Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Flinty wrote:
Playing Paradox’s Battletech turn based game. It really scratches the itch. I learned the ropes in one campaign the. Restarted when it became apparent I kept losing too much money. Now I’ve got a heavy Lance that basically cores 1 or 2 light mechs per turn. Marauder and warhammer are great. Quickdraw is utterly gash and a total bullet magnet, but will do until I can find a better alternative.

On that note, I'm excited for Monday. Both Harebrained (the studio behind Battletech) and Colossal Order (the not!Simcity game) are finally announcing new projects. Also a third studio they've set up in Seattle or something (Paradox Tectonic) under a former Sims exec.

And none of them got saddled with Vampire bloodlines 2, apparently.

This is in addition to the already-announced Age of Wonders 4, which is coming out the beginning of May, and looks real good (and a fairly short wait period after its announcement in January, which bodes well)

 Flinty wrote:
Playing Paradox’s Battletech turn based game. It really scratches the itch. I learned the ropes in one campaign the. Restarted when it became apparent I kept losing too much money. Now I’ve got a heavy Lance that basically cores 1 or 2 light mechs per turn. Marauder and warhammer are great. Quickdraw is utterly gash and a total bullet magnet, but will do until I can find a better alternative.

Hah! Better alternative turned up last night in the shape of an Awesome tonight’s outing should be fun

 Flinty wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Playing Paradox’s Battletech turn based game. It really scratches the itch. I learned the ropes in one campaign the. Restarted when it became apparent I kept losing too much money. Now I’ve got a heavy Lance that basically cores 1 or 2 light mechs per turn. Marauder and warhammer are great. Quickdraw is utterly gash and a total bullet magnet, but will do until I can find a better alternative.

Hah! Better alternative turned up last night in the shape of an Awesome tonight’s outing should be fun

I really enjoyed it but its eventually you just seem to face Assault lances so you pretty much have to do the same.

That's part of it, but its more that being outnumbered 2-1 (or more with turrets &etc) is standard and evasion simply isn't a defense as the AI blats away at the most vulnerable mech. Only DR and high armor is.
Especially given that 'reinforcements' function rather poorly as sudden map spawns, with good odds that you'll meet them before the actual enemy force.

---
So the Paradox Announcement Show happened- a lot of trailers and awkward cuts with game designers and CEOs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noM0fV4pyQY

Basically, expected DLC for the big games, mentioned AoW4 again, and the smaller stuff. But...

Harebrained are doing the awkwardly titled 'Lamplighters Society and the Tower at the End of Time' basically 1930s supernatural X-Com vs (not?)Nazis and monsters.

Also everyone can buy City Skylines and all the DLC all over again, because City Skylines 2 was the big announcement.

Oh, and a preview of the announcement of their upcoming Not-the-Sims game.

Just picked up a free battlemaster. Also small lasers in this game feel a bit like teabagging. You knock over a small or medium mech, you stamp it’s centre torso out with an assault mech, and only after it explodes does the small laser pew pew over the smoking remains

Finally starting Red Dead 2.

Really enjoying Baldur’s Gate 3I(Early Access).

Currently playing as a paladin, because its usually an easy class from what I remember from BG1 + 2.

Quite a bit of interestng mechanics and design choices. Probably just going to mess around with character creation and such and then uninstall, so as not to spoil anything. August release date, I believe.

Early release thing really put me off Baldur's Gate 3. I'll play it when it comes out but it's left a bit of a sour taste.

Hah - In Battletech I picked up a Highlander, and found that an emergency DFA on a scurrying light mech awarded the "Highlander Burial" achievement Nice to see the nods to the fluff in the game.

Was pondering re-subbing to WoW for a bit, but it turns out they're doing a free weekend. So after poking about a bit and doing Darkmoon chores, I... guess I don't need to resub?

I genuinely like the current expansion, but it came out in the face of several releases I was really looking forward to, so I didn't stick around for very long. Being more distanced from Covid mode, I don't really have the interest in signing back up long term for chores.

Voss wrote:
That's part of it, but its more that being outnumbered 2-1 (or more with turrets &etc) is standard and evasion simply isn't a defense as the AI blats away at the most vulnerable mech. Only DR and high armor is.
Especially given that 'reinforcements' function rather poorly as sudden map spawns, with good odds that you'll meet them before the actual enemy force.

