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I am really enjoying Golden Krone Hotel as a small-scale tightly themed roguelike. The use of light as a weapon is really cool, as is the vampire faction mechanic - half the enemies on a given floor won't attack you if you're a vampire, and vise-versa. There's no equipment - just pick up better stuff, sell the rest - but I really like the potion guessing mechanic. Solves an interesting design question in a way that makes me want to chug my potions to figure out what they are! That said it is super weird to play a roguelike that uses WASD as movement with no directional movement.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 03:37 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 20:57 |
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StrixNebulosa posted:That said it is super weird to play a roguelike that uses WASD as movement with no directional movement. Huh? Isn't movement directional by definition?
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 04:29 |
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Unimpressed posted:Huh? Isn't movement directional by definition? I mistyped. Diagonal!
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 04:44 |
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madjackmcmad posted:It was released on mobile soon after launch. As f2p! Blech!
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 05:08 |
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The "three chest gambling" game in Deathstate rules. It's $50 to play and, for some loving reason, some infinitely small percentage of the time you can win $1000. (why is there no real money sink in this game )
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 05:50 |
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I keep being disappointed because nothing actually comes out of the chest.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 05:54 |
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Any game designer who makes a simply empty chest should be ashamed of themselves. Like, at least make it a mimic, come on.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 05:55 |
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resistentialism posted:Ok just got my first normal win in Gungeon with an item combo that would summon a huge starburst of oversized anvils whenever I used an active item. The Ring of Triggers is the best item in the game. The most fun one anyway.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 07:16 |
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StrixNebulosa posted:I am really enjoying Golden Krone Hotel as a small-scale tightly themed roguelike. The use of light as a weapon is really cool, as is the vampire faction mechanic - half the enemies on a given floor won't attack you if you're a vampire, and vise-versa. I also picked up Golden Krone Hotel during the sale and so far it's... OK? I like the vampire mechanics but the game just feels too simplified. It feels like a mobile roguelike. Yeah you don't need to manage inventory but you also have very limited options for customizing your character. The only choice you make is what spells to keep and even there you are limited to three or four. The light mechanic isn't so much a weapon as a minor annoyance while you are in your vampire form. I'm going to play more of it but so far it doesn't feel all that filling. It doesn't feel like it takes much skill or tactics to play. The potion guessing mechanic - basically it gives you three options of what an unknown potion is. The list gets smaller as you identify more potions. It's a good idea but also kind of silly since EVERY consumable is a potion. Including food. Are you telling me my character can not identify between noodle soup, beer, and blood? Well OK then...
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 07:19 |
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Aaaahahghghg I almost beat Deathstate on my first try, if only I had known those pits the boss open up were instant death
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 08:19 |
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So I grabbed Conquest of Elysium 4 and... have no idea, at all, how to play it. Going in blind seems to have been an ill fated endeavor. Anyone have a link to a starter guide or somewhat?
