Yep, and the syrup gives you a liquid/water boost in addition to the food boost... you can also use them to make delicious pie for even greater food boosts
What video games have you been playing? ΚΔ (24)? More like ΚΔ,Ζ,ΤΞΕ!
- Thread starter Kyriakos
- Start date
Synobun
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2006
- Messages
- 24,896
I've somehow never actually played any of the Tiberian Sun games, so when all the C&C games were on mega sale early this year for 90% off, I got everything under the sun on Steam. I played the first Red Alert when it was remastered, so there was no real point in rehashing the old version of it. I finally got around to playing through Tiberian Sun, which went pretty well. I'm onto the expansion pack, Firestorm, though, and it's a buggy wreck. Every single mission thus far has gotten at least one can't-progress-further bug, and it's annoying to constantly reload. Especially since this is pre-auto saves.
Multiplayer wise, still playing Warzone and Hunt: Showdown. Warzone grates on my nerves now and I only play it because my friends do. Hunt recently changed its matchmaking system which has put my team in terrible lobbies repeatedly. One of my friends is really bad at the game, so her rank is far below mine and our other friend. The new matchmaking system intentionally ignores her ranking and only bases the lobby skill level on us, the higher levels, so we're effectively playing above our skill ceiling and at a disadvantage. What fun!
Multiplayer wise, still playing Warzone and Hunt: Showdown. Warzone grates on my nerves now and I only play it because my friends do. Hunt recently changed its matchmaking system which has put my team in terrible lobbies repeatedly. One of my friends is really bad at the game, so her rank is far below mine and our other friend. The new matchmaking system intentionally ignores her ranking and only bases the lobby skill level on us, the higher levels, so we're effectively playing above our skill ceiling and at a disadvantage. What fun!
EgonSpengler
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2014
- Messages
- 12,260
The Long Dark: Challenge - Hopeless Rescue, 3 days left
I finally made it to the Summit of Timberwolf Mountain!
I'd like to pretend that I opted for the secluded shelf climb to the cave bypass to avoid the northern route blocked by the bear... unfortunately it was really just dumb luck. My save-load put me on the side of the cliff where I last got lost, because of the sprained ankle, which of course created an injury-autosave... as an aside, which is another nasty little difficulty enhancement of the game... it irrevocably autosaves anytime you get seriously injured, so that you can't scum-load back to safety before you were injured. Anyway, I got lost again and wandering around, I saw the bears paw-tracks crossing my path and going in the same direction I was going. So I realized I had to go in a different direction to avoid getting mauled. So I went the other way and ran smack into the rope/cliff leading to the "Secluded Shelf" location.
However, by the time I got there I was too tired to climb, so I had to either look for a cave to sleep, or make like a Space Marine and stim... soooo you know what I picked. Once I got to the top I entered the cave and made my way through, exhausted, to the other side and then stim-pack'd again to climb the second rope to the Summit.
So I get to the Summit, all twitchy off of stims, and I got the achievement for finally making it to the Summit, but unfortunately, the weather was all foggy and overcast, so I didn't get to enjoy a nice view. So I just ran to the plane and grabbed the flare gun and shells and was going to try to head back down right away while I was still stimmed, but then a storm set in. I tried to rest through it, but then it turned to a blizzard and got colder, so I had to make a fire and try to sleep through it. Which meant cutting up a bunch of crates...holy motherload of canned goods!
Every crate I broke up was hiding two or three cans of peaches, so I burned all the wood and cooked those up... then it occurred to me, since I had to wait out the blizzard anyway, and I had a hacksaw, I might as well use the time to inspect the shipping containers...
W. T. F.??
I'm embarrassed to admitthat since I'd never actually climbed Timberwolf Mountain before, I had no idea about the shipping containers in the plane. It's like Christmas for a family of 10 in there... a rich family of 10... food, drinks, clothes, coats, hats, boots, tools, guns, ammo, drugs, all high-quality, more than you could ever hope to use or even carry... It's beyond belief how much loot is there... I actually gave up after opening like 4 compartments, leaving most of the rest unopened because it was so ridiculous, I literally couldn't even move anymore because I was so far over max weight. I put most of it back in a container and took a nap to let the blizzard end.
Needless to say, I'll be coming back here on my next survival run.
It's definitely worth staying a while and exploring the region on your next Survival run (not in Hopeless Rescue, obviously). It's also how you get to Ash Canyon, which is worth checking out, provided you don't have severe vertigo. The amount of stuff you find does scale with the difficulty level, but The Summit is still The Motherlode, regardless. It's also just fun getting up there, and as you say, there's a great view from the top. I often camp up there for a few days, and it usually takes me 2 or 3 trips to bring everything I want back down to the cabin. I don't think I've ever bothered to clean it out, but you could turn the cabin into an REI or North Face store if you wanted. I do recommend bringing a hacksaw. You can often find one in one of the wooden crates inside the plane, but it's not guaranteed. Something a lot of people - including myself - don't immediately realize is that (mild spoiler) there are 2 compartments to open in each airline storage container.
EgonSpengler
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2014
- Messages
- 12,260
The Long Dark: Tales from the Far Territory
I've found that the new 'cheat death' mechanic - which I'm still philosophically opposed to - has changed the gameplay slightly, in an interesting way: I'm preparing more and better 'safehouses' in regions before I leave them, even if those I have no intention of returning to. Initially, this was accidental. Simply because of my self-imposed 30-day rule, I found myself with some extra time on my hands after I'd fully explored Desolation Point and Coastal Highway. When in previous runs I would have just moved on, I started stockpiling things that I knew I wasn't going to take with me when I did finally leave. But I've been watching some videos about Cheating Death, and it turns out that leaving stockpiles behind is actually solid planning. From a roleplaying perspective, we can tell ourselves we're doing this to provide for any other survivors we didn't run across, who might stumble into one of the big, central buildings after we've gone. (For those who haven't played the game, or haven't played Survival Mode yet, there are no other survivors. We're all alone. We know this. But from an RP'ing perspective, our characters don't know it, and are keeping hope alive that they might find someone somewhere.)
Anyway, when you choose to Cheat Death, you can choose to either respawn in a dangerous location near where you (nearly) died or in a safe location far from where you (nearly) died. If you choose to respawn near where you died, it will likely be outside, and it will likely be right in the middle of the same conditions that killed you. In other words, you're likely to die all over again. If you choose to respawn far away, you'll respawn in a safe spot, likely an indoor location.
But when they say 'far away' they mean far away. A couple of the vids I looked at on YouTube suggested that if you choose the "distant, but safe" location, you'll respawn at least one whole region away, possibly two. So if you die in Mystery Lake and choose to respawn in a distant-but-safe location, you'll arrive in an indoor location in Mountain Town, Forlorn Muskeg, Bleak Inlet, Coastal Highway, or Pleasant Valley, with a small chance to respawn in Broken Railroad, Hushed River Valley, Blackrock, Timberwolf Mountain, or Desolation Point.
I don't know whether the respawn points are the same as the spawn points for starting a new game, or whether a "safe, indoor" location includes caves, or whether you can respawn in the smaller areas like Winding River or Transfer Pass. I also don't know if you might respawn into a Region you haven't even been to yet (on that run), or if it will only relocate you to a Region you've already visited. One guy respawned inside the Bleak Inlet machine shop, which he hadn't unlocked yet, so he was imediately attacked by the wolf and then couldn't get out.
That was obviously a bug, which they've since corrected, but his misfortune made me laugh and made me feel better about the way my last run ended. (I don't like schadenfruede irl, but in a game that's supposed to try to kill you, I'm okay with it.)
Regardless of whether you choose to respawn nearby in a risky spot or far away in a safe spot, you'll have almost nothing on you. You might even respawn with less gear than you have when you first start a new game*. Choosing the risky-but-nearby respawn is probably going to be a bad idea 9 times out of 10, because you'll probably just respawn into the same conditions that nearly killed you the first time. So keeping well-stocked safehouses in every region will be vital to using Cheat Death properly. In the case of large zones, two safehouses probably isn't the worst idea. I'll be leaving substantial amounts of gear at both Thomson's Crossing and the farmhouse in Pleasant Valley, for example. And not just the large zones, but the zones that are tricky, for whatever reason. I think Ash Canyon will demand two stocked safehouses, just on the off chance I ever have to respawn there, because it's so hard to get around.
(The main reason to risk a respawn near where you died is that much of the gear you had on you when you Cheated Death will appear in a backpack on the ground, somewhere near where you nearly died. It will appear on your map. So if you nearly died to something that won't just kill you again as soon as you respawn, a nearby respawn could be the right choice. For example, if you pushed your luck too far on some thin ice and fell through, but conditions were otherwise fine.)
* This will be especially dangerous at Interloper, because of the gradually deteriorating environmental conditions at that difficulty level. On Day 1 of a new Interloper run, the weather is quite nice. When you Cheat Death on Day 100 of an Interloper run, you'll be respawning with almost nothing on Day 100 of an Interloper run. If you haven't prepared in advance, you'll just be dead all over again.
I've found that the new 'cheat death' mechanic - which I'm still philosophically opposed to - has changed the gameplay slightly, in an interesting way: I'm preparing more and better 'safehouses' in regions before I leave them, even if those I have no intention of returning to. Initially, this was accidental. Simply because of my self-imposed 30-day rule, I found myself with some extra time on my hands after I'd fully explored Desolation Point and Coastal Highway. When in previous runs I would have just moved on, I started stockpiling things that I knew I wasn't going to take with me when I did finally leave. But I've been watching some videos about Cheating Death, and it turns out that leaving stockpiles behind is actually solid planning. From a roleplaying perspective, we can tell ourselves we're doing this to provide for any other survivors we didn't run across, who might stumble into one of the big, central buildings after we've gone. (For those who haven't played the game, or haven't played Survival Mode yet, there are no other survivors. We're all alone. We know this. But from an RP'ing perspective, our characters don't know it, and are keeping hope alive that they might find someone somewhere.)
Anyway, when you choose to Cheat Death, you can choose to either respawn in a dangerous location near where you (nearly) died or in a safe location far from where you (nearly) died. If you choose to respawn near where you died, it will likely be outside, and it will likely be right in the middle of the same conditions that killed you. In other words, you're likely to die all over again. If you choose to respawn far away, you'll respawn in a safe spot, likely an indoor location.
But when they say 'far away' they mean far away. A couple of the vids I looked at on YouTube suggested that if you choose the "distant, but safe" location, you'll respawn at least one whole region away, possibly two. So if you die in Mystery Lake and choose to respawn in a distant-but-safe location, you'll arrive in an indoor location in Mountain Town, Forlorn Muskeg, Bleak Inlet, Coastal Highway, or Pleasant Valley, with a small chance to respawn in Broken Railroad, Hushed River Valley, Blackrock, Timberwolf Mountain, or Desolation Point.
I don't know whether the respawn points are the same as the spawn points for starting a new game, or whether a "safe, indoor" location includes caves, or whether you can respawn in the smaller areas like Winding River or Transfer Pass. I also don't know if you might respawn into a Region you haven't even been to yet (on that run), or if it will only relocate you to a Region you've already visited. One guy respawned inside the Bleak Inlet machine shop, which he hadn't unlocked yet, so he was imediately attacked by the wolf and then couldn't get out.
That was obviously a bug, which they've since corrected, but his misfortune made me laugh and made me feel better about the way my last run ended. (I don't like schadenfruede irl, but in a game that's supposed to try to kill you, I'm okay with it.)Regardless of whether you choose to respawn nearby in a risky spot or far away in a safe spot, you'll have almost nothing on you. You might even respawn with less gear than you have when you first start a new game*. Choosing the risky-but-nearby respawn is probably going to be a bad idea 9 times out of 10, because you'll probably just respawn into the same conditions that nearly killed you the first time. So keeping well-stocked safehouses in every region will be vital to using Cheat Death properly. In the case of large zones, two safehouses probably isn't the worst idea. I'll be leaving substantial amounts of gear at both Thomson's Crossing and the farmhouse in Pleasant Valley, for example. And not just the large zones, but the zones that are tricky, for whatever reason. I think Ash Canyon will demand two stocked safehouses, just on the off chance I ever have to respawn there, because it's so hard to get around.
