alanschu

Kind of funny how you go on about how games have become more mainstream, appeal to the lowest common denominator, and how things are all different, then talk about how "sad" it is that you have to play arguably the most popular and most well known RPG in gaming. Talk about stripping out things like choice, then talk about how one of the most linear (albeit long) game "blows away" other RPG games. In fact, I tend to think that FF7 is partly to blame for how the RPG genre has progressed. I'm a bit surprised about your comments about the graphics as well. If not for the prerendered backgrounds, the only thing redeeming about the games graphics would be found in the FMV sequences. Even compared to other PSP games, I'd rate its graphical quality as subpar. I found it subpar when I first played the game. I still remember laughing when I saw the "real" Cloud jump out of the train, especially right after the super cool FMV sequence to start the game off! I enjoyed the game, and even went through all the tediousness of getting the Knights of the Round materia, and defeated both the Ruby and the Emerald Weapons. I really enjoyed the music, especially the Jenova theme. But to complain about the simplicity of current RPGs, and criticize the lack of choice, you could probably do better than Final Fantasy VII as an example. A game that was rarely challenging, certainly didn't require much of the thought that Kalfear was talking about missing, and almost as linear as they come.

Not true...Relic have already released a first class WW2 RTS Company of Heroes along with the DoW expansion Dark Crusade, effectively going into competition with themselves which might not have been the best plan since they're both very good games. The most eyebrow-raising news is that one of their next projects is a MMORPG...although thinking about it now it's probably a Warhammer game so you could be right. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Except that Company of Heroes is basically Dawn of War set in World War 2.

Well, the Japanese are trying to invade some key islands in the Dutch East Indies, which complicates things. They are proving very useful, especially Java Island, since it has a naval port capable of reloading submarines. I also scored my first real big hit of the war. Reports are that CVL Ryuko is at the bottom of the ocean. The cool thing was that I hit it with an attack about a week ago. I also had an excellent bombing run against an escort carrier. Anything to keep Japanese planes out of the sky. In Burma, it seems as though I will lose Mandalay. The 2 Armored divisions, and one Armor brigade could not get there in time (no railroads over the hills from India into Burma), so I'm falling back to the borders of India. Both choke points involve having to cross a river, which causes heavy disruption to attacking forces. Plus I have reinforced that part of the border quite well now, with more troop still coming from Karach. When I get a larger force amassed, I'm hoping to push back into Mandalay. I sent out two probes from PH to the Marshall Islands, and met with pretty solid success! One of their islands has a rather beefy garrison, and quite a few ships nearby. The first probe involved the CV Lexington and CV Enterprise. While Enterprise took a single torpedo hit, damage was not too severe. Both carriers launched air raids in the morning and the afternoon. I didn't get within range for my torpedo bombers, but the SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber carries a 1000 lb General Purpose Bomb, which can do a number on pretty much any ship. Hit a fair number of cruisers, a battleship, as well as some transports. Since the Enterprise took a hit, planes were no longer able to land there, so they had to land on the Lexington. Unfortunately this put the Lexington over maximum capacity for aircraft, so flight operations are suspended. So I recalled both back to Pearl Harbour. As that probe was coming in, I sent out another two Carrier Task Forces, one with the Saratoga and another containing the Yorktown. Yorktown's Torpedo Bomber group was substituted out for another Dive Bombing Dauntless airgroup. The first wave had a light cruiser take 15 bomb hits. I don't expect it to last the night. A separate attack was against 4 tankers, that saw every ship get hit with at least 1 bomb, and two with 5 hits. Those two that got hit 5 times also took 1 and 2 torpedo hits each from Saratoga's Devastators. The New Orleans Cruiser took a torpedo and has been separated from Yorktown's task force. Hit has some pretty heavy damage, so I'm sending out a repair ship to rendezvous with it en route to Pearl. All in all both probes were quite successful. In order to avoid any surface combat, I've decided to pull back both TFs. Recon shows a lot of heavier capital ships in the region, and I'd rather their main gun batteries never get a shot at my carriers. I expect to make another probe though shortly afterwards, perhaps adding the Lexington to the mix as well. Guadalcanal had a shipment of an Base Division intercepted as they were being unloaded. A task force consisting of CAs and CLs did a shore bombardment, and engaged transports in the area. They did this a second time, so I've sent 4 BBs and 2 CAs from Pearl Harbour, and 1 CA and CL from Sydney. A few of the BBs are Colorado class, which are slower pre-war BBs, but have decent AA ratings and big 16" main guns (because the 14" ones on the Pennsylvania Class BBs are just *so* useless ). Here's hoping that port raider encounters a fleet consisting of those heavy ships. Unfortunately, work on the airfield has been slow (and it didn't already have one on it), so the only planes I can fly out of there at the moment are the Catalinas, which are capable of landing on the water. While typically a scout plane, I have them set to night time naval attacks, in hopes of getting an attack off on that fleet. I've yet to see a night attack show any real success (I had some NIght Bombers near Borneo score some hits with some weak 100 lb bombs), the primary load out of the Catalina is a pair of torpedoes, so if they can score a hit it should be rather devastating.

Marc Joanette seems to have our number.

SINGAPORE FALLS! After 1.5 months of hard fighting, the Japanese finally broke through, and 50,000 troops were forced to surrender. The super carrier fleet also happened to stay at the base one day, which resulted in the utter devastation of on bombing run. Over 20 planes all lost, and all I had to show for it was a single downed zero. I now have that whole area laced with submarines, and there aren't very many hexes that they can get through without encountering some sort of submarine attack. Unfortunately, it's still early war and while I've been somewhat happy with the success my submarines have had, many of my torpedoes are duds. But any successful hit I can get makes me a happy man! I also have the odd Light Cruiser in the area, but I only employ hit and run at night. The Japanese have brought some planes to the island of Borneo, as well as Singapore. Speaking of Singapore, I had left the port there heavily mined, and by my account I have sunk another two ships long after I have left. Just a bunch of crappy DDs and coastal gunboats, but both of those are armed with depth charges, so I'm actually happy. More happy time for my subs. I have also learned that you can set attack runs at the fun altitude of 100 feet. This means that the planes can also strafe the boats. Not likely to sink anything, but if I'm lucky I can inflict some system damage, and perhaps future runs not have to worry about as much AA fire. It also looks funny to see "Shells hit 35" as each strafing run is considered a "shell." Troops from western India have finally arrived at the Burma border, and some infantry divisions, as well as one armored division, are heading to Mandalay, preparing for an assault on Rangoon. If I can take back Rangoon, it opens up a solid rail line back down into Malaysia and Singapore, as well as into Indochina and Siam (I'll have to cut through Siam). My Aviation divisions also just arrived in Eastern India, so I have a large airbase to perform recon and air support for some of the Japanese troops heading into Burma. And the Philippines is still holding on. We have similar numbers, but I tend to do double the damage (an estimate on my part though, those numbers could be wrong....I once saw an assessment of the enemy say they have 8 guns, and then destroyed an estimated 12 guns in the battle!) that they do to me in the bombardments that fly back and forth. Most of the lighter ships (CAs and CLs) from Pearl Harbour are almost done repairs in Los Angeles, while the medium damaged BBs are making steady progress in San Francsico. Two of the heavier damaged BBs in Pearl Harbour have been repaired enough that I feel comfortable sending them back to San Francisco. There's still two that have absolutely insane damage. They are solid enough AA platforms, so I'd like to include them in some of my Carrier task forces. And it seems as though I maxed out on fuel in Pearl Harbour, at 999999, so I've started sending it in a loooooooong round about way to Australia.

What is MOO then? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Older School goodness.

VGA Planets! :D

Moo2 is old school awesomeness!

Ban please!

All in all, I have been happy with the play of the Oilers the past few games. Horcoff is starting to get points now too. Slowly but surely, the players that got off to a slow start are starting to get back into the swing of things.

Well, I didn't get any confirmed kills, but I know I did hit a few of their carriers. By my account it looks like I did heavy damage to two light carriers, and some damage to a fleet carrier. One of them in particular was hit with I think 4 torpedoes over the course of a few days, as well as numerous bombs (though typically just 100 lb and 250 lb bombs, so they wouldn't have done too much damage, though may have caused additional damage to the fighter squadrons). A few destroyers were unfortunate enough to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time as well, so I'm thinking I won't need to worry about them again. My Light Carrier Fleet had the HMS Revenge battleship take two torpedoes, but fortunately the damage was minimal. That fleet his headin to Sri Lanka to top off repairs. I just got two battleships this past day as well, a New Mexico class in San Francisco, and a Royal Sovereign class in Karach, India. They are both older (i.e. slower) battleships, but with the Arizona just finishing up its repairs, I'll have 3 Battleships ready for action at Pearl Harbour in a few days. Repairs in San Francisco on 3 other BBs are going nicely, and the a pair of cruisers just finished repairs in Los Angeles, and will be executing the CV Yorktown to Hawaii. Singapore continues to hold on, but I don't think it will for much longer. The AI is starting to get more assault advantage, and has now surpasses my assault value. The force in the Phillipines however, despite being limited in supplies, is fortified enough in Bataan that it seems to be inflicting more and more casualties with each attack the Japanese try to make. They tried a few assaults, but were beaten handily, and have resorted to going back to bombardment attacks. The Allied forces there consistently inflict more damage than the Japanese force though, and they are both similar in size. They have more guns, but I have bigger guns! I also had the pleasure of witnessing one of their troop transports run into a mine just off its coast! I also sunk a transport off the coast of Indochina, which apparently had troops in it (most of my transport casualties seem to "only" be the boats). It resulted in a rather morbid sound effect, as you hear gurgling water with mean screaming. I'll take it! Still only two months into the war, but I've started to fortify Guadalcanal. The only thing really left for me to do there is to send some airplanes, and maybe a few more troops. It won't be a naval base for quite some time though, as my best source of fuel, the US mainland, would have to cut through a few Japanese islands likely with airfields. I can get supplies fairly easily from Australia, and I can safely send large quantities of supplies, and some fuel, from India, but those land on the West side of Australia, so they'll still need to be transported to the east side.

I won't dispute that. Hurlshot was talking about some of the foundations of religion, and those foundations do transcend mere diety worship. I'd be surprised if some of the guidelines non-religious people strive to achieve haven't been promoted and engrained into society through religion. You could probably also argue the other way as well.

I think the Smart Gun is an MG42, and the Pulse Rifle a Thompson submachine gun.

Might as well toss in the Annotated Book of Mormon as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if much of the mores, norms, conventions, and whatnot that even the secular take part in have influences from religion. No it doesn't. It gives credit to an institution, not a diety. And I don't see the implication that all good comes from it, nor do I see the implication that all blame for the bad goes is because of a lack of belief in the deity. Especially in the context that Hurlshot used it. Whether or not there actually is a diety that is being worshipped (and not just an idea of one) is irrelevant.

I sent in some Kamikaze PT boats, but the best they could do what get a torpedo hit on a destroyer. Though if I'm lucky he'll fall behind and be a juicy target all by himself. I'm making a bold move with the CVL Hermes, and trying to do a night time Swordfish Torpedo run to hopefully catch them with their pants down.

Heh, my recon planes say there's about 8-12 CVs in that area. Based on what attacked me, I think he has mostly torpedo bombers on it wreacking havoc. I'm going to send a ton of subs that are nearby, as well as my own bombers. Hopefully I just have to deal with the AA from the ships. Or maybe he left most of his fighter escort at home so I'm running into a trap! I keep telling myself not to worry about it, I'm just biding time. If I can damage/sink a CV, all the losses are worth it.

Ack, I bumped into one of his carrier fleets!

I just found out a new frustrated (but in a good way) game mechanic. I moved a whole bunch of planes in Singapore to a base on Borneo. Turns out, there's not enough Aviator Support people there, and as a result most just sit on the runway unused! It's something I never had to worry about in HOI2. What's that, plop 40 Heavy Bombers on that random island with an airbase, noooo problem. It will definitely slow me down (which is probably a good thing, since the war has still only just begun, and I probably shouldn't rush into things to fast, lest the Imperial Japanese Navy whoop my butt). Most base divisions provide 30 or so aviator support troops (need 1 per plane), but there is some Aviator divisions that provide over 300. There's a few of those in India, so I figure I'll go provide air support to the Indian push into Burma (which is probably still about 3 years down the road from my original planning haha). Moving troops from Western India to Burma as we speak. The Japanese are still sieging Singapore. My planes and boats are gone, but there's going to be a lot of troops surviving I suspect. Supplies are starting to wane. Same goes for Bataan and the Philippines. It's a large force, but I'm not thinking I'll last as long as history (March). I was able to get the Prince of Wales and the Repulse (A BC) out of Singapore. I had to go around through some of the Dutch East Indies (DEI) rather than just head up north. Too many Japanese air patrols. I've now cleared them and am heading up to India. As it turns out, the HMS Indominatble just arrived as well, and it will rendezvous with the Repulse and the Prince of Wales (which is what was supposed to happen in history, but the PoW and Repulse were sunk by Torpedo bombers). The CVL - HMS Hermes is biding its time around Singapore. I'm staying out of range of the air units, and having the Swordfish Torpedo Bombers wreak havoc on the shipping in the DEI. Remember that exchange where I had 7 damaged Swordfish, in exchange for 2 Torpedo hits. Well, my Swordfish are repaired. I'm guessing that the heavily damaged BB Ise will be out of commission for quite some time, assuming it can make it back to an appropriate port. I don't know how much flooding damage I did to it, but the WERE torpedoes. If I had gotten a critical hit, I may have put her on the slow lane to the bottom of the ocean! Though realistically, she's probably just going to be out of commission for a year or so. Which is good enough for me! Anything to buy me some time! I got some new cruisers from Australia as well. The bad thing about Australia is that it doesn't have the supply deposits that America and India have (since both of those places get huge amount of "free supplies" to simulate the offmap production). But, I can take a trip from India to Australia without getting close to Japan, but it's going to take a while. And my Catalinas off of Wake Island have found another submarine! I think this one may have been damaged from the assault at Pearl Harbour. One of my floatplanes had made a successful attack on one, and after a month it still seems to be slowly limping towards the Philippines. I just sent out 3 Hunter Killer groups to hunt that thing down and send it to the bottom of the Pacific. Nowhere to hide out there now. I have two carriers in the area to help keep tabs on them. I'm curious who will sink it first, one of the Bombers from the carriers, or the destroyers!

What is WTF?!? They are ship abbreviations. If you think about it, I'll bet you'll figure some of them out. Some are more obscure, but I'm less likely to drop them around as often as BB, CA, CL, DD, and so on. In any case, here they are: AD

Why carriers rock:

Was the US actually founded on a separation of religion and the state? Is the "church" in "church and state" literal, as in keeping the official bureaucracy of the churches (the Pope for example). I'd be surprised if the Founding Fathers were truly thinking on keeping the government secular, as I'd also be surprised if any of them weren't fairly religious chaps to being with.

A big fan of ALF I imagine? Give this a few for some very entertaining biased commentary EDIT: Hahaha, watching that again, I love the random video splices. It was also editted unfortunately. I wonder if YouTube isn't too keen on the Nazi footage they were showing, because I think they compare the two, since the Peta dude did.

Woo, I was scrambling a cruiser to get it the heck out of the Philippines before all is lost, and he stumbled on a small transport fleet! I have recon on some carrier fleets in the area though, so I'm going to continue on my way to Australia. I also had some excitement with an assault force off the Dutch East Indies. The base had a couple of CLs and DDs, so I figured I'd send them out to help bombard the enemy (by casualty estimates, it seemed like a good idea). Day 2 of bombarding, had them bump into a Japanese fleet with 2 BBs, 2 CAs, and 4 DDs. While I only have one ship critically sunk, I'm not going to stick around for much longer. That base is on its own. I record 5 and 3 hits on the BBs, but I have a feeling my shots just bounced off, given the size of the weapons. Maybe some minor system damage. Fortunately, I have 4 subs in the area, so I figured I'd move them in and around those hexes. Maybe I'll get lucky. I'm sure a torpedo hit on the BB will be a pleasant surprise. And given how long they seem to take to repair their system damage, hopefully I can take one out of commission for a bit. The Light Carrier Hermes is now near Singapore, helping with the extraction. I'm not sure how I'm going to get those troops out of there, but I have to find a way. Their holding up, but I won't be able to supply them as well as the Japanese. I'm flying planes out slowly but surely, and pulled the ships out of the harbour (man would it suck to lose the Prince of Wales, an awesome King George V Battleship, because I had to scuttle it!). Right now those ships are bombarding the japanese forces in Singapore. I plan on pulling them back to either India or Australia, not sure which at the moment. I'm leaning towards India however. I also had some submarines lay some mines near the island base of Turk. Here's hoping! I believe a transport hit two mines just off of Bataan, the last place I hold in the Philippines. They seem screwed like Singapore, Hopefully I can take out a fair number of Japanese soldiers with me! Supplies are starting to grow scarce though.

I don't mind the schedule changes for the most part. I prefer a 4 division setup. A bit of me wouldn't mind going back to the old school Top 4 in each division make the playoffs, and play each other to the Division Finals, and the winners of the division play for the winners of the conference. Though at the same time, it does lend itself to the possibility that a better team in a different division wouldn't make the playoffs, though I'm not sure how often stuff like that actually happens.