|
Verviticus posted:often a mark of really bad writing is when people change otherwise mundane or recognizable objects like a larch tree into elfwood for no reason other than to make you learn another proper noun. there are exceptions - sunless sea was mostly well written but changing every instance of the word sea into zea only served to make it look worse than it was That's really interesting. I started playing Fallen London in the lead-up to Sunless Sea's release, and throughout the game, there are occasional references to the Unterzee. It felt normal to see it more once I started into Sunless Sea.
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2021 22:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 12:07 |
|
|
There's a difference when the setting is specifically not our world and does not contain things from our world, and the objects in question are labels that most people don't actually have strong associations with (do people have a clue what the properties of larchwood are vs. oak? I'm betting they couldn't even tell you the difference between the trees, forget the wood), and the labels are actually fairly specific (no one is going to complain that you're calling something a tree even if it is technically just some alien organism closely resembling a tree, but when you start calling an alien tree on an alien world a "Canadian hemlock" you're gonna start running into trouble). After a certain point an insistence on using real world names gets REALLY weird. (which, admittedly, can work if its played for humour, but it usually isn't) GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jul 19, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2021 23:33
|
|
|
Eh maybe it's not going to be an alien world in Vintage Story, it's the world after the end of all things and people are blue w/e. I honestly didn't find the temporal storm to be so bad.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 00:03
|
|
|
quote:At first Frodo was a good deal disturbed, and wondered often what Gandalf could have heard; but his uneasiness wore off, and in the fine weather he forgot his troubles for a while. The Shire had seldom seen so fair a summer, or so rich an autumn: the trees were laden with apples, honey was dripping in the combs, and the corn was tall and full. gently caress someone better tell Tolkien that he better not say "apple" or "corn" in a fantasy novel, everyone'll start thinking he's writing about England. And what's this "summer" business? All Vintage Story is is Minecraft by and for people who really care about what kind of rocks and trees they're digging up, and they're clearly not invested in creating some kind of totally constructed alien universe from the ground up with zero recognizable elements. Very few people working in genre fiction are, that's not really a thing, and totally avoiding descriptors or calling your oak trees elfwood just to fantasy it up are terrible hack writing HelloSailorSign posted:I honestly didn't find the temporal storm to be so bad. of all the things something called a "temporal storm" could be, a periodic event that just spawns shitloads of minorly annoying zombies forcing you to drop whatever you're doing and go inside for a bit (or waste a day clicking on zombies) is by far the least cool. it's not even time-themed A Wizard of Goatse fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Jul 20, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 00:05
|
|
|
LASER BEAM DREAM posted:That's really interesting. I started playing Fallen London in the lead-up to Sunless Sea's release, and throughout the game, there are occasional references to the Unterzee. It felt normal to see it more once I started into Sunless Sea. yeah that kinda sucked but is tolerable when they start saying zailor, zailing and zee as well it just became frustrating
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 00:14
|
|
|
GlyphGryph posted:Finally got around to grabbing Zomboid. this is a newer feature they put in to redistribute zombies after you've been out of a cell for a while, I agree it's really stupid and you should disable it (if that's possible to do, which I'm not sure of). once you clear out a place and lock it up, it really shouldn't just magically have more zombies in it later on. I know you can completely turn off zombie respawning but I don't know if that's the same setting that controls this redistribution thing, or if it's actually something you can control. Zomboid does have the really basic problem of not having any emergencies or surprises once you get established somewhere, and once you get established you have no goals other than just repeat it all until you die or can't stand it any more. the only incident that spices it up is the helicopter, which is pretty good but it's the only major thing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 01:12
|
|
|
I only mention the possibility of fictional trees because in games like Vintage Story, those trees are mostly used for decorative purposes, so you could have all kinds of weird and cool wood tones and colors that aren't terribly real-world-realistic but would still be fun to have access to when building shelves and frames and stuff. I think extrapolating a comment about bald cypress lumber to mean "well I guess you can't say 'summer' then!" is pretty needlessly antagonistic and disingenuous. As for Zomboid, every video I've ever watched of it includes the person doing something really bizarre and unintuitive because "it's the best way" to get a result, either to powerlevel a skill or find some rare resource that's way more valuable than it appears, plus a bunch of stuff you'd have to know ahead of time. A survival game should feel intuitive, or at least communicate clearly what it expects from its players. URW does the latter very well, I think. C:DDA doesn't do either very well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 02:25
|
|
|
You can definitely remove redistribution as well as respawn as separate things. I also stick the helicopter event to, "Sometimes" so it's not just a few days after start. Supposedly, the Super Survivors mod has raiders as a possible event.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 05:12
|
|
|
Qud has a really good mod called Hearthpyre that lets you build a settlement!
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 05:26
|
|
|
Oh. Another thing about Astroneer that is good. Very small pieces of debris can be collected on your backpack in stacks of up to 5, it makes a small wire bin on your back with 4 or 5 gears in it, good for gathering up tiny scrap to bring to the shredder and grinding it all up at once. They also have a "Large Solar" and "Large Wind Turbine" which I don't remember being in the game before. Takes up about the same space as a 4-slot machine, easier to build than the mega-sized power structures. The game is tangibly better in so many ways now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 06:39
|
|
|
All I want for quality of life in Astroneer is an auto-tether that puts one down as soon as you reach the limit. I'm tired of walking/riding and placing tethers only to have to back up because i went slightly too far for them to connect.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 06:58
|
|
|
I've always been terrified of bears in Unreal World, having lost multiple characters to them. On my current character, I've been trying to trap them while staying far away from them at the same time, building heavy deadfall bear traps around bear trails I've found. It worked before with previous characters, but I'm Owl Tribe with terrible trapping skill, and my traps are so bad they will scare away animals. One bear walked right past one of my traps without setting it off, like she knew. Anyway, I found a small bear wandering around in open hill country and thought I might take my chances in fighting it after another failed trapping attempt. It was only a small bear and I had a dog, a spear and a fine longbow with broadhead arrows, so why not. I spent a few days tracking the bear. The bear wandered into a dense spruce forest, making it more difficult, but eventually I caught up to her. I tried sneaking up on her and almost had a shot lined up, but the bear ran away and my dog took off after her deep into the woods. I heard barking in the distance, but I lost them for a while and I was certain my dog was dead. I've lost dogs to things far less deadly than bears. After a period of quiet, my dog came running up to me out of nowhere like nothing had happened. I tried to re-acquire the bear trail, and eventually found a bunch of "bear limping tracks" heading through the woods. It took a long time and I lost the trail a few times, but eventually I found the bear again and she looked like this:  My dog didn't even have a scratch on her. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 09:54
|
|
|
Ivan Shitskin posted:I've always been terrified of bears in Unreal World, having lost multiple characters to them. On my current character, I've been trying to trap them while staying far away from them at the same time, building heavy deadfall bear traps around bear trails I've found. It worked before with previous characters, but I'm Owl Tribe with terrible trapping skill, and my traps are so bad they will scare away animals. One bear walked right past one of my traps without setting it off, like she knew.   Dogs can be real war machines and singlehandedly kill prey/Njerpez, or they can die in 2 hits. I never quite figured out why or how.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2021 11:54
|
|
|
Has anyone played Green Hell? What did you think? The upcoming VR version is making me consider buying it when that comes out, it seems like it would make for a really good immersive VR experience and I don't think I've even played a VR survival game yet. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Jul 21, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 03:09
|
|
|
GlyphGryph posted:Has anyone played Green Hell? What did you think? I've not played it in a few major updates though, including multiplayer. E: Oh, hey. They fixed one of my biggest complaints, which was that trees don't regrow and there's no sledge for long distance transport of logs, so they only reasonable construction option was to build near bamboo, which did regrow, and only build from that. Now that every tree eventually regrows, bigger and more permanent settlements are possible anywhere. That's nice. Might jump back into it. Vib Rib fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Jul 21, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 04:55
|
|
|
TorakFade posted:Ahhh, an excellent place to put down my very first shelter: Oh hey, I named my pig Porkoläinen!
