I had finally given up hunting him down and was prepping to just load up and GTFO, had one guy left outside the skyranger (3 tiles away of course) when suddenly, Blaster Bomb right into the ship, killed everyone.

Took me a month before i played again.

As did we all. As did we all.

--G.
Also, why did Cyberdiscs ALWAYS die in gas stations? BOOOOOOM
-><-
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.

Me, I ended up with 'flush the muton'. Also a fun game. Entire squad alive, one last muton, it's inside a barn. Tried five times times to get it. The moment anyone stuck their head in, no matter if it was through the door, or if I MADE a 'door', splat.

So I spaced the squad around the barn, and had the heavy-weapons-guy fire a spread of auto-cannon incidiaries into it. It chose to come out rather than get roasted. 2 laser rifles and an autocannon burst, finally mission over.

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

I admit the laser sounds are not quite what I would like - but the Clan ER lasers are a bit closer to the "old classics".

The POV 'Mech in that clip didn't have a PPC, so I didn't notice what that sound effect was like (if anyone else in the fight used one, I didn't know what it was). That was one of MW4's most distinctive sounds, so I suspect I'll take particular note of it the first time I know I'm hearing it.

--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.

My bad.

(I remember MW4, man that was fun back in the day. "This is Duncan Fisher live from the Scrapheap!"

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

There's a "training room" mode where you can just walk around various maps at leisure; your weapons work in that mode, and there are "hostile" 'Mechs scattered around here and there... which don't move or shoot, so their value in figuring out the shooting game is somewhat limited. :)

I'm not particularly surprised by this, I mean, it's just like every other online multiplayer arena combat game. The time you spend sucking mightily and hampering teams of total strangers are meant to be the tutorial experience. That's kind of one of the reasons I haven't played that kind of game much before now. (At least in Armored Warfare and World of Warships you have the option of going up against AI opponents, who, if nothing else, don't gloat in chat. :)

--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.

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

You can play co-op against the machine, yes. It will gain you less XP and credits than against a living opponent, but at the same time, it is probably a bit less difficult, so that's fair. And, it IS only a BIT less. The bots will surprise you, they're not push-overs.

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

I just noticed this last night - must've been part of that giant patch that downloaded the other day. The new tutorial is a lot better, and opens onto a set of open-ended training exercises that have actual rewards, which is nice. There's even a "test drive 'Mechs you can't possibly afford yet" function.

--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.

Which, for some strange reason that not even I can comprehend, made me search for 'Delayed Freem' on Goggle. And which, along with one Eyrie Forum return, also gave the following gem.

"Ode Hilt Mjrtle Cefkta (Delayed freem 'Fear not: for, behold, I brine you good tidings of treat Joy, which shall be to all -peopie."

Nothing particularly relevant about this, just amused me and thought it might amuse others.

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

--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.

If you experience a delay in freem lasting four hours or more, contact your MechWarrior Guild Representative immediately.

Ebony the Black Dragon

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

They actually made that? I'm pleased and astonished.

And even more astonished that they made one of the ugliest machines in Macross into something awesome-looking, but they've been doing that for Battletech's native hideous for a while now.

(I love the franchise, really I do, but its mechanical design has often been oddly weak.)

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

Leaving aside your scurrilous and unwarranted attack on the noble Glaug officer's battle pod, I have to... sort of agree and sort of not. The MWO designers have done a great job making the 'Mechs that were just plain preposterous-looking in the later BattleTech manuals - everything in Technical Readout 3050 and quite a lot from the Star League-era one, I'm looking at you - look less glaringly inconsistent with the look-and-feel of the setting. They're still, for the most part, hideous, but they no longer look incongruous. I mean, IMO there's just no way to make a Highlander, a Cataphract, or most Clan 'Mechs* not ugly, but they do look like they belong in the world.

