In What Electronic Entertainment Have You Been Partaking #18: Reticulating Splines

[EgonSpengler]

I think Fallout 4 did a pretty good job with survival mode. You have to eat and drink but it's not a huge logistical burden and it feeds back into the stat modifying system so it's not a completely useless chore either.

The Frost mod for Fallout 4 was an excellent survival game too, and it's built on the base game's survival mechanics.

If you're not familiar, Frost is a total-conversion mod in which you play a survivor in the months or years after the apocalypse. You're not a hero, you're just a schmuck trying to live another day, like in The Long Dark. You start out with nothing. You need to get a good melee weapon and learn to use it, because you'll be able to count your ammunition on your fingers & toes, if it's even ammo that fits the gun you have. Combat is brutal. With some practice, I could take on 2 poorly-equipped enemies in a straightup fight. Encountering as many as 3 enemies, or 1 well-equipped enemy, meant I either had to run or set an ambush. Everything is radioactive, all the time - going outside requires a mask, like in Metro 2033. There's also a prequel mod for Fallout: New Vegas called Dust, which I never played.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The Frost mod for Fallout 4 was an excellent survival game too, and it's built on the base game's survival mechanics.

If you're not familiar, Frost is a total-conversion mod in which you play a survivor in the months or years after the apocalypse. You're not a hero, you're just a schmuck trying to live another day, like in The Long Dark. You start out with nothing. You need to get a good melee weapon and learn to use it, because you'll be able to count your ammunition on your fingers & toes, if it's even ammo that fits the gun you have. Combat is brutal. With some practice, I could take on 2 poorly-equipped enemies in a straightup fight. Encountering as many as 3 enemies, or 1 well-equipped enemy, meant I either had to run or set an ambush. Everything is radioactive, all the time - going outside requires a mask, like in Metro 2033. There's also a prequel mod for Fallout: New Vegas called Dust, which I never played.

That sounds pretty awesome. Unfortunately I have FO4 on PS4 so my modding ability is super limited.

Rune Factory 4 is turning out to be a lot of fun. I do wish there was a *bit* more farming aspects in the game but then again, I've got Harvest Moon for that. The borderline-gibberish story that leans exclusively on anime tropes is pretty annoying but thankfully it's not central to gameplay.

 

[amadeus]

I restarted my OpenTTD game and now the better steam trains are starting to come out, but there is an even better one coming down the line in a couple years. I did a little replacing of old vehicles and I’m working on my bi-directional lines that will carry freight two ways instead of running empty half the time.

Coal is the most profitable for me now, but the iron coming into the steel mills will be soon brought over to the factories to produce goods, then the goods’ll get shipped off to the cities. Rather than have the steel train run empty to the factory, I can refit it at the station to carry goods back to the city.

Yay for stuff!

 

[Synobun]

I restarted my OpenTTD game and now the better steam trains are starting to come out, but there is an even better one coming down the line in a couple years. I did a little replacing of old vehicles and I’m working on my bi-directional lines that will carry freight two ways instead of running empty half the time.

Coal is the most profitable for me now, but the iron coming into the steel mills will be soon brought over to the factories to produce goods, then the goods’ll get shipped off to the cities. Rather than have the steel train run empty to the factory, I can refit it at the station to carry goods back to the city.

Yay for stuff!

just build high-speed monorails in 1902

easy

 

[amadeus]

just build high-speed monorails in 1902

easy

Is there a chance the track could bend?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I thought we had a board/card game thread but it turns out the thread is specifically about Role Playing Games so I guess I'll post this here:

We tried Bears Vs Babies last night and had a ton of fun. This is a card game where you build monsters (bears) to fight against babies. The monsters you build start with a head and you draw cards to pick up body parts you can add to them to increase their strength. When you draw a baby card, it goes face down in a pile to form an army. The babies have their own strength and you pick fights with the stacks (armies) of babies to face off against your monsters. There is strategy involved because each time your monster fights in a battle, you have to discard it. This means that sometimes you might waste a giant, overpowered monster(s) fighting a weak baby army and basically trade all of your awesome monsters for a few miserable points. You can also provoke fights between the babies and your opponent to force them to waste their monsters in losing battles or in overpowered matches.