(The main reason to risk a respawn near where you died is that much of the gear you had on you when you Cheated Death will appear in a backpack on the ground, somewhere near where you nearly died. It will appear on your map. So if you nearly died to something that won't just kill you again as soon as you respawn, a nearby respawn could be the right choice. For example, if you pushed your luck too far on some thin ice and fell through, but conditions were otherwise fine.)
* This will be especially dangerous at Interloper, because of the gradually deteriorating environmental conditions at that difficulty level. On Day 1 of a new Interloper run, the weather is quite nice. When you Cheat Death on Day 100 of an Interloper run, you'll be respawning with almost nothing on Day 100 of an Interloper run. If you haven't prepared in advance, you'll just be dead all over again.
Last edited:
The way the 'cheat-death' mechanic seems to work, based on this description... is pretty similar to just starting over, since you lose all your achievement progress when you elect to use a 'cheat death' continue anyway. As you say, if you choose to respawn nearby, it seems you're very likely to just die again pretty quickly, so using the 'cheat death' option to continue would be pointless. On the other hand, if you are stripped of all your gear and all your achievement progress is lost... that's pretty much the same thing as just starting over with a new game, but actually worse, because all the locations that you had already looted are still looted so you can't get anything there like you could have if you just start over from scratch.The Long Dark: Tales from the Far Territory
I've found that the new 'cheat death' mechanic - which I'm still philosophically opposed to - has changed the gameplay slightly, in an interesting way: I'm preparing more and better 'safehouses' in regions before I leave them, even if those I have no intention of returning to. Initially, this was accidental. Simply because of my self-imposed 30-day rule, I found myself with some extra time on my hands after I'd fully explored Desolation Point and Coastal Highway. When in previous runs I would have just moved on, I started stockpiling things that I knew I wasn't going to take with me when I did finally leave. But I've been watching some videos about Cheating Death, and it turns out that leaving stockpiles behind is actually solid planning. From a roleplaying perspective, we can tell ourselves we're doing this to provide for any other survivors we didn't run across, who might stumble into one of the big, central buildings after we've gone. (For those who haven't played the game, or haven't played Survival Mode yet, there are no other survivors. We're all alone. We know this. But from an RP'ing perspective, our characters don't know it, and are keeping hope alive that they might find someone somewhere.)
Anyway, when you choose to Cheat Death, you can choose to either respawn in a dangerous location near where you (nearly) died or in a safe location far from where you (nearly) died. If you choose to respawn near where you died, it will likely be outside, and it will likely be right in the middle of the same conditions that killed you. In other words, you're likely to die all over again. If you choose to respawn far away, you'll respawn in a safe spot, likely an indoor location.
But when they say 'far away' they mean far away. A couple of the vids I looked at on YouTube suggested that if you choose the "distant, but safe" location, you'll respawn at least one whole region away, possibly two. So if you die in Mystery Lake and choose to respawn in a distant-but-safe location, you'll arrive in an indoor location in Mountain Town, Forlorn Muskeg, Bleak Inlet, Coastal Highway, or Pleasant Valley, with a small chance to respawn in Broken Railroad, Hushed River Valley, Blackrock, Timberwolf Mountain, or Desolation Point.
I don't know whether the respawn points are the same as the spawn points for starting a new game, or whether a "safe, indoor" location includes caves, or whether you can respawn in the smaller areas like Winding River or Transfer Pass. I also don't know if you might respawn into a Region you haven't even been to yet (on that run), or if it will only relocate you to a Region you've already visited. One guy respawned inside the Bleak Inlet machine shop, which he hadn't unlocked yet, so he was imediately attacked by the wolf and then couldn't get out.
Regardless of whether you choose to respawn nearby in a risky spot or far away in a safe spot, you'll have almost nothing on you. You might even respawn with less gear than you have when you first start a new game*. Choosing the risky-but-nearby respawn is probably going to be a bad idea 9 times out of 10, because you'll probably just respawn into the same conditions that nearly killed you the first time. So keeping well-stocked safehouses in every region will be vital to using Cheat Death properly. In the case of large zones, two safehouses probably isn't the worst idea. I'll be leaving substantial amounts of gear at both Thomson's Crossing and the farmhouse in Pleasant Valley, for example. And not just the large zones, but the zones that are tricky, for whatever reason. I think Ash Canyon will demand two stocked safehouses, just on the off chance I ever have to respawn there, because it's so hard to get around.
(The main reason to risk a respawn near where you died is that much of the gear you had on you when you Cheated Death will appear in a backpack on the ground, somewhere near where you nearly died. It will appear on your map. So if you nearly died to something that won't just kill you again as soon as you respawn, a nearby respawn could be the right choice. For example, if you pushed your luck too far on some thin ice and fell through, but conditions were otherwise fine.)
* This will be especially dangerous at Interloper, because of the gradually deteriorating environmental conditions at that difficulty level. On Day 1 of a new Interloper run, the weather is quite nice. When you Cheat Death on Day 100 of an Interloper run, you'll be respawning with almost nothing on Day 100 of an Interloper run. If you haven't prepared in advance, you'll just be dead all over again.
I guess one big difference is that presumably, you'd get to keep all your skill progress, so if you had level 5 cooking or fire-starting you would retain that. You could also theoretically find your backpack and of course you would be able to return to the safehouses that you'd already stocked... but the whole point of stocked safehouses is that you've looted everything around already. If all the loot is reset, you don't need stocked safehouses yet, because foraging is still optimal.
If you do end up using 'cheat death' I would love to hear your experience with it, because as I've said, I screwed up my first opportunity to try it, by testing whether scum-quit/load was disabled (it was).
EgonSpengler
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2014
- Messages
- 12,260
Another reason I can think of to Cheat Death would be if you were in the middle of doing one of the Tales, especially if you've completed it before and you're only doing it again to get the reward at the end.
If I get killed on this run before I reach 500 days, I'll try Cheating Death, mostly just to see what happens and how it works. Having my progress toward the 500-day achievement restarted would suck, but if I'm close to getting all of my skills to Level-5, I might keep playing until I get that achievement and then restart at Interloper. I would be playing at Interloper now, but I don't know if you can get the firearm skills to Level-5 just from reading books. That's a mistake I made on my last run. I was very close to getting all of my skills to Level-5; I could've kept playing just long enough to do that, and then started over at Interloper instead of doing Stalker again. But that didn't occur to me until it was too late. Oh well.
