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Unified Vidya Games thread

Started by Cain, November 21, 2013, 05:10:58 PM

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shamelessPuck

The game launches and Live Abother Life seems to be working, though it turns out I won't a have a chance to actually play till Wednesday.  Any suggestion on interesting starts?  My last play through started of stealthy but transitioned to a simple dual wield monster once my gear was maxed out, so I'm thinking of a magic heavy build that gives no fucks about her fellow man.  I'll probably go vampire eventually, but starting as one feels to powerful.  Also, do you know how the real needs mod interacts with Sacrosanct vampires?  Do vampires need to eat normal food and feed on people?

Cain

There's a start that gives you a random chance to spawn into that research lab in Blackreach.  Escaping Blackreach at level 1 is fun....especially with delevelling mods (I saw someone do it with Requiem, which is amazing, even if they were a filthy cheating Dunmer).  I like to go with Left For Dead though, spawning into random wilderness with the clothes on your back, an apple and maybe an amulet is always fun.

As for builds....Spellsword is incredibly strong in Ordinator.  Take the passive buffs from Alteration, then combine summons, Destruction and swordplay for fun and profit.  Paladin is also very solid, heavy armour, resto, block and a mace turn you into an unstoppable, unkillable beast.  Healing spells doing damage may sound like just a bit of fun, but they have incredible range, scale with your Restoration skill and are practically impossible to resist for living creatures.  I tried a Sniper build recently, which shows even despite his best attempts to nerf it, Sneak Archery is still very viable and capable of dishing out thousands in damage per shot.  Necromancer also works fine...I tried to make a Dragon Age style necromancer/blood mage and blowing up your own undead on enemies (and then blowing up their own corpses with the Apocalypse Corpse Explosion spell) is terribly satisfying, even if it's no substitute for the glory of Virulent Walking Bomb

shamelessPuck

Blackreach sounds fun.  The warlock thrall start sounds like it would fit my character concept as well.  I'm going to try not to use weapons as much as I can, and probably avoid destruction spells as well; it may or may not work, but I think it sounds interesting.  I'll let you know how it goes once I've had some game time.

Cain

So after seeing that the majority of mods have been ported, I've finally started playing Baldur's Gate EE.

Ah, memories.  I'm trying to get to that point in the game where you just wander the wilderness without cause or purpose (so, Chapter 3). Uncapped the XP, added in bags of holding, unnerfed the spell progression tables (playing a Blade Bard with monstrously good stats.  Bards > Wizards in the late game, with spells that have scaling damage at least) and I'm looking forward to seeing how Siege of Dragonspear actually is - all the complaining about it is rather tainted by it being people complaining about Beamdog "SJWs" (hello, former Bioware employees should have been your first clue) ruining the game.

Once I've found my feet, I might have to give soloing it a try, especially since there's actually an achievement for it now.

Cain

lol nevermind, distracted by Icewind Dale EE, or as I have taken to calling it, Isometric Skyrim because a) it's not really much of an RPG per se b) you're basically a merc who explores and kills things for money, much like Skyrim c) ice and snow, duh.

Never actually played IWD before, only (some of) IWD 2.  Have to admit, I do enjoy the novelty of making my own party.

Junkenstein

IWD/IWDEE -
Pros:
Respectable plot and villains. And the plot isn't actually that bad.
Includes a "woah fuck" difficulty setting that you can break to fuck if inclined due to shonky 2nd ed mechanics.
Unusually wide set of plot areas, all fairly distinct.
Does not have a very annoying and tedious section that features in IWD2. You'll know when you hit it.

Cons:
Utterly retarded random loot system with massive variances resulting in each run being either hilariously over/underpowered. Can be negated with rng manipulation shit but it's seriously terrible. A +5 Sword of fuckery or 3 gold. Level 9 spell or brass codpiece. Armour of awesomeness or jar of piss. All on the same level. It works out at something like 7-9 runs to get all the shiny shit.
No Mort.

Technically worth playing before the baldurs gate interquel thing.

That thing
Pros
More of the same.
Plot there and moves along. Ties to other games, some nice some, well, painful but you'll have seen worse first attempts.
SJW bullshit controversy wildly over hyped. Hold your surprise.

