[Video Games] Curse of Maphax: An Advanced Fortresses & Randoms Adventure

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Video Games] Curse of Maphax: An Advanced Fortresses & Randoms Adventure

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(Thread IKs: Buck Wildman)

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

PostNouveau posted:

This is the most comprehensible Diablo since the first one, but actually following the story just leads me to ask why we're so opposed to Lillith. Just started Act IV and she seems like the lesser of the evils here. At least she doesn't want to send everyone in Sanctuary to the Hellraiser dimension. Seems like a real step up from the current guys running Hell.

it's because she's a woman

# ¿ Jun 24, 2023 21:05

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 09:29

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Ojetor posted:

its her turn

she's not hillary, she's marianne williamson

# ¿ Jun 24, 2023 21:13

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Augus posted:

a lot of games don't have a party

i'm just confused at the idea that not having a party would scare off non-jrpg fans.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2023 19:08

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Augus posted:

the Gita Jackson review spent multiple paragraphs complaining about a character arc that doesn�t actually exist anywhere in the game

Yeah, like half the time someone criticizes a plot they make it obvious they haven't actually understood it, to the point that it appears like they're just making things up. Which I guess they might be, but they do really seem like they actually believe they're telling the truth.

Not that this means the plot they're criticizing is actually good, just that they fail to point out why it's actually bad.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2023 17:54

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Hatebag posted:

I got the first cities skylines base game, played it for like half an hour and never touched it again. I thought it was gonna be a city planning game but it seemed like mostly a traffic simulator. I wanna do big earthworks, gently caress a car

It's not actually a traffic simulator, it's a city painter with an annoying traffic layer on top that's always trying to sabotage you. If it had an actual traffic simulator it would actually encourage city planning.

gradenko_2000 posted:

I spent an entire afternoon last month learning it and playing it to get far enough to unlock bike lanes and remodel my entire city around having them everywhere

at some point you either have to do large-scale remodeling of your city, or start building with an "endgame" layout in mind, and I wasn't really mentally prepared for doing that, but it was nice to pursue a more modest goal

This is why city builder should start you off at an actual reasonable founding of your city, or with like a base early 19th century one, so the developers are forced to make remodeling your city over time a core part of the gameplay that needs as much love as expanding.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2023 15:39

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turn off the TV posted:

it does encourage city planning, traffic is so easy to manage that it's basically a non issue. you need mods to make it even remotely challenging. fortunately CS2 seems like it'll make things more difficult which is good

being a non-issue is precisely why it does not encourage city planning

# ¿ Jun 27, 2023 16:05

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

turn off the TV posted:

You make it a non issue with basic planning though.

Don't build highways. Use a hierarchy of roads. Don't make stroads. Have any public transportation. Don't make industrial traffic ever drive on streets until they're at their destination. Build fewer intersections on grade separated roads.

I've seen tons of complaints about the impossible traffic sim from people with lovely planning saying that the game sucks because they can't fix traffic by adding more lanes

the fact that it's that simple is part of why it sucks. though the issue is probably more that you get to design from scratch, rather than having to slowly fix like a 1960s remodel of the city that included building a 10 lane highway right through the middle. but i get that not everyone wants "Victoria, but a city builder". having to deal with the consequences of the philosophies of previous planners (and their evil overlords) is an integral part of being an urban planner to my mind.

gradenko_2000 posted:

having actually-working-traffic is sort of why I'm getting progressively more hype for CS2

"roundabouts will work properly now" is also another of the things that CS2 is supposedly going to do

yeah, the things that have been revealed so far are at least promising in the sense that they acknowledge some major weaknesses of the original.

gradenko_2000 posted:

simcity used to do something like this where you'd start with an already-built city and then be given an objective to reach within so many years. A lot of the time it was "we recreated Hamburg/Miami and clicked the firebombing/hurricane button" which wasn't that interesting because it was "just" a test of you rebuilding whatever it was that the disaster wrecked, but sometimes you'd get a "it's Detroit post-deindustrialization and you have to revitalize the city"

a "post-deindustrialization: our finances are hosed" start would at least be a good compromise for adding some challenge/realism to the gameplay, as opposed to essentially building a colonial town with 21st century tech. even if i think it'd be a lot cooler if new technologies and ideologies would affect how you approached city building. like having to take into account that a lot of the people who might want to move to your city think cars rule, meaning you could make a deal with the devil to rapidly grow your city, knowing full well that you'll eventually have to deal with the consequences.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2023 16:49

