Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Mon Feb 20, 2017 1:17 pm**

hitbyambulance wrote:2 hours spent so far on on the Fibonacci challenge on Human Resource Machine. still trying to figure out the exit criteria algorithm - i shouldn't be having such difficulty with this.. anyways, i seriously go into another world with this and TIS-100. i'll get so absorbed that hours just go by without me noticing.

How does HRM compare to TIS-100? Harder, easier? Different?

Posted: **Mon Feb 20, 2017 6:38 pm**

jztemple2 wrote:
hitbyambulance wrote:2 hours spent so far on on the Fibonacci challenge on Human Resource Machine. still trying to figure out the exit criteria algorithm - i shouldn't be having such difficulty with this.. anyways, i seriously go into another world with this and TIS-100. i'll get so absorbed that hours just go by without me noticing.
How does HRM compare to TIS-100? Harder, easier? Different?

i found there's no thread for this game, so i'll answer your question in a new one...

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:59 am**

I came across a game on Steam that if you like Age of Empires and strategy games like that you might really love. It seems made for me too. Northgard.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/466560/

Posted: **Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:27 am**

I'm sitting here wondering what to do today. I finished up the content for the Ghost Recon Wildlands Open Beta. I finished up the Campaign for Sniper Elite 4. I finished my XCOM2 Long War 2 campaign. I kind of want to buy something... but Torment releases in two days, Wildlands a week after that, Mass Effect a couple weeks after that... nothing I really want is on sale anyway. I have a couple of episodes of Luke Cage left and I am way behind on Agents of Shield, but I don't really feel any pull to watch it. Meh.

Posted: **Sun Feb 26, 2017 12:02 pm**

Vermintide

Posted: **Wed Mar 01, 2017 9:15 am**

That annoying feeling when you're playing Factorio and find yourself with one buried pipe end in your inventory after rebuilding a base. You know they're always made in pairs, and you cannot find the 'lose end' you must have planted and forgotten to terminate.

Posted: **Mon Mar 06, 2017 1:47 am**

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Riot Games Wins $10 Million Lawsuit Against Bot-Scripting Website

LeagueSharp is a website dedicated to "helping" League of Legends players by charging them anywhere from $15 to $50 a month for access to numerous bot scripts allowing them to perform maneuvers that would otherwise be difficult to pull off on reaction faster than humans normally could. Last year, League of Legends developer Riot Games sued the website, which it alleged provided these scripts to people who were leveling up accounts and selling them for a profit. Last month, they won. This week, LeagueSharp is no more.

As Kotaku reported last year, Riot Games had first attempted to settle the dispute out of court, but was met with a number of malicious counter-moves. The lawsuit claims LeagueSharp or people working with them "disseminated personal and non-public information about a Riot employee, threatened that employee, and posted offensive comments on the employee’s social media." Once they new they'd be going to court over, LeagueSharp then began "quickly and carefully destroying or concealing evidence such as their most incriminating online posts and purporting to hide behind a Peruvian shell corporation created solely for the purpose of evading liability."

LeagueSharp promptly lost the lawsuit back in January, and had to cease operations by the end of last month. The website issued a now-deleted statement mentioning their closure, warning players of using third-party mods for League of Legends, and apologizing "for any pain we've caused to players of League of Legends." As part of the lawsuit, Riot has received a $10 million settlement, as well as control of all LeagueSharp websites.

Posted: **Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:30 am**

So I had the urge to break out RailRoad Tycoon II again. I rebought the game is in a RRT suite some years ago digitally to make it friendly with 7x64.

I had that urge again this weekend.

Not active on Steam
Not active on GOG
Not active through Gamergate
Not active IndiaGala

Fuck. I have no idea who paid for it and I have urge to buy it a third time. This is why it's become Steam or GOG or nothing else. I went through years worth of emails I must have 25 different activation sites and who knows how many have gone belly up.

