Sleepypete's Pillow

Hello everyone, day 12 and a special day in the UK …

Job done. Always vote, it’s your right to vote as you choose. As in, I’m not going to tell you or suggest to you who you should vote for, just be careful that the candidates or parties are actually telling the truth when they’re persuading you who to vote for.

And that’s all for politics for a little while, just wanted it in the thumbnail :-D.

Today’s Mass Effect comes to you from the domain of Day 0 Came In The Box DLC. Or downloadable content that’s just you paying a little extra for stuff that should have been included. In this case, an extra character for the team and a few extra missions.

I did not buy this particular DLC. It was another sign of EA going for extra monetisation with their games and I wasn’t going to support that. It was very controversial … Mind you, I haven’t bought the other Mass Effect 3 DLCs either …

Salted Caramel marshmallow today – these are lush. And we have either :

A Death Star Gunner trooper or … Jynn Erso from Rogue One. Could be either.

It might be a short one today … I did a Mall run after getting in from work and a combination of things means I’m getting pretty tired now. Let’s see :

It’s coming near the end of a tiring (and fun!) year and I’m winding down for a break. 4 more working days to go.
Poorly left ankle, must have twisted it.
Sore leg. Had a heavy cramp while attempting to sleep last night, slightly torn muscle.
Those aren’t stopping me from getting around though :-). I’ll be having a wander around town tomorrow afternoon.

The Mall run brought :
A drawing pad and pencils – probably nothing from them tonight because I want to take Odo’s Courage out for a ride and my right wrist is a bit sore.
Very odd looks from the lady on the sausage-inna-bun stall. I think she thinks I’m strange. I think she’s a good judge of character.

Elitecember theme today is “Explosion”, which could be a bit tough to draw … But I do have screenshots :

That was something that exploded on the weekend.

That’s a massive Red Giant star (Betelgeuse) that will at some point soon (in astronomical terms), contract and explode. No boom yet.

That was something that was attempting to make my Buggy explode, my ship was being helpful by providing top cover air defence.

The star on the left had exploded at some point, collapsing into I think a White Dwarf in this case. Also Python in the sun.

And there we go ! See you all tomorrow.

Hello everyone,

We’ve reached Day 11 ! Actually sketches today. I’ve been watching Salvation series 2 on Netflix, which means the display I use for sketching on digitally gets used for watching the Netflix. However … I have a small drawing pad …

But first, what’s behind the doors today ?

Confession – I made an error yesterday. I mistook one Krogan for another. Instead of Urdnot Wrex, it was Grunt. One Krogan scientist’s answer to the genophage was to ignore it … He believed that the characteristics selected by the genophage was the ability to survive it, not the characteristics of the ideal Krogan. So he set out to make the perfect Krogan, Grunt was born and introduced in the second game. Another rough, tough, fighter and he gets his own “fate” scene in the third game. Another super powerful scene that tugs on your emotions, pretty much like all the Mass Effect games.

Today we have Legion, a Butterscotch marshmallow and a gun turret.

The marshmallow survived as long as was needed to take a picture … but just barely. I need more posh marshmallows in my life.

If you remember Tali from a few days ago, the reason her race, the Quarians, were exiled from their homeworld was due to the rise of the artificial lifeforms, the Geth. The Geth started as servitor robots but one day, they started asking questions like “Does this unit have a soul ?” and other demonstrations of impending sentience. The Quarians reacted badly to this and attempted to shut them down … resulting in an uprising where the Quarians lost.

Legion enters the story in Mass Effect 2, as a Geth who also becomes part of the team. Legion acquires their own story and even though they are devoid of emotions, they are every bit as powerful as the rest of the team. Or maybe they do have emotions, wrapped up in code, unravelled in the mysteries of the network and as unfathomable as the figures at the last decimal places.

Elitecember’s theme today is “Python” and I have a hell of a ship to show you today :

That paint job is magnificent is it not ? I never believed that I would spend money on cosmetic items like this but that livery is absolutely stunning. The Python is a good ship too, a great all rounder that’s capable of trading at every port, fending off attacks by pirates and finding its way into every corner and getting out again intact.

