marelooke

Combat is very "meh" imho, and since they revamped it and removed the "cheese tactics" (basically perma-stun on most non-boss enemies, combined with how hard bleeds hit) I consider it mostly a nuisance as it really pushes you to just be the cheerleader of your Thralls (which are *much* stronger than you, so letting them do the work make sense, it's just not very engaging. Though I think they were messing with remediating this. Somewhat, anyway). The exploration, world building and well, building aspects are great though. One thing of note is that due to how long things take it might be worth considering running your own server (if you have a PC somewhere that is on 24/7). If you combine that with some tuning of stuff for a more single-player experience (wish there was a way to decrease requirements of only "common" resources though, and leaving the "rare" alone, but I digress) it takes a lot of the slog out of it since you can just queue a bunch of work and let it process overnight. It has a few other advantages, or rather, it does away with some major disadvantages of single-player too, namely that everything despawns once you go too far from an area. This can, of course, be (ab)used to get the spawns you want, on the other hand it also means that if there's multiple desirable thralls in a location you can't really grab all of them since the rest will despawn while you drag the first to camp (even if you knock them all out). If you run a local server otoh, it really does work like a "real" server with all the perks as well (like stuff being actually persistent, at least until you restart the server) Of course, the major drawback is that the server software is a technical disaster and leaks memory like a sieve, so you kinda have to restart the thing at least once a week anyway. As for things I usually tune (off the top off my head): thrall breaking speed (think it's usually set at 0.25 of normal) resource requirements (0.5 or 0.25) how quickly the purge bar fills (if you want purges at all, if not, well, you can just turn them off. Worth noting the best Thralls can only be acquired from purges, and yes, they are better than normal "named" thralls) how often you need to drink (food isn't as much of a nuisance, the defaults for water otoh...) Of note, all the numbers in the server tuning window are multipliers, so 1.00 is 100%, so if you want to speed things up you don't make it 2.00, you make it 0.5 to double the speed.

Haven't really "played" Conan Exiles in a while, but I've been tinkering with my save-database-merge-tool. You know, for those of us that suffer from start-over-itis but want to merge all our big building projects into one save... I *think* I worked around the last hurdle I had for personal use, so gotta test that and then create something of a UI so you don't have to be a programmer to make use of it

As long as you can just launch the mission when it's done loading it's not too bad, that is, assuming the cinematic doesn't slow down the loading excessively... Which bring me to my question, how are the loading times? Mordheim's during early access were brutal and by now they're still not what I'd call "great"...

Finished NieR Automata, well, got the final set of endings (C, D and E), still have a bunch of achievements to go. Pleasantly surprised overall, once past the tutorial (dunno why they figured making the tutorial so hard/punishing was a good idea, the rest of the game is well easier) I didn't have too much trouble. Dodge (ab)use combined with decent chip setup (anti-chain damage and the auto heal thing) kinda goes a long way, and I finished all regular fights on normal difficulty. I did, however, switch to easy and equipped some auto-fire, auto-dodge chips to get past the obnoxious hacking sequences in the Soul Box, that stuff just wasn't enjoyable at all. Probably will finish up some more achievements, not sure if I'll do that before, or after, I get through the existential crisis... So yeah, I guess negatives: the tutorial, really, the no savepoint before that final boss was just kinda obnoxious. Then again, the no compromises on the creative vision is a good thing, so I guess I'll take this over making it palatable for everyone and their cat, or dog. So maybe not so much a negative after all? Soul Box hacking sequences. That stuff was just obnoxious, especially since there's really not much you can do to make it easier (eg. changing chip-setup) aside from dropping down the difficulty, thankfully that was an option, or that part would have been one hell of a rage inducing show stopper... too much of the story is "hidden" in content outside of the game (novels, live performance stuff, etc.) and only referenced in the game. To get the full picture one does need to dig around a bit (well, a lot, really). This includes some rather interesting stuff that happens after Ending E (the "real" ending) which I feel should just have been in the game, if only to give some additional closure to the player. some characters could have used more depth, I'm especially referring to And wouldn't have minded learning more about Jackass either. port isn't exactly great, and does need unofficial patch to get rid of some obnoxious technical issues (like the mouse cursor blinking in the middle of the screen all the time) The good: story (well, errr, duh?) character development, with less talking they made characters a hell of a lot more relatable than many other games that spend a lot more words, and time, on them. combat: while the game's combat kinda isn't really my thing, being someone who doesn't usually use a controller outside of race games. Even with my clumsy controller skills most of the game (see before for the exception) was playable without killing my fingers (despite rather, errr, long playing sessions), or leading to excessive frustration, on normal mode. Looking forward to the NieR Gestalt/Replicant remaster (hoping the PC version will be better, technically) and/or a follow-up to Automata.

