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

[Sommerswerd]

Moved from Politics thread:

Have you ever played Supreme Ruler 2020? They had that exact scenario where each state became its own nation and DC became an independent city-state. For maximum difficulty I played as DC and although it took forever, I eventually reunified the US and conquered the entire world. Fun times.

No I'll have to look that up. What was the premise? Post nuclear apocalypse?

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[Commodore]

Moved from Politics thread:No I'll have to look that up. What was the premise? Post nuclear apocalypse?

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It's been a while so I don't remember all the details, but it was something about an oil shortage causing economic and political strife all over the world and that caused the US to dissolve as a nation. While the dissolution was peaceful, tensions between the states ran high and everyone started believing war would be inevitable between them.

 

[Sommerswerd]

It's been a while so I don't remember all the details, but it was something about an oil shortage causing economic and political strife all over the world and that caused the US to dissolve as a nation. While the dissolution was peaceful, tensions between the states ran high and everyone started believing war would be inevitable between them.

Sounds a lot like those "warring states" games that are usually based on feudal Japan or China's "Three Kingdoms" period.

Was it just a US Map or was the whole world involved in the conflict? Were Alaska and Hawaii involved or are they left out of it?

 

[Commodore]

Sounds a lot like those "warring states" games that are usually based on feudal Japan or China's "Three Kingdoms" period.

Was it just a US Map or was the whole world involved in the conflict? Were Alaska and Hawaii involved or are they left out of it?

Whole world map. It plays a lot like Hearts of Iron from what I've seen (I've never actually played a Hearts of Iron game). While the premise above is kind of the "main" story of the game, they offer a variety of scenarios for modern to near future global political situations. The cool thing is in each scenario, you can choose literally any nation in the world to play as. One time I turned Somalia into a global superpower, while another was a failed bid at world domination as Fiji.

EDIT: Some crazy things can happen in that game too. Like I remember having to annex Texas by force as they resisted my diplomatic overtures to join me peacefully. Once the war with Texas started, they appealed to North Korea for military aid. They didn't send troops, but they did start selling weapons and equipment to the Texans.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Whole world map. It plays a lot like Hearts of Iron from what I've seen (I've never actually played a Hearts of Iron game). While the premise above is kind of the "main" story of the game, they offer a variety of scenarios for modern to near future global political situations. The cool thing is in each scenario, you can choose literally any nation in the world to play as. One time I turned Somalia into a global superpower, while another was a failed bid at world domination as Fiji.

is it like Civ where there are different victory paths/conditions, or do you have to win by global unification through war?

 

[Gorbles]

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

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

Missed this post!

The throw mechanics are (as far as I'm aware), not in Sword and Shield, no. I liked the visual "catch combo" mechanic as well, and a few other bits and pieces. There's lots to like in Sword and Shield (opinion opinion opinion), but there's not really much crossover with the experiments in Let's Go.

 

[Commodore]

is it like Civ where there are different victory paths/conditions, or do you have to win by global unification through war?

There are different victory types. I don't remember them though.

EDIT: One cool feature that I remembered was the game included two approval ratings for your leader: civilian and military. You had to keep them kinda balanced to avoid being overthrown. If your civilian approval dropped too low for too long a rebellion would start. You could crush it with your military, but it would be difficult and some of your military might join the rebels. If your approval with the military drops too much, you get removed in a coup and I don't think there was any way to defend against that other than not pissing off your military in the first place.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm struggling with one of the campaign missions in Aven Colony (Arido Mesa). It's a timed mission. I keep screwing it up.

 

[Synobun]

I'm struggling with one of the campaign missions in Aven Colony (Arido Mesa). It's a timed mission. I keep screwing it up.

Have you tried not screwing it up?

 

[Farm Boy]

Ah, Supreme Ruler, looks like Paradox from 2008. They seem to have a brand new incest simulator out, I'd be tempted if I didn't know that the original game will be glitchy and buggy and fixable, slowly, with $500 worth of DLC.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Have you tried not screwing it up?

Yes. But I fail at it.

 

[Takhisis]

Lightning strikes can set buildings on fire...

Appropriately enough, in Battle for Wesnoth lightning attacks are classified as fire damage…

Have you had anything to do with the development of the game?

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!).

What problems does GTA 3 have, other than its possibly outdated graphics and lack of motorcycles?

 

[Synobun]

What problems does GTA 3 have, other than its possibly outdated graphics and lack of motorcycles?

Bad controls, bad gun mechanics, bad vehicle durability, bad/clipped voice acting, etc.

 

[Takhisis]

OK, bad controls/aiming is not a thing for me because, as I've already said, I won Freespace 2 with only a keyboard.
Durability… are the cars ridiculously tough for you, or, as I think, they seem to be made of explodium and sawn-off shotguns double as anti-tank artillery?
Voice acting: where? The main character is a mute and it was Rockstar's first game in the new era, but (at least for the time) they were good, I thought.

So is it really about it having aged badly, or is it about it being bad by itself in its own time of release 19 years ago?

 

[Synobun]

So is it really about it having aged badly, or is it about it being bad by itself in its own time of release 19 years ago?

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!).

 

[Takhisis]

Yes, I've already read that.

I got so used to the ’bad’ controls from GTA III/Vice City that San Andreas actually gets me every time.

 

[tjs282]

But now I'm on the "Catacombs" level, and although the first section was mostly a clean-ish run (only died once!), I'm really not looking forward to the underground temple section, which is an utter pig (Trigens, and Fatboys, and Locusts, oh my)...

Just as expected, beating that section took me 2 sessions and a good 6 hours or so (only one measly armour-pickup at the beginning, and the next one right at the end, with a dozen Trigens, half a dozen assorted Locusts + Spectres, and at least 4 Fatboys in between = Splat. Spawn. Repeat).

Then I nailed the River mission in almost one go — apart from that bloody rocket-launcher merc on the rope bridge blowing up my hijacked patrol-boat. Twice. But I got through the last section clean, OSK'd Crowe like a little *****, and this time I found and stole his M249 SAW, all ready for the Swamp mission — so that's gonna be fuuuuun (as long as Val stays out of my line-of-fire, anyway...).

 

[EgonSpengler]

I downloaded a new mod for Fallout 4 that required a restart but looks very promising: Damn Apocalypse.

• It includes a bunch of alternate start options. I went boring and created a 1st-level "Vault Enthusiast" scavenger who starts off near Sanctuary in search of Vault 111, and with very little starting gear, so I'm kinda following the game's vanilla narrative, except that I'm not Shaun's father. But if you want to, you can start almost anywhere, at higher level and with more gear. I think there's even an option to play as a Ghoul, but that might be a plugin that I didn't plug in.
  
• Combat is rougher, for everybody. A radroach in Vault 111 disabled one of my arms with a single lunge, but the damage the player inflicts is higher too. Combat's just more dangerous, all around.
  
• Conventional guns have recoil, giving energy weapons a new advantage and making fully-automatic guns a little less OP (I think, with gunsmithing and the right perks, you can still become a bullet-hose if you want to, but at least you have to put some effort into it).
  
• Loot distribution aims to be more sensible. Unlocked containers are likely to have already been looted by the scavengers who preceded you, and will contain mostly junk. Conversely, locked containers are more likely to contain useful stuff (the mod notes specifically recommend developing your character's lock-picking skills or using a mod that makes opening locked containers easier). If you want good weapons and armor, you're gonna have to take 'em from somebody.
  
• Caps are less frequent. The mod designer wanted to make barter more useful.
  
• Loot is also more location-specific. Hospitals are more likely to have medicine and chems; military bases are more likely to have weapons, ammo and armor; settlements (including Raider and Mutant camps) are more likely to have food.
  
• Items you find may be "broken" and you'll either harvest them for parts or repair them. While exploring Vault 111 and Sanctuary and the nearby Red Rocket, I've found several empty Stimpack syringes where there are normally full Stimpacks. I did find 4 intact pistols and some ammo just laying around, though. Maybe those are scripted item placements and not random spawns, meant to give the new character some equipment right at the beginning?
  
• Powered Armor is much harder to find, and the player will often find it in pieces and in need of repair. Also, the distribution of the suits has been tweaked: Raider Powered Armor spawns as in the vanilla game, more or less; T-45 and T-50 military suits can only be found in military bases (and presumably only behind locked doors and security robots, or somebody would've taken them already); T-60 suits are mostly in the hands of the Brotherhood of Steel and the Atom Cats - there's a single, unclaimed T-60 suit hidden somewhere, if the player doesn't want to fight the Brotherhood or the Atom Cats; and there's a single X-01 suit, scattered in pieces across the Commonwealth, including in Far Harbor and Nuka World. Powered Armor frames are rarer, and Powered Armor, of whatever type, frequently needs to be repaired and assembled, which requires schematics. Also, fusion cores are more likely to be depleted or less than fully-charged when you find them.
  
• Clean water is harder to find. The hand pumps you can build at your Settlements produce dirty water.

I've only just started my new game, so most of this I haven't seen with my own eyes yet. Still, it looks an awful lot like the game I wanted to play, right from the beginning.

 

[Commodore]

Conventional guns have recoil, giving energy weapons a new advantage and making fully-automatic guns a little less OP (I think, with gunsmithing and the right perks, you can still become a bullet-hose if you want to, but at least you have to put some effort into it)

The idea of super accurate automatic weapons is something that does bother me about video games. Machine guns, in reality, are designed to engage an area target, not point targets like a semi-automatic rifle. They are meant to suppress numerous targets over a given area to give your guys time to maneuver. With that in mind a super accurate machine gun is actually kind of a disadvantage on a real battlefield.

I'd like to see this represented in video games more. But since developers and gamers alike don't really seem all that interested in realism and only care about things like "DPS" I don't think we'll see accurate depictions of machine guns or machine gun tactics in video games any time soon.

Sorry for the rant, but in Iraq when doing vehicle patrols, I was one of the rear machine gunners on the Stryker and learning/applying how machine guns are actually used makes me cringe a little whenever I see how they are treated in video games.

 

[Synobun]

Yes, the machine gun physics are certainly the most unrealistic part of Fallout.