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

[MaryKB]

Oh dear, I didn't know I shouldn't spend my talent points in Path of Exile, I won't do that any more. I have no idea what I should do, and I don't understand builds at all, would anyone who knows Rangers please tell me what I should do with my points? I don't want to mess up my character, but I also don't feel up to really learning intricate details of how it all works and everything, and I also feel it's not likely I'd want to play my character over again from the beginning. I know I probably sound hopelessly demanding, but if any of you experts are so kind to have an idea for me that'd be so lovely and I'd be so very grateful

 

[civvver]

I don't think I've used a 3.5" floppy in 17+ years. I think I even stopped using normal CDs ten years ago.

I mean I still burn photos and stuff to them to print (quicker than a thumb drive cus those stupid kiosks always scan the entire drive and take forever to do it) or audio cds, but I can't think of software that's come on a cd over a dvd in years. Civ4 beyond the sword would probably be the last one, that may have even been dvd.

 

[Peuri]

Sitting at home with an infected cheek thanks to my wisdom teeth being turncloacks. Launched XCOM 2 for the first time in a long time. First scenario. 4 operatives miss 65% shots in a row. Why do I torture myself?

 

[Leathaface]

I played RE2, beat the game with both Leon & Claire. I really enjoyed it, I highly recommend it. The graphics are very good and there isn't a lot of ammo like in the old Resident Evil games.

I only beat it on Standard difficulty though, now to move up to Hardcore.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Oh dear, I didn't know I shouldn't spend my talent points in Path of Exile, I won't do that any more. I have no idea what I should do, and I don't understand builds at all, would anyone who knows Rangers please tell me what I should do with my points? I don't want to mess up my character, but I also don't feel up to really learning intricate details of how it all works and everything, and I also feel it's not likely I'd want to play my character over again from the beginning. I know I probably sound hopelessly demanding, but if any of you experts are so kind to have an idea for me that'd be so lovely and I'd be so very grateful

Hey now, I didn't say you shouldn't spend them. Just spend them carefully, because they're a pain to undo if you change your mind. The skill tree is mostly bonuses to your gem skills, so what I recommend is playing around with different gems & equipment first, then filling in your skill tree to complement the spells and attack you like using the most. You'll end up collecting more gems and equipment than you know what to do with, and it's not hard to buy more if you need to, so swapping those around and trying different things is easy and doesn't cost you anything.

I haven't played a Ranger, but if/when I do, I'm thinking I'd go with lots of Bow and Poison attacks and skip the melee skills. There are a few skills on the "eastern" edge on the skill tree that look intriguing to me, and there're a lot of skills that increase Damage Over Time around the Ranger's starting position on the tree. I think a Poisoned attack with high Damage Over Time would be just the thing for those pesky Bosses I hate so much. Again, ymmv. I could also see loading up on Cold attacks for their defensive utility, because Evasion is kind of an all-or-nothing defense, and reducing enemy movement and attack speeds is always handy (not just in Path of Exile, in any game).

 

[Lexicus]

So I've been playing Stellaris pretty obsessively since I got back to DC. And I have some thoughts.

First of all, they really need to clean up the UI of planet and empire management. The concepts they have for how planets work and such are solid, but the execution is flawed such that the expressed goals (of making planet management less of a click-fest) have been failed: the game is now more click-intensive than ever. Assigning pops to jobs is a huge hassle especially when it's the lategame and you have a lotttttt of spare pops to move around. They need to add an option to turn on automated resettling of pops from one planet to another.

The outliner on the right stops being very useful as soon as you settle enough planets that you can't see everything at once. It's supposed to let you see things that require immediate attention at a glance but having to scroll up and down defeats that purpose entirely.

They need to tweak the machine empire's mechanics. The early game is too punishing and the snowball is too stronk.

They need to completely overhaul the population growth and migration mechanics. As is there's too much counterintuitive about it, and the condensing of migration and organic growth into a single growth mechanic is just stupid, even though I can see why it was done from a balancing perspective.

There were a few other issues I probably can't remember now but I think the 2.2 update has given a very solid foundation and if Paradox can tweak things to fix the problems this will be by far the best iteration of Stellaris we've seen.

 

[Ironsided]

I have been playing Slay the Spire quite a lot lately. It doesn’t look like much but it has some serious depth to it. I keep finding new synergies and combos almost every game working my way up the ascensions.

 

[Mouthwash]

First of all, they really need to clean up the UI of planet and empire management. The concepts they have for how planets work and such are solid, but the execution is flawed such that the expressed goals (of making planet management less of a click-fest) have been failed: the game is now more click-intensive than ever. Assigning pops to jobs is a huge hassle especially when it's the lategame and you have a lotttttt of spare pops to move around. They need to add an option to turn on automated resettling of pops from one planet to another.

The outliner on the right stops being very useful as soon as you settle enough planets that you can't see everything at once. It's supposed to let you see things that require immediate attention at a glance but having to scroll up and down defeats that purpose entirely.

