September 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[SHR-51]

!? So... pretty much the same can be said about Cyberpunk, bar everything I said?? Huh? The paragraph you quoted was all about climbing towers to see icons on a map!

I mean, yes, you are correct, of course. I have expressed myself poorly.

Even if you're not specifically climbing towers in 2077, you are still going through a checklist open world that's not much different to, let's say, AC Valhalla. And yet, 2077's version is regarded much better in the court of public opinion than AC's. I'm wondering, why that is.

 

[neogunhero]

Same ol AoE 4. No matter how many times I try to beg people my lobby is for noobs only, 200+ hour sweats will always join to destroy AI enemies as fast as possible. Oh well, still a good time. I’ve been using a “tuning pack” which is basically mods that change certain things in game. The one I use gives you max 300 population, faster villager spawns, increased resource nodes and more. It makes the game a lot faster and helps you to focus on building your city. Next time I need to turn off win conditions that allow you to steamroll enemies to win. I want to focus on building up a huge city rather than building up the largest possible army.

I also played about 30 minutes of Ara: History Untold, but that’s not nearly enough time to get to grips with it. It was getting late and my eyelids were too heavy to read all of the tutorial. It seems very similar to Civ, with some Sim City thrown in with building districts and stuff. Lots of complicated features and mechanics. Steam reviews are mixed, some people saying the game is really fun, while most of the negative reviews seem to come from people with 1000+ hours in Civ games (one reviewer said exactly that, others said they are veterans of the genre). Of course die hard fans of certain genres are hard to please, that’s a reason why AoE4 is looked down upon by hardcore AoE2 players. For more casual fans, it seems to be a fun game. Looking forward to diving deeper into it later.

 

[Brian Boru]

Ara: History Untold … seems very similar to Civ, with some Sim City thrown in with building districts and stuff. Lots of complicated features and mechanics

I watched ~30 minutes of Spud's first playthru video and it looked quite different to Civ to me. Maybe a bit like Civ 6 with all the complication, but almost the opposite of what Civ 7 is aiming for.

So imo it's a mistake to compare to Civ, it looked a lot more like a city builder to me, with crafting and quests added in. If that's your thing, it could be very good—I was certainly impressed by how it does what it's doing.

 

[neogunhero]

I watched ~30 minutes of Spud's first playthru video and it looked quite different to Civ to me. Maybe a bit like Civ 6 with all the complication, but almost the opposite of what Civ 7 is aiming for.

So imo it's a mistake to compare to Civ, it looked a lot more like a city builder to me, with crafting and quests added in. If that's your thing, it could be very good—I was certainly impressed by how it does what it's doing.

I suppose really the only similarities is the fact that you play as a historical figure and lead a civilization to victory through various means including resource management and diplomacy. Besides that, I agree the game play very differently and throws in a lot of its own ideas into the mix.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I probably do just suck at it. I looked up some tips to see what I'm doing wrong and I think I tend to specialise too much, which causes problems against enemies that counter specific builds.

Which kind of sucks. I like creating decks with good synergies, but it seems that, especially on higher levels, you get punished for focusing on a specific synergy.

Far as I figured, mostly you need to pick up direct damage in the first act because things like Guardian, Lagavulin and Gremlin Nob are damage races, and at least some aoe to beat stuff like slime boss and sentries. Going into act 2 youre going to need better block without compromising your damage output too much by watering down your deck, and for act 3 your going to need to start scaling damage, ideally exponentially in some way. I wouldnt pay too much attention to little old ascension 5 me though!

The best players have spreadsheeted out everything, potions, relics and cards, and know every possible corridor fight and boss and what you need to beat them with all the characters. I aint got time for that, literally, but I cant help but respect a developer that managed to balance the game well for the lunatic/genius fringe.

 

[Johnway]

We're drawing close now. Nearly all the SP campaigns of the base AOE2 DE completed. Got to say the last one i finished (the gujaras) was tough for me. The last 2 maps were nothing short of brutal fighting. The last battle too me a solid 2 and half hours to complete as i had to take on the defensive and once the attacks were repelled could i begin my work cracking 3 tough bases. Luckily i was able to blob up a whole load of units but it was a blood bath.

no updates on yakuza 4 front, just plodding along for 3 hours so far. Not sure what to make of it atm. once i have some more substantial comments, i'll post em.

 

[neogunhero]

Conan Exiles - Exiles, breathe life into your stronghold with Living Settlements! - Steam News

A real hero takes care of their own. But a true legend provides the environment for others to thrive!

store.steampowered.com

Earlier this year, I talked about how I started up a game of Conan Exiles again with the main goal of creating a large villager settlement full of people everywhere. I talked about how unfortunately, the Thrall NPCs felt so dull and lifeless. Today I saw this blog post under that game, and it seems to address a lot of the issues I had with it. They are wanting NPCs to have more interactivity within your settlement and gives them basic needs like sleep and hunger. The way it sounds feels like they will act exactly how Fallout 4 settlers did, which is not totally a bad thing. This may not be enough to bring me back yet but it's a step in the right direction to me.

