Anybody else around here happen to be playing this game?

>Anybody else around here happen to be playing this game?

I've been considering it, on and off.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

As Pasha, have thought about it. On the other hand, I'm sorta paid up FAR, in Star Citizen, so I dunno...is it good?(might be a silly question since I assume you think so, but...)

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

>Anybody else around here happen to be playing this game?

I have been. They keep making disasterous balance and income decisions, and their faction warfare mechanic was broken before Powerplay came out, and even more broken now.

Space combat has become unfun; it's all about who has more shield boosters and shield cells, and that is about it.

Exploration as a profession doesn't have a lot of value to it, and the exploration-focused faction has no actual rewards for doing exploration.

But the experience of flying in space is so good that it's fun to just play Euro Space Truck Simulator 2015 for an hour. I don't know. *sigh*

>But the experience of flying in space is so good that it's fun to just
>play Euro Space Truck Simulator 2015 for an hour. I don't know. *sigh*

Sounds like you might be ready for Desert Bus.

--G.
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Why *play* desert bus when you can just force someone else to play desert bus for your amusement! And Charity!

--
-Pasha ("Won't somebody think of the kids!")
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

So I picked this up, despite the slightly dire response this thread got, because I've seen some gameplay footage in a few of Jingles's videos and it's just so dang pretty.

Now I need to figure out what the heck I did with my joystick (last seen so long ago that I was using it to play MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, so that would have been... two computers ago). I can't drive spaceships worth a crap with a mouse. :)

--G.
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The VoiceAttack program and the associated addon ASTRA is a nice addition to the game. It also helps that Tom Baker and Norman Lovett have given their voices for use in ASTRA.

This is the kind of game that, in the old days, would've come with a cardboard surround and/or soft plastic overlay for your keyboard to show you what all the dang buttons do. I can't remember the last time I've had to do this much pausing and looking at the control-bindings setup screen to figure out how to work the UI.

I mean, it's pretty, and for what it's worth the interface is no more complex than it NEEDS to be with so much going on, but, yikes.

Also, I think Commander Z. Gryphon is going to have to find a line of work that doesn't involve much shooting at stuff. Just navigating is challenging enough, although I have to say I like the composite FTL model they use, where frameshift drive works like both warp drive AND hyperdrive depending on what you're trying to do.

--G.
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This is a game where I really appreciate having a second monitor as I have a picture of the joystick model I use with all the functions labeled on it for when I play.

As for things to do without shooting - mining can bring in a good chunk of cash if you're willing to put up with the scoop mechanics, spending a good chunk of time figuring out which ore types are valuable and where, and a lot of trial and error as you try to remember which asteroids you scanned or not.

Exploring can net you some cash as well, though it highly depends on finding "good" planets or anomalies and knowing which planets to not even bother scanning. (And sometimes who to sell to - as certain planets may want to know about metal-rich planets vs. others wanting to know about Earth-like planets)

Granted, I haven't poked my head back in the game since... I guess February, so some of that stuff may now be easier and/or actually explained in game. Work's been too busy for me to be able to take a weekend playing space miner/explorer.

Last I checked there is a lot of info in the official forums with links to guides and such to help explain the more esoteric parts of the game. And I think people have been scraping data from the game to put on websites for things like mining or trading route optimization.

>Granted, I haven't poked my head back in the game since... I guess
>February, so some of that stuff may now be easier and/or actually
>explained in game.

Apart from some basic tutorial missions that don't really do a lot of tutoring (most of which have to do with the combat system in one way or another), not very much appears to be explained in-game, which is my biggest reservation about it so far. It's like the player character just arrived from a parallel universe, has no knowledge of the tech base, politics, personalities, or culture of the 31st century, and was lucky enough to acquire a Sidewinder and a thousand credits somehow or another, but is otherwise completely at a loss as to what anything is or does.

Which is, admittedly, how it would go down in UF, but still. As a gameplay experience it's a bit bewildering. :)

--G.
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>>Granted, I haven't poked my head back in the game since... I guess
>>February, so some of that stuff may now be easier and/or actually
>>explained in game.
>
>Apart from some basic tutorial missions that don't really do a lot of
>tutoring (most of which have to do with the combat system in one way
>or another), not very much appears to be explained in-game,
>which is my biggest reservation about it so far. It's like the player
>character just arrived from a parallel universe, has no knowledge of
>the tech base, politics, personalities, or culture of the 31st
>century, and was lucky enough to acquire a Sidewinder and a thousand
>credits somehow or another, but is otherwise completely at a loss as
>to what anything is or does.
>
>Which is, admittedly, how it would go down in UF, but still. As a
>gameplay experience it's a bit bewildering. :)
>
>--G.

