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I completely ignored Startopia back when it came out for some reason or another, but holy poo poo it's pretty much Deep Space Nine: The Game and it owns.
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Sep 5, 2012 21:21
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Startopia had some of the most amazing art and graphics I'd seen at the time, and I wondered how in the heck something that pretty could run on my crappy computer back in the day. Still nothing quite like it today.
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Sep 5, 2012 21:25
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Captain Scandinaiva posted:Please do. I haven't played Divine Divinity (another one of those "when I get around to it" games) but I hear it's pretty great, so this is interesting. Will do. Having a blast with Inquisitor so far in general, and really enjoying that Eastern European difficulty curve. I'm really looking forward to getting into the arresting and interrogating portion, be interesting to see how they handle that. I won't likely have any time to play for the next couple of days, but so far I'm definitely not regretting my purchase. You really should play Divine Divinity though. It's the best RPG out there that doesn't often make lists of best RPGs.
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Sep 5, 2012 21:29
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So I was collecting up TA-related patches and stuff and I found this. An unofficial 4.0 patch for TA, with GOG support, currently in final public beta testing. It's not a rebalancing mod like UHTA, but a complete engine overhaul; lots of changes that were previous stand-alone patches (5k unit limit, new map features, etc) have been incorporated, along with Cavedog's free addons, some UI improvements, non-CD music (for non-GOG installs that don't already have it), and lots of bugfixes. They're also promising an overhaul of mod handling, which will at least make total conversions easier to handle and may eventually obsolete TAM entirely. Apparently the upcoming versions of TA Zero, TA Escalation, and Total Mayhem are already making use of some of these features. Reportedly, most old (.UFO) mods work as well. And of course, all of this pales before the fact that it apparently has non-poo poo pathfinding.  I think I need to download this and take it for a spin.
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Sep 5, 2012 21:37
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evilmiera posted:Startopia had some of the most amazing art and graphics I'd seen at the time, and I wondered how in the heck something that pretty could run on my crappy computer back in the day. Still nothing quite like it today. You know, I know nothing about programming. I mean absolute zero. Yet I'm pretty sure that Startopia as a program is very well coded.
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Sep 5, 2012 21:50
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evilmiera posted:Startopia had some of the most amazing art and graphics I'd seen at the time, and I wondered how in the heck something that pretty could run on my crappy computer back in the day. Still nothing quite like it today. It's not so much technically impressive as it's a game from that early-mid 3D period that had actually really good art direction. By the way, does Startopia have widescreen support?
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Sep 5, 2012 22:01
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Al! posted:It's not so much technically impressive as it's a game from that early-mid 3D period that had actually really good art direction. Yeah, Startopia is from the brief period of the early 2000s where 3d was simple but great. Giants citizen kabuto and sacrifice also come to mind. As for widescreen, I recall loading it up a few years ago and being surprised at the vast number of resolutions it supported. I'm pretty sure it supports 16:10 at the very least.
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Sep 5, 2012 22:25
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Al! posted:It's not so much technically impressive as it's a game from that early-mid 3D period that had actually really good art direction. As far as I can tell StarTopia will run at basically any resolution you throw at it. It is coded incredibly well for a game of the era and works perfectly on dual core systems and the like. I've played for years and never seen it crash.
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Sep 5, 2012 23:35
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I remember being stunned and delighted that Startopia ran smoothly on my 800mhz Athlon with 64 MB of RAM, and an on-board nForce (1) video chip. A beautiful game, but it always took a Targ's age to load. And ToxicFrog, I'll be looking forward to any care package you might be putting together for TA.
