New Wall for 640x480 Resolution

[Dinonykos]

Ah, I see! I have just found some nice pictures. So you should be able to look from below up to the overhanging roof. I'd say you'll need several walls then, depending on how big the houses will be and whether you want to have diagonal roofs or not. I personally would do at least 6 walls. Perhaps you could do independent framework walls and the thatched roofs as overlays?

[manikus]

6 walls? I am curious to see how this would work.

I think the roof as an overlay is a good idea for several reasons - mix and match with various combinations, easier to fix, etc.

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by manikus 6 walls? I am curious to see how this would work.

Ahm... do you mean I should do it? I thought you only wanted suggestions?

Well, if a 2x2 square house is enough, you'll need four walls for the outside: One for the diagonal left side, one for the diagonal right side, and same for the low sides. If you want a 3x3 square house, you'll need two additional walls for the centers.
I could do an overlay to my framework walls if you like, however, I assume you want to do it by yourself. I mean, "Manikus" and "manage" have the same roots, right?

[manikus]

Oh, I want to do it, alright. I just wasn't sure what you meant.

Using that method, which is similar to what I planned, I will need to do even more, as I want to have 1x1 houses, too. What do you mean by 'diagonal sides' and low sides'? Do you mean the wall and roof overlay, respectively?

[Dinonykos]

Ahrg! Vocabulary lack again!
Let's see...
One could compare the roof to two opposing ramps. With low sides, I meant the front sides of the ramps. That side that Colt Seavers would use to jump over it. With diagonal sides, I meant the sides that look like a triangle.

[manikus]

Originally Posted by Dinonykos I assume you want to do it by yourself. I mean, "Manikus" and "manage" have the same roots, right?

The great thing about names is that they don't have to mean anything, or conversely they can mean something completely different from what people think. Below is an excerpt from the book "A Secret History of the Realms" from the chapter entitled "Behind the Scenes: the Early Days"

manikus (mān'ĭ'kuhs) -
As for the etymology of the name manikus (lower case 'm') there are two competing theories.
The first theory behind the name 'manikus' is that a young gamer at summer camp after exclaiming quite vociferously about various die rolls during the character creation process and while trying to think of a name for the neo-natal ranger he had just rolled, has a brief moment of personal incite and exclaims, "Man, I cuss." At the suggestion of a fellow gamer who jokingly states that would be a great name for a ranger, our young gamer misses the sarcasm and names the ranger 'manikus'.
The second theory behind the name 'manikus' is that while meeting with a DM and play group for the first time, our young gamer quietly observed how manic the group was flipping through photocopied pages of the 1e Player's Handbook, which at the time was thought of us the Advnaced Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, to seperaate it from the only other flavor of D&D which was the basic set. New to gaming in a large group, our younger gamer was impressed by how much action and chaos seemed to be going on around him and even more surprised to see himself become part of it. Thinking to himself, "We are all manic." as he rolled his character, the thought transformed into "manic us", which became 'manikus'.

[Uatu]

Ha ha... I would put my money on the first theory, I think...

"Melf" of "Melf's Acid Arrow" and "Melf's Minute Meteors" fame had an interesting name origin - apparently the original player just wrote "M Elf" (as in male elf) on his sheet, which became Melf.

(Good thing his elf wasn't female, or we'd have "Felf's Acid Arrow" instead...

[Dinonykos]

Okay, okay! I'll resign as a hobby-etymologist.

By the way, in Germany everybody uses the word "Hobby", but I assume only 1% of the people know that it is short for "hobby-horse". And only 0.5% know that if you change the letters in "horse", you get something very similar to "Rhoss", which means horse in middle high german, and was replaced by "Pferd". And "Steckenpferd" means "Hobby". Why is it not called "stick-horse" in english?
Seems I cannot supress it.

[Dinonykos]

Okay, back to the thread topic: I have uploaded two new walls to my homepage:
Battlements and a cupboard.
I have to admit that I was to lazy yet to do battlements mounted on a wall of normal height (so that the battlements are on the second level of a building). This would certainly look rather cool, but perspectives are difficult...

[manikus]

Those are nice walls, Dinonykos. I've been meaning to do a second-story version of battlements for my stone wall set, but haven't as it seems a bit more difificult than most of the walls that I do. I believe the cupboard will find it's way into my mod.

Interesting stuff about the word hobby. I knew that it was derived from the M.E. hobyn which meant a small horse - which alway botered me that a hobbyhorse meant a "small horse horse". But, I always thought that it's use for describing a pass-time came from another definition of the word. A hobby is also a small falcon which was used by the moneyed classes to catch small game birds, for fun, from the 1600s through the 1800s. I thought the reference to a hobby came from that. It was kind of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the upper class - "Hey Joe, what are you doing?" "Oh hi, Frank. I'm working on my hobby. [Aren't I so well off as to be able to spend time doing something that doesn't bring in money for the family.]"

I don't think of myself as an etymology hobbyist, but as an amateur etymologist.

Oh, and Uatu, as the book says, no one knows for sure which one it is. But, who can trust books?