Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

[Icehouse] Monochrome stashes and Loco Colors.

  • FromScott Sulzer <ssulzer@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateThu, 06 Sep 2007 00:37:16 -0700

Whew, I just got caught up on my Icehouse list mail and, well, it’s a bit to take in all at once, but I wanted to throw out a few comments of my own.

 

Monochrome stashes:

Got all the rainbow colors + Grey, working on the Xeno with Treehouse sets myself.  It actually works out better for me because my FLGS, which wouldn’t stock Monochrome stashes, does keep at least one Rainbow and Xeno set on hand.

However, the procrastinating, potential pieceniker in me does wish there were still a way to get stashes of clear and/or white stashes (without the extra cost), even if they had to be pre-ordered (say prior to a new run) and pre-paid for, even if they came on the spews, which might actually be a bonus for some piecenikers, depending upon the project (if you’re going to be “doing stuff” to the pyramids, cutting them from the spews shouldn’t be much of an added hassle).

I did watch the video of them being cut from the spews and sorted by color by hand, a very labor intensive project, which also adds to my understanding of why they Monochrome stashes are being discontinued.  

 

Loco Colors:

            I keep hearing Eco Treehouse, but one of the problems that I am noticing with it is that many of the colors are variations on existing colors, such as dark green (Jade?), light blue (sky blue?), which may or may not end up being mistaken for other colors under less than good lighting conditions.  Honestly, the Eco colors, most of them anyway, already exist in the current stashes.  Blue (sky or water), Green (grass, trees, etc), Yellow (sun, light), Red and/or Orange (fire, blood, flowers), White (clouds?), Clear (air?).  Throw in Violet and we’ve also got all of the Aquarius colors covered (blue, green, red, white(or cyan), purple).

            Also, everyone seems to want to focus on the four transparent, one opaque scheme.  I know that the transparent ones are often visually more appealing, but honestly, why?  Is there a reason for this or is it just because that is what has been done before?

There are games that do not depend upon seeing through the pyramids (Treehouse, Martian Chess, Homeworlds) and there are some that even require opaqueness.  Does anyone have the ratio of games which require transparency to those that don’t?  (Just wondering)

            How about a scheme that goes with Just Desserts?

            Opaque Brown        =  Chocolate

            Opaque Pink/Red    =  Strawberry or Watermelon (Adding the yellowish or black seeds could be a pieceniking project)

            Opaque Yellow        =  Pineapple wedges

            Opaque Tan            =  Nuts

            Opaque Orange       =  Pumpkin

(Please feel free to add to, refine, etc, this particular list)

NOTE: I’m not particularly pleased with the last two color choices myself, but I wasn’t certain what else to put right now.  I’m not sure what would make a good transparent “Caramel” color, a shade of brown I think, but not sure which one.

            I’m also fond of the transparent Smoke color myself, but I don’t know how well it would work in a Dessert set, unless you burn your cookies, which isn’t usually a good thing.  And, while I think the Watermelon and Root Beer stashes are visually appealing (Yes, I saw them and went “Me WANT”), I don’t know just how fair it is to put either of those colors out and devalue the sets that were sold previously, then again, how fair is it to omit them?  (Otherwise, add those transparent colors to the list of “Dessert” colors).

 

Also, the discussion on light/dark variants (pink as a light red, cyan/blue, green and a forest green, etc)  The two that seemed to have the most problems were yellow and orange, but isn’t orange just a darker shade of yellow (yellow with red added) and vice versa?  (How many problems with the light/dark combos does that solve?)  Although I still want to see what someone can suggest for an opaque clear.  (Transparent white could be a mist color).

 

Ok, I’ve babbled a bit more than I intended, but I wanted to throw out some ideas that did not yet appear to be discussed.

 

Scott