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 15:05 |
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Too Shy Guy posted:Aaaahahghghg I almost beat Deathstate on my first try, if only I had known those pits the boss open up were instant death Really though, I have no idea why those things exist relative to everything else that boss does. And every other boss does.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 15:20 |
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Jawnycat posted:So I grabbed Conquest of Elysium 4 and... have no idea, at all, how to play it. Going in blind seems to have been an ill fated endeavor. https://steamcommunity.com/app/403950/discussions/0/485622866436839987/ COE4 guide part One Could stream, could discuss in one of two discord chatrooms. For now though, a simple reflection over breakfast Goon CoE4 mods https://github.com/private-speech/AwfulCoE4Mods Readme is mostly accurate on the installation process, but a shortcut to the mod folder, try %appdata% into your windows explorer bar. For the purpose of getting good, you'll want the core and two BetterHomelandSecurity mods turned on. BetterHomelandSecurity can make the game drag on a bit for reasons I won't go into here, but it's perfectly suitable for... Medium Map, Dark Ages, Enable Score Graph, two AI players. For the purposes of a halfassed tutorial cracked out over bagel and coffee I'm gonna suggest you pick the Dryad Queen for your class. You get plenty of freespawn and the most readily available ritual resource, plus I've been playing it lately. On a small-rear end map like this, you'll usually end up in desert or arctic tundra aka the south or north side of the map. The game has seasonal changes, with the snow receding the furthest during summer while covering all but the south in the dead of winter. As well, there are seasonal multipliers to some resource sites during the appropriate season. You can see this immediately by clicking on the fourth resource down in the top-right listing. Herb Income is currently doubled during the summer, and crippled during the winter. As a fairly important side note, you can only harvest herbs because you have a commander that can cast related rituals - if you lose all ritual casters, you lose access to that resource. Snow tiles will cost an extra movement point to enter over base, so if you start at the north of the map, you'll want to head down fairly quick with your exploratory force until spring hits, when you'll sweep back for reinforcements. With the better homeland security mod, you'll start with three commanders and a small army. First up is the Dryad Queen. She's your most effective commander, crucial to your expansion, but also the one you least want to risk. Start by selecting her then clicking Use Special Power. At the top, she starts with the Lesser Ritual of Mastery, Ritual of Mastery, and Ritual of Grand Mastery. The base costs of these three rituals are 100 herbs, 200 herbs, and 800 herbs. The first two rituals only cost 50/100 herbs because she's a level two mage already, and casting them only unlocks an additional level 1/2 ritual. The Ritual of Grand Mastery is at full price because when she casts it, not only will she gain a level three ritual, she'll "transform" into the annointed of gaia AKA a level three mage, with extra combat spells and a few stat changes. Exit back outta this and right-click on her in the unit list. Looking at the Dryad Queen in greater detail, I'll only point out a few stats - hit points are a measly six, leaving her quite vulnerable to sudden death. Fortunately, her rank is "Back" which means as long as you have enough meatshields, she'll usually be quite safe barring some circumstances you'll learn to recognize. Right under her stats you'll see some very empty equipment slots you shouldn't worry about. Unlike Dominions 4, gearing up your units is very luck dependent - but not restricted only to your commanders. Under that she has some icons of note representing her special abilities. The most important one is the last one, a centaur carrying a purple banner. All of your class-specific commanders have some variant of this banner, and allow you to freespawn troops of a related type. In this case satyrs. Without a dryad queen present, your sacred groves will slowly spawn satyrs and harpies. With her present, you'll spawn a lot more satyrs. These spawn boosts do not stack, so if you get a second dryad, it's good to establish her in her own grove. Under that you'll see a list of weapons and then the list of known forest magic spells. At level two, she can only memorize three spells to be randomly cast in combat, marked by the *. You can left-click to toggle your selection, but unlike other mages she's not likely to cause friendly deaths, so feel free to experiment. As a level two mage, she can cast one level 2 spell once per round, or one level 1 spell twice per round. These spells are randomly picked with each mage, and you can only learn more by visiting a library or casting the ritual to become a higher tier mage. Your next commander is a Satyr Commander, the "workhorse" of your commanders. You'll have the most recruitment offers of these guys, they'll be the most expendable, and unlike most of the centaur/minotaur leaders they prefer the midrank instead of the frontline, giving them a much better chance at survival. These guys come with twice the hitpoints of a dryad, two armor, and a small