setsneedtofeed

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I completely understand how overcluttered and distracting some HUDs can become. I have found however that fully HUDless experiences tend to be more of a novelty than an increase in immersion.

If I’m playing a shooter and don’t have information on, say how many magazines I have, I find that more distracting than immersive. In real life I could quickly pat my vest to know. A HUD can be a replacement for information that seems intuitive to have because in a real situation we’d have kinesthetic feedback.

Basic information like health while injured is simply too useful. Realistically my health isn’t defined by a single variable bar nor is it restored instantly from a grievous wound by a using a syringe, so I find that seeing the bar is useful for succeeding in the game even if it is equally as unrealistic.

Something like the iHUD mod for modern Fallout games is my ideal HUD. It is modular and I can define what information I see, what information I don’t, and for how long the information I do get stays on the screen. Health can be set to only show at certain thresholds, the compass directions or map markers can be disabled unless I ask to see them briefly. Other elements similarly made optional.

I’ve played fully HUDless in both Metro games and in modded STALKER games, and each time I do I find myself going back to having at least a minimal informative HUD.

I don’t hate HUDs and I think most people who try HUDless don’t actually hate them either. What is hated are obnoxious tool tips, flashy HUD animations, and floating intrusive quest markers. If UX designers do their jobs right, people don’t know they did anything at all.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

There are diegetic elements like that, but also how the non-diegetic HUD delivers information.

When is it giving information? Is it giving me information I don’t actually need at the moment. For example a first person game that always has a compass or minimap. Maybe I want those sometimes, but do I want them always?

What are the visuals of the HUD like? Are they easy to read? Are they distracting? HUDs that have stretched and difficult at a glance fonts are a bad idea to me. Simple fonts that can be read against a variety of background colors are seemingly underdesigned to many UX designers, but it’s all I want sometimes.

Do HUDs have needlessly animated elements? Sometimes just putting a plain and simple number or bar on a screen is enough, but many games add so many artistic flourishes that it gets in the way of the game visuals.

HALO CE had its shield bar with the little health dots underneath. Technically diegetic, but obviously a gameplay element. It wasn’t distracting, it was clean and easy to read, it gave information that was constantly relevant.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Are you on Mastodon?

Technically. I tried it before lemmy but I couldn’t quite make sense of it. I was never into twitter in the first place, so it all kind of baffled me. I could always reactivate my account.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

You’re right. Players shouldn’t be buying equipment they can’t afford to supply. Changed the typo.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Impressions Games is the name of the studio that made the Civil War Generals games. If you like old Sid Meier games, I’d put Impressions studios games in a similar ballpark.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I mean they didn’t really do 4X aside from Lords Of The Realm and Lords Of Magic games, but the city builders and strategy games do have, how do I put it, a similar wavelength was Sid Meier games.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I don’t want to come off as to PCMR, but truly Bethesda developed games need to be played on PC to get the most out of them. The mods tremendously elevate the experience. Everything from bug fixes and optimizations (that Bethesda should have done) to full on overhauls and DLC sized expansions, and everything in between.

I think I average about 200 mods simultaneously on Fallout 4 playthroughs.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Dusted off the old Nintendo 64 to play some StarFox 64. It still holds up great.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

The controls hold up better than something like Star Wars Rogue Squadron, which I surprised myself to discover. I have great memories of Rogue Squadron but the controls are stiff in all the wrong ways while StarFox is comparatively easier to fly even in the non-linear arena areas.

Visually StarFox is obviously dated, but because it opted for big low detail style to begin with it isn’t difficult on the eyes the way “realistic” N64 games look today.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I’m so happy that I’m on the sidelines of all this. I think watching is significantly more enjoyable than being part of it.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I’ve been part of some amateur game dev projects and SC has the vibe of an amateur project where the devs are constantly focusing on whatever catches their fancy at the moment, going back and tinkering with things they’ve already made, and sort of aimlessly scope creeping. There’s nobody to strongarm them into writing, much less following a game design document.

All of that is intuitive to me to understand.

Then there is “the dream” that is being sold to people who want this type of game. That level of very specific fandom is also easy to understand, at least from a distance. People get super into all kinds of games and spend outsized amounts of money and time.

Star Citizen is like the perfect storm of these elements.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

No, there’s really no excusing this game’s development. If anything, Robert’s should have learned from Freelancer to have a tight core product that’s actually shippable.

At this point Internet nerds are locked into throwing money at Star Citizen’s development, making it the closest thing humanity has achieved to a perpetual motion machine.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Get ‘em, boys.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

And this is why producers or project leads are not always the villains when they force designers to cut content in games.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Yeah, Underrail is pretty good.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I suppose I should have elaborated.

Chris Roberts begin developing Freelancer with a similar aspiration of total simulation that Star Citizen now promises.

Freelancer repeatedly overshot development timelines and Roberts was running out of money. He had to go to Microsoft for cash. Microsoft gave money to develop Freelancer in exchange for Roberts being essentially demoted to a consultant, and Microsoft taking charge. Microsoft immediately began cutting features and mechanics to turn Freelancer from an amorphous project into a shippable game.

If you know that, then seeing Roberts in charge of a new game, with no oversight and essentially infinite development time, the resulting quantum superposition state of Star Citizen’s release should not be surprising.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

If you landed in an in-game fake moon it would be a wonderfully interesting plot thread.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I can’t believe how ignorant you are of the worldwide canvas shortage of 2018. Canvas became a global strategic resource. Lack of canvas destabilized numerous nation states.

