I did, however, purchase a Gun Drone squad, one of the few Tau items available at the shop, and today spent about 3.5-4 hours painting one up.  I forgot to add sept markings for identification until after I took the first round of photos, so I had to go back and add them, but I’m happy with the overall result.  For the sept markings, I ended up deciding on the Tau equivelant of TFS, for The Farstrider Scout.

First match – Tau vs. Space Wolves, fielded by Teddy (I think I got the name right)

The match ended up being Dawn of War with 5 objectives to cap/hold, 1500 points.  He fielded 6 squads total, I think – 2 cavalry, 2 infantry squads with anti-vehicle weapons, 2 Rhinos, one of which had a small squad inside.  I had 3 squads each of 6 Fire Warriors, 2 Broadsides with shield drones, Command Crisis suit and body guard, 1 squad of 4 stealth suits, a Hammerhead, Skyray, and 3 Devilfish. 

Neither of us deployed anything to start with – first mistake on my part, as I ended up wasting two turns getting my Fire Warriors into position.  First turn had me moving my armor up slightly from the right flank, with my Broadsides stationing themselves between a building and a 3 story ruins where one objective was.  I would eventually move my Fire Warriors into these ruins to try and hold the objective.  My second squad disembarked from the Devilfish they were loaded into and parked themselves on top of a second objective.  I proceeded to get charged by the cavalry, while his infantry in the rear fired lascannons and rockets at my Fire Warriors that were stuck out in the open.  I quickly found my Hammerhead tank wrecked, Fire Warrior team that had just disembarked wiped out, and their Devilfish transport wrecked as well. 

The rest of the match continued pretty much the same as he chased my vehicles around the map and eliminated them one by one until the last turn which saw my final Devilfish explode, and the 4 members that remained out of my Fire Warrior teams running off the battlefield (as is fitting with Tau doctrine.)  He had captured no objectives and only contested two, but either way due to the “massacre” rule, it was a win for him. 

Flaws in this army – not enough Fire Warriors; didn’t take any team leaders, which could have given me Bonding Knives to allow my broken units to regroup…  Though there was only one squad that could have made use of it.  Flaws in tactics – aside from not deploying the Fire Warriors first and moving my armor line up on the first round (even those six inches might have helped), there really wasn’t much I could do against 24 inches of movement by his cavalry, plus the 2+ saves that I was fighting against.  I went up against a veteran player who knows his rules and strategies and lost.  I knew it was highly doubtful that I would be able to beat him from the onset, but I didn’t expect the speed in which his units could move.  Really not much I could have done against him, I don’t think.

Second match – Farsight Tau (me) and Shadowsun Tau (never caught his name, sorry) vs. Space Marines (Josh, a.k.a. America) and Orks (Tank)

This match started out much better, but due to sheer numbers and not enough anti-infantry firepower on the Tau’s part, we lost by the end of turn three.  Deployment was Spearhead, with an objective of annihilation.  This time I fielded Farsight, which gave me a bounus in fighting Orks, a second Crisis suit, 1 Hammerhead, 3 Broadsides, 2 squads of 8 Fire Warriors each (including leaders), two Devilfish, and a Piranha.  My ally fielded Shadowsun, a second Crisis Suit command squad of 3, 2 squads of Fire Warriors, two Broadsides, a Devilfish, and 2 Hammerheads.  As for my opponents, I don’t really know or remember what they had beyond “bucket of ’no, not the face!’”.  Space Marines had a Whirlwind, 2 Rhinos, 3 speeders, and a gaggle of troops, plus some infiltrator/snipers.  Orks had a some sort of scavanged Leman Russ, battle wagon, 6-8 Deffcoptas, 3 grots? and about a billion troops.  The other big downside to this engagement was that both players from each side went at once, so I’m really not entirely sure what all actions my ally took were.  (side note – that sentance sounds really odd and probably doesn’t make much sense, nor is it probably grammatically correct.  DEAL WITH IT.)

This was  a city map, so lots of ruined buildings to pile into, and that we did.  I claimed one 6-story building for most of my units, placing my Broadsides in the top three stories for a spectacular view of the battlefield, and one Fire Warrior squad in the story below that, as there was only enough room for one Broadside in each of the top three floors.  My Devilfish deployed next to the building with the other squad of Fire Warriors inside one of the two, and I held everything else in reserve. 

