Post by: hops on June 21, 2016, 10:04:11 pm
Post by: Empty on June 21, 2016, 10:14:48 pm
Post by: itisnotlogical on June 21, 2016, 10:18:37 pm
Has anybody played any of the Android WH40k games?
Post by: hops on June 21, 2016, 10:30:15 pm
Why do they have to feed the cancer? Can't they just, I dunno, get actual games?
Post by: BigD145 on June 21, 2016, 10:45:02 pm
Post by: Frumple on June 21, 2016, 10:45:45 pm
Post by: hops on June 21, 2016, 10:47:16 pm
"Actual games" have to be made before they can be sold. (handheld consoles being an exception) The mobile market is mostly garbage. Finding anything beyond the heavily marketed microBS is difficult and not very fruitful. Phones can emulate PS1 games now, but beyond the squenix ports there is almost nothing with substance.A lot of the featured non-microstransactional stuffs on the App Store are pretty professional and not shitty asian knockoffs. I just don't understand why people don't play those.
Post by: Frumple on June 21, 2016, 10:52:33 pm
Post by: hops on June 21, 2016, 10:56:32 pm
Post by: BigD145 on June 21, 2016, 11:00:01 pm
Post by: itisnotlogical on June 21, 2016, 11:19:24 pm
Post by: hops on June 21, 2016, 11:20:43 pm
Post by: aristabulus on June 21, 2016, 11:38:00 pm
I really don't understand the kind of people who pay for microtransaction games.
Why do they have to feed the cancer? Can't they just, I dunno, get actual games?
It goes back to that old saying: a sucker is born every minute.
-----
My personal experience with smartphone games has been pretty limited, but I have found one that scratches an itch well for me.
So, mini-review!
Alphabear, by Spry Fox, is a word puzzle game. (Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabear), dev page (http://spryfox.com/our-games/alphabear/), Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spryfox.alphabear&hl=en), iOS (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alphabear-word-puzzle-game/id930003798?mt=8))
At its core, Alphabear is a game about making words out of letter-soup. You have insufferably cutesy bears that give you bonuses to score, and affect the letters on the board. There are common, rare, and legendary bears, with stats and cooldowns to match. Do decently, get a level-up for a bear. Do well, have a chance at a higher tier of bear.
If you have Scrabble-chops, you'll do alright here. Alphabear lets me exercise my vocabulary without the zero-sum-game problems at the level in which I play @ Scrabble. It also gives me a time filler when I'm out and about; I often play while I'm waiting for / on the bus, or when I have 10 or 15 minutes to kill without anything more meaningful I could do.
There are definitely *_Mobile_Games_Industry_Forces_* in effect with Alphabear, but I've ignored them mostly because of why I play. There's an energy timer (40/hr, iirc); once full (120), it'll let you play one timed (50) and one untimed board (70). The game will dole out 100 coins every 24 hours, but stops accruing after 24 hours; the easy-mode / can-get-a-legendary board is 400 coins to start. A one-time fee of 5 bucks removes the energy entirely (and gives you a +50% bump to freebie coins), allowing you to play as many consecutive games as you want. (I paid the 5 bucks) Some of the later levels are designed to be functionally impossible without a large investment of time or money. So far, they've released 11 chapters; the first few went by quickly, the middle took a week or two each... I've been stuck on Ch. 9 for about 4 months of active play / 7 calendar months.
There are definitely elements at the strategic level that I'd rather not fuss with, but ultimately those don't matter because I play Alphabear for the ground-level experience.
Ermahgerd, werds! ;)
Post by: hops on June 21, 2016, 11:40:41 pm
Post by: Emma on June 22, 2016, 04:10:49 am
Post by: miauw62 on June 22, 2016, 05:28:33 am
It's basically 1v1 car dueling. You try to hit your opponent's head to win. There are quite a few campaign missions but they're not very hard.
Post by: BigD145 on June 22, 2016, 09:01:12 am
There are serious board games on mobile platforms. They work best if you know the game and its rules already. The AI's usually suck.
You can get DOS games running on Android with DOSbox Turbo.
Brogue, Race Into Space, King of Dragon Pass, and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup have Android ports. Random Adventure Roguelike is not half bad. There are some simple city builders like TheoTown and a lunar one I forget the name of.
Bounden is a unique partners ballet app. Bridge Constructor and Crayon Physics are okay.
There's a very long list for PSP because you can also get PS1 games and many emulators if you mod the console.
Cus obviously phone gamers are mindless sheeple feeding the corporate overlord and don't just have different tastes or anything. :-\Thank you for understanding. I bet you looked at the top sales and download numbers of games in the marketplace, like I did. Advertising is powerful, especially if you catch them young and impressionable.
Post by: JimboM12 on June 22, 2016, 09:27:40 am
Everyone knows about Fallout Shelter but here I go again; Fallout Shelter's a very decent little builder/management game that's also got a ProgressQuest like side game where you send vault dwellers out into the wastes to come back with random shit.
D already posted about the Trese Brothers, good board games for decent prices.
Minecraft Pocket Edition is pretty good, if you want Minecraft on the go. It's a little behind the 'main' game but it does get occasional updates to bring it closer to the main version.
There's always phone Agar.io if you wanna accidentally run into things bigger than you and die cuz you couldn't react fast enough using touch screens.
Warhammer 40k Space Wolf is a turn-based tactical strategy game that uses a card mechanic. The cards can be something like 'sprint' or it could include any weapon so occasionally your single tactical marine will somehow lug a rocket launcher, flamethrower, and heavy bolter all at once.
Star Wars: Uprising is a sort of mini-MMO that was vaguely appealing until I had to delete it for space. I didn't get too far, but it's basically a mission based RPG.
And that's my list of ok mobile games. What I really wish is for a good mobile sort of Magic the Gathering type game. Yeah I know, Hearthstone, but still.
Post by: ParsleyPWG on June 22, 2016, 09:47:42 am
Post by: choppy on June 22, 2016, 10:17:59 am
There are some simple city builders like TheoTown and a lunar one I forget the name of.Is it moonbase Inc? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jeu.de.marc&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dmoonbase+inc.&pcampaignid=APPU_1_-qtqVz-QwPgB0b2EqAU (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jeu.de.marc&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dmoonbase+inc.&pcampaignid=APPU_1_-qtqVz-QwPgB0b2EqAU)
Post by: BigD145 on June 22, 2016, 11:46:20 am
There are some simple city builders like TheoTown and a lunar one I forget the name of.Is it moonbase Inc? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jeu.de.marc&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dmoonbase+inc.&pcampaignid=APPU_1_-qtqVz-QwPgB0b2EqAU (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jeu.de.marc&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dmoonbase+inc.&pcampaignid=APPU_1_-qtqVz-QwPgB0b2EqAU)
Yes. Super simple.
For more complex there's OpenTTD. It's fairly up to date. Liberal Crime Squad is not up to date.
Post by: gamerscout on June 22, 2016, 06:45:15 pm
It is a free multiplayer wargame set in the Sengoku period of japan.
It plays alot like the total war series.
here is a link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openwar.samurai&hl=en (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openwar.samurai&hl=en).
Post by: Frumple on June 22, 2016, 07:02:40 pm
I barely ever play mobile games or even tower defense games, but Kingdom Rush currently has me hooked. I found it on the web somewhere when I was bored one day and it was quite fun, so decided to download it onto my mobile. Now it's my go-to game when I'm on a long train ride.Just on the off chance you hadn't noticed, that's got more than one game in the series. Later ones are probably a bit better, if you're still running off the first'un.
Post by: Mattk50 on June 24, 2016, 08:04:13 pm
Cus obviously phone gamers are mindless sheeple feeding the corporate overlord and don't just have different tastes or anything. :-\
You say that like it's unlikely.
Post by: Rince Wind on June 25, 2016, 08:25:36 am
Post by: MonkeyHead on June 25, 2016, 08:44:11 am
Post by: Sonlirain on June 25, 2016, 09:00:08 am
But there are some good mobile games if you are willing to look for them deep enough.
King of dragon pass being one of them.
But of course the problem with mobile games is the fact that for every good classic PC port or original (and good) product there are 15 clash of clans and other assorted trash.
Quite honestly as a mobile player you are just best off emulating snes games and not even bothering with the mobile market unless you feel like browsing through a mountain of manure to find one of the few gems stuck in it.
And even the gems turn out to be zircon. And upon closer inspection they are gem shaped pieces of plastic.
Post by: penguinofhonor on June 25, 2016, 09:15:52 am
Post by: IronTomato on June 25, 2016, 01:02:07 pm
Also, the 3DS is gud. Sure it's a little crappy in terms of hardware aside from the 3D, but a lot of the games for it are pretty awesome in my opinion.
Post by: ductape on June 25, 2016, 01:19:32 pm
Sproggiwood is a nice roguelike.
Punch Club is an interesting toy.
Crashlands is a fun exploration progression crafting thing.
None of these are plagued by micro transactions.
Post by: BigD145 on June 25, 2016, 02:44:12 pm
Post by: IronTomato on June 25, 2016, 03:33:44 pm
So yeah, it has both of the big things which piss me off about mobile games, but both are actually used in a way which is not that bad. I had fun playing it for a while.
Post by: Wiles on June 25, 2016, 03:58:59 pm
If you like MOBAs then Vainglory is a pretty fun game. I was pretty skeptical about playing that kind of game on a small phone screen but it actually looks and controls really well. It has been a while since I have played it though since it is a fairly large game and I have limited space on my phone.
Most of the other games I've played on my phone have already been mentioned in this thread (sproggiwood, pixel dungeon).
Post by: hops on June 28, 2016, 11:31:53 pm
Post by: Zangi on July 01, 2016, 12:31:36 pm
Basically 11v11 match-up with cards mashing against each other for control of the ball and trying to
Korean voice acting and animu art style. Waifu/Husbando material for everyone.
For the $$$ part, the game is generous(in-my-opinion) when it comes to acquiring the cash related currency, $$$Type1 and $$$Type2. The game also gives you plenty of chances to get the better cards, but you are at the mercy of RNG. Obviously whaling = faster progression.
Spoiler: More Detail on $$$ (click to show/hide)
Special mention: For card progression, you don't need to do the bullshit max a card before 'evolving' or you'll gimp it forever garbage. (This is one of my hangups about many of the shitty pocket games I've tried out.)
EDIT:
Kairosoft is king.This.... but a few of its new games have been branching into the microtransaction you-can't-binge-on-it-anymore way. (Salty)
Post by: sambojin on July 01, 2016, 07:20:04 pm
Clash Royale is a fun little laning/strategy game based on the Clash of Clans franchise. Weird levelling/tiering system, but good to play for a quick competitive bash. I rarely play it at all these days, but it's certainly staying on my phone for when I do want to. Online only.
The rest of these don't need an online connection:
OpenTyrian has an android port, and is one of the best shoot'em ups ever. Plays surprisingly well on a phone. Laser/sonic ftw! Tap "Rear Weapon" to change it's mode, and don't use ammo-sidekicks and you'll be fine (which means no plasma storms unfortunately :( )
The Trese brother's stuff has been mentioned. If you don't mind paying a few dollars, Templar Assault is a pretty good Space Hulk clone to scratch your 40k itch. Star Traders is a good trader/exploration/trek-like and Heroes of Steel is a nice RPG. Very god devs these pair.
The Ur-quan Masters is a port of Star Control 2 and is available on android. Damn good game, but a bit fiddly on phone. You can cyborg your battles, but that's half the game.
FreeCiv works pretty damn well on phone. Plus, you get to start with an explorer. This makes Civilisation so much more interesting at the start that it actually feels fun. Civ is pretty good anyway, but something to do at the start (other than expand) is great.
I'm pretty sure I got freeCol to work on my phone at one point (Colonization clone). From memory it was fiddly, and not a good port of it. FreeCol is great, just not the android version of it.
FreeHeroes2 is a Heroes of Might & Magic 2 port, for all your oldschool TBS needs. There's a HoMM3 port, but I haven't tried it yet. FH2 works fine, but you've got to be extra careful in battle for correct positioning sometimes.
OpenXcom is basically awesome. Hoping that they'll re-port it once Meridian's .exe mods get into the vanilla build, because a facing indicator would be superb. Xcom is always good.
Battlestation: Harbinger is a pretty good space roguelite. It's currently half price, and the engine is quite nice. Apparently it's been fixed up a fair bit in both balance and replayability-wise, so it might be worth a look.
OpenPanzer does the Panzer General games for you, if you like WWII strategy sims. I've had it on my phone for ages, but never really played it.
The Battle for Wesnoth has an android port. It's an old rpg/strategy game for PC. Heaps of scenarios, heaps of campaigns, hex-based goodness. D/L takes a while, but worth it. Slow to play, but good if you've got a few hours to kill.
For emulation, my two go-to games are Sid Meyers' Pirates! and M.U.L.E on the Nostalgia.NES emulator. Immensely replayable, and work great on touchscreen.
For dosboxing, I use Magic Dosbox. It lets you set up touchscreen icons for things like long-click, right-click, keyboard hotkeys, etc. This makes stuff like Simcity 2000, The Incredible Machine, Lords of the Realm, and even Warcraft (barely, but you can set touch-hotkeys for creating/selecting command groups) all be quite playable on a phone. It also makes it quicker to load your games, because they're menu icons now (no command prompt needed). Also very handy for win3.1/win95 games where right-click is vital. There's a free version for one-game-setup-at-a-time for trying it out, but the paid version is worth it. Probably one of the only things worth buying on android really.
Post by: BigD145 on July 01, 2016, 08:52:20 pm
Post by: sambojin on July 02, 2016, 04:19:11 pm
It's an action RPG where you control a party pf four characters (boxers, gladiators, mages, archers, etc), although control is a very loose term here. Pluck out of danger occasionally is probably more accurate. They sort of auto-scroll from left to right, battling enemies in various environments and collecting loot. There's a roguelite element to it, in that you keep whatever you've collected on death, but must pay a small fee to get your health back. A fair bit of equipment and party make-ups to play with, with plenty of combos to discover.
Not a great description, but the game is quite good, if a little grindy. Was a java web-game, but the port seems faithful to the original.
Post by: MonkeyHead on July 02, 2016, 04:34:35 pm
Xenowar.
Its basically a take on the original x-com. Not overly complex, but has all of the features you would expect an x-comlike to have - tech progression, various ufos, multiple aliens, different weapons, and a punishing difficulty level where you will die a lot. Works well on a touchscreen, and there is a windows version as well as android.
Post by: sambojin on July 19, 2016, 05:52:49 pm
Was good enough that I've also d/l'ed Glory of Generals HD, which is the European theatre campaign of essentially the same game. Less ships, more tanks. Yay!
It's hard, but not impossibly (or cash drivenly) so. At least at the start. Very satisfying to get a total victory, because the time limits are very tight. Hoping that levelling my basic general and financial centre is worth it, because some of the AI general's stats are godly compared to my own. You can "buy" these historic generals with ingame currency, but they're pricey, and I'm no where near that yet. Or just actually buy ingame currency with money, but I never do that if the game actually requires it for progress (which I'm hoping this one doesn't).
Contains some really cool Engrish for the tutorial and mission descriptions, but it's not too hard to work out what you're doing in it. Fairly well presented with decent sound and graphics, though I find the end turn and "undo move" icons a bit small for my liking. Then again, my phone is tiny too.
As strategic wargames go, it's not bad. Can save/load for smaller sessions, but I'll probably be plugging away at this series in big chunks for a while.
********
Only took a few hours, but I've decided it's grindy as fuck to try and get medals for upgrades. So I'll probably just hex-edit in an arbitrarily high amount. It's a good game, but I'm not going to spend hours upon hours redoing missions, or spend $8-20 on a time-waster game, just to make the content fun.
Post by: sambojin on July 24, 2016, 06:13:41 pm
Age of Fantasy (by the makers of Age of Strategy, ZeroTouchSystems).
While fairly simple graphically, it's quite a good game. AoF is set in a fantasy world, with humans/orcs/elves/undead battling it out, as opposed to AoS being set in a more generic "humans only" medieval setting.
Pretty standard fare, but where AoF really shines is the unit variety. Human mages slinging fireballs and casting buffs, elven druids scouting and summoning wolves, undead liches raising wave after wave of skeletons from the corpses of your deceased foes, and orcs getting buffed by their leaders and cutting down enemies with poisoned weapons as they mob them. Stuff you could never get in a real-world setting. And yes, there's dragons.
It's currently in beta, so isn't that well balanced or fully featured yet, but it shows a lot of promise. Plenty of campaigns based on fantasy licenses (and you can make your own), heaps of one-off challenge skirmishes, and a random mission generator (on lots of pre-set maps). There's also local co-op/versus and internet multiplayer, which I haven't tried yet.
((I've now tried multiplayer. It's great. It takes a while, but it is very good. I only play MP now in fact. A game takes about a week or two to finish (at about a turn a day), but it's very fun, with each race being rather unique in their play-style. I've got about 5-8 games going at once, so it's usually "my turn" on at least one of them))
The upgrade system is a little opaque, but fortunately they're not really needed to win. I just grabbed wizard's hut and stables to round out the human faction and that's about all I think I'll need. Undead are horribly OP, but they can be choke-pointed around hills, due to the expense and time of creating flyers for them with the mansion upgrade. I think. They're currently my favorite faction due to the brain-disengage factor.
((undead aren't nearly as OP as I thought. Good, but not broken. All races and units have their counters and niches against certain unit compositions))
There is a "map unlock" thing going on with in-game currency, something which I'm never a fan of, but it seems pretty lenient. As many upgrades don't seem that necessary, there's apparently plenty of gems to go around. Working out just what stuff "does" and what it needs is a bit of trial and error, especially with spells/abilities and which building gives/researches what, but that's just a documentation and UI thing.
Again, a bit of Engrish in the descriptions and help (or Spanglish this time?), but I'm sure they'll be fixed up soon. Remember to zoom in a bit when playing, it saves you fat-fingering builder spots, and building positioning is vital.
There's a bit of "helper" AI included. Build queues keep building, workers will keep working on their project, and archers will auto-fire for you if you forget to use them that turn. Not vital, but handy so that you don't completely miss several turns with your support troops. You always have to control mêlée troops, but that's so the AI doesn't kill off your guys accidentally. It's a nice little feature on bigger maps.
Anyway, the game shows huge promise. Once all the extra maps and campaigns get added in, the UI gets updated slightly, and a few balance problems are worked out, I can see it being the best TBS wargame on mobile by far. It might not have the pretty graphics of some, but if gameplay is solid and varied, then I'm fine with it. Considering it supports user-made content and scripted missions, you shouldn't ever run out of stuff to do in it.
It's currently donation-ware, so give it a go and see if you like it. It has great potential.
Post by: hops on July 25, 2016, 01:32:00 am
Post by: sambojin on July 25, 2016, 01:48:38 am
It's easy, you just have to tap on the worker again, wait for the orange bricks, tap on them, then pick the building you want. Keep tapping when the building is where you want it, you can drag it to different spots adjacent to the worker if you need it somewhere else. Zoom in if necessary. Multiple builders/workers can and should be made and used on a particular project to boost your unit production, especially early on. Making 1-2 workers is rarely a dumb thing to do early on, even with high starting units. They're a resource multiplier. For: Humans-Stables/Barracks. Undead-Graveyards. Elves-Archery. Orcs-whatever. Just make the thing they don't at your town centres. Towns make everything, buildings make a couple of things. But they still make things, and that's the important part. Take towns, take more towns, but make buildings too. To make things to take more towns. And kill anyone trying to do the same. Learn this first.
Everything is a zerg rush until it isn't. Unless it's a knight/tank rush. Or archer spam rush. Or rock/scissoring anti-knight with a spearmen rush . Or a magic monkeying rush. Or rushing defense. But game turns are your economy, so get as much production as you can, each turn, early on. But realize that you might need other stuff later (boats, defenses, utility, whatever), and buildings are limited by towns, so rush those towns and buildings. So you can make tonnes of units to do all that other stuff whenever. Workers building stuff is important, but taking early towns is even more important. A balanced economy in this game means doing both.
Honestly, Protoss and Terran do the same...... Get your economy going, with a bit of exploring for free stuff/kills, and you'll be a happy little zerg'o'doom within 5-6 turns. No matter what race you play.
Then, after learning this, make up an ingame MP account and join up the Epic Team Battle. It "costs" 4 gems, but we'll win and double them. And since you'll be elves, you don't need squat. Spam quick archers, spearmen and druids, and hope for the best.
Still trying to set a GMT time for it (damn you spherical world), but yeah. Really want to try out MP for this one. It might take a while to finish though. So if anyone's up for a 2-player game at some time, give me a yell. No bets, just learning :)
((note: you don't both need to be online to do MP battles, it just makes it faster. Turns go quicker. Otherwise it might end up like PBEM chess. Damn interesting, but it could take months. So set a time to burst out an hour or two of turns and be happy. Turns take about 1-2mins maximum, times the number of players, even at end game. It ain't fiddly. Games go for about 20-80 turns usually, if the campaigns + MP is anything to go by. Maybe more for the Epic Team Battle, but that's why it's Epic :P ))
Post by: Aqma on July 25, 2016, 03:48:37 am
Rebuild 3 - A very nice game, sort of 4x combined with a bit of colony management in which you lead a group of survivors to survive in a zombie apocalypse kind of game, take back the town, rebuild etc. I personally enjoy it a lot.
Birth of the empires - (completely free, 4x space game), this is a port of an open source game built by a community of players for PC. If you played birth of the federation, it is basically very similar as that was the original inspiration for it.
King of Dragon Pass - already mentioned, no point to discuss it again.
Terraria - minecraft meets 2d platformer, I think most people are aware of the PC version so I won't go into the details.
Pixel dungeon - a very nice roguelike, as well very touch friendly.
Out there - A resource management/exploration game. It has a very nice atmosphere and ambiance.
Cosmonautica - I just go this so can't comment a lot yet, looking at some of the reviews seems some people had some issues in the past with bugs, after an hour of play it works fine for me on my oneplus one. The gameplay is a sort of mix of different games, you have a ship, hire a crew, care for your crew, do missions in a procedural generated galaxy, trade, fight, etc. Looks quite interesting so far.
My dream come true would be for a port of Cataclysm DDA for android, but my pitch on the CDDA forum does not seem to be getting a lot of support. There does seem to be an IOS version, so for the ones with an Apple, this would be a very interesting one (did not test it as I only have android now)
Post by: sambojin on July 25, 2016, 03:51:15 am
No bets, no lose. 2v1 co-op, rofl-stomp the AI, just to get the hang of it.
Name a GMT time, and the race you'd like to play.
Gamename: Bay12 Learning Run
pw: dwarf
It's not set up yet, but give a message here and we'll try this whole free multiplayer thing out :)
I reckon a few of us should, depending on timezones and interest. Might make a whole new thread for it soon.
Anyone interested?
Post by: xaritscin on July 25, 2016, 04:56:24 pm
Post by: sambojin on July 28, 2016, 12:34:45 am
Two GMT times possible, depending on players, and they can move a bit as well. Easy for Aussies, but they might be able to be shuffled around a bit, depending on who joins.
I really want to be able for us to burst out 2-5 turns in a day, all in a short time. Because unfinished (or unstarted) games are pointless. You can take your turn whenever, but setting a time for burst play is worth it in a TBS. How many games do you play for less than 15-30min? There's your few turns in this, as long as everyone is there.
No, we won't be able to raise dead from one another. But yes, our knight cruise-ships make the water dead indeed.
I was going to add two AI chumps, but that would have been too random. Assume we have all the meat already.
Post by: Sappho on July 28, 2016, 03:59:08 am
It's a game of color gradients. I'm really good at it, but it still manages to stump me regularly. Definitely worth trying if you have an eye for color and a love of logic puzzles. They even have a colorblind mode where you can cycle through different color pallets until you find one that works for you.
If anyone is interested in playing against me, PM me and I'll give you my username.
Thanks to Humble Bundle, I've stumbled upon a few other Android games that surprised me by being awesome and not just shitty ports of PC games. (Anytime it tells me to hold the tablet like a controller and use my thumbs to use invisible controls, I die a little inside.) Desktop Dungeons, Rebuild 3, Puzzle Quest 2, This War of Mine, Sorcery!, and Fractal all work pretty well. Point-and-click adventure games like Machinarium work well too. I've also been impressed with games like Prune, Luxuria Superbia, and Pulse, which were clearly designed for tablets. And games like Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, and Poco Eco are fun for a few minutes now and then.
Some games don't work well at all, though. I was excited to get GoatZ until I realized what the controls were like (which I should have known, really). Same with Stealth Bastard and a few others. I was especially disappointed by the controls in Grim Fandango... They didn't do a great job of converting that for mobile and it can get a little frustrating.
I also still have a list of other games I haven't had a chance to try yet. Damn you, Humble Bundle, for filling my life with EVEN MORE games I don't have time to play...
Post by: sambojin on August 17, 2016, 10:23:59 pm
It's kind of a mod, but in its own .apk. Sound is leftover from AoS, but the units are all Star Wars. Probably best to take a look before it gets C&D'd out of existence.
It's got Rebels and Imperial as factions, with a bit of droid army lumped in with the Imps. There's land battles, space battles, and mixed (the Surface Map shows off this). Considering how moddable the AoS/AoF engine is, with scripted campaigns etc, it might end up really good.
There's not a great deal of maps to play on, no campaigns, the tech tree isn't done, the sound is janky, and online play is probably negligible, but it's functional. Space maps are a bit hard to see movement distances on, but that's my only real mechanical gripe considering the game's alpha status. More units/races/maps/etc are slowly being added.
You can even set up an AI vs AI battle and use it as a screen saver if you want. Probably more interesting than Soda Dungeon is to watch/play, in any case.
Ever wondered what happens to a group of Ewoks when a Nebulon B frigate closes in for orbital bombardment? Now you can find out.
Here's the intro post:
http://www.androidutils.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=72
You can get the .apk here:
http://www.androidutils.com/apk/s.apk
(it checked out as clean by my virus scanner, and they're a reputable developer with a few titles to their name. It's essentially a mod, not a totally new game)
If Star Wars isn't your thing, there's a vaguely planned Command and Conquer/Red Alert mod, a Warcraft mod (kind of like Age of Fantasy, but more Warcraft'y) and a WWII mod all planned. If they ever come to fruition, I'll post about them here. TBS Red Alert sounds awesome.
Post by: sambojin on September 25, 2016, 03:23:17 am
Nice graphics and sound, the required amount (not too much) Engrish in it, and heaps of free content.
Think of Hearthstone brawls/adventures, but a bit more progressive-deckbuild'y in play. Lots of challenges with specific "world" rules that change how you play, all played vs the AI. Once you figure out what all the card's "thingies" mean, you'll have no trouble at all.
You start with 20 cards in your pre-made deck, and get to choose another card out of a selection of 5 after each monster you defeat. Dungeons are made up of 15 levels (ie, monster battles), with a mini-boss or two along the way. So you slowly add cards with good abilities that synergize well with your current cards, or that give you abilities that you're lacking in.
It's 5-draw per turn (mostly), with 20 power-points to "cast" cards with, each of them having a certain PP cost. You get 10 more PP a turn, but this REALLY isn't normal. There's several forms of card draw, lowering of PP costs, upping of PP limit and upping of PP refresh all available on cards.
There's a few types of damage (normal/set/poison/burning/etc), healing, shielding, guard, draw, but it's the interactions that are important. If something does "a thing" for 5 turns, then you may have boosted over half your deck with that one card. +3 normal damage every time you heal for 5 turns? Better get healing then, so you can boost your normal attack cards for a triumphant crescendo of a smackdown finish later on. There's plenty of types of cards, most with multiple abilities, and some with certain downsides (that can turn into upsides in certain missions).
And boy do they give you cards. I've been playing for a bit over a day and I've gotten ~15 free packs of 5 cards each from all the gems they give you, plenty of gold and fame, and more from dungeons I've beaten. Actually, they give you everything for free, and lots of it. There are some pay options, but it's strictly laziness-optional.
Since the cards you get as you play through each mission are from the entire pool, you'll end up being able to use all kinds of stuff you don't actually own, even the super-duper 5-star stuff. I've gotten a few of them already for free anyway, and certain cards are just plain good in certain decks regardless of their supposed power level, but you get to try out everything at some point. Yet while there's player progression, there's no paywall or tiering. There are better cards than others, but it's all highly situational depending on your build and expected synergies.
The internal synergies available are pretty amazing too. It's one of the most satisfying deckbuilders I've ever played, because when it all works together, it's awesome. And you can't just play one style, because certain challenge missions make it suicidal. "3-draw-only, no card draw, small damage reflect" in that mission? Don't bring your PP-boosting, card-draw-engine weeny deck, it won't work. But you'll have plenty of cards to try something else, especially with your picks along the way during the mission.
There's a bit of PG-rated TNA on some of the cards, but considering that this is a Japanese card game, it's pretty tastefully done.
It's fully playable, but there are some crash issues. Early'ish development maybe? There's also no exit button that I've found, so I just task-kill it. I think it might be online only (Deck De Dungeon1 wasn't, but that is a totally different and far simpler game), so plan on that. It takes up a fair bit of space on your phone, 240mb or so, because update data doesn't go to your SD card for some reason. It sort of dies if you don't have at least 100-150mb spare after this too (deck view crash issue). The long load times completely disappear after about 3 loads, but expect 5-15 minutes while it downloads and initializes everything the first few times. It's quick for me now. 15-30 seconds tops to start up.
Anyway, despite these faults, if you like deckbuilders, give it a go. This one's good. And free. Yay!
It makes you feel like you're a genius level deckbuilder within an hour or two, and takes all that away from you with the mission-types moments later. But it's free, balanced on progression, and has the awesome level of interactions that I've wanted from a game like this for so long. There's a "1000 damage in 1 turn" reward. Strangely enough, with the right cards and the right mission, I think that's totally possible. I haven't done it yet, but ~300+ is doable by me. High level cards do ~30 damage and cost 8-10 PP. But by the end of a level my cards usually cost negative PP, out of 50-100 of them a turn. So you can see the amazing setups possible to scale crap scarily well if you want to. My cost/card draw engine deck is actually too efficient, and could use some decent damage multipliers and enhancers. It's all about the deck and the interactions within it and the mission.
Post by: LoSboccacc on September 25, 2016, 03:45:12 am
I've been "playing" (well it's a strong term for an incremental) Egg, Inc. fun enough, as far as watching things happen goes. also worth noting the old game dev story, grand prix story and, but it's a different cup of tea, skyforce unlimited, always kairosoft
if you're into strategy games playing with people the carcassone port isn't bad, but don't pass this gem: strategery - it's a kdice port, plays like risk but faster and less grindy
also can suggest polytopia (inspired by populus but properly converted to mobile chunk gameplay)
I also play a couple more weird games - 868-HACK plays like decker, you have to see the demo because it's hard to describe, you're a runner inside a computer attacking virus and exfiliating data, then there's plague inc, which is fun to play for the unlocks and change quite a bit one run from another, and reigns, which is a lighter king of the dragon pass to kill five minutes
on the roguelike side, I like Dungelot - wasn't really into the more complex stuff.
one thing I hate are games that take a bunch to load. I mostly play coffe breakers so if you load longer than 1 minute it's longer what I've to play with (I'm looking at you, xcom, all w40k games, and some stupid game with online drm I don't even remember)
also, ptw :P
Post by: sambojin on September 25, 2016, 03:55:53 am
It's actually really good in this genre. It's just that they're not my sort of games mostly. I sort of wish they'd just made a decent beat 'em up out of it.
It's probably not what you mean by incremental games, but it does have elements of it. It's a very good game, in a very bad genre.
Think Stick Rangers, but cutesy Streets of Rage mixed with JRPG style, and just popping cooldowns rather than actually saving your pixel fighters from their stupidity.
Great graphics, great sound, but I just don't like the grind required from this sort of game.
Post by: sambojin on October 01, 2016, 08:31:15 pm
I know it'll turn into a grindfest pretty quickly, but that's JRPGs for you. At least there's actual gameplay and decisions in this one. I kinda like it. I wish I knew what I do now about how the game works, I would have spent my tokens very differently, but there's no way I'm restarting. Got a pretty awesome apprentice already, with some amazing weapons considering I've researched basically nothing. This might be my casual grindfest RPG to turn to for a long time coming.
I tried High Sea Saga from the same company too (mostly for freebie stuff in Skyforce). I'm glad I tried Skyforce first, or I would have written off their entire library as complete time-waster farming sims.
I'm not saying Skyforce isn't that, but it's a lot more fun being able to actually do stuff in combat than most "incrementals", and the map-movement strategies at least make you feel that you're not just watching timers tick down in between battles. There's some thought involved. Yay for a ranger/merchant apprentice carrying the team too. Picking, scouting, more money and items, and 3/4 weapon elements makes her cool (still need AP though). Volcanic Plains farming until more research is done, because of easy elemental kills and a decent shop. Fort is too annoying to do for now, although I've almost finished it. New World and daily challenges seem easier and more profitable to blow stamina on. Still, not too bad for 2-3 days play.
I'm 217,812,311 if you want to add me as a friend in Skyforce.
Post by: Frumple on October 01, 2016, 09:07:22 pm
I think, even discounting the time I've spent playing it specifically on one device, I've spent several hours over the last few days playing it more or less simultaneously on both the kindle and the computer. Friggin' stick rangers, your one flaw is I kept forgetting you exist. Now I have you as a handheld I can play while I'm doing something else. send help. I'm having trouble stopping ;_;
Post by: BigD145 on October 01, 2016, 09:14:14 pm
Post by: LoSboccacc on October 02, 2016, 02:08:44 am
Kairo's freemiums are so bad.
the new one? yes.
grand prix story and game dev story are good coffebreakers
Post by: sambojin on October 02, 2016, 06:32:00 pm
@Frumple: Yeah. And now I've mentioned it, I sort of want to start another run with some weird setup. But I've actually got things to do today. God damn me. Those flaming swords with homing projectiles (sebel 4?) are so addictive.
Post by: Frumple on October 02, 2016, 07:55:09 pm
Though yeah, I've been running a few odd builds. Mostly double priest and then something else (sniper duo, Angel duo, sniper/gunner). Best functioning team at the moment is fairly standard, though. Strength Priest, magic based sniper (with some strength, too, to up the range), magician (range to ~200, bit in magic, currently upping dex until it hits 75), magic enabled boxer, usually in running vampire/onigiri -- just enough dex to 5-10 without quick, meandering towards 120 mag for always-on end game gloves, though strength is getting splashed as it goes. Usually runs as a freeze tank, which I find is sodding incredible at weakening bosses, even if it's not stun locking. Good stuff. Mountaintop is totally kicking their asses, though.
Post by: sambojin on October 02, 2016, 08:48:02 pm
I tend to like the gladiator over the boxer, but I've never really persisted for long with boxers. I know they get insane later on. Gladiator's leveling is just so much smoother, and you can get away with only 35-40 magic for so long (you'll virtually always hit 2-3 times more before a sword's effect runs out, and they don't really stack, they just refresh). Plus, a burn-time fire gem thingy and those sabel(4) homing flames go damn near half way across the screen, which opens up a bit of AA work for the class if even one thing gets close enough to launch the fiery doom. Not a tonne of damage, but not really lacking with a strength priest either. The multi-hit and tracking makes up for the lowish numbers.
Sure, there's immunities and resists, but all swords are easy to mod and stat for. You've always got room to keep a backup or three if you need it.
Post by: Frumple on October 02, 2016, 08:57:26 pm
... it's just really hard to tell because one flame effect or fifty is still going to cause the same delightful waterfall of damage numbers.
Post by: sambojin on October 02, 2016, 09:20:28 pm
You can have more than 100 burny things on-screen with a decent bit of burn-time boost, but it won't literally multiply (stack another 100 immediately) with each swing, because it takes two to three swings for the effect to run down anyway. So as long as you can "refresh" within 2-3 swings, it's continuous. So any more than 35-45MP can be pointless with swords/gladiators. Maybe 50-70 could be worth it for faster wind-up, but when it gets going, it keeps going with 35-45 anyway. Which means more HP from the saved stat points. Which is essentially more life from each onigiri anyway, probably 20-30% more than a well stat'd boxer (and a tiny buffer of HP on resurrects too).
Most boxer stuff does stack directly (ie, happens all at once AFAIK), so high MP is worth it.
I don't think MP modifies elemental sword damage at all, just how many swings you need to "switch it on". With a burn-time fire gem (4-5), waterfall isn't the word for it. Volcanic eruption of tiny numbers within 1/4 of a screen comes closer. Chuck on a decent fire damage gem to make the numbers bigger. Probably the best "all-purpose" weapon in the game, considering how early you get it and its versatility. Pity that the damage isn't amazing (though not bad when gemmed, against virtually anything. Multi-hit ftw. Closer to a giant fire whip than a sword).
Post by: Frumple on October 02, 2016, 09:37:05 pm
E: And yeah, it looks like most swords do act differently vis a vis effect stacking. I want to say they're actually the only one that works that way. Everyone else stacks that stuff into a towering damage mountain from hell.
Post by: sambojin on October 02, 2016, 09:46:17 pm
I'm not saying a bit of defense isn't handy on some levels, but compared to 50-120% elemental damage in mid/end-game, it's nothing. Gem for it or leave it alone....
You don't *need* a strength priest, but they're a massive force multiplier. It's like you've got two of everything for three of your characters, and a random bloke that ping-freezes or poisons or slows stuff for you (while keeping out of the way a bit). So virtually 7 characters of attack with a 100str priest.
Post by: sambojin on October 02, 2016, 11:08:42 pm
There's other, more hybrid characters available stat-wise, but the d&d trope is inverted a little here. What you "think" is your character's main stat, probably isn't. Unless you're going for something specific.
It is so incredibly hard to stick to "stat builds" for later game stuff though, even if you know how it works. Not when you can bust heads, really hard, right now. Are 10-20 points of dex wasted on a priest, early on? Yes, totally. That could be 10-20% damage later on, for your entire party. But the dex points will coast you through some of the early game stuff really well, and save you a tiny bit of HP "here and there" later on. It's so hard to plan late-game stuff around what doesn't work early-game, and vica versa. Maybe 2-4 physical defense from a strength priest build isn't that bad.....
Post by: sambojin on October 09, 2016, 08:08:02 pm
About level 45, rank 30'ish (?), with my Ranger/Merchant/Knight apprentice still carrying the team on items/money/picking/scouting when needed. Plus, she's got a 2-star Dolphin bomber thing that is twice as good as any other hunk of junk I'm flying. Dodges damn near everything, has 730AP/480life anyway (soon to be boosted), with a donking big V4 Saturn engine. Plane's level 35 or so, but I'll chuck the next set of eggs at it to get it to lvl 40-45. A worthwhile investment :)
She out-stats my "main" pilot by miles, so between the plane, all the halfheartedly levelled gubbins, the H2V12 rockets, and whatever else I dump on the thing, most encounters are over in one turn.
If you ever see Air (or Air girl) of sambojin's Valkyries on there as free help, grab her. The lockpicks are nice, but the firepower and resilience are ridiculous.
Turns out virtually anything is good if you drop 10-20 levels of stuff in and mod some items onto it. She did 1332 damage in one attack to a brontosaurus, *and* stalled it on the ground, with a modded 7.7mm vulcan. I was rather impressed, considering that was my first ever rare weapon, that I still use and upgrade to this day :)
Better stuff is better, but any PoS works if it's levelled and modded halfway decently. So you can stay ahead of the curve regardless of item draws or p2w stuff. Maybe not in arena, but it's not really a dueling RPG anyway.
Post by: sambojin on October 10, 2016, 12:52:00 am
Insect Wings+2, Fairy Boots, Fairy Hat +1 is definitely a combo on engines. I guess they chain. It even gets a blue wings -> purple boots -> blue hat aura on the items in the upgrade box. It only came out to about +35 speed total, but that's pretty good from secondary slots compared to the +22(24?) standard from the insect wing's first slot. They usually give jack all on secondary slots.
Blue/purple/blue on the auras in the upgrade item (workshop) bit, so I've probably got them in the wrong order, but they're all aura'd. That's tripled, kind of. Confirmed :)
Post by: itisnotlogical on October 13, 2016, 03:37:59 am
I've played it for just about ten minutes so I don't know what it's like deeper in the rabbit hole, but so far I think I'll keep playing. Standard microtransaction and advertisement stuff applies.
Post by: Sappho on October 13, 2016, 03:47:20 am
Post by: AdmiralGeezer on October 13, 2016, 09:53:51 am
advertisement or such bullshit.
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.bugbyte.harbinger&hl=en (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.bugbyte.harbinger&hl=en)
iOS:
https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/battlevoid-harbinger/id1010582800?mt=8 (https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/battlevoid-harbinger/id1010582800?mt=8)
We put 2 years on this one, we didn't succeed with the kind of depth FTL has but it has been praised nonetheless. It's on sale right now :)
Post by: LoSboccacc on October 13, 2016, 09:57:46 am
I'm gonna wait for Space Haven :P (and will gladly put money on some alpha funding)
Post by: AdmiralGeezer on October 14, 2016, 03:44:56 am
I like those but the graphic seems optimized for pointier finger.
I'm gonna wait for Space Haven :P (and will gladly put money on some alpha funding)
Haha, well, it depends on your screen size. On a little bit bigger phones and tablets the buttons become huge, since we didn't scale down the UI on mobile.
Post by: LoSboccacc on October 14, 2016, 05:01:47 am
Post by: hops on October 16, 2016, 05:48:11 am
For a freemium pocket game, FF Exvius is really good.
If you guys want to add me on there, my ID is 656,663,502
Post by: Aqma on October 19, 2016, 03:09:43 am
Planar Conquest - this is a 4x fantasy turn based strategy game in the vein of Master of Magic, Age of Wonders, Heroes. You build cities, explore, armies, do war (fights are done on a tactical screen when armies meet), diplomacy, huge magic system etc. I find the controls very well done for touch screen, the art is quite nice as well. The IAPs are basically a one time purchase through which you unlock more planes or races. Races also feel quite diverse to me.
I've been playing this for a few weeks now and I love it, I can't stop playing!
Star Wars Knights of the old Republic - port of the PC RPG game, seems to be a straight port, but adapted for touch controls.
Day R - a survival, crafting & exploration game. As you need to take care of hunger, thirst, radiation, posion level - it can get quite brutal on high difficulty levels. It is rather more menu driven not necessarily very heavy graphically, but I like the art (though a bit grim at times). This one has IAPs in which you can buy coins etc, but these are not really needed with the premium version - just makes the game easier in my opinion, which in the end for a survival game it might beat the purpose.
Post by: LoSboccacc on October 27, 2016, 03:14:44 am
Post by: Wiles on October 27, 2016, 03:10:57 pm
I'm not really sure how I feel about the game yet because I haven't even finished playing a campaign. The presentation and mechanics seem decent enough so far though. It is also worth noting you don't have access to a lot of race / world choices when you buy the game. If you want variety you will have to pay to unlock other races and worlds through microtransactions.
On another note the GO series of puzzle games from squenix are on sale for 80% off. I've heard a lot of good things about Lara Croft GO and Hitman GO so I decided to pick up one up. Since people seemed to like the Lara Croft one more I went with that and I've been enjoying it so far. I haven't really heard much about Deus Ex GO so I avoided that one.
Post by: Aqma on November 11, 2016, 08:44:48 am
Let me add one more game I cam across that seems quite interesting:
The Quest - seems to be a port from the IOS/PC version, rather interesting open world turn based RPG, mechanic wise somewhat similar to the old school games with nice art to it.
Post by: LoSboccacc on November 11, 2016, 09:25:27 am
the only permission that's granted by giving the iTunes password is to make purchases on my behalf, and that's something you should never ever ask on iOS unless the user is in the process of making a purchase.
Post by: Aqma on November 11, 2016, 09:47:47 am
I don't remember if Planar Conquest asked me for this on android. It doesn't now, but I did buy the complete pack at the beginning (for the extra races and planes) so maybe it is influenced by this, no idea ...
Post by: Mephisto on November 11, 2016, 10:46:15 am
It's got the standard games that are everywhere (Angry Birds, Candy Crush, crap from Zynga) and loads of microtransaction-laden time wasters, but I'm curious if there might be some hidden gems I'm missing.
Post by: LoSboccacc on November 11, 2016, 11:00:26 am
Any Windows Phone users
Spoiler: I feel for you (click to show/hide)
Post by: sambojin on November 13, 2016, 06:23:56 pm
Almost to the point that you could load up an Android emulator if you really think that you're really missing out on stuff.
There's probably at least the Open series of games ported to it (OpenXcom, OpenTTD, OpenTyrian, OpenPanzer, FreeCiv, FreeHeroes2, FreeCol, VCMI, FantasyGeneral, etc). But I thought there was at least some windows support on a windows phone, so there could be tonnes of good stuff available too. Try and see if you can get a decent file manager to load up some old Win games. Depends on if yours is ARM or x86, but I'm pretty sure some non-Dos-Box'd stuff might be worth a try. I'll grab my.sister's phone at some point to try it out myself.
I don't know of they ripped it out, but pure web-based Java based stuff might be available too. Try www.fumbbl.com . Make an account and try and spectate a bloodbowl match. If it works, I'm incredibly jealous.
There's also a fairly ridiculous amount of old java stuff back from the old Nokia/Symbian days, some of which was quite good. The pure java stuff probably doesn't need/want symbian signing or anything (your phone wouldn't run that stuff anyway), but my knowledge of exactly what Windows phones can and can't do is pretty limited. I actually want one, because I thought they were "better" in a pseudo-x86 sense, even if they are not as well adopted by the masses.
Post by: Mephisto on November 13, 2016, 08:12:57 pm
Depending on the version of windows your phone runs, wouldn't anything that runs on a really low-end PC with mouse-only-controls also run on your phone? I thought that was the entire point of the new versions of Win on phones. There's even x86 phones and tablets available......
Windows Phone is pretty much entirely different from the desktop OS. If an app was built with UWP, it may work on both. Phones are all ARM at the moment - none are x86.
Post by: newsamsam on November 13, 2016, 09:31:46 pm
Also recommend Games made by hap Inc.They are simple,weird and funny.
Post by: sambojin on November 19, 2016, 05:28:45 pm
The main selling points of it are nice cartoonish graphics and online (cross-platform) multiplayer. Android/iOS/PS4 I think. It's got five or six "characters" to choose from, each with a different weapon loadout and super-bomb-thing. You power up your character's main stats (permanently) before the level through collected cash, and "P" pods give you bigger/better attacks throughout the level, so it's pretty standard fare. You can choose two weapon side-pods/wingmen, allowing you to vary a character up a bit, but you only get to use them after collecting the 2nd and 5th "P" pod. Two lock-on missile pods tend to be a good "take anywhere" option, but there's a fair few thingies to choose from and try out.
So far it's been quite fun. All the upgrades are cheap enough to buy with collected free currency (I've maxxed out two characters already in a few days of playing), but it also rewards grinding by letting your characters level up through kills. I don't actually know what leveling does, it probably gives you a tad more damage and HP though.
Control isn't bad, but it can feel a bit "jiggly" sometimes. Still, it's responsive enough once you get used to it, and even tricky tunnel sections are pretty easy after a while. You can change the sensitivity if you want, I find medium to work well on my tiny phone. Since it's just touch-screen/auto-fire and a super button, it's easy enough to play. Sometimes your super glitches so it just charges your laser (R-type style), but this tends to fix itself by the next section.
When you get a good connection, MP is pretty fluid and quite rewarding. It uses the revival system, so it's rather satisfying to try and hold on through the hard bits until you can revive your dead team mates. Without a good connection it's like a slide show, damn near unplayable, although it seems to change level to level, and section to section. Don't know why. Very "spritey" sections slow it to a crawl sometimes, yet sometimes it's a smooth as butter on different runs. It probably doesn't help that my phone is pretty crappy, or that I'm in Australia (US/Japan/UK and Malaysian(?) servers I think. All vary a lot in connection speed, but there's no penalty in leaving a room and joining another if that one's connection is bad).
It's a PS/xbox port, to the point that there's still A/B control prompts, but it's a shoot'em up, so this isn't a problem. It's not exactly complicated. No actual exit button either, which seems to be an increasing trend in mobile games, so you've got to task kill it to close it properly. There's weird level glitches too (non-loads, flying backwards, zoom-ins, borked bosses), but just exit that game and jump back in.
The main starter character is pretty damn good, so you're not stuck having to buy something that can actually complete levels (at maxxed bought stats and lvl 6 it absolutely wrecks some bosses with missiles. This took me about two days to get up to, but I've been playing a fair bit). The other character I've got is a healer bear, which is insanely good and cheap to get. It looks crappy until you realize that the healing super is also a close-range bomb, and that when you get a few P pods shit starts firing everywhere. Stupidly useful weapon arrangement for a "support" character, that still does pretty good damage.
Anyway, try it out. Shoot'em ups are one of the few genres that mobiles can actually do well, and this one is quite good. Small footprint on your phone (<8mb on phone, 64mb on SD), so it can't hurt to have something sitting alongside Tyrian for when you're bored. Just for the MP aspect really.
Try and watch a few ads sometimes, just to keep the MP servers running :)
Post by: sambojin on November 20, 2016, 04:52:24 pm
Bear character is best character. Having wall runner lasers and a back shield is so damn useful in so many sections. He ripped up the end boss because of the wall runners (the first section of it, anyway).
I still tend to think 2x homing missiles is the best "general purpose" load-out, but 2x malfurions (forward rapid fire) is good as well. I'll probably need the extra firepower on hard. The extra bullets kind of protect you top and bottom too.
And all the heals for my team.
(usually you spam your super if you think you're about to die, because you get a couple free ones on revival. Bear heal still kills everything, but all of a sudden nobody dies. It's useful, but somewhat anticlimactic for a super spam. Lots of death love.....)
Strangely enough, this is on greenlight on Steam. So that's even more cross-platform MP stuff. Sure, it's a pretty limited little game, but considering the stuff that makes it through greenlight, keep an eye out for it on PC soon. Assuming it's still free, like on mobile.
Post by: sambojin on December 21, 2016, 10:06:55 pm
It's a Civ-lite game, but done very well. Incredibly easy to play, surprisingly deep in its strategic possibilities, well presented and fun. So good that I'm actually going to buy the other races as a way of supporting the developer. Anyway, try it out. I can't really do it justice on how good it is. It got a one sentence mention here before, now it's got a paragraph. As soon as they get internet multiplayer support in, it'll deserve an entire damn essay. Civ good, but quick and free (although I have my suspicions that the bought races are "better" than the four free ones, especially Luxidoors for their sheer versatility and power. At worst they're differently laggy Oumagi). This is one of the best strategy games I've played on mobile, with a simple implementation and an easy-to-use interface, while not being entirely braindead or annoying. Local MP is available already, which sounds like it would be heaps of fun to try out.
Hey, I actually did buy them all. All of them. That's a first for me for any game. Gotta use those Xmas presents wisely 8)
------------
If you've ever tried Triangle Wizard on PC, have a quick go at Rogue Dungeon RPG. There's no real wizarding to be had, but it has a very similar feel to it. Better loot system, easier controls, very similar level-up customization, better (?) graphics (kind-of ?). Anyway, it's a fun little timewaster lootgrinder RPG. I don't know why, it shouldn't be. But I played it for far longer than most of these sorts of things on android, yet in many ways, this has few redeeming features. For some reason "it just works". Not exactly a longterm game to play, but strangely enjoyable.
I'm still not entirely sure if I wasted a few hours of my life on this or not. I mean, I know I did, but I'm considering it research-time into minimalism in games design. It barely works, but the bits that do are good.
This is braindead simple, but sometimes that's exactly what you want. More loot, and a few decisions to make. Nothing more.
Post by: Aoi on December 22, 2016, 02:50:12 am
Basically, combat is 1v1 in an button-press match where you're throwing weapons at each other. There are three weapon types that attack on a high/mid/low arc. Each weapon has durability which is effectively an HP bar for the weapon if it collides with an incoming weapon. Each weapon has its own cooldown, as well as consuming a bit of resource. You also only have three item slots at the start, so you have to decide what weapons to pack and if you want restoratives. There's more to it than just that, like familiars that habe additional effects, and bonus abilities as your weapons level, but that's the core gameplay.
After finishing the first section, there's a few viable options. For example, I've been using two mid weapons-- one with average stats, and one with super low durability, but really high damage. Use the first weapon as a shield to ensure the second one hits.
Post by: sambojin on December 22, 2016, 03:02:56 am
I'll edit this if I find any of them to be horribly OP.
Strangely enough, with a very small sample size of test games, the Robin Hood (Hoodrick) archery civ seems to have the best "builder start". Might have lucked out on it, but between a woodland starting bias, ranged units and woodland defense, they're probably scarier on average than a quick Luxi elephant start for useable and good "bigness", even with a poor start for themselves. Possibly bigger than Imperous into ships for an aggressive start too, that still comes with defensive advantages. There's nothing stopping them early/mid sea pushing with troops, or mountain sitting either, but they've got a start bias towards productive terrain (Imperius'y) and a defensive/movement terrain "advantage" (Xi-Xin'y) straight away, just due to their terrain and tech. Makes it kind of easier to go either way with the two "winning" strats, even though you can't really do either from the word go. Luxidoors do get a wall however, which keeps all the immigrants out (or basically lets you feel safer during economy lag). :P
So far they all seem to be economy lagged compared to the f2p ones, but with interesting starting techs and terrain biases that help them not be weak. Even the fishing one (ie, a production tech that leads to water dominance) is hamstrung by the fact that there's only so much sea immediately available, and only so many fish in it.
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Oh yeah. Weapons Throwing RPG. Loved it. Pretty much finished it (didn't max all the things, did all of arena though, but needed room on my phone). Grindy, but endearingly simple mechanics. The stamina timers pissed me off, but you can finish everything in a week or three, so no biggie I guess. I just hate timers. It's the worst part of the mobile genre. Kinda cute, nice, fun game otherwise though.
Post by: sambojin on December 24, 2016, 12:39:22 am
I've heard that later game difficulty is essentially fudging rolls for the tyranids, but I'm still thinking of buying it if it's actually any good. There's apparently promises of new races/fleets, but is the gameplay good? And does it have PvP multiplayer properly implemented (the whole reason for playing BFG). 5k downloads doesn't sound like a huge player pool for getting a quick game in, matchmaking-wise. Even if that quick game is an hour or so in the playing.
Going on a bit of a WH40k spree with my google card xmas present (Templar Battleforce RPG already bought, because the Trese Brothers know how to unbrand a good experience properly. I haven't even tried the demo, but they're a really good developer, and it works fine on my phone), but sitting on the fence with BFG: Leviathan. Loved the TT game, so is the mobile game any good? Worth $10 aussie good?
Or should I just Space Hulk out, considering all the Trese Brothers stuff is on 50% sale over Xmas, so 1/3rd the price of BFG, and pretty damn good anyway (and very space hulky on their other Templar title too).
Post by: Aoi on December 24, 2016, 01:24:45 am
I don't know if you can actually unlock EVERYTHING without paying (or relying on the random chance of a daily coin), but I did mange to finish off one series entirely with coins earned from within itself.
Post by: sambojin on December 24, 2016, 01:31:08 am
So Santa, sort that out for me would ya?
((bought Reigns as well, because it's a dollar. $1 Australian, so possibly cheaper elsewhere. I've heard stuff about it, and I forget if it was bad or good. But whatever, it was a dollar, I'll play it later.
Huh. For some reason this didn't work on my phone. Oh well. Refunded it.
Battlevoid: Harbinger is also on sale for a dollar, so problem solved. It works fine. That'll fix the BFG problem until I decide if I really want it.
Grabbed King of Dragon Pass too, thus neatly fulfilling my nostalgia for gamebooks. And so ends my xmas spending spree on mobile "crap". I'm relatively happy with my purchases, I've got a few dollars left over (probably for Magic Dosbox, because it's like 100 free games that are crap on phone without it) and heaps of playtime ahead of me for it. Thanks Santa! Merry Xmas all!))
Post by: itisnotlogical on December 24, 2016, 05:28:57 pm
The day they make a "Grail Quest" series in this gaming genre is they day I'll start playing gamebooks again. On a mobile this time though :)
I don't know much about gamebooks, but it could almost be a roguelike sort of thing where each challenge is randomly picked and flows into the next. It seems to me like "endless" games do much better on mobile than ones with a concrete beginning, middle and end.
Post by: sambojin on December 24, 2016, 05:50:19 pm
The day they make a "Grail Quest" series in this gaming genre is they day I'll start playing gamebooks again. On a mobile this time though :)
I don't know much about gamebooks, but it could almost be a roguelike sort of thing where each challenge is randomly picked and flows into the next. It seems to me like "endless" games do much better on mobile than ones with a concrete beginning, middle and end.
Grailquest was a bit weird as gamebook series went, because it had an experience system, an equipment system and a magic system. Kind of closer to a single player book-sized RPG in some ways than a choose-your-own-adventure (although it was that too). And it was bloody hilariously written, at least to my young mind back then. Worthwhile checking out (you can probably find the .pdfs around online, they're pretty hard to find as second-hand books these days). They're written by J.H Brennan.
Oh, and they're on Abandonia in their gamebooks section.
Would be one of the better series to adapt to mobile really.
Post by: My Name is Immaterial on January 17, 2017, 01:09:13 am
Post by: Folly on January 17, 2017, 05:10:29 am
Post by: JimboM12 on January 17, 2017, 09:55:31 am
Which brings me to my next question, does anyone know of any good DS games I should try? Not 3DS, just regular DS.
Post by: Frumple on January 17, 2017, 02:22:09 pm
Post by: JimboM12 on January 17, 2017, 05:51:21 pm
There's... a bunch of good basic DS games, really. You looking for any particular sort?
Something.....with long campaigns. I was thinking of getting the Final Fantasy Tactics games and Chrono Trigger, some good old classics. I was also thinking Advance Wars Dual Strike and Days of Ruin as well.
Post by: Wiles on January 17, 2017, 06:00:55 pm
Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars was an enjoyable game, it reminded me of the earlier games before they made the switch to 3D.
Then there's always the pokemon games if that's your jam.
Post by: sambojin on January 17, 2017, 06:33:52 pm
@Folly Yeah, Gumballs and Dungeons was great. Didn't get that far through it (5th dungeon or so?), but it's a really interesting take on the genre. Sort of a roguelike, sort of a puzzler, with some really cool levelling/equipment elements and fun little quirks to each stage. A few annoying "mobile'ish" things, but quite free and fair, at least early on. Incidentally, I think it was the DQ franchise above that made them into gumballs instead of slimes, but they're still just as awesome. I'll second that it's worth a look.
Post by: itisnotlogical on January 17, 2017, 06:48:42 pm
There's... a bunch of good basic DS games, really. You looking for any particular sort?
Something.....with long campaigns. I was thinking of getting the Final Fantasy Tactics games and Chrono Trigger, some good old classics. I was also thinking Advance Wars Dual Strike and Days of Ruin as well.
I thought Final Fantasy 3 was alright, no award-winner but pretty good for a straight remake of an NES game. I've never played the FFIV remake but it looked alright.
The DS Zelda games get a bad rap but I liked Spirit Tracks. One of the lesser Zelda games to be sure, but worth playing all the same.
IMO, the first Tactics Advance game is much better than the DS sequel. There's some broken strategies (high level units with certain abilities can be unkillable one-man armies) but the story is much more coherent. Definitely play both though, they're both good stuff. FFTA2 in particular had the Gria, winged demon girls that added a lot of variety in the kind of things you could do.
Post by: DeKaFu on January 17, 2017, 07:17:26 pm
Something.....with long campaigns. I was thinking of getting the Final Fantasy Tactics games and Chrono Trigger, some good old classics. I was also thinking Advance Wars Dual Strike and Days of Ruin as well.
I can recommend Etrian Odyssey and the sequels, probably.
The Castlevanias are good. Portrait of Ruin was actually my least favourite of the DS games... Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia are both excellent, though.
If you were ever a fan of Phantasy Star Online, then Phantasy Star 0 is actually a surprisingly solid handheld take on it. I'm not sure how well it holds up now that the (very nice) online play is no longer supported, though.
...Also, perhaps not to your tastes, but the DS was not region locked, so some of my favourite games were imported Japanese music games. Daigasso! Band Brothers is a strangely addictive game where you basically play premade or custom midi tracks using combinations of buttons and triggers (more fun than it sounds)(Custom example, probably unplayably hard but you get the idea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJRPC0LY5Q)), and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and the sequel are very fun and silly rhythm games. The latter has an English remake called Elite Beat Agents, which I never got around to trying but I'm sure is just as good.
Post by: Frumple on January 18, 2017, 01:12:34 am
Other stuff... radiant histora was good, from what I played of it.
Infinite space is pretty neat; there's a bit of an LP of it lurking somewhere back in play with your buddies.
Knights in the Nightmare is also neat, if you can/once you wrap your head around how to play it.
I personally enjoyed what I played of Black Sigil... battle system was pretty nice for what it was and the writing/plot cracked me up. Iirc a common criticism of it though is old school encounter rates, heh.
The Super Robot Wars thing (Endless Frontier) is... is. Kinda' fanservice-y, but interesting combat, fairly well written/amusing dialogue despite it, etc., etc.
If you feel like wrangling fan translation stuff, Soma Bringer is a pretty neat action RPG thing, I believe. Never got very far into myself, but still. There's actually a few other NDS games that got unofficially localized, heh. Sands of Destruction is another one on that front... again didn't get very far into it, m'self, but what I saw was intriguing. Also heard pretty good things about 7th Dragon.
Echo etrian odyssey. I actually kinda' enjoyed what I played of the ones I did play, and I kinda' despise that style of first person dungeon crawler.
That's a handful off the top of my head, anyway. Bunch more I forget at the moment (it's a quarter past midnight :-\) and haven't been mentioned so far, too... DS actually has a fairly killer library even without getting the 3DS involved, imo, if a fair amount of stuff that didn't get much attention despite being pretty ruddy solid games. Will say most of the stuff I didn't get very far into had a lot less to do with the games themselves than personal attention span and hardware issues. Stuff I didn't sink much time into mostly wasn't 'cause of the game's quality, heh.
Post by: Aoi on January 18, 2017, 10:24:22 pm
Disgaea DS is my favorite version of Disgaea-- easy controls, everything's readable, relatively not buggy, and the Prinny Commentary is awesome.
And, DQ Heroes: Rocket Slime is what actually sold me on the DS, so that has to get a bit of a mention...
Post by: JimboM12 on January 20, 2017, 07:21:49 am
Its a surprisingly good deck-to-mobs (you build a deck of cards that can be deployed as battlefield units) MOBA for mobiles based in Star Wars. I had this idea way back when and its good to see it done.
Its also free, with acceptable timegates for free players.
I also made a guild, just cuz, called EliteNoobery.
Post by: Reelya on January 20, 2017, 07:38:04 am
There are definitely *_Mobile_Games_Industry_Forces_* in effect with Alphabear, but I've ignored them mostly because of why I play. There's an energy timer (40/hr, iirc); once full (120), it'll let you play one timed (50) and one untimed board (70).
There are multiple reasons why mobile games have energy bars and the like. One reason is that without them, people binge on it, then either get bored quickly, or they've seen all the content, then on to the next game, then your game gets buried in the app stores because it has a low averaged number of users per week (the metric is how many people played your game per week or something similar, not how many hours they played. So if you can make it so that people only get to play so much per day, then they'll be around longer). So games with timers that make you take breaks, this pushes the game up the rankings, extends out the play experience for more people, and gives them time to produce more content before you've binged the current content. A very small number of people will pay for extra turns now and then, and they finance the whole thing.
Having to take a break from playing a specific game because you ran out of energy isn't much of an opportunity cost (just do something else) compared to how much extra content each game can generate because of that model.
Overall, you should consider games that are both free and don't have any timers or any other "mobile game" type management built into them on them. They tend to feel very sparse as they lack content.
Post by: Frumple on January 20, 2017, 09:19:56 am
Totes is a potentially pretty substantial opportunity cost, though, having to stop and do something else. Not all time is equal. Sometimes only being able to put in, say, an hour in a day means the player is only going to be able to touch the thing once every four or five days at most. Ain't met too many folks in my life that's going to put up with that, in most cases. Game'd have to be a hell of lot more unique and well made than almost any of the sorts of game that uses timers/energy have managed to date to pull something like that off, heh.
Post by: JimboM12 on January 20, 2017, 09:32:33 am
A new phone game has appeared that has me addicted, Star Wars Force Arena.
Its a surprisingly good deck-to-mobs (you build a deck of cards that can be deployed as battlefield units) MOBA for mobiles based in Star Wars. I had this idea way back when and its good to see it done.
Its also free, with acceptable timegates for free players.
I also made a guild, just cuz, called EliteNoobery.
I should mention the timegate's only for new cards and unlocks; matches arent limited in anyway, so far as ive binged.
Post by: Reelya on January 20, 2017, 01:58:36 pm
... extra content is only so compelling when it takes like a month realtime to see any of it, ehehe. I haven't really sunk into mobile games, much, but I've poked at a few dozen and... timers usually just mean I binge for however long the initial glut lasts and the uninstall the thing 'cause I ain't waiting a week to see the next layer of whatever. Functionally ain't a difference between a game with sparse content you burn through in a day and a game with profuse content you only see a day's worth of, yeh?
Totes is a potentially pretty substantial opportunity cost, though, having to stop and do something else. Not all time is equal. Sometimes only being able to put in, say, an hour in a day means the player is only going to be able to touch the thing once every four or five days at most. Ain't met too many folks in my life that's going to put up with that, in most cases. Game'd have to be a hell of lot more unique and well made than almost any of the sorts of game that uses timers/energy have managed to date to pull something like that off, heh.
It's just the economics of the thing. A free game that you just play through once is going to be a case of "you get what you pay for", and it won't get updates either because it'll sink really fast. In other words, games like you want that are free will be ones you won't want to binge through, because there will be no content there to actually binge. The payment models they use are responsible for their being any content in the first place.
It's one of those "pick 2/3" scenarios: "Free game", "no limitations", "lots of content": pick two.
So that's probably why people are saying there are no good mobile games that match their requirements (i.e. free shit). They're just not economically viable.
Post by: Wiles on January 20, 2017, 03:21:42 pm
Post by: JimboM12 on January 20, 2017, 05:15:30 pm
Post by: Wiles on January 21, 2017, 11:31:17 am
The other problem I have with competitive games like this is that skill will only get you so far. Take a game like DOTA2 for example, if you're a skillful player you'll rank up to the point where you are playing with equally skilled players. In a game like this however you rank up until you hit a progression wall where you run into to people who have either spent and ungodly amount of time grinding or they have spent money.
Post by: Jopax on January 27, 2017, 02:51:10 pm
It's kinda hard to explain it shortly but the closest I can think of is a weird combo of tower defense and a clicker game I guess. You have your town/castle and you upgrade the defenses and hire units to fight while you turn away wave after wave of enemies, it's fairly simplistic in terms of controls where you tap units to activate their abilities and you mainly manage cooldowns and mana. Where it gets interesting is the metamap of conquering areas for extra income or unlocking new classes, upgrades and items. It's also rather nice how the game gradually opens up with more and more stuff as you beat more waves (which is where it's closest to clicker games but a bit more involved I guess) and upgrade certain buildings. Best of all I think is how they handle the monetisation, there's premium currency of sorts which is used for faster advancement trough waves and special upgrades but you get it at a steady pace and so it's not a big issue. There's ads but those are rather minimal and non-intrusive so you barely notice them for the most part, and of course there's the regular watch a video to get a bonus thing that everyone seems to be doing these days. The translation is a bit rough at times and the game is suprisingly demanding on the battery for such simple graphics but other than that it's a pretty fun little timewaster that you can play on the side or focus a bit more on if you want to.
Post by: Aoi on January 30, 2017, 08:59:42 pm
Staring with the cons:
Energy based system, though after 3 hours, I've only run out twice so far. You can also view an ad to get enough energy for about one more stage.
Lots of different currencies, some of which can be bought for real money.
A bit of RNG.
A real headache to minimax, due to a finicky minigame. And RNG.
A lot of optional ads.
So basically, the typical cons of your F2P micropay mobile game.
Now that everybody who's liable to be scared off is gone... It's basically a puzzle game where your unit moves on a grid from its current position until obstructed, passing over tiles that have various effects, and your objective is to kill all hostile units on the board. After your move, the hostiles all attack and move. The trick is to figure out how arrange the board in such a fashion that you get the most benefit out of it-- since you move until you're obstructed, and there are tiles that adjust your movement, and you move through units you kill, you can hypothetically clear the entire board in one go. (Often impossible, due to RNG or lack of stats, but all the stages I've seen so far have the bonus turncounter set high enough that if you can kill one per round, you're good.)
You have a few card slots that have activated abilities for mana (well, lets call it that), sometimes passives, and stat boosts. Rare cards tend to have higher stat boosts and more useful passives, but also cost far more to upgrade. Ironically, I find the cheaper active skills to be much more powerful-- I can either hit all four monsters on the board for like 20%, or I can randomize the board three times to try and get a layout where I can one-shot everything, or drop a directional tile right where I need it.
Based on my memory of reviews from years ago, I want to say it's like Chuchu Rocket with stats.
Update 1: Oh, and it's bound to make you feel REALLY stupid. "Okay, if I move right, it'll go up, right, up, left, through the portal, left, up, left, and I'll pass with my last turn. Well, I would've passed if I set that first arrow to up, instead of leaving it to the right..."
Update 2: That's what feels like a pretty nasty difficulty hike at the start of the third world-- which is incidentally right where all the easy new player resources start to dry up, so if you were careless with your upgrades, or just had bad luck and nothing combos well, it goes from "Hey, this is moving along pretty nicely." to "What just happened here?" And, of course, stages are 'soft' failures, so you can just keep throwing money at it until you pass...
Post by: Ghills on January 31, 2017, 01:21:31 pm
Post by: Sappho on January 31, 2017, 01:52:31 pm
GrowCastle anyone?
It's kinda hard to explain it shortly but the closest I can think of is a weird combo of tower defense and a clicker game I guess. You have your town/castle and you upgrade the defenses and hire units to fight while you turn away wave after wave of enemies, it's fairly simplistic in terms of controls where you tap units to activate their abilities and you mainly manage cooldowns and mana. Where it gets interesting is the metamap of conquering areas for extra income or unlocking new classes, upgrades and items. It's also rather nice how the game gradually opens up with more and more stuff as you beat more waves (which is where it's closest to clicker games but a bit more involved I guess) and upgrade certain buildings. Best of all I think is how they handle the monetisation, there's premium currency of sorts which is used for faster advancement trough waves and special upgrades but you get it at a steady pace and so it's not a big issue. There's ads but those are rather minimal and non-intrusive so you barely notice them for the most part, and of course there's the regular watch a video to get a bonus thing that everyone seems to be doing these days. The translation is a bit rough at times and the game is suprisingly demanding on the battery for such simple graphics but other than that it's a pretty fun little timewaster that you can play on the side or focus a bit more on if you want to.
Ha! Just got this and playing around with it, it's surprisingly fun. Just got my first colony producing gold for me... Muahaha.... And I love watching my giant worm dispatch bosses for me :D
In other news, I got the mobile version of Evoland as part of a Humble Bundle at some point and DEAR GOD NO, MY TABLET IS NOT A GAMEPAD, OH GOD, DO NOT PLAY THIS. So frustrating to see yet another developer say "just drag your finger across the screen and it works like a D-Pad!" NO IT DOES NOT, IT DOES NOT WORK. Just so, so bad.
Post by: sambojin on January 31, 2017, 03:40:54 pm
It's in the fantasy RPG mould, using weapons instead of guns, you can level-up/grind for more HP/damage, and you can take a few hits without instadeath. No penalty on death either, just re-try from the level you were up to, or from one before it. So yeah. A nice, easy bullet-hell made for people like me :)
There's no weapons customization (each character has a single weapon set) but there's a few different types of weapon setups available early on. It's got a nice little "the closer you are to the enemy when you kill it, the higher the points you get" thing going on, and these points charge your super weapon, which gives even more firepower and points, which levels you up quicker, so there are some nice risk/reward mechanics at play here.
Graphics are bright and colourful, sound isn't bad, and unlocks of "costumes" (additional stats for each character) are easy enough to get for free with a tiny bit of grinding. Pretty small footprint on your phone too. One handed play is standard, because it's just movement and a double-tap for your super. I never thought a bullet-hell would work so well on a phone, but this one does.
If you've ever wondered just how many sprites your phone can manage onscreen at one time before it slows to a crawl, this'll find that out for you within 10mins. It's a lot, even on a crappy phone like mine. It'll also make you feel like you are an arcade ninja master, even though you're not. A really quality example of the genre, so give it a go for some brain-free shooty dodging fun some time.
No energy system, no paywall, no bullshit. No online requirement either, unless you want to check the scoreboards or get achievements. Just a nice fun little game that you can get good at, or get unbelievably awesome at, if and as you want. I highly recommend it for anyone searching for a decent shoot'em up on mobile. Only real IAP is perma-xp gain/no banner ads, and I'm going to throw the dev the $3.49 Aussie for it, simply because I've never liked bullet-hells on phone before this one (and I've tried a few).
(the hit-box is at your feet, despite where the rest of your character sprite is. I think. Or that little heart thing I just noticed, probably. It's incredibly lenient anyway, which is why I like it. The lvl 10 boss has been the only real difficulty bump so far. Easy is easy'ish, hard is actually hard. It's nice like that. I can finish lvl1 on hard with a lvl20 sorcerer character without an outfit, so it is possible, but it gets pretty friggen insane in later levels. Poor 8mil score, but done :) )
(it loops after 10 missions, then it gets slightly harder, but nowhere near the easy/normal/hard mode difficulty jump. And you unlock more characters. The magician (the flamethrower one) is great for big scores, the archer is good for the lvl 10 boss, and the sorcerer is great for general progression. I only have the +70 alchemy/0.3%vamp/-1hitbox outfit on the archer (killed the boss at lvl24'ish, so late as, but wasn't trying it "safely" before that. Damn scores....), so it's easy enough to loop within one day with a bit of level grinding on easy. I've got a 159mil score on lvl8 already, so I'm pretty sure the highscore boards are legit considering how hopeless I am at this sort of game, and I've only played it a bit)
("Ever wanted to play a bullet-hell shooter, but you're a white guy with poor reflexes like me? ShooMachi is for you!"
This game seems to have the right difficulty curve, progression and lack of barriers to entry to the genre compared to so many others. It still gives a real sense of accomplishment, but it doesn't drag you all the way back to the beginning, sobbing, when you're just learning a level or stuff up a bit. It doesn't really hold your hand, but it doesn't kick you in the nuts either. You feel like you're getting better at it, and it didn't cost you a cent.)
Post by: sambojin on January 31, 2017, 11:31:34 pm
Cardinal Quest 2 is a light hearted little romp through a few areas killing bandits for reasons (haven't quite finished chapter 1, died at boss area) with a nice little stat and cooldown based skill system, a bit of randomish loot and some nice maps. Grabbing whatevers from houses is a Zelda bonus, but it's fun. Simple skill tree, simple items, very Pixel Dungeon-like, but better in many ways. Nice interface, easy enough character unlocks, is fun.
Caves (roguelike) is another goody. It's got a bit of roguelite progression due to you keeping your gold/emeralds and starting item blueprints, a fair amount of customization for your starting character due to choosing stats, items and weapons/armour choices all being available straight away, with further permanent progression available longterm as well. The goal? I'm not sure. Get more gold, more loot, and kill stuff. I like the aesthetic, I like being able to mine out walls to set up strategic areas from the get-go, and I love being able to either invest previous gubbins into a run or be given real options from the start even without this. I'm surprised I don't see more people lauding this as an amazing roguelike.
WazHack is a side scrolling roguelike with great graphics, an easy/complicated interface, and more "normal" roguelike systems. Yep, everything from completely unidentified potions/scrolls/weapons/armour/gems, right down to the floor level 2 cursed Amulet of Strangulation (and you not bothering to pet-check it first). It's semi-shareware (try it out to 300 foot depth with any character, but it's $1 per character-group "unlock" to actually play the game beyond that. Once unlocked, use those character-types as much as you want), but I've got an idea that this might be worth it for a couple of the more interesting ones to play. Very Nethackish, but with lightsourced 3d'ish graphics all in a 2d side-on perspective. Weird, Waz, but probably wonderful.
Post by: Aoi on February 01, 2017, 02:01:43 am
I remember WazHack when it was an alpha/beta product... is that 50c per character slot, or PER CHARACTER? Because, well, i have one of the highest death counts in the entire DC:SS competition, two tournaments ago...
Post by: sambojin on February 01, 2017, 04:48:28 pm
Think of them as character packs. Once bought, you can use them on as many runs as you want. You just get an unlimited trial up to 300 foot depth before that, so you can figure out which ones you'd like to buy. They've all got different skill trees, attributes, etc, and all play differently enough to be worthwhile considering. But if you only have $1-2, pick your favourites.
I don't mind the business model, because it makes what would have been a game with an upfront cost into an unlimited demo instead. Try before you buy, which is good for a roguelike, because they're often complicated enough and come in so many different flavours that you wouldn't buy it unless you knew you liked this particular one.
