Duckman

Ok, I got back into my account and am online once in a while. IGN is Rakashan. You can find me if I am not busy in my mechlab trying to rebuild all the things that are no longer valid after all the changes.

linky? This does not sound like the Heavy Gear I am remembering but that probably goes back to the mid 80s if I recall correctly.

I am amused by the all-day showing of Lord of the Rings. I own the director's cut DVDs and a friend of mine asked to borrow them so that he could have a marathon on his birthday. He said they made it to the first hour of The Two Towers and then decided that they were nuts... 13 hours is a little long to be sitting in a chair staring at a video screen in my book, especially in a theater where I cannot pause the damn thing to go drain used beer.

Ok, it's clear that PGI's website is no more useful than it was when I was playing long ago... In fact, Smurfy's mech builder tells me more about the state of the game than anything else. They finally got PPC EMP effects in game. They have a heat penalty in place for Alpha strikes (I knew this was coming but didn't stick around until they got it built). I can tell they have implemented a multi-mech drop option but I can't tell if it is the only option now or if they still offer a single-mech conquest drop like we were using back in 2012. I can also tell that they have implemented some sort of dropship mechanic but I can't tell if it is present in all matches or not. What does a standard PUG drop entail (i.e. how many mechs do I ready, am I guaranteed an all-clan or all-IS drop, does clan drop in stars while IS drops in lances)? I have not gone through the numbers from Smurfy closely but clearly the clantech is better than IS tech numberswise and the most recent forum post I have seen implies that clantech is not allowed on IS chassis. How well are they supporting the lore of Clan vs. IS these days?

Once upon a time beta referred to a release which was largely functional but needed testing, polish and perhaps additional features before it could be commercially successful. Over time this has degraded due to 1) the ready distribution mechanism of internet downloads, 2) the gaming community and its idiotic, sheep-like acceptance. To me, the term now means "good enough that the publisher (or sometimes the dev) is going to make a cash grab now before 1) the users figure out how badly this was designed or 2) the money runs out and we have to lay off the devs." It is not always the deathknell of the project but it is a sign that development is either being slowed or eliminated and that this product should be considered the end-state with any new features, skins, content, etc. being relegated to paid DLC or a future expansion. This is not always the case but since the community accepts it publishers and devs are finding that it is the most lucrative path open to them in late stages of development after the initial funding has been exhausted. I work in the software industry (although not in gaming) and could go on about this ad nauseum but that pretty much sums up the sentiment.

Into The Woods - 8/10 Decent screenplay conversion if you liked the stage-play. A number of songs were pulled out but aside from the nightly "Midnight" songs I didn't miss them. If you're not familiar with the stage play, it is Sondheim taking a swing at fairy tales and having fun.

Cookie Clicker is death for the compulsive. Stay away... far away.

Any new comments after the v2 patch a week ago? Is the skirmish the only non-multiplayer content that they are putting together for it in the log run (anyone know)?

Sorry that this is not an answer, but where the heck did you get a Steam gift card *from*? I went looking earlier for a way to get them so that I could tell my mother in law to get one for me for Christmas.... My Google-fu obviously fails me.

I really appreciate all the information, Koyote. I'm intrigued like Spelur and the others. Now if I can just find a new job so I can spend my commute time gaming instead. I also (just for grins) want to build a Mayan force and find it an appropriate "counts as" ... Maybe Norse-Gaels.... What? I used to play Lizards with a notable Mayan theme.

I think I mentioned it here elsewhere but I am a big fan of Alchemists recently. It's published by CzechGames and was designed by Matus Kotry (since there are a couple of games with similar names out there). Think Clue with a Euro Worker-placement aspect. Not currently available in the states but coming soon (probably January). They showed up at Essen with a bunch of copies and sold out in less than 2 days. They found out that one of their important components was not quite the right size (just a smidge larger then the hole it was supposed to go into) so they held off on printing any more until they could retool so the stuff coming in January should be good. 2-4 players are Alchemists trying to do experiments and publish their findings. Worker placement gets you reagents to use in your experiments, gets you someone to test your potions on and then later allows you to publish your findings, contest the claims of your rivals and generally make a name for yourself in the community. Mechanics require that you publish claims before you are likely to have any solid information so the game is more about managing your publications and your reputation than doing the actual research. As a bonus, the game has two difficulty levels and it actually supports playing both together at the same time so it is possible to handicap more experienced players when introducing the game to new players. Requires a smartphone or web access to play.

