Re: [Official!] Project Horizons Comment Crew Chat thread.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Apparently, in the has-been Garena region, being an LGBT woman makes you a better League of Legends player. So much better that teams in the new woman's league are only allowed one. And not one of each, either. It's not clear whether fielding a homosexual transgender woman counts as double-dipping.

Might I enquire as to the exact nature of this bovine dropping?

[Guest]

@swicked
From what I gather, the Garena women's league is a new thing, anyway, and the professional League of Legends scene is pretty much all dudes, so there probably weren't lesbians competing. However, all of what I know about Garena is hearsay, so I'm not actually sure.

[Guest]

@swicked
Not officially, AFAIK, but if there were female players in the Garena pro scene, I never heard about 'em (not that I heard much of anything about them). There aren't any here in NA, either, not in the official teams, anyway (the semi-pro level probably has some). The women's league was meant to promote high level female players/teams, I think.

[Guest]

The women's league was meant to promote high level female players/teams, I think.

Ah, I was going to ask why you would need a woman's league in an E-sport. That makes sense. I remember a couple weeks ago while going through TB's twitter I saw some Starcraft player getting kicked out of a tournament for something he said to a female opponent. Or something like that.

[Guest]

Hey, you know how folks were playing Republic Commando with such fondness just now? Well, guess what the new Humble Bundle is. Star Wars stuff. You guessed right, well done. Have to pay more than ten bucks or so to get Republic Commando right now, but still, that's a pretty decent price IMO if it's as good as everyone's saying. Throw in Battlefront II, and those're some pretty fun times. Assuming you can get it working, as it's always been kind of a bastard in my experience. Anyway, guess you guys are force-sensitive or something?

[Stringtheory]

Hey, you know how folks were playing Republic Commando with such fondness just now? Well, guess what the new Humble Bundle is. Star Wars stuff. You guessed right, well done. Have to pay more than ten bucks or so to get Republic Commando right now, but still, that's a pretty decent price IMO if it's as good as everyone's saying. Throw in Battlefront II, and those're some pretty fun times. Assuming you can get it working, as it's always been kind of a bastard in my experience. Anyway, guess you guys are force-sensitive or something?

Huh, the GOG release worked perfectly right out of the installer for me, the only technical annoyance I had was a lake of a 1920x1080 resolution option. Now I'm sort of kicking myself for not waiting and thus being able to pick up more star wars games for the same price of $10.

[Guest]

@String
For some reason, Battlefront II has always hit my computers up with BSODs periodically. /shrug Haven't tried it on a Windows 7 machine yet, that might reduce the severity of crashes. Never really tried it on a particularly powerful setup, either, but it always ran well until it crapped out.

[Frost]

Thinking about Stormtroopers reminds me--the fuck was up with those blasters? No slings, no stocks, hell; there was something on top that might have been some sort of sight--is anyone fucking surprised they couldn't hit shit, between those and the vision-obstructing helmets? I bet that shit was all "trooper-feedback", too--as in they asked some boot-ass fresh-from-the-cloning-tanks Fuzzies and their West Point-ass Butterbar what features they wanted on their gear, and then combined that with the uniform and equipment suggestions from the Legion's Sergeant Major that hasn't left his office in five years. Still, though, they have it better than whatever poor fuckers have to PMCS a hundred-foot-tall legged APC

[O. Hinds]

Thinking about Stormtroopers reminds me--the fuck was up with those blasters? No slings, no stocks, hell; there was something on top that might have been some sort of sight--is anyone fucking surprised they couldn't hit shit, between those and the vision-obstructing helmets? I bet that shit was all "trooper-feedback", too--as in they asked some boot-ass fresh-from-the-cloning-tanks Fuzzies and their West Point-ass Butterbar what features they wanted on their gear, and then combined that with the uniform and equipment suggestions from the Legion's Sergeant Major that hasn't left his office in five years. Still, though, they have it better than whatever poor fuckers have to PMCS a hundred-foot-tall legged APC

Still better than the common phaser, though.

[Frost]

A lot of people have brought up the Republic's issue of having the clones be more-or-less a slave army, but that's not what stuck out to me about them. 

They were altered to be more "docile." Less risk-taking, more willing to go with the flow--let me tell you; if there's anything you don't need to help a soldier with, it's not giving a shit. That comes naturally.

[Guest]

The assault rifle from Halo also lacks any sights, but they get around the issue with this and the HUD. Does a form of HUD exist in Starwars? I know the Predator had one. It seems like a common sci-fi thing.

[Frost]

I was under the impression, for whatever reason, that the MA5 series rifles from Halo had the feature of that "ammo counter" being a screen that provided display from a small camera near-totally lined up with the barrel (whatever sensor/camera allowed it to link with the HUD, basically)--which would conveniently also allow variable zooming and integrated thermal/IR sighting (if applicable) considering it's along the line of where a sight would be on an assault rifle and the ammo display itself is way too big for even the most nearsighted of soldiers to actually need.

