Keyrock

Damn, that sucks. Hang in there. Also, yes, it's called a CDL (Commercial Driving License) here.

I'm looking at this with the assumption that the raccoon is a big rasslin fan and is in the middle of performing a power slam, or setting up for a tombstone piledriver.

It's times like these that I'm really glad I got into watching eSports (mainly DotA 2). Sure, all the LANs got cancelled, but they got replaced by online tourneys, so that avenue of entertainment has continued. In fact, sports minus the e prefix are turning to sports plus the e prefix during the end of days.

My (very incomplete) headquarters station: It's going to take a lot of time and money to get it fully functional, but I'll get there eventually. First things first, I need to build a dock so that I can even access it. In the meantime, I'm off to make friends with the Split Free Families (one of 2 very much at odds Split factions) so that I can hit on smokin hot Split babes: On a serious note, I do like some Split ships and they also sell some really powerful weaponry, so it's a good idea to make friends with at least one of their factions. Here is the Jaguar scout I purchased from them after I did some work and they warmed up to me: Ironically, I just recently sacrificed a scout (so that my HQ can live) and here I am buying another scout. The Kestrel was a piss poor scout, though; even as a proud Teladi, I can admit that our ships are poorly suited for scouting, namely because they're so slow. Split ships are on the opposite end of that spectrum; they are very fast and have a ton of firepower (not so much this scout, because it's a scout) and have paper thin hulls and poor shielding (your prototypical glass cannons), but that doesn't really matter on a scout, I'm not going to use it to fight. Speed is all that matters for a scout. If danger comes hunting me I can just peace out and the list of ships that have any prayer of keeping up with my Jaguar is very very short.

^ No word yet on Linux version of Desperados 3. It's probably using a lot of the same tech (Unity?) as Shadow Tactics (which had a Linux version), so I'm hopeful. It's a day 1 buy for me if so.

To the best of my knowledge, it's a random string of letters and numbers on each ship. Maybe later, when my economy is booming, I'll order 4 or 5 of the same ship built at the same shipyard or wharf and check if the numbers are incremented or random.

It's part of the main story. You are working for a scientist studying some anomalies in space and he asks you to bring a ship to a location with 3 antimatter cells aboard it. I'm sure you can guess what happens to the ship from there. Don't worry, I make sure the ship's pilot is reassigned beforehand and sell off everything I can from the ship. The Kestrel is a cheap ship anyway. As a Teladi, it would be morally reprehensible for me to do anything that lost money, but I get a sweet player headquarters station out of the deal, so it's very much a net profit. All is well.

When you have a new ship built, you can actually watch it slowly materialize: Nanomachines, son! My Teladi Osprey Sentinel: Like all my ships, it bears my company logo: It's not completely barebones. It has mid-level engines and thrusters, light shields, and one beam emitter turret. I have 3 other turret slots to fill and 2 fixed hardpoints, which will be torpedo launchers eventually. The schlongpit, or bridge, I guess: There is room to land 1 small craft on top of the Osprey. Here is my (soon to be sacrificed) Kestrel landing:

I start playing a space sim and all of a sudden everybody wants to hop into a schlongpit and be a pilot or captain. On a serious note, I have reached nearly the same point in X4 where I got to last time (that unlocked a couple new starting scenarios), and now I've got a decision to make. So, at this point in the story I'm going to have to sacrifice a ship. That's not an issue, that's what the Kestrel scout is for. The issue is, what do I fly after the Kestrel goes bye bye? I have a Vulture freighter, but I have assigned that ship to be a subordinate of my Sunrise Flower Farm, so basically that ship operates on its own, resupplying that station and selling off wares as needed. Along the way, the pilot and crew gain experience and get better at their jobs (I've also upgraded the ship a bit, to be faster and have better shields, and will do so in the future again). I intend to leave the Vulture as is, so I will need to buy a new ship. I have enough money right now that I could buy a fully decked out Buzzard, like I had in my last run; I could instead afford a stripped down Peregrine gunship or Osprey frigate, then upgrade it later. They are fairly close in price (the Osprey is slightly more expensive) and essentially the same amount of firepower when maxed out. The difference is that the gunship is much faster while the frigate has a much beefier hull and a larger cargo hold. I'm leaning toward the Osprey frigate, since the cargo hold is big enough that I can use it as a makeshift freighter while I have little to no weapons. Eventually it will become a proper warship, but until then the cargo room will be great for trading.

