Stonewallers: As you know, our big 10th anniversary bash is just around the corner, on the weekend of September 29th & 30th!  Part of the weekend anniversary event will be a livestream, and during it, I'd love to show off some great Stonewall moments from years past!

If you have any old/new moments captured in screenshots or videos that you'd love to have highlighted during the stream, send me a DM here on the site or through Discord!  No guarantee that we'll be able to include all, but I'll see what we can do!

Let's see what we can dig up in the last 10 years of Stonewall!

Hey, what a schedule! Lots to do! Don't forget to bring the cakes for the party! And Disco Balls!!!

ST Ent does Rocky Horror

Bakula has nice legs, IMHO
(Invalid img)

Oooof. Imma be out of town at a conference.

But hey! In the likely event of a government shutdown, I'll be back on a plane, possibly home in time to participate!

EVENT ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30:  This year marks a very special occasion for all of us here in Stonewall!  Having been founded in 2008, Stonewall Fleet, and by extension, the Stonewall Gaming Network (SGN) as we now know it, has reached a decade in age!  Ten years is a huge milestone for any online gaming community, so no ordinary party would do!  We plan to celebrate our 10th with a big bash, featuring events for our members across the network!  While several events will take place in Star Trek Online and will be open to the entire Stonewall Fleet Armada, there are also many out-of-game events that will allow our members from across the network the opportunity to join the party!  Of course, no party of this size would be worth having, without amazing prize draws and exclusive loot winning opportunities!  We'll post more about our 10th anniversary raffle and details about some of our other events in this thread!  Happy 10th anniversary, Stonewallers!  I hope to see you at the event!

·············································

Colony Defense & Group PvE Queues (In Honor of Retired Admiral Traull) [12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Stonewall Fleet is receiving a priority one distress signal from its colony in the Dranuur system!  It's under attack!!  In this event, named in honor of one of Stonewall's retired Admirals of Combat Operations: @Traull, Stonewall will need the assistance of all battle ready ships, Captains and crews in order to save the colony!  Quickly, head on down to the colony holding or ask for a map invite and help us defend our colony from invasion!

·············································

Admiral Gareth's Video Quiz! [1:30 PM - 3:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Join us all on discord where you will be placed in a group with your fellow fleet mates, you and your team will watch a video that contains questions or puzzles which and you must give the answers in before the timer runs out. You and your Team will be using your own created audio room to discuss your answers.

·············································

Livestream Event Including: Prizes, Trek Trivia & Interactive Games (In Honor of Retired Admirals Gravity & Tuvak) [3:00 PM - 5:30 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Stonewall's retired Admirals Voleron and Traull are coming back out of their cushy retirement gig to host Stonewall's second livestream event!  This event, hosted in honor of retired Admirals @Tuvak and @Gravity, (known colloquially as the Queens of Gossip), will cover Stonewall News, Events & Happenings, Community Art and a Trek Trivia event that all of our viewers will be able to participate in for big prizes!  We'll also be doing several big prize give-aways during the stream, followed by a game that everyone can participate in!  You won't want to miss this epic 10th anniversary livestream that will have every viewer playing and engaged!

·············································

Warriors of Nimbus [5:30 PM - 6:30 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Warriors of Stonewall: Come one and come all to test your mettle!  Many a Klingon have found this test to be too hard, and were consequently stripped of their honour!  Come on down to Nimbus with your best bridge officers and prove that you can best any challenge set before you, and that you are more skilled than those dishonourable petaQ's that came before you!

·············································

Ten Forward Fashion Contest [6:30 PM - 8:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Dive into the tailor and jump back out in an amazing look to take part in our Ten Forward Fashion Contest! The categories are: 'Ten Years and Forward' (make a costume to memorize some of the best moments in Stonewall Fleet's History or show us your vision of where we will be going in the future!)  Second Category is the 'Ten Forward Look' (Inspired by the off-duty looks seen in Ten Forward from TNG, design the ultimate off-duty look! Only off-duty costumes and uniforms made with TNG-era options may enter this category). Sure your captain also has some stunning outfits for when they're not on the bridge, right? The contest will be held aboard a starships, so no beachwear. See you there!

