The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (18 September to 24 September)

[ZedClampet]

Currently playing TWW3, Days Gone, Tavern Master, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Technicity, and a small amount of Forza Horizon 5--just enough to get the seasonal cars.

I'll probably get to the "end" of Tavern Master today. It's been a lot of fun. It's the rare game that I will probably replay some day. All these big AAA games in my list, and this solo dev game is my current favorite.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Still playing CK3, I've almost never made it past the stage where I found an Empire, but this time trying to actually push through to very end game and see what happens.

Playing Divinity Original Sin as a co-op campaign with a friend, I've never actually finished the game although I've played it quite a lot, its still really good, the combat is fun to do co-op. Maybe a little too many fetch quests in the very early game, as the story isn't all that interesting IMO. I do like the little rock paper scissors decision mini game more in co-op as it adds an extra dimension there.

Doom Eternal is still getting done slowly, playing it like I play a Souls game, doesn't need to be a long session just fun to make some progress and blow up some demons. Just got introduced to the Marauder, those things are going to be a serious issue to deal with when there are hunters and other nasties at the same time.

Finally, I started playing Divinity Original Sin 2 solo for the 2nd time properly. Probably biting off too much, but I'm having a great time with all of these for different reasons at different times.

 

[ZedClampet]

Still playing CK3, I've almost never made it past the stage where I found an Empire, but this time trying to actually push through to very end game and see what happens.

Playing Divinity Original Sin as a co-op campaign with a friend, I've never actually finished the game although I've played it quite a lot, its still really good, the combat is fun to do co-op. Maybe a little too many fetch quests in the very early game, as the story isn't all that interesting IMO. I do like the little rock paper scissors decision mini game more in co-op as it adds an extra dimension there.

Doom Eternal is still getting done slowly, playing it like I play a Souls game, doesn't need to be a long session just fun to make some progress and blow up some demons. Just got introduced to the Marauder, those things are going to be a serious issue to deal with when there are hunters and other nasties at the same time.

Finally, I started playing Divinity Original Sin 2 solo for the 2nd time properly. Probably biting off too much, but I'm having a great time with all of these for different reasons at different times.

My biggest problem with DOS and Solasta is that my son always catches me playing and then wants to play them co-op. Since I always prefer playing with him whenever possible, I stop my solo game and start up co-op, but then he loses interest after awhile, and I never get back around to my SP game because I'm hoping to continue our co-op game.

*****************

I'm getting ready to restart Tavern Master again. Mostly it's just because I'm enjoying it so much, but part of it is because I didn't look ahead at the upcoming research items, and also didn't understand exactly how the waitress zones worked. No fatal errors, and I could fix what I have, but starting over sounds more fun.

So this is how my floors ended up before the restart:

Floor 1: Has a kitchen and two bars (that was a mistake--as it turns out, one bartender can easily handle a single floor). The kitchen is also too small, as I only want one kitchen with 3 kitchens worth of chefs and equipment. The room is divided into two sections with cheap tables and chairs on one side and expensive furniture on the other. Probably wouldn't do that again. Probably will just put all cheap furniture until I have enough money to upgrade the entire floor. While I thought separating a nice section from the cheap section was kind of interesting, you can't make each section use it's own bars and waitresses and you can't charge more for one section than the other. What I needed was one kitchen, one bar, one stairs and then as many tables/seats as I could cram in there.

For the second floor, I was trying to put all nice tables and chairs in, but had an event scheduled that had more people than I had space for, so I hurriedly threw down the cheap stuff, which I could afford, to accommodate the extra people. The biggest problem with the second floor is that I didn't designate starting areas for waitresses until pretty late in the process, and I didn't have permission to put in a third bar, which makes the floor very inefficient. Second floor is also home to my researchers and the storage room. In an ideal world, the storage room would be on the first floor, but I built each floor to maximum size, and there's just no extra room on the first floor with the two staircases and the kitchen.

The third floor is my hotel, and it's fine except that I didn't know I was getting a fourth floor. I could put the hotel on both floors, but there are some unlocks coming that really belong in a bar setting, and there's no room for them, so I need a third bar floor, and the hotel should really be on the top floor (there's no in game reason for that, it's just the way I want it).

 

[mainer]

Playing Divinity Original Sin as a co-op campaign with a friend, I've never actually finished the game although I've played it quite a lot, its still really good, the combat is fun to do co-op. Maybe a little too many fetch quests in the very early game, as the story isn't all that interesting IMO. I do like the little rock paper scissors decision mini game more in co-op as it adds an extra dimension there.

