Blog Your Current Game

[jmotivator]

I discovered last night there is a Warhammer 40k store right near me, that I am going to have to watch and see if I can learn and maybe get involved in the tabletop stuff. https://www.facebook.com/WarhammerSarasota/

I have picked up hints here and there that my wife and children may be possibly getting me some WH40K miniatures for Christmas. I'm trying not to get too excited...

I mean, why else would my wife and daughters be asking me Warhammer 40K questions for the last 3 weeks?

By the way, I am deep into the Dan Abnett WH40K book series for Eisenhorn and Gaunt's Ghosts. If you haven't read them I can't recommend them enough. They are both amazing series.

If I had to pick between the two I'd say my favorite is the Gaunt's Ghosts series which follow the Astra Militarum soldiers of the Tannith First, lead by Col. Commissar Ibram Gaunt. Reads like Band of Brothers in the WH40K universe.

I've heard his book series of the Horus Heresy are also great, as well as his spin off series from Eisenhorn.

Edit: FInally, it appears that the secret project that Henry Cavill has been working on since leaving The Witcher is an Amazon Prime Miniseries of Eisenhorn... he is a huge WH40K nerd.

 

[PoS]

That was kinda my impression too. It is a great game, but not so much for me. Combat felt entirely meta to me, instead of making sense from an ingame world kinda sense. For example, carry boxes around, stack them on ground at start of combat, jump on them, have height advantage. Just totally meta, not something people would actually do. Great look, great systems, great story, and I just did not have a great time with it.

Is Hogwarts Legacy worth playing? What was your impression of it? I love the Harry Potter stuff, but game adaptations of books/movies don't tend to be great so kinda been hesitant about it.

I can say I wasnt a Harry Potter fan initially, so the world and all that was totally new to me. I just sat beside my son and watched him play, and I would occasionally help with the puzzles if he got stumped.

So it was a brand new experience, and seeing the lore for the first time was pretty damn good (JKR is a worldbuilding genius). It's an open sandbox too. Towards the end it started to get tedious because the quests and gameplay became repetitive somewhat, but overall, its awesome. If youre a HP fan to begin with, its the best game ever. You wont regret getting it.

 

[Redress]

Oh lord Rogue Trader is going to absorb a lot of my time. I really want to start yet another new character and go all full formal emperor loving…something. Maybe an officer, which I have not tried yet(except for the pilot NPC).

 

[jmotivator]

Oh lord Rogue Trader is going to absorb a lot of my time. I really want to start yet another new character and go all full formal emperor loving…something. Maybe an officer, which I have not tried yet(except for the pilot NPC).

I keep trying Commissar but his jack-of-all-trades nature in early game makes me feel like I'm always missing half a team member no matter what role he plays.

 

[jmotivator]

Only in death does duty end.

 

[jmotivator]

I discovered last night there is a Warhammer 40k store right near me, that I am going to have to watch and see if I can learn and maybe get involved in the tabletop stuff. https://www.facebook.com/WarhammerSarasota/

The Gaunt's Ghosts set was bought for me by my youngest daughter at a Games Workshop down the road from me. She said the store owner was super helpful and gave her a free space marine and invited her and me to come back for a free painting lesson.

Generally I have found the Games Workshop/gaming store community to be some of the nicest people. I might have to start leaving my house with the purpose of meeting other people...IN PERSON.

 

[Redress]

Yet Another Zombie Survivors(yes, the final "s" is in the game title) is a Vampire Survivor clone, and a damn good one. The twist is that while you start a wave with one character, you end up with 3, each a different class with different weapons and abilities. This leads to wildly different play depending on which 3(out of 6 so far, looks like they plan for 9) you have. Runs last 20 minutes, with pauses for level up and chests, can finish a run in 30 very fun minutes.

 

[PoS]

OK, I got sick and tired of Baldurs Gate 3 (I hate having a replay it every time my party gets massacred because of one little mistake) so I uninstalled it. I just didnt find it fun at all. It felt more like work.

Now playing Dune: Spice Wars. Im a huge Dune fan so this was worth it. Theres so many ways to win that I usually get shocked when the opponent scores a sudden victory with Landsraad politics or just plain buys all the CHOAM stock, so I sometimes have to go back to an old saved game to replay it. Rating: 7.5/10

 

[jmotivator]

I started playing PATH OF EXILE again to try out the Affliction Season.

It reminds me both why I have so many hours in thios game and all of my characters are below level 80.

The great thing about POE is the variety of builds you can create using their skill system.

What I really don't like about the game is how easy it is to paint yourself into a corner if you aren't following a meta build guide. Difficulty in POE ramps so quickly that you can my mopping up enemies by the end of the main story line, graduate to the post game and find your whole build completely unviable with no easy path to respeccing. Since the game chokes off currency drops if you play under your level, and the mosnter level on the campaign maps cap at about 50, when you hit the post game you are stuck with maps, and it's a crapshoot if maps can be completed given how powerful the rare enemies can be.

