December 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[mjs warlord]

ugh. Did you make back-ups of your old saves? Did you try an old save?

i make back ups everyday on it . Tomorow i gonna write down all setting and do a reinstall. I dont think anything is corrupted cos once i get on it runs ok

 

[isleepinabed]

It wasnt the city building so much as the combination of the narrative beats connected to the decisions you make. Made it feel like it meant more than the numbers. I think similar or the same events happen each time you play a scenario, so it becomes easier to anticipate after the first time. At least that how I remember, it was something different.

The second game seems like theyre trying to keep what worked well but expand the scale and making it more replayable, Im pretty early but it seems to have done a good job of it so far.

I haven't got around to the sequel but I really liked the original. At the same time I played through a lot of these choice-based games like King of Dragon Pass and Six Ages, but also The Shrouded Isle and Old World. I guess Old World is the more traditional turn-based strategy game but the others are quite heavy on the doom and gloom like Frostpunk.

There's a quote from a game designer (I see something similar from Sid Meier but I'm not sure it was the same) that a good game offered choices every X seconds. These games are clearly just mathematics going awry with an intriguing setting but as you try to juggle the numbers our imagination takes hold and it makes everything quite memorable and vivid.

 

[ZedClampet]

i make back ups everyday on it . Tomorow i gonna write down all setting and do a reinstall. I dont think anything is corrupted cos once i get on it runs ok

Yay, okay, so did you try a save that you made before the problem started, like from November?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I haven't got around to the sequel but I really liked the original. At the same time I played through a lot of these choice-based games like King of Dragon Pass and Six Ages, but also The Shrouded Isle and Old World. I guess Old World is the more traditional turn-based strategy game but the others are quite heavy on the doom and gloom like Frostpunk.

There's a quote from a game designer (I see something similar from Sid Meier but I'm not sure it was the same) that a good game offered choices every X seconds. These games are clearly just mathematics going awry with an intriguing setting but as you try to juggle the numbers our imagination takes hold and it makes everything quite memorable and vivid.

I havent heard of those games apart from Old World which I dipped into and liked but didnt go back to yet. Maybe kind of similarish to the Banner Saga games, kind of choose your own adventure style events that directly affect the amount of resources you have to play with depending on what you choose? Or more like Roadwarden and mostly reading?

As a bit of a side note did you play This War of Mine? I think it was 11Bits first game. It was similar in the way that it was a kind of survival resource gathering game but in 2D.

 

[isleepinabed]

I havent heard of those games apart from Old World which I dipped into and liked but didnt go back to yet. Maybe kind of similarish to the Banner Saga games, kind of choose your own adventure style events that directly affect the amount of resources you have to play with depending on what you choose? Or more like Roadwarden and mostly reading?

As a bit of a side note did you play This War of Mine? I think it was 11Bits first game. It was similar in the way that it was a kind of survival resource gathering game but in 2D.

Thanks! Hadn't realised Frostpunk was from the same developers of This War of Mine.. Makes sense!
King of Dragon Pass is a somewhat unique game, and it was released 25 years ago. It's fundamentally a strategy/tribe management game, but there's a lot of story events too. Everything is text-based with static images. Six Ages are its sequels. Like Frostpunk, you juggle well being, hunger, power struggles within your own tribe, war, discovery in the context of imminent tragedy in a land that's home to many other tribes. I would be very surprised if 11Bits had not considered it as an inspiration.

The Shrouded Isle is somewhat similar to the council part of King of Dragon Pass (where you manage the favours of different families) but more akin to a punishing board game - at the end of each season one must be sacrificed to the Eldritch god. The point being to sacrifice the right one (the most sinful one) and try to survive as cult leader when the apocalypse comes in 3 years (I haven't managed it once!).

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Thanks! Hadn't realised Frostpunk was from the same developers of This War of Mine.. Makes sense!
King of Dragon Pass is a somewhat unique game, and it was released 25 years ago. It's fundamentally a strategy/tribe management game, but there's a lot of story events too. Everything is text-based with static images. Six Ages are its sequels. Like Frostpunk, you juggle well being, hunger, power struggles within your own tribe, war, discovery in the context of imminent tragedy in a land that's home to many other tribes. I would be very surprised if 11Bits had not considered it as an inspiration.

