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

[tjs282]

I think this was because your opening was somehow just not optimal enough. Like I mentioned, there was likely some way to get more territory early that would have allowed you to sit back until you've surpassed your neighbours in tech or allowed you to surpass them earlier. Or it could be just bad luck on your part with the map and exploration early on.

I'm just saying all this based on the strategies I've read up on for high-level play.

No arguments there. My major weakness in Civ3 has pretty much always been my fear of launching Ancient Age wars, but I really should have done that here, and taken over Sumeria much earlier, before they went Medieval.

If I'd been playing at DG or higher, I would certainly have lost the game. As it was, I was only 11(ish) turns short of a histographic defeat when I finally launched my Ship (even though I out-teched them, the Aztecs and Dutch were still leading me in score).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I decided to do the DLCs for The Witcher 3 before finishing the main quest. The first was fine, but it looks like the second was meant to be played after the main quest. It just spoiled to me that Geralt wins.

I played Hearts of Stone in the third part of the game (I roleplayed it as Geralt taking some contracts to buy some good equipment before the final confrontation but of course things go awry) but left Blood & Wine until post-game.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Path of Exile: After chatting about it here, I picked up my Heavy Strikin' Marauder again last night. The day's still young, Act 3, but Heavy Strike + Melee Splash and 1 unsupported Ancestral Protector are handling everything so far. I haven't put any Passive Skill Points into any of the specific weapons, so I can just use whichever 2-handed weapon does the most damage at the moment. As an aside, I don't think there are any 2-handed sceptres, although a sceptre would be a good choice for a pyromaniacal Chieftain, as they provide additional elemental damage. I haven't done the math, but my guess is that a 2-handed weapon is the better option for sheer damage output, especially as a Marauder primarily generates physical damage and then converts it to fire damage, if you go that route. If you wanted to use a sceptre-and-shield/fire damage combo, a Templar might be a better choice.

Love it. My Heavy strike marauder is finishing Act 8 and mopping the floor with ease. I'm using OG so fire damage is his path. Elemental proliferation and combustion keep my guy and the monsters ignited. They die, I don't. As a jugg I'm going with endurance charges to face tank bosses. I've got 5 atm: more damage, more resists etc. As needed I use flammability curse, ancestral cry and drop vaal ancestral warchief and ancestral protector totems for deadly emphasis. it is a great build and my fastest boss killer ever.

I hadn't thought of going with a two handed sword...Maybe I'll keep my eyes out for high dps one to test in my other slot.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

 

[Takhisis]

No arguments there. My major weakness in Civ3 has pretty much always been my fear of launching Ancient Age wars, but I really should have done that here, and taken over Sumeria much earlier, before they went Medieval.

Let's remember that the blighters actually have 10-shield Spearmen.

 

[amadeus]

I’m doing just a little bit of The Sims 3. My simulated life is considerably easier than the unsimulated one: for starters, I’m a homeowner with no mortgage and I can pick up rocks to sell for food money. Much less work than my real job, and no bad weather or co-workers! And I don’t even get tired carrying the rocks, which is nice.

 

[Quintillus]

I started a Byzantne CKII game, but like usual I started as a single-county Count, this time at the southernmost part of Greece. So far, I've gained territory but things have not been going quite according to plan. My rulers:

1. Make a strike for a second province; lose the first battle, hire some mercs, attack again, die in battle.
2. Win the late brothers' questionable war, gain a second province. Go stark raving mad. Make a political marriage with the Duchess of Thrace. Appoint a horse to my council. Somehow convince some of the Byzantine strategoi and doux to help me fabricate a claim on the Duchy of Achaia, and become a Doux myself. Support a war to make my wife the Empress, only to have her not support the war herself. Die of depression combined with the flu.
3. Now playing as the six-month-old daughter of the mad duke. Stuck in the war for my mother's claim to the throne. Lose the war as a two-year-old; all the revolters are imprisoned. Receive notice that one has been burned at the stake, and another beheaded. Ask for ransom, receive the reply that it is denied due to my weak claim on the Byzantine Empire (my great grandfather being Romanos IV Diogenes). Fear for my life.

So I expect to be executed in the near future. Thankfully there is one relative still alive in the dynasty, my cousin's 7-year-old daughter. But there is little guarantee of survival. The only good news seems to be that my regent, a warrior woman whom my father made an adviser, seems to be loyal, and that Glitterhoof the horse is aligned with me on the council. I have two count-tier vassals, a 6-year-old dwarf who's a genius, and his uncle, both of whom hate me only slightly less than my father, who took the duchy from the former and crushed a revolt by the latter, but was unable to revoke their titles due to objections from most of the human members of the council.

In the meantime, the Sultanate of Rum has invaded again, Cumania has conquered most of Russia, and the First Crusade was a resounding success, resulting in Egypt becoming an independent crusader state led by the Piast dynasty.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I've been playing Morrowind a lot. Though I'm a little directionally challenged. Even after staring at the signpost for five minutes I still manage to make a wrong turn and end up in some random town in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.

