[Swag] Update Update

So, I just got a quote back from one of the engravers I approached; the others didn't even reply. Anyway, he says that for the level of derpiness we're after, their price is $230 for a hand stamp. That's not a male and female embossing die set which you would use to press images into a material,, but rather an image cut into a steel block that you whack with a hammer to cut that image into a surface. Basically, the image would be more like an engraving than an embossing, and would cost about $5 more per person if 20 of us go in for it. If every single person who expressed any interest is in, for 31 people, it would be ~$13, but that's outside the stated price range for many of the poll respondents. I'm willing to put down a little more money, but with 13 people having said they'd be willing to pay actual money for it, the price we're looking at now is more like $30 per person. >_<

If we can get 20 people total, we can get it under $20 per person. It would be 2-3 weeks for them to make the stamp, then they ship. I can probably get the rest of the tags during this time. Then I would stamp the blanks and get everything mailed out to everypony. How does that sound? Does anyone have any suggestions? I'll poke around a little more and see if I can get it any cheaper, but I'm not sure it'll happen.

Meet Your Clan Mate, o Apple Dash o

Hey everybody, REALBAUS here with what I hope to be a weekly series on the blog. Every week I'll be interviewing one of our clan mates about ponies and gaming. The goal for this series is to get to know your clan mates a bit better.

This week o Apple Dash o has volunteered to be first person to be interviewed. He is the team player that everybody wants to have in their party. If you need support killstreaks, he's the guy to go to. Enemy killstreaks inbound? Nope, Apple's EMP will shut that down. His advanced UAV + stealth bomber combo is also incredibly dangerous. I have seen way to many multikills with it.


o Apple Dash o's OC

If you want to be interviewed send a message to me on xbox live. I'd also like some clan participation, so post some questions that you would like to see answered in next week's Meet Your Clan Mate. Also big thank you for o Apple Dash o's participation! Now go check out the interview after the jump.

[Swag] Update

So, I've sent out  requests for price quotes to three different engravers re: embossing dies. The only price I've seen so far is a webpage which mentions the cost of a setup being $120 + $50 for marking 100 jewelry tags, which isn't exactly what we're asking for; also, it seems like a lot of the cost might be graphic design, and I've provided a vector image that is (I think) suitable for a single level automated cutter, so hopefully it won't be more than that.

If it costs around $120, the interest people have expressed in the poll would put the cost at between $3.80 and $5.20 per person to cover the cost of the die if every single person is serious and gets a tag at $10 or $15, respectively. The rest of the cost would be $3.50 for each lettered tag, $28 for 50 blanks to emboss, and $15 for 50 24" chains. Add it all up and it ends up being $9-12 per tag before the cost of stamps to mail 'em to everypony, depending on whether 31 ponies go in (the number who expressed interest in the tags at all prices from $10 or less to $20+) or 23 go in (only ponies willing to pay more than $10). Basically, all the supplies I've mentioned would end up costing around $275, but if we split that among 30 of us, it's a manageable cost. I'd just like to know how serious everypony is before committing that much money to making these. I'll spend however long it takes stamping the tags myself, but I just don't have a CNC machine to make the die.

Anyway, more info when I hear back from their sales reps, but if I can make it happen as described above, who's in?

[Swag]

Update: Check out the poll to the side to register your opinion! You can pick multiple options, but please go by upper limits on pricing; I know anyone who will pay $20 for a shirt will pay less than that if possible.

So I've heard some rumblings about making t-shirts or some other clan swag and I figured I'd throw the idea out there for everyone. How many of us would want a clan shirt? Would we need to have a design contest to figure out what to put on it? What I've seen for custom shirts with a single color is that they run between 20$-5$ each depending on how many you order, plus shipping. You don't get the 5$ price unless you buy a LOT of shirts, though - like, 100+.

