TacticsConsort

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Pffff. The AAA industry is notorious for being about as stale as a three week old french baguette. If it isn't a Gun Game made for chasing the most recent trends, then chances are they don't even want to sniff at it. To say nothing of the absolutely egregious thirst for Profit that plagues a lot of titles. It's one thing to be a $70 game, and another thing entirely to be a $70 game with a subscription, ingame puchases, and day 1 DLC.

Sony and Microsoft can have their pathetic little 'arms race' about processing power and framerates and 150GB+ games.

In the meantime, Nintendo is likely going to step right up with something that has a nice fresh, intuitive control scheme like the Wii or the Switch, with a solid release library that covers a variety of styles and appeals, and promptly curbstomp the living shit out of the competitors. The market is absolutely wide open for a smash hit console in the near future, coming off the backs of the PS5's no-games failure and the fact I haven't even heard about the Xbox in about 3 years.

[–] [email protected] 109 points 2 days ago

Just please remember: Don't let up until the results are being read. Every vote counts and nothing could be worse than pissing away a win because we got cocky based on some early signs

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

THey're trying so hard I love them

(This is also excellent because it applies to the DnD game I'm running)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oddjob is banned. No exceptions.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, checks out. I'm just a UK guy, but when the Tories were all having a media circus about "Oh inflation is done now, we've stopped inflation, the cost of living crisis is done!", I mean... no amount of lying to my face is going to stop me going to the shops and wanting to scream when I see the price of Everything has jumped up by 20% again.

I can't imagine that's any different at all in China. You just can't really hide something as objective as the cost of a bar of chocolate.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago

Now that's really interesting! I wonder where I can go to see this stuff...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

I don't rightfully know, but my heart says "The hotwheels logo"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (9 children)

150TB????? Holy fuck. I wonder what sort of stuff one institution even stores in 150TB of data?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

On one hand: How the hell do you prove that you're NOT planning to assassinate someone?

On the other hand: Do it Kadyrov. Start a military conflict with the Russian nobility. I dare you. I double dog dare you, you prada-wearing, back-shooting, boot-licking little shit.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

Thank god for that. There might be scummier companies than Blizzard out there, but I wholeheartedly believe the only reason that Blizzard aren't on the same level of scum as Nestle and BP Oil is because they make games, and there are only limited opportunities to sell human lives to authoritarian regimes when you just make games.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This may sound strange, but honestly once you understand the game it's really the other way around!

The official 5e devs do NOT have any clue what they're doing in terms of encounter balance and design; almost everything gets crapped on by a good spellcaster or Ranger, and they play it pretty safe and corporate with stories too. Half of 5e adventures are copies of old adventures and it really shows because all the copies of old classics are actually way more respected and generally liked (Curse of Strahd, Sunless Citadel, White Plume Mountain) than 5e originals (Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen). Notable exception being Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. Despite being the smallest original adventure in 5e it's honestly good.

Still, I really appreciate the meme for our community! You're the backbone of lemmy with all your posts my guy

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

It's pretty modern if you mean popular, although the idea itself is REALLY old.

Rather than going into specific examples because there are a lot of them (especially in gaming and TV), I'd like to say my piece on cliches.

Basically, cliches come to exist because the cliche trope is a really good idea.

"The Butler did it" as a murder mystery trope is a fantastic idea because some people with too much money will use the protection money affords them to mistreat their employees, providing a great motive you can build on to create a great story with relatable morals and characters. It sets up a character with perfect motives, means and a reasonable position of trust to avoid suspicion.

Similarly, "Hell good, Heaven bad" is a fantastic trope because it lets you step back and analyse things like the negative impacts of religion and how authorities (and the bible) will portray themselves as good regardless of their actual actions. Plus of course there were periods of time where people were told doing virtually anything that didn't fit into an extremely narrow worldview meant you were going to hell. You know, stuff like basketball and Dungeons and Dragons.

Now, the problem with cliches is when someone sees a popular idea that's also a very good idea, but doesn't understand why it was a good idea. As a result, when they use the idea, it rings hollow at absolute best, and that kind of terrible execution of something that's already known and popular tends to be especially disappointing. I think the best example is The Hunger Games, which absolutely defined young adult dystopian fiction for years because it showed how the media industry mistreats its workers, and Alleigant, which used a lot of ideas from Hunger Games (and some other things) without actually understanding the ideas.

(TLDR: Hunger Games has a love triangle as a prominent plot element, but the actual reason is that it's perpetuated by the media pretty much on pain of death for Katniss so that she can entertain the viewers. By contrast, Alleigant also has a love triangle but the triangle IS the plot element and the author bends over backwards to make it happen despite the fact none of the characters really feel like they're suitable for it)

Anyways, cliches aren't bad but you need to know how, why, and when to use them in order to actually fulfil their potential, and the heaven-hell one you've mentioned above is no exception.

 

The game's called Cavern of Dreams!

I really like dragons, but I tend not to enjoy most games that they appear in because the games are either too grimdark (Dark Souls), make dragons too rare/emphasises killing them (BG3), or doesn't give us intelligent dragons.

Anyways, this little game isn't super serious or difficult or anything, but I absolutely loved it so I wanted to share it here! Maybe you guys have games of your own that you like and want to talk about?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2059660?snr=5000_5100___primarylinks

 

Credit to VexAtlas from the Lancer community for the meme format

Here's the homebrew this is based on, in case you hadn't seen it here before! The art is still being added, but mechanically it's in a pretty refined state now.

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/liOJvZSBDaur

 
 

I offer you this meme. It isn't much but it's mine.

By the way here's my dragon homebrew. It's still undergoing playtesting and balancing, and it assumes that you're willing to start your game (or oneshot) at 11th level, but I'd be honoured if you'd use it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eFc2qQTY9P3ym9fyMNYHC_mIogpt9kNrOdm5n_yj1cs/edit

Why do I not simply play a different system? Because I like the DnD dragons. Next question.

 
 

I can also give a 5 hour class on the matter if you're interested.

 

Spoilers below, I want to complain, not ruin anybody else's experience with the game.

Okay, so. The main reason I play dungeons and dragons? Aside from the sense of adventure and the ability to write my own story? It's the dragons.

Now my problem is that in any and all official DnD content (and most other media tbh), dragons get absolutely fucking screwed, ESPECIALLY the good ones. It's why the ability to write my own stories with DnD appeals to me so much.

I didn't go into Baldur's Gate 3 with high expectations. I know that the idea of having a powerful force of good that isn't under player control or completely useless is beyond the comprehension of most game/show/book writers (It's really unimaginably fucking easy to have one that doesn't destroy character agency btw, just putting that out there. I can write a whole god damn essay on how to have Big Good forces that aren't fucking useless while maintaining narrative tension).

All I wanted, in the game that advertises itself on how lets you approach every problem from your own angle and with your own methods, was to be able to share a little conversation with a dragon and make sure they were okay. I didn't have unrealistic expectations. I know games aren't made around what one man wants, so I didn't hope for more than maybe three lines of dialog and an ambiguous ending where they're free and alive. I'd have been happy with that.

And Baldur's Gate 3, despite allowing you to spare, or befriend, or protect, save, speak with or at least bring some hope to EVERY OTHER ENTITY IN THE GAME, doesn't just give none of that to their one dragon that can speak. It actively goes out of its' way to make it so that the dragon has the absolute worst fate possible, significantly worse than death, will never speak to you (only to another NPC), is killed pre-adventure, has their spirit tortured for eternity, and cannot be saved, helped, or even given a ray of hope. Just. Like. For FUCKS SAKE.

I wouldn't be so pissed off it this wasn't such a common thing in games like this! But I sunk 70 hours into this game intending a little interaction with a dragon as my reward, and as far as I'm concerned, I got a flaming pile of shit thrown in my face for making it to the end. It wouldn't sting so much if they weren't the only character to get screwed to anywhere near this magnitude. It wouldn't sting so much if shit like this didn't also happen so ridiculously frequently.

Please tell me I'm not the only one frustrated with how dragons (ESPECIALLY good dragons) get treated in any form of adult media. Is it really, really so much to ask for a story where dragons don't get the deck stacked against them so unbelievably hard that even actual gods would be pretty much screwed?

 

Spoilers below, I want to complain, not ruin anybody else's experience with the game.

Okay, so. The main reason I play dungeons and dragons? Aside from the sense of adventure and the ability to write my own story? It's the dragons.

Now my problem is that in any and all official DnD content (and most other media tbh), dragons get absolutely fucking screwed, ESPECIALLY the good ones. It's why the ability to write my own stories with DnD appeals to me so much.

I didn't go into Baldur's Gate 3 with high expectations. I know that the idea of having a powerful force of good that isn't under player control or completely useless is beyond the comprehension of most game/show/book writers (It's really unimaginably fucking easy to have one that doesn't destroy character agency btw, just putting that out there. I can write a whole god damn essay on how to have Big Good forces that aren't fucking useless while maintaining narrative tension).

All I wanted, in the game that advertises itself on how lets you approach every problem from your own angle and with your own methods, was to be able to share a little conversation with a dragon and make sure they were okay. I didn't have unrealistic expectations. I know games aren't made around what one man wants, so I didn't hope for more than maybe three lines of dialog and an ambiguous ending where they're free and alive. I'd have been happy with that.

And Baldur's Gate 3, despite allowing you to spare, or befriend, or protect, save, speak with or at least bring some hope to EVERY OTHER ENTITY IN THE GAME, doesn't just give none of that to their one dragon that can speak. It actively goes out of its' way to make it so that the dragon has the absolute worst fate possible, significantly worse than death, will never speak to you (only to another NPC), is killed pre-adventure, has their spirit tortured for eternity, and cannot be saved, helped, or even given a ray of hope. Just. Like. For FUCKS SAKE.

I wouldn't be so pissed off it this wasn't such a common thing in games like this! But I sunk 70 hours into this game intending a little interaction with a dragon as my reward, and as far as I'm concerned, I got a flaming pile of shit thrown in my face for making it to the end. It wouldn't sting so much if they weren't the only character to get screwed to anywhere near this magnitude. It wouldn't sting so much if shit like this didn't also happen so ridiculously frequently.

Please tell me I'm not the only one frustrated with how dragons (ESPECIALLY good dragons) get treated in any form of adult media. Is it really, really so much to ask for a story where dragons don't get the deck stacked against them so unbelivably hard that even actual gods would be pretty much screwed?

 

For the uninitiated, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBLdQ1a4-JI

view more: next ›