Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Do those of you who play MtG Online use the free MTGplay or the nasty WotC Online thing (where you have to buy virtual cards!!)?

I've installed MtGplay and it looks fabulous but I can't find anyone to play with - I find doing it with totally anonymous strangers not very satisfying, 'cos you can't discuss it with them afterwards ....

Just checking out the new Anacreon now - TVM Cainehill!!

CC

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Like these threads every once in a while. Have decided to leave MMORPG's behind. They have a community but minimal gameplay. Returning to strategy games. My Favorites are:

Dominions 2
Space Empires 4

Downloaded Titans of Steel, Anacreon 2, and the Chaos League Demo. Believe it or not, I am an old Blood Bowl fan. Threw out complete sets of Advanced Squad Leader, Starfleet Battles, and Car Wars but kept all of my Blood Bowl stuff. Shocked to see this game returning to computer.

I will weed these five games down to three so as to receive more enjoyment from the best.

Thanks again for the thread and info,
Aikamun

Editted: Instead of Anacreon 2, evaluating the Hyperion Mod for Emperor of the Fading Suns.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

This has been an interesting thread indeed. There is quite a mixture of gamers playing Dom2, which is a good thing. We've seen pure stragetists, folks who like multiple genres, etc. Its even given me some insight on some other games I might like to try that aren't necessarily mainstream so many, like me, may not have heard of them.

Keep em coming folks!

Krool

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

That's one of my big gripes against them. Do any of them have any sort of real persistent universe in which a player's (or guild's) actions actually matter? Where there's a real, threaded storyline whose flow you can actually affect, instead of the typical scripted "events" developers occasionally throw in, which the game companies have confused with the concept of "content"?

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I wish a mmorpg like that actually came out but comon I bet years will pass before one like that comes out.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

grin well hes up to a gamma release of the curent Version MP's are toned down for the most part still a few "fast" units left in the later epochs (new for gamma to help the ai compensate theres 3 files that change reserch and production values for the ai players early,mid,late game .. that and certain transports now cost massive amounts but generate a limited amount of income .) MP is good but i mainly play on my laptop solo as games tend to drag out over weeks at a time :> all in all think the old engine is pushed as far as it can go .. hence my wish for a new Version ..

i still play a bit of SPWAW too but theres just to much of a learning curve to even atempt to not embarase the hell out of myself in mp against most of the diehards that play ..


far as MTGplay im just looking into it to keep tabs with my bro not about to pay to buy decks got better things to spend my cash on. i spent some time in the irc chat getting to know a few folks thou and was a mixed experience.

Mmal

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

That's the whole point about MtGplay - you don't have to pay anything. You download all 11000 cards and make decks and play with them. It's only the official WotC Version ("Magic Online") which requires you to buy virtual cards. Bloody scammers.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I think you can only download old "Titans of Steel" the freeware Version, wich lacks tons of new pathes/improvements/weapons and most of all lacks compaigns. You need to get "Titans of Steel: Warring Suns " (which is commercial sequel) to get the full enjoyment of this game. (unless of course you meant that you got the comercial Version from the warez site http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I'm curious:

1) Does the software enforce the rules?
2) Is it legal?

I used to play MtG a lot back at college, but I stopped around Homelands. I never had any lotuses or moxes, but I still have an unlimited Timetwister, and a bunch of dual land cards.

I agree that sealed deck is probably the most fun way of playing it, unless you find someone who's willing to forgo "power gaming" and play theme decks. Some of the most fun games I've had include playing an Ice Age deck against a Fallen Empires deck.

The absolutely coolest deck I've ever seen was a Lich deck.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I play it mainly in Sp in self designed battles because i love the tank simulation there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I don't play it in mp because of similiar reasons . I don't know how big the battles are there but i guess with lots of units and so it isn't fun anymore when i have to manage 500 units .
Tanks aren't cost effective there probably in mp cause PaK/Anti-tank infantry is much cheaper but in close combat they kill tanks with ease .
I personally like tank battles there but find the infantry management too cumbersome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I once was tempted to start a mpgame of SPwaw but when i read a bit on the board first and saw a recent discussion where ppl said that they like to use flak guns / tanks as a multipurpose weapon because they are so costeffective i thought i don't want to play this way .

