January 2020 Chat Thread: 2019 Corrupted. Please start a new galoob.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > January 2020 Chat Thread: 2019 Corrupted. Please start a new galoob.

«‹›241 »

What do you want from the chat thread in the new year? This poll is closed.
Video games	100	14.08%
Not Video Games	46	6.48%
poo poo Posting	56	7.89%
Bowsette	128	18.03%
Polls	58	8.17%
No poll, How many times do I have to pick this?	53	7.46%
More General Horniness	103	14.51%
Less General Horniness	72	10.14%
Serious discussion of current issues	46	6.48%
Nothing. The thread is perfect the way it is	48	6.76%
Total:	294 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

Disco Anne: Apr 1, 2010; Assume you're going to survive.

Show me a wooden pencil that feels as good as https://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Prelude-Lacquer-Nickel-E3373/dp/B001O3GQQO to write with and maybe I'll take the non-mechanical crowd seriously. (hint: if your pencil is horribly scratchy you need better lead)

# ? Feb 1, 2020 00:51

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 4, 2024 10:33

Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge: May 8, 2006; "My brain is amazing! It's full of wrinkles, and... Uh... Wait... What am I trying to say?"

and people mocked my comparison to the vr fuckpumps

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:02

SeXReX: Jan 9, 2009; I drink, mostly.
And get mad at people on the internet

Relax Or DIE posted:

and people mocked my comparison to the vr fuckpumps

if you're not using your HMD to hump a beach ball you're not gaming

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:05

Propaganda Hour: Aug 25, 2008; after editing wikipedia as a joke for 16 years, i ve convinced myself that homer simpson's japanese name translates to the "The beer goblin"

Jay Rust posted:

You know you’re a gamer when... you instinctively yell “Reloading!” when sharpening your pencil!!

I still shout "PILLS HERE!" 11 years after Valve stopped making games.

Oh neat, I got my Warcraft III refund.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:08

thehoodie: Feb 8, 2011; "Eat something made with love and joy - and be forgiven"

Dischorr_N posted:

Show me a wooden pencil that feels as good as https://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Prelude-Lacquer-Nickel-E3373/dp/B001O3GQQO to write with and maybe I'll take the non-mechanical crowd seriously. (hint: if your pencil is horribly scratchy you need better lead)

Ooh that's nice. I've got this one in blue, which is also real sexy: http://www.monami.com/en/m/product/product_view.php?ccode=005&idx=12

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:14

raditts: Feb 21, 2001; The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

Propaganda Hour posted:

I still shout "PILLS HERE!" 11 years after Valve stopped making games.

Oh neat, I got my Warcraft III refund.

I know one thing...
I'm GRABBIN PILLS

- me, opening my med tray every morning

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:21

bushisms.txt: May 26, 2004; Scroll, then. There are other posts than these.

Holy poo poo, I'm in tears, the bastards did it, han is alive and back for revenge.

https://youtu.be/aSiDu3Ywi8E

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:22

raditts: Feb 21, 2001; The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

bushisms.txt posted:

Holy poo poo, I'm in tears, the bastards did it, han is alive and back for revenge.

https://youtu.be/aSiDu3Ywi8E

Fast and the Furious is my favorite anime

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:23

Rinkles: Oct 24, 2010; What I'm getting at is...
Do you feel the same way?

bushisms.txt posted:

Holy poo poo, I'm in tears, the bastards did it, han is alive and back for revenge.

https://youtu.be/aSiDu3Ywi8E

thought this was gonna link to a very odd star wars sequel

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:28

Songbearer: Jul 12, 2007; Fuck you say?

mutata posted:

Quick, before the new thread: Favorite character customization systems and why?

Look I'm gonna need to make an effortpost on this one because I love my chargens so I'm just gonna carry this over onto the next thread

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:31

bushisms.txt: May 26, 2004; Scroll, then. There are other posts than these.

It's a different Han, his last name is Seoul-Oh though.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:33

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

mutata posted:

Quick, before the new thread: Favorite character customization systems and why?

any system that lets you name yourself BUTT

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:36

Disco Anne: Apr 1, 2010; Assume you're going to survive.

mutata posted:

Quick, before the new thread: Favorite character customization systems and why?

