December 2023 General Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

I'll be going back to using Google for my game questions soon because I'm on my last strike with Bing. If I receive another content warning, they are locking me out

They've all just been questions like, "In the game Ranch Simulator, how do you....?" but the content filter sees something it doesn't like and throws up a warning. Then last night I wanted a picture of a man with an embarrassed expression on his face, and the guy was covering his mouth with his hands in every picture. I tried a dozen different ways of getting it to stop putting hands in the picture. Finally I typed "A man whose hands have been cut off..." BOOM, my final content warning haha.

 

[Pifanjr]

I gave up on my genocidal machines. The mid-game crisis triggered and apparently the start point was a system on the far side of my empire, just outside of what I had explored. A quarter of my empire had been taken over before my ships could even make it there and once I did have all my ships together they stood no chance of stopping the horde.

So I quit and started a new game as a necrophage, which means you use a secret ritual to convert members of a slave race to your own race. I quickly discovered another starting empire and declared war on them to subjugate them, but since I had no real economy to speak of it was mostly a lot of waiting until I had enough resources to replace the ships I lost with each battle. I eventually defeated the enemy's entire fleet, but my people got sick of the war before I could invade both of their planets.

I thought that after my pacifist game it would be fun to be an evil, warmongering empire, but I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care for war in Stellaris. Just like in pretty much every other 4X game I've played, war is generally too tedious and takes too much micromanagement. I think I'll try a mercantile empire next to see if that's any fun.

 

[ZedClampet]

Just like in pretty much every other 4X game I've played, war is generally too tedious and takes too much micromanagement.

That's why in Civilization I never went for the Domination victory and rarely even keep a decent army. When someone is about to attack me, I just ramp up production of military units. One time, the enemy must have moved 20ish units to my border before I finally started making units, and I still had no problems. If they had kept producing units after getting set up to attack, that would be a problem, but they don't do that, and if I have every city producing units, I quickly overrun them.

 

[ZedClampet]

Medieval Dynasty has 3 ways to play. By that I mean when you are selecting a new game, you can play the original story campaign, or you can play solo sandbox (which is on a new map and very different from the original campaign) or co-op sandbox.

And yet, the game only keeps about the last 15 saves regardless of which version you are playing. So if you are playing the original story and also the co-op sandbox, as I am, you have to constantly be concerned with how many saves/autosaves have happened since you started playing unless you make a copy of your save folder before you start. That's super annoying.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Just saw that Avowed will be on Game Pass when it comes out next year. I'm pretty happy about that.

 

[neogunhero]

Just saw that Avowed will be on Game Pass when it comes out next year. I'm pretty happy about that.

One of my tops games I’m looking forward to. Obsidian’s game are always great, let’s hope this one is too.

 

[ZedClampet]

I imagine the words "Here's your $h!t" were spoken when they brought out my wood.

Maybe my mailman quit and got a job there.

 

[Brian Boru]

Just like in pretty much every other 4X game I've played, war is generally too tedious and takes too much micromanagement

…

in Civilization I never went for the Domination victory and rarely even keep a decent army

Agreed. I did the war thing in my initial 4X infatuation with Civ4, but after maybe 100 of 'em it just got old. The micro of a late game war with modern armor, bombers etc at higher levels—Emperor for me—on another continent is insane. And the tedium of healing and moving to the next city… ugh. With dozens of cities to tackle—no, just no.

These days I'll only consider an early-game war—where it's throw a few axes, archers and horses at each other, it's quick to move around, each turn's actions aren't a big queue, and it's all over in 10 turns.

Unlike Zed, I keep military up to par, for a couple of reasons:
♣ Don't be the obvious target;
♦ I usually play maps which have a big mid-game expansion possible—eg Terra or Islands with more major islands than players—and with Raging or Civ6 Barbs it takes a bit of effort to dislodge them, without leaving home cities relatively undefended.

There's also the thing that war is by far the easiest way to win, there's just no challenge in it once you know units' capabilities.

they brought out my wood

What game is that? Not another Weed Shop effect, I hope…

 

[ZedClampet]

Unlike Zed, I keep military up to par, for a couple of reasons:
♣ Don't be the obvious target;
♦ I usually play maps which have a big mid-game expansion possible—eg Terra or Islands with more major islands than players—and with Raging or Civ6 Barbs it takes a bit of effort to dislodge them, without leaving home cities relatively undefended.

You and I played different Civ games. In 5, expansion is counterproductive after you have a few cities. Expansion brings significant penalties to science, culture, global happiness and the costs of policies and techs. Expansion slows your progress toward every type of victory except for domination. This goes for emperor and immortal difficulties. I'm not sure if it changes for deity, which I never tried, or the easier difficulties. My strategy may not have been the absolute most optimal, but I never lost a game of Civ 5, so it wasn't terrible.

What game is that? Not another Weed Shop effect, I hope…

It's Ranch Simulator, and it's actually very well done for what it is. It's pretty simple. You start with a small amount of money living in a tent on some property you inherited, and you just start trying to earn money.