·············································

SWTOR Flashpoint Runs & STO STF Runs (In Honor of Retired Admiral BranFlakes) [8:00 PM - 9:30 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Held in honor of Stonewall's retired Admiral of Intelligence: @CapnBranFlakes, we'll be running a series of Flashpoint runs in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  For those community members who don't play SWTOR, we'll be simultaneously be running a series of random Special Task Force and PvE queue missions in Star Trek Online!  We’ll be taking advantage of the new tier VI reputation level increases and will help you work towards earning those new vanity shields, weapons, and ground and space set variants!  Ready your characters from your franchise of choice and get ready for battle!

·············································

Star Trek Bridge Crew & STO Battlezone Runs [12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Halish, noble Officer of the Stonewall Vanguard in GW2, will lead several rounds of Star Trek: Bridge Crew!  If you don't already have this game, consider looking into it!  Star Trek Bridge Crew is a virtual reality action-adventure video game that can be played with or without VR headsets.  Four players team up to form a virtual crew on-board a Starship and embark on adventures that require skill and coordination to successfully complete!  Will you take on the helm, tactical, engineering or will you command the ship?  For those who don't own Bridge Crew, Admiral of Combat Operations: MstFrancis, will be running Battlezone runs in Star Trek Online to pass the time until the brave crews of the USS Aegis return!

·············································

Star Trek Online Match Game (In Honor of Retired Admiral @bradley1701) [1:30 PM - 3:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Admiral Jacien and the members of the morale department will run you through some academy training scenarios and ask you about the next course of action should be taken... but that’s only half of it!  See if you can guess what the answers of our panel of notable Trek personalities will be, and earn points to win the Smatch (Stonewall Match) game!

·············································

RTS Tournament [3:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Fleet Admiral Nick will be leading Stonewallers in a head-to-head fray against other Stonewallers in Strike Tactics, a multiplayer browser-based RTS. We’ll go fight in a 1v1v1v1 game. Players with the highest level points will go on to the next level until there is one winner!  First, second and third place will receive 5, 4, and 3 Stonewall Credits, respectively.  Stonewall Credits can be redeemed for in-game and out-of-game merchandise in the Stonewall Credits store at: credits.stonewallfleet.com

·············································

Hillbane Memorial Grand Melee Tournament [5:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] It's that time of year again, when Stonewallers, regardless of allegiance, come together in one place to battle it out in a series of 1 vs 1 ground PvP encounters, in order to determine who will be crowned House Champion!  Named in honor of Admiral Hillbane, one of Stonewall's original KDF officers who has since passed away, we encourage you to join us in this battle of blades, in order to prove your Captain's mettle by competing in our Grand Melee tournament for a chance at honor and glory! ... and a generous helping of Stonewall Credits.  This is a cross faction event that takes place in private PvP queues.

·············································

Dominion War Reenactment (In Honor of Retired Admiral Aikune) [6:00 PM - 7:30 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Admiral Jacien will lead Stonewall Captains in a re-enactment of the Dominion War, which is being held in honor of Stonewall's Retired Admiral of PvP: Aikune (@Whiteonmyoji).  Before his retirement, Admiral Aikune was among the fiercest of Stonewall's Captains, dominating our PvP Combat Operations Wing and introducing the Shipwrite program to Stonewall!  This Dominion War Re-enactment will pit Dominion forces against the remainder of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, in an epic battle for PvP glory!  Will the Dominion be subdued once again, or will the Dominion prevail?  Equip your vessel and join us in this ultimate fleet member vs fleet member battle to find out!

