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Can anybody recommend a relatively simple/casual management or sim game? I want something that scratches the optimization itch, but lately every time I boot up something like Crusader Kings or Cities Skylines, I get exhausted with complexity.
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Oct 10, 2022 22:25
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Lester Shy posted:Can anybody recommend a relatively simple/casual management or sim game? I want something that scratches the optimization itch, but lately every time I boot up something like Crusader Kings or Cities Skylines, I get exhausted with complexity. Surviving Mars CAN be pretty complex if you let it, but is otherwise a lighter weight Mars colony sim.
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Oct 10, 2022 22:31
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Rimworld is the obvious top tier choice if you haven't played it (also even if you have played it, because there's a new cool-sounding DLC coming out this month). It's the best game for just wanting something chill and non-taxing to play IMO because it's designed around making interesting stories play out rather than its gameplay mechanics (which are very solid anyway). So no matter how much effort you feel like putting in, something fun and interesting will happen. Plus, insanely moddable. But for more standard citybuilder/management type stuff: Settlement Survival is popular in the Management Games thread, it's a spiritual sequel to Banished and pretty chill, it's not as punishing as Banished in my experience You can theorycraft your builds and maximize your usage of available space and stuff like that but you don't have to. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1509510/Settlement_Survival/ https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256854049/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1633070688 Timberborn is a popular choice too. It's rather easy and laid back but has a lot of cool vertical building and fluid dynamics stuff - nothing particularly complex or thought-heavy about them, they're just cool fun systems. It has a divisive micromanagey Districts system but there are small maps that don't need multiple Districts if you don't like the system. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1062090/Timberborn/ https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256851731/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1631726716 Kingdoms Reborn is incredibly good at being what it is, but depending on how tense/"competitive" of an experience you want it might not be what you're looking for. To paraphrase another goon "It's to city builders what Brood War was to Starcraft" - not that it requires insane micro or anything, but it's the most "gamified" city builder with the most tightly designed competitive (vs players or AI) game mechanics and it takes that concept and perfects it. It's still fairly laid back IMO but there's more to do in it than in many city builders - not complex micro stuff or steep learning curve stuff, it's just a game that keeps you constantly on your toes. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1307890/Kingdoms_Reborn/ https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256800870/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1625848038 Here's a much longer review/praise I wrote about it in the management games thread last year And finally Kingdoms & Castles is another one that the Management Games thread likes, personally it's always been a little too casual/simple for me but if that's what you're looking for it's well put together, with some minor tower defense/RTS stuff (vikings and dragons attacking) Heads up though it does this thing where every single time you click to place a building or whatever the entire screen shakes slightly, and there's no way to turn that off. Some people find it very distracting. https://store.steampowered.com/app/569480/Kingdoms_and_Castles/ https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256883785/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1653324316 Then there's Mindustry, also popular in the management games megathread. It's hard to describe but a very neat thing. Imagine smaller-scale Factorio with the entire focus being on defending your base. It ramps up from very simple to rivaling Factorio in complexity but it does it very gradually in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming, and it has a lot of neat "meta-progression" type systems where your research and resources from one map can be transferred to other maps. Much more actiony than any of these other games. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256762433/movie480.webm?t=1569011776 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127400/Mindustry/ deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Oct 10, 2022 |
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Oct 10, 2022 22:41
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Lester Shy posted:Can anybody recommend a relatively simple/casual management or sim game? I want something that scratches the optimization itch, but lately every time I boot up something like Crusader Kings or Cities Skylines, I get exhausted with complexity. LOGistICAL is a game where you figure out logistical transport routes. Quite chill, you can't really fail. Automachef is an automation game where you put together a machine that flips burgers and other fast food. Unlike most automation games it's level based. When your machine is good enough to get the customers for the day fed, you can move on to a new challenge and start with a clean slate.
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Oct 10, 2022 22:54
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Lester Shy posted:Can anybody recommend a relatively simple/casual management or sim game? I want something that scratches the optimization itch, but lately every time I boot up something like Crusader Kings or Cities Skylines, I get exhausted with complexity. I feel like Tropico may be the reigning king of that genre, although I never got around to playing the most recent one. It's got some challenges to it, but for the most part it's hard to lose when you have half an idea of what you're doing and you're not playing a challenge mode. You can have a chill time as an island dictator. Maybe if you don't want to deal with traffic and want more complex economic management you can try the Anno series, which has less personality. Those are games where you place all the buildings yourself instead of dealing with zoning.
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Oct 10, 2022 22:55
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I'm a weirdo who's still quietly waiting for something to follow on from SimCity Societies. (And for a sale on SCS for that matter...)
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Oct 11, 2022 04:11
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John Murdoch posted:I'm a weirdo who's still quietly waiting for something to follow on from SimCity Societies. (And for a sale on SCS for that matter...) SCS was bit of a guilty pleasure for me too. It wasn't SC5 (and lol at what that was) but it was enjoyable.
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Oct 11, 2022 05:33
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StoryTime posted:LOGistICAL is a game where you figure out logistical transport routes. Quite chill, you can't really fail. I've got a few hundred hours in Logistical Earth. And yeah you can't really fail, but it sure is easy to miss things. I'm way past the point where I should have airplanes, but I just can't find any pilots ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Oct 11, 2022 05:50
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deep dish peat moss posted:I'm really stretching it with all of these, I don't think any of them are necessarily what you're looking for, but here are some adjacent recs: Yeah, I don't think any of these are exactly the vibe I'm looking for, but a lot of them do look pretty cool regardless (and some of them, like Approaching Infinity and Monolith, I've already played and enjoyed), so thanks for the recs; I'll check at least some of them out. I think part of the issue here is that it's not just "about exploring derelicts" but a very specific vibe therein; for those who haven't played SV4, it's a game about remote controlling a rover through a staticky, radiation-damaged video link. It rolls around on the surface and collects alien artifacts and brings them back to you to study. Sometimes those studies reveal hints as to what happened to the previous inhabitants to turn their world into a radioactive hellhole. Sometimes it brings back stuff that can be cleaned up and fitted to the rover itself to give it new abilities, like seismographics or IR telephoto cameras. Sometimes they turn out to be carnivorous aliens in hibernation or to emit a psionic field that gradually drives you insane. Etc. Combat exists, but tends to be rare and extremely lethal, and the game strongly encourages you to avoid it entirely, or figure out ways to make it completely one-sided (e.g. using a directional radio receiver to locate enemies at extreme range and then pick them off with a salvaged laser cannon before they notice you); failure to do so will likely result in severe damage to the rover at best. I think Duskers is probably the closest I've found to this and, honestly, it nails the overall atmosphere I'm looking for in every respect except "hauling back loads of weird unidentified tech to your ship and hoping none of it wants to kill you"; I just can't deal with the UI and presentation. Lester Shy posted:Can anybody recommend a relatively simple/casual management or sim game? I want something that scratches the optimization itch, but lately every time I boot up something like Crusader Kings or Cities Skylines, I get exhausted with complexity. OpenTTD (and nonfree spiritual sequel Mashinky) are my go-tos for that.
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Oct 14, 2022 03:31
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the last couple pages has me wondering about anything like Void Bastards in the last couple of years. what specifically i'm looking for honestly kind of eludes me - just something about the combination of gameplay, progress loop, and aesthetic that has my brain thinking "one more run, i'm sure to find that upgrade this time" more than other games i think the dry, british humor's a big part of it tbh
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Oct 14, 2022 04:31
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Ciaphas posted:the last couple pages has me wondering about anything like Void Bastards in the last couple of years. what specifically i'm looking for honestly kind of eludes me - just something about the combination of gameplay, progress loop, and aesthetic that has my brain thinking "one more run, i'm sure to find that upgrade this time" more than other games The gameplay is completely different but Heat Signature is a game where you enter procedurally generated spaceships, gently caress up the inhabitants, and use their tech to better gently caress up other space idiots. As a Tom Francis game it does have some dry British humour, but a lot less than was in his previous game Gunpoint.
