I am so bloody awful at Phantom Brigade it's not even funny.
I'm just bad at outfitting mechs, and I can't even contest the first proper province after the tutorial province without getting my shit pushed in. Urgh. I wanna like this game a lot but I'm so goddamned bad at it.
I am so bloody awful at Phantom Brigade it's not even funny.
I'm just bad at outfitting mechs, and I can't even contest the first proper province after the tutorial province without getting my shit pushed in. Urgh. I wanna like this game a lot but I'm so goddamned bad at it.
Edit: oh man two TOTP posts in a row
I've been meaning to do a longer post about Phantom Brigade, or even a thread (spoiler: game is obtuse but good), but my quick two cents:
The build system is very hard to deal with and most parts are garbage. With about 8 provinces liberated so far, here's what I think I know:
Thrusters are huge for repositioning, dodging missile barrages or getting somewhere in a hurry. Just recycle main bodies that don't have thrusters for supplies. After that, perks related to cooling (firing more) or plus power/reduced mass (going faster) are good.
In my first couple of starts, I would regularly find a new weapon and equip it, only to find that my mech couldn't fire it a single time in a round without overheating. (Overheating in general was killing me, and I think I ended up disintegrating my own mechs from overheat more than the enemy killed me. Reading heat in combat was a rough early lesson.) Unfortunately the actual heat rating on the weapon cards is difficult to understand, so I've really been getting a handle on that through trial and error.
The fire time stat on the weapon card is easy to understand, though, and is important. A lot of the cool weapons need you to fire for 2+ seconds, which is an eternity to have no cover or shield between you and an enemy. I'm favoring short firing cycle weapons, especially the .7 or .8 second fire assault rifles (less so the 1.2-1.3's), and the .4 or .5 second railgun. As opposed to the machine gun or beam weapons, I'm regularly firing 2-3 times a turn, which is better than 1. (That 1 potentially does as much damage, but requires circumstances to be just right to hit with the whole stream of bullets or laser or whatever. Also, since you can cause mechs and esp. tanks to crash before they are destroyed, more shots increases the number of times an enemy gets taken out of the fight for a half/whole turn and reduces return fire.)
All my mechs get shields. There isn't enough cover to reliably avoid enemy fire, especially when you are outnumbered and need to be putting out your own damage. My team often ends up playing quick hit peek-a-boo, firing from behind their shields.
Playing around with torsos, legs, and arms is super confusing. I'm a few provinces in, so I have more parts to play with in the early area. At this point I play a highly mobile team with shields and short burst weapons. I don't let movement fall under 18, and I try to keep it over 20. I don't let heat dissipation fall below 35, and I try to keep it in the 40's. I do keep an eye on part hit points, but can give ground there since the shield is generally what's taking the hits.
The game's assessment of "level" is not always the same as mine. It's a regular occurrence that I'll find an arm that tweaks up heat dissipation and/or movement but the game thinks take my mech level down by 0.2.
The "scatter" stat for weapons is not the most important thing, but is one to keep an eye on. A weapon that does much more damage may not be worth it if you are landing half as many individual shots. I usually play 'tight scatter' weapons. 4 is very good. 7 or maaaybe 8 is as high as I like to go.
Uncommon (green) and rare (blue) parts are often good, but just as often not. Rarity in PB is incremental, and not game-changing like rare/epic stuff in an RPG or Borderlands type game. Often what it means is the ability to tack on a module, and the modules (esp. ones that improve heat dissipation or movement) can be good. They can also be garbage, like one that increases magazine size/shots fired for a cannon/beam single shot weapon. As with body parts, there's lots of chaff in weapons and modules.
Absolutely prioritize getting a third and then fourth mech on the field.
I hope that's helpful. I can try to post some pics (although I'm beyond the first province so I've got a deeper pool of parts to play with.)
I am so bloody awful at Phantom Brigade it's not even funny.
I'm just bad at outfitting mechs, and I can't even contest the first proper province after the tutorial province without getting my shit pushed in. Urgh. I wanna like this game a lot but I'm so goddamned bad at it.
Edit: oh man two TOTP posts in a row
I've been meaning to do a longer post about Phantom Brigade, or even a thread (spoiler: game is obtuse but good), but my quick two cents:
The build system is very hard to deal with and most parts are garbage. With about 8 provinces liberated so far, here's what I think I know:
Thrusters are huge for repositioning, dodging missile barrages or getting somewhere in a hurry. Just recycle main bodies that don't have thrusters for supplies. After that, perks related to cooling (firing more) or plus power/reduced mass (going faster) are good.
In my first couple of starts, I would regularly find a new weapon and equip it, only to find that my mech couldn't fire it a single time in a round without overheating. (Overheating in general was killing me, and I think I ended up disintegrating my own mechs from overheat more than the enemy killed me. Reading heat in combat was a rough early lesson.) Unfortunately the actual heat rating on the weapon cards is difficult to understand, so I've really been getting a handle on that through trial and error.
The fire time stat on the weapon card is easy to understand, though, and is important. A lot of the cool weapons need you to fire for 2+ seconds, which is an eternity to have no cover or shield between you and an enemy. I'm favoring short firing cycle weapons, especially the .7 or .8 second fire assault rifles (less so the 1.2-1.3's), and the .4 or .5 second railgun. As opposed to the machine gun or beam weapons, I'm regularly firing 2-3 times a turn, which is better than 1. (That 1 potentially does as much damage, but requires circumstances to be just right to hit with the whole stream of bullets or laser or whatever. Also, since you can cause mechs and esp. tanks to crash before they are destroyed, more shots increases the number of times an enemy gets taken out of the fight for a half/whole turn and reduces return fire.)