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 05:07
|
|
|
GlyphGryph posted:Has anyone played Green Hell? What did you think? I mostly agree with Vib Rib, Green Hell is basically The Forest but with more eating, less fighting and a much much prettier environment. There's not much point building more than basic shelters in GH since the enemies aren't very prevalent, and half the mechanics only exists to kill first time players, but overall it's a fun time. I prefer The Forest overall, but if you like one you'll definitely enjoy the other.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 08:12
|
|
|
Bug Squash posted:[...] half the mechanics only exists to kill first time players, but overall it's a fun time. This is true and can be a big source of frustration when you're just starting out. There are lots of things that can put you in a death spiral, if not kill you immediately, if you don't watch where you're walking and listen to what's around you. It's slower paced than the Forest (you'd have a hard time crossing the map in one day, and would probably end up bitten by something if you tried to sprint it). If you can find a friend to play with you, I would recommend that as the way to go. You can respawn in coop, but if you die in single player you revert to your last save (or the last time you slept, can't remember). You do get very granular controls over the game's difficulty, though, so you can turn some things down or off if they're making it not fun. Overall, my buddy and I got about 30 hours out of it, so I'd recommend it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 11:08
|
|
|
Has anything interesting happened with Empyrion lately? I have played it extensively once before, but last time I tried an update you had to spend an hour scavenging rocks to get enough iron to build a fabricator and unlock actual mining.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 11:19
|
|
|
I think it's less grindy in the vanilla game now. 1.5 came out recently and the devs keep streamlining the bad parts and fleshing out quests and factions. Definitely worth a try if it's been a while. The fan mod on Steam named Project Eden adds a lot more story content to explore too.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 14:31
|
|
|
Alright Astroneer is good again. The quest/reward system is interesting because it sort of helped me figure out what I was supposed to be doing at any given time. I just made my first titanium after coming back from Desolo so I think my next step is to make an actual base since my current base on the starter planet is just a strung together series of platforms. They've made so many little changes to the game since I played last that improve the experience but just having a goddamn compass now has helped so much. I stayed up way too late and I'm only thinking about playing more while at work so that's definitely a good sign.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 14:32
|
|
|
The Lone Badger posted:Has anything interesting happened with Empyrion lately? I have played it extensively once before, but last time I tried an update you had to spend an hour scavenging rocks to get enough iron to build a fabricator and unlock actual mining. The basic starting experience of Empyrion is very well tuned now, its not grindy at all. I'm actually been doing a Empyrion playthrough at the moment (I just got back from my first trip to the moon!). You get a "survival tool" which is basically the old chainsaw and laser drill combined, but it doesn't require fuel. The survival tools is so powerful people now complain that there is no reason to make a mining vehicle  But other than that Empyrion has also added an infinite galaxy to the game. So the game is now the size of Elite Dangerous rather than taking place in a single solar system
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 15:28
|
|
|
I fully thought you guys were talking about Warframe for a minute and it created some weird associations.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 16:02
|
|
|
explosivo posted:Alright Astroneer is good again. The quest/reward system is interesting because it sort of helped me figure out what I was supposed to be doing at any given time. I just made my first titanium after coming back from Desolo so I think my next step is to make an actual base since my current base on the starter planet is just a strung together series of platforms. They've made so many little changes to the game since I played last that improve the experience but just having a goddamn compass now has helped so much. The compass shows you useful stuff and not just beacons you put down yourself! Also one of the easier ways to spot Exo boxes to blow up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2021 19:08
|
|
|
One of my biggest, most long-standing complaints in Astroneer was that beacons disappeared below the horizon so they weren't that helpful for finding your way home after a certain distance, which was a limitation that really made no sense for a spacefaring civilization. Does the compass solve that?
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 00:50
|
|
|
Speedball posted:The compass shows you useful stuff and not just beacons you put down yourself! Also one of the easier ways to spot Exo boxes to blow up. Yeah I have been using it to navigate around and jesus it makes things so much nicer. I just got my large rover up and running which features a furnace that automatically feeds ores and a grabber to take the smelted ore and put it on a large storage dome on the last car so I can essentially smelt on the go and god drat I love this stuff. I still think that it seems like the addition of this stuff has really made the last half of the game even faster than it was before; like once you can reliably get on another planet for high value research items it all starts to snowball until you have everything researched and kinda lose that thing driving you to keep going. The EXO chips have definitely introduced a variable that you can't just overcome by putting some dirt in the centrifuge or trading