Tigranes

Fair enough, I just think it's not as massive an issue for an indie game like parpg as you are making it out to be. I'm not saying it's a non-issue, I agree with your logic, but I also think the type of people who won't try a game just because it's in scandinavia won't try indie games anyway. Sort of like how the sort of people who're offended by VD's interviews probably won't buy Age of Decadence anyway. I also think it would be a real pity if even indie projects didn't try to do something like this - bloody sick of "NEW YORK ON FIRE / IN RUINS" x 100. What I think could be done is make the setting interesting and clearly defined in a way that can spark people's imaginations. If you do that with the unique details and fictional history of the setting itself and the art direction, it's not so important whether it's in New York or in Scandinavia, because your own setting has an identity of its own.

The use of steam is fundamentally retarded. There's no question about it. Seriously, look at it from an abstract point of view. You are introducing a middleman into the process when a middleman is not required: a middleman which MAY have some advantages to certain degrees on a case by case basis, but will always run a risk of stuff screwing up at every opportunity. In other words, you are making a step which is guaranteed to increase the risk of failure and frustration in every step involved. What's the payoff? In this case, secondary things that are nowhere as important as GETTING YOUR GAME GOING ON TIME. I love the game but I feel bad about spending money to support such an idiotic decision, it's like I'm contributing to the global stupidity pool. .... Well, time to declare war on Mysore.

I would suggest that having the plot and NPCs make sense in such a harsh setting is even more important (and more exciting), for instance with towns which are loathe to even let you in because of a lack of resources. But I'm sure this is being thought about. The setting choice hardly seems as important as Harlequin is making it out to be IMO. Shogun: Total War did great... and it's an indie game to begin with.

Certain factions, such as Sweden, were not getting income due to a bug; it was reportedly fixed in today's patch. That might be it. I'm not really interested in RtI because the impression I have is that (a) it's still a tutorial in that functions gradually open up to you, and I hate having to play with limited functionality; (b) it's got a lot of 'cinematic storytelling' stuff that I'm really not interested in (unless CA somehow made it pretty funny?). Might give it a try later on, but I like my British campaign and I'll probably try France and the Dutch next.

I got myself a pretty cheap PS2 last week. It cost me less than ETW. But yeah, I really doubt that can be fixed easily now, ramza. It's just too old.

It took me 50 years to figure out for some reason. . Sail them to those gilded gold boxes on the edges of the map; you will get an option to which theatre to sail. Don't pick Europe, America or India, but pick one of those small circles in S.America, W. Africa, E.Africa or Indonesia. You will reach a tiny map with several 'gold anchors' - you park a trade ship in one. Unfortunately, if you get there late, it's all pretty occupied and I think you can't kick them out unless you trigger war and take your warships there or something.

Because business = pay, right? Games are not art so nothing else factors in right? We need a "SIX GALAXIES AWAY FROM REALITY" macro.

~1760 now on my Britain H/H. Preparing my armies in the New World to conquer the Iroquois, who drove back the French and got decently big (3-4 provs). Also had a war against Denmark and destroyed it. It meant I also had to fight Poland-Lithuania though, the most powerful and large empire encompassing its original provinces and most of Austria. Basically got myself 4 full stacks that would move together razing their provinces and auto-resolving anything in its path - since dealing with 4 armies coming in through trickling reinforcements is quite bothersome. Eventually got them to give me West Prussia and Lithuania, which I granted to Prussia, my protectorate - got a good buffer state going. Still working out how I can get in a war with France without setting off the Spanish, who are massive as well. I'd be very disappointed if they wanted to chug more things on without fixing and polishing what's there. The Mughal Empire is basically finished but not enabled (and is very cool), and surely it will be Napoleon? They probably will add a little bit of landmass though.

Games which rely on selecting multiple units or using drag boxes (i.e. RTS); games which have a large amount of text (due to TV resolutions); games which benefit from interfaces where you can quickly cycle through a wide variety of options (e.g. use your mouse cursor rather than hold DOWN a lot - see KOTOR inventory piece of crap); games which have a lot of options and thus benefit from having a lot of hotkeys, etc. While it's not a general rule, the keyboard/mouse will always have the advantage of offering more functionality. Denying that (not saying you are, HK) would be like denying the fact that China is bigger than Jamaica.

Indians use their numbers to good effect, yeah. The Cherokee have those two provinces where the cities are right next to each other; they had full stack on both for me. I eventually destroyed them, but needed three full stacks going around seizing opportunities when they wander out. (Also got me Florida because the Cherokee took it off the Spanish ) I still haven't had a single proper siege battle, or a big naval engagement, and it's 1750! It just happened that way, but I don't mind. I like open battles with European forces the best. I had a nice one against Westphalia using Fire and Advance, and flanking with grenadiers to great effect.

