|
I never even got to play Aurora. Three times now I started up preparing a game with several hand-crafted star systems filled with hand-crafted alien races, only to get sidetracked doing poo poo like changing a planet's albedo or coming up with an officer naming scheme for this alien race I wanted to play as, and then eventually I burn out without ever starting a game. Sometimes less is more, I think.
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2023 20:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 03:41 |
|
|
Libluini posted:I never even got to play Aurora. Three times now I started up preparing a game with several hand-crafted star systems filled with hand-crafted alien races, only to get sidetracked doing poo poo like changing a planet's albedo or coming up with an officer naming scheme for this alien race I wanted to play as, and then eventually I burn out without ever starting a game. Yes!!! quote:Sometimes less is more, I think. No!!!  Seriously that's kind of why I love Aurora - there's so much worldbuilding and theorycrafting ships in it that just the beginning of game setup is entertaining to me. This is the same reason I never finish an RPG, I spend too much time in the character creation menu reinventing myself over and over. I....may have a problem. edit: the way to get around never actually playing Aurora is to find some sucker who's doing an LP of Aurora and read along - you get most of the fun and none of the drudgery. I mean, look at this poor sap bgreman posted:Maybe for the ten year anniversary of the Coldest War's abandonment I'll make some real progress on it. Or do it by hand. 
Neophyte fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Dec 29, 2023 |
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2023 21:52
|
|
|
Neophyte posted:Yes!!! Oh, don't worry, I love Aurora too and for the same reason: The complexity is the draw here. But apart from having limited time and too many games to play, I also developed some serious eye problems over the last years. It amused me to no end to realize a lot of my more modern RPGs and strategy games now have accessibility options, but the sad truth is... Aurora doesn't have them, so trying to play it means holding my Windows magnifying glass over the menus to not get searing eye pain after half an hour. The added hassle turned out to be too much, especially since too much stress on my eyes could potentially end up with me being in hospital again. The irony here is I probably got exhausted from playing Aurora so much because it was straining my eyes, but until ca. 2021 I just didn't notice the root of the problem. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2023 22:26
|
|
|
IMO the biggest issue with learning/starting an aurora game is that easing into it is difficult. You need to design a complete suite of systems that work together to build a warship, even a relatively simple laser warship. Even for veteran players its easy to forget a key system and be flying around for years with a useless hulk. & all the really cool LPs involve multiple player run factions which is just a huge hassle if you're just trying to Enjoy Game. The missile update looks cool though. I've asserted for many years that the way box salvos work makes missile gameplay degenerate and that reworking EW is the way forward, and this is hitting a lot of the high points.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2023 22:36
|
|
|
My only experience with Aurora is looking at screenshots and then deciding no thank you.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2023 22:52
|
|
|
You can grab a couple of the side tools like the engine and missile calculator and have it do much of the heavy lifting for you since those can be the most finicky. Unknown if updated for latest version. I just played it about 20 times and bounced off each time before it clicked. I found a ship design strategy that works (I'm slower than most player designs I see but hilariously uparmoured) and have mental sizes/porportions for engines/missiles that I can template off of and adjust. This works fairly well and while its probably hilariously unoptimized I can deal with most things the game throughs at me and have fun doing so.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2023 00:48
|
|
|
Are there any getting started guides for Terra Invicta, or some recommended early goals to learn what to prioritize? This looks like very my thing, but I'm staring at all the options at the start and going "...I don't know what any of this does or why it matters."