shield, making them much more likely to survive stray arrows as well. These guys have satyr boost +2, so if they're lacking troops or have nothing better to do, toss them into a sacred grove to get enough satyrs to send them back out again. Your final commander is the homeland security commander, the unique Guardian Minotaur Warrior. This commander is immortal, meaning as long as you win the fight (not hard vs independents) he'll respawn right here. Unlike normal commanders, he lacks any spawn boost, and is instead stationary. These immobile commanders serve to prevent you (and more importantly the AI) from game overing when all your commanders are killed, unless the capital is taken. On a small map with few opponents, this serves to prevent the game from suddenly ending right when you're in the middle of experimenting with rituals. Like all minotaur commanders, he prefers to be on the frontline, often making him the first to die. Since this commander can do nothing (other than commit suicide - i mean resign), feel free to put him on sentry duty. Next: look at your recruit screen. As a freespawn faction, you won't be using this screen to get new units, only new commanders, who show up occasionally. Check your message log or recruit offers every turn, and try to keep a reservoir of 50, 70, 120 gold depending on how far into the game you are. Odds are right now, you'll only see a list of greyed out options. Unlike normal factions, you can only convert your freespawn into tougher units, not recruit them outright. If you need more bodies right now, animal summoning is your best bet before you have a good herb income. Next, right-click on your capital to look at the army. The minotaurs in the centaur are more immobile and immobile defenders and quite good ones at that. You can safely leave your capital without worrying about death by deer. Worth noting about these minotaurs is they have Trample 2 and Berserker just like regular minotaurs. You can left-click on the icon to learn more about the ability, but the most relevant thing about minotaurs is their high hitpoints, high damage and the fact they break many battlelines as tramplers. You'll need to recruit and station a minotaur commander of your own to start spawning some. The second line of troops are yours to control, consisting of five satyr warriors and five satyr javelinists plus whatever freespawn satyrs and harpies show up. Satyrs Warriors and Javelinists are superior to most human troops and independents, but you can only get them by spending 25 gold at a time when you're most likely to be hoarding for commanders. These guys will make a great exploratory army with either one of your commanders, but in the Dark Age era you'll usually be relying on summons and freespawn. Your basic satyrs are actually pretty good albeit flawed units. They've got a good 8 hit points and have two attacks dealing 1-3 damage. As long as you're not facing any units with armor and a shield, they'll do their job. Run into armor though, and you'll wish you had javilinist, warriors, or hoplites. Armor very reliably reduces incoming damage by the armor value minus 0 to 1, and shields function somewhat similar, so basic satyrs function well against most independents but do laughably against the more hardened independents or factions. Turning them into warriors (with a shield and spear) is handy for taking on walled locations, while javelinists are more generally useful for the single-use ranged attack. All of your Satyrs come with Berserker, making even the unupgraded Satyrs punch above their weight. Once hit in combat, they'll gain +1 strength (damage, really), +10 morale (mostly irrelevant since units only break due to spells and special abilities) and 20% extra hitpoints. If you take them into a low quality castle/tower recruitment site, you can upgrade them to hoplites clad in bronze, while a higher quality site lets you equip them in steel. But in the Dark Ages, you'll mostly be limited to hoplites. Since you don't have much need for iron, hoplites are almost always better, although they lose stealth. Harpies are your dumb anti-wall chaff units. They have very low hp, flying, and a pair of rather weak attacks. They are frontline units, but because of their low hp, they'll end up at the back of the frontline and right in front of the mid and rear ranks. They'll die by the droves, but they're great for softening up a walled independent position. These guys can get a fairly significant upgrade at fort/tower recruitment site, but if you are lucky enough to get a commander with the training ability, they also benefit significantly from experience they'd normally never live to see. If you want more, you can summon a hamadryad with the specific level two ritual and get a pretty big freespawn boost. Occasionally you'll get a special recruitment offer of a harpy scout - an extremely important unit that lets you see most stealthy units and avoid exposing your mages to ambushes; a must buy. Centaurs and Centaurides are going to be the core of your real combat potential. As freespawn, they're pretty good archers, but upgraded they focus on the melee side of things. You need a commander to start spawning them, so save that gold. You'll only want to upgrade a few to form the center of your lines, most of them will be more useful holding down your forts or providing backline support to your huge number of satyrs. They spawn slower than Satyrs, but still at a usable enough