I've only played DOS single player, but it seems like a perfect fit for a co-op campaign with the two main characters you create. I loved that game, the combat was fun and there's some funny moments as well, especially if you take the skill that allows you to speak to all the animals. My only real negative about that game was that the last 25% or so of DOS felt a bit puzzle-heavy to me, with some of them being fairly complex.

Finally, I started playing Divinity Original Sin 2 solo for the 2nd time properly. Probably biting off too much, but I'm having a great time with all of these for different reasons at different times.

I loved DOS2 as well, except for the final battle, which I hated, and the sole reason I haven't replayed the game. The combat and characters are excellent, and I think I started/restarted 3 times before I got the party I wanted. I found it hard to choose, as they all have unique personalities and tragic pasts. I ended up assuming the persona of Ifan, and took Lohse, Sebille, & Beast. There's a lot of tough decisions to make in that game.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

My biggest problem with DOS and Solasta is that my son always catches me playing and then wants to play them co-op. Since I always prefer playing with him whenever possible, I stop my solo game and start up co-op, but then he loses interest after awhile, and I never get back around to my SP game because I'm hoping to continue our co-op game.

*****************

I've not really been able to play co-op much before here because we have a small city apartment and I've tended to be quite loud when talking with headphones on late at night in the past. I've kept it reasonably quiet so far, so hopefully I'll keep it down in the future (and maybe not drinking anything helps.)

I've only played DOS single player, but it seems like a perfect fit for a co-op campaign with the two main characters you create. I loved that game, the combat was fun and there's some funny moments as well, especially if you take the skill that allows you to speak to all the animals. My only real negative about that game was that the last 25% or so of DOS felt a bit puzzle-heavy to me, with some of them being fairly complex.


I loved DOS2 as well, except for the final battle, which I hated, and the sole reason I haven't replayed the game. The combat and characters are excellent, and I think I started/restarted 3 times before I got the party I wanted. I found it hard to choose, as they all have unique personalities and tragic pasts. I ended up assuming the persona of Ifan, and took Lohse, Sebille, & Beast. There's a lot of tough decisions to make in that game.

I never finished D:OS mostly because of the puzzles, this time we are taking the attitude of Googling anything puzzley straight away so it doesnt get in the way of the combat, working well so far, although we are only wandering around the outside of Driftwood still. I dont really care for puzzles, dont usually have any patience for not knowing what I'm supposed to do in games.

I played through 2 as Red Prince and my party was Lohse, Beast and Fane. This time I'm Sebille, but I took Red Prince, Lohse and Fane again. Just cant imagine not having all elements covered and not having a tanky fighter up front, and I have some sort of illogical aversion to not playing characters as their 'designated class'. I'm pushing Polymorph on Sebille so far to try it out, but I'd love to try Necromancy and Summoning. I should probably get out of my box, maybe I'll respec later if I can.

I remember that last fight was nasty, but I managed it after a lot of tries somehow. On normal difficulty as well, cant imagine what Tactician would be like.

 

[Zloth]

Playing Divinity Original Sin as a co-op campaign with a friend, I've never actually finished the game although I've played it quite a lot, its still really good, the combat is fun to do co-op. Maybe a little too many fetch quests in the very early game, as the story isn't all that interesting IMO. I do like the little rock paper scissors decision mini game more in co-op as it adds an extra dimension there.

Yeah, that mystery at the start was pretty slow. It picks up once you get out of town.

My biggest problem with DOS and Solasta is that my son always catches me playing and then wants to play them co-op. Since I always prefer playing with him whenever possible, I stop my solo game and start up co-op, but then he loses interest after awhile, and I never get back around to my SP game because I'm hoping to continue our co-op game.

You've got to put your foot down! "Guido, you put that English homework down and come play DOS with your dad! Not later, RIGHT NOW! "

 

[ZedClampet]

Yeah, that mystery at the start was pretty slow. It picks up once you get out of town.
You've got to put your foot down! "Guido, you put that English homework down and come play DOS with your dad! Not later, RIGHT NOW! "

He does all his homework. What I'm losing out on is Rust with his sister.


**********************

Well, if you can't beat them with skill, spend an hour in the garage and make sure your car goes a lot faster than theirs. That was my motto for the day in Forza, and I chewed up the whippersnappers and spit them back out again. Always fun. If only there was a way to let them know they lost to an old man with a big white beard....

 

[Brian Boru]

If only there was a way to let them know they lost to an old man with a big white beard

Challenge 'em to a Death Stranding competition at Christmas.
Just make sure you make the chimneys wide enough in whatever house building sim you're into at the time—don't want you getting stuck on the first delivery

 

[ZedClampet]

Challenge 'em to a Death Stranding competition at Christmas.
Just make sure you make the chimneys wide enough in whatever house building sim you're into at the time—don't want you getting stuck on the first delivery

If Santa looked like me, children would run from him screaming...

