Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Golden Goat
Aug 2, 2012

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

IIRC you need INT on your main character to talk to demons and not gently caress it up constantly.

Maybe that was only in SMT1 but I think it was in 2 as well.

I think it's still the same as SMT1 so i've been putting points into it so far. I assume MAG is mostly useless for the MC same as the first game?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Fat Samurai posted:

Making a general travel plan "I'm going to cross the steppes" or "I'm going through Asia" and some general geographical knowledge also helps, because you can buy appropriate stuff you come across.

IIRC, extra luggage is generally a good idea. Having enough space to carry an extra item that you can sell later on usually pays for itself.

How important is it to pack appropriately with region-specific items? I gave the game a false start but got quickly frustrated with having to choose between packing money-making items and items that I'd potentially need to not freeze to death or whatever.

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
Undertale
- You can't avoid every fight, but you never have to escalate the violence.
- There is a way to spare everyone.
- There is only one exception to these rules, and you will know it when it happens.
- The Kill Everyone ending means kill everyone, not just everyone who gets in your way.
- You can't open the door with the mushrooms until after you've gotten the true pacifist ending.
- The Stick (your starting weapon) has multiple uses.
- Don't be ashamed of looking up the solution to the piano puzzle. It's optional, but also kind of poorly designed.

girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Oct 2, 2015

Damn Dirty Ape
Jan 23, 2015

I love you Dr. Zaius



Ok tonight I'll be playing Destiny for this first time (after the loving 30 GB download is finished). I know there is a huge thread devoted to it with a ton of crazy advice that I don't really understand yet, but does anybody have a few early tips?

Genpei Turtle
Jul 20, 2007

Golden Goat posted:

Any tips for Shin Megami Tensei II?

Only thing I can remember to look out for at the beginning is not to let the game name your guys when asked. Manually enter their default names if you want, but if you let the game pick your names, in a massive dick move you get shifted heavily to Law, which hamstrings your ability to recruit demons right out the gate.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

drat Dirty Ape posted:

Ok tonight I'll be playing Destiny for this first time (after the loving 30 GB download is finished). I know there is a huge thread devoted to it with a ton of crazy advice that I don't really understand yet, but does anybody have a few early tips?

Destiny is way better now than it used to be.

Tips: Not really, just play through the game and have fun! Its that simple. Okay okay here's some real tips.

There's 3 classes but there's not a huuuuuge difference between them, they all get grenades and supers and 3 choices of sub-class which offers good variety. Pick whatever you think is coolest. They used to be a little imbalanced but the latest expansion did a really good job of bringing them all up to par.

You need to get to max-level (40) to do most cool activities with other people. Destiny is WAY more fun than other people. So your first goal is to just hit 40 asap. This will not take you long, maybe a week or so. Play through the campaign, play each mission and strike once. The first time you do anything, you get a huge xp bonus. Repeat playthroughs of the same story mission or strike will give NO exp bonus at all, the only xp you'll be getting will be a tiny bit for each kill. So yeah, do everything once, and pretty much once only.

The game is much more directed now than it used to be so you'll get quests that will lead you on things to do. Do them, obviously. There's also bounties, which are like the old quests before quests got more detailed in the latest expansion, or they're like little daily-quests or objectives. You get access to them at like level 5, make sure you pick them up ASAP. You'll complete many of them without even thinking about it, and you can turn them in for bonus XP and reputation. Each day there's new bounties, so each day check out the tower or the reef and pick them up.

For the most part while leveling just equip whatever gives you the most +attack and +defense. Doing so increases your overall "light level" which is like an ilevel (item-level average of your gear). This is important because the higher your light level, the higher level gear will drop for you in everything you do. If you're 100 light, you'll get 100-115 guns, while if you're 300 you'll get 260-310 guns. If you have a favorite gun that's slightly lower light feel free to use it, but generally equip the highest level stuff you have.

You unlock pvp at like level 5 and feel free to do it whenever you want, its fun and it gets you a little xp here and there. Normal pvp, called "crucible", is normalized so that level doesn't matter. You WILL still be at a disadvantage because other players have items that give cool effects that you don't have, but at least they won't have level advantage over you or have dramatically more health or damage or anything like that. But they will still have advantages so mostly stick to doing story missions until you're high level.

Your gear levels up as you earn experience with it equipped, which unlocks perks which can be unlocked to grant bonuses. These are really cool, but while you're leveling you'll be changing gear really fast. As a result its often not worth purchasing the upgrade perks, as doing so costs you materials that you'll need later on. The most important material at endgame is weapon parts, after that things like spinmetal and helium which you pick up on the planets as you're doing things.

