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Yeah, PG abstracting logistics is certainly one of its weaknesses. I'll have to give OoB a spin. boom snype
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Aug 10, 2022 18:59
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Order of Battle indeed owns
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Aug 11, 2022 12:48
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I watched some of the LP on that. Incomprehensible space legionaries game. Happy for it.
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Aug 11, 2022 13:30
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KirbyKhan posted:I watched some of the LP on that. Incomprehensible space legionaries game. Happy for it.  
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Aug 11, 2022 14:27
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https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-division-commanders-unit-medals.1538205/ well well well, look whos come crawling back.
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Aug 11, 2022 15:04
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lol the un-Johan-ing continues.
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Aug 11, 2022 16:54
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Johann being a big manchild who loves his boardgames is so funny.
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Aug 11, 2022 17:41
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Tankbuster posted:https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-division-commanders-unit-medals.1538205/ the best part of this change is not having to save-scum or edit the save file anymore to not have generals with duplicate portraits
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Aug 17, 2022 01:52
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Cold War Gone Hot strategy game alert: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1109680/Regiments/
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Aug 18, 2022 05:05
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microprose is still around???
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Aug 18, 2022 10:14
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Raskolnikov38 posted:microprose is still around??? I don't know who in this company is still the same folks from the 1990s, but they only came back very recently, like within the last three years, but apparently it's still the same company because they're distributing some of the older Microprose games definitely it's in the same spirit, given the games that they're tackling today
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Aug 18, 2022 10:18
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regiments looks pretty tight ngl
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Aug 18, 2022 12:15
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Regiments is really, really good. It looks a bit like Wargame, but it isn't Wargame. It's a distinct thing. The main thing about it is "operations". A really cool mutli-map, staged mission system that works really well. You fight under a time limit and try to push forward, positions of your and enemy troops stay inbetween, but based on capture points you get resources to repair, call in reinforcements, or build emplacements. Emplacements themselves are contextualized as things like dug-in BRDMs with Malyutkas, rather than a bunker appearing out of nowhere.
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Aug 18, 2022 15:20
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The reviews mention some issues with terrain and BUA, is it the abstracted area system of Eugen games or do they model discrete buildings?
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Aug 18, 2022 15:22
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Raskolnikov38 posted:microprose is still around??? An enthusiast who made his fortune doing computer toucher stuff went and bought the company and IP. He seems good for it given how much we’ve seen from them in the past year already
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Aug 18, 2022 15:29
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Regiments is really, really good. It looks a bit like Wargame, but it isn't Wargame. It's a distinct thing. I assume the reds are fully playable and supported? I've got a bone to pick with Wargaming Assumptions About Soviet Doctrine and Equipment Based on the Ukraine War
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Aug 18, 2022 15:30
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skooma512 posted:An enthusiast who made his fortune doing computer toucher stuff went and bought the company and IP. He seems good for it given how much we’ve seen from them in the past year already make birth of the federation 2 cowards!!! who cares if you dont have the trek license anymore
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Aug 18, 2022 15:31
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skooma512 posted:An enthusiast who made his fortune doing computer toucher stuff went and bought the company and IP. He seems good for it given how much we’ve seen from them in the past year already It rules
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Aug 18, 2022 15:42
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Frosted Flake posted:The reviews mention some issues with terrain and BUA, is it the abstracted area system of Eugen games or do they model discrete buildings? As far as I remember with steel division buildings that can be garrisoned are modeled (and can be destroyed) so kinda. I love those games but I feel my old man reflexes really impact my ability to play against other people in multiplayer. Steel Division 1 was a blast, the Canadians were legit decent since you got to bring a Ram 2 (of which only one was ever made irl lol)
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Aug 18, 2022 16:10
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Dreylad posted:I love those games but I feel my old man reflexes really impact my ability to play against other people in multiplayer. Regiments is single-player only 
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Aug 18, 2022 16:12
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how is Regiments compared to World in Conflict? similar setting but hard to tell if it plays anywhere near the same
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Aug 18, 2022 16:21
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I wish they’d have Combat Mission/Steel Beasts fidelity at a larger scale, or even just a slower pace but I understand why that’s not what everybody wants from a RTS. I’ll still give it a whirl, WARNO having some competition can only be for the best.
