metal bowl for a piece of food might not be the best idea?  Maybe he detests the smell of olive oil?  These are questions I will never know the answer too. 

I added a small platform from a piece of paper and tape at the end of the tube overhanging the bowl, and put a tiny bit of Havarti on the end of it.  Hopefully he will go for it, and the paper will collapse landing him in my olive oil trap!  We will see what tomorrow brings, but time is running out.  My cruel and inhumane roommate has started talking of setting actual lethal mouse traps.  If I don't manage to catch before he overcomes his inherent laziness, it may be too late for the little fella.

Day 6:
Still no result!  I think he's to clever to just jump into a metal bowl full of oil.  Thankfully, I've watched enough cartoons to know the next stage of traps.  A pit trap!

So I assemble my trap:

Okay, maybe its not foolproof.  I like to think the mouse will step on the tissue, the tissue will start sliding in and take the mouse with it.  No idea if it'll actually work that way, he might just nimbly bounce away as it starts falling in.


Day 7:  Gasp!  It turns out my nefarious and lazy roommate isn't as lazy as I thought!  Turns out he bought and set up a bunch of mouse traps a few days ago without letting me know!  Thankfully, none of his traps have been triggered yet.  Sadly, neither has mine.

I haven't seen the mouse in a few days now, I'm starting to wonder if he got wise that we were on to him and fled to another apartment. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJET-NYGJk

Website:  http://www.awesomenauts.com/
Steam Site:  http://store.steampowered.com/app/204300/


I started playing this over the weekend, and its been a lot of fun so I figured I'd share a bit.  Awesomenauts is a 2d platformer Moba-style game currently on Steam.  Now, normally when I see the word Moba my eyes instantly glaze over and I look for something more interesting to read, but the cartoony style + platformer managed to convince me to look into this game a bit.

It has no microtransactions, and the gameplay essentially involves two teams of 3 players trying to destroy the enemy turrets that are blocking the path to the enemies energy core(or something).  Destroy the energy core and you win the game.  The turrets will eat your face off if you fight them directly though, so you need to stand behind and defend little team-coloured robots that will attract the turret's gunfire.  This will work great until gecko with a knife or a purple girl on a surfboard will come along and murder you. 

It has less characters than other Mobas, but that probably means its a bit more balanced.  The characters are:

Clunk:  A big hardy robot that can take a lot of hits and has the ability to explode, doing a little damage to itself and a lot of damage to anyone else caught in the radius.  Works well with Voltar it seems.

Coco Nebulon:  Purple alien girl on a surfboard.  I don't quite understand how she plays, but I do know that almost every time I fight her I die horribly. 

Derpl Zork:  Mentally slow slug-like alien in a powerful mech.  The mech can turn itself into a turret.  I don't know much about him either.

Froggy G:  Rapper Frog!  He has a fair bit of mobility and a powerful stun/dash attack.

Leon Chameleon:  Stealth jerk who shanks you when you least expect it.    Not only can he turn invisible, but his melee attack does a LOT of damage and he's pretty quick.  Also he has a tongue-grab attack that pulls you towards him. 

Sheriff Lonestar:  This is the cowboy I've been playing so far.  He carries some powerful dynamite and has a holographic bull that can push people back.

Voltar the Omniscient:  Psychic 3-eyed alien healer.  He can also summon more bots and keep them alive pretty well.  This guy is amazing to have around when assaulting a tower or when you need some healing.

Yuri:  Cosmonaut Monkey!  Apparently he's pretty hard to play.  He can fly, shoot lasers and drop mines.  I haven't fought him yet, but he's pretty handy to have around when I'm expecting a backstab from Leon and Yuri is protecting me with a bunch of mines.

Gnaw:  *new*  A gross toxic beast of some kind.  I don't know anything about him yet.

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with it so far, and the 2d platformer style appeals way more to me than traditional Moba games.

It would be nice if we could have less animal men in dwarf mode.  It starts to feel pretty silly when before I've had my first goblin raid I've fought:

Raven Men
Eagle Men
Swallow Men
Albatross Men
Osprey Men
Moon Snail Men
Cuttlefish Men
Thrip Men
Grasshopper Men
Mosquito Men
and one giant hamster.

Its like my dwarfs are living in some kind of comedy sketch world.

I mean, if these people are humanoid, shouldn't they be forming their own civilizations and such?  Or wouldn't the goblins and orcs have wiped out most of these freaks of nature?

I wouldn't mind so much if it was a small tribe of unusual animal men living in a cave somewhere on my map, but its like grand central station with all these guys running and flying over my fortress. 

At the very least, the base animal should be the most common.  The Giant version of an animal should be uncommon, but occasionally show up.  The animal men version should be the rarest, not the most common.