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

[civvver]

It's probably all over the main forums but humble bundle just released an amazing strategy bundle.

Civ6, stellaris, offworld trading co, dungeons 3, plague inc, ashes of the singularity and niche for $15.

 

[Synobun]

Plague Inc sucks.

But it is a pretty good bundle. Probably the best non-monthly bundle they've had since getting bought.

 

[Mouthwash]

Stellaris is $40. Civ 6 is $60.

Am I misunderstanding something here? This doesn't really seem possible.

 

[Synobun]

Humble Bundle does not resell keys. They're provided them by the developers directly.

And that's just plain customer acquisition. A sudden boost of low-cost sales can be better than a trickle of high-cost sales.

5000 units at $15 is $75,000 whereas 500 units at $60 is $30,000. They also make their money from DLC now. Getting all the DLCs for Stellaris and Civ 6 is now a >$100 investment.

 

[Mouthwash]

Humble Bundle does not resell keys. They're provided them by the developers directly.

And that's just plain customer acquisition. A sudden boost of low-cost sales can be better than a trickle of high-cost sales.

5000 units at $15 is $75,000 whereas 500 units at $60 is $30,000. They also make their money from DLC now. Getting all the DLCs for Stellaris and Civ 6 is now a >$100 investment.

Huh, that actually makes sense. I'm used to there being a cost for each unit made (forgot the term for that), but I guess that isn't the case for vidya games.

 

[Dachs]

In Mass Effect 2, I agonized for an hour over my armor combination and paint scheme. Settled on my traditional black and white camo, with mostly Kestrel armor but the visor instead of the helmet, but I'm still not satisfied.

Even on Insanity, I found that I preferred to assemble my armor for aesthetics rather than gameplay. The Kestrel set is generally the strongest in terms of gameplay bonuses, but they're not strictly speaking necessary.

My favored cosmetic set for ME2:

Camo: Usually a mottled green/brown.
Head: Kuwashii Visor
Torso: Aegis Vest
Shoulders: Strength Boost Pads (although Kestrel Shoulder Pieces also look okay)
Arms: Stabilization Gauntlets
Legs: Life Support Webbing

Now I'm agonizing over whether to stick with the Flashbang skill, or switch to Armor-piercing Ammo, Shredder Ammo, or maybe shields. Flashbangs can be useful in theory, and as a soldier, I already have Incendiary and Disruptor Ammo. If I switched to Shredder, I could have the right tools to deal with organic and synthetic enemies. If I switched to AP, I could get a good bonus against everything, I think. But since I have two ammo types and the potential for Cryo (not sure if it's any good), maybe I should go into shielding?

You already have the tools to deal with organic and synthetic enemies, because you have Incendiary and Disruptor Ammo. Shredder Ammo is a luxury for playing on lower difficulty levels that, in my experience, doesn't decrease ttk enough to warrant its inclusion. AP Ammo is also something of a luxury because Incendiary Ammo provides similar bonuses. Raw damage for AP is better, but it doesn't set enemies on fire and its rank 4 evolution doesn't give that lovely inferno fire burst for glorious AoE. Honestly, Inferno Ammo is just more fun than Shredder or AP, and that extra AoE is just too good. Anyway. Cryo is great against husks, because they auto-die if they lose their footing through biotic or cryo attacks. It's okay against other enemies (although its utility declines rapidly on Hardcore and Insanity). They made it a lot better all-round for ME3 and MEA, especially with cryo combos.

More importantly, however, with Incendiary and Disruptor Ammo, you have the ability to crack Shields and Armor, the two most common types of protection. On Hardcore and Insanity, all enemies are protected, and until those protections are down they can't be staggered or manipulated with biotics (or, y'know, killed). A common tactic is to use your Soldier to headshot mooks and strip protections from more powerful enemies, and then bring in appropriate biotic squadmates to set up a few Warp bombs.

That said, there are two avenues of development with your Soldier.

The one avenue is to go for raw damage. This effectively means a sniper build with your Mantis (later Widow) and Heightened Adrenaline Rush. If you have the Mattock (the King of Cheese in ME2) this build also works well for it because Adrenaline Rush does not slow the Mattock's rate of fire by nearly as much as it does other weapons. Put Squad Disruptor Ammo on your Mantis to one-shot protected merc mooks on Insanity, and Inferno Ammo on other stuff.

The other is to go for dakka. Go for Hardened AR with the Avenger, Vindicator, and later the Revenant. Viper works very well here, too. Put Inferno Ammo on all your weapons and shoot the bejeezus out of everything like a character from The Expendables.

In either case, you want to maximize the time you spend in AR.

If you're playing on Normal or below, Flashbangs are a decent investment (although your passive, AR, Incendiary, and Disruptor Ammo are better). They can be okay against husks with protections stripped, as IIRC they can cause the husks to leave their feet, but you have better tools for that. Against protected enemies, they have very little utility. They are an okay bonus power to take for roleplay reasons, but in terms of gameplay the Soldier doesn't really need a bonus power.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

While going through my Steam library, I found Bioshock 2, which I'd bought on sale years ago (along with the first) but never could get to run well on my old computer. Figured I might as well try it now.

I'm...not really sure I want them.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I played some sim city 4 last night. Even after hundreds of hours I still have no idea what I'm doing.

Just make sure you save often. That game has a nasty habit of crashing for no damn reason whatsoever... and Sim City is the kind of game where a well timed crash that erases all your progress is enough to make you quit the game for a year

 

[Phrossack]

Even on Insanity, I found that I preferred to assemble my armor for aesthetics rather than gameplay. The Kestrel set is generally the strongest in terms of gameplay bonuses, but they're not strictly speaking necessary.

My favored cosmetic set for ME2:

Camo: Usually a mottled green/brown.
Head: Kuwashii Visor
Torso: Aegis Vest
Shoulders: Strength Boost Pads (although Kestrel Shoulder Pieces also look okay)
Arms: Stabilization Gauntlets
Legs: Life Support Webbing

You already have the tools to deal with organic and synthetic enemies, because you have Incendiary and Disruptor Ammo. Shredder Ammo is a luxury for playing on lower difficulty levels that, in my experience, doesn't decrease ttk enough to warrant its inclusion. AP Ammo is also something of a luxury because Incendiary Ammo provides similar bonuses. Raw damage for AP is better, but it doesn't set enemies on fire and its rank 4 evolution doesn't give that lovely inferno fire burst for glorious AoE. Honestly, Inferno Ammo is just more fun than Shredder or AP, and that extra AoE is just too good. Anyway. Cryo is great against husks, because they auto-die if they lose their footing through biotic or cryo attacks. It's okay against other enemies (although its utility declines rapidly on Hardcore and Insanity). They made it a lot better all-round for ME3 and MEA, especially with cryo combos.

More importantly, however, with Incendiary and Disruptor Ammo, you have the ability to crack Shields and Armor, the two most common types of protection. On Hardcore and Insanity, all enemies are protected, and until those protections are down they can't be staggered or manipulated with biotics (or, y'know, killed). A common tactic is to use your Soldier to headshot mooks and strip protections from more powerful enemies, and then bring in appropriate biotic squadmates to set up a few Warp bombs.

That said, there are two avenues of development with your Soldier.

The one avenue is to go for raw damage. This effectively means a sniper build with your Mantis (later Widow) and Heightened Adrenaline Rush. If you have the Mattock (the King of Cheese in ME2) this build also works well for it because Adrenaline Rush does not slow the Mattock's rate of fire by nearly as much as it does other weapons. Put Squad Disruptor Ammo on your Mantis to one-shot protected merc mooks on Insanity, and Inferno Ammo on other stuff.

The other is to go for dakka. Go for Hardened AR with the Avenger, Vindicator, and later the Revenant. Viper works very well here, too. Put Inferno Ammo on all your weapons and shoot the bejeezus out of everything like a character from The Expendables.

In either case, you want to maximize the time you spend in AR.

If you're playing on Normal or below, Flashbangs are a decent investment (although your passive, AR, Incendiary, and Disruptor Ammo are better). They can be okay against husks with protections stripped, as IIRC they can cause the husks to leave their feet, but you have better tools for that. Against protected enemies, they have very little utility. They are an okay bonus power to take for roleplay reasons, but in terms of gameplay the Soldier doesn't really need a bonus power.

