The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Tamas]

On Normal at least, I am fairly convinced the AI is cheating heavily in AoW4. In my last won game I had an AI with 4 large cities (so far from weak to be fair) seemingly churning out at least 2 full stacks of Tier 3-4 units per turn. Unless it had ginormous gold reserve I don't think that was possible.

I don't mind the AI cheating in general, but it does make late game wars quite tedious. I manually fought these big-ass battles for a while to minimise my losses (since my 3 stacks had to eliminate 6-9 stack mega armies in 2-3 separate battles), but after a while I just couldn't make myself, had to switch to auto resolve.

[Tamas]

BTW Syt please do play the CK3 DLC and report back. I am on the fence about it, I am sure the travel mechanics are to the game's benefit but I am already struggling to tolerate the frequency of random meme events, I don't think I can put up with several more layers of them.

[Syt]

The memes themselves don't bother me too much, it's just that they seem to occur too often (and I still believe CK2, esp. at the end if its life cycle was the far worse offender, overall).

I believe it's something where mods help a lot, like VIET (which lets you set the desired level of meme-ness of its content). Also, I saw a message on the forums that in future achievements/ironman will be possible even when using mods that change the checksum (with some unspecified exceptions), so if you felt you wanted to avoid mods and hunt achievements, the two will not be mututally exclusive any more.

[Tamas]

In CK2 at least you had an option to turn the memes off, which I always did.

What's also bad however (which the travel mechanic may change for the better) is that the events make the game driven by random events without much if any context to the mechanics you are playing with (apart from your traits serving as triggers in some cases). It always frustrates me. Mechanics and actions should inform and trigger events not the other way around, especially when arguably the mechanics are better in CK3 than in CK2.

[Syt]

Eh, I think I'm more forgiving of that kind of gameplay. That said, most events have triggers and conditions, so generally they come out of characters' stats, if not results of direct actions. But with the number of characters, I'm fine if they don't model cause/effect chains for every event and action in the game and instead use random events as long as there's still trying to factor in traits and stats of the relevant characters (whether they achieve that well enough is of course up for debate).

That said, at the end of the day it's a game. And ultimately, the question for me is whether I'm entertained - I'm willing to cut the game slack in that regard (it helps that I like games as generators of narrative), but I understand if players who would prefer a more meticulous mechanical simulation of medieval rulership (let's call it "more mechanics, less fluff") don't like the title as much. And I can be quite forgiving of a game's shortcomings if I like the theme and the gameplay hooks me in well enough (looks at his 700+ hours in Victoria 3 ...  ).

[garbon]

I think it is a known that many Ck3 events have underdeveloped triggers.

[Syt]

Btw, I don't think I like the animation when you unlock a new tome in AoW4 ... it reminds me too much of opening packs in Hearthstone and the money I in that game.

[viper37]

Dungeons 4 has been announced.

The first Dungeons was apparently very, very similar to Dungeon Keeper, so EA tried to have them shut down but lost their legal battle.

Dungeons 2 came out, with enough difference to not warrant a suit.

I've played many hours of Dungeons 3 and I'm now looking forward to Dungeons 3.

It's classified as a "dungeon simulator".  Whatever that means? 

They're full of parodies and clichés about fantasy lore, lots of humor, and in the 3rd one, conflict between the narrator and your main character, Talya.
Silly humor, but I like it.  Due to the similarities of Dungeon Keeper, it reminded me of the game, and that's why I picked it up in the first place.  Lots of fun.

I'm eagerly awaiting the 4th one.

[celedhring]

I'm feeling the itch for some nice tactical turn-based WWII game. Any recomendations outside of Panzer Corps?

[Tamas]

I'm feeling the itch for some nice tactical turn-based WWII game. Any recomendations outside of Panzer Corps?

Panzer Corps 2.

[Syt]

Second Front reviews well, but I haven't really jumped into it yet. Similar for The Troop.

There's also the Order of Battle series which has a few more mechanics than Panzer Corps, but I've not really gotten on with it. Or if you prefer your WW2 games to play more like puzzle games, check Unity of Command 1 & 2 (1 is a lot "puzzlier" than 2, I think).

[Tamas]

Ah yes Unity of Command 2 is excellent, but definitely still has a lot of puzzle feel to it.

[celedhring]

My fear with Panzer Corps 2 is that it plays much like a puzzle too. Is that the case?

Otherwise it's a good candidate, given there's a Spanish Civil War DLC, too.

[Tamas]

My fear with Panzer Corps 2 is that it plays much like a puzzle too. Is that the case?

Otherwise it's a good candidate, given there's a Spanish Civil War DLC, too.

Too a degree yes, although less than Unity of Command. But really, you should give UoC2 a try. It can be immensely entertaining.

[frunk]

There's also Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg, which has been sitting in my wishlist for a long time.

Buy it and tell me what you think.