The Danger of Elite Dangerous

I have to be honest...I've been avoiding Elite Dangerous.  In my heart of hearts I want to play it, but I haven't much since I bought it and spent a couple of days flying around in my starter Sidewinder.  I want to go down to my desk in the master bedroom with the 5.1 surround computer speaker system, set up my old Saitek HOTAS, configure my Trackir 5 head tracking system, plug in my gaming laptop, and fire up Elite Dangerous.  I desperately want to zip around the 400 billion systems that make up the Elite Dangerous galaxy.

 I want to upgrade my ship(s), customize their paint jobs, their weapons and modules, and fill my cargo bays with goods I picked up so I can hopefully make a little cash re-selling them.  I want to blow those pesky pirates into an expanding cloud of gas and vapor when they interdict my flights and attempt to blow me up into similar clouds for my cargo.

I want to explore, mine asteroids, trade, hunt down bounties, and even smuggle a little.  And every now and then I want to hear the fuzzy and staticky far away voice of another Elite Dangerous pilot somewhere in the fringes of the galaxy as we connect in the vastness of space.

But I haven't done it yet.  Why?  Because Elite Dangerous is exactly that...it's dangerous.  Especially to me.  It's dangerously addicting, and I know that once I set that little gaming space up to really dig deep into Elite Dangerous that I may not be able to stop.  I mean, I'm about to start my new career, and after the past three years of working as a nurse part time and going to grad school full time, I actually am going to grow up again in about a week, put on my big boy pants, and go back to working Mon-Fri 8-5 (with one night a week and one weekend a month of on call to boot).  And I know myself.  Enough to fear that I could totally screw up everything I've worked for - family, home, career, wonderful and extremely fortunate life - if I hop into my Elite Dangerous cockpit.  Because I may not be able to stop...

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating (just a little...but not completely).  Elite is that good, maybe not for everyone, but certainly for me.  Particularly if you're in your 40's - 50's and you remember playing the original Elite on your Commodore 64.
(How many joysticks did you destroy playing Elite back then?!?!)  Original Elite was mind blowing and I an d I couple of buddies devoted ourselves to bing playing Elite until the wee hours of the morning.  I'm pretty sure hygiene became an issue with Elite.  Remember, this was the precursor to space trading and combat games - long before Wing Commander and light years before EVE Online.  Hell there wasn't even multiplayer on Elite.

So you can kind of understand why I am reluctant to really dive into Elite Dangerous, the crowd sourced Kickstarter update to what may have been one of the very best games of the mid-80's by Frontier Developments.  Now Elite Dangerous brings us to a massive (which may be an understatement) galaxy of hundreds of billions of systems to explore in a persistent open world with about 150,000 of these systems are taken from real world astronomical data.

Elite Docking View

(Check the difference between a screenshot docking at a station in Original Elite and Elite Dangerous)

Elite Dangerous Docking View

(You fly around the inside of stations in Elite Dangerous too - and have to land and dock at assigned docking pads)






But you know...I'm out of school now...and aside from starting the new job, I really don't have much to responsibility beyond everyday life for the first time in like 10 years.  So maybe I should go set that desk up for some hardcore gaming.  It should still be double as my Roll20 D&D gaming area...

PS:  Did I mention you can atmospherically land on planetary bodies and planet-based outposts and space stations and even drive around said planets and moons in a wheeled rover vehicle?

Peace...
MD
@michaeldunkle

The Return of the Flagrant Nerd

Ok ok...know you've heard this before...but Flagrant Nerd is going to back up and running!

I recently finished grad school, passed my board exams, and accepted a new position as a nurse practitioner...which means that for the first time in about 10 years I don't have any classes to worry about, no exams to study for, no clinical rotations to complete, etc. etc. etc.  So, one of the things I promised myself when this time comes, was to get more postings onto Flagrant Nerd.

And later today, that will begin...

Peace...

MD
@michaeldunkle

Early Holiday Present from GMT Games

Came home yesterday and was excited to find my 2015 reprint of Twilight Struggle sitting on the porch!



If you're not familiar with TS, it's one of the most popular board games of all time, scoring first in board games, first in war games, and second in strategy games on BoardGameGeek.

Twilight Struggle (the name is based on a quote from John F. Kennedy - see below) that simulates the Cold War era from 1945 to 1989.

