Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 12, 2017, 00:24:
I need to get back to Elite Dangerous at some point..

However, truthfully, I'm not looking forward to
1) setting up the HOTAS again -- not especially difficult just kind of annoying
2) relearning the flight controls and activities such as docking/landing again

Being a lazy bum is a such tough life...

Elite is easy to fly, you really only need to set up a coolie hat and throttle to support 6DOF like descent, and pedals for yaw if you don't have a 20yo Sidewinder that twists. You could also set yaw to the stick itself like I think wing commander did but Elite ships usually prefer roll before turn.

Plus remember that 'insert' lowers landing gear (Be careful, I think one of the buttons near it drops your cargo and another closes your heat vents so you cook!)

The only thing hard about landing in the little baby ships you start in is forgetting to get clearance from traffic control and you through the mail slot and get hit with a fine for trespassing and lasers for ignoring that. I set the modifier that lets you bring up the HUD to do this and all the other things to one of my very few buttons on my ancient plastic artifact from the golden age of Microsoft's hardware labs.

I love Elite. It's more than Euro Space Truck Simulator... but also it's mostly that. It's much drier than NMS, with it's massive, mostly empty quasi accurate galaxy of ice giants and barren space bodies and lack of Spore creatures some systems/vistas are absolutely stunning.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 14, 2017, 00:23:

Retired wrote on Aug 13, 2017, 23:51:
The answer to everything is 1 streamer - one toxic fuck that ruins it for everyone. Ninja. A crying bitch that is the reason why gamers are looked at the way they are.

Every time he dies, he reports the person for cheating.

Exactly. Streamers are attention-seeking, egotistical grifters. The decision to stream should not require any special activity on the developer's end. It reeks of special treatment.

They do it because those voices count more than ours in terms of sales and engagement. Most pubs cannot afford to actually pay someone to stream their game, though crowd-sourcing it has issues because you cannot fire them when they turn out to be white supremacists or whatever.

And there is a huge market for it. We will buy a game like PUBG due to word of mouth and maybe watching some trusted youtubers (The kind that don't scream or seem like frustrated acting school drop outs) but most kids I know only have youtube and wont be able to afford a decent PC until they leave home. Streamers let them be a part of our sometimes awesome culture.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 13, 2017, 04:49:

Numinar wrote on Aug 13, 2017, 04:06:

Asmodai wrote on Aug 11, 2017, 21:02:
Wonder if it's possible to crash your ship yet, or are you still protected by the invisible "pull up and fly straight" bumper system?

To be fair, it's possible in our lifetimes our aircraft will do the same thing. Fly-by-wire has kept aircraft inside their envelopes for decades already, and cruise missiles have terrain avoidance.

The bigger question is, "Is auto landing and terrain avoidance fun?"

The answer is "No."

This is true. However as much as I love the stress of realistic re-entry, controlled descent and landing (Kerbal is my favorite game of all time) doing this from relativistic/science fiction speeds as in NMS, SC and Elite requires quite a lot of abstraction and hand holding to be 'fun' as it is. What's a little bit of terrain avoidance at the end compared to all that? It's a valid design decision let down by the lack of other fun things do do after taking away anachronistic manual flight controls.

Asmodai wrote on Aug 11, 2017, 21:02:
Wonder if it's possible to crash your ship yet, or are you still protected by the invisible "pull up and fly straight" bumper system?

To be fair, it's possible in our lifetimes our aircraft will do the same thing. Fly-by-wire has kept aircraft inside their envelopes for decades already, and cruise missiles have terrain avoidance.

The Farthest is pretty good, but I would have liked more footage and CGI as the visualisations are not always great until near the end.

The Voyager Probes are tied with Hubble as the most awesome things we (And by we I mean you yanks) have ever done. Voyager might be more useful in the short term even if Hubble is a little more mind blowing.

The automation they managed with early 70's programming for the launch boosters and probes themselves is astonishing. Maybe the memory restraints made for a good environment to test and visualise and collaborate.

