213374U

Enemy targeting seems just... random. They'll ignore the brawler kicking them in their shiny metal backside to run and take a shot at the spotter 200m away. Unless they have a shot at a knocked down mech. Then that becomes top priority target, to the exclusion of everything else, self-preservation be damned. Anyone ever see the AI eject?

First update. Apparently it can break mods (overwrites SimGameConstants.json), as is customary with Steam auto-updates. It's not on GOG yet, as far as I can tell.

I checked. The only cases of nobodies being fired over tweets that I've been able to find are over racism/sexism, or stupid **** like burger flippers taking pictures of themselves urinating on the food they prepare. The latter most likely simply goes viral and someone forwards it to HR. The former is kind of a huge no-no in the current political climate and everyone must be seen enforcing a zero-tolerance policy. In either case, the company would be left looking bad if they didn't fire the person in question. Not quite what we're discussing here. In any case, the odds seem astronomically small. I'm just not big on fearmongering to keep people in line over what they feel may be crappy workplace conditions or practices, and I'm still not convinced that HR/marketing people have nothing better to do than scour social media all day for employees running their mouths. Maybe it's an American thing. As an aside, I badmouthed my previous employer plenty in my current job interview. They dgaf and I still got the job. Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, etc. Heh, if you say so. At least you acknowledge the possibility that it may not be so. That statement implies that so long as something is legal it cannot be unethical, and I'm sure you understand that's not always the case.

In my personal experience, QA can't test my stuff if I haven't had time to put it in. We're talking separate issues here. I mean the game's state at release from a QA perspective, not content-wise, which is what contributed to Obsidian's reputation as "Bugsidian" in the early days, even before the extent of the cut content was known. And by the way, I'm not sure how you figure that the planned game was "thrice" the size of what we got. The droid factory was, what, 90% done? The droid planet was ~50%. And there was another planet left on the cutting room floor before any serious work was done on it, right? The disjointed endgame was the result of cutting those two elements and the necessary plot rearrangement late in the dev cycle to get the game out the door for Christmas no matter what. I don't know, looks to me like another half a year could have made for a pretty different game, while still remaining way under the original's development time. At the time there was a lot of rage directed at LucasArts over that.

Most of this whole thing is he-said-she-said so not gonna bother commenting, but I think that's a seriously skewed perspective. Since when is specific QA work a designer's responsibility? If anything, it would have been the project lead's problem. And remember that KotORII was developed in little over a year, and had to be out the door for the holiday season. Suggesting that that's somehow Chris's fault in order to somewhat justify management's alleged "mistakes" in their later treatment of him is kind of a **** move, dude. I think you (not you in particular) are generally overestimating how much influence someone can have on a company's decision making and operational processes just because they own a stake in the business. I've seen several owners forced out in the context of a startup because of disagreements over management practices and personal issues with the little cliques that inevitably form over time that came to a breaking point, usually over something trivial. In the end nothing substantial changes, and people get pushed out, "owner" or not. The question is just how much you actually own. In this case, the answer was clearly "not enough". I can maybe believe the story that the guy couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery, but that's neither here nor there, because he wasn't project lead or producer. And we know it wasn't Chris negotiating the contracts with publishers. Maybe the reason he's a freelance writer is simply because that's what he wants to do and prefers to leave the organizational stuff (and the interpersonal bull**** that comes associated) to people who handle it better? What bothers me the most here is the timing of the comments. The interview was years in the making and he didn't have a say on when it was to be released—that was up to the fine folks of the prestigious KKKodex. But he did make the decision to comment in the thread just a few days before Deadfire is released, which I find hard to reconcile with his other remarks about his feelings towards the people at Obsidian, barring management. Not that I think this will substantially affect the game's performance, but if there was a time window when this **** could hit for 9999 damage, this is it.

