Preview of Upcoming Posts

A preview of some upcoming posts: (this preview is more for my benefit, as I forget ideas as I come up with them).

Painting Miniatures: There is an upcoming miniature painting competition over at the BattleTech forums, and I am going to submit a piece.  Here is a link to the thread!  And here is a link to the competition from last January, of which I won in the amateur division!   I will hopefully be going over everything from building the mini, through painting it and putting it on a base (or basing it, as they say).  Look for this one next month.

More Halo Weapon Comparisons: I hope to do quite a few more of these in the coming months, including, but not limited to, Pistols, Sniper Rifles, Shot Guns, and Plasma Rifles.  I think pistols will be next on my docket, because there are so many of them (6, compared to only 4 assault rifles) and then Plasma Rifles, because they are probably my favorite weapon of the series and there are also 7 of them, if you include the brute plasma rifle variety.

Lawn Patterns and the Study There of: I always get bored with a standard straight line pattern of mowing the lawn, so I usually like to mix it up a bit, and try and save time at the same time.  This has led me to the spiral, the wave, and a few other unique lawn cutting patterns.  I also hope to get a little math into the equation (no pun intended) and go over time benefits (or costs) of doing various patterns.

Every Man Needs Tools: A list of things men will always need, no matter how handy they are.  Dudes need tools, it’s just the way of that.  This will cover essential skills and physical tools needed for a man to live on his own, or with a girl who doesn’t know squat about fixing things (cough my wife cough cough). 

Why PC gaming is awesome, but not the only way to play: I love PC gaming.  Always have.  I have some history behind this, but I also want to say that I am a console fan (well, no playstation, but the rest).  This one will be about how gaming on the PC can be one of the best experiences if you are playing by yourself, but also on why consoles are necessary for a complete gaming experience.  Also, I hope in the future to go into computer building, which is a fun and great experience in and of itself.

And that should cover me for the next month or two!  I think I am going to be starting on a few of them simultaneously, but you’ll see at least one in the next week!

Model Rockets are Awesome.

A hobby of mine for many (many) years has always been model rocketry.  It is not an extremely common hobby outside of boyscouts and after school science clubs, but it is actually a lot of fun.  My dad used to enjoy rockets when he was young, and then he spread the hobby to my brothers and I when we were young.  Over the years I have collected and built upwards of 20 rockets and they are always a blast (pun intended).

Model rockets are not fireworks.  They are far more expensive and they take more time and effort, but they are also very rewarding when you see your rocket come down on its parachute and land into your hands.  Most rockets are made by the Estes company, which owns probably (my guess, not real numbers) 90% of the model rocket industry.  They sell ready to fly and build them yourself rockets of all shapes and sizes, and they sell the engines for them. 

So, if you didn’t know, model rockets operate on a few simple principles.  First, the engine will push the rocket up hundreds of feet.  Rockets are rated with letters, A-E for the common ones, and even up to the letter P for more professional rockets.  Farther the letter is down the alphabet, the more power it has.  I have only used rockets with engines A-E.  Anyways, once the propulsion is used up, there is a small delay, anywhere from 2-10 seconds of smoke charge, then there is the ejection charge. 

Most engines have rating numbers like B6-4 or C6-7.  The engine ratings are based on impulse, which is a measure of Force times time.  The second number is the average force of the engine in newtons.  So a C6 and a B6 have the same average force but the B6 burns for less time than the C6.  The last number is the smoke delay in seconds.  Here it is laid out on Wikipedia.

Launching them is obviously the best part.  Range is anywhere in between 400ft to almost 2000ft for multistage rockets.  The only disadvantage is the need for a large area to launch the rocket.  Our favorite has always been the local high school parking lot.  The key is to have enough running room to go and catch the rocket and also not lose it in a field of grass. 

If you haven’t had a chance to light rockets, it is a lot of fun.  I will admit I am beginning to ramble, but go out, drop $20 bucks and try it out.  I highly recommend it!

The Great Assault Rifle Debate

Okay, so my recent halo post was less than stellar in the writing department, and I knew that.  So let’s start on a new foot.  So I am going to write another Halo based post!  This one a bit more specific.

This is a topic only serious fans may have considered.  Which Halo’s Assault Rifle is the best?

