May 2024 General Game Discussions

[ZedClampet]

Factors are: How many people who have Battlenet accounts don't have Gamepass? Either way someone complains. People with Battlenet or people with Gamepass.

Gamepass isn't free, yet Battlenet is once you own game, so do Microsoft give every battlenet player a user? Or option to link account? Do they enforce it? Do they follow Sony with its latest ploy?

I don't appreciate EA launcher loading if I play an EA game on there, to point I don't play EA games at all... really, I haven't played any gamepass games since I got it.

The thing that bothers me is that Game Pass and Battle.net are the same company. I have to have two separate accounts with the same company.

 

[Colif]

Clearly there isn't a simple way of auto creating a user on battlenet for you to use when playing game. The process of account creation has probably been attacked by bots so many times that changing it to allow one special class of user to by pass it might be too much.

Its the same with EA and other companies launchers. I wish they didn't require extra users just to play their games on gamepass. Should have one user that does it all.

There are advantages to be had with having one over reaching Account that all the others are linked to, but disadvantages as well. If all your game accounts were linked, being banned on one would ban you everywhere. So the costs may outweigh benefits to many people. Too easy to be banned over nothing. WoW would lose all its repeat players if that was on the line.

 

[ZedClampet]

I was just told by a developer that the reason their game costs so much is so that when they create bundles at various sites it makes the bundles seem like a better value.

It looks like it should be a $9.99 game at most and they are charging $40 for it.

 

[Colif]

another reason it can't auto create users could be the chances of you getting the same name on Battlenet after 20+ years of other people, is really slim. So they have to do it manually so you can pick one that works.

You might be okay in that regard but most wouldn't be.

 

[ZedClampet]

another reason it can't auto create users could be the chances of you getting the same name on Battlenet after 20+ years of other people, is really slim. So they have to do it manually so you can pick one that works.

You might be okay in that regard but most wouldn't be.

You already can't create your own name in Xbox when you first sign up. You get assigned something ridiculous. You can probably change it. I never bothered.

At least, that's the way it used to be. I'm JelliedCastle09 or something. Guido is WheezierAxis plus some numbers. His actual gamer tag is DiamondJames.

 

[Colif]

i had forgotten about that.

I am Cinnamon Dawn... sounds like a war movie.

 

[Brian Boru]

can't auto create users could be the chances of you getting the same name

That's not a problem, the same software routine which checks if name already exists can also auto-create one which doesn't.

YouTube has even changed existing usernames recently, I got 4 digits appended to mine.

 

[ZedClampet]

i had forgotten about that.

I am Cinnamon Dawn... sounds like a war movie.

Sounds more like a sex worker name to me.

 

[Colif]

YouTube has even changed existing usernames recently, I got 4 digits appended to mine.

strange, wouldn't think there are that many Brian Boru in the world to need numbers. I just looked at mine and its still same.

 

[Pifanjr]

I continued looking for browser games to play and found this on itch.io:

Rogue Fable IV by Justin Wang

justin-wang123.itch.io

It's a pretty good, simple roguelike that seems pretty easy, I won on my first try.

 

[neogunhero]

AFAIK, any game that requires a separate launcher that you access via GP is going to require you to make a whole new account with them as well. I can think of Battle.net, Ubisoft, EA and Riot games will all require an additional account, not sure if Paradox games require a new account or if that is optional. I agree with @Colif as there are certain advantages and disadvantages over this approach, but it just boils down to being an unnecessary inconvenience.

You already can't create your own name in Xbox when you first sign up. You get assigned something ridiculous. You can probably change it. I never bothered.

At least, that's the way it used to be. I'm JelliedCastle09 or something. Guido is WheezierAxis plus some numbers. His actual gamer tag is DiamondJames.

I’ve used NeoGunHero as my online gaming handle for nearly 20 years. When I got my Xbox One in 2016, I had to make a MS account. No one else has the name I do, but they tacked on “4871” or whatever at the end of my name and I have put $10 to remove those four digits off the end of my gamer tag. That is incredibly annoying and I admittedly spent more time than I should have trying to fight with customer support about it to no prevail.

