Electronics for role-playing games in 2016
Electronics for role-playing games in Russia is the most complex and diverse in the world. Yes, a role player is quite often a man in the forest with a sword, only this sword is glowing. But only when approaching the orcs. And it charges from mini-USB.
A few years ago on Habré there was a series of articles about role-playing electronics (in three parts - one , two , three ). Perhaps, the time has come to tell what appeared new for 2016.
In tiny runs of devices, electronics for role-playing games is similar to electronics for questrooms. But there are differences. In the questroom, you do not need to think about the power supply of the device (for example, a complex code lock), but it is built into the wall itself, so the Arduino solutions are quite appropriate.
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Role electronics have to be used where there are no electric generators and cellular communication, so the reliability of the radio and low power consumption become the most important parameters of the device.
In addition, for role-playing games often need a dozen identical devices, which, moreover, for three days will be worn by sweaty players on themselves in the wet forest. And here the size of the board and the absence of wires become vital requirements.
Another important parameter is price. Games are paid by player fees and often go into the negative. The payment goes to pay for the venue (a private landfill or a rest home, food, a doctor, a building ... and quite a bit of electronics remains. As a rule, the workshop group (organizers) can pay for the printing of the boards and components, and the electronics engineer, the programmer, the board builders, the testers work on a volunteer basis. “Quickly, efficiently, with our surcharge”.
Magic wand, staffs and bracelets
Perhaps the biggest challenge to the role community is the magic wand. Ideally, it should be a small device that reads a magic gesture and, for example, transmits a voice command to the headset on the player to whom the spell came. The sequence of actions of the enemy - the player hears in the ear the command “Stupefay” and faints.
This functionality has not yet been implemented, but several steps have been taken to it.
Magic staffs operate on the principle of laser tag. The team that creates them has tested several solutions. The first version of the staves was made on ESP, all interactions were worked out on the server. The variant was tested and dropped due to a large delay (the reaction to pressing the button on the staff occurred after a few seconds).
The current version consists of a control board, an IR diode, an IR receiver. Wizards can choose five from a set of spells before the fight and “hang” each button on the staff.
The magic duel is now proceeding according to the following rules: mana is infinite, but you can cast the same spells after a certain time. The staff both sends a signal, and takes into account the hits, and is the “armor” (hits are divided into “live” and “armored”).
But on the other hand, biotics bracelet is used for gesture recognition: in 2013, for the game on the Witcher, gloves were made that recognize a static gesture (three different finger positions), in 2016, there was a game on Mass Effect about a school where adolescents raise martial biotics. There were several models of this transformation, they were complex (pharmacology, psychology, hypnosis), one of the models was fighting gestures that needed to be done correctly.
Three-component gestures, with the correct performance of the first component, the bracelet vibrates, the second one vibrates, the third component is followed by a flash of a certain color.
And here you can see why it is easier to invent electronics for role-playing games than electronics for quests. They have to rely on an unprepared audience and prepare the most anti-vandal solutions. The participant in the role-playing game read the rules and follows them - if a red light is on at the door, he considers it locked, if the enemy has blinded him with a red flash - he believes that the fireball has come to him.
Mad Max and Cars
At the game MAD MAD MAX in the Leningrad region, of course, there were cars and motorcycles that could not be destroyed “for life” - and did not want to leave without gasoline either. And I wanted to shoot at the wheelbarrows and fight for gasoline, so that gasoline became digital, and the shots were infrared.
The workshop team developed an application for Android, which read the GPS position, calculated the mileage, wear, gas mileage, determined via Bluetooth via a signal from the IR sensors, and through it controlled the color of the beacons on the car. Beacons signaled about the state of the machine. Of course, the trip computer was not connected to any systems of the car - the driver had to stop the motor when he saw the STOP sign on the screen.
In order to fill up the gas station, it was necessary to enter the digital code from the canister into the trip computer. After refueling the code became invalid; She demanded communication with the Internet. In the selected point of the Leningrad region, this, fortunately, is not a problem.
