What are you playing at the moment? - October 2017

[Shadoko]

An interesting experience in Medieval II Total War : a fun battle.
Don’t get me wrong, I like M2TW. Even if it makes me want to sacrifice kittens to Odin given how a-historical it is, I truly like it. But battles…tend to become boring with time, especially if like me you try to keep losses at a bare minimum. Open up with archers. Charge enemy ranged soldiers. Retreat. Rince and repeat until they don’t have ranged units anymore then pepper them with arrows and close in for the kill. The more my campaign goes on, the more I tend to do battles on auto-pilot.
Sometimes though, I have a good surprise, like this one.
As the danes in the Teutonic Campaign, I’ve been forced to intercept a Teutonic force trying to flank one of my armies sieging a castle.
First off it had quite an unusual setting : in the middle of the night, on the edge of a forest covered in fog - quite a sight, really, especially with the Teutonic Ritterbruder and their helmets. Me and the Teutonics had roughly balanced forces, with a small advantage in numbers for me, something like 50 more men.
And then the AI just…did intelligent things. It opened the battle with a cavalry charge, something I’m not used to, forcing me to abandon my usual “nuke them from orbit” tactic and reply with my own cavalry to screen my archers. Then the battle turned into a full head-on engagement in the fog and the AI kept reacting well, sending its heavy infantry against my spearmen, harassing me with archers, charging my flanks…I had to react fast, the battle was confused without being confusing, and really, that’s rare in singleplayer TW to feel like you’re actually struggling against a worthy opponent. I finally won thanks to my skirmishers who managed to flank the enemy through the woods, destroying their archers and opening the way for a classic hammer and anvil manoeuver. But that was close. I didn’t suffer lots of casualties because as usual, those happen when one army starts to rout but this battle just felt good. Interesting. The moment I saw the heavy Ritterbruder going down the hills, my archers retreating and I ordered a massive counter-charge with my two-handed axe weilding vikings…that was something, to see both units charging into one another in the fog.

Then alas, back to normal in the next battles. Spearmen sent against heavy infantry and cavalry used as cannon fodder sigh.

[Det.Bullock]

Wing Commander: Privateer
Boy, had I forgotten how infuriating the late missions of the story were: a lot of asteroids, a lot of Kilrathi and most of all the goddamn Steltek drone, most of the times all three things toghether.
It doesn’t helpt that they can still shoot at you when you jump, even with fully upgraded shields on a Orion (the most heavily shielded ship in the game) the Steltek drone and the Kilrathi can either kill or severely cripple you before the jump finally activates. Of course this assumes you have been able to evade both and not get hit by asteorids by the time you finally get close enough to the jump point.
And of course I completely forgot that the last mission giver shows up only on mining bases which usually are surrounded by asteroids which is the main reason I usually avoid them, keep in mind that the steltek drone is basically impossible to avoid without using the afterburner and whenever you use the afterburner in an asteroid field the game usually starts throwing a bunch of them right in front of your ship.
It took me an hour of trial and error just to get back to normal space and another half hour to get to a mining base followed by another half hour of trying to get to Perry to confirm the last mission.
Well, after that I started the Righteous Fire expansion with enough money to buy both level 7 engines and shields plus new enhanced armor. I later did a bit of grinding for the shield recharger and the thruster enhancement, remaining expansion upgrades are the advanced repair drone, the gun cooler and the speed enhancement.

I finished the first episode of the Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
The new ogre with the mines is simply devastating, even worse than the Shambler if you don’t get it first. Fortunately has the same hitpoints of the normal ogre so if you see one first you can dispatch it fast enough.
The second episode is interesting, being essentially ancient civilizations themed, some of the enemies now have a statue palette swap that animates with certain triggers and there are Quake cultists that have similar homing projectiles to the spider things of the base game only they actually follow you themselves. Fortunately there is the quad rocket ammo for the rocket launcher and alternate ammo for some of the other weapons to level the field.

[mouton]

I have been playing some Heat Signature and there is a looot to like in the game. Core gameplay is really tight and enjoyable, even if the general structure isn’t very engaging. Feels like it could really benefit from some major content updates - but even without it is a lot of great fun and a lot of pretty cool freedom.