Regarding phasers, that page you linked to, Hinds, had some good points, though I had a nitpick or two--for instance, when discussing the phaser "handgun", much ado was made about the lack of sights and how this made it utterly useless. I'm not disagreeing that this renders the weapon useless as an actual combat sidearm, but that doesn't seem to be its purpose--it seems to be a last-resort self-defence weapon for point-blank range. Such weapons in real life often have only the most nominal of sights to facilitate faster drawing; as "aiming" at those ranges is constituted of what's called "reflexive fire", where one points (either with the weapon at the hip or, if possible, at shoulder-level with the arm extended) the weapon instinctively and fires rapidly until the target's down. If the Phaser "pistol's" purpose was such, then its (still terrible) design makes a bit more sense in that respect. The author also mentioned that a long gun is utterly useless with only one hand to fire it--this is also false, as we're trained to, if necessary, be able to fire our rifles (7-8 pounds loaded and over thirty-three inches long, larger and heavier than any "phaser SMG" could ever realistically be.) one-handed (the other being occupied with, say, carrying a wounded soldier or securing equipment or whatever while maintaining security.

That's not to say those weapons aren't trash, to be sure--those are just nitpicks I had

[Tytan]

@Clones.

Then you might like the RC's and ARC's more Frost.

The RC's are highly trained badasses, and while each member of the squad has a specialty they are each trained to be proficient in the event one of them is injured.

The ARC's are basically straight up Jango Fett. Altered to be slightly more obedient one man armies.

My favorites however are the NULL ARC's. They were altered to be BETTER than Jango, and Boba can suck their dicks. They owe their allegiance to one man and that's only because that man protected them when they were children that were afraid to get back to the live fire exercises with live explosions. Death in kama.

[Frost]

I've heard the ARC's mentioned extensively and heard several mentions of the RC's--I just bought the game on Steam, matter of fact. I'll give my thoughts on the matter once it downloads and I've played a few missions.

[O. Hinds]

Regarding phasers, that page you linked to, Hinds, had some good points, though I had a nitpick or two--for instance, when discussing the phaser "handgun", much ado was made about the lack of sights and how this made it utterly useless. I'm not disagreeing that this renders the weapon useless as an actual combat sidearm, but that doesn't seem to be its purpose--it seems to be a last-resort self-defence weapon for point-blank range. Such weapons in real life often have only the most nominal of sights to facilitate faster drawing; as "aiming" at those ranges is constituted of what's called "reflexive fire", where one points (either with the weapon at the hip or, if possible, at shoulder-level with the arm extended) the weapon instinctively and fires rapidly until the target's down. If the Phaser "pistol's" purpose was such, then its (still terrible) design makes a bit more sense in that respect. The author also mentioned that a long gun is utterly useless with only one hand to fire it--this is also false, as we're trained to, if necessary, be able to fire our rifles (7-8 pounds loaded and over thirty-three inches long, larger and heavier than any "phaser SMG" could ever realistically be.) one-handed (the other being occupied with, say, carrying a wounded soldier or securing equipment or whatever while maintaining security.

That's not to say those weapons aren't trash, to be sure--those are just nitpicks I had

Interesting; thanks for the informed perspective.
I do have a nitpick with your first nitpick, though: designing sightless last-resort self-defense weapons may be fine, but making those the primary armament of your security personnel and the away teams sent down to explore unknown planets...

[Frost]

Yeah, it's still a terrible decision for anything but a holdout for your officers, but Starfleet sends newbies with no protective equipment or cursory field training out on away teams to unknown planets as a matter of course, so not giving them better armament seems like part-and-parcel of that (I mentioned a while back that there was no reason they shouldn't have personal shields or armor if they're going to a primitive, hostile, or unknown planet rather than wearing their shitty onesies, not to mention protection against alien disease, toxic atmosphere, or the like--they aren't even wearing gloves, let alone basic body armor. They don't have any goddamn pockets, let alone shielding or protection for their sensitive mission-essential gear)

[Frost]

Also, I've just found out that, In response to ISIS backing out of a hostage exchange (and proceeding to burn their hostage alive), The Jordanian government will spend their coming morning executing every single ISIS prisoner they have

[Scienza]

Thinking about Stormtroopers reminds me--the fuck was up with those blasters? No slings, no stocks, hell; there was something on top that might have been some sort of sight--is anyone fucking surprised they couldn't hit shit, between those and the vision-obstructing helmets? I bet that shit was all "trooper-feedback", too--as in they asked some boot-ass fresh-from-the-cloning-tanks Fuzzies and their West Point-ass Butterbar what features they wanted on their gear, and then combined that with the uniform and equipment suggestions from the Legion's Sergeant Major that hasn't left his office in five years. Still, though, they have it better than whatever poor fuckers have to PMCS a hundred-foot-tall legged APC

The E-11 does have a stock, it's just that it's the under-folding one from the Sterling SMG that the blaster is built from.

Also, for some reason, they never seem to deploy it in the films. EU Stormtroopers were like eighty-percent more competent than film Stormtroopers.

[RoboRed]

*pffft*:

[Guest]

@Star Trek
Show was never designed for military conflicts, realism, or action, and it fails when it tries to do those things for that reason. (With the possible exception of DS9, I guess) It was a philosophy-based show, and people who treat it like hard sci-fi are really kind of fooling themselves. Even Star Wars is not hard sci-fi, really, and not just because of the space wizards.

@Jordan
Hard to fault them for that response. Probably not going to do anything productive - the threat of death does not seem to be much of a deterrent for ISIS people, nor do they probably give a damn about their captured members. And it's not like those prisoners weren't already on the fast-track to martyrtown if they didn't get traded. I guess you could argue that they're getting rid of any incentive for ISIS to capture more of their people, but they'll probably get more prisoners sooner or later, and it's not like ISIS only targets nations that're holding its people, anyway. Seems like a political move on the part of Jordan. They have to be seen as doing something in response or they look ineffectual, and they're already facing criticism from their citizens who don't see why Jordan has to be fighting in the first place.

@Argentina
Anyone been following the mess that's going down over there? It's like a Robert Ludlum novel or something. Even if the guy did kill himself, nobody's going to believe it at this point.

@Superbowl
Hey, yeah, we won that! I watched for a little bit, saw the Patriots make several embarrassing plays, went to watch something else. At some point, I guess Katy Perry danced with some landsharks, and then the Seahawks made some even worse plays and we won. And then even more snow hit New England.

[Tytan]

And then even more snow hit New England.

FIMBULWINTER.

RAGNAROK IS UPON US.

SOUND THE GJALLERHORN.

[Scienza]

That was incredibly true...

Also, Haruhi Suzimiya has been added to my "Animu to Watch" list.

[Stringtheory]

This showed up in my recommended vids on youtube. Naturally, it reminded me of Scienza:

Wow, that video is very well done, too bad the music is ear-grater levels of obnoxious techno, the vocals however aren't bad. I also have to watch Haruhi Suzumiya now.

[Frost]

@Cobalt:

True as that may be about Star Trek, shows don't get a free pass from sucking at things because they don't give a shit about those things. Suck is still suck.

Regarding ISIS, some people have been whining about this being a step in escalating the conflict--I hope to fucking God it is. 'Bout time we stopped trying to reason with a pack of animals and it's about time and the strongest militaries in the world stopped scrambling around in panic of the gaggle of fucking primitives running amuck through an allied nation.

[Guest]

@Haruhi Suzumiya
Back in high school, one friend brought the collected DVDs of that whole show (at least as far as it had been made back then) and we marathoned it through the night. I watched it through a haze of half-wakefulness, faded out completely while they were playing baseball, I think, and woke up to it playing some sort of murder mystery plot. It's all a bit of a blur, but I remember it being pretty fun, for something I remember almost nothing about.

[Guest]

I was under the impression, for whatever reason, that the MA5 series rifles from Halo had the feature of that "ammo counter" being a screen that provided display from a small camera near-totally lined up with the barrel (whatever sensor/camera allowed it to link with the HUD, basically)--which would conveniently also allow variable zooming and integrated thermal/IR sighting (if applicable) considering it's along the line of where a sight would be on an assault rifle and the ammo display itself is way too big for even the most nearsighted of soldiers to actually need.

Looked this up. Turns out the MA5B at least does have iron sights. Though they are concealed and only used by "personnel with improper equipment to upload a reticule to either a HUD or neural interface" if the wiki is to be believed. The MA5K however may have what you're talking about. I didn't look it up.

[Frost]

On a quasi-related topic, I got around to playing the first few missions of Republic Commando.

Goddamn, that 10-year-old game is more fun than most FPS's that've come out recently, especially with the squad mechanics--and the fireteam members are, thus far, unique and likeable rather than utterly flat non-entities like most games' squad members.

[Frost]

Further unrelated news: King Abdullah II of Jordan (same guy that just had a bunch of goatfuckers' heads chopped off) is also a retired Major General in Jordan's Special Forces and, apparently, a pilot--judging by the fact that photos have surfaced of him geared up to fly sorties against ISIS positions.

I ain't much of a monarchist, but...goddamn, son. Somebody wasn't jokin' around when they said "Defender of the realm"

[Stringtheory]

On a quasi-related topic, I got around to playing the first few missions of Republic Commando.

Goddamn, that 10-year-old game is more fun than most FPS's that've come out recently, especially with the squad mechanics--and the fireteam members are, thus far, unique and likeable rather than utterly flat non-entities like most games' squad members.

I found that the space you had to point at for indicators for orders and targeting enemies to pop up was often a bit too small, making it a little hard to do under pressure but otherwise the system worked really well.

[StoneSlinger88]

On a quasi-related topic, I got around to playing the first few missions of Republic Commando.

Goddamn, that 10-year-old game is more fun than most FPS's that've come out recently, especially with the squad mechanics--and the fireteam members are, thus far, unique and likeable rather than utterly flat non-entities like most games' squad members.

Not to mention that when you go down, they can revive you. And they'll revive you when they've made it safe to, or you can order one of them to.

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