Let’s have another look :

Pretty. I haven’t taken the Odo’s Courage out of the hangar yet though. Haven’t had time. (Plus watching Salvation on Netflix also uses the screen that the internet spaceships go on). The name is for Rene Auberjonois, who played Odo in Star Trek Deep Space 9. He’s the latest of a succession of people who have been lost to the world in recent weeks.

Odo was a fantastic character in Deep Space 9. Sensitive, wanting to learn, cynical, relentless, caring. Starting as a unique individual, we saw him questing to find where he belonged in the galaxy. What were his origins, who were his people. Who would he be able to call family. Odo went through so many trials throughout the series and this remarkable character set the tone for so much of DS9.

I’ve remarked about how the voice actors in Mass Effect brought their characters to life. Rene Auberjonois did the same wherever I’ve seen him. I’ve sadly not seen him in much, DS9, Librarians, Warehouse 13, NCIS, ST Enterprise, SG-1 but it was a privilege to see his work.

Definitely one we’ll miss, as will the others like Mr Troi, Roxette’s Marie Fredriksson and so many others. And it felt fitting to name this ship after Odo.

There have been other Pythons … (It’s a great ship)

That one isn’t mine and exploded not long after this screenshot was taken. (Night vision was active so I could see the rocks)

This one was Shipka, named after a tradition from Katherine of Sky. Everything gets a “-ka!” after the name. Including internet spaceships. It felt like something fun to do at the time. Still does 😀

And that’s the back end of the Python from my first game.

There will be more shots of Pythons later. Oh … sketchiness may have happened :

And then more sketch :

There are a few paint jobs with patterns like that :-).

See you tomorrow for “Explosion”. Uhoh …

Hello everyone,

Day 10 ! No drawing today. I had an idea but I think it’d be a bit too much. Plus I haven’t used the ship in question, so griefing about it wouldn’t be fair.

(I’ll gripe about it a bit later on)

What’s behind the doors today ?

Milk and Cookies marshmallow survived this time for picture taking !

Again, not the best but not the best with these marshmallows (not sponsored) is still pretty great. This may well count as Best Advent Calendar Ever :-D.

I had no idea what the Star Wars thingy is today so I had to look it up again … Apparently it’s the Jakku Quadjumper from The Force Awakens :

(link to original post – Jays Brick Log)

Our Mass Effect character of the day is Urdnot Wrex, who joins the story in the first game. He’s a Krogan, which are essentially the Mass Effect version of Klingons. A warrior race, tougher than most armoured tanks and warships with aggression to match. Also pretty intelligent, especially when it comes to things that go bang.

An ongoing theme in the games is the Krogan Genophage, where to stop a newly technologically uplifted Krogan race from rapidly dominating the galaxy, genetic engineering warfare was used to drastically cut their birth rate. This marks the Krogan psychology and finding a way to end the genophage is a recurring theme in the games. It’s another way of making them different and interesting. Urdnot Wrex is an especially tough cookie and a great member of the team.

The Elite theme today is Type 10, which is a ship that emerged a little while ago as some kind of deviant aberration. I haven’t owned one (and will keep it to the very end) but, this is the shipyard page :

This one started out as the Type 9 freighter, which I see as a bit of a necessary evil … it carries a huge amount but … it’s a slow space truck and nothing more. With the Type 10, cargo space was sacrificed in favour of improved defences and weaponry. Perhaps better manoeuvrability too if the shipyard page is to be believed. I might get one when I hit the 4 billion credit mark. Not before though, there are better ships to fly.

I’ve just retired this one :

The Black Sheep, coming in on approach to Jameson Memorial, her job complete and retiring with honour.

And coming in to dock again. The Black Sheep served well as a cargo carrier, mission runner, secure courier and was also the peril of all most some of those who attempted to interfere. A fine ship.