Now, let’s take a quick look at the contenders.  We have Halo 1, the 60-round inaccurate death spewer, Halo 2, oh wait, there was no assault rifle in Halo 2, Halo 3, with its drastically improved 32-round accurate rifle, Halo Reach, with its gritty powerful rifle, and Halo 4, with the jack-all-trades rifle.  Each of these weapons are different, with Halo 1 being the most unique, and the other 3 being the bread and butter of the halo games.  The links I provided are to Halopedia, and each article compares the rifle to the previous rifle that came before it.  I will use these to help out my description, but also, how the weapon plays in a game and how it “feels” in my opinion, will also be looked at.

First, a few comments on the rifle itself.  It is notable that the gun is completely unrealistic for the sake of gameplay.  They do try and give it realistic stats to compare it to modern weapons, but compared to modern weapons, I would take the 50 year old AK-47 over a Halo assault rifle any day of the week.  The weapon (all of them ) fire M118 7.62x51mm Full Metal Jacket Armor-Piercing ammunition.  For reference, that link I gave you is for the Wikipedia article on the real ammunition.  Why would we be using the same ammunition 500 years from now?  It makes no sense really…   In my opinion, the Halo universe should be taking place in 2150, not 2550.  But anyways, continuing.  Now, AK-47s do use a smaller, less powerful round than the M118, but they do have an effective range of over 400m.  Most Halo maps are only about 200m across, and those assault rifles aren’t worth a darn at a range of more than 50m.  You’d think with 500 years to advance technology, they’d have some way to shoot a little further.  Of course, also, if the game was played by firing rounds at each other from a range of 500m, it wouldn’t be very fun, would it?

Now, let’s look at the guns.  First up, Halo 1.

The original Halo Assault Rifle, the MA5B, was more like a sub-machine gun instead of a rifle.  It had 60 rounds per clip, and emptied said clip in about 4 seconds (at 15 rounds a second).  It was an effective tool at close range, but was usually left behind for a more effective gun, such as the famed Halo 1 pistol (the M6D, if you were wondering).  It was excellent in Campaign mode against the Flood, second only to the shotgun, and was a great weapon against unshielded enemies.  Problem is, the hard guys have shields, and on harder difficulties, their shields just get better, which makes the gun useless against covenant on heroic or legendary difficulty.  Always effective against Flood infection forms, the weapon left a lot to be desired. 

For multiplayer, the gun was used as a default weapon for many maps, but it just didn’t cut it, and was commonly dropped for a better gun as soon as one came around, such as the pistol or shotgun.    But, it did have an advantage.  At close range, it only took 16 bullets to kill an opponent, which only is a quarter clip and that is quite fast.  I confirmed this by starting a multiplayer match on the map Rat Race, which has covenant deployable shields, which reflect assault rifle rounds at close range.  It does appear that it is only 16 shots.  I will confirm on my xbox later.  Problem comes as the accuracy is bad at any range over a few dozen meters.  Good luck landing 16 shots in a row at any difficulty.

The Halo 1 rifle does have the pluses of being the original and a lot of fun as a “spray and pray” weapon.  My wife and I have been playing campaign, and she has been loving just running into a crowd of enemies and mowing them all down.  This tactic, though fun, usually gets her killed.

Halo 2 was a bit of a conundrum.  The developers felt that in halo 1 the pistol felt more like a rifle and the rifle acted more like an SMG.  So, they created a pistol that acted like a pistol (a low powered, high rate of fire pistol), an SMG that acted like an SMG (carrying over the reticle and 60 magazine of the assault rifle, but with significantly lower damage) and a rifle that acted like a rifle (the favorite Battle Rifle seen in Halo 2, 3, and 4).  Problem is, they didn’t have a good weapon as a default weapon and they left a hole in their arsenal.  Which is where the Halo 3 rifle comes in, and it is the rifle that all the others try and copy.

Now, Halo 3...

The Halo 3 Assault Rifle, the MA5C, is a complete revamp of the assault rifle.  It fills in the Gap left between the SMG and the Battle Rifle.  This new rifle looks nearly identical to the Halo 1 assault rifle but plays very differently.  They have drastically reduced the number of bullets per magazine, from 60 down to 32.  But they drastically increased accuracy at the medium range.  Again, to fill the gap between the SMG and the Battle Rifle.  The rate of fire is lower, but *supposedly* damage per shot was increased.  Here is why I say *supposedly*.  It still takes exactly 16 rounds to make a kill with the Assault Rifle.  The rate of fire has been decreased compared to the halo 1 rifle (from the original 15 rounds per second to only 10).  But the accuracy increase makes the weapon much more usable and a great jack of all trades gun.

