Blog Your Current Game

[jmotivator]

Picked up Warhammer: Vermantide 2 on sale for $8 on Steam and have been playing it on and off today. I had thought I wouldn't really care for it because of the multiplayer-only nature of it, but I didn't know that bots fill in the spots that aren't filled by real players, so since the game is old and not a lot of people play, it is almost like a single player game! :lol:

Playing the Witch Hunter and I think he must be way over powered because I am running missions at level 7 with other players level 12-16 and I am beating them all in kills and damage each mission by a lot. With a rapier he is just a mobile Cuisinart. Everyone else holds back and tries to thin hordes from range, including the tankier classes while I just walk in swinging my sword and taking heads.

Good game, and well worth the $8 on Steam sale if you want a mission-based button-masher with ARPG elements.

 

[jmotivator]

Picked up Warhammer: Vermantide 2 on sale for $8 on Steam and have been playing it on and off today. I had thought I wouldn't really care for it because of the multiplayer-only nature of it, but I didn't know that bots fill in the spots that aren't filled by real players, so since the game is old and not a lot of people play, it is almost like a single player game! :lol:

Playing the Witch Hunter and I think he must be way over powered because I am running missions at level 7 with other players level 12-16 and I am beating them all in kills and damage each mission by a lot. With a rapier he is just a mobile Cuisinart. Everyone else holds back and tries to thin hordes from range, including the tankier classes while I just walk in swinging my sword and taking heads.

Good game, and well worth the $8 on Steam sale if you want a mission-based button-masher with ARPG elements.

Also, I just realized that you can run a custom game and lock it, meaning that you always play with 3 bots... so it is essentially a 1 player game if you want it to be. The only caveat, which should be obvious, is that the AI isn't as skilled as a real player, so the missions are rather harder than when playing online.

 

[jmotivator]

Also, I just realized that you can run a custom game and lock it, meaning that you always play with 3 bots... so it is essentially a 1 player game if you want it to be. The only caveat, which should be obvious, is that the AI isn't as skilled as a real player, so the missions are rather harder than when playing online.

So another discovery... it turns out that your three BOT teammates when you get while playing solo are actually just your current build of the that character in your character pool. The reason the bots didn't seem very good is because I hadn't played them yet so they all have starter gear. That is a pretty novel way of getting players to play all the classes.

I leveled up three of the other characters and gave them gear appropriate to the purpose I want them to serve and now they are much better. Basically I level the characters I don't expect to play much up to level 7 to unlock their first of two alternate classes to get some more options.

I think I went a bit crazy on the ranged skills, though, because when I am trying to close to melee the enemies just melt before I get to them. Or maybe the game is telling me I need to up the difficulty..

 

[Renae]

I have been working on No Man's Sky with the wife, use my steam link to run it upfront. She likes to explore the planets and I do the space combat.

I'm playing "the Outer Worlds", Brave Vesperia and I picked up Control, started it last night, what a trippy game.

 

[jmotivator]

OK, so I am now past my 10 hours of play when I usually start to form an opinion.

Essentially this game is a skill based slasher with some RPG elements. The actual play is kind of like WOW raid progression, with each mission taking between 10 and 20 minutes to complete. There are about 20 missions in all (including DLC) and there is a free DLC that will be released soon.

The skill in the game is in map knowledge, skill use and dodging. As you progress up through the skill levels in the game the enemies get more plentiful and stronger, and resources (ammo, bombs, potions) get more scarce. By the time you are at the highest level you are expected to operate your character at maximum efficiency, controlling them both defensively and offensively with maximum effect to make best use of healing resources. If you get surrounded in high levels you get dead, quickly. While in standard missions (without mission modifiers) you can get rezzed three times before you die for good, but if you go down in a later mission the chances of getting rezzed are pretty slim and really depends on how badly you were outnumbered.

Gaining better gear in the game comes in the form of loot chests that you receive based on whether you hit a mile stone (leveling gives you a crate, as does completing challenges, etc.), and one guaranteed crate gets upgraded based on completing specific quests within a mission, like collecting "loot dice" which increase the chance of leveling up a gear chest (found rarely in chests and 1 to 3 drop off of bosses and mini-bosses), and taking on in-mission difficult challenges like grimoires (picking one up lowers you max health for the rest of the mission) and Tomes (which fill your healing slot, meaning you will not be able to heal on the fly)

When the mission is over you open the chests you have earned each randomly rolling three gear pieces that are useful to the character that opens them.