 

[Zloth]

I mean, yes, you are correct, of course. I have expressed myself poorly.

Even if you're not specifically climbing towers in 2077, you are still going through a checklist open world that's not much different to, let's say, AC Valhalla. And yet, 2077's version is regarded much better in the court of public opinion than AC's. I'm wondering, why that is.

I never played Valhalla, but I played Odyssey and liked it quite a bit. Cyberpunk beats the tar out of Odyssey, though. Why? First, because the stories and lore are great. Odyssey has some good ones (Testikles! Wooo!), but Cyberpunk's stories were more interesting and deeper. Second, because the combat was FAR better. Third, because that city was very well done.

Odyssey still had some great stuff, especially with that three-part DLC, it's just that Cyberpunk did many things even better.

no updates on yakuza 4 front, just plodding along for 3 hours so far. Not sure what to make of it atm. once i have some more substantial comments, i'll post em.

Did you crank the difficulty up? I didn't and suffered for it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I spend some time yesterday looking for another modpack for Minecraft. I came close to giving up after researching a bunch of them and trying one, but none of them grabbed my interest. However, I finally ended up on Craftoria. It's missing some of my favourite mods, but it does give structure with a solid quest progression and it adds a ton of new structures to find. I was really missing the exploration part in the previous mod because enemies were so strong I didn't dare venture out too far.

I've only played a bit, but I'm really enjoying it so far. I started in creative mode so I could fly around a bit to find a good place to settle down and build a little home, but I didn't need to go very far as I spawned pretty close to a village.

The village itself had a couple of treasure chests with some basic resources and two new structures, a big tower with a bunch of rooms and a monster spawner inside of it and a smaller tower. I went into the smaller tower first but was disappointed to find there was nothing at the top. However, when I got back down to the ground, I realized the stairs actually went further down and I ended up in a vast, multilayered underground complex that intersected with an underground cavern. It had a bunch of mob spawners and a bunch of treasure chests with much more interesting loot.

Far as I figured, mostly you need to pick up direct damage in the first act because things like Guardian, Lagavulin and Gremlin Nob are damage races, and at least some aoe to beat stuff like slime boss and sentries. Going into act 2 youre going to need better block without compromising your damage output too much by watering down your deck, and for act 3 your going to need to start scaling damage, ideally exponentially in some way. I wouldnt pay too much attention to little old ascension 5 me though!

The best players have spreadsheeted out everything, potions, relics and cards, and know every possible corridor fight and boss and what you need to beat them with all the characters. I aint got time for that, literally, but I cant help but respect a developer that managed to balance the game well for the lunatic/genius fringe.

That's basically what I read as well, you need to make sure you have good single-target damage output, some decent AoE for bosses with minions and you need a good defence. The most important tip for me was to prioritize getting rid of the default strike cards, whereas I typically favoured removing the defence cards because I figured I'd rather kill an enemy quicker than save 5 HP, as having a fight drag on will inevitably result in you getting hit as well.

Of course in my last two wins I lucked out and managed to get ridiculous AoE damage output, so I didn't have to worry about having both high single-target damage and decent AoE damage.

 

[neogunhero]

More AoE4 last night. Did another 4v4 players vs. AI server and three guys who were all in a party together joined. They pressured me into bringing the difficulty to the 3rd from the highest, Ridiculous, and basically told me “trust us bro it’s more fun we’ll protect you”. I turned out to have the largest army but also constructed my stone walls first. I don’t what it is about enemy AI but as soon as they notice you have walls up, immediately they send an army with siege units to tear it down. I was busy focusing on protecting my city and couldn’t help the other guys. Two of them were defeated, and at that point the third was about to lose to an invasion also. I held my own for a while but eventually stopped trying since I knew there was no turning around. I was about to be swarmed by four enemy factions at once. I watched as the enemies breached my stone walls and killed all my villagers. It was honestly a lot of fun, they weren’t lying.

 

[neogunhero]

I never played Valhalla, but I played Odyssey and liked it quite a bit. Cyberpunk beats the tar out of Odyssey, though. Why? First, because the stories and lore are great. Odyssey has some good ones (Testikles! Wooo!), but Cyberpunk's stories were more interesting and deeper. Second, because the combat was FAR better. Third, because that city was very well done.

Odyssey still had some great stuff, especially with that three-part DLC, it's just that Cyberpunk did many things even better.

