Humanoid

Yes, like Theme Hospital before it, the patient cycle goes like this: Receptionist > GP > Diagnosis Room (random) > GP > Other Diagnosis Room (random) > GP > (repeat until 100% diagnosed or you run out of different diagnosis rooms) > GP > Treatment To minimise GP queues, you therefore want each Diagnosis room to be as effective as possible - i.e. the ones that increase the diagnosis percentage by the most each use. Well actually, the ideal case is that your GPs are all highly trained and can diagnose a patient instantly, but that only works for the easiest diseases unless you're abusing the medicine cabinets. Take the following scenarios: 1) GP > Treatment. Obviously ideal but for this to work in all cases you essentially have to exploit the game. Medicine cabinets give a flat stacking 1% diagnosis power in a GP's office. Make a large GPs office with 100 cabinets in it and skip having to build any diagnosis rooms. 2) GP > Powerful diagnosis > GP > Treatment. This is generally what you want to aim for. If the GP sends the patient to somewhere like the X-Ray first, there's a good chance they won't need any further diagnosis, so this is the most efficient, non-gamey method. However the diagnosis room the GP sends the patient to appears to be random, so they might get sent to a weak diagnosis room like a Psychiatrist (awful) or the Ward (weak but reasonably efficient due to the parallelism). Nothing you can do about the RNG unfortunately, which leads to.... 3) GP > Weak diagnosis > GP > More diagnosis > GP > etc. This is an awful situation to be in because it blows out the queues for the GPs, which many people try to solve by simply spamming more GPs offices and before too long you end up with a completely unmanageable mess. Due to the RNG system mentioned, you absolutely do not want to build Cardio or General Diagnosis rooms once you have access to the better ones. They'll just spiral your hospital out of control. Unfortunately it's harder to avoid building the dual-purpose rooms unless you want to reject all patients that require treatment in them. The Ward and Psychiatry are both required for so many diseases that it's impractical to not build them, so you just have to accept their diagnostic inefficiency. I find having a couple of Fluid Analysis and X-Ray machines to be a good enough approach. Fluid Analysis is great because it's staffed by nurses which are less in-demand than doctors, and X-Ray is easier than the Mega-scanner because you don't need any specials skills to operate it. I would advise steering clear of the DNA Lab though, and just send home anyone who needs one for treatment. It's not required anywhere near as often as the other two, requires a special skill on the doctor operating it, and the doctor is inherently going to be compromised by there not being any levels to the Genetics skill. Nurses can get Ward Management level 5 which increases both diagnosis and treatment effectiveness of the Ward by 100%. Likewise, Doctors can get Psychiatry level 5 which does the same for the Psychiatry. Training a doctor for the DNA Lab means giving them the Genetics skill which doesn't do anything other than allowing them to work there, and then the best you can do is give them level 2 in both Diagnosis and Treatment skills, for a grand total of 20% added effectiveness. This is a horrible deal. EDIT: You want the vast majority of your doctors trained fully in the GP skill still (up to +75% effectiveness). A few will take full Treatment skill instead, then 2-3 of them with Diagnosis level 4 plus Radiology, which gives +60% effectiveness to the X-Ray and +40% to the Mega-scanner. For nurses, I don't like the inflexibility of the Injection or Pharmacy skills, and prefer to go full Treatment instead for them. You'll need some full Diagnosis ones for the Fluid Analysis rooms, and full Ward Management for the Ward ones. It's not obvious, but you can assign multiple nurses to the same Ward using the menu that pops up when you click the door.

