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Is there still people who play AI wars? It's been sitting in my library for years and I'm finally starting to feel like it might be a fun thing to play, but as I recall you need a group of people to play it and there's no way I'm gonna be able to convince any of my friends to learn it
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Jan 29, 2019 21:44
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ninjewtsu posted:Is there still people who play AI wars? It's been sitting in my library for years and I'm finally starting to feel like it might be a fun thing to play, but as I recall you need a group of people to play it and there's no way I'm gonna be able to convince any of my friends to learn it Only thing I could find with the name "AI wars" is AI War: Fleet Command which is a single player game.
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Jan 29, 2019 21:52
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skaianDestiny posted:Only thing I could find with the name "AI wars" is AI War: Fleet Command which is a single player game. Store page lists it as coop, and I pretty distinctly remember starting it up and having an info box tell me "this game is meant to be played with others" and, at the time, there being a somewhat active goon community playing it
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Jan 29, 2019 21:58
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AI wars is a very cool game, and it shines in co-op, but you can definitely play it solo and have a great time. My played time on steam is 126 hours, and I played a non-steam version before that for like ~100 hours. About 20 hours of that is co-op with goons, the rest is solo. There were like ~10 goons who played the game iirc, but I haven't played with any goons in years. LordSloth was the main organizer for most games. I might do a write-up of the game soon for this thread, imo it's a must-play for strategy fanatics and the 'sequel' (AI War 2) is more like a remaster, and it's in early access right now.
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Jan 29, 2019 22:21
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ninjewtsu posted:Store page lists it as coop, and I pretty distinctly remember starting it up and having an info box tell me "this game is meant to be played with others" and, at the time, there being a somewhat active goon community playing it Co-op is very optional.
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Jan 29, 2019 23:35
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OK cool, thanks buds
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Jan 29, 2019 23:41
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AI War: Fleet Command So, AI War is not a classic RTS. First off, it's possible (and borderline necessary) to pause the game at any point and give orders, just like Baldur's Gate or something. Besides that, on the surface the game plays like a 2D space RTS, similar to Sins of a Solar empire. Constructor bots build your structures and static defense. You build ships from production structures; ships can move around a system, and you use wormholes to warp to different systems to attack enemies or shore up your defenses. Each system houses resources and all sorts of goodies. They're the terrain of this game.  Each map is randomly generated at the start, and the entire layout of the map can be made visible, or hidden in the fog of war. Scouting is a big part of the game, and mainly focuses on finding important systems to take over from the enemy. Until now it sounds like a pretty standard RTS, but AI war is a wholly different beast, which I'll try to explain. The goal & your enemy The goal of each game is to kill the enemy's home command station while keeping yours alive. Sounds simple, but there are a ton of wrinkles. First of all, the game is very asymmetrical. You play as the remnant of a human empire, down to the last system and only a few million people still left. The enemy is a galaxy spanning AI who is magnitudes more powerful than you are (Actually, there are two AI enemies who work in tandem!). The difference is so vast that the AI actually does not care about you at the start of the game. You can't just fly to the AI home world to kill the home station. First off all, there's an entire galaxy filled with defenses in the way. Secondly, in a standard game the home system is guarded with shields, and the generators are spread all over the galaxy. You will need to take down all generators before you can assault the enemies home system. The AI is pretty passive if you leave it alone. The activity of the AI is measured with a progress meter, which is basically the most important meter in the game. The meter starts at zero, and ticks up slowly over time, and ticks up a large amount if you take certain actions against the AI. Taking systems, hacking their systems, destroying generators, the list goes on. If the progress meter reaches certain treshholds, the AI will tech up and it will send larger and more dangerous fleets to assault you. This makes the game a giant balancing act right from the start. You will need to assault the AI and take their stuff to tech up and gather resources, or you'll never be able to crack the final defenses. On the other hand, if you expand fast and hard the AI will come for you with all it's might and you're dead before you know it. You'll have to pace yourself and go for strategic targets, and decide what parts of your empire to defend and what parts to let go in case you bite off more than you can chew. This balance keeps the game interesting all the way to the end, and even if you're very powerful you'll always need to be careful, because the AI is always stronger and has basically infinite amounts of troops to send your way. Playing the game AI war is a huge, huge game, both content wise and time wise. A single match can easily take 20+ hours to play, and I think I've only truly finished a single game in all my hours playing. The game also has a shitton of ships, structures, defenses, and non-player factions to play around with, especially with all the DLC installed. To start off with, you have two main types of ships you can produce: fleet ships and starships. Fleet ships are your bread and butter. You start off with fighters, bombers and missile frigates, and they have a rock/paper/scissors type of deal going on. You can use research to get more powerful versions of these ships later on, and there is a cap on how many ships you can make per tier (around 200). This means even the most basic ship will still be part of your fleet later on, because you'll want to max out your fleet whenever you can.  Starships are massive specialized vessels, and you can only make a few per tier. There are a ton of different types, like flagships that boost the attack rate of the other ships, carriers that spawn small attack craft, plasma bombers, riot ships (to slow down enemies), shielders, the list goes on. They are expensive and cost a lot of time to build, but are durable and important. There are a ton more ships to find, unlock and research in the game. Each ship and tier you unlock will increase the size of your fleet. It's not uncommon to control thousands of individual units in your fleet. The AI uses the same basic ship types, in huge quantities. Large battles will bring most PC's down to their knees while 10000+ individual units battle it out. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLRs9q_mdI&t=52s Besides ships, static defenses play a large role. Constructor bots build them, and you use them to defend wormholes from invading AI forces. There are also all kinds of special structures like forcefields, armor nullifiers, ion cannons, the list goes on and on. The economy is simple at face value: each system has some metal nodes you can exploit, and they'll give X metal per second. Everything uses energy, and each system supports a single power plant to power your stuff. Each system that you colonize can also provide 3,000 knowledge which is used for unlocking research (mainly new tiers of ships and defenses). As all resources are directly linked to systems, this means you'll have to take over systems to get a larger force, which will piss the AI off, which will lead to larger counterattacks, which will lead to you claiming more systems to become more powerful, ad infinitum. The gameplay loop is described in a few short points on the wiki: Explore and gather intel with scouts Capture territory for Metal, Energy and Knowledge Gain more power by capturing production facilities Reduce AI progress by destroying Data Centers and Co-Processors Destroy the core shield networks Invade and destroy the two AI Homeworlds So what now? Go play it! This game is amazing and one of the best strategy games of all time imo. If you want to read more there is an LP on the archive: https://lparchive.org/AI-War-Fleet-Command/ The wiki is good: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War:AI_War This is a nice tutorial series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kcAc0D5-R4 The sequel is in early access, it's more of a remaster really, but far from done. Go play the original and support Arcen, a very good games company (mainly run by a single dude!).
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Jan 30, 2019 00:27
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Samopsa posted:AI War: Fleet Command He's single now ladies.
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Jan 30, 2019 00:56
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AI War is an amazing game, but that developer has a particular problem that filters through all their creations: unintuitive number soup. Even heavier wargames have units with largely intuitive applications because they're based on either reality or common tropes. That's rarely, if ever, the case with Arcen games. They tend to invent a new reality for each game (part of what makes them unique), making commonplace ideas obsolete. You have to be willing to examine the hard numbers before you have a hope of understanding how different types of units and structures interact. They're really cool and unique games, but oh boy do they have a learning curve just to understand what is going on. My favorite Arcen game is still The Last Federation for how chill it is. Makes that learning process much more relaxing and fluid. Corbeau fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jan 30, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2019 01:01
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Last Federation is quite something, a strategy game where you play Space Bismarck trying to play puppet master to a solar system of bickering idiots to bring lasting peace by uniting everyone into a single Federation. It's very much a game of spinning plates, where one of the plates can and will launch entire moons at another plate's homeworld. Arcen really frustrate me. They have these incredible ideas and then fall flat on their face in terms of tutorials, user friendlyness, and marketing. I checked out their forum once after having trouble with the AI War tutorial, and found someone had made a post having the exact same issues I was having (just too many options at once and no guidance). The dev replied that there was no problem with the tutorial since some of their veteran players enjoyed playing it through over and over again. 
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Jan 30, 2019 01:17
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Yeah, I can see those problems. Never really got into their other games because of that. Ai war really rewards the time you put in it imo, but the learning curve is steep!
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Jan 30, 2019 19:13
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I've been eyeing Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden...anyone recommend it?
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Jan 30, 2019 19:57
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Also it appears Wargroove is getting good reviews...what good timing, I just got all the achievements for Into The Breach most of which were gotten on easy mode 
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Jan 30, 2019 21:35
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I would like to play co-op AI War. I just reinstalled it a few days ago and realized it's been a long rear end time since I've played it because I'm completely lost. Anyone else interested in trying to schedule a clueless newbie game?