Life-seeded is your friend.

 

[cardgame]

Yesterday I installed Napo Total War plus the NTW3 mod because the hype. First impression is it is half done. Someone has tried it?

I don't think I've done NTW3, but if we're simply avoiding darthmod then you should try L.M.E. instead

 

[Peuri]

So I've been playing Stellaris pretty obsessively since I got back to DC. And I have some thoughts.

First of all, they really need to clean up the UI of planet and empire management. The concepts they have for how planets work and such are solid, but the execution is flawed such that the expressed goals (of making planet management less of a click-fest) have been failed: the game is now more click-intensive than ever. Assigning pops to jobs is a huge hassle especially when it's the lategame and you have a lotttttt of spare pops to move around. They need to add an option to turn on automated resettling of pops from one planet to another.

The outliner on the right stops being very useful as soon as you settle enough planets that you can't see everything at once. It's supposed to let you see things that require immediate attention at a glance but having to scroll up and down defeats that purpose entirely.

They need to tweak the machine empire's mechanics. The early game is too punishing and the snowball is too stronk.

They need to completely overhaul the population growth and migration mechanics. As is there's too much counterintuitive about it, and the condensing of migration and organic growth into a single growth mechanic is just stupid, even though I can see why it was done from a balancing perspective.

There were a few other issues I probably can't remember now but I think the 2.2 update has given a very solid foundation and if Paradox can tweak things to fix the problems this will be by far the best iteration of Stellaris we've seen.

The game is so much more fun and manageable with mods that decrease the amount of planets in the galaxy.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I don't think I've done NTW3, but if we're simply avoiding darthmod then you should try L.M.E. instead

Will Google them. I am looking for giving the game a more "realistic" feeling. NTW3 promises that with nearly to real scale battles, communication lines etc.

 

[PhroX]

Oh dear, I didn't know I shouldn't spend my talent points in Path of Exile, I won't do that any more. I have no idea what I should do, and I don't understand builds at all, would anyone who knows Rangers please tell me what I should do with my points? I don't want to mess up my character, but I also don't feel up to really learning intricate details of how it all works and everything, and I also feel it's not likely I'd want to play my character over again from the beginning. I know I probably sound hopelessly demanding, but if any of you experts are so kind to have an idea for me that'd be so lovely and I'd be so very grateful

It's certainly not wrong to spend points. The risk is spending them williy-nilly without having some overall plan as to what you're trying to achieve - so if you're not sure yet where you want to go, it might be a good idea to hold off somewhat.

For an archer, as with every character, the first real decision is what main offensive ability you want to focus on, and from there, you can take the nodes that support that style. It's been a while since I've played an archer, but overall, there are three general types of ranged attacks - physical damage (for example Tornado Shot or Rain of Arrows), elemental damage (for example Ice Shot or Lightning Arrow) and damage over time (for example Caustic Arrow or Toxic Rain). My advice would be to try out several of the archery abilities and see which you find most fun and once you've done that, start looking for damage nodes of the appropriate type around the ranger start. However, whichever skill you go for, do not overlook getting some increased life on the skill tree - it's very easy just to pick up all the nodes and gear that increases your damage, then run into a brick wall when you come up against stuff that you can't one-shot. Even if a few +5% life nodes don't sound amazing, they really add up - by the higher levels most builds will be looking at over +150% life from the tree. Other defensive nodes are less important, particularly evasion, as you need gear to really take advantage of that. One exception for characters that start on the right of the tree, like the ranger, is the Acrobatics node which gives you a flat 30% chance to avoid any attack. Which is nice.

 

[Lexicus]

The game is so much more fun and manageable with mods that decrease the amount of planets in the galaxy.

Not for me, I set habitable planets to a higher setting than the default because I like the feeling of having a large empire.

 

[Mouthwash]

The game is so much more fun and manageable with mods that decrease the amount of planets in the galaxy.

Huh? Even with normal planet amounts, you usually get only two or three even a century into the game. And you can go down to a quarter of that.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Just out of curiosity, I loaded up the Beatles' Revolution #9 in Audiosurf.

The game crashed.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Just out of curiosity, I loaded up the Beatles' Revolution #9 in Audiosurf.

The game crashed.

I wonder what would happen if you tried loading this song in Audiosurf?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I wonder what would happen if you tried loading this song in Audiosurf?

This.

 

[Broken_Erika]

It'll get much easier about half-way through.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I had to stop playing about two minutes in because I started falling asleep. I like my slow uphill rides, but it felt like driving a motorized scooter up a slope at the rate of one mph.

 

[cardgame]

Huh? Even with normal planet amounts, you usually get only two or three even a century into the game. And you can go down to a quarter of that.

We have pretty different Stellaris experiences, I usually end up with 3 planets after like 20-30 years, by a century, easily six if there's habitable in range.