Well, it's very similar to Star Trek in that warp is much, much faster than impulse and is the best way to get around the map, but it's impractical for combat.  At impulse, your turn rate increases as speed decreases, so you're more maneuverable when moving slowly.

another one of their games that never made it: Monster Island.

Damn.  I would have bought that in a heartbeat.

Have you guys seen this:

http://artemis.eochu.com/

It's a multiplayer cooperative starship bridge simulator.  Every player runs a bridge station-- Helm, Weapons, Engineering, etc.  The graphics aren't great, but it has a ton of potential if the game's designer can expand on it a bit.

What, nobody mentioned that this went live already?

I'm enjoying it quite a bit-- Praetoria is very pretty and I really like the tip and morality missions.  Haven't had a chance to play around with the new powersets (except for Dual Pistols, but that was pre-released a while back), but I'm looking forward to getting some quality time in this weekend.

Has anyone else tried it out yet?

I kinda want to buy the strategy guide now, as I CANNOT FIND AN ARMADILLO FOR THE LIFE OF ME.

Stupid addictive Frontiersman Challenges!

Come to me my little armored friends!

I know I have armadillo meat from early on in the game, perhaps you should use bait around the MacFarlane Ranch?

Have you looked on the fold out map that came with the game?

I play with "few" pirates, too, and it's been my experience that when pirates start showing up regularly that there's a pirate base nearby.  Send an exploration ship to explore the sector they're showing up in.  That usually smokes them out.

just tried it quickly - started the basic tutorial, and started a game...then... my ships started flying out left and right, and I didnt know what to do...this will take some time!! And thanks for the planner tip, Huw! Sounds like what they did in Moo2 :-)

I had similar problems at first, until I realized I was playing it like an RTS and not a 4X-- specifically, I was subconsciously avoiding pausing the game to issue orders and get a handle on emerging situations.  Once I got over that, everything started coming together for me.

Spent a good chunk of Sunday playing around with customization, mostly porting over my custom system and ship name lists from Space Empires IV, but I also tried my hand at updating ship sets, too.  It's all pretty easy and straightforward if you follow the customization guide.  I really hope this game gets an insane amount of modding support.

I picked it up and ran through the tutorial-- looks like there will be a heck of a learning curve to understand everything that's going on, but the various levels of automation you can choose to engage should take a lot of the sting out of that.  Looking forward to spending some quality time with it this weekend.

Midwinter... so, so awesome.  You know, I think that might just be my all time favorite game.

Yes, please.

I can't see where there'd be a rights issue-- I'm pretty sure Earth is the very definition of Public Domain.

That being said, I have Extraterrestrials and fire it up from time to time, and it's as good as you're going to get as far as a modernized X-Com.  Does anyone know if they ever fixed the glitch that prevented you from building labs and barracks in your alternate bases?

Took me a while, but I was able to get this to run pretty acceptably on my ATI 4850 with Win 7 32.  At first, I had troubles using the dgVoodoo software, so I had to uninstall my ATI drivers and install the oldest version I could find.  Then, I found this thread, specifically this file which let me run glide on my most recent ATI drivers (I also modified my DATABASE.MW2 file to use RIFF instead of PIFF, but I don't know if that fixed anything).  There's still a few issues (I haven't fixed the bouncy tires yet, for example), but I was able to play, and damn, it's still a great game.

I wish they still made games like this.

They're doing a Double XP/Free Reactivation weekend on March 4th, but I seriously doubt they'll have Issue 17 ready by then.

If you hold your cursor over the level progress bar that stretches across the top of the screen, a tooltip will show up telling you what you need for the next level.  In my case, I just had to spend 100 more skill points before I got Lt. Commander... and as I was about to do that, I got kicked off the server for the third consecutive night of 2 hour maintenance.

As far as getting your free ship plaque, from what I was able to find on the forums, you talk to the admiral after you're promoted, then go downstairs to the ship requisition area, pick the ship you want for 1 energy credit (then set it to active?), return to the admiral, and he'll give you a plaque to 'buy' that ship.  It's not terribly clear, but the thread is here.

Hopefully, I can tell you more... in about two hours or so.

Issue 16 just launched.

[Spoiler]

Stuck...I'm in the Medical Facility trying to rescue Dr.Kellerman, but..

