[Cause]

Finished T Warhammer as the human empire. I played it all weekend and it got better as I kept playing but for every step forward TW takes it takes one backwards.

Unit replenishment, global recruitment and multiple recruitments a turn are brilliant ideas that help keep the pace up! In the original Rome I remember that conquering Africa or Egypt could really bog you down as your elite units took casualties and the distance between settlements was enormous and the time to build them up to the level that they could recruit urban cohorts was a non starter.

Whats not so clever is that because you can recruit globally they also make you require a million tech tree buildings to unlock your full roster and you need double the normal recruitment time to recruit globally. Your best cavalry requires a lvl 4 stable and a lvl 2 armoury and take 3 turns to recruit, so 6 on the frontlines. Suddenly I feel bogged down again. By the time I won the campaign and it took well over a 150 turns to do it, I still had not really unlocked my highest tier units. No Steam tanks, no demi gryph knights. I could build them eventually, don't get me wrong but 6 turns is a lifetime of downtime in the late game and you need to already be winning to be able to do this.

The diplomacy of TW also is still broken. The humans and dwarves in the game mechanics cant compete for the same kind of settlements. This should make you natural allies but you cant count on it. One because ally with the computer and the next turn you might find your ally the dwarves in the west have somehow started wars with the wood elves and britonia in the far east. There is also no longer the option to demand or buy settlements from the AI, which is annoying because you need the full set for the bonuses. So if your ally or a friendly human nation takes one before you get it, you cant take it for yourself without having every human nation and prob the dwarves too thinking your scum. Sets off a cascade of lost non aggression pacts and trade agreements the moment you try it.

My biggest gripe though is given how wide the empires unit roster is, and how many tech trees are needed and how varied the opponents are I didn't have any great battles until right near to the end. No hammer and anvil tactics etc. My god it takes foreer to unlock cavalry. Also the collision mehcanics are still off. Since TW empire and they were the same in rome 2. Infantry just clumps around infantry and creates moss pits of fighting mess. The lines blur and flanking is a knightmare. I really think they should go back to the stiffer mechanics of the original rome. Where phalanxes looked liked phalanxes and your infantry line was a line!

That said Total Warhammer 2 is miles improved upon 1. The tutorial is more in depth, and the high elves unit roster is great. Spearmen and knights both from Tier 1 army recruitment buildings. This is how it should be.

[Morgoth]

The different factions function differently, and the Empire - at least in my experience - is a ridiculously powerful late game faction, but it takes time to get there. Greenskins are on the other side of the spectrum, with strong early rosters, but not so great late game scaling. I think my favourite games so far have been with Norsca and Brettonia. TW2 isn't on mac yet alas, so I haven't been able to try out the High Elves, which were my faction back when I played the tabletop variety.

[Cause]

Get A PC

I'm really enjoying the elves. Its very early game and I have unlocked a roster that allows for proper tactical battles. The spearment or even better the Lothern sea guard (speamen that shoot bows too) make a solid line and early you also get reaver and silver helm lancers. So hammer and anvil is a possibility from turn 1 of their campaign. Bonus units are a bolt thrower, artillery is nice since it forces the AI to attack me. I prefer not to move. And a flamepsire phoenix which is a large monsterous melee attacker that I use to lunch on the enemies archers in the back.

Like the empires campaign their are multiple elvish factions which I need to consolidate.

Edit- I forgot to add, what they did tonsieges is bizzare. It now take a 12 turns to siege a settlement into surrender. 6 before they even suffer atteition. Also you can never really build more than one siege tower a turn due to a wierd limit. So sieges take forever. I can't wait 12 turns. So I stormed every city. Auto resolved a lot too

This post has been edited by Cause: 15 January 2018 - 01:54 PM

[Mentalist]

Ghosted the prison in "Brigmore Witches". Once I got my bearings, it was a fairly easy level.

Currently exploring the second area. Like all city levels, when there's loads of stuff to climb/blink to, I'm having fun. Also, watching the 2 gangs fight each other without me interfering is good fun.

[QuickTidal]

So far this is my only problem with STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II from a gameplay POV.

