riadsala

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Posts posted by riadsala

  1. Posted

    So the new Elemental game is out. Interestingly, it's very close to a game design idea I had 5 years ago :P (combine Elemental with AI War). RPS gave it a positive right up, but I think I'm through with the series. What with Civ and CK2, I have enough 4x for my free time, and that's before considering buying Distant Worlds and Endless Legend.

     

    Is anybody else playing it?

  2. Posted

    "historically important factions are locked behind DLC from launch"

     

    I have no problem with this. Paradox and CK2 have shown (to me at least) that it's a perfectly fine business model. I've found the base game great value, and love that I can help support the game and continue to expand the number of interesting factions. It's a sensible business strategy and a good way for a company to spread the risk of big budget game design around a little more.

     

    Which isn't to say that it can't be done badly. but just complaining about the concept rather than the implementation is wrong.

     

    The rest of your points sound more worrying though.

  4. Posted

    As someone who owns EU4, but hasn't yet had time to become acquainted with Common Sense, it would have been helpful if you had devoted some time during the podcast to explaining what the "huge" and "extensive" changes are exactly. 

     

     

    Yes, this was one of the less accessible shows to people who haven't played the game.

    No offence to the panel, but I find that this problem doesn't arise when Troy, Bruce or Tom are present.

  6. Posted

    As for CK2 the ending of a game is like the goals in the game, you make your own. I rarely play to the end date. Right now I am achievement hunting so for examole my game end in whatever year my Hindu empire conquers Mecca. Much more rewarding than ending in 1453.

     

     

    That's probably good advise :)

     

    I look forward to picking up my next DLC (Old Gods) and starting a new playthrough :)

  7. Posted

    The History of a Genre/Idea 

    I find learning the history of a game, especially the evolution of it's rule or system set, to not only be interesting but also helpful in understanding and playing it. As someone who's been interested in strategy games forever but never been particularly gifted at the nuts and bolts, I would love to hear about how focus on different particulars changed over time.

     

    This is a great idea.

     

    And, I'm guessing you might be interested in this thread on RPS forums discussing the history of elemental magic game mechanics.

  8. Posted

    I'm sure most of us will agree that a lot of strategy games suffer from poor endgames. Another common feature of strategy games is a long playtime, and the possibility of losing after investing many many hours. I thought it might be fun to share some experiences/bitch about design.

     

    I'll kick us off with what I think is a Ck2 bug. I just finished the Legacy of Rome based game I started last Xmas holdiay (when I bought the DLC in the sale). For a while the game was going well... I started as a Duke in the empire and ended up with a big enough territory to become independent. Then somehow gained control of most of Christian Spain. Towards the end of the game I was slowly losing all my territory to the large Muslim territories, but I had 30-40k points and had a fun game. The game has been going on for months as with Ironman, the really terribly slow autosave is a real killjoy, but I was determined to stick it out.

     

    I lose my last territory a few years before the end of time, and am greeted with this screen:

     

    is this a bug? What happened to all my points? And what happened to all the characters I played? Why is it saying that Mayor Jacobo ruled for 385 years?

     

    What a let down.

     

     

  9. Posted

    1) when fighting a large empire as a small state your options are minimal. Are you still a vassal of the Byzantines? If yes than I recommend trying to become independent and then offer fealty to either the muslim empire or the HRE. If you can't beat em, join em. Spain is a hard spot to play as a Muslim since you have to fight the tides of history, I suggest trying Egypt or North Africa.

     

    2) I have over 800 hours in game and am still learning things. I don't think there is a tip of the day tool, I do check out the forums occasionally, especially the quick answers thread for ideas/tips/tricks, https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/crusader-kings-ii-quick-answers.586872/page-942

     

    I became independent after a few generations. But as an independent Serbia, I was surrounded by big empires on all sides and there didn't seem to be many options apart from watching the Seljuk conquer the remains of the Byzantium Empire.

     

    I'll take a look at the forum. It would be nice to find out some useful tips/shortcuts.

  10. Posted

    looks cool. Although I'm still way behind in terms of keeping up with the DLC. Nearly finished my Legacy of Rome-centric playthrough (started as a duke in the Bzaytine Empire, managed to become Despot of Serbia and Leon, now slowly losing everything to muslims with only a few years left on the clock.

