Random Game Thoughts Thread - January 15 - 21

[Pifanjr]

I unlocked plane parts in Kerbal Space Program and decided to try to use a plane to do some of the contracts around Kerbin, but quickly discovered that making a working plane is not easy, let alone one that can reach the altitudes most contracts require.

I keep having an issue with my plane wobbling on the runway and losing control, but I now suspect the problem is that my wheels lose traction as the lift increases, which causes the plane to start bouncing. It seemed to go a bit better when I put some flaps up while on the runway to push the plane down, then putting them down when I've made enough speed to get airborne. I'm still not entirely sure how to properly control my pitch though, so it's a struggle to get airborne and to stay airborne if I survive the take off.

At least I can just attach some parachutes to the plane to land it instead of trying to land manually.

One contract asked me to take some readings on the ground near the space center, so I built a plane without wings, using it as a sort of cart to just drive my Kerbals, but even that kept tipping over. Obviously I have a lot left to learn.

The AI workers in Colony Survival are the best I've personally ever seen. There are hundreds of them now, working away. They also take lunch breaks and visit the tool store when their tools break. Our colony is very complex, and never once has an AI gotten stuck or lost. This is hugely more complex than in a 2D game like Rimworld. These guys climb over obstacles to find a way to where they need to go. Build something new on the path they are used to taking? No big deal. They will just go a different way. And now I've even seen them swim. Guido accidentally flooded the floor of our base that has our farms on it, and the AI were swimming to their posts and continuing to work their flooded gardens. As we were putting down blocks all over the place to get rid of the water, they were climbing the blocks, jumping back into the water and swimming to plant their fields. Through all of that, the farmers kept the food coming and not a single worker missed a meal.

Compared to games like Atlas, where if a worker was following you and ran into a tree, you had to go back and lead them around the tree, this is borderline miraculous.

AI pathing is something a lot of games struggle with, as it's quite difficult to do in dynamic environments and can become quite costly in terms of processing power even in 2D games when there's a lot of characters, so that's quite the achievement.

EDIT: I looked around a bit, but couldn't find anything on how they made it work, just that they made a custom solution and it was one of the hardest problems they had to solve during development.

 

[ZedClampet]

Darktide objectively has the makings of a brilliant game, but Fatshark has completely failed. From launching the game before key features were implemented to expecting people to put in 20 hours a week to do the weekly contracts, Fatshark drove a potential masterpiece into the ground. There are currently more people playing Vermintide 2 than Darktide. They could still salvage the game, of course, but these are all things that they've failed with before. They don't learn from their mistakes. It's just been an embarrassing launch for a company that technically makes great games.

 

[Pifanjr]

I continued Kerbal Space Program this morning. I did some research yesterday and discovered planes are a bit more complicated than "lift makes a plane go up", so I made a few adjustments and made a plane that can reliably lift off.

With the more liberal use of quicksaving, I was able to get two more contracts done and land the plane afterwards without any fatal injuries. The first one required me to go to over 17,000 km into the atmosphere, which I had previously done by launching a rocket in the general direction and hoping I wasn't too far off course, as rockets don't lend themselves to mid course corrections very well. This time I added some wings and jet engines to my rocket so I could fly it closer first, which worked very well, though it does take quite a lot longer. I even stuck the landing on the first try (by using parachutes. The plane might have made two backspins before landing...)

The second one required me to go somewhere below 16,000 km, so I didn't need the rocket this time, but brought it anyway because you never know when you might need a rocket (or I was too lazy to change my design, one of those). Everything went fine again, though the area was quite a bit more hilly, so I needed several tries to get my plane landed. In the end I used the parachutes again and the rocket engine bumped slightly too hard into the ground and exploded, but the rest of the plane was still fine so I considered it a success.

By the way, it does not inspire a lot of confidence when you try to quicksave and the game tells you it cannot quicksave while you're in the middle of a crash...

There's still some tweaks I should make to the plane. It's still a bit of a struggle to pitch up, I think partly because the lift on the fins on the tail push the nose downwards a bit. I might just add some small fins on the front to balance that out. I should also try to fly a plane that isn't just a rocket with wings on it (the body of my plane is just three containers of rocket fuel).

Next time I'll go back to orbit to finish the last contract, which requires me to be above a certain altitude again, this time on the other side of the planet, so flying a plane there isn't really feasible. My plan is to get into a polar orbit and wait until I pass over the right area. That should also give my new pilot some experience (turns out the game saves when you exit, even if you've just crashed, so I lost both of my starting pilots). Plus I just unlocked a bunch more science components, so I'll see if I can bring those too.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Stuck on the Icon of Sin in Doom Eternal. Heres a game that knows how to do boss fights as well as excellent movement. Damn the last couple of encounters are hard though. Only on Hurt Me Plenty and getting stomped plenty.

Also got Uncharted 4 as part of an AMD bundle with new CPU. Never played 3 only the first two, but its like one continuous cut scene for the first 2 hours at least. At least it lets you save whenever, also looks pretty nice for a PS4 game with a bit of make-up on.