---
So the Paradox Announcement Show happened- a lot of trailers and awkward cuts with game designers and CEOs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noM0fV4pyQY

Basically, expected DLC for the big games, mentioned AoW4 again, and the smaller stuff. But...

Harebrained are doing the awkwardly titled 'Lamplighters Society and the Tower at the End of Time' basically 1930s supernatural X-Com vs (not?)Nazis and monsters.

Also everyone can buy City Skylines and all the DLC all over again, because City Skylines 2 was the big announcement.

Oh, and a preview of the announcement of their upcoming Not-the-Sims game.

I used to like Paradox so much, but I guess there's this big problem with "doing a good job" to an extent that it means that accursed "getting big and rich", which ruins things. Can't play their games any more.

So I started playing Mount&Blade Warband again. Vanilla, even. It's OK fun.

 Sigur wrote:

I used to like Paradox so much, but I guess there's this big problem with "doing a good job" to an extent that it means that accursed "getting big and rich", which ruins things. Can't play their games any more.

Pretty sure I didn't follow that.
My biggest problem with the main paradox games is they're largely just real-time spreadsheet simulators. You wait until numbers tick up enough to spend them and then wait some more. But there aren't many meaningful player interactions or decisions to make, so any playthrough feels the same.

The smaller studios they've bought tend to have more interesting ideas, but they aren't always fully baked. For AoW 4 (the one I'm really excited about) there's definitely signs of a well developed game coming, and if its anything like Planetfall, there's going to be a set number of dlc and then the game is complete forever, which frankly I'm up for. Funding everything all at once is a challenge, so discrete dlc for specific gameplay features is fine. Its just main paradox (and cities skylines) tends toward endless minor adjustments of systems that were either unfinished or were working fine (I honestly think a lot of EUIVs systems are worse now than they were years ago).

Lamplighters I'm kinda meh on despite liking Battletech because I'm not found of the modern X-com type games, nor pre-1930s semi-Nazi supernatural noir. Its rather overdone.

I've dusted off Civilization 6 after hearing that Civ 7 is in development.

Its a great game but there are definitely some niggles I'd like to see addressed in Civ 7. (Districts, diplomacy and diplomatic victories are the main ones!!)

Dabbled in DOW in the past, couldn't get into the first one, the 2nd one didn't run right on my machine total disappointment, but I was just looking over DOW3 and in particular the no limit mod, looks like I could get into it, reminds me of BFME. Anyone playing this or the mod?

Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap

One added to the Nintendo Online, and a Zelda game I’ve never played before.

Originally released in 2004, it’s an odd mashup of classic top down, 2D gameplay, but lifting the music from the 3D games. Also made in collaboration with Capcom.

Capcom influence I find in the art style and some of the sounds (there’s a distinct whack I recognise from the superb Secret of Mana).

Two dungeons down, and greatly enjoying it. I don’t think it’s gonna be a long game, given it was on Gameboy Advance, but it’s nice to be playing a 2D Zelda after so many years.

Voss wrote:

 Sigur wrote:

I used to like Paradox so much, but I guess there's this big problem with "doing a good job" to an extent that it means that accursed "getting big and rich", which ruins things. Can't play their games any more.

Pretty sure I didn't follow that.
My biggest problem with the main paradox games is they're largely just real-time spreadsheet simulators. You wait until numbers tick up enough to spend them and then wait some more. But there aren't many meaningful player interactions or decisions to make, so any playthrough feels the same.

The smaller studios they've bought tend to have more interesting ideas, but they aren't always fully baked. For AoW 4 (the one I'm really excited about) there's definitely signs of a well developed game coming, and if its anything like Planetfall, there's going to be a set number of dlc and then the game is complete forever, which frankly I'm up for. Funding everything all at once is a challenge, so discrete dlc for specific gameplay features is fine. Its just main paradox (and cities skylines) tends toward endless minor adjustments of systems that were either unfinished or were working fine (I honestly think a lot of EUIVs systems are worse now than they were years ago).

Lamplighters I'm kinda meh on despite liking Battletech because I'm not found of the modern X-com type games, nor pre-1930s semi-Nazi supernatural noir. Its rather overdone.

