On 2/2/24 11:40, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 08:29:26 -0600, candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net>
> wrote:
>> On 2/2/24 07:44, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>> On Thu, 1 Feb 2024 15:06:31 -0600, candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On 2/1/24 11:45, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>>>>> * Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)
>
>>>> I miss playing with the flight sim in Google Earth.
>
>>> Why? It still exists. Load up the client, press CTRL-ALT-A and fly.
>
>> Well, for one I'm on Linux..
>> IDK if the client is still supported anyways lol
>
> Dunno about Linux, but the Windows client is still supported. The most
> recent version has a build date of 12 January 2024. I reinstalled it
> back when I first got MSFS so I could do a direct comparison between
> the two, and it's kept a spot on my hard-drive ever since. ;-)
>
> (I can't imagine the Windows version wouldn't run well under WINE or
> some other shim like Proton though. It's not a very resource intensive
> program, so if you're really interested you may wish to give that a
> try.)
>
> (Alternately, here is a random untested, unverified - and two years
> old - instructions for getting and installing Linux version of GE
> client on Ubuntu:
> https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2022/04/google-earth-ubuntu-22-04/)

Wait, it still exists??
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 2/2/2024 5:31 PM, Ant wrote:
> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 2/2/2024 4:39 PM, Ant wrote:
>>> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>> On 2/1/2024 1:02 PM, Ant wrote:
>>>>> Nothing! Way too busy. I hope to play something soon!
>>>>>
>>>> You have failed this newsgroup!
>>>
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdTK38tvyLU
>>>
>>> When did newsgroup become a city? :P
>
>> When you failed it!!
>
> Bah.

:P

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

> What Have You Been Playing... in JANUARY 2024?

Guardians of the Galaxy.

I remember when it came out in 2021, I watched some gameplay video and
went "no". I saw a nothing fight where the Guardians were grinding and
grinding on some basic mooks and spewing the usual GOTG banter. IOW, it
seemed to suck.

But getting it as a freebie? Suddenly it was worth the price to give it
a go and it turns out it's a pretty fun game! For sure, it has exactly
those ridiculously long nothing fights and even longer boss fights, QT
events, jumping and environmental puzzles etc. Things I don't much like,
in other words. But I don't exactly hate those things either. Fairly
ridiculous plot too but that's pretty much a requirement. A couple of
awful space battles too, thankfully I finally got past the second
one. Mostly awful because the controls are bad.

In combat, there's a "momentum" meter that can be filled which makes the
fights easier but I haven't really gotten good with that. It seems I
manage to fill it sometimes though and the game rewards me with a QT
that typically does some real damage to a boss. Which is what I like
about QT events.

I do feel sometimes the game just eases off the difficulty after I get
killed a bunch of times. Not sure, the fights are really chaotic. The
main thing, other than shooting and dodging, is triggering your and your
team's special abilities. That interface is unfortunately
clunky. Basically you hit left shift by default and get a wheel, press
one number to select team member, another to select ability. But the
wheel doesn't always come up. Same thing goes for double jumps with the
space bar, the game often ignores the second press and you fall to some
abyss. At least you don't have to replay anything usually, the game just
pops you back where you started your failed jump.

All in all, it's been a fun 15 hours. A little left to go, the last
three chapters, out of 16.

On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 23:12:14 -0600, candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net>
wrote:
>On 2/2/24 11:40, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>> (Alternately, here is a random untested, unverified - and two years
>> old - instructions for getting and installing Linux version of GE
>> client on Ubuntu:
>> https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2022/04/google-earth-ubuntu-22-04/)

>Wait, it still exists??

Yeah, lots of people still use Ubuntu.

On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 14:20:02 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>On 2/1/2024 9:45 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>> * Exit 8
>
>Sounds possibly interesting and at least of little time commitment, if I
>happen across it at a low price I'll give it a try.
>
>> * Starship Troopers: Terran Command
>
>Too bad, I would've thought the movie would make an excellent bug hunt.
>Loved the book. While I liked the movie, it had nothing on the book.

There was, in the late 90s, a CGI cartoon based on the franchise that
- though it borrowed a lot from the movie - was its own unique thing
that was, IMHO, a far more enjoyable interpretation of the settings.
Verhoeven's movie isn't without merit (although I think his humor and
cynical commentary on the fascistic nature of the setting is
overrated) but I dislike how it's become the defining vision of the
franchise.

