Topics

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Off Topic / RPGs

« on: June 17, 2013, 08:07:03 AM »

Been awhile since I've done much in the off topic section, so thought I would start a topic because why not!  Specifically, computer RPGs, has anybody been playing any good ones? I had been working through the penny arcade ones (1 and 2 were not fun games) and made it to the third, which blew me away. Really fun mechanics that plays good homage to old school RPGs while evolving them to get rid of the tedious aspects.  There's even an 8-bit throwback stage which is fairly amusing.

Anybody been playing any decent RPGs lately or have one to recommend? Or general thoughts on computer RPGs, toss it up here.

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Skyward Collapse / Siege units - what are they good for?

« on: May 09, 2013, 09:24:22 AM »

Now that for the most part balance is the name of the game rather than wanting to cause damage/carnage. I have to ask, what is the use/niche of siege units. They're absolutely atrocious against actual units, while decent for attacking buildings which anymore isn't really a goal.  Is there something I'm missing?  Do they need a new niche now?

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Skyward Collapse / Cataclysm (now Woes) ideas

« on: May 08, 2013, 09:58:57 AM »

Posting this topic for any cataclysm ideas you might have. Post away!  Specify what age its for as well.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / So I finally beat the game

« on: March 10, 2013, 07:27:31 PM »

After restarting I don't know how many times and tons of time in the beta/etc, I finally actually defeated Demonica.

How to hunt down and kill his henchmen

I got sort of impatient at the end though, and slightly cheated save-scumming outside the final stage of the boss. My survivors were on their last legs and I didn't really want to go through building them back up again knowing how close I was to the end.

It was a blast, and I'm ready for the sequel/expansion now

Mage tier 5 spells felt like such a reward and it was so fun to just mow down enemies with shrapnel flying everywhere.

Also, nerf wall crabs. Those guys are faaar too annoying than they should be in the vertical sections, just need a decrease on the lifetime of those shots. Hungry ghosts made the top of my hated enemy list as well, those guys do uber damage. But they felt fair-ish.

Also I'm pretty sure I never saw the feral chicken enemy. What biome is it for any that have found them? I never saw the triceratops mage either I don't think, I assume they're in lava flats, but I think I only had to purify one of them, and never saw the thing.

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Off Topic / Showdown Effect

« on: March 06, 2013, 08:36:27 AM »

So I'm not sure if anybody else looked into this. Bit I grabbed it at release and have put a few hours into it.  It seemed like a great game in theory - awesomenauts-esque with no skills - just everybody having access to the same weapons and environmental weapons to pick up. Consider this a warning to you platforming game junkies.

After putting some time in... It's quite frustrating and not sure if I like it or not. Could be that it needs some getting used to. The weapons feel very imbalanced. Healing is soooo slow in what's supposed to be a fast paced game. Combat can be frustrating - especially as you can easily lose the reticule mid fight.  The environmental weapons all feel pretty useless as well which is disappointing.

All in all. It feels like there's potential here, but at the moment it hasn't been real enjoyable to me.   I think my biggest issue with combat is imbalance in guns, and that all the weapons are too much of a skill shot (very small aiming reticule which only hits if its directly over he enemy. Contrast on the reticule isn't great so I can easily lose it in the chaos of a fight). The environmental weapon thing is a disappointment as well.

Has potential I think if they patch it though. Character movement is very solid. The theme is fun. Just combat is frustrating.  Also no offline play.  There's other game modes I haven't tried yet.

Anybody else given this game a try?  I also realized this post is more like a review than I really intended. Oh well.

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Off Topic / New computer ideas

« on: February 12, 2013, 08:49:20 AM »

So, my cat decided to kill my computer in a case of cold blooded murder, and while I'll take it to a tech, I don't have much hope for it.

I've always had a Mac, but I'm open to other possibilities and I was curious what ideas people might have on the non-Mac front.  I prefer laptops, as I like being able to sit on a sofa rather than a desk, but I'll look into desktop options as well. If I get a desktop it would almost certainly be a pc.

So if anybody has any suggestions or ideas, lay them on me please!  Jut keep ideas to PC only please - either desktop or laptop.  I've a good idea on the Mac options already.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Mines - are they useful?

« on: January 23, 2013, 10:02:27 AM »

Has anybody been able to get any use out of mine type weapons?  I find with them far too unwieldy to use effectively.  While mines would be cool the way they work not so much.

I think if they were triggered by proximity, had remote detonation, or were throwable (basically a grenade) they would be better.  But as it is the drop then wait out the timer and hope somebody is over it then has been useless to me. Anybody else have a different experience?

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Hosting a Server?

« on: January 14, 2013, 07:01:30 AM »

Hey, I wanted to give a go to some multiplayer and snagged a friend to help test. My first time messing around with Arcen multiplayer to be honest. We weren't able to figure out how to host a server and actually join it on your own computer. Is that possible?

We wanted to set it as a private one, so we weren't advertising it, but were instead doing connect by ip, and I wasn't able to get in.

Any advice?

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Strategic mode - Potential Changes?

« on: January 03, 2013, 12:10:24 PM »

So a few thoughts that I had regarding the strategic mode and possible changes to it. I'm not completely convinced one way or another on either change, so I thought I would post here and see what yall think before putting anything on Mantis. There's a few different ideas here.

1.  Should tasks beyond clearing wind generators advance strategic turns?  Specifically, I'm thinking of raiding perks from a region, successful hacking of skelebot stations, stealing a mage tier, and leveling up in windmills.  I'm not discussing the possibility of turn loss on death (that's another issue completely in my opinion), but rather -successful- actions. I'm leaning towards these other actions should advance turns, as it provides a balance towards deciding when you should do these special activities that strength you. As it is, you can raid a dozen caves, level up, and hack a research station or two without any turn advancement.

2.  Consistency in cleansing tiles. I don't think there's any question that clearing the strategic map of wind can be a little confusing. The rules regarding caves/windmills aren't exactly intuitive, and it can lead to situations where if there are many caves next to each other, it basically makes a wall that you need to go around. The idea here is, get rid of special rules regarding these regions, and add windmill generators in to them. If there is a worry about abusing mechanics, you could disallow entering the caves/windmills until the generators are destroyed (though I don't think that's probably necessary). If there is an issue with region generation, you could either a) put windmills/cave entrances in the first slice, or b) exclude caves/windmills from the region when there's a generator there, and then once the generator is destroyed recreate a new region with the appropriate building. The basic idea here is to streamline and clarify the rules on what will be cleansed and what won't, which is a little counterintuitive.

Anyways, post your thoughts here. Depending on what folks think I can put it on mantis. And if you have other concerns/suggestions on the strategic side of things and want to post them up - go for it.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Spell and class discussion.

« on: December 24, 2012, 04:58:48 PM »

I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen a thread like this, so here it is. The spell and class discussion thread. If you're going to mention a mage class, it would be helpful to mention what tier it's at as well. As saying "fire mage" is pretty vague, saying "tier 1 fire mage" is pretty specific though.

My own thoughts here aren't very organized a little stream of consciousness for you.

Honestly, I would need to go back into the game to look up the class names before I could give a lot of feedback here. Offhand though, I've found that the rocket spells are over poweringly too strong. Many of the ammo spells are on the strong side as well - they ought to be strong, but you shouldn't be able to hold the button down to instagib a boss.

I find the drone spells very weird, does anybody like them? I've found a few uses for them, but in general they tend to mess me up. Fusillade spells feel the weird as well, they can be good sometimes to shoot around enemy shots.

The DPS seems to be about the same, without much caliber to them.

The snake spells are fun. Touch spells are fun now too after their caliber buff. Ricochet spells are interesting, I like them.

The Tornamancer's (tier 3) Storm Fist I absolutely love - it's like an extra jump combined with a touch spell. I'm not sure if it was intended you use it as a double jump, but it's quite fun that way.

The featherologist (tier 2) I wish I could like as well. Having both the drone and fusillade spell together just leaves me a bit meh. Meanwhile they the jetpack is quite amusing.

The littorist (tier 2) and terminist (tier 2) are both favorite classes for that tier. I like that the littorist has base spells that are a little weak - but an ammo spell that is fairly strong. Though the spamability of that spell could likely use a nerf. The terminist is great for that one-two combination of a high caliber shot and a high damage shot in the primary and secondary slots.

The smoglet spells (shoots both in front and behind you) are probably too strong. Very fast attack rate, attacks in both directions (makes kiting easily possible) and high damage. I would recommend a cooldown increase on them.