Code Vein, because who doesn't want to be a cute anime girl with not enough clothing?
Actual answer: Monster Hunter: World. Not the player, the cat. So I can have my cat in-game.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:41

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

Whatever let's me make my boobs the biggest

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:46

Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge: May 8, 2006; "My brain is amazing! It's full of wrinkles, and... Uh... Wait... What am I trying to say?"

Sakurazuka posted:

Whatever let's me make my boobs the biggest

by volume this might be PSO2

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:50

SeXReX: Jan 9, 2009; I drink, mostly.
And get mad at people on the internet

minecraft because it enabled that time when someone joined a friend's stream and 10 minutes later told her he made matching skin for her and he wanted her to start using it

# ? Feb 1, 2020 01:51

Dewgy: Nov 10, 2005; ~🚚special delivery~📦

Saint�s Row 2�s was the best.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:02

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

mutata posted:

Quick, before the new thread: Favorite character customization systems and why?

The Dark Souls 2 coffin, pre-patch when it didn't warn you

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:03

John Murdoch: May 19, 2009; I can tune a fish.

Stux posted:

ok, but i must be really misreading because you said:

and then

which is whatt i was responding to by saying you said you dont want dogfights and flying around shooting lasers at stuff, because you said you were bored of dogfights in space and prefer rebel galaxys approach which removes the 3d aspect in combat and approaches it on a 2d plane like in naval combat.

its also weird you're now saying you dislike the idea of shields/armor/hull with different weapon systems targetting each one when thats explicitly what rebel galaxy's combat boils down to.

I kinda see where the confusion is coming from now. I don't have that strong a preference for dogfight vs. naval battles vs. whatever I just appreciate that Rebel Galaxy did something you don't traditionally see in those kinds of space games (obviously other subgenres already do treat space as an ocean, see also Star Trek). Ironically I don't like the game beyond its format because it otherwise does all the same poo poo I've been complaining about!

W/r/t combat my problem is not that dogfighting is innately bad (neither is the naval model), but games will regularly default to "planes and jets in space" like they're being designed on auto-pilot. Lasers almost always act like the same stand-in for machineguns. Missiles are just missiles, with the same kind of lock-on and need for counter-measures you'd see in any earthly plane game. Basic combat rhythms are predictable and samey - spam laser until their shield gives out, then shoot missiles. I want more exaggerated and fantastical elements. Gimme the anime poo poo. Ships with melee weapons. Ships that transform into robots why not. Steal weapon ideas from fun classic shmups like Tyrian. Zika Flamethrowers anyone?? Let me parry incoming missile attacks. And where the gently caress are my Options??

Stux posted:

and with not wanting a space map thats mostly empty we go back to you probably want to turn space games into something that isnt a space game. theyre about space. space is largely empty and it naturally means a pretty decent part of games that are about directly controlling a ship in space often deals with the bit where you move the ship around in space.

[snip]

also what level of mostly empty is an issue? how about no mans sky where each system has numerous planets, belts, stations, and you can fly to each one and land and do whatever. is that too empty? is the issue that the things are far apart and you hit the warp button to get closer? what would the solution look like to you in this specific case to make the no mans sky system more like what you want. its very hard to work out what you want so maybe some more detail is required.

Dude, it's a videogame. Space can be as crowded or as empty as the developer wants because it's make-believe. I'm saying I want a low-realism setting where stuff is relatively close together, at least compared to the vast, empty sandboxes that are more the norm. You'd still jet from location to location or zip around fighting enemies; by nature of doing these things in a space ship it doesn't actually matter how much space there actually is beyond there being literally physically enough room. Compare it to driving games where The Crew's open world is not at all the same beast as Burnout Paradise's open world and neither has any resemblance to track racing stuff but they're still all driving games.

I also keep bringing up stuff like GTA and ETS because driving a car or truck involves actively doing things in a way spaceship travel usually doesn't. When I'm driving around in Saints Row I can do sick handbrake turns, run people over, dart through traffic, look for shortcuts, pick fights with people, dodge the cops, make crazy jumps off ramps, etc. etc. In space games I set a waypoint, point the ship at it, and then press the go button. Even the basic action of braking or otherwise decelerating is usually hands-off. Some space games have actually tried to fix this, by turning system to system jumps into little minigames. I know Space Rangers 2 does it and I think there's at least one 3D game where you jump through a wormhole and do a little turbo tunnel kind of thing to get to the other side. But inevitably those feel artificial and weird and can't compensate if the systems themselves are devoid of detail.

