St0nkingByte

Anyone out there using Microsoft's Strategic Commander with BCM? I picked it up yesterday at Big Lots for $5.99(!). I'm attempting to cook up a useful profile for BCM, especially for use in TacOps. One thing that's irritating is I can't figure out how to get it to handle panning since it requires a Left-Click+Drag. This thing seems pretty cool and potentially useful. Of course if I don't get the hang of it I'm only out $6

I'm running 1.0.07. 1.0.08 crashes at startup for me (I think the days of my Voodoo5 are numbered). I was able to get the SC down safely and got back to my ship. It turns out it shutdown because it ran out of fuel. I'm such a n00b

I decided to launch my first ground attack on an insurgent base. I cooked up a plan where I land a bunch of marines & me in a SC near the base and coordiated my overland attack with two covering fighters. As I made my assualt over a hill I also used the transporter to send in another squad of marines. The marines attack the base for a while while I run around confused. The fighters seemed to suppress the enemy pretty well so after a bit of fighting and four marines dead I decide to pull out. I rapidly get bored of running back to the SC so I decide to order the SC to come get me. The whacky medics I left in the SC take off and circle around screaming constantly about every missile that pops off in the area. I hook up with my marines back over the hill and set them all to halt and mark them for evac. I tell the SC to come to me, it never does. Meanwhile I've lost one covering fighter. So I decide to tell the SC & the remaining fighter to RTB. I'll use the transporter to get me and my marines off the planet. I make sure all the marines are marked for evac, I check the transporter evac button, its not red, I click on it. Nothing happens. Next I start getting 'Launch Control Needs Power' messages. I check my RTB'ing SC & FC, they're escorting the CC now. I check the ship, everyone on board is majorly fatigued, dying, etc etc, except the fighter pilots and a few backup medics and marines I put in the second SC. Now I'm trying to figure out how to remotely revive my crew and get myself back to the CC. What are the requirements for the transporter to function? If particular bridge crew are out of action will that keep the transporter evac from happening? Is there anyway I can handle this remotely or am I just screwed? [ 09-02-2002, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: St0nkingByte ]

I had the misfortune of playtesting Whacked at Microsoft. That flash movie is very similar to the cut-scenes and whacky pseudo ads that are in the game. One of the characters is a naked chick with blue bars that cover her best bits, another is a scottish rabbit named Lucky who has had all four paws cut off. I think there's a niche market of 13-18 yr old males who forgot to take their ritalin that Microsoft is marketing to. Not a great game. It's only saving grace is it's multiplayer dodge ball, which I'll admit is pretty cool.

I was in Tau Ceti(sp?) when the SC was stolen. I didn't realize it could go that far that fast Anyway no chance of recovering it as I was attacked and destroyed as soon as I turned around to go back for the SC. I'm such a n00b Back to reading the manual...

OK that's the really weird part. I'm no where near Pluto. I haven't looked at the map really closely but I'd wager I'm at least five jumps (probably more) from Pluto. I'll abandon my current mission and see if I can recover the shuttle just for kicks.

OK then it's what I thought it was. I was mostly confused because I still had status on that SC. I don't have status for SC4, I guess it was destroyed. I imagine locating a shuttle on a planet might be a little difficult. Or do I (or my crew) actually know where it is? Could I send another shuttle down to Pluto and tell it to escort SC3 then once it homes in on it have it land and order crew to go to SC3? Of course I'm still getting a major kick out of the fact that you can leave space for atmosphere and then land and get out. [ 08-21-2002, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: St0nkingByte ]

OK I'm a complete n00b so if this question sounds dumb you were warned I had intruders aboard, they swiped one SC for sure before I shutdown launch control power. After that I'm ordering my marines around, I capture one intruder but I still have another on PERSCAN and it says he's in SC3. I spent a bunch of time telling marines to go to SC3 but instead they just man their posts. I remembered reading that when you dock at a base the base sends over help and all intruders are removed so I visited a base. When I undocked I checked PERSCAN and all intruders were gone including the guy in SC3 but SC3 is still showing red. Next I check SC3's status, it's not damaged. I try sending a marine or two to it but they don't go there. After a while I mouse over SC3 and notice it's location shows as 'Pluto'!?! So my question is, what really happened and if I wanted to visit Pluto could I hunt down my SC and recover it? [ 08-21-2002, 12:03 PM: Message edited by: St0nkingByte ]