Toys

Last night, I designed and printed one of these: [www.thingiverse.com]

I had to create a support object to keep it from sagging. That was done in Art of Illusion by tracing the outline of the toy, extruding upward to the height of the wings, then subtracting the shape of the toy. You can't see it from the Thingiverse pic but there's landing gear underneath.

I used a single-head support technique I've been playing with. Details here: [blog.reprap.org]

The print I did was scaled to about 20mm long. The resolution of my machine resulted in a pretty decent (if somewhat lumpy) print. That size is probably the smallest it could be printed and still be recognizable. I probably need to use a denser infill to get the wings to look right too. Overall, though, the toy came out OK.

Any pictures?

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Not yet. I'll upload some when I get home.

I scaled up the model to 55mm and re-printed.

Fresh off the printer.


Some of the pseudo-support material. Moderately flexible.


Cleaned up a bit.


Underside.

Neat! Thanks so much for posting the pictures!

I'm seriously impressed by the ability of this new pseudo-support material -- that's really innovative.

Now if I can just get my Y axis to stop jamming...

Go Steve! FINALLY! Somebody is getting serious about support material!

Yes great work Steve.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

As a game designer, this is one of the things that I find extremely interesting about the RepRap. If you could allow people to print their own copies of a board game, it reduces the price of manufacture dramatically.

Keep up the work on these. When I get my RepRap I'll definitely be looking further into this aspect.

Funny you should mention board games. I did a game board Instructable a while ago [www.instructables.com] . One thing I needed for the game, though, was a set of game pieces. A 3D printer would've come in handy at the time.

As I design Board games as a Hobby, I'd be willing to design one where by the pieces could be made with a RepRap. I am thinking however, that some painting of the finished parts might need be involved (but as this would make it like many miniature games, this would be acceptable).

If anyone is interested in such a project, I'd be willing to share my ideas and skills.

That sounds like an interesting project.

... look here: - [forums.reprap.org] (and on the second side)

I started with a simple 2D-chess-set, then with stacked 3D-figures and now we're in milling Star-Wars-figures (Yoda, Han Solo and Darth Vader) from redesigned and generated 3D-STL-objects.

If you're interested in 2D-sketches in DXF or other data-formats or 3D-STL-objects then i can send you some scaled data and objects ...

Viktor

One more picture. Painted with acrylics:

Cool! Fantastic experiment for pseudo-support material -- thanks for showcasing!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/2008 02:03PM by HanClinto.

Here are some prototype images of some pieces that I am working on:

Some Ships


Missile


Planet


Mockup of game in progress


Actual game in progress using early prototype pieces


The game is a Space Combat game where the players command giant capital ships in battles with the other players. The player even design the capabilities of their ship (shields, power, engines and weapons) and crew (number and skill), then try to use them in the best way to destroy their opponents.

they have to navigate around obstacles like Planets, Moon, Asteroid Fields and Nebula, and have two weapons that they can use: Beam Weapons that have unlimited range and always hit (but are blocked by planets and moons, and weakened by nebula) and Torpedoes which have an area effect, but must be guided to their target location by the player, so can move around obstacles like planets and moons

An idea I have had for the Planets and Moons is to make them Hemispheres that can then be painted (or when RepRap get the ability to print coloured plastic print the images directly onto the planet).

Currently all the pieces are just printed onto paper with my home bubble jet, so they aren't really all that good a quality).

The rules have been fairly well tested and are quite solid. The basic rules are fairly simple to grasp (You roll a number of 6 sided dice and try to get equal or greater than a particular defence number to do damage to your opponent). There are 3 phases to a turn and each player completes their turn before the other gets to take their own turn: 1) Weapons: The player moves and/or detonates their Torpedoes and fires their Beam weapons. 2) Movement: Where the player moves their ships. 3) Power where the player recharges ship systems using their crew and power generation abilities.

This is a fairly sophisticated game, and so I feel that it could be considered quite an attraction for people who own (or would like to own) a RepRap.

Nice. Great artwork. I'm guessing the ships would be 3D objects with hexagonal bases?

degroof Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice. Great artwork. I'm guessing the ships would
> be 3D objects with hexagonal bases?


Yes, along with the torpedoes.
'
BTW, most of the Art work (besides the ships and missiles) were procedurally generated from stock functions that came with my graphics package .

I have 4 designs for Torpedoes and 4 designs for Ships (but more an easily be created).

The size of each Hexagon on the board (and the planet, moon, nebula and asteroid tiles) is 46.188 mm between opposite vertexes (according to the graphics package). The Hexagons for the ship and torpedo pieces are a little smaller at 40.415mm between opposite vertexes. And as I have used vector graphics, this can easily be changed (so if we do this we should round it off to the nearest that RepRap can do).

This game's current status is mostly complete. I just need to finalise the piece graphics (and if I am using RepRap for them) and make the instructions nicer (but all the rules are there). I have the complete (current) pieces as a PDF ready for printing (as flat tiles stuck onto cardboard) and the draft Instruction manual as a separate PDF.

