What are you playing, thinking, etc thread (for Nov-7 to Nov-13)

[Zed Clampet]

We tend to post in the "What are you playing this weekend?" thread all week, plus it veers widely off-topic, so I thought maybe a weekly thread on what you are playing and your general gaming thoughts, etc. (that don't merit their own thread) might be a better, or at least more accurate, idea.

This weekend I've been playing Solasta, Satisfactory, and Far Cry 6, but I'm really getting pumped for Forza Horizon 5.

In Satisfactory, I downloaded a bunch of mods. I'd never played with mods before, and it came back to bite me. I ended up removing a couple of mods and starting over.

I spent several hours over the last couple of weeks getting ready to play Solasta--rolling characters and such--and now I'm finally playing it for real.

Far Cry 6 says I'm 46 percent through the game, but I feel like I just started, tbh. There are so many things to do I have hardly scratched the surface of the missions.

So what are you up to in gaming this week?

 

[Zed Clampet]

By the way, forum notifications aren't working so well for me. I'll get one every now and then. So my apologies to anyone who has tagged me or responded to something, and I was either late or never showed up. I'm trying to look through the forums a bit more...

 

[Zed Clampet]

Killed myself with mods due to impatience in Satisfactory. They are getting ready to launch a major update, and I wanted to get back into the game by playing a casual world. I had never played with mods before, so I decided to download a bunch and take off.

One mod I downloaded was "Item Spawner" with the stipulation that all I would spawn would be Power Slugs, which are, well, slugs that you have to wander all over the enormous world to find and which you can use to overclock your machines.

Spawning these at will caused all sorts of unintended consequences, completely breaking game balance. For instance, my power requirements were through the roof and completely untenable for how far I was in the game. I immediately concentrated on trying to unlock coal power, which was skipping a few steps and made everything more difficult, and then even coal power wasn't enough, so I tried unlocking oil, but that turned out to have changed since the last time I played and can't be unlocked for quite awhile (especially since I'm behind on everything else due to my incredible power needs).

This led to more frustration and then cheating, and then more cheating, and then deciding what was even the point to playing if I was going to cheat. So then I quit and started a new world without "Item Spawner".

Phew. Just had to get that off my chest.

 

[Brian Boru]

apologies to anyone who has tagged me or responded to something, and I was either late or never showed up

No worries, son hijacked a lot of your notifications and dealt with them very well—so clearly, the apple can fall far from the tree.

more frustration and then cheating, and then more cheating, and then deciding what was even the point

Oh I feel you—Isn't married life great?

forum notifications aren't working so well for me

Did you get my PM ~2 days ago?

 

[Zed Clampet]

No worries, son hijacked a lot of your notifications and dealt with them very well—so clearly, the apple can fall far from the tree.


Oh I feel you—Isn't married life great?

Did you get my PM ~2 days ago?

If it was the one about my son, yeah. He's been too distracted with other things to post, but he'll be around eventually.

 

[Alm]

Also playing Far Cry 6. Not too far in but playing coop with my brother. More fun than Far Cry 5 imo but I think that's probably subjective. I like the driving mechanics and missions but not sure if the story is that great based on what I've played.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Also playing Far Cry 6. Not too far in but playing coop with my brother. More fun than Far Cry 5 imo but I think that's probably subjective. I like the driving mechanics and missions but not sure if the story is that great based on what I've played.

I'm almost half-way through, and I'm not sure there really is much of a story.

 

[DXCHASE]

Still going through classes for this biotechnological science degree program in cannabis, this week ill be picking out the courses for next semester.

As for gaming, im gonna be playing mostly the Lost Ark closed beta which ends thursday. Sprinkle some Destiny 2 in there to finish up "guilding" a seal in the game. I will not be getting any of the releases that are supposedly "lit" for this month. IE COD, GTA, Super Mario and Forza (though forza looks fun and would love to give it a spin)

 

[Ryzengang]

Right now I'm playing Tales of Berseria, Forza Horizon 5, Far Cry 6, and The Ascent. Sometimes I get in a mood where I hop between games so I'm sort of juggling a bunch of stuff at the moment. I should be finishing Tales of Berseria pretty soon as I'm late in the game. The pixel remaster for Final Fantasy V is releasing on Nov 10th so I'll probably be starting that somewhat soon as well.

