slumlordthanatos

@slumlordthanatos@lemmy.world

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slumlordthanatos,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/173501d4-f364-4b36-b5dc-0547aa5a7610.png

slumlordthanatos,

instead of just playing the game as intended.

I feel like you just unwittingly hit on the problem many series veterans have been having.

People are approaching bosses in Elden Ring like they’re Dark Souls bosses, and in my thousands of hours across the series, the only bosses I summon help for is Sister Friede and the Demon Twins. Everyone else I was eventually able to defeat on my own, because that’s how they were balanced.

But in Elden Ring, you have the open world to grind in and Spirit Ashes and crazy weapon arts that are far beyond any that were in Dark Souls 3, and the bosses are balanced around these things. It’s harder to make a good guess at how powerful a player is at any given time in Elden Ring, so in order to counter the player’s bullshit, the bosses need bullshit of their own.

This, naturally, throws a wrench into the plans of veterans who are used to bosses that are tough but fair and approaching them in that manner. They then promptly get their shit pushed in because they aren’t using the things the encounters are balanced around having simply because they didn’t used to need them.

It makes the bosses binary. Either you get your ass kicked, or you summon help, use a Mimic Tear, and run a train on them. They’re either frustrating or boring, and fights that are frustrating or boring just aren’t fun. I’m not having fun getting comboed to death or just pelting the boss with spells while my goons beat them up.

The magic is gone. Bosses used to be the highlight of Souls games, and now I just want them to be over.

slumlordthanatos,

The only time it was challenging was back when AI factions had a hate boner for the player and ONLY the player. Like how they would leave their settlements undefended to march halfway across the map, through territory belonging to a faction they were at war with just to sack the player’s settlements.

slumlordthanatos,

Mages are really nerfed despite the story saying they’re super powerful and dangerous.

This is kinda selling mages in the setting short.

Magic in this setting is basically the same as it is in Warhammer 40k: mages get their power from an alternate dream dimension that is also where demons reside, they can spontaneously explode and/or summon demons if they’re not careful, and they’re heavily regulated/repressed. Rogue mages are hunted down and killed by Templars, and everyone else is mostly confined to wizard towers that double as prison camps.

It never comes across in gameplay, but mages and how they’re treated are major plot points in all three games.

slumlordthanatos,

More rope to hang himself with…I hope.

We’ll find out in a little over two weeks.

slumlordthanatos,

Let’s not forget how blatantly the bosses read your inputs. FROM bosses have always done this, but it’s never been so obvious; it kinda breaks the “tough but fair” illusion.

My take is that since players have gotten so powerful, bosses had to adapt…but the only ways to make them stronger have upset the balance between “tough” and “fair”. Hit boxes for attacks have gotten larger, which hurts readability; attacks that you used to be able to dodge now land, even though it didn’t look like it. Bosses hit harder, combo their attacks, and they can even cancel into different combos now.

All of this happened because bosses are balanced around Spirit Ashes and the new insane weapon arts. It’s harder than ever to SL1 the game, because if you don’t have a good Ash summon or a crazy weapon art or didn’t grind for upgrade materials, main quest bosses are stupidly hard. If you did do all of those things, they’re almost trivial.

It’s weird. The bosses used to be the highlight of Soulsborne games, and now they’re the worst part because they’re just not fun anymore. Dragonlord Placidusax is my favorite fight, and it’s not even close. I either trivialize my way through the rest, or just wanted them to be over. The satisfaction of fighting a worthy opponent is gone, because it’s almost always just unfair for the player, or unfair for the boss.

slumlordthanatos,

Nah, Lae’zel is just horny.

It’s kinda funny how bitchy she gets if you turn her down.

slumlordthanatos,

Thank you, sir; I’d saved that a while back for a comment and couldn’t find the original.

slumlordthanatos,

I hate X-2 with the burning fury of a thousand suns, and I’ll still praise the combat.

slumlordthanatos,

I hated X because I found most of the characters sans Auron and Lulu to be incredibly obnoxious.

X-2 just made those problems worse by largely getting rid of the few characters I could tolerate, and somehow making Rikku even more annoying.

It says something about how good the combat was in those games that I managed to power my way thru X and a fair chunk of X-2 before it just got to be too much for me.

slumlordthanatos,

Do it.

See what happens.

slumlordthanatos,

If I’m Judge Merchan, I’d cite Trump’s naked attempts to intimidate the jury, witnesses, and the judge (as well as multiple violations of his gag order) as an excuse to throw the book at him.

I’d point out that all Trump had to do to get a slap on the wrist was keep his mouth shut, because it’s my understanding that most people convicted of falsifying business documents don’t get jail time; they usually just get fined, get some community service, maybe probation if it’s bad. Most first-time defendants characterize this crime as an innocent mistake and behave accordingly, but Trump and his ego had to run his mouth.

slumlordthanatos,

Man, Camellia’s arc is a pretty twisty one, and she’s probably the most fascinating party member in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. If you’ve finished your fifth playthrough of BG3 and are hungry for a different flavor, WotR is an easy recommend.

slumlordthanatos,

Republicans have a huge and extensive propaganda network that feeds their constituents a steady stream of misinformation, fear, hatred, intolerance, and ignorance. Fox News primes them, Republicans parrot Fox or whatever right-wing news outlet people get their news from, and get elected because most people don’t have the media literacy to see that they’re being lied to.

We can’t reason with them, because they live in a world that has been carefully crafted to keep them compliant. The only way to fix this is to break the GOP’s propaganda machine. Until we can do that, they are lost to us.

slumlordthanatos,

I’ve always said that the Railjack in Warframe really deserved to be its own game instead of a shoehorned game mode.

This looks like what that idea could be. Just being able to play Sea of Thieves IN SPACE!!! is a home-run of an idea.

slumlordthanatos,

Their problem was they counted their chickens before they hatched. They went on a spending spree while expecting an influx of cash from the Saudi PIF. But the deal fell through and suddenly, they were short about $2 billion.

slumlordthanatos,

Definitely has some Rogue Trader energy to it.

slumlordthanatos,

But they may stay home, which is just as bad.

slumlordthanatos,

No, we’re not fine with being unbelievably screwed, but the ruling class has decided that this will be normal, so we might as well make dark jokes about it while we scream into the void.

slumlordthanatos,

And yes, that’s just. Yet, the same slave going into a spree and killing everybody that crosses his path would be a terrorist.

This is something that an awful lot of people seem to miss.

Kira made it very clear that her and her fellow resistance fighters actively targeted Cardassian civilians and she never showed any remorse over doing so. Civilian casualties are inevitable in a scenario like this, but going out of your way to target them, even if they’re occupiers, is crossing a line.

slumlordthanatos,

It’s not nearly as fast-paced or mobile as Warframe, and Helldivers is much more about the chaos you cause with your buddies than grinding for gear and materials. You don’t have to worry about mods or damage types (dealing with armored enemies and fortifications is the most you’ll have to worry about), just shoot bugs/Terminators and call in an airstrike or orbital bombardment on anything guns won’t kill. I’d say it’s closer to Left4Dead than anything else.

You can drop by yourself if you want, but it is an always-online, live-service game, and the focus is on co-op.

slumlordthanatos,

I admit, I really preferred how Owlcat’s Pathfinder games handled this, where skill checks are automatically taken by the party member with the highest relevant skill. Say, if a Persuasion check appears in dialog, the roll is made by the character with the highest Persuasion skill, without having to swap to that character. If a Strength or Agility check appears, the character with the highest stat makes the roll automatically.

There should at least be an option for this in BG3.

slumlordthanatos,

https://i.imgur.com/dAtwPON.jpg

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