What are you playing now?

[Tel Aviv]

Yeah, that game looks the balls. How long till release, its out in Japan isn't it?

[karka]

Yep. I think Famitsu gave it a solid 9. European release date is 30th March.

[Wistrik]

Making my way up the coast again. The rollermine is still with me.

 

...

 

but Combine soldiers don't seem to want to shoot at it. My allies on the other hand seem only too happy to shoot my poor rollermine.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rollermines are Combine equipment, so of course Combine soldiers won't attack them.

(They will attack in Ep2, after Alyx reprograms the rollermines.)

 

 

I played HL2 last night from the start of Point Insertion (the start of the game) to the end of Ravenholm, but stopped at the top of the mine shaft. Tonight I'll go down there and take screenshots of the spawn points for the fast headcrabs. Been playing on Normal difficulty instead of Easy, and noticed that Metrocops will fire flares into the air to signal their buddies where the Anticitizen has been located. Interesting bit of tactics there that is never seen in Easy mode. I'm looking forward to seeing if soldiers operate differently.

 

I dropped the helicopter hit points down from 5600+ to around 750 (using a CFG file), same as the armored car and armored troop carrier. It made no sense that I had to fire 12 rockets (give or take) to drop a lousy helicopter. Now they drop with four. It's funny how I can blow a soldier out of the helicopter and yet the helicopter continues to operate as if nothing happened.

 

Had a blast in the airboat, as usual. Looking forward to the scout buggy, though I don't care for the antlion spawns throughout that part of the trip. Oh, of course I get to travel the coast road during spawning season. It could be no other way! *shakes fist at Valve* This is somewhat offset by being able to control them later on, though I'd prefer a mission of stealth.

 

Route Kanal is properly named, it's like having a root canal, all that trash, tunneling, and manhack-infested ruins. And every so often a scanner blinds me before I have time to react. Ugh. (They drop straight down sometimes.)

 

Valve has a Wiki article on taking screenshots, and it pointed out how I could get 8xFSAA even though the game options wouldn't let me go past 6x. (My card supports 8xS.) Now I can play at 1280x960 with absolutely no jaggies. Very nice. I'll need to upgrade my computer to play at a higher resolution, but it looks so good now that I'm in no hurry. I would like to be able to use the Cinematic mod's hi-res textures though, and no doubt Episode 2 is going to require better hardware.

[alanschu]

What Helicopter took 12 rockets?!?!?

[Calax]

Just got done conquering the galaxy in Star Wars: Forces of Corruption.

 

Danged is the Consortium overpowered.  But, overpriced too.  I can destroy all the bases on a planet, but I'd better be rich to try.  Same goes with their turrets, probably double the cost of Imperial/Rebel turrets, but they can ignore shields, and destroy infantry, vehicle, and air equally.  .Bribery is really nice because it stops garrisoning.  Corrupt Militia is nice because it makes the natives work for me and turns the planet neutral if anyone has a problem with that.

 

It makes me really wish they had MP galactic conquest mode.  The Consortium's abilities would be so much better if you could negotiate with and threaten other players.

 

Edit: Oh, did I mention suicide bombing Ewoks?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the thing about multiplayer with the consortium is that they are only designed to have one or two planets while corrupting the rest, But the multiplayer start has them on equal footing with everyone else and earning nearly three times the amount of credits.

 

Also Ig 88 is overpowered.

[Deraldin]

Had a blast in the airboat, as usual. Looking forward to the scout buggy, though I don't care for the antlion spawns throughout that part of the trip. Oh, of course I get to travel the coast road during spawning season. It could be no other way! *shakes fist at Valve* This is somewhat offset by being able to control them later on, though I'd prefer a mission of stealth.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Really?

 

Sounds like fun! :cool:

[Wistrik]

Oops, didn't know you hadn't played it before. I won't say more on the matter other than you'll enjoy it.

[Wistrik]

What Helicopter took 12 rockets?!?!?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All of the helicopters in the game are set up that way. Granted, we're not supposed to be able to destroy choppers until we get the gun mounted to the airboat, but I prefer to play a stealth game (as much as the scripting lets me) so I usually cheat in rockets so I can take out the helicopters rather than be chased/hounded by them. This is how I found out that it takes about a dozen rockets to down them, versus four for nearly everything else.

