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

[Takhisis]

I've started playing GTA: San Andreas. Won the first dance-off and the lowrider dance-off.

I don't know what it is, but I don't get the same kind of automatic rush of affection that I do get with GTA III and Vice City. Partly it's because now it's a freaking RPG and I have to train the character and feed him and work him out as if he were a freaking Tamagochi. Partly it's because I think that the radio stations were better in Vice City, in which even Espantoso is worth listening to.

But serious bonus points for the game featuring Samuel L. Mutha____ing Jackson from the intro onwards.

 

[Estebonrober]

Wow, Civ 6, Hearts of Iron, Gran Turismo Sport, Minecraft Dungeons

A couple of of those are just with my boys

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I enjoy electronic entertainment

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Still struggling with Civ6. I'm still not sure if I like it yet. There seem to be a lot of turns with nothing to do. And of course, I'm trying to figure out all of the mechanics of the game. I just went through a war, which was a major slider puzzle with 1 UPT. I lost a lot of units that were weaker than the attacker simply because I couldn't move stronger units to the front, because my weaker units were in the way.

Who thought this was a good idea, anyway?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I just went through a war, which was a major slider puzzle with 1 UPT.

New spin-off!

Can 1UPT be modded out?

 

[Smellincoffee]

Oh, SimCity 2000 references. You funny.

I've been exploring a few games courtesy of the steam sale. Blind Justice is fairly...boring. Playing as a Soviet judge, the player simply sits, waits, and makes snaps decisions until he is shot by either the state or the mob. I've never gotten past day two. In Depraved, my first attempt at a western town, Valentine, was a dismal failure because I confused outhouses for residential shacks and blew all my money on a neighborhood of WCs. I've sunk most of my playtime into Plague, Inc, and so far have unlocked everything up to the zombie virus.. Among my exploits have been destroying the world with Disco Fever, Happy Cow Disease, and The Tickling Plague.

Personally, I blame Canada.

Yeaaah, this is absolutely the start of something terrible. On Brutal difficulty, I was able to achieve 100% infection, then suddenly use my stockpiled DNA to go lethal, with total organ failure and insanity.

My playtime today has been Red Dead Redemption, the original, which I'm playing for the first time. I've been playing it off and on since October, and today I finally killed Javier & Bill, both with throwing knives because their Arthur-betraying-souls weren't worth the lead, and chase Dutch from a bank. Already missing the Mexico music.

Also, in my Sims 4 Eco Living test family, I spotted the "northern lights" in Sulani and realized I could move the camera...right inside them. I mostly like Eco Lifestyles, but the N.A.P. (political referenda) are seriously obnoxious. I find myself using cheats to simply remove anything that's elected in. Wish I could do that IRL.

 

[Takhisis]

Still struggling with Civ6.

My advice: halve it.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Still struggling with Civ6. I'm still not sure if I like it yet. There seem to be a lot of turns with nothing to do. And of course, I'm trying to figure out all of the mechanics of the game. I just went through a war, which was a major slider puzzle with 1 UPT. I lost a lot of units that were weaker than the attacker simply because I couldn't move stronger units to the front, because my weaker units were in the way.

Who thought this was a good idea, anyway?

I think the idea is that once you have so many units, you start combining them into Corps and Armies. I rarely fight mid- or late-era wars, but I often start combining my units when I can anyway, just to tidy up. Oh, and Observation Balloons are vital, if only because they allow you to position your artillery units back out of the way of your ranged units.

EDIT: And aircraft help unclutter the battlefield too. I almost never get them, since they require such massive investment, but if I was in a big, late-game war, I think they'd help sort out the "slider puzzle."

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Still struggling with Civ6. I'm still not sure if I like it yet. There seem to be a lot of turns with nothing to do. And of course, I'm trying to figure out all of the mechanics of the game. I just went through a war, which was a major slider puzzle with 1 UPT. I lost a lot of units that were weaker than the attacker simply because I couldn't move stronger units to the front, because my weaker units were in the way.