Ah - ok - so they haven't improved anything.

I never really thought too hard about how the PC go into the world, admittedly. Though now that you spell it out like that it sounds suspiciously like the beginning of Farscape :P

I was hauling food cartridges, dude. If you had managed to catch me, you would have been so disappointed. Enjoy your frameshift overheat. Sucker.

--G.
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- Why does time keep running in single-player mode when you're not actually playing? In order to provide continuity of experience for all the other players who aren't there?

- Where are these dumbass NPC pirates getting their intel? Did that guy seriously think it would be worth jacking my four tons of food cartridges (retail value: cr176)? I mean is there a booming black market for 3D food printer filament or something? Granted, I was being paid well above market value to transport that particular load for some weird reason, but if all he wanted was to beat me to the deal he could've bought his own four tons of food cartridges for less than it cost him to try to take mine.

- Particularly since he didn't succeed.

The attempted piracy rate reminds me a little bit of the random monster encounter rate in Skies of Arcadia, that is, too goddamned high. I've never understood that particular mindset of game developers. "Hmm, but some players aren't going to be interested in the space combat aspect of the game, how do we get them on board? I know - let's make it more of a bother to avoid fighting than fight." Fuck off, guys, seriously. Annoying me by forcing me to play Escape Vector Bingo every five fucking minutes, and occasionally losing and then ending up in a Gratuitous Fight Scene, isn't making the gameplay experience richer for me, it's just pissing me off. If I wanted to be in a dogfight I'd go to one of the 24/7 dogfight parties with which it seems like every star system is generously endowed and get paid for doing it. I'm out here hauling coffee because I don't want to do that. FFS.

--G.
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> - Why does time keep running in single-player mode when you're not
>actually playing? In order to provide continuity of experience for
>all the other players who aren't there?

Because single-player mode isn't single-player. They decided to implement it as multi-player where no other players will get put into your instance.

There was a pretty big row on the forums several months ago when they announced that they wouldn't be doing an offline mode for the game which had been promised during Kickstarter.

> - Where are these dumbass NPC pirates getting their intel? Did that
>guy seriously think it would be worth jacking my four tons of food
>cartridges (retail value: cr176)? I mean is there a booming black
>market for 3D food printer filament or something? Granted, I was
>being paid well above market value to transport that particular load
>for some weird reason, but if all he wanted was to beat me to the deal
>he could've bought his own four tons of food cartridges for
>less than it cost him to try to take mine.

Pretty sure AI encounters and the like are purely random and have nothing to do with what you're carrying (plus I don't think you can see what someone is carrying anyway while in frameshift).

>The attempted piracy rate reminds me a little bit of the random
>monster encounter rate in Skies of Arcadia, that is, too
>goddamned high. I've never understood that particular mindset of game
>developers. "Hmm, but some players aren't going to be interested in
>the space combat aspect of the game, how do we get them on board? I
>know - let's make it more of a bother to avoid fighting than
>fight." Fuck off, guys, seriously. Annoying me by forcing me to
>play Escape Vector Bingo every five fucking minutes, and occasionally
>losing and then ending up in a Gratuitous Fight Scene, isn't making
>the gameplay experience richer for me, it's just pissing me off. If I
>wanted to be in a dogfight I'd go to one of the 24/7 dogfight parties
>with which it seems like every star system is generously endowed and
>get paid for doing it. I'm out here hauling coffee because I
>don't want to do that. FFS.

Agreed.

I think their excuse is "it isn't called Elite *Dangerous* for nothing".

-SmkViper

>> - Why does time keep running in single-player mode when you're not
>>actually playing? In order to provide continuity of experience for
>>all the other players who aren't there?
>
>Because single-player mode isn't single-player. They decided to
>implement it as multi-player where no other players will get put into
>your instance.

Wow. That's like the lamest possible way to do that. I mean, I can see why they would have, it's probably the easiest way to do it, from a software development standpoint, but, gosh. I guess that explains why there is occasionally what seems remarkably like MMO lag for what I thought was no evident reason.

>There was a pretty big row on the forums several months ago when they
>announced that they wouldn't be doing an offline mode for the game
>which had been promised during Kickstarter.

