Simparadox

Serious Sam... Game of the Year? I'm not denying that SS wasn't a really good game. It was, and it was a lot of fun... but there was just nothing extremely original or amazing about it. I played through it once and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. It just doesn't seem like GOTY material... ...and what's up with Max Payne as best single player game? I'll admit that it was a great game and bullet time was definetly one of the most original features I've seen in a game lately, but it was too short and the ending lacked any oomph. Operation: Flashpoint seems like a much better choice. Other than that I don't have many opinions regarding this choices. This has been (for me anyway) a pretty boring year in terms of computer games. BCM is probably the best game I've played all year.

quote:Originally posted by Tyrn: As Tolkien pretty well was the father of the modern fantasy genre, no it's not surprising at all. Trivia question: What is the difference between a goblin and an orc? I didn't say it was surprising, I was just saying that the Balrog looked a lot like Diablo. Incredibly so, as a matter of fact. Honestly, it bothered me a bit. Diablo always seemed kind of cartoonish to me . Anyway, there isn't one. At least, not if you're referring to goblins and orcs in Tolkien's work. quote:If you know the history of orcs, you realize that they look right - the orc race was bred by Melkor in mockery of the elves using elves he captured and twisted. My problem was that Rankin and his blasted animated goblins in The Hobbit and his orcs in The Return of the King always pop up when I think of goblins or orcs. I do know the history (trust me, I'm obsessed with Tolkien ), but that doesn't change the fact that my preferred image of Orcs is similiar to the D&D fantasy style.

quote:Originally posted by Joe Redhawk: Simparadox: Actually they're not defaults, their storage for player power settings so you can get back to the game. The Tactical/Logistics/etc menus seemed like real time to me. Navitron computer has a problem, play an IA mission and try to go someplace if you want to see what it is (I know it's a different system, but think in terms of mods.. I'm being vague, but hey if you can figure out BC interface you can figure out what I'm talking about, just think in terms of exploration). I knew what you meant about power settings, I just fail to see the need. The LOGISTIX computer pauses the game, so..

quote:Originally posted by buckthesystem: my advice, read the novel before you see the movie, you'll appreciate it much more. I agree, but I think that's one of the good things about the movie. People who have never read the novel want to have a nice movie to enjoy, but for those who have read the novel you can appreciate some of the details that were there more and know that certain events happened even if they're not shown in the movie.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Yeah!! I wanna know too Massive loads of work kept me away from computer games in general (including BCM) for the past week and a few days. And I'm thinking the holidays are going to do the same. Anyway, the few days I actually had to spend with the 24/7 BCM game was awesome. Seriously, I'd recommend trying it to anyone who can. I almost feel like it's the way the game is meant to be played. Anyway, once this whole real life phase passes and I have at least 4 or 5 hours a day at home again I'm going to start it up. I also plan on making a website to show off screenshots from the game and link they together in a sort of story form. So stay tuned. EDIT: By the way, I was only able to keep it running for about 2 days (happy to report no crashes in that time period, though ) because I was too stupid to move all of my important work files from that computer's harddrive to the network drive. Now that I've done that and downloaded the latest patch I'm going to start the whole 24/7 BCM project up again sometime over christmas break. My goal is to keep it running for one week at the very least. [ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

quote:Originally posted by Urza: The Orcs, the troll, ... all looked like they meant business. Definetly. Although, to be honest, the Orcs were a bit off from how I imagined them. I'm a AD&D/D&D player, so I have a slightly different vision of goblinoids. Same thing about the troll, a little different from how I would have pictured it. I guess I just have a less "disgusting, realistic" picture in my mind. Regardless, they looked awesome. I especially loved the fight in Moria near the grave. One of the coolest, most chaotic battle scenes I've seen in a long time (if ever). The way the fight raged on with the troll appearing every few seconds to fling a random orc across the room or nearly kill one of the Fellowship was just great. quote: that fire creature (can't remember what it's called) Balrog. By the way, did anyone else notice a strange resemblence between Balrog and Diablo (the Diablo from Diablo the game, that is)?