Kind of how I like the Trese Brothers model as well. The free demo is fully functional, there's just not all the content there. But enough to know if you'd be happy to spend money on the full game. This one's just split it up into even smaller one-off transactions, so you can get a full game pretty damn cheap if you only like playing a couple of classes in roguelikes anyway.
There's 16 classes divided up into 8 groups (different flavours of the same class kinda), at a dollar for each group. So you could get a wand-caster and a book-caster for $1, that have subtly different ways of zapping stuff. Or the fighter/valkyrie group for an armoured, possibly dual wielding fighter and a sword and shield valk. Different skilltrees but similar gods in each group. But yeah, they're unlimited use after purchase (no one's that silly or confident in a roguelike to pay per run). $8 for all of them, but you can get "the whole game" for $1-2 if you only ever intend on running with a few classes. Or you can stagger your purchases over a few months if you want them all, but don't have the cash for all of them straight away.
It's a strange business model, but it seems pretty fair considering the quality of product and the genre it's in. Not much different from buying gems, etc, for a character unlock in other titles, but you'll definitely know you like that character type before you pay for it.
I'll probably throw a dollar or two at it, see if I like the later content (roguelike dungeon levels are "content" due to the different challenges you face deeper down), then decide if I want the rest of the classes.
((edited previous post so it's more intelligible on what you're buying. Kind of. English is my first language, I'm just bad at it sometimes))
Post by: sambojin on February 03, 2017, 11:56:37 pm
You couldn't really stream this game and explain what's happening on your side of the screen. Because what's going on would appear from the outside to be you having an epileptic fit, thrashing away at your screen as quickly as possible, while swearing sometimes. It's innovative, I'll give them that.
For everything that you thought "fuck that" about the whole Pokemon-Go walking around thing, this'll probably still get your heartrate going, even as you sit on your arse. And in theory, should void your phone's warranty due to basic screen abuse after a bit too.
It's kinda cool. Worthwhile playing for a tiny bit, preferably with someone else filming you for the lols. You probably wouldn't look as ambulatory on a tablet, but on a phone with double thumb tapping and your tongue slightly hanging out, it's golden.
There's weapons with AoEs, perks and roguelite progression systems, risk/reward on map exploration and "worthwhile" progression, but the basic combat mechanic is dumb as shit. Possibly in a good way. Or in an RSI inducing one in any case. It's not hard to explain, but you have to play it to understand why it's dumb and cool at the same time.
Give it a burl, just for giggles on game design.
((you'll never know when you should be using your bigger weapons, but it's Doom related. So probably as often as possible. I'm not sure if there's a strategy there, but I wish there was. One of this title's few big downfalls, even as a very simple game. But hey, I played it for about 20 mins. There's probably a "thingy" or a "feeling" for ammo consumption and the use thereof you'll get on extended play of it. But even knowing a 1-3/1-6/2-4/3-6/3-9/whatever monsters *before* the encounter would make it a better game))
((There's no fucking exit button. This is a crime. If you're going to make a game and want people to respect you, put in an exit button in your app. Or get tossed in the bin as someone that doesn't create "a whole program". It doesn't show that you're still working on it, or that we're committed to the functioning of it, end the fucking program so we don't have to task-kill it as a nuisance, and we'll come back to it happily. I honestly don't care if you skipped the last sections of your game development course. You released your game on the playStore, there's IAPs in it, so how's about you learn how to deallocate resources and give an exit button to the user hey? Just to look half-way professional.
/rant))
Post by: frostshotgg on February 04, 2017, 12:13:57 am
Post by: Aoi on February 04, 2017, 12:08:27 pm
Cons:
Energy-based system with a few different currencies.
RNG-based gachapon system for new units.
Update: Sort of rapidly plunges into a cashgrab feel once you're out of the new player phase.
Fire Emblem probably doesn't require too much explanation so about the differences... Each battle is (up to) 4v4. No equipment, and minimal RNG. As far as I can tell, no crits, no dodge, and even level up stat increases are fixed. The stages are fast and fun, but you can often end up in a deadlock if you're using a healer. And the downside to fast stages is that the energy regeneration is sloooow. I have about an hour and a half to my next five minute match...
No equipment. Instead, you get skill points used to unlock additional skills (Base attack, a special that charges based on actions taken, and up to three passives).
Much like a lot of other games in a similar vein, there's a lot of familiar faces that show up early in the plot, but good luck acquiring them. (Roy, Marth, that dragon priestess from Awakening, have shown up so far, and I'm sure that older fans would recognize more.)
There's still new game launch perks going on, so it's probably a better idea to check it out now, rather than later.
I have some misgivings about the energy system making things a grind, or worse yet, the upgrade system taking units obtained via cash currency making purchases near required.
Post by: sambojin on February 10, 2017, 08:42:56 pm
The demo comes with a tutorial and a mini-campaign. I don't think there's multiplayer included, but it might just be locked behind progression somewhere. Really tiny footprint on your phone (3mb on phone, 120'ish mb on SD card), graphics are good, sound is fine.
I'll have a bit more of a play around, but I probably will end up buying the full thing, just for MP. Hopefully the free demo will expand the player-base considerably too, making the purchase all the more worthwhile.
Post by: sambojin on February 10, 2017, 11:14:08 pm
It uses a room mechanic similar to EtG, rather than the open playfield of NT. Every few levels are themed (first level group is knights and wizards, second is skellies, etc) with a boss to kill at the end of each lot. It's all RPG/medieval themed overall, but with guns. Lots of guns. About 120 in all.
There's plenty of character choices, a few for collectable currency, a few for real money. They've all got different stats, health, armour (regenning health), energy max (your ammo pool) and their own "special" that's on a cooldown. The knight dual wields for burst firepower, the rogue dodge rolls, the magician lightning bolts stuff, the vampire creates bat swarms and life-leeches, etc.
There's a levelling system (permanent health/stat upgrades) before a run paid with collectable currency, and an ingame level-up perk after every few levels cleared. Stuff like better accuracy, more health potion drops, melee weapons reflecting bullets (yeah, there's melee in it too), immune to traps, immune to fire/explosions, wider lasers, cheaper store prices, etc. There's quite a few, all with varying usefulness to make a character build from. You get 1 choice from 3 ala NT's levelling system, so there is some decisions in the matter.
The guns are fun with a wide variety available. You can only carry two at a time, so choices must be made. They all run on "energy" as a basic ammo pool, with stronger guns using more energy per shot. There's plenty of zero energy use weapons around, including your basic starter weapon and backup melee punching, so you're never *that* constrained by it. You get a bit more energy after each room is cleared, there's energy potions, and the starter knight character has a good energy pool anyway. So let 'er rip. There's everything from basic pistols, to shotguns, to swords, to smgs/assault rifles, up to multibarrel rocket launchers, gas grenades, death beams, lock-on missiles and charge-up bubble blowers. I've only had about 6 runs, but I've found some fun stuff to use every time and haven't ever felt a lack of choices in them. The further you go, the better the found and bought guns get (I had heaps of options by level 2-2, some pretty powerful).
The graphics are in good pixel-art'ish style, the sound is great with a good up-tempo soundtrack, and it seems to be a good all-round product. Controls are tight and responsive, movement is fast and fluid, and enemies and room layouts are varied enough to not be boring. No real grind or hoops to jump through (you can grind if you want, but it's not a barrier to progression or content) and it seems pretty fair and free overall. Most importantly for a roguelite twin-stick shooter, the weapons are great and abundant and the enemies are tough enough to need them. So give it a go, Early Access or not. It's a really good game, and I'm glad there's some decent stuff like this coming out on mobile these days. I'd happily play it on PC right now, so that should give you an idea of how far along in development it already is (and how fun it is to play).
Post by: sambojin on February 11, 2017, 08:21:24 pm
There's bows in the game too. Charge 'em up for more damage, representing you pulling the string back further. There's a perk to speed up charging time too. Kind of changes your playstyle from run'n'gun to cover-sniping. Feels good. There's magic staffs too, which tend to be shotgun'ish or multi-directional weapons with elemental effects. Burn, poison, freeze etc. There's tonnes of other stuff, but they're just off the top pf my head on the big groupings I missed.
There's a crate you can buy in your base upgrades, which means you'll always start with another low-end weapon. I thought it was single-use, but after you've bought it (1000 ingame thingies, like the pets) you'll always have it. Makes it easier to decide on character build perk choices, and you'll never be stuck with just the starter pistol. Shotties, better pistols and assault rifles in it for the most part, but they're useful for the first few floors. Random, but it gets you going if the RNG is screwing you on weapon crates and shops.
There's also a safe that gives you a few coins to start with (handy for early floor purchases, even 2-4 gold can make the difference), and a book that ups your critical chance (I'm not sure, but that might be the melee looking stat on characters and weapons. The last one. More is better and there's a perk for criticals being piercing shots as well).
Oh, and the Wizard character is awesome. A little squishy, hopeless in melee, but amazingly useful. Chain lightning FTW! It's like you've got a good spare ammo-less weapon at all times, and it's the perfect opener to any fight. They might have to tweak the cooldown a bit, because you can often use it 2-4 times per room (whereas the knight might only get 1-2 uses of dual wield. Then again, he scales with the weapons used and the lightning doesn't. Dual wield is far better for bosses too).
There's statues/shrines that you can worship at too. I don't know what they all do, but the Knight one gives you an occasional free NPC melee helper randomly for one room (they don't stick around, but they do respawn in other random rooms), the Assassin one (or was it rogue?) lets you fling a fan of knives every once in a while, the Elf one gives you a whole room radius blast effect when you use your special (only 2'ish damage, but it might be nice on the rogue or wizard character) and the Magician one gives 4 free homing projectiles per special use (do unto others as they have done unto you). There's a fair few, and they're about the cost of an NPC hire for the buff they give.
Oh yeah, there's chest mimics too. It scares the crap out of you the first time, and they're pretty tough (and in a small room with no cover). Shoot lots. Keep shooting. Don't stop shooting. And hope your armour can take the damage. Evil bastard mimics.
Character upgrades seem to go: +1 armour, +1 health, +20 max energy, -cooldown(?), +skill time/damage(?). Not sure on the order of the last two. But the Knight's dual wield burst lasts long enough to get through two waves in a room, and who doesn't want more chain-lightning damage to soften everything up into 1-2 shot range? Even the +20 energy is great for the Paladin (who's huge limitation is ammo). It makes it slightly easier, but I got to the second boss with only the first upgrade on the Knight, and still haven't gotten further with them all on him now. I'm pretty bad at taking cover :)
Weapons seem to go white, green(>?), blue(<?) orange, red for "order of rarity". Probably. There may have been a yellow in there too. Reverse Wonderboy II health order or something for weapon rarity? A rainbow of killy fun. This doesn't actually give you any idea of its power or usefulness, but I tend to pick up or buy most things until I know what they are. Try them in a room or two if you don't know. You can always swap back afterwards. Thank god for a universal ammo pool. You can actually use whatever you find (though not necessarily all the time. Just mostly, if you like it).
My sad progression (there's only three full levels so far):
Got to 2-5 and died on the big robot boss with the knight character. Had a frost sword and a nasty laser. Was using a splitter cannon before then (think the flak cannon secondary fire from Unreal Tournament) but couldn't resist the freezing effect. Dual wielding twin frost swords was too cool to pass up. Damn near killed him with it too.
Did it again with a sniper rifle and a big homing rocket launcher. Died again......
Got there again, with a Shotgun Pro (tight spread shotty) and a Glacier (freeze on crit sniper rifle, 48% crit with my perks) and killed him. But died to the last few bullets bouncing around. Grrrrrr. I might record an EveryPlay thing so others can feel my pain >:(
I'll add more features as I find them.
A couple of youTube vids of early gameplay (I play way more riskily than this):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6M5uFcMweBs (yep, there's a tutorial)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KKpNDsv010o (this one's up to the first boss, though there's the Grand Magician instead of the Knight sometimes as well)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lxyk4kBLxh0 (seems to be on bluestacks/NOX, so movement isn't great, but there's a bit of melee gameplay with a pitchfork)
Post by: DeKaFu on February 12, 2017, 08:52:34 am
Does anyone have any experience with any of the games on offer? I don't have much in the way of games for my phone so I'm pretty interested, but I'm a bit concerned they might be intended for tablet and not work well on a smaller screen...
Out of the games on offer I'm currently most interested by "Adventure Bar Story". More are supposedly being added later, though.
Post by: Frumple on February 12, 2017, 09:40:57 am
Guess what I'm saying is you can't really go wrong, exactly, with a kemco game, usually. They're just not something you might want to hinge your purchase decision on. that said, now that you've mentioned it, I'm probably going to grab the mid tier* mostly just to get the kemco games. I like their games, to a fair extent, they're just very much not really good from any sort of objective/relative standpoint
*And yes, I can see that KotOR and dragonfall's both for just about a quarter more than the current mid tier minimum. I'm not sure I care enough about either to spend the extra ~25 cent :V
Post by: Sappho on February 12, 2017, 10:01:30 am
Post by: Frumple on February 12, 2017, 10:08:43 am
That said, ARPGs on tablets -- like evoland, yes -- are generally complete goddamn misery. If it's not turn based, don't bother. Evoland, KoTOR, and that Souls thing probably might as well not be in the bundle, tbh. Might be able to manage something if you play it on bluestacks or whatev', but that... probably defeats a good chunk of the point, ehehe.
E: Jeez, that adventure bar thing. Other restaurant, top floor. "It doesn't taste good... Mother's cooking is way better!" "That's too bad... you won't be able to eat your mother's cooking anymore since she just left us." That's about what I mean when I talk about kemco-published games' writing.
Post by: BigD145 on February 12, 2017, 10:28:03 am
Post by: Sappho on February 12, 2017, 11:27:42 am
Post by: frostshotgg on February 12, 2017, 02:20:13 pm
Post by: Sappho on February 12, 2017, 03:07:53 pm
Post by: MonkeyHead on February 13, 2017, 02:08:00 pm
This may have been around a while, but I have only recently discovered it and sunk a lot of idle time into it. Think a scaled down Civ variant with streamlined play. You start with one city which generates "stars" - read resources - which can be spent on growing the city via exploiting the terrain (generating more stars), on units for exploring/fighting, or on techs which open up better units, other ways to exploit terrain, or further techs. You can see literally all the game has to offer after a few playthroughs if you are experienced with 4x game play, but its fast pace and replay value offers a lot.
Post by: sambojin on February 13, 2017, 03:45:55 pm
I'm not that good at it, but it's quick and fun. I can even recommend paying the few dollars for the extra races, not so much for the different starts, tech paths or number of opponents, but because the graphics are so damn cute.
If it ever gets different map types, sizes and has a slight re-balance pass (navigation ships are probably a bit too good right now), I'll be playing this forever. It's already pretty good as is, even if I can't get a decent score to save myself.
It's got a tiny 3.5mb footprint on your phone anyway (60mb on SD), so you may as well have a copy of it on there permanently.
Post by: Wiles on February 13, 2017, 04:52:52 pm
Post by: sambojin on February 14, 2017, 12:40:54 am
They're balanced in the sense that I've got an idea that the initial Knight character and the cheapest in-game currency buy, the Rogue, are probably the two most powerful characters. Double fire rate or dodge roll is very handy. But they've all got their pros and cons and playstyles, which is good to see. Only the Alchemist feels weak, just because DoT poison isn't as good as bullets (but you can cheese some rooms with it).
Figured the purchases would help out with development costs on what's shaping up to be an absolute gem of a game. I'm a cheap bastard, but I'll pay for quality stuff in genres I like. Cheap one-off purchases are fine with me if they add longevity or content or playstyles to a game. But I'll only buy stuff if I didn't *need* to. I consider it a worthwhile purchase if the game is already good and beatable without it, with few exceptions.
Post by: sambojin on February 20, 2017, 11:37:52 pm
(for fucks sake, buy the weapon crate after getting more than fuck diddly levels into it. You'll never "just have" the bad pistol again. And so on and so forth on all the comments I've read about the game. It's remarkably well made, free-to-play even. Not even a "git gud" response, just a "play it for more than six 5-minute runs or so before commenting" thing. Bleh. People. Learn to dodge. There's a circle under your feet. The cheapest in-game collectable currency Rogue character even has "dodge roll" as a skill, just like Enter the Gungeon! Fucking fish rolling pukes.......
The starting character, the free one that you begin with, is probably the most powerful character in the game. To learn with, and to kick arse with. If you don't like dodge rolling, but you can vaguely (auto)-aim. There's even a fucking Wizard that's free (3000 in-game thingamies?) that chain lightnings everything and has fuck-tonnes of ammo, if you really can't aim but just want to pick apart stunned enemies, all with very few hitpoints left after said chain lightning, with any damn weapon you want. Literally clears everything but the first boss for you. Holy fuck.
The Knight is my go-to character, then the Wizard, then the Rogue. Because they're really fucking good, but I'm pretty bad at this sort of game. I bought all the others, so I know. I do not fuck around with min-maxing, and these are the best ones. They're free. The rest is flavour for fun. Buy the Paladin if you're not sure. It's fucken awesome, but it plays differently to Rogue dodge-roll or Knight tank'n'gank. Like it should. PtW my arse.......
/rant)
Protip 1: run INTO bullets, not away from them. If there's heaps of bullets you can't dodge, backing directly away only gets you hit by lots of them, not just one. If you actually can dodge them all, do it. But if you can't, "armour/health dodge roll" most of them by going forward/sidewards into the smallest part of the group/barrage of them. At the very least, go sidewards and backwards, just not directly backwards. Walls save you sometimes, but that's only because they made you go sidewards from you backing into them. Just like in Enter the Gungeon, but without the dodge roll button or aiming. The amount of people that dodge directly AWAY from bullets (ie: backwards, ensuring their i-frames/dodge does nothing for them) in this or EtG is ridiculous. That's why you die. Learn to dodge INTO bullets. Or sidewards and forwards if directly forward isn't a go'er. If you're a Rogue with actual dodge roll, this goes double. Forwards or sidewards = 1 hit and i-frames. Backwards alone = death.
Protip 2: There's melee in this game. If you're close to something, you stop firing and swing at them. *ONCE*. For pitiful damage, but rather quickly. And you don't fire or swing again until you release and press the fire button again. The controls didn't stop working, you just did a melee attack because you were close to enemies. Important: The controls work fine, but you did melee stuff. So keep hitting the attack button! It makes you shoot or hit stuff more! So whenever you're near something, you should be *rapidly* tapping the fire button as quickly as possible. Mashing it. It doesn't matter if you melee swing or shoot, just keep tapping that button and you'll live far longer than if you just kept holding it down like you're the auto-fire king. Tap to kill! And live! Possibly love too, but that's your problem.
People at the doorway? That's a mashing. Enemy wave teleporting right in on you? That's a mashing. Gun not firing quick enough? That's a mashing too.
Keep pressing fire quickly, and all your troubles go away. Yes, even with bows/fish/ion cannons. If it's not working properly, you're not hitting the fire button quickly or often enough (or you really are possibly too close to enemies too often. Or you have a laser fish. Or a fusion drill, but if you've got a fusion drill, charge time is probably the enemy's problem, not yours).
There is a reason for this. Melee attacks can block or reflect bullets with the right timing! Even melee attacks you didn't want to do! But honestly, mostly it's mashing and moving. Keep hitting fire until you start shooting again. Hooray!
Post by: Frumple on February 21, 2017, 11:15:39 am
If there's a PC version of that thing I'd love to hear about it. As is I'm wondering how long it's going to take me to get frustrated enough I either delete the thing or break out bluestack or somethin' and play with a control setup worth even a single shit. Made it to the second boss a time or two, but every run is as unpleasant as it is enjoyable, and it's regularly causing me to question if the game's actually worth the time.
Post by: Folly on February 23, 2017, 02:30:41 am
Post by: Aoi on February 25, 2017, 06:13:32 pm
Cons:
Energy-based system (Note: Rather generous, unless you're intentionally burning it.)
Connection required*
The easiest comparison would be to Runestone Keeper, which was featured in a Humble Mobile Bundle some months ago, but with a vastly larger and more interesting metagame, plus a boatload more polish. A more distant comparison would be to Desktop Dungeons, in general concept.
For people unfamiliar with either, it's basically a tile-based top-down dungeon dive with basic RPG stats with each floor being a 5x6 grid things to kill and loot to snag. The contents of a tile are unknown until opened, and, once opened, you can interact with whatever's concealed in it, whether it be taking an item, attacking a monster, it being empty, etc. Keep going until you finish the dungeon or die. Different sets of dungeons have their own unique effects. Levelling within the dungeon is done by advancing upon a branching upgrade tree, of which you can pick five per run. In traditional roguelike fashion, you start off with a fixed degree of strength, use whatever you find, and (outside of metagame elements) lose it all upon completion/death.
The metagame is where things get really interesting-- there's a LOT of room for progression here. There's some 150 different units, divided among four factions, and you can take two allies with you into each run. On top of that, each one also has a global passive and an in-party effect, and its own stat growth. Combo that with the different monsters and traits of each dungeon...
*If your connection drops out, you're reverted to the start of the floor you're on. Which can also be used to scum. It's pausing system is pretty robust though, and errs on the side of courtesy, which is nice for something mobile.
Post by: sambojin on February 25, 2017, 09:26:55 pm
It's a really good game. All the P2W/IAP stuff is kinda irrelevant on just the fun of playing (you don't need to be a p2w boss to progress, but you can be), and it's very well done on the puzzle/roguelike'ish'lite/whatever-you-call-this genre stuff. I wish I had room on my phone for it right now (but it saves my progress with googlePlay, so I know I'll be coming back to it). It's one of my favourite games, by far.
Post by: JimboM12 on February 25, 2017, 10:39:01 pm
It still helps to purchase packs if you're a whale but now daily free packs are boosted in what they give you a bit and now have a visible timer on when you receive them. You can still earn your daily play packs, which have been upgraded from a bronze level to a gold pack level but also while earning them get these tickets to get a daily (or just spaced out by a half day or something) credit pack which has a random amount of credits. You can also now trade uniques for uniques for 2k credits every 24hr, trading legend to legend is the same price but also 24hr locked and there's no more unique to legend trading. Also, leveling your heroes/legendaries is way cheaper and it appears there's a higher chance for silver level packs from winning matches now instead of bronze all the time except when you sacrifice the necessary amounts of Mountain Dew to the RNGod and get a silver or gold. Some unit balancing went on but they added turret repairers which are annoying and will probably get balanced because units are permanent until they die and these repair units are stack-able, so you can drop like 3 and continually repair any push unless an AoE gets em or you take them out personally.
Though, I could just be praising the game because the free plat pack they gave for the maintenance period to existing players gave me Krennic's Death Squad Leader, so I'm now kinda biased, but it does show that they listened to the most common of the issues people mentioned on the reddit and that bodes pretty well.
Post by: LoSboccacc on February 26, 2017, 09:16:23 am
egg inc ain't bad as far as incrementals go
motorsport manager is great fun for a couple season if you liked the old microprose classic have a look at it, it does plateou after a while
now for the rant: u do all classic get the p2w treatment? looking at you roller coaster tycoon. damn you and the whales enabling the forever grinding business model.
also, anyone knows good games that can be played with a bunch of friend on a single device? most boardgame ports are shite, so I'm stuck playing with my s.o. carcassonne and yathzee.
Post by: BigD145 on February 26, 2017, 09:49:44 am
Boardgame adaptations often suffer from info overload on small devices. Too much to keep track of on different screens. You end up ignoring your opponent and suffering for that.
Post by: LoSboccacc on February 26, 2017, 10:02:39 am
will definitely try tiket to ride. police precint sounded interesting but is unavailable on my store. thanks a bunch anyway
sadly there are little precious few games that took an idea and developed it for the different medium, as did strategery, which is the best non risk port if any risk on the store.
Post by: MoonyTheHuman on February 26, 2017, 10:04:47 am
Its a puzzle game based around designing a species capable of completing a challange.
Post by: BigD145 on February 26, 2017, 10:25:39 am
Post by: amjh on February 26, 2017, 05:34:22 pm
It's a card game where you play campaigns, with some mechanics from the tabletop game. It's free with some ads, but you can spend money to unlock characters and new campaigns faster.
Post by: Wiles on March 03, 2017, 07:34:46 pm
I was looking at the Banner Saga 2 and was wondering if anyone had any experience playing it on a device similar to mine? It is a game I have been wanting to play but if it doesn't work well on tablets I would rather play it on PC.
Also has anyone played the old infinity engine games on a tablet? I'd be tempted to replay Baldur's Gate 2 if the controls were palatable.
Post by: Retropunch on March 03, 2017, 08:30:32 pm
Also has anyone played the old infinity engine games on a tablet? I'd be tempted to replay Baldur's Gate 2 if the controls were palatable.
I've not personally but I've heard good things from a few friends about playing BG1 and IWD on tablets. One of them it was their first play of any infinity games and the other was a long time fan and they both loved it.
Their caveat was that you need to be a bit patient with the controls, they're not amazing but they sorta work as long as you don't mind a few times of people wandering where you didn't ask and whatever - perfect for long journeys/whatever when you've got a lot of patience, less good if you're just wanting to blast away at stuff for a while.
That being said, BG2:EE is a buggy mess (as in, wiping all saves type bugs). Best to avoid unless you're really patient.
Post by: Sappho on March 04, 2017, 02:35:23 am
Other games that work well on tablet and have more depth than typical mobile games, I can recommend:
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery
Cook, Serve, Delicious (works surprisingly well!)
Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go
This War of Mine
Pretty much all point&click adventure games (Machinarium, Dropsy, Broken Sword series, Grim Fandango...)
Rebuild 3
Shadowrun (possibly - haven't tried it out yet but heard it works well)
Just avoid any action game that sticks a controller overlay on the screen and tells you it'll work like a gamepad. It does not. Ever.
Post by: itisnotlogical on March 04, 2017, 02:38:48 am
Post by: Wiles on March 04, 2017, 12:30:33 pm
I might go for Banner Saga 2 to start out with. I have enough credit on my google play account to pick it up too which is nice. It's 7.99 for android compared to the 21.99 for a steam version, but it has in app purchases apparently.
I've been trying with rather limited success to stream games from my PC using Moonlight. It uses the Nvidia geforce experience but allows you to stream it to a wide variety of devices rather than just shield devices. I was able to get the new Master of Orion to run (text was pretty hard to read) but I have been having issues running Civ6.
Post by: DeKaFu on March 04, 2017, 02:56:57 pm
Any idea if it would work well on a 5.5" phone?
----
I've also been playing Adventure Bar Story on my phone, and it works reasonably well. This translation, though... XD
I'm sure they had the best of intentions, but the fact that they translated all the Japanese foods and ingredients instead of using the actual Japanese names makes it so much harder than it needs to be. It took me a while to figure out that "Sealeaf" is probably supposed to be Kombu, and I'm still amazed that I managed to guess that "Steamed Chicken" was actually Chawanmushi (a savory egg custard which can include chicken).
I have enough knowledge of Japanese food that it should be easy to guess ingredients, but half the challenge is trying to untranslate the terms into something recognizable. :P
Also the description for Strawberry Jelly cracks me up every time.
"It is jelloy"
Post by: LoSboccacc on March 04, 2017, 03:42:38 pm
those are terrible, terrible games
Post by: Frumple on March 04, 2017, 03:44:10 pm
... also, if you haven't seen it already, and it doesn't cycle out or somethin'. Other restaurant, second floor, right side. Dude and his daughter. Think I actually mentioned in earlier in the thread, but seeing it in the wild is good, too :P
Post by: Sappho on March 04, 2017, 04:15:02 pm
> Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go
those are terrible, terrible games
Why do you say that? I've been enjoying Lara Croft GO immensely for a few months now. I do a level or two now and then on my commute to and from work (metro/tram). I'm still stuck on one of the last few bonus levels that unlock after the main storyline is complete, determined to work it out without cheating.
I mean, I could see someone saying that those games aren't their cup of tea, but "terrible"? Really? The controls work fine and are designed perfectly for mobile. The puzzles are well-designed (if a bit easy for most of the main game). The graphics and sound are pretty good. I've yet to encounter a single bug or glitch or freeze. Why on earth would anyone consider them terrible?
(Also, looking around, it has almost universal praise (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/12/07/lara-croft-go-review-pc/) in reviews. So... I feel like maybe you just don't like this type of game?)
Post by: LoSboccacc on March 04, 2017, 05:06:37 pm
Post by: Sappho on March 05, 2017, 03:36:30 am
it's probably because I got one expecting the hitman experience instead I got subbuteo with dumbed down rules, moreover I hate puzzle games where each puzzle has one and only one solution, it's lazy design for the most part
So first off, you've declared your personal opinion as a fact: "Those games are terrible" rather than "I don't like those games". That makes me less inclined to trust your recommendations in the future. The games are objectively good, they're just not the type of game you expected or wanted to play. You don't have to like them for them to be good games.
Second, I can see that you've never actually designed a puzzle. At the publishing house where I work, I am responsible for the puzzle pages for three magazines. I write 6-8 puzzles per issue, and they all have to have exactly one solution so that we can print an answer key. If I screw up and let another solution slip through which isn't in the key, we get complaints, and I get in trouble. And do you know what the most difficult part of my job is? Making sure each puzzle has one and only one solution. It is incredibly easy to design a puzzle with multiple solutions. Anyone can do that without hardly trying at all. The difficult thing is making sure there is only one possible way to solve a puzzle. That takes a lot of time and effort and testing, and it's extremely difficult to make that one solution both not immediately obvious, but not too difficult for the target audience to solve. Making a puzzle game where each puzzle has one and only one solution is not even remotely "lazy design", and in fact takes far, FAR more work than you realize, especially to do as elegantly and with such a perfect difficulty curve as the GO series of puzzle games. As a matter of fact, as someone who designs puzzles myself and knows exactly what goes into that job, I spend a lot of time with these games marveling at how well-designed they are, and how much work must have gone into them.
It's best not to declare yourself an expert on something you have no experience with and dismiss things you don't like as "bad". While you are obviously just as entitled as anyone else to like or not like something and declare your opinion, opinions are not facts, and by dismissing something as "terrible" just because it's not your cup of tea and calling a team of highly skilled designers "lazy" for not making the type of game you personally like, you might prevent someone else from enjoying a great game because they assumed you knew what you were talking about. And it comes across as narcissistic when you present your personal opinions and preferences as though they were universal truths. Not everyone is you.
Post by: LoSboccacc on March 05, 2017, 03:59:55 am
apples to oranges, the medium you are working on has limitations, this one not. and I'd be fine with a puzzle, but:
"Hitman GO is an award-winning turn-based strategy game with beautifully rendered diorama-style set pieces. You will strategically navigate fixed spaces on a grid to avoid enemies and take out your target or infiltrate well-guarded locations."
there's nothing strategic in these games, they're about the same openness and depth as sudoku. which if fine if you like sudoku like games, but it's just a cash grab when you claim it's a 'hitman strategy game'
they're the one wanting to be compared to strategy games, and as strategy games they suck balls.
Post by: Retropunch on March 05, 2017, 09:51:48 am
It's best not to declare yourself an expert on something you have no experience with and dismiss things you don't like as "bad". While you are obviously just as entitled as anyone else to like or not like something and declare your opinion, opinions are not facts, and by dismissing something as "terrible" just because it's not your cup of tea and calling a team of highly skilled designers "lazy" for not making the type of game you personally like, you might prevent someone else from enjoying a great game because they assumed you knew what you were talking about. And it comes across as narcissistic when you present your personal opinions and preferences as though they were universal truths. Not everyone is you.
Sappho, you're being awkward and childish, and it's uncalled for. More than that, if anyone is being narcissistic here, it's you - LoSboccacc could be the online alias of Kasparov for all you know.
EVERYONE says that games they like are 'great' and games they don't like are 'terrible' - I don't think LoSboccacc was stating that s/he is somehow capable of being the one person in the world who can objectively analyse things. It's implied in the very foundations of a 'forum' that the views you express are going to be your own - no one feels the need to qualify every statement with 'it's only my opinion...' because it's so obvious. However, you've somehow stated that the hitman game is objectively good - could you qualify how something can be objectively 'good'? I didn't know there was provable science behind game reviewing.
More than that, your rambling about building puzzles is just bizarre and frankly not true. If the game Civilisation could only be won one way, it'd be rubbish. As another example, take the game for the forum we're on; DF is basically a set of puzzles (keep dwarves happy, well fed etc.) and the whole reason people play it is that there is so much freedom to work out how to tackle the puzzles. Sure, certain puzzles only have one way of tackling them, but that often doesn't happen in games.
This is especially true in the Hitman series which has prided itself above all else as giving the player the freedom to be able to tackle the challenge in many different ways - so of course LoS would expect that to be mirrored in the mobile game.
Please try to be a bit more easy going Sappho, it's not really the B12 spirit.
Post by: Frumple on March 05, 2017, 09:59:10 am
Also you probably want to re-read what saph was actually writing about puzzles. The thing was a counterargument against the proposition that puzzles with a single solution are mostly lazy design. Not some kind of statement that puzzles with multiple solutions are bad.
Post by: Sappho on March 05, 2017, 10:39:42 am
N... not everyone. Pretty regularly see folks acknowledge games they don't like as good, or ones they do as bad. Certainly have often enough m'self.
Also you probably want to re-read what saph was actually writing about puzzles. The thing was a counterargument against the proposition that puzzles with a single solution are mostly lazy design. Not some kind of statement that puzzles with multiple solutions are bad.
This. I didn't say puzzles with only one solution are better, I said that they are harder to design. LoSboccacc said puzzles with only one solution are "lazy design", whereas the opposite is actually true. It is more difficult to design a puzzle with one solution than it is to design a puzzle with many solutions. I know this for a fact because doing so is my job.
Someone came in here asking for game recommendations, and LoSboccacc claimed one of them was "terrible". That suggests the game is badly made in some way. The overwhelming majority of people find those games to be excellent, they're just not what he personally was looking for when he got one of them. And when I say "objectively good," I mean they are well-designed, well-supported, contain no bugs or glitches, the puzzles have a gradual and well-paced difficulty curve which allows for fair and easy learning of the game systems without an overt tutorial while still providing a challenge, the graphics are clean and well-made, the sound is perfectly matched to the game... All of these are objective qualities which can be measured and rated. None of this means that everyone will or even should enjoy the game. But it does mean that when someone makes a nasty post calling the games "terrible" just because of their own opinion (which seems based more on resentment at the game's description than any actual flaw of the game itself), it gets under my fucking skin. It certainly does nothing to help the person who was looking for a recommendation.
And I would say that it is very much in the spirit of the B12 community to make posts clearing up misunderstandings and correcting mistakes using facts and logical arguments, which is all I was trying to do. I made my case for the games not being at all "terrible" and asking someone not to declare games bad (especially when someone is looking for recommendations) just because they're not to their personal taste. He replied by baselessly insulting the designers of one-solution puzzles, a group of which I am a part, and I defended myself and others who do work like mine.
So hell with it. Requesting that people be logical and admit when they've made a mistake is "childish", yet lashing out and calling a game "terrible" and its designers "lazy" just because it's not the game you wanted it to be is not childish? Explaining why it is not at all lazy to make puzzle games with only one solution is "bizarre rambling"? If no one has any patience for trivialities like facts and logic anymore, I'm done. I will not be scolded like a misbehaving teenager for the crime of explaining things logically. There's no point trying to explain myself to those who just want to "be right" regardless of whether or not they're right. Enjoy insulting hardworking developers and declaring your opinions to be facts while dismissing those who try to explain things logically as "childish". You surely have a great future in politics.
Post by: Retropunch on March 05, 2017, 10:45:10 am
N... not everyone. Pretty regularly see folks acknowledge games they don't like as good, or ones they do as bad. Certainly have often enough m'self.
Also you probably want to re-read what saph was actually writing about puzzles. The thing was a counterargument against the proposition that puzzles with a single solution are mostly lazy design. Not some kind of statement that puzzles with multiple solutions are bad.
Of course their are exceptions - I'm really not a fan of MOBAs personally but I can understand why people like them and am impressed by the level of strategy and tactics that gets put into them. As I said though, forums are for expressing personal opinion, not that someone is trying to claim that something is objectively good or bad - I know that Sappho knows that, so it just seemed awkward behaviour.
Similarly, I do get what Sappho is trying to say in that it's not always lazy design to have one outcome, but LoS also put in the caveat with the text 'lazy design for the most part' - this is especially true in the context of Hitman. The whole franchise is built around having multiple strategies to attempt a problem, so having only one solution seems like a cop-out/lazy in that context
However, stating things like 'Second, I can see that you've never actually designed a puzzle' or 'It's best not to declare yourself an expert on something you have no experience with and dismiss things you don't like as "bad".' is just not called for, and the tone was the thing that I objected too.
Post by: Retropunch on March 05, 2017, 11:01:28 am
N... not everyone. Pretty regularly see folks acknowledge games they don't like as good, or ones they do as bad. Certainly have often enough m'self.
Also you probably want to re-read what saph was actually writing about puzzles. The thing was a counterargument against the proposition that puzzles with a single solution are mostly lazy design. Not some kind of statement that puzzles with multiple solutions are bad.
This. I didn't say puzzles with only one solution are better, I said that they are harder to design. LoSboccacc said puzzles with only one solution are "lazy design", whereas the opposite is actually true. It is more difficult to design a puzzle with one solution than it is to design a puzzle with many solutions. I know this for a fact because doing so is my job.
So hell with it. Requesting that people be logical and admit when they've made a mistake is "childish", yet lashing out and calling a game "terrible" and its designers "lazy" just because it's not the game you wanted it to be is not childish? Explaining why it is not at all lazy to make puzzle games with only one solution is "bizarre rambling"? If no one has any patience for trivialities like facts and logic anymore, I'm done. I will not be scolded like a misbehaving teenager for the crime of explaining things logically. There's no point trying to explain myself to those who just want to "be right" regardless of whether or not they're right. Enjoy insulting hardworking developers and declaring your opinions to be facts while dismissing those who try to explain things logically as "childish". You surely have a great future in politics.
No, LoS did not say that. S/He said that it's lazy design for the most part - and in the context of a Hitman game I'd tend to agree.
Similarly, as I stated in my above post - you weren't just explaining, you were making statements with no grounding: 'Second, I can see that you've never actually designed a puzzle' - you have no way of knowing that. LoS could be the world's foremost puzzle building expert, but you just assumed that as s/he disagreed with you s/he had no knowledge of the area.
You then went on to continually state they were more difficult - I've heard the opposite which is why I found it bizarre. If you've got to make multiple ways of solving something all interesting and challenging, that seems (to my low level of knowledge of the subject) as more difficult. This is again in the medium of game design which is often more tactically or strategically focused, rather than in something like a word puzzle. You didn't provide any facts, just that you knew better.
I don't want to 'be right', and I was also distinctly arguing against the idea of 'opinions as facts'. I didn't mean to scold you, but I didn't feel the way you put across your opinion was the right way as it seemed a bit attack-y.
But come now Sappho, there's really no need to stoop so low as to say I'll work in politics! I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!
Post by: LoSboccacc on March 05, 2017, 11:21:20 am
Post by: MasterFancyPants on March 05, 2017, 12:17:07 pm
Post by: amjh on March 05, 2017, 01:40:47 pm
That Pathfinder Adventures game looks pretty interesting. Looking at screenshots makes me suspect it might be designed for tablets only, though...
Any idea if it would work well on a 5.5" phone?
I've been playing it on a phone using a small stylus, and it works fine for me. The UI on it is pretty good, and allows zooming cards up to full screen size if needed.
The game is free to play and everything can be unlocked by playing, but if you like it enough to spend a bit of money unlocking a few extra characters earlyish helps with party building.
Post by: Wiles on March 05, 2017, 03:27:44 pm
On to other things...
I think the refund window for the Google Play Store is woefully too short. I tried to install the Banner Saga 2 (it downloads a small app from the play store and then downloads about 3 gigs when you open it). It said it would take about an hour to download so I left it for an hour, came back only to realise it had downloaded 1% and crashed. Afterwards I tried messing around with different settings to try and get it to install but I had no luck. In that timeframe my window for refunding the game had come and gone. Does anyone have any experience getting a refund past the 2 hour period where you can auto-refund an app? If support at Stoic can't fix my issue then I'm going to see if I can do that.
On another note I was wondering if anyone has ever tried the controllers with a clip on them that holds your device above the controler? They look great for phones but I have seen some that claim they can hold tablets. I'm not sure how comfortable that would be. Alternatively I have seen telescopic controllers that attach to the sides of your device (like the nintendo switch) but they are from companies I have never heard of and seem to be of dubious quality (the Ipega for example seems to have a large dead zone with its analog sticks). Also it looks like those would cover the speaker on and the headphone jack port on my device. For now I think I'll just get an OTG cable and plug in my logitech controller, but I'd really like to have one that can hold my device at the same time without being uncomfortable.
Post by: sambojin on March 05, 2017, 06:16:23 pm
Clickpocalypse II is a Diablo themed incremental where you make a party of four characters and they roam about the countryside clearing monster infestations from dungeons. And attacking castles. Because apparently there's an endless winter happening and it's the monsters' and castle owner's fault. Probably.
Things I like about the "game": It's got a graphical representation of your party running around dungeons killing stuff. Your party selection does change how they kill stuff. You get to pick skills at level-ups, which can make your party kill stuff in different ways. There's no sound, so it's relaxingly non-repetitive. There's potions and scrolls to use, so there's stuff to click on while you're watching. The offline background mode lasts a while (3hrs), which can be boosted, so you can just load it up to collect your stuff, level-up your characters and watch it for a few minutes if you want.
Like most incrementals, you can't actually die, so it's just a matter of making the big numbers bigger. There's an actual end-point in the "game" (are incrementals really games?), so you can try out something different and see if it's faster next time. There's character unlocks and permanent bonuses to get as well.
So far I like it, as this sort of "game" goes. Some stuff is weird and I don't know what's actually efficient. Like my party of 2 priests and 2 druids looks nice, but they kill slowly. But the druids have great stats, so probably kill pretty quickly in offline mode. And I've kinda backed myself into a corner with the priests if double group-buffs don't stack, and if they're not used as stat-boosts in offline mode. I'm not sure if the druid's slow spell (essentially a web scroll) actually makes things slower to kill in online mode either. It often seems that way. Whatever.
Oh, and online means actually playing/watching, and offline means not doing that. It doesn't need an internet connection or anything.
Anyway, if you like incrementals, give it a go. The diablo-esque presentation and RPG'ness of it is kinda cool. And there's at least some player choice in the matter of party makeup and levelling order (as well as setting up potion bursts for xp/gold when actually "playing"). I hate incrementals, but if I'm going to have one on my phone, it's going to be this one.
Post by: Retropunch on March 05, 2017, 07:39:15 pm
There was someone that mentioned they liked incrementals/idle games a while back, so I've finally found one I like. Kind of. I still dislike the genre at large, but this one contains lots that I do like, so I'll give it a mention.
Clickpocalypse II is a Diablo themed incremental where you make a party of four characters and they roam about the countryside clearing monster infestations from dungeons. And attacking castles. Because apparently there's an endless winter happening and it's the monsters' and castle owner's fault. Probably.
Anyway, if you like incrementals, give it a go. The diablo-esque presentation and RPG'ness of it is kinda cool. And there's at least some player choice in the matter of party makeup and levelling order (as well as setting up potion bursts for xp/gold when actually "playing"). I hate incrementals, but if I'm going to have one on my phone, it's going to be this one.
Sounds interesting - I'll definitely give it a go. I always feel that with these games they could pretty much double your enjoyment if they made the 'playing' bit actually interesting/meaningful. It doesn't feel like it'd take much to do, but somehow none of them do it.
Post by: Frumple on March 05, 2017, 07:48:50 pm
... it's pretty unilaterally miserable, in my experience. If you make the gameplay more involved for something that is pretty literally "pointlessly drawn out grind, the game", then you have to get involved in said grind rather than just popping in to occasionally direct it. And these things are usually more or less the distilled epitome of most unfun grind possible, which is basically the whole point behind all the automation and whatnot.
If you're looking for an experience like that, though, I'm pretty sure there's more than one MMO out there that could manage. Maybe some of those tick based games that loiter around, or some of the energy gated ones with more active gameplay.
Post by: Retropunch on March 05, 2017, 08:15:20 pm
There's a few clicker games that do, actually, though don't ask me to remember their names.
... it's pretty unilaterally miserable, in my experience. If you make the gameplay more involved for something that is pretty literally "pointlessly drawn out grind, the game", then you have to get involved in said grind rather than just popping in to occasionally direct it. And these things are usually more or less the distilled epitome of most unfun grind possible, which is basically the whole point behind all the automation and whatnot.
If you're looking for an experience like that, though, I'm pretty sure there's more than one MMO out there that could manage. Maybe some of those tick based games that loiter around, or some of the energy gated ones with more active gameplay.
Yeah, things like Tap Titans do have some interaction and it's rubbish, but I don't think it'd be impossible.
If it was more like 'playing yourself will net better rewards and allow you to progress much faster, but idling is fine either' then I'd at least have some reason for getting involved rather than just sorta coming in to mess around. If not that, then there could at least be more interaction on kitting out the party/tactics or whatever. I guess I've always been looking for (I made a thread about it actually a while back) something I could leave idling and progress, but come back to it and move it along/get involved when I have time.
EDIT: only just looked at clickpocalypse II - I've already completed it!! I'd forgotten all about it actually. Yeah it's a pretty good one as far as those kinda things go, as the spells and stuff you get can help clear stuff quickly so you actually feel you're having a bit of an impact.
Post by: sambojin on March 06, 2017, 12:42:42 am
It took a fair bit of messing around in MagicDosbox, it's the old dos version of DoomRL, so there's no sound, but it works! Every keyboard button I need to play, all on the screen as a touch button. Except a->t for inventory (there was no menuing system back then), but I can probably squeak them in somewhere.
Woohoo!
Damn this version feels weird. 6d3 shotguns, different traits, one difficulty, no angel challenges....... But it's DoomRL, on my phone. That's plenty good enough anyway :D
Linky to the MagicDosbox overlay file on Chaosforge:
https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php?topic=8045.msg67126#msg67126
Post by: Retropunch on March 06, 2017, 05:01:31 am
I've finally done it! I've finally made a custom interface for DoomRL so I can play it on my phone!
It took a fair bit of messing around in MagicDosbox, it's the old dos version of DoomRL so there's no sound, but it works! Every keyboard button I need to play, all on the screen as a touch button. Except a->t for inventory (there was no menuing system back then), but I can probably squeak them in somewhere.
Woohoo!
Damn this version feels weird. 6d3 shotguns, different traits, one difficulty, no angel challenges....... But it's DoomRL, on my phone. That's plenty good enough anyway :D
Linky to the MagicDosbox overlay file on Chaosforge:
https://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php?topic=8045.msg67126#msg67126
Good work!!!! Have you gotten in touch with the developer? I'm sure they'd love to hear about it.
Post by: sambojin on March 06, 2017, 06:03:17 pm
Even more unfortunately, Chaosforge doesn't seem to want to host the files, so if anyone wants the overlay, just message me and I'll email them to you or put up a dropbox with them in it.
I might do Pyro II and the Eye of the Beholder rpg series next. Both badly need keyboard or mouse click overlays to be played at all on mobile devices. Any other suggestions of good Dos games that could use this kind of stuff? TIE Fighter might be worth a go too, since I've read that Wing Commander and Privateer work ok. Lots of flight/space sims actually. Elite 2 or 3 might be fun to try out as well.
(ps. This is why I think MagicDosbox is one of the few very worthwhile purchases on Android. Sure, regular dosbox is free, but it still leaves plenty of games completely unplayable. Have you ever tried to play MoM without right-click, or SC2000 without long-click? Or TIE Fighter at all beyond the menu screens? MDB fixes that for you, but can do damn near anything on top of it. $4 for about 10-20 good longterm PC games I like playing is plenty of value in my opinion. Even if it is a bit of a mess around to set up an interface for something as complicated/keyboardy as a roguelike. We should make a reasonable place to share overlays we made of our favourite Dos games too. MDB's forums seem to be permanently down)
(Well, Pyro II works, but that was easy to do. Just a few onscreen keyboard buttons. TIE Fighter "works", but the joystick is WAY too sensitive. The rest is fine, just a matter of setting up keypress icons in easy-to-use positions (got engines and targeting done, so just weapons, crossfire, and weapon/shield power levels to do). Maybe if I make the joystick way bigger than it looks and calibrate it incorrectly it'll be less sensitive? Who knows. I'll fiddle around a bit and then see what can be done with EotB. EotB3 has keypress movement, a few hotkeys and "all attack", so that might be enough to make it semi-playable)
Post by: BigD145 on March 06, 2017, 11:59:05 pm
Post by: sambojin on March 07, 2017, 12:08:44 am
I'm actually doing a fresh install of win95 to see if I can get the most recent version of DoomRL chugging along on it as we speak. Even just the onscreen right-click makes windows 95 doable under Magic Dosbox emulation (something that most dosboxes don't do). Turbo could, but Magic's what I've got and know how to use. Might try Turbo eventually, especially if its mouse pointer options are better than Magic's (a good absolute mouse would make some things SO much easier). It says it's experimental, so I don't know if this means it's working or not.
Turbo's got a bigger install base, which assuming you can share overlays, would be handier in general (why make an overlay if someone's already done it for you?).
Post by: penguinofhonor on March 07, 2017, 07:34:32 am
I've also been playing Mini Metro, a minimalist puzzle game where you manage a rail system. I have the PC version, but recently I discovered that there's a mobile version as well and, as far as I can tell from some quick googling, it's a quality port. The gameplay consists pretty much entirely of drawing lines, which is even easier on a touchscreen than with a mouse, so it should control pretty perfectly on tablets. I'm not as sure about phones - the screen could potentially get pretty cramped later in the game when you have a lot going on. I'd check out some screenshots and consider how small that'd be on your phone screen.
Downwell and Mini Metro both cost a few bucks ($3 and $5 respectively, IIRC) but they will never ask you for more money, and they both have plenty of replayability. If you can grab them then I'd recommend it.
Post by: LoSboccacc on March 07, 2017, 08:07:44 am
all in all it's a very fun coffee breaker.
(removed)
Post by: Toady One on March 07, 2017, 02:55:37 pm
Post by: LoSboccacc on March 07, 2017, 02:57:39 pm
Post by: AzyWng on March 07, 2017, 09:51:12 pm
It's a thing - a pretty good thing at that.
Remember to wait until you've got twenty orbs before you start a summoning session - that'll save you 5 orbs if you'd just summoned once from each session.
Post by: Aqma on March 12, 2017, 06:08:24 am
I know it has been mentioned in the cata topic, but just in case someone missed it.
The port works great on my phone, I am super happy about this one as I love cata and I only play on my phone nowadays (which means lots of searching for deep games through the sea of cash grab shallow games).
If anyone is interested it is in beta on google store, there's also a direct dl from the cata forum: http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=14090.0
Post by: sambojin on March 12, 2017, 05:34:58 pm
Admittedly, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing (never played Cataclysm before), but it can't be any worse than DF's adventure mode to pick up. The interface isn't too bad considering the huge amount of keybindings normally used in these games either. I've successfully killed a weasel and gotten killed by a fat zombie, so it "works" that well at least.
It's also incredibly well behaved, only needing 52kb on my phone, with the rest lumped onto my SD card. So it can happily reside here while I work it out. It looks to be quite deep and replayable. That's the side-loaded .apk, because the beta isn't available in Oz yet. It checks out as virus free and works, in case anyone was dubious of it.
Time to start reading that 90+ page thread on here a little further down.......
(ok, admittedly I learned nothing about cata:dda, but I did learn a fair bit about people's thoughts on spider-tanks vs tracks vs wheels. I probably should have expected that :) )
Post by: Retropunch on March 12, 2017, 07:44:55 pm
Got it working on my little 1gb ram Huwei G526-L22 with the Hodor tileset (ascii works fine too). Seems alright.
Admittedly, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing (never played Cataclysm before), but it can't be any worse than DF's adventure mode to pick up. The interface isn't too bad considering the huge amount of keybindings normally used in these games either. I've successfully killed a weasel and gotten killed by a fat zombie, so it "works" that well at least.
It's also incredibly well behaved, only needing 52kb on my phone, with the rest lumped onto my SD card. So it can happily reside here while I work it out. It looks to be quite deep and replayable. That's the side-loaded .apk, because the beta isn't available in Oz yet. It checks out as virus free and works, in case anyone was dubious of it.
Time to start reading that 90+ page thread on here a little further down.......
(ok, admittedly I learned nothing about cata:dda, but I did learn a fair bit about people's thoughts on spider-tanks vs tracks vs wheels. I probably should have expected that :) )
It's a great game, however I'd strongly suggest turning on the 'classic zombies' mode and blacklisting all the crazy sci-fi stuff, especially when you're starting out. It gets rid of all the crazy netherworld/fungus/lovecraft creatures which are difficult to deal with and can insta-kill you when you're just starting out.
I much prefer it as a classic zombie game anyway, the tough/fat/soldier/whatever zombies (plus zombie hordes and NPCs) add enough of a challenge most of the time.
Post by: sambojin on March 12, 2017, 10:45:36 pm
Post by: Aqma on March 13, 2017, 02:37:46 am
Some tips that might help you get started:
- Most starts (unless you do an advanced one) spawn you in an evac shelter. If you go outside get a rock, come back in smash a bench you can then use the wood to make a 2by4 sword. This one has decent dmg and block (more survivability). You can also smash a locker to make a makeshift crowbar from a pipe, so it gets easier to open up doors/windows.
- If you customize your char at the beginning, you can select night vision from the positive traits. This combined with scavenging buildings at night can make for a more manageable start as you will see farther at night while zombies won't be able to see you - careful though as they can still home in on you by scent/noise.
- Be careful of encumbrance, if you foresee an imminent fight drop your backpacks directly (most items will also drop), but it will free you up fast.
In any case, I should stop here, I don't want to spoil it for you. This is an incredible game with so much depth.
If you do have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I am by no means an expert at it, but I have played for a bit so might be able to help out here or there.
Also some external sites that can help:
Wiki (as the old one is down, might be difficult to find), be careful with it though - some info might be out of date as the development pace is usually quite high: http://cddawiki.chezzo.com/cdda_wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Item browser (for crafting): http://cdda-trunk.estilofusion.com/
Post by: MrStyx on March 13, 2017, 10:52:03 am
Great little roguelike. Turn based, but plays like a shooter. Different guns. Lots of enemies.
Post by: Sappho on March 14, 2017, 02:38:12 pm
Looking at the google play page, it seems some bugs and such were fixed in the latest version, and saving anytime was added. But because I got my game in a Humble Bundle, it doesn't look like I have access to updates. If I can't find a way to fix this, it might make the game unplayable, which sucks, because I'm really enjoying it otherwise.
Post by: Retropunch on March 14, 2017, 03:53:12 pm
Part of the joy is that it's so achingly 'standard RPG with no frills' - most mobile games always have stuff like base upgrading and resources you need to harvest (which in turn they can monetise) and all the rest, but this is just a isometric hack n' slash.
I played it on a 3 hour flight and the time just whizzed by. I can't imagine just sitting around playing it when I had other stuff to play, but as a time waster it's excellent.
Post by: DeKaFu on March 14, 2017, 04:58:49 pm
Looking at the google play page, it seems some bugs and such were fixed in the latest version, and saving anytime was added. But because I got my game in a Humble Bundle, it doesn't look like I have access to updates. If I can't find a way to fix this, it might make the game unplayable, which sucks, because I'm really enjoying it otherwise.
I have the same bundle but haven't tried that particular game... That said, for updates, you might have to wait for the Humble Bundle folks to replace the apk on the downloads page with an updated version. They seem to have done so already for a couple of the other games in the bundle, but not that one as yet... sending them an email might possibly speed the process along, though.
Fakeedit: Actually, that update (1.2.6) seems to be from 2014, so either you should already have it or their version is REALLY out of date.
Post by: Jopax on March 14, 2017, 05:00:47 pm
Post by: Sappho on March 14, 2017, 05:49:01 pm
Looking at the google play page, it seems some bugs and such were fixed in the latest version, and saving anytime was added. But because I got my game in a Humble Bundle, it doesn't look like I have access to updates. If I can't find a way to fix this, it might make the game unplayable, which sucks, because I'm really enjoying it otherwise.
I have the same bundle but haven't tried that particular game... That said, for updates, you might have to wait for the Humble Bundle folks to replace the apk on the downloads page with an updated version. They seem to have done so already for a couple of the other games in the bundle, but not that one as yet... sending them an email might possibly speed the process along, though.
Fakeedit: Actually, that update (1.2.6) seems to be from 2014, so either you should already have it or their version is REALLY out of date.
I just took a look at the app info on my device. It seems I have version 1.2.7. But I remember when I bought the bundle it came with a warning that some of these games are Humble-only versions and may not be the same as Play store versions. I've had issues in the past with getting a game from a bundle and it not being the version in the store, and missing features that even free (ad-supported) versions of the game had (like multiplayer). I complained to them last time and they responded that the version available in the bundle is up to the app maker, not Humble. So it seems to me that the developers/publishers are putting broken and otherwise crappy or incomplete versions of their games in bundles, for whatever reason.
If anyone else tries out the game, I'd appreciate if someone could let me know if this movement bug is present for everyone or if it's somehow specific to my device or something. I could submit a support request to Humble, but they'll just tell me to contact the developer, and the last time I did that, they never even responded. Very frustrating. You'd think I'd learn my lesson and stop buying mobile bundles...
In other news, there's a new mobile bundle, and I got it, and it has Guild of Dungeoneering and it's awesome.
Post by: Aoi on March 14, 2017, 11:23:51 pm
In other news, there's a new mobile bundle, and I got it, and it has Guild of Dungeoneering and it's awesome.
Would you say it's worth the purchase alone? That and Hero Generations are the only ones I'm remotely interested in, and it's not like my current Android library is that slim.
Edit: Picked it up. It's interesting, but if you want something highly portable... it may not be ideal, depending on your device. It's incredibly unstable for me: rotating the device has a very minor chance of most/all of the objects on the screen disappearing or it not rotating properly (so I'm left holding the phone vertically with only ~2/5ths of the playable "window" accessible), hitting the home button has a ~25% chance of rendering it unplayable, and pulling it out of sleep after an extended duration has an even higher chance of the same. It's kind of a pity, since its gameplay is entirely turnbased and there's little overarching strategy, which is good for stopping at any point, but its technical issues restrict that.
Post by: Sappho on March 15, 2017, 03:07:24 am
Post by: sambojin on March 18, 2017, 06:15:36 pm
Oh, and actually playing it properly too. I ran 50 year (the whole 25k by 2450 thing) testbeds and played with race creation for 5 hours, trying to tweak in a bit more economic oomph for a couple of races. Don't judge me.
Post by: AzyWng on March 18, 2017, 06:39:34 pm
The writing and dialogue is terrible, but the rest of the game doesn't suck, so it's definitely worth taking a look at.
Post by: Alehkhs on March 18, 2017, 08:43:45 pm
Played Stars! for about 4-5 hours last night using a touch keybind setup. I never really thought I'd have a viable use for running win311 on my phone, but now I do, and I've never been happier. Only took 5 touch keys set up to be perfectly playable. Just have to get it into SVGA mode now so the screen isn't quite as cramped.
Oh, and actually playing it properly too. I ran 50 year (the whole 25k by 2450 thing) testbeds and played with race creation for 5 hours, trying to tweak in a bit more economic oomph for a couple of races. Don't judge me.
Windows 3.11 is pretty much the first thing I put on a new phone, so I can haul Civ2 v2.42 (complete with live-action Council!) around in my pocket. :D
Post by: sambojin on March 20, 2017, 04:13:16 am
It's already a monster. But there's more economy available if I lower the habitability. It's easy mode right now. Might even hex-edit it in as an AI race for a horrible challenge .exe.
It's called "Fear". If anyone actually still plays Stars!, this is what we all worried about, and why most MP games ban CA and HE (the Hyper Expanders. Yeah, I'm getting two versions of that race "acceptable" as well).
Ever started playing a game again 20 years after it was cool? Maybe 25 years in this case...... :)
Post by: sambojin on March 21, 2017, 05:40:15 pm
Basically it's a puzzle roguelite('ish) game. You explore the dungeons, work out which order is the best to kill the creatures in with your chosen character, then kill the boss when you can. So exactly like DD, or like Gumballs & Dungeons super-lite edition.
There's a free trial with 5 dungeons and 4 characters available, and the full version is quite cheap ($3.45 Aussie, so about $2.50 US). It's got a couple of tilesets too, so it works ok on a range of display resolutions and you're not scrolling constantly to see the dungeon. Fairly small phone footprint too (5mb or so, 20mb on SD).
Kind of glad I found it, because I've wanted DD on my phone for a while. I'll probably buy the full version just because it's that, even if it is a knockoff clone.
Post by: Aoi on March 21, 2017, 10:17:29 pm
Dungeon Ascendance isn't a bad little Desktop Dungeons clone. There's not much else to say about it. It's that, but it works on your phone (DD is tablet only)
The version of DD via HB works on my phone, nominally. I can't seem to control it as well as I'd like, and I can't seem to actually focus on it well enough to get anywhere (whereas my tablet has it at almost 100% completion), but I've done a few stages.
Post by: itisnotlogical on March 31, 2017, 07:40:56 pm
Post by: sambojin on March 31, 2017, 09:55:30 pm
It is, however, completely awesome. So I'm buying the full version now. $2? For a proper twin-stick shooter? Done. Cheers for the great find :)
Post by: itisnotlogical on March 31, 2017, 10:22:20 pm
Post by: sambojin on March 31, 2017, 10:39:57 pm
Just got a freeze blast shotgun/flamer, and a rail gun, after accidentally ditching my twin bouncer but died next level on the boss (hierophant, lvl12). There's some pretty fun weapons, and plenty of challenge on offer. Especially considering this is the easiest of the "proper" modes. Great game, no IAPs other than a $2 purchase for the whole game, small 4.5mb footprint, and fun gameplay without a whole lot of early level grind/slog until the fun bits. It's all pretty fun from the word go.
Seem to be accidentally using my dash most times after energy recharges, but that's mostly just because I'm using that bit for my adaptive control movements. I'll get used to using a different bit of the screen eventually, or just use locked controls. Controls are pretty tight otherwise, and you can tailor them to your liking sensitivity-wise too.
I even got the "take no damage" achievement for one of the bosses. Nice.
(Got to lvl16. Damn the Shrapnel is a good all-purpose weapon. Makes stuff explode when they die (including temp walls), so it sets up death chains beautifully. Mostly too short of a range for bosses, but great for everything else.)
Post by: DeKaFu on April 03, 2017, 04:09:48 pm
I just got the Android 7 update today, and when I launched the game again.... Wow. It's running everything at literally twice the speed it was before!
Now I'm unsure whether it's broken now (difficulty jump is ridiculous) or whether I've been unintentionally playing on easy mode this whole time due to some serious slowdown... :P
So now I'm curious which speed is normal, and if it's unintentional or I just need to git gud.
For reference, uhh... On my game now, the ninja girl shoots her fireball around once every 0.5 seconds? Also stage 3.1 Normal takes 1 minute 42 seconds from start to the first "incoming boss" message. Anyone else able to compare?
Post by: sambojin on April 03, 2017, 10:02:03 pm
The homing lightning & butterfly girl seems to pulse out butterflies about once a second (at lvl28). Maybe every 1/2 second? That's on android 4.1.2, on a crappy phone. Does this match up with your experience?
Seems about the same pace as before to me, so it's probably not just a game update, unless 3-1 is considerably ramped up from 2-10 in speed.
(note: this is a very cool shoot'em up. If you haven't, try it out. It's fun, especially if you try and go for scores instead of just progression)
Post by: DeKaFu on April 04, 2017, 10:38:37 am
I ended up just looking on youtube, and my new speed actually seems about the same as this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYZ1JWnmwcw), except with a bit less slowdown on the bosses. So... I guess it's legit and I just suck. :P
Guess I should be pleased with the big performance upgrade from the new OS, in that case, but I liked the high scores I was getting before.... XD Oh well.
Post by: Frumple on April 04, 2017, 04:21:39 pm
... I've actually done something similar a few times with PC shooters and BES. For whatever reason, most SHMUP devs don't program granular speed control into their options :P
Post by: sambojin on April 04, 2017, 05:28:35 pm
I also found that some bonus types seem to give more slowdown than others. Try out cakes and stuff and see if that affects the speed. Also, flooding the screen with bonuses usually gives some frame lag, so try out an outfit that increases your magic'y circle size, to make it easier to get heaps of points flying out of everything.
Post by: itisnotlogical on April 15, 2017, 05:38:44 am
Post by: Aqma on April 25, 2017, 04:53:36 am
It's sort of a Terraria meets Minecraft game, but actually built for mobile (fluid touch control, unlike Terraria/MC that rely on virtual gamepads and sometimes clunky controls). The graphics are very nice and it seems to have a lot to explore with digging, multiple planets, building etc.
For the ones wondering, the IAPs are mainly cosmetic (hats, gold logo, background for main menu), the ones non cosmetic seem to be for a full crafting book and planets unlock - it seems this is stuff that you unlock naturally by playing the game but the paid option is there for people that want everything immediately (probably spoiling the experience). So it seems like a sort of donation stuff if you want to support the dev further not locked content, which is fine for me as I hate cash grab /gated IAP games with ardor.
Post by: Sappho on April 25, 2017, 07:08:48 am
Not exactly a cheap mobile game either... Though not expensive, if it's as good as it seems to be. 160 kc... Is that about $6? A little more than that?
EDIT: Is multiplayer available on the mobile version? Or is that for the computer only?
Post by: Aqma on April 25, 2017, 12:56:36 pm
I was doing some research yesterday before buying and it seems it is already implemented for pc & ios.
I hope they manage to get it in fast, my wife is also interested and playing in 2 is so much more fun!
I'm even torn between playing more now or waiting for multiplayer to experience the stuff together with her haha.
Post by: sambojin on May 10, 2017, 02:10:03 am
Its got a real X-wing Miniatures Battle (a Fantasy Flight Games Starwars boardgame thingo that I quite enjoy) feel to it, but simpler. Or maybe Battlefleet Gothic, but with only forward firing arcs, so that you're racing around everywhere, hiding behind asteroids, spamming abilities and trying to get on the enemy's six, so that you can laser them to death without taking any damage yourself.
In all, its very cool. The graphics are pretty basic and retro (think of an old Asteroid's clone/radar screen aesthetic), control is pretty easy (just move your little arrows to where you want them and hit end turn after you've moved them all, or tap on an arrow and choose an ability once every two turns if you're undamaged. Everything auto-fires when in range) and not too deep. There are quite a few ship abilities, but only 1-2 per ship. It's very reminiscent of Turn Based Racing, but more fun, because there's lasers and combat and wild 180 degree formation turn jousting passes to set up. And torpedoes that I can't hit with for the life of me.
Anyway, give it a go. I'm sure it'll be right up some people's alley. I don't know if its got a huge long-term depth to it, but I'm having fun with it for now. If it ever gets point-based fleet list construction and multiplayer, this will be truly awesome and will reside on my phone permanently.
Post by: Folly on May 10, 2017, 07:22:41 am
It's a gacha game with slingshot/pinball combat style. Each hero has 3 unique abilities and one of three different movement styles, making for lots of diverse gameplay styles.
The RPG treadmill is well honed; I hit a stage I could not beat within the first hour, and had to find some way to upgrade my units before I could progress, and I've been repeating ever since to make gradual progress through the game.
IAP seems reasonable. VIP bonuses are considerable, but you can get them through daily logins, so being entirely F2P is possible. The first rank is the only one that significantly affects gameplay, expanding your team size from 3 to 4, and you can get that from either a $0.99 purchase or playing for a week; I did the former and have easily played the game enough to justify it.
Events are frequent and rewarding. There are also a bunch of daily missions, all of which keeps me coming back for more.
Definitely recommend.
Post by: Aoi on May 10, 2017, 06:31:11 pm
I've been playing Hyper Heroes on my android phone, basically nonstop for the last week. Picked it up after it was featured on Google Play.
Does it pick up any later on? I've just finished chapter 2 with 3*s on all stages with the exact same strategy: Put the Paladin where it can taunt the most stuff, send the Flame Dame through the Paladin, send the swordsman bouncing into as many things as possible, ideally through P/FD. Repeat until the boss shows up, unload active skills on the weak spot, otherwise use standard attacks to reposition.
Post by: sambojin on May 11, 2017, 02:52:04 am
As an aside, the auto play AI is pretty good until you get your blue skills, at which point it turns retarded (it seems to favour low damage AoEs over high damage combos).
Post by: Folly on May 12, 2017, 06:02:12 am
Post by: Retropunch on May 12, 2017, 06:11:58 am
It's a dungeon crawler in the vein of Legends of Grimrock or Might and Magic, but just combat and loot based (no quests, puzzles or anything). Pretty fun time-killer, and does get a bit deeper in terms of tactics later on (it starts off seeming extremely straight forward).
Only major downside is that the saves don't seem to work great - you have to finish a level for it to save, so if you have to quit mid level (which does happen) you lose all progress and loot. This is even though it says that you can save and quit. Not really been a problem for me as each level is about 10 minutes or so.
Post by: itisnotlogical on May 16, 2017, 04:47:38 pm
I probably won't pay to get the full version, but it's a cute distraction. I have to admit a lot of the charm is in the obvious amateur/indie quality of it.
Post by: Retropunch on May 17, 2017, 07:16:36 pm
Exiled Kingdoms is a hack-and-slash RPG thing in "beta" which I though Google Play didn't allow those but whatever. It's kinda awkward, the interface is ugly and I suspect a lot of the art is stolen, but it's still kinda charming. One thing is that it appears to be an actual game with a beginning, middle and end, not an infinitely repeating upgrade-a-thon like so many single-player mobile games seem to be.
I probably won't pay to get the full version, but it's a cute distraction. I have to admit a lot of the charm is in the obvious amateur/indie quality of it.
Don't know if I talked about this a few pages ago or not, but I'm a big fan and bought the full game (which I think is worth it) a while back - as you say, it's one of the few games which actually has a sort of plot which you move through with a main quest and side quests that have some actual story. In one quest for instance, you journey into a cave which is full of bugs, and you find the hive queen and talk to her, which leads you on to another quest. Nothing spectacular, but much more engaging than most mobile games - it feels like the creator has decided to make a proper CRPG on a phone, rather than a phone game which is an RPG.
Difficult to describe more, but I was talking with a friend about it and we agreed that the best way to think of it was kinda like a really basic Icewind Dale mixed with Diablo. It has a lot of charm with it, and whilst clunky it's very functional (no game breaking bugs, everything sorta works). The creator is also constantly releasing new areas and content, all of which is a definite improvement.
Well worth a go if you're in the mood for that kinda thing
Post by: Folly on May 18, 2017, 02:13:46 pm
Cards have enough variety to allow for some strategy, but there is also a significant progression grind, with card upgrades and discovery of rare cards offering major increases in your deck's capability.
There are daily quests, and frequent competitions that allow players to get better cards and upgrading resources, creating incentive to log in each day and keep playing.
The developers have done a fairly effective job of capturing the humor of the source shows, with characters in the game regularly making quippy comments. If you enjoy shows like Futurama, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Bob's Burgers, and American Dad, then you'll probably appreciate the style of this game.
Post by: Scripten on May 18, 2017, 04:10:11 pm
I've been playing Animation Throwdown on my Android phone for about a week now. It's a card game themed around 5 different FOX cartoons, in a mega-crossover type scenario.
Cards have enough variety to allow for some strategy, but there is also a significant progression grind, with card upgrades and discovery of rare cards offering major increases in your deck's capability.
There are daily quests, and frequent competitions that allow players to get better cards and upgrading resources, creating incentive to log in each day and keep playing.
The developers have done a fairly effective job of capturing the humor of the source shows, with characters in the game regularly making quippy comments. If you enjoy shows like Futurama, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Bob's Burgers, and American Dad, then you'll probably appreciate the style of this game.
I'd have likely snagged this one if it wasn't overloaded with Macfarlane's brand of unfunny, abysmally inane tripe. Perhaps the ads misrepresent the game itself, but almost everything I've seen thus far have focused solely on Family Dad and American Guy. Is the game itself different? I could manage if it's possible to focus on the other shows and generally avoid those two.
(Apologies to any fans of the series I've been trashing. I've just run into far too many overly long ads for this game.)
Post by: Folly on May 18, 2017, 04:36:26 pm
I could manage if it's possible to focus on the other shows and generally avoid those two.
You pick one of the shows at the start and that defines your starting deck, and it's certainly possible to stick with cards exclusively from that show, or mix only with the shows that you like. Though, if you chance upon a very rare card from a show you dislike, you may be handicapping yourself slightly by not adding it to your deck.
Your opponents will be made up of all the shows however, so you can't avoid them entirely.
Post by: Scripten on May 18, 2017, 10:58:23 pm
Post by: itisnotlogical on May 20, 2017, 03:51:24 pm
Post by: Folly on May 23, 2017, 07:18:19 pm
Post by: sambojin on May 26, 2017, 01:03:47 pm
Post by: sambojin on June 01, 2017, 04:11:04 am
Clash of Cars is yet-another-.io game that made it onto mobile. It's a multiplayer crash/shoot'em up in cars, that is one of the better ones I've seen of this genre (there's heaps of them about). Good for a little 5-10 min burst play, with fairly good controls, and kind of fun weapons.
And as a question, what PS2 games have others gotten to run through the Play! emulator? So far Warriors Orochi 1, Dragon Quest VIII and Global Defense Force (E.D.F 1) all "work", but at about 2-3FPS, so not really playable. But since there's phones and tablets out there with 5-10x the graphics and processing power of mine, perhaps some decent framerates are possible. There's a few graphics glitches, but it does "run" them properly, actual gameplay etc (not just to menus/title screen). Anyone tried it out?
You can find it here, if you want to give it a go:
http://purei.org/
Post by: Folly on June 01, 2017, 02:12:06 pm
Post by: Frumple on June 01, 2017, 04:09:09 pm
Post by: Aoi on June 01, 2017, 05:46:12 pm
Post by: Aoi on June 02, 2017, 06:07:16 am
After a few days of play so far, it's actually not as bad as my intro makes it sound, but it's obvious that's the direction it could take towards endgame. So far, I've moved along at a good pace, unlocked a few alternative ships, and feel like it's given me a more than fair shot.
There's a pretty good co-op matchmaking function that, as far as I can tell, pops up an alert on random other people's screen if they're not in a stage, inviting them to join. It's never taken more than 5sec for somebody to join on me yet. (Based on the intro stage, I suspect it'll give you an AI if you don't get anybody in 30sec.) There's really no reason not to do this as the rewards are the same, plus you get friendship currency, which you can use to get a lot of the same stuff as cash-currency.
Post by: Frumple on June 06, 2017, 07:53:49 pm
Immediate note of the downsides, just to drive away folks from the start: The game engrishy as all hell, grindy as goddamn and has multiple breakpoints where you'll find yourself slamming head first into a giant wall of incandescent Fuck You In Particular until you grind out almost obnoxious amounts of resources and progression, it's pretty slow in general, the gameplay itself is both fairly hands off, somewhat approaching clumsy/buggy, and can very easily be brutally unforgiving anyway, there are ads (post battle, generally, but most of the time you can just hit whatever your back button is and get right back to the game. They're pretty painless as mobile games go.), and there's probably other stuff I'm forgetting to boot. Game has flaws you can sling a wave motion gun shot through.
Despite this, this damn thing has been on and playing close to 24/7 for the last several days, on and going with me giving it at least half an eye while I do just about everything but drive, bathe, and sleep. What it basically amounts to is being the captain of a 2D side-scrolling Gundam space fleet, complete with giant mecha, massive space battles with gigantic tracts of your screen space covered in laser beams and explosions, and alternate dimension F18s that will drag you to the side of the space lanes and violently sodomize your everything. Also war crimes. War crimes as far as the eye can see. okay, it's mostly just one war crime vigorously repeated -- the game's what-amounts-to-bonus-level that sporadically pops up consists of you chasing down and violently murdering an immigration fleet; i.e. a colonization fleet filled with who knows how many millions of civilians. This has one of the best time/return cost ratios for much of the game, and remains one of the better sources of population for even longer; also the main immigration ship, for all you won't be able to buy it for pretty much ever -- its cost is straight 9s, and I'm pretty sure the game's gold cap -- is one of the strongest ships in the entire game
Gameplay is pretty simple, all told -- you have all of 10 buttons that actually do anything gameplay wise, one of which chooses your flagship's targeting priorities (you can target manually, but you will probably not hit shit if you do), four which designates targeting priority and formation for your allies (manually separable by ship type into three groups, plus your hanger minions), four which turn on and off your weapons and ship-board ally launching (which can be commanded with one of that first four-group), and one button to retreat. With these, you fly through side-scrolling levels, blowing everything to hell as you progress mini-boss (usually just mildly beefed up normal enemies) by mini-boss, until it culminates in an end-stage boss fight, all of which are giving a solid go at returning the favor. Along the way, you collect money, population, and loot, then you go back home, spend loot on upgrades and allies, and repeat the process all over again.
