 Rounding yeah, you know me I mean rounding is my primary means of doesn't matter because he was a large If you don't have any toilet paper, then we're out of time. I have much toilet paper. Why do I have so much? Did we burn through faster? I've been extra bowly lately, so maybe I burned through it faster than the normal rate Yeah, it does feel like this is the time for the toilet paper to arrive All right, we're streaming we're good to go You know, I can see us. Okay. I'll just start Start with hockey, I guess It's Tuesday May 8th 2018 I'm rim. I'm Scott and this is geek nights tonight battle tech the video game the new one Not any of the old battle tech games 2018 not the one on the SNES Warrior people use years to tell different things apart that have the same name Yeah, I do that in the time when has there ever been like a doom and then the same year also doom Just they call it Right, or they might be like doom video game and do board game, but yeah, and you can just say what you know Yeah, very rare. It doesn't matter. There's not battle tech and battle tech in the same year Yeah so Stanley Cup playoffs are happening and it's still weird to me This is the first time in my entire sentient life that no team I cared about was in the Stanley Cup playoffs like there were some years where the red wings got eliminated in the first round But they were always there and the first year in a long long long long time That they were not in the playoffs because I think they set a record for most consecutive playoff occurrences in the modern Like not original six era because the original six era What four teams made it to the playoffs out of six and it was the same for almost every year But I'm not counting the challenge Cup era for obvious reasons But just as the red wings for the first time didn't make it I've been living in New York for like a decade and the Rangers are in the playoff So there was a screenshot someone showed From I guess a shot from one of the games recently Yeah, probably I think a lightning game and it was like players with most playoff Appearances in the past X years and it was just like a little corner graphic and almost everyone on that list was a For a New York Ranger until very recently. So I guess it's like Well to your point it's zero cops, but yeah lot it that that's why it was most playoff game Appearances yeah going deep got you more on that list. I'm uh, I'm very conflicted now because on one hand I just wanted no Pennsylvania team to still be in the playoffs and we have succeeded at this Pennsylvania is the bottom right corner and they're gone the asshole. They put all their stupid balls in the football Yeah, and fuck them but well, it's it's past and on one hand I don't like Tampa because they have historically been a team that has knocked teams I care about out of the playoffs, but on the other hand It's basically the Tampa Rangers at this point. It is the night 2015 New York Rangers of Florida Yeah, 2015 Florida Rangers and as I forgot until you reminded me Rangers get a conditional draft pick Right, so there is a conditional draft pick where if Tampa wins the Cup this year I think or maybe even next year then the they have a draft pick that already belongs to the Rangers But that draft pick will move from the second round to the first round if Tampa wins And of course if Tampa wins it would be the last pick in the first round But last pick in the first round is still a few picks better than you know Last pick like close to last pick in the second round. Yeah, that's a big move up if Tampa wins So but on the other hand that upper left quadrant of like the predators and the Jets I don't really watch those teams or know about them. I really care that much well because you know unlike the other Sporting leagues, you know, it's like you don't see But if you're in the hockey east, you don't see the West too much Yeah, you see like the West like one game a year per team But I think in the end I'm still rooting The Fague is Golden Knights and the reasons are pretty simple one if they win they will be fucking insufferable There'll be an entire year of batting a thousand. That's what every Stanley Cup We've been up for came in and taught you Yeah, it's just like when rim plays a game for the first time and wins I'm undefeated to this game. Yeah, my uh my pro move is to learn a degenerate baby strategy for a first-time game and never play it again I know you can say this if you were you the Golden Knights, you would stop playing hockey Yeah, just retire the team like we're done 100% Stanley Cups close the arena. We built So it'll also it'll anger the most people that doesn't anger me. Yeah, I just think I don't know Why people are upset people like Don Sherry will probably be furious. He's always mad. Yeah, I think it'd be matter I think he'd be really mad about this cares So I've been watching what's the difference if like they win or like the Jets win What's the difference? You know the national Predators aren't a very old team when they win is not what they're allowed You know, yeah, but it's just so the reason I bring this up because I think I kind of what I panels I talked about this I and I've been talking about this a lot lately I think the Vegas Golden Knights are doing so well specifically because of the structure of the expansion draft Yes, this is not a thing you think this is the thing that is well-known But game did like game designs Tuesday gig nights So the deal is if you don't pay attention to hockey The expansion draft was structured in such a way and the owner and the GM of the Golden Knights milked it They made deals before the draft even happened to sort everything out So that they basically it wasn't an expansion draft because usually when there's an expansion in sports You have multiple teams coming in here was just one team being added. Yeah, and they basically it wasn't a draft It was a looting they looted all the other team every team could protect like a small number of people So this team this is a hockey team that could not get any superstars But could otherwise get pretty much anyone they wanted and design their team. It's like the difference between here's the analogy in Dungeons and Dragons third and fourth edition if you play a character from level one to level ten You're gonna make a lot of compromises along the way because of some cost and situations and everything and you build you this thing You can explain it much simpler than that It's like you're playing El Grande and you know, and you can't get first place anywhere You just automatically get second place everywhere you win. Yeah at the most points. Yep the end But if you make a D&E character level ten from the beginning you craft that perfect Specialty option from the beginning and ignore all the history So I don't see what happens in the Hockey's but there is much more important news at least for me This is such isn't the biggest news it is for me because the steam controller is garbage I said it so the steam controller is kind of I mean it has good parts and bad Well, it has boy has two good parts the left paddle button the right paddle button But yeah, the steam controller is not the controller choice. I think for pretty much anyone There's a reason why there's a reason why they're in the discount bin There's a reason why my steam controller ran out of battery because there wasn't even a battery in it anymore Xbox controller at least the Xbox 360 controller is still great. I haven't used an X bone controller I'm sure it's just fine except the D pad on it is mad But otherwise just fine if you don't need the D pad. Yeah D pad is serviceable, but not great Yeah, the PlayStation controller a lot of people love those Fart noise the only reason I do not like them is because the D pad on them while functional has separation I mean, I know that it's still underneath a solid D pad, but it has this plastic cross so that you can't really touch all of that D pad. It's it's effectively like these four separate buttons Even though it works better than the Xbox one it is unusable for me Well, that's it it offends our old grog Nardi sensibilities But the rest of the controller is just fine. I have a much more fundamental beef with the PlayStation controller I never really had playstations and during the Soul Calibur era Soul Calibur 2 I use the Game of Cube controller I want to use a PlayStation controller controller is basically perfect Yeah for the fact that it's kind of weird and doesn't really match well with games that use a normal shape Except for Soul Calibur 2 we're it matched better than any other controller Because the whole horizontal vertical attack thing right anyway So now you've got the switch pro controller and the switch pro controller is basically perfect except it does not have analog Buttons on the top and oh, you know that the throttling ones It only has four regular buttons on the but to be fair. I haven't played a game It doesn't only have two regular buttons on the top I don't remember. I don't remember the point is it doesn't have the throttles like you know the analog Leavers for name a game that needs that any racing game name a right name a game that needs that that you play I place F0 will come Yeah, well, we'll see what happens if F0 comes on the switch Mario Kart doesn't have it but it could yeah It could now because Mario Kart's a whole different ball game I'm just saying Mario Kart there there are exactly two settings your gas is going all the time or you have lost I'm just saying There are a racing game is where you want to have that analog And I'm just saying name a racing game you have played. I don't know in the last decade have zero Where did what did you last play F? Zero? Definitely since 20 2008 yeah since 2008 Then I played F0 GX Anyway, but this is a big deal for me partly because oh, but yeah The news is that steam is now officially supporting the switch pro controller Yeah, which means you can now use it with your HDPC and you can get rid of your Xbox controllers that you had just because yeah Yeah, but the thing is the switch pro controller is more expensive. I'm not gonna like throwing out my Xbox controllers The other thing you know it's gonna happen. It's annoying to switch. It's it's a switch It's annoying to swap the pro controller between your switch and your PC Yeah, and to buying more of them would be expensive So I'm not gonna probably do this unless like I really need to get I am going to buy one more pro controller to plug into my main PC and I'm a HTPC because I play a lot of games here and I don't want to have to keep Repairing the Xbox controllers in the other room in here on this PC And I don't want to use the fucking steam controller because I have a very low opinion of it You know what game needs those analog levers that I have played definitely within the last decade Rocket League. Oh, yep. Actually the steam controller is the only thing I wait Rocket League work on the switch Not as good. Oh, okay. I haven't played Rocket League on the switch I used to actually use the steam controller when I played Rocket League and actually I did too because that was It was like actually good for that the pedal buttons. I used for my juke in around. It was perfect That was that was actually, you know better that's slightly better than the Xbox controller in some ways for that one game. Yep Man just steam. Why can't someone just make a switch pro controller with some analog levers on it? And then it can throw away every other controller and buy five of those. Yep That would be worth the investment and then never buy another controller again. Frankly I should just get usb converters are using old Gamecube controllers I mean that the switch pro controller is usb-c. Oh, yeah But the fact that it's getting official support is a big deal because actually also I have a USB converter that can take four game controllers at once There was a time in my life when I was very willing to hack and fiddle with things But I don't got time for that shit I am too old to like install a special driver to make a weird thing work on my control on my computer. Nope So in some other news I Played two games at Paeta Zenkaikan. So it's not news. It's a gig. It's two gigabytes really I'm gonna talk about these two games because they're there is a thread. They are both designed by Cole where where lay you can't even pronounce the person's name But these are two games that I don't know if you will like but you've seemed to want to play And I don't know They're similar in some regard John company by the same person and an infamous traffic Well, I've heard of the John company So an infamous traffic is the same person and similar concept So the idea of an infamous traffic or both these games are that there is a historical Socio-economic or power structure of some kind like the opium an infamous traffic is about the opium trade Oh, great. And yeah, these are these games are interesting. So it's based on the car of the present day Yeah, especially because I might argue that the area around Lancaster is the Ground zero of the current opioid epidemic quiet. It sounds right. I will say that jokes about Pennsylvania and Lancaster in the course of playing this game in Lancaster where shall we say abundance as We're people who appeared to be there appeared to be there's a mechanic in this game called opportunity Which basically means are there people who want opium in this area? Yes, and I think that there were a lot of Opportunities in the area where this convention is But John company and I realized got to know this is about the British East India company Mm-hmm, and if you don't know most people I realized have a middle school social studies knowledge of what the East India company did Don't really know Both of these games and I know what it did I just didn't know the one fact that you just told me which is that the name of it was not Do the East India what did it do? Completely controlled all trade between Britain and all these colonies and all these other places and such and such It's all it's actually way more complicated than that It was basically its own sovereign government slash mega corp Yep, and it had its own armies multiple of them its own boats that invaded and conquered India on its own Not without necessarily having permission to do so But anyway, these games are basically very nuanced and shockingly accurate simulations of How these two things functioned From the perspective of the people who are driving them So you basically in both cases play a shitty white dude in Britain Who has and your victory points while you actually do to win the games are? Analogous to the actual motivations of those people which came down to bullshit around social standing and Getting your relatives into comfortable positions But as a result so in John company you're basically you're doing things like get someone in your family to be the executive in This part of the East India company who's responsible for something and all the players get relatives in all these different places And if you have a relative who's like in charge of procurement or in charge of the second presidency army you can do whatever the fuck you want that you're in charge of that and You all have to work together to make sure the company doesn't just go bankrupt Well simultaneously trying to achieve your goals and basically these games are Some of the most like you if I were a teacher in a high school I would make kids play these games to learn about these concepts rather than read a history book That is how high an opinion I have on the history and function of these games However, I do not know if They are necessarily enjoyable nor do I know if you will like them, but I like them I will know I don't want to step that back. I Appreciate them and I want to play them again. I am not sure if I like them but I appreciate them and Kind of like with quartermaster general I just want to play them again, and I just always want to play them again It's weird how I like quartermaster general, but it doesn't matter because you are banned bullshit You are banned from quartermaster general. I don't know why you guys are against just slightly This is why you are banned from quartermaster general. You think we're joking you're banned from this game for life Why don't we just edit it slightly? What's your problem because none of us want that? Why don't you want that because the game as it is is exactly what we want then why do you want? Garbage, it's it's so close to perfection yet so far. This is why I don't know what your opinion will be of John company I don't know if you're gonna feel it if you're gonna do the quartermaster general thing or if you're gonna be into it I all I know is that we got to play this game. So we can do a show on it Mm-hmm, and I'm sure we will accomplish this at a coming packs And in case anyone didn't know Scott is legit banned from the game of quartermaster general And in perpetuity and you you laugh, but you are banned There's no way that game would just be so good I don't know why you guys are so obstinate about making it because it already is so good. No, it's not It's like I feel like saying you know what we really need to do to fix battle tech No small lasers and no jump jets because they're bullshit and no lookup tables No, it would be bullshit if you had dice that were like all ones with like one six on one of the guys But that's how it feels when you play real battle tech. Anyway, no, it's not It's always just miss bad. I think it's miss miss glancing blow to center torso 2d6 yep 2d6 2d6 2d6. It's not like, you know a D that always rolls a one and then a D with five ones and a six on it So we got one less little news that isn't really gaming related But you got to see this shit. No, I was why I didn't I was just sending this to you because you need to see Oh, you don't want to talk about it today. This is for Monday. All right. We'll save for Monday I thought Monday what the fuck you're gonna do never mind. You don't get to learn about this today I Need to do on Monday You're gonna have nothing No, I've paid someone to fold all the clothes But anyway things of the day So I am a fan of Rube Goldberg machines when I was a kid in middle school in high school I competed in the goldberg machines have probably been things of the day more often than any other category of Yep, but kind of like it's one of those rules where like a steamed hams edit where you can't just use these things as things of the day Unless there's some unique thing about this one. I mean, I'm sure there's like a Rube Goldberg community You could we could make a whole podcast about Rube Goldberg machines only there probably is a podcast But this Rube Goldberg machine is particularly fascinating because it breaks some of the tropes of Rube Goldberg machines And it also Surprised me at several junctures in terms of how it functioned And it was subtle kind of like our friend Luke the juggler who makes points about how a juggling routine Can be made funny through intrinsic properties of juggling and good stage craft. There are some Extremely well-crafted Visual jokes in this Rube Goldberg machine and I do not even want to spoil them You just need to watch it and all I want to say is keep an eye on that laptop Okay, this Rube Goldberg machine is fantastic It's probably it is on the level of that slow motion Rube Goldberg machine that okay go did in terms of how much I enjoyed I like the Rube Goldberg the Japanese kids one that tells the story Oh, what was that called a balls adventure something something like that. I forget what that was anyway What do you got? Oh, so it's just a tweet, but the tweet had a funny video in it Looks like it's Japanese of course Basically two dudes in pink bodysuit things they're on some bicycle And this bicycle is interesting and that is a tandem bicycle Yet one of the seats the rear seat is facing Backwards so one person's facing forward and one person's facing backwards and they're riding on this sort of side of the road with a jersey barrier next to them and on the other side of the Jerzy barrier is a legit pro bike race happening and the Peloton is right there and they're biking ahead of the Peloton And I guess one person is watching the race because they're facing back It looks like bikers threw something at them at one point I don't know and the other like there's very clearly