What Are You Playing, Part 3: The Assassination of my Wallet by the Cowardly Sale

[warty goblin]

yeah, they never did figure out a good way to put in counterplay to cvs; and the cv rework made things worse in some ways.
Especially at low tiers there's just not much that can be done to stop them; at high tiers sticking in a group with strong AA somewhat works.
They need some devs who are better at fixing gameplay problems.

I stopped playing several months ago; are they still trying to get subs into the game? that seemed like a nonsensical mess when I left.

I think the CV problem has two major components, first that by the time you get the late 30s/early 40s, they simply are the dominant capital ship, barring weather like the North Atlantic and operational constraints like pilots and fuel that WoWS doesn't model. It's hard to reasonably represent something fundamentally imbalanced as balanced.

The second is that in pretty much any game its super hard to balance a system that only interacts with the rest of the game in a single way, particularly if its almost entirely passive. For AA to work, it needs to stop planes getting through. But if it does that, CVs are pointless, because any zero skill schlub can shut them down. So instead AA more or less doesn't work, except en mass, and planes are basically uncounterable risk free damage. But without adding an explicit way to manually fire the guns, I think that is inevitable, and the number of things a player already has to manage makes that a non-starter.

That said, reducing the size of the dive bomber reticle was just boneheaded.

[Man_Over_Game]

Was doing some math, and I realized that Artemis boons are in a weird position, as they provide the only multiplicative damage bonuses in the game.

This means she's stronger the more you play the game, since you have more and more built-in damage bonuses. This could skew players' perspectives as her being a weak choice due to poor scaling early on, and miss out on the damage output she provides when including things like Backstab bonuses or Boiling Blood, or even just the fact that you'll get general damage bonuses further into a run and you'll get further than you did when you first started playing.

I certainly thought Artemis boons sucked when I first started, so much so that it's hard for me to break from that bias even now. Although, that could also just have been from the fact that all the other boons add some kind of cool effect, while Artemis just adds damage, and I was never one to enjoy straightforward solutions.

Despite Aphrodite having some of the highest DPS bonuses, I still can't help but think she's one of the worst to use compared to something like Dionysus. Which, for the record, is not true (Dionysus damage sucks pretty hard, despite it being really fun).

[Cozzer]

Aaand I've completed Hades with the gun and the shield. Only the bow left, then I'll focus on my favorite weapons and start raising Heat.

Still experimenting with Boons, I make a point of not taking an Olympian trinket during the first zone, so I take what happens and work from there. Also trying to complete the Fated lists of weapons mods, so I focus on new choices in that respect too.

Not much else to say, for now the moment-to-moment gameplay is really fun, and unlocking more main story and more character interactions is interesting enough for me to keep me playing. I'll probably get to the true ending and max most relationships at the very least.

[tonberrian]

Recently finished up Disgaea 5 again. I'm hoping that 6 will have the same sorts of quality of life things that 5 has over the rest of the games. But with the 10000x increase in the level cap i'm wondering what other changes will come up. I'm ready to grind again though, so looking forward to it.

Now i have to figure out what I'm gonna play next...

[Anteros]

I'm surprised you don't truck with Ares if you like burst; I quite like the Doom mechanic for chunking people.

The problem is that it requires you to stop hitting them and wait for it to proc. I typically find I could have unloaded a lot more damage than the doom itself in the time it takes to back off, let it proc, and re-engage.

Was doing some math, and I realized that Artemis boons are in a weird position, as they provide the only multiplicative damage bonuses in the game.

This means she's stronger the more you play the game, since you have more and more built-in damage bonuses. This could skew players' perspectives as her being a weak choice due to poor scaling early on, and miss out on the damage output she provides when including things like Backstab bonuses or Boiling Blood, or even just the fact that you'll get general damage bonuses further into a run and you'll get further than you did when you first started playing.

I certainly thought Artemis boons sucked when I first started, so much so that it's hard for me to break from that bias even now. Although, that could also just have been from the fact that all the other boons add some kind of cool effect, while Artemis just adds damage, and I was never one to enjoy straightforward solutions.

