Video Games

darkmaster · Post by **darkmaster** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 9:53 pm

Have you considered that your gaming rig might be loud because it's running hot? It might be a good idea to get a new tower and a better fan.

Anyway, I promised a friend I'd consider getting Brave New World if it went on sale. So, how exactly is Civ V improved in BNW?

NineInchNall · Post by **NineInchNall** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 12:19 am

So. Metro Last Light. You had me at "sequel to post-apocalyptic supernatural sci-fi Russian awesome game I totally loved." Why did you then fuck up the gfx optimization to the point that my average FPS count is 18, when Crysis 3 was running at a buttery 60? Now I have to put you into the dreaded category of promising games ruined by technical issues along with fucking Ultima IX. And that makes me feel sad.

I'm a sad flying cat baby dragon.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:39 am

darkmaster wrote:Have you considered that your gaming rig might be loud because it's running hot? It might be a good idea to get a new tower and a better fan.

Anyway, I promised a friend I'd consider getting Brave New World if it went on sale. So, how exactly is Civ V improved in BNW?

The biggest improvements are in trade and culture, plus a new world government thing.

For trade, you can establish trade routes between cities, with forigen trade routes generating money and science, and internal trade routes moving around food or production. The number of routes slowly goes up with new techs, along with max range and money generated. Money also depends on city income on both ends and non-overlapping resources. Venice is a new civ heavily dependent on trade routes, only getting to build one city (although they have a unique Great Merchant that can puppet city states and can keep conquests as puppets) but getting extra income and twice as many trade routes. By endgame, I was buying up entire armies and had bribed all the city-states into supporting me as I ruled the international council by decree.

For culture, cultural victory is no longer the most boring thing imaginable. In addition to the culture you expand borders and buy policies with, you now generate tourism from Great Works produced by a new crop of Great People, and if your tourism value with a specific civ (boosted by trade, open borders, shared religion, and some other factors) exceeds their total culture over the length of the game, they are officially your culture bitches. Do that for every civ still standing, and you win. The Policy tree has also been revamped, and come the Modern Era or three factories in your empire, you can get an Ideology that can carry some really potent benefits and causes unhappiness in civs you have high Tourism with who use another Ideology, but you get some free bonuses for picking one no one else has.

The new World Congress or whatever opens up when someone has researched Printing Press and contacted every civ in the game. Sessions occur every so often, with two civs including the host getting to make proposals. Voting rules depend on era, with city-states providing extra votes especially in later eras, and the two times I've seen it in action one civ was allied with all the city-states and ruled by decree.

darkmaster · Post by **darkmaster** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:33 am

Okay, so what I'm getting here is that buying a diplomatic victory is even easier now and cultural victory is better? more complex.

Can you still basically steal money from the AI by abusing resource trading?

TarkisFlux · Post by **TarkisFlux** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 5:31 am

NineInchNall wrote:So. Metro Last Light. You had me at "sequel to post-apocalyptic supernatural sci-fi Russian awesome game I totally loved." Why did you then fuck up the gfx optimization to the point that my average FPS count is 18, when Crysis 3 was running at a buttery 60? Now I have to put you into the dreaded category of promising games ruined by technical issues along with fucking Ultima IX. And that makes me feel sad.

I'm a sad flying cat baby dragon.

If you feel like throwing additional moneys at them, they do have a Redux version due out this summer sometimes. It re-added some features from the first game, a different play mode that's supposed to be more true to the first, comes with all the DLCs, etc. And it's "rebuilt and remastered for next gen". Which of course doesn't actually indicated if it would fix your FPS issue or just be additionally frustrating.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 10:05 am

@darkmaster:
i am not quite sure what you man with stealing money from AI using ressource trading? O.o

furthermore, Civ5 now works on linux.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 1:29 pm

darkmaster wrote:Okay, so what I'm getting here is that buying a diplomatic victory is even easier now and cultural victory is better? more complex.

Can you still basically steal money from the AI by abusing resource trading?

Well, diplomatic victory isn't really easier; victory doesn't unlock until a late era and between it taking a two-thirds majority and the precise ratio of major civ to city state votes at the time I don't think even total control of the city states lets you win it outright when it unlocks, although you do get extra votes in later elections. Plus, as Venice I was raking in silly amounts of cash; whenever anyone managed to get an alliance with a city state I tossed literally a thousand gold at them while simultaneously buying armies and late-era buildings outright. Normal civs can't get close to that rich; the other civ I saw do rule-by-decree had a civilization bonus to city-state relations.

Culture victory is way the hell better. I actually got a culture win in my Venice game before diplomatic victory even unlocked, and it was much more fun than sitting back building culture buildings and otherwise doing nothing. Granted, part of why it was so quick was that I went and wiped out the civilization with the highest culture generation.

I don't know what you mean about stealing money by abusing resource trading, but you can still sell them.

----

I've picked up The Walking Dead Season 2, but I stopped playing an hour or so in when it opted to railroad me into an obviously stupid choice.

So Clem winds up on her own, finds a dog at an old campsite, and when she finds some food it abruptly goes nuts and bites the hell out of her arm. She later runs into people who figure it's a zombie bite, but after she explains they show a rare moment of sanity and decide they'll lock her in a shed overnight, and they'll check on her in the morning to see if she's turning. The game then forces you to break out and sneak into the house to steal medical supplies. That just feels like a terrible idea

Incidentally, Clementine has bright yellow eyes and it's weirding me out.

darkmaster · Post by **darkmaster** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 9:43 pm

In vanilla you can trade your resources away for lump sums of gold, immediately pillage the resource and then sell the recourse for a lump sum of gold again the moment the resource is reconnected, or you can just sell individual units of a resource individually for massive amounts of gold per turn total.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Thu Jun 19, 2014 1:51 am

http://www.avclub.com/article/youll-pry ... nds-205389

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:29 am

A few links away from that...

http://www.avclub.com/article/nintendo- ... pla-204343

AndreiChekov · Post by **AndreiChekov** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:20 am

So... Are there any Final Fantasy style games for PC that aren't Final Fantasy VIII?
I like that kind of game. I would kill to find my old Golden Sun game, but I don't have a way to play it anymore.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 3:10 am

Final Fantasy VII got a release on PC (and indeed, on Steam).

If you want to go oldskool sprite-based, then there are squillions of them, thanks to RPGMaker, RPGToolkit and others. All with varying degrees of quality. My favourite (Embric of Wulfhammer) isn't really a FF-style one. And the one I've been making in RPGMakerVXAce +Alpha Revised, Turbo Edition... I've basically finished the first chapter of it. It should be done in a mere 20 years.

There's a series of Flash RPGs that are actually pretty good, but I can't remember the name. The first one or two were just a connected series of RPG battles (literally, you don't even have the wander-around-talking-to-NPCs aspect), but the next one is more of a traditional RPG.

Using an emulator and ROMs is of course piracy, so I won't advocate that, and you probably can't even get them any more without going to a site that is riddled with spyware and viruses.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 4:55 am

On FF-style RPGs: What Koumei said. Try Exit Fate out. I play lots of shitty RPGMaker games, so I could probably suggest something else if you're more specific about what you want.

There's 3 Golden Sun games now, one was a DS title. It's possible to emulate all 3.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On another note, I really hope this game comes out sometime soon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfISI9biqvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2KZetwcylE

DragonChild · Post by **DragonChild** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:28 pm

Koumei wrote:There's a series of Flash RPGs that are actually pretty good, but I can't remember the name. The first one or two were just a connected series of RPG battles (literally, you don't even have the wander-around-talking-to-NPCs aspect), but the next one is more of a traditional RPG.

You're thinking of Epic Battle Fantasy, if which number 2 was best in the series and it honestly took a turn down when it had more involved inventory systems and a nazi join your party and stuff in games 3 and 4.

Link to EBF2: http://www.kongregate.com/games/kupo707 ... -fantasy-2

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:14 pm

Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics are available on Steam.
Fallout 1 and 2 got some upgraded graphics appearantly while Tactics wasn't really changed all that much and as such is actually not compatible with Win 8 while F1 and F2 probably will work there as well.

GreatGreyShrike · Post by **GreatGreyShrike** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:04 am

On the topic of PC-based FF-style RPGs: I recommend Cthulhu Saves The World. It's fairly short but is otherwise a really well done version of the Final Fantasy experience, and it's something like ~$1 right now.

