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A Real Happy Camper
Dec 11, 2007

These children have taught me how to believe.
The AI is kinda hosed up and can be a dick, especially with planes. You can do well with a bazillion mid-tier tanks. Turtling and nuking the poo poo out of your opponent is also a worthwhile strategy.

Micromanagement isn't really essential in TA, 99% of the time you're fine just making a huge army and smashing it at your enemies.

Edit: If there's one thing to know: Any construction unit (construction kbot, plane, your commander) can assist a building in constructing a unit. If you want to get a bunch of late-game units, like Krogoths, this will take it from a painfully long wait to just a long wait.

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Afriscipio
Jun 3, 2013

Organza Quiz posted:

Unless I've totally missed something in the intervening years, you're actually playing Total Annihilation, which is an excellent strategy game from the 90s and which then later had a spiritual successor called Supreme Commander. It's not a "Supreme Commander game," it's its own game. I think that counts as a thing you should know before you start.

It's been so long since I played it that all I remember is it being a pretty standard strategy game and the music being fantastic.

TA was one of my favorite games growing up. I put way too many hours into it.

  • The game operates on true line of sight and calculated trajectories for weapon arcs. Use "dragon's teeth" to block direct fire weapons and wall up vulnerable avenues. They are the key to beating some of the tougher later missions. Gauss, laser, rocket and missiles are direct fire; plasma cannons, artillery, tank shells and some larger missile launchers are indirect fire.
  • The resource economy is a continuous and unlimited. Your major limit on building is your metal/energy in vs metal/energy out. Spending faster causes your production to stall.
  • You can assist factories in construction by guarding them with construction bots/vehicles/planes. There's no limit to the amount of assisting units, only how much it drains your economy.
  • Kbots are your infantry, maneuverable (they handle steep terrain well), spammable and cheap. They also often fill specialized roles, like sniping. Vehicles are fast and more durable, but can't path as well and get caught up in debris more often. Aircraft are fragile, fast and really nasty in numbers. Ships are really tough and mount the biggest mobile weapons. Subs are good at killing more than their cost in ships.
  • Static defenses are very strong, but every tier of defense is out-ranged by an artillery or missile unit of the same, or earlier, tier.
  • Many earlier missions can be beaten by spamming mobile anti-air missile launchers. They are the backbone of your defense while you get your base and economy going.
  • The CORE and ARM sides are quite similar. CORE tends to have heavier armor and ARM units have more maneuverability. CORE uses more lasers, ARM uses gauss weapons.
  • The single-player campaign has a pretty reasonable learning curve, but when you encounter ships for the first time they can be a bit difficult to handle. Don't try to stop them with land-based defenses. Build your own ships.

Neddy Seagoon
Oct 12, 2012

"Hi Everybody!"

Afriscipio posted:

TA was one of my favorite games growing up. I put way too many hours into it.

  • The game operates on true line of sight and calculated trajectories for weapon arcs. Use "dragon's teeth" to block direct fire weapons and wall up vulnerable avenues. They are the key to beating some of the tougher later missions. Gauss, laser, rocket and missiles are direct fire; plasma cannons, artillery, tank shells and some larger missile launchers are indirect fire.
  • The resource economy is a continuous and unlimited. Your major limit on building is your metal/energy in vs metal/energy out. Spending faster causes your production to stall.
  • You can assist factories in construction by guarding them with construction bots/vehicles/planes. There's no limit to the amount of assisting units, only how much it drains your economy.
  • Kbots are your infantry, maneuverable (they handle steep terrain well), spammable and cheap. They also often fill specialized roles, like sniping. Vehicles are fast and more durable, but can't path as well and get caught up in debris more often. Aircraft are fragile, fast and really nasty in numbers. Ships are really tough and mount the biggest mobile weapons. Subs are good at killing more than their cost in ships.
  • Static defenses are very strong, but every tier of defense is out-ranged by an artillery or missile unit of the same, or earlier, tier.
  • Many earlier missions can be beaten by spamming mobile anti-air missile launchers. They are the backbone of your defense while you get your base and economy going.
  • The CORE and ARM sides are quite similar. CORE tends to have heavier armor and ARM units have more maneuverability. CORE uses more lasers, ARM uses gauss weapons.
  • The single-player campaign has a pretty reasonable learning curve, but when you encounter ships for the first time they can be a bit difficult to handle. Don't try to stop them with land-based defenses. Build your own ships.

It's been a long while since I played TA, but if I recall right; If you go with the ARM Faction Peewees are cheap, quick to produce, and quite nasty in large numbers.

opaopa13
Jul 25, 2007

EB: i'm in a rocket pack and i am about to blast off into space. it should be sweet.