44 hours in total now. I do admit though, building GPs is getting really old. The copy rooms functionality went live today after being in beta for the past few days. It's great. However, spamming GPs is symptomatic of a deep problem in the entire diagnosis model used in the game, which, to put it simply, is kinda borked. All diagnosis rooms do the exact same thing, just to different levels of effectiveness. This means you never want to build basic diagnosis rooms once you've unlocked advanced ones, but when it comes to the rooms doing double duty as both diagnosis and treatment, you're kinda boned. You kind of just have to accept the unnecessary volume of traffic the idiot GPs send through to your wards and psychs (and don't build the DNA room at all unless required for an objective). The issue is of course exacerbated by the difficulty of getting - or more accurately, training - qualified staff. Not being able to unlearn skills is a huge problem because you're then stuck with having to train unqualified staff from the ground up. It's just a very annoying form of mix-maxing all up. For what it's worth, I just tackled the third last hospital last night, Rotting Hill. It actually ended up being one of the easier hospitals once you cynically game the mechanics. 8 GPs, 2 Fluid Analysis and 2 X-Rays were my only dedicated diagnosis rooms, alongside 2 Wards and 3 Psychs. No Cardio rooms, no General Diagnosis, no DNA room and no Mega-scan. On the one hand, it was somewhat satisfying to run a smooth hospital with almost no queue alerts. On the other, it's disappointing to see how the entire game's diagnosis model can just be gamed like that, by not even building over half the room types. One thing I think would help in the interim is a toggle for every dual-purpose room to either allow it to be used for diagnosis-only, treatment-only, or both.

Inquire is essentially the only one that really has benefits good enough to warrant extensive use. Many side quests just require knowledge gathered from some other place and knowledge can improve your path skills and unlock new items at shops, give discounts, etc. Figures the most important one is the one which heavily incentivises save-scumming. :| (I have Tressa, Cyrus and Olberic) Still, it's good to know it doesn't get *that* much worse, but it's already dragging unfortunately. And if abilities are paired like that, sound like I'd be punished if I chose not to take either Cyrus or Alf. Probably not a real concern for now, but it does limit future options.

Kinda ran out of steam in Octopath after collecting a party of three. There's just too much busywork in the game, which while it may appeal to completionists and traditionalists, just bores me. I really dislike how I'm incentivised to scrutinise, provoke or attempt to barter with every single NPC in every single town, and that's just with 3/8ths of the available characters, who knows what actions the others will add to the chores? Sure, I could ignore that "content" but then I'll end up poorer and weaker, have worse gear, and end up having to grind to make up for it. Meh.

I remember one of my earliest posts on the Black Isle forums was whether it was worth buying Battlefield 1942 for single player. The answers were mixed, I did end up buying it in the end. Wasn't a complete waste of money, but probably didn't get proper value out of it either. Haven't bought a Battlefield game since.

It's cheaper on GOG right now actually. https://isthereanydeal.com/game/battletech/info/

Had $15 Razer credit that was expiring with nothing obvious to use it on, so on impulse I put it towards buying Dragon Quest 11. I know absolutely nothing about the game or the series before it, I just did it to make Keyrock jealous. (In all seriousness, it was between this or Ni No Kuni 2, so I did a little bit of actual research on both before deciding)

Weekend salvaged by South Korea winning gold at the Asian Games - a tournament no one really cares about but which gives Son Heung Min an exemption from military duty. Really happy for him, spending two years of his prime doing menial army tasks would have been a tragic waste of talent.

Doesn't feel like it, but it's been almost two years since I completed XCOM Long War for the one and only time. Since then a guy called Ucross has been developing a "rebalance" of it, which is misnamed, it's got some significant gameplay changes. Just recently there was a freeze on new additions, so it seems a good time to dive back in. The most significant changes probably are an overhaul to the air combat system, which has always been notoriously terrible, and to activation mechanics. You can now send a squadron of interceptors after a single UFO to fight as a group, rather than send them out one at a time. And when you activate aliens, all aliens that see the aliens you just activated will also activate. That one might sound terrible, but you're also generally stronger and better equipped to handle it. That, plus pod density has been reduced somewhat so you don't activate the entire map on the first turn of a terror mission. That said, I haven't really noticed it playing too differently to how I remember, though admittedly I'm only four missions in. I like the small touch of you starting with SHIVs, including one deployed in the opening mission, which gives you a reliable tank making the early game far less prone to RNG. It also tends to reward aggression a bit more, which is a stated design goal. P.S. Amusingly, after all the initial complaints about the "free" scamper move aliens get when you first encounter them, that mechanic is now symmetrical, and anytime you activate aliens when your moves have been exhausted, you get a free move action.

