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Latest Comments by Philadelphus
UnCiv, a free and open source remake of Civilization V
7 Jan 2020 at 11:00 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: razing32Sorry to dispel your odd-even theory.
I like 4 and 5 the best.
Tried 3 and 6 as well.
5 remains my favorite.
Ha ha, fair enough! :D

UnCiv, a free and open source remake of Civilization V
7 Jan 2020 at 10:43 pm UTC

I've got an interesting theory (feel free to chime in with support or rebuttal) that people tend to like either even- or odd- numbered entries in the Civilization series better depending on whether they first played an even- or odd-numbered game themselves. I, for instance, was introduced to Civilization with Civ 3, which devoured hundreds of hours of my teenage life. I really tried to get into Civ 4, but bounced off it pretty hard (the removal of nearly all ranged units, which was one of my favorites aspects of warfare, certainly didn't help). I found Civ 5 to be a little dry at release, but over the years with the release of Gods & Kings and Brave New World I've found it to be my favorite game so far—I'd go so far as to say that the culture victory from Brave New World is possibly my favorite victory condition in a game ever. (There's just something about optimizing my collection of artifacts and Great Works over the years to squeeze out another +1 Tourism that's immensely satisfying to me!) I haven't played Civ 6 because, well, its mechanics just haven't really appealed to me enough from watching gameplay videos to pick it up. (Subjectively, I also prefer 5's more realistic art style for leaders over 6's more cartoony style.)

On the other hand, I've colloquially heard of at least a few people who got into Civilization with either Civ 2 or Civ 4, who didn't like Civ 3 or 5, and like Civ 6, so I'd really like to hear other people's thoughts on this. Is this just small sample size bias, or is there actually a measurable trend here?

Quoting: PatolaI am curious. What is so special about Civilization V mechanics (compared to other versions) that is so worth mimicking? Tried to find that on the project page but couldn't.
I mean, you could ask that about any entry in the series they happened to pick, no? I guess it's just this guy's personal favorite. But some thoughts of my own:
  • Civ 5 introduced hexagonal tiles (which can allow for somewhat more natural looking landscapes) and city states to the main games (I'm admittedly ignorant of any spin-off games).

  • The build-your-own-religion system in Gods & Kings was new, and interesting, where all the options are not balanced in power because it's first-come, first-serve. Want a powerful religion customized to you liking? Need to get working on it early.

  • The culture victory from Brave New World. I've already touched on this, but I think this is the most interesting and interactive (non-military) victory condition I've encountered in a Civ game to date (with the caveat that I haven't personally played 1, 2, or 6). It's incredibly well balanced over the entire course of a game so that you always end up winning right near the end of the tech tree, but you always feel like you're making progress towards it along the way (at least once you get your first Great Work). And there's just something about making five different Great Work trades to get that extra +2 from your new Museum of Classical Greek Art that's just so satisfying!

  • I also really like the trade route system of BNW, it did a good job of having a number of trade routes that was small enough to manage, but important enough to care about, especially with how it synergized with the culture victory (having a trade route with a civilization would increase your rate of cultural superiority with them, for instance).

Now, having written all that, I looked at the project page and realized they don't have mechanics from G&K and BNW in place yet (though they seem to be on the road map), but those are a big part of why I, personally, like Civ 5 so much. :D

(This isn't in the list above because it's not mechanics-related, but as a linguaphile I really liked the attention to detail in the leaders in Civ 5 and how they all speak the correct language [as close as we can determine].)

Portal could have had a prequel called F-STOP/Aperture Camera, as a new documentary shows
6 Jan 2020 at 9:57 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: buckysrevenge
Quoting: XpanderQ.U.B.E - which for some weird reason isn't on steam anymore, though i own it in steam... wtf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AltrokRM4NI [External Link]
the director's cut is still available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/239430/QUBE_Directors_Cut/ [External Link]
Was just going to post that, that's probably why the original isn't available anymore. :) I remember getting the Director's Cut for free at some point after I'd bought the original game, that might be when they removed the original from Steam.

The name F-STOP was mentioned in the documentary "Portal 2 - The Final Hours [External Link]" as being this incredibly fun and interesting game mechanic which was around before 2011, but which Valve kept a tight wrap on. It's nice to finally—after all these years—see what it was actually about. Seems like it would be an interesting mechanic, if well-implemented.

Build and manage a totally scientifically inaccurate Beehive in Hive Time, out now
17 Dec 2019 at 12:18 pm UTC

Quoting: CheesenessNo probs!