Inhuman abilities and unusual situations
Back in 2010, on the game “The Second Epoch”, the Circlers could feel the presence of each other. In addition to the ring, each wore a bag around his neck. Vibration, similar to a heartbeat, made it clear that the other owner of the magic ring is nearby (stealth is important for role-playing electronics, so that vibration in many ways is better suited for interaction between the device and the user than light or sound).
Here's how this problem is being solved now. We need to demonstrate the inhuman abilities of the Jedi. Weak Jedi can feel the perturbation of the Force nearby, the more experienced also feel other force users. Each of them wears a medallion and feels the vibration in the rhythm of the heartbeat.
The same setting, another game.
Something terrible is coming, everyone should feel that the cataclysm is beginning.
The information about the cataclysm is transmitted by small radio transmitters, “follautodevice”, hung around the landfill (so named because they were designed for modeling. The zones on “Fallout” in 2014 worked as radiation sources and health bars on the characters). Every player has a medallion, and when the Cataclysm begins, it feels a vibration. The medallion is also responsible for the health of the character - you can stick a “pill” in it for treatment. The pill is a 2 kb flash drive, which costs 20 rubles and can hold ID in it (so that one dose is not tried to be taken several times).
Medallion inside and out.
In the same 2016, the medallions were reprogrammed and hung on artifacts. Collected in one place, the artifacts at the press of a button initiated a portal that is critical for the plot (in the form of a glowing stone: a radio, a lot of LED tape and foam).
In 2017 there will be new devices and new technologies - for example, a team from Siberia is working on devices from the movie “Time”. If they succeed, it will be possible to pay with minutes of their own life - or rather, the life of the character.
Photos used:
1. Magic wands - from the group “Tower. The ascent .
2. From the game MAD MAD MAX - to Yulia Tishkova and the Big Report team .
3. From the game "Generation" - White Drozd Photography .
4. From the game “Dalan-16/2” - Katerina Sushko.
5. From the geek picnic - Ira Abzalova.
A few years ago on Habré there was a series of articles about role-playing electronics (in three parts - one , two , three ). Perhaps, the time has come to tell what appeared new for 2016.
In tiny runs of devices, electronics for role-playing games is similar to electronics for questrooms. But there are differences. In the questroom, you do not need to think about the power supply of the device (for example, a complex code lock), but it is built into the wall itself, so the Arduino solutions are quite appropriate.
')
Role electronics have to be used where there are no electric generators and cellular communication, so the reliability of the radio and low power consumption become the most important parameters of the device.
In addition, for role-playing games often need a dozen identical devices, which, moreover, for three days will be worn by sweaty players on themselves in the wet forest. And here the size of the board and the absence of wires become vital requirements.
Another important parameter is price. Games are paid by player fees and often go into the negative. The payment goes to pay for the venue (a private landfill or a rest home, food, a doctor, a building ... and quite a bit of electronics remains. As a rule, the workshop group (organizers) can pay for the printing of the boards and components, and the electronics engineer, the programmer, the board builders, the testers work on a volunteer basis. “Quickly, efficiently, with our surcharge”.
Magic wand, staffs and bracelets
Perhaps the biggest challenge to the role community is the magic wand. Ideally, it should be a small device that reads a magic gesture and, for example, transmits a voice command to the headset on the player to whom the spell came. The sequence of actions of the enemy - the player hears in the ear the command “Stupefay” and faints.
This functionality has not yet been implemented, but several steps have been taken to it.
Magic staffs operate on the principle of laser tag. The team that creates them has tested several solutions. The first version of the staves was made on ESP, all interactions were worked out on the server. The variant was tested and dropped due to a large delay (the reaction to pressing the button on the staff occurred after a few seconds).
The current version consists of a control board, an IR diode, an IR receiver. Wizards can choose five from a set of spells before the fight and “hang” each button on the staff.
The magic duel is now proceeding according to the following rules: mana is infinite, but you can cast the same spells after a certain time. The staff both sends a signal, and takes into account the hits, and is the “armor” (hits are divided into “live” and “armored”).
But on the other hand, biotics bracelet is used for gesture recognition: in 2013, for the game on the Witcher, gloves were made that recognize a static gesture (three different finger positions), in 2016, there was a game on Mass Effect about a school where adolescents raise martial biotics. There were several models of this transformation, they were complex (pharmacology, psychology, hypnosis), one of the models was fighting gestures that needed to be done correctly.
Three-component gestures, with the correct performance of the first component, the bracelet vibrates, the second one vibrates, the third component is followed by a flash of a certain color.
And here you can see why it is easier to invent electronics for role-playing games than electronics for quests. They have to rely on an unprepared audience and prepare the most anti-vandal solutions. The participant in the role-playing game read the rules and follows them - if a red light is on at the door, he considers it locked, if the enemy has blinded him with a red flash - he believes that the fireball has come to him.
Mad Max and Cars
At the game MAD MAD MAX in the Leningrad region, of course, there were cars and motorcycles that could not be destroyed “for life” - and did not want to leave without gasoline either. And I wanted to shoot at the wheelbarrows and fight for gasoline, so that gasoline became digital, and the shots were infrared.
The workshop team developed an application for Android, which read the GPS position, calculated the mileage, wear, gas mileage, determined via Bluetooth via a signal from the IR sensors, and through it controlled the color of the beacons on the car. Beacons signaled about the state of the machine. Of course, the trip computer was not connected to any systems of the car - the driver had to stop the motor when he saw the STOP sign on the screen.
In order to fill up the gas station, it was necessary to enter the digital code from the canister into the trip computer. After refueling the code became invalid; She demanded communication with the Internet. In the selected point of the Leningrad region, this, fortunately, is not a problem.
Inhuman abilities and unusual situations
Back in 2010, on the game “The Second Epoch”, the Circlers could feel the presence of each other. In addition to the ring, each wore a bag around his neck. Vibration, similar to a heartbeat, made it clear that the other owner of the magic ring is nearby (stealth is important for role-playing electronics, so that vibration in many ways is better suited for interaction between the device and the user than light or sound).
Here's how this problem is being solved now. We need to demonstrate the inhuman abilities of the Jedi. Weak Jedi can feel the perturbation of the Force nearby, the more experienced also feel other force users. Each of them wears a medallion and feels the vibration in the rhythm of the heartbeat.
The same setting, another game.
Something terrible is coming, everyone should feel that the cataclysm is beginning.
The information about the cataclysm is transmitted by small radio transmitters, “follautodevice”, hung around the landfill (so named because they were designed for modeling. The zones on “Fallout” in 2014 worked as radiation sources and health bars on the characters). Every player has a medallion, and when the Cataclysm begins, it feels a vibration. The medallion is also responsible for the health of the character - you can stick a “pill” in it for treatment. The pill is a 2 kb flash drive, which costs 20 rubles and can hold ID in it (so that one dose is not tried to be taken several times).
Medallion inside and out.
In the same 2016, the medallions were reprogrammed and hung on artifacts. Collected in one place, the artifacts at the press of a button initiated a portal that is critical for the plot (in the form of a glowing stone: a radio, a lot of LED tape and foam).
In 2017 there will be new devices and new technologies - for example, a team from Siberia is working on devices from the movie “Time”. If they succeed, it will be possible to pay with minutes of their own life - or rather, the life of the character.
Photos used:
1. Magic wands - from the group “Tower. The ascent .
2. From the game MAD MAD MAX - to Yulia Tishkova and the Big Report team .
3. From the game "Generation" - White Drozd Photography .
4. From the game “Dalan-16/2” - Katerina Sushko.
5. From the geek picnic - Ira Abzalova.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/403385/
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