What Video Games Have You Been Playing? #23: Lost in Shalebridge Cradle

[Senethro]

@Quintillus : any views on Surviving Mars?

Its Tropico 5 with some light production line/factory stuff. And Frostpunk comparable fatal consequences for failure, though at a slower tempo.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, that does sound super-lame ^^

 

[Synobun]

It's one of the best builders out there, IMO—if you get some quality-of-life mods. There are some artificial limitations that exist only to add tedium/difficulty, so removing those makes for a more reasonable experience. I played it for 142 hours straight a few years ago.

The radio stations are awesome, too. Didn't get tired of them once and even kept listening to them on YouTube long after I stopped playing.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I played it for 142 hours straight a few years ago.

 

[Synobun]

Not in one sitting, of course. I meant, like... without taking days off in between or switching games or losing interest. I usually muster between 15-30 hours per playthrough of a game (unless the game itself is longer than that), so 142 hours meant I kept coming back and playing more, and more, and more. As a comparative, I put 27 hours into Tropico 5.

 

[Takhisis]

Path of Exile 'Affliction' launches Friday!

Thanks for the warning. I'll remember to avoid the thread for a few days after that.

 

[Quintillus]

@Quintillus : any views on Surviving Mars?

I've only played it for a small fraction of the time Synobun played it. Setting was nice, music is definitely great, but it didn't pull me in. Pacing mostly as I recall. Maybe some of those artificial limitations? One of the reasons I didn't like Cities: Skylines was it had artificial limitations around when you could build things, e.g. you can't build a police station till you have howevermany residents, whereas Sim City 4 doesn't have such limitations. So that could be part of it too. I'd be curious what the mods you recommend are, Synobun?

I did consider trying it again recently, but went to Offworld Trading Company for me Mars fix.

Still playing Civ VI. Won as the Aztecs with a 2015 Space Race. It was actually kind of close too, I didn't start going for science till kind of late, and Greece was right up there with me, and Kongo was making a good effort at a cultural victory; at one point only the great Greek culture was preventing them from winning, so I started investing in that as well as a preventative measure. By the end I had enough culture that it was no longer just Greece keeping them from winning, but I only had barely enough for that to be the case. Perhaps equally as helpful as our cultural efforts were our efforts to steal world-famous artwork from their museums, reducing their cultural prowess. Even though they caught at least one of our spies, they seemed oddly unaware of the scheme, evidently not sending anyone on a tour of world museums to find their art in our museums. We traded one of the pieces to Greece for one of theirs just in case.

That game was with my first self-made mode, which nerfed the Eureka bonus from 50% to 25% of tech completion, as tech had been progressing too quickly. It may have still been a bit quick, but felt closer to right.

Now I'm playing as Germany. I'm appreciating the different unique traits. The Aztecs' district-building-builders are nifty, I used them later in the game on new cities as well as on a second spaceport. Rome's roads meant I nearly completely ignored trade routes but still had a nice road network. And Germany's Hansa district is probably my favorite yet. I'm building way more commercial districts due to the Hanseatic adjacency bonus with them, and they give way more production than a regular industrial district for a lot lower cost. So I also have lots of cash. Then I switch to Merchant Republic, and add in Carthage as a city-state ally (how did Carthage never become a full civ in Civ VI?), and their bonus gives extra trade routes for each Encampment. So I build more of those than I have in previous games, and I'm swimming in trade routes.

I'm also trying the CQUI mod (https://github.com/civfanatics/CQUI_Community-Edition), which fixes several of the shortcomings of the Civ VI UI in the information-availability department. Still not perfect - I can't find a way to sort cities by productivity, for example - but certainly better.

 

[Kyriakos]

I played some more Foundation. I guess pc warming is normal when playing games that do require relatively a lot of computer resources (?).
I disliked that, because this pc is supposed to be a (not higher end) gaming pc, but maybe I overestimated that ^^ (16 GB ram and 4 GB Vram).
It doesn't heat much, tbh, but I was alarmed because previously it acted like nothing was going on

All that said, Foundation is kind of pretty looking meh with joyful atmosphere. I doubt I will be playing for that long. Is Offworld Trading Company grimdark?

 

[Synobun]

I've only played it for a small fraction of the time Synobun played it. Setting was nice, music is definitely great, but it didn't pull me in. Pacing mostly as I recall. Maybe some of those artificial limitations? One of the reasons I didn't like Cities: Skylines was it had artificial limitations around when you could build things, e.g. you can't build a police station till you have howevermany residents, whereas Sim City 4 doesn't have such limitations. So that could be part of it too. I'd be curious what the mods you recommend are, Synobun?

