| Yeah, the AI goons are not so helpful

They're basically just meat shields. Would be nice if they would accept commands like "guard this area" or "help me transport (bags/loot/whatever)", "board up windows", "keep ECM up" or whatever else. Even if they sucked at it, at least it would make missions remotely possible to complete solo.

| And Hilarity Ensues

Update to headset issue:  None.

It started crashing single player too.  So i effed around with some settings, updated drivers for sound card component and mobo, still crashed out.  Played with some more setting, now it seems to work.

Hilarity update:  I did a quick convoy heist that was successful.  During the lockbox cracking, I found some secret gov't plans that were for a turret.  After the heist ended, I didn't get paid but instead had to do a train robbery for the turret.  Long story short, I quit after about 40 minutes of game time...

Access the map from a river in a valley, work your way up a ravine to some steps that lead to a long train.  three train cars need to have their doors drilled, then once inside you need to run back into the ravine for an airdropped chemical drill, then you need to drill internal vault doors until you find the turret, then you need to break down the turret into three pieces which you then need to hump back down to your entry point, mind you the turret parts slow you down as if you were hauling gold.  After cracking 3 train doors, and two vault doors I finally found the turrent, broke it down and hauled one piece to the escape boat only to find that the cops had stolen the other bagged turret parts and hauled them WAY THE FUCK OUTTA THERE, I quit since I didn't have another 40 minutes to try and get them back.

I'd love to do this one in a group, but stumbling into it solo was a joke.

I can't believe we had everyone on together for the briefest of moments! Well done. Then E-dog crashed then I crashed.

| Add me on Steam!

Turo

| Whoa again, lol

Jumped from level 8 to 17 in ONE MISSION (3 days). Wow. I can see how the game sets up to be a long grind though. Even with that, was only able to add a couple drill improvement skills and get my sentry turret upgraded. Definitely nice to have that level 81 dude carry the team! Don't think I'll be doing the solo offline missions again, ever.

| Whoa, holy XP, batman

So I barely missed Elzar last night but thought I'd try to log in and play with other people. Some vets took pity on a noob and let me join their squad. It was the 2 day coke adventure. Got so much XP in one mission with those guys that I jumped up almost three levels, lol. Well, I have the sentry turret perk now. Yay!

| Cheesus Crust

The bank heist where you have to gather the 3 components for the "lift" mechanism, break into the vault, steal the shit, get to the pickup zone, inflate the balloon, suffer through the idiot airplane pilot missing, surrounded by snipers on an exposed rooftop, THEN they say you have to move again to a sewer grate or some shit across the street... that's pretty much impossible, right? lol

| Things going a little easier now

Just trying to grind out some XP so I'm not completely useless. I dunno which class we need or could best use, but I've been going up the Technician tree? Trying to get to the sentry gun unlock. I figure that'd be a big help vs. the SWAT menace. Ran into my first bulldozer today. Yeah, that was not cool.

| Shedge'Ool

Mondays and Tuesdays are rough for me cause I gotta get up at 4:30 and commute an hour to and from work, then Wy has waterpolo on monday night, etc. so those days are pretty much out for me.

Other nights I'm usually good after about 9-930.  Wed - Fri I can usually wrangle some daytime games while I take lunch.

Weekends are a big unknown, but crime is likely to happen sometime.

PS I emailed JP about Oderus and asked if he would draw a cartoon to honor Oderus' death and submit it to La Vista.  We'll see what happens.

I work nights, so won't be able to play much till days off, but I did do some solo gaming earlier in the day. Ok, mouse is better. Just need to figure out the crazy keybindings.

| HAI GUYZ

We doing some heisting or wat

| Reading through that Payday blog

...and then this happened (LOL)

The last variety in particular is a high-priority target due to its obscene damage potential. Rather unfortunately, they all seem to be black, so don't be immediately put off if someone tells you to kill all the black guys.

| RIP Oderus Urungus

Dave Brockie, aka "Oderus Urungus", passed away yesterday. Rest in peace Scumdog, rest in peace.

O Rugs: Happy belated B-Day. Good luck with the new jorb where you "work" some man, lol!

D>M>

| Solo = murderfest

I like soloing the low level stuff because it helps me sort of get a feel for some of the different maps, where possible escape paths are, and where the fuzz may attack from.  Most of the time, since you can only carry one bag of loot at a time, I find myself getting pretty chewed up as I run from building to van and back again 3 - 6 times, depending on the mission.  I suspect the flow of a heist is totally different when you have communication and a plan with multiple humans vs. the two AI gun wielding meat bags you take with you solo.

I would say most of the more coordinated and even moderately difficult heists are un-winnable with lower level characters. I'm only level 9 and I don't have SHEET for skillz yet, so I know I have a ton of growth ahead of me.  Some of the upper skill level stuff sounds like it would really help solo runs, and I have heard of a lot of stealth solo runs on the hardest difficulty being possible, and apparently YouTube has the evidence to prove that.

Reading that how-to guide Rude posted made a bunch of things and innerworkings a lot more clear for me, so I'm chomping at the bit to experiment with some of the stuff like not attacking blue shirts, keeping hostages for as long as you can to delay cop zerg rushes, finishing quick to avoid police buildup, etc.

I think there's a lot to explore and I look forward to it!

| Good to hear on solo vs. MP

The solo missions are hella hard. Got through a couple, leveled up a bit. Hopefully that makes me a little more useful to the group.

COUNTERPOINT: the controller rumbles. Also, I figure nowadays most of these FPSers are built console-player in mind before PC, so it should be tuned fine for a controller. But I'll give it a go with the track ball next time.

| PS Don't Use A Controller!

IMHO, it slows down and limits your ability to move around PayDay in the sometimes frenetic way that it requires....

...though I am TERRIBLE at melee because my key is mapped to 'E' which just doesn't work for twitch stuff for me.  I think I need to map it to like 'MOUSE3' or something....

Payday seemed almost impossible solo, but with Elrick it was a lot easier. Yeah, I was also kinda surprised that it seems to weigh heavy on the murder-side of things, but maybe when you level up you can be stealthier about stuff. The 2 heists we did were a blast though. I gotta get my mic sorted out. My laptop was running out of usb slots because I was playing with a controller.

Here's an overly complete beginner's guide to the game - OMG SO COMPLICATED

Happy Birthday Arturo!

| Crime Syndicate, Engage!

Jr0n has taken the last key so now our lazy-ass, schedule-conflicted, no-good, good-for-nothing crime syndicate is complete!

See you in the papers, in the CRIME section!

(or not, it's really hard to schedule heists what with our schedules and all...)

| PAYDAAAAAYZ

Shit is a little hard to figure out. I get the feeling that your 'guy' kind of sucks until you flounder through enough missions to get a few upgrades. I didn't think it would be so combat heavy. Is every mission basically you versus 200 swat guys? :O

Also, what's the deal with not actually having access to the money from the mission? How do I get the funds out of the offshore account?

| Hokay

Downloaded. Now whats.

| Working Stiffs

Yeah I feel you on that. It's going to be really weird to going back to punching a clock. This is my last week of "freedom" before I go back to working for the man.

Downloading Payday now. OMG huge file. On my phat pipes, still going to take about an hour.

Regarding multiplayer shiz: You guys use teamspeak? Or is it in-game voice coms? Also... Monaco anyone? World of Tanks?

| Blackleaf Syndicate

Out first two heists were successes!

Rude Boi and I knocked over two jewelers in about 15 minutes of real time.  Rudes headset wasn't working and he could only barely hear me through my headset, but it still worked out well enough.

It was awesome!  Would have been SOOOO much better if he could talk/hear too, there would have been a lot better coordination, but it was still a blast!

I vote you grab a key, Jr0n, it was seriously like 20 minutes total, which included figuring out how to host a game and messing with a headset.  There are much longer missions, but we could plan for those after playing through a few smaller ones.

DOO EET

UPDATE:  Oriental Rugs (aka Turo) has joined to Blackleaf Syndicate!  I just sent a key over, so 2 down, 1 to go...  who wants it?

| Back to School (Work)

I'm back in the saddle of work, again. It's been 3 FRIGGEN MONTHS! Being off was amazing. I think I'm going to become a lotto addict, trying to get back to that not working lifestyle.

Was sleeping when you wanted to Paymuthafriggenday earlier Elrick.

We just finished binge-watching on Netflix, the french tv show The Returned. It was excellent. 8 episodes. It's a horror/freaky/weird show. Pretty cerebral and just drenched in atmosphere. Highly recommend.

OH MY GOD, IT'S SO HARD TO BE WORKING AGAIN, ARGH