What are you Playing Now? - Right Now at the moment edition

[Mamoulian War]

14 hours ago, Lexx said:

You guys counting deaths?

PS3 Demon’s Souls and all versions of Dark Souls 2, have in-game counter for deaths. Well Demon’s Souls not anymore, as the counter has been on a tablet hidden in the part of the Nexus, which you could access only when online, and the servers are long down. And then I found out, that there is a nice Deathcounter/Soundboard app for streaming, so I thought, why the hell not use it, just for the giggles

[LadyCrimson]

*fiddle with 7 days .xml edits re: all kinds of things, make maps, play a map, say those edit changes turned out neat but bored of map/chr already, repeat process over and over*
*explore planet's in No Man's Sky, build a few bases, explore more planets until I'm sick of looking at planets* <---this game needs more modding capability

I could use a couple more chill games of this nature to stick in a rotation. I have yet to find any that peak my interest.

By the time Light No Fire comes out I'll end up playing it, even if it's more of an online game than NMS, just because I'll want something similar.  I'll just have to hope it's truly large enough that I can find isolated spots that no one has found yet, or no one wants to find.  >.>

Edited August 15 by LadyCrimson

[Mamoulian War]

I have finished the Crown of the Sunken King DLC  

And I have finished all of the bosses as well, including the “Gank Squad”.

I have done my best to go through the place without any spoilers, which of course caused to me a lot of surprises, like moving into “one-way exit” rooms, which of course led to a lot of my demises. Again, I had more of wipes falling of the “cliff” or being gang banged by mobs which I have not seen before it was to late, than on actual boss-fights

The areas areas of the DLC were gorgeous, and I liked the puzzle mechanics incorporated in them. Despite them being fatal to me occasionally Aggro range of some mobs has been in upper range, but not as crazy than the revamped Gutter, so you could still outrun some mobs, if you messed up, which a did a lot

First boss was Elana. Not that hard fight with the help of summon/s, unless she summoned Velstadt, who hit pretty hard. I got few times in to the “crossfire”, which ended me pretty fast. I think it took me 4-5 tries to finally defeat her, while keeping Bernhart of Jugo alive for his questline.

Next one was Sinh. I knew, there is some dragon around, but was not sure, if the next fog gate will lead me to him. It did, thankfully I had two summons at hand again. And it required really a lot of running around to be able to hit him with my melee weapon. And when I hit him, I have noticed, that he is “corrosive” so my weapons and shield durability went down fast. Thankfully, I keep my extra Lightning weapon in the inventory, so I was able to switch mid-fight to new one. In the end, I was able to get him down to 2 or 3 percent, with not much issues. Unfortunately, then I have missed one dodge, and got hit by his Breath of Fire. Which I have survived, with 2 or 3 percent as well, but unfortunately, I acquired Toxic debuff as well, and I was to slow to pop the Poison Moss. The second try was similar, just that one of my summons got obliterated in first 30 seconds of fight, so I though, that I will be finished off soon as well. Thankfully, the second summon, was tanking much better than during my first try, which was tremendous help, and I was able to defeat him. But before that, I got stunned for a few seconds, as my screen froze up, and for a moment, I was afraid, that it can corrupt my save file Thankfully the game unfroze, and Ingot his soul.

The last boss was the Gank Squad. 3 NPCs, in a big room, with few spots to hide. Bit the first “treat” was the road to them. Few interconnected corridors, with no chance to get back, if you messed up. Again, I had no clue, what to await before the fog gate, so I have put my best gear on, and the I let out loud “WTF” as soon, as I’ve seen three health bars on the screen First attempt was not bad. I have noticed an archer right away, so I went fast for him, and was able to connect few backstabs with him. Unfortunately my two summons got obliterated with the other two guys, which of course led to my hasty demise again The next two tries was terrible, in one, I got instakilled with a backstab from Havel fan, in other I dropped into water, and was not able to find where the exit is As soon, as I found him, I started to run around a little bit, like a headless chicken, trying to find out, the AI behaviours. And I have found few interesting patterns, which I learned to exploit a little bit more in the next try. Then the 5th or 6th try I tried to connect all of the dots, which I have found while running around, and tried to “master” them. When doing them properly, it made the fight much easier, but I still had to watch out for every enemy move, to not get asskicked or backstabbed. First I have defeated the dual wielding rogue, then the tank, while trying to pull both of them out of sight of the archer, which worked most of the time. I have still collected few arrows from him, but everything was under the control  The last one was the archer. And to my surprise, he was for me hardest to hit. I started with the backstab, but that was it Every other attempt, he either outroll me, or punished me for that, so I had to resort to slow hit, shield, run and roll tactic again. He was still able to punish me few times, for being to greedy, but not hard enough to deplete all of my HP. 
 

