Monday, October 24, 2011

Entering the Final Stretch.... Prototype v6 is Ready!


Mercenary - Harbinger Gunship
Art by Stephen Huda

Hello. Welcome back!

This is a milestone for me. After four years of on again-off again announcements of ‘the last art is in!’, we really do have all the art on hand. It’s not all paid for – Karl Olson and Stephen Huda need their moolah before we can print these. But I should have that part finished by mid-November. There is also the matter of paying Paul Skowronek his bucks for the four additional edits as well as others (about $40) and getting the final payment to David Dryburgh for work he did a long time ago.

Please hit the PayPal button if you have five or ten dollars to spare…. I want to get these debts cleared before the end of November and need all the help I can get. I have nearly run out of stuff to sell on Ebay (well, not if you count the unpainted Warhammer:40K Leman Russ with all the electronic special effects, but who knows what that would sell for?)

- The Draconis Combine’s BARS (Bulldog Automatic Reloading System) is done. Stephen Huda did an outstanding job, as usual. I owe him nearly a hundred bucks, but should have it paid off by mid-November.


Draconis Combine - BARS
Art by Stephen Huda


- Karl Olson has finished the Mercenary Hessian hovercraft. At a weapons expo, you never know what you will find!



Mercenary - Hessian Hovercraft
Art by Karl Olson

- Bill and I tried to get together one last time for the final push. Sunday the 23rd should have see the remaining art and text entered, along with the special art section and the Master Unit List. As it stands, we did not get together, but I uploaded all the remaining data to Bill via OpenDrive and he put it in. There are some glitches – words misspelled, etc. But Prototype v6 is up and ready for download.

- All writeups are done. Everything we need for the current layout is complete. All the art is on hand and inserted (although we are looking at replacing current art with bolder versions for a better look and I forgot the color plates – two more have been commissioned). Please go over it with the proverbial fine tooth comb.

- Also, we will try to post the current Errata List for you to download. If you find an issue, please look over the list of things we’ve already found and see if your ‘find’ is there. If it is NOT, then please post it in the comments section on this blog along with any suggestions you have for correcting it. We will add it on this end to the Errata List

- The official window for finding errors in the final Prototype is one week. That’s seven days after the Prototype and Errata List go live. After that window closes, I will begin fixing the errors. It will take about another week, during which time I will be open to stuff you spot at the last minute. Please, please, look hard and do it as soon as you can.

- Upon correcting the errors, I will begin the laborious task of going through the entire TRO, adding boldface and italics in appropriate places. This should take at least a couple of sessions over at Bill’s house – I don’t want to tie up his main computer and don’t think I can do all of them in one sitting (I would probably go blind and crazy at the same time!)

- Still selling stuff on Ebay. I just listed two very rare Revised Dual Land artist's proof Magic cards signed by the artist.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve


Errata List



The names are not always coherent depending if you look on the left or the right page, they can be in capital letters or not, be the full name or a part of it, have a - or not.

More annoying is the Capellan Griffin.
The weapons are listed as being on the left side but the picture shows them on the right one.

-----------------------------------------------------
The drawing of the Vagabond is captioned 'isomerus'. As an aside, will the handwritten captions on Eric Ou's illustrations be removed?
On the Ural page there's a missing word or phrase :-
'While most drivers shouted at each other to turn back.
Groves quickly[missing word or phrase] his Ural and left his bickering comrades behind.'
And again on the Grffin GRF-3L page, the title reads 'Grifn'


[ Bill, the Griffin header needs to be corrected – it says ‘Grifn’. We already addressed the conflict between data and image with the last error report.]

[At the top of the Vehicle text, we have several pieces that do not follow the standard format. That is my fault – I should have gone through and fixed them all to say ‘Type/Model: Name’ rather than leaving them all caps with no lead-in. This is probably the case for the entire TRO, so let’s get in there and fix that when we get together next.]

[On the Vagabond art, we have Eric’s signature and the original name of the ‘Mech – the Isometrus. I want to get rid of that but leave Eric’s signature. Furthermore, I want to go through all the art done by Eric and get rid of ALL the names, as well as reduce his big signature to something quite small but legible over to one side. It is currently too big and distracting; it detracts from the overall feel of the work to have the name of the piece listed along with the TRO number. Takes you ‘out’ of the TRO and back into the real world, if you know what I mean. The thickened art gets rid of the name]

[On another note, I think the header text listing ‘Heavy Mech’ or ‘Light Mech’ should include the apostrophe. Make them all ‘Mechs, not Mechs.]

[On the Panzer IX, get rid of the hyphen on the page header name. Comb through and find any others that have this issue. None of them should be hyphenated except for some BattleMechs and the Capellan machines, and that exception applies mostly to the vehicles with Chinese names.]

[Montgomery II Heavy should be just Montgomery II]

[Panther Battle Tank should be just Panther]

[The Panzerfaust text begins with ‘Assualt Gun’. We can correct that when we get in there to add ‘Type/Model:’. As a rule, unless the machine is a significant departure from a standard tank, leave off any descriptor but the name. If it is enough of a different beast, we should keep the name as descriptive as possible with as few words as possible. Panzer X Cruiser Tank is good. The Panzerfaust should be Panzerfaust Assault Gun, not Panzerfaust Mobile Gun (all tanks are mobile guns). Kangaroo Support should be simply Kangaroo. If they want to know what it is for, they can read the writeup.]

[Ural Transport Truck – in the Notables section, it reads “…Groves quickly his Ural…”. This is my goof, it should read “…Groves quickly accelerated his Ural…”]

[Cobra CBR-03 should read CBR-3S, in keeping with the current usage. My goof. I will go in and correct that when we get together next. It needs to be cleaned up in the text and probably in the HMP and record sheets as well.]

[BARS Fast Strike Tank - Power Plant is listed as Nissan 245 Fusion, should read Nissan 225 fusion]

[The text for the FWL Black Knight reads wrong for the placement of the MLs – does not match the art. Drop the new text in when we get a chance or repair it in place.]

[Need to replace ‘enmity’ with something else on page 7]

[Need to install new stats for the FC Roland – the armor has been modified on all variants to match the Prime model and the C version has another ton of LRM ammo and a corrected C3 link.]

[Need to install the art for the missing pics in earlier House entries.] [DONE]

[Remove the Shielding and Transmission portion of the stats section on the DC Tomahawk]

[Change the CM-33’s cargo bay to 9 tons and the loading equipment to 1 ton in the stats section, and correct in the writeup if needed.]

[add ‘and a new look’ to the ferro armor description of the DC Sentinel]


REV SIX

[Aerospace headers are misspelled ‘Areospace’]

[Assault ‘Mechs headers are misspelled ‘Assualt’]

[Forge heading is misspelled ‘Forgr’]

[House order has been Vehicles, then Mechs. Comstar follows this but WoB reverses it. Why?]

[Harbinger is misspelled ‘Harbringer’]

[Hessian text page is missing the smaller art]

[Master Unit List looks good but should come after the Index. I will gen a new index up using the page count you established by putting all of this together]

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Another Monthly Update... and more Art!

Word of Blake - Claymore
Art by Stephen Huda


Howdy. Thanks for being patient while I update.

- Lee Madison’s BARS is cancelled. He dropped out of sight too long, too often. I am scrapping the work he sent and am sending the commission on to Stephen Huda, who will also be working the Harbinger.

- Karl Olson is working on the Hessian hovercraft.

Mercenary - Hessian Hovertank (rough)
Art by Karl Olson

- We still owe Paul $40, Stephen $30 and Dave Dryburgh $70. I am nearly done paying for Momma’s dental work, so they will see some money soon. I also have some other bills related to the TRO – mostly a debt for $100 for 3D CAD work done on miniatures that, unfortunately, we cannot use at the current time.

- Bill and I have not been able to get together for the layout this month. Bill has a ton of yardwork he is trying to get done before the weather turns to absolute crap. I have been doing little things around the house – new doorbell, leak in the roof, cracked door frame – that take up time and money. We are going to try to get together for that last push with the data entry this weekend.

- The writeups for the Hessian, Harbinger, Heirax and Claymore are done, and Paul is working his editing magic on them as I write this. The Claymore art is complete, the Hessian nearly so, the Heirax is already in the bag and I sent the Harbinger stats on to Stephen this evening.

- We have a list of Errata that will address the issues you readers found in the Prototypes. I may relent and release the ‘final’ Prototype to everyone, as I have had very few people volunteer for the job of proofreading.

- Stephen Huda took over and competed the FWL Jaguar commission for Mike Sullivan, who was too busy to finish his version.



FWL Jaguar
Art by Stephen Huda

Doing My Part... Part IV

Sold some more stuff on Ebay:

- A pair of special lands for Magic: the Gathering.

- A foil Dark Depths.

- A Mana Crypt.

- Had some trouble getting those two playsets of Natural Order to Italy. Never again!

Sad Demise

Some of you know I smoke cigars and drink strong coffee while working on the TRO. This has been an institution for the past four years. Unfortunately, the last tobacconist’s shop in the area closed on last Friday night forever. I will have to find another source, probably online, for good smokes.

[Please click on the image for a full-size reading]


Don’t hesitate to hit my PayPal button for whatever you can afford. The art is nearly done.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve