Video Games: Gears of Borderlands

[Werthead]

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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.

The Elite series is 35 years old (and I remember my dad buying the first game when it came out: arrgh), which I think is a problem for the fourth game in the series, Dangerous (perhaps moreso when it came out), in that it assumed a lot of pre-existing knowledge of the ship types and what ship is good at what task.

I think a potential mistake was not allowing players to start in a Cobra Mk. III, the default ship of the original Elite and one of the best all-rounder ships in the game. I know they wanted you to level up but I think a Cobra or even an Eagle (the default ship of Elite II: Frontier) would have eased people into the game a lot more easily than the Sidewinder, which you can really do sweet FA with.

I think the team also didn't look at other games that had come to market in the meantime. There's a lot of quality of life improvements from both EVE Online and the X series that would have helped Elite: Dangerous, but they seemed to assume that as those games lifted a lot of ideas from the earlier Elite games so they didn't need to pay attention to what they'd done since, which was naive.

I should get back into Dangerous. I put in 30 hours in 2015 when the game first came out and enjoyed it, but have shelved it since then and the game has changed hugely in the meantime.

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The trailer was very odd, but I hope what that's signalling is co-op campaign

Yes, the campaign mode will allow you and up to 3 other people to play (as Drizzt, Wulfgar, Bruenor and Cattie-brie).

[Toth]

8 hours ago, Werthead said:

The Elite series is 35 years old (and I remember my dad buying the first game when it came out: arrgh), which I think is a problem for the fourth game in the series, Dangerous (perhaps moreso when it came out), in that it assumed a lot of pre-existing knowledge of the ship types and what ship is good at what task.

I know that. I played the first game as well, given how much I am a retro nerd. I was just really bad at it. XD

8 hours ago, Werthead said:

I think the team also didn't look at other games that had come to market in the meantime. There's a lot of quality of life improvements from both EVE Online and the X series that would have helped Elite: Dangerous, but they seemed to assume that as those games lifted a lot of ideas from the earlier Elite games so they didn't need to pay attention to what they'd done since, which was naive.

Agreed. From an X perspective it looks like X borrowed quite a lot of Elite and then developed its own personality. I find it interesting to read many of the players' complaints about Elite: Dangerous in this regard. For example just today I read someone saying the game lacks endgame content and many people just walk away once they've got an Anaconda. That person made the absolutely reasonable suggestion that players should be able to build space stations and found colonies in order to expand the inhabited bubble themselves. Doesn't that sound familiar? I mean, building space stations has a completely different point in X, given that it doesn't happen in the endgame, but rather is a necessity in the early mid-game to finance your adventures or produce rare goods needed for elaborate story quests. In Elite it would have an entirely different idea centered around pushing the frontier and supporting the exploration of the universe, helping to actually make use of this huge universe. And it's not like this would cause the players to fill the entire universe within three days, after all it's still 400 billion star systems...

Btw, I take back everything nice I said about my Sidewinder. I had my first enemy to spawn yesterday during a simple curier quest for just minuscule 29k credits. He first appeared while I was busy fuel scooping, just sniping me away without warning. I barely left the station with my second Sidewinder when I was suddenly interdicted. This time two security ships arrived to help me, stripping him of his shields, but even that when I was folling directly behind him for about 2 or 3 minutes straight I couldn't kill him, it was like I'm shooting pebbles. I don't know whether upgrading from the loaned pulse lasers would change any of that, but it was super frustrating when he at some point just turned around and blasted me with absolute ease. With my third Sidewinder I then at least noticed that you can escape interdictions by following a random escape vector, so I did. This also explains why I previously read that the Type 6 transports are really bad at escaping interdictions because they lack the maneuverability to do so. Marvellous...

I also then noticed that the jump range of the Sidewinder is so low that more and more quests offered to me are absolutely impossible to win because target systems are so far away from other stars that I simply can't reach them. At all. And I have yet to figure out whether there is a way to upgrade your FTL drive...

[Jace, Extat]

10 hours ago, Werthead said:

The Elite series is 35 years old (and I remember my dad buying the first game when it came out: arrgh), which I think is a problem for the fourth game in the series, Dangerous (perhaps moreso when it came out), in that it assumed a lot of pre-existing knowledge of the ship types and what ship is good at what task.

I think a potential mistake was not allowing players to start in a Cobra Mk. III, the default ship of the original Elite and one of the best all-rounder ships in the game. I know they wanted you to level up but I think a Cobra or even an Eagle (the default ship of Elite II: Frontier) would have eased people into the game a lot more easily than the Sidewinder, which you can really do sweet FA with.

I think the team also didn't look at other games that had come to market in the meantime. There's a lot of quality of life improvements from both EVE Online and the X series that would have helped Elite: Dangerous, but they seemed to assume that as those games lifted a lot of ideas from the earlier Elite games so they didn't need to pay attention to what they'd done since, which was naive.

I should get back into Dangerous. I put in 30 hours in 2015 when the game first came out and enjoyed it, but have shelved it since then and the game has changed hugely in the meantime.

Yes, the campaign mode will allow you and up to 3 other people to play (as Drizzt, Wulfgar, Bruenor and Cattie-brie).

I bought this game when it came out and it was unplayable. Good to hear it's one of the recovery stories out there.

[aceluby]

Finished up Jedi Fallen Order and enjoyed it for the most part.  Going to clean up the last of my trophies since I'm really close to getting them all and might do a 2nd playthrough on a tougher difficulty, after I finish up the last season of clone wars and rewatch ep 3

[Rhom]

After owning the game for a year and a half, I have finally put time into Horizon: Zero Dawn in the last couple of weeks.  I have enjoyed it thoroughly.  I have fallen victim to the classic blunders of history (other than never get involved in a land war in Asia) and every time I see a dot somewhere on the map nearby... I'm following my video game ADHD off the rails and tracking it down.  Consequently, I'm now level 37 and the main story quest is marked for level 20.   

[Ferrum Aeternum]

4 minutes ago, Rhom said:

After owning the game for a year and a half, I have finally put time into Horizon: Zero Dawn in the last couple of weeks.  I have enjoyed it thoroughly.  I have fallen victim to the classic blunders of history (other than never get involved in a land war in Asia) and every time I see a dot somewhere on the map nearby... I'm following my video game ADHD off the rails and tracking it down.  Consequently, I'm now level 37 and the main story quest is marked for level 20.   

Take your time; the main quest isn't going anywhere.  

As great as the main quest in HZD is (and make no mistake, it is great) there's so much else to discover that you'd be selling yourself short if you didn't stray off the beaten path. 

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

Take your time; the main quest isn't going anywhere.  

As great as the main quest in HZD is (and make no mistake, it is great) there's so much else to discover that you'd be selling yourself short if you didn't stray off the beaten path. 

I’ve gotten all of the Vantage points.  Those were worth it.  All the Banuk statues.  That was okay.  All the vessels.  Meh.  And most of the metal flowers.  I’m losing interest in those.

Did all the bandit camps and cauldrons.  Have no interest in hunting grounds.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

13 hours ago, Rhom said:

I’ve gotten all of the Vantage points.  Those were worth it.  All the Banuk statues.  That was okay.  All the vessels.  Meh.  And most of the metal flowers.  I’m losing interest in those.

Did all the bandit camps and cauldrons.  Have no interest in hunting grounds.

You're probably where you need to be, then. Of course, you could also go ahead and do Frozen Wilds before finishing the main quest.  

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

You're probably where you need to be, then. Of course, you could also go ahead and do Frozen Wilds before finishing the main quest.  

That’s my plan.  I’m headed to the Grave Hoard next in the main quest, so Frozen Wilds is just north of that.

[Derfel Cadarn]

20 hours ago, Toth said:

I know that. I played the first game as well, given how much I am a retro nerd. I was just really bad at it. XD

Agreed. From an X perspective it looks like X borrowed quite a lot of Elite and then developed its own personality. I find it interesting to read many of the players' complaints about Elite: Dangerous in this regard. For example just today I read someone saying the game lacks endgame content and many people just walk away once they've got an Anaconda. That person made the absolutely reasonable suggestion that players should be able to build space stations and found colonies in order to expand the inhabited bubble themselves. Doesn't that sound familiar? I mean, building space stations has a completely different point in X, given that it doesn't happen in the endgame, but rather is a necessity in the early mid-game to finance your adventures or produce rare goods needed for elaborate story quests. In Elite it would have an entirely different idea centered around pushing the frontier and supporting the exploration of the universe, helping to actually make use of this huge universe. And it's not like this would cause the players to fill the entire universe within three days, after all it's still 400 billion star systems...

Btw, I take back everything nice I said about my Sidewinder. I had my first enemy to spawn yesterday during a simple curier quest for just minuscule 29k credits. He first appeared while I was busy fuel scooping, just sniping me away without warning. I barely left the station with my second Sidewinder when I was suddenly interdicted. This time two security ships arrived to help me, stripping him of his shields, but even that when I was folling directly behind him for about 2 or 3 minutes straight I couldn't kill him, it was like I'm shooting pebbles. I don't know whether upgrading from the loaned pulse lasers would change any of that, but it was super frustrating when he at some point just turned around and blasted me with absolute ease. With my third Sidewinder I then at least noticed that you can escape interdictions by following a random escape vector, so I did. This also explains why I previously read that the Type 6 transports are really bad at escaping interdictions because they lack the maneuverability to do so. Marvellous...

I also then noticed that the jump range of the Sidewinder is so low that more and more quests offered to me are absolutely impossible to win because target systems are so far away from other stars that I simply can't reach them. At all. And I have yet to figure out whether there is a way to upgrade your FTL drive...

Be careful if taking missions for Alpha Centauri. That system is so huge it can take over an hour to reach a station. 

[Caligula_K3]

I'm getting back into Imperator: Rome after a few months off. The updates to the game have really improved it in ways that I can't really verbalize. It's not perfect, but it does feel fun to play in a way that it didn't before, and it seems to have developed its own identity a little more, instead of being a hodge-podge of Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, and Stellaris features.

I'm pretty much done with Pokemon Sword. Despite all the outrage on the internet, it delivers exactly what I wanted: a fun game that delivers pretty much exactly what it promised. I've never been a big Pokemon fan, finding most of the games I've tried too grindy and restrictive; this one had a sense of freedom. I wish it had been harder during the main game, and the main storyline is pretty nonsensical even by kids' game standards, but I had a blast just running around the wild area, catching Pokemon, and doing raid battles. Plus I got a puppy with a sword in its mouth.

 

 

[Toth]

23 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Be careful if taking missions for Alpha Centauri. That system is so huge it can take over an hour to reach a station. 

I just now found someone else warning of Alpha Centauri... My god... but then again, maybe then I play this game AND catch up on my book reading list. XD Ah well, since I am nowhere near Sol (or know where to find it), I think I am safe at the moment. Though I have already stumbled across a few very frustrating multi-planet systems.

So... I slightly rearranged my plan of getting the Type-6 for mining when I actually found the upgrade options for my Sidewinder's modules and realized that the most expensive part is not the ship, but the equipment. And holy shit mining equipment is expensive! No way I'm patient enough to farm for a Type 6 and then farm even more for all that stuff. But since I already had 600.000 credits lying around, I've got myself a neat Cobra Mk. III as the thing with the largest cargo bay I could afford and started tinkering around with it. Ironically, so far my most lucrative use of it had been transport missions. Which also meant successfully avoiding the asshats trying to interdict me, which was especially important since to make room for more cargo space, two types of limpet launchers, limpets, mining laser, seismic charges and fuel scoop I had to strip my Cobra of shields and weapons...

... and still failed to make mining work as I wondered why my seismic charges bounced uselessly off asteroids. So according to the tutorials I still need a Detailed Surface Scanner to scan for lucrative mining spots, a Pulse Wave Scanner to spot asteroids that can be broken apart and an Abrasion Blaster to shoot off fragments stuck to the pieces... IF and only IF I can find asteroids that aren't hollow, which are almost all for some reason.

Who the hell thought it a great idea to make mining this ridiculously complicated?

I still think I can do this with the Cobra, especially now that I have played around with the limpets (hate how they suicide against your ship if you forget to open the cargo hatch...), even if it only netted me a few ten thousand credits on a full cargo bay with whatever junk I scratched off the surface of some asteroids.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I just noticed Phoenix Point is ready for download in the XBOX(beta) app for PC.

Nice.  

[Toth]

I'm such a lucky idiot. So here's my mining story so far:

First run. Knowing what I had to do after yesterday's failure I outfitted my ship with all the necessary systems and headed out. Arriving at the next nearby gas giant I realized I forgot to stock up on limpet drones. Okay, fine, whatever. I could still use this as a test run to see if I can figure out how the detailed surface scanner works. Scanning the ring was easy enough, but I had to shoot about a dozen probes into the gas giant until I had this stupid thing scanned entirely. What a mess. In any case, as I was hurrying back to the nearest station I was doing some more reading and noticed that Void Opals, the apparently most profitable thing to mine, only appear in icy asteroids, not in the rocky ones I was scanning here.