First turn saw me pop the Leman Russ – lucky set of rolls on my part – with two of the broadsides, while the third holed one of the Deffcoptas, which proceeded to panic and fly off the field.  The Space Marine snipers had taken position in the top floor of the ruined building across from mine, so my Fire Warriors let loose and managed to kill one.  The other Fire Warrior squad disembarked to move into the same ruin that I was already occupying (should have done that on deployment).  My ally tried to have his Hammerhead fire through some ruins with no line of sight (FAIL!) and eventually had to settle for not being able to fire from that unit that turn.  Some sparse shooting from the Orks that turn, really to no effect, since they can’t hit the side of a barn, and just some movement by Space Marines.

Second turn saw my Fire Warriors pelting the snipers again, while I think pretty much every railgun on the map – 6 in total at the time – focusing fire on the Ork Battlewagon, as their command squad was inside of it.  Needless to say, by the end of the game, it only had one weapon system left.  I was able to bring my Piranha and both Farsight and the second Crisis suit in.  The Prianha detached its gun drones and took out the Whirlwind (Huzzah!), but unfortunately the second Crisis suit suffered a Deepstrike mishap and ended up somewhere in the planet’s core…  Farsight, on the other hand, popped in on a prim position and took out all but two members of one of the Marine squads with his plasma rifle and Dawnblade before falling back behind a pillar to block line of sight from the Orks behind him.  The Marines brought in a speeder from reserve, outflanking behind my Devilfish, which kindly EXPLODED.  I had expected this, having faced the same tactic from this player before.  Um…  Shooting, shooting, more shooting…  My ally lost a lot of troops due to his poor positioning and lack of experience, but I only lost the one Devilfish, while the other had its burst cannon destroyed, the Piranha was immobilized, and one Fire Warrior squad (that had been trying to get into the ruin) was all but cut down – only the leader remained.  Definitely glad I detached the drones from the Piranha beforehand this time.  Most of the enemy units were on the field at this point.

Last turn was rushed, with only ~20 minutes left before store closing…  So rushed that once again, I forgot to roll for reserves again – my Hammerhead never made it onto the field, not that it would have helped.  The Orks stormed up into the ruin I was occupying, and we pretty much ended it at that point as my Fire Warriors got overrun. 

Flaws in this army – once again, need more dakka.  The Tau are supposed to be specialized for ranged combat, but I really haven’t seen it materialize yet except when it comes to tank hunting.  Flaws in tactics – should have deployed both Fire Warrior squads in the ruins right off; need to remember Preferred Enemy and reserves – it doesn’t do you any good if you pay the points for it and you never use it.  Best use of tactics – putting those broadsides at the top of the building was the best thing I ever did.  They had line of sight over probably 75% of the battlefield, and with weapons that can cover the ENTIRE battlefield, there really wasn’t much they couldn’t hit.  The only thing I could have done better would have been to keep the smart missiles on them instead of using the twin linked plasma option, as I really didn’t get much of a chance to bring those to bear due to the range. I wish I had been able to put more of them up there though.

Overall, it was fun while we were playing, but having lost every battle makes things pretty frustrating.  I doubt my dwarves would have had these problems.

About an hour later I was back in the system, moving my cargo the slow way – in a cargo ship with a hold 1/29th the size of the late Kismet, and I was chatting with the same people who killed me.  I think I was being pretty good natured about the whole thing – I know when I made a mistake, and a stupid one at that.  But as far as stupidity goes, what followed tops even that…

One of the players – we’ll call him “Max”, because I don’t recall their names – puts out an offer:  Join our corp so we don’t kill you anymore.  I counter with a joking remark that now they’ve stooped to extortion.  He asks me how that is, and I point out that he’s effectively said “Join our corp, or we’ll kill you.”  He is still at a loss and replies that that wasn’t what he said at all.  Riiiiight.  I leave with a “I’ll consider it”, and let the matter drop.

The next day though, I get an in-game mail from their recruitment officer.  It’s obviously a canned message, but I’ll put it here because I really don’t think I can convey the stupidity inherant in the message…

Hey, would you be interested in joining a new corp? I only try to recruit people we kill. It usually gets us better recruits, because if they can overcome their loss, reason with their killers, realize their folly and grow a pair, they can become a very decent player when it comes to EVE

So, here’s what I can tell you about the worst alliance in EVE. General Tso’s is a large mass of idiotic assholes that take nothing seriously. They play the game, and they really don’t care what happens. Usually when they fight, they get owned, because not only are they noobs and can’t form any decent mass, but they always pick off more they can chew. General Tso’s are some of the biggest griefers around, but don’t fear them because they are nothing but the dirt on the ground. They like harassing people, and no one, not even members of their own family are free from the agony. When it comes down to it, however, General Tso’s are nothing but a band of interweb dorks with no real social life and try to compensate their small phallus’s by making other people rage in game.