Good to see Carolyn Porco still trucking along, I remember her from the BBC's "The Planets" which I hope this new series properly updates. A good role model for all of us and a far too rare one for girls in general.

Nucas wrote on Aug 13, 2017, 01:04:
i find their presence in games somewhat egregious since there's always that suspicion that the game's balance was altered to hinder player progress and make you lean on your credit card, but so far that hasn't been the case in any of the games i've played that contain them. i'm definitely not going to stamp my feet and miss out on a game i want to play over it; i find this hysterical over-reaction reminiscent of the way gamers first reacted to DLC. 5 DOLLAR HORSE ARMOR IS GOING TO DESTROY THE GAMES INDUSTRY.

This. Games are no longer tuned to have satisfying progress/unlocks. You get soul-crushingly slow progression, or shitty off cuts, and micro transaction funded capsule dispensers which are often also super frustrating. Reminds me of MTG, or Hearthstone which is mostly exactly this (A great game that is very hard to keep up without money unless you play it often and well).

Still, some games are great despite this. This might be one. First game was a lot of fun.

I guess there are enough desperate Mac nerds to make this viable. A port of a lacklustre, flawed update when they would probably get better value/results out of a cheap PC or x360 for a small fraction of their next MacBook upgrade.

Not hating on macs, the MacBook Pro I bought my missus 6 years ago has outlasted and out-performed several PC laptops for general computing and is still getting free OS updates. Just don't ask them to play games!

Quinn wrote on Jul 30, 2017, 05:50:

DarkCntry wrote on Jul 28, 2017, 22:17:

Cutter wrote on Jul 28, 2017, 20:00:
Poor Tolkein must be spinning in his grave right about now, 'What in god's name are they doing to my work?!'

He was spinning in his grave decades ago...this is small fries.

ROFLOL are you seriously implying that The Lord of the Rings trilogy wasn't worthy of its name? If there's one writer who doesn't have to feel embarrassed -- dead or not -- it's Tolkien.

Even if you grant that that adaptation was far better than anyone could have imagined, the travesty of the Hobbit almost erases that accomplishment. Despite nailing a few scenes/characters and some awesome cinematography and set design, the Hobbit Trilogy was an abomination. They even knew from the first trilogy that they were at their best when they played close to the OG texts, but somehow they forgot or misjudged the effort required to do that for Bilbos lark.

That is some next level Factorio action Musk.

Concentrating it in one area might help with the melting of passing aircraft/birds and whatnot but I think it was a descriptive tool not an actual plan.

The best thing about solar is that if everyone has it on their home, then your energy network becomes hardened and distributed like what the internet was meant to do for communications, which helps with natural disasters/sabotage outside of nuclear/asteroidal winter.

Retired wrote on Jul 10, 2017, 02:38:
They are releasing 2 more maps.

More than enough fun.

Not sure if that's what it needs, though those with 10 days playtime might. I still have fun landing on the same few buildings/complexes that I've learned how to loot and shoot in. Most shooters get away with a few good maps.

The one thing that is not fun is the combat in buildings that require more abuse of the 3rd person camera than anything else. Cannot wait for forced first person view.

Also some people are really good or use aimbots as half my deaths are headshots, I can barely line up a decent center mass shot (I might have less than half a dozen headhshots ever). Maybe CSGO people are making the jump and the skillz/cheating translate? I still love the game but I have to compensate for my uselessness by being extra sneaky and picky with engagements like when I was on a 28.8 as a teenager.

Cool, I love this game and this is a good feature. Played through to the second area twice. It seems I go too hard and burn out and come back years later and forget whats what. Is it worth pushing on?

Same issue with Mad Max. The rinse and repeat gets to me after a while. For some reason I didn't have this problem with the Batmens and half of the AC's.

NKD wrote on Jul 4, 2017, 17:17:

jdreyer wrote on Jul 4, 2017, 16:31:
]

The interesting thing is that it's being resisted by both Dem and Repub states. This is being architected by Chris Kobach of Kansas, and even Kansas is refusing to participate.