The game is pretty fun and forgiving now, although when you get to the latest expansion content (starting at level 25) things will get a bit more difficult, at that point the game starts to expect you to play in a group more than solo, but you can still solo it if you need to.

There's a ton of goons who play now and many of them probably won't mind hopping in on your team and helping you with something if you get stuck.

Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions but that should do you to get started and get up to level 40, then you can dig into learning about the end-game and what guns are best and stuff like that.

csm141
Jul 19, 2010

i care, i'm listening, i can help you without giving any advice
Pillbug

Ainsley McTree posted:

How important is it to pack appropriately with region-specific items? I gave the game a false start but got quickly frustrated with having to choose between packing money-making items and items that I'd potentially need to not freeze to death or whatever.

Those items usually help you more with cheaper forms of travel. Don't think this way though, most of the fun of the game is failing and trying again.There's a degree of randomness to what each city will sell so you can't plan exactly what you're going to do, only generally.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Nohman posted:

Any tips for Mad Max?

- Keeping the harpoon upgraded is important. Being able to rip armor off cars makes fighting easier, and if you're doing a covnoy pulling tires of pursuit vehicles is a good way to thin the crowd.

- If you find yourself on foot and are being run down by bad guys in cars, try to get to a spot where a car can't fit, like up against a large rock. Then everyone will get out of their cars to fight you hand-to-hand.

Cactus
Jun 24, 2006

I'm about to start Pillars of Eternity. For reference, here's what's on the wiki:

quote:

- Entering "scouting mode" (alt) not only puts your character in stealth mode but also automatically searches your surroundings for traps and hidden objects.

- Detecting traps is a mechanics vs. trap level check (and disarming them is a harder check). There's no randomness; either you have the skill or you don't.

- Apropos of the above, Mechanics is a really important skill for finding hidden stuff and not getting killed by it, and none of the prefab party members have a heavy investment in it, so it's worth either taking it on your main or redirecting the skill progression of one of your recruits.

- Speaking of recruits, hiring "generic" party members at Gilded Vale is actually a good idea; they're inexpensive, help fill out your party, and once you have a full roster of named characters you can use them to garrison your stronghold and run errands for you there.

- Ciphers leech focus based on damage dealt, so a cipher with a slow but powerful weapon will get fewer attacks but generate more focus per attack.

- The difference between "AoE", "Friendly AoE", and "Foe AoE" is really important. Wizards tend to have the flashiest offensive spells, but Ciphers and Druids are also offensive powerhouses and have a much easier time not incinerating the rest of the party in the process.

- Speaking of AoEs, high Intellect provides not only bonus range but also some spell shaping; the outer, yellow section of an offensive AoE spell hits only enemies, even if allies are within it too.

- It's always worth exploring every area fully, some party members are slightly out of your way. After picking up two at Gilded Vale, I recommend fully exploring the areas south and west, there are three more party members to be found between Gilded Vale and Dyrford Village.

- For fresh Chanters, get Reny Daret's Ghost and ignore the Skeleton summon. Reny Daret's Ghost does good damage, stuns with backstabs and can be summoned behind enemy lines. The Skeletons instantly crumble to any damage and just loving suck. You get relatively few new Chanter songs and invocations throughout the game, so make them count.

Anyone have anything to add?

Panic! at Nabisco
Jun 6, 2007

it seemed like a good idea at the time

Poison Mushroom posted:

Undertale
- You can't avoid every fight, but you never have to escalate the violence.
- There is a way to spare everyone.
- There is only one exception to these rules, and you will know it when it happens.
- The Kill Everyone ending means kill everyone, not just everyone who gets in your way.
- You can't open the door with the mushrooms until after you've gotten the true pacifist ending.
- The Stick (your starting weapon) has multiple uses.
- Don't be ashamed of looking up the solution to the piano puzzle. It's optional, but also kind of poorly designed.
- If you buy something from the spider bake sale, keep it around. It might come in handy later.
- You do NOT have to use the fight command on the boss at the end of the ruins. Keep trying, there is a way.
- When a later fight makes use of a points system, using junk food will lower your points, and using glamorous items like glamburgers will raise them. The fight ends when you reach 10000.
- if aware of dog, PLEAS PET DOG

Eldred
Feb 19, 2004
Weight gain is impossible.

Cactus posted:

I'm about to start Pillars of Eternity. For reference, here's what's on the wiki:


Anyone have anything to add?

There should be more in this thread if you use search/Google. I usually tell people to make their main a Cipher since they're powerful and one of the most dynamic classes, and they have tons of unique dialogue. Way more than any other class, and possibly more than all other classes put together. You also get the Cipher NPC last or close to last.