·············································

Closing Ceremonies & Raffle Draw [7:30 PM - 8:00 PM EDT or click here for your timezone] Ten years have passed, and as Stonewall's 10th anniversary comes to a close, Fleet Admiral @NicholasJohn16 will bring us all together for some closing remarks that will remind us of how "it's been a long road, getting from there to here."  He'll tell us a little about Stonewall Fleet's past and how "it's been a long night, trying to find our way", but "how we've been through the darkness, now we finally have our day!"  During the closing ceremonies, Admiral @GXV3 will announce the winners of our epic 10th Anniversary Raffle!  Be sure to be present if you want to be the first to collect the amazing raffle goodies that are up for grabs!

---

These were literally the first four listed on Google in my price range. I hadn't even noticed the storage. I poked around a little more, and based on the advice here and on Discord, I think I'm going to go for an Asus TUF FX504. It looks like its big downside is the camera, but when I use the camera for teaching online, I put lots of light on me, which should compensate.

Thanks for the help!

The link for Acer #1 doesn't work for me, but the stats on the remaining three look pretty similar.  Looks like the Dell only has a GTX 1050 video card instead of the GTX 1050 ti that is advertised.  The TI gives a performance boost that I would probably go for.  My family has had bad experiences with HP and good experiences with Acer, so I personally like the look of the Acer #2, but the small, 256 GB SSD hard drive concerns me.  256 Gigs isn't a lot of space in this day and age and there's no secondary drive for storage, unless you plug in an external one, it looks like.

PCGamer did a review of a few different gaming laptops last month, if you want to give it a once over.  More expensive, mind you, but maybe worth it in the long haul.

https://www.pcgamer.com/best-gaming-laptop/ 

Which gaming laptop would you choose for durability and all-around performance (as opposed to gaming performance)?


Acer #1

Dell

HP

Acer #2

my pub side alts. these are my alts, LF invite to jedi guild if there is one.
and yes, the commando's name is random generated by BW XD
if i'm on discord, i'm online, DM me. if i don't answer right away, i'm either mid mission in a fight or random afk.

YAY!!! I am going to watch the shorts when I get back from town :D Cheers m'dear

I forgot to add.. for thoughs who did enjoy the trial .. the game is now 50% off, until 3rd Sept!
and this week see's a new D.va challenge! Nano Cola.
Much like the Arcade (3 wins bags you a loot box) .. win 6 games and you win a D.va Cola skin

also here are all the animated shorts cal and moonbeam were asking for. all shorts/background storys all in one video.

Awwwe, you guys went to BlizzardWorld and didn't invite me!  I've wanted to ride the Protoss coaster for a long time now!

Thank you to the people who came and teamed up this weekend!!
Thought it a nice change to get together for a different game to play something new together!














If any one of you have any other game/team up ideas we would love to know about them!..

I had an amazing time with this weekend's #StonewallWatch crew, including: @GXV3, @calx, @Traull, @Kierix, @Jacien, @Gravity, @Mstfrancis, @MoonBeamSpectrum and more!  Here are some of my #Overwatch moments from the weekend:

Well I downloaded the game and tried the tutorial, the graphics are great and it looks like it could be fun but this is simply not for me. I have always failed at FPS games, mainly because my bad left hand cannot coordinate WASD movement. Games where a right-handed mouse controls movement are fine, but if I have to move the avatar with my left hand it just won't work. Le sigh. :(

This is a great idea!!  The game's a blast and even losing can be fun with the right attitude.

Dont forget you can Start your free download of Overwatch today (Thurs) 23rd.
Here are the times in your zone when it becomes free to Download.



Step 1: Download and install the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app, if you haven't already, and launch it.
Step 2: Create a free Blizzard account, or log in with an existing account. 
Step 3: Click the Overwatch icon, located on the left-hand side of the Blizzard desktop app.
Step 4: Select your region from the drop-down menu, then click "Install" to begin the installation process.
Step 5: Once installed, click "Play" to begin!

The Overwatch Free Weekend client will be available for download from August 23–27.

Remember if your new to the game.. head on your own to the "practice range" first.. and experiment with all the different heros to see what they can do and decide who you like playing.

I'm terrible at PVP, but then I've been playing some of these characters already on Heroes of the Storm, so maybe i'll give it a go.

They all turned out really nicely.  My potato pics don't do them justice.

Zox's ships