Pork Pie Hat posted:

What should I know before I start Supreme Commander: Total Annihilation? I've never played a Supreme Commander game before, but heard that this was a good place to start and it cost less than £2. Thank you!

"D" arms your Commander's Disintegrator Cannon, which costs Energy to fire but chews through masses of cheap units.
"Ctrl-D" does something else. If you have your whole army selected as part of a all-or-nothing push, do not press Ctrl-D.

Afriscipio
Jun 3, 2013

Neddy Seagoon posted:

It's been a long while since I played TA, but if I recall right; If you go with the ARM Faction Peewees are cheap, quick to produce, and quite nasty in large numbers.

ARM flash tanks are your go-to mass attack unit for land battles. They are horrifying, cheap and effective. The only downside is the noise they make when shooting. Peewees die too quickly. Never build AKs, CORE's attack bot. They are awful.

Some of the earliest mods for the game were to tone down the flash/peewee firing noise and swap out the AK laser for the equivalent laser on the flash tank.

Christ, I remember way too much about this.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
AKs are decent early scouts in hilly terrain, at least.

The most important thing to know about the game is that macro is far more important than micro. There isn't much micro in combat if you're not trying to optimize the use of your commander's super gun, but balancing your economy, strategically placing your base and strongholds, choosing the right units for the job, and knowing when to advance slowly, when to raid, and when go all in for the kill will decide the battle for you.

Whenever it's economically feasible, use airborne builders. They're much easier to redirect to other jobs, won't cause a traffic jam in the base, and if you set them to patrol your base, they'll help with construction and repair anything along their flight path.

Scout, but not too much, (at least in single player). It's really important to know where the enemy is coming from, but the AI triggers preset waves early if your units get too close. There's a horribly scripted map in which a random meteor rain can trigger a doomstack of attack aircraft to attack you before you can even build anything to defend - you don't want to accidentally do this on your own.

Fun trick: You can kidnap some enemy units with your transports. I have beaten 2 friends by grabbing one's commander and self-destructing the transport above the other's commander (Oh, yeah, never ever bring your commander close to the enemy commander. Their explosion instakills everything in a large radius).

Artillery is king, queen, ace, and joker of the battlefield. Use it.

Pork Pie Hat
Apr 27, 2011
Crikey, that's a lot of advice, thank you all very much indeed!

Organza Quiz posted:

Unless I've totally missed something in the intervening years, you're actually playing Total Annihilation, which is an excellent strategy game from the 90s and which then later had a spiritual successor called Supreme Commander. It's not a "Supreme Commander game," it's its own game. I think that counts as a thing you should know before you start.

It's been so long since I played it that all I remember is it being a pretty standard strategy game and the music being fantastic.

Yes, this is my bad entirely. I bought Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance at the same time then managed to conflate the two names when asking for advice!

Pork Pie Hat fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Jan 20, 2015

Pierzak
Oct 30, 2010
Wait. There's a TA remake in SC engine?

Pork Pie Hat
Apr 27, 2011

Pierzak posted:

Wait. There's a TA remake in SC engine?

I think I might have confused the issue, by getting the two names mixed up. So I don't think there is a remake, sorry.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Anything I need to know for Shadowrun: Dragonfall?

e: also, are there any must-have mods?

Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Jan 21, 2015

Neddy Seagoon
Oct 12, 2012

"Hi Everybody!"

my dad posted:

Artillery is king, queen, ace, and joker of the battlefield. Use it.

The ARM's gatling artillery in Core Contingency :flashfap:. You need a lot of power to sustain it, but by god anything that enters its range of fire will just die.

Afriscipio
Jun 3, 2013

Oh! One more thing: radar is very important. Build radar structures ASAP and take mobile radar units with your assault waves.

One more thing the second:
Open the console and type +shootall. This enables your units to automatically target buildings that get into their line of sight. Saves you a lot of micro.

Gyshall
Feb 24, 2009

Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.
Tell me about power gaming KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2 (Restored Content Mod) for fun and profit.

GhostBoy
Aug 7, 2010

Gyshall posted:

Tell me about power gaming KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2 (Restored Content Mod) for fun and profit.

For KOTOR 1 there isn't that much you need to know. Max Force Speed early and keep the dialogue skill topped up, and you're set. If you want to do one better, keep your level at 4 through Taris so you can spend those level ups in your Jedi class instead of the base class. It makes the end of Taris a bit rough, so bring health pots, but from there you will breeeze through the rest of the game. Scout is generally considered the best choice for the base class, since they get the most skill points and class skills, as well as Flurry for free.

al-azad
May 28, 2009



Gyshall posted:

Tell me about power gaming KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2 (Restored Content Mod) for fun and profit.

Scoundrel to Jedi Guardian. Scoundrel has lowest HP but has defense bonus, sneak attack, and critical strike. Guardian has best attack rate, best HP, lightsaber specialization, and force jump. Force jump basically gives you a free sneak attack with your first hit. Focus on stun/force push (stunned opponents trigger sneak attack) and burst of speed. Master two-weapon fighting so you can wield two lightsabers.

With master critical strike you basically have 40% chance to crit with each attack (50% with whatever crystal gives you "keen"). Critting usually stuns your opponent so that activates sneak attack. You'll open most battles with a free sneak attack. And your force powers are focused on stunning opponents and giving you extra attacks so you can spread the sneak attack love.

e: If you want to cheese the game then ignore the "don't level up" tip most people give. Your sneak attack improves at level 5 and 7 and you'll probably be level 7 if you do everything on the first planet before becoming a Jedi.

csm141
Jul 19, 2010

i care, i'm listening, i can help you without giving any advice
Pillbug
Go max dark side or max light side, being in the middle doesn't help you. I preferred the style supported by dark side (anti-organic attacks, vampiric attack and debuffs) but light side (healing, buffs, stun and a powerful anti-droid attack) is good too if you want to play it that way. There's a good amount of universal powers that aren't affected by your alignment at all.

Mzbundifund
Nov 5, 2011

I'm afraid so.
Get the Destroy Droid power. You won't regret it.

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

Gyshall posted:

Tell me about power gaming KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2 (Restored Content Mod) for fun and profit.
Grab a Mandalorian Ripper pistol or two in KotOR 2. Typically, they start with a 15% crit chance, which is pretty good to begin with. Then put in a scope which adds the 'Keen' modifier, which doubles the crit chance. 30% is pretty good, but by using the Sniper Shot skill, you can increase it further. When you get to Master Sniper Shot, it takes your crit rating and... quadruples it. So you have a 120% chance to crit with every shot. The game keeps it from being too silly by capping it 75% or so, but even that's pretty stupid. And since you can craft add-ons which deal additional damage (and I think Force Speed gives you extra attacks with guns as well, though I may be wrong about that) you can essentially solo (:haw:) a hefty chunk of the game by shooting its face off. The only caveats are that the guns themselves are hard to come by, and tend to be fairly expensive when you see them in the shops, but it's not uncommon to get them randomly as loot. I've got them as early as Telos, the second major area of the game.

Male Man
Aug 16, 2008

Im, too sexy for your teatime
Too sexy for your teatime
That tea that you're just driiinkiing

Evil Mastermind posted:

Anything I need to know for Shadowrun: Dragonfall?

e: also, are there any must-have mods?

Focus your character. Karma is limited, and spreading out too much just means you'll be poo poo at a lot of things.

Cover is important, and equally important is denying it to enemies. Medium and heavy cover grant damage reduction and crit immunity.

Hitting with a melee or thrown weapon attack, or removing an entire turn's worth of AP (nearly all enemies have 2 AP) will also deny cover bonuses. Certain special abilities can accomplish the same thing. You can have your team act in any order, so plan out your moves to take advantage of this.

AP damage is really good.

The taser is a really good weapon. A crit with it will knock that enemy out of combat for three turns.

Always remember to hit Glory's Adrenal Pump at the start of combat. It refunds the AP used to trigger it, so it's a free action.

NPC consumables are free, so use their medkits first and don't be shy with their grenades.

The game will cover all the basics (decker, magic user, gun'sbraster) with NPCs, so go with whatever interests you. It'll also frequently allow you to call a present teammate into the conversation to make a skill check.

Weapons don't share cooldowns (even within the same type) and can be switched at no action cost. So you can use your +aim ability with one gun, then switch to a second to use the same ability again. This can get really crazy if you do stuff like bring three pistols and spam chain shot.

Magical healing only recovers the most source of damage. If someone takes a big hit, prioritize getting a heal on them, especially if they're in danger of taking additional damage afterwards. You also heal your most recent wound after combat, even if you don't have a source of magical healing in your team.

Enemy conjurers are huge assholes. Killing them or draining all their AP (AP damage is really good) will banish any spirits under their command. Likewise, draining a rigger of AP will prevent their drone(s) from doing anything.

Unless you know better, stick entirely to magic or tech. Cyberware shreds your ability to sling spells.

