What Video Games Have You Been Playing #16: Retirement Party For The Active Mind

[Ajidica]

My advice is to pick up CIV4 BTS and dive strait into the Fall From Heaven series. Preferably one of the modmods like RIFE. It's fantastic fun (as it's a civ game) but in a fantasy setting with cool lore and everything to break you out of the regular CIV formula.

@Zardnaar if you do play Fall from Heaven, make sure to install the unofficial patch 'p', as it fixes an issue where the wrong unit exploded on death. It was supposed to be Pyre Zombies, but due to a scripting mix up, that effect was accidentally assigned to the Sons of Asena, an already terrifying early game unit.

 

[tjs282]

Emperor is about as high as you can go without using exploits, fudging the map, or map dependent. Maybe one after but deity you have to be aggressive or map dependent. Did you more or less have to do island naps and micro your ass off. It's not fun.

Over the past couple of years (since trying to move up to DemiGod) I've pretty much come to this conclusion as well.

I usually choose the map-size but let the pRNGods choose all the other parameters (everything set to Random), including my own tribe. Nonetheless, with even just a half-decent start, I can usually beat the Civ3 AI up to Emperor, but every single (nearly-)all-Random DG game I've started to date has ended in defeat, and usually sooner rather than later.

(Fastest loss so far was getting stomped by Iroquois Axes on Turn 20: my nearly unguarded capital would have reached Pop3 that turn, and finished building my first Settler...).

I have been trying to beat Conquests Japan on Emperor, and now it seems the best idea is to literally take a sheet of paper and draw where the key resources are - iron, horses, jade.

Even though Yamabushi are (way) OP, this scenario is one of my favorites of the Firaxis-offerings, because it gives me full freedom to plan my development (unlike the scenarios which force crowded/ crappy starting-positions on the player). But yeah, if you don't start with one of the few tribes, e.g. the Takeda, or the Mori, who have those resources closer to their own spawn-point than their neighbours', then you need to build a stack of Stone Crossbows to go and secure them ASAP, because this scenario cannot be won without Iron and Horses.

Jade I've found to be less vital, because by the time I can build Ninja, the AI-tribes will likely have upgraded to at least Shogun-5 or -6 (thus requiring 4-5 Ninja for each assassination attempt, just to have a reasonable chance of success). Despite that, beelining to Ninjutsu during the Middle period is pretty much key to winning this at the higher levels -- not because of Ninja, but because the AI-tribes almost invariably pursue the Bushido-beeline instead. So going the other way gets you Philosophy (+ 2 free techs) and Diplomacy, meaning you have a good shot at (pre)building the War Council -- which just like the epic-game UN, you have to build (or capture the city where it's built ASAP), otherwise you risk losing to a surprise vote.

Also, if you get the Yamabushi-tech (Bojutsu?) before your neighbours, don't share it until you've planted your own Yamas (or Samurai-Spears, or -Arquebusiers) on at least one of each of your Strat- and Lux-resources. After that, it's safe to let the AIs have it, and watch them pillage away all of their rivals' resource-tiles...

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I've finished the Team Adventure mode of Team Sonic Racing. It seems odd that a racing game has a story mode. What's more odd is some of the dialogue. I've heard lines such as "Now this is racing!", "Ugh, sand, it gets everywhere," and one character even used the word "younglings".

 

[Takhisis]

I need to play some Sengoku, it seems.

Idk, as soon as the human player can produce a decent amount of artillery the AI is pretty much doomed, there is nothing they can do against that in my experience. The trick is getting to the point of being able to mass-produce artillery without dying. I've beaten Civ 3 on Emperor more than a few times but I haven't played it much in a few years. I'll need a little time to get back into the groove before I go to Emperor again. And hell I'll probably play Civ 4 next.

The problem is that my artillery was moot because the Byzantines had huge stacks of bombers and they also had such a large fleet that it was easier for them to sail around the world and invade the rest of the pangaea by sea than having to fight in their own front line. Also the AI doing all those alliances helping them gobble each other up (they conquered Germany, Celts, Turks, Carthage, Russia and Egypt before turning against the Aztecs and finally me) got ridiculous.
And they had so much aircraft that they just bombed everything into submission. I barely had time to use a lot of captured workers to build a four-tile-deep series of barricades and/or forests/jungle/marsh/mountain before the Byzies killed off the newest biggest-surviving-civ and I did at least manage to get a couple of cities away from them before they won elsewhere.

I hadn't seen an AI faction get away in terms of production that fast in years, even if I stayed in contention with regard to the tech race until the very end.

It seems odd that a racing game has a story mode.

Super Tux Kart does and I'd highly recommend it.

 

[Lexicus]

he Byzantines had huge stacks of bombers

oof yea that'll do it

 

[Godwynn]

Jedi Fallen Order when I am looking to increase my blood pressure.

I try to relax with a game of Dota 2 at night.

 

[Takhisis]

oof yea that'll do it

Yeah, I got it under control by stacking battleships into my border cities (they were all coastal cities in a quasi-isthmus) and down they went, but they really were that many that they forced me to remain indoors.

I try to relax with a game of Dota 2 at night.

If I weren't on the other, laggier end of the continent I'd be so in.

