What video games have you been playing? ΚΔ (24)? More like ΚΔ,Ζ,ΤΞΕ!

Shadowheart definitely gets the most. There's a whole Shar temple for this chick. Which I'm not thrilled with, because I hate her. Terrible pre-respec and can barely get thru that first fight n the beach, after the crash before Doctor Withers can fix her awfulness.

Terrible personality too. Shoulda just left the chick on the ship.

She's ok with a crossbow early on. Dagger in melee. As cleric respec to 16 wisdom and dex 14 con.

She's better off not being a cleric.

Humans and half elves make good bards, warlocks and wizards/sorcerers. Default Wyll isn't to bad.

Human pack mule wild heart barbarian can also work.
 
Are there any strategy game AIs that don't suck? :)
Old World. It's a Soren Johnson game, like Civ IV (the Civ with the best AI in the series), so it isn't terribly surprising.

Currently I am fighting Kush in another war, this time of their choosing, and they are once again delivering a beatdown. This is after Babylon declared war on me (because that gave me a two front war with Kush), and the Hittites declared war on Babylon (because that gave Babylon a two front war with me) - Kush then declared on me so I once again had a two front war. I'd been giving them 83 training per turn as tribute, which they'd been using to upgrade their military capabilities, and they said we either had to install a grand vizier of their choosing, which would let them choose the production in all of our cities, allowing them to optimize for our destruction, or they would invade again. Themistocles of Athens is nothing if not honorable, so we chose doom over subjugation.

Although I was able to deal with their advance scouts within a couple of turns, they quickly destroyed my first wave of troops with their first wave of non-scout troops. I didn't even know what had hit me until I realized they had advanced mangonels raining down destruction on us from the sky, a technology Greece has not mastered. Their troops are almost all more advanced than ours - last war it was archers to slings, this war it's longbows to archers, pikemen to spearmen. My initial plan of fighting a stalemate just our side of the edge of the desert evaporated as we were pushed back, and Kush took few losses.

Gortyn was our nearest city, and we rallied our next wave of troops to it while the survivors of the first wave straggled back. The new plan was to have Gortyn and Sparta (the other nearest city, and our wealthiest) to form a wide front in which Kush could funnel troops and we could counter-attack. This was somewhat less unsuccessful, and I hadn't been a total fool during the Babylonian war, I had been working to improve my military infrastructure, so my rate of reinforcements was better than it had been - though Kush's troops were still much better trained. Kush didn't give our truce proposals a consideration, and began advancing, but we finally were fighting close to 50:50. They were gradually bringing up one of those blasted mangonels, however, and we knew that if it got within range of Gortyn, we were doomed.

Thus, we sent forth our first Pikeman and some Archers and Horsemen and destroyed it, behind their front line of pikemen and archers. A momentary abatement. But what did we find but not one, not two, but four more mangonels ensuring that any attempt of ours to advance to try to take their city would result in total annihilation. A masterclass in the use of terrain to form a defensive chokepoint. Even if we were doing well on the defensive, I haven't a clue how I could get around that obstacle.

When I played it a couple years ago, I had some near-run battles and wars, and I fondly remember an extended war in my Babylon game where Rome very nearly overcame my key defensive city - if I hadn't learned how to fight better over time I would have lost that game. I'm not as sharp at Old World after a two year hiatus, but the developers have also continued to improve the AI during that time, so even if I remembered everything as I played it in 2022, I would be doing worse.

As a result I occasionally need breaks from my Old World struggles to give my brain a chance to replenish. Which is rare with other games.
Didn't GalCiv2 learn off human players?
I believe it at least claimed to in the manuals, yes. It hinted at having some memory of what strategies you used across games that worked against it, and what it tried and failed, and adjusting based on that.
 
I've been playing a few games of Age of Empires III. The servers go offline on October 30th, so it's time to take it for a spin if you feel like dusting it off! The Definitive Edition will still be online, but for those of us with the original... not many chances left.

I was pretty decent (level 22) at the time I joined CivFanatics, but have forgotten most of how to win. So far my record is 1 win and 3 losses, and the win was in a 4v4 contest and was the most recent one. The first game may have been the most fun, it was 1v1 and neither of us rushed and I got to pick off a few villagers and sneak around to attack the back of my rival's village, whereupon my army was destroyed. The win was arguably half luck, a bit of coordination to all attack the same player, by the time my guys arrived we had all but won the battle, and the luck included that the person we chose to attack happened to be the one who had invested in technology over troops and was thus least prepared to repel the attack. Had it instead been their most-prepared player, things could have ended differently.
 
