What are you Playing Now? - What doesn't kill you, gives you XP

[Hawke64]

47 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

I am considering playing SW Knights of the Old Republic, I haven't played  any SW games and I have this and  SW2 on Steam

What are peoples  views   on SW1&2? @Gorth arent you  a   fan of these games?

They are playable. The system is based on D&D (3?). Can't remember much else. The MMO SW continues the story with the default ("canon") choices.

[BruceVC]

30 minutes ago, Gorth said:

I have both games and I've played both games through a few times. The second one more so, especially after a few restored content mods (for me a must). The first one has less bugs, but the story is... not good (imho) and the characters feels paper thin so to speak (very 2 dimensional). Biggest crime for me was an encounter which they repeated in Mass Effect 3... you beat the living snot out of the boss and use his face to wipe your boot soles clean, after which the game designer decided "oh, thanks for winning, but you have now lost". And then proceeds as if you lost the fight. Pissed me off no end in both games. The second one has a horrible first map, which I struggled to get through the second and subsequent times (it's a mystery/whodunnit kind of thing and after knowing the background it becomes a grind to do again when the mystery is no more). Apart from the first map, the story is way more up my alley and it has some rather memorable (if criminally underused) Sith Lords and protagonists. Just listen to @Gromnir waxing lyrical about Kreia

I hope somebody some day do a if not a remake, then a spiritual successor to the second game (the swtor mmo sort of continued the first game)

 

Edit: About the mods, it feels like almost a third of the game ended up in the cutting room, because of some extreme deadline requirements, like a year or less. The bugs are many and the wtf? moments too, when you feel something is missing (not kidding, it's obvious in several situations, more was supposed to happen).

Thanks,  you recommend I play both?

I have already started looking at mods for  SW1 and I found  the restored  content for SW1 

https://www.nexusmods.com/kotor/mods/54

 

[Gorth]

32 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Thanks,  you recommend I play both?

I have already started looking at mods for  SW1 and I found  the restored  content for SW1 

https://www.nexusmods.com/kotor/mods/54

 

Yeah. The second one pretty much picks up where the first one left off... not a direct continuation, but you get it indirectly as things referenced and happening in the background, enabling you to work out what happened to some of the main characters of the first game. No small feat considering Obsidian didn't get to play the first game until development of the second game was already somewhat progressed.

[Wormerine]

10 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Thanks,  you recommend I play both?

I have already started looking at mods for  SW1 and I found  the restored  content for SW1 

https://www.nexusmods.com/kotor/mods/54

I can add to the recommendation, though it's been some time since I played both, especially KOTOR1. Neither of them are flawless but I found enough charm in both (though of different kind) to enjoy each.

From Star Wars:
I adore Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. Fallen Order and to lesser extend Jedi Survivor are also decent.

If you have a joystick Tie Fighter/Xwing games are StarWars peak.

[Gorth]

38 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

If you have a joystick Tie Fighter/Xwing games are StarWars peak.

This

 

(I still love my old Saitek X-52 stick/throttle combo)

[melkathi]

Slowly playing through the Lost Valley in Solasta. I am not feeling as connected to the new party. Annie the rogue had developed quite the personality through the main campaign and dlc, which nobody in the new party is reaching yet. Only Chrisophage, the impatient and constantly annoyed dragonkin paladin is standing out so far.

It is interesting though that with just a simple system they got me to compare personalities in a player created party.

It is a bit refreshing that I haven't encountered any Soraks (yet).

[Theonlygarby]

Ive settled on playing Wasteland 3 over everything else.  I love how the choices are I that game... I enjoy thinking I made the wrong decision everytime I make a decision.  There either isn't an outright "good" choice to make...  that or I always make bad decisions... either way I wish more games would follow the "road to hell is paved in good intentions" saying.  New Vegas did this very well, wasteland 3 might even do it weller.   More well... better

Edited November 8, 2023 by Theonlygarby

[BruceVC]

16 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Ive settled on playing Wasteland 3 over everything else.  I love how the choices are I that game... I enjoy thinking I made the wrong decision everytime I make a decision.  There either isn't an outright "good" choice to make...  that or I always make bad decisions... either way I wish more games would follow the "road to hell is paved in good intentions" saying.  New Vegas did this very well, wasteland 3 might even do it weller.   More well... better

Are you going to  go back to  FO1&2 or  just stick with Wasteland?

[LadyCrimson]

Opened Steam. "Tales of Arise"-Update Required. Hm. So, a new large DLC/expansion, two years later? Ok, I had a mostly great time with it back then. $30 and stand alone gameplay, not a continue from your finished save? So like a quarter or half sized new game with the same characters? Mmm...I'll wait for a sale. This is a case where too much time = not a large drive to have it right away. Interesting that they made such after so long tho.

