Author Topic: What are you playing now? Share with everyone  (Read 150962 times)

Nyx Nought Nothing

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #300 on: February 18, 2017, 12:49:05 AM »
Currently it's Elder Scrolls Online. i'd pretty much stopped playing over a year ago, but the addition of housing and the upcoming addition of the island of Morrowind convinced me to go back. Started over with a new Sorcerer as i like to start fresh if i've been away from an MMO for a long time and it's a lot better than when i left. The auto-scaling of level for all zones and the rest of the changes have made it much better in my opinion, i'm having quite a bit of fun. Still mostly treating it as a solo game with random chat, but i plan to do some group content soon.
So far so good. Onward and upward!

Thunder Glove

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #301 on: February 19, 2017, 02:05:45 AM »
In the realm of video games, Fallout 4.

... should I count tabletop games of Scion and Pathfinder?  Those are really what I'm enjoying right now.  (Scion has me playing a masked luchador - yes, he wears the mask all the time, like El Santo, his hero - who is the son of the Aztec god of war Huitzilopochtli, while Pathfinder sees me playing a gnome bard, where the character has already died and been reincarnated as a female half-orc.  She's handling the sex change fine, but she doesn't actually like being so tall).

Soon to be accompanied by an Against The Dark Yogi game where I'll be playing a Legendary Indian hero based loosely on Michael Knight (because "Charioteer", which comes with its own special vehicle and a driver, is actually a class in AtDY), and we might be putting together a Call of Cthulhu game where I'll probably playing a woman named Lady Florence Beatrice Huntington (inspired by a recent Judge John Hodgman episode about Flowbees and a Tumblr post)

Edit just to note: Man, did I really create that CoC character back in February?  We didn't have our first CoC session until last week, October 8th.  Still haven't played Against the Dark Yogi.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2017, 02:08:03 AM by Thunder Glove »

FlyingCarcass

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #302 on: February 21, 2017, 08:37:06 AM »
Just finished up a Crusader Kings 2 campaign. Starting as the count of Ferrara in Italy, my dynasty went on to become kings of Bavaria.

Some highlights include:
-Kidnapping a liege to steal his duchy
-2 instances of an uncle murdering his niece to steal the throne
-Horse MD, a horse who became a renowned physician, poet, crusader, and cardinal. Also noteworthy for seducing several human women.
-Almost having the dynasty wiped out by the plague, forcing an old disfigured man to seduce nearly every woman in the realm in a desperate gambit to produce sons to continue the dynasty
-Winning the kingdom of Galicia in a crusade, without having actually joined the crusade
-A cannibal king beloved by all

Vee

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #303 on: February 21, 2017, 08:39:34 AM »
No cream monopoly? And you call yourselves kings of Bavaria.

Safehouse

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #304 on: February 23, 2017, 12:20:31 PM »
I've been playing FFXIV a ton lately and, to a lesser extent, The Secret World. They've been kind of my mainstay games for the last 1.5-2 years, but it's hard to play both at once so I often play one for a long time, and then switch over to the other.

Community is a big part of it for me. My experience with both communities has been incredibly positive; I've even developed a fair number of strong friendships in FFXIV, with people in a guild (first guild since CoH). The worlds in both games are interesting and immersive, with stories and character into which it's easy to become invested. And, despite complaints about TSW's, I love both of the games' combat systems.

That said, I've been missing City of something awful lately. It's hard to describe; I miss it so much that I actually feel it physically. Been listening to the soundtrack, but it's still hard. I can't believe that, going on five years after shut down, I could miss something this much. Perhaps it's time to start writing my CoH stories.

I had tried DCUO and Champions, but neither worked for me. DCUO's public chat was atrocious when I was on (maybe it's gotten better, idk) and my interactions with other players were... not good. It turned me off a lot. Champions just failed to grab any of my interest.
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therain93

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #305 on: February 25, 2017, 04:32:53 PM »
I play Overwatch mostly during events, so the Sunday before the end of Capture the Rooster was the last I had played it.  I recently finished Xcom-Enemy Within yet again, and have begun Xcom 2, which is kicking my butt in a fun way ( ' :

I also picked up Westerado, a fun little side scroller adventure game and been playing a bit of Invisible.

I started Kingdoms of Amalur, but didn't find it very compelling and I did start Pillars of Eternity, which is a nice throw back to Bioware RPGs, but I put it on pause until I finish Xcom2 (once or twice ; ' )

I logged into my Neverwinter, TESO, and SWTOR accounts just last night to peruse characters, but no mmo has nearly approached my love and interest playing City of Heroes.