I was thinking that, since we won a bunch of kill confirmed ops, it would be pretty awesome to get brass dog tags made - I was thinking sets with one tag marked with

• Name (maybe [Pony] Name?)
• My Little Pony
• KC Champions
• May 2012

and the other embossed with this:

If I understand the merchants correctly, the tags would be $7 for a pair of brass tags with the stamped words, and 55c apiece for the blanks I'd emboss Derpy onto. If I can get different names on each tag in a pair, that would mean ~$4.50 per pair of tags before accounting for shipping and the cost of the embossing die. I'm poking around for quotes from some die manufacturers and will hopefully have an idea soon of how much clan dog tags would actually cost to produce (this place sounds like they generally serve business clients, so I don't know if the dies would cost in the tens of dollars or in the hundreds...). That said, how many of us would actually kick in money for some tags?

I also saw a few places which would make red aluminum tags, which would also make sense since your own tags (and the champion badge!) are red, but I like brass shinies.

Anyway, shirt or tags, let us know what you're interested in below!

Core Kill Confirmed Sunday, June 3!

The facts:

Core KC Op from 6:00-9:00pm EST on Sunday, June 3.

We are signed up for this op.

We are going to try and get another champion badge.

                            ^Us^                                        ^Everypony else^

After this last op, we know that we're still competitive and in the metagame.

So here's another signup page for everypony interested in competing!

Additional relevant info follows.

I would like to mention that although clan op participation isn't by any means required, it's certainly appreciated!  With that said, I want people to sign up who can commit to being there for the op.  I had some troubles with my lobby members not showing up in the first op, so I really want to avoid another frantic scramble to find players.  If you can't make it, the sooner you let us know, the better.  I know some of you have distractions from your all-important Call of Duty playing like "real life" or "previous commitments" or even "social obligations to people you don't just know from the internet", but just let us know, and there shouldn't be any problems.  Being on for part of the op is ok, too, but again, communication is key, and will prevent a lot of headaches for us.

We once again have a good amount of lead time to get this organized, and I'll be updating this post as we get our teams together.  LET'S DO THIS!

Team 1: Hugh Jelly

PunsyCharlatan (collector)

- MarsBringer (Spike/Celestia)

- RenaissanceMan5

-ElTygre

-The Wet Onion

-Lygerzero189

Team 2: Faithful Students

Wharrrrrrgarbl (collector)

-videogame bq3 (Spike)

-REALBAUS

-Synaesthios

-SwiiFT v

-christheking44

Team 3: Pinkie's Axe Murderers

JiaJohn (collector)

- Dangeresque13 (Spike)

- Jojokanojojo

-VorpalRenegade

-Yay Fluttershy

-Dr. Cremaster

Team 4: Rainbow's Raiders

RainbowDash7777 (collector)
-CMCxSoarin (Spike)

-Data404NotFound

-Changeling King

-anialatrex

-Im Scootaloo

Team 5: Fluttersnipes

Viking Runesmith (collector)

-Cottonfield101 (Spike)

-xXIxSnipezxXx

-l3 E R L I N

- CM Pwny

-o Apple Dash o

Team 6: Rarity's Diamond Dogs
Mr Bad Touches (collector)
- Insulse
-VICESTATE
- x LuckyCharmz x
-That Fluttershy
-PenguinEmperor

Team 7/ Backup Ponies:
Furry Ducks

Good luck to everypony!  Let's get out there and replicate our stunning victories!

Headhunter 5-26-2012

Champs again, 'nuff said.

To GLORY! . . . Again.

Hey all, same basic plan - 6 parties of 6 people each. Only the designated tag collector will collect tags. We had a bit of confusion last time so I will reiterate:

Only the designated tag collector should pick up gold tags. Also, please get on 15 minutes before the clan op starts so we can get parties together. /endroyalcanterlotvoice


Yea, even if a golden tag is right in front of you and is about to disappear. If you want the full reasoning behind it, feel free to message me. Of course, please do deny as many kills as you can!

Other than that, I STRONGLY encourage EVERYONE who is not a tag collector to run support with only UAV and body armor - no assault and no high support killstreaks since they don't help too much in this game mode. I know it won't get you glory, but this will give our collectors an edge and may be the only way we'll be able to beat the top clans.

