The Steam Thread

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Terra Invicta released into early access today. It's the first game from the creators of the Long War mod for XCom. It's kinda like CK3 in an XCom like setting. Incredibly deep, detailed, and ambitious.

Thanks, looks interesting.

[Thomkal]

Heart of Iron 4 is the Midweek Madness sale on Steam-75% off or $10

[Thomkal]

Master of Magic Classic is free to claim at GoG.com for the next couple days

[Thomkal]

The best price so far maybe on Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous-60% off or $20 on Steam and Fanatical this weekend

[Thomkal]

Steam's Next Fest is back through the weekend-get demos of lots of upcoming games

[GrantDawg]

I just did a thing. I-9 with a 3080 ti. I feel excited and a little sick.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Master of Magic Classic is free to claim at GoG.com for the next couple days

I wanted to bump this because I either forgot or didnt know that there is a Master Of Magic remake coming in December I think. Nookrium took a look at it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDTM...ist=WL&index=3

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I just did a thing. I-9 with a 3080 ti. I feel excited and a little sick.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

You are set for the next 5 years.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

You are set for the next 5 years.

Yup, that's the plan.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I just did a thing. I-9 with a 3080 ti. I feel excited and a little sick.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Party at Grant's house!

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I just did a thing. I-9 with a 3080 ti. I feel excited and a little sick.

What were you upgrading from? How much of a difference are you seeing?

Disclaimer: This is strictly for entertainment purposes and will not in any way be used to attempt to justify a similar purchase to my Mrs.

[GrantDawg]

I won't get it till next week most likely. I eill let you know when I get it. The system I have now is not bad. I just came into a little money, and my wife wants my current system. She talked me into buying this one.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Thomkal]

You lucked out on wives didn't you?

[Thomkal]

Humble Bundle has a "RPG Legends" Bundle with a lot of Baldur's Gate games, Planescape, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, and the star attraction-the current Pathfinder game-Wrath of the Righteous for $20 for all of them:


https://www.humblebundle.com/games/r...m_medium=email

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Humble Bundle has a "RPG Legends" Bundle with a lot of Baldur's Gate games, Planescape, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, and the star attraction-the current Pathfinder game-Wrath of the Righteous for $20 for all of them:


https://www.humblebundle.com/games/r...m_medium=email

I haven't actually played the first Pathfinder game yet, is it good? It's lost in my Steam library.

[NobodyHere]

I thought Pathfinder started off pretty good and then the pacing just goes to hell once you get your own kingdom. I quickly got bored with the game at that point.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I thought Pathfinder started off pretty good and then the pacing just goes to hell once you get your own kingdom. I quickly got bored with the game at that point.

It's almost two different games-RPG stuff with your party and then the kingdom stuff, but I enjoyed it. Character creation options are crazy, lots of prestige classes you can get your characters to. (Dragon Disciple for the win) Well worth trying before you take on the new game.

[JonInMiddleGA]

fwiw, I've spent a fair number of hours with the latest HOI4 DLC By Blood Alone.

Enough hours to say that I'm not entirely sure Paradox didn't enlist Bethesda to help with it, because that's the level of bugs in the initial release.

Feels like they either did no QA to speak of or what was released was the wrong build (I've actually wondered about that). If it's new with the DLC/accompanying free update, it's probably buggy as hell.

On the bright side, the depth of the Italian focus tree is fairly impressive and the proliferation of 35 day bits make it a little hard to enjoy the 70 day tree nations that haven't been updated in a while. The Switzerland tree is quirky, though not going to make for exciting gameplay. Ethiopia is an exercise best left to masochists best I can tell from looking.

I will say that, from a just sit down and play standpoint, these changes are a lot easier to grasp than the previous major rework (supply, etc). A few starts just for exploration and I already feel like I understand enough to solo play relatively comfortably. Took a LOT more hours to reach that point last time they made big changes.

[bhlloy]

Has there ever been a paradox release of anything in the last 10 years that hasn’t been buggy as hell? They aren’t known as the company whose games are great 12-18 months after release for nothing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Has there ever been a paradox release of anything in the last 10 years that hasn’t been buggy as hell? They aren’t known as the company whose games are great 12-18 months after release for nothing.

To me this one feels worse than usual.

