January 2025 General Game Discussion

[Johnway]

More Ramp 2024, so thats the atlantean ruins and the next station water treatment (all things toxic green and metal) finished. Again more ok made maps. There were 2 stand out maps being that they were both difficult. One was a beginneers map which had some design ideas that i had taken issue to (namely having a lack of weapons/armor and cover or hiding chaingunners behind a wall). The other (the plutonean processor or something or other) was just brutally difficult. Starting a map with 4 chaingunners shooting at you sets the tone for the map. its sunder levels of BS and challenge. it did get easier by the end thanks to the cyberdemon doing most of the work distracting and wiping out most of the monsters, but some tricky archvile placements made the whole thing seriously annoying in places.

But we're onto some eygptian stuff next. Hopefully nothing too stressful...

 

[ZedClampet]

Aim Labs now treats you like you are on suicide watch. When I first started playing it years ago, when I was done with a session, it would tell me how terrible I was and give me cold, hard stats to back it up. Now it says things like, "Wow! Congrats on taking the first steps in your training! You show a lot of potential!" And I can't seem to locate the stats at all. I prefer the Marine boot camp method. I want that guy from Full Metal Jacket cursing me out and spitting in my face from screaming. I don't want to be in Kindergarten finger painting.

 

[Pifanjr]

Played a bit more Warhammer 3 with my friend. Got declared war upon by a Khorne faction, which was the fourth strongest faction in the world while I only had one army still. Turns out their armies are faster than mine, so then I had zero armies and a couple more factions decided to declare war on me.

Luckily my friend rushed over with his armies and managed to defeat both the Khorne armies and the Chaos Dwarves, losing only half a stack himself.

We did the Chaos Dwarf fights manually, which is how I got to fight with Chaos Dwarves without owning the DLC. They're pretty fun, though I think I prefer the regular Dwarves myself.

 

[ZedClampet]

Played a bit more Warhammer 3 with my friend. Got declared war upon by a Khorne faction, which was the fourth strongest faction in the world while I only had one army still. Turns out their armies are faster than mine, so then I had zero armies and a couple more factions decided to declare war on me.

Luckily my friend rushed over with his armies and managed to defeat both the Khorne armies and the Chaos Dwarves, losing only half a stack himself.

We did the Chaos Dwarf fights manually, which is how I got to fight with Chaos Dwarves without owning the DLC. They're pretty fun, though I think I prefer the regular Dwarves myself.

I was having trouble fielding armies in my last game and was being harassed on 3 sides and running my lone 20 unit army all over the place and just generally making no progress. Finally on around turn 60 I got fed up, created another 2 armies I couldn't afford and decided to live off the spoils of war, raiding and sacking cities, then I would go back into the city and put a tier one economy building in.

The scariest part was when all I had was Thorgram and one army of 5 dwarf warriors in my capitol, and I rushed Thorgram down to meet a skaven army, and at the last second the fog of war cleared and there were two more 20 stack scaven armies just right there. When I ended my turn I figured this was the beginning of the end, but they didn't even attack, and I lightning Striked them all out of existence on my turn.

 

[ZedClampet]

The developer of Center Station Simulator loves to surprise players and has forbidden all spoilers on the forums. Because of this, I'm just going to speak very generally, but I've found a room that I'm excavating that is 40m x 40m and growing. No idea what might be in it, but I'm assuming the room wouldn't be significantly larger than it needed to be.

I wasn't going to find this one at all, but I started a new digging project all the way in the back. I wasn't planning to do anymore. Glad I started digging back there.

 

[ZedClampet]

Bought The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos for 75 percent off, and Lords of Xulima at 50 percent off. I think Lords of Xulima had been on my wishlist since 2014.

 

[isleepinabed]

This was another "productive" weekend and Eric the Unready is done. Next up, back to replays: Stars Die (2020), a game I was really impressed with last I played it 3 years ago.

 

[Pifanjr]

I finally made progress with my New Year's resolution: I played an hour of Baldur's Gate 3 today. It took me a while to remember what I was doing and which items I was carrying with me, but I won a battle and unlocked a new waypoint in the Underdark, so I did make some progress too.