If you get a rare enemy with extra life and lightning storm you might as well just give up... which brings me to part 2 of the mini-rant:

Resistances in POE are both essential and Useless. My build has capped resistances on all damage types at 75%, I get a 55% reduction in physical damage, and I've taken every bonus life node available and have regeneration at a level that Wolverine would be jealous of and I can still get one-shot by rare mobs.

What I'm saying is I haven't really figured out POE endgame. I die too fast to get any meaningful feedback on why, and all of the available damage mitigations that I have available are maxed out.

So I have half a dozen 70+ level toons on my account that have hit a wall.... and if I want to fix them I have to farm respec currency and I can't farm because my toons die too fast.

One day I'll figure it out....

 

[bomberfox]

I just defeated the countess in darkest dungeon’s crimson court with three heroes on death’s door but lost my jester to another battle because i wanted to use that blue key before departing lol.

 

[jmotivator]

Something I found interesting today regarding POE. I realize that not all POE players play through Steam, but give how long the game has been on Steam and the number of players, I find this acheivement pretty interesting:



Granted, the Maps end game hasn't been around the whole time, but I find it pretty interesting that less than 10% of players have this acheivment.

 

[Slartibartfast]

I am close to finishing Baldur's gate 3 after something like 3 months of playing it off and on. Jedi survivor was like $20 on the Epic store with a coupon so that will probably be the next game.

I am starting my masters program on Monday though so I may not have a lot of time for any games for the next 1.67 years.

 

[WorldWatcher]

Getting added to my list.

WW

 

[SayMyName]

After years of waiting patiently, when the government finally asked me what it is they could do for me, I responded...To which Pearl Abyss and CCP games was most delighted. Now, the Guang Gao I created is not just advertising. I still do not understand what the heck it is all about. No matter. Let the people play. It is beautiful.

 

[jmotivator]

For my saturday morning gaming session I am giving FOR THE KING II a good run.

FOR THE KING II is probably the perfect multi-player game for me (though I am playing solo this morning).

For those who haven't played, the FOR THE KING series is a rather brilliant little trun based team RPG/Roguelike. The general premisse if that you and 3 companions race around a map completing quests and gathering loot while a global clock ticks down to what amounts to the end of the world, or a final fight. Each game starts with a set number of revives that you team can have before you lose. Whenever a teammate goes down in combat, you spend a revive to stand them back up... the revive total can be adjusted before the game from 0 to 10.

You start with 5 possible classes to fill out your squad, but playing the game earns you points that let you unlock new classes, starting conditions and available starting gear. You aren't expected to win the game on your first play through.

All gear is tied to a character stat which all but ties that item to a specific set of classes who can effective use it. Each stat (Str, Vitality, etc.) have a number between 0-100 (none of really zero, and it is possible to exceep 100) that represented the number you need to roll below for a successul skill check. Every weapon comes with a range of skill checks necessary to conduct a successful attack. How successful the attack is is based on how many successful skill checks you make. So, for instance, a weapon that has a single skill check only needs to make one successful roll for maximum effect, while some big weapons can require 6 or more skill checks for a maximum roll. This makes for a rather interesting dimension for itemization.

All loot in the game is group loot, and there is no encumbance, so in single player I tend to keep one character as the mule who holds all spare gear and all of the gold for trade just to keep it simple. In multiplayer the system encourages a diverse team so that gear meant for a specific stat doesn't need to be faught over. It does, however, mean that the randomness of each run can leave out some players because the gear type they need just isn't dropping.

I play the first few games on very easy (esetially slowing down the doomsday clock) to help get further in the game initially and unlock more things between games. Your players don't carry over levels between playthroughs, all they can potentially carry over if the between-game unlocks.

The classes, at least in FOR THE KING, were fun and varied, and at least based on the number of unlocks, this game has a few more? I haven't looked that deeply into it because I really don't want the spoilers.

In a multi-player setting every partcipant manages one of the 4 characters and you can travel the map independently if you want, but that path can cause problems when you get caught in ambushes. There are map locations like dungeons, however, that allow you to regroup instantly on the map item no matter how far apart you were.

It's a very fun game with a lot of content, and I would almost request other folks buy it so we can play together, but my schedule is so wonky that I expect the amount of times we might synch up would be rarely.

But if you have 3 friends you don't have the time or ability to see in person and want a great game of bonding, cooperation and good old fashion shit talking, I highly recommend FOR THE KING I & II.

 

[jmotivator]

Some addendums to my FOR THE KING II review... apparently (I don't remember this from the first game) there is a campaign that breaks up the game into smaller, more winnable, scenarios.

I just finished the first mission in the campaign and it is as fun as the FOR THE KING, with a lot of interesting weapons and armor that allow a lot of different play styles within each class.

The biggest difference in single versus multi-player is that itemization is easier in single player since the game favors dumping all the best gear for a given stat onto the same character. The first playthrough in single player, for instance, became a fun beat down of the enemies because I got a lot of good caster gear that I put on my Scholar that allowed him to drop lightning storms on the enemy that both did OK damage but more importantly shocked them which causes the target to auto-fail one roll on an attack. This helps with reducing the damage cap on enemies with big weapons that have multiple rolls on each attack (denying them maximum damage and crits) and shuts down enemies with fast single-roll weapons, causing them to just fail on attacks.

So far it seems that the developer of FOR THE KING II has done what everyone shoudl do with a sequel to a good game... keep the same formular, just add more stuff.

 

[jmotivator]

With the announcement of NCSoft officially licensing the "City of Heroes: Homecoming" private server, I decided to put the cape back on.



I've played a bit today, and it's still a fun game.

I was almost disappointed because it appeared that their mods to the game had moved travel powers to a gated merchant system that would have taken forever to grind... and a Youtube channel even said that that is how it's done.. but it isn't.

Galvanic Avenger is now flying around Atlas Park, dispatching bad guys.

You can download City of Heroes: Homecoming Client here. The Game is free and persists on donations alone.

 

[jmotivator]

I'm going to keep the specifics to a minimum for how easy it would be to track people down, but I just had one of the weirdest coincidences happen to me, and it's gaming related.

Yesterday when I learned of City Of Heroes starting up again and started playing it I started to reminisce about an old game that I loved but had been shut down years ago, and I hadn't thought about the game in many years.

It was the only game that I ever shelled out the money for the collectors edition, and I still have the commemorative art book from in on my office shelf... again, untouched in some 7 years, and then only to move if from my old apartment to my house.

When I had satisfide my CoH itch I decided to do some snooping to see whether there was a similar active community of hobby developers for this old favorite and apparently there is. I decided that I would check it out next week.

Fastforward to a few hours ago and I get a text message from my daughter who returned to college this weekend. She is dabbling in a degree in computer game design.

She texted me because she thought I'd be interested to know that one of her professors this year was the art director of a real PC game.

Can you guess which PC game?

Sure enough, my daughter's professor was the guy who created that very book, and I was just thinking about that game yesterday for the first time in at least a decade.

How weird is that?

 

[Mr Person]

After years of waiting patiently, when the government finally asked me what it is they could do for me, I responded...To which Pearl Abyss and CCP games was most delighted. Now, the Guang Gao I created is not just advertising. I still do not understand what the heck it is all about. No matter. Let the people play. It is beautiful.

It's the kind of game I dreamed about as a kid...and would never have time to play or even begin to 'master' in the slightest.

 

[jmotivator]

The last couple of days I have gone back to Path of Exile, determined to figure out why I hit a wall in the post-game every time.

I will say that part of my problem is no doubt stubborness. I have never been a fan of Min/Max meta, where I look up and copy other people's work. Part of the fun is the puzzle aspect of min/maxing.

This is somewhat problematic in POE because respeccing costs are so high that they really punnish experimentation. By the time I realize something I need to fix, I am so far into the build and so short on respec supplies that it's almost impossible, so I start over.

I think I have figured out the weakness of all of my other characters.. or at least one of the weaknesses, and it kind of annoys me. I will use this to give a quick "What I've Learned" so that anyone starting POE can at least learn the mechanisms of defense.

Essentially, there are 7 different defensive stats that you need to manage. There is Armour (Physical Damage reduction), Evasion (Attack Dodge), Energy Shield (Damage Sink) as the primary defenses, then there are three Fire/Cold/Lightning Elemental Resistance (flat damage reduction on Elemental Damage), Chaos Resistance (Flat Damage reduction on Chaos/Poison.. important since chaos bypasses Energy Shield) .. and then there is the one I was missing: Spell Supression.

I was operating under the assumption for years that the Min part of Min/Max in POE was simply maximize one of the base defenses and then maximize Elemental and Chaos resistances and you are all set... but I was wrong. It turns out that there are essnetially two base stats that are a must: Spell Supression, and then Armour/Evade/Shield.

The way that Elemental/Chaos damage is determined in POE requires that you max out Spell Supression in late game. Spell Supression has two stats, one is the chance to spress, the second is how much a supressed spell's damage is reduced. It's not particularly hard to get Spell Supression chance to 100% through the Passive Stat tree and gear, and reduction base rate in 50%, which you can pump up to about 60% through the passives and gear.