The Shrouded Isle is somewhat similar to the council part of King of Dragon Pass (where you manage the favours of different families) but more akin to a punishing board game - at the end of each season one must be sacrificed to the Eldritch god. The point being to sacrifice the right one (the most sinful one) and try to survive as cult leader when the apocalypse comes in 3 years (I haven't managed it once!).

Those do all look interesting, thanks for pointing them out. Useful for me because theyre the kind of games you can leave running and drop in and out while doing other stuff, without the graphics card spinning the whole time. Nice

 

[Pifanjr]

I finished Shadow of War. The best part of the game is when you're hunting down captains, taking down their guards and then using their weaknesses against them to defeat them. The missions on the other hand are too scripted. They're not bad, but they're basically a different type of game.

It's similar to how in GTA a lot of people enjoy the freedom of the open world, causing chaos or just driving around and doing side activities, whereas the missions are always very linear

King of Dragon Pass is a somewhat unique game, and it was released 25 years ago.

I got it in a Humble Bundle of Android games once, I didn't realize it was that old. It was fun for a bit, but after playing for a while I still didn't feel like I understood what I was actually supposed to be doing or how I was supposed to be playing the game and I gave up on it.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Pifanjr sorry to bug you again, but this game has a free demo your daughter could conceivably like:

Critter Café on Steam

Welcome to your Critter Café! Rescue and bond with adorable, fantasy critters in need of your help and build a new home together. Design and run your own café, care for your critters, uncover the secrets of mysterious portals, and create a wholesome café for all to enjoy!

store.steampowered.com

When the demo starts, you are decorating your restaurant/tavern/whatever. There's no money involved. You just put down whatever you want to put down.

When you are done with that, you go to the register, and people come and order coffee because it's the beginning of the game and that's all you have. You play a little mini-game to pour the coffee and then deliver it to the customer.

Very shortly after that, the restaurant closes for the day. I have no idea what comes after that because I lost interest and quit, but the game has a little town and people around and apparently you collect critters or something. I know you could put pet furniture in your restaurant.

Most importantly, it's free, so if she gets bored with everything else, she might like that for a few minutes.

 

[Pifanjr]

@Pifanjr sorry to bug you again, but this game has a free demo your daughter could conceivably like:

Critter Café on Steam

Welcome to your Critter Café! Rescue and bond with adorable, fantasy critters in need of your help and build a new home together. Design and run your own café, care for your critters, uncover the secrets of mysterious portals, and create a wholesome café for all to enjoy!

store.steampowered.com

When the demo starts, you are decorating your restaurant/tavern/whatever. There's no money involved. You just put down whatever you want to put down.

When you are done with that, you go to the register, and people come and order coffee because it's the beginning of the game and that's all you have. You play a little mini-game to pour the coffee and then deliver it to the customer.

Very shortly after that, the restaurant closes for the day. I have no idea what comes after that because I lost interest and quit, but the game has a little town and people around and apparently you collect critters or something. I know you could put pet furniture in your restaurant.

Most importantly, it's free, so if she gets bored with everything else, she might like that for a few minutes.

We played it during Steam Next already, she liked it quite a lot. It's her birthday pretty soon so I might buy it for her then.

 

[ZedClampet]

i make back ups everyday on it . Tomorow i gonna write down all setting and do a reinstall. I dont think anything is corrupted cos once i get on it runs ok

It can definitely still be corrupted and just impacting start-up. That's why you need to check an older save. That really should have been the first thing done. If this is the problem, it could eventually become completely unplayable.

 

[ZedClampet]

"This game is best played with a controller"

Wrong and please shut up. I don't need developers telling me how to play.

What this statement really means is, "We're console developers, and don't know how to set up proper mouse and keyboard controls."

edited by mod

 

[Pifanjr]

i make back ups everyday on it . Tomorow i gonna write down all setting and do a reinstall. I dont think anything is corrupted cos once i get on it runs ok

If you haven't managed to fix your problem yet, there is a website where you can upload your save to and edit it:

https://satisfactory-calculator.com/en/interactive-map

It's possible your save file is just so large that it takes a long time to load. It might also be bloated with old data that the newer version doesn't use any more, but might still be slowing it down. You could start by uploading it and immediately downloading it again, perhaps that'll clean it up a bit already.

