hyndis

Thanks. I accidentially clicked on a banner ad for EQ. I felt the need to rant for some reason... Actually, I think I'm the reason why they let the Iron Curtain drop over the EQ message boards. I caught Abashi in the act. He was swearing and cursing at this one person...though the message was quickly edited out of existance, I managed to be there are just the right time... EQ is evil.

The AI is sadistic and evil. One time I was playing in a Sunflash (wanted to try out a light cruiser) and within just a few minutes of launching I was attacked by a swarm of fighters. Two other cruisers went after me as well. Six fighters + two cruisers = trouble! I took out two of the fighters and damaged one of the cruisers when they finally got the better of me. My hull was still at 74% but they took out the computers!! My ship was drifting helplessly with a leaky reactor with the engines stuck on max power...and the bow pointed right at Saturn! I took a few nice screens of those rings, complete with my ship on fire while heading right in. There was the ship, burning up in the atmosphere with those corrosive gases eating away at the damaged hull...

Thought the fighter compliments couldn't be changed. Was just a longshot question. I like the idea of a troop carrier, though. I haven't tried this yet, so I'm not sure if it can be done, but since I get boarded all the time, why can't I try to board someone else? Perhaps a larger sized cruiser with generally weak stats for a ship its size, no fighters, but 4 shuttles, lots of ground assault equipment, and a hefty crew. 10 sysengies, 10 medics, 80 marines, plus the regular officer compliment for a cruiser. It would be fun beaming aboard large groups of marines aboard enemy ships, and possibly even aboard fighers! There are two seats on fighters, and if its only crewed by the pilot...just beam him in an extra co-pilot. The marines would cause complete chaos aboard the other ship, possibly even capturing it. Just load up on shields and dance around while avoiding missiles and strafing runs while you let the marines do all your work, then capture the ship, get it under your command, or just strip off everything good and leave them drifting without any fuel at all. Yes, I'm an evil bastard. Its about time an NPC ship is left drifting helplessly in space with its engines gone and reactor leaking radiation! Damn bastards ought to have at least just finished the job. I drifted for about an hour then crashed into Saturn.

This is how a trial goes these days. For lack of a better name, I'll just use OBL... OBL: Yes, there are pictures of me firing heavy weapons into that kindergarden, and yes, there's video of me raping and killing dozens of women, girls, and animals, and yes, I confess to everything! And I was proud of it! OBL Lawyer: Objection! He was the under influence of the insane terrorist organization at the time! These actions were not his fault. Judge: Very well, this court finds the insane terrorist organization to be guilty of all these crimes. The defendant is free to go. OBL: [Goes outside, is mowed down by dozens of snipers on nearby buildings, flogged, set on fire, and dragged through the streets of New York.] It seems nothing is ever anybody's own dumb fault. The insane people at Columbine didn't do it, playing Doom caused them to be evil murderers. Its not the bank robber's fault, its the drug cartels that caused him to become addicted and created his need for money. Its not the stupid woman's fault for spilling hot coffee on her lap, its McDonald's for not somehow warning her that coffee is indeed hot. There's this great page of actual product warnings, running all the way from totally absurd to utterly bizzare, and remember, each of these warnings was created because someone was stupid enough to do that! "Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking." -- On a toilet at a public sports facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "This product not intended for use as a dental drill." -- On an electric rotary tool. "May irritate eyes." -- On a can of self-defense pepper spray. "Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth." -- On a novelty rock garden set called "Popcorn Rock." "Caution: Hot beverages are hot!" -- On a coffee cup. "Warning: has been found to cause cancer in laboratory mice." -- On a box of rat poison. "Warning: do not use if you have prostate problems." -- On a box of Midol PMS relief tablets. "Product will be hot after heating." -- On a supermarket dessert box. "Not for human consumption." -- On a package of dice. "Do not attempt to stop the blade with your hand." -- In the manual for a Swedish chainsaw. "Warning: May cause drowsiness." -- On a bottle of Nytol, a brand of sleeping pills. "Warning: Misuse may cause injury or death." -- Stamped on the metal barrel of a .22 calibre rifle. Now, of course it was all the product's fault. It was the chainsaw's fault for cutting off the guy's hand, it was the coffee's fault for spilling on the woman's lap... Do we really need all this? Why can't we just get rid of all these absurd warnings and protections, and just let Darwinism clean all of the skum out of the gene pool? And yes, I mean that. If you're so fricking stupid you dont know that you're not supposed to grab the blade of a chainsaw while its running, then you dont deserve to have that hand. The same is true for criminal cases, but in those cases, its more tragic than funny. Okay...so some derranged person uses an illigally obtained weapon in a violent crime. Do you fix that by passing laws against guns, or by sending that person to the chair? Just because an insane person feels like shooting up a whole bunch of people doesn't mean that I will not be breaking the law by purchasing, or simply keeping the weapon I already have.

