GasBandit
Staff member
Less "Excel" and more "The Incredible Machine."
Maybe for you. I just shoot stuff.Also accurate:
GasBandit
Staff member
I find the game starts hard, but with a few exceptions becomes pretty easy once you have gear, as long as you plan ahead.
I loved 1-4, so if you like 5 you might give them a try, they are not nearly as open world as 5 though, more guided tour of government facilities and stuff.
Over the Games on Sale thread, I was alerted to Depth. At 5 bucks (plus a free weekend), I decided to give it a shot. It's loads of fun. Once again, I have 0 interest in playing the prey (in this case, the divers, in Evolve, it was the hunters), but the shark is a lot of fun to play. I recorded a match. I read through the tutorial and gave it a go.
Huh... I've had a copy since a Humble Monthly, a while back. I might need to give it a shot...
Any game can turn into an Excel exercise if you want it to
I used to just catch Pokemon and have fun before I realized that they needed to be OCD-bred.
GasBandit
Staff member
Fired up Empyrion this weekend for the first time in a long time. They've made a lot of improvements.
The UI is better, there are more aliens, plants, and animals (including both hostile and neutral space-faring aliens), and a lot of the POIs (points of interest, IE, abandoned facilities, native villages, alien bases, etc) have been revamped and are a lot more interesting. There's also new contextual soundtracks, oxygenation, temperature, and radiation game dynamics. They've also put in more new crafting items that can't be made, but must be found/raided from wreckage/hostile alien bases, and made those items required ingredients for the higher tier equipment manufacturing - thus, the survival game now requires raiding and scavenging to get the best stuff as opposed to just mining and patience, and I think the game is better for it - it breaks up the monotony of drilling at resources.
The first POI I found was an abandoned mining facility - I quickly figured out that the reason it was abandoned was because it had become infested by nightmare aliens that looked like 8 foot tall pot-bellied skinny humanoids with beef jerky skin, bladed claw arms and 6 inch pointed teeth, and no eyes or hair. Like, if you asked HR Giger to draw a pregnant woman. The top levels of the mine were mostly intact and functional - lots of cargo crates full of raw ore, well lit hallways and rooms, only the occasional automated turret to have to deal with - but the deeper I went the ickier the environment got. Green fleshy-web stuff grew over the wall surfaces with increasing density, radiation leaks, malfunctioning equipment, poor lighting, and of course, more and more Nightmares.
I tried twice on two trips, but each time I had to give up and leave because I ran out of ammo and first aid. I managed to scrounge some materials and an "Epic Chaingun," but it took a third trip to make it all the way to the core. The core was actually protected behind several layers of armored shutters, and I didn't have any explosives to breach with at that point. However, there were three switches on the wall, and I figured "what the heck." Flipped one... nothing. Flipped two... nothing. Flipped the third... nothing. About ready to dismiss the whole thing and try to get through some other way, but for some reason I felt compelled to try one more thing - I un-flipped the center switch.
Suddenly, alarms and flashing lights. The core exploded. All the remaining electricity in the facility died, leaving only my flashlight for illumination, and everything went silent. Well, except for two things - first of all, the wet, raspy growling of the remaining Nightmares I hadn't found and killed grew louder and nearer... and second of all, an automated warning message over some kind of alien PA system that said something to the effect of "life support offline, oxygen levels dropping, contamination detected."
It occurred to me at this point I had forgotten to bring my own core to replace the one I just blew up, which WOULD have made the facility recognize me as its master, restored power/control, and maybe even have gotten the facility's remaining defenses to help me with the nightmares. But that core was resting in a locker back at my makeshift home. Oops. Instead, I had to fight a desperate, scrambling rearward action back up to the surface, block the door behind me, jump on my motorcycle and never look back.
After that, I went and found a nice, straightforward alien starport to raid with no eldritch horrors to haunt my dreams, just regular guys in space suits with guns. It was much less stressful. I got some better armor!
We don't go to the Abandoned Mine any more...
The UI is better, there are more aliens, plants, and animals (including both hostile and neutral space-faring aliens), and a lot of the POIs (points of interest, IE, abandoned facilities, native villages, alien bases, etc) have been revamped and are a lot more interesting. There's also new contextual soundtracks, oxygenation, temperature, and radiation game dynamics. They've also put in more new crafting items that can't be made, but must be found/raided from wreckage/hostile alien bases, and made those items required ingredients for the higher tier equipment manufacturing - thus, the survival game now requires raiding and scavenging to get the best stuff as opposed to just mining and patience, and I think the game is better for it - it breaks up the monotony of drilling at resources.
