Brueckenkopf Review: Dream Forge Valkir Heavy Troopers

Seems I have not been on top of my social media for a bit. Christian over at BK has been at it again with another wonderful review of one of our kits.

Posted below, the review that has been run through Google translate. It may not be a perfect translation but you should be able to get the main points.

Thank you again Christian for all your hard work and observations!

 See the review at BK

 

BK-Christian

 

At a glance:

Manufacturer: Dream Forge Games Product: iron core Valkir Heavy Troopers Price: € Material: hard plastic

After opening a stack waiting with 7 iron frame on us, one of which contains the Bases:

Overall terminals (sinngerweise) 20 Bases in cast frame:

The other cast frame are each represented twice, or bulging me Biits all kinds We start with Allerlei arms and torso.:

It continues with legs and bits for the lower body:

And finally come primarily arms, shoulder pads and minds:

 

 

In detail:

Who knows our previous Dreamforge reviews that the suspects probably already know that the detail, again faultlessly fails again, we have yet shot a few close

 

 

 

 

Assembly:

The models of Dreamforge Games are known for two things: their quality and complexity. to the latter has once again confirmed also at the Valkirs because that the review does not appear until today, has a simple reason: I am yesterday simply not finished.

The assembly of the Valkirs is enormously complex, which is not only due to the sheer number of components per model, but also because each and every Beinpose arm position (depending on weapon) requires a specific combination of components. All components are (still and the subfields with a letter) provided with an exact number they assign unambiguously a particular pose. The search for the right parts takes time, and the fact that alone each subfield of at least 7 members (2 legs, 1 hip, 2 side plates, and cloth or plate for front and back) which, provides extensive search and puzzles ,

To avoid chaos and mixed parts, we recommend any Beinpose build sequentially. The following figure shows the taped legs and trim for front and back. The small side plates are still missing:

For our review, we first built only 10 models whose torso respectively from the front and back as well as an optional "backpack" exist:

The pairs of arms are made of weapon and two arms which are each permanently assigned and after weapons stance (shoulder supported / from the hip firing / weapon lowered), and align the selected weapon. Some weapons consist of several parts, including the heavy rifle, which we show on our following image:

A total of four weapon types are available:

• Assault rifle (17 pieces)
• Heavy gun (10)
• Flamethrower (4 pieces)
• Mortars (4 pieces)

Grenade launchers and heavy rifle are lengthwise each halved, which must be called at least suboptimal. While this technique allows a drilled from the outset run, but the long splice makes almost inevitable for unaesthetic transitions that need to be corrected with Liquid Green Stuff. Whether the small benefits justify these expenses, is at least doubtful. When smaller mortars this problem falls way less important, because the splice is weaker here.

After assembly of sub-bodies, torsos and pairs of arms, the models looked like this:

Done:

Now, only the heads and shoulder pads had to be mounted. The set incidentally comes with 3 different options for the heads, which are each 20 times yet, so rich for the complete set. In addition to these 60 heads come back 5 heads for Commander in classic iron core look to.

We have built two teams and armed differently. First, a classic squad with flamethrowers and grenade launchers:

 

And then a team with heavy guns:

Size comparison:

For size comparison, we now have two images for you. Firstly, an image with various other iron core models (Stormtrooper, Assault and Support Valkir Valkir), and an image with a Space Marine, a Mantic Enforcer and an Antares-Algoryn:

 

Conclusion:

The Valkirs are a great kit with great worked out details, which is packed to the gills with options, and the effect really leaves nothing to be desired. The fit of the components is outstanding and the mold lines absolutely minimal. Dreamforge Games deliver with Valkirs So even hard plastic of the highest quality, and each player, which suits the style of the iron core models, making this definitely nothing wrong.

Even here, stay a few suggestions and criticisms:

• We start the previously mentioned complexity of the kit. For beginners the Valkirs are definitely not suitable and Hobby veterans should plan for the assembly neat time.
• Also, the longitudinally-divided guns are not ideal. You like design technically have their reasons, but for the hobbyist bring mainly significantly higher expenditure during assembly.
• Particularly in view of the numerous other options, the lack of real command bits is a bit of a shame. The ever-popular "Show Hand", a melee weapon or a radio module would have been nice here that 5 command heads are nice, but only fit one of the three head options, from which it is moreover not differ.

Last but not least you could still complain about the sometimes somewhat static poses, they are given the heavy armor but realistic and are also relieved by advancing and rennende leg pairs more than adequate. Especially in contrast to the much more dynamic Stormtroopers is doubly clear that the Valkirs rather slow and steady advance, while the Stormtroopers take over the race.