Maps can be rather maze like and confusing and there is no game map, so I would suggest playing maps with people in quick battles to learn where everything is before grinding them as a solo+bots.

Now, on to the characters... I'll spare the full write up of the three careers for each character, just give some quick observations an career variability

Witch Hunter: Your starting career is the iconic Witch Hunter captain with an array of skills meant to aid the team in killing boss monsters and crowd control. The two unlockable careers are a ranged and a melee-centric build. I stick to the Which Hunter because his enemy tagging skill and crowd knockdown ability are just too good. Also, the iconic Sword and pistol weapon is extremely powerful as the alt-fire is to fire a pistol that has infinite ammo... which is weird because you also equip a ranged slot with pistols and rifles that are most definitely finite. The Wicth Hunter feels like it should be the final career unlock rather than the starting build.

Dwarf: Dwarf is a pretty straight forward character as his three careers are no frills, do one thing very good... you start as a rather powerful ranged class, then unlock the tankiest tank in the game, and finally the iconic slayer. All great, and this class seems to progress the way you would expect, unlike the Witch Hunter.

Elf: Like the Witch Hunter, this character starts with their best career. She starts as a rather over powered archer class with some of the most powerful weapons in the game at her disposal. The "Swift Bow" is essentially a minigun, though it doesn't practically nothing to armored enemies, she makes up for it with ranged crowd control and elite targeting.

.. and I ran out of time to write up the wizard and soldier.

 

[jmotivator]

So, having progressed all the way through the main story line in Vermantide 2, then the grind to advanced difficulties, and all the released DLC, I fired up the new DLC teaser mission and... no a fan at all.

The new DLC has you start over again as they take play in a dreamscape where you have to craft for illusionary gear that you use in the dreamscape.

To make matters worse, stats on weapons, which you buy with a form of currency you earn from completing missions, unlock with item level, taking all randomness out of progression and turning it into a flat, boring linear slog. You like the feeling of finding a legendary item in a loot case that totally revolutionizes how you play your character, or that gives you a huge bump in power? Tough... that doesn't happen in this DLC, as of the current release. You pick a gear loadout when you start, and then are stuck incrementally upgrading it inch by inch.

It fundamentally changes the game....

Oh, also, no solo play. Or, that is to say, solo play in hugely limited. You see, there are no bot fillers in the new DLC. It is online and team-only... and if you don't get a full set of 4 players when you request a new mission, tough.. you get to try and complete the mission with 3... or 2.. or by yourself, which is essentially impossible.

Pretty bummed. I guess I will need to set the game aside now. It was fun while it lasted.

 

[jmotivator]

So, last post on Vermintide 2, I think. I find that, in the end, the change in progression systems cast a light on a fundamental truth about "fun", at least "fun" as I see it...

in a loot based ARPG the pay-off, outside of a (hopefully!) interesting story, is the character progression which is equal parts linear leveling and loot. The loot progression, I would argue, is far more important to the long term enjoyment of an ARPG (or an MMORPG, for that matter).

Loot-based progression touches, in my view, the same brain function as gambling.. an activity that people have, throughout history, done for fun; You invest the time with the hope of a big, endorphin-inducing, payout when you hit a big score.

Linear progression, on the other hand, is a progression through a predictable grind. That kind of progression, at least to me, triggers the same brain function as work.. I put in the time, I get a pay check, I buy things I need, or save for things later. I'd further argue that the arduous task on minutely incremental leveling in many MMORPGs is akin to working minimum wage.

With the new leveling system in the new DLC (which only effects the one DLC, the original game stays on the old system) that have turned both loot and leveling into the same minimum wage proposition. So rather than working during the day and having fun with PC games in your off time, the new DLC feels more like a second job. No tanks.

the only saving grace is that it is a free DLC, so it's not like I wasted any money on a DLC I won't play.

 

[jmotivator]

Ok... I know I promised, but this is a funny revelation that I felt needed sharing:

I voiced my concern on this new game mode in a game forum, and had a few Vermintide 2 veterans tell me I didn't know what I was talking about and clearly didn't know what I was doing.

I am open to this critique as I have only had the game for short time, so I asked them to explain how I was supposed to approach the new content. They informed me that playing the new content missions is a terrible source of the resource you use to upgrade the weapons you are forced to use in the new content, you see... the best source for the resource, after you run the new content tutorial, can be found... running the original content missions.