 

[Zloth]

If Santa looked like me, children would run from him screaming...

Children DO run from him screaming! Happens all the time in department stores. Which means... ZED IS SANTA CLAUSE!! (Or perhaps he's Zed's twin - but what are the chances of that??)

 

[Pifanjr]

This must be different from the Naked Challenge I just watched on TikTok. Were you wearing clothes? If so, what does your Naked Challenge mean?

after some more searching there is something called the Naked Brutality Challenge that involves starting with nothing, including clothes.

Indeed, the Naked Brutality Challenge means you start with a single colonist and no resources, weapons or clothes whatsoever. The backstory you get at the start is that you go in for a short surgery and wake up naked in a crash pod being hurtled to the wilderness on some random planet.

So my one colonist was a 61 year old woman (nick)named Loser. She used to be a bartender and she had strong opinions against people augmenting their body with artificial parts. Despite her strong social skills, I can only assume she went on an anti-augment rant to the wrong person. Someone who would keep a grudge and had no problem kidnapping her and sending her to what would surely be her death.

Loser wasn't one to just lie down and die however. Whether by luck or because whoever sent her there didn't want her to die a quick death, she had been sent to an area with plenty of natural resources, no dangerous animals and a pleasant climate. She cut down some trees and made a shelter, surviving off of the many berries in the area.

While she had no affinity for animals herself, one of the turkeys near her shelter took a liking to her and she decided to build it a pen.

However, soon the first troubles started. Loser's first set of crops were ravaged by disease and she had to cut them all down and resow them. Luckily there were still plenty of berries to live off of around.

Then two wild, rabid cats wandered into the area, set to attack anything in their sights. Luckily Loser had saved up plenty of food and while she had crafted a wooden club and knew how to use it (she had to throw out plenty of people out of the bar), she decided the risk of injury wasn't worth it and just holed up inside until the cats moved on.

Next, it seemed her crash pod hadn't gone unnoticed and a raider showed up to see if he could salvage anything. Loser intended to hole up inside again, but when the raider went after her turkey, she charged outside and killed him. Not because she was all that attached to the turkey, but as a matter of principle she would not let someone just take her stuff like that.

She suffered a few nasty bruises on her legs and a minor crack to her tibia, but luckily the raider did carry some medkits, so she was able to patch herself up and after some bed rest she quickly fully healed. Too bad the raider was barely more clothed than her, wearing what amounted to basically a few scraps. She would rather stay naked than loot worn down clothing from a dead body.

Fearing more raiders would follow, she created a crude trap at her front door, basically just a bunch of wooden spikes that would clamp down on anyone that would trigger it.

A little while later, a group of slavers turned up, but luckily they had no interest in capturing her, they were just seeing if she was interested in any of their "wares". While it would've been nice if she had been able to buy and free one of the slaves to help around, she had nothing the slavers wanted and there was no way she was going to be able to free the slaves through violence. After a bit, the slavers moved on.

The next day, her farm was expanded when a group of clearly domesticated goats wandered into the area and decided to stick around.

Things were looking up for Loser. She could butcher the goats for meat and leather, perhaps finally getting some clothes. Her first batch of rice had grown and the harvest had gone very well. She had crafted a stove and no longer had to eat only raw berries.

While deep in thought about all of the projects she was working on while walking home from picking some more berries, Loser completely forgot about the trap she put down at her front door. Only when the wooden spikes pierced her body did she realize her mistake. She managed to drag herself to bed, but she was losing blood fast and soon had become too weak to walk to the medkit lying on the floor only a little distance from her bed. Not much later she lost consciousness and bled to death, only 12 days after her arrival on the planet.

Thus ended the story of Loser. And now I know that traps should always be put out of the way...

In the next game, I put a trap in the corner of the house, so it can be dragged to the door only when a threat shows up and then put back whenever the threat leaves. I haven't had a chance to see if this works, but so far it hasn't led to any accidental deaths, so it's an upgrade.

I've been playing the game without looking up anything so far. All my information comes from within the game, my previous experience with Dwarf Fortress (which was the inspiration for this game) and asking the occasional question to my friend and wife who are both playing. It's really nice not to worry much about playing optimally and just talking about the game with people.

 

[ZedClampet]

Children DO run from him screaming! Happens all the time in department stores. Which means... ZED IS SANTA CLAUSE!! (Or perhaps he's Zed's twin - but what are the chances of that??)