This is the best picture of my character, Keyrockaethom Thaxymperum Kresusiso IX, I was able to get:

Started up a new game as Keyrockaethom Thaxymperum Kresusiso IX, aspiring Teladi entrepreneur. Here is my starting Kestrel Vanguard: It's a scout and, like most Teladi ships, it has average firepower (for a scout, which is to say very little), a very generous cargo hold, a beefy hull, and is quite slow (for a scout). Here is my Vulture Vanguard: It's a freighter and it's Teladi, so again, big cargo hold, strong hull, slow. On the far left of the picture below is the Kestrel, for scale: Here's what it look like from inside the schlongpit (since this site auto-censors ****pit for some reason): There's the ship's pilot and captain Gantelios Trosulis Yahanis V. Also, the station we're on is my Sunrise Flower Farm. As a fun bit of attention to detail, my view, when on foot, is that of a Teladi and Teladi are considerably shorter than humans, so humans seem like giants when I come up to them. I don't think there are any mirrors in the game, but if I ever find one, I'll take a screenie of what I look like.

I managed to unlock the Unworthy Entrepreneur starting scenario in X4, along with another starting scenario called The Accomplished Scientist. I was 1 step away from doing it all along, so I could have unlocked it days ago. It's all good, though, I've managed to get a lot more comfortable with the game during the time, and starting over with the Unworthy Entrepreneur starting scenario still puts me further along economically, since I'll have a sunrise flower production station to start. I'll have to work to get a decent fighter again, since you start with a scout and a freighter, but with all the knowledge I have gained and a station running from the get go, I'll get the credits quickly. Edit: Now I need to think of a good Teladi name. The have 3 names and a roman numeral at the end, and they tend to be very long and sorta Greek sounding. I got it, Keyrockaethom Thaxymperum Kresusiso IX

It's been a long time coming, but I finally have my Teladi Buzzard Vanguard: It's almost completely decked out, the only thing missing is that the center hardpoint, right below the ****pit, is currently empty; it will eventually house a mk2 tracking missile launcher. Top of the line engines, top of the line thrusters, top of the line shields, top of the line software, and 2 mk2 shard batteries (basically shotguns). Until I get my missile launcher (soon), I won't have much return firepower at range (in theory shard batteries have a maximum range of nearly 3 km, but in practice they're not very effective past 800m or so), but if I close distance on a target, the shard batteries will shred enemies rapidly. I can go toe to toe with any other heavy fighter, I obliterate light fighters, and scouts... well, they're a problem because they're so damn fast and maneuverable, but at the same time, they present no threat to me, because they simply don't have the firepower to get through my shields unless I do something really stupid. All I need is one dumb mistake from a scout and my shard batteries will vaporize them. As for larger vessels, I can definitely take on freighters, not that I turn to piracy, generally, but gunboats and frigates would be a big issue, since they have so much more firepower than I do, and I don't have the correct loadout to deal with them (if I ever do decide to try to take on a gunboat or frigate, I would swap the shard batteries for plasma cannons, and swap my eventual tracking missile launcher for a torpedo launcher). Still, I would at least not get instantly vaporized by a gunboat, so I at least would have the opportunity to flee. (The Buzzard's biggest drawback is that it is relatively slow for a heavy fighter and a gunboat or frigate could mostly keep up with me, but I could certainly outmaneuver them, my turn speeds are way faster).

