Videogames 2023 pt. II: Can We patreon This Man an Alienware Already?

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Impmk2 said:

That's really quite depressing. I was very much looking forward to this (as well as the PC TLoU port). Oh well. I guess I'll hold off until the end of year sales. Hopefully by that time it'll be sufficiently patched.

 

It's not worth $119, and launched in a sorry state. 

What really fascinates me is this: Cyberpunk 2077? Worked like a charm from day 1 for me. And we all know that game had one hell of a messy launch. But Survivor? Oof. I expected a cleaner launch than what we got. 

[Heartofice]

Personally I’ve never liked the PC for these AAA games, the reason I have a pc is because it just has a lot more of the strategy, slower games that suit a keyboard and mouse. I prefer those anyway these days now my reactions are dull and my patience for cut scenes is zero

[Raja]

On 4/30/2023 at 9:57 AM, Derfel Cadarn said:

It was the reported shitty ports of Assassins Zcreed Unity and Arkham Knight that convinced me if I wanted to play AAA games, it was time to get a PS4.

I know PCs are meant to be an arms race as a cliche but you just don't get the frames on the PS or Xbox that you do on a PC, and you don't always need to have the latest GPUs for it.

Especially true if one plays FPS shooters as the competitive scene for those games is basically dead on console ( I essentially switch from console to PC after I started gaming again over the last 4-5 years)

That being said, AAA studios/ devs do seem to be churning out terrible PC ports of a lot of games so I don't blame people for turning to consoles.

I'm finishing Fallen Order right now so happy to wait for Survivor, but I hope the game gets panned on steam because it deserves to given the performance.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Raja

[Toth]

Mmh... okay, I should have expected that. It IS X4 after all and a Mod that gives it five times the size and many, many factions just sounds like it's asking for trouble. I was flying around at Muunilist minding my own business when all of a sudden my CPU cried in agony and my framerate tanked... accompanied by radio chatter of a nearby battle. I guess that's where those guys were heading before: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/859069547172331570/1102609042951655555/20230501160410_1.jpg

Mmh... I will try and go back to the game later. I hope that fixes the issue, but on the other hand I fear it simply won't get better with the limitations of my budget PC.

[RumHam]

So Zelda leaked. It doesn't run on the Yuzu emulator yet, and runs like crap on the other one for now. I'll be curious to see if they get it properly playable on the steam deck before it even comes out. 

[Werthead]

Encountered the troll invasion boss in his dungeon in Kingmakerand, er, he appears to be unbeatable for my Level 7 party (despite this being the "correct" level to do so).

The guy has haste cast on him instantly and there's not much you can do about that (a dispel magic might work, but I haven't had it memorised so I'd have to re-camp). He also has some weird thing where he auto-hits on every hit, so my AC 30 tank (Valerie) is superfluous. His AC is also insaneo-high, so even my heavy hitters mostly miss him. He also appears immune to AoE spells like Grease and Web.

I'm not sure who thought this was a great idea (note that in tabletop, putting an AC 30+ enemy on the table would likely get you beaten up by your players at Level 6). The only online strategy advice is drop the difficulty to Story Mode and maybe use invisible or high-stealth characters to kill the kobold sorcerer (who casts haste on the troll), sacrifice one melee to the troll and get everyone else to run out of range, wait for the spell to wear off, and come back and hope for the best (mass missile weapon wailing a la Baldur's Gate might also work if you can stay ahead of him).

I despise BS difficulty spikes like this in RPGs, it's just silly.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Werthead

[Jace, Extat]

So the new QB and Odell in Bal Tee More will give me a reason to get current on Madden this season

Anyone else  PS4 that shit? 

[Poobah]

12 hours ago, Werthead said:

Encountered the troll invasion boss in his dungeon in Kingmakerand, er, he appears to be unbeatable for my Level 7 party (despite this being the "correct" level to do so).

The guy has haste cast on him instantly and there's not much you can do about that (a dispel magic might work, but I haven't had it memorised so I'd have to re-camp). He also has some weird thing where he auto-his on every hit, so my AC 30 tank (Valerie) is superflous. His AC is also insaneo-high, so even my heavy hitters mostly miss him. He also appears immune to AoE spells like Grease and Web.

I'm not sure who thought this was a great idea (note that in tabletop, putting an AC 30+ enemy on the table would likely get you beaten up by your players at Level 6). The only online strategy advice is drop the difficulty to Story Mode and maybe use invisible or high-stealth characters to kill the kobold sorcerer (who casts haste on the troll), sacrifice one melee to the troll and get everyone else to run out of range, wait for the spell to wear off, and come back and hope for the best (mass missile weapon wailing a la Baldur's Gate might also work if you can stay ahead of him).

I despise BS difficulty spikes like this in RPGs, it's just silly.

Sadly I heard a lot of this from a friend who played Kingmaker and it put me right off.

[Gorn]

19 hours ago, Werthead said:

Encountered the troll invasion boss in his dungeon in Kingmakerand, er, he appears to be unbeatable for my Level 7 party (despite this being the "correct" level to do so).

The guy has haste cast on him instantly and there's not much you can do about that (a dispel magic might work, but I haven't had it memorised so I'd have to re-camp). He also has some weird thing where he auto-his on every hit, so my AC 30 tank (Valerie) is superflous. His AC is also insaneo-high, so even my heavy hitters mostly miss him. He also appears immune to AoE spells like Grease and Web.

I'm not sure who thought this was a great idea (note that in tabletop, putting an AC 30+ enemy on the table would likely get you beaten up by your players at Level 6). The only online strategy advice is drop the difficulty to Story Mode and maybe use invisible or high-stealth characters to kill the kobold sorcerer (who casts haste on the troll), sacrifice one melee to the troll and get everyone else to run out of range, wait for the spell to wear off, and come back and hope for the best (mass missile weapon wailing a la Baldur's Gate might also work if you can stay ahead of him).

I despise BS difficulty spikes like this in RPGs, it's just silly.

My trick to beating him was to completely ignore the kobold sorcerer at the beginning of the fight, and focus my entire party on dealing as much damage to the troll as quickly as possible. It helped that my main was a stealthy backstabby rogue with very high damage output, and that Ekundayo is also amazing with dealing damage from range with a bow. I also played the game turn-based instead of real-time with pause.

Have you found the Devourer of Metal longbow? It is one of the best weapons in the game, and it is hidden on the top floor of the troll lair. 2d6 regular damage + 2d6 acid damage (especially useful against trolls). It's even a little gamebreaking, Ekun will pop most enemies like balloons with it until endgame.

[Argonath Diver]

Jumped in to the newest season of Project Diablo 2, a superb mod of og D2 with its own large community, a trade portal, and a vast reimagining of my favorite game ever. The newest patch uses a new renderer to give it a very smooth 60 fps though the game is still calculated in its 25 frame glory. The graphics can't compare to D2R of course but in my opinion that downgrade pales in comparison to the vast and modern changes its made to the old stalwart. A multifaceted endgame like POE. Tons of skill and monster balancing to make lots of builds and under-appreciated zones relevant. QoL all over. 

If I don't finally spring on a graphics card before D4, I'll be fully content casually playing this season and with my colossal single player hoard (unlimited stash mmm).

I can do all the try-hard content or just blast as I watch a game or show on the main screen. Don't think I'll be buying D4 until a week or three in, regardless. 

 

[Kalbear]

Jesus the reviews for Redfall are brutal. I played it early and thought my shaky experience was just because it was early access, but it looks like that's just the game.

Damn shame - the sizzle looked awesome and I love Arkane's games.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Gorn said:

My trick to beating him was to completely ignore the kobold sorcerer at the beginning of the fight, and focus my entire party on dealing as much damage to the troll as quickly as possible. It helped that my main was a stealthy backstabby rogue with very high damage output, and that Ekundayo is also amazing with dealing damage from range with a bow. I also played the game turn-based instead of real-time with pause.

Have you found the Devourer of Metal longbow? It is one of the best weapons in the game, and it is hidden on the top floor of the troll lair. 2d6 regular damage + 2d6 acid damage (especially useful against trolls). It's even a little gamebreaking, Ekun will pop most enemies like balloons with it until endgame.

I don't have Ekun, he rubbed me up the wrong way. I did find the longbow whilst exploring the rest of the ruins though, so that should be interesting.

Quote

Sadly I heard a lot of this from a friend who played Kingmaker and it put me right off.

It's annoying but Baldur's Gate had similar problems (mostly in 2 at higher levels though, so you had more options in overcoming them).

[Gorn]

30 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I don't have Ekun, he rubbed me up the wrong way. I did find the longbow whilst exploring the rest of the ruins though, so that should be interesting.

It's annoying but Baldur's Gate had similar problems (mostly in 2 at higher levels though, so you had more options in overcoming them).

Ekun was my party's MVP for most of the game. With that longbow and extra tactical options that turn-based combat provides, I could use him to take out enemy spellcasters, healers and archers from a distance at the beginning of most combats, making them much easier. And his pet wolf is basically a free extra party member who is decent in a melee fight. The gnome alchemist (forgot his name) is also a good ranged damage dealer if you can stand him as a character.

Although I didn't finish the game either. Later in the game I had to fight a barbarian chieftain who is a) magic-resistant, b) has crazy-high AC, c) has crazy-high HP, and d) one-hit-kills most of my characters. After about ten attempts, I uninstalled the game.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Gorn

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Gorn said:

Ekun was my party's MVP for most of the game. With that longbow and extra tactical options that turn-based combat provides, I could use him to take out enemy spellcasters, healers and archers from a distance at the beginning of most combats, making them much easier. And his pet wolf is basically a free extra party member who is decent in a melee fight. The gnome alchemist (forgot his name) is also a good ranged damage dealer if you can stand him as a character.

Although I didn't finish the game either. Later in the game I had to fight a barbarian chieftain who is a) magic-resistant, b) has crazy-high AC, c) has crazy-high HP, and d) one-hit-kills most of my characters. After about ten attempts, I uninstalled the game.

I switched to turn-based and used my MC as a tank with two healers just constantly spamming heal on her whilst she did okay damage, and then flanked the troll with my barbarian to do massive damage.

Incidentally, the game using every other mega-pedantic D&D 3.5/PF1 bullshit rule in existence but not the flanking bonuses is pure bullshit, but okay.

I may need to reconsider my party. The bard (Linzi) and cleric (Harrin) are both focused on crossbows as their ranged weapon of choice, so the only person who can use the Devourer of Metal is either one of my three melee powerhouses (not ideal considering their job) or my...mage, which is even more suboptimal (even with dex bonuses, she did little in the troll fight). My mage (Octavia) is decent, so keeping her and swapping out one of the melee characters for Ekun might work, but the problem is that all three melee characters are pretty good at their job, and the advice seems to be to keep Valerie as there is no other party member in the game who can tank as well as her. The barbarian, Amiri, does do excellent damage but she is a bit crap in terms of finding good armour for her so far, so I might try substituting Ekun for her.

[Arakasi]

Pretty sure the game does use flanking. It’s just different than the tabletop rules. In tabletop you have to draw a line between characters and it has to go through hitbox. In kingmaker and WotR flanking is just achieved by having two melee threatening a character. (Aka be in melee reach) One thing I’ve heard that is much better in WotR is combat log. Not sure if kingmaker has one but Wotr does and it goes into depth and you can see the results of all rolls and the math that went into it.

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Jumped in to the newest season of Project Diablo 2, a superb mod of og D2 with its own large community, a trade portal, and a vast reimagining of my favorite game ever.

It says on their website, that "You must own legitimate copies of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, purchased from Blizzard, in order to play Project Diablo II". 

Is it sufficient to own Diablo 2: Resurrected? Or is do I need to own *classic* Diablo 2 and LOD?

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Incidentally, the game using every other mega-pedantic D&D 3.5/PF1 bullshit rule in existence but not the flanking bonuses is pure bullshit, but okay.

And this is in Kingmaker, yeah? Not Wrath of the Righteous?

[Arakasi]

Yes but flanking is in Kingmaker just not the traditional be on opposite sides. It’s actually a debuff on this game. If two of your characters melee threaten an opponent everyone on your team gets plus 2 to hit against them. In tabletop only the characters flanking would get the bonus. Easy way to test this is to have a ranged character who has sneak attack dice. Have two party members threaten an enemy and then have the ranged character shoot them. If you see sneak attack dice that’s from flanking.

[Poobah]

1 hour ago, IlyaP said:

It says on their website, that "You must own legitimate copies of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, purchased from Blizzard, in order to play Project Diablo II". 

Is it sufficient to own Diablo 2: Resurrected? Or is do I need to own *classic* Diablo 2 and LOD?

Since it's a mod for the original D2 I would guess that you need the original game to use it; I doubt there're distributing the full game files, that way lies lawyers and takedowns. 

[Argonath Diver]

3 hours ago, IlyaP said:

It says on their website, that "You must own legitimate copies of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, purchased from Blizzard, in order to play Project Diablo II". 

Is it sufficient to own Diablo 2: Resurrected? Or is do I need to own *classic* Diablo 2 and LOD?

Hmm. I can't recall but I believe if you can get LOD installed and working you can download the mods launcher and gi from there. I have both CDKeys attached to my ancient bnet account and to reinstall LOD as I recall it asks for both.

My druid summoner AngryPuppies has progressed past Meph runs etc and is into the simple Mapping system now. Still no skill GCs etc as it's apparently a very meta build and gear upgrades are expensive. I have found some awesome stuff (which with new Loot Filters is super satisfying).