What are you Playing Now? I name all the operations that go down in Taipei.

[Malcador]

On 5/27/2022 at 2:37 AM, melkathi said:

I still don't believe TOR is this magic thing that guarantees anonymity.

I think a quarter of the nodes are compromised as well.

 

[Gorgon]

No really. So far it actually IS good. 

[Malcador]

On 5/26/2022 at 4:14 PM, melkathi said:

Also, that's what duckduckgo is for.

No, that's what your local unsecured WAP is for

[Keyrock]

I've learned some rather interesting tidbits about certain characters in Swansong. I'm not sure what good they will do me on this first playthrough as I'm probably headed for a horrible end regardless, given my many failures. I suppose I could use the intel I have gathered to make sure some people share my ultimate fate, if it comes to that. This will definitely be useful information for playthrough #2 though.

I suspect a good number of people wouldn't like this game, given how slow paced and dry it is. This would be an absolute snoozefest for your typical CoD or Fortnite gamer. It's definitely a niche game, that niche being glacially slow paced, dialogue-heavy, narrative-driven suspence/detective game. Luckily, I happen to fall squarely into that narrow niche. Getting wrapped up in a web of deception is my jam.

They really do have to fix the audio issues, though. They are quite jarring. I suspect that they are utilizing a tech where sound sources can be placed in a 3D level and the game engine dynamically adjusts said audio depending on the camera's distance to the source, walls, etc. This works well when walking freely around a level and overhearing conversations, not so well in dialogue cutscenes, which there are a lot of. The problem is that there are quite a lot of camera cuts during these dialogue cutscenes, showing the scene from different angles for dramatic effect. Visually it's great, but it's accompanied by sudden changes in volume due to how close or far the camera is to the speaker.  Volume should remain constant during a conversation.

[BruceVC]

5 hours ago, Keyrock said:

I've learned some rather interesting tidbits about certain characters in Swansong. I'm not sure what good they will do me on this first playthrough as I'm probably headed for a horrible end regardless, given my many failures. I suppose I could use the intel I have gathered to make sure some people share my ultimate fate, if it comes to that. This will definitely be useful information for playthrough #2 though.

I suspect a good number of people wouldn't like this game, given how slow paced and dry it is. This would be an absolute snoozefest for your typical CoD or Fortnite gamer. It's definitely a niche game, that niche being glacially slow paced, dialogue-heavy, narrative-driven suspence/detective game. Luckily, I happen to fall squarely into that narrow niche. Getting wrapped up in a web of deception is my jam.

They really do have to fix the audio issues, though. They are quite jarring. I suspect that they are utilizing a tech where sound sources can be placed in a 3D level and the game engine dynamically adjusts said audio depending on the camera's distance to the source, walls, etc. This works well when walking freely around a level and overhearing conversations, not so well in dialogue cutscenes, which there are a lot of. The problem is that there are quite a lot of camera cuts during these dialogue cutscenes, showing the scene from different angles for dramatic effect. Visually it's great, but it's accompanied by sudden changes in volume due to how close or far the camera is to the speaker.  Volume should remain constant during a conversation.

Is it similar to Coteries? I enjoyed Coteries and I intend to play Swansong so I appreciate constructive criticism like the audio issue you identified 

So what I mean is  these games are by design what I define as a narrative RPG and its always going to be " slower " than most games buts thats part of the enjoyment and fun. You really end up really thinking about your choices like in Coteries where I had to make these seriously deep decisions during several quests  like the one   around faith and the church and the one with the nosey reporter and the ex-girlfriend 

So I enjoy these types of narrative RPG and their slower design objectives

[Keyrock]

9 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Is it similar to Coteries? 

I don't know, I haven't played Coteries.

[melkathi]

Well, Coteries is a visual novel which focuses on you choosing which subplots to explore in the given time of each playthrough. The sub plots have little to do with the main plot and when the main plot concludes the question is simply if you followed specific plots to the end and therefor can ignore them next playthrough.

[Malcador]

Well my Purifiers game in Stellaris was a bust, I guess I wasn't aggressive enough and have a federation against me now. Bah.

[Humanoid]

Eyy, the real life Excelsior just got promoted to the Eredivisie (top Dutch league) the same year I did it in Football Manager. Heard it was a mad game, levelled it from 0-3 down to get into extra time, then fell behind again, equalised, then won 8-7 on penalties. But that's off-topic I suppose. As for the video game, I went and did some research instead of just winging it and was a bit disappointed with what I found, mechanically speaking. Seems that as many times before in the history of the series, the key to success is simply stacking the team with Pace, Acceleration, and Dribbling. Sometimes it's better to not know I guess, because knowing how shallow things are behind the scenes can certainly impact what satisfaction you get from winning. Ah well.

So enough with that, time to dive into the latest Euro Truck Sim 2 patch, and its long-awaited revamp of Austria. Truth be told, I don't remember much about how the old Austrian cities looked, because the horrible, poorly-signed highways and prefab buildings made it deathly dull to drive though, and I'd always take a detour through France when driving between Italy and Scandinavia (my two favourite regions of the game). Started by driving to Innsbruck which is lovely, if confusing to navigate. Then while fumbling with the UI, I accidentally took a driver-for-hire job instead of a regular job, which meant I drove an entry level truck to Klagenfurt instead of my shiny new 2021 state-of-the-art DAF. It's funny, while driving it the thing that most caught my attention and made me cringe was the spectacularly cheap-looking steering wheel. Kinda made me feel icky imagining how sticky and unpleasant holding it would be, now that's immersion.

[BruceVC]

Im making huge progress in my exciting and wonderous journey in Oblivion. I have started closing the Oblivion gates to get support for Bruma and I decided to make Frostcrag Spire my home. I have upgraded it and its ideal for R&R after a hard day at saving the world

I am loving the following mods apart from the " must have " Maskars overhaul mod
 

• Ultimate Leveling : It uses XP points and makes exploring and most adventuring activities rewarding
• Midas Magic Mod : This is the most perfect and lore friendly mod to enhance all spell castings. Its adds hundreds of new spells, a dungeon, quests and monsters you need for ingredients. It has an exciting spell creation system that you use at a new Midas Shop at the Arcane University ....gems and other jewelry never became so important
• Alchemy Advanced : It makes everything about creating potions more complex and worthwhile ....highly recommended if you enjoy the art of alchemy

I had one potential " ground breaking " bug where I couldnt initiate the Mythic Dawn attack on Weynon Priory but I used a console cheat to finish this quest but that in turn created another bug where I didnt get the key for Cloud Ruler Temple. But I solved this by using another console cheat to unlock the temple door in Cloud Ruler and then spoke to Jauffre to complete the quest 

[melkathi]

I finally wrapped up Harvest Time in Gamedec. I found all the cosmetic items for my farm from lockboxes and bought everything you can on a fr00b account. Even got a Midnight Express Ticket.

I am now in a bar trying to blend in.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, melkathi said:

I finally wrapped up Harvest Time in Gamedec. I found all the cosmetic items for my farm from lockboxes and bought everything you can on a fr00b account. Even got a Midnight Express Ticket.

I am sure that’s a great conversation starter.

[melkathi]

I did find one guy in the bar and we talked about Harvest Time. Specifically about PvP... in a farming simulator...

[Chilloutman]

I am old

[213374U]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:56 AM, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, not advocating for/against DDG* or the necessity of privacy for searches like that...just that people should be aware that there still isn't any from just using DDG. For browsing, pay for a reputable no-logging VPN or use Tor while also maintaining a separate sandbox with agent/fingerprint spoofing to probably reclaim some semblance of privacy. That should certainly be enough for non-illegal activities, since nobody's going to try to put together a complete picture of what happened where and when to be able to connect it to you if the activity wasn't Serious Business levels of illegal to begin with. And if it was...well, that's probably beyond my level to provide useful advice for (and I wouldn't want to anyways - for me, it's a strong "yes" to a reasonable degree of privacy, but an equally strong "no" to platforms that sell drugs, weapons, confidential information, and/or people).

*Though if DDG's search operators and results weren't hot garbage, it sure would be easier to advocate for them. Their horrible, no good, very bad Bing-derived results are...well, just that.

Agreed.

Just a few remarks on top of that. "No-logging" VPN vendors are a bit of a misnomer. They have to keep some logs for their network infrastructure to work. They just promise to delete them and/or not hand them over to different jurisdictions when required to do so. Some browsers (Opera, Epic) already include built-in encrypted proxy functions, but of course, they aren't actual VPNs so only the browser traffic is encrypted before leaving your endpoint -- meaning some traffic can "leak" through and in theory be traced back to you. And also, "if you're good at something never do it for free", etc. Tor is okay but as mentioned nodes may be compromised and also more and more providers are starting to block Tor nodes as a matter of course.

There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but a combination of measures can make it so it's unreasonably difficult for your ISP to know about your Skyrim adult mods searches. I, of course, use nothing whatsoever because I'm lazy. Welp, hope my boss doesn't find out I guess.

For Serious Business levels of illegal, just hire a botnet. Or even better, make your own and get hired by Israeli intelligence or something.

Edited May 30, 2022 by 213374U

[Maedhros]

Been playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (2008) these last years every now and then. The game is really easy once you master it, so I try to give myself really difficult challenges such as letting the game go on for a few years, and then take over a faction that's about to be destroyed.

I wish there was a better editor for the game, as there's so much potential in it.

[melkathi]

1 hour ago, Chilloutman said:

I am old

Like the npc I talked to about Harvest Time.

