What game are you wasting time on?

[sullynathan]

Just remember to take the level cap off.

how do you do that?

I finished about a week ago after 80 hours. However, I took my time and tried to finish every side quest. It's worth the time.

One thing I fucking hate is infinity engine games (& infinity engine style games) not counting how long I played using real world hours

 

[Cael]

Just remember to take the level cap off.

how do you do that?

You need a mod, and that would depend on which version you have. Do a search on google.

 

[sullynathan]

You need a mod, and that would depend on which version you have.

I got EE, I don't really care about a cap unless it's too limiting.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Started Baldur's Gate

I finished about a week ago after 80 hours. However, I took my time and tried to finish every side quest. It's worth the time.

Just remember to take the level cap off.

Wait. Why? Even with ToTSC you shouldn't need to remove the level cap. Unless you grind the fuck out of random ambushes and shit I don't think you'd ever get enough experience for a cap remover to matter anyway.

 

[Cael]

Started Baldur's Gate

I finished about a week ago after 80 hours. However, I took my time and tried to finish every side quest. It's worth the time.

Just remember to take the level cap off.

Wait. Why? Even with ToTSC you shouldn't need to remove the level cap. Unless you grind the fuck out of random ambushes and shit I don't think you'd ever get enough experience for a cap remover to matter anyway.

If you do every single quest, you will hit level cap. Just looking at an old save of mine via EE Keeper (not firing up the whole game): Level 6/6 Ftr/Mage, 95k XP. Should be near the end, so you lose 30+k XP

This is with a full party of 6 people. If you have less people, it would be worse.

 

[Catacombs]

Started Baldur's Gate

I finished about a week ago after 80 hours. However, I took my time and tried to finish every side quest. It's worth the time.

Just remember to take the level cap off.

Wait. Why? Even with ToTSC you shouldn't need to remove the level cap. Unless you grind the fuck out of random ambushes and shit I don't think you'd ever get enough experience for a cap remover to matter anyway.

If you do every single quest, you will hit level cap. Just looking at an old save of mine via EE Keeper (not firing up the whole game): Level 6/6 Ftr/Mage, 95k XP. Should be near the end, so you lose 30+k XP

This is with a full party of 6 people. If you have less people, it would be worse.

Don't worry, guys, I definitely took off the level cap.

 

[Catacombs]

One thing I fucking hate is infinity engine games (& infinity engine style games) not counting how long I played using real world hours

The IE games I'm familiar with -- PST, IWD and BG -- are on Steam or GOG, both of which count hours. That's, of course, you bought the game through either platform.

 

[octavius]

I bet Sarevok was not level capped.

 

[flyingjohn]

Playing system shock 2 co op with a friend.
It might be buggy as hell(lag,bugs,desync,etc) but it is still a amazing game when it comes to atmosphere and game play.
Playing standard weapons with hacking kinda feels like cheating while my friend is going with psi-exotic combo (he always loved exotic weapons in ss2,for some reason).

The major negatives unfortunately are how easy it thanks to two factors:
-Dying and coming back costs no nanites
-Cyber modules are given to each player separately,meaning if somebody collects 3 everybody gets 3.
I think if modules were shared it would make for a more interesting experience with players trading modules between each other for necessary upgrades.
Also nanites aren't shared and here it makes sense.

I know people will probably say that multiplayer ruins the game,but i find it somewhat enjoyable.And you can always choose to make self imposed rules to bring back the horror scavenging feel.

 

[Azalin]

Finally mamaged to finish Pillars of Eternity and The White March,I tried to play PoE soon after it was released but I never finished it since I found it really mediocre and uninspiring,I decided to try it again now with patch 3.0 and the expansions and I have to say it has improved enough for me to finish it. It isn't good but is quite decent,the technical stuff of course haven't changed(good graphics,long loading times,etc)the story is still mediocre but the gameplay is better and more balanced,the expansion were interesting too.I guess it's worth buying now the complete edition during a sale.

Also finished Serious Sam 3 and its dlc Jewel of the Nile,perhaps not as good as first and second encounter but still enjoyable,btw whoever though that it was a good idea to put levels where you run around in some dark corridors with your flashlight in this one should probably be fired.

 

[Darth Roxor]

btw whoever though that it was a good idea to put levels where you run around in some dark corridors with your flashlight in this one should probably be fired.

TBH by far the worst part of that level is the decreased movement speed. Otherwise, my fav tactic for it is just destroying all the columns on which the space monkeys like to hang with a rocket launcher, and then it's 'k.

 

[Azalin]

btw whoever though that it was a good idea to put levels where you run around in some dark corridors with your flashlight in this one should probably be fired.

TBH by far the worst part of that level is the decreased movement speed. Otherwise, my fav tactic for it is just destroying all the columns on which the space monkeys like to hang with a rocket launcher, and then it's 'k.

My fav tactic was to run quickly through the rooms with monkeys to get to the good parts while hoping the guy who created the space monkeys gets fucked in the ass by an elephant

 

[Darth Roxor]

cant run through them if the doors are unlocked until you kill everything

 

[Average Manatee]

Playing system shock 2 co op with a friend.
It might be buggy as hell(lag,bugs,desync,etc) but it is still a amazing game when it comes to atmosphere and game play.
Playing standard weapons with hacking kinda feels like cheating while my friend is going with psi-exotic combo (he always loved exotic weapons in ss2,for some reason).

The major negatives unfortunately are how easy it thanks to two factors:
-Dying and coming back costs no nanites
-Cyber modules are given to each player separately,meaning if somebody collects 3 everybody gets 3.
I think if modules were shared it would make for a more interesting experience with players trading modules between each other for necessary upgrades.
Also nanites aren't shared and here it makes sense.

I know people will probably say that multiplayer ruins the game,but i find it somewhat enjoyable.And you can always choose to make self imposed rules to bring back the horror scavenging feel.

Does dying not cost 10 nanites in MP? It's a pathetic price either way, granted.

The 2nd point is definitely the bigger imbalance since it means in MP you'll easily have multiple builds that can utilize virtually all the ammo you find instead of 1/3rd to 1/2 of it, and you'll probably specialize to use it better than in single player. Fully shared modules would probably make it too punishing (a significant portion of modules needs to be spent on common stat upgrades), but having story/progression based modules duplicated while normal found modules aren't would probably work. Dunno how possible it would be to code this though.

You can install a mod that turns the game to impossible difficulty, which means greater upgrade costs (roughly 30% more modules IIRC), greater nanite costs and less overall random drops. It's a bit merciless on your max HP though.

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=61.0

 

[Jason Liang]

I played the board game for the first time IRL last week and really enjoyed it. Good to know there's a digital version.

I've played around 60 games over the past week. It's hella addictive and while the AI could be better, being able to play so many times against the AI allows you to really understand and appreciate the game's design. Like, even a boardgame group might only play it twice a month.

 

[spekkio]

Recently I've finished Iconoclasts.

Good:
- A game developed by one person in 10 years time.
- Well-done mix of metroidvania and puzzle game.
- Very competent mechanics-vise, which is crucial for an "arcade" game. Controls, jumping, shooting - everything is tight.
- Charming visuals and sound.
- Very well-written story and characters.
- Great animations, which is rare in indie games.
- Quite difficult in both aspects (puzzles and boss battles).
- No HP bloat. HP can't be increased during the course of the game (you can only use up to three "shields" to minimize damage). Massive incline after most Metroid and Castlevania games.
- Dialogue choices (slightly) influence the course of the game.
- Weird sense of humor.

Ugly:
- Upgrade system isn't that interesting: most upgrades are only slightly useful.
- Exploration (secret areas, chests, schematics) is bound to the upgrade system. The only things to find are either upgrade schematics or components. And since upgrades aren't that great, hunting for chests is more about getting the 100% of map, than actually finding something good. Lame, but there's similar problem in Metroidz (yay, another +5 missiles!) and Castlevaniaz (yay, another useless +1 damage weapon!).
- No hand-holding when explaining mechanics (good), but it can lead to getting stuck due to not knowing that some action is even possible (bad).
- Not a regular 'vania (exploration uber alles, you're constantly getting new shit), which can irritate some people. Puzzle aspect is very strong here.
- Story, writing and humor can be too bizarre for some tastes.
- I would take hand-painted graphics over pixel-art any day...