Whether that's me being in on it sooner (I don't _think_ I am) or noticing it more, or if it's actually worse, I can't really say.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Has there ever been a paradox release of anything in the last 10 years that hasn’t been buggy as hell? They aren’t known as the company whose games are great 12-18 months after release for nothing.

I'm so unbelievably fed up with paradox for this and other forms of bullshit (their DLC model has just gotten completely out of hand, IMO)... and yet I'm still trying to stop myself from buying Vicky 3 the moment it comes out.

[PilotMan]

If you're in need of anything Baulder's Gate....

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/r...beyond-bundle?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

If you're in need of anything Baulder's Gate....

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/r...beyond-bundle?

I much prefer the Balder's Gate games

[SirFozzie]

In Kingmaker, you can turn down or turn off the kingdom management completely. Same with Wrath of the Righteous's crusade mechanic.

edit: I can do a stream sometime if folks want to see either game in action.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I'm so unbelievably fed up with paradox for this and other forms of bullshit (their DLC model has just gotten completely out of hand, IMO)... and yet I'm still trying to stop myself from buying Vicky 3 the moment it comes out.

I think I might have said this before but I don't get the DLC pricing on HOI4. $20? It's the same war! The design-your-own-plane or whatever is a cool idea but half-assed. The rest is Focus Trees and models. Doesn't seem like enough content for $10, let alone $20.

Oh, well. I'll just go back to the Kaiserreich mod...

[Brian Swartz]

I legit don't understand why the DLC model gets so much hate. Buggy releases, yes that's definitely worthy of criticism. But if you don't like what a DLC provides .... don't buy it and don't worry about it otherwhise?

[bhlloy]

The issue is games developers have learned you can take features out of a previous version that cost $40-50, still charge $40-50 and then add another $60-100 in DLC to get those features back.

CK3 still doesn’t have all the functionality of CK2 a year and a half after release. Some of it gets released in a free patch but some of it is locked behind DLC still. And then they do deals so you can get a bundle with all DLC except the latest one for what people originally paid for the base game - essentially what they are doing is punishing people for being early adopters and beta testing their game for them.

I can understand why it pisses people off, but it is just the direction the industry is going. As previously mentioned I’m buying Vicky3 at release date even though I know the MO - more fool me I guess.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

The issue is games developers have learned you can take features out of a previous version that cost $40-50, still charge $40-50 and then add another $60-100 in DLC to get those features back.

CK3 still doesn’t have all the functionality of CK2 a year and a half after release. Some of it gets released in a free patch but some of it is locked behind DLC still. And then they do deals so you can get a bundle with all DLC except the latest one for what people originally paid for the base game - essentially what they are doing is punishing people for being early adopters and beta testing their game for them.

I can understand why it pisses people off, but it is just the direction the industry is going. As previously mentioned I’m buying Vicky3 at release date even though I know the MO - more fool me I guess.

Eventually the gamers figure it out. I didn't buy Crusander Kings 3 at launch even though I really enjoyed 2. It eventually ended up in the Humble Choice bundle for this month. I bought the expansion pass along with it, so basically I'm current with content for $25.00. Just have to be patient.

[dubb93]

Is there any possible way to get current with Stellaris without spending hundreds of dollars? I got it at launch but didn’t really love it, figured I’d shelve it until it was developed more (which I hear it has been.) The problem now is that even on Steam sales you are looking at $100+ just in expansions.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I legit don't understand why the DLC model gets so much hate. Buggy releases, yes that's definitely worthy of criticism. But if you don't like what a DLC provides .... don't buy it and don't worry about it otherwhise?

What's been said below, and the fact that some of the DLC's lock certain pieces of key functionality behind it, BUT, they tie the feature to the rest of the base game, and key game components become tied to a feature you can't use.

Example - EU4 days, when they first released the province infrastructure improvements. You had to buy the DLC to improve your provinces. Unfortunately, that feature became tied to how ideas spread, it became tied to a whole lot of provincial bonuses, and the AI could happily improve their own provinces. So you're screwed with backwater provinces, and have next to nil chance of ideas spreading to your provinces (assuming they started well away from you), while the AI plays by entirely different rules. They've basically made it so the game is unplayable without certain DLC.

Plus, it's the sheer AMOUNT of DLC they release these days, too. Let's face it - you cannot possibly play EU4 (or others) without at least a good chunk of the DLC. As I think someone already noted, the cost of entry to some of these games now is $100+ even on sale. That's absurd.