I am willing to post it all up somewhere so that people can download it and play it (it is completely playable as it is).

I like your game idea. If you want more graphics, you could use nasa pictures, which are all public domain, at:
[antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov]

I suggest that you keep your flat tiles for the background (planet, moon, nebula & asteroid) and reprap only your pieces (ships, torpedoes, etc..) so that you don't keep knocking over the background when moving the pieces.

Is your game open source?

I am thinking of releasing it as such, Or just as public domain. I created this as a hobby, and the most I was expecting was to recover any manufacturing costs (making board games is not usually a profitable venture). If we release it for RepRap, then my manufacturing costs are zero, so I will automatically recover my manufacturing costs

As part of the game is to design your own ships (assign components), then releasing it as open source is in line with this (they could design and print their own ship miniature - we should include a Tile Template for them to base their ship miniature on as well).

As I have never released something as Open Source, what is the recommended procedure (what do I need to include to ensure it is OS).

Quote

I suggest that you keep your flat tiles for the background (planet, moon, nebula & asteroid) and reprap only your pieces (ships, torpedoes, etc..) so that you don't keep knocking over the background when moving the pieces.

As the ships do not move across the planets (they act as blocking obstacles), there will never be a situation where the player has to move their ships across it, and I though the 3D nature of them would be a nice visual effect.

The Nebula and asteroids would be better as a 2D tile as the ships can move across them.

I was even thinking it might be possible to print the base board and include slight grooves between the hexagons, and create a lip on the tiles so that they don't slip (but this might use too much plastic, and painting the board might be too time consuming - hey maybe just release both a paper printable back and a - plastic one and let the end user choose if they want the more complex one)

I choose you, SLSBOT!

I made this at work using two different materials with my SLS Machines. Its not reprap, but I thought you guys might appreciate it (sorry, camera phone, etc). I dream of the day when reprap can achieve similar results, and I don't think that day is too far away. With a support material, I'm guessing nophead could probably manage something fairly close.

Hi Edtharan,

I'm glad you're thinking of releasing it as an open game. The creative commons site has an explanation of open licenses at:
[creativecommons.org]

and a handy "Choose a License" page at:
[creativecommons.org]

There's a good discussion of licensing at the citizendium site:
[www.citizendium.org]

and they chose the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, described at:
[creativecommons.org]

It seems good to me, although I've used the GPL for my code and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) for my text. However, according to the wikipedia article:
[en.wikipedia.org]

the GDFL is incompatible with most other open content licenses, so I'll probably switch to the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license for my text in future.

It is possible to make a small amount of money with open licensing, typically by having google Adsense ads on your open content site. This is how reprap makes some money.

There are many open games listed at:
[www.darkshire.net]

some of em use an open content license, some unidentified custom open licenses, Gods & Monsters the GFDL and others the Wizards of the Coast (WotC) open gaming license. The WotC open gaming license is not really free, so I don't recommend it. Some use the Open Content license because that was one of the first open text licenses.

I agree that printing the base board would use too much plastic and work, because right now the reprap is finicky and high quality printing without a heater requires a raft. I think printing the movable pieces first now, then later the planets and asteroids maybe after reprap can print in color, is the way to go.

Ok, development on my game is progressing and here is the draft rules for it (graphics to come later) as a pdf (sorry it is taking so long).

These are draft rules so, no pretty pictures . However from the images I have posted above you should get a reasonable idea of the objects needed for the game.

Hi Edtharan,

Thanks for posting the game rules and putting them under a creative content license.

I suggest an extra anomaly, the unstable flare star. On the game board it is a fiery band three hexes wide and one thick, and it must always be placed at the edge of the board. The band is just the limb of the large star, which if it wasn't at the edge would be too big. If you hit it with enough damage, it might flare up doing torpedo damage to anything within range.

A first trial could be that every time the flare anomaly is hit with a 6 damage die, there is a one in six chance it will flare up doing a damage six torpedo effect to everything within three hexes. With play testing you would eventually find a game balanced flare.

Also, an often desired tactic is ramming. Could rules be added for ramming? A first trial could be that the attacker could try to hit with thrusters and the target could try to dodge with thrusters, so the attacker would roll plus thrusters, the target could dodge with a roll plus thrusters. If both total rolls are the same, it is a glancing blow with damage equivalent to a torpedo of a strength of the main engine of the attacker, detonating at the front of both ships. If the attacker rolls higher, it is a head on collision with damage equivalent to torpedoes detonating on every hex around both ships.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2009 10:21PM by Enrique.

The idea is good, having an interactive anomaly could add some tactical value to the game.

The size is a little problematic, in that the placement of the anomaly would be difficult. Instead, if it was made bigger then this would actually solve the placement problem and give a larger feel for the star.

As the boards are a series of hexagonal tiles, the size of the star would be better for placement by having it span 3 vertices of the board (starting at one, going over the second and ending at the third - I'll do a mock-up after I post the game pieces).

Also, I think the explosions should follow the same rules for torpedo explosions, being a drop of of 1 attack strength for each hexagon between the centre of the explosion and the object effected by it (ships and torpedoes). But I think it should be kept at a level 6 attack strength (so the flare would effect something a maximum of 6 tiles away).

I have a few ideas for other anomalies:

Planetary Rings: These are placed over a planet and act as both nebula (reduces beam weapon attacks) and asteroid field (risk damaging any ship or torpedo that moves through it).

Wormhole: Allows ships (but not torpedoes or beam weapons) to travel quickly between either of the two ends of them.

Attached is the Board Tile for the Solar Flare Game (you will need to print out 7 of them for the game).

... i'm a big fan of "Die Sternfahrer von Catan" - look here for some details: [www.onlinepresence.de]

It's a board-game with some similar aspects - hexagonal tiles, interactive development of the univers and game and some randomly defined action-elements with selecting ressources, event-cards and such.

Maybe you'll find here some good ideas too?

Viktor

For the flare anomaly, please make it however you think best. I haven't played the game so I don't know what makes sense.

Another possible anomaly is the white dwarf star. Since a white dwarf has such a high gravity, spaceships can slingshot around it, changing their direction without using thrusters. However, because the white dwarf is so bright and radiates in the deep ultraviolet, the spaceship takes damage when it is close to the star. The more the spaceship wants to change its direction, the closer it has to go to the star and the more damage it takes. In game terms, this would mean that the spaceship gets the equivalent of a torpedo hit from the direction of the star, the power of the hit is equal to the direction change. So say the spaceship wants to do a direction change of two, it would take the a two damage torpedo from the direction of the star.

@Victor:
I have played the Settlers of Catan, but I haven't played The Starfarers of Catan yet (although as I understand, the basic mechanics are similar).

However, there is still quite a differe3nce between Starfarers and Solar Flare. Starfarers is about resource collection and trading, where as Solar Flare is a combat game.

@Enrique
Although I am going to stay with the design I already have, these ideas you have can be included in your own version as I have released this under a Creative Commons licence.

In early versions I did include activities like ramming and such, but I found that it either was too over powered or because it equally effected the ramming ship it conveyed no real advantage to the rammer (and so was not used).

The other problem I faced is having too many rules (it is already quite rules heavy as is). Including more anomalies in the initial release really wouldn't add all that much to the game, and would make it that much harder for new players to learn. However, as expansion packs and additional rules, these things are good ideas. As it is now under a CC licence these kinds of ideas are easy for anyone to develop and include themselves, but the core gameplay needs to be kept as simple as possible but allow the core gameplay to function.

If you have any experience with game development (as well as most other technical projects), you might be aware of Feature Creep. This is where new and interesting features are added to the core of the project, but at a certain point, although good ideas in and of themselves, don't actually add to the original concept.

I have struggled with Feature Creep even with this game. I originally had nearly twice the number of types of anomalies, had very complex build mechanics, etc.

The problem with the build mechanics for the ships was the most troubling as I could not really find a simple solution to it. However, through play testing, and feedback I kept adjusting the values of the components you add to the ships. The solution I found to this problem was that as I kept readjusting these values they started to settle on similar values, so I just dumped the whole complex build mechanic (I had spent quite a while trying to get the original build system to work so dumping it was difficult) and used a build points system instead which simplified the whole build process significantly (but didn't didn't eliminate the complexity entirely). It also allowed me to develop the Beginner, Standard and Advanced build rules while still allowing ships from each to compete equally with each other.

I have also attached the first anomaly token sheet (the moons) to this post. However due to the need to reduce the file size the quality is a bit low (as well as a few artefacts).

Hi Ed,

... sure, Starfarers of Catan isn't a combat game (you have only occasionally to battle against pirates so you're seriously interested in enhancing your drives and guns ) but some of the gaming mechanisms and developing of the universe, paths and bases could possibly be adopted.

If you're interested in 3D-objects and corresponding data you can send me some sketches and scaling-infos and i can try to design some parts for the game - i'm actually diving through the tutorials of 3DSMAX2009 and a newer CAD/CAM-version for my CNC-mill, so it would be supporting/motivating create something useful

Viktor

Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you Viktor, due to an injury I have not been able to do much on the computer.

Attached to this post are the sketches (from my original files meant to be printed on a 2d printer) of the Ships and the Torpedoes for the game.

For sizes:
The size of each game board tile is: 231mm (vertex to vertex)
The size of each hex on this game board is 46mm (vertex to vertex)
The size of the Ship and Torpedo tiles is: 40.4mm (vertex to vertex)

The sizes for the Anomaly tiles is the same as the small hex size on the game board.

The reason that the ship tile sizes are smaller is that players will be picking these up and moving them, and that means that their placement will be imperfect, so a small amount of size difference allows for this.

The final ship and torpedo designs are not required to be the same as the ones I have posted here. These ones are still draft designs for the 2d printed game that I was originally going to release it. As it is released under the Creative Commons licence, designing new ship tokens is encouraged (and it also fits with the concept of the game as you design your own ship as part of the game - so why not allow people to design their own ship and print it with their RepRaps).