59 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

When @geek19 and I were playing Warmachine, there were lots of podcasts. We eventually tried listening to some. 1-2 hours of farts, nasally voices, mumbling, weird laughing, and in-jokes with some quality Warmachine analysis sprinkled in there seemingly at random. Can't say I was a fan and that seems to be pretty standard for nerd podcasts.

Every now and then someone asks if maybe John and I will do a podcast for Cannot Get Your Ship Out, but I think back with horror on those Warmachine podcasts and assume I'd inflict the same thing on some poor souls and shy away from the idea.

I’d watch it...

22 minutes ago, Viktor Tanek said:

I will shamelessly plug a new Armada podcast put on by some guys in my local group, The Outer Rim Job.

https://m.soundcloud.com/orjpodcast

Olololol...toooo funny!!!!!! I cannot repel humor of that magnitude!

1 hour ago, Madaghmire said:

Lol Outer Rim Job. Ill have to give that a listen just for the name

It's pretty much all ****, butt, fart, and sex jokes.

So, right up your alley, come to think of it.

Oh man, I was already intrigued...

Oh, well, so much for any semblance of the original topic.

Listening to the current Comms Noise, they discuss the Wave 7 spoiled cards, with a lot of good back and forth. There is a good bit of chuckling and it could be 40% shorter if it was edited to pure information, but if you're using it the right way, it's rather relaxing. I just wish they could do something about the "empty room sound quality--sounds like a space with hard walls. They need to put up a lot of blankets on the walls, egg cartons, set up pillows, all that sort of thing to absorb echoes. Increasing the base recording volume would be appreciated (Armada Jim is far worse) because I sometimes can't get the volume high enough to hear well over background noise.

I have to cop to listening to podcasts and text-to-speech in the shower, as well. Water-resistant phones are amazing ... You'd all be disturbed to learn how many of my posts are typed when I'm Stark naked and dripping with hot water (that probably triggered one fantasy and 35 cases of projectile vomiting).

Let's hope some of our dear content creators hear this. Its not that podcasts are bad... they're just generally a lot of nerf mumbling, farting and what not.

Keep your vids and podcasts to like 10 minutes long... or don't but offer a 1 paragraph text summary.

2 minutes ago, elbmc1969 said:

Listening to the current Comms Noise, they discuss the Wave 7 spoiled cards, with a lot of good back and forth. There is a good bit of chuckling and it could be 40% shorter if it was edited to pure information, but if you're using it the right way, it's rather relaxing. I just wish they could do something about the "empty room sound quality--sounds like a space with hard walls. They need to put up a lot of blankets on the walls, egg cartons, set up pillows, all that sort of thing to absorb echoes. Increasing the base recording volume would be appreciated (Armada Jim is far worse) because I sometimes can't get the volume high enough to hear well over background noise.

I have to cop to listening to podcasts and text-to-speech in the shower, as well. Water-resistant phones are amazing ...

I now know that on this episode they chuckle a lot, discuss contest submissions, discuss Wave 7 spoiled cards, and sound like they are being quiet in an empty room. What I don't know is what was on the episode that was relevant to the original question.

5 minutes ago, elbmc1969 said:

Oh, well, so much for any semblance of the original topic.

Explaining what was said on the podcast could have prevented this. You may even be able to get it back on track.

Though I suppose you could just change the name to be "Is the Podcast Meta Stale?"

I spend 45-60 minutes a day commuting. I like long podcasts, even when they're just nerds mumbling about arcana.

Hey what do you guys think about my idea?

What idea?

Oh it's in this podcast, take a listen. Tell me what you think about my idea!

What? Just tell us your idea!

Here's a link to my idea in this podcast! What do you guys think?

Holy **** just tell us what your idea is!

Haha no! Gosh you guys are getting off topic!

We don't want to listen to a podcast. Why can't you just type your idea in the thread?

Sigh, nevermind!

Sorry OP, indulging in the off topic discussion because I don't feel like I have anything smart to say about the real topic:

For what it's worth, I really enjoy the longer, more conversational podcasts (Armada related and otherwise) more than ones that are 100% information all the time. If something sounds too much like it's being read from a script, my brain just turns off and ignores it. That's not to say that editing, good sound quality and avoiding talking over each other aren't all important, just that not everyone prefers maximum information density over human conversation.

Never could stand the type of Youtube videos either where every millisecond of empty air is edited out. No time to breathe, let alone actually think about what's being said without pausing every two seconds.

Maybe I'm a slow thinker. Or just not busy enough with my life to care about condensing things that much.

1 hour ago, duck_bird said:

Hey what do you guys think about my idea?

What idea?

Oh it's in this podcast, take a listen. Tell me what you think about my idea!

What? Just tell us your idea!

Here's a link to my idea in this podcast! What do you guys think?

Holy **** just tell us what your idea is!

Haha no!

Yep. I honestly don't think it's worth pursuing because of other things that have come up, as well as the consensus here. Regardless of podcast or not, I'd be dropping it. Sorry if that's irritating, but I don't see any value in wasting time on it.

Listened to it. I do not understand why it was like pulling teeth to get this.

His proposal is squadron upgrade cards (an idea which was, as far as I know, first proposed here ). The example given on the podcast:

Quote

Skilled Wingman

2pts on generic/4pts on unique
May not be used on a single-model squadron

When you are attacked by a squadron. You may choose one attack die to reroll. If the result of the roll is a [crit icon], discard this card.

I still don't like the idea of squadron upgrades. I don't think there's currently too much focus on the squadrons, but I do think there is the danger of that happening if they're pushed too much more. Such a thing would definitely push them over the edge to too much focus on squadrons, not enough on ships.

But that aside, it also wouldn't help the issue as state in the OP ("stale" squadron builds).

First of all, I don't see that as an issue in the first place. Both sides have a build or two that's good for a very light screen, a few builds that are good for a light screen, several workable medium wing builds, and a huge variety of options for large wings.

Secondly, the things that do become standard builds, like Ciena/Valen, are so because they are the best at doing that thing. There's no reason whatsoever to think that there wouldn't be one or two "squadron upgrade" builds that are the best at any given role, meaning everybody's just going to be running that build anyway and the only difference between

Quote

TIE Inteceptor (11)
- Obstructed while defending upgrade (3)
- Scatter upgrade (2)
- Brace upgrade (1)

TIE Fighter (8)
- Cannot be attacked while engaged upgrade (2)
- Scatter upgrade (2)
- Brace upgrade (1)

and

Quote

Ciena Ree (17)

Valen Rudor (13)

is how long it takes to write it and how much stuff you have to keep track of.

Okay, but it still doesn’t solve how you differentiate upgraded and unupgraded on the battlefield squad bases...

2 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Okay, but it still doesn’t solve how you differentiate upgraded and unupgraded on the battlefield squad bases...

It always comes back to logistics.

Also, there's an Admiral Nelson sighting in the wild in that thread I linked.

Before he was Admiral Nelson.

It's like finding a Ken Griffey, Jr. baseball card from 1989.

15 minutes ago, Valca said:

It always comes back to logistics.

More and more I start empathising with Count Vidian...

... that can’t be a good thing.

"Keep moving, destroy barriers, see everything. Forget the old way..."

22 hours ago, Viktor Tanek said:

I will shamelessly plug a new Armada podcast put on by some guys in my local group, The Outer Rim Job.

https://m.soundcloud.com/orjpodcast

When is your next cast coming? I already listened to Comms noise and Armchair Admirals and I need something to tide me over for the next 7 days.....

19 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

Listened to it. I do not understand why it was like pulling teeth to get this.

His proposal is squadron upgrade cards (an idea which was, as far as I know, first proposed here ).

I found out that the idea had already been proposed after I mentioned it here, so it didn't seem worth pursuing. I had done a forum search before I submitted the idea to CommsNoise, but nothing turned up--not sure why. Apparently, it's also a "thing" at Kuat Drive Yards (I don't know if those are the same as the forum topic you linked to).

19 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

TIE Inteceptor (11)
- Obstructed while defending upgrade (3)
- Scatter upgrade (2)
- Brace upgrade (1)

TIE Fighter (8)
- Cannot be attacked while engaged upgrade (2)
- Scatter upgrade (2)
- Brace upgrade (1)

Should be limited to one upgrade per squadron and they should not simply duplicate existing abilities.

19 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

Okay, but it still doesn’t solve how you differentiate upgraded and unupgraded on the battlefield squad bases...

13 minutes ago, elbmc1969 said:

Some ways to mark the upgraded squadrons:

• Alternate activation sliders with the upgrade icon
• Use the gray fighter "tombstones" from CC
• Alternate fighter tombstones with the upgrade icon
• Numbered fighter tombstones
• Vinyl clings to stick onto the base that add the upgrade icon

And the good one:

• Rings that clip onto one arm of the fighter tree ("Yep, this is the cool wingman.") [Yeah, what do you do about single-model squadrons?]

You actually want this to be U-shaped, with a large enough "medallion" at the bottom for the upgrade icon, and so that the hanger doesn't want to flip over and fall off.

...or you just require that all squadrons of that base type must be equipped with the same upgrade. So if you want one Xwing with Boost (1 point for 1 more Speed), then all generic Xwings must have that upgrade. That removes all the tiny fiddle bits you just suggested and minimizes cards on table.

OR

FFG releases more CC style squad expansions with cardboard and cards and give us more uniques for existing squads.

There is no way I'm supporting something that adds more bookkeeping to squadrons, already the fiddliest part of Armada. Generic uniques already get lost in a cloud of nearly-identical bases, I'm not keeping an eye out for and remembering the differences between numerous minor base baubles to differentiate one squadron from another.

The furthest I'm willing to go is alternate generic squadrons (aces stay the same) - say you can use generic Imperial TIE Fighters or generic First Order TIE Fighters for all your TIEs. The First Order ones are slightly more durable and cost another point, let's say. No mixing allowed.