I should probably get some color in my armor but never settled on anything other than dull colors.

I'm on Veteran difficulty, which I think is Normal. Should probably crank it up.

Weapon-wise I rely on my Mattock and Predator. Not many chances to use a sniper rifle. As you say, my last play through some years ago was based on a fully upgraded Revenant loaded with Incendiary, which was great.

What power should I use if not flashbangs? Shields? Reave?

 

[Dachs]

I should probably get some color in my armor but never settled on anything other than dull colors.

I'm on Veteran difficulty, which I think is Normal. Should probably crank it up.

Weapon-wise I rely on my Mattock and Predator. Not many chances to use a sniper rifle. As you say, my last play through some years ago was based on a fully upgraded Revenant loaded with Incendiary, which was great.

What power should I use if not flashbangs? Shields? Reave?

Yeah, Vet is between Normal and Hardcore. It doesn't give every enemy protections. Good for learning the game. There's a significant jump between Vet and Hardcore because of the protections on all mobs.

Predator is actually a pretty good weapon for what it is and has surprisingly high dps. I just love the one-shot one-kill thrill of the Mantis and Widow. They're also really easy to use for the Soldier and Infiltrator in ME2 because both of them get time dilation (Soldier gets it in Adrenaline Rush, Infiltrator gets it when ADSing with a scoped weapon). Tracking isn't nearly as hard with time dilation, even at close range.

Honestly, the classic Soldier plays best when not really using any offensive cooldowns other than Adrenaline Rush. You really only need the two ammo powers and AR. Instead, you should emphasize squadmates that have powers that work well with the mission. Bring peeps with Overload or Energy Drain for shield/synthetic-heavy missions, bring teams with fire-heavy powers for missions with krogan, vorcha, and wildlife, and bring teams that can set up and blow Warp bombs in pretty much every situation. You can set them to only use powers when you activate powers, and then use the extra space on your bar that you have from only using AR to put squadmate powers in instead. That way you can avoid the pause menu entirely and play completely in the flow of the game. Soldier is arguably the best class to use for fighting as a squad, rather than as a single super soldier with friends who are only sort of there.

That's just my take, though.

If you're set on a bonus power, here's my take on each one.

Several of them are good for cheesing things, and are excellent for killing Husks, but neither one of those things is a particularly common occurrence. I would place Slam, Stasis, Neural Shock, and Dominate in this category.
The shield powers are all fine. Unlike in ME3, there's no downside to keeping them up (increased cooldown times for other powers in subsequent games).
Energy Drain is a good and useful power, especially on Hardcore and Insanity when almost every enemy has Shields. Reave is slightly less useful, although its ability to restore Health is quite nice and it can serve as a poor man's Warp in a pinch.
The ammo powers aren't worth it. If you're desperate for Warp Ammo, make Jack take Squad Warp Ammo and bring her along.
The grenades are all right, and if you use them correctly you can hit enemies in cover, but using them correctly can be a pain and I prefer to just shoot the bad guys.

 

[ArchGhost]

Going back through Skyrim again over the past week up til now. It still amazes me how complex and neblulous some things are even after all these years. I never played a vampire necromage, so that was the impetus....and everywhere I look on the internet, 8 years and like 45 re-releases later, nobody seems to know the exact leveled list for enemy vampires in dungeons-- just a vague "this breed is this level" kind of compilations like it was copied out of a game guide -- and testing personally shows they aren't right either Or the information is just incomplete because the PC players that contribute most of this stuff it UESP or a wiky are lazy cuz they get a console and don't have to figure these things out. I had a mental rant about it last night. It's infuriating but I suppose it appeals to my power-gamer mentality, wanting to figure things out.

I'm one of those "phase" gamers who will crank really hard on something for like a month or so and then shift on to something else. I always rotate my old favorites back in and go on tears again with them too, like BG and BG2, Diablo 2, Starcraft, pokemon games, anything from my PSX days that runs on a hacked PSP, etc.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Path of Exile: Synthesis

Pretty fun. Easier to grasp than the previous two expansions. It has a feel like the Delve mines, where you have to rush to your appointed destination before the walls close in, and you're assailed by waves of bad guys who can foil your mission just by slowing you down enough. You have to get through them, but if you actually stop to fight them, you can easily screw yourself. (In this case, though, you don't get killed if you don't reach your goal with enough alacrity, you just get booted out of the collapsing pocket-dimension with nothing to show for it.)

