What Are You Playing Now: The meaning of life

[melkathi]

Early on you are weaker than most npcs who'll help you. Definitely weaker than the named ones. That Plaza introduction mission where you talk to everyone, half the people at the location could have cleared out the area by themselves. Selfish gits.

Generic SWAT will start falling behind but never become completely useless. For one, half of them usually carry smoke grenades. And the supressor's second attack increases the target's action time.

I got Albus as a melee beast right now. Though I may need to have a look at updating his equipment.

 

Chapter2 Mission1? That is the Magenta Back-Streets. The first "Violent Case". The map should have opened up in the mission list with a purple symbol with swords instead of the usual blue with handcuffs after completing it? That mission is rough.

Which I guess means it is Scion and you in the company right now?

 

Edit:

I find it usually not a bad idea to split up if the mission gives the option for deploying in two groups. Mission parameters can change and then it can be good to have people near the swat fallback positions.

I also do get into a lot of trouble when I decide "Ah, Albus can handle running off in that direction on his own."

Edited February 9, 2021 by melkathi

[uuuhhii]

9 hours ago, Sarex said:

Trying to finish Pathfinder Kingmaker but the House at the Edge of Time is sooooo bugy. It's kind of sapping my will to finish it.

it is confusing even when it didn't have bug and player have finished it before

some room with fog on four side

and walk different direction into that fog teleport player to different place

it might somewhat fit with first world setting

but still awful design

[Totally not Gorgon]

Please, I need to know if Nioh 2 is any good before I drop 60 euro on it. PC port. I don't care that there is no support for mouse or keyboard, as long as it plays well. 

Any Team Ninja afficianadoes ?

 

 

[Vaeliorin]

20 hours ago, melkathi said:

Early on you are weaker than most npcs who'll help you. Definitely weaker than the named ones. That Plaza introduction mission where you talk to everyone, half the people at the location could have cleared out the area by themselves. Selfish gits.

Generic SWAT will start falling behind but never become completely useless. For one, half of them usually carry smoke grenades. And the supressor's second attack increases the target's action time.

I got Albus as a melee beast right now. Though I may need to have a look at updating his equipment.

 

Chapter2 Mission1? That is the Magenta Back-Streets. The first "Violent Case". The map should have opened up in the mission list with a purple symbol with swords instead of the usual blue with handcuffs after completing it? That mission is rough.

Which I guess means it is Scion and you in the company right now?

 

Edit:

I find it usually not a bad idea to split up if the mission gives the option for deploying in two groups. Mission parameters can change and then it can be good to have people near the swat fallback positions.

I also do get into a lot of trouble when I decide "Ah, Albus can handle running off in that direction on his own."

I've actually got Albus, Sion and Irene at this point, but yeah, my people are starting to get a lot stronger.  Getting Irene Counterattack and Forestallment was a huge boost, as was getting some of my first mastery sets and advanced classes.

My problem in the Magenta Back-Streets was that I ended up fighting Jason and Scott at the same time, and then Sharky's group came up from behind me and I was trapped in between.  I may not have had the best set up for my guys at that point either.  There's just so much stuff to go through, and it took me a while to really start to figure things out.  It probably would have helped if I'd delayed engaging until after the other group was ready for action instead of just rushing right in as well.  It had just been relatively easy until that point, so I was probably more aggressive than I should have been.  Things are going well now, and the only thing that's been at all scary since then are Magma Timas, since they can take out 1/2 - 2/3 of any of my guys health if they manage to hit.

Edit:  Oh, I see now that we're talking about different things.  Magenta Back-streets is the first violent case I've come across, which I haven't done yet.  I'm talking about Chapter 2 Mission 1 "A spreading magenta", which takes place in Magenta Back-streets.  Gets a bit confusing to talk about.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Vaeliorin

[melkathi]

No, we are talking about the same thing. After A Spreading Magenta, when I saw Magenta Backstreets unlocking as a Violent Case I went "Oh, that explains why that mission was so rough."

 

I have Albus as the counterattacking person with forestallment. I have Irene as a fast, hard hitting dodging person. And I made her melee attacks push, so she can run up to enemies and stun them (if you push and the target can't be pushed, they get stunned).