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Sep 6, 2012 00:01
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A couple of Inquisitor screens, taken a minute or so apart because   Here, you can see me chilling out near a graveyard. Bottom left has Health (red), Stamina (yellow) and Mana (blue) bars/orbs. Stamina is for attacking and regenerates when you stand still - which is kind of annoying. I never have enough Mana and generally only chug a potion when I need to. Like in the picture below:  Wherein I fight two zombies. Alongside some dog I found hanging out in the town prison. The dog's pretty chill and levels up at his own pace. He barks quite a lot, which could get annoying. It's still early days, but the Stamina mechanic seems a tad irritating. Maybe once I start fighting enemies that aren't zombies, bats or spiders, more stamina potions will drop. Health potions would be nice, too. Also, ranged combat is a bit pricey - arrows come in quivers of 50 and cost 80 gold. I'm getting 2-10 gold per zombie, with each zombie taking 7-8 arrows to kill. Again, I expect this will change later on. I'm liking it so far, though. The writing is mostly pretty good, although most 'conversations' more closely resemble an info-dump than anything else. Still, an early quest has you trying to find out who killed a merchant by slitting his throat, chopping off his cock and then stuffing it down his mouth, so I'm game.
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Sep 6, 2012 00:07
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Have you done any torture yet?
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Sep 6, 2012 00:41
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mr. why posted:Have you done any torture yet? No. Apparently, I have enough evidence to try to arrest someone, but I haven't yet, so I might give it a go in a minute and see what happens. [Edit] Okay, the sound effects and animations are pretty grim, but the first dungeon only has the Rack and the Strappado, so there's not much variation. kingturnip fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Sep 6, 2012 |
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Sep 6, 2012 00:59
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I'm really getting sold on Inquisitor here. I've just really been enjoying most of the Eastern European games that I've come across in the past few years (STALKER, The Witcher, this one). They just have such a different sensibility about them with a unique graphical mood. They don't always look the best, but they are usually pretty difficult (a plus for me) and are supremely unique. I may have to pick this one up.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:04
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doctorfrog posted:And ToxicFrog, I'll be looking forward to any care package you might be putting together for TA. A lot of it has been obsoleted by the TA 4.0 patch; it'll probably end up being the TA 4.0 installer + TA:M + some common mod packs like UberHack, TA Zero, and TA Escalation. 4.0 already contains pretty much everything else I was planning to add like the 5k unit pack and the Cavedog addon units.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:15
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Sankis posted:Yeah, Startopia is from the brief period of the early 2000s where 3d was simple but great. Giants citizen kabuto and sacrifice also come to mind. Ahh the early 2000s. My uni results never really recovered from Giants Citizen Kabuto, Sacrifice, and of course Deus Ex
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Sep 6, 2012 02:30
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Alabama Blacksnake posted:I completely ignored Startopia back when it came out for some reason or another, but holy poo poo it's pretty much Deep Space Nine: The Game and it owns. It's Deep Space Nine Keeper II. That's basically the only way I can describe it.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:45
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OrangeSoda posted:It's Deep Space Nine Keeper II. That's basically the only way I can describe it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4qLgbUCRPQ
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Sep 6, 2012 02:52
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So fyi Startopia does have lots of resolution options, basically the same as my monitor, but I can't put it at max resolution because it makes the menu text tiny.
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Sep 6, 2012 04:11
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anthonypants posted:I've never heard of Startopia before this thread, but that opening movie Is that Walton Goggins??
