I feel like a dirty traitor - almost no Linux native titles in my play list the past week:

1. Noita (it's like a whole new game with the "no more death" mod)
2. Elite Dangerous (stunning game... just... stunning. And for a fiver?? Or another fiver if you want the planetside expansion)
3. Grim Dawn (bought it for four quid in the sale - superb)
4. Outer Wilds (only played an hour, because Elite keeps calling me back)

For Linux native - I'm playing Battlestar Gallactica with friends on Tabletop Simulator. The scripting is very clever, much like when we play Gloomhaven - really takes the edge off the complexity. Great game, steep learning curve. Am totally not a cylon.

Also, of course, the A19 of 7 Days to Die dropped. Lovely enhancements all round, and they've already dropped a bug fix, so I'll be playing a bit of that to bring myself up to speed. And it's 66% off right now. Definitely worth a punt for the sheer amount of content you get.

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Quoting: slaapliedje

Quote- Metal Unit

Poor guy, does he clank when he walks?

Well, it's a she, but I'm guessing, "yes".

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God knows how I missed this the first time around, but given my love of this genre (Undermine, Crosscode, Mana Spark, Moonlighter, and faster-paced versions, like Gungeon, Woodpunk, Mr Shifty), I think I'll be picking this one up!

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Apparently I haven't played this since October 2018...! Great game though, and I sank over 15 hours into it back then. Maybe I need to give it another go. I'll have to tear myself away from Elite:Dangerous and 7 Days to Die though. Might be a bit of an ask to be honest! :)

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Quoting: razing32I played this a while back with friends.
Kinda lost intrest when an update made progression more grindy.(to skills)
Is it sitll the case ?

It's always been grindy, so I'm not sure what you mean. In the pre-A14 days, the grind related to what you did. So if you did a lot of mining, you got better at mining. That makes sense, but they dropped that because lots of the other skills didn't - you don't get better armour by bumping into cacti, but that's what the game gave you if you did it enough. It was also very difficult to progress the science skills, because you needed certain items (forges, beakers, etc), but for balance, they needed to level-gate those items, or people would have ended up riding around in gyrocopters by day 10.

So it's now xp based. You gain xp from killing zeds, obviously, but also from looting, mining, and building - especially building, and especially upgrading blocks from wood, to cobble, to cement, to reinforced. After a certain amount of xp, you gain a level, and that gives you a point to put into anything you like.

So, yeah. Still very grindy, just a different grind now. And still a fun grind, in my opinion, given the hours I've put in.

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If only this didn't need Origin, I'd buy it in a heart beat.

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Quoting: NanobangAdmittedly, I haven't been to Navezgane since v. 18, so things may be different now, but I've been playing since v.8 (I think) and I have a couple combat pointers you may find helpful in the early game:

Quoting: scainea) The starting bow seems mildly less useless. Still not great, but at least I was hitting with it more than not. That's a relief!

Since I love the bow, even the early one, I find it far from useless (or vise versa) but you gotta land --- often multiple --- headshots, two or three as I recall, fwip, fwip, thunk. You'll also have to learn to gauge the arc on the shot. The starter bow isn't very powerful, as is only proper, so aiming above the head is normal at range. Pay attention to the visual space between the tip of the arrow and the target's head. If you overshoot, reduce the space a bit, and if you undershoot, increase the space.

Quoting: scaineb) Melee feel chunkier. It was always a game that didn't quite "connect" before, and there's still that strange distance that you need to just experiment with to know when you can hit, but they can't. In the past, that felt a bit floaty, but now it feels more solid. Can't wait to get my sledgehammer to try it out more... directly.

It's true you gotta experiment with how close you need to be to hit the zombies, but it's not random, I don't think. It seems to equate with the length of the weapon in hand. In most cases, in the hurly-burly of a fight, if you're able to hit them, they're probs able to hit you. And the shorter the weapon, the more likely that is to happen. Rather than worry overly about that exact distance, I focus on quickly jumping in and out of striking distance and, or trying to get on their side or behind them. Jump forward (usually right after they take an unsuccessful swing) whomp 'em, then immediately jump back again. Rinse, repeat. :)

I'm sure others will find that useful, but with my 700+ hours in the game, you're preaching to the choir with me!

My point about the starter bow is that the A18 starter bow is too inaccurate for it to instil any joy. Sure, you could practice and compensate a bit, but it felt like a chore. Whereas the A19 bow feels more reliable and useful.

My point about melee is that the act of landing a blow feels "heavier" now, in a good way. I can only assume they've tweaked the hitboxes, and I seem to notice more stuns from even the starting club, so early melee doesn't feel as grindy.

I'm loving the changes so far. Hopefully get some time to play a little more towards the end of the week. I love what they've done with the crawlers too. Very creepy!

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Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: AllocSeriously Liam? The Food and Health bars made it into your top 5 of changes? ;D

Never said it was my top, was just listing stuff changed ;)

If you're ever on the 7D2D forums, you'll know that the outcry when food/water meters were removed was very real and that there is general delight that they've been brought back...!

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: scainebitter neckbeards

I take your general point, but I do want to say that I find the whole "neckbeards" schtick annoying. Connecting a whole constellation of negative qualities to the concept of not being interested in certain kinds of grooming just strikes me as really superficial and saying something weird about a culture that makes us feel like this is a natural kind of insult.

Fair point. I'm a neckbeard myself these days! Not bitter though.

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I had lots of funky issues with video when I first started a game, but after playing about with the presets, then turning off things like motion blur and ssao, I've got a nice stable image. I had some texture flashing initially, but it seems to have settled now and I played an hour with no issues.

Other than the improved lighting and much improved zombie textures (mostly - there's still some original zombies out there, like the business man and hoodie boy), the biggest thing I notice is that:

a) The starting bow seems mildly less useless. Still not great, but at least I was hitting with it more than not. That's a relief!
b) Melee feel chunkier. It was always a game that didn't quite "connect" before, and there's still that strange distance that you need to just experiment with to know when you can hit, but they can't. In the past, that felt a bit floaty, but now it feels more solid. Can't wait to get my sledgehammer to try it out more... directly.
c) There's loads of things you can't scrap now. Tins, crafted tools, crafted clothes - you can only drop/modify/repair them now.

Otherwise, it's all very familiar and I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time in game to get a feel for it.

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