 

[ZedClampet]

Doing some beta testing and some spring cleaning on Discord. Since every time someone makes me go to their Discord I have to join their server, I was kind of overwhelmed with servers, so I decided to leave any that I'm not interested in anymore.

One of the beta tests is really just marketing. They know lots of people like to participate in betas. so instead of releasing a demo, they tell people they can sign up for the beta. It really just gets you demo access.

The other beta test is actually a beta test, has an NDA and forms to fill out, etc.

 

[Hveðrungr]

As a fellow beta tester I can empathise with this comment. I don't even blame small indie devs for doing it. Getting your demo out there is tough. What annoys me is when I'm in a formal beta program for a large publisher and they give us a beta to test two weeks before launch and then take none of our suggestions. (This happened earlier this year.)

 

[Brian Boru]

they give us a beta to test two weeks before launch and then take none of our suggestions

Do you mean none in the launch? That makes sense, the final game code would very probably have been set in stone well before 2 weeks from launch. My guess is beta was for a planned patch or DLC or…

 

[Colif]

Since every time someone makes me go to their Discord I have to join their server

one is linked to other. hard to have a channel that isn't on a server.
Discord is just IRC with better graphics (mostly) built using chrome browser as the platform.

I know someone in over 300 servers. Not sure how he even shows it on screen... I am in 4, thats enough. 3 are dead half the time, and the 4th is the PCG one and I don't talk on it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I continued looking for browser games to play and found this on itch.io:

Rogue Fable IV by Justin Wang

justin-wang123.itch.io

It's a pretty good, simple roguelike that seems pretty easy, I won on my first try.

Apparently I either was lucky or the Warrior class is by far the easiest, because I tried the Fire Mage next and it was a lot harder.

My Warrior had a lot of defence, allowing him to outright block probably more than half the attacks and ignore about half the damage on the attacks that came through, while having a massive health pool, a regular and an AoE attack that push enemies back, a charge attack that lets him get to ranged attackers and self-healing.

My Fire Mage on the other hand has very few options to avoid getting hit. They have a small health pool, rely on ranged attacks that have a shorter range than most ranged attackers, have one conditional short distance teleport that uses mana and their summons die within one or two turns doing very little damage. And once you're out of mana you're pretty much screwed, as it regenerates too slowly when you really need it.

I tried a Necromancer which went a lot better, as he has some life steal abilities, but then I had to go through a dungeon full of enemies which were resistant to toxic damage, which is the damage type of all Necromancer spells. My Warrior had a weapon that ignored armour, so he never had to worry about being less effective against specific enemies, but it seems Mage classes don't get something similar. You can learn spells from other classes if you find them, but in all my runs I wasn't able to properly prepare for enemies that were resistant to my main damage type.

 

[ZedClampet]

Do you mean none in the launch? That makes sense, the final game code would very probably have been set in stone well before 2 weeks from launch. My guess is beta was for a planned patch or DLC or…

If it's a large publisher's game, they are probably testing servers as much as anything. I don't think I've ever been invited to a major publisher's beta test that didn't have a multiplayer component that they wanted to stress test, but the only AAA people I've beta tested are Ubisoft and EA.

 

[ZedClampet]

Apparently I either was lucky or the Warrior class is by far the easiest, because I tried the Fire Mage next and it was a lot harder.

My Warrior had a lot of defence, allowing him to outright block probably more than half the attacks and ignore about half the damage on the attacks that came through, while having a massive health pool, a regular and an AoE attack that push enemies back, a charge attack that lets him get to ranged attackers and self-healing.

My Fire Mage on the other hand has very few options to avoid getting hit. They have a small health pool, rely on ranged attacks that have a shorter range than most ranged attackers, have one conditional short distance teleport that uses mana and their summons die within one or two turns doing very little damage. And once you're out of mana you're pretty much screwed, as it regenerates too slowly when you really need it.

I tried a Necromancer which went a lot better, as he has some life steal abilities, but then I had to go through a dungeon full of enemies which were resistant to toxic damage, which is the damage type of all Necromancer spells. My Warrior had a weapon that ignored armour, so he never had to worry about being less effective against specific enemies, but it seems Mage classes don't get something similar. You can learn spells from other classes if you find them, but in all my runs I wasn't able to properly prepare for enemies that were resistant to my main damage type.

This actually sounds pretty interesting. You playing all those different classes reminded me of how much I like how V Rising handles classes, which is that you sort of change class by changing your loadout--clothes, blood and spells/abilities. If you want to be a necromancer, you pick those spells to be active, spell casting clothing and an appropriate blood type. Of course, you don't have to specialize, you could pick a necromancer spell, a healing spell and an illusionist spell, or whatever. You could do all that and pick tank clothing or damage dealer clothing, or a bit of both, but I find it's better to specialize and be really, really good at one thing. Whose blood you are using also plays a major part in it. Right now I have laborer's blood because I'm gathering resources and crafting, but before I go on my next boss mission, I'll switch to something else. There are several types of warrior/mage/beast blood that offer different buffs.

 

[BeardyHat]

I continued looking for browser games to play and found this on itch.io:

Rogue Fable IV by Justin Wang

justin-wang123.itch.io

It's a pretty good, simple roguelike that seems pretty easy, I won on my first try.

This looks pretty cool. I'm not too into roguelikes, but I really like the art style on this one, think I'll have to try it.

Doing some beta testing and some spring cleaning on Discord. Since every time someone makes me go to their Discord I have to join their server, I was kind of overwhelmed with servers, so I decided to leave any that I'm not interested in anymore.

Can I just ***** for a minute? I really dislike how Discord has become a replacement for forums. It absolutely sucks in that role.

 

[Colif]

I really dislike how Discord has become a replacement for forums. It absolutely sucks in that role.

discord so wants to be a forum replacement. It lets you make threads there now.

Discord lacks a memory. Unless the channel is really dead its impossible to have a long term conversation about a problem you might have. Unless its easy answer. Other forums I am on have a Discord channel and while I was active there I used to tell people to make a post on the forums... but a lot of people don't like forums now...

I don't bother helping people on discord now.

 

[Pifanjr]

I tried Rogue Fable IV with a Barbarian this time and it confirmed that the game is a lot easier if you have a bunch of defence and a large health pool. I did die though, it seems one of the enemies destroyed my boots of levitation while I was over a pit. At least, I think they were destroyed, as I suddenly got a message I had plummeted to my death. The game could do with a message log so you don't miss anything.

 

[BeardyHat]

Oh, Brian, dear Brian...I'm sorry, I've failed you. I saw on Ye Olde PCGamer this morning that Men of War 2 was out and I bought it immediately.

So far, I've had a grand old 10 minutes to play, but Men of War is my weakness, having played every single game in the series so far. I had to pick it up immediately, even if I'm basically broke.

Oh well, hope it runs on Deck or my laptop.

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh, Brian, dear Brian...I'm sorry, I've failed you. I saw on Ye Olde PCGamer this morning that Men of War 2 was out and I bought it immediately.

So far, I've had a grand old 10 minutes to play, but Men of War is my weakness, having played every single game in the series so far. I had to pick it up immediately, even if I'm basically broke.

Oh well, hope it runs on Deck or my laptop.

Live for today without destroying tomorrow. That's my philosophy.

 

[Zloth]

I'm open beta testing X4 currently. That's definitely a for-real beta test. Egosoft isn't big enough to test that game on their own, it's just too huge. Yesterday, I made a report about how large ships are just spiraling around auxiliary repair ships instead of properly docking with them.

Looking for that "Bovine Intervention" video got me tempted to play Sacrifice yet again. I haven't played yet this decade, so it's time.

 

[Brian Boru]

So far, I've had a grand old 10 minutes to play

Still loads of time to refund—all is not lost… repent and salvation is at hand!

a lot of people don't like forums now

Forums were always an acquired taste. When I ran a vB for our biz, there was always a tranche of people who couldn't get the hang of it—we had to keep a mailing list going for those.

Modern SocMed is what finally killed it off, I didn't bother with a forum with new company we started a decade ago.

Discord lacks a memory

Same with SocMed, and mailing lists to a lesser degree. Organization and memory are the 2 big strengths of forums.