[Malcador]

Finished Crowns and Pawns.  Bit of a let down, actually.  Rather short, the puzzles aren't anything too bad, I cheated with the statues at the ending.  Ending is a total joke though, hah.   Probably worth $10.

[LadyCrimson]

Biomutant - ok that announcer became even more annoying and I totally disabled it. The "gibberish" by NPC's as well. Unfortunately there still seems to be occasional scripted moments where the narrator "must" speak, even if you have subtitles on - can button-press faster thru such at least.

 I need more funny hats. A jester hat with some wild pantaloons would work.

Gameplay wise - it's still simplistic. Early on quite a few cutscenes (that are often used to unlock/introduce new abilities) for backstory/lore. So far no consequences for looting anything anywhere. I've found small and easy to miss loot/enemy spots if you were never go off the beaten path , but nothing significant (yet). The world map makes the game seem kinda large but I have a feeling the actual scale will = won't seem very big at all running through it. At any rate, still a moderately enjoyable (on Easy) casual adventure/rpg-lite romp. Nothing deep or strategic. But it's full of cuteness!

[Chilloutman]

Still going through D2R with my Sorc and Hell is real pain. I did go hydra/frozen orb to evade immunities but still i find a lot of monsters to be fire/cold immune and/or groups where Flayer Shaman is immune to fire and Flyers themselves immune to cold. Grrr. It does not help that my resists are in negatives because I failed to find any good uniques AND Countess is immune to fire AND cold so I can't farm her for runes. Really frustrating. Now in act 3 - the pain act

Edited June 1, 2022 by Chilloutman

[Humanoid]

I have a weird moral dilemma in Football Manager, where I accidentally save-scummed due to a crash. Some sort of memory leak caused the game to terminate near the end of the final match of the season, which I was about to lose (a likely story right?) and was happy to lose really. With monthly autosaves that still set me back several matches, and there's no way in hell that I would play through all of that manually. So I set holiday mode (autoplay) until the end of the season and went to do something else.

Anyway, when the game crashed I'd won the league* already in the previous matchweek so that's not the issue. The AI holiday manager managed to do the same - with better wins ironically. But it comfortably outperformed me in Europe, "earning" me an undeserved Europa League runners-up medal. So, uh, putting aside the embarrassment of the autopilot manager being a fair bit more competent than me, I feel the save is a bit tainted now. But I also am not going to double-down and keep save-scumming until I replicate my previous results exactly. So I stopped playing and am going to have to sleep on it at the very least.

 

(* With Feyenoord that is, having made the controversial decision to switch between cross-town rivals at the start of the season, so not some absurd overachievement. And the team that was about to beat me in the final match was my old team Excelsior, so there's a bit of Karma there, ignoring the fact that I was happy for them to win and guarantee their survival in the top league. In the save-scummed version they ended up having to go to a relegation playoff but fortunately they survived that.)

[Keyrock]

I finished Swansong and managed to get a good, but not the best ending, since all 3 protagonists survived but several side characters perished due to failures and choices I made along the way. There are quite a few endings, I'm not going to try to get all of them, but I will try for the best ending. I have a decent idea of builds for all 3 characters, so I'll try to do it without a guide. One thing I learned is that it's beneficial to use your skills and disciplines a lot during the game, especially early on and especially skills, since willpower resets at the start of a new chapter while hunger does not always. Using skills and disciplines a lot boosts their effectiveness and/or makes them cost less, which is a big bonus in late game chapters.

[213374U]

On 6/1/2022 at 12:35 PM, Chilloutman said:

Still going through D2R with my Sorc and Hell is real pain. I did go hydra/frozen orb to evade immunities but still i find a lot of monsters to be fire/cold immune and/or groups where Flayer Shaman is immune to fire and Flyers themselves immune to cold. Grrr. It does not help that my resists are in negatives because I failed to find any good uniques AND Countess is immune to fire AND cold so I can't farm her for runes. Really frustrating. Now in act 3 - the pain act

Yeah, that's why my first character is a fishymancer. Could literally go to Hell naked and do well (slow, though). Hats off to people who do untwinked HC on, like, kicksin.

[Bartimaeus]

On 6/1/2022 at 5:35 AM, Chilloutman said:

Still going through D2R with my Sorc and Hell is real pain. I did go hydra/frozen orb to evade immunities but still i find a lot of monsters to be fire/cold immune and/or groups where Flayer Shaman is immune to fire and Flyers themselves immune to cold. Grrr. It does not help that my resists are in negatives because I failed to find any good uniques AND Countess is immune to fire AND cold so I can't farm her for runes. Really frustrating. Now in act 3 - the pain act

If you're not already, use a Lower Resist wand on your off-hand (or possibly even better, a Life Tap wand that makes it so your mercenary can tank).

[Malcador]

Replaying Space Empires 4, forgot there was a "soundtrack" to the game, yeesh.  Still remember how to play, at least i recall something from my university years.