Blog Your Current Game

Got back into Forza Horizon 3, lots of fun.

Also ended up getting Titanfall 2, 7 bucks for the ultimate edition I was like, yah ok I've heard the campaign is good and well... I'm really enjoying the campaign so far, it's pretty badass.

I launched my first rocket!

Redress said:

I launched my first rocket!

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Finished the main story for Star Control: Origin. Great game. Very old school. It allows you to fail miserably, and I did... often.

The only grindy-ness I found was in working out the best way to recover from stupid and careless errors. Usually the fix included some level of jumping many saves back, making different choices, and then grinding to fill a cash gap that the better choice created.

Most of the aliens are really pretty great/funny and only one alien ended up being mostly just an annoyance built on a pun.

In the final fight, on the 3rd try, I finally beat the final boss pretty easily... all it took was for me to abandon every single thing I thought I had learned along the way and go an entirely different direction with my ship/fleet build. There were enough hints that I was able to eventually realize what I needed to do, but it went against everything I had figured out so I think I actively ignored it.

Great game.

And I finally achieved orbit, after an embarrassing number of tries. Note to self: when struggling, over-engineering is probably the wrong solution...

Redress said:

And I finally achieved orbit, after an embarrassing number of tries. Note to self: when struggling, over-engineering is probably the wrong solution...

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This is 100% the wrong take for KSP.

If you are failing, your spaceship is not Kerbal enough.

Stellaris finally made it out of my “bought and unplayed” pile.

The Imperial Order of UltraDeuce throws back some aggressive bird people neighbors. They started declaring claims over some of our sovereign territory. Rather than sit idly by and wait for invasion, our brave troops counterattacked and took several border systems as punishment for their heresy.

The war-diplomacy system in this game is a bit unwieldy. I have to spend “influence” to claim other nations’ systems, physically occupying them alone doesn’t count. The war drags on too long, a “war fatigue” counter peaks and the war is forced to end. I lose everything I occupy if it’s not claimed.

I then try to force them to be my vassal. I have obliterated their fleet, and my technology is superior. I can’t even attempt to vassalize them because their naval capacity is higher than mine. Their actual fleet is rubble but they can hypothetically command a larger number of (inferior) ships.

Why the heck doesn’t my dictatorship have an “exterminate the xeno scum” button? The Order of UltraDeuce does not tolerate threats to its people!

Deuce said:

Stellaris finally made it out of my “bought and unplayed” pile.

The Imperial Order of UltraDeuce throws back some aggressive bird people neighbors. They started declaring claims over some of our sovereign territory. Rather than sit idly by and wait for invasion, our brave troops counterattacked and took several border systems as punishment for their heresy.

The war-diplomacy system in this game is a bit unwieldy. I have to spend “influence” to claim other nations’ systems, physically occupying them alone doesn’t count. The war drags on too long, a “war fatigue” counter peaks and the war is forced to end. I lose everything I occupy if it’s not claimed.

I then try to force them to be my vassal. I have obliterated their fleet, and my technology is superior. I can’t even attempt to vassalize them because their naval capacity is higher than mine. Their actual fleet is rubble but they can hypothetically command a larger number of (inferior) ships.

Why the heck doesn’t my dictatorship have an “exterminate the xeno scum” button? The Order of UltraDeuce does not tolerate threats to its people!

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The crappy diplomacy is the main reason why I stopped playing Stellaris. I couldnt believe that you have to build up points just to lay claim to a star system, otherwise you immediately get kicked out even after youve occupied it. Master of Orion 2 is still the best galactic conquest game after all these years- its never been surpassed.

Free X Com 2 DLC came out today. Life is gud!

OK, two pinball releases....Stern Pinball Arcade VR for Oculus, not bad, still some bugs, but you get AC/DC, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Frankenstein, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and some lesser tables. Pinball in VR is pretty damned good, and with real tables, all the better.

Zen Studio's Pinball FX2 just got the license to create classic Williams and Bally tables, the best machines out there. Farsight had it (The Pinball Arcade), but lost the license (I still have all the tables, but they can't sell the tables to anyone that doesn't have them). Zen has done a wonderful job, the first 4 tables are out: Fish Tales (free), and a three pack of Midevil Madness, Junkyard and The Getaway. They are rendered much better than Farsight's version, and the ball physics. And for fun, you can animate the tables...the dragon flaps its wings, etc. Also, Zen has made it easy, if you put your monitor in portrait mode it will sense that and adjust the game accordingly, pinball looks and plays much better in portrait mode.

The new Xcom2 DLC is pretty fun. Tells a story from way back, consists of a serious of missions, done ironman style, with scores kept.

Redress said:

Free X Com 2 DLC came out today. Life is gud!

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Thanks to last second flight schedule changes I’m not getting back home till very late

XCOM 2 Legacy DLC continuity error:

Bradford encountered a Codex years before the events of XCOM 2 but everyone acts all astonished the first time one appears in the main campaign?



Edit: Immediate punishment for my insolence.


(not pictured, the sectopod that ducked out of sight)

Europa Universalis 4 rebuilding the Byzantine Empire.

Sendt fra min SM-N9005 med Tapatalk

I'm playing a new XCOM 2 Legendary/Ironman campaign after completing the new DLC, and y'all are coming with me. I made a character pool consisting of DP posters I've seen here talking vidya games. Little cosmetic customization was done, if any. Many of you are going to die, you don't get princess dress up until you survive enough missions for me to care about you!

The barracks after Gatecrasher:


The RNG was very kind. Two of the opening crew got "Genius" level intelligence, a grenadier and specialist. Rookie Beefheart got the extremely-rare "Savant" level. Geniuses are 9.5% chance, Savant 0.5%! Sadly, Deuce himself is of standard intelligence.

First mission goes smoothly with DH Kirkwood, Anarchon, Molten Dragon, and Redress mopping up a transmitter in the nick of time. Flawless mission.

Mission two goes... less smoothly


Three injuries, thankfully none severe. Rescue a scientist and two Rangers, PoS (yet another genius!) and Felis Leo.

Third mission is always a retaliation, and your first battle against the Chosen, so this asshole shows up


Not the worst initial Chosen roll I've had, but not my favorite. Brittle is one of the nicer weaknesses to have, but the assassin has a ridiculous move distance so it is difficult to actually get to close range. Soulstealer is a dick of a perk early on when your damage is low, but others are worse. (like when they gain shields after you miss shots on them, sucks when you have low rank, low aim soldiers)

DH Kirkwood takes a sword to the gut. 47 days out for my only grenadier so far. Not great. Deuce fills the gap after a covert operation, getting promoted to grenadier. Deuce is also a master of disguise, spawning into mission 4 appearing to be some sort of workbench.

Everyone died, the end. :lamo

XCOM!! :shoot

Next Stellaris attempt, this time with DLC!

The Cevelli Empire, aka the Nazi Space Fungus. (Authoritarian/Xenophobe/Spiritualist) Good expansion, end up with one friendly neighbor to the northeast, some Theocratic Space Roaches. Some puny goblin-like primates (Imperialistic Monarchy) to the southeast lay claims to some of my systems, which turns out badly for them. Making things worse for the goblins is that the "ancient uber system you find by locating ancient gizmos" quest puts the uber system inside goblin territory. They claim what I spent ages searching for. Bad choice.


Of growing concern on the opposite end of the galaxy is my only true rival at this point: literal terminators. XT-489 Eliminator is a "race" of insane AI that has decided to exterminate all life from the galaxy. Their territory has been slowly, but steadily, expanding all game. I'd love to deal with them but for most of the game I've been cut off by territories in between. I subjugate the goblins completely and they are now a vassal. The terminatorbots crush one empire completely, and I manage to finally befriend the last race with a sliver of territory standing between me and the evil machines... some weird... bat people? Finally making preparations to deal with the growing threat...