So far this was the hardest encounter for me, and this is the only boss, which I can’t imagine to defeat with melee character without summons at my side. The design of the encounter is fun and interesting, but I am to lame to solo it, so I am really glad, that they implemented NPC summons in the singleplayer portion of the game as well. I am already afraid, how this encounter will play out in NG+, when their damage will go up… We’ll see.

For now, I am the owner of the new Crown and full Sanctum Knight set, which I am slowly upgrading to max

Death Counter: 177

[Malcador]

Got Bannerlord, is very different from M&B Warband. But at least the UI feels better.

[Hawke64]

@Mamoulian War About the Gank Squad, the easiest option for me was to get the archer first in melee, then to run around to bait Alva's fan for punishable attacks, then to poison Havel with arrows. I think, at least Havel had Estus, but I do not remember the other two healing. I also hard-saved before the bosses' fog gate, so replaying the battle was easier (I had no summons and still had to get there in the best state, but only once). The bosses of the co-op areas in general were rather difficult, and, ironically, felt more approachable solo (might have something to do with scaling).

---

Inmost. A platformer with Metroidvania and puzzle elements. The story is split between 3 protagonists, 2 are metaphorical, 1 is literal. I played it in co-op (by passing the Steam Deck from and to the other player) and missed the start of the game, so some parts felt flat to me, in particular the main/overarching story. The music and the art style are gorgeous, the controls are as comfortable as they can be on the device (I probably will try to replay it on my own with KB+M). The puzzles were generally easy (except one where we didn't notice the quest object), the checkpoints generous, and the combat functional (the knight protagonist can dash and has directional attacks). The location design for the adult protagonist was the most Metroidvania-like - the areas were fully connected and the tools found allowed to progress further. So, overall, I would recommend it.

Spoiler, sort of:

Spoiler

No one needs or cares about your "sacrifices". Establishing and upholding one's own boundaries is vital.

---

Soulstice. A hack-and-slash action game, very similar to DMC, though the visual design invokes Dark Souls - a city with a demonic portal where the population turned into rather quick zombies. The protagonsit and her undead sister are there to find out what happened and stop the demons. I've finished only 3-4 chapters so far (out of 26?) and encountered 1 mini-boss, which was fine, though the "block at any time" ability at the moment seems rather overpowered. The traversal abilities, such as double jump, are unlocked from the start, and I have received a new weapon in the middle of a chapter from the level up NPC. The former is rather convenient, the latter is somewhat anticlimatic. I suppose, the other weapons (there are 4-5 left to unlock) will be aquired in more interesting circumstances. The combat abilities are either weapon-specific or for the undead sister, Lute. She follows the MC, generally is either silent or comments on point, cannot be harmed, occasionally auto-attacks, and blocks or creates auras on command, so she is a very likeable sidekick. The controls are rebindable and 5-button mice are supported. There are some accessibility options which I have not tried. The camera is mostly fixed, so the mouse is less important, but still nice to have. I suppose, the only thing I am not particularly fond of are the system requirements and the technical aspects of the visual style caused by it - too much visual noise, while the breakable barrels are glowing either way, because at this point there is no other way make the interactive objects noticeable otherwise. So, a lower number of polygons per model and less post-processing fluff would have been better, as the character models are stylsed already.

