A return to Pillars of Eternity 2

Posted on March 7, 2019 by SynCaine

I’ve been playing some Pillars of Eternity 2 again, prompted by the recent addition of turn-based battle mode. Funny enough, I’m not actually playing using that mode, because while it’s a mode I normally enjoy in games, it just doesn’t quiet work for me in PoE2.

The big problem is it slows the game down to a crawl. Every battle takes 10x as long, and while that’s maybe ok for the major battles, it makes the more mundane battles simply too long. PoE2 is already 60+ hours in length, and that’s with skipping a large chunk of the side content, so drastically increasing the playtime via combat is just not something I can sign up for.

The shame in this is that in turn-based mode, you really notice more of the nuance in the combat, plus you get to actually watch all of the animations without worrying you are missing something else happening. And those animations are pretty cool, plus watching the impact different abilities and spells have lets you really understand what is going on in a way that real-time just does not.

I would love if Obsidian released a game build from the ground up using turn-based combat, because I think they would nail it and it would be a ton of fun. I know their next game is a ‘true’ Fallout-like FPS RPG, but maybe after that?

Combat mode aside, PoE2 is really an excellent game, and has a scary amount of content. I’ve previously beat the game, and this second run has, so far, played out completely differently. Yes the one main quest line is somewhat linear (though what character you make and the choices you make during that quest line changes things a bit), and the small one-off quests don’t have much variety, but many of the larger side quests and especially the factions can be approached from many different directions. I’m having a blast, and really looking forward to exploring the three DLC content pieces that have since come out.

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Working ranked systems keep you at a 50% winrate

Posted on February 26, 2019 by SynCaine

I’ve written in the past about climbing the ranks in League of Legends, and how ELO hell is both a myth and a reality. What that post didn’t really talk about is win rates, and how any game with a working ranking system is going to play out.

Let’s start with a myth that has been making the gaming circles since basically the invention of ranked play; that game X was designed to keep everyone at 50% winrate, to keep everyone happy. At basically every level, that… doesn’t make sense. For starters, losing half the time isn’t going to make those sensitive to losing happy. Second, winning only half your games isn’t going to make those who are higher skilled happy, as they would easily notice ‘the game’ holding them back.

If in LoL I smash my opponent in the laning phase, but in half my games the other lanes hard-fed, I’m going to notice something is up. Any normal player would notice that the other members of his team don’t understand the game as well as the enemy team for objectives, team fights, and other later-game situations. It’s just a very easy thing to spot if you understand the game, and the fact that you don’t most of the time, and especially the fact that smurfs stand out so much, is proof of that.

Which doesn’t mean that games with a working ranked system don’t gravitate players towards a 50% win rate; of course they do. Once you reach your appropriate skill level, and if nothing changes, you SHOULD win half your game and lose the others. That’s basically the definition of a working ranked system. Devs don’t need to rig a system to keep people around 50%, the system does that by itself.

Additionally, we have plenty of evidence, from smurfs with 60%+ winrates to people dropping down via sub-50% winrates, that the system isn’t hardcoded, but rather its just difficult to make progress quickly. Slow progress frustrates the average person, and for some that frustration manifests itself into rage and silly conspiracy theories.

What also really plays into this is what the linked post above got into; the fact that most people aren’t realistic with their personal skill level, and think they are better than they actually are. It’s why people almost always blame their team for a loss, and rarely acknowledge their own play influenced the result. Same goes for people not understanding that while a 55% win rate is really good, it still results in a lot of losses, and a slow climb up the ranks.

Posted in Combat Systems, League of Legends, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Top AI beats SC pros, who else could it beat?

Posted on February 21, 2019 by SynCaine

Bit of interesting news in the world of gaming from a while back; an AI beat a couple top StarCraft 2 players. Here is a link to get you started, but if you dig deeper there is a lot more context on how it happened, and how the AI evolved.

The main reason why the AI won, however, is that it was able to perform more action-per-minute (APM) than even a pro human player is capable of, and because of this, it was able to heavily out-macro during battles and win. Part of why this happened is that because in a game like Starcraft, the ‘strategy’ part isn’t nearly as deep or complex as the macro part, at least at the top end. Even a decent player will know the right build order, the right way to scout, and the right counters to what they see. Games at that level come down to who clicks better/faster when a battle breaks out, and its here that the AI was simply inhuman.

Which isn’t to downplay the accomplishments of the AI, it’s still impressive (and scary in a very Terminator-like way), but does raise the question about which games an AI could win at today, and which games I don’t believe it could. For starters, obviously an AI would dominate in a FPS, which is why aimbot hacks are banned in the first place. A slow, but zero RNG game like Chess is also one where an AI will win; it can simply calculate every possible combination, and always pick the best one (that Chess has a lot of said combinations is just a temporary issue, not a hard barrier).

I’d be very curious to see how such an AI would do in a game like League of Legends however. On the one hand, it would be very, very strong in things like perfect timing on last hits, and perfect coordination of skill usage and cooldown management. On the other hand, top players are already near-perfect at last hitting, and not that far off in CD management. But what makes LoL much different from SC is that LoL is less about APM, and more about situational decision making. How a team fight happens, and what happens in it, is a lot more chaotic than a SC battle, as there is simply more ‘stuff’ involved (more unique abilities, item builds, positioning, etc). I’m not saying the AI would lose, but I think it would certainly struggle more than in a game like SC.

I think the AI would get crushed in a game like Civilization. It would have zero APM advantage, but its calculating power like in chess would also be more limited as Civ has a lot of RNG in it, and how you react to that RNG is what really makes someone at great player. It’s also why in LoL when you face the in-game AI its decent, while the in-game AI in Civ has to get massive hard-coded bonuses to challenge a decent player, and even then by the mid/late game the AI is still pretty bad/dumb.

Fun topic to think about IMO, and one that I’m sure will evolve as AI development improves.

Posted in League of Legends, Mass Media, Random, StarCraft Online | 12 Comments

Potential return to Life is Feudal MMO?

Posted on February 20, 2019 by SynCaine

Quick note: We might be heading back to Life is Feudal MMO. The game recently released a major update, which among other things includes a new massive map (everyone on basically one ‘server’ ala EVE), offline training (EVE), vulnerability windows for holdings (EVE), some new PvE content, and a bunch of other changes.

I don’t know how this return will look honestly. I personally have a LOT less time right now, as I can’t semi-afk play during the day while working from home. That said, our core knows the base game, so we don’t need as much initial time to invest to make progress. Also I think our goals will be simpler; we want to see the new content, progress through the game again, and see what happens. Ideally we align with another, larger guild, and get PvP content via them.

This isn’t an official announcement of our return, but more of a heads up and to again judge interest from former players and potentially new readers. What I can say is that I like a lot of the changes they had made to the game (on paper), and the base game itself was fun with a ton of potential. Maybe some of that potential is finally being realized?

Posted in Inquisition Clan, Life is Feudal, MMO design, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Civilization VI – State of the game days before the second expansion

Posted on February 13, 2019 by SynCaine

I did a mini review of Civ VI back in Oct 2016. In the first paragraph, I write that Civ VI will feel better after some expansions/DLC. Its now 2019, and hey look, Civ VI feels better (with the second expansion set to drop in a few days).

Since playing the game at release, I haven’t really followed its development closely. I read reviews about the first expansion, Rise and Fall, but came away from those thinking I could still wait.

I’m back now mostly because my buddy and I need a good multiplayer game to play, and we really enjoyed Civ V multiplayer back in the day. Plus with Civ VI Gold being on sale (all DLC + first expansion) on Steam right now, it seemed like a good option. We have played a few hours so far, and I’ve played a bit of single-player as well, and I must say I’m really enjoying the game now.

The biggest issue with Civ VI at release was that the turns felt too simple, and the number of difficult decisions to make was very limited. Even without the latest expansion, the game today already fixes this. For starters, there is simply a lot more ‘stuff’ in the game now. More units, more resources, more impactful natural wonders, more tech, and more systems layers on top of the already solid base game. This also means a steeper learning curve, but even my friend was already to make sense of things in his very first game, and he hadn’t played a Civ title since we played Civ V years ago.

