David Hingtgen

Are you using the CFA-44? If you're just hunting for the Ace, the -44 makes everything go faster. Also, I think I found her by doing the ship part of the mission first. Some say she appears on the carrier just before or after it sinks, but I think she just "teleported in" at 15,000ft in the vicinity. Operations B and C take the longest by far. I usually do A-D-E-F in about that order. Or D-E-F-A.

Oooh, that's a point--does Peter only copy "known/current" abilities and power levels, or can he "level up" what he's learned just like the person he copied from?

Looks VERY nice now. Graham--time to send these pics to Kawamori/Yamato? Then they can see the original Dobber scheme, and the "interpretation" of Dobber's scheme. I just keep thinking--if this keeps getting more famous, 5 years from now we may see people in Japan asking for "Dobber" Gundams, and "Dobber" EVA's... "Dobber---it's the new low-vis"

My current opinions/summary: 1. It is VERY similar to KOTOR. More so than I expected. Excluding combat of course. 2. Graphics minor annoyances are just that, minor. It's like playing a game on a PC that can't QUITE handle it. It still looks good and plays fine, it's just not wonderfully smooth. Every stage/area is different. I can go 5 mins and have only one tiny little hiccup, or I can have 2 minutes of one staircase that jumps every 10 secs. 3. I expect combat to become more frequent as the game progresses. Again, like KOTOR, the first 6 hours is basically "learning about the world". 4. Combat's still "quick and not sure what's going on". I can obliterate geth in one match, then die in 10 secs in the next. A big part of it I think is in RPG's I'm so used to watching HP/MP bars, while in ME you gotta always watch your targeting reticle--so you can very easily not notice your HP bar is dropping by big chunks. Half the time that I realize I'm hurt and should take cover is because Ashley yells out "Shepard!" PS--you can turn off motion blurring, and almost everyone does so. Blurring makes Vice City unplayable, in ME it's only "pointless". PPS---a lot of it simply because of the lack of loading screens. It's partly a choice they made---do you want 3 secs of black "now loading" to show up every time there's a cutscene or new area, or do want it immediately 99% done, with the remaining 1% visibly loading in the first 2 secs? KOTOR had CONSTANT loading screens. ME has almost none. (And also the reason for the infamous slow elevators--of which there's like 4 in the first 12 hours--they're just masking the loading by going slow, instead of a fast elevator that then makes you wait 10 secs at the bottom with a black "loading" screen) PPPS---many of the "cut" features were never there to start with and merely rumored/suggested from interviews 2 years ago, or they tried them and they didn't work well, so they cut them LAST year. Nothing was cut to make a deadline in the last 6 months. And they were really minor things, like Mako cannon ammo upgrades, etc. There's no "missing planet" that anyone can tell.

Basically--yup, 99% of comments about ME are the technical issues. And it seems every 360 is different (no surprise). Some people have rock-solid frame-rates with atrocious texture pop-up. Some have the opposite. Some (lucky) people seem to have it play 60FPS in high-res all the time (we want proof though). I think I'm typical, as I mainly get: 1. Stuttering when panning. 2. People always have to re-load the high-res version of their clothes when the camera switches between closeups. I don't have severe problems in either case---it reminds me of playing KOTOR on the PC before my new graphics card. As for the actual story----I'm thinking it's going to be a Xenogears level of "you won't get it at all until the end, and you won't REALLY get it until you've played twice". It's just so DEEP if you go explore the world. Seriously, I spent like 20 mins last night talking to Tali about Quarian politics. All those "17 hours and I'm done" people certainly didn't do that. Bioware really fleshes out their worlds and people. Still, if not for MS's stupid rules, or Bioware's apparent "same experience for all" policy even a small hard drive cache could take care of all the texturing issues---it's always like there's just *one last one* that didn't make it in time. My current main issue is that combat has no tutorial and very little is explained--especially in the way of icons. I figured out blue and orange I think, got a guess for green, but then I think I saw a 2nd type of green one. And what represents health/gel/mines/creds is NEVER explained, I just eventually figured them all out by tracking numbers. I really wish we could do the "pause and make a queue of actions" thing like KOTOR, while retaining the realtime shooting. As it is, I usually just issue commands once at the beginning, and after that, keep shooting. I really didn't get KOTOR's battles until the 2nd run through, think it might happen again. Just a lot of slowly experimenting. Basically--any battle so far is winnable without too much effort, but knowing how things REALLY work and choosing appropriate actions will sure speed things up and cut down on deaths.

