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[Iduno]

Still getting the hang of Endless Sky and i'm having more fun now.

After regularly paying off my debts to the banks (good idea to pay regularly part of it, so mortgages gets lower and lower), i managed to finally get better benefits when i had no more debts.

Still it took -a lot- of cargo and passengers run (and some storyline missions for the free worlds) to finally reach a point i could afford my target : buying a light freighter named "Argosy" for more than 2 millions of credits (took another loan from the banks) , it's a very good one, large cargo and some good defense and weapons in comparison to other light freighters.

Kept my good old Star Barge too, even if it's weak and pitifull in comparison to mighty Argosy , it still have a good 50 cargo space (and 2 passengers space) to help on further cargo and passengers run (as in Endless Sky, you can fly in fleets with your ships, and that can be glorious), and it can additionally serves as some "meat shield" for my Argosy in case of combat.

What i noticed quickly is that the vast amount of cargo space in my fleet allow me to take some really really lucrative cargo and passengers run on the mission board, so good i extremely quickly paid back my bank loan, and i can now afford more ships.
Still waiting until i can get another Argosy and maybe once i have 2 of them, with more crews hired i could then start to try to board and capture ships to add them to my fleet. 
Maybe some fighters too, and hopefully some warship at some points before i can start to take over the universe

Yeah, as long as you don't take jobs to planets you can't easily get to (or don't know how to get to), you'll eventually pay off the loan. Ignoring the plot for a bit and just making money seems to be the point of the game, so go for it.

No vancian crap hobbling the casters, pretty much everyone had pretty damn neat tricks they could pull off even on level 1, even first floor enemies had a fair amount of potential tricks... it wasn't party based (well, sorta'), but there's been precious few D&D inspired games I've encountered that had the start be anything but a kill-ten-rats slog. Incursion had you cavalry charging and wuxia jumping and wand blasting and minion chucking from the word go. Thing did so goddamn much right.

Incursion is cool though I'm thinking a bit beyond just the gameplay options really, I guess.  Like something with the nature of being a higher level character that's not often touched on in the video games, or even in a lot of actual P&P games really, the expanding scope.  In old school D&D a fighter could build a fortress and have a retinue of soldiers at like level 11.  Going into a dungeon and fighting some monsters for treasure, even if the monsters are tough, isn't really the domain of high level characters, I think.  They can pay people to do that for them.  They should set their sights higher.

The crusade mechanic in this might help to make that more of a thing.

I'd love to see an Earthdawn or Shadowrun type casting system used once. Both have unlimited casting with drawbacks, but no so much that nobody would ever want to play a caster (like 40k).

[Cthulhu]

It actually has a pretty significant anti-caster mechanic in that the game's about fighting demons and demons all have spell resistance.  So you have to be really precise about how you make a spellcaster or he won't be able to do anything half the time.  There's feats and such, and the overwhelming sorcerer bloodline, or play an indirect support wizard with summons, buffs, and abjuration stuff, but it's annoying.

I'm playing mutation fighter, which is pretty cool.  Standard fighter, but he loses some of his feat stuff in exchange for mutagens, which is a once a day 10 minute/level +4 to one physical stat and -2 to one mental stat.  Later on you get fancier mutagens, grand mutagen plus feral and some assorted teammate buffs like bull's strength and enlarge person, along with all the usual great cleave combat reflexes shit fighters do and you're gonna be a fucking monster, both numbers-wise and literally.

[JimboM12]

nms took up quite a bit of my time last night, so i didn't get as far as i wanted in wotr but i can say its cRPG aspect is an improved version of kingmakers: expanded classes, races, and subclasses. the ui is slick too and all in all it feels like the same game but with a different story, small but noticeable improvements, and ive yet to find any bugs. i hope to get to the metagame (crusade management) later tonight. as with kingmaker, i assumed leadership and diplomacy was going to take a solid portion of the game so i chose to be a paladin again. honestly with how the game is (crusade against demons), paladins abilities just seemed like the natural thing to fight evil outsiders and i was not disappointed.

nms, i spent wayyyy too much time grinding out resources while listening to podcasts. im trying to stockpile basic resources for construction so i can get right into building a settlement when i get there. i started on a hoth-like ring planet which was dope, i kept wondering why nights weren't so dark (the game dosen't have dark nights to begin with but..) only to find out the ring was reflecting light down onto the surface, which was kind of neat.

[vjek]

Played some WotR the past few days.  There are a few bugs, but nothing game breaking so far.  Notably, the monitor lizard animal companion has it's model direction reversed.  It does everything tail first, including moving and fighting.  I suspect they just have the parent point in the wrong spot/direction/orientation on the model, but it's certainly not right.  
Some ground effects still try to damage NPC's and the party, even with Feather step on, some dialogues allow the player to repeat skill checks indefinitely, but no dialogue loops.
Other than that, one of the biggest changes is, they changed traps and Trapfinding completely.  It used to be (even up until a recent beta) that after you detected a trap, you just clicked on the 'detected red square' and your best Trickery-skilled group member ran over and disarmed it.

Now, there's this entirely different mechanic.  When a trap is detected, there is a dotted line that leads to the trap control mechanism.  this can be, and often is, in an entirely different room, sometimes protected by a different trap, with a different control mechanism.  So, your rogue (normally) has to stealth around, interacting with these trap mechanisms, prior to just rushing blindly into an area.
Personally, I like it, but initially, I thought it was a bug/broken, because it was so completely different than what they had done earlier in the year.
There's also some.. strange inconsistencies in scribing spells from scrolls.  PF rules state that it's limited to Arcane casters, but specifically NOT Sorcerers, yet.. Sorcs can scribe some scrolls into their spellbook.   

The NexusMod Toybox works great with it, and you can respec companions back to zero if you add the respec mod, but you have to be cautious when and where you do it, and ensure their name is the same, apparently.  Otherwise, bye bye companion quests.

[Kagus]

I picked up TABS while dealing with vaccine fever, and have been tooling around through the campaigns and whatnot.

The game itself is great fun, but there are completion aspects that irk me. At first I just thought a few of the secret unit locations were a bit finicky, especially if you have zero hint as to what you're looking for or even if there is anything on that map... But then I got into trying the achievements, and hoo boy.

The "win X campaign without a single defeat" goes from exceptionally tricky and challenging to patently ludicrous. Going into settings and basically in-game cheating to allow yourself to have full faction access during the campaigns makes it easier to an extent, but even if you go so far as to hedge your bets by downloading/designing specifically overpowered campaign-winner units, it's still a very tedious job.

And then we get into the "win a battle with every X unit", and enter the realm of things that are completely impossible to do without custom content tailored to make it happen.


Master Musketeer was honestly kinda fun, as it forces you to cherry-pick levels and play in an entirely different fashion, and it makes you appreciate and notice map design more. Same for Reaper Creeper, but with more emphasis on actually fighting while possessing someone. But the previously mentioned achievement sets? Good grief, those needed another round or two in the ol' thinking oven.

[JimboM12]

so wotr, due to the nature of the conflict, im finding a lot of good, lawful, and paladin specific context events that are helpful. im assuming evil characters get a few, but paladins seem to get this chosen un-chosen one feeling. im talking like, you were the right person in the right place at the right time but its because you were there not because you were called there for any reason other than the war against the demons. like the force subtlety guiding you to the place you can do most good and such.

the first one i remember finding yesterday is there is a rusted paladin's blade in this demonic cult temple and a paladin can pick it up and it'll restore itself for them with holy energy. (the puzzle to unlock this was fucking esoteric, i had to look it up online, no shame)

gameplay wise, its the same as kingmaker, like i said earlier but... bloodier. my paladin is chopping heads off or cutting people in half left and right. there are quite a few more effects and combat feels more dynamic. i swap between turnbased and realtime depending on the severity of the encounter and both feel good.

i didn't even touch nms today, i got sidetracked by my friend wanting to play tarkov.

[scriver]

I'm playing a doggo-riding halfling cavalier of the Order of the Paw. This is the best game ever made.

[vjek]

so wotr, due to the nature of the conflict, im finding a lot of good, lawful, and paladin specific context events that are helpful.
...
 (the puzzle to unlock this was fucking esoteric, i had to look it up online, no shame)
...

Yeah, my attitude towards this kind of content is, if you want me to do it, provide me the in-game way to do it.  Or learn about it.  Or find a hint to it.  Or read a book about it.  Or find an NPC willing to talk about.  Or listen to rumors for it.  Or pass a Lore check.  Or ANYTHING that actually lets me consume that content via some thematically consistent in-game mechanism.
This whole ' you get to randomly fiddle/switch/pull/push/interact/spin/flip the death-dealing mechanism ' to eventually, after x^y combinations/permutations/possibilities, expose a single secret room that has one chest with Moldy Cheese in it? 
Nope.  Not gonna happen.    Ain't nobody got time fo that.

[scriver]

so wotr, due to the nature of the conflict, im finding a lot of good, lawful, and paladin specific context events that are helpful.
...
 (the puzzle to unlock this was fucking esoteric, i had to look it up online, no shame)
...

Yeah, my attitude towards this kind of content is, if you want me to do it, provide me the in-game way to do it.  Or learn about it.  Or find a hint to it.  Or read a book about it.  Or find an NPC willing to talk about.  Or listen to rumors for it.  Or pass a Lore check.  Or ANYTHING that actually lets me consume that content via some thematically consistent in-game mechanism.
This whole ' you get to randomly fiddle/switch/pull/push/interact/spin/flip the death-dealing mechanism ' to eventually, after x^y combinations/permutations/possibilities, expose a single secret room that has one chest with Moldy Cheese in it? 
Nope.  Not gonna happen.    Ain't nobody got time fo that.