All my mechs get shields. There isn't enough cover to reliably avoid enemy fire, especially when you are outnumbered and need to be putting out your own damage. My team often ends up playing quick hit peek-a-boo, firing from behind their shields.
Playing around with torsos, legs, and arms is super confusing. I'm a few provinces in, so I have more parts to play with in the early area. At this point I play a highly mobile team with shields and short burst weapons. I don't let movement fall under 18, and I try to keep it over 20. I don't let heat dissipation fall below 35, and I try to keep it in the 40's. I do keep an eye on part hit points, but can give ground there since the shield is generally what's taking the hits.
The game's assessment of "level" is not always the same as mine. It's a regular occurrence that I'll find an arm that tweaks up heat dissipation and/or movement but the game thinks take my mech level down by 0.2.
The "scatter" stat for weapons is not the most important thing, but is one to keep an eye on. A weapon that does much more damage may not be worth it if you are landing half as many individual shots. I usually play 'tight scatter' weapons. 4 is very good. 7 or maaaybe 8 is as high as I like to go.
Uncommon (green) and rare (blue) parts are often good, but just as often not. Rarity in PB is incremental, and not game-changing like rare/epic stuff in an RPG or Borderlands type game. Often what it means is the ability to tack on a module, and the modules (esp. ones that improve heat dissipation or movement) can be good. They can also be garbage, like one that increases magazine size/shots fired for a cannon/beam single shot weapon. As with body parts, there's lots of chaff in weapons and modules.
I hope that's helpful. I can try to post some pics (although I'm beyond the first province so I've got a deeper pool of parts to play with.)
I've been messing around and have a shotgunner shield mech who has a 7-shot autoshotty. He is death incarnate at close range. His legs are flimsy however, so I must have my shield up on approach or he'll get cut down in a thrice.
My other mech is a sniper without a shield. It cuts down tanks in a single fire action, but must be stationary for an optimal shot. This is in the first proper province after tutorial.
I've been lucky with cooling components to the point my shotgunner can essentially fire forever, making them equivalent to a closer range machinegunner.
One thing to consider with longer firing time weapons is for example, if it shows heat generated at 140 and it fires for four seconds, like say a minigun, you should divide its heat output by 4 as that is the generated heat throughout its entire firing action. So you're looking at effectively 35 heat per second. If your mech has a heat dissipation of 39 you could fire that thing indefinitely.
I've personally found that I don't need (yet) everyone with shields when you can just have 1 or 2 shields that can act as screens for everyone else.
Making them dance like ballerinas is the fun part for me, but it's the UI that makes it a bit difficult and time-consuming for me as there are several places that can alter an action's start time based on when or where you put your mouse.
That plus movement not being movable in the action bar, and instead you must insert "wait" actions in between.
But shit, this game has some great stuff going on.
If an enemy is going to fire at one of your mechs, and you move a second mech into the line of fire to shield it, you now have two mechs not firing at that enemy during that sequence. If your mech being fired upon happens to have another enemy they can shoot at, great. But that won't always be the case. Better, I think, to have the mech being fired upon shield itself and have mech 2 blast the OpFor.
(That's assuming your weapons fire in a straight line, as most and all of mine do. If you are lobbing missiles, that's a horse of a different color. I tried a missile mech, and it it was pretty good at staying out of the fray and lobbing missiles. But it took a long time for them to land and there was a lot of variability about how much damage they were doing or if they would even hit. I opted for the brute force assault rifle/rail gun package instead.)
If an enemy is going to fire at one of your mechs, and you move a second mech into the line of fire to shield it, you now have two mechs not firing at that enemy during that sequence. If your mech being fired upon happens to have another enemy they can shoot at, great. But that won't always be the case. Better, I think, to have the mech being fired upon shield itself and have mech 2 blast the OpFor.
(That's assuming your weapons fire in a straight line, as most and all of mine do. If you are lobbing missiles, that's a horse of a different color. I tried a missile mech, and it it was pretty good at staying out of the fray and lobbing missiles. But it took a long time for them to land and there was a lot of variability about how much damage they were doing or if they would even hit. I opted for the brute force assault rifle/rail gun package instead.)
Yes, but there’s also other targets to fire at (or even just waiting for the cool-down.) I prefer the shield job to go to a heavy and let the others be able to move and cool-down faster.
What a glorious coincidence that my vacation time at work refreshes every year on Sept 7. Guess who's thinking of taking 3 or 4 straight weeks off in September?
It's a Bethesda game so I imagine a good chunk of that first 4 weeks will be spent getting your head stuck in ceilings and falling through gaps in the geometry and staring at physics glitched ragdolls slowly morphing into existential horrors.
Which I suppose only matters if you can get through the character creation screen.
It's a Bethesda game so I imagine a good chunk of that first 4 weeks will be spent getting your head stuck in ceilings and falling through gaps in the geometry and staring at physics glitched ragdolls slowly morphing into existential horrors.
Which I suppose only matters if you can get through the character creation screen.
This is Pixie we're talking about.
The first chunk of that four weeks is going to be sunk into the character creation screen and nothing else.
I just want to say, as a fellow Battletech enjoyer who recently found out about Phantom Brigade, these posts are making it hard to resist buying it. Might wait and see if it's included in the Spring Sale.