As for the price, the Valkirs the top of the scale sort a. With just under 60 euros for 20 men they are 10 euros cheaper than 20 tactical Space Marines (their function and equipment they correspond best) for 70 euros. They also offer more options and enrich the Bitsbox the buyer enormously (although of course not for any really a useful bonus). The Enforcer of Mantic Games fall expected slightly cheaper from (their final retail price will be known in May), while 20 Concord-Strike Trooper for Beyond the Gates of Antares with 56 Euro are almost on par with the Valkirs (they have few options when assembling in 20 men but preserves the boldness 8 light and medium drones 4 as a bonus). *

As final conclusion one can hold, therefore, that a premium kit for premium price obtained with the Valkirs who only in some details shows weakness.

What The Heck Is A Game Jam?

For those folk that are not sure what a game jam is, below is a summary of what to expect and hopefully answer some of your question.

What is a Game Jam?

A game jam is a gathering for the purpose of planning, designing, and creating one or more games within a short span of time, usually ranging between 24 and 72 hours. Game developers are generally made up of programmers, game designers, artists, and others in game development-related fields.

What time will it start and finish?

Registration opens at 3:00 pm Friday 8/26/16. The registration desk will be in front of J-202 (KSU Marietta Campus). The opening ceremonies will take place at 5:00 pm 8/26/16 in Q-202. Closing ceremonies will start around 3:00 pm on Sunday 8/28/16. We should finish up before 6:00 pm.

Does the game need to be digital?

No!!! You can make a board game.

Do I need to know how to program?

No!!! Making a game involves many disciplines. We encourage everyone to join a group that consists of people with a broad range of skill sets.  

This might help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06QR-tz1_o&feature=youtu.be

Do I need to have a team?

No!!! We actively encourage everyone to form a group on Friday afternoon.

Why am I being asked to pay a registration fee?

This money goes towards paying for the t-shirt, pizza, food, snacks, security, that will be provided throughout the game jam.

Do I have to stay for the entire 48 hours (where am I going to sleep)?

Many students choose to stay the entire game jam. Other students choose to have a rest somewhere else. It is entirely up to you what your participation will be.

Will I be safe?

We will have Public Security patrolling the building for the entire 48 hours. We will have faculty on site for the entire 48 hours.

What's in it for me?

We have found that there is a correlation between participation in the game jam and higher grades. While we can't make any promises, we think you will have some fun, meet some new people and get to make a game. And yes, we will provide a t-shirt, pizza, food, snacks, sodas, etc.

Improving Stream Content (Monday Musings 67)

Since streaming for a few months under FuzzyJCats, while learning how to improve, I never understood when people advise, "improve your stream content". What does stream content mean?

Especially, as you can see from my past stored broadcasts, I focus on talking to chat rather than gaming, and thought stream content was how to be more entertaining to your viewers. In which case, by improving stream content, I thought the advice meant that you need to be more entertaining, but again, that's a very vague notion.

For instance, what are the prescribed steps to being entertaining aside from having the requisite high energy and enthusiasm? Do you prepare topics to talk about, make up jokes before stream and the like?

Sifting through the advice to get more information, there's the very vague idea that stream content is just picking out the game you want to play. But, this is not quite the helpful advice I need, because of course, if you're going to stream games, you have to decide on which game you're going to stream!

Now that my goal is to truly enjoy the process of streaming (letting go of the notion of chasing viewer numbers), finally knowing AND feeling that deep down, I'm now focused on "gitting gud" with streaming, and of course being with my community.

I always love the challenges of improving myself as I find reaching goals very refreshing and satisfying. I think that's one of the reasons why video games are so addictive, because who doesn't want to rise to the challenge of fighting a seemingly impossible boss, staying up until 3 AM, until you beat him. And how satisfying that is when you do!

At any rate, with this new focus on one of the more important aspects of streaming ("gitting gud"), prior to my last broadcast, a light bulb went off, and I sort of got a sense of what stream content infers.

Stream content is not just thinking about what game you want to play, but how to present it in the most entertaining way. For one, we need to think about what parts of the game are the most intriguing, two what do you want to accomplish in the game, and three, how do you showcase that?

Interesting Game Content
Viewers most likely want to see the story and missions such as the cool boss fights, rather than the grinding aspects of the game such as inventory management, collecting resources, and watching me fight trash mobs hours and hours on end to level up.

Even though I love grinding, inventory management and the like, they may not be as exciting as fighting an epic Boss. An analogy is watching a football game. You want to rewind past the ads (organizing inventory) and watch the football action, preferably a touchdown (Boss fight). 

Sometimes, though, I think it does help to show the UI of the game, customization, as well as any really cool quality of life experiences the game offers, such as Odyssey allowing you to turn down the frequency of repetitive music (thank you Ubisoft!). 