My new guy is KalakonaTheTurtle, an angry human-growth-hormone experiment, a Marauder with a pair of axes who regenerates hit points so fast only the boss-monsters can really hurt him. Sort of an homage to Hugh Jackman's Logan, with meat cleavers instead of claws. I'm still messing around with combinations of Skill Gems and Support Gems. I have an eye towards Cyclone, but I'm not there yet. In the meantime, I'm experimenting with Sunder and Cleave for crowds, and Vigilant Strike and Heavy Strike for single targets. I'm constantly changing my Support Gems around, but I think I've used Bleed Support and Melee Splash the most. Leap Slam is the obvious movement skill for this guy. I also picked up Enduring Cry, but so far it hasn't been useful. In fact, in the fever of battle, I keep forgetting I even have it. I wonder if Warcries can be used with some sort of triggering support gem.

For passives, I went through the middle first, getting Warrior's Blood, Heart of the Warrior, and Born to Fight. Then I went through Diamond Skin and Juggernaut, en route to the axe skills Cleaving and Slaughter. I'm thinking I'll probably head south to Red Storm and focus my offense on bleeding attacks. So probably Bloodletting and Crimson Dance. I also gave Oak my friendship bracelet, for more damage and more regeneration.

I'm going Jugg this league. I'm still in the acts and duel wielding swords using Molten Strike and cleave depending upon the mob danger. Run speed seems pretty important this league and I really like to get +50 or more anyway, so I choose the speed bandit and will look for a Devotos helmet and +30 boots. I find that an AP totem deals nicely with Synthesis mobs.

Last league I went with dual axes (WoE) on a jugg with 7 Endurance charges. He really kicked ass with bleed explosions. When he moved to standard I switched out WoE for dual Soul Takers. wow. Ever so much better and no mana needs! I'm still playing him and he is clearing T14s easily. Haemophila gauntlets are pretty awesome.

My first impressions of Synthesis are that it's a clunkier version of Incursion. They both give you extra areas that appear mid-map with a time limit, but Incursion's ones had clearer goals, better layouts and a way of interacting with the time limit. The Memory Nexus probably does give you more customisation in the long run than the Architect/Temple stuff, but I'm yet to completely get my head round how to really take advantage of it, especially as you have no real control on what pieces you get. As for Synthesis crafting, I really have no idea how it works. Seems completely random what implicits you get. I'm still enjoying it, but it seems weaker than the past three leagues.

The new and rebalanced skills, on the other hand, are looking promising. I tried both the new "themes" over the weekend - a divine- and channeling-centric Inquisitor and a chaos-centric Trickster - as I'm being indecisive as to what I want to play, and I'm having fun with both, though I think I'm gonna focus on the Trickster. Divine Ire is a hugely satisfying skill to use, though I'm slightly concerned about how well the AoE while charging will do for map clear later on, while the reworked Storm Burst is a big improvement over the old version. On the Chaos side of things, Bane is really good, though I'm having more fun with rebalanced ED/Contagion (which still works the same, only it has a good chunk more damage), while Soul Rend looks promising but I feel needs GMP to really shine (only a couple more levels till I pick it up). Not certain what I'll end up using - probably either ED/Cont or SR as my main clear skill, with a 4-linked Bane to add curses and damage on bosses.

Egon, I'd suggest you try Double Strike if you're looking for a melee skill that works well with bleeding. It's probably the strongest "proper" melee skill at the present, especially for a starting / low budget character, as it has a big damage boost against bleeding targets built into it which scales with gem level instead of weapon damage (so it still hits really hard if you've got crappy gear). The single target damage is always good, and if you can get it linked with Melee Splash and Ancestral Call, you've got your AoE covered - use Chance to Bleed as your 4th link until you've got a good amount on the passive tree, then switch to Melee Physical Damage. Plus you can get the Vaal version which also gives you one of the best bosskilling skills in the game in VDS (it summons up to four copies of yourself for a short duration - enough to burn down almost any big threat).

