Cleinhun

The Rupture "bad" design thing is interesting to me, because it shows the differing design philosophies of Dota and LoL (neither of which I would call the "right" or "wrong" way). Adding a Rupture-like ability to LoL would be a terrible design choice because nothing in that game works that way. LoL designers are very careful to make sure all spells work the way players expect them too, so having one that doesn't would be jarring. But in Dota I think it's totally fine. Dota has tons of things that don't work in a way that is totally obvious, so it's expected that in order to play Dota well, you're going to have to look up some things. When you have to look up some things regardless, the relative cost of one more thing to look up is pretty low. There's another aspect to the "bad" design that does bother me, the parts of the game that work the way they do because that's how it was in wc3 DoTA, and people are just used to it by now. The best example I know of is the blink mechanics, specifically blink dagger (I think it applies to other blink abilities, but I'm not 100% on that). When you use blink dagger, you click a point, and of that point is within blink dagger's range, you are teleported to that point. If, however, you click a point outside of blink dagger's range, you are instead teleported to a point in that direction, but only 80% if the maximum distance. This strikes me as total horseshit. I've seen people argue that it makes it take more skill to use properly, and while this is tecnically true, it does so in a way that is both arbitrary and purely mechanical. If abilities didn't have hotkeys and you had to click on the icon first, this would also make the game "take more skill", but I can't imagine anyone arguing in favor of that change. When I first started playing, I considered things like denying and neutral stacking to be in this category of "bad" design, but I quickly realized that these add an actual, meaningful amount of strategic depth, so I learned to be ok with it.

Sir, you are mistaken. Don't get me wrong, Timbersaw is pretty cool, but he's no Bristleback, and he's no Rubik.

Yep, same for me. It's too bad, because this game is absolutely wonderful otherwise.

Ok, I'm going to say something that will probably make some people mad but hear me out. I think League is a more casual game than dota. WAIT COME BACK I know the word "casual" is pretty stigmatized, but I'm not using it to dismiss League in any way. What I mean is, in League, characters generally have higher mana regen, and spells tend to cost less and have shorter cooldowns, whereas in dota a single spell tends to have a bigger impact on the game. This means that in League you can generally throw spells around willynilly and have a good time, and it's reasonably effective. In dota, you can't do that without running out of mana, so you have to be more selective about when you cast them, but when players start casting a bunch, you know something big is happening. I don't really understand why Riot is pumping so much money into esports, and seemingly so little into alternate game modes like dominion. Competitive League, at least as far as I am aware, is more about capitalizing on small advantages that it is about making big plays, and while that is certainly challenging, I don't find it especially interesting to watch. whereas dominion plays well into what I feel are the strengths of the game. I'd go into more detail but I think this post has little enough to do with this podcast episode already.

The idea that heroes can die but still pass on some of their power to their children is kinda of neat, but the system they mentioned for this (the relics) is the most exiting thing to me. It's obviously pretty common to have stories with some artifact that was passed down from generation to generation, but giving actual gameplay significance to that takes the family sword from being neat to being awesome.

It seems to me that Neptune's Pride: Dark Galaxy would be a lot more interesting if scanning took longer to research. Fortunately, I believe this is a thing you can change in the setup.

This is the bad judgement call I mentioned, I didn't think Bargo would help you out if I attacked you since I knew he was busy dealing with Wolfman.

Congrats to "Wolfman", the winner of game 3! Come forth and reveal your true identity! Now that the game is over, I can share my favorite moment from the game without having to worry about revealing who was (not that anyone would care, but I digress). Around 2 weeks into the game, I (under the alias "S Wizard") had arguably the strongest position, with wolfman a close second. Wolfman (who I did not share a border with) sent me the following message: quickly followed by this: This, of course, was extremely suspicious. I assumed this was a ploy to convince me to turtle while he grabbed stars from the players between us, but I'm curious to find out if it was actually a hilarious mistake. Then a few days later I made a bad judgement call that cost me the game. GG everyone involved.

I also feel like it only kind of solves that first problem, too. Late in the game people have so many ships and there are so many places to attack from that if you go to sleep you can still wake up boned since you can't send reinforcements in time.

I'm actually finding myself getting a little bored at this point. This is the first game of Neptune's Pride I've played that hasn't been essentially over by around 2 weeks in. I think that 2 weeks is about how long I can stay interested in the game. Once it does actually end, I have some good stories I'll probably share, and I suspect other people do as well.

When I first read that I thought "a small wizard hat" was a separate item. I would totally buy an idle thumbs branded wizard hat (disclaimer: no I wouldn't).

I can confirm this. It is terrifying.

I don't really make internet friends, so it would be impossible for me to meet someone irl that I knew online. At gdc I learned that apparently my go-to reaction when seeing someone I know because of a game they made or a podcast the host is to avoid talking to them and walking away. But then the thumbs meetup happened and that somehow went well.

Oh, I think I remember you telling me about this at gdc, but I didn't see this thread until now, or remember your name (because I am the worst). I will see if I can get any friends to play this.

This is the star graph for game 3:

Game 3 is less than 48 hours in and I think I've already made a huge mistake.

I'm sure you are in the majority. I wasn't saying it was a smart business decision, just that I, personally, am interested in this specific area of game design.

I guess I am one of the few people who actually thinks the gimmick of the WiiU is compelling. The tablet controller allows for local asymmetric multiplayer with hidden information, which is typically only seen in board games. If nintendo is serious about supporting indie devs (at gdc they announced compatibility with unity), I wouldn't be at all surprised if we start seeing a number of worthwhile multiplayer games.

There used to be more options regarding what text would appear around stars, but in this version I can't find a way to turn on upgrade costs or resource amount on the map screen. Was this removed or am I just not seeing it?

I didn't see this thread until now, but if another game starts I'd be down to make and break alliances with internet strangers.

Even though I never played Far Cry 3 and was not alive during the 80's, I kind of want to play this game. The official website is a goddamn masterpiece, especially the "shop". Then again, the gameplay in that video looked pretty generic, so who knows. (http://fc3blooddragon.uk.ubi.com/index.php <--- that's the website, btw)

I considered asking for the hot scoop on Gone Home, but decided against it.

I'm this guy. Hello. I had fun with all you cool folks.

So either I suck at writing (which I do) or you suck at reading, because what you just said was basically what I was attempting to say. Obviously "ruining friendships" is hyperbole, but I still get the sense that some people have more trouble with the "compartmentalizing frustration: thing. I've definitely read posts along the lines of "we can't play this game anymore because we always end up hating eachother when we do" and I'm always slightly confused, since my experience with games is so far from that. If the rules of the game allow for or even encourage tricky plays or "backstabbing" how can you personally fault someone foe using those? And furthermore, why would you expect them not to? I'm going to stop now because I think I'm rambling. I'll probably come back and edit this for clarity when I wake up.

I've noticed that occasionally you'll see people talk about games that "ruin friendships", games like Neptunes Pride or the board game Diplomacy. I've never come across this problem, so I brought it up to a friend of mine. He came to the conclusion that if playing games with your friends makes you hate each other, you probably weren't very good friends to begin with. Getting mad at your friends is fun if it's in a context where it's understood that it's not meant to be taken personally.