Lynx7725
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Looks like I got quite a bit of catchup to do here... Got DA2 demo yesterday for the PC. It refused to start initially but it's a DX9 issue. Sorted, and crashed.. but been running well since. Took it through two runs so far, first is Warrior Hawke and today Archer Hawke. I had recently just started DA:O, and to be very honest I prefer the UI in the Demo. Much less clutter, for one. I can't make a good comparison between the two because DA2's UI made me realised what I've been doing wrong in DA:O (which should say something), but I find I'm managing DA2's battles much better than my initial forays into DA:O. I think I like. Warrior was a hoot when used right, but the Mage class looks to be very powerful here. I wasn't really micro-ing due to the cooldowns, but generally the characters could take care of themselves. Much better than the initial Stupid that I started off with in DA:O. I didn't really button mash and had better situation awareness even when zoomed all the way in. I think inevitably parallels would be drawn between ME2:ME1 and DA2:DAO. Justified, IMO, but I think the changes made for a better game. It's clearer to navigate, easier to retain situation awareness, and there's better confidence that the party members won't wank while you are busy micro'ing something else. The new conversation options are much easier to figure out what likely reactions would be, and the added bonus of fully voiced is very nice. In other games... Got Bulletstorm. Got to be a record for potty-mouth. After one full session I turned it off in the options. Game got better immediately -- I could concentrate on the shooting better. I know it's supposed to be a "trick-kill" game, and some of the other weapons are great, but I ended up using Boneduster and Flail gun mostly. Actually, if the Flail gun didn't have such poor ammo capacity, I'll just grenade gag, smart bomb and bombshell my way through the game. Hey, I like seeing Burnouts get gagged and then take out his buddies as they swarm forward. And Leashing Heavy Echos, wrapping a Flail around him, and kicking him back through the doorway to greet his friends never gets old. So it's probably not quite the right game for me. Decently fun, but I feel some of the weapons are decidedly... washy. The sniper rifle is one big sore point with me, as I just can't get it to work right. Bouncing balls and drill bits didn't cut it with me either, and that cuts out half the arsenal (8 weapons, 3 out plus PMC.. left the pistol, leash, flail and boneduster, of which I claimed two already). I was quite surprised to see that Jennifer Hale voiced Trishka though.
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Heh. "Give me your money or I'll squirt you!" xD Don't think I'll pick those up... but might be good for wet T-shirt contests.
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Went past the mall today. Seems like Nerf is coming out with water guns? Even clip style refills...
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I know. But enthusiasm has a way of overriding common sense.. I prefer people enjoy the game/ blasters rather than nurse burns, is all. Need to get back to modding. Got to lay in electrical supplies -- damn hard to find connectors here --, learn soldering, and then rewire my mod properly. Thinking of picking up some 18rd drums, maybe even a 35rd from ebay -- anyone got a better source?
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To be honest? That's not a good way to do it. I modded my Stampede to run off batteries. I started with 9V, with expanded capacity, so it runs ok. I upped to 12V, and the structure can't take it -- the plastic started creaking heavily under sustained fire. I'm not kidding -- creaking. And you get the metallic reek of things running hot. These guys must have ran this at 18~19V to get that kind of ROF. They run a risk of overheating and toasting the gun -- which they did. A burnt out motor isn't a big deal, but a fire eating into plastics is. Not to mention I doubt the mostly parts are rated at that kind of RPM. Broken plastic flinging around at high speeds is not healthy. Hasbro designed and built these things with a specific tolerance in them. I mod things because I want to improve the performance, but I'm not quite willing to take risks to life and property to achieve them. Practically, and safely, the max I think an electric Nerf should run to is max 15V, and even then only in short bursts. 12V is about the highest I want to take my Stampede and even then I'm hesitant. If you mod an electric along with AR removal and spring replacement, remember that the forces involved are repeated at a higher rate at a higher-than-design forces -- so don't be too surprise if things disintegrate when you least expect it.
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I'd agree; out of box, without mod, a Raider is better than a Stampede. Lighter IIRC, can be faster. With mods though, a Stampede might get a bit more mileage, depending on nature of mod. EDIT: Would like to ask though, can a Stampede take a 35rd Drum and still rest on the bipod (i.e., both bipod legs and the stock)? Working on something and would like to increase the ammo load beyond 18.
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Nice. I'd suggest using a raider stock instead, that's a lot more stable. Like the forward charging handle, metal rod driving the plunger back? Looks right.
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Those 18-rd drums are really nice. Bipod works well with them, from experience. I've got to get more of them. Speaking of tact rails and attachments, what I'll really like to see is more useful stuff on them. Most "RL" aren't really that useful in Nerf, key would be handles, but you can only stick so many handles on a gun. I'm working on some electronics that can be rail-mounted, but what other attachments would be useful? A "shotgun" attachment is probably useful as a volume-of-fire multiplier, and the Stampede bottom rails might work for that, but it makes the gun very bulky. Maybe mag and batt holders, but still...
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Try the Stampede with the 18-rd drum mag, much more handy.
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... And having a trophy called
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Is the air pressure coming out similar? If so could be something dragging on the darts. If so it's an easy fix. If the air pressure dropped, then you might have a blown O-ring or a cracked plunger. Those things are built with a certain pressure in mind, so they can crack. And if you have removed the AR without padding the inside of the plunger, the additional plunger velocity has been known to crack the casing, resulting in pressure loss. It's known for modded AR guns to shoot great for a bit, then crack the housing, killing the gun.
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Quick Response to this one -- I'll start a DA thread separately on my next session. I only have DA:O and ME2, so can only compare that. Bottom line -- different. Dialogue methodology is different (DAO actual response vs. ME2 attitude basis) but the big thing is no voice for the PC (I miss Jennifer Hale! Thank goodness DA2 is reputedly fully voiced). Exploration is more akin to ME2's Overlord DLC -- big areas for you to wander through on your own time. Combat's very different; more MMO style than the FPS style of ME2. Wonky zoom levels make it harder than necessary, and Allies AI is a bit terrible at the start (it gets better if you bother to work at it). Enemy AI however is fine.... It's a jump, not difficult but jarring. Biggest difference is that ME2 chops the story up into digestable chunks, each mission taking about an hour or two at best. You can set aside a bit of time each night and see progress. Get a bit of free time, jump in and kill some Collectors. DA:O's style is more flowing, not so discrete breaks; you can't exit or save during the cinematics (which may have dialogue options and which may be rather long), and you have to be in game world before you can save. Areas can be tough to clear especially at the start -- you can't expect to game an hour or two and clear an area. So, different. ME2 feels like an epic squeezed into a movie timeframe, DA:O feels (at the moment) like one of those epic Taiwan drama serials. With 500+ episode. And going strong.
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Argh. This.. this... THING. The new alternative appearance pack. Urgh. Miranda's armour looks ok, nice even.. 'cept for the visor. Grunt's look... ok, 'cept for the visor. Tali's look bland, 'cept for the visor. See a trend here? Urgh urgh. BTW been meaning to ask -- do you guys mind if I post DA:O commentary here? It'll help motivate me to play through. Prefer a ME2 gun to a Longbow, but I may as well grind through that...
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IIRC, R3L is a self-made system by the SGnerf guy. It's a very simply system, mostly plumbing parts. It's a good thing, and a logical extension of hobby, but... shrug. What did you do to kill it? The Mav is a straightforward system, and it's quite robust; it's probably a small thing that can be easily fixed. And if it can, that long revolver look might be worth it.
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Looks like a stock AR/ spring replacement exercise. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not really making the LongStrike stand out. The Long Strike has two major drawbacks -- standard Recon reverse plunger guts, and that barrel extension. If you are doing a AR/ spring replacement exercise, you're not really getting anything extra other than a Recon in a nicer body -- and a Recon is more compact, easier to swing about (but more difficult to cycle s Recon's action). If you do a AR/ spring replacement exercise, and still use that barrel extension, then... urgh. That barrel extension, I've tested; it actually slows the dart down, so it actually makes the gun less accurate. If you do nothing to that barrel, it's actually simply better not to use it. The good points about the LongStrike is its action and its ergonomics. The shotgun handle is really good to use, and the stock is solid; it flows nicely into position. Action is hesitant only at the front (for safety), so while you can't pump out like a slamfire design, you can get a decent ROF simply by getting a good rhythm. Do an AR/ spring, get a big mag, learn to use the gun, and you can lay down a pattern very well. I like one_klump's mod on the charging handle, it looks useful. Better if there's an extension backwards and you can grip it like a real bolt and pull/ push. If you are indoors with a high ceiling, you can actually use the gun as an impromptu mortar -- the grip and action is at the correct angles for that. Fairly accurate but streamline darts are very easily influenced by air movement.
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You do realise that the mod does... not much, right? It looks cool, but Nerf barrels don't heat up and you're pulling power from the battery to rotate the front assembly -- he did slave it to the ammo feed mechanism, but it's heavier now too. Looks like he ramped the voltage up too, given the RoF. Net gain, faster RoF, but probably faster battery drain, and probably slightly heavier. Cool.. but I think I would prefer to cut the Vulcan down so that it's easier to handle. Hmm, something to think about.
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So much for that. Started on my Hacker/ Brainwasher/ Drone-maker. Dominate is truly a game-breaker. with so many organic enemies. Even a level 1 Dominate can quickly turn a battle around. I guess that's why they made it such that you can't curve Dominate around corners -- that's really going to make things break. The build looks to be a bit difficult, as you need 2 ranks in Combat Drone, then 2 ranks in Cryo Blast, then you can start on the AI Hacking. Not really sure if it's doable, since that sucks up 6 points already.. 30 points into the 3 skills, plus 6 for the necessary, plus 10 for the Tech Mastery. That's 46, meaning you're pushing level 26~27 already. There goes my plans for a quick run, and looks to require at least 1 re-spec to get the points distributed right. Other than that, I'll be picking up the sniper skill, which means I'll need to do Thane's recruitment to get to good Viper... won't have the Widow, but in a lot of cases the Viper's good or better. Not really caring about Paragon or Renegade at this point. Still trying to figure out the Engineer's playstyle. Like an Adept, he's a support class, with the difference that he can start interfering further out (Drone homes to enemy even if they are not on scope, I notice). Otherwise, he needs to get into range for Overload and Dominate, but doesn't quite have the knockdown/ juggling powers of the Adept. I got this feeling Cryo Blast will become quite important since using Incinerate doesn't seem workable, and at max it can work as crowd control too. At the moment I'm still not quite effective with the Engineer. Was fun turning Vorcha Pyros and Heavies against their own and sending Blood Pack Krogans back against his old friends, but the workload is quite intensive and it's sometimes hard to remember the Engineer actually has an SMG. Working to max out the Tech Mastery first -- probably will tackle Dominate next (since a lot of organics around), then Drone/ Cryo.
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Ok, just did the rest of the game for my RenAdept. Actually had to do the Legion loyalty run twice -- I forgot about the Tali/ Legion tiff and didn't have enough Renegade points after I respec'ed back. That's annoying but at least it's geth... All loyal, first up is Tali in the vent, Arcangel as the subcom. No surprises there -- I used this before. Adept in the Storming is a bit tough, because I ran with a Bastion Adept to keep the Renegade points up. Not enough killing power, even taking Legion and Grunt and their one-hit wonder. So I couldn't always keep up with the vent rat, but nothing serious. Warp on Harbinger throws a surprisingly loud explosion though. As usual, sent Mordin back with the crew. Adept in Long Walk really came through. I took Jack as I previously never had her loyal; unfortunately, I think Samara's voice acting is better suited to the Long Walk. Jack works fine, btw. Just sounds.. off. As it is I took Legion and Grunt again and their one-shot weapons did a lot of the hard work. However, the Husk bottleneck was quickly cleared by Shockwaves; with the charging Husks/ Abominations cleared away, the two hitters concentrated on the Scions and took them down. Mr. Terminator isn't so different either. I took Arcangel and Legion. Legion for the Widow, Arcangel for a Viper. Could have taken Thane but prefered to listen to Arcangel. Left Grunt to boost the Line. Hitting the Collectors with Singularity before they settle it can result in them floating off into the void; I tried to do that as often as I can to ease workload. The final boss fight was a bit anti-climatic; Warp apparently is able to hit the relevant target zones and (i) had unlimited range, and (ii) there was no blocking terrain, and (iii) it homes. So it ended up hiding behind cover and popping off Warps every time he shows his ugly mug. Slow going and the Harbinger came to liven things up, but that's why I brought two long rifles... So, mission accomplished, all made it back. I got my Renegade run, excuse me if I don't ever want to do that again. Gotten Dominate, so my Hacker/ Brainwasher/ Drone-maker build can proceed.. but I'm going to park ME one side for a bit.
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Basically, any key decision where you have to choose a candidate, go with the loyal specialist. EDIT EDIT: Oh I forgot. EDIT: Furthermore, I have a theory:
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Good runs today. Did Jack's loyalty -- had to respec RenAdept to max out Renegade Points but managed to keep both their loyalties. Then did Samara's loyalty, and got Dominate -- finally! Also nice: 7/7 Assault Rifle damage. Wow. It's a bit harsh to have to respec, but there's no real way 75% increase is going to reach the necessary level. Even with 100% increase, it was scraping every renegade point you can find... Did the IFF mission too, with Arcangel and Thane. It was fun watching the husks go flying everywhere thanks to Improved Shockwave; there are times I didn't have time to lay down Wide Singularity, but against husks shockwave by itself was good enough. Not so against the Scions -- the pair-by-pair fights were tough, Scions aren't my favourite to go against. The end "boss" was comical. We just camped at the entrance, and with two snipers and shockwaves it was relatively simple to keep the husks away -- if there were Scions it would have been quite tough. I had to empty out my Assault Rifle mags (down to 2 or 3 rounds IIRC) since biotics can't hit the target. I'm actually left with a totally loyal team, stronger than any other playthrough as I routinely had problems with Zaeed and Jack. Being a badass apparently has benefits. Now left: Legion's Loyalty, Joker, Pipes, Walk and Mr. Terminator. Frankly, I think I just want to get this over with; The Engineer-AI Hack/ Dominate/ Drone build I'll probably do just before ME3, to get back into the game. I'm going to switch to Dragon Age for a bit after this run.
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Unlikely. ME1 appears to be MS-specific and Microsoft isn't likely to cooperate.
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Not a problem. Didn't you know? Shepard's subclassing. His/ Her main class is galatic strip-miner, sub-class is scavenger, sub-sub-class is whatever you chose for him/ her. I had disloyal Zayeed and Loyal Grunt. Grunt I usually leave for the hold-the-line; he's great there and reputedly swings the odds. That's why most kill-'em-all runs had him off'ed during the Long Walk.
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Since I'm doing a RenAdept run, and that class is a crowd control class, I'll need to bring major hitters into the endgame. I'll see what happens at that point -- I'm fairly sure I'll end up with unloyal Jack in this run through.
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On top of a 4ft long gun? Eh, I think you won't have much trouble avoiding it. Looked at the unboxing. Hmm. Don't think the Quick-16 is a "must have". Have to see if that loading mechanism is going to scoop dust into the fixed clip -- you can't clear or change it, so it's kind of bad there. And still not sure if the streamlines can go in.
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You don't need the team to be totally loyal to not get killed off. That's not to say Miranda can't get killed; there's plenty of runthroughs that deliberately goes all the way out to kill off everyone. She can die, just that her loyalty isn't the key factor.