Not to mention a lot of these DLC are just ... subpar, at best. Even ignoring the buggy mess a lot of them are at release, a lot of these are offering so few features, it's a joke to ask 20 bucks for them.

[dubb93]

They really should have an evolving expansion pass that at any given time you can pay say $20 and get current minus the latest expansion and anything going forward.

[dubb93]

Stellaris alone has 20 updates, less than half of them cost below $10 and 4 of then clock in at $20. There is supporting the fanbase of a game and then there is bleeding them dry. The base game and the "starter pack" which are just 4 of the updates clocks in at $90.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

They've basically made it so the game is unplayable without certain DLC.

I get what you're saying on this, but that's not most of the DLC. I've played CK2 without most of the DLC just fine. I've played Stellaris without most of the DLC just fine. Maybe EU4 is different, I have limited experience with that game?

I'm not saying Paradox is blameless, but I put most of the blame on customers. It makes business sense for them to keep putting out DLCs so long as enough people are buying them for it to be profitable. You can't bleed dry those who are unwilling to be bled.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

What's been said below, and the fact that some of the DLC's lock certain pieces of key functionality behind it, BUT, they tie the feature to the rest of the base game, and key game components become tied to a feature you can't use.

Example - EU4 days, when they first released the province infrastructure improvements. You had to buy the DLC to improve your provinces. Unfortunately, that feature became tied to how ideas spread, it became tied to a whole lot of provincial bonuses, and the AI could happily improve their own provinces. So you're screwed with backwater provinces, and have next to nil chance of ideas spreading to your provinces (assuming they started well away from you), while the AI plays by entirely different rules. They've basically made it so the game is unplayable without certain DLC.

Plus, it's the sheer AMOUNT of DLC they release these days, too. Let's face it - you cannot possibly play EU4 (or others) without at least a good chunk of the DLC. As I think someone already noted, the cost of entry to some of these games now is $100+ even on sale. That's absurd.

Not to mention a lot of these DLC are just ... subpar, at best. Even ignoring the buggy mess a lot of them are at release, a lot of these are offering so few features, it's a joke to ask 20 bucks for them.

I own 35 DLC's to EU4. I just counted, and not including music packs there are still 24 more content/expansion DLC's I don't own. That is insane.

What is more insane is that I own 35 DLC's to a game I have still never played. I played a bunch of EU3, and bought EU4 thinking eventually I would get into that. At times when there was a sale, I would buy up the playable expansions (not the music or ebooks). Looks like I stopped doing that around 2016. I'm the sucker they do this stuff for. Like own all but the newest expansion for City: Skylines. I don't have near enough hours in that game to justify what I have spent. I also have all but the last two HOI4 expansions. I have 48 hours in that game (which is almost exactly what I have in Cities:Skyline).

[bhlloy]

To be fair CK2 was before Paradox started their current DLC stupidity. Even Stellaris is nowhere near as bad as subsequent releases like HOI4 and CK3. All the DLC that add/modify the base game so frequently has also killed what was a vibrant modding community, the major mods like MEIOU and BlackIce are basically 3 or 4 versions behind with very little ongoing development and I’m pretty sure nobody is going to bother with those grand mods anymore… there hasn’t been one for CK3 yet really.

To me it’s like buying an iPhone you paid $800 two years ago, and Apple deciding that the new version was still $800 but FaceTime, the ability to save contacts with the surname T-Z and a quarter of the apps in the store would be available later via separate $50 optional upcharges.

Your point about if people would stop buying them they’d stop doing it is fair, but ultimately even if nobody buys the DLC they still make the same on the base game and they make a bit from people buying the packages. Very few other industries where people would stand for this.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Is there any possible way to get current with Stellaris without spending hundreds of dollars? I got it at launch but didn’t really love it, figured I’d shelve it until it was developed more (which I hear it has been.) The problem now is that even on Steam sales you are looking at $100+ just in expansions.

Not $100 maybe, but you just have to be patient in getting the DLC's and such. The base game is updated with each one I think, so you can still have a good experience with just the base game in my opinion. Humble Bundle has had a Stellaris Bundle at least once, and probably every week you can find a good sale on DLC's with 50% off or more on most digital store sites.

