[Steam] Thread XXXI: Hot Medic-Heavy Action!

[Trixie]

[Steam] Thread XXXI
Safe for work? What's that?

⏎ Steam Groups

There are several Steam groups for different groups and games:

• Giant in the Playground
• Chocolate Hammer
• GitP Competetive
• GitP Borderlands
• GitP Left 4 Dead 2 and GitP Killing Floor
• GitP Waaaaaaaaaaaagh (Dawn of War)
• GitP Pony General Group
  

⏎ Servers

★ Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation

• Interested in trading? Provide, supply or volunteer your items in this spreadsheet.
• Want to report bad behaviour on either server? Follow these steps to get their Steam ID.

★ Minecraft

Minecraft is a game about placing blocks while running from skeletons. Or something like that. The game involves players creating and destroying various types of blocks in a three dimensional environment. The player takes an avatar that can destroy or create blocks, forming fantastic structures, creations and artwork across the various multiplayer servers in multiple game modes.

• The server uses a whitelist to allow only certain individuals entry. To add yourself, or any questions, ask Saposhiente.
• Minecraft server thread can be found here.

★ Terraria

Terraria is a game about placing blocks while running from skeletons, but in 2D! Well, okay. There's more of a focus on exploration, finding rare weapons and materials, and battling increasingly powerful foes as you carve out a home or two on the side.

• Server now only available upon demand. Contact Archonic_Energy if you want to play.

☆ Colloquial

After the loss of the Chocolate Hammer TF2 server the community split in two general directions. Mumble and IRC. Everyone is welcome on both.

⏎ Mumble

Used as a lounge area for people to meet up and talk to each other. If you want to play a competitive game such as LoL, DotA2, T:A, or SC2, this is the place to be.

⌘ IP: fish.mumbleboxes.com:36003

⏎ IRC

IRC is the general all-day hangout for many people, even while at work or roaming on their phones. Subjects of conversation shift everywhere, games of L4D2 are arranged, and PbP RPG's happen right in the channel.

There are many ways to connect to and enjoy IRC, either by using a web client (simply click this link and you are done), a traditional desktop client, or by using a plugin for your browser / game. A quick how-to join the channel can be found here. If you already have some experience using IRC but would like to know more, once you're inside the channel, any questions you might have should be answered by those already present.

⌘ IP: irc.sorcery.net ; #chocolatehammer ; Password is “chha”

Admins for the various servers

Spoiler

Show

⏎ Chocolate Hammer

Currently known Admins and Moderators

⏎ Minecraft *

• Saposhiente

⏎ Mumble *

• Djinn_in_Tonic (GitP)
• Darth Mario (GitP)
• Neftren (aka, Polytonic; GitP)

Older Steam Threads:

Spoiler

Show

The Orange Box Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58949
TOB 2: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97854
TOB 3: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112339
TOB 4: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118059
TOB 5: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121135
TOB 6: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123753
TOB 7: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127092
Then Shadow_Archmagi screwed up the numbering...
6: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132975
7: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136376
8: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142969
9: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147236
10: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150549
10+1: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152630
XII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155491
XIII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157809
XIV: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159943
XV: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167840
XVI: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163546
XVII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172636
XVIII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177656
XIX: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...php?p=10025844
XX: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186561
XXI: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194272
XXII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200544
XXIII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205631
XXIV: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208646
XXV: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213652
XXVI: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220121
XXVII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225732
XXVIII: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229401
XXIX: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247083
XXX: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253659

Other Threads of Note:
ChHa TF2 Server Thread - Here we try to arrange evenings of gaming, and plan our weekly semi-competitive 6v6 matches.
General Gaming Thread - Exactly what it says on the tin.

[Kris Strife]

So, Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut or Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit?

Reposting from the last thread.

[Triscuitable]

Reposting from the last thread.

Since no one volunteered, and we reached page 50...

Well...

I blame the only thread name proposal we had

Post-cepting. New thread! New thread!

God, my mouth hurts. Stupid wisdom teeth.

[pffh]

Reposting from the last thread.

Skip the Witcher (if it's the first game since I haven't played the second). I hated that game so much. Wait I'll just quote myself from around this time last year.

I recently bought it and already regret spending money on it. So far the combat is nothing but left click on enemy, wait for pointer to turn to flame, left click on enemy, wait for pointer to turn to flame, left click on enemy. The voice acting is horrible and if I manage to get a little bit immersed in the game as soon as someone speaks I go flying right back out. Oh and so far it seems to be stuck in the tell and show but don't let us do phase.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I quite liked the Witcher, except for the bit where I appear to have gotten myself stuck. Act I is pretty terrible, but I've been enjoying Act II up to the point where I need to get through these plant-monsters which keep killing me. And I don't have enough potions to get through all of them...

[Triscuitable]

Sleeping Dogs is $5, or 91% off. Something's seriously wrong awesome here.

[Gamerlord]

Sleeping Dogs is $5, or 91% off. Something's seriously wrong awesome here.

Almost certainly a pricing error, seeing as how they just set it to $16.99. I wonder if they will honor the purchases made during the glitch.

[Maxios]

Crap, the price went back up. Sorry.

It's alright .

On another note, I approve of the thread title

[Forbiddenwar]

Skip the Witcher (if it's the first game since I haven't played the second). I hated that game so much. Wait I'll just quote myself from around this time last year.

agreed.having played both, get hell yeah. its a great fun game. unless you dont have a 360 controller. i have a logitech and still needed to research a 360 emulator to get it to work. but the game was worth the price and the work it took to get it to work.

[Triscuitable]

On another note, I approve of the thread title

I don't! I hope that's a non-issue!

[Squark]

So, Civ 5 Is back on sale. Couple of questions; is the game of the year edition worth getting? how is the expansion pack? What changed from Civ IV?

[factotum]

I've been enjoying Act II up to the point where I need to get through these plant-monsters which keep killing me. And I don't have enough potions to get through all of them...

As I recall, those plants have a weakness to fire, so using Igni on them helps a lot.

[The Bushranger]

The voice acting is horrible [in The Witcher]

The voice acting was re-recorded in the Expanded Edition, IIRC.

So, Civ 5 Is back on sale. Couple of questions; is the game of the year edition worth getting? how is the expansion pack? What changed from Civ IV?

TotalBiscuit's advice on the matter.

Basically: Civ5 is crap compared to Civ4; the GOTY edition does not include Gods and Kings; Gods and Kings makes Civ5 playable and is the only version worth getting.

[Triscuitable]

TotalBiscuit's advice on the matter.

Basically: Civ5 is crap compared to Civ4; the GOTY edition does not include Gods and Kings; Gods and Kings makes Civ5 playable and is the only version worth getting.

TotalBiscuit is a massive Negative Nancy. He absolutely hates anything that has a semblance of "lesser than X", which generally means anything short of perfection gets a stamp of mediocrity or hate from him.

I suggest you ignore what he says unless you try something for yourself. Civ V is a completely different game from Civ IV, and I generally felt like Civ V was what the franchise needed: modernization to make the game more readily accessible. If you want a more user-friendly experience, Civ V was made to allow people to hop in and enjoy the game.

[Neftren]

Civilization V is way better than IV. I think people who generally liked II and III tend to like V, whereas people who like IV should probably stick to IV.

I personally really liked V and the myriad game enhancements. Combat seems less of an afterthought, and V is the first game in the series in which the AI actually uses nuclear weapons. Curses Bismarck!

[pffh]

I personally really liked V and the myriad game enhancements. Combat seems less of an afterthought, and V is the first game in the series in which the AI actually uses nuclear weapons. Curses Bismarck!

What? I´ve been nuked countless times in earlier Civ II and sometimes they were completely unprovoked attacks.

[Neftren]

What? I´ve been nuked countless times in earlier Civ II and sometimes they were completely unprovoked attacks.

I've never been nuked by the AI in Civ II before. Perhaps I'm just exceedingly lucky?

[Welf]

I suggest you ignore what he says unless you try something for yourself. Civ V is a completely different game from Civ IV, and I generally felt like Civ V was what the franchise needed: modernization to make the game more readily accessible. If you want a more user-friendly experience, Civ V was made to allow people to hop in and enjoy the game.

Civ V was a weird experience. I loved Civ V and was excited about the new game. I think the modernizations were a good idea. And as a friend said, making another Civ IV is pointless, since that already exists. But the game never created the magic Civ IV and II had for me.

[Artanis]

(Disclaimer: I only played Civ IV vanilla, so I don't know of any improvements made in the expansions).