No Man's Sky:
---obsessed for a while re: finding a small Interceptor ship (RNG stuff). Most of them are large-ish. Finally found one. Yay. It's not very pretty, but I like tiny ships. I must have all the tiny ship versions. I even have a "Hauler" that has no tail and no wings, it's like a chunky misshapen blue potato.
---now working on getting a "living ship." A questline that has several steps. Each step has a few tasks that take maybe 10-15 minutes, but then also has a waiting stage of ... 15-20 hours or so. Each step. Like, wait for something to hatch/grow. It's a bit of a silly time padder. Better be a really kewl ship.  I hear one may be able to use a reload trick to make sure you like the one you get, because you only get one shot per character/save I think.  I want a tiny one.   >.>
---other than that, still just flying around/messing around in the giant sandbox. It never ends, and I don't want it to.

Edited November 9, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[melkathi]

I am not finished with Solasta Lost Valley but I feel I should be relatively far along.

I am progressing all factions at the same pace, though I guess I will be forced to choose who to side with eventually.

There are far harder encounters than in the base game, I feel. Or it is a bit less linear and you run into encounters you aren't supposed to be able to beat at the time you can first find them. It isn't necessarily bad, but some encounters definitely could have used some tweaking.

The campaign likes giving you NPC's to tag along until you complete their quest. So I beat one encounter by having double the party size, with a higher level wizard and barbarian than my own characters tagging along.

The problem with NPCs in your party is that they gain no xp. But right at the start of the campaign you get the option to hire one of three NPCs to help you, and they never level up and you can't dismiss them. So I have a rogue with 10hp following me around - every combat I try to run her away so she doesn't die... If I were to restart, I would not take an NPC along.

[Theonlygarby]

On 11/9/2023 at 2:23 AM, BruceVC said:

Are you going to  go back to  FO1&2 or  just stick with Wasteland?

I think I will go back to it.   I might want to recreate my main character.  Plus I think I'll need alex,  and he's forever trapped in the scorpion cave currently.  I went small guns, and low strength (4)  which in retrospect seems like a dumb decision.  I think I might have even boosted charisma over strength... and so far charisma seems pointless. And I can't imagine I'm taking down super mutants with a pistol.

 

On the second DLC for wasteland.  It's a lot goofier, but it's made me laugh out loud quite a few times.  It also made me feel super guilty for

the clone that is an infinite cycle of excitement over cloning himself and the fear of getting vaporized

 

I appreciate that they are switching up the combat, but I am getting a little annoyed by it.  Both DLCs have very drawn out combat.  It has kept my attention but it's also a time waster.

 

It's kind of funny how DLCs tend to destroy any difficulty in the base game.  You get all these advanced weapons and perks from the DLC that by the time you return to the base game you're very OP.

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

I think I will go back to it.   I might want to recreate my main character.  Plus I think I'll need alex,  and he's forever trapped in the scorpion cave currently.  I went small guns, and low strength (4)  which in retrospect seems like a dumb decision.  I think I might have even boosted charisma over strength... and so far charisma seems pointless. And I can't imagine I'm taking down super mutants with a pistol.

 

On the second DLC for wasteland.  It's a lot goofier, but it's made me laugh out loud quite a few times.  It also made me feel super guilty for

  Hide contents

the clone that is an infinite cycle of excitement over cloning himself and the fear of getting vaporized

 

 

I appreciate that they are switching up the combat, but I am getting a little annoyed by it.  Both DLCs have very drawn out combat.  It has kept my attention but it's also a time waster.

 

It's kind of funny how DLCs tend to destroy any difficulty in the base game.  You get all these advanced weapons and perks from the DLC that by the time you return to the base game you're very OP.

I dont remember Alex  joining me in , I had Ian, Dogmeat  and Katya 

 

And Ian can join you right in the beginning in Shady Sands  

[kanisatha]

13 hours ago, melkathi said:

I am progressing all factions at the same pace, though I guess I will be forced to choose who to side with eventually.

You can get quite far into each faction's quests before you start breaking them, though doing certain quests ahead of others makes a big difference. But the problem is that it is not always clear when you are about to get to that point of breaking another faction's questline. It is even possible to cross the no turning back point in a questline without knowing it beforehand. I think they have done this intentionally to force players to not try doing everything in one playthrough, so that they can claim the game has good replayability.

[ShadySands]

20 hours ago, BruceVC said:

And Ian can join you right in the beginning in Shady Sands

Not without buying me dinner first

Edited November 12, 2023 by ShadySands

[Chilloutman]

Not having much time to game lately I am still having fun in Darktide after the latest update. If anyone her wanna turn heretics into puddle in co-op hit me up!