>(Give me the powersuits damit!)

You get powersuits (well, mini-mecha) very late in the game (the last
two missions only) but they're clunky things; essentially, slow-moving
two-legged tanks. They're remarkable in the game only because they are
the only 'heavies' you get, and the game is extremely sparse and unit
variety anyway. But their extremely high cost (both to 'research' and
build) means you won't get much usage from them.
>*** God of War (2018) on PS+ streaming on PC
>*** Bloodborne on PS+ streaming on PC
>
>TL;DR
>
>*** God of War (2018) on PS+ streaming on PC
>I finally tried this as per mostly PW's pestering with Spall's review
>putting this over the top. The characters are excellently done and the
>interactions with especially Kratos' son were great, I got real dusty at
>one point, but then started to hate the little shit when he hit his teen
>attitude.

For what it's worth, he grows out of that phase pretty quickly. But
the fact that he genuinely annoyed you is, I think, a testament to how
well the character was acted/animated.

>I had just barely started it when my PS+ Premium subscription ran out,
>so I re-upped it considering the price vs. how long the game is suppose
>to be. That was a mistake. There's puzzle chests where you have to do
>something with 3 items with runes on them, throwing your axe at them and
>destroying them to start out, which was fine, but then they progressed
>to bells, where you have to hit the other two before the first stops
>ringing. That would've been fine on a PC switching to mouse for aiming,
>but doing it on a controller was neigh impossible. Unfortunately you
>can't use a mouse on the Sony's streaming, only a controller. I spent
>over 45 minutes on the worst of those puzzles, I stopped and looked up a
>solution, but I had already been doing the solution, I just wasn't able
>to get the reticle on the bells and throw fast enough. I almost gave up
>on the game there. Yes you don't have to get all the puzzle chests
>open, but I couldn't just leave it there knowing they have character
>upgrades on either rage or hp meters.

Yeah, the smack-the-bell puzzles were annoying (they really aren't any
easier with a keyboard/mouse). Fortunately, most of the time they are
used for non-essential lot so - unless you're hurting for resources or
trying to 100% the game - you can often ignore them.

There's an optional world where you have to try to solve those puzzles
whilst standing in clouds of poisonous fog that slowly drains your
health.

On 2/2/2024 3:14 PM, rms wrote:
>> *** God of War (2018) on PS+ streaming on PC
>
>   Every user review I've read complains of the larding up with
> sidequests & tedious combat.  I did start this on PS+, but did not renew
> with the big price jump, instead buying a used copy at gamestop.  And
> no, I haven't gone back as yet :)

I'm not finding the combat the opposite of tedius, it's overwhelming.
It's difficult as I'm finding there to be too much to juggle, tons of
combos and moves and side stepping and dodging and blocking and
parrying. It's a bit too fast and too much going, with too many mobs in
usually small areas with no way to split them up. I also can't fight
things more than 1 above my level due to the increased number of
unshockable attacks and one shot or one combo kills on me. Which means
there's one more thing to remember to go back to once I level up.

I just got to Muspellheim last night and that was pretty fun as it's a
combat trial zone. I got through all 10 trials, except the Valkyrie at
the end. Unfortunately she's doing about 1/3 of my health bar and I
can't figure out how to avoid more than a third of her combos so she
kills me within a few seconds. I assume she's higher level, but I can't
tell because unlike other mobs she doesn't have the level number on her
health bar. The internet says I should be able to beat her on level 6,
but it doesn't feel like it. There was a bit of climbing in between the
trials though, and one climb it took me around 6 or so circles of the
map to find.

I am playing on normal, and really for all the complaints about the
combat I haven't run into anything that comes to DS levels of
frustration there beyond being under-leveled which I didn't understand
until recently. Maybe the Valkaries as a quick lookup after dying
within seconds the results basically boils down to 'git gud.'

Other than the NPC conversations which are good, It's the rest of the
game that's tedious. Constant climbing and tons of puzzles and hidden
stuff. The bell chests being the worst of those so far. I haven't even
found any of the treasures from the treasure maps! All the various
upgrade materials, the giant list of armor enchantments I have to choose
from. The fact I have to use higher level armor with worse perks to be
able to fight higher level monsters is very annoying too. I've seen a
lot of complaints about the leveling system, which was changed for the
better in the next iteration I'm reading.

>
>> *** Bloodborne on PS+ streaming on PC
>
>   I have this impression this is one of the peaks of playstation gaming
> and keep avoiding starting it; as you noted the Old Hunters DLC is
> treated as an odd duck, so once again I bought a used GOTY year physical
> copy.  I guess it will never come to pc.

Learning the areas and initially how to fight was the worst of it for
me. I'm glad I played it now, but getting through it the first time was
hell, as has been my experience with pretty much all the From games to
one degree or another. That and the overall aesthetic didn't resonate
with me, the lack of weapons and spells for combat variations made it
somewhat boring comparatively to me at least, while others seem to love
all that.

DS & ER (to a lesser extent) hit that sweet spot for me of enough
variation and things to try in combat, but it's not so complicated with
tons of combos.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 2/2/2024 9:43 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 07:57:27 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 2/2/2024 7:14 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
>
>
>
>
>>> Baldur's Gate 3 (paused):
>
>>> Fortunately, the death of your main character, unlike the first two
>>> Baldur's Gate game, does not create "game over." You have to TPW.
>

Yeah, that's a good point. Depending upon your magic level (more so in
5e) your character getting killed could be reversed in live D&D.

What I haven't seen any game emulate is your character getting killed
and you make a new one and join the still existing party.

I suppose the original gold box games count but you weren't playing one
character, you were the player of the whole party. I don't remember
being able to actually replace PCs that died though, I could be wrong,
although if there was a way, it was usually done by reloading a save
instead so I wouldn't remember. Games like Darkest Dungeon you can and
are expected to. But again you're playing the whole party.

I have heard of live groups making all new characters and continuing a
campaign after a TPK but I've never had the heart, and I'll just make up
a new one, or one much later and in a different area than where the TPK
happened.

>> TPW?
>
> I'm guessing 'Total Party Wipe', what we used to call 'total party
> kill'

Yeah, TPK is what we called it.

> (or, 'Rocks fall, everybody dies'*, or alternately, 'That's what you
> get for pissing off the GM.' ;-)

Rocks fall, everybody dies is a much later invention than TPK, I've
referenced it as a threat, but never actually did anything like that
being a dice fall where they may DM, my TPKs come about naturally. I
hate TPKs, and don't even like killing characters, but having them
possible has lead to a couple of memorable sole survivor scenarios.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 2/3/2024 8:47 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 14:20:02 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2/1/2024 9:45 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>>> * Exit 8
>>
>> Sounds possibly interesting and at least of little time commitment, if I
>> happen across it at a low price I'll give it a try.
>>
>>> * Starship Troopers: Terran Command
>>
>> Too bad, I would've thought the movie would make an excellent bug hunt.
>> Loved the book. While I liked the movie, it had nothing on the book.
>
> There was, in the late 90s, a CGI cartoon based on the franchise that
> - though it borrowed a lot from the movie - was its own unique thing
> that was, IMHO, a far more enjoyable interpretation of the settings.

Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles. I have them on DVD.

> Verhoeven's movie isn't without merit (although I think his humor and
> cynical commentary on the fascistic nature of the setting is
> overrated) but I dislike how it's become the defining vision of the
> franchise.

The movie originally wasn't going to "be" Starship Troopers. They had a
script and were ready to start production when they found out the movie
rights to the book were available. So at the last minute they bought
the rights so they could use the title for name recognition, made a
hasty rewrite to add elements from the book to the script and were off
and running.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) looked up from reading the entrails of the porn
spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 2/1/2024 1:02 PM, Ant wrote:
>> > Nothing! Way too busy. I hope to play something soon!
>> >
>> You have failed this newsgroup!
>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdTK38tvyLU
>
>When did newsgroup become a city? :P

They weren't all city references.

There was also "Felicity Smoak, you have failed this omelet."

Xocyll

Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>On 2/1/2024 9:45 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> * Starship Troopers: Terran Command
>
>Too bad, I would've thought the movie would make an excellent bug hunt.
>Loved the book. While I liked the movie, it had nothing on the book.
>(Give me the powersuits damit!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TBugM7PdpY

Xocyll

On Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:43:32 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 07:57:27 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
><dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>On 2/2/2024 7:14 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
>
>
>
>
>>> Baldur's Gate 3 (paused):
>
>>> Fortunately, the death of your main character, unlike the first two
>>> Baldur's Gate game, does not create "game over." You have to TPW.
>
>>TPW?
>
>I'm guessing 'Total Party Wipe', what we used to call 'total party
>kill'
>
I dunno. I've been a grognard since 1979, and I've always said TPW "total
party wipe." Others say TPK "total party kill." Only D&D editions I
haven't played are Boxed Set and 4th.

I prefer TPW for some reason. TPK seems more common these days. Mine has
more syllables. Don't know why I prefer it. It's gotta be something to do
with the poetic meter.

Maybe I just made it up in my head and no one anywhere ever said it, but
I doubt that. I probably heard it when I was a younger player.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 09:58:37 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rms
wrote:

>>The Talos Principle 2 (nearly done):
>
> Sounds great! How long did the first one take -- I already have it in my
>library
>
Steam says I spent 74 hours on it, but I started the Gehenna DLC, so I'm
guessing about fifteen to twenty of those were that. I also solved all
the Star puzzles in the main game, which require you to try and break the
rules of the game.

I'm 50 hours into Talos 2, and I've just solved my first Gold puzzle.
Those are the really hard ones in the endgame.

So, for Talos 1, I figure 40-60 hours, dependent on cleverness and a
desire to explore.

I'm an explorer, so my times are padded by a lot of fafo. I'd run around
playing with the perimeters to see if I could beat getting destroyed. I
solved all the "star" puzzles, which take a while.

If you solve all the main puzzles only, and basically ignored terminals
and atmosphere stuff, Talos 1 might take only 20-30.

You can read my review of Talos 2 here:

https://steamcommunity.com/id/pressinbuttons/recommended/835960/

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On 2/3/24 10:28, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 23:12:14 -0600, candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net>
> wrote:
>> On 2/2/24 11:40, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>>> (Alternately, here is a random untested, unverified - and two years
>>> old - instructions for getting and installing Linux version of GE
>>> client on Ubuntu:
>>> https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2022/04/google-earth-ubuntu-22-04/)
>
>> Wait, it still exists??
>
> Yeah, lots of people still use Ubuntu.

The horror!
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 03/02/2024 17:19, Justisaur wrote:
> Rocks fall, everybody dies is a much later invention than TPK, I've
> referenced it as a threat, but never actually did anything like that
> being a dice fall where they may DM, my TPKs come about naturally.  I
> hate TPKs, and don't even like killing characters, but having them
> possible has lead to a couple of memorable sole survivor scenarios.

I play Call of Cthulhu and although the characters are far more squishy
I still generally view a player death as my fault. During session zero I
did explain to the players that as a GM they will die if they do
something stupid but if they do the right thing then that's very
unlikely to happen.

Unfortunately there is a bit of a meme in CoC that a successfully
session ends with a TPK. Great for one shots with some pre-gen's but if
you're running a longer campaign then not so good. Something that
annoyed me about one GM we had, they would put you in bad situations and
then rapidly try and backtrack when PC's started dropping.

On Sun, 4 Feb 2024 11:33:22 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

>On 03/02/2024 17:19, Justisaur wrote:
>> Rocks fall, everybody dies is a much later invention than TPK, I've
>> referenced it as a threat, but never actually did anything like that
>> being a dice fall where they may DM, my TPKs come about naturally.  I
>> hate TPKs, and don't even like killing characters, but having them
>> possible has lead to a couple of memorable sole survivor scenarios.
>
>I play Call of Cthulhu and although the characters are far more squishy
>I still generally view a player death as my fault. During session zero I
>did explain to the players that as a GM they will die if they do
>something stupid but if they do the right thing then that's very
>unlikely to happen.
>
>Unfortunately there is a bit of a meme in CoC that a successfully
>session ends with a TPK. Great for one shots with some pre-gen's but if
>you're running a longer campaign then not so good. Something that
>annoyed me about one GM we had, they would put you in bad situations and
>then rapidly try and backtrack when PC's started dropping.
>
Hmm. The game requires a slow, careful approach that requires a party to
never put itself in a "situation." Any situation. The typical situations
a party will experience if they have a direct encounter with the Mythos
are all "bad."

IMO, a good campaign has you primarily dealing with cultists. If you
encounter significant Mythos creatures before the endgame, you've failed
in some way or underestimated the cult.

Sounds like your GM was inexperienced or your party "[did] something
stupid." If "library use" (or whatever it's called now) isn't your most
used opening skill then you will get in over your head. Fast. Most of
your early SAN loss should come from Mythos knowledge before you actually
encounter Mythos creatures. The only reason to do that sort of encounter
early on is to telegraph that "guns won't help you here."

