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kschang

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Posts posted by kschang

  2. Freddy Vs. Jason

    in The Arts

    Posted

    I don't dig horror movies, but it's kinda cute to see the two going at each other...

    Kinda like when they did Aliens vs. Predator, heh?

    What's next? Microsoft vs. Oracle? Or should we say, Bill Gates vs. Larry Ellison?

  3. The GG debate

    in Battlecruiser Series

    Posted

    Oh, I know exactly what you mean, DreadX. It's called "chasing the cursor". I covered this newbie weakness in one of my Wing Commander FAQs...

    Starship combat in BC universe, with R/R and B/C with a healty dose of 360 degree PTA turrets and solitary shields (i.e. no shield orientation), manuevering is actually LESS important than something like, say, Bridge Commander, but I'm getting off topic, so I think I'll stop here.

  5. The GG debate

    in Battlecruiser Series

    Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by Epsilon 5:

    If you haven't noticed, the video display shows where the ship is heading.. and i don't see the practical use of knowing the enemy speed.

    I think you misread my statement.

    quote:

    I can see the target ship's orientation in the VID

    As for knowing the enemy speed, I want to know should I get in front of him or behind him...

  7. The GG debate

    in Battlecruiser Series

    Posted

    I don't want to talk about PERTRAK any more, SC. I agree it's NOT doable with the current BCM universe. It's your game. It works. Let's leave it at that.

    This is not NOT really a COMPLAINT, as the current HUD system works well as is. I have NO PROBLEM killing enemy ships and fighters with it. Indeed, I think I just got my 20000 ep (though I think I lost a few here and there) killing six ships in a row.

    I went through pg 21 to 28 in the BCM-G manual multiple times before I wrote that... note.

    I can see the target ship's orientation in the VID, but there is no target ship's vector/velocity indicator. How fast IS that ship moving? If I turn on "match target speed", I can take a good guess on what the speed is, but it's ONLY A GUESS. And what happens when I don't want to match target speed?

    I can see the enemy ship's range, and "closing" velocity (actually, it's "relative" velocity). But that's just a number. If I have to look at the VID to see the orientation, then it sorta defeats the purpose of having a HUD, doesn't it?

    Enemy's ship angle, velocity, and such, can probably be INFERRED from the TLD, but when the range is close enough, you can't SEE the TLD. Both ships are manuevering too wildly. The TLD's off the screen when the ship itself is still onscreen, thus no TLL, so you don't know where to aim!

    A target vector indicator of some sort will solve that.

    Suggestion: a flat triangle from the target ship pointing to the TLD. The shape and length of the triangle will show you how fast the enemy ship is moving and in that direction, as well as give you better reference point to aim.

    quote:

    And then you mention the flight path ladders in IWar. Which are nothing but
    useless
    eyecandy and which add NOTHING to the game.

    All I meant by that was IW is one of the only spaceship sims that I recall that DOES handle target VECTOR (not just speed, but VECTOR) in a graphical manner. You can INSTANTLY tell target orientation and velocity with that "ribbon". It may be eye candy, but it's terribly INTUITIVE eye candy.

    I must say though, in the BCM external view, with those bitmap "carets" as flight trail, looks REMARKABLY like the "ribbon"...

  9. Bad movies I like.

    in The Arts

    Posted

    Wing Commander: you watch it for Saffron Burrows and the campy mood, not the mish-mash of styles, as Chris Roberts couldn't decide whether he wants to make space fighter movie or submarine movie or marine action movie. The editing only made it worse.

    Deep Blue Sea: Saffron Burrows again... Killer sharks, genetically enhanced, is herding the humans to their doom to escape... Think modern Jaws... except something's kinda missing in the movie. The ending twist is cute.

  10. Upgraded armor, is it that helpful?

    in Universal Combat Series

    Posted

    Oh, another thing... I had no problem with fighters. I end up disabling so many of them I can't tow them all to be salvaged, and the hostile station keep sending shuttles to tow them back... And I keep killing shuttles!

    Basically, set speed zero. The fighter should jump to you. Hit R/R for a second, release. You should jump back about 1 km or so. Wait. If the enemy's good, he'll come out of HJ within 15 km of your location. Your PTA should engage, but join in with your main guns and missiles. When he gets closer than 10 km hit R/R to keep the range open. Keep him in the PTA sweet spot, and keep shooting missiles every couple seconds with lock.

    In a minute or two the fighter should be toast.

  12. More intruder stories...

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    Story continued... Decided to go back to friendly space as I'm getting LOUSY marine recruits... I mean... less than 10% AI?

    Any way, started heading back to Earth... Hadar, Tyrus... I paused at the jump gate as there's some enemies at the other gate.

    Then the SAS started flashing! Six intruders gotten onboard. I quickly set course for the next gate. Care to guess where Resnig is?

    SC1. I assigned him as SC1's pilot. He's better than most too... Any way... The intruders are all over the ship... and my marines are closing in... One or two got hurt, one or two died... We're down to two... And they got into Shuttle 1...

    Right into Resnig's sights.

    Resnig took out one, and is down to 62% himself. He then exchanged fire with the other intruder, and his health dropped... and dropped...

    Resnig was down to 1% health (no kidding) when the other marines arrived and the last intruder gave up.

    Darn, I was hoping I'd be rid of Resnig!

  13. How to destroy a star station... almost guaranteed

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    Got it, really. So what you're saying is... the damage model rewards DEEP penetrating HUGE salvoes, as those penetrate to damage more systems.

    "Death of one thousand pinpricks", on the other hand, just strips away armor without doing much damage to the interior systems, right?

    And shooting at the "tail" or "head" or "waist" of the station makes no difference at all. Got it.

  15. How to destroy a star station... almost guaranteed

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

    quote:
    Originally posted by Kasey Chang:

    So any tricks in knocking down the integrity without wiping out the hull?

    There's nothing funny about it really - and its all explained in the manual. And I explained it in another one of your threads recently.

    I thought that's about ships, but I guess it would apply to stations too.

    quote:

    Quite simply, the integrity is a combination of several critical systems. These are listed at the top of the target info in the CVD. The station won't emit an SOS unless it determines that its integrity level is critical and it has no further options (or inbound assistance). Which is exactly what it also does when it is sieged and runs out of supplies.

    So a station can think of itself as "fully functional" even if its hull is down to 500 out of 25000... Hmmm... (The other integrities are down to 70 or even 50, but it was repaired back up to 99).

    I must be hitting the station at the wrong places. It DOES make a difference, right, SC? If this just keeps happening, should I try shooting at a different spot?

  17. More intruder stories...

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    Decided to do a bit FURTHER roaming... Went all the way to Cyron. Decided to take out the ODS there, to tease the defenders out.

    Two fighters came out to play... But I can tell there's a cloaked ship nearby. I started random backward/forward movements, but apparently it's not enough. Three intruders got onboard while I took out the two fighters.

    Then more reinforcements arrived. In quick succession I took out a BC Mark 2, more fighters, and more fighters. Some neutrals jumped in to attack the station and/or the ODS.

    I found a change and disabled a Gammulan fighter. with Intruder onboard I can't afford to launch a shuttle, so I towed it myself, and set course to go back.

    By this time, all the intruders are gone, but that cloaked ship managed to send in 3 MORE intruders. One of my marines were slightly wounded, as I HJ'ed back to Pravis.

    At Pravis, I set course to the star station... it was neutral before, so I thought I can dock...

    When I got there, it won't let me dock! Then enemy ships arrived... And I have no shields... And those 3 intruders are wrecking BLOODY havoc onboard. One by one my marines went down, including one guy who's all the way up to 25% AI! I quickly set course to Rinaal, and HJ to the jump gate. A BC block my way, but with a bit of retro it didn't lock on, and I destroyed it without taking much damage.

    Through Rinaal, nothing there, I took out the TER/INS station there before. Continue to Hadar. The intruders are still going... I'm down to FIVE marine dead, 2 seriously wounded in Sickbay, 2 being preped. The ship's deck 1 is flooded with radiation. Then the primary life support went offline while I HJ to Hadar. Those intruders are sure busy!

    Right about then Resnig and the rest of the crew that were in their quarters decided to come back on duty.

    I finally made it to Hadar and QUICKLY docked at the station (after taking out 2 more fighters)... Repair, repair, repair! That took almost an hour... But the ship is back to normal.

  19. Night at the movies - League of.....

    in The Arts

    Posted

    I give it a 6, which is actually a bit lower than I usually give, but better than all the reviews I read online.

    I don't mind the SFX... They are pretty well done. The twist is not that bad. The MAIN problem is this is an ensemble show, thus you had to spread things out, everybody get SOME screentime. I had the same problem with X-Men 2.

    You can just see the ending from a mile away. The young guy will take over, and that target practice scene on the bridge all but gave away the ending.

    The overall style is fine, but the anachronistic weapons and tech are often a BIT too much. Machine guns, sure. Automobile, sure. But... Sub-launched ICBM? Cloning? It's a bit jarring.

    It's not THAT bad... I'd say Waterworld and such are worse, but it's NOT good either.

  25. Question about... disabled crafts

    in Universal Combat Series

    Posted

    Got it. After posting the above message, a ship got away from me... It was no longer disabled, AFTER I shot it up and went after other things.

    Apparently PTA seems to leave most fighters alive enough to run away, yet too fast for shuttles to tow.

    Hmmm... Maybe there's a way to program to PTA to "shoot until dead"... Nah.

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