It's pretty simple but with enough strategy involved to make it interesting. We also watched some YouTube videos which really helped explain the rules - I wish we had thought of that for other board games in the past.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I thought we had a board/card game thread but it turns out the thread is specifically about Role Playing Games so I guess I'll post this here:

We tried Bears Vs Babies last night and had a ton of fun. This is a card game where you build monsters (bears) to fight against babies. The monsters you build start with a head and you draw cards to pick up body parts you can add to them to increase their strength. When you draw a baby card, it goes face down in a pile to form an army. The babies have their own strength and you pick fights with the stacks (armies) of babies to face off against your monsters. There is strategy involved because each time your monster fights in a battle, you have to discard it. This means that sometimes you might waste a giant, overpowered monster(s) fighting a weak baby army and basically trade all of your awesome monsters for a few miserable points. You can also provoke fights between the babies and your opponent to force them to waste their monsters in losing battles or in overpowered matches.

It's pretty simple but with enough strategy involved to make it interesting. We also watched some YouTube videos which really helped explain the rules - I wish we had thought of that for other board games in the past.

There is https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/what-boardgames-did-you-just-play.494825/ but you'd have to venture outside OT

 

[shadowplay]

I just finished Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, going to try Final Fantasy VII next.

I really liked the new throwing mechanism in this game, which I hear was adopted from Pokemon Go. Is it back in Sword/Shield?

 

[Akka]

Long time no see, guys.
Finished a Middle-Earth run (Shadow of Mordor followed by Shadow of War). The first one is still that simple-but-efficient story with an exhilirating power fantasy gameplay. The second isn't bad, but it's just "the same but more" to the point of overstaying its welcome and choking a bit on itself and its meta. Too much butchering the lore too, while the first was more elegant about it. Still fun.

Am playing Assassin's Creed Origin now. Absolutely gorgeous and very immersive exploration simulator. The attention to details and the sceneries are both stunning. Characters are pretty boring, writing and story really subpar though. The modern time parts are especially annoying (gawd Layla is facepalm-inducingly bad).
But the running, the buildings, the immersion are here. Definitely playing for the setting.

And still having fun with Classic. Still filled with people here too. Going to mock Allen Brack again and repeat "we thought we did, and guess what, we actually did".

 

[EgonSpengler]

I started a new game of Fallout 4 last night, after a few years away from it. I'm using almost 40 mods. So far, the game is running fine, but I can already see that not all of mods are operating properly.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I started a new game of Fallout 4 last night, after a few years away from it. I'm using almost 40 mods. So far, the game is running fine, but I can already see that not all of mods are operating properly.

It's not Fallout or the Elder Scrolls if you're not spending more time fiddling with 37gb of mods than you're actually playing the game.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I think last time I played Fallout 4 I had about 120 mods. The more mods you have the harder it gets to track down what is causing any problems

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

In Skyrim I had so many mods that I ended up with a giant gaping hole in the middle of Windhelm.

 

[Synobun]

Tried playing Tomb Raider. I dunno, didn't stick. It also kept crashing during transitions.

I also tried out WARSAW. Basically a WW2 Darkest Dungeon, but less refined and more aimless. Did a few missions, wasn't super compelling. Unclear progression.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I think last time I played Fallout 4 I had about 120 mods. The more mods you have the harder it gets to track down what is causing any problems

Yeah, I'm trying to take it easy. I'm counting my blessings that the game is running as well as it is so far. Tonight I'm going to try to figure out why the mod that lets you fix up Sanctuary isn't working. I have a "scrap anything" mod that may be submerging the interface of the "fix Sanctuary" mod. I'm scared I might accidentally delete the whole bridge instead of repairing it.