Despite Aphrodite having some of the highest DPS bonuses, I still can't help but think she's one of the worst to use compared to something like Dionysus. Which, for the record, is not true (Dionysus damage sucks pretty hard, despite it being really fun).

Funny, it seemed apparent to me right away that she fills the traditional "weak early game but stronger as the game goes on" role that most dps/critical hit builds have in almost every RPG. It's one of the reasons I prefer her. Also the fact that her benefit is completely predictable, where the value of something like knock-back or weakness is going to vary greatly from fight to fight.

For me the tier list is something like this

S: Hermes/Hammer: Obviously the most important upgrades you can get. You're guaranteed an opportunity at 2 of each per run, so it's actually fairly pointless to rank them. They're so good you'd have to be intentionally sabotaging yourself to not get them.

Artemis: Consistent damage and predictable. Able to synergize with literally anything else you get.

Athena: So much survivability. It's almost completely impossible to take damage once you get a good build with her going, much less actually lose. Deflect on dash or attack appear defensive on the surface, but actually greatly reward aggression leading to a massive DPS boost.

A: Demeter: Decent DPS. Chill is good against everything, and a godsend (haha puns) against bosses. Stacking chill trivializes most boss fights. Make sure you don't take the boon that detonates your chill charges for 100 damage unless you want to actively sabotage yourself. Keeping the enemy perpetually slowed by 40% is far more valuable than a tiny bit of damage.

Zeus: Solid burst, and good AoE. I don't think he's particularly strong, but watching your chain lightning annihilate everything on the screen is always fun.

B: Aphrodite: Good DPS boosts. Charm and weakness are worthless.

Poseidon: Solid burst. Knock back is often as much of a detriment as a benefit and doesn't work against bosses. His call ability is S tier though and you can usually pick it up without much investment.

C: Ares: Doom rewards hit and run gameplay and target switching. The rift abilities are just outright bad without heavy investment. The dash is overshadowed by almost every other dash, and the cast is actively detrimental since you can't lodge it inside an enemy for the DPS boost.

Dionysus: By the time you stack up enough hangover on something to kill them with the DoT you could have just killed them outright with almost any other build. Same problem as Ares with the cast. I honestly think he's completely terrible except for some of the healing boons.

F: Chaos. It can be situationally good, but the health sacrifice combined with the debuff is just too much to make it worth it since you can't even guarantee he'll offer something relevant to your build. I'll usually only take him if I already have a solid build online and I want to push it over the top.

Note that I don't put a heavy weight here on legendary or Duo boons because even if you know exactly what you need to pick to get them, you can't guarantee you will. I'm not saying that they aren't good, but I value reliably being able to win over gambling on a late game upgrade to make my build work.

I also don't claim for any of this to be objective fact. I know a lot of you have a lot of success with things that I consider sub-par like Dionysus or Poseidon. I'm just talking about my personal experience.

[Rynjin]

The problem is that it requires you to stop hitting them and wait for it to proc. I typically find I could have unloaded a lot more damage than the doom itself in the time it takes to back off, let it proc, and re-engage.

I'm pretty sure you can just keep wailing on them while the Doom ticks down. It's essentially an "every X seconds, deal an additional Y damage" effect.

[Cozzer]

Ares has a pretty nice Boon where applying Doom to a Doomed enemy adds to the damage they'll suffer at the end of the Doom. That Boon pushes his builds from meh to really good IMO, if you can get it.

I more or less agree with Anteros' list, though I usually take a Chaos Boon if I find it during Tartarus, since the fights are easy enough there that I don't worry about the temporary debuff or health loss (especially if the alternative is a Darkness/Gem/Key room).

[Razade]

I'd personally move Poseidon up a Tier and Aphrodite down a Tier myself. I'd put Chaos and the Hammer outside of any Tier too, since they're just wildly variable. Sometimes a Chaos boon is totally worth it. If it works with your run. Same with the Hammer. If I've been loading up everything on my normal attack and dash strike and get nothing but helping my specials out it's not helping me. Not all weapon boosts with the Hammer are created equal either. Some of the Bow ones are just awful. Same with the gun.

