tauster
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Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 16:44:23 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 16:31:10 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 16:15:22 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 16:06:31 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 16:00:22 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 15:51:47 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 10, 2013 15:41:24 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 8, 2013 5:31:30 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 7, 2013 16:30:24 GMT -5
I have completely copied (i.e. quoted) my Flotsam and Jetsam thread to the new message board. I was quite a bit surprised - quoting all postings took only 18 minutes (I had thought this would take much longer). I found the following routine to work best and fastest for me; maybe it also works fine for others. If there is any better/faster way, please share. - open a tab with the old board and the original thread - use the quote button on each posting - change the editor mode to 'BBCode' (as opposed ot the 'Preview' code which is basically a WYSIWYG editor that doesn't really work well for this kind of thing) - copy the sourcecode [Strg] + [C] - open another tab with the new message board - don't hit the 'reply' button - use the 'quick reply' field below the discussion - paste the sourcecode & hit the 'post quick reply' button - repeat with next posting. I will be travelling from tomorrow on, so I'll transfer my other threads next week. I'll leave a message at the end of each thread that has been transferred, so please continue to post if you want.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 7, 2013 16:23:29 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 6, 2013 12:04:07 GMT -5
One general question: After we have moved to a new board, will the old one (i.e. this one) continue to be accessible? If the answer is YES, then we will ahve all the time in the world to transfer the content to our new homebase.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 6, 2013 8:52:17 GMT -5
I've painted up some of the flying pasta monsters. Nothing fancy, just darkblue basepaint and some lighter shades of blue whashed and drybrushed ofer it. I wanted to go for some exotic color scheme, but this seems easier said than done - I just can't come up with a color combination I like! So a darkblue colorscheme means these critters will be in some way water-related. Ah well... Another type of pasta, this time funnel-shaped with an undulating edge similar to the flying pasta monsters. I glued 2 to 4 of them together and painted them up black with purple-brown dots and muddy green with yellowish-green drybrush highlights. Quick and easy and not very creative (boring color schemes, my weakness...), but they have a very nice shape, so I'll probably will make some more at some time in the future. Close-ups: i.imgur.com/Ytt6l0c.jpgi.imgur.com/OpPt7Ps.jpgAnother thing: I found smoe plastic parts in an old shed... The bag holds several thousands of them, so I try to come up with something to do with them. If you have any idea, please post! Inner diameter: 0.9 cm Outer diameter: 2 cm Height: 1.2 cm
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 6, 2013 8:41:36 GMT -5
In that case, I would propose to have a new forum hosted by another hosting provider. If we know we have to move and register again anyways, we should go for a provider with better service to avoid problems in the future. I know this is a royal pain in the rump, but we should see this as a chance to improve this community and to ensure it grows in the future. A growing community at a bad provider is like building a house on sand: All might go well for a time, but ultimately it is doomed to fail.
Just my two copperpieces...
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 5, 2013 12:41:48 GMT -5
...just a warning reagrding the breadcrumbs: Take care that it is ALWAYS superdry, or it will attract mold!
I had a moldy encounter with some stored sawdust that apparently wasn't completely dry; I had boxed it away for later use and got a very unpleasant (i.e. moldy) surprise when I opened the (airtight) box weeks later. So don't store natural materials that are prone to molding in airtight containers.
...on the other hand, I also had stuff molding that was completely open to the air. Seems it takes a bit of luck storing some stuff.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 5, 2013 9:13:13 GMT -5
As thefiend said: Awesome!
I love the idea of making master moulds with this (instead of printing them all). That would be a nice combination of modern technology and 'traditional' cafting.