Children haven't actually seen Zed in his current form, as Zed doesn't leave the house. But rumor has it that Zed bought a table at a charity function for Friends of Literacy on Friday night, so we will get to see how the world reacts to Zed's final form then. Unfortunately, it won't be Zed's perfect final form because polite society requires Zed to wear pants.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's really nice not to worry much about playing optimally and just talking about the game with people.

Researching how to play optimally and then playing that way is boring as hell. I've done the research in one game, but then I didn't use it. I don't need other people to tell me how to play a game. I play games to figure them out, not to be a Lemming.

 

[ZedClampet]

Started Days Gone. Had a game breaking bug early on that went away when I reloaded from the last checkpoint. It really had me confused for awhile because the thing I needed to advance wasn't there. After wandering back and forth for a few minutes, I finally decided something was wrong and was relieved to see a number of changes as soon as the level reloaded.

Other than that I'm having fun, although I'm dreading the moment my buddy Boozer dies. That's just standard game practice. He was doomed from the beginning.

I started out playing stealth. There was one section where I had to make my way to a garage and get a fuel pump for my bike, and the whole area was full of zombies. I managed to get through it without being spotted. But then I got bored of stealth, and in the next major area, which was a human (raider sort of thing) camp, I just took out a couple with my crossbow and then pulled out my gun and got the rest.

Then I conducted a test. It was raining, which apparently brings out the zombies in force, and I had to cross a long area to get to another camp (this time a good guy camp), and I decided to test whether I could just run through them like you can in Dying Light. The answer is "no". These zombies are much faster. I did avoid most of them, but I did have to stop and melee maybe 5 or 6 persistent ones that were catching up with me when my stamina wore out. This isn't a problem except that melee weapons suck and break easily, so now I need to find a new melee weapon.

The only thing I don't really like is that during melee, the game will occasionally stop you from swinging, change animations and perspective, and have the zombie lunge and grab you. That not cool.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've been playing the game without looking up anything so far. All my information comes from within the game, my previous experience with Dwarf Fortress (which was the inspiration for this game) and asking the occasional question to my friend and wife who are both playing. It's really nice not to worry much about playing optimally and just talking about the game with people.

Researching how to play optimally and then playing that way is boring as hell. I've done the research in one game, but then I didn't use it. I don't need other people to tell me how to play a game. I play games to figure them out, not to be a Lemming.

Eh, for me it depends, if youre following a guide 100% word for word then you may as well get just watch someone lets play it and save the money, I agree.

I'll sometimes Google things if there's a specific mechanic that's hard to understand, and a primer on the basics of very complicated games systems just gets me to the point of having fun faster.

 

[Frindis]

Playing Runescape (RS3) and have been enjoying earning money through flipping (buying low/selling high). I found my own way to price items (let's be honest, probably not the only one). Earlier when I was flipping, I would buy an item for 20% higher and sell it for 20% less to find out what the lowest I could buy it in bulk for was and then sell it for maybe 5% less than the average sale price. Now I am playing more of the waiting game and instead of going for the average sale price, I am going maybe around 50% less than the market price and so far that has been working out in gaining more profit, especially with items that are in high demand. I also look very flamboyant recently, I guess it is part of becoming richer

Still progressing in Valhalla and just arrived in England. I enjoy playing the male protagonist Eivor because he sounds like he is from Norway. Looking forward to doing some huge raids!

 

[Brian Boru]

I play games to figure them out, not to be a Lemming.

I loved Lemmings, so opposite here—I play games to enjoy them my way, not figure them out. Before Windows, it annoyed me a lot to have to discover and remember where Save or Print or Open were, and what they were called, in each piece of software.

Same with games. First thing I do is change a few key key—pardon my stutter—bindings, no interest whatsoever in remembering that for this game Crouch is Ctrl but for other game it's C. I want to know if I can jump and sprint beforehand, not have to go out and test them and 100 other 'should be' items.

Civ6 is a fine game with a lot to like, but they chose a really dumb route with it of needless complications. University gets more science if near a mountain. Oh, and if there's a Culture district next door, that'd be great, thanks. Shame you don't have room for the Taj Mahal wonder by the river anymore, it would've been so good.

But hey, there are charts you can print out. Not for me tho, I have enough figuring out IRL.

 

[ZedClampet]

Same with games. First thing I do is change a few key key—pardon my stutter—bindings, no interest whatsoever in remembering that for this game Crouch is Ctrl but for other game it's C. I want to know if I can jump and sprint beforehand, not have to go out and test them and 100 other 'should be' items.

Apparently I didn't make my point clear. What you describe would only be Lemming behavior if someone else told you to do it. I don't search the web for people telling me how to play my games. If you do, more power to you. To each his own, and all that stuff.

