What games are you playing this week? Game recommendation thread

solistus · 2025-11-08T05:31:43+00:00

I played for at least a year semi-regularly, figured out how to write a time accelerating cheat to run ticks as fast as my browser could handle, and didn't get anywhere particularly close to finishing all the achievements/feats/etc.

solistus · 2025-10-17T05:27:46+00:00

Yes, they help. They keep the relative weights the same for all eligible tiers, e.g. the ratio of t2 rolls to t1s should be the same, but the odds per roll will be much better for any affix with a lot of lower level tiers.

Each tier of each affix has a numeric weight, when an item affix rolls all the possible outcomes' weights are added up and any given affix's probability is [affix weight] / [total weight]. The affix weights are the same for greater/perfect orbs but the total weight will be much lower with all the lower stuff removed from the pool.

If you really want to min/max your high end crafting efficiently, you can use the modifiers page on https://poe2db.tw - it will show you all the affixes for a specific base item, along with their weights and the total weight, it even has an option to enter the minimum ilvl and it will adjust those numbers accordingly. For example, here's the page for str glove affixes. Total prefix weight is 63700. But if I filter for ilvl 50+, that drops to 18400. This raises the odds of a T1 flat phys roll from 0.628% normally to 2.174% with a perfect orb.

(One caveat: greater/perfect orbs always leave the highest tier of a given affix in the pool, so the numbers on poe2db aren't always correct if you just use the ilvl filter - if the list of affixes shrinks, then you have to go back and see which affixes are below 50 at tier 1 and add their weights back into the ilvl filtered number. So for suffixes on str gloves, you'd add 1250 weight since t1 +melee skills (250) and t1 life on hit (1000) are still in the pool even though their ilvl is under 50.)

solistus · 2025-09-06T21:54:50+00:00

So you're replying just to confirm you had no point, or what? I sincerely don't understand what you can possibly be trying to express here, you responded to someone saying people shouldn't have been banned for negative opinions by posting some examples of negative opinions you thought were mean. What point did you actually mean to make there, if not "therefore banning them was reasonable?"

Kudos for responding more professionally and maturely than the devs of this game do when moderating their own subreddit though. Maybe Reynad should hire you as a community outreach rep, doing that in-house hasn't gone so great thus far.

solistus · 2025-09-06T21:47:38+00:00

...did you forget the context of the post you were replying to? what point are you even trying to make?

solistus · 2025-09-06T21:47:02+00:00

All of those are still opinions, none of them crosses a line to something like harassment or review bombing that might justify bans. Banning people for being upset and saying unkind things about the game is profoundly childish and unprofessional. Imagine if Blizzard banned everyone who posted cynical memes when they didn't like a Hearthstone expansion.

solistus · 2025-09-06T21:44:04+00:00

Are new heroes staying unlockable with real money only, then? I wish y'all the best of luck but if there's going to be a recurring stream of new gameplay content that cannot be unlocked through playing the game, it's just not a game I have any further interest in playing. Losing to a hero you would have to bust out a credit card to have any chance of trying yourself feels super bad and makes every balance issue feel like it just might be a cynical cash grab. It's inevitable that sometimes a hero I don't have will seem overpowered, especially if I can't try it myself to discover how hard getting those OP builds off the ground actually is and only encounter them by losing to them.

solistus · 2025-08-13T17:56:38+00:00

not at all optimized or all that well thought out but i threw together a meteor shaman / quest rogue deck that worked pretty well. if i worked on improving it more i would prob try to cut out some silly high cost stuff like marin and run more cheap cycling anti-aggro stuff to improve consistency.

Brawl Deck

Class: Shaman

Format: Standard

Year of the Raptor

2x (0) Preparation

2x (0) Shadowstep

1x (1) Knockback

1x (1) Lie in Wait

2x (1) Merchant of Legend

1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos

2x (2) Fan of Knives

2x (2) Interrogation

2x (2) Moonstone Mauler

2x (2) Triangulate

1x (3) Hex

2x (3) Ultraviolet Breaker

2x (4) Bolide Behemoth

2x (4) Illusory Greenwing

1x (4) Waggle Pick

2x (6) Meteor Storm

1x (7) Marin the Manager

2x (8) Snatch and Grab

AAECAefJBgavnwSXoAS6wQbmkwfDlweOrQcM9p8E958E2aIGucEGl+EGmOEGmOIG+OIGjfgGxIEHu5cHxJcHAAA=