Now in a few years when 3D printers are more common, those files can be shared among a far larger number of roleplayers... I suddenly begin to see this as something with REAL potential - so far I had always thought of 3D printing as 'still too far in the future' but your bookcase is the first example I encountered that really gives me this 'WANTWANTWANT!' feeling. Always a sure sign that a major purchase is looming somewhere in the not-so-distant future.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 4, 2013 15:11:33 GMT -5
tauster: The first thing I did when thinking about moving forums was contact Proboard support and ask if it was possible to move posts from one forum to another under any means possible but they say it isn't. I'd rather not lose posts but there's no way to move them / back them up, sorry. That's not completely true, it's more that they don't want to pull a copy of the forum database and replicate it to a new database for a new forum! I support the databases on my own website, and while it's not impossible, it is a tedious job! ...so if it's a tedious job, how about raising some money in the community? If they don't do it for free, let's throw some money their way. I'm sure we don't need that much, and even if we count only the active users here, if everybody donates a small amount, I'm sure we get more than enough to get those guys to make a database copy. When we have the database copy, we (or Scottie) can still decide whether to have the new board hosted again here or go to another provider. I know this is certainly not the best way, but perhaps the fastest and the one with the less work for all involved.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 4, 2013 4:23:51 GMT -5
I think before we really dig into manually saving each and every posting, we should spent some time & energy on looking for alternative solutions. - Maybe there is softwere out there that can extract the sourcecode of message boards and create something like an image/backup? - Some hosting suppliers might be able to do just that - crawl through an existing board, extract all relevant information and insert it in their own databank. That's just two ideas from a non-IT literate like me - I'm sure there are a number of possibilities out there. And I'm also sure that a dedicated websearch will come up with some interesting (i.e. timesaving) solutions. After all, there are millions of private message boards online, and lots of them have faced exactly the same problem before. There must be other solutions than the manual one. This is what the hoster of the current board, propards.com, has in it's terms and conditions: Of course this doesn't help us in any way as we will probably move away from this hoster, but I think other competitors will have similar politics. The larger and faster growing a comunity, the more leverage we have on our side to get their help for moving our data. Maybe we should just ring a few bells (i.e. write a few emails) and ask what's possible. Another thought, and I know of course that the final word on this is Scottie's: Should we continue to use free hosting services which have service limitations (no complete message board backup, for instance) or should we aim for a commercial offer that involves some cost? I as a user would be happy to be charged a small amount of money to ensure this community continues to thrive, but I guess not all users would want to pay. So I see several possibilities: 1) The board owner(-s?) bear(s) all the cost. This is not what I personally what would want, as it leaves the guys who brought a lot of joy into my life with an additional burden. 2) All users have to pay a small amount to come up with the yearly maintenance costs of the community. Surely the most sol idary way of sharing the burden, but it will limit the communitie's growth. After all there are surely other free crafting boards out there. I know tat not every user is active and posts regularly, but if we scare off 90% of all initial users, we'll see much less newbies registering here in the future. 3) Paying a small annual user fee is voluntary. Paying users get some extra privileges, whatever that might be. Access to private mesages, including polls and other features in your postings, etc... 4) Registering stays complete free, but the message board owner installs a paypal donation button, plus something that shows how many percent of the annual costs are already covered by the donations. Both 3) and 4) have the risk that not enough users will chose to pay, but I think this risk is very small. After all hosting fees are not that high, and even if 5% of our current 734 members share the costs, this will be a very small sum per head. I searched for "moving message board database to new host" (although I only had time for going over the first few results). I am not sure what software/technology this board uses, but we maybe this here helps: www.phpbb.com/kb/article/transferring-your-board-to-a-new-host-or-domain/Fortunately, we don't have an external deadline - if finding a solution (whatever it will be in the end, even if it's manual sqaving each post) takes longer than xmas/turn of the year, so what. Let's do this thing well and not quickly is what I would say.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 3, 2013 10:48:55 GMT -5
tauster: The first thing I did when thinking about moving forums was contact Proboard support and ask if it was possible to move posts from one forum to another under any means possible but they say it isn't. I'd rather not lose posts but there's no way to move them / back them up, sorry. That's what I had feared... So we'll probably have to save stuff manually. Fortunately we are a large community here so workload can be shared among us all. I propose that we'll have a thread where we organise who saved which thread, and when. I also propose that from a certain day on (shortly before the move), all activity should be limited to saving stuff. Any threads that have been saved should get a very visible posting (for example large, bold, red fonts) that says something like "This thread has been saved on [timestamp] by [username]." Any posting that is added after such a post will be lost when we move.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 2, 2013 14:02:43 GMT -5
I guess this has been tried before, but I'll ask it anyway. Just ignore it if it's a stupid question... I had been in a similar situation several times as an admin of a message board of my closes friends & family which had to move already 4 times now. With the early moves, we have completely lost the old content, but in our last move, I was able to contact the host of the old board and get a backup file which the new host was able to install. As far as I'm aware, many message board hosters nowadays offer the possibility to make a backup of the complete message board database. I'm not sure if freeforums.net is offers that... But if they would, you could take the backup file and transfer it in one piece to a new adress. This might not be free (varies from host to host...), but I'm sure if we all donate a little bit, we'll get the money soon enough.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Nov 1, 2013 15:00:23 GMT -5
Holy crap. I'd sh*t my adventurer's pants if I would belong to the party who is encountering this creature. Awesome!
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 31, 2013 13:48:46 GMT -5
Oh I'm going to have to make some of those for an Xplorers game! Much better than flying pancakes from Star Trek! Are the flight stands plastic fork tines? Thanks! I find their shapes hilarious, with the undulating sides and the eyestalks. But I'll give them different sets of powers that will quickly erase any trace of laughte from the party's faces. Those guys might be level 11-12 and have fought very powerful foes so far, but that doesn't mean they should smirk at flying spaghetti monsters! I recently found that all those different pasta typed are incredibly useful for us crafters, and that eye-opener, whenever I'm in the supermarket, I check not only the non-food aisles but also the pasta shelves. Sadly, the more exotic the shape, the more expensive the pasta bags. But we're still talking about less than 3€, so what's expensive for food is dirt-cheap for crafting material. At least that's what I tell my wife... I used clipped-off plastic fork handles for the flight stands. The tines I saved for later use, probably as icicles for a arctic-themed cave.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 31, 2013 8:04:43 GMT -5
This time it took me only two days to turn newly collected material into ... something. Normally, things sit on my table for weeks and months waiting to be touched by knife, hotglue and paint... Without further ado: Behold the flying noodles of doom! If you already have some bases and stands for flying creatures, this takes almost no time at all: Pick some material for the eyes, glue it on (blow on the hotglue until it dries, forming the eyestalks) and glue some piece of magnetic metal (or a magnet) on the belly. Add some texture with hotglue to the back - and you're done. 15 minutes for all six pieces, I would say. Making the fly stands took much longer (approx. 30 min)
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 31, 2013 3:54:52 GMT -5
Fantastic critter! What I love:- Natural looking color scheme: Fotos can be deceiving (depending on the lighting), but especially in pic 2, the green-brown combination looks great. - Very dynamic posture - it looks like its jumping forward at it's prey. - Balance & center of gravity: Compared with how much this creature leans forward, the base still looks relatively small. You did a fantastic job at deceiving the eyes: The tentacles don't add much mass and thus don't really move the center of gravity beyond the base, but optically they belong to the creature. My first thought when seeing your pictures was ' why the heck doesn't it tip over?' What I would try to improve with the next model (a.k.a. 'constructive criticism' )- There's still some folds in the clay visible. In some places, especially in the lower body, these folds/cracks look really great, but I would try to avoid those that really look like folded clay - like the one on the snout - because they distract and make it harder for everyone to suspend their disbelief and getting immersed in the situation (i.e. pretending it's not a clay model but the real thing). I always try to aim at a result where you don't immediately see how it was created. - Sculpting the snout: Maybe I'm wrong as the sides of the mouth are visible only in the first picture, but it looks like it is laughing. On the other side, I don't really know how I would model the snout, and many pictures that come up in the google search also show a laughting carrion crawler... Maybe like in the 2nd pic on this page? Long story short: Hats off. I'll try to do one of these asap; your post has put them near the top of my to-do list.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 30, 2013 6:37:54 GMT -5
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 30, 2013 6:25:49 GMT -5
Not a pure roleplaying game-related thing, but a fun project nontheless. I'm sure we can come up with encounters using something similar like that. Further ideas: 1) Use a smaller glass, you can have some cool magical effects in your encounters. There are tons of glasses with cool shapes out there. Apply transparent hotglue, cackle paint and/or some light colors. 2) If you need something that emulates flames/fire, use these small, flickering LED tea candles. 