Posts made by Packrat

My main memory of elementals was playing Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries on a computer barely (not really) to handle it and being unable to hit the little bastards whilst playing at around 15 FPS.

Streak launchers were lifesavers there.

Regarding the 'buy or contract' question, it depends on your finances. If you can afford to just outright buy a phone then take a SIM only contract then that is generally cheaper but you do need the money up front, it does however give a lot of flexibility especially if you snag a good contract, you can potentially stick with it forever.

As an example I am now 6+ years into a two year contract and never upgraded my phone because the company stopped offering the same infinite data, infinite tethering plan at some point, I just buy a new phone every few years then move the SIM card into it. I have in the past just used my phone for my home internet and broken 200 gig a month through it.

@cupcake I sadly have to admit that I once kicked some dogs.

The reason? Because I was taller than the other people in the office whilst working for local government I found myself sent out with the guy who collected rent from traveler (gypsy/romani) camp sites around the area. Some people were lovely, like making us cups of tea and bacon sandwiches lovely. Others... Not so much.

One woman essentially unleashed a tide of very murderously inclined jack russells at us who really, really wanted to bite out our hamstrings.

@lithium It actually is an EVGA card, though given the likely time to get it replaced I am very glad I still had my old card in a cupboard.

So the graphics card for my PC died, a GTX 1070ti that is less than six months old.

It crashed my computer, rebooted on the third attempt to a 640x480 display that wavered and flickered along with turning black and switching off for 3 seconds every 10 seconds whilst crashing the computer maybe every 10 minutes. I reinstalled the drivers, not much better, I took the thing out and put it back in then reinstalled the drivers, no better.

I swapped in my old graphics card and everything is absolutely fine.

Looks like I now have to jump through the hoops to get a replacement which will no doubt be 'fun' and cost me for shipping.

@kay So based on this? I already have the concept of Space Dragon. They have been exiled to earth for Dragon Crimes. (ie. being a dragon and doing dragon stuff).

Now they are living life to the max. Hosting wild, extravagant parties, fighting crime in the most ostentatious and destructive manner possible whilst inflicting Maximum Fire, being easily distracted by shiny things and immediately and utterly receptive of all praise no matter how over the top.

@apu I might give it a look, I messed around shortly after the initial release and it was fun, I also remember the sandstorms being some of the most awesomely intimidating experiences I have ever had in a game.

A Kushiel game set in !Marseille instead of the capital? I am interested and will have to remember to give it a go at least when it is not ten to midnight here.

I have no idea if it is any good or not though.

@runescryer said in Interest check: pure OC superhero game:

@fatefan I call it the 'Frank Castle Unearthly Plot Armor' principle. I'm not pooh-pooing vigilante characters, but there's no logical reason why the metahuman heroes would just ignore all the killings and only 'focus on the Big Threats' aside from writing/editorial control. That's why I advocate a Two City system.

1. It keeps power levels roughly in the same ballpark for city inhabitants/heroes. Punisher and Batman are on the same power level; Punisher and Superman aren't.

2. It sets up RP and Events for the vigilante characters if the city they're in has a full on 'No Vigilantes' law that's backed by a corrupt city government to protect themselves from metahumans cleaning up their city. The superheroes that go and try to help clean things up are rebuffed by local law enforcement and government and the superheroes have to/should play by the rules. The vigilantes ignore the rules, which is entirely appropriate for them.

Also depending upon the nature of things, there is no reason to assume that big power superheroes would be terribly effective against a city just being shit. I mean Superman is not actually a huge benefit to law enforcement in the absence of superheroic threats, he can stop the five story high robot from demolishing city hall or punch the bulletproof guy cracking open banks. But can he really help against a racist housing agency? The mob shaking down corner shops? People paying bribes to get out of traffic violations?

Maybe? But mostly through his alter ego being an investigative reported which is something pretty much anyone can do. 99% of 'regular' crime is not an issue due to the cops being unable to fight the criminals.

@kay I figure any kind of dragon doing things in a big city would be shapeshift capable.

As to fighting crime? Hmm. I imagine that a 'heroic' dragon might be opposed to crime because crime reduces their ability to accumulate shiny wealth? Also if you are a 'super hero' then you get invited onto talk shows and followed by reporters and otherwise find yourself the focus of the attention you naturally deserve as a dragon. We are talking about a dragon who can coexist with human society so probably more the type to accumulate money though long term investment over going rar and robbing banks themselves.

@jibberthehut This was to be fair in a 60% off sale already, so yes, stainless steel encapsulated base saucepans where the bottom is something like a quarter of an inch thick. The big danger is that I travel frequently to Denby with work and the place I visit is right next to the Denby Pottery factory shop.

I have discovered the joy of really good quality kitchenware, I do not even cook more than once every few days but the nice stuff just feels right to hold and looks great.

This week I have spent the equivalent of about $250 on saucepans.

I think I have a problem and need help.

@lithium You cannot jump further than you can sprint (maybe with the Spider that is made out of jumpjets?) but you can definitely jump a lot of mechs further than they can walk. This is key because you can still shoot or brace after jumping.

@kay Important though, would this shared origin let me do something weird like play a dragon? This is key because I desire to play somebody who can respond to criticism with something along the lines of

Weirdly I have a kind of hard mental cut off for scheduling RP, outside of specific events. If somebody say asks if I will be free 7pm on Tuesday to RP?

The internal response is almost immediately a kind of mental FUCK NO! NEVER!

Even if I was originally probably planning to be around and RPing at that time.

It is definitely an exception and not something that I like to open with but if a fight is drawing to a close and there is a choice between dropping my Grasshopper with fresh leg armour onto an enemy or let them shoot? While I likely have mechs with very thin or open armour sections?

I would rather have both legs shaved to 1/3 armour and at minimum half of an Orion or something ripped off than let that Orion light up a vulnerable mech. A Grasshopper DFA (with six small lasers) is a LOT of damage.

@lithium Well it hits a fair bit harder, which might let you one shot something like a Demolisher instead of it getting to fire, also you can DFA further than you can run and punch.

It is generally something I do in convoy missions where the targets are charging off the edge of the map whilst raining PPCs or AC20 fire and look like they might escape though to be honest I mostly just avoid the hell of convoy missions.

Death From Above is really good for killing tanks, as a note.

On another note I finally finished the campaign but it was rendered bittersweet through the loss of a leg mounted double heat sink on my Royal SDLF Highlander. Completely impossible to replace!

I really cannot praise whomever composed the painted cutscenes enough, combined with the music they are beautiful.

@lithium I would say no need for that, I mean unless there is some mechanic where heroes/villains inherently get more powerful over time, why not allow somebody to play... I do not know, a 40 year old veteran hero who is just new to the area/organisation the game is focused on?

I found by mid game that I was running 7-8 pilots and mechs, it costs a little more but the ability to go straight into missions without waiting if you get something shot up or a pilot put out of action for a few weeks is more than worth it.

Also, crucially, it means you have trained up replacements for if some asshole in a walking center torso does a Death From Above and smashes the head of an untouched heavy mech, taking a highly skilled mechwarrior to the grave in the process.