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

[Chukchi Husky]

But when some of the bugs can completely break the main quest....

I experience a bug in Skyrim caused by Dawnguard where the game crashed when entering a section of the game world, the only way to fix it was to start a new character. I've heard this bug called online a Bermuda triangle. When playing Fallout 3 I've encountered a bug that made finishing the main quest impossible except through the use of console commands and at least two of the DLC don't work. To them, the only bug that exists in Skyrim is that a dragon may fly backwards and they've never encountered bugs in other Bethesda games.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I've heard it said that playing a game with mods, including unofficial patches, goes against the developer's intent and that it shows the stupidity of PC gamers that they exaggerate bugs and then complain and try to fix the bugs instead of just enjoying the games. They also mentioned that Bethesda games play far better on consoles.

I've heard that as well. I think its complete rubbish and that being able to adapt a game to suit ones own taste is a bonus.
Its also absolute rubbish with Bethesda as they provide tools to support mod making so its absolutely not against Bethesdas intent.

 

[H4run]

I experience a bug in Skyrim caused by Dawnguard where the game crashed when entering a section of the game world, the only way to fix it was to start a new character.

Pass Morrowind, mods is a must for me to play Elder Scrolls' game. Even my enjoyment playing Morrowind in my last play-through, would not be completed if it's not because of overhaul graphic mod. And I finished all the main quest+DLC with the overhaul mods.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Ok so using the Scroll of Icaran Flight to try to quickly get from one canton in to another without using the bridges in Vivec City wasn't such a great idea.

I don't know how to get down off the roof without dying....

 

[H4run]

I don't know how to get down off the roof without dying....

There is a way. Either use the same scroll again to manipulate the gravitation before you land, or IIRC there is a scroll called something like slow-fall, it's to soften the fall.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I managed to get down by being very careful so I landed on a pillar instead of splatting on the balcony.

 

[cardgame]

A Germany that produces naval bombers can sink the entire British Navy within one year, especially if supported by submarines. Damage their ships slightly, then activate port strikes while they're in repair docks. Naval Bombers are honestly broken.

 

[Takhisis]

What game is that, cardgame?

 

[cardgame]

HOI4

in my limited experience the only fighters that UK sends into the air will be to protect their island, not their navy, so the only interceptors you get bothered by are carrier air groups, which you should outnumber easily with your bombers, don't even need any escort. Just fly your own fighters into their island to keep them busy... or over France/lowlands because the RAF can get kind of aggressive.

 

[Synobun]

Air and naval supremacy was one thing I never figured out in HOI4. Eventually I just cheat-spammed the planes, but the boats remained an enigma.

 

[Ajidica]

I've heard it said that playing a game with mods, including unofficial patches, goes against the developer's intent and that it shows the stupidity of PC gamers that they exaggerate bugs and then complain and try to fix the bugs instead of just enjoying the games.

And you call tell then to screw developer intent, I paid my $20 on sale and I do what I want with the game. If I want to replace all the dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine, Macho Man Randy Savage, or turn all the mudcrabs into Zoidberg, that's my choice.

They also mentioned that Bethesda games play far better on consoles.

Have they ever played a Bethesda game on console? It was so bad on the PS3 it was nicknames Lagrim, and was so unstable it couldn't support the Hearthfire DLC.

 

[Phrossack]

HOI4

in my limited experience the only fighters that UK sends into the air will be to protect their island, not their navy, so the only interceptors you get bothered by are carrier air groups, which you should outnumber easily with your bombers, don't even need any escort. Just fly your own fighters into their island to keep them busy... or over France/lowlands because the RAF can get kind of aggressive.

Sometimes I have half a mind to eventually try it out, but the more I hear about HoI4, the more it sounds like the Mad Libs version of WWII!

 

[cardgame]

Well it definitely can be when you only play with cheats turned on, like I do. I have one game in progress that has none, but I forgot which save file it is lol

I give myself 4000 PP at game start so I can set up all my government positions/industry boosts and XP so I can design planes and tanks that aren't crap, plus a tiny bit of manpower depending on what country I play so I'm not sitting at 0

 

[Quintillus]

Playing more Doom. Finished two missions in Episode Two tonight. The par times are insane... but I suppose once you really know the levels, achievable.

Hint on this: naval bombers can be used to utterly decimate navies that operate within their range.
They are much stronger than jet tactical bombers or CAS at destroying ships.

I have mounted multiple large-scale amphibious operations using Naval bombers to destroy the enemy navy and then supporting my landings with my own relatively pathetic, submarine-heavy naval forces.

I've been realizing their value... alas, after the war started, which means I didn't build enough of them, and they're currently the one type of plane which I have a shortage of. They did a good job of putting a dent in the Royal Navy around Denmark, but anti-air has taken enough of that we're about 20% below strength on those air divisions currently, and not yet producing enough to be gaining planes. But it should come with time.

As for the naval forces, while I do have dozens of subs, I went with a mix of subs and heavy forces in part for role playing reasons; what's the Imperial Navy without half a dozen battleships? It probably would have been a disaster had the war started in 1939, but since it took until 1943, and Italy wore down the British a bit, it's been okay. I have two fleets of 30 ships, not counting reserves, including 4 capital each (six battleships and two aircraft carriers), and with naval air support, the Second Battle of Jutland proved inclusive. The British lost more ships, including a couple battlecruisers, although for now we haven't dared sail outside of the Baltic and North Seas So we may be fighting the Kaiser's last war, but at least if we win, we'll have a blue water fleet worthy of replacing the British one.

 

[tjs282]

But yeah, given the right conditions, if you're planning to go for SoZ, you would have monopolised ivory one way or another early on to ensure you don't get beaten to it.

Wasn't possible here, because there were 3 clumps of Ivory on our continent (Large map): I got one, the second was some way south of the Persepolean Mountains and (temporarily) colonised by the Zulus/Dutch (until I stole it from both of them!), but the third was deep in Summie territory, a long way behind their nearest border.

And picking a fight with an opponent that you do not have a solid plan for and certain odds of beating would also be considered sub-optimal.

Well, I did have a plan: I 'only' had to take 3 Summie towns, including the Horse-town (which was also a chokepoint), to get those Horses, and then I could have thrown every unit I owned in there, so forcing Gil to come by sea on his next attack.

After beating on the Zulus, I did have a fairly decent GA-built Immortal-stack (and more coming), and Cats + Pikes to go with it, so that didn't seem impossible. And in my defence, most of my "early" wars at Emp are (necessarily) declared from a position of weakness.

Where I went wrong was pushing forwards too early and — as it turned out — just as the Summies got Chivalry

So while I was expecting my A=4 Immortals to face D=3 Pikes in the towns, I didn't reckon on facing them in the field as well — but by that point it was too late to back down ("The Sumerians refused to receive our envoy!"), before I'd taken my beating.

I'm not as patient as you were and would have quit once I wasted hammers on SoZ. That's just difficult to recover from on Emperor and above.

I can't remember exactly, but I think I turned those shields into my FP instead (also 200 shields). So it wasn't a complete waste.

I usually only quit/restart when it's clear that a game has become unwinnable (like, my Spears are getting mown down by Cavs/Tanks!).

Although I must admit that I felt like quitting when Persepolis fell, my Palace didn't move very far (and also not to my FP-city, thankfully!). And Gil also apparently thought that loss meant he could afford to be magnanimous in victory, and signed a peace treaty shortly afterwards. His mistake: my proud Persian folk hold grudges, and have long memories...

 

[Lexicus]

Air and naval supremacy was one thing I never figured out in HOI4. Eventually I just cheat-spammed the planes, but the boats remained an enigma.

What was the problem specifically? I've found naval supremacy somewhat easy to work with, you just have to whittle down enemy fleets enough to get above the amphibious-landing threshold (which I don't remember at the moment). Air supremacy can be annoying because while the game was allegedly patched so that "you shouldn't need so many fighters to establish air supremacy" the AI still seems to have a habit of basically dumping all its planes into one air region.

I've been realizing their value... alas, after the war started, which means I didn't build enough of them, and they're currently the one type of plane which I have a shortage of. They did a good job of putting a dent in the Royal Navy around Denmark, but anti-air has taken enough of that we're about 20% below strength on those air divisions currently, and not yet producing enough to be gaining planes. But it should come with time.

I feel that. I tend to play HOI4 with a "slow and steady wins the race" philosophy - that's actually one problem with the game, there's no particular hurry even as Nazi Germany and Japan. Being thorough is more important than being fast- I've screwed up games as Nazi Germany by just missing British landings on the Baltic coast because I had tunnel vision on the eastern front because I'm like "just beat the Soviets asap", but I've never screwed up a game where I took the time to guard the ports properly.

Anyway, it means that even if it takes a couple years to build up naval bombers and I don't win the war until 1947, I'm fine with it.

The one exception to the above is playing Communist China, where you need to expand as quickly as possible starting immediately (I don't take a national focus at first, to get the PP to justify war faster) to have any kind of chance of helping hold off Japan.

 

[Lexicus]

They also mentioned that Bethesda games play far better on consoles.

Having played Skyrim on the xbox and the PC I can tell you unambiguously that the PC was far better

 

[amadeus]

I had that console before the snes, before my house got rob and so the console gone. I mostly play a platform game there. But as a console, snes is still the best console ever, follow up with ps1, those were the days.

The two consoles were released two years apart so I don't want to pick them based just on their technical specifications; the really important thing to me is ultimately the games library, and I would agree that Nintendo had the better of the two. Sega had some great titles, but they also had a lot more mediocre games and some big clunkers compared to Nintendo.

I never got into the PlayStation. Everything seemed like a step down looking at it from my perspective at the time.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Have they ever played a Bethesda game on console? It was so bad on the PS3 it was nicknames Lagrim, and was so unstable it couldn't support the Hearthfire DLC.

They've played Oblivion and Skyrim on the Xbox 360 and say it's a lot better than on the PC because those games were developed for the Xbox 360 then ported over to the PC. They also say that all games are better on consoles than on PC for many reasons, including that consoles are far more efficient than PCs and that it's better to play a game with a controller on a TV than next to a computer screen.

They also say that there are far better games of that style, including Metal Gear Solid.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My Morrowind character has excellent fashion sense.

Matching armour? What's that?