mildly_obsolete
No bio...
User ID: 1305
Games.
Almost finished Blood West. Shooter with soulslike characteristics, with decently sized map open to exploration per chapter, emphasis on stealth and looting, very retro feel. The setting is cool and well executed - wild west under a curse, roamed near exclusively by various monstrosities. Narration is minimal but compelling (intro features a native american blaming the white man for the curse, but that angle never comes up again), voice acting surprisingly nice. Quests amount to pointing you in the general direction of the next thing to find, but any order works, so you can explore freely.
The oppressive atmosphere is a highlight, both aesthetics and gameplay. Enemies are fast and hit damn hard, combat is bursty - you either get those headshots in (supposedly 5x damage, but not stated in-game afaik; feels like 5x) as you methodically clear an area, or you're in a desperate fight for survival. Highly satisfying gunplay, great feedback on the shotguns. A lot of weapons/consumables to pick up, inventory tetris abound unless you can resist the temptation to hoard.
Only minor complaints. Could use some "elite" enemies scattered around. Some balance issues. Too few artifact slots to permit more elaborate builds, and one slot is all but reserved for the pocket watch that stops time when you open inventory.
Random hallucinated connection: the "barn + house + tiny field + ghouls + nothing around" locations could well be lifted directly from Western Plaguelands.
Highly recommended. Put the first points into +experience perk. You can toss rocks on X, took me half the game to realize.
Played Slay the Princess recently (still exploring the remaining threads). So well written, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to pretty much anyone.
Enjoyed Cataclismo, a sort of a survival city builder with block-by-block fortification placement and a proper campaign to play through. Spanish studio, competent attempt at unique aesthetics and worldbuilding (at best distinguished and fablelike, at worst a little sterile), ok-ish campaign narrative. Fortification building satisfying, but gets tedious if you overbuild at every opportunity - difficulty is bit low and spiky, in retrospect better to build more than one layer of simple walls rather than elaborate, optimal walls & towers.
Playing Synergy currently, another city builder, set in a hostile, post-collapse world (a failed colony world? did not pay attention): people live in small numbers, climate is harsh, water is toxic, but since it's made by the eco-faithful, it's all a good thing actually, just the world where harmony with and respect for nature is finally non-negotiable. I'm being unfair, it's not preachy at all, serious about its aesthetics, very pretty and detailed. Plays well - both building placement, and plant management (near all resources come from foraging, flora changes the soil/humidity/temperature, not all plants like each other etc). Resource carriers are a bit buggy (trips happening for minimal amount of resources, building input inventory sizes mismatched to crafting speed), but it only means you should build densely. Recommended.
mildly_obsolete
27d ago
Civ/EU/CK/Total War hybrid
Dreaming up a game like this, I'd put the emphasis on it being a living world rather than a very complex, but largely static boardgame (you do touch on this with the fog of war bit, in a way).
Take playing "tall" in baseline EU4 - it amounts to stacking modifiers and clicking a button when you have the points; if you don't click, nothing happens. Compare to EU4+MEIOU - goods flow and populations rise, development increases along the trade routes, you can at most shape the flows. I love in particular how, with low state capacity and sky-high corruption (includes local, non-state interests), you initially are barely in control, and how you get to take this inefficient, inert society and get to build its momentum, rolling towards modernity.
Gimme a game that does that better, and preserves player agency.
mildly_obsolete
1mo ago
You can also make do with manual mod management on non-steam game installation, just need that workshop/forums access. Good enough if it's just one or two big mods you want to run, a bit of a pain otherwise, of course.
But looking into it now, apparently CreamAPI account risk is negligible. Huh.
mildly_obsolete
1mo ago
Side note, but the paradox communities' acceptance of "save scumming" as an acceptable part of the game, but console commands as "cheating" absolutely sends me.
Depths of stupidity on brand for Paradox paypigs. Console permits you to tailor the experience to your liking, resolve balance issues, and save AI from itself mechanically, tactically and strategically. Imagine not using it.
I am prejudiced against jews, for well covered , mundane rightoid reasons, my grandfather being a pretty devoted 'antisemite' about the only notable one. And so I am less likely to be open to Jewish singers.
mildly_obsolete
1mo ago
He was Jewish, I'm positive.
I happened on this performance good decade ago now, and been a fan since. Hard to choose a favorite, maybe Lobachevsky and Smut (love the "For filth (I'm glad to say) is in the mind of the beholder" line). Not surprised at your dad at all, I normally would not be a fan, his heritage and subversive themes, but the songs are too consistently catchy and funny not to override my bias completely.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
My point was about what I think Iranians believe to be plausible. I'm not predicting a strike in the current circumstances, though I do think US would sign off on it if Israelis made such a decision.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
I didn't say it was neighborly.
If 'nation-building' is supposed to mean anything other than conquest, then it is deranged and incompetent.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
Are you being serious here?
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
Trump tweeted ‘get out of Tehran now’ and there were immediately massive traffic jams leaving Tehran
What a claim. There were traffic jams leaving the city from day one. And still, the traffic probably did pick up after he made the threat, US & Trump is understood to be slavishly devoted to Israelis, likely to sign off on and aid a nuclear strike on the city.
far less clearly involved in than Ukraine
Direct involvement in air defence, active support in the bombing campaign. This is less than in the first weeks in Ukraine?
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
Come to think of it, LLM-powered tunable novel abridgement tools surely are already out there.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
If this sort of thing happened to the American military, I have no idea how the government could continue to stand.
Reminds me of claims American Public would never stand for American soldiers being filmed as drones drop grenades on them. I don't believe that for a second, I think you people have about as much capacity as anyone else to forget previous standards. Organically, and when being whipped.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
I recommend you try it again then, quality is consistent until the very end.
usual Royal Road slop
Different realm!
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
Curious if you were reading this take on 'system war' SF with a title I am too embarrassed to type out? It's coming to a close now, I found it to be a pleasant weekly read, at times disappointing, but overall a decent quality novel.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
I'm almost certain it was updated, the 'thinking' contents are noticeably different.
mildly_obsolete
3mo ago
Random doodles you'd expect on toilet walls in a pub, but on your skin, as tattoos, ~permanently. Genuinely incomprehensible to me as anything other than a purely negative signal.
Large, elaborate, but a coherent work of art - fine.
One or two small ones, clear focus - rolling my eyes, but fine.
mildly_obsolete
5mo ago
Anticipating the outline of the 5D chess explanation: this was the plan all along, training allies to meekly accept US dictates, baiting the disrespectful Chinese into cringe, standoffish behaviour. Now allies, cowed, thankful, will only negotiate 1:1, happy to put tariffs on China to avoid the terrible, terrible flood of goods. Such determination was shown that nobody will dare reduce own vulnerability to another round of similar 'negotiations'.
Oh, there even is a national holiday. We of course focus on the conquest and 'ugh, what could have been', so one gets the impression Russians could only be embarrassed by the episode. Dumb, I need to pick up a history book written from Russian perspective.
mildly_obsolete
5mo ago
Russians are very proud of that episode
Really, very proud? Because, against all odds, it ended with Romanov dynasty rather than a Polish king, or did you mean to write 'Poles' there?
mildly_obsolete
5mo ago
Main voice, but dominance or even control were it feasible. You don't mention, is this is driven by pure self-interest?
mildly_obsolete
5mo ago
'Making' implies the willingness to root was not already made, present and widespread.
I think Americans are breaking some new ground this time around.
There is always an audience to root for humiliation. That audience also grows as the power of the one being rooted against grows.
I don't deny this is a common dynamic, but I disagree that what I talked about can be discarded as belonging in this bin. This isn't Americans gracefully outbuilding others, but Americans looking to extort and suppress.
mildly_obsolete
5mo ago
Fifth, they could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods.
Global public goods! No, by all means, shrug this great burden aside, teach humanity a lesson, show us what the world without American self-sacrifice looks like.
I can't figure out to what extent Americans realize how off-putting their rhetoric is for people on the outside. Too drunk on power to care, or actually believe themselves to be victimized, justified in belligerence? Either way, very effective at making people root for US humiliation. If not reflected at the top of US hierarchy, I'd think it an astroturfing campaign ran by US adversaries.
I had it in my backlog for a while, but I am a little shocked it's that old. Time flies.
Tell me about it. It's embarrassing, I can't be assed to grab pencil & paper and go after the proper secrets in these games, but will obsessively, tediously loot every nook, and will get nervous about accidentally progressing. And it's rare that these games push you to use everything you find (can't expect everyone to play that way).
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