The crescent spells are likewise too strong. Very high damage, spamable, and a high caliber means they make a great offense and defense both. It would be interesting if there was a delay before it went off, so that it was still a strong spell but required more timing to use.

I've found mines/bombs both useless. Has anybody gotten any good use out of them?

Feel free to comment on my random thoughts or add your own. What classes do you like, do you not like. What spells are too strong, not strong enough, or just right?

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Off Topic / The Awesome Winter Deal Thread

« on: December 12, 2012, 11:46:52 AM »

We all knew it would happen eventually, a thread for all the awesome sales that are going to happen.

While steam isn't haven't a sale, I noticed a 24-hour sale on gog.com (who's already started their sales I guess) that I think will really interest quite a few people here.

Master of Orion 1 + 2 in a combo pack for 50% off (that's $3).

There's also a discount on a bullfrog games pack, but the MOO deal seemed relevant and I couldn't find a thread already open that seemed a good spot for it. So if you find some awesome deals, go ahead and post them here.

Edit: It also looks like planescape torment is 50% off ($5)

Double Edit: I'm actually not sure if the MOO deal is one day only or a lasting thing. The bullfrog pack is a limited time thing, but the other games might be from now till january. Their site isn't really the best at showing what's discounted and for how long.

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Off Topic / Walking Dead: The Game

« on: December 08, 2012, 12:14:19 PM »

Since I recently played the walking dead game, I figured I would make a thread to gush about it here

First off, I've not read the comic, and I'm a passing fan of the show (I thought season 1/2 went between good and meh, the latest is pretty good though), though I am a big fan of the zombie-genre in general.

That out of the way, I think this is one of my "game of the year" titles from 2012. Gameplay wise, its solid but nothing amazing, basically point and click adventure game with quicktime events. But story wise it is amazing. The rails that the story has shows at times, but you have a bit of freedom along the way to give the personality you want (so long as you realize that ultimately not everything is in your control).

Basically, its an amazing interactive story with some game on the side. I've not read the comics, but I think the game really trumps the show. And its one of the few games that actually made me -feel- something to it, and was genuinely worried/care about the fate of the characters.

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Off Topic / Awesomenauts free weekend

« on: November 15, 2012, 04:40:03 PM »

I've gotten this game awhile ago and I still play it, it's quite a fun game. With both casual (and hardcore) appeal, as a 2d platformer in a MOBA style.

It has a free weekend over on steam so if you haven't tried it yet, check it out. All the characters play differently, so give several a try before deciding if you do or don't like it. Clunk and Lonestar are both early unlocked chars that are pretty newbie friendly.

It does have bots, and I play in offline mode quite a bit. And you can earn unlocks in offline mode as well (there's no microtransactions for unlocks, though you can buy optional skins). They do major updates every two weeks roughly, and still add new characters maps, etc.

So long story short, give it a try for free if you haven't yet!

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Game Development / Article: The Indie Guide to Making Games

« on: November 03, 2012, 11:32:11 AM »

This seemed like the more relevant place to post this for any aspiring game makers, an interesting article on pcgamer where they posted about the various engines used by indie devs, with a brief set of questions they ask developers that used that particular engine.

A fairly interesting read about the engine costs, advantages/disadvantages and the like. It is five pages long.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/11/03/the-indies-guide-to-game-making/

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Off Topic / Another Board Game Thread

« on: October 06, 2012, 07:35:51 PM »

Heya y'all, I started by reading through the other board game thread here but decided to go with a new thread rather than necroing that one.

Basically, I was wondering about a good board game recommendation for three players. The catch is something that can be done in 1 hour is ideal, 2 hours is about the absolute max limit. The other thing is it's for non-gamers, so nothing too complex, which pairs in with the 1 hour as the ideal time and not too competitive.

The other thing is nothing like settlers of catan, I've played that one a few times and it just bores the heck out of me. I know it's considered a great board game, but meh.

Some stuff I had already thought of were, though I'm open to suggestions:

Saboteur: It sounds simple and quite fun, though I worry about it not working so well with three players as it seems ideal for more.

Betrayal At the House on the Hill: This one also looks varied and like great fun, but I again worry about three not really being enough players for it.

Agricola: I've had this suggested before as it's apparently a great game, but looking through the manual it seems a bit complex.

Space Alert: I would have loved to go with this, but the whole cd and non-sequencial turn aspect really turned off somebody who outright refused to play. It looks quite fun though.

Thanks for any tips here!