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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2930 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 15, 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.

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Video Game Thread

Often happens anyways. Share what you have been playing.

For me I've been hooked on Nightingale recently. A survival crafting game. Their twist on the genre is to have different "realms" or maps where you can explore and collect stuff. The realms can be upgraded to be more difficult and thus provide more resources.

The game feels like a bit of a slog at times, but that is also what I was sorta looking for. A game I could play semi-mindlessly while listening to podcasts. The main frustration has not been gameplay, but a developer decision to make the game always online. Most of the bugs I have encountered are server related. Which is an extreme frustration since I'm basically playing the game like its singleplayer. I am confused why they made the server requirement a thing at all. It just seems like extra crap to maintain.

I'm back to Factorio with some of my friends. We're trying to get a Space Exploration run off the ground. Been trying to use LTN and a city block layout to simplify trains but they've been hesitant.

Beyond All Reason has been fun, as it's like a modern incarnation of Supreme Commander which is one of the best RTS games ever made. It was the only one to really grasp that RTS's should be about base-building and broad strategic moves, not heavy micromanagement like AoE2 or SC2.

I've been trying to play Steins;Gate solo since people have kept recommending it to me, although I just can't seem to get into anime that much

Rimworld is coming out with a new DLC soon. I'm looking forward to losing another hundred hours, although I'm not looking forward to the mod conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Europa Universalis 5 was basically just announced. I haven't played EU4 in a year or so, but it's one of my favorite games of all time so hopefully that is good.

Europa Universalis 5 was basically just announced

I hope they will avoid the terrible modifier stacking meta that EU4 ended up with.

Late reply but I enjoy stacking modifiers. Stacking most of them (like siege ability) isn't particularly powerful when you know how the game is properly played, but it sure is fun!

Europa Universalis 5 was basically just announced

I hope they will avoid the terrible modifier stacking meta that EU4 ended up with.

I enjoy stacking modifiers. The problem with EU4 modifiers (from ideas and government reforms) is that they're all unalloyed positives. Every country feels the same Risk blob by 1500. It would be interesting if, like in real life, the decision to focus one aspect of national power hurt other aspects. IRL Russia chose Religious and Aristocratic and ended up technologically backward. IRL Britain chose Trade and Expansion and ended up with manpower of a small continental duchy. They had to either adjust their strategy for their strengths and weaknesses, or try painful reforms to adapt to the shifting meta.

In EU4, both countries end up super rich with all technologies unlocked and super powerful militaries. Just like every other successful country on the map.

IRL Russia chose Religious and Aristocratic and ended up technologically backward

MEIOU3 is a total overhaul, possibly more feature rich than EU5 will ever be - it adds pops, simulated economy, and a lengthy, painful process of reform from feudal to modern bureaucratic state. A small but modernized, urbanized country with rich and educated plebs will demolish a country like Poland - strong early, but held back by the powerful nobility, naturally falling behind as game progresses.

The mod is still rough, held back horribly by the UI limitations, has a steep learning curve and demands patience, but I 100% recommend it for all EU4 players.

Rimworld is coming out with a new DLC soon. I'm looking forward to losing another hundred hours, although I'm not looking forward to the mod conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Have you played Dwarf Fortress?

Late reply. I have not played Dwarf Fortress. I've definitely heard of it, but I was a bit hesitant to try it back when its UI was abysmal. I've heard they had an update that added simple graphics which could be enough for me to give it a go.

I've heard they had an update that added simple graphics which could be enough for me to give it a go.

"Simple" is an understatement. The devs added nice sprite work that elevates how the world looks. They also added a new, mouse-driven UI to help with navigation. It's a different game, for the better.

You can, of course, play with the original ASCII graphics and keyboard-driven hotkeys.

hat do you think about the idea of a mmo rts where you get 120 people managing two giant factories and fighting huge battles ?

imo seems very cool, weird there's no game like that.

That's definitely an intriguing idea for sure. I'd probably need to see some sort of indie game or prototype try it first though. It's such an unexplored idea that there's probably some pitfalls with it that we can't think of right now, but it sure sounds interesting.

Factorio engine can manage hundreds of players - been tried, but I'm not sure how low overhead units are - I've read some problems with modded vehicles but even there, if the scripts guiding units are simple enough, it should work.

There's Foxhole. I haven't played it personally because I prefer autistic single player games.

But I know that it has a big focus on players doing everything. Like players need to drive the trucks to the front lines to provide ammo, there's factories that create that ammo, and I don't know if those factories need something else as well, but still.

If you're interested in this premise it might be worth to check it out.

I don't think the automation gameplay is anywhere near Factorio. And the whole thing with game being 3d yet having weird-ass 2d combat is not good either.

the whole thing with game being 3d yet having weird-ass 2d combat is not good either

Did you try it? Foxhole infantry combat is great, and if you're lucky to join an interesting battle, it is downright fantastic. Vehicle gameplay is cool too, though tank line meta is meh and there is a lot of waiting around involved. I thoroughly recommend it for everything except facility building.

