I love Empire Earth, but imho Rise of Nations has completely supplanted it as the best RTS. It has everything EE has and more, simplified where it should be and deeper where its useful and important.
our (USA-ians) constitution provides for quite a bit of sovereignty for each state. we (the states) actually behave a lot more like the EU (lots of countries sharing a few rules) than a true single nation. more of a federation than a nation. its a socio-political joke that i dont think even most USA-ians would get.
10/100Mb NICs cost under $10 every day of the week, brand new, from a thousand different vendors and a hundred different manufacturers. We (my office) get ours for $3 each in bulk.
You already opt-in to mailing lists by subscribing to them, which takes anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes depending on the list. Would it be so hard to add them to a client-side white-list, perhaps an additional 10 to 30 seconds, in addition to subscribing?
To always run "on battery power" you can build a battery-shaped block with a little bit of electronics inside (fake temperature sensor usually) with straight 12V (if youre running off solar youve probably got 12V somewhere) from your power system. So many things run off 12V or lower DC that youd probably save a significant amount of power by actually wiring up some sort of DC outlets, to avoid the DC-AC-DC conversion process for powering anything with a 'wall wart'.
If you can get single blank cards then maybe a Photo printer would be good. They are made especially for small things (like photographs). Unfortunately they tend to be used for extremely high quality printing, making prototyping (or even mass producing) cards both tedious and expensive.
that your game doesnt require pieces that HAVE to be fabricated. anyone can give cheap suggestions for generic pieces (just use pawns!), but when youre playing a game where the shape of the pieces matters like say, Tangrams, or Pentominoes, but with non-trivial shapes, then youre in for some hard work before you can even begin playtesting. i just recently came up with an idea for a connection game (think Traxx, Trellis, Visavis, etc) but it needs pieces that I cant fabricate. i am reduced to wandering a hardware store looking for something that just happens to be the right shape.
Duchess is an awesome chess-based game for 2-6 players. The board is warped so that 'straight' (normal moves) paths actually curve away from the center of the board. It also uses a few custom pieces with weird moves and/or special powers, but you can leave those out if you really want just the originality of a strange board.
business cards, and most 'generic' card stock in general, suck for game cards. they dont shuffle well, they dont feel 'right' in your hands, etc. prototypes, sure, but NEVER manufacture a game with cards like this. thats the one downfall of most of the cheapest games from Cheapass Games, cheap card stock.
Saturn: Maximum distance from Sun: 10.044 AU=1.503x10^9 km Minimum distance from Sun: 9.014 AU=1.348x10^9 km
Earth: Maximum distance from Sun: 1.017 AU=1.521x10^8 km Minimum distance from Sun: 0.983 AU=1.471x10^8 km
The two extreme cases for opposition (neither of which is possible because the two orbits arent aligned, but this illustrates the difference) put the planets at least 1.196x10^9 km apart, or at most 1.355x10^9 km apart. Thats a difference of about 159000000 (0s instead of scientific notation for emphasis) kilometers, or about 530 light seconds. An opposition happens every year (well, actually every 1.03 years), but we only come close to the closest approach (which, exactly, is infinitely rare) every 29.4 or so years.
PS: And, to finalize this rant, the closest approach itself isnt even during an opposition, precisely BECAUSE the orbits arent aligned. I can draw you a picture if youd like.
(Opposition being the term for when Saturn is on the OPPOSITE side of the sky from the sun, therefore, the sun is shining directly on Saturn and Earth is also closest to Saturn.)
this does not follow. its entirely possible to have an Opposition in which the two planets are much farther apart than their closest approach. The earth could be at its closest approach to the sun, while Saturn is at its farthest (although I doubt the elliptical orbits align properly for this to happen), which would make them much farther apart than in the opposite situation.
As a friendly helper/techie at some really large (200-500 peeps) LAN parties, yes, I can comfortably say that I have seen or discussed system restore's failures or shortcomings with at least 1000 people.
ha, as if system restore ever actually worked. of the thousands of people I know who use winxp on a regular basis system restore has never been anything but a nuisance to anyone. it never works properly when you need it, and it hogs a crapload of space when you dont want it.
and of course when I typed "13" I really meant "24"... and of note is that 24:00:00 would NOT be the same time as 00:00:00, as they would be 39 minutes apart.
you would just timestamp the slip as 13:00:00-13:38:59. accounting for this in software would be no more difficult than accounting for leap years (and missing leap years) in a calendar.
When you only have 2 megs of memory to work with, cutting the size of the OS from ~800K to ~200K gives you a lot more room for gam^H^H^H^H other software.
get a Dacal CD Library (150-disc carousel cd changer, minus the CDROM drive) for $100 and spend a few hours and a few bucks building a little robotic arm to move the discs from the library's ejection slot into a CDROM and back. The library can be controlled via USB (proprietary software but it cant be THAT hard to reverse engineer). I have a pair of the old round ones, but have heard the new 'square' ones perform a little better.
I have had these same ideas about contracts and EULAs, and often use it. At worst, they cancel the relationship. At best, you get better terms. I regularly amend EULAs to remove objectionable sections (like no reverse engineering clauses).
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So, now Counterfeiting is one of Our Rights Online?
I love Empire Earth, but imho Rise of Nations has completely supplanted it as the best RTS. It has everything EE has and more, simplified where it should be and deeper where its useful and important.
