The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Tamas]

I went to sleep waaaaay too late last night because of Cold Waters.

It is most certainly a Hollywood version of modern naval warfare but still fun, has a lot of relevant stuff like thermal layers, wired torpedoes, sonar buoys etc. And it's pretty.

[Tamas]

I had what I thought to be my best campaign mission yet. Los Angeles class sub, 1984.

Order was to find and destroy a Soviet sub-resupply force. I probably found them, although there was no cargo ship detected, all 3 surface vessels were combat ones. First salvo took out two of them, I don't think they ever detected me, laying still just under the thermal layer at app. 250 feet.

While I was waiting for the 3rd ship  to race toward trouble and meet my 2nd salvo, I noticed an Ivan (2?) submarine as well, but it seemed to just dick around and ping in vain a couple of hundred feet below me. Lost him while 3rd ship was sinking close to me.

A bit later we were meeting almost head on. I didn't want to do a hip shot kinda' thing, waited for full target resolution, so ended up firing 4 torpedoes at point blank range. They went all above the enemy sub, as my wires broke when I dodged the single torpedo the Ivan fired at me.

I failed dodging, btw. Hull down to 48% damage to propulsion but I still felt confident. I was sitting a bit above Ivan, engine off and it seemed like it had no idea. I was waiting for the torpedoes to reload, I was watching in 3D view from the back of my sub, the enemy ahead and below me. Seemed like an easy kill.

That's when the second enemy torpedo suddenly swam in to the edge of my view, to the starboard back end of my sub. I thought "shit" and I was dead.

I am pretty sure there was no aircraft around, so I am guessing I didn't detect the second torpedo launch, maybe the first was with an active torpedo sonar hence my detection. Or maybe there was a warning before it hit, I just got so cocky I didn't notice.

Fun game.

[CountDeMoney]

Already played a lot of Dangerous Waters:  better, worse or different?

[Tamas]

It is lighter than Dangerous Waters. Significantly, I guess. Much better looking. Has dynamic campaign.

You WASD control your sub, with several additional keys. Don't frown upon it too much though, you quickly get used to it and it keeps you more in the action.

Game is not without bugs though. Sometimes a sunk surface ship just weirdly half-register as sunk - it sinks, but it remains marked as an active unit. One even launched a missile-carried torpedo on me
And you can destroy them any further. Real trouble with this is that since they register as enemy vessels you can't quit the battle and return to the campaign map once you killed everyone or lost your pursuers, you need to leave the area for that, which is a pretty fucking big area.

But I am having as much fun as I hoped I would.

[CountDeMoney]

Cool;  loved DW, but you needed 12 credits at the Naval Academy to plot solutions.

[Tamas]

Cool;  loved DW, but you needed 12 credits at the Naval Academy to plot solutions.

I am setting the game aside now until the first patch due to the error I mentioned, plus the godlike enemy planes, both confirmed issues by the developer.

But it is big fun, and round about the same level of details I want to go into with a simulation. If I want details I can always play CMANO anyways.

It's just that because of the zombie ships bug, missions often take way too much time.


BTW I tried briefly the 1968 campaign as well. Went sub hunting in the first mission (I was in the time's state of the art US sub but don't remember the name). When I made contact with the enemy force (they were about to land some Spetnaz off the coast of Norway), I was highly annoyed to only spot one of them on the sonar for a few seconds at a time. I got frustrated, turned active sonar on. Didn't see shit. Got a torpedo fired at me. Tried to flee in the shallow water. I died.

[CountDeMoney]

They ever adjust for crew quality in CMANO?

[Tamas]

They ever adjust for crew quality in CMANO?

I don't remember off the top of my head, but probably no.

[Syt]

Been playing Victor Vran. That's a fun game. Streamed it for 3 hours yesterday and 8 hours today, and the time just flew by. I think the first time I checked the clock today 6 hours had passed.

On the one hand it's a Diablo clone, on the other it isn't. Skills depend on equipped weapons, there's no stats assignment on level up, and you configure your character through outfit, weapons, and cards that give you passive skills. Combat is fast paced, requiring more input than Diablo - you often have to dodge out of the path of enemies or projectiles, and you switch weapons on the fly to use specific skills (e.g. I currently keep switching between my life steal rapier and my AOE hammer).

