Out-of-Character Stuff

[Rudolf]

If anyone is interested in an old-school computer RPG, Caves of Lore is super fun. As is Dungeons of Chaos, if you have not played through that one already.

[Ensou]

19 minutes ago, rogueblade0729 said:

I've heard people say they haven't enjoyed a game like HD2 since Left 4 Dead / L4D2. I never really got into those games as their peak, but Helldivers is absolutely a fantastic co-op experience, which I generally have more fun with than competitive FPS or battle royales.

 

I am a coop player enthusiast myself. I find playing with friends for a story campaign together feels quite like those novels of characters coming together for an epic adventure. I had a great time with Grim Dawn, Elden Ring (but you need the seamless coop mod for it), Subnautica (also a coop mod), but the easiest to get into so far are the games Raft and Red Solstice 2. Though, like you said, there is a special visceral experience for coop when it is done in the action shooter perspective.

I recommend trying out https://www.co-optimus.com/ to search, since it is an engine tuned to finding coop games of all kinds.

[HydroGuy]

On 3/13/2024 at 5:55 PM, darlis moonbeam said:

Hey does anyone know if there is a way to save forum custom filters? I set it for the IC and OOC to only show threads I have posted in so that I can cut out any games I am not in for here. Unfortunately it does not seem to stick.

Under the "Activity" tab there is a "My Activity Streams" section, you can set up one (or more?) custom feeds. The best option I've found is to show forums I follow with unread activity. Just make sure you manually follow any threads you are active in or you wont see anything... because it doesn't automatically subscribe you like the old site did.

[Faeryl_]

So I'm contemplating running a quick mission here for newbies. How many level 1-3, non-monstrous PCs do we got running around? I can beef the level of the mission up, but I'd rather get some newbies more experience if possible.

[Rudolf]

*raises hand*

[darlis moonbeam]

I have one of those.

[Faeryl_]

Hm. On the off-chance that others don't check this thread as often, I'll go put up an ad as well.

[Grudge]

I'm finishing up fluff for one before I put it for review, mechanically it is nearly done I just have to hammer out Animal Companion for a Druid side. If recruiting is still open when I'm done (should be today but I'll have to wait for review) I'll apply too.

[Faeryl_]

I plan to leave the recruitment open all weekend, at the very least. People tend to have more time on weekends, so they're more likely to spot it then.

[Grudge]

1 hour ago, Faeryl_ said:

I plan to leave the recruitment open all weekend, at the very least. People tend to have more time on weekends, so they're more likely to spot it then.

Cool, hopefully, my past three characters taught me to do it right from the first try and not make any dumb mistakes (except the math one of course 😋) Although this will be my only second 3.5E Druid, all of the others were either 5E or PF1. I guess PF1 is technically closer but still, there are differences.

[Faeryl_]

Looking through the exactly three books I found for the very short-lived "D&D Adventures: Diablo II", I found the mission I'm recruiting for, a short "beginner" adventure that is meant more as a quick intro into something else, and a rough outline of the entire game's campaign pre-expansion. I'm probably not going to try running the full campaign, ever, because PbP takes long enough as-is, but I may try to combine the mini-adventure with the first official dungeon of the game in a second mission after the first is completed.

[Grudge]

Ahhhhhh Diablo II, so many memories. After I finished the first one since it always takes forever for anything to get here and the internet was just a dial-up here and not one I had at my house I couldn't even go to the "high seas" flying 🏴‍☠️ flag to get my paws on it. The only good thing about it is that I waited so long for the game to get here when it finally arrived it was already paired with LoD expansion so I was able to play both right away...with every character...three times each since I wanted to try all variations...I might have a problem 🤣 Hell, I have played PoE (Path of Exile) since beta, and now when I tell some old stuff to people who are already seasoned players, better than me for sure, they look at me like I fell from Mars. Like, you had to "unlock" Scion class in the first playthrough and it wasn't default choice ( there is still a relic of it in the game, they didn't remove the cage where she was held but now it's just empty), or when the game had difficulties it originally had 4 not 3 (well now has none if you don't count hard-core mode)

[Faeryl_]

I haven't played classic LoD (Lord of Destruction) in many, many years. I picked up the Median XL mod a long time ago and haven't looked back. I've played PoE several times on and off, but honestly I don't think I like it much. The crafting system is annoying because it also serves as the game's currency, and the massive "skill wall" requires like five PhD's to understand, even with guides.

[Grudge]

3 hours ago, Faeryl_ said:

I haven't played classic LoD (Lord of Destruction) in many, many years. I picked up the Median XL mod a long time ago and haven't looked back. I've played PoE several times on and off, but honestly I don't think I like it much. The crafting system is annoying because it also serves as the game's currency, and the massive "skill wall" requires like five PhD's to understand, even with guides.

Ah, I've gotten used to that anomaly just kind of translate it 1 Chaos Orb is 1 Gold and it is a nearly unbreakable standard of trade, as a starting character you won't really need them until endgame so trade lesser orbs for them since higher level players can spend an obscene amount of transmutation and alteration orbs and they rain on lower lvl characters. Until the level cap all crafting you'll do will be with fusing orbs (to get gem sockets connected) and chromatic orbs (to get them to the color you want) Now when they made a player trading shop on the site even that is not really necessary wait until you have 3-4 Chaos Orbs and just buy yourself decent equipment.

People get hung up on that "no gold" stuff too much. You can beat the game with 0 crafting as the F2P player. Crafting becomes really relevant when you are done with the story mode and start doing maps, yeah then crafting is really important and you can't get very far without optimized equipment. But depending on your daily intake of PoE you can have an entire 12-chapter story mode with a special event to beat so potentially 60 or more hours on just one character. In my, what, 10-year-old opinion the only thing that will really bounce you off PoE (besides obvious, grim hack-and-slash games are not your cup of tea) is their skill tree. That is something you have to come to terms with, that difficulty spike was just a faulty build or one that doesn't suit your playstyle. And that is not a diss on you, every player, even pro players regularly scrap builds. The only benefit they have is sooner recognizing that it sucks and starting over, my own is if I start struggling after the end of Act1 since a decent build shouldn't feel much pushback until Act 5-6. And that means sometimes hours spent with PoEBuilder (the program you install that imitates the tree with all current updates including equipment that has on one side all math how much dmg out, how many attacks per second, how that works with your life, and mana etc.) That part is not really something you can teach someone, whether they want to do it or not. So depending on when you last tried it, the game became more accessible but the tree is still there, and if that is what pushes you away that is that.

I myself am going in again in some 6 days when the new season starts, I made several season breaks since so much of off-line RPGs came out lately. Baldur's Gate 3. 2 Pathfinders games and even older like: Divinity The Lost Sin 1&2, Pillars of Eternity 1&2, Wasteland 2&3, and always underestimated Tyranny. But the new season looks like fun so I'll go beat the story mode and event with at least 1 character. I'm not planning on engaging the endgame too much but that should be enough.

Sorry, for the gigantic post.

Edited March 23 by Grudge (see edit history)

[Faeryl_]

Yeah, PoE's campaign is pretty decent, though my last character (a bow ranger, I think) struggled a lot in the final two acts. I managed to brute force my way through it, but it was a pain. I think the D2 equivalent would probably be Hell difficulty, where you really need the best gear you can acquire (whether you do multiplayer and trade or SSF) if you want to succeed at the harder content. You can probably manage the regular campaign, but Ubers and Dungeon Challenges will be a PITA.