hey Mezike,
I use Vassal for war games and it is ideal as a tracking module. That is essentially all it is. The current vassal module looks great but is very restricted, so probably not much use unless you are happy with a few heroes.
Mechanically Absolute Zero needs at least two cards to become extremely effect, those cards are Null-Point Callibration Unit (Whenever he is dealt Cold damage, he gets healed by that much instead) and Isothermic Transducer (Whenever he is dealt fire damage he also deals 1 target that much cold damage) so basically I went a little bit without the Transducer, so I was basically just healing myself for the first, probably 4/5 rounds. A lot of his cards has effects that does something then deals himself either cold or fire damage, sometimes even both. After getting those two there are a lot of options to choose from.
In the case of when I played HoarFire, I had originally stated that I would be full health on my turn, which I then switched to saying I will be the lowest. HoarFire deals 1 targer 2 cold damage. A second target 2 fire damage. Then himself 1 cold and 1 fire damage. Initially I was going to use the cold damage on myself, thus healing, and the fire damage to Voss. Then of course I would take the 1 cold and fire, which I would be able to hit Voss for cold damage again since I was hit by fire. But after remembering that Voss deals fire to the lowest, I decided it would be much more beneificial to be the lowest, so I then used the cold damage on Voss, hit myself with the fire damage, thus once again hitting Voss, followed by me dealing myself 1 cold and 1 fire damage and hitting Voss with more cold damage since I was once again hit by fire.
The scary thing is that the example I did was only one card. So many cards work together in his deck that cause so much going on in a single turn that he sometimes will need to take the time to think things out.
Themetically I like to think AZ's slow build is becausehe doesn't care what is going on until the something happens that effects him toa great deal. In our game it seems to be the defeat of Visionary since the turn following that is when I actually did damage, and not just a little bit of damage, a whole whopping 17 points worth.
Hey Ronway,
That post is just mental. I'd struggle to follow the sequence with the cards laid out in front of me, but I get the gist.
From a newcomer's perspective, it was very thematic. The team spent the first few turns battling minions and putting some hurt on Voss. AZ just healed himself. At the time, I thought it was pretty funny. I was HOPING that something was brewing, and that was proven to be the case with the 17 point damage turn.
In my mind, I could see AZ summoning up his internal energy over time them BAM! Unleashing it on Voss.
cool game
Well I've figured out how to do the automatic image change in excel and now have a working model! Very cool. I just need to put the card names into the database then I guess I ought to get some permission before actually using it anywhere (there's no game text or card art, just the card names). If anyone fancies taking it for a test drive I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend 
Pic attached of what it currently looks like (a bit more tidying up to do - column O will let you choose between variants when playing with promo cards, the database isn't done yet which is why everything is labelled as Finest, nor has the Environment been set up yet. But you get the gist of it)
Hey Mezike,
That is both cool and functional. So would you post the core mechanic in 'notes'?
I'd be happy to give I a spin.
if you like, although it may be a lot of work for the moderator. It isn't automated as the intention is not to put any rules or game effects into the spreadie. My thoughts on the notes were for things like Visionarys cards that can be played on other characters, enabling you to remind everybody where that card should be, or if you want to highlight a damage buff for the other players benefit. It will remain an open text input in any case, although I am now inspired to add an automated Nemesis indicator!
Anyone up for a game tomorrow, Sunday the 9th of Dec. possibly around 9 or 10 a.m. central time, which is -6 GMT. Skype or Google + works for me. Just post if you think you can make it and your preference in program to use.
That should be about 6 or 7 at night for me. I should be able to do it.
I can make it tomorrow, 10am would suit better than 9. I'm happy with any method but prefer voice over text.
Sorry, I calculated wrong. It will be 1:00 am on Monday for me, and I have to work Tuesday morning, and so I'm going to have to back out of this one.
I can make that. My mic doesn't work so I've no choice but text and Skype worked well
I won't be able to make any games today, however I am pleased to announce that I have finished the spreadie!
I'm not going to guarantee that I haven't missed anything, plus as I do not yet have Unity or Ambuscade so the details for those characters are not yet in the database (offers of help with this will be appreciated.) I have also added the Shattered Timelines decks in readiness for the release ;-)
To clarify what this does, this is for tracking the game state, it is not an online or software implementation of the game. You pick the decks that are being used then the drop downs customise to a list of cards from that deck that can remain in play (there are no One Shots in the database as these are resolved at the time and do not need to be tracked). The absolute extent of information you will get are the card name and an indicator if it has either Ongoing or Equipment as a key word, so all participants will absolutely have to have a copy of the game to be able to make use of this. Innates and the Nemesis indicator automatically populate along with the avatar images.
I have designed this using very simple formulas and an easy to update database, so it should be very straightforward to use and difficult to break. MS Excel will be required, although if it all works out I may be persuaded to replicate this in Open Office at some point now that the most laborious parts are done.
I would envisage having one or two players looking after Villain and Environment as we have previously done, then another managing the game state as a moderator using this with their screen shared. Or one person doing all three, but it might be a bit of work if they are also playing a hero deck!
In any case I am will hold off distributing this anywhere until I get a nod that the content is acceptable, and I figure that Andy will read through this at some point which is a good enough place to start with that!
edit: Just noticed that I need to add a nemesis indicator to the Villain!
That's very cool, although I think you've underestimated just how many cards the Argent Adept can have out at one time,. I've managed to get into the high teens without much trouble.
I'll send you a PM withthe Unity and Ambuscade card names and types.
edit - Also don't forget Anubis in the environment deck is a nemesis
Yeah, there has to be a compromise at some point with getting everything all on the screen. I don't doubt that there will be challenges with use, but then you can always type the excess into the notes I guess.
edit: re Anubis I can easily add an indicator that looks for Nemesis indicators in the environments, and in any case there is the notes section to cover exceptions. I'm avoiding building something that tries to simulate the game too much so there will always be a bit of work involved for whoever is moderating, nor do I want this to turn into a never ending project with n-th degree tweaks!
PM sent
Mezike,
Don't worry. I've already taken on that Sisiphyan task. It mostly works now, but no graphics so it's very dull to look at. Also only in Excel VBA so uses LOTS of list boxes. ;-(
Oh, and e-mail sent.
Sorry for the delay, I was taking care of some business. Though it looks like Matchstick would prefer it to be at 10 anyways, so I guess me showing up now isn't so bad since I still have a half hour until 10. So I guess we'll do a comination of voice and text this time around and see how that will work out. And if we will be doing skype, then that means no video. Well... I guess we'll meet back in 30 minutes for a skype game.
Oh yeah, and those of you that want to join in and don't already have me on Skype then add wickedronway.
I've dropped a question to Christopher, Paul, and Adam in the mod forums. Will let you know if and what they reply.
Thanks Andy.
It looks like Skype will be a bit of a problem for using this method as a premium account is required to screenshare.
However Google+ Hangouts does allow screensharing for free with text and voice chat. While being shared excel starts doing a weird flickering dance like it's constantly refreshing although it isn't visible on the shared screen in the hangout, it might just be me or some settings that need to be tweaked. It's annoying but might not be an issue depending on how much time the moderator has to spend in the document. Most of the other sites I've seen that claim free screensharing are only free for a trial period, but I'm open to suggestions.
I'd like to try a text based game in this environment sometime during the week with anyone who is interested?
I'll be around most evenings this week apart from Monday. But don't know anything about Google hangouts, although I'm sure I've got an account somewhere around here.
I've used screenshare before on Skype and you don't need to pay any money for it or whatever...or is that only the case if it's only one other person who's seeing your screen?