Finished the 3rd Tutorial in Old World. Be a while before I have any real thoughts on it at this rate.

 

[Brian Boru]

Rise of Nations

Finished the 3rd Tutorial in Old World

I'm not ready to dive in yet, but I did run thru the 5 tuts for Rise of Nations—each one is a different era, from classical archery & spears to WW2.

I suspect in a competitive situation, the game would dissolve into a race for tanks etc—whoever gets there first steamrolls the others. That is absolutely not how I want to play, so we'll see if brakes can be applied.

Jewel Match - Snowscapes

2 QoL tips in Options:
♣ You can turn off the dancing ornaments;
♦ You can stop the map moving around to stay centered on where you're playing—sometimes that helps.

I'm onto Level ~35 now, no more crashes. Nice chill game, and the planner-oriented limited moves mode is perfect for me—so really enjoying it. This is a Christmas version, they have other games in the series which I'll be checking out later.

The early levels were ~10 minutes, but they're around 20 now. Quick glance at similar on HLtB suggests around 40 hours playtime.

 

[ZedClampet]

If Colony Survival had a bucket, and if you filled that bucket with water and climbed to the top of the highest mountain, and if you then tipped that bucket over, the entire world would flood. Guido accidentally removed a block under our pond on level 3 of our underground base and our fourth level filled up in moments. That would be 10,000 cubic meters of water. We then had to place down 10,000 blocks to get rid of the water. Finally finished it tonight. Oh, and we have the "Don't Flood" mod activated, too.

So that done, Guido was up for a little organizing and did a search of the mods for a mod that would let us put up signs. He found a mod called simply "Sign". Always up for an adventure, we downloaded it, and this is what we got:

Yeah, no, you can't change the text.

 

[ZedClampet]

Guido's car broke down this morning. He described what happened, and I said, "The ECU is going bad."

Damn Car Mechanic Simulator. I was just trying to play a game, and now I know things.

 

[Frindis]

@ZedClampet Yet some people don't believe you can learn stuff from playing video games. To quote a famous line from Michael Jackson in South Park: That is ignorant!

 

[Zloth]

These ain't patch notes!

Spoiler: Spider-Man: Miles Morales

• Removed unintended air horn sounds that could occur in some cutscenes for some players.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in mission audio effects in certain cutscenes.
• Added a menu option to skip Fast Travel animations.
• Visual improvements to ray-traced reflections and shadows.
• Added missing ray-traced reflections for some glass surfaces.
• Improved the process of loading pipelines and caching shaders on first startup.
• The waveform shown during calls and radio broadcasts now scales correctly on ultrawide aspect ratios.
• Fixed a bug that caused edge blur to be visible on 32:9 aspect ratios when using certain upscaling settings.
• Addressed a bug that could cause players to get stuck after using Fast Travel for the first time.
• Fixed a bug that caused Crime Missions not to load under certain conditions.
• Addressed a bug that caused players having to press the Gadget wheel button twice to open it the first time when using a gamepad.
• Various UI bugfixes, including fixes for ultrawide aspect ratios.
• Added gyro support on Steam Deck for gameplay segments that let players examine objects.
• Improved stability and performance.
• Various minor bugfixes.

THESE are patch notes!