 

[ZedClampet]

Well, that's one way to start your game. I opened Center Station Simulator and the tutorial message in the top right said, "Change your key assignments in settings."

I tried to walk forward and couldn't, so I opened up the key assignments, and every single key assignment was in some screwy location, using keys like ampersand and caret. Walk forward was something like F9.

 

[Zloth]

Well, XCOM didn't last all that long. I've got 400 hours in the game, and it didn't take all that long to get a bit tired of it, even with all the changes Long War of the Chosen puts in. It is still fun, it's just that I've got a lot of stuff that is even more fun.

I went back to X4 again. I got halfway through a big terraforming project earlier in the year, then put the game down to play a few other things for a while. Recently, Egosoft released version 7.5 for beta testing (talk about a labor of love!), so I'm playing around with that while finishing up the terraforming.

"This game is best played with a controller"

Wrong and please shut up. I don't need developers telling me how to play.

What this statement really means is, "We're console developers, probably from Japan, and don't know how to set up proper mouse and keyboard controls."

Not so - or at least not always so. Controllers are flat out better at some things. While the mouse+keyboard has far more buttons, the controller has more that are easily accessed. It also has those sticks that are right there while mouse/keyboard typically means one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. Fighting games are the most common example of games that work a lot better with a controller. Yakuza games seem to be best if you use a controller for the battles and switch to mouse/keyboard for everything else.

 

[BeardyHat]

Well, XCOM didn't last all that long. I've got 400 hours in the game, and it didn't take all that long to get a bit tired of it, even with all the changes Long War of the Chosen puts in. It is still fun, it's just that I've got a lot of stuff that is even more fun.

I think there's also the idea that more doesn't necessarily equate to better. XCOM 2 is already a long game, especially if you're periodically rerolling due to doing poorly in the first few missions or whatever.

I did like long war back with the first XCOM, but long war for 2 just seems like it would be a slog these days, especially considering you can already get a lot of the QoL and features of it in other mods without the artificial length.

 

[Pifanjr]

I found a new Netflix mobile game: Rainbow Six: Smol. It's a roguelite, isometric shooter. Missions only take a minute or two and there are only 4 or 5 of them in each area, so it's perfect for playing a quick game in between doing other stuff.

 

[Zloth]

I think there's also the idea that more doesn't necessarily equate to better. XCOM 2 is already a long game, especially if you're periodically rerolling due to doing poorly in the first few missions or whatever.

I did like long war back with the first XCOM, but long war for 2 just seems like it would be a slog these days, especially considering you can already get a lot of the QoL and features of it in other mods without the artificial length.

I don't know about that - they did a LOT with it. The strategic layer is heavily changed, there are more enemy types, there are more classes for your soldiers, you go in with more soldiers, the tech tree is a bit different, there are new mission types, and so on.

Long War of the Chosen - UFOpaedia

www.ufopaedia.org

 

[BeardyHat]

I don't know about that - they did a LOT with it. The strategic layer is heavily changed, there are more enemy types, there are more classes for your soldiers, you go in with more soldiers, the tech tree is a bit different, there are new mission types, and so on.

Long War of the Chosen - UFOpaedia

www.ufopaedia.org

Fair enough, I hadn't really looked at the changes.

That said, I stand by my previous point. Looking at it, it seems as though it adds a lot of bloat to what is a pretty tightly designed game. Again, haven't tried it yet and I'll probably suggest it to my wife the next time she wants us to do another playthrough, but I'm not necessarily convinced.

 

[ZedClampet]

Well, XCOM didn't last all that long. I've got 400 hours in the game, and it didn't take all that long to get a bit tired of it, even with all the changes Long War of the Chosen puts in. It is still fun, it's just that I've got a lot of stuff that is even more fun.

I went back to X4 again. I got halfway through a big terraforming project earlier in the year, then put the game down to play a few other things for a while. Recently, Egosoft released version 7.5 for beta testing (talk about a labor of love!), so I'm playing around with that while finishing up the terraforming.


Not so - or at least not always so. Controllers are flat out better at some things. While the mouse+keyboard has far more buttons, the controller has more that are easily accessed. It also has those sticks that are right there while mouse/keyboard typically means one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. Fighting games are the most common example of games that work a lot better with a controller. Yakuza games seem to be best if you use a controller for the battles and switch to mouse/keyboard for everything else.