Don't worry, you'll have a few hours to chew over it while Steam journeys to Mount Doom and back to give you your patch. I found a weird and disappointing trick where the Pueblo Nations, Plains Nations, Inuits and the Italian States all agreed to become my protectorate and ally in exchange for.... indefinite military access. Like they'd ever get to use it. I suppose they wouldn't mind the protection. I also have Prussia as a protectorate after a succession war following the death of William III (...at age 80+). I couldn't hope to take their capital with about five stacks there, but I coudl easily take Brandenburg and force a peace. Poland-Lithuania is massive now, though, having taken most of the Austrian territory. France has just got into a war with them so I'm hoping that will give me the opening to attack them, but AI wars don't seem to result in anything half the time.

Guess who owns the Claws of Walsingham now. (They won't come off)

It would be an absolutely idiotic move, as well.

ETW uses different system for its files and whatnot, and everything is all packed up, so I think it'll take them a bit longer. Got to 1730 in my British campaign, without doing *any* active trading. Just lots of trade agreements. Finally figured out how to do the Golden Anchor, so that should really boost the income. Also remembered that gentlemen can do duels, so we'll see if I can get ahead of the pack on techs now. My only acquisition in Europe remains Amsterdam, after a pretty good, evenly matched battle. I had 2 artillery, 2 hussars, general, 2 grenadiers and 10 line infantry; the Dutch had teh general, one fixed artillery, 2 pikemen and 15 line infantry. I set up most of my line infantry in the centre with trenches, with the flanks curving away, and a unit of grenadiers on each end to create half a cul-de-sac, which opened up to a unit of cannons. Each unit of hussars waited behind cannons, and a spare unit of line infantry occupied a farmhouse near the edge of the right flank. This really meant the Dutch only had two options; try and surround me on both flanks with superior numbers and squeeze the pincer, or just go for one flank in an almost diagonal angle. They opted for the former. As I expected, the AI took the bait of the 'exposed' cannons and sent several units of infantry to either flanks, getting shelled with canister (I think? the close-range 'shotgun' ones) shots in the process. As an added bonus, my deployment area meant their fixed unit of artillery was useless. Anyway, as the Dutch approached, the grenadiers got them with grenades to great effect, then the hussars charged in from the flanks when they wheeled to face the grenadiers. The numerical superiority meant that even with this the Dutch were faring pretty well. On the right flank the extra unit in the farmhouse contributed to a fairly routine victory, but the left saw the hussars rout and the grenadiers, cannon workers and line infantry engaged in some fierce melee combat. Thankfully, the diversion of the flanks meant that the Dutch did not have numerical advantage in the centre, and my long line of trenches gave me the defensive cover needed to slowly wear them down. Eventually realising the battle was not going in their favour, the Dutch as a whole charged over the trenches and began to club me with their rifles. The very centre was especially at risk, with the general unit charging in (my own was reinforcing the left after the hussars routed). A couple of my line infantry regiments routed. Thankfully, the flanks had finally finished routing the Dutch, and they wheeled round to shoot at the Dutch in the rear. The grenadiers were again decisive. I was also lucky in that my General Unit, who I then sent into the centre to try and hold that line, routed - but the general himself survived. I think I lost about half of my ~1k army, while ~80% of the Dutch ~1.5k army died. I then rounded up my other units occupying Dutch towns and farmlands, and took Amsterdam. I just finished taking previously Dutch colonies in America as well, although the massive Huron armies are stil giving me trouble in Canada. Spain is rich and big and scary, so I can't easily declare war on France either (who just took Savoy). I am considering joining Sweden in their war against Denmark, and carving something up along that front.

Kaftan: I try, but even that seems too hard for me with the chuggy slow movement. My British H/H campaign continues... after losing two half-stack fleets I finally achieved superiority with some Ships of the Line and a whole lot of brigs, and just blockaded the French ports. With free reign over the sea I was able to land small forces all over France and capture towns and resource centres, while keeping a half-stack near Paris to deal with any expeditions out of there. With the Hurons trying to pillage in Canada and Prussia still nominally at war with me, though, that was about as far as I could go without bankrupting myself (good to see economy is harder now). So after a year or so of that I offered peace and demanded a low-level tech, which the French accepted - good sign, reasonable offer is okay'd. I had lots of troops left over so I just carted them over to Prussia, probably to do similar and get peace. I hate being at war without actually being at war. The AI seems pretty passive though. Spain's taken Portugal but I haven't seen any full scale wars break out (it's 1717). The diplomacy also seems to be broken on tech trading, it won't give anything. That i can live with though, since the AI actually seems pretty decent so far.