She went off to far off places ….

And prevailed when other, lesser ships may have succumbed to their damage. No duck tape was required with the damage to that canopy.

But all good things and all that, I picked up 2 ships today. One will make an appearance tomorrow (needs fitting out, plus THEME !) and I’m saving the Corvette for later. However …

Meet the Admiral Luperza, a Federal Corvette named in honour of the lovely Maggie Krohn (see links on the right hand column again) who is a stalwart of Roll4it, maker of awesomeness in games, wonderful leader of communities and all round amazing person. As the final ship in the Roll4it Federation line, it was fitting that Maggie (Luperza is one of her gaming names and I thought the name had a great ring to it) get the best one. The ship that would be in charge.

The Admiral Luperza will stay in the hangar for a little while though, I’m saving this one for when I’ve gone through another few ships. Plus I’m feeling that itch to get out and about around the galaxy again and this ship is definitely not the ship for that :-). It’s built for shooting things …

Is that the dinner bell ? Time to hit Publish and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Day 9 !

What’s behind the doors today ?

Another Gingerbread Marshmallow today. Not their best, still really good :-).

We have another minifigure today, in the form of Luke the Jedi Master. I’m wondering what he’ll get up to in the last film.

The Mass Effect character is the deeply tragic, Thane Krios. He’s introduced in Mass Effect 2 as a Drell assassin hired to help you out. You meet him on a mission where he’s on his way to fulfil a contract (i.e. assassinate) an insane Asari lady who you actually come across in the first game. He’s silently staying just a few steps ahead as you make your way through the mission and you meet up at the end. A tragic figure, he suffers from Kepral’s Syndrome as a result of his race being transplanted from a desert world to a humid, ocean covered world. This condition is terminal for our brave assassin so he’s using what time he has left in the cause of our protagonist.

I didn’t use Thane in game much but his tale is especially compelling. From his introduction, through exposition around missions, to his eventual fate. That last scene is another of the reasons why I haven’t been able to play through Mass Effect 3 again, the writing, characters and their various fates brings out all the emotions and feels.

What can I say, the Mass Effect series has some incredible characters and very special voice acting to bring those characters to life.

The Elitecember theme for today is Scanning and … I don’t think I have any Elite screenshots for you today on that theme … However.

In honour of the wonderful Potato Queen Cmdr Kolo (link to twitch on the right), I present :

He’s giving that potato a good long look. Not happy with the right arm on this one and the wing limb could do with being a lot lower but … This one is another graphics tablet plus GIMP again and I like some of GIMP’s features more than I do Corel Painter Essentials. The Corel product has far better choice of brushes to draw with though as GIMP is limited to Pencil, Painter or Airbrush plus tools like the dodge tool I’ve used to create the white highlights.

That one was the warm up … This is the main one :

Click for bigger and more readable references.

I’m at a loss for tomorrow’s Elite pics though. The theme is Type 10 and … I’ll save griping about that one for tomorrow.

Later !

PS I know what the dwagon holding the potato needs … More fingers ! The pose was intended to be a hand holding the potato from below but I think it needed something different.

Hello everyone,

Day 8 of Advent ! What’s behind the doors today :

There we go.

Another Mint Choc Chip marshmallow today – this one was lush last time so I’m looking forward to eating this one. (Yep, it has survived so far, I thought I should get something more proper in me first !)

Not too sure that the Lego item is today though … (quick peek at spoiler places later, it’s the island in Last Jedi).

In the background we have the daily Mass Effect lore pic and it’s the turn of Miranda Lawson today. She turned up in the second game and was essentially your handler and ship Executive Officer. Except it doesn’t really work out that way in games like that and she’s essentially another member of the crew with specific talents who you can bring along on missions. In the case of Miranda, she had been genetically improved for intelligence, looks and biotic power.

This character got a lot of stick for that and for good reasons too …

The biotic powers weren’t quite as good as the other primary biotics (spoiler redacted but I fell foul of it in my first play through).
The intelligence wasn’t brought out in the character development and writing.
The looks were exploited by means of That Outfit and the poses which the animation team put the character in.

