Bay 12 Games Forum

So, Poxnora. Some of you may have heard about it, the majority of you haven't. It is a weird (in a good way) cross between MTG-style card (or rather rune) collection which are then formed into decks battlegroups which you then use to fight oh wait it's actually correct now, so yeah fight other players in a isometric turn-based strategy mode. It's pretty good. A few years ago (1.5, IIRC) it was acquired by SOE and turned into a hilarious cashcow of a game where some runes (remember, virtual cards, of which you need 30 in a deck) could cost $20+ and the recommended way to play it for free was to grind literally for months with a starter deck to buy a single uber-expensive card which could be traded for cheaper stuff. But I digress. A week ago it was bought by original developers, Desert Owl Games, and it *gasp* actually became somewhat decent. Now you can buy pretty much everything for in-game currency that you can buy for cash, you can use a set of free or extremely cheap non-editable decks which are claimed to be actually viable aaand I think that's pretty much it but that looks like a lot when compared to what the game looked like before. There are hundreds of runes, most are pretty balanced, a moderate number of single-player campaigns, plenty of strategic depth and the game itself is a ton of fun, really. _{Or at least it would be had it had more than 100 people online at peak hours.}

Spoiler: Some screenshots (I'm-so-lazy-it-hurts edition) (click to show/hide)

What did I forget?... Oh yes, a link. There, now you have no excuse not to play.

It is even possible (but not necessary) to have different people control different pokemon monsters on the same team! Also there's a rudimentary AI and a complete lack of balance. On the other hand, it is a very early build (for example, there's only one fire-type pokemon monster for now, out of grand total of 14), so many improvements are to be expected. Here's the link and some screenshots, so get to it, I need someone to play with.

So, what is this? This is basically completely ordinary chess, except that each move is voted on by players, of which there can be an infinite number. I will split the players into white and black team based on which side they voted as first or if they ask to be put on the opposite team to the one whose move it is now. At no time may one team exceed the other by more than let's say three players. No votes by teamless people will be accepted if the side whose turn it is has three people more than the other. Turns last 24 hours flat. Voting for the other team or not voting for your team for two consecutive or three turns overall gets you kicked out (though you can still rejoin in the latter case, this is to prevent people from just dropping out and clogging the drains with their corpses). Voting is accomplished by voicing your proposed move in red. In case of a tie on different moves I'll take whichever was suggested first (I could flip a coin, but I don't trust those two-faced bastards). And that's pretty much it. Have fun!

Specifically, I'm running XP x64 and want to make some stuff (specifically, Phantasy Star Online and Office 2010, both of which (and some other programs I can't remember right now) refuse to run on my system) think I've got Windows 7, which is a giant pile of shit, IMO. Is there any way to do it?

I've got an absolutely glorious idea for a mafia game, with a setting toooootally unrelated to Paranormals.

1. There is a map that consists of 36 rooms arranged in a 6x6 square that wraps around both sides. At any given moment any given person is in one room (even if he is a corpse).
2. There is no day and night cycle. Instead, there is a non-extendable 24-hour 'turn' cycle. Once every turn every player has an opportunity to move once (unless he's wounded, but that's another story).
3. At the end of every turn, if half of the people alive (rounded up) are voting for a given person, he gets lynched. Otherwise nothing happens.
4. There are two dopps who move around in exactly the same way as humans and can kill the person they're in a room with. They don't have a chat and don't know each other's identity initially but will recognize each other when they meet. A single dopp can overpower a single person; two dopps can overpower three people. There are modifiers to this - i.e. someone may reveal the attackers while he's being killed or someone may be entirely unable to defend himself.
5. Some rooms contain food. Each food source can only be used by a given player once. It gives them nutrition enough for 5 turns, then they become wounded and can last three more turns before dying. If they're already wounded when eating food, they can last 5 turns before dying.
6. Some rooms contain traps. They consist of teleports, spikes-outta-floor, silencers, what have you, though I can guarantee there aren't going to be any insta-kill ones.
7. There is a high emphasis placed on the act of speaking - i.e. you can hide in a closet and someone who's in the room will only hear you if you speak, there are people who can identify people in the adjacent rooms if they speak and so forth.
8. There is no 'official' notification whenever someone dies. You will hear a scream (that may be modified by outside factors) and may find a corpse later, and that's it. No roleflips for you.
9. There is a 'wound' system. Whenever someone triggers a certain kind of traps, get affected by someone's role (the only truly insta-kill ability in the game is dopps' kill against a defenseless person), get weakened by hunger and so forth. If you're wounded, you will only be able to move once every two turns and anything that would wound you again kills you. Wounds may be healed over time, by certain rooms or by certain roles.
10. You will get a description of people's appearance, which may hint at what roles they might possess. No examples here.

And that's pretty much it. Join up.

Have you read that title? Did a maniacal grin paint itself onto your face? No? You're a liar, get outta here. Yes? Okay, here you go.

“Set in the far reaches of outer space during a new Dark Age, WARFRAME introduces the Tenno, a race on the brink of extinction after being enslaved by the Grineer for centuries. Players enter WARFRAME on the cusp of the Grineer’s victory over the Tenno until they begin to arm themselves with WARFRAMES – an ancient exo-skeletal technology only they can operate. Hidden within the Orokin Derelicts of a lost civilization, new WARFRAMES lie dormant and undiscovered. These artifacts are the Tenno’s only hope for survival.”

That's the entirety of the availible description. Also, there is an... uh... 3D screenshot and a possibility to reserve a nickname RIGHT NOW. So get to it.

Referral links (please use those):
Keff - https://www.playwarframe.com/?ref=86236907;
Mono124 - https://www.playwarframe.com/?ref=86235634;

I'd be eternally grateful is some knowing soul would help me pick a case for my computer. I'm looking for something not very high (less than 450mm in height), as silent as possible (so I can read within 2 metres from it while it is almost idle), with good cooling (since in summer it gets up to 40C where I live and I sometimes run top-tier games) and without PSU (since I already have one), in that order of priorities. Appearance doesn't matter (it'll stand under a table). It must fit ATX motherboards. Budget is around $160. My current configuration:
Asus M4A89TD;
Radeon 4850 HD;
AMD Phenom II 965 with stock cooler;
Some Thermaltake 600W PSU;
3 3'5 HDDs;
4GB RAM;
2 PCI slots filled;
Some 8-year old unbranded case without built-in fans that I have to keep perpetually open for everything not to die a painful death.
As you see, not too many components (I'm not planning to add anything extra except maybe switch fans for CPU and GPU and another HDD).

Right now I'm thinking about either Antec P183 or CoolerMaster Silencio 550, but both of them are kinda short on cooling according to reviews, while all cooling-specialized cases get too loud (again, according to reviews), so feedback on this part is also welcome. Thanks in advance.

Where instead of, for example. making a house from gold you have to cut down some trees, chop them into boards, make some supports, find some material for the roof and know enough architecture for it all not to fall on your head. Any genre welcomem though multiplayer is much preferable. Games I already know about:
Survival sims:
- Haven and Hearth;
- Wurm online;
- Stranded 2;
Economic simulators:
- Economies of Scale;
- Virtonomics;
- SimRepublic;
Other:
- SpaceChem;