Or visit the Starside Lounge page.

*** NOTE: Deadline change for the giveaway mentioned in the episode:
Entries are now due by end of day, Monday, Dec. 21st (Pacific time) ***

Xenos, Leviathan, and Beorn welcome new admin Speedracer and community guest SquidNH3 as we catch up on The Taken King. Also, apologies for the audio quality on this episode; my recording system was using the wrong microphone and I didn't realize it until I started editing.

my recording system was using the wrong microphone and I didn't realize it until I started editing.

I've had this a few times. It sounds obvious, but if you make it part of your ritual to tap on the microphone a few times and watch the waveform, it can really help. That said, this is podcasting, where in general, nobody cares if your audio quality is any good anyway...which is weird since all us podcasters are completely obsessed with it anyway.

I liked the chat about what you guys like and don't like about the raid, and I also like the talk about what you guys think of the weapon balancing. I think Squid suggested that all the guns should work at mid range since Destiny is a mid range shooter. I share this opinion, at least a little.

I wonder if, unlike what people say a lot, Hand cannons AREN'T a close range weapon. I get auto rifles, pulse rifles, and scout rifles. Those make sense. Hand cannons, in my opinion, don't need to fit into a range. Why isn't it easy to have long ass ranged hand cannons, middle ranged handcannons, and short ranged ones? Seems reasonable to me.

Overall, loved the podcast. I put it on while I played some Destiny today, and it occurred to me that it really did just sound like you guys were talking to each other...which is good in some ways, bad in others. For example, talking about SRL's maps, referring to shortcuts, talking about the raid and its mechanics, it's clear you were talking to people you knew knew what you were talking about. However, I was confused by some of the SRL map discussion. I haven't played much of it. I imagine there are those listening to the podcast who need a bit of a primer on the subjects when next you raise them. A simple sentence like "The warpriest, which is a boss in the raid, requires people to jump on plates in a certain order," then gone on and talked about it. There may be plenty of people who have never done the raid, or have barely done it, who may listen. Vagueness didn't even get en expansion pass until well after TTK, for example, and I don't think he's done the raid.

In a similar fashion, mentions of Disciple, Korny, et cetera, should probably also be given some context. I think I heard one of you correct "Munky" to Korny for some consistency, but perhaps it should be explained to listeners who Korny is, since I imagine the show has a broader reach than the regular readers of the forum.

Other than that, as always, top form podcasting. It ain't radio, and it shouldn't be. Starside Lounge is a great podcast in that way, very classic. If you guys continue to promise more frequent episodes and never deliver on that, you're doing classic podcasting right.

TLDR: Great podcast, plz give more context, keep giving opinions and discussing them, don't change a thing.

After the podcast, I went to my warlock and accessorized the hell out of the guy. Put on the hot pink shader and my favorite armor pieces and guns. I really want a Levi drawing of it. I'm fully aware the wolves are probably hard to draw and I don't stand a chance as a result.

Actually look pretty good on female Warlocks, kneepads aside.
And it's funny how good the bedazzled Azoth Bend boots look on male Warlocks.

Art direction in Destiny is so odd...
Then again...

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though it'll probably just inspire him to leave this place once and for all...

Art direction in Destiny is so odd...
Then again...

I was going to deck out my Hunter in his coolest gear and try to score a cool Levi drawing, but no. I'm out. This needs to win. :)

-Disciple

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I was going to deck out my Hunter in his coolest gear and try to score a cool Levi drawing, but no. I'm out. This needs to win. :)

-Disciple

So post it!

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My intricate fashion taste frustrates Levi does it!? Well how about this sexy sleek piece of warlock!?

my recording system was using the wrong microphone and I didn't realize it until I started editing.

I've had this a few times. It sounds obvious, but if you make it part of your ritual to tap on the microphone a few times

Unless you are Joe Dirt

Seriously, don't tap on or blow into microphones
Your ritual should be to NEVER tap on a microphone ever

Really enjoyed it :)

I do it regularly. While I MOSTLY tap my pop filter arm which is attached to the stand for my good microphone, which is enough to register clearly on a waveform, the one that came with the computer I got for Christmas in 1997 I tap on directly. So far it's 18 years and it still works fine.

I would wager that 100% of the time that if you don't know not to tap on the microphone that YOU bought, you're fine. I've never even heard of a non ribbon microphone being hurt by tapping, though it could blow speakers. Normally people do the fingernail test in my experience, but that doesn't work with some cheap built in mics. Hence tapping. Also, it's not like he is going to tap like a jackhammer.

This was a lot of fun, and thanks for inviting me again to be a guest. Upon re-listening, I had a couple of notes:

For the question about what I'm looking forward to in the upcoming year, I think I made it sound a little like I'm looking forward to being apprehensive about Bungie's balancing philosophies. I'm actually very excited about the future of Destiny, and am looking forward to continuing to complete Taken King quests, and pretty much whatever new Bungie throws at us! I'm also super excited about the continuing expansion of the lore and backstory; I think the Book of Sorrows is an awesome work of science fiction, and actually one of the coolest things in TTK. If there's more game-related fiction like that in our future, that would be incredible.

My answer about my favorite weapon types was also perhaps a bit analytical, and I ended up segueing into more discussion on weapon balancing philosophy, at the expense of everyone else's answer to that question. I like hand cannons for a lot of reasons, but one visceral reason is that it makes me a feel a bit Roland Deschain, the 'last gunslinger' from Stephen King's Dark Tower series (with which Destiny surely shares some themes). Especially when I was using my Red Hand IX with Outlaw as a Gunslinger, I would be able to pull off three shot kills and reload almost instantly, similar to how Roland is described as being able to reload with almost a supernatural quickness in the book series.

Here's my Warlock with the mohawk: