Author Topic: What are you playing right now?  (Read 612105 times)

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Offline deathspeed

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    • Steam
Re: What are you playing right now?
I picked up Jane's Advance Tactical Fighters on a Steam sale, and have already put in about 6 hours (a ton of time for me, with kids, family, maintenance stuff around the house, etc.). 

It gets a lot of hate on Steam reviews because apparently many Jane's fanatics were expecting a full-blown sim, like most Jane's titles, but this one is definitely an arcade shooter.  I just wanted an accessible, fun jet combat game, and I got it!  It even works great with my Sidewinder  joystick, although there are no force-feedback effects.   

You unlock more planes as you progress and can choose any plane for any mission, and there is enough difference that you can tell you are flying a different plane.  Even with missiles, you might not get far if you take an A-10 on a mission that is primarily air-to-air.  You cannot customize loadouts, but some planes do have multiple variations with different loadouts.  The storyline is nothing to write home about, but it generally makes sense and it made me laugh a few times. E.g.  [heavy Eastern European accent] - "They spent three hundred million on that research facility.  I'll give you fifteen dollars to blow it up."  I don't play games like this for the story anyway.  The campaign is linear, with missions usually lasting about 15-30 minutes.

It has been well worth the $2.49 I paid.  Recommended if you just want to hop into a jet and start shooting stuff down and blowing things up.
Maybe someday God will give you a little pink toaster of your own.

 

Offline Det. Bullock

  • 29
  • Madman in a box.
Re: What are you playing right now?
I picked up Jane's Advance Tactical Fighters on a Steam sale, and have already put in about 6 hours (a ton of time for me, with kids, family, maintenance stuff around the house, etc.). 

It gets a lot of hate on Steam reviews because apparently many Jane's fanatics were expecting a full-blown sim, like most Jane's titles, but this one is definitely an arcade shooter.  I just wanted an accessible, fun jet combat game, and I got it!  It even works great with my Sidewinder  joystick, although there are no force-feedback effects.   

You unlock more planes as you progress and can choose any plane for any mission, and there is enough difference that you can tell you are flying a different plane.  Even with missiles, you might not get far if you take an A-10 on a mission that is primarily air-to-air.  You cannot customize loadouts, but some planes do have multiple variations with different loadouts.  The storyline is nothing to write home about, but it generally makes sense and it made me laugh a few times. E.g.  [heavy Eastern European accent] - "They spent three hundred million on that research facility.  I'll give you fifteen dollars to blow it up."  I don't play games like this for the story anyway.  The campaign is linear, with missions usually lasting about 15-30 minutes.

It has been well worth the $2.49 I paid.  Recommended if you just want to hop into a jet and start shooting stuff down and blowing things up.

OK, another one for my wishlist.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Currently playing through Heroes of Might and Magic 3's campaigns. I'm a bit surprised at how easily I'm plowing through it right now (OK, I'm barely through the early campaigns, but still...). About every 4-ish years I get back to that game for one reason or another, and it seems that every time I'm noticeably better than the previous time. Maybe I've gotten wiser with age ? In any case, it's kinda funny how I started off favoring magic heroes with all kinds of basic magic-related skills, to favoring might heroes with logistics & estates as the best skills in the world, plus a single spell mastery to buff the whole army.


I've also had a bit of fun improving my neighborhood in 7 days to die, although I'm thinking about establishing forward bases in more hostile biome, now that I have tons of resources and key crafting skills maxed out. I'm thinking about moving either in the wasteland city nextdoor, or find a way to cross the massive sea up north to get to a nice, large snow plain I scouted out. I started building a bridge, but finishing it is pretty much out of the question, the sea if too large & too deep - it's getting difficult to reach the bottom without drowning. If I had an auger I could probably dig a tunnel underneath it in a few hours, but I'm missing a number of parts.


