100% Seji

I've just uploaded a couple of pics to my freestyle album. Cats mostly :).

The best way to start the day:
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I love turn-based computer strategy games. I find them superior to the RTS games (with a few exceptions - Homeworld, Sudden Strike and some more) as I like to have maximum control over the battlefield. TBS sually have a lot more detailed units in terms of characteristics and data (but not always, read frther) and pay greater attention to tactics. Just to name UFO/X-Com games (first two ;)) or Laser Squad. And for some time I was longing for a good fantasy TBS. No, Heroes of Might and Magic (any part) is not a good TBS game ;).

One day I've found Battle for Wesnoth. First impression was not too good. The game appeared to be very simple, covering only some basic aspects of TBS. Some time later I gave BfW a second try - and removed it from my hard drive very quickly. But next day something told me to try one more time BUT to read help files and the manual first. And I got hooked up.

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game, with fantasy background. It's rather a "generic fantasy", without any special twists or themes. There ale elves and dwarves, wizards and druids, necromancers who summon undead (skeletons, zombies, etc.), there are dragons, knights, orcs and some other creatures. Most of them is playable, as there are six factions you can play and each of them has its own set of units.

I don't want to write here about graphics, music and all the technical details. For me a good game is a playable one and it doesn't matter if it has full motion video cut scenes or not. Just take a look at Pong ;). Graphics in BfW are nice and - what's the most important - functional. They do what they are to do. The same goes for sound effects and music, although a couple more of in-game tunes would be nice. I've been playing BfW for more than two months now and as far as I remember the game crashed once (when I tried to load a save game during turn switch, but it never happened again), so it's stable. The user interface is clear and well designed, that goes also for built-in help system (with tooltips!).

Design of BfW follows the KISS principle. The mechanics of the game are simple, but sophisticated enough to provide challenging gameplay. Units are described by a handful of attributes (unit type, health points, experience, used weapons and damage dealt during attack) and skills and traits. A nice feature is that every single unit has its own name and damage values and health points vary a bit from unit to unit (depends on personal traits and unit "personality"). There are around 200 types of units. The only thing I lack is a spell list for magic wielders. In BfW mages, druids and similar units just deal ranged magical attacks of various types, no spell list.

Simple, isn't it? But it's really enough to provide rich environment that enforces players to think. And it takes a lot of time to master BfW. The key to success is to learn how to play certain units and how to use terrain to gain advantage. Each type of terrain has defense value - the higher, the better and the value is different for different units. There's also day time factor: some creatures fight better at night and have combat penalties during daytime. Rush tactics won't work, it's not enough to have more units than your opponent to win. And you can succeed with less units if you play them well - a single archer on a good spot can be a real pain in the ass. And BfW is not a game of "sacrifice a unit, get another cheap" - it really pays back for keeping your soldiers alive. Every unit has an experience count and can level up, gaining on strength, obtaining new abilities and such. There's finally some use for units with healing skills. During the game it's important to know when to withdrawn units from the first line and send reserves to battle.

To complicate things a bit there is another factor: economy. You need gold to buy and upkeep units. And to get gold you have to capture a village. The more you own, the more gold you get each turn (and in campaigns you keep part of your treasury after each scenario). Controlling villages is another key to success. You may have many strong units, but if you have no money because the enemy captured your villages and your offensive won't break through enemy lines, you've already lost.

The last main factor is limited number of turns the payer gets to finish certain scenario. That was the main reason I didn't like BfW at first. But after a couple of games I've started to appreciate that. Fist, it's a clever way to enforce play at all. You just can't stay in your castle and gather forces. Second, it makes player to play fast and aggressively and makes the game a lot more interesting. An average number of turns per scenario is about 30, which makes the game fast and exciting It's "act or die" like on a real battlefield.

Battle for Wesnoth is all about gameplay. It's simple, but not too simple - the complexity of the game is well balanced to make it entertaining and demanding and not to overwhelm player with details, numbers and statistics. It's easy to start playing, but to it takes time to master the game. It's really about tactics, you have to exploit all disadvantages of your enemy to win. As I mentioned above "the more the better" doesn't work here and high level units can't win battle alone.

There are lots and lots of nice details in BfW that player can discover during play, like random generated maps, magical artifacts and some really nasty monsters. What's more, there are six official campaigns included in current version of BfW (1.2.4). They present various difficulty levels but the storyline of those campaigns is well done and entertaining. And it's a good way to learn how to play and find out about various aspects of BfW world (its history, inhabitants and more). Of course one can play random maps with A.I. And computer plays well.

Last but not least: BfW has multiplayer mode. And that's where the real fun begins. Although available campaigns are usually polished and well done, nothing can replace live online head to head combat. There is a set of multiplayer maps supporting up to 9 players. What is more there's a number of special maps designed for providing roleplaying experience (explore and loot) or... for playing some kind of football game (yup, with knights and mages).

Maps designed for multiplayer vary from small and fast dedicated to small skirmishes to vast fields ideal for epic battles. But most of them (most of, as I had no time to try them all) provide great fun and are well constructed. It's a real pleasure to play on them. Of course playing with real opponents differs a bit from playing versus A.I., but hours spent on playing the campaigns pay back.

BfW is an open source project. So it's free and everyone can contribute to make the game better. There's also a number of user-made maps and campaigns and a growing international community (the game is available in many different languages).

Battle for Wesnoth is a synonym of simplicity and good design combined with high playability. And game mechanics are sophisticated enough to make the play very interesting and very challenging. There are no useless unit attributes here. Of course, a bit more of interactivity would be welcomed but BfW is a shiny example how to make a good fantasy TBS. And besides all other factors Battle for Wesnoth is about fun - as every good game should be. Give it a try.

Official web page: www.wesnoth.org

Some time ago Mazar, a friend of mine, asked me why there were no more any "stuff reviews" on my blog. I used to "review" my shopping (a flashlight, sandals, new kind of chocolate bars, etc.). So before I prepare next part of my report on Norway trip, here's a small "user review" of Magnum boots I bought one year ago (I wrote about them here).

To cut a long story short: I became tired of my usual "Dr Martens type" boots. They may look cool but are not so much comfortable and they are not really for all seasons. And I have tendency to destroy one pair every 18 months. So my former flat mate advised me to buy tactical boots made by Magnum Company, American manufacturer of various tactical wear. I chose Stealth model, first - it was quite cheap, second - my flat mate owned that type of boots and was quite pleased with them.

I bought Magnum Stealth Leather, to be precise. For over a year I've been wearing them almost everyday, rain or shine, snow or frost, in forest, on rocks - you name it. But most of the time I spent in the city and Stealth series is designed for urban environment. After that year I can that it was one of the best choices I ever made regarding things I wear.

The boots proved really great. First, they are comfortable as hell. Really. It doesn't matter if you wear them once a week, once a month or every day. Your foot always fits in. I don't recall any abrasions or skin irritation. Second, they are waterproof and it's not just the label. Unless you pour some water directly inside through the top, there's no way your feet can get wet. So you can play in the puddles (or in the snow) as long as you want ;). Third, the boots are really all seasons. I wore them in different temperatures, form minus 20 to plus 30 Celsius degrees and it was O.K. Yes, it was a bit uncomfortable in such conditions (it's not what the boots were designed for), but I felt far better than in other boots; what's important I didn't feel overheated and during winter my feet were still warm). And after 8 hours spent in work my feet feel better in those boots than in pumps.

As I mentioned above Stealth series is designed for urban environment. The sole is quite soft to make walking comfortable on hard surface. But unlike other boots it doesn't wear off on concrete or asphalt. After one year there are only slight irregularities on the heels - and I saw boots with almost half of the heel wore off after walking one year around the city. The rest looks fine. And the leather shows no major traces of use. I can't say that I care about my boots - I polish them from time to time with a good shoe polish and that's all. There are of course scratches and some minor damages, but it's only on the surface. No ripped threads, no holes, nothing bigger.

The boots, however, have two flaws. The moisture from inside is not driven off as fast as it should be and sometimes after a couple of days of intensive use (i.e. walking a lot, wearing them all the time) the boots are slightly wet inside (it's not water but sweat, vapor, etc.). It's a minor glitch but sometimes a nuisance. The second thing is something I find hard to describe, but I'll try: after a couple of months of wearing my boots I noticed that there's something inside, something like small puffy dust. After a short investigation I discovered that the inside coating of the boots is being worn off on the heels (from the inside! And tiny bits of that inside layer formed the mysterious "puffy dust".). I was afraid that it will spread to the whole inner coating but now, after a year, there are just two small patches there, each about one square centimeter size, so it stopped almost on the spot. A friend told me that "it happens sometimes" and depends on some factors, like "foot and boot compatibility". It happened to me for the first time ever but those "patches" of worn off inside coating are really unnoticeable by feet. They are no factor in daily use of my boots and I don't pay attention to them.

Summary: if you're looking for a good pair of boots, pick Magnum Stealth Leather. They are reliable, of good quality and comfortable. They are worth the money. I don't know if you can still buy them abroad as Magnum introduced Stealth II series, but in Poland you can still find them in army shops (I bought mine here).http://files.myopera.com/Seji/blog/buty2.jpg

UPDATE 28.09.2007
The boots has survibed first major battle test, as I was wearing them during my company's "Away Day" in the mountains. The test included paintball field, some rope climbing, stream crossing and a lot of hiking on the dirtroads.

On the right: Magnum Stealth Leather boots (with rain drops ;)). One year in service and still look almost brand new. :)

Beginning with this post I’ll try to achieve three goals:
- first, reactivate my blog;
- second, try to remove some rust from my English;
- and last but not least, as – to my surprise – quite a lot non-Polish speaking people come and visit my blog, I’ll try to make it more open (yes, I know, I tried before and I failed). Some of the topics will be covered in English (mostly general ones and things that don’t need extensive background cover). The rest will be in Polish (mostly local fandom/RPGs things – unless I find a topic that will be entertaining enough for foreign readers). Feel free to point out all my spelling/grammar/other errors :).

And now the long promised update.

I was looking for a job. And finally found one. It took me some time, but here it is :). Basically, I’m a IT help desk guy, responsible for handling IT problems for customers. I can’t tell much right now, because I’ve been working there for less than two weeks and I’m still involved in an extensive training rather than the “real” job, but it looks good so far.

I'm on a temporary contract for next three months and then, if I manage to stand up to company’s standards, I’ll be offered a permanent contract. But don’t expect me to write much about what I do in details. No, you won’t find funny help desk stories here. But you may watch The IT Crowd TV series. Yes, it’s a sitcom. Yes, it’s fiction. But sometimes it’s as close to the real life as it can get ;).

That’s all for now. Coming up next: details on Norway Trip 2007 (and lots of pics!).