The Feb 2013 MONDAY FINISH thread

[JasonPratt]

For the thread of the previous month (leading back eventually to my original rules guidelines for why I'm doing this thread), click here.

Much to my not-surprise, I'm still trudging along on The Witcher. By which I mean not moving in the slightest, primarily due to resolving various hardware issues involved in switching to a new PC, new monitor/TV, and new PS3. Most of those issues have been resolved, but I'm still working on getting my old PS3 ready for sale. (It's already spoken for, btw.)

On the other hand, I'm keeping my New Year Resolution not to buy any new games until I've finished five I already own; The Witcher itself was the first new game bought that way, although since it came along with a 75% sale including its sequel I went ahead and bought that, too. So I need to finish 10 games (which can include both of those, or not as I choose) before buying another new one.

Goooooooo me!  8)

I should perhaps add here that games I prebought last year before starting this disciplinary exercise don't count toward the new-buy, since I already budgeted money as "spent" for them. In other words, when Injustice: Gods Among Us releases sometime in April, I don't have to finish five games to play it. But we'll get to that later.

Having thus caught up with my... um... non-progress... who else managed to finish a game this past week (and/or this weekend)?

[JasonPratt]

PS == while my PS3 is already spoken for, I have a Falcon Northwest Talon dating back to WinME days I'm trying to find a home for. It'll come with a bunch of classic software that I haven't tallied yet. I'll be posting up a sales note in the proper category here eventually, but I figured I might as well put a preliminary notice here, too. :)

[Kushan]

I finished the "Lost to the Ages" quest line in Skyrim. It was added as a side quest in the Dawnguard DLC. Got a pretty cool item out of it, that allows you to have 2 standing stone bonuses at the same time. I also beat the first Alduin fight, thus finishing up Act 2 of the main quest. I started the first act 3 quest, but didn't get very far before I had to quit playing last night. If I get the time, I should have the main quest wrapped up sometime this week.

Other then that the only other thing I "got done" this weekend is killing some dragons and claiming their word walls.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I finished my first game of Warlock.   It was fairly smooth for the most part except I did lose a lot of veterna units taking out one of the other mages.  Good learning experience.

I played co-op Iron Front on Saturday and co-op ArmA II on Sunday and had a good time in both sessions.  ArmA was the more interesting of the two due to the fact that the guys running the session have had a lot more experience with it so the mission scripts were less buggy and the missions more detailed. 

Plugged through a few more tutorial sessions with DCS: A-10C.  Looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and spend a couple hours creating a script macro for my HOTAS in order to map everything the way I'd like.  I hate doing that stuff.

[JasonPratt]

Kushan, if there was one thing I learned from my 250 hour campaign in Skyrim (which I was coming to the end of this time last year... Holy Christ Almighty has it been a whole year already since I played Skyim?!?!  :P ) it was that the Shouts were rarely very useful (except in special quests designed to put those powers to use).

That didn't stop me from hunting up dragonwalls anyway, of course. :)

Thing Learned #2: if an item doesn't have a sell value better than 100:1, and I don't intend to use it in the foreseeable future, leave it behind. When-if-ever I go back to the game to play a mage instead of an armored sneaky two-mace wielding archer, this is information that will doubtless serve me well. (Plus the various alchemy exploits I learned about after finishing the game.)

Thing Learned #3: closely related to TL#2, dwarven mines (or the Skyrim equivalent thereof) are great for finding gems and not much else of high value-to-weight, so I never bothered much with them unless the main plot needed me to.

Thing Learned #4: after much experimentation timing the number of swings per minute, I decided swords, axes and maces basically do the same amount of damage per span of time (other things being equal like materials, forging class and enchantments), but since maces hit harder initially they're proportionately more likely to get one-hit kills, consequently they're where I invested my light-weapon skills. Meaning that by the end of the game I looked like Sauron.

Also, two-handed weapons need some tweaking to be truly competitive: sure they do higher damage on the first hit but even the fastest 2-handed weapon (the axe) is quickly outpaced by a single-handed mace. On the other hand, literally, unless a particular skill is invested in, dual-wielding doesn't rack up hits faster than single-plus-shield, and even with the slight speed advantage in putting points to that skill I never felt like I had done much. I probably would have been better off dishing damage single/magic (assuming I didn't want to bother with manually operated defense, i.e. a shield); I'll be thinking along that line for any new character in the future.