Fighters can soak all the damage in the world and can engage a huge number of targets. You get the fighter NPC very early and you don't need more than one.

Don't break engagement unless absolutely necessary. Your cursor will turn red if you try to move a character who's engaged in melee; breaking it without using an ability to avoid the disengage attack and they'll eat a ton of damage, often enough to be fatal for non-tanks.

You're probably going to want to stick with ranged DPS characters because as mentioned in the quote AOE is an issue, and the overall difficulty level of the game is no joke; you can't afford to just soak damage on characters not built for it.

Cactus
Jun 24, 2006

Eldred posted:

There should be more in this thread if you use search/Google. I usually tell people to make their main a Cipher since they're powerful and one of the most dynamic classes, and they have tons of unique dialogue. Way more than any other class, and possibly more than all other classes put together. You also get the Cipher NPC last or close to last.

Fighters can soak all the damage in the world and can engage a huge number of targets. You get the fighter NPC very early and you don't need more than one.

Don't break engagement unless absolutely necessary. Your cursor will turn red if you try to move a character who's engaged in melee; breaking it without using an ability to avoid the disengage attack and they'll eat a ton of damage, often enough to be fatal for non-tanks.

You're probably going to want to stick with ranged DPS characters because as mentioned in the quote AOE is an issue, and the overall difficulty level of the game is no joke; you can't afford to just soak damage on characters not built for it.

Haha oops then, I already made my main a rogue and so far none of my characters have anything resembling a ranged attack. When I die and restart I'll bear all that in mind. I don't have forums search unfortunately but google took me to this page, so that's helpful.

Any more tips for the new game options for a new player? I made it so that it would pause when noticing an enemy, and when someone loses too much health/gets knocked out etc. I also switched on some of the notification options that were switched off by default, can't remember what exactly, but was going for the least amount of obfuscation possible. It's difficult to judge what might have a severe gameplay effect as opposed to just flavour adjustments when you've never played before, and this is the kind of game that I find gets more difficult to restart the further I get into it. That said I've switched up to normal difficulty and removed my ability to save-scum by putting ironman mode on because I used to ruin fighting fantasy gamebooks as a child by having fingers stuck in pages all the time, and I want whatever happens in my story to happen - no turning back. I'm only a couple of hours in though so restarting now wouldn't be an issue if any of this is a Really Bad Idea.

edit: Iron man mode is a Bad Idea and I'll not be enabling it on my second attempt (traps are a bitch!)

Cactus fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Oct 2, 2015

Eldred
Feb 19, 2004
Weight gain is impossible.

Cactus posted:

Haha oops then, I already made my main a rogue and so far none of my characters have anything resembling a ranged attack. When I die and restart I'll bear all that in mind. I don't have forums search unfortunately but google took me to this page, so that's helpful.

Any more tips for the new game options for a new player? I made it so that it would pause when noticing an enemy, and when someone loses too much health/gets knocked out etc. I also switched on some of the notification options that were switched off by default, can't remember what exactly, but was going for the least amount of obfuscation possible. It's difficult to judge what might have a severe gameplay effect as opposed to just flavour adjustments when you've never played before, and this is the kind of game that I find gets more difficult to restart the further I get into it. That said I've switched up to normal difficulty and removed my ability to save-scum by putting ironman mode on because I used to ruin fighting fantasy gamebooks as a child by having fingers stuck in pages all the time, and I want whatever happens in my story to happen - no turning back. I'm only a couple of hours in though so restarting now wouldn't be an issue if any of this is a Really Bad Idea.

edit: Iron man mode is a Bad Idea and I'll not be enabling it on my second attempt (traps are a bitch!)

I didn't get to play around much with them since there isn't a rogue NPC but you might be okay with a rogue, I'm assuming they have abilities to break engagement. You can switch pretty freely between melee and range in this, so I'd imagine that ranged rogue could work.

Yeah, the options screen is stupidly daunting. I would turn on the option to pause after an ability is used because your character will just sit there after the ability finishes instead of auto-attacking. I think you can use shift to queue actions, though. The other pause defaults were okay (start combat, character KOed)

Traps are no joke in this. You will probably want a character with close to max in Mechanics for that reason. Mechanics is probably the strongest skill, it comes up occasionally in dialogue and has direct gameplay benefits. Speaking of which, there are items that let you bypass certain skill checks, like a hammer and chisel that break through walls. These are only good for one use, so only use them if none of your other skills work. The game's pretty generous with them though.