Strangely, I think they've been less successful in adapting 'Mechs that already looked pretty good. Most of the Sun Fang Dougram designs, for instance, I don't think needed a lot of messing with - they were never in Robotech and I'd be surprised if they were subject to the Harmony Gold nonsense - but they've been brought into line with the general MWO design aesthetic... not entirely successfully, in a lot of instances. It's a question of proportions, for the most part. MWO's version of the BattleMaster, for example, is just too dang wide for its height, as is my beloved Griffin (which no longer looks like something a man could wear as a powered suit).

This is a common problem with the MWO versions of the Technical Readout 3025 'Mechs, in fact, even the non-licensed ones. MWO's Victor has exactly the same problem. They look like you're playing at a 4:3 resolution on a 16:9 monitor.

It's a good-looking game overall, and I can certainly understand the designers' goal of making the 'Mechs all look like they belong to the same tech base. I'm just not sold on how they did it in a bunch of cases.

That said, I enjoy that I could get an oscillating fan for the cockpit of my 'Mech if I wanted to drop a little bit of real-world currency on it. I can only imagine that that would be about as useful as the air conditioning in a '70s Lamborghini in actual practice, but it's a nice touch. :)

--G.
*By an odd coincidence, the Clan 'Mechs that aren't hideous are the ones that are obvious modernizations of 3025 designs...
-><-
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.

As the abridged story goes; everything that wasn't designed in-house has been subject to the Harmony Gold nonsense. Harmony Gold are the only ones who actually complained, and have notoriously been the most difficult* party to please with any given redesign attempt, but the other stuff has been subject to the same treatment regarding redesigns.

> MWO's version of the
>BattleMaster, for example, is just too dang wide for its
>height, as is my beloved Griffin (which no longer looks like
>something a man could wear as a powered suit).

If I'm honest, I think I prefer Battlemechs to not look like they could be something a man could wear as a powered suit.

>This is a common problem with the MWO versions of the Technical
>Readout 3025 'Mechs, in fact, even the non-licensed ones. MWO's
>Victor has exactly the same problem. They look like you're
>playing at a 4:3 resolution on a 16:9 monitor.

Funny thing I've noticed about a lot of the mechs gaining some rather unseemly width is where they quite notably do not in their concept art. The Centurion, in particular seems to be quite lithe in its concept art, but kinda squat once the model reached completion. Assault mechs, though, are apparantly just destined to be really broad in MWO. I guess to make them look heftier? I dunno, I was never much of an Assault mech fan anyway.

>
>It's a good-looking game overall, and I can certainly understand the
>designers' goal of making the 'Mechs all look like they belong to the
>same tech base. I'm just not sold on how they did it in a bunch of
>cases.

I think MWO's probably done some of the best jobs of making these 'mechs actually look the part. At least in initial execution - the variant weapon-port models sometimes make me cringe for being really weird choices (The torso LRM racks on the Awesome really, really ought to be round, y'know?) or failing to apply nicely (the changes to the Centurion's autocannon arm make me a sad panda) but on the whole, MWO has made a lot more of the mech designs look like awesome giant robots that might actually hold their own weight up in combat, and that's nice.

I should probably actually -play- the game again sometime soon.

~Silv'
*Well, second most difficult probably. The first, naturally, being the nostalgia-ridden fanbase.

Relatively few of them did, apart from a few of the Dougram designs, and maybe the Commando. (Which is hilariously short in MWO. I bought one in the Hero 'Mech sale, 'cause it was cheap and looked like fun, and noticed in the 'Mechlab that it's tiny, even for a light 'Mech. :)

--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.

Stupid Potato of Death.

(I love my Potato of Death.)

As threatened previously, I have called mine DOOMSPUD.

--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.

--------------
Lime2K
The One True Evil Overlord

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

"Locust pilots are the weirdest."

Peter Eng
--
It's amazing what odd quotes float to the top of one's memory. I can't remember which Battletech supplement that was in.

WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!

