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

[Akka]

For sure. But it ain't gaming. Random YouTube videos don't count.

I admit I don't get the joke with the Youtube videos here.

The coffee is unnecessary if the game is ‘encouraging’ enough.

True, but I just happen to love coffee and it just fits well with a gaming session

No pain, no play.

Y'know, that reminds me of some old-school LAN parties I participated in. Had to lug whole computer, case, CRT monitor and all, to a friend's house across the town and up the stairs, then back home and up the stairs. That was fun. These days, we just bring laptops.

I remember... When we routinely did LAN-parties at some friend home. I was living on the fourth floor and using a 19 Kg screen. Bringing the stuff back home after two days with very little sleep, wasn't the most pleasant part of the week-end

 

[Thorgalaeg]

My Stellaris game came to an end. Finally it was revealed I was the true endgame crisis when I destroyed the whole galaxy just before jumping to a superior plane of existence where time was meaningless and such.

However It was rather disappointing i was not given the option to continue in this plane of existence a bit more as i was a few months away of completing a behemoth battleship the size of a whole solar system. (as if attack moons and battle planets were not enough)

Pretty amazing game anyway! Eager to start a new one. This time difficulty will be up a notch since I know how most things work now and i will add/remove some mods. The idea is to make a more challenging and deeper game with diplomacy being an important part of it, instead of going all for overwhelming technological superiority and utter destruction at cosmological scale.

 

[GenMarshall]

Humble beginnings of my new city in City Skylines.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

I admit I don't get the joke with the Youtube videos here.

More a comment on my aging habits. I tend to watch videos of other people gaming, rather than game myself.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Or cleaning. 100C is creeping up to the possibility of damage if ran over extended period. How often do you clean the insides of your computer?

Cleaned out the dust from my case; it wasn't o bad. I ran one map in POE and the cores on my i7 7700 were running 95-100 C. More fans? Replace heat paste?

 

[GenMarshall]

Cleaned out the dust from my case; it wasn't o bad. I ran one map in POE and the cores on my i7 7700 were running 95-100 C. More fans? Replace heat paste?

I’m not sure of the problem. My guess is apply new heat paste (I recall you also have to put on new paste when you swap out the CPU fan).

Here are some suggestions I found online.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I can't play games continuously for more than 3 hours. Too bad, I recall (when I was 16-17) playing CivII a few times for an entire day...

Assuming one takes time for food and bathroom breaks and to feed the cat, I don't see anything wrong with a day-long session of Civ II. I'd gladly do it if I could understand the instructions to make it work with Windows 10. I really miss ToT.

It is like writing a story and having to stop after a few pages, despite the ideas to continue being there.

Pacing is the secret to my ability to make it through NaNoWriMo 3 times/year. It's especially crucial in November, when the minimum for a win is 50,000 words. Leaving some things unsaid will give me a jumping off point for the next day and I don't need to worry about where to start.

Okay, games... I've been a Big Fish Games member for over a dozen years. But their last "upgrade" meant that the website is now a disorganized mess, the purchase history doesn't work, the Games Manager doesn't work if you have over a certain number of games, and they changed the pricing model to the point where games are basically unaffordable for anyone whose currency isn't USD. A Collectors Edition game would cost me over $27 CAD, and I cannot think of ANY game on that site that's worth even half that. The only ones that come close are the Park Ranger games, and while I have enough points (barely), whether or not I would be able to install and activate it is a crapshoot. Most times I can't even get something into my cart (no, it's not my computer at fault, as thousands of other people have this same problem).

So... a friend said some stuff from BFG is also available on Steam. I'd never done Steam before, so she told me how to make an account and gifted me a game to get me hookedstarted.

Well, they don't carry the CE versions of Park Ranger so I emailed the devs to beg them to please have Steam make it available (the standard editions are available there, but the CE versions have an extra storyline). It would likely be much cheaper than what BFG is charging, and I could actually play it. They said they'd think about it.