The problem with Counterattack is that it delays action time, so whoever you have counterattack specced may not get to do any actions if they are in the thick of it.

 

I found Lightening Timas to be the scariest Timas. Especially in maps with water. Anything with electricity attacks becomes terrifying in water. Most of all Lightening Boy Scion.

 

You have either played quite a bit already or are progressing faster through the story. I got Irene at around 10 hours into the game if I remember. Someone on Steam was complaining that it took him 30 hours to get her. I have no clue what they did for those extra 20 hours.

I do like the build up to getting her into the team. She isn't a stranger by the time she joins.

 

I expect you have figured out who number 4 is?

[Vaeliorin]

I have, but that's mostly because I've already recruited her.  I kind of have 22 hours played already....

I've got Albus with Forestallment and Counter Attack as well as Irene.  In fact, in the mission in which you get character number 4, Albus managed to kill all but 6 enemies just from counterattacking (I've got the Retaliation mastery set as well as Sen no Sen, which makes Forestallment always a crit) before he got a second turn, and before the event that gets the pink haired girl on your team.  I also got the Deep Sea mastery in that one, for getting my action time over 300...

I probably don't need both of them with those anymore, now that I've developed more masteries, but Irene was feeling kind of terrible before I set her up with those (she seemed to be taking a lot of damage and not doing much) but I don't have anything I know of right now that would be more effective for her.  There are so many masteries that trying to figure out what's best, figure out sets, etc. is...complex.  I do have Irene with Containing Attacks as well, haven't found anything that gives her knockback yet.

Anyway, at this point I'm trying to get character number 4 leveled up to the point where she's at least the recommended level for the next scenario missions.  She joined the team about 7 levels below everyone else, and she seems really slow (this is at least partially because I have no gear to give her until she hits level 15.)  But I really, really like finally having a healer (and not one with limited charges like Ray and Kylie.)

It's definitely interesting that you seem to have a least some relationship with everyone that joins the team so far (well, except for Sion...) I'm not sure where exactly the story is going (Spoonage...) but it seems to be fairly interesting so far.  Really, really enjoying the game.  Couldn't recommend it enough to people who enjoy SRPGs, especially if they really enjoy complex systems.

[melkathi]

There is a support mastery called Yearning. You should have that. Put it on Anne to increase her XP gain from when others gain XP.

For Irene giving her a lot of fire related masteries works.

Here is mine (though lvl 47) :

Spoiler

I have never gotten my action time over 300 yet...

Edited February 10, 2021 by melkathi

[Raithe]

Its been ages since I've done a proper City SImulator, so I snagged a copy of Cities Skylines while it was cheap and have started poking a bit at establishing a new community....

Then I noticed it's a Paradox published game, and realised why it has so many DLC available.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Raithe

[Vaeliorin]

2 hours ago, melkathi said:

There is a support mastery called Yearning. You should have that. Put it on Anne to increase her XP gain from when others gain XP.

For Irene giving her a lot of fire related masteries works.

Here is mine (though lvl 47) :

  Reveal hidden contents

I have never gotten my action time over 300 yet...

Yeah, I've got Yearning on her.  Apparently there's another one called Supporter (I think) that makes your high level people give xp to your low level people as well, but you get it in the fight in the bar at the start if you call the police, which I didn't do.

I'll have to try out some more fire stuff on Irene.  I've currently got her as a Martial Artist, but obviously I'll switch her over to Battle Mage once I've maxed that.

Also, that's the only time I've gotten my action time anywhere near 300...it was just a constant stream of guys attacking Albus and him one shot countering them.

[melkathi]

There is also Learning which increases xp gain by 30%. I am not sure when you get that.

Have you got the case files in the office unlocked that allow you to replay story missions? It is the way to get rewards from different choices. Albus spending the evening reviewing notes and pondering what if.

 

Edit: and that is a martial artist Irene. I switched back after maxing Battle Mage, to get the mastery slots I wanted.

