The Battle Plan 28th/29th July 2021 (Patreon)

[Somewhere in the Columbian jungle]

Something's got the Colonel spooked.

Has it?

Well presumably. He's stood over there looking at a page of code.

Colonel? COLONEL! What's up?

There's something wrong with this code. 

What is it?

Well, it's failing to properly track cars that collide with wreckage left on previous laps, so it's saying everything is fine when in fact it should trigger a retirement.

I know that code. It's Jim Hopper's code. He uploaded it to an FTP out of Fort Bragg.

I ain't got time to code.

GET TO DA SCHEDULE!

You're welcome, friends, to that pastiche of a beloved 80s sci-fi action classic. It also rather gives the reason for the recent shortage of new video action.

As you may be aware, I've been working on a "game" for the past few months and it's so close to being ready to accept the great viewing public into the front entrance that I'm motoring to the finish line while avoiding wreckage left on a previous lap (that's a callback gag. You're welcome.)

What is it? Well, you need to understand a few things:

- It's entirely free to play. I'll offer some juicy opportunities for you to part with cash later on, but it'll never be pay to play. As for pay to win, you'll soon find out that the only way to win is to take part. Beyond that there's no real winning or losing as such. 

- It's likely to leave many of you with a "huh?" expression, but even then you may get a kick out of my coverage of it.

- I'm never going to fully explain what's going on. There are good reasons for this. It's designed to be obtuse.

Good. That's the last time (HAHAHAHA, fat chance) I'll explain that I'm deliberately not explaining it.

Anyway, you can get some sneaky peeks over on the Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/colonelfailure/ in fact I'll add a couple more when I'm done with this.

So, let's talk video.

I'm going to stick a fork in Soviet Republic at 10 episodes, and for a while after that I'm going to bounce around a few different games. The reason for this is a tweet sent to me by Northlander74 (he tweets at me a LOT - sometimes I even reply) of an intro I did for the original Mount and Blade series where the sheer joy I was getting from the experience was completely evident. This lead me to observe that, actually, I don't do that so much these days. It's not that my video-making has become unjoyful, just that I'm recording what I think I should rather than stuff I'm having a giggle with. So I'm going looking for giggles for a week or two.

After that, or maybe even during that, or possibly alongside it, adjacent to it, underneath it or flying several miles above it I'll be bringing back Transport Fever Japan. With the second half of the map I'll be focusing less on blatting in new lines and more on creating interesting routes - trying to recapture the halcyon days of the Gotthard series.

Also on the INCOMING list is Minecraft with Fail Brigade. No, it's not to everyone's taste and it won't be more than an episode per week, but it may provoke a little interest for those who have a train-based leaning. Derail Valley? Maybe. Beyond that... I don't know, but I'm going to have a laugh or two and see where it gets me.

Anyway this week we're going to operate in a loose-ish fashion.

Soviet Republic - 3 episodes to go, I reckon I'll do road commuting, a second industry town with rail link and then a passenger train connection between the two towns. That should provide enough train-based enjoyment I reckon.

Saturday evening I'll be Bannerlording.

Expect the debut Minecraft episode on *checks weather* Sunday? Along with a make or break game in the baseball over on Electrosports.

IT ALL FEELS RATHER UNSTABLE. Clearly this is the perihelion of my 7th videotronic anniversary looming. LOOMING. I'll go find the thing. Then you can watch the thing. I once said something about gonzo let's play. Whatever happened to that? I liked that. I should do more of that. Get off the treadmill you bozo! Start feeling the feeling in the zesty regions of your psyche. More zesty! Do it. DO IT! 

*activates wrist-mounted high explosive doohickey and starts laughing maniacally*

-CF