In the meantime, I've found some old games I enjoyed years ago - one of them is one that I first played on my Amiga, over 30 years ago! (Ports of Call). Alas, there's no Speedy Eggbert or Zany Golf, but I found lots and lots of cat-themed games.

I also found Senet. It's fun, if a bit exasperating at times (no game should mock someone who loses).

Oh, and the recent sale on Civ V and VI? Yeah, I decided to try them.

None of this means giving up on my game novelization projects, though.

 

[Zardnaar]

My Stellaris game came to an end. Finally it was revealed I was the true endgame crisis when I destroyed the whole galaxy just before jumping to a superior plane of existence where time was meaningless and such.

However It was rather disappointing i was not given the option to continue in this plane of existence a bit more as i was a few months away of completing a behemoth battleship the size of a whole solar system. (as if attack moons and battle planets were not enough)

Pretty amazing game anyway! Eager to start a new one. This time difficulty will be up a notch since I know how most things work now and i will add/remove some mods. The idea is to make a more challenging and deeper game with diplomacy being an important part of it, instead of going all for overwhelming technological superiority and utter destruction at cosmological scale.

I haven't blown up the galaxy I can't be bothered. I normally only test the first 50 years as the end game is usually the same. Leverage economy build huge fleet.

Managed to create a Gaia world in 11 game years the other day can reliably do it in 12.

Also been testing an aquatic angler+ agrarian ideal build.

Managed to reinstall Civ III.

 

[GenMarshall]

Assuming one takes time for food and bathroom breaks and to feed the cat, I don't see anything wrong with a day-long session of Civ II. I'd gladly do it if I could understand the instructions to make it work with Windows 10. I really miss ToT.

I have the same delema with SimCity 2000 due the color pallet not being present in newer Windows OSes. I can use DOSBox to run the DOS version from GOG, the Windows 95 is seen as a better version.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I have the same delema with SimCity 2000 due the color pallet not being present in newer Windows OSes. I can use DOSBox to run the DOS version from GOG, the Windows 95 is seen as a better version.

Krimsky.net - SC2KRender

krimsky.net

GitHub - Guspaz/SC2KRepainter: Fixes palette animation in Win95 SimCity 2000 on modern Windows

Fixes palette animation in Win95 SimCity 2000 on modern Windows - Guspaz/SC2KRepainter

github.com

 

[Ajidica]

I'm trying XCOM2 again. I don't know what it is but I just can't figure out how to not suck, even on the first few real missions.

 

[Rg339]

My Stellaris game came to an end. Finally it was revealed I was the true endgame crisis when I destroyed the whole galaxy just before jumping to a superior plane of existence where time was meaningless and such.

However It was rather disappointing i was not given the option to continue in this plane of existence a bit more as i was a few months away of completing a behemoth battleship the size of a whole solar system. (as if attack moons and battle planets were not enough)

Pretty amazing game anyway! Eager to start a new one. This time difficulty will be up a notch since I know how most things work now and i will add/remove some mods. The idea is to make a more challenging and deeper game with diplomacy being an important part of it, instead of going all for overwhelming technological superiority and utter destruction at cosmological scale.

I’ve played many a game of Stellaris, but always end up going for overwhelming technological superiority eventually. It is better to be the shepherd than it is the sheep.

Managed to create a Gaia world in 11 game years the other day can reliably do it in 12.

What’s your process on that?

I'm trying XCOM2 again. I don't know what it is but I just can't figure out how to not suck, even on the first few real missions.

If you’re playing on a high difficulty, the first few missions are brutal. Veterans players will tell ya: sometimes you get unlucky, first few go south, and the whole campaign’s a wash.

If it’s normal difficulty, and you’re new, watch how you advance your guys. Don’t panic under the timer. Ideally, you wanna trigger pods of enemies one at a time and defeat them in detail. It’s faster and safer than taking them on all at once. It’s defeat in detail, once a pod is triggered, stop advancing or flanking if there’s a chance you’ll trigger another mob to activity.