Cons
More of the same. Seriously it's totally unnecessary, and adds fuck all to BG2EE, which was developed first. Development the other way around would have potentially opened up far more plot and it's just a waste of a lot of potential.





I'm still unable to talk about Tides of Numenera with out excessive swearing. Many people should be very, very ashamed of themselves for that detestable heap of shit. Monte Cook is game design equivalent of shoving crayons in your ears while shitting yourself uncontrollably over and over again for 5 years.

This method is likely to have more productive results than hiring Monte.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

Yeah, I was just reading about the random loot. So far I seem to be doing OK on that front, but I had a quick look at a guide to ensure I built a party that could take advantage of guaranteed loot drops (Paladin for the Pale Blade, Bard for bardy things and seriously insane XP from extra dialogues, fighter with skills in Harlberd etc). Random loot tables with that high a variation are a PITA though, it's true.

Heart of Fury mode does sound legitimately tough, I won't lie.  80 plus X3 health does seem a little...high, but people have soloed it, so it can't be all that bad.  Probably killing chickens to power level.

Cain

Common wisdom on soloing in Inquisition is so wrong as to be laughable.

"D00d, you should totally solo as an Archer, they're so OP"

*20 minutes of attempting to solo a Rift with ranged attack demons, before ragequitting in disgust*

*roll up a Dual Wield Rogue for funsies, proceed to stomp everything*

I would actually argue that a Dual Wield Rogue might be stronger than a Mage, which is considered to be the best overall class.  Sure, Barrier, crowd control, ranged attacks...all good enough, I suppose.  But there's a difference between good enough and optimal.

In the early game, dual-wield just outperforms everything.  Highest DPS, so even with the trials on you can strip barriers and guard more efficiently than any other class (2H might be able to keep up with guard, but it involves taking at least one sub-optimal perk choice).  With Leeching Poison you have self-heal on tap, while everyone else has to rely on Heal on Kill or the Encore staff (which only has a chance to proc the heal in the first place).  Stealth allows you to pick your battles carefully, making easy work of mages and guardsmen. Evasion also procs a lot more than 10% would suggest, which combined with Leeching Poison actually makes you pretty formidable in straight up fights.

And unlike mages you don't have to give a crap about random elemental resistances, because your damage is all physical.

I'll be interested to see how In Your Heart Shall Burn plays out.  I have done that with an Archer, and my god it was a chore, I think I reloaded about 10 times in the final fight alone.  If the DW Rogue performs better in that, I shouldn't have any problems right up until I do the DLC content.

Cain

Of course, I am getting receipts in the form of footage for all of this.  If I sleep well tonight I might render some and put them up tomorrow, so you can see how 1337 and awesome I am.

Fujikoma

I've been playing Path of Exile... I know it's old, and the antagtonists are typically edgelord 9000 I eat babies, and the game balance is tilted to some seriously meta stuff, but it's still fun, also, free.

Cain

Quote from: Cain on September 27, 2018, 01:33:19 AM
I'll be interested to see how In Your Heart Shall Burn plays out.

Crushed it.  Far, far easier than the archer run.  Rest of the playlist thus far is here for those interested...no commentary, but lots of notes in the video description.  Assassin videos will be forthcoming once I actually record them.

Cain

Update on the solo assassin-ing:

Way Of The Assassin was a breeze.  I already had an asssassin guild leader token, taken from one of the Carta prowlers, if I recall correctly, but I went ahead and did all three leaders anyway.  Funny thing, Flank Attack with the Skirmisher upgrade doesn't have a timer for the stealth.  It sometimes bugs out, especially in tight spaces or on uneven ground, but once you go into stealth, you stay there forever - until you attack, of course.  So all you need to do is poison weapon - flank attack, repeat and you can take down a large amount of enemies without ever exposing yourself.

Crestwood was saved from the undead and the rift closed.  Caer Bronach was captured, of course.  Crestwood highwaymen were eliminated.  Not yet dealt with "Snowball", the giant spider below Caer Bronach, but IIRC spiders are immune to poison weapons, so I want to wait until I have some better gear for that.  As I recall, Snowball hits hard, which is fitting for a spider the size of a house.  Then again, I did solo the Northern Hunter dragon at level 11.  Killed, first go.  Did "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hards", finished with 100 approval.  "Under Her Skin" was also done...the Pride Demon went down pretty easily...had some trouble with some other demons and had to reload, but when I did they all vanished.  A shame, but it is what it is.