I do have some spare steam keys
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FlyingCarcass

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #306 on: February 25, 2017, 06:16:36 PM »
Since finishing up my CK2 campaign, I've gone back to playing Toxikk. Fun game reminiscent of unreal tournament, but the player base is small.
https://youtu.be/a9AcHqxqvHU

Vee

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #307 on: February 25, 2017, 07:34:31 PM »

I do have some spare steam keys

I've been considering starting a separate thread for that, as I have them fairly often with all the bundles I buy. What do we think?

therain93

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #308 on: February 27, 2017, 06:48:10 AM »
I've been considering starting a separate thread for that, as I have them fairly often with all the bundles I buy. What do we think?

I'm all for a "Wentworth's" Subforum for trading and selling ( ' :
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AlphaFerret

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #309 on: March 03, 2017, 08:53:14 PM »
Just went back to Middle Earth online, and picked up the original xbox with a bunch of old games....hope to launch some terror on the beach goers with Jaws Unleashed this weekend;)

LaughingAlex

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #310 on: March 09, 2017, 12:23:40 AM »
I managed to solve 99% of my ILS(Infinite loading screen) issues with fallout 4 when I upgraded my system, although I also play starbound on and off.  Been toying with CO again, although it's clear the game is even more of a shadow than it ever has been.  A shame really.

There is just something about fallout 4, probably the fact that while it's not the best for roleplaying, the funny Mechinima "Psycho" gets me into the game time and again.  It's kind of like Oblivion to the elder scrolls games, very easy to want to mod it simply to make it less generic I guess.

Now installing yet another armor mod....and no I don't download the slut mods(Hate, hate, hate, hate them, always animeish to).
Currently; Not doing any streaming, found myself with less time available recently.  Still playing starbound periodically, though I am thinking of trying other games.  Don't tell me to play mmohtg's though please :).  Getting back into participating in VO and the successors again to.

cmgangrel

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #311 on: March 09, 2017, 06:10:52 AM »
Elite dangerous pretty much takes up all of my time in one form or another.

If I am not ingame, I am working on voicepacks for Voice Attack

Taceus Jiwede

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #312 on: March 16, 2017, 03:57:20 AM »
I have been on a huge Dark Souls binge.  I beat the 1st a couple of times over the last couple months and now have moved onto Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin. I always forgot about great the souls games are.

cmgangrel

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #313 on: March 16, 2017, 08:08:38 PM »
I have been on a huge Dark Souls binge.  I beat the 1st a couple of times over the last couple months and now have moved onto Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin. I always forgot about great the souls games are.

They are definitely games that make you *think* about how to approach your enemy

FlyingCarcass

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #314 on: March 22, 2017, 08:01:15 PM »
Still mostly playing Toxikk, even got into making maps for it (which I've found scratches that sort of Minecraft/Space Engineers creative build itch).

And because I'm a glutton for screenshots...
Spoiler for Hidden:








Too bad only a few of the handful of players that play the game play on the servers hosting custom maps. :/
Ah well.

Thunder Glove

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #315 on: March 26, 2017, 05:25:42 PM »
Horizon Zero Dawn.

Amazing open world game with my favorite main character in a long time.  It's set in a distant post-apocalyptic future, but one in which nature has reclaimed the world and humanity is mostly living in organized tribes and kingdoms (some, like the one your character grows up in, being more primitive than others).  Machine-animals roam the countryside alongside some real animals, and both are hunted.  Nobody questions the reasons there are machines, they've just always been.

Aloy, the main character, is an outcast from one of the most primitive tribes in the game, but as a child she falls into some ruins and finds a "Focus" (a piece of ancient/futuristic technology) that lets her see things and access databases on them.  She's also very good with bows, slings, a staff, and a number of other primitive-seeming weapons.  The weapons and ammo are built using machine parts, so they're much more powerful than they appear to be at first glance.  Even the bows are modern compound bows rather than simple sticks and twine, and the slings have sticky bombs and shock grenades for ammo rather than rocks or slugs.  And she's highly acrobatic, able to climb sheer cliff faces (or giant "Tallneck" machines) with only some handholds.

There's two intertwining plots.  One involves the Old Ones' technology, a group of people trying to dig up ancient superweapons, and how Aloy fits into all that.  The other is about a different group trying to destroy a now-peaceful kingdom (after the previous king had made everyone hate them).  And, of course, side quests up the wazoo.