scrap but it seems like you get a decent amount per crate and even after using 4-5 of them I still have maybe 8 in storage left. The new automation stuff felt sort of unnecessary to this game when I first heard about it because I never had issues getting what I needed before but after playing it a bunch it's not really factorio levels of automation here, and what they have added really gels nicely with the existing modular design that game already has going on. Vib Rib posted:One of my biggest, most long-standing complaints in Astroneer was that beacons disappeared below the horizon so they weren't that helpful for finding your way home after a certain distance, which was a limitation that really made no sense for a spacefaring civilization. I'm happy to say it does! The compass shows your markers on the outer edge if if's not close to you. I also spent a non zero amount of game sessions before this update driving around looking for that one mountain that means I am close to the wreckage pile that is just around the corner from the mountain next to my base.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 15:05
|
|
|
What, if any, is in the field of single player survival simmy fps type stuff out there besides like 7dtd? Tarkov is kind of just a loot shooter and rust and all that are just sandbox pvp stuff (to me). I've grown a little weary of stalker mods and I don't really enjoy multiplayer versions of the sort of game most of the time, because I don't really HAVE the time to invest in poopsocking, or the multiplayer scene is just trash. I do love stalker but I'm guessing that's the only thing that's going to really fit that category? Maybe my desires are just counter to the whole concept, I dunno.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 21:23
|
|
|
Synnr posted:What, if any, is in the field of single player survival simmy fps type stuff out there besides like 7dtd? Tarkov is kind of just a loot shooter and rust and all that are just sandbox pvp stuff (to me). I've grown a little weary of stalker mods and I don't really enjoy multiplayer versions of the sort of game most of the time, because I don't really HAVE the time to invest in poopsocking, or the multiplayer scene is just trash. Stop digging around in the dirt and start surviving among the star in Empyrion
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 22:23
|
|
|
Synnr posted:What, if any, is in the field of single player survival simmy fps type stuff out there besides like 7dtd? Tarkov is kind of just a loot shooter and rust and all that are just sandbox pvp stuff (to me). I've grown a little weary of stalker mods and I don't really enjoy multiplayer versions of the sort of game most of the time, because I don't really HAVE the time to invest in poopsocking, or the multiplayer scene is just trash. I want more of these too, because I can't stand multiplayer for these games but love playing that style. A lot of these suggestions aren't exactly what you want because almost every one comes with a "This, but," clause - mostly because they're generally not good FPSes if they're a shooter at all. My wants in this area were just "first person and simmy" so the list sort of reflects more of that flavor - but take a look if any grab you: Hobo: Tough Life is surprisingly elaborate despite the name and style making it look like shovelware - but its much more of a weird RPG that happens to be first person as opposed to a true 'FPS.' If you're willing to fight through a false start or two and the game's presentation its fun - it managed to surprise me when I thought it might end up being trash. No Man's Sky scratched this itch a little for me, but it isn't exactly right and its not really survival beyond the very early steps. Stationeers does a little, but the survival aspects are much more about HVAC and programming/logic than your usual survival game loops. Landlord's Super isn't really survival in the traditional sense, but is a first person game with good fiddly/simmy mechanics - if you like building a house. Raft is fun, albeit the survival loop is relatively easy and it becomes much more buildy/explore-y and further upgrades just make the survival aspects less time consuming without really introducing new threats. A game to keep an eye on maybe is Open Sewer - you can get it now but they basically decided they hated the game and are remaking it from scratch, more or less. They have kept up on development and post updates on their discord about monthly but they're two years in with no announced date in sight. It's also slightly more management based than purely survival. Volcanoids is decent now - but it has a pretty distinct goal and end and the survival is much more resource focused (like, having enough coal/iron/copper) and very combat focused in a game with only decent/passable combat. Generation Zero is hard for me to recommend because it feels like the gameplay got very same-y very quickly and its 90% combat/stealth focused in terms of survival, but its a beautiful game with cool aesthetics. The gameplay is tight enough, it just felt like after a few hours I'd seen what it was going to show me and it was just going to be "the same, but harder/bigger." My Summer Car also kind of satisfied me with this for awhile, but the dev leaned hard into unfun dick-punching mechanics/decisions and you sort of have to want to build a car from parts if you want to enjoy the game. E: in retrospect pretty much the only game I mentioned that I would say is close is Generation Zero - the others just aren’t shooters and when I looked at the list with “stalker” in mind again it felt completely off base… but hey, maybe you’ll find something you like. Anime Store Adventure fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jul 22, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 23:09
|
|
|
