[/url][url=http://hellgateguru.com/2008/07/flagship-studios-is-dead/]Flagship Studios Is Dead

Teep semi-confirmed this and suggests that an official announcement is likely on Monday.

I'm a MOO noob, drawn to this forum by the new Imperia game. I've read the game reports and info on Sirian's and Sulla's pages, and am trying a couple games to learn the ropes before trying Imperia 10. Amazing how fun and addictive this game is.

My questions are about colony ships. First, is it worthwhile to arm colony ships? The AI certainly does, at least after the very early turns. But a couple comments in the game reports lead me to believe that AI colony ships do not get "consumed" like the players' do. Is this correct? It would certainly make arming them more useful if they weren't going to disappear upon reaching their target world.

Second, long range colony ships. Is it worthwhile to consider a huge model to fit the extended fuel tanks, during the early period before miniaturization allows a large to hold both specials? The expense is certainly big -- about 3.5 times a non-LR large model in my current game. For a 4-turn colony ship, that means about 10 additional turns of max homeworld production. But the LR would let me reach a very nice world, which has a bunch of stars beyond it which might mean a big expansion of territory. (Or they could be owned by someone I haven't met, of course. No scouting of my nice target world, though -- an Ocean 120!)

Do you ever use either tactic?

Also, final question: several posts have mentioned a strategy guide, which apparently contains all kinds of interesting info -- initial race relations, costs, etc. Where might I find this document?

Thanks for any advice you can offer this noob.

The world renowned Alice's Restaurant, most famous for its wide selection of exquisite wild games from hell, celebrated the grand opening of its latest eatery Alice's Restaurant #4 on the 4th of July. Alice Brock, the owner, has worked hard for years to strike down a deal, and finally secured the next best location for her most ambitious project to date.

The 24000 sq ft establishment offers ample space to cater to all functions large and small. Situated on a hilltop at the North East corner of Hell (just a minute’s walk from the Hellgate), AR #4 offers an unspoiled breathtaking panoramic view of Hell. The natural landscape was incorporated as parts of the architecture where here and there in the interior are jagged rock pillars and lava flows. “It’s most impressive feature”, said Alice “is the spiralling outdoor dinning area, which wind around a 120ft tall natural pillar (rumoured to be the late Bedlam’s favourite perch)”. You can almost touch heaven! Seating on the perch is limited, so book early.

What please Alice most, and undoubtedly its patrons will appreciate, is the guaranteed freshness of “Fresh Meat” - You can even pick a live “somewhat free range” specimen from the world’s first Lavaquarium. Alice’s Restaurant is a proud charter member of the 100-Mile Diet Association.

Whether you order off Alice’s daily menu, or have one of our highly trained chef prepare trophy dishes from your own hunt, AR #4 is the place for your ultimate dinning experience.

Alice’s Restaurant has proudly served:

Over 1000 Ravagers
990 Stalkers
890 Orbiles
10000 Beast
10000 Demons
10000 Undeads
3400 Imps
6000 Spectrals
8600 Zombies
38 Shulgoth

Since 1965

Be sure to stop by Alice’s Restaurant #4 when in Hell – It could be your last meal!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Doh, I couldn't remember what Mlvl Sydonai and co were so I searched the web and got the misinformation they were Mlvl 35. I would have attempted the run a few lvls younger than 36.

Tips: Excessive Force – if you have it, use it, as much as possible. Unlike Santa, monsters won’t check if you have been good or bad before they one shot you.

It is relatively easy going for an engineer through out the entire journey, especially after Molotov Assault and Repair Drone got going. Once there is enough Power to cast without waiting (too long) for recharge all the bots and drone are up constantly, doing damage and tanking keeping the toon safe. The only real threat left is stair traps.

Stair traps are dangerous with or without the electronic toys up. (read Stair Traps to Watch Out For) Having no room to run means you can’t avoid being hit, never mind what you are being hit with in the state of panic. I have now made a habit of hovering my thumb over the ALT key whenever I enter a zone.

Tips: I play HGL in windowed mode and drag the window just a hair pass the top right corner of desktop. I find that to be the fastest way to quit the game in a panic – Press Alt and run the pointer to the top right, and click. Faster than having to enter chat and type /leave or /quit.

The other habit I use is to activate Medpak before each battle. Medpak at 1 doesn’t do a whole lot but it’s and extra safety feature, why not?

It was my intention to at least get a HCE toon to finish Normal difficulty instead of seeking the most challenging path. AliceBrock has always kept up with the mlvl vs Clvl curve, and sometimes 3-4 lvls higher than the monsters. There are 3 main areas where she played to gain exp (and established Alice’s Restaurant #1, 2 and 3).

Shulgoth was farmed for items, gold and exp till lvl9. It was a helpful step, as the first toon in HCE, to establish a foundation for the toon and other HCE toons to come, to be able to afford packs of health injectors, and power injectors to cube for restorative.

Tips: Cube restoratives ASAP. They work on a different timer so Restoratives can be used while health injector is recharging, vice versa.

Alice’s Restaurant #2 was established at the Tower of London, where Alice earned many runes, a few pieces of unique items and a few levels.

Ploughyard gave Alice 5 levels and a mule full of items with gold lettering. I over levelled here since I thought Sydonai was lvl35. However, this is the place where I started to formulate a plan for the big showdown, broke down enough items for crafting material and a small fortune to shop for runes at the merchants and crafters. It also gave me chances for practice Bedlam runs – there were Brain pack now and then at close to the Bedlam’s level. Although much weaker than Bedlam, they are just as hazardous to get close to and kill. Bedlam, was the one I worry about the most, it is one monster most builds have trouble with.

Alice entered Hell with her armor pieces ranging from clvl14 to clvl27. They all have decent bonuses but hardly worth the materials (if I can afford them) to upgrade them all to lvl30, not just for a handful more of armor rating. Her prefer rifle is a lvl28 XM63 25mm mod’d for Phase attack, and her other one is a lvl23 Arclight Exothermic rifle mod’d for Ignite attack. I would have upgraded both rifles if I had mods to put in them after the upgrade. After balancing some pros and cons, Alice decided to throw a Phase attack rifle on the drone, and ended up using the Ignite attack Exothermic rifle as her main weapon. The Exothermic rifle also has +2 Molotov Assault on it.

Tips: when you see a Molotov Assault blow up beside you instead of where you aim it. 3 things -
Bad pathing bug
Some monsters (is about to) zoomed/teleported to you, you just don’t know yet
You are lagged big time. Do you feel lucky?

I didn’t even have a chance to get my Inhibitor Bots up before Rash greeted me at the entrance. At the same time, the Transmission popped up while I was in the middle of casting Construct Drone. I was in a panic, ready to quit the game. But I decided to tough it out after seeing Rash is only lvl30, not 35. A few MA later, Rash was down with rashes in the arse.

“For criminal acts and violence on the stage
For being a brat
Refusing to act your age
For all the decent citizens you've enraged
You can go to Hell”

I spotted Bedlam to the left so I went right. Bedlam would be last of the Lies I face, if I have a choice. Flaw came into view a few step to the SW, but Discord jumped me just when I was ready to move in. Discord gave me the runs, um, I meant got me running, him and his spawnontopofyou hordes. It caught me in a bad position in between pillars and the edge of the map. The retreat was embarrassing at best. The tank drone went down just when I got my back stuck on rock again. As a last resort I pulled off a combo I don’t like to be forced into doing, and one I thought I wouldn’t be able to do in a panic – Concussion Crash, Molotov Assault and Escape. That did the trick!

“For gambling and drinking alcohol constantly
For making us doubt our parents authority
For choosing to be a living obscenity
You can go to Hell”

My electronic toys dispatched Flaw’s minions as fast as he can summon them. Flaw went down without a fuss after a few flawless executions of Concussion Crash and Molotov Assaults.

“You're something that never should have happened
You even make your Grandma sick”


(Caption - Oops! Did I blow your leg off, or Sydonai got hungry?)

It happened that Bedlam was only slightly behind Flaw. He sent in a couple of flyers while I was running to hide. A liitle fast food was much appreciated after dispatching 3 big uglies. I met up with Despair more or less the same way I did Discord – Bad positioning and it took the tank drone down. But this time I didn’t run. I know I have room to run when it becomes necessary. Confidence counts, or kills. Despair met the same faith Discord did.

“You'd poison a blind man's dog and steal his cane
You'd gift-wrap a leper
And mail him to your Aunt Jane
You'd even force-feed a diabetic a candy cane
You can go to Hell”

Ah Bedlam! All my levelling, shopping and planning is focused on this hot air balloon. But really, it’s no grand scheme. I am not going anywhere near it. That’s it!

I have bought a gift for Bedlam. What’s up with Sniper rifles, why are they always dropping at such low ilvl? Merchants don’t help either. I shopped till I dropped then finally settled on a Tinted XM17 Stingray. 35 meter range just won’t do the job but luckily it came with +1 to Tactical Stance (+25% range), extending the range to 43.75 (however it rounds up/down). Originally, I planned to stuff the 4 mod slots with 100% Shield Penetration because the biggest problem with Bedlam is, it is hard to get a target lock on it with it fading in and out of range and being hidden behind new spawns. Shield Penetration is the way to go, to ignore its speedy shield regeneration. Alas, 3 lvlup and millions of shopping trips later only got me one mod with 32% SP. In the end, the Stingray was Mod’d to a total of 485 Poison attack strength, 103 Shield Overload and +24% damage to Spectrals.