Edited February 10, 2021 by melkathi

[Oner]

Got back into Guild Wars 2 recently, catching up on the story and racking up those sweet, sweet achievement points.

Also going through a Hades addiction, though consistently screwing up the fights against the final boss is starting to demoralize me. >.>

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, Raithe said:

Its been ages since I've done a proper City SImulator, so I snagged a copy of City Skylines while it was cheap and have started poking a bit at establishing a new community....

Then I released it's a Paradox published game, and realised why it has so many DLC available.

Well now, there's your first problem. 

 

[Vaeliorin]

3 hours ago, melkathi said:

There is also Learning which increases xp gain by 30%. I am not sure when you get that.

Have you got the case files in the office unlocked that allow you to replay story missions? It is the way to get rewards from different choices. Albus spending the evening reviewing notes and pondering what if.

 

Edit: and that is a martial artist Irene. I switched back after maxing Battle Mage, to get the mastery slots I wanted.

Yeah, I've got learning on her too, and she's catching up.  I do have the case files unlocked, and I did it this morning to get that unlocked.

I didn't realize that was martial artist Irene.  I just kind of assumed that Battle Mage was the route to go for fire, whereas Martial Artist was more physical, but looking at it further, it seems like almost all of Irene's attacks (outside of her basic attack) do fire damage.  I'm trying her with a fire build now and she's doing pretty good (though she did get KO'ed in my last fight, but that's because she was going toe to toe with Ryo...)

Once I get Anne a bit higher, it'll be time to try out that violent case, I'm curious how difficult it actually is.  The game makes it sound really scary, but a lot of the missions that are listed as "Super Hard" and the like really aren't that difficult.

I find myself wishing there was some kind of web-based build calculator (or maybe an in-game one) so I could try out builds without having to use a bunch of manuals switching stuff around (I eventually ending up looking up one mastery set because I was getting sick of switching through every basic mastery I had to figure out which one was the one I was missing after it turned out not to be any of the ones that seemed obvious to me.)

Edited February 10, 2021 by Vaeliorin

[melkathi]

I didn't want to warn you about Ryo. Didn't want to spoil the surprise. For me only Anne made it out of that confrontation because he spotted me before I spotted him. I went back through the Case File time travel and Irene made short work of him.

Fire gets a revive mastery - Phoenix, which comes with its own mastery set. And one of Irene's unique masteries gives her "Hero" on revive. So in some tough battles you don't mind her taking all the damage, reviving and ending the fight with the fury of a red panda. "Justice Win!"

 

The tricky thing with mastery sets is that it may even be one that the character can only use with their other class.

[Sarex]

Managed to fix the save game vanishing bug in Pathfinder by reinstalling the game, only for the key moment in the game to bug out and not give me all the choices. I didn't realize that the choice was there so I continued playing and finished the game... Go figure that even the endgame slide show was bugged (giving multiple endings for the same characters, writing queen but voicing king, etc.)... I'll probably give the ending another shot now that I made the choice I wanted, but I doubt anything will be that much different.

Either way the game gives me great hope and fears for the sequel. I think that it will be much less buggy and will make for a more enjoyable game, but I fear that they will half ass the peripheral gameplay systems like they did with the kingdom building in part one, which was uninspiring to say the least. I'm also disappointed that they will not add more voice over in the sequel, it was really missing in the first part.

All in all I think that this is the closest we are going to get to a Baldur's Gate/Infinity Engine games sequel and saying that Owlcat did a really good job.

[Vaeliorin]

I actually had Phoenix on Irene in the fight against Ryo...he actually downed her twice, once from a Counter, and then he went after her when I used her flame shot skill on him.  She was the only person he managed to hit, though.  I've put everything fire I have on Irene, and there's only one mastery set it's giving me a hint to, but I'm sure there are a bunch of others I just don't have the masteries for.

It's honestly a bit frustrating, I've had all these Great Swordsman masteries unlocked for Albus, but I can't research any of them because I don't have Breakthrough yet.  Still, he's got almost everything unlocked so far, and as soon as I can get one more level, he's going to be the king of counter/pre-emptive attacks.  I need one more basic slot to get the mastery set that makes Forestallment refresh if there's nobody next to you after you use it, so that will hopefully be pretty awesome.

 

[LadyCrimson]

Became temp. bored of streaming TV and YouTube so I fired up 7 Days to Die current build again.  I left zombies off per usual. As a time waster I simply like generating new world maps every few days and farting around in the environment.

Anyway I wanted it to rain more often so I modded the files to increase the chance.  Still didn't rain that often, but when it did, it was a huge dark storm that seemed to go on forever.  Which was cool.  What was not cool was that at one point I noticed the "you are wet" percentage kept increasing (leading to temp. survival issues).  Oh sure, you're out in the rain, doesn't matter how good your raincoat is, of course you'll get wet, I hear you say.

...I was 20 meters underground, carving rooms out of solid rock, nowhere near any windows/doors/holes etc. I don't recall that in previous versions.  In 15-20 minutes I was 100% wet and dying from hypothermia. Game cheatz!  So I turned off weather survival, too. 

Edited February 10, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[melkathi]

@Vaeliorin If you have or when you get to Scent of the Past, I'd be interested in what choice you went with.

[Vaeliorin]

I'll try to remember.  Not sure how much farther that is into the game.  I just did the level 16 Violent Case and it wasn't anywhere near as hard as I was expecting (though I was between 3 and 5 levels over leveled) but it took forever.  Not sure how much farther Scent of the Past would be.

[melkathi]

Once you overlevel a mission, remember to do them in challenge mode. My biggest problem with that one was Hassan on his balcony one-shotting people trying to charge him when I did the mission at low level.

 

Scent is halfway through chapter 4.

[marelooke]

On 2/10/2021 at 10:28 PM, LadyCrimson said:

Became temp. bored of streaming TV and YouTube so I fired up 7 Days to Die current build again.  I left zombies off per usual. As a time waster I simply like generating new world maps every few days and farting around in the environment.

Anyway I wanted it to rain more often so I modded the files to increase the chance.  Still didn't rain that often, but when it did, it was a huge dark storm that seemed to go on forever.  Which was cool.  What was not cool was that at one point I noticed the "you are wet" percentage kept increasing (leading to temp. survival issues).  Oh sure, you're out in the rain, doesn't matter how good your raincoat is, of course you'll get wet, I hear you say.

...I was 20 meters underground, carving rooms out of solid rock, nowhere near any windows/doors/holes etc. I don't recall that in previous versions.  In 15-20 minutes I was 100% wet and dying from hypothermia. Game cheatz!  So I turned off weather survival, too. 

Ah, reminds me of the underwater sandstorm of Conan Exiles

 

Mostly playing Cyberpunk 2077. Think I've done all the major quests I had left (so the ones that aren't Gigs, or just NCPD markers), barring finishing up the Kerry quest chain.

Whoever calls this game short must've been skipping most of the side content because I'm 118hours (and 51minutes) in according to Gog, and there's still plenty of Gig and NCPD markers to go around.

The way I played is basically by not manually skipping time, ever. I did use the "wait here" feature of certain quests, and I did sleep a few times (a V's gotta sleep) but instead of skipping forward to force quest triggers I just did side content/exploration in the meantime.

This way the "major" content is mostly nicely spread out so the side quests don't start feeling like too much of a slog. Still, the game could have done with some additional meaty quests, especially once you complete the Johnny quest chain there was really very little left except for Gigs to stay busy until the next stage triggered for the like two quests that unlock after.

Anyway, at this point I'm mostly just putting off pushing towards the ending, since, given the rest of the game, I doubt any of the endings will end up being particularly cheerful...

So let's attempt some predictions about the endings based on what I know:

Spoiler

I know there's 4 endings that Misty predicts with the Tarot, and V offers a fifth one: death. Then I know there's a "secret ending" because it's mentioned like...everywhere.

