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Post by redbirdy on Mar 5, 2008 10:14:11 GMT -5
Well I finally made my way back here. My old computer decided to die on me and took all my email addressess and favorite sites with me. I've been back on PE for a while but had troubles with proboard (as usual). Seems to be cleared up now. Hope all is well with you Keith...looks like not much going on here <sigh>.
Redbirdy
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Post by redbirdy on Mar 5, 2008 21:49:10 GMT -5
Hiya Phil, good to see you still hanging around the boards! I do have your email address since those "Pirates" troubles of yours occured after I got the new machine. Did you ever get that straightened out?
I'll be here off and on. I haven't been playing much new to talk about but there's a new Roman Empire game brewing that I'm sure to pick up when it's available.
Redbirdy
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 5, 2008 22:13:05 GMT -5
Hey, long time no see! Yeah, not much happening here. I keep checking though. I've been busy first beta testing World in Conflict released last September then moderating the Sierra WiC board. I haven't played it much online since it was released. I played it to death during the beta. I've pretty much been playing and replaying the single-player campaign (25 time so far  ) and playing the AI bots in skirmish games when I want a quick battle. Lately I've been setting up my own Veoh channels at veoh.com. I was going to do it on Stage6.com but they suddenly pulled the plug at the end of last month. Too bad it was 20 time better than YouTube. Veoh is not bad, but it requires a free downloadable app to download the videos, whereas, Stage6 just let you click on an icon on the video page to download. Otherwise you can just watch them online. I've been uploading a bunch of World in Conflict trailers and videos today. The link to my World in Conflict channel is: www.veoh.com/channels/wicI'll probably be calling it quits for the night, but I've got more to upload there yet. I drop in at Prodigy Exiles now and then. MontaraKid invited me to join a new wargame they were going to play, but I don't have it and wasn't interested in getting it. I had to change video cards in my system just as my 4 year contract was about to expire back in June last year. My ATI started acting up and Dell replaced it with a newer nVidia 7600GS. Not a bad deal after four years. I renewed my service contract for 1 more year, which is all that was allowed. That service contract has been well worth it the past 4 years. I'm just glad my system can run the new games as well as it does without having to crank everything back. Sorry to hear about the computer, but glad to see you back online.  |
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Post by redbirdy on Mar 6, 2008 17:23:29 GMT -5
Hiya Keith, yes it has been a while! I haven't heard too much about World in Conflict, but then I haven't really had my "ear to the ground" listening for any gaming news lately.
I think the game that mTk tried to talk you into is "Advanced Tactics." It's all the rage over on Prodigy Exiles. He talked me into getting it and I'll admit that I have a LOT of fun playing solo but the pbem aspect is really disappointing. Making a random scenario always puts at least one person in a terrible position and if you don't "shroud" the map (the map is black until you actually move units over it) in an attempt to make sure that everyone has an equitable starting position, then there's just too much information available. I really love the game solo, with a shrouded map and about 3 AIs, and the "People's Republic" option. The PR option gives most of the starting cities to the Republic instead of having no one controlling them. They have a lot of units at the beginning but their production is (supposedly) only a quarter of the regular AI and player production.
Nice deal indeed on the video card! This new machine of mine is not the greatest...only because I think the people I had build it have given me the once-over. When they first put it together I had an nVidia 7600 but the bearings on the fan burned out (TWICE) and now I see it's an nVidia 7300. They simply unplugged the video fan last time, saying they "called nVidia support and were told the fan on the card was simply for show." HA...yeah, right. Oh well. I'm having some more computer issues but have no desire to deal with those people again so will probably break down and buy a new machine this spring. I had originally bought a new comp from Best Buy last spring when the old one died, but it had Vista on it and NOTHING would run right. I took it back and had this one built.
Have you seen the new Paradox game scheduled for Q2 this year? Europa Universalis: Rome. One of the few games I've been sort of keeping tabs on.
Redbirdy
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Post by redbirdy on Mar 6, 2008 17:26:50 GMT -5
Phil,
UGH...fun with computers huh? So many things can go wrong and they seem to do so more and more often <sigh>. Take a look at the Roman Empire game from Paradox that I mentioned in my note to Keith...Paradox always seems to do good work and it looks as if this game has a ton of options that could keep me busy for quite a while
Redbirdy
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 6, 2008 23:23:35 GMT -5
It's probably more than you want to spend, but you should check out their XPS series of desktop systems.
My present system is their original series 1 XPS system and it's done a great job of running everything I've thrown at it over the past four years+. I know I can get at least another year out of it may be two or more if I really want to stretch it. Depends on how much the new games change in the future.
I did have some problems but they were all resolved under the terms of my 4 year full coverage in-home service and warranty contract. That's what I renewed again for one more year last June, and it will soon expire.
I had a problem with random lockups the first few months I had the system. They replaced the motherboard, CPU, power supply, even the video card and finally changed the memory strips which cured the problem. Didn't cost me an extra cent, and they did it in my home.
I have heard of EU: Rome. Sounds interesting. I'm waiting to see more about it. I hope they release a demo.
"Advanced Tactics" sounds familiar and is probably the one that MTK tried to get me in on. I'm not much of a online player or PBEM. Althout my participation in the alpha, closed beta, open beta for "World in Conflict" kind of refutes that a bit.
WiC is has a single player campaign which I have replayed to death. Lot of fun there. But WiC's tour de force is the MP game where you can play with 16 players max, 8 per side, or fewer online in a co-operative realtime battle. Some battles are very intense with lots of see-saw thrusts.
Each side has four roles, air (attack helos), armor (tanks & IFVs), support (arty, repair, AA), and infantry (reg inf, AT inf, sniper, engineers). Each role can be manned by up to 3 players each. The game supports VOIP internally so you can talk to your team during the fight.
The premise of the game is that it's 1989 and the Cold War didn't end. The Soviet Union in the throws of economic collapse decides it's "now or never" and invades Europe and then the U.S.
I have to admit that the game is very addictive once you start to play. As a noobie you get your butt kicked regularly and often until you start to learn how to use your units in battle, but as you do you get rank increases on the leaderboard and it tracks all your stats from wins and losses, to units killed and lost, and tons of other stats. Many people are playing as a member of "clans" and practice their tactics.
Many of the videos that I posted on my Veoh channel show how the game looks, because many of them use in-game graphics.
There is a demo of the game available that will let you play one of the single player campaign missions (#3 Pine Valley) where you have to take the town back from Soviet airborne units, and the demo also supports special demo servers for online play against others with the demo.
The full version has 14 single player missions in the campaign, and there are hundreds of commercial and even private servers online hosting games.
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Post by redbirdy on Mar 7, 2008 10:08:51 GMT -5
Keith, WiC does sound interesting, but like you I've never been a huge fan of online play (well except for EverQuest...I'm going on 7 years playing that one) or pbem. I was finally talked into trying a few games of Advanced Tactics pbem but as I stated the game really doesn't give everyone a fair shake at the start so that takes the fun out of it. I had a lot of pressure to try some pbem games of Matrix' "Pacific War" but didn't give in. The last (and only other) game I tried pbem was "Age of Rifles," an old DOS dinosaur so you know it was a while ago Nice deal on the computer but sure sounds like you had a rough start! |
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 7, 2008 15:50:20 GMT -5
Yeah, the system was a bit frustrating at first, but Dell covered their warranty totally and the problem was finally fixed and I haven't had a major problem since until my video card died last June. I'm not a big online player either, as I said, but the battles in WiC generally are 20 mins or less, you can join in any open slot on the server. However, some elitists have taken to voting noobs off the server, but you can report them to Massive if you thing they are being abusive. There tons of servers though and not all are like that. The battles ramp up pretty quickly, unlike other games, you don't spend time gathering resources and building. You start with a predetermined number of points. You then spend those points buying units in the role that you have chosen. You can even buy units from other roles but they cost more if you do because they aren't from your unit menu. Units are dropped on to starting areas of the map that you can select and then your off. The idea is to capture and control some specific control points on the map. The team that captures the most by when time runs out is the winner, sometimes battles are over in as little as 5 mins if you have inept teammates, or they can rage on for the full 20. Server hosts can also choose to reset the end time to shorter or even longer than 20mins. As the battle rages you gain points buy capturing those command points, and leaving units in them to fortify them or repair damaged fortifications that your team has already built. You also gain points by repairing others if you are a support player. These points can be applied to a wide range of Tactical Aids. You can then buy strikes from an assortment of air, off-board arty, airborne, air dropped vehicles, bombing runs which include carpet bombing, parachut MOABs, and feul air bombs. The biggie is the tactical nuke. I've played in games where there were enough TA points saved up to set off three tac nukes together.... an impressive site and can really crush an enemy at a critical moment. The single player campaign storyline starts with the invasion of Seattle and you start a fighting retreat from the city carrying out specifically assigned primary and secondary mission objectives as you do so. In next missions you have to hold a bridge and evacuate civilians, retake Pine Valley, fend off a Soviet attack toward the "Star Wars" command home base, take and hold two river fords and a bridge with infantry, help Nato in France defending a couple of towns, sneak into Russia to secure secret info from a crash site, destroy a Soviet nuclear sub base, retake New York harbor, retake another U.S. town, attack a island in Puget Sound, then retake Seattle within a specified time and then hold it against heavy counterattack. As you progress you get medals, ribbons and commendations added to your campaign record depending on whether you met the requirements of the primary and secondary objectives. The storyline was written by Larry Bond, who writes WWIII style techo thrillers and helped write "Red Storm Rising." Alec Baldwin does the voice for the commander of your forces, Colonel Sawyer. You play the role of the "faceless" Lt. Parker throughout the game. The other characters are a french commander by the name of Sabatier, Capt Bannon, Maj Webb, Capt Vance, and Privates Anton and Mike. Anton and Mike are Washington National Gaurd that get swept up during the retreat from Seattle in the opening video and are present throughout the game and at the closing victory video. Give that demo a try if you have the time, you may enjoy it. |
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Post by redbirdy on Mar 7, 2008 19:13:42 GMT -5
The solo game sounds impressive but I don't think I'd care for the "free for all" matches on the servers. I've read a bunch of Larry Bond...have quite a few of his books lying around the place.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 9, 2008 14:50:13 GMT -5
The solo game sounds impressive but I don't think I'd care for the "free for all" matches on the servers. I've read a bunch of Larry Bond...have quite a few of his books lying around the place. I'm not a big online game player myself. I tend to prefer more "quiet" solo play. I've only played 3 online games in some 20 years+. WiC MP sort of sneaks up on you. It's fast paced and can really get you involved quite quickly. The game's are relatively short so its not overly complicated with a steep learning curve. The nice thing is that if you don't like playing against humans online, you can actually setup a "local server" via the MP option, and play against computer bot players. I do this all the time. I setup a game via the MP Local Network menu button. I then choose the length of the game, the number of players (16, 8 per side) and whether I want the teams to be even or not. I then click on the ADD BOTS button and change the selections for "autoeven teams" and the minimum number of players per side, which I typically set for 7 (1-7 are the options). I then choose the maps I want to play on from thelist. I can then have the maps played sequentially as they are chose or randomized in the play order. Once that is done, I exit the menu and the first map is loaded and the game starts the 30 second countdown where you choose your side, your tactical role, and your individual units. Once the timer hits zero you click on the deploy button and the units are dropped to the map at the spot you specify in the landing zone area of your "team". The bot player units all start to arrive at the same tiem for both sides and you are off an running. The computer will play all the other bot controlled units for both sides while you control your own. There are certain limitations to computer logic that are evident, but some of these games are very fund. You can even setup your system as a server this same way by logging on to the MP section and then setting up a local server. I did this by accident once. I started playing a game and suddenly I had people taking over the roles of all my bot players. Before long I had 15 other people playing with me in the game I was hosting by accident. The demo has a SKIRMISH mode that lets you do the same thing offline. The SP part of the game is interesting and play and told as a story so you get a real feel for the characters just like one of Bond's books. |
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Mar 9, 2008 14:54:20 GMT -5
OOPS! Been away for awhile. Guess that's what I get, eh?! As to Paradox, I've got a few of theirs and some they only distributed, but you can guess the "theme" (Medieval) I prefer. For instance, Knights of Honor was developed by Black Sea Studios, produced by Sunflouwers, and finally distributed by Paradox. I also have Two Thrones and Crusader Kings as well. So, I'm aware of their reputation. Just Rome is not one of my favorites (sorry Keith). I'll stick to Medieval which is not to Keith's liking where Rome is. To each their own.
Sincerely,
Phil
Yeah, medieval period games are not my favorite, but no one says friends have to like exactly the same things all the time. |
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Phil Walker
Scharfuehrer
VERY opinionated. Best stay away from. You've been warned!!!
Posts: 251
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Post by Phil Walker on Mar 9, 2008 15:50:37 GMT -5
True we don't have to enjoy the same, but we've gone into this before, so no need bring it up again. While you know better than I what transpired with Impressions and Sierra, I don't know why the strong distaste myself as they are completely different games and developers as I know (not personally) some from the development as well as the production team and tthey are based out of Germany, which I don't believe any of the Impressions folks were (at least at the time).
IIUC, KOTS refers to "Knights of the Sword" (or Kingdom, though unimportant), which I have little interest in. From what I understand some of the Impressions "breakaways" went to Firefly and worked on the Stronghold series, which I also have and enjoy but not as much as the Lords series, as you know. It's pretty much moot now anyway as we both know where most of Impressions are, don't we?!
Sincerely,
Phil
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