Author Topic: What are you playing right now?  (Read 612102 times)

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Offline Det. Bullock

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Morrowind (PC)
I've been doing Tribunal stuff in Mournhold since I had a save made shortly after finishing the main quest, I failed the matchmaker quest and forgot that it could fail so I didn't make a save beforehand which means one less useless but super valuable artifact to sell to the museum.
I sincerely hate that I cannot sell a lot of stuff right away becaue merchants don't have enough gold and have to rely on the mudcrab seller while spending days doing back and forth transactions.
I could probably just pile up stuff in my stronghold but pieces of armor and weapons without enchantments are just dead weight even with the huge corprus disease bonuses.

Soldier of Fortune II Gold Edition (PC)
So after a while I settled on this, I did the first and a good chunk of the second mission then got back and did a custom difficulty level because screw weapon inaccuracy in a game that throws tens of super accurate and not particularly visible enemies at you.
In general the game balance is rather weird compared to the first game, the enemies even at the easiest difficulty level do tons of damage, for some reason the first mission sounds like something that should be done stealthy but it all but forces you to go guns blazing.
Also shooting while leaning from cover is a crapshoot because the hitboxes for the scenery often are all over the place and pistols in general have been nerfed to the point not even a headshot is a reliable way to kill someone with a silenced pistol which is the nail in the coffin on any pretense of a stealth option in tackling the levels.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
I too am playing morrowind, and exploiting alchemy and fortify skill custom spells to bilk merchants out of all their life savings. Oh, and converting my daedric tower shields into the Telvanni equivalent of a Mk 19.

 

Offline Det. Bullock

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Re: What are you playing right now?
I too am playing morrowind, and exploiting alchemy and fortify skill custom spells to bilk merchants out of all their life savings. Oh, and converting my daedric tower shields into the Telvanni equivalent of a Mk 19.

I never used alchemy, abusing corprus disease bonuses has always been more than enough for me.
Also, I abused trainers so I could always get a 5x bonus on level up, and used a few little tricks like 1 point spells to level up magic skills. I wish magic were a bit stronger in combat though, I always end up using weapons and my early attempt to play as a pure mage were mostly consisting on stabbing things with a dagger to the point that when I started to play the game seriously I made a physical-oriented character that used magic mostly for non-combat stuff.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 

Offline MP-Ryan

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Re: What are you playing right now?
All TES games seem to suffer from magical-underscaling.  At least in Morrowind (and to a lesser extent, Oblivion), you can abuse alchemy to make your spells much stronger than possible in base spellcrafting, meaning they can actually put out damage on par with weapons in late game.  Skyrim was really, really awful for pure mage characters.... to the point that it was far better to be a "valor bard" archetype, where damage output comes from weapons while dabbling in magic utility.  Though Skyrim did away with the utterly abysmal major/minor skills and skill bonus levelling system that pretty much everyone hated due to the need to micromanage it in the earlier games.

The only thing that ever game me trouble in late-game TES was that lucky guy in the Tribunal expansion for Morrowind... having a soul-sucking life-stealing lightsaber-damage-equivalent sword did absolutely no good when confronted with that little bastard that you cannot hit.

I'm playing Rise of the Tomb Raider.  Solid followup from the first reboot, it's also quite addictive.  If anyone feels like some coop achievement hunting, I'd welcome the company.
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Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: What are you playing right now?
All TES games seem to suffer from magical-underscaling.  At least in Morrowind (and to a lesser extent, Oblivion), you can abuse alchemy to make your spells much stronger than possible in base spellcrafting, meaning they can actually put out damage on par with weapons in late game.  Skyrim was really, really awful for pure mage characters.... to the point that it was far better to be a "valor bard" archetype, where damage output comes from weapons while dabbling in magic utility.  Though Skyrim did away with the utterly abysmal major/minor skills and skill bonus levelling system that pretty much everyone hated due to the need to micromanage it in the earlier games.

The big issue is that Skyrim is the first one of these were actually had natural mana regen - in both Morrowind and Oblivion running out of mana and item charges is a constant problem for mage archetypes.