Let's guess:

1.  V commits suicide (guess V could also just get killed, my bet would be on Arasaka in that case). This is the most obvious one, and one that's literally offered by V as an option when talking to Misty.
2.  you get suckered by Arasaka and end up like Johnny (or Alt, possibly)
3.  you "die" and Johnny takes over
4.  you actually succeed by doing what Alt suggested, and get re-inserted into your own body. She suggested you'd lose your "soul", not quite sure how that would play out, or whether that was just a bit of superstition. But given how most bad things in NC seem to turn out to be kinda real, yeah, not holding my breath
5. you somehow manage to save both yourself as well as Johnny (put him in some other sucker's body. Or maybe, and I'd guess more likely even, just stop the deterioration so you at least don't get worse). This sounds like it could be the "best" outcome, and probably the only one in which you don't have to die at all. If I'd have to guess that'd be the "secret ending".

Should be fun to find out how close I got, and what kind of gut-punches the game still manages to pull. I mean, it can hardly be worse than NieR: Automata, right? Right...?

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by marelooke

[Keyrock]

Taking a break from my Y:LaD Legend run (after nearly 200 hours I need a break) I'm playing Hunie Pop 2: Double Date. Besides the copious amounts of nudity (in uncensored mode the game is for all intents and purposes hentai) it has really great match 3 mechanics. There are 2 types of match 3, the standard match stuff as quick as you can and a puzzle kind where you can take all the time you want but you have limited moves and there are all types of modifiers. If you played the first game the mechanics are the same but expanded and with some new added wrinkles. It's a surprisingly well crafted and fun game even without the boobs, but it also has boobs.

As an aside, I'm keeping my eye on Valheim. It's early access right now and I don't generally partake in EA (neither one ), but I am VERY interested. Anyone here take the plunge yet? 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Keyrock

[Hurlshort]

I bought and played Valheim, but the graphics turned me off. They are kind of bit mapped. It just seemed like a less attractive Conan, to be honest. I refunded it quickly. But I might be a graphics whore.

I picked up Imperator Rome for some bucks. It seems interesting and complicated. I don't understand how to fight people. I'm like come at me bro and they are like naw.

[Wormerine]

I am nearing the completition of Nier: Automata. I must say I am somewhat disappointed. It's been ok, but unless there is a really great wrap up to the story (doing third playthrough finished available for now content for one character and will start another) I really don't get what the craze is all about. For Platinum combat is pretty weak - it's fine, but it's mindless, shallow hack&slash. I like most of the RPG systems fine, except the leveling - it just throws any combat tuning out of the window making enemies either too quick and too tedious to kill depending if you over or underlevel them. Story has been "meh". Multiple playthrough gimmick would work well for typical Platinum games, where combat has so much depth that first playthrough is just tutorial - here I was bored with combat by first ending, and it only got more repetitive. Story itself is... meh. So far, consequent playthroughs feel like meandering, doing mostly fetch quests, with occasional big events which fail to land properly due to lack of character development. Also sooo muuuch paddding. I still like it though. I am just disappointed.

I also picked up Mafia:DE from Humble Store. To my surprise I am stuck on the race mission. While it is notorious I never found it too hard in the original - you can easily overake competition on first lap and then just be careful not to fall out of the track. In here so far it's been really hard to get anywhere. Best I can do is 6th place. The simulation also seems really unreliable. One some runs I can get to 9th place easy on the first straight. On others I won't be able to leave the starting 15th spot. And all I get to do is press forward. Even switch to pad for better control. Ufff, this might take a while.

EDIT. I am getting better. I often manage to finish 2nd, but am yet to beat it. It seems that by the end of the 3rd lap for some reason the camera is yanked out of control and forces me to look for a racer behind me for some reason. Idiotic. Also enemy races seem to be untouchable - you can use them to not fall out of track, but try to push them out of the track and it is you who will be spinning like crazy. I remember there is a dedicated button for pushing enemies out, so maybe that's why but I can't quite figurte out. I think it's X but don't know if its PS X or XBOX X :-). 

EDIT2. It's over. That wasn't fun. So the "ram" key was crucial. Essencially, if doesn't know if you intended to ram an enemy unless you press X (PS4 cont) - have X pressed - you will push enemy away. Don't have it pressed and it's like hitting a wall. Stupid. 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Wormerine

[Chilloutman]