 

The airboat gun takes them down faster, and then we never see them again after Black Mesa East. Instead we get the much weaker, but more intelligent, gunships.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Wistrik

[Gorth]

Molecular control attacks can also be useful once you get it researched and some of your aquanauts trained.

I remember this tactic being especially effective. For all their hard shells, they've got brains like... lobsters

 

Unfortunately I just got around to build my first M.C. lab, so it's going to be months before I develop sufficient M.C. skills to rely on it to work. Once it does however, bases become somewhat easier as you can have quite a few those lobsters fight it out amongst themselves before putting your men at risk.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Gorth

[metadigital]

I had the rollermine with me which distracted them a little

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:D I'm glad someone else decided to try that too. That thing is a killer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where did you get the rollermine?

[Tale]

I had the rollermine with me which distracted them a little

:D I'm glad someone else decided to try that too. That thing is a killer.

Where did you get the rollermine?

 

Dog's ball

 

[metadigital]

Ah! *smacks head* I always end up shooting it into orbit after I get annoyed trying to get a hoop ... "

[Musopticon?]

That thing kills off everything in Ravenholm on it's own. It rolls and rolls until it gains enough momentum and then even a fast zombie can die.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Musopticon?

[Deraldin]

That thing kills off everything in Ravenholm on it's own. It rolls and rolls until it gains enough momentum and then even a fast zombie can die.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I didn't think it could actually kill zombies unless fired with the gravity gun?

[alanschu]

What Helicopter took 12 rockets?!?!?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All of the helicopters in the game are set up that way. Granted, we're not supposed to be able to destroy choppers until we get the gun mounted to the airboat, but I prefer to play a stealth game (as much as the scripting lets me) so I usually cheat in rockets so I can take out the helicopters rather than be chased/hounded by them. This is how I found out that it takes about a dozen rockets to down them, versus four for nearly everything else.

 

The airboat gun takes them down faster, and then we never see them again after Black Mesa East. Instead we get the much weaker, but more intelligent, gunships.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Let me get this straight...you're criticizing the strength of the helicopters and how they take 12 rockets to take down, when they were never balanced to be shot by the rocket launcher in the first place?

[Musopticon?]

That thing kills off everything in Ravenholm on it's own. It rolls and rolls until it gains enough momentum and then even a fast zombie can die.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I didn't think it could actually kill zombies unless fired with the gravity gun?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It can. Try it out at the spot where you come out of a window and on the opposing ledge are poison crabs, looking to the right is a couryard full of zombies after which is a ladder to the metal rafter which leads to the building before the first fast zombies. The ball just needs a hill and enough rolling space, so that it can get both momentum and air time. There's not much that can stop it then.

[Calax]

<3 how the gunships actually shoot down missles..

 

I just wish there was a way to knock out dropships.

[Wistrik]

What Helicopter took 12 rockets?!?!?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All of the helicopters in the game are set up that way. Granted, we're not supposed to be able to destroy choppers until we get the gun mounted to the airboat, but I prefer to play a stealth game (as much as the scripting lets me) so I usually cheat in rockets so I can take out the helicopters rather than be chased/hounded by them. This is how I found out that it takes about a dozen rockets to down them, versus four for nearly everything else.

 

The airboat gun takes them down faster, and then we never see them again after Black Mesa East. Instead we get the much weaker, but more intelligent, gunships.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Let me get this straight...you're criticizing the strength of the helicopters and how they take 12 rockets to take down, when they were never balanced to be shot by the rocket launcher in the first place?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't really care what they were meant to be, I care what they do when the game is played the way I enjoy playing it. In that sense, yes, it made sense to tone down helicopter body strength. I played it Valve's way the first two times (guns blazing, running like hell, a great way to bring the entire empire down on your head, but not very practical), and now I play it my way, for the most part. To truly play it my way (99% stealth, the way I would handle things if I was in Gordon's shoes) would require extensive work with the SDK, which I've little time for right now.

 

Anyway, I found the spawn point at the bottom of the Ravenholm shaft and took two screenshots of it. It's way back in a corner, in a hollow rock formation. It spawns fast headcrabs while you're on the floor and, in most cases, while you're looking away from the spawn point. It may not spawn while you're on the overhead structures, but I keep falling to the floor when jumping down out of the shaft (Gordon apparently can't grab anything with his hands to keep from falling, something I've always found rather lame in FPS games).