You can grow small plot crops, field crops, and raise chickens, cows, pigs and goats. Besides your crops, you can produce and sell things like eggs, milk, and various types of cheese and meat products.

In the early game, hunting is staple activity.

Driving isn't the best and could use a little polish, but it's serviceable, and the game as a whole is solid.

 

[D10S]

told you this would happen
I closed epic launccher yesterday evening to re-dl cp2077 overnight (installed some mods I didn't eventually like and the game didn't work after removing them) and found my almost complete installation of awII gone lol.
edit: nah, it's there, just took a few minutes to load and showed it's downloading 83GB again.

 

[Brian Boru]

You and I played different Civ games. In 5, expansion is counterproductive

Oh right, I wasn't inferring your strat was poor, just different
I agree re 5, I believe 4 is the optimum number of cities. That's a big reason it's my least played of the last 3 Civs, I like my empire spread far and wide

But now for something which IS your fault, and for which I WILL hold you responsible:

I just fired up Civ 4 and it's like meeting an old friend I haven't seen in a couple of years

 

[Colif]

 

[Brian Boru]

@Colif I saw Louis' video a few days ago, and he must be really unlucky. If you're a little bit careful, it's difficult to have experience anywhere near as bad as his. It seems he got members of a bad batch, and if he knew anything about manufacturing processes he would know how that's inevitable in low-value items where there's a limit to what can be invested in quality control.

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon's quality drops a bit now that Jeff Bezos is out of it, but there's only so far t can go before it bites. Then it'll all have to be reversed and the ground regained as competitors continue to improve, and there will be enough execs at Amz, who know how this all goes, to limit the damage.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

@Colif I saw Louis' video a few days ago, and he must be really unlucky. If you're a little bit careful, it's difficult to have experience anywhere near as bad as his. It seems he got members of a bad batch, and if he knew anything about manufacturing processes he would know how that's inevitable in low-value items where there's a limit to what can be invested in quality control.

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon's quality drops a bit now that Jeff Bezos is out of it, but there's only so far t can go before it bites. Then it'll all have to be reversed and the ground regained as competitors continue to improve, and there will be enough execs at Amz, who know how this all goes, to limit the damage.

We've used Amazon a ton for Christmas. Lots of separate shipments. So far we haven't had any issues at all. I feel bad for the people who do, though.

 

[Sarafan]

@Sarafan

You mean Alan Wake 2? Nah, I haven't played it yet. Waiting for a Steam release and lower price.

Right now I've decided to return to Solasta, this time with the intention to finish it. The combat feels the same as in BG3 and that's the biggest advantage. Too bad that the story and narration aren't that good. But the combat system is enough to keep me involved.

I'm also launching Diablo 4 from time to time. The game is fun if you don't spend long hours in it. I think that Blizzard intention was to release a more casual game. It gets boring if you overdose it due to aggressive level scaling. But if you play for an hour or so a day, it's quite entertaining.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

You mean Alan Wake 2? Nah, I haven't played it yet. Waiting for a Steam release and lower price.

It was Aliens: Dark Descent, I bought it and @D10S was asking about it.

Alan Wake 2 wont be coming to Steam anytime soon if ever, it was published and funded by Epic, sorry to tell you

Think thats part of the reason it was priced at 49.99. its on the sale for 39.99 and you can add the 33% Coupon on top I think to make that under 30. You also get a copy of Alan Wake Remastered thrown into the deal right now.

You hear me Sweeney, wheres my money?

I just finished it today, its fantastic overall. Its all about the story though, if you like that kind of thing. Theres a lot of reading and video to watch and music to listen to as well, I'd go as far to say its unique as a game.

 

[Sarafan]

It was Aliens: Dark Descent, I bought it and @D10S was asking about it.

The game technically is very good, but it wasn't able to draw my attention for long. This may be due to my mood, desire to play other games or something else. I'll certainly will return to it in the near future. I must first feel a taste for Alien universe though.

Alan Wake 2 wont be coming to Steam anytime soon if ever, it was published and funded by Epic, sorry to tell you

Almost all Epic exclusives land on Steam sooner or later, but... I wasn't aware that Epic was also the publisher. In this case you're right. The possibility that it'll arrive on Steam is minimal. I know about the sale with Epic coupon. The price is decent, but I barely use Epic launcher these days, so this discourages me. However, there's still some time left until the end of the sale, so I might grab it after all, if nothing interesting for me appears in the upcoming Steam sale.

 

[neogunhero]

Do you guys have a weird quirk that you like to do in games? I think I’ve talked about this before on these forums, but I’m weirdly fascinated by rivers in open world games. I like to find one end of a river and travel along it to the other end. One of my favorite rivers in games is one in RDR2 that starts in Colter and has a little wooden canoe at the top. Riding down that river in the canoe while in first person is one of my most memorable gaming moments, it was so serene and peaceful, while also being quite reckless with how many waterfalls you have to fall down along that river. It took a lot more skill than I imagined to steer the canoe and survive that trip. It’s probably strange and I can’t quite describe why I like doing this but it’s fun to me lol.