When the end-game threat rears its ugly head: the Great Khan. All game I've been dealing with the nuisance of a semi-near race of marauders. These guys periodically send raiding parties out to be assholes to random targets, they knock over mining stations until they bonk into one of your planets, they bomb it and kidnap some people, and then immediately bounce. Their fleet strength is such that in the early to mid game you pretty much need max fleet strength placed firmly in their path, or they'll crush what stands before them. Most of their raids came and went before I could even get in position properly, because my forces were busy dealing with the goblins. I know those dickheads to my west, the Kithri, (Democratic Spider-Plants) were hiring them. The Kithri have always hated me and claimed much of my border systems, but were always too weak and cowardly to do something to take them. So they hired mercenaries, the cowards.

The Great Khan is basically an awakening of the marauders into a full-fledged empire. They've finally stopped fighting amongst themselves and start conquering territory with seriously-dangerous fleets. I can't defend my border from them and also go after the killbots. The Khan immediately conquers a northern neighbor who has done nothing of any interest all game. The Kithri fall soon after. There's suddenly quite a bit of territory under the Khan's control and I've now got a two fronts to worry about. I just can't deploy any resources towards the killbots. I entrench at a couple chokepoints and just start hoping I can eventually overcome the overall fleet deficit by teching up.

Then the Khan up and dies. I don't know how he got himself killed. The Horde immediately fractures into like four different, not-even-contiguous factions. I take the opportunity to ambush one of their fleets. Threat ended. Ok, finally, I can start taking bites out of the killbots. They've been expanding all along. Warning Popup:

XT-489 Eliminator has constructed a Colossus.

Death Star. The ****ing terminators have built a Death Star.

Oh, and they own about a quarter of the galaxy now
:shock:

They have this old saying about fighting fire with fire.


The Terminators are introduced to some Divine Guidance from my Psionic Death Star. Instead of cracking the planet it will convert any valid populations to Spiritualists and set a temporary massive boost to spiritualism attraction on that planet. (so immigrants will almost certainly convert).

Then there's the invalid targets, ones who can't be converted to spiritualism. Genocidal robots, for example. They just have their circuits fried, leaving the world's infrastructure intact and ripe for the taking.

edit: So apparently when you uplift a primitive species to a spacefaring one, they start with your entire technology set by default. If you then turn them into a vassal nation, they become their own entity and will continue development from there. Only because they are technically a new nation and haven't researched anything themselves, the scaling empire-sized research penalties don't really apply.

About a decade ago the Roach People were experimenting with gunpowder and they just completed the technology for death stars.

The Nazi Space Fungi were victorious, conquering 60% of the galaxy to satisfy the victory condition. Never did completely eliminate the killbots, was forced to divert to deal with a machine uprising and some extradimensional invading assholes. Use of the death star made the large coalition in the southeast corner very angry, so I had to crush them under my ... heel? Does a fungus have a heel?

Next game is the opposite end of the spectrum. Xenophile Egalitarian Pacifist Democracy. And we're butterflies. Butterflies in space. I'm again randomly placed in the northeast, but this time it's a two-arm spiral galaxy and I seem to be... very alone. I spread and spread and don't run into anybody for ages. Finally meet a few others. Way down to my south is a Fallen empire. They seem friendly enough, but Fallen don't expand so all that space in between lies empty. South of them is another Fallen empire, but these ones are ornery. If you try to claim a system on their border, they will order you away. Provoking them would be unwise. A third lies south further, but I've had no dealings with them. The result is the entire eastern half of the galaxy has only three active nations, one stuffed into the very southeast corner, another hemmed in by three Fallen empire, and myself just gobbling up vast amounts of space unopposed.