On a more personal note, the gun feels like it isn’t powerful, but then it kills your enemy, and you go “wow, this gun is good”.  It feels like it shouldn’t be as good as it is, so it is a nice surprise when you find this gun is awesome.  In multiplayer, this gun is usually your default, and that is not a bad thing, but it is commonly dropped for other “power” weapons.  But really, it is just as good as any other gun, and works great in combination with melee, grenades, or just other players.  It is also a master of none.  It is okay at long range support, but the carbine or BR are better.  It is great at close range, but the shotgun is better.  Dual spikers are better at medium range (of course, you lose melee and grenades).  It is just a great overall weapon, but many other weapons in different brackets can outperform it.

Next up, Halo Reach:

Halo Reach’s Assault Rifle builds off of Halo 3s.  Its looks are new, and is designed to be a more primitive design (though the game is only supposed to happen 4 months before Halo 3, but who is counting…).  The gun still has a 32 round clip, but it feels much more powerful.  They call the gun the MA37, but that is the Army designation.  The navy would call it the MA5 (where the Halo 1 rifle would be the MA5B, the second in the series).  Now, in the game, the rifle works much differently.  It works on a property known as “hitscan”.  This means that if your shot is lined up, and the random variation of the bullet firing crosses the path of your enemy, the bullet instantly travels and hits your enemy.  So, when a bullet fires, it instantly hits.  This is the same for the sniper rifle in all of the games, and the Battle Rifle in Halo 2 onward.  Before this, you would have to lead the assault rifle ever so slightly, because the bullets had travel time.  Also, bullets to kill has been increased, from 16 to 18-19 (varying sources, will try and confirm soon)(edit, just played a round with myself, it is 19 rounds to kill).  The gun feels more powerful than its halo 3 counterpart, but is in actuality less lethal.

Like I said, the gun feels more powerful.  I don’t personally use it much when playing, but I really should use it more.  It is still a great gun, and it feels much better than the Halo 3 rifle.  It feels deadlier, even though it isn’t.  It is very effective still when combined with melee or grenades, though it has been relegated back to its SMG like role, with the removal of the SMG.  In most multiplayer matches, there is no Spiker or Plasma rifle, so the shortest-ranged weapon besides the pistols or the shotgun really becomes the assault rifle.  And this is noticeable.  The removal of the SMG is really a disappointment, as it is sad to see the assault rifle moved back into the short range category.

And finally, Halo 4:

And this short range category is where it stays for Halo 4.  The halo 4 rifle feels a lot like the Halo 3 rifle, but it doesn’t have any lighter weapons to compare it to.  There is no plasma rifle, SMG, Spiker, or Mauler to compare the firepower too, and thus, it feels like one of the weaker weapons of the game, and also, one of the shorter range weapons, compared to its medium-range classification in Halo 3.  That being said, it is still a jack of all trades weapon.  It is a great compliment to one of the games many precision weapons (Battle Rifle, DMR, Light Rifle, or Carbine) and can fend for itself in closer range matches.  Now, I just ran a test in Halo 4, and the gun requires 16 shots to make a kill.  From what I can find on the internet, this has been the same since the release of the game, but a recent balance update states that: “The Assault Rifle damage has been slightly increased. The Assault Rifle now kills in three less rounds.”  Which would imply that it now only requires 13 rounds to make a kill.  This may only be so for matchmaking, but only more testing can prove this right or wrong.

Either  way the damage of the Halo 4 assault rifle is definitely higher than the Reach rifle, possibly even higher than the old Halo 3 rifle.  It doesn’t feel as powerful as the Reach rifle, which makes it slightly less fun. 

Now, for the winner.  We have the Halo 1 rifle, inaccurate death hose, the Halo 3 rifle, the new weapon that is surprisingly powerful, the Reach Rifle, which feels more powerful than it is, but is still fun to use, and the Halo 4 rifle, which gets its power back, but feels very short range.  From my descriptions, you have probably guessed the winner. 

The Halo 3 rifle takes the cake.  Every time I use it, it still surprises me.  It is an elegant weapon from a more civilized age.  It just gets the job done right. 

Now, some of you may disagree with me, but I love that Halo 3 rifle.  All the others have their strengths and weaknesses, but Halo 3 was the first that used the more accurate, lower ammo system that the other 2 were based off of. 

So, what do you think?