A lot of people just go to dynamite then. The game is frequently played
in a way that is objectively wrong, because it's not like other TTRPGs.
It's narrative driven, not tactics driven.

My unsolicited 2 cents.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On 2/4/2024 3:33 AM, JAB wrote:
> On 03/02/2024 17:19, Justisaur wrote:
>> Rocks fall, everybody dies is a much later invention than TPK, I've
>> referenced it as a threat, but never actually did anything like that
>> being a dice fall where they may DM, my TPKs come about naturally.  I
>> hate TPKs, and don't even like killing characters, but having them
>> possible has lead to a couple of memorable sole survivor scenarios.
>
> I play Call of Cthulhu and although the characters are far more squishy
> I still generally view a player death as my fault. During session zero I
> did explain to the players that as a GM they will die if they do
> something stupid but if they do the right thing then that's very
> unlikely to happen.
>
> Unfortunately there is a bit of a meme in CoC that a successfully
> session ends with a TPK. Great for one shots with some pre-gen's but if
> you're running a longer campaign then not so good. Something that
> annoyed me about one GM we had, they would put you in bad situations and
> then rapidly try and backtrack when PC's started dropping.
>
That's still better than one GM I had to deal with who seemed to feel
that it was a competition between the players and himself. For him the
whole point WAS to kill characters. But this was also a pretty screwed
up group of players mentally. Deliberate in-party betrayals and "every
man for himself" was the default.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>Well, here we are in February again. What's so special about February?
>It's the anniversary of these threads, which we started way back in
>2006. That's right; we've been doing this for 18 years straight now.
>Maybe we should call it quits? Or are you folk up for another 18
>years?

Against the Storm

I heard a lot of good things about this rougelite city builder and decided
to buy it from GOG when it was on sale over Christmas. It's a roguelite
because you're playing on randomly generated maps with a number of random
effects and constraints. There's a single save, so no reloading if
you screw up, but there's also no game over. You can fail in building
a settlement, by basically running out of time, but you just go on to
the next one either way.

The setting is that you're in a fantasy world beset by deadly blight
storms and the only safe place is the last city at the base of a volcano.
It's from this base you mount an expedition in service of your Queen
to fix the seals holding back the gods that are causing these storms.
You do this by building a series of settlements out in the wilderness each
getting you a few hexes closer on the world map to one of these seals.
You only have a limited amount number of years to do this, seal fixed
or not, a massive blight storm is coming which will wipe everything off
the map except your base city and rerandomize the world.

The main part of the game though is building a settlement. You start
in a glade in the middle of a randomly generated forest with a hearth
and warehouse. The hearth is the focal point of your settlement, your
citizens will go back here to periodically rest, eat food and consume
services. It has a fire that you need to keep supplied with fuel and
if goes out your citizens will get really unhappy. Your warehouse is
where your citizens will go to store the resources they've gathered or
made and to get the resources they need to build or make something.

Chopping down the trees gives your most important resource, wood, which
you can use to keep your hearth burning and construct buildings with.
Clearing trees from the map is also how you access other glades spread
througout the forest. These glades will contain random resource nodes
to collect and possible special event nodes like resource caches or
survior camps. Larger glades, called dangerous and forbidden glades,
will have more and better nodes, but will always have a special event
node that needs to be completed in a certain time limit. If you don't
then something bad happens, like some of your citizens dying.

Your goal is to build a sucessful settlement by increasing your reputation
score to a certain value before the Queen's impatience score reaches its
limit. Doing certain tasks for the Queen will increase your reputation,
as will making your citizens happy. Working against you is another score,
hostility. The forest hates your presence and the more citizens you have,
the more glades you discover and the more woodcutters you have the more
it hates you. This makes your citizens unhappy, especially during storm
season when additional negative effects are unlocked depending on your
hostility score.

One important limiting factor that makes every settlement a different
experience is that you can only build a building if you have the blueprint
for it. You start off with three blueprint picks, each pick giving
you a small number of randomly selected blueprints to choose from.
As your reputation score increases you get more blueprint picks and
traders that visit your settlement will sometimes have them for sale.
The orders your Queen will give you over time is also radomized which
can affect how you go about achieving victory.

