What’s happened so far
January and February have been more or less a total wash. I’ve managed to get a few little things done here and there, but I fully admit to have let myself get distracted and out of practice. I’ve managed some writing here and there, a little work, but it’s frankly been a rather dismal output. Proof in point, I didn’t even do a January recap!
One thing that I’ve been dealing with has been a bit of work on the sunday sketch posts. I’m starting to get in towards the bottom of the “easy” sketches I have available. I’ve still got enough to finish out the year, but beyond that I’m going to have to start digging into more of my rougher notes and pull some stuff that’s a little rougher. And that’s saying something! One thing I admit that has kind of made it a bit harder has been this latent desire to “make mini-series” out of the posts, which I’ve found has been cramping on my desire to get some done, because instead of doing them as I feel like, I’m trying to adhere to a kind of “theme”. And for a series that is supposed to just be random stuff, it’s added some complexity. I’m going to try to break myself out of that train of thought and just start getting material out, regardless of any kind of plan or theme.
What’s happening next?
The big thing remains finishing 3rd Elysium. I’m going to have to block some time out to properly run the tactical battle, and then at least get a rough draft of the final “chapter” of the battle done. It shouldn’t be that hard to actually do (it’s only some gunboat strikes), but it’s not something I can just handwave. Has to actually be done. Once that’s set, it’ll be open season for moving turns forward. I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling again! While I might not be able to hit that 160 goal, well, I’m going to try!
Once that’s rolling, it’s a bit of a question as to what else will get done. I’m hoping that by summer things will, if not back to normal (I don’t expect that till sometime in fall or winter), will at least be somewhat normal-adjacent, which will let my work life drop back to a more manageable tempo. Regardless though, I’m aiming to start chewing through things on the list as they are below. I’ve got a couple notes for some other story snippets and potential paths, so there’s that.
I’m not sure if I’ll try to participate in the 2021 A-Z blogging challenge, but I just might give it a shot…
2021 Goals
These goals are approximately in order of priority and in order of precedence (IE have to do #1 before you can do #2). There’s some goals from 2020 that are coming back, but a lot of them are going to be brand new ones as well. It’s also a longer list as well, but some of those entries are one-and-done tasks that shouldn’t be as hard as others to complete.
1) Finish 3rd Elysium
System level maneuvering is completed, but the tactical battle still needs to be run. Hoping to have this done by the end of March. Good news at least is that writing is pretty much concurrent with actual events, which should keep the turnaround down to a minimum.
2) Complete turn processing for all empires up to turn 160
No progress as yet (due to 3rd Elysium still not finished).
3) Do a full overhaul and update of my map (as seen on Fleet Management Mk2) so it’s all on one well-organized map WITH space to expand
No further progress on this one yet. I was pointed towards some other software that might be easier to generate the initial web layout (better than what I have/had initially), which is some good news. I was a little concerned that my current setup might not have scaled properly.
4) Write up a new Mk2 commissioning contract
No further progress on this one yet.
5) Update my internal deWulf Story Document
Some updating here has been done, mostly pulling stuff off the forums and adding it to the document. No editing passes yet.
6) Finish playtesting and balancing for Scenario Book 1 – The First Contact War
No progress here.
7) Finish the writing work for Scenario Book 1 – The First Contact War
No progress here.
8) Introduce and post completed artwork
There’s some progress here! I’ve posted all the art by D1D2M3 that’s been completed, and I’ve uploaded some of the art done by Blu3Dawn14. I haven’t done up the posts for Blu3Dawn14’s art yet, but I’m planning on getting that done this week. I’ve got a few more pieces of art that they’ve done but haven’t really gotten a proper post here yet. Some of that is going to be easier, as I’ve got some postable images already sitting in the archives, but others will still need some work before I can post them here.
9) Go do a second pass on the artwork for Scenario Book 1, incorporating new details and design concepts over the past year
Nothing new here, but that’s to be expected as there’s artwork and other things still outstanding.
10) Start fishing in my contacts to find someone who can do proofreading for Scenario Book
This task is sitting low on the to-do list for fairly obvious reasons. Need to be done writing and my own edit pass before the work can get handed off to an editor.
Dollarton Proxima Shipyards 