If I had to hazard a guess as to the motivations, I'd say that the Democrats are resisting because, obviously, they don't want to be seen as helping Trump's stupidity along. The Republicans are resisting because their voter base, despite often being Trump supporters, distrust the federal government and wouldn't take kindly to them handing over their personal info. Plus they just don't have anything to gain from compliance.

My bold because I did not think of this at all despite it being so obvious now I think about it.

The only way the GOP does not benefit from this investigation getting all the information it can is if their investigation concludes that there is no appreciable level of voter fraud and their paranoid delusions have no basis in fact. The privacy thing is nonsense as I don't believe there are records of who exactly voted for what in the first place, though maybe their base would believe the crazy Alex Jones version of this story. Maybe by hamstringing it early they can claim it's finding is 'invalid' or 'inconclusive'.

Or maybe the truth is that Illegal voters tend to be hard working, conservative and religious and are actually voting R.

So when is the investigation into gerrymandering as a form of electioneering anyway? You know, the thing that actually threatens our political process? Can't they basically adjust per house/city block based on you metadata and squiggle a line as needed?

Rattican wrote on Jul 4, 2017, 01:55:
Comments like "What a pathetic list of games" and "The only decent game on that list" kinda burn me up inside. I mean a lot of these games clearly showing lots of high quality work that would have taken a lot of time and effort from so many talented people. Just dismissing that so casually is very annoying as a content creator myself (just not of games).

I mean it's not high art and not every game is going to appeal to you, but the hyperbole seems a bit unnecessary if you can't appreciate an era of having so much quality entertainment available.

Each released game is a precious miracle, worthy of criticism and acorn and wonder that it was actually released in a functional state.

That said I'm pretty sure Nier IS high art, either that or nothing is.

Mr. Tact wrote on Jul 3, 2017, 22:25:

eRe4s3r wrote on Jul 3, 2017, 22:23:

Mr. Tact wrote on Jul 3, 2017, 22:21:
You should all be playing Factorio instead anyway!

Played way too much of that to be honest

Haha, me too.

Heresy! Latest updates include more higher definition assets and world generation presets to encourage rails or make the recipes more expensive requiring more factorio madness to produce.

You never recover from cractorio addiction. You are just one taste from another 40 hour bender. Do it!

eRe4s3r wrote on Jun 29, 2017, 18:29:

Numinar wrote on Jun 28, 2017, 23:52:

eRe4s3r wrote on Jun 28, 2017, 00:07:

Cutter wrote on Jun 27, 2017, 23:22:

Ozmodan wrote on Jun 27, 2017, 21:41:
Calling them clowns is being kind.

Indeed, just shows how it's better to be lucky than good. I still don't understand why they even bought it. It was like, they got lucky with MTG, made oodles of money and than just bought a bunch of shit just because they could. I don't think they ever had any actual plans for it. Likely none for MTG either, just coast on the fame and fortune of it. I really wish they'd just sell it already. Someone who really wanted to - and with deep enough pockets - could really make D&D shine again.

WOTC is owned by Hasbro, yes, the Play-Doh Hasbro, and yes, that includes all TSR licenses, and yes, that means HASBRO owns DnD campaigns by the boat-load, and they are not gonna let go of their only profitable games division. From their last revenue reports, WOTC is the only reason Hasbro is even writing positive numbers. So you can guess why MTG Duels was "abandoned" ^^

That is good news! They sound weighted down by owning too much stuff that isn't MTG. They might 'abandon' some other properties and let someone else with a bit of hunger get in on the old TSR properties.

Would love a modern take on Dragonlance of TFR.

Uh, they are already doing that, how do you think Beamdog operates? They have a TSR license from Hasbro. It's why they can remake all the old games. And once that is done, they will likely try to cash in further on the license. After all, those remastered editions are basically free money.