Overall the city building part of the game plays a lot like a traditional
base building RTS but without any combat. I found the game very addictive
and put in way too much time playing it. One very nice thing about it
is the difficulty ramps up gradually and at your own pace. There's an
RPG like sense of progression as well. As you complete settlements you
gain special currencies you can spend on permanantly unlocked bonuses.
You also gain XP that increases your level which unlocks various things
like blueprints.

Valheim

This is another game I got during the Christmas sales, this time from
Steam, because I heard good things about. I was looking for a game
like ARK: Survival Evolved but less difficult to play solo. The game is
like that, but it's also rather bland. The graphics are intentionally
fairly basic, with low resolution unfiltered textures, but not really
retro as no game ever looked like this. The biomes are also fairly
ordinary and colleting all the resources you need solo is a grind.
The monsters aren't hard to deal with as ARK's dinosaurs however.

The Crew

I got this game a long time ago. Either it was a free giveaway or
it came bundled with other games I actually wanted to play. I don't
like racing games. I'm terrible at them and I don't care about cars.
However Ubisoft recently announced that it would be shutting down the
game at the end of March so I decided I should give a play before then.
I had played it before just to see the sights, but I figured this time
I might as well see how far I can get in the campaign.

The Crew is basically a car MMORPG, a CarPG as they put it. It plays
like an open world GTA clone, except you can never get out of your car
(or shoot anybody.) There's a main story, plus things to do and collect
by driving around the map and interacting with. I figured I'd soon hit
a wall in the story where being terrible at racing games wouldn't let me
finish a mission successfully, but two things have prevented that so far.

The first was switching from keyboard and mouse to a controller.
No suprise that makes driving a lot easier. The second was the fact
the game is a CarPG, which means I could level up my car doing various
activities. Turns out its not too hard to beat a bunch of AIs in a race
when you're driving a car thats twice the level as theirs.

Still its not my kind of game, and there been another game I've been
addicted to recently, so I'm only maybe a quarter of the way through
the story. Might still be able to finish or al least reach a wall I
can't overcme by out levelling it by time the game shuts down.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

On 2/3/2024 11:00 AM, Xocyll wrote:
> Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
> the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>
>> On 2/1/2024 9:45 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>> * Starship Troopers: Terran Command
>>
>> Too bad, I would've thought the movie would make an excellent bug hunt.
>> Loved the book. While I liked the movie, it had nothing on the book.
>> (Give me the powersuits damit!)
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TBugM7PdpY
>

Thanks! Wow that's some bad CGI.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 2/4/2024 2:13 PM, Justisaur wrote:
> On 2/3/2024 11:00 AM, Xocyll wrote:
>> Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
>> the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>>
>>> On 2/1/2024 9:45 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>>> * Starship Troopers: Terran Command
>>>
>>> Too bad, I would've thought the movie would make an excellent bug hunt.
>>> Loved the book.  While I liked the movie, it had nothing on the book.
>>> (Give me the powersuits damit!)
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TBugM7PdpY
>>
>
> Thanks!  Wow that's some bad CGI.
>
Well it is 25 years old.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:
> ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) looked up from reading the entrails of the porn
> spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

> >Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> >> On 2/1/2024 1:02 PM, Ant wrote:
> >> > Nothing! Way too busy. I hope to play something soon!
> >> >
> >> You have failed this newsgroup!
> >
> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdTK38tvyLU
> >
> >When did newsgroup become a city? :P

> They weren't all city references.

> There was also "Felicity Smoak, you have failed this omelet."

She was hot. :)
--
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions ??? it is by grace you have been saved." --Ephesians 2:4-5. Slammy worky colony Caturday before the incoming slammy week with its heavy rain!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

On Sat, 03 Feb 2024 17:24:28 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:43:32 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 07:57:27 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
>><dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>On 2/2/2024 7:14 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>> Baldur's Gate 3 (paused):
>>
>>>> Fortunately, the death of your main character, unlike the first two
>>>> Baldur's Gate game, does not create "game over." You have to TPW.
>>
>>>TPW?
>>
>>I'm guessing 'Total Party Wipe', what we used to call 'total party
>>kill'
>>
>I dunno. I've been a grognard since 1979, and I've always said TPW "total
>party wipe." Others say TPK "total party kill." Only D&D editions I
>haven't played are Boxed Set and 4th.

Honestly, we didnt' start using "total party kill" until much later...
but that was still, probably sometimes in the 2000s... which is twenty
years ago now. ;-)

The 'rock-falls, everybody dies' was similarly taken up around that
time, but was more popular because it happened to coincide with an
actual event that had occured years earlier in the campaign.