 

[ZedClampet]

Welp, I'm done with Total War Warhammer 3 until they do some more bug fixing. For the second co-op campaign in a row, we've been stopped by a game breaking bug right before we were going to win.

I suppose I could pull the log up and try to do a user-fix, but I don't actually know what I'm doing, so it would be a whole huge process, and I'd rather just play something else, to be honest.

 

[Brian Boru]

Apparently I didn't make my point clear

You probably did—let's blame my affliction, ie not figuring stuff out

That sucks re TWW3

 

[ZedClampet]

My wife is out of town. She said her hotel room was really nice. I said, "Send me a picture." And this is what I got:

Now I'm going to have nightmares. Thanks, SnapChat or whatever did this to my wife.

 

[Zloth]

<style="LittleRedRidingHood">My, what big teeth you have!!</style>

 

[ToxicOffender]

THUNDER - TIER ONE, a few hours into it, slightly disappointed on the downright terribly dumb AI and the general pretty "buggy" tone of the game in general, just luv it when characters pass by a trashcan, sending it flying all over the place.

It´s beyond to me how this game scored highly positive user-reviews on steam...until devs abandoned it and it got review-bombed.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Apparently I didn't make my point clear. What you describe would only be Lemming behavior if someone else told you to do it. I don't search the web for people telling me how to play my games. If you do, more power to you. To each his own, and all that stuff.

In the old days more complex games would have come with a fat manual or pull out charts to refer to. In game tutorials, particularly for Grand Strategy and sometimes RPGs dont always explain well how every stat and mechanic works in a game.

@Pifanjr and myself had a conversation in another thread along these lines. I got a bit carried away with some tips for CK 3 and he correctly pointed out that it night be more fun to work stuff out yourself for some. I do agree to a point but its hard to know where the line is in some games between understanding the rules of the game and advising strategies.

 

[Pifanjr]

Playing Divinity Original Sin as a co-op campaign with a friend, I've never actually finished the game although I've played it quite a lot, its still really good, the combat is fun to do co-op. Maybe a little too many fetch quests in the very early game, as the story isn't all that interesting IMO. I do like the little rock paper scissors decision mini game more in co-op as it adds an extra dimension there.

Doom Eternal is still getting done slowly, playing it like I play a Souls game, doesn't need to be a long session just fun to make some progress and blow up some demons. Just got introduced to the Marauder, those things are going to be a serious issue to deal with when there are hunters and other nasties at the same time.

Finally, I started playing Divinity Original Sin 2 solo for the 2nd time properly. Probably biting off too much, but I'm having a great time with all of these for different reasons at different times.

It's been my dream to play through Divinity: Original Sin completely in coop, ever since I first read about the game. I started a game once, but my friend didn't really care for it so we never continued.

I doubt it's ever going to happen. My wife either loves something so much she can't wait for me to play or she can't be bothered at all and I think it would be the latter for D: OS. With other friends it would be hard to find a consistent time we could both play and then the chances of the other person losing interest is far too high.

Eh, for me it depends, if youre following a guide 100% word for word then you may as well get just watch someone lets play it and save the money, I agree.

I'll sometimes Google things if there's a specific mechanic that's hard to understand, and a primer on the basics of very complicated games systems just gets me to the point of having fun faster.

I ended up looking up how to feed animals today. I'm still not entirely sure, which probably means I can just leave the food somewhere they can reach and they'll figure it out for themselves.

I also looked up what the deal with my colonist walking into her own trap was. In my current game I have some premade traps built out of the way so I can set them up in the right spots when I get attacked, but a lot of the time I'm too late to drag them from their storage, so they end up being useless.

Turns out that your colonists will avoid pathing over traps automatically and only have a 0.4% chance of accidentally triggering one if they can't find an alternative path. My mistake was having the trap right in front of the only door, so it was just a matter of time before my colonist would set it off.

I've already been struggling with the encounters I've been getting, so now that I know I can just build traps as long as there is an alternative path for my colonists to pass them, it should be a bit easier to deal with those.

@Pifanjr and myself had a conversation in another thread along these lines. I got a bit carried away with some tips for CK 3 and he correctly pointed out that it night be more fun to work stuff out yourself for some. I do agree to a point but its hard to know where the line is in some games between understanding the rules of the game and advising strategies.

It's not that I thought your advice necessarily contained too many spoilers of things that would be fun to figure out by yourself, but it assumed that the other person would want to built a large, successful empire. However, since CK3 has no victory condition, there is no reason to set that as your goal, which is what I wanted to clarify.