Spoiler for Hiden:

I have to turn off three fans.  I was able to get the first one, but I'm not certain how to get the second as the switch is hidden in a alcove that I can't seem to batarang.  I cut the poor guy down, but he is now passed out on the floor.   Help

Here you go:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Once you turn off the first fan, the level of the gas goes down.  Jump to the end of the room (opposite of the the air shaft you entered) by sticking to the left side of the room.  Once you're at the corner, turn right and jump to the next platform, then target the switch behind you.  This brings the gas down further.  Continue to jump the the lower platform next to the office.  If you've cut down the thug hanging by the rope, the glass roof of the office is shattered.  You should be able to target the last switch from here.

I'm actually leaving for the midnight release in a bit, which is a little concerning because there's been a string of brutal muggings after midnight in my neighborhood lately. 

Since we've had no further reports, should we assume that you were the latest victim?  Everyone light a candle for drake. 

No, I made it home intact.  I even got in an hour or so of game play, too.  Early verdict: it's freaking awesome.

I'm actually leaving for the midnight release in a bit, which is a little concerning because there's been a string of brutal muggings after midnight in my neighborhood lately.  I'd really hate to have to explain to the cops that I got my ass kicked by muggers while I was taking home a game that lets me pretend to be a bad-ass crimefighter.

Country: Latveria
Dictator: Victor Von Doom

Just a peek at the Search function in-game, since I'm playing again:


That was one of the top ranked Developers' Choice arcs. It has a nice sense of fun. I don't really like (when soloing esp.) humongous maps where you have to find one tiny thing. So I didn't finish it, I think I'll try to find some shorter ones to try first.

Actually, that's my Arc, Blackjack. I know the guy can be a little hard to find, but I sorta needed a ruin map for that mission and they're all pretty big. If I get the chance to edit it (you can't edit your arcs once it's a Dev Choice), I'll see what I can do to make him easier to find.  (Psst: In the meantime, he's almost always on the north side of the map!)

[NCNorCal Announces City of Heroes: Golden Age]

Who needs Mission Architect when you have City of Heroes: The Golden Age? 

NCNorCal Announces City of Heroes: Golden Age
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/news_archive/ncnorcal_announces_city_of_her.html

Be sure to click on the links to the green screen monitor images. 

Personally, I'm looking forward to COH on consoles:
http://www.halfwaydecent.com/html/main.isx?sitesec=40.0.0.0

Here's the best argument I can make: just reading this thread has me longing to go fire up a new game, despite the fact that I really, really have a lot of stuff to do this weekend, and I'm going to be needed at work on Monday.

I was up until the wee hours of the morning playing with the Mission Architect.  It's still a bit buggy, but I had a lot of fun with it warts and all.  One of the coolest features (for me, anyhow) is the ability to make your own groups of customized characters, which lets you create mobs consisting of pretty much anything you can build in the costume creator (I spent a good deal of time last night putting together a SHIELD-type spy organization, for example, as well as a bunch of robotic minions for an arch villain).  There's still a lot I need about it, but so far, it's very, very cool! 

My favorite is the Galaxy class merchant ship from Privateer.  Man, I logged a lot of hours in that thing.

The Kobayshi Maru mod is a good place to start, and I think the Pimped mod installs on top of that, if memory serves.

I'm buying this the second I get home tonight-- I've been dying to get something worthy of my new Saitek X-52 joystick/throttle combo for over a week now, and I'm more than happy to throw money at supporting the developer.

I picked up ER last year and really enjoyed it.  It's an extremely well done game considering it's just one guy.  Can't wait to try the new one out!

Joystiq has an interview, touches base on the mission creator again:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/01/joystiq-interview-ncsoft-talks-about-updating-city-of-heroes-ke/

Can you talk about some of the work the team is doing on the Architect system? What can players look forward to when this next big batch of content arrives for the game early next year?

The ability to create your own story arcs of up to five missions in length. Each mission can have a single or multiple completion goals, as well as use practically any map we have used for missions previously. You will also be able to put in allies or bosses, and these can be pre-set entities, or custom one you create yourself. Oh, you will also be able to choose what Contact hands out your story arc, or create your own Contact in the same manner as you would create a character or a boss.

Ooooh... I didn't know about the "create your own Contact" function... That'll come in handy.  To be honest, I was pretty Meh on Issue 13 once they made it clear that Architect was moving to I14, but it sounds like the wait for the mission editor will be worth it!

Oh, and Issue 13 is live now.

Yeah, the ending choice being an "A or B" question when the FAR BETTER solution of "C" was literally standing RIGHT NEXT TO ME at the time (and had, in fact, volunteered to solve a very similar problem for me just a little bit ago) was a HUGE problem with a game with which that up until then, I had little to no complaints.  It's still my pick for GOTY because of all the sheer awesome leading up to that moment, but the ending REALLY felt like it was phoned in.

