Marchettus

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Posts posted by Marchettus


  1. As I don't use twitter it's been a long time since, during the drive home from work, a 3MA podcast made me go "gotta buy and install this IMMEDIATELY"

     

    My son, a five year old lad just discovering games, is at the perfect age to start pouring over those beautiful civil war illustrated books and the idea that we will replay the burning of our own cities is joyful. Being able to explain the stupidity that causes every young person to say "why did they do that" through a game is a real joy.  Instead of the lost cause we can teach that maybe drunk, stupid, and politically connected generals should rush kids into shooting themselves.

     

    I can't wait to do an assault on Florida with my Maine division and burn Chicago to the grown with a unit of cuban volunteers.

     

    "You know if this is for you" is what a 7/10 "for fans of the genre" truly means.

     

     


  2. So I picked this game up in the humble bundle.  The tactics are very shaggy compared to xcom or battle brothers but I would love to see the sneaking/turn based movement expanded in another game.  However -  the game itself is just one long save scum and that's fine, but I've been playing more war of the chosen instead.

    If there wasn't so much being released, and if I didn't have such limited time with kids and work, I could see myself taking a weekend and finishing the game.  As it stands now I think I figured out the game after a few hours and the tactics/fights aren't that compelling.  
     

    It is extremely difficult to get a narrative to combine with an ongoing branching game.  I can't help but feel that if you just had to do regular stalker missions, with a rotating cast, against groups of enemies that sometimes you would say "we have to run" the game might be more compelling and have a longer burn.  That being said, I can appreciate going for a tight story driven game but I'm likely not going to finish this thing.


  3. As somebody who came to gaming late because I didn't have anything to play on Xcom is the only game that I put in significant time.  I do remember booting up tie fighter at my friends house often.

    One suggestion for these shows - I'd love to hear what games you would like to see remade now.  I always think that remaking good games is a waste - it's the weird errors that need an update.  I get the sense that if somebody remade the wing commander game that would be pretty cool...


  4. Maybe try some of the older Anno games - they are all about placement with some very limited combat on some options.  Banished is another game without combat that is cool if you can find it at a decent price.

    Also-  don't sell yourself short with CK2 and EU4.  Those games are obtuse, but once you play for a bit they make sense.


  5. So I finally listened to this after I had a day with 8 hours of driving.  I 100% want everyone to keep experimenting and I understand why the time investment of a movie is preferable to a game.  Strategy games take a long time to play and a movie is quick to watch and discuss.  I'd prefer some more afterdark where people catch up on games that they're playing or basically anything where Michael can talk about weird games.

    If this is something you're going to want to do once a month I'd hope you pull it from the main feed.  


  6. Ok - here is a question - Is there any chance that you could review one of those "popular" new wargames that have come out in the past year or so based on a popular license?  I'd like to get some input on Killteam/Fallout/Song of Fire and Ice since it's easier to get some people together with the old "Well- if you like this than lets just try this game based on that" compared to - "this is a great system that models the french experience from years 1961-1963"

    Also - Pathfinder sounds really interesting if you can remove the 90 hours part.


  7. Having one of these every 6 or 7 is one of my favorite things about 3MA.  What's I kept thinking about is how you were describing how I felt when I first started playing Warhammer 40K.  We're just rolling a number of D6 over and over again with slightly different results that are hard to remember.  It was slow, painful, and prone to error.

    The difference is there is a built in community to play 40K - much smaller compared to magic or other games, but larger compared to any single wargame.  I would love to get a copy of Churchill as a present and would react with such joy.  However, who would I play it with?  Most of my friends have young kids and a night or afternoon spent gaming, even for 3 people, is a huge lift.  Having a standard ruleset allows us to skip over a lot of the learning.

    I'm personally frustrated by how expensive 40K is, but if people are buying $80-$120 dollar games for a single playthrough that is a huge investment.  

    You guys should always play Churchill and record it so I can get my annual fix.


  8. I have no desire to play this game but the discussion was helpful.

    I'm with Troy and want a more detailed whale management sim.  Also-  Did anyone else feel like they're using Moby Dick as cover to be in the Dishonored universe?  

    Whalepunk- you're a style that is set up to fail!


  9. All- 

    Is it time to revisit this game?  Or just record Rowan calling everyone sweet summer children for 2 hours?  I have never personally spent more hours playing such a middling game but there is something about the combination of graphics, ease of use, and dumb AI that keeps me coming back.

    May I be so bold as to suggest looking at it after the 2.0 patch?  That patch really could put this game into a good path or make it completely unplayable.