Yeah, see, this is one of the several reasons why I don't hold with Kickstarter, particularly for big entertainment projects. With technology Kickstarters, you at least have a good idea what the thing is supposed to do before they start. Leaving aside the inevitability of delays and project creep, games and whatnot can just diverge into whatever the hell the developers happen to think of during the process, and if you don't like what their New Vision is, you're stuffed.

>>If I
>>wanted to be in a dogfight I'd go to one of the 24/7 dogfight parties
>>with which it seems like every star system is generously endowed and
>>get paid for doing it. I'm out here hauling coffee because I
>>don't want to do that. FFS.
>
>Agreed.
>
>I think their excuse is "it isn't called Elite *Dangerous* for
>nothing".

Reminds me a little bit of the Jack Emmert approach back when he was still the head honcho on City of Heroes. "If you're not playing the way I think best, you're doing it wrong and that will not be allowed." Except it's more glaringly annoying in a game that bills itself so aggressively as an Alternate World Where You Can Do As You Like.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not a dealbreaker yet, and the game has much else to recommend it by way of offset... but I'm starting to suspect that it's gonna get old pretty dang fast.

--G.
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>Yeah, see, this is one of the several reasons why I don't hold with
>Kickstarter, particularly for big entertainment projects. With
>technology Kickstarters, you at least have a good idea what the thing
>is supposed to do before they start. Leaving aside the inevitability
>of delays and project creep, games and whatnot can just diverge into
>whatever the hell the developers happen to think of during the
>process, and if you don't like what their New Vision is, you're
>stuffed.

I seem to recall reading, a couple months back, how Kickstarted had implemented some sort of idea, possibly in response to exactly this or at least similar, that when the developers did something of that nature, so you could say "this is not what I signed up and payed my money for, give me my fucking dough back."

Now, I COULD be wrong, but I am fairly sure I saw something to the effect.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

>I seem to recall reading, a couple months back, how Kickstarted had
>implemented some sort of idea, possibly in response to exactly this or
>at least similar, that when the developers did something of that
>nature, so you could say "this is not what I signed up and payed my
>money for, give me my fucking dough back."

Well, if I had backed Elite Dangerous from that stage, it would have been largely on the prospect of a proper single-player mode, so I would certainly have been pissed off by the bait-and-switch. Whether I would've been pissed off enough to abandon the project altogether, I'm not sure - having come to it after the change, I'm annoyed by the half-assed "multiplayer but not" implementation (partly because there seems to be little reason for it other than saving the developers some work, partly because it combines the disads of online multiplayer with the single-player experience, and partly because it means the game will die when, someday, they eventually shut the servers off), but not annoyed enough to stop me playing. I'd probably even have bought it anyway if I had known exactly how it worked, not being fully aware that they had promised something better and reneged.

But if I had been a supporter from before it even went properly into development? Yeah, I'd want at least some of my money back. Because principles.

--G.
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LAST EDITED ON Aug-22-15 AT 01:22 AM (EDT)
 
The interdiction frequency in supercruise flight annoys me a lot, as I have previously noted, but I do have to admit I'm amused that the space cops don't file a report on me or anything when they try to pull me over and I ditch them. It's like they figure, "Eh, well, fair enough, if you can evade our FSD interdictors you deserve to get away."

I mean, I'm never doing anything illegal anyway, because I am a law-abiding spacer, but I get so annoyed that I evade them anyway because fuck them. :)

The first time I did it, I was expecting there to be a fine or something waiting for me at the station I was en route to, but nothing. It really is like they just shrug and move on to the next customer.

--G.
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I quite like the FTL drive mechanics in the game itself. The combination of hyperjump and supercruise in a single drive system is quite clever, even if supercruise does appear to be there mainly to provide a window for that interdiction bullshit. Frameshift drive seems like the kind of thing someone might come up with in the UF universe, a new drive system combining the in-system cruising capabilities of a low-power warp drive with the more efficient interstellar modality of hyperdrive.

--G.
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Someone just offered me cr80,000+ to go to the neighboring star system and assassinate Ted Turner. He is evidently an expert military strategist.

I, however, am a small-time trader with a poorly-armed Sidewinder, so I'm afraid someone else will be cashing that check. :)

--G.
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>Someone just offered me cr80,000+ to go to the neighboring star system
>and assassinate Ted Turner. He is evidently an expert military
>strategist.

Saw another one of these today where they wanted somebody to kill Mojo Nixon. I guess the Eravate Network aren't "Elvis is Everywhere" fans.