[Cespenar]

The existing S's are pretty legit, personally I'd put Chaos up there as well, boost Dio up to A, and downgrade Zeus and Pose to C. Sometimes Chaos's placement could be really troll-y, but often times he just offers an unmatched damage boost in exchange for, what, 3 encounters of not using your secondary attack? I often went into Extreme Measures Meg with a Chaos detriment still active, for example. The bonuses are that good.

Hangover is pretty okay in my books with a fast hitting weapon. Something like 4 Hangover damage means only one stack deals 32 damage over 4 seconds. And combats certainly last longer than that. For comparison, Zeus deals ~10 damage but to multiple targets, which makes it easier and fun to melt hordes of rats and such, but doesn't matter in big boss fights.

Also, secret protip, Hangover base damage can only be whole numbers, and so bypasses the diminishing returns you often get from poms. I easily made a 10 Hangover weapon in one run, for example, which translates to +80 damage per hit. Imagine fists or gun with that.

And don't get me started on Festive "get stunlocked forever" Fog.

[Anteros]

I almost didn't rank Chaos at all because his boons are so random, so I'm not surprised his placement is controversial. I suppose it fits with his theme, but personally I prefer reliability in a roguelike.

The existing S's are pretty legit, personally I'd put Chaos up there as well, boost Dio up to A, and downgrade Zeus and Pose to C. Sometimes Chaos's placement could be really troll-y, but often times he just offers an unmatched damage boost in exchange for, what, 3 encounters of not using your secondary attack? I often went into Extreme Measures Meg with a Chaos detriment still active, for example. The bonuses are that good.

Hangover is pretty okay in my books with a fast hitting weapon. Something like 4 Hangover damage means only one stack deals 32 damage over 4 seconds. And combats certainly last longer than that. For comparison, Zeus deals ~10 damage but to multiple targets, which makes it easier and fun to melt hordes of rats and such, but doesn't matter in big boss fights.

Also, secret protip, Hangover base damage can only be whole numbers, and so bypasses the diminishing returns you often get from poms. I easily made a 10 Hangover weapon in one run, for example, which translates to +80 damage per hit. Imagine fists or gun with that.

And don't get me started on Festive "get stunlocked forever" Fog.

My problem with hangover damage (aside from a personal dislike of DoTs) is that it mostly doesn't scale with other multipliers. 80 damage per hit is nice, but when I can smack someone for a 3k frontloaded crit with another build, it pales.

I'm pretty sure you can just keep wailing on them while the Doom ticks down. It's essentially an "every X seconds, deal an additional Y damage" effect.

Are you sure? I did some light testing with the railgun and it didn't seem to tick down until you actually stopped hitting an enemy. That was several patches ago though

[NRSASD]

Hah, alright. I've got to try this ranking thing. These are entirely my own subjective opinions based on my experience, and I'm sure they will prove controversial. I generally suck at this genre of game though, so I figured I'd throw in my two cents for variety's sake.

I should also mention that all of the gods are quite strong in their own right and I've beaten the game focusing on each of them.

As an aside, I tend to stack health a lot to compensate for my poor dodging skills. I've finished runs with 400+ hp.

Absolutely Must Haves: I always go for these, no exceptions.
Hammers and Chaos: Both kinda random and inconsistent, but they are literally game-changing. Most of my losses have been due to stacking too much Chaos (3 curses at once is a bit excessive) or unsynergetic hammers, but when it does work it forms the core of my builds.

A: Easy to build a run around and excellent to supplement a run based on something else.
Athena: Between her deflection boons, her exposed debuff, and her death defiance refills, Athena is excellent.
Hermes: More speed, dashes, and/or money is always good.

