I'm currently playing Earth 2140 on NORMAL and holy fuck. I'm 20 hours in and haven't finished the UCS campaign yet. Granted, some missions were harder than needed because I didn't realize you could call in reinforcements on some maps, BUT>Maps are a grind and sometimes come down to who runs out of resources first>I'm convinced the Devs are downright evil. They know the pathfinding for UCS mechs sucks, and the maps are a combination of chokepoints, cliffs, and destroyable terain you have to manually target. UCS air sucks so you have to grind them down with mechs all the time if you don't have the SHADOW vehicle that gives stealth to your mechs>One of the Scandinavia missions has you approach an enemy base from two sides with a 1 tile chokepoint on each sides. Your mechs stack up and die really easily. The UCS navy sucks, and you don't have air in that mission forcing you to grind them down wave by wave hoping to snipe some of their important buildings>Many missions start you in the middle between multiple enemy bases and they assault you immediately.>Constant raids by enemy air and land transports full of infantry that capture your buildings and blow them up.>Also, if the objective is to capture a building and you take it, they'll actively try to retake it and blow it up, failing the mission for you.>Scripted attacks all over the placeThis truly was a time when devs didn't give a fuck. I've heard that the Warcraft 2 expansion is hard but I haven't played it. Recommend some ball busting campaigns
>>2289856Have you tried Stalingrad?It's my favorite of the Enigma engine games. Has a number of improvements on vanilla Blitzkrieg like much longer unit ranges, and having buildings finally block LoS/shooting (kinda important if your game is focused on a largely urban battle, I guess). Also kinda fits the thread I guess, because it's hard as piss on higher diffs, too.It also has an industrial/heavy metal soundtrack that I personally really liked. Kinda gave me C&C/Frank Klepachi vibes. But I'll admit it is kinda weird for an otherwise very historical WW2 game focused on Stalingrad.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoHTsx2XDU
>>2289854>>2289856>>2289882I found Blitzkrieg 1 too easy but it's very easy to cheese the whole map with Artillery.I see how it could be really hard if you don't do that. Haven't tried Stalingrad yet
The stronghold crusader trail has some pretty insane levels. Reaching the end felt like an accomplishment.
>>2289531The only egregious one I remember is in the Prussian campaign, Kesselsdorf, I think. What else was there?
I've heard that Beyond the Dark Portal is really hard
What are you>playing,>watching,>wondering about?
>>2267031Chimera Squad is likely canon. The direction that nu-XCOM was headed towards starting with War of the Chosen was "ayylmaos were good kids, on their way to college, brainwashed to work for ethereals, gonna need more money for dem programs". I didn't mind Advent traitors fighting alongside humans, but as Chimera Squad itself points out the vast majority of alien races are evil and cannibalistic if not outright sociopathic, but we're just supposed to put up with them because "we would never ever do a racism".And this is uniquely not a case of modern politics, but rather people within the XCOM fanbase who want alien squadmembers. Which on the surface is "yeah, okay, sure, here you go", but when it comes down to the lore it makes no sense. There's this faction in Chimera Squad that wants to just go home, and my reaction to them is "why are we trying to stop them?"
>>2289761>people within the XCOM fanbase who want alien squadmembersThen they should have made an opfor game. It'd be pretty cool to play as an Advent spec-ops counterinsurgency squad.
>>2290163Opposing Force mentionedThis Thread Is Now Under Military Command
>>2290173fuck off randy
>>2290199Hoes mad
Diplomacy update public beta out NOW
>>2282272I saw someone claiming that Terrans also stack tons since they don't have much to deal with. Right now I'm thinking I start with Split and Boron left off, purge Paranid and/or Teladi, then enable more content. If I still have headroom then I can add some extra jobs to have a harder fight (faction carrier groups, Xenon).
>>2282306Terrans do have fleets roaming around fighting shit.
So I recently got back into my X4 file after months away and my economy tanked. Mostly because I've taken a ton of station budget money to buy L/XL production blueprints. Any tips to get my budget back on the road?
