ShotMagnet

The crosstalk on TS was what made it great..er.

What made me giggle most was how Map and I just sort of showed up out of nowhere, just as the enemy were parading past.

What was the crosstalk? The gist of it, anyway?

Shpt

Friends, Romans, countrymen; this is where the IGNORE function comes into its own.

I highly recommend using it with regard to a certain inane someone.

Shot

Say hi to the misses from all of us!

Shot

One from the distant past:

Mapman and I were doing a Paper Tiger scenario with the 29th AR. Map and I got lost, which happens a lot when you don't use the map the game provides and restrict yourself to the map you make before the mission starts.

Map and I got lost, therefore. At one point we lost each other and I popped smoke so that he could find me. Rule #1 for being lost. Come to a stop, let the other guy find you, and making ridiculously obvious where you are. Map found me.

We decided that we were very much west of where we should have been. We therefore turned east, and our two tanks plowed into the west flank of the enemy attack.

Hilarity ensued, and according to eyewitnesses yours truly earned his handle by absorbing (according to eyewitnesses) 47 hits from enemy vehicles.

Shot

#1 or #3 look interesting, and aren't particularly unit-intensive.

On the other hand, I'm a Situation whore. You pick it, I'll play it.

Shot

Ah, copy.

Okay, we'll meet Saturday and I'll talk us through setting up a Situation. BTW, dig the coolio retro PB Situation cards, apparently scanned from the originals.

Shot

I got the PB/PL module installed on my machine, per the e-mail I sent. It's pretty simple. If you're going to be on TS later I can talk you through.

You can likely figure it out for yourself, at that. As for using the module, it works just like the VASL module.

Shot

Let's hear it, all about those moments bizarre/whacky/otherwise amusing that you have experienced playing SB.

SBG entries are welcome; I have a couple of amusing anecdotes from 'the good ol' days'.

Have at.

Shot

I have some minimal experience with VASSAL, and a goo-gob lot of experience with the games mentioned.

Throw me an e-mail, between the two of us I bet we can figure it out. I believe you know the address.

Shot

"LEEEROYY JEEENKINS!!!!!!!"

How do you live with yourself?

Shot

Some basic rules of thumb:

The more infantry, the more trouble

The more buildings, the more trouble

The more helicopters, the more trouble

Some of it has to do with animation, and the fact that said animation has to be passed between eight or more computers (which might themselves have certain limitations).

Some of it has to do with host data-processing capacities (regarding LOS computations, animation, etc). And the fact that your mission might be talking to eight or more computers.

Some of it has to do with ping. The more-distant the player, the higher the ping.

Think of it as holding a conversation, between people of maybe-dissimilar languages, which has to be held to the speed of the slowest speaker.

Refer again to the rules of thumb.

Shot

I did something similar for a TGIF mission.

Instead of using troops, tell a gaggle of trucks/PCs/whatever, to go to a particular waypoint. Tell them to loiter there for whatever frame of time you deem reasonable. Tell them then to go to where they came from (or somewhere else, if you like).

As no troops are in fact used, you don't need to wait for them to load onto vehicles they would have no interest loading onto at any rate. Instead, tie success or failure to the number of trucks/PCs/whatever which make it to a certain zone.

If applicable, Spawn if... troops to that zone, or deploy the troops of the relevant units there.

I can provide a scenario example, if need be. PM or email me and I'll provide.

Shot

Merely an application of Internet Law #2, to whit:

If a thread can be hijacked, it will be hijacked.

Shot

As am I. Rather than dwell on the mystery however, and perhap colonify myself, I carry on with my head in a non-colon-viewing position (as best as I am able, anyway) and try to ignore they who have a ringside seat to their own GI tract.

Shot

Why do you wonder that, Vaq?

Shot

Hack, for most of us it's 'wazoo'. Maybe yours makes a buzzing noise when it does its business...

No, I don't really want to know.

Shot

Second, although I come a little higher-priced as I insist on being paid in almonds.

Its like an Armor mueseum here. Ive seen Cheiftains, Marders, M113's EE-9 Cascavels, of course loads of BRDM's BMP's, and MTLB's. I have even found an M-8 Greyhound and a 1938 Vickers tankette.

I hope you're taking/have taken lots and lots of photographs for we of the armor-modeling ilk.

Shot

Best. Post. Ever. Adding a certain someone to my list as of right now.

Shot

Interesting article. They even seem to have some supporting evidence.

Shot

Yes, here is a screen shot of that:

That is one bizarre looking pube.

Shot

Don't forget the cost comparison.

How much did that Frankensteinian hard-drive cost, compared to the chip next to it?

Shot

The kind of book that you want to write will dictate to some extent size and location of impact. Is the emphasis on before, or after the impact - if before, location and size hardly matter, if afterwards you're free to pick the location in order to suit your needs as far as climate change etc. are concerned. Is it about to cover a wide time span (multiple generations) or just an episode in a number of protagoinists' lives? Do you want a realistic protrayal of a large impact event, or some outlandish events that catapult other planets off their current orbits to influence the earth orbit, so the short term consequences are extremely minor but it would still mean the end of the world as the resonance with, say, regular Mars encounters will change Earth orbit to be more elliptical or something. Just keep in mind that impacts that can throw planets off their orbits are will invariably pulverize the plantes just as well. Earth collided with a Mars sized object billions of years ago, now there's the Moon as the result.

If you can answer all these questions it will sufficiently narrow down your choices to a more manageable number.

The impact will govern the story, natch; but rest assured that it will rather-narrowly focus itself in terms of story. No colliding planets, no outlandishness (at least none that my incomplete engineering-education can detect and deter). Less LH, more personalized history. At the moment, anyway. I got the idea looking at the Moon the other night, it's half-baked at best, at the moment.

Although unlikely, Antarctica makes an interesting impact point.

If you felt the need to add me to this book I could happily see my self in a Nero-esque roll, playing a jig on my fiddle while the world burns.

Shot

What the question asks, how long have you been 'playing with the Beast'? In years.

If you've been here playing less than one, say 'less than one'.

Informal sorta-kinda straw-poll to get a sense of how many grogs are out there.

For myself; I got the game in '02 and have been playing it more or less consistently since.

Shot

As some of you know, I'm a science-fiction writer.

Last night at work (when I do all the thinking for my stories) I got the notion to do a story centered around the aftermath of an asteroid strike on Earth. Sounded like fun, so I got to selecting targets. That's where I ran into trouble. I couldn't pick one. Not just one; there were too many interesting choices.

That's where you all come in. Pick a target. Any target. Pick more than one if you like. Pick a target not on Earth, which will somehow still affect Earth.

The most popular pick(s) make(s) it into the story. The indvidual(s) who pick the winner(s) become characters in the story. If they wish.

Have at.

Shot

11. You are surprised to learn that soccer fields can be used for purposes other than executing unchaste woman and other hardened criminals.

Shot