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

EVE-Online?

It's early days with EVE for me, and I can't devote as much time to it as the fanatics, but I have a clear impression that the game has a player-driven politics and a player-driven economy. For example, there seems to be a major war (or series of wars) between player-run alliances going on at the moment. The result is that ship and equipment prices have been rising for everyone over the Last month because demand is increasing (all those players needing to replace blown-up ships), while supply of raw materials for ship-building is decreasing (because miners are finding it too unsafe to get much mining done in the war zones).

Or, as another example, I've just been reading a series of Posts amongst arguing factions within a particular alliance, complaining that they're close to civil war. The military are saying that they're unable to fund their operations properly unless the miners pay some kind of tax on all their workings; the extremists amongst them are demanding that all the miners be kicked out of alliance space. The miners are complaining that the military aren't providing decent protection against pirates (player pirates, that is) or opposing alliances; and that it's not worth their while paying more tax until the military service improves.

The only problem really is that a lot of this isn't very well documented, so you mostly don't get to read about it in nicely packaged, polished story form. But there are attempts at both a player-run news service, and player produced propoganda videos, which are often a lot of fun.

The game developers also drop in a lot of their own story content, but it just feels artificial when overlaid on top of the rest of it.

Mark

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Well, there was one called Legends of Future Past - it was text only, similar to a MUD or to Gemstone III, but it was _awesome_. Wonderful game world, with critters that worshipped evil gods (they'd say nasty things to you, their grunts would guard their shamans), different kinds of magic, psionics, crafting long before it became popular, different realms and dimensions....

And guilds that mattered - one was the wardens / lawkeepers, there was a rangers guild, there was several evil orders whose members were exiled from the main towns, players could work and become vampires / werewolves (who were anathema to the wolfling race).

Great ongoing and short term quests; the world felt like it had an ongoing history, and the quest / story related battles and events you were in did in fact matter.

*sigh* It went down sometime between 95 and 99, a damn shame. I spent half a year trying to track down at least the source code / databases, thinking maybe I could purchase and run the game, but no joy.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I'm currently playing DOM2 on the computer and D&D3.5 with friends about once every month or so. That's about all I have time for, really. I have Neverwinter Nights on my harddrive, but I'm waiting to get a better graphics card so that it's not so mind-numbingly slow.

I used to play a *lot* of computer games. Old Favorites included ADOM, NetHack, HOMM3, Wizardy 7, Age of Wonders, Civ and Alpha Centauri, Quake II, and on and on ...

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I think that SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) is the closest Ive seen to making that work. Im definetly interested in seeing what the next effort along those lines brings up.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

SWG is horribly bad because the whole game is about level grinding. The expansion though may be interesting but they will probably mess it up.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

That's how mmorpgs work. Unless it's a game where there is heavy pvp and politics like AC:1 Darktide, Shadowbane, or Eve Online, you're not going to be a factor in the storyline. Remember, you're one of hundreds of thousands of players so it's not likely any one single person will affect the storyline. There are reasons why the content makers don't even want you to affect the storyline.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Bleach,

There were millions of people in the Rebellion (Star Wars) and while few individuals made a difference, collectively they did. In MMORPGs, even the sum total of all the members on a shard don't matter. It's not important to me that my own actions matter, but it's a pointless game if nothing that anyone does, even collectively in the thousands, matters.


Aku,

Having been in SWG from beta onwards, I can agree 100%. SWG is (IMO) the best MMORPG I've seen yet and it sucks. What that says about other MMOs I'll leave to your imagination.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

My friend and I tried out SWG a few months ago and he played throughout the beta and said the beta was more fun than it is now lol and during the whole time of the beta he was telling me how horrible it was lol.