I find that what bugs me the most about Interloper isn't even the complete lack of rifles or pistols, its the empty cabinets/drawers/containers. It's such a bummer to search entire kitchens and find 1 piece of cloth, or nothing at all. I like the crafting and repairing and foraging... it just wears me down opening and searching container after container to find absolutely nothing in them... but then I'll get a nagging feeling if I don't still look everywhere, even knowing that I'm probably not going to find anything... so it ends up feeling like a huge waste of time.
I forget how specific you can be in tweaking the loot spawns in custom mode. I think maybe I'd like for the spawns for tools and clothes to be more rare, but for the food spawns to be the same as the are on Stalker. The rate of food spawning in Stalker is about perfect for my taste (pun intended
), lots of empty cabinets, but you still find lots of stuff if you search thoroughly. What I like about being able to find food, is that you get a little bit of time to get your hunting/fishing implements stocked. Otherwise, I end up throwing rocks at rabbits all day, until I have enough to make traps... which can be a little tedious, because it forces you to settle somewhere that has plentiful rabbit spawns (like Trapper's Cabin).EDIT: But now that I know about Timberwolf Mountain...
maybe that can be a game changer on Interloper 
Patch Notes fort POE's new league have been released! Pretty awesome changes overall and to melee.
www.pathofexile.com
Patch Notes - Content Update 3.25.0 -- Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.
www.pathofexile.com
Decided to subscribe to EA Play so I can try out SimCity (2013). SimCity is a special franchise to me: SimCity 2000 was literally the first PC game I ever played, and I played it and SimCity 3000 obsessively for years. Still play SimCity 3000 from time to time. (SimCity 4 was too much for my system at the time, so I never got into it the way I did the earlier games.) Anyway, there are bits I like -- the use of Sims 3 sims for the advisors and the like -- but it's not seducing me at the moment. I was threatened with bankruptcy on my first day, which seems a trifle dramatic.
Tell me about it. I've been playing Cities Skylines for years. SimCity Societies didn't help, of course.
Played the Let's School demo. It's...cute. I really like the aesthetic, a lot more than other simulation games like Prison Architect.
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,280
Threatened with bankruptcy on the first day? Clearly, your predecessor had not been running the place well! No wonder they elected you as the next mayor!
But yeah, I saw that they eventually fixed several of the complaints about Sim City 5, notably that it runs offline now, although not the city sizes being small. I'll be curious to hear whether it eventually draws you in or not.
I've started a single-player campaign of Macedon II: Total War, also known as playing Macedon in Rome II. I'd always played Rome, who would have guessed based on my avatar? But I had tried Rome Total War: Alexander, the expansion to the first game, and have been on a Philip II/Alexander III of Macedon historical kick recently. RTW:Alexander is not the most stable, and Alexander must survive, despite being no more durable than any other general, which means he usually dies about the second time his unit is used in battle. You'd think he'd have commissioned a better suit of armor, being so powerful. At any rate, Macedon II has an interesting setup, Macedon is of course not the well-oil war machine that Philip II historically left his son, dominant in southeastern Europe and poised to spring into Asia Minor. Instead, it's 272 BC, and Antigonas II Gonatus has recently reclaimed his lands from Pyrrhus of Epirus. Yes, that Pyrrhus of Epirus, who had recently returned home from Italy with large debts and a sizeable army. How best to pay off his debts? Why, by conquering Macedon. Which he largely did, leaving Antigonas in charge of only the more provincial areas. Then, Pyrrhus declared war on Sparta, at the invitation of the pretender Cleonymus.
Antigonas, with a weakened army, hastened to Sparta, where his troops helped the local garrison hold out until the main Spartan army returned from Crete. Pyrrhus eventually retreated and pillaged the countryside, before both he and Antigonas took up positions by the second-most-powerful town in the Pelopponese, Argos. The Argives sought to remain neutral; Antigonas agreed and guaranteed his neutrality by placing his son as a hostage. Pyrrhus verbally agreed, but betrayed his word, invading the city in the middle of the night. The Argives urged Antigonas to help them, which he did, and Pyrrhus's army was delayed by their elephants getting stuck in the town gates (large elephants, small gates. An advantage of the more traditional horses). In the melee, Pyrrhus was killed by an old woman, who threw a ceramic tile at him from a rooftop, knocking him from his horse and paralyzing him. This would enable Antigonas to reclaim Macedon, but not end the conflicts with Epirus, as Pyrrhus's successor, Alexander II, would renew his father's external struggles.
----
And that's just the historical setup. Oh yeah, and Macedon also starts off at war with Tylis, the Gaullic tribe that lives in southeastern Thrace, including the area nearest the Bosporus.
So, I take over, and at the time, Sparta is a defensive ally, with Athens being a client state. I go about fighting Tylis, whom Antigonas had already defeated once, prior to the game's start, but only to the degree of preventing Macedon from falling to them. They prove to be a worthy foe; I conquer their capital, but their remaining army conquers northern Macedon (modern Plovdic, Bulgaria), so I have to go back and retake Pulpadeva, which also had rebel problems. This takes us to about 259 BC, thirteen years into the game.
Meanwhile, Sparta has called me to arms against Epirus. I decide to be honourable and answer the call, and while my armies are still in the tussle with Tylis, Epirus briefly besieges our capital of Pella, although they soon retreat. Why? Because Sparta is on a rampage. Sparta didn't need my help, other than perhaps as a distraction; they conquer all of Epirus, including the lands formerly of the Ardiaei, in southeastern Illyria. To the contrary, Sparta has at some point ended our defensive alliance (I missed the notification), and has decided that it's time to overthrow the Macedonian oppressors once and for all. And they convince Athens to join them as well.
So now it's on, and the year is circa 254 BC.
Antigonas II leads an army south, and takes Larissa, in northern Greece, from Sparta. Sparta marches an army south, and attacks Antigonas in the town - but the larger Spartan army is defeated thanks to the Macedonian sarissa. This emboldens Antigonas, who marches on Sparta itself. The Spartans meet him outside the town, and in a bloody battle, the majority of both sides' armies are felled, including one of the Spartan kings. But while Sparta emerged victorious by a thread, Antigonas II lived to fight another day. He decided to double down on his bet, and recruited mercenaries with which to conquer Sparta once and for all.
This would be a mistake. The other Spartan king was on his way south, but before he arrived, Athens sent their army to Sparta's aid. Faced with overwhelming numbers, Antigonas was forced to retreat, and to retreat farther into the Peloponnese. This gave time for the other Spartan king to arrive, and he was able to defeat Antigonas and his mercenary army. Antigonas met his fate there, in 239 BC.
His son Demetrius, in the meantime, had conquered Eprius and the lands of the Ardiaei from the Spartas. And seeing the fate of his father's army, and the number of Greeks he faced, he sought peace and time to rebuild, which both Athens and Sparta agreed to. This time would be put to good use, both economically, but also militarily, conquering the rest of Thrace from the locals, the Odrysians. This both secured Macedon's rear flank, and secured the lead deposits at Navissos (modern-day Niš, Serbia) in 222 BC, with the Odrysians defeated again at Pulpudeva (Plovdiv) in 220, after which they agreed to peace. And it was good to have those flanks secured, because during the Odrysian War, Athens and Sparta renewed the hostilities in Greece.
The 220s were best characterized by the Greek proverb, "Summer, harvest, war." Troops and generals on both sides were felled in massive numbers. Demetrius's brother fell to the Odrysians in 226. His other brother fell to the Greeks in 224. His brother-in-law was slewn in 222. His only son was sunk at sea by the Athenians in 221. Meanwhile, the Spartans had conquered Epirus and the important trade city of Apollonia from Macedon, and the Ardaiei had regained their independence thanks to the Odrysians (although Macedonian control of their lands had never been stable, and a peaceful border with them was seen as desirable).
But the loss of his only son had been accompanied by a great defeat of the Athenians, and another Macedonian army, the Thunderbolts of Zeus, conquered Athens in 220. The Thunderbolts continued on by conquering Sparta itself in 219. Not that this meant Sparta was defeated - they still had Epirus, and a large and a medium-sized Spartan army were furiously marching south, intent on making Macedon pay. Demetrius, for his part, fresh from the Odrysian victory, was marching on Epirus, hoping to sandwich the Spartans between his army in the north and the Thunderbolts in the Peloponnese.
And so that is where the game is in 219. It has been a breath of fresh air compared to my Roman games - new geography, and more of a struggle (at Hard/Hard difficulty). And Sparta is almost certain to make me pay, at least partially, meaning that even Greece remains outside of our clean control. Beyond that? Asia Minor seems to hate us, the Ptolemies in Egypt declared war on us for no apparent reason, and our only friends are the Daorsi in central Illyria and this up-and-coming power known as Rome in Italy (although our diplomats warn us of their ruthlessness). My plan, should I not be bested by Sparta, is to head east and try to re-unite the Successor Kingdoms, or diadochi. Both because it's what any good Macedonian would do, and because it leaves open the possibility of a powerful late-game challenge from Rome, Carthage, or whoever emerges most powerful to my west.
But yeah, I saw that they eventually fixed several of the complaints about Sim City 5, notably that it runs offline now, although not the city sizes being small. I'll be curious to hear whether it eventually draws you in or not.
I've started a single-player campaign of Macedon II: Total War, also known as playing Macedon in Rome II. I'd always played Rome, who would have guessed based on my avatar? But I had tried Rome Total War: Alexander, the expansion to the first game, and have been on a Philip II/Alexander III of Macedon historical kick recently. RTW:Alexander is not the most stable, and Alexander must survive, despite being no more durable than any other general, which means he usually dies about the second time his unit is used in battle. You'd think he'd have commissioned a better suit of armor, being so powerful. At any rate, Macedon II has an interesting setup, Macedon is of course not the well-oil war machine that Philip II historically left his son, dominant in southeastern Europe and poised to spring into Asia Minor. Instead, it's 272 BC, and Antigonas II Gonatus has recently reclaimed his lands from Pyrrhus of Epirus. Yes, that Pyrrhus of Epirus, who had recently returned home from Italy with large debts and a sizeable army. How best to pay off his debts? Why, by conquering Macedon. Which he largely did, leaving Antigonas in charge of only the more provincial areas. Then, Pyrrhus declared war on Sparta, at the invitation of the pretender Cleonymus.
Antigonas, with a weakened army, hastened to Sparta, where his troops helped the local garrison hold out until the main Spartan army returned from Crete. Pyrrhus eventually retreated and pillaged the countryside, before both he and Antigonas took up positions by the second-most-powerful town in the Pelopponese, Argos. The Argives sought to remain neutral; Antigonas agreed and guaranteed his neutrality by placing his son as a hostage. Pyrrhus verbally agreed, but betrayed his word, invading the city in the middle of the night. The Argives urged Antigonas to help them, which he did, and Pyrrhus's army was delayed by their elephants getting stuck in the town gates (large elephants, small gates. An advantage of the more traditional horses). In the melee, Pyrrhus was killed by an old woman, who threw a ceramic tile at him from a rooftop, knocking him from his horse and paralyzing him. This would enable Antigonas to reclaim Macedon, but not end the conflicts with Epirus, as Pyrrhus's successor, Alexander II, would renew his father's external struggles.
----
And that's just the historical setup. Oh yeah, and Macedon also starts off at war with Tylis, the Gaullic tribe that lives in southeastern Thrace, including the area nearest the Bosporus.
So, I take over, and at the time, Sparta is a defensive ally, with Athens being a client state. I go about fighting Tylis, whom Antigonas had already defeated once, prior to the game's start, but only to the degree of preventing Macedon from falling to them. They prove to be a worthy foe; I conquer their capital, but their remaining army conquers northern Macedon (modern Plovdic, Bulgaria), so I have to go back and retake Pulpadeva, which also had rebel problems. This takes us to about 259 BC, thirteen years into the game.
Meanwhile, Sparta has called me to arms against Epirus. I decide to be honourable and answer the call, and while my armies are still in the tussle with Tylis, Epirus briefly besieges our capital of Pella, although they soon retreat. Why? Because Sparta is on a rampage. Sparta didn't need my help, other than perhaps as a distraction; they conquer all of Epirus, including the lands formerly of the Ardiaei, in southeastern Illyria. To the contrary, Sparta has at some point ended our defensive alliance (I missed the notification), and has decided that it's time to overthrow the Macedonian oppressors once and for all. And they convince Athens to join them as well.
