Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Working on the Record Sheets... One at a Time!



 Outworlds Alliance Sounder
Record Sheet

Welcome back!

Here is what we have for progress:


- Bill is busy turning PDFs into JPGs, images I can massage into record sheets.  This is necessary as the software we are currently using (MegaMek Lab) can handle only vehicles and ‘Mechs.  Furthermore, there are machines with features I cannot access in MML (sponsons, etc) and for some reason, the ‘Mechs do not print out the Gauss rifle ammo on hand.  It has to be put in on a case by case basis.

- I am going to spring for a nice piece of software (KviSoft’s PDF to Image) so I can do the conversions here at home - $25 is not too bad, considering the quality of the output.

- Denis Pottkämper from Germany has supplied us with all the insert art for our Record Sheets.  Thanks, Denis!  They look really good and are in a frame format similar to the layout of the rest of the sheet.

- Our cover artists – Chris Daranouvong and Anthony Scroggins – are currently working on the cover and it is coming along nicely.  It will cost a pretty penny, but then this is the cover, so it HAS to look good!

- Anthony is also working on ‘refurbishing’ the Capellan Xuan-wu, which I felt was a bit lackluster.  It is one of the few remaining original pieces and he has promised to put some polish on it without changing the overall layout.

- Folks have been generous with the PayPal button – we’ve taken in a good amount over the past month and I want to thank all of you who pitched in.  We’ve paid down everything but the cover and the Xuan-wu touch-up.  I have offered to send a printout of your favorite faction from the current Prototype (v10.5) as a thank you for a donation, but so far only three of the five who donated have taken me up on it.  The offer is still open for those of you who have an extra five or ten dollars you can spare.  The last Prototype available to the public was v6, so there have been a lot of changes.

- I have recently come upon a cache of 256MB thumb drives.  They are not very impressive as pure storage anymore (you can get a 2GB or even a 4GB drive now for about twelve bucks), but they are ideal for my application.  I am going to load hi-rez versions of the TRO 3063, the ‘Art of TRO:3063’ and ‘Record Sheets: 3063’ on a thumb drive and send them as a ‘thank-you’ to anyone who has donated $50 or more to this fan project.  I only have thirty of these, so they will go fast.  The rest of you will have to download the Web versions, which are a much lower resolution intended for distribution and quick download. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve