Into The New Year
Let's see... what entertainments to talk about of late?
I started back up Battletech (rather than looking at the recent, Epic-exclusive Mechwarrior 5) and loaded in a 3062-based mod which introduces a lot more complexity to the game by making more mech components available for damage/replacement as well as putting in many later technologies and a crapload of new mechs and variants. I did not foresee quite the impact that I got.
The strategic game radically slowed down for me. Getting enough components to get a new mech is much more difficult - part of that I think I had control over at the start of the career-mode play by selecting 5 rather than 3 to complete a mech, but also partly because the huge variety means getting enough of a specific mech (and not all mech variants are compatible in that way) requires luck. It's actually been kind of new to upgrade my starter mechs, so they have lasted longer, but I've run a lot of missions and only have one complete mech I didn't start with - an Axman that I have refitted with a larger engine, MASC, and melee-boosters. I miss the AC/20 a little bit having downgraded that, but running around one-shotting vehicles and cleaving parts off other mechs is rather entertaining.
Other effects of the mod include evasion not being degraded by being shot at - this makes faster mechs more survivable against any opposition. That (and possibly some hit-change modification) make the early game full of misses. It also makes sensor-locking more valuable. A number of single-use weapons feel a bit cheesy (because the disadvantage of them is near-pointless on enemy mechs that only ever go through one engagement), but keep me on my toes.
Different from the base game, still fun. More mileage out of a purchase.
Over the weekend, I watched the remainder of Stranger Things 2. I think I may like it a bit better than the first season. Eleven is critically important, but still takes a bit of a back seat for most of the season. The interplay between the other characters feels pretty good, if slightly exaggerated. The interpersonal dramas feel like they come from an understandable place, even if no one just talked through them before they become a big deal. I started to take offense at the use of the "mind flayer" to describe the big-bad of the season, but... actually the high-level overview comparison made a decent case for it.
I also caught Kill Switch on TV, which is not something I'd heard of and can sort of see why. It's a parallel-universe movie that has some very interesting ideas. The implementation isn't all that great, though.
Secret science company builds a device to access (or create? I was unclear on that) an alternate, lifeless universe from which to pull matter to convert to energy to power the prime/original Earth. Of course, that immediately raises the question in my mind of "how can you be sure it's lifeless?" Naturally, it isn't. When there are signs of problems and large vehicles (trains, planes, etc.) disappearing into vortezes, company sends the protagonist, an ex-astronaut adventurer who is the only person their device can send over (due to training or calibration maybe?) to the "Echo" with a device that's supposed to fix the machine there to stabilize the two worlds. He immediately finds it's not uninhabited as pitched and that the machine there had problems and a radical group attacked the company there, leading to an evacuated zone of martial law and little war ongoing between the company and the rebels/terrorists. In the echo, things are also appearing and disappearing into vortexes. Oops? He goes back and forth, of course, trying to figure out what's "right," and discovers along the way the device he has is intended to collapse the echo, destroying that universe to protect his original. So you get some moral questions of whether it's worth it, but there isn't a lot of bite to it because 1) the family members he cared for were killed in the echo and 2) we're literally watching the echo universe coming apart, making it hard to argue he shouldn't push the button when not doing so looks like it will destroy the echo anyway and possibly the prime universe.
As a plot, it's not terrible. But it leans way too heavily into a first-person gimmick. All the shots in the echo are in first-person, often with a little AR overlay from his headset. Flashbacks to the prime universe are shot normally, which is an interesting distinction on paper. It leads to way too many game-like scenes, though, where drones and bad guys approach in a shooting-gallery-like fashion and such. Flashing warnings of injuries are a bit cheesy. Honestly, the whole style left me wondering why this wasn't actually a video game instead of a movie. The premise is sound enough it could have made a pretty good FPS along the lines of Singularity.
The weekend was a bit of a wash for me on the RP (MUCK-turned-Discord) gaming front. I'm definitely turned off by the number of things going on and the fact that major events may pop up randomly. If you're not paying attention and online at the time? Well, good luck catching up. Not that catching up is impossible, but it is... daunting, at least.
Kit's sleep schedule, or lack thereof, doesn't help as he's the main GM and may pop on for an hour or less here and there, drop some important things, then go "nap" for a few hours. Yeah, medication can screw one up when it comes to sleeping at regular times, so I don't exactly blame him, but it still sucks.
Just as the train plot started off with most PCs getting their own NPC "hook" into the story, ongoing events don't seem to be very good at getting the players to play together. Rather there are things happening all over. Investigation here. Attack there. Sudden fire. From my perspective, it's difficult to stay on top of and any failure to do so makes it all look like a jumbled mess which is that much harder to get into.
In addition to the fascination with tons of things going on (reminds me of previous "our quest log is full" jokes), Kit seems prone to showering character with stuff: special items, random fate powers, sudden automata. That, too, get's overwhelming. My character already has an orichalcum weapon that doesn't fit her combat style, but is good against demons and a Rod of Rulership that can't be used for evil. I... guess that's great if she needs an instant ladder? Or another magic weapon that doesn't match her combat style. These things have their uses, but they don't really add to the character in a meaningful or interesting way.
On the other hand, when I'm actually into and caught up with a scene, it can feel pretty good. I like my character, even if she's not really connecting with the other PCs as much as may be ideal. The ongoing plots themselves don't seem bad at present.
So, like a manic-depressive, I seem to bounce back and forth between enjoying/looking forward to the game and being frustrated or considering if I should just stop bothering even trying to keep up.