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Oct 14, 2022 08:12
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I haven't played Ship Breakers but it's my understanding there's some working class dystopia humor there.
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Oct 14, 2022 15:16
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Ciaphas posted:the last couple pages has me wondering about anything like Void Bastards in the last couple of years. what specifically i'm looking for honestly kind of eludes me - just something about the combination of gameplay, progress loop, and aesthetic that has my brain thinking "one more run, i'm sure to find that upgrade this time" more than other games Reading a book that put me in mind of both Void Bastards and Scavenger SV-4 in places is actually what put me in this mood in the first place. deep dish peat moss posted:Savage Vessels is top-down roguelite space combat game that largely takes place not in derelict vessels, but in space junkyards filled with the scraps of derelict vessels. Following up on this one specifically, I'm torn, because it looks really cool but also says that it's a "spiritual sequel to Teleglitch", a game which I absolutely hated.
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Oct 14, 2022 20:46
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It's been quite a while since I played it, but I'd say it depends largely on what you didn't like about teleglitch. If it was the visuals and the ultra-zoomed resolution and stuff like that, well, Savage Vessels is a lot better about that stuff. If it was the "real-time traditional roguelike" vibe and actual mechanics with crafting, limited field of vision and working your way through a series of connected short maps, then you'd probably hate Savage Vessels too. The actual movement and combat stuff was more fun than Teleglitch IMO because you have to deal with all the spaceship things line inertia and a lack of friction but that's a matter of preference. I liked it more than Teleglitch specifically because it's much easier on the eyes and doesn't feel like playing DOOM while looking only at the map overlay, but I also liked Teleglitch. edit: What the, it looks like the trailer/gameplay video is currently missing from the store page for some reason. Here it is if you didn't see it, I'm pretty sure this demonstrates every way that it's like Teleglitch https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256771689/movie480.webm?t=1578382424 Also I didn't remember until watching this again but the enemies are literally all derelict mining vessels and drones themselves, sort of. You're lost in space and stumbled across this strange abandoned automated mining facility and you need to get resources from it to survive and go home, but all of the drones and mining equipment attack you when you arrive. It's a cool game and posting this made me download it to play it again soon  Unfortunately it didn't make much of a splash when it came out in 2020
deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Oct 14, 2022 |
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Oct 14, 2022 21:13
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It was mostly, I think, the intentionally lovely visuals making it impossible to read enemies at a glance coupled with a bestiary that ran the gamut from "lol just lure them into one of the death corners, they aren't worth wasting ammo on" to "if you are in this fucker's line of sight for more than half a second you will die". Secondarily, the fact that you could not save a run in progress and pick it up later, a feature that has been standard in roguelikes since [checks notes] 1980. Savage Vessels certainly looks a lot better, based on that video!
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Oct 15, 2022 00:01
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Party Boat posted:The gameplay is completely different but Heat Signature is a game where you enter procedurally generated spaceships, gently caress up the inhabitants, and use their tech to better gently caress up other space idiots. Jack B Nimble posted:I haven't played Ship Breakers but it's my understanding there's some working class dystopia humor there. 
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Oct 15, 2022 00:43
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Is there a 4x game on PC that's fun with a gamepad?
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Oct 15, 2022 03:37
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Google Butt posted:Is there a 4x game on PC that's fun with a gamepad? Stellaris?
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Oct 15, 2022 03:42
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Google Butt posted:Is there a 4x game on PC that's fun with a gamepad? Does Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Nobunaga's Ambition count?
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Oct 16, 2022 09:44
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Thanks to whoever reminded me that Metro Exodus was a game I never started. Still want an FPS in the meantime, (I may never finish the game, because I got to that intermission section after the Desert, and they are just so happy, riding the rails to a better tomorrow, I genuinely did not want to progress the game anymore and wanted to let them travel forever. I know, I'm weird. I'll come back to it at some point in the future, but for now...) Broad strokes: * No Actiblizz, I deleted my account and don't want to make a new one. * No EA, still mad about TF2. * No Ubisoft, UPlay, 'nuff said. * Not a battle royale kind of person. * And I don't much like the current crop of hyperspeed physics-abuse shooters. Games I have already written off: * Destiny, that's a second job I don't want. * Shadow Warrior 3, I don't like how they marginalized the Katana as a primary weapon, and how they stole "go fast" mechanics without any regard for how that poo poo affects gameplay like dialogue triggers and I'm still wondering what the gently caress happened to Kamiko at the end of SW2. * Doom Eternal was... fine. I have problems with that game and don't desire to buy the DLC. * Wolfenstein TNC was good, but already beat. Won't touch Youngblood. * Halo: Got desynced one match, and couldn't get resynced the entire match, uninstalled. * Borderlands: Refuse to give Pitchford money. * Prodeus is on the list, but I heard there are still some major bugs to be squashed, waiting for that. I get it if I've just excluded every remaining modern shooter currently available, I'm just checking to see if there's one I missed before I reinstall Northstar client for TF2... again.
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Oct 17, 2022 01:52
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Thanks to whoever reminded me that Metro Exodus was a game I never started. Still want an FPS in the meantime, Black Mesa Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Overload
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Oct 17, 2022 02:00
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Cultic's really good but only the first chapter is out now. No word on how subsequent chapters will be handled.
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Oct 17, 2022 02:19
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There's been a surfeit of SRPGs lately, but I don't have the time to play them all to see which are good, and hope someone else already has. I don't mind simple stories, or anime. I'd like some way to customise character builds. A job system or diverse equipment, something like that. Less randomness in what you have access to is better. Quick turn times matter, but if build variety is good I can suffer through some waiting. Varied and numerous missions a plus. I've more or less given up on WH40K; I find space marines and droing about heresy tedious, I dislike sausagefests, stories about endless war bore me, and I've never felt like I have any agency in WH40K games. So what good SRPGs have come out the last few years?
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Oct 17, 2022 04:54
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Wildermyth is pretty good, gives you lots of agency in regards to what you do and while it's not immediately apparent, there are a lot of builds under the hood. They are mutations gated by random events though so it may not be your thing. There's also Troubleshooter which is definitely on the anime side of things and gives you an absolute shitload of builds and theorycrafting possibilities.
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Oct 17, 2022 07:46
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Thanks to whoever reminded me that Metro Exodus was a game I never started. Still want an FPS in the meantime, Hwurmp posted:Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
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Oct 17, 2022 08:44
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I'm gonna have to second Cultic here, even with just the first half it's a solid 4-8 hours and the visuals, gameplay, and especially audio are all just incredible. The sound when you bust a head open with the lever-action rifle just never gets old. Seriously, some of the levels in the second half are my favorite FPS levels in recent memory.
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Oct 17, 2022 09:22
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Thanks to whoever reminded me that Metro Exodus was a game I never started. Still want an FPS in the meantime, There's a lot of "recent non-modern" shooters that are intentionally riffing on 90s FPSes, like Dusk, Hedon Bloodrite, Amid Evil, and Cultic. There's also plenty of mods for the gzDoom engine that add and change so much stuff that they're basically full games in their own right; Ashes 2063 and its sequel Ashes: Afterglow are two such that I played and enjoyed recently. So if you're ok with intentionally dated graphics, those are all worth a look. The same applies to the somewhat jankier Aleph One (Marathon) engine with recently released fan-game like Apotheosis X. For more visually modern stuff, I recently enjoyed the fps-roguelites Void Bastards and Mothergunship, and there's loads more in that vein if that concept tickles your fancy.
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Oct 17, 2022 18:55
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I’m like 99% sure this game doesn’t exist, but I want a Souls-like game without the relentlessly depressing setting (and obviously I have played all of the Souls games to death). I want to play something with the same depth of combat and exploration, but instead of being filled with nasty little guys who hate me there’s a colorful world full of nice villagers who want to talk to me. I think I just want Breath of the Wild with Souls combat (as opposed to Elden Ring, which is a Souls Game with Breath of the Wild’s open world sensibilities) Is there anything out there that’s even a *little* bit close?
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Oct 17, 2022 21:24
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Have you played Ashen? I never finished it so I can't swear it doesn't heel turn but I'd call it far, far more hopeful and optimistic than Dark Souls.
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Oct 17, 2022 21:30
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Oh! I remember this game now! Is it actually any good? And can I coop with friends?
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Oct 17, 2022 21:31
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I bounced off of them, but The Surge 1 and 2 are brightly colored resistance-themed Souls-likes that are well-regarded also-rans.
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Oct 17, 2022 21:32
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drat, that’s two recommendations I’ll probably try out! Thanks very much for that
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Oct 17, 2022 21:34
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The Surge is great, but is absolutely not a nice place. It's very oppressive and isolated, set in ruined Sci fi land.
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Oct 17, 2022 21:36
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There isn't much exploration, but the Monster Hunter series has been iterating on that style of combat since the PS2 and it's incredibly polished. The gameplay is basically an all co-op Souls boss rush, and the tone is "sentient cats prepare meals and dance for joy when you finish them." Rise is the latest installment, but World is a better series intro, IMO.
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Oct 17, 2022 21:46
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Shine posted:There isn't much exploration, but the Monster Hunter series has been iterating on that style of combat since the PS2 and it's incredibly polished. The gameplay is basically an all co-op Souls boss rush, and the tone is "sentient cats prepare meals and dance for joy when you finish them." Sprinting while a monster is behind you makes you do an exaggerated cartoonish "poo poo poo poo poo poo" run
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Oct 17, 2022 21:49
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Gato The Elder posted:Oh! I remember this game now! Is it actually any good? And can I coop with friends? Yeah, I think so; it's a less ambitious version of dark souls - only Melee, no magic, limited ranged combat. But the combat feels as good as (ds1 era) Dark Souls combat to me, and it involves rebuilding a town. Imagine if Majula became a thriving community instead of an unsettling refuge for lost souls.
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Oct 17, 2022 22:01
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Gato The Elder posted:I’m like 99% sure this game doesn’t exist, but I want a Souls-like game without the relentlessly depressing setting (and obviously I have played all of the Souls games to death). I want to play something with the same depth of combat and exploration, but instead of being filled with nasty little guys who hate me there’s a colorful world full of nice villagers who want to talk to me. Check out Tunic, I didn't play it but people said a lot of very good things about it. Part of the gimmick is the entire manual is in-game but written in a made-up language and you have to sort of figure out where to go based on vague clues. I don't know whether it leans closer to zelda or dark souls though https://store.steampowered.com/app/553420/TUNIC/ https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256863992/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1639096972
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Oct 17, 2022 22:09
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Sandwich Anarchist posted:The Surge is great, but is absolutely not a nice place. It's very oppressive and isolated, set in ruined Sci fi land. Yeah, I thought The Surge was ok and really liked Surge 2, but while they have a much brighter and more colourful visual aesthetic, the vibe is still 100% full of nasty little guys who want to kill you, except that most of them are robots or cyborgs.
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Oct 17, 2022 23:52
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ToxicFrog posted:Yeah, I thought The Surge was ok and really liked Surge 2, but while they have a much brighter and more colourful visual aesthetic, the vibe is still 100% full of nasty little guys who want to kill you, except that most of them are robots or cyborgs. Yeah but at least you're ostensibly the resistance and have some allies, implying some kind of hope for a future. As opposed to the oppressive doomed world aesthetic of the Dark Souls games, which at no point even hint that things will be better no matter how well you do
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Oct 18, 2022 00:15
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| # ? May 25, 2024 21:26 |
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Gato The Elder posted:I’m like 99% sure this game doesn’t exist, but I want a Souls-like game without the relentlessly depressing setting (and obviously I have played all of the Souls games to death). I want to play something with the same depth of combat and exploration, but instead of being filled with nasty little guys who hate me there’s a colorful world full of nice villagers who want to talk to me. Outward maybe? I enjoyed that game and enjoy most From games.
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Oct 18, 2022 01:43
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