Security_Tubbs

I used what fuel I had left to bring ITSA-Rendezvous 1 as close to an equatorial orbit as possible, but got only to about a 30 degree inclination. So, I launched a refuelling ship. The design turned out to be really bad, but it got the job done. Docked! I think I'm getting pretty good at this, because this was a really quick docking despite not having played KSP in a while. I took Bill and Wehrdun Kerman with me back to the surface, leaving Orrie Kerman in orbit. The "Mission accomplished, time to deorbit"- moment is fantastic, no matter how many times I've experienced it. So here the asteroid, with Rendezvous 1 holding on to it, is in a circular and equatorial orbit. The fuel I managed to bring to the ship was enough to pull it off in one go and there's even a little to spare. Next objective, bring it to the surface intact! I don't yet know how tightly the claw can hold on to things, so it might require some trickery and contraptions to pull off.

Got all the way to the Last Stand on my first playthrough of AE with the new ship. Then the Flagship just hacked my weapons and I practically couldn't use them at all. So back to the teleporters again.

KSP: ARM update has been released. That's Asteroid Redirect Mission and it was made in collaboration with NASA, hot beans. Full changelog here. So as you might expect from the name, asteroids are the new big thing. The asteroids themselves are procedurally generated, ranging from small pieces of rock few meters across to gigantic thousand ton beasts. They appear near Kerbin in random orbits. Some might be just passing by in an escape trajectory, but some might also be orbiting Kerbin. You will lose the signal (asteroid despawns) after a while unless you choose to track them in the Tracking Station. There are also new rocket parts. Of course there's the addition of even bigger fuel tanks and engines, but the important addition regarding ARM is the "Advanced Grabbing Unit". It's a claw that can grab onto any object, not just asteroids. Here's a brief story. The second object I discovered was a small (Class A) asteroid in a heavily inclined and eccentric orbit around Kerbin. I started tracking it and promptly renamed it Ast. 55-WHYAREMO. With the help of the new big rocket parts and equipped with the Claw, ITSA-Rendezvous 1 set out on it's journey to intercept 55-WHYAREMO. The penis-and-balls resemblance of the craft was purely coincidental. With the periapses of the orbits very close to each other, it was only a matter of accelerating until the intercept came close enough. The perspective can be a bit difficult, but it really isn't a big rock. Deploy the Claw! Gotcha! Orrie Kerman is terrified for some reason. I rode with the asteroid up to the apoapsis, where with the smallest amount of delta-v I could bring the orbit to pass through the atmosphere. The plan wasn't to have an impact, but to bring 55-WHYAREMO to a closer and less eccentric orbit. Here we go! This is the last screenshot I have at this point. It was getting really late and I chose to resume the project later. But I did only pass through the atmosphere back into space (a couple of times), which slowed me down enough to be in a high, but less eccentric orbit.

Today was a good day for (more or less) Spelunky related things for me. First, I beat the 2048 Spelunky edition and just now I got the Speedlunky achievement. 5:43 was the final time and the only item I got (besides extra bombs) was the spike shoes. I did terribly in the Daily, though.

I beat the damn game. I finally did it. Now I can forget it forever.

There has been two updates since the last post in this thread. added tazers, longer/more advanced production chain for lumber and most importantly education and reform programs. Now your prisoners need to be educated in hygiene and workshop safety before they can work in the kitchen or operate heavy machinery. Your prisoners also volunteer for these training programs, so getting a fully populated maximum size workshop is no longer just a matter of building it and clicking 20 times to deploy workers. There's behavioural therapy that can apparently make a prisoner less violent, but it takes much longer than the simple safety and hygiene programs, and is less likely to produce positive results. Then there are foundation and general education programs that don't yet have any gameplay benefits, but I still like to run them. While your prisoners are taking part in education, three factors effect their chance of passing. First, they of course need to attend the classes. Second, is understanding, which depends on the prisoner in question. Finally is the prisoner's concentration. The better a prisoner's needs are met, the better their concentration will be, and the better the education will take. Prisoners in poor conditions or being constantly suppressed are not very likely to pass their classes. The most recent update, Alpha 19, makes lots of changes and additions to the financial system of the game. For all the minutia, I'd recommend you watch the video below. My favourite addition from the gameplay perspective are the new grants. I just tried doing the Inmate Nutrition Research, where you have to give your prisoners one poor meal and three good meals for two day periods. The former resulted in the biggest riot I've ever had. 18 deaths, almost every prisoner in the entire prison at least mildly wounded and it took three squads of riot police to bring the situation under control. The best part is, I apparently did something wrong, because the objective didn't register as completed after two days. So I'll have to try it again, I'll be sure to research tazers before that.

16560 is my current high score. I had an Olmec, an Anubis and a mummy, but I ran out of room as the board started filling up with cavemen and tiki men. It felt so close... I think I found the "correct" way to beat this game, but it's not 100% (or even 2%) foolproof.

