Picture Wars

[The_Squid]

Picture Wars is a fun Paint-based game where you post pictures of a battle and take turns editing it as the game goes on. You can create your own armies and do practically anything in-game, as long as it isnt unbalanced. The game has no real balancing methods, so you need players who are willing to play for fun, not jsut to win. I suggest you try it out!
http://www.picture-wars.com/phpBB3/

http://xs228.xs.to/xs228/08254/pw_brokenworldvd5turn7b822.png (http://xs.to)
The most recent turn in my current match. My troops are the robots.

http://xs128.xs.to/xs128/08254/hobopsychomatch54619316.png (http://xs.to)
A recent turn from a match between to of the most popular people on the forum.

[The_Squid]

UPDATE: Added pictures of matches. Has anyone checked this out yet?

[SerenityKry]

Obviously I need to , this actually looks like quite a bit of fun, add in a head set for much talking and let the battle begin!

My brother and sister would get a kick out of this!

[The_Squid]

You might have a little triouble using a headset in a turn-based forum game.

[Dumbledore lives]

Me and my friend used to play something like this, but we used a pencil and paper, it didn't look as cool but it was still pretty fun. This looks like fun and I might have to try it.

Edit: You might want to put the pictures in spoilers, they're kind of stretching the page.

[Abardam]

You had me at "Paint-based".

[Illiterate Scribe]

Damn, that looks awesome. Reminds me of the 'paper battles' that I used to play.

I believe that I have my old notebooks full of them here ...

Also, any indication on when it's starting again, the_squid?

[Jimp]

I remember playing this with a friend during boring classes with penicls and paper. Awesome fun!

[The_Squid]

Damn, that looks awesome. Reminds me of the 'paper battles' that I used to play.

I believe that I have my old notebooks full of them here ...

Also, any indication on when it's starting again, the_squid?

Starting again? Its going on now. Just go to the site, make an army, then go to the Matches section. Someone might have one going, or you can make one yourself.

[Dallas-Dakota]

SPOILER IT. FOR THE SAKE OF MY SCREEN WHICH IS ALREADY WIDE ENOUGH. SPOILER IT!
Pleases?
Might look like a fun game for when I'm bored.

[Hoplite]

Seems like a nice game. Might join in when I am ready with my exams. Are there any rules I should be aware of?

[Inhuman Bot]

It looks fun, but I can'tdraw that well in paint. and could you spoiler the pictures? It's strerchingthe page.
If you don't know how, then it's :[spoiler] your text here [ /spoiler], but with no space between [ and /.

[Bryn]

In other words, Snape kills dumbledore!.

Registered, and I'll get to drawing upon the morrow. So far, the community seems to be reasonable, and there are some excellent artists posting there. A question: how fast does a typical War progress? One post per day? Several?

[Mc. Lovin']

In other words, Snape kills dumbledore!.

You might want to spoiler that (... again) for those who havn't read it :smalltongue:

[The_Squid]

In other words, Snape kills dumbledore!.

Registered, and I'll get to drawing upon the morrow. So far, the community seems to be reasonable, and there are some excellent artists posting there. A question: how fast does a typical War progress? One post per day? Several?

A game can go pretty fast in the beginning, but slow down later. Typically, after someone says they've joined, you each take around 3-4 turns before someone has to leave. After that, it usually progresses around 1-2 posts a day, sometimes faster if both people are at home.

And I spoilered the pictures. If you couldn't tell.

Wait! Snape kills Dumbledore? Gasp!

[Dallas-Dakota]

Die you manipulative old ba... Err, Die you old manipulative Lemon Drop!

[easyname]

I might as well have a go at this. I signed up and made myself a quick army.

[ninja_danz0r]

Just going to contribute to the thread (and bump it) a little and promote Picture Wars :P
I've been a member since it originated on the FP forums.

One of my first matches, specifically the one that created the popular "Charlie" PW meme.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/9754/4yp0zt5kd1.png

One of the largest PW games in history, the first version of the common sandbox gamemode.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7942/sandboxms2112zm8.png

One of my latest games, as of posting this one is in actual progress :D
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8383/2v2439yg2.png

We're a very friendly community, and if you need help with anything, our members will gladly help you out :P
If you join PW and need help with anything, feel free to PM me, i use the same account name on the PW forums.

[ninja_danz0r]

In other words, Snape kills dumbledore!.

Registered, and I'll get to drawing upon the morrow. So far, the community seems to be reasonable, and there are some excellent artists posting there. A question: how fast does a typical War progress? One post per day? Several?

That usually depends on the players timezones, if the game is consisting entirely of europeans or entirely of americans, the game might progress a bit faster due to people being awake at the same time :P

As a compensation, people usually play more than one game at a time, taking turns in some games while waiting for people in others.

Also, i saw your army and it looks great!

[Psychomaniac]

http://xs128.xs.to/xs128/08254/hobopsychomatch54619316.png (http://xs.to)
A recent turn from a match between to of the most popular people on the forum.

Yay, I feel popular now :DD

(My army is the robots, who, in some strange twist of events, broke the laws of physics and picked up a hologram, thus creating a crystallized cavern)

Edit:
Also, there's really no average time for matches to finish, they either die off or last months.

I started a match in March and just finished it last week. 102 turns between me and the other player, and it was a 22 page thread.

[The_Squid]

Well, I'm bumping this because things have been slow in the PW forum. We need some new blood. Anyone here interested?

[SolkaTruesilver]

Seriously, this look completely epic. I've been looking at the Choco Vs Communist Drones battle, so awesome.

But.. What kind of drawing programs is used? Do you have to follow some rules, or it's 100% make believe?

[The_Squid]

Most players use paint, but there aren't any restrictions. There aren't really any rules, either.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Just to be talented? :-)

[The_Squid]

Not even a requirement. Just recommended for a superior gaming experience.

I've always wanted to say that.

[Icewalker]

Aaaah, I play a variation on this all the time with my friends, although without computers, simply pencil on paper. Fantastic game. Our variation is Kill the Kitten, where you draw a kitten (in about a second, ie, something very very vaguely kitten shaped if the person looking needs glasses). Then one person draws something that will kill the kitten, and the other person draws something to defend it.

Common moves involve changing simple nature of things, for example the attacker draws a box labeled 'NUKE' with '00:01' on it, and the defender changes the lettering to 'FLUKE'. Shortly afterwards we had managed to incorporate duke, luke, and puke in one way or another.

Very very fun game. Lots of interesting spacial paradoxes. One game ended when the kitten was converted into pure light then shot through some kind of uberprism such that we decided that everything in the universe is kitten, and kitten is everything. Then once the kitten was inside a titanium phonebooth with infinite thickness, consuming the whole universe despite somehow having space inside...

[Astrella]

Forum is getting a little slow, so I'm bumping this.

Remember, no special programs are necessary, most users just use MS paint. There are no restriction, except keeping things a bit balanced, so no "pistol kills giant mech" kind of things. The emphasis lies more on creating a fun, entertaining battle then winning. Also, designing your own army is just fun!

[Astrella]

The regular forums are back online!

[...Pirates?]

This looks interesting, however I have no talent with paint, and probably lack the patience to go throught with it. :smallfrown:


Aaaah, I play a variation on this all the time with my friends, although without computers, simply pencil on paper. Fantastic game. Our variation is Kill the Kitten, where you draw a kitten (in about a second, ie, something very very vaguely kitten shaped if the person looking needs glasses). Then one person draws something that will kill the kitten, and the other person draws something to defend it.


This however, sounds like pure genius, and I will have to try it some time.

[Thiel]

That's it. I'm officially starting up again. Of course, I'll probably have to redo my entire army. (My first one turned out to be almost identical to someone else's)

Also, I prefer to use paint.net since it supports layers, making editing far easier. Also, there's one rule. No Anti-Aliasing

[DemonicAngel]

God, i wanna play this... but I really have 0 talent in anything even remotely close to painting.

[Phase]

Yeah, okay. I'm joining. Combine army, anyone?

[Astrella]

Actually, no experience with paint is hardly a problem. There are some good tutorials about spriting, the members are always ready with advice for your armies and to help you get started there are some excellent armies in the free sprites thread you can use till you've made one of your own. So go and check it out. (if you need help, feel free to contact me, my name is the same as on these forums).

[Raiser Blade]

I have started creating an army :smallsmile:

[Astrella]

Great! What's your name? And be sure to read the tutorials.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

I am totally going to do this nowz.

[Astrella]

Great!

Also, for those interested, the latest newsletter.

newsletter
newsletter what?
That's right. The newsletter. Every week or two, you'll be getting a new issue of the PW Newsletter, complete with articles, art and updates. In between issues, anyone can submit articles and art, notifications they want to make official, advertisements for match partners, etcetera. This week, I wanted to surprise you with this, so only the mods have contributed. In the future, any members who want to submit something will be featured here.

Some sections are just for fun, others are more serious. In any case, you needn't read the whole thing at once. Skim it and check out whatever looks interesting to you, then when you're bored, come back to go over the other articles to catch any hidden gems you may have missed. I'd like everyone to read the "stuff we want you to know" section fully, though, because there's some important notifications there.

things you might wanna check out, by Stupidd0ne
Army of the Week: The Wandering Trader (http://picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2097), by Shard
Browsing through the armies section in search of a suitable army to throw in this spot, everything started looking the same. Which is why I thought it would be nice to acknowledge a truly original army, one that isn't set on conquering everything in its path. Instead, Shard's "Wandering Trader" really just uses matches as a stage in which to follow his own goals - not the preset ones of conquering a map. It's always refreshing to see Picture Wars when some enterprising new player shows it in a different light, and this army does just that.

This Weeks Contest: Un-Ugly a Map (http://www.picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=2140&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=0), by Bikkel
Thing you have some sick mapping skills? Test 'em out in PWs most recent contest, in which you take a pretty mediocre map and turn it into something stylish and fun. Speaking from previous experience, it's a fun way to make a good map, especially if you're low on ideas. If you do well, there's going to be some sexy, sexy badges for you to put in your sig. Achievement whoring - go!

Collab Maps
In case anybody has happened to miss this particular aspect of mapping and Picture Wars, I wanted to draw attention to a new and fun way of mapmaking: collab maps, explained here (http://picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1802). A recently completed example of a collab map can be found here (http://picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1777). It's a pretty sick map overall, probably because each square inch of the map has been put to use by somebody, somehow. If you're interested in mapping but don't have the time or motivation to create a full-blown map, or if you just want to experiment with a map idea you have, or just if you're bored - the current collab map can be found here (http://picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2194).

Oldies but Goodies: The Blood Feast (http://www.picture-wars.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=391), by Stupidd0ne and Splurgy
One of the truly great matches back on the old forums. Maybe that's just 'cause I'm biased, though. In any case, if you have some spare time, I strongly recommend checking the link, it's a fun read.

stuff we want you to know, by The Mods
Report Button
This is a kinda big thing. We mods want to help you, but we can't be everywhere at once. Help us by reporting topics using the report button! It's a tad bit squashed at the moment, but still function just fine. Use it to notify us about flaming and warez and jackassery, obviously, but also use it for anything you want to flag for mods - a gamemode idea, a completed match (this being a major thing), anything you want us to lock or move for you. Seriously, just click it. 98% of mods agree, pressing it won't blow up your computer.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c289/ImWitStupidd/reportme.png

[Also, if anyone wants to make a new image that follows the current style and dimensions for the benefeit of the community, just PM me. I'll be super-duper grateful.]

Image Link'd Due to Unholy Image Size
Ever seen one of these? If you're posting an image that's gonna screw with the page width, please just throw it in a link instead.

PHPBB3 Coder Wanted
PM Stupidd0ne if you've got the know how, and the elbow grease to help create a new theme for the forum. The images and designs are extraneous - what we need is someone who can edit the PHP code in order to change things like the postcount, add quick reply boxes, etcetera. It can't hurt to try!

Journalists, Artists Wanted
Check out the PWN Community Thread (http://www.picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2217) in Ideas + Suggestions if you'd like to contribute to the next issue of PWN. Like I said, anything from fan art of armies to articles like Member of the Week - any random jumble of words and pics you want to submit will probably be used. If you've got some spare time, PWN is a great way to contribute to the community, and have some fun, too.

