Video Games: Now with a Chance to Win a Complimentary Membership to Gambler's Anonymous

[aceluby]

34 minutes ago, Red Tiger said:

Im gonna take on Logarius and the Amygdala later on today.

How do you feel about Dark Souls 3? Im thinking of getting it.

I mean... I love everything Dark Souls.  It's another one of my favorites, though I noticeably didn't spend as much time with it as I did the original or DS2.  It's good, but the way magic was changed made for pure mage builds to be less than viable, whereas my DS1 Dex/Int/Fth SL120 build could decimate 700SL+ builds and gank squads in the forests.  I think I still have a DLC that I didn't finish, which is pretty weird for me.  For some it's their favorite of the 3.  The story is great and if you're thinking of getting it, and enjoying BB, I'd say jump in! 

Let me know if you do and I'll start up a character too if you want to coop.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, aceluby said:

I mean... I love everything Dark Souls.  It's another one of my favorites, though I noticeably didn't spend as much time with it as I did the original or DS2.  It's good, but the way magic was changed made for pure mage builds to be less than viable, whereas my DS1 Dex/Int/Fth SL120 build could decimate 700SL+ builds and gank squads in the forests.  I think I still have a DLC that I didn't finish, which is pretty weird for me.  For some it's their favorite of the 3.  The story is great and if you're thinking of getting it, and enjoying BB, I'd say jump in! 

Let me know if you do and I'll start up a character too if you want to coop. 

I'll let you know if I do.

[Toth]

15 hours ago, Wolfgang I said:

You should aim for 90% armor(built ship view not design mode because it does not show bonuses from ressources). 

Isn't that suicide against an Awakened Empire that specializes in beam spam?

15 hours ago, Wolfgang I said:

For the AUX slot the Enigmatic Decoder (Enigmatic Fortress) is the best item. The next best item is Crystal Forged Plating.

I don't have either of them... admittedly, I have no DLCs whatsoever, so it might be that this is the reason. That's why right now I'm only using shield capacitors.

15 hours ago, Wolfgang I said:

Edit: My play-style did  not allow much room for AE growth I must admit and AEs expand rather slow if the map is completely filled with insane difficulty AIs by 2300. The biggest AE fleet I have ever seen had 600k fleet strength (1.6.1 I think and I destroyed it with 250k fleet strength in plasma cruisers).

Mmh... 250k seems very unlikely to me right now. I am now back to having a fleet strength of around 140k altogether and I can barely afford that (my energy keeps getting into the negatives). The 170k fleet I threw against the Xo'lokako was only possible due to the defensive war bonus.

I now did continue my playthrough a bit... and since being a satellite robbed my of all diplomatic options, my Romans turned rabid. To bolster my numbers, I decided to just wantonly invade all my neighbors one after the other. Since there are only three independant empires left and they are so tiny that I could mop them up both at once, there is little for me to fear in regards to defense pacts. In fact, I just now steamrolled the Bos'Pachtux and the Nuurian Polity, gobbling up a huge chunk of their planets (and suffering a food shortage in return because I can't use the paradise domes built by the Bos'Pachtux -.-).

Overall, the wars were one-sided, but there were still some oddities I noticed. Especially when it comes to point defense... In one battle my 75 Sacrosanctus destroyers work as intended and utterly annihilate all rockets and strike craft, I can even watch my starfighters intercepting them. And in other battles they just... don't do anything at all. They just sit there and watch all rockets and bombers to go past them and destroy some of my battleships. When zooming in, there isn't a single flak projectile shot, nothing at all. My losses in these battles are also considerably higher. There is something seriously buggy going on... and I'm afraid that this might be the same reason for why my plasma cruiser refused to shoot when I battled the Xo'lokako.

In any case, I've now built a ton of plasma corvettes and increased my bomber squadrons... I am going to test this against one of the sleeping fallen empires, hoping to conquer them to boost my economy.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!

[Luzifer's right hand]

5 hours ago, Toth said:

Isn't that suicide against an Awakened Empire that specializes in beam spam?

I don't have either of them... admittedly, I have no DLCs whatsoever, so it might be that this is the reason. That's why right now I'm only using shield capacitors.

Mmh... 250k seems very unlikely to me right now. I am now back to having a fleet strength of around 140k altogether and I can barely afford that (my energy keeps getting into the negatives). The 170k fleet I threw against the Xo'lokako was only possible due to the defensive war bonus.

I now did continue my playthrough a bit... and since being a satellite robbed my of all diplomatic options, my Romans turned rabid. To bolster my numbers, I decided to just wantonly invade all my neighbors one after the other. Since there are only three independant empires left and they are so tiny that I could mop them up both at once, there is little for me to fear in regards to defense pacts. In fact, I just now steamrolled the Bos'Pachtux and the Nuurian Polity, gobbling up a huge chunk of their planets (and suffering a food shortage in return because I can't use the paradise domes built by the Bos'Pachtux -.-).

Overall, the wars were one-sided, but there were still some oddities I noticed. Especially when it comes to point defense... In one battle my 75 Sacrosanctus destroyers work as intended and utterly annihilate all rockets and strike craft, I can even watch my starfighters intercepting them. And in other battles they just... don't do anything at all. They just sit there and watch all rockets and bombers to go past them and destroy some of my battleships. When zooming in, there isn't a single flak projectile shot, nothing at all. My losses in these battles are also considerably higher. There is something seriously buggy going on... and I'm afraid that this might be the same reason for why my plasma cruiser refused to shoot when I battled the Xo'lokako.

In any case, I've now built a ton of plasma corvettes and increased my bomber squadrons... I am going to test this against one of the sleeping fallen empires, hoping to conquer them to boost my economy.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!

You get crystal forged plating from crystalline entities(debris scanning). 

If you max armor(90% is the effective cap) works well even against laser/plasma weapons because normal AI and FE ship designs use a lot of small/medium weapons which have pretty low armor penetration. Armor in 1.9.1 will only fail you if you fight pure lance/L plasma ships which the AI  does not field. 

Bombers are great if they work but they tend to bug out(to go on a sightseeing tour). Because if that I never use them as I play ironman only.

Conquering all other empires is the way to go!

 

[Red Tiger]

@aceluby Im working on a strength build and i've almost got my strength to 50, endurance 40 and vitality 50. What stat would you recommend I work on next?

[aceluby]

1 minute ago, Red Tiger said:

@aceluby Im working on a strength build and i've almost got my strength to 50, endurance 40 and vitality 50. What stat would you recommend I work on next?

Really depends on your playstyle. If all melee, all the time, skill will give you a boost with most weapons.  If you complement with guns or magic, go with bloodtinge or arcane.  If you're not sure, I'd go with upping arcane and use the empty phantasm shell to give you a boost and old hunter bone for some extra speed

[Red Tiger]

59 minutes ago, aceluby said:

Really depends on your playstyle. If all melee, all the time, skill will give you a boost with most weapons.  If you complement with guns or magic, go with bloodtinge or arcane.  If you're not sure, I'd go with upping arcane and use the empty phantasm shell to give you a boost and old hunter bone for some extra speed

Im using the Kirkhammer, but I plan on using the whirligig saw when I start playing the DLC.

[aceluby]

1 minute ago, Red Tiger said:

Im using the Kirkhammer, but I plan on using the whirligig saw when I start playing the DLC.

Yeah, I'd go w/ Arcane then.  Use the spells and get a bigger boost to the weapons than w/ skill

[Red Tiger]

58 minutes ago, aceluby said:

Yeah, I'd go w/ Arcane then.  Use the spells and get a bigger boost to the weapons than w/ skill

I'll probably end up buffing skill too down the line. Im curious to try a skill build in a new game+ or something.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Ya’ll think you’re real hardcore gamers? Well this dude has officially set the bar:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/murdered-teenager-video-games-funeral-sitting-up-new-orleans-renard-matthews-a8441861.html

[Toth]

So... as mentioned before, I got over my anger at the Xo'lukako and actually continued my playthrough as Roman Republic in space. And... in these last 20 years a lot has happened... But before that, I thought it would be neat to show the specs of my fleet so that people can understand my anguish. Starting from the heaviest hitters to the small flying coffins.

The Triarius-class Battleship: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/oyfnedga.png

Technically my oldest type of battleship, but in the old ages I just filled all the slots with the basic lvl 5 laser and make it pretend to be a cruiser. With the Tachyon emitter and plasma cannons it is supposed to melt armor once my Pilum-classes carve a way through the enemy shields. But given their god-awful firerate and precision... I'm not exactly sure that it works as intended.

The Pilum-class Battleship: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/tsnqua6o.jpg

My trusty ship of the line! Because it is the only design that absolutely marvels at what it is supposed to do: Immediately stripping the enemy of their shields. And I still remember vividly how they blasted through the defenses of the Xo'lukako titan seconds upon coming into range. Even now it is the most produced battleship in the Roman empire.

The Scutum-class Carrier: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/63b46ynq.jpg

Created in the last months of the Xo'Lukako invasion, it was intended to put my (stolen) strike craft technology to good use and give me an additional edge against the enemy starfighters if my Sacrosanctus class destroyers sit on their asses again. They were supposed to "shield" my battleships, so to speak. Well... I scrapped that idea by now. I can't compete with a dedicated carrier fleet that beats me both in numbers and technology. Therefore I replaced two of the starfighter slots with bombers and watch how they do a really decent job in tearing down fortresses. That's about the only thing they are good at, though. I also maybe should increase their armor a bit...

The Invictus-class Cruiser: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/180713/wp42raz2.jpg

This thing is actually intended to be a swiss army knife, both effective against shields and armor, but, well, only at knife-fighting range. By now I have also took Wolfgang's advice to heart and increased its armor. The way these things were dying like flies kinda bothered me in my last battles, so maybe shields aren't the only solution.

The Principes-class Cruiser: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/180713/j7av9srw.jpg

Pretty much the proof that I still don't know exactly what I want. I swapped the Invictus' swiss army knife idea against a thoroughly boring pure plasma build. It proved just as boringly effective, but also here I should tweak with the armor a little.

The Sacrosanctus-class Destroyer: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/9zf7vu72.jpg

The oldest design in the fleet. Unchanged for a bloody century. But if it isn't bugged, these little highly specialized monsters create a point defense field that makes every strike craft or rocket approaching my fleet immediately explode. I'm still very happy with them. If they get their shit together, that is. But surprisingly, in the last battles they actually worked as intended.

The Gladius-class Corvette: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/ugfartw2.jpg

My attempt at solid endgame corvette, supposed to be a badass torpedo boat with ludicrous evasion to kill battleships. They never worked and always just died in droves. By now I still have a few leftovers in service, but I'm swapping them out for the boring and surprisingly more effective Hastatus-class.

The Hastatus-class Corvette: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/fh6ks2sa.jpg

Another attempt at being boring as hell, but weirdly effective. At least against fallen empires. I'm actually very anxious to use them against regular foes, given that they can't really survive against enemies that are just as small and shoot at them more earnestly. For that reason I tend to keep them separate from my main fleet and only let them join when there is a big foe that needs to be swarmed.

[Toth]

So now to what happened...

... well, I'm frustrated. Because the AI showed me again just how much of a noob I am. In my rapid and aggressive invasion of my neighbors, I actually did manage to utterly steamroll the Fallen Empire of the "Lanthrepian Ancients", which might have doomed the galaxy. Because now I've scrapped almost every chance for a "Guardian of the Galaxy" event when the endgame crisis strikes. The Xo'lukako could still take up that mantle, but after having been weakened this much as they were recently, there is little help they could possibly offer.

In any case, the Lanthrepian Ancients were a race of Enigmatic Observers with whom I got along splendid for the most time, though admittedly in these last decades the relationship went back to zero. They are fairly harmless, but I wanted to see whether the fleet from above could actually take them on. So Invaded them... and my 150k fleet was greeted by a 160k fleet of theirs while I was approaching a spaceport guarded by a fortress. The resulting battle was a strange mess where both fleets decided to spread out over half the solar system: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/ijnue5mz.jpg

In the end, I defeated them with "only" losses of 40k in fleet strength. Which might be acceptable here, but I have to say that against such an absurdly high numerical advantage the Xo'lukako have, I needed far better. Especially looking at my losses in cruisers here: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/9albs6vg.jpg

But the swarm tactic worked surprisingly well. And with my new bomber squadrons, I even made short work of their fortresses: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/qr4xguu7.png

With that I got into possession of their Gaia worlds and high-tech factories, giving me the boost I needed to compete with the Xo'Lukako on my own... Something I really needed to do on my own, after all. Because while I was busy tearing down their defenses, the AI pulled something astonishing off: While the Xo'Lukako were invading the Federation of the Andigonj Empire and Helvanni Trading alliance (which existed only because my sudden Roman expansion scared them shitless), the rest of the big powerhouses started a rebellion. All of them. The Varelviv, the Canthari, the Kirillians, all of them at once just attacked the Xo'Lukako fleet while it was busy slapping the Andigonj and Helvanni around. A battle containing almost the entire freaking galaxy... except me! Because I missed it! Because they didn't invite me! Probably because of my ludicrous threat-level, but even more likely is that I simply couldn't, because I still was forced to have that nasty truce with the Xo'Lukako. Ironic... I couldn't immediately break free from their thrall because I tried to defy them before. If I had bent the knee earlier, I could have just backstabbed them immediately.

But worst part is: I missed all of it! Even when they rebelled, I shrugged and thought they will probably not be able to defeat them anyway. And then, amidst my own wars, I scrolled to the left and watched a broken shell of 80k fleet-strength limping back to the Xo'Lukako home-world, while a massive, though admittedly quite battered, joint fleet sieged their outlying systems. I was flabbergasted. THEY BEAT THEM?!? THE FREAKING AI EMPIRES BEAT THEM?!?

Now I was suddenly the only one still under the thumb of the Xo'Lukako. Still reeling, I wrapped up my business with the Lanthrepian Ancients and rushed towards the Xo'Lukako worlds, aching to break free while they were still weakened. Admittedly... I evaded their recovering fleet then. Because I had the bad premonition that if I destroyed it, the AI empires would rush in and grab their precious ring worlds, with me going home empty handed. So I actually defeated them while trying not to outright destroy them... which, actually worked quite neatly. And with this, the 18 years of Xo'Lukako reign over the Roman Empire came to an end: http://fs1.directupload.net/images/180713/fstylx3s.jpg

Ah... it does feel great to see the map being this colorful again! Everyone, is free again, diplomacy is-

What? What are all these messages? Borders closed? Borders closed? Borders closed? Borders closed?

What the hell? What is going on?!?

Oh right, I have a -400 threat penalty thanks to my aggressive behavior when everything except the "Declare War" button was greyed out due to my satellite status. Oh come on, when this is the only button I have, I will be damned if I don't push it! But that's how it is... now the Roman Republic is hated by the entire galaxy... or maybe less hated and it's more that they are shitting their breeches thinking that they could be next. Still...

... still, you could have at least waited with closing your borders until my fleet is home: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/180713/c6gdegjk.jpg

You little slaving mushroom spider assholes! This is ridiculous... you can't just force my fleet to be stranded in that bubble of Xo'Lukako space. (*cough* forcing me to pay full maintenance *cough*). So even though the whole galaxy fears me already, I had no choice but to declare war on them. Because I will get my legionnairies home! Even if that path is paved with blood or whatever this green stuff is that comes out when I trample these little suckers!

BLAM: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/180713/twraryog.jpg

Now this is truly ridiculous... I'm also well aware that right now the only ones who could still possibly oppose me are the Xo'Lukako and the impressive new Federation formed by the Canthari and Kirillians. I do wonder, though, if I am just weakening the galaxy right now, making it unable to withstand whatever endgame crisis lurks in the shadow (I wonder why it still hasn't fired yet).

[Werthead]

A modder has discovered that the famously shit AI in Aliens: Colonial Marine is down to one single typo in an .ini file.

Fixing this takes 5 seconds and although it doesn't solve the rest of the game's many other sins, it does address this one particularly glaring fuck-up, which resulted in all those meme-worthy shots of xenomorphs disco-dancing in room corners or sauntering casually by the player in a friendly manner.

[A True Kaniggit]

On 7/13/2018 at 6:49 AM, Toth said:

Now this is truly ridiculous... I'm also well aware that right now the only ones who could still possibly oppose me are the Xo'Lukako and the impressive new Federation formed by the Canthari and Kirillians. I do wonder, though, if I am just weakening the galaxy right now, making it unable to withstand whatever endgame crisis lurks in the shadow (I wonder why it still hasn't fired yet).

What year is it? I can't remember what it used to be, but current version the earliest a crisis can start is 50 years after the endgame begins with a growing probability of crisis occurring the more time that passes. That being said, there always a possibility no crisis triggers if it doesn't roll. 

Edit: I just looked at your last screenshot and it said 2403. If the endgame is set to 2400 you probably won't get a crisis until 2450 at the earliest.

 

I finally got the Suffer not the Alien achievement. And let me tell you, those last 150 years were a grind. By that time the Pure Covenant were the dominant species in the galaxy, they couldn't have been defeated if every single remaining empire had worked together to stop them (which of course they didn't. Foolish xenos) It still took over a century for them to exterminate everyone though. I persevered however, and through a combination of World Cracking, Orbital Bombardment, and straight up genocide the galaxy belongs solely to the Pure.

I think my next play through I'll be a semi-benevolent humanity. (I got my eye one you Last, Best Hope achievement)

 

[Vin]

So I just started kingdom come deliverance . I'm liking this so far .

[Werthead]

There's a pretty big Fallout 4 mod called Northern Springs which adds a large new area to explore and some new quests. Looks interesting, and bravo to a modding team which sets a realistic, focused goal (an expansion-level new area, not a whole new world the same size as the base game or bigger) and executing it a reasonable timeframe (two years, in this case).

Winding up my Age of Mythology replay. Excellent game, once you get over some of its 1990isms (it was released in 2002 but did hold over some archaic game mechanics from the earlier Age of Empires games). Always enjoyed this one a lot more than the occasionally-suspiciously-similar-and-later WarCraft III and that remains the case.

[A True Kaniggit]

16 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Winding up my Age of Mythology replay. Excellent game, once you get over some of its 1990isms (it was released in 2002 but did hold over some archaic game mechanics from the earlier Age of Empires games). Always enjoyed this one a lot more than the occasionally-suspiciously-similar-and-later WarCraft III and that remains the case.

Yeah. I'm pacing myself with it. Only just now about to finish the first Atlantis campaign. After playing them both, I'd say it's more enjoyable than Age of Empires II, which usually ends with a resource depleted map.

[Corvinus85]

Age of Mythology has always been my favorite in the series. Curious to see what they intend to do with AoE4, if there will be any new mechanics, or just the same 'ol with prettier graphics.

Anyway, I'm currently playing Spellforce III, which I picked up in the steam sale. It's ok. I've played the 2nd game years ago, don't recall ever playing the first one. It's one of the first games to attempt combining classic party RPGs with classic RTS games. This one has new graphics, and a cool looking world map, but otherwise I don't see much difference from its predecessor. The game was buggy at launch, back in December, so I stayed away until now.

[Slurktan]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Winding up my Age of Mythology replay. Excellent game, once you get over some of its 1990isms (it was released in 2002 but did hold over some archaic game mechanics from the earlier Age of Empires games). Always enjoyed this one a lot more than the occasionally-suspiciously-similar-and-later WarCraft III and that remains the case.

Are you trying to imply Age of Mythology copied Warcraft 3 since it came out after it with that last sentence?  Which would be baffling since they came out 3 months apart and they wouldn't have been able to copy anything of value in that short of time.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 7/10/2018 at 2:11 PM, aceluby said:

I mean... I love everything Dark Souls.  It's another one of my favorites, though I noticeably didn't spend as much time with it as I did the original or DS2.  It's good, but the way magic was changed made for pure mage builds to be less than viable, whereas my DS1 Dex/Int/Fth SL120 build could decimate 700SL+ builds and gank squads in the forests.  I think I still have a DLC that I didn't finish, which is pretty weird for me.  For some it's their favorite of the 3.  The story is great and if you're thinking of getting it, and enjoying BB, I'd say jump in! 

Let me know if you do and I'll start up a character too if you want to coop.

I just went back and beat the DLCs, though I've had them on the shelf for a couple of years. DS3 is a lot of fun, and when I go back to DS1 now, I appreciate the fluidity of movement that DS3 offers. The world building and lore aren't the same at all, in my opinion, though, and ultimately, DS1 is the best of the three.