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Messages - trboturtle

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241
Author Craft / Re: Fanfiction - Good or Evil?
« on: May 28, 2007, 04:04:09 AM »
My fanfiction stories are mostly in 'dead' series -- Some anime, and a couple of other series. These days, my writing is based in the Battletech Universe, where I don't need to use a single established character for any of my stories. Gaming Universes are the best of boith worlds -- all the BG is there, as is the tone, all you need is some characters and a situation that fit into that universe.

Craig

242
Episode Archive / Re: BB008 - The Shape of Things to Come
« on: May 20, 2007, 07:06:19 AM »
I remember reading in one of the books that one of Murph's Exs died of cancer and she was upset that he didn't tell her. Now I have to go look for that reference...... :-[

Craig

243
Author Craft / Re: Creativelly dead inside
« on: May 15, 2007, 05:16:35 AM »
Quote from: Buttersfly on May 11, 2007, 11:54:09 AM
Have you ever tried Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way?  It's for writers as much as any other creative type--her seminars are for writers--and is amazingly good at freeing things up and re-stocking the brain.  A creative writing MFA friend put me onto it and it worked--not only on writing but as a general mental-tidy as well.  Gave it to all my friends who were still writing dissertations.  Ardently recommended.

Is that a book, and do you have any more on it (Publisher, ISBN #, ect)

Craig

244
DF TV Series / Re: Thanks to all our great fans!
« on: May 01, 2007, 05:33:43 AM »
Thank you, Robert, for staying in touch with us. I hope you found the feedback and questions worth the time and effort. I did enjoy the show and I hope to see more of them soom.

Craig

245
Author Craft / Re: Need help.
« on: April 19, 2007, 06:40:26 PM »
I think if this supercop is a reoccuring character, make him/her stand out at first appearance. You could do it physically, say, a woman who's pushing seven feet tall and build like a linebacker, of a man who's only three foot tall. Or by their actions or personality. Make them unique in some way.

Craig

246
The Butcher Block / Re: Your Episode Ideas Here
« on: April 16, 2007, 04:36:10 AM »
Maybe a discussion with a book critic would be helpful...

Craig

247
Author Craft / Re: Planning battle scenes
« on: April 06, 2007, 08:31:12 AM »
Quote from: neurovore on April 05, 2007, 08:41:24 PM
The absolute gold standard for this is pre-WWI training manuals, which are hard to find, but are very useful indeed for getting the numbers right on exactly how far you can expect a human to march in a day longterm and so on.  I know the GURPS basic set is pretty solid on the primary sources it uses for this kind of thing.

Also, there's a book, I can't remember the title exactly but it has "Duffer's Drift" in it so google on that - it may even be online by now, it's cetainly way out of copyright - which is a brilliant small unit combat manual in the form of a nervous young officer having recurrent nightmares the day before the battle in question that illustrate all the ways real battles of that size go wrong.

Which sounds alot like it was based on the Battle of Roark's Drift, during the Zulu War of 1878. In short, a small unit of British Soldiers (less then 200) werre attacked by 4000 Zulus at a station called Roak's Drift (Drift is a term used in South Africa to describe a river ford) In a day and night, the British soldiers managed to hold off the Zulu warriors. (Which was better then what happened the British column that had enter Zulu land earlier -- think the battle of Little Big Horn, with Zulu in the role of Indians....) The movie Zulu (one of Michel Cane's first starring roles) is a good place to start.

Craig

248
Author Craft / Re: help..someone...please....
« on: April 06, 2007, 08:23:31 AM »
Between fanfics, stories I plan to submit, and original submissions, I have about a dozen or so stories that I need to finish. I tend to concentrate on a story for a while, leave it, then come back to it later (maybe), or go off on a tangent. It's enough to drive me up the wall!

Annoying, isn't it?  ;D

Craig

249
Author Craft / Re: Planning battle scenes
« on: April 05, 2007, 02:06:04 AM »
Quote from: Velkyn_Faer on April 04, 2007, 05:20:07 PM
*gives a little laugh* Well, I have now purchased Midieval Total War II and played around with it a little, and I am willing to change my earlier position, if only slightly. As eviladam said, battle is total chaos,but some of the elements in MTW II could be used to set upa battle, though possibly not to actually fight it, due to the unpredictablility of the computer and the fact that it won't do as you please when it is fighting you.

But, if you like visual, then it might work for you for basic movements and such. I would not advise buying the game for that reason, but it could work if you have a friend who owns it or you have it already.

Though the army men idea that Soulcatcher78 proposed is a lot cheaper and you can move the units as you please, but it's all a matter of taste. (Thanks for the idea, I might give that a try.)

Taylor

I think I wasn't clear earlier. MTW is good for getting an idea of what each area had for an army. And it's good for getting an idea of tactics and things not to do (Calvery vs well supported Pikeman, not a good idea.....) It can't replace plotting, but it's good for getting an idea of the types and effectness of the different units.

Craig

250
Episode Archive / Re: BB007 - A Storm's A-Comin', Pa!
« on: March 28, 2007, 10:39:05 PM »
Listened toi it, but for some reason, some of the conversation with Priscellie wasn't so loud -- I had to turn the speakers and sound card all the way up to hear it. Did anyone have the same problem?

Craig

251
Author Craft / Re: Fanfiction - Good or Evil?
« on: March 16, 2007, 07:25:20 PM »
In anime fanfiction, stories with explict sex are called 'Lemons'. Stories that have sexual situations but no details are called 'Limes'. M/M parings are Yaoi, F/F parings are Yuri.

Strange how different areas develop their own lingo......

Craig

252
Author Craft / Re: Fanfiction - Good or Evil?
« on: March 15, 2007, 09:29:16 PM »
Quote from: cbmurphy on March 15, 2007, 08:06:30 PM

One thing we took to doing was keeping the hell away from storied units, people, and neither I nor my friends ever got up the nerve to send in any of these stories to the Battletech magazine that was run for a while (what was it called, MechForce or BattleForce, something along those lines....). 

Battletechnology was the magazine you were thinking of. Me and a friend had some stuff published in the last issue they ever put out...

Craig

253
Episode Archive / Re: BB006 - The Curse of Knowledge
« on: February 27, 2007, 06:57:41 PM »
HOOORAY!!!!!!!

Off to DL it immediately, if not sooner!

Craig

254
Author Craft / Re: Planning battle scenes
« on: February 22, 2007, 05:59:38 PM »
Quote from: Lightsabre on February 22, 2007, 04:53:14 AM
Quote from: trboturtle on February 22, 2007, 04:00:23 AM
Well....

First thing to do is decide what each army has. You need to take in account the type of land the battle is going to be on. Open plains, rolling hills, and other wide open spaces plays into the hands of Calvery and archers. On the other hand, mountain passes and other confined spaces are more for massed infantry.

Now, there are different types of Infantry and Calvery. Basiclly, you have Light, medium and Heavy units. Light units are scouts, harassing the enemy and slowing him up. They cannot stand up to an all out attack by heavier units. They can move fast and can bed all overt the battlefield. Your scouts are light infantry.

Medium units are a combination of speed and firepower. Slower the light units, they have hevier armor and weapons then light units. Heavy units are usually the elite, the career soldiers or nobility. They are slower then the other units, but they can ground up the others.

There is a series of PC games called Total War. Right now, there is TW: Shogun, TW Midive, and TW: Rome. The key part of the game is the battles, as you army goes up against other armies. You have to chose what type of units to put in your army (Depending on your location and tech level).

Go to this web site: http://www.totalwar.org/strategy/twug/index.html And it has a description of all the different military units in the different games. It'll give you an idea of the different units you can incorprate into your story.

Craig
I'd actaully argue with a few of those.
You can have heavy infantry, which are more like your roman legions.
And light cavalry make excellent scouts.
I would argue very strongly against using a game like total war for your setting and units, because they gloss over a lot of important minutae.

Yes, but the game does give you an idea of the type of units you can have. I mean, disciplined Pikemen will stand up to a calvary charge while peasents will break and run if pressed by the same calvary. Archers can cut armored knights apart under the right circumstances (Angencourt comes to mind), but if the knights get in amoung the archers, well, the bowmen are toast.

The type of country affect the type of army it has. A nomad nation will not have pikemen, for example, because they are not liable to have the inferstructure or the need for them. Deciding what sort of an army a nation has is part of the world building every author needs to work out. History, the landscape, the type of goverenment, all have an influence on the military.

I suggested the game to get a quick and dirty overview of what sort of units an army could have. If you really weant to go deep, Osprey Publications is based on military history and military of all the ages. But unless you're deep into that sort of stuff, it's too much info......

Craig

255
Author Craft / Re: Planning battle scenes
« on: February 22, 2007, 04:00:23 AM »
Well....

First thing to do is decide what each army has. You need to take in account the type of land the battle is going to be on. Open plains, rolling hills, and other wide open spaces plays into the hands of Calvery and archers. On the other hand, mountain passes and other confined spaces are more for massed infantry.

Now, there are different types of Infantry and Calvery. Basiclly, you have Light, medium and Heavy units. Light units are scouts, harassing the enemy and slowing him up. They cannot stand up to an all out attack by heavier units. They can move fast and can bed all overt the battlefield. Your scouts are light infantry.

Medium units are a combination of speed and firepower. Slower the light units, they have hevier armor and weapons then light units. Heavy units are usually the elite, the career soldiers or nobility. They are slower then the other units, but they can ground up the others.

There is a series of PC games called Total War. Right now, there is TW: Shogun, TW Midive, and TW: Rome. The key part of the game is the battles, as you army goes up against other armies. You have to chose what type of units to put in your army (Depending on your location and tech level).

Go to this web site: http://www.totalwar.org/strategy/twug/index.html And it has a description of all the different military units in the different games. It'll give you an idea of the different units you can incorprate into your story.

Craig

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