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Haha that sounds excellent - I shall give it a try!

Battletech campaign continues. Got most of the Royal SLDF mechs for my primary lance, pride of place being a truly disgusting Highlander with a pair of updamage LBX-10s (with minor weight reductions), an LRM 15 and 10 with bonus stability damage, and a couple spare medium lasers. It just guts enemy mechs.

Currently the Highlander is deployed with:
Bull shark (a pair each of Ultra AC5s and AC2s, plus the stock ER mediums.

Battlemaster (Royal variant) Snub PPC, medium lasers, LRM racks.

and a Royal Griffin. 25 LRMS (2x10,1x5) , 2 medium lasers.

Everything has jump jets, which helps the mobility issues, and the Royal variants can spare the weight.

---

Have a royal Phoenix Hawk for the basis of a faster (and lower drop weight) lance with the Griffin. Want to add Royal versions of the Warhammer and Black Knight to the 'fast' lance, and replace the Griffin in the assault lance with an Atlas II.
Will definitely need to spend money on better energy weapons for the Warhammer and BK, and the Phoenix still needs some work. One of its guns is just a stock large laser!

Had an annihilator that I headshot in a disturbingly low-skull mission, but couldn't stand the speed. And didn't have enough improved autocannons to justify it. Had an HQ Cyclops for a good long while, but it just doesn't have enough spare tonnage (or weapon slots). The royal Griffin outguns it, despite being two weight classes lower.

X-Com Enemy Within.

Trying to finally actually finish a game.

Got through all the Progeny and Slingshot missions, next is to shoot down the Overseer.

 Pacific wrote:

 Olthannon wrote:
Have time currently so I'm playing a whole pile of games.

I've got Fallout 4 on the go, I never finished it first time round so I'm hoping to rectify that. I can't remember why at the time. I think I hit a point in the story that I didn't enjoy and I was perhaps a little disappointed in the game. Replaying it now I'm coming into it with a different mindset and I'm actually enjoying it. I forgot I enjoyed a lot of the thing about the game.

I'm also playing the new update to Deep Rock Galactic with a few mates, the new stuff is pretty cool.
.

Each time I have played Fallout 4 I end up getting to the point where I am sprinting around trying to protect settlements, and end up not getting to the end of the game(!) I think I did see the BoS ending, but need to get to the others.

Deep Rock Galactic is a great game, so much fun. It's replaced Helldivers as my regular gaming night with buddies (although we seem to end up massing around in the bar almost as much as we spend time actually delving!)

Yeah I think that was one of the reasons I stopped playing the first time round.

I jokingly called the twist well in advance and got an awkward look from my brother, was not shocked when it actually happened.

Just another thing that can be chalked up to the poor and unimaginative writing of Bethesda. That and the radiant quests, enough already with those.

 BrookM wrote:
I jokingly called the twist well in advance and got an awkward look from my brother, was not shocked when it actually happened.

Just another thing that can be chalked up to the poor and unimaginative writing of Bethesda. That and the radiant quests, enough already with those.

But another settlement needs your help...

Started up the new Chaos Gate game this morning. I had just enough time to get through the tutorial mission before I had to head to work. Unlike the campaign, the tutorial has you fighting the final mission of a lengthy campaign against the forces of Khorne. All of your actions are scripted to introduce you to the gameplay. That's nice for showing what you can do, but not so useful for showing the numbers that I'll need to start crunching to beat the game.

Events that happened included kicking open a massive cathedral door, slamming into a pillar to knock it over on enemies (with a reticle used to aim where it fell), shots that always hit (cover reduces the damage you take), marines can survive losing all of their health (it does take them out of action for a while, though), and a marine jumping across a gap.

While I enjoyed the mission, it was fully scripted, and so wasn't a normal fight. It existed purely to explain mechanics, and showcase abilities.

I'll start the game proper when I get home.

I've been enjoying the oblique weirdness of Cultist Simulator. You juggle various timers to try to keep your cultist alive, while possibly establishing a cult and expanding your knowledge of the dark arts.