Playing NieR Automata, made it through the second ending (Ending B) and now working through the third chapter. Been a while since anything has sucked me in like this, and that even despite that mechanically this game isn't exactly my shtick...

Got past the first ending boss in NieR Automata. Knowing what is coming rather helps one prepare. Who'd have thunk? Ending sure was worth sticking around for, start of next chapter was weird...

Playing NieR Automata, almost done with the first "chapter" but got trashed by, what I can only assume, is the last boss (of ending A, anyway). At least my hands aren't hurting yet, unlike with Remember Me, which I just gave up on as that game physically hurt my hands. I'd like to think I'm getting used to controllers more, but given that I avoid them except for racing games I can't really fathom when that would have happened...

Got started again on NieR Automata, still quite a ways to go before catching up to where I was before my savegame accident (which is just after "the signal"). Forgot how terrible I am with controllers and that the tutorial was this horribly long punishing thing where a death means a do-over. That wasn't fun. Got it second timer around by just spamming dodge, like a "pro" :D Oh, and that the PC port is an abandoned technical piece of crap. They're lucky the game is good. Anyway, back to exploring the desert. Need to grfind some levels since I ran into a boss double my level. Didn't quite like my odds with that one...

The Nier inspired raids in FF XIV have triggered a desire to finally finish Nier: Automata. Given how the game ate my savegame last time I think I'll look into how I can back that up automatically, kinda don't want to go through that again (and now, it wasn't the "expected" savegame delete) As for the raids, well, fighting robots alongside 2B, and a bunch of crazy dwarves. Could be worse as a set-up

Matoya, gotta love her Hmm, things look...off...? (but pretty) Ok, where the flip am I, and why am I here, serously. You there, give me some answers...! Mysteriously mysterious mystery guy Feo-Ui, the cute little branch to my adorable sapling Prettiest castle in the First (no real spoilers, just condensing post) Majestic (actual spoilers) Whatcha looking at? Who doesn't sleep full plate pyjamas?! Every ending marks a new beginning (major spoilers) Me-gasp!-ow!

Is that Tourette?

Would be nice if they'd get their hands on the EverQuest games (and roll back the last few EverQuest 2 expansions...). One needs to have dreams... *sigh* Have been playing some WH40K Inquisitor - Martyr. It's enjoyable enough, though I have my doubt of how it will hold up after I've finished the storyline.

I enjoy how the entire squad shows up in instance cut scenes, like here, at the start of one of the Crystal Tower alliance raids (24man raids) Alexander...one of the raids with a rather interesting backstory (the giant robot is the raid, as in, his inside) Everyone's favourite character (after Alphinaud ), in one of my favourite locations: the steppes. One of the few MMOs where the player character actually has downtime and socializes with the people around her, like here, on the steppes... Even time for some song and dance! Or just chillin' with the homies NPCs actually do useful stuff when you're not around... ...like saving your life, from a distance (and looking cool while doing it) Bucket list: duel on the hand of a giant statue? Check! Meet Tiamat ... (poor girl ) Was I the only one whose first thought was "Alistair Grout"?