I just want to say, as a fellow Battletech enjoyer who recently found out about Phantom Brigade, these posts are making it hard to resist buying it. Might wait and see if it's included in the Spring Sale.
Why wait?
EDIT: Exciting - just as I post this a patch drops with a bunch of good looking fixes and tweaks!
SMALL UPDATE / PATCH NOTES
POSTED
Wed, March 8
Patch 1.0.4
HOTFIX
Hey there Brigadiers, another hotfix is dropping with lots of balance changes and bug fixes! In terms of new features, heat is now visible on the timeline before you place an action. Now that's what I call a HOTfix! Missile launchers being super powerful has been another hot topic, and in response we've rebalanced the amount of missile launchers you'll encounter in combat and made dashing much more effective at scrambling missiles, so they should feel less oppressive now. Read on for more details!
Please note - there is a potential issue with players on Epic Games Store experiencing corrupt installs. If you have at any point experienced blank text boxes during gameplay, please uninstall and reinstall your game, delete all local files, and start a new game.
▲ - a buff was applied
▼ - a nerf was applied
⮂ - a tradeoff occurred
🦾 - a change was made based on community feedback
Changes and New Features
🦾 Added heat visuals to the timeline before placing an action
Added minor polishing of combat effects, particle brightness and color adjustments
Balance Changes
▲ Battlesite spawn limit to 1 instead of 2
⮂ Rebalanced the amount of loot gained at convoys
Convoys now give more varied loot on completion
Each type of convoy (Equipment, Reinforced and Repair) now drops different amounts of loot
▲ Increased the Uncommon and Rare component limit to 250
⮂ Rebalanced the damage threshold on all structure destruction scenarios
⮂ Rebalanced how many Missile Launcher units appear in combat
▲ Increased the amount of time missile scramble effect is in place when dashing, from 4sec max to 10sec max
▲ Increased the maximum range in which missile scramble effect is in place when dashing, from 30m to 90m
Fixes
🦾 Fixed a typo in the T9 Thruster effect that caused it to be inverted
🦾 Fixed a typo causing Supercharge 1 perk to have a buff of 70% (it is now reduced to 7% as intended)
🦾 Fixed a scaling issue where DC1 Impact Cannons were giving x27 the amount of supplies they should have
🦾 Fixed an issue where due to Null Ref Exceptions the main menu displayed as black and games could not be loaded
Fixed Overdrive movement button displaying in some circumstances where the movement mode was not actually available
Fixed movement modes being maintained between saves incorrectly
Fixed patrols and convoys from having a chance to spawn directly under the player, interrupting their engagement with other overworld POIs
Fixed an issue with bullet visuals being too thin and choppy, making them hard to see in combat
🦾 Fixed some caches choosing invalid maps, creating cache scenarios that didn't have caches
🦾 Fixed Resupply event preventing events from completing, resulting in a softlock
🦾 Fixed difficulty settings not initializing properly, causing them to appear as resolution sliders when accessed in the tutorial
🦾 Fixed a UI issue where tanks and turrets appeared to be many levels lower than they actually were
Fixed screenshake on pilot cameras causing pilots to eventually drift out of the frame
🦾 Fixed weapon information UI disappearing in combat if any non-weapon part had been viewed in inventory before entering combat
🦾 Fixed legs generating with weapon perks on occasion
🦾 Fixed weapons generating with perks that had no effect on the weapon
Added more safety checks to the main menu to prevent some rare scenarios that prevented loading saves or starting a new game
🦾 Fixed melee weapon workshop projects all being listed under Primary Weapon. There are now two different projects for Primary and Secondary melee weapons.
🦾 Fixed an edgecase where saves could be loaded right before a battle outcome was decided, which would carry the result UI into the loaded scene
🦾 Fixed typing in a text field continuing to move the camera or trigger hotkeys
🦾 Fixed a handful of spawn locations being set to inside hills (visual issue only)
🦾 Fixed hotkeys for the base being accessible in the first province
🦾 Fixed incorrect optimal interval calculation being made incorrectly in unit editing screen
Known Issues
Melee targeting is difficult and sometimes inaccurate
All audio except for cutscene audio will sometimes not play
Mechs will not move the full distance during execution on some lower-end PCs
Destroyed buildings and terrain are not being correctly reloaded when loading the precombat save
Tooltips can flow off the sides of the screen in some circumstances
Occasionally UI can be carried from one context to another by accident
Occasionally destroyed mechs are flung around the map after viewing replay mode
On launch, it seems audio is occasionally not playing on the main menu and in gameplay except for cutscenes. If you do encounter this please relaunch your game
If hit a specific angle with a melee, sometimes tanks can be pushed underground, preventing completion of the combat scenario
There is a change of the province liberation event being interrupted by other post combat events, meaning the opportunity to participate in the parade is not given to the player when the province is won
Some events do not end correctly - this could be caused by playing with an older save file
Subsystems are frequently not altering equipment stats by the amount listed in their tooltips
Sometimes patrols can get stuck behind the mobile base without engaging in combat. This can be resolved by entering liberated territory briefly
Take It Back achievement is unlocking early for some players
Many maps that contain turrets do not also have generator buildings - turrets must be manually destroyed on these maps
Some spawn locations for starting combat are in locations that make it hard to win the battle (corners, right in front of the enemy etc)
Performance issues are common
Tsubasa workshop project has the same text as Arrow workshop project
@Shade messaged me a key for Void Bastards and I don't think you can just do random run-by keyings, can you? Aren't there laws n shit?
