 March 25, 2009 - 1:15pm | Issue 11 is ready.  http://starfrontiersman.com/downloads/starfrontiersman I'm opening this topic for discussion of this issue and for the next issue. |
 March 25, 2009 - 1:50pm | Wow who ever does the cover art you aint paying him enough! Very nice stuff indeed. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 25, 2009 - 1:57pm | Let me throw in real quick for a future edition...I have two young daughters that I am bringing into the frontier fold. They are a bit young for me to feel comfortable encouraging them to "blast that guy to pieces!" One is a robotics technician and the other is zoologist. They both like mysteries and love the show Monk. So I would like to be able to fashion some games for them where they would be employed as CSI agents. Could we develop and present programs, tech, tools, and information for solving crimes? What would be the equivalent of Vrusk or Dral fingerprints? Programs for Facial Recognition? How would one access that type of database?(which governments have them?) What sort of forensic information could be collected from gyrojet or laser victims? What sort of equipment can be installed on a robot to make it a mini mobile crime lab? How would you analyze toxins or other 'unkown' substances? If you want a theme, you could include information on planetary law-enforcement as well as starlaw. Stories of Star Law or notorious criminals or unsolved crimes. And remember...I'm new here...so be gentle. I'm still not sure I have navigated everywhere yet, so I apologize if this is out of place. LOVE THE MAG! |
 March 25, 2009 - 7:34pm | This is a copy of a letter I just sent to the Editor: submissions@starfrontiersman.com Frontier Feedback - Letters to the Editor Issue 11 Great Issue! Great Cover Art! The interior artwork and the diagram on page 19 are very nicely done. My only complaint is with the Minotaur Planetary Map on page 12. It is too hard to make out and prints poorly. The blue area is fine, but the brown/tan/black areas run together, especially on the left-hand section of the map. It is impossible to tell where one type of terrain stops and another starts. The map might show up better (and print better) if colors with more contrast were used and if the colors stayed within the hexes, as the blue color does. This would give the map a more artificial appearance as real terrain features are not that regular, but would make it easier to play the game . |
 March 25, 2009 - 7:51pm | As the guy who did the diagram on page 19, thanks! I'll let Shadow Shack comment on the Minotaur map but I believe the blended brown/tan/black is all a single terrain type, namely a city that encompasses the entire planet. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
March 25, 2009 - 8:31pm | As the guy who did the diagram on page 19, thanks! How did you make it and get it to come out so sharp and clear? I'll let Shadow Shack comment on the Minotaur map but I believe the blended brown/tan/black is all a single terrain type, namely a city that encompasses the entire planet. You are correct - one large city. It still looks "muddy" to me. (sigh) |
 March 25, 2009 - 8:53pm | Check out the Wiki section here, I have the Minotaur isohedral map there as well. Perhaps it might print better from that format rather than from PDF? |
March 25, 2009 - 9:24pm | I made it using the Gimp image manipulation tool. Here's how I did it: 1) The hex grid is just a cut out of a piece of the map we're using for the Play-by-Post Second Sathar War game on my gaming forums site. I just inverted the color scheme so it is black on white instead of white on black. These maps can also be found in the Downloads section of the Second Sathar War project on this site. 2) For the counters, I happen to own a completely unused copy of the Knight Hawks rules. In fact, until just after Chrismas (when I got my new scanner) it was still in it's original shrink wrap! Since I got my new scanner I have scanned in the full, unpunched KH counters at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 600 dpi. (There is a 200 dpi scan of them posted on starfrontiers.com but the colors aren't quite right. I need to send Tim my new one.) Speaking of new scans, does anyone happen to have a complete unpunched set of the AD counters they could scan in? Anyway, using the 400 dpi scan I selected out the frigate counter I wanted to use and used the Hue/Saturation tool in Gimp to shift the color of the background to the colors you see. I saved each different colored counter as a seperate image. 3) Finally, I assembled the entire image importing and scaling the counters to match the hex size (50 pixels) and drew in the lines and filled in the shaded areas. It was all saved as a PNG file to prevent fuzziness. JPG images use a "lossy" compression (there is a thread about that here somewhere) that blurs sharp lines while PNG (and GIF) images use a "lossless" compression that doesn't. The Minotaur map is fuzzy for a couple of reasons related to that last point. First the original image was a jpg so there was some inherent fuzziness in the original picture. Plus, the program I used to make the PDF file of the magazine (PDFCreator, installs as a printer in Windows) is, I believe, using JPG compression to store the images when it creates the file adding a bit more fuzziness. When I'm home this weekend, I'm going to try recreating the PDF with Adobe Acrobat where I can set it to use PNG compression instead and see if that helps any. It will make the file a tad bigger but not much and may improve some of the image quality. I don't know if it will really make a difference for the Minotaur map as the problem is more an issue of contrast than anything else but I might help a bit. Shadow, do you happen to have that image stored as a bitmap (.bmp) file somewhere or did you just save it as a jpg? Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
March 25, 2009 - 9:33pm | Check out the Wiki section here, I have the Minotaur isohedral map there as well. Perhaps it might print better from that format rather than from PDF? Yeah, I forgot to mention that that whole article came from a post on this site. It probably would print better than the one in the magzine as you'd get the full resolution and one less layer of fuzziness. Here's the link to the Minotaur article on this site.Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 March 25, 2009 - 9:40pm | Great issue guys!!! Cool angle with being investigators. As far as equipment for doing crime lab type stuff. A lot can be done with the Envirokit. It breaks down all sorts of chemical and gas compositions. So, it would come down to the type questions your players ask you about the analysis and what clues you are willing to give up. Check out the autodoc in Starfrontiersman 8. It can do a thorough autopsy, and can be played like an NPC. If you come up with some ideas about some crime investigation specific equipment I would be interested in hearing about them. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
March 25, 2009 - 11:06pm | I have a bmp file, albeit without the dashed lines and labelling though. P.S. Ya'll got the wrong 2-view of the Merchant Scout...that's the Knight Owl aka Corona Phoenix with two batteries, the stock RT-3100 only comes with one. Unless of course you wanted to represnt the ship with the most infamous example (I'll forward my address where you can send my No Prize). |
March 26, 2009 - 8:09am | Yeah, I stole it from the knight owl page. I couldn't find anything else. Can you send me a "correct one"? Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
March 26, 2009 - 9:25am | Huh, thought I had a two view but only found a top view. Well, here it is: ) |
March 26, 2009 - 5:15pm | I can excise the second LB from the one I used easy enough to get the two-view version. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
March 26, 2009 - 8:02pm | Don't sweat it, the two view has different drives anyways. I wasn't really pushing it, just throwing out that old Marvel "No Prize" gag more than anything LOL If anything, the single view can be easily swapped and nothing will get lost in the translation. |
March 26, 2009 - 8:08pm | I made it using the Gimp image manipulation tool. (SNIP) Thanks for the detailed information and the links. Working with images on the computer is totally new to me. I also have not a single artistic or musical bone in my body - how people create works of art is a total mystery to me. |
March 26, 2009 - 8:21pm | Yeah, I forgot to mention that that whole article came from a post on this site. It probably would print better than the one in the magazine as you'd get the full resolution and one less layer of fuzziness. Here's the link to the Minotaur article on this site. Thanks for your answer. This image prints out much smaller than the image in Issue 11 (about 1/4 the size). The colors look better, but contrast is still a problem - the image is "muddy" and hard to make out. Still a fine job. Keep up the good work. PS: The Layout Editor DID ask for feed-back from the readers - So blame him for the criticism.  |
March 26, 2009 - 9:12pm | Try this one... http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7453/minotauricosahedralmap.png It's a 1024 x 528 PNG version from the original bitmap file, it's full sized with rich color and shouldn't be as muddy as the jpeg file. |