[The_JG_Man]

Folks may remember a while ago, last year even, that I booted up a seed in Minecraft and just wandered. I became the nomad of the land, walking, running, climbing, swimming in whatever direction the path led me to. Unfortunately I met a critical issue with regards to dying, losing my equipment and location. So that was that.

Or more precisely, that was then. Yesterday I booted up a new seed and wait, hold that. I downloaded the new installer (or new for me) and then booted up the game, giving myself similar starting equipment to that which I had last year; full diamond armour and tools, fully enchanted, some food (in a variety of forms) as well as a bed, a boat and an oak sapling as a character thing. Why did this wanderer have it? Who knows. Oh and remedying something from the last attempt, I found the command to prevent loss of items on death. Now the punishment for dying is heading in a different direction. The wanderer doesn’t die, he simply moves again.

After a very short hop I came across a village. In exchange for, err, borrowing some diamond horse armour amongst other goodies (in case I wished to make use of a horse later on) I defended the village from nasties at night. They were never going to use the armour, anyhow. They seemed quite content milling about the village, not leaving its perimeter. Not The Wanderer. He took off without looking back and in terms of human interaction, that was pretty much it. Hours of trekking through valleys, swamps, numerous forests and cliffs, frozen tundras and finally a desert I encountered only one other human, an alchemist atop a hard to reach platform in the middle of a swamp.

I thought they would be approachable. I was incorrect. After felling a tree, crafting a ladder and making my way inside I was greeted by some thrown bottles. I swiftly took them down, covered the entrance and slept for the night. That my last interaction with humans for hours unfolded this way was contrary to most of my animal interactions, coming across the odd rabbit, some wolves in packs and alone, numerous chickens, cows and pigs and one area I dubbed the Valley of Alpacas. For obvious reasons.

If I was unable to find somewhere safe to hole up for the night I took to my boat and the water and blazed through the night. I came across numerous arresting natural phenomena, including a hole in a cliff that perfectly lined up with a tree on the other side, a hilltop littered with bizarre ice structures that stretched as far as the eye could see/computer could render. Forest fires started by lava streaming out from pools scattered around. One particularly curious find out whilst sailing was a massive underwater structure fiercely guarded by some very angry and spiky fish. A deep breath and I went inside. I searched but found no pocket of air. With no tool available to me to ensure extreme duration underwater my respiration enchantment began failing and I panicked my way back through the route encountering a larger monstrosity. I got lost in the panic, but eventually made my way out and swam desperately to the surface.

As much as I wanted to explore further, I knew it would not be possible. I took one last look at the structure from a near by beach as the sun set, then continued my travelling through some more forest. After some time I came upon a desert and swerved into it, knowing that whilst the enemy would see me easily, as would I them. With the light dimming once more I spied a temple, but the central entrance was buried and without wanting to search around, I headed towards a not too distant light. Hoping that it would not be a trick as so many lava pools had done prior, to my fortune it was a small village. I took my bed/sleeping bag out and took much needed rest.

In the morning I returned to the temple finding a side entrance. Its solo occupant, a skeleton archer, was quickly felled, but much of the structure was underground. I destroyed the central block in the main chamber revealing a severe drop into a treasure chamber. Walking back out I headed towards a close pond, filled a bucket with water and returned to the chamber, pouring it down the hole so as to secure a physics-defying route in and out. Unfortunately I triggered a massive explosive trap and whatever lay in the room was now rubble. With nothing to find and the day dimming once more, I returned to the village and took my final rest for the session.

In many respects the hours I spent playing this evening were fruitless. The odd moment of interest, including a somewhat tense stand-off in a small plain as enemies surrounded me and the odd sight of curiosity broke up what was else wise a monotonous trip. Of course that’s the thing about roaming. You do so for those odd moments.

Here’s a link to my Steam picture library. The latest session has most of the pics from this seed with three into the previous division (I don’t know why it’s done it like that, but there we go).

[arathain]

I’ve been playing a bunch of Warframe, which ice tried to get into in the past and bounced off. I’m having a better time now. I’m not sure it’s a great game, exactly, but it is quite moreish.

The movement is great- crouch and jump together produce a rapid leap some distance forward, which can be converted at sent point into a double jump or a slow falling aim mode. You can leap again as soon as you touch the ground, so you can cover ground extremely fast, while always being able to start attacking. Melee feels impactful and satisfying.

I’d talk more about guns, but I haven’t tried anything past my starting bow and pistol. You earn mastery by levelling gear up to 30, which takes rather a long time- my stuff is all in the 20s, and I’ve been paying for some hours. It’s a game that really wants you to take your time. I don’t know how long I’ll stick with it, because despite how good movement is I’m not sold on combat overall, and that really is the entire game. I’ll stick with it to try out some new guns and another class.

[Det.Bullock]

I’ve finished The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX on Gameboy Color
The ending was bittersweet, the windfish is awake but the world in the dream is lost. There were a lot of shout outs to Mario games, there were Goombas and those ballchains with teeth and at least a character similar to Luigi.
I enjoyed it more than the oracle games, though how much is because of the blue tunic that halves the damage from the bonus dungeon is hard to guess.
I still had to consult a walkthrough a few times, sometimes because the game logic was weird (you cannot walk over objects you can lift and throw, apart from one that was critical to ending a dungeon), sometimes because I discovered a few hints a bit too early and by the time they were useful I completely forgot about them, sometimes because I was an idiot and missed something obvious.

[L_No]

I’ve been playing Neverwinter Nights 1. I picked up the diamond edition with all the expansions on GoG a while ago, and finally got around to it. I had completed the game and expansions before, but that was over 10 years ago, probably more. I intended to do a full playthrough this time too, but after a few hours in the original game’s campaign I was bored out of my mind. I’ve now decided to skip the original game and go straight to the expansions, which are a lot better.

[Viral_Frog]

I’ve been hitting Enter the Gungeon again lately. I’ve got around 100 hours of play time. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never finish the game. I’ve finally been able to consistently get to the boss of chamber 4 but I can never beat it, despite who it is, how many videos I watch to learn the patterns, etc. But I still keep coming back because the game is that good.

I may be able to finish the game when Gungeons & Draguns comes out since they’re adding some sort of mode to make it easier, but that, IMO, feels like it would be cheating if that’s how I complete the game.

Other than that, I’ve been playing the usual Plunkbat, Overwatch, and Golf With Your Friends. I fizzled out on Divinity: Original Sin 2. Not at the fault of the game, mind. I loved every second. But I suffered from “this game is longer than 30 hours, I’m done now” syndrome.

I still don’t understand how I can play 100+ hours in a game like Gungeon, Plunkbat, Overwatch, etc. but I cannot play more than 30 hours of a SP title.

[MantisTobogganM.D.4]

I played quite a bit of warframe, I liked it quite a bit but it does eventually get old. The entire game is basically grinding levels on weapons, frames, and mods. It’s still fun though imo because as you mentioned the gameplay is fun. I also really like the visuals. I’d gladly hop back in it they added more fun endgame stuff, but last time I checked it out it was just going up against more and more bullet spongey enemies who also do stupid damage and can one shot anyone they hit. I’d still highly recommend it though, the gameplay is fun and there’s enough diversity in the weapons and frames that it takes a while to get bored.

[theclockworkrat]

I’m hitting a strange difficulty spike with Endless Legend - at normal I pull away easily within a dozen or so turns, but at hard I get hammered in the same number of turns.

[Bobtree]

That’s when it gets good, when you have to really invest in a strategy to win. Don’t let the AI score graphs scare you. On the right difficulty you will fall behind early, but can overtake them late. That balance of whether you can make it work is what makes Endless Legend special, IMHO. It gives you a lot of tools, but you have to specialize and take some risks.

[LTK]

Folks may remember a while ago, last year even, that I booted up a seed in Minecraft and just wandered. I became the nomad of the land, walking, running, climbing, swimming in whatever direction the path led me to. Unfortunately I met a critical issue with regards to dying, losing my equipment and location. So that was that.

Or more precisely, that was then. Yesterday I booted up a new seed and wait, hold that. I downloaded the new installer (or new for me) and then booted up the game, giving myself similar starting equipment to that which I had last year; full diamond armour and tools, fully enchanted, some food (in a variety of forms) as well as a bed, a boat and an oak sapling as a character thing. Why did this wanderer have it? Who knows. Oh and remedying something from the last attempt, I found the command to prevent loss of items on death. Now the punishment for dying is heading in a different direction. The wanderer doesn’t die, he simply moves again.

