I'm ending 2009 with an addition to BYOND Strategy's submission standards:

Neither popularity nor continuous development are required. However, inactive games must eventually have the following or be removed:

• A help file to spur new activity. Games without help files or people to communicate with are just as inaccessible as those without download links or servers.

I still believe that the guild should give developers access to testers.  However,  I'm no longer as concerned about letting the guild function as a directory for every strategy game built with BYOND software.  I'd rather have it presentable to new viewers.

For the first pass of the filter, I chose to be lenient by focusing on games created before 2009.  The following were removed.  As usual, they can be relisted if they meet guild standards.

• Battlemasters
• Civilization
• Clash  (The help file appears to be hidden with a broken macro.)
• Fantasy Defence  (The download fails.)
• Halloween: Terror  (The source was lost and discontinued.)
  
• Medieval Conquest
• Nexus Wars
• Palace
• Seika SE  (It was discontinued.)
• Text City Simulator
• Tower Defense B.Y.O.N.D.

I also removed Star*Scurry just because it's my game and I don't support it.  Other developers are welcome to remove their inactive games if they wish, but it isn't required.

Devourer Of Souls' hybrid, Witches' Chess, has been updated.  The forum reveals a fix for player names and a tweak to forbid people from playing against themselves on the same computer.  Meanwhile, Kings might no longer be affected by the Flight spell and Devourer of Souls is investigating variant rule sets.

Tsfreaks has been busy.  He stripped the multiplayer options out of Tower Defense: Clone Wars and the tourney options out of his version of Cathedral while modifying its interface.  Meanwhile, he has been providing regular progress reports for MRTS involving various AI, gameplay and HUD changes.

I got an update alert for Mechanos7's turn-based wargame, Riverside.  However, any changes appear to have been added to the version notes of the update that caught me off-guard last column.  The hub page includes a list of balance tweaks for various units, but I couldn't say which (if any) are new.

Meanwhile, Mechanos7's Empire Defense could be seeing new enemies according to the hub page's Discuss tab.

Acebloke is planning to update the interface of his economic/military simulation, Wargames.  A picture of a draft is provided.

Readers may also wish to pay attention to his blog for the results of the AceMedalTable competition.

Apparently, Falacy's next version of his treasure defense game, Gold Guardians, isn't just a visual update.  It's a complete remake.  He's had it sitting on his hard drive for a few weeks while he waits for motivation to add the final touches.

Oasiscircle offered tips for his defense game, Turtle Towers, in the Discuss tab of his hub page:

1. The Baiting Strategy works best.
2. Keep your baiter a Swordsman
3. Keep all units one space to the left of the farthest right space AT LEAST to make rearranging units easier.
4. Get through easier levels using the Options.
5. Near levels that are multiples of 5. Make sure you take off the time-warping options to make baiting easier.
6. Have more than one Yellow Mage.
7. Have the Red Mage one space behind the front line.
8. Make sure the front line is mostly shields.
9. Having an odd amount of turtles in the front line works better than an even amount.
10. Although sometimes thought to be useless, Knives can be used as a substitute for Swordsmen when baiting.
11. Archers shouldn't be upgraded. It's more efficient to buy more.
12. If you have excess upgrades, use them on your shields, it's the most efficiently upgraded unit.
13. Whenever you get the chance, BUY A HERO.
14. It is impossible to beat some bosses without a Dragon Slayer.
15. Dragon Slayers should be exchanged for Swordsmen when baiting on a boss level.
16. It's better to naturally get things in the beginning rather than buy them.
17. On Wave 39, after you kill all of the remaining monsters. Move all your units out of the middle four spaces.
18. Repeat #17 on Wave 44 to avoid Gallam. Baiting is a must.
19. If a boss has underlings, beat them first.
20. Skuller is invincible until you destroy his Grey Mages.

Gamemakingdude is attempting to follow in the footsteps of other developers mentioned in Tech Tree while developing his untitled RTS.  His AI will be modeled after that of Tsfreak's MRTS and he is trying to fund himself with donations like Acebloke.  (How is the latter working?)

Geldonyetich has been making progress on his persistent territorial dispute, Project Shock.  I'm still not sure if it will fit in the guild, but he seems to be succeeding at making something playable.  For the moment, he's concentrating on a static map, switching sector control, and hostile NPCs.

As I was writing this, Airjoe paged me to mention that he and some friends will be hosting Lummox JR's territorial dispute, Incursion, on Saturday around 7PM EST.  Others are more than welcome to enter.  The game is expected to begin around 7:30 or 8:00.

Besides the new filter, I didn't get any BYOND work done.  I celebrated Christmas by watching various series on Hulu and Funimation like Gad Guard, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, American Gothic...  BRB, someone's at the door.

There are plenty of videos to offer this week. I could congratulate NakaTeleeli for finishing his .hack LP (and thank him for not jumping into another RPG any time soon). The next portion of The Dogface Show was posted. Scott Nicholson offered his top 2009 gaming experiences. Bytejacker stuck it to Spike with their Free Indie of the Year Awards. Frell, Tom Vasel is even trying to post 50 reviews by mid-January on The Dice Tower's YouTube channel.

However, I think I'll go with this:

Why? I voted for Bobby Miller's last internet show, The Best Short Films in the World, to win a Webbie. I encouraged others do so on my personal blog. I even advertised the process on Tech Tree. The show won... Then it was canceled and replaced with The Reel Good Show.

So why help him out after that slap in the face? It's because donations of $25 or more will get a link on Tub's website. In other words, part of me would love to make his sorry *** advertise _us_!

Take that, Bobby Miller! You and your... personal YouTube message politely asking me not to be offended by network situations you have little control over. Poophead.

Got news? How about a sane way to explain to a smartass that I probably did report a certain bug, but it would have been in a now deleted private forum?