I took the trip to Concord last night, to get the refugees in the museum. The "realistic survival-mode damage" mod that I'm using may actually make heavy weapons viable. Using the minigun you find on the roof, I took down the Deathclaw much more easily than in the past, and I think it was because each 5mm round was doing a lot more. Even though I was probably missing 2 in 5 shots and bouncing 2 more off its armor, the 5th round was hurting it, and since the gun fires about 25 rounds per second... Say hello to my little friend! I think I fired 500 rounds killing the darned thing, but it was worth it. I just had to hope there were no civilians in the area. Not exactly a precision weapon. In the base game, I think the devs got scared by the minigun and nerfed it too much; it didn't seem to do that much damage, and given its weight and the amount of ammo you need for it, it was basically worthless. In Survival Mode, where your carry weight is reduced and ammunition has weight, heavy weapons are even stupider. I'm looking forward to trying the rocket launcher now.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Path of Exile announces its new league in 10 minutes. The league will begin in about two weeks.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Path of Exile announces its new league in 10 minutes. The league will begin in about two weeks.

Heist looks much more interesting than Harvest. That one didn't inspire me, and I'd been playing so much that I was kind of burned out on the game anyway. Playing a Shadow in Heist might be a little on-the-nose , but I haven't really played one of those. I think I messed around with one, just in Act I, to try out Traps, and I didn't really 'get it.' But I haven't played a melee character who doesn't rely on Armor, so that could be an interesting change of pace. I'm also wondering whether "Weave the Arcane" under the Trickster Ascendancy works with Whirling Blades, which is tagged as a Movement Skill according to the site I looked up last night.

 

[Synobun]

Decided to play some Grand Theft Auto 3 out of nostalgia. Had to install a community patch just to get it to work.

And honestly... meh. This game should remain in Child Brain Syn. Adult Brain Syn does not enjoy it. Rockstar sorely needs to remaster its early titles once it gets done milking GTA V for all it's worth (Be sure to buy GTA V on the next-gen consoles!).

 

[Birdjaguar]

Heist looks much more interesting than Harvest. That one didn't inspire me, and I'd been playing so much that I was kind of burned out on the game anyway. Playing a Shadow in Heist might be a little on-the-nose , but I haven't really played one of those. I think I messed around with one, just in Act I, to try out Traps, and I didn't really 'get it.' But I haven't played a melee character who doesn't rely on Armor, so that could be an interesting change of pace. I'm also wondering whether "Weave the Arcane" under the Trickster Ascendancy works with Whirling Blades, which is tagged as a Movement Skill according to the site I looked up last night.

I really liked Betrayal and the Jun missions, so I might like this. I skipped harvest and played Standard so I am ready for something new. I'll play a duelist most likely, but maybe I'll try daggers this league.

 

[Gorbles]

Finally back into Borderlands 3. Missed most of the pre-anniversary weekly events they have going on, which is super-annoying. In chronological order:

1. Big patch at the end of April, introduced Mayhem 2.0. Took my main character Zane from crashing every so often to crashing every 10 minutes. Killed enthusiasm somewhat.
2. Multiple patches to resolve performance complaints (Zane, unluckily, was just the worst-hit. He deals a lot of Cryo damage and that's the element that's the worst for it). I'm almost able to start playing again.
3. We decide to move house, because we love moving house and it's super fun (disclaimer: it is not).
4. House move all sorted, finally in my own room again, and then we have a thunderstorm that knocks out our broadband for two weeks. Multiple aggravating calls to get it sorted.

It has been one heck of a summer. Been working full-time throughout (working from home), which I'm honestly thankful for, but just . . . exhausting.

I've played bits (mainly co-op) between now and then, but very little with my favourite character (Zane). No real endgame play because my other characters weren't strong enough. But now? The game works fantastically again. Not smoothly, because my hardware is starting to finally show its age, but crashes are way down. Lowest they ever been, in my experience.

Rolled through the Circle of Slaughter last night, only died once because I forgot to get ammo at a checkpoint. Bazillion new Legendaries, some with decent Anointments too. Couldn't be happier. I have other games, but BL3 is the fix I haven't been able to shake this year so far. I've got to find time for Torchlight 3 as well . . . had a blast with that in the beta and alpha stages.