As a note, I would like to do more of these in the future, comparing pistols, plasma rifles, grenades, or anything else really in the Halo series.  Comment if you have a preference!

The Best Darned Grilled Cheese Sandwich You Have Ever Had

I like Grilled Cheese, and as such, I have developed a good one.  Actually, this is a pretty simple recipe, but I thought it would be a fun thing to post.

You need:

3 Pieces of Bread

1 Tbsp of Butter

4 Slices of cheese (I use Kraft Singles)

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet on medium
2. Melt the butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds
3. Spread the butter on one side of 2 pieces of bread
4. Toast the third piece of bread on the lightest setting of your toaster.
5. Place the bread, butter side down, onto the skillet.  Place 2 slices of cheese onto the bread in the skillet.
6. When the cheese becomes a little melty, place the toasted piece of bread on one of the grilled halves of bread.
7. Using a spatula, lift the other piece of cheese bread onto the toasted piece. 
8. Flip 1 or 2 times to make sure everything is cooked
9. Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite easy meals, so enjoy!

Halo.

This is pretty mainstream, but I have to say, I love Halo.

It is my go to game whenever I am bored, and I will never get tired of them.  They are some of the best shooters I have ever played, and they make one of the best social games I have ever played too.  What better to play when you have 2 or 3 friends over?  It is simply convenient, fun, and simple.  Well, they used to be simple, but we’ll get to that later.

I really didn’t get into halo until over 3 years after the game came out.  And never owning an Xbox until last year, I played on PC.  And man did I love Halo for the PC.  We got it for my older brother for his 17^th birthday, but I bet I have played that game more than he has.  Finding the tricks, beating it on legendary, playing local multiplayer (we didn’t care much for playing online; especially our mother did not like it).  We downloaded the custom edition version to get extra maps with new weapons, even halo 2 maps, so we could get a glimpse of the game that would not appear on PC until 2007.  We did everything with that game. 

I must have played Halo 1 (or Halo: Combat Evolved, or Halo CE) about 15 times.  Between playing it by myself, to playing it co-op with my best friend Kevin, to multiplayer with my brothers, it is always a joy to play.  Lately, I even have been getting my wife to play it with me.  And she likes it.  Surprisingly. 

Anyways, I didn’t really hear about the game until about 2004, even though it was extremely popular starting all the back to 2001.  We ended up buying the game for my brother for his birthday, and I have enjoyed that game ever since.  I have played it inside and out, on every difficulty (even legendary) and I found a good number of the Easter eggs.  This game is the best of the series in my opinion, foremost because it is the original.  It still has its flaws (crummy assault rifle, repetitive levels, over powered pistol), but it also has some major plusses (great story, over powered pistol).  They released a high-def remake back in 2011, but I haven’t had the opportunity to play that yet.

Halo 2 was a huge hit, biggest game ever at that point in time.  I got to play it on the Xbox a bit at my neighbors or some of my friends’ houses,   but I never played the campaign mode or for more than a half an hour or so until 2008, 4 years after I got halo 1.  Again, because I never played it on xbox because I didn’t have one, I had to wait for it to be on PC.  Then, when they did release it on PC, it was only available on windows Vista.  So we had to wait another year before I had a machine with Windows Vista and enough horsepower to play the game.  But when I did get it, it was awesome.  I had a blast, and it ran great on my new laptop.  Since then, I have also played the game many times on Co-op with Kevin.  The game will never be as good as the original.  It did a lot of things right, but it still wasn’t Halo 1. 

Now, Halo 3 came out before I even really got a chance to play halo 2.  There was a Beta they released back a few months before they released the game, and I did get one chance to play that, which was pretty cool because it was so different, and it even had some differences compared to the final game.  I even followed the ARG (alternate reality game) that was connected with Halo 3, and I got pretty excited at following the release of the game.  But I never really got to play it… Kevin didn’t have an xbox 360, nor did any of my other close friends.  My real chance to play it came 5 years after the game was released, in 2012 as a birthday present.

Kevin picked up an Xbox 360 as an add-on to his new laptop, and gave it to me, along with a copy of Halo 3.  It was an awesome gift, and I finally got to play the game that I have waited 5 years to play.  The control scheme was better than halo 2, and so was the campaign mode.  I plowed through the campaign quickly with my brother, and the game has come to be one of my favorites of all time. 

Shortly after getting halo 3, I also got a copy of Halo Reach, a prequel to Halo 1.  This game has become my go-to halo game for multiplayer because of its flexibility that makes it great for many players of varying skill levels to play.  I also played this one on Co-op with my younger brother, and I have logged many, many hours playing the game.  I played online for a while with it, the first of the series I really played online.  It was a great game, and very worthwhile to pick up.  Also, if you have younger kids that want to try out the game, it is the best game for them, due to the lack of Flood (the zombie enemies).  Halo 4 is pretty good too, but Halo Reach would be the best for the younger kids.

Halo 4 was the first halo game that I got within a year of its release.  It was quite unexpected when released, but overall, a very good game.  To be honest, it is (in my book) one of the poorer halo game, down with Halo 2, but even a bad Halo game is amazing.  The story was more complex than others, and more character based, but it was kinda confusing at times, but overall a good game.  The multiplayer was also very good, and it was the first that actually allowed you some degree of control over which weapons you get to use at the start of the level, which was cool, but there were significantly less in the weapons on the maps, which was not cool.  It was just a big difference in dynamics over the multiplayer of the previous games.

The last game that I played in the series, also a bit late, was Halo 3: ODST.  This was completely different than every other Halo game.  No shields, no dual wielding, and a non-linear storyline where you control a variety of different characters.  It was a complete departure from the previous 3 games.  And it introduced the firefight mode that was so greatly improved upon in Halo: Reach, which is Brad and mine’s favorite.  It was definitely a twist on the standard Halo formula.

Now that I have thoroughly ranted about the pluses and minuses of each game, which you probably don’t care about.  The key is, these are my favorite social games.  You can get a group of friends together and play for 20 minutes or for 5 or 6 hours.  It has become one of my favorite pass times and if you know me well, you probably have played it with me.  If you ever want to play, my gamer tag is Stinger410. 

Til Next time…

An Introduction to an Obsession of Mine

So, I have a nerdy hobby.  Well, I have several, but this is my nerdiest. Battletech.  Or, for people who may have played the computer games, MechWarrior.  This obsession/hobby (lately, it has been a hobby, but it has been an obsession in the past) has taken countless hours of my time over the last few years, and has peaked my interests since I was very young.  This will be my first post regarding BattleTech, but it certainly will not be my last.  This post focuses on the universe and board game, and I will be talking about miniatures, pc games, and more at future dates.

For those of you who do not know what BattleTech/MechWarrior is, here is a quick intro.  Big, stompy, robots.  It is a fictional universe where all wars are fought with 40ft tall walking tanks that can have up or more than a dozen different weapon systems.

The Mad Cat, once of the most recognizable Mechs

Okay, it is cooler than it sounds.  Just check out some of the awesome BattleTech art that is out there.  Or checkout MechWarrior Online, a free-to-play game based in the BattleTech universe.  There have been over a dozen PC games based on the universe and a huge number of novels, sourcebooks, and, of course, the original board game.

Now this is no ordinary board game.  It is probably one of the most complicated board games I have ever played, along with about 99% of the US population.  Basic rules are available online, but they do not cover nearly half of what the game has to offer.  But I will attempt to explain the game. 

BattleTech is played on a hex-based map system and is played with 2 or more players controlling 1 or more BattleMechs each.  Each mech can walk, run, jump, shoot, punch, kick, among other things, and the game play options are boundless.  Players play the game in multiple phases, and 4 or 5 phases make up a turn. Each player has a single record sheet for each mech they are using, and some assorted tables to help out with anything from movement to dice rolls.  Each turn begins with a movement phase where both players move their mechs.  Then comes the weapons firing phase, where each player designates which weapons are going to be fired at which enemies on the board.  Weapons use dice for probabilities to hit, and aspects such as movement, range, and individual weapons affect which numbers are needed on the dice.  When the weapons fire is all designated, damage is allocated.  Every mech is divided into several sections, 2 legs, 2 arms, 2 side torsos (with corresponding rear torsos), a center torso (also with a rear section) and the head.  Within each section is the critical equipment, the engine, weapons, explosive ammunition, to name a few.  A mech is destroyed if the head or cockpit is destroyed, the engine or center torso is destroyed, and pretty much if both legs are gone (but some players can decide to play on with a mech with no legs).  After armor is damaged and equipment damage is taken care of, players have the option of physical attacks.  These come in the form of punches, kicks, tackles, and swinging clubs.  Once that is done, the last step is heat, and this is where BattleTech is truly unique.  Each weapon generates a certain amount of heat.  So does walking or running.  Mechs have a certain ability to dissipate heat, but it is rarely enough to handle everything the mech can do.  So, when heat gets too high, your mech can’t move as fast, or shoot as accurately, and may even shutdown.  If you let the heat get way too high, it will cook off your ammunition and send the mech exploding into the air.  Once heat is taken care of, a turn is complete, and you repeat the process until your win or lose.

