site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2152 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 8, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I started playing Rogue Trader this week, as I'm on vacation. For some reason people call it a CRPG, but it's as much an RPG as Final Fantasy Tactics or Paradise Cracked were: it's just a fight after a fight after a fight. I hope it gets better in Act 2, I really miss a proper hub with factions and quests that don't always require you to murder everyone.

I am enjoying it more than BG3, though. Still lots of "why would I ever pick that" abilities, but there are enough abilities that turn everyone into a murder machine. Except the Sister of Battle, whose bolter is laughably weak and won't shoot straight.

I'm currently playing BTA3062, a full overhaul mod for Battletech. It's also in the full murderhobo tradition of games, but ultimately these usually keep my interest longer than story-based games. I liked Cyberpunk 2077's atmosphere quite a lot and it has plenty of interesting characters and sidequests, but in terms of gameplay it's utterly trivial, so in raw hours I have less than BTA on it. More extreme was Disco Elysium, it was fun for a single playthrough (which for DE is very short to boot), but once I get what it's attempting to say it's not really that interesting anymore. In CP2077 even just wandering the city is surprisingly fun though. I was for example very impressed when I stumbled over a museum to a tragic past event by pure accident, it was well made and afaik you would never find it if you just followed the main and larger side quests.

On BTA itself, it's fun, and both the mech bay and the tactics are significantly enhanced. But it also didn't even attempt to fix the issues with the base game, such as an atrocious AI and a really slow and buggy engine. Nevertheless I spend hours over hours designing my team, such as the perfect light mech scout, or heavy mech artillery platform, or a medium mech generalist/brawler, etc. and blowing up teams that on paper are far stronger than me through a strong, consistent tactic with a team deliberately designed for that purpose is very satisfying. Also, the game has enough of an element of getting random stuff that you have to make work so that it stays somewhat fresh.

I liked Cyberpunk 2077's atmosphere quite a lot and it has plenty of interesting characters and sidequests, but in terms of gameplay it's utterly trivial, so in raw hours I have less than BTA on it.

I was on a good run of CP2077 lately, to celebrate the RTX 4070 Super I finally splurged on when my NVDA shares 10x'ed. Gets 60-100 FPS fully path traced with all the DLSS shit turned on. I was totally in love with the atmosphere, the characters, etc. But at some point my character just got absurdly OP, and the triviality of it's ubisoft completionist minimap game design came out in full force. There is something just so disheartening about pro-actively exploring, and encountering nothing because you must first activate the quest somewhere else that turns that hollow shell of a bunker or abandoned warehouse into actual gameplay.

I'll probably start focusing as much as I can on the main story when I have the time to play a game again, just to get it done and move onto something else. It goes against everything in my nature to not try to compulsively do all the things in a game, but that's how they get you, isn't it?

I just gave up on my STALKER: Anomaly character because I think the main story got bricked in this fashion.

I was exploring Pripyat and saw an alarming number of zombies shambling into a department store, so like any red-blooded Ukrainian, I decided to try out the underbarrel grenade launcher. They weren't alone, though, with about a dozen Monolith troops coming out of the woodwork to investigate. It turned into a close-quarters fight as I navigated the building, and when the dust settled, I found some excellent loot. I also found a generator near the top which, when activated, turned on a few lights, including one by the defunct elevator. Turns out it wasn't actually defunct, because approaching it gave me a confirmation: "Move to Laboratory X-8?"

Unfortunately, I had no reason to take my overloaded ass down into a concrete hell, so I left the area to resupply and sell off the junk. I didn't come back until several hours later, when I'd completed more of the main quest. Only now that I had to descend into a local lab for secret documentation, the elevator was no longer working. And the generator already ran, so I couldn't trigger it again.

Annoying. I installed GAMMA instead to spin up a new character and ignore the story.

BTA 3062 was always my favorite modpack. What did you think of the factions BD added in the empty area? They gave me a heck of a fight the first time they showed up as an ally spawn but once I learned more about them found them to be fun opponents with interesting gear.

What's your favorite start?

I've been playing through a Roguetech company but find it too grindy to be fun for long, so will probably flip back to BTA fairly soon.

Admittedly I'm still on my first career of BTA itself and haven't gotten there, started near Terra with the Blakists and mostly stayed there except for a little bit of Clan action. But I'm in general a slow player for this stuff bc I spend way too much time in the mech bay.

If it's your first game definitely enjoy the ride! It's a wonderful modpack!

More extreme was Disco Elysium, it was fun for a single playthrough (which for DE is very short to boot), but once I get what it's attempting to say it's not really that interesting anymore.

I didn't even make it through one. I was so annoyed by being punished for being a nationalist when every other ideology can be taken to a comical, murderous extreme while giving bonuses was too annoying to me.

I couldn't make it thru one playthrough either, but not because of whatever ideologies it was trying to sell. It was just the uninteresting, unlikeable characters that gave me no investment in figuring out the murder. I found the setting very boring, too, so exploring the area and meeting its various inhabitants and witnesses was just a drag. I can only imagine how bad the writing must've gotten later on as the story developed and the characters had time to breathe, because the writing started off very stilted and unnatural and only seemed to get worse as I kept playing. Shame, since the RPG system for investigation/interrogation/other detective work seemed pretty neat.

Punished? If you're racist enough it cures your alcoholism and gives you noticeable buffs. I was a nationalist and it didn't feel like I was being punished..

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats