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Toebone posted:I've been hankering for a good PC strategy game to waste the entire winter playing. Last ones I played were Civ 5 and Cities Skylines, both of which I put dozens (Cities) to hundreds (Civ) of hours into. I prefer something turn-based or with adjustable speed, and not too complex - something with a good amount of depth to it, but not requiring insane micromanagement to be successful. I have Civ 6 but it never really hooked me. Open to any genre / style - historic, sci-fi, 4x, city builder, etc. What's the best stuff out there? Thanks for asking this -- I'm in the same boat, although I thought Civ6 was great. Based on recommendations, I just bought Age of Wonders: Planetfall. You can buy the edition with all the dlc over on GOG for $22 atm (base edition is currently $13).
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# ? Nov 3, 2022 21:00 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:50 |
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Toebone posted:I've been hankering for a good PC strategy game to waste the entire winter playing. Last ones I played were Civ 5 and Cities Skylines, both of which I put dozens (Cities) to hundreds (Civ) of hours into. I prefer something turn-based or with adjustable speed, and not too complex - something with a good amount of depth to it, but not requiring insane micromanagement to be successful. I have Civ 6 but it never really hooked me. Open to any genre / style - historic, sci-fi, 4x, city builder, etc. What's the best stuff out there? Creeper World. You can play it as fast or as slow as you want, it solely gets you high score and its just pleasant to sit there, slowly but surely push the creep back and take its stuff. If you want to up the challenge it has a speed leaderboard and challenge levels but honestly I just load it up and spend a few hours pushing creep back and destroying it. And if you like logistics slipways is great for optimisation brain, very simple gameplay loop that can get complex fast.
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# ? Nov 3, 2022 21:05 |
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Toebone posted:Thanks! I'm downloading the Old World demo, and I think my wife's steam library has Stellaris in it so I'll check that out too. The biggest difference between Old World and other 4x games is the Order system. Instead of every unit being just constrained by their movement points you also only have a certain amount of Orders each turn and most everything you do requires some. Makes it interesting when you go to war and have to decide which fronts to fight on and usually includes ignoring your workers so more units can fight. Its limiting at first but I kind of like it. I also like the family management and event system that's a "baby's first Crusader Kings".
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# ? Nov 3, 2022 21:07 |
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I (re-)discovered Northgard today. Game's gotten a lot of new features over the years; I'm particularly interested in the randomized coop campaign mode. When I last played they didn't even have a main campaign, much less a specific coop mode with variation between runs. Seems relevant in light of the thread's earlier discussion about RTS design.
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# ? Nov 7, 2022 03:57 |
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Corbeau posted:I (re-)discovered Northgard today. Game's gotten a lot of new features over the years; I'm particularly interested in the randomized coop campaign mode. When I last played they didn't even have a main campaign, much less a specific coop mode with variation between runs. Seems relevant in light of the thread's earlier discussion about RTS design. It's like with Age of Empires 2, where they're silently thriving in the background while everyone else circlejerks about their elitist narcissism. Northgard has been adding a steady stream of content since 2016, releasing new factions and rebalancing every Quarter, as if it's somehow normal (imagine).
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# ? Nov 7, 2022 04:11 |
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just reinstalled Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 recently. Great 40k in space RTS with a great campaign, shame Tindalos stops supporting games after a few months
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# ? Nov 9, 2022 21:17 |
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Prostagma¿
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# ? Nov 10, 2022 15:42 |
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Took me an embarrassing amount of retries to beat the Beachhead at Thalassian level in Total Annihilation. I am bad at RTS. I kept doing poorly and restarting, finally figured out how important it is to balance metal production, desperately assembled a simple kill squad, and went looking for whatever manufacturing base was out there... and it turned out to be a limited fleet with no production or landing capability. I could have run out the clock with them just by churning out units until the end of time. I keep wanting to be able to do things I can't do in this game:
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# ? Nov 10, 2022 23:03 |
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I think the fanpatches *might* improve pathfinding a little, might want to look into that.