Oh yeah. I forgot about them. Slightly fancy, welcome compatibility re-releases of games I've already paid money for (lots of money in late 90's terms) is hardly taking advantage of the license though.

Sad (/trumpmode), as so much of modern gaming, good and bad, can trace it's routes back to old timey DnD.

eRe4s3r wrote on Jun 28, 2017, 00:07:

Cutter wrote on Jun 27, 2017, 23:22:

Ozmodan wrote on Jun 27, 2017, 21:41:
Calling them clowns is being kind.

Indeed, just shows how it's better to be lucky than good. I still don't understand why they even bought it. It was like, they got lucky with MTG, made oodles of money and than just bought a bunch of shit just because they could. I don't think they ever had any actual plans for it. Likely none for MTG either, just coast on the fame and fortune of it. I really wish they'd just sell it already. Someone who really wanted to - and with deep enough pockets - could really make D&D shine again.

WOTC is owned by Hasbro, yes, the Play-Doh Hasbro, and yes, that includes all TSR licenses, and yes, that means HASBRO owns DnD campaigns by the boat-load, and they are not gonna let go of their only profitable games division. From their last revenue reports, WOTC is the only reason Hasbro is even writing positive numbers. So you can guess why MTG Duels was "abandoned" ^^

That is good news! They sound weighted down by owning too much stuff that isn't MTG. They might 'abandon' some other properties and let someone else with a bit of hunger get in on the old TSR properties.

Would love a modern take on Dragonlance of TFR.

NKD wrote on Jun 26, 2017, 21:15:

Cram wrote on Jun 26, 2017, 21:13:
Fair point, yet FF3 (6) and Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2).

It's a pretty solid lineup on that thing. The Chrono Trigger gambit, curious.

Star Fox 2...that's a thing 20 years later apparently

SNES had way better games than the NES on the whole so the lineup is much more impressive. Earthbound is another supremely good game. Maybe they just didn't want to stick another Square game on there?

Well, missing the best square game is inexcusable so I don't know what they are doing.

Cutter wrote on Jun 11, 2017, 12:04:

Numinar wrote on Jun 11, 2017, 08:03:
I think I'm with Timmy on this one. The excesses of capitalism seem to require and encourage high order shitbagness in men, but it seems to be the only mechanism by which shit gets made/done.

Shitposters are oxygen theiving malcontents with basically no value to society. Wit and logic are great weapons against the rich and powerful but most of what we read these days just seems to be hateful tripe, like domestic abuse inflicted on keyboards and message boards instead of the women that are too smart to live with them.

You fail to see how the former is directly responsible for the latter by making the world a shittier place for everyone to be. Take some fucking responsibility already. And no, you don't have to be some selfish fucking scumbag in order to get things done and be a net benefit to society. That's just a shitty rationalization to allow evil to continue unabated.

Sorry to Necro but you are right Cutter, it is a rationalisation of a system that I benefit greatly from and take responsibility for being a part of, and maybe shitposters are just modern day anarchists, unwilling to die for their cause but equally unwilling to pay lip service to anyone elses. Burn it all down instead of working to fix it in a system that seems rigged to prevent that whilst promising otherwise.

Bungie has not had a great track record of PC ports, in house or out but I will still probably pre-order this. Being a living, ongoing concern released almost at the same time as the consoles should make them iron out the plentiful issues it's sure to have.

However when it comes to weapon handling, variation and polish there is no equal. There are guns from this game I remember from 3 years ago. The gunfeel with controllers is amazing. The sound, rumble, recoil, animation all made wielding Hawkmoon, Thorn, Last Chance, Word of Crota and their ilk feel so fucking badass in PvP and PvE and the blues/purples you would get for beating a raid or the odd strike always felt so epic. There is a handcrafted quality to all their shit that you just don't get in most loot games. Sure you disenchant most the stuff you find but there was always something awesome to work or hope for and enjoy the fuck out of once you scored it or be jealous of teamates who had.

Got Pit People. It's amazing, I don't think I need to spend any more money.