It's like Mario party meets an interactive Lovecraftian horror story, that is totally unexplained to the user.

I shot down and successfully stormed the overseer ship!

It ended with a nice down to the wire moment. There were two muton elites left, two of my guys (the medics, of course) were on the floor bleeding out, and I managed to use a combo of mindfray and just shooting dudes in the face to take the elites out in one turn and save my guys by ending the mission.

I'm back at it in Warframe again. I keep dropping the game for a while, and then come back and have fun with it some more. Like having an ex that I broke up with for a good reason yet I can't quite give up all of my feelings for, or something.

I wish i could say i'm playing games but i'm not playing a whole lot. Maybe i've gotten too old for em, maybe games just suck too hard these days, maybe i'm depressed or maybe all of the above.

I played xcom 2 a bit more and tried to finish the current campaign on Legend/Ironman but the end game is just so dull for some reason. Maybe it's the fact tech advances as much as it can and it's no longer an arms race vs the aliens. I think it's the same kind of problem 4X strategy games have and xcom style games in general. Late game is just boring as losses aren't as devastating and wins aren't so critical.

I also played Starcraft 2 legacy of the void from the start a little bit and fumbled that pretty badly. Maybe i should play starcraft 2 again except mostly multiplayer.

Maybe i should play one of my other games i've never tried before like start up Tails of Iron or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided again.

I've been playing a bit of DRG, always a laugh. I've just unlocked the new rail gun for the gunner and I'm eager to get blastin'.

The microwave gun that the driller gets is absurdly fun.

Steadily knocking along with world of warcraft, the Light loves a grinder eh?

Fallout 4 meanwhile, well I've fallen by the wayside. I died rather ignominiously and then the save brought be way back to the start of the area and I've sacked it off since then

Beat X-Com Enemy Within! I so rarely finish games, so I'm happy about this.

I had a soldier named after me and one after my wife, she managed to fire the winning shot.

 Olthannon wrote:

Steadily knocking along with world of warcraft, the Light loves a grinder eh?

Heh. I just let my time lapse again, mostly because of the grind- didn't want to spend 3-4 more weeks on the last couple thousand points to Exalted with the Court of Night and Enlightened.
Or level two more alts through Shadowlands (I do still enjoy older content, but I'm at the point where leveling up the abandoned archaeology skill for XP is more fun than the current expansion)

I'll probably pop back in once 9.2.5 happens and get characters ready for the next expansion, but I need a break from cycling world quests for gold that I don't need.

Finally beat the xcom 2 war of the chosen run. Since my soldiers had chosen weapons, the viper ruler armor and extra abilities from the training center I basically ran over the avatar facility. I did have a couple scary moments and did need to heal one guy once but otherwise I killed all 3 avatars and a bunch of stuff in the final area and the earlier section wiped out everything including the chosen warlock (the chosen I couldn’t kill permanently) though he didn’t teleport this time so I assume he died permanently this time.

I suppose I should try out the Long war of the chosen and try it at commander Ironman since long war mod is always one difficulty harder than vanilla xcom 2. This means xcom 2 legend Ironman (hardest difficulty in vanilla) is as hard as long war commander Ironman (2nd hardest in the long war mod).

Tried out the new Stellaris DLC (they sucked me in with Orbital Rings and the subterranean Origin even though the latter really isn't very good- bonus minerals at a cost of pop growth is a horrible trade for this game, though the extra housing and building slots makes it 'ok')

So I really didn't make a League of Votann civilization... except I did, but I forgot how freaking terrible Megacorporations are. The mechanics are interesting, but I inevitably get 'but all your neighbors are hostile to indifferent, and refuse to trade, so you can't do squat.' An Irenic Monarchy (inward perfection, doesn't trade) and a civ that had good matches with my ethics but switched to Rivalry (because reasons, which I think were just 'they didn't have one yet, so haha coding') are my immediate neighbors, and everyone else is on the other side of the first one, and too far away to care.

