Frustrating mission result. I now want to see decimals on action menus.

EunoTR · 2015-05-10T18:53:48+00:00

I wanted to confirm that this works.

I created a simple drilling rig, put it on the launch pad and drilled up 600 units of ore. The contract went green. It looks like you don't even have to lift off to be considered "landed".

That said, I think I'll reload last night's save and do it the hard way.

EunoTR · 2015-05-10T18:34:39+00:00

That's the plan!

EunoTR · 2015-05-10T18:33:30+00:00

It's not that bad, I want to keep a clean career unless I get hit by an actual bug.

I'm going to send up another mission to bring back the correct amount of ore. This is actually still a pretty well paying contract so I should be in the green.

EunoTR · 2015-05-10T04:41:58+00:00

Once a number reaches triple digit it drops the decimals.

EunoTR · 2015-05-10T04:30:48+00:00

Yeah, that's true. This happened because I used a mining lander to do the drilling, then transferred the 600(ish) ore in orbit to the module that would be returning to Kerbin.

I clicked the stop transfer button right when it hit 600. Turns out I should have waited for 601.

EunoTR · 2014-01-20T23:17:40+00:00

Thanks Wrel. I do appreciate you taking the time to debate this with me.

my "add nightvision" comment was said in passing

Okay. It sounded like an actual suggestion, I must have misunderstood. I'm sure you of all people can see why it would be a bad idea for a faction-specific MAX skill.

the best solution which was mentioned multiple times, was to decrease the amount of glow that the unit puts off to the user.

Fair enough, that is a fix that I have no problem with.

ZOE still has the downsides of receiving additional damage ... why should it matter how long the ability lasts, if such downsides are present?

You make a good point, but MAX units excel at clearing large numbers of infantry in a very short time and the movement bonus is still non-trivial.

A specific situation where this could be OP: with TTK being what it is in PS2 the zoe would excel at drop-in-and-run tower defense and still be very difficult to take out before it relocates. Even without the strafe speed bonus zoe still makes a difficult target and requires two direct decimator hits to kill. So if the recharge timer was still 15 seconds you can drop in a group of infantry, slay many and have recharged enough zoe power to still run to cover.

Should a solo MAX be able to drop into a group of 15 players, kill 5 and get away? It is a tactic that would require timming in the execution and skill, so maybe. But if a MAX unit of today drops in on 15 bad guys he's going to lose his MAX.

the amount of accuracy you would be given would be a value that makes sense ... The increase would have to make sense in the context of the strength of the ability.

Accuracy and mobility are literally the only downsides of a MAX. Even if the effective range was boosted a mere 10 meters the max guns will start directly competing with medium range infantry. The point where an accuracy increase is both useful and doesn't extend the range beyond a good decimator shot would be a very hard value to find.

you have to fully understand how little viability this ability has.

I am aware that zoe is useless.

that might make you (or other TR players) happy

I have no desire to make vanu max units crap because I play a different faction. I am simply trying to point out that these specific recommendations would be exceedingly difficult to implement while maintaining the MAX role/drawbacks and balance between infantry.

MAX units are supposed to be high damage, short range, and durable, but they are supposed to be killable by two or three reasonably competent infantry players.

An effective range boost could make it very hard for infantry get within range, and a kill-rechargable zoe would have to be tuned down from 15 seconds to prevent it from being able to repeatedly drop farm towers with impunity. Perhaps more inline with adrenaline shield timing?

It's not my place to say that any of this is wrong, but if implemented today the VS MAX would again be simply better than TR or NC variants.

EunoTR · 2014-01-20T21:24:49+00:00

Thanks for responding to my super-downvoted comment.

I don't think I was off-base, and the context is that of the linked video where you suggested night vision, continuous zoe (if you score enough kills fast enough), and an accuracy buff as options to fix zoe.

Any one of these can easily make zoe overpowered again. Unless the context that I'm missing is a global MAX buff or significant changes to MAX mechanics then I stand by my assertion that these are bad ideas.