Spoiler: X4 Foundations Beta 6

Version: 6.00 Beta 1 (492332) - Last updated: 2023-01-19

• New Feature: Updated graphics engine, with Parallax Occlusion Mapping, Reflection Probes, enhanced lighting, improved shadows, and more.
• New Feature: Jolt Physics engine.
• New Feature: Live Stream camera mode.
• New Feature: Position Defence for carrier-led fleets.
• Added new bombardment assignment for subordinates.
• Added command to order ships to attack surface elements on designated targets.
• Added Salvage at Position and Deliver Salvage commands for use with repeat orders.
• Added self-destruct command for player-owned satellites, resource probes, nav beacons, lasertowers and mines.
• Added detection and penalty for theft from station build storage.
• Added more gamestart information, indicating whether they are Tutorial, Guided, Assisted or Sandbox, and adjusted order.
• Added option to edit Buccaneer relations in Custom Gamestart Editor under certain circumstances.
• Added player HQ to Station Design Simulator.
• Added Supervised Mining missions.
• Added Kha'ak-specific Destroy Station missions.
• Added extra Signal Leak missions for factions foreign to station owner, allowing player to earn reputation for Vigor Syndicate at Teladi stations and for Fallen Families at Free Families stations.
• Added hint for missing research to Equipment Mod Workbench menu.
• Added button to force station build to complete instantly in Station Design Simulator.
• Added visual hint for destroyed ships in Transaction Log menus.
• Added links to Object Information and Object Transaction Log from entries in Transaction Log.
• Added hint about trade entries in Transaction Log to Logbook.
• Added order descriptions to Interact and New Order context menus.
• Added mappable hotkeys for deploying objects such as Satellites and Laser Towers.
• Added mappable hotkeys for giving and aborting player squad attack order.
• Added option to hold Shift while dragging on map to move orders vertically.
• Added transform gizmo to station editor.
• Added double-click on module in Station Build menu to focus camera on module.
• Added shortcut to Manage Plots menu to console in Station Design Simulator
• Added surface elements of environment object to Next/Previous Target selection.
• Added options to pre-configure blacklists and fire authorisation overrides when building ships.
• Added descriptions to many items in Encyclopedia.
• Added information about long range scanner range and scan area to Encyclopedia.
• Added distinction between enemies and hostiles to Encyclopedia faction entries.
• Added distinction between friendly and allied relations to target monitor.
• Added more relation perks to Factions and Relations menu.
• Added option to ignore cargo space reservations when setting up trade loops.
• Added option to exchange captains when transferring crew.
• Added possibility to override faction logo per fleet.
• Added modified hint to Continue Game option in Start menu.
• Added mission highlight to transporter room button and other elements.
• Added some landmark stations to Encyclopedia.
• Added mission arrow towards platform guidance if not on screen.
• Added animation when selecting target.
• Added several new achievements.
• Added new ultra shadow quality option.
• Removed logbook entries for received surplus and completed trades.
• Removed "transparent" border around fullscreen menus.
• Removed info boxes for ships on map.
• Removed venture inventory tab from spacesuit upgrades.
• Removed option to turn off save compression (note: with recent improvements to saving this option is no longer advisable for normal users but remains available to modders in a different form).
• Improved balancing of some Terraforming projects by making them resilient against setbacks from events such as quakes.
• Improved Find Resources missions by adding guidance sphere and increasing reward according to how many Resource Probes player will probably need.
• Improved room variety for certain missions.
• Improved Give Seminar conversation choice.
• Improved placement of data leaks to claim abandoned ships.
• Improved dock position tolerance when flying capital ship without docking computer.
• Improved undocking behaviour in certain dock areas.
• Improved presentation when sharing transporter room with NPCs.
• Improved Zyarth economy to counter it being overrun by Xenon (affects new games only).
• Improved faction defence station loadout selection when responding to aggression.
• Improved fighter combat movement against large targets.
• Improved coordination within fleets during attack.
• Improved behavior of ships fleeing from attacks.
• Improved MoveWait fleet behavior immediately before performing attack.
• Improved combat behavior of ships in fleet with carrier or fleet auxiliary ship.
• Improved carrier behavior in combat if all fighter subordinates are on detached assignment.
• Improved police response to EMP bombs being lobbed at policed stations.
• Improved handling for attempting ware exchange where transport drones are needed but unavailable.
• Improved amounts sold by free traders and miners when only selling, particularly across multiple sectors.
• Improved missile damage and ammo consumption simulation when player not present.
• Improved capital ships using forward-mounted guns in combat when player not present.
• Improved reliability of attack subordinates engaging commander's target.
• Improved resupply behavior to allow ships that have loadout level of 0 to automatically get repairs as needed.
• Improved decision-making for when commanders recall subordinates upon receiving move order.
• Improved responsiveness of attack subordinates when commander attacks new target.
• Improved collection of multiple drops in same area by multiple ships.
• Improved matching of corridors to rooms on Argon stations.
• Improved pilot chair in Terran ships.
• Improved transporter room visuals.
• Improved notification and logbook entry for player-owned ships and stations being destroyed.
• Improved presentation of out-of-stock items in Ship Upgrade menu.