.... Thanks!
Fake edit: It broke Steam. I can no longer load my own library. The store/community/etc pages all work fine. Trying to load my library in the client and it either displays all fucked up or just a blank page.
Shade messaged me a key for Void Bastards and I don't think you can just do random run-by keyings, can you? Aren't there laws n shit?
.... Thanks!
Fake edit: It broke Steam. I can no longer load my own library. The store/community/etc pages all work fine. Trying to load my library in the client and it either displays all fucked up or just a blank page.
Does this mean I win at Steam and I can stop now?
Void Bastards is a great game, I had a lot of fun playing it. I don't remember this feature though.
What a glorious coincidence that my vacation time at work refreshes every year on Sept 7. Guess who's thinking of taking 3 or 4 straight weeks off in September?
I'm not a religious man by any means, but I do believe that, from time to time, the universe talks to us on an individual level.
Wonderful coincidences like this only serve to strengthen that belief.
+1
ArmsForPeace84Your Partner In FreedomRegistered Userregular
I just want to say, as a fellow Battletech enjoyer who recently found out about Phantom Brigade, these posts are making it hard to resist buying it. Might wait and see if it's included in the Spring Sale.
Haven't made up my mind yet if it's for me, at just shy of two hours played. I didn't plan it that way, the timer just stopped there when I saved and quit right before a mission against a key target. If I were the superstitious sort, I would call that a sign.
I actually do really like some things it's doing. But reading ahead a bit, by checking out some other player impressions, I'm less enthusiastic about what I'm hearing. The way I'm playing now is apparently That Thing You Do!, and I'm having visions of four pilots in matching suits playing their one hit over and over until they end up headlining at riverboat casinos.
Nothing personal. It's just business.
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
The one thing Phantom Bridage is missing is a post battle replay. Just show the whole thing.
However, the devs have said that while it's their most requested feature, it's a huge technical hurdle they don't think they can make.
Which is a shame because it seems like it's the obvious thing to add to a game that is turn based but does those turns in real time.
You'd think it would just save a replay of the mission and play it out but umm...yeah I'm no programmer and I know new patches screw up old total warhammy replays.
The one thing Phantom Bridage is missing is a post battle replay. Just show the whole thing.
However, the devs have said that while it's their most requested feature, it's a huge technical hurdle they don't think they can make.
Which is a shame because it seems like it's the obvious thing to add to a game that is turn based but does those turns in real time.
Yeah, I was thinking that this is exactly the one thing that it’s missing at round’s end. It’s the sort of thing that made Frozen Synapse really great, allowing you to record the end result and what not.
( < . . .
0
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
Yeah I figured since they have the turn sequences already since it needs to play out each turn, they would just save each turn sequence and then play them one after the other.
I am literally going to have to grind for robot parts to get through this DLC
I distinctly remember avoiding the area you first find ADA ever since installing Automatron, because the Rust Devils spawn after that first engagement, they are everywhere and they're easily the toughest random mobs you can encounter.
Albino radscorpions still scare the shit out of me the most, though. Fallout 4 reeeaaaally made me hate radscorpions.
Last episode, the Duna 1c probe landed heavily damaged and Duna 1d rover "Kermie" landed on an icerink and is currently on autpilot skidding south out of the polar caps.
Today, our goal is to land 1a and 1b and return them safely to Duna Station, to be stored there for a possible future mission.
But there's a problem: Parachutes are very hit or miss on Duna, and the ones we brought are much more miss than hit. Both landers have excess delta-V, but were intended to land farther off the station's orbit. Both will now be restricted much closer to the equator because they will need to do a powered landing. I am 85% sure there's enough fuel in both to do this.
So instead of the northern highlands and the southern lowlands being our targets, our targets are the equatorial highlands (technically the same biome but the terrain at the equator is rougher) and the canyon (an analog of Valles Marinaris).
The station is much as we left it, with now two empty docking ports. If I ever do plan a second mission (this one was a huge pain in my ass) these could be used to add additional vehicles, like a fuel tug or mining rig. It's quite possible to build a self sufficient station at Duna, we just lack the technology to produce resources on site.
First up, Fencingsax and Cb557 will be landing in Duna 1a. Their target is a section of highlands near the equator with some relatively open plateaus I can hopefully hit.
A conservative deorbit burn - we have 1720 monopropellant and the math says I'll need 1580 for this mission... and I'm not great at this game.
As you can see the ship will make almost a full loop in the atmosphere before shedding enough velocity to start falling.
The manual doesn't say we can use the legs or extendable steps as airbrakes... but it doesn't say NOT to, either.
As with the probes, the parachutes are set to the highest possible open, but it doesn't look like they're going to fire.
Remember when I said this area has some open plateaus I can hopefully hit? Yeah, that's one back there. Meanwhile I'm pretty sure this incline exceeds my warranty.
Just uphill you can see a faint ring of smoke. That's where the engine was firing when I touched down. This is where the ship stopped skidding downhill.
Cb557 informs Jazz that he left all the spare underwear in the command module. "Why does that matter?" "You'll know in a minute if you don't get your helmet on."
I would like to say that according to his resume Fencingsax is a real scientist. We did not actually call any of his previous employers but this is around the time I realize he spelled it "Unaversatie."
You're in a valley, dude. You can see like half a kilometer, maybe.