     

    Two questions:

     

    - any tips for how to do anything against the Muslims? Their empire is huge and my armies are hugely outnumbered. Although, when I've tried playing as a Muslim in southern spain, I find it really hard to make headway as the Catholics all team up against my efforts to expand.

     

    - any general interface/mechanic "tip-of-the-day" tips? I'm sure there are better ways to play the game, more useful map modes, etc.

     

    Thanks

  11. Posted

    Just a quick update that my ruler is getting pretty old, so I should be wrapped up soon. Taking a bit longer just because Broken Age came out, and I've been playing that with my wife. So apologies for the delay but I should have the next file up by this weekend at the latest.

     

    No need to apologise... as long as things don't stagnate for months, any speed is fine.

     

     

    Do we have a player lined up to carry on the legacy?

  13. Posted

    Depend you mean from large developers? There was a lot of releases last year I guess it take sometime before anything big.

     

    But still here is a few things around:

     

    • There was some talks about how Beyond Earth and Starships will somehow interact.
    • Age of Wonders got it´s next expansion, is pretty good.
    • Oriental Empires was linked in the 4X thread, begin based on Ancient too, I guess, late Medieval China. I kind wish this game to be really good, but I have some questions about it.
    • Pike & Shot did got a expansion (I have to pick up this soon or later).
    • Hearts of Iron IV is coming out this year.
    • There is also a EU IV expansion on the way.
    • There is a lot of space themed (I guess 4x) games coming to steam.

     

    About Attila...I don´t think so, Attila did got positive reviews from both players and media, but it I could say, Attila is kind like Napoleon was (even in terms of cycle, I guess it will got the edition tools and a few more dlcs, but no huge expansions but I could be wrong), both might didn´t generate huge buzz  but where solid and good games (for all kinds of reasons, If I am not wrong, there was a couple of very large releases close to Attila, meanwhile, Rome II with the Imperial Edition did became good game, unlikely Empire which while did get patchs it didn´t get such huge turnover).

     

    Yeah, it is a Standalone.

     

    on that note, I need to get round to playing TW:Nap. (and then Shogun 2, Rome2 etc). I wish they'd slow down their release schedule and concentrate on quality. I guess the economics don't support that?

  14. Posted

    So looks like i'm correct in thinking there's nothing big on it's way any time soon?

     

    interesting that there's been next to no buzz (at least on 3ma and rps) on Attila:TW. Is it even a standalone game? Have people just had enough of CAs rough releases?

     

    I'm glad to hear there are more CK2 expansions on the way though. Which reminds me, I need to continue with my current game, slowly sorting out a new in Spain as my original land in the east is conquered by muslims.

  15. Posted

    I like the idea of rising and falling civs, and you see it in some board games like Vinci, Small World, and Britannia, where players are meant to be switching countries once they're done with the current one.

     

    There's a CivIV mod/unoffical expansion that does a little of that: Legends of the Revolution. the main thing it introduces is civil wars, allowing for big empires to break apart. It makes the game a lot more dynamic.

  16. Posted

    Howdy,

     

    not that I need any new games... and I'm usually not one to get excited about new releases, but I was wondering if there are any headline (I suppose AAA would be the usual phrase?) strategy games currently in development? I know there are loads of great smaller titles in development (Clockwork Empires, At the Gates, Offworld Trading Company, anything and everything by Arcen).

     

    There's Creative Assembly's Warhammer:Total War game which might be fun or might be a broken mess.

     

    GalCiv3 by all accounts is just an updated version of GalCiv2, I've not heard of any new features or mechanics to get really excited about, and given Stardocks track record, it will take a few years before the game reaches its potential.

     

    We're surely unlikely to see a new Civ game anytime soon? I'm surprised there hasn't been any noise about a follow-up to XCOM. I'd love to see a XCOM2 that adds a touch more complexity and with a slightly less linear campaign trajectory.

     

    I'd be surprised to see a CK3 anytime soon from Paradox.

     

    Does Relic exist post-THQ?

     

    Personally, i'd be happy if there were no new game release at all for a good while, as then I could get on enjoying what I already have. But still, it's interesting to think about on a slow Monday afternoon :-)

  17. Posted

    I wonder how much of that is that not many people will be playing a pirated cracked version of LoL (it's free to play after all) while we know that piracy is endemic in PC gaming and numbers from Steam will miss all the people who have torrented the game.

