Random Rants ΠΑ: That's a paddlin'

[AdamCrock]

You're right . Stardock tends to be a bit messy with their engine. Their original game when it was called "Elemental" had like a whole colony of bugs, which they tried to eliminate by adding something that turned out unnecessary later on and accumulated quite a lot of "garbage" this way.

 

[Takhisis]

I don't think I've ever had any Stardock software installed on any of my rigs, but thanks for the headsup, Tim.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I looked up Stardock on Wikipedia. Apparently they tried to do games-as-a-service:

Having developed Stardock Central to digitally distribute its own PC titles, the company launched a service called Drengin.net in summer 2003. The original idea was that users would pay a yearly subscription fee and receive new titles as they became available.

 

[Takhisis]

Why are we killing each other?

It's only fake killing. It's an online thread-based roleplaying game.

It's still mean!

I missed this earlier.

It's fake characters, just as playing a multiplayer shooting game.
Or the way you treat your Sims.

 

[Synobun]

I don't need to roleplay. Just being who I am as a person will be enough to get me mob-justice'd in the first week.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Or the way you treat your Sims.

I don't treat them that badly, do I?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't need to roleplay. Just being who I am as a person will be enough to get me mob-justice'd in the first week.

You? I figure I'm done for in the first pass myself.

I don't think I've ever had any Stardock software installed on any of my rigs, but thanks for the headsup, Tim.

The most terrible travesty of Stardock is that they have a number of really great games and continued producing them even as they attempted, and failed, to be Valve. The aforementioned Stardock Central was the exact same sort of DRM disguised as digital distribution that Valve coughed up and called Steam. But Stardock didn't have a guaranteed blockbuster like Half-Life 2 in hand so they failed despite continuing to pump more and more pretty good games into their "it's not DRM, really, it just seems like it" mill while Valve immediately had the customer base to allow them to pretty much quit making games and just sell DRM. Now their older games are littered with all the old Stardock Central DRM hooks and that can cause issues. I should have known to immediately clean up after the install, but it's been a while.

However...

Galactic Civilizations is a great series, though with GCIII the "hey someone else found a way to monetize, lets try this selling endless DLC for ourselves" took root, as could only be expected from Stardock. GCII is on GoG and well worth picking up in a sale.

 

[Takhisis]

The most terrible travesty of Stardock is that they have a number of really great games and continued producing them even as they attempted, and failed, to be Valve. The aforementioned Stardock Central was the exact same sort of DRM disguised as digital distribution that Valve coughed up and called Steam. But Stardock didn't have a guaranteed blockbuster like Half-Life 2 in hand so they failed despite continuing to pump more and more pretty good games into their "it's not DRM, really, it just seems like it" mill while Valve immediately had the customer base to allow them to pretty much quit making games and just sell DRM. Now their older games are littered with all the old Stardock Central DRM hooks and that can cause issues. I should have known to immediately clean up after the install, but it's been a while.

I see. Mental note: Stardock - stay away.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I see. Mental note: Stardock - stay away.

If only I could have that effect when I talk about Steam, which IMO is worse than anything Stardock ever did...not for lack of effort on their part, admittedly, but still.

 

[Synobun]

The only Stardock title that I consciously know of is Sins of a Solar Empire. Great game, no complaints.

But I play it through Steam.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The only Stardock title that I consciously know of is Sins of a Solar Empire. Great game, no complaints.

But I play it through Steam.

I have that in my GoG library and had it installed on my last previous gaming machine, but I never really got into it enough to have an opinion. Fallen Enchantress, so far seems really good, but it's early yet. As I said, Galactic Civilizations II is great, and for a long time was my "goto" for Civ in space. I tilt more towards Distant Worlds nowadays though.

 

[Synobun]

It's good for 10-20 hours of fun every few years.

 

[tjs282]

With any luck, my wife has had some time this afternoon to get this sorted out. But likely with some frazzling...

Can this get any better?

Vodafone have now remotely activated our WLAN. But they didn't tell us what the new(?) password(s) is, so we still can't connect our devices to it.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I have that in my GoG library and had it installed on my last previous gaming machine, but I never really got into it enough to have an opinion. Fallen Enchantress, so far seems really good, but it's early yet. As I said, Galactic Civilizations II is great, and for a long time was my "goto" for Civ in space. I tilt more towards Distant Worlds nowadays though.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a lot of fun.

Rant:
The bed risers makes the bed too tall for the dog to jump on so now he sits next to the bed and cries until I pick him up. I don't want him on the bed in the first place but we've been through this before and his capacity to cry far outpaces our capacity to go without sleep so he always breaks us in the end. We even put a stool next to the bed for him to use but he's too dumb to use it even with us showing him how to.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Sins of a Solar Empire is a lot of fun.

Rant:
The bed risers makes the bed too tall for the dog to jump on so now he sits next to the bed and cries until I pick him up. I don't want him on the bed in the first place but we've been through this before and his capacity to cry far outpaces our capacity to go without sleep so he always breaks us in the end. We even put a stool next to the bed for him to use but he's too dumb to use it even with us showing him how to.

Video footage or it didn't happen.

Not really doubting you here, I just think watching you crawling onto a stool and then onto the bed would be hilarious.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Rant:
The bed risers makes the bed too tall for the dog to jump on so now he sits next to the bed and cries until I pick him up. I don't want him on the bed in the first place but we've been through this before and his capacity to cry far outpaces our capacity to go without sleep so he always breaks us in the end. We even put a stool next to the bed for him to use but he's too dumb to use it even with us showing him how to.

Trade him in for a cat and stop all that silliness.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I strongly dislike cats, sorry.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I strongly dislike cats, sorry.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I strongly dislike cats, sorry.

Only a dog person would say something like this, because their experience with dogs makes them think that the cat in any way shape or form gives a damn whether you like them or not.

 

[Synobun]

Only a dog person would say something like this, because their experience with dogs makes them think that the cat in any way shape or form gives a damn whether you like them or not.

Hobbs doesn't like his dog either.