Cb557 gets the flag up and inscribes a fitting epitaph for the crew. Fencingsax gets the science stuff deployed. We have unlocked a lot of stuff since the Mun so we need a bunch of solar panels. In addition to the goo lab, we have an atmospheric monitor, a seismograph, and whatever this thing does.
Cb557: "What does an Ionographer do?"
Fencingsax: "It graphs ions, duh."
There's also an improved antenna, which provides an uplink to the Duna Megarelay.
I also brought the toybox but it doesn't work here? Bummer.
Now to attempt to get back to the station.
Getting back to orbit should take about the same fuel as getting down.
Getting the rendezvous without additional burns does take ten days, but means only one burn to match speed with the station.
It takes roughly 45 monopropellant to dock, leaving the lander with a decent safety margin. Not enough to do anything with, but we could send a fuel tug out if we want to use it again.
Ooops. 48 monopropellant.
Jazz and Ianator are next, they're aiming at the valley behind us. They're leaving the station at periapse so their landing might be a bit more aggressive.
I have to admit this is *super* optimistic doing this hard of a landing burn, but 1a's fuel surplus has me cocky.
Holy crap, the angles on those legs are all fucked up. Did I *build* them like that? No wonder the other one skidded downhill, that's just sloppy building.
Holy shit I forgot we had parachutes! Some of them opened!
All of them opened! This only slows us to about 50 m/s, which is probably a fatal lithobraking speed, so it's still a powered landing, just not as much as the last one. Which is good, because I wasted a lot of fuel coming down.
I also have to question Jazz's scientific credentials, because while he is in a valley, it's so wide that the walls are over the horizon.
The good thing about being the second landing on Duna is that the history books won't mention the ladder dismount.
Still doesn't hurt to hedge bets on those history books.
The *entire* time Jazz is setting up the science stuff, Ianator is shaking his hands and staring at his palms with a horrified expression on his face.
Have you ever seen anyone say nothing, but say it *urgently*?
The MMU isn't strong enough to get off the ground on Duna.
However it can be used to do super jumps, which is pretty neat.
Are those solar panels not straight either? Jesus I just fucked the hell out of this lander build.
During the final approach with almost no fuel left I hurriedly stow all the stuff I probably should have stowed at launch before it hits something on the station.
Now THAT'S what you call fuel budget. Not enough left to top up the command module before it departs.
After four years, 109 days in space, the command module undocks for the return trip. Unfortunately, this starts a new mission clock so I'll have to do *math* on how many rent payments everyone missed.
Much like the outbound trip, we will break orbit before trying to figure out an encounter. However, this time it's a much faster process, as we have 20% of the mass but 100% of the engine, so the burn only needs about three minutes.
After a little over two years in the void, the crew begins the return burn.
This was probably the best interplanetary burn I've ever done. With no additional corrections I'm on a course to just graze the atmosphere, and have plenty of fuel to fix that.
See? It'll be fine.
The service module with its nuclear reactor are sent to burn up in the atmosphere. I'm sure that'll be fine, after crashing 15 gigatons worth of unexploded nuclear ordinance into the ocean this won't even be measurable.
They're not necessary, but I wanted to get a shot of the Taurus pod's integrated retro thrusters. They're enclosed during operation and then pop out on the sides when they fire.
This is a *very* fast reentry, but we've done stupider things!
Uh... ok, that's a bad sign. The temperature inside the crew cabin is climbing, right now it's passing "Texas" and heading towards "Arizona" way faster than I like.
It peaks at sub-lethal temperatures, so everything's fine.
As things cool down, I realize the problem is those integrated thrusters. They don't retract and are sticking out into the plasma stream.
The parachutes open and the crew seems home safe... but they remain reefed and don't fully open.
They finally deploy at about 260 meters, spiking the G meter briefly into the red. But no harm done aside from a steep laundry bill, everyone survived and owes roughly seven years of unpaid taxes.
In addition to the science from last round, we gain 3170 this time, for a total of well over 6,700 science fort he mission as a whole.
Our new techs:
Automation: Large probe cores and long range antennas.
Experimental Rocketry: The final sets of conventional rockets, mostly very large hydrogen and methane engines.
High Efficiency Nuclear Propulsion: A tier 8 technology offering selection of large nuclear rockets.
Advanced Solar Technology: Some of the most efficient solar panels in the game, including large panels capable of powering immense bases and smaller ones capable of powering probes well into the outer solar system.
That's finally a wrap for my most ambitious KSP mission ever. Next time third shift allows for play time we'll be carrying out a much less ambitious probe series - Explorer 4 to Jool (with drop probes to Laythe and into Jool's upper atmosphere), and Explorer 5 to Moho.
The next crewed mission will be a less ambitious one to Dres. The dwarf planet is something of a meme in the KSP community, but it's actually a very interesting place to visit, with a huge equatorial canyon dwarfing the one we landed in on Duna. And what about Duna Station? Will we ever return to our interplanetary space station? Maybe! It's a fully featured station capable of accepting additional modules or berthing additional vehicles, and there's a lot of neat stuff we could do there with a mining rig and refinery module. All that's a few techs away, however, and our eyes are turning ever outward to more distant worlds.
If you're a visual novel fan, PARANORMASIGHT from SENIX (no clue what is up with this odd slate of games from this company since their reshuffling of assets) has been fun through the first chapter. It is a visual novel though so there's a fair bit of reading, but there's light - so far - puzzling, that I'm sure will get harder, mixed in to make it so that you aren't just reading a book (like THE NOTE, which, while good, you could just turn autoplay on and interact when needed - especially with the QTE's turned off).
