I'm on PATREON!
Hi! I've been here on DeviantArt and around the Battletech community for a long time!
I've been playing tabletop games since the early 90s having started on Battletech 3rd Edition, and later Renegade Legion and Warhammer 40k, in addition to CCGs like Magic, Battletech, and Shadowrun. I've worked on Mechs and Mech games and mods for the better part of the last 20 years, going back to Battletech Mod Productions and mods for Homeworld, C&C Generals, and the Battlefield series.
I've started a Patreon to fulfill my dream of working on Mechs and Tabletop Games full time, while making tons of cool miniatures for everyone to play with. A labor of love!
I'm doing models for 3d printing & rendering and focus on maximum quality - too many models out there aren't suitable or optimized for 3d printing, are under detailed, or have errors that are hard to fix. My work is custom built for quality, added detail, and problem-free printing!
My personal project is The Black Death, a new fast paced tabletop miniatures game. In The Black Death you take control of beautifully detailed Mechs in tournament style matches, ranging from solo duels to team battles, fighting for honor, resources, and survival in a shattered world that is trying to find it's way back to a higher standard of living.
If all of that sounds good, please consider supporting me on Patreon.
You can also get free models I post from time to time on Thingiverse, they are a great example of what I do and there's plenty more exclusive content coming out all the time for Patrons.
Windows 8, Obly
How this got past MS testing is beyond me. Anyway, after 3 days back and forth I managed to fix it by upgrading Mobo firmware and disabling AHCI (which disables some advanced SSD processes, but it's not noticeable).
Now that it's done, I really like the new Windows even though none of my monitors are touch enabled, contrary to some folks. Didn't lose anything with the upgrade process - which is amazing, it's like I just booted Win7, everything is the same with no need to reinstall anything except the usual driver updates.
In terms of performance, it's like a slightly more optimized Win7, although it's not very noticeable for me because I have a powerful system, thus Win7 was already very fast.
I don't find much to complain about. I installed Stardocks' Start8 and Decor8, getting the Start menu back (which I don't use much, but it's just $5) and am able to customize everything about the look, even in "Modern UI" mode. On the flipside, I can't really say "you need to upgrade" either. If you have Win7 without a touch monitor / laptop and don't want the Windows Store, Xbox Music, Smartglass, and a few minor things, there's really no need to upgrade.
Meanwhile, although Win8 doesn't ship with Tile customization options, there's already a small application for that, called OblyTile. I've been doing Tiles to use for some applications and games, feel free to make any request in the comments, and I'll do them.
Here's my current Windows 8 Start screen:
:thumb341484317:
But the reality of the situation is, having almost no money and being a tiny team, doing anything like that is almost impossible. I've been thinking and thinking, and the more I think, the more I reach the conclusion that the game's art style will need to be simpler / more toony, because it's easier and much faster to make.
I've been considering that something along the lines of Rochard's (PC/PS3 game) art style would suit a real time tactics game nicely. It's not as simple / basic as Planetary Annihilation, and not as complex as DOTA 2 or Torchlight 2. The detail and asthetic fall somewhere in between.