Posted: **Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:37 am**

I'm kinda amazed that a noticeable number (more than 10, okay?) of my game library (of over 1000 games) have left Steam (i.e. can be downloaded, but no longer have a store page) and I don't mean the "remastered for Steam" games like Dirt 3 vs Dirt 3 Complete. And it seems nobody can actually download Robert Burns Rally any more. People still love that rally game.

Posted: **Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:07 am**

Kasey Chang wrote:I'm kinda amazed that a noticeable number (more than 10, okay?) of my game library (of over 1000 games) have left Steam (i.e. can be downloaded, but no longer have a store page) and I don't mean the "remastered for Steam" games like Dirt 3 vs Dirt 3 Complete. And it seems nobody can actually download Robert Burns Rally any more. People still love that rally game.

which ones were those? i've found a few as well. one was a silly hidden-object/casual puzzle game (Infected: The Twin Vaccine).

a fairly comprehensive list:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... ?t=3071895

Posted: **Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:43 am**

Yup, I knew FUEL was no longer for sale, but I bought it over on GMG and Steam accepted the key, so there is a workaround.

Posted: **Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:02 am**

Well crap. Tried one of my dosbox games and it wouldn't work. Tried others and found most of them don't work. Oddly a couple do.
Microsoft must have done something to Win 10 again.

Posted: **Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:50 am**

due to the fact nobody has created a thread for this game, I assume there is little interest ... but I'll bug you with it anyhow

Steep .... Free Weekend Begins March 10 @ Ubiblog

Steep’s immense open world of winter sports will be yours to explore for free this weekend, throwing open the doors to pristine Alpine and Alaskan slopes on PS4, Xbox One, and PC (via Uplay). Beginning March 10 and running until March 13, the trial period will be a chance to experience everything Steep has to offer, including the new content added in the Alaska update. As you explore two gigantic mountain ranges and compete with skis, snowboards, paragliders, and wingsuits, you’ll also be able to meet up with other players on the slopes. This gives you the chance not only to tackle competitive events with friends, but to experience the mountains alongside other players who appear randomly in your session.

On PS4 and PC, the trial runs from 10AM PST on March 10 through 10AM PST on March 13. Xbox One owners will get to spend a little more time on the slopes for free, with their trial running from 12:01AM PST on March 10 until 11:59PM PST on March 13. And if you decide you want to keep playing with your progress intact after the trial period is over, you’ll be able to purchase the full version of Steep at a hefty discount. Console players can get 50% off the standard edition (or 40% off the Gold edition, which includes the Season Pass), with discounts lasting until March 13 on Xbox Live, and March 20 on PSN. On Uplay, meanwhile, you’ll be able to get the standard or Gold editions at 50% off until March 14.

oh .. and one more thing .. stop using the word steep in relation to price and learning curve .... that is all

Posted: **Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:57 pm**

I've been eyeing it for awhile but waiting for the right price point as I'm not sure ho much I'll like it. Looks like I'll be downloading this later for a test run.

Posted: **Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:34 pm**

I bought it for $30 and traded it in a month later for $18. I paid $12 for about two hours of largely uninteresting play.

Posted: **Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:43 pm**

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10 FREE PC Programs Every Gamer Should Have (@gameranx)

Posted: **Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:32 pm**

Thanks. I noted a couple of those to check out later. I use several of them (like WinDirStat) myself already.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:55 pm**

Anyone ever struggle getting back into a classic game after revisiting it after so many years? Right now, that's me with Jedi Outcast. For whatever reason, I'm running around in circles trying to figure out how to progress to the end of the level. The second level at that. I feel so obtuse as it's probably really obvious and my younger self didn't have any such problems.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:58 pm**

KDH wrote:.

10 FREE PC Programs Every Gamer Should Have (@gameranx)

Christ, Article a Video

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 3:00 pm**

I keep finding myself in older games and feeling like they're either poorly designed (How dare they use that mechanic!?) or too easy (Why did I think this was hard back then?) I can't say I've ever found myself stuck. I tend to have a pretty good memory for games, though - to the point where I could skip playing something after 3 years and still remember that "T" performed a specific action I wanted without referring to the control list.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 3:34 pm**

Paingod wrote:I keep finding myself in older games and feeling like they're either poorly designed (How dare they use that mechanic!?) or too easy (Why did I think this was hard back then?)