 

[Zloth]

X4 is taking a break. There's one more achievement I want, but it's going to take a weekend to get it - not sure I want it that bad.

In the meantime, I'm playing Wasteland 3. That's turning out to be good stuff now that I have a clue what I'm doing. I'm playing it on Hard ("Ranger") difficulty, and it's definitely hard! It takes me a few times to get through the more difficult battles. There might be some sort of level scaling going on, but I'm not sure yet.

Right now I'm playing Tales of Berseria...

You know, that was definitely a two-horned rhinoceros beetle.

 

[Mazer]

Skyyyyyyriiiiiim!

Groguk the non-comittal finally got around to finishing the Dawnguard questline, in a fairly anticlimactic fashion. I really thought there'd be more to the end than just having a boss fight with Harkon and then one or two vampires saying 'gosh, oh well'. Also, since I was a vampire the Dawnguard themselves were basically absent from the story except for their hunting parties popping up from time to time. I guess it's in keeping with the rule that noone in Skyrim actually achieves anything except the player, but it seems like a waste for the named characters in that faction to have zero visible impact. And the bow seems pretty bog-standard too, very disappointing.

I'm considering just rushing the main quest now so I can jet off to Solstheim, I'm about to talk to Baalgruuf and Tullius about a ceasefire which goes against every belief I hold dear in this playthrough. Can anyone guesstimate for me how much extra faff I'd be getting into if I just pushed through the imperial quests so I don't have to compromise my values by decreasing the bloodshed in Skyrim rather than adding to it?

 

[Brian Boru]

War Robots Planet Defender $7

Started a work project so I'll probably avoid big games for the next couple of months. I'm currently on my 2nd playthru of War Robots Planet Defender, a little indie Tower Defense / RTS combo game which I obviously really like.

If I recall correctly, it has 16 planets with 3 missions on each, so 48 missions total. Each mission layout is identical, just like a football field—your base is at one goals, enemy's at the other. Enemy launches waves of ~8 units every ~10 seconds, which march towards your base.

Winner is whichever side destroys all enemy units & base. So you don't just sit and defend your base, you must take the fight to the enemy.

You start with a Super Tank [ST] and one light Robot assembly station. You select which legs, torso and weapons you want for your robot. Your base produces one of the robots every ~10 seconds. As game progresses, you have a dozen assembly stations to use—8 x Light, 2 x Medium, 2 x Heavy—with only the light available from the start.

Each battle you win earns you various resources to spend. With Mothership points you can add guns to your ST, or enable another Robot assembly station, or enable some air power or missile abilities. You also earn Gems to spend on upgrading your weapons. Tech points you spend on buffing all your military—eg increase armor or firepower.

Each mission tells you the kind of enemies you will face, ground or air, light, medium or heavy. This enables you to change out the guns on your robots—eg you must have anti-air if enemy will be throwing some air force at you. Enemies are varied—robots, zombies, orcs, bandits, flying monsters…

Early missions are maybe 5 minutes, later ones ~15 minutes as you need to juggle your loadout before starting. There are no settings, eg video & audio are what you get. Graphics are fine, sound is fine, music is repetitive battle drum type.

Basic game, good gameplay, fun to mess around in trying different approaches—good value for $7.

 

[Pifanjr]

Friday and Saturday we played two more games of Gloomhaven (the physical variant, but since it has a video game adaptation, it's now video game related too). I got (had) to retire my character, the first character we've retired since we started playing. It's kinda sad, I was still enjoying my character and I was only at level 6 out of 9, plus I don't get to carry over any of the items I've bought/collected. You do get one extra bonus perk for your next character, but that doesn't really make up for starting at level 2 with only 2 basic items. And even though I lost 4 levels, the scenario level (which is based on average party level) is going to be the same. So next scenario is going to be significantly harder than we've been used to. However, I cannot wait until we can play again. My wife and I might do a scenario with just the two of us just so we don't have to wait until our friend is here again next weekend.