And before you say "well how do you do GTA traffic in space that makes no sense I can just fly around it" that's precisely why restricting it to a 2D plane and turning it into an ocean like Rebel Galaxy should help allow for that kind of gameplay.

Furthermore, in open world games the distance between things should create opportunities for fun distractions and spontaneity. Breath of the Wild is known for its world design being intentionally enticing - always something just on the other side of the mountain and such. Similarly, random events, side content, collectibles, and noticeable landmarks are all ways of getting the player to not relentlessly follow the dot on their compass in an unerring straight line. (Even Bethesda knows how to do this, btw.) Space games do make attempts at this, but often it's just in the form of blips on the radar or distress beacons popping up out of the ether. Or god forbid, space pirates dragging you out of warp speed incessantly. And even then it's often in service of yanking you out of a designated Long Distance Travel Mode and into the wholly separate and distinct Short-Range Dogfighting Combat Mode, which weakens the spontaneity element. I want more stuff like

Relax Or DIE posted:

more games about picking through the derelict hulls of abandoned spaceships

dead space 3(?) had some sections like this and they were way better than the rest of the game

^^^this^^^. When things aren't set realistically apart I can use my eyes to look around and spot something cool and go "oh maybe I should try going there". Space games generally do not offer that kind of thing and it makes me sad! For another comparison, please meditate on the difference between navigating the map in Fallout 1 vs. navigating the map in New Vegas.

Part of the problem is the insistence on simulating the entire universe!!!! which just leads to lovely procgen design or copy and paste design where there's generic space stations everywhere but sometimes they're a different color because factions. I don't want to explore a realistically large universe dotted with endless systems full of mostly nothing, I want to explore the hell out of a single system that's densely packed with intentionally designed Cool Stuff.

Despite what I just said, No Man's Sky is honestly probably the closest of the current games that hews towards what I'm after simply because it makes a (flailing, messy) attempt at doing the full spectrum of "cool spaceship stuff", has some degree of emphasis on visuals*, and does in fact keep distances relatively sane.

I'm also gonna blurt out a bunch of dumb weird ideas that may or may not actually be good but might help you catch what I'm putting down: Open world Descent. Mad Max (the open world game) but in space. 6DoF Brigador. Every single mid-2000s experimental shmup that was released on Steam but as a full 3D space sandbox game instead somehow.

*Here is the one big secret that's not a secret at all because I implied as much way earlier: I don't find space inherently interesting to look at. I know NMS tries to be a bit more bombastic about it and that helps but unless I can actually go fly into the crazy purple space weather/anomaly/whatever and there's something in there waiting to be discovered then ehh. A picture of the horse head nebula hanging out in the background somewhere is not a replacement for interesting map design!!

John Murdoch fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Feb 1, 2020

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:04

John Murdoch: May 19, 2009; I can tune a fish.

Also don't worry I will not be continuing my symposium "too many goddamn words about space games" into February's thread.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:13

Cowcaster: Aug 7, 2002

pronounce "space" like "pace" from "requiescat in pace", imho

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:15

Amp: Sep 10, 2010

Cowcaster posted:

pronounce "space" like "pace" from "requiescat in pace", imho

Only when this emoji is out

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:18

John Murdoch: May 19, 2009; I can tune a fish.

Cowcaster posted:

pronounce "space" like "pace" from "requiescat in pace", imho

No, don't, you know Stux gets upset when you bring up Assassin's Creed!!!

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:21

RBA Starblade: Apr 28, 2008; Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Rebel Galaxy was a very mediocre game

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:22

homeless snail: Mar 14, 2007

I did not care for it, people keep making broadside ship combat games that are worse than sid meiers pirates and I don't see the point

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:33

John Murdoch: May 19, 2009; I can tune a fish.

Though now I'm imagining a space game where it's like G Gundam and Ezio is piloting a giant robot for Neo Italy that just looks like Assassin's Creed and stabs other giant robots with a hidden blade and then does the whole post-kill scene while in the robot.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:36

Khanstant: Apr 5, 2007

does anyone want shadow of war, ~~graveyard keeper~~, dirt rally 2, street fighter v, ~~trailmakers~~, whispers of a machine, fightin herds, mages of mystrallia, or grip?

