Jump to content

Chronocidal

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10160

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Chronocidal

  1. Chronocidal
    It does help, but I wish it compressed even further, because unlike the Fire Valk, the VF-19's gun winds up pointing down pretty far in fighter mode. It's just because the crotch plate is so big sadly, and you really can't do anything about that without messing up battroid.
  2. Chronocidal
    AC6 was fun to play, and extremely pretty too. It just would've been much better if you could turn off the voices, because the story just was plane lame. (ha.) The platform jump really did hurt it though. Not only did they ditch their entire existing playstation fanbase by moving to the competing console line, but the addition of charging for features that used to be unlockables really made me sad. Not to mention the fact that jumping platforms seemed to mean they were forced to leave all bonus content from previous games out entirely (unless you're willing to fork over extra money ). Plus.. after being spoiled rotten by 50+ planes from the previous two games, the lackluster selection in AC6 felt like a slap to the face. If they had offered DLC aircraft, I might have actually bought some.. but leaving out so many favorites from previous games just seemed like they got lazy. Granted, the selections in AC5 and Zero were a bit on the excessive side, but AC used to be like the Gran Turismo of aircraft franchises. Half the reward is unlocking aircraft that you want to fly just because you like them, regardless of whether they're the best aircraft or not. It used to be fun being able to pick any number of planes if you wanted to challenge yourself, or if you just love the look of certain aircraft. With these newer games.. it's like they've taken on the trend from RPGs of forcing you to upgrade to the newest equipment as soon as it becomes available (or worse, dictating to you what aircraft you can use in any particular mission ), because otherwise you won't be able to continue. It's like they've just become completely out of touch with what fans of these games actually enjoy, and are trying to force changes that no one asked for, just for the sake of being able to say they're "innovating." I seem to see that everywhere really.. and it's getting really depressing.
  3. Chronocidal
    I don't think it's supported actually, which I remember a bunch of people being extremely pissed about. And honestly, that control scheme is just STUPID. What idiot would use the throttle and rudder controls to control the view, then assign the rudder and throttle to buttons? And using the trigger and pickle button to run the throttle??? I'm sorry, but that just makes no freaking sense at all. If that's what the developers called "optimal" then that explains a LOT about why that game is so different from previous AC games.. it was written by people who need a good slap upside the head with a book about aircraft. Where's the facepalm smiley when you need one?
  4. Chronocidal
    As far as bones go, if you're thinking of adapting this VF-1 to a flight sim, you most likely won't need them. I don't think you'd be forced to remove them, but at least in FSX (or any of the other MS flight sims) you'd only use bones to make flexible pieces. Any solid moving part would just be keyframe animated by rotation and motion, relative to a determined part reference point. Making gear animations without bones becomes a pain, because you have to manually align linkages and actuators, but it also really makes you appreciate all the mechanisms that go into making them work. I've done several aircraft that way, including an F-14 and F-106, and even a nearly realistic set of gear for the YF-19, and the way all the pieces have to work together always amazes me.
  5. Chronocidal
    Yeah, I wish they would just kill 3d until it becomes usable in places that might make sense.. like full motion tracking head-mounted displays (I want my .hack glasses for flight simming dangit ) I really miss the age when you could buy a game, and it was good, and you could rely on that. None of this, "Oh, it was okay when it came out, then the version 2 patch almost killed it entirely.. Fortunately the devs figured out what was so bad, and it's almost back to where it was again, but who knows what's next?" Very little pisses me off more than people changing things arbitrarily to something else just because they felt change was needed, no matter what it was. MS Office 2007 of all things is the clearest example to me personally, because the way they completely randomly decided, "Ok, we're just going to rename and relocate EVERYTHING" completely screwed productivity at my job for months. It was similar to the effect you'd get if Webster decided they were going to randomly reassign every word in the dictionary to another definition, without telling anyone. In the games arena, I just get continually disappointed by developers not willing to leave well enough alone (movies too.. *slaps a George Lucas effigy*). Various games I've enjoyed get a new patch, and it sometimes just destroys what I used to enjoy, because they change so much. Final Fantasy XIV in particular is going through this a lot, due to the way it was released in pretty much alpha stage, and keeps developing towards something resembling a complete game. I really enjoyed v1.19 as a magic character, but come v1.2, they revamped the entire magic skill tree... and I lost nearly all interest in that job class, because the skills don't make any freaking sense anymore. The sad/weird part of all this is.. if you wait long enough for the games to actually die out, and the companies to stop caring about piracy, the games sometimes reappear under the management of someone willing to run customized versions using specific patches and content to cater to what the fans enjoyed. It just takes forever sometimes...well, at least if you don't want to be setting yourself up for massive legal snarls, and possible criminal charges.