Old PW Archive
Yeah, a lot of people forget about it, but if you ever need to reference something from before the move to the current forms, here's the link (http://www.picture-wars.com/xmb/index.php) to the old forums. I think posting has been disabled, but it's only supposed to be used an an archive anyway.


announcements, by Pie and Stupidd0ne
A NEW FEATURE!
Yes, you heard it right, we are introducing a new feature to the forums! And it is called "Courtesy". In simple terms, it means that if you write the word 'courtesy?' at the end of one of your comments on someone else's army/map/piece of art and they think that your comment was reasonably good, they will click on a link in your signature that goes to whatever army/map/piece of art you want people to comment on. It is like a way of saying "thanks for the comment".

Here is a sort of example as to how it would work:
I put a link to one of my maps in my sig, using this kind of style Courtesy? (http://picture-wars.com/phpBB3/index.php) (using this syntax: [.url=link to my map here]Courtesy?[./url])
I post a comment on someone's army - "That is pretty cool, I especially like the detail on the units. You might want to emphasise the shading a little more, and maybe add a few more units for variety, but overall, I look forward to seeing these guys on the battlefield! Courtesy?"
They decide if my comment is worthy of courtesy*.
They click on the link in my sig and comment on the thread that it goes to.

Generally, the following features show a comment that is worthy of courtesy:
Constructive criticism
Friendly tone
Obvious effort put in (so a reasonably long comment)
Thoughtful and relevant
However, please be aware that it is perfectly OK to give courtesy where none of these features exist and while we would prefer it if you gave courtesy for a good comment, you do not have to. If you are too busy or whatever, it is recommended that you simply give the courtesy at a later date.

Postwhoreing for courtesy is not cool. We'll totally throw a pair of nerd glasses on you then steal your lunch money if you do it. :lol:


New Smilies
Stolen from "our benefactors" - aka, dear old Garry and our friends at Facepunch. Full list can be found here (http://picture-wars.com/phpBB3/posting.php?mode=smilies&f=3), or at the link underneath the smilies section in posts. Additionally, if you have any ideas for new smiles, particularly army-based smilies, take a peek at the new Emoticons (http://www.picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2213) thread in the Ideas + Suggestions section of the forums.
:) ;) :( :3 :D :geno: :v :redneck: :downs: :keke: :clops:
:pirate: :eng101: :ninja: :science: :emo:
:charlie: :mad:
:thanks: :friendly: :info: :agree:
:tinhat: :tizzy: :shock: :cool: :lol: :roll:
:smile: :wink: :sad: :eek: :???: :mad: :razz: :oops: :cry: :evil: :twisted: :!: :?: :idea: :arrow: :-| :mrgreen: :geek: :ugeek:


New (new) Mods
Congratulations to everyone who won! To everyone who didn't, you all ran well, and I'll have you know that despite how the votes may have looked, the competition was pretty close in some cases. If you want to discuss the elections, how they turned out, how they were run, or when the next election might be, check out the Election Discussion Thread. (http://www.picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2215) Again, thanks to everyone who ran or voted for making another great Election Week possible!
Offtopic: Sirroelivan
Armies: Metal Chao, Mr Hobosworth
Maps: Bikkel
Matches: Psycho, Krumbs
Spokesperson: LucanC


HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON, EVERYBODY!!!

And look for the next issue, coming up next month!

FInally, cheers from the PWN staff - until next week, stay sexy PW.

[Bryn]

Apparently, [size] tags work on a different scale over there - all your small text has ended up huge.

I'm coming back to PW eventually. Maybe I'll actually finish a game next time :smallbiggrin:

[Astrella]

Great, can't wait to see you return.

Also, damn, I'll have to change that then. :smallfrown:

[DemonicAngel]

I gotta think about some kind of army... and then try to make something out of it in paint, as I'm horrid with that program.

P.S blood feast was epic.

[Astrella]

Great!

Be sure to check out the different tutorials in the help and support section. There's also a spriting help thread in the army subforum.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

Hey, I noticed Festy joined! Now if only he reckonized me from anywhere :smallfrown:

[Astrella]

Anyone who's willing to join, I'd advise them to read this tutorial first. It contains all the essentials and links to important other tutorials.
The Tutorial for newcomers (http://www.picture-wars.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2227)

[Astrella]

All new tutorial. Also looking for some new members.