Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

So you enjoy board games? Have a really consistent group you play with? Think you’re pro level Pandemic players? Well Pandemic Legacy is the game for you. It’s ever evolving and can be down right brutal. You’ll love it!

Warning! There are very minor spoilers below, but if you want to be 100000% spoiler free I suggest you not really read anymore…

Pandemic Legacy starts off just like the regular game.  There are a few minor rule differences (like marking panic levels and adding player scars) but nothing that seems difficult.  My group can regularly win normal Pandemic with 6 epidemics, so how bad could this be?  I mean we were only given 5 epidemics so we expected an easy game.  We were wrong.

The game started off fine.  We were doing really well.  I was playing as everyone's favorite Dispatcher, and we had the game well in control...  and then the epidemics started... and then the outbreaks happened...  Being the dispatcher I was able to position everyone to fully control it... and then I got a scar.... and another scar... and the next thing I knew my character was dead.  All from one epidemic... That's right we lost the Dispatcher in game one.  Pandemic Legacy was going to be a lot different.  All our choices matter now.  (To be fair I made an awesome move to save the game as the Dispatcher, and then some bad bad epidemic action happened.  RIP Mr Dispatcher)

Each month marched along and new things happened.  The game was constantly changed around us and we were having to constantly change our style of play.  Every time we started to really get control of the current situation and rules, we were thrown new curve balls.  I mean viruses mutated, new structures were added, we had new objectives to find people, it was insane.  We made a lot of iffy decisions that sometimes paid off in big big ways later down the road, or caused us massive heartache and problems.  This caused our group to literally over think EVERYTHING.  Crucial moves caused arguments, divorce papers to be drawn up, friendships to be destroyed, and it was all worth it and a lot of fun.

The only thing I didn't like was trying to keep up with all the rule changes.  When you play the same game with slightly varying rules, every game, it can get confusing.  I mean even the characters were constantly changing with new upgrades and/or scars which change the way they can be played.  We literally forgot to use new upgrades we could use for games at a time.  We made a few rule mistakes, but it didn't cause any long term issues.

Our gameplay turned super conservative as we played and we did everything we could to avoid scars on our characters.  In fact we only lost one other character through the game...  and by we I mean me... RIP Mr Solder...  So I was playing both of the characters that we lost.  I guess I'm like the harbinger of death to the characters I play.  We improved our standard Pandemic game understanding immensely.  We got to where we could pretty much calculate where the epidemics would fall and what cities would be drawn during the later portion of games.  It really created new ways to look at and understand the game.

I highly recommend anyone that enjoys board games to find a group and play through it.  I don't know that there is a lot of replay value because you'll know all the twists and turns.  I enjoyed being a part of an evolving story and our decisions mattered and caused long term effects on the game.  Now onto Pandemic Legacy Season 2!  I hope to give a game by game write up on Season 2 (I didn't think to do it for Season 1 until we were pretty much finished with the game)

Moving from Objective C to Swift

So I think I’m finally going to attempt to make the transition from Objective C to Swift. I’ve been putting it off for a long time, and I finally have a new project I’m going to piddle with, so it seemed like a good time. I’m a bit sad because I’ve finally become pretty proficient in Objective C and leaving it for Swift will be tough. I don’t write Objective C for work or anything, so everything I have done with it has been at home. This means it takes me longer to get up to speed on everything because I play with it in my free time. I have VERY little free time right now so it means it will be a slow learning experience.

So far I have been able to do everything I want with the Apple APIs but I think its just a matter of time until that isn’t the case. If this really slows down my project or myself (aka I move at like CS101 type pace) than I am definitely going to be switching back to Objective C until I’m forced to give it up.

Hopefully this is a smooth process… wish me luck!

The Future of GI Joe

So I've been a GI Joe fan as far back as I can remember.  To see the state of GI Joe right now makes me sad.  Unless you head to the "Adult Collectors" part of Toys R Us, you aren't going to find GI Joe on any toy shelves.   Even then you're lucky to find anything on the shelves.  To me the  line is essentially dead.  I don't want anything on the store shelves, and I don't want the GI Joe Collectors Club figures because I'm not interested in usually half of the figures being offered.