I've been grinding away, doing a bit of trading and doing simple missions in Teladi Company territory in X4, building up my bank account and building up my reputation. Eventually, I hit the threshold where I ranked up and they now consider me an ally. I went ahead and invested in their trade guild at the same time as I ranked up. It costs 80K credits, but it's well worth it since it gives you access to tons of missions everywhere in Teladi space, so it pays for itself quickly. More importantly, the rank up carries with it a military equipment license, which gives me access to some of the higher grade Teladi ships and weapons. I've put the main mission on hold for a while, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do some fighting soon, and I didn't want to do it in the piece of junk Elite Vanguard they started me out in. I mean, you can upgrade it to make it a halfway capable fighter, but I'd rather just get a fighter that's good to begin with and be able to upgrade it to a great ship. Right now I'm working on getting enough money to buy a Teladi Buzzard Vanguard. The Vanguard variant of ships is faster and more maneuverable while the Sentinel variant has a more armored hull. The Teladi Company sells the Vanguard variants while the Ministry of Finance sells the Sentinel variants. They are both Teladi factions and not openly at odds with each other, but you have separate reputation with each and all my rep is with the Teladi Company, so the Vanguard variant it is. The Buzzard is a very capable fighter. It has 3 weapon hardpoints and 2 shield slots. It presents a small target from the sides and the front and back, and a big target from above and below, so it's important to keep enemies on the same plane as you. I can actually afford the ship now, but I don't see the point in buying a stripped down fighter. I might as well wait until I can buy it with at least most of the bells and whistles, that way I'm ready for serious combat the minute I roll off the assembly line.

Yes, but you don't get to land on planets, you only get to dock at stations. But you do get to walk around the stations, or portions of them, anyway.

The starting ship, an Elite Vanguard. Think of it like you would a Z-95 Headhunter, it was once a great ship, but its time has passed: I bought this Callisto Courier. I can't afford a real deal freighter yet, so this will have to do. It's not much to look at, but at least it has a significantly larger cargo hold than the Elite Vanguard: Egosoft continuing their longstanding tradition of horrifically ugly character models:

This is at the same time the proto-typical hair metal song and not a hair metal song: Still of the Nigh rocks SO ****ING HARD that it establishes the unreachable ideal that all following hair metal songs , including Whitesnake songs, would aspire to, but could never reach. Not only does this song feature peak Tawny Kitaen, but it also shreds stoopid hard, separating it from the hair metal songs to follow, which would throw in faux guitar solos.

I can tell you that X4 is definitely not online only, but I can also tell you that it has a BRUTAL learning curve. I will wait for Hurlshot to tell you about Elite:Dangerous. I will go out on a limb and say that if you are looking for a more casual experience, both of these games are ones to skip. These are hardcore space sims, with all the good and bad that hardcore entails.

^ One of the greatest ever In a completely unrelated entry here's possibly the greatest metal band ever: I have said this before and I will say this again, I think Iron Maiden is one of the all time great bands. The same way we still remember and listen to Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, etc. now, I think people will still remember and listen to Iron Maiden 100, 200, 500 years from now.

I see how it is, you're trying to out space sim me. Challenge accepted! I Keed, I keed. I haven't played Elite Dangerous, but, to the best of my knowledge, it's a pretty hardcore space sim, and thus has a steep learning curve. Stick with it. I can only imagine Frontier: Elite 2 was a major influence on the X series, just as it was the game that originally got me into space sims and later into Wing Commander, Freelancer, X2, the X3 series of games, and now into X4.

Happy Easter!

Wesoła Wielkanoc! (My Polish is weak, so that's probably not exactly right). Edit: Wesołey Wielkanocy. Is that correct?

Happy Easter!

I started up X4: Foundations. The X series of games are the Paradox grand strategies of space sims, they are deep, complex games with lacking tutorials and a STEEP learning curve. I've played all the games in the series from X2 onward, including X: Rebirth, the less said about that game the better, and even I am struggling with the learning curve. I'll persevere through it, though. I started up on the Young Gun starting scenario, which is the most vanilla starting scenario. They start you off as an Argon (human) with an Elite Vanguard, which is a pretty garbage light fighter, and 10,000 credits. I'm basically using this starting scenario to get through the learning curve and to unlock the hidden Unworthy Entrepreneur starting scenario. The Unworthy Entrepreneur starts you off with a small station (I forget what it produces), a freighter, and about 100,000 credits. More importantly, you are a Teladi in that scenario, and I'm #Teladi4Lyfe (On account of the fact that Teladi are the X universe's version of the Ferengi). Right now I'm just getting the hang of scanning stations and finding data leaks. The worst part of data leaks is that you have to get out of your ship and fly to them in your space suit to either repair or decrypt them and the space suit, besides being extremely slow, is so awkward to maneuver. Hopefully in the future once I have a ship big enough to field a decent size crew, I can just send one of my crewmen to handle that stuff for me. I'm not sure if the game allows for that. /crosses fingers