Warhammer 40K: quite glad I don't have the time or money.

[SoupOrMan]

The more I learn about the world of gamers, the less sense they make to me.

Well, you have to do something in between going to the range, working, and having a social life...

[Greg]

The Hellstar has a rep as the most dangerous mech ever officially introduced to the game..

Considering that it has 4 PPCs, and the heatsinks to fire them, It theoretically has a 1 in 3 shot of headshoting any mech on any given round.. That is assuming, that the other guy isn't simply pounded into scrap first - 60 points a round will do that.

Sounds a whole lot like a Warhawk/Masakari-P, which came out a whole lot earlier.

Well the Warhawk is a closer to the Hellstar 2, with almost but not quite enough heat sinks to fire all 4 erppc's every round, but with the addition of a targeting computer. ISTR the Warhark also had some LRM's that were fairly pointless. (Generating crits when the PPC's have already stripped away the armor. Who cares at that point?)

There was a BT MUSE/MUSH in the early 90's where some Comstar guy in an oldtech 95 ton assault (Highlander?) thought he could take on my Warhark-P. He lost his head on my second volley. He did manage to hit me with a gauss rifle once before dying.

[HTRN]

Sounds a whole lot like a Warhawk/Masakari-P, which came out a whole lot earlier.

The Hellstar is probably an offshoot of the Warhawk design philosophy - I betcha some guy at FASA/Fanpro/Catalyst came up with "Ya know, if my 'hawk had a few more heat sinks.."

The Hellstar also sits in a sweet spot in terms of speed - a 95 ton mech needs a 380 engine, which weighs 20.5(XL) vs 26.5 tons of a 400XL engine needed for a 100 ton mech at the same speed.. Yes, going up in Weight at that speed means an actual loss in terms of free weight for other things..

[SoupOrMan]

So, late night update:

I'd soaked a bunch of plastic and metal minis in a container full of Purple Power for 60+ hours to see the effects. Many of these had multiple coats of enamel, but I also added miniatures done in only acrylics for comparison. For 90% of the minis, the paint brushed off regardless of paint type or miniature type. One came out of the Purple Power bath with all of the paint gone except for one pouch I'd painted with a leather brown color. It had a combination of acrylic paints over an enamel first coat. The brown paint was acrylic, but it stayed on until the bitter end.

My poor Atlas, though, is going to have lots of craptastic paint left on it, unless I get some better brushes or dental picks.

[MiddleAgedKen]

I got a set of four dental picks and a set of tweezers, forceps, and such like things dead cheap at a fun show a few years back.

[Aesop]

The Geek Factor in this thread has exceeded recommended EPA maximal exposure limits.


Any higher and the next alert automatically rings in the writer's room at Big Bang Theory.

[Aesop]

Proving that all good comedy has a strong element of truth.

[Netpackrat]

Maybe they are just cheap geeks.

[SoupOrMan]

Proving that all good comedy has a strong element of truth.

True... basically why we watch it.

Though one thing that amuses/irritates me...

These guys all make well over $100k a year (according to Cal Tech published scales for their positions). Sheldon makes from $110 to $160k a year according to published pay scales... Raj is a multi-millionaires son, on a huge parental allowance, AND a research fellow on $85-110k a year.

These are not struggling geeks... these are upper middle class geeks...

The show portrays them in a funnier and more relatable economic situation... basically like college roommates; but in reality, they'd all be living in nice houses with university subsidized mortgages.

The personalities are exactly like my former roommates & friends from when I lived in Chicago. There's a reason I left. Okay, that and the lack of decent permanent-ish jobs in the area. I may have also left my Predator tank there. Crap. One less model to repaint.

[Steamforger]

If you're not rocking Demolishers, you're just not doing it right.