What game are you wasting time on?

[Cael]

Am I correct in assuming that I shouldn't bother giving enchanted weapons to low MA characters, like Magnus? I settled on making a gish type character because I am coming across a bunch of enchanted gear. I did waste a point on guns and lockpicking early on because new mechanics are new and I found a flintlock pistol in a cave only to discover that it's shit, but that's ok, mistakes happen.
In terms of spells I took Disarm for my first pick because I thought it would be useful. And it kind of is? Against ranged enemies that is. Against melee enemies it's actually a liability because most enemies seem to deal more damage with fists than knives for some silly reason. Then I took shield of protection and jolt. The former is pretty cool, the latter is kind of meh.
Despite some quibbles about mechanics and balancing, I am enjoying Arcanum. I really want to try some of the other backgrounds. It's not every game that allows you to play as a literal retard, autist or madman.

Give him Tech or Normal weapons.
There is a chance he will critically fail with Magick weapons and he will not get their full benefits by wielding them.
He can craft Balanced Swords (very good weapons actually) and even Feather-weight axes (which you can then use to craft the godly Pyrotechnic Axe, if you find the schematic sold by a smithy).

Yeah I used him to craft a balanced sword and gave him that instead of the enchanted axe he's been using. He still has a suit of small enchanted chainmail I found in Bessie Toone though. I don't know if low MA punishes you for having enchanted armour.
Can you get him to use schematics you find? I find the crafting screen to be temperamental. I bought a schematic for goggled helmets just to experiment (I knew I wouldn't be able to craft it) and it took like 3 minutes for me to find it because the use learned / found schematics buttons weren't behaving.
Magnus has a point in guns, which I thought was interesting, but I'm not sure if it's possible to build him as a gunslinger. He has more points in melee anyway.
Anyway, gave my character that stone buff. The damage increase he gets seems to be pretty significant. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to use the higher tier spells though, because you only get 1 point per level and I have to use it to level up dex, melee, dodge, wisdom, spell points and maybe charm and persuasion.
Which is a pity, because I was really, really tempted to make a melee temporal guy. That last ability is just hilarious. A built in Haste AND a Slow for enemies? Yes, give me that.

It also stacks with basic Haste, IIRC. Temporal is all sorts of broken.

Just FYI, arcane tier weapons are indestructible, which is great for those stupid golems and the like.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Maybe a temporal bow gish next time. That just sounds filthy. Like, a fully automatic long bow for the memes.
The trees speak Elvish, motherfucker.

 

[NecroLord]

Am I correct in assuming that I shouldn't bother giving enchanted weapons to low MA characters, like Magnus? I settled on making a gish type character because I am coming across a bunch of enchanted gear. I did waste a point on guns and lockpicking early on because new mechanics are new and I found a flintlock pistol in a cave only to discover that it's shit, but that's ok, mistakes happen.
In terms of spells I took Disarm for my first pick because I thought it would be useful. And it kind of is? Against ranged enemies that is. Against melee enemies it's actually a liability because most enemies seem to deal more damage with fists than knives for some silly reason. Then I took shield of protection and jolt. The former is pretty cool, the latter is kind of meh.
Despite some quibbles about mechanics and balancing, I am enjoying Arcanum. I really want to try some of the other backgrounds. It's not every game that allows you to play as a literal retard, autist or madman.

Give him Tech or Normal weapons.
There is a chance he will critically fail with Magick weapons and he will not get their full benefits by wielding them.
He can craft Balanced Swords (very good weapons actually) and even Feather-weight axes (which you can then use to craft the godly Pyrotechnic Axe, if you find the schematic sold by a smithy).

Yeah I used him to craft a balanced sword and gave him that instead of the enchanted axe he's been using. He still has a suit of small enchanted chainmail I found in Bessie Toone though. I don't know if low MA punishes you for having enchanted armour.
Can you get him to use schematics you find? I find the crafting screen to be temperamental. I bought a schematic for goggled helmets just to experiment (I knew I wouldn't be able to craft it) and it took like 3 minutes for me to find it because the use learned / found schematics buttons weren't behaving.
Magnus has a point in guns, which I thought was interesting, but I'm not sure if it's possible to build him as a gunslinger. He has more points in melee anyway.
Anyway, gave my character that stone buff. The damage increase he gets seems to be pretty significant. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to use the higher tier spells though, because you only get 1 point per level and I have to use it to level up dex, melee, dodge, wisdom, spell points and maybe charm and persuasion.
Which is a pity, because I was really, really tempted to make a melee temporal guy. That last ability is just hilarious. A built in Haste AND a Slow for enemies? Yes, give me that.

It also stacks with basic Haste, IIRC. Temporal is all sorts of broken.

Just FYI, arcane tier weapons are indestructible, which is great for those stupid golems and the like.

Temporal school was always busted...
It works on Tech characters.
You can stack Hasten AND Tempus Fugit...

Personally I never used it on Tech characters, since there are more than enough potions of Haste that also work on Tech characters.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

But how though? Wouldn't you need high MA for it to work properly, which tech characters wouldn't have?

 

[NecroLord]

But how though? Wouldn't you need high MA for it to work properly, which tech characters wouldn't have?

You only need high MA for spells that scale with it, such as Harm or Minor/Major Heal.
Temporal works regardless of MA.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh that is dirty then.
If I had a nickle for every RPG I've played that had broken time powers I'd have 2 nickles.
Which isn't much but it's weird it happened twice.

 

[Average Manatee]

Affinity is kinda weird in Arcanum because its only sporadically implemented. Like 50% of things will take it into account while the other 50% will ignore it completely.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I picked up Congeal Time and it only seems to work sometimes? I first used it against some kite berserkers and it worked great, but after that it did literally nothing.

 

[NecroLord]

It should work.
Were you having any other spells active?
Congeal time requires a sustained spell slot.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh maybe. I'll try again.
Ah, I think I found the issue. It was still active because I thought it was a limited duration effect like how haste works in Pathfinder. So it was active and affecting enemies from the previous encounter, but not for new ones and reactivating it doesn't apply the debuff for some reason.

 

[AndyS]

I picked up Cash Cow DX, the next game from the guys who made Donut Dodo. This is another retro arcade collect-em-up but it's got a horizontally scrolling screen instead of being single screen. I think I prefer Donut Dodo overall, but this is still pretty good and has that one-more-try quality such games live on. Your cow bouncing along with his udder hanging down also makes me laugh a lot. I'm simple like that.

 

[Kabas]

Don't have the will for a huge 30 hours long RPG or something so i am wasting my time on various small games and demos that looked interesting to me.
Mecha Simultactics, The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker, Spectromancer - already mentioned these in the screenshot thread. Still currently wasting quite a bit of my time on the latter.

Spectromancer is actually a browser Flash cardgame from 2008. One of the creators of original Magic: The Gathering was also involved apparently.
The gist of this game is that you have access to 5 different elements/types of mana: Fire, Water, Air, Earth and 5th element unique to your class. Each turn all of your mana types grow by 1 point which can be spent on cards of each respective element. No drawing cards, you always have access to your whole deck provided you can pay the mana cost.

Some interesting choices can be made during a battle like spamming cheap cards of one element while hoarding mana of another element until you get enough for some nastier creature or specific spell. There is also some interplay between different elements like an air sage who heals you depending on how much earth mana you have or an air phoenix who will continue to revive as long as you have enough fire mana.
There are 16 different classes each with their own unique 5th element and cards like Dominator who has a horror creature that prevents enemy monsters from attacking or Necromancer who can do a tribute summon. Cleric has cards that are good at keeping your important creatures alive and Vampire Lord's cards all have amazing stats but cost extra health in addition to mana, etc.
In some game modes you're allowed to construct your own deck but i found the most fun way to play is to let RNG decide it. Spectromancer is less about deck building and more about adapting your strategy to the situatiom.
Playing a Flash version which i downloaded from an archive but there is also a steam version that has a working multiplayer.

Looks a tiny bit overpriced with DLCs.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Oh that is dirty then.
If I had a nickle for every RPG I've played that had broken time powers I'd have 2 nickles.
Which isn't much but it's weird it happened twice.

You build up as a regular gunslinger but invest in temporal magic since its buffs are independent of your aptitude

This build is sketchy to play early on and takes a while to get online, but once it gets it becomes another broken OP build

I actually dropped such build once because all challenge was gone

 

[Nostaljaded]

EMPTY SHELL (Steam/GOG)
Top down action roguelite 1950s monochrome survival horror in a secret Japanese island facility.

With Scanlines & Pixelation option

+ Mild roguelite elements; upon death, restarts current area/stage with a new procedurally generated map & random equipment loadout
~ Dash has invincibility frames for evading attacks; can only be used with sufficient stamina (for running & dash)
+ Slower walk speed while aiming (when range weapon is raised)
~ Light Puzzles in some stages
+ Game-on-Pause when viewing Inventory/Map
+ Playable on toaster machines/iGPUs

Steam has free demo EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE.

 

[Sigourn]

Having beaten Castlevania, Castlevania III, Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania Chronicles, Rondo of Blood, Dracula X, Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Curse of the Moon, and Curse of the Moon 2...

I'm in condition to say Castlevania is my favorite franchise, with Bloodstained an honorable member.

 

[HansDampf]

I haven't had much time for gaming this summer, but BallisticNG has become my comfort game. Easy to play a few time trials or custom tracks to relax for 30 minutes instead of starting a new 20+ hour long game.

 

[Naraya]

I finished Homeworld: Cataclysm today and I'm feeling empty inside
Does anyone have a time machine for sale?

 

[NecroLord]

Been playing some Quake: Scourge of Armagon (the original version) and it can be one nasty expansion.
A lot more enemies and generally more difficult than the base game. I am playing on Nightmare, so that's to be expected.

 

[Kabas]

Just completed Spectromancer campaign mode as a Dominator class.

Final fight might look spooky at first but the immediate presence of two Earth Elementals and one elven sage on your side really trivializes things.
Hoard the earth mana and keep earth elementals alive - they will pretty much win the fight for you.

Overall the campaign mode is a hit or miss experience. Some gimmick duels are fun while others can get really tedious. That fight with moving walls against enemy cleric took me 25 minutes to complete . Also, majority of duels were against your fellow dominators for some reason.
Still having fun with this game as there is plenty of classes i didn't properly try yet. Some of them can do some really crazy stuff.

 

[Ryzer]

Having beaten Castlevania, Castlevania III, Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania Chronicles, Rondo of Blood, Dracula X, Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Curse of the Moon, and Curse of the Moon 2...

I'm in condition to say Castlevania is my favorite franchise, with Bloodstained an honorable member.

No Castlevania Portrait of Ruins and order of Ecclesia.

I rate this list 0/10

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Got up to level 35 in arcanum. Once you get 4 party members + the OP dog random encounters are no problem.
Magic feels limited to me. You only have 2 sustain spell slots for buffs and there's a lot of sustain spells to pick. I'm finding it really hard to increase magical attunement because I don't know what to get. I think tech would be more fun because it's more crafting and gear based.
Temporal is incredibly powerful. You don't really need any school other than that and a couple of instant utility spells / heal spells.
What does the UAP fix exactly? Does it make the UI better? I found that sometimes the UI doesn't give you an equipment's entire list of stats.

 

[Cael]

Number of sustains is governed by one of the stats. Wis or Int. 1 per 4. It is the sustains that makes magic superior to tech as you can spend less points on some stats and still get the benefits of 20 in the stat. Since the sustains stack, a base of 8 in the stat and 3 sustains will get you 20 in the stat with minimal investment.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh I need to start increasing wis then.
I'll see if I can get another sustain slot when I level it up to 12

 

[Cael]

Oh I need to start increasing wis then.
I'll see if I can get another sustain slot when I level it up to 12

The portal at Blackwater will get you a ton of XP, if you are willing to risk it.

 

[Modron]

The portal at Blackwater will get you a ton of XP, if you are willing to risk it.

Risk? It's usually my first stop after shrouded hills.