The following classes are pretty much required, but both are represented by NPCs you get early:
Fighter: soaks physical damage like crazy. Needs to be protected from magic and disabling effects though.
Cleric/priest (forget which it is in this): Picks allies back up if they drop. Lots of great buffs and even some damage options

Classes you should have, but can probably get by without:
Mage (another early NPC): debuffs are huge, especially anything that turns enemies to your side like confusion.
Cipher (mid-late NPC): only casting class that can use spells per-encounter from the start. Great damage too with Soul Whip. Feels like the dev team's pet class just based on the number of options they have.
Druid (mid-game NPC): tons of spellcasting utility and can do decent direct damage with animal form

These are the bottom of the heap:
Paladin: really short on abilities and can't keep up with fighters at all as tanks.
Hunter: damage doesn't keep up with other DPS classes. pet can soak some hits, but that's all a hunter's really good for.

Godmachine
Sep 5, 2004

I am beyond God.
I am Human.
Darkest Dungeon?

I've played about two hours so I guess I'm not asking before my first time playing. I understand the basic mechanics but I keep getting my rear end handed to me.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Godmachine posted:

Darkest Dungeon?

I've played about two hours so I guess I'm not asking before my first time playing. I understand the basic mechanics but I keep getting my rear end handed to me.

In the beginning that's definitely going to happen. Hell, if you're not careful that'll happen throughout the game.

Pay attention to light level, bring the right supplies with you, don't be afraid to leave dugeons early.

Also you should absolutely treat your low level adventurers as expendable, put them through the human meat grinder like its XCOM. Most of the time firing people and hiring new people is way cheaper and better than paying to actually fix the afflictions that people get. Don't worry about maintaining people until you get higher level and have supplies and upgrades and stuff.

Your town upgrades are permanent and the game can't ever "fail", so even when you're losing all of your dudes as long as you're profiting you're coming out ahead.

Damn Dirty Ape
Jan 23, 2015

I love you Dr. Zaius




Thanks for the tip. Should I use the thing that I got in the mail that seems to make me level 25? I feel like I might be skipping important 'learn wtf you are doing' stuff, but I'm not sure.

Pseudoscorpion
Jul 26, 2011


drat Dirty Ape posted:

Thanks for the tip. Should I use the thing that I got in the mail that seems to make me level 25? I feel like I might be skipping important 'learn wtf you are doing' stuff, but I'm not sure.

I would save it for an alt, since when you use it you still have to progress through the low-level content anyway (AFAIK), so you may as well do the content at an appropriate level.

Damn Dirty Ape
Jan 23, 2015

I love you Dr. Zaius



Pseudoscorpion posted:

I would save it for an alt, since when you use it you still have to progress through the low-level content anyway (AFAIK), so you may as well do the content at an appropriate level.

Oh ok, so it's a one time only for one character thing? I thought it might show up in the mailbox of any character I create.

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!
i bought darkest hour in the paradox sale, please help

csm141
Jul 19, 2010

i care, i'm listening, i can help you without giving any advice
Pillbug

corn in the bible posted:

i bought darkest hour in the paradox sale, please help

Don't be intimidated by the variety of units. Just building tons of infantry is the optimal strategy in most situations. The USSR has mass infantry doctrines and while you deal with debuffs early on, you shouldn't have trouble outproducing Germany and swamping them with units. On the other hand, Germany is a pretty straightforward game through 1941 if you want to be eased into it. You start out invading Poland which is piss easy, then France is set up to fall apart against you. Of course the USSR and UK are much more difficult but even if you fail against them, you've probably learned a fair amount.

Alternatively, install Kaiserreich and play as Russia. You have a ton of weak neighbors that you can reincorporate into the motherland, and you're in a good position to crank out tons of infantry and kick in somebody's teeth.

Units all have organization and strength. Most of the time you're trying to reduce organization to zero so the enemy will retreat. If you defeat an enemy when they own no adjacent provinces, that unit is destroyed immediately. Strength represents the actual manpower of the unit. Zeroing out a unit's strength will remove it from the map. Morale affects how quickly organization recovers.

Set the industry screen to allocate IC automatically, doing it manually will drive you nuts. Make sure reinforcements get done. Building IC early in the game will help you outproduce your enemies later on. When to stop building IC and when to start building units depends on when you expect to fight the war. Just make sure you have time to build units before the general time period you'll enter the war (1937 for China and Japan, 9/1/1939 for Germany/UK/France, summer of 1941 for USSR, winter of 1941 for USA, etc.). Upgrading is typically not worth it because building a new unit doesn't cost much more and then you'll have both the new and old unit to play with. Dissent affects your unit's combat ability and your industry, so keep it down by investing in Consumer Goods. As for the government sliders, going to Hawk Lobby is probably the best way to go.

