Happy "extra long weekend" Friday

[JudgeDredd]

I don't know about "breeding you an heir that can get my dynasty back on the straight and narrow"...but it might just breed you an air with 3 feet and 7 fingers

[Martok]

Holy crap! 

So I've had Birth of the Federation installed on both the XP and the Win7 halves of my hard drive for quite some time now.  However, I'd not gotten around to installing MPR++ onto the Win7 version until yesterday.  Well I don't know what I'd been doing wrong previously, but I obviously hadn't had it installed correctly before (at least not on the XP version of BOTF), because ZOMG! the game looks freakin' fantastic now, especially where the ships are concerned.  It makes BOTF look like a game that's merely 5 years old, instead of 15.  :P 

The bad news is, MPR appears to be incompatible with a lot of the community-made patches/fixes for the game.  So at least for the moment, I must decide which I value more -- gameplay, or snazzy visuals.  Argh!  Why can't I have both?? 

Good news!  I've discovered it's actually only a single (mostly inconsequential) patch that doesn't work with MPR.  So I can still get my snazzy visuals and good gameplay after all.  Hooray!  :D 

So I won the fight for my Duchy and then my ruler went and had 6 daughters.  So I switch to elective succession and picked the best of my daughters for the next ruler.  When she comes of age I find her a husband with awesome stats and arrange a matrilineal marriage so that I keep all my titles.  Shortly after the marriage is final I realize that the dude was my Great Uncle and sister's oldest son .... So I guess in the end he won.  :)

Hold on:  So your great uncle -- and the new husband to your capable daughter -- was your own nephew??  :o  WTF??! 

That would be correct.  ;D  I am hoping that this unholy union will breed me an heir that can get my dynasty back on the straight and narrow. 

So many questions... 

[TheCommandTent]

^ An this is why CKII is such an awesome game! :)

[Greybriar]

GOG.com is again offering all the games that it featured during its Battle of the Games event and I picked up Blackguards Special Edition. It's downloading now and will be a good change of pace for me, so I will probably be putting a few hours into playing it this weekend.

[bbmike]

Good news!  I've discovered it's actually only a single (mostly inconsequential) patch that doesn't work with MPR.  So I can still get my snazzy visuals and good gameplay after all.  Hooray!  :D 

So exactly which mods are you running now?

[Martok]

Good news!  I've discovered it's actually only a single (mostly inconsequential) patch that doesn't work with MPR.  So I can still get my snazzy visuals and good gameplay after all.  Hooray!  :D 

So exactly which mods are you running now?

AAM (All the Ages Mod), UDM3 (Ultimate Dominion Mod III), and -- as always -- BOP (Balance of Power). 

I *had* been playing a bit more of the first two (especially UDM3) lately.  Partly because of their different settings/gameplay style (BOP tends to be touted as a "greatly improved vanilla" -- sort of like what the XL Mod was to Medieval Total War/Viking Invasion), but also because -- quite frankly -- the ship models in those two mods were more updated and looked a lot sexier.  (Gods help me, but I really am starting to become a graphics slut in my old age... :-[ ) 

However, all that's changed now that I've gotten MPR to work properly.  It isn't compatible with AAM (at least for now), and bestows only modest visual improvements on UDM3 (since they were so good to begin with); so of the mods I currently have installed, BOP has far and away enjoyed the most dramatic improvement in terms of looks.  And since I've always enjoyed BOP's gameplay the most, I've now returned to it with a vengeance! 



To give an example of what I'm talking about, here's what the Federation's Galaxy-class starship looks like in Balance of Power, sans MPR: 





Now to be fair, by the standards of the time (BOTF was released back in 1999), that's probably not too shabby.  However, it doesn't change the fact that they still don't look that great today. 

However, this is what the Galaxy looks like with MPR installed: 






Take another iconic example -- the Klingons' K'tinga-class battlecruiser.  It's a ship I've always found to be ugly, yet even MPR manages to give it a certain brutal grace. 