I'll be interested to hear your opinion on the post-patches once you get through them Also, in case you haven't already, I'd suggest trying some of the newer raids and alliance raids, I enjoyed the entire Alma raid chain that starts in Kugane (the story of that raid, far less so) and they are really quite a bit harder than the early stuff (Crystal Tower, which I'd hope you've finished before starting Shadowbringers ). The Ghost Ship one from the Sea of Clouds has some interesting fights as well. The Eden's Verse raids are also pretty good once you get to the end of the final patch (not sure if you can even start that quest chain before you make it past the final patch). Gotta say though, Shadowbringers really cranked up the difficulty noticeably for levelling characters, both for the dungeons, as well as for the raids. Still have to try my hand at the Copied Factory (aka "the Nier raid"), watched a guide and ho-boy, is there a lot to take in... As for me, well, mostly beein playing FF XIV with a dash of Conan Exiles. In FF XIV I've been unlocking and completing older raids, dungeons and other stuff I'd missed while levelling. I've also finished my first Anima weapon.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is 85% off

Sounds like they're throwing in the towel rather quickly to me. And this certainly won't help perception next time they launch a new, or competing platform to something, either. Ask Google about that one...

Rogue turns into Ninja at lvl30 (like most base classes specialize into something else at 30), so either is correct as far as I am concerned. Didn't play during WoD, but I remember kitty Druid being extremely hard to play well during Wrath of the Lich King, there was even an add-on that was borderline required for most "mere mortals" to get anything resembling decent performance out of it. Mage in current day WoW isn't fun, not glass, and not a cannon either. Then again, "not fun" is my opinion on WoW in general nowadays. I guess I really miss how you had to be on top of your positioning in "old" WoW, whereas now you can pretty much cast everything on the move. FF XIV really does bring some of that back, come to think of it.

The main downside of HW was Alphinaud, in my opinion. It's rather clear that SE was trying to figure out storytelling, throughout the base game and the first expansion you can really feel how your character really doesn't have much in the way of personality and just does as (s)he is told, and in HW it's mostly Alphinaud bossing you around, very little of what you do feels as if you have any say in it. I find that gets a lot less pronounced starting with Stormblood, and with Shadowbringers especially my Warrior of Light actually seems like a person of her own. While obviously you don't have much of a choice in anything that happens, you don't *feel* it as keenly (except where SE breaks the 4th wall and pokes fun at the Warrior of Light for being unable to say "no", and silently nodding all the time). I think that the fact that you're just swept up in events, makes it far less obvious, since well, events are kinda out of your hands, and it clearly works a lot better that way. The transformation of into Lyse was kinda unnecessary, the events leading up to it also were rather...meh. Might be different for other starting locations, but Yda and Papalymo were my introductions to the Scions, having started in Gridania. Not being able to deal with in a satisfactory manner to wrap up Heavensward kinda sucked as well. That said, I did enjoy Lord Hien and the entire steppe section. Though it becomes abundantly clear there that the player race is just window dressing since it's almost never even acknowledged (I play Xaela and one of the party said something along "Never had much contact with Xaela, don't know much of their culture", I was like "Dude, I'm right here!". That made it all the more surprising when during one of the Beast Tribe quests my WoL was referred to as "You, with the horns!", but that was only one of a very few times race got acknowledged. Heh, due to how "slow" the game already is (slow tick-rate, very long global cooldown) I imagined it'd be easier to play with higher latency. Shows what I know... For me (but I don't have high ping...) pulling off rotations feels easier than in most other games (eg. WoW) since there's an actual skill queue, so you can "pre-load" your next skill. Hell, "slide casting" is even built into the engine (it allows you to either pre-cast, or even move during the last ~15% of a cast), unlike in other MMOs where it's more a property of latency, and thus variable. The very long global cooldown also helps with this, at least until you get to the point where oGCD, off-global cooldown, skills become fairly commonplace (Stormblood, for most classes, iirc). The game also has a rather slow tick-rate, so if you're used to other MMOs where you can maximise efficiency by "standing in the circle" until the very last second: you'll die. It's something I've had to unlearn. It's just how the game is designed (also, dying to stuff you clearly were no longer standing in, and not just on your screen, either...yay, dem slow ticks) And indeed, rotations can get quite complex, depending on the class, but most of the ones I got to a high level have 3 action bars worth of skills, most of which at least see situational use.

For those we have lost. For those we can yet save. (Shadowbringers ending spoilers)

Tried to play Metro Exocus, tried, because it was barely playable at the graphical settings I wanted. Not entirely sure which part is the bottleneck, CPU or GPU though given that the base platform is still an i7 930 the answer is probably just "Yes". Oddly enough I played through the first region before on this PC and somehow managed...

Metro: Exodus, on Gog, because it's finally available there and was 50% off.

Well, haven't posted in a while, didn't stop me from taking screenshots, so there might be a few FF XIV dumps coming up, since last post covered Heavensward and I've since kinda finished the main storyline Some random atmospheric screenshots: Potential Heavensward spoilers: Come at us, bro! (spoiler: they did, in fact, come at us )

It's odd that they'd cut you off around lvl30, that's a lull in the story iirc. But as been mentioned before, ARR (aka "the base game") is a bit "meh" in the storytelling department, there's loads of set up for later though. As to who the bad guys are...well, I'm still wondering that after having finished the game (well, up to the current patch, I mean, MMOs and all). Things aren't as black and white as they are presented, which is a nice change of pace, honestly. It is one of the things I rather like about the game, many events that appear random, have consequences down the road, and not just within the same expansion, sometimes things show up again many expansions later. To me this signifies they *know* where the story is going and they work their way there. Which is entirely unlike most other MMOs out there (excepting possibly LotRO) Another thing I enjoy is how you just start as some random adventurer, sure you're "touched" by Hydaelyn, but even that is not exactly uncommon, so while it makes you somewhat special it doesn't exactly elevate your character to the level of "teh chosen one!1!1!" since there's dozens with the same gift. This of course shows in the early game, which is somewhat slow and makes you do rookie adventurer stuff, learn about the world, its politics, and you train in your chosen profession (class) and all that rot. That said, there's enough tropes there as well and the storytelling in the base game is, as mentioned...questionable at times (as is all the backtracking, it gets better, I promise, though it never goes away entirely), but once you scratch past the surface the story can be surprisingly good (even some things that made me roll my eyes so hard I think I saw my brain turned out well when seen through to their conclusion). As to the Garlean Empire, I thought that was recapped, but if not then watching a recap video of the FF XIV 1.0 events might be in order (I'm *sure* it gets recapped later though as there's a dungeon devoted to it where you get to visit the Agrius and Midgardsormr's corpse) But the game really picks up steam with Heavensward (as mentioned by Oner), though the post-ARR and pre-HW quest patches can be...really tedious, depending on your inclination. I'm glad I played through them, but I can see why many choose to skip them (missing out on all the HW setup that happens in them, which is unfortunate) Also, as far as I'm aware SE is reworking the base game (delayed due to human malware), cutting down on some of the backtracking and removing some of the filler fluff. However, they will also make the entire Crystal Tower raid mandatory (since it's a really important story arc for Shadowbringers, did I already mention how they set things up multiple expansions in advance? ) Guild Wars 2's story went down the drain after the last expansion (which I thought was pretty bad in general), and due to the negative reception of HoT they never really finished the entire Mordremoth storyline (which was pretty good imho). The fact that their entire writing team (and most, if not all, of the senior devs) has quit multiple time since then didn't exaclty help matters if you ask me. Anyway, personally still playing FF XIV (all but in name quit GW2 at this point), my Dragoon made it to lvl80 and I'm rather close with my Astrologian (healer) too. I said I'd do a write up once I got to 80 but you'll have to wait a little longer on my ramblings

Ah yes, I should get back to Mordheim too. The drawback of already WFH fulltime prior to this pandemic is that it didn't get me any extra free time Hmm, I think you stopped playing around the time the Warmaker's dungeon was released, so off the top of my head: Warmaker's Sanctum The brewery dungeon (haven't done that one myself yet) Thrall rework (they level up now, old thralls are stuck though) Combat rework (worse for single player, imho, but ymmv) Mounts & mounted combat were added New pets (like Yetis etc) bunch of new legendary weapons and crafting tools and new bosses A lot of the major enemy bases were also overhauled, the two that come to mind are the two big pirate bases (the ship and the coastal one) Various bugfixes and stuff and a few DLC (but that's mostly armor and building pieces). They also added some references to YouTubers (eg. Neebs gaming)

This thread's missing a little something, something... The sandstorm stays impressive... Been mostly just hammering away at the pyramid, of and on. Now that thralls level up I should probably start training some and take on that new dungeon...