B: With a little focus, these gods are absolute workhorses that will carry you to victory.
Aphrodite:With the highest (?) damage buffs, a 50% damage debuff, and a permanent boost to max hp, Aphrodite is just great. One boon is good, but 3 or 4 is gamebreaking with the right weapon. Generally though, there is no wrong weapon in her hands.
Artemis: High damage crits are great on both big slow weapons and rapid fire weapons. Just incredible all round.

C: With a lot of focus, these gods are definitely good. Not as universally applicable as above, but still very strong in the right hands.
Demeter: Chill on its own is merely ok, but all the various forms of enhanced chill are thoroughly excellent. Her cast takes a huge investment to make it worth your time, but with that investment will win the game for you while you go stand in a corner.
Ares: Ares almost didn't make it on this list, but the Artemis/Ares legendary alone is the single strongest build I have ever seen. Takes a ton of investment to make blade rifts worth your time, but once online your cast will solo bosses in seconds. Doom is fun but not super worth it in my experience.

D: Not easy for me to build a run around, but definitely has some strong points.
Dionysus: Hangover just isn't that great... but the full heals at fountains +% damage buff is incredible. Festive fog is also definitely worth your time.
Poseidon: Rupture and extra gold per room are very solid abilities. Pushing targets can work, but it's very tricky for me to use it reliably.

Z:
Zeus: Sorry Uncle. Jolted just isn't good enough.

[Cespenar]

My problem with hangover damage (aside from a personal dislike of DoTs) is that it mostly doesn't scale with other multipliers. 80 damage per hit is nice, but when I can smack someone for a 3k frontloaded crit with another build, it pales.

True, it probably can't compete with high-end Artemis damages, but 10 was a pretty conservative ballpark value. More realistically, you go full gun-flurry and it reaches something like 2k+ each reload.

It does need you to remain still, though, which is a minus. But then you get the hangover-slow boon, and it's like you minored in Demeter. The general package of Dio is pretty above average, all in all.

Edit: NRSASD's ranking above is actually pretty close to my experience as well, maybe except Dio.

[Razade]

Are you sure? I did some light testing with the railgun and it didn't seem to tick down until you actually stopped hitting an enemy. That was several patches ago though

Doom ticks down even if you're hitting an enemy.

[Man_Over_Game]

Wife and I were talking, and it'd be kinda possible for SGG to add an expansion by adding a new "zone" through Chaos's domain.

Spoiler

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Zag doesn't seem to die in it like he does in the outside world, what little we see of it (like the boons) is chaotic, Chaos doesn't seem to have control over the things he creates despite being aware of them, and he (and possibly his realm) seem connected to all things.

Theoretically, Zag could utilize Chaos's domain as a "fast travel system" to visit important folks, maybe even gods themselves, beating through whatever eldritch horrors happen to be in his way and revolves around a "Chaos" system where you "pick your poison" rather than your reward for each chamber.

Hell, could make it a system where you choose between 2-3 chambers, each adding some kind of "heat" equivalent benefit to enemies for every future chamber that run, gaining rewards that scale with the difficulty level you've chosen for each chamber. Pick a chamber that grants enemies a lot of power, now you get your choice of Epic boons, or so on. So you basically scale the entire run to your difficulty level in the first couple chambers before plateauing until you get another power spike (and can bump up the difficulty/rewards some more). Would be different enough to feel fresh, while still fitting perfectly for a theme that matches existing lore and mechanics.

[Zevox]

I've started playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. It's been sitting in my backlog for a while, and is the first Assassin's Creed I've played since Black Flag - which in retrospect was longer ago than it feels like, since I played that on my PS3, and we're now just a month away from the PS5's release.

It actually reminds me of Black Flag, in a way - it's a pretty good Pirates of the Carribean ancient Greek mercenary game, which for some reason has "Assassin's Creed" in the title. Seriously, it's surprising how far into this thing I am having seen no mention of the Assassin or Templar organizations, and with only the briefest bit at the start involving people in modern times and whatever that device is that they use to watch their ancestors. Though honestly, that's a very good thing in my opinion. The best part of Assassin's Creed has always been the historical settings, and among the weakest has always been the overarching meta-plot, so if they've continued downplaying the latter in favor of the former since I last touched the series, kudos to them for that decision.