I liked Miranda … but I was cringing at certain elements of the characterisation which, as said above, were just plain exploitative. Her counterpart, Jacob, had similar issues … he just played with his guns and did crunches all day. Nothing more interesting than that.

It’s a shame too because the other characters were far more fleshed out and intelligently written, making you have genuine feelings for them. I’m sure there are a few more of those coming up and I’ll write about them as their turn comes.

The Elite theme for today is Orrery and it’s another where I struggled to find something I could draw something for, outside of screenshots. The usual view of solar systems in Elite is like :

The system is represented in a logical format, showing you the stars, planets and whether there is anything juicy to look at. This one is Jambo Dadi, where I was enjoying doing some bounty hunting yesterday. The Orrery is a more 3d representation of the system :

And there we go. I don’t think that actually tells you much ?

That’s the system map for our Solar System. In Elite terms, we have a pretty complicated solar system with lots of moons and moonlets orbiting around the bigger planets. (Click for bigger and hopefully readable text and … picture’s from the wiki). The typical interesting systems tend to have between 10 and 20 objects to have a look at.

Scanning’s tomorrow actually, I should do some more prep for that.

May add something later too … my Elite character is about 500 ly away from Sol at the moment but I may well add in a picture of how our place looks in the two views. Actually, let’s do that …

There’s the system map. Looks like they’ve added in a bunch of extra-solar objects over to the right there and just counted the smaller moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

There’s the outer system Orrery, showing the gas giants and those extra-solar objects …

And finally, the inner system. The Orrery nicely shows the representation of how far apart the various objects are.

That’s it for today I think !

Day 7 !

What’s behind the doors today ?

In the foreground, we have Chewbacca doing something horrible with a Porg over the fire, plus a S’Mores marshmallow. Tasty, tasty S’Mores marshmallow.

Today’s Mass Effect pic is Tali’Zorah vas Neema, as she starts in the second game. Tali is a beloved character in the game series, voiced admirably by Ash Sroka (IMDB link). It’s a pretty short list there but I know she’s been in more roles (like the Xenophile advisor in Stellaris) and she really brings Tali’Zorah to life. There are many amazing characters in the Mass Effect series and Tali is quite possibly, the most loved of them all.

And it’s the voice acting that turns the words into something that makes that happen.

One curious thing is that the Quarian race of which Tali is one of, is a very slightly different race to the norm. Pretty much all of the Mass Effect intelligent races are bipedal humanoid in shape, with variances along that theme. So the Turians (Garrus from yesterday) and the Quarians have exoskeletons and need different food. The Quarians also have an extra joint in their legs, which coincidentally makes them look like they wear high heels all the time.

They are also forced to live in ships, the Migrant Fleet, after being evicted from their homeworld by the artificially intelligent Geth and consequentially, inside environmentally sealed suits as they have minimal immune systems. This also drives their naming convention, so Tali’Zorah vas Neema is Tali of the family Zorah of the ship Neema.

It’s all part of making a fantastic universe to dip in to as you play.

Today’s Elite theme is “White Dwarf”, another where I’m not sure how I would have pulled off a drawing. But … I do have screenshots ….

Oh wait. Wrong White Dwarf. I can’t remember how many of these I bought over the years ! White Dwarf was a gaming magazine owned and run by Games Workshop, who you may recognise from how they’ve expanded into being a pretty ubiquitous presence. They’ve done well too, instead of exploding and imploding like so many others who rapidly established a presence, they’ve survived where so many have disappeared.

Some of that is probably due to being able to exploit their market … they are pretty much the only wargame miniature figure producers. But it’s also because people are highly interested in playing with the stuff. Their games are all over the place and some of that is copying from those who came before (orcs, dwarves, elves …), some of that is making the rules easy to understand and play.

I started buying White Dwarf at issue 98 and back then, it was a mix of background articles, rules previews, tutorial guides on building models and painting them and it had huge amounts in there of artwork in both the drawn and modelling world.

The sad realisation came though a few years later that it wasn’t so much a hobbyist magazine any more, it had turned in to a marketing arm aimed at selling their product. I lost interest and walked away from buying it. Part of that was down to eliminate buying stuff that wasn’t food though. Yeah, been there, it’s not fun. But then I started working and my finances looked up from there on in.

What is a White Dwarf in the real world ?

The in game graphics may not be representative of the real stars !

Here we have the Searching for Biscuits looking on at a rapidly vibrating White Dwarf star. They are degenerate stars at the end of their life which are in a cooling phase. They’ve burned up all of their fuel, gone through the expansion in to a red giant like Betelgeuse and started contracting and cooling as their fuel source runs out. They start at a particular size (between 8 and 10 solar masses), outside of which other things will happen to the star, like degeneration in to a neutron star or a nova explosion.

The colour comes from what happens when the hydrogen fuel runs out. Normally stellar fusion will start with Hydrogen with one proton and fuse it into heavier elements like Helium (2 protons), Lithium (3 protons), Beryllium (4 protons) and then into Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen. Stellar fusion is how everything in the galaxy becomes more than the base protons, neutrons and electrons. And novae and supernovae are how those elements become spread throughout the galaxy, to form the worlds that orbit younger stars. But before then, the balance of the elements in the star determines their colour (spectroscopy) with the carbon and oxygen in the White Dwarf producing that colour.

There’s more about them in the wiki page (link!).

Astronomy is a great science to dip in to occasionally, although it can get mind bending.

Cya tomorrow.

Hello everyone !

Still tired today so I haven’t ventured out to Bath Xmas Market … although that will mean some more time for Internet Spaceships and shooting things in the Fer-De-Lance, amongst other things.

What’s in the box today ?

There we go. It’s a New Republic / Resistance transport ship, as seen in The Force Awakens. I suspect we’ll see these again in Rise of Skywalker.

I’ve tried something else today … a stage ! Yes. It’s a D&D 4th edition expansion book. The Mass Effect book is pretty large, so I thought I needed something to lift everything up so that I could easily get everything in shot.

I think it’ll evolve into having something larger as my stage in the days to come. The underside of a Star Wars Advent Calendar box (I think last year’s !) may well do nicely.

But wait … there is something missing in that picture.

Hmm.

What was that again ?

Today’s marshmallow was a Milk and Cookies marshmallow and it may have disappeared (mysteriously) before even getting to the stairs that lead to where I’m taking the pictures.

How about the internet spaceships ? No drawing today sadly. Not really feeling it and I’ll take the next couple of days off drawing too unless a daft idea pops into the head. I’d like to try drawing faces again, perhaps looking to keep it simple too. Some of the best drawings I see are really simple coloured line art that just rely on precision and a good idea.

The other thing about taking a couple of days out of the drawing practice is the themes … I could echo a picture of today’s theme (Anaconda) but I’m not convinced for White Dwarf and Orrery. But … I do have screenshots !

I went off investigating again, at hearing the rumour of another crashed ship with potential TREASURE. Alas, it looked like the site had been picked fairly clean already but there was a little more to the tale to see.

The stern actually looked fairly undamaged.

And the rear section of this Anaconda looked fairly ok too.

Erm … that doesn’t look right. I think it’s missing something. Like half the bow section.

I’d just like it to be known at this point that I wasn’t the pilot. Honest.

And a better view of the port side. That one left a mark ! Looks like something impacted and then punched right through the side of the ship. No wonder it went down hard.

I’ve found a few more of these mighty ships along the journeys into the beyond …

Yep. Didn’t crash that one either.

I haven’t owned an Anaconda in Elite for quite some time. I stopped playing my second commander before getting there and I think I didn’t own one for long with my first. It’s a great all rounder but a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none only one.