• Improved estimated arrival time of incoming deliveries.
• Improved ship upgrade by allowing multiple ships with equipment from another race to be upgraded if all ships share same equipment.
• Improved factory icons to indicate produced ware.
• Improved Options menu by making it full-screen.
• Improved messages in message ticker and logbook for attacked or destroyed player property.
• Improved control mode messages to be informative rather than commanding.
• Improved visuals when showing in-game scenes on target monitor.
• Improved visibility by decreasing brightness of window dirt at border of cockpit glass.
• Improved high and ultra graphics presets to include screen space reflections (change only applied when reselecting preset).
• Improved deadzone in default input profiles for gamepads by reducing it from 50% to 10%.
• Improved game startup time, and time for loading and saving savegames.
• Fixed selected stories in Custom Gamestart Editor depending on Headquarters and Staff story state not resetting when removing HQ story.
• Fixed being able to destroy missile drop in Flight School tutorial.
• Fixed being able to assign pilots to certain plot ships which should have been restricted.
• Fixed problems with Escape Plan mission if it occurs in Grand Exchange I.
• Fixed Welfare Module research mission Casino station being invulnerable before mission starts.
• Fixed Transport Passenger mission spawning passenger in brig.
• Fixed Hack Panel missions asking player to hack panel that has already been hacked.
• Fixed Hack Panel missions targeting station belonging to same faction that is offering mission.
• Fixed A Pirate's Trail mission getting stuck if Wolfish Heart is destroyed in one shot, or during initial dialog.
• Fixed wrong mission objective if target ship gets destroyed early during Seem Valuable mission of Split story.
• Fixed Guard placement in Antigone Station corridor during Covert Operations story.
• Fixed player Cover ship being owned by Argon during Zyarth's Coffin mission of Split story.
• Fixed story not progressing if station to which wares should be delivered is destroyed during Zyarth's Coffin mission of Split story.
• Fixed important wreck in Flight School tutorial being destructible.
• Fixed conversation stalling during build segment of Advanced Scenario.
• Fixed missing hints and menu highlighting in Terran version of HQ dock construction mission.
• Fixed Dagobas Lahubasis Yorilos III trying to escape into own ship while talking to him on bridge during Trade Obstruction mission of Avarice story.
• Fixed not being able to complete Avarice story race with L-sized ship.
• Fixed Manager's Office displaying wrong trophy after completing Arcadian Endeavour story.
• Fixed From the Ashes mission getting stuck if Duke's Haven gets destroyed before player can deliver manager.
• Fixed Geometric Owl attacking random Xenon in The Void instead of staying put to allow players to dock during Second Assistant mission of Pioneer Terraforming story.
• Fixed ship delivery missions not updating which ships to transfer after first recognised ships are removed from delivery area.
• Fixed several issues with Scale Plate subscription missions.
• Fixed timers for supply factory missions getting stuck at zero.
• Fixed some missions having excessively long time limits.
• Fixed stations belonging to civilian faction offering missions.
• Fixed not being able to dock at Keepsafe after it is rebuilt.
• Fixed relations between Vigor Syndicate and Ministry of Finance to be actively hostile.
• Fixed certain major stations and factories sometimes not spawning on gamestart.
• Fixed some stations unintentionally spawning in hazardous regions.
• Fixed Yaki ships sometimes not having weapons.
• Fixed generated loadouts in some shipyards/wharfs/equipment docks not matching available equipment.
• Fixed subordinate traders sometimes buying from homebase and selling right back to it.
• Fixed research storage targets exceeding research ware requirements under certain circumstances.
• Fixed being able to activate travel mode in ship without flight assist software.
• Fixed ships sometimes firing at empty space when attacking large target.
• Fixed multiple beam weapons attacking same target not draining shields as quickly as expected.
• Fixed lockboxes standing still after saving and loading.
• Fixed ships with repair drones sometimes not repairing at expected speed.
• Fixed ships that are about to dock or are executing trades in Avarice ignoring Tide warning.
• Fixed case that could result in station-based miners failing to execute assignment.
• Fixed traders sometimes not finding valid trades when operating in only one space.
• Fixed ships sometimes trading with build storage of destroyed stations.
• Fixed station trade subordinates selling station trade wares to factions prohibited by associated trade rules.
• Fixed player sometimes being blamed for objects destroyed by hazardous regions.
• Fixed player-owned subordinates and capital ships sometimes traversing unexplored sectors when moving between sectors.
• Fixed ships trying to resupply at stations or ships they cannot dock at.
• Fixed ships belonging to some factions failing to restock deployables and ammo.
• Fixed ware exchange stalling if exchange partners are already parked when ware exchange order begins.
• Fixed attacking ships sometimes overshooting target on initial approach.
• Fixed ships sometimes ignoring collisions when interrupted while docking.
• Fixed non-capital ships with subordinates that are not moving with commander needlessly attempting to synchronize movements to fleet at gate transitions.
• Fixed defence subordinates sometimes losing track of ships in fleet that are not subordinates of immediate commander.
• Fixed case that could prevent capital ships dealing with fleet auxiliary ships which are attached to fleets.
• Fixed ships attacking capital ships or stations not using all active weapons when weapons are activated while already in combat.
• Fixed capital ships intentionally destroying targets that they were directed to disable while assisting boarding operation
• Fixed capital ships tending to maintain distance beyond turret range when directed to support boarding operation by destroying surface elements.
• Fixed subordinates not docking if immediate commander is explicitly ordered to dock at carrier that is in command hierarchy.
• Fixed case that could result in commanders ordering subordinates to dock indefinitely.
• Fixed subordinates of subordinates of carriers undocking when carrier subordinate formation is changed via carrier.
• Fixed ships with looped orders repeatedly trying to dock at now-destroyed destinations.
• Fixed ships attacking attackers when going in for repairs or ammo.
• Fixed fleeing ships erroneously concluding that second flee attempt was successful.
• Fixed boarding pods becoming inactive when sent to abandoned ships when assigned marine was in transit.
• Fixed illegal activities such as hitting stations with EMP bombs not triggering police response.
• Fixed police ships sometimes attacking own faction's ships if those ships interrupt investigation.
• Fixed ships in formation that are not subordinates doing no combat damage when player not present.
• Fixed dismantled objects sometimes remaining in space much longer than they should.
• Fixed wrecks being auto-selected when not flying salvage ships.
• Fixed salvage subordinates not updating ranges after commander station's manager is replaced.
• Fixed salvagers finding unknown wrecks.
• Fixed salvage-related activities not contributing to skill gain.
• Fixed pilots sometimes getting stuck when replacing another pilot.
• Fixed difficulty docking manually when Collision Avoidance option is active.
• Fixed Split flak turret bullets not exploding.
• Fixed force effects of anomalies and some other objects not working.
• Fixed small wrecks stuck in capital ship geometry interfering with player controls.
• Fixed wrecks disappearing while being dismantled if player leaves area.
• Fixed stuck doors or non-interactable buttons and panels on platforms after loading save.
• Fixed non-interactable airlock after loading save.
• Fixed invalid airlock state if cycled too quickly.
• Fixed NPCs sometimes standing within objects on dock areas.
• Fixed gamestart description texts being cut off under certain circumstances.
• Fixed price and discount/commission information sometimes being incorrect in trade context menu.
• Fixed maximum number of docked ships in Object Information menu.
• Fixed missing timers on chain missions in Mission Manager menus.
• Fixed station construction plan changes sometimes being lost when applied.
• Fixed missing warning about changes to station construction plans when closing any menu opened from Station Build menu.
• Fixed Long Range Scanner not seeing stations with Protectyon Shield Generator module.
• Fixed station plots in Xenon space showing licence costs before placement.
• Fixed boarding menu allowing selection of arriving marines.
• Fixed crew on destroyed ships being listed in Personnel Management menu.
• Fixed missing ticker message when player unlocks new Timeline entry.
• Fixed missing/mismatching data in target monitor under certain circumstances.
• Fixed terraforming projects showing wrong cooldown when they were never started before.
• Fixed ware descriptions in trader menus not updating under certain circumstances.
• Fixed scrolling in menus when mouse is over certain parts of screen.
• Fixed selected object icon not appearing on Map when zoomed out.
• Fixed wrecks of civilian ships being hidden on Map if civilian ships are not shown but wrecks are.
• Fixed player sector not appearing on map if using space suit after hitching ride to unknown sector.
• Fixed dropdown to change assignment of all subordinates in subordinate group failing to do so.
• Fixed menu crash in station storage list under certain circumstances.
• Fixed icons of recyclables being visible in fog of war.
• Fixed mines dropped by trapped lockboxes not showing as red in UI.
• Fixed Spacesuit Engines not showing hologram visuals in Encyclopedia.
• Fixed Terran names for maintenance and fabrication bays in Encyclopedia.
• Fixed potential damage to objects in universe from missiles that explode in Encyclopedia view.
• Fixed suggestions for keyboard and mouse buttons being displayed in some cases when only playing with controller or joystick.
• Fixed workers leaving lights on when production modules are inactive.
• Fixed distinction between enemy and hostile factions in Faction and Relations menu.
• Fixed colour of target monitor relation for neutral objects.
• Fixed inconsistent information about gate and accelerator destinations in both HUD and ship computer voice.
• Fixed voice playback in Timeline getting interrupted by other voices.
• Fixed beam weapon sounds being considered "ambient" instead of "effects" for sound volumes.
• Fixed bright line appearing in some shadows.
• Fixed engine jet "flames" not animating correctly for several XS ships.
• Fixed game having wrong resolution after choosing 1280x720 or similar small resolutions in fullscreen mode.
• Fixed custom gamestart cutscenes sometimes being distorted.
• Fixed looking in wrong direction when teleporting to Alligator (Liquid).
• Fixed being able to fall off dock area of Phoenix.
• Fixed Zeus docking position being too close to pier.
• Fixed Zeus E XS dock being out of position.
• Fixed Osaka missing some detail.
• Fixed Terran L container storage having incorrect collisions container modules.
• Fixed missing wreck for Atlas E resupplier.
• Fixed Hokkaido (Mineral) internal rooms clipping through geometry.
• Fixed mirrored ship ID on Prometheus.
• Fixed gap on dockarea of Erlking.
• Fixed paintmods being applied to surfaces they should not be used on.
• Fixed custom logos with upper-case letters in filename not being loaded in Linux version.
• Fixed performance stutter when approaching highly populated docks.
• Fixed noticeable freeze when closing station editor for very large stations.
• Fixed rare freeze during startup.
• Fixed several causes of crashes.