I did get the event chain for one of the new achievements (Lord of the Deeps?) and happily dug too greedily and deeply. And unearthed a frikkin' underground space amoeba (or something). Its a _15,000_ combat power army. Its still early game, so my armies' power ratings are 22 and 41 respectively. So, yeah, nothing to be done.


Going to restart for this weekend, try something else. Probably the latent psychics origin and some kind of ethic and trait combinations that I don't normally do. Maybe go full decadent Eldar and eventually become the crisis.

Played a little more of the new Chaos Gate: Daemon Hunters. I like the game, but unfortunately I don't have as much time to play it as I'd like. I am having fun with it, though. While the basic idea is similar to games like XCom, the actual playstyle is (so far, at least) much more aggressive. During gameplay, cultists are no longer the only enemies I'm running into. I'm now also fighting Plague Marines, who are noticeably tougher than the cultists. Still nothing that my Grey Knights can't handle with a little care.

Re: Stellaris

Gotta say, whatever changes they've made to the AI, they absolutely blitz research now. I'm used to throttling back both to build an economy and to not completely overwhelm the AI, but with the latest patch, that isn't true anymore. The AI expands faster, builds more and researches a LOT more. To the point that everyone is superior/superior/superior in fleet/research/trade, and I'm used to that being the other way around after about year 50 or so.

In some ways it's good (because the stellaris AI was completely pathetic), but now it feels like competing as the player is very difficult. If I had hostile neighbors in my current game, I'd be dead, with nothing to be done about it, and other than pouring tons into research years and years ago, there doesn't seem to be a solution.

Finally visited, and returned from, each of the four ages in Myst, for the PSP. There's apparently a Rime age but that wasn't in the original game and I think is only available towards the end of the game. I hope its not too long before I move onto Riven, which is highly acclaimed but I didn't get a copy back in the day. Kinda wished I'd picked it up for the Saturn when I had the chance...

Had a go on Farcry 6 - my brother's copy - and quickly lost my rag when a load of radial menus popped and the dozy thing decided to whip out a mobile phone to take a photo, when trying to simply switch to a gun after repairing a vehicle. Which was the last thing one wants when suddenly jumped by unsavoury types...

Played the long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2. I think I must be way behind on things.

I have the engineers and intel isn’t bad but my scientist numbers were at 1 for too long so I rescued a 2nd and bought a 3rd in quick succession and it seems much better now.

I’m also way behind because a small chunk of my guys died. I think it’s 6 so far and 2 were captured in one mission and I’m about to rescue the 2 in another. I also had a lot of injured people so working on power and a Med bay would be a great idea.

Anyway here’s to hoping this game isn’t lost yet. I currently have intel to burn on missions so maybe I’m ok.

Made a big leap towards leaving the planet in RimWorld with the help of the SRTS mod allowing me to make a ship to travel the planet. I built another colony right next to the place where the starship is and have begun methodically moving supplies from my main colony, so I can create defences for the attacks that'll come when I begin powering up the ship (it'll also allow me to land the ship to a place where it's less likely to be destroyed or damaged by the enemy) Also been having my cook to make Survival Meals for the defence. Here's a pic of the ship I built. Took a long while and a lot of resources, but it was worth it. Also, Adrassil is here also lol

SamusDrake wrote:
Finally visited, and returned from, each of the four ages in Myst, for the PSP. There's apparently a Rime age but that wasn't in the original game and I think is only available towards the end of the game. I hope its not too long before I move onto Riven, which is highly acclaimed but I didn't get a copy back in the day. Kinda wished I'd picked it up for the Saturn when I had the chance...

Myst and its sequels are truly amazing games. You mentioned Rime Age; it was indeed not in the original game, but was added in the RealMyst remake.

I probably need to come up with copies of all the games and play through them again. Some great memories from my childhood are of playing them myself, and watching some of my various relatives play through them also.