I have to say I feel like the combat has been improved since I last played as well. At the start I was actually struggling pretty badly in fights that involved more than one or two opponents. After getting more used to flow of things in this particular game, and picking up more abilities so that I have actual options in combat, I can definitely handle groups a lot better, but it no longer feels as stupidly easy as it did in the past, where I needn't fear fighting any number of enemies. If I get seriously outnumbered (usually when a fortress lights its signal fire for reinforcements), or especially if multiple mercenaries that are decently above my level pop into the fray, I actually do need to hightail it out of there, which is not something I recall ever being the case in previous games.

Though I have to say, I could really, really do without the entire equipment system in this game. The need to keep my weapons and armor upgraded in order to keep them relevant is a huge nuisance, especially as I start picking up rarer equipment and finding that it eats a lot more resources when I upgrade it. Why they thought that your items should have levels too, I'll never understand. Definitely the single biggest thing I'd change about the game, if I could.

Other than that, generally enjoying it. It does have a number of those open-world elements that I hate, but I'm learning which side-quests I can just ignore because they'll be generic and boring, and which I should probably take the time to do. And can't really fault them for not having a lot of them - as much as there's definite padding to the game, there seems to be a very health amount of non-padding side-quests, and the main storyline is probably the most interesting one since Ezio's in AC2, at least from what I've seen of it so far.

[Spacewolf]

Assassins Creed odyssey was an interesting game wrapped in about 2 or 3 games worth of extra padding. I keep wanting to go back to it only to realise I can't be bothered with all the needless stuff.

[Cespenar]

Assassin's Creed is such a weird franchise. I'm giving Syndicate a try at the moment, and the effort they've put into the "level" design is outright weird, compared to the effort they seem to put into the other parts of the game. Like, it's a 2015 game and still it's a charm riding your cart through the streets of Victorian era London and just taking in the scenery. I've invested more attention into the architectural design of the different boroughs than the actual gameplay, which is, unfortunately, still the same from the 2000s.

[Anonymouswizard]

At least back in the 2000s we weren't slapping levelling on every series.


But yeah, took a break from Tyranny due to a bug the end of Act 1, and now I'm back and have got a good way into Act 2. Barik is really annoyed that I want to get him out of his armour and I'm finding myself wanting to run between different sides of the map to go from the main quest to side quests, but I'm not getting enough loot to afford both better weapons and Spire upkeep.

I've also finally found all six companions, and unfortunately there's five I want in my party (Barik, Verse, Eb, Syrin, and Kills-in-Shadow). I suppose it's the sign of interesting companions.

The one complaint I have is the levelling system. It's good, except that if I don't find the checks in a skill I want I won't level it up much, which means I won't be able to pass the latter checks and get XP from them, as well as making me reluctant to swap fighting styles on anybody. While improve by doing systems might be more immersive I'm starting to suspect that they just might not work as well as they should.

It's really nice to be playing a proper isometric RPG though, I've grown tired of third/first person ones. The world is now beginning to open up but there's still the nice structure of having an objective every time I go to a new area, I just have quite a bit of freedom as to what order I pursue them in. There's been no aimless wandering in the game, which means it's eliminated the one thing I hate the most, but I can meander at a comfortable place.

[warty goblin]

At least back in the 2000s we weren't slapping levelling on every series.

Hey, if we aren't filling a bar to unlock powerful abilities that allow us to customize our unique gameplay style, how do we know we're having fun?

The one complaint I have is the levelling system. It's good, except that if I don't find the checks in a skill I want I won't level it up much, which means I won't be able to pass the latter checks and get XP from them, as well as making me reluctant to swap fighting styles on anybody. While improve by doing systems might be more immersive I'm starting to suspect that they just might not work as well as they should.

I've always figured Mount & Blade hot on a nearly ideal compromise, where you got better by doing, but got a reasonable pile of skill points each level you could put wherever you wanted. So if you wanted to diversify into, say, archery, you could dump points into that for a level or two, and end up being a vaguely credible archer without having to totally suck for multiple battles.

[Anteros]

At least back in the 2000s we weren't slapping levelling on every series.


But yeah, took a break from Tyranny due to a bug the end of Act 1, and now I'm back and have got a good way into Act 2. Barik is really annoyed that I want to get him out of his armour and I'm finding myself wanting to run between different sides of the map to go from the main quest to side quests, but I'm not getting enough loot to afford both better weapons and Spire upkeep.

I've also finally found all six companions, and unfortunately there's five I want in my party (Barik, Verse, Eb, Syrin, and Kills-in-Shadow). I suppose it's the sign of interesting companions.

The one complaint I have is the levelling system. It's good, except that if I don't find the checks in a skill I want I won't level it up much, which means I won't be able to pass the latter checks and get XP from them, as well as making me reluctant to swap fighting styles on anybody. While improve by doing systems might be more immersive I'm starting to suspect that they just might not work as well as they should.

It's really nice to be playing a proper isometric RPG though, I've grown tired of third/first person ones. The world is now beginning to open up but there's still the nice structure of having an objective every time I go to a new area, I just have quite a bit of freedom as to what order I pursue them in. There's been no aimless wandering in the game, which means it's eliminated the one thing I hate the most, but I can meander at a comfortable place.

Tyranny is a great game, but the balance is just non existent. In typical Obsidian fashion they've created a fantastically immersing world, great characters, an interesting development system, and a wonderful plot...and just didn't actually finish any of them.

Just so you know, you're far better off with armor penetration on your weapons than anything else. To the point where basic weapons with it are better than end game gear without.

[LibraryOgre]

Privateer, Morrowind, and ME3.

I try to play one ME3 multiplayer round a day. There are still a LOT of folks playing that, which is kind of amazing. I'm currently levelling my way through Soldier, with the intention of Promoting them, before moving on to another class to work up to promotion, then another, etc. It's just for fun, at this point; I've played ME3 the story enough to be done with it for now.

Morrowind, I have moved on to Mournhold, but not found much to keep me interested, yet. I'm pretty much in charge of everything but two houses and the Imperial Legion in Vvardenfell, and my attributes are either 100 or 98... I'm just enjoying the game, at this point.

Privateer has kind of been my fun one, but I'm really wishing for a more UI. I have to remember to turn on mouse support each time (it won't remember it as my default), and the keyboard commands are all over the keyboard. Each save has to be done individually, with no quicksave nor autosave. It's the big problem with older games, for me. If I die on a mission (I haven't built up my Orion to nigh-invulnerable levels, yet), I have to go back to my last save, and it's a bit of a drag, especially since saves don't seem to be time-marked, just organized by name... so you have to scroll down, or do something like name everything a, aa, aaa, aaaa... and I'm not even sure THAT would work.

If anyone has any suggestions for Privateer-like flight-and-trade sims that aren't too intense (I'm not wanting to make my spoose an Eve-Widow), I'd be open to it.

[Narkis]

If anyone has any suggestions for Privateer-like flight-and-trade sims that aren't too intense (I'm not wanting to make my spoose an Eve-Widow), I'd be open to it.

Haven't played anything recent, but Freelancer used to be my jam back in the day.

[Anteros]

My friend talked me into picking up Genshin Impact. It's actually fairly polished and interesting...but man do I ever hate Gacha garbage. I'd rather pay 70 dollars for a full game than gamble 30 on a free one any day of the week.

[tyckspoon]

My friend talked me into picking up Genshin Impact. It's actually fairly polished and interesting...but man do I ever hate Gacha garbage. I'd rather pay 70 dollars for a full game than gamble 30 on a free one any day of the week.

I'm not super far into it, but so far it doesn't seem like it really relies that much on the gacha side of it; I haven't found anything that can't be readily handled by the characters the game gives you as part of the storyline, and generally action control games like this offer a lot more room for compensating for weaker characters by proper play (in that you can try to dodge telegraphed attacks, attack within cooldown periods so you're not exposed to danger, etc) compared to static combat setups where you can run into a hard statcheck wall that says 'You are about to get hit for 10,000 damage, and there's no way to dodge it. Hope you can tank that.' If anything investing in the gacha would likely be a way to at least partially bypass a lot of grinding world events and chests to get the upgrade materials needed to bring your lower-power free characters up to par..

(that said I have been playing on PC, and might install it to my PS4 as well, which makes it a lot easier to actually interact with the action combat. I can definitely imagine struggling with common phone control schemes for this kind of game and feeling a need to win the gacha in order to compensate.)

[Anteros]

I'm not super far into it, but so far it doesn't seem like it really relies that much on the gacha side of it; I haven't found anything that can't be readily handled by the characters the game gives you as part of the storyline, and generally action control games like this offer a lot more room for compensating for weaker characters by proper play (in that you can try to dodge telegraphed attacks, attack within cooldown periods so you're not exposed to danger, etc) compared to static combat setups where you can run into a hard statcheck wall that says 'You are about to get hit for 10,000 damage, and there's no way to dodge it. Hope you can tank that.' If anything investing in the gacha would likely be a way to at least partially bypass a lot of grinding world events and chests to get the upgrade materials needed to bring your lower-power free characters up to par..

(that said I have been playing on PC, and might install it to my PS4 as well, which makes it a lot easier to actually interact with the action combat. I can definitely imagine struggling with common phone control schemes for this kind of game and feeling a need to win the gacha in order to compensate.)

Well the difficulty of the game is as low as you'd expect from something you can play on phone, so you're right that you don't have to spend money to win fights. Enemies don't really track you, and in about 20 hours of play I've yet to run into an enemy I couldn't defeat with the almighty tactic of walking in a circle and waiting for it to stop moving so I can hit it.

My problem is more with the gambling aspect itself. If there's a character I want, or an item or whatever you don't play the game to unlock it like you normally would...you gamble. I would rather just pay a reasonable amount up-front for the full content of the game than be stuck playing slot machines for it.

[Triaxx]

Elite Dangerous, The X-series. Freelancer if you can find it. I really recommend the X-series. X3:TC is my preference but if you can resist the temptation of the Stock Market AP's also good with some improvements. X4 is pretty but... Combat in it sucks. Trading isn't fun because the AI cheats, and the interface is confusing and occasionally just flat out aggressively difficult.

[Zevox]

My friend talked me into picking up Genshin Impact. It's actually fairly polished and interesting...but man do I ever hate Gacha garbage. I'd rather pay 70 dollars for a full game than gamble 30 on a free one any day of the week.

That's precisely why I'm not even touching it. Tried that kind of game design on a few mobile games, and I wound up deciding I hate it. It feels exploitative, like it's trying to force you to spend either ridiculous amounts of time or ridiculous amounts of money to ever come close to completing the game/keeping up with its regular content releases. For me, that overshadows whatever good might be in such games to the point where I never intend to play one again.

Granted, I was already unlikely to ever play Genshin Impact just off the fact that everyone was comparing it to Breath of the Wild even before it came out, but after it released and I heard that about it? Not a chance.

[Winthur]

Tales of Symphonia progress spoilers:

Spoiler: Tower of Salvation

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I ALMOST BEAT KRATOS ON HARD HE WAS LEFT AT 2K HEALTH WHAT A CHEAP JACKASS

[Razade]

I wouldn't touch Genshin Impact just on a consumer level considering all their asset stealing and its spyware that only recently got patched out. Add to that their recent attempt to "pay" for additional streaming content...with in game items for 25 hours a month minimum streaming which just seems gross and predatory. You also cannot disclose you're being "paid" to stream the game which is outright unethical to ask someone to do. The Gacha system doesn't even come into it.

[DeTess]

If anyone has any suggestions for Privateer-like flight-and-trade sims that aren't too intense (I'm not wanting to make my spoose an Eve-Widow), I'd be open to it.

Starsector is a cool indie game I've been playing on-and-off that might scratch that itch as well.