I could use this. Occasionally, after a stupid death I enable Creative Mode and just fly/dig to wherever I dropped my entire inventory. The stress of retracing my steps into whatever dark dungeon I met my end is really something I could do without, and having to recover from losing an entire stockpile of enchanted gear is so arduous that I’d rather start over. Hence I tend to play on Hardcore mode. Ideally I’d have an option that drops your stuff in a chest on the spot you died, which relieves the time pressure of having to get to it before it despawns, but given the pace of Minecraft’s updates it’s impossible to have that and keep up-to-date with the latest version.

Anyway, I was looking at castles recently and was struck by the desire to build one, preferably high atop an inaccessible mountain. Yesterday I wandered around in a recent world and found a very impressive mountaintop with a vast ocean view and sprawling twin water/lavafalls over its side, so I started fitting it for castle construction. I got most of the way towards completing it, including a few peak-spanning bridges, but ultimately the peak is too small for what I had in mind, so I think I’ll start a Large Biomes seed and look for something more expansive. I doubt I’ll find one that has a massive cave with the mouth completely engulfed by a lavafall in it, though.

I like your screenshots, too, the Ice Spires biome is always great, I took the opportunity to build an ice palace when I found one a while ago. I might get around to screenshotting that if I remember which world I left it in.

Oh, FYI, the Dokucraft texture pack is still being updated, so you might want to grab the newest version of that and save your eyes from the ghastly horror that is the default texture pack.

[GameCat]

This post makes me want to launch Minecraft, but it’s very possible that I’ll be bored again after a couple of minutes.

Shame that there aren’t vanilla tools for quick building in creative mode, as I can’t be bothered with modding anymore.

[Jaz_Rignall_s_Hairdo]

Rusty Lake Hotel. Fab little puzzle game. Lost my progress two thirds of the way through. Rather than replay, I’ve lined up Rusty Lake Roots/

Super Mario 3d World. Oh yes indeed. Baffles me why the inertia and accompanying animation found in Mario games isn’t a thing in every single game ever.

Bout to try Sth Park. Enthusiasm is tempered by review scores. Still, I liked the last one but not the Wizardy stuff, and this one has absurd superhero costumes instead so I’m positive.

[LTK]

Yeah, modding can be a real pain in the ass, even though you can build the Minecraft of your dreams, you’re likely to have a second job’s worth of work on it and end up with something more buggy than a day one Bethesda sandbox. I tend to stick with Optifine, which installs with one click and lets me carry lit torches and crank up the render distance until my RAM physically runs out. If there’s a mod with a better benefit-to-faff ratio, I haven’t found it.

[theclockworkrat]

Thanks for the encouragement.

[The_JG_Man]

I could use this.

/gamerule keepInventory true

Case sensitive.

I’ve never toyed around with creative mode. My building aspirations far exceed my capability for actual construction, so whilst I do like the quaint little buildings and extensions I’ve built, the larger scale projects I’m happy to leave to other people, especially when I more dip into Minecraft as opposed to playing it regularly. Maybe that would change if I played creative though?

I tend to stick with Optifine, which installs with one click and lets me carry lit torches

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? I have Optifine, but I didn’t know you could do the torches thing! Do you just put them in your off-hand slot??

[LTK]

Yeah, the option is Dynamic Lights, whenever you carry a light-emitting item in either hand it’ll act as a mobile light source, just like how torches actually work. I dunno why they never implemented that in the main game.

[The_Velour_Fog]

definitely makes me wanna pick up Minecraft again

only ever played the Xbox version, by the sounds of it the PC has a bunch of extras that flesh out the world

[Gus_Smedstad]

I dunno why they never implemented that in the main game.

What I read is that Notch attempted it, and couldn’t get results he felt were satisfactory. This came up when I was looking for a mod that let me carry around a light source. Mainly because part of Gregtech was hollowing out a huge charcoal pit regularly, and lighting it while I worked was very annoying, particularly since I’d have to knock the torches back off when I re-filled it with wood for the next load.

only ever played the Xbox version, by the sounds of it the PC has a bunch of extras that flesh out the world

Not so many, really, in vanilla. The main extra is the plethora of mods which let you do anything to fix small annoyances to turn it into a completely different game.

IMHO the latter is what you want to do - vanilla Minecraft is pretty shallow in terms of gameplay. One of these days I’m going to take a crack at the Material Energy modpack that attempts to turn the game into 3D Factorio.