David Hingtgen

If Mygamercard.net would update already, it'd show I'm #2 in the USA, achievement-wise. http://www.mygamercard.net/leaderboard.php...p;x=35&y=15 I have 760, but it still shows my score from 2 days ago, despite it updating my overall score. Also--darn, I was planning on being #1, since nobody had over 750 yesterday. At best I could tie, but it'd take well over an hour. Eh, I'll probably never get past 760. In 30 mins of trying the best I could manage to set up was a 1-on-1 Battle Royale. There's just nobody online, especially in anything not team battle. Can't imagine how people have the 100 siege and 100 royale wins. I haven't SEEN 100 siege battles available to play, much less participated.

There are 3 schemes for every plane. Shoot down the ace to get the 3rd scheme. Aces only show up in expert and higher modes. NOBODY has Ace of Aces yet. Exception: CFA-44. 2nd scheme is acquired by buying every scheme and weapon for every other plane (which means all aces have to be found and shot down). 3rd scheme requires all operation medals, S on every mission from Normal through Ace, the 2nd scheme, and 15 other "reward" medals.

12 hours to Mass Effect. Don't know of any Midnight sales though. But some stores are open at Midnight for OTHER games, so maybe... Anyways, EB has removed the "street date guarantee" from their site, so it's past the deadline to preorder now. I don't normally read Ctrl-Alt-Del, but this one's better than average, and about ME: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20071119 (though the response choices are actually the source of the humor to me, not their stupid running gag of what's actually chosen)

F-22 and F-14 are the hardest Ace schemes to get. The F-14 doesn't seem to show up a lot of the time. It's operation "C" I think, stage 13. So either do operation C first, or last. (I'd try first). The F-22 is time-based. Beat the first half of the mission as quick as possible, and I do mean FAST. CFA-44 w/ADMM is about the only thing that can do it probably. Go east to the bombers, then loop around to the west. Once all helis, B-52's, and C-17's are down, if you were quick enough, Rafales and F-18's show up to the west. Take them down quick enough, and the F-22 ace appears. Took me several tries.

MW does seem to be blacklisted by several IPS's lately (apparently due to our latest domain/host being blacklisted, not MW specifically), has been an issue that crops up in different ways.

F-22 Ace scheme is a very blue one. It's still 'standard' F-22 camo pattern, just quite blue with a lot more contrast than the others. The F-14D Ace scheme is the F-14B/D prototype scheme--white with red/blue striping. 9 missions down, 6 to go on my speed run. Running about plus 2 mins from an "excellent" time. (Need to do it in less than 2:05 to get it---one guy did it in 1:50 and posted all his times---I'm 2 minutes slower than him---so I have 13 mins to spare over the next 6 missions-----only because I did amazingly well in missions 7 and 9)---before that I was running about 30-60 secs over his times. Which was cutting it VERY close----he had 15 mins to spare, and 1 min over compiled across 15 missions.... If I'm lucky I can have the final medal in a little over an hour more of playing time. 5:14 to take down the Aigaion and Strigon---with a Typhoon. (In retrospect, an Su-33 would have been better---I needed better yaw control, not the Typhoon's larger weapon load) Only mission so far I didn't use the CFA-44. I do wonder if rockets would be better than ADMM in some ground missions. (I KNEW they'd be better for the Aigaion---I'm using all 3 save slots just in case, so if something goes bad I don't have to re-do more than a few missions)

Best F-22 scheme in all of AC is the Ace scheme in AC6 IMHO.

Yup. A lot of CFA-44 users suck. Even decent ones---point changes aren't worth it. Last night, one guy was using it (the one time I allowed it) and he shot down me and another guy like 2 times each. My entire team only had 2 kills---me shooting down the CFA-44 twice. And we won, due to how many pts that was worth, and how little all his EML spamming got him. As for host advantage---not IMHO. I'm almost always the host (last night I was like the ONLY host for a while) and I see plenty of "weird" effects too--as in a guy just vaporizing me when he's nowhere near me, or multiple missile hits that do little/no damage, etc. One guy consistently had the ability to be flying completely 90 degrees off from me, yet fire XMAA's that always got me well before he got inside my XMAA range. I personally have yet to be able to fire XMAA's at someone directly to my side, at XLAA ranges... Anyways, 2 more medals down, 1 to go. "Guns only" isn't hard, just boring. Plus Strigon's just so "hyper jumpy" that even when they "just sit there" you still can't kill them. I think 99% of Strigon kills came from ally/Shamrock. Only thing left is time attack, and I need to cut off 35 mins. Going to go hunt around and see if there's some recommended operations---some are much quicker than others. 36 hours to Mass Effect, and want to get my "last 3 I ever expect to get" AC6 achievements by them.

Checking MyGamerCard.net, there are a few people with 1000pts. All from Japan. Nobody in the US has over 800, out of 22,000 players ranked. (Though one guy with 1000pts I think really is from the US, but just displays as Japan) 100 siege battles, 20 mins each... That alone takes way too much time to care.

I've yet to see any "stealth inspired" car that I though looked like it was. Could be the plane-nitpicker in me... Seriously--adding random angles does not make "stealth". (of course, MY stealth car would be based off the YF-23, and there's an easy way to do a few key visual aspects) Though I'll admit the Lambo does so far better---those new pics make it look much more F-22ish to me than the first ones I saw. Vector M12 is probably my fave "outrageous appearance" car. I've always liked the metallic beige one. Only beige/tan car I've ever seen that I like. (of course, never seen a real one)

You know, I was going to say I wouldn't get the new F-18 even if it was free. And now that I know it is, I still won't. Where's my Solo Wing Pixie F-15? Jolly Rogers F-14?

No, I need to save up for an HDTV first. Plus, I plan on getting the 40GB when I do get one--they're supposed to run quieter--and you know how I am about noisy systems. My PS2 hasn't seen much use the past 3-6 months, and will see even less in the future--just the occasional replayings of favorite RPG's etc---it should last a long time in that role. And in the future, when Toys R Us is clearancing out silver PStwo's for $49.99, I'll pick one up for a spare just in case. Heck, I still have my PSX just in case, if for nothing else than to ensure Suikoden 1, Xenogears, Valk Profile, and MM X4 can be played forever. Plus I can just keep my PStwo hooked up to my 20in CRT forever, and thus not be subjected to Shadow of the Colossus on an LCD (man does that look bad).

Is it news at all that I found a 60GB for sale today? Haven't seen any in a while.

Semi-canon (but on the "upper end" of semi-canon): 6 Galaxy class intially built. Annother 6 had their frames built, but never had their weapons/engines/interiors etc installed and were put into storage. We know the names of more than 6 and have seen almost as many un-named ones, so presumably at least some of them are from the "spare" 6 half-built. The Venture with its extra phaser banks on the nacelles is likely one of them, lending support to the idea that these later Galaxy class were finished because of either the Borg or Dominion threat, and likely dispensed with fitting out the interiors for families and diplomatic missions, and maybe even sacrified scientific equipment, in order to finish them as quickly as possible and equip them for battle. (The REAL reason the Venture has extra phasers is because it's actually the 3-engined 1701-D model from the last ep of TNG) Also, based on many we've seen, I'm betting there's a lot more than 12 by the end of DS9, otherwise that means we've seen basically all of them---and pretty much the entire remaining class in a single battle.

My brother's been busy at work, so the "scheduled meet-up for Co-Op" won't be until Mon. night probably, maybe Tuesday. If I get a definite time I'll post so anyone who wants to can join in. PS--encountered a guy from Japan tonight who had the 30 battle royale wins unlocked. Dang.

Well, we already got 1 free F-16, another would be kinda pointless IMHO. Anyways---I found that the AI only slightly improves, while "damage" changes a lot as the difficulty changes. Something I noticed though when replaying yet again: Events occur sooner in Expert/Ace. I think it's mission 3 that I confirmed the difference, but on that mission on Normal, Strigon doesn't show up until after you beat the first couple objectives. In the harder ones, they show up immediately and harrass you throughout the entire mission. Also, since damage is up, your allies on the ground die sooner. They WILL die in 5 mins if you don't do anything, and you can get "mission failed" pretty easily if you aren't guarding them constantly against enemy planes/tanks. Whereas on normal, they can pretty much take back Emmeria on their own in a ground campaign. PS--all-new plane? YF-23 of course. Out-accelerate any plane on the planet. And be super-stealthy while doing it. All while looking cool.

Galaxy seems to have poor offense for such a large ship. 1701-A seems to be able to fire off more phasers and torps. PS---yes, the Sovereign is the best "new" design in a while because it emulates (purposely) the Excelsior. Miranda's nice, I actually prefer the on-screen 'upside down' version. And it established a trend. Again, we see the Nebula class based on it. (To me, Nebulas look a lot better than Galaxy, though Ambassador is what a Galaxy should have looked like) The fact that so many ships share parts makes a lot of sense. Mainly saucers and nacelles. There's really no need to make completely new nacelles for every class, when they're just stuck on pylons away from the hull. Nacelles should be difficult to design and perfect, and not every class should have its own unique design. Kinda surprised we never saw any other class with Excelsior-style, since there were so many of those built. (Centaur doesn't count, kit-bashed freak) I don't like the Akira (but don't hate it), but it's the best of the "designed for First Contact" ships--all the others don't look like federation designs at all---no clear nacelles, no saucer. They're like "angular Defiant variations". PPS---is everyone aware that the Saber-class design is lost? Apparently there was only ever one file for it at ILM, and it only exists as that CGI model--there's not even a basic 3-view CAD created of it. And some intern apparently deleted the file. So we'll never see the Saber class again. Even if it's rebuilt---there's no references/angles for some 40% of the design from what was seen on-screen.

And when he and the Excelsior appeared in Voyager---that was about the only good ep of Voyager.

More Doraemon: http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/projectd.html

Yeah, that's been IMHO the coolest weapon name in a long time. I also like how the UK equivalent of the Hellfire is the Brimstone.

Give me an F-15E stripped of its conformals, for increased everything. Also, a Super Hornet with better speed and agility. The thing's not fast, but it sure as heck is agile in real life. It's really gimped in the game, both stats and weapons-wise. I think to make the F-2 look better .(as it is almost an uber-plane in the game--has EVERY advanced weapon of every main type, and I'm pretty sure Japan doesn't have anything equal to the AIM-9X). The real Shornet doesn't have THAT bad speed and acceleration. (Problem is, most AC games treat speed and acceleration the same, when they are often almost opposite in many modern jets) I'd really like to see a high vs low altitude speed and acceleration effect. The Tornado would out-run ANYTHING at low-level, while an F-14A would have great acceleration up high.

Ent-B is not meh! And the Excelsior is the best Trek design EVER. (I like the D least, despite having seen it the most---just disproportionate--giant saucer, stubby nacelles)

OT, and sorry if it's been brought up before, but on a slightly similar vein: 20 foot long LEGO Yamato: http://gizmodo.com/photogallery/Yamato/ (incomplete, but still amazing) He's got a site documenting the earlier stages of building it here: http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/projectyamato.html

::Sith Lord Graham sitting in front of his computer, looking at his high-res YF-21 pics while reading this thread:: "You want these, don't you. Yeeeeeessss. I can FEEL it."

As was mentioned---Yamato has to be well aware of this, as that's how they did it on the original release. Obviously, they just didn't want to or something on the new one.