cakedotavi

Agreed on all counts. I am excited to see some more details on the balance changes, as the patch notes paint with a pretty broad brush ("increased AR recoil" etc). I am especially interested in how they've differentiated within weapon classes (e.g. how is the SCAR different from the M4 now), as they seem to imply in the patch notes. Devs are killing it recently. Great start to 2018 for PUBG Corp.

Happy to oblige The new event is good, dumb fun (called "Metal Rail"). 8 player squads on Erengal, with flare guns scattered around the map. Flares set off inside the circle air-drop a super care-package, and those set off outside the circle drop an armored UAZ. The long duration of firefights with 8 player squads is really fun - a single fight will stretch for like 5+ minutes, whereas with smaller squads typically everything is over in 1-2 minutes tops. Getting to play with tons of high-end kit thanks to the flare guns, and getting to use that kit for a really long time per fight thanks to the large squad size, is both fun and a great way to practice with rare weapons. Overall I really like the recent direction of the events - both War and this one are really fresh gameplay modes that feel nothing like the base game, while still helping you practice all the skills you need for base PUBG. Unrelated, I am really looking forward to the weapon balance patch that was just teased - no details yet, but I'm happy they're doing it as it is long overdue. If they get the balance pass right + re-introduce some circle timing changes to address the boring mid-game and RNG-heavy late game I will be very happy!

I'm surprised nobody has posted about this yet. Divinity: Original Sin II is out of Early Access. I waited for the full release to get it, and man - it's awesome. Literally every part of this game is notably better than D:OS1 (and I already really liked that game). The tone is way less "comedy comedy comedy" while still having some humor. The character creation is much better with the pre-made character's backstories really adding to the game. The combat builds on the strengths of the original (even more of a tactical emphasis), and there are some really fun spells & abilities, such as minions getting unique skills based on the element (wood/fire/ice/blood/etc) you summon them on. The co-op experience is also greatly improved. The UI is much more suited to playing with a controller on a TV, and the fact that each player really is independent & autonomous makes you feel less like you’re watching the “party leader” play the game, and more like you’re both exploring a single world together. Also, it supports 4 player co-op across 2 PCs, Pretty cool! I honestly just can’t say enough good things based on the first hour or two I’ve played. Really, really impressive sequel. Is anyone else playing?

I agree on the event - it's fun when you don't want to play super try-hard, or when you just want to warm up & practice shooting. Really enjoying it, though I'd like to see some minor changes to the available weapons loadouts (more diverse attachment options, possibly only coming from crates, and no VSS).

Unrelated, fuuuuuuuuuuck so close to my first three-in-a-row God fucking damn it.

I am so sad that the circle changes from Savage were pushed to live for like 2 hours, then rolled back. They were *so* much better than the standard circles. I hope a new circle patch comes soon EDIT: To expand on this a bit, I have always found the mid-game in PUBG to be very, very boring. I have been hoping for changes to the circle timing for ages, specifically to reduce the time between the mid-game circles. I have also always been frustrated by how much late-game RNG there is with circle luck, because once the circle starts contracting it moves so fast that you really can't stop to shoot while running from it. The fixed *both* of these problems in the most recent patch - mid game circles didn't last nearly as long, and late game circles moved much more slowly. It resulted in games feeling like you were constantly on the move and under pressure, without every feeling like you just got 100% boned by the circle and can never recover. I know some people didn't like the faster early-game timing, which I do agree with to some extent. However, rolling back the massive mid and late game improvements because of some minor new early-game issues seems really hasty. I hope they only did that because they plan to re-deploy the new timings with a few tweaks really soon.

The current patch is a really excellent improvement. Very smooth FPS and net code (compared to previous versions anyway), great sound changes (the game is much quieter now), and vastly improved scopes (cleaner, with a nice sepia and parallax effect now). There are some other neat changes like emotes etc, but those are less meaningful to me personally. However, one non-gameplay change I *love* is that there are now achievements. Haven't looked at them all yet but hope there are some crazy hard ones.