Before MPR:





And after: 







It's still not cutting-edge or anything, but it's definitely a big improvement.  The fact that MPR also seems to have allowed some folks to run the game on newer machines/OS's where they couldn't previously is a point in its favor as well.  :) 

[Jarhead0331]

Martok...is there a way to get the MPR++ file other than posting in the forum thread and waiting for a link?

Also...I've installed UDMIII and BOP. I separate .exe files for each mod. I presume you can only play one mod at a time?

[bbmike]

Oh my god, that K'tinga-class battlecruiser looks awesome!

[Martok]

Martok...is there a way to get the MPR++ file other than posting in the forum thread and waiting for a link?

I'm sure you could send a PM to Flocke or thunderchero requesting the link instead; they would almost certainly say yes (I don't think they've turned down anyone who's asked so far).  You still have to get the link from one of them, however. 

Also...I've installed UDMIII and BOP. I separate .exe files for each mod. I presume you can only play one mod at a time?

You are correct sir. 

Oh my god, that K'tinga-class battlecruiser looks awesome!

It does indeed.  8) 




Another example:  The Feds' Miranda-class before MPR... 




...And after: 





Most of the non-canon ships have gotten love in MPR as well.  The Romulans' D'ridren-class destroyer in vanilla/BOP:




It was maybe decent enough back in 1999 (although I've always found that "nose" at the front rather amusing), but here's what it looks like now with MPR installed: 

[JasonPratt]

Phew. Finished Easter thingies finally now! -- including a round of Sleeping Queens with Microniece and Through the Desert with Niecimus Prime (which she won for the first time, partly because she took one of my turns when I was busy being distracted by the Microniece). Not quite old enough for other strategy gaming either way, but the day is coming.

Oh, and my Easter sermon this year (which PanzerEast might appreciate. :) )

Now, back to working through Arkham: Origins again so I'm ready for the huge DLC campaign (giving Mr. Freeze's Arkhamverse origin probably) Tuesday. Weirdly, I've seen almost no promotional material for it yet... ???

[Kushan]

Played some EUIV with Metal Dog this morning. I didn't accomplish much other then dealing with a ton of religious revolts. Was looking a little sketchy for a little bit, and I almost converted to Protestant to lower revolt risks. I was able to hold on and now the religious fervor province debuff is starting to fade and I can begin to reconvert provinces back to Cathloic.

Started a new CK2 game as Ivar the Boneless (I really don't want to know how he got the boneless part). My father Ragnar Lothrbrok has been avenged, and the Kingdom of Northumberland is now under my control. Expecting my ruler to die at any time, and all hell to break lose when my realm gets divided amongst his 4 sons. CK2 really makes one understand the Ottomans style of succession.

[undercovergeek]

It's because he was so skinny it looked like he didn't have any bones..... so say the books anyway

[Nefaro]

It's because he was so skinny it looked like he didn't have any bones..... so say the books anyway

Didn't Ivar "The Boneless" have to be carried around on some kind of conveyance when he was older?  Or am I thinking of someone else?

[MengJiao]

Well for me the weekend starts at 4pm today and lasts until the end of Monday.

Going to try and get a board game on the table...

  On the board game front I may pack up Combat Commander and get back to the 18th Century with some cranky personal modifications to Battles from the Age of Reason.  I think I'm going to try to push the system up to 1794 and unleash the French Revolutionary armies on some Austrians in the Netherlands.

On other fronts: probably some more CMRT and maybe some online battles in Rome II or whatever happens in Take on Mars.

  I was sorta right: Rome II online battles and TAke on MArs took up my gaming time this week-end.

[Sir Slash]

If you'd watched the series, "The Vikings" on the History channel, you would know all about Ivar the Boneless and Ragnor the Dread-Headed Viking. Of course that show maybe a load of Viking crap too. But it's got some hot babes, and cool battles, and Vikings. So who cares if it's real or not? Anyway in the show Ragnor forces himself on his wife and his punishment is a deformed son. No biggie since he's already got like 4 more. He wants to kill the infant but his wife won't let him so he goes off and invades Wessex. More to follow. :-X