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Ben Nerevarine posted:

there is this awesome YouTube series where this guy (a goon, in fact, and a leftist to boot) plays a city from pre-history (read: pre-colonialism) through to present and having to correct and accommodate all his historically accurate fuckups along the way while talking about issues like eminent domain and such

as a bonus it�s based on Philadelphia and its
history

it was all the rage in the Games C:S thread for a while

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTfuA2hXi8s

this series is leaving Plato's cave for city builders

# ¿ Jun 27, 2023 17:31

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loquacius posted:

"Lawyer lady characters are antifeminist because they're not troops" is quite a take

Even more so given the setting. "She was denied the chance to be a soldier pre-war, became a girlboss instead, and then proved she had what it took all along after the patriarchy had gone to war with itself". Like, if there's no mechanical difference between male and female characters, that means this chick just picks up all the soldier-skills on her own, no problem, because she's just that cool/badass. That's not just pure Pop Feminism, it's also the real appeal of the post-apocalypse, letting the main character unleash their true potential when not encumbered by the rules of society, making the guy MC who was always just a fighter appear lame in comparison. Verdict: FO4 is Misandrist.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2023 14:49

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Screaming Idiot posted:

That would own, actually.

I actually wanted to make my male Sole Survivor a lawyerish type. When I play RPG's, I like to have a backstory for my character; how would they react to this situation, are they combative, would they get along with this party member, etc.

Fallout's always done that. It gave you some vague background stuff -- you're a Vault Dweller/Chosen One of your tribe/Courier -- and you have a goal. How you meet that goal is entirely up to you, whether you meet that goal is entirely up to you. I like that.

I may not want to be a grieving spouse searching for their child, but all the headcanon in the world can't change you being exactly that. Yeah, you can mod it out, but I shouldn't have to mod out the entire inciting incident of the story in order to feel comfortable playing it. You're not creating a character, you're just retro-futurist Commander Shepard.

isn't "searching for your child" a goal? how is that meaningfully different from searching for the geck?

Screaming Idiot posted:

I would rather that I didn't have to, which is my entire point. There's a lot of FO4's story I like! I like being a prewar citizen having to adjust to the wasteland! I like that I get to decide to be hopeful or cynical about the situation! I like that my party members react to my opinions and actions! FO4 is so, so close to being good in a lot of ways.

i don't see why you can't headcanon your way around this, like "my dude wanted to be this, but the reality of the pre-war world meant he became this, but in the wake of the bombs falling he's now free to act like himself". you can basically make anything work, due to the sheer difference between the pre and post-war world.

A Buttery Pastry has issued a correction as of 15:18 on Jul 1, 2023

# ¿ Jul 1, 2023 15:15

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Screaming Idiot posted:

Because it presupposes that my character is cishet

I don't think that's true? Outwardly living the life of the ideal cishet person doesn't mean you are one, if the choice to behave differently never really existed. admittedly this does implicitly affect that characterization of your character, but that seems inevitable if you want to play as a non-cishet character who grew up in a super hetero- and cisnormative world.

Screaming Idiot posted:

and was either a male soldier or female lawyer even though the statistics you choose may not align with that at all. There is a disconnect between the narrative and mechanical aspects of character creation, which shows a lack of commitment. They have a story they want to tell, a defined protagonist they wish to use, but the franchise previously allowed a greater freedom of choice than what Bethesda chose to utilize, and so they present a compromise which brings out the worst of both aspects; one of two rigidly defined character backstories coupled with shallow mechanics that may not align with the character chosen, IE, your lawyer may have an intelligence of 1 but have strength enough to tear a boulder in half. It's a flaw that's difficult to overlook.

I feel like this is a different criticism than what you started out with. Though from what I've seen of the game, an intelligence of 1 is not the rock bottom stupidity it used to be, so maybe it's actually fine for a lawyer.