The first POI I found was an abandoned mining facility - I quickly figured out that the reason it was abandoned was because it had become infested by nightmare aliens that looked like 8 foot tall pot-bellied skinny humanoids with beef jerky skin, bladed claw arms and 6 inch pointed teeth, and no eyes or hair. Like, if you asked HR Giger to draw a pregnant woman. The top levels of the mine were mostly intact and functional - lots of cargo crates full of raw ore, well lit hallways and rooms, only the occasional automated turret to have to deal with - but the deeper I went the ickier the environment got. Green fleshy-web stuff grew over the wall surfaces with increasing density, radiation leaks, malfunctioning equipment, poor lighting, and of course, more and more Nightmares.
I tried twice on two trips, but each time I had to give up and leave because I ran out of ammo and first aid. I managed to scrounge some materials and an "Epic Chaingun," but it took a third trip to make it all the way to the core. The core was actually protected behind several layers of armored shutters, and I didn't have any explosives to breach with at that point. However, there were three switches on the wall, and I figured "what the heck." Flipped one... nothing. Flipped two... nothing. Flipped the third... nothing. About ready to dismiss the whole thing and try to get through some other way, but for some reason I felt compelled to try one more thing - I un-flipped the center switch.
Suddenly, alarms and flashing lights. The core exploded. All the remaining electricity in the facility died, leaving only my flashlight for illumination, and everything went silent. Well, except for two things - first of all, the wet, raspy growling of the remaining Nightmares I hadn't found and killed grew louder and nearer... and second of all, an automated warning message over some kind of alien PA system that said something to the effect of "life support offline, oxygen levels dropping, contamination detected."
It occurred to me at this point I had forgotten to bring my own core to replace the one I just blew up, which WOULD have made the facility recognize me as its master, restored power/control, and maybe even have gotten the facility's remaining defenses to help me with the nightmares. But that core was resting in a locker back at my makeshift home. Oops. Instead, I had to fight a desperate, scrambling rearward action back up to the surface, block the door behind me, jump on my motorcycle and never look back.
After that, I went and found a nice, straightforward alien starport to raid with no eldritch horrors to haunt my dreams, just regular guys in space suits with guns. It was much less stressful. I got some better armor!
We don't go to the Abandoned Mine any more...
GasBandit
Staff member
Offworld Trading Company
Since it was on sale this weekend, I finally picked this one up. It's been on my wish list for a long time.
OH MY GOD I LOVE IT.
This game is a real time strategy, only with economics and basebuilding... and no units to command. You "attack" your opponents indirectly, by sabotaging their production, organizing mutinies and work stoppages, hiring pirates to raid their cargo shipments... or, most overtly, by buying up stock in their company.
Basically, this game is a spiritual successor to both M.U.L.E. and Sid Meier's Railroads!. You pick plots of land at the start, build as you can afford to and as you are allotted land claims by the local government, and you must leverage your resources and production to maximize cash in real time, with prices for the dozen different resources in the game constantly fluctuating according to supply and demand. You win by eliminating all your competitors, and a competitor is eliminated when another player buys up the majority of the shares of their stock. This means the early rush of the game is to make enough money to buy up 50% of your own stock (you start with 20%) so that you can't be bought out easily - once you own 50% or more, you can only be bought by hostile takeover, where they buy all your stock at once, which is much more expensive. So the second half of the match is a race to buy out your competitors before they buy you out. A bought-out competitor becomes a "subsidiary," which you don't directly control but sends all its profits to your company.
This is right up my alley. Economics and base building are my two favorite parts of RTS games. I'm ashamed to say, though, that so far a "normal" difficulty game always ends with my defeat. I have to crank down the difficulty by a notch to remain competitive. But I hope to improve on that.
The game is meant to be short but highly replayable. One game shouldn't last longer than 20 minutes or so, and fresh out of the tutorial levels it feels breakneck-paced... but after losing a few times and understanding WHY I lost, I'm learning what needs to be done. This one's definitely worth getting if you're into management sims and real time strategy games.
Since it was on sale this weekend, I finally picked this one up. It's been on my wish list for a long time.
OH MY GOD I LOVE IT.
This game is a real time strategy, only with economics and basebuilding... and no units to command. You "attack" your opponents indirectly, by sabotaging their production, organizing mutinies and work stoppages, hiring pirates to raid their cargo shipments... or, most overtly, by buying up stock in their company.