The big bit, is the loot. Which is also the monster collectathon. Your enemies can drop their everything, with some mild caveats (several types are rolled up into a single type for your minions, ferex) -- their weapons, their design schematics (which lets you build them, upgrade them with money, and use excess schematics to upgrade the design through murder), their subweapons, generators, if they have it, you can murder them and take it. This, mind you, also includes the end-stage bosses. The asteroid fortress you run into in the first few levels? My current playthrough is using that as its primary flagship.* That bastard on saturn (or uranus or jupiter... can't quite remember which it was) that is probably going to be your first roadblock? If I pull together enough money and murder it enough to get its design, I can build that, drive it, outfit my supporting fleet with it, and if things get really frisky I might be able to stick it in my flagship's hanger and use it as my freespawn murderfodder. If I have enough load space (most boss items are incredibly heavy, several times the largest available space you'll have for a while -- don't worry, after a bit you start getting access to ships that can mount some), I can take their weapons and smash fleets to the metaphorical space ground with them.
Which leads to pretty much the rest of the game. You collect money and people by killing things, and spend them on earth for world investments (which unlocks a bunch of stuff, mostly formations and difficulty level access for individual stages, but also the occasional ship) and developing weapons (which you'll probably rather pick up, but sometimes development will let you get a weapon a bit ahead of the curve and sometimes you just don't want to grind that one enemy in an available stage) and ships (which have to be developed initially to use, but cost less as the level rises via pickup). Also you can change the ability/skill you're leveling and promote your character if you've sent enough things to the grave (which primarily unlocks new skills, but also -- and rather importantly -- increases the number of non-hanger ally ships you can bring along) and spend resources (generally end of the level, well... resources... that's your third currency, used for chips and development) to upgrade "chips", which are basically special abilities (such as better auto-aim, more hanger space, faster distance coverage, status resistances, etc.), 23 in all and the lot of them random drops from specific stages.** Then you pop up to orbit, adjust your ship loadout (or not) and fleet composition (if you're not broke or don't want to), and repeat the process.
... and that's the formula. You go, you kill in epic 2D space genocide competitions or get blown to hell trying,*** you come home, tweak your ill gotten gains, then do it again. Theoretically there's a plot but A) it doesn't matter and B) it's sufficiently poorly translated (no ill word at the dev, though, the current version is still going through the translation process) you probably won't understand it anyway. The graphics are fairly low-fi pixel-y, but it's the kind of 2d low-fi that means several hundred/thousand projectiles and a few dozen ships can all be on the same screen, and are generally good enough for what they do, there's sound but I haven't bothered to listen to it, but mostly you're just driving your ride and accompanying minions through a hell wall of death and jink, and it's pretty damn great, particularly if you're fairly fond of mostly hands-off games that still have a bit of investment and need for attention. Reminds me of an RPG-ish 2D side scrolling Liberation Army, and that is a complement and a bloody half.
Anyway. Initial caveats aside, I'm basically loving this vaguely beautiful attempt at putting you in the driver seat of the space fleets in a giant robot anime, and after this much time sunk, feel this bloody thing needs to have a recommendation.
Couple parting tips: Carrier allies increase your hanger space, up to a maximum of 3 -- this is very, very nice once you get superweapon level load space, since it means you can stuff another three full on cruisers into your mechapocket. Also on the ally front, once you find yourself with melee weapons (you'll know them because they're little no-range crescents that probably seem completely bloody useless when you first try one out) and proper gunboats (not the little patrol boat or whatever, the type will say gunboat instead of small boat), you will be very interested to know having those gunboats in your fleet increases your weapon range at a ratio of 1 per two gunboats, max of +2 at four boats... and that includes the melee weapons.
This will turn the previously complete crap melee weapons into the deadliest mid/short-mid-ish range weapons you will have access to for a very, very long time, particularly if you manage to off a metal SF or murakumo and get their swords to drop, and render the previously kinda' iffy SF mecha into tiny little deathbeasts, particularly once you hit the initial specialist and beyond. Also gunboat+metal or murakumo sword is quite possible the best anti-projectile piece of equipment you will find for basically ever so far as your sub slot goes -- if you're having trouble with something that shoots a single large projectile into your face, or fires in a straight line, hunt yourself down one of those two, get your gunboats, and laugh in the face of glowing projectile death.
And don't forget to visit the wormhole when it first shows up! Leaf 32 is a wonderful place full of money and glee that you'll want to avoid bringing your friends to when you initially scope it out unless you're already flush with cash and have some excess population laying around.
* It's the cheapest thing you can buy that's able to mount boss weapons and actually do anything... and more importantly, if it can mount boss weapons it can mount most ships you'll see for a while, so you get to stop spitting those piddly mass produced mecha or tiny boat ships or fighter planes out of your hanger and start spitting full fledged battleships. Also has a pretty decent sized hanger, which is just icing.
** Tip: Farm the training ground until you get its chip. Farm the training ground until you get its chip. I think it might be a guaranteed drop, but if it isn't, keep popping the deathstar balloon yes there is a deathstar balloon until the chip falls out. It's what lets you speed up the rate fights progress, and is the difference between getting ten hours of progress in ten hours and getting fourteen.
*** Very much bonus points because you are going to die, the losses for your flagship getting blown up are usually pretty small. You don't lose anything you collected up till that point in the stage, and as near as I can tell the only costs involved are replacing any non-hanger allies that may have gotten ganked in the process of your ignoble end, most of which are fairly cheap. Key word there being most. You get that asteroid fortress minion blown up and you just lost a few dozen thousand gold and a good twelve thousand lives. Deployment and crew costs go down as ship design level goes up, but the big ones cost so much it's going to be a long time before it makes much of a difference for 'em.
Post by: AzyWng on June 07, 2017, 08:20:30 am
The language seems to be Japanese, by the way.
Post by: Frumple on June 07, 2017, 11:30:43 am
And yeah, quick double check suggests the translated version's only (legitimately) available through the google store. If you're stuck with apple there's not much I can do besides give a halfhearted prayer for your damned soul.
Post by: sambojin on June 09, 2017, 03:56:13 am
I was really surprised, but I like it. Just something I can come back to, with theoretically no progression caps (or rather, lots of incremental progression available, but can probably be free-to-play with that as well. I still am so far). It's like if Tyrian wasn't just "Get Laser, you already have Sonic Wave, you're finished now."
There might be some BS eventually, but the stamina system is a non-issue, replaying levels can still get you better stuff, and the IAPs are nice yet kinda pricey, but probably not entirely necessary. I'll see how it is in a week or two. I've got too much work to play much for now. Need sleep.
But quite a good shoot'em up, something which is surprisingly lacking on mobile platforms. There's openTyrian, ShooMachi, a few pure grinders, and a few pure Jap style shooters. I don't like that coins and bullets look vaguely similar to each other. I do like a heap of other things in the game. Once you've got two robo-buddies, you don't feel like you're doing nothing alongside far more progressed players, and they're free after a couple of hours of play. After that, there's plenty more stuff, and nearly uncapped grind/replay/whatever available there. It's quite charming really. No swift kick to the balls, but with ALL the trappings of a mobile game. It's nice. Not ShooMachi or Tyrian nice, but somewhere in between while being around that level of accessibility.
Post by: sambojin on June 18, 2017, 06:32:04 am
Just play it exactly like you would a twin-stick shooter, except it has a heap of auto-aim, so your second stick is more-so target selection, rather than precise aiming. Use the accessory buttons, but usually not the fire buttons, because the second stick fires both weapons nicely. Maybe there's some setups that you could "pre-prime" weapon reloads to get a constant stream of fire going, but I haven't fiddled with it too much yet.
Anyway, try it out. It has the standard mecha weapons, it has objective based play, and it has minefields. Seriously, you can lay mines that only your team can see. Between two green lasers and two miners as a basic loadout, it becomes a different game.
If you like mecha, if you like twin-stick shooters, if you like smashing people that haven't worked out the controls properly yet, or if you like being an arsehole like me that baits people into running their mech through a minefield, give it a go. It's very basic so far on where the game could go (it's very early in its release), I'm pretty sure there's AI bots in many matches (hopeless ones to fill spots on teams, not hacked ones), and it's a bit screwy on team-work (no guilds etc yet), but I've had more fun out of this as my mecha fix than I have from anything else in ages.
I'm "GFB-sambojin" on there if you happen to get blown up by a retreating laser mech. Or if they make an actual guild system one day (someone said, "want to be in my guild? Throw those letters at the start of your name". I figured, why not? I can always change it back)
Post by: sambojin on June 18, 2017, 06:42:53 am
Post by: Aoi on June 18, 2017, 10:58:46 pm
Oh, and Weapon Throwing RPG 2 just came out. I quite like part 1, just as a cutesy grinder, so I'll try this one out once I'm done smashing noobs in the above. I'm sick as, so while I'm stuck in bed sniffling, sneezing and coughing, this'll help me take my mind off the flu.
Did that first one ever actually end? The last line of dialogue I got implied that there would be a final encounter, but a new zone or island never opened. (This is after you unlock the 'hidden' zone by winning in the area.)
Post by: Frumple on June 19, 2017, 08:23:24 am
That said, the sequel is feeling a bit unstable. Getting intermittent crashes on this device. Doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, unfortunately. Hopefully it'll clear up in the future, and even if not it's still pretty playable, just occasionally annoying.
Post by: Aoi on June 19, 2017, 11:11:33 pm
Desktop Dungeons, previously bundled, but, though I liked it on PC, adored it on tablet, it makes me want to pitch my phone out the window.
Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic, previously bundled for PC, is a moderately interesting linear RPG with a sort of Knights of Pen and Paper vibe, for better or for worse.
Sproggiwood I enjoyed on PC, and it's a rather intriguingly grim story put in a rather colorful wrapper. Same developer as Caves of Qud, as I recall. Pretty easy if you're a seasoned gamer of this persuasion, but fun nonetheless.
Also features bit Dungeon I/II, Road Less Taken, Dungelot, Heroes of Loot 2, and Star Chindy, none of which I can comment on.
Post by: Aoi on June 20, 2017, 05:06:32 am
It's effectively a real-time menu-driven survival PvP game. You have your character with various traits, and you're on an island with about 15 different zones. Each zone has different items that can be found (just tap) and you need to craft yourself up a set of equipment to kill the other 9 players on the island before they get to you. The crafting recipes are mostly (if not all) already shown, and there's a tracker that indicates what zones have said item. Every 3 minutes, some zones will kill anybody in them, and, later on, get locked out entirely.
The complexities come in from a few areas-- fighting people takes time, and that means less time gearing up to fight the other 8. Armor or weapons first? If you're in the newbie league, almost everybody is running the default starter character-- which means there's likely to be competition for mats of his primary weapon type. If you're on the losing end of a fight, where do you flee to? The hospital zone can drop some powerful restoratives, but your pursuer knows that as well; you might be better off running to a random area, resting, and hoping they don't have any way to track you.
The gameplay itself is actually pretty tepid, but it's pretty interesting how it comes together. It took me about 8 matches before I finally clocked my first win-- somewhat disappointingly, the second to last survivor declined to join me in the only non-death zone for a final brawl, instead just letting himself time out. =(
Post by: sambojin on June 20, 2017, 01:45:49 pm
There's a new weapon too. Kind of a pulse laser thing. Seems to be quite good.
Now the amount of mines you can drop with faster reloads just gets silly. And people are starting to learn how to use them to their advantage, even if they didn't drop them. Yay!
Post by: sambojin on June 23, 2017, 07:06:24 am
But it's been the only team game I've ever played on mobile that is entirely balanced and fair. Everyone has every option at their disposal. First time scrub, or seasoned player, it's a level playing field in the game. No level'ing, no stamina, just a vaguely fair 5v5 match-up. And even when it isn't, you can bottle or try to run-Armok with no downsides.
The best mecha game on Android right now.
I actually went VIP for 6 months ($38 aussie) just so the russian developers can keep developing and keep the servers up. And when have you ever known me to pay for anything? It's fun enough, and you don't get anything than server/dev costs paid for your money, and a custom paintjob for your mech. I'm running Khorne Berserker, aka: the Big Maccas Truck. Red and gold, all the way.
Anyway, matchmaking/guilds should be in soon (the dev, System, jumps into chat a bit, and speaks a good bit of english), so jump in. Best, fairest, mecha game on mobile by far. Every build has counters, skill takes a part in it, but so does insight and teamwork.
Give it burl. Robots.io
Deceptively simple fun. With mecha. With no grind (unless you've got a weekend to spare. I made top 10. But I won't be there next week. Too much other stuff to do).
Post by: Folly on June 28, 2017, 06:40:57 pm
Post by: MoonyTheHuman on June 29, 2017, 01:58:55 am
I highly recommend you try it on a tablet device (Stylus recommended) because it's great fun no matter what you play it on.
Post by: DeKaFu on June 29, 2017, 07:51:18 am
I've been wanting some roguelikes for my phone, but I never know how many of these are designed for tablets instead and would be too hard to use on a smaller screen. The Desktop Dungeons description notes that that's true for it, at least.
I think I've heard good things about Sproggiwood, but depending on the quality of the port / controls, maybe it'd be better to just grab it on PC...
Post by: Scripten on June 29, 2017, 08:46:00 am
Anyone have any thoughts on these? https://www.humblebundle.com/mobile/roguelikes-mobile-bundle
I've been wanting some roguelikes for my phone, but I never know how many of these are designed for tablets instead and would be too hard to use on a smaller screen. The Desktop Dungeons description notes that that's true for it, at least.
I think I've heard good things about Sproggiwood, but depending on the quality of the port / controls, maybe it'd be better to just grab it on PC...
I'm currently enjoying Dungelot and Pixel Heroes, so those work on phone screens. Granted, I have a Pixel XL so my screen size is at the higher end.
Post by: Aoi on June 29, 2017, 03:03:46 pm
Anyone have any thoughts on these? https://www.humblebundle.com/mobile/roguelikes-mobile-bundle
I have a write up on some of them a few posts up, but since then:
Dungelot plays a bit like Gumballs and Dungeons (which is GREAT, at least for the first few dozen hours... then it turns into a completionists slog, which I'm still on). I'd stick with G&D, myself. Note that G&D requires always-on.
Road Less Taken is... Interesting. More discovery than puzzle than I'd like, but fascinating nonetheless.
Star Chindy I want to like, but I can't get the hang of space combat. The tactical bits are fun though.
Sproggiwood's plays fine on my phone. Uses a digital DPad by default, which is fine for the action it requires. Still as easy and hauntingly disturbing as I recall.
These have no problems with phone play, at least at the 5" tier. Also, I wouldn't call most of these roguelikes, if you're looking for something more on the Nethack or DCSS side of the spectrum. (As a point of reference I also don't consider Spleunky or Isaac roguelikes, but that's for elsewhere.)
Edit: Okay, Sproggiwood's suffers from screen size issues in the later stages; there are some enemies with ranged attacks that can hit you from off-center with minimal warning (though I guess you could technically avoid it by not being in a straight line from any hostile on the minimap).
Post by: Folly on June 29, 2017, 06:16:56 pm
I have not played, but the reviews I've read all say the same thing. Gameplay is an exact clone of Mobile Strike, multiple payment-popups on literally every screen, overwhelming pay-to-win factor at high level, and dialogue which does not reflect the characters and lore from FFXV at all. Seems pretty clear that this is one to avoid like the plague.
Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow
This game just launched yesterday, and I've only put about an hour in. So far I'd give the humor 7/10, gameplay 3/10. Might be worth checking out if you're a diehard Futurama fan, but otherwise it's pretty 'meh'.
Post by: frostshotgg on June 29, 2017, 08:56:40 pm
Post by: itisnotlogical on June 30, 2017, 10:32:12 am
The only microtransaction feature that I've seen is save states, which you can either watch an ad to use or pay for the "pro" version. There's also an ad when you first start the game, but none that I've seen during gameplay (except on the emulator pause/options screen.)
Post by: Aoi on July 04, 2017, 07:57:08 pm
TThat said, the sequel is feeling a bit unstable. Getting intermittent crashes on this device. Doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, unfortunately. Hopefully it'll clear up in the future, and even if not it's still pretty playable, just occasionally annoying.
I didn't have a problem with it until earlier today (other than what felt like frustratingly long load times for something that shouldn't need it) when, it didn't just crash itself, but my entire phone rebooted. Never seen that happen...
Edit: Oh. And don't blow all your gems on junk to 100% until you open the second gem store or you may regret it.
Fate/Grand Order got translated to English. And it's an unbelievably awful translation. Multi-million dollar franchise's easiest entry point and they couldn't be bothered to spend more than spare change on a translation.
I didn't think it was *that* bad for the first 40 minutes or so, but OH. MY. is it talky, and it's frankly slow and not very engaging dialogue. I think I've had four instances of combat so far, taking a combined 5 minutes or so, excluding the tutorial battle.
Post by: Folly on July 11, 2017, 01:33:02 pm
Been playing this a couple days now and still enjoying it.
It's essentially an Idle game, and possibly the first I've tried without a click/tap-spam mechanic. Though I suppose sliding rocks around isn't much better.
You mine rocks, then combine those rocks to make bigger rocks, then take those big rocks and smash monsters with them so you can loot coins from their corpses which you spend upgrading your rocks to make them more shiny so you can bash even bigger monsters for even more coins. Standard idle-game treadmill.
Protip: You get gems from the daily quests. Invest your first 50 gems in 'Upgrade super combination skill'. 10% doesn't seem like much, but it's pretty huge.
Post by: sambojin on July 12, 2017, 01:50:21 pm
Clan system is in. Custom (set matchmaking, not random) games are in.
Mortars, buzzsaws, shotguns, railguns and mini-nukes(!) are in.
Had a really fun morning trying out all the new combos.
Post by: Aoi on July 14, 2017, 03:26:24 pm
Grow Stone Online (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.supercat.stone&hl=en)
That was a hypnotic waste of an evening.
Also, for everybody that has idles and is on an actual device: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ss.proximityservice is a handy add-on that shuts off your screen when the light sensor is dark. That is, phone's face down on the table.
Post by: Aqma on July 19, 2017, 01:55:45 am
I was skeptical at first as I find card games very limitted, but man is this a nice one. It is smooth, quite deep once you start getting into it, sessions are fast and I find the graphics pleasing.
The purchase structure is one of the best I've seen in a game, you can basically play it for free and you get a timer on opening the chest at the end of each run. With one IAP purchase, you can basically unlock instantly the chests going forward, so it's a sort of buy the iap to unlock the game completely but otherwise you can play for free also just a bit slower.
Post by: sambojin on July 19, 2017, 09:21:30 pm
https://everyplay.com/videos/45196834
(no, they can't see those mines, but you and your teammates can)
Playing a fair bit of Hawk: Freedom Squadron too. It's still quite a good shoot'em up, even though I'll apparently hit a pay/gems wall eventually. Seems fine for now. Just a slow burner, that I incessantly want to overgrind on, because I like sh'mups. I can happily say it's not p2w (the two first free extra ships are some of the best) , it just might be pay-to-progress eventually.
Post by: Aoi on July 23, 2017, 07:57:00 pm
Each stage takes place on a board that effectively functions like a pinball/pachinko field, and you have "balls"(soldiers) that get flung into the board with force you can select. They go bouncing around the field, knocking out invading units, activating mechanics, dying, or falling out of the play area. Depending on your units, they do varying amounts of damage, change the number of balls you get, etc. Some stages have you trying to manipulate levers to navigate the field, others have you defending a point, some are to kill a target... There's variety.
I found the actual execution here to be ultimately rather uninteresting, but the concept is one I haven't seen played around with much.
Post by: Frumple on July 24, 2017, 05:00:29 am
Post by: sambojin on July 26, 2017, 06:06:59 pm
Post by: hops on July 31, 2017, 02:16:25 am
Post by: sambojin on August 01, 2017, 05:46:48 pm
Pathos: Nethack Codex is Nethack, but updated with a nice touchscreen interface, more information about what stuff does, and is just generally easier to play than any mobile ports of NH that I've seen. It is streamlined and probably has some of the weirder NH stuff cut out (this is a good thing imo), but it's a very good remake/reimagining of it. It actually seems like most stuff is there, but it's done with fairly refined menuing/touch systems, rather than having to remember a hundred keyboard commands and constantly having to access the software keyboard. Has three full graphics tilesets to help the ASCII illiterate too. Saves between floors take a bit too long, but that's my only beef with it. It's an absolute joy to play compared to any other port of the bloodline.
I've only played a tiny bit of it, but it all seems very well done. Not as unfamiliar as Wazhack (which is also a very good roguelike), but not as "dumbed down" as other roguelites end up feeling. Just click "custom" to let you do class/race combos. Even seems like there's an original or two in there as well (I don't remember Gunslinger or Shaman in NH, and it may have ended up with a bit of Slash'em stuff too, class-wise. There's at least mini side branches, such as Minetown in it, as well as shopkeeper services). And, you can reroll stats before you begin, which is actually nice. Some may consider it cheaty, but honestly, if you get REALLY bad stats you tend to reroll anyway. This just makes it quicker to do. It rerolls your starting gear too, so you can finally try out all those weird wizard builds with awesome ring combos etc that would take an age to do in NH and Slash'em. Yep, Shamans start with an uncursed amulet and a bunch of potions, so reflection and some basic identification is possible from the word go.
There doesn't seem to be pet stealing in stores, but the store interface is SO much easier to use. Just normal RPG style, you talk to the shopkeeper, and they say what they have to buy/services offered. No more stores littered with junk that you have to go through and try and steal slowly and laboriously. Honestly, I think it's an improvement. I used to spend half my time looking at wikis and pet stealing in NH. Now it's just buy/sell/services or attack shopkeeper. There seems to be a bit more gold around to compensate. Nothing is identified, but some shopkeepers identify as a service anyway. Shrines are also streamlined into a shop-style interface, with karma instead of gold being used. It makes things quick and easily understandable. Hell, you even know exactly how much nutrition you currently have, as well as your speed and attack rating (think THACO). It's nice to not have to deal with some of the obfuscation and mechanics of NH, while still having the "proper" roguelike experience. It's quicker and easier to play anyway, but don't expect a purist experience out of Pathos. It's close, but the streamlined bits are actually well thought out.
There's even a pre-scripted overland campaign available if procedurely generated RL dungeon diving goodness is starting to bore you (just click on :nethack codex: and it brings up a menu. I haven't tried it yet, but it's a good idea). There's multiple character saves allowed too, one for each main canned class and one for custom, which saves you messing around with a file system (it's not for savescumming, there's a resurrect button if you want to do that anyway).
So if you've wanted to play Nethack on your mobile device, but don't like the official ports with all their clunkiness, give Pathos a try. It's really good.
Some may see it as easy, munchkin NH, but it probably is. It is also far more enjoyable to play than "real" NH, so there is that to it.
((Boy is the Gunslinger OP in the early game. Two +1 pistols, dual wielded, and 115'ish +2 bullets to start with. Or you can pick up and use the first weapon you find and just wield one of them for kiting. It makes the early game fly by. I haven't even tried the shotgun you get in the starting package yet. Yay! Nethack: the DoomRL-like :P
There's challenge classes too, like the Convict. You start with nothing, except a ball and chain attached to your leg. This can be a useful item, but not at level 1.
Overall, it seems a bit easier than NH, but again, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not really far enough into it to tell yet though))
Post by: sambojin on August 01, 2017, 09:30:40 pm
Quaffed an unidentified Polymorph potion and changed into a unicorn. A ninja unicorn. Unfortunately, it does unmount you from your pet horse, so no added hilarity. No hands, but opened all doors by kicking. Kept my ninja stealth though. Happily kicked a group of gas spores and got unpoly'ed not soon afterwards. Pity.
The bard class can start with a Magic Harp with 5-9 or so charges. So you can play as a Pokemon trainer straight away. Joy!
Got hallucinated by a big multi-tile snake, 6-7 tiles in size, that moved all Nibbles like. A bile snake apparently. Died from the bite though. Pity.
Bought an amulet of restful sleep. Of course it was cursed. Thought that randomly falling asleep would be terminal until I read an unidentified scroll of destruction that blew it off my neck. Now I'm wearing an uncursed amulet of reflection that I bought from the same store. (the pre-canned wizard is a really good starting chassis incidentally. I started with a ring of regeneration, a ring of invis, force bolt and magic missile. Force Bolt is amazing at 4 mana a cast. It's lightning bolt without the wall bounce). Character still alive! For now.....
Post by: Aoi on August 04, 2017, 04:40:26 pm
You control a civilization beginning from a hunter/gatherer stage up through galactic power. You manage things from a cutaway view of the planet divided into sections, so it's sort of like looking at a clock. You build up your population, decide what buildings go in what sections, toss 'em in there, and let them have at it.
The complexity comes in with the resource system. Early on, you're basically working with just wood, stone and food. However, there's a finite amount of resources. You can harvest natural resources with three units at once, but that'll deplete your forests, which means no more wood. If you only use a single harvester, the natural regeneration rate is enough to allow it to recover, but you're harvesting at a slower rate. You've also got some resource nodes that are entirely limited-- fresh water, crashed satellites with rare high-tech stuff, etc. Adding to the complexity mix is different types of terrain and adjacent sections will influence what you can get. Wild animals adjacent? You have a higher chance of pulling fossil fuels or fertilizer, which means that, despite the animal taking up a block on your increasingly crowded planet, you might not want to exterminate them. Advancement appears to be largely about building your vertical chains correctly; wood leads to coal which can turn into glass with the addition of sand... but that's already process that takes a minimum of 3 sections/pops, and you can't even do anything with it yet. For something shorter, farms produce 'free' food in return for taking up a section/pop, but if you want to use up your water supplies, there's a 50% increase.
Unfortunately, I haven't explored contact with other civilizations yet since the first three planets I managed to send rockets to were the equivalent of Venus and my 300-turn game expired by then.
The free version basically acts as a long demo; you're locked to one race (I think; or the menu was broken) for 300 turns, which is more than enough to get a grasp of what's going on, and severely screw yourself over (in three different ways, while I was bumbling about...). Unfortunately, it seems to have some stability issues; I was getting random hang-ups which were getting a tad frustrating.
Post by: Wiles on August 12, 2017, 07:30:09 pm
Another recent game I have tried is Demise of Nations. It is a free turn based strategy game with micro-transactions to unlock maps and some other cosmetic features (fancier custom avatars for example). You also have to use their currency to host (not to join) a multiplayer game. I think it costs 5 gold to host a game, but you start with 100 and you earn gold as a daily log in reward and for completing games. There is no cost to playing singleplayer. The thing I wasn't so pleased about is that it took my real first name as my username in the game and it would costs 250 gold to change it. It's pretty annoying that it used my real name instead of my google play games profile name. I don't use my real name for anything gaming related.
The game itself seems fairly interesting so far. However, I haven't completed a full completed a full game yet so I can't relate how it holds up long term. It is reminiscent to games like Civilization on PC but it focuses mostly on combat. There are some differences to the civ formula, for example you do not build cities, instead you capture neutral cities on the map to expand. Claiming more territory is as simple as walking your military units around the map. Diplomacy with the AI is also very simple, they offer alliances, they trade, ask for aid or threaten you not to war with their allies. Forging alliances with the AI seems rather easy, I was spammed with alliance invitations from my neighbours pretty early on. I was playing on one of the easier difficulties though, so that might have an effect on diplomacy. The combat is also similar to later hex based Civ games, you build units and run those units into the enemy units until they are dead. There seems to be a decent variety of units as well and they all have strengths and weaknesses (like mounted units are good against infantry and ranged units but vulnerable to spear units). There is also a weather system and units have different penalties associated with the weather (for example rain would affect your archers more than your spearmen). The game feels fairly aggressive early on, you start with enough resources to build a lot of units and you can use units you purchase the turn after you purchase them. There is also a tech tree but I haven't gotten far into it yet. I am not sure how tech works yet - I know some maps start in the Roman era, while others start in the modern era. What I do not know is if you can progress from ancient to modern tech, or if they are separate game modes with their own tech trees.
Maps seem overpriced to me, I have seen them range from 4-5$ (in Canadian dollars) for a map or 20$ (listed as 50% off 40$) for all of them (including access to modded maps people upload). I think you can purchase a random map generator as well (it is listed as a map, for 4$), but it is hard to judge how good or balanced that is since it is unofficial. The game comes with a map of ancient Europe and I also found a free map (as far as I can tell it is the only free map) of modern Europe on the store. You can also pay for the maps with the in game currency, I have seen them range from 400-1000 gold. There is also an editor but it is only available for PCs, you can't edit them through the game on mobile. I have no idea how that system works yet.
The feature that attracted me to the game is the asynchronous multiplayer. I find it hard to game with most of my old gaming buddies due differences in schedules so that is a feature I value a lot in strategy games. The way turns work in the game is everyone takes their turn at the same time and the game resolves everything at the start of your next turn.
Post by: Aoi on August 14, 2017, 01:58:07 am
The basic gameplay is on a grid, on which you're dragging things around. When you place three (or five for a bonus, or multiples thereof) Things together, they merge into an upgraded Thing+1. Repeat ad nauseam. This is really it. You're mostly just hanging around waiting for that next combination to make something "new".
You have your home base and a series of stages; the stages tend to either be VERY easy (most of them can just be brute forced with adequate time) objective-based ("make Thing+4") , or very loosely puzzle-oriented where there's a very fixed number of options. After finishing a stage, you get a random assortment of stuff to choose to send back to your base for free, or for IAP.
The base is where I spend most of my time-- you need dragons to unlock more sections of the map, life force (or something) to open dead tiles on the map, and, there's that psychological desire to get that next Thing+1. In addition to unlocking more of the map, dragons are used to harvest tiles, greatly speeding up the process of getting new stuff... but they have a limited number of charges before they need to reset. It becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare at my point: I'm juggling six major upgrade paths, and every tier requires an exponentially growing base to advance further, and there's a very finite amount of space to work in. And this is where that bit about delayed gratification kicks in big time here-- a combination of 3xThing yields 1xThing+1. A combination of 5xThing yields 2xThing+1. And a cascading combo awards increasing amounts of bonus life force... and (almost) EVERYTHING gets improved by their combinations-- 3x1g coins yields a 1x4g, for a 33% increase, or 5x1 yields 2x4, for a 66% increase... at the cost of having to waste space on the field and the time to accrue it. INCLUDING the rare drops that give IAP currency. But there's more delayed gratification going on! A lot of base components will upgrade themselves over time at a 1:1 ratio, instead of 3:1 or 5:2, but, again... over time.
There ARE a number of hard-timed mechanics, like waiting for energy to restore to do more stages or dragons to rest up, but that's it. You could sit in your base for hours, picking up things that spawn, shoving them around, etc.
So, yeah, very simple concept, over all very pointless... but oddly fascinating.
Post by: AzyWng on August 14, 2017, 08:48:24 am
Each knife is a little different. The Butcher knife, for instance, has a whole edge instead of a point, and is a bit heavier, while the Police knife has only one point that must stick into its target. It's rather difficult to get more coins, but playing "Arcade" is probably the easiest way since your "Prize" bar doesn't deplete like the bars in other minigames, even if you make a mistake.
And you will make mistakes very often.
All in all, it's a fun but frustrating time waster that helps dissuade people from throwing knives in fights.
Post by: sambojin on August 14, 2017, 06:08:39 pm
******
Remove VIP needed to create custom games
- Remove VIP needed to robot customize
- Once in 24 hours the clan loses 10% of respect
Rebalance:
- "Energy shield" reload 16s->18s, active time 5s->4s
- "Mortar" reload 5s->4s
- "Shotgun" reload 5s->4s
- "Jump module" reload 37s->25s
- "Speed module" reload 17s->15s
- "Titan shield" add hp 800->880
- "Argument" reload 5s->4s
- "Resonator" reload 45s->35s, damage 360->300
Still sitting pretty at #13 world rankings-wise 8)
All your dreams came true! You can now ride a bright pink and mauve mech into battle, and crush everyone who dares oppose your sense of fashion!
Post by: Aqma on August 16, 2017, 02:17:41 pm
Post by: sambojin on August 16, 2017, 05:28:43 pm
My only other gripe with it is not knowing what spells your character is going to start with. I shouldn't really complain though, knowing what your starting gear and stats will be is big enough of a boon.
Forgot to mention that you can start with whatever pet you want as well. Dog/cat/horse/bird. Dogs and cats still check for cursed items (they bark or meow at them, which is cute), birds avoid all the traps due to flying (but are kind of hopeless otherwise due to stats/HP, but do double attack ) or you can start with a horse (IE, everyone can be a knight, just not as good at it).
There's also crafting. Crafting is really good. Find a workbench, scrap a useless potion (for magic'y material) or some junk weapons for iron/wooden stuff, then see what you can make. At worst, you'll usually get two rings of regeneration (one for you, one for a pet/charmed that never starves anyway) out of it. This is how you can restock lots of the trickier to find items as well, like bullets, shotgun shells, bolts, arrows, whatever. Makes being a ranged shooter a lot easier.
Equipping charmed/dominated/raised/fed stuff is also WAY easier. You can get quite a cohort going if you want. Considering the bard can charm the guard captain in Minetown for a good while if you start with the Magic Harp, giving you a guaranteed lvl10 tank and pack mule every game (that uncharms to neutral, and can level up too I think), it's worthwhile knowing that you can pick what they wear and carry. Just give it to them ("share" it after clicking on them), then try and equip it. I haven't actually tried a shopkeeper yet.... Tried it, doesn't work. Does work on baby blue dragons, etc though, so you can have a fairly nice mount early on at least. Flying mounts make Sokoban a lot easier, for when you don't actually want anything but some free food and equipment, but no bonus "you solved it" stuff. Really hoping to run into an OoD Hydra for multi-attack goodness some time with a bard. There's probably better stuff too. Going to have to go through the Entity lists at some point and do a monster wrangler run. You're not that bad as a mage or a shooter as a bard either, and you still get crafting for cheap and guaranteed ammo/sundries too :)
More silly stuff I've found: your fledgling Raven pet may not have hands or feet, but it does have 10 strength. So you might not think it could, but it can be a pack mule with up to 150 pounds of items held by him. Good buddy. Fly harder!
Polymorphing things is also incredible. And happily permanent when done to pets (and probably everything else too). I poly'd my last Raven into a Juggernaut. That's usually a lvl30 creature, with donk loads of HP, doing up to 40 damage a hit. Needless to say, I died riding around on it, but it was still going strong. Yes, it could level up too. Don't know if that means it gets even MORE stats slowly, or if it just starts out lower than normal. It had HEAPS of HP and was doing 12-40 damage though, so I think the former. So tripe, lichen corpses, apples etc get a bit of extra value, because creatures fed them are perma-charmed, and wand zapping is fairly safe as a way to ID stuff in this, so find that poly wand. And nothing ever starves but you. Which is why I like bards (that Horn of Plenty extends your food clock and gives you even more pets than just your Harp playing skills can. It's a really nice package, barring the lowish strength stat).
A few runs later, my pets had died but there was a neutral rabbit there, just flopsying around. One melon and a poly potion I threw at his head later, and he's an Ogre King. Doesn't sound that great, until you realize that OKs summon 1-2 friendly ogres when they attack without a weapon. So I've now got a poorly-trained but well-equipped cadre of ogres roaming around, holding all the random crap I find but will never use. They're not very good, but having four spare meatbags and a summoner is nice. They've got darts, daggers, big chunky weapons and heavy armour. They're slow, but it means I've always got a "safe room" a few squares behind me at all times. It's nice, especially considering it all started out as one little random neutral rabbit on lvl8.
Starting to think this game might deserve its own thread. It's on PC, Android and iPhone, so anyone who likes NH-lite can play it.
Post by: etgfrog on August 18, 2017, 02:06:03 am
Post by: AzyWng on August 18, 2017, 09:55:31 am
Both the thieves and sniper have gadgets that allow both sides an advantage, from deploying a diversionary decoy to getting one explosive shot.
The thieves must run from cover to cover, using stamina and adrenaline to run faster. Stamina restores over time when a thief is not running, but adrenaline is boosted by taunting (exposing yourself to sniper fire) and always goes down no matter what.
Gadgets are acquired in a manner similar to Clash Royale, matches can get you cases which take time to open. This can be sped up with gold.
All in all, cool concept, and I like the game.
Post by: sambojin on August 25, 2017, 11:18:13 pm
It could be deceptively p2w (you do have emblem sets, that you can buy for money, but it seems like it'll be about 10% advantage across the board with a $$$$$ purchase. But as well all know, stats scale mightily, more than their apparent number shows). It does take a tiny bit of skill still, not just stats from level-ups or buys from the shop, but gear is king. It's a proper MOBA, so laning, gear buys, etc are in full force (not a real twin-stick shooter, like I was hoping, so auto-aim is most definitely "ON").
Can't really say it's great, but it's the best MOBA adaption to mobile that I've ever played. So it's good, but there's always that creeping doubt as a newbie that it's LoL, not DoTA2, and some heroes are flat out better than others and can be purchased.
Then again, the default hero "Layla" scales right the fuck out of control with a decent attack set, so it's not a simple p2w or grind-money-grabber.
(note: don't buy "Miya" with your initial tutorial battle-thingies. She's "ok", but the stun has a huge delay on working, she actually seems squishier than I thought (regardless of the durability bar on hero preview), and her stun escape isn't actually that good. And she doesn't seem to scale as ridiculously well as Layla with items (who is free, and has a quick-to-use AoE slow and damaging ultimate anyway).
(note 2: learn to use your Regen's and battle-thingo. They're just another cooldown skill. And considering a match takes 7-14 minutes usually, just damn well pop them. 30secs-1min cooldown seems like a lot, but it's not. And you will die if you don't).
Post by: sambojin on August 30, 2017, 05:40:58 pm
Galatic Warrior is a top down, arena style hack'n'slasher. Kill all enemies, next wave appears. Kill nine waves, and the boss appears. It controls fairly fluidly, has cutesy pixel graphics, and has a bit of a progression system to get new cooldown skills and to level up gear and stats. It's quite fun, in a simplistic way.
Obelisk is like Galactic Warrior, but far simpler and quicker. Was apparently made in 72 hrs for a Lundum Dare Comp. You've got a sword and a grapple chain, that is it. Then you go and kill everything. There was something else like these two that I played recently, but can't remember the name of. It was quite good too, and you could knock people off cliff edges. Anyway, I think I just like this genre, and it works well on mobile.
Fist of Truth is like Hearthstone, but played on a 3x3 grid, you can play vs AI if you want, and there's five different factions for card synergies (although there's plenty of "does it for any/all" cards available, at a slight mana premium). Turns are simultaneous, and the 3x3 grid rather than the 7x1 allows for some depth of defense and extra unit positioning options for spell use, battlecries, etc. It actually looks like it might be really good, and is only in early access stage for now. Small client, some simple and some complex effects, and a cartoony basic art-style that I'm fine with. Give it a try if you want a CCG that is quick to play but might also get very cool after you get plenty of cards. Has a card-burn mana-ramp system, so you can go mid-range or high mana more easily, and it takes more duff-hand end turning out of the equation. I've only done the tutorial, but the game might have legs to it. Refreshing in its simplicity, but with possible depth of strategy available too. Probably will suffer the standard "this card entirely outclasses that card, and I have it and you don't" thing of most CCGs, but that's to be expected. Have a look if you've got a spare twenty minutes.
Post by: AzyWng on August 30, 2017, 06:34:49 pm
Post by: Aoi on August 31, 2017, 01:24:01 am
Fist of Truth is like Hearthstone, but played on a 3x3 grid, you can play vs AI if you want, and there's five different factions for card synergies (although there's plenty of "does it for any/all" cards available, at a slight mana premium). Turns are simultaneous, and the 3x3 grid rather than the 7x1 allows for some depth of defense and extra unit positioning options for spell use, battlecries, etc.
There's another feature that I find to be particularly interesting-- turns are executed simultaneously, but there's an order to which the units act: Front to back, top to bottom. This leads to some additional tactical decisions: Early on, you'll run into a unit that gets stronger the more adjacent (4-dir) units there are. Do you put it in the middle of the field, where it can get four adjacent units, making it extremely powerful, but risking the top and front units being destroyed, rendering it weaker, or in the bottom back corner which is more protected, but with only two adjacent units and the possibility the match may end before it gets to attack?
Post by: sambojin on August 31, 2017, 03:56:23 pm
Some of their card design decisions seem strange. You start with a 2 mana 2/1, and a 2 mana 1/1 with a conditional +1/0 text. The former outclasses the latter due to not being conditional, yet there they both are in your starter deck, showing off some odd design choices right from the word go. Maybe there's a warcry trigger card somewhere that can make the second card better, but I haven't gotten it yet.
Not on Apple Store? This 100% confirms my past fears. Apple is shit. Or maybe they're just a small dev team, so these games are "exclusive" for now. They might pop up there later. More and more indies seem to be going to Android these days, even though it's a more fiddly platform to develop for. Not sure why. Probably just making games on the phones they use, and indies don't tend to buy overpriced piles of junk :)
Post by: SHAD0Wdump on August 31, 2017, 08:50:26 pm
Some of their card design decisions seem strange. You start with a 2 mana 2/1, and a 2 mana 1/1 with a conditional +1/0 text. The former outclasses the latter due to not being conditional, yet there they both are in your starter deck, showing off some odd design choices right from the word go. Maybe there's a warcry trigger card somewhere that can make the second card better, but I haven't gotten it yet.The conditional is actually persisting. Meaning as long as you can place it early and defend it, it can actually hurt a decent amount. The other 2/1 is kinda trash, a vanilla 3 in stats for 2 mana when the ballpark seems to be at least +2 over the mana cost made me ditch it as soon as possible.
The fears of cards getting 'Just Plain Better' seems to be confirmed early on too. There's also a $2 store item that advertizes +15 vitality. I have not checked pvp to see if this vitality relates to in game player health like I suspect, but that is my current biggest pay to win warning light right now.
Post by: Ghills on September 01, 2017, 10:39:07 am
Post by: Aoi on September 01, 2017, 12:40:48 pm
Some of their card design decisions seem strange. You start with a 2 mana 2/1, and a 2 mana 1/1 with a conditional +1/0 text. The former outclasses the latter due to not being conditional, yet there they both are in your starter deck, showing off some odd design choices right from the word go. Maybe there's a warcry trigger card somewhere that can make the second card better, but I haven't gotten it yet.The conditional is actually persisting. Meaning as long as you can place it early and defend it, it can actually hurt a decent amount. The other 2/1 is kinda trash, a vanilla 3 in stats for 2 mana when the ballpark seems to be at least +2 over the mana cost made me ditch it as soon as possible.
The fears of cards getting 'Just Plain Better' seems to be confirmed early on too. There's also a $2 store item that advertizes +15 vitality. I have not checked pvp to see if this vitality relates to in game player health like I suspect, but that is my current biggest pay to win warning light right now.
Vitality is 'energy', as in that mechanic that prevents people from playing endlessly. Though I didn't manage to run out after multiple multi-hour sessions.
That 1/1 +1/0 is monstrous if you play a slow-burn game against a healing opponent; I had one buffed up to around 15/8 by the time my opponent finally crumbled.
Post by: Aoi on September 01, 2017, 12:43:14 pm
Having a lot of fun with Reigns lately, although I can't seem to rule past 23 years. I've managed to turn the country pagan so many times.
I found Reigns to be downright indecipherable until I noticed the little status bars. Managing this will help out a LOT. Blue mushrooms will let you see numberical values for the, and be aware there are some effects that will change your status over time, not per-action. Which means you can just sit with a card out until it reached a number you like.
Post by: AzyWng on September 01, 2017, 12:45:34 pm
While it depends on a lot of waiting, it's still pretty fun to play. There's a lot less pay-to-win than in other similar mobile games - speed boosting items can be found pretty easily, and most of the premium currency items don't really provide a huge advantage.
Worth giving it a go if you're any bit interested in empire-esque building games. If you do, look up the community "[GUN] The Gunmen" - it's mine.
I didn't say a whole lot about the game itself since I'm posting on a phone.
Post by: Aoi on September 02, 2017, 03:22:37 am
Post by: SHAD0Wdump on September 02, 2017, 04:26:34 am
Post by: sambojin on September 07, 2017, 02:17:27 am
Actually, aside from occasional server and app lock-up issues, I'm liking Fist of Truth more and more. I'm not all that far through the basic campaign, but this looks like it'll be a winner in PvP. Every deck is internally synergistic, with placement mattering HEAPS on the 3x3 grid, mana curve of deck still being massive but not entirely restrictive, and with multiple forms of battle-cries and effects of it seems like it has great potential. There's "screw you's" control, life gain, buff decks (every deck is a buff deck), reward/cost on self-enrage, but you can "hard lane" as well (rather than HS's "face-or-board-place" or MtG's "defender wins combat unless you cast stuff or are winning"). Another rock-paper-scissors perhaps, but there doesn't seem to be too many easy one turn kills or anything, so you always have a chance to regain board control, even Vs hard laning.
Anyway, rather than the 20mins I said, give it a couple of hours. You get just enough freebies through the campaign and occasional server issues that you'll have plenty of stuff to play with shortly, and the grid placement makes it a novel CCG to play considering everything is meant to "work" together, even with random draws. Probably worth the 10'ish dollars of card buy the first two p2w things give you, just to pop some packs, but works well f2p too (haven't bought anything yet. Wouldn't mind exchanging card lists to see if early card draws are "just progression" or are actually random).
Post by: sambojin on September 10, 2017, 02:59:00 am
Seems like 10v10's are the standard now, or as many players as jump into them. So usually 6v6+. Been a few ping issues server wise from it, but being a bastard with mines still works lovely. Better than it did before, if anything. Multi-kills ahoy!
(edit: 8v8s are the new standard. It seems to work fine)
Post by: sambojin on September 15, 2017, 12:39:45 am
Anyway..... I keep telling people through my very "helpful" Tips for Beginners guide for Robots.io to play a bit of Virexian if you don't know what twin-stick shooters are about. It's slightly quicker and doesn't have auto-aim.....
So taking my own advice I thought I'd give it another spin. Just the Free Rogue mode (that's in the free version, I own the full version though. Fell in love with it at first sight <3). Cleared it easily in 9:49. Just wondering if this is a good time or not? It felt slow as, I was playing really cautiously. But, even as a "roguelite" with heaps of random elements, maybe we could get an unofficial timekeeping scoreboard going? It looks like a fun game to speedrun, because it's quick, but the smaller mode doesn't have THAT much randomness to it.
Got incredibly lucky with a Yellow Laser first drop (boss killer and generally useful), and a Shrapnel later on to mop up harder kill-all or survive stages. Still, I reckon 1-1 1/2 minutes could be chopped off that time quite easily.
Post by: Wiles on September 18, 2017, 09:25:26 am
The user interface is fantastic and incredibly user friendly. As someone who has never played this boardgame in meatspace I found myself making mistakes often, but the UI helped me learn from them. I have often been reminded by the game that there were still specific actions I could take on my turn if I wanted to. For example there's a wonder card that gives you 1 free worker every turn if you activate it, but I would often forget to take it so the game would remind me I could still take that action if I wanted to when I tried to end my turn.
The tutorial is very well done, by the end of it I had a good understanding of how the game worked. Considering the physical game has a 4.17/5 complexity rating on boardgamegeek I think they did a great job teaching me the game.
If you have never heard of the game it is a euro game where you build your civilization and try to accrue the most culture points throughout the game to win. If you have played any of Sid Meier's Civilization games then you will be familiar with a lot of the concepts in the game. You can research techs to give you new units or buildings, or bonuses, build building that give you resources, victory points, or happiness, build wonders that do various things, build military units, declare war, or colonize new lands, among other things. All of this is done through cards that you purchase with your civil action points in the case of civil cards, or by having left over military actions at the end of your turn in the case of military event cards.
I feel like the game has a good amount of replayability. There are 3 levels to the AI and so far I haven't bested the mid-tier AI. There are also many challenges to complete that often involve special rules. The game also has multiplayer (including asynchronous multiplayer) as well as pass and play. I haven't tried the multiplayer yet so I can't comment on it.
Through the Ages costs 10$, so it is fairly expensive compared to most mobile games, but well worth the money in my opinion. I feel like this game will become one of my favourite mobile games of all time. I am glad that there are mobile devs out there that are making quality games without any of the f2p trappings that are invading paid games. Take for example a new game called Iron Marines, the game is 6$ to buy, but it has an in game currency that you can buy with money or watch adds to gain. You can also get the currency through playing, I imagine it is a safe bet to guess the game is balanced in a way to make you want to spend money or watch adds to take away from the grind. I can't really fault mobile devs too much for adding that kind of garbage to their game since many consumers are unwilling to pay a fair price for a quality mobile game. I hope TTA and games like it do well so that we will see more like it in the future.
Post by: Rose on September 18, 2017, 10:35:33 am
Post by: itisnotlogical on September 20, 2017, 05:57:48 pm
Post by: Folly on September 21, 2017, 05:39:44 pm
It's an Online Tactical RPG from one of the makers of Final Fantasy, though it's not under the Squeenix umbrella. Somewhat original combat and exploration aspects grant novelty to this title. Art and music are both solid, and storytelling is decent. Much like the first game, it seems like it can't figure out if it wants to be an online mobile game or offline experience, with things like login bonuses that don't really offer much added incentive to log in each day, and missions that cost energy which would be almost impossible to run out of in a single sitting.
Still, despite these shortcomings, I'm enjoying the game for the moment and will continue to play for a while at least.
Post by: Frumple on September 22, 2017, 12:54:27 pm
... and the movement system makes me want to hurt people. The timed drag thing may actually be the most miserable means of movement I've encountered in a video game in my life, or at least a contender for top 3 or so. Straight up kills the game for me. Grid based game which heavily incentivizes precise movement using a limited pool of it, chooses a movement system about as inimical to that as you can get without coding the game to randomly misinterpret or ignore your commands. Even has a degree of the former since the magnet feature (basically full party movement) freaks the hell out when you run into obstacles or petrified enemies.
Give it a 7-8/10 so far as mobile games go, based on everything except that one aspect, and about a -1/10 including it :-\
Post by: sambojin on September 22, 2017, 08:52:34 pm
Kind of a simple yet complex war game, that I'm really liking the vibe of. OK'ish diplomacy system, plenty of win conditions available for victory (conquest, domination, regicide, etc), strategic resources and map control, and even a weather system for those horrible Russian-esque "don't go there in winter, you'll lose" things happening. Seems really well rounded, and I recommend anyone that wants a bit more wargame than most civ-lites can offer, or that always wanted to roll on through as the barbaric Gaulish Brutes in TW:R (but that mostly liked the turn-based-strategy side of TW), to give it a go. Even has a basic tutorial, so you can learn what the thingies do, but it's all pretty simple. Available on Android, iOS and PC, with multiplatform online play in the free version, so it might be fun to get a group game going some day. Even teams Vs AI is available, until we know what we're doing properly.
Total War: Rome: "the turn based version", on your mobile for free, is worth checking out.
(digging the fact that each civ has its own separate unit list, with proper ('ish) names and everything. Separate Roman troop types, although it's odd that you have an "army" of skirmishers or legionnaires. Still better than anything Civ has done for that era, and way more like TW in that regard. Heaps of generic stuff still (Brutes everywhere!) , but at least they slightly themed some civs. Which is a good thing :) )
(wow. "Germanic" civs, ie: everyone properly north of the Mediterranean Sea, gets a "Pagan Priest" unit. That can make it rain or snow within three tiles to give you those horrible Russian winters. Nice. Strategic magic is in, even in a semi-historical setting :D)
(#3? I guess. This looks fairly moddable. For nukes and stuff. I think it might not be too hard to whip some stuff up. GoT or Ultima IV minus 1/2 (the Rise of Britannia) is what I'm thinking though. Just for a laugh.)
Post by: DeKaFu on September 24, 2017, 01:33:26 pm
It looks like I'm going to be spending a couple weeks soon with no computer, no internet, no cell service and limited electricity, and only my phone for gaming/ebook needs.
Can anyone recommend me a good phone game or two that do not require any internet/data connection after installation? Something engaging but playable for very short bursts and possible to drop on a dime, and that has enough content to last me a long time. I was thinking a puzzle game or something along those lines. Ideally nothing action-based.
Being easy on the battery would be a bonus. So would being free. :P
Post by: frostshotgg on September 24, 2017, 01:56:59 pm
Post by: Rose on September 24, 2017, 09:46:43 pm
It only needs internet if you want to buy premium plants, otherwise it works fine without.
You can paise it and return back to it whenever, and it will save your progress, and there's tons of levels.
Post by: sambojin on September 27, 2017, 03:49:06 am
Polytopia (mini-Civ with some odd strategies)
Stick Ranger (kind of a grinder, but fun to go back to every time)
Cardinal Quest 2 (cool-down based roguelite, but good)
Alien Menace (squad based, turn based strategy lite, levels are quick to play)
Reigns (swipe left or right to balance meters, but with a story. Costs though )
King of Dragon Pass (deeper than Reigns, but still save whenever. Costs)
Slimes Ambition (a voxel Final Fantasy Tactics-like. Not bad, but I haven't played much)
Dungeon Quest (mini-diablo, but still a fun/easy little loot grind. Can be a summoner wizard if feeling lazy. Short levels)
Demise of Nations (mini-Total War/Civ. Turn based, save whenever)
Age of Conquest IV (Risk, but with an economy, and just in Europe. By the devs above)
Liberal Crime Squad (made by Toady One, so you know it's good)
OpenTyrian (just for a shoot'em up. The old classic)
Virexian (great little twinstick shooter, for adrenaline pumps when needed. 12 level version is free. I think it costs a dollar for the full version though)
Pathfinder Adventures (a card based dungeon crawl. Apparently it works without a net connection, kind of, just with no gold rewards)
Xenowerk (another twinstick shooter, but looks REALLY good. Been meaning to make a post about it. Short levels, with saves in between. Might chew some battery life)
Star Traders RPG (somewhere between turn based Elite and Pirates!. Not as complicated as it looks)
Star Tactics (mini Battlefleet Gothic/ Xwing Miniatures. Kind of a strategy, kind of a puzzle game. Turn based ship combat)
YAPD (Yet Another Pixel Dungeon. Roguelite, slightly easier than the original)
Pirates! on an NES emulator (it's just nice and easy to control)
M.U.L.E on an NES emulator (for when you're feeling business'y)
Nostalgia.NES Lite for an emulator, because it's free (there's others too)
Some of these are action based, but they all control pretty simply, and only Virexian (and maybe Xenowerk) takes any real reflexes. But between all them you'll have something for whatever mood you're in, no net connection needed. Two cost some money to buy (a one-off purchase), but they're worth every penny. The rest are free, and damn good examples of various genres for mobile. No microtransactions needed to finish them either, so properly free as well. Battery use doesn't seem too high on any of them, but I don't really know with my current phone (bigger battery than my last one, but you should have plenty of playtime on any of these if needed).
Post by: sambojin on September 27, 2017, 05:37:36 pm
You get 6 gold per PvP win, so yes, you can grind the fuck out of it for free cards if you want. :)
(25 games for early packs, 30 for later. Just in friendlies that don't affect your ranking at all, but are a daily quest anyway)
Just glancing at some of the new cards, some of them seem insane. Then again, there's some doozies in the first 3 races anyway, so it just depends what flavour you are leaning towards. I'm going early board control and buffs with Empire/Harbour still, but it feels like a "win more, or don't" deck right now. Some disruption, a tiny bit of draw or enemy discard, but mostly just hoping I can get on the board and stabilize and buff/synergize my way to victory. Which probably describes every early deck.
Love that Shield Jannisary. 2 armour, 3/2 for 3 mana is amazing. Though the Darkwater Swiftblade (2/1 Firststrike for 2), Elite Archer (3/1 Firststrike for 3) and even the Crafty Trainee (2/1, but clears a troop just summoned across from them on debut, for 2) are all nice to establish early lanes and control.
So yeah. There's heaps of good cards. Most of which I don't have yet. But I'm inclined to think that this game is "better" than Hearthstone, simply due to the format of play and the massive design-space it allows.
Check their forums (available in-game) and read the "Lessons of Truth #x" posts. Especially #2 and #4. They describe what all the keywords in the card texts do. Very handy.
Post by: sambojin on September 30, 2017, 03:27:34 am
I was actually surprisingly happy with my two decks (Imp/Harbour and Harbour/Weald) before I punched the "imma-gonna-win!" button. The sheer number of PvE campaign levels, daily freebies and basic progression stuff they throw at you within a week or two means you can certainly make a "semi-competitive" deck within that time. I'm just lazy, recently grabbed a gift-card, and don't mind supporting devs that are trying to make good games. $12-15 for 30-55 packs is a lot less than you'd pay in Hearthstone, considering how many freebies you get in this (having cards gets you gold as an achievement, which gets you more cards). Plus, I like the "flavour" of the various races, and that you can mix and match them however you want within the two-race limit as well. There's synergies everywhere, and it feels more MtG-like in that you can make any "two-colour" deck, but even within those decks, there's several archetypes that vary a bit on how they play (even though all mana is colourless and it always comes down to fist-to-face, which I like). There's no "you are a warlock, this is what you do" in it, and every race has a few things that they do very well.
Anyway, not 20 mins, not a few hours, I'd recommend giving this one a whirl for a few weeks. It's good. Even though I just paid money to play it. You don't actually have to. Yay!
But, yes. It's a CCG. No different from hearthstone or mtg. Better cards are.
Post by: sambojin on October 06, 2017, 02:56:31 am
Is it doable? Yep. Especially with a priest.
If you don't mind kicking your food clock along a heap, you can craft individual crossbow bolts if you want. Just to spread the rolls and give a good chance of getting some nice ones. With decent Dex you WILL end up with a stack of +1/+2 bolts eventually, which rarely break. Dex is something priests aren't renowned for, but with enough stat rerolls at the start, 16dex plus high everything else is doable, because it's the fourth stat that gets set (keep rerolling as you stare at the Dex stat. When 16 comes up, it means all major stats are good). And you can easily get two decent crossbows too (just cart a broken chest you kicked open down to the Minetown work bench so it always gets "wood" as a thingy it can do. Crossbows are cheap to make and are one handed, plus they have recoverable ammo. Good, recoverable ammo in this case). Mmmmmmm, dual wielded crossbows....
Bam! Better than a gunslinger!
Kind of. Eventually. After you get proficiency.
It's just that with the beatitude skill, you know exactly what got crafted right or what you need to scrap. Which saves a tonne of karma. And it let's you scrap whatever you don't want early on (ring intrinsics you'll level into, cursed amulets, etc). Plus, it works with anything, not just crossbows/bolts. Make a few of anything, scrap the bad ones (that incidentally give you more scrap because they're "half identified" on b/c status). Make more. Need a better mace because you haven't shot enough stuff with crossbows yet? Make em. Better armour? Make some. A tonne of magic markers or wands of healing? Sacrifice everything to the item god (maybe with an ice box, a rock and a gem for plastic/rock/gems as "thingies" it can make) and the world's your oyster. If you've found it and identified it, it's yours.
Yeah. It's micro managey as hell (the very thing Pathos got away from, and makes it an enjoyable roguelike to play). But since I know I'm going to cheese something, at some point (it's Nethack, after all), basically choosing my equipment and even being able to get a bonus boost is fun. Kind of.
Hey. I just played some incrementals. This is a lot better use of my time :)
(just make sure you're Main Wielding the first crossbow you make, so you're a shooter, not a melee'er. Otherwise you will walk up beside whatever you're fighting, when you could have shot it from miles back. Dual wield whatever in the other hand, probably another crossbow, shield or melee weapon, but always keep your main weapon as a crossbow. Pathos gets dumb otherwise. Yes, I am going to make a dual wielding SMG "build", not because it's good, but because I can)
(you probably could just "sell identify" everything crappy or in a small stack in Minetown, for ammo at least, letting any dex'y build do this without stat or start constraining you to the Priest class. But rerolling priests is easy, because there's exactly one thing to look at, high Dex. You might get a magic marker, you might not, but 14-16dex means Wis, Str and Con are all equal or higher than that)
Post by: hops on October 06, 2017, 06:51:15 am
Fair warning, though: it doesn’t have multiplayer.
Post by: sambojin on October 12, 2017, 10:27:53 pm
On "other mobile crap I have played a bit of recently News", does anyone here play Dragon Project? Because it's a fantastically well made MMO, with great graphics, and a fairly slow combat system, very much like Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star Online 2, but slightly crappier (it's on mobile, afterall). No stamina system, no bullshit chat, fairly long load times (instanced areas, etc). But it actually seems like a really good rendition of the genre considering the platform it's on.
Like, really good.
Plus, you can play it with one hand. No, not like that, it's not overtly sexualized. It just has a really good control scheme, that is often my biggest bug-bear in these sorts of games. To the point that I will happily "borrow" the idea for a future project.
So check it out. It's not great or perfect, but for the platform, it's really fucking good. Even if you're a dev and want to know what "can be done" for 3d first/third person slash'em ups, it's worth a look. Nice business model too. I don't even know how they'll earn any money. So check it out before the servers get ripped down :)
Post by: hops on October 12, 2017, 11:33:18 pm
If you liked Hearthstone and don’t mind the long downtimes, you might like this game.
Post by: sambojin on October 13, 2017, 12:19:23 am
Incredibly pay-to-win, but not necessarily a "bad" game because of it.
Post by: hops on October 13, 2017, 12:22:27 am
Also, Draft Challenges cards are progression-independent and so it’s just purely skill, matchups, and luck.
Post by: sambojin on October 13, 2017, 12:23:54 am
Post by: hops on October 13, 2017, 12:29:22 am
Post by: sambojin on October 13, 2017, 12:32:37 am
But I will agree. At tourneys with level caps, or at royal arena, it's a little more level independent and just more positioning and timing dependant.
But ssooooooo many hoops to jump through, for it to be a skill and knowledge dependant game. I just couldn't be bothered doing it. Congrats.
Post by: AzyWng on October 14, 2017, 11:39:21 am
Gameplay's a lot different than it was in the first game - instead of picking up weapons you get ammo for them, and you start with two guns at once. Additionally, the guns can be upgraded to kill zeds more easily, fire and reload faster, and hold more bullets in a clip.
Additionally, the game is no longer quite an endless runner anymore because each section has an end that the player is supposed to reach. Once they reach the end of a section in the story mode they can loot one of three bags (two of three if they watch a video and three out of three if the player pays twenty gold after opening the second bag).
All in all, I like the game so far.
Post by: Aoi on October 15, 2017, 04:06:31 am
The "wrapper" for all this is that you're in charge of some evil cult trying to summon ancient gods; the resources are money, food, cultists, prisoners (often interchangable with cultists), relics (often part of a win condition, expensive, and acts as a wild), and suspicion (a penalty card). Have >15 resources (including suspicion!), run out of food, or >4 suspicion and you can draw conditional cards.
The win condition is summoning a god-- and you get bonuses for the next round depending which god you summon, all of which have different requirements. I've picked up two (plus tutorial freebie) so far, though it seems the potential summonable gods on a given round are based on what you currently have unlocked.
There's a few different lose conditions I've seen so far, but none of them felt entirely unavoidable and arbitrary which is good; all of them were either self-inflicted or came with a warning. Get a police raid without 2cultists or 3money? Game over. But you knew that was a risk when you had >4suspicion. Forced into a bad situation and had to insert "Wrath of the Gods" into the deck? Well, you know it's coming, so better scramble to deal with it. The game doesn't even let you pick a loss when you have the resources to continue, and the insertion of game ending cards is fairly clear from the name, so you can choose accordingly. (Unless you thought "Wrath of the Gods" was going to be helpful...)
Post by: sambojin on October 15, 2017, 06:07:43 pm
I kind of got stuck with almost no resources, but almost made a comeback after a big loop of "bribe children into becoming cultists", use children to fight off police raid due to suspicion raised, eat the leftover one (there's a questchain for cannibalising a cultist or prisoner when you're short of food, once it's started it doesn't matter whether you have food or not, chow down for quest progression), slowly get some money/food/cultists, repeat.
I ate and sacrificed SO many cultists that game. Almost finished the main expedition quest, until I got wrath of god'd, only one cultist short of being able to sacrifice my way out of it.
Anyway, this seems to make for funnier stories than Reigns, just due to the gameworld/background it's in, and because of the higher chance of repeated actions really typifying that run. Yes, you will do terrible things. But, they're funny because of how often you do them.
The little audio police reports really add to the flavour and humour of the setting.
So yeah, I second Aoi's recommendation. It's worth a quick spin for a laugh.
Post by: Aoi on October 15, 2017, 06:57:07 pm
Overall, it's actually quite simple once you know what the cards are; the trick is to survive when you haven't figured that out yet.
Spoiler: "One of the less obvious gods..." (click to show/hide)
Post by: sambojin on October 15, 2017, 09:58:29 pm
Post by: Aoi on October 15, 2017, 10:52:21 pm
I ended up in a failure spiral when I was going after the whale: A card forced me to go over 15, then I got Greed which took 3 relics and my last food, then the final step of the whale showed up, which I couldn't pass, so I had to take two Wrath of the Gods, then a few cards after the shuffle, I drew the cannibalism card, had to eat one of my prisoners, then Wrath of the Gods came up, and I was short one person. It was kind of a perfect storm.
Post by: sambojin on October 15, 2017, 11:32:54 pm
It also seems to be a 50/50 on the whale showing up before that, so you might be cycling a bit through the deck anyway. Same with the shop-front quest, except there you have to blow off some suspicion instead of just going on a recruitment drive near the end.
(goddammit that was easy the second time through. No disease, no maggoty food, only the tax man to worry about. It was harder getting rid of cards than it was to get the required sacrifices. There were no relics, but it was all smooth sailing. One whale, well fed :) )
Post by: Aoi on October 16, 2017, 12:17:08 am
They seem to come in bursts. In one round, I had 7 relics. I had to use a few as prisoners. XD
Post by: sambojin on October 16, 2017, 12:30:55 am
Post by: Aoi on October 16, 2017, 12:50:29 am
Spoiler: God Commentary (click to show/hide)
I've also learned that you can permanently block yourself out of every god except for Wiindigoo, leaving that the only avenue to a win. I kind of wish that wasn't possible, and you could continue after summoning one, so you could aim for a 'perfect' run, with all of them summoned without a game over.
Post by: sambojin on October 19, 2017, 04:41:23 pm
All in all, a nice little loot-and-zap-em-up. The skill system on level up is slightly randomized on a one-of-three system (you can get a skill that makes it one-of-four), the spells feel pretty good with nice add on skills available to each of them (chain lightning, exploding fireballs, multi-magic missiles and freezier frost breath) and the enemies feel just varied enough to make it interesting, considering they're mostly all in the undead theme so far.
You can get stymied on build options with no mana or HP-up skills appearing for ages, poison is just bloody annoying, and chests are an absolute hassle until you get telekinesis (honestly, pick this every time. It saves a LOT of messing around, but as a skill tax, at least it's a useful one).
There's secondary skills, like explode-a-room, freeze-a-room, or teleport-out-of-a-room, with longish cooldowns and high mana costs, but they're all very powerful. They're essentially your "special", and don't need many skill points into them to be absolute lifesavers.
But all in all, it feels fun. Can be played on perma-death, has various challenges available (no potions, completely random skills, etc), and is quite nice whichever spell route you take after a few skill-ups. So far lightning seems grossly OP compared to the other spells, but it might taper off a bit. Item wise, +2 damage items seem to be the kings of all, because mana-less damage boosting is just plain good, no matter what skills you use. +100% experience seems OK too, so you can stay miles above the curve, and not really mind any skill taxes that don't up your damage output or when you get a bad selection on level-up.
I've only played a little (up to the level 8 poison dragon boss, which is easy, but also a pain) but I'm liking it so far. Probably worth a few playthroughs to try out each main spell and maybe a few combos. It's been around for ages, so I'm glad I finally got around to playing it. Nice when you want to let your hair down and blow stuff up quickly, with just enough roguelikeness that you don't mind a few deaths. I'll probably mostly play hardcore, because otherwise it just feels like grind progression or repeat-until-not-dead. But it's worth a look if you like fairly slow twin stick shooters, that also have occasional faster moments. Free to play with ads, or you can IAP them away for about $5 or so. The gold IAP might ruin your experience, or might not, depending on how much choice you want at the beginning of a run. I'm still f2p, and I haven't felt like that has hindered me at all, even slightly.
Post by: sambojin on October 19, 2017, 05:16:47 pm
There's a big learning curve (the tutorial teaches you nothing useful at all, or anything really), there's no story what-so-ever (you're this person, kill everyone and blow up their starbases seems to be it), and until you know what stuff does you'll make many errors. There also seems to be a bit of a progression hump to get over, possibly many, with a fairly obvious "you can IAP that away" thing going on. The IAP prices are either fair ($1-2), or skewed as hell in some countries, with the $5-10 US "support the project" option costing $30 Aussie dollars or 30 UK pounds for some idiotic reason. So, yeah, not paying that.
But it's Stardrive+SC2, which is what I always wanted in a game. You don't actually seem to be able to lose either, and there's tonnes of eventual progression and power available too. Just make sure you level up into the ship slots path, not so much for the hangar slots, but because it's the quickest way of getting bigger ships. And without bigger ships, you're going to have a hard time down the track. A few good, high level ships is where it's at (ship levels increase damage and HP, so matter a lot long-term). Knowing what is good to research helps a lot too.
Apparently earlier versions were a lot more free-form on fleet building, so if you find a .apk of one, you might have a lot more fun without the hoops to jump through. If I find one, I'll tell you how it plays.
At the start, making your scout into a jouster is probably the best thing to do. Rip the shield off the red ship and put it on your scout, add the Dart sidekick to the scout, fill it with weapons, and make sure the shield and any weapons are all on fire-group #1. Now you have more firepower and a shield to block damage as you zip back and forth shooting when close, jousting all the early enemies down. A bit more armour and some fuel cells to round out the design and you're set. The free auto-targeter makes a world of difference, and having a pulse m2 and a small plasma on the Scout (and a small pulse on the dart) means there's not too many enemies that will completely block your shots early on (you have kinetic and heat damage). You'll get better weapons and ships eventually, but a jouster makes the early stars near your starbase a cakewalk. You could probably do the same with the Raven and its torpedoes, but high fire-rate and auto-targeting makes it a lot easier to do with the Scout.
It's worthwhile persisting with, even if the learning curve seems steep. Once you work out how to do stuff and what stuff does, it's a great little game. Think of it like DF. You don't really know shit all about the interface, until you do. You don't know what stuff does, until you do. Then it's all really simple. Way simpler than DF, but nothing was explained to you, just like DF. There's also a pretty comprehensive wiki online, so you don't have to go in blind on ship purchases, etc. Watching a few ads for free stars (in-game currency) is probably recommended, just for an easier start on tech options. I haven't seen an ad in-game other than on program start, so I'm fine with it. Actually threw a bit of money at it ($4 for 40 stars), because there's no way in hell I'm paying $30 for it, no matter how much potential it has.
((items can be REALLY variable. Started a new run, got a challenge star near the starting starbase. Using an Eden or some other saucer ship (360 degree auto-targeting laser ship, think the Leylou from SC2. So easy as). Got some random crap, but got a shield capacitor as well. Not great, but so very powerful at this point in the game. My jousting scout is now pretty much impervious to every early game weapon other than torps or missiles. So I rewarded the RNG with the IAP above :) ))
((oh, and remember that your first ship slot (the one with the Scout in it) is actually a destroyer slot. I didn't realize this until someone on the forums mentioned it to me. So if you want an early ship purchase, go for it. You don't have to level all the way down the ship slots path just to use it. You do eventually, but there's some quite nice stuff available early on. I bought a Leech mk2 for mine for 22 stars at an early smugglers base. It's slow, but those bombs nuke everything early on (basically chargeable AoE 360 degree firepower), and the fusion beams are pretty good too. Has late game potential with a black hole generator as well apparently. The Egg supposedly isn't bad either, and the Falcon is amazing for a destroyer if you want to pay for it (plus it can take heavy m3 satellites, and you'll have the stars to just buy them from smugglers bases alongside a built-in auto-targeter if you do decide $10-30 dollars is worth it). Anyway, bigger ships are inherently better, mostly, so grab one asap. At least you won't waste all your exp on the scout))
Post by: sambojin on October 28, 2017, 07:16:13 pm
Galaxy Bug is essentially Galaga. Or more like Galaga '90, in that there's plenty of weapon options available and a boss every five levels. And I love me some Galaga. Can get missiles on your main ship/wingmen, or split shot for the incompetent at aiming (which I am). Seems pretty generous in that I have a lvl5 legendary split shot ship, and wingmen, in under 24hrs. It's like you've got the mega weapon lite going all the time. Anyway, it's good. Only up to lvl25 so far, but I haven't played that much. Anyway, it's staying on my phone forever.....
(you can scroll the shop items horizontally, so there's heaps of stuff to buy. Grind past game level 20, and get a legendary ship of whatever weapon type you like. Saves pouring credits into something crap)
Nice in that you can scale yourself way back for a more "pure" experience if you want, or go flat multi-everything from the word go. They give you all the options. Even p2w ones, that truthfully, I may use at some point. But you get one of each ship, wing man, and plenty of gubbins to try out, which in my opinion makes it a good shooter (I tend to judge shooters by the "Tyrian" standard, not the "requires skill" standard). It's Galaga, but it's fun.
Noah [DANMAKU shooting] is an artsy bullet hell, that isn't really that hellish. Nice aesthetic, and a fair few ship upgrade options. Haven't really sunk my teeth into it yet. Still, if you like something a bit more abstract, this is a good one. It also has the advantage that it's a Japanese game, so you get to watch all the bullshit awesome jap game ads at the end of a playthrough (honestly, it's worthwhile downloading just for this. Everything in-game is easy to understand, even if the graphics are LSD'ish abstract lineart, and then afterwards the ads are just a weird added trip-out to bring you back to "reality"). You will want some more nice, calming 60's style LSD straight afterwards.....
Are you addicted to the surrealism, or what's in the box? You know you're going to click the box anyway, so you may as well come into it in the right frame of mind. :)
Pixel Craft is, umm, a retro shooter. Kind of. It's more like a modern shooter, but with purposely coarse graphics. Plenty of powerups, and actually quite good looking in its own way. Plays rather well. Only tried two ships, but no doubt there's plenty of play there. It even has the ShooMachi -shipsize thing available, which makes me think it might be good. I'll have to play more to see.
Retro Shooting is a voxel'y shooter, with a nice array of ships to choose from, and a constant stream of powerups chucked at you each level. Think Raiden, but with voxels, and you'll have your missiles and max firepower before half the level is over (each level is a thing to its own, but they throw available firepower at you straight away) . Nice, well defined bullets and powerups, so you'll never confuse one for the other. Again, plays well, and gives you enough instant gratification to make you want to burn through another level.
These are all some of the better shooters I've played recently. Honestly, I've trawled through some absolute crap over the years, with either stupid business models or just plain bad gameplay. These are all average-good, leaning towards good-great. Plus, they're all pretty much free, if you don't mind watching a few ads.
There's also a few good diablo-likes and action roguelites that are new, but I'll wait a bit to bother posting them, because they may deserve a more thorough run down.
Post by: Aoi on November 16, 2017, 08:38:16 am
Ignoring the slightly odd looking title, it plays a lot like Card Thief if you were a fighter instead of a thief.
You have cards on a 3x3 grid, mostly composed of shields, traps, monsters, fireballs and barrels. Shields act as temporary HP, traps deal direct damage but alternate between active/inactive, monsters deal damage when you attack on a straight HP basis, fireballs damage adjacent cards equal to their power (good if it's a monster, bad if it's a shield or HP potion) and barrels are random, but start strong and get weaker over time (which plays directly into one character's specialty-- barrels will always have something good).
It's really simple, conceptually, but works out quite well.
There is one really annoying mechanic though; bosses leave chests behind when killed that often have interesting effects inside (double adjacent card power, explode in a + shape, etc) but there's an unlock timing minigame involved too.
Your starting character is also the most powerful one, in my opinion: Shields only lose 1hp if the monster's weaker and shields gain 1hp if you pick up a weaker shield.
Edit: After getting to 10+ bosses on each class other than Battle Mage, I'd have to say that the starting class' power drops off later on; dealing with bosses that have 20+HP means you'll be constantly breaking shields and be whittled down by trash. On the other hand, the Paladin's shields act like fireballs so there's never a drop off in power.
Edit, update: The game is still under active development (I think it's actually still flagged prerelease) and things have changed a lot since my original post; Battle Mage is now the OP class since fireballs get infinitely stronger (like 10 damage after 12 bosses, enough to oneshot every normal enemy), they still get to use shields, and they can destroy boss chests with impunity (which is actually a pretty good idea, contrary to how the game seems to present it).
Post by: MCreeper on November 16, 2017, 02:47:09 pm
for show/remnants of the gamebook/you can't do this, because you will destroy the plot by doing this" moments. Especially second part, especially the "end". Still totally worth playing.
We talk about all android games here, right? I don't think it will fit on smartphone, too little screen.
Oh, and i just remembered that not's not only on android. Damn.
Just for fun, some deaths of me
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Frumple on November 16, 2017, 03:16:31 pm
We talk about all android games here, right? I don't think it will fit on smartphone, too little screen.Pocket is pocket. iPad or whatever apple's doing these days fits in a pocket. My kindle fits in my pocket. A
Oh, and i just remembered that not's not only on android. Damn.
Post by: Aoi on November 17, 2017, 02:37:48 pm
I ended up giving up like 80% through 3 though, because I could not figure out the proper positioning to
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, your characters carry over from one game to the next (it's a singular overarching story, sort of like the Lone Wolf series) so you don't really want to skip.
Post by: sambojin on November 17, 2017, 04:19:23 pm
I played a bit of Lineage II after being bombarded with their current ad campaign on YouTube. Umm, it's really well produced, and probably has plenty of content and story. BUT, it's basically a power hungry screen saver. As in: everything is automatic. Walking to quests can be auto, fighting can be auto, potion use is auto, the only real player interaction necessary is accepting quests and messing around with inventory. There's probably a bit a skill in PvP, but otherwise, it's a screen saver with occasional user input required. Which is a pity. It looks really nice, it sounds really good, and even the combat feels OK when it's not on auto. Except, it's the fastest and probably best way to play, so that's what everyone does.
So if you want a better looking, online only, 1gb+ in size version of Stick Ranger (with bigger boobs but not as fun), with slightly less player interaction necessary to play, and little to no party design or gear choices available, go for it. But I really couldn't recommend it. I'll probably play through the campaign eventually, maybe, but I still think I'll stick to SR. I don't mind shoddy graphics.
It really is a pity. Somewhere along the line they destroyed a really good, well produced game with an OK combat engine. Don't know how or why. It wouldn't have been too hard to make it easy to find quests, and they could have just zoomed out the camera a little. There's plenty else wrong with it, there's plenty that's good about it, but it ended up being a celebrity endorsed screen saver of all things. Hmmmmm.......
Post by: Jopax on November 18, 2017, 03:55:44 pm
And speaking of chars, there's a dozen of them maybe a bit more, most are variations on standard classes, so your Knight comes in regular, paladin and black flavours, each specializing in their own thing, like the paladin being beefy and being able to go down the healing and support tank or a more aggressive crowd clearing role.
Best of all tho, the game is actually free, in that it doesn't have microtransactions shoved down your throat, it doesn't have obnoxious ads nor does it require any data from you. Just install and play
Post by: MCreeper on November 18, 2017, 05:16:06 pm
The Sorcery! series is fantastic... though I don't remember it being quite so silly.Of course it is not so silly,i just made up descriptions of deaths, because i don't remember them exactly. :P
I ended up giving up like 80% through 3 though, because I could not figure out the proper positioning toThere's probably a guide for it now, so I should revisit it...Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, your characters carry over from one game to the next (it's a singular overarching story, sort of like the Lone Wolf series) so you don't really want to skip.
I played long time ago, and didn't killed serpent of time, but i think you don't even have any profit for doing it.
Used to love the Sorcery series (and the other Fighting Fantasy books). Does it still have the "hope you remember what each spell does" thing?Nope. Game gives you description of what spell does what whenever you can cast them. You CAN burn your spellbook to use it as a torch closer to the end of second part and further (i think you can also sell it somewhere) which removes the tips, but
1. There are many, MANY better options to make light.
2. By this time you most likely remembered all of them anyways.
Post by: Aoi on November 18, 2017, 05:57:31 pm
The Sorcery! series is fantastic... though I don't remember it being quite so silly.Of course it is not so silly,i just made up descriptions of deaths, because i don't remember them exactly. :P
I ended up giving up like 80% through 3 though, because I could not figure out the proper positioning toThere's probably a guide for it now, so I should revisit it...Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, your characters carry over from one game to the next (it's a singular overarching story, sort of like the Lone Wolf series) so you don't really want to skip.
I played long time ago, and didn't killed serpent of time, but i think you don't even have any profit for doing it.
You can still finish the book without doing so, but it's basically leaving your mission incomplete, which never feels good... It's pretty easy to finish it minimally, but getting complete runs on each chapter has been fairly tricky.
Post by: AzyWng on November 18, 2017, 11:57:20 pm
Battleheart legacy costs $5.
Neither of these prices is “free”.
All the same, they sound like good games for the price. I think they won App Store awards, in fact.
Post by: Aoi on November 19, 2017, 12:15:10 am
Battleheart costs $3.
Shows as free for me, when I check from my computer and my (Android) phone.
Post by: Jopax on November 19, 2017, 03:33:28 am
Post by: AzyWng on November 19, 2017, 08:19:08 am
Which reminds me, are they still doing free app of the week?
Post by: sambojin on November 20, 2017, 03:41:13 pm
Fist of Truth got a big update. Graphic style has been spruced up a bit, rewards for play are different (slightly worse due to no gems given), but most things can be bought with gems now (bit of a cash grab I guess). Magic dust is now more useful too, with a larger selection of cards available to buy with it. Prices, especially the monthly pack, seem pretty fair still, but it will overall be harder to get free packs out of the game. Glad I got a few decks into "pretty powerful" stage before the change, but the White Walkers decks are still deceptively powerful against my normal design much of the time. Still a great little card game, with enough of a twist compared to hearthstone etc to be worth a look.
Also played a bit of HIT, another action RPG, with a diablo 3 vibe to it. It looks really nice, it sounds really good, it has a good storyline, but guess what? It's another screen saver where you can auto most things. And since it's been around for a while, they give you a legendary weapon at the start (or I got really lucky in my free boxes), so you'll one-shot nearly everything for the first 70-100 levels, by which time it seems to loop. "Difficulty" goes up, but that consists of getting slightly better armour while knowing your weapon is as good as you'll get for another loop or two. Went the scythe chick and she was alright, tried the loli caster and felt she was OP even with tiered down weapons. I'll go through the other characters later.
This isn't to say I don't like it. It's a REALLY pretty screensaver, with a good plot and funny characters. But it might be for hangovers and stuff, for when I get sick of watching Salty Bet on twitch. Same level of boobs, lolis and random fighting action at play, with a different plot to unlimited blade works. Kind of.
Post by: Folly on November 21, 2017, 04:43:43 pm
This was released about a week ago in English, Android and IOS and I've been playing it since then. It's a fairly by-the-numbers eastern style MMO, which is to say slutty anime-style characters, linear maps, and a very basic active-combat system. And of course a lengthy main quest line that involves alternating 'kill 10 wolves' and 'go talk to the next person'.
With those criticisms having been said, here's what the game does right. Robust auto-play system, that lets you move to quest targets and fight with a simple tap, so you only have to worry about inventory management and ticking off those dailies. And there are a lot of dailies to do, including multiple types of dungeons focusing on different enemy types and rewards, clan quests, and free loot from the shop. Also the graphics are quite respectable for a mobile game, though you may need a decent device to handle it. All in all, it's been a decent time-killer so far.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nintendo.zaca&hl=en)
This just became available today. I've never actually played Animal Crossing before; always wanted to but never had the right console. So I'm looking forward to trying this out now that it's on my phone.
Post by: tnc on December 09, 2017, 01:28:13 pm
Post by: Doomblade187 on December 09, 2017, 03:29:19 pm
I suspect it is Android only, however.
EDIT: HyperRogue (http://www.roguetemple.com/z/hyper/)
Better production and has a really fun gameplay. Absolutely eats your battery though.
Post by: Frumple on December 09, 2017, 03:41:42 pm
Total aside 'cause I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a port, but some of the critter's other stuff is quite neat, too. Vapors of Insanity is interesting even if it's a early beta build, ferex.
Post by: Dostoevsky on December 09, 2017, 03:47:29 pm
Post by: tnc on December 09, 2017, 04:59:16 pm
I enjoyed 868-Hack a lot. Love the aesthetic and the whole game, music all together.
Post by: sambojin on December 17, 2017, 06:41:28 pm
(It is. Sure it's a port, but it's made as a mobile game, so the PC version is more like the dev version, Android and iOS is the "normal" version).
Shattered Pixel Dungeon isn't bad either. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a port of it for apple, since PD is open source, so there's tonnes of versions available for most platforms. Shattered PD is one of the better ones.
I'm pretty sure Solomon's Keep, Heroes of Loot 1, and Dungeon Quest are all on iOS if you want a more action based "Diablo'y" roguelite. HoL is like gauntlet++. It's great. The others are a tiny bit deeper, and I think I did a write-up of them above.
Gumballs and Dungeons is a nice little puzzle-roguelite-thing. A weird progression system, very "mobile'ish", but good for something different.
Space Grunts might scratch your itch if you want a more sci-fi turn-based roguelite as well.
Battlevoid Harbinger is a real time spacey roguelite, if you don't mind stretching the definition a bit. Levels and loot are randomized at least, though the "winning" path is pretty simplistic.
If you're going to stretch the definition of roguelite that far, stretch it to Event Horizon as well. Random star systems, random loot, and tonnes of customization. Sort of like Star Control 2 combat and Stardrive 1 ship building, with LOTS of bits, loot and ships. Really not a roguelike at all, but roguelite can mean damn near anything these days, so this is one of them too. Although there's absolutely no permadeath (quite the opposite).
Post by: tnc on December 19, 2017, 07:06:50 am
Is Pathos: the Nethack Codex on iOS? If it is, I will happily recommend it.
(It is. Sure it's a port, but it's made as a mobile game, so the PC version is more like the dev version, Android and iOS is the "normal" version).
Shattered Pixel Dungeon isn't bad either. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a port of it for apple, since PD is open source, so there's tonnes of versions available for most platforms. Shattered PD is one of the better ones.
I'm pretty sure Solomon's Keep, Heroes of Loot 1, and Dungeon Quest are all on iOS if you want a more action based "Diablo'y" roguelite. HoL is like gauntlet++. It's great. The others are a tiny bit deeper, and I think I did a write-up of them above.
Gumballs and Dungeons is a nice little puzzle-roguelite-thing. A weird progression system, very "mobile'ish", but good for something different.
Space Grunts might scratch your itch if you want a more sci-fi turn-based roguelite as well.
Battlevoid Harbinger is a real time spacey roguelite, if you don't mind stretching the definition a bit. Levels and loot are randomized at least, though the "winning" path is pretty simplistic.
If you're going to stretch the definition of roguelite that far, stretch it to Event Horizon as well. Random star systems, random loot, and tonnes of customization. Sort of like Star Control 2 combat and Stardrive 1 ship building, with LOTS of bits, loot and ships. Really not a roguelike at all, but roguelite can mean damn near anything these days, so this is one of them too. Although there's absolutely no permadeath (quite the opposite).
Thanks sambojin. Great list I'll check them out. Which one is the one that you've been playing for some time and still keep enjoying it? I have to try Nethack.
Post by: Zangi on December 19, 2017, 11:21:57 am
Lineage 2 Revolution (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netmarble.revolutionthm&hl=en)Back in my day, Lineage 2 was just on the PC.
This was released about a week ago in English, Android and IOS and I've been playing it since then. It's a fairly by-the-numbers eastern style MMO, which is to say slutty anime-style characters, linear maps, and a very basic active-combat system. And of course a lengthy main quest line that involves alternating 'kill 10 wolves' and 'go talk to the next person'.
With those criticisms having been said, here's what the game does right. Robust auto-play system, that lets you move to quest targets and fight with a simple tap, so you only have to worry about inventory management and ticking off those dailies. And there are a lot of dailies to do, including multiple types of dungeons focusing on different enemy types and rewards, clan quests, and free loot from the shop. Also the graphics are quite respectable for a mobile game, though you may need a decent device to handle it. All in all, it's been a decent time-killer so far.
Post by: sambojin on December 20, 2017, 04:44:04 pm
Event Horizon is good as a loot grinder too. If you like real time, top down, space combat that is (I do). It's not really rogue'ish, other than the randomized galaxy and loot. It also has a fairly slow start. Then as soon as you get over a little hump, you start getting all the cool stuff. There's no actual point to the game other then getting better ships and parts and fighting stuff, but it's still good for all that. You can get some quite varied ships and playstyles going, all in one fleet, so you can pretty much play it how you want. Fighter carriers, long range heavy missile ships, fast missile skirmishers, torpedo strafers, gunships, close range brawlers, snipers, or just some weird whacky stuff (black hole generator bombers that also lay plasma minefields around the black hole, etc) are all possible, or any combo of them in one ship in many cases too. The "perfecting" of ship designs and general hording of loot are pretty much the fun. I like that stuff, so if you do, you'll love it. There's also an ever increasing, but player chosen, level of challenge available, with a large variety of enemies, so it doesn't get old too quickly. Once you know about the interface and what some stuff does, it's easy. There's a big wiki and a helpful forum if you're unsure of what things do.
The others can just sort of sit there on your phone until you want to bust out a few levels. They're not that big, and I think only G&D requires an internet connection.
Post by: tnc on December 21, 2017, 05:31:28 am
Post by: Frumple on December 21, 2017, 08:26:47 am
There's demo/free versions both on mobile and PC, iirc... might not be for 2, but definitely is for 1. If you're interested but hesitant, check that out first. While the full versions (and particularly 2) are more and better than the free stuff, the free stuff gives you a very solid idea of how the general game plays out.
Though just to reiterate, if you're going to put money in it, get the sequel. Siralim 2 improves on pretty literally every feature of siralim 1, and adds more besides.
* I use singular because the sequel is better in literally every way; siralim 1 might as well not exist at this point, heh. There's zero reason to get 1 besides not being able to afford 2.
Post by: xaritscin on December 21, 2017, 10:02:47 am
Post by: Aoi on December 22, 2017, 01:12:51 pm
You're basically looking a static set of images and inputting the correct answer on each one opens up more pages to give yourself headaches. The puzzles vary in style; one early one has an array of dots... if you punch in the sequence into a binary converter you have, you end up with the text INVERT (or something like that)... enter INVERT, and it opens the next puzzle. However, if you invert the binary code and follow that to the end, you end up opening a different path. In another case, you have to refer to a lab document that's indirectly reference, opened a few pages back, that has a few keywords that you can input to advance.
In other news, Look, Your Loot! has sat on my phone for over a month, is under fantastic active development, has seen the most playtime of anything over that duration, is free/ad-supported, and just promoted to my phone's front page. Fire mage is even more OP now.
Post by: Folly on December 22, 2017, 01:50:45 pm
Lineage II Revolution seems like a good mobile/tablet title to pass the time. a bit limited right now (missing the voluptuous dark elf ladies or the whole orc and kamael roster but oh well).
Many of the NPC's are voluptuous dark elf ladies.
Does anyone enjoy Siralim 1/2? It looks like the Shin Megami series.
It's worth noting I feel that we have a Siralim and Siralim 2 thread here in Other Games, and got some dev feedback in the first one. Also yes, there was a fair amount of positive response in both.
Post by: etgfrog on December 22, 2017, 02:05:02 pm
Does anyone enjoy Siralim 1/2? It looks like the Shin Megami series.Its the same game that is on steam, its fairly good, although quite a few broken creature combos, which I guess is most of the fun of the game to me. Steam says I put 142 hours into Siralim 2. In my opinion, has fewer hard counters, which means less of a chance of running into an enemy that is simply you lose, unless your way out of depth. Siralim 3 is currently in development, which I'm looking forward to.
Post by: Retropunch on December 23, 2017, 03:12:02 pm
It's also not too grindy as you can use turbo/mega-turbo mode (press a to basically do default actions). When I needed to get up a few levels to beat whatever boss I could just go through to a lower level and stomp some creatures with auto for a bit till I was a higher level.
My only criticisms is that knowing what some stuff is that there's a lot of spells/statuses that are pretty much identical (hurt random creature for low damage each turn) - whilst this isn't really a problem, I wish the devs had just called them the same thing so you could identify easily what's going on in combat.
I'd definitely recommend if monster collection/party RPGs are your thing - just don't be expecting a proper story or anything resembling a plot.
Post by: AzyWng on December 24, 2017, 11:47:29 am
Well, basically, it's a sort of battle-royale type game where players are on an island. Up to ten players must fight each other to the death, with the last player being considered the winner.
Each character has their own strengths, weaknesses, preferred weapon, and other traits.
All throughout the island are items that players can use, including weapons, food, healing items, and armor. Every few minutes, certain zones will be "Restricted" - players can no longer enter them, and any player in the zone when it gets restricted will immediately die. Games are generally a bit short - maybe twenty minutes at the very longest?
It's... a bit difficult to explain, really.
Post by: Aoi on December 24, 2017, 03:14:56 pm
Has anyone mentioned Black Survival yet?
Oooo, me, a year and a half ago! It's fun. I got to the upper carnivore tiers before I stopped because the competition got brutal, and everybody knew the optimized routes by then, so it mostly came down to RNG and hoping whoever you actually have to duel with at the end isn't somebody that's a hard counter to you. Conceptually, it's part of a long list of 'PvP survival game' stuff; anybody familiar with Battle Royale, Btooom!, Hunger Games, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, etc. will 'get' it immediately.
I'd also add: It's realtime. You spend a few seconds searching for items, fighting, crafting or (hopefully not) looking at built-in resource information like where stuff can spawn. That makes things a rather frantic dash, since only one person can really be harvesting in a single area-- when two people meet, they start fighting (or, more likely, one is desperately trying to run, the other isn't).
Post by: tnc on December 24, 2017, 04:25:31 pm
There will be a Shin Megami Tensei game released for smartphones. Hope it turns out good.
Post by: Aoi on December 31, 2017, 03:07:50 am
Monetization is a type I find frustrating; you get lockboxes that are timegated, and you can sidestep the timegate with cash. (A few other uses, but they seem to be largely negligible.) With that out of the way...
It plays like a cross between Monopoly, a CCG, and a dice battler.
Monopoly: You play 1v1 on a circular board divided into 3-3-4, with special tiles between each section. Land on a normal tile, and you get to pay to build on it, which takes possession. Much like Monopoly, tiles you've bought will get you money when you complete a circuit.
CCG: You can equip various cards that give additional stats (more on that later) and skills. Some of the skills are fairly boring to use-- "upgrade nearby built tiles", "+1def in daytime", etc. Others are massively powerful (and one combo that you're given for free at the start, is espoused by the devs)-- +3attack for 4 turns and teleport to any opponent's tile. In addition to activated (or passive) effects, they also give base stats.
Dice Battler: When you land on an opponent's owned tile, or the opponent themselves, you end up being able to fight them, or pay them. If you choose to fight, it turns into your attack+1d6 vs their defense+1d6. Attacking a property allows you to take it over or disable it (depending on if it's built up, I think), in addition to robbing it, and they have their own defense stat too.
There's three win conditions for a match-- take over a region (3/4 consecutive blocks), bankrupt them, or have the most money after 12 rounds. My longest match so far ended on the 12th round, with a bankruptcy, and my shortest on the second turn (horrible luck). Most matches will end in <5min, so it's good for a grab-and-go. (Also, your starting character, The Rock, is actually really good for aggressive "fun" play when you're just jumping in-- he gets +2atk in daytime... considerable, when you probably only have stats of 5/5 at first.)
Post by: Aoi on January 05, 2018, 04:06:09 am
It feels like a cross between FFXII and an idle game, and is actually fairly entertaining to watch, but is ultimately, like most idle and tappers, aimless. There's no active gameplay; everything you actually do is navigating through menus.
You draft up to 12 units (no reason to do less, unless you can't afford it at the start), pick their classes, set their gambits, toss on whatever gear you have, and start idling through stages. Use your money and loot from each stage to level them (and unlock additional classes), and repeat! ---Wait, gambits? Yep. This is the part I find more interesting. For people unfamiliar with FFXII, you could "program" your allies to do certain things in certain cases. For example, you'd probably stick Dead Ally->Resurrection and HP<50%->Heal at the top of the list, followed by Nearest Hostile->Stun and Nearest Hostile->Nuke 'em. This game has more or less replicated that, and you have five slots, with a conditional and an action, each, to program your team. Combos and classes are obvious at first, but when you start getting more advanced, your options open up dramatically, allowing for things like Highest Enemy Attack->Stun, Nearest Enemy->Knockback, Enemy with AoE->Confuse, Highest HP->Nuke, Lowest HP->Normal Attack.
...Though, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how realistically useful that is. It seems like you can level more or less infinitely (though getting successively more expensive), and, as far as PvE goes, the most practical solution is to just have some low leveled guys as support/whatever, and one ungodly powerful unit that can just solo everything in sight (example, my current guy is Lv1605... and the next highest is Lv148). Sure, it ain't fast, but it makes it easy to remember what classes need leveling to unlock your top tier classes, and get those critical skills. (High damage AoE on a short CD that also has lifedrain? Yep, he's never dying.)
Only one IAP-- it lets you run at double speed (4x, technically, but why would you ever not be running at 2x?), increases drop rate, and, most importantly, gives you perma 2x money. Which basically means you spend half the time waiting, which kind of makes this entire thing even more pointless, but hey~!
Post by: Aoi on January 24, 2018, 04:00:22 pm
That's a nice, easy description for once, isn't it? =D
(There's a free and a pay version for Android; according to an update on the paid version page, it says that there's a free version now, so I'm guessing that's what it is.)
Update, in more depth:
It's actually pretty good, but it does have a number of glaring weaknesses-- the biggest is that, if you've actually finished Darkest Dungeon (or got at least, say, halfway through), it is REALLY easy. I'm about 20 dungeons in (out of 108, I believe), and the only death I've had so far was when I accidentally took an L1 team into a dungeon recommended for L4. As a result, if you play remotely intelligently, it's... kind of dreadfully boring. I'm rampaging through everything with a party currently two levels under recommended without a problem. Unlike DD, the lack of a torch system means you can't really shift the difficulty/reward scale. There's no mechanic to prevent you from delaying combats, which means you can just keep one enemy alive as you heal back to full (mostly unnecessary...). Healing is far too powerful; my healer does about 70targeted/turn and 70AoE on CD... and even the hardest hitting boss only hit me for about 90, when I was far weaker, and with a conditional attack with a long CD. No rest mechanism, and classes are limited to four skills (unlike pick-4-of-8). And, most importantly, no Wayne June.
The upshot is that you're not constantly facing a risk/return balance with incredibly limited resources and on a timer, so you're not playing in a constant state of terror that a bit of RNG screw will destroy a team that took ten hours to build. Numbers are larger, which allows for more granularity. There's none of that stacking debuff nonsense; as far as I can tell, an effect always takes effect. Equipment actually feels like it matters, and virtues/afflictions are more dramatic. (Or at least the virtues are.)
Post by: AzyWng on January 24, 2018, 04:43:20 pm
As does Dungeon Survival.
Haven't bought either so I don't have anything to say other than that :/
Post by: Jopax on January 24, 2018, 04:48:15 pm
Post by: Aoi on January 24, 2018, 05:21:57 pm
Checked in the app store and Mystery of Fortune does cost money.
As does Dungeon Survival.
Edit: In the news section for the ECS/0.99 version, it says 'The free version has been released, just search for same name and you can download for free now!', so I guess it's legit.
Post by: Frumple on January 24, 2018, 06:24:02 pm
Never played ff12, but MoF actually reminded me a bit of ogre battle when I first ran into it, which is always something that gets my ears to perk up. It's both fairly grindy and fairly laggy after a bit, though, unfortunately.
Post by: Aoi on January 24, 2018, 07:12:23 pm
The mystery of fortune thing isn't exactly free, iirc, but they do sporadically let folks download them for nothing -- it's not just MoF2, but some of their other stuff, too. There's a pseudo-risk type thing built off a similar combat engine, ferex.
Yeah; I've gotten into the habit of checking what's in the sale section and just claiming whatever's in there that may remotely be interesting in the distant future, which means some for-pay stuff may accidentally slip in without a warning.
Post by: AzyWng on January 24, 2018, 07:38:42 pm
Checked in the app store and Mystery of Fortune does cost money.
As does Dungeon Survival....Well, now I'm concerned.I prodded a bit in the Play Store and noticed that there's two different versions of it that (superficially, at least) look identical; one developed by Frozen Frog that's free (that I got), and one by Energy Crystal Studio for 0.99.
Edit: In the news section for the ECS/0.99 version, it says 'The free version has been released, just search for same name and you can download for free now!', so I guess it's legit.
I'm viewing the app on the app store right now (Apple, not Google Play) and Dungeon Survival, made by Frozenfrog, costs a dollar.
Post by: Frumple on January 25, 2018, 02:01:32 pm
Dungeon Survival... Darkest Dungeon without torches or stress, less RNG BS or a priori knowledge required, and added micropay.This really is basically darkest dungeon with the more annoying interesting bits filed off. Or the more interesting annoying bits, I guess. It's not terrible, but it does turn out a decent amount of DD's gameplay depth and atmosphere came from paying attention to the irritating parts of it.
That's a nice, easy description for once, isn't it? =D
Still, for folks starting off a quick teamcomp recommendation would be anything (marksman or demon hunter, practically), priest, alchemist, paladin, back to front. Those first three will let you clear poison and bleed on demand, and sporadically render your entire team immune to status afflictions, once you have all skills active. The damage is kinda' sketchy, but it's alright and whatever your forth slot is will probably hit pretty hard, and since you don't have any long term concerns except health damage, being able to heal on three of your party members (and subsequently outheal most single enemies) means you functionally don't have attrition. Makes for pretty smooth sailing.
Post by: Aoi on January 25, 2018, 03:31:50 pm
This really is basically darkest dungeon with the more annoying interesting bits filed off. Or the more interesting annoying bits, I guess. It's not terrible, but it does turn out a decent amount of DD's gameplay depth and atmosphere came from paying attention to the irritating parts of it.
Still, for folks starting off a quick teamcomp recommendation would be anything (marksman or demon hunter, practically), priest, alchemist, paladin, back to front. Those first three will let you clear poison and bleed on demand, and sporadically render your entire team immune to status afflictions, once you have all skills active. The damage is kinda' sketchy, but it's alright and whatever your forth slot is will probably hit pretty hard, and since you don't have any long term concerns except health damage, being able to heal on three of your party members (and subsequently outheal most single enemies) means you functionally don't have attrition. Makes for pretty smooth sailing.
I agree with that assessment; DD-lite is also something I've seen tossed back and forth that's fairly true too.
Paladins are great front-liners; priests are practically a must-have for the later stages since they get MUCH longer (though I've done a handful of T1/2 dungeons without them, relying on very high damage teams optimized for that dungeon); I'd actually recommend against marksmen though-- they have high baseline power which makes them attractive at the start and their basic attack does extra against the backline, which further compounds it... but they're really only got that one attack (the other two are on long CDs, and the third is just a CD reset... and you'll probably lose effectiveness due to required positioning), and unless you're running a team that can do a lot of position shuffling or specializing in backline damage, you'll be running into the unfortunate case of whittling down all your targets as opposed to bursting one down. Instead, go with an assassin-- their base attack hits fairly hard (and double damage <30targetHP), good in positions 2-3, can inflict knockback, and has a high base speed. A sort-of downside is that their base attack targets whatever has the lowest HP, which often means you're wasting a strong attack in something that may die from DoT/AoEs in the next turn. On the other hand, it means the softest target's dropping first. (...I actually really like the automatic targeting, though it is kind of brutal for your healing/cleanses...)
Edit: ...And I just took a closer look at Demon Hunter. Which may actually be better for all-purpose than Assassin, though getting the extra bleed from an up-front Assassin is handy if you're running a Dragonmother too.
Post by: Frumple on January 25, 2018, 04:20:57 pm
... the bigger thing is probably that I really like position 3 and 1 to be priest and paladin (for conditional full party status immunity), and if there's an on tap source of poison removal besides the alch (which doesn't work all that well in slot 4) I haven't noticed it. So if it don't work in the rear most slot it starts looking sketchy. Priest could go there if you're okay with kinda' relying on the pallie for status blocking on slot 2, but... that's kinda' only if you want to limit the priest to more or less only healing. Which is doable but something of a waste, really. Dispelling strike has a pretty decent base damage, and the buff cleanse ain't bad.
Fairly unsure about the demon hunter, though. Think I'd consider it over gun if I happened to be running with a seriously baller alch? Main attack makes poison boom easier to kick off, and you'd still have repositioning (if single target). Ability to target weakest, too, for that matter. In between the assassin and mark, I guess.
Lance guy's unfortunate. Still have to see the dragon thing and augur, but if neither of those have a bleed clear I can't see row one ever being anything except a paladin. Too much stuff causes and interacts with bleed to be able to rely on the priest cleanse, and nothing else has a bleed cure, iirc.
Post by: Aoi on January 25, 2018, 04:53:07 pm
Will have to try it, I suppose. I actually kinda' like the marksman, though. The damage is solid enough you can save the other abilities for specialty usages, the full party shuffle is excellent for disruption, and the non-CD thing makes it easier to fix crap when your own dudes get flipped around. CD reset just means you can be a bit more careless with your cooldowns or really drop a hammer on the entire enemy group, if you really feel like it.
... the bigger thing is probably that I really like position 3 and 1 to be priest and paladin (for conditional full party status immunity), and if there's an on tap source of poison removal besides the alch (which doesn't work all that well in slot 4) I haven't noticed it. So if it don't work in the rear most slot it starts looking sketchy. Priest could go there if you're okay with kinda' relying on the pallie for status blocking on slot 2, but... that's kinda' only if you want to limit the priest to more or less only healing. Which is doable but something of a waste, really. Dispelling strike has a pretty decent base damage, and the buff cleanse ain't bad.
Fairly unsure about the demon hunter, though. Think I'd consider it over gun if I happened to be running with a seriously baller alch? Main attack makes poison boom easier to kick off, and you'd still have repositioning (if single target). Ability to target weakest, too, for that matter. In between the assassin and mark, I guess.
Lance guy's unfortunate. Still have to see the dragon thing and augur, but if neither of those have a bleed clear I can't see row one ever being anything except a paladin. Too much stuff causes and interacts with bleed to be able to rely on the priest cleanse, and nothing else has a bleed cure, iirc.
The marksman isn't bad, but when you're just slogging through stuff, disruption really as good as just straight up damage. Having said that, I'm starting to run into fights where I actually have to pay attention now, in dungeons marked L12, so I may have to start taking more utilities.
Priest's top skill is a party cleanse, though it has a long CD. I've mostly just been powering through poison; bleed's -def is more dangerous, and the Paladin has that on lock. I'm not a fan of alch as a whole though; I've tried taking one, but it doesn't seem to do enough to justify. Maybe in the Temple, where poison's -healing effect will help shut down the worms. And yeah, I've been running DM>Pa>As>Pr, which relegates my priest into a healbot. (More on DM below.)
I'm thinking DH for Reap (identical to As's Ultimate Stab, I think?) and Mark; the latter is a nice damage multiplier, and the former I think we've beaten to death. I don't have much use for poison though, as I can't take advantage of the Alch's combo without one.
Lancer's not BAD, but I'm not sure how to slot it in. P gets heal/bleedremoval and bleed on its base attack whereas L gets a double-hit and a stun; maybe its guard/counter will get more useful at higher levels when (I hope) it gets a duration boost/CD reduction? Stun is fantastic, since it can't be resisted like in DD, but the CD...
DM's base attack is like Poison Stimulation, except with a lower multiplier and it doesn't clear the stacks. Every other turn, it gets to drop a pretty hard hitting AoE. Other attacks are a -attack debuff and a weird lifedrain buff: For damage that the DM does, the entire party regains health. (Not the damage each unit does.) No cleanse.
Haven't opened the Augur yet, though I bet it'll work like the Cultist.
Post by: Frumple on January 25, 2018, 05:48:16 pm
Basically the alch's been a sort of filler, though. Has some back row CC, which supplements the marksman -- between the two they can keep something out the back row for a good while. Can heal, which supplements the healer in case it's stunned or someone just got dunked on. Covers the other half of the ubiquitous status effects (this is so far mostly just to make the poison boss thing less annoying, since his poison trigger hits pretty hard). Deals relatively low single target damage most of the time, but hits two things, etc., etc. The critter's... mellow? I guess. But seems to do 'is job. Might just be that seeing "suppressed" with any regularity on my side of the screen annoys me :P
Though yeah, poison makes the worms way less annoying if you can't kill them fast enough to prevent the self heal. Very noticeable, heh.
Post by: Aoi on January 25, 2018, 08:04:34 pm
I'm getting second thoughts about employing a DM in a progression team though; they're fantastic in levelling teams where they can use their AoE on a short CD to wipe lower levelled groups, but they NEED to be in the first position and four stacks of bleed to realize their potential.
Alch I'm still iffy on, but thank goodness for Marksman when doing the Temple boss...
Edit: Oh, and in terms of quicker progression... remember that after 18 (different) stages, you get to enable 2xSpeed.
Update: Oh myyyy. Some of the bounties are really hard/annoying. One of them was basically a mega worm boss with 25kHP... and recovered like 5k with every baby worm it eats. And the babies have a ton of HP too.
My other SS-difficulty bounty... was a version of the summoned megabat with the IMMORTALITY trait. If it does anything while within <15%, it gets a full restore. It also had almost 20kHP. Aurrrrgh. "Killed" the bloody thing five times before attrition did me in. Should've just fled instead...
Update 2: So I've opened Prophet (and autocombat, thank goodness...) and it's weird. Base attack hits from any position and does 20% lifedrain, has a buff that gives taunt+100%deathresist, a heal that does heal+
Also, be really careful if you're running a gunner in a zone with succubi and you're using autoattack. The AI will cheerfully try and gun down your ally. As well as any other classes, but the rest of them aren't as likely to be able to kill them in a single hit. They try and use all buff skills too, so you'll want to be careful with what skills they learn if you don't want them to spam Holy Shield, either. (And, inversely, they don't seem to be using the paladin cleanse/heal nearly as often as it should...)
A few other general thoughts... a high escape percentage is also super useful when doing high-rank bounties; it allows you to escape the battle, pop a ton of food, and charge right back in without the enemies being allowed to heal or anything. Also refresh the recruitment roster a few times when a new team comes in; 500/1000/2000 is negligible later on and you'll want to get a full legendary team ASAP so you don't keep wasting xp/skill books on second tier members.
...Because, holy, it takes a hellacious amount of time to level. ._.
Freakin' healing bosses... 187 turns. Went on for like 20 minutes before I flipped it into manual.
Okay, yeah... REALLY don't use the gunner if it's your most powerful character in the upper difficulties of Crimson Castle. Gargoyle rearranged my team, Succubus charmed her, then when she advanced to position 2, she got Preparation and dropped Bombard and Blasting Shock on my face. RIP.
Welp. That was a fun run. Lost a team of L26 with skills up to date and red/legendary gear. SSS bounties are no joke. 5 +HP, 2 +Armor, 4 +Attack, 1 +DeathResist and I got creamed. (Nope, that's not the end. Had just enough gems to buy holy water to revive my team. Guess I'm grinding the endless tower for that tasty ~150-200 holy water per run...)
1500 days... STILL can't get an orange Prophet.
Post by: DeKaFu on February 02, 2018, 12:19:21 pm
I'm only level 28 so far, but I've already stumbled on a combo I really like. Most of my team is physical attack-oriented, but I also have a "Glutinous Slime" that has the ability of giving a random ally a 40% attack/int boost whenever it gets hit with an attack. You can "provoke" with a monster to make it intercept half the enemy's attacks, so if I do that on its every turn my other monsters are getting massive boosts (they stack!) throughout the fight. There's more, though.
I have a spell gem equipped to my slime for a spell called "Verdant Spheres", which picks a random enemy and randomly casts one of its spells 1-3 times against the enemy team (or your team if it's a buff). This particular spell gem has the extra property of having a 65% chance of autocasting for free whenever your monster provokes. Sooo....
Just to make things occasionally much sillier, my slime has another spell that grants double-casting (each spell casts twice) to one monster on your team and has a good chance of auto-casting at the start of each battle. When it does, in the 1-in-6 times it lands on my slime, it gets hilarious because the double-cast triggers on the Verdant Spheres spell AND on each of the casts it makes. So my slime can sit there and cast up to 12 enemy spells for free in addition to provoking to set up a round of huge buffs all in one turn.
Guys this game is great.
Post by: sambojin on February 03, 2018, 02:41:46 pm
The only quibble some might have with it is the accelerometers controls, but honestly, they'll probably work pretty well. Gamepads on emulators or touch controls have usually bothered me more in space sims than looking like a moron with my tongue stuck out, waving my phone around, probably ever will. The tutorial has the "gruff commander" thing going on, but oh well. You could jump right in without it if you've ever played Elite. I'll probably throw a couple of hours at it today.
Anyway, it's Elite, it's a 1-1 recreation with updated graphics, and it's on your phone. Probably worthwhile having there just in case the urge to be somewhat harmless strikes you. About a 400mb download, but most of that is probably the voiced tutorial.
Post by: sambojin on February 24, 2018, 08:44:20 pm
I haven't tried it out yet, but I will tomorrow morning. Probably quite a lot. The tribes are only a couple of dollars (I bought them all ages ago, except the new Quetzali or Merman tribes), so it should be worth it if this works well. Might be a simplified civ-like, but I can see quite a few strategies available in it, and it should be quick enough to knock over a game within 30-60mins or so. The base tribes are probably the more powerful tribes, or at least quicker starting, so I don't think it will be p2w in a multi-player environment. Although starting with shields or water abilities might be very good, so I'll see. I've always wanted a MP civ-like on my phone anyway, so I'll probably grab the last two as a way of supporting the project anyway.
Here's the patch notes:
----------
After months of testing it is finally here:
Challenge your friends and enemies in ONLINE MULTIPLAYER games!
-Works cross platform (Android & iOS)
-Free for anyone who has purchased any of the paid tribes.
-Updated UI that looks a lot more squoochie and wimbiewoo.
This is the first take on online multiplayer and I have lots of cool things I want to add to it in the future. Midjiwan is basically a one man operation so development will take some time. In the meantime, play nice!
---------
Post by: Aoi on February 25, 2018, 02:06:46 am
It's Puzzle Quest (the original, not the awful sequels) online, with a cash shop, but it's fairly minor. Go. Now.
Post by: Folly on February 25, 2018, 07:46:53 pm
How is Gems of War only mentioned in three posts/two threads in this entire forum? And, somewhat irritatingly, one of the posts is my own, quoting somebody else's mention, from two years ago. I started playing three days ago.
It's Puzzle Quest (the original, not the awful sequels) online, with a cash shop, but it's fairly minor. Go. Now.
I have two gripes with Gems of War.
The first being that mana is fed to your monsters from the top down, severely limiting ones ability to choose spells in a tactical manner. I would much rather see mana simply go into a pool which any of the monsters could then draw from to cast their spells.
Second issue is that very few spells grant a free turn. Specifically, this is an issue for spells which dramatically change colors on the board, of which there are many. If I cast a spell to generate 10 purple gems, it's a 50/50 chance that I may get a 4-match and earn a free turn and be able to collect more mana, or I don't get a 4-match and the enemy gets to eat all that free mana. Too often it feels like entirely random luck determining whether spells I cast help me or the enemy.
Still, these are not game-breaking issues, and GoW is still quite fun despite them.
If you're just getting started, I strongly advise joining an active guild asap. They will earn you bunches of free cards every week.
Also, if you ever intend to use your hero, work on investing in kingdoms that boost magic power. They are awesome.
Also also, as soon as you are strong enough, start doing the daily dungeons. The materials you earn can be spent in the soulforge to build extremely powerful cards.
Post by: Aoi on February 25, 2018, 08:05:19 pm
I have two gripes with Gems of War.
The first being that mana is fed to your monsters from the top down, severely limiting ones ability to choose spells in a tactical manner. I would much rather see mana simply go into a pool which any of the monsters could then draw from to cast their spells.
Second issue is that very few spells grant a free turn. Specifically, this is an issue for spells which dramatically change colors on the board, of which there are many. If I cast a spell to generate 10 purple gems, it's a 50/50 chance that I may get a 4-match and earn a free turn and be able to collect more mana, or I don't get a 4-match and the enemy gets to eat all that free mana. Too often it feels like entirely random luck determining whether spells I cast help me or the enemy.
Still, these are not game-breaking issues, and GoW is still quite fun despite them.
While I agree with both, I don't think the former is really worth the complaint; it's just an element of its original design and (at least for me) distasteful for its difference from PQ... and the first difference actually heightens tactical play-- the order of your units is even more important, as it determines who gets attacked by skulls, who deals skull damage, who gets their mana first, etc. It's a rather logical difference once individual units start getting HP, as opposed to a universal pool. But it does make it an exercise in frustration when you want to run multiple units that share the same type of mana... (That golem... so good at shredding armor. Absolutely useless after. Stop sucking up my brown mana...)
The second part is an enormous pain; I suspect that they were originally implemented as a risk/reward maneuver, because the alternative would be that they just didn't think it through. Which is very possible; I've noticed that some skills that generate two types of gems can overwrite one it just changed, which just seems silly (so your 'generate 7 and 7' just turned into a 'generate 5 and 7'...).
Post by: sambojin on February 25, 2018, 08:10:40 pm
I'll make a forum post if we end up getting a few players, so as not to clutter this thread. There's an FAQ, but what it basically says is "Don't be an idiot. Go somewhere cool like bay12 and share your player codes with other cool players."
So if you want to organize a game against me, or even have some interest to (I might be feeling generous on chucking some Google Play dollars at it for others, just to try out a game in the next day or three), give me a message in this thread. Not a pm. I never check them anyway.
Post by: Zangi on March 14, 2018, 03:26:13 pm
Game is already asking for your money with a 'phone system' exclusive deal. Specifically android in my case.
The UI and the base building portion basically screams Game of War with FF15 skin. Maybe I am extremely biased.
Post by: Folly on March 15, 2018, 02:48:21 am
First second logging into that FF15 themed empire game. Already going straight downhill.
Game is already asking for your money with a 'phone system' exclusive deal. Specifically android in my case.
The UI and the base building portion basically screams Game of War with FF15 skin. Maybe I am extremely biased.
It's not just you. Pretty much 100% of critics say it's an unabashed clone of Game of War, except with an even worse pay-to-win cash shop.
Post by: Aoi on March 15, 2018, 05:28:16 pm
In other news, Look, Your Loot! recently got a pretty big update that significantly changes the flow of the game. Also totally revamps the in-game gold/score system... My record used to be like 200k. Now I can barely break 5k, though I'm still getting used to the new mechanics. Thankfully, my multi-million bankroll is untouched so I can immediately unlock stuff easily...
Post by: Kagus on March 16, 2018, 07:22:21 pm
Remarkably high production values, particularly for a game that's completely free. No ads, no microtransactions, not even nagware or a donation button. Even the game's soundtrack (which is admittedly just the one tune) is surprisingly decent.
Some things are pretty unbalanced (the basic warrior hero is easily the most powerful of the lot, and has an ability that scales exponentially to the point where he will one-shot any and every minion you have, and then he'll get another damage boost for having killed them), and there are a couple glitches here and there (level three treants cannot be selected, and as such cannot be dismissed to make way for a different unit), but it's a very solid game for burning some spare time, and there are a number of different synergies and strategies you can formulate in order to make the most of your defenses. Quite good replay value.
Also found a game of sorts called "Cell Lab", wherein you design multicellular organisms cell-by-cell, and try to get them to fulfill various objectives so you can unlock new kinds of cell. It's remarkably advanced and complex, which makes it very interesting. ...unfortunately, it's incredibly taxing on the processor, the battery, and your brain. Not much of a "casual" game, and I feel it would've done much better as an actual PC title.
Post by: smjjames on March 17, 2018, 12:40:40 am
Post by: sambojin on March 17, 2018, 01:12:20 am
Post by: AzyWng on March 17, 2018, 05:40:54 pm
The basic gameplay is that you choose up to four characters and then you send them out against waves of monsters. You rapidly tap the screen to make your characters attack faster, and you hurt your enemy and hopefully defeat them before your health bar reaches empty. Once you do enough hurting and being hurt, you can tap on the speech bubble that appears above a character's head to make that character perform their special move.
As far as the characters specifically, you've got four classes and three elements. The elements follow a rock-paper-scissors type deal, and the element icons even show the hand symbols for rock paper and scissors. I probably don't need to explain how the elements work, and it's all explained in-game anyway.
There are plenty of characters, though there aren't too many healers. The way the character progression system is in place (you have to use characters of the same rarity to boost the character you wish to power up once they hit the level cap of 30) means that even if you get a one-star rarity unit, you can still make use of them, which is nice - even when the gacha hurts you, it helps you.
There's not too much in-your-face microtransactions (when you get a gold/3-star unit you're given a limited-time deal to buy something that'll bring them up to rainbow/4-star, but that's the only big intrusive one I've seen so far), free players don't lag behind premium users too badly, and the pvp element isn't super critical to the game so it's not too big of a deal.
Apparently, Blustone is set after the events of another Visualcorp game, called Beyond The Bounds, a point-and-click adventure game split up into multiple chapters. You have the option of either waiting for the next chapter to be unlocked once you complete the first one, or you can use premium currency (called "Manda") to make the next chapter immediately available.
It should be noted that each chapter takes a few days to unlock, so if you're really, really eager to get to the next chapter, you can do that... though I wouldn't advise it.
All in all, both games are a damn sight finer than the travesties you people had the audacity to even mention in this thread a while earlier. And neither of them cost anything to download and play, well and truly.
Post by: Frumple on March 17, 2018, 09:34:01 pm
... they make me want to gouge the designers' eyes out, a little. Looks like generic clicker gacha shovelware, of which there seem to be dozens nowadays. Your description seems to reinforce that, heh.
Post by: Aoi on March 17, 2018, 10:00:10 pm
All in all, both games are a damn sight finer than the travesties you people had the audacity to even mention in this thread a while earlier. And neither of them cost anything to download and play, well and truly.
Why not mention highly visible games that aren't that great? If nothing else, it serves as a warning to not bother wasting time with them, despite what may look like a solid first glance.
I've seen ads for blustone occasionally.
... they make me want to gouge the designers' eyes out, a little. Looks like generic clicker gacha shovelware, of which there seem to be dozens nowadays. Your description seems to reinforce that, heh.
I'm inclined to agree. I picked it up a few months ago and gave it a 15-20min spin, and I still couldn't quite pin down what it was supposed to be by the end of it; I felt like it was going to end up as something more than just a clicker (sort of how the very beginning of Gumballs and Dungeon has you waiting for the foundry to spit out a few coins), but it never actually got there. In the end, it just got binned.
Post by: penguinofhonor on March 17, 2018, 10:10:52 pm
9 of the first 11 levels are available as a free trial (a couple get skipped for some reason) and the full game is about $5. There does not seem to be any exploitative microtransaction stuff going on whatsoever.
Post by: AzyWng on March 17, 2018, 10:53:38 pm
Still, if you're in need of a time-waster....
Ah, never mind. Plenty of those on both the App Store and Google Play as it is.
I'll try to post a game worth mentioning here next time.
Post by: Frumple on March 17, 2018, 11:48:02 pm
... now excuse me while I go back to grinding in Space Battleship Story RPG again. Picked it back up a week or two back. Everything I said about it earlier in the thread still applies, but there's more stuff added! Including a giant mecha boss that fires drills at you. Some of which are larger than the game's totally-not-a-deathstar-I-swear. S'nice. Can't kill it yet and stuff it in my giant robot spaceship pokeball, but it's nice.
Post by: Folly on March 18, 2018, 08:56:39 pm
I spent the better part of the last two days learning and conquering the Echidna and Octopus fights. The net result was boosting my Sage Sakura from ~700Mag to ~850Mag, and getting a +20% all resists shield for my tanks. I also found time to unlock a couple of new Espers, so now I need to farm materia to level them up.
The exploration and progression in this game are really quite satisfying at times.
Post by: beorn080 on March 19, 2018, 10:13:09 pm
At its heart, it is one of those simple spam an army to march to the other side of the map to fight another spawning army games. Nothing dreadfully complicated, but its been actively updated for years, there are hundreds of units, and there's quite a lot to do. Difficulty scales up nicely as you go, and rarely is it entirely a case of not having levelled your units enough that you cant get past a stage.
Downsides. There is a gacha. Two main ones, in fact. There is the daily, which you get silver tickets for every day and provides you with bonus orbs for your basic cats and upgrade structures. Then there is the rare gacha, which gives you quite a wide variety of potential cats at the cost of rare tickets, which provide one pull and cant be used multiple at once, or for cat food, the premium currency. With cat food you can get multiple pulls at once, including the common 10+1 uber rare sort.
Post by: Aoi on April 08, 2018, 03:08:58 pm
Merge Gems from the same company that gave us that hypnotic merging monstrosity of Merge Dragons (I'd probably find it a lot more enjoyable if I put like 10$ into it...): If you're susceptible to pointless progression games, don't touch it. Combine the merging gameplay of Triple Town, add a clicker mechanism, subtract out any semblance of gameplay, add in a barely there progression mechanic to keep you sticking around... And there you go. Maybe a dash of self-loathing, too.
Post by: sambojin on April 08, 2018, 11:07:24 pm
Post by: Doomblade187 on April 10, 2018, 09:30:25 am
Post by: Aoi on April 10, 2018, 07:36:01 pm
Combat is on a hex grid, and you're mostly working with a combination of three types of units-- ranged attack/no-melee, move+attack lunge/en passant attacks, and boring adjacent melee but +1 armor HP (which makes a big difference-- most units can only take two or three hits in combat, and every hit you take depletes their morale; run out of morale, and they leave you). Given that you'll eventually be fighting 6+ units to your three, positioning and avoiding damage is paramount, particularly for high-value units. For example, you can spend a small fortune upgrading the range of your archer and, if you're lucky, they'll develop the ability to stand still in combat instead of being forced to move each turn.
Post by: Kagus on April 11, 2018, 06:55:58 am
MUCH bigger fan of the archer. I think my latest team was comprised of two archers and one man-at-arms. Whittle down and dance around the enemy, and then the fat guy with a shield can step in and mop up the stragglers, and even take a hit or two.
What's extra important about armor, which I'm sure you intended to mention, is that damage taken to armor doesn't reduce morale, unlike damage to health. Gives you a couple straight up free hits every combat that they're in.
Post by: Doomblade187 on April 11, 2018, 10:50:01 am
Post by: AzyWng on April 11, 2018, 12:35:15 pm
Shame if it isn’t being developed anymore...
Post by: Doomblade187 on April 11, 2018, 01:00:17 pm
Gameplay seems to be similar to Hoptlite. So, pretty fun.The dev renamed it a few months ago to its current title. I still check occasionally. :(
Shame if it isn’t being developed anymore...
EDIT: the fencer is a truly wonderful class. I highly suggest using one.
Post by: Wiles on April 25, 2018, 11:24:08 am
I'd rather play a payed game than a free to play one, if possible, unless the freemium aspect isn't too obnoxious. I tried Eternium, which looked decent, but I felt like I was constantly being prompted to spend premium currency to enjoy the game.
I saw Titan Quest was available, which would probably fit the bill but sadly my devices aren't supported.
Post by: Kagus on April 25, 2018, 11:41:20 am
Post by: Shadowlord on April 26, 2018, 10:17:48 am
Some have interfaces that work really well. Master of Magic, for instance, which I've installed the Caster of Magic (http://seravy.x10.mx/Wordpress/?page_id=1982) mod/patch into to make it stable and challenging. Turns take a while to process, but I can keep it split screen with other apps.
I also installed the lost tribe, civ 1 (I think MoM is better), conquest of the new world (I've never played this before and it's not obvious how to, so I need to RTFM I guess), global effect (a strategy game in which what you and your opponent do affects the environment), no greater glory (an American civil war simulator complete with politics and supply logistics), iron seed (I've never played this before), cyber empires (not sure if this is good yet - it's basically a strategic conquest mech tbs), warlords, warlords 2 deluxe, master of Orion 2 with the latest unofficial patch (which takes up more space than everything else combined), SimCity (playable), SimCity 2000 (less playable since it requires click-and-hold to choose things on the tool palette), and star control 1 (potentially playable since there's a utility to remap the keys included with the game).
So mostly turn based strategy games. I think the only ones that aren't are the two SimCity games and star control.
I'm also considering putting alien legacy and Starflight 1 and 2 on here, but both AL and Starflight 1 seemed kind of tedious with the searching planets for stuff.
Post by: Retropunch on April 27, 2018, 04:08:24 am
I think a lot of why it's so good is that the dev has obviously gone to make an ARPG game and decided to have mobile as the platform, rather than decided to make a mobile game which happens to be an ARPG. No micro transactions, ads or anything - just a one off payment for the full game. It's still being developed and whilst some areas are a bit samey, there's always quests/stuff to do.
Post by: sambojin on April 29, 2018, 07:23:12 pm
Sure, they're paid apps, but they're worth every penny so you can play all your old dos games properly. Even RTS games are doable by making a few "assign control group/select control group" buttons on your overlay.
MagicDosbox is a bit fiddly to get used to how to do things, but once you do, it's very powerful. Others have recommend TurboDosbox, but I like the huge flexibility that touchscreen overlays give (although the relational mouse support in TDB is supposedly better).
Post by: Wiles on April 30, 2018, 09:25:11 am
Post by: Retropunch on May 02, 2018, 03:56:36 pm
Thanks for the exiled kingdom recommendation. The UI was a bit cumbersome on my tablet but it seemed perfectly suited for my phone. There are settings to adjust the UI so I may try it on the bigger screen again. I haven't put enough time into it yet to see if I'll buy the game but it definitely was the sort of game that I was looking for.
Yeah the UI is a bit clunky on tablet, although the dev is apparently releasing an update which will better support tablets/bigger screens (and he's been reliable with updates so far).
I wouldn't expect anything truly ground breaking, but it's the best of that sort of game for mobile. It does get steadily better as well, as it becomes a bit more tactical/have to think about things a bit more and it has a pretty good difficulty slope.
Post by: Kagus on May 02, 2018, 04:33:44 pm
I've got a mad flailing of buttons that can zip in and annihilate most anyone in a single blast, but it's single target and I've got nothing to deal with all of his friends...
Basically every marginally challenging encounter devolves into me stealthing in, nuking someone, then zig-zagging away until I lose aggro and can just wait for everything to recharge.
Traps are great though.
Post by: smjjames on May 15, 2018, 05:30:44 pm
Post by: smjjames on May 20, 2018, 12:13:22 pm
Post by: Aoi on May 28, 2018, 01:13:56 pm
Post by: Frumple on May 28, 2018, 05:13:02 pm
Definitely a pretty neat game. Very much does feel a lot like someone did a tales grimm take on a mobile designed slay the spire. Currently seems to be on sale for the low price of nothing, too, which is great.
... if sorta' brutally fucking difficult after the second or so boss holy hell. Don't fight devils (Kinda' forgot to check if it lasts post fight, but the bastards have a card that will chunk off 10 points from your max hp), probably don't fight headless horsemen if you deck is particularly unbalanced, don't fight yetis, probably don't fight toad prophets, question fighting those bouncy demon things unless you're tank as hell or can destroy 130+ hp at the quickness because they will spit 20-30+ damage per turn regularly, jesus fuck that level ten treeboss and its easy 50+ damage per turn and might-as-well-be-infinite mana (you're unlikely to have over 100 hp at that point so you basically have two to three turns to burn through 170(+, if it throws up shields) hp or you die).
Post by: Aoi on May 28, 2018, 06:29:08 pm
...Also, love my autocorrect, tweaking her name.
Post by: Frumple on May 28, 2018, 07:03:26 pm
... that saaaaiiidd, yeah, some of it is RNG as hell. No condition end boss actually has a mechanic where you have to choose from three options each round... which can range anywhere from heal yourself for 10 HP to heal the boss for 90% of the damage you did last round, make it invincible for a turn, drop 2(? iirc) of whatever you draw, etc. First attempt I died round three, second I didn't lose half my health before it died, despite basically playing identically each time.
Still fairly enjoyable, but damn if it's not very much hella' luck based right now.
Also the monkey third chapter boss is much, much less dangerous than the tree was. Still kinda' nasty, but its heaviest attack is HP based and fairly rare, whereas the tree just spews jackassery everywhere and has like three 10-20+ damage cards, multiple draw cards, and the ability to actually double-turn on you. Balance is all goddamn over the place, ahaha.
Post by: Aoi on May 29, 2018, 12:21:53 am
Up to the fourth level, the nun is way easier than the witch...going with a prayer build just sort of turns you into a walking time bomb; stacking devotion just dumps accelerant on the fuse.
Edit: Okay, yeah, the no-condition boss is BS. It isn't a 90% heal of the damage you did last round... it's 90% of the damage it's taken. Which means you basically have to kill it in like 8 turns or you're not going to kill it at all. And, considering my nun build is basically a master of attrition*... yeah. No. Ain't happenin'.
*The angry bear was the easiest boss ever, for me. Despite how it's designed to shred builds where you just spam cards, I could easily outheal it to the point I beat it with about 30 points of shield.
Post by: sambojin on May 29, 2018, 01:02:04 am
Post by: Jopax on May 29, 2018, 05:30:37 am
The knight class is pretty neat in how you stack a bunch of different equipment and then use the battleaxe to throw out a fuckton of basic attacks which all trigger your equipment to deal even more damage. Reminds me a bit of shiv based decks in slay the spire.
Post by: DeKaFu on May 29, 2018, 05:48:04 pm
AFAIK, there should be shared cloud saves with the Android/IOS versions once they come out (just like Siralim 2). No ETA on the mobile versions yet, but they are confirmed to be happening.
Post by: Aoi on May 30, 2018, 12:32:58 am
... if sorta' brutally fucking difficult after the second or so boss holy hell. Don't fight devils (Kinda' forgot to check if it lasts post fight, but the bastards have a card that will chunk off 10 points from your max hp), ... probably don't fight toad prophets
I fought a King Toadstool (or something...) which has a Vampire (or something...) card that drained mHP and I got it back at the end of the fight, so, as far as it goes for nuns, it's a non-issue. Also, toad prophets are easy for nuns; they totally chunked my witch though. Is their dialogue required for the third choice? The text about what the requirements are got truncated on my system.
Very slightly off-topic, but Siralim 3 just went into early access on Steam a couple days ago.
I'm just going to assume that you wear hammer pants and play on a tiny netbook, so, yes, it is perfectly on-topic to pocket games. :D
Is Siralim 3 supposed to be pretty much the same as Siralim 2 with More!, much like how that was basically the case from Siralim to Siralim 2 (in all the best ways)
Post by: Retropunch on May 30, 2018, 03:32:36 am
Is Siralim 3 supposed to be pretty much the same as Siralim 2 with More!, much like how that was basically the case from Siralim to Siralim 2 (in all the best ways)
From what I've read on the website (http://thylacinestudios.com/siralim3/faq.php) - absolutely that.
To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. I enjoyed Siralim 2 a lot for what it was, but I don't think there needs to be just Siralim 2-but-more. Looking at the screenshots, there's nothing new, just more of the same. This seems more like it should just be a patch rather than a whole new game.
Post by: AzyWng on May 31, 2018, 12:32:17 am
Haven’t gotten into the game enough to really look at it, but it’s worth a try.
Post by: Aoi on May 31, 2018, 02:07:37 am
Basic gameplay is sort of like P&D, in that you've got a universal HP pool and you're bashing down waves of monsters. Then you've got a layer of 3-Card Poker going on, where you're trying to use a hand of 4/5/6 cards, to make the most powerful 3 card attack (more on that later). And then, each card has its own attributes that you're upgrading and getting upgraded versions of the way you'd expect from a micropay game.
Okay, so the interesting bit is with your cards/units. There's three 'schools', where they basically specialize in direct damage, utility, and healing. Each school has three basic types (the utility one basically has the icons of skull/hat/staff, whatever they're actually called). Each type in each school has an elemental type of fire/water/wood. 3 schools, 3 types per school, 3 elements, you've got 27 different basic units. On top of that, you can draw rare units that slot into this grid, replacing basic units. (You can switch back if you prefer, though I haven't seen a reason to use a basic over any upgraded unit.) A good combo has multipliers that stack up-- all the same type is like 5x, all three elements is 2x, so together they inflict/restore 10x, on top of .5/1/2x elemental modifiers. (Or something; I'm on mobile data and a big update just came up so I can't check the exact numbers.) You use 3 cards each turn (or you can just burn one), and excluding the tutorial phase, you'll have a hand of at least 5 cards to work with.
...Yeah, it sounds kind of like a mess, but it isn't that bad.
Post by: Aoi on June 04, 2018, 03:54:20 pm
Slot a team of three into fixed roles (ostensibly tank/damage/healer, but not all characters fit neatly into that role for the slot...) plus 'advisors' that act as passives/specials, start a stage, enter combat. Combat is turn-based, with enemy attacks on a countdown system. Your own attacks are where it gets interesting-- gold/black/white orbs flow in on a 2xSomething grid, with color determining which member acts, and what action depending on if you use a 1-orb, 1x2-orb, or 2x2-orb combo. The combos can get fairly interesting-- your starter tank is a straight up damage dealer with pretty good durability. However, my first new tank would immediately trigger the first enemy's attack (and also resetting its CD), gain taunt for any other enemies attacking that turn, counter any hits received to the first enemy, and also get increased evasion.
There's a gacha system, but it doesn't seem too bad. Few days in, I've gotten maybe 30 free draws, plus enough cashshop currency for 30 more. (250 paid draws on the normal gacha gives you a free max-tier unit of your choice, it says.) You upgrade your units by either drawing higher versions of them or grinding materials used to promote (one of which is a unit-specific item, obtainable via dailies or draws). Another nice touch: You get banked experience that you can use to power level other characters, so it's trivial to bring them up to speed.
Post by: Folly on June 06, 2018, 08:35:24 am
Sdorica, by Rayark...
I started playing this after you posted. I only have a few hours so far, but this game definitely has some meat on it's bones. Interesting art style, slightly unique gameplay mechanics, and a good mixture of story progression and side-quests/events to keep me busy.
I'm currently running Karnulla as my tank. I pulled him as SR rank from a 10-draw, so he has an ability unlocked which counterattacks every time he is attacked. His basic ability also taunts and raises his evasion, making a very effective combo.
Tica is my healer. Her basic heal also buffs attack power, which only further empowers my counterattack-tank.
I've not yet found a dps who really compliments this set, so I'm currently using Fatima, who is just generic armor-piercing damage. I'm a sucker for catgirls.
Post by: Aoi on June 06, 2018, 01:55:52 pm
I like Karnulla too; if you take Angelia as your assistant (particularly at SSR), he's practically invincible. I'm thinking Crushfang though-- his 1orb is an aoe. Also, Team Teddybear!
Hestia or Angelia for me-- the former is a great healer (and combo her with assistant Tica for even more endurance) or Angelia for extra damage. She's better with a healing support though, like Lio. A high-ranked Puggi also seems interesting to use with Dagger, but mine's still baseline.
Post by: Folly on June 14, 2018, 10:07:07 am
It's basically a game of watching your team of dragons trade fireballs with waves of enemies, and occasionally intervening to spend some mana for a power-move. The power-moves can also be left to auto-play if desired, and the AI is usually sufficient for most grinding purposes.
The bulk of actual human intervention comes in the form of strategic preparation; sifting through piles of newly hatched dragons, studying their active and passive skillsets, and deciding which ones to throw into your active teams immediately, which ones to save for later, and which ones to sacrifice as fodder to empower other dragons.
Dragon Village M also borrows the Runes system pioneered(to the best of my knowledge) by Summoner's Wars. This is something I've actually seen incorporated into a large number of games lately. For those unfamiliar, these runes essentially act as equipment from any other RPG, boosting your unit's stats directly and also through set bonuses. What stands out about the rune system is that specific rune slots and sets can be acquired from specific story levels, making it relatively simple to farm the pieces you want in order to min-max your units. It creates a good balance of grinding and progression, so that you can see your units getting noticeably stronger after almost every battle.
Dragon Village M does have a cash-shop, but it is extremely generous with the rewards from daily quests and regular events, allowing free players to effectively compete with whales with only moderate time and effort invested.
I've also been playing a bit of Honkai Impact 3rd (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miHoYo.bh3oversea).
This is an action game, and easily the best I've seen on a mobile device. Both in terms of graphics and gameplay, it's as good as they come.
Gameplay involves mashing the attack button in combos which vary between different characters, timing a dodge-button to avoid damage and launch a counterattack, accumulating mana for power-moves, and swapping between active characters to take advantage of a paper-rock-scissors systems.
There are a variety of characters to unlock, level, equip, and learn their movesets. Regular events to farm, lengthy story mode to explore.
There's also fan-service, with all of the characters being female, and most wearing skin-tight outfits with plunging necklines. You've been warned.
Post by: sambojin on June 14, 2018, 10:16:31 pm
This had better be worth it :)
I did find Dungeons & Girls though. It's like the cutesy anime fanservice version of BuriedBornes. Only played one game of it, but it's not too bad if you like card dungeon crawlers. Mostly comes down to managing resources, picking when to skip or fight monsters (your cards are both attacks and movement, with bigger attacks giving more movement, thus easier fight skipping, as opposed to BuriedBornes "choose your dungeon path" system). Skipping fights also means less levels, so less skills/upgrades and passives available for later fights, so it's a trade off.
In all, I think it will just come down to a companion levelling grindfest, and while there is some strategy involved, it's nowhere near a complicated as BuriedBorne's "make the ultimate skill combo" deck. So it's just simpler and cuter. It's not bad, but I can't really say it's great either. Check it out if you like that kinda stuff. Apparently has a fair amount of character and companion combos, so there is a bit of long-term playability, and it has no stamina system, so if you're bored one day, give it a burl.
Post by: Folly on June 14, 2018, 11:36:01 pm
Post by: nenjin on June 15, 2018, 07:36:23 am
Post by: Wiles on June 15, 2018, 11:05:07 am
I don't really have a lot of good suggestions for RPGs in particular. I have played Siralim 2, but it never really clicked for me, but if it's a title that interests you it might be worth waiting for the third installment. I do have some for meatier suggestions for payed games though.
I have found that the more engaging and cerebral games on mobile have been digital board games. Through the Ages is probably the best one I have played, in theme it is very much like Civilization. Card drafting and resource management are some of the core mechanics. I have played it on phone and tablet, the tablet is better because the cards are more readable in their zoomed out view, but it is still playable on a smaller phone screen. You can play VS the AI, or vs other players in multiplayer (I think it also supports asynchronous multiplayer). It also has many challenge modes available which have kept me coming back to the game.
Another board game is Antihero. This one is a little different in that it was designed as a video game and not a digital implementation of an already existing physical boardgame. It is not as heavy as Through the Ages, but there is still enough meat there for it to be interesting. I should mention I have only played the PC version though. I just picked up the android version to play on my phone, but haven't tried it yet. I have no doubt that its user interface would translate well to a tablet sized screen, but if you play on a phone it might be worth looking to see what people think of the interface usability.
A couple other boardgames that I have enjoyed are Lords of Waterdeep and Galaxy Trucker.
If it's the narrative elements that you enjoy in RPGs then a couple games that come to mind are King of Dragon Pass and the Banner Saga series. You're probably already familiar with the titles from PC gaming, but if you haven't played them I feel like they have adapted very well to the mobile format. Though I don't know if the Banner Saga runs on phones, it definitely doesn't on mine (but mine is quite old). It runs well on my tablet though.
Post by: nenjin on June 15, 2018, 11:42:31 am
KoDP I’ve played a ton of on PC. With Six Ages coming soon I don’t think I’m in a hurry to pay for it again on a mobile device.
Banner Saga would have to run on my phone, I’ll check in to it.
I’ll look in to the board games as well, although I tend to find most board games too transparent to keep my attention for long. (Friends are what make board games for me.)
Post by: Frumple on June 15, 2018, 05:49:13 pm
... suggestion wise I ain't got much. SpaceBattleshipStoryRPG, maybe? Pretty sure it's one word. Not sure how meaty or cerebral I'd call it, but it's probably the most true to source giant robot space armada simulator I think I've ever encountered.
You might poke through kemco's stuff. Most of it's pretty generic jrpgs, but they can be oddly engaging.
Post by: sambojin on June 15, 2018, 08:08:10 pm
Heaps of load screens (ie: every damn screen, it's online connection only), but sort of nice in a way. Very mobile'ish, in exactly as bad of a mould that this entails, but kinda cool in some ways as well.
For actual roguelikes, I still can't recommend Pathos: the Nethack Codex enough. It's like Nethack, but on mobile, and is very good for being so. Full in-game help (no wikis needed), helpful active developer that actually responds to suggestions, really good touchscreen interface, plenty of class/race combos for easy/hard challenges, just enough NH weirdness that it's certainly not a roguelite, and it even has online multi-player. Yep. Pathos is the full conversation on what a good mobile roguelike is.
Or you could try Caves (weird pre-grind needed for an actual run though). Or Cardinal Quest 2 (mini-ToME4). Shattered Pixel Dungeon is nice for a roguelite too. Even MinDungeon is kinda OK if you want a rogue-superlite, with a bit of a desktop dungeons style challenge behind it.
Or try Event Horizon if you want a Star Control 2 random thing/loot grind (totally not a roguelike, but I have sunk a silly amount of time into that thing, and it's got a fair bit of randomness to it. I'm at the point where it's new save file time though, because other than a bit of loot grind, I'm too damn powerful against anything that isn't just the "end game" wall of HP at higher distances. It's probably better described as a SC2/Diablo2/Stardrive mash-up, with next to no storyline, but is still awesome for all that. Get all the stuff. And make extreme-death-ships from it. It's fun). It has the reverse of permadeath (ie: you can't actually lose, so it's like softcore d2 in that regard), but it's a nice little thing that you'll be able to eventually grind your way into Deathstar levels of glory with. So many loots and ship options. Oh, and it can be pretty hands-off too once you've got a few autopilot modules, if you just want to see your ships zipping around zapping stuff. It's totally worth the persistence on this one. No connection needed, free-to-play, "make your own ships" Star Control 2 loot grind. Yay!
Oh, and played a bit of Honkai 3rd Impact. You're right. It's good. Sort of a Arkham Asylum'ish combat system feel to it, but very simplified so you can use it on mobile, with enough of a grind/progression system in place so that you feel like you're doing stuff. Won't say it's the best action beat'emup ever, but it is very good for a mobile title for what it does.
Post by: nenjin on June 15, 2018, 10:16:43 pm
And like a rube I assumed the paid version would be one of the more complete/featured ones.
Post by: AzyWng on June 16, 2018, 09:16:50 am
It's mobileish-ness (energy system, premium currency and premium currency gacha are the main ways they appear) is relatively light for, well, a mobile game, each of the characters has something that makes them unique (they're not just the same girl in different costumes, they also attack differently, have different Ultimate skills and combos, etc.), and the gameplay itself is is smooth and simple enough to work on mobile.
All that meansmeans that as far as free mobile beat-'em-ups go, it is quite good.
The low bar mobile games have (mentioned by Folly earlier) means that its quality is all the more noticeable, and, well, what I've seen so far has won me over, to be honest.
Hell, a number of recent AAA games (though admittedly it's quite easy to find terrible or otherwise mediocre AAA games to lambast these days) means that "decent" here is, well...
It's a breath of fresh air. May in fact be from an oxygen tank, but it still outstrips immensely crowded elevator air by a huge margin.
Post by: hops on June 16, 2018, 09:19:03 pm
Post by: Aoi on June 17, 2018, 01:09:10 am
Post by: Shadowlord on June 17, 2018, 08:47:56 am
I tried playing DCSS on my phone recently but it seemed mostly unplayable. I couldn't figure out how to do important things, I had to keep a keyboard up all the time, I couldn't find any in game help, etc. (It probably didn't help that the ? key is entirely missing from hackers keyboard (which the app recommended) in portrait mode and I couldn't see most of the display in landscape.
Note: I have never played DCSS before.
Post by: sambojin on June 23, 2018, 07:03:37 pm
Event Horizon kind of needs a more robust information system. I feel like there's more to it that isn't immediately obvious, but I can't quite dig my way to it.
God yes. But where to begin. I'd say "check the wiki", but I don't think that really explains a lot either, it just kind of tells you the stats of parts. I'll write a proper guide one day, but it'll be LONG.
Here's the wiki:
https://event-horizon.wikia.com/wiki/Event_Horizon_Wiki
So where to begin? Ummm....
This can be the "making your first ship, with starting bits" guide.
-------------
The first thing you do is go to Settings on the main menu, and click on the New Game icon. This unlocks all the starting bits of your initial ships (don't ask me why).
Then start a new game.
Don't worry about the initial training. It teaches you nothing, gives you nothing.
Your Scout ship at the beginning is your best ship. It has a built in Autotargeter, which makes hitting stuff easier.
The game is fairly slow at the beginning, but like many collect-athons, it ramps up in interest once you've got lots of bits and ships.
------------------
Hit the "starmap" icon at the bottom. Then hit the "four little ships" icon. This will bring you to your fleet screen.
Select the red "spectrum" ship. Then the "wrench" icon. This will bring you to the ship loadout screen.
Blue squares are for armour/energy storage/drone carriers. Green is for reactors/miscellaneous bits/other stuff. Red is for weapons. Yellow is for engines.
Press the icon that is a "circle with a line through it". Select "yes". This will strip all the bits from that ship (you'll want that green thing, a frontal shield).
Hit the box with an arrow on it at bottom/left. This will take you back to your fleet screen.
Select the first ship, your Scout. Hit the wrench icon.
Move the middle "nuclear" symbol (a small reactor) to a different green square. Then click on the "shield with a plus icon" (defensive bits), and drag that frontal energy shield onto the space you created by moving the reactor.
Click on the frontal energy shield. Over to the right, there will be a little row of numbers, with the shield currently on "2". Change it to "1". This is how you select fire weapon groups (it also works for lots of other stuff). Now when you fire your guns, your shield will also work.
Move the middle blue container thing from the bottom red square to a blue square. Hey, an extra weapon slot!
Click on the red targeting reticule at the top/left to bring up weapons. Drag a small plasma cannon onto that red square. Click on it and set it to "1" as well. Now everything will fire off one button. Yay.
Fiddle around a bit on the screen if you want, maybe adding a few more energy cells to blue squares (they're under the "power" icon on the left). You've also got two satellites, a Dart and a Pot. You can add these if you want, for future expansion of your little Scout. Just remember, parts add weight, which lowers speed, and ship speed is one of the most important stats in the game.
Hit the square with an arrow icon (exit screen), hit close, and pinch/unzoom the starmap a bit. Select the nearest star, and do your first fight. Your ship is now a lot better than before. So you should win.
There's heaps more stuff to learn than this, but that will get the ball rolling, so you can get loots and figure out what all the icons and stuff do. More levels in your ships gives you more HP and damage, so you'll eventually just be able to grind out any early battle if you get screwed on cash and bits. But buying/finding/researching ships and parts is a big bit of the game. Nearly any ship you can buy is better than your starting ships, so don't be afraid to buy/use nearly anything.
I'll go over weapon slots/character levelling options/starbases next time, this is just a step-by-step starter guide. You learnt a tiny bit from this, none of which was previously explained. Hurrah!
(you can make better starting ships than this, especially if you buy that small torpedo launcher at the starting starbase and adding it to your Scout in place of the pulse cannon, but that would take more steps. Just make sure you occasionally hit the "." icon in the weapons screen at the bottom right sometimes. These are universal weapons and will fit in any weapon slot. This is very useful at the beginning, so you can add a bit of firepower to any early ship. Small torpedoes and small plasma cannons are great, even into the late-game, so never feel bad in filling any unused weapon slots/satellites with them. Torpedoes are your best weapon early on, and having a universal slot one is amazing)
((this is one of those games where buying the lowest tier option is actually very good for you. You'll keep the twenty stars in every new game after it as well, so it lets you try out heaps of stuff as soon as you find a smugglers base or two, and isn't bad at about $2-3. Cloud save before you spend your stars, and cloud load if you don't like what you bought. So you won't waste them that way. Even the "support the developer" highest paid option is good, because you get a ship that has plenty of mid-game gubbins, universal weapon slots to try out new finds, and plenty of stars, all of which you keep in all new games. So while neither option is necessary, it really takes the grind out of learning and trying new stuff. If you min/max your beginning, you can get a good start without a cent spent though. The "lazy" option is actually quite fun in this one, without it breaking mid/lategame content at all. It's a jump-start, not a game winner, and is one of the few games I've found where such things actually make the game more satisfying, not less))
Post by: sambojin on June 23, 2018, 08:55:55 pm
Post by: etgfrog on June 24, 2018, 04:43:46 am
Post by: Frumple on June 24, 2018, 06:36:05 am
Post by: sambojin on June 24, 2018, 06:35:46 pm
Where drones are only really good on capital ships in the original, having a starbase chock full of them as a back-stop in Frontier made things a lot simpler. But since I'm pretty much done with my EH playthrough, I'll have another go at EH:F to see how challenging it is.
Doesn't really help poor Aoi though, because I think both games had about the same level of explanation. They're really a "just play them and learn" type thing, then once you know what stuff does, it's simple. At least in EH you can't really make any errors (there's enough xp and parts to go around to Max everything eventually if you want). With EH:F, you could potentially paint yourself into a corner without some prior knowledge of what's good to purchase, simply becoming too weak against the successive waves and never being able to recover. But at least there's a level of challenge there, whereas EH really is just a collect-athon grind at its heart.
Just remember Aoi, in EH stuff that you think is an important decision or purchase early on, really isn't. So don't fret too much. Eventually you'll have a few lvl100 ships, a maxed character path (there's always more xp in this game), and will realize that whatever you got you will want a better one of eventually anyway. There's "better/easier" ways of starting (seriously, jump out as far from that initial starbase as fuel will allow, you get more xp and better loot further out), but eventually you'll have most/all of everything.
It's a bit of a slow burner, kind of a "play occasionally for months on end" game, not a quick blast to power/glory style one. Think of it like running every type of D2 character at the same time, but with a shared inventory and a mutable skill tree. Eventually they'll all be rock solid with great gear, but it's going to take a while to level them all up. But there's no truly "wrong" decisions, and enough flexibility in ship layouts later on that you can make some pretty whacky but completely functional ship builds, just to keep you messing around with stuff. Kind of more like PoE, because D2 is kind of "solved" already, and there's not really that many effective ways of doing things. In EH (and EH:F), there's tonnes.
Both are very worthwhile to have on your phone at any rate, just to come back to when the feeling to blow stuff up in a customizable Star Control 2 style hits you.
Post by: sambojin on June 24, 2018, 06:57:02 pm
Here's my awesome Beholder, that is kind of unconventional:
https://youtu.be/gVZP3mkj440
Post by: Frumple on June 24, 2018, 07:15:50 pm
Post by: sambojin on June 25, 2018, 01:06:36 pm
Also, my fears of getting "stuck" were somewhat unfounded. Since you can watch ads for stars, and stars can be sold at any time for 500 credits each, in theory you've always got a backup plan. Fair enough, it's a pretty crappy backup plan (watch lots of ads), but it might be quicker early on than actually redoing missions, if you're just a bit short of that part you really want.
Since it often only takes one-two good parts to turn a ship from "meh" to "pretty good", you probably won't need the umpteen hundreds of stars in EH:F that you needed in the original. Still, multi-Doomstar battles might be a tad iffy to do. I can take them out individually pretty quickly, but having 5 of them show up sounds pretty damn scary. And awesome fodder for my YouTube vids, so I'll see how silly it gets :)
Post by: Aoi on July 05, 2018, 09:39:19 am
I think there's also a new permanent upgrade system that makes things a lot easier (or I've just missed it) too. Still kind of RNG, but I've finished three consecutive games, including going into two bosses blind, on hard, without any deaths. (That last one sucked though, as I just Could. Not. get the amount of draw cards needed to turn it into a steamroller.)
Still prodding EH; haven't gone through the recent posts due to wonky international WiFi only loading half of pages.
Post by: etgfrog on July 06, 2018, 08:12:48 am
Also, my fears of getting "stuck" were somewhat unfounded. Since you can watch ads for stars, and stars can be sold at any time for 500 credits each, in theory you've always got a backup plan. Fair enough, it's a pretty crappy backup plan (watch lots of ads), but it might be quicker early on than actually redoing missions, if you're just a bit short of that part you really want.Unless I'm wrong, you can set the level to a lower one and grind lower levels for a while.
Post by: sambojin on July 06, 2018, 08:08:33 pm
Don't know if it's iOS, but it's definitely on Android.
(Spears are great. Two attack range, low strength requirement, decent damage. They're slow, but the two attack range makes up for it. It's like an ammo-less bow. Seed pouches are likewise great. It's fiddly to have to open them each time, but having a full stock of seeds for any situation really adds to your options in combat. And it's available from the store for 250 gold. You also get "free" rat armour that blocks 4 pts of damage for doing the necromancer's quest, which is "kill rats", which you'll be doing early-on anyway. This seems to unlock the necromancer character as well.
Anyway, with a bit of finagling you can usually get a pretty good start with any character in this version. Yay. Then die to Goo. Boo!)
Post by: Frumple on July 06, 2018, 08:59:50 pm
It's nice.
Minor tip, dragon head at level five-ish (and dream version sooner) can one/two shot dream world starting area dragons with flame (and the rest of the initial area critters, for that matter). Pump your score on non-elites/later area critters and it's a pretty great way to make money if you're jonesing for dosh.
Post by: sambojin on July 06, 2018, 10:49:38 pm
There's an upgrade system, with more and more choices of special cooldowns (though the grenade/turret/medikit starting setup isn't bad, although I do want to sub out the turret soon) so you can beef up your spaceman. So far I've unlocked the assault rifle (standard weapon), the shotgun and the Tesla gun, and they all do things just differently enough that they feel OK. Though admittedly the Tesla gun feels like a straight upgrade of both (and the grenade launcher coming next might be better than all three, we'll see). Weapons use the overheat system, but they cool down pretty damn quickly, so you'll mostly be gunning, not just running while playing.
There's a base building system, but it seems pretty basic. Timers are in full force unfortunately.
There's no energy system though, so feel free to play as long as you want. I've gotten past the third boss in one sitting, and done the first "event" mission (which was actually pretty hard), and that took about an hour all up, so there's a fair bit of progression available from the get-go. Yay to no energy/stamina system!
Anyway, it's fast, it's fun, and they chuck you into the action quickly enough that it hasn't felt like a chore to find a challenge yet. There's a bit of a variety in enemies and mission objectives, though nothing amazing so far. Go somewhere, sometimes that somewhere is moving, and destroy everything while staying near that somewhere. Enemies tend to be slow melee, fast melee, and static shooters. Still, very well worth a look for a bit of furious blasting action. The bosses are quite nice, and the upgrades haven't felt like a cash grab waiting to happen. I'm quite impressed.
It's not exactly a complex game, there's only a few enemy types, weapon styles and planet types. But sometimes all you want is to run around shooting things until coins pop out of them, and that's exactly what this gives you, with a minimum of fuss or bother to get it.
((don't worry about the seemingly high gold cost for weapons/gear/character upgrades. From mission 11 onwards you will get more gold in one mission than you've seen all game. I actually grinded for about 20-30 mins and got 3.5k, which I then ad-doubled to 7k. Which was 10x more gold than I'd collected up until that point. Then I bought heaps of upgrades, went up in character level tonnes, now I've got the hand cannon/grenade launcher (nice), the flame thrower (which is a long-range weapon for some reason) and the laser cannon (not as good as you'd think). And plenty of character gear. So yeah, gold is pretty plentiful after a certain point, so this game is free-to-play approved by me))
Post by: sambojin on July 07, 2018, 02:58:46 am
Well, it was fun while it lasted. I'll come back to it later.
Post by: sambojin on July 07, 2018, 04:59:45 am
Dragon fire with multiheads and penetrate works SO well together. I've also got a fairly well levelled small animal head for when I just want to tap like crazy and fly around everywhere, though the actual attack skills are way better for dodging projectiles by insta-stopping.
Not too far in, around lvl27, just near where the girl recognized the forest she used to play hide and seek in. Still not sure if I know what I'm doing, but it seems to be working. Will grind dreamland a bit for cash shortly.
-----------
Later edit after a bit more progression......
Question: Is there anything better body-wise than the butterfly(R)? Because I'm not sure if there's a time when I won't want penetrate and glide.
I currently have Dragon(R)+Butterfly(R)+Cloud(R) as my setup, and between unlimited level 5 dragon blasts and penetrate I can't think of a better setup. There might be some minor stat boosts for "better" parts, but overall this setup is great. It sort of feels like I've got my endgame equipment already. I'll level up a decent (R) +HP tail eventually, and I've got a Hornet(R) tail at level 5 for lazy zapping (it kind of works like an extra dragon blast every so often, but usually has really bad timing against enemies that phase, but it has a big INT boost for heavy dragon blasting instead of unlimited MP for skill use), but what else will I need? Does dragon fire ever start sucking? With the cloud tail it's unlimited, but I was thinking maybe horsie rocks would go better with penetrate because they're bigger. Any suggestions? Gold seems to be the limiting factor, so I don't want to grind/level everything I find. Would horse rocks or feline water (because it bounces) scale better than dragon fire?
Or just max these and start buying HEAPS of items? Some items don't seem to do squat, but maybe after spending 3000-4000 gold on them they'd stack up enough to notice a difference. Kind of like the same expense as levelling a decent part, but with an item?
Post by: Frumple on July 08, 2018, 10:24:06 am
Feline water isn't a bad upgrade, but my currently (just past what the little girl is initially looking for, which looking at the map seems like a third or fourth way through) identified "best" is water head lasers. I was hopeful for the horse rocks, but its targeting makes it kinda' cruddy (most of the shots will just pass through the area the first few clear) even with the R version larger hitbox. Bug shot isn't bad, either. Generally you want stuff with some spread to it, basically, lest most the attack go to waste.
Definitely experiment with the auto-chase/charge tails, though, if you haven't been. The hornets and initial shields are fairly straightforward, but they start introducing interesting projectiles and effects (the octopus tail, ferex, can hit things that have jumped!) fairly quickly. Fish tail is pretty brutal... single volley at 3+ ish will outright kill a lot of small critters. Skeleton tail tears up certain enemies, too.
So far as arms go, I've personally been preferring the heavy ones. Much easier to control, heh. Butterfly wings (or worse, the sickle ones a bit in that give rampage, which basically makes you go faster when you bounce off something) make it real easy to incidentally headbutt a projectile. Can't say all that shows up, though. My level's fairly high, I guess (130 something, last I looked), but I'm not that far in and since I encountered the sickle's rampage, I'm guessing there's more effects to come that might one-up the butterfly (or heavy, or whatever).
Item wise, well... they certainly have an effect, but I couldn't tell breakpoints or anything. I haven't been paying much attention outside grinding up a few tens of thousands of gold at a time (dreamworld ftw) and buying everything out, heh.
E: Oh yeah! It's probably worth noting re: arms, that they're not just for show. The longer ones effect your hitbox when you're attacking, so stuff that initially seems unimpressive (stuff without extra attributes) can be pretty nice anyway. Makes it easier to blow through small or medium sized enemies in one go, basically. Something to remember, heh.
Post by: sambojin on July 08, 2018, 05:24:47 pm
Post by: Frumple on July 08, 2018, 05:42:03 pm
* Can't say for certain, but it feels a lot like XP is based on number of fights, and the amount needed is fairly static... basically there's no way I've noticed to make it faster, you just have to fight and fight and fight. Meanwhile dream world gold ramps as long as you can keep killing things, which is much easier if you're working your way backwards.
Post by: Parsely on July 08, 2018, 11:18:24 pm
Hades' Star is cool, I ran out of money because I didn't focus on the quests so I have to wait but that's not a big deal since it's not like I can't do other things while I wait for shipments to regenerate so I can buy the upgrades I need to continue the main quest. It's kind of obnoxious that I can't automate shipments but it's probably going to be less of a problem when I develop longer shipping routes so that I'm not starting a shipment every few seconds, but then of course I'm going to have to wait ages for income so I guess I'll have to find a balance of short and long term income. I feel like I'm being kind of strangled by my fleet capacity and the shipyard upgrades got expensive fast, I hope the game gives me some more flexibility in that area as things go on. Really there's not going on much in the game at this stage but I like the theme and the music is good so I'm hoping it gives me more reasons to keep playing.
E: OK I'm really liking Hades' Star a lot. Right now I'm running 1 battleship, 4 transports, and 1 miner. I made the mistake early on of getting a second miner before I knew what hydrogen was for. Right now I don't see a need for more than 1 miner since they gather so slowly that all they dictate really is how long you have to wait until you think you have enough hydrogen to do a good red star run. Speaking of which, red star runs are such a cool idea! The idea is you scan for a red star, then when you find it you have 15 minutes to exploit it. The cool part is that other players can pick up the same star as you and then you're competing to grab all the loot first, but you're not allowed to shoot at each other which is great (that's only for white stars apparently but I haven't built the scanner that lets me find those yet). This game is hooking me big time
Post by: Folly on July 11, 2018, 04:01:34 pm
My initial impression is similar to Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius. Characters from multiple games come together in a crossover-universe situation, along with a host of original characters made just for this game. Lengthy story line that is somewhat interesting but not particularly challenging. Multiple side-dungeons that allow grinding resources to power up your units, and challenging boss fights to earn powerful loot. Regular events offer time-limited opportunities to get unique gear.
The story is pretty par for the course with other Star Ocean games. Space-force crew crashes on a primitive alien planet where their laser-guns and lightsabers join forces with elves and magicians to fight beasts and robots. It's not particularly original, but it gets the job done.
Graphics are particularly impressive. I honestly think this looks better than the last console game. Unfortunately, some genius decided to make this a vertically-oriented game, which does not mesh well with the active-battle gameplay. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that the bottom half of the screen is covered by GUI, so you have to stick one of your fingers in the middle of the video area to move around. Spell effects are also an issue, often completely obscuring the screen and making it impossible to see and react to the monsters.
The launch and pre-register events both provide a generous chunk of resources, so I'll likely be sticking around at least long enough to test the value of these toys they gave me.
In other news, I've continued playing Honkai Impact 3rd, now up to level 40.
I'm particularly impressed with the effort they've expended to keep the game varied and interesting. I've now seen an open world mode, shmup mode, platformer mode, survival mode, tower-attack mode, time-attack mode, and a handful of other modes that I don't even have names for.
I've also had a chance to try a variety of different units and been impressed with the variety there. I'm currently maining a Himeko, whose first attack in her chain can be charged to launch enemies, setting up easy combos with certain other units. After each attack in her combo there is a brief window to start the next attack with perfect timing, and doing so will grant a buff that provides momentum so that she cannot be knocked down or interrupted, allowing her to just keep on pounding the enemy mercilessly; one of my party members is a support Bronya who gives a shield to the entire party, which makes it even easier for Himeko to shrug off those incoming attacks. Landing 3 perfectly timed chains in a row grants a buff, which can be expended in a charge attack for a massive burst of extra damage, rewarding careful gameplay with some impressive dps.
Overall, I'm definitely finding this game even more fun than expected when I first started.
Post by: Parsely on July 12, 2018, 01:31:55 am
Okay, I have sunk far, far too many hours into this thing over the last handful of days not to make mention. I speak of the amazingly named Space Battleship Story RPG! (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=yamaoh.app.spacebattleshipE&hl=en) I'm sure it's a poignant and moving title in the original language. It's somewhere between a RPG, a strategy game, aI read something about massive battles and the wall of text has sold me, i love me some engrish (mmmm Weapon Throwin RPG)
-snip-
ut. It's what lets you speed up the rate fights progress, and is the difference between getting ten hours of progress in ten hours and getting fourteen.
*** Very much bonus points because you are going to die, the losses for your flagship getting blown up are usually pretty small. You don't lose anything you collected up till that point in the stage, and as near as I can tell the only costs involved are replacing any non-hanger allies that may have gotten ganked in the process of your ignoble end, most of which are fairly cheap. Key word there being most. You get that asteroid fortress minion blown up and you just lost a few dozen thousand gold and a good twelve thousand lives. Deployment and crew costs go down as ship design level goes up, but the big ones cost so much it's going to be a long time before it makes much of a difference for 'em.
Thanks Frumpty Dumpty, I think i'll enjoy this one
meanwhile Arcane Straight and Chimera are charming my pants off with their storytelling. seriously these games are incredible, and Hades' Star is nailing this steady grind for me that keeps me just satisfied enough that I want to keep growing my empire
Post by: Retropunch on July 15, 2018, 06:44:36 am
I like Occidental Heroes' combat but I wish there were more opportunities to improve yourself or get abilities or something (there's a town where you can get a single class specific upgrade per character that's pretty good but expensive). It takes a lot of time to earn money and your rewards don't really increase as you progress even as you find more things to spend on. If you could unlock more classes as you played I would be willing to give this game more than just two runs. Uninstalled it in the end but if there was a content patch, sequel, or a similar title I would give it a go.
Yeah I enjoyed it, but it felt a little bit too shallow. The hex based battling is a bit too simplistic (not that it's necessarily easy), and there isn't enough stuff to do strategically to make it worth playing long term. I really hope the dev decides to do a much more fleshed out sequel, as I think it'd be fantastic if they did.
Post by: AzyWng on July 15, 2018, 09:57:39 am
I do like how you can avoid certain encounters through the use of certain characters, but I wonder if this won't just make me want to keep them in my company and avoid retiring them.
Post by: Mephisto on July 21, 2018, 10:57:30 pm
Don't ask why I bought both at the same time.
Post by: Kagus on July 23, 2018, 05:26:21 am
Honestly can't recommend it. Nevermind that the download/installation is sketchy as fuck, the X-rated portions are rather bland and uninteresting, and the gameplay portions are hideously crimped by a too-powerful RNG and a bad pace.
Like, the RNG can massively tilt the scales in one side's favor, but the way the game plays makes it so that you're really only allowed a chance to recover from an unfavorable situation once. If you don't manage to completely flip the scales during that chance, the game is already over.
On top of all that, the game also actually pretended to be multiplayer, like that's some sort of appeal.
Post by: Folly on July 23, 2018, 03:26:26 pm
So I decided to try out a certain X-rated mobile game mentioned a while back in the "what are you currently playing?" thread
Was it the game I mentioned?
Post by: TheBronzePickle on July 23, 2018, 05:07:39 pm
Post by: Kagus on July 23, 2018, 05:35:48 pm
So I decided to try out a certain X-rated mobile game mentioned a while back in the "what are you currently playing?" thread
Was it the game I mentioned?
The very same.
Post by: Folly on July 23, 2018, 05:49:41 pm
Yes RNG is a factor. Player decks are only 8 cards total, with 4 in your hand at any time, so that RNG has very minimal impact compared to most other card games that involve several dozens of cards in your deck. Field bonuses are also RNG, but rarely favor one side heavily. I'd say at least 80% of the time I feel like I have a fair chance to win if I think my moves through carefully, and I frequently see matches start out favoring one player only to have a clever combination of units turn things around.
As for your multiplayer comment, the adventure mode is vs an AI opponent, as is the event variation of adventure mode. The ranked pvp, lite-pvp, and tower are all against real live people.
Post by: Kagus on July 23, 2018, 07:13:10 pm
As for RNG, the field bonuses can be obscenely weighted one way or the other, all depending on what they are and how they're placed. Just because both sides have a rock and a +2 heart tile doesn't mean that they're equal in strength, the placement of those tiles has a great deal to say. If you start with a major threat on the other side of the field that you need to dedicate turns and resources specifically for dealing with (lightning tower and stone idol are big contenders all depending on their HP, health totem can also snowball in a mean way), you are already at a disadvantage as the other player can pull out just about anything and you will be forced to lose at least one of those fights. And if you lose one fight, you lose the match.
Plus there's something to be said for the RNG nature of several card abilities. You might stack block on your tanky frontliner who's going to make the most out of it, or it might fall on the 1-hp glass cannon who's going to die next turn regardless of protections. But mostly, you're at the whim of your hand and the battlefield cooperating.
Post by: Parsely on July 23, 2018, 09:00:58 pm
Has anyone else here played Girls' Frontline? I've been playing it. It seems interesting, for a mobile game, but I don't really have much experience with mobile games and I might be completely wrong about how good of a game it is.I dunno, I tried it and, much like Fire Emblem Heroes, if it has anything to offer in terms of turn-based tactics gameplay it's buried.
Post by: Zangi on July 24, 2018, 12:37:54 pm
I'm actually playing it now. Just slowly chipping away at the last event(Cube) map. Yea, there isn't much beyond the gameplay and raising of raifu.Has anyone else here played Girls' Frontline? I've been playing it. It seems interesting, for a mobile game, but I don't really have much experience with mobile games and I might be completely wrong about how good of a game it is.I dunno, I tried it and, much like Fire Emblem Heroes, if it has anything to offer in terms of turn-based tactics gameplay it's buried.
I'd say Soccer Spirits offers better gameplay, but the grind to get anywhere good takes forever. Also, my favorite/invested characters have been on the lower end of the usefulness spectrum for awhile now, last I checked anyways.
Post by: Mephisto on July 25, 2018, 12:55:09 pm
The same
- You have pet creatures.
- You buy
PokeballsNodes to throw at them. - If you have more than
sixfive in your party, any excess get sent to a PC in thePokeCenterEvoCo. - Your pets level up and may evolve into something new.
- There are
gymsarenas. Team Rocket Galactic Plasma xxxxShadow Hive periodically causes you some problems.
Different
- Half of the creatures are basically Eevee and don't evolve based on level. Instead, they evolve based on elemental affinity which can be accrued by using moves of that type. This can absolutely screw your build if you level up too far and end up with shit stats. Naja, for instance, starts out with great physical increases. If you want to evolve it into a form that needs great elemental stats, you need to do that early.
- Like the game this is based off of, there are elemental stones to help with this. Instead of immediately causing an evolution, however, they just give you a big chunk of related affinity.
- You almost never need to go to an EvoCo. Once you level something up to... 5-7-ish? it gets a healing move that you can use in battle.
- Each of your creatures can gain abilities and traits. You can pick and choose which is active. While walking around, maybe you want your deor to be ridable. While fighting, maybe you want it to increase the likelihood that you encounter X type creatures.
- No more four-move limit or PP. You get one epic move, three normal moves, and one healing move. You fill out those slots from the pool of moves that your creature has learned. You start every fight with the ability to use any move. After use, many enter a "cooldown" phase of some number of rounds before they become usable.
- Your trainer has a level. You can use these points to get abilities like extra money from trainer battles, halved prices, and healing your non-fainted pets as you walk. These points can be reset for free after allocation.
- Unlike the gating in Pokemon, there are a few instances where you can get way out of your level. Right near the start, for instance, is an area with level 40 wilds. Right next to your mom's house is a guy who beat all of the arenas and is willing to challenge you. He's got level 50 creatures.
- On the flip side, it's fairly easy to defeat creatures many levels above you if you make good use of types and damage-over-time effects. One of my most effective creatures has a trait that may cause poison and can throw rocks to cause bleed. Those two combined can be deadly.
- You can genetically modify your creatures. This makes them way more powerful but causes them to gain experience slower.
- There's a handy "don't evolve" toggle for each of your creatures if you know you don't want it to evolve until you get some move.
- Arenas are entirely different. This deserves its own sublist:
- Arenas are infinitely repeatable.
- They cost money to enter, but it's a pitiful amount - 5 money units, when the first arena fight gives you at least a hundred
- There are always three fights of increasing difficulty. You can leave at any point, restarting from the beginning when you return.
- There's a premium currency, though it's pretty easy to get ahold of. It seems to be for buying new creatures, changing your avatar, or buying reusable items (the cheapest of which is a reusable Repel-like thing; probably useful). It can be found lying around in a few spots, or you can install some other games displayed in-app and accomplish tasks for cash.
Post by: tnc on July 27, 2018, 01:34:41 pm
Post by: sambojin on July 27, 2018, 05:30:22 pm
You get all the ships, all the parts, but no real idea how to play the game. It's all fairly easy to pick up though if you're willing to go through some clicking. Or just watch some YouTube of people playing the real game to help you along.
Anyway, it's pretty well done. You can play against the AI, or over the internet, or as a hotseat game, or even watch the AI play against itself. The AI uses a slightly different ruleset, but it appears more so due to it being easier to program it this way while giving a decent challenge (it gets free target locks and can use an action to remove stress instead of having to green manoeuvre it away, and doesn't stress on red manoeuvres but skips it's action that turn. It also chooses manoeuvres during the turn, so it looks like the high PS pilots are reacting, but they're not, they're cheating) than it drastically changing gameplay in too many ways. The screen is a little bit pokey on a phone, but should be fine on tablet, and comes with a 3d mode for watching turns and a 2d overhead mode to make planning your turns easier. You can set your ship lists, save/load, and even import .XWS lists into the game (so you can forum hunt a decent ship list if you don't know what you're doing), and it is frigging wonderful to be able to choose all the things you've ever wanted to try out.
I've had a quick game vs AI, and it's easy enough to do everything with only a bit of extra clicking required. It's not perfect, but it's pretty complete as far as I could tell. Oh, and the sound is great. Vrrroooaaahhhh's of Tie-Fighters and pew-pew of lasers are in full effect.
Anyway, it's good, it's free, it's probably going to be C&D'd out of existence immediately, so grab it quick. For Android, Windows, Mac and Linux (and the source code) here:
https://github.com/Sandrem/FlyCasual/releases
Post by: Mephisto on July 27, 2018, 06:40:23 pm
Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2
Man, the UI text is impressively difficult to read.
Post by: tnc on July 28, 2018, 03:30:21 am
Man, the UI text is impressively difficult to read.
Yeah, you have to put the phone in your face most of the time :)
Post by: sambojin on July 28, 2018, 03:54:10 am
The art is nice. The sound is repetitive and pretty bad. The story is, ummm, OK'ish I guess? The combat is terrible. The end.
Post by: sambojin on July 28, 2018, 05:39:11 pm
Might make a big proper thread on it soon if there's no takers here.
Post by: AzyWng on July 28, 2018, 09:38:53 pm
Post by: Parsely on July 28, 2018, 09:42:21 pm
Would anyone be up for a game of Fly Casual some time this coming week? Wouldn't be too hard to get a mini-league going if it proves popular. And since it's multiformat/crossplay compatible AFAIK, getting a few PC players in might not be too hard either. Games often only last 20-40mins since dice rolling and manoeuvre designation is so quick, and it might be good for a laugh. Can be kinda random or wombo-combo'y, but that's the nature of TT strategy games I guess. At least there's LOTS of combos available, with well-placed firepower and agility/HP still being a nice catch-all that can grind through stuff even if you don't hard counter a particular list.I dunno, the UI during the actual game is really really small on Android and the touch controls kind of suck. I think I'll pass for now but definitely drop a link to a thread if you make one.
Might make a big proper thread on it soon if there's no takers here.
Post by: sambojin on July 28, 2018, 10:46:57 pm
Haven't even played a full game yet and I'm already reminded of SteamBirds. Flashgame about top-down fighter piloting.
It's a 1:1 recreation of Xwing Miniatures Game (by Fantasy Flight Games). It's like that because that's what the board game is like. There's a little more depth there than is apparent, although much of it is in reducing variability of dice rolls, or stacking more of them, opening up movement dials, and getting free actions/attacks/effects through modding/pilots on each ship.
Post by: sambojin on August 13, 2018, 12:42:44 pm
Timing Hero. It's a weird 4-bit pokemon/timing attack mash-up.
Wonder Knights. A nice little schmup with levelling and gear and stuff.
Reed. A platformer.
Archery Shot. Shoot the apple off the dancing girl's head. Or accidently shoot her. It happens. Great ragdoll physics.
Infinity Dungeon. A progression clicker.
Pixel Heroes. Another timing thingo.
Rogue Drone. Didn't work on my phone.
Zombie Avengers. A 2d Stickman timing hackemup.
Anyway, they're free, and they weren't before. Wonder Knights, Timing Hero and Archery Shot are all probably worth a look. They're not bad for what they are (and at that price).
Post by: Parsely on August 13, 2018, 12:57:10 pm
Post by: sambojin on August 13, 2018, 01:32:44 pm
Post by: Parsely on August 13, 2018, 02:28:42 pm
Post by: Jopax on August 13, 2018, 03:09:05 pm
Still better than Dead Ahead which while being fun (if somewhat grindy) doesn't appear to have an options screen at all, there is a gamepad icon on the menu but it does nothing when tapped, but other than that, the only way to mute the fucking thing is to mute the entirety of my phone, which isn't always something I wanna do :V
Post by: AzyWng on August 13, 2018, 06:28:00 pm
Still better than Dead Ahead which while being fun (if somewhat grindy) doesn't appear to have an options screen at all, there is a gamepad icon on the menu but it does nothing when tapped, but other than that, the only way to mute the fucking thing is to mute the entirety of my phone, which isn't always something I wanna do :V
On the main menu (Where you can see the big "Dead Ahead" logo, there's a button with a gear icon in the bottom-left. Clicking on it should reveal a number of options, including handedness (left or right), steering style (tap buttons or touch road), music (on or off), sound (on or off), notifications (on or off), and tutorial messages (on or off).
I'm using an iPhone, so if you're not, it might be a little different, but there's an options menu for sure.
Post by: Jopax on August 14, 2018, 02:00:35 am
Post by: AzyWng on August 14, 2018, 09:02:00 am
Well, here's a picture of where I found the settings icon. Again, I'm on an iPhone (as opposed to an Android device) so it might be different for you. Clicking on it should reveal things like mute, handedness, and notifications.
Spoiler: Spoiler 'cause the image is pretty large. (click to show/hide)
Post by: sambojin on August 18, 2018, 07:01:31 pm
BSM2 is a cutesy non-violent shootemup that is actually quite good. A fair few different weapon options with good power scaling, a few different character types, no energy/stamina system, but there'll be a fair bit of grind to get everything unlocked and powered up. Currently on world 2, and have enjoyed it immensely so far. Tiny bit of a problem in hitting my back key when down the bottom of the screen, but that's on me, not the game. Plenty of powerups, plenty of weapon combos. Just an enjoyable little shooter, that would even be fine for kids (though there's a fairly high skill cap too). I went Dart on left, Boomerang on right, and a Magic core to begin with, and was pretty happy with it. Now levelling Beam core instead for more forward firepower. Doing Ice/Magic/Ice core on Ice Monkey, just to try him out. Oh, and don't worry, you're not stuck with Ice Monkey in world 2. As soon as you defeat the Yeti (6-12 lvls in) you can switch him back out for Super Monkey. So don't waste your red thingies if you don't want him.
Empire Warriors TD is a tower defense game with hero based cooldowns. It seems quite competent at what it does, though I'm not a huge fan of the genre. You also get a free, fairly good hero during the free app event, so now's a good time to try the game out.
But yeah, get BSM2 at least. It's pretty good (though admittedly, I just like shootemups. But this is a good one for mobile).
Had a bit more of a go at Chimera Recollect. Got 31000 gold collected from downtime, so bought *all-the-things* from stores. Wow did this just get easier. Trying out the Water head. Damn lasers are great, even if they're a little MP intensive. But with a Cloud(R) tail, it's still unlimited laser death for everyone. Probably even better than Dragon fire. Zap! Nothing left. Really am trying to use other tail types (Skeleton shurikens look cool, and might be feasible at a high level, considering you start with 4, so hoping it goes to 9), but unlimited MP from cloud is just too good. Trying different bodies too, but so far everything feels weaker than Butterfly (R)'s glide and penetrate. Heavy kinda does very little IMO. I'm really just trying to not waste all my XP by levelling other stuff for now. Lizard's my best HP tail, but I need something better for life restocks.
Post by: sambojin on August 18, 2018, 09:57:06 pm
Anyway, even though I've got some good stuff, at least there's plenty to try out in Chimera Recollect. Pretty much anything is vaguely useable at lvl3+, especially if you've got a penetrate body.
It's like how the Cat head (one of the early heads you get) seems pretty naff, until it's at level 5 and you've got water blobs bouncing everywhere and penetrating everything, costing very little MP, and you realize it's actually grossly overpowered. There's heaps of cool stuff like that to try out.
Post by: AzyWng on August 18, 2018, 10:12:08 pm
Post by: tnc on August 20, 2018, 03:19:12 pm
Post by: Aoi on August 21, 2018, 01:19:45 am
Puzzle-oriented, top-down, turn-based dungeon crawl, with each room in a dungeon being a discrete 'puzzle' that can be done in a few minutes at most. (They're not really puzzling, for the most part.) You can see where your attacks will land on a given turn, and which tiles will take damage after your next action (ie, "get out of there"). Different weapons, which you'll mostly get as random loot within a dungeon, have different attack patterns. Your base weapon attacks four spaces: Two forward, and the two forward-adjacents, like .|. while a common upgrade attacks the six blocks adjacent to the direction you face: |'|, so you can hit your sides, but you lose forward range. Bosses at the end of the dungeon tend to have longer, larger, and more hazardous attack patterns and copious traps in the room.
I'm finding it surprisingly entertaining, if fairly simple. As far as I can tell, all the bosses can be done flawlessly with your starter weapon, though upgrades can do far more damage or have much more useful attack patterns.
Edit: If you have wifi/data off when you start it, you won't get inundated with adds between every room. Best weapon is probably the bone since you can stunlock with it.
Post by: Folly on August 30, 2018, 08:47:08 am
Post by: sambojin on August 30, 2018, 11:30:17 am
Is it that combine-a-few-dragons into-a-better
-dragon resource grind thingy? Had pumpkin patches
or something around Halloween?
Probably vaguely remember my sister telling me about it?
Cow clicker with extra stuff, and dragons and stuff?
Post by: Jopax on August 30, 2018, 11:33:03 am
That said the art is incredibly pretty (tho I guess you wouldn't expect anything less from a Korean devteam)
Post by: Folly on August 30, 2018, 12:18:47 pm
And, ummm, Dragon Village is what exactly?
I originally mentioned Dragon Village here (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158903.msg7786013;topicseen#msg7786013). Yes, it's a game about collecting dragons, sacrificing some to power up others, optimizing equipment sets for your dragons, and putting together teams of dragons to overcome a lengthy series of hurdles.
And as Jopax said, yes the resources and mechanics can be a bit overwhelming at first, but that just means lots of content to keep busy grinding for a long time.
in other news...
Nintendo is publishing a new mobile game, Dragalia Lost (https://dragalialost.com/en/). Pre-Registration (https://dragalialost.com/en/pre_registration/) began today, with release scheduled for sometime in September.
There's not a whole lot of details on how the gameplay will progress, whether it's a story-driven journey or a grindy time-waster. The presence of multiplayer raids against giant dragons would lead me to expect the latter. Combat appears to be real-time with swipe based spells. Art direction looks like they may have borrowed from Pokemon's design team. Overall, I'm more than a little bit interested, if not quite fully excited.
Post by: Frumple on August 30, 2018, 12:49:30 pm
Post by: Parsely on August 30, 2018, 01:25:48 pm
Post by: Aoi on September 04, 2018, 01:07:52 am
Brief review: Turn-based roguelite by the same guys as Caves of Qud with charming art, surprisingly high production values, and a gripping commentary on imperialism in the narrative. I find it rather simple and limited, but I've probably sunk upwards of a hundred hours into it at this point, when a single standard playthrough probably takes under ten hours for the first time.
So... Does anybody know if finishing all stages on all characters on Savage difficulty opens anything beyond a sense of accomplishment? Figure it's good for two more flights.
Post by: KittyTac on September 04, 2018, 06:51:17 am
Post by: sambojin on September 08, 2018, 06:58:55 pm
(edit: actually, is it $4.39 Aussie? Still a bargain).
Pretty much a mixture of Xcom/Laser Squad and Wh40k, turn based top-down squad strategy, but with its own lore and background story. You can create your own squads, level them up with different abilities (there's commanders, scouts, engineers, heavy weapon specialists and gunners). There's several large narrative campaigns with mission objectives varying from "kill everything" to "run away" to "take and hold" to "bugger about turning on electrical cables" and much more. Limited "super/buff"powers, unlimited standard actions, overwatch, heat management (Templars are somewhere between Terminators and Mini-mechs in this world), ammo conservation, melee, engy turrets, everything. There's a tonne of stuff to do and ways of trying to play. And they're all good. Also a "nice" game in that you can respec you troops when you want, no costs, no downsides, so you actually get to try out all these different tactics whenever you want. So you won't get bored on ways of playing, or feel like you been trapped into the wrong focus due to one bad choice (it seems overwhelming at first, until you realize that there's not too many "bad" choices, just different ways of doing stuff). You'll feel powerful and weak at the same time, just like an armoured Marine squad o'death should when fighting against swarms of xeno scum.
Think kind of like Space Hulk, but more tactical (they actually have a SH game as well, but this is a definitive upgrade on that). Don't know if $1 will be worth it for hours of fun? They've got a slightly cut-down free version for you to try anyway. The Trese brothers stuff is by and large very good, all with a high level of polish and depth, and this is one of their best. And for a dollar, you really can't go wrong.
(Cory Trese has heaps of other games too, quite a few of them on special right now, but this one is an absolute corker at this price).
Post by: Aoi on September 12, 2018, 02:44:55 pm
For people not quite familiar with that... it's an isometric ARPG dungeon crawl where you're moving through fifty floors of a tower, but there's a much stronger emphasis on puzzles and judgement calls then a Diablo-esque rampage where you kill everything in sight for loot. Played with a tap or drag interface. Difficulty, at least for the first 20 floors is questionable: Most puzzles are either for extra rewards or have minimal penalty for failure. (Didn't quite understand the hint for the trap hallway? Stand to the side, regen, try another circle.) The only required puzzle I've encountered so far that didn't have a blatant hint (like a giant arrow pointing at a wall, if you look at a scroll nearby) involved going through two near-identical passages, except you're fighting Knights in one side, and ƨɈʜϱinꓘ on the other.
There's soft permadeath-- there are consumables you can buy (in-game currency) or find as rare drops/rewards that give pretty powerful buffs for a short time, or act as an extra life if you die with them in your inventory. Part of the problem is that you have a very limited inventory-- 8 slots, and you'll can equip two weapons, armor, boots, and two rings. Then you'll need at least one empty slot to pick up the key to open the door to the next floor, and you now have one empty slot. Oh, and there are quest items, which often reward you with either stat boots or rare items. So... not much space. For better or for worse, you can cheese most combats.
Definitely worth a look, if it sounds remotely interesting. Oh, and it saves on death, if you intend to try and scum a deathless run. Exit early!
*I'm not sure how to feel that opening this way feels extremely significant nowadays. The IAP is for extra character slots and shared stash space. Not that I've felt the need for it yet.
Post by: Reelya on September 13, 2018, 08:22:05 am
It also swamps you with so many different kinds of resources and mechanics that I can honestly say their design team is on really strong drugs.
It's not "design team on drugs" it's almost certainly an example of what Extra Credits calls "landfill strategy" of making MMOs. Watch this short video about how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL_bCwiUKNE
What happens is that every so often a new tier of resource is introduced to create artificial scarcity, along with things that only use the new resource. This creates a level playing field for new and old players, since old players have none of the new resource.
The problem this addresses is that if you bring in new gear that only uses the old money, people who did tons of grinding burn through the new content too quickly and lose interest, while new players with no money might find the costs too high and lose interest for that reason. It's impossible to balance for that in a way that engages all players in a meaningful way. So, instead they bring in a new money 'rubies' with a way to grind them, and a new 'ruby tier' of stuff that's all '+1' better than the last tier. Presto, it's easy to balance and the new content can be dribbled out at a controlled rate for all players old and new. Then, when most people have the top-level 'ruby' gear, you make 'sapphires' with their own scaling sets of gear, which are just slightly better than their ruby counter-parts. Literally a new type of coin that buys something 1% better than the last set is enough to get most people wanting it, and you can rinse and repeat this ad infinitum. The long term effect however is to make your design seem positively schizophrenic to anyone who takes a close enough look.
Post by: Folly on September 13, 2018, 08:20:10 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
While this is something I've seen before, it's also become a trend in recent games(mainly Korean) to simply include a massive variety of power-up mechanics right from launch, each with their own set of resources. Even if each resource grind is only minimally or aesthetically different, it proves sufficiently stimulating for many ADHD gamers who need to feel like they are doing something new every 2 minutes. And this happens to be the case in the particular game you are referencing.
Post by: Reelya on September 13, 2018, 10:43:17 pm
And this is where breaking genre can be really profitable. Trying to make a new example of a clusterfucked genre is only marginally profitable since you're trying to skim off some users from bigger and better known games. (sure some will succeed at that, but most game launches fail). However, by redefining the genre you can go back to a simpler game design, yet still bring over a lot of players who are bored with the regular ones.
Post by: Mephisto on September 14, 2018, 07:50:14 am
There are a few types of currency:
money, gained through fighting and the bank; used to upgrade equipment and orbs (which can be attached to equipment; equipment has three orb slots, one for health, attack, and defense)
eternium, gained through fighting and converting excess equipment in the forge; used to upgrade equipment
gems, the premium currency; also gained through many other ways - a small handful through your daily quest completion, spinning on one of the many wheels, and probably a few others; used for expediting trade missions, speeding up your bulk quest thing, buying things from the gem shop, and buying spare uses of the various wheels/random draw functions; I never run out and have accumulated nearly 9k.
guild coinage, gained when donating to your guild; used to buy goodies from the guild shop
honor, barrels, stamps, who the fuck knows what else - currency gained through fighting in the shared quest, trade missions, the arena, and <insert everything else here>; all are used to buy neat things
Back to the landfill strategy thing I mentioned - yes, there are lots of resource types. I don't think you can directly buy any of them besides gems (and even then, I'm pretty sure you can only buy money and eternium (and donate to receive guild money) with them).
I mentioned donating to the guild. You can donate money (easy to get; my bank is giving me a few hundred k a day at this point and the daily guild donation is 50k) for a few goodies and/or gems (50) for a few more goodies. Once enough has been donated, the guild levels up and you can start throwing money into guild-level attack/defense/health bonuses.
As part of one of the intro quests I did a month or two ago, I joined a guild. The guildmaster left and it decided I should be next in line. So now I own a guild. If any DF peeps want to play and get to the level where you can enter a guild, let me know.
Spoiler: dev stories (click to show/hide)
There's also a divine and busty questgiver lady that you meet at certain points. It's kind of funny - I think she was deliberately designed this way to mock Evony and related ilk.
Post by: tnc on September 14, 2018, 11:09:38 am
Post by: Folly on September 14, 2018, 12:20:57 pm
And this is where breaking genre can be really profitable. Trying to make a new example of a clusterfucked genre is only marginally profitable since you're trying to skim off some users from bigger and better known games. (sure some will succeed at that, but most game launches fail). However, by redefining the genre you can go back to a simpler game design, yet still bring over a lot of players who are bored with the regular ones.
Can you cite sources on this claim? Because I've been watching the gaming industry from all angles for decades, and every single game I can think of that has tried to redefine a genre has failed miserably. And there's good reason for that. The basic formula for an entertaining game is not that complicated, and altering it without knowing what you're doing is like substituting random ingredients in a cooking recipe; it usually turns out pretty gross.
The most successful games are those that stick to tried and true formulas, but slap a fresh aesthetic theme on it, and balance the gameplay elements more effectively than predecessors did. That's all a good game needs.
Post by: Parsely on September 14, 2018, 12:49:27 pm
Post by: sambojin on September 15, 2018, 04:39:21 pm
Nethack->Diablo->Neverwinter Nights->Path of Exile?
All basic RPGs, all with their own spin that "redefined" the genre, even though it was certainly incremental in the changes. All made a good whack of money too (well, except Nethack) .
"Give it heaps of content, make it quirky, make it free. Procedurally generate the levels"
"Make it action'y, up the production values and UI"
"What if people could make their own adventures? Ditch the procedural generation, script it. Slap a license in it, 3d it"
"Let's go back to free. More content, better 3d too thanks. Back to procedural generation. That worked fine."
They're all certainly different enough from each other that they "redefined" that sort of game, but in many ways are kind of similar. Yes, even just adding heaps of systems and using a different business model can be redefining enough, as PoE was from D1/D2.
They all stood out from a pack of clones, even though there is a fairly loose lineage between them all (and of the clones that failed). Was it just because they were first ones released in their time bracket? Not really. They weren't. They were just the first really memorable ones of their own eras. Even D3 (which did make money, and was backed by a big company) came off as feeling rushed and shallow and clone'y at its release. And this was even while PoE was trying to be clone'y, just done really well in the D1-D2 lineage. Other lineages and systems sprouted from these games as well.
Post by: Reelya on September 15, 2018, 10:36:05 pm
Take RTS as a big example. Trying to make bigger and better RTS's with more features, more factions, more units was a losing game. By the end, the only way to make a viable new RTS was to slap a licensing agreement such as Warhammer on it. Similarly with FPS. You can't just make a "tried and true" 1990s shooter now, you have to come up with some new formula to even get a foot in the door, unless you slap a movie / comic-book tie-in on it, or it's a nostalgia thing.
So, instead of new RTSs - the "tried and true formula" - people came up with Tower Defense on one hand, and MOBAs on the other hand. Both are derivative of RTS, however they are both very different things, and proof that people don't always just repeat what happened before because it "just works".
Formulas work for a while until they completely stop working. That's why the big popular genres now are not what people were playing even 10 years ago. Remember, Battle Royale is new, Candy Crush came out only in 2012, and back then Farmville was the "tried and true" formula, and where are all the Farmville clones at the moment?
For example, you have almost zero% chance making a WoW-killer. It would have to out-do WoW so thoroughly that you'd go broke making it, and many have indeed gone broke making WoW clones. Sticking to the "tried and true formulas" of WoW didn't work. Similarly, you're not going to rise up and dethrone GTA - or The Sims for that matter. The new GTA games work because they've got the money and the GTA name behind them. WoW, The Sims, and GTA are more like super-profitable niches with room for exactly one company than a formula you could copy.
So the big new things aren't wow-killers or GTA-beaters, they're currently Battle Royale games. If "The most successful games are those that stick to tried and true formulas" was always true then Fortnite wouldn't be the big new thing.
Post by: Aoi on September 16, 2018, 01:20:14 am
Formulas work for a while until they completely stop working. That's why the big popular genres now are not what people were playing even 10 years ago. Remember, Battle Royale is new, Candy Crush came out only in 2012, and back then Farmville was the "tried and true" formula, and where are all the Farmville clones at the moment?
I was curious about this specific point so I ran a random search and came up with a Telegraph list of top games in 2008. Looking only at the top 10...
10. Professor Layton - Puzzle compendiums. Sure, they're still around. They vary from minimalistic (Brain Age) to wrapped in esoteric lore (Myst) and cover a huge gamut. I'd say they pretty solidly share room with Artifex Mundi, which does it fairly well. (But I'll take more Layton.)
9. Left 4 Dead - I'm pretty sure this genre, and subgenre, is alive and well, though FPS/TPS gives me migraines so I don't track them at all.
8. No More Heroes - The evolution of the beat 'em up (though this has distinct flair... kind of reminds me of Deadpool). God of War's recent release seemed to do okay.
7. GTA IV - Action adventure? I've heard that new Mario game referred to as GTA Mario...
6. Spore - Okay, this one was weird to begin with.
5. Gears of War 2 - See 9.
4. Rock Band 2 - Not anymore, really. This has pretty much devolved back into rhythm games, except on mobile.
3. Little Big Planet - Platformer with heavy user content creation elements, I think? Lots of stuff emphasizing playing through other people's creations, but not much in platformers, far as I know.
2. Fallout 3 - Didn't Skyrim just get a VR rerelease? Which, really, FO3 and TES are preeeetty similar, just in a different setting.
1. Fable II - Action adventure, albeit with a more moralistic stance.
...In hindsight, I feel like I grabbed a critic's list, and not bestseller, but I'm tired.
Post by: Reelya on September 16, 2018, 01:49:47 am
Also, major franchise stuff that's still in the same genre as their direct predecessors don't really count. Also, making a shooter that's built around a game concept similar to an Elder Scrolls: how is that not redefining what you can do in a shooter. Take the original Deus Ex as another example. That does a huge amount of stuff that shooters didn't do before it.
Quote
Can you cite sources on this claim? Because I've been watching the gaming industry from all angles for decades, and every single game I can think of that has tried to redefine a genre has failed miserably
... the fact that we have lots of stuff now that we clearly didn't have before? Where did MOBAs and Tower Defense come from if not from redefining the RTS genre? Note what I said about a redefinition of a genre being an opportunity to scale-down and simplify your design. MOBAs and Tower Defense both do that, by taking elements of RTS and changing the game's focus to zoom in on those elements. Tower Defense takes the base building / base defense aspect of a typical RTS and focuses on that completely, whereas a MOBA takes the hero unit and enemy base destruction goal, gives you control of exactly one unit per player, adds a team element, while removing / simplifying-away all the stuff about controlling units and base building.
The massive popularity of Battle Royale shooters is another one.
Post by: Aoi on September 16, 2018, 03:15:35 am
It's a pretty stock beat 'em up, but it looks pretty good, and there's something satisfying about smashing things with a hammer as big as you are. Not sure how grindy it'll be later on though... I suspect 'not very', since grind tends to be more prevalent if it's part of their monetization. You'll want to dodge attacks, or the stage bosses are liable to crush you.
Post by: tnc on September 16, 2018, 04:38:17 am
Nethack->Diablo->Neverwinter Nights->Path of Exile?
I don't get it, does anyone think that Nethack influenced Diablo, or any roguelike influenced an rpg or vice versa?
Post by: Ziusudra on September 16, 2018, 04:52:34 am
I don't get it, does anyone think that Nethack influenced Diablo, or any roguelike influenced an rpg or vice versa?
http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Diablo
Quote
The designers of Diablo admitted in an interview that they were inspired by NetHack.
However there's no citation.
E: https://www.gamestm.co.uk/features/behind-the-scenes-of-diablo/
Quote
“The design morphed over the years and really was heavily influenced by a bunch of UNIX games that I was playing in college, roguelike games: like Rogue, Angband, Moria, Nethack
Post by: tnc on September 16, 2018, 06:29:36 am
I don't get it, does anyone think that Nethack influenced Diablo, or any roguelike influenced an rpg or vice versa?http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Diablo
Oooh, thank you. I always didn't like that Diablo was real time, never knew it was considered to be turn based in the first place. But then what's the point of Diablo if it were turn based?
Post by: Frumple on September 16, 2018, 07:34:20 am
Post by: Reelya on September 16, 2018, 07:49:02 am
I don't get it, does anyone think that Nethack influenced Diablo, or any roguelike influenced an rpg or vice versa?http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Diablo
Oooh, thank you. I always didn't like that Diablo was real time, never knew it was considered to be turn based in the first place. But then what's the point of Diablo if it were turn based?
The point would be to make a commercially-viable, graphical and animated Nethack/Moria clone. Being turned-based and being nice to look at aren't incompatible. There were isometric front-ends for Nethack already. However, when the Diablo devs decided to remove the turned-based timing then they ended up with a new genre of action-RPG.
Interestingly enough, if you boot up Diablo I, or look up videos, you'll notice that your character and all enemies only ever move on an 8-directional grid. This was a holdover from the turn-based development. The core gameplay wouldn't be that hard to imagine being turn-based, since Diablo I movement is in fact tile-based movement. Only with Diablo II do you start moving off the grid.
Another thing is that the world in Diablo I is very similar to the roguelike Moria. You have a town level with shops and a dungeon that goes down within the town.
Post by: Frumple on September 16, 2018, 09:05:28 am
The point would be to make a commercially-viable, graphical and animated Nethack/Moria clone.Or to state it differently, to make a (more western) mystery dungeon. Commercial roguelikes were around a good three years before D1 was, heh. Things go back to at least the SNES, possibly earlier.
Post by: Reelya on September 16, 2018, 09:39:51 am
Post by: Frumple on September 16, 2018, 10:36:58 am
The mystery dungeon stuff might be the first that did particularly well, though. Stuff's still trucking along to this day, with something like a 20+ game lineage stretching decades. S'kinda' neat, really. Not all the publishers involved toyed around with but it's a niche that managed to find some dosh backed traction.
Post by: Ziusudra on September 16, 2018, 07:26:55 pm
Meanwhile, Mystery Dungeon was also influenced by Rogue (https://www.webcitation.org/6O7eoBomV?url=http://www.1up.com/features/koichi-nakamura-interview-console-rpg):
Quote
Ultima and Wizardry are also difficult games, but what we did with those games is, they took those games and made a more easy-to-understand version of them, which was Dragon Quest. We wanted to approach Rogue in a similar way, make a more understandable, more easy-to-play version of Rogue, which was the Mystery Dungeon series.
Post by: Frumple on September 16, 2018, 08:19:38 pm
And yeah, the mystery dungeon was totes influenced so. Was specifically why I mentioned it as a commercial roguelike, ehehe.
Post by: tnc on September 17, 2018, 04:51:10 am
Post by: AzyWng on September 22, 2018, 08:28:03 pm
So, unlike Temple Run, Subway Surfers, or all 1.5 million endless-runner-type games out there for mobile, Full of Stars has a story with more meat than "something's chasing you so you'd better run fast" and persistent elements that are more than "you collect enough of this thing you can make your character a different color".
See, the game has two parts - one where you, well, fly through a realm known as the rift, which allows people to travel across several thousand light years' worth of space travel in just a few minutes, and two, where you make choices on what to do at your destinations or what happens when the ship crashes.
The Rift lets you travel quickly, but it's also quite dangerous. If you crash into an asteroid during the tutorial/starting segments of the "Cargo Pilot" story, the first of two stories currently available, there's a very real risk your journey might end right there. See, whenever you crash in the first part of the game, usually an event happens that forces you to choose between a certain number of things, but we'll get to that in the bottom half.
The second part of the game involves events - both events happening after the crash, and events happening once you reach your destinations. Here, you'll interact with the four resources you'll have to manage.
Crew: The number of people currently on the ship, including yourself. You usually get a few events that add crew members at the very start of the game, and might be able to find more along your way if you're lucky. Nearly all events that happen after you crash will force you to make a decision or risk losing crew members. If the number of Crew members drops to zero, well, you are probably dead and will have to start a new journey.
Idium: Some kind of mineral/currency. Can be used in either events or in upgrading your ship's Laser, Bomb, Overdrive, and After-Crash Stabilizer. These are the equivalent of coins in that they're really easy to find in the rift and it takes a lot of Idium to upgrade an item/be used during an event.
Idium Crystals: A more valuable form of Idium. Can be used to provide a second chance when you crash, usable in events, used to upgrade your Crew Quarters, or to break down into Idium. These are basically the premium currency - they will appear somewhat rarely in the Rift, may be provided by some events, but can also be purchased.
Leadership Points: This isn't really a tangible thing. Maybe it's confidence, morale, or omsething else entirely. Whatever it is, can be used in events. These are gained by either certain choices in events, or by completing challenges - objectives that you can fulfill during a run to fill up the bar.
Spoiler: Oh, and by the way, here's the things you can upgrade on the ship: (click to show/hide)
An event might go something like this (I am not quoting from the game, mind, so it'll probably look different when you come across it):
A group of people is getting pissed because there's not enough food to go around. You can either:
(Chance of success/failure) Call for backup
(Leadership Points) Share your food
(Idium Crystals) Set up a food plant
I'd tell you what options would be best in what situations, but that might be spoilers - in any case, you'll have to manage the currencies as you travel from spot to spot to save humanity.
It's worth a try. Advertisements only appear when you're recharging your core (energy system, you can perform 3 runs in a row, then wait, watch a video, pay idium, or purchase an unlimited core in-app purchase), and all in-app purchases are completely optional.
Post by: Kagus on September 23, 2018, 04:55:25 am
It's unbelievable how developers can keep making generic pocket games, from name to graphics to gameplay. You would think they would fail to make one aspect of it generic at least. These guys, they know what they're doing.The trick is to have years of experience. If you don't have years of experience, just empty your mind and tap into the psychic gestalt of slopware development and let the eldritch forces of dimness guide your way.
Post by: Aoi on September 24, 2018, 09:02:20 pm
Mobs have set AI-- some move diagonally-only, some deal AoE damage if they die to traps, etc. Very simple concepts, mostly a matter of how long can you maintain not screwing up. (I've gotten to 15/20, so no idea what happens when you finish it.) A good, tidy little puzzler.
Tip: Those eyeball monsters that switch places with you if you have LoS at the end of a turn? Very useful to cross a map fast or shake off things chasing you.
Post by: Mephisto on September 27, 2018, 07:13:48 pm
It's a Nintendo thing and looks pretty good. I got through the first "room" and then lost connection but I"m willing to give it a pass for now as it quite literally just came out.
Post by: Frumple on September 28, 2018, 10:12:13 am
... doesn't seem to add anything major major, but there's some (8? 9 if you count the arena) new stages and a few neat UI tweaks (filters for weapon lists, details on consort ship attacks, stuff like that). Might be a nice excuse to play it some more if it's been a while.
Post by: Folly on September 30, 2018, 06:34:06 pm
Dragalia Lost is available on the Play store.
I've played up to chapter 2 now, which I think is enough to get a general feel for the game.
It is a gatcha game, with a focus on saving up premium currency from first-time rewards and daily/event missions, then spending it on a slot machine in hopes of getting powerful new units and equipment. The general flow of progression is far from original, but that's okay, it's a system that works.
Combat is easy to learn, but not particularly deep. Drag to move, tap to do basic attacks, hold to do power moves which vary between units. The holy trinity of tanks/healers/dps are here, plus support for a bit of variety, and the standard elemental strength/weakness system. Limit breaks in the form of melee attacks and dragon transforms, each of which get their own meter.
Aesthetics are very nice, if you like anime portraits and cutscenes with chibi character models. Mild fanservice, with most of the female characters having fairly large chests and short skirts, and most of the males being shirtless with cute ears and tails. Music is also quite pleasant.
Overall, Dragalia Lost is nothing new, but it does mark a solid entry into an existing genre.
Post by: sambojin on October 14, 2018, 03:57:55 am
A fairy that is tiny (so can't even open doors), but has blink naturally, so you can *bamf* past them, as well as constant flight. You can also ride your dog or cat due to your size, and it *bamfs* through doors with you. I'll have to try out a fairy knight at some point.
And a lizardman that has jump and regen. Just kind of big and hitty (is actually large sized, so can't squeeze though diagonals). Also a pure carnivore. Vanilla feeling compared to the other two, but probably way easier to play. Eat all the things :)
Then the big one: you can now play as multiple characters at once. Want a turret bard or gunslinger following you around? No worries. Sick of waiting out a paralyze? Just switch into your second character and defend your poor helpless self. Want stacks of inventory space because you horde too much? No worries, bring a fully featured pack mule that levels alongside you. While it does seem to up the monster spawn rate (not necessarily a bad thing to help the xp gathering for two people) it doesn't seem to make it too much easier (or harder). Just a hell of a lot more fun. Kind of like single player D&D computer games where you can control your entire party, but only one at a time, in a way. As you can imagine, there's some very good combos available. Strangely enough, they seem to be moderately smart too from an AI perspective. Or my duel crossbow wielding fairy bard did in any case (happily shot away, picked up stray ammo, didn't charge headlong into too many things. I was surprised). Just remember, if you thought food was hard to find before, try feeding two mouths all the way through the dungeon.
Crafting also got a slight nerf, where you can have random bad effects occur if you use a particular crafting bench too many times. It's percentage based (called entropy), and it's not too bad. It just means you craft the essentials, not every little doodad you think you'll need.
Anyway, amazing update. Single-player-multi-character (it's already got actual online multi-player) and new (very funky) races breathed heaps of new life into an already incredibly replayabe game :)
Post by: Aoi on November 02, 2018, 04:34:13 am
Wandering Night... it's basically a de-rip from Night of the Full Moon back in the direction of Slay the Spire with micropay of dubious value. (I'm not actually sure what you do with the micropay other than buying alternate characters and some ungodly expensive thing at the start of a run labelled Invulnerability.) Impressions are after two full games, and a few failures.
A lot of skills and encounter are mechanically identical-- those mechanical enemies that alternate between stacking useless cards in your deck and attack? That encounter is replicated. So lets talk about where they differ instead. (Which isn't much.)
You roll dice to advance along the map which consists of combats, elite combats, cards (mostly negative ones, it seems), camps, shops, and StS-style '?' encounters. This directly leads into a more important difference: You get points each space you move that can be spent for things like a specific dice roll, shop, campground, etc.
There's evidently some way to upgrade your base character once you've done enough runs with it, but I haven't opened that up yet.
At the end of a run, you get your score, but also get to plunge into a rapidly escalating postgame where you can get micropay currency depending on how you do.
So basically... it's Slay the Spire: Mobile! I find Night of the Full Moon to be a better entry if you like this kind of a thing, but Wandering Night is closer to the StS experience, whereas NotFM is actually a different game.
Edit: Uhhhhh. I appear to have somehow gotten my account banned in about 24 hours without having actually done anything that may possibly warrant a ban (by normal standards). Maybe playing on a flaky European data connection is enough to set off red flags for them? Not like it's exploitable; the always-connected system recorded the exact state of each battle. In any case, be aware if you plan to invest anything meaningful into this.
Post by: Folly on November 02, 2018, 04:41:32 pm
Blizz announced today that Diablo 2.5 is in development for mobile.
Post by: AzyWng on November 02, 2018, 04:55:30 pm
Post by: BigD145 on November 02, 2018, 05:15:25 pm
Diablo: Immortal (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blizzard.diablo.immortal)That youtube trailer. Man. 62k thumbs down and counting. 2.5k thumbs up. This thing is hated.
Blizz announced today that Diablo 2.5 is in development for mobile.
Post by: Kagus on November 03, 2018, 04:01:52 am
Does that mean it's going to have half the controversial features Diablo III had (Auction house, always-online DRM, etc.)?It means they started with the already-simplified Diablo 3, then started scaling back on complexity until it no longer really filled the whole number. Hence, 2.5 as in a step back from 3, not as in a step forward from 2.
Post by: Folly on November 03, 2018, 07:11:27 am
Post by: etgfrog on November 03, 2018, 07:54:46 am
That youtube trailer. Man. 62k thumbs down and counting. 2.5k thumbs up. This thing is hated.Blizzard has already reuploaded it in an attempt to get rid of the thumbs down. The original video has almost 200k thumbs down. It can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSmAwpVHsA
This is kind of why its becoming a bit of a pr disaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glm8pc0fDUc
Post by: Wiles on November 03, 2018, 10:37:26 am
Post by: Folly on November 03, 2018, 11:20:11 am
Post by: Kagus on November 03, 2018, 11:36:48 am
Diablo 3 is 6 years old at this point, and mobile technology has advanced greatly during that time. I would not expect that it would need to be 'dumbed down' all that much. Some changes to the control scheme would have to be made of course, but other systems could be refined and even improved.How would one go about implementing access to 5-6 active abilities on a mobile platform without A) Horribly cluttering the screen, or B) Requiring a pause menu interaction to use them? Even with the restructuring of the UI to make it accessible on console, there are several specific actions a player is supposed to be able to access at any given time. With a phone touchscreen, there aren't many sane ways of interpreting so many varied inputs. Especially not if you hope to keep each one separate enough to minimize risk of activating the wrong ability and wasting mana/cooldown as well as throwing your combo off.
It's not a matter of graphics or processing intensity, it's a matter of input intensity and complexity.
Post by: Folly on November 03, 2018, 12:07:20 pm
Just offhand, Honkai Impact has buttons for attack, dodge, weapon ability, ultimate ability, contextual skill, and team skill. And Dragalia Lost has 3 weapons skills, a dragon transform button, and combined mid-screen movement and basic attacks.
Post by: Retropunch on November 03, 2018, 01:18:03 pm
It really is the worst move they could ever make. Like astoundingly bad.
Post by: BigD145 on November 03, 2018, 02:49:08 pm
That youtube trailer. Man. 62k thumbs down and counting. 2.5k thumbs up. This thing is hated.Blizzard has already reuploaded it in an attempt to get rid of the thumbs down. The original video has almost 200k thumbs down. It can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSmAwpVHsA
This is kind of why its becoming a bit of a pr disaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glm8pc0fDUc
I love the guy that asked if this is an off season april fools.
Post by: sambojin on November 17, 2018, 04:42:21 am
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=157009.msg6879806#msg6879806
Admittedly, this was all "user-generated" content, but that's actually harder to do than procedural (there's an entire back-end needed for people to make their little fortress deathtraps for others to raid). It only had 4 skills (choosable, and very different skills depending on class) and basic attack, but it was pretty fast and fluid at what it did. Controls were responsive, even during lag, and tactics and builds were various enough that you thought "oh, good, we've got one of them on our team this raid. Sweet. I'll mix my own tactics up a little."
And it was free and fair. Always online, almost always multi-player, but it was even pretty good at that.
So it's doable. It just depends on whether or not Blizzard has any intention of making it good and long-lasting and not just a cash grab.
Fortress Legends is still some of the most fun I've ever had in a mobile game, ever, bar none. If anything, it was too free and fair, so Bandai Namco had to rip the servers eventually. You didn't have to pay squat to become a pretty powerful character. But wow. If Diablo Immortals has even a drop of what that game did, even without all the BS timers and "create your own dungeon" thing, I think they can do it.
It was a flash in the pan, but that game reminded me more of d2 than any other action RPG on mobile that I've played before or since. And I've played a tonne of them these days, and gotten rather good at some of them. But if Blizzard can do something remotely similar to Fortress Legends, I'm in :)
Post by: Aoi on November 18, 2018, 05:37:04 pm
Night of the Full Moon: Still an excellent fantastic sort-of Slay the Spire. (Allegedly, it's closer to an Apple-only game, but I don't have anything in that ecosystem.) A good amount of character and rather numerous options. Also the first time I've actually purchased something off the Google Play store (additional characters; think the Silent/Defect).
Triglav: Isometric soft puzzle ARPG. Controls fairly well. Has permadeath, but you can buy fairly inexpensive extra lives with in-game currency (or get them as drops). Micropay for extra character slots, or storage slots. (Not necessary, but it does make it easier to do a deathless run.)
Spaceteam: Social game, and I'm fairly certain it's for-pay. Basically, every person has a spaceship control panel with various nonsensical options, and things that somebody has to do to keep the ship from certain doom. ("Set the fluxobob to 4! Turn off the hazematic! SHAKE!")
Onitama: Picture a 5x5 chessboard; each side starts with a king on a power point flanked on each side by two pawns. Victory is either capturing the king, or moving your king to the opposing power point. What makes this interesting... there are five different potential moves that are in varying patterns. Each side has two possible moves, and the fifth move rotates between the two players and can be used next turn (the most recently used move goes to the other player for use in their next turn [so it's not immediately usable]). And some of those movement patterns are kind of annoying.
Post by: AzyWng on November 19, 2018, 01:33:51 am
Dunno what that does exactly, but whatever.
Post by: Aoi on December 09, 2018, 12:57:30 am
So I've been doing a lot of travelling lately and have been working my way through various offline stuff I had on my phone when I rediscovered Sproggiwood (again).
So... Does anybody know if finishing all stages on all characters on Savage difficulty opens anything beyond a sense of accomplishment? Figure it's good for two more flights.
And that would be a resounding 'no'. Not even a sense of accomplishment. Totally had to cheese my way through it for three characters too, since I Just. Could. Not. do half the stages on them properly.
Post by: AzyWng on January 03, 2019, 09:11:51 pm
Gameplay on the main story consists of two sections: A mission selection screen where you can see the status of your own base, the enemy's bases, and what level of supplies and weapons you and the enemy have. You can also see what missions are available and how much ammo they cost. By tapping on a mission and before hitting "accept", you can see what the effect of the mission is if you complete it, how many turns can pass before the mission disappears, if there is one, and the effect of what the mission is if it expires, if there is one. You can also use things like the ARMS system to unlock new weapons for purchase, and use favors acquired through "Free Prisoner" missions.
Gameplay is basically moving your squad's cone (yes, all five soldiers collectively count as one unit) onto the enemy units and making sure the enemy's cones don't touch your lead unit. You do this by tapping a hexagon where you want your unit to move, and dragging the line from your units to their destination to change the route they take to their destination. The cones represent the cone of vision/fire for a unit, and vary from unit to unit. Some units have small cones of fire, others have very large ones. Depending on the weapons your soldiers (especially the leader) equip, your cone of fire will be different. SMGs will make the cone quite wide and relatively short, LMGs and ARs will make the cone somewhat "normal", neither too wide nor too far, and SRs will make the cone very long and narrow. If you manage to get behind an enemy and then hit them with the cone, you'll perform a "surprise attack" that uses no ammo, will always wipe out the enemy, and will not attract the attention of nearby enemies.
Aiding in the act of attacking enemies first is the ability to change movement modes. Standard is full speed, with the enemy spotting you almost as soon as you touch their cone of vision. Caution lets you be inside the enemy's cones of view unless you get too close, and also widens your own cone of vision/fire. Stay makes you stay still, and turns the cone of vision into a full circle.
Enemies include soldiers (standard bad guys), APCs (fewer but somewhat harder to take on using guns), tanks (which basically require the use of Anti-Tank Rockets), elite units (which move about a lot in a manner similar to your own squad of units), and mortars (which fire at certain positions that you must run the hell away from otherwise you'll take severe damage).
One thing to keep track of is ammo. On the mission selection screen, you'll have a limited amount of ammo available per turn, and the amount you recieve (added to any ammo you saved from previous turns) is dictated by your supply level. This affects what missions you can or cannot take. Most non-fort/HQ missions require anywhere between 50 and 400 units of ammo to take on, and that number is the amount of ammo you'll have for the mission (so the 50 ammo mission would only give your troops a measly 50 ammo with which to fight). If you run out of ammo during a mission, your soldiers will be forced to use handguns, which have a very small cone of fire and are generally a last-resort weapon.
Your own soldiers are quite easy to acquire and then lose - you'll always have about ten soldiers available to recruit each day, most of them for quite cheap, and for a fairly low amount of non-premium currency (the icon is a stack of bills), you can refresh the list to get ten more soldiers. As for losing them, well... When soldiers take damage, they can go from white to ded quite easily. And when they get ded, they stay that way, forever. Thankfully, you can keep their equipment and weapons, and if you have a service ticket, you can recover any skills they may have learned, and then teach them to your new troops.
The way the game makes money is through Premium currency, this time creatively called "Gold". Gold is used to get a better deal on items and to bypass the limits certain items have on being purchased, purchase certain exclusive items that you'd otherwise rely on luck to find, get extensions/retries of missions, and, if you're lucky, revive soldiers that would otherwise have died.
Seeing as the gameplay seems to at least rely somewhat on skill, there's not too much of a pay-to-win element save purchasing items with gold, and there's no energy system, I'd say it's not a half-bad way to make yourself feel a little clever, considering it's free.
Post by: Yoink on January 04, 2019, 10:26:50 am
Had a lot of good (as in successful) matches, but the one I just finished was amusing indeed... plenty of boat and LMG shenanigans with a side of suicidal teammates drowning themselves or disconnecting. I am very, very surprised at both how enjoyable this game is on mobile and how decent I am at it.
If I'm honest the two factors are probably quite closely related...
Post by: Parsely on January 04, 2019, 12:27:12 pm
You can also see what missions are available and how much ammo they cost.The thing with ammo, and what makes this game so interesting, is it's not a cost but a minimum requirement of ammo that you need to go on a mission, you only lose ammo if you do a non-silent engagement with a patrol or attack a camp/outpost/HQ in the tactical gameplay. On HQ missions with multiple enemy outposts if you destroy some of them and run the time out on the mission the ammo cost for the mission actually goes down, so the ammo actually represents the estimated supply the team needs to complete their mission which makes sense and is very cool. It's interesting because as far as I know you never need to pass a turn if you don't run so low on ammo that you can't start a mission.
You do this by tapping a hexagon where you want your unit to move, and dragging the line from your units to their destination to change the route they take to their destination.
The cones represent the cone of vision/fire for a unit, and vary from unit to unit. Some units have small cones of fire, others have very large ones. Depending on the weapons your soldiers (especially the leader) equip, your cone of fire will be different.
If you manage to get behind an enemy and then hit them with the cone, you'll perform a "surprise attack" that uses no ammo, will always wipe out the enemy, and will not attract the attention of nearby enemies.
APCs (fewer but somewhat harder to take on using guns)
One thing to keep track of is ammo. On the mission selection screen, you'll have a limited amount of ammo available per turn, and the amount you recieve (added to any ammo you saved from previous turns) is dictated by your supply level. This affects what missions you can or cannot take. Most non-fort/HQ missions require anywhere between 50 and 400 units of ammo to take on, and that number is the amount of ammo you'll have for the mission (so the 50 ammo mission would only give your troops a measly 50 ammo with which to fight). If you run out of ammo during a mission, your soldiers will be forced to use handguns, which have a very small cone of fire and are generally a last-resort weapon.
Seeing as the gameplay seems to at least rely somewhat on skill, there's not too much of a pay-to-win element save purchasing items with gold, and there's no energy system, I'd say it's not a half-bad way to make yourself feel a little clever, considering it's free.
I found this type of control to be super awkward because your destination is also your pause button, so it's never in the same place. It makes reacting quickly to an evolving situation somewhat frustrating and I've lost men because I failed to pause when something unexpected started to happen.
Is this true? I thought the size of the cone was determined by summing up the range values for all your team's weapons?
This is also somewhat frustrating because you don't know if you have a surprise attack until you press the button to attack, and when attacking big patrols this can be the difference between losing a soldier. Related is that the game doesn't tell you that mortar teams, which don't have vision cones, seem to always have initiative, so they can pick your guys off if you decide to attack them. The positioning for a surprise attack is vague and awkward but generally I find you must be nearly directly behind the enemy (range doesn't matter).
I don't really find them to be any harder to kill than regular infantry, the main challenge they present is they're really fast compared to infantry so they're tough to get a surprise attack on.
I would say the game is pay-to-win because many missions can be ended with a single air strike item, but not a big deal in PVE because the game is more fun if you just use items when you're in a really tight spot anyways. There's also PVP which I haven't gotten to try and if the items trivialize PVP too that could suck.
The game is fun but I find the controls really suck and the game is not intuitive at times (the pause button is your destination waypoint except when you're attacking a camp then it's the red X, attacking an outpost or patrol only attracts nearby enemies unless it's the HQ camp then it attracts everyone on the map, surprise attacks only happen when you're very directly "behind" an enemy and you don't know if you got it until you commit, if you retreat from an engagement where you don't have initiative the enemy will shoot you even if you're outside their vision cone).
Post by: Aoi on January 04, 2019, 10:16:10 pm
You start off with lines and circles, and start 'discovering' geometric concepts from there. For example, the first non-pure tutorial stage involves a short line segment, and you need to make an equilateral triangle: CircleA with radius AB, circleB with radius AB, point C is the intersection of circleA+circleB, line AC, line BC. A few puzzles later, you to figure out how to draw a line perpendicular to an existing line... and thereafter, you have a 'perpendicular line' tool to start with. Repeat until you've finished Geometry 101.
You only have access to the first two sets of stages for free, unless you can finish all the stages in the most efficient way, then, presumably, the next, more complex set, is opened up. (...I'm evidently too dumb.)
Post by: Sergius on January 08, 2019, 04:26:33 pm
Post by: AzyWng on January 08, 2019, 07:12:55 pm
Yeah, there's a lot of things this game doesn't tell you, unfortunately.
Post by: Parsely on January 09, 2019, 12:08:57 am
I think it might be possible to press the dotted line your soldiers follow (which gives you the option to change destination, route, and also pauses the action).I gotta try that. Also, through experimenting I realized it's the 180 degrees directly behind an enemy that gives you a silent attack, which is way more flexible than I thought.
Yeah, there's a lot of things this game doesn't tell you, unfortunately.
Post by: Aoi on January 10, 2019, 02:55:22 am
Gameplay consists of two phases, basically. You're rolling dice to move along on a linear boardgame path that periodically forks, and depending on where you land, there are various effects. Mostly, you'll be in a little dialog that's asking you to make a decision (-5hp for +20gold, -2energy for +1damage, etc.) or a combat.
The combat is fairly distinctive-- both you and your opponent have a number of cards (that aren't exactly cards, but whatever) that will roll a range of values when you play them. Your objective, nominally, is to have a higher total value in play, whereupon whoever has a higher total will win the turn and attack for whatever their damage is. Where this gets messy is when the actives/passives come into play. Each of the three classes of cards can be slotted with equipment that come into play whenever something happens to that card. For example, my first attempt had me running an active card that had a chance of destroying a card in the opponent's hand; one of my passives hit the opponent for a ton of damage whenever a card was destroyed. (My first win was a joke; my three passives reshuffled my hand every turn, dealt 7% of my opponent's max life when that card returned to my deck, and gave me 19 points of armor when that card was returned to my deck.)
Any don't underestimate stamina. It's rarer than hp and is utilized by practically everything in the boardgame phase. Without it, you're dead in the water fast.
Edit: Oh hey, just showed up in my Steam discovery queue. For 10$.
Post by: Aoi on January 27, 2019, 10:31:59 am
Hardboiled is a short little thing free on Google Play right now* that kind of reminded me of a singular mission in Fallout, in terms of play, style, and length. I recommend going into it on Hard... It'll probably only last you a few hours, if that. You're basically in a crumbling city with two factions trying to get the parts to repair your car, played in tRPG fashion.
Endgame note:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Onirim is a nifty little solitaire game published by Asmodee; free base game, expansions cost extra, as I recall. You have four colors, three suits, and penalty cards. You win by opening enough door cards, which is done by playing three of the same color in a row, no sequential repeating suits, or drawing an appropriately colored door while holding a key-suit card. One of those games where the basic concept is more readily seen than explained, and surprisingly complex to play effectively.
Why yes, I've been travelling again lately. And broke my laptop cable. -_-
*At time of writing, which isn't time of posting.
Post by: red_squirrel on January 30, 2019, 03:32:58 am
But the problem is still with me. If I play a game more then 3 hours a day, I immediately delete it to avoid dependence. That happened with HayDay (I had 35th level) and HomeScapes (625 levels passed). Sometimes I think I shouldn't do that, but games totally ate my life. And that was scary.
Post by: Aoi on January 30, 2019, 03:06:26 pm
In other news, Night of the Full Moon just got new DLC and the new class is nifty. And the additional difficulties are pretty brutal.
Post by: Aoi on January 31, 2019, 08:17:44 pm
It's a turn-based tactical, and you have four moves (that change somewhat-- throw your shield, and you obviously can't shield dash). Your job is to kill all the hostiles on the map before you die, but all damage you deal is insta-kill terrain: Pulling them into lava, pushing them into spikes, stunning them while next to their own bomb, etc. It reminds me of Into the Breach, if you were playing solo and hits instagib, in how movements are very predictable, and losses are usually player error.
Post by: sambojin on February 02, 2019, 03:30:14 am
It's pretty fun. I did break down and buy the Chinese New Year thingo, and honestly probably will buy the $9 starter set. But what can I say, I love twin stick shooters, and they work really well on mobile. You get enough free stuff to get going, have a laugh, play several types of hero within a day or two (this is my first 12hrs), and it's just what I expected from a game from that company. Slightly better in fact.
It's not Clash of Clans or Battle Royale level of bullshit, where you'll definitely lose to a p2w player, but it has the same level of gacha randomness that you'd expect from them.
But they do give you fairly competant heroes for free, so you can definitely contribute properly to a team win on many maps.
There's several playstyles required, with some heroes being better on some maps or for team compositions, but it's doesn't feel like the Clash Royale grindfest. It's an action game, with just enough variables to keep it interesting.
Anyway, I'll see how it goes. I've already got some fairly nice heroes (Skeleton Healer who is hopeless until lvl9, Molotov Robot Bartender where everything is a skill-shot but can swing battles amazingly if you connect well, and Barrel Twin-Shotgunner who is probably going to get tanky AF).
Fortunately, the free heroes still work ok. Ok'ish, anyway. Honestly, Bear Girl dominates the basic map, and El Primo the luchiador wrestler smashes heist maps.
So, yeah. It's fun. No doubt I'll be getting anhilated on various maps by mythic/legendary/epic/whatever heroes sometime soon. But it's a Supercell game, I kinda expect to pay about $20Aussie to quick-power play and enjoy a freemium game like the sort companies like this make, and I have been enjoying it.
Not the best description of what it is, but, ummm..... Think of Blizzard's first person shooter, as a top-down twin-stick shooter, but with cartoon graphics and a tiny bit of LoL's mechanics. It's alright. Will probably play it a fair bit. No stamina meter for a start, and I like that :)
Post by: sambojin on February 02, 2019, 03:52:09 am
She's a good all-rounder regardless. Short-medium range piercing damage, that isn't a bad amount of it when it hits, that can make people back-up when you're just holding areas and spamming due to the damage it causes, and brings along an ok'ish summon to take the pressure off other players on the team. She's not bad for a freebie hero. So good on the basic map 1&2, she's welcome in any team. Not bad in heist either. Not great at deathmatch though (until she theoretically gets her star power).
So for most maps other than 10 player deathmatch, I'll probably be main'ing her for now :)
Really looking foward to getting Turret Engineer Bouncey Shot Girl, because from a mechanical perspective, she sounds amazing. And she's free! Double yay!
Managed to pip a 10 player deathmatch with Molotov Bartender, but I kind of cheesed it. Throwing stuff over walls is so good when everyone has low HP. He'll hopefully be good (like, proper good and powerful), once he gets some autoheal-on-attack with gacha lvl9 star power. So hard to use, but so powerful already. Just, I'm not very good at the game and he's squishy as hell. Slightly less squishy might make for a very versatile character. Already have a "winter" skin for him. Won't use it, because teammate's have a harder time identifying what you're doing with DoT blobs. Might even out vs enemies not knowing wtf is going on though. Must get better at skill-shots. Yay?
El Primo (I only remember that character's name because his catch-phrases happen to include his name every time) is SO good at heist, that it's hard to say if you should ever choose a different character on it. I mean, no ammo requirement ever, heaps of health, can leap walls while elbowing, and then smack the crap out of the safe? It's not like anyone will complain if you have two of them on a team. So very good in heist. Surprisingly good at deathmatches as well. Open crates, box people, dodge behind walls if they back-up. Elbow drop them if you can, over the wall, and start punching. Early on, you are the HP king.
Starting to learn to pre-aim my weapons when going near patches of grass. Will get better at skill-shots eventually....
((this is just a holder post I'll edit to say how various heroes turned out, so others can know what to focus on with highly allegorical information. I'll edit it later. Maybe.))
Post by: AzyWng on February 16, 2019, 12:29:17 am
The shooting in this game is fairly effective - one stick moves, the other aims and shoots. I'm not a big fan of twin-stick shooting on mobile games, as, oftentimes, I wind up wasting ammo as I walk bullets onto their intended target(s). Space Marshals attempts to handle this issue by having a fairly generous cone in which you can fire your weapon and hit an enemy - you don't have to be straight on target, but doing so will cause your shots to inflict more damage. The "cone" of fire is pretty much a straight line in the case of the long-range rifles and crossbows, while shorter-range weapons like shotguns, pistols, and SMGs will have a much wider cone.
Additionally, semi-automatic weapons (Or, at least, weapons that fire one bullet at a time, and don't let loose a spray when you drag the firing stick) have a special firing system - rather than dragging the firing stick in the direction you wish to shoot and thus immediately firing, you instead drag in the direction you wish to shoot, then release the firing stick to loose a bullet. This allows you to snipe effectively (the camera will pan in the direction you aim), as well as carefully line up a shot when trying to get the jump on someone. If you wish to fire quickly, you simply flick the stick in the direction of the enemy as fast as you can, which gives me a feeling of fanning the hammer of a weapon and can be rather effective.
The game has a large degree of stealth-based elements - waist-high cover is everywhere, enemies often have shields (an extra health bar that only stops damage to the front and sides), and your own character isn't particularly resistant to damage himself. Furthermore, you can inflict extra damage that bypasses shields by shooting enemies in the back, getting an "Ambush!" bonus. Several silenced weapons are unlockable to aid in stealth-based endeavors, and you start the game with rocks, which can be used to distract enemies.
Do note that if you want to unlock all the weapons and items, you will have to play through each stage about four or five times depending on stage. You'll also want to search through levels carefully to find useful clues, which unlock new levels and allow the story to progress.
Unlockable items and weapons include things like new hats, new guns, new throwable items, new armors, and underwear.
There's also a sequel that has better stealth mechanics (including stealth takedowns), a larger variety of weapons (accompanied by weapons from the previous game), the replacement of clues with COR-V Tokens (Which, rather than being mandatory to progress, merely unlock new gear in addition to the ones you can get from missions), and greater leeway with mission rewards (in the previous game, you had to complete a level with no deaths to unlock the final reward. In this game, you can die once and you'll still be able to unlock the final mission reward). There's also a mission pack DLC that allows you to play as Ava and not Burton - she is much more heavily focused on stealth gameplay.
All in all, fairly solid games, well worth the price in my opinion.
By the way, any word on how Langrisser is? I've heard of it and seen ads, but didn't get very far through the game myself (Though admittedly that was just because I didn't like the art style).
Post by: Frumple on February 16, 2019, 07:17:39 am
Post by: AzyWng on February 16, 2019, 11:58:37 am
Post by: Aoi on March 08, 2019, 12:42:07 am
The URL says it all, but for some more detail... One company basically announced that they're cutting expected revenue by 20% (~90mUSD) for no clear reason. A reporter poked them, and the answer was basically "Players complained to Nintendo about how much they were being bled, so we had to ease up. (We could've squeezed them even more, if they let us...)" The article goes on to further note that Nintendo probably cares more about maintaining a positive image and pushing brand awareness over immediate profits, given they have some other projects they're working on, so it isn't a sense of fairness or altruism though.
Has anybody else seen a situation like this pop up before?
Post by: Jopax on March 08, 2019, 07:15:08 am
Made by the same folks behind Plague Inc., the gist of it is, you're a leader of a multinational operation to stabilize and bring peace to a troubled region. You do this by spending cash on various initiatives to improve the region like education, sanitation, health, transportation, etc. These slowly spread around the region and work to increase the support of the locals, once you got enough on your side the region is considered stable. The tricky part is that there's insurgents who want to get rid of you, so you gotta involve the military too (foreign soldiers at first, but later on local armed forces become available), otherwise you'll lose reputation which might mean the international community loses faith in your ability to fix the shitshow. The insurgents themselves are annoying in that they tend to run when defeated, so you gotta corner the bastards to truly stop them, then there's camps they set up that continually send raids to nearby regions. You could airstrike them, but that carries issues of its own. Then there's the juggling act of inflation/corruption which could cause issues if you're too careless in your spending.
Overall, it's a pretty fun little strategy game which can be played in sessions and while not super deep, it has enough going on to keep you interested the whole way trough.
Post by: Retropunch on March 08, 2019, 02:35:20 pm
I came across a rather interesting article about Dragalia Lost the other day over here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/nintendo-to-smartphone-game-makers-you-can-only-gouge-our-players-so-much/
The URL says it all, but for some more detail... One company basically announced that they're cutting expected revenue by 20% (~90mUSD) for no clear reason. A reporter poked them, and the answer was basically "Players complained to Nintendo about how much they were being bled, so we had to ease up. (We could've squeezed them even more, if they let us...)" The article goes on to further note that Nintendo probably cares more about maintaining a positive image and pushing brand awareness over immediate profits, given they have some other projects they're working on, so it isn't a sense of fairness or altruism though.
Has anybody else seen a situation like this pop up before?
Overall, I've become more and more disillusioned with mobile gaming. I thought we'd reach a sort of happy equilibrium with a nice mix of completely free games, games that are free to play (with a few micro-transactions for cosmetics etc) and then ones which are the equivalent to normal paid games.
It seems like that just can't happen - even games I've bought up front have been absolutely loaded with microtransactions and 'watch an ad to increase x'. No one seems interested in making high quality free games (like they do on the PC) and all the F2P games have gone just insane with trying to squeeze players.
I honestly can't see it changing because they're obviously still making huge amounts of money, but it's definitely getting worse for the player.
Post by: Parsely on March 08, 2019, 03:12:44 pm
Post by: Aoi on March 08, 2019, 11:24:02 pm
It seems like that just can't happen - even games I've bought up front have been absolutely loaded with microtransactions and 'watch an ad to increase x'.
What games do all three? Microtrans and soft-ads tend to go hand in hand, and often one of the microtrans are to give unlimited-whatever-the-ads-gave, but I can't imagine that sitting all that well if you had to pay for it to begin with.
Though, I guess my sole purchase (Night of the Full Moon) is kind of like that-- the first class is free, the next few are DLC, there's a one-time purchase for an (optional) extra buff each run, and the first three times you die, you can view an ad for another buff, or refuse and reload your file with nothing lost... though I guess in this case, the ad may get a bit of a pass, since it's a response to a failure condition, not an "extra" reward that you have to take to barely-not-keep-above-water. If you're not losing, then you'll never be given the option.
Post by: Retropunch on March 09, 2019, 06:19:59 am
What games do all three? Microtrans and soft-ads tend to go hand in hand, and often one of the microtrans are to give unlimited-whatever-the-ads-gave, but I can't imagine that sitting all that well if you had to pay for it to begin with.
Though, I guess my sole purchase (Night of the Full Moon) is kind of like that-- the first class is free, the next few are DLC, there's a one-time purchase for an (optional) extra buff each run, and the first three times you die, you can view an ad for another buff, or refuse and reload your file with nothing lost... though I guess in this case, the ad may get a bit of a pass, since it's a response to a failure condition, not an "extra" reward that you have to take to barely-not-keep-above-water. If you're not losing, then you'll never be given the option.
I've played a few that do similar to what you're saying - just recently I tried EverybodyRPG (I got a weird urge for an idle game) which has an upfront cost (although very cheap) but there's tons of stuff it's trying to sell you all the way through.
The ones where you have to pay are definitely lighter on the microtransactions, but they still seem to be such a big part of the game. I feel that if I'm paying for something I shouldn't have to pay/soft-ads/etc. for anything further other than potentially cosmetics.
More than that, anything without an up front cost just seems to have abandoned all pretence of 'its fun without but you can pay if you want some little boosts' and just wants to squeeze the player horribly.
Post by: Frumple on March 09, 2019, 04:51:46 pm
Post by: ggamer on March 11, 2019, 10:06:12 pm
The biggest problem I've had so far is that the english version of the game is lagging considerably behind the PAL version, for whatever reason. Also, that shotgun gals are ridiculously hard to find, especially if you need duplicates to start dummy linking (an extremely necessary mechanic that gives a flat increase to dps and health for every dummy linked). Also also that it has that super annoying tendency of inserting the loli fetish bait into every possible space in the game.
If anyone else has any good TBS/management games to recommend on mobile, I'm all ears.
Post by: Parsely on March 11, 2019, 11:39:43 pm
Starlost is a pretty fun action game, highly lethal with a focus on mobility, controls took some getting used to and the mining part of the game is kind of a slog at times, but I like watching my point defense guns automatically blasting enemies while I juke around (double tap to boost; upgrade your boost charges and ramming damage, because headbutting your ship's face through crowds of enemies is easily the most fun part of the game) it's free and the only ads are banners that pop up when you dock to regenerate health or drop off resources and THEY DON'T INTERRUPT YOUR GAME, they're unobtrusive and don't block the screen or pause the game and to make them go away you just fly away there's NO TIMER, halle-freaking-lujah, this shoddily written (the dialogue is horrible) free game implemented ads in a way that doesn't make me want to kill someone
Someone mentioned it somewhere I think but Rebel Inc is a really fun game, if you like Plague Inc it iterates on the design in really fun ways, like by making you more active with how you interact with the world, it's still a cool asymmetrical warfare game and it's kind of a role reversal since the insurgency represents the virus now. Plus it's free
Post by: scourge728 on March 12, 2019, 07:16:35 am
Post by: Mephisto on March 14, 2019, 10:10:48 am
It's okay so far. I'm probably still in the prologue, having not yet reached the next town. I hope it opens up at a certain point but up to now it's basically one battle after another (with occasional side battles) along the path to the next story bit.
There are gacha mechanics for heroes, as you probably expect from every single mobile RPG/strategy game. I'm not sure who you play as; I was able to provide a name at the beginning but I haven't seen it since.
What I just decided I'd love is a mobile Suikoden but I fear the gacha.
Post by: Folly on March 14, 2019, 07:32:28 pm
It's a tactical grid-based game, with a gatcha that features mostly buxom females wearing bikini-calibur armor.
The early game is way too long, with many of the game modes being locked behind storyline progression; and storyline progression involving several hours of matches that can be brute-forced with minimal thought. But the story does eventually become challenging, and various bosses and events unlock requiring players to level up a variety of units and place them in optimal patterns.
I'm enjoying Brown Dust for now, though it's obviously not for everyone.
Post by: sambojin on March 16, 2019, 09:51:07 pm
Tonnes of upgrade and research potential (I'm kind of looking forward to a mine/turret/drone passive build, even if it's not great). Surprisingly high production values as well, with a silky smooth framerate and crisp graphics, even at the speed they're moving.
I'll have to put a bit more time into it soon.
Post by: Cruxador on March 19, 2019, 11:39:10 am
In general, I use my phone for management type games. I found Lord of Dungeons to be quite tolerable, since although it has tons of different resource currencies and a gacha, they're actually different and interact in meaningful ways, and you get enough free stuff to never pay. It gets samey after a while, but what doesn't?
Well, Realm Grinder at least took a year to. It's originally an in-browser game, but has a good phone port. It's in the general cookie clicker style, but much longer and more elaborate, and the levels of advancement are well paced so that just as you get a good mastery of all the game elements you've unlocked, you unlock something new.
The one I'm on now is Idle Apocalypse, a bit shorter and simpler, but still well designed throughout. It has a nice aesthetic and theme.
Post by: Retropunch on March 19, 2019, 04:50:56 pm
Well, Realm Grinder at least took a year to. It's originally an in-browser game, but has a good phone port. It's in the general cookie clicker style, but much longer and more elaborate, and the levels of advancement are well paced so that just as you get a good mastery of all the game elements you've unlocked, you unlock something new..
I just got back into Realm Grinder - it's fantastic. It's a weird one though, because on the face of it, it looks really really simple and if you don't know how deep it is then it feels as though you've done everything after you've played through a few factions. I feel so many people will have missed that it's actually super deep.
Post by: tnc on March 20, 2019, 05:08:42 am
Shiren the Wander is out for iOS but only in Japan right now. They'll do a translation maybe?
https://www.siliconera.com/2019/03/12/mystery-dungeon-shiren-the-wanderer-now-available-for-ios-in-japan/
Post by: Frumple on March 20, 2019, 05:54:55 am
Post by: sambojin on March 21, 2019, 08:46:23 am
Post by: AlStar on March 21, 2019, 09:05:38 am
In general, I use my phone for management type games. I found Lord of Dungeons to be quite tolerable, since although it has tons of different resource currencies and a gacha, they're actually different and interact in meaningful ways, and you get enough free stuff to never pay. It gets samey after a while, but what doesn't?I'm really getting into this one - quite a lot of fun. I just wish your advisors weren't quite so... bouncy... it makes me vaguely embarrassed to play in public.
Post by: sambojin on March 21, 2019, 10:17:37 am
Post by: sambojin on March 23, 2019, 08:17:58 pm
Hoping that the Alternator actually does charge my energy at a decent rate, because that's as much of a limiting factor as my cargo capacity for now. Will edit post to say if it's any good.
Turns out you can just use a bottom-left thumbstick control, so it feels way less weird to control with that enabled.
Protip: putting one of your ion beams onto weapon control grouping and then hitting that button once the others are on cooldown gives you a far longer beam time. Sure, it splits your damage up, but since you waste most of it anyway, splitting them up works well. Their cooldowns cycle from that point, so it's a one button press per battle thing, so it's easy enough. I tend to throw a plasma caster or two on that as well, because their AoE is only good vs groups, so why waste energy until they're clumped up a bit better?
Post by: Jopax on March 24, 2019, 04:07:12 am
Also the game quickly becomes grindy as fuck which is kinda putting me off atm, especially combined with the checkpoint system which makes you redo certain tedious fights from scratch if you don't clear them all in one go (looking at you hunter stronghold).
And a friendly tip, don't bother researching experimental weapons, while potentially cool, every single one of them costs a 100kk RU's and several nanocores, so they're clearly one of the monetization vectors and not neccessarily a balanced part of the game (unless they actually did balance the game around needing some of them to progress in which case fuck 'em)
Post by: Aoi on March 25, 2019, 03:45:59 pm
...Indefinitely is kind of a short duration in practical terms though, as my phone seems to go to sleep after 60sec with no input, regardless of my phone settings though. No idea why, as everything else is working fine.
Post by: tnc on March 25, 2019, 05:35:48 pm
edit: Seems like Slay the Spire isn't on mobile and Lost Portal isn't deck building as you go.
Post by: Frumple on March 25, 2019, 06:47:52 pm
Though, that said, I'm pretty sure StS has done a good bit to push along the deck building trend that's been puttering about -- night of the full moon came after it, iirc, and riffs on a fair amount of its ideas. It's a legit good game in its own right, by and large.
Post by: Aoi on March 25, 2019, 08:36:37 pm
Dream Quest is actually acknowledged as an inspiration by the NotFM staff, as I recall... But only for iOS.
There's also a third on Android that looked pretty solid at first, but then you realize it's basically impossible to finish the second boss without spending real money.
I'd actually say that the production on NotFM is superior to StS, barring a few obvious translation errors (How long is it going to take them to fix 'Maximun'?), and that the combats are actually unique is a nice touch. (In the sense that each encounter you can only meet once in a game.) NotFM is, for better or worse, actually a lot easier than StS though, if you're playing with full stars; it's fairly simple to finish all the classes on max difficulty, with all stars but no revives/extra blessings/extra gold, as long as you exploit the hell out of your class's specialties. (Barring one hilariously off-spec run I had that was just downright stupid.)
Post by: Yoink on March 26, 2019, 03:08:22 am
Basically a mobile, rather generic Destiny clone. It's quite fun, and it's easy to get sweet loot without shelling out real money, but it does get a bit samey after a while considering there's only one enemy faction.
Perhaps things get spiced up a bit later on, I dunno. The game is still under development, too. I feel like it might have more longevity if one played it with friends!
I'll have to check out a few of the games mentioned above.
Oh, and I've been enjoying The Muscle Hustle and Castle Crushers a fair bit, though the latter is kinda... poorly balanced.
Post by: tnc on March 26, 2019, 05:53:42 am
There's a mobile ripoff of StS with some additions, though the name escapes me. (I think I have a post about it like six months ago.) I ordinarily wouldn't say it's a rip from StS, but literally half the combats were basically reskins, down to the numbers, durations, and mechanics. And I got banned for hacking after my first play session, probably because I was traveling. Edit: Wandering Night
And the theme is little red riding hood! I assume Night of the Full Moon came first? Anyway, it doesn't show up on the appstore.
I'll be buying Slay the Spire guys, thank you.
Post by: Aoi on March 26, 2019, 01:16:34 pm
There's a mobile ripoff of StS with some additions, though the name escapes me. (I think I have a post about it like six months ago.) I ordinarily wouldn't say it's a rip from StS, but literally half the combats were basically reskins, down to the numbers, durations, and mechanics. And I got banned for hacking after my first play session, probably because I was traveling. Edit: Wandering Night
And the theme is little red riding hood! I assume Night of the Full Moon came first? Anyway, it doesn't show up on the appstore.
Yeah, between the two, NotFM came out first by a longshot; I think it was in the beta section when I tried it in 11/2018 but it seems to have disappeared since.
if you're opening up to PC, you may want to take a look at Blood Card which is in the same genre with a major twist: The cards in your deck are your life. Healing means you pull cards out of the discard pile, taking damage means you move them from draw to discard. Not as much balance and polish as StS though.
Post by: tnc on March 27, 2019, 08:48:51 am
For anyone that is interested in card roguelike games, I just started playing Dream Quest and I definitely recommend it.
Post by: amjh on March 30, 2019, 02:17:39 pm
Encountered "Shopkeeper's daughter".(Wisdom save or lose turn.)
Looked through my cards for anything that would help.
Cleric used "Find traps".(+2 dice against any barrier.)
???
Post by: Frumple on March 30, 2019, 05:08:28 pm
Post by: Eek-A-Mouse on April 05, 2019, 01:01:36 am
Post by: Mephisto on May 06, 2019, 09:37:33 am
You've got your dude. He's Generic Anime Protagonist Man who is More Than He Seems. You beat up wildlife with your sword and then capture them in crystals. Once you acquire a new thing, you can add it to your team. You can field four things at once in any combination of people + mons. You also have four backups - if a frontline mon faints, it gets replaced with the next waiting creature. You can also set up ten separate teams you can swap between when it suits. You can equip your team with arms and armor to make them more effective. These don't necessarily make much sense - my stereotypical Digimon starter cool dragon wields an axe. I've got a bee with a spear. And a lightning deer with a hammer. If I find/buy a certain type of sword soon, it's going to my limbless plant bulb thing. None of this is animated so use your imagination.
I mentioned gacha. The meta currency is soul stones. They can be used to "summon" mons, people, and weapons. You can increase your inventory with a small handful. And you can buy them with real-world currency or get them via daily reward. I'm right after the intro at the moment so there may be other methods as well.
Unlike most games, there are two daily bonuses - what I'm calling the "new player" track and another that seemingly everyone gets. This last one changes at the start of a new month.
$.99. It's cheap enough and the microtransactions seem to not be super important that I'm basically fine with it. I'm thinking that the game having some price tag associated with it might be enough of an incentive for the devs to not go full exploitation mode.
Post by: AlStar on May 07, 2019, 04:45:14 pm
If so, do you happen to have any ideas on how to get through the Rift's Fragment event - specifically the level with four gold-level healers backing a gold-level shield knight? I was able to get through the previous level (which featured three healers backing a shield knight and an adventurer) by going full-on archers, as they were able to keep the other team out of attack range and slowly whittled down their HP. It's not working here - the healers are so buff that I can't damage them fast enough to inflict lasting damage, and even though they can't hurt me, they've got a higher HP total than I do, so when time runs out I lose.
I'm hoping the answer isn't that I need fantasy-level heroes to bust through. I've gotten this far with just two mythic-level heroes supported by immortals. I'd love to turn the immortals into more mythics, but given the costs, that seems unlikely.
Post by: Yoink on May 08, 2019, 10:16:36 pm
I've just begun playing Wyvern, a reboot of a 2001 graphical mud/mmorpg. Plenty of races and builds which seem to be unique from each other. Pixies can fly, vampires have drain life and can turn into bats but can die in sunlight, Nagas can shapeshift, etc. Quests are boring, but iirc can be circumvented, and combat + character development is pretty fun.I'mma give this a shot.
For my part, I've been playing a bunch of good li'l mobile games lately.
PuBG, The Muscle Hustle, Badland Brawl, Shopkeeper Quest, C.A.T.S., Battle Legion and most recently LOLKart.
I've been meaning to do a more detailed post about some of my favourites, but y'know, I'm lazy.
Post by: Folly on May 11, 2019, 05:33:21 pm
SINoALICE, an upcoming game from the creator of Nier:Automata and co-published between Squeenix and Nexon, is now accepting pre-registration.
Post by: Parsely on May 11, 2019, 10:24:01 pm
Post by: Cruxador on May 13, 2019, 01:42:33 pm
https://sinoalice.nexon.com/sub-launch/en-reservation (https://sinoalice.nexon.com/sub-launch/en-reservation)Nexon isn't a name that inspires confidence, regardless of the other names listed there.
SINoALICE, an upcoming game from the creator of Nier:Automata and co-published between Squeenix and Nexon, is now accepting pre-registration.
Post by: Aoi on May 13, 2019, 03:02:18 pm
https://sinoalice.nexon.com/sub-launch/en-reservation (https://sinoalice.nexon.com/sub-launch/en-reservation)Nexon isn't a name that inspires confidence, regardless of the other names listed there.
SINoALICE, an upcoming game from the creator of Nier:Automata and co-published between Squeenix and Nexon, is now accepting pre-registration.
Square Enix's micropay games aren't exactly a winner as far as I'm concerned either; most of them are largely the same as other things already on the market (albeit often with a tad more polish and flair) with more hostile micropay at higher end play.
The Reddit page that I came across when searching for what the gameplay actually wasn't much better: The top posts were mostly people complaining about people asking how the game was, and recommendations that you reroll your starting stuff until you end up with a pair of SS-tier stuff for classes you want since they're objectively superior over stuff upgraded to SS. (Never a good sign...)
Still, may as well give it a shot; you never know what turns out gripping!
Post by: Iduno on May 14, 2019, 10:47:09 am
Square Enix's micropay games aren't exactly a winner as far as I'm concerned either; most of them are largely the same as other things already on the market (albeit often with a tad more polish and flair) with more hostile micropay at higher end play.
That's overly generous, unless I've missed something lately. I was surprised that combining 2 companies (Square and Enix) who did similar things so well created one company who now did them badly.
Post by: Yoink on May 20, 2019, 09:00:58 pm
I think I have a mobile gaming addiction, the lamest kind of gaming addiction. :P
Are there any
Post by: sambojin on June 17, 2019, 01:52:29 am
Destiny Child
Standard, you are an anime no-hoper trope, and you are entered into a contest, to take the throne of hell. Wait, is that a trope? Yes waifu, yes it is.
But it does have guest appearences from DoA characters, and Honokai Impact 3 as well, so legit as fuck on anime waifuishness.
https://youtu.be/G72Gb9dGejg
(it now takes up 1.83gig on my phone, and took longer to d/l than it did to cook an old skool spaghetti bolognaise, so you know there's good physics everywhere in this game. Sorry, plot. I meant plot)
(strangely enough, from a quality-of-production level, it does have reasonable coding. I could immediately jump back in after shutting the program down to the exact point of tutorial that I exited from. From the video above. Mostly this kind of game is "irky", and I can't say that there's nothing in it that I won't heavily avoid, but this seems to be a proper big-budget mobile anime thingy. Yes, with all the horrible that can entail, but an actual "proper" one)
Post by: Folly on June 17, 2019, 02:31:45 am
https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c345_02&size=750 (https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c345_02&size=750)
https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c285_02&size=750 (https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c285_02&size=750)
https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c049_10&size=750 (https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c049_10&size=750)
Post by: sambojin on June 17, 2019, 02:39:30 am
Wait,, what?
It's really not my sort of game, but they went all out on this one. If I'm going to have an anime harem pseudo-timing-clicker game on my phone, yep. This is the one I'll have :)
It's f'ing annoying that the waifu's are called Child (honestly, really fucking bad job there japan/china), but there's so much jiggle-physics that you know there's not that kind of crap. Gacha waifu anime simulator, not that.
It's anime stuff. But not "and now I'm in jail" anime.
Hopefully this continues....
Post by: sambojin on June 17, 2019, 03:40:16 am
In theory "two 1% drops from 20 gachas", but realistically, I think they're auto'd on this current tranche of players. Because, "whether you like physics or not, you're covered. And may or may not pay for more of either".
1/10,000 Free-to-play winner! :)
Ayumi (yep, that's her)
https://youtu.be/2l4zWzAoGNY
Marie Rose (thank god it's tastefully done)
https://youtu.be/JaSy1aZYQBM
Oh, hey, there's an Ayumi storyline! Only kidding. It's just poking fun at totally legit ninja-beach-volleyball-substitution skills in use.
https://youtu.be/ZsbtAjDVatQ
To put it into context, here's an actual gameplay video of a lvl1 or 2 boss (I'm doing it on auto, because):
https://youtu.be/alM6Ln99VJE
Like I said, plot. Lots of. You are the evil demon your are, etc, etc....
Post by: Folly on June 17, 2019, 06:27:41 am
Bikini Marie Rose (https://lokicoder.github.io/destiny-child-tools/live2d/viewer.html?mN=c385_12&size=750)
Post by: sambojin on June 17, 2019, 10:10:57 am
Post by: sambojin on June 19, 2019, 11:10:09 pm
A few thingies, just for volleyball:
https://youtu.be/oS_23e0Nr2Y
Post by: tnc on June 20, 2019, 04:09:25 pm
edit: Also Twilight Struggle, Agricola and Le Havre.
Post by: Reelya on June 22, 2019, 05:54:15 am
It's anime stuff. But not "and now I'm in jail" anime.
Hopefully this continues....
You can tell it's Korean however and not Japanese. They draw it differently.
Post by: Wiles on June 22, 2019, 04:57:37 pm
I'm looking for a multiplayer board game with async online. The one i'm considering is Through the Ages. Does anyone have any experience with it or other recommendations?
edit: Also Twilight Struggle, Agricola and Le Havre.
Through the Ages is great, it is my personal favourite digital board game. It has a lot of solo content in the form of challenges if you wanted to play offline as well.
A couple of other asyncronous games I'd recommend looking into are Lords of Waterdeep and Castles of Burgundy.
Post by: tnc on June 22, 2019, 05:42:11 pm
Through the Ages is great, it is my personal favourite digital board game. It has a lot of solo content in the form of challenges if you wanted to play offline as well.
A couple of other asyncronous games I'd recommend looking into are Lords of Waterdeep and Castles of Burgundy.
I bought Through the Ages, spent the whole day playing it. Quite an awesome game really. I'll check the other ones as well, thank you.
Post by: Aoi on July 07, 2019, 04:51:11 pm
Update, now that I'm not sleep deprived and a rolling blob on airport seating: It's not a 1:1 copy of StS, but it gets pretty close, with a lot of encounters proceeding near identically. Except it lacks a ton of the elements that StS has to make it somewhat more reasonable-- like how every path is guaranteed 2 chests, etc. No such luck here. A lot of artifacts, powers, etc. are the same. Numbers are largely rebalanced around a base of 5 energy a turn. Only one class. At this point, I'd say that it's worth a prod if you really like StS, want it mobile, and don't want to touch far superior alternatives (I'll shut up about my love for NotFM here.) that actually bring something new to the table. It COULD go somewhere interesting in the future, but... not yet.
Post by: Folly on July 10, 2019, 10:56:10 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
SINoALICE has a confirmed global release date of July 18th!
Post by: Yoink on July 15, 2019, 08:36:12 am
Seems bizarre that there are no such games available for Android...
Post by: Aoi on July 16, 2019, 01:47:11 am
For anybody playing DotA Underlords (which is also available on desktop, but oh well), what builds are people having luck with? I tend to dominate up to L7/8 but immediately get crunched after. The only wins I've managed to clock so far are with a Troll/Knight team, but that gets shredded by anybody running Savage/Druid summoners. Of which there seem to be a lot.
Post by: Jopax on July 16, 2019, 09:42:18 am
Either way, collecting bots is suprisingly fun, not sure how long it'll hold me but eh, it's worked so far.
Post by: Wiles on July 17, 2019, 07:13:53 am
So... are there no real mobile colony sims?! Or am I just using the wrong search words in the Play store? I'd be alright with the most abysmal DF clone, really, just anything in the same genre I can play on my phone.
Seems bizarre that there are no such games available for Android...
Prison Architect is on android now. I haven't tried the mobile port.
Fallout shelter is a colony sim. But it is F2P with micro transactions.
Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadville is turn based and not really the same genre, but you are managing survivors in a colony, exploring, building. I never ended up sinking a lot of time into it, but it seemed okay.
Post by: Yoink on July 17, 2019, 08:02:07 am
There's Galimulator (http://www.galimulator.com/), but that's more... watch abstract galactic civilizations rise and fall. Mostly fall.Interesting! Not a colony sim, exactly, but it looks like it could be a good hands-off gaming experience nonetheless.
Prison Architect is on android now. I haven't tried the mobile port.Fallout Shelter I've played, it was alright I guess - but it seemed like you had to keep checking in all the damn time to prevent things from going to shit. I imagine by now my vault is full of corpses, and I don't think I could be bothered watching the number of ads necessary to bring 'em back, haha...
Fallout shelter is a colony sim. But it is F2P with micro transactions.
Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadville is turn based and not really the same genre, but you are managing survivors in a colony, exploring, building. I never ended up sinking a lot of time into it, but it seemed okay.
I didn't realise PA has a mobile port! That's actually quite exciting, considering I'd been meaning to get back into it anyway!
I've seen Rebuild 3 recommended in a few places. It looks like it could be interesting, but I'm not sure I wanna sink the $$$ necessary to find out.
Thanks for the recommendations, guys!
Post by: LoSboccacc on September 12, 2019, 04:11:48 pm
it's like hill climb racers before it became infested by loot boxes, but you drive trucks and you don't race a timer but make money delivering cargo
pros:
not madly focused on monetisation (yet!)
quite some content to unlock and balance isn't excessively grindy
cargo weight is well done, doesn't just slow you, like the loaded axle get more traction etc so 4x4 isn't always the answer
optimizing routes is nice if you like those kind of games
options! you can optimize for road or off-road and then find the most suitable route for your truck
cons
repetitive because there's not enough variation in the road generation algo
not enough challenging, you can skip off-road of you want to and low gearing+large fuel tank makes hills a non issue
things is whish they'd add:
advanced factories that only produce after being fed their inputs
more reasons to risk off-road
manual transmission
starting tips: logs and planks are very valuable, you can carry three plank on the starter truck if you rotate them vertically, making the forest sawmill furniture loop is not too hard. I suggest to upgrade engine and field tank before getting the first trailer. beware the second truck: it can't attach a trailer and has a low clearance.
Post by: Parsely on September 13, 2019, 10:23:23 pm
Post by: sambojin on September 28, 2019, 07:23:05 pm
Had a quick go of Cave Heroes. It's an incremental hiding in an idle game, made by the same people that made Idle Apocalypse. Nicer graphics, but actually kinda worse in every other way. Don't know why, it's hard to judge a screen saver, but it is.
Played a bit of Cavefall. It's a single-tap jump-to-the-other-wall game. I think it was on freebie sale last week. It's actually quite good for what it is.
Downwell is like that, but it's not single-tap, there's an actual controller. This, strangely enough, makes it worse on the mobile platform. Just a really crappy control scheme they implemented. Streamers gave this game a fair bit of love on PC at one point, and it's free (or was a day or two ago), so maybe give it a try. It could just be me with the controls.
Templar Battleforce RPG and King of Dragon Pass are both on sale right now, and I can heartily recommend both of them, even at full price. But cheaper is good.
Post by: Frumple on September 28, 2019, 08:11:54 pm
Post by: Aoi on September 28, 2019, 08:17:04 pm
It's a free lightweight text/menu driven RPG that's pretty minimalist.
You basically have 50 steps between the start and the boss, and you have to prep as best you can. Every step is an encounter of some kind, whether it be a combat, a side zone to explore (one step for the entire area), a merchant, etc. Size zones are the bulk of it, and it's largely a series of judgement calls-- waste a use of the flaming sword to light the cave in hopes of more loot, or skip it? Is worth keeping a lockpicking knife in your limited equipment slots when it has lousy stats to avoid having to carry keys?
The miniboss and final boss are random, with each one focusing on a specific stat. For example, the high dex one is going to be hard to hit, so you'll either need an equally high dex to counter it, something that'll debuff it, and probably something with a high block since evasion isn't going to be reliable.
Monetization is nigh nonexistent; I believe the only case is to resurrect a character that died. You can't even pay for unlocking alternative classes; gotta do it via finishing the others.
Post by: sambojin on October 30, 2019, 01:19:56 am
Anyway, it's kind of fun for what it is. Monsters do get a bit more variety later on, and chest mimics are a horror at the start, but it tends to boil down to "get the most strength/endurance you can and whomp on things". There's a few little environmental things like spider webs generating spiders, etc, but it's a really simple little game. I quite like it.
Post by: sambojin on October 30, 2019, 05:13:23 am
Think Fantasy Generals, but scaled back on the graphics a bit. The makers of the game also do Age of Strategy (mediaeval warfare) and Age of WWII (WWII warfare), but I like the fantasy genre more for all the weird and whacky stuff your units can do.
This is still one of my favourite turn-based war games on mobile. It's oldskool as, not p2w, has multi-player (if you don't mind a game that could last weeks), and has tonnes of content (even story-based narrative campaigns, and modding, so you can make them yourself). I haven't even tried the new races yet, but there's something satisfying in how each faction plays. Undead will swarm the field with spam troops, slowly turning the tide as they raise your fallen, while their heavy hitters and mages do the tactical strikes. Elves will blot out the sun with their archers, while overwhelming you with druid summons and ents. Humans crank up the armour and technology a notch, and try and heal their way through battles while using R/P/S match-ups to win. And Orcs, well Orcs do everything.
If anything, orcs are too powerful, with cheap-yet-good foot troops (Merlocks and Minotaurs and basic orcs), great light cav (raptor riders), nice quirky troops, good archers (archers and axe throwers), spammable swimmers, cheap/fast builders and fairly good buildings (an Orc Hut does infantry/light cav and ranged, but so does a monster den kind-of as well. It's hard to make a wrong choice). And amazing magic. That's their main decider. Did you get your Orc Shamans up near the front in time? If so, your troops are amazeballs, otherwise they're just average/cost-effectively good. Anything with +6 attack and/or double-strike goes from "meh" to *super-elite* with the click of one-two shaman spells (giant strength and doublestrike). I guess it's just synergistic with how I play and the game style. Fast, cost effective raiders, that get buffed to high heaven and dominate certain areas. Oh, they get some healing too, off the same troop type. They're awesome. The difference between making one 4-turn building from 2 2-turn builders (so it takes two turns) that can do everything, and you've got a tonne of good 2-3 turn troops to create, and easy magic to make them great, simply outstrips every other factions supposed "advantages". You're also the perfect ally in team games for this reason. You can do everything, quickly, and your magic is if anything more relevant to them than it is to you. Cover their weaknesses or expand on their strengths, the choice is yours. You can play defensively too, with one of the better tower buildings available, that throws fireballs to clear out waves.
(it you're going to spend gems on any race at the start, do it on orcs. The 20 the game gives you, plus 20 for d/ling their other titles, gives you everything you need. It's mostly the cheap and fast builders combined with the multifunctional buildings. You start quick, and then can go any way you want from there. They're just a very well-rounded race for very little investment, both with gems and in-game)
Anyway, even with some balance concerns, it's a fun game, and like I said, it's satisfying to win at. Each faction has a couple of things it's good at, so they're not entirely one-dimensional, and when it all falls into place you feel like a genius. Or an Orc. Orcs are great :)
Post by: Folly on November 01, 2019, 09:49:49 pm
This one most reminds me of the early Star Ocean games. Pixel graphics, with combat fought on a 2D isometric plain where characters move and autoattack on their own while players choose when to use skills for burst damage or defense. The story involved frequent use of dramatic imagery, with giant monsters bursting out of things and noble heroes rising up in a jet of flames to do epic battle, accompanied by suitably grandiose musical scores.
There are of course gacha mechanics, with regular events to supply unique items and premium currency to players who choose to be active rather than spendy. Pay-to-progress is not really a problem.
Overall, I rather enjoy this one, and recommend it to fans of this sort of thing.
I also recently installed American Dad: Apocalypse Soon.
This one is a house-management game, wherein the Smith's oversee a household full of Roger clones who generate various currencies and train for battle. Combat consists of preparing a team from 3 different classes, including Warrior who is the tank type, Gunslinger who is primarily single-target dps but can also optionally equip a bit of debuff/disable, and Electrician who can be a mage for aoe-dps or a healer.
Progressing through the story hits a wall fairly quickly, and you'll need to collect resources to advance. You can make your Roger's slowly grind out materials, or you can raid other Smith houses and steal their resources, which often helps progress move a bit faster. There is also a tournament mode which awards another currency that can be used to purchase rare equipment with powerful effects.
Again, I'm finding this to be an overall enjoyable experience and recommend to those who like this sort of thing.
Post by: sambojin on November 04, 2019, 08:16:54 am
Not p2w. Just mooching every race into "OP as F, for free". But yeah, $20Aus google-money, here or there, won't hurt me if we do a b12 player-base thing.
Anyway, I might make a new thread and make a strategy guide, etc soon. If anyone is keen in joining up for a few blitz games (do 4-8 turns within an hour or two some days), give me a yell. I like oldskool turn-based strategy, to the point that I'll grab GooglePlay credit for you so you can do some unlocks quickly, so it's a truly fair playing field.
(turns out the other races are reasonably "balanced", but they certainly need Building and Troop unlocks through gems. Buildings definitely. Orcs don't. Or get super troops really easy (Minotaurs, etc). But $20 Aussie will get you everything you need, and I'm *definitely* winning on the Melbourne Cup tomorrow. See if I don't).
(it's also kind of cool that you can set up a Skirmish match as an AI vs AI match. Idle games? Nah. Just funny screensaver war simulations. It's not as good as SNES Ghengis Khan II for offline background blah, but it's not bad. No internet needed to watch a bad AI play turn-based strategy is good. Internet's for multi-player)
Post by: Kagus on November 05, 2019, 05:32:09 am
No internet needed to watch a bad AI play turn-based strategy is good. Internet's for multi-player)Not nearly enough games do this... Sometimes I wanna think and be challenged and possibly even attain victory... Sometimes I just wanna watch the carnage.
Speaking of toys, anyone have experience with Worldbox? Saw some videos on YouTube and it looked interesting, but I'm curious what it's like for actual mobile usage. And what the free version is like.
Post by: Frumple on November 05, 2019, 10:50:32 am
Post by: sambojin on November 05, 2019, 11:53:23 pm
So it's semi-playable on mobile right now. Just keep scrolling down the page a bit. If your phone has more grunt than mine (most do these days), you'll probably find it's OK. You might need to scroll around a bit on the far right of the page to see the whole play area (depending on your phone resolution), but it's doable.
https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/ranger2/
Post by: Mephisto on November 06, 2019, 10:12:48 am
You pick your class when you start. This does things. I'm not sure what as I've only got the starter. Perhaps it customizes your deck.
You start with a deck of cards that you can modify as you go. You can theme it (the Angel cards, for instance, have increased effects for each other Angel card in your deck) or just throw in whatever looks neat.
There's something that I'll describe as "the FTL system map" that allows you to choose your path to the current boss.
You have to watch a video to unlock chests but something bugged out for me and the videos stopped playing, just giving me the goods.
Shops are scattered throughout the dungeon, allowing you to buy cards for the coins you get from chests and when you kill creatures or purchase upgrades for your character with the crystals you get from chests or foregoing a card pick.
There doesn't seem to be any form of monetization.
Post by: Dostoevsky on November 06, 2019, 11:02:49 am
There is a monetization part - there are occasional ads including when opening mid-run chests, and making a one-time purchase (i.e. the normal sort of purchase) will end those. You can also unlock the other classes and whatnot instead of leveling up for them, I think?
Different classes generally have a twist, rather than a fundamental difference, that will likely influence your deck selection choices. E.g. the paladin gets healing for combat cards in their hand at the end of turn, shaman applies debuff when using magic cards. A couple do modify their starting hands.
There are a good number of interesting synergies one can reach through combinations of character, cards, and perks. I don't think it quite has the replayability of some of the biggest entries in the genre, but it is a good game and still getting updates.
Post by: Iduno on November 06, 2019, 01:26:06 pm
You have to watch a video to unlock chests but something bugged out for me and the videos stopped playing, just giving me the goods.
I don't suppose you have any idea what caused the bug? I know heavy Noscript use can cause similar bugs on desktop browsers, for instance. Sometimes having ads bug out instead of work correctly is useful.
Post by: Mephisto on November 06, 2019, 01:37:37 pm
You have to watch a video to unlock chests but something bugged out for me and the videos stopped playing, just giving me the goods.
I don't suppose you have any idea what caused the bug? I know heavy Noscript use can cause similar bugs on desktop browsers, for instance. Sometimes having ads bug out instead of work correctly is useful.
Not a clue. Xperia is a neat phone line but this one's becoming a serious piece of shit. Given my past issues with this phone, I'm working on the assumption that rebooting would fix it.
Post by: Frumple on November 06, 2019, 02:26:31 pm
Neat enough slay the spire style mobile game, tho'. Doesn't seem bad.
Post by: Dostoevsky on November 06, 2019, 02:28:52 pm
Post by: Frumple on November 06, 2019, 05:34:12 pm
Post by: sambojin on November 14, 2019, 11:00:00 am
Like, tonnes. I'm already running around with two fairly kitted-out early game ships (just the scout and the raven), with twin m1 satellites on both, purple/gold torps and cannons (could have gone for anything though) and am looking at duels for cheap/free parts as gimmes. About 8.2/8.2 speed on my Scout (yeah, you get free good engines, or buy some for a couple of stars) already. It's SO much easier so far. Way better than the grind of Event Horizon (original) for getting cool bits and builds going. I'm actually going to restart and min/max the crap out of it. May even do a video guide of how to do so. I thought I was doing that, but I now realize the amount of amazing low level gear you can get. I'm not even past 1-4. Lol.
There's also mercenaries now. They can pilot the two other rust buckets you have at the beginning. It's amazing. Sure the ships/pilots don't level up quickly, but they certainly do help. And it means your starbase gets +2 customizable infinite-range super-drones from the start. For about 104 credits if you grab the tutorial ones. Throw some 1000-2000 credit m1 satellites on each of them, and it's like having 6 super drones of best-you-can-grab universal-slot firepower helping you out. They're great. The kill-stealing little SoBs :)
Oh, and missions. Like side missions. You fly around for ages, solo, without your starbase or mercenary crew, at blue dots and wait a bit. Sometimes an enemy or two will turn up, so you murder them. And keep flying towards the blue thingy. Then wait at the blue thingy. It's like exploration from the original, but more interactive. It also gives you amazing parts and pieces and is an incredibly rewarding use/waste of time. Bring a fast ship (your scout at the beginning). And get all the things for either free, or at a very low cost, as soon as you visit the engineer (sometimes you just get very OP stuff free. Even better stuff than you can use early-on). A nice little addition, and will no doubt get far harder. Killing a few drones or frigates for phat loot is nice. Cheaper than stars, for +40% damage everything, as well as gubbins to match.
Strangely enough, if you do the "tutorial", then go to options on the start screen and restart, you can restart. Except this time, you get the whole merchant/smuggler/mercenary/engineer start screen to each tutorial mission. And really cheap mercs available. So if you don't mind selling 2-6 of your starting stars, you can get some extremely good starting gear (satellites and weapons mostly) for your beginner ships before level 2-1. Pro-tip for new-game+ right there. After countless hours on the original, I've got a pretty good idea of what weapons and modules are "actually really good", but you can grind a bit if you don't know.
Anyway, it's fun, it's good. If you like Star Control 2 style space combat and Stardrive 1 style ship building, give Event Horizon: Frontier a go. It seems like it's outdone it's predecessor, at least for a fast/fun start and actual missions to play. I'll see how it goes long-term this weekend.
Post by: sambojin on November 14, 2019, 01:44:32 pm
First+ second "mission", flew towards blue dots, shot some stuff, all before doing level 1-1, using my initial Scout ship with a couple of cheap satellite weapon carriers, and I got: 2 deathray blueprints (very end-game weapon. Kills everything all the time), a cluster missile launcher BP (haven't used one, but it's a long-range missile launcher), 2 heavy antimatter bomb BPs (another ungodly powerful weapon on some ship builds), a pulsar M2 BP (+AoE pulsars are one of my faves), a heavy torpedo BP (standard blow up everything weapon), an inertial dampener BP (the thing that makes ships go quick), a tachyon beam actual part (mini-deathray, have to keep it off my starbase so my ships get kills now. It's that good in early game), and a large drone bay actual part (as well as some more drone BPs for later, including an S1 small bay for silly shooting range on a drone, because all the drones is a good amount of them to have), and a +20% range large navigation computer so the drones fly out on attack runs for ages. Oh, and an autopilot, so I can screensaver grind this thing out if I want to, with any ship and build.
Well, umm. I think I just won. Eventually. I can't use half the bits yet, but I just got everything I need for when I can. The autopilot fits on everything right now at least.
Thanks RNG. :)
Post by: Fire and Glory on December 06, 2019, 01:25:47 am
Alphabear is a free game made by Spryfox where you match random letters to make words before they turn into stone.
Bigger words and less stone means more points, get enough and you can get golden eggs which let you progress to the next chapter.
You can also unlock bears, which affect what letters are more common and how many points you get for certain combinations. They also wear funny hats.
It's not too bad. Monetization involves a energy system and rare
One issue is that I can't seem to find it in the appstore any more. Trying to use a direct link from Spryfox's website tells me it's not available in my region (new zealand) anymore.
It's supposed to be on iOS and Android so if you can find it maybe you'll wanna give it a go.
It also has a sequel, though I can't testify about any annoying advertisements it may have yet.
Edit. Having played it I can now confirm the sequel is full of adverts. It waits until you've sunk time in before it starts hitting you in the face with them. Pretty annoying.
Post by: Kagus on December 06, 2019, 04:22:21 am
Had some fun, took some screenshots of funny moments, didn't strongly feel the need to buy the full version. But then again, I wasn't buying much of anything at that time, and the game did tickle the ol' pudding a bit.
Post by: Fire and Glory on December 06, 2019, 05:58:33 am
Not run into any dictionary troubles yet, but I'm not particularly big brained where language is concerned
Post by: Mephisto on December 06, 2019, 10:48:22 am
Combat isn't anything to write home about. When you're near an enemy, a new "sword" button appears on the right side of your screen along with all of your other action buttons. You hold it until one of you dies. Deep dives into the caves require loads of healing items as there's no way to avoid damage.
There are loads of purchasable things and the game tries its best to make purchases an attractive option - you get various daily things, for instance. To claim them for free, you watch an ad. Or you could subscribe to one of two subscription things to get them with no ad. You also can't go to sleep before 8:00 PM so you have to eat food, pay a small sum to idle in the sauna for a bit, purchase milk with fake currency that you've purchased with real currency, or idle at your house doing nothing until bedtime rolls around. Finally, you have teleport scrolls. Using one allows you to warp from one platform thing to another or leave the mine while saving your progress. Progress in the mine is vital as the first bunch of layers only have copper so you need to get quite deep. These scrolls can, of course, be purchased with the aforementioned fake currency. You do get some amount of MTX currency through progression and you have a chance of getting more (MTX currency or teleport scrolls) in the daily roulette wheel so it's not an insurmountable problem.
But if you can get past the MTX and jankiness, it's alright.
Post by: Mephisto on December 07, 2019, 09:30:08 am
Maybe a small gripe is that it's a little slow about introducing new towers for you to use
Do you unlock new towers through map progression or something? In the first game, you had a humongous tech tree and could choose which tower to unlock and when.
Post by: Parsely on December 07, 2019, 08:38:54 pm
Post by: Cruxador on December 11, 2019, 01:41:25 am
Post by: Yoink on December 11, 2019, 02:58:14 am
I've been playing a lot of Enyo lately. Brutal roguelite puzzler with a very unique style inspired by ancient Greek/Roman (I think?) mythology and art.
Actually the inspiration is probably from something else in that period, but point is it looks really damn cool. It's also fun to play and a good challenge, which is obviously important.
The free version has just one mode, so no daily/hard/story modes, but there's still plenty of gameplay to be had. Hell, apparently there are 10 floors to get through but I have so far only made it to 8.
I've also been playing various other mobile games, including a lot of utter trash like Sims Freeplay (I just had an itch to play The Sims, I wonder if my laptop could run the real deal) and some weird bootleg PuBG with zombies, crafting and a hilariously janky persistent base-building system.
Probably gonna drop that one as soon as someone rolls through and wrecks my horrible mess of a house.
Post by: Folly on December 11, 2019, 09:15:15 am
Oh hey, I have Alphabear on my phone. Haven't played it much, but I seem to remember it being enjoyably cute.
There's a sequel out, for a while now.
Post by: Aoi on December 11, 2019, 04:02:50 pm
I've been playing a lot of Enyo lately. Brutal roguelite puzzler with a very unique style inspired by ancient Greek/Roman (I think?) mythology and art.
Actually the inspiration is probably from something else in that period, but point is it looks really damn cool. It's also fun to play and a good challenge, which is obviously important.
The free version has just one mode, so no daily/hard/story modes, but there's still plenty of gameplay to be had. Hell, apparently there are 10 floors to get through but I have so far only made it to 8.
The Golden Fleece is Greek, though the two get mishmashed so much nowadays that distinguishing between the two is largely impossible in general media. As I recall, there's nothing new introduced in 8-10; just more stuff on the map, so you're almost there!
It also reminds me of Into the Breach, where positioning is key, and enemies all move in very predictable ways. It's definitely worth a look if anybody's interested in more methodical games... especially this one is fairly light, and has no ads or IAP (other than full purchase, which isn't necessary for an already complete experience).
Post by: Sime on December 12, 2019, 05:03:22 am
Post by: Aoi on December 17, 2019, 03:23:58 pm
It's pretty much a complete portable Civilization experience. That can't quite decide exactly which (major) version of Civ it wants to be, but that's just quibbling.
If you already know your way around Civ, I'd recommend restarting immediately, as your first load drops you into a game immediately without letting you pick your own settings.
Governor AI is, as always, kind of dumb. I'm a generation ahead of everybody else on military tech, with literally twice as many cities as everybody else combined, and every city has a dedicated guard, plus random units wandering the map, left over from my last war. And it keeps wanting to pump out crossbowmen.
Post by: n9103 on December 17, 2019, 06:28:51 pm
UnCiv. It's good, and it's entirely free.QFT.
It's pretty much a complete portable Civilization experience. That can't quite decide exactly which (major) version of Civ it wants to be, but that's just quibbling.
If you already know your way around Civ, I'd recommend restarting immediately, as your first load drops you into a game immediately without letting you pick your own settings.
Governor AI is, as always, kind of dumb. I'm a generation ahead of everybody else on military tech, with literally twice as many cities as everybody else combined, and every city has a dedicated guard, plus random units wandering the map, left over from my last war. And it keeps wanting to pump out crossbowmen.
Also highly recommend.
Post by: BigD145 on December 17, 2019, 11:33:46 pm
UnCiv. It's good, and it's entirely free.
It's pretty much a complete portable Civilization experience. That can't quite decide exactly which (major) version of Civ it wants to be, but that's just quibbling.
If you already know your way around Civ, I'd recommend restarting immediately, as your first load drops you into a game immediately without letting you pick your own settings.
Governor AI is, as always, kind of dumb. I'm a generation ahead of everybody else on military tech, with literally twice as many cities as everybody else combined, and every city has a dedicated guard, plus random units wandering the map, left over from my last war. And it keeps wanting to pump out crossbowmen.
It's basically Civ5. Works pretty well on a 6 inch device.
Post by: AzyWng on December 18, 2019, 10:48:47 am
Doesn't work on apple devices, however, unfortunately.
Post by: BigD145 on December 18, 2019, 10:53:06 am
Post by: sambojin on January 18, 2020, 11:53:01 am
There really is nothing else like EDF out there. It's made for grinding, it's made for killing swarms upon swarms of enemies (huge bugs and robots in this case) and it fits into the mobile genre pretty well. You lose a bit of the verticality of full EDF releases, mostly because it's hard to aim on a touchscreen (it'd be fine with a controller, and there is auto-aim for upsy-downsy aiming, kinda like Doom), and you only get two classes to play, but there's still all the city-wide destruction you could possibly hope for, all in gloriously janky 3D. Don't worry about the framerate, just keep firing. The wingdiver is nicely OP as well, so if you're worried about console touchscreen controls in a 3D shooter, you don't have to be. The wingdiver's basic weapons remove any problems such as precise aiming, etc, for you.
Anyway, I do recommend anyone that even remotely likes 3rd person shooters to give it a go. Or people that like killing huge bugs. Or giant robots. Or Kaiju. There's something for everyone. It's in Japanese, but it's such a simple game that this shouldn't really bother you (I don't read Japanese and I worked it out pretty easily). The weapon names are a bit of a mystery, but just try them out and see what works for you.
EDF! EDF!
(this game will probably never leave my phone. It's more cathartic then nearly anything else in the playstore. I wish I realized that EDF had a PSP release earlier, because it runs way better than a PS2 emulator would)
(for the settings I'm using on an old Oppo F1s, for 20-30fps on the FPS counter (so, playable, but it feels more like 15-20fps with the frameskip) :
Autoframeskip:on (for proper janky 3d)
Rendering Resolution: 1xPSP (save the frames, your phone ain't big)
Display Resolution (HW Scaler): Auto (save the frames more, let it blit it directly to screen)
Lazy Texture Caching: ticked (oks, might be a problem)
Disable Slower Effects: ticked (expect not to see the deathray that killed you)
Spline/Bezier Curves Quality: Medium (probably just makes you fall through the map sometimes, and does nothing for +fps. But might be funny anyway)
Anistropic Filtering: Off (every bit of gpu filtering you can get rid of is +fps. If anything, it ruins textures that were specifically made to be viewed at exactly PSP resolution. This is gold)
There's some weird thing that you can try and overclock the PSP core in the System menu. I set it to +302. It's completely stable. It may or may not do anything. Seems to average about 1-3 fps though on the counter, so it is a thing to do.
I only did this on mission 8, but have tested a few more. Not saying that they won't screw up anything on other missions. But it certainly upped the FPS. It's probably mostly from turning anistropic filtering off and putting it to 1xPSP resolution though.
That's from what I remember that I changed from the defaults. It runs better, and no glitches so far, and actually looks better in some ways than the default options like this. Huzzah! Crappy graphics chip and octo-core win, even without gHz or ram to back it!)
^note: it's not that an F1s is a particularly good phone, it's because a PSP is an easy chipset to emulate in some ways. But the original release can only be pushed so far, even it had toppling fps in many areas. You may be able to get "better than orginal" graphics quite easily off other, more decent phones. And better FPS than the original PSP could provide. And then cast them to your smart television over Wi-Fi. And then play them on a decent Bluetooth controller. It's a wonderful world we live in. But it'll only ever be "a certain amount of good". It was still on a PSP. There's limits.
Post by: sambojin on January 24, 2020, 05:42:15 am
But on other "what random crap did Sam play recently?" news, Warriors Orochi 2 runs at full framerate on PPSSPP on an old phone, with no jankiness, on those sorts of settings. And I actually do own a copy of that, so I can feel legit af.
Sometimes mindless hack'n'slash is almost as good as mindless shooty-kaboomy Almost. Not quite. EDF Portable 2 is really satisfying. But if you want a bit of mindless rhythmic button mashing to slaughter heaps of enemies, grind or run through the game as you want, on many difficulty levels, but always slowly get occasional upgrades that will end up with you destroying entire groups of enemies and/or bosses in one-two combos, Muoso Orochi 2 is really good for that. Sort of satisfying after a couple of hours of play. And yes, Da Ji is the best character to play once you do her weapon up (and also historically, the evilest).
I'll probably play more "actual mobile games" soonish. Ish.
((in some ways, they're similar sorts of games. EDFp2 lets you customize your character with weapons and how you approach different missions with two very different movesets/weapon groupings. MOrochi2 lets you change characters (ie: weapons types/movesets, but they're all pretty similar in use each level) but also lets you tack on different attack effects from the levelling grind you're doing (EDFp2 really only lets you grind health and possibly missed weapon drops).
I wonder if there's a beautiful midway point in between all that? I wonder how hard it is to make/sponsor an EDF game? Or buy out a company? I mean, it can't be that hard, can it?))
Post by: Frumple on January 24, 2020, 07:34:19 am
Post by: Iduno on January 24, 2020, 09:08:37 am
I see that Terraforming Mars is now on IOS. I wonder if the AI is any good.
I have heard that it is awful.
Post by: sambojin on January 25, 2020, 09:27:41 pm
Runs pretty well on Android through ppsspp as well (45-60fps most of the time).
I'm not sure if it's better than just buying Baldur's Gate 1 or 2, Icewind Dale or NWN from the playstore, but if you're looking for a D&D fix on your phone, this does that pretty well. It's a bit slow and fiddly on the user interface, it really does show how crappy low level play can be in D&D (there ain't no unlimited cantrips here my boy-o, and missing happens a lot), but it's not bad. I'm only a couple of missions in, but I'm sure it will get better. I've got four casters in my party. It will get better.
((you probably do want to understand the ruleset fairly well to play this. I've migrated to 5e, so re-remembering just how 3.5 works is fun. The first thing you're asked to do is create 6 min/maxxed characters from an abbreviated races/classes/feats system (no, there is no spiked chain at the beginning, and enemies barely move, so don't worry about opportunity attacks). But there's most of the main classes, including Psions, which scale wonderfully in a CRPG. No wildshape for your druid though (AFAIK, I'm not at a decent level yet, and they're still pretty good anyway).
Expect spell descriptions to not exactly do what they say on the tin (try Entangle some time. It's "a little bit bigger than a 10 foot cube", to put it mildly), remember that Dex and Cha *aren't* godstats in 3.5 (it's so hard to unlearn 5e these days), and that your feat selection isn't ever going to be great. Still, it's OK'ish, and worth a look if you like D&D 3.5e. It's just a bunch of nice little missions strung together, rather than a huge all encompassing plotline like BG or NWN, so is somewhat easier to play in quickish bursts on a mobile. Lots of options on party makeup to try out, skills that you wouldn't think have a place in a combat orientated game still do (lore skills let you see enemy hit points, etc), and a half-orc fighter is actually kinda handy in the first couple of missions (dark vision and high strength is nice). So it is good for that kinda D&D.
Also, remember that this is a CRPG, and a casual'ish one at that. Things like potions of healing are handed out like candy and you can buy them in the dozens if needed. Party makeup is *very* flexible, because they give you a mini-magic-mart by mission 2. Party xp is always shared, so it doesn't matter who gets the kill. You'll be fine. It's just very front-loaded at the beginning on stats and equipment, so it feels like stuff matters way more than it actually does on a min/maxxing perspective. Worried you can't do something? Take a potion or a scroll for that. Because as we all know, drinking and reading solves all of life's problems...))
Post by: Mephisto on January 30, 2020, 11:55:10 am
In short, tower defense good, story bad.
Post by: Cruxador on January 30, 2020, 02:54:16 pm
Post by: Mephisto on January 30, 2020, 03:07:34 pm
You have a pretty wide variety of towers and, unlike most TD games, towers of the same type are not identical. One healing tower that I've got can double-cast and heal two others at once. The other does something entirely different that I don't recall. One of my "blockers" has a skill that does some kind of counterattack. Another does some kind of AoE.
You've got to keep facing into account as well - there may be multiple mook entry points, requiring you to situate several blockers to cover those areas.
Unlike most TD games, you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) leave a path from the entry point to the exit point.
Post by: Folly on January 30, 2020, 08:13:43 pm
But make no mistake, it is very much a gacha kemono waifu collector. Albeit one with a rare emphasis on style and quality over fan service. I've actually got about a dozen pieces of official artwork in my Desktop Wallpaper random cycle folder.
KO KO DA YO!~
Post by: Aoi on January 30, 2020, 08:43:40 pm
Which is a bit of a pity, since the gameplay actually seemed kind of interesting. At least, in a 'I have a fairly limited source of entertainment' sense, which would've been good for my next hearty-expletive 14 hour layover. In China.
Post by: Mephisto on January 30, 2020, 08:49:14 pm
Also, I had problems speeding up the narrative cutscenes, it was a tossup between t.y.p.e.w.r.i.t.e.r. o.n.e. c.h.a.r.a.c.t.e.r. a.t. a. t.i.m.e. or accidentally .Same. I don't know how I forgot that.
Luckily I think it's the tutorial messages that just get dismissed when tapping. As a TD game, those aren't entirely necessary.
Post by: Aoi on January 30, 2020, 09:00:20 pm
Also, I had problems speeding up the narrative cutscenes, it was a tossup between t.y.p.e.w.r.i.t.e.r. o.n.e. c.h.a.r.a.c.t.e.r. a.t. a. t.i.m.e. or accidentally .Same. I don't know how I forgot that.
Luckily I think it's the tutorial messages that just get dismissed when tapping. As a TD game, those aren't entirely necessary.
No, but it kind of nice to know what the stuff on the interface is for. I was sitting around in FLL for 11 hours, after getting up at 6AM when I was trying it, so my mental state wasn't the clearest and most patient.
I definitely lost narrative scenes though; I think it operated on a tap-once-to-show, tap-again-for-next system, except it registered my taps twice some 80% of the time.
Post by: Folly on February 03, 2020, 10:43:43 pm
IS is a gacha game about collecting both pilots and mechs, then pairing them up to clear content.
The mechs and pilots each possess unique skills, and a large focus of the game is composing a team that synergises well. Additionally you get several equipment slots which can further augment specific aspects of your pairing. There are a great many options here and it can be very enjoyable to find new ways of refining your team to make them more effective. Unfortunately, this experience is marred by very limited information. You usually only get a vague skill name, and then have to test it out to find out what it does, which can become fairly tedious with the vast array of options laid out before you. There are reviews from other players attached to each mech and pilot which can help cut out much of the guesswork.
My biggest complaint is that progression is a bit slow. Many mechs and pilots don't really start to shine until they've been upgraded, and the materials required to upgrade are not easily farmed. In fact, waiting on the one-time rewards from the frequent events seems to be the main source of upgrade materials. Maxing out a single unit will take multiple weeks, and maxing out an entire team will take months.
Artwork is of high quality. Some of it is fanservice-heavy, but only about 15%, and that can generally be ignored if that's not your thing.
Gameplay is largely auto. Players mostly only intervene to grab occasional powerups or focus a specific troublesome enemy, but most stages can be completed without even doing that much if you've composed a suitable team. But it can be fun to watch and see your crazy combos come together to wreck the enemy mechas in a glorious hail of bullets and explosions.
Post by: Dostoevsky on February 04, 2020, 10:53:38 am
The PvP (which thankfully seems to be not a major part of it) definitely has a P2W component what with the progression curve, but there seem to be pretty reliable 'free' strategies available. Balance is pretty mixed, which means that SSS rank mech you get might be quite useless.
The plot is a basically a slurry of political melodrama, anime, aspirations of Cowboy Bebop, sprinkled with the occasional stink of male chauvinism. Could be better, could be a lot worse. Also the translation is sometimes terrible.
My favorite part is probably the sheer variety of units, and that you can use pretty much any of them (to varying degrees of success). Want to use a crummy mass-produced tank on your team? Sure. Some of the lower-ranked units punch way above their weight. There are mechas (obviously the focus), tanks, and aerial units, each with their own basic class aspects (e.g. tanks can reload weapons quickly, aircraft can auto-dodge attacks, mecha get fancy techniques but can be knocked over) and individual unit perks. As Folly notes, the variety is quite vast but the easily-available reviews do help.
Tip: In menus that feature silly eye-candy art, click the button in the lower-left corner to change the portrait to one of your pilots. Thus you can tailor the level of your cheesecake.
Post by: Iduno on February 04, 2020, 11:44:23 am
For another little PSP title that totally passed me by, Dungeons and Dragons Tactics is a somewhat faithful recreation of the 3.5 ruleset. It's not great, it takes a fair bit of time to take a turn (you'll be controlling up to 6 characters) and it's certainly not the *entire* ruleset (3.5 got a tiny bit bloated by the end), but it does a thing and does it OK'ish.
If PSP is allowed here, pick up a copy of Unlosing Ranger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z.H.P._Unlosing_Ranger_VS_Darkdeath_Evilman).
You're a superhero who needs to power up for a big fight to save the world. So, you do the only reasonable thing: grind. You go through turn-based dungeons, fighting monsters, collecting loot, and gaining xp. Sometimes (or often, if you're me), you die and lose your stuff you're carrying, but keep the xp (I think) and whatever you had squirrelled away back at base. Eventually, you defeat the dungeons and the badguy. Also, each dungeon boss is related to the story of the game, which is revealed as you go.
Gameplay is a bit difficult at the start, because you're a scrub. It gets...not easier but more manageable as you (and the character) get better, and the storyline improves as you play (and find out that there is/what is the storyline).
You also, at some point, gain the ability to spend equipment you aren't using anymore to enhance your stats. It's a roguelike made by the people who make Disgaea, and is better than those things would make you expect.
Post by: Folly on February 25, 2020, 07:02:20 pm
Post by: delphonso on February 26, 2020, 08:37:01 am
If PSP is allowed here, pick up a copy of Unlosing Ranger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z.H.P._Unlosing_Ranger_VS_Darkdeath_Evilman).
I didn't think there were any PSP games I didn't know about, but damn... I'll have to check this one out.
Other PSP recommendations:
Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, nothing special, but decent Monster-Hunteresque feeling Musou.
Way of the Samurai 1 and 2 have fan translations. I believe 1 is about 90% done while 2 is about half. Not sure how completable they are without knowing a bit of Japanese, but they are doofy fun that you can play for a couple hours.
Post by: Aoi on March 16, 2020, 01:53:18 am
That's... about it. It's pretty solid, based on my 10 hours of in-transit today, though I was playing to a background of the Democratic Debate.
A tip though: Turn off your data. It lets you open the chests for free (normally ad-supported), which is kiiiiind of a big deal.
Post by: Frumple on March 16, 2020, 07:39:13 am
Post by: Aoi on March 16, 2020, 12:11:55 pm
It's pretty alright, yeah. Some fights can be pretty tough, sometimes you just start crushing. Fairy and robot seem the strongest "builds" at the moment, for what it's worth (especially mixed, using fairy junk generators and robot exhaust scaling). The data thing is a thing, but the game's also kinda' buggy and will often just... stop running the ads anyway part way through a run. Which is nice, heh.
My last stomp of a run had the Fairy Princess that generates pea pods for healing, that card that generates poisonous blooms, and the robot card that generates robodogs based on number of exiled cards. Combo that with the skill that does 1dam per card played, and cap it off with your choice of 'Deal X dam for each card played this turn'. Which is a fairy/robot deck, yeah.
I do wish it played a bit faster, but it's a winner as far as sitting around on a plane is conerned, at least. The buggy ads was a nice bonus.
Post by: Frumple on March 16, 2020, 12:52:32 pm
Had a pretty nice recent one that was mostly the... forget what it's called, one that duplicates and exhausts and deals damage based on the number of copies in play. Had three or four copies in the deck by the last fight, and it was on an assassin so every third or fourth hit was doing extra percentile damage. Few other multi-hit cards and some other stuff going on, but it basically just shredded everything, heh.
Biggest complaint I have is probably just how long it takes to unlock the other classes, really. Takes a goodly number of wins, even with taking double xp.
Post by: Folly on March 16, 2020, 10:27:44 pm
It's presented as a gacha game, though the mechanics are relatively light, with optimal units being fairly easy to obtain and power up.
Combat is handed through a turn-based card system, which allows for some real strategic thinking. Although I've yet to encounter an opponent who really requires much effort. I will probably find more challenge once I get further into the game.
The most notable aspect of this game is the faithful retelling of the story. Everything is rendered in 3D, and scenes play out pretty much exactly the way they do in the show. Definitely worth a look if you're into the shonen genre and want to play the story instead of watching or reading it.
Post by: sambojin on April 08, 2020, 08:36:46 pm
Favorite Idle Game:
Event Horizon : Frontier
So much fleet and ship customizability, so many actual options available, so much of a collectathon. It's just really, really good, and actually free to play as well. It's very hard to cap out this one, all grind is a noticeable improvement on your fleet, but perfection would take forever. It's still fun to try. It's also a fairly competent space shooter, but you can just autopilot it and watch all the explosions occur as your fleet massacres stuff. I've probably got 100s of hours racked up on this one. And if you do kick in some cash, you get a lot for it. You start out flying your ship, but the moment you find/put an autopilot on it, you can play it as a fun idle game (where you can immediately take control of your ship if you want too. The AI isn't that smart, but it's mostly a better pilot than you). You also never lose anything, everything is transferable to the next ship, unless you tried to make that ship a super-ship (you still keep all the stuff you put on the ship, it just has more slots to put stuff on, and you can chuck that ship to one of your AI commanders). 1-2 minute "click 1-2 buttons" game, repeat five times, *then* work out what to do with the grind. You now have more stuff. Rinse, repeat, enjoy. It's horribly fascinating just to watch, grind, or to tinker, or to personally fly in. It's that super-balance between "actual game" and "idle game" and "collectathon" that I've never seen in any other product. You can also murder top ranked player's starbases in PVP Arena (enemy is AI controlled) if you control your own ship (with enough energy, dps and energy-cheap cloaking to ignore their entire fleet and just invisible-missile-splat them), so it's not ptw in that way either. You just get lots of everything, paid or played. So does everyone else.
Favourite Roguelike:
Pathos: the Nethack Codex
Does everything a proper roguelike should do, with very differing classes and races to try, even party combos, but also has a very good interface on mobile. All the options, all the difficulty, with none of the obscure BS that nethack-likes often have. Pretty much the gold-star standard of how these things can be done. Hardcore, but still fun to play. Free-to-play as well.
Favourite Roguelite:
Cardinal Quest II
Gives you all the fun cooldown-based ToME4-like rogue'ing you could want, but with a handy interface on mobile. I just like it better than the Pixel Dungeon derivatives. Makes you feel more powerful, while still being light and fun and with a slight difficulty curve. As mentioned below, kinda bridges the gap between roguelike and roguelite, and does it well. Not simple, but not hard to get into either.
Favorite Twin-Stick Shooter:
Virexian
Has a cool retro/neon aesthetic, is fast paced, is hard enough to feel like you're doing stuff, but easy enough that progression isn't out of reach. Just a nice little adrenaline surge, which is what a twin-stick should give you. There's a free version, but the paid version is cheap too. Hard, but not that hard. Except when it is. And worth it.
Favourite Single-Stick Shooter:
Soul Knight
Has auto-aim, so is single-stick. But with the range of shooty weapons (there's *so many* guns...), melee options, bosses, character classes, etc that makes it worth it to play a fair bit. Still has a certain skill level to play well, but is lighter and easier than Virexian above.
Favourite Turn-Based War Game:
Age of Fantasy
It's not particularly well balanced (orcs are best, always), but all the races feel different enough and there's enough maps and strategic options that it's fun. Can get pretty damn hardcore in multi-player. This is a good thing. Oldskool turn/production war game, where taking a city 1-2 turns earlier is a huge boon, and movement/ unit skills/ attack ordering is paramount for higher level play. Overall foresight and unit match-ups are key, but so is the wonderful cascade of events on your own turn that lets you wipe enemies from areas of the map, even if it looked like you couldn't. Just a very good warlord/fantasy general type game, even if the graphics are shit.
Favourite Turn-Based Squad Strategy:
Templar Battleforce
It's a nicely polished game, with lots of options, and you can respec your characters to try out different things with no downsides. Very playable, very good. I don't like all of the mission pacing (I still haven't finished it though), but it does make it feel that the important decisions and turns really do count. One of those purchases that you feel that you got every cent from the purchase. Worth it. If you like wh40k, and having an awesome squad of "totally-not-space-marines", give this one a go. There's a free version, so you can try it out if you're not sure, but it's a good game from a good developer, so it's an easy buy once you've worked out that you do like proper squad based strategy games.
Favourite Business Sim:
M.U.L.E (on a NES emulator).
It's one of the grandaddies of the genre, and is still fun to play today. Just enough back-stabbing and market volatility that you have a plan, but you profit by decisions you make each round. But sometimes you just have to support the planet's colony to win, even if you could just crush everyone and profit immensely by doing it. Quick to play an entire game as well (which isn't something normally associated with business/ trading sims).
Favourite Action "RPG":
Stick Ranger
OK, it's not really an RPG, but you have a party of four people, they have swords and bows and magic and stuff, and you control them. I didn't know what else to call it. But it's here, it's on the list, and it should be on your phone. Whatever it is, it does it well. Has guns, punching, angels, priests and whips as well. There's builds and teams that are just plain for funsies, but you can make nearly anything work if you want. Or just skip a lot of the bits you don't like (often to your peril).
Favourite "actual" Action "RPG":
Dungeon Quest
Again, it's hard to say it's an actual RPG. But it's kinda like Diablo, the levels loop with +difficulty, and it's a collectathon, so that's kinda action RPG'y. Will you ever have the amount of stuff they talk about on the forums? To make that "essential" build? Hell no! But it's a really low-end/low-thought zap/slash 'em up, and while it gets pretty samey, and you get sick of the basic gameplay loop, what it does, it actually does pretty well. I have no friggen idea why the camera isn't zoomed out by about 50%. It's still strangely good for all that. You can pay for stuff, but you certainly don't have to.
Favourite "Easy" Top Scrolling Shoot'em Up:
OpenTyrian
It's old, I've finished it tonnes of times, but it's easy and fun. You can keep your weapons, you can keep your cash, you get super weapons (Sonic rear weapon whatever (once you've clicked on the side-panel thing during a level) and Plasma sidekick thingo are best-in-slot in many ways) at lvl1, but it's still a fun little adventure to play through. No, you can't get a better main weapon than the Laser. No, it doesn't matter too much by the time you do. Even your basic starter Pulse Cannon can loop the game. But it has secret codes, and side games, and a story, and discreet ship weapons, and all the other shit that a basic shoot 'em up doesn't need, but this one still has. It's free, it's good, and it's still one of the best games in the genre, even if you've got all the muscle-memory from the mid-late 90's to make it a cakewalk. It's still a very good game, even if it is pretty easy to finish repeatedly.
Favourite Screensaver Game:
Genghis Khan II (on a SNES emulator)
It's not a bad game once you download the manual, so you know what the little pictures mean. But it is awesome as a CPU vs CPU AI game, just to watch little EUIV/CKII-like wars continue on, forever, on your phone. Japan is OP as hell, and usually "wins". Samurai everywhere. There's a coding glitch that means the AI can't win/conquer the globe (without *very* unlikely events occurring in the final turn. It can happen, but it almost certainly won't most times). So it goes on forever. Still makes for an excellent screensaver. Think of it like "watching" a 5-day cricket test. You just check up on the scores, and who's in, from time-to-time. But on a Civilization/ Europa Universalis/ Crusader Kings style playing field and wicket.
Favourite App:
Magic Dosbox
It lets you play damn near any dos/win3x/win95-98 game on your phone. And you can setup incredibly versatile and powerful touch screen interfaces for them. Another one of those things where the paid app it actually worth it. Has a large'ish user community making templates for games, so you might not have to do a single thing other than play your favourite games from yesteryear on your phone (take a look here, work out if you like any of these games, and if it's worth $5 to you to be able to play them properly on your phone: http://magicbox.imejl.sk/forums/forum/mgc-files-sharing/). There's even stuff for X-Wing and TIE-Fighter, Elite 2&3, etc, and they're all better 3D space combat/ possibly trading sims than anything on the playstore, so this is a cover-all. I even made a Stars! win3x thing for it (which is an old/ crunchy 4X space game), and it works great. It can do anything.
Favourite File Manager:
ES File Explorer
It does everything a file manager on your phone should do, and a bit more as well. Is it Chinese government spyware? Does it have an ad in a foreign language now when you load it? Is it still a really good file manager? Probably, yes. Has a download manager integrated, and can let you "open as" a tonne of file types for any other apps you have on your phone. Can also resume dropped downloads, assuming the file server on the other end still has it as an open/possible channel. Makes your phone a lot more like a PC, so is a good thing. I'm lost without it these days when I buy a new phone.
Favourite file compressor:
RAR
It's just better than anything else, faster than anything else, supports more formats than anything else, and integrates easily into file managers (like the one above). Has a reasonably long "recent directory to unzip to" list, so whether you're doing an emulation binge, want to sort your dosbox'ing easily, are doing an MMDarchive model/scenary-type directory run, or just need a thing that can unzip nearly anything quickly, it can do it (even on batch runs) well. Good and free.
Favourite "other" App:
PocketMQO
It's because of boobs. Dancing anime boobs. I'd love to say it's because I love music, or Japanese culture, or MikuMikuDance, or that I am just a creative soul, but I'd be lying. It's because of MMD boobs. They're great. And it's free. Wash your hands though!
(yeah, it can get worse)
Best "isolation" Web Browser:
Opera Classic
Did you know that an incredibly old web browser doesn't have any native .mp4 support? Did you also know that all of Pornhub's 320x240 previews are in .mp4 format, if you press that button? And that this web browser just gives up, and sees it as a file, and downloads it? And so, free porn for all! (even at very low resolution). No account needed! It's still free! It's like you're in Italy, but you're not dying of the most recent plague!
Wash your hands, thoroughly and regularly...
(also works fine when there isn't any plagues, and has for years. You might need to reload some pages repeatedly for it to work though. It doesn't do proper modern security protocols well either. It will work, but it might take a few page reloads. They don't have to hand out free accounts if you know what you're doing. Bless them that they did though :) )
(I'll probably add to this list as I think of them. But make your own, so we can all discover those hidden gems in the app/play store, or wherever on the web)
Post by: Aoi on April 08, 2020, 09:11:07 pm
Favourite Roguelite:
Cardinal Quest II
Gives you all the fun cooldown ToME4-like rogue'ing you could want, but with a handy interface on mobile. I just like it better than the Pixel Dungeon derivatives. Makes you feel more powerful, while still being light and fun and with a slight difficulty curve. ose hidden gems in the app/play store, or wherever on the web)
I'd actually say that's a straight-up roguelike, not a roguelite. I mean, it's fairly slim compared to a traditional full-bodied roguelike, but it's a true one. I can't get the hang of it on my phone though; I'm around a rank 35 on my old tablet (which requires consecutive wins on Hard), but I can't seem to even pull consecutive wins on normal on my phone.
In other news:
Look Your Loot! and Dungeon Cards have earned permanent spots on my phone, having never been removed since they were placed and still get booted up on occasion. They're both in the same genre of game where your unit has some amount of life, maybe a weapon or shield, and they traverse a grid of cards that are filled mostly with monsters or traps that will negatively increment some kind of counter. Play until you die!
Both are free, with additional (or faster) unlocks for pay.
Post by: Parsely on April 18, 2020, 01:41:08 am
Just started playing a bit of Global Defense Forces 2 Portable (ie Earth Defense Force Portable 2). It runs surprisingly smoothly on PPSSPP, even on my crappy old android phone, and isn't too bad to control even with just touch controls instead of a gamepad.I can't find the link to this ROM, could you shoot me a link in a PM?
Post by: sambojin on May 11, 2020, 07:18:44 pm
What it does, it does pretty well. I mean, it's not great, but it's not bad if you loved Hero Quest as a kid. It's pretty easy, and even though I've only played a bit, the different characters do fulfill different archetypes. The Barbarian hits stuff hard, the Mage has a godawful amount of section-wiping spells (and is probably the most powerful character once skills are levelled and you give him items and +spell potions), the Dwarf tanks and finds things, and the Ranger shoots stuff and does a bit of healing. There's other characters, but I haven't bothered to unlock them yet.
It's a bit min-max'y as far as items are concerned, just making your character do the thing it does even better (with little variation). Sometimes the UI is niggly (you can't really choose where you attack from, just that you attack a particular creature) and you need to be sure you definitely double tapped on a character and that they are the one selected, but the levels are fairly varied and there is some thought needed on how you approach any particular encounter. So it's pretty good at what it does, but it's not necessarily an amazing game. Probably worth the money if you happen to be stuck in isolation (Australia isn't now, but I worked all the way through Covid-19 anyway) and liked GW's consumer-end board games while you were a kid.
There's also a probably intended glitch where you can cancel a level (even after you've got all the goodies) and go back to town, then redo it. There's a treasure room level early on that gives you a bit of gold, and four skill points, as a one room dungeon. If you don't mind wasting 20-30mins redoing it, you'll have enough skill points to Max any character's skills for the rest of the game. It kinda ruins progression for you, but it's nice so that you can try out what each character does and what various items really do, etc. I wouldn't use it on my second playthrough, but it's handy when you're learning stuff. It's not exactly a complicated game, but having maxed chain lightning is fun.
Worth a look if you like this sort of thing (I do, even if it's mostly for nostalgia reasons), or want a really simple turn-based adventurer-party RPG on your phone for something different to do sometimes. Not sure if I'd pay full price for it, but at half-price sale, I feel like I'll get my money's worth out of it.
Post by: sambojin on May 11, 2020, 07:31:59 pm
I wish this was easily playable on phone, but the UI just doesn't really do that well. But it's one of the better investments for tablet gaming that you can make.
Post by: Reelya on May 13, 2020, 05:20:17 am
A '7 Deadly Sins' mobile game recently launched, based on anime/manga of the same name.
Unfortunately there are two series with virtually identical titles that could apply to. Nanatsu no Taizai or Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai. Both mean 7 deadly sins, and the second one is spun off a franchise by a game company, though I'm guessing you mean the first one, since it's much more popular.
Post by: sambojin on June 24, 2020, 10:52:55 pm
There's gotta be a market for skills like that, doesn't there? It plays great on a phone :)
And is a better space-combat sim than anything on the play/iosstore.
(yep, that'll be our first truly licensed title on the playstore)
(if I've got to just go "Click, drag on-screen joystick to top-left, click, repeat for bottom-right, click, can play game, I'd be fine with it.)
Post by: sambojin on June 25, 2020, 10:16:13 am
Yep, turns out they can be fairly low latency. So at worst, pyro22 can now be played on mobile. Not with sound though. Not yet. For now it just makes screeching and then burning sounds, through the pc speaker emulation. One of those things isn't meant to be there.
(fun fact: there's rumours that the guy that helped make Battlenet a thing for Blizzard, made this game. Which explains why Battlenet was so good for so many years. He's probably an executive or retired by now)
Post by: Scripten on June 25, 2020, 11:04:47 am
Available on Steam as well: Here (https://store.steampowered.com/app/346750/Merchant/).
Post by: Reelya on June 26, 2020, 06:01:21 pm
I've been playing a lot of the game Merchant recently. It's pretty solid, with elements of tycoon games, RPGs, and idle games. The ads are not intrusive at all, and the expansions are reasonably priced and (AFAIK) fairly extensive.
Available on Steam as well: Here (https://store.steampowered.com/app/346750/Merchant/).
I had a look at this and it was alright, however I ended up uninstalling it. Not being able to queue up or repeat a quest action was the kicker in the end. If it had something like "go collect from that bush until I tell you otherwise" and it became a resource flow situation then I would still be playing it. Was a fair way in and the queues were getting longer as these things do then decided to make an additional character, and now it was back to repeatedly telling him what to do every 15 seconds. It slightly fails the test for idle games.
Although one strategy for this game would be to just have one character and have them collect from the bush on each map. Since the bush doesn't fight back then they can just sell potions until they're on the final map and it's a lot less hassle than otherwise.
Post by: tnc on June 27, 2020, 05:28:10 pm
Post by: Folly on July 15, 2020, 08:24:34 am
I've not yet tried it, but it's from the popular Tales series, so might be worth a look.
Post by: sambojin on July 19, 2020, 05:51:41 am
A bit has changed over the years. More characters, more levels, more weapons. More options. More random stuff each level for loot or decisions.
I did delete it off my phone, so I lost the $10-20 I threw at the game in its early days, but I'm pretty sure they gave everyone +10 luck from the initial adoption of it anyway.
I mean, seriously. Every game, every run, you'll always find cool shit. There might be tonnes of extra cool shit in the game now, but by about level 1-4, you're deciding on exactly what you want to shoot people with. You can make a "build", just on balance-of-overpoweredness, yet still die due to stupidity at lvl2-2.
This is good game design. Or at least, really fun game design.
So yeah. If you haven't, give it a go. If you have, give it another. There's a few tiny hoops to jump through, but between getting the crate opened, and working out that the book pile is near the wizard and you should do it up (+crit% is nice), it's fine.
I haven't spent anything on it on this phone. Yet. But I probably will. Because I like supporting games with a business model of "yeah, sure. Have heaps of cool stuff. Every time you play it, if you're not hopeless. Honestly, sometimes even if you are. It's free-to-play, free-to-win, but you can pay for lazy."
Post by: Uristides on July 19, 2020, 09:28:23 pm
I'm afraid I didn't enjoy the recently released Soda Dungeon 2 as much as I expected. The addition of a simple scripting system to customize your party's AI is really nice, but it's not something I feel like toying with right now. Every other new feature just doesn't feel that great to me.
Idle Skilling is pretty much the Path of Exile of idle games. There are just so many, pretty deep, and nearly, but not quite completely, orthogonal systems going on in this bad boy, it's bewildering both in a good and a bad way.
Space Arena: Build & Fight is a pretty entertaining, and hella grindy, space combat thing. You just build your ship from a variety of components and then sit back and watch it go ham on an adversary Gratuitous Space Battles style. Ultimately all the grind and the fact that I enjoyed pushing the limits of the small, early game, ships much more than progressing to the upper tier behemoths did get the best of me.
In the very aptly-named Hero Park you build and manage a typical fantasy RPG town catering to adventurers, which might as well be an amusement park for heroes. The gameplay loop is pretty simple: you stock up your shops/dungeons, call heroes over and then ensure all their needs are met while they enjoy their stay. Nevertheless, the lighthearted humor and daily challenges did keep me hooked on it for a while.
Moonshades is a really good looking first person dungeon crawler. I didn't get very far on it, but the progression up to that point felt really natural and not reliant on daily quests/rewards or some sort of stamina system, unlike most other mobile RPGs, which is a big plus for me.
On the other hand Vampire's Fall: Origins feels like a grindy slog. The skill trees and combat system look really cool, and there's even spears as a weapon class(not enough games give spears and polearms the love they deserve!), but the progression is such a mess. Taking down even early game enemies is a massive effort for little gain. I don't know, I must be doing something wrong here.
Last but not least Triglav is a work of art, the craftsmanship in the pixel graphics is just wow. The gameplay however felt like nothing out of the ordinary from the little I played, such a shame.
I've been playing a lot of the game Merchant recently. It's pretty solid, with elements of tycoon games, RPGs, and idle games. The ads are not intrusive at all, and the expansions are reasonably priced and (AFAIK) fairly extensive.I really loved it back when I played it, but much like Reelya I just felt like it sat really uncomfortably in a grey zone between your run-of-the-mill RPG and an idle game. I'm not sure if the expansions tackle that but after a while I felt like it was pretty shallow mechanics-wise, there was just not much to do other than slightly tweak battle formations for bosses and strive for ever bigger numbers on my crafted items.
Available on Steam as well: Here (https://store.steampowered.com/app/346750/Merchant/).
Post by: Reelya on July 20, 2020, 01:10:46 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: AzyWng on July 23, 2020, 04:40:56 pm
It's another deck-building roguelike, this time about choosing cards when they come off of cooldown and placing them in two slots of a sequence of attacks. This allows for stuff like cards that have special effects that trigger when there's a card of a certain type in front of or behind them.
It's a fairly interesting game. I'd argue the in-app purchases are fine - one to remove ads, one to increase your inventory space, and others for premium currency - mainly used for cosmetic things.
Post by: sambojin on July 30, 2020, 05:37:32 pm
There's heaps of caveats to this though. As you level, you get enhanced abilities. You start with seeing your draws, so you can't bust. You then get two cards to pick from. I'm now up to three cards to pick from, with a 60% chance of any of them being face-up (and four life. Update: next level is 3 cards, 70% face-up chance, 5 life. Yes, I still die with those advantages) .
You also get weapons that deal varying levels of damage and have other effects as well, as well as healing potions, etc. The monsters follow set rules (early ones don't even hit, some will stay on 12, or 17, some win ties, etc), giving them varying degrees of difficulty.
But it's Black Jack. You can always lose, no matter how heavily stacked the odds are in your favour. But you keep your character level (not items though) and can always warp back to the dungeon level that you just died on and carry on. The race for a decent weapon when going back to the deeper levels is a challenge in itself, let along making it to the next one.
26 levels down, find the amulet, then 26 back up. And hundreds of hands of blackjack along the way. It's surprisingly quick to play for all that. I've made it to the amulet, and now I'm on the way back up, up to lvl20 so far (level32 I guess). The levels become huge, and there's as much "just dash to the stairs" and "items first, fights only when necessary" rogue'ing as there is card-playing involved. You'll fight hobgoblins, dragons, ghosts, androids, skeletons, and many others, all with their own differing health, attacks, and rules that they play by.
Anyway, give it a go. It's free, and quite fun. The graphics and sound aren't much to look at or listen to, but for a very different spin on the roguelite genre, it's worth checking out. Think of it as a lesson of why you probably shouldn't gamble. Even with the odds massively stacked in your favour, you will lose. A lot. But you don't have to mortgage anything in this one to find out :)
Post by: sambojin on July 31, 2020, 07:20:12 pm
I will say, the ending is a little anti-climatic. I wasn't really expecting much though.
The last ten floors were a mad dash to the exit, other than the few floors that spawned the "must kill everything" mod. Anyway, it was fun. For the few days I've had it. It's small enough that it can sit on my phone should I ever have the urge to play 100's of hands of cheaty blackjack again....
(I think it's some form of rather effective aversion therapy for now though. I don't want to play it, let alone real blackjack, for quite a while)
Post by: sambojin on August 20, 2020, 02:11:53 am
To put it in a nutshell, it's kind of like a mixture between Soul Knight, Binding of Isaac, and River City Ransom. But slightly anime'y/Dragon Crown'y (sound-wise, proper pixel-art though, with just a tiny bit of jiggle).
In essence, it's an action roguelite, with a fairly heavy melee focus. Except when it isn't.
And it's pretty good.
Chillyroom tends to release stuff when there's a game there, and it's not bad, and then add a heap of stuff to it later, so it's a tiny bit barebones for now. At least, compared to Soul Knight, but they've had that out for ages. So, I'm almost certain that this will end up with heaps more stuff in it, as they create it. They're pretty good like that.
I've used the initial Monk-chick punchy character and the Archer-girl shooty one. Both are pretty satisfying to use, play very differently compared to each other, and can be tooled for various playstyles pretty easily.
You get two skills, and then collect BoI style modifiers for your basic attacks and skills. And some of them are awesome. You can have four mods equipped, carry as many as you want to swap in and out in your backpack, and potentially up to four on your weapon. All characters also get a dodge roll, and while it feels a tiny bit clunky at first (in fact, all the controls do), the moment you get used to it, you feel like a friggen ninja.
Want a continuous dps setup? Go twin shadow striker with the monk, to triple your basic attack dps and proc item mods. Want a room cleaner? Go for twin shoulder barge, because it hits pretty hard and gives tonnes of i-frames, but can be difficult to line up on bosses. Or go for a mix with super-ki-punch and a shoulder barge, for a bit of generally-good-at-everything stuff. It's actually pretty nice having these sorts of options from the get-go on each run, and how they variously change your playstyle and mod setup to a pretty high degree.
The archer might be a tiny bit too good (I've gotten to world 3-3 within a few hours, and I'm hopeless at this sort of game. It took me ~15 months to finish Soul Knight, playing occasionally). Twinning your basic arrow-barrage skill can proc some silly stuff. Pre-charge your bow, walk into room, fire, press skill 1+ skill 2, and start moving/charging your next shot or roll like hell until your skills are off cool down.
You do get some amazing mods too. I had a "poison cloud around me + poison damage" bow, every enemy you kill might get raised as an ally in that room, every enemy killed creates an AoE lightning strike on it, and every enemy killed makes a magic missile swarm. For general rooms, the kill-chains were hilarious. It also turned the desert boss's adds against it, and put the halberd-knight boss's 1st-phase horse on my side. Very funny stuff.
(just had a +attack speed (subbed out for -cooldown for extra shoulder barges later), possible freeze fairy, possible lightning arc fairy, get a tutorial enemy knight ally always, and "all armour is health plus you now have health Regen" mod on my weapon run on a shoulder-charge main + shadow-boxer secondary skill setup Monk run. Felt amazing. Could hit and proc stuff, but could damage and dodge as well)
Anyway, give it a go. There's a tiny bit of learning curve with the controls, especially considering how fluid Soul Knight's felt, but then you all of a sudden feel really comfortable with them, and they feel great. Yes, there are paid$ characters, but the Monk and the Samurai can probably do pretty well anyway, and they're free. Though, as soon as I started using the Archer was the moment I learnt how to play properly, and those skills transfer back onto other characters pretty well too.
So, yeah. If action roguelites are a thing you like, this is one of them. And it's quite good, even very early in the development cycle of it.
(played a bit more. Have the Knight and the Samurai as well now. The Knight hits very hard, has a long-range part in their combo, and has a charge-up attack, but instead of a dodge they have a shield block. Very, very strong, but pretty slow. The Samurai is pretty nice, with good burst damage and an i-frame execution special, but haven't used him heaps yet. Have the option of unlocking the Engineer and the Shopkeeper (yes, you can kill the shopkeeper, then unlock him to use), but haven't gotten around to buying them yet. Apparently there's going to be an update soon, where things are buyable for non-cash collectables, so I might hold off for a bit. Still, I'm happy to throw $5-6 at a game from a developer I like, to get the ball rolling for them. It's like the cost of a drink at a bar, so no biggie)
((played a bit more, after the "don't have to pay cash for stuff" update. Archer-chick with twin rapid-shot (penetrating on main skill) is So OP. It's fun as, even for someone bad at games like this. It's like Enter the Gungeon, but you're the only one with a machine gun and a dodge-roll. It's pretty fun))
Post by: Dostoevsky on August 20, 2020, 09:23:28 am
Rogue Jack
For what it's worth, if you want even more blackjack-based rogue-like gameplay, there's also Void Tyrant. Based on the description you've provided Void Tyrant is more in the 'like' than the 'Rogue' compared to Rogue Jack, and it's technically using a slightly different number realm (cards are 1-6, aiming for 12), but it's a blackjack experience.
There is card-counting, and hit/stay is like blackjack (one from the top, can't see what it'll be). Like card-battling games you have a hand of abilities - manipulate your number, do damage or status effects, look at your next card, etc.
It's pretty decent.
Post by: sambojin on August 25, 2020, 12:45:24 am
I've got a town, to manage, after Act 1, and now I don't want to play it any more. Click, click, yay, wait, upgrade!, blah, Bleh...
I mean, it's free-to-play, and all that. But then there's way too much shit to do, just logging in each day. So, yeah. Nah. Fuckit. Fuck that. I'm out.
That's probably not even necessarily needed to enjoy the game. But, still, there it is. Trying to do everything.
Still a really good game. It's just that it's "a mobile game", and I couldn't be fucked with those hoops to jump through. I can emulate stuff, from other systems, or give things the "Sambojin Seal of Approval", or whatever. That are good games that don't have that shit or timers or crap.
Don't get me wrong. This is good. But it's very "mobile'y", and I honestly couldn't be fucked bothering to play it long-term.
Maybe it'll hit you nicer than my OMFG? It's pretty good at what it does. Just, for me, nup.
Post by: sambojin on August 25, 2020, 01:31:41 am
Is it skill-capped (#1), play-time capped (#2), or truly money-capped (#3)?
#1or #2 is fine. And I think the game above might be play-time capped, in many ways. But I'd rather throw money at a #1 game, than a #3 game, all in all.
Otherworld Legends? Skill capped. There's nothing stopping you finishing it on your first playthrough.
Stuff like Event Horizon Frontier, and probably the above game Guardian Tales, is a #2 game, a collectathon that could put Diablo 2 to shame, but EHF doesn't have many timers, GTales does.
Every type #3 game is best not be played or mentioned, and I hope Guardian Tales hasn't slid too far that way. Seems free to play enough, but is it, really?
Post by: Jopax on August 28, 2020, 01:49:39 pm
Post by: sambojin on September 19, 2020, 11:05:42 pm
While it had the basic window dressing of a Phantasy Star game (the currency was meseta, the bad guy was Dark Falz/ Dark Force, etc), if it wasn't for those few words, it could have been literally any other mobile Japanese franchise, and I wouldn't have known. The term "rpg" is sort of a non-thing. It was just "click mission, press skills, win, repeat". No map exploration, progress may have been hard or soft-grind walled (don't know, only played through the first chapter), and it just felt a bit flat.
Which is a pity. They really put some effort into it. I think. Maybe. They literally call the random in-game currency character drops out as gatchas, and I'm sort of fine with that, because they literally are. The music is of reasonable production quality. The voice-acting is probably quite good. The plot is a bit "meh". The graphics aren't bad (OK, it's anime big-boobs, but I don't hold that against a product these days. I even got "swim-suit edition main'ish side character" as a gatcha drop! The one with the little/ medium boobs and a mask/ hidden power complex. Lol. Japan).
It just didn't feel very Phantasy Star'ish. I mean, I played part 1-4 as a kid and a young adult (emulation lets you catch up on consoles you didn't own as a kid, and even a Pentium 1 could emulate a megadrive), missed PSO, played a bit of PSO2 (have they even bothered translating that properly yet?), but this wasn't any of them. It kinda feels like Phantasy Star 3 in a way. Just way off the beaten path, and not necessarily in a good way. It just didn't click as a fantasy/sci-fi mix-up rpg whatever, that Phantasy Star usually does quite well. But I'm not sure if this will have the cool generational descendants or anything that PS3 did, that was at least cool in its own way for that title. I could have characters in my party in this one, that story-wise, I've not even met. I have no idea who they are. Which gets a bit strange storyline-wise, on immersion:
"Listen to my character plot! It's *important*! I'm Walther, paladin-knight of *something*. Well met! I am glad to see such noble people, helping defend my lands, that you just finally visited!"
"Walther, huh? Umm, dude, you've been here in the party for three weeks now. You're just a stat-shell with the right element and skills to combo off. I gatcha'd you off my first free 5-star drop. I mean, good to know your story and all that, but yeah... I've literally ascended you twice!"
(don't have a clue who this guy is yet, but was my first 5-star. I'll probably meet him later)
It's like they went "gatcha games can sometimes be profitable, and people love FF7 stuff, especially the eidolons, and making simplistic "potentially auto-battler/ grinder" games is pretty easy. Lets do that! Maybe with a fairly substantial budget! And/or a licensed engine!".
Maybe it gets better. Maybe the story will be amazing if I play more. Maybe I'll try it again. But I think they missed the magic with this one, and I wish they didn't.
Can someone slap Sega of Japan? Repeatedly? I swear, it can't hurt, and it might just help....
Post by: Frumple on September 20, 2020, 01:33:08 am
Post by: MCreeper on September 20, 2020, 05:11:53 am
PSO2 has been proper translated, yeah. It's on steam and everything, these days, for what it's worth. We even got a thread somewhere or another here in OG. Bloody huge download, though... 20+ gigs, iirc.More like 80+. :P 80 gigs of sub-Morrowind quality junk. Maybe it is diffirent version, though.
Post by: gamerboy3456 on September 20, 2020, 07:55:45 am
I think that this is a good topic to start a discussion. In my opinion it is important to not forget the good old board games (https://www.hobbylux.de/).
Post by: Aoi on October 04, 2020, 10:54:58 pm
I've dug up a few flavors of (real) Mahjong, Xiangqi, and, I think, a room escape, but my limited cross-lingual searching skills have run dry without dipping into things that seem like rather blatant advertising cashgrabs or malware.
Post by: sambojin on October 05, 2020, 06:57:41 pm
like, therefore turn-based, and there's a bit of a puzzle element to it (kind of). It is a very good roguelike at least.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon (and other pixel dungeon derivatives) also have some pretty good language support. I think Chinese is one of them. Bless the roguelikes, hey?
Can't think of much else for now. I'll edit this when I do.
Post by: Yoink on October 29, 2020, 12:17:57 am
I've downloaded a couple of old favourites and a few other odds and ends, most of which are shite. Seems like the Play store is still packed with lazy imitations and cash-grab shovelware, haha. I could use some recommendations. I was rather liking a word game called BAIKOH for a moment, but then it turned out to have non-optional video ads. Some of the mechanics were too frustrating to be worthwhile, too.
So Sandship: The last engineer, or however it's called in the app store itself. Pretty neat little merger of factorio elements and idle games. You essentially run a big sand crawling thing that has factories strapped to it. Inside them you set up production chains, tech up, solve quests by throwing stuff you produced at them, all the good stuff. It's a tad simplistic when it comes to the actual complexity of the production chains, atleast at first, it seems they introduce a nice amount of complexity as time goes on. Of course one of the big challenges is working with limited floor space, so those of you into optimizing your layouts in factorio might like this aspect. Best of all it doesn't have any ads and the monetization is not terribly aggressive, consisting mostly of boosters and time-skips, which aren't really necessary if you treat it like a proper idle game and check in on it every now and then.Pretty sure I saw that in the store. Looks kinda interesting, even if I dislike idle games.
Post by: Aoi on October 29, 2020, 11:03:09 pm
I have a new smartphone for the first time in months.
I've downloaded a couple of old favourites and a few other odds and ends, most of which are shite. Seems like the Play store is still packed with lazy imitations and cash-grab shovelware, haha. I could use some recommendations. I was rather liking a word game called BAIKOH for a moment, but then it turned out to have non-optional video ads. Some of the mechanics were too frustrating to be worthwhile, too.
If you don't mind a few repeat mentions... As far as I recall, all of these are nominally free (seeing as I've paid for exactly one game on Android), though I know a few of them allow the purchases of extra lives, additional game modes, etc. None of them, at least last when I played, had obtrusive ads, though some of them (*coughLookYourLootcough*) have gotten more and more aggressive with their pricing.
Path of Adventure, ENYO, MicRogue, Triglav, Rogue Grinders, Wesnoth, 'Look, Your Loot!', Underhand, Decknight, Card Thief, Onirim, Siralim, Buriedbornes, Battle of Polytopia
A particular mention again for Underhand, which was, I believe, some kind of a school project, entirely free, and has a nice degree of polish (love the voiceovers, though they can get repetitive). It feels kind of like a short-and-to-the-point spin on Cultist Simulator.
Also, I still love Black Survival, though that's a live multiplayer one. And you're going to get shredded as soon as you leave newbie tiers and enter unrestricted competition.
Post by: sambojin on January 29, 2021, 03:45:20 am
It's a pseudo-side-on room based beat-em-up, kind-of. Think River City Ransom + Binding of Isaac itemization lite, but in the fantasy genre with knights and skeletons and wuxia stuff. They've released some new characters. Played as Katrina, the elemental'y sorceress one. She's OP af. Finished the game (on easy, mind you, so not that big of a thing).
Killed the lvl1 shopkeeper, because I didn't have quite enough gold for an item I wanted. Proved to be a blessing, and double ice skills just AoE through anything alongside a few dodges. Even bosses.
Ended up with tonnes of gold, and got the boss on 3-3 that you can pay off to not fight, and had gold=power as an item by then too. As well as a decent crit chance and crits-reduce-cooldown, so I could spam the hell out of frost-storms. It was pretty silly by the end. Had poison as well, which works better against high HP stuff. Could've beaten him, but just paid him off because of laziness. Still had max +damage from gold after doing so I think.
Then, onto the final boss. Sure, I had to do some dodges in phase one and two, but phase 3 where he embiggens himself was a bit of a joke. Press two frost-storm cooldowns, dodge a bit, repeat. Even without my silly-high damage, I could've done it. And this is after drinking about a bottle of JD. My reflexes aren't exactly at their best right now.
It also probably helped that I got the "kills add to HP" item from that lvl1 shopkeeper. Having a high armour character that also had 80 odd HP by the end of the run probably gave me the confidence to go splatting harder than I already would have with that final build. Worked well :)
Post by: sambojin on January 29, 2021, 03:58:19 am
I've been playing a bit of the Japanese version of Earth Defense Forces 2. Runs smooth as silk with 30fps (would be more, but that's its cap) and a bit of upscaling. It's wonderful. (My old Oppo f1S would get 7-14fps, my new Oppo a91 doesn't ever drop below 27fps in gameplay. Still a cheap phone too, just with 4-5 years between their creations).
I honestly forgot that this was one of the reasons that I bought a new phone for, for an entire month. Then I remembered
And now I am happy.
Post by: Uristides on February 18, 2021, 07:33:34 am
Played a bit more of Otherworld Legends today (by Chillyroom, the creators of Soul Knight, a fairly good run'n'gun single-stick topdown shooter).This is pretty much the coolest mobile game I ever touched. Too bad I really suck at it, never made it past the Tengu boss.
Post by: woodsmoke on February 18, 2021, 08:10:03 am
The free games I can recommend are Hoplite, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and RVGL (aka Re-volt).
Post by: hops on February 24, 2021, 01:43:36 am
Anyways, people should check it out. It's a perfect-information roguelike.
Post by: sambojin on February 24, 2021, 10:32:12 pm
Oh, and you can have multiple party members to scale difficulty and starting equipment to whatever you feel like. Still hard, but modifiably so. Haven't finished it yet, but I'm hopeless at roguelikes.
@Uristides Tengu isn't too bad, depending on what character you're using and your mods. Or you can just bribe your way past him. After the initial item or two, money isn't needed nearly as much as you'd think. I guess it depends on when you encounter him. Still a lot easier than some of the Cowboy stuff in later levels.
Post by: sambojin on March 06, 2021, 10:02:54 pm
You play as a mage fighting off some kinda virus. Graphics are pretty minimalistic, but they serve their purpose. Sound isn't too bad. While there's not a heap of enemy types, there is a bit of variation such as chargers and blob groups. The main challenge comes from just how many of them you end up fighting after 10mins or so. It's a lot.
The main cool thing about the game is the amount of magic you'll end up throwing at those waves of enemies. There's about 8-10 damaging spells, and they scale beautifully. Incinerate looks terrible at first level, but by third level it's a flamethrower of glorious destruction. Thunderstrike is good, but it gets great, zapping enemies apart with autotargetting blasts faster than seems possible. Tsunami ends up screen-wiping tonnes of stuff. Spirits end up as barrage cannons. Electric field covers half the screen, chip damaging everything. Blizzard goes on forever. And you're running multiple of these spells at once, frying and zapping and whirlwinding everything while frantically keeping just enough distance from them to not take damage. But it's never enough.
There's a choose 1-of-3 perk/spell levelling system (4 or 5 with items and the right character), a big roster of characters with different starting buffs, a starting perks/ research system, some pretty good itemization, and build options to try out. Once you've got your spell to level 3 and level 6, you get to choose a super-option, letting you customise your run a bit more. Once you've got two spells to level 6, you can combine them into a super-spell with varying effects. Some are great, some are just side-grades, and some you would have been better keeping two level 6 spells running instead of one not-so-super one. But at least there's heaps to try out. For a "casual" game, it's really well fleshed out.
I mean, it's simple, it's random. You will die eventually. There is a bit of grind to get characters and researched perks unlocked. But it's fast and fun and frenetic, and is really good at what it is.
I chucked $2 to the devs so I could get my first two perks, which went on haste. But you're not locked into them, you can rebuild your starting perks to whatever. But movement speed is very important in a game about running away from stuff. So is the Shield spell. But so are a lot of things like cast speed, etc. It can be entirely free-to-play, but the haste perk makes it easy.
Anyway, give it a go. It's a nice little adrenaline surge and is very well done for the simplicity of concept. It's not deep by any means, but it's great for public transport trips or lunch breaks (I've only lasted about 20mins so far, though some have gotten up to an hour. I doubt I will for a while)
Post by: hops on March 06, 2021, 11:01:09 pm
And I guess if you're jailbroken then you could hack it anyways.
Post by: Frumple on March 07, 2021, 12:20:38 pm
Downloaded Magic Survival last night. It's a pretty casual, one handed top-down survive-as-long-as-you-can shooter, kinda like all those "run away from the zombies/ninjas" games you see. Except this one is quite good.Will second this one, been playing occasionally the last week or so (though interrupted by hurting my dominate hand wrist, which makes touch screen nonsense... troublesome). It's pretty neat.
... also the enemies are totally just tumbleweeds. Not... viruses or zombies or whatever. Malignant magic tumbleweeds, out for your flesh. It adds a pleasing bit of absurdity to the whole presentation, heh.
Post by: sambojin on March 20, 2021, 09:52:55 pm
Got plenty of research (all the big ones doubled, and some quality of life floating ones as well).
I think I might be just about done with the game. I'll crank through the remaining levels over the next few days and put it down for a bit. Hopefully there'll be more content soon.
Post by: sambojin on April 10, 2021, 08:07:25 am
Still can't quite beat Asura (the basic boss after a three world run), but I've gotten close. First phase down, anyway.
The game has had heaps of updates. New items, new skills. Still using bow-chick with all the rapid-fire, or magic-girl with all the blizzards. Nice that you can buy new weapons for gold now, and they're pretty varied each run. So you can build towards something that works far more easily now. It's pretty reasonable to buy a new weapon, try and upgrade it, and sell the old one. Or just keep using it and sell the new "didn't quite get what you wanted" one, if the old one was really good anyway. It gives you a chance to build towards actual upgrades or playstyles, without it being a huge loss if it doesn't work out perfectly. It is RNG, but not painful. I kinda like how Chillyroom does that in this game.
Pro-tip: almost always kill the first or second shopkeeper. In fact, he'd have to be selling really bad items, like all three of them, to not kill the first one you meet. At worst, you're not-killing the first one for a re-roll on store stocks for the second one's death and thievery from them. You'll need that gold for weapons or bribes anyway. So three bad items that are free is better than paying for any particularly good item.
They'd have to be a terrible set of items, or you would have to be underpowered as hell, to not splat the poor bastard the first (maybe second, but no later) time you see him.
Sorry bro, it's just roguelite business. If I don't have that for free, how will I know where this run is going?
Post by: Iduno on April 10, 2021, 08:45:11 am
Played a bit more of Otherworld Legends, but on Hard this time (now I finished it once). It is a bit harder.
Still can't quite beat Asura (the basic boss after a three world run), but I've gotten close. First phase down, anyway.
The game has had heaps of updates. New items, new skills. Still using bow-chick with all the rapid-fire, or magic-girl with all the blizzards. Nice that you can buy new weapons for gold now, and they're pretty varied each run. So you can build towards something that works far more easily now. It's pretty reasonable to buy a new weapon, try and upgrade it, and sell the old one. Or just keep using it and sell the new "didn't quite get what you wanted" one, if the old one was really good anyway. It gives you a chance to build towards actual upgrades or playstyles, without it being a huge loss if it doesn't work out perfectly. It is RNG, but not painful. I kinda like how Chillyroom does that in this game.
Pro-tip: almost always kill the first or second shopkeeper. In fact, he'd have to be selling really bad items, like all three of them, to not kill the first one you meet. At worst, you're not-killing the first one for a re-roll on store stocks for the second one's death and thievery from them. You'll need that gold for weapons or bribes anyway. So three bad items that are free is better than paying for any particularly good item.
They'd have to be a terrible set of items, or you would have to be underpowered as hell, to not splat the poor bastard the first (maybe second, but no later) time you see him.
Sorry bro, it's just roguelite business. If I don't have that for free, how will I know where this run is going?
I remember killing or robbing merchants being a time-honored roguelike tradition.
Post by: sambojin on April 23, 2021, 10:36:29 pm
It's not bad.
Nice quick levels split into four screens and then a boss level, with each world (of which there's ten) having a "choose a path" thing, so if you want to make your journey to the main boss harder or easier, you can. It does have a stamina system, but it's pretty relaxed, giving you an hour or three of gameplay at any time, enough to finish a world or four at least. And you get a stamina refresh at each player level up, so you'll have heaps (I'm about level 22, and I haven't felt like I was ever in danger of running out). Enemies and bosses are quite varied, with standard pallette swapping with different attacks for harder ones, but they'll keep you on your toes. Controls are tight, though the isometric view takes a bit of getting used to. Sound is pretty good. Graphics are cutesy but good. Story is "meh", and is pretty obvious where it's going. Enemy projectiles are mostly pretty obvious too, which is a good thing, so you can dodge the right things, not your own bullet swarms. It's honestly nice to play a game where you tend to have about as much firepower as the bosses, but can still differentiate between your storm and theirs. Just the right level of "I kick arse" by the end of a world to give you your power fantasy, but still give you choice on the way there (you'll mostly end up pretty similar on each run, but it's hard to complain about blowing up entire screens worth of stuff).
There's a pretty comprehensive perk and equipment system, and I tend to feel that this makes it more enjoyable to play (even though this sort of game can feel pretty "samey" after a while). Levelling your sub-skill perks makes them drastically more useful, though you actually have to pick the perk on level up for it to do anything. But they really do make a huge difference. Reflect-off-walls going from 1 to 3 bounces is pretty huge, for instance, especially with piercing shots doing the same.
Your equipment can also come with perks, so it doesn't feel like such a chore at the start of each run with the right setup. And you do get a fair bit of equipment within the first few days. I can start with 5-way chaining shots, or homing piercing shots for instance. You're mostly limited by playtime by what you can do, which isn't bad for a gatcha'ish system. You can combine three bits of lower tier equipment into higher tier, keeping the chosen one's perks to upgrade, so you actually can end up with what you want. It's kind of semi-controllable gacha.
The cool down spells are nicely varied, with Blizzards/ Airstrikes/ Magma Bombs/ Black holes, etc, all with varying levels of usefulness. They can all be levelled up as well. Every fourth level gets you a super perk, which makes quite a difference. Double Mega Fire balls, huge Frost Novas, massive Magic Missile swarms, there's tonnes to play around with.
(my only gripe with the system is that once you've levelled a few up to level 4, you'll probably always pick them when they come up when you level, because they're better than anything else on offer. Which gives very similar builds each run, which is a pity, because there's plenty to try out. But lvl4 double Mega Fire happens to be super reliable and damaging, so most others never get picked over that. You never feel bad for trying out stuff, just not optimized....)
And the best part is, all your upgrades can be refunded for free or for pretty cheap (the first three on good equipment are free, are always free for bad equipment, and are only 100 gems after that). Spells can be reset for the same cost. And sub-skill perks are a choice of three to upgrade, so you'll mostly get something good (you'll want most things upgraded eventually anyway). It's fairly forgiving, so you never feel like you really messed up while you're just learning.
Difficulty curve is ok. I'm kinda flattening most stuff after playing for about 12 hrs over 7 days, but you never quite feel OP. Even with vampirism and chaining shots and a ridiculous amount of attack/armour/HP, I've still got to be careful on hard (up to world 4 or so), so yeah. It's nice. Progress is easy, but you certainly can't afk it.
Anyway, try it out. As games of this genre go, this one is really quite good. Long-term enough play to sink a bit of time into, but simple to just log-in, grab some freebies, do some sweeps, and leave it be for the day. I'm still free-to-play so far, and I've got 3/4 bits of legendary equipment, 2 pets, and most of my sub-skills levelled, so it's not "super grindy" or paywall'y like some. My only real gripe is that it's in landscape mode, not portrait, so you still need to use two hands to play it on a big phone.
Pro-tip: Level your sub-skills ASAP. They're over on the top-right under Skills, next to all the cool-down spells. When levelling your sub-skills, always prioritize anything to do with your regular attack. Double shot, Split, Reflect, Pierce, Consecutive Shot, things like that. It makes any level-up be like 2-3 levels worth. You do most of your damage with regular attacks in this game, cool-down spells are bonus extras (although some are really good too, most are just ok'ish). Your equipment sub-skills also run off this, so if you have Split and Double levelled, and have that on your equipment, you will start off firing 7 bullets instead of one, and Reflect or Pierce are probably only a level or two away. And then you'll be filling the entire screen with bullets by the 4th screen of any mission. Which is nice :)
Post by: sambojin on June 12, 2021, 12:11:00 am
Different sorts of spells/ missiles than Angel Saga (or archero, etc), with some really well made levels that provide good challenge variety. There's a 50-level run, and endless mode, and a boss rush mode to try out. Graphics are quite nice, sound useful and kind of cutesy (it matches the game really well) and the controls and movement speed seem perfect. It's in portrait mode too, so you can play it easily with one hand.
Spells come in elemental varieties, where you're rewarded for specialising into element or spell type, but you also want to generalise a bit so itemization is easier/ more reliable. The itemization is pretty good too. Slightly "vanilla upgradey" for some, but also with a fair few "have completely new effects" and "you now have lasers on your runes too" style items as well. Quite a nice mix, more on the BoI style thing, rather than just "damage went up a smidgen" thing. There are cloaks/books that you always have that do that, but they're just base items that you start with.
Runes are where the fun lays. They get generated a few seconds into the level, and you have to collect them to set off a spell. Very risk/rewardy, and adds another dimension to gameplay. They do all kinds of stuff. Lightning storms, lasers, missile machine guns, shurikan spin-shields, just too many to list. They're the main draw of the game compared to others of the genre, although your other spells are pretty good too. They've all got 3 levels of potential upgrades, and I haven't found a single useless upgrade yet. They're all pretty useful by level 2-3.
This is one of the few games absolutely worthwhile paying for the $3 remove ads option. It turns what feels like an overly ad-based revenue-generator game (I actually got really far free-to-play, otherwise I wouldn't pay into a game like this) into a "choose your build and playstyle" game in just one purchase.
Cash owls? No ads, just click. Reroll items at store? Just click. Double gems at end of run? Click. They really do mean no ads, and it makes it a joy to play. It was pretty good before, now it's great. I've finished the main campaign (and almost did free-to-play, got to final boss, without watching a single optional ad along the way, so they're not really necessary), got up to level 84'ish on endless, and will probably have this as one of my go-to "just want a laugh on a lunchbreak" games for some time to come.
So yeah, give it a burl. Between missiles, arrow upgrades, elves, bombs, runes, shield shatters and all that, alongside the itemization for them, you'll feel powerful, but never OP. There's plenty of builds to try out, plenty of enemy types, heaps of level layouts, and enough challenge that it's worthwhile playing for a bit. And yeah, it's good free, but the $3 no-ads purchase is one of the few that you really get your money's worth out of on the Play store.
(Just got up to level 101 on endless with a rune heavy build. Had "runes generate at level start" and "rune magnet", with almost all being level 3 by the end. Oh boy was there some fireworks going off. It was awesome 😀 )
Post by: sambojin on June 28, 2021, 12:25:16 pm
Do a few demon tower runs with the green reward things, and do-up your magic skills. You'll be highly rewarded for doing so.
You can still tailor the magics every 3-4 levels or so like before, but you really can alter what they do with those choices. And every one of them does stupendous damage anyway. The cool-downs went up a bit, but not as much as the sheer effectiveness of any given skill did.
It used to be that your main attack did most of the damage (other than Mega Fire). Your magic now pops entire screens full of enemies. Now subskills like +50% Wind skill, which was hopeless, now turns into "wow, I hope I get Sonic Boom, but whatever wind thing that comes up is fine regardless."
There's also a fair few magics that got the option of "throws 3x more shots over 1.5secs, with a bit less damage, but still about a 50%+ damage increase over time, but you can't move for that 1.5secs or it stops. But more shots = more crits and damage."
Sounds useless in a shoot'n'move game? Like, you have to move, it's a given, bye-bye shooty spell. Nup. Instant alpha-strike and boss killing potential. That initial 1.5secs tends to be the exact amount of time it takes for anything to move or shoot, and you've got full magic charged each new room. Dakka-dakka-dakka, boom! You've gotta see what a swarm of Magic Missiles does in Endless or against bosses. It's rather impressive.
Anyway, it's a great update. They even gave you heaps of free skill refreshes so that you can try out a few new styles. Check to see what your skills do now, and refresh them if you want to try something different. They're not the same as before, but they're "better". Choose your own flavour. Me? Still Mega Fire first, every single time. But now it does 2000+% damage instead of the lowly 794%, has knockback, a bigger aoe, and burn. I'll swap 2x crappy for 1x knockback-insta-death on room entry for my poor hapless foes.
Good magic skills got better, bad magic skills got way better, niche subskills got way way better, main firepower skills are still awesome, and it's far more encouraging to try various builds each run, even if your pets do still go "here, have this skill offered regularly". You can happily say "No, imma gonna try this one instead" now.
But having Mega Fire and Lightning Force as insta-kills and long-range machine guns is never bad. Having multi-mega-split Sonic Booms and doubled Hellfires and 1.5sec chaingun magic skills for backup helps too. Or just any random thing. You get way more freedom on builds, and don't feel half as nerfed for grabbing whatever you feel like now.
Anyway. You now deal as much or more damage with carefully selected cool-down magics, instead of it all being main attacks. Which is good.
If you haven't tried it, do so. If you have, give it another burl, and see if you like all the new explodiness. It feels quite nice. As an obvious replacement for the last demon lord, you certainly do bring the pain down properly now.
((Oh, you can now also re-roll equipment for 300 whatever-equipment thingy tokens and 100 gems. This is also cheap-af. No matter how bad your first few legendaries are, mod-wise, if you want you've got a fair chance of changing them into something amazing within a week or less. And if the alter is worse than the original, you can just keep what you've got, so you've got a proper potential upgrade choice.
I only bother spruiking games that are fun and that have a good business model that gives you heaps for your monies, but that can be free-to-play'd properly as well, and this is one of them. A few weeks in and you'll be kicking arse in this one, without paying a cent, unless you want to))
Post by: Folly on July 14, 2021, 11:25:58 pm
Post by: AzyWng on July 16, 2021, 02:34:43 pm
Punishing Gray Raven (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kurogame.gplay.punishing.grayraven.en&hl=en_US&gl=US) just became available for download!
A quick glance of the screenshots is reminding me a lot of Honkai Impact.
Post by: sambojin on August 06, 2021, 09:30:20 pm
Think deck builder game, with massive amounts of synergy involved, that was pseudo-translated fairly well from Japanese. Made by the same crowd that did Buriedbornes, but with more high-tempo music, and challenges to match. But it's a card game.
Like Hearthstone (you have a deck of ten cards as standard from all the cards you own), but also a deck-builder (you get to choose a card to add to your deck after each level of a dungeon, one-out-of-five randoms, to add to that deck), but with only single player mode available.
You know the Hearthstone challenge thingos? That give you stuff if you finish them. Where it's grindy and impossible (or very random on draws) unless you already have good cards? Yeah, you get two of them every day, fresh ones, but they're possible to finish each day after 2-3 days of playtime, every day. Not events, that's just what this game is. Just whatever random stipulations for those dungeons each day, sometimes brutal so you skip them, sometimes a cakewalk. As well as a standard dungeon or two/three, and a basic "blow my energy today, I just want free stuff" explorations for when you're not playing.
And there's speed runs, whacky random dungeon "draft 10 out of 20 cards on picks-out-of-five, you don't have to own them yet", buy a card you randomly drafted for because you won, badly explained mechanics (but once you know what they do, you'll understand just how complicated and synergistic virtually any card can become), long-term progress for your overall "standard" deck with arousals on cards (global abilities for your deck, and card synergies from them), and everything else a deck building long-term card game should have.
I don't really know how to explain it. For singleplayer, it's better than Hearthstone. After a week or two you'll have SOOOOO many options available. Daily free packs, but with enough low hanging fruit that free packs (3-5 a day) is just a thing you get.
In some ways, it's too simple, because some things simply work so well. Until they don't in a certain form of dungeon (like Inspire (lowered PP-cost to play a card) or card-draw (more cards to play, yay!) or Robust (bigger PP pool each turn) or Rest (more PP regen each turn)). This game can punish you for a basic engine like that, with reversed PP generation, lowered hand size, card draw doesn't work, you take damage from "X", etc. It's really quite neat in that way :)
I'm not even sure if it's available on Google Play any more (32bit app, and extensive re-coding might be needed for basic "can be store-worthy" these days). Still, check it out some time, even off their main website or other .apk download sites. It's one of the most "yeah, build your deck and defeat the enemies, but put some things into place early, or you'll never get past floor 10, let alone the big-boss on 15" card games I've played. Plan early, play hard. The 5-7Ps thing. With caveats that make it "not perfect deck buildable" (those dungeon world rules can and will kill any deck that doesn't dance in amongst the stipulations laid out).
Made by ohNussy, (nussyGame), the same people that did buriedBornes, so you know it's a good timekiller in its own way, just on simplicity yet possible wtf'ness and internal synergies and progress :)
My current standard deck:
(Yep, I got really lucky with card arousals)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And yes, I've cleared both the 5mins or less, 1000damage in one turn, and "less than 1min thinking time" challenges with this deck. Just cleared the second one of them yesterday, and the 1min one, just then :)
(Go into options, and turn card effects off, and double click real quick on your next dungeon. I didn't even think I'd do it, but I did. Huzzah! Realistic goal, not stupid/unachievable)
Post by: sambojin on October 25, 2021, 11:55:11 pm
3.25gig is the only downside. It's also compatible with the family library, so get randoms/friends/actual family free stuff too if you'd like. Or, like $2 thrift shop presents worth of free. Almost the same thing.
It would be hard to not get your money's worth out of this one, even if it doesn't do mods or anything like that (or if it's a bit buggy).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beamdog.baldursgateIIenhancededition
Post by: BigD145 on October 26, 2021, 02:22:39 pm
Baldur's Gate 2 is on sale for $2.69 Aussie for the next couple of days (about $1.99USD). So even if it's hard to play on a phone, it's worth it just in case you get a tablet you like using one day.
3.25gig is the only downside. It's also compatible with the family library, so get randoms/friends/actual family free stuff too if you'd like. Or, like $2 thrift shop presents worth of free. Almost the same thing.
It would be hard to not get your money's worth out of this one, even if it doesn't do mods or anything like that (or if it's a bit buggy).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beamdog.baldursgateIIenhancededition
The "tablet at a later time" assumes they keep it updated to the latest android versions. That's the bigger downside. Great price though. I thought I saw the 1st game at this price a week or two ago. They might be doing a rolling sale on their titles.
Post by: sambojin on December 29, 2021, 01:50:43 am
Think a stop'n'shoot top-down game like Archero/ Dashero (crap) or Wizard Legends/ Angel Saga (good), but with a 3v3 multiplayer bent to it. You're simply racing the other team on how fast you can kill the boss. Whoever kills the boss first, wins the round. Each level has three parts, and thus three sets of enemies and bosses to defeat.
You can go through a portal on part 2 and 3 to invade the enemy's level and kill them. This will in theory slow them down if you kill them. But don't. They respawn in 5 seconds, and unless you're using an Axe, it'll take you longer than 5 seconds to kill two enemies, and you have deprived your team of 1/3rd of its firepower. So, don't. Stay on target, kill the boss, stay in your own arena, and butcher any poor mo'fo with a 3v1 advantage that enters your area. It's pretty simple.
There's a fair few freebies throughout the game, but I've decided to p2w the shit out of this one. Why? Don't know. It's fun, it's quick, there's a fair few weapon types (even within weapon groups, a Void Axe is pretty different to an Ice Axe in play, as is a Jolt Bow compared to a Holy Bow), and it has "Clash Royale" bracketing.
?? Essentially, since I'm p2w and have heaps of crap, I'm up to arena 6 (nearly arena 7) in two days. This doesn't actually make me good at the game. It just puts me into my "gear bracket", much like Clash Royale put you into your "did you randomly get the right cards?" bracket. And in higher brackets, you get more random free crap to play with, so the novelty doesn't wear off as quickly. But it doesn't actually mean you're "good" at the game, simply that you're more likely to meet up against or be paired with players that are (or that are as p2w as you are), so it kind of balances out.
Anyway, back to the mechanics. You've got weapons. They have different elements. Elements do what you'd expect them to do. Fire DoTs, Holy heals/inspires other party members, etc. You get Swords that are armour-tastic with a semi-skillshot Barb leap AoE, Axes that are HP-tastic with a spin-to-win cool-down (not all of them, just the good ones), Bows that have proper skill-shots and are glass cannons, and Staffs that also shoot but also sort-of do AoE as a glass cannon. Thems are your builds. About 6 weapons of each type, with a decent amount of variation on how to use each one "well", and the runes you'll want for them.
Then, yeah, there's Runes. Runes are passives on top of the weapon thingies. I'm currently running a +HP/+crit build, where I regen heaps, have a bit of +damage, and every crit gives me more crit, so by the end of the level I'm outputting some pretty sizable damage no matter what weapon I run. But there's lots of solid combos I could be running, I just like big numbers semi-regularly.
Ummm, this isn't a very good description of the game. But it's free (or can be), it's fair (gear/ arena bracketing), it's quick (about 3min a match), there are no timers or stamina (play as much or as little as you want), it takes bugger all room on your phone, it doesn't eat up much mobile data to play, and it's surprisingly fun. So give it a go :)
(Note: sometimes your team works with you, so I don't think they're all bots with player names. Sometimes they don't, but it would be hard to program bots to be that dumb, so there's at least some non-bot players in the game. I think.
On weapons, Void, Honed, Inferno, and Zappy Axe is good, Icy Axe is bad (no spin2win). All Swords are good. Righteous, Royal, Snow and Void Bows are good, Jolt and Blazing Bows are overcomplicated Staffs (no easy AoE with effects, although Blazing comes with +crit, which is good). And Staffs, ummm, I don't have the hang of yet. They're like, "slightly less AoE bows, maybe with more effects early-on"? Something like that.....)
((Favourite weapons are Righteous Bow (buff the party and do great DPS!), Void Axe (I swear that thing's brokenly good) and Icy Blade (it's my best sword, but it could be any sword. Swords are averagely great). I wish people knew how much that damn Righteous Bow buffs them. There's reasons I'm standing in melee range alongside you. It's because I want my damage and -cooldown buffs too!))
Post by: sambojin on December 29, 2021, 08:08:33 am
My current fave rune build is:
(Lvls are just how high my runes are, not necessary for build)
Attack Runes:
Lvl3 Exploit Weakness
Crits give a small permanent attack bonus, and it gives +3% base crit itself.
Lvl3 Flurries
Unknown chance to double attack, but gives +3% base crit, so that's fine. However often it double attacks is just more chances to crit.
Lvl7 Strength Tonic
When I press the potion button, I get "+X??" Attack. And +7% base attack for good measure. It's at lvl7, so it makes me big, so +10-20% attack+ potion heal HP? Nice against invasions by the other team, so you can go toe-to-toe against high armour/ HP weapon builds. Squishy bows or staffs are at parity with the enemy, swords and axes chomp through most things. Just stay in your own arena and eat them if they come :)
Lvl7 Critical Escalation
Second tier of "crits give you more crit%". How much? Umm, even if it's like 0.5-1%, I tend to crit 20-30+ times a match, so it's not bad at +10-30%+ crit by the end.
How much crit do you start with? Don't know. 0-5-10% seems about right for the numbers I'm seeing. How much crit do you end up with? About 30-50% depending on level-ups chosen.
Goal is: pick extra crit ASAP as a level-up. The earlier the better, to stack +attack and +crit%. Watch exploding dice extra explode. Works even better with a Blazing Staff for +crit% multihits, or a Righteous Bow for more +damage% on-demand multipliers (that are also your AoE), so both sit nicely with a build looking for exactly those things. Especially the Righteous Staff, because the rest of the team gets *some* damage multiplier, but it's not apparent that you're their early pusher and late-game carry until they see the damage figures at the end of a match.
60k+ is pretty easily doable in Arena 9 with a lvl29 Righteous Staff with this rune build, which isn't bad for the ranged, squishy buffer of the team. I mostly outdamage everyone (because I know how important my buff bubble is) while still adding to their damage immensely.
Defender Runes:
(They could literally be anything, but bigger better carry is the theme of the build)
Regen (can't do without HP regen, tank early and hard), Consume (+maxHP on kills, tank late and hard), Persistence (-cooldown for skill use on hits, so hit lots), Renewing Hide (+armour on skill use, so use your skill a lot, for lots of hits/ crits/ and free armour, even on squishy characters).
Plenty of free +% base HP there too. Good on squishies, tanky af on sword or axe times.
(Happily enough, works fine as a passive "you'll be slightly stronger by the end of the mission" with any weapon or with any level-up skills chosen. It's nice like that. Works with any playstyle too. So you can try stuff out and not ultra-suck by the end boss, no matter what you do. Axe whirls crit lots. Sword jumps crit lots. Arrow rains crit lots. Staff bursts.... Ummm.... Sometimes help a bit....)
Post by: Aoi on December 29, 2021, 03:44:40 pm
Been playing a bit of Knight's Edge. It's pretty fun.
Okay, it IS pretty fun. I do somewhat wish that it wasn't on a touch interface and it wasn't quite so micropay, but those rather come with the territory. Pretty snappy loads, and it doesn't go berserk when I check my notifications either, like a lot of other games on my phone.
Post by: Folly on December 29, 2021, 05:29:42 pm
Gatcha game. Story is basically Toy Story, but with anime figurines. Combat has some serious tactical elements for the late-game stuff and some of the events, but lots of auto-grinding for the early stuff.
I'm enjoying it so far. Obviously won't be for everyone.
Post by: sambojin on December 31, 2021, 01:15:24 am
It's a pseudo-auto battler gatcha, but it is well done. Sounds weird for people that can hear you playing the amount of times you get called Master in it....
Umm, how to describe it? Pick 5 gatchas, put them in one of three lanes, there's tanks and supports and dps'ers, so front/mid/back in those lanes, press go, watch thingy happen. Then level gatchas up. Repeat. Story unfolds as you do.
Pity you can't actually paint them. I do "photo-retouching" as a hobby on Instagram, so yeah, everything would look transparent pretty quickly 👹
------------
Kinda getting the shits with Knight's Edge. It either has a horrible memory leak, terrible net coding, or is amazingly badly optimized. Nothing should slow to a crawl that regularly for no reason. Like, the graphics are simple, the sound is serviceable, there's about a max of 20 things to keep track of, yet I get 2-frame a second occuring just because some slimes split. It's still fun, I'm up to Arena 10 as a pretty stable gear-level, but the slowdowns are killing me.
Post by: sambojin on January 03, 2022, 08:03:25 pm
It actually seems like gold is the huge limiting factor in the game. Maybe higher level weapon upgrade thingies too. But mostly gold.
Which makes me feel alright about paying for those "random crap + 50,000 gold" *bargains* 🙄. It's one of those "damn I wish I knew how important gold was, and what stuff did, before I spent all that gold on random crap to try stuff out to see what it does" things. You can get about 2-5k gold a day from 1/2hr-1hr of play a day though, so you can grind those runes up a bit. A day or three a rune upgrade, or levelling weapons to lvl29 (you need hard-to-get upgrade materials after that). So, it's doable, even at high levels, it just feels heaps slower than it did at the beginning. This is about half a week into the game, it may vary a bit.
Still, I got lucky af too. I have very good runes, and lots of stuff for some very fun weapons. I'm not going to spend another cent on the game, but since I've spent about the equivalent of a triple-A title on it, I'm glad the gatcha gods went "yep, have all the really useful stuff, and heaps of random crap too". I just wish they'd said "don't spend a cent on hopeless weapons or runes, even though they might be fun, you'll need that later. Seriously!"
The player stupidity goes WAY down in bronze. Mostly. You can actually rely on people to be using their weapons and runes for what they're good for. They don't just run off and die in the opposing team's level. Well, sometimes they do. But by Bronze, people know the bosses and layouts well enough that there's mistakes and misclicks and lag, but it isn't just sheer enthusiastic idiocy that's making your team lose. It's really quite fun. I don't mind that I paid to win for this game. It'll have long enough legs as a quick time killer that I'll probably be playing it occasionally in months to come.
(Oh, and there's seems to be significantly less lag/ frame rate problems too. Maybe I uncluttered phone properly or something?)
Post by: sambojin on January 08, 2022, 01:00:43 pm
One, does a thing. It gives more armour, charge armour or something, and when you get hit lots, it does an AoE. Or something. Which is nice.
The other is Magic Potions. Which I now plan my entire playstyle around. You get three potions throughout the level normally. Magic Potions make them into a slowly regenerating cool-down skill. Use a potion? You are now slowly getting another potion. Probably like 5-8 a match, instead of 3.
Why does this matter? Because there's another Rune called Strength Tonic, which gives you more damage when you're in potion-heal mode for 10secs. About 25-50% more damage.
How often do I press the potion button now? All the time. ASAP. I'm only missing out on more damage if I don't. Plus, I get to be big, which looks silly and awesome, while I kill all the things. I now have a drinking problem (which is funny, this month's p2w costume is a pirate outfit).
So yeah, current Rune line-up is Attack: Exploit Weakness 4 (+power from crits and +crit%), Flurries 4 (potential multiattack and +crit%), Critical Escalation 7 (crits give +crit% and +critdamage%) and Strength Tonic 7 (10s more power and +power%).
Defense: Persistence 7 (hits lower weapon skill cool-down and +health%), Regeneration 5 (regen and +health%), Shadow Claws 4 (crits curse and +crit%), and Magic Potions 7 (use all the goddamn potions you want, they even make you invulnerable for 1s, and big from Strength Tonic, and +health%!).
It's weird. I'm now the Big Axe Bro of the team, almost every time. But this works with literally any weapon. But it works extra good with an Axe. It's a really nice build.
(I really love Shadow Claws. It doesn't seem like a "defense" rune. Is there a reason for it? Yep, +crit% at the start of a match. And it helps dark element users, even when you're not one. Why do they work with a Righteous Bow? Don't know. Still get my +crit% bro, that's all that matters 😎)
Post by: Aoi on January 29, 2022, 03:10:50 am
An outdated version is available freely, or the latest version on Steam.
Free: https://poncle.itch.io/vampire-survivors
Post by: Frumple on January 29, 2022, 08:21:50 am
It is still in EA, though. Still got a ways to go before completion, too.
Post by: Folly on March 22, 2022, 09:33:25 pm
Post by: Laterigrade on March 23, 2022, 12:41:19 am
Post by: sambojin on June 01, 2022, 10:05:04 pm
Now, onto other stuff. Team SIX - Armoured Troops
Do you wish Cannon Fodder was ported to mobile, but had a full loot/ itemization/ weapon/ gear system, and you could eventually use helicopters and stuff. And it was more like a twin-stick shooter, rather than a pointy-clicky (but you can do that as well)?
Yep, that's what this is. Which is a very good thing. I'll update this post soon, after I've played a bit more of it, but it's looking good and fun so far. I swear I dreamt of a game like this at some point....
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Protips so far: Long click each soldier to group them together. Then it's just run them around and murder away.
Watch a few ads, get an "Armour Breaker" weapon or two. You no longer need bazookas or grenades. Your guns blow buildings up fine with that mod. I mean, you can use them, but when your heavy machine-gun and AR blows stuff up too, why bother? Simplicity is a good thing. I also got Grenade Kick on an AR/SMG, so I think I've got grenade defense. So yeah, I'm grouping up for the foreseeable future (until that's really not an option). I also got a couple of god-tier sniper rifles, but can't recruit snipers yet. 5-10mins of watching ads makes this free-to-play as can be. You do get some good stuff, that could carry an entire run, from what I can tell. But the deaths will surely rack-up at some point... It is a Cannon Fodder-like 😵😋
Oh, and no stamina system or anything like that, from what I can tell. So play as you wish. And $1.39Aussie to remove all ads. So, is a good game in that way too.
Post by: Folly on June 02, 2022, 02:35:34 am
I haven't tried it yet, but the worst reviews say it's grindy and pay-to-win. Best reviews say it's exactly like Diablo 3, decently ported to mobile platforms.
Post by: sambojin on June 03, 2022, 12:38:59 am
Yeah, that Team Six game wants me to jump through mission hoops just for basic soldier unlocks, like so *go and do a very specific thing, in the way we as the designers specifically want you to do it". And so I couldn't be fucked. It even put timers on those basic "you finished a mission" unlocks, which to me, is just poor form. I know it's a nice sniper mission man, at mission lvl4, but I just wanted a hard-core twin-stick shooter with gear options. Man, Virexian rocks that shit for like $2, with none of that shit! But do it with soldiers and gear options before the mission! Like X-COM style crap.... I swear, they really missed the ball with that one as a basic gameplay loop, even on survival mode.
Still playing the shit out of Angel Saga, because it is literally the best stop'n'shoot game out there. So much better than any archero-like shite, with just extreme "yay, I am now in the top 599 people that play this" curve, knowing probably only 100k at most play it, but that it's a beautiful bullshit-good bullet-hell to play, with significant top-end to what you can do gear-wise. Hell, I just turned my Lightning Ball skill into a spinny-aroundy stun skill, and I can't be happier. After two years of never levelling it properly. 🤯
But, you always feel powerful, on any given run, never having to watch a single ad to do so. And skill comes into it, because it's bullet-hell small-hitbox, but there is significant top-end to it. It's really good game design.
(Yes, sometimes I buy cosmetic outfits in the game. Not for the bonus, just because it's such a good game)
Post by: sambojin on June 15, 2022, 07:15:58 pm
What I'm actually doing is watching a fair bit of YouTube, trying to find out how civ5 works. I think I've got it now. I stopped playing the series at civ2. Stuff has changed :)
I really like the mod aspect of it. There's a pseudo-Alpha Centauri mod (Alpha Frontier), a rise-from-the-ashes post-apocalyptic one (deCiv), a civ4 one, a civ6 one, and tonnes more races and units and techs and stuff to try out. There's even a Star Wars mod. I'm learning vanilla, but having all these extra gameplay styles to try out makes the effort worthwhile. I've also been playing a bit of FreeCiv as well, for more or less the same reasons. Just wanted some "real" strategy games on my phone, without any hoops to jump through.
I'm also playing a bit of Raspberry Mash. It's a single stick top-down "survivalish" shooter, stop'n'shoot style, and it's quite good. It's been out for ages, I thought it was iOS only, but it's on Android too. Good for a quick laugh. I'm hopeless at it (only got up to level 3), but it's a fairly satisfying game to play, when you need to shoot or slash or repeatedly punch things and make them explode.
And a touch of Hunt Royale, which is, a single stick top-down shooter, but sort of competitive vs 4 players. Stop'n'shoot style, think Archero. Voxel graphics. With pretty bad matchmaking, but lots of characters to try out. It's good for a quick bit of fun, but I can't see myself constantly going back to it heaps, but it'll sit on my phone for a while. It's not bad, but it doesn't quite stick to me for some reason, even though I like that sort of stuff (I think Robots.io had it a bit better with then team-based aspect of it, even though that game sorta died).
And some of MyHeroes. Guess what it is? It's a single stick top-down shooter! But no stopping needed, just lots of shooting. Auto-aim though, single stick for movement. Cutesy graphics, lots of weapons, cool down special abilities. 5 classes, of which I'm focusing on Priest (with the vague idea that healing and support abilities might open up more nuanced gameplay, but it turns out they're absolute combat blenders as well). It's not bad, but there are some hoops to jump through. Kind of reminds me of Soul Knight, but with more pre-game stats/level-ups, and no weapon changes mid-mission (sorta, sometimes there is, but I've got a couple of ok'ish legendaries within two days of play anyway, that means it's pretty free-to-play. I mean, they give you an awesome assault rifle to begin with, and it's only upward from there. I'm currently using a multi-hit meathook, that I've used the full upgraded version of due to mission "gimmees", so I'm happy throwing playtime/ resources at it). It's more instanced per level as a game, instead of a roguelike "run", which is handy to just knock over a couple of levels sometimes. It's actually pretty well done, but it might become a grind later on.
Angel Saga got another update too. Now there is a survival mode challenge. Sort of Magic Survival vibes, but in one small play area, and tonnes of types of enemies to blat. It's pretty good. And they made some menuing to do for some reason. But you do get a horrendously large amount of free gems at the beginning currently right now, so it wouldn't be a bad time to start playing.
There's heaps of other stuff I've been trying out, but these are just the vaguely memorable ones off the top of my head. Can you tell that I'm unemployed right now?
((Protip for civ5 or UnCiv: All cities start with two food in any tile they're in, minimum. So feel free to build a city on a hill or non-food'ish resource tile. Or wherever really, as long as it has plenty of production or gold. You can't improve that tile, but you've essentially got a free food improvement or two anyway for it, as well as good production/gold. And maybe good unit defence surrounding too. Or you did a faith/culture *plonk*-mine depending on your starting civ. Once you know this, it's hard to have a truly "bad" start within 1-2 turns on terrain, but you can get an amazing one.
You can also "auto-get" most low-tech luxury resources for your city/empire this way. You can't improve the tile, you've got a city on it, but you do get the luxury resource fully linked, even without the tech needed to get it or taking the time to build the tech/ improvement for it. Happiness/ trading is helpful in the early game, but way more-so in late, so settle in spots that "don't look good" sometimes, because you saved about 5-10 turns for doing so, and that's 5-10 turns of free growth and production and culture. A huge difference from civ1-2, on where you can or should settle. It's not always good (it'd be a better tile "with improvements", and forest chops (from mining? Very dwarfish), etc), but it's free and has a minimum of 2 food and takes zero-time to do so))
(((The Alpha Frontier mod does also blessedly contain a Dwarf'ish civilization, "Deep Rock Ganymede". With the luxury Stout Ale, just for making decent mines. Worthwhile downloading it just for a playthrough of that 😁)))
Post by: Ygdrad on June 17, 2022, 09:48:08 pm
Diablo Immortal just appeared.
I haven't tried it yet, but the worst reviews say it's grindy and pay-to-win. Best reviews say it's exactly like Diablo 3, decently ported to mobile platforms.
Can confirm from playing a good bit of Diablo Immortal that the majority of what's going around online is not giving a real picture of the game. There is a gem system and as a free player you don't get a whole lot of those. They can technically be bought by buying crests that insure a drop from a run, so basically it's a disguised legendary gem gacha/lootbox. The monetization of the legendary gems is ludicrously extreme and should definitely be shamed, yes, but at the same time, it has next to no impact on the game unless your goal is to be at the top of the ladder in PVE. See, realistically, there is so much RNG to the gem drops that even is you spend thousands of dollars on them you're not likely to come out with too much of value, that is because gems can have 1-5 stars. You can craft 1 and 2 star gems(targetted and random are options) and upgrade them to get a better stat boost out of them reliably. Thing is anything above that is pretty rare and for the higher star gems you need MANY duplicates to upgrade and given their rarity and the RNG of what you get... chance are you're not going to be able to upgrade your 3-5 star gems much at all really. Basically the monetization of the gems is completely pointless, don't throw any money at it. You'll only really get a tangible return on it with thousands of dollars. It's currently inconsequential outside of the fact that it's scummy because making full use of it is just not feasible.
That being said, the gems really don't affect you too much at the moment given maxed higher star gems' power is meant for the endgame we'll have in a year from now or so from what I've heard and really. I've beaten the campaign, gone to Hell 1 and haven't once felt like I was underpowered or needed to pay. I've just been having fun with it. One big gripe is that grouping is sort of forced. in Hell 1 you need at least 2 people to run dungeons, at higher difficulties you need a full 4 man party to even start them.
My main recommendations for mobile games would be Star Traders: Frontiers and Mindustry though. ST:F probably my favorite and is basically a full proper game ported to the phone(also has a steam version), doesn't feel like a mobile game at all.
Post by: sambojin on June 19, 2022, 04:02:15 pm
It's also a little unbalanced. Some combos are really good. Like, I'm pretty good at this kinda of game, but I probably shouldn't be getting 19 out-of 25 kills for my team in a Deathmatch. With pretty basic gear. Haven't paid a cent so far.
Or who knows, it's a free-to-play game on mobile, and I've been playing this sort of game for years, so maybe I should. I'm probably mowing down kids, spoiling their fun.
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Winning combo.
Your items have "banner bonuses", like a set bonus. 1x gives a bit, 2x gives a lot, then it tapers off. There's a set bonus that gives back life on hit. There is a mini-gun that hits *a lot*, and has +life-on-hit. So it works really well with that. There's another set bonus that gives +30%life, to top it off better. Here's what I use:
Splintered Fate (mini-gun), Catalytic Heal (heal), Belt of Phasing (shield dodge-roll), and Hailstrom (mortar special weapon). These are all really basic gear that you get early on in the game.
All up they give +30%life, +42life on hit, about +500shield per dodge roll, and massive damage output. You've just got to wind the mini-gun up a bit before you engage (it's a twin-stick with aiming if you want it, so use that second stick). You've got 120-132ammo, so wasting a bit is fine. Then, as you start shooting stuff, you become unkillable. And you can roll and reburst, or stop firing for a second and reburst, or launch a mortar and reburst. You've got about 1.4secs or so, which is pretty long, so there's no wind-up for the next victim. I take on 2v1s, 3v1s, etc, and usually walk away with 8-15kills. It's pretty broken.
There is cool down management, it is skill based, but it is also OP as hell :)
((It's great in basic Deathmatch, and Deathmatch with conditions(Hydra), it's not that good in PvE (Colosseum). And honestly, it is skill based. Timing those dodges and group heals and knowing when to retreat is vital to go 15-2 or something. But since you can blast down anything 1v1, it gives you time to get those skills and the feel for those timings. And honestly, it's just which way to dodge roll, forward/back/side-to-side and when to pop your heal. And how to aim with the second stick, that looks like a button. For everything else, there's the above and a flamethrower, or the basic assault rifle. I usually get 8-12kills with either anyway, and they can't nerf them all. These are basic gameplay skills. There's a fair few setups that work, but the "pre-fire the mini-gun a bit, then go on an unkillable rampage" is the most busted combo I've found so far))
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(((There are weapon counters. The basic AR counters the mini-gun, flamethrowers counter "group-up DPS" tactics, sniper rifles counter the AR. I'm still not really sure what the basic shotgun is used for, probably sniping out of the grass patches or something. Twin stick shooting or mortars usually counters that though. There's plenty of builds, and weapons do get some amazing upgrades (I don't want the twin pistols, I want a better mini-gun or AR or the mortar primary, but I'd love to see what they can be used for once levelled), so I can say it's free to play. Play it enough, and you do get a fair variety of weapons and gear, even legendary primal beasts, so I can say that it's skill based (everyone has the basic stuff I use to dominate in basic deathmatches), while still being build based on what you want to do. You can sniper, then go primal, and actually effect the match a heap, even if it's not reflected in your kill count. I'm not sure if doing great support is reflected in your "match score", but I've seen people outscore me, even though my K/D was way better, so there's something to be said for that. Use your damn group-heal, people!)))
((((OMFG! There's a minelaying ability, instead of group-heal! And I just got it, and it recharges quickly. Fuck yes! I hate mines. Everyone hates mines. But there's nothing like being good at minelaying 💥))))
(((((Mines are really hard to use properly. But it's also kinda satisfying to just be an Assault Rifle healer, that can bring on the pain alongside a flamer or mini-gunner or even shotgunner. Destroy the enemy's healing with a 2v1 and decent range and instant burst, then dodge roll and pop healing and "occasionally not see the team-death-score go up heaps". I don't know.... The game is not balanced, but it can have unspoken teamplay. Seriously, use the +shield on dodge roll belt, the +group-heal item, and anything's possible. I just got 16kills with a rocket launcher, the even most other support'y weapon alongside a sniper rifle))))
(The primary rocket launcher works pretty well with minelaying, and I average about 8-12 kills with it. It's the only weapon that I never bother aiming with. Just press button, launch explosive, hope. You'll probably miss, but you might not. You might hit a wall and the splash knocks 1/2 of someone's life off. You might accidentally lock onto a meganaut, get double damage, while killing everyone around said meganaut. Results vary.
But I've got so much going on, firing, timing dodges, laying mines constantly, moving, and not-dying-too-much, that it's nice to pair it with a weapon where you just press the "send" button and let the random nature of team multiplayer games work it out for you. It does enough.
It is *hilarious* to mine the landing position of an enemy's jump platform, so it's all worthwhile. Sometimes they even catch on and stop jumping. But almost never 🥷⤵️💥🤬, repeat...)
(In Hydra (Deathmatch with caveats), the sniper rifle or rocket launcher primaries are bullshit good. Especially with minelaying. Want to know what to do, or have a defined role in your team? Just stand on the harvester, moving around lots, repeatedly pressing the "send" button. The sniper also charges your primal form really-damn-quickly as well (and the rest of your team's, so they can have some fun too). Then your team can win via kills, or win via shards. Just keep pressing "send", mine 1-2 entrances, and hold that damn harvester at all costs. Just got 18kills doing that, with my primal form as "nup, not dying now, you are" back-up, and happily reverted to sending/laying form straight after, twice. I still can't work out what shotguns or pistols are used for, but sniper rifles are ace in some game modes. Tight corridor that you *have* to walk down for a victory condition? It's annoying if there's mines and a sniper there, waiting for you 🙂
Still bullshit good with just group-heal. Play mother-hen, with a sniper rifle primary, and a mortar secondary. No-one will touch the shard-nest, but everytime you come to it, you get a free heal! So go and get shards, I've got work to do... Pretty funny on how fast a sniper on a point recharges their primal ability. The opposing team doesn't ever "let's not zerg rush that bit", because it's a potential win condition. So you do so much damage, that you can primal form pretty regularly. There's a "yep, I'm body blocking and doing a bit of damage in this form, but you lot have really got to get your shit together. I'll be back to heal you soon" thing going on. Because it's best to assume the rest of your team is shit, even though it's often you that is. But free heals for win conditions, +plus+ free primal cool down for shooting stuff, just for bringing the mother-hen shards and fighting off the occasionally regular zerg-rush at that location? Priceless)
(Note: just like in robots.io, mines go off almost instantly at close range. So can be considered some form of AoE hand-to-hand weapon sometimes. It doesn't come up often in this game, but you can lay mines directly on people when necessary. Handier with PvE mobs, but at least it's there as an option)
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(After 4 days: most enjoyable combo still is shield-dodge-roll belt, insta-group-heal ability, early basic mortar heavy, and basic sniper rifle primary (Primal Eye?). With Torden as my primal. Sniper rifles giving you and your team primal energy is glorious. So is having +30% life and a shield dodge-roll belt. You're a support build, that can just run off on side missions or solo stuff, and "just escape", while also having a big impact. Yeah, Torden's clunky, and actually pretty easy to gun down, but also heavily OP on the damage he does when he does hit. Which is nice as you go from close/long-range support, to picker-tickler, to solo-hero, to stompy body-block, to whateverer.
It's also nice that you're the party healer and enabler of "whatever stupid stuff they want to do as well". I honestly drop back to my "sniper form" pretty regularly, well before my primal HP has let out, just because a sniper rifle + group heal + dodge-shield-roll and a basic mortar is a hell of a lot more useful than "Torden form" could be in some game modes. But big smashy-smashy on a "every sniper shot that hits reduces that cooldown by 10secs" is nice too. 280secs for Torden smashy-form? Nope. It's like 18-24 hits, and the time it takes to hit people while just repeatedly pressing the "send" button varies. Usually about 30secs-2min.
It's also funny that you don't really learn how to use a sniper rifle by using a sniper rifle. You learn it from the other primaries, their ranges, how you'd dodge in that situation, even knowing you're definitely just tapping an auto-aim button with the sniper rifle, while laughing at all the missed shots that with a rocket launcher you would have scored 2-3 kills with. I mean, it's a grim business, being a party support monkey, with the best weapon in the game...)
Post by: sambojin on June 30, 2022, 10:36:25 pm
I have ended up coming down to the primal facts. Squishy builds are hard to use. So if I can use literally anything with +10-+30% health, I'll do better with that than I would with any other build. I got used to the huge +30% life buffer, and can't do extreme-awesome without it, which makes me think that I should use that level of OPness on set values all the time. There's tonnes of other extremely cool shit I could be doing, but HP is a constant worry, so I'll always use it for that.
(Amazingly enough, the recent update gave the basic mortar a range upgrade. It's hilarious, mostly due to it giving half of the set +HP upgrade. And now it launches really-far. It's funnier with a sniper rifle).
The basic mortar and the dodge-roll-shield belt gives +30%HP, so go from there. That damn belt is the *best damn item* in the game, alongside Catalytic Heal. Chuck some dust into both, and use both of them *a LOT*! Saves you, saves your team, plus you've got a random arse mortar button to hit. Happy days! Become unkillable, sometimes, mostly.
Sniper rifles got nerfed. At least, the basic one has. Now they only give -7secs of Primal, down from -10secs. Guess what, I still use a lvl15(5-7'ish star one, I'd have to look. I'm not up to the 4.5secs of -primal infusion yet) basic sniper rifle. I love the lowered primal from shooting people, but I love lowering my teammate's as well. I think(?) it's balanced now. It's still my favourite weapon. It's nice to have "team support" built into a weapon. Weirdly enough, they thought "let's up the range, to balance the nerf!". Yep. It's 16range now. You can press the "send" button repeatedly from your mini-map sometimes....
I'm still learning this game. It turns out Torden's "have 2500+ shield" ability is targetable. Honestly, it's like a skill-shot sometimes. It takes a second or two, and then AoE shields everything on your team in that area. But they've normally dodge rolled out of the way by then. But between being slow, tanky, insta-killy smashy, and everything else, having a 14'ish range(!!!)/6AoE "have approximately as much shield as you do life" pretend *skill-shot* is funny AF. It has a 6 second cooldown. It's fucking amazing.
(Woopsy, missed not having you be dead soon. Oh well, I tried. Seriously, this thing is amazeballs, just take the pseudo-heal. Stacking on Torden for a bit is your next new mission. And yes, it goes through walls. It's funny af in Hydra).
Some of the "basic" weapons are "best in slot" weapons. Some probably aren't. Shotguns barely have a purpose, but with an epic or legendary one, they do. The basic rocket launcher is "better" than the epic one, regardless of clip size. The epic one's projectiles move so slowly, and have *just a little bit too little AoE" to not make it worth it. I still have no idea what twin pistols/ SMGs are for. I wish they just gave all bots the basic assault rifle. They'd be scary AF then.
The legendary mortar primary is "meh", at low levels. Give me literally any other weapon than a basic shotgun or twin pistols and I'd do better. Basically rares/ epics/ legendaries are side-grades and set-bonus swaps, and often aren't all that much better than the common/ rare equivalent that you get for free or early-on. Which is nice, and opens up playstyles, but I do like simply being good at stuff without caveats, and the common/rare weapons and heavys and gear give you that.
Best items in the game are still shield+dodge-roll belt, and insta-group-heal. And the basic mortar heavy (because there's plenty of applicability to delayed damage coming in, on forcing movement or reaping the rewards. Plus, it gives +10% health, all by itself, which becomes +30% with the shield+dodge-roll belt, which makes them both even more Bester in-slot, because you've probably levelled and infused them for ages).
If I could do it all over again, I'd have spent more dust on the three above, and a touch more on my basic sniper rifle, mini-gun, and Torden whatever's. But I have tried to be able to go for a decent chunk of builds to try out. But the above, with a good weapon or three, is fine. It works. It's powerful. But there are plenty of other builds than that. And they work too.
(I'll add to this later)
((It's actually pretty good game design. Can you reliably up your DPS by 30% with gear? No. But you can up your HP/damage by good team play by 30-100+% quite easily, and then work out how to do the occasional team-level play that makes that massive))
Post by: sambojin on July 12, 2022, 11:49:07 pm
Think Hearthstone, but Warhammer 30k style (before the WH40k stuff, in that story's stuff). It's actually been pretty fun. Same sort of "every turn you get an extra mana/energy" to play cards that have a certain energy-cost, your cards do stuff or summon troops, but with way more playstyles and "heroes" to utilize, so you can make plenty of varied decks.
But damn, I had to watch a bit of YouTube to work out how this sort of stuff works. You sort of don't have to, you can just play heaps and get the feel for it, but I like knowing a bit of stuff. I hate playing cards truly badly.
Anyway, it's not a bad game. I'm enjoying it. I don't have enough cards, even though I did pay $6'ish Aussie dollars for gold (never doing that again), but I kinda am planning on paying another $26'ish odd dollars for a couple of starter decks eventually.
Main deck currently is Defenders of Caliban, mostly because you can just grab whatever from basic Mechanicum, Chaos and Imperial Army decks, when you don't have many cards. Like I don't. Also mostly because I snagged "Zahariel" as a freebie Warlord/hero on an early pack, and he has a 2 Energy "put a 2/3 Astartes that can't-be-warlord-punched-immediately into play" ability, which at least gives you board-state options and essentially a free card on turn one. He also has a one-off "face punch any troop to death" for one energy, which is helpful as a back-up card, but you need to know when to play it for tempo. But yeah, not powerful in the slightest, but pretty good to learn with. Covers plenty of f'ups as a beginner, but I'm going to get crushed later-on if this is my main deck.
But it has plenty of the tropes already. Lasgun'esque troops, plenty of infantry, some Astartes, some blocking, some buffs, some random stuff. You know, whatever. Defending Caliban.
(Admittedly my biggest plays are "well, didn't that all get chaos'y now?", but hey. Lots of stuff happened during the Heresy. I don't mind making Dark Angels ashamed of themselves 🥳)
So, yep, my deck is a complete mish-mash of vaguely useful cards, and walls, and occasionally useful ramp, and odd buffs/debuffs. Yep, exactly like Hearthstone when you're starting out, except I like WH30/40K stuff better lorewise. And honestly, I've liked this one gameplay-wise a heap better too so far. Only playing it for 2-10 games a day, but it's actually pretty nice to play. Maybe I got lucky on my card selection or something.
I kinda like it, because every game I play, I don't know what sort of deck I'm playing. Is it walls/defender or chaos buffs, or ramp or vehicles or infantry or tactics or whatever? I never can tell. Which means it's a pretty bad deck, and certainly not reliable, but it is fun to try and play well.
Consistent, it ain't. But fun, it is. And it gets the odd win here or there, in the lower brackets. I just don't play enough I think (to see how bad it actually is. Lol).
Post by: Folly on July 29, 2022, 06:08:06 pm
I never played the original so cannot compare the two, but I'm rather enjoying this entry. Only a few hours in, but so far the story is interesting, combat is engaging, and exploration is satisfying.
It's free to play, paid for through a Gacha. My initial impression is that the rates for rare units are a bit too low, and the speed of free premium currency a bit too slow. But this has not yet impaired my enjoyment of the game, so I'll keep going.
Post by: Ranged66 on July 30, 2022, 01:49:03 am
But I've got the urge to play something else, but in the same style. Space-related, multiplayer, persistent... Vega Conflict brings up some decent memories but by god that game is a grindy mess.
There has to be something similar out there, released between 4 years ago and now, right? Anybody know any?
Post by: Mephansteras on August 09, 2022, 09:42:24 am
Mostly looking for Strategy type games rather than action games. Wouldn't mind some colony builders or slay the spire types if any good examples of those exist.
Perfectly fine just paying money for the game, I don't really care for micro-transaction based stuff most of the time.
Post by: None on August 09, 2022, 12:43:51 pm
I found it to be somewhat easier than the last three entries in the series, but that's due in part to being able to fuse two monsters together so that your own critter has both abilities, plus your player character has class-based abilities, plus the equipment you give to your critters can each have an ability, so there's really a lot of ways to build a powerful team. I built a team on the defiler character class which makes your team perform better as the enemy team has more debuffs, whipped up some critters to get an extra two debuffs to the enemies at the start of a fight to go with the three my character gives them, then I have an attacker which a) gives every one of my creatures a positive buff for every debuff on an enemy it kills and b) attacks twice if another one of my creatures attacks and misses the enemy, which is really cool then because I have another two critters, one which a) will attack an enemy whenever any of my creatures are attacked and b) one which attacks three random enemies whenever I kill one and does a pretty good job of missing its attacks, which then procs the double attack from the first one.
Otherwise, I think the original Disgaea got an android port?
Post by: Aoi on August 09, 2022, 02:05:52 pm
It's technically micropay, but mostly for extra game modes and alternate classes that aren't inherently necessary. I think they may have added ad-supported bonus gold, but that's not necessary... Even without its help, I have it 100%'d (other than a class that got added since then).
Post by: BigD145 on August 09, 2022, 09:40:01 pm
Best recommendations for offline Android games for a phone? I'm flying out to Europe this evening and I've got 12 hours of flying ahead of me to fill, which will mostly be in airplane mode.
Mostly looking for Strategy type games rather than action games. Wouldn't mind some colony builders or slay the spire types if any good examples of those exist.
Perfectly fine just paying money for the game, I don't really care for micro-transaction based stuff most of the time.
Squarenix releases, probably: Tactics Advance. Trese Brothers games: Star Traders. UnCiv. Uciana.
Post by: delphonso on August 09, 2022, 11:42:40 pm
Post by: n9103 on August 10, 2022, 01:18:02 pm
Native Android games:
Polytopia for a Populous-like.
UnCiv for a Civ 4/5-like.
Antiyoy, or any of the other games by the same dev for different takes on simple-ish games. Antiyoy is a Slay-like, but also can be played as straight Slay.
Cyber Knights or a few other games by Corey Trese (sp?) are good turn-based tactical rpgs, reminiscent of early 90s graphical roguelikes.
Mindustry for a Factorio-like game. VERY close in fact.
Majesty, a pretty faithful port of the PC game.
Other
Snes9x for (shocking) SNES emu
DosBoxTurbo or MagicDosBox for DOS (and Win9x if you're willing to deal with that process)
Steam Link for remote desktop to home PC. Probably not so great for general mobile gaming, but, if you dock your phone to a screen and M+K, it's very useful for general gaming if you have a strong internet connection.
Post by: Folly on August 10, 2022, 06:04:22 pm
Post by: bloop_bleep on August 10, 2022, 07:42:04 pm
Post by: Iduno on August 11, 2022, 11:48:32 am
Tower of Fantasy (https://www.toweroffantasy-global.com/), an eastern Action-MMORPG being commonly compared to Genshin Impact, is getting it's western launch in a few hours. Available on PC and Mobile.
129 GB install, so probably going to be much larger after updates and expansions? That's huge.
Post by: Folly on August 11, 2022, 01:23:10 pm
129 GB install, so probably going to be much larger after updates and expansions? That's huge.
My game came to 22.6GB on PC. You might be seeing 12.9 for a mobile install or something?
Post by: Iduno on August 11, 2022, 02:26:48 pm
129 GB install, so probably going to be much larger after updates and expansions? That's huge.
My game came to 22.6GB on PC. You might be seeing 12.9 for a mobile install or something?
Yeah, it looks like the installer claimed one amount of space, then the game required a different amount? Maybe it's a typo or they're planning for the future.
Post by: AzyWng on August 11, 2022, 07:59:47 pm
Post by: Folly on August 11, 2022, 08:51:54 pm
I've heard some... less-than-good things (https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/soecy4/video_games_chinese_gaming_impersonating_the_dead/) about Tower of Fantasy.
That reddit post describes gamers finding ways to circumvent Chinese law so that outsiders could play the Chinese version of the game(before it went Global), possibly with aid from the game publisher.
The post also suggests that the publisher paid for some sloppy copy/paste positive reviews of their game. And while paying for good reviews is definitely scummy, it's also widely acknowledged that literally every game publisher does it now, and indeed they have to do it to remain competitive in the current market.
I'm not saying ToF is the perfect game or anything, but nothing in that reddit post makes me second guess my decision to play for even a second.
Post by: Aoi on August 11, 2022, 10:31:35 pm
How is it though, for anybody that's tried it? The ads caught my eye enough to click, then the contents of them seemed... just kind of uninteresting? Genshin Impact on mobile didn't really do anything for me either though, which suggests that I'm not their target anyways.
Post by: Folly on August 12, 2022, 01:30:00 am
How is it though, for anybody that's tried it? The ads caught my eye enough to click, then the contents of them seemed... just kind of uninteresting? Genshin Impact on mobile didn't really do anything for me either though, which suggests that I'm not their target anyways.
They've pretty much copied Genshin Impact's formula, to be honest. Action combat with hot-swappable weapons, each with different combos and cooldowns. Landscape that is vast but largely unremarkable. Lots of collectables scattered around. Missions in the daily, weekly, and story varieties. Dungeons and World Bosses that are pretty straightforward grinds for upgrade materials.
I'm a bit turned off by the overwhelming 'free stuff'. Every few minutes of gameplay I look over to see a dozen tabs with little dots indicating that I need to click through the menus to claim rewards for something I did, and it very quickly became tedious.
Still, the exciting action and consistent progress are keeping me engaged and enjoying myself for now.
Post by: delphonso on August 12, 2022, 01:41:06 am
The game holds no interest to me either way. Just chiming in.
Post by: Chiefwaffles on August 12, 2022, 02:39:40 am
I've heard some... less-than-good things (https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/soecy4/video_games_chinese_gaming_impersonating_the_dead/) about Tower of Fantasy.I don’t understand that reddit post.
As far as I can tell, it seems to just be a guy saying that a positive review and players circumventing region locks are… a nefarious scheme by the developer? With literally zero proof?
Post by: Aoi on August 12, 2022, 03:22:28 am
I'm of the mind that they probably hired some company to pump out positive reviews, and said company just scraped for reviews and replaced keywords instead of having some poor kid write up new ones. Can't read them myself, but screenshots of reviews allegedly mention names of characters in GI and not ToF, which is pretty damning evidence (if true). Wouldn't be the first time that kind of thing has happened.
Since it doesn't really sound like it'll be my thing (thanks for the review, Folly), I'll be bowing out.
Post by: delphonso on August 12, 2022, 03:54:32 am
Post by: Iduno on August 12, 2022, 10:42:23 am
They've pretty much copied Genshin Impact's formula, to be honest. Action combat with hot-swappable weapons, each with different combos and cooldowns. Landscape that is vast but largely unremarkable. Lots of collectables scattered around. Missions in the daily, weekly, and story varieties. Dungeons and World Bosses that are pretty straightforward grinds for upgrade materials.
I'm a bit turned off by the overwhelming 'free stuff'. Every few minutes of gameplay I look over to see a dozen tabs with little dots indicating that I need to click through the menus to claim rewards for something I did, and it very quickly became tedious.
Still, the exciting action and consistent progress are keeping me engaged and enjoying myself for now.
Yeah, my feelings as well. I'll play it for now, but hopefully something better comes along soon.
Edit: I think the main reason the red "check this thing now" dots everywhere is so bad, is because there are half a dozen menus, each with several (or like a dozen for the main menu) sub-menus. I'm going to go do my dailies. I can find a list of them in Main Menu (esc) > Terminal > missions > choose which one I want to track, but I can't get information about my progress in them or turn them in there. I think I have to be at a bounty location for that. Same with daily trainings (which are moderately interesting minigames or kill 3 waves combat training which is always boring).
I'll add that here in China, paying for reviews isn't just common - it's an accepted, common-place practice. Some even would say it's necessary, equivalent to paying for ad placement.
It's the same in the US. Most or all of the review sites let you pay to remove (or hide, so they can claim they aren't removed) negative reviews, there are entire companies who will provide good reviews, etc.
Post by: sambojin on August 28, 2022, 08:17:23 pm
Damn, this is still an amazing twin-stick shooter. Hasn't had an update since 2017, doesn't really need one. Just does its thing, unapologetically. You're a mech, you have a gun, you fight your way through 12-infinity levels of enemies in a randomised dungeon, with a double-tap dash button and twin-stick shooting (no auto-aim). And it's fun to have a quick bash at.
From the era of "neon every f'ing thing" retro 8-bit-that-shit Indy games. It's hardcore, but it's easy. It's fast, but it gives you that adrenaline kick. It's build-y, but just in the "best gun for my playstyle" kinda thing. It's roguelike, because there's no meta-progression, but it's better for all that. It's slow, because you can just do a run when you want, and the sounds and chip-tune music and graphics and play speed, gives you the brain-drugs you want, but it's not too addictive.
It has a free version. And the $2-3 full version is a shit-tonne better.
Umm, play it. It's really good. It's like a breath of fresh air, to just have a game, that does its thing, and does it well.
(Virexian is probably the reason that I'm ok at twin-stick shooters on mobile. It just gets you better at them, regardless of your previous skill level)
On vaguely "I wish I knew this ages ago" news, there's an unofficial port of Nuclear Throne on android as well. I actually don't really like the UI on this one, but hey. You can't have everything, for an otherwise amazing game. I don't know, search for it, or something.
Post by: delphonso on August 29, 2022, 12:34:51 am
I've been playing a bit of Pokemon TCG Online, which doesn't have a Linux port, but with this, I can just sit at my computer and play tournaments and such (something that's just a bit too long for me to do while inches away from my phone, also I can browse the forums in the background while I wait, which logs you out of the app, normally.)
Post by: sambojin on September 20, 2022, 09:37:34 pm
They released some patches. My favourite sniper rifle got *way worse* (ie, it's probably balanced now. No super-quick primal form. Maybe a little underpowered actually, it's been merged to hell), a new double shot rocket launcher with a smallish AoE (it doesn't *really* compare to the other two, where the large magazine one is probably the best weapon in the game now), and a new primal-form.
The new primal-form is a quick/ dodgy archer with piercing attacks.
The matchmaking is slightly better. So I figured I'd game the hell out of that, because I want more tooled people on my team.
I have the large-clip machine-gun rocket launcher (pretty levelled on damage, but not infused that well, but not bad). I will never level another thing in my gear loadout, because my "normal form" is a dps monster, so the weaker my "primal form" is, the less it'll add to my "gear score". So having a new primal form that starts with lvl1 stats is a boon, because it doesn't add much to my gear score. Whereby allowing better geared teammates to randomly join in on the conflagration of death I cause. I think it works that way.
So, yep. Still got my basic mortar (it's levelled and infused to hell, but is so good), now running a heal-over-time item (about lvl11, Catalytic Heal?), a shield-over time item (lvl11 or so, Empathy Band?), and whatever weapon I want to run.
It's still a support build. Blibbits of shield and life, rather than full heals and massive shield dodges. But not having zero-gear mooks/ bots in your match is worth it, on not going ultimate-primal or being super-tanky. It's not like it's harder to kill people, it's just harder to heal them and not die yourself.
(Still works fine with miniguns etc. I tested it. Some of the fastest Hydra matches I've ever played. So yeah, trying to keep my "gear score" under 190-200, where it can easily balloon to 295-300 with the stuff I've got, whereby killing off about 50 "gear score" to two of my teammates. It's gamey, but it seems to be how it works)
((You kinda start at about 150'ish gear score in this game, so freeing up 100 gear score for your team is pretty big, especially with a support + dps build. Matchmaking is weird. You're not as unkillable, but you can jank it that your entire team is. And, in theory, you're pretty good at the game yourself by the time you can gear down, to add better stuff to your team. You'll still have to 1-man-army it sometimes, it's just a lot more reliable when you do or don't have to))
Post by: Iduno on October 24, 2022, 01:44:21 pm
Gachas seem to be getting even worse about their "if you haven't played constantly since the beginning, don't even bother" design, and everything else seems to be also some super-competitive FPS/MOBA that I don't care about even if I was good at that type of game.
Am I best off finding a way to play FFTA or similar again? I want something new, but I don't know what.
Post by: Uristides on November 07, 2022, 07:53:53 am
Octopath Traveller: Champions of the Continent: the good part is that it feels like they had a pitch for an actual single player game before deciding it was going to be for mobile and needed to have gacha skinner box elements. The bad part is that they eventually decided to turn it into a gacha skinner box anyway. It's not that the game is P2W or anything, but simply that having to perform bunch of daily rituals to get free stuff, and then managing a dozen plus roster of characters together with their gear, really gets in the way of actually playing it.
Arknights: gacha tower defence game. I have barely been able to do anything yet because there's so much text to plow through before they let you play on you own. While the actual gameplay looks simple and fun enough, I just can't get past how awfully overcrowded the main interface looks.
Post by: Dostoevsky on November 08, 2022, 05:18:15 pm
Arknights really loves its characters and stories - if they're your jam, then great, but I got pretty tired of it after a while. Also realized that it my interaction with it was increasingly becoming 'leave phone on while you autofight a level a hundred times to grind, then maybe actually play the game a bit every few days' like so many gacha games.
Post by: notquitethere on November 08, 2022, 05:28:34 pm
I've also used a glulx interpreter on my phone to play through the entirety of Anchorhead, an amazing lovecraftian text adventure, but I generally recommend using a computer to play those.
Post by: sambojin on November 12, 2022, 08:11:08 pm
I don't know if it's any good or not, only just finished the tutorial, but it promises roguelite'ish progression, the controls are easy to use, and the cool downs etc don't seem too bad.
Sort of somewhere between an auto-battler, a base defender, and an actual RTS. Since they tend to put plenty of work into their games, and plenty more content after release, this might be worth checking out.
Controls are more "move your entire troop blob" with hero power cooldowns etc, not actual RTS (which is good on mobile), but there may be some deeper strategy than blob composition and timing. Worthwhile finding out.
Graphics are cutesy/ cartoony, sort of a Starcrafts vibe (a well-loved YouTube series based on blizzards game) with a bit more realism. Tiny, cartoony, but recognisable on what's what.
It's sort of "try chapter 1 for free, chapter 2-4 costs", but it's only $7.99 Aussie (~$6US?) and chapter 4 promises procedurally generated levels, so I don't mind a 1-off purchase from these developers. All techs etc unlock with that one hit, so it's not a cash-shop for progression (I have no idea if there's plenty of grind or timers or anything crap, I've just got enough faith in ChillyRoom that I'll probably get my $8 worth of fun out of it by the end).
((I actually like the mobile-shareware concept for stuff like this. Does this run on your hardware? Does it show potential? Do you like this sort of game, and how the controls are implemented and stuff like that? Did you like chapter 1? Cool, the rest of the game has a price tag, but it's pretty cheap. And ChillyRoom's stuff tends to get more zany and fun with stuff added to it, not half-assed content filler for the money))
Post by: Iduno on November 13, 2022, 01:05:08 pm
It looks like a generic clicker game where you click to get money, then spend the money upgrading. But, as you play, you get 2 forms of passive income: buildings which give income per second based on their cost (cheaper buildings produce less, but it's not 1:1) but have an increasing cost the more you buy, and assistants which click for you each second. When you've earned a certain amount of money, you can ally with one of 2 (later 3) alignments, each with 3 factions. The factions each have their own spells and upgrades with a theme. You can also unlock trophies for doing specific things (sometimes playing well/fast, sometimes doing things very inefficiently, sometimes you have to be fast and inefficient in a particular way) that give a small permanent bonus or new upgrade you can buy each run. Because there is a new game+ like thing where you get more production (coins per second) or mana or whatever for having done well previously, and it snowballs.
It's fairly deep and interesting for a clicker, and you get some progress when you're not playing, which keeps you coming back. You *can* pay money, but you don't get enough that it's worth it (plus, you're paying to get less time out of a time-waster game, which isn't smart) or watch an ad to get a bonus. The ads may not work anymore, they no longer work on my phone, and haven't worked in the steam version in years.
Post by: Jopax on December 28, 2022, 08:27:50 am
The game itself? Well, it's a party based dice rolling RPG rougelike of a sort. You basically run trough a series of combat encounters with your party of five, each a distinct class that comes with their own dice with distinct moves. You roll one or more times, pick the sides that you wanna keep, select targets and end the turn. Fairly simple and straightforward, but the system is so nicely tuned and well designed that there's a shitton of variety and depth possible. Add to that that after each encounter you get either an item (which do various things like modifying the dice, giving you spells or similar) or a level-up which generally completely changes how a class functions and you get a massive amount of replayability. And that's just the basic mode, there's stuff like randomly generated classes, extra difficulty runs where you select various penalties to make things more interesting and it gets fairly wild.
What makes it even better for mobile play is that each encounter is turn based, usually lasts a couple of minutes and can be dropped or picked back up whenever. The regular run has 20 encounters which means you can either spend a couple of minutes or half an hour on the game, depending on time and mood.
One of the rare mobile games where I actually wanted to spend money on it, doubly so because it's a one time thing and not a continuous assault on your resolve to keep throwing money down the skinner box pit.
Post by: sambojin on February 03, 2023, 07:42:23 am
Did you know that BuriedBornes 2 is meant to be coming out this year? And apparently your saves may/may not be transferrable?
So yeah. They're giving out heaps of random in-game currency, and I finally grabbed the Moon Queen character, and snagged the Countless Tentacles amulet (so you start with it as a skill).
In my current run, it's actually my weakest skill.... Because I got one of those 999,999 damage isn't quite enough runs. Need another limit break.
Anyways, I'm hoping lab parts and contracts are transferrable to BB2. Because as a harvesting character, I have a heap of stuff. I mean, shit, I hope they do gatcha stuff, where if you have three if them, you can merge them into a new level. I have so much random crap now....
Post by: sambojin on February 15, 2023, 02:09:14 am
And now I have every level 1 special crafting cosmetic costume item! And they do cross into some other awesome stuff too.
So, yeah. Onward and upward in my bullet-hell archero-like stop'n'shoot action game. Some of the outfits are quite pretty. Best dress crafting game ever! Other than the ones that actually focus on that.... Lol
Post by: notquitethere on February 15, 2023, 06:11:34 am
Post by: tnc on February 26, 2023, 07:11:30 am
Post by: Frumple on February 26, 2023, 09:30:12 am
Post by: Iduno on February 26, 2023, 11:17:29 am
Realm Grinder is pretty good, but you just don't do much with it. That's nice when you've got like 1-2 minutes to kill, but not for 30-40.
Post by: n9103 on February 26, 2023, 03:50:05 pm
Post by: sambojin on February 28, 2023, 05:43:03 am
Post by: sambojin on February 28, 2023, 06:43:48 am
So if you make a list of games that stayed on your phone, what would it be? Mine is only XCOM but Slay The Spire was the last one I deleted. Probably will download again.
I've sorta got a "if I had to live on a deserted island" list. And it's pretty long, because I'll probably die there, or something...
Absolutely no order of "goodness", just vaguely random. A pretty good portion of these are no internet connection required stuff. Look, between the solar panel to charge my phone, and me learning how to go fishing properly/ finding fresh water in a survival scenario, I do not want to have to re-invent the internet as well.
OpenXcom (with heaps of mods)
Wizard Legends (stop 'n' go shooter)
Gunfire Reborn (Roguelike firstperson shooter)
Root (tabletop strategy game, on a phone)
Age of Fantasy (turn based strategy)
Cardinal Quest (Roguelite'ish)
Pathos: the Nethack Codex (Roguelike)
XenoCommand (simplified RTS starcraftian, for phones)
Event Horizon: Frontier (2d space shooty screensaver, but good)
UnCiv (Civ5, but it has tonnes of mods)
FreeCiv (Civ2)
Polytopia (different Civ#?)
BuriedBornes (an interesting rpg (?)/ timewaster game)
Sil (another Roguelike I've never played, but want to)
RogueDungeon (not a RL, but I have played it a bit. Brainclear)
Stick Ranger 1(?) (the finest and most beautiful SR game so far)
Pixel Craft (vertical shoot'em up. Ugly and hard)
OpenTyrian (easy and beautiful)
CoreCraft (way fucken uglier and harder. It gets difficult)
BalloonSuperMonkey2 (kinda pretty and awesome)
Downwell (doesn't work that well on touchscreen, but then, sometimes it does. Ugly and medium)
Shoomachi (combo based vertical scrolling shooter)
Magic Survival (time waster)
Vampire Survival (^++)
Dungeon Quest (sorta bad at being an action RPG)
Titan Quest (slightly better at being an action RPG)
Templar Assault (phone Space Hulk)
Templar Battleforce (phone mini-wh40k/xcom)
Solomon's Keep (action'ish roguelite. Sometimes you need chain lightning)
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (could potentially play it on a phone)
Shattered Pixel Dungeon (Roguelike'ish. Most Pdungeon variants are pretty cool)
Summoning Pixel Dungeon (another fun variant)
FreeHeroes2 (Heroes of Might and Magic 2)
Chimera: Recollect (a thumb flicker game? But wonderful..)
Battlevoid: Harbinger (because android doesn't have FTL)
Star Traders (Sid's Pirates! In space!!! Kinda. Tradey-Elite style)
Fly Casual (X-Wing miniatures, on your phone. Screensaver)
Ur-quan Masters (Star Control 2, plus screensaver AIvsAI)
Soul Knight (2d topdown auto-aim shooter, randomised. Quite good)
Fortress Legends (vaguely sidescrolling randomised beat'em up)
Virexian (retro-twin-stick shooter, fast pace)
Scribblenauts Remix (it's, umm, Scribblenauts. Sandbox game?)
Nuclear Throne (twin stick shooter, fast paced)
Skull Girls (what are phones hopeless at? 2D Streetfighter2-style fighting games. This one passes muster though, hopelessly. It's not a good fighting game, but it is Skull Girls' art)
SlingFighter (possibly a better fighting game than Skull Girls)
Warriors of the Universe (possibly better than SlingFighter)
Tekken 3? (And maybe MarvelVsCapcom1? Look, download a psx emulator. And a SNES and Megadrive one too, while you're at it. Phones barely do good fighting games)
Space Grunts (puzzle game)
World Box (eh? A simulation thingo?)
Galimulator (a galaxy simulator. Possibly also a game in there)
King of Dragon Pass (narrative story game thing)
Liberal Crime Squad (no, I can't work it out. But it does have an android release, in case KoDP isn't your thing)
Reigns (left/right card flicker resource game)
RogueJack (the best aversion therapy to card gambling ever)
DeckDeDungeon2 (a deckbuilder cardgame, in the same sense that SlingFighter is a fighting game. Satisfying combos)
Clickpocalypse II (I hate incremental clickers, but this one's OK)
Magic Dosbox (touchscreen design implementation thing for DOS games)
And way way more. There's tonnes of free or fairly cheap games out there. Hell, I'd put NES M.U.L.E and Pirates! on the list, but then I'd have to put Xcom 2 (yes, the new one) on there too. Throw Warriors Orochi 2 and Planetary Defense Force 2 (EDF2) for the PSP on there while you're at it. Storage is cheap, but not that cheap. Give me a fuck-around game of M.U.L.E any day of the week, in comparison to those sorts of kilobytes of "fun" required. But yeah, sometimes you do need those sparkles as well. Thankfully storage is cheap these days, even on phones.
Other than xcom2, I know they all fit comfortably on the 128gb internal storage of a phone, alongside a heap of other games/ apps/ creative tools/ image editors/ programming stuff/ roleplaying stuff/ reference stuff/ shit not listed, some art stuff/ animations I'm going to do from eventually/ maybe, and heaps of other stuff. Because they're on there now. And there's probably 4-5yrs playtime on that list of really good games, so yeah, I'm good for now.
Post by: sambojin on March 07, 2023, 08:36:16 pm
Each weapon or item has an ability (of which there are over 100 of), that gives you a cool down skill, which costs mana. They range from force bolts, to swift movements, to vampiric touch, to tackle charges, to time stops, to fireballs, to heaps of other stuff. And the game isn't shy about giving you a selection of them, so you can build the sort of character you want.
Upgrades of these items are done with scrap, which ups damage or life or mana, and is your generic currency. You can upgrade at any time (no scrolls or shops needed), depending on your needs. There's a slight "you have to be on dungeon level *x* to upgrade further" thing, but you've always got more items than you do scrap anyway, so that's for balance.
There's spears with range, smitey hammers, lunging daggers, set-them-on-fire rings, I-have-a-swift-dodge boots, amplify damage whatever's, and heaps more. And you can then enchant them for even more build variations. And you'll use these basic item features alongside your cooldowns constantly, but not quite ToME4 levels of it. Heaps, but not like a constant rotation. Regularly powerful combos, but always situational for any given dungeon section and enemy group. You can hold onto the first weapon/ item you find, and use it for the whole run, if you like it. Or you can scrap stuff as you please, with minimal costs attached, if you find something you like even better.
Most enemies in the game have abilities that you'll have to think your way around. Some have big cooldowns, some good basic attacks, some both. And movement is key to avoiding the problems and destroying them piecemeal or enmasse. Even a couple of archers and skeletons can be a threat, not to mention a couple of golems and a dragon or two. But it's all doable. Charge in and blow through mana/ cooldowns, or dance around picking them off, or back-off while your mana/ cooldowns are sufficient to take them out, or even just facetank them knowing there's a couple of healing orbs nearby. They've all got their gimmicks, but you've got yours as well.
And it feels really good. You're winning through strategy and movement and tactics, not through lucky drops or completely obscure mechanics. Or the ones that are, become obvious very quickly. Not necessarily lethally, just in a "what does that do? Ok, ouch" sense. You don't get one-shot, but if you don't learn from your experiences, good or bad, you'll have a harder time of it. It's a learning curve, not a cliff. Next time, you'll be better at dealing with that, even on the same run you're on.
And yeah. It's pretty enough, it simplifies plenty of stuff down while keeping a hardcore feeling, it's complex enough and makes you feel smart, it runs great on android phones, and it's only $1. So try it out. You'll probably love it.
Here's a YouTube video about the game by Retromation. But it's a lot better than what is shown by about lvl8-9 or so. And it's pretty quick to get there. And yes, noping out and taking the stairs is fine on some levels, you don't have to explore every nook and cranny (or break every/ any bit of scenery).
https://youtu.be/dK8_VIJBF2Q
((Got up to lvl25 with what I'm assuming is the final boss and died to him in about an hour or so, only on easy-mode mind you,. So it's not quite a coffee break game, but you can do a run within reasonable time, 2-3 20-30min sessions easily. It's not a "brain hard" game (on easy mode), but there's plenty of times you'll mutter "wow, I should have done that differently" yet still come out swinging. It's not one bad decision that will kill you, but enough of them and you'll die. There's a bit of RNG, but there's also plenty of stupid in your deaths in this one
Rogue, 593 score, killed by a magma elemental on floor 25, in case you were wondering. Yes, the boss is a summoner, and a lockdown expert if you try and dps/ facetank/ move around him. But, yes, you are given every resource you could possibly need to back away and try actual tactics (like you learned the entire run). I just didn't. I did chip off about 2/3rds of his health though. Lol))
(((I just got the terrible decision of "Blazing Sword" (giant mega flamewave ability) or "Frost Staff" (super lockdown, remove enemy cooldowns in a fireball area). Both take heaps of mana though. But I got them on dungeon lvl1 on a new run. Two super AoE weapons, that'll take me to lvl25. Urrrgghhhh.
Went Blazing Sword, because it gives me some tactics I want to try, and then even got "chance to heal for X on attack" on the first smithy for facetank. And a draw-in/ implosion skill on some other item. And a movement jump/blast. So, yep, end-game'ish gear, if I can use them well, by dungeon lvl5-6 or so. With great games comes great options for power, without too much screwing around, and all that. You have to know this game to play it well (I don't yet), but you don't have to jump through hoops to have viable endgame options by level 10, depending on build/ mood/ playstyle. I took the exact same frost spear Retromation had in the YouTube vid to lvl25, so anything's possible)))
Post by: Iduno on March 08, 2023, 07:31:00 pm
Labyrinth of Legendary Loot is a top-down turn based roguelike, with a focus on tactical gameplay and movement. And it's really good.
Each weapon or item has an ability (of which there are over 100 of), that gives you a cool down skill, which costs mana. They range from force bolts, to swift movements, to vampiric touch, to tackle charges, to time stops, to fireballs, to heaps of other stuff. And the game isn't shy about giving you a selection of them, so you can build the sort of character you want.
Upgrades of these items are done with scrap, which ups damage or life or mana, and is your generic currency. You can upgrade at any time (no scrolls or shops needed), depending on your needs. There's a slight "you have to be on dungeon level *x* to upgrade further" thing, but you've always got more items than you do scrap anyway, so that's for balance.
There's spears with range, smitey hammers, lunging daggers, set-them-on-fire rings, I-have-a-swift-dodge boots, amplify damage whatever's, and heaps more. And you can then enchant them for even more build variations. And you'll use these basic item features alongside your cooldowns constantly, but not quite ToME4 levels of it. Heaps, but not like a constant rotation. Regularly powerful combos, but always situational for any given dungeon section and enemy group. You can hold onto the first weapon/ item you find, and use it for the whole run, if you like it. Or you can scrap stuff as you please, with minimal costs attached, if you find something you like even better.
I got a few weapon choices, including a rapier (lunge attack if I move next to an enemy) of malefice (can damage an enemy adjacent to one I damage), a malefice gravity helm (move enemies closer to me, and also damage them), and an amulet that prevents enemies (archers) from moving away from me and also deals damage to adjacent enemies who damage me. I have no idea if it's good, but it feels like a build.
Post by: sambojin on March 24, 2023, 09:46:36 pm
https://dominaxis-games.itch.io/labyrinth-of-legendary-loot#:~:text=Labyrinth%20of%20Legendary%20Loot%20is,nothing%20but%20a%20dull%20sword
It's a really good roguelike, so at least, try it out)
Been playing a bit of Mighty DOOM recently, to get away from the Magic Survival (or, Vampire Survival)-likes that seem to be the trend these days.
It's, ummm, Archero. But with better weapons and a few gimmicks and a good IP. Because I love me some Doom spin-offs. And gimmicks.
(doomRL mobile version pls bethesda? Cough cough, give Kornel some money, and that could happen. Hell, I made a touchscreen interface for the DOS version and it worked fine)
What gimmicks? Well, instead of health potions, you do glory kills. So you have to get to that enemy body quickly (yes, you do have to kill them normally first) and you gib the body and get some life.
Oh, and it's not a stop'n'shoot, you just keep shooting. Your main weapon always, and you get a another one. Like a cool-down kaboom, but you have to press a button for that.
This all sounds pretty tame, but it's actually incredibly satisfying and refreshing on the genre. You literally can and should go in, all guns blazing, and mulch half the floor's baddies within the first few moments of each level start. Take a shotgun, take a rocket launcher, charge at the enemies and press the rocket launcher button at the appropriate time. Kaboom, splat, glory kill, no I didn't lose any life after that, but there's bodies everywhere, and now onto the next level.
Same same 1-out-of-3 upgrade thing from most archero-likes (different weapons get different perks), same sort of item upgrade system (different thingies give different stats and bonuses), a bonus special weapon that charges off kills (I use the 7-hit sword thingo, because single target damage on bosses, and a moments rest, is nice), and a weapon attachment that does a "thingy" every once in a while (varies, but a flamer on a shotgun works ok). And that's it.
But, it's actually quite enjoyable to play. Movement is key, instead of sitting back and sniping. Unless you have a sniping weapon set. But, it does *feel* very Doom'y, even in gameplay, despite the cutesy graphics. You really do rip and tear.
The level designs aren't bad, and have jump platforms and teleporters and spike-traps and stuff, and kaboom barrels. The enemy layout isn't bad, and they do have some interesting attack types, that are somewhat faithful to the IP, but in this genre.
I mean, I've only played it a couple of days, and am only up to world 3, but it shows promise. It does have a stamina system, but it recharges fairly quickly, so it's a quick 4 runs and you're out, which might keep up the tempo on splat'n'blat play. You don't get ads unless you want freebies, and they're not that necessary. And while high-end gear would be nice, it seems as though weapon choice and playstyle and vague skill is more of a determining factor than in many potential grindalots.
So it's not perfect, but it is good, and kind of refreshing. It's not like there's great or novel or "oh wow!" things going on with the gameplay mechanics here, but it's quite well done, is enjoyable to play in a Doom'y way, and good for a quick bash. So give it a go.
(It's like if Angel Saga and Archero had a baby, and he was angry. This is a good thing.
It's not the extreme cutesy wonder of a rune run in Wizard Legend either, but it's got that sort of risk/ reward movement thing going on too. Which is also good. I just wish it had that sort of itemization going on as well)
Post by: sambojin on September 07, 2023, 07:49:46 am
Played a bit of wh40k: Tacticus. It was ok. I kinda hate that you have to be ultramarines for the first 45 missions or so. I am up to mission 45 or so, so I hope this doesn't last. Ok, fair enough, you get heavy flamer girl, and I did buy "almost definitely dead canonically" lasgun-call-in anti-ork boy, but that sort of made it feel worse. I'm kinda an Ork or a TSons lad, and the story was even shitter than I could have hoped from them.
I also tried playing a bit more of Streets of Rogue. Now, there's a game that needs a *true* mobile release. And definitely on the part 2, coming soon. With a useable control system. Hopefully. Because playing this version is like playing the mobile release of Nuclear Throne. It's kinda shit, even though the game is amazing. I hope part 2 is fucking way better!
((Even more annoying, we still don't have a basic port of FTL to Android phones. That's still shitting me))
Post by: None on September 07, 2023, 10:57:23 pm
Only one I found worth a damn between Bricks Ball Bricks Ball Break Balls and Ball Crusher Ball Breaker Brick and other such tripe was Ancient Bricks, which doesn't try super hard to gouge you out of your money for failures or inundade you with horrible ads.
Like, cmon. It's breakout. Ball, paddle, bricks, powerups. Throw in some gold to collect from broken blocks and some incremental upgrades to keep it interesting. Dummy easy formula. But this is the only one I've found so far that is a) like a real game with some effort put in, b) doesn't make you wait twenty minutes or spend real money per ball.
So, uh, if you happen to have suggestions, I'm all ears. If you need an arkanoid clone to wile your time away on, well, this one works.
Post by: Frumple on September 08, 2023, 07:32:12 am
Sadly, the only three vaguely adjacent to arkanoid things I can think of other than that -- Brick Odyssey (Roguelite RPG fusion), Plong (will destroy your mind), and Whackerball (more pong than brick breaker, but most of the components are there) -- don't seem to have mobile releases.
Though, that said? The dummy easy formula is why there's a tremendous amount of really shitty, super monetized ones. It's pretty easy to shit out a brick breaker game and fleece some rubes, basically, so lots of folks have done it :-\
Post by: n9103 on September 08, 2023, 07:33:33 am
Post by: BigD145 on September 09, 2023, 01:42:59 pm
Emulation. That is all.
This is the answer. Get an Amiga emulator.
Post by: Iduno on September 12, 2023, 06:52:09 pm
Still a good stupid game. Plus, I can't look up how to do things correctly. Because mobile.
Post by: sambojin on September 14, 2023, 04:27:19 pm
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.alesapps.arkanoidfree
It's called the Arkanoid Collection, and seems pretty faithful to the original, and it's free with ads. Might be what you're looking for? I don't know how obtrusive the ads are, but meh.
(Only up to lvl2, but it seems to just be banner ads, not in-between level ads. But considering how long the average arkanoid level takes me, I wouldn't even care if it was every few levels or so. But for now, it's just been banner ads, so totally unobtrusive, considering how much you have to focus on this style of gameplay)
((Brickscapes: Brick Breaker didn't seem horrible. It's got a stamina system, which is bad. But it's got fairly regular multiballs and other effects, which is good. Sorta just runs off a "how many hits" counter as well as 1-free life per level, for working out when you die.
I am, admittedly, only up to level 8, and it's very mobile'y. That stamina system could get annoying, and lives don't carry over (each level is its own instance, so no highscores runs) so it doesn't really "feel" like Arkanoid. It feels heaps "faster", but that's because it's heaps "easier". I'm assuming it's lulling me into a false sense of confidence, waiting to get my moneys.
I might just make up a touchscreen interface for the DOS version of arkanoid through magic dosbox instead. Or just do this as my first Godot app, because there's certainly space in the market for a free clone, considering all the Unity controversy. Be a good way of learning how to code, without massive overscoping. Hell, I've even got Godot editor on my phone, so no more excuses I guess...))
Post by: Iduno on September 14, 2023, 08:50:34 pm
Disregard the rest of this post, there's this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.alesapps.arkanoidfree
It's called the Arkanoid Collection, and seems pretty faithful to the original, and it's free with ads. Might be what you're looking for? I don't know how obtrusive the ads are, but meh.
((Brickscapes: Brick Breaker didn't seem horrible. It's got a stamina system, which is bad. But it's got fairly regular multiballs and other effects, which is good. Sorta just runs off a "how many hits" counter as well as 1-free life per level, for working out when you die.
I am, admittedly, only up to level 8, and it's very mobile'y. That stamina system could get annoying, and lives don't carry over (each level is its own instance, so no highscores runs) so it doesn't really "feel" like Arkanoid.
I might just make up a touchscreen interface for the DOS version of arkanoid through magic dosbox instead. Or just do this as my first Godot app, because there's certainly space in the market for a free clone, considering all the Unity controversy. Be a good way of learning how to code, without massive overscoping. Hell, I've even got Godot editor on my phone, so no more excuses I guess...))
Hell yes.
Post by: None on September 30, 2023, 12:19:15 am
My phone ends up being too new for Soul Armor or Chimera Recollect if I wanted to get them out of the play store, annoyingly enough.
Post by: Iduno on September 30, 2023, 01:36:09 pm
I just have to be careful which games I choose. Anything requiring careful timing/inputs is out, because touchscreens aren't good for accuracy or seeing what button you're pushing. I made it surprisingly far in the first 2 Megaman Battle Network games (Protoman and Thunderman, in that order, were where I got stuck) and certainly far enough to wonder what game series they were based on. Megaman characters in a game where you don't even usually get the boss' power when you beat them unless you're hunting down advanced versions of them, but you can get powers from trash enemies. Fire Emblem is fine, despite me no longer having the right kind of mind for it (thanks, repeated COVID bouts!). I'll need to find more games.
Also, VLC player is great for when you don't have wireless. Just load up with movies, audiobooks, music, or whatever and play it back.
Post by: n9103 on September 30, 2023, 03:06:00 pm
Post by: Iduno on September 30, 2023, 05:56:17 pm
http://abigailcorfman.com/Home/Vampire (http://abigailcorfman.com/Home/Vampire)
It's good for an hour or so of entertainment, and some slight frustration as you try to figure out the right order to do a few things.
Post by: delphonso on September 30, 2023, 09:00:15 pm
Riviera is an odd game that I think is worth playing. Mother 1-3 are all available for GBA (1 and 2 were packaged together in Japan. Fan translation is easy to find.) Honestly Zelda Minish Cap might be doable. It's an.easy game.
Post by: Frumple on September 30, 2023, 09:56:59 pm
Official localization wise, I'm not sure how playable they are on a mobile device, but I got a fair amount of love for the Summon Nights games, and Tales of Phantasia ended up on the system in english at some point. Play issues a thing, but the castlevania games on the GBA are mostly pretty solid and not that demanding on the reflexes.
Riviera was mentioned, but there's another game in the series (Yggdra Union) on the system that's possibly more interesting (though some of the design is kinda'... wild (https://deptheaven.fandom.com/wiki/Nietzsche), ha).
Post by: sambojin on October 03, 2023, 02:10:18 am
No, it's nothing like the PC release. But having a bit of DnD goodness might just scratch an itch.
Post by: sambojin on October 11, 2023, 07:11:47 pm
It seems to have a fair few weapon types, a reasonable in-level upgrade system, pretty good controls, a possibly OP dodge-roll, and enough bullets flying around during boss battles to make it fun.
Pretty much level/ instance based, with each level having 3 to lots of rooms (only two for boss levels, so you can do quick runs), with some branching paths giving different in-level upgrades/ resources or heal-room timings, so there's a bit of decision making involved. And there are tonnes of out-of-level upgrades, with cooldown skills, support call-ins, element types, shield breakers, weapon-type masteries, and gear slots to change up how you're playing a bit. Another nice thing is, when you level up your slot I or slot II weapon, it levels up *all of them*. So no more juggling unequips, resets, level up the next, currency minmax'ing, etc. Just all your stuff for that slot gets better, which is very good design. You can try out what you want, knowing nothing is a waste.
In level graphics are nice, with good bullet clarity for dodging, and overall pleasing aesthetics. Sound is pretty good, with only the occasional anime "wah", and there is no voiced story lines (which to me is a positive, they're always horrible). Controls feel pretty tight, if a touch floaty or slow (might just be that I need +movement speed gear), but buttons have good response and layout. You can turn off auto-aim if you want to play it as a true twin-stick shooter, so that's nice. Out-of-level graphics do have the "normal" amount of slightly provatively posed waifu cast, but it's not completely gratuitous (nor animated, which takes the edge off boob bounce, because it's not there), and the between level interface is pretty easy to understand. There's a bit of engrish, but not too much.
Sure, it's got all the mobile-bad things (a stamina system, gacha galore, multiple currency systems, watch an ad level raids, a slightly ridiculous amount of potential upgrades, etc), and it'll probably end up being grindy as hell, but the core gameplay is pretty good. I've become pretty desensitized to the standard mobile fare these days, if the basic gameplay loop and all the other stuff is reasonably good/ forgiving, and this one seems like it is. It also has the advantage that excepting timed "event" battles, you could probably chunk your way through with no upgrades at all, just with good dodging and slowly chipping away at enemies, which is why I don't mind this sort of game. It's not really a stats-check, or a have-I-gacha'd-enough? thing, just bigger numbers make things die quicker, and you have more cool stuff happening as you do it. So it seems like it's free to play, for a certain amount of effort involved (but seriously, there is a lot of stuff you could buy). I've already got a fine Minigun from a daily chest (which I don't actually like that much, windup mechanics don't work that well with multiple cooldown buttons and dodging), and a few rare melee swords and a coil gun thing from initial act 1 starter currency, and the normal starter weapons and skills are pretty nice, so it's pretty ok in that way. I'd actually probably purchase a super-low priced intro thingy, but I haven't really worked out what half the things are good for yet. I don't mind supporting developers that seem to be putting a fair bit of effort into their product, and this one seems ok'ish in that regard.
I'm not sure if it's a "good" game yet, but I don't think it's a particularly bad one. It feels pretty good, but I don't have enough playtime to really make a proper call on it. Sort of a mixture between Soul Knight and Gungeon, but even more anime'y. Worth a look if you like that sort of stuff. It gets a fair bit better after the initial tutorial, so try and get past that, and you'll probably have a bit of fun with it.
****
burstno1
spaceno1
bsno1
Are all codes for some freebies (in the top left character screen, redeem code). Just found out today. In theory, with initial act 1 starter currency and these, you'll definitely get a couple of legendary weapons/ supports. They also do have a $1 entry level purchase, which gives you a legendary support and other stuff, so stuff can start looking cool early on.
******
Post by: Iduno on October 11, 2023, 09:07:55 pm
Can recommend Golden Sun 1 & 2. No real reflexes needed.
The carry spell requires pixel-perfect usage, but it's needed for like 2 puzzles in the first game. Not sure if it improved in the second game or not.
Edit: I think I got confused and thought carry and lift were the same spell. Although I'm still mad about that plot point (?) where you need to stand in exactly the correct spot to lift a boulder off someone.
Post by: sambojin on October 14, 2023, 06:41:26 pm
Currently using a diamond sword that works more like an ice flamethrower, and a sniper rifle that works more like a rocket launcher in most levels after an in-level upgrade or two. Plenty of random stuff starts happening by the end of each level when I throw a firebomb or hit my transformation button. It's still very worthwhile using different weapons and supports for a variety of playstyles, or against certain enemies or challenges though, so it's not just "biggest gun wins". They've all got cool alpha strike abilities and bonuses, so you can fiddle around trying stuff out, without wasting too many resources if it doesn't work how you want it to.
Only finished planet set 2 so far, but it all seems ok. I've got rare and legendary weapons and supports (even an epic one) that do all kinds of stuff, gear sets are simple to acquire and easy to level up (have a bit of a +crit%/ generalist thing going at the moment), the stamina system hasn't impeded progress in the slightest so far, the room and enemy layouts have been challenging but fair, and I'm having quite a bit of fun.
If you can get through the first tutorial bit, and get over the ridiculous amount of things to potentially do (they're all optional though. You could just do main missions and still have a good time) then I think most people that like 2d top down shooters will enjoy it. It's got its downsides, but it's also quite fun to play. So yeah. Give it a go if you want a slow burner/ progression'y, but fast paced /sparkly when playing, twin stick shooter on your phone. It's pretty well made, not a total cash grab, is remarkably easy to play considering how much stuff is going on with synergies and gearing, and it feels pretty good when you play it/ win. Levels are quick to play but give enough time to get some upgrades going, and your kabooms, alpha strikes (that background charge with weapon swaps), and lazors-everywhere-cooldown stuff are pretty satisfying. It's fun.
Post by: Uristides on December 08, 2023, 09:31:37 am
But by far the most annoying thing for me is that the game seems to have a natural, time-based progression. As the turns go on, enemies seem to get ever stronger, and gladiator revolts get ever more powerful. So you really have to get your first batch of gladiators as strong as possible to keep momentum up, and quash revolts before they get out of hand. Failing to do so means you're stuck with under-leveled fighters unable to win tournaments, and the revolts will keep rolling over, killing all your slaves(yeah, for better or worse, the game doesn't shy from this staple of roman work culture), most of your fighters, and sacking all of your gold. You can sell some of your stuff to try and get everything up and running again, but the time progression I mentioned makes it very unlikely for you to actually manage to accrue enough resources to stave off mr. Spartacus fun caravan when they next come knocking on your door
So, why am I recommending a game I've spent the past two paragraphs just complaining about? Because it's neat, with some nice bits of flavor, and fairly easy to just pick up and play on your spare time. The main progression is based in turns, and the battles take place without any intervention on your part. So, while I do have some beefs with it, I can't seem to put it down just yet, and keep coming back to it whenever I have a free couple of minutes.
Post by: notquitethere on December 14, 2023, 05:18:59 am
Gladiator Manager is pretty okay.If you enjoy weird management games, I really recommend the orphanage manager, Olivia's Orphanorium (https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=waljztz5tm1at7x6) which can be played on any text adventure emulator on phones. Raise orphans into productive members of society. Lots of fun dynamic events.
Post by: sambojin on January 15, 2024, 10:08:34 pm
Get in now, while the Xmas freebies are still going (Krampus mask and Giant log ftw!). The two-handed candy cane is easier to use though. Wreath Shield and small Candy Cane even more-so, and even more brutal. (It's in the top-right of the equipment load-out tab, little shield/whatever-your-faction-has thingy on the equipment screen, then scroll down to the star thingy for special event weapons, where there's like British Isles, etc as a list. At the bottom of that).
Do I know what I'm doing in the game? Nope. But I know how to do twin clockwise circles on the joysticks with a big weapon, to constantly beat head. Or shield forward'ish and circle beat? Not well enough yet 😋
**Double Tap on the left or right side of the screen, away from the joysticks, to move!**
(I just learnt that! Oh, and super-quick back-forward or circling or whatever-angle janking people with a holly-dagger and a shield works fine. But I still don't mind the bigger weapons. That got me to lvl10 weapons, on all of the above "moves", but I only realised how to move at lvl9, when I was in stabby shieldy mode)
((Strangely enough, one of the games I'm going to play for my "away from AGDQ2024 time", to try and get good at. We all need a game to clear the mind, sometimes))
Post by: sambojin on January 26, 2024, 02:28:08 am
But now there's a 3-Kingdoms one this season. Think Dynasty Warriors/ Musuo Orochi 2 style. You can mod the ever living f* out of your weapons. By killing people or finding chests or going to shops. And you can jump on your horsey with the push of a button, and ride around the map. And find more gold and weapons, and switch those mods in and out, to make an uber-overpowered weapon. Just to kick Dong Zhou's fat arse.
It's really fun! Give it a go.
((This 3-kingdoms thing, and the Rosemarie's Garden (or whatever it was called) could have just about been games in-of themselves. ChillyRoom is actually spending a bit of effort in this stuff. It's on the desk, to the right.)
Post by: Uristides on January 27, 2024, 08:14:27 am
Soul Knight keeps getting pretty big updates. I liked the last one. It was like a Vampires Survivor/ Brotato thing, but not, but you got to slowly scale all your stuff with optional buying choices. Even the most basic weapons got pretty hectic by wave 15. It was awesome.Sounds really nice, will definitely check it out.
But now there's a 3-Kingdoms one this season. Think Dynasty Warriors/ Musuo Orochi 2 style. You can mod the ever living f* out of your weapons. By killing people or finding chests or going to shops. And you can jump on your horsey with the push of a button, and ride around the map. And find more gold and weapons, and switch those mods in and out, to make an uber-overpowered weapon. Just to kick Dong Zhou's fat arse.
If you enjoy weird management games, I really recommend the orphanage manager, Olivia's Orphanorium (https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=waljztz5tm1at7x6) which can be played on any text adventure emulator on phones. Raise orphans into productive members of society. Lots of fun dynamic events.
Thanks for the rec! I have to admit I never got too much into text games, and trying to figure out which verbs I can/should use really did a number on me. But the premise is interesting enough I think I'll keep trying to get into it.
Post by: sambojin on January 28, 2024, 01:04:12 am
Haven't played it yet, downloading now. RIP hours of my life...
Ok, it's exactly the same as BB1, with slightly nicer music and UI. And tonnes of stuff that I don't understand yet. Which is a pity. I got to understand BB1. Well, whatever, give me a bit and I'll eventually give a reasonable report. But for now, it's all moon-speak to me, kinda.
(God help me if they make DeckDeDungeon3)
Post by: sambojin on January 31, 2024, 03:48:16 am
Whilst very much not a game, I have gotten a local AI LLM to work on my cheap Oppo phone. 8gig ram, crappy processor, crappy GPU. But it works!
More importantly, I only had to click on a web-link, install the app, and download the thingy. There'll be no compiling or crosslinking or Linux knowledge needed on my phone! Press button, press a few more, done! Like god intended dumbarses like me to do, to utilise our abominable technology.
It can write stories.
Sometimes it repeats itself a lot.
Sometimes, it repeats itself a lot...
Sometimes....
Anyway, here's a redpyjama implementation that you can run on your android phone. Locally, without internet. Expect every word you ask of it to take multiple seconds to interpret. Expect every word it outputs to take only one-two seconds(!) to display. Don't expect super-smarts, it's a 3b model.
It takes ages. But still:
https://llm.mlc.ai/docs/deploy/android.html
Download the redpyjama one. We don't all have a high-end Samsung phones. It will make your phone look like it's about to crash. Sometimes it does. But, you can wait.
((What? It's LLM language testing... starting my enquiries with "write an erotic story about" is *totally* seeing if it knows about context. It's not that great. My tongue has an erection))
Oh, and sometimes it'll work in the background, while writing posts or watching YouTube. Mostly it doesnt, but I'm sure there's a setting for that. Just in case you liked your battery life and/or CPU temperatures. Now you won't. And I thought rendering animations/ video or cataclysm:DDA was hard on the poor little thing 😊
((Remember to put ", in the Game of Thrones setting" on the end of some of your enquiries. It gets f'ing hilarious. It might not have scraped the original material, but it's built of wikis and stuff, if you'd like to theme an answer. It just makes them up, but hey. Good answers you just made up are good.... Sorta. Add your *foo* setting to the enquiry, it's pretty fun. Yes, "Starwars" works sometimes too...))
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: sambojin on February 04, 2024, 01:43:18 am
Winlator is essentially the Wine emulator for Android. It's easy to use, easy to setup, and has a heap of options to tweak in case a game won't work (DoomRL got an access error until I changed the DirectX graphics and sound version over to Wine-builtin. And changed over to the VIRGL graphics driver. I also cranked the reported graphics card down to a 1070, because I like changing too many options at once).
And yeah, it works! It's like Wine for Dummies. Which is exactly what I need.
Get it here:
https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator/releases
You've got basic RTS controls available in the back menu, which includes a right mouse button (the fire button in DRL), a mini-keyboard up the top right for other keyboard inputs (like "g"etting items or "r"reload), and it runs at an ok'ish speed. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's not too bad. You need to pull up the actual keyboard to press ">" to go down the stairs, and a lot of the other keyboard work is cludgy, but it's playable in a general sense of the term.
So, get all the games running that you want. I haven't gotten ToME4 to run yet, and I haven't tried Dwarf Fortress, but I only just downloaded Winlator this afternoon. Give me time....
(((Later edit from msgs below: I'll probably do the touchscreen controls in a way that they're slightly better in console/ ASCII text mode. Because that's the way I play DRL. You kids and your graphics and stuff.... Can't you see the blood?)))
Post by: sambojin on February 04, 2024, 01:55:29 am
(The one on this website, haven't tried the steam version)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Above spoilered because it's now outdated. The Lazy Newb Pack is ridiculous fast and performant on creating a pocket world at 125yrs history, and can do a 4x4 embark without problems, and has basic tile support. The 0.47.04rc4 one. I mean, it was a small world, but wow. So use something like that. Smaller world, less years, go hard! Plus, all the commands are helpfully listed at the side, and all work easily and quickly. I mean, you can embark on rivers and stuff. Whatever. It was just a simpler experience, even if the LNP took a while to load. Once Dwarf Fortress got going, it cranked. It was mostly about the menuing, where it's just quicker and easier.
Well my bearded bastards, we are in business! DF works on mobile! I have no idea how well it controls or plays, but I think we'll all do a bit of !research! on the matter. We might need to make a new topic thread, either somewhere further up the boards, or a "DF on Mobile" one here 🤯
((Winlator is also kinda open source, so changing the RTS keyboard overlay to something more DF-specific might not be too hard, to make controls easier.
Nevermind, it's got an integrated touchscreen maker-upper thingy 😁👍
Yay!!! I'll be back in a day or two with the DRL one. The Dwarf Fortress one? Ummm, does someone want to help?))
(((Your average phone runs at 1200x800 or more these days, with a bit of room on the sides in landscape mode for touch buttons, so should be good to go)))
((((My very first "Larger than smaller or pocket world", made on my very own phone. Yeah, sure, 125yr history, but a lot of it. Only took 10'ish minutes, maybe 15mins after the save. Loads quickly though. And is embarkable.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vnwzyzuob7rbbxbj77ltl/region4.zip?rlkey=1o9lrgq7lc6aecvqd8gmap44c&dl=0
Embarked on a 3x3 with two river squares in it. 35-60fps, occasional drops. So yeah, it works. Anywhere easier, even better than that 🙂
Yes, I am very proud to have Dwarf Fortress on my phone and working))))
Post by: Parsely on February 05, 2024, 12:05:05 am
Play Card Survival: Tropical Island. It's really surprisingly deep, yet satisfying even when you lose
Post by: sambojin on February 08, 2024, 01:47:21 am
It's still not great, but 1024x768 and that works fine'ish. Medium size/ 100yrs/ all the rest medium other than minerals everywhere, took about 5-10mins. Took about 5-10mins to save, but my phone has slow'ish storage.
All the menuing problems went away, I think. It was an audio driver issue.
You can embark on a 2x2 with a river tile, but I was getting like 8fps (so LNP is still far better. 2-5x better on fps). I'll generate a smaller world and be nicer to my phone.
Meh, the LNP version is so much nicer to my phone, that I'll say "You *can* run the most recent version of Dwarf Fortress on your phone, but you probably shouldn't. Unless you really like mouse icons for stuff. But there'll probably be a reasonable touchscreen interface done within a month or two anyway for the old skool version, so it'll be functionally similar but faster."
Also, somewhat importantly for a mobile game, Adventurer mode works too! I was an Emu-woman from the Burning of Coals civilization, and I was proud. So yeah, the LNP pack version is the shitznitz on mobile for now.
I posted it on the DF Reddit, and sent Toady a post, and even thanked the developer of Winlator (BrunoSX on YouTube). Whatever, I reckon that's enough to make this good in the long-run.
You can do your bit though. Help make a touchscreen interface for Dwarf Fortress! Your friends need you!
Post by: notquitethere on February 15, 2024, 06:41:48 am
Post by: Frumple on February 16, 2024, 02:36:49 pm
... because it doesn't work at all and all it is, is a picture with a button that doesn't do anything :P
Post by: notquitethere on February 17, 2024, 04:08:44 am
Post by: sambojin on February 18, 2024, 12:32:30 am
Also got Triangle Wizard working (that's how I found about non-strict shaders). The frame rate is a little bit unplayable, and it definitely needs a touchscreen interface, but it works. Might even work pretty well on a phone better than mine, because you'd only need about 1.5x the speed to make it sort-of playable.
Post by: Frumple on February 18, 2024, 07:53:08 pm
You have to hold the buttons down for a second (to prevent misclicks, I suppose).I tried holding down the only button I saw for like a straight minute, with nothing to show for it, heh.
Post by: AzyWng on February 19, 2024, 12:02:38 pm
Seems to work for me, I'm able to get the game started and can enter the first room and everything.You have to hold the buttons down for a second (to prevent misclicks, I suppose).I tried holding down the only button I saw for like a straight minute, with nothing to show for it, heh.
Maybe you just aren't holding down the button right? :P
Post by: sambojin on March 18, 2024, 10:12:34 pm
In my continuing quest to actually use the processing power of my crappy little phone, I've chucked a low-key local implementation of Stable Diffusion on it. SDAI to be precise.
Does it work well? No, and it only does 512x512 (otherwise it would take forever). Does it work fast? No (takes about 15-20mins for one image). But does it work? Yes! And you can run it locally, so it's free, as well as the more usable "just use someone else's processing power for this stuff", as is the fashion at this time. So it does both, but I like a non-internet'y thing, without messing around with Termux or Winlator.
And you can download a fair few different models/ LORAs to try out, depending on your artistic needs. Landscapes? Yep. Photorealistic? Umm, kinda (we're talking like dalle2'ish levels of stuff). Anime? Yeah, sure, I guess.
Grab it here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shifthackz.aisdv1.app
It's not "fully featured", but you've got a positive prompt (space out terms with commas), a negative prompt, a size thingy, amount of steps for generation quality, and other stuff that I don't know what it does. And a fair few free generative models to download, assuming you've got the space on your phone. 1-1.3gigs each. And considering it works fine as a pointy-clicky-does-a-thing solution, without any other knowledge of virtually anything else necessary, it's good.
Can it run in the background, while you're posting on forums, or watching YouTube videos? Kinda. It runs really slowly, but it's running now, as I post this. It's one of those RAM limitation things. Make a small image, and it'll probably chug along fine. A 512x512 one? Yeah, that'll crash 8gigs of RAM on Android, mostly. Still, it can do it. My next phone will have 12-16gigs of RAM, so I'll see what task swapping can do. But crank your YouTube down to 360p, and your image generation size down, and it'll slowly do it. Just check on it every minute or two, for processor priority purposes.
(Just remember to put "nsfw" on all your prompts, because it makes it work better)
Post by: sambojin on April 26, 2024, 07:29:24 pm
Comes with a range of downloadable models, and I get pretty acceptable speed out of the small and medium models on my Oppo A96 (old octacore/ 8gb ram). There's even a tiny model you can try if your phone is a complete potato, or is lacking in RAM (though the responses will be a bit dumber). I'm getting about 3 tokens/second out of the small model, with better responses due to character creation (want code? create a computer programmer character. Want short stories written? Create a writer, though it already comes with one), whereas I was only getting ~0.7-1token/s in MLC for a similar 3B model. The difference in speed is amazing. My phone isn't that much better than a potato, but 3tokens/second makes it pretty bareable.
The tiny model seems to use about 1.8gig of ram while running (so will probably work on damn near anything) and generates about 4.4tokens a second on my phone. Probably faster without analytics on, and I'm pretty sure my phone has heaps of random background apps/tasks running. Quality appears to be about the level of RedPyjama3B (MLC Chat's small model), but may be worse. At least it's quick. Oh, and the Writer character that comes with Layla will write nearly anything, whereas some characters won't.
So, it's just better in general than MLC, with way more model tweaking options, changeable context size, prettier interface, seemingly far better speed, and all kinds of other stuff. Apparently also gets frequent updates, that don't break everything (MLC broke for me after an update). Initial load times are a bit slow, but after that they're good.
I'll probably buy the paid version, just because I like supporting this sort of project. But as mentioned, free works fine.
Anyway, give it a go. You can get it here (an actual Play store app, no side loading required):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laylalite
It also allows loading of custom GGUF files for different language models, so I'll have a go at getting phi-3 going on it (a new model from Microsoft that is apparently fairly performant).
Yeah, phi-3 works fine. It's censored, and is slower than phi-2 (which is what Layla uses for its small model, uncensored) at about 2-3tokens/sec, but apparently it's a lot smarter. Was only using about 3.4gigs of ram, so should squeeze into plenty of phone's hardware specs. I'll probably stick to phi-2/ small for most stuff, because the extra speed is awesome, and I'm often not requiring genius level understanding. I'd probably just move up to 7B parameter models if I really needed context or a lack of hallucinations. You can grab it here if you want to try it out:
https://huggingface.co/microsoft/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct-gguf/blob/main/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct-q4.gguf
The new NVIDIA one also works on an 8gb RAM phone, just really slowly, so yeah. Us dwarfs, always on the cutting edge of tech. With axes. And mobile stuff. Praise Armok!
Choose a GGUF, any of them, for a laugh:
https://huggingface.co/bartowski/Llama-3-ChatQA-1.5-8B-GGUF
Post by: sambojin on May 05, 2024, 06:33:59 pm
I don't really get it, but it is kind of fun
Post by: Magmacube_tr on May 08, 2024, 08:24:46 am
What do I do? Also, I am currently on a shopping trip to buy a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. I get that the emulator has no interfacing tools yet, except for a mouse icon that I move with my fingers, so maybe that's it?
Post by: Magmacube_tr on May 08, 2024, 10:53:29 am
Post by: n9103 on May 08, 2024, 11:25:15 am
I'm not sure exactly which version of windows Winulator emulates, but it looks like 98 or XP on the surface.
Post by: Magmacube_tr on May 08, 2024, 11:35:46 am
Might help to know which version of DF you're trying. I wouldn't expect the steam/v50 version to run at all, and I wouldn't be especially surprised if 2014 didn't work either.
I'm not sure exactly which version of windows Winulator emulates, but it looks like 98 or XP on the surface.
Okay... Some observations
Winlator 5.0 can run DF 50.07 and 50.13.
But Winlator 6.1 cannot run 50.07, 50.12 and 50.13. It is possible that whatever happened between 5.0 and 6.0 broke its compatibility with DF.
Winlator 6.0 doesn't even opens DF.
Winlator 5.0 seems to be having problems running DF 50.13 anyhow. Opened once, then never again.
Post by: TurboDwarf on May 08, 2024, 12:53:28 pm
But yeah, try an earlier version. Anything from before 32 bit support got dropped.
Post by: Magmacube_tr on May 08, 2024, 01:47:35 pm
I'd more wanna know why one'd wanna run DF on a phone anyway. It's not like it'll run at any speed above 1-tick-per-hour lol.
But yeah, try an earlier version. Anything from before 32 bit support got dropped.
Well, depends on the phone, really. Mines pretty good, so I can run some semblance of a good fort.
Also it is neat.
Post by: n9103 on May 08, 2024, 01:53:48 pm
Alternatively, use the install wine button in the settings to install a version you've downloaded that's known to run a specific DF version.
Post by: Frumple on May 10, 2024, 07:06:35 pm
I'd more wanna know why one'd wanna run DF on a phone anyway. It's not like it'll run at any speed above 1-tick-per-hour lol.Yeah, especially some of the earlier versions, like... you could run a small fort in particular pretty easy on hardware that was significantly weaker than what a fair amount of phones tote these days. I'm less sure about the newest releases (it's been a while since I played and my comp these days isn't quite as dogshite as the ones I spent the most hours playing DF on, heh), but there's definitely been quite a few versions that'll not be substantially hardware limited by a phone's specs, particularly if you just do a small embark and throttle the max fort pop.
But yeah, try an earlier version. Anything from before 32 bit support got dropped.
DF's remarkably flexible in regards to performance if you're willing to dial some of it down a bit.
Post by: sambojin on May 14, 2024, 08:33:24 pm
But the LNP 0.47.05 one works fine under Winlator 5.0. So does the one on Bay12.
So, just uninstall Winlator, then install this one:
https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator/releases/download/v5.0.0/Winlator_5.0.apk
Works pretty much out of the box. I think I changed back buffer rendering, and it got going no problems, all other settings at default. Takes a bit to start up, but after that it runs pretty quickly.