this moment where something gets thrown at them Like people don't seem happy about them being there I don't know but the other the other person is just looking forward and biking and smiling and then if you go to the Next tweet and reply you can actually see the bison up close and how the gearing works to Make this thing possible. It's cleverly done. It's you know, it's a hack together together mess, but it works, so It's it's just they'll just watch it and appreciate it for what it is. Mm-hmm. I Like how the the text in the Pretty much as a bunch of W's and then some Japanese Moon language All right Not a moment Why how many sad people are in the chat, there's like eight people watching At least it's gone down. We're getting there. Well one is a Monday show. We'll reach our goal of zero. It's a Monday show It's a Tuesday show. Oh, it is a Tuesday show You're right Thursdays get a lot of traffic for some reason. Anyway, I guess people like to experience the lounge Your mom in the lounge I'm always hang out in lounges. My mom watches this. She's been in here watching the stream before nothing better to do She lives in Arizona There's nothing better to do in Arizona probably not She's getting the hell out. That's a good idea If this is after if a place is so boring they eat nights is the most exciting thing Definitely get the hell out. I should we should get your mom to watch the stream Get both our moms in here Let's just have mom nights and then we can go home and not watch because they've got some better There's an idea. Why don't we get next one? My mom visits New York City? Let's get your mom to come over here, too And let's have our moms do geek nights. We'll just set it up and let him go and then I'll go go biking or something I think I think the listener would enjoy that All right In the meta moment the book club book for geek the geek nights book club If you didn't know we have a book club is Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey I've seen Scott has read zero more pages of this good assumption. All right. We will I'm busy I'm getting new furniture on Saturday I had to take apart all the furniture in my apartment and throw it out I got a bunch of flights coming up because I'm going to be not Scott and not Geek No, it's just me with Emily at teacaf this weekend in Toronto So one if you're in Toronto and you're gonna be a teacaf. What's teacaf? It's basically a comic convention similar to like mocha or SPX or emerald city comic con a lot of her friends Will be there. It's not emerald city comic con is like a real comic on Indie show like yeah, but there's a big indie presence there and a lot of the same people go I mean New York comic con has indie presence I specifically left New York comic con off that Emerald city is you know, no different like heroes Emerald city has a way bigger indie presence than you realize So does every other comic con Not New York comic even San Diego does you just don't see in the news about San Diego because the news about San Diego doesn't cover it Yeah, they have a giant and massive artist alley that has all the indie people's in there Not all because a lot of the people I know who go to these things that like a lot There's a lot of indie people. Yeah, not all of them go to all the car there is a huge huge overlap between ECCC and SPX and teacaf and Though like that venderaigram is tighter than a lot of the other clusters of conventions but anyway, I'll be there hanging out and otherwise they'll just be taking around in Toronto for the weekend and This previous weekend I was at Zenkai con we did three panels So if you're here listening to this or watching the stream because you saw me at Zenkai con Well, guess what I posted notes and links and stuff if you go to our website A lot of people seem to find the YouTube channel Can't quite make the leap from that channel to the fact that we actually have a website people don't use websites It's 2018. Yep, like they just go to you know one place like Twitter only or you like only it's extra sad But I started putting links to our YouTube on our flyers instead of our website and it increased the response rate heavily so whatever we have a website and if you go to that website you can see actually a Video of one of the panels I did from a different con way more professional because it's the video for packs and That guy kind was super fun and the funniest thing that happened was on the way home There were all these teams who were on the train who went to Zenkai con from New York City And they were loud and I overheard their conversation and the conversation was basically these kids go to cons Like you and I used to go to comes they go like every anime con and they're pretty Where'd they get money from if they're teens well They're like teens and a couple of them are like freshmen in college and they go where do they get money from I don't know They do the east coast con circuit crammed 12 people in a hotel room like we used to but the funniest things were one they Someone brought up Otacon and they all started laughing. They're like, yeah, who even fucking goes to Otacon anymore No Otacon moved and changed and such one of them went this year and was like or the previous Otacon And they were like, yeah, the panels are like way worse than Zenkai cons panels All the good people don't go anymore and the convention center is a hole and one of the other ones was like Yeah, anime boss is like the only anime con worth going to anymore And then they basically were like if you want to see panels Literally go to any con because no con has higher quality panels, but they don't go to gaming cons They only go to anime cons. So in the estimation of this large group of teens to summarize Zenkai con has the exact same level of quality of panels as every major anime con on the eastern seaboard. I Don't know if that is speaking highly of Zenkai con or speaking lowly of the eastern seaboard But that is the information that I have from a large group of teens Who are very loud over the course of two and a half hours. Mm-hmm. I think we just get the rest of the meta Don't have anything big coming up All right So I have always for a very long time because I really enjoyed playing battle tech which review 90 nights a long time I grow apparently I don't remember doing this. I really like tabletop battle tech I really like rolling 2d6 over and over again and like this sort of squad-based combat in these really fiddly details Look is battle tech the pen and paper game. We actually did an episode on it super super super long ago Back in the way early days of geek nights were lived in beacon Yep, but pay it pen and paper battle tech is a game where you can get all the joy of a Miniatures game where you know on your turn you move and shoot and you roll dice