Khanstant fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Feb 1, 2020

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:38

Propaganda Hour: Aug 25, 2008; after editing wikipedia as a joke for 16 years, i ve convinced myself that homer simpson's japanese name translates to the "The beer goblin"

RBA Starblade posted:

Rebel Galaxy was a very mediocre game

Hah! I just reinstalled Rebel Galaxy on Wednesday because I remember not quite giving that game a chance when it came out. I doubled my playtime to four hours before quitting again. It is just so painfully boring.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:39

Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge: May 8, 2006; "My brain is amazing! It's full of wrinkles, and... Uh... Wait... What am I trying to say?"

I wouldn't make mind giving graveyard keeper a good home if you're humbling out

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:39

homeless snail: Mar 14, 2007

Khanstant posted:

does anyone want shadow of war, graveyard keeper, dirt rally 2, street fighter v, trailmakers, whispers of a machine, fightin herds, mages of mystrallia, or grip?

I'd take that copy of trailmakers if you don't mind if I give it to my nephew

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:42

SeXReX: Jan 9, 2009; I drink, mostly.
And get mad at people on the internet

I should go back to mindlessly blasting stuff in Starlink, it's exactly like death stranding except in space!

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:46

mutata: Mar 1, 2003

Khanstant posted:

does anyone want shadow of war, ~~graveyard keeper~~, dirt rally 2, street fighter v, ~~trailmakers~~, whispers of a machine, fightin herds, mages of mystrallia, or grip?

I'll take the pony violence game!

# ? Feb 1, 2020 02:48

Stux: Nov 17, 2006

John Murdoch posted:

I kinda see where the confusion is coming from now. I don't have that strong a preference for dogfight vs. naval battles vs. whatever I just appreciate that Rebel Galaxy did something you don't traditionally see in those kinds of space games (obviously other subgenres already do treat space as an ocean, see also Star Trek). Ironically I don't like the game beyond its format because it otherwise does all the same poo poo I've been complaining about!

W/r/t combat my problem is not that dogfighting is innately bad (neither is the naval model), but games will regularly default to "planes and jets in space" like they're being designed on auto-pilot. Lasers almost always act like the same stand-in for machineguns. Missiles are just missiles, with the same kind of lock-on and need for counter-measures you'd see in any earthly plane game. Basic combat rhythms are predictable and samey - spam laser until their shield gives out, then shoot missiles. I want more exaggerated and fantastical elements. Gimme the anime poo poo. Ships with melee weapons. Ships that transform into robots why not. Steal weapon ideas from fun classic shmups like Tyrian. Zika Flamethrowers anyone?? Let me parry incoming missile attacks. And where the gently caress are my Options??

Dude, it's a videogame. Space can be as crowded or as empty as the developer wants because it's make-believe. I'm saying I want a low-realism setting where stuff is relatively close together, at least compared to the vast, empty sandboxes that are more the norm. You'd still jet from location to location or zip around fighting enemies; by nature of doing these things in a space ship it doesn't actually matter how much space there actually is beyond there being literally physically enough room. Compare it to driving games where The Crew's open world is not at all the same beast as Burnout Paradise's open world and neither has any resemblance to track racing stuff but they're still all driving games.

I also keep bringing up stuff like GTA and ETS because driving a car or truck involves actively doing things in a way spaceship travel usually doesn't. When I'm driving around in Saints Row I can do sick handbrake turns, run people over, dart through traffic, look for shortcuts, pick fights with people, dodge the cops, make crazy jumps off ramps, etc. etc. In space games I set a waypoint, point the ship at it, and then press the go button. Even the basic action of braking or otherwise decelerating is usually hands-off. Some space games have actually tried to fix this, by turning system to system jumps into little minigames. I know Space Rangers 2 does it and I think there's at least one 3D game where you jump through a wormhole and do a little turbo tunnel kind of thing to get to the other side. But inevitably those feel artificial and weird and can't compensate if the systems themselves are devoid of detail.

And before you say "well how do you do GTA traffic in space that makes no sense I can just fly around it" that's precisely why restricting it to a 2D plane and turning it into an ocean like Rebel Galaxy should help allow for that kind of gameplay.

Furthermore, in open world games the distance between things should create opportunities for fun distractions and spontaneity. Breath of the Wild is known for its world design being intentionally enticing - always something just on the other side of the mountain and such. Similarly, random events, side content, collectibles, and noticeable landmarks are all ways of getting the player to not relentlessly follow the dot on their compass in an unerring straight line. (Even Bethesda knows how to do this, btw.) Space games do make attempts at this, but often it's just in the form of blips on the radar or distress beacons popping up out of the ether. Or god forbid, space pirates dragging you out of warp speed incessantly. And even then it's often in service of yanking you out of a designated Long Distance Travel Mode and into the wholly separate and distinct Short-Range Dogfighting Combat Mode, which weakens the spontaneity element. I want more stuff like

^^^this^^^. When things aren't set realistically apart I can use my eyes to look around and spot something cool and go "oh maybe I should try going there". Space games generally do not offer that kind of thing and it makes me sad! For another comparison, please meditate on the difference between navigating the map in Fallout 1 vs. navigating the map in New Vegas.

Part of the problem is the insistence on simulating the entire universe!!!! which just leads to lovely procgen design or copy and paste design where there's generic space stations everywhere but sometimes they're a different color because factions. I don't want to explore a realistically large universe dotted with endless systems full of mostly nothing, I want to explore the hell out of a single system that's densely packed with intentionally designed Cool Stuff.

Despite what I just said, No Man's Sky is honestly probably the closest of the current games that hews towards what I'm after simply because it makes a (flailing, messy) attempt at doing the full spectrum of "cool spaceship stuff", has some degree of emphasis on visuals*, and does in fact keep distances relatively sane.

I'm also gonna blurt out a bunch of dumb weird ideas that may or may not actually be good but might help you catch what I'm putting down: Open world Descent. Mad Max (the open world game) but in space. 6DoF Brigador. Every single mid-2000s experimental shmup that was released on Steam but as a full 3D space sandbox game instead somehow.

*Here is the one big secret that's not a secret at all because I implied as much way earlier: I don't find space inherently interesting to look at. I know NMS tries to be a bit more bombastic about it and that helps but unless I can actually go fly into the crazy purple space weather/anomaly/whatever and there's something in there waiting to be discovered then ehh. A picture of the horse head nebula hanging out in the background somewhere is not a replacement for interesting map design!!

theres a reason why in games about flying around in space the main objects are far apart. theyre like that in space which lets you do it inside the game and hide your loading screens. thats it. theres no real way around that if you're talking about like, seeing a planet and wanting to fly over to it. even if its not landing on it! because even in games where you dont land on them you still then load whatever stuff is in the local area. thats all t here is to it and there just isnt any way around it, and its not being done because of a lack of imagination or whatever else. its just a technological challenge to make a really seamless bit of space because its inherently completely open, and it makes hiding away the edges of it being a game running on a computer tough. the entire reason no mans skys announcement trailer was viewed with both hype and also a prevailing sense of "that isnt real" is because even what nms manages, which still needs a decent amount of warping, is genuinely incredible tech. to ask for more than that currently just belies a misunderstanding of what is actually possible and the compromises required for running make believe space on normal computers.

also theres a ton of other space games that arent space sims. theres about 5000 weird space games about whatever, theyre not even hard to find, its harder to actually find space sims because most of them are awful right now.

anyway here play this there u go https://store.steampowered.com/app/863590/Starcom_Nexus/

# ? Feb 1, 2020 03:20

Stux: Nov 17, 2006

John Murdoch posted:

Though now I'm imagining a space game where it's like G Gundam and Ezio is piloting a giant robot for Neo Italy that just looks like Assassin's Creed and stabs other giant robots with a hidden blade and then does the whole post-kill scene while in the robot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtEVu8sNP50

# ? Feb 1, 2020 03:24

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

Galak-Z would probably have been fun if it wasn't a lovely rougelike

# ? Feb 1, 2020 03:55

Ms. Unsmiley: Feb 13, 2012

Khanstant posted:

does anyone want shadow of war, ~~graveyard keeper~~, dirt rally 2, street fighter v, ~~trailmakers~~, whispers of a machine, fightin herds, mages of mystrallia, or grip?

ill take street fighter v if you're offering. no pms so heres my steam edit: removed

Ms. Unsmiley fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Feb 1, 2020

# ? Feb 1, 2020 04:00