What Are you Playing 7: Deadly Sims

[zlefin]

I don't play POE anymore so I've got no dog in the race, but in general when devs cave to whining by the vocal parts of the community it almost always makes the end product much worse. Lower drop rates aren't necessarily a bad thing, at least for the parts of the community that enjoy things about the game besides the endgame grind. When things are harder to get, it makes it more special when you do get it.

Dunno, I could be completely wrong, but just because the community is whining doesn't automatically make something bad. I've seen too many communities go through this and absolutely ruin the games in question when the devs finally caved.

while that's true in general; this is not one of those times. This time the devs really did screw up big; it's also part of a pattern of mistakes the devs have been making for some time now.

Part of the problem with the lower drop rates is also that they didn't mention them in the patch notes; despite it being a massive change. It's the kind of thing that should really be front and center and highly visible in patch changes given how huge it was. It was also far too extreme in some cases (and possibly bugged in some cases). There's also all the other things listed.


I'd definitely wait a couple weeks at least to if things settle into a better state with patches and fixes before trying to play.

[Anonymouswizard]

SR2 always struck me as having a bit of a split personality. On the one hand you had a game where there were side missions where you had to spray poop on houses to lower property values or run naked through the city scaring as many people as possible, and on the other one of the main missions has you put the gang boss's girlfriend in the boot of a car which he then unknowingly runs over with a monster truck, the implication being she gets crushed to death. It was like that one mission in GTA: San Andreas where you had to drown the manager of a rapper so your friend could get further in his music career--I never liked having to do that because the ends most definitely did not justify the means.

Oh yeah, the Boss is nowhere near a good person in SR2, she's become exactly what Julius didn't want the Saints turning into. The characteristion in that mission pretty much remains for the entire game, the Boss is not a good person and,as I said, has no restraint.

And yeah, the activities are a massive sidestep into wackyland, but even there it's more grounded. I find that activities like Fuzz work better than ones like Septic Avenger, it's entirely possible to get a run of more grounded crimes.

I thi k the assessment of 'you're playing a Batman villain in a world without Batman' is, really the most fitting. The Boss needs an enemy that can actually take them out of the game for a while, and while the other gang leaders could do it they feel no motivation to until the Boss has too much momentum.

Then in 3 they mellow out a bit and become a character you can theoretically root for, rather than just one that's fun to watch.

[GloatingSwine]

Oh yeah, the Boss is nowhere near a good person in SR2, she's become exactly what Julius didn't want the Saints turning into. The characteristion in that mission pretty much remains for the entire game, the Boss is not a good person and,as I said, has no restraint.

And yeah, the activities are a massive sidestep into wackyland, but even there it's more grounded. I find that activities like Fuzz work better than ones like Septic Avenger, it's entirely possible to get a run of more grounded crimes.

I thi k the assessment of 'you're playing a Batman villain in a world without Batman' is, really the most fitting. The Boss needs an enemy that can actually take them out of the game for a while, and while the other gang leaders could do it they feel no motivation to until the Boss has too much momentum.

Then in 3 they mellow out a bit and become a character you can theoretically root for, rather than just one that's fun to watch.

Yeah, that's why Julius blew you up at the end of Saints Row 1. I find the best characterisation comes from playing SR2 by doing Sons of Samedi, then Ronin, then Brotherhood. That gives you a progressively darker tone and more vicious behaviour from the Boss as the game goes on.

[warty goblin]

Continuing my habit of trying Soulslikes even though I have disliked every single one of them and the genre they rode in on, I've been delicately poking at Thymesia, a vaguely plague themed Soulslike.

Shockingly I think this one might be OK. They sped up the combat substantially, which weirdly makes it easier for me, since the wind-up animations aren't so long I misread them as opportunities to attack, and my character attacks with enough speed I feel like a proper swordsman, and not the usual Soulsalike slow poke incompetent with a crippling addition to muscle relaxants.

The combat has a different rhythm to it as well. Your light attack is very fast, but doesn't hit super hard, and it's damage mostly regenerates. To keep that from happening, you need to hit with a heavy attack, which pleasingly is a separate weapon with a shorter range. Get an enemy to zero, and you can execute them. Do this with a charged strong attack, and you harvest a "plague weapon", a very powerful one use attack. There's also a parry system, you can learn blocking, and a limited-use but recharging interrupt ability for certain enemy attacks. It's a pretty good set of combat abilities, and they generally feel solid to use.

Everything is vague and plague themed, because that's a creepy aesthetic that hasn't been Soulsaliked yet, and all the genre seems to require is creepy aesthetic + vagueness. At least this one bothers to both explain the gameplay mechanics and clarify that you lost your memory, and going through the different zones will restore it. It's not much, but it does count as actual background and character motivation, and when the competition is as pathetic in these areas as the Soulsalike genre, I'll take it. The story is unobtrusive, clearly doesn't matter much, and thanks to the game's lack of voice acting, devoid of dudes... slowly... talking... vaguely... about... very... little, which is a plus.

edit: played up to what I think is the first boss. Or at least first substantial miniboss. I'm definitely revising my opinion upwards, the combat is fast, fun, and my terrible reflexes inhibiting my ability to interrupt don't seem to be hampering me all that much. The need to sort of confirm light attack damage with heavy attacks gives things a certain sense of timing and aggression that I enjoy. The skill system is another real plus, you can re-allocate your skill points at any rest location for free, so there's basically no worry about getting your build wrong, and trying out new abilities is extremely low risk. So far I'm having fun and the game hasn't massively pissed me off once, which is a real first for the genre.

[Corvus]

Giving Immortal Empires a go. Despite hundreds of hours in WH1 and WH2, I couldn't get into WH3. Not sure why, as Kislev and Nurgle should have really got me into it.

Wanted to give my lizardbois a go, but they are still saddled with the same lacklustre racial mechanics they have always have - CA have agreed that they aren't really that good and need fixing but they haven't changed in over 4 years and don't look like doing so anytime soon.

So what lizard do you play when you aren't playing a lizard? The big croc of course. Nakai, at least has had some improvements. His vassals actually provide an income now allowing you to raise more than 1 army and while allies still can attack our vassal, it isn't as frequent. So you get to rampage around Cathay as a proper horde, with multiple armies, beating up everything you want without having to worry about the lizardmens racial mechanics. Its good fun.

[The Glyphstone]

Question for the other WotR people : is there any way in Crusade mode to see how long I have till a morale flag flips, for capturing forts or crushing armies? I'm trying to milk Chapter 3 as long as I can for big armies.

[NRSASD]

Currently playing Project Zomboid, as I have been at least twice a week since B41 dropped. We’re entering the end game of our nomadic playthrough, where we wandered across Knox County on foot. We can’t stay in one place for more than a night, and we can’t use cars much.

We assigned ourselves some goals to keep it entertaining. We’ve already watched a movie in a movie theater. Now, we just need to burn down three more churches, film our own last episode of woodcraft, and present Spiffo to the giant golden statue in front of Spiffo HQ. Unfortunately, these objectives will take us into the heart of Louisville, and it is doubtful any of us will survive.

[Zombimode]

Wanted to give my lizardbois a go, but they are still saddled with the same lacklustre racial mechanics they have always have - CA have agreed that they aren't really that good and need fixing but they haven't changed in over 4 years and don't look like doing so anytime soon.

How can you tell? The fact that something hasn't changed much for a long time is not indication that it wont change ever. Warriors of Chaos were in a very bad state for an even longer time but they got their update and from what I can tell it rocks.

I'm currently leaning towards a Vilitch campaign

[GloatingSwine]

Giving Immortal Empires a go. Despite hundreds of hours in WH1 and WH2, I couldn't get into WH3. Not sure why, as Kislev and Nurgle should have really got me into it.

Wanted to give my lizardbois a go, but they are still saddled with the same lacklustre racial mechanics they have always have - CA have agreed that they aren't really that good and need fixing but they haven't changed in over 4 years and don't look like doing so anytime soon.

Given the absolute ruination they just inflicted on the Dark Elves, reducing their entire racial mechanic to a couple of buttons that aren't even worth pressing past about turn 20, maybe you don't *want* them to pay attention to the Lizardmen...

[MCerberus]

Given the absolute ruination they just inflicted on the Dark Elves, reducing their entire racial mechanic to a couple of buttons that aren't even worth pressing past about turn 20, maybe you don't *want* them to pay attention to the Lizardmen...

At least they didn't get hit as hard as WH2 Norsca. Actually no, Dark elves get to deal with Valkia.
Between the Norsca buffs, demon factions, the warriors of chaos rework, Cathay having to deal with our favorite stack spamming assassin rat, and the new Happy Chaos Friends, looks like end times are back on the menu.

[Resileaf]

My favorite part of Immortal Empires is definitely the endgame crisises. So many possibilities, so many different scenarios and possible combinations.

[GloatingSwine]

At least they didn't get hit as hard as WH2 Norsca. Actually no, Dark elves get to deal with Valkia.
Between the Norsca buffs, demon factions, the warriors of chaos rework, Cathay having to deal with our favorite stack spamming assassin rat, and the new Happy Chaos Friends, looks like end times are back on the menu.

Nearly. I reckon the Dark Elf economy probably got cut by about 80%, and the new mechanic is basically completely noninteractive. The old system was hilariously overpowered if you did it even vaguely properly, but there were a lot milder and also more interesting ways to fix it than replacing it with a dull global resource and some weak buttons that aren't worth pressing.

[Resileaf]

I imagine we'll see a proper slave mechanic rehaul when the Chaos Dwarfs are added to the game since they're pretty big on the slavery front as well.

[Zombimode]

My favorite part of Immortal Empires is definitely the endgame crisises. So many possibilities, so many different scenarios and possible combinations.

For me the Endgame Crisises is probably the one feature I will ignore completely. My problem with it is that they are an external thing. They do not emerge out the gamestate and the gameworld.
That would be less of an issue if there IS a part of the universe that is external to the world represented in game.

But that is not the case for Immortal Empires. Or rather the parts of the world that are external (Ind, Nippon, Kuresh) are not the originators of any of the crisises.


But this is very much a matter of personal preferences. I'm happy that the feature exists because I think there are many players that appreciate it

[Taevyr]

Question for the other WotR people : is there any way in Crusade mode to see how long I have till a morale flag flips, for capturing forts or crushing armies? I'm trying to milk Chapter 3 as long as I can for big armies.

You shouldn't bother: after chapter 3, you're temporarily unavailable for command, and when you get command again the troops you had are just gone and you start with a set amount (far smaller, if you're anything like me) determined by mythic and earlier choices. I'd explain more, but this is already the least-spoilery way I could do so.

Is it terrible game design? Yes, but that doesn't change it, unfortunately. You can grind your generals and council stats, but that's it.

As for the flags: I actually have no idea if you can see it.

[The Glyphstone]

You shouldn't bother: after chapter 3, you're temporarily unavailable for command, and when you get command again the troops you had are just gone and you start with a set amount (far smaller, if you're anything like me) determined by mythic and earlier choices. I'd explain more, but this is already the least-spoilery way I could do so.

Is it terrible game design? Yes, but that doesn't change it, unfortunately. You can grind your generals and council stats, but that's it.

As for the flags: I actually have no idea if you can see it.

What about territory/forts? Is grinding up fort strength and income worth delaying for?

[Thomas Cardew]

For me the Endgame Crisises is probably the one feature I will ignore completely. My problem with it is that they are an external thing. They do not emerge out the gamestate and the gameworld.
That would be less of an issue if there IS a part of the universe that is external to the world represented in game.

But that is not the case for Immortal Empires. Or rather the parts of the world that are external (Ind, Nippon, Kuresh) are not the originators of any of the crisises.


But this is very much a matter of personal preferences. I'm happy that the feature exists because I think there are many players that appreciate it

I'm giving them a shot. My first campaign is Eltharion with the Greenskin crisis selected. Progressing very slowly atm due to limited playtime but I think it will be incredibly themeatic when the inevitable green tide spills forth and the Grim Warden leads his armies to crush it in the badlands. Not foot on Ulthuan.

I am far less interested in the other ones other than maybe the Wild Hunt, they feel very old world focused. So much like wh3 in general: I'll be happier when the system is fleshed out better. And when all the old races are properly ported over and updated. This was a great first step but there's still a bunch of bugs to fix and some stuff that got left out.

[Taevyr]

What about territory/forts? Is grinding up fort strength and income worth delaying for?

Yeah, those are definitely worth delaying for, both for income and logistics exp: each building adds some of the latter. I'd recommend maxing out the councils, getting 2 generals at a decent level, and filling each fort, if you want an optimal jump-off point.

[Anteros]

What about territory/forts? Is grinding up fort strength and income worth delaying for?

My question is if you enjoy the campaign minigame at all? If not the combat relief mod I mentioned earlier lets you skip it (toggleable). I like the Heroes of Might and Magic games, but I already own them. I didn't enjoy playing a shoddy knock of version in my wrath games. I know you can turn the campaign mode off from the menu as well, but you miss out on a fair bit of non campaign content by doing that. Then again, I suppose you wouldn't be asking these questions if you didn't enjoy it. I'm just throwing the option out there.


Personally, as much as I love turn based tactics, I've been swamped with them lately. I'm really craving a good RTS. If anyone could recommend a good one I'd appreciate it. I know WHIII just hit, but I didn't enjoy II so I probably won't be picking it up until it's on a huge sale. Even something tower defensey like Taur or They Are Billions would be fine, as long as it's RTS. I've tried a few recently like Age of Darkness or Starship troopers but didn't really enjoy them. The new Age of Empires was ok, but didn't hold my interest for long. Maybe I'm just too picky.

[Cygnia]

Solved Egyptian Arcade in Talos Principle. Looks like they nerfed/patched away the ability to parkour your way through Higher Ground though.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, those are definitely worth delaying for, both for income and logistics exp: each building adds some of the latter. I'd recommend maxing out the councils, getting 2 generals at a decent level, and filling each fort, if you want an optimal jump-off point.

If my logistics is maxed out at 5 ( the max pre-act 4, iirc), does building more 'waste' the xp it would generate?

[Triaxx]

I've cycled back to old favorites, Fallout 4 and Supreme Commander Forged Alliance Forever. Because not much new excites me right now.

[Zevox]

Been playing a lot of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax since its rollback update, and damn, do I love actually getting to play this game with good online. Amazing that it actually happened a full decade after the original release. Can really tell I'm improving, too, as my situational awareness has gotten better in a lot of ways. Most fun of which being that I've started doing crouch confirm combos, something I've never done before in a fighting game. Granted, because it's been like, five years since I last played a fighting game where they much of a thing, but still, always feels good when you're suddenly able to do something you've never been able to pull off in a real match before.