Who thought this was a good idea, anyway?

I think the idea is that once you have so many units, you start combining them into Corps and Armies. I rarely fight mid- or late-era wars, but I often start combining my units when I can anyway, just to tidy up. Oh, and Observation Balloons are vital, if only because they allow you to position your artillery units back out of the way of your ranged units.

EDIT: And aircraft help unclutter the battlefield too. I almost never get them, since they require such massive investment, but if I was in a big, late-game war, I think they'd help sort out the "slider puzzle."

You can't start combining units I think until fairly late in the game. Once you get the hang of maneuvering the units to keep their advantages relevant and to offset their disadvantages, war fighting is a lot more fun in Civ VI than pushing massive stacks of doom in Civ IV, IMO. However, by the late game it can really turn into a chore, especially if you have a large army.

Air units do help but you can't combine them into corps or armies so when the AI starts putting together modern armor armies, you're still in for a slog. And reducing fully-fortified cities in the late game with air power also takes forever as well.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark

I went back to my Survival Mode and promptly died, on only Day 45, which was pretty poor. I got attacked by a wolf on the north side of Pleasant Valley. It was nearing dark and I knew I wouldn't make it back to the farmhouse. I took shelter in a car to take care of my wounds, but I didn't feel confident about getting through the night inside the car. I wasn't too far from the underground bunker, so I left the car, and then a blizzard started and I lost my bearings. This is exactly how I died on my last Survival game, in almost exactly the same place. But I had 4 pieces of coal with me this time, so I found a large rock I could shelter around. I made it through the blizzard and the night, but without getting much sleep so I was still pretty banged up. As soon as the sun came up and the blizzard stopped, I got attacked by another wolf. So that was that. (It might've been the same wolf. I actually heard the wolf die right next to me, right after the darkness closed in on me.)

 

[EgonSpengler]

You can't start combining units I think until fairly late in the game. Once you get the hang of maneuvering the units to keep their advantages relevant and to offset their disadvantages, war fighting is a lot more fun in Civ VI than pushing massive stacks of doom in Civ IV, IMO. However, by the late game it can really turn into a chore, especially if you have a large army.

Air units do help but you can't combine them into corps or armies so when the AI starts putting together modern armor armies, you're still in for a slog. And reducing fully-fortified cities in the late game with air power also takes forever as well.

Yeah, I loathed the big stacks of Civ IV. Like, I actively avoided warfare because of it. I've had no problems with the 1UPT of Civ V-VI, but maybe that's because of my tabletop wargame background. In Civ VI, I rarely fight wars past the Middles Ages or the Renaissance (a "late" war for me is one involving Musketmen and Field Cannons), so corps & armies and modern city defenses don't come up much. I almost never even research or build aircraft. I don't think I've ever built an aircraft carrier. Maybe once, just to see. I guess I never noticed that you can't create Corps & Armies with aircraft.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I never understood the nostalgia for the giant stacks of the older games. They were kind of cool the first couple of games you built them but after that they were just a massive chore and super boring as they compressed all strategy to basically whoever has the biggest stack wins. The terrain on Civ V and VI can definitely cause headaches but that's part of the fun as you have to factor maneuvers into your war planning. One option I wish the game did have was the ability to draw a ring around a group of units to move them all at once. This wouldn't be great during intense fighting as you really do need to plan out per-unit moves but when you're just trying to deploy a large army across the globe, it's flipping tedious to select each unit individually to move them. This gets worse when they start breaking each other's paths so you have to make movement adjustments mid-deployment for each of them.

 

[amadeus]

Have the units improved? In older games I seldom found use for some, like the alpine unit or destroyers in Civ2. In fact, naval warfare really in any of the games.

Still on OpenTTD but not the Japan map I had originally started out on. I found a better one that covers the whole country and the cities aren’t as overpopulated at the start of the game. I’ll play it next after my current one is through.