Woop, just crashed. 1715 or so. Stuck with Austria in a war against France but just like with Prussia nobody else except me is doing anything and France is coming after me like a whore. The Dutch are blocking some trade routes, but you'd think the original aggressor and the guys with the land border would do more than me. That's really retarded - we'll see if the AI keeps doing that. Having a hard time because I still don't know how to do naval battles. The ships REALLY chug along except for certain moments when I catch the wind and sprinkle some magic on the sails, they can't turn, the formation screws up completely if they run into a ship and never recover, and I can't tell how much damage each volley is doing. So I just circle round and round, and lose. Going around France occupying farms and towns since Paris comes up with that massive peasant-spawn. The Land AI is pretty decent so far - I keep trying to get them into cul-de-sacs but they would crash into the *side* of that cul-de-sac. The one Indian battle I had was idiotic though, with their units all miles apart from each other doing nothing.

Okay, left the patching on while at work and finally got to play a bit now. I started Britain at H/H, because I heard they get a lot of fun units and I generally don't like VH in TW games, because in campaign they just spam you with full stack after full stack making it very weary and the battles get silly too. Diplomacy looks a lot more sensible so far, though I haven't really tested it. Trade agreements, military access and the like. I gave Spain some gifts and set up trade to deter France from trying a 2v1 on me. Prussia attacked Austria, my ally, so I thought I'd be honourable and send a small expeditionary party through Hannover and aid the cause, and thus see some battles. A general, cannon, and four line infantry. Well turns out the Austrians weren't really interested in actually fighting (either that, or they were fighting the Prussians on their own soil - couldn't really see), and I had to fend off a Prussian force of equal size and makeup. Good test for the AI. I got a farmlands-ish area with those low brick walls, so I laid my line infantry along them, and cannons on the right side where there's a gap. The AI decided to come straight at me for the most part; on the left flank their line infantry were soundly beaten as I had the advantage of cover. On the right though, their unit of pikemen rushed over the cover to strike at my riflemen; and when I retaliated in melee there was some pathing confusion due to the number of perpendicular walls, and they all ended up somewhat in the middle of no-man's land slashing at each other. That was bad, because the AI's surviving riflemen had taken up to one of those walls and began shooting at my stranded unit. I swung round my left flank to counter, and eventually won the battle, but lost about half of my army. Subsequently a larger Prussian force popped up and I had to retreat, but then a smaller force attacked me in the same turn and I was forced to fight. Weakened and surrounded I couldn't do much, and the expeditionary force perished. It's hard to judge the AI based on this, but it was nice to see they weren't being completely moronic, yet. It's only 1705, we'll see. On other things - loading times are pretty nice and faster than demo; I like what they've done on the campaign map side with ministers and research and provinces and everything, though I noticed they changed some campaign map hotkeys around for no reason. Edit: The manual is very thin and pretty useless, in the trend of manuals nowadays. The map is your standard brown paper map.

Got it. Special Forces cost the same as Normal at the moment, though they'v enearly run out of them. So I got it.

That's it. Going out to buy it now.

D&P is excellent. It is interesting because a Panoptic system relies on the illusion of its persistent presence in order to produce prisoners that will always act *as if* they are being watched - but in the world of Fallout, surely, a greater illusion prevails - that you are never watched, even if you are. I don't remember the Fort Knox location, but you'd think that by this point in time "robbing" such a place wouldn't even be treated as "robbing" - you aren't exactly a "robber" when you loot the Ayleid ruins in Oblivion or the Dwemer ruins in Morrowind.

There are conflicting reports, but it seems that for the demo the multi-threading was a little... unbalanced (i.e. 80% on the second core). I have a dual-core and the game ran alright, especially after I unpacked the files. Will have to wait and see how the full game fares. Rosbjerg that's raelly good to hear some people have proper sieges. I probably will go out and buy it tomorrow morning, really. Need that fix.

There will be noooo newww infooooooo...

It'll probably take a little longer for them to get it working properly. The thing is, ETW will need patching, a lot of patching, as is with this type of game (and esp. to get mods). Combing a number of forums trying to garner some info about the AI, which is really most important for me - it was what stopped me from enjoying RTW and MTW2 for longer than a week or two. It seems to be better than before in the open field, if prone to shooting its own units with cannons; but apparently it doesn't do ANYTHING if it is defending a fort, doesn't even put units up on the walls.

That was.... quick. I liked Monty.

Exactly, but to do so with the majority or a significant percentage of the Vaults? I think in FO lore the pre-war people considered the Vaults only one of several programs likely to survive the apocalypse, though.