Fleets of Heavy Cruisers with torpedoes attached are basically invulnerable to anything except naval bombers and they're simple and not as expensive/research intensive as Battleships or Carriers (carriers are especially hard to develop for anybody who isn't Japan or the United States) to build. Build them if you find yourself in need of boats. Submarines are also pretty good and are also good at attacking enemy supply routes.

As for air force, you have choices on what you want to focus on. Fighters have longer range and are stronger, but more expensive. I usually build fighters if I anticipate having to fight an air war over longer distances (Pacific War for example). Interceptors are cheaper and do extra damage against bombers so they're good for defense.

Tactical bombers are good at attacking an enemy's organization (a tactical bomber tactic would be to have the bombers bomb a retreating unit so that it can't recover its organization and can be defeated again, e.g.) and bombing enemy infrastructure (which slows them down and affects how quickly they recover organization, though if you capture the province, you have to deal with that too). Close air support have short range and are good at attacking an enemy's strength. In HoI2, you could build a "CAS Death Star" which was a lot of CAS planes that could reduce an enemy's strength to zero rapidly. It's not as effective as it used to be, but it still works alright against retreating units. Naval bombers are good if your enemy's fleets are going to be close to your airfields. Strategic bombers attack IC and are generally not worth it, though they are the first method you'll have to drop nukes.

Bookmark the Paradox Thread and ask questions as you have them, because there's a lot more than this, but this should be enough to get you started.

csm141 fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Oct 3, 2015

Cactus
Jun 24, 2006


Thanks for this its helpful. I didn't have that pause after ability option on so I'll utilise that on my next go around. Gonna stick with rogue though if that's the only way I'll see one.

Bedurndurn
Dec 4, 2008

Cactus posted:

Thanks for this its helpful. I didn't have that pause after ability option on so I'll utilise that on my next go around. Gonna stick with rogue though if that's the only way I'll see one.

Well you can also make generic NPCs of any class you like. The only downside to them is that they don't have any unique storyline associated with them like the NPCs you find out in the world.

Eldred
Feb 19, 2004
Weight gain is impossible.

Cactus posted:

Thanks for this its helpful. I didn't have that pause after ability option on so I'll utilise that on my next go around. Gonna stick with rogue though if that's the only way I'll see one.

Pretty sure you can change your pause options whenever, I know I turned pause after ability after playing a while. It'll be under the Options screens, maybe under Gameplay?

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

Chief Savage Man posted:

Don't be intimidated by the variety of units. Just building tons of infantry is the optimal strategy in most situations. The USSR has mass infantry doctrines and while you deal with debuffs early on, you shouldn't have trouble outproducing Germany and swamping them with units. On the other hand, Germany is a pretty straightforward game through 1941 if you want to be eased into it. You start out invading Poland which is piss easy, then France is set up to fall apart against you. Of course the USSR and UK are much more difficult but even if you fail against them, you've probably learned a fair amount.

Alternatively, install Kaiserreich and play as Russia. You have a ton of weak neighbors that you can reincorporate into the motherland, and you're in a good position to crank out tons of infantry and kick in somebody's teeth.

Units all have organization and strength. Most of the time you're trying to reduce organization to zero so the enemy will retreat. If you defeat an enemy when they own no adjacent provinces, that unit is destroyed immediately. Strength represents the actual manpower of the unit. Zeroing out a unit's strength will remove it from the map. Morale affects how quickly organization recovers.

Set the industry screen to allocate IC automatically, doing it manually will drive you nuts. Make sure reinforcements get done. Building IC early in the game will help you outproduce your enemies later on. When to stop building IC and when to start building units depends on when you expect to fight the war. Just make sure you have time to build units before the general time period you'll enter the war (1937 for China and Japan, 9/1/1939 for Germany/UK/France, summer of 1941 for USSR, winter of 1941 for USA, etc.). Upgrading is typically not worth it because building a new unit doesn't cost much more and then you'll have both the new and old unit to play with. Dissent affects your unit's combat ability and your industry, so keep it down by investing in Consumer Goods. As for the government sliders, going to Hawk Lobby is probably the best way to go.

Fleets of Heavy Cruisers with torpedoes attached are basically invulnerable to anything except naval bombers and they're simple and not as expensive/research intensive as Battleships or Carriers (carriers are especially hard to develop for anybody who isn't Japan or the United States) to build. Build them if you find yourself in need of boats. Submarines are also pretty good and are also good at attacking enemy supply routes.

