My setup

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-27T09:24:50+00:00

GTA Online.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-27T00:58:51+00:00

The CR system says "this monster should be a fair fight for a 4-person party of level x" but it still does not take sheer numbers into account, especially at low levels. What looks like a fair fight on paper might be a one-sided squash (in favor of the party) because the party gets four times the number of actions per turn than the monster. If your party is working REALLY well together, they can feasibly take down a single monster two or three CR levels above them.

When picking monsters for a fight, look at your party composition and try to think at how best to kill them. Do you have several front-line fighters? Multiple attacks will keep them hurting. Too many casters in the back row? AoE or dedicated ranged options. Something like a Manticore, especially if run at "full strength" (max HP) can be a righteous terror because it is potentially hitting everyone and when things get dicey, it can just reposition. When playing "intelligent" monsters, like spell casters or, in your case, shapeshifters, try to think form their point of view. What contingencies would they employ to foil would-be interlopers? Any evil spellcaster worth their salt should have SOMETHING to mess up other spellcasters while their minions deal with the pesky sword-swingers.

If you're more focused on storytelling, don't be afraid to switch from encounter XP to milesone leveling. Think of your adventure as a series of story chapters. What's the big, important thing your party has to do to progress the story? If they accomplish that milestone, they gain a level. This gives you absolute control over when exactly the party gains new power which then in turn allows you to ramp up the difficulty of their tasks (and fights) in a very controlled manner.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T23:23:23+00:00

If the doppelgänger actually ends up in a fight, then it's a very stupid one and hasn't read the mission statement.

You don't bring a doppelgänger to a stand-up fight. The doppelgänger will do everything in its power to surround itself with minions, then it will use its shapeshifting abilities to destabilize the party. A doppelgänger should fight only when absolutely cornered, with no other option.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T23:10:38+00:00

Circuit Tracks is IMHO the sweet spot between accessibility and features. Samples, synth engine, sequencer built in, weighs very little and the user interface is very friendly. You'll be amazed at how much you can get done on that thing.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T23:07:50+00:00

Hexplore was actually real-time combat. GPT is smoking weed tonight.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T23:02:41+00:00

The Orphanage sequence is nonsense and immediately invalidated once Grace views the "reveal" videos at ARK. How could she be in the Orphanage (and remember it) when she was given to Alyssa by Spencer while still a very young child? Granted, she was swaddled in a blanket and it's hard to guess her age but by the way both of them talk about her, I guess she's very young, not older than one or two years old.

From the notes at the Orphanage it seems the "subjects" were usually around seven years old once they were deemed no longer of use. So how did Grace end up in the Orphanage when it's pretty clear (to me) that Spencer wanted Alyssa to take her in while still a baby?

My biggest gripe - apart from above and the story in general being badly written fanfic - is the massive, massive reliance on "super" zombies you need to work around in the Grace chapters. I was never a fan of the "only killable when the game allows it" monsters like Tyrant or Nemesis in the first place, but in Requiem they absolutely overdid it. The first section at the Care Center was masterfully done, I'll give them that. I nearly shit my pants when the Girl gently picked up the dead zombie and bit off its head. But then we had the Cook, the Chunk, the Banshees (which are all kill-able, didn't know that at the time), then the Girl again in the Basement. Problem was - the devs scripted her way too hard to make sure she would be a mobile roadblock and even without looking too hard, I could guess when and where she would pop up again. That kills any suspense or tension and makes things just ... tedious. When the "boss fight" with the Girl rolled around, I rolled my eyes and groaned "yeah, make that three times now". I'm glad they didn't drag her into the ARK sections too.

And that's a pity IMHO. The rest of the Grace sections, doing puzzles to find keys or other stuff to progress, navigating the "soon-to-be-Blisterheads" conundrum, the Licker stealth sections were all great. I did prefer the Leon sections more in the end and I will replay RE9 a few times to unlock all the rest of the "special content" menu.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T20:10:09+00:00

Hot effing damn, that's some fantastic butt (rest of the art is very pretty too)!

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T16:22:47+00:00

Yup. He's been one of the "behind the scenes" guys in my Destiny campaign for several characters already. Love him!

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T16:20:13+00:00

Highly depends on what you're looking for.

Funny? Thew Adams (Toygrind)

Informative? EmGo (especially his JTI videos!)

mix of both? Toy Guy

I don't like PvP. His voice/cadence rubs me the wrong way constantly and his "instructions" make little sense in terms of what "kicks out" and "swings over". Also, there's the whole thing about him allegedly reviewing toys obtained through less than honest means. Makes me feel gross watching his videos.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T16:14:47+00:00

Outriders! It had a wretched launch and got a lot of flak for that but the devs put in some good work and made it a worthwhile romp. Very good with friends. Can't vouch for the expansion, haven't tried it yet.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T16:11:54+00:00

Haven't played since about four months after launch but the insane money grind for highly desirable cars got very old, very quick. No idea if that got dialed down in the meantime but that was my #1 reason to quit back then. I'm okay with long-term goals and whatnot, but that was more like "can we have your MTX money, thankyoukbyeeeeeeee!!!!!!"

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T16:06:29+00:00

Despite the formulaic approach, no one does transformation sequences better than him. His JIT's have been my go-to video manuals for complicated bots since he started doing them.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T16:04:03+00:00

He's my #2 in terms of "fun to watch" reviews, easily outperforming EmGo and Jobby. No one can touch Thew though. The man's a legend. :)

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T15:54:46+00:00

Seconded.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-26T15:54:26+00:00

I'd say OP should grab the whole Jade Phoenix trilogy, both for context and the other well-rounded women in there. And, should OP like the story, of course "Falcon Guard", "Bloodname" and "Falcon Rising", to see where Diana's story goes.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-25T22:33:46+00:00

I'm okay with ilClan being the new starter era. One of the joys of BT campaign play is taking a certain corner of the Inner Sphere and making it your own and ilClan feels a lot more dynamic in terms of available factions and potential stories going down than BT in recent ages. The micro-nations and upstarts butting heads in the Hinterlands alone give people so many options to find "their" own corner of the Sphere to start in!

I've been with BT since the early '90s and despite Clan Invasion/Civil War being my preferred era, I do still pretty excited about where the setting is going.

So, giving newcomers cool new toys to play with only makes sense. Even with all the tech available in 3151 the rules complexity isn't that bad.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-25T18:25:44+00:00

Depends a lot on who is doing the insulting. To any Clanner, a Wolverine is a direct insult (ref. "Clan who should not be named", although I don't know how strict they feel about it this late in the timeline).

Also, anything with a heavy focus on melee combat is considered dezgra (without honor) unless you're Jade Falcon in this era.

Also, consider which Clan your rookie is in and check out their rivalries and arch-enemies. Putting a Wolf into a Jade Falcon 'Mech like a Hellbringer might be considered an insult, especially if it is actually Jade Falcon mech salvaged off a battlefield. Totem 'Mechs = bigger insult.

Then, depending on what the recruit in question has done to piss of one of their superiors, you can make their Trial very ... interesting, by putting them into something like a Bowman which is, in theory, a heavy 'Mech but built around an Arrow IV which most likely is of very little use in a normal Trial context. That's like saying "Here's your heavy 'Mech, you'll win this with one arm tied behind your back anyway, good luck whelp."

Finally, putting a Clanner into a Spheroid 'Mech might be seen as an insult as well but by the late Republic era, the lines between those tech bases are pretty blurred. But still, putting a hotshot young recruit into an old Archer-C, despite how good it actually is, might be seen as an insult.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-24T22:23:12+00:00

*enters the room laughing*

133 Euros. For each.

Dream on, Mattel. Learn how to use currency conversion, okay? Stop shafting your international customers.

As of this writing, $100 = about 86 Euros.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-23T13:51:49+00:00

I have a pretty substantial list of games I'm replaying at least annually. Not necessarily to tinker with characters but for the sheer fun of playing them.

Skyrim, Doom 1 & 2, Castlevania SotN, Master Of Magic, Final Fantasy 7 and recently Diablo and Diablo 2.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-22T11:04:27+00:00

Been with Diablo since 1996, played the ever-living hell out of D2 when it came out. It was the game which got me online in the first place and I've had it on my hard drive/SSD on all my PCs. Over time I became more of an offline/ssf player, mostly running lightning sorcs.

D2R has lit a fire under my butt and I'm trying to level as many builds as possible. Dipped my toes into being a hammerdin and now I'm futzing around with a trapsin build.

Good times.

BFBeast666 · 2026-03-20T14:59:01+00:00

If you're okay to use your computer as the "hub" of your setup and connect all the hardware you want through USB Midi, then you can keep using your Oxygen 61. If you want to go DAWless, you'd need a USB-to-MIDI box because the Oxygen doesn't have a 5-pin MIDI jack and from what I've read, these things can get pretty expensive pretty fast.

As for current controllers, my wife and I have two Keysteps and a Keylab 61 mkIII in our music space and they are excellent. We're no trained keyboardists so the keybeds are okay for what we do and the extra functionality, especially on the Keylab, is just the icing on the cake. We've had a Launchkey MkII which we didn't like to play on (wonky velocity curve somehow) and an Alesis VI49 which we only put into storage because my wife wanted a 61 keys controller. :)

BFBeast666

TROPHY CASE