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[Robsoie]

New version of 0 A.D.  , alpha 25 "Yauna"
https://play0ad.com/new-release-0-a-d-alpha-25-yauna/

Gave a quick test and was pleasantly surprised that performance was better, on a 1vs1 with an AI on a small acropolis map on previous version the game started to stutter like crazy once both the AI and myself had a decent (yet small in comparison to some other RTS) army.

This time i could finally move my army without it stuttering so much for a while.

It's not yet perfect as you feel the engine still struggle when there's AI and lots of pathfinding unfortunately, but it's already better than the previous version, hopefully the next will get there.

[Sirus]

FTL: Faster Than Light did have a thread, but it's been dead for years now and I'm not going to revive it.

Instead I'll just plug the Multiverse Mod. It's a massive project, still under development, which can basically be summarized as "FTL 2". More ships, more events, more species and species variants, more gear, more sectors, more factions, more bosses. There are improved QoL features and an overhauled upgrade system that allows one to really supercharge one's ship.

Basically, if you have fond memories of FTL and want to scratch the old itch again, I highly recommend giving Multiverse a try. It's a little janky here and there and balance can be off at times, but overall it's a fantastic mod/unofficial sequel.

[scriver]

Last year someone mentionned the existence of a real time game in development very inspired by Cataclysm and CDDA :
https://old.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/comments/dw8we1/i_found_out_that_some_guy_is_working_on_a_game/

And it looks like development never ceased as there have been a Kickstarter for it launched last week that reached its founding goal with still 23 days to go for the stretch goals :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monosw2000/nearly-dead

A trailer :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-BgPe4Wimg

And it's on Steam now, with a playable demo.

Nearly Dead

With the zombie apocalypse wiping out the trappings of society, you are finally free to pursue your true goal of becoming a furry.


It's... Pretty rough at this stage. The claim that it'll be done this quarter is laughable, it's incredibly clunky and buggy, and 90% of the feedback in the game is "*description coming soon*" or "null" or "快樂土豆發射台吃掉了我的褲子". My trait of having a human diet (this changes depending on how mutated you are) was quick to enlighten me that this status meant I had ":condition-change -50, :condition-change -4, :condition-change -0, :condition-change -20, :condition-change +50", putting the matter to rest.

Sometimes, you'll enter a state where opening doors will bring up your inventory page and plaster it across the screen. This can be remedied by mashing the "search" key (defaults to K) 2-3 times. Still kinda disconcerting when you happened to be popping open the monster closet featured in several houses.

Bodies occasionally forget that they're dead and will stand up to stare into the distance when you're not looking at them. This can be slightly disconcerting. I recommend butchering them into pieces that can no longer rigor mortis their way into an upright position.

On a similar note, apocalypse victims will sometimes forget that they're supposed to be dead, and will stand around aimlessly until you get closer and Mr. Human suddenly trips, falls, and tries to eat your ankles with his pristine and unmutated white teeth. You can take his bottle of mineral water off him when he's dead, as recompense.


The character customization lets you choose a character with a slightly smaller stomach (+1 point) or slightly larger stomach (-1 point), making an about 15% difference in the total capacity of nutrition your belly can store. You can also pick both at the same time, for quantum snacking.

This is meaningless however, since you can just eat beyond what your belly holds anyways and it'll keep getting added to the bar. Similarly, you can sleep until you're more awake than you can possibly be.

Don't boil water in batches larger than your single largest fluid container. When the recipe completes, you need to select a single container which will then be filled with the liquid. Anything beyond that one container's limit will simply cease to exist. It won't even get poured onto the floor.

I realized this when I'd filled up 6 small water bottles with a total of 18 dirty water from the kitchen tap, and then boiled it all at once. I then had 3 clean water, because it can only handle filling a single container at a time.


It's all good though, because boiling that water taught me how to make pemmican.


Fun game, interested to see where it goes from here.

I've tried the demo. It almost feel and look too much like Cataclysm.

[Robsoie]

So far this week egs freebie, Rebel Galaxy , is not bad at all.
It feels like if Freelancer (for the Elite-like missions board/cargo run/bounty hunt/space looting/mining/etc... system) was mixed with Starfleet Command (for the 2D planar ship controls, weapon angles)

Probably going to be a bit repetitive as this kind of game usually are, but so far i had a lot of fun.
Got utterly destroyed by what seemed to be the first "difficulty spike" storyline mission (a Reliquary piece) , so i went back in doing a lot of mission board contracts to make more money until i could buy more expensive weaponry (as it's better to invest in higher weaponry than buying with all that money a new better ship and not having enough money to improve its weapons). 
Noticed that the MK2 Particle laser turret was hilariously powerfull, what a difference it made in comparison to my previously weak turret, small enemy fighter ships explode quickly, probably one of the best investment in early game. 
 
I'm working on getting enough found to buy some expansive broadside guns with some shield penetration, would be very good vs enemies with ships of my size.
Hopefully those guys in the Reliquary mission will not laugh for much longer
The cheap mercenary that services i purchased so far seems to hold his own nicely in those skirmishes.

And interesting note : for once it's a DRM free game, meaning you can launch it without the need of the epic launcher or legendary once you have claimed and downloaded it

[JimboM12]

rebel galaxy, due to it's soundtrack, by far gives me the most "firefly" feel and that's a very important metric for me. you're out in the space boondocks grinding cash to keep your boat afloat. love it.

it does get grindy but, being a connoisseur of space games like X and Elite, its not unacceptably grindy. there's definitely a feeling of progression that keeps it fresh for a while.

there is a prequel sequel about your aunt who leaves you your first ship. its more of a dogfighter game but its also pretty good.

[Robsoie]

Additionally in the Rebel Galaxy launcher there is option to replace the whole game music, so you can make it the background atmosphere even more Serenity/Firefly/CowboyBebop if you want by using their soundtracks

Too bad there's no new ship mods, it's odd for a game like that to not have such mods.

[McTraveller]

Rebel Galaxy looks intriguing... but crap it's 32-bit and won't run on my OS.

I'm getting annoyed at modern tech.

[Nelia Hawk]

Just noticed "Conquest of Elysium 5" on the popular upcoming releases on steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1606340/Conquest_of_Elysium_5/

would it be worth discussing in its own topic? as we also got others of that series adn dominions in topics? well someone make a topic XD
i wonder whats all new and changed with this one. the whole idea with "different planes and things summoned from them" i liked in the previous version.

[Kagus]

"Elysium is a dangerous place, where deer waylay the unwary"

And back in the original, would take your damn palace and erase your entire civilization from the game.


I found a lot of CoE interesting because of the wildly different take on mythos they used there. While the modern leaning towards combining the worlds of Elysium and Dominions is kinda fun from a reference point of view, I do miss a few of the takes they had in CoEII (what I call the "original", since it's the only version offered on Illwinter's site).

Speaking of the site, you know what? Creds to them for keeping with the same ugly-ass bare-bones website they've had since forever. I can respect sticking to their grey roots.

[Aoi]

Black Book: Want a stylish deck builder that isn't a roguelite that some fascinating lore (from a US standpoint)? It's set in some kind of low fantasy pre-1900 Christianity-based Slav region (probably Russia, though I don't think it's explicitly statedit doesn't get explicitly stated until near the end) where local myths about demons and the rituals to ward them off are real. Game is practically fully voiced too, though it does suffer a little from localization/script issues.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The narrative is mostly about you becoming a witch so you can fully unseal a book that can grant the wish of reviving your deceased and condemned-to-hell fiancee, and dealing with the day to day problems of people in the neighborhood while you work on it... like a woman killing people in town to feed to her changeling daughter that's a sentient tree demon. A lot of the conversations involve paying attention to previous discussions about how to respond to various supernatural phenomena, so there's a bit of a puzzle element to it too. Or at least not skipping all the conversations.

The combat is pretty straight forward, starting with being able to play 2 scroll skills and 1 key skill each turn... though there's enough room for a few interesting combos. Unfortunately, the most blunt combo seems to be one of the most potent-- stack shield-on-every-turn buffs and does-more-damage-each-time-it's-played attacks. At 3/7 seals opened, it's a tad easy on the default difficulty... and that's including taking the self-imposed penalty of not cursing people, which means you get to eat the 'curses' instead.

There is type of super annoying combat though... puzzle battles require you to play with a fixed deck and far as I can tell, there's a singular precise way to pass them. And one of them is unavoidable, once you start the optional quest.(Edit: And wow, are some of these fights super annoying. And unskippable. Thankfully, I think they only show up in the 'assistant' side-quests, so... just don't do them, if you want to avoid hair-pulling.)

Edit: Damn it, localization team...

And facepalm if you're trying to play a sinless game... don't go good deeds while packing accessories that increase the sin you generate. Because saving peoples lives while carrying dead people's ribs is net sin. 

Spoiler: Post-completion thoughts. (click to show/hide)

The storyline was fine until it was time to actually start wrapping things up. Then... ugh.

Those puzzle battles are freakin' annoying, and you do end up with a few in the main storyline that can't be skipped.

Battles seem to lurch from snoozefest to literally impossible depending on what mechanics your deck employs. So yeah, good luck playing this hardcore style. Unfortunately, balls-to-the-wall offense is perfectly fine for everything other boss battles, which makes things somewhat less than interesting.

I have no idea how to play durak... which is a real card game.

The bits you walk around in are so clunky. I'd've preferred a static screen with clickables, if only so I wouldn't start having to learn Russian curses to get her to stand in the right place.

Has some weird bugs.

tl;dr: It's good and interesting for the most part, but I'm not sure if I'd peg it at 25$ right now. I don't regret it, but it was dragging in the last 20%ish, mostly because bosses were getting more and more gimmicky.

[Robsoie]

I've been a bit surprised to learn recently that some people revived Microprose, that's some huge shoes they're trying to wear, will be hard to live up to the quality games Microprose was making in its time.

I noticed they're selling a Carrier Command 2, there are some trailer :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w22l8tzaA2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNHavtJvQ7M

seems interesting , and different from the Carrier Command remake from the ArmA devs from early 201x .

But reading some user review shows that there's a lot of negative ones pointing at this being an overpriced very bugged game with a lack of content.

[n9103]

I've been a bit surprised to learn recently that some people revived Microprose, that's some huge shoes they're trying to wear, will be hard to live up to the quality games Microprose was making in its time.

Those're some brass ones, to be sure.
Their webpage seems to imply the current incarnation has control/influence over a lot more IP than they actually do. (See the What We Do section)

[Robsoie]

Some report from Void Bastards, the current epic store freebie.

As i suspected, it becomes repetitive after a while unfortunately.

At first, it's great, it's a very good looter game, ammo/fuel/items/parts/food etc... you find from random ships that have each different random rooms/corridors/enemies , then between looting of ships if you have the materials you can craft more weapons, gadgets, bonus for whatever or upgrade something.
It seems there's always something to upgrade after a run.

Then following the storyline, you're propelled into the nebula 2nd depth in which you start to notice there are more (and new) enemies by ships, and more modifiers to them (burning, smoke, out of depth stuff, etc..), then you start to feel your upgraded weapons aren't cutting it much, need more bullets/ammo to take them down.

So you start to hunt more material for upgrading again, your part locator (as you can build one at some point ) that makes it easier to locate which ship contain a specific material you're looking for seems to point to even lower nebula depth ships, meaning it's even harder.
And because enemies constantly respawn from the various rifts in the ships (and you can't close those rifts) , it feels you're always up against endless amount of them (damned Screws ), so no way to clear a ship, it's always going to be refilled while you explore them...

My last run for getting the last part to build the HR Computer mission in order to validate my ID card was in a ship infested by lots of Screws (what the hell random generation, what the hell) , everything feels like a pea shooter against a Screw because those monsters have insane amount of health.
Managed to find the part i wanted and got out of this with only few health remaining (i had crafted several +HP items previously) .

The next mission put me in the nebula depth 3 in which it's harder (and probably material i'll need to improve my weaponry and gadgets will certainly require me to go to depth 4) . It's possible to go up in depth , even all the way back to nebula 1 , but the story mission material requirements are found in lower depths , and everything i need at that point to craft/upgrade stuff require material you'll find on lower depths.

And it is very repetitive by now, and with what feels like pea shooters (despite they're already upgraded), and running out of ammo is always a concern for a lot of the weapons, i'm not sure it's good enough to keep me interested.

But at least until it reach repetitiveness, the game was a lot of fun, be sure to play it in short burst to delay the repetitiveness.

[Iduno]

Yeah, it looked like more of an action (instead of cRPG) version of Starcrawlers, with more crafting.

Edit: Also, is it supposed to take like 5 minutes to load?

[scriver]

I just noticed Psychonauts is getting a sequel out in the coming days. Anyone followed the development?