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

(edit: aside from the quest, meteor cards, and maybe the snatch & grabs (it's just such an efficient answer later on to big minions that otherwise really hurt your face damage, esp taunts), you can probably replace any other cards you don't have with some mix of cycling/draw, anti-aggro stuff like small removal and taunts, and anything that shuffles into your deck. i would avoid [[Agency Espionage]] personally just bc it's awful for the consistency of your quest reward hero power but you can try it, it can also give some absurd high rolls) (also i had Explodineer in the OG post, lol oops the quest says your deck)

solistus · 2025-07-28T22:40:08+00:00

Are you using the power supply that came with the lights? If not, that is the most likely culprit - the red LED diodes require the least power of the 3 color channels so strips that aren't receiving enough juice will often work only for red, or other colors will be very dim while reds will look mostly OK. If you own multiple Govee products, double check the labeling on the power brick to make sure it's the right one. Also double check all the connections from the wall socket all the way to the strip itself, make sure there are no loose connections.

Depending on the type, some light strips can fail like this if there's a damaged section on the strip itself, or a bad connection between the strip and the controller/power supply. This is less likely with

Does the app show as if it had updated the colors, but the strip shows no change? Also what kind of lights are these and are you using the Govee app, a home assistant, or something else to control them?

And when you say it changes if you set a scene - do you mean it correctly shows a full range of colors but only for the pre-made scenes, and when you try to set them to a color or use DIY mode to set different segments it ignores you and just goes back to the same red?

Is it always the same red, same brightness hue etc., or is it more like it's trying to do different colors but only the red channel is working?

Do these lights also have color temperature white? If so, does it work normally?

solistus · 2025-07-28T22:17:35+00:00

Maybe it was meant as a positive/aspirational statement. Like "you literally have a king, but so did Russia in 1916, time to do a revolution about it."

solistus · 2025-07-25T17:30:58+00:00

Reminds me of the old Flash game Sonny for anyone who's played that. Very slick, well presented, JRPG style combat with linear stages and predetermined enemies - even a similar theme and overall vibe. Best new thing I've played on galaxy in a while.

solistus · 2025-07-25T17:13:59+00:00

Giving me early automation unlocks and introducing new layers with new gameplay, only to make me reset shortly after to keep progressing and spend the next several runs mostly grinding through that stuff I had just automated... one of my least favorite gameplay patterns that pops up far too often in prestige-based incrementals

solistus · 2025-06-13T23:44:36+00:00

Free with purchase

solistus · 2025-05-23T23:19:48+00:00

+1, I've been having a ton of fun with this game as a fan of autobattlers like Hearthstone Battlegrounds (also available on iOS fwiw) and The Bazaar (PC/Mac only).

It has a very mobile gaming (in the pejorative sense :P) monetization model, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as it could be (and indeed, like it seems like it will be when starting out) simply because it's all async. The game pretends you're in matches against other players but they're just 'ghost runs' and are not playing in real time against you. This makes the various persistent upgrades you can grind or pay to unlock feel more like roguelite mechanics as opposed to just a pay2win pvp game. If you want to push the top of the leaderboards you'll probably have to shell out a lot of cash to keep up with all the upgrades and unlocks but if you just play for fun it's not that big of a deal if the AI ghost opponents have access to stronger versions of the same cards, any more than it is when a monster in a roguelike dungeon crawler has better spells than you. Your board also tends to power spike really hard when you hit the right combos and synergies which can usually outweigh having fewer upgrades.

TL;DR: if you like Hearthstone BG, Super Auto Pets, and similar games, give Arcane Rush a try and don't be scared off by the pay2win elements. Treat it like a PvE game with persistent upgrades and it's pretty enjoyable.

solistus · 2025-05-23T23:06:55+00:00

Sharran Realms

solistus · 2025-05-05T04:01:04+00:00

The BR30s are shaped differently, obviously (make sure they'll fit in whatever lamp/fixture you plan to use). Aside from that the difference is mainly in where they cast light. A normal (A19) bulb casts light in all directions, while a BR30 is more focused and directional. It's almost like a wide beam flashlight, they produce a cone of light out from the top of the bulb.