I'm speaking mainly from a EU/HoI/Crusader Kings player's perspective (I played Cities:Skyline as well.). I loved their AAAA RTS games or what ever they call them (I don't quite agree on each game being the same), but the constant tinkering with the mechanics and DLCs just annoyed the heck out of me. I absolutely agree with you - EUIV worked perfectly fine about one year after release. I have no idea why they kept on messing with it. I also read about their plans for some sort of subscription system and any sort of that stuff or live service stuff deserves to be booted in the nads instantly.

It just feels like they're milking their main games needlessly.

I asume you mean Age of Wonders? If so - Loved 1 and 2, Shadow Magic with the community patch is peak AoW. The third one was a huge disappointment, so I'm not really looking forward to AoW4. And - just like you said - IF it proves to be good Paradox will blart DLC at us constantly, and I don't feel like keeping up with that stuff.

Agreed about Lamplighters. That seems like a pile of a lot of overdone stuff.

I got Star Wars Rebellion working!!!

Sure, to make it playable I have to set my desktop resolution to 800 x 600 (and even then it plays in a 640 x 480 window!), but it finally works. I'd kill for a modern update of this game.

I have four massive fleets rolling around the Galaxy, taking out (and taking over) one sector at a time.

 Sigur wrote:

Voss wrote:

 Sigur wrote:

I used to like Paradox so much, but I guess there's this big problem with "doing a good job" to an extent that it means that accursed "getting big and rich", which ruins things. Can't play their games any more.

Pretty sure I didn't follow that.
My biggest problem with the main paradox games is they're largely just real-time spreadsheet simulators. You wait until numbers tick up enough to spend them and then wait some more. But there aren't many meaningful player interactions or decisions to make, so any playthrough feels the same.

The smaller studios they've bought tend to have more interesting ideas, but they aren't always fully baked. For AoW 4 (the one I'm really excited about) there's definitely signs of a well developed game coming, and if its anything like Planetfall, there's going to be a set number of dlc and then the game is complete forever, which frankly I'm up for. Funding everything all at once is a challenge, so discrete dlc for specific gameplay features is fine. Its just main paradox (and cities skylines) tends toward endless minor adjustments of systems that were either unfinished or were working fine (I honestly think a lot of EUIVs systems are worse now than they were years ago).

Lamplighters I'm kinda meh on despite liking Battletech because I'm not found of the modern X-com type games, nor pre-1930s semi-Nazi supernatural noir. Its rather overdone.

I'm speaking mainly from a EU/HoI/Crusader Kings player's perspective (I played Cities:Skyline as well.). I loved their AAAA RTS games or what ever they call them (I don't quite agree on each game being the same), but the constant tinkering with the mechanics and DLCs just annoyed the heck out of me. I absolutely agree with you - EUIV worked perfectly fine about one year after release. I have no idea why they kept on messing with it. I also read about their plans for some sort of subscription system and any sort of that stuff or live service stuff deserves to be booted in the nads instantly.

The sub service exists. Presumably people use it, but no idea why or if its profitable. It probably does make sense for new players that are only going to play a couple months than drop a game, rather than buy into hundreds of dollars of DLC.

But I know I'd have a hard time getting into the games in their current states- though tomorrow's stellaris DLC does have some interesting ideas (and the return of starting with jump drives, though at a huge cost in starting pops)

I asume you mean Age of Wonders? If so - Loved 1 and 2, Shadow Magic with the community patch is peak AoW. The third one was a huge disappointment, so I'm not really looking forward to AoW4. And - just like you said - IF it proves to be good Paradox will blart DLC at us constantly, and I don't feel like keeping up with that stuff.

That's the opposite of what I said- the DLC model for Age of Wonders Planetfall was a set number (3?) announced with the game and then they full stopped.
They've done a similar announcement for Age of Wonders 4 (2 dlc and 2 content packs), no indication that they'll continue churning past that point. The mechanical systems (provinces, unit defense & damage calculations, some customization aspects) are more Planetfall than AoW3.

Oops, sorry. Let's see what they do with AoW4 then. Maybe it'll be good.

The sub service exists. Presumably people use it, but no idea why or if its profitable. It probably does make sense for new players that are only going to play a couple months than drop a game, rather than buy into hundreds of dollars of DLC.

But I know I'd have a hard time getting into the games in their current states- though tomorrow's stellaris DLC does have some interesting ideas (and the return of starting with jump drives, though at a huge cost in starting pops)

Sure, but if a video game costs hundreds of Euros to get into there's just something wrong there. It's nice that Paradox found their way of running their company, but to me it's just not interesting any more that way, at least not their big four games or so.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap

One added to the Nintendo Online, and a Zelda game I’ve never played before.

Originally released in 2004, it’s an odd mashup of classic top down, 2D gameplay, but lifting the music from the 3D games. Also made in collaboration with Capcom.

Capcom influence I find in the art style and some of the sounds (there’s a distinct whack I recognise from the superb Secret of Mana).

Two dungeons down, and greatly enjoying it. I don’t think it’s gonna be a long game, given it was on Gameboy Advance, but it’s nice to be playing a 2D Zelda after so many years.

This was a good one! Definitely under appreciated along with the other Capcom Zeldas, though Secret of Mana is a Square game.

One word of warning, don't go for all the heart pieces. There's one that's just a random grind that's absolutely miserable and in no way worth it.

At a super frustrating bit, where you need to use your newly acquired item, and a fan you don’t control, to jump a gap. Except you’ve been given maybe five minutes to figure out this new item and your timings.

Currently in a huff with it, but an otherwise brilliant game.

Started XCom: Chimera Squad. It's a bit odd but I'll give them credit for trying something different. I guess they wanted to get rid of the part in battles where you're not shooting someone but those parts where you're sneaking around or setting up were often some some of the tensest parts of the game. There's nothing scarier than the enemy you haven't spotted yet. Anyway, just wish the bad guys didn't have unlimited reinforcements all the time. That doesn't make sense storyline wise. This time you're the authorities and have control of the city. I mean the first thing police do is usually setup a perimeter...

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Started XCom: Chimera Squad. It's a bit odd but I'll give them credit for trying something different. I guess they wanted to get rid of the part in battles where you're not shooting someone but those parts where you're sneaking around or setting up were often some some of the tensest parts of the game. There's nothing scarier than the enemy you haven't spotted yet. Anyway, just wish the bad guys didn't have unlimited reinforcements all the time. That doesn't make sense storyline wise. This time you're the authorities and have control of the city. I mean the first thing police do is usually setup a perimeter...

I haven't touched Chimera Squad in forever and i'm wondering if you brought that up to summon me like some sort of summoning ritual. My thoughts on Chimera Squad is most of what they did was bad for xcom with the exception of new items, breaching options, a couple characters (the sectoid) and some specialty black market gear you can buy. The game feels easier, less action oriented, most of the characters feel kinda bad, the alternating turns isn't fun, the end-game avatar progress timer is too easy to delay and it just feels worse overall. They gave the viper a completely human voice and the post-advent soldiers are lame this time around. I don't even know how they made the game like xcom 2 but mostly worse. I was really disappointed esp. after we got the nice war of the chosen and fun story missions freeLC.

I heard Marvel's Midnight Suns (sons?) was good but i haven't tried it yet.

---------

I was playing xenonauts a while but have been either away from gaming or just trying different things.

I played some hearts of iron 4 as the british last night. I think i'm getting the game more. I'm defending France and it's halfway through 1940 and it hasn't fallen. I may have to flee back to the UK soon enough as the germans are just too strong like they were IRL.

Finished the Battletech campaign. Nice wee story, and plenty of opportunity to stomp about in big stompy robots. So now I’m just an average mercenary band, rocking a mech stable that would make House militaries cry

I thinned out my stock of salvaged medium lasers to the tune of 150 and 1m c-bills, and still had over 100 left.

Campaign mode is a bit pointless at this point.

The mercenary mode is better, mostly because it isn't saddled with that story (which isn't what they promised during the kickstarter, which involved picking sides and nuanced morally grey sides, not mustache twirling villains and death camps. It also didn't help that they creatively misinterpreted the paradox forum rules (specifically re: the death camps) to shut down criticism of the story.

