The Praedian Records

J.G. Phoenix

Current Projects

Chapter 2 1st Draft 30%

Remnants of the Elders

Yamato 60%
Hermes 5%
Yorktown 80%
Victorious 30%
Maya 5%
Blücher 70%
Prinz Eugen 10%
Seydlitz 85%
Lützow 10%
Magdeburg 5%
Prinz Heinrich 5%
Konigsberg 5%
Type 34 Destroyer 90%
Type 36 Destroyer 80%

Favorites in Fiction

MS-14Jg Gelgoog Jäger

YF-29 Durandal (WIP)

Update 3/6/22

by | Mar 6, 2022 | , , ,

Sundays are always a bit tricky during Clan Battles seasons, but today turned out alright.

Clan Battles

To start, we made it into Gale League, though it took some tactical adjustments to pull it off. For my part, I’m pretty much maining Preussen for the time being. Yamato and Bourgogne are still options if things start trending in their favor, but I’ve had better games in the Preussen so far.

I got a few decent clips and I’m probably going to record one or two of my replays in the Preussen for video material. No word on when I’ll be making the actual videos, though.

Space Engineers

I was hoping to get the Cosmo Messer E out the door today, so to speak, but my last round of testing did two things: One, revealed a design flaw I think is worth holding off for a few more days to try and address, and two, made me want to tweak the thruster systems one more time.

On the topic of thrusters, the Cosmo Messer E can get off the ground, but because it can’t hover in 1G environments, landing’s aren’t optional. The Type-99 it’s based on was an aerospace fighter, so I’m going to put the Messer’s hydrogen thrusters back in so it can land anywhere. It’ll change the stats from the notes I’ve been taking, but it’s worth it to have a good ‘first design.’

Fleeing Victory

I’ve settled on a few events for Chapter Two so I’m going to be cranking those out in parts over the next few days. I wanted something up today so I made the first scene part one and left it at that.

I also went back and did another round of editing on Chapter One. It’s a little better now.

Fleeing Victory Chapter Two Part One

by | Mar 6, 2022 | , ,

If the tankers of the 203rd were hoping to escape their inexplicable headaches and the natural unease they felt around the corrupted crystals, those hopes were dashed when they learned that the scouts had barely managed to clear the way for them.

As above, so below.

There were corrupted crystals everywhere. While the tunnels themselves may have been more than a hundred feet across, the armored battalion could only traverse the bottom, a narrow stretch of rock and gravel lined by red crystal mounds. Ricard noted a few wider areas where two tanks could travel side by side, but they were few and far between. More importantly, they had to travel single file to ensure every vehicle had enough room to turn around in an emergency.

More and more became amenable to the idea of turning back as the ground and the walls began to stir. No one needed the sensor vehicle’s operator to tell them that there was seismic activity in the region. It hadn’t yet been confirmed whether the small tremor was one of the worms, or aftershocks from some other event.

“This is the van. We have two paths we can take up ahead.”

Ricard touched his ear piece, curious about the report.

“Another tunnel opens up just behind us. They look fresh.”

“You found a fresh intersection? That’s unfortunate.” Ordinarily, Lieutenant Rog would be the first to explore a new avenue of attack, but a fresh tunnel meant unexplored territory. In truth, its only appeal would be the complete and utter lack of corrupted crystals along the path.

“No scout detachments?”

“Yeah. We have no idea where it leads and we don’t have time to chart it.”

The paths were marked for another team, and the 203rd pressed on. By the time Chaser came up to the intersection, Ricard was compelled to utter the lieutenant’s own words. “That’s unfortunate indeed.” The path was clear–and dark, lacking the eerie red glow cast by the corrupted crystals. Still, it was a much more attractive option than the path they were on. Looking back, Ricard could see where the fresh tunnel created a second branch going roughly back in the direction the came.

“I wonder if that worm is in the area.”

M.A.S.S. Builder: Speed Adjustments

by | Mar 5, 2022 | ,

Let’s face it, everyone wants more nyoom for their vroom. Thankfully we’ll be getting more of that in 0.9.0. Not just in terms of travel time, but also in melee combos.

M.A.S.S. Builder: Speed Adjustments

This boosting speed curve seems a bit nuts on the face of it, almost like the mechs are going to get ramjets bolted onto them in the next major update. That’s not to say something like this wouldn’t be welcome, and it’s clearly going to top out at what looks like x4 the original starting acceleration?

Speed Curve (Before and After)

When you have to backtrack or get to the next area, the normal boosting feels oddly stale; it’s actually kind of immersion breaking and I’m not even sure why that is.

There’s also the matter of melee combos, which are also going to pick up speed toward the end. I normally play shooting builds, but I’ve had my fair share of episodes where I’ve put down the guns, rushed in with a beam sword, and started killing mobs left and right.

Here’s hoping the combo speed curve comes out well.

A Note About Fleeing Victory

by | Mar 4, 2022 | ,

In the prelude chapters of Fleeing Victory, I used terms more strictly than I’m going to for the main chapters. I’m not making terminology changes going backwards though. I’d rather leave this as a distinct difference between the prelude and main right along with the narrative style.

The differences are about the names of the vehicles/units in the story.

Tanks and Arma

Tanks and arma are the same thing in Praedia, however the Munica’s language is based on Spanish and they named this class of vehicles arma. A bit simplistic, but ‘tank’ isn’t really any different. They were referred to this way exclusively throughout the prelude chapters, but going forward the Cordaeans and those with a more easterly origin will be calling them what you or I would call them. Tanks.

Drakes and Draques

It’s the same situation as above. The drakes are flying robotic dragons rigged with scouting and combat aviation equipment. The Municans call them draques while the Cordaeans and others from that part of the world call them drakes.

I just wanted to put that out there seeing as I’m aiming to finish at least part of Chapter 2 over the weekend and get the balling rolling.

Third Day of the Third Month

by | Mar 3, 2022 |

Cosmo Messer E

This weekend is my plan for tossing that one up on the workshop. I just have to get a presentation format down and resist–for as long as I can–the urge to make any more changes or do any more upgrades. It’s time to call this one and put it out there for scrutiny.

Fleeing Victory Chapter Two

I don’t know when this one became so difficult to write. I think Remnants and Artorius are finally starting to take over in my mind. It might not be a bad idea to start getting some content written for those so I can relieve some of the ‘creative pressure’ they’re exerting. Barring that, I may just have to rehash some of my older story ideas and tweak them to fit FV. It’s a pantser series so it’s flexible enough for that.

In short: this is hard.

World of Warships: Scharnhorst

I hate it when I take the initiative, don’t get myself blown out of the water early game, secure map control in mid, and we still lose. I did eventually sink, as German battleships are wont to do in the end, but look at these!

Results Screen

Team Scores

Damage Stats

We would have won if we either killed the Gneisenau in A cap and taken it back, or taken C cap since the enemy Colorado sailed off to another game and only came back to give the Gneisenau fire support. Our Mahan and Belfast went after the Gneisenau right after I got sunk by the Colorado, the Mahan exchanged torpedoes with the former, both of them exploded, then Belfast secured A and went to B to try and fight the Colorado. The Belfast also promptly exploded.

We should have split to take A and C simultaneously, and kudos to the Belfast and Mahan for playing so well up to that point, but I got beached torpedoing the Fiji and gunning out the Myoko (if you’ve seen my Graf Spee video you know I’m prone to beaching during sudden torpedo rushes), which left me open to the Colorado as I was backing out to get moving again.

I guess what I’m saying is both approaches could have worked but we banked too much on ‘Plan A.’ The Colorado not coming back to contest B cap in time, and expecting the Mahan to take out the Gneisenau and survive, neither of those panned out, so they had us beat on points and time. There was nothing left to do but have a one on one.

Closing

That’s all I’ve got for now. Today hasn’t been very productive. Mostly just putting the finishing touches on the Cosmo Messer, doing some reading, and some brainstorming. Things have to get rolling this weekend, though.

Mighty Prussia

by | Mar 2, 2022 | ,

It took a few nights but I finally saved up enough free xp to research the Preussen and it was xp well spent. I love this ship. Wargaming said they were swapping out the G.K. for a ship that was more in line with the other tech tree German battleships and Preussen not only fits right in, she’s the best iteration of the 8 gun German battleship design.

Granted she’s got no torpedoes like the Tirpitz and Pommern, but gameplay-wise, those are both premium versions of the Bismarck and F.D.G. respectively, so it makes sense. In that same vein, the Preussen and G.K. are just variants of each other.

Anyway, that was a fun Clan Battles session. I only played Preussen in the last two games, so better to think of it as a treat at the end. She’s going right up there with my other favorites: Yamato, Shikishima, Bourgogne, and Schlieffen.

Forward

by | Mar 1, 2022 | , , , ,

Right to it.

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire

I’ve read/listened to this one twice already, but it’s a good length and an even better story. My new hardcover’s on the way so that will be the book for March. While I don’t plan on having monthly goals for ZAP content for the time being, I like the ‘book a month’ approach and will keep that one going.

Space Engineers

For March I’ll be finishing up the Cosmo Messer and the Prinz Heinrich, though I don’t expect the latter to be finished until close to April.

The Cosmo Messer just needs some testing now and that’s about it. The look is right, the number of thrusters is acceptable for the ‘first iteration,’ and the scripts it uses are working fine. So here’s hoping it’s a good first upload for the workshop.

Lydia’s Golden Treasury

I wanted to start on the editing sessions again but it’s going to be tricky with Chapter 2 no longer being the Atoning Mirror. I think it might be better in the long term to have the first draft for that done first, so I’ll try to get that figured out ASAP. If I’m lucky I might even be able to churn the whole thing out this month.

If I’m lucky.

Fleeing Victory

FV2 should be done this week. As such it’s one of my weekly goals for now. More on that later.

Next ZAP Project

I’m still deciding but I’ve narrowed it down to either a Remnants story or an Artorius story. I’m so unsure with these it could conceivably come down to a coin toss. That’s better than going into April completely unprepared, though.

So that’s it, Remnants or Artorius.

That’s all for tonight, but it’s going to be a busy few weeks.

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