Yeah, I'm still figuring Synthesis crafting and mapping. I just need to play more. I like to use Herald of Purity as soon as I can. It generates 4 spirits that can attack and kill, but more importantly, they act as decoys pulling attention away from you. With a fast attacker you can keep them active 100% of the time.

I haven't tried that one yet. I'll look for it. It seems "theme appropriate" to using two weapons, too.

I started with Double Strike, but it failed completely with the memory mobs. I'm still leveling one in case I want to add it later. I've never used a vaal skill gem, so I will level VDS to try it per Phrox.

 

[PhroX]

I started with Double Strike, but it failed completely with the memory mobs. I'm still leveling one in case I want to add it later. I've never used a vaal skill gem, so I will level VDS to try it per Phrox.

Even if you're not actually using Double Strike, VDS is a great skill for a melee character to have access to. Just a 3-4 linked one is a huge damage burst for helping dealing with tough foes. Vaal Righteous Fire or maybe Blade Vortex can perform a similar role for general caster builds with some other Vaal skills doing so in more specific setups (e.g. VBlight in a chaos DoT build).

Just finished Act 6 on my Trickster and things are going well. Now I've got GMP, Soul Rend is very fun to use and pretty strong. It's kinda weird, in that it doesn't actually play like a normal DoT power - the duration is so low that you have to spam it like a conventional attack (and as such, cast speed is pretty important), but with GMP, the area covered by the projectiles is huge, especially as they home, it can offscreen mobs thanks to the range, and the damage is very good. Bane might still be stronger, but I find it much less satisfying to use. It does give me a nice damage boost on bosses though, both applying it's DoT and Despair, so I'm keeping it around. ED/Contagion is still fun to use, but feels a bit weaker than the new skills - though I could definitely see a Bane character running ED as extra damage for bossing.

I'm starting to get my head round the Memory Nexus - when you run the memory nodes on the map (not the item reward ones) they give a map modifier to all of the fragments you've placed that are linked to them (and the nexus counts as a link). So you can build some really profitable areas if you can set up a path, then run other parts of your "map" to give it a load of modifiers on the first lot. You just have to be careful with replacing fragments to ensure you keep everything linked together. Still no idea on the crafting though. Just piling up a load of fractured items in my stash.

 

[Lexicus]

I'm used to there being a cost for each unit made (forgot the term for that), but I guess that isn't the case for vidya games.

Technically, Steam still has a per-unit cost because it costs them to maintain the servers without which no one could download anything from Steam. I guess that if you do the math this cost is significantly less than what it cost to, say, distribute a game mostly on disks.

 

[civvver]

Huh, that actually makes sense. I'm used to there being a cost for each unit made (forgot the term for that), but I guess that isn't the case for vidya games.

It's about dlc. Those games are over 18 months old so it's about enticing people to buy in and then dangling the dlc in front of them. And some money goes to charity and stuff so maybe devs feel better about giving away their stuff, but yeah, it's digital so it really costs them almost nothing. It's free money.

Just make sure you save often. That game has a nasty habit of crashing for no damn reason whatsoever... and Sim City is the kind of game where a well timed crash that erases all your progress is enough to make you quit the game for a year

I had this problem with the steam version when I got it but there was some fix. I don't remember cus it was years ago, some kind of launch option. I think it had to do with issues with memory on 64 bit systems.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Going back through Skyrim again over the past week up til now. It still amazes me how complex and neblulous some things are even after all these years. I never played a vampire necromage, so that was the impetus....and everywhere I look on the internet, 8 years and like 45 re-releases later, nobody seems to know the exact leveled list for enemy vampires in dungeons-- just a vague "this breed is this level" kind of compilations like it was copied out of a game guide -- and testing personally shows they aren't right either Or the information is just incomplete because the PC players that contribute most of this stuff it UESP or a wiky are lazy cuz they get a console and don't have to figure these things out. I had a mental rant about it last night. It's infuriating but I suppose it appeals to my power-gamer mentality, wanting to figure things out.

I'm one of those "phase" gamers who will crank really hard on something for like a month or so and then shift on to something else. I always rotate my old favorites back in and go on tears again with them too, like BG and BG2, Diablo 2, Starcraft, pokemon games, anything from my PSX days that runs on a hacked PSP, etc.

There is a very small mod that displays enemy level in-game. Try that. Also, you can definitely look up the "leveled areas", they're called encounter zones and you can find them in the Creation Kit or via TES5Edit. You can also manipulate them, which is one part of the mod I'm making If you want to know anything else just hit me up.

 

[Lexicus]

I'm one of those "phase" gamers who will crank really hard on something for like a month or so and then shift on to something else. I always rotate my old favorites back in and go on tears again with them too, like BG and BG2, Diablo 2, Starcraft, pokemon games, anything from my PSX days that runs on a hacked PSP, etc.

I do the exact. Same. thing. Different games tho

 

[ulyssesSgrant]

I've been playing Civ 6 with gathering storm, it's really good.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I finally got Civ 6 once I got a COMPY powerful enough to run it. Since that was only a couple months ago, by the time I got around to buying Civ 6 I noticed that an expansion was coming out in a couple weeks. So I only got to do one partial play through before it was time to add the Gathering Storm expansion... so I've basically only been playing with GS installed... and yes it is very cool. The volcanoes and windstorms are fun...

I haven't even gotten to the global warming yet, because I usually play on Marathon, which takes forever obviously.

 

[Phrossack]

Yeah, Vet is between Normal and Hardcore. It doesn't give every enemy protections. Good for learning the game. There's a significant jump between Vet and Hardcore because of the protections on all mobs.

Predator is actually a pretty good weapon for what it is and has surprisingly high dps. I just love the one-shot one-kill thrill of the Mantis and Widow. They're also really easy to use for the Soldier and Infiltrator in ME2 because both of them get time dilation (Soldier gets it in Adrenaline Rush, Infiltrator gets it when ADSing with a scoped weapon). Tracking isn't nearly as hard with time dilation, even at close range.

Honestly, the classic Soldier plays best when not really using any offensive cooldowns other than Adrenaline Rush. You really only need the two ammo powers and AR. Instead, you should emphasize squadmates that have powers that work well with the mission. Bring peeps with Overload or Energy Drain for shield/synthetic-heavy missions, bring teams with fire-heavy powers for missions with krogan, vorcha, and wildlife, and bring teams that can set up and blow Warp bombs in pretty much every situation. You can set them to only use powers when you activate powers, and then use the extra space on your bar that you have from only using AR to put squadmate powers in instead. That way you can avoid the pause menu entirely and play completely in the flow of the game. Soldier is arguably the best class to use for fighting as a squad, rather than as a single super soldier with friends who are only sort of there.

That's just my take, though.

If you're set on a bonus power, here's my take on each one.

Several of them are good for cheesing things, and are excellent for killing Husks, but neither one of those things is a particularly common occurrence. I would place Slam, Stasis, Neural Shock, and Dominate in this category.
The shield powers are all fine. Unlike in ME3, there's no downside to keeping them up (increased cooldown times for other powers in subsequent games).
Energy Drain is a good and useful power, especially on Hardcore and Insanity when almost every enemy has Shields. Reave is slightly less useful, although its ability to restore Health is quite nice and it can serve as a poor man's Warp in a pinch.
The ammo powers aren't worth it. If you're desperate for Warp Ammo, make Jack take Squad Warp Ammo and bring her along.
The grenades are all right, and if you use them correctly you can hit enemies in cover, but using them correctly can be a pain and I prefer to just shoot the bad guys.

I tend to take Mordin or Jacob and Miranda in the early game for bio/tech support since I have the shooting handled. Just got Shock Trooper, with reservations--I appreciate the +100% Paragon/Renegade boost, but the damage boost to weapons and powers is tempting. Also tempted to switch to the Kestrel helmet for stats, since every bit of shield and damage boosting helps and I don't land headshots as much as I'd like for the visor, but I prefer to see Shepard's face during conversations, so it's a tough decision. I will have to set aside some time to agonize over that and the color scheme adequately.

I haven't used AR nearly as much as I should, but I have switched from Flashbang to Geth Shield Boost, which helps now that I'm on Hardcore. I notice everyone and their varren is shielded and targeting me specifically. And I'm burning through ammunition at an alarming rate in each firefight. It's not always that easy wearing down their shields and picking them off one by one while avoiding getting shot to ribbons, but I suppose that's why it's called Hardcore!