What Video Games Have You Been Playing? #23: Lost in Shalebridge Cradle

[PhroX]

Played more Factorio. I have now constructed a nuclear reactor, but haven't placed it yet. It was time to produce yellow science, the last pre-space science, requiring flying robot frames (which I was already making, for flying robots), processing units (CPUs, which I was not), and lightweight structures (which I was not). The factory expanded to the east to make these, but the production increased the demand on the source materials - most notably, iron plates and copper wire.

So, I upgraded the transport belts and inserters unloading from the train dropoff areas, and traveled to the iron base and build more iron mines and more steel furnaces. I've now covered the entire iron deposit in mines. I could increase the density a bit - perhaps 25% - or switch out the efficiency modules for speed modules, likely killing the surviving trees in the surrounding forest due to the resulting increase in pollution. But easy upgrades to iron production are in the past; securing a new deposit is the only "easy" way, and that would involve a military expedition and new railroads. Copper has a bit more flexibility.

Medium-term problems also exist. Transport belts will need to be upgraded to Express Belts, the highest tier, to keep the growing number of electric circuit factories fed (and I've already double-piped the copper wires across two parallel fast transport belts). Steel should arguably be smelted in the remote base rather than in the factory, as it's siphoning away valuable iron plates from the belts. And pollution remains at an all time high. Do I transform those steel furnaces to more pollution-efficient (but space-inefficient) electric ones?

Or do I take the nuclear option? Part of the reason I haven't yet is that the amount of U-235 that has been enriched is still rather limited, so I'm hesitant to consume it while the factory would not make full use of its 40 MW of power (nuclear plants are either full-bore or completely idle, unlike solar/steam plants).

I've never played nor heard of the game, but there's an interesting psychology study there in how behaviors change when people believe the end times are upon them.

While nuclear plants are either full power or off, you can regulate the power output by having storage for the output steam and then controlling the loading of fuel based on the amount of steam stored.

 

[Arakhor]

I finished my first playthrough of NeoCab, and surprisingly I managed what must be one of the better of its endings. I'm going to be replaying it for sure. It's..a branching story, basically, set in a cyberpunk near-future (maybe fifteen, twenty years away?) about a cabbie who moves to a city that's totes not LA to move in with her friend, but said friend disappears. Every day the cabbie has to pick up fares and navigate conversations, which tell the story of the game. Essentially, there's a mega-corp slowly turning the city into its private domain, and the character's friend (she discovers) is part of an organization trying to bring down the mega-corp. I won't say more. It's much more interesting than something like Tech Support Player Unknown, though, which has a similar setup (the player doing an ordinary job getting drawn into a larger story through that job), because there's a level of...meta awareness? One of the fares who proved very important in my playthrough is a quantum physicist who studies the multiverse, and she frequently comments on how the nature of choices changes reality, etc. Given that the entire game is about branching realities, the rides with her were ALWAYS fun. I was surprised by how quickly I got into the characters and story.

Huh. I haven't heard of that game before. Maybe I'll check it out.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Huh. I haven't heard of that game before. Maybe I'll check it out.

I started replaying it last night to experience characters and threads of the story I hadn't before. The visuals and sound aesthetic are cool.

 

[Kyriakos]

I actually played a Victoria II Greece game today.
Regretted it - all erased now.
Those paradox games make you lose way too much time. I can't afford to do that, despite not having to write a full seminar now + there are far better ways to spend hours upon hours ^^

 

[Quintillus]

In the "trailer" screens that run when you are on the main menu, I've seen ten tanks attack a nest, but it was highly likely they were attached to the player and he had to lead them by being in one of the tanks. Which, of course, is the opposite of automation and I wouldn't suggest it
As for the train-saw, wouldn't it work if you only had the line to run an empty killing train indefinitely? Of course I never built a train, and if it has to use coal I can see how this would be simply too expensive. Maybe if it can be electric you can rely on solar panels and a logic circuit to switch to other supply at night.

I could be mistaken, but I always assumed that scene was from a multiplayer session.