 

[Godwynn]

If I weren't on the other, laggier end of the continent I'd be so in.

I only play unranked. The ranked community is toxic because of people at 2,000 MMR thinking they will go pro and make millions playing a video game.

 

[Truthy]

I got Hearts of Iron IV (the first Paradox game I've played) last week and have spent an enormous amount of time on it. I'm playing Germany and finished off the Allies in Europe (including the USSR). Invading the US via Canada (in particular, Newfoundland) is turning out to be a huge struggle. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just invade Central America/Mexico and push my way north.

 

[Takhisis]

I only play unranked. The ranked community is toxic because of people at 2,000 MMR thinking they will go pro and make millions playing a video game.

Well, definitely. If I play against human players it's against people I already know. besides the part about Steam asking for a cellphone number to enable MMR which is just a no-no. Mostly these days I play against bots anyway because I have to play on Wi-Fi ( ) and now that everybody's confined to the building somedays the Internet's inaccessible anyway.

 

[Lexicus]

I got Hearts of Iron IV (the first Paradox game I've played) last week and have spent an enormous amount of time on it. I'm playing Germany and finished off the Allies in Europe (including the USSR). Invading the US via Canada (in particular, Newfoundland) is turning out to be a huge struggle. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just invade Central America/Mexico and push my way north.

That's what I did when playing Germany but it was many patches ago.

 

[Zardnaar]

That's what I did when playing Germany but it was many patches ago.

Not sure about IV but in 2 I either did the Canada thing or land in Texas and punch North.

 

[dusters]

Reconnected with a internet friend via Hearthstone yesterday. He used to be semi-pro. I have achieved legend (highest rank) twice.

 

[elmurcis]

Had some exhausting Nascar race (full length) at Bristol. I love and hate that track same time. So easy to screw up (specially deeper in race when stamina starts to play its part) because of all cars so close together place and same time so rewarding if do everything right - avoid crashes, have good stints/manage tires well and get overtakes done with some patience. Now all I can do is have some "builder type" Civ4 BtS session for recovery

 

[Arakhor]

Next in 'games I haven't played in a while': Far Cry Primal.

Ooh, I was playing that before Assassin's Creed: Origins came out. I really should return to FCP, because I was enjoying it. (It remains the only Far Cry game I have any interest in ever playing.)

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Have been playing Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord.

Finally. Never thought i would play it in this life.

Oh, and Half Life: Alyx plus trying some new aircraft I got for DCS (F-14 and F-16) in Virtual Reality.

Nice confinament.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I've won some Civ 3 games on Emperor. I play Civ 4 on Emperor regularly though and can usually win, although I play with some strange settings (aggressive AI and epic game speed). I've taken to disabling tech brokering (not tech trading) so that the trading beaker advantage is a bit more low-key.



Idk, as soon as the human player can produce a decent amount of artillery the AI is pretty much doomed, there is nothing they can do against that in my experience. The trick is getting to the point of being able to mass-produce artillery without dying. I've beaten Civ 3 on Emperor more than a few times but I haven't played it much in a few years. I'll need a little time to get back into the groove before I go to Emperor again. And hell I'll probably play Civ 4 next.

I really like playing on Marathon and/or Epic speed, but over the years I've come to the conclusion that it gives me too big of an advantage over the AI. The main issues are that my army tech stays too dominant for too long, and the AI can't replace their units fast enough to last against a sustained assault. This is really pronounced in Civ 5 and Civ 6 and I think it has a lot to do with 1UPT.

As interesting as the tactical aspect of 1UPT is, I kinda wish they would just bring back the SOD, because the Civ 4 SOD, was the last time the AI could really just rotflstomp you out of nowhere with a huge stack that you weren't ready for. The corps/army/armada feature is an attempt to deal with this, but frankly, its a poor substitute for the trusty old SOD. I wish I could find a mod that just lets SODs be a thing again... I guess I could just go back to playing Civ 4...

One idea I had for Civ 6 was allowing unit stacking/tile sharing just like in Civ 4, but introducing a dynamic where units in the stack would be limited to 1 attack/action out of the stack per turn... maybe even force a unit attacking out of the stack to fight to the death rather than be able to withdraw back into the stack... and/or also a dynamic where the stack would be defended by the strongest unit, but the unit would also be forced to fight to the death, and if that unit lost the entire stack would be destroyed or at least decimated. That would allow the convenience and tactical benefits of stacked-movement while denying the combat benefits of it. Just thinking out loud.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I need a new/old game to play.

Things I own never played.

Civ V
Last Guardian
Stardew Valley

Barely played.

Imperator
Civ IV

There is no point in Civ 5 anymore. Just play Civ 6 or go back to Civ 4. Although Civ 4 is arguably still the best, everything that's good about 5 is better in 6. So you're better off just sticking with 4 (or 3) unless you're going to go up to 6.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

everything that's good about 5 is better in 6.

Except the foxes.

 

[Snerk]

Civ 6 reminds me of Civ 4 in that I like it more in theory than praxis. It has many cool elements but parts of it feels kinda like a chore. Civ 5 has it's issues but it's engaging and fun from turn 1 to finish. Can't say the same for Civ 6 even though it's a great game.