I am really disappointed in all the mmorpgs that are out. They are all about level grinding and so many are completely unbalanced.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Eve Online looks pretty cool! I'm almost interested in getting it now. Except for the time commitment which I don't have, it sounds like it would be alot of fun to be part of.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Yes, Aku, the beta of SWG was actually fun. The released game wasn't/isn't. In beta, a couple of highly-skilled Teras Kasi martial artists (or a single one with the help of some marksmen) could actually take down some huge lizard things (I forget what they're called, they're about the size of Krayt Dragons but found on an out-of-the-way volcanic planet). In release, you can't even make it to their stomping grounds without being torn apart, much less actually face the beasts with anything short of a stormtrooper legion. This isn't so much a matter of the devs upping the toughness of the game's critters, which they did (and I don't have a problem with), but of their nerfing the hell out of the combat classes to the point where starting characters get their asses kicked by rabbits (I kid you not). I won't even get into what they did to artisans.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I just went and checked the Eve Online website and it does look pretty cool. I thought it was a busy but I guess not (Maybe that was Earth & Beyond that I was thinking of).

hmmm...

Krool

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Wasn't E&B supposed to go poof this month?

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Yea, I think it was E&B, but for some reason I had it in my mind that it was Eve. Actually, I'm still looking over Eve and it looks damn cool. Of course, I could be really wrong here. But it seems much more player driven than any other MMO game.

Krool

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Yeah E&B is suppose to be poof this month or has gone poof already.

And yeah in SWG starting characters get owned by rabbits...its sad.

D&D Online I want to keep an eye on. They said you can play it like you do your paper and dice sessions. Now that is really cool because its hard to find people to play with that live nearby. Too bad the game is coming out in late 2005. I hope it actually turns out good and can be an mmorpg you can play once a week and still feel you did something. All the current mmorpgs out are horrible time sinks and hours can pass and you feel you accomplished nothing.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Since the subject changed to Eve Online (my Last MMOG ever), I will tell you why I quit:

1. Bugs. I played a little over a month and encountered a huge quantity of bugs personally. Also, monitored the help channel and heard of tons of other bugs. I do not believe Eve has enough paid Subscribers to adequately support the game.

2. Lag. Like all these games, lag kills. Eve has it in over-abundance.

3. Experience System. You gain skill points per each unit of time. At the end of one month playing you will have a little under one million skillpoints. Some players already have 20 million skillpoints. You can NEVER catch up, no matter how long you play each day. This puts you at a severe disadvantage in any player vs player fights. I estimate you are at a 5% to 25% handicap at the minimum.

5. Mining. Mining is the key to Eve's economy. If you have the minerals, you can make most of the gear and ships in Eve. Mining became the most boring grind I have experienced in an MMOG, which made running missions my only source of income. Some people don't get bored from mining and power to them.

6. Uber Guilds. Like all MMOs, Eve has its uber guilds. These are the largest and most established corporations. They do not recruit newbies. Personally, I am not interested in leaving friends and the corporation behind who had helped me to that point.

7. War can be declared by one corp against any other corp to avoid retaliation by the police. This mechanism is used by larger corporations and player killers to take you out wherever and whenever they please. Another advantage of being in an uber corporation.

8. Etc., etc. The list could continue indefinitely.

One of my characters had developed a persistent display bug at the end. CCP was telling me my screen should be showing various things which was not the case. This was the final nail in the coffin for Eve.

But, this is just my opinion. You might love Eve.

Aikamun

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Hmmm.. I've been reading alot of reviews on Eve, as well as their site, and the more I read, the more I'm interested. The "problem" with Corps is also the main attraction of Eve. It means there's alot of activity that's player driven. As for the Skills system, I was under the impression that they did it that way to level the playing field for people who couldn't spend every minute of the day killing monsters. This way, reguardless of how much time you can commit to being Online, you'll still level up at the same pace as everyone else. Sure it means if you joined the game a year after others, you'll be pretty far behind, but since the real power is with Guilds, it's seems less important to have an insanely high level character, and more practical to be friends with the right people (kinda reminding me of real life a bit). On their site, they say there's over 2000 player Guilds/Corporations (compared to 140 NPC Corps). Sure it might be lonely at first, but the community is definitly there! (their site posted that Last monday they had 11,200 people Online.. that might not be the 100,000+ Ultima Online would get, but isn't that pretty good anyways?)

