The General Gaming Thread!

[Cogwheel]

Nnnnnope. Can't unguardian. Can kill and recycle souls.

Also Boulderdashes are amazing.

[Morty]

That they are. They make short work out of every flying creatures. They are, however slow. It's a disadvantage of siding with James - all his creatures are slightly slower than glaciers.
As for de-guardianing, I suspected as much. I guess I'll kill them and pick up the souls, though. I hope Marduk won't attack while I'm doing it.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My Victoria 2 USA game is interesting. Had a looong period of Democrat governments, in which I played up the Warmongering. Britain had colonized Washington State before I could, and they also had claims on Oregon State, while I claimed most of British Columbia in retribution. They attacked me three times. The first time, they claimed Oregon and I claimed Washington. I won, the second time, they claimed Washington, and I claimed British Columbia. I won again.

Then I decided to have fun with Mexico. In addition to taking California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, I freed the Republic of the Rio Grande, who then voted to join me. I would have freed the Republic of Chiapas, in the south of Mexico, but the second war with Britain threw me off. Before any of these wars, rebels had already set up the Mayan Republic of the Yucatan, which I supported against Mexico.

I'm at 1876, thereabouts, and from 1860 to now have been a decade and a half of near constant global war.
First, the equivalent of the Crimean War kicked off. France claimed jurisdiction over the Christians in the Holy Land, the Ottomans agreed, in retaliation, the Russians invaded the Ottomans, ending up at war with them, the French, and, at times, the Dutch, Belgians, and British. The Ottomans were totally occupied, but the French refused to give in, landing HUGE armies TWICE in the Baltic. I didn't see the size of the second invasion, but the first invasion was, at it's height, 200,000 men, and occupied all of modern-day Lithuania, Latvia, and parts of Poland and Belarus. They were eventually pushed back, but what really ended the war was the blockade on Russia. After over 10 years of constant blockade, and several popular rebellions, the Russians ended up compromising. The Ottomans were humiliated and disarmed, and had to pay money to Russia. Wallachia and Moldavia combined to form Romania, and were given a small bit of Russian Bessarabia to connect them to the sea, but remained a Turkish vassal.

Later, however, Prussia would undo some of this, and the Berlin Conference decided that Bosnia and Herzogovina should be made independent in the Prussian sphere of influence, that Romania should be given some of Dobruja, freed of Turkish control, and placed in the Russian sphere of influence, that Serbia should be given a little more land, and that Bulgaria should be made an autonomous region of the Ottoman Empire.

Then there was the super-confusing war. The Second War for Italian Independence (The first one, in which Sardinia-Piedmonte tried to go it alone against Austria failed) pitted France and her allies, including Spain, Denmark, and Sardinia-Piedmonte, against the ailing Austro-Hungarian Empire, no longer even listed as one of the Great Powers. However, then Prussia invaded France in an attempt to capture Alsace-Lorraine. In the end, the only thing that changed was... Denmark was forced to release the Duchy of Schleswig as independent, which Prussia later invaded and annexed. Other than that, the wars were completely useless.

In the meantime... I fought not one, but TWO civil wars. The first Civil War, of about 1862, was very short. Embarrassingly, after less than a year, I was forced to declare peace, and let the Confederates go. If the British hadn't chosen that moment to declare war for a third time, I would have succeeded, but a full 90,000 men had to go fight the British around the Kingston area, and a British army of a little more than 20,000 was methodically occupying British Columbia. If I had those 90,000 men fighting the Southerners, I would have won. As it was, they destroyed my armies in Rio Grande, destroyed my armies in Virginia, and all but destroyed my armies in Maryland.

In 1872, however, I resumed the war, and this time I won. The Confederate armies were still much better than mine, but the difference was, there was no threat of British invasion. The Brits had set up Canada as a Dominion, meaning that it was toothless Canada that had the claims on British Columbia now. Britain had no more claims on me.
The First Battle of Washington DC is still a little bit of an embarrassment though. 200,000 Yankee soldiers versus no more than 50,000 Southerners. 90,000 Yankee casualties, 25,000 Southerner Casualties, and the Southerners repel my armies. The Second Battle of Washington DC I won, but still. I fired that general. Useless General. Not that it's entirely his fault. Throughout the entire war, I won hardly a single battle on the offense, and the ones where I was in the defense were darn close things as well. If I had had my Army of the East in Washington, rather than in New York, that battle would have been much better...

Edit: Oh yeah, during the Russian time of revolutions during and after the war, the Altaic Union and the Siberian Republic briefly declared their independence. The Siberian Republic is still de facto independent, but the Altaic Union has since been pwnd. They were just tiny rump states past the Urals.

[Triscuitable]

Fun time in Assassin's Creed 2!

Spoiler

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It's scary up here! I lack faith!


AH! NO! I'm gonna slip and fall off!


Safe! But I need to prove I leaped in!

Ignorethebugsignorethebugsignorethebugs

Take the picture!

GODAMMIT!

[Volatar]

I am failing to understand your brand of humor.

Also, buy better armor already. 6 HP is just sad. I have 14 already.

[Triscuitable]

I am failing to understand your brand of humor.

Also, buy better armor already. 6 HP is just sad. I have 14 already.

That was the first time in Villa Auditore! I'm not going to have anything short of 6!

(Plus, I actually decided to climb down. I added poor humor, and then internet go boom).

[Morty]

I decided to buy Planescape: Torment from Good old Games to play it again, this time in English. I'm planning on being Neutral this time, but I'm not sure how easy it'll be... as brilliant as the writing in this game is, it doesn't handle alignment much better than other D&D-based games, which handle it poorly. I'm also not certain which class I'm going to pick. Maybe a Mage again. One of my pet peeves against Torment is that mages get some cool things Fighters and Thieves don't. For example...

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You only get to hear the Pronouncement of Two Deaths as One from Dak'kon if you're a mage. You can swap classes at your leisure of course, but it feels a little metagame-y to me.

[Cogwheel]

You need those mental stats, I'd say. Go mage.


Also, good and neutral are the easier alignments in that game, in the sense that no one actually has the heart to complete an evil playthrough.

[Morty]

Well, sure, being Evil in Torment will slowly wither your soul. What I mean is that I worry I'll end up being Good instead for lack of Neutral dialogue options.
As for classes, it's possible to play a Fighter with high mental stats as well. So long as you've got Strength you're good, and you get that from reaching Fighter levels and Fighter-only tatoos. And playing a guy who can discuss philosophy as well as split someone's skull in two was entertaining. That said, I'll probably play a Mage, since I played Fighter last time.

[Cogwheel]

Well, sure, being Evil in Torment will slowly wither your soul. What I mean is that I worry I'll end up being Good instead for lack of Neutral dialogue options.
As for classes, it's possible to play a Fighter with high mental stats as well. So long as you've got Strength you're good, and you get that from reaching Fighter levels and Fighter-only tatoos. And playing a guy who can discuss philosophy as well as split someone's skull in two was entertaining. That said, I'll probably play a Mage, since I played Fighter last time.

Two words for you.

Mechanus Cannon.

[factotum]

Also, good and neutral are the easier alignments in that game, in the sense that no one actually has the heart to complete an evil playthrough.

Apparently I have no heart, then, because I completed an evil playthrough of PS:T just fine. And since I'm a person who dislikes GTA3: Vice City and Saints Row 2 because your POV character in both cases is an irredeemable psycho, I wouldn't say that's true...

[Morty]

Two words for you.

Mechanus Cannon.

Well, of course the mages get all the nice things. It is a D&D-based game, after all. But playing a Fighter can also be entertaining, especially since Strength gives you dialogue options.

[Cogwheel]

Well, of course the mages get all the nice things. It is a D&D-based game, after all. But playing a Fighter can also be entertaining, especially since Strength gives you dialogue options.

And then there's dexterity, in the mortuary. Assuming we count neck schnapps as dialogue now.

[Morty]

Pretty sure there're other ways of using Dexterity in dialogue. I played Thief only once, though, so my Dexterity was never that great.
Also, I changed my mind - I'll go with Fighter. Mind you, Torment is probably the only RPG where Intelligence and Wisdom are as important, if not more, as Strength and Constitution for a warrior. I'll probably start with 16 in Strength, Intelligence and Wisdom and invest points in Intelligence and Wisdom later on. Strength I can get from Fighter levels and Fighter-only tatoos.

[Triscuitable]

Friend asked me what I was playing today. Said "Assassin's Creed II".

He says "I've beaten Arsearsein's Creed II."

Thankfully, he was joking. He loves that series. I knew that, and knew it well as water leaked from my nose (enjoying a glass of water).

[Phase]

Hey Trisc, once you finish Ass Creed Dos, I recommend giving this series a gander.

