Ah, "streamlined", "action" and "multiplayer" - the three words I like the least when combined with "strategy". :P

Jokes apart, this is not for me but looks cool for those who like this style of game.

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Hmm, there is a Windows-only game that seems fun but I'm afraid I'd never to manage to run it in a compatibility layer; being a winemaking simulator, searching for how to run it with wine doesn't bode well. :P

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Quoting: razing32uhm
The whole SWAT team got massacred.
Not a great example of how the system works.
They should show a fail state and a win state. Like more of what the system is capable of/ how to play.

That is certainly intentional. It isn't trying to show how to play; it is trying to show that this is a difficult, unforgiving game.

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Quoting: toorIs the market so juicy on Linux about those kind of games? It feels like they port this kind more than any other, or is it just me?

Maybe? There is really a ton of strategy games on Linux (and other strategy-adjacent genres), to my great happiness. We get a large part of the AAA releases and a ton of indies and mid-sized games - even Total War, which is unusually "triple-A-y" (graphics way too heavy, expensive, frequent new titles, etc) for the genre.

I'd guess those games probably have an easier time being ported. For example, they are generally more limited by processors than by graphic cards (which are more of a problem in Linux); they are often way more forgiving of lag, frame rate drops and other such issues; maybe the libraries and tools used for them are less specialized (just a barebones engine instead of a bunch of physics simulations and anticheat and whatever). Maybe it's because those games rarely care about consoles, which could mean both less technical difficulties (input, choice of engine, directx, etc) and a smaller non-Linux market. Or perhaps it's just that the less-niche stuff (shooters, action games and RPGs) is inflated by a lot of non-Linux stuff in a way other genres aren't.

Quoting: dubigrasuI hate myself for not liking these type of games (basically everything strategy). I would've been so spoiled by Feral and these ports.
I keep buying them, but just for support, not my pleasure. I'm looking for example at XCOM games, I can clearly see they're good quality/fun games and I'm sure I'm missing a lot by not playing them, but just can't get into it and I really tried.

It happens. I have a hard time accepting that I just plain don't like RPGs - I have a hard time finishing even the ones I'm interested in; I'm into tabletop RPGs, I like story-heavy games, and often the core mechanics are enjoyable (even similar to other stuff I play). It's just that... I nearly always get bored quickly and never finish the games. Somehow the gameplay loop feels repetitive and slow, every time, even if the bits and pieces are good on their own. FPS and action games are even more of a no-go - every once in a while I give a honest try, with something that looks really interesting, but I just can't stand it.

Strategy games are definitely more of a niche; a sizable one (in number of players and games), but I generally don't expect people to be into it unless they are really into it.

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Hmm, looks kind of interesting. The trailer makes it look like a laid-back real-time tactics game (not frenzied fast clicking or super-small maps/groups), and VN-style for the story is a plus for me. Plenty of terrain interactions, what looks like timers for actions, and so on. Of course whether the story will be any good is hard to say, and they could easily ruin it by leaning too much on the RPG side or just boring missions.

I tried to play the demo but graphical glitches made it unplayable. Opening video was quite cool (the old footage look is great, wonder how they did it - reusing actual old footage? Editing recent movie clips? Actually recording it themselves?)... but backgrounds were almost entirely black, sprites didn't disappear at all and some menus didn't either... I could read the starting dialogs (though I skipped most of it to test more stuff), but first time I had to do something it was impossible to progress. Not a big deal, as it is a demo after all and my computer is a bit below average, but I am still curious about how the game will play.

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Huh, I thought I had seen this game but it wasn't coming to Linux, but apparently it is a different one [External Link].

This still looks very interesting, though the "speech recognition" system is a huge bummer. Even if it worked perfectly it would make playing the game quite inconvenient (you need a good mic and an environment that is quiet enough but you won't disturb anyone by talking out loud)... and it never works perfectly. Speech recognition is hardly perfect, and if you happen to have any kind of accent good luck with that. Also, localization of the game is pretty much a big nope for those that would prefer to play in another language.

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City crawl is a bit underwhelming, but still a good/needed addition. I hoped for more variety in scenarios (a few scripted games or interesting rule variants), and it looks to be only a mix of normal multiplayer matches and puzzles/creep rounds. Which are fine, but are also quite short. Still, just having a single-player mode makes me happy and the tutorials I played looked quite good; maybe they will have more stuff in the paid additions.

The game in general looks fine, some fun things added. Still, I think my favorite version of Underlords would be one with the jail (and all the heroes), the creep rounds and the old slow pacing, but no underlords. Aces I could take or leave. I'll probably go back to playing occasionally now that it has been fully released, but I also kind of played enough already during the beta and just moved on.

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Wait, taxing the rich? How is this socialism? Bernie Sanders style... oh, wait, this was made by Americans, they use "socialism" for something completely different. This isn't a game about actual socialism through democratic means, it is just a "you want to have universal healthcare and end slavery in prisons and allow worker unions? That's socialism!" kind of stuff.

For a moment I let myself think that maybe this was going to be about implementing communes, deciding between worker-owned factories and state property, whether to abolish money/markets or not, how to survive the inevitable outside attacks and sabotage, this kind of stuff.

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Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: eldakingThere doesn't seem to be a common reason, it is just something that is done badly.

There is not a single good reason for these launchers to exist in the first place. It's just lazy software engineering. Nothing they do couldn't be done just as well in the main application (and/or in Steam, which most Paradox games require anyway). Their most common use case is to adjust the configuration in some fashion, which most people do exactly once after installing a game and then never again. Even if that would require a game restart, it would still be preferable to having the deal with an useless extra step every single time you start the game. Really, what's next? A launcher to launch a launcher?

I can see some functionality, though not all games actually use them - loading mods, launching directly a save game to speed load times, changing settings or browsing game content without having to open the full screen main application, a confirmation before loading all the game files, some multiplayer options, launching different game modes/versions. Also some more contentious reasons: as a way to show ads/news to the player, or connect multiple games by same developer.

It is kind of like the main menu, which is a standard that I'd say is quite positive in general - launching directly into a new game/last save is quite bad. But main menus don't do all things well, so people created a new menu, but did a shitty one this time - more ads, breaks more often, less useful. Or maybe we could think of it as a GUI version of launch options/arguments? Instead of "game -l savefile -c --ironman" or something, it opens a new window.

I'd say the new launcher for Paradox games is generally positive, because of how the games were built - in EU4, reloading a save or even going back to the main menu requires exiting the game completely and starting it again, and the process is quite slow. Lots of mods and DLC to manage, and they want to replicate Steam functionality (like mods and multiplayer and DLC management, possibly achievements or whatever) so they can sell it on other stores as well (which I think is good). Also the previous launchers sucked, so apart from compatibility it is an improvement.

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Quoting: MayeulCAh, now is Stardock could do the same and provide a regular, SDL2-based launcher, maybe we'd have less issues with steamplay. Most of their titles are plagued with launcher issues on protondb (luckily, it can be bypassed with /nolauncher).

One thing that baffles me is how many games have launchers or splash screens that are less compatible with wine than the main program.

They make an entire game using best practices and engines that implement multi-platform. And then they make a menu with a few buttons and content pulled from their website, and it breaks. Not sure exactly why it happens - sometimes it uses some Microsoft libraries/fonts or relies on internet explorer, sometimes they use a different media format, sometimes it just doesn't deal with file paths correctly, or maybe they are just pulling more dependencies for this tiny static screen. There doesn't seem to be a common reason, it is just something that is done badly.

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