The other nice thing (from my perspective) is that Itch allows people to buy, download, and play the game without making an account, so when I distribute on Itch, I'm not asking people to commit to using another platform.
Ah, that's interesting. I didn't know that. I'll have to check it out.

Some thoughts on Linux gaming in 2019, an end of year review
15 Dec 2019 at 11:04 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: KimyrielleThe worrisome bit is that our market-share is still exactly the same 1% it has been before Steam for Linux was launched (which was arguably the birthday of Linux as a viable gaming platform).
But we have grown! :) Given how fast Steam as a whole is growing, the number of Linux users must have increased proportionally with all those new Windows and Mac users to keep that 1% steady. If we hadn't grown, that'd be more like 0.0001% now. :)

I absolutely agree that it'd be wonderful to see that 1% starting ticking upwards, but in absolute terms, there are more people gaming on Linux now than ever before.

----------------------------
Another perspective on Proton, is that it's less about playing new games (which we can hope to have native versions in the future) and more useful as a way to play older games which will never get a Linux port (due to developer shutting down, rights issues, lost source code, or whatever). For instance just yesterday I discovered that Star Wars: Episode I: Racer was on Steam, got it working, and have been reliving my childhood. :D

I only started using Steam in 2011, and switched to Linux 2014, and had been consciously buying only games with Linux versions for a year or so before that, so I didn't have to give up too many games to make the switch; but for plenty of people, before Proton came out, switching would've meant giving up potentially a pretty large part of their library. I still think Proton is possibly a double-edged sword, with the potential to cause companies not to produce a Linux native version because "it can run on Proton", but I think the utility it offers in allowing hundreds (thousands at this point?) of older games to be run shouldn't be underestimated.

Build and manage a totally scientifically inaccurate Beehive in Hive Time, out now
15 Dec 2019 at 6:53 am UTC

Quoting: CheesenessUnlikely. For this project, I am committed to pay-what-you-want pricing and that is not an option that Steam offers.

For what it's worth, I have verified that it runs and the Steam overlay works when launched through Steam as a non-Steam game.
Fair enough, I can respect that. Thanks for the info. :)

Build and manage a totally scientifically inaccurate Beehive in Hive Time, out now
13 Dec 2019 at 10:34 am UTC Likes: 1

Any chance of this coming to Steam at all in the near-ish future? :)

Do you hear an odd buzzing sound? Minecraft 1.15 is out with a new friend
12 Dec 2019 at 10:50 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: 14I also had never seen this mod for Minecraft. I have thus far avoided mods because I don't want to deal with the tedium. I have long been a server guy in my IT career and I tinker enough with stuff at home as it is. I kinda grimace when I think about adding mod maintenance onto the already multiple Minecraft clients and server instances in the house! All that said, I know one of my kids would really like a mod like this where you're working with nature. Is it dead though? Last real release was three years ago. Latest beta release was over a year ago.

About the OP: my kids have been waiting for this bees update very excitedly! That means it's time for me to update the server instances and all the clients! Woohoo! :P
Having administered a private modded Minecraft server for years for myself and a friend to play on, I can recommend FeedTheBeast's modpacks (both client and server versions). They're thoroughly tested for inter-mod interactions so they're very stable, and they've got all kinds of differently-themed ones depending on what you want to do. Unfortunately I've been out of the server hosting loop for the past few years due to life circumstances (:() so I can't say anything about Forestry specifically, but it was super popular back in the day so it's probably still around or has been replaced by something new that does the same thing but better.

I took a while to getting into modded Minecraft for similar reasons, but I pretty much can't go back now—even excluding any kind of content mod there are a couple of little quality-of-life mods that make vanilla so painful to play without (check out Inventory Tweaks [at least that's what it used to be called] for a really simple mod that'll have you wondering how you ever played without it).

Do you hear an odd buzzing sound? Minecraft 1.15 is out with a new friend
11 Dec 2019 at 10:09 am UTC

trying to sleep in a bed during daytime will now set the player’s spawn location to that bed
Was that not a vanilla thing before? I could swear I've been doing that for years, but I've also been playing almost exclusively heavily modded for years, so… :S:

The ridiculously large Stardew Valley 1.4 update is out
28 Nov 2019 at 9:16 am UTC

Wow, you weren't kidding about the length of that changelist! I'm torn between wanting to know what's changed, and actually getting the experience of finding some of it out for myself for once.

Edit: Ooo, 14 new music tracks? Time to update my Stardew Valley OST folder… :D