[Cogwheel]

And while you're at it, if you like stealth, give Thief a try.

[Triscuitable]

Hey Trisc, once you finish Ass Creed Dos, I recommend giving this series a gander.

Oh, I beat it years ago. I'm just playing it again because I found the STHUPER STHPECIAL ULTIMATE EDITION for the price of a single DLC pack, both of which I've never played. In fact, it was CHEAPER. $6, in fact.

And while you're at it, if you like stealth, give Thief a try.

ARGH NEVER PLAYED IT WANT IT SO MUCH

[Cogwheel]

ARGH NEVER PLAYED IT WANT IT SO MUCH

...Yeah, can't help you there, I'm afraid.

Third game's on Steam, at least. Not as great, but still good.

[Triscuitable]

...Yeah, can't help you there, I'm afraid.

Third game's on Steam, at least. Not as great, but still good.

I'm keenly aware. I'm rather sending a message into space to let them know I want a first-edition copy of Thief.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I'm keenly aware. I'm rather sending a message into space to let them know I want a first-edition copy of Thief.

When martians genocide the earth under banners of old games, Trisc, we'll know who to blame.

[warty goblin]

ARGH NEVER PLAYED IT WANT IT SO MUCH

GamersGate have the original Thief: The Dark Project if one is so inclined.

[Triscuitable]

When martians genocide the earth under banners of old games, Trisc, we'll know who to blame.

So long as we're nuked by a bomb made of old Fallout floppies, and our eXtra-terrestrial Combat units are ready, I'm good.

[Geno9999]

Okay, I just found this pretty good Super Mario 64 mod called "Super Mario Star Road"
(Though you'll need a ROM to play it... >_> <_< >_>)

[Morty]

One of the things I like about Torment is how it turns expectations around. It's one of the few RPGs out there where swords aren't the best choice for a warrior, because there aren't any. My fighter, who is as smart as he's strong, is using an axe - which is also a subversion of genre expectations, because smart warrior-poets tend to use swords rather than nasty-looking axes.

[Cogwheel]

Not even counting the time when you use a club, of course.

And by club I mean your own arm.

[factotum]

One of the things I like about Torment is how it turns expectations around. It's one of the few RPGs out there where swords aren't the best choice for a warrior, because there aren't any.

Wouldn't it be more of a subversion if there actually WERE swords, but they weren't the best weapons? I mean, if I want to ensure nobody uses a particular weapon type in an RPG, just not having any of that weapon is the easiest approach, but not necessarily the most satisfying.

(Having said that, I suspect the reason swords are usually the best melee weapons in RPGs is because they were in real life--there's a reason they were much more common than, say, axes, despite being harder to make!).

[Cespenar]

Not even counting the time when you use a club, of course.

And by club I mean your own arm.

Well, it's an economic and green choice; it extends your, ahem, reach; and above all, it's classy!

[Morty]

Ugh, I hate the Modron Maze in Torment. But I'd like to have Nordom in my team, so I have to suffer through it. I alleviate its annoyingness by playing it on the lowest difficulty(the one in the game options obviously, not the easy setting of the maze itself) and save-scumming so that I only get one construct in a room, then dispatching it quickly after having Morte taunt it and Annah backstab it. Cheating? Yeah. But otherwise it'd be really frustrating.

[warty goblin]

Wouldn't it be more of a subversion if there actually WERE swords, but they weren't the best weapons? I mean, if I want to ensure nobody uses a particular weapon type in an RPG, just not having any of that weapon is the easiest approach, but not necessarily the most satisfying.

(Having said that, I suspect the reason swords are usually the best melee weapons in RPGs is because they were in real life--there's a reason they were much more common than, say, axes, despite being harder to make!).

My understanding is that a large portion of the reason swords were such popular weapons in the middle ages* was due not solely to their effectiveness, but also to their status. Before the turn of the first millenium iron was extremely expensive, particularly the large, high quality pieces needed to easily make a sword. Hence pattern welding, which is immensely time consuming and meant that owning a sword conferred a lot of status as a warrior.

Obviously later into the period as iron became more plentiful, swords could be made more cheaply and became more widely available, but the mystique and status lived on.

(This isn't to say that swords aren't hella good weapons, but if you're looking for the absolute best option for splitting and skewering dudes, polearms are usually a better bet. Halberds have very little sex appeal however, so swords it is!).


*For RPGs set in other technology levels, this obviously does not apply.