But then, that's my impression from the basic reading I've done. I still haven't played the game yet.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Anyone know anything about Guild Wars? This game may be interesting.

http://www.guildwars.com/

There is the link. Tell me what you think.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Lex, thats the same line of thinking that interested me, its not story-driven but driven by the players, up to and including the economic model.

I am still looking into this game of course. I'm going to cruise around their website some more. Looking at the interstellar map, it appears there is plenty of room for growth without having to join one of the existing corporations.

Krool

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I've got a long list of games I *MUST* play. So the time commitment of Eve is a bit worrisome. But nevertheless I'm pretty sure later in the week when work eases up, I'll sign up and spend several days reading every rule/story/forum/guide and really check it out for real

Edit: how cool would it be to start a Corp called Dominions (although in a space setting, it'll get confused with the Dominion from DS9)

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

No. It just steps through the turn sequence and moves the cards for you (and keeps count of damage, I presume). Stuff like disallowing illegal targets it doesn't do. I guess that would make for some interesting debates.

As far as I know they've not been sued or challenged. It doesn't use any of WotC's code (it was written from scratch), it just uses the same card artwork. Since you can d/l the card art for free from WotC's own site (at least until Scourge) I don't see a problem. They may have some issues with the newest sets though, since WotC don't provide them as encyclopaedia updates (I think they have stopped supporting the encyclopaedia in order to push people towards MtGOL).

Coolest deck I've seen is a Stasis deck. If you're prepared to use the less common formats (1.5 et al.) it can be a lot of fun without sealed deck. Just restrict the powerful cards to 1 each (making a lot of them undesirable) and ban a load of the others. Or, as you say, use the block restricted formats - I love Ice Age!

CC

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Thanks for the replies, I thought nobody noticed my questions. And yeah, I bet there'd be major debates, especially if someone tries to do something weird that depends heavily on the order that effects resolve.

By the way, Lich is the enchantment that makes the caster lose all life when it enters play. Now that has got to be way weirder than stasis. Apologies if you already knew that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

I was, and am, impressed by the same things. (I've been watching and laughing at the game news over the Last few days about a big series of races sponsored by one of the NPC Empires. To make them exciting, the races are partly run through low security space, and some of the naughtier player residents have decided to object and blockade certain systems. So most of the race participants are now being blown away before they can finish!)

The trouble is that all the single-player stuff - mining, agent missions or NPC pirate-hunting - is just as dull and grindy as it seems to be in most MMORPGs (not that I'm an expert). Trading might be more fun and rewarding, because you're playing in a more-or-less genuine market; but I haven't tried that yet. Hopefully it'll get more interesting once I'm fully integrated into Corporation actiivities, and my Corp moves closer to player-run space. The issue there is finding the right one.

Anyway, it's all very intriguing. I'm just still not decided whether it will be rewarding in the long term.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Freelancer is a single-player only game, that is almost EXACTLY like Eve. And I loved Freelancer. Although the tactical combat was really well done in Freelancer, and seems to be boring in Eve. But I spent literally hours just watching my ship courrier supplies from neighbouring systems for profit. It gets boring after a while, but that's only cos nothing ever changed. In Eve, everything changes week to week. I think by the time you got bored in Eve, you'd be advanced enough to become part of a Corporation, which would then open up a whole new set of activities and interests.

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Playing some Posband and some CoH.

I love the REALLY slow dom 2 game I'm in, it's strategically dicey, but I have time to DO OTHER THINGS!!!

WooHoo!

Rabe the Newbie Scrapper on Liberty

I read the post about the uber(in-game)scam some guy pulled in eve. (search BoingBoing)

If you can grift it, that's pretty real http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: What other games are people playing??
 

Mark,

So are you saying oyu've begun playing Eve, or is this just from reading the web page?

Krool