I'll see your TW2002 and raise you a Barren Realms Elite. Or Solar Realms Elite, or Falcon's Eye. Take your pick :-p
our (USA-ians) constitution provides for quite a bit of sovereignty for each state. we (the states) actually behave a lot more like the EU (lots of countries sharing a few rules) than a true single nation. more of a federation than a nation. its a socio-political joke that i dont think even most USA-ians would get.
a diploma, with a nice flat pseudo-leather cover. awesome mouse pad for ball or optical.
10/100Mb NICs cost under $10 every day of the week, brand new, from a thousand different vendors and a hundred different manufacturers. We (my office) get ours for $3 each in bulk.
You already opt-in to mailing lists by subscribing to them, which takes anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes depending on the list. Would it be so hard to add them to a client-side white-list, perhaps an additional 10 to 30 seconds, in addition to subscribing?
To always run "on battery power" you can build a battery-shaped block with a little bit of electronics inside (fake temperature sensor usually) with straight 12V (if youre running off solar youve probably got 12V somewhere) from your power system. So many things run off 12V or lower DC that youd probably save a significant amount of power by actually wiring up some sort of DC outlets, to avoid the DC-AC-DC conversion process for powering anything with a 'wall wart'.
the download keeps resetting on me, sometimes at 1%, sometimes at 80%. sucks that they dont support resuming.
If you can get single blank cards then maybe a Photo printer would be good. They are made especially for small things (like photographs). Unfortunately they tend to be used for extremely high quality printing, making prototyping (or even mass producing) cards both tedious and expensive.
that your game doesnt require pieces that HAVE to be fabricated. anyone can give cheap suggestions for generic pieces (just use pawns!), but when youre playing a game where the shape of the pieces matters like say, Tangrams, or Pentominoes, but with non-trivial shapes, then youre in for some hard work before you can even begin playtesting. i just recently came up with an idea for a connection game (think Traxx, Trellis, Visavis, etc) but it needs pieces that I cant fabricate. i am reduced to wandering a hardware store looking for something that just happens to be the right shape.
Duchess is an awesome chess-based game for 2-6 players. The board is warped so that 'straight' (normal moves) paths actually curve away from the center of the board. It also uses a few custom pieces with weird moves and/or special powers, but you can leave those out if you really want just the originality of a strange board.
business cards, and most 'generic' card stock in general, suck for game cards. they dont shuffle well, they dont feel 'right' in your hands, etc. prototypes, sure, but NEVER manufacture a game with cards like this. thats the one downfall of most of the cheapest games from Cheapass Games, cheap card stock.
The name of the game is 1000 Blank White Cards. Now, maybe its just as much fun with green cards, but that would be a completely different game :)
Saturn:
Maximum distance from Sun: 10.044 AU=1.503x10^9 km
Minimum distance from Sun: 9.014 AU=1.348x10^9 km
Earth:
Maximum distance from Sun: 1.017 AU=1.521x10^8 km
Minimum distance from Sun: 0.983 AU=1.471x10^8 km
The two extreme cases for opposition (neither of which is possible because the two orbits arent aligned, but this illustrates the difference) put the planets at least 1.196x10^9 km apart, or at most 1.355x10^9 km apart. Thats a difference of about 159000000 (0s instead of scientific notation for emphasis) kilometers, or about 530 light seconds. An opposition happens every year (well, actually every 1.03 years), but we only come close to the closest approach (which, exactly, is infinitely rare) every 29.4 or so years.
PS: And, to finalize this rant, the closest approach itself isnt even during an opposition, precisely BECAUSE the orbits arent aligned. I can draw you a picture if youd like.
(Opposition being the term for when Saturn is on the OPPOSITE side of the sky from the sun, therefore, the sun is shining directly on Saturn and Earth is also closest to Saturn.)
this does not follow. its entirely possible to have an Opposition in which the two planets are much farther apart than their closest approach. The earth could be at its closest approach to the sun, while Saturn is at its farthest (although I doubt the elliptical orbits align properly for this to happen), which would make them much farther apart than in the opposite situation.
As a friendly helper/techie at some really large (200-500 peeps) LAN parties, yes, I can comfortably say that I have seen or discussed system restore's failures or shortcomings with at least 1000 people.
ha, as if system restore ever actually worked. of the thousands of people I know who use winxp on a regular basis system restore has never been anything but a nuisance to anyone. it never works properly when you need it, and it hogs a crapload of space when you dont want it.
three words for you:
little
black
box
and of course when I typed "13" I really meant "24"... and of note is that 24:00:00 would NOT be the same time as 00:00:00, as they would be 39 minutes apart.
you would just timestamp the slip as 13:00:00-13:38:59. accounting for this in software would be no more difficult than accounting for leap years (and missing leap years) in a calendar.
so, if its 100% compatible with GCC source, and produces 100% compatible binaries... doesnt that make it GCC?
When you only have 2 megs of memory to work with, cutting the size of the OS from ~800K to ~200K gives you a lot more room for gam^H^H^H^H other software.
get a Dacal CD Library (150-disc carousel cd changer, minus the CDROM drive) for $100 and spend a few hours and a few bucks building a little robotic arm to move the discs from the library's ejection slot into a CDROM and back. The library can be controlled via USB (proprietary software but it cant be THAT hard to reverse engineer). I have a pair of the old round ones, but have heard the new 'square' ones perform a little better.
I have had these same ideas about contracts and EULAs, and often use it. At worst, they cancel the relationship. At best, you get better terms. I regularly amend EULAs to remove objectionable sections (like no reverse engineering clauses).