Yup. But by the same token, 99.9% of people aren't public figures and won't get the kind of exposure he does, so it's not going to matter whether they publicize their grievances. Nobody cares if Joe the Janitor tweets that he's owed overtime... probably not even prospective employers. Moot point. In a world of Twitter, Facebook, etc and an industry as small as gaming... I'd disagree. When you make a stink in this industry it gets noticed. Even in other industries they frown on publicly attacking the company you work for. Also, any company can easily find out you were publicly trashing your previous employer. Especially if you start doing internet interviews, and posting on infamous forum boards that are known industry wide. It's easy to dismiss this by using something like a Janitor as an example too. I think the specialization of something creative like writing, art, programming, etc that you have a higher bar of expectations applied to your behavior in public than the guy cleaning bathroom stalls at your local Wal-mart. Do you want to work in a small, hard to get into industry like gaming, and be rehired easy between jobs? If you aren't the top .1% of your field then don't make a stink via publicly vomiting your grievances. Because the next company your put your resume in at might say "Well, this guy/gal is more headache than they are worth. Let's avoid them." Didn't seem like the original poster was qualifying his advice to people seeking work in the extremely insular sector of game development, which is the comment I originally replied to. Yeah, probably not a good idea to air your employer's dirty laundry in an industry-related public venue for a comparatively small professional sector under your real name, if you are doing online interviews and can't claim to be a household name. But that's a far cry from the original general warning to SHUT UP about your former employer's chitty practices if you intend to have a job ever again. So, to recap: the original "advice" as worded probably doesn't apply to 99% of people (because nobody cares and/or because they don't work in game development) and it obviously doesn't apply to Chris Avellone, because his rep (so far) can take the hit. As a recommendation to up-and-coming nobodies in the game biz? Sure. How many of them would read it and go "gee, who would'a thunk it", though?

Yup. But by the same token, 99.9% of people aren't public figures and won't get the kind of exposure he does, so it's not going to matter whether they publicize their grievances. Nobody cares if Joe the Janitor tweets that he's owed overtime... probably not even prospective employers. Moot point. Perhaps, but this has been going on for literal years, and Chris hasn't yet been forced to flip burgers for a living because he can't find work doing what he likes. It's of course possible that *tomorrow* he'll wake up the pariah of the game dev community with no-one willing to offer him work, but I wouldn't bet on it—any devs potentially interested in working with him doubtless know about these "revelations", and have for a while now. This isn't exactly news. e: the nuts-and-bolts in the interview and Chris's post certainly is news. I meant the fact that he's willing to publicly say unflattering stuff about his former employer

The man doesn't seem to be having any trouble finding work, though.

I think that's a common view among people who have had training and experienced combat. Even simulated high-stress situations can't truly prepare someone for the real thing because, well, they are simulated and you know you aren't really facing death. The contention that training will allow people to ignore the shock from these situations is also simply bad reasoning at a basic level. "Yes, training can override shell shock, unless they are cowards. In that case, training is no matter, it's the damn cowards." It's just that often you can't tell who is a "coward" beforehand. It's their reaction to that situation that will earn them the hero/coward label. Training helps... except when it doesn't.

Nice. Good news about the weapon balance being looked into, and it shows they are at least aware about Lostech being somewhat underwhelming. Looking forward to maybe seeing the enemy mounting nonstandard equipment too. "Reinforcements appearing at the start of missions confirmed not a bug, but it's unexpected due to poor communication. Likely changes to the difficulty rating of missions though to make them more accurate." Yeah, so the bug is actually Darius being as useless as tіts on a bull. Not sure I'm buying that either, reinforcements seem to spawn right at the beginning virtually every time. It can't be intended that any mission with "reinforcements" is an ambush scenario.

Strange. I also felt the need to replay Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl around the same time you did. I wonder what triggered it? Anyhow, I am using the Stalker Complete mod. That's all I need, slightly better graphics and less bugs. Also, I forgot how fantastic this game is. It's amazing how they managed to make the character progression feel better than 95% of rpg's despite not using any levels or experience points or even skills! Heh. I've also been playing Stalker: Call of Chernobyl (yes, Call of Chernobyl) of late. Technically, it... hasn't aged well. And yet it's still an excellent experience for much the same reasons Alien is still a great film. I have high hopes for the new METRO.

For me the biggest deal at the beginning was putting on way more armor than what you get by default, yeah. That and speccing the Shadow Hawk for punching, with the best small laser you can find and whatever else you can fit without dropping armor (read: SRM6). Seriously, that thing punches harder than many heavies, and with some jump jets it's pretty mobile too. Beyond that, the most important thing is to progress the story until you get a better DropShip. I wasted a lot of time on the Leopard and that really cramped my style with very limited options, also contract-wise (thus limiting available salvage). ...I really shouldn't be handing out any advice though. I may or may not have failed the tutorial mission, so take that with a grain of salt... I'm pretty sure the exact same thing happened with Shadowrun. It's either an engine problem, or an issue they never bothered fixing. The TT thing makes sense. I'm hoping they'll be willing to be flexible with the rules and that strict adherence to TT doesn't stop them from addressing problems.

Yeah, I'm not feeling it with the large laser either. If you want a heavy energy weapon, PPC is only slightly heavier but deals stability damage AND imparts an aiming penalty. I think the idea is supposed to be that you're paying for the ability to shoot without facing significant return fire, but in practice the enemy will close the gap before you can inflict significant damage (evasive charges) and then **** you up with medium laser spam and melee. Or that's what I do, anyway. In general, the game needs a balance pass. Large LRMs in particular are crazy good, and their min range problem is easily compensated for with tactics training, which you should be taking anyway to reduce indirect fire penalties. Grab yourself some +stab damage models and... That being said, I'm having a blast, and most likely will buy any DLC they put out.

So I got incredibly lucky during a story mission and the pilot of a Jagermech got a severe case of AC/5 to the face. It was a pretty WTF moment, it wasn't even a called shot. Been running it stock but really, the thing is made of wet tissue paper for a direct fire mech. My brawler Shadow Hawk is way, way more durable. I've maxed armor and swapped all weapons for a shredder AC/20 I came across, but now it feels like it lacks teeth, even with a Breaching Shot pilot. Is it bad or am I bad? (my LRM boat is a Kintaro, been having some fun exploiting the HEAD HIT: PILOT INJURED thing with 5x LRM5 spam, and then watching the mech trip and fall from massive stab damage... for another pilot injury. But really, it's idiotic)

RNG. From another forum: I understand why they did this, but I'm still not sold. Once you understand that the game is going to throw unwinnable (or close) scenarios your way, it becomes a matter of recognizing that you are in one and getting the duck out of fodge, for which there are no consequences—just kill the weakest sucker quickly for a "good faith" show—other than having your time wasted. Is the wasted time worth the supposed immersion this system is meant to create? Different strokes and all that. Also, there seems to be a bug with reinforcements in some circumstances, which can cause them to spawn right away. If after killing everyone you get the typical "we have incoming" message immediately followed by mission success, congrats, you are the proud winner of a bugged scenario.

So yeah, I found out why you can't buy intel and must fly into every mission blind. I just tried a 1 1/2 skulls mission that had two trebuchets and a wolverine, and "reinforcements" consisting of two heavy tanks with more firepower than anything I can field and two missile carriers. If you could buy intel it would defeat the point of these "surprises" and you'd never need to use the retreat function. Whether this is "fun" or not, I haven't decided, but it's again bad design to put the player in a position where the options are a) get ****ed and b) get slightly less ****ed with no recourse. I, of course, savescummed my way to heroic victory against impossible odds. I don't play games to roleplay a chump.

I have extra pilots because I enjoy having more options. The problem is that if someone gets two injuries which isn't that unlikely in a mission, you're looking at about two months downtime for that merc. Next mission, bring in the b-team gunner. Oops! AC/2 chipped your cоckpit paint? That's it, you're out of people who can fill that role... for several weeks. And all because of RNG, it's not like you were getting pounded and failed to withdraw. In one early mission I got hit exactly once, by a LRM salvo. Boom, one casualty. Really?

Do yourself a favor and edit the time it takes to recover from injuries. I'm all for pilots getting killed if someone lands a crit headshot with their large laser, but it's ridiculous that this is Terror from the Deep-casualty levels. The load times increasing I remember it used to be an issue with Shadowrun, too. Possibly a legacy issue? Anyway, can you actually run out of procedurally generated contracts? I've clocked about 10 hours or so and I haven't attempted a single story mission yet, just focusing on having a solid roster and building a financial cushion for the inevitable mission going sideways, hard. Considering that the plot device that gets things started is that there are no jobs available so we must circumvent the MRB, I'd expect to have... a bit more difficulty finding work.

They won't be able to do it until the HG v PGI lawsuit is settled, and that's assuming PGI win. So at least a year from now, and perhaps never. I'll be using mods until then. You mean you want this bad boy: instead of this? Not a really huge Battletech buff, but didn't PGI donate a bunch of meshes to HBS? Will they produce their own for unseen mechs or just keep using PGI's for expediency and, um, consistency? Additionally, by installing these mods you know you're pissing off HG. DO EET!

Yeah, I've found it to be pretty useful. On a light mech you can decide whether to scout ahead and see what you're running up against, or reserve so you can use sensor lock on the same phase as your indirect fire/sniper mechs to ruin someone's day before they know what's going on. Using it without reserving is somewhat pointless because they'll usually move immediately afterwards and get some of the evasion back. Whether it pays to have someone in a lighter mech for flanking and scouting I guess it's going to depend on scenario design. If you run against a company of 10 SRM carriers, you're going to want advance warning, but if fights are generally going to be against 3-6 mechs, you're better off just stacking the tonnage. I wish you could pay for some actual intel on OpFor strength before the mission so you could make informed decisions.

Nah, has nothing to do with skill. Been reading up on it, turns out that any hit that deals at least 1 damage to the head will *automatically* cause an injury. This means that especially with SRMs, you WILL get injured pilots simply because of the odds. Some clown scratches your windshield with his machine gun? That's a month bedridden, at least until you can get cоckpit mods that prevent that. It's bad design, if you ask me—additional tools should provide additional ways to handle situations and tactics, not be designed to overcome obviously artificial hurdles. Worse: it allows for oh exploitable! builds with multi-hit weapons and tactician pilots to cap enemy mechs by killing the squishies inside. They also removed the piloting check to prevent injuries when mechs keel over because they thought it was "confusing". I'm editing that **** out. I simply don't have the patience. I'm having lots of fun, other than that.

Tried it yesterday several times, no dice. Tried it today, went in on the first try. Someone forgot to punch in a bunch of codes? Anyway, what the hell is up with "head hits"? I have at least one mercenary get injured because of that **** each mission, with the worst being ALL 4 being sent to sickbay due to that in one go. Not really struggling either, just random lucky shots that force me to hire more people or wait with my thumb up my ass until they are healed. Is this some sort of lame "balancing" mechanic so you can't get too much uptime?

So my backer code is apparently invalid. It's just as well, this way I have no reason to bother with ****ing Paradox's always-online garbage in my DRM-FREE GAME. I'll just download the cracked version and play that instead, thank you very much. Aaand now HBS are in my ****list too, at least when it comes to Kickstarter. Good show.

That's just Jordan Weisman playing 4D chess though. The counter-reaction to the anti-PC brigade crusade will give his game a ton of free publicity.

Yeah man. Between that and the no pre-loading thing it's tough to be a GOG fanboy sometimes. Get with the program CDPR!