What videogames have you been playing? version 1.22: What's with that plural?

[Quintillus]

Having said that, if FM allowed me to manage historical teams, like the 1970s Polish teams that were so good, or some South American club even, maybe where Maradona played.. That would be fun, I'd get into that a bit! Heck, managing a team in one of the very old world cups would be cool too. I guess the thing is that it takes them long enough to assemble the database of players for the current year. Football is a global sport and there's so many diff leagues that it's probably a lot of work. Compiling historical data would be overkill.. but.. maybe they'll do it eventually?

Yeah, that aspect of Out of the Park is pretty cool IMO. I got really into it in 2020, starting a few years before my favorite team got good, and trying to build up the roster to bring them to success, with a good chunk of their actual players at that time, some of whom were already in the farm system, some of whom they acquired via trades or free agency. Then I got into thinking, what if you started in 1950 but had a relegation system like in football, but in baseball? It's an incredibly flexible game.

They've also expanded the historical rosters over the years. I think initially it was just MLB and Minor League Baseball, but they've added the Negro Leagues, and the Japanese baseball leagues, over the years, and probably some more in recent versions. Taiwanese maybe? FM could follow a similar pattern, start out with historical Premier League matches, expand to many of the levels of the English system, then the various European ones, eventually the rest of the world.

If I had remained as into baseball in 2020 as I had been in 2000, and Civilization hadn't conquered my heart, I could see Out of the Park as being the game that won me over.

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I've been playing three games lately.

One is Ozymandias: Bronze Age Simulator, a very tidy little strategy game where you play as a ruler of a Bronze Age kingdom and try to dominate your corner of the world, not necessarily but potentially via your military. They've got about 8 or 10 different maps, more with expansions, and the different civs are unbalanced so you can play someone easy like the Egyptians in the Near East (and still lose), or someone really challenging like the Canaanites on the same map. I love how challenging it is; the AI is much better than it is in Civilization versions past IV. I've only achieved two victories with civs rated Hard, and none with Very Hard. I think it took 3 tries to win as Elam in the Fertile Crescent, and 5 or 6 to win as the Gauls on the Mediterranean?

The game is dangerously addictive; each playthrough is only 30-60 minutes but it's oh-so-tempting to try again.

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Another is Renowned Explorers: International Society. It's a playful take on the Royal Geographic Society's exploratory expeditions of the mid-1800s. Assembly an international crew of explorers, and explore the world with three different approaches - friendly, devious, or aggressive, or a combination of the three. Pretty good storytelling, likable characters (both explorers and in the areas being explored), and easier to lose than to win, which I always finds makes a game more interesting. I seem to have improved with time though, I've won my past two expeditions in a row.

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Finally, Shotgun King. This was in the most recent Humble Bundle, and has proven to be a surprisingly interesting variant of chess, I think I've already played it more than 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel, which is also an interesting variant. In Shotgun King, you play the black king, whose pieces have all defected to the white king due to poor rulership, and you are taking on the entire other army with the help of your trusty shotgun. Each round you choose one buff for you, and one buff for white. Your shotgun gives you unique ranged attacks, and should you choose it, your sword gives you powerful melee attacks, but white has a considerable numerical advantage that usually grows as the games progress. One of the main challenges is how to build a stack of buffs for you that adds up effectively, while not giving white stacked advantages that are overwhelming (it's always the bishops...). Another challenge is that it's still a game of chess; there's a reason that the secondary names is The Final Checkmate. The rules are a bit more fungible than they are in traditional chess, but in the end, if you cannot escape checkmate (or if you blast away a pawn that's preventing a rook or queen from capturing you), you will lose. It certainly changes you perspective though; just because the enemy has two queens, a rook, a bishop, a knight, and a few pawns, and a king, and you only have one king, doesn't necessarily mean you've lost. A shotgun with a few upgrades can make quite the difference.

Word of warning though, if the concept doesn't make it clear enough, the verbiage in-game is NSFW. It turns out that shotgun-wielding kings on chessboards are not the most savory characters, who would have guessed?