As for air force, you have choices on what you want to focus on. Fighters have longer range and are stronger, but more expensive. I usually build fighters if I anticipate having to fight an air war over longer distances (Pacific War for example). Interceptors are cheaper and do extra damage against bombers so they're good for defense.

Tactical bombers are good at attacking an enemy's organization (a tactical bomber tactic would be to have the bombers bomb a retreating unit so that it can't recover its organization and can be defeated again, e.g.) and bombing enemy infrastructure (which slows them down and affects how quickly they recover organization, though if you capture the province, you have to deal with that too). Close air support have short range and are good at attacking an enemy's strength. In HoI2, you could build a "CAS Death Star" which was a lot of CAS planes that could reduce an enemy's strength to zero rapidly. It's not as effective as it used to be, but it still works alright against retreating units. Naval bombers are good if your enemy's fleets are going to be close to your airfields. Strategic bombers attack IC and are generally not worth it, though they are the first method you'll have to drop nukes.

Bookmark the Paradox Thread and ask questions as you have them, because there's a lot more than this, but this should be enough to get you started.

Thank you very much! This is very helpful!

Lunchmeat Larry
Nov 3, 2012

What should I know about Xenonauts? I've beaten the original X-Com a few times, so mostly just wondering what differences I need to be aware of.

GOTTA STAY FAI
Mar 24, 2005

~no glitter in the gutter~
~no twilight galaxy~
College Slice

Terminally Bored posted:

Immortal Defense? Nothing on the wiki and I feel I'm not playing this game right.

It was mentioned before, but it bears repeating: don't be afraid to turn the challenge level down. There's no penalty for it.

Once you get comfortable with the game and figure out what you're doing, you'll find that the extra cache you get for having the challenge level even at 10% is pretty sweet. So, bump it up bit by bit. If you start losing health or failing missions wholesale, bump it back down. There's no penalty for losing missions--you get infinite retries.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


I rented God of war 3 Remastered. I've played the first two, but not this one; anything to know, specifically in regard to spending upgrade points? I'm a pretty blunt object with this kind of game so my plan is to just dump all my points into the blades of exile and ignore everything else, but if there's any spells or weapons or anything I'm gonna need to upgrade to get through later stages without a headache, I'd love to know about it.

Kaboom Dragoon
May 7, 2010

The greatest of feasts

Ainsley McTree posted:

I rented God of war 3 Remastered. I've played the first two, but not this one; anything to know, specifically in regard to spending upgrade points? I'm a pretty blunt object with this kind of game so my plan is to just dump all my points into the blades of exile and ignore everything else, but if there's any spells or weapons or anything I'm gonna need to upgrade to get through later stages without a headache, I'd love to know about it.

Assuming they didn't change/rebalance anything from the original, you'll probably want to stick with the blades and the cestus when you get them. Those two alone will carry you the entire game. The Bow of Apollo's another good weapon to upgrade, but really, as long as you explore off the beaten path for hidden chests, you don't need to worry too much about having to prioritise upgrades, my first time through on the PS3 version, I was just a few hundred shy of being able to upgrade everything fully.

Real hurthling!
Sep 11, 2001




you will get enough points to fully upgrade everything except like one main weapon by the end of the game. just prioritize the cestus and one other of your choice until you max them.

TheOneAndOnlyT
Dec 18, 2005

Well well, mister fancy-pants, I hope you're wearing your matching sweater today, or you'll be cut down like the ugly tree you are.

Lunchmeat Larry posted:

What should I know about Xenonauts? I've beaten the original X-Com a few times, so mostly just wondering what differences I need to be aware of.
Geoscape stuff:
  • You can give soldiers "classes", but this doesn't change their abilities--it's just to make it easier to remember who does what. You can edit the default equipment for each class to make it easy to switch a soldier's role.
  • You have infinite basic guns/ammo in your storehouse, and once you get fancier guns, you get infinite ammo for them too.
  • Prices for items are set so that you can't profit off making guns and selling them.
  • Your funding is determined entirely by how many UFOs you shoot down and how quickly you do it when they appear. Ground combat gets you immediate cash but doesn't affect funding at all. Getting radar coverage over most of the globe early on is therefore really important.
  • You simply won't have the resources to do every crash site, so don't feel too bad about airstriking.
  • The air combat minigame is kind of wonky, but if you get good at it you can shoot down UFOs that autoresolve will give you piddly chances to beat.
  • Humans can't become psionic in this game, deal with it.
Ground combat stuff:
  • One of the big differences in ground combat is the concept of suppression. You can suppress targets by using flashbangs or with a barrage of bullets near/at them (machine guns are really good for this method). When they're suppressed, an icon will appear over their head and they will automatically crouch. A suppressed target loses half of their TUs next turn and cannot take reaction shots. Unsurprisingly, suppression is essential when clearing UFOs if you don't want your dudes to get gunned down when going inside.
  • Any terrain feature has a chance to block shots, but soldiers will ignore terrain that they're right next to (so you can shoot over a low wall or whatever). You can also shoot over crouched soldiers this way, but not standing soldiers.
  • Grenades are way easier to hit with than guns, so they're really powerful, especially once you start getting ones that don't damage alien equipment. For some reason explosive grenades won't explode until the end of the turn, but all others will as soon as you throw them.
  • Shields are also extremely useful and you should have a couple on every mission to breach UFOs. They're basically free HP.
  • All stats have their uses, but Bravery is definitely the one you want to prioritize when recruiting dudes. High Bravery is the only way to block panic and enemy psionic effects, and the only way to raise it is to either earn a medal (of which there are only so many) or have those things happen to the soldier, which is really bad.