     

    Best,


  10. I know it's in vogue, but I really agree with Kroem that a designer that used King of Dragon Pass as a basis for a space 4x game would be doing well.

     

    I enjoy Stellaris - it's my NCIS of games right now- but am completely underwhelmed that the extent of the challenge is YOU NEED MORE MINERALS where the true challenge would be balancing internal politics, choices about what the newly colonized planets are, and other political/society decisions.  Why should we spend a huge amount of resources to go over to another planet when we have problems of our own is a very very reasonable stance to take.

     

    I think that Endless Space 2 solves this problem by giving each faction a storyline and making it more like an RPG- even if it takes away from the core 4x game.  The discussion on diplomacy will keep me from coming back to this one after I watch the trailers one last time.


  11. I wanted to comment-

     

    I cannot for the life of me get into this game.  I am waiting judgement for the mash-up map but none of the factions feel distinct in the way that Total Warhammer 1 did.  I also don't like how spread out the map is-  it feels wrong so far.  However, I really like some of the UI improvements.

    And while I'm on the subject-  This is the first game I regret buying since Civ 6. Part of the reason is that Total War remains Total War and I should only buy a total war game every 3-4th go around.


  12. I enjoyed the episode but I feel like it didn't have the focus of some other shows about "topics".  I like that the pod takes time to look at the landscape from time to time on how genres have changed.

     

    One huge miss was not talking about tropico 2 in more depth.  When I play rimworld I feel that tropico 2 has a huge influence on the game.  You could only get workers by raiding ships, pirates couldn't do any work and were prone to mood swings.  

     

    I really think that it is a game that deserves a remake since it was such an experimental concept.  It's worth playing for an afternoon to see how broken it is and how it's an interesting path not taken.


  13. On 8/12/2017 at 11:35 PM, Rob Zacny said:

    I don't think I'd agree that 3MA necessarily attracts reactionary sentiment, nor that its audience leans that way. I do think strategy games get treated as an apolitical space (in part because the subject matter is often SO charged) that it can catch people off guard when the discussion raises contemporary political topics. Thumbs has a bigger community that's always been in dialogue with the critical conversations across gaming, but in strategy land a lot of those conversations have passed us by. So it might feel like we're breaking an unspoken rule when we tackle this stuff but the truth is just there aren't a ton of games that really engage with modern political debate.

     

    Two things I think are changing that: one is the context has changed of late. The politics of 1930s Europe and Asia seemed more like a settled and closed discussion when we started doing this show, but obviously there are a lot of overtones to those subjects nowadays. Second, our own standards and expectations are shifting. I'm not sure Battle Brothers inclusiveness would have felt as obvious to me a few years ago, but now I regularly have those conversations about how games shape the idea of "the default" or "normal:. Also, I'm playing this alongside Darkest Dungeon where similarly simple character art is made to encompass a wide variety of skin tones. When a game omits that inclusivity, and then kind of tips its hand about other iffy positions and perspectives, it's way harder to ignore now. We both want it done better, and there are a lot of games that do.

     

    But that's a change and an evolution in how we approach that space, and that's going to seem discordant at times. But I don't think it says too much about 3MA.

     

     

     

    Rob-

     

    I'm really glad to see that the discussion moved beyond the worst version of the "don't say things that make us uncomfortable".  I've been listening from around episode 120 and have enjoyed how the podcast has changed over time in enjoyable ways.  One of my favorite things is seeing a new episode pop up so I know I can mow the lawn and fold laundry for a joyful hour.  

    My issue with your opinion is that it feels a bit like "punching down" on a five man team located in Germany making a first game in English.

    This is a podcast that discussed Rimworld about a year ago (prior to the RPS article about how the game had sexuality asymmetrically coded) that didn't include a huge discussion about its problematic tone of harvesting organs, kidnapping, and growing your colony by keeping people prisoner until they agreed to do hard labor.  I'm not saying this to shut down the discussion, but to suggest an episode of regular panelist and devs to talk about about limited resources, making design choices, the cost of content.  And I think you should ask the Battle Brothers devs to come and talk about the choices.  They, along with another dev and you and Rowan/Fraser/Troy/Bruce would have what I am sure is a really interesting conversation.  And setting it up would be a fun logistics challenge that you would like.

    "WILL THERE BE BATTLE SISTERS?

    “Not at first, as this would mean a considerable work-load when we want a whole lot of other things in the game, too. If ever there is an expansion beyond the initial release, we’d love to get female characters into the game as well. They’d come with their own backgrounds that take into account how a quasi-medieval world treats them, so they won’t just be male characters with different heads. Just like their male counterparts, some will be more and some will be less suited to the hard life as mercenaries. “

    WILL THERE BE OTHER ETHNICITIES PRESENT?

    Not at first. If we ever get the chance to expand the game beyond its initial release we’d love to add different cultures to the game with the attention they really deserve. An oriental-based culture, for example, which could come with their own looks, names, character backgrounds, architecture, lore as conveyed by contracts and events, beasts based on oriental folklore, and loads of medieval-era equipment which actually makes a difference in gameplay."

    I think that a discussion about the games tone choices would be very interesting and bring depth to a part of the discussion that really deserves more thoughtfulness.  Also- we know they would have to respond since they wouldn't lack the conviction to fight for their game.

     

    I think that a discussion about the games tone choices would be very interesting and bring depth to a part of the discussion that really deserves more thoughtfulness.  Also- we know the battle brothers devs would have to respond since they wouldn't lack the conviction to fight for their game.


  14. I wanted to post again in this topic and bring up how great the expansions/DLC has been for this game.  Each new faction has such a great feel and the filling out of the map has made some strong,  

     

    I also think that Rob should try playing the Crooked Moon Tribe to get that total war feel of using the strategic map to beat a faction economically.  I'm at a point in my campaign where I just keep raising two armies of trash level units and plopping them down to raid a province.  Combined with the goblin agents to block and attack walls I'm able to wear down the AI but rarely take them on in battle without having a WAAGH!!!.

     

    It's a totally different way to play and I hope that CA is as dedicated with the next TW game.


  15. I am having a huge issue getting into Civ 6.  I tried twice over the weekend, and both Monday and Tuesday night this week.  I feel like I'm hitting an uncanny valley where everything is close enough to what I know but I can't understand/figure out all the systems or what to do to grow.  What is strange is that this feeling isn't even "Fun" and the end turn button feels more like "Well, I could stop here and go to bed".  Is anyone else having this problem?  For context, the first Civ game I played was 2 and 4 is my favorite by far.

    This year I've had 2-3 games that I've wanted to stay up way too late playing (X-com 2, Total Warhammer, Rimworld) even if I didn't play them for over 200 hours.  Am I broken?  Has something happened where I can't Civ anymore?  Below are just some initial thoughts:

    1)  Lots of personal things have changed since the last Civ release (wife/kid/new job) that prevent me from setting aside the 300 hours that I would play over the next year > counterpoint -  You play a ton of paradox games still

    2)  I can't figure out what's different from Civ 5 and don't see a reason to find out.  I really don't like that everything seems to give a bonus and my training from older Civ games say "You better know right now if you want to get a cultural victory".  If exploring how to play the game isn't fun that's a really bad sign for wanting to play the game long term.  I really feel like every choice has 3-5 branches and I can't figure out what any of it means.

    3)  The game runs very slowly.  I have a pretty good computer and I feel a lag and sluggishness between turns that brings to a stopping point.  This is a strategy game and I think that it shouldn't be that sluggish.
     


  16. "I think you guys wrote off Clash Royale too quickly.  It's a 3 minute Lords Management/RTS game.  Perfect little bite sized strategy. The f2p stuff never prevents you from playing a match.  Matches are real time and PvP."

     

    <- this 100x.  I stopped playing hearthstone because I could get a Clash Royale game or two in at work.  It really is the perfect mobile pop and play game.  While you do have to grind cards and make requests that takes strategy as well.  It has an active meta and sometimes I'll play it instead of a battle in Total War:Warhammer because I just need the winning or losing fix.


  17. Just wanted to see if anyone went to dragoncon this year.  I only had a 1-day pass this year and didn't do any gaming but wanted to check out anyone did play any of the games there.  How is the scene vs. a Pax?

     

    I also thing that the second floor of the america mart is really really depressing compared to the rest of the convention,


  18. I've played a bunch of hours in Rimworld and think the best comment from the podcast was roughly that the game feels like it happens to you, not that your mistakes pile up and break the game.  I feel like every time I get a good set-up for food production I get the "blight" event.

     

    I'm not a huge fan of the mental break system and how unreasonable your colonists are about bad situations.  On one hand they react pretty well to losing arms, getting shot, and being in horrible mental places.  On the other hand they seem to have breakdowns because the walls are ugly and they have bad clothing.  I'm open to the idea that I should be playing a different way but I'm also tired of going through the same opening motions.  I don't have 100+ hours to grind at an MMO and I feel like this game requires a ton of time to see all of the end states.

    I'm pretty happen with the state of the game.  Overall it's was a good buy after returning No Man's Sky but I"m not sure how many more games I'm going to play on the standard difficulty (Cassandra Classic on Rough).  I see myself putting down the game in a few more hours and not picking it up again.