Whee?
I started back up Battletech (rather than looking at the recent, Epic-exclusive Mechwarrior 5) and loaded in a 3062-based mod which introduces a lot more complexity to the game by making more mech components available for damage/replacement as well as putting in many later technologies and a crapload of new mechs and variants. I did not foresee quite the impact that I got.
The strategic game radically slowed down for me. Getting enough components to get a new mech is much more difficult - part of that I think I had control over at the start of the career-mode play by selecting 5 rather than 3 to complete a mech, but also partly because the huge variety means getting enough of a specific mech (and not all mech variants are compatible in that way) requires luck. It's actually been kind of new to upgrade my starter mechs, so they have lasted longer, but I've run a lot of missions and only have one complete mech I didn't start with - an Axman that I have refitted with a larger engine, MASC, and melee-boosters. I miss the AC/20 a little bit having downgraded that, but running around one-shotting vehicles and cleaving parts off other mechs is rather entertaining.
Other effects of the mod include evasion not being degraded by being shot at - this makes faster mechs more survivable against any opposition. That (and possibly some hit-change modification) make the early game full of misses. It also makes sensor-locking more valuable. A number of single-use weapons feel a bit cheesy (because the disadvantage of them is near-pointless on enemy mechs that only ever go through one engagement), but keep me on my toes.
Different from the base game, still fun. More mileage out of a purchase.
Over the weekend, I watched the remainder of Stranger Things 2. I think I may like it a bit better than the first season. Eleven is critically important, but still takes a bit of a back seat for most of the season. The interplay between the other characters feels pretty good, if slightly exaggerated. The interpersonal dramas feel like they come from an understandable place, even if no one just talked through them before they become a big deal. I started to take offense at the use of the "mind flayer" to describe the big-bad of the season, but... actually the high-level overview comparison made a decent case for it.
I also caught Kill Switch on TV, which is not something I'd heard of and can sort of see why. It's a parallel-universe movie that has some very interesting ideas. The implementation isn't all that great, though.
Secret science company builds a device to access (or create? I was unclear on that) an alternate, lifeless universe from which to pull matter to convert to energy to power the prime/original Earth. Of course, that immediately raises the question in my mind of "how can you be sure it's lifeless?" Naturally, it isn't. When there are signs of problems and large vehicles (trains, planes, etc.) disappearing into vortezes, company sends the protagonist, an ex-astronaut adventurer who is the only person their device can send over (due to training or calibration maybe?) to the "Echo" with a device that's supposed to fix the machine there to stabilize the two worlds. He immediately finds it's not uninhabited as pitched and that the machine there had problems and a radical group attacked the company there, leading to an evacuated zone of martial law and little war ongoing between the company and the rebels/terrorists. In the echo, things are also appearing and disappearing into vortexes. Oops? He goes back and forth, of course, trying to figure out what's "right," and discovers along the way the device he has is intended to collapse the echo, destroying that universe to protect his original. So you get some moral questions of whether it's worth it, but there isn't a lot of bite to it because 1) the family members he cared for were killed in the echo and 2) we're literally watching the echo universe coming apart, making it hard to argue he shouldn't push the button when not doing so looks like it will destroy the echo anyway and possibly the prime universe.
As a plot, it's not terrible. But it leans way too heavily into a first-person gimmick. All the shots in the echo are in first-person, often with a little AR overlay from his headset. Flashbacks to the prime universe are shot normally, which is an interesting distinction on paper. It leads to way too many game-like scenes, though, where drones and bad guys approach in a shooting-gallery-like fashion and such. Flashing warnings of injuries are a bit cheesy. Honestly, the whole style left me wondering why this wasn't actually a video game instead of a movie. The premise is sound enough it could have made a pretty good FPS along the lines of Singularity.
The weekend was a bit of a wash for me on the RP (MUCK-turned-Discord) gaming front. I'm definitely turned off by the number of things going on and the fact that major events may pop up randomly. If you're not paying attention and online at the time? Well, good luck catching up. Not that catching up is impossible, but it is... daunting, at least.
Kit's sleep schedule, or lack thereof, doesn't help as he's the main GM and may pop on for an hour or less here and there, drop some important things, then go "nap" for a few hours. Yeah, medication can screw one up when it comes to sleeping at regular times, so I don't exactly blame him, but it still sucks.
Just as the train plot started off with most PCs getting their own NPC "hook" into the story, ongoing events don't seem to be very good at getting the players to play together. Rather there are things happening all over. Investigation here. Attack there. Sudden fire. From my perspective, it's difficult to stay on top of and any failure to do so makes it all look like a jumbled mess which is that much harder to get into.
In addition to the fascination with tons of things going on (reminds me of previous "our quest log is full" jokes), Kit seems prone to showering character with stuff: special items, random fate powers, sudden automata. That, too, get's overwhelming. My character already has an orichalcum weapon that doesn't fit her combat style, but is good against demons and a Rod of Rulership that can't be used for evil. I... guess that's great if she needs an instant ladder? Or another magic weapon that doesn't match her combat style. These things have their uses, but they don't really add to the character in a meaningful or interesting way.
On the other hand, when I'm actually into and caught up with a scene, it can feel pretty good. I like my character, even if she's not really connecting with the other PCs as much as may be ideal. The ongoing plots themselves don't seem bad at present.
So, like a manic-depressive, I seem to bounce back and forth between enjoying/looking forward to the game and being frustrated or considering if I should just stop bothering even trying to keep up.
Whee?
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