Some of what I consider improvements between Civ IV and Civ V:

-Much more variety between the Civs. In Civ IV, two financial leaders might play somewhat differently, but they'd both still be trying to leverage a similar advantage in a similar way. Likewise for any two leaders that shared any of the other traits. In Civ V, there is no such overlap, with Civs' traits rarely (if ever) overlapping in any but the most general areas. For instance, both the Iroquois and the Celts like to be near forests, but their bonuses from forests are vastly different. Likewise the Chinese and Japanese will both do a lot of fighting, but in much different ways.
-Social Engineering that is, IMO, the best since Alpha Centauri.
-Significantly better combat (IMO). Stacks-o-doom are gone, and ranged weapons are actually ranged weapons.
-Roads no longer cover every tile everywhere ever. They're still extremely useful, but you do not want to spam them on every spot possible.
-Limited resources. In previous Civ games, if you had just 1 iron mine, you could build as many Swordsmen as you want. In Civ 5, a single iron mine will only get you a handful of them at a time.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

For me, it was never the same, because I played Civ III and IV when I was just getting into strategy, and then I kept discovering more and more complicated strategy games, and then I turned into a bit of a grognard. I find the Civ games too shallow to return to now.

[Starsign]

I haven't actually ever played any of the past Civilization games, but I do recommend Civ V for those who wants to jump into the 4X/Strategy genre. And I especially recommend Gods and Kings as soon as possible because it makes a lot of changes to the game that fixes some issues (naval units and AI comes to mind) and places more welcome additions in (Faith and Espionage in particular) I find Gods and Kings everything that an expansion should be and already I placed in 30+ hours within a few days

[factotum]

-Roads no longer cover every tile everywhere ever. They're still extremely useful, but you do not want to spam them on every spot possible.

You don't really want to do that in Civ 4, either, since you don't get any real advantage from doing it. It's not like in Civ 2 (think that was the one, anyway) where you got extra gold from having a road on a square that was being worked by a city.

What Civ 5 really needs is a decent tutorial--tried it for 30 minutes and just couldn't figure it out at all!

[Dumbledore lives]

I realize now I have a copy of Magicka sitting in my inventory for forever, so if anyone wants it it's up for grabs.

[Triscuitable]

What Civ 5 really needs is a decent tutorial--tried it for 30 minutes and just couldn't figure it out at all!

I think the best way to learn how to play Civ V is much different from the rest of the series; you actually have to play the game outside the tutorial to learn how it works. I liked that, actually; learn as you go.

[Trixie]

I realize now I have a copy of Magicka sitting in my inventory for forever, so if anyone wants it it's up for grabs.

I do have one, and I remember my friend talked about getting it so we could play it together. I could ask him if he still wants it if possible?

[Starsign]

I think the best way to learn how to play Civ V is much different from the rest of the series; you actually have to play the game outside the tutorial to learn how it works. I liked that, actually; learn as you go.

This is pretty much how I played too; I learned how to optimize as I went along. Generally I prefer playing England and Germany the most for their own bonuses. (the former makes Naval units deadly as well as being defensive while the latter is basically making an army with little devotion to time or cash)

[Triscuitable]

Civ V streamlined the more complicated aspects of previous entries while introducing more ways to play the game (without ever letting it get convoluted). It's still a very deep strategy game, but not nearly as insanely confusing as it used to be.

Let's be honest; you didn't know Civ IV as well as you claimed you did, either.

[riccaru]

Anyone play DayZ? I'm downloading ARMA2 as we speak to play it.

[Triscuitable]

Anyone play DayZ? I'm downloading ARMA2 as we speak to play it.

IMO, DayZ is not worth the price of ArmA II. If you wanted ArmA II for ArmA II, great! But buying it just to play that mod is nothing short of silly.

Granted, I play DayZ. But you really, really need a good mic, good friends, and a good server to play on. Be organized, find people to congregate with, and don't jump in blindly. Play ArmA II for a couple hours to get a hang of the controls and dynamics (bullet drop, the awful controls, interaction, destruction of environments), and then start playing DayZ.

Download withSIX as well. It's really important that you use a good client to launch the game, and withSIX is basically a mod manager where you can download mods and TCs from. Super handy tool, can't recommend it enough.

[Forbiddenwar]

My tf2 closet cleaning project the last few days has been surprisingly successful. I now have over $100 in my steam wallet, just by turning hats into metal and metal into keys. Does anyone know if it comes with an expiration date? Shame that I don't have time to play the games I already have.