Forum, Webchat, and the meaning of life

EDIT:  Mk 33 TRO 3063 Record Sheet Here

So I've been all over the place the last week or two in regards to projects.  Been hard to focus on finishing the last one due to work and life, so I've been tinkering.

I installed and configured phpBB (forum software) and could open it to the world, well, by releasing the domain its located at.  No biggie, lots of forums out there, but I plan on using it to support my projects and allow a lot less moderated forum about various games I'm interested in.  However, it is on my home internet account, and I'm betting pretty darned slow if a few people are online.  Good news is I'm working at a hosting provider now, so I can probably get near infinite bandwidth by just plopping a server in our data center.  This will drastically speed up my site as well (the encyclopedia, the blog is on blogspot and out of my control) and hopefully make it a more pleasant experience once I get the updates out.

And also, I downloaded probably 20 examples of a chat software that is 100% browser based, that was versatile enough for me to add my own commands like "/roll 2d6" and such.  All the examples sucked in some way, so I decided to write my own.  It took me no more than an hour to do what I wasted 8 looking at others do.  I still need some polish, but basically when I launch the forum I'll have web chat that authenticates with the forum's password, that'll allow folks to talk together, do things like us it to get a real time die roll (believe it or not, I could find no app out there allowing this!), and integrate things like the random unit tables or search rules for references, the sky's the limit!  I did this part mostly for Federation and Empire support.  Basically when you play that game you do moves, 1 hex at a time, asking if the opponent reacts to your move.  Its MUCH easier over a real time system like this, plus, they can roll die (and even hide results until both do a /reveal).  I think it'll be awesome, though it'll need lots more polish (like a weeks worth of coding).

I haven't forgot about updating the site, my new job is just a lot more time consuming than my old one (or the 4 months I took off) and I don't usually get home till 6-6:30.

I blew $546 on the Reaper Kickstarter bones miniatures, not real sure why, I haven't played a game in well over a year, and no more than 5 in 10 years, but it seemed like a great deal.  Ogre got me started on Kickstarter, and I've also been a supporter for Traveller 5 and a few other projects.  One I'm excited about is FTL, which gets released tomorrow (buy it from their site for the best deal, they'll give you a steam key).  It looks well worth $10.

I stopped playing the MWO beta already, its just so boring, really kinda pissed I paid $120 for it.  I've said it once and I'll say it a hundred times, The F2P model destroys games.  People *DO* pay for games, look at COD or BF2, so these nickel-and-dime you out of a lot more than $60 over a year or two really suck.  I also really don't care what any developers say, the games are *always* "pay to win", and MWO is no exception regardless of what they tell you.

Speaking of games, I really wanted to do the Planetside 2 beta, $40 and your in.  However before I bought it I jumped back into Tribes Ascend, one of the better F2P games (but still pay or play excessively to win) and determined that the majority of people playing these games as just assholes.  In real life they'd get punched in the face or at least have zero friends for the way they treat other players, its horrible.  People are so uncivil, with comments so uncivilized that the next time I play, I'll just turn off the chat all together if I can, so I don't have to see the idiotic gibberish and childish insults flying back and forth.

I looked into Android development again, and it won't happen.  Its dumb to spend time writing code for an iPhone or Android, when both of those items have 24/7 internet access and a web browser.  Both of those devices are *completely* different code bases, have compatibility issues, etc, so I'll just write a browser based game and not care what device you look at it on.  It is the way of the future anyway, big companies want you online, so they can charge/track you more, and big companies get what they want.

And not to go off topic *too* much, ok, it is too much, just what the fuck does anybody see in Mitt Romney?  I'm not a democrat, nor a republican, I am proud to be American, but while I can see some redeeming factors about Obama, I seriously haven't seen one consistent or intelligent thing come from Mitt.  If your a supporter, please, and I mean PLEASE, shoot me an email or forum message and just let me know something you support about that man so I can hopefully understand why somebody would put his sticker on their car or go to a rally.  One catch, its gotta be true.