It's nothing revolutionary in terms of gameplay, but it's very, very polished.  The controls are very tight, I like the weapon selection (seven types of weapons, each of which has three versions.  The better versions shoot more types of ammo and have more mod slots), and I really love the Overriding mechanic (which lets you beneficially "corrupt" machine animals, turning them friendly towards you and your allies).  I like minor things like being able to edit the HUD, or to make "quests" out of looking for parts to buy or craft weapons, armor, and upgrades.

The combat encourages stealth, but doesn't rely on it.  Being able to quietly take down machines without others noticing you is helpful, but there's no reason you can't go in tossing grenades and knocking them down with your spear if that's what you prefer.  There's various types of armor for different playstyles (one that improves stealth, one that protects against melee attacks, one that protects against ranged attacks, four that strongly protect against individual elements - fire, ice, shock, and poison/corruption - and one that protects against all four elements but not as well), and different skills that likewise support different playstyles (melee skills, stealth strike skills, ranged skills, etc).

Mostly, though, it's the Overriding thing I really enjoy.  Overriding a creature gives it additional strength and health, so it can easily defeat others of its type.  (And the skill, Call Mount +, that lets you summon an Overridden creature to ride even if you haven't manually Overridden it)  You can also Override other machines for plot purposes (like to build bridges, open doors, or start a boss fight - heck, you have to Override certain computers in order to learn how to Override more types of machine animals).  As someone who loved Masterminds on our old game, Overriding enemies is a lot of fun.

The most immersion-breaking thing I've found is that everyone apparently speaks and reads modern English.  (And it's not just a translation thing - Aloy has no trouble understanding the recordings or text of the "Old Ones")

If you have a PS4, I really, really recommend it.  I haven't finished it yet myself - because I keep getting distracted with sidequests, exploration quests, and just overriding robot T.Rexes and watching them go to town - but I feel like I'm getting close.

(Oh, yeah, and the title does totally make sense, eventually)

Edit: Apparently, speaking and reading modern English isn't an oversight.  The game's world is a lot stranger than I thought it was.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2017, 01:58:42 AM by Thunder Glove »

thunderforce

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #316 on: April 06, 2017, 05:44:53 AM »
I just finished an EU3 campaign (normal difficulty). I started as Rajputana (an Indian minor state), formed Hindustan, took over India, kicked the hordes out of Siberia, worked West to take Persia and a stretch of the southeast Mediterranean coast, then squashed Europe - the Holy Roman Empire is effectively dead since Hindustan holds essentially all of modern-day Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, leaving Spain (formed by Castille) and England as the only major Western powers relatively intact. Oddly the Eastern Roman Empire made a bit of a comeback - I suspect because I've basically gutted most of their usual adversaries.

What takes most of my time, though, is Crawl; a roguelike (actually a roguelike, not a vaguely roguelike-ish game like FTL) that distinguishes itself from most others by being fairly consistently tough all through the game, in sharp contrast to (say) NetHack's middle game where virtually every monster is a windshield kill. It's worth a look if you like roguelikes and keyboard-snapping frustration.

FlyingCarcass

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #317 on: April 07, 2017, 06:38:08 AM »
I just finished an EU3 campaign (normal difficulty). I started as Rajputana (an Indian minor state), formed Hindustan, took over India, kicked the hordes out of Siberia, worked West to take Persia and a stretch of the southeast Mediterranean coast, then squashed Europe - the Holy Roman Empire is effectively dead since Hindustan holds essentially all of modern-day Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, leaving Spain (formed by Castille) and England as the only major Western powers relatively intact. Oddly the Eastern Roman Empire made a bit of a comeback - I suspect because I've basically gutted most of their usual adversaries.


That's the thing with EU3, once you get a nice blob going only the major powers can challenge you. It actually simulates the rise of modern nation states and globe spanning empires quite well (of course it's normally the European powers stretching out, but skilled players can buck the historical trend as you did).

In my last EU3 campaign I started as little Utrecht, grew my wealth and power via generating and selling great persons, acquired some coastal provinces, formed the Netherlands, colonized much of Africa and southern Asia, and in the late game became embroiled in a series of unending inconclusive conflicts with the French blob. Good times.

As for the growth of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines or Ottomans?), one possible reason may be that it received the "lucky nation" bonuses (which one can adjust at the start of a campaign).

thunderforce

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #318 on: April 07, 2017, 05:17:30 PM »
I doubt it, I didn't use lucky nations. (Byzantines; the Ottomans aren't the Roman Empire). I think it's really just down to me eating Persia, gutting the Mamluks, and repeatedly killing off the armies of most of the other powers in the area. A big Georgia is the main buffer between my Persian possessions and the Romans, and they keep getting pulled into wars with me and getting their army wiped, which leaves the Byzantines basically with a lot of minors to eat.

