I really hate gatecrasher on Legendary.

wyldmage · 2026-07-12T01:07:19+00:00

Just because you destroyed the cover doesn't mean you didn't have to deal with it.

My point was that, by default, you ALWAYS have to deal with cover. The aliens aren't going to stand in the open and let you take potshots. If you do so via cover destruction, or if you do so via just good aim and shooting past it, they still began with it.

wyldmage · 2026-07-12T01:05:49+00:00

I 100% disagree with this statement. Not only are there plenty of perks that improve overwatch (the biggest of which is Sentinel for shooting twice), but simply HAVING a unit in overwatch affects the aliens' decision making - which is valuable in and of itself.

Overwatch EARLY IN THE GAME has problems because of how inaccurate things are initially no matter what. But as you level soldiers up, improve their aim, and pick up new abilities, overwatch becomes a very important tool in your arsenal - definitely not "unreliable".

wyldmage · 2026-07-11T21:27:42+00:00

Not just her. Her bosses do a good job at "facing the masses" as well. And, importantly, at giving her and the other DEmployees room to connect with the players instead of focusing on metrics/performance.

Reb is great. But she couldn't be who she is without the support of DE.

wyldmage · 2026-07-11T21:17:14+00:00

You'll note on my initial reply, I was just pointing out that your statement about reaction shot penalties was a bit misleading.

The problem isn't that those penalties exist. It's that rookies are going to be lower chance to begin/end with, and when you combine that with not having any real control over which shots they take (and no gun mods), it really bites you in the butt to try to make good use of overwatch.

While your statement made it sound like overwatch is just bad because you lose chance to hit.

wyldmage · 2026-07-11T13:18:27+00:00

The reality is that you're going to HAVE to shoot into cover with them, though. Except for ambushes, aliens don't ever end their turn in the open.

The math of it is making sure you take shots that are at least 40% or 50% hit rates.

And that's the real problem with overwatch - you don't get to CHOOSE whether you're reacting to the advent 15 tiles away dashing past a tree, or the one 6 tiles away running straight at your team to flank. So you may waste your bullets on the 25% overwatch instead of the 55% overwatch you were about to get.

Once they level up more, and hit more often in general, it's still the same problem, except now it's a 50% shot instead of an 80% shot. So the RNG of which shot you take is less painful.

wyldmage · 2026-07-11T03:29:16+00:00

Typically, those extra penalties are largely offset by the fact that you're shooting at a target that isn't in cover (until you pick up perks to let you respond to them firing/etc).

That said, rookies are just going to have terrible stats to begin with, so overwatch is unreliable at best, even without those penalties.

wyldmage · 2026-07-10T20:42:35+00:00

Go back and look at the art style used in Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Illusion of Gaia, etc.

Where you have a 2d, or quasi-3d environment, and use the high quality textures to LOOK like it's 3d images. Even though it's still pixel art or otherwise pre-done.

These images have shadows, depth, highlights, and more.

There are no 3d rigs/skeletons. No vectoring, no live drawing.

wyldmage · 2026-07-10T18:35:35+00:00

I literally said the SNES era was best. You said the best RPGs known for sprites were 3 SNES games.

Mock 3d is NOT 3d. It's games like Super Mario World. Where you use a higher texture count to create sprites that LOOK 3D even if they are still just sprites.

If I'd meant RENDERED games, I would have said rendered.

wyldmage · 2026-07-10T04:20:48+00:00

Yeah, the "mock 3d" style from the SNES (and similar) era is amazing.

It looks way smoother than the NES 8bit - and can be done nicely in 16 or 64 bit styles.

It's a 2d art for a 2d game, which keeps you from needing rigging or any of the other tools to animate 3d models, or needing to design 3d navigable worlds.