The idea of frivolously wasting that precious canvas on a video game trinket is frankly offensive.

-Bethesda, probably.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Too bad. They’re getting copies of Burger King’s Sneak King and they’re going to like it.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

The caption calls him “For Win 95 & DOS CD”. It’s a very archaic set of titles.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I always go full vegetarian. Sell all the cows and use the money to buy a bunch of grain, preferably in winter. Plant everything, and you’re good. Once grain starts making surpluses you have enough to feed everyone and sell the excess back to the carts for the rest of the game.

In spring, summer, and winter grain needs fewer workers. Only in fall will it need reallocation.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I never played 3. Back in the day my computer couldn’t run it, and I never got around to trying it out. I own it as part of the Steam pack I bought 2 with, but my next review will be a mystery game that I had to order a physical copy of.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Thanks. I’m trying to put that content everybody keeps asking for on lemmy. I’m mentally toying with the idea of videos if I become confident enough to script and edit.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

For $1.29 you can buy a pack with Lords of The Realm 1,2,3 and Lords Of Magic on Steam right now. (This is not an ad, just saying, the game is still very accessible).

And I miss big thick paper manuals, especially ones with background info and art.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Lords Of The Realm 2 is substantially different from the Civ games. In Lords Of The Realm 2 there is no tech tree and no eras to unlock, there are no alternative options for victory aside from military success, the player and AI do not create their villages but the village locations are preset on the map, there is no building of logistical infrastructure such as roads or mining quarries- instead each county has predetermined resources and the player only decides how many workers to assign to them, battles happen inside their own distinct level of play rather than happening on the world map.

The Civ games are 4x games where long term research and policy decisions are needed to build a faction. Lords Of The Realm 2 is set strictly in the medieval setting and is only concerned with the immediate local squabble.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I’ve tried playing Lords Of Magic and have bounced off of it. The real time combat feels more like a real time tactics game than a strategy game, and I’m pretty bad at real time tactics games. It also makes use of heroic characters and faction specific abilities and magic. It’s something I haven’t fully wrapped around.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

It released close to Endwar which was an RTS with a similar plot premise.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

“Bailiff, seize him.”

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

“It has already been released. It has been released for thousands of years. Humanity simply needs to reach a point of true understanding to see it.”

Gabe disappears in a flash of light.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu (edited rok temu)

“It’s actually all of yours. Check you computers, they all have Half Life 3 installed.”

Gabe puts on a top hat, pulls out an umbrella and floats away.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I’m still a little disappointed at that part in the movie when the guy simply recommends an AR. Dude should have listed off a bunch of specifications like in movies when a Car Guy lists engine details.

“Ah, I think you’ll be interested in a new build I have here. Noveski upper with a ten point three barrel, suppressor compatible, monolithic handguard, there is an adjustable gasblock which I’ve left a little overgassed but I get the feeling you won’t be using this piece long enough for that to be a problem. The lower has a two stage flat trigger. Very good break. Ambidextrous controls. Non-latching charging handle of course. I’ve taken the liberty of putting a low power variable zoom Trijicon optic on top. Twenty five yard zero with M855.

It comes standard with six anti-tilt steel magazines. Although, for you Mr. Wick I’ll go ahead and make it twelve.”

That or it should have just been Ian recommending obscure French guns until John Wick leaves.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

A scene that John Wick referenced, which was fun.

The original version had the great negotiation about how much Ugly was going to rob the shopkeeper though.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu (edited rok temu)

In Valve’s case it’s just a smart move both for PR and business. Black Mesa isn’t competing with any of their products since I’m sure not many younger people are super interested in the original. In fact the remake might drum up interest by some people to play the original. And it’s sold on Valve’s platform, giving them a cut. Win win.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Am I the only person who mostly liked the Blue Shift models?

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I started playing ATOM RPG again. I tried once a few months ago but my build made the game very unfun. I looked up a guide to a hood starter build and hope that helps me see what other people see in it.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I played Stardew Valley Expanded until 1am.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

While it was weird that there even was a Thieves Guild in Fallout 1, I do appreciate how it wasn’t just signposted about in town, and to get to it you had to really explore seemingly desolate areas, get through multiple locked doors and a hallway of landmines.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

The drive sprocket for the Tiger 2 was modeled with 18 teeth instead of 20.

The developers are buffoons. Absolute fools.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Why would you take a car off a diamond store?

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

My favorite tutorial was in STALKER. The guy gives you a pistol and tells you good luck.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

It’s once again one of the only games where skills like speech or barter actually feel worth it

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e74650e9-bf98-4f1d-ac6e-041e04be7b00.jpeg

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

The combat was a low point. I spent most of the game up through the finale with a MK2 light machinegun. It was tinkered with and upgraded. My character had no points at all put into gun skills and I still chewed through enemies with ease. Whenever ammo ran low I switched to a MK2 heavy assault rifle.

Even the finale sub-boss robot was pathetically easy to kill.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I’m still not sure why The Outer Worlds is thought of as the same team as New Vegas. It had different leads and writers. The marketing for the game heavily pushed the connection because of Obsidian, but the individuals (at least the ones most important in steering the game development) involved are different.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

While the ending slides were mostly nothing special, I did actually audibly laugh when the SAM’s ending slide was an advertisement.