I swear this new system must have been created by committee...

What kind of asinine game developer releases new content where the best way to progress through the new content is to avoid playing the new content?

And, more to the point, make the new content only really function when people are playing the new content (since you don't allow bots in new content) ... while implementing a system that makes running that content a waste of time?

 

[jmotivator]

Dangit, what the heck is going on.. I can't stop playing Vermintide 2 even though I tried to convince myself I didn't like it.

Am .. am I in an abusive relationship? :lol:

But really, the nonsense of the new (thankfully free) DLC is still off the table for me, but I keep playing, probably because the leveling system is itself a puzzle to solve. Since I broke the code, it has gotten to be more of a relaxation grind, like Borderlands, where I grind story missions over and over for loot. Just less loot.. a lot less loot... and longer missions. But there is some real sense of calm in learning a mission so well that the map, and even the random encounters become routine.

So, here is a quick guide to leveling:

1) Best Character/Career to Level first: Bardin/Ironbreaker in a walk. I can't over state how hearty the Dwarf tank career is. Marcus Kruber/Foot Knight is #2 but is way behind. Leveling Bardin to level 7 and taking the Ironbreaker career makes leveling a walk.

1a) Why maybe not to play Bardin: Well, for reasons discussed, Bardin is a character that a LOT of people play... Ironbreaker is the leading tank career, and his Slayer career is also one of the top speed run/DPS careers.. so if you want to play quick battles for the extra XP, be ready to skip a lot of matchups because someone is already playing Bardin. When I was leveling Bardin I decided to just use the lobby where I can pick missions I like and it shows you with careers are being used already wihout having to wait for a mission join handshake.

2) To Bot or not to Bot?: For me the answer is Bot. Some of the key weaknesses of the bots, and the workarounds, end up being one of the strengths in solo. How to Bot is maybe a longer answer,and it's not well described how bots really work. What I have sussed out, though, is that Bots will join you in the career you last played them with the gear you gave them.. BUT, and this is the thing I am almost certain of, they power level the Bots to around your gear score.

2a) The bonuses of the gear carries over (??) but if you are power level 250, for instance, their level 125 weapon will hit like it is about level 250.

This is important, because that means your strategy in effective soloing is to build a squad with all the skills and item bonuses and weapon load outs you want and then just not worry about gearing them up. Build three careers you want to bring to a mission arm them with weapons that do that job and leave them. They actually have place-holder gear you can give them that will only have the inherent gar ability, but not bonuses. That will do in a pinch, but it doesn't hurt to make sure the bots you will want beating down the bosses have anti-boss bonuses.

2b) Bots excel at some jobs in ways that a real player can't. For instance, throughout missions you will get random elites spawning that prey on disorganized teams, like assassins that jump on unsuspecting players and begin rapidly knifing them. A team mate needs to kill the assassin, so if you are on your own, far from the team, an assassin will kill you. Bots always stick close and they are quick on he trigger to kill these surprise elites troops at speeds that most players just can't manage. So botting almost completely removes the elite surprise threat.

2c) Due to weaknesses in Bot AI they are not programmed to throw grenades, but they are programmed to pick up grenades. What the game compensates this by programming them to give you their bomb if you need it. So running a mission with bots means you always get to pick and choose where to throw the bombs.. real players waste them. Likewise bots will heal you if they are high enough health and have a healing kit handy... good luck finding random players with that much on the ball (me included!)

(Splitting due to length)

 

[jmotivator]

(continued)

3) The Gear grind: This is easily the most inaccessible and seemingly convoluted part of the game. If you understand how it works you can get rather powerful rather quickly.. it you don't you will stall and waste a lot of resources (the latter was my path).. so here are the basics...

3a) Player power level.. probably the easiest to grasp. Player power level = (player level*10) + Gear score. It's just a general barometer of whether your level and gear are sufficient for the challenge.

3b) Gear score... Your gear score is the average level of all the items equipped in all of the gear slots. Like Power level, gear level is more a general barometer of readiness. You increase gear score by fining higher level gear...

3c) Finding higher level gear... THIS is the one that ruins a lot of people (including me). Any time you open a reward crate or craft an item, the level of that item will be randomly generated as, if I recall, between +5 and -5 of the highest level piece of gear in that class... though expect the results to average to like +2/-2. The gear doesn't need to be equipped, or even kept, so long at it is the highest level item of its class, it advances your loot finding ability. While that indicates you have good reason to hold onto a piece of good gear longer even if the level isn't very high, you will start to feel the pinch..so while leveling, be sure to swap out regularly.

3d) The rule of gear leveling applies across all characters and careers... if your Bardin opens a crate and he finds his first level 270 melee weapon, then everyone of your other characters who opens a chest when be randomized around that 270... this makes leveling other characters much easier since,if you run one character to max gear score, all your other characters will quickly hit max gear score as well, even at very low level.


and, lastly... ish...

4) Lot boxes and you: Loot boxes and how you use them are important to pain free character progression. There are two basic types of loot boxes: 100 gear score boxes and 300 gear score boxes. Within those types there are qualities of loot boxes that will determine the chance of finding good loot in them.

4a) If you run Recruit level missions you will get a 100 gear score loot box... nothing that drops from those boxes will exceed level 100. Always open Gear score 100 boxes immediately, there is no downside to opening them, especially if you are just starting out and working towards your 100 gear score... chances are something in those boxes will help you. Anything that doesn't fit your build can be deconstructed. (RESIST THE URGE TO CRAFT GEAR!)

4b) Loot boxes of Gear score 300 should, in general, be horded with the exception of the reward chests you get for completing missions (you get lvl 300 reward chests on all mission levels above Recruit). The mission reward chests will be how you advance your gear score while leveling... all the other chests have a finite supply, and tend to roll higher than the mission reward chests, so hold onto them until you reach gear score 300 or very close to that in your first character, at which point you can start opening them, ensure that you will get the best possible gear from it. If your highest gear score to date is 95, and you open a 300 chest, you have wasted the chest's potential.

4c) While I said "Resist the urge to craft!!", it is only a general rule. If you find hat the reward chests are just not rolling a specific type of gear so it is lagging behind in progression, you can craft the item class with the same general progression rules. This is expensive and very inefficient, though, so hold off on it unless you find yourself stuck in your progression.

4d) Gear color codes are pretty standard fare, white gear just gives you the power of the gear score, green gear gives you one bonus, blue gives you two bonuses, orange gives to two bonuses and a special trait, when you role a red item it is level 300, regardless of where you were in progression(??) and they have two bonuses as mat possible value and an a special trait.

Red gear begins to have a chance to roll in level 300 chests when your character hits level 30... another reason to hold those chests until you hit 30, since they are a very rare find.

I think that's it. Hope it helps someone who decides to pick the game up.

Ps. Never upgrade equipment!!! It's a scam. Costs way too much for what you get out of it.

 

[Redress]

Just picked up Outer Worlds today. I am not a huge Obsidian fan, but so far Outer Worlds seems not bad. The humor works, and that really helps. On the other hand, the controls and UI scream "CONSOLE KIDDY". Games designed strictly for PC are so much better looking and such better controls. Back to OW, it strikes me early on as a cross between Fallout 3ish and Mass Effect.

 

[PoS]

Picked up Warhammer: Vermantide 2 on sale for $8 on Steam and have been playing it on and off today. I had thought I wouldn't really care for it because of the multiplayer-only nature of it, but I didn't know that bots fill in the spots that aren't filled by real players, so since the game is old and not a lot of people play, it is almost like a single player game! :lol:

Playing the Witch Hunter and I think he must be way over powered because I am running missions at level 7 with other players level 12-16 and I am beating them all in kills and damage each mission by a lot. With a rapier he is just a mobile Cuisinart. Everyone else holds back and tries to thin hordes from range, including the tankier classes while I just walk in swinging my sword and taking heads.

Good game, and well worth the $8 on Steam sale if you want a mission-based button-masher with ARPG elements.

I watched the preview, and it seems nothing more than a crude, medieval slaughterfest. Not something that interests me.

 

[jmotivator]

I watched the preview, and it seems nothing more than a crude, medieval slaughterfest. Not something that interests me.

that is pretty much what it is. as an ARPG it is like skipping the story progression and going right to the boss fight grind.

The base story isn't bad as it goes, you play a member of an elite team tasked with tracking and stopping the source of a Skaven infestation that has devastated a region, and the missions and settings become increasingly epic. But I get that it wouldn't be for everyone. It's like a cross between Diablo and Doom.

 

[PoS]

Quick Guide to HBS Battletech

First of all, if you want to fully customize your mechs without having to deal with the hardpoint weapon restrictions, then go to Nexus mods and download the Classic Battletech Slots. This allows any weapon types to be placed in all the mechs of the original game (not including the new ones in the DLCs)

Easy way to win all your battles:
1 Modify your mechs to make them all missile boats (the LRM is the best weapon in the game)
2 Have at least one member of your lance with the Sensor Lock ability
3 Keep the rest of your mechs at extreme range and hide behind obstacles like buildings and hills, while you bring your spotter as close to the enemy without a line of sight
4 Use sensor lock with your spotter and have your 3 other lance mates just bring fire down on them. If the enemy advances just retreat and stay as far away as possible.
5 Rinse and repeat.

Here are some notes on particular mechs that you might find useful

Assassin- has the ability to negate target’s evasion penalties, so great for bringing down light mechs. Best build: drop jump jets and all weapons. Max armor, COIL beam.
Warhammer- disappointment. On paper the 20% energy damage bonus should allow headcaps, but PPC++ weapons don’t have the stability damage bonus, unlike ACs and gauss rifles.
Marauder- now this is the prime headcapper mech. Equip with gauss rifle, and its +1 called shot bonus will instakill any enemy mech. Some players go meta and equip this mech with two UAC/2s, but I think that’s waay OP already.
Phoenixhawk- disappointment. Waay too much heat build-up for puny weapon load. A COIL weapon might be useful on it though.
Annihilator- just started testing this one out, but its damage potential is massive. I couldn’t do a satisfactory loadout with 4 UAC-10s, so I’m going with 5 UAC-5’s instead. Looks like it can destroy enemy mechs with one single volley.
Rifleman- must get mech. Equip with 2 UAC-5’s, this is your premier sniper mech.
Archer and Catapult- very good missile boat mechs. Remove some support weapons (and the jump jets on the Catapult) so you can add more LRM ammo and maximize armor.
Cicada and Quickdraw- don’t bother. Just sell for cash.
Trebuchet- good medium missile boat, but a glass cannon. Keep at rear as fire support at all times. Drop medium lasers and add more armor and LRM ammo.
Cyclops- built in battle comp is very handy for initiative, though it does lack in firepower. Give it LRMs and keep it to the rear.
Shadowhawk, Thunderbolt, and Centurion- can be modified without the CBT mod into a missile boat. Very versatile.

Also, the Black Market is the best store in the game, so be nice to the Pirates and gain influence with them so you can get a discount. I almost never pick a mission that has pirates as OPFOR unless it’s a flashpoint.

 

[Redress]

I picked up Slime Rancher cuz it was supposed to be really well made, and I thought it might be something my grandniece might like if I showed it to her. It is surprisingly good. The complexity ramps up quickly, but in such a way that you never feel in over your head. It has lots of possible combinations(you can combine any 2 slime types by feeding one the poop of the other, creating a "largo" of various types) Usually the first one made is pink/rock slimes. As you feed slimes, they poop. You can feed the poop to other slimes to combo them, or sell it. Feed slimes, sell poop, buy stuff, win. But somehow it just works. If a largo eats the poop(called plort) of a slime type it is not a combination of, it turns into a "tar", which will eat other slimes and create more tars and cause all kinds of havoc.

 

[Mr Person]

Playing around in WCIII Reforged. It'd be nice if it had contained at least everything the old one did, but there's not even ****ing ladder play. I should probably stop letting Blizzard fool me. Guess I'll wait a few months for reviews of D4 once it's out to even consider getting it...

Used to be really damn good in the 1v1 ladder. It's sort of half-coming-back, but that was 16+ years ago.




Been mainly doing custom games vs. computer. They may have messed up difficulty levels somehow. Embarrassingly, 'easy" opponents were a struggle. But then I started setting them to normal and it was a cakewalk or close to one. :thinking

Going to try setting some to "insane" later for comparison.



I wish they'd included some of the developments from SC2. ie, one minor thing, you set a drone to build one thing, then you can tell it to build another. It'll complete the first one then move on.

WC3: Nope. The peasant will simply stop whatever he was doing and go off to start on the new building, which is....not helpful.

 

[PoS]

I just looked at the specs for Red Dead Redemption II and Jesus Keerist... you'll need 150GB of HD space? :shock:

 

[jmotivator]

I played a lot of For The King this weekend. It is a fun little game, but it is little game...

Pros:

* It is a simple to understand game with a fun bit of strategy to it..
* It will scratch the RPG looting itch.
* It is a blast in 3 player mode wit the right people.

Cons:

* It really has pretty limited replay.
* Lots of missed opportunity....
* Brutal difficulty even at low difficulty settings

For The King (FTK) is a turn based strategy RPG with a lot of interesting and innovative aspects to the overall strategy. Combat in the game is a familiar version of the age old Final Fantasy combat system, where the strategy and flow is dependent entirely on skill synergies of party members. However, since each side of a combat never exceeds 3 units, some decisions, like a dedicated healer, become almost impossible... though, I must admit, that I haven't tried to hard to get a healer to work, so maybe it's possible? (unlikely)

You start with 4 basic character types to play (roughly: Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Bard by other names), and you can take three in any variation into a game session. As you play you can find random encounters that will unlock other playable classes. Each class has a set of attributes that remain persistent, but can be augmented by items.

The way the game handles stats and skills is probably my favorite implementation in a game of this type. Simple, straight forward, but with enough nuance to create a lot of variation. Here is how it works:

Every skill check in the game is attribute based. Each attribute ranges from an unmodified 40 (?) to 85 (?), and can be raised and lowered depending on item traits to ... I think 0 is the low, and 95 is the cap. When you need to make a skill check you are presented with a set number icons of the attribute that will be tested, and the computer then rolls a skill check that many times to see if you succeed. This gives each skill check a range out potential outcomes. An attack may do a percentage of damage equal to the percentage of successful skill checks, or disarming a trap might be varying degrees of damage for failures.

All weapons have a unique set of skills when you equip them, all based on specific stats (most swords roll strength tests, for instance), and each skill varies in the number of roles you make. This is interesting because a low number of roles may be more forgiving to someone wielding the weapon with a low stat, making it more viable, while skills with a high number of roles tend to deal the most potential damage which makes most of the best weapons all-but class based.

Each character also has a skill resource called "Focus" that they can spend to auto succeed on one of the multiple skill roles for a given skill. If you have enough focus, and you desperately need to succeed with a skill, you can spend your focus and buy a successful attack.

So that is the system. It's neat. I like it. I want to play more games with this system.

The only real downside to the game is that you can't carry over characters from mission to mission. You have to start over each time. Also, while there are plenty of varied weapons and armor and items, they are all fixed assets, there is no variability in a given item. The downside there being that after you run through a game deep enough a few times you have likely seen and used all the gear that there is to have in the game, making replays less and less interesting.

All that being said, the game plays more like a board game, and so it shines as a group effort where you and two friends play together to try and conquer one of a number of maps the game offers. You will usually lose, as difficulty ramps quickly as the turns pass... but then losing is fun!

 

[Redress]

New big update on the experimental branch of Satisfactory featuring the biggest actual changes to the game so far. The earlier update was focused on adding features, especially to the later game. This one focuses on changes. Pipes are now a thing, with oil no longer coming out in barrels to ship around on conveyors, but instead has to be piped around. Coal power plants(and maybe later plants) need water piped in now. Pipes where a fan requested feature, and they delivered in spades. This also makes copper much more important, as pipes are made with copper. Also new is a store where you can sell excess resources and get new stuff like hypertubes to zoom around your factory.

One of the biggest things I noticed in starting a new game is hand crafting is now much slower. You are being pushed to automate, which can be frustrating(rushing coal power before building most of your automation is not a good plan anymore), but does make a kind of sense. Things I never automated like biofuel I had to automate. Not hard, just takes adjustments. To advance tiers(akin to level ups, gives access to a new set of goals) requires making parts that cannot be hand crafted now, which I will probably be dealing with tonight for the first time.

Other cool new things include adding teleport transporters which will be freaking awesome as the map is huge and travel can be a real time sink later in the game, new vehicles(a mine cart, designed for use on concrete and steel floors), a new starting biome, redesigned research and changes to the alternate recipes you can research, and the list goes on and on. I stayed up way too late last night trying some of the changes out, and mostly think they are pretty good. If you like building type games like Factorio, or survival type games like No Mans Sky, this is looking like it might be the best of the bunch.