RealityWarCriminal posted:

at one point in diamond city, piper asks you why you're in the wasteland, and the game will not progress unless you choose "saving my boy Shaun"

then seconds later Piper spots your maincharacterness and becomes subordinate

it's a bad game

i do not doubt that, given that most FO/Bethesda games appear to be, I'm just questioning the reasons given.

like, it seems like the bigger issue with the game from an identity standpoint is not so much how the character behaves before the bombs drop, but how much freedom you have to interpret that afterward. do they long for their lost life, treasure the fact that the bombs broke their shackles, or exist in some in-between self-doubt because they hated having to live that life but still grew attached to the people? same for pre-war society in general.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2023 15:59

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0 rows returned posted:

i always hated the pressure sensitive stuff in mgs2 and 3 because it was always too finicky so instead of slowly releasing the button to not shoot somebody it was easier to hit whichever shoulder button unequipped your gun or throw your hostage to the ground with cqc

this is worldbuilding, telling you that these characters are trained killers who have had to develop techniques to get around their honed killer instincts

# ¿ Jul 2, 2023 05:36

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boo boo bear posted:

if angels can fall, demons can ascend. if anyone in fiction deserves a redemption arc it's lillith.

yep. the argument for her being evil is just projection from her ex, who explicitly only cares about sanctuary as a means to get back into heaven. it's a divorced dad story, just with a shifted focus.

Ytlaya posted:

So Neyrelle's plan, that you go along with, is to gently caress them both over by sticking Mephisto in the stone and letting the protagonist kill Lilith (going against both their plans). Though Neyrelle also seems kind of dumb and is likely going to get corrupted by Mephisto while she wanders around with his soul stone. It's very dumb that Lorath is like "we should support the wishes of this moron who is basically going off to do "Dark Wanderer 2.0, Mephisto Edition."

well, she hasn't stuck it in her own head, yet, so she's got a leg up compared to the Dark Wanderer

# ¿ Jul 4, 2023 18:49

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Red Baron posted:

100% as soon as I realized what was going on I knew they would be doing this soon.

you�ll see it in the dlc without a doubt.

it adds up: D1 + D3 = D4

# ¿ Jul 4, 2023 19:26

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Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Bah. On the superior PC platform, we can go into the config files and really tune things to how we want. I assume they'll have the Gamer-Words dictionary in a plain-text XML file so we can really curate, and add to, what verbiage is included.

slur filter that "decensors" a long list of words to their "non-woke" counterparts

# ¿ Jul 5, 2023 17:40

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Grey Fox posted:

some gross variation on "I know you're my subordinate, but it's ok because you made the first move" incoming

It's time for some brave developers to explicitly call their "romances" sexual harassments instead.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2023 20:19

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Communist Thoughts posted:

I didn't really need bestiality in my BG3, but I know some gamers really did and that's what I'm most concerned aboot

They had to make it a bestiality scene, so no one would complain about it being gay.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2023 12:33

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Ytlaya posted:

But are they just small proportionally? Since a bear is much larger than a human, it might have a proportionally smaller dick while still being big for a human.

penis size doesn't necessarily correlate with body size. like, a gorilla dick is only a little over an inch erect. that said, the bg3 druid has chosen a bear that is apparently comparable to a human dick in length, but with no girth, which i think speaks to a level of care for the biomechanics of bear-on-elf twink sex.

alarumklok posted:

despite apparently being about an in-person panel, this is too online for me to give a poo poo about

every person in attendance "let me tweet something at you IRL"

# ¿ Jul 10, 2023 06:08

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Buck Wildman posted:

if you refuse to be girlfriends with anyone in p5 there's a whole scene with you and the blonde guy being alone on christmas day and the cat calls you a pair of incel losers

lol

sounds like at least one is a volcel?

# ¿ Jul 10, 2023 16:57

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El Pollo Blanco posted:

Shame the already pretty trash BG IP is being run into the ground by a collection of Scandinavian beast loving freaks who think humor peaked with Monty python

they're belgian, you racist

# ¿ Jul 11, 2023 05:52

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indigi posted:

I understand why they made it their business model but Paradox style "reup for half the cost of base every 4-6 months" pisses me off more than it would charging $200+ for the base game and then you just get content updates every few months

especially because the last few have been so undercooked at launch that they basically have to release a free DLC as a patch to make it any good

they've definitely leaned into the whaling lifestyle

should just accept the consequences and make an mmogsg

# ¿ Jul 12, 2023 20:20

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Xaris posted:

it's called noclip, zoomers. smdh

they're clearly clipping all over the place

# ¿ Jul 13, 2023 05:35

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DoombatINC posted:

SoF1 is an absolute cartoon, and for the better. CV11 just did a good video recapping his first playthrough and while im not entirely as gently caress-hot about the game as he is i still agree that it works great as a fun, campy, self-indulgent power fantasy bloodbath - at one point he compares it to Deathwish 3 and id say that's just about dead on.

i am pretty sure my younger self was convinced this was the most realistic and badass shooter ever made. i do not remember a single thing except apparently it had realistic reload animations??

# ¿ Jul 17, 2023 18:14

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Regarde Aduck posted:

i think the second one did, the first was basically a cartoon

The timeline only matches up for the first one, though it's probably like third hand marketing copy that got lodged in my brain.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2023 20:21

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turn off the TV posted:

there is no way that they would allow you to make direct purchases since they wouldn't be able to do the thing where they sell packs of 600 funbucks but every cosmetic costs 450

600 vs. 450 is way too nice, since it means "just" having to buy 3 to get 4. Has to be some hosed-up ratio that's never quite right, ideally one where you get special offers that encourage you to not empty you funwallet.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2023 18:56

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DrManiac posted:

These loving cowards didn't include the auto-runner where you collect items to make your rear end bigger or the one where you give a makeover to a slobby lady who poo poo herself.

those are real games

# ¿ Jul 26, 2023 15:11

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Cuttlefush posted:

80 per week at the very least if you log in on those days. i think you get more from the events and virtual fite stuff. i think they either upped the drip or cut fob costs at some point

yeah, iirc, it went from "that's way too few coins, i'm just not gonna care about fobs" to me getting two fobs, during my initial playthrough of the game. a classic "let's squeeze some money out of the impatient gamers before fixing things" style money making scheme.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2023 20:33

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Al! posted:

what the gently caress is eliminations

Cuttlefush posted:

(it's an accounting thing for dealing with money going in between different companies or parts of the company or whatever. it dont matter)

wrong, it's execution tech, like electric chairs and poo poo

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 05:33

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Cuttlefush posted:

right? who the gently caress came up with the whole "konami is a pachinko company" thing. why did it persist. it makes them like no money. makes you wonder what other lies you've been holding onto

Kojima did it. only when all gamers have freed themselves from that lie will chapter three of mgsv be unlocked.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 15:30

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Rockstar Massacre posted:

I know that probably reads as desperate attempt at Ubisoft's pathetic insistence to the apolitical, but Canada as a nationstate really is just an international front for truly horrible global mining groups.

Canada is not a nation state dude. A nation state is a political entity where a single ethnic group has both the political power and will to define things like official languages and culture. That is, the state is representative of the (supposed) interests of the dominant nation, at least in-so-far as it doesn't directly interfere with the interests of capital. Canada, with its large French Canadian population and varied official languages, is not a nation state. Canada is multinational/cultural state.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2023 21:30

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Rockstar Massacre posted:

you're correct and great post but i actually just typed 'nationstate' in another post two minutes before that one and my phone autofilled 'nation' with 'state' without me noticing. thank you for immortalizing this embarassing oversight

guess what? writing nation would be just as wrong, since that's the part canada is not!

probably best to just replace the term with race state, if you absolutely refuse to use country, which is a better fit for both the us and canada

Ytlaya posted:

Lots of people suddenly upset that they can't fit the game on their 10-15yo PCs when the game gets released.

reminds me of the huge uproar from some sections of the paradox grand strategy community when the games could no longer run on 15yo laptops. there's definitely a segment of gamers that exist entirely unconnected from the wider happenings of the gaming world, until eventually the gaming sphere they pay attention to lurches to catch up with the rest of gaming and they're completely blindsided.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2023 06:12

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Srice posted:

I have not yet played FF16. I know that a lot of FF14 folks were behind it. I have seen takes from people that don't care for FF16 saying it's because the FF14 people who worked on it worked on the bad parts of FF14.

Looking at the credits on Wikipedia, the people involved seem to be largely ones associated with the most celebrated parts of FF14. Admittedly also one of the least celebrated parts, the A Realm Reborn storyline, but I'm not entirely sure "only managed to create a serviceable setup for future storylines" is a huge black mark against a writer given the rushed development. Espeically when they followed it up with a much better liked expansion.