(the party didn't actually all die, since I went out of my way to give
them a way out... but only in the following session, when I'd figured
a way for them to dig their way out of the literal hole they'd made
for themselves ;-)

Prior to "TPK", I don't think we really had a catch-phrase for that
sort of event. We used "Everybody's dead, Dave" for a while (a Red
Dwarf reference), and maybe "that's what I call a dead party"
(referring to Python's 'Dead Parrot' sketch), but honestly, it was
such a rare occurence that it came up more as threat than actual
description.

(e.g., "Don't take that last slice of pizza or the DM will
'everybody's dead, dave' the group." ;-)

I can think of four times (in as many decades) I've killed the entire
party. Twice they were given an 'out' the next session. Once it was
part of the narrative, using temporary characters, as a prelude to the
main adventure. And once it was a genuine death, back in the early
days before I mellowed and murdering PCs seemed part of the job of the
DM ;-)

Wait... this isn't rec.games.frp.dnd! Quick, somebody reference a
computer game!

On 2/4/2024 4:23 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Sat, 03 Feb 2024 17:24:28 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:43:32 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
>> Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 2 Feb 2024 07:57:27 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
>>> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>> On 2/2/2024 7:14 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> Baldur's Gate 3 (paused):
>>>
>>>>> Fortunately, the death of your main character, unlike the first two
>>>>> Baldur's Gate game, does not create "game over." You have to TPW.
>>>
>>>> TPW?
>>>
>>> I'm guessing 'Total Party Wipe', what we used to call 'total party
>>> kill'
>>>
>> I dunno. I've been a grognard since 1979, and I've always said TPW "total
>> party wipe." Others say TPK "total party kill." Only D&D editions I
>> haven't played are Boxed Set and 4th.
>
>
> Honestly, we didnt' start using "total party kill" until much later...
> but that was still, probably sometimes in the 2000s... which is twenty
> years ago now. ;-)
>
> The 'rock-falls, everybody dies' was similarly taken up around that
> time, but was more popular because it happened to coincide with an
> actual event that had occured years earlier in the campaign.
>
> (the party didn't actually all die, since I went out of my way to give
> them a way out... but only in the following session, when I'd figured
> a way for them to dig their way out of the literal hole they'd made
> for themselves ;-)
>
> Prior to "TPK", I don't think we really had a catch-phrase for that
> sort of event. We used "Everybody's dead, Dave" for a while (a Red
> Dwarf reference), and maybe "that's what I call a dead party"
> (referring to Python's 'Dead Parrot' sketch), but honestly, it was
> such a rare occurence that it came up more as threat than actual
> description.
>
> (e.g., "Don't take that last slice of pizza or the DM will
> 'everybody's dead, dave' the group." ;-)
>
> I can think of four times (in as many decades) I've killed the entire
> party. Twice they were given an 'out' the next session. Once it was
> part of the narrative, using temporary characters, as a prelude to the
> main adventure. And once it was a genuine death, back in the early
> days before I mellowed and murdering PCs seemed part of the job of the
> DM ;-)
>
>
>
> Wait... this isn't rec.games.frp.dnd! Quick, somebody reference a
> computer game!
>
Pool of Radiance!

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 04/02/2024 13:17, Zaghadka wrote:
> On Sun, 4 Feb 2024 11:33:22 +0000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
> wrote:
>
>> On 03/02/2024 17:19, Justisaur wrote:
>>> Rocks fall, everybody dies is a much later invention than TPK, I've
>>> referenced it as a threat, but never actually did anything like that
>>> being a dice fall where they may DM, my TPKs come about naturally.  I
>>> hate TPKs, and don't even like killing characters, but having them
>>> possible has lead to a couple of memorable sole survivor scenarios.
>>
>> I play Call of Cthulhu and although the characters are far more squishy
>> I still generally view a player death as my fault. During session zero I
>> did explain to the players that as a GM they will die if they do
>> something stupid but if they do the right thing then that's very
>> unlikely to happen.
>>
>> Unfortunately there is a bit of a meme in CoC that a successfully
>> session ends with a TPK. Great for one shots with some pre-gen's but if
>> you're running a longer campaign then not so good. Something that
>> annoyed me about one GM we had, they would put you in bad situations and
>> then rapidly try and backtrack when PC's started dropping.
>>
> Hmm. The game requires a slow, careful approach that requires a party to
> never put itself in a "situation." Any situation. The typical situations
> a party will experience if they have a direct encounter with the Mythos
> are all "bad."
>
> IMO, a good campaign has you primarily dealing with cultists. If you
> encounter significant Mythos creatures before the endgame, you've failed
> in some way or underestimated the cult.
>
> Sounds like your GM was inexperienced or your party "[did] something
> stupid." If "library use" (or whatever it's called now) isn't your most
> used opening skill then you will get in over your head. Fast. Most of
> your early SAN loss should come from Mythos knowledge before you actually
> encounter Mythos creatures. The only reason to do that sort of encounter
> early on is to telegraph that "guns won't help you here."
>
> A lot of people just go to dynamite then. The game is frequently played
> in a way that is objectively wrong, because it's not like other TTRPGs.
> It's narrative driven, not tactics driven.
>
> My unsolicited 2 cents.
>

