What Videogames have You Been Playing XX: Virtual Imperialism

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It's a figure of speech, it's no relation with being true or not :p
It just means two contradictory terms in tandem. Like if it were even possible to play excessively ! :D
 
It's a figure of speech, it's no relation with being true or not :p
It just means two contradictory terms in tandem. Like if it were even possible to play excessively ! :D

Hm, I'd say that technically it has (by necessity) to be true, at least in most usual cases, but yes, it isn't what is focused upon. For example the phrase "terribly good" is true (if the thing described is very good). But, again, yes you are right that the focus is on the contradiction, while the truth is (as I note) having to be implied for the phrase to make sense, which it usually must (and, to be more philosophical, at some deeper level it always has to be true, at least true as a concept in one's mind).

By the way, reading part of the wiki page on oxymoron, I read the delightful phrase (as another type/level which can be identified under conditions as oxymoron) "divorce court". There the synonymic identities cause an oxymoron, which I like :) (another nice such example: "press release")
 
Vicky II is probably the hardest "current" (i.e. sequel is not out, but will or might be someday) Paradox game to get into. But once you do, it really does lead to excessive gameplay.

My EU4 game continues to be interesting in the 1700s. How rare that is!

Spoiler :

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In the mid-late 1600s, we fought two wars with the Commonwealth. They won the first; we won the second. Both were draining all-around, but we were much better-prepared for the second one. After that one, for about 40 years, all the big powers avoided fighting each other. The Commonwealth expanded into northern Germany; the Ottomans into southern Germany; QQ into India, and Chagatai into Mongolia and China.

A couple years ago, the HRE decided it had had enough of Ottoman expansionism, as had France, and an Ottoman war on Nuremburg resulted in facing almost the entire HRE, plus France (whom I believe tried to enforce peace). That war is ongoing.

Meanwhile, the efforts of Chagatai diplomats to separate QQ and the Ottomans had been successful; instead QQ allied with the Commonwealth. The Ottomans had beat up on the Commonwealth once before that, at the end of the 1600s, and perhaps due to the Ottomans now facing a rather formidable alliance, the Commonwealth decided this was the right time for another war with us.

It will be difficult. QQ and the Commonwealth have 630,000 troops between them, and the latter has decent manpower reserves; we have 140,000 troops and our allies another 100,000 or so. Although the map shows Siam as our ally, that is due to the forever war with Bengal that they started; they betrayed us when this war started, as did the Shogunate. Vijayanagar is an ally in the big war, but is at peace with Bengal and Gujarat. Credit where's credit's due, we thought Siam was a trustworthy ally, but our newest ally of all turned out to be the one we could trust.

All stops will be pulled out in this one. Our secondary line of forts is being upgraded. A defensive expert advisor has been hired. We're going to promote his culture ASAP so we can promote him and increase our military tech more quickly. Defensive edicts on the front, extra recruitment edicts everywhere else. Right after this screenshot, 70,000 men - enough to hit the forcelimit - started being recruited. Both sides have already slackened their recruiting standards as much as possible in previous wars, so there isn't much left in that stop... but there will likely be mercs all around sooner or later.

At least they were foolish enough to choose Imperialism as the casus belli. By the time they get to Central Asia, they'll have endured several winters on the front... they might win, but if they do we hope to make their victory Pyrrhic.
 
Achieved my third ever Civ3 Demigod victory (out of dozens of attempts to date) earlier this week, with a Celtic Domination on a Standard 80% Pan-map with (Random) Raging Barbarians.
Spoiler :
Got a nice fertile and easily-choked-off section of the map all to myself, which allowed me to fight off an early DOW-plus-dogpile courtesy of Isabella (due north of me, at the centre of our X-shaped continent), while also continuing to expand and develop my core and semi-core relatively unhindered. My Garlic WarriorsTM got their revenge later, being mostly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish (although the Mayans took Bella's NE towns, and the Americans got to Madrid just before I did, the collapse of Spanish Culture left me lots of space to intersperse my own newly-founded towns).