--G.
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>Saw another one of these today where they wanted somebody to kill Mojo
>Nixon. I guess the Eravate Network aren't "Elvis is Everywhere" fans.

Obviously Michael J. Fox is behind that contract.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

>Someone just offered me cr80,000+ to go to the neighboring star system
>and assassinate Ted Turner. He is evidently an expert military
>strategist.
>
>I, however, am a small-time trader with a poorly-armed Sidewinder, so
>I'm afraid someone else will be cashing that check. :)

Perhaps they mistook you for the Butcher of Musashi? :)

Ebony the Black Dragon

You'll never prove a thing, copper, I'm just a part time electrician – Bad is good, baby! Down with government!

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

In retrospect I'm almost sad I eluded that pirate. He probably would have been even more disappointed than the one who got my food carts. Probably misread his cargo scanner and thought I was hauling superconductors, not semiconductors. Four tons of doped silicon! Mmm. Lucrative.

--G.
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LAST EDITED ON Aug-22-15 AT 02:15 PM (EDT)
 
This webcomic from, oh god, 2004, seems highly relevant:

(source, context)

Heh. So far I'm fine with Truck Driver the RPG, although once I can afford some decent weapons I might try out that "respond to the Federation battleship's SOS" thing from the game's original trailer. To date, though, my money's been going toward upgrading the things that are useful for the job, like the FSD and energy systems.

--G.
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I can definitely see the appeal. I've been playing a game myself ("Sunless Sea") that's basically Cargo Steamship, The RPG plus a bunch of spooky short stories.

>I've been playing a game myself
>("Sunless Sea") that's basically Cargo Steamship of Cthulhu, The RPG

I fixed that for you.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-25-15 AT 01:25 PM (EDT)
 
> Cargo Steamship of Cthulhu, The RPG

You're not wrong, but I feel that there's a fundamental note of optimism in the setting that makes it ... not nearly as bleak as Lovecraft himself. I mean, there's never any suggestion that people can't comprehend the deeper mysteries, or that it will necessarily drive you mad, only that it might if you're not careful. (Or it might just set your hair on fire.) The most existentially terrifying thing in the setting is the Dawn Machine, which was created by humans. And under Nuncio you find a couple paragraphs of text that might be the most elegant and moving expression of hope in the face of cosmic indifference I've ever seen.

There appears to be no way of naming your ship within the game, which is a surprising oversight in a game that bills itself as an immersive simulation of the life of an independent spacer.

However, owing to a number of incidents involving the RNG taking agin me over the last couple of days, I have named mine outside the game, at least. In honor of that brief but frustrating run of bad luck, I have named her the Bohica Maru.

--G.
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"If it's a fast ship."

"Fast ship? You've never heard of the Bohica Maru?"

"Should I have?"

"It's the ship that took four tons of fish to Epsilon Eridani in less than 12 minutes elapsed actual gameplay time."

... it's just less impressive somehow.

But I, too, prefer to avoid any... Imperial entanglements.

Unlike Han, however, I make that happen by just not going anywhere near the Empire. :)

--G.
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>Unlike Han, however, I make that happen by just not going anywhere
>near the Empire. :)

Well, presumably, Han has to go near the Empire because, like Elvis, the Empire is Everywhere.

Ebony the Black Dragon

Michael J. Fox has no Empire in him.

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

>>Unlike Han, however, I make that happen by just not going anywhere
>>near the Empire. :)
>
>Well, presumably, Han has to go near the Empire because, like Elvis,
>the Empire is Everywhere.

He was doing OK in the Corporate Sector until he made the place too hot for him. You know you've screwed up when you think, Welp, my best option now is to head for the fringes of Imperial space.. :)

--G.
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LAST EDITED ON Aug-26-15 AT 11:06 PM (EDT)
 
Gentlemen and/or Ladies,

Please accept my sincere condolences on the death of Bellestes, dread pirate of star system Epsilon Indi. My acquaintance with Bellestes was very brief, consisting as it did only of the following text communications:

Bellestes: That's the ship I'm looking for - the one with the huge haul.

Bellestes: Don't even try to run, Commander, there's no escape.

Bellestes: You're mine now!

Even from those short and pithy text messages, I can tell that he was a person of refined tastes, excellent discernment, and good humor. I'm forced to concede that I must accept some responsibility for his untimely demise - the rich and fragrant treasure trove I was blatant enough to carry into his area of influence (eight tons of biowaste) was an enticement no truly cosmopolitan wayfarer of the spacelanes could reasonably be expected to pass up.