Electric trains only exist in mods. I'm fairly sure nuclear-powered trains would be an option, though, which would allow the train to be in motion almost infinitely, rather than having to reload coal semi-frequently. Still seems a bit silly compared to defensive towers and auto-repair bots, IMO, and I can definitely see biters slipping through, but that's part of what makes the game fun - there are multiple options.

----

But instead of setting up nuclear power, I decided to play some Renowned Explorers. It's a delightful change of pace, and the tactical combat is much more satisfying (and complex) than what Civ V/VI offers. I wound up having my most successful expedition yet, with the general approach being to terrify my enemies, and then to go on the attack and prove their terror to be well-founded. The synergies between my crew members are excellent, and now I'm in the "postseason" finishing expeditions for fun rather than the five-expedition scored period.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I'm starting to think that Total War: Three Kingdoms is intentionally glitching out/crashing on me out of spite when I win battles where I am outnumbered or the odds were not in my favor. Three times in a row the game has crashed on me shortly after the computer attacked me with a superior force and lost. The last time was the worst.

The AI sallied out to meet my besieging force with an army twice the size of mine. Lu Bu killed all their generals and I ended up winning a "Close Victory" when the pre-battle odds/prediction was "Decisive Defeat", then the AI attacked me in a small city with a predicted outcome of "Crushing Defeat" and my small garrison managed to win a "Heroic victory" instead... then the AI immediately attacked another one of my cities, again with "Valiant Defeat" as the predicted outcome, but once again my force won a "Close Victory" instead.

Then the AI attacked me a fourth time... and I thought to myself "Better do a 'quick-save' (which is always an option in the pre-battle menu) in case the sore-loser AI decides to crash the game out of spite.", but then I thought I was just being paranoid and clicked "Start battle" instead and POOF, the game crashed, thus undoing all my beautiful victories. Damn You game! Damn You all to Hell!!!

 

[Takhisis]

I'm starting to think that Total War: Three Kingdoms is intentionally glitching out/crashing on me out of spite when I win battles where I am outnumbered or the odds were not in my favor.

Civ3 did that to me when I last won Sengoku a year or two ago.

 

[Fippy]

Blackwell Epiphany, the final adventure game from a series they sell as Blackwell Bundle.
But i didn't play the previous games (yet), they are from 2006 i think and BE from 2014.

Stunning story, fitting pixel art graphics (for us old school fans i guess) and an overall experience that i would describe as must-play, esp. for mystery adventure fans.
Brilliant idea how you can switch to a ghost, who can explore freely behind doors etc (but cannot touch anything) - while the main character can pick up items & talk with peoples but often stands in front of those locked doors.

 

[Arakhor]

I really enjoyed playing the Blackwell series.

 

[REDY]

Blackwell Epiphany, the final adventure game from a series they sell as Blackwell Bundle.
But i didn't play the previous games (yet), they are from 2006 i think and BE from 2014.

Stunning story, fitting pixel art graphics (for us old school fans i guess) and an overall experience that i would describe as must-play, esp. for mystery adventure fans.
Brilliant idea how you can switch to a ghost, who can explore freely behind doors etc (but cannot touch anything) - while the main character can pick up items & talk with peoples but often stands in front of those locked doors.

I played it from the beginning and Epiphany is the greatest. But previous sequels were setting stones for its greatness.

 

[Kyriakos]

Isn't that an Adventure Game Studio (game engine) game?
I likely tried one of the titles in the series, but didn't like the characters or something like that. Supernatural stories very rarely interest me.

 

[Yeekim]

Except I also then lost honour for it. Not as funny.

Yeah, but considering how easy it is to raise honor (just greet people!), hardly gamebreaking.

 

[Quintillus]

I have gone nuclear in Factorio. The coal in the home base area was starting to run low, and rather than build another train to haul coal in, it was easier to first double the number of solar panels, and the build a nuclear plant, following PhroX's recommendation of having a steam buffer to avoid wasting uranium. The steam buffer had to be expanded a couple times, but now it is fully up and operational.