I then regrouped and expunged the Americans (N/E of former Spain) using Knights (I traded [something] for Chivalry, didn't research it myself) and a strategic MA with the Aztecs (SE of the USA); Cavalry then took care of the Maya and Inca (to the NW of former Spain). Shortly after the last Incan town fell, and true to his nature, Monty backstabbed me (as I knew he would!), but with a thin-rail-net already in place (and a little assistance/ distraction courtesy of large stacks of Iroquois foot- and bombard-units marching south from their core) he couldn't do much damage before my Cav-Armies (acquired during the Mayan/Incan campaigns) rolled over him, later assisted by massed Artillery (almost all of which I'd originally stolen from my various opponents, and then upgraded; @Flintlock-patch FTW!) and Infantry.

The seventh AI-Civ was the Carthaginians, but they never really got off the ground and were eliminated (by the Mayans?) even before the Spanish left the stage. This game also confirmed for me that the Cultural-Linkage bug activates whenever all opponent Civs are Randomised, regardless of whether the home-Civ is manually selected — as in this game — or Randomised (normally I have Cultural Linkage turned off, but since I'd selected the Celts, I was hoping to get more varied opponent-Civs than just the americans).
So, flushed with success, I rolled another, but this time with map and all Civs Randomised, and without Cultural Linkage.

In the first of several ironic twists, this time I got the Aztecs, on what swiftly became obvious was another Pan-map (tech-pace was fierce in the early game, and I quickly fell behind) with (also Random) no Barbarians to distract the AI-Civs.

And the first AI-Civ to DOW me was the Celts
Spoiler :
... who dogpiled me along with the Babs and the Inca (from the middle of the map, east of me), and eventually the Dutch (to the north) who backstabbed me while I was still paying them to fight the Inca. An elite JagWarrior's successful defence against a GSword(!) wasted my GA in Despotism, but I somehow managed to survive and revolt to Republic, with somewhat stunted growth and the eventual ceding of 3 outlying towns to the Dutch, and the Babs. Because of the wars, I only met the Portuguese, the Germans and the Zulu (east end of the map, beyond the Inca) when their Galleys started dropping off Settler-pairs in the less-inviting Jungle/Desert-terrain to the south and east of my core.

During the initial hostilities I was able to capture multiple Portuguese, Incan, and Bab Settler-pairs heading overland to these regions, and once I was able to build Swords and Horsemen, I mopped up those towns whose formation I could not prevent earlier, including the one I'd conceded to the Babs, plus another they'd founded just east of my core (their own core being even further east than the Celts'), and also several towns founded by the Zulu (who had been useful tech-trading-partners until they somehow got ahead of me as well). Now building Horsemen while beelining towards MilTrad, with the intention of mass-upgrading and then rolling over the Dutch and the Inca, if possible. Will need a lot of gold to do that, though...
 
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The Long Dark

The curtain fell on my previous Interloper game last weekend. Timberwolf Mountain, day 73 or so. Wolf. Things were looking pretty good until they suddenly weren't, but, hey, that's Interloper for you. I narrowly escaped death something like 4 times before I didn't. I really need to work on my aim with the bow, though. I totally could've killed that wolf if I didn't suck.

So I started a new Interloper game last night. I decided to try playing Astrid this time, just to see if it feels any different. I also chose Free Runner as a starting Feat instead of Efficient Machine, along with Cold Fusion. Spawned on Hushed River Valley, right before dawn. At first, I panicked a little, but then I realized I was right on the frozen river, so it could have been worse. I had to drive a rabbit into the wolf to get past him, but I got to the cave with the matches before hypothermia or frost bite. Hushed River Valley actually has a lot of loot. I once had a good Stalker run that began in HRV, and by the time I left, I was well-outfitted. But I wasn't so confident at Interloper, so I just headed straight for the exit. So now I'm in Milton, I've got 32 matches, 30 cat tails, 9 pieces of coal, a hat, a hacksaw, and a prybar, and it's only Day 3. Excellent start.
 
Starting up again on Civ6 during Easter after a break of a couple of years. Can't wait!

Also started the Protoss campaign in StarCraft 2 (never played it before), after playing Diablo 3 for a couple of years. Need a break from that one.

I also love me some Tomb Raider from time to time. Played them numerous times; keep coming back to it, just for fun. Lara Croft is my spiritual animal in life. :)
 
Oh, which Tomb Raider - original, legends, or reboots?
 
I've played them all in their time, except for Angel Of Darkness - couldn't live with the extremely poor controls implemented for that game. As for replaying them, it's mostly the legend trilogy and the reboot trilogy. I have the originals on steam, but the controls are rather horrible. They've done a poor job of making them playable; perhaps I should look for a mod that fixes this issue, if one exists (and can be used with the Steam versions). I thought the 2013 Reboot game was excellent, especially on the story element. It's almost a horror film in its own right.

It was also risky to remove Lara's signature dual wielding weapons and to some degree, de-sexualize the character. But it all worked out in favor of the game experience and they succeeded in redefining both Lara and the concept of Tomb Raider. My only primary gripes with the reboot games, are too few tombs that aren't always properly incorporated into the story narrative (demoted to side-quests) and the stupid button press slow-mo sequences.
 
Calling all Europa Universalis fans, you can buy the complete EUIV w/ all the DLC and content (I think) for about $25 here @ humble bundle site

edit: I've been playing Kerbal Space Program. After installing some graphical/display mods and an alarm clock mod, I have started a new obsession.. I don't know why I've never used the alarm clock mode before, but it obv. makes it a lot easier to coordinate different missions going on at the same time. So.. I decided to program in all the launch windows to all the diff. planets into it.. and.. that motivated me to first send up several fuel depots.. and then continually send up ships that are going to be going out to all the different planets. Most of these ships were assembled with 2 launches each. First I launch a nuclear/interplanetary stage that docks with one of the refuelling depots and refuells.. and then I launch the payload part of the mission.. whether that means a harvest/lander, set of relay satellites, space station core, a rover, set of probes, etc.

As of now I have 20 such ships orbiting Kerbin. I started off having 3 ships per planet or so, but have since launched a bunch of new ones that I'm also going to be sending to Duna (an Ike space station & lander, an emergency fuel tank, and a Duna rover)

I have 198 days left until the first window (to Duna) and am tempted to put up even more ships heading to Duna.. Cause.. Fast forwrding to the Duna launch window would feel lame, now that I'm all about this alarm clock mod.. So I'm going to figure out some missions I can do that can kill some time tha't won't involve building any more Duna-bound ships.. Sending too many will probably be annoying if too many arrive all at the same time..

Spoiler :


I want to send at least 2 pilots, 3 engineers, and 3 scientists to each planet.. but I've realized that my astronaut complex has 0 scientists left.. and 0 scientists I can draft.. I might have to send my Mun & Minmus station dudes home to board of these ships. For now they are mostly empty, aside from the Duna armada, which I've already flown a crew-filling mission for.
 
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Calling all Europa Universalis fans, you can buy the complete EUIV w/ all the DLC and content (I think) for about $25 here @ humble bundle site

This is well worth it; if you miss it this time, they'll do it again. They last did an EU4 bundle two years ago which is when I first got them all.

---

I decided to revisit Star Trek Online a few weeks ago. I first played this game a few years ago and made it about thirty hours in before stopping at the Deep Space Nine Federation storyline; the defense platforms totally tore me up and this was back when the subscription model was in place, and I was unwilling to spend any money. This time I made it no more than five hours in before uninstalling again. The game went to a perma-free model (there is still technically a subscription, but it's a one-time fee of over $200, so... no), and I think switched up the episode structure a little, because I got stuck on a quest line that I never did the first time around.

It was outright impossible. The final battle was a Federation fleet vs. an Elachi fleet, with the primary objective of destroying a command ship. The problem: my weapons couldn't even damage the ship's shields, let alone get through to the hull. Well, that's alright, I'll just whittle down the support ships and then my allied fleet can combine all firepower onto the command ship. The problem: these support ships teleport around and spew out clusters of torpedo-spam frigates whenever their shields get down to 50%. Through perseverance and making sure I was only in range of one of these ships at a time, I finally destroyed a battleship. The problem: it turns out these enemy ships simply respawn if you destroy them, and they respawn directly behind you with another spewing-out of torpedo-spam frigates, and they instantly unleash their full armament into your backside—at that level and at that amount, it's a one-hit KO.

I considered maybe I was just under-leveled or working with the wrong ship since this quest started when I was level 10, which is when you get a ship upgrade. So I got a new ship, did a couple patrols to level up a couple times, and then tried again... with identical results. After searching, I found out that quests scale with your level, so upgrading everything and leveling up only brought the enemy up to my new stats. I spent altogether maybe two hours over three days failing again and again at this battle before calling it quits. I really derive no benefit or pleasure from failure at a video game. I suspect it's a quest that needs to be done with co-op.

I haven't played anything else since, though I have been doing another playthrough of Idle Dice. Pretty fun if you enjoy idle incremental games that are beyond the generic Cookie Clicker model.
 
It was also risky to remove Lara's signature dual wielding weapons and to some degree, de-sexualize the character. But it all worked out in favor of the game experience and they succeeded in redefining both Lara and the concept of Tomb Raider. My only primary gripes with the reboot games, are too few tombs that aren't always properly incorporated into the story narrative (demoted to side-quests) and the stupid button press slow-mo sequences.

My main issue with the reboots was the intense gore in the death sequences. :(
 
Things I've been playing lately... ok.

Did 2 playthroughs of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Surprisingly good game, very unexpected after the whole Avenger's debacle. Was going for a platinum (or it's equivalent in Epic's app), but gave up because one bugged achievement did not unlock. There are other two that would require grinding that I'm still missing, but I'm not up to it if I'm not gonna get 100% anyways.

I was doing a second playthrough of obsidian's "Tyranny" on STEAM. Very interesting and underrated RPG, at least storywise. I was enjoying this second run even more, but I am encountering loads of bugs that didn't show up in my first attempt. Lost several hours at least twice, and will again as I got a game breaking bug that halts my progress. Jury's still out if I'll finish this run or not, though I really wanted to complete the disfavored rout (first time I went full psycho, so I joined the Chorus).

As I recently finished GTA V, decided to give another shot to GTA IV. I used to give this game up at a certain point because the lack of checkpoints was annoying, specially considering it's fetish with driving segments. Feeling the same again, at about the same spot.

Lots of things in my backlog. With all the subscriptions services of today, I always get far more games than I have the chance to finish. Suppose this is true to most people... I'd love to try Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us 2, but as I am already overwhelmed, I can't justify a purchase. Donations would be appreciated. :p
 
....except for Angel Of Darkness......
It's my favorite TR...also was my first so did not have a benchmark on controls going in. However, for me, while the controls made the game difficult it also made it rewarding. Great tombs, challenging puzzles/bosses, and I think the best story relative to the fact that TR is pretty light on story. Def think it the most underrated TR.
 
Hello @FredLC It is nice to see you post again. How's life?
 
Hello @FredLC It is nice to see you post again. How's life?

Hi buddy. Been a while.

Well the biggest news in my life is that I adopted a little baby girl about a year ago. Been a wild ride, and this is the main reason I've not been playing much. Though it is a pastime I can still engage since it does not require leaving home.

Otherwise, all is normal. Overworked, but that is par for the course.

What about you?

Regards :).
 
My bed time; I will update you tomorrow. :)
 
Been practicing my merging techniques in FO76.
Used the flamethrower trick to add a doorframe and door to a shipping container, and the pressure plate trick to merge a TV screen and a '50s style computer console so the console has a screen, and a cooking station with an Alien Stash Box to make a sort of hi tech looking cooking station.
Next I'm going to see if I can put a Mr Fuzzy head on a statue.
 
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