However, I cannot claim complete credit for Bellestes's death. Direct blame for that unhappy state of affairs must rest with the automated defense grid of space station Perry Depot, orbiting the planet Lee (Epsilon Indi II), which vaporized him without my intervention when he opened fire on me within its defensive perimeter...

... and, of course, the ultimate responsibility must lie with Bellestes himself, for being both so stupendously inept as to fail to intercept his quarry and attempt a FrameShift Drive Interdiction at any point in the process before said quarry was dropping out of frameshift anyway preparatory to docking, and so monumentally imbecilic as to follow that failure up by pursuing said quarry to within seven kilometers of an Orbis-class space station and still open fire upon it. As my great-uncle Dennis used to say, you've got to be a real piece of Samsonite to take the matter that far.

I hope that this message finds you well, and that you are recovering from the untimely loss of what I would assume, from circumstantial evidence, to have been your household's chief provider - although empirical evidence suggests that he can't have been that good at it, so perhaps you're better off. Regardless, please accept my condolences once again in what must be a trying personal time, and take what comfort you may in the knowledge that there is some corner of the Perry Depot defense grid that is forever Bellestes.

Yours truly,
Commander Zebulon P. Gryphon
Captain, Trading Vessel Bohica Maru II

*SNRRRRRRRK!*

Hilarious! (Also love the ship name.)

------
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her

Rolled up a new pilot last night, given the old one wasn't exactly hugely successful, and damn, I like a lot of the improvements. The 'help a new pilot get started with a good chunk of starting cash' missions help.

And then, after taking down my third pirate on a hunting contract, a wing jumped in and turned me to vapor. There went about 100,000 in bounties :(

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

LAST EDITED ON Aug-28-15 AT 07:45 PM (EDT)
 
>Rolled up a new pilot last night, given the old one wasn't exactly
>hugely successful

It makes me slightly sad that the game only allows for one character per player. It has a whiff of another "do it as we think best or don't do it at all" designer fiat about it...

Ah well. I guess if I want to dip my toe into the combat game I'll just have to soup up the original Bohica Maru, so that I'm not risking my investment in the Bigger Second Ship. Which is presumably how they want me to do it. I just don't like that feeling that I'm being herded, is all.

That said, I'm enjoying the game enough that I'm actually playing around with the idea of buying a HOTAS controller, which is not something I would have considered before.

--G.
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>That said, I'm enjoying the game enough that I'm actually playing
>around with the idea of buying a HOTAS controller, which is not
>something I would have considered before.

400 bucks on a joystick?

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

>>That said, I'm enjoying the game enough that I'm actually playing
>>around with the idea of buying a HOTAS controller, which is not
>>something I would have considered before.
>
>400 bucks on a joystick?

The ones I'm considering range from quite a bit to rather a lot less expensive than that... though I've noticed while shopping that if you want to and you can afford it, you can basically construct an entire cockpit out of USB-connected buttons, switches, gauges, and whatnot. Hardcore flight-simmers are a little scary. :)

--G.
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>>That said, I'm enjoying the game enough that I'm actually playing
>>around with the idea of buying a HOTAS controller, which is not
>>something I would have considered before.
>
>400 bucks on a joystick?

The price of my HOTAS setup didn't bother me - trying to find a good way to set it up on/next to/with my desk so that it's comfortable to use and yet not pushing me too far away from the monitor is my biggest issue. (Using my Oculus mitigates the monitor issue, but the DK2 resolution isn't high enough for the *cockpit* monitors to be legible...)

That and the setup/teardown time which pretty much means I don't hop into Elite unless I'm ready to spend a 4-5 hours to make it worth it.

Star Citizen is going to make it worse with needing a keyboard and mouse on top of a stick for when you're on-foot. (And I imagine Elite will have the same issue when they add planetary landings)

"No cargo?! How do you people make a living?"
"Oh, I mostly just wait for pirates to jump out in front of me, find out I'm not hauling cargo, then blast them for the bounties when they let their guard down."
"Oh, nice. Wait, what?"
*FREEM!*

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

For some reason this little snippet had me in giggles for a good 10 minutes.
I think the sound effect is what set me off.

>For some reason this little snippet had me in giggles for a good 10
>minutes.
>I think the sound effect is what set me off.

Bonus amusement for the sound effect being an abbreviation of "Freemium."