Delaio
Jul 14, 2012

I've got Disgaea D2 on the way, anything I should know as someone who's only played 1&4? I don't usually get into the insane post game grind stuff if that helps narrow it down.

Alris
Apr 20, 2007

Welcome to the Fantasy Zone!

Get ready!
Is the DLC for South Park: The Stick Of Truth worth investing in if you haven't played the game yet?

Kanfy
Jan 9, 2012

Just gotta keep walking down that road.

Alris posted:

Is the DLC for South Park: The Stick Of Truth worth investing in if you haven't played the game yet?

Nah, the game's great but the DLC costumes are completely unnecessary.

al-azad
May 28, 2009



To be specific, all the costumes in the game are scaled by level so the DLC costumes are outclassed almost instantly.

Chernobyl Peace Prize
May 7, 2007

Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Delaio posted:

I've got Disgaea D2 on the way, anything I should know as someone who's only played 1&4? I don't usually get into the insane post game grind stuff if that helps narrow it down.
-Rotate the camera when you're outside the castle to find the most useful NPC (he's behind the building geometry and offers one of the game's new features, the Cheat Shop (which isn't really "cheating" so much as replacing a lot of the annoying bills you'd have to vote for in previous games to customize the play experience)).
-The game unlocks new Devil Dojo options (it'll make sense when you get there) based on how many people have finished stages under a given existing DD option. So everyone should always be assigned to one, in addition to the generally-good-idea because they give free stats.
-Sea Angel monsters are some of the best for grinding in mid-/late-game (XP passive to your allies, very useful ride attack option).
-Monsters in general don't suck this time around, and making your glass cannon mages ride around on giant HP sponges can be a very good idea.

TerryLennox
Oct 12, 2009

There is nothing tougher than a tough Mexican, just as there is nothing gentler than a gentle Mexican, nothing more honest than an honest Mexican, and above all nothing sadder than a sad Mexican. -R. Chandler.

Pierzak posted:

Wait. There's a TA remake in SC engine?

There is a total conversion mod.

http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=21520

Not finished yet but they have made steady progress.

Delaio
Jul 14, 2012

Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:

-Rotate the camera when you're outside the castle to find the most useful NPC (he's behind the building geometry and offers one of the game's new features, the Cheat Shop (which isn't really "cheating" so much as replacing a lot of the annoying bills you'd have to vote for in previous games to customize the play experience)).
-The game unlocks new Devil Dojo options (it'll make sense when you get there) based on how many people have finished stages under a given existing DD option. So everyone should always be assigned to one, in addition to the generally-good-idea because they give free stats.
-Sea Angel monsters are some of the best for grinding in mid-/late-game (XP passive to your allies, very useful ride attack option).
-Monsters in general don't suck this time around, and making your glass cannon mages ride around on giant HP sponges can be a very good idea.

Thanks! I'm just about to start it up.

Pierzak
Oct 30, 2010

TerryLennox posted:

Not finished yet
I think I've seen it last time I played SC. I'll check in 3 years, see how it goes.

break-up breakdown
Mar 6, 2010

Pork Pie Hat posted:

Supreme Commander: Total Annihilation?

you can scoop up enemy commanders with your flying transports

SolidSnakesBandana
Jul 1, 2007

Infinite ammo

sick trigger posted:

you can scoop up enemy commanders with your flying transports

Isnt that the game where you win by killimg the commander? Thats hilarious, cant believe I nevrr heard that

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
It was on sale, and I'm weak; anything for Bionic Dues?

Pierzak
Oct 30, 2010

SolidSnakesBandana posted:

Isnt that the game where you win by killimg the commander? Thats hilarious, cant believe I nevrr heard that

It gets better. You can self-destruct your aircraft killing said commander, which results in a huge nuclear explosion. On ferry him onto another player's base and let the blast (from the self-destruction or just getting shot down by enemy AAA) kill them both.

But since it was the age of LAN parties, there was a good counter in the form of a rolled newspaper to the face from both ganked players :fuckoff:

Pierzak fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Jan 25, 2015

Mzbundifund
Nov 5, 2011

I'm afraid so.
Any tips for Dungeonmans? Maybe a good build for a novice mans?

Ausmund
Jan 24, 2007

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Gears of War 3? I beat the first two Gears on hardcore and insane... I don't think 3 feels as solid and satisfying though. Too much scripted poo poo and the AI partners keep killing everything too fast. Is it well regarded? And is there a way to get rid of "dying mode" in single player? The first two didn't have that.

Kanfy
Jan 9, 2012

Just gotta keep walking down that road.

Mzbundifund posted:

Any tips for Dungeonmans? Maybe a good build for a novice mans?

Don't have it myself but if you want in-depth advice, you could ask in the roguelikes thread. As you probably know, the developer is a goon and posts there regularly as well.

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Kanfy posted:

Don't have it myself but if you want in-depth advice, you could ask in the roguelikes thread. As you probably know, the developer is a goon and posts there regularly as well.
Dungeonmans actually has its own thread.

Neddy Seagoon
Oct 12, 2012

"Hi Everybody!"

Ausmund posted:

Gears of War 3? I beat the first two Gears on hardcore and insane... I don't think 3 feels as solid and satisfying though. Too much scripted poo poo and the AI partners keep killing everything too fast. Is it well regarded? And is there a way to get rid of "dying mode" in single player? The first two didn't have that.

Use the Retro Lancer. It deals much more damage per hit and it's not too hard to adapt to the higher recoil. Plus the Bayonet has a nasty, and quick, swing attack.

juliuspringle
Jul 7, 2007

Any mods worth using or things worth knowing for Banished?

Sloober
Apr 1, 2011

Mzbundifund posted:

Any tips for Dungeonmans? Maybe a good build for a novice mans?

Starlight Soldier + real armor + shield makes you super tanky, but you need to have two points in shields to use a shield and polearm at the same time. Augment with banners and you're even harder to kill. Dungeonmans as a start just gives you any weapon/armor you could possibly want to start using and 5 skill points to distribute as you see fit, the other mans starts with 5 preallocated points according to what type of mans it is. Don't forget to turn in all relics and books to the headmaster and to use the drill sergeant to apply proofs of stremf to your characters, which you get from killing champion monsters. Don't be afraid to spend them, every proof you turn in gives you 2 points to spend and all future mans 1 point.

Lunchmeat Larry
Nov 3, 2012

I've played crusader kings 2 a fair amount, but about to start a Viking play through with Old Gods, and wondering how differently it works and what I need to know. I vaguely remember trying it last year and not being able to raid England properly or something.

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RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire

mysterious loyall Y posted:

I've played crusader kings 2 a fair amount, but about to start a Viking play through with Old Gods, and wondering how differently it works and what I need to know. I vaguely remember trying it last year and not being able to raid England properly or something.

Couple of important things:
1.Raiding, to raid what you have to do is raise your levies and draw a box around them, when the info panel for the army pops up you'll see an icon that looks like 2 axes crossed. Click that to turn them into a "raiding party" which lets them swoop into other religious territories and siege their stuff.

2.Concubines - any woman in your court can be made into a concubine, you can have up to 3 (with a 4th being your wife). Concubine kids count for succession so its a great way to get a lot of kids. This is also bad because your succession system kind of sucks. If you get sick of being a viking you can get a non germanic woman as your concubine and convert to her religion, as long as you're not zealous.

3.Blots - Once you've accumulated a lot of prisoners, goto the intrigue menu to sacrifice them to Odin. This is worth a crazy amount of prestige and piety.

4.Tribal Holdings - As of a few months ago, tribals now exist. Basically tribals are kinda-sorta like feudal but shittier so you're gonna wanna fix that. You have to go into your capital city and start building up. You have to build either a hillfort (if you want to become feudal) or a town market (if you want to become a republic. Only do this if you own The Republic DLC). Once you hit level 4 in one of those an option in the intrigue menu will let you reform to a civilized entity.
Don't do this immediately though, because now your tribal vassals all hate you for being of the "Wrong government type" (tribals count as their own government) and you will get blindsided by nearby enemies taking advantage of the fact that you now have nothing for levies. Wait till you can upgrade a decent number of your own holdings before civilizing yourself.

5.Reforming the faith - You'll need to reform the Norse faith ASAP for 2 reasons. The first is that your succession law sucks, and you can't change it until Norse is reformed. Under the default system you'll constantly have your lands split up among your kids when you die leading to a lot of infighting. The other reason is unreformed pagans are easy pickings for conversion compared to Christianity and Islam. So to reform the religion you need to look at your religion panel, it'll list 5 "holy sites" you need to get all of those under your control which as a viking honestly isn't that hard. You'll figure it out, but vikings get insane CBs that let them expand where they want pretty quickly.
Once you own them you have to get the Moral Authority of norse religion over 50, which is kinda tricky but basically keep holy waring and raiding christian temples and you'll slowly get it up there.

Edit: Also if you have the Charlemagne DLC don't bother with that start. As a viking you'll just be bored. Do the Old Gods start.

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