What are you playing right now?

[Humanoid]

Back to For The King again for the first time this year - in co-op of course. Looks like there have been some nerfs to the difficulty which sits just fine with me. Previously it felt like even the easiest difficulty was balanced around earning unlocks by failing campaigns until you get some decent locations and special gear unlocked. There's also a House Rules setting which allows you to set a custom difficulty, essentially, from easier than the easiest setting, to literally impossible.

 

The other good thing of course is that additional content continues to be added for free. The "new" sea campaign was released last year, but, well, it's new to me. Not convinced by sea combat mechanics just yet though there've been limited realistic opportunities to try.

 

P.S. The swamp terrain continues to suck the joy out of playing that particular section of the game though. I get that severe movement penalties over swamps is a staple of strategy games, but it really needs to bugger off for good for the sake of fun gameplay.

 

 

P.P.S. Very close to stopping my WoW sub once again. I'm very on-and-off with it anyway these days but I think I've pretty much seen all I can for now. Good thing with tokens though is that it's trivial to stop and then start again when new stuff is added. I haven't paid a cent for the game via any channel since the upfront purchase price for Legion which was what, three years ago?

[Mamoulian War]

I have dusted off my Septerra Core playthrough after more than 3 year break. And I have immediately remembered, why I quit The Chosen Sewers... But after a while, I got used to it and recovered Doomsday Blueprints, and went little bit of exploring to refresh my memories, where I left. To my surprise, I still remember quite a bit of stuff, so today, before visiting my family, I'll spent some time with this game again

[melkathi]

Oh, what was the bug again in that game. Lowest shell if you gave an npc the quest item before he asked for it... what was the item...

 

Loved Septerra Core. First game forum I hung out online back then.

[GhostofAnakin]

Finally found my first gun in Dying Light.  No longer have to worry about hitting a zombie 10 times with a stick anymore.

[Mamoulian War]

Oh, what was the bug again in that game. Lowest shell if you gave an npc the quest item before he asked for it... what was the item...

 

Loved Septerra Core. First game forum I hung out online back then.

I do not know. I played it maybe 15 years ago for few hours, but got stuck somewhere, and the I boight it 3 years ago on GOG, played for almost 40 hours, but got fatigued by the combat in the chosen palace. And now, after few hours, I feel fatigued again in the graveyard catacombs :/

 

Story is likeable, but some trash enemies are really annoying with their spongy HP pool. The only way how to make it more enjoyable, is to spent loads of money on "mana cores" and cast haste on all partymembers right away in every combat

[melkathi]

Hehe,

 

I remember the thing that annoyed me most back then was running back and for on the map up and down ladders to get the right colour switches.

[Mamoulian War]

Running around would be mostly OK, if there was less combat involved

[Keyrock]

Downloading Conan Exiles on PS4, since I got it "free" this month with PS Plus. I'm holding out hope the dong slider is in character creation, but I'll most likely be disappointed.

[Fenixp]

What happened to the elegance of D&D (and its derivatives), where you could still kill high-level enemies with low level characters if you were creative (or extermely lucky )

It's made even more jarring by the fact that in games like the classical RPGs (or Pillars of Eternity for that matter, really loved the original game actually doing these things reasonably well, albeit level-based defenses/acc were a bit too powerful), skill of you as the player is purposefully not taken into account - yeah, you can be clever about character creation, gear, ability usage etc., but for the most part, how you build your character is more or as important as what you do during an encounter. Ass Creed: Origins has an entirely skill-based combat system (and a surprisingly good one at that), so level difference isn't and can't be complex enough to be nuanced in any way - so enemies are just more spongy and do more damage, which is ... Quite boring.

 

Additionally, if the game absolutely has to have these mechanics, make them at least feel good, y'know? Don't put lvl 3 crocodiles over here and identical lvl 50 crocodiles over there - make sure that all crocodiles are lvl 50 and act as a way to block player from some content. Make sure that lvl 1 bandits wield farming tools and clubs as their weapons while lvl 50 bandits act as well-trained and equipped mercenaries. Give player the feeling of progression as opposed to just arbitrarily throwing numbers around.

 

I still enjoyed AC Origins (and enjoy AC Odyssey right now), but that is mostly despite its broken RPG mechanics, not because of them.

Well, I wouldn't say the RPG mechanics are broken, just the way the level number operates. Everything else is excellent - different kinds of gear that you find actually get unique mechanics or ways of using it, including varied attack patterns for all weapon classes in the game. Skill tree's also really fun since just about everything you unlock actually does something and unlocks new options for the game or its combat system. That's all really good design.

[Keyrock]

So wait, does AC: Origins (and Odyssey) do the TES IV: Oblivion level-scaling of you're now fighting level 20 mud crabs? If so, thank goodness I resisted all temptation to play those games (wasn't so much interested in Origins, but had some interest in Odyssey). I hate that type of level-scaling with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. I mean, I hate ALL level-scaling, period. Full stop. That said, not all level-scaling is created equal and some is more egregious than others. The Oblivion-type level-scaling is the absolute worst of the bunch.

[Fenixp]

There's no level scaling at all in Origins, and IIRC there's only upward level-scaling in Odyssey (low-level enemies scale upwards to match your level.) In fact the system is set up in such a way that lower-level content will always present lower threat to you while higher-level content will be more challenging, often enough to the point of impossibility - so if anything, it's the other extreme from what Oblivion did, and just as jarring in my opinion.

 

The issue is that level in Origins bears no meaning. It doesn't reflect power of your opponents, since hyenas in one part of the desert will be pushovers while identical hyenas will insta-kill you in another one. It doesn't reflect your stats. All it does reflect is how many skills you have unlocked in your skill tree, but effects of those skills are in no way relevant to the level number, and enemies don't get your skill tree. So... The level is just an arbitrary number that tells you whether developers wanted you to do -content- now or later, and if you decide to try it now, the random hyena will insta-kill you without a whole lot of chance for recourse. It's just... Arbitrary gating that exists for no particular reason.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Fenixp

[Keyrock]

So your character doesn't get stronger when they level up, they just get a larger toolkit?

 

Edit: Holy ****, that's a giant download for Conan Exiles. I won't be playing that tonight, that's for sure.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Keyrock

[Fenixp]

You could say that, yes. You played Borderlands, right? When content is like 5+ levels above you, you won't stand a chance. When it's like 5+ levels below you, it won't pose a challenge. Technically, your character gets more powerful by:

 

a) level difference damage buffs/debuffs, which aren't listed anywhere but with the same weapon equipped you simply do less damage to higher level dudes, normal damage to your level dudes, higher damage to lower level dudes

b) Equipment is level restricted, so if you find a lvl 6 sword when you're lvl 5, you can't equip it. So there's no way to get overpowered to be able to damage high level enemies in spite of damage debuffs.

 

Power of your character is then made entirely meaningless by fighting exactly the same bandits with a different arbitrary number attached to them dozen of hours into the game - which, ironically, leads to precisely the same outcome the super-aggressive level scaling in Oblivion had - at the end of the game, you'll be fighting the same opponents you were fighting at the beginning, but they'll be as powerful as you are.

[Keyrock]

 You played Borderlands, right? 

Borderlands 2.  I hated it (Loved the world, hated the gameplay).

[Zoraptor]

So your character doesn't get stronger when they level up, they just get a larger toolkit?

 

In Odyssey you get a larger toolkit- specialist abilities and moves which are rather well thought out in general- but only up to a point, then you kind of get generic +1.5% damage/ resistance/ crit bonus type deal. Which felt a bit weird to me, like it was first designed for a level cap of 50 but they decided progression was too slow or the game too big plus people hate level caps so they sort of tacked a bunch of stuff on like extra mercenaries after what was obviously intended to be the top one, and bonus abilities that are 100% generic. Or maybe they did that because they thought it would work better with µtransactions.

 

I'd say it does get easier as you go and you do feel some progression, but nowhere near as much as if there wasn't level scaling- and you also have to level up/ upgrade your gear as you go at traders for it to be easier. Practically, I followed the level estimates of quests and there was always a lot of stuff at my level so I must have been overleveled just by doing content as it became available; and only ran into one area that I was underleveled for (Boeotia, as I decided to go have a look at Plataea rather than do quests since I was close) and that was instadeath central. The issue really is that Odyssey is absolutely massive and it's extremely easy to miss lower level content, and if you came back to it when overleveled it would be ridiculous as some content in Witcher 3 ended up being if you happened to miss an area (and in W3 you also had the rather stupid situation where some low level quests were gated through higher level questlines).

 

Doubt there really is a good solution for that type of open world game. One way you end up with no scaling and areas you miss end up being stupidly easy, other way you end up with everything feeling the same and no real progression. Nobody likes gating content unless it's done seamlessly and transparently; nobody likes level scaling but near everyone seems to like open world overall despite that.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

So your character doesn't get stronger when they level up, they just get a larger toolkit?

 

In Odyssey you get a larger toolkit- specialist abilities and moves which are rather well thought out in general- but only up to a point, then you kind of get generic +1.5% damage/ resistance/ crit bonus type deal. Which felt a bit weird to me, like it was first designed for a level cap of 50 but they decided progression was too slow or the game too big plus people hate level caps so they sort of tacked a bunch of stuff on like extra mercenaries after what was obviously intended to be the top one, and bonus abilities that are 100% generic. Or maybe they did that because they thought it would work better with µtransactions.

 

I'd say it does get easier as you go and you do feel some progression, but nowhere near as much as if there wasn't level scaling- and you also have to level up/ upgrade your gear as you go at traders for it to be easier. Practically, I followed the level estimates of quests and there was always a lot of stuff at my level so I must have been overleveled just by doing content as it became available; and only ran into one area that I was underleveled for (Boeotia, as I decided to go have a look at Plataea rather than do quests since I was close) and that was instadeath central. The issue really is that Odyssey is absolutely massive and it's extremely easy to miss lower level content, and if you came back to it when overleveled it would be ridiculous as some content in Witcher 3 ended up being if you happened to miss an area (and in W3 you also had the rather stupid situation where some low level quests were gated through higher level questlines).

 

Doubt there really is a good solution for that type of open world game. One way you end up with no scaling and areas you miss end up being stupidly easy, other way you end up with everything feeling the same and no real progression. Nobody likes gating content unless it's done seamlessly and transparently; nobody likes level scaling but near everyone seems to like open world overall despite that.

 

 

I wasn't a fan of how they did leveling in AC Odyssey.  I got to a point where I maxed out most of the cool specialty skills, plus upgraded my gear, yet felt like a wimp because they leveled all enemies up to my level so instead of feeling like a Greek God, I had trouble with even a trio of enemies.

 

I get they're trying to balance it so that there's still a bit of a challenge late in the game, but at the same time it kind of sucks that I felt no more powerful at Level 75 than I felt at Level 5, all because enemies leveled up to keep pace.

 

IMO, it would have been better if just the main bosses leveled up with you (to maintain the challenge), but the random hordes and random bad guys remained at their original level so you could feel as though you truly were this unstoppable force against anything but the absolute best.

[Zoraptor]

I'm definitely not a fan of its scaling, but I'm sympathetic because no other game seems to handle that issue particularly well. I'd also consider the game 'high effort' otherwise and it's on a time period I never thought I'd see featured in a mainstream game; so I'm willing to cut them some slack on other aspects.

 

Objectively they probably should have made the game smaller, which would have helped with having higher density unique content (and less stupid proc gen quests) and potentially also help with balancing enemy levels/ character progression better.

[Keyrock]

While I'm waiting for Conan Exiles to download I'm grinding in DQ XI. I'm doing a quest where I need to kill a Type G0 Killing Machine. The thing about this quest is that Type G0s have a VERY small chance of appearing when facing Menacing Killing Machines in a certain area. It's completely random. It could be the 2nd time, the 20th time, or the 2000th time I fight Menacing Killing Machines that a Type G0 appears (I've done around 50 battles so far). On the bright side, Menacing Killing Machines give pretty good exp and, contrary to their name, are not particularly high threats to my party (at my level they're borderline pushovers), mostly on account of the fact that they never inflict status ailments, so it's just a matter of surviving their damage output, which I can do easily. I'm at lev 68 now and plan to try my hand at some of those optional boss fights I got my ass handed to me on earlier again after I finally encounter and slay this Type G0.

 

Edit: Killed the Type G0, defeated the Malicious Jormun that handed me my ass earlier, but the Malicious Auroral Serpent is still a little out of my league (I lasted significantly longer this time). I didn't try fighting the Crystalotl (whooped my ass around lev 63) again yet since that's in a completely different area.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Keyrock

[Starwars]

Playing Heaven's Vault, by the makers of the Sorcery! series and 80 days.

 

It's similar to both of those games, and different in others. The biggest difference is that it features 3d areas, so you walk around like in any adventure games and investigate "hot spots". Like 80 days, there's no real challenge per say, it's about uncovering a mystery and I'm guessing a lot of the point of the game will be how much you can uncover. 

The other gameplay element other than walking around and investigating/talking is translating an ancient language. It's a fun minigame where you try to match up words with old symbols. 

 

I'm really liking it. Just like 80 days, I find it really relaxing to play and it's nice to play a game that just takes it's time. It feels like it does it's own thing which is great. You get a real nice sense of unraveling a mystery and the world and lore slowly unfolds into something which is quite interesting. The Inkle people know how to write for sure.

[Tale]

Metro 2033 (the Redux version)

 

This would be the third time I've seriously played it, I'm still not sure if I got to the end the first time. But it's also the first time I really *got* the game. Like understood why people liked it.

 

Those first two playthroughs the "stealth" never worked. So it was just a dumb game of going through corridors shooting dudes like every other corridor shooter I've played.

 

The sections with waves of nosalis are still garbage though. And I'll accept no argument otherwise.

[Katphood]

The sections with waves of nosalis are still garbage though. And I'll accept no argument otherwise.

It's okay. You don't need to.

[Keyrock]

Started up Conan Exiles on PS4. Went into character creation. Dong slider disabled. Uninstalled.

 

I keed. I keed. I just made a female toon instead, Stygian, naturally. I tend to play female characters in 3rd person games anyhow because if I'm going to be staring at my character's ass the entire game, I might as well stare at a female ass. 

 

The game is alright. I imagine I'll tire of it fairly quickly, survival games were never my thing, but I'll give it a chance for a while because I always enjoyed the Conan setting. I need to capture some people and sacrifice them to Set. Don't give me that look, the Serpent God demands blood. 

[LadyCrimson]

So browsing Steam again yesterday afternoon, I saw this Early Access game called Edge of Eternity (about $15 this week). I've largely "sworn off" EA games and this one is turn-based to boot, which isn't at all my thing. But then looking through its store page, it showed this:

 

 

Well, you know what happened then.

 

...so I played it for a few hours. The start is very annoying because it's this constant "fight 2-3 enemies, see a battle-reward screen animation EVERY FIGHT, the two chrs. have cutscene dialogue frequently, repeat 100 times." The VA (when there is VA) is ok but sounds a bit stiff, the graphics have this grey haze over everything (even with bloom etc. off)  and are nowhere near as good looking at this point as the store page might lead you to believe.

 

That said, once you're in the more free-roam areas it improves somewhat. It's fairly ambitious for a small dev.  team I guess. There's only two "chapters" currently available. I have no idea how many chapters are planned. While the combat system isn't my thing at all, I can see where some might like it and it's simple enough. There's a crystal/gem system for upgrading abilities/stats and the free-roam areas are all right. Items you can gather for crafting respawn, enemies respawn, etc. I doubt it'll hold my interest enough to care about if/when they finish it tho. I just wanted to get that cat and romp around (you can keep playing after you finish the available quests). Yes, I spend money like that. Pffft.  edit - oh, the music is pretty nice. They do have a decent/known composer apparently.

 

That reward animation tho. You can see it here. It's not really long but after EVERY fight it's quickly annoying. https://youtu.be/AgdPtqZ_4pM?t=148

I'd advise to wait until it's finished or maybe if it's like, $6. Oh and it's single-player.

Edited April 24, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Agiel]

As a Kickstarter backer I gave that Pathologic 2 demo a try, and while I enjoy the atmosphere and art direction, well, technically it's rough in spots, cutting it a little too close for comfort when it's set to release in about a month:

 

Edited April 25, 2019 by Agiel

[Malcador]

Tropico 6 isn't too bad, but nothing too revolutionary.  Still have the same issue about homeless people being very picky about what building they want to live in, messes up my design to have to spread residential areas all over the place and need more transit than I have to. 

Global achievement stats still amuse me, only 10% of players have beaten the third map for example.