Yeah, part of it is that. Though I suspect it's really the other way around, in that there was far less hand-holding in older games than there is now. But sometimes the levels can just be really confusing and objectives are not immediately obvious.

Interesting thing about Jedi Outcast is how chunky and big everything looks.

Edit: And go figure, right after I post about it, I get past it. It was partly due to the level design. Forcefields are red. There was a door with what looked like a forcefield that I never tried to go through because I thought it was impassable.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:35 pm**

I went retro and tried to play Dungeon Siege 3. The first few quests are fun, but the lack of heal potions was serious bummer. They changed to so a heal spell part of your attack (attack to charge up one or more "orbs", and use it to power up heals), but heals are not instant, but rather, heal over time (6-8 points per second). I often ended up revived by my AI companion. It's nice that she also runs around collecting all the gold.

That is, until we saw the big boss, who's seriously overpowered even on CASUAL. We whacked her down to zero, then we had to fight her AGAIN, except this time, there's debris on the ground and my AI companion is not doing any damage, and nor was she avoiding the magic landmines the boss left all over the place. But I can't stand still to revive her, as if I stop one of those magic landmines appear under me. But that means I get hit, and I can't heal fast enough, and nobody will revive me after I fall. I tried this battle like 10 times, tried to find trainer but those just crashed the game. Enough is enough.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:40 pm**

Paingod wrote:I keep finding myself in older games and feeling like they're either poorly designed (How dare they use that mechanic!?)

This is and has been the primary reason I am unable to return to many beloved games from the past. Have you tried playing an RTS from around the time of the original C&C? Even Total Annihilation, a game that was toted for its innovative gui design, a game I absolutely adored and which once topped my favourite game of all time is almost unplayable now, due to the archaic stone age gui.

It's like playing an FPS without mouselook.

I tried to play the original Majesty (last year), which I thought was awesome (I love games that involve macromanagement while letting the ai decide what units will do) is basically unplayable now.

Gui design has come so far, but the remarkable thing is that games being released today still occasionally use archaic control methods that haven't been the norm for a decade or more. It can be like reinventing the wheel every single time a game is released.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 5:18 pm**

Agreed about it being hard to return to some of the older games. Especially games that use "non standard" controls. Stuff like "Crusader: No Remorse/Regret" or the classic System Shock / Ultima Underground series (and "Eye of the Beholder" type games too). The former with its crazy "rotational" controls (pressing up means your character goes forward relative to his facing) which are horribly disorienting, not to mention having I think a separate set of keys for aiming? And the latter with real time gameplay that never stops even if you're doing inventory management or picking out spells.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 6:18 pm**

Kasey Chang wrote:I went retro and tried to play Dungeon Siege 3.

I had totally forgotten there even was a Dungeon Siege 3. I don't think it was publicized quite as much as the first two.

And speaking of those games, I had always wanted to play the 2nd one and had bought it on Steam a few years ago. Liked it well enough, until I got to the end, where the boss was way OP. WTF is with games changing the rules at the end? The boss would always one-shot kill and there was supposed to be this elaborate way to kill him involving other party members. I couldn't figure it out and only got frustrated with it and uninstalled it. To make matters worse, you couldn't even use invulnerability cheats during his battle.

Posted: **Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:01 pm**

This was the walkthru for the final mission in DS2 that I used to complete the game. Don't recall cheating in that game.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 3:00 am**

Come to think of it, according to that walkthrough, I wasn't even at the end-boss, but rather the archmage, and I kept dying from those skulls before I could do anything else.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:51 am**

I just finished Icewind Dale yesterday, and was reminded about how little I enjoyed the design philosoply of the nightmarishly difficult end boss. Having to fight smart is a good thing. Being challenged is a good thing. Doing a 20-minute fight eight times is not.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:57 am**

Finished "Dark Void", the "not Rocketeer" game. It's quite interesting plot wise but physically it's kinda weird.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:14 am**

Blackhawk wrote:I just finished Icewind Dale yesterday, and was reminded about how little I enjoyed the design philosoply of the nightmarishly difficult end boss. Having to fight smart is a good thing. Being challenged is a good thing. Doing a 20-minute fight eight times is not.

I did some reading to see if I had the right game (i.e. not IWD 2). Apparently I did. In Lower Dorn there are a couple of Guard Towers that have archers that shoot at you. It's easy to just run past them, but you actually want to find a way into the towers. The archers drop Arrows of Piercing (+4). Get the arrows, save them until the final fight, shoot that bastard. Apparently that is the easiest way to deal with him.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:49 am**

I never read that guide, but I did exactly that (although they're +3, not +4.) There is also a merchant in the Luremaster expansion that sells them, and they're how I eventually beat the bastard. I had to two characters with bows armed with the arrows of piercing, placed them in corners, then had the rest of the party kite the boss in circles around edge of the room while the wizard spammed him with summons to slow him down and the archers plinked away at him.

In other words, I Benny Hilled the boss for ten minutes while two archers plinked away at him.

The thing is that it isn't at all a natural strategy, and I only found it through trial and error after an hour and a half of dying and reloading over and over and over, and it only works by, essentially, exploiting how dumb the AI is.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 12:15 pm**

I don't see how you grown-ups get to play that much. Since I have 2+ jobs, all I can do is buy games, not actually play them.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 12:36 pm**

1 job. And I currently work from home. No kids. A wife that also plays games. And, to top it off, no motivation to do chores like cleaning. (Though I do try to keep some semblance of order and cleanliness.)

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:34 pm**

JetFred wrote:I don't see how you grown-ups get to play that much. Since I have 2+ jobs, all I can do is buy games, not actually play them.

You could always buy less and thus not require 2+ jobs to feed your buying habit.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:39 pm**

JetFred wrote:I don't see how you grown-ups get to play that much. Since I have 2+ jobs, all I can do is buy games, not actually play them.

Being highly scheduled helps. But gaming comes in feast/famine times. It also helps when your new boss apparently just thinks of everything in terms of accounting and randomly removes you from the schedule, freeing up more time. But seriously, most gaming is done between 9pm-11pm at night. It's a rare that I can block out time during the day or on the weekends. When it happens, it's glorious.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:52 pm**

9-11pm is my window as well. Weekends can be hit or miss.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 2:09 pm**

I'll play between dinner and kids bedtime (usually about 90 minutes), between wife's bedtime and my bedtime (varies from 0-240 minutes), between wake-up and get kids ready for school time (~20 minutes) and then I may disappear for hours at a time on the weekends (sometimes adds up to 20 hours if I have a game I am really into). It helps that I don't DO things and by and large my kids also don't do things. They play a lot of games on PC, Tablet and DS... I wonder where they get that from?

My wife tries to get us out of the house to do stuff from time to time with varying levels of success... you know since 3 of us aren't really interested for the most part. I guess she gets bored. I told her she should try playing games. Guess how that was received...

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 4:16 pm**

I'm retired and since it's tax season my wife is working six days a week as county head of the free volunteer staffed tax preparation service, so I can play pretty much anytime except in the evenings when we have dinner and watch TV together, that is before she falls asleep. On her day off we do our shopping and going out to eat, but I figure that's OK

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:15 pm**

GreenGoo wrote:
JetFred wrote:I don't see how you grown-ups get to play that much. Since I have 2+ jobs, all I can do is buy games, not actually play them.
You could always buy less and thus not require 2+ jobs to feed your buying habit.

I was waiting for that one

Yeah, we kind of "do things" too, but my only kid is about to go to college. We'll see how that affects things.

Posted: **Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:32 pm**

And I of course was kidding. I know you are the master sales chaser and your steam card management helps pay for things as well. Or is that what you meant about "2+ jobs"?

Octopus Overlords

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