I'm not sure what you mean. The solution is hinted by four non-unique portraits on a completely random wall in a completely different part of the dungeon, there's nothing unclear about that at all

But yeah to be fair I need to add that as far as I got in the beta none of the other puzzles were like that at all, and also that it contains considerably better loot than a chest with moldy cheese when you do look up the solution and open it

[Cthulhu]

so wotr, due to the nature of the conflict, im finding a lot of good, lawful, and paladin specific context events that are helpful. im assuming evil characters get a few, but paladins seem to get this chosen un-chosen one feeling. im talking like, you were the right person in the right place at the right time but its because you were there not because you were called there for any reason other than the war against the demons. like the force subtlety guiding you to the place you can do most good and such.

the first one i remember finding yesterday is there is a rusted paladin's blade in this demonic cult temple and a paladin can pick it up and it'll restore itself for them with holy energy. (the puzzle to unlock this was fucking esoteric, i had to look it up online, no shame)

gameplay wise, its the same as kingmaker, like i said earlier but... bloodier. my paladin is chopping heads off or cutting people in half left and right. there are quite a few more effects and combat feels more dynamic. i swap between turnbased and realtime depending on the severity of the encounter and both feel good.

i didn't even touch nms today, i got sidetracked by my friend wanting to play tarkov.

Evil stuff comes later, but there's a good amount of it.  Even if there weren't, I'd never play a paladin.

I've lowered the difficulty, I think the nature of pathfinder is slowly breaking me down and I'm just in it for the story primarily.  The game seems to assume a high degree of optimization, which I've done, but it still turns into a slog.  Your level 7 party can expect to fight minibosses in the high teen CRs regularly, which is a common response to overpowered party but doesn't really work with typical wizards-era D&D math.  AC is insanely high, and while touch AC is usually low the spell resistance and elemental resistances/immunities on basically everything make it negligible.  Some spellcaster companions aren't even worth taking hostile spells on because even on-par enemies have a 90+ chance of saving even if they get past the spell resistance.  The math starts to break.  Combined with the number of self-buffs needed to keep up, the game kind of turns into a slog. 

I'm playing an instinctual barbarian, gonna go trickster mythic path which is fun.  The initial path entry event has you convincing some cultists you're a high ranking baphomet priest and sending them to sabotage their own base, which is kind of fun, but the actual mythic path goes way past that into sheogorath territory, with abilities like "ray of halberds" and "summon beer elemental"

For evil there's lich and demon which are self-explanatory, and then there's the extreme evil option of "swarm-that-walks" which is a Kyuss-style worm-that-walks but using demonic locusts.  You have to take a garden path to get it

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Notably, the first choice related to it has no apparent connection; you have to kick queen galfrey out of the crusade at the beginning which isn't something you're likely to think to do. If you don't do this you're irreversibly locked out of swarm path, because she will veto your experiments with weaponizing the demon locusts.

In this case hte opacity might be warranted though.  It's basically undertale genocide run, all your companions leave and the crusade collapses, you play the rest of the game solo with bug armies for the crusade mechanic, fighting the demons cause they're competition for devouring the world.  You become the world-ending boss monster and it's not something you'd want to stumble into without knowing what you're signing up for

[Robsoie]

Maybe some people remember Space Cadet , it was a pinball game from Maxis that was ported by Microsoft into being a part of their window 95 to XP OS.
It was removed starting from window Vista.
(but it works very well on window 10, you can find it for download on google)

Anyways, this to mention on the Visual Pinball program (it's a pinball simulator), someone recreated Space Cadets but with actual physics and etc..
It plays really great.
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=16091
video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCxu84KBA0

 

[JimboM12]

rundown of evil options and stuff

even as a mostly good player (my paladin skirts the lawful side, i do a lot of the happier chaotic options like partying or tricking enemies but i choose good in a heartbeat) its still really cool to know this game accommodates all styles of play.

and yeah, on the higher difficulties the game does not allow creative un-optimized builds. my paladin is a brawling buffer with a lot of the more common combat feats like cleave, power attack, etc. i make up for my lack of extreme fighter strength with unique paladin gear and buffing cleric spells. i can tank while my more damage optimized companions nuke the targets.

a cool new thing for paladins is when they get their divine bonds, it now includes horses. naturally i turned my horse into a brawler and it fights beside my paladin. i may try mounted combat later but having an extra body in my party to surpass the 6 head party limit is gamebreaking.

[Kagus]

Maybe some people remember Space Cadet , it was a pinball game from Maxis that was ported by Microsoft into being a part of their window 95 to XP OS.
It was removed starting from window Vista.
(but it works very well on window 10, you can find it for download on google)

Anyways, this to mention on the Visual Pinball program (it's a pinball simulator), someone recreated Space Cadets but with actual physics and etc..
It plays really great.
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=16091
video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCxu84KBA0

Goddamn CHILDHOOD right there... That was Maxis? I didn't even know.

[n9103]

It's one of the tables from Full Tilt Pinball.

[dragdeler]

I love pinball games! So underrated. Yes you can install all the classic win95 to xp games super easily, just grab the exe from an old system and it shall work. I can provide these exes if somebody wants them and doesnt own an old windows (which technically you'd also need to sandbox, but yeah sandboxes are the other way). Only thing is that the exes are in french, but solitaire, minesweeper and spacecadet work like a charm.