Here would be the stats on my ship, Warmonger MKII All the same stats as the regular Warmonger, except for: No main guns, but current turrets are all doubled up, with twice the regular range and fire twice as quickly. 10 flight engies, 10 sys engies, 5 medics, 30 marines, 8 pilots, 4 P21 Vandals, and 2 MKI shuttles. For ground units, perhaps just 2 CAV's. The ship's speed, shields, hull, and other stats would remain the same, but it would be more like a standoff cruiser...not the kind to get into a dogfight, but something that flies straight and level while bombarding things at long range with its turrets with its fighters strafing things to death. Also it wouldn't be much of a space-to-surface asset, but more of a picket or light strike craft for space control. Oh, quick question, though I'm pretty sure the answer is no. Can you change what kind of fighters/shuttles/ground vehicles your CC carries?

When I first saw a small NPC try and take out the Pyron ODS orbiting Earth, I couldn't help but think of the Earth-Minbari War in B5...that single blue beam was slicing right through those 3 cruisers! The shields didn't stop a thing! I almost felt sorry for them...until I got 3 cargo pods out of the mess. I'm not sure what the game engine can do, but I think in a B5 mod, all main guns ought to be replaced with turrets, so all ships would only have turrets. That way its more like giving broadsides to each other than a dogfight with very large fighers. Or perhaps turn the main guns into a turret system, so you could have 2 power settings for 2 different turret arrays? Another thing is that the scale of everything works perfectly. In B5, just a few fighters can cause major damage against something, and ships tended to have small crews. Speaking of such a B5 mod...if such a thing comes into being, what ship would you all pick? (assuming you cannot play as the First Ones) I'd probably go with the standard Terran destroyer. Despite it being woefully underpowered, I love the things. They just look great, and playing as the underdog is far much of a challenge than playing as a Vorlon heavy carrier. Also, Supreme Cmdr, remember to add yourself in as the First One on Zha'had'um.

I'm guilty of this for sooo many games. One time I stayed up playing TFC for 48 hours straight. I think I burned the HUD into my retinas. As for BCM, I keep thinking of looking for that quick save button before I try to merge onto the LA freeways, and of course, being able to just open up my nav comp and clicking on my destination would be great for saving time on those pesky drives. I'm actually planning on making a little model Warmonger so I can use it to play with my other micromachines.

If you were in command of the shipyards and had legions of engineers and welders under your command, what kind of ship would you build? You have no limit in terms of cost or time, and can build absolutely anything. What would you make? Would you make something like a borg cube? 10,000 sys engies, 20,000 flight engies, 200,000 marines (try boarding me now!), and around 1000 fighters with enough pilots for 'em all... Or would you make something like an armed shuttle? Sort of an overgrown fighter that fights like a tiny cap ship. Personally, I think the Warmonger is perfection itself. I mean, just look at the ship! Its beautiful! Though its not sleek and it doesn't have fancy designs, its simple, rugged, and just has the right feel to it. My only modification would be to add in some fighters, as the lengthy boxlike hull could easily fit in a small fighter compliment, as the shuttles already seem to dock through the doors at the front. I'd also move the main guns into turreted guns, so there would be a two sets of turrets, one at high power and the other at lower power for taking out those fighters. I'm not suggesting that we pester our glorious Supreme Cmdr to add in all these ships, but what if you could magically add in your own designs...and these designs include fighters, space stations, and ground vehicles, too! It would be rather interesting to command a space station. You could launch fighter strikes to nearby regions and defend your shipping lanes, but it would be mostly an economic thing, though I'd take my modified Warmonger over any station or borg cube, any day of the week. [ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: Fox ]