Egosoft requires you to register a game key to be allowed to download their archive unpacker which is supremely homosexual (I pirated the game). It isn't even a complicated format - literally just the files appended end to end with a table identifying them. I've manually unpacked a few mods by just opening the archive in a text editor and trimming to an xml, getting the appropriate filename and directory from the table. If I were more comfortable with writing file IO apps I would just make an unpacker, but no.So instead of being able to look at the raw game files (I'm not going to try to open a 5gb file in a text editor) here I am editing mod files. This guy replaced some job quotas (number of instances of an npc ship patrol that can be spawned) with fuckhuge values but I don't know the original ones to pick something more reasonable.I also trimmed out his entries for comically large fleets, shit like a carrier with sixteen destroyers and assorted m/s craft lmao. Vanilla carrier fleets have four destroyers and only the carrier's complement of fighters and there's only one or two per faction; this madlad cranked that shit up to 4+ fleets plus an unholy fuckload of other fleets/patrols. Imagine two of those fleets clashing with each other in the background simulation while you're having your own fleet battle. He probably doubled the number of ships in game.
>>2288034Yes there are several mods that do that. It's cool but has downsides. Personally I like the ones that let factions deep strike instead of just spilling out the nearest gate.>comically large fleets, shit like a carrier with sixteen destroyers and assorted m/s craft lmao.How else would you get cool battles? Also, on the same note, when try star wars interworlds I generally lose like 20 fps straight away just from the extra load.
Is polytopia the only halfway decent mobile strategy game? I know the entire mobile market is cancer but there's gotta be something else I can play on my phone during breaks or when I'm taking a shit at work
>>2271930I played some more and by now I do dislike it. Each run you press the same buttons, deal with the same issues, play whack-a-mole with terrorists, all so that you could lose for a different reason.
>>2270814What the other anon said - each mission has exactly one playthrough. The first one. Most missions play the exact the same, the ones that don't only adds boring clutter to the standard procedure and it's very boring very fastt. didn't play it since 2020
>>2270814Lots of fun on Brutal difficulty. Played long enough to unlock everything thats free and stella'd all thats locked behind paywall.Campaign also adds various special parameters to already existing missions as well as forces you to juggle your advisors so you can't keep the winning combo all the time.Golden sands is THE hardest mission in the game.Azure Dam music lives rent free in my head.Got really disappointed with their after plague game though.
I still hold that the mobile base building game genre could be good, provided someone implement it in the correct way, I'm just not sure how
Xenowerk Tactics was was pretty cool. I'd say it's a little bit like real-time Jagged Alliance 1.
>Napoleonic Kino coming next year
>>2268709Their previous game kinda sucked unfortunately.
>>2282379desu more like they were shooting way above their skillsGT:CW is one of the most ambitious CW game to date, so personally i go easy on it despite the bugs
>>2282882That's just an explanation for why it sucked.
>>2270471Nosey's got your number, crapaud-kun
>>2269424MP has never ever made any strategy game better, it's a waste of resources.
Is this Rimworld but good, or Rimworld but bad?
>>2276564well first of all you just pop down prefabricated buildings and the whole colony Sim aspects of the game is very bare bones and boring
>>2276543>Rimworld but badyou mean regular rimworld?
>>2276551is it good though? are the sex mechanics good?
>>2276543It's "the whole subgenre is dead and overdone" bad
>>2285734There are like five games besides DF and Rimworld
DLC dropped yesterday, but it seems nobody is keen on discussing it, if they even got it.I got it myself and playing rn.So, I gotta ask. What went wrong?
>>2289971Dunno. Got it on launch, played for a couple days expecting it'll open up and stop being boring. It didn't. Just felt very shallow and not engaging.
This is a step in the right direction, but it should have been like this at launch.
I'm a huge fan of Frostpunk, but found 2 very underwhelming. In gameplay, presentation, plot, pacing and visuals.This DLC only improves the freeplay side-mode, so I don't care.
Playing it again, I remembered what was wrong with it. It's designed like one of those "pay to not wait" mobile games. You're either waiting for prefabs or waiting for your workforce to finish a job. The loop is only fun if you have it on in the background, but it's not a browser game nor a casual city builder.Just a bizarre concept.
>>2289971the game went even more visual novel
They kept it secret until 2 days before, not bad. Can't believe people expected 40k
>>2288086Friendless*
>>2281712Yay I love seeing our kind in these sorta places >_<
HOLY SHIT
>>2282034>Bionicleautism slop
>>2288136All we had to do, was follow the senate mission, CJ!
>play>press buttons faster than the enemy>winWhy is this considered strategy and allowed on this board? This shit is basically just Osu but without the music and in pvp mode.
>>2245907I've never considered gookclick to be strategy.
>>2269330Right? It's clearly a rhythm game.
>>2245907Play better games and not gookclickers.
>>2245929There's Patapon and Ratatan for that.
>>2245907>play>have higher iq than an enemy>winWhy is this considered strategy and allowed on this board? This shit is basically just having superior genes but online.
