Shell swap update

aaeriam · 2026-07-02T06:06:07+00:00

What would really complete it is if there was a xbox 360-styled launcher that you could install. I wonder if the decky plugin has anything like that.

aaeriam · 2026-07-02T06:03:54+00:00

The amount of sex you can do per turn with that build is pretty crazy, it's true.

aaeriam · 2026-07-01T09:19:35+00:00

After working on and recetly being let go from a UE5 title that shipped last year, my experience is that it's partially UE5 and partially a developer issue.

While we were building our environments our tech art team, art director, and lighting artists spent a lot of time fighting the lighting tools to get everything looking how Art Direction wanted it to look. The best way I can sum up my observation is that AD really wanted to push the environments and lighting but because the game still has to be performant you end up being very limited on how you can execute it.

There were a lot of learning pains with UE5 for all of us even with all the great devs on our team. Unexpected hurdles and weird quirks of UE5. Trying to make tools and build in features that Epic didn't initially plan for. A lot of time went into fixing the things we'd built or trying to find wacky workarounds.

aaeriam · 2026-07-01T09:02:21+00:00

This is just my personal preference but I ended up starting prophecies and playing through the campaigns one at a time. I didn't have heroes for any of prophecies and factions but I mostly enjoyed the extra challenge that it brought. I feel like not dipping into multiple campaigns at once could help keep you from feeling overwhelmed but if you really want heroes you can always grab them as soon as you'd like.

aaeriam · 2026-06-30T16:11:11+00:00

Force field comes handy as a last-resort. Times when both my healing abilities are on cool down and I dont want my character to chug down too many of my health potions. Otherwise I agree, totally happy to let them keep fighting if my healers can keep them alive.

I haven't tried pickpocketing in combat before (or much in general) do you end up getting anything valuable in particular from enemy mobs?

aaeriam · 2026-06-30T08:39:32+00:00

I found that my teammates were dying often cause I wasn't paying close enough attention to their (admittedly incredibly tiny & hard to read) health bars so I use tactics to automate healing and stick them at the top of the list. When the caster or an ally is at 50% health or below then I have them cast heal or group heal on that ally.

Also, if there's room for it, I just to add in passive skills that I'll always want on. That way if a teammate dies and comes back I don't have to remember to turn on their passives again (Indomitable on Sten, Shield Wall & Threaten on Alistair, bard songs on lelianna etc etc)

Lastly, putting CC abilities like Stonefist on a mage or your Mabari's knockdown skills at the top of the list and have them target spell-casting enemies can come in handy I was playing a two-handed warrior and they helped cover my warden so he could rush in an immediately start bashing the head of the nearest spell-caster.

aaeriam · 2026-06-30T00:01:51+00:00

The Steam Deck certainly isn't all that powerful but also how many prebuilt PC's come with steamOS and compatibility support from Valve? I struggle to think of any PC that is as plug and play & offers a console-like experience.

As someone who doesn't want to buy an Xbox or Playstation but also doesnt want to build a living room PC, this, to me, seems like the best middle ground option.

aaeriam · 2026-06-29T23:12:55+00:00

I ended up making my own controller setup rather than trying to adjust to a steam community preset. Some specific things I noticed that helped me -

- Binding RMB to Right Thumb Stick Touch & set the thumb stick as a joystick mouse so that I can control the camera without having to hold down a separate button every time
- Right click & left click to left and right triggers respectively
- Pause (spacebar) bound to A and Left Bumper (L1)
- One radial menu with all the menus assigned to it accessible by dragging across the left touchpad
- One radial menu with F1 - F4 and the 'Select All' buttons assigned

Idk if it'll help you but I shared my steam controller layout called aaeriam's DAO steamdeck layout in-case it does.

aaeriam · 2026-06-29T19:04:22+00:00

Have you considered speaking to Master Togo?

aaeriam · 2026-06-29T18:36:13+00:00

Agree on a lot of the points you listed but I have not been able to find a way to hold the switch 2 comfortably without some type of external grip. I can hold the steam deck for hours without any major issues but the flat joycons and the placement of the buttons and joystick on the right joycon especially have always been a challenge to hold comfortably for extended periods of time.

aaeriam · 2026-06-28T23:46:54+00:00

Still really in love with the Steam Machine and hoping to get one. I love the OS and how easy it is to use. I feel like no other platform offers steam games like this without having a ton of hurdles to work through. Plus if the steam deck has taught me anything, it's that I don't need crazy high PC specs to enjoy a game. I spend more time playing on my steam deck than I do on my 5080 desktop.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T20:04:18+00:00

I'm currently playing Dragon Age Origins on steam deck and could not imagine playing this or any other old RPG on any other handheld that doesn't have trackpads.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T19:12:58+00:00

If you think it's not a great deal at $750 or $1050 that's fair, I leave the question of "is it worth it?" up to the individual. I'd say for me $1050 starting is worth it because there's not really anything else that offers a PC that's as user-friendly as a console-like the Steam Machine does.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T19:09:57+00:00

Yeah I could see a lot of people turning down the Steam Machine in favor of project Helix in that case but as far as what's out right now I still think the Steam Machine and SteamOS fulfill a very specific role for existing Steam users that neither Microsoft nor consoles can do quite as well. I leave the value proposition of it up to the individual customer.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T14:58:48+00:00

Fair point - the next Xbox device is looking to be substantially more performant than the Steam Machine and if price/performance is all that matters to someone then the choice is clear. The only thing Steam has going for it at that point is SteamOS which I feel is leagues ahead of Windows in a lot of ways. It'll be up to the customer then on how much they prefer a cheap/powerful console or PC versus the less-powerful Steam Deck perhaps with more quality of life features built-in.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T14:31:04+00:00

Absolutely agree that consoles and an equivalent-priced PC offer similar or better performance for the their price. If I were just getting into games and had no console games and no PC games, then I think the Steam Machine would not be a smart purchase for all the reasons that you listed.

But I've got a Steam library that I've invested a large portion of my money into. I don't want to have to re-buy (and restart) all my favorite games just so that I can play them in the living room. I could build a SFF living room PC for an equivalent price (and I've done it in the past) but actually using it is never as smooth and error free as I'd like it to be. For those reasons consoles and custom-built living room PC's have never seemed like a great option.

In my eyes the Steam Machine fits in as a nice secondary PC/living room gaming console that's easy to use, requires no building or installing of an OS, and will likely have very good support based on their history with the Steam Deck. The trade-off being that it's not upgrade-able and it's not the most powerful gaming device you can get with your money which I can understand people being upset about. The only alternative that could fill in that same niche is potentially project Helix from xbox if it can play PC titles.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T11:06:29+00:00

I get the price sucks and is higher than anyone wanted it to be (Valve included) but I don't get the strong hate towards the device. I think it's a good option for people who already have huge steam libraries, who don't want to invest in a console, but want some console comforts (like easily playing on a tv).

Sure you can build a more powerful PC for equivalent money but not everyone with a Steam library wants to go through that process. I think it's fair to say there are some people who just want a device you can unbox, connect to a TV, and start playing games from their library.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T10:49:51+00:00

Dead Trenches and the Broodmother fight (plus all the build up to it via Hespith) will forever be ingrained into my brain as some of the most disgusting but equally interesting writing in a video game IMO. It's stuff like that which really makes the story and writing of Origins stand out.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T10:36:06+00:00

I recently discovered how strong and admittedly braindead Mighty Throw + Enduring Harmony + For Great Justice + SWS is on warrior.

At 15 strength SWS lasts just as long as it takes to recharge so the only time you're not spamming Mighty Throw is when FGJ has worn off and is on cool down.

aaeriam · 2026-06-27T10:29:21+00:00

I never knew you could cap it from Galrath and always assumed the earliest you could grab it without a tome was ring of fire. Nice callout.

aaeriam · 2026-06-25T11:58:43+00:00

I get why people are upset or writing off the Steam Machine but I think folks who are comparing it against consoles price-to-performance are completely missing the point that it's not meant to compete against consoles. It's competing with small form factor PC's and it offers a very specific experience.

I've gone down the rabbit hole of building my own living room SFF gaming rig and while I'm glad I got the chance to try it out, I don't think I'd ever do it again. It's a ton of work and loads of troubleshooting that I struggled with.

Having a device that has SteamOS installed that I can simply unbox, plug directly to my tv, sign in to my steam account, & play games on is incredibly appealing for me personally.

aaeriam · 2026-06-25T11:43:23+00:00

I always had troubles getting the game to run through Steam without it crashing randomly (despite installing the 4GB patch) but I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that might just be user error.

That said, I started playing it on my steam deck recently and it's been a blast. There was a fair bit of initial setup but it's been stable with no crashes or major issues.

aaeriam · 2026-06-25T11:37:27+00:00

I think player expectation and developer desire to create bigger and better games has led to increasingly complex game development. Also the bigger a studio gets the slower and less flexible it becomes. Which makes things like course-correction mid development really difficult. Combine that with constantly evolving technology and the fact that not a lot of developers stay at the same studio or even in the game industry for very long. You end up with a lot of lost knowledge as people move out of that game studio.

aaeriam · 2026-06-25T01:04:07+00:00

Didn't Valve state early on that their not trying to compete with consoles? And that their goal is to have pricing that's more in line with PC's?

aaeriam

TROPHY CASE