The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Josquius]

Been playing some Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe. 

I've been thinking of playing that again. Is goods/passenger destinations included by default now?
They really need to sort out their mod directory.

[KRonn]

I bought/downloaded Conquest of the New World -  Deluxe from GOG. I used to really like that oldie game, and having some fun with it now.

[Syt]

I picked up The Last Federation. It's from the same devs as the good AI War, the decent Bionic Dues and the not so good A Valley Without Wind.

Premise: You're the last survivor of your race in a solar system with 8 distinct alien races. Your goal: to unite them into the Last Federation. You can do this through diplomacy or force. You have one ship that you can customize with weapons and special abilities.

Each race has its own personality, government system etc. You can perform good deeds for them (clean out pirates, help with research, fleet building, improving the living standards on the planet etc.), not so nice deeds (sabotage, curry favor with one of the factions, espionage ...), or, if you have enough favor, influence them to do stuff (attack someone, build colonies, expand fleet ...). It feels like playing a grand strategy game on a meta level. You want to make sure that your (prospective) allies are strong enough, have a good tech level, but ideally are also in a position where they need your help.

Combat is turn based. It was originally supposed to be real time, and you can tell. The way it works is that you set order for movement and attack, then you get 3 seconds of action, then the game pauses for the next round. I think it works pretty well and is reasonably fast paced. The missions I've done so far (which have been drop off something, attack pirate convoy, attack pirate base) have not been too challenging so far, but I'm still at the start of the campaign, so that may change. Besides, I'm playing on normal difficulty, there's two or three steps above it.

The whole thing feels very 1990s, and I don't mean that in a bad way - the system map with its giant planets, the rather good soundtrack, and the painted background graphics for when you visit planets or something major happens.

I'm not sure I like it yet, but I see good things.

I'm an hour in, and a bit overwhelmed at the options and the balancing that will be involved and it feels a bit dry at this point. Do I want the bloodthirsty, animalistic insect race who love me to increase their tech? Or should I rather throw in my lot with the pacifist robots? Or should I favor them both, having the robots transfer their techs to the insects? What of the other races? Doing non-combat missions can take months of in game time during which the balance of pwoer can significantly shift, especially when one race after another gains space flight capability (in the beginning it's only one).

The star system is randomized during every play - the races are the same, but their planet and their countdown till they can into space are randomized.

There is a Let's Play here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lVQ6sV44WA

And a few random screen shots.

[Syt]

I've also watched quill18's stream about Factorio - it's an interesting premise ... start from scratch and build an industrial factory on a planet. But it looked rather dull. It's Supply Chain Management the Video Game. It's kind of nifty to set up your mining, electricity, research and production facilities to feed each other automatically, but the way there looks loooong.

[mongers]

Been playing some Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe. 

I've been thinking of playing that again. Is goods/passenger destinations included by default now?
They really need to sort out their mod directory.

Not sure what you mean, I'm just playing it like I did the original.

[Syt]

TB reviews Last Federation. Haven't put as much time into it as I would like, what with uncluttering my apartment and preparing for the move on Saturday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu1VziShzDg

The devs are currently adding a small feature every day this week (yesterday ways to obtain techs from the races, today making perma-death optional) while fixing bugs and exploits after which they'll switch to weekly updates adding quests, weapons, etc.

[Syt]

A new Warhammer 40k game! It's strategy! It's turn based! Its ...

CHESS!

http://warhammer40kchess.com/


WTF is going on in GW's licensing department, I wonder.

[Syt]

Trailer for Dreadnought (sorry, Neil, the sci-fi kind).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teH5Oowj-J8

I chuckled.

Same with the Dead Island 2 trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQv8niU_L6s


Both games under development by Yager, who made Spec Ops: The Line.

[Tamas]

I am itching again for some La Grande Guerre PBEM. It is by far the awesomest boardgame simulation of WW1, and while a monster, a very playable one. IIRC everything is accessible for it online, good for 2 to 4 players. We could stick to historical warplans, or go for free selection of them as people please.