ninjahedgehog
Feb 17, 2011

It's time to kick the tires and light the fires, Big Bird.


Ainsley McTree posted:

I rented God of war 3 Remastered. I've played the first two, but not this one; anything to know, specifically in regard to spending upgrade points? I'm a pretty blunt object with this kind of game so my plan is to just dump all my points into the blades of exile and ignore everything else, but if there's any spells or weapons or anything I'm gonna need to upgrade to get through later stages without a headache, I'd love to know about it.

Spells are linked to weapons now, which means that you won't have to decide between those anymore. All of the weapons are fun to play with, but I dumped most of my points into the blades of exile because the reverse-GET OVER HERE move is just so much fun.

moot the hopple
Apr 26, 2008

dyslexic Bowie clone

Lunchmeat Larry posted:

What should I know about Xenonauts? I've beaten the original X-Com a few times, so mostly just wondering what differences I need to be aware of.

- The optimal number of bases you need to build is three. When placing a base, the three circles indicate your potential radar coverage based on the number of radar arrays you build, with the third outer circle representing your maximum possible range. Plan ahead so that you maximize land mass coverage while not redundantly overlapping with other bases. I built my first base in the Middle East, one in Central America, and one in South East Asia and was able to cover most of the world.

- In the beginning, spend most of your money on aircraft. If one of your aircraft gets shot down, you won't have to buy a new one to replace them but they will be out of commission while they are being recovered and repaired. UFOs will be coming at you hard and fast so it's vital that you have enough planes to deal with them. Foxtrots will be viable against heavy craft for a surprisingly long time due to their dual torpedo load out while the starting Condor and its upgrade Corsair is necessary for smaller, agile fighter type UFOs. Of course, still phase out outdated aircraft when you can but more importantly build up a large air fleet as soon as possible.

- If you are good at microing, the air combat minigame can be cheesed so that even encounters with a low autoresolve chance can still be won if manually controlled. Use pause liberally. Manually change the bearing of your planes so that they aren't flying into enemies head-on. Use the hotkey to repeatedly dodge and circle strafe UFOs. Lower your thruster speed when behind them. When firing torpedoes, stagger your shots (i.e. fire one round after the other) so that the enemy is unable to dodge both. There's a good video online that will explain air combat better.

- You don't need a squad at every base you build and one squad will be enough to handle your crash sites for the first few months. Some bases can simply be hanger/radar coverage bases from which you launch air sorties. There is a chance that the aliens will try to invade your bases but it won't be a real concern if you are vigorous with your air superiority.

- Build hangars and radar arrays at new bases first, otherwise they'll be a pointless money sink. You can think of building other additional structures after that.

- Multiple laboratories will increase research speed which is very beneficial. Research can help you get a leg up on aliens because they'll unlock items such as aircraft weaponry and personal explosives that are immediately available and replace existing stock without having to be manufactured, plus it provides passive bonus against enemies through autopsies.

- The first armor you unlock isn't that effective for its cost of research and manufacturing price. I tend to skip it in favor of better weaponry and wait for better armor.

- When looking at troop stats, place an emphasis on bravery because it is the one stat that's hard to raise yet becomes crucial against later psionic enemies. While earning combat medals can raise bravery somewhat, it's better to start with a high base bravery stat when recruiting.

- Soldiers with high accuracy are naturally good with sniper rifles, high strength should be given machine guns, high turn units benefit with a shotgun or shield and shock baton, and reflex do well with the standard rifle or shotgun.

- Scout areas and door bust UFOs with your shield and baton users. Have your high reflex rifleman save some TU at the end of their turn so that they can provide a sort of overwatch against any aliens that might pop up. Snipers should be at the back with a clear line of sight. Use machine gunners to break up cover and suppress enemies. Run up and flank with shotgun users for point blank instakills.