[melkathi]

I quit my Solasta Lost Valley run.

The low level NPC you can't dismiss is just supposed to get killed eventually and there is no way to keep them alive, because eventually you will run into a scripted ambush where your whole party gets hit with a fireball.

Screw this. Devs should know better than to put players in a situation where they will challenge themselves to keep an NPC alive.

If devs actually played games they would know how part of their playerbase is wired.

[Keyrock]

I'm getting pretty close to endgame in The Talos Principle 2.

I still can't open golden gates, I'm pretty sure I have to do all the star puzzles to be able to open them, perhaps something else too. Most likely those will be the endgame puzzles. There are 2 puzzles that have me stumped currently, a Sphinx puzzle and a Pandora puzzle. I'm not actively trying to solve them right now, but I will get back to them. There are a lot of different mechanics in this game, significantly more than the first game. I'm nearing the home stretch and they're still introducing new tools. The endgame puzzles where, presumably, they will make me use the full array of tools, are going to be complicated. /rubs hands together

Edited November 11, 2023 by Keyrock

[melkathi]

We believe in you.

[Theonlygarby]

17 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I dont remember Alex  joining me in , I had Ian, Dogmeat  and Katya 

 

And Ian can join you right in the beginning in Shady Sands  

Whoops I meant ian... just thought his name was Alex haha.  I just have Katya and dogmeat.  Ian is the one stuck in a cave.

[BruceVC]

I am  busy with  KOTOR as my next game as I  mentioned, I have  never played any of the Star  Wars  games but I love the movie  franchise and I grew up as huge fan of the SW universe. 

I installed some recommended mods like  Restored Content and some graphic updates. Anyway Im 20 hours  in and  Im  loving it.  Its classic  Bioware fun with interesting companions, hilarious dialogue options especially when  you decide to  be rude,  very flexible  ways to complete quest  orders  and significant combat skills  that really make a difference  in battle. And Im seeing the importance of Jedi Powers in combat,  I fought some really hard  Mandalorians on Kashyyyk and my Jedi powers  made the difference in ensuring victory.  I am also enjoying the Dark vs Light choices ,  Im following the Light so far unless my intended Romance hottie Bastila becomes Dark.... " the heart wants what it  wants "  

I also see where  Bioware  and others  got the ideas of  using a spaceship for further  engagement  with companions like  we  saw in ME which is similar  design but more  advanced. But great game so far,  further updates to follow 

 

[kanisatha]

17 hours ago, melkathi said:

I quit my Solasta Lost Valley run.

The low level NPC you can't dismiss is just supposed to get killed eventually and there is no way to keep them alive, because eventually you will run into a scripted ambush where your whole party gets hit with a fireball.

Screw this. Devs should know better than to put players in a situation where they will challenge themselves to keep an NPC alive.

If devs actually played games they would know how part of their playerbase is wired.

That's strange. I went through the whole DLC, did every questline all the way through or almost all the way, and never had this issue with a low-level NPC who could not be kept from dying. You may want to check a guide. The Neoseeker and Fandom.com wiki guides are particularly good.

[Hawke64]

19 hours ago, melkathi said:

I quit my Solasta Lost Valley run.

The low level NPC you can't dismiss is just supposed to get killed eventually and there is no way to keep them alive, because eventually you will run into a scripted ambush where your whole party gets hit with a fireball.

Screw this. Devs should know better than to put players in a situation where they will challenge themselves to keep an NPC alive.

If devs actually played games they would know how part of their playerbase is wired.

It is possible to keep them alive, though I do not remember how I did it exactly, beyond just leaving the follower at the areas' entrances/hidden.

(Checked the screenshots, the NPC was alive at the end. A small spoiler for one of the endings).

Spoiler

The halfling is the one from the start of the campaign. The wizard realised that he really wanted to stay with the party (I did not complete his quest and he was really effective, though harder to keep alive - dropped the difficulty for one battle where the party was hit with a fireball shortly after a cut-scene).

 

[melkathi]

You may not have done all the Forge quests. That fireball is impossible to avoid or counter. Even passing the Dex save, it deals at least 20 damage to an NPC with 10hp.

The consensus online seems to be you need to specialise your wizard to court wizard to have a chance to keep the NPC alive. 

The best thing to do is just not take any of them along.

I did that wizards quest incidentally. He actually tries to kill you.

Edited November 12, 2023 by melkathi

[Chilloutman]

isnt there some kind of protection from fire? like scroll or potion?

[Theonlygarby]

This holy detonation DLC final boss for wasteland 3, reminds me why i always play on normal... like 99% of the time I'm fine with harder difficulties... but then a boss like this comes around... good God is it painful. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Theonlygarby