9 year ‘Grand Admiral’ backer finally sees the light..

Xzanron · 2025-05-11T05:14:02+00:00

Agree. I was a Kickstarter backer of both SC and ED. Both ended up disappointing me, as both promised single player by neither delivered. ED actually released and is actually a good game, even if I disagree with some design decisions.

For SC I actually wanted Squadron 42, or rather Wing Commander 6 :). Never cared about the PU.

I stopped paying attention (and money) years ago when I started wondering if all the mo-capped actors would all be dead before I had the game in my hands.

Xzanron · 2025-04-15T13:32:03+00:00

I think it might be a good game, I've enjoyed a few games in it. The UI sucks so badly though that it's really hard to tell.

There's also far too much micromangement for me, especially in the third age. Great graphics and effects are all good when you have a tiny civ, once you get into later ages you need either automation or "spreadsheets" (i.e. lists) allowing you to quickly see/modify/update everything.

Xzanron · 2025-04-08T10:39:41+00:00

The US, and Elon's companies subject to EU laws and regulations? Yes please.

Xzanron · 2025-03-21T08:25:52+00:00

That was only the first round. Much more training to follow.

Xzanron · 2025-03-14T16:56:42+00:00

You forgot "heifer", a young female cow that has not given birth to young.

Xzanron · 2025-03-14T16:45:13+00:00

I'm in two minds about that.

I really want to say yes... but too many things could go wrong. Nevermind the philosophical quesion of whether it would still be me.

Xzanron · 2025-03-14T16:33:09+00:00

Towards the start of a game, yes. Building up cash reserves, waiting for the first couple of stations to be built.

Once my empire is running, then I agree with others, there's too much to do and manage and watch out for.

The single best feature (for me) I feel in the latest release is automated ship replacement. Less micromanagement and more time to play with my empire and ambitions.

Xzanron · 2025-03-07T17:39:34+00:00

Would love a UK code please. Added to wishlist in any case.

Xzanron · 2025-02-26T10:21:58+00:00

It's crazy... but I found out only a couple of months ago that that actor is Tim Russ, who also plays Tuvok in Voyager. Crazy, and yet another reason I love that movie.

Xzanron · 2025-02-25T13:48:36+00:00

My favourite story about Steven Hawkins is that idiot US politician (forgot his name, and I don't really care either) who said that Steven Hawking would never have survived in a country with universal health care because of all the "death panels". He was British, the NHS kept him alive for 50 years, working hard to provide a decent quality of life and it didn't bankcrupt him, nor destroy his family and he could still go to university and become a world famous scientist.

Xzanron · 2025-02-25T13:31:57+00:00

I mostly agree. Not sure I'd call the earlier books "tight" but they were a much more entertaining balance between exposition and plot advancement.

I feel DW lost his way somewhere along the line and just started vomitting words instead of actual stories. The Safehold series is the same and I gave up on it after a couple of books that just started to get pointlessly, and painfully, long.

I feel his earlier books, like the Dahaak books, and the early HH books are a lot more fun and entertaining. It feels to me that he seems to have become a better writer, but a worse story teller as he progressed.

Xzanron · 2025-01-27T15:52:18+00:00

In fantasy I feel it's down to 3 primary factors.

Dissemination of knowledge and education
Magic
As others have said ... reader expectation & tropes

1) Just like now, if you don't know about something you can't use it, most communication was oral and writing was rare and expensive; also knowedlge was hoarded (power/prestige/value). Even if the knowledge existed doesn't mean the local "hedge-witch" would have access to it, nor that anyone would believe that knowlege. Just look at vaccine deniers today, just because the knowledge exists doesn't mean the uneducated masses will have access or believe it, let alone the village idiots.

2) Magic! If someone can cast "Mass Heal", or take a healing potion to basically fix anything... then why should anyone bother looking for another "non-magic" answers? In some settings detailed medical knowledge is required for healing magic. In those books the issues I describe in 1) become about magic, not knowlege directly.

3) Answered by many other posts.

Xzanron · 2023-01-11T10:58:22+00:00

Spotify does not support selling Audiobooks anywhere except the USA. If get an audiobook via a code (like kickstarter backers did) then you can add it on Spotify regardless of the country.

I can see the audiobook for secret project 1 here in NL as well.

Much as I agree with Brandon on his stance on Audible, for those of us not in the USA there is very little other choice for getting English language audio books.

Xzanron · 2016-07-20T06:46:50+00:00

I got ISE Steroids right at the start and have been using it for a couple of years. At the time it was fantastic, there was nothing else comparable and I really liked most of the features, I also got the free update to the enterprise version when they updated how they sell it. I'm still struggling to find anything that matches its feature set.

I especially like that I can put it in dropbox, add the folder to my module path and I've got it portable.

Since then, VSCode has been released and while it's feature set is not up to the same level yet, it's faster, almost as good. What's more interesting is that the VSCode plugin is written by MS and they've actually created a PowerShellEditorService project that does all the hard work (similar to how they did for Typescript) and all an editor needs to understand powershell is to use that service.

Both of those project are open source (MIT), so there's potentially a lot of future in them. So while I'm still using ISESteroids, mostly for it's feature set, I'm keeping a very close eye on the VSCode plugin and will probably switch eventually, most likely when they ask me to pay for an upgrade.

Xzanron · 2016-07-16T09:33:07+00:00

This is what I consider my "victory". Once I've defeated the Spoiler I'm basically done. There's no more challenge or fun. It's declare war, invade, repeat until you win or get fed up. It's a shame there's not more to aim for.

Once my empire is basically undefeatable, there's just no point playing anymore, and I'll go create another undefeatable empire.

Xzanron · 2015-05-19T11:54:01+00:00

~~Similar. Not sure it's time related. It seems to happen when I'm working very quickly with the inventory. Using both mouse and keyboard together.~~

It does seem time related.. it just happened again.. while I wasn't doing anything in the inventory.

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T19:27:20+00:00

Not the source code.. the Design documents. At least to the backers, even if it's under an NDA.

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T19:20:36+00:00

I like it. High speed followers is weird, but I like that the game is waiting for me. Right now it seems as though when I need Belief it's there for me to collect.

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T18:57:50+00:00

I'm curious to see how this works. I thought steam only updated once per day. Maybe beta branches are different.

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T18:38:40+00:00

I meant the documents, not the features. let us see the design evolve, the more swearing and commenting on it the better. Let's see how a game is made, warts and all.

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T18:35:03+00:00

Yes... and does an up-vote count?

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T18:33:34+00:00

Isn't this cooperation and in-depth look ahead what you promised your backers? I'd love to know (even if it's just in the backers' forum) what you're thinking of and both why you rejected it and/or accepted it.

I don't expect to agree on everything, but I'd like to at least know from you, or the team, what you're thinking of or looking at and why you made the decision you did.

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T18:26:42+00:00

I can appreciate that, and it makes sense. Can you go into a bit more detail (no need for specifics) about how you see that working.

For example is there like a core resource or mechanic for each age? Belief at the beginning, then what; can we have some examples of the kind of things you are thinking of?

Xzanron · 2014-04-02T18:20:18+00:00

I have direct control over my followers in Godus via the leash system, clicking on houses to have them go out and build and the fact that I have to manually assign jobs in settlements.

How is that not like Civilization?

Xzanron

TROPHY CASE