What the hell is wrong with me? I know responding to a sort of trollish post like this is going to get me into trouble, but I just can't help myself. I think it's a design flaw... quote:Originally posted by Joe Redhawk: I was trying to post this in the General Issue Tech Support forum, but it wouldn't let me. I know this thread has already been moved, so it's cool, but what make you think a critique of the game would belong in the "support" forum? quote:Originally posted by Joe Redhawk: First I must say the Manual is useless, no technical data on weapons or explanation of what the missles do or their uses. For a graphic menu driven video game I get an all text manual. PDF file with graphics would of been more humane then that joke of a manual. Which was a problem with the original (this wasn't a good sign in my opinion), the hint of a massive patch coming up caused me to Gag. Er, maybe this is just an opinion of mine - but the manual does what it's supposed to. You can learn to play the game by reading through (yes, actually sitting down and reading) the manual. Any clarifications can be had through this board or, more than likely, with a bit of practice. The online appendix contains loads of statistical data, and that's where it belongs. Have you seen the sheer amount of info in the appendix? Do you really think all of that belongs in a manual? Do you really want to pay for the extra costs of making said manual? Oh, and patches are good signs. There haven't really been any "major" patches. They all just fix minor bugs or add things that make the game more fun or playable. However, the game is perfectly playable and enjoyable out of the box. quote: The training missions... don't. Things have changed dramatically since Battle Cruiser and the lack of explanation make getting into the game near impossible (the original with that cool intro, which for me was the only highlight of the game for me) and I never could get into the bug filled original. Maybe calling them training missions was a bit of a mistake. I tend to associate the word "training" in a game with some sort of tutorial. But as a stress free way of trying out gameplay techniques they serve their purpose. Think of them as empty scenarios for you to play around with. Read the tutorial included with the game and play through the IA scenarios. quote: Interface, maybe it's good, but for some strange reason I have to play the game career and being a newbie I just get lost. I can't seem to keep up with the ship I am suppose to be escorting (which leaves me so far behind) and there is so much of the ship to run, that I have no clue what I'm actually suppose to be doing since hostiles seem to be attack various friendlies while I'm on an escort mission. (Not to mention the text messages from GALCOM HQ are wrapped in a weird way). If I do engage another battlecruiser, by the time I reconfigure my ship to engage I'm toast. Interface is definetly a matter of taste, but I like it. It seems pretty intuitive and I actually didn't have any problems picking up the gist of how to use it the first time I played. But, like I said, that's a matter of taste so there's no reason to go into it. I'm not sure what you mean by the wierd wrapping, seems fine to me. Also, you do know that the game pauses when you go into any of the screens where you might be "configuring" (not sure what you mean here - maybe preping marines for combat duty? diverting power?), right? quote: A commanding officer knows his/her ship, I haven't got a clue. I have a feeling I'm gonna have to buy the usual hint book that in fact explains what everything does (in a sense a manual). Were this real life you would have spent years in training and years more working your way up the ranks in which time you'd get to "know" your ship. Play for a week and you'll have a pretty good feel for how everything works, what systems do what, what takes priority when you need to repair, and so on. quote: To be perfectly honest I bought this game to play as a ship captain, not a gropo. Battlecruiser title gives me the impression that it is first and foremost a capital ship game. Instead it's trying to be too many things at once. I would rather watch my marines engage in combat, then try to be a marine. COs are command officers they are not field officers, they get to watch victory and crushing defeat. Not to mention I'd love to watch Marines searching my ship for intruders and prisoners including the fighting. However, I'd give it up just to have a ship that works. You're missing the point. If you don't want to play as a marine, don't. You're perfectly capable of commanding your marines in combat. You're just as capable of joining in and mixing it up yourself. I really don't see the validity of this argument - it seems to me that BCM already does everything you want it do (with the exception of watching your marines fight onboard, but in all honesty I can't see how that'd be practical). quote: Now on to some of my problems with the Interface: Alright, I'm tired of copy-pasting. Time to just respond to all of your arguments at once... First of all, I'll admit that I'd like to see the ability to give one order to a whole bunch of marines. It's probably a hard thing to add into the interface, though, so I wouldn't push it. Second of all, you're not doing it in "real time". When the game is in tactical computer it's paused. Of course, this is assuming you mean "real time" in games terms. If not, then you're in trouble - because everything you do in life is going to be in real time. Again, logistix computer is not in real time. I guess having power profiles would be neat, but hardly necessary. I think this has been discussed before. IIRC the general idea that SC gave was that it'd cost too much to implement seperate cockpit/bridge images for each type of vehicle in the game because there sure are a lot of them. As for the interface itself changing that from vehicle to vehicle would just be plain annoying. The game is complex enough without having to learn 50 different interfaces. I doubt that was ever a consideration. As for what you want with sensors - where do you intend to put all of this stuff on the screen? You have an appendix in your BCM folder with all the info you need. Copy it down somewhere. Personally, I don't need all that data cluttering up my screen. Not sure I understand your next complaint. Each ship has a different compliment of fighters. Every ship in the game is playable (uh, right?) so if you're out-classed it's because your fighting ships above your class. Stick to ships in your class, find better tactics to deal with more powerful ships, or pick a more powerful ship yourself. And your next thing is just plain trollish. There's pretty much no reason that you should want, need, or expect BCM to have that kind of functionality. The fact that you have completely dynamic traffic should be enough. Sheesh. This has been covered before. If I wasn't so lazy I'd find the post for you. Do a search. And they do give you feedback, though not necessarily your bridge crew. Your fighters will let you know when they're outgunned, though. And your crew will give you an indication of when a cloaked ship is nearby. Also covered before. Do a search (But I'll save you the trouble: SC says he'll never add a time acceleration function). I've never noticed twenty minutes of in-flight downtime. What ship are you flying? Hyperspace travel takes exactly the same amount of time regardless of distance. It's usually around 2 minutes in most ships, IIRC, give or take a minute. Really not that bad. Non hyperspace travel takes a bit longer, but not where it becomes tedious. I generally travel between a star station and a system gate thingy in a grand total of about 3 or 4 minutes in my Battlecruiser Mk3. Never taken more than ten minutes to get where I'm going. quote: Now I must add that I am having trouble with the interface and the lack of explanation of how my ship works adds to the negative opinion of the game. That's too bad, because BCM is definetly one of the most involved and deepest games you'll find out today. I have to say that most of your complaints seem either superficial or ungrounded. I'm going to just go ahead and say what everyone else has - do a little more research and spend a bit more time with the game before making a post like this (and tempting poor fools like me to respond). [ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