I kind of liked it. Since you're working as a mercenary, it makes more sense you'd be buying and selling things than it would've in the original. But still, apart from the beginning of the game, I constantly had so much money it was never an issue. You need $100k for a thing to unlock the final mission. I had over $150k left after I'd bought some top-tier equipment for my crew. Another thing regarding loot I liked about Sentinels that wasn't present in the original, was the Loot Screen. After you've completed your mission and chosen to leave the area, you're presented with a screen displaying all the loot you've seen during the mission. That makes the inventory tetris part rather quick. If you're a person who is not going to fill every last square of your inventory with the most valuable items, the loot screen makes it quick and easy to grab just the most valuable guns. Considering my massive wealth during the game, I think it would be completely sufficient to get you through the game.

Like I said, I started playing Silent Storm: Sentinels and I just now completed it. I was pretty much more of the same, which is a good thing, but there were also some changes. Better than the original, since panzerkleins got totally nerfed First, in this one you work for a paramilitary organization, Sentinels, who are cleaning up after the events of the first game. Working as a mercenary, you now get paid for completing missions, and you can buy and sell weapons and equipment instead of them just being available for you. It's a good thing if you like gathering and selling loot, and playing inventory tetris. Lack of money never really became an issue, except maybe in the very beginning of the game, since you could just grab the best weapons off dead enemies. There was also a weapon durability system, but that literally never had any effect on my game, and I even forgot about it for the last half of the game. Speaking of halves of games, this one was notably shorter. The mission structure was also different. In the original, you unlocked more missions by picking up clues and completing other missions, and you were free to skip an early mission for the majority of the game, and return to it any time later. In Sentinels, your commander offers you a set of (usuall 4) missions, and you pick which one you want to do. After completing a certain number of missions from the set, the game pushes you forward. I wouldn't say it's better nor worse, just a bit different. The greatest improvement, no question, is that panzerkleins (PKs) are no longer suits of invulnerability. You would still be totally screwed going face-to-face with one unarmored and at close range, unless you're carrying anti-tank weaponry and you get the first shot. Unlike the original, a direct hit from a bazooka with an armor piercing rocket would seriously damage or even destroy a PK. Shots from pistols, SMGs and weak rifles still bounce off without doing damage, but high powered sniper rifles could penetrate the armor and wound the pilot inside. I did the last few missions completely without PKs and managed just fine with some maneuvering and good use of M20 Bazookas with AP rockets. The only big complaint I have is one specific mission that you have to do. It is practically impossible to beat unless you know exactly what you're doing and you've planned for it for the entire game up to that point. Basically you get 3 turns to do what would take easily over 10... even if there were no enemies around. After it became apparent there was no way of beating that level, I almost made a post to the Quitter's Club thread. But instead, I cheated. And I didn't feel even a little bit ashamed. There were some tough missions, but this was something completely off the difficulty scale. I don't want to end on a bad note, so I'll just restate it: This game is really good

Speaking of goals, I just got the Low Scorer achievement. And it got me thinking that it's pretty weird that there's no "Beat the game without taking damage"-achievement.

I just finished Silent Storm, which I bought on a Steam sale some time back. It's a World War 2 turn based squad tactics game. I'm a little bit torn on some aspects of it, but overall I was left with a very positive feeling, and I would recommend it The most noteworthy aspect of the game is the physics simulation and environmental destruction. Virtually every structure in the game (so not only doors, but walls, floors, ceilings, fences and various objects) are destructible. Enemies got the entrances to a building well protected? Just get out some explosives and make your own entrance anywhere you please. In one mission I was to eliminate some bad guys holed up in some houses. Only one side of the building had a door and windows, and the street in front of it was populated with bad guys. So, I had my soldier blow a hole on the back wall of the building with his panzerfaust. As it happened, the ad hoc entrance led to the very room where the leader of the bunch was waiting, so I took him out the very same turn. Also the projectiles (bullets, grenades, RPGs...) are simulated flying from your gun to your target. Which means that a shot heading for it's target can hit things between you and the target, as well as things behind it if the bullet penetrates. On one occastion, my sniper shot at an enemy standing in a doorway. The shot hit, but the bullet kept on travelling into the factory space behind him. It hit some Red Barrels™, which proceeded to blow a gaping hole in the factory floor. Also bullets hitting hard surfaces at low angles have a chance of ricocheting, which have led to similar events as the previously described one. All in all, it's fun to plan out and execute your turn, counting Action Points (there's action points, not some lazy shitty "one move and one action" bullshit) and maximizing your to-hit-chance before taking the shots. There's also 4 different stances (prone, crouch, walk, run) and some sound, vision and cover based stealth mechanics. Now the bad sides. First one is a slight spoiler if you know nothing about the game, and also my major complaint. It's the armored suits called "Panzerkleins" (PK). They effectively break the balance of the game, as (with a few notable exceptions) the only thing that can hurt a PK is another PK. They are literally impervious to bullets from any regular gun, and even some PK machine guns. Even anti-tank RPG weapons often fail to damage the suit, and even when they do, the damage is negliglible. The only reliable hand-held weapon that can damage a PK is some scifi beam gun. The game definitely went downhill from the moment PKs were introduced. The other, certainly lesser complaint is that the enemy turns seem to take absolutely forever. Especially when there are a lot of enemies around. It can be excused, since the game is quite strong otherwise, but it can easily get on your nerves if you're not prepared for a slow paced experience. I bought the game in a pack that included the sequel Silent Storm: Sentinels. Gonna play that next.