Final Fantasy 7 and 8 for PC (inc. steam versions) have a bunch of issues with having noticeably low-quality by default music when played on the PC based versions of them. You have to actually install mods from third parties and stuff to fix that issue - at which point it's just easier to play them through emulation.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:23 am

GreatGreyShrike wrote:On the topic of PC-based FF-style RPGs: I recommend Cthulhu Saves The World. It's fairly short but is otherwise a really well done version of the Final Fantasy experience, and it's something like ~$1 right now.

Yeah, that was a pretty nice cheap RPG.

Unrelated, but amusing and videogame-related:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=3645100

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 1:02 am

Nintendo had an impessive E3 showing with Smash Bros. Splatoon also looked fun and Captain Toad looks downright magical, it's an isometric view adventure game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m91qkP5ZaN8

AndreiChekov · Post by **AndreiChekov** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 1:16 am

DragonChild wrote:
You're thinking of Epic Battle Fantasy, if which number 2 was best in the series and it honestly took a turn down when it had more involved inventory systems and a nazi join your party and stuff in games 3 and 4.

I think 3 was the best of those. I've played them all.

stahlseele wrote:Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics are available on Steam.

I can't play fallout 1 or 2. I was planning to play 3 because of oblivion engine, but the amount of stupid shit to make it play on my windows 7 computer is not worth it. And I have tried fallout 1 and 2. I just hate stuff that old. I also can't play baldurs gate because of the same reason.

avoraciopoctules wrote:Try Exit Fate out. I play lots of shitty RPGMaker games, so I could probably suggest something else if you're more specific about what you want.

I am looking for turn based combat with a decent story line and/or interesting combat.
I played dragon Age origins and a few other things that aren't turn based.

koumei wrote: Final Fantasy VII got a release on PC (and indeed, on Steam). and other stuff

I do know about that. I have played the games you are talking about. I think.

I am okay with various piracy and stuff. I always pirate games before I buy them, because I am not wealthy. I am literally a muck farmer.
On another note, did you ever finish that campaign you were making for Neverwinter Nights 2?
I am also working on a RPG maker vx ace game. Its total shit so far, but abilities are interesting.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:29 am

DragonChild wrote: Link to EBF2: http://www.kongregate.com/games/kupo707 ... -fantasy-2

Yeah, that's the one.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:33 am

I think there was another RPG on the flash sites around the same time period... here:
http://www.fighunter.com/?page=games
Mardek is another old-school JRPG in flash. Lots of gameplay, with some mario RPG style timed hits to spice things up, but the 4th game in the series never got finished.

AndreiChekov wrote:
avoraciopoctules wrote:Try Exit Fate out. I play lots of shitty RPGMaker games, so I could probably suggest something else if you're more specific about what you want.
I am looking for turn based combat with a decent story line and/or interesting combat.
I played dragon Age origins and a few other things that aren't turn based.

Okay. In addition to Exit Fate (which is super-good), I'm going to link you a few other RPGmaker titles.

Grumpy Knight. Interesting combat and encounter design, custom art. Short. If you design RPGMaker games, this is a good thing to play just because of all the cool things they do with the engine.
http://rpgmaker.net/games/4844/

Tales of the Drunken Paladin. Super-long, unconventional writing, and amazing amounts of interactivity to the environment. Practically ever other inanimate object has a different description. And I think the humor actually works fairly well.
http://www.drunkenpaladin.com/

Space Funeral. Play this. Do it. It's short. It's surreal. Play it.
http://rpgmaker.net/games/2430/

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 7:59 pm

Space Funeral is excellent, and its soundtrack is ace.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:43 pm

Ubisoft/Blue Byte announces new "Settlers" Game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chMkN6okh2c
Looks more like WC3 to me actually.
Probably because they don't want to compete with their own free to play settlers online browser game . .

darkmaster · Post by **darkmaster** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:47 am

Well, some quick thoughts about what I saw from that video, the resources and terrain seem to look a lot more distinctive which is good, the idea of a randomized tech tree is... interesting, but probably not the best idea for a game, the barbs look more interesting in this than in Civ 5, but they seem to not have taken out a number of the random aspects of Civ 5 which is not so good, beyond that I can't really say.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 12:12 pm

@darkmaster
was this meant to be in the turn based strategy game thread?