What games are you playing now?

[Lakorus]

I'm on the home stretch of my playthrough of Wizardry 8. After forging the alliance between the Umpani and T'Rang and disposing of the Rapax king I'm now roaming Ascension peak.

I have to place the last artifact and then I may enter the cosmic circle. I'm still having fun, although the endgame is hardly challenging anymore when you have a well built party.

 

[Carnifex]

A romp through Wizardry eight is always a good time!

 

[Beren]

The trilogy itself, 6 to 8, is always fun.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I've tried for the nth time to play through the Homeworld campaign, but I just can't manage it.
I love the music, like the story (and am surprised I never noticed how close it is to Battlestar Galactica).
But I just can't manage the strategy gameplay.

I'm generally not a fan of strategy games, mostly because every game tends to end up being the same.
Just build up a ball of forces and attack. So I find they tend to be pretty repetitive.
Well, Homeworld also introduces the complexity of managing a 3D map, and I constantly am confused by the distances and orientation.
I constantly misclick and do not hit what I am to hit.

While the combat looks pretty cool visually, I also kind of find it annoying how most fights tend to be a lot of dogfighting where my units and theirs keep spinning around each other's tail.
I might just have to admit it's just not a game for me.

 

[Lakorus]

The trilogy itself, 6 to 8, is always fun.

I started a playthrough a couple of years ago, beginning with the layout of character development, class change, the import of items through the parts and all. Unfortunately I quit it around the first encounter with the bane king in Wiz 6 for some reason.

But it still is on my todo - list. It probably will be the first thing I'll do when I retire in 15 years

 

[bkrueger]

Impressive! Wasn't it too long?

All in all, it took me about 6 hours, I believe. As usual, the successful attempt needed only about ten minutes...
By the way, you were right, that story wise the final fight of the expansion lies before the final fight of the main game.
Some of the Banuk will join you in the final fight at Meridian.

 

[Redglyph]

All in all, it took me about 6 hours, I believe. As usual, the successful attempt needed only about ten minutes...
By the way, you were right, that story wise the final fight of the expansion lies before the final fight of the main game.
Some of the Banuk will join you in the final fight at Meridian.

That must have taken a few attempts. If I remember well, FightinCowboy put his first attempt in the video, then clipped and added the successful one, saying it took him 7 other attempts before getting it right. And still, it wasn't short. I don't know what difficulty he was playing on.

It taught me to use the ropecaster more often. I used to do that but put it aside at some point.

I don't mind a difficult combat, but something repetitive and long like this doesn't motivate me. That's why I cowardly changed the difficulty setting for that one fight.

 

[bkrueger]

That must have taken a few attempts. If I remember well, FightinCowboy put his first attempt in the video, then clipped and added the successful one, saying it took him 7 other attempts before getting it right. And still, it wasn't short. I don't know what difficulty he was playing on.

It taught me to use the ropecaster more often. I used to do that but put it aside at some point.

I don't mind a difficult combat, but something repetitive and long like this doesn't motivate me. That's why I cowardly changed the difficulty setting for that one fight.

In fact I used a different method to beat the fireclaw.

Spoiler: Comparison of methods

The method you indicate is also the "standard" one recommended in forums and Videos:
(1) Use the ropecaster to chain the fireclaw. (2) Use an ice weapon to freeze it. (3) use a high damage weapon (e.g. sharpshooter bow) to hit. (4) repeat as often as necessary.

I tried that in the beginning and it worked quite well. But since you need many repetitions of this, I ran out of ropecaster ammunition after a while. I bought enough material for that when running back to the next town. But when I then retried the strategy, I didn't have enough patience to repeat the procedure as fast and as often as necessary (if you are to slow, the fireclaw unchains itself before you get your first hit and that round was nearly useless).

So I gave up on that and spent a lot of attempts searching for places, where you can hide and try a hit and hide attempt in the fight. Of course the arena is designed in way to prevent this (this goes so far that at some places invisible walls prevent you from hiding behind rocks). Also the fireclaw has a far range fire attack, where lava erupts from beneath you. This hits you, even if there are obstacles between the fireclaw and you.