The Board Game being Played

It sounds tedious, but it can be a lot of fun.  I haven’t had many opportunities to play, but I have played at least half a dozen times with my cousin Jeff or my best friend Mike.

I have been interested in Battletech for a long time, ever since the early 90s when my dad put an old game called MegaTron on our computer.  The game used two mechs, one called a Mad Cat and the other a Vulture.  You would walk around in a maze and try and kill each other.  It was a dumb game, but the mechs were cool.  Then, we (as in my brothers and I) got a glimpse of an awesome game, Mechwarrior 2.  We had a full copy of the game, but it had an issue.  It was designed for a Matrox Mystique graphics card, which we did not have.  So, we could look at the mechs and read about the history and equipment of the BattleTech Universe, but we couldn’t play the game.  But my elder brother and I saw that same Mad Cat and Vulture, and they were still really cool.

Then we hit a hiatus.  With no access to MechWarrior 2, and no other exposure to battletech, my brother and I forgot about it.  We didn't really come back to it until probably the year 2000-2001.  We started looking at Mechwarrior 2 again and started wishing to be able to play a Mech game.  Then, one fateful day, my Dad came home with a brand new copy of MechWarrior 4: Vengeance.  It was amazing.  We already had a good joystick, and it was just a ton of fun, driving our 40ft tall, 100 Ton death machines.  My favorite mechs always were the Shadow Cat and the Daishi (or Dire Wolf, the cooler name),   while Andy always liked the Mad Cat Mk II and Brad liked the Cougar. 

MechWarrior 4 was a great game.  I must have played each version of it (Vengeance, Black Knight, and Mercenaries) about 6-8 times each (over a 12 year period, mind you).  Now, in the back of the Vengeance manual there was an advertisement for the metal miniatures, which got me thinking, I would love to own some of the mechs that I saw in those games.  But I never looked into it further. 

Then, in 2002ish, I saw an ad in the back of the MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries for the MechWarrior Dark Age miniatures game.  I decided I wanted it, got all my money I had, and I bought it.  It was quite fun, and I had 5 or 6 mechs, and a bunch of tanks and infantry.  My brothers and I would play every once and a while, and it was a good time.  Our interests died down, and I didn’t pay much attention to battletech again for a while.

I bought the premier set, it was awesome.

Then 2009 hit.  2009 was the 25^th anniversary of BattleTech, and Piranha Games just announced a new MechWarrior title, and it had a sweet trailer.  Around the same time, I started to frequent sarna.net, the BattleTech wiki page.  And, I purchased the first 3 novels for BattleTech, the Grey Death trilogy.  After that, I borrowed some more books from my cousin Jeff, and I have been on and off reading novels ever since. 

In December of ’11, I finished my descent into nerdiness, I bought one of those miniatures I talked about earlier.  Then, I had so much fun painting it, I bought 3 more.  

My First 4 Miniatures.  Beginning of the End.

And they are fun to paint.  So then, I bought the introductory box set, which came with another 26 miniatures, and I have slowly been buying other products and other miniatures.  My interests in it have slowed down lately, but as history would have it, I’ll probably pick it up again, drop it again.  I still keep an eye on the BattleTech forums to see what people are painting or what new products are coming out, and I play a bit of MechWarrior Online from time to time, though I don’t spend any money because it is a bit too pricey for me. I have also since went back and bought MechWarrior 2, and it was an awesome game.  A lot of fun.

It is a very fun hobby, and it has taught me a life lesson.  Nerdy things are fun.  I mean, why else are people interested? I have never been much into sports or politics or pop culture, but nerdy things, them I do.  And they are just toys for big kids, and I have a good time.

Future Project Cars

Now, my house has a large detached garage, room enough for 4 more cars, than the two my wife and I drive.  I want a project car.  Now the question is what kind of car I should get.

Now, let’s put a few restrictions on my search.  Nothing more than $10k, because I will need a budget for upgrades.  Preferably pre-2000, to make the engine easier to work on (though this is not a hard limit).  And something that can take a turn.  That one is important, and pretty much kills the chance of traditional muscle as a possible project car.  I don’t really want anything older than 1980, just because I don’t care for classics myself and those tend to be at a higher price for so-so condition cars.  Lastly, I would prefer a manual transmission.

You will notice that I have a lean for the domestic.  Even then, some European cars are more than okay, but I am going to avoid the Japanese imports.  Yes, even the Miata.

My hope is to have a summer car that would be fun to drive, not too expensive, and maybe something I could go out and autocross with every once and a while.  Let’s look at the contenders:

Chevy C4 Corvette: This is probably going to be my #1 choice, but most of the time my #1 choice ends up not happening, such as when I was going to buy a 2012 mustang V6 and ended up buying a 2012 focus .  This car has a lot of what I want.  V8 Engine, the ability to take a corner, 4 wheel independent suspension, 4 wheel disc brakes, and the availability of T-tops.  To top that all off, you can find many of them in the price range I am looking at for less than 10k with less than 100k miles, though those are mostly automatics.  Issues:  Manuals are hard to find.  The people who actually care about cars bought manuals and they kept them, making manual transmission C4s just plain hard to find.  Another issue is the Corvette tax.  Parts made for corvettes are just more expensive.  I haven’t done much research on this, but from what I hear, it can be substantial.  Luckily, the engine parts are usually compatible with the Camaros and Firebirds of the same time period.  This car has pros for its strong history and great stock features, but it may be an arm and a leg to turn into a nice project car.

Chrysler Crossfire:  This little roadster is a favorite of my wife, and not a bad little car either.  Surprisingly, even Jeremy Clarkston of Top Gear liked this car for being a great deal on a pretty good sports coupe.  It has a 3.2L engine that makes 215HP, which is comparable to the corvettes I am looking at.  Advantages come with the availability of good looking convertible.  0-60 times are pretty good (see Wikipedia article I linked above) and the price is right.  Problems come in the fact that it is a pocket Mercedes and that it is a newer car, making it harder to work on.  Electronics and plastics really make a project car more difficult.  This car can take a turn too.  Pulls 1G on the skidpad stock, and with some summer rubber, I bet it will do another .05 beyond that.  This will be a good choice, especially if I can find a manual.

Really, these were the only two cars that have been on my mind.  My elder brother likes looking at Porches from the 80s and early 90s, which would be good choices also.  I really don’t care for a small, forced induction engines, so I am not really looking at the turbo 4-bangers of the 2000s.  2 exceptions to that would be an Eagle Talon turbo and a Dodge Spirit R/T, though the latter is almost non-existent.  

Lastly, and I know this breaks my no Japanese cars rule, but a Dodge Stealth R/T would also be a really cool car.  It had a twin turbo engine making almost 300HP and 300 Lbf of torque.  It would be an interested car indeed.  Also, very hard to find.

I still have quite a while before I have to decide which car I am going to get.  Have to wait til my wife’s school is done and wait for some cash to build up, but til that time comes, I will have to just wait and wish.

Star Fleet Command

So, lately, I have been interested in an old pc game series of mine, Star Trek: Star Fleet Command.

The game is a real time combat game based of a very old tabletop strategy game called Star Fleet Battles.  It is one of the more unique games that I have ever played, not quite a real time strategy, not quite a simulator, but an experience all to itself.  It involves taking command of a Starship from any number of species and fighting, exploring, scanning, talking, and doing all sorts of Star Trek things.  It was oddly turn based, but also real time, so it is hard to explain.  If I can find a good youtube link for it, I’ll put it further down in this post.

First, let’s give a little background on the series and its inspiration.  Star Fleet Command is based on Star Fleet Battles.  It was (and still is) a tabletop strategy games, one of the most complicated I have seen in a long time.  It was, in turn, based solely on the Original Series of Star trek and the Animated Series.  It was unique in the fact that they had a license to the name Star Fleet, but not Star Trek.  So when new things came out, such as the original movies, Next Generation, and beyond, Star Fleet Battles (or SFB) was left out, and couldn’t use any of that material.

They got their rights from a publisher of the book, the Star Fleet Technical Manual, a book of schematics by a man named Franz Joseph.  He had the original Enterprise included, but he also created several unique ships such as the Federation Class Dreadnaught and the Saladin Class Destroyer.  Here is a link to a picture of all of his ships.

So what did they do?  They made their own Star Trek Universe, in this case, known as the Star Fleet Universe.  They used many of the original aliens used in the original Star Trek, the Romulans, Klingons, Tholians, Orions, and a few others, some from the Animated series, such as the Kzinti (also known as the Mirak in Starfleet Command II), and they  created a few species of their own, such as the Lyrans and the Hydrans.

The game was a complicated one, played in long turns divided into 32 sub-turns, and played on a hex-based map.  The game was obviously a tactical combat game, played with 1 or more players and any number of ships, from one on one to dozens of ships (though a game that big would take a long time).  Players could manage almost every aspect of their ship, from target lock ons to scanning and launching probes, to firing phasers, disruptors, photon torpedoes, and huge array of other weapons.

An image of SFB Miniatures on a game Board.

Now, Starfleet Command was a unique prospect because its developers had the rights to both star trek and Star Fleet Battles.  This meant they could use newer Star Trek content and the SFB rules set to create a pretty cool computer gaming experience. The game was set in the Movie era of startrek, meaning the Refit Enterprise and the Miranda Class from Wrath of Kahn.  They also made some new ships, such as my all time favorite, the Akula Class. Everyone starts out with 1-3 ships whether it be campaign, skirmish, or multiplayer.  Ships have a set amount of power that can be used for any number of ship functions: transporters, tractor beams, shields, weapons, propulsion, and more.  Missions range from simple pirate hunting one on one to saving the earth from a huge fleet of Planet Killers.  Game play videos don’t give the game credit, but there is a demo and it works fine on windows 7, as long as you adjust the compatibility settings.  Also, all of the tutorials were voiced by George Takei, which is pretty cool (Sulu, for those of you who don’t know).

Starfleet Command Volume II was more of the same, and when it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  Two more species were added, one of my favorite, the Mirak (or Kzinti from the original tabletop game) and the Interstellar Concordium.  The campaign has had some overhauling, but overall it is more of the same Starfleet goodness.

Starfleet Command 3 was a departure from the original 2.  The developer and publisher switched from Interplay to Activision, after Interplay tanked (which was a sad day, they had some great games).  With the change in publisher, came some dumbing down of the game.  Controls were simplified, ships became customizable, and the time period was moved forward to a time slightly after the last Star Trek Next Generation movie.  We got to pilot all the ships from the 90s tv shows and all of those movies.  It was fun, but it lost something when it became simpler.  But, on the plus side, it include the borg as a playable race, and even better, the game was narrated by Patrick Stewart, which pretty much made the game amazing.

Overall, the games are great, and they are not a well-known piece of gaming history, but they are worth the time to take a crack at.  They are not easy to jump right into, but the tutorials do a good job, but the 150 page manual is kinda  a fun read, at least for me…  I would still be interested in trying out the tabletop game, but I doubt I know anyone with the patients for that kind of game.  I do hope to get some miniatures from that game, just for the fun of it.  You’ll find out how I enjoy miniatures in some future posts.  Unfortunately, you cannot buy these games anywhere and they have been out of circulation for many years.  I am sure there are copies out there on amazon and ebay, and the demo is available.

If you have a chance, definitely check these games out.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my blog!  My name is Matt, and I am engineer working in southeast Michigan.  I am 22 years old, and an engineer at a local automotive company.

Many of you reading this probably already know me, but , with this blog being about my (many) random interests, I’ll dive into a little about myself.  I have always lived here in southeast Michigan, and went to Oakland University, a local public research university not far from where I live.  I graduated back last year, and I have been employed as a developer at my company ever since.  I am a devout Catholic, and I met my wife back in a high school youth group.  We are both still active in the church, and really enjoy the community of it.

My wife is only slightly younger than I am and grew up not 10 miles from me.  She is a beautiful, quiet girl who has just brightened my life since we met.  But, enough we the gushy-ness.  We started dating about 5 years ago and were married last august.

Just in the last month, we purchased our first home, which will be the focus of many posts over the course of this blog.

Many of you who know me will realize that I am not just an average man, but a bit of a nerd at the same time.  My interests cover the full spectrum of guy and nerd interests.  From video games and cars to miniature war gaming and home improvement, I’ll be writing just about everything.

Now, I have never had a blog before, and I know that they are kinda 5 years ago, but I wanted to start writing more than corrections to Megan’s papers or technical documents at work.  I hope it will be enjoyable to all who read it, and I look forward to future posts!

Until Next time…