rate. Hierophant(ides) provide an good spawn rate on their own, while the other commanders most provide an acceptable trickle, though a few only boost by 1. Minotaurs are your top-tier freespawn, but the commanders that spawn them are very rare. Minotaur Lords provide a weak +1 spawn, while Keepers of Lore provide a valuable +2 spawn rate. Both come along very rarely and are a top recruitment priority, falling short only of a new dryad. The spawn rate is quite pathetic unless you've upgraded your Sacred Grove to a Grove of Gaia or a Primordial forest with the relevant ritual. The minotaurs are incredibly effective with their 1-17 damage battle axe and 1-8 gore attack and 33 hp even before berserk. They'll wreck a lot of poo poo, and you generally don't need to upgrade them to see a great result. However thanks to their huge hp pool and low spawn rate, they'll see a huge benefit from upgrading primarily due to the armor. Temples and Libraries will increase the rate of special mage recruitment offers, temples being the most relevant and increasing Dryad/Hierophant offers. Hierophants are capped out at tier 2, while Dryads can eventually cast the ritual of grand mastery. Hierophants and Pans have a unique tier two ritual that's occasionally useful but not core to the faction. That's all I've got time for at the moment. Part two will be about actually playing the game, while part three will be about Dryad Queen rituals and strategic goals.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 17:07 |
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I played some StarCrawlers for the first time last night, ran it on stream too. Fuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnn. Fun. I love building a team of Really cool combat mechanics, everyone has all these attacks that have side effects. Still early enough in the game that I haven't found any super synergistic wombocombos but I imagine it won't be long. Jawnycat posted:So I grabbed Conquest of Elysium 4 and... have no idea, at all, how to play it. Going in blind seems to have been an ill fated endeavor.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 17:11 |
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madjackmcmad posted:Really cool combat mechanics, everyone has all these attacks that have side effects. Still early enough in the game that I haven't found any super synergistic wombocombos but I imagine it won't be long. try void psyker + soldier; the former strips shields like a pro and the latter wrecks targets without shields
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 19:44 |
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OMG StarCrawlers is the bestest and I love it bunches. Sci-if flavored dungeon crawls with faction reputation to worry about and some story on top is tasty. The different difficulty settings all feel about right, too.
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 20:12 |
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Star Crawlers is great. My only complaint is that some skills are and feel rad as hell, and some other skills... feel like bad, garbage-tier skills. The latter is pretty rare, admittedly, but it gets points off for it. And I feel like the encounter rate is a bit TOO high? Like, maybe 20% too many fights. Other than these quibbles, though, it's fantastic!
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 20:31 |
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i picked up deathstate again and tried playing it for a while, continued to suck then i smoked a bowl and won two runs back to back oddly appropriate that getting hosed up works so well when the game's a trip as-is anyway i say its a Real RoguelikeTM because it turns out the optimal playstyle is abject cowardice
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# ? Jul 6, 2017 22:34 |
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I don't like the procedural loot in Star Crawlers. Their UI for comparing stuff isn't very good so it gets tedious checking through piles of similar looking equipment. I've never been a fan of Diablo style loot but at least a slick UI makes it less annoying.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 02:57 |
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Jawnycat posted:So I grabbed Conquest of Elysium 4 and... have no idea, at all, how to play it. Going in blind seems to have been an ill fated endeavor. The thread here on SA has a few tips, and links to a helpful LP. Thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3751296 Video LP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-2HsqeBaCQ
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 03:15 |
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thread fell into archives
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 04:45 |
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Oh, okay, all you have to do to get to the secret level in Deathstate (for the first time) is do something I'd never voluntarily do that probably requires using a keybind I didn't know existed. In case anyone else is in the same boat and wants spoilers: Stand near one of the flesh-blob things in the Maze of Ix that makes your screen go staticy and red until you get warped to the Dark Realm. There's a keybind for "don't fire" that you might need to use if you can't get one on the other side of the wall. And if you get the Vestibule of Carnassus instead, uh, you're hosed, restart?