Of course there is also such a thing as individual taste. What is, to the majority of players a "badass moment" in the latest expansion, somehow completely soured others on the story entirely. I guess you can only really hope that it's that kind of thing making people not care for it, and that you're on the side that'd think it was awesome, rather than it just being generally bland.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2023 16:20

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Al! posted:

i was implying 10 was better than 6

obviously. 10 > 6

# ¿ Aug 2, 2023 17:18

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Popy posted:

just have crazy fast internet and redownload it in llke 2hrs

Yeah, this whole "scandal" is just people trying to externalize the consequences of bad internet infrastructure unto another country. The median download time for the game in the city it was created in is less than 2.5 hours, and that's not taking into account that gamers should be expected to choose more high-end options. Half an hour to redownload the game is entirely feasible, and not really a big deal.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2023 05:47

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Al! posted:

you have to unequip peoples underwear and yes i did look at gale's dick

"look dude, your dick is simply not good enough. i'm gonna have to have you sit out our next dungeon crawl unless you fix that"

# ¿ Aug 4, 2023 17:44

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Irony.or.Death posted:

the specifics of this one already got filled in, but playing xvi right after xc2 left me feeling like there's a more general thing going on. fantasy writers wanting to use racism in their setting as an easy source of conflict + having most (looking nervously around the country here) people on board with an abstract "racism is bad", but also being extremely dedicated to not saying anything whatsoever about racism or class relations in the real world so they throw in enough nonsense details that no reading grounded in reality will make any sense.

tldr; I don't think this is old japanese dudes out of their depth in any way, it's a liberal coward's attempt at analysis-proof fairy tale

still a pretty good ff as they go, though

counterpoint: it's actually a 1-to-1 recreation of race relations in japan, and you're just seeing nonsense details in theirs while thinking those of your own country are just an inherent aspect of any racism

# ¿ Aug 6, 2023 18:10

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Irony.or.Death posted:

so is it the ainu who have superpowers that must be stamped out in order to prevent them from turning to stone or is that just something that happens to any domestic servant imported from poorer neighboring nations?

it simply can't be explained to someone who doesn't have decades of experience with japanese racism. it'll all make sense if you play through the yakuza series and really take its lessons to heart. Lostconfused gets it, though obviously dumbing it down for the audience:

Lostconfused posted:

Ah the magic users are secret koreans.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2023 20:24

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a_gelatinous_cube posted:

Honestly after playing a ton of Divinity and Pillars over the last couple of years, going back to the ADnD system in Baldur's gate feels boring as poo poo. All the classes are pulling from the same bag of skills and spells with a few unique ones for the class that make a lot of them seem more samey. I'm playing a druid and it just feels like a mashup of a cleric and wizard with some spice on top, where when I play a druid in Pillars it comes with a full suite of unique druid skills and spells to differentiate it from the other classes.

I must admit, my eyes kinda gloss over a lot of the skills. Like, there are just way too many to choose from, and I can't really be made to care about a lot of them. Would definitely prefer a more limited tool set for each class, tailored to a specific style/aesthetic of gameplay. Lean a little more into the positional aspect of the game like it's Into the Breach, and give every class some ability to manipulate enemies/each other in fun ways, from simple stuff like pushing in a line to grabbing one enemy and clearing a circle, or using them as a battering ram to push through multiple enemies. Or throwing your own allies, as an alternative to jump. For all I know some of that poo poo is actually there, but like I said, the game throws too much poo poo out for me to want to really dig into it.

a_gelatinous_cube posted:

Adapting the spell and rest system to a video game where you are getting into constant fights also feels clunky as hell, and tossing up a camp every 50 feet up the road is kind of ridiculous.

I can kind of see a purpose to it, given that actually setting up camp apparently influences the outcomes of quests by counting down timers, but I don't think it's really worth it. Might've been better to just have all that poo poo regenerate out of combat in normal areas, and then still have "Dangerous areas" or whatever they're called where you're supposed to make it through one-shot without your skills and health regenerating.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 09:39

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Goa Tse-tung posted:

I just use the mod that lets me use all party members, game is hard enough already

the trick is to just not find enough potential party members that you even realize this is a mechanic, and you instead wonder why they have the option to let people stay at camp at all

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 11:06

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 09:29

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Tiler Kiwi posted:

i keep forgetting i have a nonlethal attack toggle but i also am pretty sure it's use makes no difference in basically all circumstances

it should be called less-lethal. tried to do a nonlethal takedown on the owlbear, like any good wildlife ranger, but it died and then its cub ate it...

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 17:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Video Games] Curse of Maphax: An Advanced Fortresses & Randoms Adventure

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