 

[Sommerswerd]

The Long Dark

I went back to my Survival Mode and promptly died, on only Day 45, which was pretty poor. I got attacked by a wolf on the north side of Pleasant Valley. It was nearing dark and I knew I wouldn't make it back to the farmhouse. I took shelter in a car to take care of my wounds, but I didn't feel confident about getting through the night inside the car. I wasn't too far from the underground bunker, so I left the car, and then a blizzard started and I lost my bearings. This is exactly how I died on my last Survival game, in almost exactly the same place. But I had 4 pieces of coal with me this time, so I found a large rock I could shelter around. I made it through the blizzard and the night, but without getting much sleep so I was still pretty banged up. As soon as the sun came up and the blizzard stopped, I got attacked by another wolf. So that was that. (It might've been the same wolf. I actually heard the wolf die right next to me, right after the darkness closed in on me.)

Yeah the weather in Pleasant Valley sucks. It would be the best map to live on hands down if it wasn't for the weather.

The Long Dark: Winter's Embrace

I'm still on my challenge playthrough, day 14. I shot one deer near the Paradise Farmhouse, and bagged another deer a couple days later by waiting for a wolf to kill the deer, then shooting the wolf and harvesting both. So now I have 2 deer and 1 wolf worth of meat cooked and cooled out on the front porch of Gray Mother's. There are blizzards almost every day now, but I think I may have enough meat to just wait out the remaining days at Gray Mother's for the badge. Pretty dull, but whatever, I'll get around to it and then its back to the battle against Smokey.

 

[warpus]

I beat 2015's DOOM. I was playing through it back in 2018, I bought it for $5 or something like that, but got stuck on a level and my attention span was too short I guess.

A couple weeks ago I installed it again and started playing from the beginning. I guess I was a bit more attentive, because things went a bit smoother. I must have missed some things when I was playing through it that first time.

Fun game! Really well put together and it does lead to flashbacks from the original, which I used to play so much.. Near the end I kept thinking I finally beat the final boss, but then there's.. more and more.. Final boss wasn't that hard to beat, but it did take me about 5 attempts.

Will probably pick up the sequel whenever it goes on sale.. Although the AI of this game just gets old. Every monster type has a specific way of moving, and that never changes. So once you figure out how to deal with a monster, it's easy... and all you have to do is dodge their attacks. I wish these enemies would adapt to your tactics somewhat instead of always being just robots. That would make a game like this a LOT more engaging

 

[cardgame]

I kind of like it at the same time, it makes the game a performance like a bullet dance.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I never understood the nostalgia for the giant stacks of the older games. They were kind of cool the first couple of games you built them but after that they were just a massive chore and super boring as they compressed all strategy to basically whoever has the biggest stack wins. The terrain on Civ V and VI can definitely cause headaches but that's part of the fun as you have to factor maneuvers into your war planning. One option I wish the game did have was the ability to draw a ring around a group of units to move them all at once. This wouldn't be great during intense fighting as you really do need to plan out per-unit moves but when you're just trying to deploy a large army across the globe, it's flipping tedious to select each unit individually to move them. This gets worse when they start breaking each other's paths so you have to make movement adjustments mid-deployment for each of them.

Stacks are really only good for troop movement. For a proper war and attack posture, you have to split your stack up into little stacks with specialized units. I like to think of them as little armies or battalions if you will. Each small stack has a specialization and purpose. Some for pillaging, some for bombardment, some for city attacks, etc. It requires some planning and forethought. Playing with just one big stack is boring, and like you say, leads to a victory being applied to the biggest stack. In addition, splitting your stacks allows you to attack against counters. Attacking pikemen with horsemen is kind of silly, because pikemen have the advantage, but hitting the pikemen with musketmen and leaving your horses to attack siege weapons is a much better idea (IMHO). Annnddd, the AI is not able to effectively counter a specialized stack or two (sometimes). I have faced larger stacks than I have had and won by using unorthodox methods like this. (Even though I am the Princess of sub optimal play.)