Of course, a persnickety person might make some comment about how many bugs there were to fix in the first place - but who would do that on a nice weekend like this??

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Guido's car broke down this morning. He described what happened, and I said, "The ECU is going bad."

Damn Car Mechanic Simulator. I was just trying to play a game, and now I know things.

You've almost convinced me to get the game. I hope Guido can get his car working.

 

[ZedClampet]

One day when my vision was good, I made this picture for Guido of what I see about half the time when we are playing Forza.

You've almost convinced me to get the game. I hope Guido can get his car working.

Guido and $1200 will do it.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Guido and $1200 will do it.

That sucks. That's a big chunk of change.

 

[ZedClampet]

That sucks. That's a big chunk of change.

Not really that big a deal. If I had to flinch at every car/home repair, I wouldn't have retired. There's always something going wrong somewhere. I blame this on my wife, though. She's the one who bought a Chevy. I've had Fords since 1985, and other than getting tires and routine maintenance, I've only taken a car into a shop once, and that was when someone hit me on the Interstate. My current Ford is 13 years old and, just like the ones before it, has never broken down. My one before this one had 275,000 miles on it when I gave it to my nephew, who did no maintenance on it and drove it into the ground in a little over a year.

My wife loves Chevys, though, so we get plenty of repairs done.

 

[ZedClampet]

I don't understand all the advice given by game journalists on weapons for Darktide. For instance, which staff to use for the Psyker and which gun to use for the Ogryn. They all pretty much say the same thing, that you should use the lightning staff for the Psyker and the Ripper for the Ogryn, and I couldn't disagree more.

First of all, the reason they pick these weapons is pretty darn weak. It's because these weapons are good against the hoards. You know what's really good against the hoards? Your melee weapon. Second of all, you shouldn't be taking damage against the hoards anyway, especially not if you played the Vermintide games. It's not the hoards that get you, it's the waves of Specials that accompany the hoards. Do you know what the lightning staff and ripper guns aren't good at? Killing specials.

The lightning staff's big attack is chained lightning, but it doesn't do enough damage. And the Ripper? It does trivial damage against the best armor. Meanwhile, the Blastoon, which all these advice givers agree should be avoided, does massive damage to all specials, bosses and assassination targets--you know, the enemies you should actually be worried about if you are decent at the game. Honestly, for the Ogryn, I'd say the Ripper is possibly the worst gun you could use. Besides the armor problem, its incredibly slow if you want to aim, and its spread shot is uninspiring if you really do want to use it against a hoard. You'll probably take out two enemies at best. Now, fired from the hip at close range, the Ripper is amazing, but why are you using it that way? You are going to take damage doing this. Another thing is that they are not good at decent ranges. It's much easier to loft a Blastoon grenade across a large room at a sniper than to try to aim a Ripper shot at one.

This is not a shooter, people. Use your guns for what they were designed for.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't understand all the advice given by game journalists on weapons for Darktide. For instance, which staff to use for the Psyker and which gun to use for the Ogryn. They all pretty much say the same thing, that you should use the lightning staff for the Psyker and the Ripper for the Ogryn, and I couldn't disagree more.

First of all, the reason they pick these weapons is pretty darn weak. It's because these weapons are good against the hoards. You know what's really good against the hoards? Your melee weapon. Second of all, you shouldn't be taking damage against the hoards anyway, especially not if you played the Vermintide games. It's not the hoards that get you, it's the waves of Specials that accompany the hoards. Do you know what the lightning staff and ripper guns aren't good at? Killing specials.

The lightning staff's big attack is chained lightning, but it doesn't do enough damage. And the Ripper? It does trivial damage against the best armor. Meanwhile, the Blastoon, which all these advice givers agree should be avoided, does massive damage to all specials, bosses and assassination targets--you know, the enemies you should actually be worried about if you are decent at the game. Honestly, for the Ogryn, I'd say the Ripper is possibly the worst gun you could use. Besides the armor problem, its incredibly slow if you want to aim, and it's spread shot is uninspiring if you really do want to use it against a hoard. You'll probably take out two enemies at best. Now, fired from the hip at close range, the Ripper is amazing, but why are you using it that way? You are going to take damage doing this. Another thing is that they are not good at decent ranges. It's much easier to loft a Blastoon grenade across a large room at a sniper than to try to aim a Ripper shot at one.

This is not a shooter, people. Use your guns for what they were designed for.

Shouldn't you have different people gear up for different roles? That's what I read you should do for Vermintide 2. Though my friends and I never planned out our equipment beforehand, but we didn't play on higher than veteran either.

 

[DXCHASE]

I don't understand all the advice given by game journalists on weapons for Darktide. For instance, which staff to use for the Psyker and which gun to use for the Ogryn. They all pretty much say the same thing, that you should use the lightning staff for the Psyker and the Ripper for the Ogryn, and I couldn't disagree more.

First of all, the reason they pick these weapons is pretty darn weak. It's because these weapons are good against the hoards. You know what's really good against the hoards? Your melee weapon. Second of all, you shouldn't be taking damage against the hoards anyway, especially not if you played the Vermintide games. It's not the hoards that get you, it's the waves of Specials that accompany the hoards. Do you know what the lightning staff and ripper guns aren't good at? Killing specials.

The lightning staff's big attack is chained lightning, but it doesn't do enough damage. And the Ripper? It does trivial damage against the best armor. Meanwhile, the Blastoon, which all these advice givers agree should be avoided, does massive damage to all specials, bosses and assassination targets--you know, the enemies you should actually be worried about if you are decent at the game. Honestly, for the Ogryn, I'd say the Ripper is possibly the worst gun you could use. Besides the armor problem, its incredibly slow if you want to aim, and its spread shot is uninspiring if you really do want to use it against a hoard. You'll probably take out two enemies at best. Now, fired from the hip at close range, the Ripper is amazing, but why are you using it that way? You are going to take damage doing this. Another thing is that they are not good at decent ranges. It's much easier to loft a Blastoon grenade across a large room at a sniper than to try to aim a Ripper shot at one.

