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Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
Stellaris: Humanoids Species Pack and minor patch released
12 Dec 2017 at 7:21 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'm hoping the big patch will fix a bug that's been a pain for me; this one doesn't unfortunately. On the Galaxy map, the colours for different empires aren't displaying, so I can't easily tell what territory is whose. I can hover the mouse over a star to tell whose territory it's in, and sometimes if I look closely I can spot edge effects that let me know where the colours would be if they were coloured in, and of course if I zoom way out I get the empire names. So I can work around it, but it's annoying. Cherryh is totally reworking territory, so crossing my fingers.
This is a driver problem. The latest mesa 17.2.6 fixes that.
Thank you very much, that's nice to know.

The first release candidate for Wine 3.0 is now available for testing, fixes for The Witcher 3 included
12 Dec 2017 at 6:40 pm UTC

So I know this is kind of off the "Gaming on Linux" topic, but does anyone know how well key Windows productivity software runs on Wine these days? Like Office, or CAD things, or Photoshop, or financial or tax stuff? My instincts are that most of those should be less of a problem than games because they aren't leaning on the graphics hard like games do, but hunches are unreliable.

4X strategy game 'Pandora: First Contact - Gold Edition' now available for Linux on GOG, also on sale
12 Dec 2017 at 6:35 pm UTC

Quoting: dmantioneOnly when that happens, it makes sense to construct a second city. Migration of population to the new city is automatic in the new city and is affected by the amount of habitat, polution, and morale in the city.
There can also be tactical reasons. It can be worth it to build a city just to grab the territory the new city is on, so that even if it might not technically be worth it yet to snag that strategic resource, it's better than letting your enemy get it and deny it to you.

4X strategy game 'Pandora: First Contact - Gold Edition' now available for Linux on GOG, also on sale
12 Dec 2017 at 6:30 pm UTC

Quoting: PhiladelphusHow does it compare with Civilization: Beyond Earth? I was excited for that but somewhat disappointed with it. I like the 4X-on-an-alien-planet vibe though and this looks similar, so while it looks interesting I'd love to hear from people who've played both.
It's a bit simpler, no clever web-shaped tech setup, and no real other dimensions to progress--no choices of political economy like in Alpha C, no harmony/purity/supremacy thing, no culture advances et cetera. It does have a couple of cute innovations of its own, like the concept of "operations" which are things you can do anywhere on the map a limited number of times--some operations, like orbital insertions of units, you have to build as one-offs which hang around until you use them, while others, like scans or orbital bombardment or nukes, have dedicated buildings which give you one every X turns. Tech tree is somewhat randomized, meaning you can't really have a standard order of grabbing stuff.

It's also much bloodthirstier. You will do a lot of fighting. You will fight the native buggy things. You will fight the AI, which will attack even if you were getting along great pretty much the moment it sniffs that you have a small army. You will fight the extra, "eclipse" buggy things. You will fight the invaders from some advanced hostile race that gate in. You will maintain a big enough army that if your focus is more growth and expansion you will constantly curse the need to devote precious city production and upkeep to making and maintaining more units.

Micromanagement of production and resources is both important and significantly different from Civ games. Learn how it actually works or be hooped.

Stellaris: Humanoids Species Pack and minor patch released
7 Dec 2017 at 5:14 pm UTC

I'm hoping the big patch will fix a bug that's been a pain for me; this one doesn't unfortunately. On the Galaxy map, the colours for different empires aren't displaying, so I can't easily tell what territory is whose. I can hover the mouse over a star to tell whose territory it's in, and sometimes if I look closely I can spot edge effects that let me know where the colours would be if they were coloured in, and of course if I zoom way out I get the empire names. So I can work around it, but it's annoying. Cherryh is totally reworking territory, so crossing my fingers.

Steam now has a form of platform-specific wishlisting, to help developers see demand
7 Dec 2017 at 4:54 pm UTC

Quoting: g000hThere is one BIG problem with this though. Not all Linux gamers are going to want to set their Account Preferences to only show Linux/SteamOS games in Search Results.
Actually, that makes me think of another hiccup in the scheme: The only way to have your wishlist show non-Linux games to the developers as wanted for Linux is . . . to make it so you don't see non-Linux games when you're searching for things to put in your wishlist.
(Ooops. Looks like other people have already pointed this out)

Rewrite the past in Airships: Conquer the Skies with the new replay feature
7 Dec 2017 at 4:45 pm UTC

That is a fairly unique feature. It's a long time since I've seen someone come up with a game capability that's genuinely new to me. A pretty cool one, at that.

Open source game engine 'OpenMW' for Morrowind has been updated
6 Dec 2017 at 11:02 pm UTC

the AI will now resurface from water to breathe
AIs need to breathe?! ;)

Stellaris is getting a 'Humanoids Species Pack' DLC this month, plus huge patch news
6 Dec 2017 at 10:59 pm UTC

I like the upcoming patch because it's named after one of my favourite science fiction writers (although to be honest you have to sort of pick and choose Cherryh's stuff; her best is incredible, her not-so-best is kinda mediocre, and her worst sucks). But the Chanur series and a few others put C.J. Cherryh forever in my pantheon of amazing.

Here's another way to look at the Linux market share on Steam
6 Dec 2017 at 7:46 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: Kuduzkehpan
Quoting: Dunc
Quoting: AlveKattHowever, remember the whole "Firewall of China" thing? An OS that gives full control to the user might be heavily frowned upon by the rulers in China. People have been put in jail for less over there.
That's actually a really good point that I hadn't considered. We all love Linux because of the freedom. The Chinese authorities are likely to hate it for exactly the same reason.
freedom of what ? freedom of to live as the capitalists describes what is living heh ? Lolz. i prefer more logical describitions as in communism. no religions no radicals no money no mercanarys.
And what does any of that have to do with China? It's capitalist through and through. It just happens to be capitalist and overtly authoritarian, unlike us who are capitalist and covertly authoritarian. Not a great choice but I wouldn't say they were better. The best thing you can say about China is that at least they're committed to building infrastructure; hardly a whole different system.