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Sep 6, 2012 04:55
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Man, Inquisitor is really neat but it's so hard. Maybe I shouldn't have picked mage. It's also really hard to figure out what to actually do. I have no idea if I should be in this mine or even if I'm on the right track at all! The dialogue isn't awful but you can certainly tell it was translated by someone who did they best they could with their limited english as second language vocabulary. Maybe someone should make a thread for it so we can talk about it a bit more indepth. Plus the game just feels like it should have come out in 2002/3 or so when every other 2d Diablo clone did. Plus, the setting is really weird. It's straddling such a weird line with the in game religion. It's using just about everything it can from Christianity without actually saying it. Though if it was I guess it'd be some weird alternate history. Edit: Does anyone know what the Czech language pack is? Is it just translated text or is it czech voice? synertia posted:I'm really getting sold on Inquisitor here. I've just really been enjoying most of the Eastern European games that I've come across in the past few years (STALKER, The Witcher, this one). They just have such a different sensibility about them with a unique graphical mood. They don't always look the best, but they are usually pretty difficult (a plus for me) and are supremely unique. I may have to pick this one up. I think you should probably check this out. It's really difficult in ways that SEEM (though I could be 100% wrong) more about taking advantage of mechanics and understanding the systems and the setting is something I'd not seen before. It all seems pretty dark. The entire gist of the setting is that the world just suffered a series of three major cataclysms and everyone is pretty sure the apocalypse is around the corner. Edit 2: What exactly am I supposed to do to find Linda? Sankis fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Sep 6, 2012 |
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Sep 6, 2012 06:05
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Sankis posted:
When you find the accused murderer Olfghard he can tell you where she was last seen. Now for my question. Is there any way for priests to disarm traps? Projectiles can't set many of them off. Mehrunes fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Sep 6, 2012 |
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Sep 6, 2012 07:24
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Man, I've been patiently awaiting Startopia ever since finding out about GOG; I had the demo version when I was about 11 and would play it over and over again, but it never seemed to be available at any of the electronic stores around here. I seem to remember it ran pretty well on my 450mhz PIII windows 98 machine back in the day.
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Sep 6, 2012 08:14
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Do start an Inquisitor thread. I've bought it but can't play for a bit and would love to have opinions/screenshots/etc to pore over.
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Sep 6, 2012 08:54
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Startopia is pretty great but man, the first biodeck mission does something that drives me fuckin insane: it's a tutorial mission with lovely advice. The game hands you the biodeck, says "make 50 food," and doesn't bother advising you on what climate is good for that until like 20 minutes in (keeping in mind this first part is on a 60 minute time limit). And when it actually tells you how to do it, it's basically nowhere near as efficient as just maxing temperature/moisture on the whole biodeck. It sucks because you basically have to play the campaign to get eased into all the mechanics.
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Sep 6, 2012 09:08
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New releases are Deponia for $15 (five bucks off) and Worms 2 (aka Worms Armageddon: Alpha Version) for $6.
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Sep 6, 2012 12:22
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Good. We might yet see Worms Armageddon, then.
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Sep 6, 2012 14:46
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My first impressions on inquisitor Yay, character sarchetypes. Paladin is probably warrior, priest is mage and thief is, well, a thief. Pretty standard I'd say.  Backstory. Foreboding isn't it?  For starters, it is not the prettiest game, but that is fitting, uglyness works well, too bad the animations are kind of silly looking.  The map is unlabeled, certainly not the best I've seen.  The dialog is not selectable with the keyboard, so each option must be clicked. So far it seems like there is a LOT of it. No voice acting, though. More similar to divine divinity than anything else.  Combat is clicky and realtime, but it pauses on the inventory/skill screens  The inventory also leads to the character, skills, magic sand map screens, with those buttons under the equipment page  All items and skills seem to have an abundance of flavor text, which is appreciated, I've always liked optional flavor texts like that. Going to explore before meeting the people you are supposed to meet is probably a bad idea, since this assassin will murder the poo poo out of you with the starting gear, even if you try to spam your magic AND drink your potion.  both of which have to be equipped on that bunch of slots to the right  Kite that rear end in a top hat assassin to the guards, they will help. If they kill him you do not get xp though. Here is an issue  You can highlight item/npc names but you cannot pick them up by hovering their names unlike every other diablolike You have to hunt the tiny sprites. If the sprites are obscured, like here, you are poo poo out of luck. The armor is grabbable, spent like 10 minutes trying to get that dagger and failed.  Also, at low levels f¿do not try to robpeople. They will notice. And even if they warn you, a guard will be summoned and either get all your poo poo, or murder you. Will try again with stealth on next time.
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Sep 6, 2012 16:06
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Is there encumbrance system? My mage's speed is half of what it should be and in red text. Also how do you actually learn spells?
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Sep 6, 2012 16:09
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DrManiac posted:Is there encumbrance system? My mage's speed is half of what it should be and in red text. Also how do you actually learn spells? Did you press R?
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Sep 6, 2012 16:15
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Has anyone played Deponia? GOG keeps writing that it is a point-and-click adventure that feels like its written by Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. Does it really measure up to that description?
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Sep 6, 2012 16:45
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macnbc posted:Has anyone played Deponia? Everything I've heard about Deponia sounds decidedly mediocre. Giant Bomb's Quick Look makes it look really boring and obnoxious.
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Sep 6, 2012 16:50
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Worms 2 looks like a low-res version of Worms Armageddon. What else is different between the two?
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Sep 6, 2012 17:21
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C-Euro posted:Worms 2 looks like a low-res version of Worms Armageddon. What else is different between the two? That you shouldn't buy this one.
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Sep 6, 2012 17:24
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macnbc posted:GOG keeps writing that it is a point-and-click adventure that feels like its written by Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. Does it really measure up to that description? I bought it before it arrived on GoG and regret it, I should have saved my time and money.
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Sep 6, 2012 18:08
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I heard people compare the main character to Tim Buckley of CAD. If you want a good adventure from the same team try The Whispered World which is much more sincere in presentation although depressingly dark in theme. I hear their Das Schwarze Aug/Drakensang/Dark Eye/Whatever adventure game is pretty good so maybe GoG will scoop that up some time.
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Sep 6, 2012 18:23
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I'd like to hear more thoughts on Inquisitor from folks. I'm just dicking around in the very very beginning and I'm already souring on the absolute reliance on potions to regain stamina in a timely fashion or regain any health or mana. Any mechanic that causes you to stand around doing nothing for a long time is crap in my eyes. My fear is that 40% of my game will be me standing around or lamenting about all the potions I need to carry around just so my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome suffering paladin can swing his sword a few more times.
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Sep 6, 2012 19:23
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There might be a decent game hidden in Inquisitor somewhere, but it's hidden beneath some really poor design choices. The first thing is of course is the horrible interface which makes you memorize hotkeys and hides things like the journal and character sheet behind the inventory menu, the map is poo poo and everyone you talk just vomits out giant blobs of infodumps for every question you ask. Nothing is voice acted which I guess its fine because it likely would have been horrible anyway, but there are no character portraits or anything that I've seen to give anybody the slightest bit of personality. And the stamina thing, at the start of the game I have about 85 stamina, the regens at 1 point per second, meaning I have to stand stand still for one and half minute after fighting two stupid bats. I really hope somebody makes a mod for this game to make it a bit more playable, because as it is the game is just way to frustrating to be any fun.
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Sep 6, 2012 22:22
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This is just the damndest shame about Inquisitor. I think someone mentioned the vaguest possibility that it might be a successor to Darkworlds and just got all excited  Heck, I'd be all excited about a font mod for the original Darkworlds. edit: also it's DARKLANDS you idiot. "i'm just so tired of all these darkworlds." doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Sep 7, 2012 |
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Sep 7, 2012 00:04
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Darklands is one of those complex old school games that no developer in this day and age would ever attempt in its full glory. There was an old roguelike called Unreal World which was like Darklands: Finnish Bronze Age Edition but the pricing for that game was horrendous (under the default payment option, updates weren't free) and it was really, really hard. One minute you're doing fine in your little shelter but then a bear tears your leg off or a drunken barbarian punches your head off while tripping over his feet.
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Sep 7, 2012 00:15
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al-azad posted:There was an old roguelike called Unreal World which was like Darklands: Finnish Bronze Age Edition but the pricing for that game was horrendous (under the default payment option, updates weren't free) It's constantly being updated and improved. And maybe the sales process was different when you bought it, but when I bought it three years ago, it was made perfectly obvious that paying the cheapest price ($3 or so) you would only get the current version, and needed to pay slightly more for updates. I should also point out that I paid $3 for version 3.11. The current version is 3.14, so if I'd paid $5 for version 3.1x instead, I would still be getting free updates today.
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Sep 7, 2012 00:20
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