Every 2-3 years I check if Zomboid has added any of the stuff that would make their game interesting, but for the past ten years it seems they've been trimming the same garden and adding uninterestingy grindy bits (like literally watching TV for a week to get skillpoints) instead of you know, more of the map, NPCs or poo poo actually happening as was originally planned. It's very weird, instead of a game that's just abandoned after some sales they've been literally working on it for a decade post-release, but not on the features people were excited about.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 23:17
|
|
|
Synnr posted:What, if any, is in the field of single player survival simmy fps type stuff out there besides like 7dtd? Tarkov is kind of just a loot shooter and rust and all that are just sandbox pvp stuff (to me). I've grown a little weary of stalker mods and I don't really enjoy multiplayer versions of the sort of game most of the time, because I don't really HAVE the time to invest in poopsocking, or the multiplayer scene is just trash. have you played The Long Dark already? For all its many faults, the free-roam mode is still probably the best in that class
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 23:20
|
|
|
Dante posted:instead of you know, more of the map, NPCs or poo poo actually happening as was originally planned. Supposedly they've been making loads of progress on a large city that'll be part of the map, and they've got someone on the team working specifically on making better roads so..... But it's also Indie Stone so I might come back to this same topic in 5 years or so.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2021 23:24
|
|
|
Anime Store Adventure posted:E: in retrospect pretty much the only game I mentioned that I would say is close is Generation Zero - the others just aren’t shooters and when I looked at the list with “stalker” in mind again it felt completely off base… but hey, maybe you’ll find something you like.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 01:45
|
|
|
Vib Rib posted:It's not something that could be patched in, and would've required changes from the start, but if Generation Zero had the focus 7dtd or even Tarkov had on scrounging and scavenging, and put more emphasis on survival rather than just combat, the exploration and looting would've felt a lot more satisfying. The combat was very fun and the guns handled satisfyingly, but so much of the game was spent looting completely identical houses for 2 medpacks, 20 bullets, and 3 radios I'd never use. That's really my exact complaint, yeah. I absolutely adore the vibe and what it does it does very well, its just that it needs to do more because it doesn't feel like it has much new after you get through that loop of "loot houses for 20 bullets so you can shoot the robot in front of the next house with 20 bullets." The patches and things seem to tease like maybe some of the endgame stuff is sort of 'mmo dungeon/boss fight-ish?' It might be cool but when it felt like me and my buddies got out of the very 'early' game it seemed to drag really hard.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 01:59
|
|
|
Synnr posted:What, if any, is in the field of single player survival simmy fps type stuff out there besides like 7dtd? Tarkov is kind of just a loot shooter and rust and all that are just sandbox pvp stuff (to me). I've grown a little weary of stalker mods and I don't really enjoy multiplayer versions of the sort of game most of the time, because I don't really HAVE the time to invest in poopsocking, or the multiplayer scene is just trash. Chernobylite is out of early access soon but I don't know if it's going to get any more content added
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 02:11
|
|
|
Anime Store Adventure posted:That's really my exact complaint, yeah. I absolutely adore the vibe and what it does it does very well, its just that it needs to do more because it doesn't feel like it has much new after you get through that loop of "loot houses for 20 bullets so you can shoot the robot in front of the next house with 20 bullets." The patches and things seem to tease like maybe some of the endgame stuff is sort of 'mmo dungeon/boss fight-ish?' It might be cool but when it felt like me and my buddies got out of the very 'early' game it seemed to drag really hard. Ultimately my opinion is that the core design, not the execution, was flawed. It should have aimed a little bigger. Also there was promo stuff that suggested you'd be doing a lot of hit and run, or multiple combats against the same enemies who'd be just as damaged as you left them, and there was nothing like that in there. Enemies spawned out of thin air and were not kept track of, and there's really no reason not to finish off even a rival tank in a single encounter because they never run and it's unlikely you'll ever get the chance to either.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 06:55
|
|
|
The first 10 minutes of Generation Zero are pretty exciting because you're imagining where could it go afterwards and then you find out that's actually it, on a loop. What a shame.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 11:04
|
|
|
I don't think it's quite as bad as some people say, but the part that stings the most is there's a lot of really cool stuff there, like the gunplay and how detailed and precise the hit locations are, and how much they factor into each fight. It's just a shame that the rest of the game doesn't live up to the potential. Seeing something so close to possible greatness is worse than if it were just a bad game through and through.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 14:33
|
|
|
I just looked at the wiki for zomboid thinking that maybe it had some stuff to it, now that its been in development for a decade. Checking wiki's is generally a good indicator of how complex stuff is. Holy poo poo, I know they had some setbacks but have they really done this little over 10 years? Really?
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 18:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 12:07 |
|
|
the story of zomboid's development has been an endless series of very funny twists and turns and i hope they keep doing extremely dumb poo poo for ten more years
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2021 18:39
|
|