Yeah I read some headline about Shroud winning 3 of 5 games in a tournament... but not winning the tournament because the scoring penalizes any early deaths very heavily, and he died early in the other games. Seems really dumb to me... Battle Royale isn't about "dying decently late on average" - it's about being the last man standing. Unrelated, I love how every season when the leaderboards reset they completely disregard how you did last season. It makes the first few days really unfair for new players.

The timetravel mechanic when you lose is so, so smart - completely solves the problem in FTL where if 1 thing went bad you wanted to restart. So far (just ~2 or 3 hours in) it is a total gem of a game.

Cool - it feels pretty complete already but the extra stuff on their roadmap would be welcome of course. Sounds like they're just fleshing out what's already there at this point, as opposed to really adding any core gameplay elements (unless you count the new modes).

Have they given any indication of when they expect to be out of EA?

Just started playing this a few days ago, and it's really fun! For those curious, this game is a deck builder very similar to Dominion or Star Realms in that you draft a deck gradually over time, but instead of just taking turns drafting, card selection is driven by an FTL-style map & progression system. You move from room to room in a dungeon, with each room having a different type of encounter. Some rooms are just straight up fights, others have random events, others have merchants, etc. I am *really* enjoying it. Worth the $15!

Yeah I've done some pickup games via various discords etc, and I just found the experience too volatile for my taste. Often I'd get really good people and have loads of fun, but then you sometimes get someone who just completely ignores the team and basically plays solo - I find that very frustrating. Compared to solo or grouping with people I already know where I always have fun, I just don't see any reason to roll the dice with total randos. That said I am very happy to play with people from here - this community seems to attract a lot of like-minded people. If you want to get a few rounds in my steam name is the same as here. I'll be on for a good chunk of tomorrow and Tuesday as I'm off work right now.

I play a fair but of duos with one buddy and 1 man squads on my own. Occasionally I'll dip into a legitimate squad game but not enough of my friends play the game to reliably have that many people available.

Yeah very rarely I will make note of a name if I hear someone getting lots of kills from a single position, just so I know that if I see them die that position is clear (at least for a moment), but this is the vast minority of times - rarely do people stay put long enough for this to happen. In other news, god damn I am doomed to never crack top 50 I feel like. Had a good run last night and got to 63rd, but I've been angling for top 50 for a long time and always end up juuuust under. Gah. Maybe tomorrow

Not sure honestly. I very rarely look at the kill feed to see people's names so I wouldn't really notice if I did. I look at the kill feed all the time to check what guns are getting kills though - that information is incredibly helpful. If you hear a K98 firing from your left and an M24 firing from your right and a K98 kill pops up in the feed you know you probably need to look left, not right (or that you can probably go loot a free M24 to your right). Also really helpful for when you hear close quarters fights; it can tell you when someone is likely to be looting their kill. For instance, if you hear two people fighting nearby and a kill pops up that matches up with the shots you just heard, wait a few seconds and then check where the shots came from - you'll probably get a free kill on some poor bastard looking at the ground, with double the loot to boot (just be careful when you go to loot!)

I'm currently 143 on the NA solo FFP leaderboards. I was 67 last night, but played poorly for a few rounds and dropped a bit. I'm not sure what the total # of players is on that leaderboard (or even how to check) so unsure of my percentile. I've played a ton of shooters throughout my life. I played CS 1.6 and Source at a pretty decent competitive level while in high school. I've also played tons of Battlefield, DayZ, CS: GO, etc. Tactical shooters are my bread-and-butter, for sure, though I certainly have far less time to play than I used to.

OK a bit more shameless e-peen - sorry. Had a really good run right after the leaderboards reset - nice timing

Man, finally won a solo squads game. Feels great. Started really slow as the only person dropping at Minas Generales, so I had a really boring like ~10 minutes just peacefully looting that place. However, by the 2nd circle I'd gotten an AWM from a lucky crate and was basically constantly fighting from then on. Such an exhilarating back half of the match.