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Aug 18, 2022 16:37
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Frosted Flake posted:I wish they’d have Combat Mission/Steel Beasts fidelity at a larger scale, or even just a slower pace but I understand why that’s not what everybody wants from a RTS. Graviteam has a tank game that has the campaign map from the tactics game
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Aug 18, 2022 16:42
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gradenko_2000 posted:I assume the reds are fully playable and supported? This honestly makes me reluctant to pick up and cold war game nowadays cause the developers never picked up anything besides a Jane's vehicle guide and the soviets are just 'NATO, but worse!' the bitcoin of weed posted:how is Regiments compared to World in Conflict? similar setting but hard to tell if it plays anywhere near the same WiC was a borderline arcade game so I hope it's better than that. Frosted Flake posted:I wish they’d have Combat Mission/Steel Beasts fidelity at a larger scale, or even just a slower pace but I understand why that’s not what everybody wants from a RTS. Doesn't steel beasts have no infantry or am I thinking of something else
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Aug 18, 2022 18:32
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gradenko_2000 posted:I assume the reds are fully playable and supported? im guessing 'asiatic hordes' repeated ad nauseum to make a german who was political in the thirties and forties blush
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Aug 18, 2022 18:41
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I know we lost the war really hard but you see it wasn't MY incompetence at fault, just read my memoir where I killed ten thousand t34's with a kar98 and you'll understand *leans back in NATO armchair*
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Aug 18, 2022 18:50
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I get all of my knowledge of soviet military doctrine by watching “enemy at the gates”
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Aug 18, 2022 19:08
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Slavvy posted:This honestly makes me reluctant to pick up and cold war game nowadays cause the developers never picked up anything besides a Jane's vehicle guide and the soviets are just 'NATO, but worse!' That was one of the things that annoyed me about Wargame was how Pact weapons were like just always worse than NATO equipment. Over all better AA than NATO though. WiC was fun though. I did like the Soviet campaign that was there expansion
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Aug 18, 2022 20:21
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Still tickles me that Ceasar 3 remains greatest of all time little city builder. The mechanics are so simple but precise so it is like building a watch.
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Aug 18, 2022 22:23
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Re: Regiments Yes, Soviets are indeed playable. The alpha playtest they had a few months ago actually focused on the Soviets. It also is absolutely not a human wave type game. You will always be heavily outnumbered. Your troops "replenish" but that takes time, and you are extremely pressed for time. Each phase has a time limit, I think 20 min by default although you can check a difficulty box to make it 30 min. You need to be capturing objectives, always pressing forward, and defending against relentless counterattacks. At least on hard. Very hard is extremely hard, and mean you can barely afford tanks while facing Leo 2s. It is also very much abstracted. You don't enter buildings - your units just get a modifier for being inside of a city. I don't think terrain features block LOS. Your units will not get into traffic jams, and will clip through each other. During the beta my guys walked under a small lake, although I assume that was a bug. This is not a bad thing - it's a game of manoeuvre, and wants you to be able to rely on your units to do what you expect in about the time you expect. It's not realistic, but in a way it makes it feel much more immersive, because you don't focus on babysitting lovely AI and gaming the optimal LOS. In reality, the platoon commander would figure it out, so here it doesn't matter. You'll generally command about 6-7 platoons at a time, growing over the course of each operation. Operation being a mission chain, and I think there are 12 operations in the game. Each operation is divided into several phases, and inbetween phases you spend victory points ("command authority") on reinforcements and upgrades. It's a very neat system that's exactly what I was hoping someone would make one day. The other thing to note is the pacing is very deliberate. The maps are large, and combat takes a while. At max range, entrenched units might shoot at each other for minutes before inflicting meaningful casualties. Suppression and breaking morale is hugely important. Main firepower comes from off-map strikes of artillery and planes, which are on a cooldown timer, and you want to use them as often as possible. Overall, I think it is really good. It is not realistic, it doesn't try to be. But it feels believable. Story is very stupid, though.
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Aug 18, 2022 22:28
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I'm reminded of how awesome the stories in the first Wargame, game were. Especially when you play the ragtag composite army of survivors out to take revenge on the political ruling classes that lead to the war. One of my all time favorites
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Aug 18, 2022 22:54
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https://twitter.com/obsidianstatue1/status/1560484628867284992 Emperor, Stronghold, and Civ 3 basically formed the basis for my understanding of economics before discovering Marx. Probably was also the reason why I didn't perform well in economics classes because why the gently caress would you sell off production chains for important poo poo to focus on services or super specialize into growing wine when you're going to need wheat to eat.
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Aug 26, 2022 10:19
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Because you get the money and it is other people that need the wheat to eat and the idea of there being a nation with a common interest is a lie.
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Aug 26, 2022 10:23
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I bounced off Emperor hard because it always felt like you were messing up the Feng Shui meter when placing buildings and my sense of consistency couldn't take just disregarding it
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Aug 26, 2022 10:25
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both Pharaoh and Stronghold were amazing. I think Pharaoh probably stands up today as the best of those kinds of resource-chain citybuilders
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Aug 26, 2022 11:24
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I've had a thesis rolling around in my head for years about why Pharaoh, specifically, was the best of all the Impressions city-builders. Caesar III had the basic formula down, but it didn't have roadblocks, which were such a critical aspect of how the game worked with its randomly-wandering service providers that you can never go back without it. Further, the victory conditions were all basic prosperity metrics, which were fine, but could have been better. ___ Pharaoh not only introduced roadblocks, but also introduced monuments, which are such a great way to be able to express victory in a city-builder, far more than simply "house 10,000 people" or "have 10 resplendent residences". ___ By the time you get to Zeus, they solve one of Pharaoh's problems*, but introduce a second tier of housing just for military troops that's extremely finicky when it comes to Desirability, and they start getting just a little too clever with their scenario design, like the later Thebes missions where your city has zero basic goods it can produce, which means everything has to be traded for, and your only value add is buying raw materials from one city, processing it, and then selling the finished goods to another city. This theoretically works, but the trade controls are so narrow and it's so easy to kill your finances that it was more of a pain than a cool gimmick challenge. ___ And then, as I'd mentioned, Emperor doubles-down on the finicky-ness yet again, by introducing Feng Shui, and then also importing Cleopatra's penchant for timed missions. In essence, Pharaoh is the "goldilocks" of the series, stopping just before there were too many things bolted on to the basic idea. ___ * Pharaoh's one arguable weakpoint is hiring workers: buildings will send out white-garbed walker NPCs, and they need to pass by a house, any house, in order to tap into the population and hire staff. This means that you can't quite make 100% isolated industrial sectors, especially when it comes to worker camps near monuments; you still had to put down at least a single hut so the buildings could have access to labor. Zeus did get rid of this, allowing buildings to draw from the populace as long as it was linked via road, no matter how far apart, but then Zeus comes with everything else.
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Aug 26, 2022 12:19
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gradenko_2000 posted:I bounced off Emperor hard because it always felt like you were messing up the Feng Shui meter when placing buildings and my sense of consistency couldn't take just disregarding it Feng Shui seems complicated at first but it is really easy once you get it. It's just also very annoying and the main reason I put down the game again whenever I go back to it. It's a really lovely mechanic in what is otherwise the best game in the series. Persistent cities make Zeus a marked improvement over Pharaoh imo. All that said, I'm looking forward to the Pharaoh remake. Orange Devil has issued a correction as of 13:38 on Aug 26, 2022 |
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Aug 26, 2022 13:36
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Has anyone played the new generation on ancient city builders? They’re always in my Steam recs but prior to this hadn’t run into anyone interested in talking about them. The most recent one I can think of is Nebuchadnezzar, which was reviewed on Three Moves Ahead, and they seemed to really like it. Curious what you think. Egypt: Old Kingdom is on sale right now, and of course Pharaoh: A New Era is coming out soon. I’m also curious about Children of the Nile. There are also two indie games set in classical antiquity, maybe in early access (?) but the names escape me at the moment. Aside, the only MMO I’ve ever played is A Tale in the Desert and I hope we see more like it. There’s so much more Ubisoft could do with their game worlds, for example, and while the Discovery Tours are great, I think they should commit to using the resources of an AC game independent of them. Walking around the Ptolemaic Egypt of AC Origins was good, it would be better if it was developed with simulating a functioning society in mind. Other than that, I haven’t tried any of the Anno games so if someone could fill me in on those, I’m curious about them. The Tropico publisher put out Grand Ages Rome, and Imperium Romanum but again, I haven’t tried them and know nothing about them. Has anyone tried the more contemporary Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic? Rise of Industry?
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Aug 26, 2022 13:56
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Nebuchadnezzar is pretty much a "we wanted to remake Pharaoh but we don't have the rights so here's something else WINK WINK". Strong recommend if you want to check out the genre. Children of the Nile was a late entry to the city-builder genre after it had peaked - it was one of the first games to utilize increased computational power to model individuals on a one-to-one basis, where each individual citizen would live out their life. The primary flaw was that they could never get the reproduction and the economic model quite right, which is sort of a shame because the economy was built on food as the basic item of barter, and everything else flowed out from being able to make good harvests so that you had a properly circulating market. [this dovetails into what Danann said about how anyone deep into these games essentially interacts with a quasi-Marxist view of political economy, because you literally can't have it work any other way] I'm not familiar with the rest of those.
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Aug 26, 2022 14:22
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Frosted Flake posted:Has anyone tried the more contemporary Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic? I've put around 200 tracked hours into this, and probably twice as much into out-of-engine planning and discussing. When it actually clicks and you understand and engage with all the systems, it's extremely engaging; as the name implies the game part is essentially an autarkhy simulator, where the goal is to touch the "normal" city builder pay-cash-for-ploppable play as little as possible and instead build out with solely local labor and as many local materials as possible. (Right now there are some points early on where you can't do so, but the next patch is supposed to cover those last few "need a resource to extract more of that resource" blockers.) This does make it a bit slow and deliberate at points. The catch is that, in the fine tradition of high-quality eurojank, the systems are decently balanced and afford a lot of opportunity for improvement but you've got to figure them out and memorize them yourself. Much of the layout of your towns depends on chains of building going down in a particular order and with particular amounts of free space around them for later expansion; these orders can at least be mirrored but to discover that there's a "mirror building" key you have to pay close attention in the keybinds menu; storages are optional but near-vital and complicate layout further; some buildings push, some pull, and some do neither which is flagged nowhere in the UI; and a number of the services (education, crime, and loyalty in particular) are implemented in a way where they don't gate anything you can see in the UI but the penalties for ignoring them build exponentially and you can brick a start by putting them off a little too long. Some of the services just aren't touched on in the UI at all, orphans are apparently a thing that is tracked but I hadn't noticed the orphanage building tucked away in the ancillary parts of the schools category until my current run. All resource extractors are valid worksites, but some actually require labor and in others any human contribution is overshadowed by machines. The ratio math gets extremely don't-even-try; a logging camp working at full bore supplies, IIRC, 401 chemical plants, for example. And there are of course no general range overlays for anything, just an overlay on initial placement showing connections that will work; you've got to keep in mind, say, that some factories self-heat and will never show a red line to the heat exchanger, while others don't and if they aren't showing a red line on placement will tank their workers' health. The fairly deserved joke in the thread in Games is that they not only made a communism simulator, but for added veracity they made it unplayable without the tutelage of a vanguard party. And you definitely have to be able to, psychologically, deal with having slack in a way that the rest of the genre tries to optimize away. Workers prefer to, well, work, and even if you don't need and can't even store any more steel, you'd better be holding hardbass breakdance competitions in the break room every day so those 500 people don't sit at home resentfully unemployed and drinking. Conversely, you're going to need steel to build a lot of things, so even if you only have the people to put 50 to work building the full-sized steel mill is often better than trucking it in from the border. Commutes need to be short enough to deal with winter snow slowing traffic. Factories almost require added storages for their inputs so a single missed shift due to illness at the daycare doesn't result in a refinery worker staying home to watch the kids, resulting in a fuel shortage, resulting in a bus waiting at the gas station, resulting in the whole coal mine missing a shift, resulting in the district heating plant shutting down, resulting in the entire town freezing to death. So that 200 tracked hours is, to be fair, around 1 in 2019-2020, 5 in 2020-2021, and the remaining 194 in the past year after I put the extra discussing and planning in.  But once I stopped having to fight the game, it's quite rewarding, with the pace meaning there's always something to plan around or watch being done rather than the SCitis of eventually just slopping extra zones on and tweaking later.
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Aug 26, 2022 15:31
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