With 2 players there is a bigger workload per player obviously, but with 3 or 4 there is considerable downtime for a given player due to the nature of PBEM. Players are per front, BTW, not country (as that would drag stuff out too much), but that is mostly relevant to the Central Powers, since the per front division means there will be a France/UK/maybe Italy player and a Russia/maybe Romania/maybe Greece/maybe Bulgaria/maybe Ottomans player.


To make you want to play more, a short list:
-the movement war  can be very fluid with interceptions and reaction moves and the like.

-when the game switches to trench war it all changes, and actual combat phase becomes decidedly easier, although obviously more indecisive, but you still retain certain level of fluidity at the East for quite a while, as that front will lag behind in trench levels

-the key in the game for victory (unless you Paris or collapse Austria-Hungary in 1914 militarily), is to break the will of the other nations to fight.
There are various consequences tied to National Will: Mutinies, Revolutions (with a varying outcomes from military dictatorships through "white" democracies to Bolshevik takeover), but also NW might resurrect if things go TOO bad, and the enemy starts to conquer the home cities of the nation in question

-there is a kind of semi-random technology system: you do have an influence on what to research but not complete, so you cannot rush to stosstruppen and tanks from the getgo (unless you strike lucky)

-Diplomacy is basically as easy as rolling a dice to influence a given country, but each country has their separate list of DRMs and effects tied to different diplomatic levels. It is a very nice system

-the production system is very elegant: your economy can be either geared for civilian or military production, with about 10 steps in between: the more military production you enact (if your parliament/power factions let you!), the more production points and artillery munition production you have (quite crucial), but the less bonus for National Will you receive. An easy but crucial balancing act

I was in a 3 players PBEM game once (I AARed it on Languish I believe) and it went reasonably well despite using Aide de Camp (there is a Vassal module now IIRC). Only reason it ended was that one of the players got pissed because of some silly reason (we didn't let him redo something after massive hindsight or something).

So, Berkut? Habbaku? Anyone?

[Habbaku]

I'm tentatively interested.  Link me some rules and stuff.  I would prefer to play Allies in the East if we get four.

[Tamas]

All the rulebooks and such are here:
http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@@.ee6d67e/2093


There is a VASSAL module at the vassal site and boardgamegeek, I will scout around to see if there is anything more up to date.

While there are a shitload of booklets and such, the real core of the game are in the movement and trench rules, the rest are mostly full of things that need only be referenced every once in a while.

[Drakken]

Storm over the Pacific has become available on Steam, and I'm pondering buying it. Seems it has flown under the radar, I have an itching for some Pacific War action but I am too busy for WITP:AE.

Should I or shouldn't I?

[The Brain]

Storm over the Pacific has become available on Steam, and I'm pondering buying it. Seems it has flown under the radar, I have an itching for some Pacific War action but I am too busy for WITP:AE.

Should I or shouldn't I?

I got it (just because I'm in a big Pacific War phase and I thought what the hell), but I haven't really played it.

Is WitP:AE remotely playable if you don't have a diagnosis btw?

[grumbler]

I got it (just because I'm in a big Pacific War phase and I thought what the hell), but I haven't really played it.

Is WitP:AE remotely playable if you don't have a diagnosis btw?

WitP AE is a great game if you have a high tolerance for micromanagement.  You won't micro-manage every thing every day, but will need to remember things like checking the status of the individual pilots in your training squadrons once a month or so, and deciding whether you want random or focused searches by your search planes.

If you don't know whether you have a high tolerance for micromanagement or not, you don't.

[The Brain]

I got it (just because I'm in a big Pacific War phase and I thought what the hell), but I haven't really played it.

Is WitP:AE remotely playable if you don't have a diagnosis btw?

WitP AE is a great game if you have a high tolerance for micromanagement.  You won't micro-manage every thing every day, but will need to remember things like checking the status of the individual pilots in your training squadrons once a month or so, and deciding whether you want random or focused searches by your search planes.

If you don't know whether you have a high tolerance for micromanagement or not, you don't.

Thanks. Likely I wouldn't have the stomach to actually play it, but maybe to play around with it... You can get it with a printed manual, no?