Heh. I noticed a couple of fun things about that Kickstarter while I was looking it over. One is that one of the "pledge some more" hooks is a new Battletech novella by Michael A. Stackpole. I find that amusing mainly because they're clearly reaching for the nostalgia market there, and yet... well, let us just say that in my particular circle of players back in high school, the Warrior trilogy was not shall we say an unqualified success. So there's that. :)

Also, one of the mid-tier levels includes a bunch of Successor House swag, and you get to pick which of the five (since it's set in 3025) you support. I want them to release the list of everyone who picks Liao so that the rest of us can point at them and laugh. :)

(Also, I'm a little irked that they don't make a distinction between the Successor States and the Houses that rule them. I acknowledge that MechWarrior didn't really do that either - the Successor State sourcebooks were all entitled House $WHOEVER - but still... it's possible to be a Lyran patriot and of the opinion Katrina Steiner is completely screwing up, at which point you would probably rather your banner said LYRAN COMMONWEALTH and not HOUSE STEINER.)

That said, it does have the distinction of being the first software Kickstarter I've ever been interested enough in to overcome my longstanding distrust of Kickstarter (particularly for creative projects - this has been discussed elsewhere, for instance in the Elite: Dangerous thread, E:D being a prime example of why I don't trust creative-project Kickstarters). I didn't go insane with it, much as I spent a while eyeing that level which promises a MechWarrior jacket, but I did throw some of my filthy Earth credits at them.

And yes, I will also be next to Matt on the Warhammer bus. Mine will be red and called Engine 51.

(Sharp-eyed viewers will note that I said "first software", not first overall. The first one overall was this one, which you've still got 71 hours to get into if you are also a graphic design and/or space nerd.)

--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.

What have you done to that poor GRF-2N.

--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.

Unit colors. Not my choice. :(

Great for Comp / CW matches to show who is who tho.

Also, dare I ask what happened to Red Devils 01 and 02?

Ebony the Black Dragon

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

Well, I didn't play the other three members of Red Devil Lance back in the day, so...

(For complete campaign accuracy, it should be Red Devil 103, but that's too long.)

--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.

Oh, well. I was thinking they had perished in fiery explosions; Red Devil 03 was soon to follow; Red Devil 04 would disappear without a trace, 24 hours after coming online; and Red Devil 05 would have all the fun. :)

Ebony the Black Dragon

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

Oh yeah, fun, all the politics, changing pilots suddenly for someone who they know will piss off the House Davion partisans who thought the whole Federated Commonwealth thing was the worst idea ever, and then at the end, shouting down the Clans AND ComStar to stop screwing around... so much fun.

:)

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

<Tony_Stark> Well... you're not wrong.

--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.

Apparently the guy behind this did:
http://www.microstru.com/3600.html

I don't *think* we've encountered each other in a match, though it's possible. Whyfor you hate me so? :)

To be fair, if you were behind the stick on that thing and we did run into each other, the name was likely appropriate.

--sofaspud
--I survived more than a minute? WIN!

Heh, entirely coincidental, I assure you. I've been calling Stalkers Doomspud since high school. Because of the shape, you see...

--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.

(tr.: Yeah, I feel you. The game is not the most welcoming if you're not already in a posse, that's for sure. Though I've been so busy with late-semester stuff and Real Life that I haven't actually played MWO, or World of Warships, in weeks anyway.)

--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.

My MWO tag is the same of my tag here, and if anyone is interested in the services of House Marik, the FWLM is not a bad group, and my particular unit, Marik Gunfighter Alliance, a very laid back and casual bunch. :)

I dropped with the -MS- crew (9 of them, anyway) on a CW match the other day -- having honorable fulfilled my contract to House Davion and immediately offered my services to Clan Wolf, because goddammit, I wanted to win a match for once, ahem -- and having done so...

... holy shit, I can see why they're so damn tough when you're on the unfriendly end of their guns.

One of their guys got on the voice comms and started giving clear, concise, and effective orders, and we steamrolled the Liao pukes on the other team.

On the plus side (for my pride, anyway) I ranked 2nd on the end-of-match roundup, so I'm not completely worthless behind the stick!

But yeah. Teamwork is really where it's at, if you want the Big Prizes. I should really look at finding a unit.

--sofaspud
--