On Sunday I got to continue the co-op campaign of Warhammer 2 as Dreadfleet and Skryre with my other friend. We defeated Carcassonne, Tilea and Sartosa together. It's fun to each play with our own armies, but it also gets very chaotic. Definitely lost some more troops than necessary because I wasn't able to multi-task well enough. On the upside, fighting two large battles in the same province allowed me to get a bunch of high tier units with Raise Dead. Having a Skaven ally helps as they tend to have a lot of losses even when they're winning.
After that I wanted to go get the Awakened provinces, but some high elves decided to sail to Galleon's Graveyard so I had to take care of that while my friend was off raiding some orcs. I'm also getting pretty close to unlocking Necrofex recruitment so I'll be able to get a doomstack soon that will be able to defeat most other armies without breaking a sweat. I'm not sure I'm going to keep that until the end of the game, as it seems a bit boring, but I do want to try it out.

Monday evening, so yesterday, I got to continue with my solo Warhammer 2 Vortex campaign as Thorek Ironbrow. Last time I played I defeated all enemies close to me. I only have Lizardmen on my borders and I've managed to keep good relations with them, which has allowed me to have only 3 armies to defend my empire. This meant I could save a lot of money and expand my economy. So now I can afford 5 armies with mostly high tier units and I'm almost ready to start the long-awaited war against the lizardmen to reclaim my lost artifacts and finally get my carnosaur.

 

[Brian Boru]

Friday and Saturday … On Sunday

I haven't had as enjoyable a read since I tackled Ulysses in Turkish. No clue what you're on about, but held my interest all thru!

Monday evening

Now that makes sense. Enemies, borders, battles—yep, on your wavelength.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Random thought of the day after reading the Skyrim new edition thread (this wouldn't have been on topic there, but this is sort of a random thread here)

I took about a 20 year break from gaming during my early adulthood, and Skyrim came out during that time, and I've just never managed to play it. I've ridden in that cart on my way to be beheaded about 5 times, but then I just wander away from the game after reaching that first village.

I installed the co-op mod thinking it would be easier to get into with a co-op partner, but the mod (at that time, at least) had some bugs that were difficult to work around. For instance, every time I went into a town, everyone wanted to kill me. I thought I had messed up somewhere, somehow, but then I found out it was just a thing that happened every now and then with the co-op mod.

Anyway, think I'm going to try again soon, but look for a mod to skip the intro.

 

[Brian Boru]

I've ridden in that cart on my way to be beheaded about 5 times … look for a mod to skip the intro

Oh, is that where it was going? I don't have any clear memory from my 36 minutes of play years ago. But yeah, totally in favor of mods to skip intros!

Some general mod info here, before the Skyrim Masters descend on us with SoD and SoB—spells of derision and swords of banishment:

Skyrim modding - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I hear the world is beautiful. Anyone know how possible is it to explore, without being drawn into melee combat?

 

[Zloth]

There're definitely alternate-start mods.

For just pure exploration, just get some sort of god mod. If something tries to attack you, BOOM. Or maybe there's a mod that makes sure everyone is non-hostile? Or just run from things, maybe? The tutorial will make you fight, so you would want an alternate start mod, too.

I spent nearly my whole gaming session last night just checking my armor and weapons as well as respec'ing Chiefette and rolling up a new character that just does armor & weapon mods. As I was leaving, some slavers asked me to return a run-away slave to them. Big Mistake! That mission ended quickly with a bunch of dead slavers. Seems the upgraded gear works nicely.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I hear the world is beautiful. Anyone know how possible is it to explore, without being drawn into melee combat?

You need to practice your melee combat. It's so much more rewarding than pew pew. Plus, there are much better games to be had on the melee side of things, and it would open up all the AC games for you, which are amazing and arguably better than the Far Cry series. Large, AAA singleplayer shooters are dying anyway.