The bots and drone had activated Bedlam when I was around 50 meters away. I decided to make a Stance at 40 meter, giving Bedlam some room to hover back and forth and still keep it in range. Bedlam cooperated and rarely flew out of range but still got covered by new spawns now and then. Now and then only because it wasn’t spawning crazy as it normally would. I don’t think the bots and drone (and with me at 40 meter range) count as a threat to it. That would also be why it didn’t make any sudden wild movements, flying out of range. But that’s only my speculation. Anyway, the toy was able to deal with all the spawns leaving me to totally concentrate on Bedlam. I was not under any attack in the relatively short time it took to shoot Bedlam down.

“You're something that never should have happened
You even make your Grandma sick”


(Caption: Most scenic backdrop for a family photo, My EToys and I)

Sydonai’s spell can do a fair amount of damage and hard to avoid with its AoE coverage. I did manage to only got hit a couple of times and that was enough warning to stay as far from it as possible. Beside, I don’t want it to jump on me and start sucking. The poor drone was not so lucky. It couldn’t withstand Sydonai’s barrage of assaults. I can barely keep the drone healed having to move around constantly myself. It was a good choice to pump Repair Drone to 3 to shorten wait time between heals, still, Sydonai managed to take down the drone twice before Squid Face got cut into pieces and served as calamari at a newly opened restaurant.

“I thought you’d be taller”


(Caption: self-censored)

===================================================


AliceBrock's build at 36 – I wish I know the ins and outs of the skills, the math, and even have a clue on some of the game mechanics, but I don’t. This is by no mean a best build, it is just what I have done and it worked, so far.

- Phase Grenade, 1 wasted point – I wasn’t thinking at the time. It’s useless unless one plans to pump the lvl to keep up the Phase Attack Strength.

- Beacon, 1 - would like to use it more often but my bar is full.

- Escape, 1 - Useful skill that might see more points if there are points left over. Escape was hardly used to escape. Escape was used to concentrate Molotov damage. Cast Molotov Assault and then Escape right away will make monsters gather around the drone, and cook. Especially useful when the drone is down, you can't hurt the monsters enough with Molotov if you are running. Escape will make you disappear as a target, monsters will scratch thier heads till they burn to death.

- Inhibitor Bots, 3 – prereq for Haste Bot

- Concussion Crash, 3 – prereq for Hast Bot

- Haste Bot, 1 - I consider I have wasted 6 points in this tree, at least where I am at (at the end of HCE Normal Hell). Haste Bot was rarely used, but I thought I would get it in case I am in a party. I prefer to use Inhibitors when soloing, which is 99.9% of the time. One point in Inhibitor would have been enough because its usefulness in not in the lack lustre ability to slow foe movement. Inhibitor bots ability to work as an early warning radar system and painting of targets, I consider a must have for HCE.

Concussion Crash saw some use once I got used to my bar and made a space for it, though I am not impressed with the results at lvl 3. Your mileage may vary. Someone better at keyboarding would find it more useful in combination with Molotov. Casting CC, MA, recast inhibitor and Rocket Bot back to back is a bit much for these butter fingers. Go KoP, who killed AliceBrock version 1 by slip-casting a PRD in the heat of a battle. Recall Portal is now outlawed on my skill bar.

- Rocket Bot, 3 – I have no idea how much damage each rocket does, or how much each extra rocket actually hit, or if it has any synergy benefit to Molotov Assault. This skill may see a down grade when Patch V2, which does away with prereqs, is live; if I am staying with the Drone build.

- Molotov Assault, 4 with +2 on the switch – Decent lvl, can use more points later.

- Construct Drone 4 – Was working alright at 3. Last point was put in due to a change of armours. A couple of +Minion Health and Armour items was switched out in favour of + player hp taking down the Drone’s health from 1950 to 1560, and 4% less damage absorbed. The difference was noticeable.

The Drone makes a good tank, and is a priority target for monsters. It works great together with Molotov Assault because the drone is a monster magnet holding them in the fire.

- Medpak Retrofit, 1 – This seemingly useless skill in non-hardcore is invaluable for HCE; a one point wonder at least. If you are a cheapo on injectors like I am, you are well aware that every time you use a health injector it cost 100 (adv) or 125 (nano). They often cost more than the items you sell to the merchant. In HCE, however, I always try to top up my HP bar even if I had only taken less than 100 of 1700 damage. I have had some close calls; one never knows when even 10 HP could mean the life and death of a toon – Especially when what you see does not agree with what the server sees. Medpak can also be used as an emergency heal whether you use it waiting for Health Injector to recharge, or in combination with Health Injector when you are hurting bad.

- Repair Drone, 3 - For more frequent drone repair when it’s needed. The Drone makes a good tank but not invincible.

- Gun Retrofit, 2 – Probably needed some extra stat points for the drone.

- Amour Retrofit, 2 – Probably needed some extra stat points for the drone.

- Sword Retrofit 1, - Will see some more points here soon since I have acquired NM Wart’s Leg (33 Will). That is 175 armour plus boost from Master Engineer bonus.

- Master Engineer, 6 – Better way to increase Drone’s armor if you are fighting between player’s armour/hp or drone’s armour/hp. As important as the drone is (in this build) the player, me, still come first.

- Shield Generator Retrofit, 0 – Should see at least one point when I have points (one more point into Medpak as prereq) to spare. Using Medpak and Shield Generator back to back should give an extra level of safety.


Stats
Clvl36
1704 health
Damage Absorbed 52%
40 stat points to spare
Shield 391
Armor 223
Elemental defences was not so hot with ignite being the highest at 1549 and the rest around 400-700

Health from items
+Health 7
+Stam 29
+Health% +38%
+All 40

Where the 3 pieces of armors has no +all, I chose +HP% instead

Oh right, Hell is only the next best location for a restaurant!? But of course, the best location is at the end of .................


KoP

Hey everyone, I hope one of you can help confirm a question about the relations that display in Master of Orion. I'm in the process of putting together the next Imperium, which will involve scoring in several different categories - one of which will be diplomacy. I've put together this list of the different "relations" categories that show up, from worst to best:

Feud
Hate
Discord
Troubled
Tense
Restless
Wary
Unease
Neutral (default)
Relaxed
Amiable
Calm
Affable
Peaceful
Harmony

I'd like to find out whether I have these in the right order, and/or which relations tabs I'm missing. (I believe I'm missing at least one of the "good" designations, since the list is not symmetrical.) Anything you can tell me based on your experience would be helpful.

Just a quick head's up to lead our Civvers know that our other turn-based strategy gathering is underway once again in the Master of Orion forums. If you would like to know more information, check out the Realms Beyond Orion homepage, and mosey over to the MOO forum. This is a great time to get in on the ground floor and experience a whole new game with our community.

Of course, we will continue running Civ4 Epics and Adventures as well.

Here I was thinking that my afternoon spent throwing together a site design for an old game could be completely forgotten about.

The site may not be pretty, but it does work. You can find out more about the game here.

What's old is new again.

The site is online! And the game looks gorgeous. I've never played any Diablo game but this looks like a promising title to track.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

There seems to be no official anticipation on when the game will actually be released.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

Gameplay video up.

Not even an estimated release date yet, and when you enter your birthday to play the gameplay video, the year "2008" is an option. The lowest game rating available is "EC" which requires you to be at least 3 years old, so someone at Blizzard is apparently estimating 2011 at the earliest

--Cy

ps--or 2021 if it gets a "T" rating...

Hey fellow RBer's. Sorry I've been a no show in recent weeks... thanks to Lord of the Rings Online. I always love LoTR, it's characters, lore, the story (books and movies). And recently LoTRO is offering a 14-day free trial. So I decided to try it out and I immediately fell in love with the game. It is closer to a WoW type MMORPG, but it is more PvE oriented (PvP in the form of duels, or Monster Play, allowing you to create high level monster characters and fight with other high level players). It is also better written, the storyline is better narrated, and the scenary is absolutely beautiful. The game itself is also very technically matured, there are very few bugs, features are quite complete and functional. There are just always some quests to do -- the quest log keep track of 40 quests and I can't even pickup every single quest I came across. And then there are player/guild (kinship) housing, which you can add additional storage space (can be shared across your alts, or guild members), and has many different style to choose from, and you can decorate your home with various internal/external decorations, which you can buy/construct/capture (you can stuff that big fish/bear you killed and show it off in your house!)

These are just a few things I love about the game. The various races and classes are fun to play too. They are similar to some of the common fantasy based RPG classes but with some interesting twists. I would totally recommend this game to you all and hope to journey Middle Earth together with you. Please go to http://www.lotro.com and you will find a link to the 14 day free trial. And they are also offering a $9.99 digital download of the game (offer ends 6/30) and $9.99 a month subscription (with a 3 month increment). They also offer a lifetime sub for $199... I am only going with the 3 month for now.

If you decided to try out the game and would like to look for me, this is my game info:
Server/Realm: Nimrodel
Character names:
Nougaran (Human Captain)
Nourin (Dwarf Guardian)
Inarien (Elf Champion)
Snoopo (Hobbit Burglar)

Hope to see you in Middle Earth!

PS: As a trial user, you can add my toons as friends, but you won't be able to send Tell directly to me (to avoid griefers and spammers). Please reply to this post and let me know your character name so I can add you to my friend's list too, then you can send me tells.