So far it seems like my build seems to work.. ish now that I have spell supression, but I really wish that the stats didn't exist at all. I already have enough plates spinning on the Maximize Damage side, and now I need to dedicate points to another stat.

I realize everyone else seems to deal with it fine... but no fair hiding an essnetial stat in the Passive tree and a handful of unique items.

All that said, I haven't officially entered the post-game with my new build, so I will most likely get one shot repeatedly there and give up again.

 

[Redress]

Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate Daemonhammer is one of the better XCom clones out there. Been having a ton of fun with it, from the over the top cinematics(short and bombastic, like slow mo of throwing a grenade or kicking down a door(you never, ever, just walk through a door) or knocking down a massive pillar). The strategic level is very very reminiscent of XCom, flying around in your ship researching stuff and building facilities and managing your troops and equipment. Tactical battles are just a blast with an AI that is at times very good(expect to deal with lots of overwatches and suppressing fire). Major storyline battles feel suitable epic. The first of those storyline battles had me fight to a room, then defend an inquisitor as more and more enemy reinforcements show up, including a boss with a ton of health who teleports and creates a mirror of himself every hit. Slowly but surely, you will be overwhelmed, more reinforcements showing up each turn than you can possible kill.

 

[jmotivator]

Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate Daemonhammer is one of the better XCom clones out there. Been having a ton of fun with it, from the over the top cinematics(short and bombastic, like slow mo of throwing a grenade or kicking down a door(you never, ever, just walk through a door) or knocking down a massive pillar). The strategic level is very very reminiscent of XCom, flying around in your ship researching stuff and building facilities and managing your troops and equipment. Tactical battles are just a blast with an AI that is at times very good(expect to deal with lots of overwatches and suppressing fire). Major storyline battles feel suitable epic. The first of those storyline battles had me fight to a room, then defend an inquisitor as more and more enemy reinforcements show up, including a boss with a ton of health who teleports and creates a mirror of himself every hit. Slowly but surely, you will be overwhelmed, more reinforcements showing up each turn than you can possible kill.

It's a very good game and worthy of the original. I haven't tried out the Duty Eternal expansion yet, it seems like it could be very fun.

 

[jmotivator]

I'm very excited this afternoon. I have been working on a boardgame for a while now and had hit a couple of snags in the last few days that were making it hard for me to move forward in development.

My daughter's laptop was on the fritz so she came home from college this afternoon so that I could fix it. While I was fixing the laptop she, as any good college student would, decided to take a nap on my office couch. Luckily the dogs, excited that she was home, were determined to keep her from napping. So while she played with the dogs and I was waiting for processes to finish, I started talking to her about my game idea and show her the assets I was creating. She got interested and started asking questions and eventually the conversation moved to the biggest hurdle I was having.

In a matter of a few minutes she had brainstormed with me and helped me finally hit a breakthrough in the one mechanic that I was struggling with the most, and now a whole slew of new options and interactions have opened up. I went from ready to set the project aside to just finishing up the assets and going to print with the beta.

My goal now is to finish up the assets, print a beta, do some test plays and then take it to Kickstarter.

I don't really want to go too deeply into the game itself until I at least get the Kickstarter up. This game will be for nerds of all ages, and make nerdom accessible.

I super excited about this. This game is going to be awesome.

 

[jmotivator]

Being a guy who likes Conan Exiles, Ark, PixArk etc. of course I purchased PalWorld.

PalWorld is suprisingly complete as a beta.

It's essentially Pokemon + Ark

Clearly it is build on the Ark game engine, much like Conan Exiles. If you have played any of those games you have played this... minus the Pokemon stuff.

 

[jmotivator]

I've been REALLY enjoying PalWorld. This game is amazingly complete for an early early release.

Granted, I've only been in the starting area so far, but this game is deserving of the hype.

The basics of the game are, as previously stated, Ark + Pokemon but it's more than that. I enjoy the more rapid beast "Pal" acquisition pokemon style, but there is a rather interesting reason why you will want to acquire all of the Pals.

The reason you will want to catch and learn about all of the Pals is because your captured pals all have skills that are useful around your base. Some will be good at building and will pick up your more time consuming crafting tasks, some can mine and will gather stone and metal ore, others plant crops, and so on. I've found myself catching Pals just to see what they can do at my base, and with the right group I can come back to the base after a long scouting trip enough resources gathered to upgrade and repair my gear.

The Interface is basically Ark, but better in a lot of ways. Everything seems much more streamlined.

You can play a custom map with all the same XP and Gathering boosts you can in Ark or Conan if you want to fast track advancement. I tend to nudge up the XP gain in my first play throughs in the Ark-Likes because I like to quickly get to the more intersting items in the game and this game seems to have a rather large tech tree.

I'll be playing this game for a while.