 

[Brian Boru]

melee combat. It's so much more rewarding

Sadly no, it's one of gaming's most boring mechanics for me—if FC Primal hadn't been so much more engaging in other aspects, I'd have given up on it—whacking 12 wolves with a club isn't my idea of fun at all, especially when they have to be skinned individually

more rewarding than pew pew

Depends how you play pew pew. If you just charge in the front gate, sure I agree that's equally as boring as melee. I avoid the run n gun and hack n slash and spray n pray, and go for the tactically and strategically interesting pew pews—that's what's rewarding for me.

there are much better games to be had on the melee side of things

That's a contradiction from my POV

Large, AAA singleplayer shooters are dying

Are they really? So I won't need to spend mega bucks on a new PC then, woohoo! I have plenty of replays to keep me going as long as I want, and of course shooter is the smallest of my fav genres anyway, so it's all good

get some sort of god mod … a mod that makes sure everyone is non-hostile

Thanks, yeah that sounds like the least annoying approach. I'm very partial to exploring beautiful worlds, so probably worth a shot.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Sadly no, it's one of gaming's most boring mechanics for me—if FC Primal hadn't been so much more engaging in other aspects, I'd have given up on it—whacking 12 wolves with a club isn't my idea of fun at all, especially when they have to be skinned individually


Depends how you play pew pew. If you just charge in the front gate, sure I agree that's equally as boring as melee. I avoid the run n gun and hack n slash and spray n pray, and go for the tactically and strategically interesting pew pews—that's what's rewarding for me.


That's a contradiction from my POV


Are they really? So I won't need to spend mega bucks on a new PC then, woohoo! I have plenty of replays to keep me going as long as I want, and of course shooter is the smallest of my fav genres anyway, so it's all good


Thanks, yeah that sounds like the least annoying approach. I'm very partial to exploring beautiful worlds, so probably worth a shot.

^^^^ All this stuff? BS. The problem is you don't know how to play melee. You just spam left click. It's like you talking about charging in guns blazing. That's not the rewarding way to play. Melee is chess. Shooty is checkers.

I'm mostly just yanking your chain, though

 

[Ryzengang]

Haven't really made progress on other games cuz I've been playing a ton of Forza Horizon 5. It is really fantastic game and the graphics are really nice. I've been taking a lot of screenshots during my play time. I play solo so I can't speak to the connectivity difficulties people have been having, though.

 

[mainer]

Anyway, think I'm going to try again soon, but look for a mod to skip the intro.

One of the most popular mods for skipping the beginning is Alternate Start-Live Another Life by Arthmoor:
Alternate Start - Live Another Life - SSE at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

There maybe others in the "Gameplay" section of mods of Skyrim SE on the Nexus, but this is the most popular with over 5 million downloads.

What I find strange, is that Arthmoor's mods are still listed on the Nexus. There was a PCG article about modders leaving because of the mod collection policy they were starting. Something must have changed there, but I haven't heard or read anything about it. If he's back, and he's one of the major contributors to the Skyrim modding community, maybe others will come back too.

I installed the co-op mod thinking it would be easier to get into with a co-op partner, but the mod (at that time, at least) had some bugs that were difficult to work around.

That must have been Skyrim Together, which is no longer on the Nexus, but is still being worked on and available on GitHub: Releases · SkyrimTogether/issues-launcher · GitHub

It still seems a bit shaky to me, but that's just my personal opinion. If I were going to experience the world of the Elder Scrolls with a friend or friends, I'd try the Elder Scrolls Online.. But that's an MMO (and another version of Skyrim to purchase), and I've never tried an MMO. If I ever did, this would probably be the one.

The Elder Scrolls® Online on Steam

Join over 22 million players in the award-winning online multiplayer RPG and experience limitless adventure in a persistent Elder Scrolls world. Battle, craft, steal, or explore, and combine different types of equipment and abilities to create your own style of play. No game subscription required.

store.steampowered.com

Oh, is that where it was going? I don't have any clear memory from my 36 minutes of play years ago. But yeah, totally in favor of mods to skip intros!