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Jan 30, 2019 22:27
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WHY BONER NOW posted:Also it appears Wargroove is getting good reviews...what good timing, I just got all the achievements for Into The Breach most of which were gotten on easy mode My dick is so hard for wargroove but I'm so broke
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Jan 30, 2019 23:13
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WHY BONER NOW posted:I've been eyeing Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden...anyone recommend it? i played it a bit and it seemed competent but i also didn't care enough for it to actually play a second session of the game. if you like new xcom you won't hate it. the game also doesn't come with swedish language support, not even text-only, which i find to border on offensive
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Feb 6, 2019 10:31
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Afghanistan '11 and Vietnam '65 are among other titles on sale on Steam at the moment. Both focus on pretty realistic counter-insurgency (COIN) operations and logistics. I've played the latter and will buy Afghanistan to try it. They are good games, recommended by RockPaperShotgun among others. You can find them in the Slitherine midweek sale, and there are a lot of other strategy games there also, but I can not say much for those since I don't have them.
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Feb 20, 2019 13:47
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I’m a strategy game newb but I’m interested in picking up a Nobunaga’s Ambition game on PS4 so I can conquer Japan as the Uesugi. Which is better for newbies between Sphere of Influence or Taishi, and are there any good pointers for a newbie to the series and strategy games in general?
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Feb 23, 2019 00:33
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theres a few ppl very knowledgeable about the series in the musou thread, try there https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3494150
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Feb 23, 2019 02:42
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Welp Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is on sale on the playstation store, so I went ahead and picked it up. It's one if those games where I have a list of complaints but it's all coming from a desire to see a good game be even better. I'm totally head over heels for the core gameplay. It's a stealth xcom, basically. You skulk around a map, picking off lone enemies so when you have to fight a group of them it's more manageable. The sneaking mechanic is adequate, you basically need to stay out of an enemy's circle of perception until its time to kick their rear end. You play as a group of mutants like a pig man (named Boarmin) or a duck man (named Dux). Despite that, the game maintains a very good atmosphere of a post apocalyptic world where nature is reclaiming the planet. The soundtrack has a sort of 80s synth vibe, which goes a long way towards establishing the atmosphere. As mutants, you gain access to skills you purchase through skill points. The skills are adequate, but I would've liked to see more variety in them. Several mutants share a few of the same skills which was a bit if a let down; for example two characters have the same run n gun move which I find a little boring, but whatever. I think the game would've benefitted from more diverse skills. Managing the skills is a bit if a bother as well. Basically, your team of three often needs to take down a guy within one round of play or he'll yell for his buddies, and depending on the map, that can make things really ugly. Remember, you're trying to pick one enemy off at a time so you dont have to fight a whole mess of them at once. Often, however, your team doesn't have the firepower to kill a guy in one round, so you have to use a skill. That's certainly all fine and well, but then the skill goes on cooldown and you need a certain number of kills to get it back. For example, Boarmin has a skill where he charges an enemy and knocks him down for a round, giving you extra time to kill him. But that skill requires 3 kills to recharge. So now you've picked off one guy out if maybe 3 or 4, but your skill is down so you go into the menu and equip a different one. It gets tedious to manage this. Furthermore, depending on the skill, sometimes it misses, leaving you twisting in the wind. Managing weapons and armor is similarly tedious, as when you want to swap out team members, you often have to trade guns or armor around. You only have 3-4 silent weapons, so swapping team members means you're probably going to have to swap guns as well. The game is hard, which I welcome, but it's missing some QOL features that would really streamline the gameplay. You dont have a way to inspect enemies, so it can be hard to adequately plan your assault. Fortunately(?) there aren't a huge number of enemy types, so you can eventually learn. You dont, as far as I can tell, have a way of knowing if you're close enough to an enemy for your unsilenced weapon to alert them, so that can be trial and error. Despite all the whining I've been doing, I assure you I think the game itself is fascinating and a lot of fun. Sneaking around, picking off straggler enemies is classic stealth game stuff, and mixing it with xcom styke combat is super compelling. I love having the ability to split up my guys; going through the options like "hmm if I put Dux up this ladder with his crossbow, I could then have Boarmin sneak around this way and be in position to flank" makes for some great strategy. Teammates have the option of joining in the ambushes each round or staying hidden until the time is right. You're planning ambushes for 99% of the fights. Well that was way more than I intended to write about this game. TLDR is, the gameplay is great, I totally recommend if stealth xcom sounds interesting, but the game's missing some notable QOL. And yeah, the developers are swedish, not having the language option is pretty weird.
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Feb 23, 2019 14:35
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https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3873008&pagenumber=1&perpage=40 Here's a comprehensive LP of AI War that acts as a tutorial and guide for those who want to get into it.
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Feb 23, 2019 14:47
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WHY BONER NOW posted:And yeah, the developers are swedish, not having the language option is pretty weird. the developers, and the old RPG it's based on
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Feb 23, 2019 15:29
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VAL7Epn3o
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Feb 27, 2019 21:13
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Huh, weird. Turns out there's a free version of a game I only ever played the demo of as a kid. Colobot is an RTS whose shtick is that you've actually gotta program the robots to mine, defend, etc. so in other words it's for nerds. Guess it got some community.
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Mar 9, 2019 05:48
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I know some people like Blizzard games; Warcraft and Warcraft 2 are now available on GOG. https://www.gog.com/game/warcraft_bundle
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Mar 28, 2019 16:21
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And look at that a genuine RTS that isn't secretly a MOBA or something came out and it actually looks like serious effort was put into it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvSEbYBRk6A
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Mar 28, 2019 16:45
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Deakul posted:And look at that a genuine RTS that isn't secretly a MOBA or something came out and it actually looks like serious effort was put into it. Neat, it has a wave based survival mode. Dawn of War had a mod that did that and I ended up enjoying that a lot. I might check this out.
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Mar 29, 2019 17:56
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Warhammer 40k Gladius: Relics of War Anyone else play this? A turn based civ5-ish 4x game with no diplomacy, just war of course. Its by the same guys who did santus reach which got so so reviews but I've had a lot of fun with this one. Currently you can play guard, orks, space marines, necrons, and also tyranids with latest expansion. Next race will likely be eldar or tau. Not much of a community but the devs are still patching and working on new content.
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Mar 29, 2019 21:15
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EL Skirvo posted:Warhammer 40k Gladius: Relics of War Been interested in it, but I just decided to go back to Dark Crusade for my 40k fix. Such a drat good game.
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Mar 29, 2019 22:33
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Gladius is legit awesome. It's closer to a traditional RTS than a 4X even though it's turn based. You build up a base with different buildings churning out different units and you send them off into the meat grinder in the centre of the map. No diplomacy, a very basic economy. It's great.
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Mar 30, 2019 00:22
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Just out of curiosity, and I know this probably isn't the place to ask, but would anyone be interested in a Dawn of War let's play? I've been wanting to do something to occupy my mind and you guys seem like you'd be the most interested.
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Mar 30, 2019 08:08
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Meridian posted:Just out of curiosity, and I know this probably isn't the place to ask, but would anyone be interested in a Dawn of War let's play? I've been wanting to do something to occupy my mind and you guys seem like you'd be the most interested. Yeah, I'd be down for that. How are you planning to do it? Informative, narrative, etc...?
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Mar 30, 2019 11:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:Yeah, I'd be down for that. How are you planning to do it? Informative, narrative, etc...? I honestly hadn't really thought about it. All I know for sure is that any videos up on Youtube are either ancient, or the players aren't that fun to watch. I was thinking about trying to do a play through that I'd want to watch, which would mean setting up bases in each territory in case of counter attacks, with the emphasis being on the long game instead of just blitzing the objective. I'd want to be as informative as possible regarding whatever faction I am playing and whatever the objectives are, maybe even slip a bit of lore in there, but like I said, haven't thought about it. Now that I am it doesn't sound like something anyone would want to watch.
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Mar 31, 2019 11:58
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I picked up Stars in Shadow off this latest steam sale, the base game and DLC for ~$9.00. Well worth it. It’s a very good space 4x in the style of MOO 2 or even Sword of the Stars. The graphics are clean if cartoonish the interface is fairly intuitive, the tech tree and ship builder are excellent. There doesn’t seem to be a tutorial but if you’ve played either of the games I mentioned then it will take only a few minutes to get up to speed. It’s really scratching an itch I’ve had since SotS2 crapped out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/464880/Stars_in_Shadow/
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Mar 31, 2019 16:37
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIXK3fRx4Zo
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Apr 14, 2019 13:28
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There's a SWINE remaster coming out. Why? I don't know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwCp-_LxlYU
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Apr 17, 2019 23:03
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Mordja posted:There's a SWINE remaster coming out. The remaster everyone didn't know nor care about? On the other hand, CnC remake just posted this: 
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Apr 17, 2019 23:17
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Mordja posted:There's a SWINE remaster coming out. KKND next please
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Apr 18, 2019 01:12
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Has anyone played Driftland? It reminds me a little of Netstorm.
Mordja fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Apr 19, 2019 |
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Apr 19, 2019 19:00
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Pax nova is coming out in EA this week and it looks pretty interesting. It's gimmick is that it has a planet layer(s) and a galaxy space layer and both seem fully realized. Having several mini 4x games inside a larger one was my favorite thing about Eador and I'm glad somebody else is trying the concept.
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May 5, 2019 13:45
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