On a related note, I've been trying out a new, fighting-game-adjacent game, Rumbelverse. It's a... Battle Royale game, I guess? Never played one of those before, but it's what the term brings to mind. 40 players get shot out of cannons (yes, literally) into a city, where they collect power ups and special moves, and fight until only one remains standing. The game's "ring" shrinks throughout to force people closer together as the fight goes on and eliminations happen, eventually becoming extremely small, and anyone who is out of the ring for ten seconds loses by ring-out. Core gameplay is kind like a simplified fighting game gameplay - you have your basic rock-paper-scissors of strike-throw-block, but with extra mechanics layered on. There's a dodge action that avoids any attacks, but has a length recovery period, so just waiting, or doing the game's basic attack which has little recovery, will let you punish that. Then there's also a priority system for when two people attack at the same time, where attacks with weapons you've picked up beat normal attacks, special moves beat weapon attacks and normal attacks, and super moves (which you can do while in a super mode that you build meter to enter) beat everything. Super moves work like slow throws though, so dodging them can render them punishable. Same-priority moves cancel each other out. There's some amount of nuance to individual moves, too, although not that much.

All in all, it's a fun little game. My main criticism is that the controls feel kind of awkward at times. The big culprits of this are the item interact/climb button, which just work in odd ways, and dodging. You'd think you would automatically climb a wall you jump towards, but no, have to remember to hit that climb button, or you're falling like a rock. With items, you'd think hitting the item interact button a second time after picking them up would use them, but no, it drops them instead. You hit the attack button while holding an item to use it. And the dodge action being a two-button combination (dash + block, the two shoulder buttons on a controller) is weird to get used to. I looked at remapping some buttons to have a single dodge button, but honestly, the game needs every button as-is, and I can't remap anything else to a two-button combination, so I just couldn't think of a way to do it.

What also makes this game a preferable free-to-play game to me compared to Multiversus a few weeks back is that there is absolutely nothing gameplay-affecting locked away in this game. Every character starts the same, and builds up based on items you find scattered throughout the city. You cannot unlock different characters, nor any ways to get even slightly stronger, through grinding or spending money; you can only do that during a match. For what it does sell the game does, unfortunately, do the f2p currency that you have to buy in certain amounts thing, and the prices do seem higher than I'd like (though less so than some of the things in Multiversus), but everything it asks you to spend money for is strictly cosmetic. And the baseline cosmetic options aren't terrible, either. You get full access to every body type, skin color, a fair amount of hair options, and a few options for your clothing. The extra cosmetics are mostly more varied outfits, and minor things that customize your player card. So I'm much, much less bothered by playing this than I am playing a game like Multiversus.

[Cespenar]

Personally, as much as I love turn based tactics, I've been swamped with them lately. I'm really craving a good RTS. If anyone could recommend a good one I'd appreciate it. I know WHIII just hit, but I didn't enjoy II so I probably won't be picking it up until it's on a huge sale. Even something tower defensey like Taur or They Are Billions would be fine, as long as it's RTS. I've tried a few recently like Age of Darkness or Starship troopers but didn't really enjoy them. The new Age of Empires was ok, but didn't hold my interest for long. Maybe I'm just too picky.

No WH, no Starship, no AoE4? That's hard. Dune: Spice Wars is the only other one I can remember in recent times, and it's sort of a hybrid.

[warty goblin]

Beat the first real miniboss in Thymesia. This was an enjoyable fight, which is something I rarely say about bosses. It took a few tries, but right from the getgo it felt pretty clearly doable, I just needed to learn what mistakes not to make. And switch my skill load out to something a bit more mobile. It helps that the game, in a move that can only be described as good game design, put a rest point right outside the boss room. No five minute hike through dumb weak enemies, just respawn and go.

The other thing that Thymesia does, which took a minute for me to notice, is ditch the gooddamn stamina meter. Thank you game developers, I hate the stamina meter. I really cannot express how little I want to interrupt what is supposed to be a thrilling fantasy sword fight to stare at a tiny little Nope bar in some obscure corner of the screen.

Personally, as much as I love turn based tactics, I've been swamped with them lately. I'm really craving a good RTS. If anyone could recommend a good one I'd appreciate it. I know WHIII just hit, but I didn't enjoy II so I probably won't be picking it up until it's on a huge sale. Even something tower defensey like Taur or They Are Billions would be fine, as long as it's RTS. I've tried a few recently like Age of Darkness or Starship troopers but didn't really enjoy them. The new Age of Empires was ok, but didn't hold my interest for long. Maybe I'm just too picky.

Iron Harvest is a couple years old, but still counts as fairly new and is solid. It's basically Company of Heroes but with steam mechs.

On that note, CoH 3 is coming put fairly soon. I'm moderately stoked by this.


What I really miss are singleplayer focused big derpy RTSs. Being built for competitive/esports as these finely balanced players judgement engines means no fun dumb stuff. Like having your cave trolls eat orcs in Battle for Middle Earth II, possibly the most fun RTS ever made. Totally imba, full to the brim of dumb cool fantasy buttons to push, and just a joy to play.

[Thomas Cardew]

Personally, as much as I love turn based tactics, I've been swamped with them lately. I'm really craving a good RTS. If anyone could recommend a good one I'd appreciate it. I know WHIII just hit, but I didn't enjoy II so I probably won't be picking it up until it's on a huge sale. Even something tower defensey like Taur or They Are Billions would be fine, as long as it's RTS. I've tried a few recently like Age of Darkness or Starship troopers but didn't really enjoy them. The new Age of Empires was ok, but didn't hold my interest for long. Maybe I'm just too picky.

The Loria campaign is decent way to kill a weekend if you're ok with single player. It's basically a Warcraft 2.5 copy. Very visually and unit similar to WC2, but it brings in some of the spellcaster and hero innovations from WC3. It's available free from GOG and I think Steam. It's not a long term solution by any means, but it might scratch the itch for a minute. If nothing else, it gave a great nostalgia high for a few hours before getting shelved. Plus you know... Free.

[LibraryOgre]

Anyone have suggestions for a Civ-like game? I play and like GalCiv, but sometimes I want to climb a mundane tech tree and build an empire. Civ, however, often strikes me wrong... the insistence on using the BC/AD calendar, and the juxtaposition of historical rulers ("In 500 BC, Catherine of Aragon conquered Ghandi in the name of Islam" breaks my brain) just rubs me the wrong way.

[GloatingSwine]

Anyone have suggestions for a Civ-like game? I play and like GalCiv, but sometimes I want to climb a mundane tech tree and build an empire. Civ, however, often strikes me wrong... the insistence on using the BC/AD calendar, and the juxtaposition of historical rulers ("In 500 BC, Catherine of Aragon conquered Ghandi in the name of Islam" breaks my brain) just rubs me the wrong way.

Gladius is apparently a reasonable budget Civ-in-Warhammer-40k clothing.

Humankind was going to be the next big Civ but wasn't for reasons I am not quite sure of (it's apparently a really good game that just didn't take off).

Age of Wonders Planetfall is Civ-ish in terms of city building but has more fighty stuff.

[warty goblin]

Anyone have suggestions for a Civ-like game? I play and like GalCiv, but sometimes I want to climb a mundane tech tree and build an empire. Civ, however, often strikes me wrong... the insistence on using the BC/AD calendar, and the juxtaposition of historical rulers ("In 500 BC, Catherine of Aragon conquered Ghandi in the name of Islam" breaks my brain) just rubs me the wrong way.

I've poked around a bit with Old World, which is good. Complex, very well thought out, and fairly hardcore, but overall excellent. It has a reasonably deep succession system, so you always play as a specific and mortal ruler who has relationships with other specific rules. The time period and location are restricted to a couple centuries in classical antiquity as well, so it just feels a lot conceptually tighter.

I particularly like that it actually has a rural economy, which very much matters and is distinct from the urban economy. They work differently, they produce different goods, and you absolutely need them both.

[Cespenar]

Yep, gonna second them all, with Old World and Humankind the underdoggiests among them. Old World is chocolate Civ with a reduced CK2 sauce, while Humankind is strawberry Civ but with some crazy comboable bonuses and whatnot (sprinkles?).