---

Creepy Tales. I had thought it to be just a point-and-click adventure without timers. The issues are that 1. interactive objects are hard to notice and 2. the puzzles are timed and occasionally require precision, while the MC's movements are quite "floaty" and the animations take relatively long to play. I guess, I would have felt worse about it if I didn't get the game in a bundle. The story is straightforward enough - the MC's friend got kidnapped by fairies, and the MC is bravely charging through a cursed forest to save the friend.

[BruceVC]

I have completed Fallout NV   and all its DLC after about 120 hours. It was an excellent experience and its gets a 75/100 on the globally followed " BruceVC game rating system "


I played a heavily modded game and I will include my mod list from MO2 at the end. I am not going to repeat what I mentioned in previous posts in this thread except for how stable the game became after I did the following

https://performance.moddinglinked.com/falloutnv.html#NVTF

" Double-click on NVTF in Mod Organizer, then open NVTF.ini in the INI Files tab, and set:

bModifyDirectXBehavior = 1"

I only had 5-7 crashes after this making this change in about 65 hours and I use to get 3-4 CTD in random areas every time I played

As far as narrative choices were concerned I decided to finally support an independent Vegas and not align with the NCR or the Legion and I killed House

I wanted to align with the NCR because I liked what they believed about law and order but they wanted me to kill the Brotherhood of Steel so I moved away from them but I avoided killing there soldiers as much as possible and I didnt wipe them out at Hoover dam at the end. I persuaded them to leave without a massacre by my upgraded Securitrons

Finally outside of the mods below I used a mod that changed the required amount of XP you need for each level and you can set different levels, I used 1.5x so if you need 7200 XP for level 10 you now need 9000 XP for level 10. And this slowed the level advancement down and made the game more realistic and motivated me to explore more and do side quests which I enjoy

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/35178


Here are the mods I installed

FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
YUP - Base Game + All DLC.esm
NavmeshOverhaul.esm
fixy crap ue.esp
Landscape Texture Improvements.esm
Vanilla Enhancements.esm
Landscape Texture Improvements - YUP Patch.esm
Bad Touch.esm
Uncut Wasteland.esm
Functional Post Game Ending.esm
FCOMaster.esm
AWorldOfPain(Preview).esm
TLD_Travelers.esm
Momod.esm
SaxxonsQuestPack.esm
Mojave Wildlife (FO3-Style).esp
Better Brotherhood.esm
MBFNPCs.esp
NVWillow.esp
VanessaFollowerNV.esm
Mojave Raiders.esm
Leveled DLC Delay.esm
Functional Post Game Ending - YUP Patch.esm
More Perks.esm
SomeguySeries.esm
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.esm
wsex.esm
Functional Post Game Ending - Uncut Wasteland Patch (VNV).esp
YUP - NPC Fixes (Base Game + All DLC).esp
NVMIM.esp
Unofficial Patch NVSE Plus.esp
Vurt's WFO.esp
Uncut Wasteland.esp
ExRB.esp
The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
JustAssortedMods.esp
Enhanced Movement.esp
ImmersiveRecoil.esp
Follower Tweaks.esp
Trap Tweaks.esp
FCO - NPC Changes.esp
JSawyer Ultimate.esp
MAC.esp
AWOP Interim Fixes.esp
Momodlorefriendly.esp
populatedcasino.esp
EVE FNV - ALL DLC.esp
DLC Enhancements.esp
More Perks Update.esp
wsexInnuendoNPCs.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Store.esp
Misc Content Restoration.esp
FNV Realistic Wasteland Lighting - All DLC.esp
MonsterModLorefriendlyDLC.esp
NewVegasBounties.esp
NewVegasBountiesII.esp
TheInheritance.esp
NewVegasBountiesIII.esp
Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered v1.2.esp
FNV NPCs Travel.esp
T4-plugin.esp
BrotherhoodReforged.esp
Game_NV_MotorcycleTravelAdvRandom.esp
Game_NV_MotorcycleTravel.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Store.LITE.esp
Cowboy Radio - Now with VA.esp
Cowboy Radio - Songs Only.esp
Radio Free Wasteland.esp
zmod_add_misc_RadioGaga.esp
Mojave Raiders.esp
Bouncing Natural Breasts.esp
Uncut Wasteland - YUP Patch.esp
FCO - OHSB NPC Edits.esp
EVEM - YUP Patch.esp
Better Brotherhood - FPGE Patch.esp
Better Brotherhood - YUP Patch.esp
rockbiter_AnimationSounds.esp
Misc Content Restoration - UW (VNV) Patch.esp
LootMenu.esp
Economy Overhaul.esp
Vanilla UI Plus.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Honest.Hearts.Grunt.Patch.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Leveled.Lists.esp
HairPatcher.esp
Daedric Bitchs.esp
DIM TYPE3clothesRETAIL.esp
MojaveDelight.esp
Sprint Mod.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - EDEM Patch.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - SMIM Patch.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - EVEM Patch.esp
The Weapon Mod Menu.esp
Blanket_NV.esp
FCO - Willow (Cazy).esp
FCO - Willow.esp
DriveableMotorCycle.esp
Player Combat Priority.esp
PipBoyLight.esp
pipboyx3.esp
Slower Level Rates - x1.5.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - Mojave Raiders Patch.esp
JIP Companions Command & Control.esp
wsexInnuendoAnims.esp
Strip Lights Region Fix.esp
DNWeathers.esp
22-07 Merge 3.esp
TheBetterAngels.esp