In contrast, you have a slider puzzle... No strategy there. Just a traffic jam.

 

[Takhisis]

I never understood the nostalgia for the giant stacks of the older games.

You have a stack of Knights. Ctrl+X+click, go away, pour yourself a drink, come back, city's taken.

That said, however…

Stacks are really only good for troop movement.

Now…

They were kind of cool the first couple of games you built them but after that they were just a massive chore and super boring as they compressed all strategy to basically whoever has the biggest stack wins.

In the previous iteration of this thread I documented my experiences with Civ3's late epic game, which I usually try to avoid. The stacks of modern armour can only be countered by defence in depth, i.e. barricading everything and planting forests wherever applicable in at least three tiles from any land border and sometimes the AI's favourite landing areas.
That said, individually telling fifty individual artillery units to each individually attack one individual tile every individual turn can get repetitive so I actually gave up on a game which I could have won militarily, eventually.

The terrain on Civ V and VI can definitely cause headaches but that's part of the fun as you have to factor maneuvers into your war planning. One option I wish the game did have was the ability to draw a ring around a group of units to move them all at once. This wouldn't be great during intense fighting as you really do need to plan out per-unit moves but when you're just trying to deploy a large army across the globe, it's flipping tedious to select each unit individually to move them. This gets worse when they start breaking each other's paths so you have to make movement adjustments mid-deployment for each of them.

Moving units one by one is a pain, so stacks are good for that. The sliding puzzle is what argues against it, which is why, back when Civ5 was against to come out, I said that the solution was to have tile unit caps. Alas, nobody heard me.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Yeah the weather in Pleasant Valley sucks. It would be the best map to live on hands down if it wasn't for the weather.

The Long Dark: Winter's Embrace

I'm still on my challenge playthrough, day 14. I shot one deer near the Paradise Farmhouse, and bagged another deer a couple days later by waiting for a wolf to kill the deer, then shooting the wolf and harvesting both. So now I have 2 deer and 1 wolf worth of meat cooked and cooled out on the front porch of Gray Mother's. There are blizzards almost every day now, but I think I may have enough meat to just wait out the remaining days at Gray Mother's for the badge. Pretty dull, but whatever, I'll get around to it and then its back to the battle against Smokey.

I started a new Stalker Survival game last night with a random starting zone, and you'll never guess where I came to...

Spoiler :

Actually, it's not that bad. I quite like (Un)Pleasant Valley. It has a lot of interesting features. Plus, the wicked combination of wolves and weather makes it one of the few places where the wolves don't completely define the entire game. My biggest gripe with the game is that the threat posed by wolves isn't balanced against the threat posed by the survival elements. I've probably been killed by wolves 10 times for every 1 time I've died of exposure (and I don't know if I've ever died of hunger or thirst, except in combination with other injuries). Once I'm done going after the badges, I expect I'll start playing with Custom Settings. For me, Pleasant Valley has the best balance of challenge and interesting locations to visit.

 

[Lexicus]

I never understood the nostalgia for the giant stacks of the older games. They were kind of cool the first couple of games you built them but after that they were just a massive chore and super boring as they compressed all strategy to basically whoever has the biggest stack wins. The terrain on Civ V and VI can definitely cause headaches but that's part of the fun as you have to factor maneuvers into your war planning. One option I wish the game did have was the ability to draw a ring around a group of units to move them all at once. This wouldn't be great during intense fighting as you really do need to plan out per-unit moves but when you're just trying to deploy a large army across the globe, it's flipping tedious to select each unit individually to move them. This gets worse when they start breaking each other's paths so you have to make movement adjustments mid-deployment for each of them.

I think if Civ insists on going 1upt then having railroads should unlock a Strategic Movement ability where you can shift your unit's "stance" to "entrained" and then move them along the railroads at a very high but constant speed, and in this stance they can overlap but they can't fight, and if attacked they just die like a non-combat unit.