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Topics - Silent_Thunder

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1
Other Games / Blood Bowl (FUMBBL, Cyanide, Tabletop)
« on: October 22, 2016, 09:03:15 pm »
So, I've noticed we have a dozen dead threads about various offshoots of Blood Bowl, and figured it would be best if we just had one singular thread for it, especially as necroing the old threads is an issue. So here we go.

What is Blood Bowl? Blood Bowl is a old Games Workshop game about Fantasy Football, namely fantasy as in Warhammer Fantasy. Orcs, Elves, Dwarfs, horrible mutants, and if you're a sad boring person, humans! All playing against each other for glory, honor, and of course money. Mostly money.

There's currently 3 versions of Blood Bowl out there worth your time. The first is the retail product by Cyanide, Blood Bowl. It's currently on it's 2nd edition, with improved graphics and user interface, and although it doesn't have all the teams yet, it has the biggest player base. The previous edition, Chaos Edition, has dwindled down to nearly nothing now by player migration, and isn't worth your time tbh.

The second edition worth mentioning is FUMBBL. A freeware java based client with a dedicated website, all of the teams, and better private league management tools. However, the playerbase is smaller and as a consequence the skill floor is a lot higher, so new players will see their teeth kicked in repeatedly. In addition, it's 2d nature and java based means not only is it not as graphically good as the commercial product, but the interface in many ways is less good (although it was far superior to BB1's trainwreck UI). And of course requires the java runtimes installed.

Both editions thankfully have a good player base to play against, with the commercial product recently separating it's Matchmaking into a casual and competitive one, the difference being the competitive one runs for 3 months at a time, and 5 concessions = ejection till next season.

Third is the actual tabletop game. Although discontinued by GW when specialist games shut down, the NAF eventually coalesced into existance, and is the defacto governing body of tabletop Blood Bowl. Many third party miniature and board/dice makers have sprung up in recent years to make "fantasy football" sets. However, GW is using Blood Bowl to spearhead it's revival of the Specalist division, and as such a new official box set is due later this year, with the same core rules but new optional rules and the return of special card inducements.

So I've rambled long enough, anyone else still play this?

2
So Total War Arena's Closed Beta has gone semi open, with them handing out keys like candy, the NDA being lifted, and anyone who signs up from the UK (or merely says they are from it) getting a steam key. Currently it's still very basic, with only a handful of maps and two factions (Rome and Greece), but so far it's looking promising. It's very much in the World of Tanks / Warthunder style of level progression for units, thankfully more on the WOT side than WT side as far as intuitiveness (I may love WTs gameplay, but hell if their leveling system isn't an eldritch abomonation), and each general also has skills they unlock. Each team consists of 10 players bringing 3 units of 100 someodd men (thus keeping the battles to the Total war standard 3000 v 3000 with margin of error). Currently every battle is a capture the base mode where your army must either destroy all opposing fighters, or capture the enemy base. The maps so far are excellent, owing to the fact they're all handcrafted and designed to support the fact that a single player wont be managing every unit, so there can be much more complexity.

Each army has 2 free generals and one behind a modest silver paywall (silver and gold are the exact same concepts as in WoT) that you can get after a few good matches. The economic and XP balance seems like they are already experimenting with it instead of going into hyperdrive like other games do in Alpha, which frankly I feel is a good thing as it allows the low tiers to actually get good metrics and feedback. Currently looks like the big thing gold will be used for, besides memberships and the occasional (frankly unimpressive) premium unit, is cosmetic color schemes. No word on if there will be cosmetic changes beyond that, but it's unlikley as different helmets and shields and swords and all that are the WoT style part upgrades for units.

Now the one big change is free xp isn't what it normally is in these games. Instead there's unit XP and commander XP. Unit XP can only be spent on the unit type that earned it (all upgrades are unified to same type units. Buy a new sword for Italian Noble Infantry, and all Italian Noble Infantry you recruit will have it forever), while commander XP can be spent on either commander upgrades, or to shore the gap on a unit upgrade much like free xp in other similar games.