I understand why @SHR-51 is comparing the two though. Objectively, every open world RPG is going to have some sort of a checklist. Cyberpunk’s “checklist” was completely optional content though IIRC. The NCPD calls, cyberpsycho’s, gang activities and finding all fast travel points. In modern AC games, climbing to the vantage points is necessary for discovering all content in an area. The sort of “checklist” full of things to do is present in both games, but their necessity to complete are different. It’s just a common way for devs to stuff their open worlds full of content and things to do, but each game has a different approach to doing so.

 

[neogunhero]

I’m a big fan of the game development company Perfectly Paranormal. They’re from Sweden and make really great and stylistic games and have carved out their own aesthetic with their games. Their most notable games are Manual Samuel and Helheim Hassle. These games are full of unique mechanics, endearing narratives and hilarious moments, intentional or not. Playing these games you can feel the love and passion the teams have poured into them.

They just released their new game today, The Holy Gosh Darn, and it looks incredible to me. Lots of connections to their previous games which is a great service to the fans.

I’m saying all of this because unfortunately their games don’t get the attention they deserve. These games are fantastic, but based of review count on Steam and peak players, they aren’t very well known. Manual Samuel did have a bit of a stint on YouTube, with people like Markiplier and Jacksepticeye playing them years ago, but I think most people that watched those videos didn’t bother to buy it themselves. It was a good game for a YouTube video because of the funny mechanics, but there is a lot more to the games that should be experienced by playing instead of watching.

I think I’ll need to do a series run before playing Holy Gosh Darn, but I’ll be picking it up next week for sure. This dev team deserves all the support they can get.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That's basically what I read as well, you need to make sure you have good single-target damage output, some decent AoE for bosses with minions and you need a good defence. The most important tip for me was to prioritize getting rid of the default strike cards, whereas I typically favoured removing the defence cards because I figured I'd rather kill an enemy quicker than save 5 HP, as having a fight drag on will inevitably result in you getting hit as well.

Of course in my last two wins I lucked out and managed to get ridiculous AoE damage output, so I didn't have to worry about having both high single-target damage and decent AoE damage.

Sometimes you get enough single target damage for aoe to not really matter as well. Theres also relics or events that make strikes much better so you dont need to lose them. Silent blocks pretty well out the gate whereas Ironclad hits a bit harder, Defect then has various ways to work, even just with Claw cards or a mix of Lightning, Frost and Dark channeling. Applying weak and vulnerable can be important and timing when to do it. I dont think there are many if any cards that are not viable depending on relics and other cards in the deck.

The hard part for me is finding the right balance for a deck every time, sometimes lots of cards can work pretty well if you have a lot of card draw and enough energy, and sometimes a really small deck lets you get to the cards you want more quickly. I never got to the point where I had an exact feel for when everything is right for every fight, which is why sometimes Ill be sailing through and hit a hard wall out of nowhere because I didnt account for one encounters quirks. Probably would help me to list all possible mini bosses, bosses and corridor fights and their move orders to get a better feel for whats needed. Would probably also need to list events and results out too to be optimal. Id rather try and do it in my head than make it proper research though, just means Ill never be great at it and I'm OK with that. I can see how that could be frustrating, but I do keep going back to it even after 5 years or whatever so its taken up residence in the back of the mind somewhere in a way not much else ever has.

 

[Johnway]

Did you crank the difficulty up? I didn't and suffered for it.

Nah i kept it on normal, I'm into chapter 3 and so far we're still in tutorial mode of sorts. But that said, most of the enemies seem very passive. Not very aggressive and i make the first move or they feel like grabbing me to pin me for no one.

i was tempted to change difficulty but alas cannot. Not going to start again, it just means i can speed through it faster.

 

[BeardyHat]

About a month or so ago I started playing Shenmue, which seems pretty neat, but it really just made me want to play Gothic again. Given that I'm having some troubles with my previous Gothic setup on my Steam Deck, I elected to just play Elex instead, which I put about ten hours into.

I really enjoy it, the world feels fleshed out and well thought out, the NPC's are generally interesting and don't necessarily feel like cardboard cutouts and it's probably one of the better Piranha Bytes since Gothic 2.

That said, I got an itch to play KOTOR 2. It's been on my list for ages to actually go back to after first trying it something like 12+ years ago. But I finally found the format I want to play it on, which is my Android based handheld, as I can still heavily mod it there, but have the game in my pocket for whenever I'm ready to pull it out and give it a go. I'm still in the first area you start in, having only put in maybe 2 hours or so, but I'm enjoying myself and it's such a nice, chill experience. It's really working for me in the evenings over Elex because I don't have to put a ton of effort into combat or anything, since it's all essentially turn-based and fairly simple.