When you play multiplayer modes, like Heroes VS Villains, you can end up facing at least one or more person who had the game preordered, plays ALL damned day every day, and has each character up at level 16 with a full spate of star cards (whether from purchasing crates to get craft parts or not)...so a typical 4V4 PVP match ends up being RIDICULOUSLY one-sided. To the point where My Luke force push (for example), doesn't phase his/her Vader AT ALL (even though they are WELL within range) and then I end up in an nigh-unbreakable choke. And they also know the maps well enough to have little hiding places that make them hard to get at....there is a map for Kashykk which is all huts in the trees, and this one asshole found if you jumped down onto this one branch you could crawl under the platform without falling to your death, and with no platforms around there you had NO way of accessing him to take him out if he's the target....so I had to try to jump down there and take him out sacrificing myself in the process to do it. You can always tell these guys from the final scores on the match....they will be tops by 10,000 points or more over EVERYONE else. The unbalance of that is staggering in PVP. Is that a shitty matchmaking trope on EA's part or what? Yesterday, I ended up on 4 different matches with 4 different singular gamer assholes like this who's collected powers overwhelmed the matches.

Now, I'm not saying I don't like the idea of little advantages over other players, that's part of the fun....but these guys are basically omnipotent VS 7 other players (including their own teammates) who are standard powered.

Anyways. I rage quit last night because of how annoyed I was by the fact that it kept happening. And I had a whole WEEK worth of matches that were fine and relatively equal and no big overpowered player...so it stood out on Sunday afternoon.

And i mean we are talking SHUTOUTS. Of 10 targeted individuals on each match...they were shutting us out 10 - 0. Which should be an impossibility except for flukes.

Oh, and add in the idiots who just tie their sticks together to get the points from the match but not playing the match...I LOVE to end up on teams with THOSE selfish assholes.

[Cause]

QuickTidal, on 15 January 2018 - 03:47 PM, said:

So far this is my only problem with STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II from a gameplay POV.

When you play multiplayer modes, like Heroes VS Villains, you can end up facing at least one or more person who had the game preordered, plays ALL damned day every day, and has each character up at level 16 with a full spate of star cards (whether from purchasing crates to get craft parts or not)...so a typical 4V4 PVP match ends up being RIDICULOUSLY one-sided. To the point where My Luke force push (for example), doesn't phase his/her Vader AT ALL (even though they are WELL within range) and then I end up in an nigh-unbreakable choke. And they also know the maps well enough to have little hiding places that make them hard to get at....there is a map for Kashykk which is all huts in the trees, and this one asshole found if you jumped down onto this one branch you could crawl under the platform without falling to your death, and with no platforms around there you had NO way of accessing him to take him out if he's the target....so I had to try to jump down there and take him out sacrificing myself in the process to do it. You can always tell these guys from the final scores on the match....they will be tops by 10,000 points or more over EVERYONE else. The unbalance of that is staggering in PVP. Is that a shitty matchmaking trope on EA's part or what? Yesterday, I ended up on 4 different matches with 4 different singular gamer assholes like this who's collected powers overwhelmed the matches.

Now, I'm not saying I don't like the idea of little advantages over other players, that's part of the fun....but these guys are basically omnipotent VS 7 other players (including their own teammates) who are standard powered.

Anyways. I rage quit last night because of how annoyed I was by the fact that it kept happening. And I had a whole WEEK worth of matches that were fine and relatively equal and no big overpowered player...so it stood out on Sunday afternoon.

And i mean we are talking SHUTOUTS. Of 10 targeted individuals on each match...they were shutting us out 10 - 0. Which should be an impossibility except for flukes.

Oh, and add in the idiots who just tie their sticks together to get the points from the match but not playing the match...I LOVE to end up on teams with THOSE selfish assholes.

Git Gud

This post has been edited by Cause: 15 January 2018 - 05:11 PM

[QuickTidal]

Cause, on 15 January 2018 - 05:11 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 15 January 2018 - 03:47 PM, said:

So far this is my only problem with STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II from a gameplay POV.

When you play multiplayer modes, like Heroes VS Villains, you can end up facing at least one or more person who had the game preordered, plays ALL damned day every day, and has each character up at level 16 with a full spate of star cards (whether from purchasing crates to get craft parts or not)...so a typical 4V4 PVP match ends up being RIDICULOUSLY one-sided. To the point where My Luke force push (for example), doesn't phase his/her Vader AT ALL (even though they are WELL within range) and then I end up in an nigh-unbreakable choke. And they also know the maps well enough to have little hiding places that make them hard to get at....there is a map for Kashykk which is all huts in the trees, and this one asshole found if you jumped down onto this one branch you could crawl under the platform without falling to your death, and with no platforms around there you had NO way of accessing him to take him out if he's the target....so I had to try to jump down there and take him out sacrificing myself in the process to do it. You can always tell these guys from the final scores on the match....they will be tops by 10,000 points or more over EVERYONE else. The unbalance of that is staggering in PVP. Is that a shitty matchmaking trope on EA's part or what? Yesterday, I ended up on 4 different matches with 4 different singular gamer assholes like this who's collected powers overwhelmed the matches.

Now, I'm not saying I don't like the idea of little advantages over other players, that's part of the fun....but these guys are basically omnipotent VS 7 other players (including their own teammates) who are standard powered.

Anyways. I rage quit last night because of how annoyed I was by the fact that it kept happening. And I had a whole WEEK worth of matches that were fine and relatively equal and no big overpowered player...so it stood out on Sunday afternoon.

And i mean we are talking SHUTOUTS. Of 10 targeted individuals on each match...they were shutting us out 10 - 0. Which should be an impossibility except for flukes.

Oh, and add in the idiots who just tie their sticks together to get the points from the match but not playing the match...I LOVE to end up on teams with THOSE selfish assholes.

Git Gud

See, and I AM good. But no amount of skill will apparently trump bought powerups that outclass mine and everyone else in PVP to ridiculous levels.

It's why I like Destiny PVP. Level playing field where all that shit doesn't matter, and what matters is playing well and smartly.

I can play super smartly in BATTLEFRONT and still get a shellacking by Mr. Omnipotence Power Man.

[Mentalist]

Draper's Ward is probably the most dense level in the entire game so far. About as much physical space as the Bridge, or the Overseer mission (I'm guessing- I didn't really explore the mansion or the kennels when I played it), but so much more happening! If all of Dishonored 2 gonna be this packed, it'll be something awesome.

I'll probably need a re-run in this, because I took a side-job to kill a random thug for the black market guy, and ruined my "no-kill" run. Also, ghosting this is hard,

Why did I leave this game sitting in my Steam library unplayed for 5 years? It has such fun moments!

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 16 January 2018 - 03:30 PM

[Serenity]

Getting stuck into Red Dead Redemption again. I'd forgotten how slow the first couple of hours are. Picking up now, though.

[Cause]

Total Warhammer is a completely different game playing as the Elves. I am loving it. Its so addictive I have to force myself to go asleep. I failed at least once and before I knew it was 5 in the morning. Work was not fun that day.

The difference is that I now feel my control of my army is actually making the difference battle and that I am winning fights that the auto resolve would never decide in my favour. I beat 2 full stacks of dark elves with a partly depleted stack of HE while trying to march on the Phoenix gate held by the sone of khorne.

The elves also have fun mechanics like intrigue to manipulate diplomacy and a fun dependency on trade.

[Malankazooie]

Serenity, on 17 January 2018 - 08:01 AM, said:

Getting stuck into Red Dead Redemption again. I'd forgotten how slow the first couple of hours are. Picking up now, though.

That was a common complaint about the Witcher 3 too. But then



Stay with it buddy. The rewards will put a huge smile on your face. I guarantee it.

[Serenity]

Malankazooie, on 17 January 2018 - 04:41 PM, said:

Serenity, on 17 January 2018 - 08:01 AM, said:

Getting stuck into Red Dead Redemption again. I'd forgotten how slow the first couple of hours are. Picking up now, though.

That was a common complaint about the Witcher 3 too. But then



Stay with it buddy. The rewards will put a huge smile on your face. I guarantee it.

Yeah, I remember Witcher 3 taking a good 10 hours before it really grabbed me.

[Mentalist]

Replayed Draper's Ward. I decided I want to Ghost this DLC, just because.

Ghosting it had its benefits: the ship didn't get attacked in the end. Smooth sailing directly to the Brigmore Manor.

EDIT: so, finished. Apparently, D shows up in part 2, so I din't kill her, as that seems to be the "canon" story.

I did apparently, get spotted, which kinda sucks, but no one was alerted (as apparently I got that achievement)

May replay this once more now that I know the most efficient path in and out.

Feeling a tad overloaded on Dishonored (even though I DO want to try a Ghost Run of the original at some point).

But for now, i think I might take a break. Not gonna jump into Thi4f right away; Instead i think I'll play DXMD next.

EDITAGAIN: holy shit, 32 gigs for MD? Well, that's an overnight download right there...

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 19 January 2018 - 03:08 PM

[Traveller]

The Ringed City - Dark Souls 3.

Man am I rusty at this. Warmed up a bit (kept hitting wrong buttons for striking for some reason, probably from AC) and have now found a deep pit in a giant tree with two boss demons in it.

Took a few goes to get them both - then a new one springs from the remains. And this is the first boss.

Good times.

This post has been edited by T'rav Elar: 19 January 2018 - 08:01 AM

[Mentalist]

Daymn, but DXMD is purdy.

Started on "Give me Deus Ex" difficulty, naturally. Skipped whatever tutorials Dubai offered. Managed to totally ignore most of the goons bt finding shortcuts... and so I found myself with 0 firearms for the sandstorm setpiece.

So after trying like 10 times to hide my way through, I then reloaded an earlier save and backtracked, knocking out/tranquing all goons to steal their ammo.After that, things went smoother.

Prague is.... pretty impressive. Considering I've been there just in September, I'm curious if they'll actually use any of the central landmarks I might recognize.

It was also pretty densely layered, but since the story de-powered me, I've been quite limited in my exploration so far. Just now getting some augs back, so it'll be interesting to see how many districts there actually are and how big they all end up being.

Also, I turned off the radar, bound the cover button as far away as possible, and turned off interaction prompts and most of the HUD. I did keep the item highlighting, b/c without it it's just too easy to miss stuff. . Oh, and EM added mantling to jumps a la Dishonored (and Thief before it)--which is awesome.

Not sure how interested I am in the main story atm- figuring out where my new shinies came from and how to use them properly feels like it's more important.... and so is breaking into every unlocked apartment in Prague!

I do believe this will be fun....

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 January 2018 - 09:12 AM

[Morgoth]

what is the story like?

[Aptorian]

If you're referring to Deus Ex: Mankind Divides, I'd say that the story is fine, not amazing, but there's just not enough of it. It's setting up the stage for the original Deus Ex events, while building on the loose ends of Human Revolution.

The problem with Mankind Divided is that it feels like you're only playing the first act of a three part story. It's just getting going when it ends. Which is a shame, because the game is a pleasure to play. Prague is absolutely schweich cheesed with hidden content and secret passages.

I can't imagine you'd find half the stuff in the city hub with out using the x-ray vision.

[Mentalist]

Too early to tell how the story is gonna be.

Jensen survived the explosion of Panchea. It's now 2 years later, and he's been inserted undercover into Interpol's new anti-terrorist unit, Task Force 29 (G18+11 other countries combined resources to form it)

In reality, he's working for the Juggernaut Collective (which are anti-Illuminati movement you encounter in the Missing Link DLC), and he's trying to find out if Task Force 29 is run by the Illuminati or not.

EDIT: 8 hours of play (and reload)-time later....

All I can tell about the main story is that I planted the bug in my office. And I'm sent to investigate the now-closed metro station that got bombed 30 hours ago.

Meanwhile, I broke up a forgery + extortion ring in the district where Jensen has his apartment; started tracking down a hacker who's poking into the business TF29 is using as a front for their operations; poked into a new dangerous street drug distribution system; and spent SO. MUCH. TIME. in the Praha sewers.

Sewers are massive. They contain all kinds of crap in the best traditions of Deus Ex and especially Bloodlines. There's a cult ( of course, there's a sewer cult! ) that i'm looking into; I broke into a Mob Casino (also in the sewers) and stole a piece of techno-gadgetry that will make me a "Techno God" (read: allow me to install my new uber-powerful augs without overheating); and there's also (somewhere), an underground newspaper crew.

The latter are actually really cool: I broke into the apartment of the hacker, hacked his PC, and then got to have an IM convo with the newspaper's editor, impersonating the hacker.

Oh, and I also hacked a lot of shit and did a lot of B&E anywhere I could.

So after about 9-10 hours of messing around in Prague's 2 districts, I know next to nothing about the main story.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 21 January 2018 - 06:13 PM

[Morgoth]

I bought Salt and Sanctuary at a PS sale, and it's quite fun! It's just Dark Souls in 2D (unabashedly so), but with a few twists to the formula.

[Traveller]

Morgoth, on 23 January 2018 - 10:42 AM, said:

I bought Salt and Sanctuary at a PS sale, and it's quite fun! It's just Dark Souls in 2D (unabashedly so), but with a few twists to the formula.

Ah, it's a great and shameless DS rip! Had a lot of fun with that. Some of the platform jumping got frustrating but the bosses are good 2d DS clones.