|
The bigger Wizkids minis are pretty nice. I am overall a decent fan cause prepainted is nice even if it’s not as nice as it could be. Even the smaller ones have decent sculpts. Like here are some prepainted versus some my friend painted. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Mar 30, 2024 |
# ? Mar 30, 2024 21:40 |
|
|
# ? May 13, 2024 09:32 |
|
Eastmabl posted:Additionally, the pregens are kind of trash. How do you make a cleric with no ranged attack and ask a new player to enjoy the game? I've noticed that with some of their other stuff. The Sundered Waves oneshot is okay, but the cleric's spell selection is total garbage. Cantrips: detect magic, forbidding ward, message, shield, stabilize No attack cantrip at all. She has no armor proficiency because she's a cloistered cleric, and she has a magic trident which can be used as a range weapon but after she throws it she doesn't have a weapon. One of her prepared spells is "Air Bubble" which is thematically appropriate for an undine/halfling cleric that lives on ships, but this adventure mostly takes place in a cave. Being held without air is never a threat so that slot is locked into a useless spell. Basically telling that player "You are a healbot support cleric, please stand in the back and wait to be needed." Because the most useful thing you could do with these spells is cast forbidding ward on your first and second turns, and then just Sustain them until someone needs heals. Death to caster supremacy and all. But drat.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 03:35 |
|
One of the big problems with caster supremacy is that the developers often don't seem to consider that players will actually try to pick the best options they have and figure out ideal uses and strategies, rather than exclusively building for their idea of 'flavour' or silly gimmicks. Or that they expect characters to be played like video game units and not, well, characters.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 04:36 |
|
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/following-baldurs-gate-3-wotc-and-hasbro-are-investing-1-billion-in-their-aaa-game-ecosystem/1100-6522241/ Oh this explains p much everything. They want to make their own games. Lmao this is gonna end poorly for them. Video game development is like 95% of the time a suckers bet especially if you need it to be a runaway success to continue to justify it to shareholders lol.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 13:37 |
|
Dexo posted:https://www.gamespot.com/articles/following-baldurs-gate-3-wotc-and-hasbro-are-investing-1-billion-in-their-aaa-game-ecosystem/1100-6522241/ Hey, it worked for Curt Schilling. Oh wait, no it didn't.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 14:54 |
|
hell yeah Baldur's Gate 4 with a Battle Pass and MTX
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 14:57 |
|
Dexo posted:https://www.gamespot.com/articles/following-baldurs-gate-3-wotc-and-hasbro-are-investing-1-billion-in-their-aaa-game-ecosystem/1100-6522241/ I'm job hunting and I laugh every time I see Hasbro hiring, I'm not touching them.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:07 |
|
Lemniscate Blue posted:Hey, it worked for Curt Schilling. So it sorta did, except they did 2 games one of which was an MMO, which like Riot is learning is a suckers bet. Kingdoms of Amalur was actually a pretty decent game, that sold alright, but those idiots were spending all the money they made from that game on a doomed MMO.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:15 |
|
Dexo posted:So it sorta did, except they did 2 games one of which was an MMO, which like Riot is learning is a suckers bet. I'm not sure they even got the money from Reckoning to misuse on the MMO , since the studios went bankrupt a few months after its release. Also reckoning was decent because it was made by an entirely different studio they bought up so they could have something to release.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:24 |
|
Hunter Noventa posted:I'm job hunting and I laugh every time I see Hasbro hiring, I'm not touching them. I worked for Hasbro Interactive back in the late 90s. It's been 25 years since I had to deal with them, if they'd stayed true to form, not touching them is the smartest tactic.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:29 |
|
Hel posted:I'm not sure they even got the money from Reckoning to misuse on the MMO , since the studios went bankrupt a few months after its release. Also reckoning was decent because it was made by an entirely different studio they bought up so they could have something to release. they went bankrupt because the spent so much on the boondoggle MMO project in tandem. If it was just Reckoning they probably would have done well enough to make a sequel or more games. but nope. Schilling and co had to have their dumb MMO. I might have the timeline off, but I also think the bankruptcy was a tactic to deal with defrauding the state of Rhode Island. While leadership ran off with whatever money was left. which is how everything ended up getting sold off. But it's been a while.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:42 |
|
Making video games is hard enough for companies who have it as a core competency, whenever a big corporation tries to muscle into the field without licensing it out to someone who actually knows what they're doing (or seems to) it's always a hilarious disaster.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:44 |
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:Making video games is hard enough for companies who have it as a core competency, whenever a big corporation tries to muscle into the field without licensing it out to someone who actually knows what they're doing (or seems to) it's always a hilarious disaster. It's very funny, like it's possible, but corporations do not have the patience to actually deal with the bullshit it takes to build a studio and game from the ground up.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:48 |
|
Dexo posted:they went bankrupt because the spent so much on the boondoggle MMO project in tandem. If it was just Reckoning they probably would have done well enough to make a sequel or more games. but nope. Schilling and co had to have their dumb MMO. It's pretty much this. Schilling somehow convinced the state to give him a generous zero-interest loan, then when the MMORPG failed to materialize he was like "Hey, uh, look over there!" I think a better metaphor for this whole thing would be New World. Amazon said "We're the biggest web services company in the world, therefore we can make the best MMO". (spoiler: it was not the best).