I have been playing Twilight Struggle like crazy for the last year and a half or so. For those that have not heard of TS before, think 1v1 Risk between the USA and USSR during the cold war, with Risk's poor game balance fixed and a bunch of extra well-crafted complexity layered on top. I know it's been said before, but holy cow the theme and mechanics of this game are in lock-step. The way the board naturally unfolds really does often mirror the actual cold war, with the Middle East becoming a hotbed early on and SE Asia being contested by the USSR coming in from the North and the US from the South. Even just at the board level the mechanics and theme dovetail really well, not to mention the very thematic and well-crafted card events. I honestly think it is my favorite boardgame ever at this point. With the right partner it's such a deep game with such a large possibility space for each and every move. When you lay a hidden trap many turns in advance and finally get to spring it for a huge VP swing... man, it's so satisfying!

Ah, interesting - next time I hear someone mention running into tons of cheaters I'll ask if they play TPP; that could be it. Now, not to get all soap-boxy but that's one more great reason to play FPP! I find that mode so much more enjoyable, as you end up with way, way less corner camping and "what the fuck just happened" deaths where someone waits for you to turn around before peaking and smoking you. I really think that for competitive shooters FPP is pretty well always the way to go - TPP rewards a very passive, camping-heavy style that I personally really do not enjoy at all. I realize it's personal preference, but I'd encourage everyone to at least give FPP a try - it's a very different kind of game, and you (probably) get to avoid most of the cheaters to boot!

I have no idea why, but I have ~400 hours played and have encountered only 2 cheaters, despite being pretty high on the leaderboards (I bounce around the top few hundred solo FPP) where you'd expect them to be prevalent. I hear enough from other people about this being a problem that I don't doubt their sincerity (Will Smith mentioned on the last Giant Bombcast that he encounters them "every game"), but I'm not sure how to explain the difference between my experience and many other people's. I wonder if something about how I'm playing helps me dodge cheaters (server/time of day), or if people are getting caught up in the "hype" surrounding cheating in this game and jumping and shadows? Perhaps both? It certainly is possible to pull off some amazing stuff accuracy wise in this game without cheating. Someone doming you with a K98 while you're sprinting 200m away or whatever doesn't necessarily mean they're cheating - the ballistics in this game are pretty predictable with practice. EDIT: And RubixsQube, to address your post more directly when I hit a plataeu with a game and start to feel stuck I try and find a good external source to freshen up my thinking/approach. A while back I checked out of bunch of the guides LevelCap has on his Youtube channel and found them very helpful. Looking at another person's perspective can help you find the mistakes in your own game that you've become blind to or, at a minimum, help you understand how other people may be thinking/playing against you.

Has anyone figured out how to disable the horrible mouse acceleration on PC?

Nice run-down of the various AR spray patterns in 1.0. TLDR, M4 is great.

Overall I agree - I really like the new map. The improved variety in terrain gives you tons of stuff to hide behind and have interesting gunfights over, and that is a huge, huge part of this game obviously. However I do also feel the new map exacerbates existing problems with the mid-game. There are a great deal of "clusters" of buildings and terrain cover on the map, with pretty big stretches of nothing in between. This, combined with the very slow circle timing in the mid-game (circle is still big, and doesn't contract that often) leads to everyone who's playing to win looting up and fighting early, then booking it to their chosen bit of cover near the center of the circle and not moving until a circle spawn forces you to. The circle is so slow mid-game that you spend large stretches of time not moving or fighting - just camping your cover and hoping for a good circle. I think if they tweaked the circle behavior mid-game to close faster, or perhaps even to close more or less quickly based on the number of players remaining, the flow on the new map would be much better. Other than that, I think the new map is a big step up in basically every way.