What Video Games Have You Been Playing, Part 10: Or; A Shameful Display!

[Phrossack]

I've been playing Enderal, the Skyrim total conversion mod that just came out on Steam and I've been blown away by it. The quests are well written, the mechanics aren't quite as "git gud scrub" as I've come to expect with Skyrim combat mods. Plus, the voice acting is outstanding. Like, I'd rank it up there with Witcher3 quality voice acting.
The only real downsides I've noticed with it is the lack of fast travel (except between major points) gets real old real fast when you are running back and forth from city to dungeon to sell your loot. It also crashes relatively often (about once every two hours or so) but thankfully the crashes tend to be when scenes are being loaded and the game both permits quicksave and autosaves heavily.
Note that approximately the first hour of the game is unintuitive and, to be honest, pretty dull. That, combined with the early game hell almost lead me to quit it, but once you get to Riverville the game really opens up.

Seriously, if you have Skyrim (not Special Edition apparently) on Steam, give Enderal a try.

Alas, I don't have the space for it, and only have Special Edition.

In Fall of the Samurai, I resumed my doomed campaign and got the economy up and running again by repairing ports and reclaiming the seas around Shikoku.

I managed to expand my Honshu beachhead and slaughtered some Yodo and Obama armies with the help of Armstrong guns and Red Bear infantry. Armstrong guns eat soldiers for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a midnight snack. Red Bears strike terror and bullets into the hearts of all those who dare say, "What is with that ridiculous wig," or "Are you wearing that on purpose," or other such hurtful things.

But my "allies" had to cause trouble.

You see, Satsuma, an Imperial clan and ally, betrayed the cause and joined the usurping Shogun. This causes friction, but they're still allies. My ishin shishi tried to remove Shogun support from their lands, and when this failed because the daimyo can only convert once in a lifetime, they discreetly removed the daimyo's head.

His successor proved equally stubborn and refused to return to the Imperial fold. Instead, he declared war on my Matsue allies, forcing me to abandon them, and took a foothold in Honshu. With Realm Divide approaching, war seems inevitable at this point, and I have few allies left.

I accepted an American military mission, but foolishly tried to build the trade quarters away from a region with a gunsmith that could make much better Marines. Apparently President Grant is fine with me hiring, arming, and commanding his Marines. Thanks, buddy.

 

[Lexicus]

Alas, I don't have the space for it, and only have Special Edition.

That's interesting. I got the Special Edition for free because I had Skyrim and all the DLC at the right time, but I haven't ever played it because I consider the game unplayable on PC without the SkyUI mod, which afaik is unavailable for the Special Edition.

 

[Synobun]

Shadow of Mordor. Good game, short. It'd be a lot longer if you did all the side content. I was interested at first in doing that but then I realized that all the side content is completely identical to each other so there isn't a point. At least in an RPG there's different window dressing.

Anyways, the story was good enough. WB Games is very confusing though. Their games are so optimized that my laptop can run them smoothly but they have horrible bugs. Not Bethesda bugs either where there are models clipping in midair or something like that, but bugs which force you to start over from an earlier save.

Fun. Decent experience.

 

[EgonSpengler]

That is just one example though. Look at say.. I don't know.. Poland. We didn't always just have club wielding units defending our borders. It was a gradual upgrade of weapons, armour, etc. Even without any iron whatsoever the technology jump wouldn't have meant that you have club wielding warriors covered in cloth on one day and then suddenly musketmen the next.

I get the "you need these resources to produce these units" dynamic.. I like it.. but there need to be more varieties of units for you to produce over the ages. I suspect there isn't because when you play a game on regular speed, there is almost no time to engage in wars in certain time periods, so it would be useless to have all those units for those time periods..

And yeah, the computer was always really bad at war in Civ, doesn't matter what version. It's like playing against a toddler. At least in previous versions the computer knew how to use the SOD (IIRC)

Right, the game speed is an issue. I don't like playing on Standard speed, but as you said, Marathon is just too long and there are too many turns where I don't really do much. I play on Epic only as a compromise; strictly from the perspective of unit movement speed, unit lifetime, I would play at Marathon.

I think the jump from Warrior to Musketmen, in the absence of iron, is okay. The jump doesn't have to be from Warriors to Musketmen, the jump can be from an army built around archery and cavalry to an army built around gunpowder weapons. In the absence of iron, I think the mid-step between Warriors and Musketmen is Crossbowmen.

 

[Broken_Erika]

It could always be like it was in vanilla civ2, where the AI would attack you with an army consisting of marines, helicopters, chariots and catapults...

 

[Phrossack]

That's interesting. I got the Special Edition for free because I had Skyrim and all the DLC at the right time, but I haven't ever played it because I consider the game unplayable on PC without the SkyUI mod, which afaik is unavailable for the Special Edition.

Wish I'd known! I only had Skyrim for the 360 until I got SE for my PC...

 

[Lexicus]

In my current Civ 4 game I encountered something I've never seen before in all my years of playing: an aggressive Mansa Musa! He was the score leader for most of the game, and actually capitulated two other AIs before he made the mistake of betraying me. He declared war on me at Pleased, which I didn't think he was capable of doing! And he did it, coincidentally, on the exact turn I discovered Rifling.
He managed to capture two of my border cities due to his numerical advantage and my unpreparedness (I had a long land border with him and one of his vassals, Pacal). I had just finished a limited war against Lincoln for control of some border cities with Gems and Banana, and my stack of Janissaries and Cannons was way out of position for a war against Mansa and his vassals. Anyway, I raced up there and upgraded as many units to Riflemen as I could, and quickly captured back the two cities I had lost and destroyed Mansa's offensive stacks.

After securing the northern border I went total war economy mode and whipped all my cities down to build another giant stack of rifles and cannons. I used that to invade Pacal while also launching a more limited invasion of Mansa's territory with my original stack. Eventually got artillery and then infantry before the war finally ended with Mansa a rump vassal, and his vassals all capitulated to me.

Now I've been building up forces to bring my glory to the other continent, as I'm just a bit short of the Domination goals. I'm the UN secretary-general and banned nuclear weapons so nothing can stop me from winning this game. Hammurabi peacevassaled to me after breaking away from Julius Caesar (they're both on the other continent) and I had been building up a navy and air force when Caesar declared war on Hammurabi which also brought me in. I've been picking off Caesar's ships when they get too close to my continent, while building up a fleet large enough to take an expeditionary force over to the other continent. Hammy's got a lot of island cities between here and there and Caesar and his vassals actually landed troops on some of them so in all a cool intercontinental war, and looking forward to a fun campaign of liberation on the other continent's mainland when I get home from work this afternoon.

In a fun twist, by pure coincidence it's Hammurabi of the Romans and Julius Caesar of the Bablyonians. Unrestricted leaders is kewl

 

[warpus]

Right, the game speed is an issue. I don't like playing on Standard speed, but as you said, Marathon is just too long and there are too many turns where I don't really do much. I play on Epic only as a compromise; strictly from the perspective of unit movement speed, unit lifetime, I would play at Marathon.

Epic is too fast moving for me.. I have been playing on epic up until I tried marathon, and I find marathon far superior. I can't go back now after getting a taste of what marathon is like. There's some issues, like you say, but I don't know if I can play at any other speed now.

Epic starts of well enough, but then everything speeds up and historical ages just zoom you by. When I play epic I never have a chance to use my musketmen, by the time I have an army ready for a war, I already have the tech. for superior units. But before that, if I don't have iron, I am stuck with warriors for thousands of years. It's silly

I think the jump from Warrior to Musketmen, in the absence of iron, is okay. The jump doesn't have to be from Warriors to Musketmen, the jump can be from an army built around archery and cavalry to an army built around gunpowder weapons. In the absence of iron, I think the mid-step between Warriors and Musketmen is Crossbowmen.

In human history a civilization never goes straight from warriors with clubs to musketmen though.. It's a HUGE leap.. There are always so many steps in between.

Crossbowmen don't work for me here because they are a ranged unit. What would be better is some unit that uses.. I don't know, maybe copper? There's more of that on the map usually than iron (I think).. There's gotta be sooo many historical case studies of military units that would work.

The problem for me is that if you don't have iron (and this happens to me like.. alllll the time), this means that you don't plan for any wars until you have muskets.. and if you don't have the resource for that, you'll be waiting until the modern age until your first war.. which seems weird for a game that's supposed to span the entirety of human civilization

 

[cardgame]

Marathon is good, but only if you start in like 800 BC, the early game is beyond ridiculous

 

[Hygro]

Marathon is interesting because the ratios change. Epic multiplies the cost of units and buildings the same. Marathon multiplies the costs of buildings significantly more than units and biases the game toward comparatively large armies.

 

[Lexicus]

I've always played on Epic, I don't believe I've ever played on any other game speed.

 

[Hygro]

I am playing as Mansa Musa on marathon right now thanks to you guys.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Wish I'd known! I only had Skyrim for the 360 until I got SE for my PC...

Stop buying Skyrim Buy Skyrim VSE
Iam gonna be honest here, I havent finished Skyrim yet, being a magic user was a mistake, you cap out around level 18 or so and from there its all downhill

 

[Ajidica]

Playing more Enderal. I stumbled across this in a ruin. Whatever it is, I don't think it is good.


And from my currently paused Divinity OS 2: DE game. Another reason I love Fane so much.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Playing more Enderal. I stumbled across this in a ruin. Whatever it is, I don't think it is good.

Well, it wasn't good for the previous guy that found it, that's for sure.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Epic is too fast moving for me.. I have been playing on epic up until I tried marathon, and I find marathon far superior. I can't go back now after getting a taste of what marathon is like. There's some issues, like you say, but I don't know if I can play at any other speed now.

Epic starts of well enough, but then everything speeds up and historical ages just zoom you by. When I play epic I never have a chance to use my musketmen, by the time I have an army ready for a war, I already have the tech. for superior units. But before that, if I don't have iron, I am stuck with warriors for thousands of years. It's silly



In human history a civilization never goes straight from warriors with clubs to musketmen though.. It's a HUGE leap.. There are always so many steps in between.

