The Steam Thread

[MizzouRah]

Kyn has been a pleasant surprise. Played about 90 minutes so far and I really like what this indie team has done.

[Grover]

I have no idea where else to put this, but I'm sure it'll end up on Steam since Harebrained is doing this.

BATTLETECH - Tactical 'Mech Combat Returns to the PC. Coming to Kickstarter Fall 2015.

[Warhammer]

What does this mean for megamek?

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by Grover

I have no idea where else to put this, but I'm sure it'll end up on Steam since Harebrained is doing this.

BATTLETECH - Tactical 'Mech Combat Returns to the PC. Coming to Kickstarter Fall 2015.

um yes! subscribed.

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Kyn has been a pleasant surprise. Played about 90 minutes so far and I really like what this indie team has done.

I wishlisted it, what do you like about it ?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Ramzavail

I wishlisted it, what do you like about it ?

Kind of like Torchlight/Diablo/Titan Quest - you can only slow down time though so some of the battles are crazy.. but in a good way. Haven't gotten too far yet.. but it has puzzles to solve, ways to craft, etc..

Beautiful game too... this was basically a two man team programming.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Kind of like Torchlight/Diablo/Titan Quest - you can only slow down time though so some of the battles are crazy.. but in a good way. Haven't gotten too far yet.. but it has puzzles to solve, ways to craft, etc..

Beautiful game too... this was basically a two man team programming.

I highly recommend Victor Vran as well.

[Capital]

Saw some good reviews on Steam for Victor Vran. May have to get both of these games with Kyn coming first. Thanks for all who recommended them.

[MizzouRah]

Endless Space 2 announced!!!

In celebration of the announcement, Endless Space is 80% off until 8/3 so it's $6.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Endless Space 2 announced!!!

In celebration of the announcement, Endless Space is 80% off until 8/3 so it's $6.

I just couldn't get into the first one. The game just seemed to have no energy to it.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I just couldn't get into the first one. The game just seemed to have no energy to it.

I couldn't at first.. but after the Disharmony DLC was released, I found myself really digging it.

[dzilla77]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I just couldn't get into the first one. The game just seemed to have no energy to it.

Felt the same way - the game had no soul.

[FrogMan]

why have I waited two full years to fire up FTL???

FM

[MizzouRah]

I picked up Cosmonautica... pretty fun game.

[Glengoyne]

Has anyone tried Card Hunter?

It looks like it might be something I find appealing, D and D style tactical combat on a "board" where each character is equipped with a hand of cards to expend in combat and maneuvers.

If I find a game appealing, there are usually some like minded nerds around here.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

why have I waited two full years to fire up FTL???

FM

my own dojo - Front Office Football Central

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Has anyone tried Card Hunter?

It looks like it might be something I find appealing, D and D style tactical combat on a "board" where each character is equipped with a hand of cards to expend in combat and maneuvers.

If I find a game appealing, there are usually some like minded nerds around here.

I've played plenty of Card Hunter. It's definitely fun and worth playing, but it also never truly captures my interest all the way...I always get bored after a few days, forget about it for a few months, and then rediscover it for another couple days of fun, rinse, repeat.

Even if it turns out you don't enjoy the game it's totally worth checking out for the design and humor, which should totally appeal to any old-school nerd.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I agree wholeheartedly with thesloppy re: Card Hunter. I'm not quite as enthused about it even when I'm playing it, but it's a nice little time waster type thing.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I agree wholeheartedly with thesloppy re: Card Hunter. I'm not quite as enthused about it even when I'm playing it, but it's a nice little time waster type thing.

I think a big part of the problem for me is that despite it ostensibly being a loot based collectible card game, no matter how many cards I'd get or adventures I'd complete my characters never felt like they progressed (or even played slightly differently) from the instant I started. The presentation and management/inventory part of the game makes it feel like all this grand progression is happening, but every time you actually start playing the meat of the game feels pretty much exactly the same.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

my own dojo - Front Office Football Central

yeah, you might have a point...

FM

[BishopMVP]

Been out of the game a little while, but sports sims aren't doing it for me in my downtime and I'm jonesing for a good 4x game... Is Endless Legend the obvious choice? Anyone think Age of Wonders is better? I have Civ 5, so Civ BE/Galactic Civ seem not to be worth the upgrade.

I'm pretty up to date on my Paradox games, but is there something similar in that vein I've missed? Where did people end up on Banished? Was it as fun as early Tropico games, or did it have limited replay value?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Been out of the game a little while, but sports sims aren't doing it for me in my downtime and I'm jonesing for a good 4x game... Is Endless Legend the obvious choice? Anyone think Age of Wonders is better? I have Civ 4, so Civ 5/Galactic Civ seem not to be worth the upgrade.

You couldn't be more wrong on Civ V. It's a game changer. Would pick it up in a heartbeat. I still play it a lot.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

You couldn't be more wrong on Civ V. It's a game changer. Would pick it up in a heartbeat. I still play it a lot.

Whoops. Have Civ 5, meant the newest one (Beyond Earth).

I agree I still play it a lot, just suffers from the same general problem I have with Civ games - the early to mid game is awesome (and there are some good later game scenarios), but the end of the game always feels like I've either won or lost 100 turns in advance and I'm playing out the string at that point, so I always end up with a ton of saved games I never really want to go back to.

[Abe Sargent]

See, I like that feeling in games. There are times in Eu or CK where I took an early aggressive stance, and I can tell that a decade or so into the game that I'm in such a strong position that I'm good, you know? But I use that to push myself to do increasingly dominant stuff

[Vince, Pt. II]

I feel exactly the same way about Civ, Bishop. Have since Civ 3. For whatever reason, once I got myself into a game in Civ 2, I was never letting go until you pried it from my cold, dead hands. Now...not so much.

If you have Civ 5 and all the expansions (Brave New World, essentially), then you don't need Beyond Earth. I was rather disappointed by it, actually.

[oykib]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I feel exactly the same way about Civ, Bishop. Have since Civ 3. For whatever reason, once I got myself into a game in Civ 2, I was never letting go until you pried it from my cold, dead hands. Now...not so much.

If you have Civ 5 and all the expansions (Brave New World, essentially), then you don't need Beyond Earth. I was rather disappointed by it, actually.

I totally agree with that. But the expansion looks like it might give us the game we all wanted from Civ:BE. Well... not give.

[RainMaker]

I love Civ 5 but I do hate how the AI has never really gotten better over the years. The computer uses the same strategy and tactics. And increasing the levels isn't increasing their ability to outplay you, just their ability to cheat.

[RainMaker]

Also agree with the late game stuff mentioned above. I've wanted them to increase the cost for units later in the game to discourage you from having 25 units to deal with each turn. Maybe a penalty of sorts for outdated units as well.

Wouldn't mind less of a penalty for razing a city too. Maybe allow people to move the population to one of their existing cities for a cost. There are just so many useless small cities the computer builds up during the game that it becomes a drag later on. Either that or just have the computer be a little more conservative with setting up new cities.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

See, I like that feeling in games. There are times in Eu or CK where I took an early aggressive stance, and I can tell that a decade or so into the game that I'm in such a strong position that I'm good, you know? But I use that to push myself to do increasingly dominant stuff

But EU and CK have the badboy rating, and a much more level playing field. I guess you can dominate on the fringes (take Spain/England and go dominate the Americas), but even with a France as long as you focus on Europe there's always a country or coalition that can challenge you. Similarly in CK, except the risk of a large empire breaking apart is even higher. Militarily even if you're a whole level or two higher that's like a 10% or 20% advantage in a fight. And if you can absolutely dominate with manpower you still have to pick and choose your spots because raising and keeping a standing army will bankrupt you (plus you have increasingly punitive attrition if you just throw a huge army on the offensive.)

In Civ I find it incredibly engaging and challenging during the world building/discovering phase, but by the time it gets to the "modern era" and like infantry or marines or tanks I'm usually so far ahead (or, occasionally, behind) that there's almost no doubt who will win. And it's not just militarily - one civilization is usually the most technologically advanced, produces the most shields/gold per turn, and has enough of an advantage they can just dominate wonder-building, or ally with a plurality of the city states, and increase their advantage that way. Maybe there's two dominant civ's, or a 3rd within shouting distance, but a whole bunch that are just complete also-rans at that point.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I think that's really the major problem with strategy games in general, and 4X games specifically though, right? Heuristics is hard, and AI is still a pipe dream. I've thought a lot about how I would code difficulty into a game if I did (former computer programmer, always wanted to make a game), and I think I would try to put in different strategies for each level of AI, and simply make sure that each strategy had a different degree of effectiveness. So you didn't see homogeneity between games even when ratcheting up the difficulty level. But that's a lot of extra work, and it honestly doesn't really address the problem: that over time, these games are somewhat not replayable, because the AI is going to largely do the same thing each time.

I had mentally spitballed coding in a sort of weighted random factor into the decision making process, but that's hard to do as well, because you not only have to account for specific instances, but you have to then determine optimal and sub-optimal decisions and weigh choices...and that's assuming you have a somewhat binary choice. It's a nightmare.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I think the correct answer is 'multiplayer,' but that's not an option for many people for tons of different reasons - time management being chief among them. Getting everyone together at the same time is hard, and otherwise you're waiting on that one guy to finish his damned turn...

...and that's not to mention the people who simply do not want to play multiplayer.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Been out of the game a little while, but sports sims aren't doing it for me in my downtime and I'm jonesing for a good 4x game... Is Endless Legend the obvious choice? Anyone think Age of Wonders is better? I have Civ 5, so Civ BE/Galactic Civ seem not to be worth the upgrade.

I'm pretty up to date on my Paradox games, but is there something similar in that vein I've missed? Where did people end up on Banished? Was it as fun as early Tropico games, or did it have limited replay value?

Civ BE didn't grab me at all.

Pandora -especially with the DLC expansion is fantastic.
Endless Legend with DLC expansion is also a fantastic 4x.
I've also enjoyed Sorcerer King and Gal Civ III from Stardock.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I think that's really the major problem with strategy games in general, and 4X games specifically though, right? Heuristics is hard, and AI is still a pipe dream. I've thought a lot about how I would code difficulty into a game if I did (former computer programmer, always wanted to make a game), and I think I would try to put in different strategies for each level of AI, and simply make sure that each strategy had a different degree of effectiveness. So you didn't see homogeneity between games even when ratcheting up the difficulty level. But that's a lot of extra work, and it honestly doesn't really address the problem: that over time, these games are somewhat not replayable, because the AI is going to largely do the same thing each time.

Of course, but I think there are other similar games that do some things better, and I also think that the comprehensiveness of Civ works against it at that point. A big part of Civ's appeal is that you can play at different speeds, you can play on different size maps, and it can be played by novices to experts, so by default they have to simplify some things so they'll scale pretty well regardless of how the game's being played (and they do an amazing job of that.) And like I said, they have some great later-game scenarios, but if you're starting from the ancient era and advancing to the modern era, it's really unlikely that most civilizations will be close enough, especially because it seems like scientific advances come much faster and the increase in unit military power seems to be greater as well (especially in terms of mobility - even if I have 8 archers 2 turns in, I'm not really going to be able to press that advantage against all but a really close neighbor. But give me 8 tanks (maybe pair them with a few bombers) before anyone else has them, once you have roads and rails everywhere, and holy shit you can blitzkrieg almost anyone.)

One place where other games do kind of run circles around them is having factions that play differently, and legitimately different paths to victory. Civ has done a little better opening other paths to victory, but every civ still has to have the same broad base - you can't have one civ that's the most technologically advanced, but has poor cities and a low population, or one with a great military but is technologically behind. This is in large part due to how the tech tree is set up. I know they're not technically 4x, but I actually really like the way that EU/CK do this in their games - yes you can target specific things to research, but advances also spread by osmosis, which makes sense. It needs to be balanced so there's enough incentive to put money into research, but if my neighbor figures out a better way to approach markets, or how to build railroads, eventually it should spread to me. Civ doesn't have the province system, but you could do something like "Once 70% of Civilizations have a technology, everyone else automatically gets that tech", allowing certain civs to take more specific paths towards their goals while not falling hopelessly behind in other areas. Having a bigger tech tree with various branches where you can't actually finish all f them in any single game wouldn't hurt (and I know they went down this route a little bit with the emphasis on social policies.)

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Civ BE didn't grab me at all.