The basic hook of the game (that you find out sooper quick so this isn't a spoiler) is that you are a Curse Bearer, able to use a curse to kill under certain conditions. You know YOUR curse, but not the curse of others so you have to figure out ways to outwit others in order to take their souls so that you can get the ultimate prize: resurrection. Each curse is connected to a superstition whose true origin has been lost to "the telephone game" and whose powers you need to take to effectively claim the prize.
The writing is so far top notch (with some odd phrasing here and there but overall good localization) and the artwork is superb. Like REALLY fucking good. Game is completely playable with a mouse, and I can imagine it is perfect on the STEAM DECK. Overall, definitely looking forward to jumping in again (at night, definitely when you want to play spooky-time-fun like this as I nearly peed a little in some of the opening moments).
I am literally going to have to grind for robot parts to get through this DLC
I distinctly remember avoiding the area you first find ADA ever since installing Automatron, because the Rust Devils spawn after that first engagement, they are everywhere and they're easily the toughest random mobs you can encounter.
Albino radscorpions still scare the shit out of me the most, though. Fallout 4 reeeaaaally made me hate radscorpions.
Ahab looked like something from that W40k/sonic the hedgehog comic i read and i desire more bots like that.
Returning overstuffed to a settlement and seeing a death claw creeping up was a bit of joy as my special friend went up to 6 cranks.
However, I am very annoyed that I leave out buckets of guns and npcs do not grab them
Is it spooky? I don't even see a horror tag on Steam
I would say it is more "lightly spoopy" thank Spooky. So horror themed, but not "horror" horror. It's not "World of Horror" (which I'm not convinced will ever get finished) for sure, but more "Doki Doki" or "Virtues Last Reward" in terms of the "scariness" where the campy meets the macabre.
The only thing I don't like so far is that this is a "meta" game (not really a spoiler since they make this known in a fun way at the beginning of the game and it DOES impact gameplay), but knowing that now at least will help with the rest of the game (I couldn't wait to beat the first chapter). Its first use just kinda made me annoyed because you're trying to solve a puzzle within what you think are the rules in the game.
Definitely a 10/10 though so far despite that minor niggle (I honestly just don't like feeling stupid).
Sodaz, of many excellent game fan animations of Warhammer 40k and Titanfall 2, finally finished his Halo project. Best animation of its type since Monty Oum passed.
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I'm just bad at outfitting mechs, and I can't even contest the first proper province after the tutorial province without getting my shit pushed in. Urgh. I wanna like this game a lot but I'm so goddamned bad at it.
Edit: oh man two TOTP posts in a row
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
I've been meaning to do a longer post about Phantom Brigade, or even a thread (spoiler: game is obtuse but good), but my quick two cents:
The build system is very hard to deal with and most parts are garbage. With about 8 provinces liberated so far, here's what I think I know:
I hope that's helpful. I can try to post some pics (although I'm beyond the first province so I've got a deeper pool of parts to play with.)
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I've been messing around and have a shotgunner shield mech who has a 7-shot autoshotty. He is death incarnate at close range. His legs are flimsy however, so I must have my shield up on approach or he'll get cut down in a thrice.
My other mech is a sniper without a shield. It cuts down tanks in a single fire action, but must be stationary for an optimal shot. This is in the first proper province after tutorial.
I've been lucky with cooling components to the point my shotgunner can essentially fire forever, making them equivalent to a closer range machinegunner.
One thing to consider with longer firing time weapons is for example, if it shows heat generated at 140 and it fires for four seconds, like say a minigun, you should divide its heat output by 4 as that is the generated heat throughout its entire firing action. So you're looking at effectively 35 heat per second. If your mech has a heat dissipation of 39 you could fire that thing indefinitely.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
Making them dance like ballerinas is the fun part for me, but it's the UI that makes it a bit difficult and time-consuming for me as there are several places that can alter an action's start time based on when or where you put your mouse.
That plus movement not being movable in the action bar, and instead you must insert "wait" actions in between.
But shit, this game has some great stuff going on.
(That's assuming your weapons fire in a straight line, as most and all of mine do. If you are lobbing missiles, that's a horse of a different color. I tried a missile mech, and it it was pretty good at staying out of the fray and lobbing missiles. But it took a long time for them to land and there was a lot of variability about how much damage they were doing or if they would even hit. I opted for the brute force assault rifle/rail gun package instead.)
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Yes, but there’s also other targets to fire at (or even just waiting for the cool-down.) I prefer the shield job to go to a heavy and let the others be able to move and cool-down faster.
Sept 6, 2023
What a glorious coincidence that my vacation time at work refreshes every year on Sept 7. Guess who's thinking of taking 3 or 4 straight weeks off in September?
Which I suppose only matters if you can get through the character creation screen.
This is Pixie we're talking about.
The first chunk of that four weeks is going to be sunk into the character creation screen and nothing else.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
trimmed for accuracy
Why wait?
EDIT: Exciting - just as I post this a patch drops with a bunch of good looking fixes and tweaks!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
.... Thanks!
Fake edit: It broke Steam. I can no longer load my own library. The store/community/etc pages all work fine. Trying to load my library in the client and it either displays all fucked up or just a blank page.
Does this mean I win at Steam and I can stop now?
How many of them are porn mods though?