Here is my idea to maybe help keep GI Joe going.  Create two different line of figures.  You need a "Collector's Figures" and a "Kid's Figures."  I know there is the GI Joe Collectors Club, but that's just an extension off the "50th Anniversary" line...  Below are my ideas for each:

Kid's Figures

1. Create a whole new look and feel for GI Joe.  Think of it like the new Ninja Turtle line of figures.  They have the same characters, but everything is reimagined and NOT held to the original ideas.  You don't even need to keep to the ole 3.75 inch idea.  
2. Make sure there are plenty of vehicles for the Joes!
3. Hook a new show into the line.  Don't go crazy with something like GI Joe Renegades, but make it something fun and exciting like the current Turtles show.  Make the show really engaging for both adults and children similar to Star Wars Rebels, Clone Wars, and Ninja Turtles.
4. Don't forget that GI is the "Real American Hero" and play that up.  Make sure the flags and everything are on the figures and the vehicles!
5. If a new movie comes out, don't destroy the whole line over it.  Make 1 wave the new stuff, clearly mark the package as a movie tie in, and then move on from it.  Very similar to the way the Ninja Turtles movies were.

Collector's Figures

1. Create a subscription service similar to the GJCC.  I want to keep the "1 figure a month" idea, but I think the figure selection should be done differently.  Instead of a random assortment of figures do something like this.
   1. January - 1982 Figure
   2. February - 1983 Figure
   3. March - 1984 Figure
   4. ect ect ect
2. Keep things like Tiger Force, Python Patrol, Snow Team, etc variants to the Convention Exclusives, box sets, and other special type ordeals.  Do not make them a part of the subscription.
3. Don't forget the vehicles!  Make sure vehicles come out that just aren't repaints.  I would love to see an updated Snow Cat and Cobra Stun!
4. Make the file cards look like the original releases, only updated!
5. Ditch the concept of a complete years subscription cost.  Pay for it 3 months at a time. That way if you don't want certain years you can mitigate that a little bit.
6. Don't make ordering anything difficult!

Well those are my thoughts.  Hopefully GI Joe sees a revival soon because I need more figures!

Using External Code Libraries

So programming is one of the hobbies I have.  I don't consider myself a good programmer, but I'm a decent one (or so I think).  Most of what I have done lately is pure Objective C and Swift stuff (mostly Obj C but I have toyed around with Swift).  I have written apps that were published in Apple's iOS App Store, but I have never depended on my programming ability for my actual income.  Everything I do now is mostly hobby stuff, but it may one day end up leading to a new app.

One thing I have always strived to do is not to use any external libraries or resources outside of official APIs.  I always try to write my wrappers, classes, and everything on my own.  Even though I know there are TONS of libraries and code examples on GIT Hub, StackOverlfow, etc, it still makes me uncomfortable.  I'm worried about unexpected bugs I have to troubleshoot, code no longer being maintained, code I didn't write becoming obsolete, etc.  This can make for a frustrating experience.  I mean what happens if your app bases itself off of a library someone random maintains, they decide to stop all work on it and pull it offline, and now you are up a creek without a paddle (see the whole Parse situation, even though they at least tried to help the situation).

Recently I've actually thought about using two different external libraries because I honestly don't have the time lately to really sit and deep dive into a new topic (having a newborn baby can have the effect on you, but man she is awesome).  I want to be able to use CloudKit outside of the App Store and the only way to do is that is to use the CloudKit web services or JavaScript  frameworks for CloudKit.  Now I have NEVER written JavaScript before and honestly, didn't want to learn how. It's not that I don't think learning JS would be useful; I just have had to pick and choose what I want to learn.  I have looked at Agilebit's AgileCloudSDK and I like how it works.  I've also looked into using some sort of wrapper for the FSEvents API.  Mainly that's because I don't want to really dig into a C API.  While I would love to spend a lot of time learning everything, I just honestly don't have the time.  I'm lucky to just be able to write anything I already know!

While the apps I released in the App Store were all 100% my code and not dependent on others resources, I can see myself using a few libraries in the future.  I try to truly vet the libraries to make sure they are "future proof" and at least have source code available for me to use.  Anything closed source I won't use because I can't change something in it, and I am not sure what all it does (outside of what's documented).  

Hopefully my future does not involve using many of these libraries or code snippets.  I honestly believe buggy and bloated software has increased because people carelessly use unknown code and snippets.  Just because something works that you copied off StackOverflow does not mean it is the right solution.  Let's hope I don't get that lazy and undisciplined as I continue my coding adventures.