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# ? Nov 10, 2022 23:20 |
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Yeah it fixes a bunch of things like pathfinding, adds multi core support, and adds a bunch of modern quality of life features. https://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?s=63714f85bac9c6a43408abc9980687cc&t=43735
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# ? Nov 10, 2022 23:22 |
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Yeah, this is *with* the patch. But your link made me re-read the readme and learn a few new hotkeys. Still surprisingly fun, and IMO it's proof you don't need high poly models in a game like this.
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# ? Nov 11, 2022 01:12 |
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doctorfrog posted:Yeah, this is *with* the patch. But your link made me re-read the readme and learn a few new hotkeys. Still surprisingly fun, and IMO it's proof you don't need high poly models in a game like this. Yeah that’s the best you’re going to get, then. I think Supreme Commander 2 was the one that implemented fancy context-aware pathfinding so units wouldn’t get blocked by each other, it’s just a shame about the rest of the game.
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# ? Nov 11, 2022 01:16 |
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Starship Troopers: Terran Command has released a beta with some new levels and a new unit, the Chemical Trooper. You can't use them in the base game though. They are a 3 man squad that launches gas grenades at the enemy that do damage over time and can fire over troops. I feel like I'm not really getting the Chemical Trooper as I could not beat the "training" level they included. It was easy enough until you're forced to hold back 4 massive attacks with 3 Chem Troopers, an Engineer, and a Rifle squad. They also don't allow you to reinforce except a couple of rare times so if you start losing squad health that's permanent and losing a single unit means a game over is inevitable. The 2nd one is their take on a horde mode that I'm not a fan of. Basically you start with an engineer and 2 chem troopers. As you kill bugs you gain points you can use to buy new units, war support, or new areas. Its an interesting concept but held back by the very limited kind of troops you can buy and not having any access to a landing zone. That combined with the cost of units doubling after every one you buy, for all units, means if you start taking losses its over. Especially if you lose a unit since they become so expensive they can't be replaced. They also spawn more bugs with every area you unlock but that's the only way to get new units to purchase or more war support. I feel if they lowered the costs of things and allowed you to at least purchase a radio operator it could be fun but as is its not. The 3rd is a kind of speed run map. You are given 2 rifles and 2 chem troopers to push down a snaking lane, eliminating bugs and hives for points and losing points for every second you spend on the map. The catch is there will be waves of bugs that come from behind and never stop. It forces you to think about when to push forward to make progress and when to defend the rear. The problem with this one is the rear waves ramp up too fast and, as like the last one, there isn't a way to reinforce your troops. Like last map if you lose a unit or start taking too much squad health damage its over. I'm pretty sure the rear spawns get messed up too since it seemed like a couple were sent in with no timer in between. I'm not a fan of this one either for some of the same problems as the other maps. I was hoping for some kind of base missions or build missions and was kind of disappointed. I find this game works best when you can build up a massive force to take out the bugs instead of limiting the number of units I can have. The chem troopers are an interesting idea and pair really well with engineers but are not good enough to carry maps by themselves. Of course the base game is still super solid and if you haven't given it a chance I would suggest it. Anyone that played it at launch will be happy to know they fixed or are trying to fix a few things like balance and those god damned Scorpion bugs. They also added in a priority target selector to help units fulfill the specializations they have. I feel like they buffed snipers too because they just wreck most poo poo now.
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# ? Nov 11, 2022 02:30 |
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Hope they iron out those rough edges because yeah, I really enjoyed my time with the game. Even if by the end it kinda turned into spamming roving death squads of power armor with a couple of those big mechs to anchor the flank.
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# ? Nov 11, 2022 02:48 |
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Some gameplay of that Petro WWI game, more focused on the overmap game than the RTS part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEheOH6lWGc
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# ? Nov 17, 2022 21:02 |
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Mordja posted:Some gameplay of that Petro WWI game, more focused on the overmap game than the RTS part. Ooh, this looks promising. Kinda like a mix of Hearts of iron and Total war.
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# ? Nov 17, 2022 21:26 |
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FYI Tooth and Tail still holds up and is a great, underrated RTS. They still stream tournaments every week: https://twitch.tv/toothandtailtv (edit- they don't save their VODs on Twitch though for some reason, so their account wrongly looks inactive) Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Nov 18, 2022 |
# ? Nov 18, 2022 04:03 |
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Wow Tooth and Tail, I haven't even thought of that game in years. Great to see it has built a community.
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# ? Nov 18, 2022 05:36 |
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While browsing the Autumn sale I noticed Knights of Honor 2 has a release date now for Dec 6. The first game came out almost 20 years ago. It plays somewhat similar to Total War but has simpler systems. Not sure how this sequel will hold up https://store.steampowered.com/app/736820/Knights_of_Honor_II_Sovereign/
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# ? Nov 23, 2022 07:32 |
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I'm not sure where I saw this originally, but thought it's pretty neat. https://stratagus.com/war1gus.html I've tried the original warcraft a few times, but the game just feels unplayable today. This open-source engine includes simple modern UI updates like modern mouse controls and queuing up unit building and makes the game actually playable. You just need a copy of the original game installed which you can get from gog.
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# ? Nov 29, 2022 18:02 |
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As someone with absolutely no knowledge of google play services, I wanted to play Plants vs Zombies 2 because I enjoyed the first one but you apparently can't install it on a computer? What the ever loving gently caress. Why?
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# ? Nov 29, 2022 20:55 |
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Purple War added co-op: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1582500/view/3642878850601626564 edit: first mission is a hold-out "defend the macguffin" scenario for up to 4 people Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Dec 2, 2022 |
# ? Dec 2, 2022 00:23 |
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pedro0930 posted:While browsing the Autumn sale I noticed Knights of Honor 2 has a release date now for Dec 6. The first game came out almost 20 years ago. It plays somewhat similar to Total War but has simpler systems. Not sure how this sequel will hold up drat, I've actually been following this one so I'm really surprised to discover it comes out tomorrow. I think the strategic layer looks cool, especially the real time movement of armies, but who knows about the tactical layer.
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# ? Dec 5, 2022 14:11 |
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pedro0930 posted:While browsing the Autumn sale I noticed Knights of Honor 2 has a release date now for Dec 6. The first game came out almost 20 years ago. It plays somewhat similar to Total War but has simpler systems. Not sure how this sequel will hold up Very excited to see how this turns out. They need to market this more!!!
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# ? Dec 5, 2022 14:19 |
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Frost Giant released a video with some engine details for Snowplay, which is their gameplay engine that sits on top of UE5 for Stormgate: * 60 tick rate (SC2 is 22.4, AoE4 is 8, MOBA's usually 30) * Rollback netcode * Mass async spectating with fast forward/rewind capability * Game logic is compiled into webassembly, modders can hot reload Also some art was released: https://imgur.com/a/8Ujnduu
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# ? Dec 7, 2022 20:02 |
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2000s XBox RTS game ported to PC and released for free on Steam, though marked as Early Access for some reason: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2183600/Kingdom_Under_Fire_A_War_of_Heroes_GOLD_Edition/
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# ? Dec 8, 2022 01:22 |
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Love Stole the Day posted:2000s XBox RTS game ported to PC and released for free on Steam, though marked as Early Access for some reason: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2183600/Kingdom_Under_Fire_A_War_of_Heroes_GOLD_Edition/
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# ? Dec 8, 2022 03:30 |
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looks like it's free to play?
