alanschu

MLS has a spot for ties, so I assume they are still in. Basketball also goes until there is a winner.

I guess Port Moresby was a big base during the war. The abilities the place has certainly seem to indicate so, as they have large capabilities for ports, and particularly naval bases. I'm forming up a lot of the evacuations from the Dutch East Indies at Darwin, and then moving them over to Port Moresby to help in its defense. It just got bumped up a few more notches in importance in my campaign, as Rabaul (the big base Japan captured in the area, and an excellent staging ground for them in the South Pacific) is very much withing bombing range of my heavy bombers. The extra support and defenses from the Dutch units will come in very handy.

I have mixed feelings about the Nedved acquisition.

That's what I'm hoping! I got lucky. One of my airbases, Amboina (on an island just off the west tip of New Guinea) was able to get a couple torpedo hits off on some of their carriers, setting fire to two of them! All I'm waiting on now is for the CLAA Juneau to arrive, and escort the Wasp to Pearl Harbour, and I should hopefully have my first offensive underway. Troops in India are also preparing to move into Burma to open up the Burma road into China. Currently the air forces are doing what they can to keep the japanese airforce grounded, by pounding the airfields throughout Burma. I'm also doing strategic strikes, hitting resource and oil producing centers in the region (since resource centers also provide additional supplies, and I'm hoping to cut them off). Port Morseby is also being built up, with hopes of putting strategic bombers (B-24s and B-17s) there to help cut off Japanese supply lines to Rabual, and help me retake northern New Guinea.

Oooo, zing.

They were more elaborate and complimentary, but that was the general gist. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Don't tell me, they did the "it's not you, it's me" speech didn't they?

Makes sense.

What do you think I did? She was escorted practically immediately by the Repair Ship Vestal, and the Repair Ship Sage Brush arrived a few days afterwards. She survived 17 days after being hit with multiple torpedoes. I learned my lesson when I almost lost the BB Colorado in Australia (at which point i promptly sent a repair ship down there as well. It's not like I wasn't expecting to take some hits from bombers. Unfortunately, when out at sea, there's just not much that can be done. Damage Control ships aren't miracle workers. They just slow the bleeding. Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania was bleeding a bit too fast.

July 21, 1942. The truth final hit home today for the United States Navy, as the damaged USS Pennsylvania capsized and sunk just 200 miles west of Pearl Harbour. The USS Pennsylvania had taken multiple torpedo hits from Japanese bombers during a raid in the Marshall Islands. Despite the best efforts of her crew, and the crew of the neighbouring ships, they were unable to stabalize the repairs. While the raid on Kwajalein was deemed a success, Admiral Nimitz commented that the loss of such a vessel places a solemn mood around the events. The news does not come at a great time. Allied withdrawls from the Dutch East Indies continue into Australia, following the loss of the Philippines just last month. While the Japanese advance in India and China has been slowed, there's been little opportunity for the Allies to effectively strike back at the Japanese. With the USS Wasp set to arrive in the Pacific theatre, United States Armed Forces stress to the American people, as well as those in India, New Zealand, and Australia, that events are in motion to help push back the Japanese aggressors.

I do have some submarines in that area. They don't always attack though. For an attack to happen the units have to be in the same tile (which shouldn't be an issue, since they'll be in the coast hex), and the commander of the sub has to determine whether or not to attack (commanders with high aggressiveness can help), as well as his ability to get a strike. Assuming of course, that the torpedoes don't dud (a problem the Allies had to start the war), and that the destroyer escorts don't pick him up. I have not had much success in attacking large capital ships with submarines, in part because it wasn't part of the US doctrine (sounds like the Japanese are much more willing to go after big ships, yet tend to avoid merchant ships, if I enable their historical doctrine), and also because they tend to have a large number of escorts. I've only had a handful of attacks from subs on Battleships and Carriers, and only one successful attack. And this was despite my "minefield" of subs in the Dutch East Indies which made it impossible to enter a hex in the Java Sea without landing in one that had one of my submarines. Stupid sub commanders and their self-preservation! In any case, I made a huge raid on the Marshall Islands with 5 carriers (Saratoga, Lexington, Hornet, Enterprise, and Yorktown), as well as a surface fleet consisting of Pennsylvania as the flagship. Unfortunately the Pennsylvania took 4 torpedoes. As it limped its way back to Pearl, it has accumulated 91% flooding damage, and is about 12 hexes away from port. I probably should have made a pitstop at Johnston Island, which while only having a small ship, could have at least docked and had repair ships fix the flooding. I don't think she's going to make it back. She gained about 12% flooding in the last turn alone. I also have been doing night raids of the Shortlands near Guadalcanal, despite a boondoggle that gave escorts permission to open fire (which meant my destroyers moved into firing range, and put themselves in firing range as a result), the island was hit pretty hard. But the Marshalls took a beating. A combination of successful bombardments from the remainder of the surface fleet, as well as airstrike after airstrike, left the airfield totally destroyed, and effectively shutdown flight operations. As a result, I was able to expend the rest of my sorties purely on bombing the living crap out of Kwajalein (the main base), destroying probably around 80-100 planes, a submarine, and 3 cargo vessels. The surface fleet bombarded for 5 days, expending most of its ammuntion, while the carrier flew persistent flight operations for 6 full days. The infrastructure on that base is devastated, and I'm preparing an invasion to the Gilbert Islands just south of the Marshall Islands, which will let me set up a land airbase to cover invasions of each base on the Marshall Islands. The 1st and 2nd USMC divisions, and the 52nd USMC Raider division are preparing for an assault, and while the Pennsylvania is probably a lost cause, she'll be replaced by the USS North Carolina, first in a series of new "fast battleships" of the US Navy. She can keep up with most carriers, and has 9 16"/45 guns to rein fire down upon the enemy. Hopefully Penn can survive, but given how long it's taken to get the Maryland (damaged to 99% system and 90% flooding during the attack on Pearl Harbour, and is just now at 70% system damage, and has made her way back to San Francisco), she'll be out of commission for quite some time. Assuming she goes down, it will be the first major capital ship loss for the Americans in the war. The USS Wasp is about to come into the theatre, which will give me 6 fleet carriers in the region (since we have not had a battle of Coral Sea, nor a Battle of Midway, none of my carriers have seen much combat). Once refits of the current CVs are finished, and the Wasp arrives at Pearl, I plan on having 3 Task Forces, each consisting of 2 carriers, to parade around and try to make thing miserably on the Japanese.

I still remember the authors as being Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston. My two favourites were Demons of the Deep (easily my favourite) and Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I remember an awesome puzzle where some guy says to you "What is the password." And I was stumped. It turns out that he was making a statement, not a question. What IS the password. So if you said what, you carried on.

You're just reading into it what you want to see. My statement standing alone still works, that if Troika/Activision only expected 50k sales, then they would consider it a success. The same goes for Bioware. If their expectations of Jade Empire are any number less than the actual sales, then Jade Empire would be a success in their eyes. What are you talking about? I haven't mentioned Jade Empire since that thread. Just because you want to make the connection doesn't mean I was trying to. I don't desperately need to prove anything about Jade Empire's success. It was a dead issue months ago, and as such, I've not bothered to bring it up again since I as a customer have said all there is to say about it. The only reason why a "connection" exists is because you sought out one.

Not really. You just suddenly brought it back up. I made no comment about Jade Empire, but you felt it prudent to bring it up again. I suspect you'll continue to do so, regardless of whether or not other people respond to you. Why do you care so much? It depends, since a big advantage of the XBOX was easy portability to the PC. I have no idea how much the cost is to port it, but I imagine it's cheaper than other consoles.

I wouldn't be so sure he's just baiting you, as I have little idea exactly what you're talking about as well. How do you make a storyline that just revolves around the everyday affairs of a character? At the same time though, you could argue that these things are bad because they take away from the fun of a game. If a game was still far and away the most fun you had ever played and ever will play, in spite of crashes, bugs, bad sound, and long load times, then I wouldn't be surprised if some would rate it as the best ever.

Seriously, what do you expect? If a warlock throws on a conventional robe, they'll probably look like a conventional robe.

They made suppositions about what they'd expect. Few companies come straight out and say games are failures, so it's not unreasonable to take what Microsoft and Bioware said with some skepticism. As an aside, give it a rest. You've made your point. The main topic discussing it has long since past.

"Never rub another man's Rhubarb!" - The Joker I don't know why, but that was the first quote I thought of when entering this thread.

Fire away.

Worked better within the story, though. The assumption that Anakin would restore order to the force was part of the Jedi's hubris. Apparently nobody was smart enough to recognize that the Sith were just as much a part of the Force as the Jedi, and there were more Jedi than Sith. Or maybe nobody really knew the definition of the word "balance". Considering George Lucas' pop mystical aspirations and his terribly written characters, that just might have been the case. Seems to me that in a way, Anakin did bring balance to the Force, seeing how Luke sprang from his loins and all. But in another, more accurate way, he didn't. Unless I've got it wrong. I'm not a big SW scholar as it is. Anyway, there aren't any coincidences in SW, thus implying a predetermination of roles and thus, everybody is their own special Chosen One. What are we arguing about again? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I feel (and it seems you do too) that the "balance" to the force was wiping out most of the Jedi.

I forgot how awesome you are.

Can't be said for the Oilers

True. If Troika/Activision only expected 50k sales (unlikely) with Bloodlines, then you could easily argue it was a success.

I would agree that neither KOTOR2 nore NWN2 were strikes as well. The solid poke over the in field to get you in the game

You didn't. I asked it. I think the prophecy was a sham personally. And if not, it seemed to apply more to Anakin than to Luke. Luke was just the benficiary of good genes I understand this. In terms of how we play the game (since I'm trying to not diverge too far off of the idea being used in videogaming) and the enjoyment we get out of it, I don't see there as being too many differences. And if you're not someone that is Boo-urnsing towards the idea of a Chosen One, then none of my messages really apply to you then. EDIT: I agree wholeheartedly with Pixies' assessment of Hades' comment.

Says the guy that referred to him as a diaper head illuminati. And unfortunately, Troika seems to be a victim of shoddy quality. The ideas behind their games were okay, and I'm a big fan of the Bloodlines universe. But both it and TOEE (and I think even Arcanum) had issues with fatal bugs and Bloodlines had severe performance issues. You have people that are playing Half-Life 2 just fine struggling along with poor performance, in addition to memory leaks. The gamestopping bug I encountered was just the icing on the cake. It doesn't matter if the quality of the story, characters, and all that are A+++, if the presentation is buggy and unstable. As for RPG companies not holding or folding based on their games, look at Origin Systems. The company went under a different direction after the EA bought out, made crappy Ultima games, and has since had its doors shut. Ultima IX was the pinnacle, with the game itself being so god awfully bug-ridden that Electronic Arts later sent every person that bothered to register the game an updated CD, with a letter apologizing about the state the game was released in. It's not the only thing. It never is. Sony's Betamax was superior to VHS, but Sony's refusal to license it curtailed its lifespain. But the quality of products is still pretty important.