Calymba Caly
Dec. 7th, 2017 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tracker7The new ships hit store shelves today, and now it can be told - it felt good to see my name in the credits of a gaming product again. Playtesting, this time.
The oddly-named (but this is Star Wars, remember) Sheathipede shuttle is an interesting little ship. It's not as combat-focused as its predecessor, set up as more of a support ship. All of the pilots are aces, including what I think is the game's first PS1 ace. When docked with the Ghost and given the Phantom 2 title, the shuttle can give friendlies a free action at the beginning of combat.
Players have been clamoring for the Star Wing gunboat for some time. It's taken from the excellent TIE Fighter PC sim from ... two decades back. It's purely an assault ship, tough and configurable as a missile/torpedo carrier or a cannon carrier. As an ordnance carrier, it introduces the new reload action, giving it effectively unlimited munitions. It's a whole other kind of small-based Imperial ship.
Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer is another first - first small-base ship to be sold in a box, rather than a blister. The model is good-sized, at least twice the size of an Interceptor. It bumps up Ren's pilot skill from his appearance as an Upsilon shuttle pilot; his ability remains the same. Unlike the Star Wing, and some other recent Imperial fighters, the Silencer can't mount any additional weapons.
Tomorrow night is Luke R's two-part Epic scenario. I've got two excellent teammates for the Imperial side, and I'm looking forward to getting the Raider and its escort out. It's going to be a long night on Baxter Avenue.
Saturday night is the big-ass Christmas party at the LeNoues'. Always a good time, but it's draining, and I haven't yet gotten home from one of these before 2AM, and it's always been going strong when I leave.
I don't know how much longer I can keep following football, either NCAA or NFL. Monday night, during the Bengals-Steelers game, a Steeler player, Ryan Shazier, went down with a bad injury. For the record, I really really dislike the Steeler organization. I don't have anything good to say about them. But Shazier's injury... he set up for a block, but for whatever reason lowered his head right before impact, and he went down. If you want to see it, footage is all over the place. Shazier landed face-down, turning himself over with his arms. No movement (and we later learned, no feeling) in his legs. He's seen flexing his hands, maybe trying to make sure he has feeling and/or control there. He was carted off the field, then taken to a hospital. We're hearing things like "spinal contusion," and the concern is less "will he play again next season" than "will he walk again." It's become hard for me to watch people injure themselves for my entertainment. Hell, I quit watching Cops because it became clips of human misery put on TV for entertainment. And Christ, let's not get into the mess of the college game.
The oddly-named (but this is Star Wars, remember) Sheathipede shuttle is an interesting little ship. It's not as combat-focused as its predecessor, set up as more of a support ship. All of the pilots are aces, including what I think is the game's first PS1 ace. When docked with the Ghost and given the Phantom 2 title, the shuttle can give friendlies a free action at the beginning of combat.
Players have been clamoring for the Star Wing gunboat for some time. It's taken from the excellent TIE Fighter PC sim from ... two decades back. It's purely an assault ship, tough and configurable as a missile/torpedo carrier or a cannon carrier. As an ordnance carrier, it introduces the new reload action, giving it effectively unlimited munitions. It's a whole other kind of small-based Imperial ship.
Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer is another first - first small-base ship to be sold in a box, rather than a blister. The model is good-sized, at least twice the size of an Interceptor. It bumps up Ren's pilot skill from his appearance as an Upsilon shuttle pilot; his ability remains the same. Unlike the Star Wing, and some other recent Imperial fighters, the Silencer can't mount any additional weapons.
Tomorrow night is Luke R's two-part Epic scenario. I've got two excellent teammates for the Imperial side, and I'm looking forward to getting the Raider and its escort out. It's going to be a long night on Baxter Avenue.
Saturday night is the big-ass Christmas party at the LeNoues'. Always a good time, but it's draining, and I haven't yet gotten home from one of these before 2AM, and it's always been going strong when I leave.
I don't know how much longer I can keep following football, either NCAA or NFL. Monday night, during the Bengals-Steelers game, a Steeler player, Ryan Shazier, went down with a bad injury. For the record, I really really dislike the Steeler organization. I don't have anything good to say about them. But Shazier's injury... he set up for a block, but for whatever reason lowered his head right before impact, and he went down. If you want to see it, footage is all over the place. Shazier landed face-down, turning himself over with his arms. No movement (and we later learned, no feeling) in his legs. He's seen flexing his hands, maybe trying to make sure he has feeling and/or control there. He was carted off the field, then taken to a hospital. We're hearing things like "spinal contusion," and the concern is less "will he play again next season" than "will he walk again." It's become hard for me to watch people injure themselves for my entertainment. Hell, I quit watching Cops because it became clips of human misery put on TV for entertainment. And Christ, let's not get into the mess of the college game.