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 16:07 |
|
Dexo posted:https://www.gamespot.com/articles/following-baldurs-gate-3-wotc-and-hasbro-are-investing-1-billion-in-their-aaa-game-ecosystem/1100-6522241/ Does this suggest Hasbro wanted to absorb Larian? That would fit pretty well with Larian's greed statement.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 16:07 |
|
Curt Schilling might have blown millions of dollars on Kingdoms of Amalur, but he also helped MMP license ASL for reprints and development, so it's impossible to say if he's bad or not. This is a riff on a dril tweet, to be clear.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 16:14 |
|
Dexo posted:they went bankrupt because the spent so much on the boondoggle MMO project in tandem. If it was just Reckoning they probably would have done well enough to make a sequel or more games. but nope. Schilling and co had to have their dumb MMO. Sure, but it never would have been just Reckoning, since it only existed because the MMO was taking so long to develop. Edit : well strictly speaking there might have been, if someone else had picked up Big Huge games and their prototype when THQ sold them, but it would have been completely disconnected from Amalur. Hel fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Mar 31, 2024 |
# ? Mar 31, 2024 16:51 |
|
Hel posted:Sure, but it never would have been just Reckoning, since it only existed because the MMO was taking so long to develop. That's was my point. It's possible to make it work by making studios or buying studios and having them make a game and having modest plans. And modest successes It's when you get to the grand vision and multiple games and live service game thing that everything falls apart.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 17:02 |
|
Ooh what already dead genre of game will they lead with? D&D MOBA? Battle Royale? Four character squad live service loot shooter?
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 17:15 |
|
theironjef posted:Ooh what already dead genre of game will they lead with? D&D MOBA? Battle Royale? Four character squad live service loot shooter? I hope it's the loot shooter and I hope that in true D&D form the Fighters have absolutely nothing to shoot with.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 17:28 |
|
theironjef posted:Ooh what already dead genre of game will they lead with? D&D MOBA? Battle Royale? Four character squad live service loot shooter? Probably none of them. Skeleton Key the one they spun up have making the the triple A game has a bunch of old Bioware RPG folks behind it. Seems like the other studios are folks in single player games too. Former Rocksteady make up another one of their studios It's probably more likely they just don't ship games. Because shipping games is hard as gently caress. Especially a company like Hasbro where a bad quarter will get them to do a bunch of short-sighted stuff.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 17:29 |
|
So Gabe Hicks, a fairly prominent game designer, Actual Play guy (I believe he hosted a season of Dimension 20 but isn't a regular), and cosplayer/influencer, has recently been outed by his girlfriend as a cheating, two-timing scumbag who told her that he was polyamorous BUT that he wanted the two of them to be exclusive BUT he was running around on her AND he was telling the people he was cheating on her with that she was just an obsessive fan that they should shun. https://twitter.com/GillianFoxglove/status/1772268816245936280 In response to this, Gabe posted a comments-locked notesapp apology. I'm not gonna link it, you've all seen these before. Today, one of Gabe's coworkers and co-designers posted a statement that Gabe has been formally removed as the owner of Mythic Grove Studios, a game studio set up to publish a game called the Session Zero System that was kickstarted last year. What's striking in particular is the breakdown of the division of labor regarding Mythic Grove where it turned out that Gabe basically didn't actually do anything, either working on the game or otherwise. https://twitter.com/Blikimor/status/1774208110242234830
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 18:41 |
|
Kai Tave posted:What's striking in particular is the breakdown of the division of labor regarding Mythic Grove where it turned out that Gabe basically didn't actually do anything, either working on the game or otherwise. This poo poo is baffling. Why was he there at all? Because of his name? "Consultant"?
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 18:44 |
|
Bottom Liner posted:This poo poo is baffling. Why was he there at all? Because of his name? "Consultant"? The same way that Stone and Phoenix made all the money from their Kickstarters while getting other people to actually write the books. This is not helping my feelings that Actual Play people are a parasite on the hobby.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 18:46 |
|
Definitly a weird thing to see when I did my check of my kickstarters this morning. Twitter thread from one of the other girlfriends https://twitter.com/cam_inator/status/1772290475812114902?t=GCKwujzELS_bb4gZdEJaUw
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 18:48 |
|
Bottom Liner posted:This poo poo is baffling. Why was he there at all? Because of his name? "Consultant"? I don't want to just make cynical comments from the peanut gallery because I really am not plugged into this scene enough to speak with any authority or experience on it, but there's probably some truth to this. Gabe Hicks is (or was, looks like he deleted his twitter and instagram since this broke) a decently popular influencer personality in this sphere of the hobby. Lots of followers, a very handsome cosplayer, prolific online presence and at conventions, etc. I don't really know the ins and outs of Mythic Grove and the behind the scenes stuff, but my impression is that he did basically have enough clout and fame that him being prominently plastered all over the Kickstarter (including videos of him running the game) were part of the reason for its success. I just checked the kickstarter and wouldn't you know it, it lists HIM as the Game Designer on the project while Elise Rezendes, writer of 65,000/70,000 words, is only credited as an Art Director.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 18:53 |
|
Facebook Aunt posted:I've noticed that with some of their other stuff. The Sundered Waves oneshot is okay, but the cleric's spell selection is total garbage.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 19:18 |
|
MadScientistWorking posted:If I remember correctly the cleric pregen had no way to get a working offensive cantrip. What about Haunting Hymn? But yes, the lack of good offensive cantrips is a weakness of PF2 divine casters.