Your character - a demon hunter - is voiced by the guy who voices Geralt in the Witcher games. And you get a snarky narrator who keeps breaking the forth wall and makes silly (and sometimes tired) references who actually made me laugh a few times throughout.

[Tamas]

Cool;  loved DW, but you needed 12 credits at the Naval Academy to plot solutions.

FYI a beta patch that supposedly fixes all my gripes with the game has just been released

[MadBurgerMaker]

Cool;  loved DW, but you needed 12 credits at the Naval Academy to plot solutions.

FYI a beta patch that supposedly fixes all my gripes with the game has just been released

Been using USS Narwhal in the 84 campaign.  Sneaky. 

Vaporizing Grishas with Harpoons does not ever get old.   

E:  Dammit, got smoked by a Victor II and III ambush in the Barents Sea while SSBN hunting.  Killed the II, but never detected the III except for the torpedoes he shoved down my throat.  I sent two back down the bearing, because fuck that guy, but was dead before they even activated. 

The AI seems to be able to detect me very quickly sometimes, regardless of what I'm doing.  I'll start the battle being actively pinged, which is irritating.  I mean, it gives me a bearing to where they are and all that, but they're already all up in my shit before I've even gotten going.  This happens when starting at 25km, even just moving at 1/3.

[Tamas]

I have found Harpoons to be very much inferior to the torpedoes. Maybe I am just using them the wrong way but every time I try them, most of them ends up caught on the escorts' defensive fire. And then they know EXACTLY where I fired from so even if I GTFO I'll have to dodge missile-delivered torpedoes for the next half a day.

Whereas just last night I managed to eradicate an entire invasion force just with torpedoes. First salvo took out half of the 4 cargo ships, and I had time to reload, sending 2 against the surviving cargo ships and then one each against the 2 escorts closest to me. Got never shot at, not sure if I was ever discovered or they were just coming in on the detected torpedo launch's spot.

Keeping your wire connection to your torpedo is sure useful.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I have found Harpoons to be very much inferior to the torpedoes. Maybe I am just using them the wrong way but every time I try them, most of them ends up caught on the escorts' defensive fire. And then they know EXACTLY where I fired from so even if I GTFO I'll have to dodge missile-delivered torpedoes for the next half a day.

Whereas just last night I managed to eradicate an entire invasion force just with torpedoes. First salvo took out half of the 4 cargo ships, and I had time to reload, sending 2 against the surviving cargo ships and then one each against the 2 escorts closest to me. Got never shot at, not sure if I was ever discovered or they were just coming in on the detected torpedo launch's spot.

They are definitely inferior, but they're fun to use on defenseless ships and it saves a torp for subs and ships that can shoot the Harpoons down.

Keeping your wire connection to your torpedo is sure useful.

  Sucks when it breaks and the target pops a noisemaker.  Just have to hope it circles back around and picks them up again.

I downloaded the Russian subs mod from Subsim this afternoon.  The Alfa is a damn killing machine.  It's loud and has garbage sensors, but when they shoot at you, just turn away, punch it, wait for the torpedo to run out of gas (might as well go active at that point too and get the location of everything around you, since your position is now known globally anyway), and then come back for more.  It's very maneuverable as well, so you can easily make some knuckles and use those to work your way back toward what you're about to kill while doing your high speed run.  I haven't tried to lure a torpedo back to the sub that fired it yet, but it's on my to do list.

Don't try to shoot anything at 42 knots though.  Wrecks the tubes. 

[Syt]

Dark Souls III is settling into my Dark Souls I patterns (farming/learning an area extensively till I can clear it easily), though I currently try to play the game with less cheesing and exploits after starting over with a new char.

Spent 7+ hours yesterday almost entirely farming the four Lothric Knights near the Vordt boss arena in High Wall of Lothric, for the Lothric Knight Set, plus souls (to buy the Firelink Shrine Tower Key and to cure undead curse) and embers. I've become reasonably decent fighting those knights one on one, though, which is part of the idea. Moving on to Undead Settlement now.

[CountDeMoney]

Where do you people find all this time for video gaming?