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 15:38 |
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Tollymain posted:thread fell into archives Oh rats, I didn't even realize it. It was on my bookmark list and I guess I have archives and didn't see that. Sorry about that. Anyway, that's a good LP. Illwinter's page for CoE4 has a few links to some helpful videos, as well.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 16:10 |
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loving Dead Cells, argh. Am I just a bitch (yes) or does it seem like the best way to get anything done as the game progresses is to lay out wide fields of auto-hate: turrets, spinning blades, and tossed firebombs? I want to use my melee weapon but at a certain point there's too many active enemies to actually survive standing and swinging my weapon.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 16:52 |
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madjackmcmad posted:loving Dead Cells, argh. Am I just a bitch (yes) or does it seem like the best way to get anything done as the game progresses is to lay out wide fields of auto-hate: turrets, spinning blades, and tossed firebombs? I want to use my melee weapon but at a certain point there's too many active enemies to actually survive standing and swinging my weapon. I talked about this a bit over in the Summer Sale thread so I'm going to be gauche as gently caress and quote myself. Twice. Too Shy Guy posted:I think the common ground between Dark Souls and Dead Cells is more that combat is always, always, always potentially deadly. In most metroidvanias you inevitably reach a point where you have enough health or powers to just shrug off everything but the bosses. In Dead Cells, though, every enemy can wreck you if you stop paying attention for even a moment. Beyond that the actual combat is a brilliant inversion of Dark Souls, where instead of baiting out attacks and taking advantage, you've got to get in there and gently caress people up as fast as possible. If you hesitate or play it too safe enemies can tear you apart, so speed and brutality are in high demand. I think that's what makes it feel so good to play... Dead Cells doesn't want you to make measured, balanced characters to face diverse challenges, it wants you to become a blood-gargling psychopath that mulches everything in sight instantly. And everything from the synergy between weapons to the timed doors is designed to support that. Too Shy Guy posted:I've only logged about 2 hours but on my third ever run I got the teleport rune, killed the Incomplete One, and nearly finished the Graveyard with twin blades and a high-damage pair of grenades. I didn't even use the grenades that much, just to wipe out big groups if killing big guys attracted a crowd. If you're doing a ton of damage it doesn't matter how much the enemies do because they're dead. And even enemies you can't kill instantly get stunned at certain damage thresholds, or can be stunned by effects on your weapons. Add to that the big exclamation-point tells when an attack is incoming and the invincibility on your rolls, and there's no reason you shouldn't be right in everyone's face all the time. The harder areas in the game have more and more ways to punish caution, like the teleporting zombies and the scythe-guy's chain. I played some more last night and got all the timed doors up through the one after the Incomplete One, which necessitated killing him with a 2x damage (both ways) broadsword and a bear trap. Despite how chaotic big fights can be, the tells for enemy attacks still stand out with the big-rear end exclamation points and glowing attack arcs. If you don't want to have to cheese every fight with skills then you need to be prioritizing targets by how fast they can attack, rolling to avoid getting ganged up on, and I would even suggest learning how to use shields because they can save your rear end in those brief moments when your roll is on cooldown.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 17:17 |
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Too Shy Guy posted:I played some more last night and got all the timed doors up through the one after the Incomplete One, which necessitated killing him with a 2x damage (both ways) broadsword and a bear trap. Despite how chaotic big fights can be, the tells for enemy attacks still stand out with the big-rear end exclamation points and glowing attack arcs. If you don't want to have to cheese every fight with skills then you need to be prioritizing targets by how fast they can attack, rolling to avoid getting ganged up on, and I would even suggest learning how to use shields because they can save your rear end in those brief moments when your roll is on cooldown. I wanted shields to be cool, and I probably need to revisit them. They feel glacially slow compared to the pace of dodging and jumping. The weirdest part of all this is the feeling that what you're taught to do early on -- dive jump, slay things, move through the levels quickly -- becomes a recipe for death right after the boss on the bridge.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 18:26 |
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madjackmcmad posted:The weirdest part of all this is the feeling that what you're taught to do early on -- dive jump, slay things, move through the levels quickly -- becomes a recipe for death right after the boss on the bridge. I promise you it isn't, the only difference is that tells get more complex and mistakes do more damage. Just using the Fog Fjord as an example, the axe guys get locked facing one direction and can't attack while their axe is in the air, and the pirate guys can change direction on the third swing of their melee combo so you have to dodge or block twice instead of once. It's scary but most groups are one big guy and a few little zombies who are easily caught or thrown off by your attacks and dodges dealing with the big guy. I don't think there are any insurmountable enemy combinations but even if there are you can skip them, since only the birds and teleporting guys can follow you. I'm not trying to be antagonistic here but I see a lot of people on Twitch or YouTube playing super cautiously and getting their asses destroyed when that stops being an option (usually in the Graveyard). The big thing is that relying too much on your skills keeps you from taking advantage of rallying, so if you're hanging back and get hit by a cannonball you're screwed, but if you're in close and eat three cannon swings to the face, you can still keep fighting and get like 70% of that health back.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 18:46 |
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Oh, okay, all you have to do to get to the secret level in Deathstate (for the first time) is do something I'd never voluntarily do that probably requires using a keybind I didn't know existed. My problems with that are that it's impossible to do as the brawler and it takes way longer to do that it should. You absolutely have to want it. And I'm not really sure what the point of going to secret level even is, doesn't seem like it has any special bonuses in it.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 19:40 |
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Tollymain posted:thread fell into archives Such is the fate of all empires.