Basically, this game is a spiritual successor to both M.U.L.E. and Sid Meier's Railroads!. You pick plots of land at the start, build as you can afford to and as you are allotted land claims by the local government, and you must leverage your resources and production to maximize cash in real time, with prices for the dozen different resources in the game constantly fluctuating according to supply and demand. You win by eliminating all your competitors, and a competitor is eliminated when another player buys up the majority of the shares of their stock. This means the early rush of the game is to make enough money to buy up 50% of your own stock (you start with 20%) so that you can't be bought out easily - once you own 50% or more, you can only be bought by hostile takeover, where they buy all your stock at once, which is much more expensive. So the second half of the match is a race to buy out your competitors before they buy you out. A bought-out competitor becomes a "subsidiary," which you don't directly control but sends all its profits to your company.
This is right up my alley. Economics and base building are my two favorite parts of RTS games. I'm ashamed to say, though, that so far a "normal" difficulty game always ends with my defeat. I have to crank down the difficulty by a notch to remain competitive. But I hope to improve on that.
The game is meant to be short but highly replayable. One game shouldn't last longer than 20 minutes or so, and fresh out of the tutorial levels it feels breakneck-paced... but after losing a few times and understanding WHY I lost, I'm learning what needs to be done. This one's definitely worth getting if you're into management sims and real time strategy games.
Offworld Trading Company is great. I never knew I wanted to corner the space fuel market until I did.
Didn't we have Halforums Trading Company, a while back?
Yes.
Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to my MoO2 game I started last night while my Internet was out for an hour.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
Phoenix Dive/Earthquake
BOOM
-
BOOM
-
BABABOOMBABOOMBOOMBABOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
Fire now engulfs all surfaces on the screen.
(Voidwoken takes 2 points of damage, drop of blood falls in fire)
NECROFIRE EVERYWHERE[DOUBLEPOST=1506531114,1506530622][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, take a drink every time someone needs a pyramid passed to them.
Making it a drinking game might help to hold Terrik's attention.
GasBandit
Staff member
Nah. The two take place in the same "universe" but the plots are entirely separate. At least so far. There's only passing mention of the events of the first game in various books or esoteric conversations.
GasBandit
Staff member
We need to make that drinking game.
Take a drink whenever:
1) Someone needs a teleport pyramid passed to them.
2) Someone says "I don't have a rez scroll."
3) Necrofire literally fills the entire screen.
4) Terrik spends 3 or more consecutive turns CC'd, TWO drinks if the phrase "Glass Cannon" isn't mentioned by anyone because of it.
5) Snuffles' arrow is blocked by an obstruction that the game told him was not an obstruction.
6) Gas takes more than 15 seconds being indecisive about how to spend his last AP.
7) Dei groans in frustration.
8) Terrik falls asleep during combat.
9) "What are we doing here again?"
10) Terrik deals more than 1000 damage to an ally.
11) The game must be reloaded from a save, two drinks if it's for something that DIDN'T involve combat.
12) Dei uses Backlash and it doesn't put her in position to backstab.
13) Dei uses the Chicken/Rupture Tendons combo and her target then refuses to move.
14) Gas or Terrik accidentally CCs an ally.
15) Gas can't remember the word "Persuasion," two drinks if he calls it "Bartering."
16) Snuffles steals a kill.
17) Terrik kills an unharmed enemy in one turn, two drinks if Omega Flowey wasn't involved, THREE if he manages to not damage any allies.
18) Someone complains about how bad their gear is.
19) Someone makes a move in combat and immediately says "That's not what I said to do!"
20) It is revealed that the party has lost out on something noteworthy because they murderhobo'd a quest instead of doing it properly.
21) Snuffles uses "Pet Pal" to cause harm to an animal.
22) Snuffles gets a new bow within 20 minutes of having gotten his last new bow.
23) Dei demands an NPC be kept distracted so she can pickpocket it.
24) A successful persuasion roll still fails to prevent combat.
25) Somebody asks Dei to pickpocket a NPC she is unable to pickpocket because she already pickpocketed it earlier in the game.
26) Terrik dies in combat and it is decided to leave him dead until combat is over, to conserve rez scrolls.
27) Gas tries to clog a poison/oil vent with a barrel or crate. TWO drinks if he actually succeeds. THREE if he succeed when the oil or poison is already on fire.
28) Terrik's poison inadvertently heals an enemy.
29) Terrik gets all his source points stolen from him during the same combat encounter.
... what else...
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You could drink an entire Blizzard/concrete mixer while waiting, and that includes the time it takes to melt.
You're doomed.
--Patrick