3) Use these super-cheap battery-powered LED light chains instead of solarcells, so you don't have a visible solarcell (bad for suspension of disbelief) but a small battery box that you can hide under a fake rock. I'll post some examples here (hopefully soon) - if you have done some LED-based crafting, please share your stuff! [update A] 1) and 2) combined: i.imgur.com/pi5ZHzr.jpg[update B] Not exactly game-related, but I'll share it anyways... The tutorial inspired me to make a 'glowing book'. i.imgur.com/UdcVKxR.jpgi.imgur.com/P9Mc3ws.jpgi.imgur.com/DTmUjFB.jpgI have some really old books around and took a rather large one, a Brockhaus Encycolpedia from 1886 with a beautiful stamped book case and gold-lettered spine (you can get these beauties really cheap on ebay or in some stores). I cut some cardstock to fit in the book - actually a bit smaller than the pages - and glued aluminum foil on oe side (first time I used spray glue - this stuff seriously rocks!). Then I taped a cheap battery-powered LED chain on and folded the cardstock in half. When placed on shelf half-open with the foil reflecting the light, I now have a wonderful 'glowing book' that illuminates my wall. Not nearly enough light to read by but great for setting the mood. And the best thing is that the book is not harmed; I can use any other large book just as well. Crafting time: less than 20 minutes. Cost: 6 € for the LED (which is way overpriced; after I got this one,I found tons of cheaper offers elsewhere).
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 29, 2013 17:28:40 GMT -5
Great find - you can hardly beat 7$ for three dragons!
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 29, 2013 11:33:40 GMT -5
Found a new pasta type in the supermarket: i.imgur.com/M5lexWS.jpgNot really cheap (1,60 € = about 3 times the price when compared to the usual low-budget pasta bags), but still nothing that breaks your crafting budget. However if you look at price per piece, it's unbeatable. And you'll never need even half of such a pasta bag, no matter how large you craft your dungeon. [update/addendum] I absolutely love these wav y, undulating edges! First thing that came to my mind was a creature that flies through the dungeon. You can use it in whatever terrain you want: - give it a sand colorscheme and it can sail over desert dunes. - a camoflage-like paintjob would make it the horror of a forest or jungle environment - white and lightblue with a pearlescent finish for an snow, ice & frost theme. - weird, vivid colors for the plane of faerie - flying fungus critter, anyone...? Several demented ideas for such a creature: 1) It's a quite slow flyer that ambushes it's prey. It hunts by shooting/dropping paralysing slime gobs at victims, then slowly lowering itself over the paralysed but fully aware victims and slowly digests them. Has a soft body that is very easy to kill. Paralising slime can be harvested for various ...evil porpuses. Or antidotes, if you want to be generous to your good aligned PCs. 2) As above, but it hunty by simply dropping on its prey and paralises it with the touch of it's underside. Imagine several kg's of some wet, leathery thing landing with a *splash* on your head. Do not imagine how it first paralises you, then slowly crawling over your body and leaving burned skin behind. Ugh... 3) Psionic predator bred by illithid or aboleth. I'll probably go for the latter - I still need some stuff that makes aboleth truly shine. Or glisten, if you will... Or simply divide one piece of paste lengthwise and glue it on some cave wall or the ground - it makes a great stationary fungus growth. ...even if I like the flying creature idea much better, just for the weirdness of it.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 29, 2013 8:30:46 GMT -5
Great find! I think there's much to be found in the direction of used board games in general...
If you want large, round and magnetic bases, go for poker chips with a metal core.
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 26, 2013 16:46:27 GMT -5
$214. And I second that sight. They got me with Dragons don't share bundle: It's 'only' $35, but it added a whopping $18 to the shipping bill. ...but after seeing this truly iant diorama in the video, I understand the $18 a bit better. I thought about crafting this thing myself, but that's just not the same; greed got the better of me. again. *sight again*
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tauster
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 184
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Post by tauster on Oct 26, 2013 13:44:03 GMT -5
...as the Chinese say: Copying is the highest form of praise.
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