to determine how much you hit and such But miniatures in the like it is actually simpler and more Comprehensible and you dealing with less units and also giant robots Yeah, and you also get the fun of like Customized you know instead of customizing like this whole army like Warhammer You know in each individual unit you're actually just customizing like a couple giant robots and it's pretty easy to do you know and It's fun to fill in little bubbles when you get hit right like everything about it is like this sort of It's sort of like this elegant system where you have a complex game That is easier to play than other games that are equally complex Yep Because it's just designed so nicely and that is why battle tech has been around Almost as long as I have lived I think the game was invented in like 1984 or something like that But also it's been around since then and it's still around and it's still big these games edge into wargame territory and Simulatory territory and that they're they're more like simulations and Simulations of this fictional galaxy universe, whatever you want to call it but in terms of they're kind of random and not that fair and more like Real-world tactical decision-making like you have to it's not it's not Gundam where these are super powered robots of like Oh, we got awesomeness more like these are battle tech is slow and dumpy robots They go like that are huge and go kitchen like Situations like oh they busted through my left armor and blew up the ammo for my weapon now my pilot's hurt and Really unlucky. I'm in a bad situation That's really the fun of battle tech is those simulatory things where it's like all right Well, I got knocked over and I'm falling down the hill and I took damage in this specific part And that part had ammo in it and there's a chance the ammo explodes it did all right that ammo exploded How much damage does it do this much what happens now? Well damage your gyro It's gonna be hard to stand up everything just sort of makes sense in a common sense way without having to have this sort of like As a tariff military knowledge you would have to like you know have those grog guard war games Which also makes sense. Yeah, right? This just makes sense because you understand a giant robot So I've always enjoyed it, but I don't have time to play that kind of game anymore or space. I don't have space I don't have time and before you say like mech war whatever those all the Not official or mega mech mega mech Those things are intolerable right there are software versions of the tabletop games They were intolerable back when I could tolerate pretty intolerable software that are free open source ish and their user interfaces are so bad They're not even worth attempt even when I had infinite time. They were not worth pursuing nope So battle tech Got kick-started right so actually I first discovered this at a packs I was walking around and there was a booth and the booth was like battle tech And I'm like well this is not the catalyst booth which at catalyst if you don't know is the company that currently Licenses and publishes. I don't know if they own but they the currently published the pen and paper Miniatures books and stuff for battle tech tabletop. Yep, and it was not the catalyst booth But it was a battle tech booth and I said what is this and they said we are making a battle tech video game That is the turn-based You know pen and paper miniature battle tech only a video game And I said shut up and take my monies and then I went home and I kick-started it because it was up Yeah, then I checked with them at another packs and also played the beta because I kick-started at a level where let me play The beta and it was I was so surprised it was legit like they were actually developing this game It wasn't some scam. They were actually making this thing. It was real They were making significant progress very rapidly and more importantly They made it right because playing the beta what you saw was next walk and they torso Walk it and shooting and what torso twist is key. Anyway, so Now just recently like a week or two ago ish I don't know the the game has been fully released. You can now buy whether you kick-started or not I already I just got it because I already kick-started it Yep, you can just go on steam and buy this fucking game. It is out and a lot of people are playing it and It's pretty great. Let's talk about it. All right, so first things first There are two I want to get these out of the way because they're kind of topical like news wise There are two quote-unquote controversies about the game already. There's a lot of it's weird It's like it's there's a lot of controversies, but they're all there's minor It's like there's a lot of minor controversies and no major ones There are there are two that I think are relevant and newsworthy ish one of them the which the people are complaining about it are Wrong in my opinion and just don't understand humans or games but their argument is that the game shows some two hit percentages and someone proved that the actual two hit percentages are Narrower than that like the real the numbers they show are slightly fabricated and they actually groom the random number generator to Effectively avoid streaks a little bit wouldn't just be 2d6. It's not just 2d6 Why is it not just 2d6? So you didn't see this controversy? I did see someone saying that the percentages shown were inaccurate. They're slightly I did not I did not read the actual numbers in math Yeah, the deal here's the real deal from in my semi professional opinion on this particular issue This happens a lot in games because it turns out if you tell a human They have an end-percent chance to hit something humans are so bad at math and so bad at statistics And so bad at patterns in this type of environment that if you say an 80% chance to hit and you actually hit 80% of the time They will perceive the 20% of the time they miss as bullshit They will perceive that the numbers are way off. I mean numbers are perfectly accurate. It is bullshit, but that's battle Yeah, but it's not the right kind of bullshit all I'm saying is that when game companies fudge those kinds of numbers They're doing it because your brain is dumb and they are tricking your brain And as long as you don't try to peel back that onion, you'll enjoy games a lot more Mm-hmm. You're saying is ignorance is bliss in this particular case. Yes, and also it's such a my one This is not an e-sport, but I'm playing to win. Yeah, so played away Is it not an e-sport? This is not yet a major e-sport where it matters And if it came to pass, I'm gonna be battle-taker world champion. Watch out Based on our history together, there is no chance you will ever be the battle-take champion. Why not? 18 small lasers and no rear armor. That's just what I like if I have to win and the championship is on the line It's just a LRM boat. Yeah. Yeah, I Got a LRM boat. No, no SRM boat. I was always a fan of that two boat I've always been a fan of mechs with no rear armor Like zero rear armor. Good luck against my jump jet and you're dead I'm already backed into a cliff. You can't touch me. I can just go up on top of the mountain My jump jet anyway. Anyway, but the other controversy and I controversy I'm making the hardest quotes ever is that shit heads and gomurgators are really mad at this game because It has female male and gender-neutral pronouns They are the the internet shit storm around that is Actually pretty big and it's I didn't see any of it But it's all shitty people anyway. Well, they don't have to play battle tech They're trying to mass boycott the game, which is great because I mean shitty people be playing battle tech Yeah, only if someone plays battle take that means they good But if you see anyone complaining about that at all and like if you see one thing about that that does bother me Is that if you go and it's the character creation screen? Yep, is if you choose he as your pronoun Yep, you get all these photos to choose from that are stereotypically looking like dudes If you click enough you also get female looking ones like it didn't know if you choose she you get different ones You choose they you get all of them So it's like why can't I choose the she looking one? Basically when you choose he or she you get half as many you get half of the choices for your image And if you choose they you can choose any image you want they should have just allowed all images for all But if you see anyone complaining about these options like for real those people are basically just gomurgators And they're mad that I thought I thought the thing you were gonna bring up was that the game if you play single player Which is what you're playing probably. Yeah, is that there is a lot of slowness and time losing in this game There are slow animations. There are slow things. You got to watch you got to watch FMVs You got to it's all this stuff in the game is very time-consuming and waiting happens for no reason and The game could be sped up a lot and the example I always bring up when people say oh no you want it You can't speed it up is even Pokemon lets you speed it up the children's game Let's you turn off animations and do fast-text. Yep So there is no reason that any adult game including you hardstone Shouldn't allow you to turn off animations and speed everything up to just let you play without Any visual craft know this camera zooming it and you can turn off some of it in the options menu And you can do other things by editing some files and stuff But it's like just let me play the battle tech without any of this garbage like zooming in and watching missiles Oh, I'm gonna click fire and just a number of how much damage was done so counterpoint. I Actually very much enjoy the slow ramp. I actually in this game partly because battle tech I actually really enjoy the slow animation I enjoyed it one time and then I want to turn it off But I keep enjoying it because it has this interesting bit of tension it simulates for me I don't got time for that. I want to hurry up. I know I agree with you the option should be there, but I part of the appeal I had of original classic pen and paper battle tech was Pete shoots a thousand SRM's at me because that's what Pete liked to do I Then I have to sit here and listen as he rolls 2d6 Well, Alex or you are looking in a book and say right center torso Oh, that would be fine if it like fired each weapon individually, but you I get that experience It doesn't know it just makes a slow animation I think it's like I see the missiles come in and they actually like they'll veer off before they hit and you get that like Oh, they're gonna miss and a few of them hit You see the PPC fight the PPC scarier than me the most because he had no indications No, this is the inner sphere garbage the inner PPC is like the best weapon you can get It is inner sphere garbage, but give him time. It's like when sit five first I don't know why people hate clan stuff so much. It's like stuff is bullshit. Why it's it's OP and not fun What if everyone just is clan stuff? What's the difference? That's that's the same as playing Dungeons and Dragons versus PVP with two level 20 characters It ain't fun. What's how was that any less fun than fighting two one level one characters? It's a it's a lot different and a lot less fun. Why was there ever done it? What's there it's in heavyweight boxing and featherweight boxing the way boxing's actually way more fun to watch why who says me? All right. Well, I don't think this I mean, they're both equally. They're different But I think they're you got a reason why in our group no one ever You're the only one who wanted clan ever why none of us wanted clan. I like heavyweight boxing Just it's obviously different, but it's like I like it just as much because most of the clan stuff was the only thing That's bullshit is interspere verse clan. That's obviously stupid. Yeah clan verse clan is a time in place What I don't I'm not asking for interspere verse clan. That's dumb. I just wanted to see clan verse clan Let me get my arrow for my ultra aces and whatnot for gouse rifles my you know triple strength My embers and you know triple strength wasn't clan that was our PPC Just advanced interspere. I don't know whatever targeting computers All the good stuff there. I saw some screenshots of like gyros and stuff in this game Hmm. I think you can get that in the campaign. Anyway, I have not played the game enough yet Like I like yeah, I have not played it enough I played it a lot, but I haven't played it enough Right. So here's the thing is like the game like on the one hand is so good in that. Yes It is tabletop battle tech you take your turns you move your mechs you shoot You know if you it's other stuff fundamental concepts are all the same we take damage to areas, right? Areas your arm falls off. You can walk up to someone and melee them You can step on a vehicle and it gets destroyed the fact that DFA is there like DFA real easy like you know all the weapons You know work the same you can have someone spot for your LRM fire You can you know you get a cover if you're in the wood in fact my only complaint about the game I only like mechanical complaint about this game is that they implemented this hard point System and met customization. Oh that I don't like that is actually there are many things that they've changed from the actual tabletop rules But a lot of the things they've changed are Functionally equivalent or similar enough for you like the exact roles and math for like falling over aren't exactly the same But it's effectively the