Seattleite

Running completely and absolutely out of patience.

42, dammit.

Legal. How is that a question? Fireball whiskey, or high-quality dry mead?

Except it's a REALLY famous song. Like, you HAVE heard it. A LOT. More specifically, you've heard that exact verse of it before. A LOT.

Except that eyeless/faceless people are common in nightmares in normal people, are nightmares sticking with you isn't THAT strange, especially when badly sleep deprived. Seeing flashes from nightmares when I blink is a bit more unique, but still not very. Because he's a little kid? I probably shouldn't have posted about this. This is NOT that strange, really. Nightmares? Normal. Particularly disturbing nightmares? Also normal. Seeing flashes of images that were disturbing? Still normal. Nightmares lasting for weeks? Less normal, but can be attributed to any number of factors. Anxiety? Easily either the cause of the above or caused by the above. Attempting to link the anxiety and things associated with general anxiety (feelings of being watched, paranoia, jitteryness) with other issues occuring? Human nature. Even the things in my peripheral vision or under my tinnitus can be explained by the anxiety itself. Add on my lifelong propensity for waking dreams and the whole thing fits together. I really shouldn't have posted about this. It's stupid, it seems a lot worse than it is, and just because it's getting to me doesn't mean I need to inform others of it.

I am getting really sick of this shit. I have answered this question repeatedly. This will be the last time. 1. The arms can't cover the entire chest. 2. Most gun crime is committed upon UNARMOURED CIVILIANS, you daft git. 3. Police officers generally aren't shot with their arms up and their weapons out. They're shot by surprise and don't have their weapons drawn. Armouring their arms would have no impact here. 4. Police don't get shot much. Their armour serves them well enough for the circumstances they would actually be shot at in, and all sleeves on their armour would do for most of them is increase the weight they haul around. 5. People who go out prepared for combat, like soldiers or police SWAT members, DO HAVE FUCKING ARMOUR ON THEIR FUCKING ARMS. NO I FUCKING DID NOT, LIAR. NO IT FUCKING WAS NOT, LIAR. The two are in TOTALLY DIFFERENT GAMES, fighting TOTALLY DIFFERENT ENEMIES. Comparing their damage values directly is pointless, they both have to fight different enemies that are protected differently. The 5.56 has to deal with soft conventional armour against which it is very effective. The pulse rifle has to deal with future-armour that would (if the Combine is not totally fucking oblivious) be specifically designed to defeat it. I have to base their damage values off of the enemies they face in their various games. I also have to adjust their damage to not totally break the game. You're intentionally missing the point, or you're very stupid, because... Damage and penetration are NOT THE SAME THING. A sword slash deals extremely massive, nearly-unparalleled damage, but can be defeated by a thin layer of metal rings. A 5.56 deals very little damage, but would go through half a dozen men front to back and still be lethal. The pulse rifle FUCKING EXPLODES on FUCKING IMPACT and is thus FUCKING INCAPABLE OF FURTHER PENETRATION. How are you SO FUCKING STUPID that this point escapes you? HOW THE FLYING FUCK does a projectile that has already exploded keep going to penetrate into another part of the target? IT FUCKING DOESN'T, THAT'S HOW. It doesn't matter how much damage it does on the part it hit, it STILL could not POSSIBLY keep going because it just FUCKING EXPLODED and it doesn't FUCKING EXIST ANYMORE YOU DAFT BASTARD. There is NOTHING that says the combine auto-turrets are weaker than the pulse rifle. In fact, that seems TOTALLY FUCKING BACKWARDS, since it fires a larger pulse projectile with a larger flash and a more impressive impact, and the pulse rifles DON'T BLOW THINGS IN FUCKING HALF. And don't you FUCKING DARE say the in-game damage value. Valve makes the M2 Browning weaker than a Glock 17. The in-game damage values are COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY FUCKING WORTHLESS. Bullshit. We know it fires an energy projectile, and the projectile explodes on impact. We know this explosion draws blood, and leaves scorch marks like any other explosion. We know that this explosion has no radius on it, suggesting it is concentrated into the target. We know this concentrated explosion does not exit the other side of the target. ALL of these things tell us how this weapon performs. And performance is ALL we need to know. It deals concentrated blast damage to the surface of a target, with signs of both a thermal and kinetic component. That's plenty of information. They did NOT develop a new weapon system. They took a weapon system they ALREADY FUCKING HAD ON EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN SYNTH BIGGER THAN A FUCKING HUNTER, then they made it smaller and put grips and a stock on it. That isn't developing a new technology, that's adapting an existing one and NOTHING FUCKING MORE. Except that Valve thought this worked better aesthetically, set their health to the same for balance and to fuck with realism. And it DOES work better aesthetically, as it makes the the CPs and rebels have a VERY different silhouette, where the full suit would have made their silhouette VERY similar. In the original version all the way up to quite late (as they have dialogue recorded for friendly fire), you could shoot your allies. If there's very little difference at first glance in a circumstance where stopping for a second glance gets you shot a couple more times, there is going to be a lot of friendly fire. It was IMPORTANT they be as different as humanly possible. Yeah, but I think only in the chapters AFTER the battle of Nova Prospekt. It's darker and lacks the slight blue tint of the regular CP armour. He also doesn't wear a helmet, of course, which this subtle difference only reinforces. Barney IS a CP, and they still went out of their way to make him aesthetically different by altering his colour sheme and silhouette. And then they didn't put him in any chapters with CPs in them, just to make sure he wasn't confused for them. Now I have had ENOUGH of your shit. Either ADDRESS THE POINTS I AM MAKING, or QUIT PRETENDING TO ARGUE. You don't get to ignore somebody's points when you can't defeat them, misrepresent their position even after they have clarified it is exactly not what you are claiming it is and then pretend to be making an argument against their position, and still expect to still be treated with respect.

