Bay 12 Games Forum

So, between financial aid and general savings, I've managed to scrape $850 towards a new desktop PC to replace my decrepit old one. Since I'd also like to get a decent video card for it (and as a result will probably also need a new PSU), I'm thinking of buying a refurbished one instead of brand new... not to mention that not needing to upgrade to windows 8 is nice.

And so, I was wondering... what have you guys experienced with refurbished PCs? Any traps to avoid or things to seek out? Recommending specific models/brands is ok, but I'd rather this be a discussion than a straight up question/answer thread.

Getting one or more basic defense drones is pretty much mandatory for survival, unless you're going for a cloak build (or have the weapon preigniter, and enough firepower to disable the enemy's weapons in a single volley). Don't bother with the more advanced drones, as they'll just end up wasting shots on lasers and missing incoming missiles. You're completely at the mercy of the chaos god RNG if you let missiles hit your ship willy nilly, and blocking them should be the main priority early on.

Putting out fires is really easy. Just open an airlock along a path to starve the room of oxygen, and once it's out, open all of the internal doors to let it refill quickly. A level two medbay can heal your crew faster than lack of oxygen kills them, so it's worth grabbing just in case things go horribly wrong.

Metal beds can be modded in. So too can stone beds I believe.

Well, there aren't any furniture raws, so most people wouldn't bother. A custom reaction to make beds of a specific material could be added, which wouldn't be too horrible if you just stuck to a few metals and some stones (which could be altered after world gen for a specific fort).

I remember playing a game many years ago that was a kind of tower defense, but used a spreading fluid over a topographical map instead of normal creeps. All the towers needed to be connected to each other, and power needed to be generated and sent over in individual packets to make them operate. It also had a map editor, and I must've made and submitted 30+ maps for it. It's killing me that I can't remember its name.

That's pretty cool. I'm hoping they were on the enemy team.

Though if you're light enough to get knocked around by an M4, it probably could've just one shot derp'd you anyway.

Oh, and another reason I keep playing WoT is silliness like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I recently killed a KV-1 on dragon ridge by jumping on it in a leopard. It was pretty glorious. I'm definitely loving the new physics, for things like drifting and being able to go down rocky slopes.

Though really, I'm finding the leopard a lot less fun than I did in beta. It never gets any tier IV matches anymore (which admittedly always meant massive stomping, but hey, makes up for all the artyless tier VIIs), and feels less responsive than I remember it. The T-50 has been a more fun light tank for me, despite its piddly gun, even without the final engine upgrade.

The KV is still fun, thankfully, though I remember its pen gun being better than the current 85mm (it actually bounced against a grille in a recent match, FFS). The derp is still great, though, especially when forced into high tier matches.

It also looks like the PzIV lost its silly looking turret upgrade that for whatever reason reminded me of a medieval crusader, but from what I've experienced fighting them it still seems like the tank I remember. The grind through the Pz38na is pretty terrible, though, since it gets out-tiered so often, though I'm only a few thousand exp off.

I've always found it best to just try new things. I've never really enjoyed megaprojects, but altering your playstyle to something fresh makes the game more fun. It's easy for me to fall into a rut of optimizing everything, and then things get really boring.

Also, basic modding is very easy, so I'd definitely consider giving it a shot. Adding nifty new weapons and armor, new creatures, or just tinkering can be very rewarding. The game is designed explicitly for the player to create the game they want to see, and all you need to know about the raws and the various tokens is on the wiki. There are also many great mods others have put together, though I personally haven't tried any.

Everyone is crap, and has their unique flavor of crap that defines them. The greatest affliction mankind has is that we're all unable to be completely aware of what our crappiness is, and are driven by an innate bias for our flavor over others. This is mostly due to humans being ill fit for their own intelligence, and still controlled thoroughly by evolutionary mechanisms that have no relevance.

That said, human life is a beautiful and sacred thing, and compassion for each other and our world is the best possible trait.

...oh wow, this seems like the polar opposite of idealism.

Edit:
Hmm, this came off as a bit... angry. I guess prolonged exposure to the internet does this to people.
What I mostly mean is that everyone has inherent flaws that ultimately define their character, but the most important thing for us to do is show compassion, since we're all equal in that way.