Now onto the commanders. As I said each army has three commanders, one of which requires a modest silver fee to unlock. They are much like the tanks in WOT, namely they are bound to a battle till it finishes, even if they are resoundingly defeated early on in the battle. Because of this you're going to want to spread the commander xp love around, as a commander can only field units up to his level. The commander also will take a spot in the 1st unit slot, so if say you have decided to roll 2 spears and a bow & arrow as your army, it may be wise to put the bow and arrow in slot 1 so your commander doesn't get stabbed to death and drop your army's morale.

Anyway if you wish to sign up and are in the UK or other select European nations you can get a non-region locked steam key pretty much instantly now. https://playarena.totalwar.com/

3
Other Games / Card Hunter: D&D Meets TCGs
« on: July 18, 2015, 02:07:21 am »
Card Hunter


Card Hunter is a f2p Dungeons and Dragons style card-game where your party of three adventurers fight a variety of monsters, ne-er'do'wells, and the like while collecting various loot. The card game aspect of it comes in that every peice of gear you have adds to that party member's deck. Every Round characters take turns playing their cards untill both the play and the computer run GM (Played by a nervous nerdy lad named Gary or his overbearing brother Melvin, in what can be considered the 'real' plot of the game) decide to pass their turn, starting a new round (where more cards are drawn). This continues untill either everyone is dead or specific objectives have been met. Every mission grants you more loot, which can either be equipped, or after reaching Level 7 on your account, dumped into the item store as vendor trash to be excahnged for gear you think you need.

All of this is done in a delighful art style reminiscent of those cheapo sets you'd use in budget board games, with little cardboard figurines on disk bases on a cardboard scenario map. Much of the pay (Gold is the ingame currency, while Pizza Slices are the realmoney tickets) aspect of the game comes in here, as cosmetic figurines (think dota skins) can be bought for cash, as are item packs of random gear. That said since every SP and MP victory grant you a chest of loot, paying for item packs seems ill advised anyway.

There is also a multiplayer aspect of it, where your party of 3 faces off against other players party of 3 as well. Unlike the Singleplayer campaign, there is no leveling, as all characters are using their lvl 18 stats as a baseline to keep things fair. The only thing that matters is your gear, wits, and deck building skills. The standard ranked play is available, where you take your selected party of guys and gear, as well as semi regular (every few hours) tournaments with special rules, some might force exact decks, others might have you chose items one at a time from a group of 3, others might have your standard group but weird win conditions, etc etc. These usually cost 50 gold to enter, but the prizes are worth it if you do well enough, up to being able to win tournament exclusive figurines.

Anyway I've rambled on enough, so I'll leave you with this thread. Cheers.

4
Other Games / Grand Prix Racing online: F1 Management Game
« on: April 28, 2015, 04:21:19 pm »
Started playing this a few weeks ago and I've found it pretty fun. In it you run a single driver grand prix team through a pyramid system hoping to reach the top. It operates on a promotion relegation system similar to Euro Football, with each level being 5 times bigger than the one above it, so 1 Elite league, 5 Master Leagues, 25 Pro Leagues, 125 Amature Leagues, and varying numbers of Rookie Leagues depending on demand. All groups are 40 drivers/owners, although Rookie obviously tends to be lower between just not having all spots filled and inactive drivers.

The races are every Tuesday and Friday and all run at once for every group. Scoring uses the old F1 point system where first place gets 10 points. At the end of each 17 race season, the top 3 drivers promote, and the bottom 15 relegate, except for Rookie<->Amature which is 5 and 20. Bankrupt teams get relegated as well, which means if you are the top team in the relegation zone, you are usually safe as at least one person out of the zone will be bankrupt usually.

Lastly, it's all HTML based, so you can access raceday from your phones and whatnot without any worry about not having Flash or Java or anything like that.

I'm in Rookie Group 21, not sure if you can choose your preferred group in the middle of a season though.

http://www.gpro.net

5
Other Games / Billiards anyone? Virtual Pool 4
« on: April 28, 2015, 04:12:04 pm »
So, I've just gotten back into playing billiards/pool IRL after visiting my grandfather who has a basement pool table. Of course since I live in an apartment and have neither the cash nor money for that sorta thing, I have to make do with vidya.