Sony etc systems don't drop much. Nintendos do. I came THIS close (and should have) to buying a MISB revised NES from TRU for 30 bucks. N64's were 99 after a while (funky colors though), and GC's have been 99 for a long while. GC launched at 200, went to 150 in less than a year, and 100 in less than 2 years.

Mr March---my opinion would be that the VF-5000's nose cone, and "forward fuselage surrouding the canopy" is nigh-identical to the F-22's, but really doesn't match the YF-22 much---it is only slightly closer to the YF-22 than "any random fighter jet". But since Kawamori apparently drew the VF-5000 before the F-22's nose design was really known, he couldn't have copied it---so it's just coincidence. IMHO. And if he based if off the YF-22's nose (which was well-known at the time)---he wouldn't have gotten the shape he did, as it is only superficially similar. It is possible he tried to do a "final version of the YF-22 nose", heavily revising it---and ended up coming up with almost exactly with what the F-22's designers did.

I was thinking about it earlier, and while I personally bet on the Company (canonically), having it be Peter and Adam would be better.

Free mission works, it's almost impossible to get all the aces on just playing through campaign once. I got most, but had to go back to get a few I missed.

I'm buying it BECAUSE it's magenta. I want all my valks to look different. 1 "greyish white" one (Roy) is enough. My others are tan (YF-19), red (Milia) and soon-to-be blue (YF-21). And then a deep grey VF-11.

I'd like at least 24 hours---many people Tivo it etc and can't see it until the next day, or download it off NBC.

Depends on your definition of grey vs blue---all the greys are blue-greys and most of the blues are grey-blues.

I wonn't mod a fellow mod's posts, but c'mon DA, have a little respect for spoilers...

OK, so where can I buy it and get it fairly quickly? A lot of the "normal" places don't seem to have it/list it. I assume HLJ is already sold out etc, or that I'll be on the 3rd shipment etc if I order now. Suggestions? ::edit:: found it a few more places after searching harder:: Anyone know when LAFtoys is getting theirs in? Haven't bought from them yet, but since they're offering both Nora and MP-05 orders, it'd make it convenient.

We're specifically talking about the nose and forward fuselage, which are amazingly similar between the VF-5000 and F-22, and whether Kawamori was influenced by it, or it was just coincidence. The date the F-22 came out vs the date of the VF-5000 is thus important. The YF-22 isn't important, as its nose and forward fuselage are quite different from the F-22, and its nose is no more similar to the VF-5000 than the Rafale's nose is. Yes, the YF-22 and F-22 are very similar. But the noses are not, and that's the part being discussed as being very similar between the F-22 and VF-5000. And you quoted me in the exact point I'm making--I clearly stated the NOSE, NOSECONE, and CANOPY AREA are completely different. Did I say the planes were completely different? No, I said the NOSE, NOSECONE, and CANOPY were completely different. And they are. Which is the part of the VF-5000 we're talking about. Much like the Super Hornet and Legacy Hornet have completely different airbrakes, while being overall very similar-looking planes with many similar parts.

Happens all the time with trains and planes---scale-exclusive licenses. One company gets 1/400, another gets 1/200, someone has 1/87, etc.

Trust me, the YF-22 and F-22 nose, nosecone, and canopy area are COMPLETELY different. They look fairly similar from above, but at the angle the VF-5000 drawings are at, they're like entirely different planes. The YF-22's nose from head-on, has a "vertical diamond" profile with slab sides. Nothing's concave, nothing tapers or curves. Or even from above---look at the YF-22's nose. It's a triangle--the sides of the nose don't curve in as you move forward--it's just straight lines at an angle starting a bit ahead of the canopy front edge. It truly has a nose CONE. But the F-22's sides do curve, like 99% of fighter jets out there--it's ogival, kinda like a beehive. 3-view line art (especially just 1-view) can't show shapes well. Common problem in model planes---some company gets a perfect 3-view that's amazingly accurate, and makes a model using that as the only reference. And it'll look right from above, in front, and the side. But still looks really wrong at any other angle, because the drawings just didn't show important curves, cross-sections, etc.

If it takes all 1000 gamerpoints---it's not worth it. 50 team wins took me quite a few evenings online (unlocked tonight, started the 28th of Oct). 100 would take several more. I won more than I lost. 100 siege battles would take 2 to 3 times as long due to inherently longer battles. 100 battle royales would probably take as long as 100 siege, due to being harder to win----"no points for 2nd place". Plus, I've gone through the campaign 7 times now. Kinda sick of it (because it's mediocre to start with). I think only AC4 had more play-throughs--but they were fun every time. Heck, that may beat AC4. (I played AC4 a lot to be able to afford all the X-02's--they cost so much you'd spend an entire campaign getting enough money to buy ONE paint scheme--but the white one was worth the money) PS---anyone else find the impact crater in AC6? Only one AFAIK, final stage, east side of the only big island. If you veer slightly right near when you finally get to the chandelier itself you should pass over it. Being at high altitude helps see it.

Your last spoilery sentence: Absolutely. Plus she foreshadowed that blantantly too! Tonights's ep: Foreshadowing. And death.

Yeah, he had all the good lines this ep. Honestly, I'd watch "The HRG show". The last 30 secs etc I thought were obviously foreshadowed. As for Parkman--I'm surprised he went through with it.

I would do something with the legs--they're too monochrome when viewed from above. Either black like Dobber's (I think Nora's is black there too) or continue the splinter camo across them. In the end I think it came out looking more like the actual Ukranian splinter camo pattern--which is what the NSAWC F-14's camo was supposed to imitate I think. But the colors are basically the original standard Flanker colors. I've included drawings of both the current blue splinter pattern, and the original more grey scheme.

Just checked to be sure---the real F-22 wasn't revealed until April, 1997. Now, drawings/pics etc of what the final version would look like would have existed prior, but I doubt there'd be a 3 year lead of what it'd look like. (if he started working on it in 94 to be in a 95 book) Maybe he was predicting the future again, like when Sukhoi copied the YF-19?

What's the date of the VF-5000? (as in Kawamori drawing it). Because the YF-22 has an entirely different forward fuselage, so K. couldn't have copied from that. And the final F-22 fuselage I think was too late for him to be influenced by it.

Not AFAIK. MGC did update though--#2 in US, #21 in world. (And I got my Mass Effect tracking number)

Exactly. Before the Borg, the Feds had nothing BUT long-range exploration ships with "minimal" combat capability. Big ships with tons of supplies and crew, to go way out in the middle of nowhere and see what's there. Defense of the Federation was almost unthinkable---they were huge, with no enemies. Then the Borg, and the Dominion---and they started making smaller, more combat-oriented ships. (For all its ugliness, Voyager does remarkably well in combat) Even the biggest new ship (Sovereign) is still significantly smaller than the Galaxy. And it's as "long-term exploration" as they'll come for some years. I think part of the reason we see so many Mirandas and Excelsiors in combat are because they're among the few ships built with combat in mind---they were designed at the height of Klingon agression, etc. Even due to age, they might still do better than a lot of the Fed's big/new exploration ships.