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
Not as many as i thought. Hopefully enough to let me seek long permanent vengeance against the institute
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Void Bastards is a great game, I had a lot of fun playing it. I don't remember this feature though.
Not enough.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I'm not a religious man by any means, but I do believe that, from time to time, the universe talks to us on an individual level.
Wonderful coincidences like this only serve to strengthen that belief.
Haven't made up my mind yet if it's for me, at just shy of two hours played. I didn't plan it that way, the timer just stopped there when I saved and quit right before a mission against a key target. If I were the superstitious sort, I would call that a sign.
I actually do really like some things it's doing. But reading ahead a bit, by checking out some other player impressions, I'm less enthusiastic about what I'm hearing. The way I'm playing now is apparently That Thing You Do!, and I'm having visions of four pilots in matching suits playing their one hit over and over until they end up headlining at riverboat casinos.
However, the devs have said that while it's their most requested feature, it's a huge technical hurdle they don't think they can make.
Which is a shame because it seems like it's the obvious thing to add to a game that is turn based but does those turns in real time.
You'd think it would just save a replay of the mission and play it out but umm...yeah I'm no programmer and I know new patches screw up old total warhammy replays.
Yeah, I was thinking that this is exactly the one thing that it’s missing at round’s end. It’s the sort of thing that made Frozen Synapse really great, allowing you to record the end result and what not.
But I'm not a game dev so I can't say.
I distinctly remember avoiding the area you first find ADA ever since installing Automatron, because the Rust Devils spawn after that first engagement, they are everywhere and they're easily the toughest random mobs you can encounter.
Albino radscorpions still scare the shit out of me the most, though. Fallout 4 reeeaaaally made me hate radscorpions.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
Mission: Duna 1, part 3
Today, our goal is to land 1a and 1b and return them safely to Duna Station, to be stored there for a possible future mission.
But there's a problem: Parachutes are very hit or miss on Duna, and the ones we brought are much more miss than hit. Both landers have excess delta-V, but were intended to land farther off the station's orbit. Both will now be restricted much closer to the equator because they will need to do a powered landing. I am 85% sure there's enough fuel in both to do this.
So instead of the northern highlands and the southern lowlands being our targets, our targets are the equatorial highlands (technically the same biome but the terrain at the equator is rougher) and the canyon (an analog of Valles Marinaris).
The station is much as we left it, with now two empty docking ports. If I ever do plan a second mission (this one was a huge pain in my ass) these could be used to add additional vehicles, like a fuel tug or mining rig. It's quite possible to build a self sufficient station at Duna, we just lack the technology to produce resources on site.
First up, Fencingsax and Cb557 will be landing in Duna 1a. Their target is a section of highlands near the equator with some relatively open plateaus I can hopefully hit.
A conservative deorbit burn - we have 1720 monopropellant and the math says I'll need 1580 for this mission... and I'm not great at this game.
As you can see the ship will make almost a full loop in the atmosphere before shedding enough velocity to start falling.
The manual doesn't say we can use the legs or extendable steps as airbrakes... but it doesn't say NOT to, either.
As with the probes, the parachutes are set to the highest possible open, but it doesn't look like they're going to fire.
Remember when I said this area has some open plateaus I can hopefully hit? Yeah, that's one back there. Meanwhile I'm pretty sure this incline exceeds my warranty.
Just uphill you can see a faint ring of smoke. That's where the engine was firing when I touched down. This is where the ship stopped skidding downhill.
Cb557 informs Jazz that he left all the spare underwear in the command module. "Why does that matter?" "You'll know in a minute if you don't get your helmet on."
I would like to say that according to his resume Fencingsax is a real scientist. We did not actually call any of his previous employers but this is around the time I realize he spelled it "Unaversatie."
You're in a valley, dude. You can see like half a kilometer, maybe.
Cb557 gets the flag up and inscribes a fitting epitaph for the crew. Fencingsax gets the science stuff deployed. We have unlocked a lot of stuff since the Mun so we need a bunch of solar panels. In addition to the goo lab, we have an atmospheric monitor, a seismograph, and whatever this thing does.
Cb557: "What does an Ionographer do?"
Fencingsax: "It graphs ions, duh."
There's also an improved antenna, which provides an uplink to the Duna Megarelay.
I also brought the toybox but it doesn't work here? Bummer.
Now to attempt to get back to the station.
Getting back to orbit should take about the same fuel as getting down.
Getting the rendezvous without additional burns does take ten days, but means only one burn to match speed with the station.
It takes roughly 45 monopropellant to dock, leaving the lander with a decent safety margin. Not enough to do anything with, but we could send a fuel tug out if we want to use it again.
Ooops. 48 monopropellant.
Jazz and Ianator are next, they're aiming at the valley behind us. They're leaving the station at periapse so their landing might be a bit more aggressive.
I have to admit this is *super* optimistic doing this hard of a landing burn, but 1a's fuel surplus has me cocky.
Holy crap, the angles on those legs are all fucked up. Did I *build* them like that? No wonder the other one skidded downhill, that's just sloppy building.
Holy shit I forgot we had parachutes! Some of them opened!
All of them opened! This only slows us to about 50 m/s, which is probably a fatal lithobraking speed, so it's still a powered landing, just not as much as the last one. Which is good, because I wasted a lot of fuel coming down.
I also have to question Jazz's scientific credentials, because while he is in a valley, it's so wide that the walls are over the horizon.
The good thing about being the second landing on Duna is that the history books won't mention the ladder dismount.