>be maybe 12>see this game in a magazine hyped as 3D RTS>screens look ugly so ignore>mom and dad buy PC for Christmas>no games, so buy magazine with demo disk>Myth is there>decide to check it out>Bagrada!>holy fucking kino!I'm now an old fuck and jaded about games, nothing catches my attention and everything seems shit. I have these initially sad moments when I launch modded Myth 2 just to kill some time and it's always a breathtaking experience. The narrative, the missions, the gore, the battles, the feeling of hopelessness... Yet you still micro, you still fight, you eventually win and then you see this screen with stats, see your heroes and casualties and it hits hard.No game has ever had this long-lasting impression on me, I don't think it's nostalgia, I just think it's THAT GOOD.Lets talk about it, shall we? Any anons on here been myffin lately?
>>2269276Cool, didn't know that.
>>2282740Reddit is a great site for you to discuss that I think
>>2237549>be 7-8>mac gamer because dad is an apple fanatic>play marathon>it's awesome>dad brings home myth 2 disc>holy fuuuuuck>play online>holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuckand then bungie made halo and died
>>2283795Sorry about your dad being an Apple fanatic.
>>2286127Back in the day people didn't know Apple would become outright antagonistic towards gaming.
So what's the verdict so far on Master of Command? Been playing the demo and it's a good game so far, but the controls seem kinda janky.
>>2284325Whats wrong with the UI?
>>2286201it's just annoying having to constantly be click-dragging the units around and micromanaging bayonets. It'd be nice to be able to give movement commands during deployment as well. It just feels very RTSy whereas I'd prefer a slower pace, where you have a battle plan that you make minor adjustments to instead of constantly microing. I'm not even against micro in general, it just doesn't suit this time period.The overworld and army management UI is fine.
beat the first of the two HQ battles in act 3 last night and the second army popped up on the other side of the map, meaning i had plenty of time to replenish. i don't think that's too bullshit. i thought the battle was immediately after and i picked ammo as my reward so i could at least reload. if i had known i'd have gone for food, i had to eat some attrition because i ran out pretty soon after the battle which would have been a problem if the second army wasn't so far away.does the second army pop up in a random location and i just got lucky or what? this setup doesn't seem as bad if not. though admittedly i pretty much made a straight beeline for the HQ at this thread's advice so the towns weren't all spent and i had only fought a couple of battles before the hq. also playing with no modifiers.
>>2289972until a recent update the second HQ would rush you immediately after spawning. Sometimes it would spawn very close to you, sometimes it wouldn't, don't know the exact technical details of the change past the fact that they give you some time to get your bearings now.
>>2289977ah okay, that makes sense. maybe they could find a middle ground, like have it pop up far away and come straight at you at a reduced speed. because this might be a bit too easy if you haven't razed the map like i hadn't. i did have to play a little gorilla warfare and avoid patrols because i was right on the edge of my supplies and the resources available on the map but this is just basically just two hq battles with my maxed out army.
Your thoughts on the demo? So far what's your favorite:>faction>unit>heroPersonal I found myself gravitating toward Dungeon the most. It got some really nice line-up. I think minotaurs and medusas are my favorite. In term of heroes I don't have yet favorite, but I like the dragon guy from Dungeon and the black armored guy from Necropolis.
>>2283967The only good thing about 6 and 7 are the monstergirl units
So is it dead?
>>2289965It hasn't come out yet.
>>2289969Stillborn then
>>2289965Stream chars say the Demo has 957 playing right now with 1918 in 24 hour peak.
Is it for sweaty compfags only or is 4v4 or campaign still hot?
I play with my premade team 4v4 and its always awesome
>>2266715between aoe2 and aoe4, aoe2 has better single player content.Not good but better.
>>2266288game is in a really shit state rn since the new dlc fucked things and the map pool is garbageaoe2 does have more singleplayer content and community campaigns but neither of them are goodi like how factions are more varied in aoe4 and landmarks whereas aoe2 has a million civs which are far less distinctyou can easily find 4v4 games if you want
>>2267730as long as people like you get to breathe, the genre will stay dead
Necroing a dead thread on a dead forum cuz I bought the game on the last sale and am enjoying it. However, I am anxious about playing ranked and I wonder if I can find fellow autists to play team games with here.