"In 1945, unlikely allies toppled Hitler's war machine, while humanity's most devastating weapons forced the Japanese Empire to its knees in a storm of fire. Where once there stood many great powers, there then stood only two. The world had scant months to sigh its collective relief before a new conflict threatened. Unlike the titanic struggles of the preceding decades, this conflict would be waged not primarily by soldiers and tanks, but by spies and politicians, scientists and intellectuals, artists and traitors. Twilight Struggle is a two-player game simulating the forty-five year dance of intrigue, prestige, and occasional flares of warfare between the Soviet Union and the United States. The entire world is the stage on which these two titans fight to make the world safe for their own ideologies and ways of life. The game begins amidst the ruins of Europe as the two new "superpowers" scramble over the wreckage of the Second World War, and ends in 1989, when only the United States remained standing."  (From the box of Twilight Struggle by GMT Games)

It's legend within the gaming community...and I almost picked it up at a game convention about 4 years ago.  After that it went out of print and could be had for over $200 from owners.  But GMT Games is (IMHO) one of the most innovative game companies out there - mainly because of their P500 Pre-order program.  When they have a new game being developed or are looking at reprints of popular games (such as Twilight) they put it on their P500 program.  Essentially if a game hits certain levels of customer pre-orders then it goes to production and once it hits 500 pre-orders, it ships.  Pre-orders usually have a pretty good discount (for instance I got Twilight Struggle for $42.50 - normal price of the reprint is $65.00) and once that 500 order limit hits, the game autoships to your front door.  The coolest part of GMT's P500 is that customers truly get to have a say in what games are produced and reprinted...

Now I just have to figure out if I can get away with playing around on Christmas Eve with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Che Guevara, the Brezhnev Doctrine, and when to play the China Card.

"Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."

– John F. Kennedy

Peace....

MD

@michaeldunkle

Unboxing of Kingdom Death: Monster

Sorry for the overdue post on the unboxing of my copy of Kingdom Death: Monster...life often trumps hobbies and blogging!

Toughest part of this was not wanting to disturb such what really is more a piece of art than just another game. KD:M is simply gorgeous; just reading through the manual was a treat. But games are created to be played...and to leave them pristine is does them an injustice.  Though I will most likely be more than a little meticulous digging into and assembling the minis. :)

My first impression stands up to my expectations...that Adam Poots took an enormous amount of time in designing and putting this game together. The separate miniature box is a great example of this.  Consider that you may not be de-spruing everything at once...you may just grab what you need to get started and come back often to accessorize and create new minis. So the storage option for sprues and mini pieces is appreciated!

Second is that it's time once again to break out the snack bags (or it you are really a flagrant nerd get the various sized hobby storage bags that you pick up at Michael's - yes your great aunt uses them to store her bedazzler rhinestone collection but they also excel at storing your 40k bits too.)  There's the 'Arkham Horror' level of game pieces in there (check the pics of the cardboard game piece sprues) and what looks like some 200+ cards of different sizes. If you're like me, you get a inner gleeful clapping of hands like a two year old when you open up a new game and see seven or eight million pieces to punch out and look forward to the two hours of doing so and anal retentively sorting such into little plastic bags.  Sure it looks like Poots put a lot of thought into the box insert in terms of designing a tray to store everything in...but we all know that such best laid plans go out the window when you slam on the brakes on your way to the game convention and all the games packed into backseat suddenly change position to the front seat.  This is why God invented the zip lock.

Third impressed impression came after skimming the manual. Aside from giving a nice back story to the game (in some pretty cool anime artwork), I found the game is not only designed for the one off afternoon in your buddy's basement with a bucket of KFC and a big bag of Munchies, it's really meant to excel as a campaign game. That's right...everything you love about Thursday Original D&D night can be had with KD:Monster (to fill up your free time Wednesday nights).  In fact the reason behind the massive amount of weapons and armor on those mini sprues is so you can accessorize up your fave character's miniature with their best sword and shield that they pick up over various game chapters. Bravo KD:M!

Check the unboxing pics!

So...next post will be a first play review...

Peace...
MD
@michaeldunkle

Geek Hunor du jour..

Check out @michaeldunkle's Tweet: https://twitter.com/michaeldunkle/status/649578989808283648?s=09

Kids, Don't Try This At Home

Pretty sure people have been doing this on East Colfax for quite some time...

Check out @geekdotcom's Tweet: https://twitter.com/geekdotcom/status/649569825858146304?s=09

Darrell Hardy Writes on Writing

Tweet and link to my friend Darrell Hardy...game designer extraordinaire...

Check out @HardyTales's Tweet: https://twitter.com/HardyTales/status/649566353729409024?s=09