Looking at my list, I had:

• Universal Depot Defaults
• POI Add Tooltips (adds tooltips to the planetary anomaly screen)
• Add Progress To Training Section (what it says on the tin, tells you how far along students are)
• Forestation Plant Goes To 11 (vanilla is for forestation plants to stop at 40%, for some reason. This removes that limit)
• ChoGGi's Library (one of those master framework things like in Skyrim; this makes every mod from ChoGGi work)
• Omega Unlocks All Slowly (vanilla caps games to two breakthroughs per game [or something similar], this lets you unlock them all eventually)
• Research Autorepeat (late-game improvement that makes it so you don't have to constantly re-select repeatable researches)
• Rocket Stock (turns the vanilla rocket launch screen into something usable and not infuriating)

I also had a couple mods that added buildings with larger values and doubled the service limits, but those border on cheating so I won't recommend those. ChoGGi, in general, has a mod for most QoL concerns though.

This was also back in 2020, and I think Paradox released an update at some point in 2021. The mod landscape has likely changed a bit since.

 

[Synobun]

I played some more Foundation. I guess pc warming is normal when playing games that do require relatively a lot of computer resources (?).
I disliked that, because this pc is supposed to be a (not higher end) gaming pc, but maybe I overestimated that ^^ (16 GB ram and 4 GB Vram).
It doesn't heat much, tbh, but I was alarmed because previously it acted like nothing was going on

All that said, Foundation is kind of pretty looking meh with joyful atmosphere. I doubt I will be playing for that long. Is Offworld Trading Company grimdark?

Heating up is normal, to some extent. Poorly optimized games will tax the system more. Even an OP rig will burn hot if there's insufficient airflow or if it's running something that just eats up CPU/GPU like there's no tomorrow.

 

[Kyriakos]

Not sure what it was, but Foundation did really tax the system more than any other game I played. Not that it is hugely surprising, given it is not just in full 3d but with a rather large world filled with animated objects which are distinct (eg each tree is one etc). So not on the same level as games like They Are Billions, Europa Universalis IV, Banished and Factorio. The only other game which made the pc fans audible (but to a much lesser degree) was curiously FrostPunk.

 

[GenMarshall]

Welp, I ended up getting hooked onto two games: Anno 1800 and Satisfactory.

I also ended up adding Tropico 6 onto my wishlist and await a sale so I can nab the DLCs along with the main game.

 

[Synobun]

I had a passing interest in trying out Anno, but the one I bought a few months ago had no tutorial and the UI was completely incomprehensible with that in mind. It was a quick refund. Opening up the production screen and immediately seeing 50+ choices was too intimidating to muddle through.

 

[Quintillus]

Wow, that's a lot of Surviving Mars mods! I have bookmarked that post for reference when I get back around to playing it. Might be in 2024, might be in 2034, but the bookmarks are there and I finally have a system to ensure they'll survive computer migrations!

I'm pretty sure I'd fall for Anno 1800 hook line and sinker, but don't need yet another launcher, so I haven't picked it up yet. If it ever reaches GOG, it'll be a day one purchase. Actually bought it on Steam briefly, not realizing it still needed the Ubisoft launcher when bought via Steam, but it was quickly refunded once I realized it did.

I have a couple of the older Anno's on GOG, haven't tried them yet, maybe they'd be right up my alley too. But the 1800s are one of my favorite time periods in history, as well as for economic games, so that's the one I really want. I've also found that given the wealth of options these days, including some with quite good UIs, my tolerance for games where you have to read a 300-page manual to understand the game is lower than it used to be. It's okay to have to do some reading to understand the finer points, but being able to grasp the gist of it quickly through a decent UI really helps. Would I have gotten into Victoria II, described by its own developer as having "the UI that God forgot", had I first played it now instead of circa 2012? Doubtful.

Haven't tried Satisfactory yet, but I hear it is accurately named.

 

[EgonSpengler]

TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part Four is Here! - THE LONG DARK

Get ready to explore TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part Four: BURIED ECHOES – available now on Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation, and Xbox!

www.thelongdark.com

I fired up my dormant Stalker run in The Long Dark: Tales From the Far Territory last night. I haven't played since July, so I had to take a moment to reorient myself. Timberwolf Mountain, mountaineer's cabin, day 231. Fully-equipped and outfitted, tons of supplies. Still slogging towards the achievements "Skilled Survivor" (get all skills to level 5 in a single Survival Mode game) and "Will to Live" (survive 500 days in a single Survival Mode game). I'm actually pretty close to the former, but obviously I'm not even halfway to the latter. The entrance to the new map region is near the train station. Where going left takes you to the airfield, I think either continuing to follow the tracks or taking the road up the hill will lead you to the mine (or maybe both). It's a long walk, basically across the whole island, but I guess I'm not in any rush.

I played for about an hour-and-a-half last night. Relocated from the mountaineer's cabin to the farmhouse in Pleasant Valley. When I stepped outside the cabin, I saw 3 dead wolves right nearby. Must've been some kind of war the day before. As I headed for the exit, I saw the carcass of a moose that had been fully stripped, so that must explain the carnage around the cabin. At the farmhouse, I made a travois with my last few hours of daylight, even though I don't really need it right now. Mostly I just wanted to see how much it weighs when you roll it up and store it, see if it's something to carry around when you're not using it or something you'd build several of and leave behind at strategic locations.

I see that Buried Echoes is a continuation of Signal Void, but it's been so long that I don't really remember anything about that story. I'll have to see if the notes and recordings are stored in your diary or inventory, so I can go back and read/listen to them again. I assume they are. I'll also have to see which foods help you avoid scurvy. Hopefully, I haven't already eaten too many of them. I tend not to eat the peaches and tomato soup too often, because they're so heavy to carry around, so I'm hoping I left cans of those behind everywhere. I'm not really a note-taker or spray-painter, so I don't have anything to refer to other than my memory of where I generally like to set up camps.

I'll probably do another hour or so each night, with an eye towards spending several hours over the weekend in the new region. Looks like it could be another big one, like the airfield.

 

[Clubber Lang]

VI -

 

[Synobun]

The body models are really good, but something feels off about the animations to me.

 

[Sommerswerd]

TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part Four is Here! - THE LONG DARK

Get ready to explore TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part Four: BURIED ECHOES – available now on Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation, and Xbox!

www.thelongdark.com

I fired up my dormant Stalker run in The Long Dark: Tales From the Far Territory last night. I haven't played since July, so I had to take a moment to reorient myself. Timberwolf Mountain, mountaineer's cabin, day 231. Fully-equipped and outfitted, tons of supplies. Still slogging towards the achievements "Skilled Survivor" (get all skills to level 5 in a single Survival Mode game) and "Will to Live" (survive 500 days in a single Survival Mode game). I'm actually pretty close to the former, but obviously I'm not even halfway to the latter. The entrance to the new map region is near the train station. Where going left takes you to the airfield, I think either continuing to follow the tracks or taking the road up the hill will lead you to the mine (or maybe both). It's a long walk, basically across the whole island, but I guess I'm not in any rush.

I played for about an hour-and-a-half last night. Relocated from the mountaineer's cabin to the farmhouse in Pleasant Valley. When I stepped outside the cabin, I saw 3 dead wolves right nearby. Must've been some kind of war the day before. As I headed for the exit, I saw the carcass of a moose that had been fully stripped, so that must explain the carnage around the cabin. At the farmhouse, I made a travois with my last few hours of daylight, even though I don't really need it right now. Mostly I just wanted to see how much it weighs when you roll it up and store it, see if it's something to carry around when you're not using it or something you'd build several of and leave behind at strategic locations.

I see that Buried Echoes is a continuation of Signal Void, but it's been so long that I don't really remember anything about that story. I'll have to see if the notes and recordings are stored in your diary or inventory, so I can go back and read/listen to them again. I assume they are. I'll also have to see which foods help you avoid scurvy. Hopefully, I haven't already eaten too many of them. I tend not to eat the peaches and tomato soup too often, because they're so heavy to carry around, so I'm hoping I left cans of those behind everywhere. I'm not really a note-taker or spray-painter, so I don't have anything to refer to other than my memory of where I generally like to set up camps.

I'll probably do another hour or so each night, with an eye towards spending several hours over the weekend in the new region. Looks like it could be another big one, like the airfield.

LMAO I was just coming over here to tell you about this! I literally just watched the trailer and it looked amazing!! I thought..."Egon needs to hear about this!!! I still need to finish Signal Void though , but now I'm motivated... I haven't played in a long time since I pretty much don't have any time to do anything during football season because I coach.

 

[Kyriakos]

This is exactly the type of inefficient base that leads to an early death by attracting the aliens.
I should devote some time to get a go-around airport-styled belt, with logical gates to defuse choke-points.

 

[GenMarshall]

View attachment 679124

This is exactly the type of inefficient base that leads to an early death by attracting the aliens.
I should devote some time to get a go-around airport-styled belt, with logical gates to defuse choke-points.

I end up making a dedicated factory line making ammo to feed my turrets. I don’t care if it makes too much shotgun shells/bullets, there’s never enough dakka!