Crossbowmen don't work for me here because they are a ranged unit. What would be better is some unit that uses.. I don't know, maybe copper? There's more of that on the map usually than iron (I think).. There's gotta be sooo many historical case studies of military units that would work.

The problem for me is that if you don't have iron (and this happens to me like.. alllll the time), this means that you don't plan for any wars until you have muskets.. and if you don't have the resource for that, you'll be waiting until the modern age until your first war.. which seems weird for a game that's supposed to span the entirety of human civilization

From a game-play perspective, I think you're putting too much emphasis on the units that Civ (somewhat arbitrarily) labels as melee units, but since Civ is a "sandbox strategy game", that's as much a preference thing as anything else. I find Crossbowmen to be so effective they're almost game-breaking. Even when I do have Swordsmen, those are just my mid-step to Crossbowmen, which become the backbone of my army. I guess I'm a Chinese general, at heart (I don't use cavalry units much, either). You can whup the AI just as badly with... well... whatever you want.

I'm also curious to see how easy it is to acquire some iron in trades with the AI under the new system. In my only Gathering Storm game so far, I have plenty of iron within my borders, so I've been the one trading it away to Civs that need it.

I note that the unit descriptions the game provides are kind of narrow. For example, it says the Warrior is "armed with a club or stone axe", and yet the unit clearly represents the infantry employed by, say, the Egypt of the Pharoahs, who were armed with bronze weapons like spears, axes, daggers, javelins, and khopeshes (Wikipedia says kopeshes were used at the Battle of Kadesh, although that fight was all about the chariots). Promotions don't do enough to differentiate a superior version of a lesser unit from the next unit up the tech tree, imo, because units keep promotions when they're upgraded. If you upgrade a Warrior with Battlecry to a Swordsman, you get a Swordsman with Battlecry, so the Civ that lacks iron can only make up some of the difference by using veteran Warriors if the enemy happens to field an army of green Swordsmen. If you want an interim unit, maybe it would be something like 'Improved Warrior' (that deserves a better name, but I can't think of one right now). There could also be a Policy Card that improves existing units slightly. Right now, "Discipline" is an Ancient Policy Card that provides a +5, but only against Barbarians. Maybe there could be a new Policy Card in the Classical Era that provides a bonus against anybody (but then you would have to go back and redesign many of the UUs that already represent a superior implementation or refinement of a common unit type, so maybe that would just be opening a can of worms...).

 

[Synobun]

I've been playing Mad Max.

Not sure how to feel about the game thus far. There are a few mechanics that are kind of annoying, and I honestly don't really find the uh, "story", incredibly compelling.

That being said, I'm only ~3 hours in. Maybe it'll get better.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Someone should make a Cat-Crossbow mod for civ.

 

[AdamCrock]

Playing more Enderal. I stumbled across this in a ruin. Whatever it is, I don't think it is good.

It's the "Guardian of Eternity" !!!!

 

[Phrossack]

From a game-play perspective, I think you're putting too much emphasis on the units that Civ (somewhat arbitrarily) labels as melee units, but since Civ is a "sandbox strategy game", that's as much a preference thing as anything else. I find Crossbowmen to be so effective they're almost game-breaking. Even when I do have Swordsmen, those are just my mid-step to Crossbowmen, which become the backbone of my army. I guess I'm a Chinese general, at heart (I don't use cavalry units much, either). You can whup the AI just as badly with... well... whatever you want.

I'm also curious to see how easy it is to acquire some iron in trades with the AI under the new system. In my only Gathering Storm game so far, I have plenty of iron within my borders, so I've been the one trading it away to Civs that need it.

I note that the unit descriptions the game provides are kind of narrow. For example, it says the Warrior is "armed with a club or stone axe", and yet the unit clearly represents the infantry employed by, say, the Egypt of the Pharoahs, who were armed with bronze weapons like spears, axes, daggers, javelins, and khopeshes (Wikipedia says kopeshes were used at the Battle of Kadesh, although that fight was all about the chariots). Promotions don't do enough to differentiate a superior version of a lesser unit from the next unit up the tech tree, imo, because units keep promotions when they're upgraded. If you upgrade a Warrior with Battlecry to a Swordsman, you get a Swordsman with Battlecry, so the Civ that lacks iron can only make up some of the difference by using veteran Warriors if the enemy happens to field an army of green Swordsmen. If you want an interim unit, maybe it would be something like 'Improved Warrior' (that deserves a better name, but I can't think of one right now). There could also be a Policy Card that improves existing units slightly. Right now, "Discipline" is an Ancient Policy Card that provides a +5, but only against Barbarians. Maybe there could be a new Policy Card in the Classical Era that provides a bonus against anybody (but then you would have to go back and redesign many of the UUs that already represent a superior implementation or refinement of a common unit type, so maybe that would just be opening a can of worms...).

In Fall from Heaven 2, higher level land units tend not to require any resources, but get stronger with access to copper, iron, or mithril. Which makes sense--you can make perfectly usable weapons without any metal, and even armor can be made without it, but metal is preferable. The Aztecs and the Tlingit, for example, had great arms and armor without metal, beyond copper daggers and the odd armor made out of Chinese coins for the Tlingit.