What Do You Want To Accomplish?
Since I'm streaming Assassin's Creed Odyssey, there are so many things to do in this game, which was one of the astounding things about this game, so my main overarching goal is to show all these elements.

I want my viewers to see all the things this game offers, so they can get a good sense of the game. And, if they're on the fence of whether they should get the game, they can see if it's a game they'd like to play.

Therefore, I made a checklist of the pertinent gameplay elements, and my aim is to show at least one example of each. In other words, once the viewers get a sense of a bandit camp, there's no need to tackle bandit camps endlessly, and you can move onto one of many other things you can do in this game, such as puzzles.  

Spoilers of a general list that I want to present so far:

Show the many customization options
Go over the abilities and builds
Showcase all the weapons move sets, including ranged and elemental build-up
Clear out 1 Ancient Stele cave
Clear out 1 elite animal cave
Clear out 1 bandit camp
Clear out 1 military camp with brazier (trap the brazier stat)
Clear out 1 underwater location
Do 1 ainigmata puzzle
Upgrade ship x 1, and show the cosmetic choices
Kill 1 bounty hunter
Do 1 Naval battle
Take out political leader
Do 1 battle conquest
Arena quests
Defeat at least 1 of the ancient relics from the 3rd story line (i.e. minotaur, medusa, sphynx, cyclops) - open up at least the Minotaur Silver Islands Thaletas/Kyra side quest
Track and kill 1 cultist leader, Kirstjen Nielsen
Diana the hunt legendary animals
Finish the good ending family

Other things that another streamer may want to achieve are challenge runs, such as no-death runs. Quite a few streamers have gotten extremely creative about these challenge runs, like this Dark Souls 3 banana run!



But for mere mortals like me, coming up with a run of the mill objective like showcasing the diversity of Odyssey is a good starting point!

Showcasing by Prepping Pre-Stream

Odyssey is such a long and rich game that I already have 200 hrs. However, I'm only streaming 1 to 2 times a week for about 1 to 2 hrs each stream so it will take well over a year to finish the game if I don't prune content!

Realizing that streamlining is crucial, I then see where I am in the game, and determine what I want to accomplish for that stream.

For the last broadcast, I wanted to get my money back from Marcos, so my title reflects that purpose:



I then do some prep work pre-steam, such as opening up the map. This means going to all the question marks on the map, which then pop up to show if they're camps, quests and other markers, so that we can easily go to these locations during stream.

By opening up the map before stream, the viewer doesn't have to see us running back and forth to all these locations. Further, not knowing what's there, we want to avoid going to the wrong location to save time, so we can focus on the story and quests.

Another consideration is that if I'm on my way to a boss fight, and I notice I'm under-leveled and we don't want to keep fighting this same boss 100 times over until success, I can always level up before stream. Therefore, when stream starts, we're at the boss fight, ready to go!

In other words, you can easily plunge into your objective, without having your viewers suffer through the trek to get there. 

In this specific example of Marcos, now prepped, I stream until we get our drachmae back from Marcos, and that took about 2 hrs or so. I was side-tracked due to all the missions in the game, but that's okay. At least, we have a general sense of what we want to do, and although we'll invariably be side tracked, this will also showcase the game.

The tricky part here is to come up with enough gaming that will span your entire stream. So if you're going to stream 4 hours, you may want to plan more of the interesting and complex missions to do, maybe planning on doing a few boss fights as part of your content.

This clearly assumes that you know the game already and know what it offers, and what the exciting quests are. But, even if you're streaming a game for the first-time, you can do some prep.

Looking back at my Borderlands 2 first-time walk-through experience, I know I have to be well-equipped to beat missions and chapters. Since I know that I'm a bit under-leveled, I recalled grinding a few areas before streaming to be able to tank through a story chapter or side mission.

While leveling up, I also got more resources along the way.  Therefore, after this prep work is over, we can head to side or story missions for the stream, making sure the character is right near the start of the objective.

Exhibit A: One Twitch Tag is Farming

Twitch has a relatively new Tag system that helps to describe your stream content, one of which is farming (see Exhibit A). But I think viewers would prefer to watch Dark Souls' notorious boss, Ornstein & Smough, rather than whacking Balder knights until you get the rare Balder Side Sword?

If you're doing one of those ridiculously hard challenge runs like a no-death run, then clearly, you need to show the whole thing to "prove" you didn't die. But if you're a streamer who doesn't do such challenge runs, prep work can help.

In conclusion, I think this is what is meant by stream content. You figure out what goals you want to meet during stream, doing any necessary prep work before stream (if you have time), and what's the most entertaining way to present the game to your viewers.

If you're a Twitch streamer, does this make sense? Any other stream content considerations we should be thinking about would be much appreciated!

The How of Happiness Review