And now of course, the parties. If you have "Spike" in front of your name, then you'll be communicating for your party. If you guys need another member, then just have your Spike message Dangeresque13 and he'll let you know who to pick up. I picked Spikes who I've felt are good at communicating, and who aren't the top guy on their team, nothing personal, and let's be honest, everyone in these parties rocks anyway.

Team 1

Marsbringer (1.71)

RenaissanceMan5 (0.70) - Spike

Lygerzero189 (2.16)

Synaesthios (1.38)

SwiiFT v (2.24)

VikingRunesmith (1.10)

Team 2

JiaJohn (1.61)

VorpalRenegade (1.54)

Jojokanojojo (1.4)

Yay Fluttershy (2.35)

Dangeresque13 (1.23) - Spike

Asians Finest (2.40)

Team 3

o Apple Dash o (1.40)

occolorguard (0.63) - Spike

PrismaticRope53 (1.20)

REALBAUS (3.09)

Awe Rapture (1.21)

xXIxSNIPEZxXx (1.60)

Team 4

ForsakenGenesis (1.01)

Fluttershy II (1.44) Doulbekill2 (1.39)

CMCxSoarin (1.13) - Spike Cryptickilla01 (1.80)

My Little Derpy (1.12)

Team 5

Wharrrrrrgarbl (1.28)

Videogame bq3 (1.11)

Punsy Charlatan (0.60) - Spike

vBeta (2.27)

That Fluttershy (2.18)

v2 Illusionz (2.41)

Team 6

Rainbowdash7777 (1.33)

oD Marks (1.20)

ChrisTheKing (1.29)

The DarkP3nguin (1.25)

Nugget 00Z (1.38) Slaveguy1 (1.08) - Spike

Team Gekkou: Raiden Gekkou Insulse Luckycharmz His bro 1 His bro 2 His bro 3

Backup:

War Musician
Insulse
iRainbowdash28

   

Renaissance Man 5's Usurpation of the Week: Radar Gun!

 Renaissance Man is this week's Wet Onion.

 Details after the jump:

What is Hardcore?

Back from the memory hole. Hopefully no other clans are watching close enough to STEAL OUR SECRETS >:O

Or, how I learned to start thinking and love Den Kirson.

With the hardcore KC op coming up, I think it's worth talking about a few things. First, if you haven't already, sign up here for Friday's op so we can get teams organized ahead of time.

Next, I think it's worth thinking about how hardcore kill confirmed is different from normal kill confirmed, and how that might influence our gameplay. The basic facts:

• Hardcore also means having 30 hit points instead of 100. These HP also don't regenerate.
• Hardcore means no HUD, so no hipfire reticle, no minimap, no ammo counter, not even a score counter.
• There is no killcam, just a second where the camera points at the guy who killed you.
• In Kill Confirmed, there is also no respawn timer, so you instantly spawn whether you want to or not.
• Richochet Friendly Fire. If you hurt a teammate, you take the damage yourself.

We'll tackle these in reverse order, since the last ones have fewer ramifications. Wall of text after the jump.

Hardcore KC Friday, 5-26-2012!

So is everypony ready to do it again? This will be interesting, since hardcore is so much faster than core. Anyway, I think the basic plan is to try the same strategy as last time, and we'll see how organized the other top clans can get! To take a little bit of the burden off of JiaJohn a little bit, I'd like to use this post to organize teams again. Sign up in the comments by providing the following information:

• Your gamertag
• If you would like to collect tags or play support (no promises on this one)
• If you prefer to run Assault or Support killstreaks.
• If you prefer Assault, what streaks you run and how reliably you get them (e.g. every other game, every game, twice a game). K/D is also helpful.
• If there are any clanmates you would prefer to play with (again, no promises)

I hope to hear from ~40 of you again! We had 42 ponies in last time, so let's have some good turnout!

Update: It's really helpful to know what kind of killstreaks everyone runs! A team with 5 guys trying to call in attack choppers, and a team with 5 guys dropping UAV/Vests won't be as effective as two teams with a mix of killstreak support. Please let us know about your usual playstyle, if you can!

Update 2: SqaD x Leader wants to let us know that the winner of this coming op will need over 6000 confirms total. I think he was referring to Mars' performance here.