Yes! I finally got to see LotR tonight. Almost missed it again, because even after we picked up tickets (an hour early - all showtimes for theaters around here seem to be packed) my friend insisted we go get something to eat while we wait. Of course, we had to go to the theater near his house and being the moron he is he doesn't know where anything is or how to get there. So we get lost and end up walking in about a minute before the previews ended. Talk about cutting it close Anyway... Oh. My. God. All I have to say is that I'm going back to see it tommorow with my girlfriend. Then I'm going back Saturday to see it again. If I can escape my relatives for long enough on Christmas Eve, I'll go see it again then . And then I'll spend the rest of my month long break seeing it on a daily basis. Yes, this is what I must do... Er, so I liked it. A whole lot. I have to be honest, though, Liv Tyler (did I get that right?) was horrible. She only had ten minutes of screentime, but they had to be the worst ten minutes I've ever been subjected to. Ever. Everything she said seemed out of place. The "accent" she used completely jarred me from the movie. And she overacted worse than anyone in any fantasy movie in history. Luckily, she's not around for too long. Elijah Woods (again, is that right?) was a lot better than I thought he'd be. It's hard to pull off the kind of lines you find in Lord of the Rings without sounding too cheesy, but everything comes off well. Everyone (except Liv Tyler ) did an amazing job. Oh, and the battles were great. Some of the best I've seen in any movie. Maybe it's just my movie theater's awesome sound system, but the entire movie seemed incredibly loud. Anyone else noticed this? To be honest, it really helped draw me in. Someone said they fell asleep during it (!!!!)? Try doing that where I saw it and two seconds later you'll be shocked awake by some deafeningly loud sound. Argh, sorry. I guess I'm ranting. I just can't stop talking about this movie. One of the best (if not THE best) movies I have ever seen, and I watch a lot of movies. Good acting, great story (well, d'uh), incredible effects, amazing battles, and a very epic feeling. It's the perfect movie - go see it.

quote:Originally posted by Akira: hehe, a lot of the book was missing...(entire scenes... and the way that the hobbits got the swords was wrong...) but, they did a fair job of sticking to the general storyline. I just wish the pacing were a little better. Lot of eye candy. I'm hoping, like Empire Strikes Back, that LOTR:2 is better Really? A few friends of mine who are almost as obsessed with Tolkien as I am told me that it was pretty damn faithful. About the only thing they really noted was the absence of Tom Bombadil (er.. sp?) and the way all of the action sequences were stretched out. But that's to be expected, other than a few exceptions most "action" oriented areas in Lord of the Rings were generally short - most of Tolkien's writing was focused on the "epic" itself and the setting. But there's no way to get through a big fight scene quickly in a movie and still make it interesting and fun to watch.

Argh, I have to wait until around 5:00 before I can see it. I was planning on catching a midnight show this morning (er... last night, whatever.), but I got into a (minor) accident on the way to the theater. And then I was supposed to go see it again this afternoon, but I had to take my grandparents somewhere - effectively killing any chance of making it on time. If anything stops me from seeing it tommorow I swear I'm going to kill somebody.

lol... My... god. What the hell are the people at somethingawful.com smoking? ... ... ... I was going to try to write a little paragraph about what or something. But just... well... no. Jeez...

Hey, SC... thanks for posting a link to the old BC3K review. I got a kick out of just looking at the requirements. Pentium-60... hehe . I actually didn't realize the requirements were quite that low, I'm almost tempted to install it on one of my older systems now. As for the BCM review... *mumbles a bit* I guess it was an alright review and I suppose it reflected the reviewer's opinion accurately, but it seemed like he never bothered to explain why he didn't like a particular part of the game or what he found uninteresting. I don't know, maybe reviews like this just annoy because I like the game - but it never seems like reviewers give it a fair chance or enough time.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Yes, I *hate* AT&T with a passion. And if their constantly declining stock is any indication, I hope they keep losing money. Incompetent bastards. I don't know if this is true or not, but last summer I was visiting a friend of mine in Florida and he claimed that AT&T broadband was being sued on a daily basis by the state of Florida and a bunch of cities.

That sucks, SC, but I guess I can understand where you're coming from. I haven't really been here long enough to make any kind of long or important speech... but I've enjoyed the time spent here (even if it was spent with you yelling at me ) and hoped to stick around for a while. Thanks for the incredible game and I guess I'll see you if you ever decide to reopen the forums. Later,

I haven't been around here too long, but I've had fun in the discussions that I've been in and I really enjoyed my time here (and hoped to stick around for a long time). In case anyone needs to contact me... Primary email address: [email protected] Secondary: [email protected] AIM User ID: Lexuslord1 Also, if there's any interest in setting up a new community site please let me know. I do web development professionally and I can help with set-up of custom message boards, site design, user registries, or almost anything else you might need. Hope to see ya all soon,

Great idea, if you ask me. It's about time we made the terrorists suffer instead of just killing them.

That's horrible, man. She'll be in my thoughts - best of luck to her, I hope everything works out and she gets better soon.

Oh, man. Gotta love The Onion. I especially like this: quote:The Onion: "The noose is tightening," said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, gnawing on a dead horse's hoof. "With every Taliban soldier you capture or kill, your selection of enemies grows more limited. Our remaining soldiers, on the other hand, enjoy a virtually limitless array of Allied soldiers to shoot. Before long, it will be virtually impossible for you to find someone to engage on the field of battle. Then, victory will be ours."

quote:Originally posted by Baloogan: Hey uhh does abandon games count as warez? i mean from the underdogs and the like? if so could someone plz warn me bfor sc sees my post and i get banned too... Actually, Underdogs is a more or less legit site. I've never seen them leave a program up if the developer has a problem with it. Sure, this is probably under the threat of some sort of legal action - but who cares? They're still doing the "right" thing.

quote:Originally posted by Badgerius: Actually, I get out in front of my men, walk up to the enemy marines, and gun them down with a pistol at close range. I've never had one turn and shoot at me, if there are still marines to kill. I might just have been lucky, though. Hey Ash, was the stormcarrier damaged at all? It could have been in another fight earlier, and its IOD offline. Badge, I don't think he's saying that the enemy marines are just ignoring him. I think he's saying that any enemy he encounters ignores player controlled units in general. For what I gathered from his post he means that if he beams down to an enemy base there's no active defense against him. Which is, to say the least, odd. I was feeling funny one day and I flew my Questar down over an enemy base. Never do that again...

quote:Originally posted by Brian1: a) player kiling wastes my times I have quality gamers around I could play face to face with c) whenever a live friend and I talk about playing online together it rarely happens d) you generally can't back up to a recent save in the game is something wonky happens e) something wonky will eventually happen to your connection, the server or the small irish gnome on the bicycle providing power Well, BCM is in a totally different category from Everquest or Ultima Online. In response to your list... a) What else are you going to kill? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't BCM multiplayer going to be a strictly free-for-all combat situation? Aka, deathmatch in space? LAN games definetly are fun, but it's hard to argue with the advantage of going online anytime and finding a huge group of people to play with. c) Only good reason for knowing a person you play with online offline is to make gloating easier after you beat the crap out of them. d) I can't see any reason that would come into play in BCM multiplayer... e) Ah, well. Not much I can say about that. Stuff happens, just reconnect and join the game again. Anyway, whether we like it or not, the general trend in computer gaming is towards multiplayer. There's something nice about playing against real people, even if they can't compare to the single-player AI . And since most gamers do like multiplayer games there's really no reason to expect a load of support for single player play. Not that I mind, I can't wait to start blowing other people to bits.

quote:Originally posted by Fractux: SC I get that same "problem".I didn't realize it was supposed to be see through, but it never was for me. This problem was still there with 12.80. I recently did a fresh install and first used the 12.80 and had the same problem. The 12.83's gave me the same thing. Here is what it looks like I'm going to play around with video settings. [What are your current settings that get it to look right?]Fast writes and Side band addressing are curretly disabled on my system. I'll play around with video settings more and see. Just wanted to let you know that JelloKing wasn't the only one with this. Cheers! [ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: Fractux ] Having the same problem here. I also didn't realize that they were supposed to be transparent. Just as a FYI for everyone else with the problem - so far it hasn't changed on any driver I've installed. So I'm not quite sure what the problem is...

quote:Originally posted by Papi: True, and it's possible to script acm missions with dates, times and when ever you want a new mission. It's quite simple to create objects to pop up every now and then and you are offered escort job or whatever and it's you're choice to take the job or not. While in the between missions you can do what ever you like. GBS is very flexible. It's all in the way you make it. But random generator... hhmmm, I can't say it's impossible, but very unlikely with my knowledge of the GBS. (Which is not very much I must admit) I can't imagine an actual random mission generator would be possible with a scripting language. Brian's original request was to have one integrated with BCM itself, but I think that idea was based more on his ignorance of how BCM works. Someone suggested having a "random script generator" (a program that could randomly generate scripts and then you could load them into BCM), which is what I was referring to, but I can't really see that as being a viable choice. After all, ACM games should be played because you want to have a carefully crafted mission or story to play through - not because you're interested in just having some random mission to play around with. At least, that's my opinion.

quote:Originally posted by Tyrn: Do some research on New America for the first one. I do believe that trees and such were thrown out for the time being. Knowing the SC though, look for them as a Future Feature™. Actually, didn't SC say he was going to include wildlife and vegetation in the first expansion?

quote:Originally posted by Badgerius: In the mean time, Simparadox, you should check in at the RollCall thread in Gamma Wing's area of Prime's private forum. Go to www.primefleet.com and click COM NET to get there. You'll have to sign up, but it doesn't cost anything. Er, I did . At least I thought I did, I'll double check... EDIT: Yep, it's there. Third post down in the roll call thread. [ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]