Second run. I used the online database to find an icy ring two systems away, in a corner I haven't been ventured to yet. A lowless hellhole full of pirates. Awesome... But there were actually three Void Opal hotspots to find on that ring! And after some probing I soon found a motherlode... And then I blew myself up.... Hey? What are you laughing about? After all those previous seismic charges bounced so harmlessly off asteroids, I could really expect just how ridiculously destructive the breaking up of an asteroid is. Especially sitting in a completely stripped down Cobra with no shields or armor to speak of!

Third trip. Clenching my teeth I stocked up on limpets and seismic charges and returned to my asteroid field. This time however finding the right asteroid proved incredibly difficult. I wasted 7 limpets before finally finding one. This time I placed the seismic charges perfectly and got the hell away from the explosion. That one asteroid dropped enough Void Opals to fill my entire cargo space, I managed to evade two attempt to interdict me during my trip to my target station, but I safely arrived. And selling my cargo, I could not help but grin a little as I gained 9 Million credits from just this one trip!

I basically immediately splurged on a Type-6 right there and outfitted it with all the mining tools available. Until I arrived at the hardpoints... and realized that its hardpoints are too small to fit seismic charges! What the hell?!? That mining guide I had read before I started out apparently wasn't written under the assumption that deep core mining is the only rewarding way of mining. And yet, I somehow accidentally found with the Cobra the only ship possible to afford that is capable of it.

Frustrated I left my newly acquired Type-6 where it was, jumped right back into the seat of my Cobra and made a second mining run, making 9 Million credits more to make up for the money wasted on the Type-6. I guess I could use it as a long-range freighter once I get bored of mining, but as for the moment it stays where it is.

Though now I wonder what to save up for next. I scoured the wiki for a ship with more optional module slots than the Cobra and the next one that I can afford and don't need a faction rank for... is the Python for 56.000.000 credits. No way I'm grinding for that in 9 Million steps! But I did notice that the ASP Explorer has better module slots I could use for a two sizes bigger cargo rack, even if I have to strip it of shields as well. And I could afford it right now. Maybe I should try to get my hands on one of these...

[Mexal]

On 12/17/2019 at 10:05 AM, Rhom said:

That’s my plan.  I’m headed to the Grave Hoard next in the main quest, so Frozen Wilds is just north of that.

Which reminds me, I need to finish that. I was about halfway through, got side tracked and never went back. I love HZD's story, so good though I feel like there is an open end that never was really closed (or I missed it).

[Inkdaub]

I started Spider-man and it's giving me a serious case of the New Yorks.  The game looks great and is fun to play...but I hate the web slinging.  I like the zipping.  I am likely too clumsy, though, and rapidly lose control when I try and speed up and swing through town.  Maybe I'll get better.  Combat is pretty good and I love the use of webs while fighting. 

[Toth]

Screw you, Elite!

So yes, I made my first run with the ASP Explorer. It accidentally turned into a smuggling run because I'm an idiot who doesn't read the fine print when seeing a cargo mission that nets 500k credits and hammers the accept button right away. That luckily went well. I also made my first mining run after outfitting the Explorer (I was forced to fly around a bit because I couldn't get all the equipment on the station where I bought it). It only got me about 20 Million credits because I had a hard time finding motherlodes, having to retreat to the station after mining only two asteroids.

But what was so incredibly frustrating was how my second run ended. I was scouring the hotspot for about an hour unable to find motherlodes, but when I was just loading the pieces of my second asteroid into my cargo bay, I suddenly got a disconnect. I logged in right away, but damage was already done: I spawned in the middle of a bunch of pirates who immediately blasted me!

So much time wasted, my cargo lost and I was forced to pay 600.000 insurance to respawn. I hope that doesn't happen too often, because that makes me think about quitting...

I'm still having about 37 Million credits saved up. Let's see whether I will be able to buy that Python... Technically just one haul should be enough to pay for it.

[The Drunkard]

Disco Elysium is very disco. Would recommend. 

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, The Drunkard said:

Disco Elysium is very disco. Would recommend. 

I just watched the accolades trailer for that on GoG.  So what's the gameplay like?

[Luzifer's right hand]

4 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I just watched the accolades trailer for that on GoG.  So what's the gameplay like?

It is all dialog/skill check based even stuff like fighting.  Think Planescape Torment with the combat mechanics removed.