Blog Your Current Game

[Redress]

I'm considering a scaled down Dwarf Fortress tutorial

I would definitely watch that!

 

[OrphanSlug]

Well, I took that build from post #1,161 and cleaned it up a bit then expanded. Turns out I was close to end game, so I kept going and ended up with more spaghetti production chains. I ended up needing far more power as I was building the Sphere but solar panels worked well enough. Ended up visiting 8 planets in 3 systems (did not really pull much resources from anything that far away but thought about it.)

Several more hours later and I got another end of game. Took another pic...

 

[jmotivator]

Over the last several weeks I have been playing a lot of Dwarf Fortress and the Sims 4.

I guess I'm in a design/creator mood.

As I was getting ready for work this morning I was suddenly struck by how incredible a "Sims Fortress" game would be.

All the light hearted silliness of The Sims, but with mining, crafting, and defense... build you dream home, raise a dream family, and then defend it from invading hordes.

Somebody make this game, thanks.

 

[jmotivator]

I would definitely watch that!

I tried recording as I did a new game build and realized it would never work. DF uses way too much of my brain to talk at the same time.

I have a pretty descent new fortress running that I may film a walk through of this weekend. The fortress is in no way pretty, or complex, but it hits on all the basics of fortress construction that lead to a "successful" build.

And by "successful" I generally mean your fortress dies to werekangaroo minstrels and vampire poets rather than starvation.

 

[PoS]

Tried playing Scorn. The creepy visuals and soundtrack reminded me of the Alien movies but... I hate puzzle games, and this is full of them. Uninstalled and got a refund.

 

[OrphanSlug]

Over the last several weeks I have been playing a lot of Dwarf Fortress and the Sims 4.

I guess I'm in a design/creator mood.

As I was getting ready for work this morning I was suddenly struck by how incredible a "Sims Fortress" game would be.

All the light hearted silliness of The Sims, but with mining, crafting, and defense... build you dream home, raise a dream family, and then defend it from invading hordes.

Somebody make this game, thanks.

I used to design a bunch for Sim 4 as well, some of the mods available really change the game.

 

[jmotivator]

I used to design a bunch for Sim 4 as well, some of the mods available really change the game.

I mostly play anymore to see how quickly I can rise in a career, and get the most out of the least effort.

I use some mods to change aspects of the game and the most cheaty one is the live-in servants mod. The mod lets you hire up to 6 live in servants (2 maids, 2 nannies and 2 gardeners) who will do most of the chores around the house. They technically don't cost any money, but the cost comes from providing rooms and beds (construction cost, increased taxes). I build servant quarters in a basement... man this is starting to sound bad.

My first major update to a house is to build out the basement which always contains a music studio (Microphone, guitar, Piano), an art gallery (easels, lots of wall space to hand the paintings I create, wood working for statues, etc.)

So far, the two best careers I have found aren't really careers at all. I make most of my money painting and writing. My Sim is a starting novelist (skill 6) who is pumping out and publishing children's books like crazy. Once you have enough published books the money starts flowing rather nicely. My Sim's wife is a painter, and she makes all of her money in art sales. It takes her about an hour er painting and she makes between 1000 and 9000 per painting.

The practical upside is my Sim family has no set schedule, they just do whatever they want to and I occasionally force them to produce something. I find that the wife doesn't need much prodding, se just likes to paint, so I will go down to the studio every couple of days and sell whatever she has created. The husband needs to be told to write or he won't write.

I haven't tried making comparable money as a singer. I might train up a singer/musician and see how much money I make writing and selling songs....

As a couple we have amassed about 1.5 million from our non-career careers and now own a 64x64 plot with a mansion and a detached above ground servants quarters.

The game seems a bit too easy after playing Dwarf Fortress.

BUT, in a sort of cross over, the last nanny I hired was a vampire, so....

 

[OrphanSlug]

I mostly play anymore to see how quickly I can rise in a career, and get the most out of the least effort.

I use some mods to change aspects of the game and the most cheaty one is the live-in servants mod. The mod lets you hire up to 6 live in servants (2 maids, 2 nannies and 2 gardeners) who will do most of the chores around the house. They technically don't cost any money, but the cost comes from providing rooms and beds (construction cost, increased taxes). I build servant quarters in a basement... man this is starting to sound bad.

My first major update to a house is to build out the basement which always contains a music studio (Microphone, guitar, Piano), an art gallery (easels, lots of wall space to hand the paintings I create, wood working for statues, etc.)