March 27, 2009 - 5:14am | I looked over the FTL torpedo article and I can think of a defense for these though its expensive: Mine fields. mine fields and laser bouys. mines are cheap compared to a fighter which may or may not be placed to intercept. you'd have to thickly mine inhabited planets to protect stations and shipping which would result in very stringent regulations concerning IFF transponders so that your own mines dont blow away your own ships. The UPF would have to respond with outer system sensor platforms, to increase response time, and stealth shielding to prevent these from even getting a lock which must be difficult at the speed they're travelling. they could possibly develop a chaff canon defensive system that would tie into the masking screen ammo ejecting water in a way that would create larger chunks of ice: at the speed its travelling anything that hits it will shread the torp. I also think that it would be terribly inaccurate too. it would have to negotiate 2 void transitions and acquire a target by itself. It is an idea that is represented in more than a few different settings and novels and I think there would be a answer to it as all it takes to solve a problem is time and money and once a station is taken out people would be screaming for the Fleet to do something (once the feel safe again they'd be screaming about why the fleet didn't do something to prevent a threat they could not have anticipated in the first place!) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 27, 2009 - 7:15pm | PS: The Layout Editor DID ask for feed-back from the readers - So blame him for the criticism. Yes I did, and your response and the responses from SS and myself will probably show up as an entry in the next issue. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
March 27, 2009 - 8:56pm | Try this one... http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7453/minotauricosahedralmap.png It's a 1024 x 528 PNG version from the original bitmap file, it's full sized with rich color and shouldn't be as muddy as the jpeg file. Thanks for the link. I printed this twice. Once off the link. I was about 1/3rd sized and a very clear image (this was the sharpest image of the lot). And I downloaded it and then printed it. Full sized and a clearer image than the one in the magazine. I also learned something (very Starship Troopers - the movie ). The more you download/copy an image the less "sharpness" it retains.Thanks again for all your trouble. |
 March 27, 2009 - 10:29pm | I found this out as well, recently:PNG files are much better quality than JPGs. You probably lost some info in the download, pineapple. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
April 1, 2009 - 12:58pm | I think an Issue 7 - 12 print would be a good idea, as long as the cost is about the same as the Issue 1 - 6 print. Does anyone know if this will pencil out? |
April 1, 2009 - 2:13pm | Unless Lulu raised the prices it will be the same. There is no profit for anyone on this site or persons contributing to the zine. |
April 1, 2009 - 4:39pm | Unless Lulu raised the prices it will be the same.
That is good to hear. I bought the other collection. Very impressive and it cost less than I would have had to pay to print it myself. There is no profit for anyone on this site or persons contributing to the zine. I knew that this site and the zine were not-for-profit. What I was concerned about was if the amount charged would pay for the cost of printing and shipping, so that Bill at least broke even. Or if the price would have to go up. Right now the Issue 1 - 6 collection is a real bargain. |
 April 2, 2009 - 2:48pm | Unless Lulu raised the prices it will be the same. The 7-12 would have to be more, I think, considering that you're dealing with at least 1/2 again as many pages.
There is no profit for anyone on this site or persons contributing to the zine. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
April 2, 2009 - 2:57pm | Unless Lulu raised the prices it will be the same. The 7-12 would have to be more, I think, considering that you're dealing with at least 1/2 again as many pages.
There is no profit for anyone on this site or persons contributing to the zine. More pages; more cost. That's cool. |
 April 4, 2009 - 5:13am | Glad you liked the cover art and the bits inside. I have a ton of this stuff and I'm happy to produce more as required. G. |
April 4, 2009 - 9:47am | Glad you liked the cover art and the bits inside. I have a ton of this stuff and I'm happy to produce more as required. G. See, Sathar Hypno FU *really works* Muhahahaa! WE LOVE YOUR STUFF GJD |
 April 17, 2009 - 5:40pm | I am still here, just been super busy with all my other endeavors and life |
April 17, 2009 - 6:20pm | ..the Universe, everything.... "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
