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You could try a game against a lone AI without the improved AI start and low aggression.

I'm mostly on the paradox binge so..

EU4, Stellaris and HOI4.

World of tanks and hearthstone for light hearted stuff.

Fallout 4, the new Survival mode & some of the Paradox' games

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Still on Stellaris. It's a lot of fun, but I'm really bad at it. I wish it has an easy-mode so I could practice, sort of how I did for Civ V. Although I might try and make a pseudo easy-mode by getting mods to boost all the production by 25% or something.

Im in a similar boat. I get it and how it works, but I just cant seem to keep myself hooked long enough to actually get good at it.

Hmm I'm having fun with it playing on my own, trying to do it fast enough for PvP sounds too stressful lol.

 Conrad Turner wrote:
I rarely finish a game.

Fallout 4 I have over 400 hours in, and have never got to the point where I actively have to choose a faction. There's just too much shiny stuff that keeps distracting me. I have one character that's going to side with the Brotherhood, one that's going to side with the Institute, one who's Minutemen all the way, and a few others I haven't made my mind up about yet. But one is in limbo near the end of Automatron, another is currently bumming around Far Harbour, one is scouring the wasteland for Concrete for a high-tech Sanctuary, and another is looking at a huge main settlement at the drive-in with self-contained water, food, and power that no enemy will ever be able to get to.

And other than that, I'm filling those dreary, wet hours with classic games from GoG.Com, such as X-wing, TIE Fighter, and others.

I'm 78 hours in and basically done half of everything in the game from quests to random exploration. I play efficient. This includes building up every settlement I can find to my max (cha 6).

 Conrad Turner wrote:
I rarely finish a game.

Fallout 4 I have over 400 hours in, and have never got to the point where I actively have to choose a faction.

Fun fact: There's a hard-to-get canon ending where you can choose three factions and have them all be at peace with each other.

You can probably guess which three.

When I play anything lately, I jump back into my second play through of Fallout 4. It's a bit boring this time around though, something I did't experience with most of the other Bethesda games I completed.

Finished my first 12 win arena run in Hearthstone yesterday

Allright, the empire spawning thing in stellaris is bs. I'll post some screenshots when I get, home but I did 15 empites on the biggest map (1000 stars) , and encountered my first one with our homeworlds 4 stars apart and an unknown militaey base only 3 stars from my home world.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Allright, the empire spawning thing in stellaris is bs. I'll post some screenshots when I get, home but I did 15 empites on the biggest map (1000 stars) , and encountered my first one with our homeworlds 4 stars apart and an unknown militaey base only 3 stars from my home world.

Yes it is. Being cornered in your homeworld is Fun(tm)!


Though the military base could be an Early Space Flight pre-FTL species that you can observe.

As much fun as I find spiral galaxies, there's nothing worse than being a Warp empire sandwiched between two large, expansionist-type AIs; especially if you don't get better warp-jump tech early on so you can hop to another arm.

Here's a picture of the map.

And here's my homeworld.



FFS, I though 15 was few enough that they'd be spread out. Time to turn to modding I guess.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Here's a picture of the map.

Spoiler:

And here's my homeworld.

Spoiler:

FFS, I though 15 was few enough that they'd be spread out. Time to turn to modding I guess.

Whats the issue there? You have plenty of room to expand in both directions and as you already have a larger fleet capacity than the other empire you could just conquer/vassalise it. You could certainly knock out the outpost without much trouble although you will need a larger fleet to take out the space port.

You will always start near to at least 1 other race, just be glad that it wasn't a Fallen Empire...

I have given up on Stellaris for the moment, way too many broken mechanics and poorly balanced areas. In a few months it should be a much better game.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Here's a picture of the map.

Spoiler:

And here's my homeworld.

Spoiler:

FFS, I though 15 was few enough that they'd be spread out. Time to turn to modding I guess.

A screenshot from the earlier stages of an MP game a while back:



I am that blue blob in the middle.

Started Anima: Gate of Memories. It was released on Steam on the 2nd, and is set in the game world from the RPG/Miniatures game.

It's an over the shoulder game for the most part, with you running around and zapping things at range, or hitting them at close range. More or less standard fare. The twist is that the protagonist - a young woman called The Bearer of Calamities - is bound to a rather dark entity named 'Ergo'. Ergo was trapped in a book centuries earlier after trying to overthrow the Emperor (because he was bored and someone said he couldn't do it), and as part of the binding process to Bearer, he consumed her name. As a result of the binding, he can take her place in the real world. Both Bearer and Ergo have more or less the same move set. But you can develop their skills separately, and equip them with different pieces of gear that will give them different strengths and focuses.

I've only put a few hours into the game, so I've no idea how deep into the setting the game goes.

It's not spectacular. But it's fun. And it only cost me $20.


Also, Ergo's a snarky, sarcastic, creep (he constantly calls Bearer 'baby'), with some amusing bits of dialogue that will suddenly pop up from time to time. For instance, at one point Ergo starts singing a song about being trapped in a book, to the tune of 'Reading Rainbow'.




The single biggest complaint that I have about the game is that when you enter certain rooms, or certain things happen in the game, it'll suddenly switch to a top-down view. In and of itself, that's fine, as the view generally makes it easier to see the enemies that try and swarm you from all sides whenever it happens. But the controls suddenly change whenever it happens, which throws me off.

Got three 12-0 arena runs in Hearthstone within 6 runs.
1st one was a pali deck with two muster for battles, and two truesilvers. Easiest 12-0 in my life.
2nd was a shaman deck with two 1/3 troggs and two wind elementals, along with Alakir and three Earth Elementals. I also drafted two lightning storms back to back, which was pretty sweet.
3rd was an altered handlock that I drafted perfect picks for. Drafted a Sylvanus, a Nefarian and mr C'thun. Only C'thun buffing cards I got were the beckoner, and the one that gives +1/1 at the end of your turn. It came out as a 9/9, but it was still quite op.

Came out of those runs with 400ish gold, 150 dust and four packs. All in all pretty gak.

It's just not mount and blade if you don't get stained red with the blood of your enemies (and occasionally allies).


Also, I invented a fool-proof way to keep the lords from escaping.

I am playing bloodborne again. i do not think it goes to +10 like people think. Or your guy is just so damn strong it stops mattering at +5

 Avatar 720 wrote:
As much fun as I find spiral galaxies, there's nothing worse than being a Warp empire sandwiched between two large, expansionist-type AIs; especially if you don't get better warp-jump tech early on so you can hop to another arm.

+1 to this.

Though I've also been stuck between a circle of five different empires in elliptical, too...

Been playing Neverwinter with a friend.

Chasing that platinum trophy in Dark Souls 2 on PS4. 86% of the way there!

Good luck, Nordicus!

I am playing and have been playing Fallout 4 A LOT

I downloaded NBA2K16 for free from PSN. I'm normally not into sports games but my niece likes them and watches basketball so I picked it up so I can have a game we can play together. It's actually a really well done game. \

There's a free Soccer (Club Evolution, I think) game on PSN I also downloaded, which I haven't tried yet (my niece is also a soccer player). I suspect these sports franchises are giving away their 2016 titles as promotion for their 2017 titles. I hope this starts a trend, because I like having sports games, but wouldn never really be motivated to pay for one, and I don't care about having the most current game.

I'm also casually playing through The Last of Us. Very fun game, though I preferred the controls for Uncharted.

 Melissia wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
As much fun as I find spiral galaxies, there's nothing worse than being a Warp empire sandwiched between two large, expansionist-type AIs; especially if you don't get better warp-jump tech early on so you can hop to another arm.

+1 to this.

Though I've also been stuck between a circle of five different empires in elliptical, too...

Been playing Neverwinter with a friend.

I downloaded the no clustered starts mod, and that helped a lot. My first finished (at least to my satisfcation, because feth those win conditions) game happened too. I had an alliance of me and the three most powerful empires (besides the fallen ones). There was pretty much nothing the rest of the empires could do as they were all fractured into different alliances and federations at that point. It was just a matter of time before we absorbed them all, and my computer couldn't handle all the calculations as fast, so the days were going by much slower.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 Melissia wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
As much fun as I find spiral galaxies, there's nothing worse than being a Warp empire sandwiched between two large, expansionist-type AIs; especially if you don't get better warp-jump tech early on so you can hop to another arm.

+1 to this.

Though I've also been stuck between a circle of five different empires in elliptical, too...

Been playing Neverwinter with a friend.

I downloaded the no clustered starts mod, and that helped a lot. My first finished (at least to my satisfcation, because feth those win conditions) game happened too. I had an alliance of me and the three most powerful empires (besides the fallen ones). There was pretty much nothing the rest of the empires could do as they were all fractured into different alliances and federations at that point. It was just a matter of time before we absorbed them all, and my computer couldn't handle all the calculations as fast, so the days were going by much slower.

I'll take a look at it, thanks.

I'd like to avoid this in the future after all:

I don't mind starts like that, unless I'm playing some kind of especially pacifist race. I mean that's totally legit, but it's the only time such close quarters would bother me. So far the AI hasn't been able to contest an early push very well. I'm sure it throws my tech and development out of whack but getting neighbors like that off my back is entertaining. If you're playing a race that tolerates slavery well, then you can get one or two super-colonies early on by converting the home worlds of those guys surrounding you. Forcing them to be vassals can work but I find it requires a lot more management. You could also liberate all their planets. They'll most likely reform a new government straight away but it should be more in line with your own race so you should get along better.

I guess it's not as fun unless you're willing to eat your closest neighbor or two, but I find that's usually what needs to happen for me to have breathing room.

I've just finished my first play through of my PS4 edition The Last of Us. It's easily one of the best games I've ever played. Great storytellling and characters combined with great stealth action and occasional bouts of ultra-violence.

Now to the DLC and then play through plus!

 GrimDork wrote:
I don't mind starts like that, unless I'm playing some kind of especially pacifist race. I mean that's totally legit, but it's the only time such close quarters would bother me. So far the AI hasn't been able to contest an early push very well. I'm sure it throws my tech and development out of whack but getting neighbors like that off my back is entertaining. If you're playing a race that tolerates slavery well, then you can get one or two super-colonies early on by converting the home worlds of those guys surrounding you. Forcing them to be vassals can work but I find it requires a lot more management. You could also liberate all their planets. They'll most likely reform a new government straight away but it should be more in line with your own race so you should get along better.

I guess it's not as fun unless you're willing to eat your closest neighbor or two, but I find that's usually what needs to happen for me to have breathing room.

It just gives a massive advantage to the nations on the outside, they can just grow and grow without needing to war at all, and if someone does try to war against them, well they already have more stuff so they'll probably win. The ones stuck in the middle are just kind of boned unless they go for early and frequent wars. And if the ones on the edge DO war inwardly, it becomes even more untenable.

I'm not much of a warmonger to begin with, mind you.

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. I guess my first race got lucky and had only sort of close neighbors, and the other two more aggressive races didn't mind eating the closer neighbors that spawned. But you're right, if my first race had been in that squeeze they'd be slowed down and picking fights later on is a lot trickier than doing it from one planet on.