And since there are so many solar panels, the nuclear plant only has to be on about 20% of the time. It effectively acts as a peaker plant, which is sort of odd since nuclear serves as baseline in the real world, but it only takes a minute or so for a Factorio nuclear plant to spin up from cold, and the steam batteries can cover that period.

There are plenty of other things to do. The local copper deposit, which was still filling all non-wire copper needs, was 99% depleted, so I have intensified copper mining and smelting at the remote copper base and am now hauling in copper plates as well as wire. I'm trying to ramp up the construction of low density structures, which require a lot of copper, and are needed for as well as the bottleneck on yellow science. I'm up to nearly 1000 yellow science in the past hour, but need 2500 for the Spidertron and don't have that much in reserve. Flying robot frames and processing units (blue electronics) have proven easier to ramp up, with the latter is benefitting from earlier investments in scaling green and red electronics.

Base defenses are generally adequate but I've been working on automating repairs with roboports and construction drones. I'm thinking of researching Artillery as well, but am doing the Spidertron first. I want to prioritize the elements I have not made use of at all or very much. Spidertron, the advanced defensive robots (which I plan to take for a test run next session), beacons, advanced logistics.

 

[Synobun]

I think RDR2 is lying to me. It says to use small game arrows to get perfect pelts from animals like rabbits, but every single kill I get is just poor quality hogwash even with the antler trinket. I switched to the varmint rifle and now I'm getting them.

I'm mostly just grinding legendaries and the crafting options from perfect kills instead of doing quests. Right now I'm trying to find a badger so I can craft a satchel. There's supposed to be a ton around Rhodes, but I've been crawling through forests for half an hour and found two, neither of which were pristine.

 

[Snowygerry]

Sometimes the time of day/night matters, for fish even the weather..

Rabbits are medium game, not small, not sure about badgers.

If it hangs from the side of your horse it is usually medium, small goes directly in your satchel.

You can still get a perfect skin even when not using the ideal weapon, if you manage a perfect headshot, I use a bow and arrows for that.

 

[Zardnaar]

BG3 honor mode. Permanent death only 1 save and it ends if you die.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Total War: Three Kingdoms - Slow March to make Lu Bu Emperor of all China before he dies continues. He has a legit heir now, though at least, Lu Ju (age 18) a "Champion" (green class) rather than a "Vanguard (red class) like his father, but still "Legendary" status, which is a little confusing, since IIRC, he is random generated (one of Daochan's kids that spawned after the game started ). In any case, I've tricked him out in the best available weaponry, including special armour and a unique weapon called the "Serpent" spear, which was acquired from capturing/killing some Legendary Warrior, who's name I forget. So I guess he didn't pay "the iron price" for his gear, but whatever... I'm spoiling him I went back and re-won most of those battles the AI deleted with its carefully timed crash previously. One of the battles I just delegated and let the AI win because it was too difficult to repeat my miraculous victory.

I've slowly rediscovered that the key to winning, like in Rome II, is to keep your heroes, along with their armies, in bunches so that they can tag team opponents, both on attack and defense. I've also started firing any heroes that aren't in active use as generals, firing weak/obsolete militia-level units and upgrading safe cities as much as possible. This seems to be lessening my money worries, allowing me to lower taxes, and thus lower the constant rebellions... which in turn has allowed me to make peace with a bunch of enemies, so I can focus on destroying one of the other factions claiming to be the Emperor. I'm currently focused on the Northern Han. Once I eliminate them, I guess I will have to go after the Shu-Han.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Finally managed my first-ever Domination victory (Prince difficulty). Since last time I disabled all of my mods, enabled just a few, and started as the Golden Horde (mod-civ) with 10 players on a 8-player map.

Unique Ability (The Tatar Yoke): Gain a portion of the Culture generated by City-States from which you could demand tribute. Cities trading with City-States passively produce mounted units.
This was a fairly good ability for a domination victory. The stronger you grow and the more military units you have the more city-states give you Gold. And unlike when you demand tribute, the Golden Horde's ability does not adversely affect your relations with city-states. The passive production of mounted units was good too, I guess.

Unique Unit (Noyon): Strengthens nearby units by 15% Yields Gold from kills. May pillage City-States' tile improvements without declaring war
Also fairly good, though I didn't make enough use of it to determine just how useful it was.

Unique Building (Yam Station): Provides a source of Horses to its city. While a Trade Route originates in a city with a Yam Station, units trained there have +1 Movement
This was really, really helpful. The +1 movement may seem trite, but it makes a world of difference, especially with siege units, because their usual movement points are 2, they eat up 1 to get into position and 1 to set up to fire. So when you bring your siege units within range, at least one of them gets badly damaged. But with the additional +1 movement they can strike the city while at full-health before the city or enemy ranged units can target them, which greatly increases the speed at which you capture cities.

So I started with the Huns and the Kassites as my immediate neighbours. Forgetting that the Yam Station gives me free horses, I settled a city to the south right next to Attila's Court to snag some rides. I was mentally prepared for a Hunnic attack in the future, but didn't expect them to have such overwhelming numbers, as my Military Advisor told me in a quivering whisper. Bad news, because the Huns are a handful eneough with their Horse Archers. Turns out my Military Advisor was an idiot and most of the Hunnic army was made up of Battering Rams, dangerous when attacking a city, but completely toothless otherwise. I made short work of the invading Huns. Attila for some reason forbore to train more Horse Archers, so I was easily able to take the two Hunnic cities in a counterattack.

The capture of the Hunnic lands​

Then a pause to get my Happiness up to manageable levels. By the time I had unlocked the Noyon I was ready for a good war. I descended on Korea like a swooping hawk. They were completely overwhelmed in no time at all, thanks to the +1 movement bonus. Barely had the last Korean city surrendered when I declared war on Polynesia. and easily overran them as well.

It's over for Polynesia​

As I was taking the last Polynesian cities I noticed the Kassites massing forces on our border. I drew away my army, leaving just enough to wipe the Polynesians out. Too late. The technologically advanced Kassites were making strong process, despite a gallant defence. The war was fought firecley on two adjacent fronts, as I had to switch units from one city to another to fend them off. Eventually I learnt that Attila's Court was doomed to fall. Rather than sacrficing my units in a heroic but futile defense, I drew them away to the north away from the southern offensive. The Kassites took Attila's Court, then Jeonju, but by Jeonju they had lost almost all their units. Now it was my time to strike. With only a few isolated Kassite units in the recently lost territories I had no problem taking them out, but taking back the cities was a different matter, as the hills that had eaten up the Kassites now forced me to manage some very thoughtful manoeuvring. At last I took back my cities. I regrouped at the Kassite border and started a grand offensive, made easier thanks to the now-weakened Kassites. Still the horrible terrain meant I had to carefully watch my step, until the Kassites had been kicked out of the continent, and my empire now extended to the Russian borders.

The counter-attack is on!​

Russia had no army to speak of, but they did have the Great Wall, which reduces enemy units' movement to 0. Taking Moscow and St. Petersburg was tough, but I managed it. Now I had my sights on the second continent of the world, divided between Denmark, Austria (already dead, killed by Denmark), Egypt, Venice and Polynesia, who had at some point in their early history settled a city in the other continent that had now grown to dwarf even mine own.

I had managed to conquer my home continent in previous games, but invading another one was new to me. One thing I determined was that I needed a strong navy, to cover my embarked and vulnerable land army, and to quickly take coastal cities so as to establish a base. I had already begun building up a navy, a Grand Armada, during the Russo-Tatar War, because I knew I had to mount a naval invasion quick before my enemies researched Flight and started bombing my defenceless units. (I still remember how, despite having a much more powerful army, I was completely destroyed by an inferior opponent with a competent airforce.) The Golden Armada saw its first action right after the war against Russia, taking out the enclave colonies of Polynesia and the Kassites in the northern islands, partly to test out whether the ships were strong enough to take cities on their own, and partly because the Khan felt slighted by his victims' determination to keep existing. The naval operation was a resounding success, and the Khan, well-pleased, devoted more resources to building up the Armada, and giving gifts to city-states to increase the flow of luxury goods to help alleviate the eventual blowback from taking cities.