- Crouching increases your own hit chance while reducing the chance of the enemy hitting you, so use it often. Targeting an enemy and right clicking spends TU for better accuracy. It's better spend as much TU as possible for the best chance to hit rather than taking multiple potshots.

- Try not to fight at night, it's much more dangerous and frankly more tedious hunting enemies at this time. You can delay missions by having your transport ship circle the crash sight until day time.

- Make use of all the assorted grenades. Toss a stun grenade into an enclosed space such as a crashed UFO, then back off and wait for aliens to pass out. Drop a smoke on your exposed squad members for extra cover and safety. Flasbangs are good openers to suppress enemies so that your shotgunners and riot shield guys can get in close. While explosive grenades destroy enemy loot and only trigger at the start of the enemy turn, they are great for that really dangerous enemy that's coming around the corner.

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


ninjahedgehog posted:

Spells are linked to weapons now, which means that you won't have to decide between those anymore. All of the weapons are fun to play with, but I dumped most of my points into the blades of exile because the reverse-GET OVER HERE move is just so much fun.

I'M COMING OVER THERE!

Thanks all; I figured there wasn't too much to know with a game like this, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Kruller
Feb 20, 2004

It's time to restore dignity to the Farnsworth name!

Ainsley McTree posted:

I rented God of war 3 Remastered. I've played the first two, but not this one; anything to know, specifically in regard to spending upgrade points? I'm a pretty blunt object with this kind of game so my plan is to just dump all my points into the blades of exile and ignore everything else, but if there's any spells or weapons or anything I'm gonna need to upgrade to get through later stages without a headache, I'd love to know about it.

When you get to the end of the game, you can stop whenever you want. This will make sense, I promise.

Lacedaemonius
Jan 18, 2015

Rub a dub dub

Cactus posted:

Thanks for this its helpful. I didn't have that pause after ability option on so I'll utilise that on my next go around. Gonna stick with rogue though if that's the only way I'll see one.

Why'd you guys remove "Don't Cry For Me" from the game's soundtrack? It was beautiful.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

drat Dirty Ape posted:

Oh ok, so it's a one time only for one character thing? I thought it might show up in the mailbox of any character I create.

Its one time for each character, but yeah it shows up in the mailbox of all your characters, or it should I think? Actually I think this is wrong, you just get one, but you can put it in your vault and pass it to any other character you might want.

I would go ahead and use it now. You can always do story missions that are lower level than you, and due to Desitny's weird half-RPG mechanics that won't really change things much? And you'll still get good XP. And its not like vanilla destiny is really all that good, there's not really much "tutorial" going on (just shoot dudes, thats literally all there is to it) and the early missions were all boring and stupid. And again, you can always replay the early missions. (Ironically there are some kinda tutorial missions but they don't happen until TTK when Bungie started getting their heads out of their asses, all the more reason to skip ahead)

Being level 25 means you could start with the new TTK missions right away. Or you could just gently caress off and do the vanilla missions, and still get xp for htem, and then when you're done you could do TTK missions and be like level 35 already, which is what level everybody was when they started TTK if they were already playing destiny before that.

Ultimately levels mean VERY little, just get your rear end to 40 ASAP and then you can do the real fun stuff. Low-level stuff in Destiny is generally stupid.

Lots of people say that you shouldn't use it on your first character but I honestly disagree.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Oct 6, 2015

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Kruller posted:

When you get to the end of the game, you can stop whenever you want. This will make sense, I promise.

Haha. It makes sense now.

ToxicFrog
Apr 26, 2008


Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi. Going into this almost completely blind, all I know is that it's an FPS with vampires and random level generation.

TheHoosier
Dec 30, 2004

The fuck, Graham?!

Starflight for Sega Genesis. Space sandboxes are typically my thing but i've heard way too many good things and the cart is just sitting on my shelf.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Arcturas
Mar 30, 2011

Can I get some tips on combat in The Witcher 3? I feel like every time I go into a group of bandits/drowners/whatever, I flail with a few light attacks, get parried and stabbed in the back a bunch, and then have to run in circles for like five minutes. I've tried throwing bombs but I'm terrible at aiming them.

Basically, how do you parry/counterattack? When I try to wait for the enemy name to flash red and then hit my left trigger, either I miss and get hit anyways, or another enemy comes up and stabs me in the side.

Also, should I make decoctions or mutagens and which ones are good? For level-up points I'm a touch overwhelmed too, but have been sticking stuff in random places. Is there a respec later on in case I screw up my points and want to retry?

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply