Save It For FRIDAY

[Anguille]

Happy B'day JH!

My main plan is to finish the campaign in Port Royal 3 and continue the conquest of America in Empire: Total War. I also have a long Horizon game going.

On the testing side:

- New beta patch for Astra Exodus
- Imperiums: Greek Wars (working mostly on the french translation and checking how it looks like in the game).

[Martok]

Happy Birthday, gents!  Good song, MD (don't believe I'd heard it before).  O0 


Gaming-wise, I'm in a funk for space 4x titles; nothing really appeals to me right now.  Am currently playing a Romulan campaign in Birth of the Federation (with the Ultimate Mod 5) as a form of mental "comfort food".  (Still dreaming of/wishing for a sequel...) 

On the Total War front, I've resumed my old Mide campaign in Thrones of Britannia.  Have been dragged into a messy war between Aileach (which is ruled by my brother the High King) and Ulaid, a fellow Irish kingdom.  In retaliation for siding with my brother, Ulaid has launched a seaborne invasion of my one port own, so I now prepare to defend it... 

On the testing side:

- New beta patch for Astra Exodus
- Imperiums: Greek Wars (working mostly on the french translation and checking how it looks like in the game).

I'm amazed/impressed the dev is still patching Astra Exodus.  Either it has sold better than I thought, and/or he's particularly committed to his game.  Well done, either way. 


If it's not breaking NDA, can I ask whether you're enjoying Imperiums?  (And if you can't answer, I of course understand.)  I'm liking what I've seen so far from the devs' micro-blogs, but they still tell you only so much. 

[Anguille]

Happy Birthday, gents!  Good song, MD (don't believe I'd heard it before).  O0 


Gaming-wise, I'm in a funk for space 4x titles; nothing really appeals to me right now.  Am currently playing a Romulan campaign in Birth of the Federation (with the Ultimate Mod 5) as a form of mental "comfort food".  (Still dreaming of/wishing for a sequel...) 

On the Total War front, I've resumed my old Mide campaign in Thrones of Britannia.  Have been dragged into a messy war between Aileach (which is ruled by my brother the High King) and Ulaid, a fellow Irish kingdom.  In retaliation for siding with my brother, Ulaid has launched a seaborne invasion of my one port own, so I now prepare to defend it... 

On the testing side:

- New beta patch for Astra Exodus
- Imperiums: Greek Wars (working mostly on the french translation and checking how it looks like in the game).

I'm amazed/impressed the dev is still patching Astra Exodus.  Either it has sold better than I thought, and/or he's particularly committed to his game.  Well done, either way. 


If it's not breaking NDA, can I ask whether you're enjoying Imperiums?  (And if you can't answer, I of course understand.)  I'm liking what I've seen so far from the devs' micro-blogs, but they still tell you only so much.

I think he really made the game he wanted, so yes, he's very committed. Guess it started as a hobby project (he has a real job during the day) and when he had the real product, he was able to make a deal with Slitherine. He's working on this major patch (with the battle arena) and wants to have a good product, so he releases new beta versions of it on a regular basis. I am giving him as much feedback as i can (we talk a lot on the steam chat).

If you liked Aggressors: Ancient Rome you will really like the new version. It's an improved edition with, as you know, a focus on the Greek region. Most of the states are much smaller (unlike Rome or Carthage) so i guess, the end is a lot more open. I wish he would have included the Peloponnesian War as well.

Are you running Birth of the Federation on Windows 10? Never managed to run it decentely (so slow).

[Sir Slash]

Happy Birthday Gus. Didn't you get that, 'Build a Ship-in-a-Bottle' kit I sent you? Oh, wait. I'm still emptying the bottle. Soon man. Soon.  <:-)

[Myrmidon]

Dominions 5 MP for me.  While my nation has been reduced to but a tiny city state in the Grogsgame, I've subbed in for another player in another Dominions game, so am going to be having fun with that.  The depth of strategy and options in the MP side of this game continues to blow me away, even though I've been around the SP aspect of the game for years. 

I bought Shadow Empires with an anniversary coupon, but have yet to crank it up.  Not sure I've got the mental stamina to learn a new deep game whilst tearing into the deeper aspects of Dominions multiplayer, but someday, I'll crank it up.

Finally, may try to fire up Elite Dangerous with the new update.  There's a need to catalog the overlapping mining hotspots again, since they were all scrambled after the update.  I helped with the earlier initiative, and it would be fun to help out with it again... but we shall see. 

[Gusington]

Thanks Slash, you old so-and-so.

Someone say Aggressors: Ancient Rome?

[nelmsm]

Playing Stellaris further than I've ever gone before and also fired up Tigers on the Hunt for some tactical action. Had it for awhile but hadn't hardly played it

[MetalDog]

Happy birthday, JH!  And happy early birthday to Gus and Airboy.  I will be 50 this year, so, I think I have JH and Gus beat, but not Airboy.  Sorry that you guys all get hosed by Father's Day.  Kinda like having a birthday near Christmas I would think.

Happy birthday JH. Unironically, next Saturday is my birthday. I think I am 2-3 years older than you. But you're like a foot taller than me so it all evens out.

Great song BTW, Dawg!

^You were one of the ones I was trolling for ;)

Happy Birthday, gents!  Good song, MD (don't believe I'd heard it before).  O0 

You, however, were a surprise.  Glad you liked it.  It's from back in the MTV days.  It came up on a Spotify playlist I had on last night and I thought it would be a change from what I normally go with.

[Martok]

I'm amazed/impressed the dev is still patching Astra Exodus.  Either it has sold better than I thought, and/or he's particularly committed to his game.  Well done, either way. 


If it's not breaking NDA, can I ask whether you're enjoying Imperiums?  (And if you can't answer, I of course understand.)  I'm liking what I've seen so far from the devs' micro-blogs, but they still tell you only so much.

I think he really made the game he wanted, so yes, he's very committed. Guess it started as a hobby project (he has a real job during the day) and when he had the real product, he was able to make a deal with Slitherine. He's working on this major patch (with the battle arena) and wants to have a good product, so he releases new beta versions of it on a regular basis. I am giving him as much feedback as i can (we talk a lot on the steam chat).

Very cool.  If there's any one person giving feedback on this game, I'm glad it's you.  (I realize you're not the only one, but you know what I mean.)  :bd: 

I also see you gave Astra Exodus a decent review on Steam.  I take it you feel it's worth playing now? 

If you liked Aggressors: Ancient Rome you will really like the new version. It's an improved edition with, as you know, a focus on the Greek region. Most of the states are much smaller (unlike Rome or Carthage) so i guess, the end is a lot more open. I wish he would have included the Peloponnesian War as well.

Good to hear.  Aggressors: Ancient Rome is one of the many games I've spent too few hours with, but I've enjoyed what little time I have spent playing. 

I too am surprised the dev didn't include the Peloponnesian War.  But then, I've long had the impression he wants to avoid specific scenarios, and the shoe-horned/railroaded decisions that often accompany them. 

Are you running Birth of the Federation on Windows 10? Never managed to run it decentely (so slow).

Yes, I am running BOTF on Win10.  I suppose I could just be lucky, but I also made sure to use Thunderchero's all-in-one installer (he just released a new version, incidentally).  The installer includes DxWnd, which allows the game to run much better on machines with Windows 7/10.  (And for some folks, it isn't even possible to run BOTF without DxWnd.)  It's definitely been a life-saver, or at least a sanity-saver.  :) 

[Martok]

Someone say Aggressors: Ancient Rome?

Just talking about the dev's next game, Imperiums: Greek Wars.  It's looking damn good.  8) 

You, however, were a surprise.  Glad you liked it.  It's from back in the MTV days.  It came up on a Spotify playlist I had on last night and I thought it would be a change from what I normally go with.

I didn't have cable TV growing up, nor did I live in an area with a good (or even marginally decent) rock station.  So I missed out on a lot -- and I do mean a *lot* -- of the good, but lesser-known, stuff that was playing back then.  I've spent the last 25 years playing catch-up.  :-\ 

[Gusington]

^Me too - my family didn't get cable until 1991! Just in time for Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana on the MTV though.

So Aggressors: Ancient Rome is revamped, or do I wait for the new Imperium game for the revamping?

And the Dawg of Metal is 50...that can't be right.

[MetalDog]

^Me too - my family didn't get cable until 1991! Just in time for Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana on the MTV though.

So Aggressors: Ancient Rome is revamped, or do I wait for the new Imperium game for the revamping?

And the Dawg of Metal is 50...that can't be right.

And still spittin' fire at the universe  \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

And I had cable in '78.

[Martok]

^Me too - my family didn't get cable until 1991! Just in time for Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana on the MTV though.

I'm jealous!  I didn't have cable until I was in my 20's and living with roommates. 

So Aggressors: Ancient Rome is revamped, or do I wait for the new Imperium game for the revamping?

Anguille can probably answer that question better than I, since he's both played the former more than me, and is currently beta-testing the latter.  Here's my thoughts, though, for whatever they're worth... 


Probably the biggest differences between the two games are the settings/time periods, plus the fact that Aggressors is a bit more free-form, being a 4x title.  (In contrast, I believe Imperiums is more "grand-strategy" than "4x", and is a little more focused experience as a result.)  In addition, I imagine Imperiums is going to be a bit more refined/polished than Aggressors, although the general consensus is that Aggressors is also very good (despite it being the dev's first game). 

Given that you typically lean a little more towards grand-strategy games versus 4x games (granting that there's a good deal of overlap between the two genres), it would be easy to say you should get Imperiums once it's out -- gun to my head, that's probably what I'd recommend.  But given how much you like the Roman period as well, I admittedly feel I'd be doing you a disservice by not giving Aggressors its due.  Honestly, I think you could grab both games and not go wrong. 

And the Dawg of Metal is 50...that can't be right.

Wholeheartedly agree!  On the other hand, I would hold up MD as a textbook example of the saying "age is just a number".   

[GroggyGrognard]

^Me too - my family didn't get cable until 1991! Just in time for Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana on the MTV though.

I'm jealous!  I didn't have cable until I was in my 20's and living with roommates. 

S**t man I can relate. My parents bought our first family TV in 1984 when I was 11 years old. A few years later, my folks signed up for cable. But they restricted me to a certain amount of TV viewing per week. So, I never had the full cable TV experience until I was living independently in my late teens with roommates and friends who had cable.

Groggy

[Gusington]

^You're precisely 1 year older than me!

And thanks Martok...eventually I can see myself getting both Aggressors and Imperium, I'll be honest :)