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 14:02
|
|
|
There's a TI-specific thread, but it's kind of an issue that the game is still patching heavily through early access. While general principles mostly haven't changed, most of the information and guides available refer to the state of the game as it was on EA launch. So the specifics are kind of off or even just wrong. There's three basic things you're trying to do at the start of the game. First is develop your Council as aggressively as possible. Your Councilor stats are all important up until you start hitting your stat caps; and in order to increase those stats, you need money and influence so you can acquire Orgs. How do you get money and influence? By having strong councilors, that can acquire control points in rich nations. It's a feedback loop, so the faster you hit the ground running the better off you are. (Pro tip, your influence income primarily consists of two sources: your councilors, and the percentage of the world population that supports your cause. Another pro tip: your control point cap scales with both technology and with your councilors Admin, Command, and Persuasion stats. Admin is considered the god stat, although its mediocre on its own; it controls how many Orgs the councilor can control.) Your other goal is to get as much Boost income as possible to bootstrap your way into space. The typical process is to get a Lunar mine as fast as possible; it's critical that it give you a Metals income. The majority of tonnage of space bases is Metals, so having Metal in space *drastically* reduces the boost cost of building habitats. That lets you get mines on Mars, and once you have those then your space economy can start snowballing and you can pretty much stop investing in Boost. Note that Boost is cheaper to build for any nation with land near the equator. France is one of the best situated, as its wealthy but has holdings in South America; but ultimately you will be getting boost anywhere you can in the early game. Of course, complicating this perfect world is the Alien threat. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's important to follow the main plot line for your faction; which usually involves directly confronting the Aliens sooner rather than later. Finally, the real secret of the game is to judiciously use the Spoils priority. It's extremely important for getting funds at the start; nothing else can compare. Just mind that environmental damage and how it damages your popularity and the government score. TheDeadlyShoe fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Jan 4, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 15:43
|
|
|
TheDeadlyShoe posted:There's a TI-specific thread, but it's kind of an issue that the game is still patching heavily through early access. While general principles mostly haven't changed, most of the information and guides available refer to the state of the game as it was on EA launch. So the specifics are kind of off or even just wrong. I'd suggest at least checking out the last few pages of the TI thread, as some other goons have picked it up recently and have been asking good questions and getting good answers. And if there's something that hasn't come up, feel free to ask; those who love Terra Invicta tend to really love Terra Invicta, so there's lots of helpful Goons in the thread (like me) happy to write up lengthy posts about their favorite strategies.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 18:21
|
|
|
Dreamsicle posted:Is there a good guide for Aurora 4x? The wiki seems a little sparse and the video guides I see are years old. The Aurora 4x is active and generally both friendly and helpful. https://discord.com/channels/314031775892373504/402321466839793664 There's also links from the official forums.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 18:21
|
|
|
Thank you!! This is hugely helpful... I was absolutely going in the wrong direction, last time I played I spent tons of time recruiting operatives and trying to control countries, but I never even got to the point of doing Space poo poo, and the council felt like one of a zillion things to manage; I certainly didn't realize you need to focus on that poo poo. I really appreciate the jump-start 
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2024 20:25
|
|
|
Thanks everyone, the forums seem to be my best bet along with hopefully 2.2+ LPs. My last attempt playing was during the VB era and I didn't get very far.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2024 15:18
|
|
|
Anyone in for Dominions 6? Love to hear some thoughts before the sale ends on Jan 24.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 16:12
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:Anyone in for Dominions 6? Love to hear some thoughts before the sale ends on Jan 24. It's got a thread here.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 16:26
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:Anyone in for Dominions 6? Love to hear some thoughts before the sale ends on Jan 24. I'm (alongside a surprising number of goons) one of the beta testers. Anything in particular you're curious about?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 16:37
|
|
|
Omi no Kami posted:Are there any getting started guides for Terra Invicta, or some recommended early goals to learn what to prioritize? This looks like very my thing, but I'm staring at all the options at the start and going "...I don't know what any of this does or why it matters." there's a thread on the subreddit called "how to defeat alien invasion" that fits the bill that being said the game doesn't really go anywhere and is very tedious/grindy when I played it past the early game
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 16:47
|
|
|
my dad posted:I'm (alongside a surprising number of goons) one of the beta testers. Anything in particular you're curious about? I think the thread has answered my basic questions. I'm always on the lookout for good co op games I can play with my adult son, and both of us enjoy 4x on occasion.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 16:48
|
|
|
I would not describe Dominions as a co-op game. Where it shines is PVP.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 19:38
|
|
|
LLSix posted:I would not describe Dominions as a co-op game. Well it has a co op tag and why can't the two of us go after the baddies? Him beating me into the floor is not nearly as entertaining at least from my perspective
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 20:05
|
|
|
Dominions is best known as a game where every nation is player controlled and there's a single winner, but there are a lot of people (including me) who play it as a single-player PvE game and it's still great in that mode. There is an "team" setting to help with doing a co-op comp stomp. The reason I don't do multiplayer is less about winning/losing competitiveness and more about the fact that as a PBEM game it takes several months esquilax fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Jan 17, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 20:12
|
|
|
you can play dominions co-op, it's just not where it shines. although with Disciples and with AIs actually being able to do diplomacy, dom6 may be the most co-op of all dom
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 20:13
|
|
|
I've played Dom 3-5 as a single player game, but my son and I are always looking for games that both of us could like . He hasn't played Dom but I think he'd enjoy all the different choices and strategies in the game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 20:17
|
|
|
Playing co-op comp-stomp in Dominions is kinda relaxing. Not where the game shines, but enjoyable.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2024 22:59
|
|
|
Apparently there's some stuff coming in dom6 that'll let people put scripts in for the AI of various nations to have them actually do their thing a little bit.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 01:55
|
|
|
Civ 6 is fun, the new monthly Steam scenarios have been relatively challenging
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 17:27
|
|
|
Yeah I'd say dom is a decent comp stomper, its at its best competitive against people, but the newer ones have a built-in team mode and since it's not as cut-throat with AI you get more breathing room to mess around with the cool monsters and spells. You can also set-up themed battles like "Multiple teams with a solo Ermor (undead horde) on the highest difficulty"
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 19:48
|
|
|
how is dom solo/ against AI?