 

[Redress]

After some time playing around with the changes, I think Satisfactory is alot better for all the changes. Pipes for fluids just makes sense, better transport saves alot of time just running around, rebalanced power generation means not having to rush coal.

 

[Redress]

Picked up Transport Fever 2. Kinda a steep learning curve, and very slow paced, but a whole lot to like. You can scroll out to see the whole map, and it looks good. You can scroll in(smoothly) all the way down to a single lady in a dress waiting to be picked up by one of your carriages in 1850. Despite a relatively small number of different resources to ship around, the game is not simple by any means. Biggest challenge once you have the interface kinda figured out is figuring out what routes will actually be profitable. It is frustrating spending many millions of dollars setting up a rail line, only to have it lose money each year. One of the nice features is the ability to adjust how fast the date advances. Game years for gameplay do not necessarily equal years on the calendar, and in fact, you can stop the calendar advancing so no new technology comes into play, and change the settings on the fly. This way you do not have to deal with the constantly updating technology until you get a good start kinda thing, and is invaluable to new players. I will use my current game as an example:

I started in 1850 and turned off the date advancing, so the year stays at 1850. Along the river was a logging camp I built a dock next to, further down was a sawmill to turn the logs into planks(I built a dock for it), and at another fairly close location was a tool factory to turn the planks into tools(another dock). The problem was no close by cities on the river wanted tools, but along the road from the tool factory, heading inland from the river, was a city that wanted tools. So I set up a route picking up the logs, taking the to the sawmill and dropping them off(and getting paid) and picking up the finished planks, which I then took to the tool factory and dropped off(getting paid), and headed out empty for the short trip back to the logging camp. At the tool factory, I built a cargo depot, with a dropoff in the nearby town that wanted tools. I bought a bunch of horse drawn carts to pick up the tools at the depot, and they took them to the city dropoff(getting paid), and then returned for another load. This used up almost all of my 5 million dollar initial loan. I then unpaused the game(but not the calendar) and let time pass. Both lines where profitable, and the ship line very much so. I paid off my loans so I could stop paying interest. Since my ships and carts where not keeping up, I bought more(up to about 15 of each to keep up). Once I had a bunch of money, I set up my next route, using trains. I loaded up stones at a quarry, ran them via train to the construction materials plant(and got paid), picked up the construction material they made from the stones, and hauled it to the same city that wanted tools I was supplying(and got paid), then followed the loop back to the quarry(and did not get paid). I figured running both demands of a city to them would cause it to grow rapidly and make me tuns of money. It did grow rapidly, but I could not get the route to make money. It was not losing much, so I am letting it run, with my ship route keeping me overall profitable. Thankfully, I did not find not far away the gold standard of train routes, crude oil ~> oil ~> fuel, with a city nearby that demanded fuel. Once I could afford to set up that line, it very quickly became very profitable. At that point, desiring to up the challenge a bit, I started letting the calendar advance, at about half speed, so every 2 fiscal years would see one year pass on the calendar. So now, while looking for new routes, and thinking of getting into passenger transportation, I also have to upgrade my trains and train cars, carts and ships.

 

[PoS]

OK playing as FL4K in Borderlands 3, and is it me or does it take a long, long time to reload while youre moving? It seems youre not really reloading your gun unless you stand still. :neutral:

 

[jmotivator]

OK playing as FL4K in Borderlands 3, and is it me or does it take a long, long time to reload while youre moving? It seems youre not really reloading your gun unless you stand still. :neutral:

Are you by any chance left handed and use a mouse and keyboard? There was an issue, I don't know it it has been fixed, with people who use the arrow key for movement... by default the arrow keys are used for emotes, and that apparently interferes with reloading animation. People with that problem could fix the issue by binding emotes to different keys.

 

[PoS]

Are you by any chance left handed and use a mouse and keyboard? There was an issue, I don't know it it has been fixed, with people who use the arrow key for movement... by default the arrow keys are used for emotes, and that apparently interferes with reloading animation. People with that problem could fix the issue by binding emotes to different keys.

By George you might be onto something! I'm not left handed, I just sort of gotten used to using the arrow keys as movement when I configured Counterstrike some 21 years or so ago and have done it with every game ever since.

 

[Deuce]

By George you might be onto something! I'm not left handed, I just sort of gotten used to using the arrow keys as movement when I configured Counterstrike some 21 years or so ago and have done it with every game ever since.

Burn the witch!