So far, the two best careers I have found aren't really careers at all. I make most of my money painting and writing. My Sim is a starting novelist (skill 6) who is pumping out and publishing children's books like crazy. Once you have enough published books the money starts flowing rather nicely. My Sim's wife is a painter, and she makes all of her money in art sales. It takes her about an hour er painting and she makes between 1000 and 9000 per painting.

The practical upside is my Sim family has no set schedule, they just do whatever they want to and I occasionally force them to produce something. I find that the wife doesn't need much prodding, se just likes to paint, so I will go down to the studio every couple of days and sell whatever she has created. The husband needs to be told to write or he won't write.

I haven't tried making comparable money as a singer. I might train up a singer/musician and see how much money I make writing and selling songs....

As a couple we have amassed about 1.5 million from our non-career careers and now own a 64x64 plot with a mansion and a detached above ground servants quarters.

The game seems a bit too easy after playing Dwarf Fortress.

BUT, in a sort of cross over, the last nanny I hired was a vampire, so....

LOL, the game will throw a few wildcards at you.

But I agree that painting seems to be the quickest way to earn a whole lot in the game. Thousands made per day will put you in that 64 x 64 lot somewhere very quickly.

 

[jmotivator]

LOL, the game will throw a few wildcards at you.

But I agree that painting seems to be the quickest way to earn a whole lot in the game. Thousands made per day will put you in that 64 x 64 lot somewhere very quickly.

I think over time you can make more with writing since a high value book can earn you 500 a day in royalties. After publishing enough books you have money rolling in and you don't have to do anything.

In theory, you could start out as a writer, get a nice royalties stream going, and then switch to painting or song writing, or both.

Now I want to make a Sim that starts out as a singer songwriter and then becomes a painter and a writer later in life.. I'll call him Tony Bennett.

 

[OrphanSlug]

Okay, started a new run on Dyson Sphere Program. New seed I've not tried yet and going with a more strategic approach to this to see what happens. Thought I'd "blog" my progress Matrix to Matrix, considering speed but more resource management going through the process of expansion.

I do not use mods for this game (they can be filled with bugs and weird behavior) and this is not sandbox either. Took me a few hours to achieve the outputs I needed for both next steps and downstream production chains for other needs. Namely a mall, about to start in on that next when a few other energy sources are ready to tap.

So... step one done... blue, Electromagnetic Matrix up and running.

 

[PoS]

Okay, started a new run on Dyson Sphere Program.

Im waiting on the full release version to come out and then Ill play it. Not gonna fall for the early access beta crap.

 

[OrphanSlug]

Im waiting on the full release version to come out and then Ill play it. Not gonna fall for the early access beta crap.

Like many other games these days, you may be waiting a while. For the most part that is a good rule to follow, but this one was a suggestion and it's had my attention ever since.

 

[PoS]

Like many other games these days, you may be waiting a while. For the most part that is a good rule to follow, but this one was a suggestion and it's had my attention ever since.

Oh thats OK, theres plenty of fully released games out there to play.

 

[jmotivator]

So I forgot that a while ago, before the inflation and penny pinching took over, that I had pre-ordered the a premium edition of the game ROGUE TRADER.

That pre-order apparently entitled me to beta access through Steam, so I installed it this morning and have been playing it a bit. I've pretty much only finished the prologue of the game, but it's a fairly long prologue, so if gives you a nice feel for what the game will be.

For those unaware but still reading this, Rogue Trader is a Warhammer 40k title that has you play a character on a rogue trader vessel. Rogue Traders and an interesting profession in Warhammer 40k in that they are mostly above the grip of xenophobia that (rightfully?) grips the rest of the imperium. A rogue trader carries a writ from the Empire that authorizes communications and trade with other races, essentially no questions asked. Their job is to further the war effort through shadow diplomacy, tech trade and subterfuge. They are kind of the CIA of the Empire of Man crossed with privateers.

Hear is the quick pros and cons:

Pros:

1) Setting - I'm a big nerd for Warhammer 40K, so this is a given, but I haven't dabbled much in the rogue trader side of the world outside of reading novels. It's an interesting aspect of the empire.
2) The game is a pure throwback. It plays a lot like the old game ARCANUM, which was an improvement on the Fallout 1&2 engine.
3) The Character creation is deep, and character development is varied. There is a rather wide selection of both functional and character choices the make unique characters.
4) The story is good, but maybe a bit cookie cutter at least early on.
5) Combat is accessible but deceptively deep. Any system where strategy can be the difference between success and failure is good by me.

Cons:

1) Graphics are a bit muddied. Granted, there is an inherent claustrophobia and Déjà vu feeling inside a WH40K cathedral ship, but it can get annoying hunting for the way out of any given room.
2) I find that too often I finish a stage of a quest without a clear idea what I'm supposed to do next.
3) The early game seems to GREAT favor melee units over ranged units. Melee weapons tend to have higher base damage and higher hit rates, meaning in early game my meleers kill everything while ranged units keep missing. I think melee needs far more mitigation (higher dodge and parry) and the ranged hit rate should be increased so that there is a better balance of combat options.

That said, it's a beta, so they have a lot of stream lining to do. I'm looking forward to playing the full game when it comes out, and I might play through the prologue a few times to find a character I want to play in the full game. I could keep playing the full game in the beta if I wanted to, but I really don't want to get too deep into the story when it's still a work in progress.

 

[Redress]

ARCANUM

Arcanum, of Steamwork and Magick Obscura? That would be a really good thing.

 

[jmotivator]

Arcanum, of Steamwork and Magick Obscura? That would be a really good thing.

Yes. It plays a lot like Arcanum or Fallout 1&2 but in Warhammer 40K with a 3D rotatable map.

Though that last bit may be neat, or would have been to me back in the days of Fallout 1&2, I find that the pixel hunt was much cleaner back when the level designer knew which direction you would be looking at all times.

 

[jmotivator]

One of the mods I use in the Sims 4 boosts the income from things the Sims create, and makes royalties from publishing decay more slowly. That way I can focus on gaining skills and not tie Sims to the daily grind.

My latest sim has been exploiting this by writing and publishing a lot of quick children's books. I'm shaping young minds!

 

[joluoto]

I guess I am playing Baldur's Gate 3 now, will never finish the game. I do not have that kind of time.

 

[Frank Apisa]

I'm heads up, against the short stack (maybe 1/3 more chips) with AQ in the hole so I put him all in. He decides he's tired and wants to go home anyway so he calls w/ 7,2 off. Flop comes 5,4,Q so I'm way ahead. Turn is a 3 then river, naturally, is a 6. Such is the life of home game poker.

Oh, shit. But...it does happen from time to time.

I'm getting so that I hate AA.

Seems always someone at the table with nothing better to do than just stick around.

 

[jmotivator]

Played some more ROGUE TRADER. As much as I like the game, I can't get over how dated it looks, and not really in a good way.

There seems me, as I kick in my game historian brain, eras in gaming where there is a major graphics transition, and every single time the new graphics are worse than the old graphics.... it's a loss of expertise, and de-refinement of the art.

Black and white/green screen to Green/Purple/Amber....

Pixel Art to Photo Capture...

Sprite-based to full 3D models...

At every step the new stuff was worse than what came before it, but we stuck with it because the ceiling was higher for the new tech because the old tech and hit its peak.

Unfortunately, graphics wise, ROGUE TRADER relives the bad days of the transition from sprites to full 3D. We don't have the same novelty that would otherwise carry the sub-par art assets, we now expect more.

What does carry the graphics is nostalgia. There are certainly great games that I would say have awful graphics. Grim Dawn and it's sister game Titan Quest, to my eye, look pretty bad. While it is passable in the zoomed aspect while in game, the zoomed in character screens and main menu remind you of exactly how low-poly the art assets really are. This is where ROGUE TRADER falls, graphics wise.

That said, Grim Dawn and Titan Quest are otherwise fantastic games that I put a lot of hours into. I'm hold out some hope that there is a fairly wide final pass on art assets if ROGUE TRADER, at least to de-muddy essential environmental items (like making doors more discernible from walls), but even if it doesn't, it's going t be a very good game.

Also, maybe I'm just too harsh.. the game doesn't look terrible.

 

[Lutherf]

Preloading Starfield now. 86+GB.

 

[jmotivator]

Preloading Starfield now. 86+GB.

Same. It's going to be buggy and brilliant.

Did you get the standard edition, or did you go with the premium edition so you could play it on Friday?

 

[Lutherf]

Same. It's going to be buggy and brilliant.

Did you get the standard edition, or did you go with the premium edition so you could play it on Friday?

Whichever one was $70. I think I get mine on the 6th.

 

[jmotivator]

Whichever one was $70. I think I get mine on the 6th.

$50 is the 6th, the $70 releases tomorrow or Friday (I've heard both).



Now... how that works with Steam, I don't know... will my copy magical show as ready to play on Friday?

 

[Lutherf]

$50 is the 6th, the $70 releases tomorrow or Friday.

SWEET!

If that's the case then my office will definitely be closed on Monday.