same kind of thing where it's like yeah If you moved a lot and then you get bumped a lot then your odds of falling over increase and then you fall over You've moved a lot so you're harder to hit it's a much it's a very in the woods It's harder to hit you it's harder to hit the game does a really good job of really Streamlining the heuristics and indicators and artifacts around that so like the further your guy moves and depending on the things that happen It'll show these little chevrons that show how much evasion you accumulated It's not a really intuitive system right there's not just piloting skill and gunning skill which would used to be just like two Numbers is now like four different stats that like grit and something else and like you can level up your characters and to like get Different you never played battle tech as a campaign well that well no that's messy mech warrior Yeah, the RPG has some of that stuff But battle tech as a campaign is basically just playing the battle tech table game that we played But linking the missions together and having money now the other thing that is missing and having a story and having a story is There's a deeper level of fiddly mech customization that is not present and that is the things like What engine did you put in the mech right? So they don't allow they only allow customizing the mech to the way that mech warrior 2 allowed customizing the mech But actually even more restrictive because what they've done is like rim was saying these hard points So usually in mech warrior 2 or battle tech on pen and paper you could just you have these slots on the mech You have a lot of them and you could put whatever you want in there that you can fit You're you're without running out of slots or running out of weight in this one the mechs have these hard points So it's like okay on this mech the left torso can hold one missile weapon and the right torso can hold Tubalistic weapons and the arms can hold two lasers each or each mech has like a different loadout Now I wouldn't even be that butter about it If it if it was if they were like there were mechs that a lot of hard points or it was just the mechs have So few hard points you basically cannot Customize much at all. You just need to get a different mech. Yep Also, they're the way the game is structured, which is a truth of battle tech But is they tried to I think the hard points were an attempt to solve this problem But didn't solve it is that it's just better to field heavier mechs Yeah, better off just putting the four heaviest mechs you can out in the field loaded with the most stuff Yep, and the LRMs are just better like 180 ton mech can kick the shit out of 250 or 60 ton mechs Usually, yeah, I mean in battle tech the pen and pave your game without the hard points. It's like yeah, it's true Every hundred ton mech may as well be the same as every other hundred ton mech But I could make a 30 ton mech that was really fucking dangerous in the right circumstances Sure, you know you look at your mission situation. You make the right kind of deal But that's it. This is this is where in the campaign Different tonnages have interesting uses and I actually feel like a light mech that I set up to be a scout and I've done things but in the Multiplayer which is my main interest in this battle tech game. There aren't there isn't yet like a scenario builder So it just comes down to what's the tonnage we're gonna play with and we both field lances of appropriate tonnage Mm-hmm, and it's and they're like I can't make a scenario There's no like Customizer there yet, which in multiplayer can lead to a problem where And when Scott and I played for the first time the same thing that used to happen in our old battle tech days Happen we both set up our mechs in an optimal ambush position and then dickered around for like 20 minutes And neither one of us would commit our forces anywhere till eventually we were just both like fuck it Let's just play the game. I Want to be able to build scenarios. I want to be able to build like or at least have scenarios that are more interesting for multiplayer So the thing is this game for all it's you know Hey, I can now play a video game, but it's battle tech the turn-based game Hooray has lots and lots of these tiny issues that you can see complained about on the subreddit for this game and many other places But what I would analogize this to actually is when Civ 5 first came out it was real fun for like a month and then it was tapped out and had a similar Breadth of problems. Yeah, so this has tons and tons of tiny issues For example some today the one I saw most recently there was a mech standing on top of a building Somebody decided hey, let me destroy this building and they destroyed it The mech was then floating in air Oh, and then the mech was then standing on the ground perfectly fine in pen and paper battle tech you take falling damage Which is severe as fuck and holy shit, but in this video game, which is like boop nothing What is out in the campaign they moved a mech into a spot and then an event happened and they were hosed They just couldn't continue. Yeah, there's little bugs There are some like there's some missions were like, you know vehicles go too fast There's some like missions where you go in and there's a million enemies that are super strong and it's like fuck you So you might as well just run away You know, there's like tons of like, you know, I could go on and on there's just you know The user interface problems were like you're trying to click on a thing, but actually you've moved your mech by accident It's hard to get the angle of my view just right sometimes Yeah, the camera is not the greatest also the on a lot of the maps everything is dark and it's hard to see What's going on the mechs don't look distinct enough because they're sort of blending into the background their camera You know, so it's like it's hard to even see But to be honest want to be clear the game's still real fun And as a 1.0 like a released game if this if they are able to invest in this game I mean the fact the game actually launched more kick-starting games is like usually it's just like they run away with your fucking money If this game gets DLC Over time even DLC Expensive DLC even free clan DLC even just like I'm talking like the civilization levels of DLC I Would buy it all Yeah, I mean the thing DLC that adds like the advanced tech so I can have my gouse rifle Yeah, my main problem is like I played the single player and like the campaign There's lots of stuff like you're gonna manage the mechs in the mech Bay. It's real fun because it evokes old ex-con Well, it's for mech or your mercenaries managing your money I really enjoy that because shit sucks your things are always broken down. Everyone's always hurt You're