Found this on knowyourmeme

REALBAUS wants to see my xBox keyboard

This is delicious.

ALL GLORY TO THE PONY CLAN

DONE. WE WIN.

WE DID IT

Headhunter 5-11-2012

So, Elite updated, and...

BY CELESTIA'S BEARD

Holy shit, guys. Top ten. Details after the jump.

5-11-12 Hardcore Kill Confirmed

Never doubt Elite! They came through timely as ever with clan op results. Certainly no f'ing up here. Congratulations to the entire clan, but especially to our Dear Leader, for getting Exuberance confirms.

In other news, we have a core Team Death Match clan op coming up tonight from 6-9PM EST. Hope to see a good turnout, the herd that maims together yadda yadda yadda. Go get kills.

Lethal Jeweler 5-9-2012

No notice? No problem. You guys rocked it again! The widget that awards badges to the clan page may be broken, but it still tallied everyone who participated, and we pulled out a gold!

Congratulations to Apple Dash, REALBAUS, Forsaken Genesis, Dear Leader, ShadowyTails, and Arbodash! Also a big shout out to our support ponies, led by Yay Fluttershy!

Last-Minute Clan Op... Again

Well, it's that time again, folks.  Yes, it's time to freak out and try and find a team for a recently announced clan op.  Elite let me know about a new clan op for tomorrow, at just about the worst time possible: 2:00-5:00pm EST.  It is most KC confirms, so at least it's a game mode that most people like.

No notice, awful time, favorite game type.
Well played, Elite.  Well played.

Once again, clan op is tomorrow, Wednesday, May 9, at 2:00-5:00pm EST.
I definitely won't be able to make it, and I know that most of our regular scorers won't either, so I'm letting everypony know about it here to see if we can get enough interest to make me sign us up.
New premium members, now would be your time to shine!  Since it's Kill Confirmed, nonpremiums can help out in a big way too, contributing kills for others to confirm.  I can be online from 1:00-2:30 to help coordinate lobbies, but I have to leave right then, as I have afternoon classes that I can't miss (midterms).  :'(

I really wish I could be playing with you guys, but such is life.  Drop a comment here or send a message to me on Xbox tomorrow afternoon to let me know you'll be playing.  I'll probably hold off on the signup until nearly the deadline, unless I get some overwhelming response.

On a related note, I'm not sure, but I think this is a new record for awful notice of new ops, clocking in at <16 hours before the dang thing starts.  Not that this is anything new, but I really wish that the people behind the Elite service would get their stupid act together.

Round of Applause

Just got this text message from Renaissance Man:

"Called in my first Reaper (not from a box)!!!"

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 is truly a red letter day!

This Week in [Pony]

Nothing huge here, but I saw everybody talkin' 'bout BlOps in the clan feed, and then I saw that there weren't any ClOps scheduled for later this week. It got me thinking, if we're just going to be screwing around this weekend, who wants to go in for some BlOps ClOps nonsense? Alternatively, we can try to catch 6 Gallon What's Down the Well? on camera and submit it to this contest. What do you all think?

The Wet Onion's Class of the Week: Fried Onion

It's time for another installment of The Wet Onion's Class of the Week!
This week's loadout: The Fried Onion.

The Fried Onion

The detailed description follows after the jump.

Immovable Force 5-4-2012

Hardcore Team Deathmatch takes everything that sucks about TDM and cranks it up to eleven. What a wretched gametype.

That sais, we probably have gold, if the Elite tally is correct. Good job again, everypony! 15 members particpated in this last op, which is a pretty good showing!

The usual stat screens follow:

POOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

MLP: FiM?

So, just heard something kinda silly. That other clan?

Black Ops 2

Well today is the day that the reveal for Black Ops 2 came out and it looks like the suspicions around the internet were true.  Black Ops 2 will be set in the future, more specifically around 2025. Here is the trailer below. Enjoy!

I'm pretty excited to see how this game turns out.  In my eyes, Treyarch has always been the better developer because they like to innovate their games.  So let's get ready to rock rock that [Pony] on  November 13! 

What are your thoughts on Black Ops 2?  Let me known in the comments section.