Anyone remember the original Homeworld? There was this one damn mission where you basically had to move your whole fleet down this effing "tube" of asteroids...
Is that 'Supernova Research Station'? On the flip side, there are lots of missions that become easier than one might think by application of three words:
Grand. Theft. Starship (see also: Fun with Salvage Corvettes).
'Bridge of Sighs' (the next-to-next-to-last mission) is a grand example. Objective: destroy a hyperspace inhibitor. Major opposition: the 'sphere' of ion cannon frigates surrounding it (if I recall right, there are over a hundred of the things!). The best way to deal with this is to use something small and fast to draw some of them out of position, then swarm them with salvage corvettes; rinse and repeat until you have a nice big hole to push through (or you've captured them all). The only capital ships that are truly difficult to steal are missile destroyers (this is also the case in Homeworld 2, although the missile battery on Vargr battleships can be temporarily disabled).
Homeworld 2 has some nasty potential walls as well: an early example involves navigating through a massive debris field while being beset by Movers (corvette-class vessels which are ridiculously effective against larger things). Turns out that the AI regulating these will attack strikecraft over any other target, so the smart thing to do involves using a scout squadron to 'wake up' the various groups of Movers and lead them on a wild-goose chase all over the map...
If you're talking about the mission I think you're talking about, there's a trick you can use to make it easier. Shoot out the tires of his car before you go into the club. Then, when you have to chase him around, he goes slowly and spins out all the time...very easy to chase.
I'll endorse this trick (it's quite amusing) and share a couple of others:
'early' weapon mastery: stock up on ammo for the gun(s) in question and head to Los Santos International Airport (use a car as a stepping stone to get atop the guard shack), then proceeed to keep shooting the tires of the baggage hauler until you get bored. And while you're there, get in some stick time... enough of these sessions and you'll not only be on your way to Hitman level with one or more weapons, but have the airports 'unlocked' well before flight school. Doing this is requisite for the next tip:
Easter Hill Airport is home to a missile launcher (not RPG) spawn. Said launcher comes in very handy for 'Toreno's Last Flight' and a couple of other ops which require shooting down helicopters.
Coming to 'Grey Imports' (wherein you have to crash a Ballas arms buy) with Hitman level for the sawed-off shotgun means you can kill the arms dealer before he gets into his Banshee... and claim said car for yourself.
Once you've purchased Verdant Meadows, you have a relatively safe way to score FBI Ranchers. Simply take the bike which spawns there and head down to Area 69, then let one or more of said vehicles chase you into the hangar. Dismount and quickly save your game. Too bad there isn't an emergency vehicle fence like there was in GTA3...
Two of the 'missions' in Scarface: The World is Yours - specifcally, those associated with Chi Peso Trattoria and Coco's Lounge and Disco - can easily become walls if you try and play them 'straight'; however, utilizing vehicles to block off entrances makes things much easier. Conversely, the fact of the game using Everything or Nothing-style targeting (lock-box with adjustable fine aim) whether you're on foot or in a vehicle, and letting you fire from vehicles in 360 degrees (thank you Saint's Row for bringing that to the table), makes certain other things easier than their GTA counterparts (hint: boat drivers are always exposed)...
just like in Black and Just Cause (gah, that latter game headcrabbed), you can shoot your grenades to set them off early... maybe you want to set up an airburst, or you want that grenade which landed under a large Akrid to detonate now and not a couple seconds from now.
thanks to some chap who put this up on YouTube: a relatively easy way to deal with the bee/hornet-like Akrid is to shred a wing. Then you can take the uncontested shot at its vitals or simply pass it by (which, as someone else said here, is often a perfectly viable tactic).
in what is an apparent homage to Starship Troopers you're allegedly able to grapple on the weak spots of certain Akrid and feed them a whole magazine before dropping off. I haven't gotten this to work, but your mileage may vary.
NEVEC soldiers' helmets almost certainly use pinhole cameras mated to a VR system - how else do they see?
Simple. The market was already flooded by the time TA came around...
True, but it seems you misunderstood my initial question; perhaps I was not perfectly clear: it was not 'why didn't TA catch on among gamers?' but rather 'why didn't TA's gameplay mechanics catch on within the genre?'
And as long as we're here, I fully second orkysoft's comments on DoW; it's great fun to play (I suspect the Assassination condition one can set for skirmish/MP matches - wherein each player has a free hero unit from the word 'go', but loses instantly if that unit dies - is a partial nod to TA)... I really should dig it back out and add the expansions; it'd be interesting to see how my Cobra schemes would look on the Tau or IG.
The story, as I understand it, was that Hitler wanted to show Germany's air superiority so, against the advice of his staff (including Goering [sp?]), he sent in his Stutka's to take London. Problem is, they were no match for the British Spitfire - which could outfly and outdive the Stutka. By shifting Germany's resources to a tactical campaign where he was outmatched, Britan was able to eventually break the siege.
This may well be true; the story I heard is that things started to fall apart once Hilter shifted focus from proper battlefield preparation (that is, targeting airfields, radar stations, and factories) to what was basically a psyops exercise (attack civilians so as to break their will to fight) which backfired.
See also in this vein: being late to develop true strategic capability (many Soviet factories were simply beyond the Luftwaffe's reach) and repeating Napoleon's mistake with respect to the Russian winter...
And yes, 'Goering' is an accepted English spelling of 'Göring' (Wikipedia entry)
As amusing as this scenario is, I am not certain it represents the specific manner of security investment the OP is inquiring about. While we've heard a lot about laptops, backup media, and so on going missing (more due to negligence than anything else) how common, really is server theft...?
I have a question for those of us who have been fortunate enough to play TA online: having gotten from my single-player experience that the command system is at once simple and tremendously empowering, why did it not catch on elsewhere in the genre?
Because so much of resource gathering and unit production can be semi-automated... what habits, if any, would RTS players have to break in Supreme Commander?
Yes, 'brilliant'. Especially when one realizes that these delays represent in and of themselves a good incentive for bootleggers (I refuse to use 'pirates' to describe them).
So, let's assume Hollywood decides to delay releases in Canada... what prevents the Canadian government from saying 'okay, fine; find somewhere else for your location shoots' and explaining to their public precisely why they took such a step?
Freespace: 2 awesome games that filled in the gap left by a non existent wing commander. Vanished into thin air.
Again, I agree wholeheartedly. Now, if LucasArts ever gets their heads out of their fourth point of contact and revitalizes the X-Wing/TIE Fighter franchise (which I'm fairly sure is mentioned elsewhere in this discussion) - no, the flight component in SW Battlefront II does not count - this is the engine they should use as a starting point.
If I recall correctly, FS2, like the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games, incorporated something that is lacking in today's multiplayer market - true cooperative play (Republic Commando's design, like that of Killzone, practically screams for it). Does anyone else remember the old arcade games (Final Fight, Aliens vs. Predator, Heavy Barrel...) wherein cooperation was not only possible, but a very good idea? Yes, a good CTF session can be fun, but one gets the impression that 'multiplayer' has been conflated with 'competitive play'. To be fair, games like Gears of War and the upcoming titles Army of Two and Crackdown are addressing this... as will the Red Star adaptation (which combines Final Fight-style asskickery with Contra-esque boss madness sequences)... ...assuming the folks at Jack of All Games remove their heads from their own fourth point of contact and actually release it when they claim they will (14 Febuary according to Gamestop). What on Terra have they been doing since August?!
Its similar to a pretty interesting conceptual innovation in medicine...
See also in this vein: professional, particularly military, aviators and their many checklists (sometimes referred to as 'plastic brains'). According to this article, several hospitals have seen this as something to learn from.
Also in this vein: Otaku.com.
Now, aside from JPop and, as a sibling post noted, certain 80s bands, you can get lots of good game music from that side of the Pac - most recently, I scored the Project Sylpheed OST and the Gunslinger Girl Game Sound Album (a collection of music from the three games spawned by the eponymous anime). This brings me to another observation: why don't such game music luminaries as Jeremy Soule (Total Annihilation) and Frank Klepacki (Command & Conquer) seen to get as much exposure here as their Japanese counterparts do?
And speaking of JPop, since The Idolm@ster is a Namco game, I for one think it'd be awesome if they came out with special versions of certain Ace Combat tracks with the girls doing the vocals. Specifically:
Amen.
Oni multiplayer could have been truly awesome. From the word 'go', you have not two, but four possible teams: TCTF, Syndicate, Black Ops, and the ninja (the last two would need proper group names; I suggest 'Aegis' for the Black Ops folks)... imagine the insanity on a map big enough to support four-way team deathmatch! Bonus points for a 'brawl' option (no starting weapons; no weapon pickups on map) in the rules of engagement.
As for unique characters: each faction has one or two (with the exception of Aegis, for whom such would need to be created); who gets to use them on a team could be determined in a manner similar to MGS3's: initially at random, then whoever has the highest score on the team in the previous round.
Aside from this, there are a few minor gameplay changes I'd make:
amp up weapon damage: this change alone would force players to master evasion quickly;
stealth kills for all;
add a scope to the mercury bow;
Didn't get to play any of the Wing Commander or Privateer titles, but I can also agree with you with respect to Mechwarrior and Descent (I regret not getting to play Descent 2)
Ah yes, the 'Counter-Operative' mode. The principle sounds like great fun (sadly, I never had the opportunity to play PD); I'd been wondering when someone would take another look at this.
As has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the problem would be folks bringing 'griefing' and 'stereotypical Counter-Strike decerebracy' along with them...
I think I mentioned this in a similar thread, but it seems to bear repetition:
Those of us who watch '24' might recall that the major threat in season three (correct me if I'm wrong) was that some tangos had the brilliant idea of selling spiked cocaine to unsuspecting street-level distributors... and it is worth noting that a former investigator interviewed for a June '06 investigative report performed by MSNBC raised the spectre of some enterprising tangos replicating that hypothetical scenario by slipping tainted medicines into legitimate channels. Now imagine how much easier said tangos would have it if they opted to deliver their 'goods' via spam...
You're tempting me to break out either/both of Koei's Warship Gunner titles and play around with this stuff. And the large-caliber Vulcans (they top out at 406mm(!)), but that's a different story.
I wonder, as long as we're here, how far along 'electrothermal guns' are in terms of development...
Google has you covered, sir. Add to your search terms the following: '-inurl:myspace'. This excludes from the listing all entries whose URL includes 'myspace'.
I see many posts referring to this man's inability to get women with this theatre as a knee jerk response... We should be over the whole "high school" mentality where every single action is interpreted as an indicator of sexual prowess.
Well said, sir. One would think that said 'high school mentality' would die a quick and unlamented death upon contact with the fact of appearances not always being congruent with reality.
...and the pedophiles can be put in jail. "oh Mr. Convict, Did we mention Jim was a pedophile?" Have fun in general population. You'll get everything you deserve.
Feh. This AC is no better than the chap who suggested that the sex-offender registries should be treated as hit lists further down the page.
The precise origin of this discrepancy escapes me at present, but I recall hearing that it had something to do with highway funding. Still, it continues to amaze me that people accept it. It strikes me as illogical to say that someone is old enough to choose to place their life at risk in the service of their country, but too young to buy alcohol.
With that said, whoever generated the 'ask for ID if the customer looks younger than X'... probably doesn't try to guess people's ages. Between older people trying to look younger, and younger folks trying to look older, doing so strikes me as pretty much impossible.
For folks who're supposed to be expert at connecting with the public, advertisers seem awfully ignorant of what the public finds irritating. How does one explain this incongruity?
Related: when an advertising deal is made, nowhere is it written that the audience is obliged to watch the ad. They seem to have forgotten that, too.
They should do like they do with digital cameras on phones, make them make a sound when they are being used
That particular 'feature' struck me as irredeemably lame from the get-go.
Slashdot Mirror
Grand. Theft. Starship (see also: Fun with Salvage Corvettes).
'Bridge of Sighs' (the next-to-next-to-last mission) is a grand example. Objective: destroy a hyperspace inhibitor. Major opposition: the 'sphere' of ion cannon frigates surrounding it (if I recall right, there are over a hundred of the things!). The best way to deal with this is to use something small and fast to draw some of them out of position, then swarm them with salvage corvettes; rinse and repeat until you have a nice big hole to push through (or you've captured them all). The only capital ships that are truly difficult to steal are missile destroyers (this is also the case in Homeworld 2, although the missile battery on Vargr battleships can be temporarily disabled).
Homeworld 2 has some nasty potential walls as well: an early example involves navigating through a massive debris field while being beset by Movers (corvette-class vessels which are ridiculously effective against larger things). Turns out that the AI regulating these will attack strikecraft over any other target, so the smart thing to do involves using a scout squadron to 'wake up' the various groups of Movers and lead them on a wild-goose chase all over the map...
- 'early' weapon mastery: stock up on ammo for the gun(s) in question and head to Los Santos International Airport (use a car as a stepping stone to get atop the guard shack), then proceeed to keep shooting the tires of the baggage hauler until you get bored. And while you're there, get in some stick time... enough of these sessions and you'll not only be on your way to Hitman level with one or more weapons, but have the airports 'unlocked' well before flight school. Doing this is requisite for the next tip:
- Easter Hill Airport is home to a missile launcher (not RPG) spawn. Said launcher comes in very handy for 'Toreno's Last Flight' and a couple of other ops which require shooting down helicopters.
- Coming to 'Grey Imports' (wherein you have to crash a Ballas arms buy) with Hitman level for the sawed-off shotgun means you can kill the arms dealer before he gets into his Banshee... and claim said car for yourself.
- Once you've purchased Verdant Meadows, you have a relatively safe way to score FBI Ranchers. Simply take the bike which spawns there and head down to Area 69, then let one or more of said vehicles chase you into the hangar. Dismount and quickly save your game. Too bad there isn't an emergency vehicle fence like there was in GTA3...
Two of the 'missions' in Scarface: The World is Yours - specifcally, those associated with Chi Peso Trattoria and Coco's Lounge and Disco - can easily become walls if you try and play them 'straight'; however, utilizing vehicles to block off entrances makes things much easier. Conversely, the fact of the game using Everything or Nothing-style targeting (lock-box with adjustable fine aim) whether you're on foot or in a vehicle, and letting you fire from vehicles in 360 degrees (thank you Saint's Row for bringing that to the table), makes certain other things easier than their GTA counterparts (hint: boat drivers are always exposed)...And as long as we're here, I fully second orkysoft's comments on DoW; it's great fun to play (I suspect the Assassination condition one can set for skirmish/MP matches - wherein each player has a free hero unit from the word 'go', but loses instantly if that unit dies - is a partial nod to TA)... I really should dig it back out and add the expansions; it'd be interesting to see how my Cobra schemes would look on the Tau or IG.
See also in this vein: being late to develop true strategic capability (many Soviet factories were simply beyond the Luftwaffe's reach) and repeating Napoleon's mistake with respect to the Russian winter...
And yes, 'Goering' is an accepted English spelling of 'Göring' (Wikipedia entry)
As amusing as this scenario is, I am not certain it represents the specific manner of security investment the OP is inquiring about. While we've heard a lot about laptops, backup media, and so on going missing (more due to negligence than anything else) how common, really is server theft...?
I have a question for those of us who have been fortunate enough to play TA online: having gotten from my single-player experience that the command system is at once simple and tremendously empowering, why did it not catch on elsewhere in the genre?
Because so much of resource gathering and unit production can be semi-automated... what habits, if any, would RTS players have to break in Supreme Commander?
Yes, 'brilliant'. Especially when one realizes that these delays represent in and of themselves a good incentive for bootleggers (I refuse to use 'pirates' to describe them).
So, let's assume Hollywood decides to delay releases in Canada... what prevents the Canadian government from saying 'okay, fine; find somewhere else for your location shoots' and explaining to their public precisely why they took such a step?
If I recall correctly, FS2, like the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games, incorporated something that is lacking in today's multiplayer market - true cooperative play (Republic Commando's design, like that of Killzone, practically screams for it). Does anyone else remember the old arcade games (Final Fight, Aliens vs. Predator, Heavy Barrel...) wherein cooperation was not only possible, but a very good idea? Yes, a good CTF session can be fun, but one gets the impression that 'multiplayer' has been conflated with 'competitive play'. To be fair, games like Gears of War and the upcoming titles Army of Two and Crackdown are addressing this... as will the Red Star adaptation (which combines Final Fight-style asskickery with Contra-esque boss madness sequences)...
Now, aside from JPop and, as a sibling post noted, certain 80s bands, you can get lots of good game music from that side of the Pac - most recently, I scored the Project Sylpheed OST and the Gunslinger Girl Game Sound Album (a collection of music from the three games spawned by the eponymous anime). This brings me to another observation: why don't such game music luminaries as Jeremy Soule (Total Annihilation) and Frank Klepacki (Command & Conquer) seen to get as much exposure here as their Japanese counterparts do?
And speaking of JPop, since The Idolm@ster is a Namco game, I for one think it'd be awesome if they came out with special versions of certain Ace Combat tracks with the girls doing the vocals. Specifically:
Oni multiplayer could have been truly awesome. From the word 'go', you have not two, but four possible teams: TCTF, Syndicate, Black Ops, and the ninja (the last two would need proper group names; I suggest 'Aegis' for the Black Ops folks)... imagine the insanity on a map big enough to support four-way team deathmatch! Bonus points for a 'brawl' option (no starting weapons; no weapon pickups on map) in the rules of engagement.
As for unique characters: each faction has one or two (with the exception of Aegis, for whom such would need to be created); who gets to use them on a team could be determined in a manner similar to MGS3's: initially at random, then whoever has the highest score on the team in the previous round.
Aside from this, there are a few minor gameplay changes I'd make:
- amp up weapon damage: this change alone would force players to master evasion quickly;
- stealth kills for all;
- add a scope to the mercury bow;
Didn't get to play any of the Wing Commander or Privateer titles, but I can also agree with you with respect to Mechwarrior and Descent (I regret not getting to play Descent 2)Ah yes, the 'Counter-Operative' mode. The principle sounds like great fun (sadly, I never had the opportunity to play PD); I'd been wondering when someone would take another look at this.
As has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the problem would be folks bringing 'griefing' and 'stereotypical Counter-Strike decerebracy' along with them...
I think I mentioned this in a similar thread, but it seems to bear repetition:
Those of us who watch '24' might recall that the major threat in season three (correct me if I'm wrong) was that some tangos had the brilliant idea of selling spiked cocaine to unsuspecting street-level distributors... and it is worth noting that a former investigator interviewed for a June '06 investigative report performed by MSNBC raised the spectre of some enterprising tangos replicating that hypothetical scenario by slipping tainted medicines into legitimate channels. Now imagine how much easier said tangos would have it if they opted to deliver their 'goods' via spam...
You're tempting me to break out either/both of Koei's Warship Gunner titles and play around with this stuff. And the large-caliber Vulcans (they top out at 406mm(!)), but that's a different story.
I wonder, as long as we're here, how far along 'electrothermal guns' are in terms of development...
Google has you covered, sir. Add to your search terms the following: '-inurl:myspace'. This excludes from the listing all entries whose URL includes 'myspace'.
Quite so... and this is even before we get to the topic of errors in said registers.
Or malicious additions.
The precise origin of this discrepancy escapes me at present, but I recall hearing that it had something to do with highway funding. Still, it continues to amaze me that people accept it. It strikes me as illogical to say that someone is old enough to choose to place their life at risk in the service of their country, but too young to buy alcohol.
With that said, whoever generated the 'ask for ID if the customer looks younger than X'... probably doesn't try to guess people's ages. Between older people trying to look younger, and younger folks trying to look older, doing so strikes me as pretty much impossible.
Well, if we're going to bring the Russian Mafia into this, might I recommend seeing if we can get Balalaika in on this...?
For folks who're supposed to be expert at connecting with the public, advertisers seem awfully ignorant of what the public finds irritating. How does one explain this incongruity?
Related: when an advertising deal is made, nowhere is it written that the audience is obliged to watch the ad. They seem to have forgotten that, too.