Bad:
- Final part of the game (~1/4) isn't as good as the rest. Especially irritating are two sections where you have to slowly traverse long corridors due to "script" reasons. It looks like the internal storyfag inside the developer won with the mechanicsfag here. :/ Too much combat there as well.
- Some boss battles are decline boring popamole (Elro's one).

Verdict:

and a half + special to the author.

 

[Kabas]

Decided to try Realmz(Learned about this old game from felipepe's crpg book project) and got hooked.
I like how character creation is both simplistic and complicated. Complicated in that you have a lot of characters stats/abilities to keep a track of and simplistic in how fast you can actually create your party.
After a few test attempts

Spoiler

and getting myself brutally murdered in the brothel ambush

i finally settled on my starting party to explore the city of Bywater, these guys just reached their 4-5th levels.

Half-Orc Battle Mage - MVP of the group, but it mostly thanks to his starting 2 attacks per round. I predict that he is going to fall somewhat behind at the higher levels because of the 3 attacks per round cap for the Battle Mages. Not sure though, he just got his first magic.
Half-Elf Assassin - Fairly unimpressive so far. She is squshy and can deliever an occasional crit sometimes. Maybe she will become better later?
Dwarf fighter - The only melee guy here who started with only one attack per turn and thus also felt unimpressive. He also tended to miss too much for my tastes. He just got his 1,5 ApR and it's already feels like a great improvement.
Gnome Priest - a fairly straightforward party healer plus some charm/confusion spells(all of them failed to penetrate enemy resists though). I must also say that Turn Undead proved to be really strong in this game, ghouls with their disease attack were far easier to deal with thanks to her. She can also occasionally hit with the mace, her Brawn score is pretty good.
Kobold Archer - Most attacks per round and the highest hp(called stamina here) of the group. All around great guy. Now that he leveled up he can also do some decent damage in melee.
Edit: Actually, i think i am lying. I recall now that he also missed a lot of his shots, so much that his prestige score turned negative. He got better now.
Brownie enchanter - Her summons are strong and she can hit hard with the poison fog or an acid splash. Racial invisibility is also handy to get out of the tight spots. The least capable of melee combat in the group.

Combat itself is also fun. Now i am thinking about

Spoiler

how to deal with those paralyzing spiders. I didn't find the spell that can counter this. Should i level up a bit more before tackling them?

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finished Turok 2 - Seed of Evil published by NightDive.
Another case of "played back then but never finished", dropped on 2nd map iirc. It was one thing to reach exit portal but another matter to reach final portal with all objectives completed.

I don't get the point of that "secret" on map3 (Death Marshes) - the one with Scorpion launcher in the cage above water, it's just a bunch of guns that you already collected. To get there you need final special ability (Eye of Truth) that you get in the last 6th map, your arsenal is complete when you get EoT toy.

Worst maps? River of Souls (map2) when you hunt for that lost Sister of Despair (found behind the portal in some random tunnel) and Lair of the Blind One (Map4) to find vent that require key (turns out, another vent have the key, how nice, better start looking for it for another hour or two or more) turns out water maze in the second one wasn't that bad, even without map.
Hive of the Mantids was nice with exception of one destructible wall that for some reason did not have texture of destructible. Only indication was some collectible and barely noticeable humming.

Not a fan of respawning enemies but turns out - not all of them respawn and there are ammo spawns too so no big deal.

 

[Kabas]

My adventures in the Realmz continues.
Party reached their 6-7 levels and upgrated their equipment accordingly.

I take my words back, Half-Orc Battle Mage has grown only stronger since he acquired his magic. He got some nice level-ups with 20 mana points each and acquired a necklace with a 60 bonus mana on top of it, so he already can afford to spam his Frozen palm and Magic grip at the maximum power. Something tells that the 3 attacks limit will not be that much of an issue in the future.
Half-Elf assassin and Dwarven fighter have also grown stronger. Assassin can deliver some nasty crits and survive long enough for an emergency heal, while Fighter doesn't miss as much as before.
Gnome Priestess is still the bane of all undead and the healbot, but now she can also blow people's brains off with her Mind duel spell.
As for my Brownie Enchantress, Summon creature 3 didn't impress me as much as Summon creature 2. Plane of fog and Acid splash continues to carry the tough combat encounters. She also just learned the Plague spell.