like, but the thing is there's a lot of fiddly issues like I'm trying to allocate tons of armor on my mech And it's like 49.77 and it won't let me make it exactly 50 and then I go to start a mission It's like warning you're not using all the tonnage on your mech And I'm like who's fucking fault is that 49.99 ton asshole granted, right? Making mechs repeatedly on pen and paper at similar issues I never had an issue of 0.01 tons missing but I had issues of little fiddly details like that And usually we just ignored them so it didn't matter But yeah, you know this this problem's like you go to repair a mech And it costs more on if you do it from one screen the other screen and oh, yeah You got to wait, you know for the mech to actually repair There's definitely some problems now in the The economy of how long on the one screen. It's like how much of the salvage works Oh like three million space bucks and then you go to the screen to sell it It's like you can't sell it and then it's like it's not actually worth jack shit. It's like what the hell Well, because you got to finish it. It's not like stay why can't I sell it? If a piece of a mech is worth that much and then when I do finish it the full mech is worth less than the It said the part was worth, you know, and they got this reputation system. That's confusing but also it sparse in that it had like it's fun, but You do end up just hitting play and letting like 40 days go by Because you're waiting for like all your mechs to repair and stuff like yeah Why would I do the next mission before my mechs repair? Yep So the economy the economy of action in the single-player campaign You're starting everyone there's scarter starting scout dies. So I'm like my starting scout guy didn't die No one died I go to the subreddit and everyone's like Decker. He always dies Oh, I don't know how they could have him die I like blew through that mission and then I immediately do well No, I mean he's your scouting guy for like the whole many yeah for the beginning of the game You just keep him around right and then the next mission. I did He just got he was perfect perfect health. He hadn't been hit yet I'm mech just walks over to him comes out of the fog and fires like a million and he dies instantly But that is that attack right, but then I loaded the game so he didn't die Everyone else is like this guy keeps dying. I'm playing hardcore in all consequences. I never back out of a fight Well, I mean why not load a save game? Oh, also if you have too many save games The game starts to slow down yet to delete your save games. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so Basically, I got you know, I played the single-player until I was like the some of the missions are so samey Yeah, a while, but that's where I feel I don't care about the plot enough to see the rest of it I could watch it on YouTube So now I'm pretty much just only waiting for like people who want to play multiplayer But I feel like that's where the sweet spot is gonna be kind of like Civ 5 the sweet spot is multiplayer Until there's a DLC that adds something to the game and then as long as they do continue to invest in this game and release Content and improve it then there will definitely be a cycle of Play the game with people in multiplayer. It starts to get tapped out. Some content comes in We jump back on the single-player trailer We can actually play battle tech now without having to bust so I would say cardboard If you are in the situation We are in where you have fond memories of old pen and paper battle tech, but don't have time to play it by this game But even if you only play the campaign and play it multiplayer a few times It'll scratch that if you're expecting the exact same rules This is not that for example, you know, like we're example I never 100% knew the rules back then anyway I know the rules but 100% for example the biggest rule change is that and paid pen and paper battle tech, right? Everyone moves then everyone shoots and you all shoot simultaneously So if I get a headshot on rim, he still might get a headshot on me before he dies All right, whereas in this there's initiatives more like XCOM So the fast mechs go first unless they delay and then the next mechs go and they move shoot move shoot Which is more what you're used to in a turn-based strategy video game right like advanced wars move shoot move shoot, right? so In that sense you could just like destroy a mech before you even get a chance to do anything if you get lucky Yeah, which is not the same, but yeah, you go with that on purpose. You set up strategies around a scout It's fine, right? There's nothing wrong with it I'm just saying if you're expecting it to be exactly the same it is not it is just the same feel and mostly the same But I would also say if you're gonna get into it for the multiplayer Get in on it now because our crew the front row crew and Geek Nights forums We're gonna try to get a bunch of multiplayer going as long as the iron is hot Yeah, the only thing I can say is that like there's all these PC games now It's still PC game season yet the game I still play the most is Especially since I got a new character and it's like I played I played the what was the other way into the breach like for a day I've really liked into the bridge liked it so much It's nothing wrong with it But then I you know and I played battle tech for like a few days, but slay this fire just scratch I just play the slay this fire every day I still place way this fire every day at least for now I play this almost like this scratch is a really profound itch and I'm playing it a lot I just don't play it every day that just play it, you know But I feel like once I get doing multiplayer with our friends and it's like I already played slay this fire that day And I'm bored and I got nothing to do then I plan to open battle tech So this weekend on the in Toronto, but like within a week or two We're gonna get we're gonna schedule some multiplayer games on the discord if anyone wants to play multiplayer battle tech And you know if I'm on steam just like message me. Yeah, we're gonna make a forum thread about that specifically Cuz uh, yeah So the only people I would say don't buy this game if you don't like turn-based turn-based fiddly Strategy game. It's not the most fiddly, but it's but it's really it's slightly fiddly It's in this sweet spot between very it's so fiddly You can't even deal like you're open universe Alice not even close to that No, it's way even that's less fiddly even than civilization, but it is more fiddly than advance words All right, I think we're done. That was pretty good review. Oh This is like 18 people watching There's a lot of chat in here people like battle tech. What do you want? All right, I gotta I gotta go run and eat some food