To my southwest is the Rixi mandate, who is super friendly. We end up forming a federation. The Rixi are Eagle-like fanatical egalitarian xenophiles with a representative democracy. They immediately start spreading that democracy to their less-enlightened neighbors. The difficulty is higher on this game, so the AI nations have a boost to production and fleet capacity. The Rixi are quite a bit stronger than I am, so I send a fleet or two of Corvettes to provide support and hold chokepoints against reinforcement while they do that whole freedom-spreading thing. Their conquest isn't to take over territory, it's to force the enemy into our ideology. The new ideology match and loss of their military power makes them extremely willing to join the federation. New member joins, the Rixi pick a new target to invade. To recap, I:

-Hold vast areas of mostly empty space
-Have a southern representative-democracy neighbor with a thing for eagles and spreading freedom with bombs.
-Am friendly, getting along with most everyone
-Don't have anywhere near the military might of my allies but will send forces to assist in battle anyway

I am Space Canada.

Ergh...

So about two years after I quit WoW, my father talks me into trying ESO (Elder Scrolls Online)....




Level 21 I think. Pure-stamina nightblade; one weapon set is bow, the other dual wield. No idea how to make the image bigger.

I had a fun weekend playing Planetside 2: got together with my three online chat friends and we blew some stuff up. First we tried a ride around in a harasser, but my terrible gunnery skills ended up getting us all killed. Then we moved onto a Liberator for ground attack using an aircraft, but the weapons were so weak and we kept missing (my outfit is notorious for being terrible at skills but we are cool people to hang out with lol) so I ended up gunning with a hover tank called the magrider. We ended up farming a lot of kills as we just gunned downed the enemy while overlooking their base from a hilltop lol.



The game is currently on a Halloween themed special, so this means pumpkins pop up all over the place and if you shoot them you get seeds with which to buy custom stuff. One of my buddies was trying to hunt an elusive galactic pumpkin to get a reward, but he logged out to take a break. Just as he was logging back in, I spotted one of the rare pumpkins and shot it, earning myself enough seeds to buy a skull bandana for my character, and my friend missed it by one minute. He was pissed lol.

Here is my brand new skull bandana for my Vanu character lol.

I've begun acquiring a set of mods for my mega-mod play through of Rimworld. I don't have the mod list with me, but I have about 40 so far. When I am all set with the mods I want I will build myself a team of 6 to 7 DP gamers and start a hard, random world. This will ensure that you all die, but I am planning on spotting you all some key technology to allow you to survive long enough to be interesting. If you want in, you can PM me and tell me what you want to be, and even what kind of personality you want. This game with mods has a crazy amount of personality slide-bar options.

I need:

1) Farmer (s)
2) Miner (s)
3) Cook/Farmer (s)
4) Security

lots of other jobs to do, but they aren't essential. But if you want to be a tortured artist that feeds on the labor of others I'm cool with that too.

If I don't get 8 volunteers I'll just round it out and let you each be built randomly. Planning on starting tomorrow evening. I'll post updates until everyone is dead.

On my playthrough testing the mods I had one settler who I made entirely bionic, and then made him a robot by reducing all of his emotions to zero. It didn't work out so well since he was still the first one to start a relationship, and then his AI went haywire and he murdered everyone... good times. Turns out zero emotions can have unwanted side effects! Who knew?!

might do a test run tonight and post results... I don't know.

Well crap, I did a big write up introduction of the characters and the page died trying to add an image. Ah well. I guess I can introduce the characters in a later post.

The DP members on the team of castaways are: PoS, Lutherf, Redress, MrPerson, Orphanslug, Deuce, Jetboogieman, Renae, Beefheart...

The random team is heavy on the farmers, light on the builders, researchers and fighters.. most notable characters are Redress who is a surgeon with an alcohol and chemical addiction (and liver damage)... and many scars from bullet wounds, and MrPerson who is a Medieval Lord who is also a sadist.

A quick photo gallery:

Global Map:



Local Map:



The Team page:



Deuce in all of his glory:



And yes, to the Rimworld players, I have a mod that gives them faces, and the faces will change expression due to mood. It also adds more detailed bodies including hands and feet.

This will not go well, though you definitely have the deck stacked as much in your favor as possible.

Loving Creed Odyssey and what they're saying for continued updates and support should keep me around for some time I think.