I’ll just mention a few of the changes I really like here, with likely a second update when we put more time in, post second expansion.

First up are governors, which you earn via different technology, and can be assigned to a specific city to give it bonuses. There are 7 different governors, each with their own skill tree, and the impact they have on the city and your overall civ can be pretty dramatic. For instance one of the governors is military focused, and if you put him in your most productive city, or one on the border of a war, he gives you a MASSIVE boost. I was in a war that was going south, and assigning that governor in a city on the edge of the war turned it around, mostly because now my units were more powerful than the enemy, even though we were both using the same type of unit (swordsman).

Governors are an interesting decision because the number of points you get for them is limited, and once a point is spent (either on recruiting one or promoting them), its committed. You don’t get enough points to hire and upgrade all governors, so those points are kind of a big deal. In my game where I hired and upgraded the military-focused gov, I somewhat committed my civ to a military focus, and so once I won the first war, it only made sense to continue in that direction. I wasn’t forced, and certainly I could have held back and used that gov more defensively or as need arose, but I figured I should maximize those invested points.

A more minor feature, and I think this was already in the base game, are natural wonders. They are varied not only in the bonuses they provide, but in size. Some are a single tile, but others can be much larger. Putting a city near a massive multi-tile mountain, for instance, really shapes the focus of that city and its related districts. Now finding those on the map is a cause for excitement and could instantly change your planning on where to settle and what technology to research.

As mentioned, more commentary likely to come, and I’m now really looking forward to playing the second expansion to see how it further mixes things up and what layers it adds.

Posted in Civilization Series | 5 Comments

Clash Royale and Clash of Clans update Feb 2019

Posted on February 6, 2019 by SynCaine

Mobile gaming update time.

In Clash Royale we continue to drift between Legendary and the top of Gold. Basically, our core group is good enough to generally win wars in Gold, but once we hit Legendary, we get crushed. A couple of things explain this.

For one, I think most of us are able to build a good deck at gold league card levels (11), but most can’t do that at Legendary (12). This problem is even worse for our newer players, who might use level 10 or even 9 cards in a deck. A lvl 10 card vs 11s is fine. 10s vs 12s in Legendary is, generally, too much power to overcome, even if you out-skill your opponent. This also applies to account levels; if your account is level 10, going up against level 11 towers is doable. Vs 12s though you are at a significant disadvantage.

The second, and even bigger problem with Legendary league is that it only has one tier, and matchmaking will put you against basically anyone in that league. In one war we got matched up against a top 100 clan. They had 5x the amount of war trophies. Just insane.

That said, I’m surprised we even cracked into Legendary, and given how stable our core is, I’m now actually confident we will eventually find our footing in that league and stay permanently. Skill-wise we are basically there, it’s just a matter now of people rounding out their card collections and being able to consistently field strong lvl12 decks.

Personally I still really enjoy the war aspect of the game. Ladder climbing I do just to keep going, but I’m not really driven to climb as now it’s more a question of time vs skill or progression. My decks are maxed, and with average time I can climb to around 5k trophies. With serious play time I can climb to 5.5k+, but usually I don’t have that time.

In Clash of Clans we are in Master League III, and in our current league we are projected to finish 4th or 5th. The fact that so far we have always been behind in town hall levels means skill-wise we are above the pack, which is a nice, and means we will move up once we get more people deeper into TH12.

Personally in CoC I have my main account closing in on being maxed (not walls), while my alt is in the middle of TH11. I’m still really enjoying the Electro/Loon attack at TH12, and can execute a 3-star attack against even a max TH12 if things go well. At TH11 I’m currently switching from mass hogs to mass miners, because max hogs into a base with an Eagle generally results in murder, and basically never results in a 3 star. I’ve seen miners fair better, so in that direction I go (I don’t want both accounts using electro/loon as that’s boring).

Our clan, Supreme Cream!, is going strong in both games. In CR we are generally full but turnover is fairly common. In CoC we have spots open, and anyone TH7+ is welcome to join for regular clan wars (League wars are capped at 15, so our highest 15 go in for that).

 

 

Posted in Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Inquisition Clan, iPhone | 2 Comments

Patriots win the Super Bowl, again

Posted on February 4, 2019 by SynCaine

Another Super Bowl, another Patriots win. Still can’t get one where they are up a comfortable amount towards the end so it can be fully enjoyed in the moment, but first world winner problems there. It’s just cool to be a fan of the team as it obliterates the record books. Never going to see another team like this in the NFL unless they massively overhaul the rules.

Posted in Random | 4 Comments

Beholder short film

Posted on February 1, 2019 by SynCaine

Here is a link to my review of Beholder. Since that review the game difficulty has been toned down, and is now more enjoyable IMO.

Today I was sent a link to the short film produced about the game. It’s pretty neat, especially if you have played the game. The film is about one choice (quest) the landlord has to make around a tenant that has the pills the landlords sick daughter needs, and the different outcomes of the choices he can make. Much like the game, basically all results are some shade of bad. The film’s art style is a dead-match to the games, which is very cool. I enjoyed it, and not a bad use of 10 minutes on a Friday.

 

 

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Another Battle Brothers DLC is coming!

Posted on February 1, 2019 by SynCaine

The latest expansion/DLC was announced today, called “Warriors of the North”.

More ‘stuff’ is great news for me, as I’m still very much in love with BB. I’ve been playing ‘true’ Ironman games lately (more on that in another post), and this DLC will likely mean I can also start up a non-Ironman game to explore all of the new content in one fresh-feeling game.

In addition to the new faction, I think being able to make decisions around how your company starts, including the starting brothers and opening scenario, is awesome, especially if those decisions continue to impact your game long-term. That could add a lot of replayability to a game that is already packed with replayability.

The announcement also confirms that the first DLC sold well-enough to get a second released, which then hopefully means BB development continues, as the core game is a great foundation for A LOT more ‘stuff’ that could be added.

Posted in Random | Comments Off on Another Battle Brothers DLC is coming!

LoL – Improved, not changed

Posted on January 30, 2019 by SynCaine

Playing League of Legends again after over a year off has been interesting so far, and very entertaining.

At it’s core, it’s still LoL, and I do enjoy that core immensely. This isn’t like going back to World of Warcraft post-TBC and playing welfare-epics Online, where the game you left and the game you return to is so fundamentally different it now caters to a completely different audience. No, LoL is not any easier, or ‘dumbed down’, than it was years ago. You are still rewarded for learning how to last-hit in lane, having map awareness, positioning, solid timing, and all the other skills that separate LoL players into the various ranked tiers.

At the same time, the amount of ‘stuff’ surrounding that core is kind of ridiculous. There are currently 143 champions. That’s just an absurd number, yet at the same time doesn’t feel like a bad thing. You don’t need to know how to play all 143, and so long as you have basic knowledge about all of them, you can face off vs them at lower ranked tiers and usually do fine. Runes have been reworked, and there are now more choices to make, while at the same time the biggest impact decision is limited to one keystone that everyone can see. Learn the keystones, and you have 80% of the knowledge you need outside of the upper skill levels. The map is 95% the same, and the small changes you can learn as you go.

On the fluff side the number and quality of the skins has of course increased, so its fun to see some of the more impressive skins in-game. I’ve yet to purchase more RP to grab more skins myself, but it’s coming. Plus there are now daily and longer quests that reward blue essence (the free currency), chests you earn that can give you champions or skins, a different honor system, changes to the reporting system, and who knows what else.

What I think is most impressive is that right now I can say that LoL is in its best state. It runs perfectly, everything is snappy, and the polish is off the charts. A new player joining today isn’t late to the party, and they don’t have to climb a mountain to catch up like in many older games. They just get to enjoy a better version of what was always a top-notch game, and from a development standpoint that’s remarkable.

Posted in League of Legends, World of Warcraft | 2 Comments