-----
Back on a new Dwarf Fortress. Had a minor undead siege early on, which was fine, but it turned out that several of the monster hunters that had arrived were chilling on the surface.
Specifically, they were enjoying a nice swim in a pond (for months) while the siege was going on. Eventually the undead chased my sheep into the ponds and they finally decided to help out.

I hadn't managed to get any of my animals inside yet, but the geese, yaks and puppies survived. The adult dogs and sheep got slaughtered, however.

Most of the monster hunters later died to an ambush by giant olm-men while I was expanding out into the first cavern layer. The only survivor is a goblin spearman, who saved my miners after an attempt to drop a chunk of ceiling on the invaders went wrong.

I channeled out the wrong area and made a ramp down to the olm-men, who the miners suddenly and inexplicably charged. They killed four of the six before running away.
Two of my ad hoc military died because they didn't pick up any gear before joining the fight, but the goblin showed up to save the day (and both miners)

I now have a nice sealed underground pasture and farm. Need to gear up, train and make some building material before trying the same trick on the second cavern layer.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Started XCom: Chimera Squad. It's a bit odd but I'll give them credit for trying something different. I guess they wanted to get rid of the part in battles where you're not shooting someone but those parts where you're sneaking around or setting up were often some some of the tensest parts of the game. There's nothing scarier than the enemy you haven't spotted yet. Anyway, just wish the bad guys didn't have unlimited reinforcements all the time. That doesn't make sense storyline wise. This time you're the authorities and have control of the city. I mean the first thing police do is usually setup a perimeter...

I haven't touched Chimera Squad in forever and i'm wondering if you brought that up to summon me like some sort of summoning ritual. My thoughts on Chimera Squad is most of what they did was bad for xcom with the exception of new items, breaching options, a couple characters (the sectoid) and some specialty black market gear you can buy. The game feels easier, less action oriented, most of the characters feel kinda bad, the alternating turns isn't fun, the end-game avatar progress timer is too easy to delay and it just feels worse overall. They gave the viper a completely human voice and the post-advent soldiers are lame this time around. I don't even know how they made the game like xcom 2 but mostly worse. I was really disappointed esp. after we got the nice war of the chosen and fun story missions freeLC.

I heard Marvel's Midnight Suns (sons?) was good but i haven't tried it yet.

---------

Indeed I knew saying I saw some Aliens would summon you. I know you're always on that wall - always watching - always waiting... So far I don't mind it but, ya, I doubt it will have the replayability of the first 2. One of the hybrid soldiers is Australian but only sometimes....

I was just about to buy Midnight Sons but then it turns out you have to have an Xbox Series X and I only got a Xbox One X (Microsoft has the worst naming system ever). Haven't run into that before so looks like it may be time to take the plunge on that.

I am currently playing Pharaoh (a 1999 city building game that followed on from the Caesar titles). I was never able to beat it back in the day but I think I only have three missions left now. They get extremely difficult near the end

After re-watching the excellent Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime, I decided I wanted to find Rebecca's Apartment, which I instantly recognised as the building in the show. I thought I knew where it was, but...I didn't. Tried to look it up online, but I could only find where to start the Gig that allows you to visit the apartment, which is somewhere else. Eventually, I managed to find it, but of course, because I'd completed the quest months ago, the apartment was inaccessible; what a waste of time, lol. I found her shotgun a while back, though. It's amazing that no one out of surely millions of people which walk through that area daily didn't stumble on it over the years after Edgerunners happened. I'm just looking forward to the 1.7 update and the DLC.

Citizen sleeper. Only just started and it’s certainly an interesting one. I really liked the developers previous game in other waters. Even paid for the art book of that game. Citizen sleeper is a role playing game. You’re a ex human robot who’s just escaped eternity of labor. Now you must manage on a new space station while staying away from the authorities. Your body is programmed to fail so you’re also fighting degradation. Also you need to eat and sleep apparently. And you’re being hunted. It’s a really interesting premise with a very immersive feeling. I would recommend it if you have a longer stretch of time to sit down playing.

Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend

It's Slay the Spire but in the Touhou setting. Still early access but with a steady stream of updates. Hopefully they'll finish the two remaining playable characters, and maybe add some more music (right now the same tracks for long segments of the game get kind of repetitive).