So I reinstalled my copy of Virtual Pool 4 and have been playing that a bunch. Also found out their MP component now allows people who don't own a subscription ($10 yearly, first year included with the SP component) to play basic games (8ball, 9 ball, and 6 ball) on the garage table. There's usually a challenge match (players play in rotation, winner stays on the table) or two of 8 ball on that table at any time too.

Anyone else play this?

6
Other Games / Frozen Endzone/Cortex
« on: January 29, 2015, 10:38:54 am »
Frozen Endzone (Frozen Cortex) is the newest game by Mode7, makers of Frozen Synapse. It's a rugby/football/speedball hybrid where like in Syanapse both players plan their turns at once and it unfolds in one action. The most recent update fianlly landed, adding in league support and team customization. Anyone else here play this?

7
So, after the iRacing Thread died, I decided instead we should do a thread about SimRacing games in general. Assetto Corsa, iRacing, rFactor, NR2003, anything really.

iRacing is a Racing Sim based on the code for Nascar Racing 2003, widely considered to be one of the best oval racing sims of all time, killed shortly after release by NASCAR signing an exclusive agreement with EA. It's subscription and content based, and Multiplayer only, and usually has anywhere from 2-4k concurrent online users depending on time of day. The shortest races tend to run a minimum of 25 min, and at the longest during special events run the entire length of a real world race, such as the yearly Daytona 500 event. Despite all this, it also has a just as complete Road Racing side, featuring everything from Mazda Miatas to GT3s, Formula 1, and more. On both sides it features races split by ranking and a saftey rating system designed to keep unfit drivers out of cars they can't handle without crashing.

So in iRacing news, Season 4's update just dropped, and while the content itself is slim pickings, the Holden V8 car has been added for the V8 series, Gateway Motorsports Park has been added as the new track, and the Ford GT2 has had a GT3 version released for the GT3 Series, (both are now sold in a package for the price of 1 car, much like the RUF Porsche and it's 4 variants before it) bringing iRacing's GT3 series to a total of 4 cars, the main update this time is team racing for endurance series. Now you and several friends can all compete as one team, with driver swaps during pitting procedures during the race. They are going to have a few series specifically dedicated to team racing, although what they are aren't announced yet, it's assumed GT3 will be one of them. Come next week when the update week is over we'll know for sure.

Currently, Reddit runs a weekly race league based entirely around the free content.

I've taken the liberty of creating a Bay 12 Motorsports team here if anyone wants to have races together.

Current promo codes for new iRacing customers are:
PR-LIONEL for 3 Months for $9 and a free Gen 6 car
PR-INRACING for 1 Month for $5

http://www.iracing.com/nurburgring1000/ For three months FREE, valid until 10/15
PR-NURBURGRINGEXPO for 3 months free, valid untill 1/1/15



Assetto Corsa is an up and coming primarily single player Road racing simulator with a more modest multiplayer component comparable to standard multiplayer games. Currently featuring a handful and tracks and a much larger handfull of cars, the current release candidate is promising. Currently races are usually much shorter than iRacings, and all races, multiplayer and singleplayer, are custom setup by the users, and as such tend to be on the short side, although pitting is now available for multiplayer sessions.

In Assetto Corsa news, the current release candidate is out, adding a few new cars and 3 more tracks. The Career Mode is also implimented

Assetto Corsa is currently $40 on Steam Early Access.

Race 07 Going to be honest, don't know much about Race 07, other than the fact that's it's pretty decently regarded and can be had for only $4 on Steam, so that's probably worth a look.

8
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Are elven diplomats still broke?
« on: July 14, 2014, 08:20:34 pm »
So yeah, checked the entities_default.txt, elves are still missing the diplomat job. I'm assuming that this is still broken and that the usual copypaste job of the below code will restore them?

Code: [Select]
[POSITION:DIPLOMAT]
  [NAME:Diplomat:Diplomats]
  [NUMBER:1]
  [RESPONSIBILITY:MAKE_INTRODUCTIONS]
  [RESPONSIBILITY:MAKE_PEACE_AGREEMENTS]
  [RESPONSIBILITY:MAKE_TOPIC_AGREEMENTS]
  [APPOINTED_BY:DRUID]
  [PRECEDENCE:70]
  [DO_NOT_CULL]
  [COLOR:7:0:1]
  [MENIAL_WORK_EXEMPTION]
  [SLEEP_PRETENSION]
  [PUNISHMENT_EXEMPTION]
  [ACCOUNT_EXEMPT]
  [DUTY_BOUND]

And if so, do we know how the diplomat's tree quotas factor into the multi-tile trees now?

9
Other Games / March of War: F2P MMO TBS
« on: July 10, 2014, 08:19:08 pm »
So, recently I've been playing March of War, a neat little F2P Turn Based Game currently available on Steam. The battles consist of one of three modes, destroying the enemy's command vehicle (in one mode each side has one, the other mode only one side has the vehicle, but far more defenses) or capturing all of the command points on the map. Each unit gets two moves (with an exception), and ends it's turn immediatly upon firing, much like in the new X-Com for lack of a better comparison. The exception is hit and run units, which can move-fire-move all in one turn.

In each, each match, either PVE or PVP, contributes to the "battle score", which determines which faction gets to eventually claim that territory on the over world map. Score per battle is weighted by active players, so the populations of the factions don't really come into effect much, other than how difficult it is to become a top player, and thus get votes in your faction's overarching strategy.

Of course, the upper levels of each faction is filled with the usual backstabbing, scheming, spying, and political infighting, but you can ignore this and focus simply on fighting the battles if you choose.

The basic back story is an alternate WW2, where the world is divided up among six superpowers. Those powers being the United Republic, a coalition of the United States and Canada, The Latin Junta, which in the backstory formed as a defensive measure against Republican aggression in Central America, The European Alliance a single nation state composed of the various European nations united against outside aggression, The African Warlords, which is a confederation of various minor African factions, all following the call of those above them, The Shogunate Empire, the sprawling Asian empire ruled over by Japan, and lastly, The Soviet Union, who seems to have survived the alternate history with most of itself the same as always.

Each faction has it's own strengths and weaknesses of course, both by it's units, and the level of meta game political infighting that exists. You research and unlock units by playing battles, although it's recommended you wait until level 10 to do PVP, both because of getting your army ready, and learning the game mechanics.

So, I was wondering if anyone else plays this, and if so, should be get a Bay12 group going?

10
Other Games / iRacing Motorsport Sim MMO: Updated with Free Three Months
« on: January 29, 2014, 05:11:39 am »
Current Promo Codes (Non Stackable) Last Updated 6/24:

First 3 months for the price of 1 ($12), 90% of which goes to Josh Wise's racing team. PR-JoshWise98

First 3 months for $9 plus a Free Gen 6 Car: PR-LIONEL

One Month for $5, no other bonuses: PR-INRACING



EDIT: Holy crap how did I forget the actual link to the game. Sorry!

Spoiler: Big Image (click to show/hide)

So recently I've started playing iRacing, which is a subscription based racing simulator. It's rather on the expensive side, as you also have to buy the additional tracks and cars, but most motorsports buffs I know (several of whom race in real life) swear by it. It features laser scanned tracks in order to have the perfect feel of each one, and how tires interact with them. The basic package that comes free with the sub contains 7 cars and 10 tracks. Of those 10 tracks 5 are ovals and 5 are road courses, although one of the ovals has an alternate road course configuration, and a few of the road courses have alternate configurations as well. There also is an included Skid Pad.

Ingame each car has it's own series (Some series have two or three cars, such as certain NASCAR series having both the Chevy and Ford model of their respective level in them) and races are scheduled on a regular basis (Every hour or two), and divided into 12 week seasons. Each week the track changes (although some series don't use 12 tracks, but rather rotate say, 4 tracks 3 times) and the entire schedule is announced a week or two before the 3 month season starts. Currently I'm running a 3 month sub, and have bought an extra car and the tracks it needed for the season (In this case the Chevy National Impala used in the real life dev circuit for NASCAR). The game is also technically playable on a gamepad, but you really need a racing wheel to be competitive, and advanced series you even need it to be safe.

Lastly, the game has what is in my opinion the most important aspect, automatic disqualification and the ability to report drivers. The auto disqualifications happen if you incur too many "incidents" in a race, and is fairly lenient. You'd need to be in about 4 major accidents in a race in order to trip it, or drive straight off the track 17 times. Driving backwards for a decent length also automatically trips it. The protest system allows you to report drivers for things like intentionally wrecking you or other drivers, but they really only actually act if it's clear it was deliberate (And you remembered to record a replay with the in game replay viewer of course).

With that I leave you with a video made by a community member about surviving the rookie series. (It's highly dramatized about how bad the rookie races actually are though, I managed to promote from Rookie in about a week)



One very last thing. They just pushed an update a day or two ago, and the site is having some hiccups. Thats why if you do purchase it, it will say weird things like only 1 user online, when it should be saying 2,000-5,000 or thereabouts depending on the time of day/week.

11
Other Games / Games that have no business being fun but somehow are
« on: January 20, 2014, 04:18:07 pm »
So, recently someone got me NASCAR The Game as a joke, so of course I installed it to see how good or bad it was. In all honesty, it wound up being like if you took Euro Truck Simulator and just made it go 200mph. Mostly relaxing for the vast majority of the time, and then occasionally completely terrifying. Mostly the difference is whether of not you're free of the "pack" as it's called. Most racing games you might have to occasionally dodge a guy every few corners, but the nature of Stock Car Oval racing is that you're usually going two or three wide at all times, and one slip up results in a massive pileup.

So yeah, somehow that game is really fun (Although I couldn't tell you how well of a NASCAR simulator it is, of course). And it got me thinking. What games should by all rights be the most dull experience imaginable, but somehow wind up being strangely fun?


12
Other Games / Fifa World, EA turns FIFA into a F2P
« on: December 25, 2013, 12:44:11 am »
So, it seems EA has decided to split the Ultimate Team mode off of it's FIFA game series and turn it into a f2p game. Been playing it recently and it's pretty decent. I mean Gold teams are pretty much unsustainable without spending real money or being a complete beast and winning everything, but Bronze/Silver mixes are doable. Plus the standard Real Team vs Real Team mode is there, although nobody seems to use it judging by the wait times to connect to an opponent.

In all honesty even if I someone DID spend real money on this, would probably be cheaper than buying FIFA each year at $60 a pop. Which I suppose is a much a statement on the sports game industry as it is on f2p games. The cynic in me is thinking this is intended to get moeny from people who are willing to spend SOME money, but not $60 every year. But if you just want to dick around with lower level teams and play some Fifa without spending a dime, it does the job well enough.

At the moment they are giving away freebies every day to celebrate the holidays, so if you are interested, you might want to join now in order to collect the free stuff. Anyway the sign up link is here. It says it's only for Brazil and Russia, but I didn't have any problem signing up with my US based Origin account.

https://www.easportsfifaworld.com/home

If that doesn't work because of regional locking, this link may bypass it.

https://www.easportsfifaworld.com/login/auth/step

Anyway, just wanted to bring this game to your attention. Same name as my forum account on Origin if you want to add me.

Spoiler: Sidenote (click to show/hide)

13
Other Games / MLB The Show
« on: November 10, 2013, 12:15:55 am »
So, after finding out that there really wasn't any good games for PC about Baseball, by which I mean there aren't any at all anymore, I dusted off the ol' PS3 and bought a copy of MLB The Show 13. Actually REALLY liking it, I guess it doesn't suffer from the problems Madden/Fifa have with trying to cram 60-90 min game into a 20min clock, which means the offense/defense ballance has to be completely broken to have a decent score at the end. Baseball of course isn't a timed sport, so they can't use compressed time to make it move faster. So it actually seems to have a realistic gameflow. It does move MUCH faster than a real game, but by virtue of being able to skip the time BETWEEN plays, but that's not a gameplay issue, thats just the player not wanting to watch the batter step away from the plate, stretch again, wheel his arm around, step back, etc.

That said, I am getting my ass HANDED to me in the online modes, specifically Diamond Dynasty, since my team is still at the basic level, and was wondering if anyone else here plays.

In all honesty, this game may be the one to make me cave in and buy a Ps4 a year or two down the line, as there really is NO other Baseball game out there. (MLB 2k is just.... terrible, and I think they actually shut down the studio that makes it last year).