Also, if you think Mage-builds are underpowered, let me introduce to my friend, the Storm Atronarch. :)
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline MP-Ryan

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Also, if you think Mage-builds are underpowered, let me introduce to my friend, the Storm Atronarch. :)

Except it is still far faster to kill things with a massively-enchanted sword than it is to wait for a summon to do it for you.  I will grant you that Conjurers are somewhat less underpowered than Destruction mages, but this is like saying my 7 year old is marginally less disadvantaged than my 5 year old in an arm wrestling contest with me :P

I never looked, but I imagine there must be a community rebalance mod out there so mages in Skyrim can manage to get even close to the damage output of conventional weapons.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2019, 12:23:33 am by MP-Ryan »
"In the beginning, the Universe was created.  This made a lot of people very angry and has widely been regarded as a bad move."  [Douglas Adams]

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
The big issue is that Skyrim is the first one of these were actually had natural mana regen - in both Morrowind and Oblivion running out of mana and item charges is a constant problem for mage archetypes.

Also, if you think Mage-builds are underpowered, let me introduce to my friend, the Storm Atronarch. :)
Actually, Oblivion was the one that introduced permanent mana regen (well, except for those that pick that Atronach sign). But yeah, the point still stands that magic scales horribly when compared to pretty much everything else - though I am curious as to how/if they decided to deal with that in TESO.

I do remain somewhat amused that the traditional power scaling between wizards & warriors is inverted, giving us the running joke that stealth archer > warriors > mage :) (insert alchemist > everything in Morrowind).

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Skyrim was really, really awful for pure mage characters
Okay, seriously, where do people get this idea? It's entirely possible to give yourself 100% cost reduction in any two spell schools of your choice (destruction and restoration are always popular, but I'm always fond of Invisibility), and Impact lets you stunlock just about anything (it even staggers Dragons, for ****'s sake). Honestly, if not for the lack of spellcrafting, mages in Skyrim would be at their most powerful point in the series. Hell, my mage gets more stealth kills than a rogue; Muffle + Bound Sword + Invisibility = guaranteed backstabs in perpetuity (just recast Invisibility as soon as you strike and you can even backstab the same person multiple times, so even a lack of weapon skills can't stop you from stabbing your way through a dungeon).
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<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

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<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

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Offline Mongoose

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Re: What are you playing right now?
A Humble Bundle with a whole bunch of Lego games for $12?  Sure, why the hell not.  It'll fit well with the Humongous Entertainment bundle I bought last week in the "what, are you shopping for a 5-year-old?" category.

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Mordhau
It's so good&fun. (But has some server issues because it is more popular than the devs anticipated)

https://streamable.com/0x48c
https://www.reddit.com/r/Mordhau/comments/bjtxy2/worse_than_teabagging/
« Last Edit: May 03, 2019, 02:30:30 pm by Spoon »
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: What are you playing right now?
(But has some server issues because is more popular than the devs anticipated)

Long time since this hasn't been an excuse (or, you know, result of an accident) but here it seems to be genuine.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2019, 09:45:16 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline Novachen

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Well, i have completed the Mooncrash DLC to Prey.

It have nice ideas, but has many flaws where the developers did not think through this game completely. Also it has a very low difficulty for a rogue-like game, which is actually my main issue after i have played the main game on Nightmare and get too easy during the course of the game, too.

Together with Prey: Typhon Hunter this made an impression of a proof-of-concept instead of a full developed product.

So in the end it is only an average DLC to an above-average game.
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Is one of my releases broken or not working? Please send a PM here, on Discord at @novachen or on Twitter @NovachenFS2, a public tweet or write a reply in my own release threads here on HLP, because these are the only threads i am still participating in.

 

Offline CP5670

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Prey was a fantastic game (a lot like System Shock 2) but I never played the DLC. I generally avoid games that don't let you save these days.

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: What are you playing right now?
I genuinely didn't know that it had DLC.
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

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Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
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Offline Novachen

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Prey was a fantastic game (a lot like System Shock 2) but I never played the DLC.

Well, i did not like it very much, because it has a lot of flaws. Also the quest structure was very strange. I simple missed too much story dialogue because i explored it to much and so found objects you are intended to find later for the full experience.

Quote
I generally avoid games that don't let you save these days.

Mooncrash save at every new location you enter. So you actually can pause your run and continue it later anytime. But a run does not take long anyway.
Female FreeSpace 2 pilot since 1999.
Former Global moderator in the German FreeSpace Galaxy Forum.
Developer of NTP - A Multi-Language Translation Library Interface, which allows to play FreeSpace in YOUR Language.

Is one of my releases broken or not working? Please send a PM here, on Discord at @novachen or on Twitter @NovachenFS2, a public tweet or write a reply in my own release threads here on HLP, because these are the only threads i am still participating in.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
Re Prey:
Its narrative was also obcious and derrivative (says a fan-fiction writer)



Sekiro: Shadows die twice - it was inevitible.

Not just because I am a From Software-enthusiast, but also because I've been following the related accessibility debate closely.

Not far into the game but I already like it much more that Bloodborne but quite to the extend of median through Dark Souls 1-3.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
FTL: Faster Than Light

Fighting against a ship with teleporters and a cloning bay must be terrifying...

Rebel: "Sir! We've finally killed the boarders, the mantis and the rock. They got Kirby and O'Regan, but we managed to win. We're starting repairs to the weapons systems n-"
*fssthfssth*
Mantis: "I'm back, did ya miss me?!"

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: What are you playing right now?
You'd like "Heat Signature", you can board a target ship and stealth it or shoot a main window killing everyone by blowing them out into the hard vacuum of deep space, you being present means you're included in the "blown into space" category.   Luckily your breaching pod can be remote piloted to pick you up before you expire, returning you to the target ship to either cash it in at your home station or rampage across the galaxy.

It also has swapper guns and teleports etc.



Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 

Offline Det. Bullock

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Finished Outlaws (PC)
In a time of shooters with snarky Duke Nukems and space marines, splatter and general edgyness Lucasarts comes up with a western shooter with cartoon cutscenes that cribs a lot of stuff from Sergio Leone.
The gameplay itself is not too inspired but it has a few interesting quirks. First of all it's probably one of the oldest shooters with reloading that I can think of but since this is the old west you have to reload one cartridge at a time which has a rather funny effect on weapon balance. You get some nonconventional options like the gatling gun (infinite ammo but you aren't able to move since you set it down, not really advisable and you only get it very late in the game), dynamite (either throw it and shoot it or lit it up with your cigar using the alt fire button before throwing it) and throwing knives but it's obviously the conventional firearms that get affected: the pistol hold only 6 bullets and is almost useless at long range but it can rapidfire and is quick to reload, the rifle hold more bullets and shoots better but is slow to reload completely. Then there are three shotguns which are less practical due to the purely manual reload mechanics, a single barrel (shoot, reload, shoot, reload, etc.), double barrel (one or two shots before reloading depending on fire mode) and sawed off double barrel (same as the former but with wider spread). Basically you'll probably be switching between the rifle and the gun for 90% of the time while playing.
It uses the Dark Forces engine but with a few updates, like 3D acceleration (which means that with the packed-in Nglide of the gog version you can force higher resolutions) and mouse look with crosshair which make the "good" difficulty level easier than it should (no prize for those who guess the names of the other difficulty levels). The levels themselves can be rahter large and often involve some light puzzle elements, the only time I got stuck was in a particularly weird one in the level with the waterfall requiring some googling (hint: when you happen to use air current to land on a certain place, save before you try and when you try don't jump but just crouch, even then it might take a few attempts) and some platforming that however isn't deal breaking because it never reaches Dark Forces levels of first person platforming hell.
Still, the presentation is very peculiar for a shooter of the time, while the story is serious and gritty you can tell that animation and art style were from the same people that made Full Throttle and the music and intro credits are very much a homage to Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone (hell, even some elements of the plot seem taken from Once Upon a Time in The West).
There are single missions, but they lack that tiny bit of flair the simple plot of the main campaign laid on the not-terrible but also not-supergood gameplay.
Quite a nice diversion, as a b-list FPS it was much more pleasant than that mess of Soldier of Fortune 2.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Since you can buy it at 80% off from GOG this weekend I decided to take a punt on Spec Ops : The Line. Zero Punctuation named it Game of the Year back in 2012 and said that while the gameplay wasn't anything too deep the storyline was really good.

I'm past the bit where you actually get to the helicopter battle from the intro for real and I've got to say I can see why it won that award. Yeah the gameplay is just cover based shooting (which I've never been a huge fan of) but the story is definitely worth playing it for, it's not a fun story seeing as how it's basically an attempt to show the horrors of war in a video game but it's definitely got me invested in the plotline.
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