It took until year 9, but I finally beat Bama:

Spoiler :


Bama was coming off a 15-1 national championship year, winning the 8-team playoff, had a 22-game winning streak, and was ranked in the top 5 in nearly every statistical category, often #1 or #2, most notably points scored and allowed, and yards gained and given up. Their QB is considered a likely Heisman finalist, but our real concern was their All-SEC running back. The Tide was going to get some long downfield passes no matter what, but if they could roll into a new first down every time it was third-and-medium, we wouldn't stand a chance.

So, much like usual, our focus was on winning in the trenches. Bama had pro-level corners and safeties, so the plan was to attack their comparatively soft front seven. And... it worked. We outgained them by 1.9 yards per carry, limited them to 3-of-12 on third down, and that was basically the difference. Add in a clean game - 4/4 on field goals and no turnovers - and it proved good enough for the win.

So now I've achieved essentially all my goals. Beat Texas A&M early in the year. Beat Bama late in the year. Beat Georgia as well, though they don't have quite as smart of a coach in-game as IRL, so we'd managed a 4-4 record against them in prior years.

What else is there? An SEC championship? So far I'm 0-3 in those, as they've always been against A&M or Bama. A national title? I lost to a not-very-good Mizzou team this year and a currently-#22 Florida team, I don't really expect to be good enough to beat the two undefeated teams from that state up north.

The surprising thing is this wasn't even supposed to be The Year. We have a redshirt freshman playing quarterback. An inconsistent defensive coordinator who either dials up a great plan or lets the Gators score more than they have against anyone all year. A lot of talent, but next year was the year we expected to reach a peak.

But that's how it goes sometimes. Tough games are won, easy games are lost, and you never quite know how the next one will go.
 
It took until year 9, but I finally beat Bama:

Spoiler :


Bama was coming off a 15-1 national championship year, winning the 8-team playoff, had a 22-game winning streak, and was ranked in the top 5 in nearly every statistical category, often #1 or #2, most notably points scored and allowed, and yards gained and given up. Their QB is considered a likely Heisman finalist, but our real concern was their All-SEC running back. The Tide was going to get some long downfield passes no matter what, but if they could roll into a new first down every time it was third-and-medium, we wouldn't stand a chance.

So, much like usual, our focus was on winning in the trenches. Bama had pro-level corners and safeties, so the plan was to attack their comparatively soft front seven. And... it worked. We outgained them by 1.9 yards per carry, limited them to 3-of-12 on third down, and that was basically the difference. Add in a clean game - 4/4 on field goals and no turnovers - and it proved good enough for the win.

So now I've achieved essentially all my goals. Beat Texas A&M early in the year. Beat Bama late in the year. Beat Georgia as well, though they don't have quite as smart of a coach in-game as IRL, so we'd managed a 4-4 record against them in prior years.

What else is there? An SEC championship? So far I'm 0-3 in those, as they've always been against A&M or Bama. A national title? I lost to a not-very-good Mizzou team this year and a currently-#22 Florida team, I don't really expect to be good enough to beat the two undefeated teams from that state up north.

The surprising thing is this wasn't even supposed to be The Year. We have a redshirt freshman playing quarterback. An inconsistent defensive coordinator who either dials up a great plan or lets the Gators score more than they have against anyone all year. A lot of talent, but next year was the year we expected to reach a peak.

But that's how it goes sometimes. Tough games are won, easy games are lost, and you never quite know how the next one will go.

The real Vandy beat Bama this year, which gobsmacked most everyone, especially seeing as the week prior it pulled off a coup and beat then #2 ranked Georgia. What game is this?
 
The real Vandy beat Bama this year, which gobsmacked most everyone, especially seeing as the week prior it pulled off a coup and beat then #2 ranked Georgia. What game is this?
Football Coach: College Dynasty. That was of course the event that inspired me to play as Vandy, as well as not particularly caring if I did poorly when playing as them.

It's a really good game if you like sports management games (Out of the Park Baseball, Football Manager) and college football. I haven't played Civ in weeks!

I'm now at the end of that season and will be playing Alabama again in the SEC Championship, which I've lost each of the previous three times I've been in it. The SEC West ended with LSU, Alabama, and Texas A&M all tied with two in-conference losses, and each with one loss to one of the others (LSU > Alabama > A & M > LSU), and Alabama won the tie-breaker - not sure if that was AP ranking, points-per-game, point-difference-in-games-against-the-others, or something else. Looking at their injury report, I see that their 3rd and 7th best wide receivers have been out since weeks 4 and 5 respectively with season-ending injuries, whereas I'm down my fourth-best offensive lineman, though he's likely to be back for the bowl game.

I don't really expect to go 2-0 against them this year, but hope to at least be competitive. Probably the top conference championship game to watch is Oregon vs USC in the Pac-12, with both 11-1 and at the #7 and #8 rankings. High-stakes too, the one who loses is almost certainly out of the playoffs!
 
And... the SEC Championship is in!

Spoiler :
My main strategy was the same - win the line of scrimmage. One change was that I started my veteran senior QB rather than the redshirt freshman - not as strong of an arm but super smart about when not to force a throw. Fewer mistakes means more chance of victory.

The game started out just how we wanted it to - a Bama punt, and marching 76 yards for a touchdown in 8 minutes. But of course, Alabama returned the favor in half the time, and then we had to punt. We would then trade field goals, Bama would punt, and we would miss a 43-yard field goal on 4th-and-16 to close out the first half with the score tied at 10.

We wouldn't go anywhere to start the second half, but Bama would - 12 yards, 12 yards, 8 yard, 7 yards. But then our defense woke up, getting two sacks on three plays (with a 13-yard Tide pass in between), and Bama's kicker would miss from 54 yards in an attempt to take the lead. We took advantage of the favorable field position to make a field goal from 36 a few minutes later, and then forced a punt, ending Q3 ahead 13-10.

The fourth quarter stared well for us, going 95 yards in 7 minutes to take a 20-10 lead. After forcing a three-and-out, our confidence was building, but all we could muster on offense was taking 3 minutes off the clock, leaving Alabama with six and a half minutes to move the chains and score. This they would do, playing with tempo, and over an 18-play drive that lasted only three-and-a-half minutes, moving 83 yards. But it's always harder in the red zone. On first-and-goal from the 5, they moved just one yard, and then three yards on second down, setting up an all-important 3rd-and-goal from the 1. Two runs in a row and with one yard to go, what do you think a team with good running backs is going to do? Exactly, they're going to try to run the ball in. So we sold out on stopping the run, they tried to run it in, and went backwards two yards instead. Thus they had to settle for the field goal, and the score was 20-13.

All we needed now to win was a few first downs. Alas, we could only get one, though Bama was forced to burn its timeouts to get the ball back. Now it was all through the air, with 1:52 to go to score a touchdown and tie the game. This was when the Tide really started to roll, and with the help of 30 and 24 yard plays, they made it to 1st and Goal from the 3 with 38 seconds to go. After an incompletion, they switched to the ground game, and on the second attempt ran it in, leaving fifteen seconds on the clock and a tie game. After all, when you're the Tide, you know you're going to win in overtime, no point in going for two and potentially not making it.

Fifteen seconds is a long time, however, and we wanted to try to win in regulation. Thirteen yards on the first play got the chains moving and resulted in using our first timeout. At this point we put in our third-string quarterback - the guy whose accuracy leaves something to be desired, but who can heave it way downfield. And he delivered, dropping a dime 28 yards to our best wide receiver. With three seconds on the clock, we sent out our long-range field goal kicker for a 53-yard attempt, and... just like Bama's 54-yard try earlier, it's no good.

Overtime is friendly to us, however, as the Tide's star receiver gets a little too eager to score on the second play, and forgets about ball security while running for the end zone, with one of our best linebackers forcing a fumble at the 8-yard line. That makes for a low-pressure situation for us, and we win the game with a 21-yard field goal.

It results in Vanderbilt's first conference title since 1923, and a trip to the playoff with the #5 seed, where we'll face the #4 Oregon Ducks. Michigan State is the favorite at 13-0 and #1, but with a weak strength of schedule. My dark-horse pick is Texas A&M at #7, who has played the toughest schedule of any playoff team and is the only team to have already beaten #2 Texas, which the did by a decisive 45-17.


Meanwhile, success begets success. The #3 overall recruit, a standout wide receiver from Illinois, has signed up to play for Vanderbilt, and I've also signed the #2 safety, #4 corner, #1 tight end, and #7 linebacker, all within the top 50 picks. That defensive coordinator may not be the most consistent but he sure can convince recruits that they're the missing piece he needs. It's by far the best recruiting class I've ever had (and they've generally been increasing over time), with four five-star recruits, and everyone else except our QB pick being at least three-star.
 
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Started playing The Tenants as Contessa Landgraab, one of my Sims in Sims 4 who is an apartment magnate. Enjoying it so far.
 
I started a new BG3 campaign as a wizard.

I have workarounds for odds misses via divination that way.

I had Wyll just go ahead and kill Karlach. Not a devil? Look pretty devilish, though, don't ya. Shadowheart died early too. Failed a persuasion check and sided with Laezel. I also staked Astarion. Halsin did not return from the portal. Last Light fell, so Jaheria is dead too, along with about 30 Harpers.

Going really well, though! I just had Withers recruit a buncha hired help and respec'd most of em into wizards, who turn out to be entirely OP. No real line I can't break.

I have gone ahead and initiated a passionate romance with the 9 foot tall, levitating, brain-eating squid freak, which seems wise.
 
Is there a Shadowrun-like game in gfx/gameplay, where the battles are in real time?
Can't say I liked the plot much either. I'd prefer cyberpunk without the dragons.

Basically I am asking if there is a Fallout 2-clone which has better (but still isometric) gfx and real-time battles instead of turn-based.

I am also thinking of trying Ara: History Untold. The gfx look a bit taxing, but supposedly they won't cause any issues with my computer.
 
I believe it at least claimed to in the manuals, yes. It hinted at having some memory of what strategies you used across games that worked against it, and what it tried and failed, and adjusting based on that.
Based on what I can remember from some blog posts long ago diving into the AI, it was a really basic - but clever - approach.
Basically each game that ended, the game would record what victory the player got and of the top 3 or so AI, what victories they were pursuing.
When in a new game it reached the "AI decides what victory they will go for" phase, each AI would decide their victory type based on the civ preferences, what they are best situated for, what victory the human player is going for, and what victories have worked in the past. (Or at least made the AI most successful against the human.)
It never worked out as well as it should have because most games are never finished: either the human gets into a winning position and doesn't feel like clicking through 50 turns, or the human sees it is an unwinnable position and decides to start a new game. But it was a very clever and simple approach. (Which, incidentally, is basically GalCiv2s entire approach to AI design. Clever and simple. Design a game with mechanics it is easy for an AI to handle and then write a competent AI to handle it.)
 
Is there a Shadowrun-like game in gfx/gameplay, where the battles are in real time?
Can't say I liked the plot much either. I'd prefer cyberpunk without the dragons.

Basically I am asking if there is a Fallout 2-clone which has better (but still isometric) gfx and real-time battles instead of turn-based.

I am also thinking of trying Ara: History Untold. The gfx look a bit taxing, but supposedly they won't cause any issues with my computer.
You might like Satellite Reign.
 
Huh? It looks as isometric as Fallout 2 is with the high angle top-down view. Slightly different angle, but certainly what I would call isometric.
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Huh? It looks as isometric as Fallout 2 is with the high angle top-down view. Slightly different angle, but certainly what I would call isometric.
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From the videos on youtube this has a 3d camera, but one which is limited as to how much it can rotate (some locked axis). Similar (but maybe more free) to games like Against the Storm :)
Although perhaps this game doesn't allow the player to control rotation - the screen rotates automatically when you are in trigger points (?).
Isometric games have a locked camera, where you can only zoom. Older isometric games often didn't even allow zooming.
 
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Is there a Shadowrun-like game in gfx/gameplay, where the battles are in real time?
Can't say I liked the plot much either. I'd prefer cyberpunk without the dragons.

Basically I am asking if there is a Fallout 2-clone which has better (but still isometric) gfx and real-time battles instead of turn-based.

I am also thinking of trying Ara: History Untold. The gfx look a bit taxing, but supposedly they won't cause any issues with my computer.
I play isometric cyberpunk text heavy rpg called Gamedec. Graphics is beautiful with a locked camera without zoom.
Its premise is something between Westworld and The Matrix.
The problem is, it has no battles at all. All choices are in texts so its really not for everyone.
 
I would like something which has some (even if minor) battles. The story should still be in the core :)
I am also thinking of Disco Elysium, which afaik is not an rpg but an adventure?
 
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