Aside from that, it's the usual stuff, Neverwinter or Overwatch when I'm by myself, Age of Empire 3, Warcraft 3, PUBG, Left for Dead 2 - with the odd Heroes of Storm, Smite or Stronghold Crusader to spice things up when I'm with my buddies. We predictably dropped World of Warcraft shortly after reaching max level and so far failed to get back into The Elder Scrolls Online so we're out of a MMORPG to play together right now. Ironically, these very same buddies were the ones that introduced me to Overwatch & Neverwinter, the two online games I nowadays play the most when they're not available.

2017 was a rather bad Freespace year for me (I've still got a formal apology to issue), I'm vaguely hoping 2018 will present an opportunity for me to get back into my projects there.

I'm also (sort of) proud that my steam & gog backlog barely registered a net increase over the past 2 years. OK, my wishlist nearly doubled, but the number of actual games I own and haven't played hasn't changed much ^^.

 

Offline Det. Bullock

  • 29
  • Madman in a box.
Re: What are you playing right now?
Saints Row The Third (PC)
The lack of customization regarding clothes is felt more when you play it shortly after the second game: I had to change the look of the female boss rather radically since most suit and tie options looked a bit weird and now she looks a bit like a Matrix reject.
At least I could find the same sunglasses after wandering around several shops.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Finished Terror from the Deep. What an atrociously bad final mission.

On to Banner Saga 2. Not digging it as much as I did the first game for whatever reason so far.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
On to Banner Saga 2. Not digging it as much as I did the first game for whatever reason so far.

It takes a while to get going (no pun intended), in many respects because there are quite a few streches of "not much to see here" ...

... which might be intentional for the trek you inherit from the first game, considering how the story of the main group is very much about the basic humanity (in a descriptive, non-normative way) during these epic going-ons in the background. It makes it a very slow burn, the enjoyment of which is closely tied to your attachments from the first game.

... which looking at the Ravens might just be about them being really unlikeable as a cast of characters. But maybe that's just me.

But the story greatly picks up in the later chapters ...
Spoiler:
to go to two seperate cliffhangers.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2018, 03:31:17 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
On to Banner Saga 2. Not digging it as much as I did the first game for whatever reason so far.

It takes a while to get going (no pun intended), in many respects because there are quite a few streches of "not much to see here" ...

... which might be intentional for the trek you inherit from the first game, considering how the story of the main group is very much about the basic humanity (in a descriptive, non-normative way) during these epic going-ons in the background. It makes it a very slow burn, the enjoyment of which is closely tied to your attachments from the first game.

... which looking at the Ravens might just be about them being really unlikeable as a cast of characters. But maybe that's just me.

Yeah- I find the games lose some of their immersion also when 100% of my clansmen and warriors are dead within the first hour.   All my clansmen died the first game too.  Kind of defeats the purpose.
Ravens are a bit odd,  you got a main guy who randomly attacks an adjacent character and his second in command is a woman that boosts allies by standing adjacent to them. Great synergy.  I think the main thing is that the combat just doesn't seem that interesting the second time around, or it's too interspersed.  I'm not as interested in this Oregon trail thing they got going on and so far I haven't seen any narrative hook, just more of the same. Will keep playing and see how it goes.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
When first reading your reply I was wondering how you get your clansmen killed (you wont have a good time in second game without clansmen as they now gather your supplies), but upon reading it again I think I might know ... how agressive is your playstyle (war/battles)?

The Ravens work best in a hammer and anvil-set-up ... despite some of the Dredge making minemeat out of humans anyway; use the shieldmaiden to anchor a group of human fighters and huddle as best as you can, then have the beserker go at them once they bunch up to engage the shieldwall (so he always hits multiple enemies, his "backswing" is unaffected by armor, good vs. Dredge).

The fighting is actually more dynamic now thanks to the Skalds which give you willpower back (=more ability uses) if positioned correctly. This also makes the Menders useful.
But yeah the big mix-ups like new Dredge, warbears and horseborn appear way late in the campaign.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2018, 10:00:19 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
When first reading your reply I was wondering how you get your clansmen killed (you wont have a good time in second game without clansmen as they now gather your supplies), but upon reading it again I think I might know ... how agressive is your playstyle (war/battles)?

The Ravens work best in a hammer and anvil-set-up ... despite some of the Dredge making minemeat out of humans anyway; use the shieldmaiden to anchor a group of human fighters and huddle as best as you can, then have the beserker go at them once they bunch up to engage the shieldwall (so he always hits multiple enemies, his "backswing" is unaffected by armor, good vs. Dredge).

The fighting is actually more dynamic now thanks to the Skalds which give you willpower back (=more ability uses) if positioned correctly. This also makes the Menders useful.
But yeah the big mix-ups like new Dredge, warbears and horseborn appear way late in the campaign.

In the first game there was a point where we waited at some city for some guy to show up and I think I waited too long and everyone starved or was killed by the time we got to the end city.
I used that save for the second game, and suddenly got about 250 clansmen at the start, 50 of which became warriors, but after crossing the Chasm both warriors and clansmen were all dead. Only Varls remained. So- who knows.

 

Offline deathspeed

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Re: What are you playing right now?
OK, another one for my wishlist.

Another one you might like is Project Freedom (Steam name; my retail box says "Space Interceptor: Project Freedom").  I picked it up in the bargain bin at Walmart years ago and have never regretted the $10 i paid for it.  It's a lightweight space-themed, linear, mission based arcade shooter, with a mix of surface and space missions.  There are ground targets and stationary cap ships to blow up as well as fighters and bombers.  You only fly one ship with a fixed loadout.  Before each mission you can select with area you want to level up - weapons (new secondaries and more powerful primaries), defense (hull strength, add shields), or speed (increase top speed and add afterburners).  You can max them all out before the campaign is over.  You usually have some wingmen, but you can't give them orders and they don't do much other than bicker at each other and tell you "Nice shoot!" (not "shot"), and "Right between the eyes!" even when it would be more accurate to say "Right up the ass!".  There is a story behind it, and again the NPC dialog can be entertaining, but I have finished the whole campaign with no sound.

It plays well on Windows 10 with my joystick, and I can map everything I need to the 8 buttons on it.  I've never tried playing with mouse & keyboard or any other controllers.

Maybe someday God will give you a little pink toaster of your own.

  

Offline Det. Bullock

  • 29
  • Madman in a box.
Re: What are you playing right now?
OK, another one for my wishlist.

Another one you might like is Project Freedom (Steam name; my retail box says "Space Interceptor: Project Freedom").  I picked it up in the bargain bin at Walmart years ago and have never regretted the $10 i paid for it.  It's a lightweight space-themed, linear, mission based arcade shooter, with a mix of surface and space missions.  There are ground targets and stationary cap ships to blow up as well as fighters and bombers.  You only fly one ship with a fixed loadout.  Before each mission you can select with area you want to level up - weapons (new secondaries and more powerful primaries), defense (hull strength, add shields), or speed (increase top speed and add afterburners).  You can max them all out before the campaign is over.  You usually have some wingmen, but you can't give them orders and they don't do much other than bicker at each other and tell you "Nice shoot!" (not "shot"), and "Right between the eyes!" even when it would be more accurate to say "Right up the ass!".  There is a story behind it, and again the NPC dialog can be entertaining, but I have finished the whole campaign with no sound.

It plays well on Windows 10 with my joystick, and I can map everything I need to the 8 buttons on it.  I've never tried playing with mouse & keyboard or any other controllers.


Thanks!  :yes:
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
When first reading your reply I was wondering how you get your clansmen killed (you wont have a good time in second game without clansmen as they now gather your supplies), but upon reading it again I think I might know ... how agressive is your playstyle (war/battles)?

The Ravens work best in a hammer and anvil-set-up ... despite some of the Dredge making minemeat out of humans anyway; use the shieldmaiden to anchor a group of human fighters and huddle as best as you can, then have the beserker go at them once they bunch up to engage the shieldwall (so he always hits multiple enemies, his "backswing" is unaffected by armor, good vs. Dredge).

The fighting is actually more dynamic now thanks to the Skalds which give you willpower back (=more ability uses) if positioned correctly. This also makes the Menders useful.
But yeah the big mix-ups like new Dredge, warbears and horseborn appear way late in the campaign.

Yeah I got a bit farther and the game is getting better, bit jarring to play a game that picks up immediately after another that I played like 2-3 years ago.   The horseborn are odd, I don't know why a Bear takes up two spaces but the Horseborn do not.  I wonder if they tried that early on and then nixed the idea because it got complicated or broke the game. I've sometimes Shield Smashed a bear and had it overlapping an enemy.  Also it's a bit dumb that there's the one guy who says he can capture a bear, but if you fail to do it in that mission (as I did), he can't do it in a later mission that also has bears.

Overall the combat is better, especially when there's only one guy left, though only a few missions have given me any trouble.  I do have some clansmen now in both camps, picked up some replacements along the way. I do find that I'm doing the same strategy in most battles. Particularly with the Ravens where the leader is really the main piece.  I don't tend to split the attacks but instead have him hit a guy twice and take him out.

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Has anyone played that game Underrail?
https://www.gog.com/game/underrail

Finished Banner Saga and was move onto another game that only needs a mouse to play. Might just play some Point and Click games like Sam & Max but saw this in my GOG library as well. Graphics look wank, somewhat reminiscent of Syndiate but more modern. But it seems to have decent reviews.

 

Offline crizza

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Just getting into fractured space...
Jingles did it once again, he drew me into another game :D

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: What are you playing right now?
After getting gifted it for Christmas, but then not having enough free harddrive space at the time to install it, I'm finally getting into NieR: Automata.

All I have to say right now is holy ****.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
After getting gifted it for Christmas, but then not having enough free harddrive space at the time to install it, I'm finally getting into NieR: Automata.

All I have to say right now is holy ****.

Is that a good or bad version "holy ****"? - Already played months ago but was kinda ambivalent (thoughful and beautiful in a minimalist sense but also gameplay-wise hollow)



Aviary Attorney, trying to get the other two endings ...

Next up Into the Breach
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: What are you playing right now?
After getting gifted it for Christmas, but then not having enough free harddrive space at the time to install it, I'm finally getting into NieR: Automata.

All I have to say right now is holy ****.

Is that a good or bad version "holy ****"? - Already played months ago but was kinda ambivalent (thoughful and beautiful in a minimalist sense but also gameplay-wise hollow)
...Definitely the good version. Are you sure you're thinking of the right game? How far did you get in it, exactly?
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
...Definitely the good version. Are you sure you're thinking of the right game? How far did you get in it, exactly?

Until
Spoiler:
During the last story sequence I remember, the two floating robots of 9S and A2 conspired to basically "fix everything" ... and then I fell off the wagon because of the bullet hell segment that followed - kinda also because I could live the two altnerate downer endings that precceded it.

Don't get me wrong, it was one of the better games I played last year*  ... and I can't offer any concrete fixes to the gameplay that wouldn't be detriment to the rest of the game; but there seems to be something not quite as good about e.g. the combat as the rest of game, like it was fixed pretty early on and wasn't improved upon. Maybe that is just me though...

*(but also hardly a contender against Horizont: Zero Dawn, Trails of Colds Steel 1, Persona 5 and Tales of Beseria)
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
I beat STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl. Now to do it on Master with Autumn Aurora 2. Then I'mma go through Call of Pripyat. I felt like doing Clear Sky. But I have limited bandwidth rn, so I thought I should just get the ones that seem to be the best.

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Spoiler:
During the last story sequence I remember, the two floating robots of 9S and A2 conspired to basically "fix everything" ... and then I fell off the wagon because of the bullet hell segment that followed
Spoiler:
If you just never give up during that section, you're virtually guaranteed to eventually get through.
I'm just surprised that you can get that far in a game with as much gameplay as that and call it "hollow". I wouldn't have described it that way even if I were only on my first playthrough still.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2018, 12:44:29 am by AdmiralRalwood »
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.