Oh, Brian. It's much more than an intro. There's the cart ride, character creation and appearance changes, a dragon attack (which you can only dodge), and a tutorial dungeon where you learn the mechanics of gameplay. Then you escape out into that whole wide world and can go absolutely anywhere you want. The world is huge, and all the choices are yours. Exploration & experimentation are the heart of Skyrim.

I hear the world is beautiful. Anyone know how possible is it to explore, without being drawn into melee combat?

The world is huge and incredible beautiful (even without mods) with so many towns, dungeons, ruins and caves that hold who knows what. All kinds of people, quests, and random events await you. You don't have to be a melee-type fighter, you can specialize in archery or magic, and sneak/thief skills are always good to have as you can avoid a lot of deadly combat situations.

Early on, some melee situations maybe unavoidable, but that changes depending upon how you build your character. Fights with animals, and eventually dragons, will be combat situations that you can't avoid. But with the humanoid population, many options exist to avoid combat altogether.

Well, enough about Skyrim. As you can probably tell, I'm quite fond of this game. As to what I'm playing this weekend, I've reached that wall with Diablo 2 Resurrected. I've got 2 bowazons in chapter 4, 1 bowazon in chapter 3, and 1 in chapter 2; and a bunch of different characters in chapter 1.

I love ARPGs, but I always hit a point, like I have now, where I need to play a game with a bit more story to it. It's become a game of constant combat and inventory shuffling between characters. I love it, but I need a bit more story right now.

I've purchased and installed Solastra so I may play that. But right now (yesterday) I've started Mass Effect Legendary with ME1. I don't plan to go into ME2 & ME3 until certain mods are updated, but I really wanted to see some of the improvements Bioware has done with ME1. I'm hooked again. So many great personalities and companions in this game.

 

[Brian Boru]

you don't know how to play melee

Oh yes I do—as little as possible is inarguably and by far the most superior way.

You just spam left click

Now why on earth would I want to do that? That's worse than playing StarCraft.

guns blazing. That's not the rewarding way to play

Finally, you begin to see the light! Just two more trips into the Bliss…

Melee is chess

You should try a different variation to Battle Chess. I lasted 10 minutes in that only because I kept telling myself "Just get past this bit, it gets better…"—it didn't, it stayed just like melee as you say.

mostly just yanking your chain

Oh no! I never noticed!!

 

[Brian Boru]

<aside>I hereby declare a quick visit to Wikipedia is a "Qiki"</aside>

mods

A Qiki suggests I should use the Special Edition—mine is the original Skyrim.

over 5 million downloads

Says something when a mod tops at least 99% of games!

much more than an intro

Fair enough, I'll give it one shot

Exploration & experimentation are the heart of Skyrim

That's what I like to hear!

specialize in archery or magic, and sneak/thief skills

Never did magic, but guess I can do Regardium Levioso—hmm, will need a microphone…

As you can probably tell, I'm quite fond of this game

Yeah, you gave it away
I see it gets mid-90s ratings, same as 2 of my all-time favs Civ4 and C&C Generals ZH, so clearly you have good taste

 

[Johnway]

I continue my work on Grim dawn. Unsurprisingly, it feels a lot like Titan Quest and its ok. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing that screams out to me that this game is a classic in my eyes. Maybe its the small niggles, maybe because i'm playing it on the default difficulty or maybe i'm not playing it properly. As is the usual, i went for the all magic Arcanist + Soldier build = battlemage to plod through the game. So far the main content done, just working on the expansions now. Will i play the game again once on higher difficulties? hell no. Its a one and done deal with little to hold my interest once i've beaten it.

Also my usual mind torture of whether i want to buy chivalry 2 or not. I would like to play it, but being an online game i just don't have the time to play it, Git Gud nor do i think it'll keep my interest long enough. Especially when i have a massive backlog of games to play. I'll probably keep watching and thinking about it...

Lastly, as usual each weekend i play doom 2 wads and this time its Auger;Zenith. Enjoying this mod a lot the blade runner aesthetics and the well designed maps has made it jolly entertaining. Definitely cacoaward material.