Evochron Renegades was pretty fun and had some nice features for a small house, indy title.

annoyingly, my game keeps freezing, with the sound looping for a looong time..sometimes, up to 30-40 seconds - a bit annoying, since I run games like COD: world at war perfectly...

Yeah, this is my fear and why I haven't picked up the game yet (well, that and because I'm still loving Fallout 3).  I had the L4D demo crash on me a couple times so I'm struggling to figure out if I want to plunk down the cash for the PC version, which will be more playable but might crash during gameplay, or get it for the 360 and struggle against the console control scheme.

The sad thing is that this dilemma is just going to become more and more commonplace for me in the future.

That's really too bad; LH was a great community manager and really deserved better than to have to fall on his sword to blunt PVP nerd rage.  Still, I wouldn't mind CuppaJo coming back, though-- she was awesome and the players loved her.

I was thinking that the engine would be great for a Western themed.

I totally agree.  This would be perfect for Deadlands (and I'm thinking that the SPECIAL system would be pretty easy to adapt to the Savage Worlds ruleset, too).

it very well might.  however, unless you're future man traveling back in time to tell us about games we've yet to try, i'd keep your posts to something more like "It sounds like something I wouldn't like" instead of "it sucks!".  you just come across as a spiteful person with a bone to pick.

Then, as a time traveler, I can assure you that Gnortz's Rollerball 2541 totally sucks.  The neural interface blows  and even with the resolution cranked up on my overclocked Viztech Holocube, the sand in the SoCal Wastesector map is still slightly bigger than actual sand.  Didn't those pinheads learn anything from the reviews of GR 2540?

Crap.  Every time I read this thread I end up starting a new game of Gal Civ II...  Damn you, I had PLANS this weekend!!  PLANS!!!

Hmmm... On the surface, it sounds kinda cool, but I have my doubts.  First off, consider people like Superman and Spider-Man-- give them a sandbox city to play in and it works because the act of them going somewhere in Metropolis or New York is, in and of itself, pretty exciting.  In fact, one of my favorite parts of the Spider-Man series has always been web slinging, and pretty much the only thing I remember liking on Superman Returns was hyperflight. 

In Batman's case, though, they don't really rely on showing him getting from point A to point B because showing him leave the Batcave, get in the Batmobile, drive to the police station, park, get out, scale the side of the building, and creep into Commissioner Gordon's office is not remotely as cool as him just suddenly stepping out of the shadows behind Commissioner Gordon to finish his sentence for him.

Also, the idea of Batman out and about, patrolling Gotham seems kinda... I dunno... beneath him.  I mean, I get Spider-Man going out on patrol and looking for trouble, stopping purse snatchers and what not, but Batman?  It always seemed to me that when he leaves the Batcave, he's got a pretty good idea about where he's going and who he expects to find when he gets there.  He's much more proactive than reactive, you know?

That being said, I've loved Pandemic since the days of Battlezone, so if it has to be a sandbox game, at least it's in good hands.

Nice!  Has a real Crimson Skies type vibe to it, too!

Well, the current Perfect Storm of releases has really overloaded my backlog, but this weekend, I hope to spend some quality time with:

GTAIV: I'm only about 30% done
City of Heroes/Villains: With all the new stuff that came out with Issue 12, I've got some exploring to do
Gal Civ II: Twilight of the Arnor: Back into my huge galaxy game I started a few weeks ago
Mass Effect: I haven't even *looked* at the DLC pack, despite the fact I grabbed it on release day
Command and Conquer 3: I want to get to a point where I can fire up Kane's Wrath without feeling guilty

According to this, Issue 12 went live today.  I expected at least another week or so of beta, so this is a nice surprise.

[Perfect Strangers]

I've gotten far enough to unlock the internet (I spent probably an hour just browsing the web) and I'm having a lot of fun with it.  It's not quite living up to the hype (but, really, given the ENORMOUS hype around this release, what could?), but I don't regret plunking down the cash for the CE version (I did get the 1 month of X-Box Live, btw).  Graphics are pretty good, but not as crisp as Burnout: Paradise, and I really like the story so far.  I can only understand about one out of every 10 words Little Jacob says, though.


I suspect that I'll like it a lot more once I open up the other islands, but for now, I can safely say that Cousin Niko coming to Liberty City to live with his cousin is everything Perfect Strangers should have been, if you ask me.