/vr/ - Retro Games

>>456367

Mass Effect was *supposed* to be along this line. The lore the first game establishes is very much hard sci-fi. The story is borderline idiotic though and by the second game, the hard sci-fi was abandoned in favor of Hollywoodisms.

Other than that, literally nothing comes to mind.

>>456268

Singularity engine increases production cost. So does clean reactor. What's the point? The idea is to shit out as many as possible as quickly as possible -- fuck up what you wanted to fuck up and disband. You can easily upgrade to clean reactor later if you want to keep them for whatever reason.

They're meant to create and destroy land bridges primarily, but also for makeshift bunkers and sensors in the field. You can also use them to build boreholes in stupid locations where you think the enemy wouldn't look.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, THIS CHARLIE REALLY DID A NUMBER ON US, REQUESTING IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE

Sure thing soldier, A squad of Dangerous Rapist Person ready for emergency evac procedures.

Alright, check this guy out.

Cheap as shit.
Can go anywhere you want at a snap of a finger.
Four of these and you can lift a square in a single turn.

A few of these and you can really tear some shit up at any stage of the game. Completely unfair against the AI but I plan to use him in multiplayer.

I call him "Dickbutt". It's a clever worldplay you see as it's a marriage of two words -- "dick" an euphemism for penis and "butt" and euphemism for one's ass.

>>455364

Alright, that's true, but I'm yet to see a really clever and practical unit that makes me stand up and say "Holy shit, why didn't I think of that?"

>>454510

You'll find there's not much to customizing units. You'll want to design a cheap AAA unit -- there's not one available. You'll also want flying colony pods and cheap flying transports (beats slow as fuck fucking boats). Other than that, you'll just want to tweak the original designs for quick upgrades when necessary. You can't really shift any paradigms through the editor.

>>455027
>continued

Surely enough, some form of benevolent dictatorship is always preferable to the glorified mob rule that is democracy, I'll always agree on that. However, leadership should be about setting aside shackles that stand in the way of our personal development and putting into shackles the ideas of personal development that seek to utterly dominate others. Sure, it's not perfect and does not stand for complete freedom, but I'm sure we could find a more altruistic way of channeling our darker sides without completely suffocating other modes of being. I don't mean to completely suffocate modes of being like sadism and greed, just not let them run rampant to the point of becoming cancerous.

To put in short terms -- leadership must recognize itself as feedback. Ideals come and go depending on our current state of being and the closest thing to perfection we can achieve is balanced exploration of our potential. Nurturing our understanding of the world and our potential role in it through experience. Observing it grow outward to encompass more and more. This is the ideal way of discovering where we as individuals fit in best, without being shoehorned into demagoguery of established philosophies pilling on top of each other to the point of utter meaninglessness.

Ironically enough, it is nihilism that is reactionary. I believe it's born out of disappointment in what is rather than a transcendence into the true, uncolored state of things nihilists will have you believe it is. Everything is colored -- even creation itself had purpose and intent before coming into being. Really, what could be better than will and purpose -- finding our own path through life? Why not embrace our biases and explore them instead of immediately externalizing them as unwanted?

>>453876

Instead of clinging onto a singular idea as a measure of success, we should keep an open mind to the feedback between our desires and the means by which we accomplish them. We shackle our minds with symbols and quickly lose sight of why they ever meant anything to us in the first place. Yang speaks of transcendence for it's own sake with little insight into what this accomplishes, all the while cursing our carnal state as weak and inefficient. Seems to me this particular idea of "transcendence" is reactionary and born out of resentment of what is more than a striving to be something more. Yang speaks of inherent worthlessness of symbols such as "humanity" and "morality", yet preaches the mystical, unseen benefits of a perfectly unified whole. Are these benefits really so evident that they need not be questioned, but rather simply experienced and we are to believe they will automatically become internalized once we become a productive part of the collective? Is it simply the nature of things that are to simply become "better" at what they are? To what end?

I see no benefit in clinging to a singular idea at the expense of everything else. Soon enough, everything external becomes waste as we approach some sort of imagined singularity of perfection. Whole lot of suffering and self-denial for mystical mumbo-jumbo. "Transendence" is bullshit. We grow *from* just as much as we grow *into*. Deny and shun who you are in favor of "something better" -- you'll quickly realize it's a pointless struggle as you discover the faults of your new form.

>continued

>>453654

Oh sure. That perfectly explains why we should all devolve to amoral lumps of flesh just because of some unexplained devotion to an arbitrarily defined idea of "progress".

>>453386

As I said, they all potentially make sense as quite logical offshoots of existing factions. Here's what the lore should have been:

Pirates. They land on the planet and realize there's this impenetrable sea that's quite harder to control than Earth's seas, but absolutely vital to progress. There's some who see a world of opportunity in this.

Consciousness. As Zakharov's ideals gain significant foothold a natural schizm develops between the technocratic upper echelon and those not feeling to graft chips into their brains.

Drones. Oppressed and exiled drones of all factions come together and start anew.

Angels. As conflicts and lawlessness all across the planet arise parallel to rapid technological progress, there are those who are capable of harnessing serious profit from the chaos. They see this as an opportunity to cast off shackles, etc, etc, you get the point.

Cult. As Deidre's followers gain further understanding of the planet, some become a bit bonkers and yeah, this is quite irredeemably stupid.

The point is -- all of these factions feel like they've grown out of the planet and the way of life it imposed. Why they're not treated as such by the lore is beyond me. Maybe they wanted to avoid judgement on the existing factions. Maybe they didn't want things like "Zakharov's society kinda falls apart and breaks in half" as official lore because it takes away from things precisely like our discussion here. As stated a few posts back, the writers clearly valued this discussion more than casting their own judgement on the factions. But, you know, if you're gonna make an expansion like this, might as well do it rather than beat around the bush like they did.