 

[red_elk]

I'm trying XCOM2 again. I don't know what it is but I just can't figure out how to not suck, even on the first few real missions.

There are good guides for beginners on Steam as far as I remember. Use grenades a lot, to destroy cover. Also, as Rg339 said, try not to advance too quickly - undiscovered enemies don't see you even if you blew up half of the map.

 

[Zardnaar]

I’ve played many a game of Stellaris, but always end up going for overwhelming technological superiority eventually. It is better to be the shepherd than it is the sheep.

What’s your process on that?


If you’re playing on a high difficulty, the first few missions are brutal. Veterans players will tell ya: sometimes you get unlucky, first few go south, and the whole campaign’s a wash.

If it’s normal difficulty, and you’re new, watch how you advance your guys. Don’t panic under the timer. Ideally, you wanna trigger pods of enemies one at a time and defeat them in detail. It’s faster and safer than taking them on all at once. It’s defeat in detail, once a pod is triggered, stop advancing or flanking if there’s a chance you’ll trigger another mob to activity.

Gaia world rush. Several ways if doing it.

Idyllic bloom civic
Masterful crafters or slave guilds
Origin prosperous unification (overtuned took 15 years haven't tested shoulders of Giants)

Homeworld. Dry.


Noxious breath
Budding
Phototropic
Unruly
Solitary


Let money build up until you get 300 remove sprawling slums, buy minerals on market. Build generator district convert agriculture districts to generator. You might need to keep 1 agriculture.

You'll need to buy gas 1/month then 2. Then it's just a matter of juggling resources until you get enough cash and gas.

 

[cardgame]

Cleaned out the dust from my case; it wasn't o bad. I ran one map in POE and the cores on my i7 7700 were running 95-100 C. More fans? Replace heat paste?

Replace the thermal compound, 100%. If you're running the stock intel fan, replace that too. 95C is no bueno.

 

[Takhisis]

True, but I just happen to love coffee and it just fits well with a gaming session

How? That means more urinary interruptions.

I'm trying XCOM2 again. I don't know what it is but I just can't figure out how to not suck, even on the first few real missions.

If you’re playing on a high difficulty, the first few missions are brutal. Veterans players will tell ya: sometimes you get unlucky, first few go south, and the whole campaign’s a wash.

If it’s normal difficulty, and you’re new, watch how you advance your guys. Don’t panic under the timer. Ideally, you wanna trigger pods of enemies one at a time and defeat them in detail. It’s faster and safer than taking them on all at once. It’s defeat in detail, once a pod is triggered, stop advancing or flanking if there’s a chance you’ll trigger another mob to activity.

Hey, that makes it sound as if they'd managed to replicate the original DOS game successfully.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I have the same delema with SimCity 2000 due the color pallet not being present in newer Windows OSes. I can use DOSBox to run the DOS version from GOG, the Windows 95 is seen as a better version.

I tried that game, but couldn't really get into it. Most of the fun I had with the original Sim City was embezzling enough money to cause catastrophes and then bulldoze the city down to bare scorched earth, even the trees. People could rant and scream and complain all they wanted - it never did any good.

This was one of the ways I used to deal with bad moods - start up a city and then destroy it. That, plus drowning the sailors in Ports of Call (due to never bothering with maintenance), was cathartic.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm trying XCOM2 again. I don't know what it is but I just can't figure out how to not suck, even on the first few real missions.

I was thinking about dusting that one off, myself. Without knowing what you're struggling with, I'll just offer this: use lots of explosives. At the beginning, iirc, all you have is 1 grenade apiece. Use them. All of them. Early and often. For me, the best weapon the Grenadiers carry is the eponymous grenade launcher, not the rotary-barrelled cannon (although the cannon does have the "Demolition" skill/attack, which you can fire many more times than the grenade launcher). I think Grenadiers eventually get 3 grenades? Also keep an eye out for anything in the environment you can detonate. My soldiers leave the battlefield a smoking, cratered, burning ruin of collapsed walls and overturned vehicles, and then light their cigars off the fire. Send me the bill in the mail, [fruit]heads.

If you’re playing on a high difficulty, the first few missions are brutal. Veterans players will tell ya: sometimes you get unlucky, first few go south, and the whole campaign’s a wash.

If it’s normal difficulty, and you’re new, watch how you advance your guys. Don’t panic under the timer. Ideally, you wanna trigger pods of enemies one at a time and defeat them in detail. It’s faster and safer than taking them on all at once. It’s defeat in detail, once a pod is triggered, stop advancing or flanking if there’s a chance you’ll trigger another mob to activity.

Yeah, the mission timers blow. I found they really negatively impacted the tactical gameplay, which was the whole reason I was playing the game. I used a mod that doubled the length of the timers, rather than remove them completely, which seemed to strike a balance between urgency and reckless abandon.

Flanking is tricky, because it's both vital to winning gunfights and so easy to accidentally draw more bad guys than you want into the fight (who, for some reason, won't hear The Battle of the Somme going on just around the corner, but okay...).

 

[Senethro]

The Stealth insertion mode was actually a really good solution to XCOM 1 being a game of aggro management and sightlines.

 

[Grendeldef]

It's a feature! Not a bug. Chris's vision of taking the game to the next level. My level 93 glad just can't get to 94. the AN evil doers can show up easily show up at T14 in bad combos and strike without mercy. Going lower and, well, it would take a hundred maps to level. I think they have already baked AN into POE2 and won't remove it from the current game.

I've been checking the temperature on my video card and cores. All are running hot. My CPU gets up to the 95-100 C range when playing PoE. Should be around 80. That may be connected to my crashes. The system is 6 years old, so it may be time for an upgrade.

I've been living Chris' wet dream about random insta kill things lately with weird lag spikes. At first I thought they were all on my end but that doesn't seem to be the case as they correlate too much with happenings on the screen. Due to this I first dropped to low red maps like Belfry for The Enlightened div card farming but 5 sec freeze will almost surely kill me there (I tried, it did) I scaled even further back to white maps and it felt very odd to use scarabs on whites. Didn't any cards but I didn't die either so I slowly got into 70s% and then syndicate safehouse - went through a portal & after the initial dust settled I realised this isn't a healthy place either. Over the weekend I was yoyoing between 50-85% usually dying by an essence mob - those are deadly with any lag. Couple of times I went hiding in the mines as my stash refused to take any more sulphite only to see the (day)light very soon again after a rendezvous with a magma barrier mob or something similar - not the lag-friendliest environment either. One death can be tributed purely for the new kb.
By the looks of it others aren't progressing with ease either - Ninja still has only 6 95(+) Cyclones on SSF and I've been 1st or 2nd 94 for a week now. Haven't checked globally but fairly often one of the European servers has been down for a while so GGG may have some stability issues which in 3.19 can go on forever without anyone complaining. This things felt slightly better but I even made a logout macro for quick release in screen freeze situations - saved me once in mines today. I'm currently @82% and I really want to ding once more - after that I can again take a basketful of disco deaths if I have to.

No pain, no play.

Y'know, that reminds me of some old-school LAN parties I participated in. Had to lug whole computer, case, CRT monitor and all, to a friend's house across the town and up the stairs, then back home and up the stairs. That was fun. These days, we just bring laptops.

I admit I don't get the joke with the Youtube videos here.

True, but I just happen to love coffee and it just fits well with a gaming session


I remember... When we routinely did LAN-parties at some friend home. I was living on the fourth floor and using a 19 Kg screen. Bringing the stuff back home after two days with very little sleep, wasn't the most pleasant part of the week-end

I've always hosted our LAN parties so the operation of moving CRTs wasn't too bad but my 3 friends quickly resolved the issue by using my monitors instead of bringing their own; lazy b'stards. Few years back the trend was toward laptops but that time has passed and they'll bring a desktop instead as nobody plays at home with a laptop - time used for fiddling with the settings is time away from gaming, drinking & insulting the others.