Started a new game of long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2 wotc. I think I’m doing ok except advent strength really piled up in the 3 areas I was grabbing intel from. I got to a 4th region which has only 1 advent strength so likely good for missions vs the 5 to either 6 or 7 advent strength in my previous regions.

This time I have like 5 scientists or so and 3 engineers and I’m fine with that. Ofc supplies are now an issue again.

Anyway I should maybe get a 5th or even a 6th region soon.

 ZergSmasher wrote:

Myst and its sequels are truly amazing games. You mentioned Rime Age; it was indeed not in the original game, but was added in the RealMyst remake.

I probably need to come up with copies of all the games and play through them again. Some great memories from my childhood are of playing them myself, and watching some of my various relatives play through them also.

There is certainly a charm to Myst, with my favourite age being Stoneship. Just got both pages back to the books on Myst and the plot thickens...

Thankfully I bought the Exile Collectors edition, as an impulse purchase, back in the day and while at the time puzzles weren't my thing, it came with the complete guide to the game and I was able to just enjoy the visuals. It felt like a taste of what was to come for VR and eventually led me to develop small unity demos for the Oculus Go. Definitely a life-changing experience I must say.

I recently found out the C&C and Red Alert 1 remaster is free on xbox gamepass PC, so I downloaded that. Started the Allied Red Alert mission, it's a real joy to go back to a game that I haven't touched in over a decade. They have a really clever little intro when you boot up the game to show how they've changed the graphics and sound.

Fallout: New Vegas for the first time in a long time. Now with a plethora of mods, including the Someguy series, the character uphaul and the A World of Pain mod, that makes the map has a heap more dungeons which makes exploring the map an almost whole new experience and "updated" HD textures which I like, mostly but some just look a little strange. I managed to get working well this time with few frame rate issues, and it hasn't crashed (besides when I quit the game, but I downloaded another patching mod, and that seems to have fixed that issue) Woops, spoke too soon, it just froze as I did a quick check on the game then, a shame. The last time I quit from the main menu, it didn't freeze, so I might try quitting to that and then quitting the game.

Same long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2 wotc. Only one squaddie has died so far and it’s currently early July in the game’s time. I have 6 scientists and 5 engineers as well as a possible 6th engineer if I win this mission.

My 4th region is doing well and somehow I managed to annoy advent enough to force their armies to station into west and east Africa and leave South Africa alone again. I’m trying to get a 5th region but that’ll require a radio relay somewhere and that may be dangerous with advent strength in those regions so high.

I could also use more intel and supplies but luckily I’ve been doing lots of supply depot missions. Sadly it only seems to be enough to arm and armor my guys and girls for battle.

Anyway it’s been a bit tough. I still have to liberate a region and I feel like I’m a bit slow at it.

Things are pretty good aside from all that though. My scientist and engineer numbers seem decent, I’m a few days away from magnetic weapons and low death counts as well as fairly high soldier numbers. 40 of those soldier guys but like 10 are rookies or squaddies and a bunch get wounded so I only really have about 18 guys I send out on missions.

Anyway sorry for the wall of text but this current campaign seems to be going well.

Still on Fallout: New Vegas. Just encountered the most FANTASTIC character of ALL time Fantastic. I remember back in the day how much of a meme this guy was and boy does he deserve it lol

Just unlocked Castellan Crowe in Chaos Gate : Daemonhunters. About to start a mission with him!

This game is pretty legit, aside from a bit of repetition in mission mechanics. Its challenging, even at standard difficulty but so rewarding when you are victorious.

I do take umbrage with the amount of damage a mere cultist can put on a Terminator armoured Grey Knight with an autogun though.

Edit: Crowe is a beast as expected, since he’s level 20 when he joins you.

OMG I COMPLETED MYST LAST NIGHT!!!

Dammit this game has bugged me for friggin donkey years! This is like if Wile Coyote finally caught Road Runner or something!

I can finally move on to Riven now! Yes! Its really happening!