Demons are basically the only problem at this point.  Specifically wraiths, despair demons and rage demons.  The first two are only a major problem if they're promoted, or if you've fucked up and are out in the open with no defences and everything on cooldown.  They can have an impressive amount of barriers, if promoted...later on I intend to invest in some daggers with bonus damage to barriers to compensate for that.  Rage demons are more of an issue because they have some insane tracking, hit hard and fast, and apply a damage over time effect that can throw you out of stealth.  You can do a flank attack on them and they can turn around and hit you in the time between you moving behind them and going into stealth.  I've found it best to take them out with Hidden Blades, though if they're promoted that will only bring them down to half health.

Next steps: doing the Emerald Graves, the Plains and into the Western Approach.  Key things here are to get Andraste's Sacrifice, the necklace at Villa Maurel, and then get to level 13.  If you're not a warrior and you're soloing, Andraste's Sacrifice is the best necklace in the game.  The 10% cooldown bonus is nice, especially on the assassin which has no other way to reduce cooldowns, but the regen benefit it gives you is the highest in the game, a 50% bonus I believe.  And the "taunt" effect actually works in your favour, as it works exactly like the War Cry ability, giving you Guard when it attracts nearby enemies.  That and a Sigil of the Bronto can give you quite a bit of extra survivability. Level 13 is important because that's when the trial awards become Fade-touched crafting items.  These are unlevelled as well, so it's very possible to get Imperial Vestment Cotton or Plush Faustian Velvet or Dawnstone right away.  Especially since so far I have only gotten fade-touched obsidian and onyx, it will be a game changer in terms of the damage that can be inflicted.

Cramulus

funny you should mention it, I just started a new Dual Weapon rogue in Inquisition. What do you think are the go-to perks I should take?


I only opened Inquisition because I ran out of other games. I just keep pingponging back and forth from Soulsborne titles.

Crushed Dark Souls Remastered, I'm on NG+++ and once I get one last weapon, I think I get the "all weapons, armor, spells" achievement. It's amazing how returning to DS1 after like 5 years, I've forgotten where everything is, but still intuitively know where everything is.

Just re-beat Dark Souls 3. So good. So fucking hard. Had to step away from it for a few weeks just due to burning out fighting the same bosses over and over again.

While I was stuck in DS3, I took a break and got through half of DS2... which is really the low-water-mark of the series.

and Assassins Creed Origins. Which was... it was okay. I don't even have a lot to say about it except that I like the combat and stealth a lot less than previous titles. There really doesn't seem to be as much history baked into it, which was always my fav part of this series. It was good, and I admit they got the sandbox thing down pretty well. That is to say, it's not just a big litterbox of icons, every quest does feel somewhat uniquely inspired. Which is a nice change.




Faust

Dark souls 2 Scholar of the first sin was a huge improvement, the DLC worlds really improved the variety of the game and its bosses required much more thought then the main game where most were, circle hit back leg.
I played one game through DS1 remaster but I've not gone hunting the weapons and souls.
Dark souls 3 was punishing, Nameless king I found very difficult but very rewarding, I don't find the early parts of the game as satisfying as the others, so I haven't gone back for many plays/
It's over a year since I played Bloodborne and when I pass it on the what to play screen I keep getting an inkling, may have to go back that soon..
Sleepless nights at the chateau

Cramulus

Bloodborn is incredible, I could rant about it for hours. It's the perfect way to do Lovecraftian horror in a video game (okay, other than Eternal Darkness). I love that even after you finish the plot, after you've watched 20 hours of videos explaining what just happened, you're still left feeling like you only understand one facet of a much larger universe. A universe which is largely indifferent to human life and which we really struggle to grasp using our terrestrial reasoning.

It's also like - they took one of the most fun play styles in Dark Souls, the dodgy / fast / melee style, and built an entire game around it.

I also love how the game has two or three big plot twists, but all of them are contained in item descriptions. So you don't just told the twist in a cinematic, your discover it on your own terms. This gives it the sense of it being a personal discovery, rather than a journey you're being led through. It takes a que from old "less is more" horror movies, where they don't show you the monster. Well in Bloodborne you see the monster, but the horrible nature of the setting is always barely off-camera.