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 22:14
|
|
|
Kvlt! posted:how is dom solo/ against AI? literally only good enough to test builds. If you're not going to play against humans, don't bother picking it up. in the game's defense, it's literally too complicated for a game AI to play coherently. It's too complicated for most *humans* to play coherently.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 22:15
|
|
|
It's a game where you can literally have armies of flying bird people who worship a bull god facing off over the battlefield against lizards powered by star-magic with shape shifting mayan-leopard people mercenaries. It's far too much for any AI to play well, far too much for most people as well really but the sheer chaos is remarkably fun.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 22:30
|
|
|
Lum_ posted:in the game's defense, it's literally too complicated for a game AI to play coherently. It's too complicated for most *humans* to play coherently. That’s what we said about go!
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 22:35
|
|
|
Kvlt! posted:how is dom solo/ against AI? People enjoy it. It's not what I'd recommed the game for, but I've had some fun slow burn roleplay-y games in 5. Dominions 6 is introducing a way to design custom behavior for the AIs, and while there's not much done right after the launch, I expect the community to whip up some useful AI mods eventually. You can wait to pick up the game when these become more frequent.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 22:35
|
|
|
Dominions AI has come a long way since like Dominions 3, when the notion that it's worthless trash was apparently set in stone. The AI is not good at magic, but it's perfectly capable of amassing big armies and spamming summons.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 22:36
|
|
|
Thanks for the responses everyone. I think im good with CoE5 rn as a solo player but ill be keeping an eye on dom 6 development!
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2024 23:58
|
|
|
ARA got a new marketing bit as part of today’s Microsoft event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS3qJXXu0Bk I think the game has a very nice looking world and seems like it could have some depth. Hopefully there’s some more long form gameplay now that the game is getting close to release. I like that they have historical leaders but they aren’t always just the most well known Civ ones (though there definitely seem to be some classics). Anno fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Jan 19, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 03:50
|
|
|
On the subject of civ-likes made by people other than Firaxis, I'm still waiting to see if Millennia (the civ-like being developed by C Prompt Games, published by Paradox) turns out to be any good. They've been running fairly low key with it since the initial announcement, although still slowly plugging away at releasing dev diaries which show some interesting ideas, though I'm not sure how well it all works in terms of execution.
Jossar fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Jan 19, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 03:59
|
|
|
Yeah I started watching the Ara dev diaries recently, and I'm pretty excited to see more. Haven't been following Millenia as much, mostly for the petty reason that it seems to have Spartan super soldiers, but what I'm seeing from the dev diaries does look neat.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 10:46
|
|
|
I think that with Ara there could finally be a real mainstream contender to Civ. The game looks great.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 13:10
|
|
|
John F Bennett posted:I think that with Ara there could finally be a real mainstream contender to Civ. Look, they said the same thing about Humankind and I like Amplitude, Amplitude really thought they were cooking with that one, they were pretty much taunting karma
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 13:32
|
|
|
I think Ara has a big leg up just by choosing a historical leader and a nation. For me it was really the lack of any identity that hurt Humankind the most. I’m curious how the simultaneous turns thing plays out. I like it in some games I’ve played and not in others, seems like a finicky thing to balance.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 14:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 03:41 |
|
|
I still think Humankind actually IS better despite all its flaws, (and the biggest ones, to me, were all civ hold-overs.) but Civilization increasingly represents a lot of what I hate in this genre, and that doesn't seem poised to change anytime soon.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2024 15:35
|
|