So yeah, anyone else play this game here?

14
Other Games / It's that time of year again! Football Manager 2014!
« on: October 22, 2013, 08:57:59 pm »
So, as the title says, it's around that time of year again, and the pre-release beta is in full swing. And I've taken it upon myself to do the impossible. Save Stockport County. Why is Stockport so doomed you might ask, well, mismanagement both on and off the field has lead to them performing one of the most spectacular nosedives in English football, coming from the 2nd highest league in the land to well...

Spoiler: Oh dear (click to show/hide)
So yeah, dropping 4 levels in 11 years. Essentially a complete death spiral, and my gameplan is to try to save them. More likely I will be fired halfway through the season, and they will fail to avoid the drop.

However, this isn't the challenge you need to do of course. A huge variety of nations and leagues are playable, so chances are you will be able to play as your favorite team. It even includes my country's bastardized, overly complex stab at the sport, Major League Soccer. Protip: Do not play as MLS. Their setup is a nightmare of labyrinthine rules.

Of course, you could always try managing a National Team for the World Cup or Olympics if that's your cup of tea. Or you could start unemployed, with no experience other than playing every sunday with your mates, and attempt to both convince a club to hire you, and then propel yourself to greatness.

As an aside, I can not for the life of me stay interested in an actual real life soccer match, but I love this game. If you don't like soccer, but do love management games, I do recommend you give this a try when the demo goes up, which should be when it has it's full release, as it has in the past.

Finally, here are the few (but large) downloads I consider an important aspect of the FM experience. The last two downloads are the most important, especially if you intend to play as "small market" nations like an obscure Eastern European nation.


15
EDIT: A freeware version of the game can be found at this official site. It is the 2005 Edition of the game, and was released as freeware to promote the 2008 edition. Keep in mind that many things have changed in the last 8 years, so my advice in this AAR may not apply if you use this version.

Welcome to the Smackdown brother! Are you ready to get in the ring and show your true strength! Piledrives, Pins, Chokeholds, do you have what it takes to be the very best wrestler in the buisness! Come on, show me your Pythons brother!

Well what's that, you don't have any Pythons? And your idea of true strength is carrying that box down from the attic without stopping to set it down once? Well no matter, after all wrestling isn't about the muscles, or the rules, or even the wrestlers themselves. Who is the most important man in wrestling? The one who everything hinges upon?
Spoiler: This guy (click to show/hide)
Why yes, the humble booker. Part talent scout, part coach, part screenwriter, it is the Booker who reins supreme in the land of Wrestling. After all, it's all just a show, and a wrestler is only as good as the script he follows. So what's that, you want to be a booker? Well the good news is there are pleany of opportunities, especially in the smaller federations. But first, perhaps we should explain what this is all about...


So yes guys, for those of you who thought "There may be games about simulating a farm, and games about beign a train conductor that costs $1000s with all the DLC, but there can't be a game for everything" Well yes. There is infact a game for everything, and this is one of them. TEW allows you to take control of a wrestling federation and guide it to success, and its workers to stardom. Or you migth wind up bankrupting the company, and making all your wrestlers unwantable by even the Indy Feds, or worse, dead (Steroids and coke are not a good mix people). You control the storylines, and decide who becomes the champion, and who is relegated to life as merely a Jobber, the type of wrestler who exists only to lose to the up and comers.

Of course there is always competition. The default database has 40 companies currently active, and the Default XL mod we will be using contains 75 active ones (The new ones mostly fill out the very bottom of the barrel, in order to allow wrestlers to develop SOME skills early in their career. The easiest comparison would be mods for Football Manager that add more league levels). With many more able to open up as the game progresses. However, the big ones to look out for are:

Spoiler: The Big American Three (click to show/hide)

However, we won't have to deal with them for quite awhile. As we will be starting at the bottom of the barrel. To this I give you all our first choice. Should be be the Booker to a small, local federation, with our starting rosters pre-selected, but with an owner to appease, and follow the career of a Booker as he moves up the ladder of Federations? Or should we start with a small sum of money, open our own Wrestling Federation, and try to take the world by storm?

Reserved Space for Current Status

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