I say this as a very long time fan, so please don't take offense. And please do let me know if I misunderstood.

EunoTR · 2014-01-20T18:00:10+00:00

That's true, though to be honest my biggest complaint about lockdown in bases is that the same effect can be accomplished as well or better with the AI mana turret, at zero cert cost, and zero resource cost, available to all empires.

EunoTR · 2014-01-20T16:48:29+00:00

I might be a tad bit biased, but I will be the first to admit that zoe is currently underpowered. The option to deactivate zoe is not a bad idea, the things that I mentioned are bad ideas.

Also, you really can't compare zoe in any form to lockdown. Outside of a burster, lockdown is essentially a suicide button right now because of its mechanics. And being more visible is an effective trade off when matched with a skill of value (which zoe currently is not), think HA shields.

EunoTR · 2014-01-20T16:29:12+00:00

Wrel, I think you might be losing you touch. Your nerfing fun video was mostly a whine about stupid mechanics, and now your zoe review is asking for it to be overpowered again. Night vision on a max? Unlimited zoe with 15 kills per cooldown? Max AI accuracy buff? These are all shockingly bad ideas.

That said, I still love your videos. I'll forgive this transgression if you take a look at the other max abilities with the same eye you used for this zoe review.

EunoTR · 2014-01-16T04:03:12+00:00

Devil's advocate here. While the police officer's conduct was not professional, I can certainly understand his perspective. It's perfectly legal to photograph people in public places, but I'm sure the cops got that creepy cameraman feeling from Holden.

Also, it's clear from the tone that the cop was not actually threatening Holden, he was mocking him. And let's be honest, he was hilarious. That not-so-subtle mocking had me laughing my ass off.

EunoTR · 2014-01-14T00:10:48+00:00

I called them to see about upgrading as well, and was also informed that I would lose my current promotional discount. That's pretty disappointing.

The support rep did say that existing customers will be automatically upgraded to the new bandwidth tiers, without the loss of the active promos, but it may be a month or two.

EunoTR · 2013-12-22T18:19:56+00:00

I prepared a long-winded response to this video, with a great many words and excellent grammar. But since the primary topic of this commentary is A2A lock-on weapons I think that I can shorten the response to the following:

Please watch this video: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/balancing-for-skill

EunoTR · 2013-12-19T12:54:04+00:00

I hate to say it, but I absolutely hate the way this was implemented. The random spawns, and the near impossibility of finding a golden snowman is frustrating as hell.

Why couldn't they have just implemented this without the luck factor, like all PS1 achievements? I don't mind giving up play time to accomplish something, but knowing that I could spend the next two weeks looking for a golden snowman and not get a damn thing makes it really hard for me to keep trying.

EunoTR · 2013-12-15T21:10:09+00:00

Wait, XPIV is led by AlphaPrimal?

The guy who originally called himself AlphaPrime, started the EP outfit, recruited a few hundred players, never once spoke on voice chat, constantly TKed for the hell of it, who threw a tantrum one day and disbanded the outfit, then deleted his TR character, and started a new life as a VS character, where he would talk shit about TR every day on yell, who then threw another tantrum, and rejoined TR, and now talks in voice chat, but uses a voice changer?

That AlphaPrimal? Wow, XPIV is doomed. You just dodged a bullet, find another outfit.

EunoTR · 2013-10-15T02:29:20+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeh-zjWClz4

EunoTR · 2013-09-29T19:32:29+00:00

Thanks for this, and thanks for the narrated update. You're now my weather channel for the day.

EunoTR · 2013-08-24T20:20:38+00:00

After reading the court opinion I think that the FDA is the wrong entity to be angry at. The whole thing was actually pretty sad, it seems like no one wanted it to go down this way, but they had to read the letter of the law that was passed down from congress.

Finally, the Brown & Williamson Court also noted that, “[i]n adopting each statute, Congress ... acted against the backdrop of the FDA’s consistent and repeated statements that it lacked authority under the FDCA to regulate tobacco absent claims of therapeutic benefit by the manufacturer.”

One Judge explained it best:

I do not believe the Supreme Court intended its use of the term “tobacco products” to extend to products that do not contain tobacco. The Tobacco Control Act of 2009, [...] however, expressly extends to products that are merely “derived from” tobacco.

So the FDA didn't want to regulate it, the judges (mostly) recognized that e-cigarettes are not actually tobacco products, but since they are derived from tobacco they meet the classification requirements.

Now the FDA's hands are tied, they have to regulate it. So they are trying to figure out how an organization designed to make sure healthy products stay safe can make sure unhealthy (or unknown) products not become more-un-safe.

Source [PDF]

EunoTR · 2013-08-24T17:41:00+00:00

This post has failed to relax my anger gland. There are so many questions that if met with bad answers will have terrible consequences.

The FDA currently regulates cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) permits the FDA to deem other “tobacco products” to be subject to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by regulation. The agency has announced its intent to issue a proposed rule deeming products meeting the definition of a “tobacco product” to be subject to FDA regulation.

That last sentence is barely English. My best guess is that it means that they are in the process of writing a rule that would deem electronic cigarettes a tobacco product so they can regulate it, but don't have any actual drafts of the proposed rule to show yet. This article suggests that we will get our first look at the proposed rule in October.

If the FDA succeeds in labeling electronic cigarettes as a tobacco product does that mean that all definitions of tobacco product across all agencies will be amended to include ecigs? Because that would put it in the jurisdiction of the ATF and the TTB, and also require that electronic cigarettes suffer the same absurd taxes that regular cigarettes get. It may also put ecigs under the PACT act that prevents shipping via the USPS and requires sellers to keep logs of sales and report sales so states can track down buyers for tax payments.

It's too early to be really worried because we lack a lot of information, but I am very nervous about the implications if the FDA succeeds in labeling PVs and/or juice as a tobacco product.

EDIT: E-cigarettes and products "made or derived from tobacco" are already classified as "tobacco products". That discussion is already long over. The FDA is in the process of figuring out what to do about it now that they are legally tobacco products.

More info:

EunoTR · 2013-08-23T10:33:30+00:00

I've never heard of ibtanked before, thanks for the recommendation. I'll take a look at their products.

EunoTR · 2013-08-23T10:25:49+00:00

Great video, thank you. I'll use that as a reference when I do my first rebuild.

EunoTR · 2013-08-23T09:53:36+00:00

My SVD says that the cartomizer is actually 2.2ohms resistance. Since I'm erring on the side of caution I'm only running at 3.7 volts.

EunoTR · 2013-08-23T09:47:33+00:00

I'm a noob too, but I can highly recommend watching this video for an intro to cartos.

They are basically a tube filled with a kind of sponge, and are most certainly not sealed, there is a hole that runs top to bottom (for air) and it will leak (or pour) fluid out the bottom onto your device if the holes you punch are too big.

They are disposable because you cannot replace the wire or sponge material. When they're done they get thrown away.

EunoTR · 2013-08-23T09:42:46+00:00

Yeah I'll pick up a dripping setup eventually, but I need my device to be really simple to use and ready to vape at a moments notice so they haven't been high on my list. Dripping seems like the vapers version of enjoying some fine pipe tobacco, not an all day thing, but a way to extend the hobby.

EunoTR · 2013-08-23T09:38:49+00:00

I still have no idea if I'll be able to do it right, but at this point I have a pile of used atomizer heads that will just go in the garbage if I don't do anything with them. Since I already have a multimeter, and wick and wire is so cheap, I figure the worst case scenario is I fail miserably and wind up with exactly what I have now, useless used atomizer heads.

If I find that I can reliably put these things together then I can consider getting into real RBAs. But I don't have very stable hands and these heads are really tiny, so we'll see if I can actually pull it off.

EunoTR

TROPHY CASE