Still doesn't hurt to hedge bets on those history books.
The *entire* time Jazz is setting up the science stuff, Ianator is shaking his hands and staring at his palms with a horrified expression on his face.
Have you ever seen anyone say nothing, but say it *urgently*?
The MMU isn't strong enough to get off the ground on Duna.
However it can be used to do super jumps, which is pretty neat.
Are those solar panels not straight either? Jesus I just fucked the hell out of this lander build.
During the final approach with almost no fuel left I hurriedly stow all the stuff I probably should have stowed at launch before it hits something on the station.
Now THAT'S what you call fuel budget. Not enough left to top up the command module before it departs.
After four years, 109 days in space, the command module undocks for the return trip. Unfortunately, this starts a new mission clock so I'll have to do *math* on how many rent payments everyone missed.
Much like the outbound trip, we will break orbit before trying to figure out an encounter. However, this time it's a much faster process, as we have 20% of the mass but 100% of the engine, so the burn only needs about three minutes.
After a little over two years in the void, the crew begins the return burn.
This was probably the best interplanetary burn I've ever done. With no additional corrections I'm on a course to just graze the atmosphere, and have plenty of fuel to fix that.
See? It'll be fine.
The service module with its nuclear reactor are sent to burn up in the atmosphere. I'm sure that'll be fine, after crashing 15 gigatons worth of unexploded nuclear ordinance into the ocean this won't even be measurable.
They're not necessary, but I wanted to get a shot of the Taurus pod's integrated retro thrusters. They're enclosed during operation and then pop out on the sides when they fire.
This is a *very* fast reentry, but we've done stupider things!
Uh... ok, that's a bad sign. The temperature inside the crew cabin is climbing, right now it's passing "Texas" and heading towards "Arizona" way faster than I like.
It peaks at sub-lethal temperatures, so everything's fine.
As things cool down, I realize the problem is those integrated thrusters. They don't retract and are sticking out into the plasma stream.
The parachutes open and the crew seems home safe... but they remain reefed and don't fully open.
They finally deploy at about 260 meters, spiking the G meter briefly into the red. But no harm done aside from a steep laundry bill, everyone survived and owes roughly seven years of unpaid taxes.
In addition to the science from last round, we gain 3170 this time, for a total of well over 6,700 science fort he mission as a whole.
Our new techs:
Automation: Large probe cores and long range antennas.
Experimental Rocketry: The final sets of conventional rockets, mostly very large hydrogen and methane engines.
High Efficiency Nuclear Propulsion: A tier 8 technology offering selection of large nuclear rockets.
Advanced Solar Technology: Some of the most efficient solar panels in the game, including large panels capable of powering immense bases and smaller ones capable of powering probes well into the outer solar system.
That's finally a wrap for my most ambitious KSP mission ever. Next time third shift allows for play time we'll be carrying out a much less ambitious probe series - Explorer 4 to Jool (with drop probes to Laythe and into Jool's upper atmosphere), and Explorer 5 to Moho.
The next crewed mission will be a less ambitious one to Dres. The dwarf planet is something of a meme in the KSP community, but it's actually a very interesting place to visit, with a huge equatorial canyon dwarfing the one we landed in on Duna. And what about Duna Station? Will we ever return to our interplanetary space station? Maybe! It's a fully featured station capable of accepting additional modules or berthing additional vehicles, and there's a lot of neat stuff we could do there with a mining rig and refinery module. All that's a few techs away, however, and our eyes are turning ever outward to more distant worlds.
The basic hook of the game (that you find out sooper quick so this isn't a spoiler) is that you are a Curse Bearer, able to use a curse to kill under certain conditions. You know YOUR curse, but not the curse of others so you have to figure out ways to outwit others in order to take their souls so that you can get the ultimate prize: resurrection. Each curse is connected to a superstition whose true origin has been lost to "the telephone game" and whose powers you need to take to effectively claim the prize.
The writing is so far top notch (with some odd phrasing here and there but overall good localization) and the artwork is superb. Like REALLY fucking good. Game is completely playable with a mouse, and I can imagine it is perfect on the STEAM DECK. Overall, definitely looking forward to jumping in again (at night, definitely when you want to play spooky-time-fun like this as I nearly peed a little in some of the opening moments).
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Ahab looked like something from that W40k/sonic the hedgehog comic i read and i desire more bots like that.
Returning overstuffed to a settlement and seeing a death claw creeping up was a bit of joy as my special friend went up to 6 cranks.
However, I am very annoyed that I leave out buckets of guns and npcs do not grab them
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I would say it is more "lightly spoopy" thank Spooky. So horror themed, but not "horror" horror. It's not "World of Horror" (which I'm not convinced will ever get finished) for sure, but more "Doki Doki" or "Virtues Last Reward" in terms of the "scariness" where the campy meets the macabre.
The only thing I don't like so far is that this is a "meta" game (not really a spoiler since they make this known in a fun way at the beginning of the game and it DOES impact gameplay), but knowing that now at least will help with the rest of the game (I couldn't wait to beat the first chapter). Its first use just kinda made me annoyed because you're trying to solve a puzzle within what you think are the rules in the game.
Definitely a 10/10 though so far despite that minor niggle (I honestly just don't like feeling stupid).
Does it have my sweet and succulent ham?
Cause I've already seen some character redesigns and
......?
*Googles*
🤯
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I dunno, the delivery seemed more serious than the original.
I'll probably be a pass.