[Thomkal]

Free weekends on Steam for Fallout76, Mordhau, and Bardtrauma

[Mota]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

To be fair CK2 was before Paradox started their current DLC stupidity. Even Stellaris is nowhere near as bad as subsequent releases like HOI4 and CK3. All the DLC that add/modify the base game so frequently has also killed what was a vibrant modding community, the major mods like MEIOU and BlackIce are basically 3 or 4 versions behind with very little ongoing development and I’m pretty sure nobody is going to bother with those grand mods anymore… there hasn’t been one for CK3 yet really.

To me it’s like buying an iPhone you paid $800 two years ago, and Apple deciding that the new version was still $800 but FaceTime, the ability to save contacts with the surname T-Z and a quarter of the apps in the store would be available later via separate $50 optional upcharges.

Your point about if people would stop buying them they’d stop doing it is fair, but ultimately even if nobody buys the DLC they still make the same on the base game and they make a bit from people buying the packages. Very few other industries where people would stand for this.

I was looking at Prime Video today and wanted to watch a TV show, and then it told me I had to buy the Hayu channel. Then I tried to watch a horror movie and it said I had to buy the Shudder channel.

This is actually happening everywhere. You can buy a car that has heated seats which are locked behind a subscription.

[Izulde]

I actually jumped off the Vicky3 Day 1 purchase wagon because of Paradox's DLC policy (and CK3 overall having been a far worse value than CK2).

[GrantDawg]

I actually think the subscription model is a much better idea. Pay $5 a month when I want to play. It would be much cheaper than my normal practice.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[JonInMiddleGA]

I've got 643 hours (and counting) in HOI4 ... and that's with sometimes 6-12 months between touching it AND with having to play via GeForce to even run it.

I think I've paid full retail for two DLCs, the rest were picked up in various Steam sales.

We own 13 of the EU IV DLCs, I imagine the kid has 600+ hours on it (where I have only 100).

But Stellaris lost me somewhere around the first or second console DLC, CK never really got me. What we'll do about the upcoming Vicky is still TBD (though leaning toward "wait a bit" right now)

To me, it's mostly about figuring out what you will/won't get the value out of. I'd probably be better served by owning more DLC for stuff I'll actually play than owning some games that -- for various reasons -- sit here paid for and barely touched.

[Bobble]

Picked up Mafia: Definitive Edition since it was on sale only to learn that this driving game doesn't support steering wheels. I'm here trying to use the steering wheel that I used FOR THE ORIGINAL MAFIA and it's no joy. Had to go get the Steam refund.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I actually think the subscription model is a much better idea. Pay $5 a month when I want to play. It would be much cheaper than my normal practice.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

GaaS (Games as a service) is here. You don't own anything, you'll even rent your games now. I'm not a fan of that. I"m okay with MMO's which are fully online and there are significant server costs to handle all the interactions, markets, etc. But I don't want to pay a monthly fee for a single player game.

[Thomkal]

The Far Cry games are on sale at pretty good discounts at Fanatical. Far Cry 6 is their Star Deal at just over $21

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Is there any possible way to get current with Stellaris without spending hundreds of dollars? I got it at launch but didn’t really love it, figured I’d shelve it until it was developed more (which I hear it has been.) The problem now is that even on Steam sales you are looking at $100+ just in expansions.

I wait for sales and skip a lot of the species packs. They update so often that I struggle to ever finish a game.

[GrantDawg]

I just found a game called "Regiments". It is a RTS based on a war in Gernany in 1989. I started playing around with, and I really like it. I just wish I didn't suck at RTS.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Critch]

The Manor Lords demo on Steam looks very nice. Like a pretty Banished but with the promise of multiple towns and armies to be included when the full version comes out.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Critch

The Manor Lords demo on Steam looks very nice. Like a pretty Banished but with the promise of multiple towns and armies to be included when the full version comes out.

Yeah a couple of my You-Tube "regulars" gave it a try, usually a sign its going to be pretty good

[Thomkal]

Fallout 76 is $10 thru the weekend. Many of the Fallout games are on sale in most places at they get ready to celebrate 25 years (!) of Fallout

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Fallout 76 is $10 thru the weekend. Many of the Fallout games are on sale in most places at they get ready to celebrate 25 years (!) of Fallout

11 dollars too much