     

    Which isn't to say that LoL etc aren't hugely popular. But, I imagine it's similar to the way WoW was really popular. Slightly different audience and people who don't play those games aren't going to be able to follow the conversation.

     

    I would have a shot myself, but I'm still trying to get to a good standard at playing go/baduk, so trying to master another high-skill level game just now would be a bad idea :P

  18. Posted

    Very interesting. I've played LoL for couple of years and tried HotS. When I've listened to the show I didn't even think anyone may not know some of the mentioned terms. And I have problem with wargaming shows cause sometimes I don't understand if its boardgame or video game up till the end of the show!.. But I've still bought Unity of Command, yeah.

     

    I've heard many interesting ideas and facts in this show so I guess it's just for those who already play HotS.+

     

     

    I can add feeding and jungling to the list of terms I didn't follow. And looking things up on a wiki isn't really possible when listening on the train.

     

    Again, please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying every show should be accessible. I'm just asking nicely that if you're going to geek out down the e-sports rabbit hole, could you discuss other genres to a similar depth? (or, join forces with the idle thumbs e-sports spin off podcast?).

  19. Posted

    Sorry guys, this was one of the worst podcasts you've done recently. You're talking about a new release, and one I was thinking of having a play around with (I've been playing Hearthstone a bit, so have seen the PR around HotS bia Battle.net). But I had trouble following a lot of the jargon in this show. I don't know what last hitting is, or what nova/noba means etc etc.



    This only seems to happen with the e-sports shows. Usually the panel do a much much better job at explaining the mechanics and what's going on with a game or genre. For example, I'm not really a wargamer at all, but I still enjoy listening to the wargame shows, but Bruce and co do a great job of having an interesting insightful conversation that I can follow along with (I even bought Unity of Command!). Same with RTSs with Tom Chick (I'm a casual rts player, although everytime 3ma talk about one, I end up really wanting to play an rts), and Paradox Grand Startegy with Troy  (only really played CK2 a bit, bounced off EU3, but I can follow the conversation on EUIV and I am really interested in playing it one day). etc.



    But with these e-sport games, I can't follow the jargon. Either I'm one of the few listeners who don't follow the scene and it's my fault, or the panel are all a little too far into the scene nd don't have a good handle on what your average gamers knows.



    I doubt any of the concepts you talk about in the show are all that complicated (or no more complincated than the finer points of medival succession law... :P ), and I expect there is a really interesting conversation to be about about this game that people like me would be interested in.



    Sorry guys. I've tried to make my point constructively. Also, I'm not against shows that require a higher level of background knowledge to follow. Not everything has to be "noob friendly"! But why only for esports? Couldn't we also have a show about Arcen games that is only going to make sense to people who's played AI War, The Last Federation etc? Or invite some high level chess and go players on to discuss what video games can learn from traditional board games?

  21. Posted

    One of the biggest issues with 4x games is the victory conditions. This was hinted at in the podcast: paradox games weren't included in the cirtism of 4x games; and, lategame 4x play came in for a lot of flak; and several of the panel stated they really enjoyed the opening/midgame, and would start a new game long before they got to victory condition.

     

    So maybe it would be interesting to see a more "traditional" 4x game (ie, as opposed to Ck2 and EU4) that dropped victory conditions all together. That would fix a a few of the zero-sum ai diplomacy issues which would be an added bonus - people appear to dislike it when the AI doesn't try to win the game, but they also dislike it when all the AIs declare war on the player once they're within reach of a victory condition.

     

    So, lets just try a simulation/toybox/sandpit style 4x with no explicit victory conditions. there enough similar games in other genres (minecraft, the sims, elite, etc) that it shouldn't be too big a risk. It should also be an easier design problem - there's no need to make it that every faction/playstyle has to have a chance of "winning," you just need to make them interesting. 


    You could also keep many of the victory tradition tropes, as interesting things to do/achievements/optional goals. I believe CK2 has some goo examples (reunify the Roman Empire as the Byzantine for example). But there's no need for these to trigger the game to end with one winner. etc

  23. Posted

    I've probably suggested this before, but I'd love a show on mods. Maybe pick a few big mods for a few popular games, and talk about if they really manage to improve on the developers original design. The mod scene is an important part of PC gaming (and the podcast generally has a PC focus), and I also think they have a special place in the strategy genre.