It's incredibly stupid when compared to what it could be.

Maybe, no idea what sort of changes you're thinking of. But as it is, it's both good gameplay, and nicely unique. Imo the wasted potential is in the lack of serious experimentation with tools that would enable effortless coordination at all scales while maintaining anarchy.

I mean that something like Foxhole but with Factorio-complex factory gameplay and combat that's more like say, war thunder or Squad (but with lots of AI grunts) would be far more fun. Foxhole is a nice idea but the combat system looks very underwhelming and tbh I lost my taste for that kind of game cca 1997.

No such thing as effortless coordination out there.

So you're saying basically there are no in game tools for large-scale battles ? There's no commander's map view where he can assign objectives to units, where he sees data on what's going on etc?

More comments

That sounds awesome. I'll build it myself if nobody else has in a few years

I've been thinking of coaxing the devs of a recent new EA Factorio-type game -'Captain of Industry' -like Factorio but 3d, with earth-moving machinery, workers / food mechanic) into it. Or just adding in multiplayer.

They seem likely to add in tunneling and bunkers, might even add dams and polders. You play on an island some real estate is a serious constraint.

Seems the unity-based engine they're using is fairly scaleable.

Industrial Annihilation is vaguely on my radar but I don't know whether or not the factory building is team vs. team.

Cool but niche. Factory-games cater more for the aloof, somewhat autistic single-player personality (me) than the gregarious AOE/Starcraft multiplayer people.

I would love a Dyson Sphere Program interplanetary/interstellar PVP battle though, that'd be great fun.

Beauty of multi-modal games is all kinds of people are welcome. Ark Survival is an FPS game that had housewives and hairdressers playing it, because you could breed creatures some combination of terrifying, fluffy and adorable.

I feel like RTS players might be interested in cooperative persistent RTS games. After all running the same shit all over again probably is stale to a lot of people.

Also, with a bit of effort, if you added in 1st person gameplay and mechs and shit you could probably get normies to play it too and now you have a game that also socializes people.

I’m really disappointed that there’s not a Foxhole RTS. Infantry combat is the worst part of that game.

Sounds realistic

The alternatives of “junkyard miner,” “construction worker,” and “Amazon delivery driver” sound better until you realize they are also all in active war zones.

I believe modding in RTS to Factorio is very, very easy.

The game engine is pretty good, simple unit scripting which requires micromanaging to be efficient is probably not that resource intensive..

I'm back to Factorio with some of my friends. We're trying to get a Space Exploration run off the ground. Been trying to use LTN and a city block layout to simplify trains but they've been hesitant.

Oh man I'm jealous, I could never find any friends to play Factorio with me longterm. It has been incredibly difficult getting through a space exploration run on my own. Took me around 150 hours to get to endgame stuff. So much of that was just wasting resources for me bouncing around to different planets to deal with resource shortages or emergencies.

Didn't really get viable until I downloaded the real nukes mod and began nuking the crap out of surfaces to get rid of biters. The size of some of those nukes probably should have been cracking the planet if they were real.

Rimworld is coming out with a new DLC soon. I'm looking forward to losing another hundred hours, although I'm not looking forward to the mod conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Rimworld has always taken my personal crown for "most mods applied". Think I had almost 150 in one playthrough.

Oh man I'm jealous, I could never find any friends to play Factorio with me longterm

Yeah, the wonders of modern technology has made it possible for me to stay in contact with 2 of my friends from college which has been excellent. One of them is super gung-ho about the mod, while the other was keen at first but his interest rapidly waned. Now he mostly just plays other games in the same Discord call while we play SE. Playing games with them regularly has really made me understand how valuable old friends are, since if I didn't have them then I'd have basically no real social contact outside of this forum (which doesn't really count IMO) and work.

Didn't really get viable until I downloaded the real nukes mod and began nuking the crap out of surfaces to get rid of biters. The size of some of those nukes probably should have been cracking the planet if they were real.

Great mod suggestion! I'm always looking for overpowered but not outright cheaty mods, and this looks like a great addition. I'm not too keen on biters myself so this will be a nice way to get rid of them. I thought I saw a "plague rocket" or something that's able to deal with them in the tech tree, but I'm not sure how long it will take to get there.

Think I had almost 150 in one playthrough.

Only 150? Those are rookie numbers! Think I got mine over 300 at one point, but there's some attrition between versions as mod authors drop off.

Rimworld has always taken my personal crown for "most mods applied". Think I had almost 150 in one playthrough.

Same here. It's what saves me from ever wanting to play it again - too much hassle!

Normal nukes are good enough, it's just a volume thing.

Yah it was slowing down my game while I was launching them though. Instead it was quicker to spend a similar amount of nuclear material in a few enormous nukes, and basically have the game pause on me for a minute at a time as it calculated stuff.

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