Here’s the serious note. There is nothing serious… this is a game. If you can take getting your balls busted, like to joke about poo, sex and other naughty stuffs, then you should fit in. If you can hold your own, and you don’t get offended by topics such as religion, gore, sexual behaviour mainly composed of the homosexual nature, racism, politics and anything else close to being offensive, you’re already a member and don’t realize it yet. So get your loser ass into our corp, or get your loser ass corp in our alliance. Or war us. We’ll fight provided the tactics are right, until our little bums are red with rashes from getting pounded, and then we’ll run and hide until it all blows over. And then the game goes on…

Toss Jade Elaira a convo. He’s a rather interesting male/female hybrid. Or maybe you’ve already heard of him… Or maybe you know him, you just don’t know it. After all, Jade is sending you this because he’s had some contact, major or minor, with you before.

So basically, you’re a bunch of idiots and losers, and telling me this is going to make me want to join your corp…  Why?  How?  I don’t know, this one is beyond me.

There were a few defining and hilarious moments in each match, however, such as the one to the left.  In that particular one, I had moved my command squad into a building for height purposes and also because that position was actually behind the rear/right flank of my opponent’s line.  My two battlesuits were enough to cause my opponent, who was playing Tyranids, to divert several of his troops;  they proceded to climb the wall and slaughter my command squad.  Everything after that was pretty much hopeless as I watched my first tank crash and burn, my second one explode from a rear ambush, both Devilfish APCs get disabled, and my infantry get overrun by foes that had superior arms/armor and far outnumbered me.  Of the four objectives on the map, I was able to contest ONE – with a wrecked APC – for a loss.

The second match, against Orks, proved to be slightly better.  The objective this time was simple annihalation, and I managed to destroy the command vehicle within my first turn, forcing the squad to continue on foot, so I was off to a good start.  Unfortunately, that’s about as good as it got.  I didn’t move my tanks fast enough, and so with in a short time the Orks caught up to them and proceded to tear chunks out of their hulls.  The only upside to this meant that my vehicle-mounted anti-personnel flechettes that were mounted on the tanks were able to whittle down their numbers considerably, and then the ensuing explosion from one of the tanks all but wiped out what was left of one squad.  That’s about where things ended, as once again I lost both APC’s, and both tanks, and my infantry squads were down to two troops when the judge called time and the game ended.

The third and final match was against Space Marines, and was also another objective match.  While I didn’t come out quite as bad as far as units went, I was not able to contest either of the two objectives.  It didn’t help that I had placed mine in a tight corner where my units wouldn’t be able to fight well.  The defining moment of this game was bringing my two Piranhas – high speed scout skimmers (Think “snow speeder” from Star Wars and you’ll have a close picture) in from reserves in an out flank maneuver.  This placed them well behind enemy lines, and as things had it, right by the building that the enemy commander was in…  So I blew it up.  Unfortunately, vehicle and building explosions don’t neccessarily destroy their occupants, so all I really did was piss him off.  My first Piranha was quickly turned into a flaming wreck, and as the second tried to escape, moving flat out for its full available movement value, the commander shot it in the rear, penetrating the armor and causing that one to wreck as well.  The match ended shortly after that, for my third loss.

Overall, what mattered to me was that A) I had fun, and B) I met people.  The person who so kindly offered to lend me his army has said the offer remains open for the future, provided I give him a heads up, so I’m likely to be doing more of this soon.

I’m quickly learning that the Planetary Interaction (PI) system will be a long term investment for those that want to stick with it.  I imagine that the prices for certain resources and supplies that used to be provided by NPCs will fall now that these things are provided by the players.  Given a few months though, there will be those that get bored with it and go back to their usual lifestyle, and the prices will rise again, though probably not nearly to what they were before.  In the meantime, it has become easy to exploit the laziness of others, since there were only about ten or twelve systems that the command centers were seeded in (at least in the Essence region – I can’t speak for elsewhere), and so it’s easy enough to buy a bunch up, take them to a system that they haven’t been seeded in, and re-sell them at a greater price.  There are some people charging double what they originally sold for – and they’re being bought.  I imagine that eventually these too will become player-created, though whether it is a planet-side construction, or made from a blueprint at a station, I can’t say.  Personally I find the planet-side creation of commodities to be a lot more enjoyable than trying to build something space-side.

Honestly, there’s one huge, fatal flaw in the current system.  As it stands right now, other players cannot destroy or interfere with your planetary infrastructure…  but that ability to destroy what others create is one of the great wonders that makes the EVE universe turn, and evolve!  Imagine, if you will, if all of the player owned stations (POS) could never be destroyed or taken over?  The universe would stagnate, people would lose interest, and game population would drop.

There is one other game that exists, that the PaleStardevelopers hate to have compared to EVE because they are so vastly different that there is very little comparison.  With the release of Tyrannis, that gap grew a little smaller.  This game is called DarkSpace, and it can, and will be said, that they did planetary interaction FIRST, and in my opinion, they did it RIGHT too.  In their static universe – metaverse, as they call it – planets may be built up as industrial, technological, or just pure “battlestars” where every available build spot that is not required for power or personnel, has some sort of weapons platform on it.  The opposing team has the option of bombing it into oblivion, and then capturing it, or simply landing enough troops on the surface to overwhelm the garrisoned forces and capture it with (most of) the infrastructure intact, or any varying level of the two.  If the planet is built up in the correct manner by an experienced player (“skill points” have no role in this – it is all up to player knowledge and skill), it takes a large and coordinated fleet to overwhelm planetary defenses and capture it.

I am not saying that CCP should copy Palestar exactly (in fact I’m wondering if they’ll take issue over simply the planetary interaction system being a copyright infringement of some sort to begin with), but change is definitely needed in that area.  How to implement such a change in a way that is fair to even the casual player who wishes to stick with PI however, is beyond me, and will likely take until the arrival of Dust 514 to come about.

The first, most visible cost already, has been the planets themselves.  They’ve changed considerably.  One of  my “home” systems is Ommare, a second-to-dead end system in the Essence Region, held by the Gallente Federation, and this is where I first noticed the changes.  The first planet you see, or used to see, I should say, when coming into the system from Cat, the “opening” to our dead end road, is Ommare X.  Originally, it was a beautiful reddish brown desert, or “arid” planet, with a few sparse weather patterns swirling in the atmosphere.  A brief side note here – kudos to the art teams that did the planet surfaces, because with few exceptions, they’re beautiful.  Now, no longer an “arid” class, this planet, the outermost one in the solar system, has become an “ocean” class planet – pure water, sparse weather systems, and a hurricane/typhoon at each pole.  Science, I would think, would dictate that due to the distance from this solar system’s star, it should be an “ice” class planet.  Sadly, I do not have any screenshots showing the planet prior to it’s sudden change.

I discovered the stories of Toad and the Wingless back in high school, and was thrilled with every single one of them, and this is where I heard of Krispy Kreme even before I had ever seen an actual store that sold them.  They originally started out on the alt.games.warbirds site, but have since moved to http://agw.bombs-away.net.  I took some part in them under the name Iceman, as those days I was pretty young and impressionable, images of Top Gun fresh in my mind, and I’m afraid to say that a lot of what I wrote could be considered godmoding.  A few years later, having matured quite a bit, I relinquished the name out of respect for one of the developers of Warbirds, but by that time I had drifted away.  Sadly, these days the interest in the Wingless has died, and there hasn’t really been a post since 2008, and I honestly think that it started dying a slow death when one of the core members, Carrot, succumbed to cancer several years before that.

But I know that, like myself, the Wingless will always hold a place in the hearts of those that visited it, and as such will never truly die…  So here’s to all you guys – may your guns never jam, your engines never fail, and your bullets always find their mark.

 - “Serrus”

There is one question that arises when the something that we profess to have belief in is a tangible thing, but that thing is accessible to most people, but not neccessarily all, such as color.  Is it real?  It certainly may be to you and me, and so, it must be…  But how do you describe that color blue to a blind man?  Or using the same analogy, even worse, how does one deal with someone who was not born blind, but by some unfortunate circumstance, has become so?  They know what “blue” is, but they cannot percieve it any longer.  Then, continuing on this vein, suppose that person is able to undergo an operation to restore, or in the first case, give them, their sight?  How will they handle this new sensory input?  Will it be the same as everyone else, or will their sky be purple (a little extreme, I know). 

Now apply this same question to something that is not normally tangible, such as something in religion, i.e. the power of God, or simply faith..  Not everyone perceives this, and those that do each feel it in a different way, but people do perceive it, so it must be real, right?  Now, imagine someone who has never had, or has lost that faith.  There is no medical operation that will give them that, so how do they get it? 

And for the person who has had that faith, and lost it, one can imagine that the loss of feeling can be as frustrating as someone losing their sight!  They know it is there, they know it is real, but they can’t touch it anymore.   Very possibly, over the passage of time, that sense of “real” fades, until someone else comes along and says “Look at this!  It is real!”, and they remember, that yes, it was…  But yet they still cannot touch it, and are conflicted.  How do they deal with this?  Will they ever be able to “receive their sight” again?  For the latter question, there are many that would say that the answer is a definitive “yes”.

Lastly, even rarer, imagine that the faith they lost can have an effects on the world around them.  The person must now not only deal with the conundrum of how to regain their “sight”, but also the moral/ethical/ecological complications involved with invoking that “sight” again…

For I am lost and cannot see,
I have not got my specs with me…

On Friday afternoon, I drove out part of the way that I had initally planned on taking: a route through Farmington Creek Canyon, situated between Francis Peak and Bountiful Peak; one which would have had me following Skyline Drive (blue path on the map) all the way up to Francis Peak Road (green path on the map).  I got as far as the Sunset campground before deciding that it was getting a little late for driving on those roads and heading back.  Skyline Drive is a dirt road, most of the time only one lane wide, that hugs the mountain side, and it’s a long drop off if you go over the edge, at least until you get up closer to te top of the ridge.  Even then, it’s probably a good 10-15 foot drop, and I know from experience that your car probably won’t survive that drop.

I ended up spending about four and a half hours out in the Farmington Creek Canyon, stopping again at the Sunset campground to hike around and take pictures.  There was one path that passed above the campground to a rocky outcropping overlooking the creek (yellow path on the map).  I spent about twenty minutes there, taking photos and one video clip, and trying to hunt down the small lizards that I heard rustling around in the underbrush.  I only saw one though, and it scooted before I could get the camera up.

After that, I headed back down and into the campground, where I discovered the trail head for the Farmington Creek trail (red path on the map.  I threw caution to the wind and headed down.  It didn’t take all that long to reach the creek itself, and I passed several people with their dogs on the way down.  The trail split at the bottom, one path heading upstream, one heading downstream, so I took the upstream route, which ended up not going very far.  I found a spot that I could get right down by the creek at, and spent a few minutes playing around with shutter speeds and aperature settings, plus another video.  The water was ice cold from the snow runoff and was so loud that it sounded like a train.  After coming to a dead end, I headed back up, spotting one spider on the way.  Also of note:  “This hill is kicking my ass!”

After getting back to the car, I took a brief break to eat lunch, then continued on up the road.  I was pretty dissapointed when I got to the “intersection” as it was, only to find that all the roads going farther up into the mountains were closed.  I imagine that later in the year the roads are open, but I won’t be here then, plus I was there for the SNOW!  In retrospect, it was kind of a “Mount Hyjal” moment (had a picture for that, but it’s missing – I’ll find it later).  Still, there was quite a bit of snow at the turnaround point, so I spent a few minutes stomping around and taking photos.  There were a few spots where it was piled up six feet deep, but I managed to stay on top for the most part, though I did fall down once and got snow down the back of my pants.  Cold!

Finally, I headed back down, but it was still pretty early, so I didn’t want to leave quite yet.  There was a split close to the base that followed the western face of Bountiful Peak (orange path), so I followed that for a short way before finding a place to park and walk around.  I found lots of interesting things – a concrete structure with several lizards in it that I managed to get pictures of; several types of flowers; several black and white birds that I’m having trouble identifiying. 

The prize of this little side trip, however, was discovering a humming bird flying around.  It was very elusive, but every few minutes would land to rest, and eventually let me get close enough to take a few photos of it.  It was very facinating to watch, as it kept dive bombing through the brush tops, presumably catching small insects.  It had a very distinct sound; a warbling, staccato whistle as it dove, then a chitter as it climbed for altitude.  I took a video clip with the phone, but it failed to capture the motions or the sound of the hummingbird, and it was moving so fast that neither I, nor auto-focus, could lock onto it with one lucky exception as it reached the top of its climb.

Decidedly satisfied by the results, and feeling better than I have in a long time, I headed home, sunburnt and exhausted.

After that and lunch, I headed out through the mountains to Wasatch Mountain State Park.  Unfortunately, about five minutes after I arrived, it started pouring, so after checking at the visitor center for trail maps that would cover the area closer to where we’re staying (there were none), I headed out to find a road that would theoretically take me up and over the mountains via a more scenic route.  Alas, it was closed, so back to the hotel I headed.

All in all, a very enjoyable day.  Tomorrow – more hiking, or at least more SCENIC driving – not that it was any less beautiful, but it’s hard to take photos when you’re driving at 65 mph on a highway – and LOTS more photos.