This is not a shooter, people. Use your guns for what they were designed for.

Ok, so i dont use a psyker or an ogryn but a sharpshooter and zealot, i find myself using weapons more than melee, esp. on the sharpshooter. Its special paired with shooting kills specials pretty good at a distance. (obviously sharpshooter is gonna utilize guns better though)

So it might not be a "shooter" at heart, but depending on the classes, it can seem more that way, imo.

lI do agree with the advice ive seen on the game, suggesting to me strategies that i dont find helpful, i cant remember which loadout i went with based on one of these videos but i remember feeling weak and unhelpful.

 

[ZedClampet]

Hey, @Pifanjr

Shouldn't you have different people gear up for different roles? That's what I read you should do for Vermintide 2. Though my friends and I never planned out our equipment beforehand, but we didn't play on higher than veteran either.

Yes, everyone should have different roles, but their weapon recommendations actually work against this because all they seem to be concerned with is which ranged weapon can best deal with a horde that is right in your face.

Take the Ogryn, for example. If you use the melee and ranged weapons they recommend, there are enemies you just can't take on. You're the biggest, baddest dude in the game. You should be going toe-to-toe with anything and everything and drawing as much aggro as possible, not tagging things and getting out of the way. And if you're the Psyker? You are the long range guy, not the zap a few horde mobs at the same time guy. Hordes you should still fight with your melee weapon.

When I play the Ogryn, as we move, I'm constantly charging forward, knocking enemies on their butts (and causing damage and bleeding) far in advance of everyone else so that it's easy cleanup behind me. I'm getting shot at by everyone, and that's the way it should be. Outside of a hoard, I'm just looking for the most trouble I can get into. When a hoard starts, I'm at the lead cleaving through as many enemies as I can hit with my melee while watching over their heads for specials. See a special? Then I knock as many enemies back as I can to give me time to switch to my ranged weapon. One to four shots (depending on the enemy) with the Blastoon, and I'm usually back to melee.

On the other hand, when I play my Psyker, I still have to melee a hoard, but I'm constantly scanning the far reaches of the area we're in (many are quite large) for the specials no one else but me and the veteran can reach. For the Psyker, no one is out of range, so that's your responsibility.

But everyone's primary responsibility should be to kill every special you see. Your different roles determine where you are looking for these specials, and no one should ever look away from a special and do something else unless it's just far out of your range, in which case you should tag it at the very least.

When I play any character and I'm fighting a horde, I barely even look at the horde, I'm looking over the horde for specials. Outside of hordes? I'm still scanning for specials. Even as the close combat characters, you have to watch for them. Your ranged guys may be doing deciphers or something and not able to go after the specials (your close quarters guys should be doing things like deciphers, but try telling that to randos). If it's a sniper or a trapper, you need to be able to handle it if no one else can, and you need to do it fast. If you don't kill the sniper quickly enough, he'll down anyone not in cover in seconds, and the trapper, of course, is a one shot trap (but he has to be close to you). Once you have one player down, the odds of completing the mission drop dramatically.

Of course, with a good team there are more strategies you can employ. With randoms, you give them a chance, but once it becomes apparent they are nearly worthless, then EVERYTHING becomes your responsibility, and that includes keeping them alive. Even the worst player has some value as an additional target for the specials. With a good team, not everyone even needs to be fighting the horde. If you have a good Ogryn and Fanatic, they should be able to take care of any horde while the Psyker and Veteran kill the specials. Good luck finding that team, though, especially in Darktide where everyone can play the same character if they want to. The good news is that the game doesn't give kill stats at the end of each mission, so you don't have people who ignore all reason in pursuit of the most kills.



LOL sorry for the long, probably disjointed post. I'm just sitting here enjoying my morning 32 oz Gatorade

Hey, what's your favorite part of Vermintide 2? One of my favorite parts was the pack rat. We used to chase that guy relentlessly, just abandoning all thoughts of self-preservation in hopes of getting his extra die. About the only thing we wouldn't do was follow him out of a grimoire area.

Another thing I really enjoyed was looking for collectables (including grimoires and dice) on new maps, especially some DLC maps. They hide things in some crazy places. Was always looking for parkour areas because you knew they were hiding something. Of course, you can't do this with randoms. Guido and I usually played with just the two of us, and I liked to solo a lot, as well, on new maps just so I wasn't holding other people up.

 

[ZedClampet]

Ok, so i dont use a psyker or an ogryn but a sharpshooter and zealot, i find myself using weapons more than melee, esp. on the sharpshooter. Its special paired with shooting kills specials pretty good at a distance. (obviously sharpshooter is gonna utilize guns better though)

So it might not be a "shooter" at heart, but depending on the classes, it can seem more that way, imo.

lI do agree with the advice ive seen on the game, suggesting to me strategies that i dont find helpful, i cant remember which loadout i went with based on one of these videos but i remember feeling weak and unhelpful.