 

[Hawke64]

Soulstice. I have reached Chapter 9 and the first unique boss. The previous two were mini-bosses, it seems (they have "Defeat N to unlock the next entry" in the Codex and I have met one of them again). I like that new systems and enemies are introduced quite often and that the MC is mostly either stoic or berserk (also the armour and the sword visually remind of the manga of the same name). The NPCs are rather nice (not annoying) as well so far. I guess that at the end the MC will destroy the corruption of the knight order, while keeping own demonic powers, as self-sacrificing would mean no sequel with the same protagonist. 

I like less that the shop/level up NPC just gives the weapons (got 2 more) and that the areas last a bit too long (the city walls, then the lower city) and hard to navigate (too monotonous and there is no map). I did not learn the attack patterns of the foes due to the magical block working from any distance against most enemies, while the need to use it is clearly communicated (the block button -the exact key bound!- appears on the enemy or in its direction if it is off-screen), so I do not have to look at the animations. Which brings me back to the unique boss - the thing had quite a few unblockable attacks and I had some issues with dodging them. So, the first death. Considering how long Cerberus in DMC3 took me to defeat, I probably should have chosen a higher difficulty.

I have also switched to the keyboard only, because the camera can be rotated very rarely, so no point in using the mouse. The platforming with the fixed camera angles and variable depth perception was of variable satisfaction.

Edited August 18 by Hawke64

[kanisatha]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Here are the mods I installed

FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
YUP - Base Game + All DLC.esm
NavmeshOverhaul.esm
fixy crap ue.esp
Landscape Texture Improvements.esm
Vanilla Enhancements.esm
Landscape Texture Improvements - YUP Patch.esm
Bad Touch.esm
Uncut Wasteland.esm
Functional Post Game Ending.esm
FCOMaster.esm
AWorldOfPain(Preview).esm
TLD_Travelers.esm
Momod.esm
SaxxonsQuestPack.esm
Mojave Wildlife (FO3-Style).esp
Better Brotherhood.esm
MBFNPCs.esp
NVWillow.esp
VanessaFollowerNV.esm
Mojave Raiders.esm
Leveled DLC Delay.esm
Functional Post Game Ending - YUP Patch.esm
More Perks.esm
SomeguySeries.esm
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.esm
wsex.esm
Functional Post Game Ending - Uncut Wasteland Patch (VNV).esp
YUP - NPC Fixes (Base Game + All DLC).esp
NVMIM.esp
Unofficial Patch NVSE Plus.esp
Vurt's WFO.esp
Uncut Wasteland.esp
ExRB.esp
The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
JustAssortedMods.esp
Enhanced Movement.esp
ImmersiveRecoil.esp
Follower Tweaks.esp
Trap Tweaks.esp
FCO - NPC Changes.esp
JSawyer Ultimate.esp
MAC.esp
AWOP Interim Fixes.esp
Momodlorefriendly.esp
populatedcasino.esp
EVE FNV - ALL DLC.esp
DLC Enhancements.esp
More Perks Update.esp
wsexInnuendoNPCs.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Store.esp
Misc Content Restoration.esp
FNV Realistic Wasteland Lighting - All DLC.esp
MonsterModLorefriendlyDLC.esp
NewVegasBounties.esp
NewVegasBountiesII.esp
TheInheritance.esp
NewVegasBountiesIII.esp
Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered v1.2.esp
FNV NPCs Travel.esp
T4-plugin.esp
BrotherhoodReforged.esp
Game_NV_MotorcycleTravelAdvRandom.esp
Game_NV_MotorcycleTravel.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Store.LITE.esp
Cowboy Radio - Now with VA.esp
Cowboy Radio - Songs Only.esp
Radio Free Wasteland.esp
zmod_add_misc_RadioGaga.esp
Mojave Raiders.esp
Bouncing Natural Breasts.esp
Uncut Wasteland - YUP Patch.esp
FCO - OHSB NPC Edits.esp
EVEM - YUP Patch.esp
Better Brotherhood - FPGE Patch.esp
Better Brotherhood - YUP Patch.esp
rockbiter_AnimationSounds.esp
Misc Content Restoration - UW (VNV) Patch.esp
LootMenu.esp
Economy Overhaul.esp
Vanilla UI Plus.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Honest.Hearts.Grunt.Patch.esp
Weapons.of.the.New.Millenia.Leveled.Lists.esp
HairPatcher.esp
Daedric Bitchs.esp
DIM TYPE3clothesRETAIL.esp
MojaveDelight.esp
Sprint Mod.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - EDEM Patch.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - SMIM Patch.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - EVEM Patch.esp
The Weapon Mod Menu.esp
Blanket_NV.esp
FCO - Willow (Cazy).esp
FCO - Willow.esp
DriveableMotorCycle.esp
Player Combat Priority.esp
PipBoyLight.esp
pipboyx3.esp
Slower Level Rates - x1.5.esp
JSawyer Ultimate - Mojave Raiders Patch.esp
JIP Companions Command & Control.esp
wsexInnuendoAnims.esp
Strip Lights Region Fix.esp
DNWeathers.esp
22-07 Merge 3.esp
TheBetterAngels.esp

Looks like the very definition of overkill

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, kanisatha said:

Looks like the very definition of overkill

Wait till I do my first  Skyrim playthrough, I am  planning on  using  hundreds of  mods 

But with MO2  the troubleshooting and interaction between  mods becomes  much easier  and all the mods  I use have a  real purpose  and almost always fix  vanilla experience problems   or improve something like a more balanced  economy or  add extra lore  friendly monsters  or  quests  

 

 

 

[BruceVC]

Im having my normal break from playing one type of gaming genre and Im playing Sunless Skies

Its great, similar to Sunless Seas and very brutal and unforgiving

I love the how RNG design of encounters and how the map destinations are not static and you have to explore to find ports and you have to be strategic around the economy and your resources 

[kanisatha]

22 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Wait till I do my first  Skyrim playthrough, I am  planning on  using  hundreds of  mods 

But with MO2  the troubleshooting and interaction between  mods becomes  much easier  and all the mods  I use have a  real purpose  and almost always fix  vanilla experience problems   or improve something like a more balanced  economy or  add extra lore  friendly monsters  or  quests 

Whereas adding a mere three mods to my current BG2ee playthrough was too much of a chore and a pain for me.

[kanisatha]

I just completed playing the SoD expansion for BG1ee for the very first time. It was weaksausce and rather lame, especially when in comparison with ToB as the equivalent expansion to BG2. The NPCs were all forgettable, and the multiple times Charname gets screwed over by people who are supposedly his friends/supporters got tiresome real quick. And the huge castle battle was a giant pain in the ass with no fun redeeming value.