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 21:12 |
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JEBOman posted:My problems with that are that it's impossible to do as the brawler and it takes way longer to do that it should. You absolutely have to want it. And I'm not really sure what the point of going to secret level even is, doesn't seem like it has any special bonuses in it. And I guess you can get more levels per run out of it - because portals to it show up once you've unlocked it, evidently, though I haven't played more since - so you can get more drops per run, to make it easier to do Intense+Desecration 3. I guess. DACK FAYDEN fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Jul 8, 2017 |
# ? Jul 7, 2017 21:54 |
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So, should I just give in and play TOME 4 on something other than roguelike? I've never beaten the drat game despite playing it forever, but it feels dirty having multiple lives (other than ones you might get lucky enough to get as a boss drop) in a roguelike game. Also, what difficulty do you guys suggest. I remember reading somewhere in the murky past that playing on a difficulty or two up from normal was actually easier because you could get decent loot before halfway through the game. Confirm/deny?
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 22:39 |
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I play ToME on the multiple lives setting because the game can and will gently caress you over and that's no fun
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# ? Jul 7, 2017 23:08 |
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Find an up-to-date guide for a class you like on the forum and just throw yourself into Insane/Adventure. You'll learn pretty fast and you'll see that the game gets way more enjoyable. Since enemies are stronger, you level faster and you get better loot. It's also way more fun to play because you actually get to make tactical choices instead of using autoexplore all the time and dying randomly to one of the few dangerous enemies you encounter on normal.
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 00:01 |
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tome is literally not balanced for roguelike difficulty its just in there for the most anal known grognards edit: also with the dark realm in deathstate you only have to go there once for it to appear for every character as optional portals on some maps. unlock it in ix with someone other than the brawler and then enjoy it in all your other runs. its full of tough boys but can have some top tier loot juggalo baby coffin fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jul 8, 2017 |
# ? Jul 8, 2017 00:30 |
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Got my first Deathstate clear last night I think the sound design is my favourite thing in that game, it does a good job of creating a very unsettling atmosphere.
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 00:59 |
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Tollymain posted:thread fell into archives That should be fixed. By someone who isn't me.
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 02:29 |
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GreyjoyBastard posted:That should be fixed. It's unfixable. Just make a new thread.
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 02:30 |
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imo roll coe4 discussion into this thread because if it archived once itll happen again barring a massive change its basically a strategy roguelite anyway
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 02:38 |
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Tollymain posted:imo roll coe4 discussion into this thread because if it archived once itll happen again barring a massive change The Age of Wonders 3 thread was the semi-designated random tbs strategy thread at times
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 02:44 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 20:57 |
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Speaking of Rogue-friends, I've found that since I got over my dcss thing a couple years back, no game has worked on me like Fumbbl-client Blood Bowl. Playing a well-balanced, flavorful, persistent strategy thingy with persistent characters and permadeath has been a lot of fun
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# ? Jul 8, 2017 02:53 |