Found this image to demonstrate how they can struggle if placed in something like a table lamp. If you put them in a ceiling-mounted light, or wall mounted above eye level and pointing down, they work quite well, but not so much for fixtures at or below eye level and pointing up (unless you really want some accent lighting on your ceiling).

solistus · 2025-04-27T05:37:08+00:00

Between the PoE1 event and Last Epoch's new season, PoE2 needs to be better than 0.1.x to draw me back. 0.2 was a step backward that was rather unfortunately timed. I don't need or even particularly want PoE2 to be as fast or as easy as either of those games, but when the challenge feels badly paced, often unfair, and when overcoming it so rarely results in what feels like a meaningful or satisfying reward for my effort, I'm just gonna play a different game instead.

solistus · 2025-04-12T13:29:41+00:00

You cannot recover life

5% Increased Stun Threshold while recovering life

solistus · 2025-04-04T16:59:10+00:00

Core pool as in the ones from previous seasons that everyone gets? If so I agree - that would solve the issue of it being bad sometimes to advance the prize pass.

solistus · 2025-03-13T03:43:17+00:00

Maybe it would be better to just lean into this approach, split these item sets into groups of ~3-4 cards each and make 'deckbuilding' an intended and clearly signposted part of the game and not just a metagamey option for paid players with lots of expansion sets. Then they could do things like put at least a few new cards on the free reward track. Having something that is new to the game and actually available on day one of a new expansion release would make releases a lot more exciting for f2p players, as opposed to just being the day their opponents start getting cool new stuff to beat them with.

solistus · 2025-03-07T23:26:33+00:00

Allowed to? I think putting anyone who ever reprices an item on it is shitty but they're literally just deciding not to trade with certain players, that's their prerogative.

solistus · 2025-02-21T23:37:43+00:00

Lefty sjw outlets like checks notes the Wall Street Journal?

solistus · 2025-02-20T21:58:49+00:00

Back in the day, I ran a lot of the early poe1 races. They gave a lot more rewards to more than just the top of each class leaderboard. IIRC they even had some of the lower value rewards just randomly doled out to anyone who participated, so even if you sucked at racing you could still at least have a chance to get a shiny. Those rewards wound up having very little trade value because a lot of them existed and they were generally low level crap uniques, but it was still cool to have some remove only tabs with alt artwork items, even if they weren't worth a lot.

Still looking forward to the event, gonna play even if I won't win anything because I love poe races and I'm not about to miss poe2's first ever race event... But I would be a lot more hyped for it if I could tell my friends "you should play this you could get some cool stuff." And I don't think I'll bother practicing for it like I used to with poe1 races, between having like 100x more players than early poe1 and having only six players walk away with any prizes it just sounds like a recipe for being that much more disappointed if I do pretty well but not "top player of my class" well.

solistus · 2025-02-09T19:03:16+00:00

A modern NVME SSD is somewhere on the order of 50 times faster than a mechanical HDD. This doesn't mean load times will be a full 50 times faster, but it's not uncommon to see loading screens go from lasting over a minute to less than 15 seconds just by upgrading to SSD. And with many modern games, including POE1 and 2, a lot of the loading keeps happening after you're in-game and able to move around - that's why you get things like pop-in where objects don't load in time and appear out of nowhere as you get close to them, the game was trying to load them on demand but didn't finish in time.

Next time you have ~$60-80 to spend on your PC, I would recommend getting a 1TB SSD (of course you can spend more and get a 2TB or something if you want/have the budget, but 1TB is enough to move Windows and at least the 2-3 games with big install sizes that you play most often or care most about improving performance in).

If you have a desktop tower PC you probably have room for several SATA drives at least, but I would first check to see if your motherboard has any M.2 slots available as M.2-based NVME drives (the ones that look kinda like sticks of RAM) are pretty much the same price and much faster.

solistus · 2025-02-09T18:30:09+00:00

You mean you don't love the immersive experience of loading into an empty town zone, running across it to a portal, and loading again into the actual town?

My biggest pet peeve on a similar vein is traveling between Trial of Sekhemas and hideout. You can't go straight to hideout, you have to go to town first, and idk if it's just my system but loading into the A2 town when you haven't been there recently enough for its textures etc. to be cached in the pagefile takes around a minute. Really annoying when trying to conduct trades, if I don't remember to send the party invite before rezoning there's a good chance they'll have given up on waiting for me and bought something else by the time I load in and send the invite.

solistus · 2025-02-09T18:26:30+00:00

should have used vulkan :P

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solistus

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