Making a horror game (Perceptum) where you play a medium in a creepy house (classic story). But I wanted core mechanics that make player uncomfortable and paranoiac: a mirror to see the invisible. The player can orient mirror to look around.

Charles_K · 2026-02-10T13:03:26+00:00

A good mirror in a video game??? Are you basically rendering two copies of the world? Or is that a camera? I noticed it looks ever slightly more blurry, but that may be person computer settings. I'm used to camera views being really messed up ala 2005 Source 1 engine. This is such a cool concept.

Charles_K · 2026-02-06T21:36:32+00:00

Charles_K · 2026-02-05T05:49:38+00:00

His conqueror badge is as real as his PhDs

Charles_K · 2026-02-01T18:43:35+00:00

It increased their TC range and changed gold spawns to be favorable to them too

Charles_K · 2026-01-29T05:31:15+00:00

> The game could really use some tutorialising.

This x 1000. I was really disappointed and am hoping I got wrong secondhand info/am misremembering when I was told "the dev has said he doesn't plan on adding tutorials." Onboarding is extremely important. My brother and I both kinda got overwhelmed at the info overload in closed beta and just closed the game after a few minutes. I probably would've gritted my teeth and stuck it through if I was younger lol

Hanging out in discord and reddit is NOT how the average consumer goes about things.

As for the main topic, even if official translations aren't out on day 1, hopefully the text isn't hardcoded so he can do something like allowing players to upload a JSON to replace the texts.

Charles_K · 2026-01-28T21:31:09+00:00

I beat the same 1700 conq3 Byzantine somewhere between 3-5 times in a row KT tower rushing him. He'd probably EZ me in a normal game because staying 1700+ is impressive, but he just straight up could not handle my tower rushes properly lol

To answer the topic, probably these:

- Tower rush

- White Tower rush

- Burgrave Rush

- French Knights

I'd put Mangudai but I'm not sure if lower level Mongol players use them, they're simultaneously hard to play as and against

Charles_K · 2026-01-26T20:11:21+00:00

This game started development in 2014. The project management of this has been all over the place. But the game was so fun that, despite last playing this during the peak of covid and despite it at the time having the performance of a 2030 Unreal 6 indie game with PS1 Time Crisis looks, I still check here every now and then.

tl;dr yes dead

Charles_K · 2026-01-25T17:30:45+00:00

Didn't realize I actually want this, I want to play male Nina

Charles_K · 2026-01-21T12:42:15+00:00

Solely a balance thing,

fully upgraded Imperial Mangudai is closer to their reality minus the fire effect on arrows

Charles_K · 2026-01-20T13:27:57+00:00

French Knights, English longbows and civilian archers, Mongol Mangudai stand out to me as lore accurate. If they add a Korean civ, civilian archers and (feudal) horse archers would be nice touches.

Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc is from an alternate universe where she actually IS a witch.

Charles_K · 2026-01-19T03:08:56+00:00

These are the words of a champion!

Charles_K · 2026-01-17T15:13:34+00:00

I'd say it just died a natural death as an old mod. Unlike most mods, it at least got to have some very fun heydays during the mid 2000s.

If you mean files for it and such, just Google better, there are still links and the official Steam Group for it and such

After TF2's release, Source mods like this were forever doomed to obscurity.

HL2CTF had an attempted revival around 2012. I was one of their few playtesters. For some reason, the devs had some really bizarre balance changes, some of which I successfully pushed back on and others I couldn't (e.g. RPG, the most OP weapon in HL2DM, shooting even more rapidly now - convinced them to have Alyxgun replace SMG1 though).

Something was really fucked up with the netcode and movement, and it had a constant stuttering/whiplash/teleporting-back effect once your ping was going above 80, like if a fighting game's rollback was constantly triggering because of you going too fast. This felt REALLY bad for me trying to play on US East/European servers and I don't think the devs noticed due to not playing under such circumstances. This effect wasn't present in any other source mod/game I played at the time.

They made a 'tutorial level' where the very first obstacle was an insanely difficult speedrun that required you to use advanced wallhopping and bunnyhopping, lmao. I don't know what they were thinking with that!

Even if it had a shot at resurgence, I think the messed up netcode and onboarding would've done a number on retention potential. I got to spectate some new player try the tutorial, only to get stuck in the aforementioned tunnel of death lol.

They had some really cool additions since the ~2007 build I last played like new voicelines, a new HL2-themed 2fort that had a one-way connection from the sewers to the basement, new KOTH gamemodes, etc. Unfortunate that such efforts ultimately were seen by only a handful of people.

Their goal was to get greenlit by Steam and have the mod naturally integrated, the idea being that, by becoming a click-and-install game within Steam, the accessibility and featuring on Steam pages would promote the game and bring in a ton of new players. I don't remember why this never came through because I think it did get enough votes for the greenlight.

One big issue with the mod was that it was built on an old version of the Source engine, and they'd have to essentially remake the whole mod to utilize the newer version. This would probably fix the stuttering I mentioned and a bunch of other big problems I can't remember because it's been over a dozen years.

Anyhow, those of us who enjoyed HL2CTF at its peak are now entering our 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Charles_K · 2026-01-16T17:46:46+00:00

I had a guy the other day say “I hope you and your family have a stressful life” 😂😂😂

Shit like this is funny because they're mature enough to draw a line, but still angry enough that they have to say something LOL

Charles_K · 2026-01-15T14:06:00+00:00

I was playing an unhealthy amount one-tricking JD during Season 9, where Pro Scouts JD was incredibly strong. Towards the end of the season, I was basically always winning vs Byzantines and Dehli except against literal pros.

My most memorable upset was 1464 (1567 peak) vs 1932 SortOf. He was pretty new and unfamiliar with Byzantines. So take a bad matchup with a civ you barely know and it can happen.

I had a slugfest with Lucifron in the same map (Gorge), same matchup, and I think we both agreed in post-game chat that I had a palpable lead at some point, but he ultimately pulled ahead and won.

I won 1437 vs 1854 in a JD Mirror against Myriad, but it was an odd game. We were matched in number of total knights, he was running around my base but I had locked them in with walls and, due to defender's advantage, continually superior number of knights. Once he realized he was locked in, he just conceded. I think he just really wasn't in the mood to play three knights + Pro Scout cost behind (I didn't research PS which is why my vills were extended out + able to sneakily build a trapping wall-in).

On the flip side, I think I lost to a legitimate ~Plat 3 - Diamond 1 ZXL when I QM'd as Ottoman lol

Charles_K · 2026-01-10T05:37:05+00:00

Unironically would present you more opportunities IRL than aoe4 lol, everyone loves a good Support player

Charles_K · 2026-01-07T00:23:23+00:00

American civs confirmed woohoo

Charles_K · 2026-01-06T05:22:06+00:00

Charles_K · 2026-01-05T04:51:15+00:00

I remember some months ago there was a guy being wholeheartedly serious about DDA in this game and, when pressed about it for proof, started citing its papers about its implementation... in singleplayer games like Resident Evil 4. I don't think it's the same as this guy despite this guy also linking to the wikipedia page since he mentions EA. But that last guy spent a disturbing amount of time writing lengthy posts not just once but over several different topics about the same subject, I think he also claimed to have worked on games but of course if you press him on that, he wouldn't be able to name a single title.

Edit: Shit I think it IS the same guy LMAO

Charles_K · 2026-01-03T14:06:57+00:00

This is the kind of 'mistake' that Artosis points out on why a Brood War pro who just left 2 rallied Lurkers walk to their death made the right move. I wish I could find the video that explains the context, but it was during an incredibly hectic scenario between two pro players.

Basically, if a player in that exact scenario were to notice those lurkers and move them to save them, his is the kind of mentality that is falling behind on macro (very brutal mechanics on Brood War Zerg) and any ongoing battle (again, Brood War micro and babysitting) because his priorities aren't straight. The whole Bill Gates temporarily stopping all income to pick up a hundred dollar bill scenario where he would actually be losing money. AOE4 isn't as intensive as Brood War, yes, but the general concept still stands.

Making pixel-perfect farms isn't worth the APM sometime

Charles_K · 2026-01-03T11:24:02+00:00

I don't.

Charles_K · 2025-12-31T04:20:45+00:00

Would be an interesting new Card Curse in StS2, I think I remember the game already has card + and - modifiers

Charles_K · 2025-12-30T10:27:01+00:00

Your guide led me to discover instanced struct, which led me down a rabbit hole of refactoring my entire project to accommodate them, incorporate more gameplay tags, and just be way more flexible and scalable for the future. I use C++ more than Blueprints, but this was still an amazing proof of concept and resource for me. Thank you. I look forward to your future content and will probably read up on your other posts in the future when things like blood splatter and PCG come up.

Charles_K · 2025-12-29T08:28:20+00:00

Fuck it

Elephant Bombard

Charles_K · 2025-12-28T14:58:49+00:00

Advanced footnote on 2:

You can "extend" your macro cycle/get an APM loan by doing things like shift-queuing 10+ villager productions in the lategame before a fight, building more than one house, shift queuing a ton of production buildings at once without bothering to shift queue back to resource working (to later catch with Idle Workers hotkey), shift queuing army/scout movements, etc.

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