 

[Johnway]

Continue to play with mechanicus. Still early days, whilst i'm enjoying the game and its features i think there are a few things i take issue with. So far the best option is to close in for melee as it does reliable damage (plus the opportunity option means free hits). Whilst i can carry heavier weapons, it requires action points to use and unfortunately i can't accumulate enough to reliably carry the heavier fire power. Perhaps once i gather more upgrades we can do more.

The count down mechanic in mechanicus is a lot more stressful compared to xcom2's in my opinion. the longer you play the more is added to the dooms day clock. You can monkey around with the panels etc, but you're always guarenteed to get at least a point or 2 per mission. heres hoping there is a blacksite that i can raid and deduct the count.

 

[Pifanjr]

Anyone getting anything from Steam's real-time strategy fest? Or know of any good demos available?

I have two games on my wishlist on sale, but both are more than €15 and I'm planning on finishing Baldur's Gate 3 before playing anything else, so I'm not buying anything.

I quick scroll through the demos also didn't turn up anything interesting yet for me.

 

[January's Ghost]

Anyone getting anything from Steam's real-time strategy fest?

I have Worshipers of Cthulhu on my wishlist (no demo, sry) but I bought AC Mirage because it went on sale first, so I'll wait for the next sale.

 

[ZedClampet]

Today has been a rough day. I worked on an AI project for 9 hours, had problems, and have nothing to show for my efforts.

And now I'm self-conscious of my feet.

 

[January's Ghost]

And now I'm self-conscious of my feet.

I think your feet should be self-conscious of you.

 

[BeardyHat]

Been playing a good amount of Aliens: Dark Descent (I keep wanting to call it Colonial Marines) and I'm very much enjoying it. Of course, I did change the game to Pause rather than Slow when I bring up the special actions menu, as I already feel under pressure and don't need time slowly ticking down while I'm trying to figure out what to do and fumbling with the controls.

The game is running fantastically on my eGPU setup with my low-powered laptop, generally maintaining 60FPS with dips into the 40's here and there, but perfectly playable. What's weird is that it runs absolutely awful on Steam Deck. Works pretty ok during missions, but in the base areas it often struggles to maintain 30FPS on Low.

But my eGPU setup has me a little flustered and I'm not sure why. I've suddenly become a flustered with the performance of it, specifically in action games and been thinking about replacing my main laptop with something a bit more powerful; I'm not sure what's come over me, especially after happily playing Dishonored 2 at 45-60FPS, but having my machine struggle to maintain even that in many games is becoming irritating to me. Obviously, there are compromises with my setup, but I feel that my 15w processor is the limitation here.

Moreover, there's weird issues and I'm not sure if it's switchable graphics or AMD. Specifically I've been wanting to jump back into Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but the game refuses to use my eGPU, instead crashing whenever I select it. Of course, no issue running it on my Steam Deck at 60FPS with everything cranked-up, so I'm not sure what's going on and I haven't been able to find a solution.

I've only had this computer just over a year, but I'm wondering what drove me so strongly in the ultraportable direction versus getting something more powerful. I love the size and the build quality of this Nano, but I'm really feeling the lack of performance here; I don't know that I'd feel that way even with integrated graphics if I had a higher performance, more than 15w processor. My current plan is to see if I can pick-up something more powerful for $400 or less and test it out with the eGPU and see how it goes...

 

[ZedClampet]

Anyone getting anything from Steam's real-time strategy fest? Or know of any good demos available?

I have two games on my wishlist on sale, but both are more than €15 and I'm planning on finishing Baldur's Gate 3 before playing anything else, so I'm not buying anything.

I quick scroll through the demos also didn't turn up anything interesting yet for me.

Spellforce 3 looks really interesting to me. I've never played any of those.

I might try some demos tomorrow. Shadow Gambit looks interesting. But mostly this just reminded me that I have a ton of RTS games already that I never get around to playing.

What I really want is a space RTS where I design and build all the ships from scratch. That doesn't seem to be a thing, though.

 

[January's Ghost]

Been playing a good amount of Aliens: Dark Descent (I keep wanting to call it Colonial Marines) and I'm very much enjoying it. Of course, I did change the game to Pause rather than Slow when I bring up the special actions menu, as I already feel under pressure and don't need time slowly ticking down while I'm trying to figure out what to do and fumbling with the controls.

The game is running fantastically on my eGPU setup with my low-powered laptop, generally maintaining 60FPS with dips into the 40's here and there, but perfectly playable. What's weird is that it runs absolutely awful on Steam Deck. Works pretty ok during missions, but in the base areas it often struggles to maintain 30FPS on Low.

I wish I liked RTS games, that looks good. I'm going to get the VR Alien game sometime in the near future.

 

[January's Ghost]

I might try some demos tomorrow. Shadow Gambit looks interesting. But mostly this just reminded me that I have a ton of RTS games already that I never get around to playing.

I'm a good ways into Shadow Gambit and loving it. These tactical stealth games are the only kind of strategy I like.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm a good ways into Shadow Gambit and loving it. These tactical stealth games are the only kind of strategy I like.

My brain doesn't work very quickly anymore, and I'm a little concerned about it being both stealth and RTS at the same time. I foresee many disasters.

 

[January's Ghost]

My brain doesn't work very quickly anymore, and I'm a little concerned about it being both stealth and RTS at the same time. I foresee many disasters.

That's part of the fun, but you can save scum if you like. Also, it is slow paced tactical, so quick thinking and quick action are rarely needed.

 

[Zloth]

Long way to go to finish my X4:Foundations goal. Long way to go to finish Baldur's Gate 3. Final Fantasy 7 R2 shows up soon. And it's cold enough that putting my feet on the plastic roller pad thing for my computer chair makes my feet cold, even with thick socks. I may have to play a computer game with shoes on. Is that even possible??

 

[January's Ghost]

I may have to play a computer game with shoes on. Is that even possible??

I don't know. I don't think I've ever tried it. 😕

 

[ZedClampet]

@Pifanjr This isn't an RTS, but it has a demo and seems like something you may like.

Save 10% on Cyclopean: The Great Abyss on Steam

Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is a small scale, mechanics driven CRPG in a retro, monochromatic style, that takes place in the underworld of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.

store.steampowered.com

It only has a handful of reviews, all of them are positive except for one, and that one at least cracked me up. I would post it here, but its impassioned language doesn't meet our community guidelines.

 

[ZedClampet]

As usual, couldn't sleep so I tried the Shadow Gambit demo. Except for the unintuitive controls, it seems like a fine game. Stealth really isn't my thing, though, due to my lack of patience. It looked really cool, but I would never finish it. I put it on my wishlist. If I ever see it really cheap, I might pick it up.

Bought Iratus for 90 percent off ($2.99).

 

[Frindis]

One of my nephews bought me Icarus (75% off on Steam until the 23rd of January) and wants us all to play it soon. We did play when it was free one weekend and it was fun. I managed to burn down our house because I was walking around inside with a torch, so lesson learned. The game has some good weather effects like lightning storms and the building mechanics are pretty decent.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bit more Baldur's Gate 3. I started a fight but promptly got my character knocked into lava, so I reloaded my save. I then cast two buff spells (I should maybe get a few more) and tried again, but it was still a struggle and Shadowheart ended up dying because of a critical hit by the last enemy. Luckily I have several revival scrolls, so I just got her up again.

@Pifanjr This isn't an RTS, but it has a demo and seems like something you may like.

Save 10% on Cyclopean: The Great Abyss on Steam

Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is a small scale, mechanics driven CRPG in a retro, monochromatic style, that takes place in the underworld of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.

store.steampowered.com

It only has a handful of reviews, all of them are positive except for one, and that one at least cracked me up. I would post it here, but its impassioned language doesn't meet our community guidelines.

Thank you for the recommendation. I saw both Factorio and Planet Crafter have a demo available as well. Both seem very interesting, but also like games that I might burn out on very quickly, so it'll be good to try out the game before buying it.