I didn't say it was never the best, but a lot of games are putting this statement in for no reason. Yakuza is a great example. There's nothing at all wrong with the combat with keyboard and mouse. Fighting games like Tekken? Yeah probably. Racing games? Definitely. Third person action combat, not at all.

Another example is twin-stick. Sorry, but that's better with keyboard and mouse. If you have to have exact aiming and quick turning, then you need a keyboard and mouse. I occasionally had to PvP people in V Rising (when Guido forced me to play online) who were obviously using controllers and it didn't work out so well for them, and I literally suck at games. All I had to do was stay close to them and constantly switch sides. While they were rotating around, I just pointed my mouse at them and hit them while still moving to the other side of them again.

Of course, I didn't grow up using a controller. Except for racing and sports games, I can't use it. I look like someone who's never played a game before.

 

[Johnway]

in between playing Path of exile, i'm making progress in Resident evil 2. Sod trying to get S rank on my first run, isn't going to happen. The good news is that after looking through my stash, i do see i have a lot of gunpowder left over and several play throughs for certain sections, i'm walking out with some good ammo and health pick ups. Hitting the sewers i've upgraded the pistol and shotgun whilst getting my magnum as well.

The only down side? my flashbang situation is looking pretty grim. Wasted too many and i'm down to my last one. Combat knieves all used up. I would like to start the second go with maybe more weapons. perhaps i'll consider unlocking infinite combat knife and slowly claw my way to victory. Failing that, if i beat the game and unlock all the content (excluding weapons) i think its a win in my books.

The other strategy i've worked out? take out the zombies knee caps. Once they're left crawling on the floor, they're pretty much a non threat. they're much much slower and so i can dodge them.

 

[ZedClampet]

Despite the weird start, Center Station Simulator is a great game so far. I'm still mostly mining and crafting, but after 5.5 hours of work, I finally opened my store. My only product was bottled water. I had one customer, and he didn't buy any. Dude, it took me 5.5 hours to make that bottled water and you just walk right past it!

 

[ZedClampet]

Now I'm in a debate with the Center Station developer who is adamant that he has it coded so that the first customer buys water no matter what.

Guess what? Thanks to Steam's new recording feature, I have the video of the guy walking past the fridge and out the door.

Edit: Nevermind, there was a Google translation problem.

 

[Zloth]

Fair enough, I hadn't really looked at the changes.

That said, I stand by my previous point. Looking at it, it seems as though it adds a lot of bloat to what is a pretty tightly designed game. Again, haven't tried it yet and I'll probably suggest it to my wife the next time she wants us to do another playthrough, but I'm not necessarily convinced.

One man's bloat is another man's opportunity to explore the strategic depths.

Now I'm in a debate with the Center Station developer who is adamant that he has it coded so that the first customer buys water no matter what.

Guess what? Thanks to Steam's new recording feature, I have the video of the guy walking past the fridge and out the door.

Love that feature.

Wait, was the bottled water still there after the customer 'just walked by'? It'd be a pity if your first customer was a shoplifter!

 

[ZedClampet]

Wait, was the bottled water still there after the customer 'just walked by'? It'd be a pity if your first customer was a shoplifter!

No, no, no. You don't understand how these retail games work. If he had been a shoplifter, he'd have been dressed in all black like a Hollywood cat burglar, and he would have crouch-walked all the way through the store until I either hit him over the head with a deadly weapon or he reached the water. If he reached the water, he then would have taken off running, and I would have had to chase him.

I saw a real video from somewhere in Asia where the shopkeepers grabbed the shoplifter, pulled off all his clothes and dragged him out into the middle of the street where they started beating him with unidentified objects. I want to see a game incorporate that!

Only in Big Ambitions do people try to secretly steal from you. In that game, you strategically place video cameras and have those magnetic strips that set off an alarm when people try to leave with something without paying. But then your security personnel handle it. You don't have to whack them with anything.

 

[isleepinabed]

Chaps, any way I can see easily which games (licenses) on my Steam library have Linux and MacOS versions as well as Windows?
I can do it easily enough on GOG, but can't seem to find the option on Steam..