But I managed to find a specific place high up (on the outside of a wall of one of the doors, where monsters come in). The fireclaw couldn't get into melee there. By wearing the shield-weaver armour and jumping as soon as the fireclaw used that attack, I could avoid nearly all damage from these attacks (you can't avoid the first hit, but that is buffered by the armour's shield). Fortunately the fireclaw tries this dangerous attack only from time to time. So I had enough time to throw ice bombs at it and then shoot it with the sharpshooter bow. From my hiding place I could even place exploding wire traps at a place it used to cross when running around. I also could destroy the support towers appearing from time to time whith my bow without leaving my place. I don't know if my method is faster than the standard one, but it was less stressful for me.

Edit: Some typos.

 

[Redglyph]

In fact I used a different method to beat the fireclaw.

Spoiler: Comparison of methods

The method you indicate is also the "standard" one recommended in forums and Videos:
(1) Use the ropecaster to chain the fireclaw. (2) Use an ice weapon to freeze it. (3) use a high damage weapon (e.g. sharpshooter bow) to hit. (4) repeat as often as necessary.

I tried that in the beginning and it worked quite well. But since you need many repetitions of this, I ran out of ropecaster ammunition after a while. I bought enough material for that when running back to the next town. But when I then retried the strategy, I didn't have enough patience to repeat the procedure as fast and as often as necessary (if you are to slow, the fireclaw unchains itself before you get your first hit and that round was nearly useless).

So I gave up on that and spent a lot of attempts searching for places, where you can hide and try a hit and hide attempt in the fight. Of course the arena is designed in way to prevent this (this goes so far that at some places invisible walls prevent you from hiding behind rocks). Also the fireclaw has a far range fire attack, where lava erupts from beneath you. This hits you, even if there are obstacles between the fireclaw and you.

But I managed to find a specific place high up (on the outside of a wall of one of the doors, where monsters come in). The fireclaw couldn't get into melee there. By wearing the shield-weaver armour and jumping as soon as the fireclaw used that attack, I could avoid nearly all damage from these attacks (you can't avoid the first hit, but that is buffered by the armour's shield). Fortunately the fireclaw tries this dangerous attack only from time to time. So I had enough time to throw ice bombs at it and then shoot it with the sharpshooter bow. From my hiding place I could even place exploding wire traps at a place it used to cross when running around. I also could destroy the support towers appearing from time to time whith my bow without leaving my place. I don't know if my method is faster than the standard one, but it was less stressful for me.

Edit: Some typos.

Thanks, it's interesting. Yes, I mostly used the 'known' method, and I was regularly drinking Fire Resist potions (I think I had the nice shield weaver, too, but I'm not sure).

It seems that cheesing this one is the only practical way to do it.

I don't mind. The map of that region is beautiful, the effect of footprints in the snow is very well done, the story is cool, and the DLC offers nice gear and an upgrade to the lance. There's a lot to like.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I've managed to reach the 6th mission of Homeworld 1, and I think I'm really starting to enjoy it.
It took a bit of learning to ropes to be able to decently manage all of it in a 3D map, mostly to quickly orientate myself to what I need, order things around and be able to react during a battle.
Seems using the sensor's mode is pretty important, at least for me.

And the soundtrack, banger after banger. Great mood and atmosphere.
And somehow they managed to also nail it as far as naming their races, places and other points of interest. A cool sounding but not overly dorky name goes a long way for me.

Don't think I'll be read with it, and Homeworld 2 and Deserts of Kharak in time for Homeworld 3, which releases on the 13th of May.
I got that one as a present from my folks, so I should honor their present by at least trying to be ready.

 

[HellRazor]

I just finished FANTASY GENERAL II. It's a pretty fun Strategy RPG, based on the original SSI classic (which I don't recall ever playing). The storyline is interesting, even though progressing through it is mostly on rails. Some of the battles take HOURS to complete, especially after the first few, and they are challenging. Some of the choices you make will change certain aspects of the game as you go along. You can also play as different heroes, which I believe changes how the story unfolds and aids with replayability.

It took me about 130 hours to finish (which includes a few battles I had to restart because the approach I took made the battle unwinnable). I'll probably give it another run with a different hero. It's one of those games that you can play casually, drop it for a few weeks and return to it.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I'm either just not getting something or the difficulty really spiked on the 5th mission of Homeworld 1. I'm very close to a huge invading army, which I've tried now 3 times to take on; the last time I even spent some time building extra ships, on top of what I had already built, which I would've thought was more than enough. But no, they've got capital ships and destroyers, and frigates up the wazoo.

I read on reddit that apparently the game scales the enemy to your scale of the army, which is insane since it feels like I'll need 30-40 ships of each type to actually make a dent.
I even tried to rush the capital ships with some salvage ships to take them on, but got pulverized and only one ship actually made contact with the capital ship, and then lost all of its health in 2 seconds.

This is gonna be a pain and I'm not sure I have the patience for it.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Ok, this is kind of insane. Homeworld also works in real-time with pause? You can pause the game and issue orders and then unpause?
How is this not mentioned anywhere in the game? Except if you see it in the control bindings.
And it's apparently in all games, even Homeworld 3? That's where I first heard about it, in one of the promotional videos for HW3.

This might just make it perfect for me.

 

[Carnifex]

Still on my replay of Dark Deity, up to mission eighteen now and I've mixed it up a bit from my first play which was like three or four years ago, I'm trying out two different troops that I didn't use in the past. So far so fun!

 

[JDR13]

Ok, this is kind of insane. Homeworld also works in real-time with pause? You can pause the game and issue orders and then unpause?
How is this not mentioned anywhere in the game? Except if you see it in the control bindings.
And it's apparently in all games, even Homeworld 3? That's where I first heard about it, in one of the promotional videos for HW3.

This might just make it perfect for me.

I'm surprised it took you that long to realize it. I knew you could pause it, and I only briefly tried the game years ago.

I'm surprised to hear about the level-scaling though. I had no idea about that.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I'm surprised it took you that long to realize it. I knew you could pause it, and I only briefly tried the game years ago.

I'm surprised to hear about the level-scaling though. I had no idea about that.

I played through the tutorial a bunch of times, since over the last 20 years (jesus, it's been that long?) I kept trying to get into the game (My dad was a big fan).
And I'm pretty sure I replayed those tutorials every time, just to refresh myself. And there definitely is no mention of the ability to pause. I'm pretty sure I would've learned it across the many attempts at trying the game.
And I'm shocked I only learned about it from HW3's marketing material. Kinda insane.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I knew I wasn't crazy: https://steamcommunity.com/app/244160/discussions/0/2243300286303587550/#c2243300286305583706

 

[JDR13]

Yeah, it's a little weird that it's not mentioned in the tutorial. Maybe Gearbox didn't because it wasn't mentioned in the classic version either?

I'm curious if there was level-scaling in the original games. I tried looking it up, but it seems like no one can agree on whether there was or not.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yeah, it's a little weird that it's not mentioned in the tutorial. Maybe Gearbox didn't because it wasn't mentioned in the classic version either?

Yeah, I very strongly suspect the originals didn't mention it either since I started with the originals, in my multiple attempts to get into the game. And I never heard of it.
Funnily enough, I recently asked my dad about it, and he said of course he used it. But he doesn't remember where he heard about it. Probably from input mappings, since it's listed there.

I'm curious if there was level-scaling in the original games. I tried looking it up, but it seems like no one can agree on whether there was or not.

Yeah, no idea about that. But with the real-time-with-pause I now am more confident I'll be able to, at worst case, overcome the AI with some kiting tactics if it truly is undoable otherwise.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

God damn what an annoying mission in HW1. I cleared mission 5, and also built up quite an armada by staying after I got the all-clear for hyperspace jump.
And then, in mission 6, they dump my whole armada in an asteroid field and I lost 60-70% of the main interceptors and heavy corvettes; and about 50-60% of mothership's health. I need to redo the mission, no way can I waste that much.
But I'm loving it with the ability to pause. It's a whole different ballgame.

Also, the fact that you can carry your armada with you from mission to mission, and that you're left to your devices after the mission is over, to come overly-prepared for the next one, is another bonus.
That's a serious negative that most rts games have, where I constantly feel I'm starting from scratch. Well, in this way they're really building attachment to your armada. Love it.