archimage_a

They have their hands full with creatures that they created, and that they use to attack stuff with...And creatures that live under the sand in deserts... 'OMG! The chair is on fire! Quick, lets close all the windows to stop draughts and then take the peas off the boil.' Its just silliness. Yes...Clearly a single gun toting man could kill bazzilions of people...Though, personally, Atom Bombs? So he was telling the prisoners that he was unhappy with the guards? Mass Effect was so awesome, nice linear story, but choices that effect the outcome.

HL & HL2 < Red Faction 1 < Mass Effect 1+2

Yes...An obstacle that is relatively easy to remove...and its not like the Combine are doing anything else important... And Ravenholm is futile? That makes very little sense... 'Thank god we took Oslo! I would hate to have to fight that cottage on its own!' ...If only they had some sort of Weapon which Destroyed Massive Areas...and didn't subsequently spawn killer zombies that attacked civilisation. So 100% loyal...yet need propaganda...Plot hole 9001.

Ah, well, only played HL2. But, from my experience, the game just had alot of very silly decisions...And not just 'Ah, well, it is part of our master plan to keep the lab around for us to trap Gordan'...instead they just ignore the lab... Instead of nerve gassing areas, or leveling areas or anything remotely like that...they deploy aircraft, soliders, walkers...big, identifable targets. There is just the big, 'why not just exterminate humanity?', question hanging over all of this. Its not that they need us for labourers, its not that they need us for slaves or anything...They just randomly have us in hives, waiting to rebel. And the Synths seem very....Technobabbled...'Oh yes, there were these magic troops, which defeated Humanity in five minutes, but were unavailable to defeat the rebels...despite us knowing exactly where they are.' Unless you mean the white soliders..Two of which were defeated with one turret...so hardly uber soliders... And why would the soliders be billeted in the same building as the supressor field? Either the 'trans humans' are utterly loyal...in which case the propaganda Breen spouts in Nova Prospekt is pointless...Or its another massive plot hole. Or it is the generator building, and the soliders are housed elsewhere.

[Grumpy Old Man Post] After all I had heard about Half-Life 2 I was kinda expecting something a little more... I mean, the premise isn't too bad: Humans, somehow, open a portal to another Universe/Dimention/Whatever, allowing aliens, who are unbelievably advanced, to know where Humanity is. Then they use their amazing technology to defeat Humanity in 8 hours. More or Less. But...come on. Aliens are amazingly advanced, fully able to exterminate all life on Earth...yet their goal seems to 'Hyper Humans' which are Humans that keep other Humans inline, while, at the same time, randomly, firing missiles that turn people into zombies, which fight the Hyper Humans and the normal humans... The Normal Humans seem to have no job or actual function...They just stand around in massive housing complexs, plotting the downfall of the Hyper Humans. The main character, a scientist who never speaks, yet is the charismatic leader of the revolution and a master marksmen with a hammer space suit... Then the plot...A lab has created a transporter...something the aliens seem not to be able to do successfully...Which malfunctions(Ok, reasonable plot twist) Which then transports the main character INTO THE OFFICE OF THE HYPER HUMAN COMMANDER! THEN BACK TO THE LAB...BUT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL. Not only that but the main character is then detected ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL and goes on a silly long mission to another base...which I will rage about later... A WEEK LATER the character transports back to the first base which has been completely untouched! I mean, come on! Someone appears, magically, in your office, then disappears and is then detected somewhere else...You would search that area...or at least check of power spikes... But anyway...You arrive at the other base...within 5 minutes the Hyper Humans have descended on the base...Ok, fair enough, game logic...You then escape along a tunnel to Zombie Town, along with heroic nutjob who protects you with traps that injure you more than they help you. You then embark on a long winded quest to where another character has been taken...On this quest you manage to discover a way of controlling giant ant like creatures, which then fight by your side...Obviously. You find the other character but, suprise, suprise, the traitor who betrayed you back at the other base, betrays you... This is the point that you transport back to the first base...A week has past for one reason or another, and, huzzah, the human rebellion has begun. Thats right, all the humans who have been standing around doing naff all, have magicked guns out of thin air, along with medical training, and are ready to help you get to the CITADAL (OF DOOM), rescuing the leader of the revolution...who has been missing for a week....Yes, thats right! The Humans have risen up while you are in transporter space AND their offical leader is held captive, and held their own for over a week. However, rather than striking meaningful attacks on the enemy, you disable a generator in the middle of a park! OOOOO! Before recieving a mission to destroy three generators housed inside a bank/musem/something...Whats the point of this? It disables a defence system...a defence system that defends the bank/musem/whatever...Ironically, once you have disabled the defences, the Hyper Humans turn up enmasse and begin destroying the bank/thing....Yes, not 'We need to repair the generators' just, 'Lets blow it up'. Fortunately...A crate of Rockets was dropped, which you then use to fight the enemy... Now, with the enemy totally, and irrevocably, crippled, its time to head into the Citadal...The Creators, by this point, have, thankfully, noticed that shooting wave after wave of enemy with the shotgun is really boring...As such you get two nice long cutscenes where you are strapped into a metal device that stops you moving or firing....Yes, how could that possibly go wrong. The first time you are captured all of your weapons, save one, are destroyed...But your suit is upgraded to give you 300 HP and recharge points every...What, 70 HP of Damage? At the beginning of the game, brilliant...At the end of the game, after long hours of sloughing through enemies, the last thing you want is to be forced to slough though ever more enemies by holding down the left mouse button, sincey our remaining weapon is capable of one hitting every enemy...not just that, but you can use their bodies to kill other enemies! The second time you step into the metal coffin you are delievered to the big boss guy, you steals your one hit gun...The traitor who betrayed you earlier, betrays the big boss guy...not by grabbing the one hit gun and killing him...by locking the door after he calls for security...Oooooo. Boss guy then fires the one hit gun randomly into a wall, which knocks you free, allowing you to chase the guy, who then drops the gun and disappears into an elevator. Having picked up the gun, destroyed everything you can find and then spent five minutes shooting the character telling you you need to be careful, the elevator returns, allowing you to fight the final battle....What is the final battle? You need to climb some scaffholding, while shooting enemies... Yes, its the same task you have had for the whole rest of the game...On reaching the top you have to fire randomly at the 'Singularity' (OF DOOM)...which ends the game. The game is railroaded out of all proportion...But refuses to admit it...There is no compass point telling you were you are supposed to be going and there are numerous times where the game fails, not activating scripted events, which leaves you wandering aimlessly...or spending ten minutes stacking crates only to find you can't walk onto that ledge that you could see...There isn't even an objective list...just a vague idea what you might have to do and the inability to do anything but that one thing...or wander about aimlessly. [/Grumpy old man post]

My account got deleted :sad: ...though, in fairness it had been over 7 years, since I last logged into it, when they told me they were deleting it.

Ok then...Two games we could play. Scorched Earth, 3D. Artillary Strategy Game. Kinda like hegemony on steroids. [hide]Gameplay is quite simple, yet requires skill to master. Players are placed randomly on a 3D map, and take turns aiming at an opponent's "tank", by adjusting angle, rotation and power and firing a weapon of choice until he is able to hit/kill his target. The core objective of the game is to kill all of his opponents in this fashion. Another element of gameplay includes an economy system, where cash is generally earned by kills and hits. The player can then use this cash to buy special weapons, defenses or fuel. Each weapon and defense, and each fuel type, has different attributes. The weapons include nukes, which have a large blast radius. Rollers will roll down inclines until they hit a target. Lasers can fire through mountains and hit targets directly. Funky Bombs land much like regular missiles but then launch bomblets toward nearby enemies. MIRVs spread in the air, sending small bombs down on your enemy. Napalm can be used to incinerate targets. Defenses are as important as the weapons. Batteries allow a player to repair damage. Shields protect a player from taking damage from most weapons. Magnetic shields and Force Shields repel or reflect an enemy's shots. Parachutes prevent damage from falling (when dirt is blasted out from under a tank). Auto Defense will allow a player to power up shields and activate parachutes before the start of a round. Fuel allows a player to move his tank, either to avoid shots from an enemy who has zeroed in on his present location, or to gain a more advantageous firing position. [/hide] The Battle for Wesnoth RPG Strategy Game. Its rather fun. [hide] The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based wargame played on a hex map. The strategy of battle involves fighting on favorable terrain, at a favorable time of day, and with enemies weak against the player's units. Other concerns are capturing villages that produce gold for unit recruitment, and positioning units to restrict enemy movement. Games of Wesnoth come both in the form of single-player campaigns and multiplayer matches. Each unit in Wesnoth has its own strengths and weaknesses. A unit's defense is based on the terrain it stands on; elves, for example, are difficult to hit when fighting in a forest. Different types of attacks (melee and ranged), weapon types (pierce, blade, impact, arcane, cold, and fire), and a day-night cycle that alternately favors lawful and chaotic units, alter the amount of damage a unit deals and receives. Throughout the campaigns, units can advance to higher level counterparts and become more powerful. A central design philosophy of the game is the KISS principle; for a new idea to be accepted, it should not complicate gameplay. Another important facet of the game is randomness and its manipulation: it is never certain a unit's attack will fail or succeed, only likely or unlikely. Developers have stated that the potential for a skirmish to go better or worse than expected adds excitement and strategic depth to the game. [/hide]

Digest of information from the Descar Data-Records. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Space/Arch%20Notes%202352342.txt

I heard it was an extensive AI hacking course =P

Nah, upgrade was inprogress last session.

Ok. So: The Unity is now lv3 and has 1 additional weapons point. The Kirby now has 1 Ion Engine, lv1. Giving it a speed of 1. And cargo levels are now 265kT.

7 Years have past, but on the Unity and Kirby only a few days have past. But yeah, ok, you get 2 upgrades, what do you want to upgrade?

Most of the drones were sent to the Kirby to build the mining laser thing so the upgrading spree died...unfortunately.

Sorry, but I have to have some sessions that us Europeans(and I use the term losely cause I am am a toffee nosed brit) have an advantage in. Just as the 10pm sessions give the advantage to the Americans.

Channel is up. Will be starting in 50 minutes or so. /join #space4 tavern Daylight savings has ended if anyone get confused about the time. Logs: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Space/Logs/%23space4.Tip.It.log

If it stays in the Sol System then 7 years will pass for you...So potentially the Kirby will get destroyed, or be upgraded or something.

Retech, on condition that you don't then purposefully leave it on an inhabited asteroid, or tell people where it is. Elsewise I am ok to say the ship would be TOTALLY safe (from NPCs and me, if someone (aka Ross) wants to come along and blow it up then they can) on the asteroid. So no random collisions or ships which detect it on patrol.

(I would strongly recommend hiding the Kirby on an asteroid somewhere, because I have no qualms about blowing it up or having it captured by enemies if it is just floating about next to the Unity....Because, lets face it, if you came across the situation: There is a heavily armoured battleship with a good weapons and a poorly armoured battleship with good weapons...you are gonna destroyed the poorly armoured battleship with good weapons first. Also the Kirby is slow as hell.)

We have left Sol already. General Materials: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Space/Materials.txt Materials I have mentioned in game and not added should be PMed to me, along with any details you may have. Technobabbles and Plotlines may use materials that aren't mentioned here. I would remind people that we will be starting at 5pm GMT, this means that many Americans will be at school/college/working or whatever, including Jen, so the ISS Kirby will be bringing up the rear, arriving some hours later.

Retech, say 50 kT between sessions. We can have rare materials...Can someone come up with a list of properties, then I will do the names and rarity and such.

Yeah, I had originally had the list in credits, but realised that different systems/countries should charge different amounts, so I knocked three zeros off and added kT. Any ideas how the Materials would be useful, or not?

Being mildly bored, but also doing something, I have come up with a price guide for some stuff. If you have any additional ideas I will add them with prices and available levels. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Space/Price%20Guide.txt We currently have 280kT Asteroid Mining generates 1 kT per 5 minutes (If anyone has any ideas to spice this up a bit, please say), depending on the thickness of the asteroid belt.

Full of Swiss Nationals...seemingly.

Site updated: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Space%20Online/index.html (If you still see the rotating Earth then press Control-R) Highlights: ISS Kirby Arch System Scan Arch System Information If anyone is desperate for more information about the Arch System: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12603519/Space/Arch.sector You may need to download this. http://www.nbos.com/nox/index.php?action=1001&id=154

The ISS Unity was impounded by the USA after tranmissions from the ISS Unity were detected which stated the Unity's interest in aquiring Chemical Weapons for an attack on the United States Base One. The ISS Unity fled shortly after, after killing a dozen crewmen of the USSS Washington. China has seized control of the Russian Luna Base, this means that the Luna surface is entirely dominated by the Chinese, a crushing defeat for the Russians, and a major source of arguments as Russia clearly remembers ordering a stealth team to attack the Chinese, China is claiming no knowledge and the UN is remaining silent on the matter. It is unknown if other powers will intervene. Tactical Nuclear weapons have been used in China, by both sides in the Sino-Russian war. Both sides are suffering massive casualities and the momentum of the attack is slowing down. Reports indicate that the wall will fizzle out within a few weeks, with Russia claiming two third of India and most of Manchuria. Japan has backed away from its Alliance with Argentina. It is unknown why this is. Argentina has suffered a number of crushing reverses in Central America and Cuba, being forced to surrender the East Bank of the Panama Canel to restore peace. The Terran Federation has errupted into Civil War as the Norwegien Confederation struggles to independance. Rumours are abound that the Swiss are helping the Norwegians so that they can establish a 'life line out of the Terran Shark Pool that encircles' them, as one Norwegian National said. Switzerland has denied involvement, instead stating that the Terran Federation is looking for an excuse to launch a war against Switzerland. The Norway, a Manned Gas Giant Probe, launched by Switzerland earlier this month was destroyed by the ISS Unity while observing the Jupiter Gas Giant. The ISS Unity has not stated why it destroyed the Swiss Spacecraft. The Sol Fleet has been disbanded after the American Space Force Budget was reallocated for unknown purposes. Britian has pledged to continue the Sol Fleet(Renamed the Royal Navy) and has stepped up producting to five Destroyers and 13 Escorts within the next year. To do this Britian has cut social welfare to the bare minimum and has disbanded the Royal Sea Navy. The British people have widely accepted this move as neccessary after legendary Footballer 'Hammond Cheese' analogised "Well, er, Welfare is like a Hand-Ball...Its something you really want to do, but you know it is wrong." Thousands dead in the streets. The Swiss have joined Britian in the construction of the Royal Navy. Switzerland has become the leader in Space Craft Construction, building both the ISS Unity and the New ISS Kirby, as well as the SS Archmage, the first national Destroyer. The ISS Kirby has been launched from Planitia Shipyard. The ship has only skeleton systems, but shows all the signs of becoming just as famous as the ISS Unity. Australia has become the dominate power in the Greater Japanese Empire, which has been renamed the Commonwealth of Australia. The coup was completed with minimal bloodshed following a joint Russian-Terran operation to remove the threat of another Apocalypse. However the Americans have claimed it was, in fact, solely down to them, as the American Ambassador to the UN outlined earlier today.: [hide]Now what you have to understand is that George Bush(5th) understands the way these Japanese people think...They don't think like you or I, you see, they think in a totally different way. So George Bush put pressure on Japan by saying that, although military invasion of Japan was out of the question, the matter was still on the table. So the Japanese begin to feel very, very, vunerable, so they do the obvious thing; they blow up the man in Australia, who's death would be most likely to bring hundreds of thousands of protestors out onto the streets demanding that Japanese troops be withdrawn. So then Japan has an excuse to withdraw troops. But the REAL motive was to bring the troops back into Japan, so that they could fight against an American Invasion.[/hide] The validity of the above statement has been questioned. The Chinese Scout Ship, Mao, has returned to Luna after its survey of Ganymede.