David Hingtgen

Is it news at all that I found a 60GB for sale today? Haven't seen any in a while.

Semi-canon (but on the "upper end" of semi-canon): 6 Galaxy class intially built. Annother 6 had their frames built, but never had their weapons/engines/interiors etc installed and were put into storage. We know the names of more than 6 and have seen almost as many un-named ones, so presumably at least some of them are from the "spare" 6 half-built. The Venture with its extra phaser banks on the nacelles is likely one of them, lending support to the idea that these later Galaxy class were finished because of either the Borg or Dominion threat, and likely dispensed with fitting out the interiors for families and diplomatic missions, and maybe even sacrified scientific equipment, in order to finish them as quickly as possible and equip them for battle. (The REAL reason the Venture has extra phasers is because it's actually the 3-engined 1701-D model from the last ep of TNG) Also, based on many we've seen, I'm betting there's a lot more than 12 by the end of DS9, otherwise that means we've seen basically all of them---and pretty much the entire remaining class in a single battle.

My brother's been busy at work, so the "scheduled meet-up for Co-Op" won't be until Mon. night probably, maybe Tuesday. If I get a definite time I'll post so anyone who wants to can join in. PS--encountered a guy from Japan tonight who had the 30 battle royale wins unlocked. Dang.

Well, we already got 1 free F-16, another would be kinda pointless IMHO. Anyways---I found that the AI only slightly improves, while "damage" changes a lot as the difficulty changes. Something I noticed though when replaying yet again: Events occur sooner in Expert/Ace. I think it's mission 3 that I confirmed the difference, but on that mission on Normal, Strigon doesn't show up until after you beat the first couple objectives. In the harder ones, they show up immediately and harrass you throughout the entire mission. Also, since damage is up, your allies on the ground die sooner. They WILL die in 5 mins if you don't do anything, and you can get "mission failed" pretty easily if you aren't guarding them constantly against enemy planes/tanks. Whereas on normal, they can pretty much take back Emmeria on their own in a ground campaign. PS--all-new plane? YF-23 of course. Out-accelerate any plane on the planet. And be super-stealthy while doing it. All while looking cool.

Galaxy seems to have poor offense for such a large ship. 1701-A seems to be able to fire off more phasers and torps. PS---yes, the Sovereign is the best "new" design in a while because it emulates (purposely) the Excelsior. Miranda's nice, I actually prefer the on-screen 'upside down' version. And it established a trend. Again, we see the Nebula class based on it. (To me, Nebulas look a lot better than Galaxy, though Ambassador is what a Galaxy should have looked like) The fact that so many ships share parts makes a lot of sense. Mainly saucers and nacelles. There's really no need to make completely new nacelles for every class, when they're just stuck on pylons away from the hull. Nacelles should be difficult to design and perfect, and not every class should have its own unique design. Kinda surprised we never saw any other class with Excelsior-style, since there were so many of those built. (Centaur doesn't count, kit-bashed freak) I don't like the Akira (but don't hate it), but it's the best of the "designed for First Contact" ships--all the others don't look like federation designs at all---no clear nacelles, no saucer. They're like "angular Defiant variations". PPS---is everyone aware that the Saber-class design is lost? Apparently there was only ever one file for it at ILM, and it only exists as that CGI model--there's not even a basic 3-view CAD created of it. And some intern apparently deleted the file. So we'll never see the Saber class again. Even if it's rebuilt---there's no references/angles for some 40% of the design from what was seen on-screen.

And when he and the Excelsior appeared in Voyager---that was about the only good ep of Voyager.

More Doraemon: http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/projectd.html

Yeah, that's been IMHO the coolest weapon name in a long time. I also like how the UK equivalent of the Hellfire is the Brimstone.

Give me an F-15E stripped of its conformals, for increased everything. Also, a Super Hornet with better speed and agility. The thing's not fast, but it sure as heck is agile in real life. It's really gimped in the game, both stats and weapons-wise. I think to make the F-2 look better .(as it is almost an uber-plane in the game--has EVERY advanced weapon of every main type, and I'm pretty sure Japan doesn't have anything equal to the AIM-9X). The real Shornet doesn't have THAT bad speed and acceleration. (Problem is, most AC games treat speed and acceleration the same, when they are often almost opposite in many modern jets) I'd really like to see a high vs low altitude speed and acceleration effect. The Tornado would out-run ANYTHING at low-level, while an F-14A would have great acceleration up high.

Ent-B is not meh! And the Excelsior is the best Trek design EVER. (I like the D least, despite having seen it the most---just disproportionate--giant saucer, stubby nacelles)

OT, and sorry if it's been brought up before, but on a slightly similar vein: 20 foot long LEGO Yamato: http://gizmodo.com/photogallery/Yamato/ (incomplete, but still amazing) He's got a site documenting the earlier stages of building it here: http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/projectyamato.html

::Sith Lord Graham sitting in front of his computer, looking at his high-res YF-21 pics while reading this thread:: "You want these, don't you. Yeeeeeessss. I can FEEL it."

As was mentioned---Yamato has to be well aware of this, as that's how they did it on the original release. Obviously, they just didn't want to or something on the new one.

Heretic! Well, at least now I know who to blame for the movie failing/bad reviews/new ship sucking, etc.

Regardless, I have to agree. The Enterprise is probably the most iconic starship ever. People who have never seen Trek and don't even know Kirk's first name can identify the Enterprise. It really doesn't need/shouldn't be changed. It's a timeless design. My money's on it looking NX-01ish though, no matter how many people complained (and still do) about NX-01 looking wrong for its era, and Trek in general.

That Scarface F-18 really sucks IMHO--it still has the Top Hatter's markings on the fuselage. Those are very distinctive. Maybe the re-texturer guy assumed those were inherent to the F-18 or something, and not part of VFA-14's current scheme. (Plus it has the same black and yellow tail) That's the laziest AC6 repaint by far. (And you KNOW a Jolly Rogers Super Hornet would sell)

Ok, poor wording. I understood after about 5 secs that Link headed directly towards the current location of the stylus, not the "path" the stylus took. But I still ended up having to "draw" the path, as he literally ran straight to the stylus--regardless of cliffs and walls in his way. So you have to constantly reposition the stylus to get him to follow a path around obstacles and not just run into everything--effectively constantly drawing a path parallel to his actual route. And I still couldn't see. I don't have big hands, I pretty much blame the odd positioning. Link's at the top of the screen, not centered. And that introduced a lot of issues, to me at least. I think I'll just replay Oracle of Ages and Seasons, I only ever did those once. (Minish Cap may be prettier, but not as good IMHO---doubt I'll ever replay it)

In AC6, grading is PURELY on points scored. Kill as much as you can. Each mission/submission has its own requirements---in some, 10,000pts is enough for an S, others want 70,000pts. Other AC games are more dependent on going fast, but "amount of stuff killed" is always the primary thing---and in AC6, it's the only thing. You actually want to go slow---if you kill just the required targets, you won't kill much overall. Kill everything BUT the targets to get a lot of points, then kill off the targets to complete the objectives. Some missions though, just killing the targets may be enough (or nearly so) for an S. Others will require you to take out 95% of what's on the entire map. If you want S's, use a plane that can wipe out large formations of ground targets at a time. Or something unbeatable in the air to take out many non-target planes. The CFA-44 is well-known as basically being the "S-earner". Might want to wait until you have that. (S's are certainly possible with many planes, but it's much faster and easier with the CFA-44)

Shawn and Graham are the only ones who knew, no mod was informed AFAIK---we all saw it the same time you guys did. Hurin?

90% of my GBA playing is with my GC's GBA player. I like having a real controller and a big, bright screen. Honestly, the best thing in the world would be a DS Lite player for the GC. Just eliminate the touch-screen parts. (Most of the games I like don't use it at all past the first screen, or only implement it as a small gimmick at the insistance of Nintendo). PS---tried the Zelda demo at Target. Didn't like it at all. Moving Link with the stylus just doesn't work, because you can't see. Link is always near the top of the screen, so to move him up/left/right, you have to have the stylus (and your hand and fingers) near the very top of the screen---which means the entire rest of your hand is covering the entire screen. The only time you can see, is when you're commanding Link to head due south---then your hand is mostly below the screen, and you can see. I tried for several minutes, but got frustrated as I just could never see more tan 40% of the screen, and Link had almost no ability to get around corners etc. If you "take the turn" too early by 1 pixel to get in a door, you have to draw a fairly complex path to get him to back up and out and over and try again---his turn radius sensitivity sucks for when he's stuck/in a corner. Maybe if I had a foot-long stylus, then I could keep my hand hovering around the perimeter. DS is for quckly tapping areas IMHO, not "continuous drawing". Constant drawing on the screen obscures your vision, whereas a quick tap doesn't matter much. Note that I am a HUGE "Gameboy Zelda" fan and consider Zelda 4 to be among the very best of all Zelda games. But this just annoyed me.

...because the YF-21 is based off of the YF-23. It's kinda like the whole "VF-1's painted as F-14's" thing. There is no equivalent for the YF-19 or VF-11 etc. It's the "real life" scheme for the YF-21. And it's also why Dobber's Flanker-esque camo is so cool on the Sv-51. It's a scheme the "real life eqivalent" wears. (or nearly so, Dobber's camo is his own design/variation, though based/inspired by a NSAWC F-14) It's not so much the scheme itself, but the fact that a brilliantly *appropriate* pre-existing scheme was used. If Kawamori ever makes a valk that looks like an F-15, then the Compass Ghost scheme will look very cool on it and be worthy of fawning over. Until then, it's just a misappropriated scheme. (Since each scheme is designed for a certain shape and pattern--F-18 camo doesn't work on an F-16, F-14 camo doesn't work on an F-15, etc) You can sure paint it like that, but it won't "work" like it's supposed to. The shapes on any feathered-edge two/three tone grey scheme is not just random blob shapes. They spend a lot of time testing and designing the pattern. (Admittedly, Hornets and Gripens have very generic, almost identical schemes that do not seem to have been designed for them really---there's no outline masking at all and many straight lines)

Hmmmn. I've still been holding out for an acceptable color. (I have a PILE of unplayed DS games now). Don't really want to wait 6 more months or however long it takes until the new one comes to the US. (And still really want Navy above all---maybe the new one will finally bring Navy over here)

Just FYI, every one of those VF-22 schemes are simply your standard F-14, F-15, and F-22 schemes. Plus a few experimental Heater-Ferris schemes (possibly F-14, but they remind me more of the ones F-4's wore). ::minor annoyed rant:: I'm always surprised how every time the standard "Compass Ghost" F-15 camo shows up on a valk, people all go "ooooh" and "aaaahhhh" like it was some amazing artistic masterpiece. No, it took 30 secs to photoshop a pre-existing design. It's the scheme every F-15 wore for 20 years, on a different plane. Nothing more. PS---the original "Low Vis" VF-1 toy is exactly that---the F-15's Compass Ghost scheme--both pattern, and colors. Nothing more. (Which is why it looks good and realistic--it is one of the most effective and common low-vis schemes in the real world--but it frankly doesn't take much creativity/work to come up with the idea on a valk)

Hmmmmn. I've never known rubbing alcohol to affect plastic like that. I've had plastic parts soak in sealed containers of 99% for days and it does nothing. (Though 99% will leave a slight white deposit/film on almost all parts with only a few minutes' contact--never figured out why). Anyone tried 70%? That usually won't strip paint, but I presume the silver paint on a US MP-03 is very "weak"---TF paint often is, and all metallics are inherently "weak". PS---same question as Mike Z----where's a good place to get MP Megs now, with the "least damaging" plug attached?

Oh, I play evil. Went through KOTOR 5 full times. 4 of them evil. KOTOR 2? 3 times, 2 evil (yes, I know it's not Bioware's). JE? 3 times, 2 evil. However, "killing everybody" or "scaring them away" closes a lot of plot lines/quests. Or at the very least, makes every side-quest much shorter. There is ALWAYS more to do, playing "good". Every quest is longer. You meet more people. You get more backstory on the game, plot, people, culture, etc. That is why I always play through "good" the first time. It will be inherently slower, but so are you, since it's your first time. You WANT to explore every nook and cranny, find every little thing you can. Find all the special armors and weapons, etc. But the second time through? You already know just about all there is, you just want to kill everything and see how that changes things. And you can still "cheat" and do the one or two "good" things you remember lead to awesome rewards, and it won't affect your evilness rating much. But if you were evil the first time, and went through quickly and just killed everybody--you never really know what's different as you'll never miss what you never knew was there. And if you make the "good" way the second time--it'll seem REALLY slow and frustrating, as all these whiny people who need your help will make it seem like it took twice as long as last time through. In summary: Evil is fun, but good makes it a deeper game. But Doing evil, then good, makes the good side slow/tiresome much of the time due to how you remember the first time and how many more fetch-quests etc there are. Plus you tend to have less money playing good which has a small but constant effect on playing. But playing good then evil---makes evil that much MORE fun because it seems faster and easier.