The game did reach the point of being too big a blob for anyone to touch me (especially when I conquered a line of provinces from my European territories to my ex-horde territories, eliminating the distant-overseas penalty for all of Europe) but I had a satisfying number of problems on the way. (In comparison, the previous game as Thuringia was hard until I'd got enough vassals to be Holy Roman Emperor but then, one French war aside, steady steamrollering).

I had the usual initial clashes with the Timurids after taking Sind, which are always Fun since they've got a colossal army. Fortunately, the AI doesn't anticipate declarations of war by the horde mechanic at all, and this meant I could get my armies up past the Indus valley into their mountains before their stacks arrived; with the defensive bonusses and Military Drill I could fight them off repeatedly, albeit with little prospect of actually killing a stack. Conversely the Timmies bled Delhi white, which meant I could easily stab Delhi when they were weak and get the provinces I needed there.

Next problem was Vijayanagar, who had the last of the provinces I needed for Hindustan - and more territory and Grand Army, which gave them about twice my troops - and no inclination to send them all off and get them killed abroad. I used Infiltrate Administration repeatedly to see what they were up to (mostly, building more troops - this impasse lasted for years) until their armies were widely separated enough I had a prospect of defeating them in detail. This was a bit of a gamble since we were both allied with Golconda; I had better relations but if Golconda had gone the other way I'd have has a bit of a struggle. As it was they honoured the alliance with me, and Vijayanagar was pretty straightforward.

I didn't colonise the steppes until very late in this game. If you do it before Westernisation (especially Military Modernisation and its attendant revolt risk) it's a disaster; those huge provinces mean you need a lot of rebel suppression armies because it takes forever to march anywhere, since they're also quite low value you're not actually getting any benefit, and furthermore because of the speed you can do it, it's a sure route to Overextension. If you do take a big hit to revolt risk (say, Modernisation and/or Overextension) you can basically do nothing except fight rebels on the steppes. I think I eventually did it when I had Regimental System (in DW, reduces upkeep) and the European situation had stabilised a bit, when I could afford a lot of extra armies on the steppes. I eventually colonised everything up there - Ming almost never sends any colonists.

I didn't cheese Westernisation by selling a province; I noticed one of the African minors had got onto the North African coast next to Venice, and conquered that. (This is also quite metagamey :-/ ). A series of bribes kept Venice sweet; I had good luck with the necessary Administration on monarchs, but my reserve plan was to go Noble Republic (which I did as a convenient route to Republican Dictatorship anyway) to let me cherry-pick good administrators. I sold the province to Venice afterwards since frankly it was junk.

I started the European conquest with the Papal State; easy to get to from Alexandria (my first conquest on the Mediterranean coast; it wasn't a core at that point, which gave me dreadful naval attrition problems) and not part of the HRE - once you've got a foothold you can fill it with armies but the first conquest has to be done by shuttling them across in transports (and I didn't have anything like naval superiority over the big HRE powers) so it'd better be unambitious. The extra missionaries from Roma were also part of the plan to Hindu-ise everyone - while I'd gone heavily Innovative, I usually spam Colleges for the magistrates (a very slow-building plan but one which eventually means you're slapping down 2 buildings a month) and it's easy to add some Cathedrals and get into positive missionaries. Vexingly, Hindu powers don't get extra missionaries from Judea or Mecca.

Once I'd gobbled non-HRE Italy the first few HRE wars were bloodbaths - Bohemia, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and Burgundy (a huge Burgundy that had guzzled most of France) had huge stacks and kept being called into wars with me. I don't generally like forcing people to release nations (it means more infamy for your own conquests) but had to do it a few times to cut them down to size, especially the colossal Burgundy. I had the usual problem where the Emperor gets called to every war with you, so you are always in a truce with them and can't declare on them directly to take some of their territory; more than once I ended up attacking enough people at once to take ten years' infamy burnoff in one go, letting the truce with the Emperor expire and then attacking them directly.

That was all the hard stuff, though. After about 1700 it was plain sailing, but I got more interest out of this game than most,

eabrace

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Re: What are you playing now? Share with everyone
« Reply #319 on: April 07, 2017, 05:44:24 PM »
Tony got me hooked on UnEpic. It plays like a NES era throwback in the style of Castlevania with a twisted, sarcastic sense of humor (with a touch of Leisure Suit Larry) that parodies several domains of nerd culture.  There's a under 18 setting and an over 18 setting.

Bonus:  I pay close attention to things like a game's footprint on my hard drive and the resources it consumes when it runs.  This game is delightfully compact. 
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