They're always in those invisible boxes. Yama bit the dust again today. I've beaten him a total of 7 times now, but still there is at least one area of the game I have never seen. Maybe I'll start working towards that in the future Dailies. And in general always go through the other special levels instead of taking the direct route.

Man, I lost the scepter the exact same way.

I remember hearing something about the Daily Challenge seed creation algorithm thingamajigger changing in the Pro HUD update? I might also just be pulling shit out of my ass here, as I cannot cite any sources, and I'm too lazy to go digging around right now. ps. I beat Yama once again in the Daily today, huzzah. Seems that the red turban man is my lucky character. The teal milk-/postman guy is the exact opposite, damn him.

The stones are magic. Praise the stones.

Third day in a row that I failed to reach Hell, but still managed to beat Olmec. While I might argue that the previous two attempts were foiled because of some unfair and weird bullshit, today was completely a miscalculation and a terrible mistake on my part. I was hanging over some spikes, waiting for a blue frog to jump over me. Instead of jumping clean over me, it actuall hit me, dropped me into the spikes and bye-bye goes the Ankh. What made today special was that I went through both the Worm and the Mothership. It was the second time ever that I went to the former and the third time I managed to get the plasma gun from the latter. It was also the first time I actually made it through the worm, as well as manage to not kill myself with the plasma gun. I must say that fragging Anubis with it felt really really good.

I voted for the Logitech, because I've had good experiences with Logitech mice. Currently I have a MX518, which looks vaguely similar to the G500s' shape and design.

Also, you should try The Dark Mod, which is a free standalone game (despite the name) that recreates the atmosphere of the original Thief games in the Doom 3 engine. There was also a thread here about it, with a few map recommendations from my limited experience (my ancient computer can't handle the more detailed levels).

I don't understand what the hell happened in the Temple today. I was once again well on my way to Hell (Hedjet, tons of bombs, jetpack and the kapala). I bombed Anubis, like you do, but he didn't drop the sceptre. I fought him at the bottom of the level, in a rather enclosed area, so it couldn't have flown very far. I conducted a thorough search, but found nothing. This was the second day in a row that my promising Hell-runs have met somewhat unfair endings. Yesterday that instant boomerang man, which cost me the Ankh, and today this. Well, at least I beat Olmec both times, and used my bombs to mine out the gems in the last level for some relatively good scores.

I call bs on one of today's jungle levels, the one after the black market. Didn't have to carry that Ankh around for long... Yesterday I had probably the most unexpected death in a while. I reached Hell, had over 20 HP, over a dozen bombs, jetpack and the freeze gun. I even got that lava amulet thing for the first time. Really no reason why I shouldn't at least reach Yama. I was in 5-3, freezing and stomping vampires as usual. Then, one switched to humanoid mode unexpectedly. I missed with my freeze gun, and a little jump-stomp dance began. At the end of the short, but frantic combat, I managed to stomp on his head. However, that launched me into the air with unexpectedly high velocity (like how sometimes happens with spiders and frogs). I was still in full combat mode, and before I had realized it, I had flown over a spike platform well above me, and impaled myself on the edge of the spikes. I had to spend a few moments gathering my thoughts after that.

You didn't have any laborers (at least in that screenshot). I think the fish needs to be carried to the storage barn before it "becomes food". As for the efficiency of fishing, one fishing dock worked by 3 people produced over 1000 units of food per season for me, which is nice.

I've been playing super cautiously. Save for a few fishermen drowning, and just recently a hunter was trampled by a boar, there haven't been any other premature deaths. The game is very atmospheric and as fun as I hoped. Behold, the cozy Thumbwood, population 38:

Tomorrow is the big day, Banished will be released. It's going to be available on Steam in "approximately 21 hours", and I think I'll be picking it up right away. A day one perch, you might call it.

Taking a break for a few days did wonders for me. As my knowledge of the game increases, I start overthinking situations and coming up with much more daring and difficult solutions than what I can actually pull off. A few days off makes me more cautious and clear my thoughts again.

Despite the FPS problems I'm having since the new patch, I did manage to beat Yama in today's daily. It was the third time total, and the second time I did it in a daily. Also, thanks to the rubies in the last level, plus the bonus for beating the game, I managed to get the 500k gold achievement. Huzzah!