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Video Games: Gears of Borderlands


Werthead

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Yeah the universe is massive. You have to go quite far out to find planets no one’s scanned. If you can find mineral-rich or earth-like planets, you get a lot more cash on selling the data. 

For exploration, read guides on fitting the ship. You want as light as possible, no weapons. Essentially you’re flying a hyperdrive with a big fuel tank, a fuel scoop, and some scanners. My ship was a bit heavier as I took my buggy to drive on planets, but I left it at Jacques. Also fitted a repair module and couple of heat sinks - when doing a lot of jumps, its easy to get sloppy with fuelling, and get too close to the star.

If you do use repair modules, be very careful when and what you repair. If you repair life support, remmeber to turn it back on. Don’t repair the frameshift drive while using it, ie warping in-system, or it will shut down, throw you out of warp, and do a lot of damage.

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3 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

For exploration, read guides on fitting the ship. You want as light as possible, no weapons. Essentially you’re flying a hyperdrive with a big fuel tank, a fuel scoop, and some scanners. Also fitted a repair module and couple of heat sinks - when doing a lot of jumps, its easy to get sloppy with fuelling, and get too close to the star. 

That sounds pretty reasonable. And with the buggy... is there actually any incentive to explore the ground besides that thing about collecting alien tech I have read about (and landing on every stellar object being generally awesome of course)? I mean more valuable exploration data or ground mining spots? If not, then I'll likely skip on the buggy there I think.

3 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

If you do use repair modules, be very careful when and what you repair. If you repair life support, remmeber to turn it back on. Don’t repair the frameshift drive while using it, ie warping in-system, or it will shut down, throw you out of warp, and do a lot of damage. 

Okay... so I assume repair modules are kinda like health kits to replenish hull while in space or something? As you see, I haven't played any of it so far, so I have not really an idea what you are talking about.^^

But if it's like that, I guess my muscle memory from X might be helpful. When repairing my ships by hand I usually flew to a remote spot (to avoid getting run over by traffic) and completely shut my ship down. Though that's more because in the X series you have to make a spacewalk to fix your ship with the repair laser of your EVA suit. And if you forget to come to a complete halt, it might happen that your ship drifts away from you while you are stuck in your EVA suit, cursing your luck as you frantically run after it with just your puny thrusters. XD

And that life support thing also reminds me of a scene in X3 Terran Conflict when, playing a Terran character, I got the bright idea to cannibalize my old Terran Sabre Fighter to outfit a new Argon Nova Heavy Fighter I bought... including the life support system... completely oblivious that there was still a main quest relevant NPC aboard. When I realized my mistake weeks later when I wanted to continue the main quest, realized he was gone and then noticed that the ship didn't have a life support system anymore, you can imagine my panic.^^ Thankfully he respawned somewhere, drifting around in a space suit.

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I used the buggy to collect resources to boost the range of my hyperdrive for a couple of jumps if need be. But its time consuming so not really worth it.

The repair kits I have are for systems rather than hull. 

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Well, I've found another game to play besides just FFXIV. I was going through RPS' best PC games of the decade list, and I've played almost all of them or know that they aren't for me; like CS:GO. But one that I hadn't played or heard of was Star Traders: Frontiers, and since its regular price is only $15 I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did, there's a hell of a lot of game in there for that price.

At its core, it's a standard space sim game; make your way as a merchant/smuggler/bounty hunter/etc. Its twist is that everything is abstracted as dice rolls, which are happening constantly in the background and you only ever see the results. All your skills, attributes, and talents, which you get from your captain, officers, crew, and ship components all give you modifiers on various types of dice rolls. And some talents let you occasionally ignore failed rolls, with a cooldown. It's actually a pretty neat system.

The game plays out on a 2d map of the galaxy, broken up into quadrants that have sectors. Ship and in-person combat are turn-based in their own screens. Neither are that in-depth, but they're serviceable. It's mostly about being prepared in advance.

Also, the game has anywhere between 300 and 600 NPCs, called contacts, that you can work for, but that are also in constant competition with each other based around their set priorities. And they are constantly running dice rolls against each other, regardless of your involvement. You can run missions and get very involved though, including scripted narrative missions. The writing in them is fine, but what's really neat is the world building hinted at (strongly inspired by Dune), the fact that there are branching paths and your choices do matter, and the missions will occur regardless of your involvement. Just maybe with different outcomes since your dice modifiers won't be involved.

It's a very elaborate clockwork system that's a lot of fun to sandbox in.

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New Bioshock game announced.

I think its in the hands of a new studio, so not sure what to expect.  And they're saying they're at the start of the process, so it won't be released for a long time.  But still excited.  Infinite remains the only first person game I've ever enjoyed (I usually only play third person).

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On 12/9/2019 at 3:20 AM, Toth said:

That sounds pretty reasonable. And with the buggy... is there actually any incentive to explore the ground besides that thing about collecting alien tech I have read about (and landing on every stellar object being generally awesome of course)? I mean more valuable exploration data or ground mining spots? If not, then I'll likely skip on the buggy there I think.

You use the buggy to mine minerals that you can use for Synthesis (buffs for weapons and some modules) or Engineering. You can also explore crashed ships, abandoned human bases etc.

There are missions which require you to go scan certain beacons in planetary bases, some of which have security drones which you need to avoid or take out. There are also volcanoes, geysers, crystal needles etc that you can visit (can be good rare materials farming areas). Nothing that pays more than mining though.

I hate the buggy with a passion. It is the worst. But some people love it.

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Okay... so I assume repair modules are kinda like health kits to replenish hull while in space or something? As you see, I haven't played any of it so far, so I have not really an idea what you are talking about.^^

Not quite. Your ship has shield hp, armour hp (hull integrity), and then each of your module also has hp (module integrity). Repair modules (assuming we are talking about Auto Field Maintenance Units) replenishes your modules, not your hull. Repair limpets can repair your hull but not modules. If hull reaches zero, your ship is destroyed. But if on of your specific module reaches zero then that specific module stops functioning. You can target specific modules like power plant, thrusters, shield generators, frame shift drive etc to debuff the enemy. No thrusters mean you can't control your movement (roll aimlessly into space....), destroying the shield generator means the shield won't come back online, zero hp on power plant can potentially blow up ship or stop certain modules from functioning (depending on your power priority, which you can set up to priorities which system should get power first etc).\

There is a fair bit to learn on Elite. It does a poor job of holding your hand through.

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On 12/6/2019 at 10:04 AM, Jace, Basilissa said:

I didn't connect with a single character that wasn't Second Sister. It was fun and engaging gameplay and a surprisingly decent story. Just really flat characters that kinda held it back. Still Good, like you said. But there's cracks.

I liked Second Sister from the moment she hopped out of her ship.  She did seem to be the most captivating character.

 

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MechWarrior 5 came out today. Will probably hold off on getting it (my queue of even immediately-to-play games is now insane) but glad to hear it's pretty good. MechWarrior 2 was one of the first games I bought on a gaming PC, and possibly the first game I ever played on PC (a couple of years earlier at a friend's house).

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I think its in the hands of a new studio, so not sure what to expect.  And they're saying they're at the start of the process, so it won't be released for a long time.  But still excited.  Infinite remains the only first person game I've ever enjoyed (I usually only play third person).

 

BioShock has always been a somewhat overrated franchise, although Infinite had pretty nifty first-person combat. I've always felt the story and premise would have been much better explored as an RPG than a shooter, especially Infinite given it actually had non-combat NPCs all over the place.

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Been replaying Half-Life 2 and its episodes. The game's aged very well, especially in terms of design, its pacing and its aesthetic minimalism, which still feels a bit odd for a shooter even in 2004, but works really well. It's especially interesting because of how many later and contemporary shooters borrowed from it whilst getting it all completely wrong (especially the overreliance on NPC companions, which HL2 never indulges in, and over-exposition, which HL2 very definitely doesn't do).

There is definitely diminishing returns in the two episodes though, and you can see why Valve got stymied after Episode 2. Should the next game have been an open-world thing or remained focused on a linear experience when that was old hat, what new mechanic could they use etc? You can see why they jumped ship at that point, especially as Portal was ticking more boxes for them at the time.

Was also going to replay Half-Life 1 via the Black Mesa mod but they're getting ready to launch the second part of the mod in the New Year, so will hold off for that.

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On 12/10/2019 at 12:20 PM, The Winged Shadow said:

You use the buggy to mine minerals that you can use for Synthesis (buffs for weapons and some modules) or Engineering. You can also explore crashed ships, abandoned human bases etc.

There are missions which require you to go scan certain beacons in planetary bases, some of which have security drones which you need to avoid or take out. There are also volcanoes, geysers, crystal needles etc that you can visit (can be good rare materials farming areas). Nothing that pays more than mining though. 

I hate the buggy with a passion. It is the worst. But some people love it.

Okay, interesting and a lot of thanks! Does the buggy come with weapons or do I have to outfit it similar to a ship?

On 12/10/2019 at 12:20 PM, The Winged Shadow said:

There is a fair bit to learn on Elite. It does a poor job of holding your hand through.

I already saw. Yesterday I finally managed to play a few hours. Half killed myself trying to find the "Home" key in the mining tutorial (it's not named like that on a German keyboard...). Also the fuel scooping proved to be a lot more annoying than I thought it would be as I was nearly cooking myself a few times. The worst part was when I was finished with fuel scooping and wanted to Superdrive to my target station, but my path was too close to the sun and I half plummeted into it with my temperature surging to 130° right away. Some of my internal systems were down to 45% HP when I limped back to safety.

So far I'm feeling like a mailman, usually just transporting messages. I also did one cargo run at the very end, but had to make the trip twice because I didn't notice I could fit only 4 of the 6 crates into my Sidewinder. That's absolutely ridiculous... I must also say that the outfitting menu is clunky as hell. It took me 10 minutes to find the right slot with which to buy a fuel scoop. Is there not a menu where I can see an overview of everything the station could install in my ship? There probably is, but I'm too stupid to find it yet...

I'm also thinking what to save for. Since I want to go for Mining as soon as possible, I did some googling and the Type-6 transporter seems to be the best choice for a beginner. Unfortunately it seems a bit tedious at the moment to get a million credits just from being a mailman and then another three million just to outfit it for the job. At the moment I only get 35k at most from one mission, though I gamed the system a bit by taking two missions to the same station at once if possible. Do the three main factions pay better?

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1 hour ago, Raja said:

Fallout 76 coming out with 12 month paid membership is quite hilarious.

$13 dollars a month for monthly & a $100 dollars for 12 months.

Bethesda makes me laugh. What a joke.

I’m not sure I know what is funny about it. I haven’t followed much of the game.  The game is essentially a MMO, is it not?  What is unusual about a subscription to that?

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4 hours ago, Rhom said:

I’m not sure I know what is funny about it. I haven’t followed much of the game.  The game is essentially a MMO, is it not?  What is unusual about a subscription to that?

I'm fairly sure the joke is that the game barely has any players as it is and now they are charging money for it. I myself was actually under the impression that it has been out all this time, so I'm rather expecting a stillbirth.

 

Meanwhile in Elite Dangerous... Yeah, I actually was able to fly a few more missions yesterday... I guess that's the one boon of being sick in bed, at least until it netted me a heavy headache.

So I finally noticed my erraneous idea that the Pilot Federation is an actual faction despite having actual territory after I was thrown out because this last cargo run had successfully advanced my Trade rank to Mostly Harmless. I'm now in... actually not even actual Federation territory but instead kinda lawless independant territory filled with dictatorships and warzones, now being the message boy for these warring factions. Not sure this is helpful in the long run, but at least they pay 50k for each run.

I also noticed my error in asking for the specifics of the buggy. I don't have the Horizons expansion, so I can't land on planets anyway. I guess I have to stick mining and exploring the old fashioned way, while ignoring the combat missions for the time being. I guess that's a wariness carried over from the X-series, given that raising your combat rank there spawned harder enemies in the main story, so I always avoided fighting if possible until I made sure to have a ship with which I can actually win.

Despite that, I actually grew a little attached to my Sidewinder. She's not a good ship by any stretch of imagination with her non-existant cargo space and few hardpoints, but she does its job and I'm surprised how much you could outfit her with if you bothered to. It feels much more like an actually useful personel carrier than any Argon Discoverer class scout ship you usually start in in X3. Those had similarly no cargo space, but the additional baggage of constant anxiety because you could be splattered by a single collision any second.

Though then again, this is actually also a disadvantage of Elite: Since every ship technically is supposed to be somewhat of an all-rounder, it is very hard for a newbie to look at their stats and gather what they are actually good at. The clear classifications for ships in the X-series had made that easy. A M5 Scout would always be an incredibly fast coffin. A M3 Heavy fighter can dish out enormous amounts of damage... if it can catch up to its prey. A M8 Bomber can take a hit and carry heavy torpedoes. A M1 Carrier could bring dozens of fighters into a battle. A TS Freighter can transport large amounts of tonnage between stations. A TL Superfreigher can build space stations. A TP Personal Transport can carry large amounts of people (or be outfitted as a boarding vessel). And so on and so on. And then come only the different factions who fill these roles with ships that adhere to their specific design philosophies. Argon ships as Jack-of-all-trades. Teladi ships trading speed for bigger cargo space. Split ships trading defense for speed and attack power (with even their freighters having more teeth). So if you buy a Split Caiman TS, you already know that you'll get a very fast freighter with low shields and a doubled number of gun turrets.

When I compare how easily even a beginner gets a grasp of what these hundreds of different ship classes in the X universe do, I can't help but feel that Elite could have gained a lot by a more obvious classification system for its ships so that newbies like me don't have to google all the time to get their way around. Also who the hell thought it would be a good idea to have stations sell only very few random ships without regard of the company and that you can't know what they sell until you dock? Just another thing that just forces the players to visit a wiki instead of actually playing the game. Comparing that with X where you know that a Boron shipyard will sell you all Boron ship classes and a Terran shipyard all Terran classes, at least those unlocked by your faction trust level.

Sorry for what seemed like a rant. I like the game so far, it is very relaxing. But some design decisions seem quite baffling to me, especially compared to a game series I know that is already being constantly criticised for being too inaccessible despite things being done seemingly better. I still loved the realisation that every star you see around you is a star you could theoretically travel to. That is an incredibly fascinating feeling of freedom compared to the crammed X universe.

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On 12/14/2019 at 11:17 AM, Werthead said:

Two of my favourite games from the 6th console generation. The trailer was very odd, but I hope what that's signalling is co-op campaign.

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