|
# ? Mar 31, 2024 19:32 |
On the subject of Amalur, the recent re-release and expansion to it is an amazing example of what happens when people who don't understand the lore of a setting, or have an ideological bent opposed to the message of it, get free reign to make whatever they feel like. I could rant endlessly about how much they hosed up, from the tiniest things that are almost meaningless to flipping the entire message of the original game and its original DLC's on its head, and everything in between.
|
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 07:11 |
|
Sounds like good content for this thread!
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 07:41 |
|
Pickled Tink posted:On the subject of Amalur, the recent re-release and expansion to it is an amazing example of what happens when people who don't understand the lore of a setting, or have an ideological bent opposed to the message of it, get free reign to make whatever they feel like. I could rant endlessly about how much they hosed up, from the tiniest things that are almost meaningless to flipping the entire message of the original game and its original DLC's on its head, and everything in between. If you want to make an angry effortpost about this, I’d certainly be interested. Amalur is something I’ve been fascinated with from afar for a while, though I’ve never played it.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 08:18 |
|
I was QA on Amalur and let me tell you a LOT was cut from the game, like entire factions and a lot of lore. I remember reading the dev documents and finding all kinds of crazy stuff. Like the world of Amalur is Earth in the future after the dragon Tiamat returned bring magic back. Also the gnomes were behind real-world hsitory knight Templars.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 14:54 |
MonsieurChoc posted:I was QA on Amalur and let me tell you a LOT was cut from the game, like entire factions and a lot of lore. I remember reading the dev documents and finding all kinds of crazy stuff. Like the world of Amalur is Earth in the future after the dragon Tiamat returned bring magic back. Also the gnomes were behind real-world hsitory knight Templars. That's uh... certainly a thing, given who gnomes are stand-ins for.
|
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 15:12 |
|
I wish someone had saved that design document because I'm just going off memory here.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 15:25 |
|
Kestral posted:If you want to make an angry effortpost about this, I’d certainly be interested. Amalur is something I’ve been fascinated with from afar for a while, though I’ve never played it. I played the original and quite liked it so would be interested, and yes even though it's a videogame I think it's potentially TG-relevant and could be an interesting way to look at comparable incidents in the industry.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 15:44 |
|
This piece (from 2012) lays out the story of the fall of 38 Studios and what a spectacular taxpayer boondoggle helmed by a complete moron it was.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 16:09 |
|
Pickled Tink posted:On the subject of Amalur, the recent re-release and expansion to it is an amazing example of what happens when people who don't understand the lore of a setting, or have an ideological bent opposed to the message of it, get free reign to make whatever they feel like. I could rant endlessly about how much they hosed up, from the tiniest things that are almost meaningless to flipping the entire message of the original game and its original DLC's on its head, and everything in between. Kestral posted:If you want to make an angry effortpost about this, I’d certainly be interested. Amalur is something I’ve been fascinated with from afar for a while, though I’ve never played it. I'm very interested too. It's a quite flawed game but I enjoyed the original version a lot, it was a pretty fun "screwin' around" sort of game with some neat bits to dig out about the world.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 16:17 |
|
Kai Tave posted:So Gabe Hicks, a fairly prominent game designer, Actual Play guy (I believe he hosted a season of Dimension 20 but isn't a regular), and cosplayer/influencer, has recently been outed by his girlfriend as a cheating, two-timing scumbag who told her that he was polyamorous BUT that he wanted the two of them to be exclusive BUT he was running around on her AND he was telling the people he was cheating on her with that she was just an obsessive fan that they should shun. Is this Gamegate 2?
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 18:25 |
|
LongDarkNight posted:Is this Gamegate 2? what
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 19:31 |
|
|
# ? May 13, 2024 09:32 |
|
It's Polycule Collapse #[Infinite] with no greater significance than that. Hicks is a minor Internet Personality but he's not a game designer in any meaningful sense. It's kind of wild that "I'm poly" isn't a bigger warning sign at this point, considering how many times we've seen this story play out over the decade-ish since polycules became more of a thing.
|
# ? Apr 1, 2024 19:54 |