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# ? Dec 8, 2022 04:00 |
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Cicero posted:
I'd just like to point out that in practice, the very low tick rate of AoE4 has a tangible upside: distance related latency is basically unnoticeable. I play from Europe with my brother in Japan and the game feels exactly the same as playing with Europe based players exclusively. I think it's neat
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# ? Dec 8, 2022 07:46 |
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Noosphere posted:I'd just like to point out that in practice, the very low tick rate of AoE4 has a tangible upside: distance related latency is basically unnoticeable. I play from Europe with my brother in Japan and the game feels exactly the same as playing with Europe based players exclusively. I think it's neat Edit: I think when Strive came out it got glowing reviews for its rollback implementation, people were talking about how US East coast to Japan felt really good, which is super unusual for a fighting game. Would love to see something similar for Stormgate. Cicero fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Dec 8, 2022 |
# ? Dec 8, 2022 09:03 |
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New CnC-like is doing a free weekend now for its release: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072190/Crossfire_Legion/ edit: same devs who did Deserts of Kharak and Homeworld 3 Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Dec 9, 2022 |
# ? Dec 9, 2022 16:29 |
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^ Trip report: the game itself is good and fun. The narrative, just like Deserts of Kharak, is hilariously bad, but everything else is pretty cool and polished. edit: also this is more of a Brood War-like than a CnC-like, actually Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Dec 10, 2022 |
# ? Dec 10, 2022 02:18 |
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Love Stole the Day posted:^ Trip report: the game itself is good and fun. The narrative, just like Deserts of Kharak, is hilariously bad, but everything else is pretty cool and polished. Disagree: If you select a group of units you can only use the active abilities of one of them. And if you select a mixed group of passive and active skill units IT DOESN't AUTOMATICALLY FEATURE THE ONE WITH ACTIVE ABILITIES!!! But to be fair I have always preferred the Star Trek Armada solution to having a variety of units with active abilities: They all show up on the UI at the same time. There is a designated bar and they each have their designated spot. Unless you select a science ship, that was a whole different kettle of fish.
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# ? Dec 10, 2022 08:24 |
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habituallyred posted:Disagree: If you select a group of units you can only use the active abilities of one of them. And if you select a mixed group of passive and active skill units IT DOESN't AUTOMATICALLY FEATURE THE ONE WITH ACTIVE ABILITIES!!!
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# ? Dec 10, 2022 15:56 |
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Love Stole the Day posted:Just like in Warcraft 3, you press the Tab button to cycle through which "type" of units' abilities you want to cast Thank you. I only played a little bit of Warcraft 3 in college and don't have that muscle memory. If that was in the tutorial/introductory missions my eye glazed over it. It sounds like a good solution when you have two or more units with active abilities selected. But I am still unsatisfied with that in groups that only have one unit with an active ability. I'll die mad about this, but shut up about it now. Or at least at the end of the page.
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# ? Dec 10, 2022 21:05 |
That sounds like a silly design oversight. You are justified in your ire, goon.
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# ? Dec 10, 2022 22:43 |
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It kind of just feels like another SC clone? I like the unit designs though
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# ? Dec 11, 2022 02:26 |
Love Stole the Day posted:^ Trip report: the game itself is good and fun. The narrative, just like Deserts of Kharak, is hilariously bad, but everything else is pretty cool and polished. Does it have pure hard counter/rock-paper-scissors balance like Deserts of Kharak or is it more of a soft counter setup ala pre-RA3 CnC?
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# ? Dec 11, 2022 02:39 |
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Arrath posted:Does it have pure hard counter/rock-paper-scissors balance like Deserts of Kharak or is it more of a soft counter setup ala pre-RA3 CnC? Literally a free weekend, try it yourself. But my personal opinion is no, excepting air units against units that can't shoot them. Maybe snipers vs. infantry. Especially not true vs. the shield toting New Horizon whose shields explicitly ignore vs. infantry/armor/etc bonuses. Long range units whose projectiles can be shot down by anti air are in. Base defences can be anemic unless you back them up with deployed units.
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# ? Dec 11, 2022 04:31 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:50 |
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Love Stole the Day posted:New CnC-like is doing a free weekend now for its release: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072190/Crossfire_Legion/ Online only for every mode but campaign? Hard pass. Having to use online for AI Skirmish matches for a RTS is bullshit, and shouldn't be encouraged in any form.
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# ? Dec 11, 2022 10:13 |