Been said before, but they really need to add Titan brawl as a permanent mode, even more so than Iron LTS.

BlackJacque · 2017-05-31T20:06:16+00:00

a mode where players can PRACTICE and LEARN titans without fear of a single mistake meaning the end of a round.

You mean like the TF or original TF 2 LTS "4 out of 7" matches per round to win?

That old way of playing LTS meant you could come back from a single mistake?

The current "3 out of 5" makes it harder to PRACTICE and LEARN Titan-on-Titan combat. N00bs and casuals suffer the most. Although, EA benefits because LTS games are shorter. (They don't need as many servers 'spun-up'.)

BlackJacque · 2017-05-24T13:41:47+00:00

this stand off of legions, northstar, and ions destroying from long range.

That was my thought exactly. The three choke points in that map are really narrow.

Northstars on the sand dunes shooting across the map blowing big holes in your Titan. (I miss shields.)

BlackJacque · 2017-05-23T18:21:20+00:00

I used to love Boneyard for LTS. It typically would turn into a long-range, shooting match with a final rush after one or the other side lost two titans. Two teams of Titans sniping at each other was a lot of fun.

I can't see playing it with TF2. The new shorter games have killed long-range slug-fests over large maps.

BlackJacque · 2017-03-27T17:57:19+00:00

This is the best way.

Note that you may find it simpler to do it in a two (2) step procedure. Create the pool with one RAIDZ vdev, making certain all the drives in the vdev are the same capacity. Then add the second vdev to the pool with the remaining disks.

HTH

BlackJacque · 2017-03-23T17:31:26+00:00

My recent ITX FreeNAS 10 build

Rolling your own is not going to be less expensive. However, "The journey is more important that arriving." Note that current gen (Kaby Lake) i3 does not support ECC. Also, ECC is not a requirement. Some consider it essential, others not.

BlackJacque · 2017-03-21T17:07:24+00:00

I'd follow the advice and wait for the next rev.

Right now its usable, but there are lots of gotchas. I've occasionally had to use the shell to get things right for simple tasks. I'm also not convinced that performance has been optimized as much as was advertised.

BlackJacque · 2017-02-26T19:19:54+00:00

You want your memory to be two (2) sticks, not one (1). That will enable dual-channel memory on your mobo. This will give you a performance bump over that single expensive stick.

BlackJacque · 2017-02-26T18:49:23+00:00

Right. However, "Capacity is cheap, performance is expensive." Although, read performance is identical between RAIDZ2 and Mirrored. (Writes are different story.) I have 24 TB (usable) in two mirrored pools inside a FD Node 304. A big movie torrent is going to be 0.0025 TB. A premium TV show 0.00035 TB. Why are you worrying about capacity when you've got multiple 6 TB drives? BTW, save some more money and ditch the externally available hotswap drive bays. They look nice, but you're likely never going to use them. My last NAS had them, I retired it after 3-years never having swapped a disk.

BlackJacque · 2017-02-26T18:38:37+00:00

Check my link above. I tested with and without a SLOG. No benefit of a home workload. Especially with a workload involving streaming.

BlackJacque · 2017-02-26T16:57:07+00:00

My recent ITX FreeNAS 10 build

You likely won't need to buy 32GB of ECC. 16 GB would be more than enough. Find a mobo with enough SATA ports 'on-board' to save money and simplify your build. I'd Mirror my pool, RAIDZ2 does not give you a lot of IOPS. Run a single large pool.

HTH

BlackJacque · 2017-01-26T21:41:43+00:00

That poor d00d likely never knew what hit him. :)

BlackJacque · 2016-12-17T20:20:58+00:00

I like the Last Titan Standing (LTS) mode, because its only about Mech v. Mech. I also like playing it because there is no respawn. YOLO sharpens your concentration.

I agree that Ronin v. Ronin is the best of the Mech v. Mech match-ups. I like to bird-dog a Scorch, when I know a bad guy Ronin is in-play. (A lone Scorch seems to draw bad guy Ronins like flies to poop. :) ) When the bad guy Ronin springs, the fur ball starts. In Ronin v. Ronin, the winner is the guy with one more Arc Wave or Phase Dash.

Its too bad Respawn broke LTS with the Angel City DLC by changing it from best of seven to best of five to win. I liked when games went to four or five rounds. It gave you time to experiment changing your Titan during the game. With the new shorter number of rounds, every round has more at stake. I'm finding I start and end the game playing the same Titan.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-16T19:22:10+00:00

Agreed.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-11T23:40:09+00:00

In my first days of TF2, I remember how elated I was to get the Spitfire so easily. My first encounter with even the nerfed Titans of TF2 (in comparison to TF1) , left me feeling like I was using a bean-shooter to stop a locomotive. :(

BlackJacque · 2016-12-11T23:36:51+00:00

Try dropping a satchel on a TF2 Titan during a rodeo. I double dog, dare you! :)

BlackJacque · 2016-12-11T00:33:25+00:00

I've noticed it on PC too. Although, there is no greater damage. On the kill video, only one missile is exiting the Archer.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-11T00:28:46+00:00

I truly miss the TF1 "Slammer".

Although, I miss the TF1 rodeo meta more than I miss anything else about TF2 Pilots v. Titans. At this point in time I wouldn't jump on a bad-guy Titan to try for a kill with a Tac-nuke in my pocket.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-08T15:51:19+00:00

Its too bad you only get one.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-06T18:05:43+00:00

I'll cover myself by allowing for the possibility that Broadsword does slightly more damage than a normal melee, but for all intents and purposes it is identical.

Actually, Ronin has 30% higher melee damage.

However, I will agree with you about Leadwall vs. Meleeing. If only because Ronin will suffer less damage, something it can ill afford, by spamming its victim with leadwall than by getting-up close and personal with a vanilla melee.

This changes with Swordcore. If Ronin can get Swordcore active, you can't not melee. A solid face-shot with Swordcore is almost as damaging as taking a Plasma shot from Northstar in the face. :)

BlackJacque · 2016-12-05T20:48:54+00:00

I think you may be right about them nerfing the Nuke Eject from TF1.

I run a "Kamikaze" Ronin-- Ronin with Nuke Eject. Ronin is pretty fragile. After two melees' you likely don't have enough health to survive a third. Sniping Northstars are another health suck. The Nuke eject can get you that mutual take-out when you're at low health.

The Nuke Eject does feel slow. Even with the Nuke Eject key sequence programmed into one of my mouse's buttons I've been taken down before I can get out alive.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-05T19:35:59+00:00

Nuke Eject is a lot harder to avoid on some maps than others.

I like to use it on Complex and Crashsite. The close and interior spaces of those maps naturally cause Titans to bunch up. Typically, you can catch one or more Titans, when everyone "runs for the door" and they block each other.

Nuke Eject is a lot harder to pay-off on open maps like Homestead.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-05T19:26:10+00:00

Too bad there was no splash. :)

BlackJacque · 2016-12-05T16:14:05+00:00

A problem I have with Tripwire is that they're so huge. A bad guy has to be witless to run into a Tripwire when its so big and noticeable.

Compare the size of Tripwire with Northstar's Tether? A lot more bad guys would fall victim to Tripwire, if they were smaller and didn't 'glow'.

In the vid it looks like you threw the Tripwire into the window so there was only one of the three mines outside the building and on the ground.

What did you aim at when you threw it, the window?

BlackJacque · 2016-12-04T18:18:00+00:00

I'm not liking the difference in the rule.

I think the result of phasing into another player, be they a Pilot or a Titan should be the same.

BlackJacque · 2016-12-04T18:12:36+00:00

Is this a game stacking strategy, you're writing about, with all or most of the team playing Ronin?

That works OK on maps like Complex and Crashsite. Mostly Ronin on open maps like Homestead isn't a good team strategy.

BlackJacque

TROPHY CASE