What are you Playing Now: Living the Game Life

[BruceVC]

6 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Sort of "discovering" one of the other game modes in Guild Wars 2, the wvw aka World vs. World. If running with a group of like minded IDGAF it can be fun on a different scale. Especially in the voice chat

A squad leader that is reluctantly squad leader (because nobody else wants to), an alcoholic, a handful of girls that are the meanest butchers and killer pvp players around (as long as they have other players to kill, they are all giggling and having fun), old timers like me who plays more of a jack of all trades character, theory crafters, etc. Just plain fun.

Taking keeps, towers, supply camps, killing supply Dolyaks (aka "cows") to starve defenders out, running away from mobs that outnumber you 80 to 10 and try to build defensive siege engines (I love pouring burning oil on people) and so on.

Edit: wvw is pitting populations of one server against two other servers in a 3 way fight on a number open world maps dedicated to it.

 

Sounds like a great squad and fun group as well , always makes a difference 

[Malcador]

Act of War : High Treason.  Certainly more difficult than the base game, I guess that is to be expected with expansions.  But ok.  Story looks like even more OTT nonsense than before though, but no poorly acted FMVs to go with it.

[kanisatha]

I've just finished Ember and am about to start playing Tower of Time. Anyone have any ToT must-know tips to help my experience be better?

[Keyrock]

Some early thoughts on Chernobylite:

The game is not exactly what I expected. It's part first person... adventure, I guess, and part management game. After the prologue you have a base which you can furnish. There is a building system where you can craft stations, gear, furniture, etc. You can the put these wherever you want.

The basic gameplay loop is that you assign people to go on missions, including yourself. There is a chance of success indicated by a percentage based on a number of factors, except for you since chance of success is obviously determined by gameplay. You start with 1 other person, Olivier, and you can recruit more as you go along. People can die on missions or depending on your choices (supposedly there are multiple endings). You complete missions to satisfy prerequisites for the main mission, which is to enter the plant, and to get supplies. You need to assemble a crew and get intel and gear to do the main mission.

The game so far is quite light on combat, which is fine with me. Radiation has been the biggest threat for me. There is a time travel mechanic. When you die you return to this sort of nether world where you can return to things you did previously and change choices if you wish. 

Chernobylite is not what I thought it would be, but I'm enjoying it so far. The environments are very immersive, both visually and especially audibly. The sound design in the game is top notch. Don't expect a shooty shooty action game, though.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Keyrock

[BruceVC]

33 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

Some early thoughts on Chernobylite:

The game is not exactly what I expected. It's part first person... adventure, I guess, and part management game. After the prologue you have a base which you can furnish. There is a building system where you can craft stations, gear, furniture, etc. You can the put these wherever you want.

The basic gameplay loop is that you assign people to go on missions, including yourself. There is a chance of success indicated by a percentage based on a number of factors, except for you since chance of success is obviously determined by gameplay. You start with 1 other person, Olivier, and you can recruit more as you go along. People can die on missions or depending on your choices (supposedly there are multiple endings). You complete missions to satisfy prerequisites for the main mission, which is to enter the plant, and to get supplies. You need to assemble a crew and get intel and gear to do the main mission.

The game so far is quite light on combat, which is fine with me. Radiation has been the biggest threat for me. There is a time travel mechanic. When you die you return to this sort of nether world where you can return to things you did previously and change choices if you wish. 

Chernobylite is not what I thought it would be, but I'm enjoying it so far. The environments are very immersive, both visually and especially audibly. The sound design in the game is top notch. Don't expect a shooty shooty action game, though.

Great review and thanks for sharing because that isnt how I expected the game to be, I was expecting a Metro or STALKER type design

I will wait a while before purchasing this game 

[Keyrock]

I should add that I'm playing the game with Russian VO and English subtitles, for the maximum realistic experience. Well, I guess maximum realistic would be Russian VO and Russian subtitles or no subtitles, but then I wouldn't understand what anyone is saying. 

[melkathi]

I'm in the Soul Cairn in Skyrim.

As Archmage (I needed some influence in the Mage's College in case one of the girls decides to be a mage. How could I know they'd make me Archmage), I wonder if I should put restrictions on Enchantment/Necromancy. We shouldn't do this to souls.

I already killed everyone from the Dark Brotherhood and am killing Thalmor to keep my children safe. Guess I will be hunting more actively for Necromancers as well now.

Maybe I should also kill every shopkeeper selling Black Soul Gems. They are enabling the practice after all...

[Chilloutman]

Yeah, my first time with Elders scrolls was Morrowind and the world was so weird and twisted that catching souls and worshiping demon lords made sense in there. Then you see this crap in middle of the imperium and I was like... ehh really?

[Theonlygarby]

1 hour ago, melkathi said:

I'm in the Soul Cairn in Skyrim.

As Archmage (I needed some influence in the Mage's College in case one of the girls decides to be a mage. How could I know they'd make me Archmage), I wonder if I should put restrictions on Enchantment/Necromancy. We shouldn't do this to souls.

I already killed everyone from the Dark Brotherhood and am killing Thalmor to keep my children safe. Guess I will be hunting more actively for Necromancers as well now.

Maybe I should also kill every shopkeeper selling Black Soul Gems. They are enabling the practice after all...

I envy/respect your ability to role play in skyrim.  For whatever reason when I play I'm just a guy who does missions because im told to

[melkathi]

It is strange though that the only way for me to play the game is to roleplay a crazy eyed dunmer refugee from Morrowind, who nearly had her head chopped off for no reason. Who then decided to ingratiate herself with the Jarl of Whiterun because he seemed like an easy mark. Traveled to King Ulfric's court to find some backing in her revenge against those who'd have chopped her head off. Realized she didn't like Ulfric and his Stormcloacks because she got to talk to them. Then stumbled across two homeless orphan girls and decided to butcher scores of bandits for their bounties, to buy a home and get those girls off the street. And because that officially makes her a mum now, she has to make the country a safe place for her children so she makes a list and checks it twice to remove all threats.

Dark Brotherhood

Serial Killers, Bandits, Skooma Dealers

Daedric Cults - Vaermina, Hermaeus Mora, Mehrunes Dagon, Peryite, Namira (working on it)

Thalmor (well, their prison and embassy have seen better days)

Vampires - actively putting an end to them at the moment

Dragons - working on it

Civil War - I really don't want to join the legion, though though probably will have to, as I do not see a Stormcloack victory as beneficial to my family.

Foresworn

Edited August 4, 2021 by melkathi

[Theonlygarby]

Trying dragon age Inquisition again.  I like the writing.  Surprisingly I think the controls are actually worse on computer than console... which surprised me.  It does have the million quest markers problem but I'm trying to deal with it

[MrBrown]

47 minutes ago, Theonlygarby said:

Trying dragon age Inquisition again.  I like the writing.  Surprisingly I think the controls are actually worse on computer than console... which surprised me.  It does have the million quest markers problem but I'm trying to deal with it

The trick is to leave the Hinterlands and visit the other areas ASAP. They're much more sparse.

And to not take quests from the requisition people at camps. They're infinite.

[Theonlygarby]

2 hours ago, MrBrown said:

The trick is to leave the Hinterlands and visit the other areas ASAP. They're much more sparse.

And to not take quests from the requisition people at camps. They're infinite.

Yeah I remember that from last time...  it's been a while but I'm pretty sure I didn't even realize you could leave hinterlands for a fair bit of time.

 

The only story beat that annoys me(with this game and like... 99% of games) is that once again I'm the chosen one.  At least give me a little bit of time being a nobody like origins did

Edited August 5, 2021 by Theonlygarby

[Vaeliorin]

3 hours ago, MrBrown said:

The trick is to leave the Hinterlands and visit the other areas ASAP. They're much more sparse.

And to not take quests from the requisition people at camps. They're infinite.

Honestly, I thought the Hinterlands was by far the best area in the base game (the DLC was actually pretty decent.)  It was the only area that had a reasonable amount of content density.  Everywhere else was just a bunch of emptiness with maybe 4-5 things to do in a massive area.

[Tale]

Hinterlands had a hint of a story. It's the only area where the war is actually going on. And can apparently progress forward. But that's completely gone by Act 2. I think one other area had a story, the one with the lake you could drain. Or that one with all the ghosts or skeletons that's pretty much nothing but a linear dungeon. Those are the only fond memories I have from the open world.

[kanisatha]

What I hated most about DA:I was constantly having to kill packs of wolves. Cannot go anywhere without running into them as they constantly respawn. The generic enemy respawning needs to be hugely toned down.

[MrBrown]

1 hour ago, kanisatha said:

What I hated most about DA:I was constantly having to kill packs of wolves. Cannot go anywhere without running into them as they constantly respawn. The generic enemy respawning needs to be hugely toned down.

This is also a problem mostly with the Hinterlands, and the desert oasis area with the shards where you have to go through the same place several times.

In the Hinterlands it's completely possible to end up fighting the same group two times in a row, because you didn't move away from their spawn point fast enough.

[Keyrock]

I just really hate trash mob fights in general. Games ought to have an auto-resolve button that pops up any time you encounter an exact composition of enemies that you have successfully dispatched at least 5 times. If you press the button the enemies vanish and you get your obligatory 2 exp and 3 pennies. 

[Theonlygarby]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

I just really hate trash mob fights in general. Games ought to have an auto-resolve button that pops up any time you encounter an exact composition of enemies that you have successfully dispatched at least 5 times. If you press the button the enemies vanish and you get your obligatory 2 exp and 3 pennies. 

I agree.  I felt this especially in red dead redemption 2... the game feels realistic, horse gets dirty, you have to eat.  Yet you can get shot in the head 30 times, and you have to fight like 20 dudes at once.  Why not just make your character more vulnerable and have less enemies...  if you are going for realism.

 

As far as dragon age goes, my character is a rogue so I just hide my way through the tedious battles.

[Theonlygarby]

I'm at the point I have to choose between Templar and mages...  I sympathize with the mages... but fighting heavy plated Templar is less fun

[Malcador]

Finished the Act of War expansion, I really enjoyed that sound bug with Tomahawks - caused audio looping then total failure of all audio until a restart.  Didn't enjoy it as much as the base game, storyline is still Clancy-esque OTT nonsense but I guess that's not much to hold against it.  I guess multiplayer would be enjoyable, if i could go back to 2005.  

Next game on the backlog is Planet Coaster.

[LadyCrimson]

Played another hour of the Banished Patron demo. I liked a little bit more every 15 minutes or so.

It's going to be more of a patience game at the start than Banished. You may be "stuck" with only 10-25 workers for the first 3-4 seasons, waiting for resources and cash to pile up (there's citizen taxes so you get some all the time). I think increasing workers/citizens is going to be slow going most of the time, outside of getting randomly lucky re: a few wandering immigrants offering to join your town. so rapid expansion/growth will be hard to force.  Which to me = possible efficiency challenge and I start drooling.

Another big difference was you can upgrade most buildings a few tiers. So it may be much more efficient (because, workers) to have one upgraded Hunter building vs. three lvl-1 ones. Reading a bit more, sounds like the demo is out of date and the full release will likely have some improvements in AI, UI, QoL, who knows what else.  So I didn't want to play too long only to have it be super different tomorrow. 

Maps were a decent size too, for future expansion.  Dunno if I'll play it as much as Banished, but ... efficient layout planning is my jam!

[Malcador]

Reminds me I still have to finish Caesar 3 again. On the last mission, didn't really use the tricks the real Caesar 3 guys use - using gatehouses and forced walkers.

[LadyCrimson]

On 8/9/2021 at 10:01 PM, Malcador said:

Reminds me I still have to finish Caesar 3 again. On the last mission, didn't really use the tricks the real Caesar 3 guys use - using gatehouses and forced walkers.

I love C3. Once I learned to use the gatehouses I abused the heck out of those.

Played 5 hours or so of Patron. They're already putting out an update to address a few minor issues/bugs and probably balance stuff.  I've encountered nothing distressing gameplay wise myself.

I was correct it's a lot more of a slow pace than Banished, because the speed of growth of new workers available is sooooo slow for at least several game-years.  I started with 12 "workers" (not the same as total population) and late Year 4 I now have ... 29. You'll get a few from children growing up, a few from Event messages. A trickle. Sometimes you'll put the game on high speed waiting for children to grow up, lol. Upgrading production buildings/slow minimalism is key, probably until late stage.

The research tree ... also a long time to get very far down into it, imo. Don't expect stone houses or the larger Warehouses quickly.  I sort of like that, and sort of don't. "Events" are just simple messages you get occasionally (from the King, from the Church, others) that give you options to choose from, which give rewards or negatives, so pick what you want, is all.  I turned off disasters, no clue on those.

It's not perfect, there's some mild annoyances here and there, a few things feel a little clunky, but overall I like it quite a bit, and I certainly find it addictive in that city planning way.  Edit: starting position for each map is fixed, not random. I would have preferred at least 2-3 possible locations and having it be random. Oh well.

Edited August 11, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

Patron: Year 7 to 10 may be when one starts to have enough population/income etc. to start speeding up Research (Easy/Normal/Hard probably affects this because of reduced/increased resource fees/costs - I think, probably ).  I finally got Stone houses.

Annoyances:
---not enough descriptive UI info.  "This lets you upgrade to Stone houses" ... but it doesn't tell you what that means, really. One thing is it increases family capacity by two. Nowhere in-game is that stated. Stuff like that. They may be working on bettering that but right now...
--Like many similar games, the number of houses you need and the space they take up becomes rather absurd. I'm constantly building extra empty houses so there are always some immediately available for kids moving out of their parents houses.
--Why are city planner square grid-based layouts schemes, but the effective radius coverage of something is usually round? That's not efficient.