So now it's on, and the year is circa 254 BC.
Antigonas II leads an army south, and takes Larissa, in northern Greece, from Sparta. Sparta marches an army south, and attacks Antigonas in the town - but the larger Spartan army is defeated thanks to the Macedonian sarissa. This emboldens Antigonas, who marches on Sparta itself. The Spartans meet him outside the town, and in a bloody battle, the majority of both sides' armies are felled, including one of the Spartan kings. But while Sparta emerged victorious by a thread, Antigonas II lived to fight another day. He decided to double down on his bet, and recruited mercenaries with which to conquer Sparta once and for all.
This would be a mistake. The other Spartan king was on his way south, but before he arrived, Athens sent their army to Sparta's aid. Faced with overwhelming numbers, Antigonas was forced to retreat, and to retreat farther into the Peloponnese. This gave time for the other Spartan king to arrive, and he was able to defeat Antigonas and his mercenary army. Antigonas met his fate there, in 239 BC.
His son Demetrius, in the meantime, had conquered Eprius and the lands of the Ardiaei from the Spartas. And seeing the fate of his father's army, and the number of Greeks he faced, he sought peace and time to rebuild, which both Athens and Sparta agreed to. This time would be put to good use, both economically, but also militarily, conquering the rest of Thrace from the locals, the Odrysians. This both secured Macedon's rear flank, and secured the lead deposits at Navissos (modern-day Niš, Serbia) in 222 BC, with the Odrysians defeated again at Pulpudeva (Plovdiv) in 220, after which they agreed to peace. And it was good to have those flanks secured, because during the Odrysian War, Athens and Sparta renewed the hostilities in Greece.
The 220s were best characterized by the Greek proverb, "Summer, harvest, war." Troops and generals on both sides were felled in massive numbers. Demetrius's brother fell to the Odrysians in 226. His other brother fell to the Greeks in 224. His brother-in-law was slewn in 222. His only son was sunk at sea by the Athenians in 221. Meanwhile, the Spartans had conquered Epirus and the important trade city of Apollonia from Macedon, and the Ardaiei had regained their independence thanks to the Odrysians (although Macedonian control of their lands had never been stable, and a peaceful border with them was seen as desirable).
But the loss of his only son had been accompanied by a great defeat of the Athenians, and another Macedonian army, the Thunderbolts of Zeus, conquered Athens in 220. The Thunderbolts continued on by conquering Sparta itself in 219. Not that this meant Sparta was defeated - they still had Epirus, and a large and a medium-sized Spartan army were furiously marching south, intent on making Macedon pay. Demetrius, for his part, fresh from the Odrysian victory, was marching on Epirus, hoping to sandwich the Spartans between his army in the north and the Thunderbolts in the Peloponnese.
And so that is where the game is in 219. It has been a breath of fresh air compared to my Roman games - new geography, and more of a struggle (at Hard/Hard difficulty). And Sparta is almost certain to make me pay, at least partially, meaning that even Greece remains outside of our clean control. Beyond that? Asia Minor seems to hate us, the Ptolemies in Egypt declared war on us for no apparent reason, and our only friends are the Daorsi in central Illyria and this up-and-coming power known as Rome in Italy (although our diplomats warn us of their ruthlessness). My plan, should I not be bested by Sparta, is to head east and try to re-unite the Successor Kingdoms, or diadochi. Both because it's what any good Macedonian would do, and because it leaves open the possibility of a powerful late-game challenge from Rome, Carthage, or whoever emerges most powerful to my west.
FrostPunk
I've been playing in anticipation of the release of FrostPunk 2. This game is really hard when you haven't played in a while. I've been playing "Endless Mode" on extreme difficulty, and I can't even make it to the first major storm. I still can't decide what form of child labour is the best option... school/shelters? and then for for medics or engineers? or to just put them out in the fields as grunt workers right from the start.
I've been playing in anticipation of the release of FrostPunk 2. This game is really hard when you haven't played in a while. I've been playing "Endless Mode" on extreme difficulty, and I can't even make it to the first major storm. I still can't decide what form of child labour is the best option... school/shelters? and then for for medics or engineers? or to just put them out in the fields as grunt workers right from the start.
Zardnaar
Deity
SMAC. Amazing how well it holds up.
EgonSpengler
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2014
- Messages
- 12,260
The Long Dark: Tales from the Far Territory
Stalker, Day 110, Timberwolf Mountain. I made the mistake of playing last night while drowsy. It didn't cost me the game or anything, but my marksmanship with the bow was so bad I was actually getting angry with myself. I took 3 days leisurely making my way up to the summit. I stopped at Deer Clearing to hunt one of the eponymous hoofed ruminant ungulates. Unfortunately, I didn't drop it with a single arrow, so it ran off and got got by the local canis lupus, with whom I had harsh words. Way up at the top, there are four ptarmigan spawns, each of which I think had 4 birds. I only managed to get 1 bird from each spawn. 
That's just some weak [sauce], right there. I was mad at myself for being such a goober. I think at least 12 birds got away. If I was playing Interloper, that level of incompetence wouldn't just be embarrassing, it could be crippling.
(No kidding, if you're up to Stalker difficulty on Survival runs and you're not taking the opportunity to practice with the bow while it's not crucial, you're making a mistake. At Interloper, you need to be able to hit targets with the bow on virtually every shot; I think "proficiency" would be hitting stationary medium-sized targets at medium distances, in critical-hit locations such as the head and neck, most of the time. Getting close enough for a medium-range shot is part of the skill, because if you get too close to a deer, you'll spook it and have to start all over again. I'm terrible at that part. I end up chasing deer all over the danged place before I even fire an arrow. Hitting a deer at close range means hitting a moving target, which is a whole other ball-game. Experts can take down moving targets at short distances and stationary targets at long distances. Rather casually, too. Some of the YouTubers who play the game professionally are frickin' Clint Barton with that thing - or Kate Bishop, as the case may be. Zacknafein & Tomasina kill wolves with a bow like I pour cream into my coffee in the morning. They were two of the YouTubers Hinterland specifically recruited to help playtest the new zone and the new difficulty setting above Interloper, "Misery.")
I think I'm gonna hang around at the summit for a couple of days. I don't feel like trucking every darned thing up here back down to the cabin right now, so I'll probably just make one, overloaded trip down the mountain. On my way up here, I took the shorter route. I'll want to go around the back of the mountain to map that out before I move on from the region anyway, so I'll make one more trip up to the summit and bring some more stuff down. Probably I'll end up leaving a bunch of things behind, but maybe later I'll come back through here.
I got a better pair of the red longjohns and a better toque, and a headwrap, which I didn't have yet. So that was cool. Lots of matches, I'll obviously take those. A bunch of the airline food trays. Those are useful, especially the vegetarian ones, 'cause those have a lot of vitamin-C. I'll break down a couple of lanterns, for the oil and the scrap metal. Scrap metal is the one resource that's hard to find in this region. I'll rip up a few pieces of clothing for spare cloth and leather. And I'll probably bring a knife and a hatchet, just to leave a spare set of tools in the cabin. There are three forge hammers up there. I mean, WTH. (Is there a forge in Blackrock? If there is, I guess lugging one of the hammers over there later would be prudent.)
My Cooking skill hit level 5, so I don't have to worry about food poisoning anymore. Oh, and I found the Spelunker's Lantern, in the caves that go from Secluded Shelf to the plateau just below the summit..
p.s. Forgot to mention, I stuck my head into the survival bunker on Timberwolf Mountain and it was empty. I was actually kind of relieved. I don't need one of the few fully-stocked bunkers on this map, of all maps. My last run, this was one of the stocked bunkers, and it just felt dumb to have even more stuff there. So I'm pleased to report the bunker was empty this time. I still wish they would bring back the rotating spawn points for the bunkers. I miss having to hunt around for them. Even if you knew all of the potential locations - and I didn't - it was more fun having to roam around a bit. Now, once you find a given bunker the first time, you know exactly where to look, on every subsequent run. The fact that not all of the bunkers are well-stocked doesn't make up for the loss of that game mechanic, because it was never about getting the gear inside anyway.
Stalker, Day 110, Timberwolf Mountain. I made the mistake of playing last night while drowsy. It didn't cost me the game or anything, but my marksmanship with the bow was so bad I was actually getting angry with myself.
I took 3 days leisurely making my way up to the summit. I stopped at Deer Clearing to hunt one of the eponymous hoofed ruminant ungulates. Unfortunately, I didn't drop it with a single arrow, so it ran off and got got by the local canis lupus, with whom I had harsh words. Way up at the top, there are four ptarmigan spawns, each of which I think had 4 birds. I only managed to get 1 bird from each spawn. That's just some weak [sauce], right there. I was mad at myself for being such a goober. I think at least 12 birds got away. If I was playing Interloper, that level of incompetence wouldn't just be embarrassing, it could be crippling.(No kidding, if you're up to Stalker difficulty on Survival runs and you're not taking the opportunity to practice with the bow while it's not crucial, you're making a mistake. At Interloper, you need to be able to hit targets with the bow on virtually every shot; I think "proficiency" would be hitting stationary medium-sized targets at medium distances, in critical-hit locations such as the head and neck, most of the time. Getting close enough for a medium-range shot is part of the skill, because if you get too close to a deer, you'll spook it and have to start all over again. I'm terrible at that part. I end up chasing deer all over the danged place before I even fire an arrow. Hitting a deer at close range means hitting a moving target, which is a whole other ball-game. Experts can take down moving targets at short distances and stationary targets at long distances. Rather casually, too. Some of the YouTubers who play the game professionally are frickin' Clint Barton with that thing - or Kate Bishop, as the case may be. Zacknafein & Tomasina kill wolves with a bow like I pour cream into my coffee in the morning. They were two of the YouTubers Hinterland specifically recruited to help playtest the new zone and the new difficulty setting above Interloper, "Misery.")
I think I'm gonna hang around at the summit for a couple of days. I don't feel like trucking every darned thing up here back down to the cabin right now, so I'll probably just make one, overloaded trip down the mountain. On my way up here, I took the shorter route. I'll want to go around the back of the mountain to map that out before I move on from the region anyway, so I'll make one more trip up to the summit and bring some more stuff down. Probably I'll end up leaving a bunch of things behind, but maybe later I'll come back through here.
I got a better pair of the red longjohns and a better toque, and a headwrap, which I didn't have yet. So that was cool. Lots of matches, I'll obviously take those. A bunch of the airline food trays. Those are useful, especially the vegetarian ones, 'cause those have a lot of vitamin-C. I'll break down a couple of lanterns, for the oil and the scrap metal. Scrap metal is the one resource that's hard to find in this region. I'll rip up a few pieces of clothing for spare cloth and leather. And I'll probably bring a knife and a hatchet, just to leave a spare set of tools in the cabin. There are three forge hammers up there. I mean, WTH.
(Is there a forge in Blackrock? If there is, I guess lugging one of the hammers over there later would be prudent.)My Cooking skill hit level 5, so I don't have to worry about food poisoning anymore. Oh, and I found the Spelunker's Lantern, in the caves that go from Secluded Shelf to the plateau just below the summit..
p.s. Forgot to mention, I stuck my head into the survival bunker on Timberwolf Mountain and it was empty. I was actually kind of relieved. I don't need one of the few fully-stocked bunkers on this map, of all maps. My last run, this was one of the stocked bunkers, and it just felt dumb to have even more stuff there. So I'm pleased to report the bunker was empty this time. I still wish they would bring back the rotating spawn points for the bunkers. I miss having to hunt around for them. Even if you knew all of the potential locations - and I didn't - it was more fun having to roam around a bit. Now, once you find a given bunker the first time, you know exactly where to look, on every subsequent run. The fact that not all of the bunkers are well-stocked doesn't make up for the loss of that game mechanic, because it was never about getting the gear inside anyway.
Last edited:
I seriously doubt it: the only reason to persist is affection for the brand itself, and when I still have SimCity 3000, SimCity 4, and Cities Skylines, that's not quite enough. I'll keep trying it until I KNOW it's not for me, though. That same night I also tried the edition of SimCity 2000 that's on EA Play. Definitely a nostalga trip -- the music, the newspapers, the "ZZZT!" sound when I put down power lines.
This week has just been Stardew Valley and The Sims 4. In Stardew I was trying to beat my record for getting to level 120 of the dungeons, but had no luck with sword drops from monsters, and got bogged down in the 50s/60s. Should hit bottom by the end of summer, but I was really hoping to do it in spring. Will try, try again.
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,280
I have played until 200 BC in Macedon: Total War. Sparta marched south and took Thessaly, but my army in the south marched north to Thermopylae, and the gig was up. Demetrius was to the northwest in Epirus, Pella was defended by walls and the navy, the Spartan coffers were empty, and now they had no way home. Thus, Greece was unified.
Next, I decided to take on Pergamon, as conquering them was one of the second-chapter objectives. The chapter when complete when I reached 60 units, so I was trying to stay under that limit while completing as many side objectives as possible. At first, things went well. Demetrius conquered Nicomedia, the navy took Ephesus, and my other army took Pergamon itself. But Pergamon had called in their friends in Galatia and Rhodes, the latter of whom peaced out, and soon it felt like whack-a-mole - our armies were too strong to lose (and Demetrius's was extremely skilled), but Pergamon retook Nicomedia, and Demetrius's conquests in central Asia Minor were always at risk of being re-taken by another Galatian army. Then, in 210, Rhodes re-entered the war, after we had defeated the Galatian army that had been besieging Ephesus and were moving north to retake Nicomedia. In a single turn, Rhodes conquered Ephesus with their navy, landed an army, and marched it north to take Pergamon. A master class in how to not help your ally and to take all the spoils for yourself.
I saved for the night in 209, and decided it was time to raise a third army and complete the second chapter of the objectives, even with Pergamon not yet conquered. It seemed like I just needed a third army to really gain the upper hand, and my war chest was overflowing by that point, with Macedonian industry, Thracian agriculture, and Greek culture driving a dynamic economy.
It turned out, I didn't actually need that third army. I peaced out Pergamon, letting them have Nicomedia and the southern town of Side, and turned around my heir's army, which besieged the main Rhodian army in Pergamon, and took it the next turn. The navy then blockaded Rhodes itself, and the game was up for Rhodes. A masterclass in a quick strike - and too high of losses at Ephesus to be able to defend it. They really should have used their slingers first, instead of charging all their cavalry and most of their infantry into a spear wall before deciding that fighting at range was a good idea.
Meanwhile, Demetrius reached level 10 - my first commander ever to reach the maximum level - and proved to have repelled any challenges the Galatians had sent, mopping up central Asia Minor. Really, he had some help - Armenia was also at war with Galatia, and doing well. But before his death due to old age in 201, he had taken Macedon from a small nation trying to re-establish itself, to at least a regional power again. Maybe not quite Alexandrian levels of success, but he had done the hard work to set his nephew up for potentially conquering the rest of the known world - a Philip II, as it were, laying the stage.
Elsewhere, Carthage is down to one city in Spain - if I remember correctly, the city of Arse, now known as Sagunto. Rome and a bunch of other countries are bearing down on them, and Rome has conquered what is now southern Tunisia and western Libya, with their allies in Africa taking Carthage itself. Rome has a Gallic war going on too, in modern-day Venezia and Slovenia. I'm hoping they don't turn east after Carthage is finished off, but if they do want to take our cities, we'll tell them molon labe - come and take them.
Next, I decided to take on Pergamon, as conquering them was one of the second-chapter objectives. The chapter when complete when I reached 60 units, so I was trying to stay under that limit while completing as many side objectives as possible. At first, things went well. Demetrius conquered Nicomedia, the navy took Ephesus, and my other army took Pergamon itself. But Pergamon had called in their friends in Galatia and Rhodes, the latter of whom peaced out, and soon it felt like whack-a-mole - our armies were too strong to lose (and Demetrius's was extremely skilled), but Pergamon retook Nicomedia, and Demetrius's conquests in central Asia Minor were always at risk of being re-taken by another Galatian army. Then, in 210, Rhodes re-entered the war, after we had defeated the Galatian army that had been besieging Ephesus and were moving north to retake Nicomedia. In a single turn, Rhodes conquered Ephesus with their navy, landed an army, and marched it north to take Pergamon. A master class in how to not help your ally and to take all the spoils for yourself.
I saved for the night in 209, and decided it was time to raise a third army and complete the second chapter of the objectives, even with Pergamon not yet conquered. It seemed like I just needed a third army to really gain the upper hand, and my war chest was overflowing by that point, with Macedonian industry, Thracian agriculture, and Greek culture driving a dynamic economy.
It turned out, I didn't actually need that third army. I peaced out Pergamon, letting them have Nicomedia and the southern town of Side, and turned around my heir's army, which besieged the main Rhodian army in Pergamon, and took it the next turn. The navy then blockaded Rhodes itself, and the game was up for Rhodes. A masterclass in a quick strike - and too high of losses at Ephesus to be able to defend it. They really should have used their slingers first, instead of charging all their cavalry and most of their infantry into a spear wall before deciding that fighting at range was a good idea.
Meanwhile, Demetrius reached level 10 - my first commander ever to reach the maximum level - and proved to have repelled any challenges the Galatians had sent, mopping up central Asia Minor. Really, he had some help - Armenia was also at war with Galatia, and doing well. But before his death due to old age in 201, he had taken Macedon from a small nation trying to re-establish itself, to at least a regional power again. Maybe not quite Alexandrian levels of success, but he had done the hard work to set his nephew up for potentially conquering the rest of the known world - a Philip II, as it were, laying the stage.
Elsewhere, Carthage is down to one city in Spain - if I remember correctly, the city of Arse, now known as Sagunto. Rome and a bunch of other countries are bearing down on them, and Rome has conquered what is now southern Tunisia and western Libya, with their allies in Africa taking Carthage itself. Rome has a Gallic war going on too, in modern-day Venezia and Slovenia. I'm hoping they don't turn east after Carthage is finished off, but if they do want to take our cities, we'll tell them molon labe - come and take them.
Strong Reaction
Prince
Fallout 3: yes I am old and the game is definitely old, but comparing it to 4 it seems like it has much more space to explore and actually holds up story wise and atmosphere wise to 4. I actually still have the dvd version but had to buy it on GOG for the sake of simplicity, the dvd version is a headache to get running and largely broken due to unsupported OS and its dependence on windows live which no longer exists. Ill probably give New Vegas a return visit after this.
Similar threads
- Locked
- Locked