 

[Quintillus]

Interesting to hear that there are some upcoming rivals to The Sims as well. I only ever really played the first one; by the time I got the second one its early 3D felt more outdated than the original's 2D, and I never picked up the later ones. But I'm curious as to the reason for 2 being preferable to 4 and 3? I think I've heard about debates as to 3 versus 4, in terms of playstyle, but I'm not sure why 2 would be the most preferable?

 

[EgonSpengler]

I did it. I was overcome by the dark whisperings coming from under the bed. I bought Baldur's Gate III. Either I'll love it and it will invade my brain and take over my life, or I won't and I'll regret spending full price on a PC game like a sucker. Or, worse case scenario but possible, I won't love it and it'll invade my brain and take over my life anyway. So one way or another, I am going to hate my life, starting this weekend. It was good knowing all of you.

 

[Arakhor]

Just remember the time-honoured greeting of the illithids: when you meet someone, you flare your nose, hiss at them and then give them ten tickles.

 

[Kyriakos]

Why were they called that? I'd expect Lethe to be there. There's also the rather stupid meaning of ilith- in Greek, though the double 'l' may move it away from that and towards ill.

 

[Arakhor]

I have no idea. The monster was invented by Gary Gygax, and there seems to be little explanation behind it.

 

[Kyriakos]

Say no more. If someone invents the surname "Gygax" for himself, you can't ask better for his monsters ^^

 

[EgonSpengler]

Wikipedia says,

Publication history

Mind flayers were created by Gary Gygax, who has said that one of his inspirations for them was the cover painting of the Titus Crow book The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley.[1][2] Tim Kirk's cover art on the book, then in its first printing, depicted only the tentacles of the titular burrowers, the Chthonians.[3]

It doesn't mention where the name 'Illithid' came from.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I did it. I was overcome by the dark whisperings coming from under the bed. I bought Baldur's Gate III. Either I'll love it and it will invade my brain and take over my life, or I won't and I'll regret spending full price on a PC game like a sucker. Or, worse case scenario but possible, I won't love it and it'll invade my brain and take over my life anyway. So one way or another, I am going to hate my life, starting this weekend. It was good knowing all of you.

At least you didn't buy the Early Access version. I've been playing it off and on for 2 years now and will still have to start with a new character on Thursday.

 

[Lexicus]

This is one guy by himself who isn't violent. I can't remember the location, but it's not on a road: I nearly ran over him while doing the "Roads? We don't need no steenkin roads!" navigation overland. Between Snakehead Landing and the Murfree brood territory, I think.

Nah, I don't think I've run into him. I assume he has dialogue that obviously differentiates him from any of the random camping guys you can encounter?

(Btw was travelling thru Lemoyne after doing the "Pouring Forth Oil" mission and got ambushed by the Raiders and they yelled "there's the no-account who took the Belle!" before I shot them all, which was funny.)

 

[Smellincoffee]

Nah, I don't think I've run into him. I assume he has dialogue that obviously differentiates him from any of the random camping guys you can encounter?

(Btw was travelling thru Lemoyne after doing the "Pouring Forth Oil" mission and got ambushed by the Raiders and they yelled "there's the no-account who took the Belle!" before I shot them all, which was funny.)

He does, yes. He's dressed differently(as a Union soldier) and has a more elaborate camp. I don't know if he's violent if you tell him you fought for the 'other side' -- I've only seen him once.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Still addicted to Stardew Valley, and halfway through year 3. Year 2 was a great year: bought and expanded coop and barn, got a stable, completed most of the community center, expanded house, finally developed my fishing skill. Year is is a little quieter so far: I'm steadily earning money (1.5 mil total earned, current reserves 400K), working on repairing Willie's boat, and making regular excursions into the skull caves to find iridium for the same. The furthest level I've gotten to had dinosaurs with flamethrowers, so I've decided it's time to switch from my trusty sword to a master slingshot with explosive ammo. Also got married to Penny, but the only thing that's changed so far is that occasionally she waters the honeybee flower gardens, since I haven't done the big iridium sprinklers yet. The rest of the farm is on quality sprinklers.

 

[Lexicus]

Also got married to Penny,

I see you're a man of culture as well. During the brief time when I played Stardew I was plottin on marrying Leah.

 

[Synobun]

I see you're a man of culture as well. During the brief time when I played Stardew I was plottin on marrying Leah.

Hell yeah, brother.

 

[Lexicus]

Hell yeah, brother.

Hell ya borhtr

 

[Smellincoffee]

I see you're a man of culture as well. During the brief time when I played Stardew I was plottin on marrying Leah.

She was one of my strong possibilities -- Penny, Leah, Abigail, and were the front-runners, with Emily in the number four spot. (I also dated Hayley, Alex, and Sam to see their ten-star events.) I've gotten the impression that Leah is a happy loner, whereas Penny's dialogue kept hinting that she was interested in being a farmer's wife and having kids. I really liked Abigail, but she's less serious and I figured with my character's backstory, he'd be more interested in a practical woman like Penny than a less mature gamer girl like Abigail. Plus, Abigail is so generally popular that I was resistant to her out of principle. I am playing an Abigail Stardew sim from the Gallery in Sims 4, though -- where she's both a gamer girl and a homesteader.

 

[Quintillus]

Fresh off the GOG backlog is Egypt: Old Kingdom. The gods are angry with us for our impiety, but we don't entirely know what we're doing yet and don't have enough resources to build any temples or cemeteries. We're working on fixing that though, with our new workshops. We also finally met a neighboring tribe that doesn't hate us, and believe we are close to domesticating some birds - cats and pigs have already been domesticated.

On the plus side, our armies have defeated all three of the invasions from neighboring tribes, even when the omens portended defeat due to the anger of the gods. I guess the decision to build some barracks has been giving us some benefits.

I may come away with the conclusion that this is a pretty good game, but it's too early to tell yet. It is a somewhat different 4X though, fairly event-driven, focused on assigning workers to tiles, and with a very Egyptian focus.

 

[Arakhor]

Did you play Predynastic Egypt? That's the first game in the series.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Fresh off the GOG backlog is Egypt: Old Kingdom. The gods are angry with us for our impiety, but we don't entirely know what we're doing yet and don't have enough resources to build any temples or cemeteries. We're working on fixing that though, with our new workshops. We also finally met a neighboring tribe that doesn't hate us, and believe we are close to domesticating some birds - cats and pigs have already been domesticated.

On the plus side, our armies have defeated all three of the invasions from neighboring tribes, even when the omens portended defeat due to the anger of the gods. I guess the decision to build some barracks has been giving us some benefits.

I may come away with the conclusion that this is a pretty good game, but it's too early to tell yet. It is a somewhat different 4X though, fairly event-driven, focused on assigning workers to tiles, and with a very Egyptian focus.

Are the gods as obnoxious in that as they were in Pharaoh? I love that series, but the heavy-handed deities got annoying after a while.

Wrapping up year 3 in Stardew Valley. My farmer has earned 2.5 mill in the last year years, with 900K in the bank. Got full grandpa approval, am exploring Ginger Island, have wife & kid on the way with a fully-expanded house. Have only gotten to level 32 in the Skull Caves so far, but haven't tried using staircases. Right now I just go on good-luck days and hope I find lots of shafts.

 

[Quintillus]

Are the gods as obnoxious in that as they were in Pharaoh? I love that series, but the heavy-handed deities got annoying after a while.

Wrapping up year 3 in Stardew Valley. My farmer has earned 2.5 mill in the last year years, with 900K in the bank. Got full grandpa approval, am exploring Ginger Island, have wife & kid on the way with a fully-expanded house. Have only gotten to level 32 in the Skull Caves so far, but haven't tried using staircases. Right now I just go on good-luck days and hope I find lots of shafts.

I'm not sure as I haven't played Pharaoh, though it's also on my GOG backlog.

I played another 60 or so turns, until turn 160 (out of 300), and it's both challenging and somewhat forgiving. We did have a famine caused in part by Set, the god of deserts, expanding his realm, but also in part due to not having kept an adequate reserve. But the game seems to not want you to outright lose. Failing a challenge, even miserably, as I did when trying to resist the Scorpion Pharoah's efforts to unite Egypt, may leave you weaker, but the game didn't let me just be conquered by another tribe; you are set up as Memphis, and destined to be an important city.

And it's set up so the challenges are what gives you victory points, and on my first playthrough they are challenging (I've completed one out of 3 or 4 so far). But the gods rarely demand anything directly from you, beyond piety. Fail to build adequate cemeteries and temples, and the odds of bad events are increased, and you can't ask for favors from the gods, but I don't think the gods have outright demanded anything in exchange for avoiding retribution.

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I've decided to start a Crusader Kings II game, as Khalid ibn Barmak, Emir of Mosul. The long-term goal of the game is to subvert history and bring about the rise of a neo-Neo-Assyrian Empire, which narrowly won out over Elam in my bring-back-an-ancient-empire plan. But that's not going to start until I'm 1-2 generations in. Khalid was a key early supported of the Abbasids when they overthrew the Umayyads, so I'm being a good vassal to Caliph al-Mansur. Everyone else... not necessarily.

The Caliph decided it would be a good idea to allow himself to revoke titles, but it turns out that's just been a good way to get people to resist him with arms. He fought a four-year conflict from 771 to 775 against the Emir of Damascus, whom he'd tried to revoke a title from, as well as against the Bavandids on the south shore of the Caspian, who both in-game and historically were Zoroastrian vassals of the Caliphate at that point in time (converting to Islam about a century later). Perhaps it's a good example of why the Caliphate let them be Zoroastrian vassals; in-game the Caliph tried to revoke a title, and they rebelled.

After that war, the Caliph went on a housekeeping spree in 775, revoking more titles. In actual history, my character fell out of favor with Caliph al-Mansur in 775, but in-game it was my character's son, Yahya, who fell out of favor, with all of his emirates being revoked, though two sheikhdoms not yet being revoked. He did not fight back, despite having been in a faction seeking independence. But in 776, al-Mansur attempted to revoke some land from the Emir of Oman and Bahrein. This was a poor decision, as it lead to a war not just with eastern Arabia, but also with the western part of Arabia including Mecca and Medina, as well as Christian and yet more Zoroastrian vassals by the Caspian Sea. And this time the rebels have nearly as many troops as al-Mansur.

In both of those major rebellions, I've been invited to join, but have stayed loyal. It's one thing to support a revolution when you're 40, it's another when you're 70 and it would be a rebellion against the first people you helped put in power. Instead, I've been consolidating power locally. Recently I asked the Caliph for more land, since the other vassals seem so disloyal; I'm one of 4 vassals, out of 37, who have a positive opinion of al-Mansur, and that count of 37 doesn't count those in rebellion. He replied, "You are a bedrock of loyalty, a cornerstone of the realm! Truly, there is support for your claim in The Koran. I know that The Greatest will reward you in time!". So yeah, we get along pretty well.

And the funny thing in CKII terms is that being a super-loyal vassal is proving to be a good idea so far. When I declared war on the Sheikh of Samarra, another vassal, the Caliph instead gave me the whole Emirate of Samarra about two days later, before a sword could be unsheathed. Then after the first round of rebellions he gave me Kirkuk as a vassal just to be nice (and probably because the sheikh of Kirkuk didn't like him). Usually I'm all about the scheming in CKII; I'm not sure I've ever played Mr. Loyal and Helpful Vassal so reliably, especially as a moderately powerful vassal, but it's good to see that the AI recognizes a loyal vassal when it sees one.

The only fly in the ointment is that my son is extremely angry with the Caliph, and he's going to get my lands some day, probably not too far in the future. But that can be sorted out later.

Edit: And the Caliph had a plan for that, too! I'm now at war with my son, and I started the war! He transferred my son's remaining lands to the Emir of Palmyra, whom I'm at war with to secure more Assyrian territory. Geographically it doesn't make any sense, but politically it's a great move to put someone else between him and his angriest vassal. Now I just have to do my best to not engage the army my son is leading, it wouldn't be good for the family if he met his end on the field of battle and I died of old age two weeks later.