Beamdog truly sucks. I'm so very glad their Ps:T successor game got canned.

[Wormerine]

4 hours ago, kanisatha said:

I just completed playing the SoD expansion for BG1ee for the very first time. It was weaksausce and rather lame

Yeah, I am kinda confused why it exists - it didn't feel like they really had a take or an idea. The big pitch of "connecting tissue between BG1&2" seems to be slapped on top of a rather irrelevant adventure at the very end. The structure also just felt so very off. A very different game than Infinity Engines ones. I will definitely not include it in any of my future BG playthroughs.

[Hurlshort]

Conan Exiles is releasing some hero companions with backstories and quests in October, so I've been building a bit. They are also supposed to be updating the whole NPC system so they seem more lively.

[LadyCrimson]

The only mods FO:NV ever needed were the all-companions and the dance mod. So says I. 

[majestic]

Done with season 5 in Diablo IV. Time to wait for the expansion pack.

[bringingyouthefuture]

Elden Ring done~!  I mixed in the DLC, ended up over-leveling (no one told me I was supposed to stop at 150 but that is real), and then steam rolled the rest of the game including Melania, Farum Azula and the final boss beast thing ... c'est la vie!  Was about to do NG+ with a different build since my level got pretty high, and was testing some weapons / builds and realized learning an entire new combat playstyle didn't really catch my fancy ... I'm just not a backstep, roll dodger, kill you with status type of person I guess   I will admit when I got to "PROMISED CONSORT RADHAN" and the freeze frame with him looking into the camera I had kind of lost interest in the crazy boss fights so YouTubed the trick to beating him to save me a few hours, maybe a full day who knows.  He was still tough though even with that, but got him pretty quick.

Now to decide on Warhammer 40K Chaos Gate or go back into Pathfinder WOTR now that it is complete and play the DLCs ...

Another question:  Avowed, Dragon Age Veilguard or Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2?  Having mixed feeling on Dragon Age Veilguard and Avowed, but I did get a controller (hence Elden Ring) in case I want to play the new ones coming out ... I am ready.  Actually got excited when I heard Avowed had a 3rd person option, that made it more appealing for sure!  I could even play Final Fantasy 16 too soon ... omg I feel like I sold my soul to controller games ...

Edited August 22 by bringingyouthefuture

[Tale]

I guess I'm a Warframe guy now.

[Hawke64]

On 8/19/2024 at 3:25 PM, kanisatha said:

I just completed playing the SoD expansion for BG1ee for the very first time. It was weaksausce and rather lame, especially when in comparison with ToB as the equivalent expansion to BG2. The NPCs were all forgettable, and the multiple times Charname gets screwed over by people who are supposedly his friends/supporters got tiresome real quick. And the huge castle battle was a giant pain in the ass with no fun redeeming value.

Beamdog truly sucks. I'm so very glad their Ps:T successor game got canned.

But you can

Spoiler

use the aasimar paladin to help you to kill the BBEG then to kill her. Granted, I do not remember if it is acknowledged later on. Still, it is nice to have an extra meatshield in the final battle and not let an effectively a mass murderer to get away.

So, very good.

[Hawke64]

Soulstice. I think I have reached the late-game (counting by the codex entries, 22 of 31). I like the combat - it is responsive and mostly readable enough, with a lot of unique automatic abilities for the spirit companion/secondary protagonist, and 8 distinct weapons for the main character. There have been no puzzles, only some traversal and combat challenges. I like less that the weapons have very few special moves, cannot chain combos between different weapons, and were granted at random points during the story. The analogue of the DMC Devil Trigger (DT) is achieved by building up the style gauge, so the DT here can be used only in combat and it is not possible to save up before a boss. Speaking of, there are quite a lot of different enemy types, but very few bosses (as far as I can tell, 5-6). The bosses of the earlier chapters return as regular foes later on. The story is reasonably straightforward, with the protagonists' logic understandable, and the protagonists themselves likeable (the line upon entering the Monastery was the best).

The things I dislike are relatively small annoyances - any mandatory timed traversal challenges with poor camera angles (so it is hard to see whether the next platform is within reach), the inability to have the HP always shown (it is either hidden or "contextual"), the story starting rather slowly in repetitive locations (it gets better later on).

[Mamoulian War]

Yesterday, I have finally finished the Crown of the Iron King DLC. And it is a mixed bag for me. The majority of Brume Tower, is good and interesting design from my PoV. They made some areas filled with to much mobs, but, after few try and error attempts, they have become manageable. Only few Ashen Idols gave me some troubles. So after approx 5 and half hours after entering the DLC, I was able to defeat Fume Knight. All attempts have been made with two summons. This fight was pure DPS race. I had to make more damage to him before he wiped out my summons, and few of the attempts ended up with him with less than 5%. All in all I had 10 attempts IIRC, before being victorious. And even in that last attempt, he defeated both my summons, before I was able to land a finishing blow on him. So far so good only 15 wipes during this whole time.

But this was the last part of the DLC which I have enjoyed. I have used the Tower Key and unlocked the way to Iron Passage... I should not have done this... **** it... The worst ever area in all of From Soft games, I have ever played. Multilevel areas, which were not completely accessible, filled with enemies, which sniped your ass into the otherworld in few seconds, if you were to slow to get into hiding spot or stayed to long out of it, fighting the melee waves jumping at you... **** it once again... And in the last room, just before the fog gate as a bonus oversized like-a-truck hitting mob, which destroyed half of HP of your summons... If by any miracle, I have survived up until the boss room, I became so pissed of at the whole gauntlet, that I was losing my concentration and made mistake after a mistake, so the boss has kicked my ass... Rinse and Repeat... For 3 and half ****ing hour... Until I was able to have enough concentration, to not mess up the boss fight...  I hate you Myiazaki... 40 wipes in that session alone with hundred thousand plus souls lost, due getting gangbanged all the time...

This area has completely discouraged me from playing the game further. I had so bad mood after that session, that I wanted to uninstall the game... Well, on the next day, I have tried to log into the game again, to check the latest area, which I still needed to finish, but the mood was still very very low... To my "surprise" another gauntlet... Thankfully, this time not as ridiculous as the Iron Passage, but it definitely did not make my mood for DS2 better... Anyway, I have done few tries on Sir Alonne and tried to learn his moves, when to heal, and when to avoid his moves at all costs. Due to me being down in the mood, my reflexes have been lousy as well, so I was not able to outroll or block all of his attacks, whenever he aggroed on me, so all the time, the fight ended up few seconds, after he got buffed after piercing me with his Katana... So I have quit the Brume Tower, and went to completely clear my head to grind 100 Mad Warrior kills, new Human Effigies, which I have lost in high numbers during my Iron Passage ball torture, and enough souls to fully upgrade Grand Lance to +10 (as I have noticed, that my Lightning Heide Lance is doing not as much damage, as I would expected on the boss - later I have found out, that he has a pretty high resistance against all of magic)... Stopped at 91 Mad Warriors, and went to sleep, pissed as much as the day before The only good part of the day was the interesting encounter with the 5 Prowler black phantoms, which have spawned on my way to the Bonfire before the Memory of the Old Iron King.

After this, I went on a scheduled business trip, so I had no time to be pissed on the game anymore, so when I got back 3 days later, I had like two hours window, in my schedule, so I decided to boot the game again, with much clearer head. First I have finished the Mad Warrior grind, to acquire the Bell Keepers set, and from the new souls, I have put 1 more point into ADP Then I went back for the memory, and cleared the area up until the fog gate. There I've noticed, that I have enough souls to fully upgrade the Engraved Bracers, which increase the chance of critical hits, so I feathered back to a blacksmith. Cleared it one more time, fully healed my two summons, and readied my newly upgraded physical Grand Lance +10. Even though I was hit few times by the boss, which almost wiped me out, this time, I was able to avoid his buffing attacks, so the fight was a little bit easier, and my summons have taken much less damage. This helped tremendously with the DPS race, and made the fight much more manageable. To my surprise, I was able to defeat Sir Alonne on my first try. Which was absolutely unexpected, because I still had 50 minutes of my free time window, and I did not have any plans to move in the game at that moment Then I have remembered, that I still have to extinguish 1 Ashen Idol, and to pick up 1 Item, which was not accessible, when I have entered the Brume Tower. And one Crystal Lizard, but I was to lazy to try and run to it again

The story, which almost turned into tragedy, has been finished. All three bosses down. This probably cost me few new gray hairs, but in the end, I was satisfied, that I have not given up on the game, although, I will probably never forget about that idiotic Iron Passge... Next stop, the last DLC, which I heard has some stupid design decisions as well. Hopefully not in the vein of Iron Passage. We'll see...

Deathcounter: 250

[LadyCrimson]

7 Days to Die - version 1.0 is probably the version I've done the most .xml editing/learning ever. I'm not sure this is a good thing or not - since it means I'm more dissatisfied with vanilla than ever - but I guess at least .... I can. Plus it's been rather interesting of itself, testing/figuring stuff out.

Single player games should always be gameplay moddable. Not necessarily giant mod-kits/overhauling is easy like frying an egg kind of moddable, but some easy-ish, no special tools required tweaking allowances. Like, if you're not going to give players three pages of gameplay options to checkbox, let them do it with file tweaking. I don't know why every game in this era doesn't allow it.

Edit: "Easy/Normal/Hard" does not cut it anymore.

Edited August 24 by LadyCrimson

[Gorth]

I've been busy playing the latest expansion for Guild Wars 2 after I came back from Europe... no sleep for the wicked I guess

[uuuhhii]

starting my lovely empress 

prologue are so long and seem to be much more complicated than 2 previous game

 

[Hawke64]

On 8/24/2024 at 10:39 AM, Mamoulian War said:

The story, which almost turned into tragedy, has been finished. All three bosses down. This probably cost me few new gray hairs, but in the end, I was satisfied, that I have not given up on the game, although, I will probably never forget about that idiotic Iron Passge... Next stop, the last DLC, which I heard has some stupid design decisions as well. Hopefully not in the vein of Iron Passage. We'll see...

Deathcounter: 250

The experience with the Iron Passage does sound frustrating, but I am glad that it was positive overall. Killing the blue Smelter Demon used to allow to use the regular Smelter's soul to forge the blue sword, by the way. Not sure if it was changed in the SotFS edition.

The Iron Ivory Crown DLC co-op area is widely regarded as the worst area in the Dark Souls trilogy, but the density of the foes is different from the Iron Passage. I was using the summons as meatshields and dismissing them before the fog gate during my playthroughs.

About the co-op area (spoilers for the area; I assume you might want to read them after finishing it):

Spoiler

I don't think I explored it in the subsequent playthroughs - the snow and the deer were too annoying. In general, I was just running as fast as I could to the fog gate, while using the sun and the right border to navigate. It should ve technically possible to kill enough deer so they fully despawn, but I had not done it. There is some unique loot and a healing fountain in the buidlings, so getting them first and feathering out, then going for the boss battle could be an option.

About the boss battle (it is a DPS race and, if done incorrectly, it can end painfully after a certain point):

Spoiler

The summons affect when the second boss joins the battle - the more summons the lower the first boss' HP threshold. When one of the bosses is killed, the other buffs himself and gets increased speed, aggression, and HP regen, so, ideally, one would want to kill them at the same time/bring to low enough health, so the survivor can be finished off during the buffing animation. Otherwise, the berserk state is hard to survive - the boss calms down after some time, but it is likely to deplete your resources.

Also (not related to the co-op area), if you would like to get the frozen knight armour set, farming the knights might be preferable before killing the final boss of the DLC.

Edited August 27 by Hawke64
Mixed up "Iron" and "Ivory". Meant the Icy Pointy Hat DLC.