It wasn't inexperience is was just not being very good and a lack of
preparation to ensure that combats that you basically can't avoid aren't
going to be a bit fatal to the party. I did look up the stats of the
cultists (not Mythos) afterwards and they were not only very tough (more
than capable of one shooting a PC) but they also outnumbered us. We also
only had two characters that you would say were combat capable. The only
reason it wasn't a TPK is the GM then made the cultists mysteriously
disappear. Next session another two players died (two had to sit out
because of the location) and the only reason that the last didn't was
because I'm pretty sure the GM fudged the rolls.

The real problem is I think that the GM thought far more about what they
thought would be fun (oh you want to climb a sturdy ladder even though
nothing is happening, well that means a climb roll - I mean why) instead
of what the players thought would be fun. They also didn't seem to
understand that investigation is a large part of the game and some times
the players won't always pick-up on what is happening so will need a bit
of help. The result, we spent a lot of time really not knowing what we
where supposed to be doing as we hadn't done exactly what they scenario
required.

As that's started a little rant, to me it's simple if the players come
up with a good idea then roll with it and reward them. So is there a
historical society in the town that may have some information, well not
in the scenario but there is now. The diner you're in and you start
asking questions of the waitress as she seems friendly, well it just so
happens that her sister actually used to work at the asylum.

On 04/02/2024 18:37, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 2/4/2024 3:33 AM, JAB wrote:
>> On 03/02/2024 17:19, Justisaur wrote:
>>> Rocks fall, everybody dies is a much later invention than TPK, I've
>>> referenced it as a threat, but never actually did anything like that
>>> being a dice fall where they may DM, my TPKs come about naturally.  I
>>> hate TPKs, and don't even like killing characters, but having them
>>> possible has lead to a couple of memorable sole survivor scenarios.
>>
>> I play Call of Cthulhu and although the characters are far more
>> squishy I still generally view a player death as my fault. During
>> session zero I did explain to the players that as a GM they will die
>> if they do something stupid but if they do the right thing then that's
>> very unlikely to happen.
>>
>> Unfortunately there is a bit of a meme in CoC that a successfully
>> session ends with a TPK. Great for one shots with some pre-gen's but
>> if you're running a longer campaign then not so good. Something that
>> annoyed me about one GM we had, they would put you in bad situations
>> and then rapidly try and backtrack when PC's started dropping.
>>
> That's still better than one GM I had to deal with who seemed to feel
> that it was a competition between the players and himself.  For him the
> whole point WAS to kill characters.  But this was also a pretty screwed
> up group of players mentally.  Deliberate in-party betrayals and "every
> man for himself" was the default.
>

We had a DM back in the late 80's who admitted that they had a kill
count for encounters and would be disappointed if he didn't reach it. We
had another one where some sort of grim reaper would randomly appear
cause havoc and then disappear, was it part of the story - not at all.

On 2/4/24 16:18, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 2/4/2024 2:13 PM, Justisaur wrote:
>> On 2/3/2024 11:00 AM, Xocyll wrote:
>>> Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
>>> the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>>>
>>>> On 2/1/2024 9:45 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>>>> * Starship Troopers: Terran Command
>>>>
>>>> Too bad, I would've thought the movie would make an excellent bug hunt.
>>>> Loved the book.  While I liked the movie, it had nothing on the book.
>>>> (Give me the powersuits damit!)
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TBugM7PdpY
>>>
>>
>> Thanks!  Wow that's some bad CGI.
>>
> Well it is 25 years old.

It adds charm.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom