BF 2 Progress

At my historical rate I will achieve the rank of Gunnery Sargent in 137 days. That seems a bit much, but I only play an average of less than 15 minutes per week. My concern: BF2 server numbers continue to dwindle.

Right after 2142 was released, it seemed like there was not going to be much of a change. In fact, I was surprised at the number of people playing 2142, considering the number of people still playing 2. It seems this has changed. Actually, I haven't bothered to play 2142 in a while, so it is possible that players are leaving the franchise in toto.

The number of servers available for a given size filter - small, medium or large maps, has gone down from about 150 to 200 per band to more like 25 to 50 per band. Now, my methods are perhaps not the best gauge of the playing population. I don't play any of the mods, and can not say how many people or servers the are for this.

In general, this is not too bad. I believe it has reduced the number of jerks playing in general, which is OK by me. On the other hand, I'm not sure how I'm going to get all of my ribbons if I can never find a server running the "Night Flight" Special Forces map.

It may be that Battlefield 2 is drawing to a close.

I like 2142, but as I have said before, I think 2 is a better game. It also runs just a titch better on Larry.

A Grand Army

And what I meant was Staff Sergeant. I think, in the real military (any real military, probably) if you make a rank label mistake like that you get beat up. Fortunately, I'm not in the military.

I have assembled a collection of both Republic and Separatist figs for Star Wars: Starship Battles. I'm not sure how balanced my respective sets are, and I haven't actually seen the rules yet. I still think WotC are jerks for making the ARC-170 the rare fighter. I understand the marketing "need" to do it this way, but it doesn't make sense. The Jedi fighters should be rarer and have better stats. And it appears neither side has assault ships (no gunships for either side). They have shuttles for the imperial era.

Odds and Ends

I'm on a mad hunt for Star Wars Starship Battles loose figures. That means I'm willing to pay up to 3x the shelf value of the item for the item on eBay. Not so bad, when the shelf value is around a buck. My Grand Army of the Republic is almost assembled.

I am 9 points away from First Sargent. That's like, 4 kills and an assist. One more round and I'm there. Looks like the BF2S signature generator (which I use to produce the above banner) is broken. Something about a hardware failure. At least it hasn't killed the current picture.