I've also been putting a lot of time into configuring a new setup for my Cocktail Arcade table, which has been a lot more effort than I anticipated, but has also been a lot of fun and been a test of my Linux skills, which I don't mind. My Cocktail has some cheap 40-in-1 JAMMA board in it that is going out--again--so I've resolved to replace that with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ I've had sitting in a drawer for ages now. I've probably put something like 15-20 hours into it so far, just learning, getting things configured and futzing about with it. I've finally got it in a state that I would call usable, but not perfect. I'm debating if I want to put some more time into it and see if I can configure it to be a little more "Pretty."

I also need to add some more games to it and get them configured. One thing I am excited about is that I was able to get "split screen" working for regular console games. I'm going to just keep it as NES in addition to Arcade stuff for now, as that way I don't have to build a new control deck for more buttons, as my current one only houses 2 in addition to the joystick.

One thing that is weird about this setup (Retropie and Attract Mode) is that it seems like no one uses this anymore. Most of the information I find when I'm looking for stuff is dated between 2016-2020, not many people asking around these days and I'm not exactly sure why. Kind of thinking that maybe there's something better, but I haven't been able to find it for my needs; I do kind of think not many people are doing Cocktails, but it's what I have to work with, so...

Here's the basic interface as of now:

https://imgur.com/a/N97C9wV

Looks decent enough, but I may try to see if I can get Logo-Art instead of just text for the game names. Unsure of how to do that yet though.

Split screen NES for two players:

https://imgur.com/a/VOw9GF8

 

[neogunhero]

I've also been putting a lot of time into configuring a new setup for my Cocktail Arcade table … has some cheap 40-in-1 JAMMA board in it that is going out--again--so I've resolved to replace that with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ …

That Raspberry Pi powered cocktail arcade table is so awesome. I looked at the video you posted and it’s awesome seeing you get ROMs working on it. I can imagine myself playing on that thing a ton.

 

[DXCHASE]

have to replace my keyboard and mouse again. Probably the 5-6th mouse this year, 2nd keyboard.

 

[BeardyHat]

That Raspberry Pi powered cocktail arcade table is so awesome. I looked at the video you posted and it’s awesome seeing you get ROMs working on it. I can imagine myself playing on that thing a ton.

Thanks. It sees a lot of use in my house, so I'm happy to do this big project and have some customization going; plus I can take requests for games.

My kids end-up using this thing every morning, so I'm hoping it builds a lifelong affection for games of all sorts, but we'll see. Also get a lot of family coming over frequently and my brother in law loves to play on it, so I'm happy to have some other games to play against him in.

have to replace my keyboard and mouse again. Probably the 5-6th mouse this year, 2nd keyboard.

Sloppy eater?

 

[Zloth]

i was tempted to change difficulty but alas cannot. Not going to start again, it just means i can speed through it faster.

Yep, that's right where I was.

 

[Colif]

have to replace my keyboard and mouse again. Probably the 5-6th mouse this year, 2nd keyboard.

How does that happen?

it sounds expensive. even with cheap mice.

 

[neogunhero]

have to replace my keyboard and mouse again. Probably the 5-6th mouse this year, 2nd keyboard.

Rage mode collateral damage?

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I can’t build up the courage to give Ara a full effort shot. I just know it’s gonna take me hours to go through that tutorial and understand it all. After work my brain doesn’t need to be adding that much new info to it, I just need to zone out and forget about the day. So I played more AOE4.

Two players ended up leaving early. I think my servers are a bit unfair because of the tuning pack (mod pack) I use. I’ve grown accustomed to having villagers spawn almost instantly and trees/berries/gold deposits having almost unlimited resources. I know how to play this tuning pack efficiently, usually having nearly 50 villagers before reaching Age II. When joining a server using a tuning pack you have to read a message consenting to the download and it tells you everything about the pack, and I even explain it to people in the lobby before we start, yet people still aren’t used to it like I am. One guy yesterday ran completely out of villagers because he kept getting raided, while i’m over at my base with about 100 villagers thinking “how?”.

Even with the two players leaving early, me and the other guy continued on. At that point it was a 2v4 with the 4 AI on Hard difficulty. We gathered lots of stone and eventually surrounded our two bases with two layers of stone walls. At that point we focused on building up our armies then proceeded to take down the enemies one by one. It was honestly one of the most satisfying games of AOE I’ve played. That guy was super helpful and was a great team player. Once he got the hang of the tuning pack, he started to do much better. We battled it out until the end and won the match. Had a great experience with that guy, love it when I have moments like that in games.

 

[Colif]

Deadlock added this to anticheat

Added an initial Anti-Cheat detection system. When a user is detected as cheating, during the game session the opponents will be given a choice between banning the user immediately and ending the match or turning the cheater into a frog for the rest of the game and then banning them afterwards

 

[Zloth]

Oooo, I hate it when that happens!

 

[SHR-51]

I have to wonder which option most players are going to be choosing

 

[Colif]

Should do same for bots as well, wonder what animal/creature would be fitting.