[JasonPratt]

SDR,

For special reasons I'm not at liberty to talk about yet (but which may involve a special Grogheads series early next year), I'm going to be watching fantasy turn-based strategy reports closely this year, particularly comments comparing Warlock with Fallen Enchantress and Eador. Any thoughts from you on that?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've only played Warlock and I just got that last week so....nope.   Nothing from me.

[smittyohio]

Hmmm... Kingdoms of Amalur is killing my ability to finish a game... I did finish another zone.   That count?

[Rayfer]

Finished a second scenario in Battles from the Bulge.....and this time I ended up with a marginal loss, but it was a loss none the less.

[Kushan]

@Jason

As of right now, I've got 380 hours in Skyrim. It is by far the most played game on the Steam list, the next being CK2 with 110 hours. Theres a couple of shouts that I consider a must have, mainly Mark of Death. But your right, most are only good in specific circumstances or character builds. I haven't used any of the souls I've captured, The deadly dragons mod lets you convert dragon souls into perk points so I'm saving most of them for those. I'm also using huntng dragons as a reason to visit all of the out of the way places I've never seen in previous play throughs.

I use the conjurable chest spell mod with my mage, so carry weight really isn't an issue. I'm a pack rat in these games, I collect everything. I have a house mod called the Halls of Dovahndor (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25448), that I plan to use after I beat Alduin. I can get access to it anytime, but since its located in Sovngarde it doesn't feel right using it before I beat the game. I plan to display all of my magical objects in it.

I've had my fill of dwarven ruins for awhile. The quest line I completed had me delving into them. It was one of the better quest lines that I've done so far. Got plenty of soul gems. Been using the Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson almost constantly. It needs to be recharged after almost every fight, and if I'm fighting a dragon, multiple times per fight. But its one of the best staffs in the game.

I tend to not play optimized builds in the Bethesda games. In fact I tend to go out of my way to play un-optimized builds, even when I play on master difficulty. I did it for 6+ years in WoW, I don't want to do it here. I play with the Skyrim Redone mod, which overhauls almost the whole game; perks, spells, weapon/armor balance, etc. It makes playing a destruction/alteration mage (my current character) a viable option. It makes playing with light and heavy armor completely different from each other, same for 1 and 2 handed weapons. I've already have the perks for my next 2-3 characters planned out for when I beat Alduin.

[JasonPratt]

This reminds me that when-if-ever I get around to playing a Skyrim campaign again, I'm definitely going the PC route so I can mod brew up (and benefit from the increased graphical glitz).

Not that I'm unhappy with the PS3 version, but I sure would have preferred to use dragon souls for perks. ;)


Edited to add, yeah on my next playthrough (whenifever) I won't be optimizing. But for learning the game I preferred to do my calcs. :)

[Kushan]

This reminds me that when-if-ever I get around to playing a Skyrim campaign again, I'm definitely going the PC route so I can mod brew up (and benefit from the increased graphical glitz).

Not that I'm unhappy with the PS3 version, but I sure would have preferred to use dragon souls for perks. ;)


Edited to add, yeah on my next playthrough (whenifever) I won't be optimizing. But for learning the game I preferred to do my calcs. :)

If you do get it on PC let me know and I can link you some tutorials on where/how to get started modding your game. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but once you get to know mod tools like the nexus mod manager, modding is a breeze.

[PanzersEast]

I have lost my gaming mojo.... was close to wrapping up my CK2 campaign of Poland and have just not been able to play anything I try.  Just in a funk I guess.....


PE

[LongBlade]

I have lost my gaming mojo.... was close to wrapping up my CK2 campaign of Poland and have just not been able to play anything I try.  Just in a funk I guess.....


PE

It happens. Maybe try a different genre or something.

[JasonPratt]

I have to admit that a gaming funk may be contributing to my lack of trying to play Witcher or any of the many other quite different games which are much closer to being completed. Not that the various hardware sortings haven't contributed to playing delays, but even now that my time after work is clear(er), I'm tending to boot up Netflix to watch eps of the animated sequel to the American Godzilla movie until I can't stand it anymore.

What the hell is wrong with me?  :P