 

This is a closeup of the spawn point.

 

 

This is the view from further back, with the spawn point just above the crosshairs. My left shoulder/back is to the chainlink fence (I'm diagonally oriented to the fence) and the shaft is just to the left of the view.

 

 

I cranked up the gamma to better show the region. In the game it looks like they're coming out of darkness. In any case, they spawn forever if you stand on the floor with your back to the spawn point. They die quickly to the crowbar, but I still hate the things. In general I hate little jumping/flying enemy creatures in FPS games. The little spider things in Unreal drove me nuts too. Hard to hit in games designed more for shooting than for hand to hand combat. Then again, I'm not an ace gamer who can shoot from the hip with a blindfold on and hit 10/10 targets in the dark. Unfortunately for me, developers seem to prefer making games for the aces.

 

My brother recommended the thief games, since I like to sneak around so much (and I love sniping). I'm tempted to follow his suggestion.

Edited January 23, 2007 by Wistrik

[Tale]

Shooting down every single helicopter you come across with loads of ordinance is less likely to cause an empire to crash down on your head than running?

 

:psyduck:

[Slowtrain]

My brother recommended the thief games, since I like to sneak around so much (and I love sniping). I'm tempted to follow his suggestion.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you love stealthing and climbing rope ladders and backstabbing by all means, all three thiefs are awesome.

 

You should note however that you play Garrett who is a thief not an assassin and is neither tough nor strong. You can be pretty lethal when attacking from hiding either with bow or sword, but you have almost no chance head to head. If you practice enough with the sword you can get pretty good at blocking attacks, but you are still a wimpy thief.

 

On the highest difficulty level, you are generally forbidden from killing anybody.

[Deraldin]

If you love stealthing and climbing rope ladders and backstabbing by all means, all three thiefs are awesome.

 

You should note however that you play Garrett who is a thief not an assassin and is neither tough nor strong.  You can be pretty lethal when attacking from hiding either with bow or sword, but you have almost no chance head to head.  If you practice enough with the sword you can get pretty good at blocking attacks, but you are still a wimpy thief.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You can usually take on a single guard, but anything more than that and you are royally screwed.

 

On the highest difficulty level, you are generally forbidden from killing anybody.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Easy = Kill anyone

Medium = Kill only guards

Had = Kill no one

 

Edited January 23, 2007 by Deraldin

[alanschu]

I don't really care what they were meant to be, I care what they do when the game is played the way I enjoy playing it. In that sense, yes, it made sense to tone down helicopter body strength. I played it Valve's way the first two times (guns blazing, running like hell, a great way to bring the entire empire down on your head, but not very practical), and now I play it my way, for the most part. To truly play it my way (99% stealth, the way I would handle things if I was in Gordon's shoes) would require extensive work with the SDK, which I've little time for right now.

 

The only reason why I mentioned it is because you made comments about how it made no sense that it could take 12 rockets. I'm not sure how blowing away helicopters with rockets really constitutes "stealth" but whatever.

[Wistrik]

Well, somehow I got helicopter mixed with stealth in my head, so don't have a coronary over it. Helicopter hull strength is a realism feature, stealth would involve avoiding the helicopter entirely by vigilantly hiding from scanners and anyone with a radio, which is largely impossible in the default game. Even if I could, the game doesn't allow such actions to affect what's coming.

 

This weekend I was at the point where I was given the hazard suit, but I loitered instead of taking it in order to see how people would react. Among the funnier comments was one from Alyx: "I promise I won't look."

 

I'm modding the so-called squad of human meat shields so they won't auto-join me and then follow me around, getting in the way and finding ways to insta-kill themselves. They repeatedly blow my cover and then proceed to die quickly, so they're no use to me.

 

Just started Anticitizen One last night. Adjusted a few settings to double the render distance for most things. The game chugs now and then because of it, but it feels less claustrophobic now (grass popping into view a stone's throw away was a bit distracting). The bridge was especially nice to look at. I love that particular part of the highway more than any other.

[vesselle]

planescape: torment (clerk's ward)

bg1/tosc/bg2/tob (currently wandering the countryside in bg2)

might & magic 6 (almost done!!)

 

V***V

[kirottu]

I