Peter Eng
--
Because "Free-to-play with premium content" is too long.

In the star systems around old Sol, there is a legend. In the space stations of Barnard's Star, 61 Cygni, Wolf 359, and many others, he is spoken of in tones of respect, admiration, and even - though most of the region's hard-bitten spacers would be loath to admit it - a kind of love.

He is on a one-man crusade to bring the comforts of modern living to the region's hardest, most Spartan space habitats. The miners and factory workers, farmers and technicians, struggling to scratch a living out of the Federation's rougher corners, know that however tough their existence is, there is one indie commander out there who cares. Who will do what it takes. Who passes up the lucrative business of assassination and contraband smuggling in favor of the lower-paying world of simple humanitarian trade. Who will move the heavens, a little piece at a time, to bring them what they need, be it a dozen tons of fish, a consignment of Domestic Appliances, a shipment of medical supplies, or just a few pallets of sorely-needed refreshment for the upcoming weekend.

He is the captain of the good ship Bohica Maru II, that Viper-class angel of mercy whose crimson approach is hailed with cheering and tears of gratitude wherever there are humans in need of creature comforts to soothe the aches and pains of the spacer's daily grind.

He is Commander Zebulon P. Gryphon...

... the Beerbringer.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Don't be too disappointed, Carney. You wouldn't have been all that pleased if you'd managed to get that cargo off me anyway; it was a shipment of beer from Epsilon Indi. I have it on fairly good authority that their beer is piss, and since you're a spacer like me, you're already drinking piss.

--G.
Think about it.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Look man, your name was Squigg Bob. Just accept my lasers did you a favour, and you were never going to be the scourge of the space lanes.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>Look man, your name was Squigg Bob. Just accept my lasers did you a
>favour, and you were never going to be the scourge of the space lanes.

Heh. Somebody offered me a pile of credits to take out Spiny Norman the other day. Even if I was an assassin, I'm not that crazy. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Heh. Somebody offered me a pile of credits to take out Spiny Norman
>the other day. Even if I was an assassin, I'm not that crazy. :)

Someone's got a good memory for the classics. ;)

(Although I remember the name more from the ZX Spectrum computer game references that the Monty Python ones.)

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

>>Heh. Somebody offered me a pile of credits to take out Spiny Norman
>>the other day. Even if I was an assassin, I'm not that crazy. :)
>
>Someone's got a good memory for the classics. ;)
>
>(Although I remember the name more from the ZX Spectrum computer game
>references that the Monty Python ones.)

Well, there was a ZX Spectrum version of the original Elite...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>(Although I remember the name more from the ZX Spectrum computer game
>>references that the Monty Python ones.)
>
>Well, there was a ZX Spectrum version of the original Elite...

I know, I used to play it. The references I remember, though, are from nearly-as-famous platform games like Jet Set Willy; I'm sure there was at least one room with "Spiny Norman" either in the name or actually in the room.

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

Well, in my years-behind-as-normal state, I missed this thread the first time around.

Elite Dangerous just (dec 15 2015) released their first "Season", Horizons. It's.. an interesting model. Horizons 'includes' ED, but if you start the game with Horizons, you can play as Knuckles-

errr. Planetary landings. And there's rovers! Occasionally they explode.

But the game is causing me to get into home improvements - wait, hear me out!

If I want to play ED (And start prepping for Star Citizen), I rather would prefer a decent HOTAS setup.

And I can't use a HOTAS by setting it on my desk. That would be silly, ergonomically incorrect, and not work very bloody well (try and grab a fistful of throttle to escape Ze Bad Guys, end up with your throttle in your lap).

And I can't mount one _to_ my desk, since it's a drab plastic folding table. And again, ergonomic failure. Nor can I bolt it under, for the above reason.

So I need a new desk. Instead of dropping ~$800 - $1000 US on one made of actual wood by actual people, I'll build it (looking at ~$400 for red oak, $300 for birch, haven't decided yet).

But I can't put a gorgeous desk like that on my plywood subflooring!

So, the short form is, I spent last weekend installing laminate so I can play Elite: Dangerous.

About another four weeks before I have the desk done and I can get my Warthog shipped, and I'll see you in the spacelanes.

LAST EDITED ON Feb-04-16 AT 02:27 AM (EST)
 
"The problem isn't that pot leads to harder drugs, it leads to fuckin' carpentry, that's the problem."
- Denis Leary, paraphrased from memory

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.