It's annoying because it's pretty much a solved problem - DXHR had a wheel but when you highlighted any of the options, the full text would be shown verbatim below the wheel. If a player wanted to ignore it, they'd be generally fine, but it was there for those who cared. With that in mind, I would lean towards what Rosbjerg said above, it's not because of actual UI design concerns, but a developmental shortcut. It's a skeleton implemented without prior knowledge of the actual lines, which might not even exist in their final form at that point in development.

My order status on the backer portal still says "Shipping Soon" so imagine my surprise to find my CE at my doorstep when I got home just now. Fortunately everything seems to be present and intact, so no complaints here.

The club sent a cease and desist to ArsenalFanTV to force them to remove the word "Arsenal" from their channel name. So they're just AFTV now.

Good weekend of PL results for me, but it's a shame I missed the London derby (it was at 2:30am my time) because it sounds like it was a cracker. A cracking display of defensive ineptitude perhaps, but a cracker nonetheless. Brighton's win was the cherry on top. I feel Poch owes a bit to Gareth Southgate. He's always had a weird blind spot with regards to our set pieces, but Trippier's delivery at the World Cup means his claims to be first choice set piece taker can no longer be denied. We've scored a total of zero goals from direct free kicks since 2015, and he gets one at the first attempt. Just as well because Eriksen's general play was as poor as I've seen him, ever. Arguably though it was the introduction of Dembele that completely turned the match, one we'd completely lost control of in the first stages of the second half as the weird 3-3-3-1 formation got swamped in the midfield. Also great to see Lamela back and looking dangerous, plus Toby's rehabilitation into the first team. Looks like United could have really used him last night...

My current video card is coming up on 4 years old now, and it's a model from pretty much 5 years ago (290X). I think that's the longest run with any one video card since the EGA card that was in the old 286 which we owned until 1994.

Hopefully there's a free trial of BfA eventually. Don't have the time to justify the subscription fee lately, let alone the cost of the expansion. It also sounds like my old guild won't have the numbers to form a viable raid, 2007-2018, end of an era.

Never played Twilight 2000 but I vaguely remember a discussion about it, either on these forums or one of its predecessors, specifically about how good its character creation process was. It was probably started by HellKittyDan.

I mean when your predecessors are such luminaries as Squillaci, Djourou, Cygan and Stepanovs, it doesn't really seem so bad. I'm sure I'm missing another couple of names in that list. Mind you, we led the line with Ginger Pele Gary Doherty, and also featured the likes of Vlad Chiriches and Ryan Nelsen.

I remember an old interview during the time of XCOM 1 where they explained the inverted difficulty curve was somewhat intended, because the retry cost for failing a campaign late in the game was crippling, whereas if you failed early it was no big deal to start afresh. With the ability to save scum (unless you play ironman), I don't know why that would matter? I pretty much create a new save after every mission, so if one wipes me out, I won't have to start again just to get back to that point. Ironman is the one true path! This would be true if not for game breaking bugs. If you play mods that's kinda common. It's a scary thought for long games I suppose. I did make bi-monthly backups of my Long War save, but fortunately never needed them even across ~350 hours of gameplay. I admit I did alt-F4 a few times, but it was for genuine bugs only. It didn't exist when I first played, but Bronzeman mode is a fantastic addition - like Ironman but you can restart the mission completely if the need arises. An Ironman game of CK2 will inevitably fall victim to a a good number of bugs as well, but I don't think I could play any other way there either. That said, the advantage of games like that is that bugs are unlikely to screw you over completely, just set you back a little. I could never play something like New Vegas in Ironman mode where a screwup is instant game over.

After I had a whinge in the World Cup thread about our non-scoring center-halves, it figures that we open the season with Jan Vertonghen's first goal in five years - especially with him being robbed of a couple in the interim by dodgy refereeing. Luckily for him, technology decided the goal this time and not the referee. (He was also lucky to not score an own-goal at the end, so it was most definitely his day) That said, Spurs were poor, especially in the second half, the match was so open that it's extraordinary that it only ended with three goals. Newcastle deserved a draw frankly so it's a great relief to come away with the win. Definitely undercooked this season after the exertions of the World Cup. EDIT: Also Poch looking super dapper with his weight loss and new haircut. Plus we got to play in our only non-awful kit this year. Goddammit Nike why are you so awful at basic design?

Finished third in the bafflingly stupid Belgian league system after falling away late and being more or less completely broke (not my fault guv). Apparently that's good enough for CSKA Moscow to offer me a job. Do I take it?

Honestly, and I say this as an Arsenal fan, I think Spurs have done remarkably well to keep everybody they already have, without even public sagas and the like. I don't think Tottenham's wage bill or prestige level at the moment can afford, say, someone better than Eriksen, or someone as good as Kane to replace him. We had a problem when we signed no outfield players in 2015, but that's because we had spent the last couple years with a dysfunctional squad with tactical and injury problems (and, uh, have continued to since then). I do think Tottenham are in a precarious place, where this might be their last chance to actually win something or risk having the bubble burst, but I wonder what world-class player they could have brought in that fit their budget & pulling power. It's a very hard market out there. If they had sold Kane for 100m+ or something, they could have tried to leverage that and improve the team. But like with the Bale money purchases, such 'trolley dashes' are high risk as well. Hey, you still finished second that season, although I don't care to re-live how that happened. But yeah, If we're still intact in three weeks time then it's not a bad result, sure. But there's still murmurs of discontent so who knows? Can't suddenly think Alderweireld and Rose are magically content now that the window is semi-closed. Vertonghen's contract expires this year and Eriksen's in the next which means we need to sort both of them out this year as well. Biggest hole in the squad is still in the centre of midfield, consisting of Dier, and aging and injury-prone Dembele, a raw and currently-injured Winks, and, um, Sissoko. If Lamela is truly over his injury concerns and resumes his final-day form then maybe we'll see Eriksen in CM at times I suppose. Beyond those we just have, erm, Josh Onomah who struggled in the Championship on loan to Villa last year. At least Son winning gold at the Asian Games this month would be like a new signing.

So, uh, I wake up to find the transfer window closed and find that not only Spurs are the only team in the Premier League to not sign a player, but that they're the only team since the inception of the transfer window some fifteen years ago to not sign any players. It's not as bad as it might be yet, because currently we haven't sold anyone either, but other leagues still have their windows open for up to another three weeks. So the rest of this month is kind of a ****ty situation where you can't win, but very much can lose. Hopefully the same thing happens as what's been happening the last couple months, which is nothing.

I'm happy with my recently-acquired PS4 Pro but by god, the physical design of the console is spectacularly crap, and changing the plastic of which it's made won't change that. Unwieldy shape, completely invisible disc slot, barely visible, flimsy and tiny power and eject buttons, hidden USB ports... I don't know what they were thinking when they designed this thing.

I remember an old interview during the time of XCOM 1 where they explained the inverted difficulty curve was somewhat intended, because the retry cost for failing a campaign late in the game was crippling, whereas if you failed early it was no big deal to start afresh. With the ability to save scum (unless you play ironman), I don't know why that would matter? I pretty much create a new save after every mission, so if one wipes me out, I won't have to start again just to get back to that point. Ironman is the one true path!

I remember an old interview during the time of XCOM 1 where they explained the inverted difficulty curve was somewhat intended, because the retry cost for failing a campaign late in the game was crippling, whereas if you failed early it was no big deal to start afresh.