Hi, noob here again. I'm patched up with the current BCM version (1.04) and I have all of the current GeForce2 MX drivers (v23.11), and I even checked my video card physically, and it looks okay to me, all connected properly, though I couldn't tell if I've got a bad chip, yet I'm still having that utterly bizzare problem. **quick recap of problem: Whenever I, or any NPC ship, tries to hyperjump, nothing happens. There's the particle animation as it begins to jump, the ship becomes transparent, and then nothing happens. The game isn't frozen; I can still do whatever I want, but the ship seems to be in pre hyperjump limbo, as if the engines just didn't quite catch. If I save the game at that point, exit, then reload that game, everything works just great. But then if anything else that wasn't currently trying to hyperspace tries to hyperspace after I've reloaded, they hang again. I'm not doing anything wrong command wise; I know how to use the controls and I've read the manual cover to cover half a dozen times, and all of the game settings are default. I'm tried running with the -wa2 option at the end of the command line and without it, and right now in my computer settings I've got graphics deacceloration at the second to minimum bar, as its helped with some other graphics related desktop crashes. At this point, I'd be quite willing to hire an exorcist. [ 12-29-2001: Message edited by: Fox ]

I'm new here, just got BCM a few days ago, and I'm already pulling all my hair out. I have the most bizzare bug. I believe it has to do with my system but I spent all day today and yesterday updating all of my drivers, and for the life of me I can't figure out whats wrong! Looks great, if only I could play it. Here's the rundown on whats going on: On my primary system (Pentium 1.7ghz, geforce2, 512ram, windowsME) I am unable to enter hyperspace. Despite doing exactly what it says in the manual, and then after the tenth time, pressing buttons randomly, it points in the direction of the destination, has the particle effects around the ship, and then just...sits there. The ship's graphics become weird, like a bug where I can see through them partially but the thing is I'm completely stuck. No hyperspace, no regular engine movement, nothing. The game isn't frozen, but things run down rather quickly. On the other system, I can hyperspace just fine (huge sigh of relief! I was doing it right, it just didn't work for some bizzare reason) however the system is very unstable. As this comp is not mine, however, I cannot change around the configuation of it. I'm new here, as I said, but I have read the manual a half dozen times, read everything I can get my hands on, looked over this message board, on the BCM site, and everywhere else. I have Windows Media Player 7, DirectX 8.1, video drivers dated on 11-29-2001, and yet I still get this bug. Quick system rundown: Pentium 1.7ghz WinME (all updates installed) Win Media Player 7 DirectX 8.1 GeForce2 MX/MX 400, current drivers Creative Audio PCI, drivers dated 06/08/2001 I'm not all that familiar with my system as I simply picked it up as a package deal, but over the last few days I've been going over it with all the included paperwork, and peeked inside the system, and I'm starting to get the hang of all this. Actually, the strict system requirements made me realize that my system is really screwed, so I went through and straightened out all of the conflicts I could fine. What other info should I post? I dont have the slightest idea how to even begin going about fixing this...shouldn't a bad video driver or something just crash the game instead of merely disabling the most important feature of it? The entire space genre is based on faster than light travel, and with all FTL travel disabled, it would take a veeeeerrrrrryyy long time to get places. Oh, one more thing I've found about this bizzare problem: If I try to hyperspace, nothing happens. Then if I save and exit the game, restart, and load up that game...hey, it works! I'm now cruising along just like I should. However, if I try to jump again after the first jump is complete, I need to save and restart in order to complete that jump. Yes, the engines are charged, yes, I have fuel, and yes, the autopilot is engaged. The engines fire up, I get particle effects, and just before it would jump, everything shuts down and stays dead. Even NPC ships are effected. EDIT I'm running without any BCM patches, and again, I have no idea where to even start on this problem. I'm guessing it might have to do with the video setup, though I've double and triple checked all of those settings. Could it possibly be the sound card? I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything several times to no avail and disabled all background tasks except for windows itself. [ 12-27-2001: Message edited by: Fox ]