Spoiler

Foolishly got myself into the tough fight at the spider tower, decided to investigate the purple sarchophagus before resting and restoring mana on my casters. I was forced to fight two tough groups of black spiders in the depleted state.
My hoarding habits saved me however, for i had two scrolls of empowered plague and one scroll of empowered fireball looted beforehand.
Battle Mage carried the whole fight as always, being able to land a reliable 20 points of damage with his frozen palm even if he miss his strikes. Fighter and Archer were also useful as a tanks, spiders were having trouble biting those.
Priestess also managed to finally succeed at landing confusion, this one helped to resolve the second wave.

A few additional observations:
-Small races with low brawn and gear restriction have it tough as a melee guys, despite the fact that they usually start with a bonus attacks per round. But judging by how my Kodold Archer is doing in melee with his 12 brawn it's seems to be a temporarily thing though.
-My dwarf never missed an ogre or anything resembling a giant despite having a confirmed accuracy of the potato sack. I guess those racism bonuses/penalties are not for nothing here.
-There is a cool first-person dungeon crawling segments here. I found one

Spoiler

inside the prison building, entrance hidden in the storeroom

 

[Kabas]

Another few things:
-There is one fun thing about gold here. It's actually has weight and can slow your adventurers down. So you're advised to keep most of it in the bank(Any shop that allows money changing can serve as one). You can also convert the gold into gems or jewelry for the ease of transportation as i understand it, but it costs you a fee.
-It's important to keep your equipment upgraded, especially magical weapons. You will sooner or later run into the enemies who are immune to weakly enchanted weapons, like demons or black spiders.
-Inventory is a pain in the ass to manage. My biggest criticism of the game probably.

 

[Gregz]

Kabas , where did you get a copy of this....game?

 

[Kabas]

Kabas , where did you get a copy of this....game?

The game is free now(became free in 2008 according to wikipedia), you can download it from here http://rlmz.org/downloads.html
You only need to enter the registration codes, i don't know why those are not listed at the site.
Should i post them here?

 

[Gregz]

Kabas , where did you get a copy of this....game?

The game is free now(became free in 2008 according to wikipedia), you can download it from here http://rlmz.org/downloads.html
You only need to enter the registration codes, i don't know why those are not listed at the site.
Should i post them here?

Yes, or let us know where to get them?

 

[Kabas]

Here, these are worked for me

Spoiler

Mac :
Serial number : 13706024 Registration Code : 8566464 Verification Code : 410
1) Your scenario registration name is: MEIERS
2) Your registration number for Prelude to Pestilence is: 1632120
Realmz Castle in the Clouds Name : Name: MoonDark s/n: 181560444
Realmz Assault on Giant Mountain : Name: MoonDark s/n: 403273572
Realmz Mithril Vault : Name: RABREAUS s/n: 3249720

Windows :
Serial Number : 13706024
Registration Code : 7995820
Reset Serial Number Code : 410
Registration Name : : MEIERS

Prelude to Pestilence : 2846681
Assault on Giant Mountain : 2731903
Castle in the Clouds : 1850227
Destroy the Necronomicon : 300754
White Dragon : 302208
Grilochs Revenge : 687525
Trouble in the Sword Lands : 1533542
Mithril Vault : 162011

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Here, these are worked for me

Spoiler

Mac :
Serial number : 13706024 Registration Code : 8566464 Verification Code : 410
1) Your scenario registration name is: MEIERS
2) Your registration number for Prelude to Pestilence is: 1632120
Realmz Castle in the Clouds Name : Name: MoonDark s/n: 181560444
Realmz Assault on Giant Mountain : Name: MoonDark s/n: 403273572
Realmz Mithril Vault : Name: RABREAUS s/n: 3249720

Windows :
Serial Number : 13706024
Registration Code : 7995820
Reset Serial Number Code : 410
Registration Name : : MEIERS

Prelude to Pestilence : 2846681
Assault on Giant Mountain : 2731903
Castle in the Clouds : 1850227
Destroy the Necronomicon : 300754
White Dragon : 302208
Grilochs Revenge : 687525
Trouble in the Sword Lands : 1533542
Mithril Vault : 162011

Worked for me too, thanks.