Pandora -especially with the DLC expansion is fantastic.
Endless Legend with DLC expansion is also a fantastic 4x.
I've also enjoyed Sorcerer King and Gal Civ III from Stardock.

Let's be honest on BE - it'll probably improve markedly just like every Civ going back to #2 maybe? That's half the appeal of Endless Legend - yeah, maybe it's last year's game of the year, but all of these 4x games take a DLC or two to really reach their potential.

You'd put Pandora over Gal Civ at this point? A lot of people in the reviews for the Stardock games seem to be complaining they're buggy or a DLC or two away from reaching their potential.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Let's be honest on BE - it'll probably improve markedly just like every Civ going back to #2 maybe? That's half the appeal of Endless Legend - yeah, maybe it's last year's game of the year, but all of these 4x games take a DLC or two to really reach their potential.

You'd put Pandora over Gal Civ at this point? A lot of people in the reviews for the Stardock games seem to be complaining they're buggy or a DLC or two away from reaching their potential.

Yes, the next BE expansion will probably something that gets me back into it for sure.

Well.. Pandora is different from Gal Civ.. I've enjoyed both to be honest, and probably played both about the same amount of time. Pandora had a major AI patch recently though.. so I've been getting my arse handed to me, which keeps me coming back to it.

[SirFozzie]

I won't buy GalCiv... (StarDock's creator's been eaten by the GamerGate brainworm). BE.. isn't my cup of tea yet.. we'll see how it gets better.

[MizzouRah]

Leaked... Stellaris.. a 4x space game coming by Paradox.

http://i.imgur.com/EekVpZc.png?utm_c...ampaign=buffer

https://imgur.com/a/wAJgu

Paradox makes some really deep grand strategy games.. this is really interesting.

[MizzouRah]

Invisible, Inc.. is $11.99 this weekend.. worth it?

[Vince, Pt. II]

I picked it up during the steam summer sale. Played two missions or so, enjoyed it. Haven't been back to it, but that's more because of my schedule/game time allocation than the game.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Invisible, Inc.. is $11.99 this weekend.. worth it?

Picked it up for free on the Vita through PS+. It's a fun game.

[MizzouRah]

Thanks.. I picked it up.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Leaked... Stellaris.. a 4x space game coming by Paradox.

http://i.imgur.com/EekVpZc.png?utm_c...ampaign=buffer

https://imgur.com/a/wAJgu

Paradox makes some really deep grand strategy games.. this is really interesting.

Just read a review of it and it sounds pretty ambitious.

Stellaris: Gamescom Preview | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[Vince, Pt. II]

This...is very intriguing.

[bhlloy]

It's paradox - I will happily give them my money knowing that it will probably be buggy as hell at launch but one of the best games I've ever played after 6-9 months.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by JAG

Just read a review of it and it sounds pretty ambitious.

Stellaris: Gamescom Preview | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Very ambitious.. I can't get into their other games.. but a space type game definitely has me interested.

Endless Space 2 coming as well...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JAG

sounds pretty ambitious.

Yeah, that's a pretty good word for it.

Just reading that, it feels as though the likeliest outcome is a grand idea that ultimately fails in execution. It's a darned good concept, I just don't have much confidence that anybody could actually pull it off.

(that's not shot at Paradox either, I have a similar concern about Fallout 4. It has the potential to be the last game I'd likely ever need to buy ... and I have grave concerns that the potential will exceed the reality by an uncomfortably large factor)

[MrBug708]

Looks like the old Mac game, Escape Velocity

[MizzouRah]

I'm on easy in Invisible, Inc. and I'm on a 3rd mission and it kicked my arse.

Very cool game though!

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by JAG

Just read a review of it and it sounds pretty ambitious.

Stellaris: Gamescom Preview | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Reading that makes it sound exactly like the kind of Space 4X game I've been waiting for (and thought about trying to make at times). I think it'd be awesome to play a game where I could accidentally become the Borg, or open a rift letting Species 8472 into my dimension. Or maybe discover the Force which results in a cult taking over.

[EagleFan]

Anyone tried Empyrion?

[Abe Sargent]

I bought Invisible Inc a long time ago back when it was in Early Access and gave it a bit of time to shake it out. I'll be glad to see what it's like now that it's over. I'm looking forward to it.