Last night while playing Far Cry 6, I found a nice river with a jet ski parked on the shore. I turned off all HUD elements, dismissed my amigo, and went on a jet ski adventure by my lonesome. I jetted over shallow rocks and tight corners, rewarded with beautiful sights of ravines and lush mountains along the way. It was extremely peaceful and relaxing to the point where I was starting to nod off. Granted I had a very long day yesterday, it was exactly what I needed to destress. Far Cry 6 seems more tame with the amount of random enemy encounters in the open world compared to FC5 which is very welcoming for what I was doing last night.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The game technically is very good, but it wasn't able to draw my attention for long. This may be due to my mood, desire to play other games or something else. I'll certainly will return to it in the near future. I must first feel a taste for Alien universe though.

I heard good things havent had a chance to get into it yet.

Almost all Epic exclusives land on Steam sooner or later, but... I wasn't aware that Epic was also the publisher. In this case you're right. The possibility that it'll arrive on Steam is minimal. I know about the sale with Epic coupon. The price is decent, but I barely use Epic launcher these days, so this discourages me. However, there's still some time left until the end of the sale, so I might grab it after all, if nothing interesting for me appears in the upcoming Steam sale.

It came with my graphics card, but I wanted to play it anyway. I dont really like using the Epic launcher or store either but in this case there wasnt much choice. I'd rather only have one main launcher and Steam is better.

Someone else may have said it here as well, but it seems Epic would have been way better off funding and publishing succesful original games and developing the stores features. Rather than giving away a load of games that loads of people claimed and proceeded to ignore.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not watching it. YouTubers are generally not experts. They are entertainers. Amazon isn't in a downfall. I order a lot from Amazon each month and haven't had any problems at all, and they set a company record for the 3rd quarter with $404 billion in sales. Let that figure sink in. It has no real online competitor except for the Chinese site, which is full of scams.

 

[Colif]

I don't expect everyone to watch it, your choice to trust them. I don't use Amazon or any sites like it.

they sell fake USB/SSD drives or allow them to be sold there. That is enough reason to avoid. Reviews been created by chatgpt. Its all suspect.

Its a race to that bottom against that Chinese site that seems to have same stock now.

 

[D10S]

I must first feel a taste for Alien universe though.

I'm still not finished scraping the skidmarks I left on the chair while playing alien isolation

 

[neogunhero]

they sell fake USB/SSD drives or allow them to be sold there. That is enough reason to avoid. Reviews been created by chatgpt. Its all suspect.

Didn’t watch it either yet.

You’re right about both of those things. Amazon does allow very sketchy items to be sold, and there are definitely fake reviews or paid incentivized reviews that artificially inflate an items’ user rating. However, it is easy to spot these things and using some common consumer sense, you just have to be cautious but you can sort these things out yourself. Amazon is great for convenience especially when you live 2 hours from the closest Best Buy and 4 hours away from the closest MicroCenter. You can’t depend on Walmart for everything in my specific case, not even just PC hardware.

 

[Brian Boru]

Far Cry 6, I found a nice river

Dunno if there's a jet ski up top, but the river coming down from the mountain where the Legends of 67 have their hideout would be some ride!

a weird quirk that you like to do in games?

Trying to climb pointless mountains—pointless as in there's no objective at the top. Finding a way up one you're not supposed to climb is way more fun than those infernal swinging around on grappling hook sequences! Also, climbing the official mountains is fun—in Far Cry 5 a few days ago, I had fun finding a way along the eastern boundary of the Whitetail Mountains in the north. Here's the 'Out of Bounds' behind Boomer:

Amazon … has no real online competitor

To my surprise, Walmart has come on a lot with their digital store. They struggled for the early years after moving digital, but they're pretty slick now. Not close to Amz in online revenue yet, but ready to pick up if Amz slip up.

it is easy to spot these things and … you can sort these things out yourself

Yes indeed, it is very easy to shop safely at Amazon.

 

[ZedClampet]

To my surprise, Walmart has come on a lot with their digital store. They struggled for the early years after moving digital, but they're pretty slick now. Not close to Amz in online revenue yet, but ready to pick up if Amz slip up.

I use Walmart a lot, too. I basically never go to stores anymore. The cool thing about them is that I'll order something and a short while later I'll get a text that it's been delivered, and, sure enough, it's on my porch.

They have a very long way to go, though, to be anything close to Amazon. While their online revenue has risen to be almost 5 percent of Amazon's (I'm just estimating based on Google numbers), a lot of that is groceries. Their product line outside of groceries is terrible compared to Amazon's and the pricing is atrocious for anything you find that isn't in the stores. Meanwhile Amazon seems to be failing at groceries. so they are conveniently fighting over different markets.

The saddest retail/Internet story is Sears. As you know, Sears used to be a retail behemoth, and they had immense catalogue business. As the Internet was taking off, Sears was being destroyed by Walmart. Instead of leveraging their huge catalogue business to launch an online store, Sears completely closed their catalogue business. They had the infrastructure in place to do something truly great online, but had no vision,