Ok, so I want to know more but given my decided lack of sleep it may be futile. Are the minis "lead" or plastics? Anyone on the east side playing or able to demo?

How did they handle clans? Are the trials all NPC or PC or what? (I assume PC given the basic core of the game.) Are the clan bits actually being managed by PGI or is that all being managed by the players in the Clans? Has PGI actually provided the tools necessary to manage trials and unbalanced drops (clan lance vs. merc lance for example)? Back when they started working on the clans they actually force disbanded every "guild" which was named for a Clan. I happened to be part of Clan Wolverine (with all the history that implied if you know the lore). We ran our own trials and stuff (by spending hours trying to get sync-drops since PGI refused to support any kind of planned matchmaking) and to have them force-disband us because of the name was part of what caused people to rain a [big bad swear word]-storm on their forums. (And we were far from the only clan hit.)

Is PGI actually supporting their customers now? I participated a long time ago but quit when PGI went through a long period of lying to their customer base (raising cash by selling chassis and such and then pre-selling clan mechs which they delayed for months and months). The final straw was when they basically started banning people for disagreeing with their design choices in the forums. I was not banned and in theory still have an account and everything but as one of those who disagreed with a lot of their choices at the time I didn't feel the need to stick around and support them and on top of that they went through a period where their physics engine made it *really* bad to play with people who were laggy and players started running torrents while playing specifically to handycap their opponents. I will admit that I enjoyed their premise and if they ever managed to right the ship I might be willing to give them another chance. Opinions? Worth going back?

I miss Gahan Wilson...

Mit Feuer das vom Leben trennt Ein heisser Schrei Feuer frei! Just for clarification... I've got good money that says the amount of oil/gas used in the incendiaries and pyrotechnics for the movie is at least a factor of two larger than any amount of gas that they fight over during the movie...

I don't think that I have mentioned this here before but since we have a bunch of geeks I thought that someone might be interested. I've been playing in a PBEM soccer league since grad school and we're about to finish up the season which means that we'll be taking new rosters if anyone is interested in joining the league. This is not a fantasy league... It is based on totally artificial players and teams. The league is run by a friend of mine from Finland and includes players from all over North American and Eurasia. Each manager builds a roster of (fake) players using rules for roster creation. Players are a collection of about 10 statistics, most of which are visible to the manager (natural position, skill level, fitness level, special traits). Managers are responsible for player development, weekly tactical decisions and resource management. Match results are text-based descriptions of the game which look like a commentator's play-by-play. The league focuses on maintaining a top-11 roster with subs to cover suspensions and injuries (reports include top-15 but that is not necessarily the best way to look at it). Tactical decisions and scouting are based on breaking down the information in the match reports, box scores and public matches that occur to estimate and predict other coaches. If you think you might be interested, let me know and I can provide more information and some example match reports and rosters so you can get a better picture of how the league works and what managers do. New rosters are accepted all the time but Season XXI will begin in mid- or late-January so now is a particularly good time to join if anyone decides that they are interested.

Yes, this is, in fact, the second one. The first one was discussed here as well and was a masterwork of camp. Sadly, I am working more than is good for me and I have not had time to check out this trailer.

Meh. Hybrids are 10% of the vehicles on the road right now (statistic includes biodiesel vehicles). I figure I'll be able to outrun every raider pushing his car because gas is not available. I mean... As I recall, Bartertown could have owned the wasteland if they'd bothered to run a handful of plug-in hybrids off that methane generator. Not that this kind of calculation contributes at all to the storyline. It just happens to be a happy blindspot of the genre which ranks right up there with a flamethrowing guitar on a mobile stage.

Always loved this stuff about Mad Max... We're out of oil/gasoline... What makes sense? Let's build huge monstrous vehicles with all sorts of metal spikes because those have got to be lighter and more fuel efficient! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the films and the idea behind the universe... I just stop and laugh at the absurdity of it all once in a while too. I guess it's hard to make something like look suitably "deathy".

King me!

I saw that and wondered about it. My big concern was really that it would lack polish because it was a small indie effort. Hows the interface and gameplay?