What Videogames Have You Been Playing XXI: Going for the Platinum!

[Zkribbler]

In my present Sims 3 game, I'm playing as a gold digger. Unfortunately, in setting up the weather options, I failed to make the necessary adjustments. Now my tropical paradise is suffering through a blizzard.

 

[r16]

ı see there are a lot heretics in CFC who do not play Civ ...

 

[Kyriakos]

ı see there are a lot heretics in CFC who do not play Civ ...

Implement my medieval gfx for the 14th-15th century mod

 

[r16]

not following the current development in CFC / also can't get my .exe fixed after somehow mutated into the ways ı don't like . Well , orbital bombardment to the rescue . One of these days ...

 

[Sofista]

In my present Sims 3 game, I'm playing as a gold digger. Unfortunately, in setting up the weather options, I failed to make the necessary adjustments. Now my tropical paradise is suffering through a blizzard.

Um, you can change them anytime?
F5/Options/Seasons & Environment Options.

 

[Zkribbler]

Um, you can change them anytime.

Thank you very much!

 

[Ajidica]

I stumbled across this totally awesome game on steam, Shadows of Forbidden Gods.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1741640/Shadows_of_Forbidden_Gods/
It is a sort of cross between Crusader Kings and the asymmetrical strategy games like AI War. You are a Dark God, looking to use your agents to spread your cult and your shadow, bringing the world under your control. You can manipulate heroes, create conflicts to distract them, unleash plagues to weaken their cities, and prey upon the heroes insecurities to draw them to shadow.
In my current game, I kept my Supplicant (an all-purpose agent you start with) in the north of the map to spread shadow from some witches covens I infiltrated, drawing enemy heroes up there. I then recruited a Courtier to infiltrate the courts of the south kingdom, using my influence to protect a coven of deep ones which prompt shadow and madness to spread. Upon the death of the emperor, the death of such a powerful person created a strong soul that lingered in the world, and my harvester consumed it, preying upon the minds of the heroes that arrived in the capital to offer condolences to the emperors wife. My harvester followed one of the heroes, playing on his doubts and sins, until he fell to darkness. I noticed that hero had the 'orc-slayer' trait so I corrupted him (placing him under my control), outfitted him with some equipment and guards paid for by what my Courtier stole from the south kingdom, and sent him north to slay the orc chiefs and take control of their horde.
Shadow has spread from witches covens in the east, the orcs are unifying in north, madness spreads in the south, and plague spreads from the west. All is looking good, but many heroes are now aware of me, and are entreating the emperor to form an alliance against me....

The game is a lot like Crusader Kings in that you don't really understand the mechanics, but just sort of hurl yourself from crisis to crisis, taking advantage of plots and opportunities on the fly. The game is turn based so there are always choices about what to do.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Satisfactory
Yesterday, 550 hours into a save, I turned on my Nuclear Power Plant which took me 150 hours to build. Only a few minor fixes, had it working within the hour.

From 39 to 139 Gigawatt! Power for days!



Nuclear waste is an issue, but I have at least 288 hours to solve that before my storage runs out of room.

 

[Kyriakos]

Due to the terrible world war situation irl, I played some more Victoria II. Payed out (in the game's fantasy world) so now Greece is a great power in 1860 and I used that to colonize and take advantage of various non-europeans (including, of course, Turkey )

 

[tjs282]

Follow-on from my post in the last thread...

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.

Yeah, well, that game got bagged.

Although I did manage to kill off the Dutch as I'd hoped, and was in the process of consolidating my gains and (finally!) beginning to build out my thin-rail-net, the Celts finished murdering everyone else (nearly every Incan town was razed!) just as I got Replaceable Parts, and then they turned on me. When their Tanks, TOWs and Arty-stacks rolled over my Musket-guarded borders, I didn't see much point in continuing.

Rolled another mostly-random DG-map as the Romans, but this one's turning into a slog as well.

I got Wheat, Iron and Horses near Rome — but also a belt of assorted Hills/Mountains and Marsh surrounding it in all directions, pretty much exactly where I would have liked to place my permanent first-ring towns.

Consequently slow initial growth, combined with what seems to be another Pan-Map, has meant I've been well outpaced on tech. IIRC, the last save was made at about 700 AD, and I was still a couple of turns from finishing Polytheism (my last tech of the Ancient Age), while the Incans (to the south of Rome) already have Gunpowder/Muskets, and the Japanese (to the north and west) are fielding Cavalry — which they are currently using to beat up the Persians (to the north and east), but will likely swiftly turn on me if/when The Jerk capitulates...

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark

Interloper, Day ~48. I think maybe I spent too much time vacationing in Mystery Lake, but at least I've got my wolfskin coat. I relocated to the Pleasant Valley farmhouse, but now I'm having to deal with Cabin Fever, with night falling, in a blizzard. Yuck. The two nearest caves are bear spawns, and Hilltop Cave, Three Strikes Homestead, and the airplane fuselage are all pretty far away, under the circumstances. I wanted to go to the red barn and Thompson's Crossing, but I don't know if there are any good places to camp outdoors around either one. I don't believe in voluntarily restarting in this game - I go until I drop dead - so I'll have to see what I can do from here. I think I might head up to the plane wreckage. Following the frozen stream it's almost impossible to get lost, and the high walls can provide some cover from the wind, depending on which way it's blowing. I'll have to use 3 matches and a couple pieces of coal, but so be it.

Cabin Fever is such an artificial mechanic. There's no reason I should be heading out into a blizzard at night, except that I didn't plan around Cabin Fever properly. It's circular reasoning and doesn't make a lot of sense, but I understand why they have it and I'm not sure what a better alternative would be.

 

[Kyriakos]

Meh. Erased Victoria II and I hope I really never play this again. No fun at all and a waste of time.
Besides, it sadly seems that I can't play for hours anymore. Which shouldn't surprise me

 

[warpus]

I have been documenting my Settle the Solar System set of missions in a spreadsheet. After spending a lot of my free time putting all these interplanetary ships in orbit around Kerbin, the fun part of all this now begins and a lot of these ships have now been sent off to their destinations..

Spoiler :

^^ there is an error here: where it says "STILL NEEDED", it should NOT say "1 Harvester" to the left of that ^^

The Eeloo and Eve bound ships are still in orbit, but with the Eeloo transfer window coming up in 4 days (game time) this will soon change. As you can see I've already itemized the 4 ships headed to Eeloo and determined what's needed before I can be 100% ready for the Eeloo transfer window: I'll need to send up a ship with 3 crew members and figure out where to put them.. and the Rescue ship does not exist at all yet, so that means 2 launches and 2 rendezvous & docking maneuvers. The Eve transfer window is a bit later, so for now I don't have to worry about it.

All these ships are basically going to put space stations around all the planets and a bunch of their moons. Most of the stations will have fuel tanks and a lander capable of mining ore and converting it to fuel. So once all of this stuff is in place, I should be able to refuel anything in that planetary system. So after all of this is done and in place, I will see where gaps need to be filled (failed missions, miscalculations, etc.).. and can then send more supplies and mission specific modules during the next transfer window. I also want to design base modules that can land on planets and allow me to set up bases there, but that will also have to wait for future transfer windows.

I might as well explain what a Fireburner is. It's the codename for the nuclear interplanetary part of all of these ships. I made it up on the spot and it stuck. Once all this stuff is delivered, the fireburners will basically be used as tugs, used to move stuff around, in order to accomplish whatever objectives. Everything here is designed to be modular, so everything can connect to everything else. Rescue Fireburners are basically ships sent just in case, with extra fuel. The rescue ships sent to Moho are even beefier and have even more fuel

So far only the Moho ships have arrived at their targets.. and I had a 25% getting-in-orbit success rate there.. Which is a bit horrible, but I have actually have never made it to Moho before.. It was tougher than I thought! I wanted to send a third rescue ship (with lots of fuel) but had to shift my focus on something else. I am not sure how Dres is going to go either, it could also be hairy. Jool and Duna went a lot smoother, obviously.

 

[João III]

Has anyone here played Pillars of Eternity or Divinity: Original Sin? I'm looking to eventually play both but not sure which to get first

 

[Ajidica]

Has anyone here played Pillars of Eternity or Divinity: Original Sin? I'm looking to eventually play both but not sure which to get first

I've played both.
I was not a fan of Pillars of Eternity. I found combat horribly balanced (I got the game 6 months after launch and they were still doing stuff like "+50% duration" to rebalance combat), the stats allocation and combat system somewhat unintuitive and poorly explained, the writing overly dramatic, and the plot pretty boring. The storyline NPCs I found to be pretty rubbish, both mechanically and in their stories. None of them were particularly interesting, spending many long dialogue trees talking at you, and I liked none of them - no chance to set up the 'bro squad' like I did in Dragon Age. They are also mechanically a bit crap. Of all your party members, you are given a grand total of ONE tank. Two or three can be second line tank/dps, and every other party member is third line. So unless you build your main character as a tank, you are stuck with a front line of 1 for a good quarter to third of the game. You can recruit customizable henchmen, but those lack the story that make it worth playing an RPG.

Divinity: Original Sin was a lot of fun, but the sequel, Divinity: OS 2 is an improvement in every single way and has no reliance on the previous game for knowing what is going on. Great writing, fun battles, and good characters. Only problem is the character build system can trip you up; I found it helpful to look at some build guides over on fextralife.

Though if you are looking for RPGs, I cannot recommend Avernum: Escape from the Pit highly enough. Indie rpg (literally made by one guy and some commissioned work). The world-spanning empire throws all criminals, heretics, rebels, malcontents, and the unlucky into the vast underground cave system of Avernum from which there is no escape. Or is there?

 

[PhroX]

Has anyone here played Pillars of Eternity or Divinity: Original Sin? I'm looking to eventually play both but not sure which to get first

Do you prefer turn based or real time with pause combat? Cos that's the big difference. Personally, I prefer the latter, so I had more fun with PoE, even if the first one is a bit rough around the edges mechanically (the second is a big step forward, iterating on what they did the first time round, resulting in probably the best combat I've ever played in an RPG).

I've played both.
I was not a fan of Pillars of Eternity. I found combat horribly balanced (I got the game 6 months after launch and they were still doing stuff like "+50% duration" to rebalance combat), the stats allocation and combat system somewhat unintuitive and poorly explained, the writing overly dramatic, and the plot pretty boring. The storyline NPCs I found to be pretty rubbish, both mechanically and in their stories. None of them were particularly interesting, spending many long dialogue trees talking at you, and I liked none of them - no chance to set up the 'bro squad' like I did in Dragon Age. They are also mechanically a bit crap. Of all your party members, you are given a grand total of ONE tank. Two or three can be second line tank/dps, and every other party member is third line. So unless you build your main character as a tank, you are stuck with a front line of 1 for a good quarter to third of the game. You can recruit customizable henchmen, but those lack the story that make it worth playing an RPG.

There are actually plenty of characters that can tank if you set them up properly. A good example is Kana (the chanter), who's available pretty early on. Chanter abilities aren't affected by cast time, so give him heavy armour, and a big shield, stick him at the front and he'll tank just fine while still giving you his full support effectiveness. Now, certainly, the game doesn't really let you know you're supposed to do that - IIRC he comes with a musket and the bard archetype is of course traditionally a supporter - but when you look deeper at the systems, there are often ways to make things work. And even all this is assuming you actually need to run a dedicated "tank". Which you don't if you build your party around not having one...

 

[Senethro]

(Tyranny was better lol)

 

[AmazonQueen]

Managed to kill my 1st boss (other than the easy one in the tutorial dungeon) in Elden Ring on the 2nd try. Ofc Mad Pumpkin Head is generally reckoned to be pretty easy to beat.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark

Interloper, Day ~50. Well, I made it. Almost died to f'ing Cabin Fever, which I think would've been my most humiliating death. I got up to the plane wreckage through the blizzard with about 20% health remaining. Found some useful stuff up there, though. And then I almost died from the cold again on the way back to the farmhouse. Lesson learned, I guess. I don't think Cabin Fever was something I ever needed to think about while playing at Stalker difficulty.

I came to Pleasant Valley thinking that the farmhouse was a good place to hang out for a while, but now I'm reconsidering. It's great at Stalker, but I think Interloper changes the equation. I'm going to check out the Red Barn and Thompson's Crossing as planned, but after that, I'm not sure. I had been thinking about Timberwolf Mountain, but I'm having second thoughts. Coastal Highway and Desolation Point might make more sense. Where Interloper makes the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse less hospitable, I think Interloper might make the Coastal Highway Garage better. I hate that garage on Stalker. Wolves in almost every direction. You have to come out the back door like Butch & Sundance at the end of the movie.

 

[Gorbles]

Instead of going all-in on one game, which I tend to lose track of (because kids, life events, etc), I'm multi-tasking various games in short bursts. It's working okay so far.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is still going quite strong. I appear to have started the postgame story and the Daybreak (mega mass outbreak) story at the same time, which I'm perfectly fine with. Multiple major questlines at the same time actually benefit the open world now it's all unlocked. The main story worked because you unlocked a region at a time, and took it a region at a time, but these kinds of games often falter a bit once the discovery has finished. Daybreak in particular gives you a reason to revisit multiple regions, and of course the postgame plot takes you all over anyway.

I've bought The (LEGO™ (r) (c) all rights incorporated and reserved) Skywalker Saga, but I've made myself finish The Force Awakens first, just to kind of set me up with a modern LEGO video game. I've played all the old ones, but precious little after that, and combined with Star Wars, TFA is a nice smash through that film's plot and a re-introduction to how far the games have come (as the Skywalker Saga is meant to be pretty broad, and be a step up at the same time).

Getting back into my Mass Effect Legendary Edition playthrough, still in ME1. Going around all the side missions before I go on with the plot of Feros and Noveria. I basically want to stomp through the main plot as quickly as I can to get into ME2, and the sidequests are pretty effective at levelling me up so far. I just took on a mission that I almost completed before dying. I then realised I'd not levelled up (or geared) either of my companions. So I fixed that and it was a complete cakewalk.

Still dropping in and out of Halo Infinite's MP. It's a good timewaster, nice short matches if you avoid the larger game mode(s). And I have a bit of time in Age of Empires IV, though mainly to keep myself familiarised with the modding side of things.