  6. Chronocidal
    Have to admit, there are some aspects of the Hi-Metal Fire Valk I do prefer over the Yamato one. Mostly, I like the top profile more. Because of the different method they used for the hips, the leading edge extension meets the fuselage farther back, behind the canards instead of under them. While the nose may not be any longer, it does give it that impression. The angle of the wing is just steeper, so the LEX starts further back. You don't notice it on the VF-19S, but I've thought it made the Fire Valk look a bit strange ever since we saw the first CAD render of the fuselage.
  7. Chronocidal
    I'll definitely admit I was firmly lodged in my lawn chair telling AC:AH to get off my lawn, but I just can't find any value in any of the changes to the franchise. Other people did find some of the additions fun though, so definitely play a demo. In my case, the demo made me want to kick a puppy, so that decided that pretty quickly.
  8. Chronocidal
    His over-the-top crazy comedy style usually doesn't do it for me either, but I did enjoy a good portion of the first movie. The street brawl was just too funny. I do hope they can get Steve Carell back for this one though. If you want to see him do something different, Stranger than Fiction was pretty good. Nothing like any of his other movies, and not really a comedy, but I enjoyed it.
  9. Chronocidal
    I'm hoping the CAD folks left us an easter egg, and we'll find out that all our Yamato missiles will work. They do look very similar to the SV-51 hardpoints. Either way though, looks awesome. I just hope BBTS learned from their mess with the VF-25S.
  10. Chronocidal
    Have to admit, having the gear drop out the bottom of the nose would explain a lot, but I don't think there's room for that when the back plate comes down, and it could cause a multitude of other problems. As for the video screens though.. I always assumed they were actually on the back side of the canopy shield. Anyway, yep you're right about the gear door hinges, they really are getting tiny. I was going to suggest the indentations for the tires too, it might work well, and the F-14's gear clearly does the same thing. I don't doubt doors that thin would be possible given the level of technology involved, it just looks funny to my 1980's tuned aircraft senses.
  11. Chronocidal
    I understand people wanting things in the same scale, it's just that when the subject of a kit is so small to begin with, it makes sense to produce it in a bigger scale. Even in 1/24, many of these ships are smaller than a lot of 1/48 aircraft. They're just not big to begin with, so why not use a larger scale? As for the resin kits, I've never gotten the impression that the market is flooded.. It always felt more a case of "let's see how many of these we can produce before we get a cease and desist." If they were licensed sure, but I don't think I've ever seen a licensed resin Star Wars kit. Granted, I've never liked working with resin anyway, so I don't keep up with them much, but they're usually garage kits. I'm not worried about studio scale here, or kits being too big, I'm just wishing for something you don't need a pair of binoculars to see on your shelf across the room. No one seems to want to produce anything that makes a nice display piece. They're great if you want to have a shelf full of tiny ships, but even in 1/48, the X-Wing is still smaller than an F-16, and most of the ships are significantly smaller than that. I just wish Fine Molds would expand the rest of their line to 1/48 to match. It's not like any of the other ships they've done would be anything I'd even call "big" if they did (except the Falcon of course).
  12. Chronocidal
    Why do people insist on making these things in scales that give you a model the size of a micro-machine? I mean.. seriously. Fine Molds seems obsessed with that scale, and it cracks me up that the display base for their N-1 probably contains 10x the volume of plastic that the actual ship does. Even in 1/48th the N-1 was disappointingly tiny. I never understood why companies never tried making larger scale Star Wars kits(*). It's not like the fighters are exactly big. I don't think the A-Wing is much larger than a Cessna 172, if that. And I have one of the pre-painted Revell kits of that Jedi Interceptor.. judging by the pilot figure, it's at least 1/32, but the kit can't be more than 6 inches long. Even an X-wing in 1/32 is still smaller than a lot of 1/48 aircraft. I mean come on.. I have one of the figure-scaled A-Wings, and one of the Jedi Interceptors. They're not even as big as a 1/48 F-14. (*)- Ertl sort of made a 1/32-ish X-Wing once, the fancy motorized electronic one. I'm probably overly harsh toward that kit, but I hate that they actually made it much less accurate than the old MPC kit. I could go into details, but this is neither the time, nor the place.
  13. Chronocidal
    You know, this is going to sound ridiculous, but of all the things to nitpick at... I think it'd improve things a little if you actually beefed up the gear doors. Granted, it's overtech and all that, but take a look at the front gear on an F-14, or maybe an F-18. The doors just look paper thin right now, as beautiful as they are. What really looks funny to me is how tiny the hinges are holding them on. Newer planes seem to have pretty small joints, but the actual pivots usually get buried inside the walls of the gear well. I couldn't find any good shots of an F-18's gear as an example of what I mean about the pivots, and it's probably a better reference, but the F-14 has pretty big hinges on the front gear doors.
  14. Chronocidal
    Wow, the VF-19S and VF-17S sold out already? I guess it's understandable, they're both pretty incredible. I do wonder though.. I hope Yamato realizes what a gold mine they are, and ups the production on both molds, especially if it means getting more colored variants. I seriously want a white or low-vis VF-19F like nothing else, and that orange/white trainer version VF-17 from Macross Plus would be an instant buy. With the VF-1 kit version, they kind of catered to every custom scheme idea at once, so we haven't seen many non-canon VF-1 schemes this time around (the only one that comes to mind is the low-vis Focker). But the complexity on the VF-17/19 designs is so much higher, I wonder if they would even consider a kit version. If they do, I'll buy a couple of each, and be set.
  15. Chronocidal
    Now, if Hasegawa wants my money, they'll make the Falken, Wyvern, Morgan, and Nosferatu. I'd probably buy at least two of each.
  16. Chronocidal
    That brings up another question though.. Despite HG's best efforts to stifle it, people still seem to be able to get copies of Macross Plus here in the US. Is that only because the Manga Entertainment release slipped through a loophole, and only they can still distribute it, or does that loophole apply to the title itself, and any new release could also be sold here? Either way, with it being the only Macross release to get an official dub and subtitles, it would be sad if they left them out. It also begs the question of how they would release it.. combined OVA/Movie edition, or each separately? I almost wish they would combine the best of both, but the intro to the movie edition would lose a lot of its impact if the VF-11 battle was patched into it.
  17. Chronocidal
    K, maybe it wasn't AmiAmi that got upset for cancelling orders, but I guess I'll find out. I usually prefer HLJ anyway since I can use FedEx, and I've had less trouble with them than the normal mail. Also checked on the SDFM sets, and yeah, I didn't realize there were two versions. I can't say I'm really interested in that set though, since the animation isn't anything that HD would really improve. The bonus materials are nice, but I really can't justify spending that much for them. I've gotta save for that VF-19F and VF-17D (not to mention the VF-171) later this year.
  18. Chronocidal
    Thanks for that link, it's ordered now. Well hm, it seems like I'll be getting two copies then, unless I go cancel my order with AmiAmi. I've never cancelled with them before, but I remember people saying they can get annoyed with you, and block you from the site if you do.
  19. Chronocidal
    Well... when you're talking about a 50+ episode series, you're already going to be paying a ridiculous amount for a bluray release. Having a limited edition on top of that would get prohibitively expensive. I haven't paid much attention to the SDFM bluray set, but did they release a limited box for that series?
  20. Chronocidal
    I just found a 4 pack of the other TMNT movies the other day for about $10 and had to pick it up for nostalgia purposes... and some odd sense of justice by spending money on something other than something new.
  21. Chronocidal
    I just gave up and ordered the regular pack from AmiAmi. The extra materials would be nice, but I'm most interested in the game anyway. Once it hits the market, all the materials will probably pop up in other places as well anyway, but I really want some classic VF-1 action on my (yet to be purchased) PS3.
  22. Chronocidal
    I think I recall at least one item I got where the sale price carried over to when the item came back in stock. It was a Michael VF-25G kit, and I ordered it at about half price when it was backordered. It came much later, but I'm pretty sure the final price was still discounted. If this is a stock clearing sale though, the prices might not apply later.
  23. Chronocidal
    I kind of regret jumping on the VF-19s at full price, but not terribly. I love them too much for that. I might preorder the F when it comes up too, but given the non-main-character-ness of them, I'm sure they'll wind up at big discounts later on. I just tend to be impatient with the VF-19 series. Aside from those, I used to be pretty good about waiting for sales. I think every Yamato I have except for the VF-19s and my M&M VF-1s was bought from HLJ's sales. I've gotten bad about waiting though, and the shenanigans with preorders for Bandai's stuff has gotten me jumpy.
  24. Chronocidal
    Always been a huge WC fan, since a cousin gave me the old WCI disks to install on an old computer we had. Played through WCI-III, but never bothered to try IV or Prophecy. I might have to some day. I grew up on these games, and the change to full textured 3D in WCIII was mindblowing. It's still my favorite of the three. I've played Freespace I and II as well, but always preferred the more personal stories in WC. Freespace is a great sim, and the engine has some amazing possibilities (anyone play the "Beyond the Red Line" demo that was released? if you haven't, DO IT), but I always loved how up close and personal the WC universe was. The ship designs too.. Freespace had some good ones, but I always found myself building LEGO WC ships. These days though, I've gotten spoiled rotten by more modern things like X-Wing Alliance, and other military sims that use a full 3D cockpit. Freespace always bugged me with the HUD only viewpoint, and no real point of reference for side views, while WC and the X-Wing/Tie Fighter series always offered views out the actual cockpit. These days, I tend to fly mostly using a padlock-view to track my target, so the old games feel weird. I've been quietly plotting a concept for a new X-Wing game in my spare time for years now (to sum it up quickly: party-based, tactical rpg space combat sim), and if I ever get into game development, I'll be pitching it to LucasArts, but I honestly don't know if they even care about those games anymore. You'd think over the years the demand for a new one would build up, but I think the lackluster reception of Alliance convinced them to ignore the franchise. I'd love to bring some of the old fun of those games back, and the hardware today could probably push the series much closer to the Rogue Squadron games in terms of visuals.. which would go a long way toward making up for the half-assed Death Star II battle in Alliance.
  25. Chronocidal
    Actually.. I'd say the bottom line is more that Bandai is still focusing on making toys for the mass market, while Yamato's stuff falls more under the collectible market. They overlap a ton obviously, but comparing the quality of productions still leaves a huge gap. Bandai has come a long way with their designs, and they're catching up, but the engineering is still quite a ways behind where Yamato is now. The quality and precision of the manufacturing of the VF-19 is incredible, and it goes a ways toward explaining the higher cost compared with Bandai's stuff. And all engineering issues aside, Yamato's attention to the little details and dedication to accurate representation of the source material consistently blows Bandai out of the water.
×
×
  • Create New...