I think I'll keep score. Get it right, get a point. Every person who fails to get an answer right increases the value of that song by 1 and can't guess again. Which means, yes, you're giving the next person a shot at two points if you make a wild stab at it and miss. You'll also get double points for proving you're not cheating. As an extra, you can request an extra verse, but it cuts the value of the song in half and it can't be done more than once per song.

I already know this is in my head, and nobody mentioned ghosts at any point. I'm just going to get drunk and go to bed, okay? I think that's a good plan for the rest of the day.

Video games, violence, Norse mythology, breasts and comics... All we need is questionable sanity and this entire thread could be my mind. Oh wait. BTG is here. PUSH THAT MOTHERFUCKING BOAT OUT!

It could be worse. The weather could be perfect, so your intended destination is flooded with people.

I have been hallucinating in little flashes for the last several weeks. You know how when you stare at something for a while, when you look away you can still kinda see it? And later you'll see it for just the briefest moments when you blink? Like that. It mostly happens at night, when I'm really tired. Mostly. And it seems to go along with all the nightmares I've been having then forgetting all the details of, because I think the things I'm seeing are all from those nightmares. Something different each time. It's so quick I can't even tell what it is half the time, and when I can I wish I couldn't. The most frequent is what looks like me at age 8. With no eyes. Looking over his shoulder to make eye contact with me with his eyeless sockets. Another is that same eyeless little me, back of his head smashed in and his throat slit, sitting dead against a wall. Another is a pair of eyeless kids, holding a bat and a knife, staring at me. Not exactly pleasant imagery, you know? And it's getting more frequent. To make things worse, I feel like I'm being watched all the time, like there's somebody right behind me, I keep seeing things in my peripheral vision, and I'm hearing things under my tinnitus that I really don't like. I've been using music to drown it out. All of that is also mostly at night, when I'm really tired. MOSTLY. And it's getting worse. I used to have long, vivid hallucinations when I was a kid. Some really good, pleasant daydreams (I remember one with me and this girl with the lower body of a snake... Ah, good times.) and some horrible, disturbing waking nightmares. Eyeless me was one of them. But I usually knew when something was a hallucination, I could feel that it wasn't real. That time, I couldn't, and several of my friends also saw it. And then people have been telling me about their (terrifyingly similar) experiences with eyeless people, and I saw those eyeless kids in another hallucination that felt real years later, and now this. And right now I feel really worried about the eyeless version of me that I KNOW IS NOT REAL, like he's going to die, and if he dies I'm next. Or maybe like I'm being watched by people who want to get to him. Or maybe he's actually being watched and I just feel it because we're "linked". Somehow I feel like his imminent death (already really bad) somehow directly involves me, and everything else I'm feeling is related to that. And ALL of this is BATSHIT CRAZY and I don't like it. Fucking hell, I'm having a breakdown, aren't I? All this is probably just general anxiety, minor hallucinations and nightmares that I'm subconsciously making connections between, right? So then why can't I believe that?

I added a new forum game. Been a while since I've done that. Hopefully this one doesn't die within the week, my track record is awful there.

NO CHEATING! (You know who you are.) One person writes in the lyrics from the verse of a song, and the next person gives the title and then lyrics to a song of their choice. For bonus points, prove you're not cheating by telling us something about the song. Where it's from, what it's about, which version you prefer. Something that proves you actually know the song and aren't just Googling the damned thing. On that note, there's no restrictions on what song you pick. None. Everything you can write in latin characters is acceptable. And don't make it easy, either. I certainly won't. "Ridi, Pagliaccio, Sul tuo amore infranto! Ridi del duol, che t'avvalena il cor!"

What? No, not fucking Brian Dennehy! Get the fuck out of here!

The modified version of HL2, or the new maps? The former I can definitely do, but the latter takes more than I alone can provide. I'd love just to see a Xenian grunt beat the fuck out of an Overwatch trooper, so I'd really love to see this entire thing come together, but it's a lot of work and I can't exactly do the whole thing myself. Plus I need permission to use other people's resources, though I don't see any reason why they'd say no. But if I can't do the total conversion mod, I guarantee you I can at least do the HL2 gameplay overhaul.

What would Brian Boitano do?

Staring in awe at my new Dark Souls character, who has more offensive power than Stephen Colbert at a White House correspondent's meeting and just killed both bell gargoyles in a bit over a minute.

If you think that's bad, you should analyse English outsider's perspective. It isn't just overcomplicated, it's a complete mess.

Right, I do get that and may take advantage of it. Specifically, I might add in a few new guns for later chapters, and I'm certainly going to make some small tweaks like making the MP7 a bit more accurate. But, for the most part, I really just want to set resistances for different enemies, change their shot placement values, make different guns respond to shot placement in different ways and include the placement system into the iron sights feature several weapons would have. A few examples of each: A shotgun pellet would deal 8 damage to zombies, 4 damage to wildlife, 2 damage against Civil Protection metrocops, 1 damage against Overwatch troopers and 0.5 damage against Overwatch elites, where a pulse rifle bolt would deal 20 damage to zombies, wildlife and metrocops, 15 to overwatch troopers and 10 to elites. This would prioritize using the shotgun on wildlife and especially zombies, and using the pulse rifle on Overwatch and especially elites. (Note: The health differences between these units would also plummet. The metrocops would have 50, troopers would have 75 and elites 100. But the resistances for the metrocops would all be higher than for wildlife, the resistances for troopers would all be higher than for metrocops and the resistances for elites would all be higher than for troopers.) Zombies would take 4x normal headshot damage and normal body damage, but 1/4 limb damage. This would prioritize shot placement on the zombies, forcing you to slow down and aim with your weapons, as a pistol would do them in one to the head but take over a hundred to the arms. Or just use the shotgun and blast them in the chest because it's overpowered as hell against them. Meanwhile, metrocops would take normal head and limb damage, but 0.75x abdominal damage and 0.5x chest damage. Overwatch troopers would take 0.5x damage to the body in general, and overwatch elites would also take 0.75x limb damage. (Obviously, these values are the result of their body armour, just like their resistances.) The AR15 (Overwatch weapon, semi-auto, has an iron-sight mode, deals 15 damage and is very accurate) would deal 0.5x headshot damage, normal body damage and 2x limb damage. This makes the AR15 much less effective performing headshots, but it loses less hitting the limbs. This would allow it to deal only 1/2 instead of 1/4 damage hitting the arms of CPs and Overwatch, as their arms are always in front of their chest. The pulse rifle would be the polar opposite. 2x headshot damage, normal body damage and 0.5x limb damage. This means the pulse rifle demands better placement and is more readily defeated by enemies that keep their arms in front of their chest. When in iron sights mode, the pistols and AR15 would deal 1.5x normal headshot damage, 2x normal body damage and 3x limb damage. (Thus making the standard multipliers 3 for the head, 2 for the chest, 1 for the abdomen, 1.125x for the legs and 0.75x for the arms.) This allows a player using the iron sights on their USP or Python to dispatch enemies much faster, especially if you're aiming for the chest as it both gets double damage there and if an enemy's arm is in the way you won't lose as much while using the iron sights. If possible, I'd also make the crossbow locational. So you can headshot with it like you're supposed to, and I can drop its damage to 60. And as for the idea of riot shields, I can see that for CPs instead of overwatch, particularly in the City 17 chapter. From the front, riot shield CPs would take 1/2 from the USP, Python and MP7, 1/4 from melee attacks, the crossbow and pulse weapons, and 1/8 from buckshot, explosives and physics objects. This would make them ideal for combating the rebels, as all rebel weapons would deal fairly minimal damage through their shields except for the occasional AR15 (and all the rebels in the areas they're in use shotguns and MP7s, and once in melee combat their stun batons (which deal 20 damage to civilians and 10 to Freeman) would be effective while they themselves take very little melee damage (taking 15 hits from a rebel, or 10 from Freeman) and would be more or less unstoppable. To defeat them, you'd need to use the AR15 you collected from the overwatch in previous chapters, a weapon that you won't be able to replenish ammo for until you're fighting the overwatch again, or shoot them a LOT with the pistol, MP7 or python. I'd also shake up the weapon distribution, giving some metrocops Pythons once you encounter the Python the first time and all those in City 17 would use MP7s, shotguns or paired riot shield and shock baton and have 50% more health. (I found the model I'll use for the City 17 metrocops, too. It's a trenchcoat model.) The new AR15 would completely replace the MP7 for overwatch troopers, though of course the MP7 would stay in use for metrocops and be quite common amongst rebels, and would be their primary weapon, more common than the shotgun or pulse rifle (though elites still always use the stronger pulse rifle). Lastly, there'd be new enemy subtypes as well. There'd be CP officers with Python revolvers starting the very moment you get the Python yourself (the two coming through the door would be Python-wielding officers). While officers are present, their subordinates fire more accurately (1/2 spread). There would also be CP medics, who can heal their squadmates and stick close to the officers to put priority on healing them, but only carry USPs (even in the City 17 chapter, and they also wouldn't upgrade armour in City 17, though their healing ability doubles), have no stun batons (so they only do 1/2 melee damage and don't white out your screen when they hit you) and aren't as accurate with their pistols (2x spread). Oh, and for the record? I've already found all of the models I'd need for this. I might also consider doing a few new maps of my own, but I'd need help with that. And I'd mostly focus on resistance groups fighting the Combine before and after the Nova Prospekt attack if I did. Probably make the protagonist of that campaign a rebel instead of Freeman, bring back some HL1/Opposing Force enemies, and add remants of the Xenian and human military as the player's allies after the Nova Prospekt attack. Vortigaunt and marine companion from the beginning, because they're both awesome, later with grunts and controllers, more marines and black ops after the Nova Prospekt attack, and maybe a mission at the end where you escort a gargantua? I don't know, we'll see. I'd have to get permission to use resources from Black Mesa, and then I'd need some help with something of that scale... But without any of that, I can definitely do the mods for HL2 and episodes.

Hypocrisey! (Been talking to Christians all day...)

It was the evacuation segment at the end that I didn't like. It just went on, and on, and on, and ON. And yeah, I understand. And my mod is presently somewhere between "challenging" and "murderous", so I won't rush you too much to dive into it.

Mostly. Also, I want to get to Xen quickly and then move on to part 2.

I'm hoping that exactly that does not happen.

I'd bet he'd reason that as falling damage, being beaten to death, or getting stuck and starving. Or, with that particular room, as just being stuck in that hole until the plants finally killed them. Or maybe he won't bother figuring it out, but I doubt that. Either way, I'm certain it would freak him out.

I thought it was the release of Episode 1... Maybe other people don't hate it as much as I do. (And hey, RandomGuy, making any progress in Half-Life 2? Or did I turn up the difficulty too much?)