Now the time was come. The frigates and privateers set out in front, the Army of the Horde behind. The storm first struck Denmark, as Aarhus, Copenhagen and Kaupang all fell before the Tatar onslaught. While the land soldiers grouped in the former Danish lands, the navy set out further afield to take Vienna as well. The navy then went further south to strike at Venice, but ended up in a diabolically perfect network of Venetian-controlled islands and peninsulae. The navy did manage to reach Venice, but Venice proved too powerful to take through sea alone.

The invasion begins​

Now the land units were ready to attack Egypt. The jungles and hill forced the army to tread carefully through a narrow passage, thanks to the unfriendly Polynesians not allowing access to their territory. Finally reaching the outskirts of Thebes, the Horde found stiff resistance from the technologically on-par Egyptians. After some tough fighting the Tatars managed to secure important positions for their cannon, but the city walls were incredibly tough, and cannon shot made barely any impact.

The Siege of Thebes​

Now if Egypt had decided to target my two cannons (my third had been destroyed, and there was no position from where the fourth could fire from) the invasion would've halted there and then. Instead Rameses focused on trying to eliminate my injured Infantry unit, whom I tried to keep alive by pillaging improvement after improvement. Finally, after a nerve-wrackingly long time, the miracle was complete. Thebes had finally fallen, and the Infantry unit, the Hero of Thebes, was still intact (and probably given medals personally by the Khan in recognition of their bravery in drawing enemy fire to help their comrades take the city). By this time the researchers of the Horde had discovered Dynamite, which allowed the Cannons to be upgraded into modern Artillery.

Artillery is a game-changing weapon. Most ranged units, including siege units such as the Trebuchet and the Cannon have a range of 2 tiles, which is the same as the range of cities, which means any siege unit that can fire at a city can be fired back at too. Not so the Artillery. With a range of 3 tiles the Artillery is bound to level city walls so long as they have other units to cover them from enemy units (and the city doesn't have a garrisoned Artillery).

With these powerful new siege units Heliopolis fell with ease. Now the Horde marched into Venice, and in almost no time had levelled the walls. However, instead of the Infantry sweeping into the city to take it, the honour of taking the city was given to a Privateer from the navy that had bravely sailed through the treacherous Venetian waters, and had been lying in wait for further orders since the assault on Venice had been called off.

The last days of Venice​

And that was it. My first ever Domination Victory!

Some notes:
1) Razing cities may hurt short-term, but long-term it doesn't eat up Happiness like puppeted cities do. I should try razing cities next time.
2) I suffered a lot from Unhappiness, having to take down rebels several times. Founding a Religion with Happiness modifiers would really make life easier. I should also try to build the Notre Dame in future games. That +10 Happiness is to die for.
3) I should be more merciful towards foreign enclaves that have lost their capitals. Trade routes to major civs give more Gold than to friendly city-states. I managed in this run due to the Golden Horde's passive gold-generating ability, but next time I won't be so lucky.
4) Frigates are powerful and can easily take cities from previous Eras on their own.
5) Artillery is so good

 

[EgonSpengler]

American Truck Simulator. Driving a Kenworth W900 sleeper. 500 horsepower; 1,850 lb-ft / 2508 n-m of torque.

Interstate 15, Utah. Delivered a 35,000-lb from Las Vegas to St. George, then decided to just keep heading north and see Salt Lake City.

Spoiler :

Provo, UT on a Sunday morning (both irl and in the game) is about as hopping as you'd expect.

Spoiler :

The 'Tree of Life" sculpture and the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Spoiler :

I can't seem to find the Great Salt Lake yet. You'd think it'd be hard to miss, but the salt flats are West of the lake, so I'll have to turn around.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Interstate 15, Utah. Delivered a 35,000-lb from Las Vegas to St. George, then decided to just keep heading north and see Salt Lake City.

You should keep both hands on the wheel like any good driver!