What’s happened so far
So, some of you might remember a promise for me to do these sitreps at the beginning of the month instead of midway through… well, I’m doing that. Kind of.
Obviously, nothing was written up at the end of April, but I don’t feel THAT bad about it. I got a couple of things done, and this is now on schedule (for now at least).
The big thing that was hanging a little over my head was my annual upcoming audit. We’d have passed, but we were also hard on the heels of the happy fun times at work, so the timing was… sub-optimal, shall we say? But that’s been pushed back to next year, so plenty of time to hammer ducks into rows and work on correcting processes. Which given everything else that seems to be cooking off at the worksite is a kind mercy indeed.
What’s happening next?
With regard to conventions, I’ve gotten my events all booked and set. Full plate of panels to attend as usual; not sure how I’ll fit in any shopping, but I’m certain I’ll manage somewhere along the ways 🙂
No words yet on other local events in the fall; they’ve got one event happening sometime next month locally, but I’m just not able to make the time to get something done at it. A shame, but that’s life. Next year!
I’ve rejiggered my monthly Sunday schedule as well. The previous cadence made sense, but now with how writing and tasking has shifted, it’s awkward as it forces some things to be resolved next month instead of flowing more seamlessly. It should also support and drive more writing and turn processing: as of now the cadence is Process turns->story write->Project write->Monthly writing/posting. Previously, turn processing was second, monthly writing was third, story writing was first, and project writing was kinda 3rd and 4th. More goal-specific updates follow below.
2022 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 2021 that are coming back, but a some of them are going to be brand new ones as well. As before, some of them are one-and-done, while others are big projects. There’s a couple more tasks on it this year compared to last, but a bunch of them are more housekeeping tasks; easier one-and done things that can be pounded out sometime in the year.
So enough banter. On to the list!
1) Complete turn processing for all empires up to turn 175
The deWulf fleet redesign and rebuild got done back in March, with some cleanup and finishing work in April. A more in-depth pass on it will likely follow next week, as the last two weeks have seen critical progress elsewhere. All empires outside of deWulf are now processed up to 145, which means I can now do a run on the deWulf and get them up to 146 or so, and then push them up to 148, and so on and on.
2) Update/Archive all the Sketch Sunday Worldbuilding
No progress on this one yet either.
3) Finish playtesting and balancing for Scenario Book 1 – The First Contact War
Playtesting requests were sent out in mid-April. I had three positive responses, with one response being a literal “we have no idea about your game but we’ll be happy to playtest for money”. Sadly shot that one down, but it is how it is. Will be following up next month with them about how playtesting is going (if it is going at all).
4) Finish the writing work for Scenario Book 1 – The First Contact War
Not started yet.
5) Introduce and post completed artwork
So I posted two pictures, and realized that I missed two more! All the deWulf uniform art has been posted, but the two sets for the Sintillans (as of the First Contact War) are missing. A June update project.
6) Go do a second pass on the artwork for Scenario Book 1, incorporating new details and design concepts over the past year
Contract and specs were sent. Positive response received, but no signed contract or other updates. Will follow up in June.
7) 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. Need to reach out to some of my friends/contacts, see if they know anyone.
8) Rename systems/planets that do not fit the universe setting
Not started yet. A few of the systems/etc have been identified, and renames have been worked out for a few of them.
9) Look at the Solar Starfire Freight Handling Rules
Not started yet.
10) Set up a redundant deWulf data backup
At this time I’m setting up for going back to Gencon, but once that’s done I’ll be looking to shift some cash towards setting up and having a NAS hooked up to my network for regular data updates. So this realistically has a fall timeline for completion.
11) Update the deWulf Story Document
The currently available deWulf story document on the website is, to be honest, really old. It was originally done as just a backup log, but with it out and on the website it does have some amount of actual attention. So the plan is to split it into three parts and then give it some short synopsizes on the website to explain (and more importantly warn) readers what’s going on in each of them. Mind you that’s not warn them of anything really questionable…. it’s more like my early writing is kinda… rough.
Which is another reason why this is so far down the to-do list.
12) Review Sketch Sunday
I’ve been doing some more thinking on this one, and I think at least for the immediate future I’ll be doing some sketches to tie them into sort of theme “arcs” where I look at a specific place or group of places. I’ve done this a few times where I grouped already done sketches together, but I’ll be trying to make some new sketches as a series. A new thing; we’ll see how it works.
13) Designing a Space Navy series
Second article is written up and set for posting, third is in framework stage.
Dollarton Proxima Shipyards 