It's fun.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I've been playing Morrowind a lot. Though I'm a little directionally challenged. Even after staring at the signpost for five minutes I still manage to make a wrong turn and end up in some random town in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.

It's fun.

Back in the days before quest markers and NPCs with little gold arrows above their heads.
Many of my most interesting finds in Morrowind occurred when I failed to find the place I was looking for.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I installed a mod that added some lore-friendly houses that you can buy. I'm rummaging through caves for loot to sell so I can afford an apartment in Vivec's Foreign Quarter and stop squatting in a dead guy's shack in Seyda Neen.

 

[AdamCrock]

I installed a mod that added some lore-friendly houses that you can buy. I'm rummaging through caves for loot to sell so I can afford an apartment in Vivec's Foreign Quarter and stop squatting in a dead guy's shack in Seyda Neen.

Vivec on fire... sounds good ...
Did You've obtained the famous banana hat and the infamous scroll of mega-super-hyper jump from a splattered mage's body outside of Seyda Neen yet ?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I am excellent at fashion Matching armour? What's that?

I used one of the scrolls to jump across Vivec City because I was too lazy to walk around the bridges.....and ended up stuck on a roof. I eventually found a way down that didn't involve going splat on the balcony.

 

[cardgame]

@aimee you should try Kenshi

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Kenshi is an open world role-playing video game with real-time strategy elements that has no linear narrative.[1] It takes place in a post-apocalyptic sword punk fantasy setting, where it is incredibly difficult for life to survive.[1] The player starts out with no skills and struggles to survive in the early stages of the game

That sounds painful.

 

[H4run]

@aimee you should try Kenshi

Does it has lore? I do consider it once because of its freedom, but I seek lore and storyline in game.

Related to Aimee post about Morrowind, it makes me remember its lore and background before the game happened, and the background story is just mind-blowing,

I like the Nerevar background lore more than Morrowind story line itself. How 2 of his best-friend with his own wife was conspiring against him, the end Nerevar is tragic but somewhat beautiful also in a way, until now I don't really comprehend how Almalexia degrades herself to be that low and what kind of relationship she had with Nerevar, also Vivec and Sotha Sil had with him and how it starts to degrades.

A Morrowind spin off that let us play as Nerever or someone who close enough to witness all of the pre-Morrowind event would be an awesome game for me. And the lore is pretty much buried to all books that scattered in the huge world of Morrowind, if the player not diligent enough to read and collecting piece by piece puzzle and builds its complete picture, or read a secondary sources regarding the lore, they would definitely missed a good story that happened before the Morrowind.

 

[cardgame]

I'm interested in how you can break it. Not a lot of lore, no, but there is some.

 

[Farm Boy]

Oh no, Aimee in Kenshi. Prepare the space time continuum.

 

[AdamCrock]

My mono black deck made it to platinum rank on MTG Arena ! Yaaay ! Even though it is just above average the reason I am so darn proud of it is that I've build it myself



edit:

If by any chance anyone from here wants to play a game of Magic there with me, my username is visible on the image

 

[Quintillus]

Played another 10-15 years in CKII. I've been blinded, but am still alive, having lived most of my childhood in prison. My one friend is a dungeon rat named Flipper. For a short time there was a Bulgarian nearby who could have been a friend too, but as he'd lead a revolt, he was promptly executed.

So who blinds 5-year-old duchesses? The Mad Emperor. Gregorios "The Butcher" Gavras has earned his name, being personally responsible for 18 noteworthy deaths. In addition to burning at the stake and beheading, he has since impaled a duke on the spikes of a great building; hanged another; hanged, drawn, and quartered a third; and slowly flayed to death a fourth. He's racked up a -60 Tyrant penalty, but has done an impressive job of placating the successors of executed dukes with land grants. He's also done an enviable job of surviving epidemics, at one point surviving having both consumption and scurvy at the same time.

Not that everyone has gone peacefully into the night. At around age 10, my mother started a revolt, seeking to amend her mistake of not partaking in the last war for her claim by personally leading the war. The timing seemed good, as the Mad Emperor had just agreed to aid Armenia against the Seljuk Turks. But after some initial successes, the key battle was lost. I now have a one-handed mother. Nonetheless, several dukes and duchesses are already starting a new faction to fight a third war for her claim. I'm skeptical, but welcome any chance at a new Emperor or Empress.

-----

I'm probably most impressed with the ruthlessness of the AI Emperor. He's role-playing an evil lunatic bent on keeping power at all costs quite well.

 

[local_hero]

Aaaaarghh...

Zelda Breath of the Wild is so hard. Filthy is what it is. And then I read comments from people who thinks this is the easiest Zelda ever. And I watch videos on YouTube how you beat the boss in 3 minutes. "oh with that strategy it doesn't look too hard. Let's try again". Lots of screams later I'm done for today.

I thought I was a quite decent gamer, but alas yet another thing I'm mediocre/bad at. Grrrr...

Curses!