I am currently in the early stages of developing a real-time strategy game that aims to combine elements from Age of Empires II and Warcraft III. Both of these titles have had a major influence on me as a player and as a designer. Age of Empires II is remarkable for its strategic depth, focus on economic management, and large-scale battles, although I have always felt it is somewhat limited in a few key areas, such as unique unit mechanics and hero-focused gameplay. Warcraft III, on the other hand, introduced those very features through its heroes, abilities, and more character-driven armies, yet it lost some of the depth found in other systems, particularly in the balance of ranged units, counter mechanics, and naval warfare.My goal is to create a game that brings together the strongest qualities of both styles. I want to capture the grand scale and tactical complexity of Age of Empires II while incorporating the individuality, progression, and fantasy-driven personality of Warcraft III. The idea is to give players the satisfaction of building a thriving civilization and commanding large armies, while also offering memorable units, meaningful choices, and greater variety in strategy.I would love to hear from the /vst/ community about what you would like to see in a project that blends these two approaches. Which mechanics or ideas from either Age of Empires II or Warcraft III do you think are essential to preserve, improve, or completely rework?I am also open to suggestions for other RTS games that might serve as good sources of inspiration. Whether they are classic titles or more recent releases, I would really appreciate your thoughts on what makes those games stand out and what lessons they might offer for this project.Thank you in advance for your insights. I am looking forward to hearing your ideas and discussing what could make an RTS like this both exciting and rewarding to play.
Sorry for the late reply. I’ve been pretty inactive on /vst/ lately, and I apologize. I’ve been trying to implement these ideas while writing a coherent, logical game design and testing them, but I’ve hit a major roadblock.Here is the issue: it comes down to the engine itself. I can implement it in Unreal, but the performance is still not fast enough. Unity can do it as well, although it comes with its own performance drawbacks, which is why many RPGs made with Unity remain small to mid scale. Godot has similar limitations and in many ways ends up reflecting the same problems I was trying to avoid.I’ve been discussing the topic at length with a mentor of mine, and we both came to the conclusion that a custom engine would ideally be the best choice for performance, which is exactly what I was hoping to avoid.I’ve been leaning toward making an FPS lately. I’d love to do an RTS, but the market just isn’t there, and the engine problems the big three share mean I’d probably have to build a custom engine for it. An FPS just makes more sense.>>2268809Hi, you’ve raised a lot of interesting points, some of which I agree with and others I strongly disagree with, especially regarding hardware. The golden age of RTS games was built on hardware that is now obsolete and was highly optimized for a single CPU with relatively limited processing power. Developers had to fine-tune everything to the smallest detail to make the games run smoothly. While this approach can still be applied to art assets today, most modern engines are closed and not very accessible for indie development.I will be documenting and consolidating all the points we've discussed in this thread. In the future, once I have a team, I may revisit the possibility of developing an RTS. At present, pursuing an FPS seems most feasible. I apologize if I raised anyone’s expectations. I will return, even if it takes me 10 years.
>>2279250When you do, see that you use Killzone Visari speech as your opening.. 10 years ago, I asked the time..
>>2279250>Unity can do it as well, although it comes with its own performance drawbacksNigga, this shit was made in Unity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTnBa6LxlqIUnreal can do it too, probably - it's standard shit under the hood, maybe even Godot can do it.It's just a matter of actually learning multi-threading and/or GPU processing, instead of using only the default shit and complaining it's not scaling beyond run-of-the-mill games' needs.>a mentor of mine, and we both came to the conclusion that a custom engine would ideally be the best choice for performanceYour mentor is a moron. Tell him Anon judged him as such.
>>2279250>Here is the issue: it comes down to the engine itself. I can implement it in Unreal, but the performance is still not fast enough. Unity can do it as well, although it comes with its own performance drawbacks, which is why many RPGs made with Unity remain small to mid scale.Bruh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrHfQfhhJe4
>>2227967imba as a term has been used at least since the late 90s.
What does this country look like, on the ground floor?Like if you walked the streets of mamlukean Australia, what would you see?I know this is a reddit "haha funny map" trend of having stupid shit where it doesn't belong but don't you ever want to draw in your head how a nordic 19th century tokyo looks like at night? Or visit the houses of those chinamen who conquered medieval italy? Or maybe see the buddhist shrines of the aztec empire?
You can just go there right now
>>2286586Sparsely populated north african tier shtihole with rich sheiks cruising off the gold rush and iron minesBedouin nomads living in the center, all aboriginals enslaved.
>>2286750v&.
>>2288064So... modern australia but the average IQ is above room temperature?
>>2286586Not really, it never occurred to me. I guess you could AI gen the scene to get a picture of it