I'm sorry. I was writing carelessly. What I was actually thinking about were the hordes. The veteran and the psyker are definitely "shooter" characters. I disagree with you on the zealot, but if it's working for you, then that's all that matters.

 

[ZedClampet]

we didn't play on higher than veteran either.

I missed this the first time. On Veteran you can pretty much do whatever you want. But in V1 and V2, the classes aren't nearly as well-defined as they are in Darktide because the game was specifically designed to emphasize melee, even for the witch and the elf. In fact, Fatshark repeatedly nerfed ranged in V2 trying to get people to stop relying on it. But despite what I carelessly said above about Darktide, the Veteran and the Psyker are definitely ranged characters, but they shouldn't be backpedaling and shooting during a horde unless you have melee players who are taking care of it. They both have very good melee weapons.

 

[Pifanjr]

@ZedClampet, thank you for your extensive thoughts.

Hey, what's your favorite part of Vermintide 2? One of my favorite parts was the pack rat. We used to chase that guy relentlessly, just abandoning all thoughts of self-preservation in hopes of getting his extra die. About the only thing we wouldn't do was follow him out of a grimoire area.

Another thing I really enjoyed was looking for collectables (including grimoires and dice) on new maps, especially some DLC maps. They hide things in some crazy places. Was always looking for parkour areas because you knew they were hiding something. Of course, you can't do this with randoms. Guido and I usually played with just the two of us, and I liked to solo a lot, as well, on new maps just so I wasn't holding other people up.

I haven't played the game enough to start caring about collectables, as I haven't done any map more than two times total.

I personally really like the Chaos Wastes mode. I really enjoy getting new boons and keeping an eye out for extra currency to spend on even more boons. The potion of unlimited bombs is also great.

I also just like how chaotic the game can become, especially if you manage to still survive. That's true for regular maps, but doubly so in maps with special events. For example, I did a weekly challenge where every higher tier enemy would split into two lower tier version upon death, which would spawn basically in the middle of an attack animation. We also had an event where a whole bunch of ratling gunners spawned at once.

The first one went pretty well, as long as you just kept attacking you were fine most of the time, especially if you kept close together.

For the second one we didn't kill them fast enough, got caught in a crossfire with no cover and died in seconds. We were not at all prepared to deal with it. It was funny to see how quickly we devolved into sheer panic and fear.

 

[ZedClampet]

@ZedClampet, thank you for your extensive thoughts.



I haven't played the game enough to start caring about collectables, as I haven't done any map more than two times total.

I personally really like the Chaos Wastes mode. I really enjoy getting new boons and keeping an eye out for extra currency to spend on even more boons. The potion of unlimited bombs is also great.

I also just like how chaotic the game can become, especially if you manage to still survive. That's true for regular maps, but doubly so in maps with special events. For example, I did a weekly challenge where every higher tier enemy would split into two lower tier version upon death, which would spawn basically in the middle of an attack animation. We also had an event where a whole bunch of ratling gunners spawned at once.

The first one went pretty well, as long as you just kept attacking you were fine most of the time, especially if you kept close together.

For the second one we didn't kill them fast enough, got caught in a crossfire with no cover and died in seconds. We were not at all prepared to deal with it. It was funny to see how quickly we devolved into sheer panic and fear.

It's amazing how insane these games become and yet you still manage to live most of the time. It's also crazy how quickly it can all come to an end. Last night Guido and I were playing a mission with a new type of special event--power outage--where all the lights are out and it's almost completely dark. We're coming up on the final area when we accidentally wade into a large group of enemies, including Lord knows how many specials, we couldn't see. We were needing the healing that you usually get right before the final fight, but we didn't get it. Our two bots immediately went down and almost at the exact same time, Guido got trapped from behind by a trapper, leaving just me. I was on my last leg and the sound played to indicate a horde. I used my Ogryn charge to get to Guido and tried to revive him despite being pummeled by gunfire from all directions (I was playing the Ogryn who can't be interrupted during a revive) because being that close to death on that difficulty and playing in the dark...well, I didn't know what else to do. Moments later I was toast, and we were collecting our consolation prizes

 

[Ryzengang]

Finally digging into something new for the first time in awhile. I've started up Journey to the Savage Planet and I'm having a good time with it. It has some good humor and I'm enjoying just walking around and exploring the world. Only about an hour and a half in, but my early impressions are quite positive. It's a bit of a hard game to explain in terms of genre, but I think PC Gamer's review does a nice job of describing it.

 

[Brian Boru]

Journey to the Savage Planet

Is it co-op only?—Sorry, I stopped reading when I saw that

 

[Ryzengang]

Is it co-op only?—Sorry, I stopped reading when I saw that

No, I'm playing it solo. I actually forgot it supported co-op until I looked again after starting it this evening