>>453173

>Relies on deep intuitive sense combined with scientific knowledge for determination of future actions. Powerful mind and will combined with broad base of knowledge leads her to excel in chosen area of expertise. Sense of isolation from childhood events (e.g. divorce of parents) and pre-launch events reinforces strong tendency to introversion.
>Strong connection to environmental causes may cloud scientific judgment; strong democratic leadership style may result in subject placing welfare of loyal subordinates above welfare of mission as a whole. Appeals to reason should prove effective in discouraging these behaviors.

It is implied she's emotionally unstable. She's quite loving and almost motherly, but introvert. Couple her aversion to interpersonal relations with humans and passionate devotion to biology -- it's only natural to assume that she stuffs her vagina with worms daily.

>>453097

Well, the Xfire factions are all kinda stupid and one-dimensional. I guess they'd be interesting as natural extensions of the existing factions, but the lore has them formed back on Unity rather than the planet. Stupid and baffling. Unnecessary retcon, especially since no new philosophical ground was covered. The new factions have nothing new to say and feel like uninteresting frankensteins of already established philosophies.

Pirates -- much like you claim, really. Morgan's principles without any real exploration of any of their implications.

Consciousness -- Computer say 0101011. That's really all there is to her. Rationality = good, feelings = unnecessary. It's like you took Yang's philosophy and stripped it of any nuance. Yeah, so you jack off to her voice, that doesn't change this fact one bit.

Cult = 3creepy5me. Worm = good, notworm = bad. The only interesting thing is the implication that he's the planet infiltrating humanity, but that completely retcons the fact that The Voice at first has zero inkling on how humanity operates.

Drones = Workers = good, moneymen = bad. I mean, come on.

Angels = Everything bad about the '90s cyberpunk hacker caricature. Feels more like a fetish rather than a philosophy as "Jazz" was never explored in any depth. You're living wild and living free while hacking computationally streaming datalink coreputing processing mainframes. So basically, C grade German EBM lyrics: The Faction.

To sum it up:

>Pirates
Santiago + Morgan, only dumb.

>Consciousness
Yang + University, only dumb.

>Cult
Deidre + Batshit insanity, only dumb.

>Drones
They don't fit any existing AC philosophy because AC intentionally set out to avoid simpleminded and unlikely setups like this.

>Angels
Peacekeepers + Morgan, but really, what I sad about Drones applies more.

>>452861

That idea isn't far-fetched at all. Her quotes oscillate between utterly rational and/or thought provoking to completely batshit insane. And if you read her dossier, it's very much implied she's a master manipulator. There's quite obviously two sides to Miriam.

Now, whether her real side stands for a certain lifestyle and ideology or hunger for power and control is left intentionally vague, just like it is for Yang. The writers knew what they were doing and didn't want to flesh out the characters beyond the point where everything becomes a soap opera and more about the characters rather than the philosophy they stand for. That would be completely counter-productive, unnecessary and just fan-service-esque, realy. Instead, they leave it to us to ponder the possibility that Yang and Miriam are nothing but dictators, that Deidre puts worms up her vagina, that Lal has a odd, sociopathic yet clingy streak hiding behind all the altruism. Really, the only character that's obviously selfish and ultimately standing only for himself is Morgan. There's little ambiguity around him and everything he says seems only a flimsy veneer to justify his greed.

>>418761
>Too bad for Zakharov really. Most of his bases had drone riots

That's ol' Zak for you in a nutshell. I'd never dare play him in multiplayer. Pisskeepers and Spartards are the safest choices, followed by Yang.

>>418710

Holy shit, that's been written by a completely incompetent composer.

Also that guitar lead. I almost burst out laughing.

Jesus christ, I'm glad I didn't watch this as a kid.

>>418207

Should have taken that jungle earlier.

Spartans fucking University in the ass is a common occurrence. AI Spartans hate University.

>>414383

I still don't get it.

It's a Trance Former, as in a Transformer (hue hue) and that's because it has the Trance ability.

What's the filename a reference to? It's a reference, isn't it?

>>416772

I love getting those messages from alien factions, even without randomizing personalities.

>>415249

Might as well storm Morgan first and take that delicious jungle. Will make subduing Spartans easier. Build a land bridge to Morgan and just pour your zergs in.

What difficulty is this?

>>412117

Not true. First off, you'll be able to zoom in and out to a certain degree.

Second, it would be really noticable on smaller objects. Things like the chains running along the side of the bridge would look disgusting. The overall mood would also suffer, there appears to be a subtle noise effect applied over the entire image. If you used post-processing to do that, it would look artificial.

>>412063

The alternative is the /v/ thread where some incredibly witty people are screaming about feminism and talking about how Dark Souls is just too old for their taste.

>>411916

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=84p5l3qig7ucpmv4ilgmoqj063&board=2.0

>>411979

Are you serious? You can't possibly achieve that kind of fidelity in 3d and have it run on even the most powerful PCs currently available.

And even then, you'd have aliasing issues unless you were using some serious multisampling.

Just like Josh said -- it's about achieving that delicious painterly look. You need to do some heavy Photoshop work and you can't do that with a 3d scene:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/329689

>>410730

Perhaps you should because Yang is all about massing fuckloads of units. It's how he's designed to be played and how the AI plays him too. Defending taken cities may not be worth it -- it depends on the location and whether you need a place to repair your units. A simple monolith can do the job too. However, defending shouldn't be too difficult as all Hive bases begin with a Perimeter Defense and Yang's forces are numerous but usually technologically behind. Yang can't into money. At the end of the day, it really really depends on the situation.

Ask yourself why you're even at war. Are you afraid of him turning on you down the line or do you want his territory?