Let’s see – at that level of end game ship, the alternatives are :
Type 9 freighter – biggest cargo capacity (756t in mine)
Federal Corvette – best combat going on warship level (but needs unlocking)
Imperial Cutter – best trader, taking over from the Type 9 when you unlock it
Type 10 – dunno what anyone would use this for
Beluga – built to be a passenger liner
The Anaconda holds maybe 450t as a cargo ship but …

It’s an awesome exploration ship. The one I eventually have will have a 70ly jump range, even with an extra fuel tank, which makes it quite superior to the 65ly jump range Krait Phantom I’ll use next.

But there’s a little while and a few ships to go through before then.

Cya tomorrow !

PS And I got the day wrong again. Oops ! Fixed.

Hello everyone,

Work Xmas Munchie thing today. It was good.

Instead of the typical thing where a heap (think 100+) people head off for the end of year munchie meal, my team has been doing a smaller one for the last couple of years. It’s worked pretty well, we went to a place called 3 Brothers Burgers again today. Instead of the usual one bite feeds all (no it doesn’t) sheep dip quality meal that you get from the big places, proper burger and tasty. I did take a pic but I’ll hold it back until later.

(Erm – post ed – it’s really badly affected by motion blurring so … no pic)

It was a good burger, with great company from the team too. They’re probably still going at it too in town. I’ve been feeling like I’ve been bouncing on the reserves point of my personal batteries though, so I headed off home between meal and inevitable pubcrawl.

What’s behind the door today ?

I do like the X Wing starfighter. It’s a good design (although it’s done for looks more than what they actually do with the design). That’s the thing with Star Wars stuff, it tends to look great … but the actual functionality rarely makes sense. That’s overthinking things though, they’re still fun movies to watch.

Anyway – X Wing starfighter … the wings allow for atmospheric flight, if a canny designer was involved there would be reaction control (roll and pitch) thrusters at the end of the wings and the pilot is smack bang in the middle. Having the thrusters far out means they’re more effective. And the wings give a good spread for the laser blasters. If the pilot is at the middle of the craft at the centre of rotation, it means they are more or less immune to the forces involved when spinning, when yawing, pitching and rolling.

Yep. I like the X Wing … and may have (counts on fingers) … I think it’s 5 Lego ones now.

The marshmallow it’s sitting on is Salted Caramel flavour, which is one of the more subtle ones. Still a favourite and I’ll pick up a packet of that flavour when I get chance.

The Mass Effect picture of the day is Liara T’Soni :

She’s one of the favourite Non Player Characters from the series. You pick her up on a planet in the first game and she has a combination of soft, smart, innocent, gritty. The Mass Effect series was blessed with many great characters and Liara was one of the best.

The Elite prompt for the day was stars … I was wondering how I’d do this one and then thought I’d try replicating a chalkboard picture style today. I’m still coming to terms with the tools on offer and instead of a Chalk style painting tool, I was using GIMP’s airbrush on a black background. This was the first time I’ve used the graphics tablet in GIMP, so far I’ve only been using it in Painter Essentials.

I couldn’t resist a couple of easter eggs again.

Here’s one I screenshotted a while ago :

Hmm …

Hopefully my sun came out ok. Ship’s dodgy but I can live with that.

I think that’s the one where I started looking for a place to hide from the sun.

That one was a pretty place.

Tired now. Off work tomorrow burning up that flexi credit (and replenishing the batteries).

Cya !

PS Actually need to open up the game again ! Haven’t played since last week and I have a couple of screenshots I need to set up and collect …

Day 5 !

What’s in the box … or behind the doors :

A gun emplacement for the stormtrooper today. The marshmallow is Gingerbread flavoured, not so good as the previous days, still tasty.

Over to the Elitecember challenge !

It’s Guardians today and my brain went somewhere odd with the drawn picture :

Hopefully that one is fairly recognisable, even without the words making it more obvious. Mantis is a favourite of mine from the Guardians but I’m not keen on that mouth.

I think I’m learning …. very, very slowly :-D. I should draw other things than dwagons, one reason being is that their lower halves feel very difficult to draw.

Talking of drawing other things, here is another Guardian :

People love the little guy. Although instead of Baby Yoda, I think that’s more like Middle Aged Yoda.

How about these Elite Guardians though ? The lore has them being a precursor empire race, which has disappeared from our section of the galaxy, leaving behind ruins, secrets and mysteries to uncover. I haven’t gone into the Guardians too much, outside of acquiring the widget that boosts your hyperspace jumping range … but I do have some screenies :

I have to admit, these are from a post from a little while ago. Here I am in the rover, checking out an artifact.

The mystery involves running around, unlocking the pillars, completing the puzzle …

Avoiding the automated defences, including the occasional missile that gets thrown your way … Here is the ship providing an umbrella of anti air defence. The light show was pretty spectacular in game.

And then you get the prize at the end. Totally not getting shot at from off screen there.

And then there’s the final one of the collection.

I’ll have to go back at some point and find one of these locations in daylight. The lighting works pretty well in game but it’s also quite dark. It’s nice to have a bit of light there to show off what’s around in the landscape.

More tomorrow ! Let’s see … “Star”. Off out tomorrow, so I may not have time for a quick sketch plus I’m not sure what I’d draw for Star too. I think it’ll be screenshots when I get home tomorrow.

Day 3 !

Been a busy day today, with an away trip for a meeting away from where I normally work and then back to do shopping on the way home before settling in now to watch a few more episodes of the Mars series.

Oh – never go shopping while hungry. I now have donuts. And lots more stuff.

What’s behind the doors today ?

A stormtrooper and a Butterscotch marshmallow. Lush again. The butterscotch taste kicks in a second or so after that first bite. Good times.

Oh and don’t worry about the stormtrooper aiming at it like he thinks it needs shooting … they never hit.

In the background is another theme I’ll be running for as long as it lasts, that’s Femshep from the Mass Effect games. She’s a space marine who runs headlong into a quest to save the galaxy from mysterious unstoppable machine intelligences who come back every few 10,000 years to eradicate all life from the galaxy that has progressed past a certain technology level. Mass Effect gave us a wonderful series of games and I must play it again.

Oh and Femshep, best shep. One reason I tend to play female characters in games is because I like the voice acting more and Jennifer Hale (who voices Femshep) is one of the very best voice actors.

What’s the Elite theme for today ? It’s the iconic Cobra Mk3, star of the original game going back to 1984. I may have attempted a real drawing with a pen on paper. Check this out :

Couldn’t resist adding the mini dwagon.

Anyway, how does it compare to the original ?

There we go. The ships to bottom left and in the centre are Cobras, the little ones are Sidewinders, centre right is a Python and I think the bottom right is a Fer-de-Lance.

The original game, released in 1984, was a complete marvel. It fit into the 32kbytes of memory that the BBC B microcomputer contained and pushed the limits of what was possible with those machines by presenting a fully 3d environment with wireframe 3d graphics.

Computers and graphics have come a long way since then though :

That’s the Cobra Mk3 Keelas Wings, approaching an engineers base for a landing and a souping up of the hyperdrive.

It’s good too that the new game went back to some of the gameplay systems of the original game. The two games in the middle (Frontier Elite 2 and Frontier 2) went for a fully Newtonian physics model which … didn’t really work for gameplay. Instead of close, exciting dogfighting, combat was either at slow speeds at stations or an exercise in high speed jousting which just wasn’t fun. But in going back to a … funsized? flight model that’s a bit like how Star Wars treats physics, the space flying is a lot more engaging and fun.

Good times indeed.

When kicking off this month’s worth of postings, I’d intended to only do maybe 4 drawings but … I think I’ll try for more. You only get better at something if you practice and I’m not really at the Getting Better stage of practice, I’m more at the Learning The Tools level of practice.

The pictures by the end won’t be masterpieces but … hopefully people will like them !

Cya tomorrow.