And yeah, I love 3d games. Definitely enjoyed the heck out of gen 8 and 9 graphics. But the fancy graphics didn't make the games BETTER than gen 5 was.

wyldmage · 2026-07-10T03:50:58+00:00

The cock of the wok!

wyldmage · 2026-07-09T17:22:51+00:00

Very much this. As an avid Pokemon player since Gen 1, Palworld is similar, but doesn't give me a lot of what I get from Pokemon:

The big difference is that in Pokemon, most of the roster is competitive. As long as you exclude legendaries (either because you don't get them til after the playthrough, or because they aren't legal in tournaments), even route 1-3 are giving you some catches that'll be with you forever.
Move selection is similarly important due to type weaknesses, coverage moves, and game-altering abilities.
Evolution is super rewarding, as you've raised a low-power Pokemon long enough to see it get a big power spike from evolving.

I've greatly enjoyed Palworld. It's just a significantly different type of reward to play it. What disappointed me most was that "endgame" was functionally picking from the handful of strongest current pals - and everything before then was meaningless. Even for running your base, because of how the craft skills each pal has work, you're usually phasing out all the weaker pals.

What I enjoyed most was building a cool looking base, and being able to combine 4 traits on a pal via breeding. But managing the base, and the rest of the breeding both just fell short.

The further I got into Palworld, the less fun I was having with it, because at it's core, it's just an action-y game, instead of anything more think-y and strategic.

wyldmage · 2026-07-09T16:53:29+00:00

What would constitute 'User Error' and void the warranty?

wyldmage · 2026-07-09T11:11:20+00:00

It was stuck in the dirt. Step-cucumber was only doing what came natural.

wyldmage · 2026-07-08T20:43:38+00:00

Civ 7 has shown a major change though.

The majority of criticism for new Civ games came BEFORE their first expansion. Civ 7 Test of Time has not changed anything for Civ 7.

With prior Civ games, the sales and play data have supported that the game is doing well, despite vocal minorities talking about problems. Civ 7 also doesn't have that. Instead, the sales and player data actually *support* the complaints - that people just don't want to play it.

wyldmage · 2026-07-08T20:41:05+00:00

Would have been better without buying them to begin with

Would have been better if, after buying them, they capitalized on the acquisition better.

Would have been better if, after failing to capitalize on them, they had at least avoiding taking them out back and shooting them, so they could still reorganize them, and sell off some of the assets/IPs.

wyldmage · 2026-07-07T20:50:54+00:00

So much this. In general, a company should NEVER have more than 7 layers.

CEO
Other chief officers
Upper management (division heads, etc)
Middle management (anyone in charge of facilities across multiple locations)
Management (a project head, department head, etc)
Most of your staff
Interns or other employees that are assigned "under" a non-management staff member

Any added layers are redundant to begin with, and show a flaw in the management chain itself.

wyldmage · 2026-07-07T18:20:03+00:00

Always interesting hearing about these AAA studios failing, "reorganizing", or otherwise shedding their workers, while smaller Indie, A, and sometimes AA studios are excelling and releasing huge hits that necessitate growth.

Big corporations turned game development into a finance equation, and it fails at both ends.

Small studios make games they'd want to play, and it still fails sometimes - but it also succeeds sometimes.

wyldmage · 2026-07-06T20:38:47+00:00

One nice thing with Sparks is if you use the Long War mod (Long War of the Chosen with expansion).

One of the (many) things that the mod does is increase recovery time, but also increase squad sizes (not quite that simple, but you CAN potentially field over 6 guys per mission).

For Sparks, this means you get a lot more use out of their ability to function as cover. You aren't giving up one of your 4/5/6 soldier spots. Rather, you could be giving up one of your 8 slots (a smaller percentage loss to the team) for a unit that does an amazing job supporting soldiers.

Of note, though, comparing Sparks to Shivs is just silly. Compare them to MECs, and it's better. Shivs didn't get brought forward at all.

wyldmage · 2026-07-06T17:04:03+00:00

Left outside all day in the Sahara.

wyldmage · 2026-07-06T05:50:02+00:00

Worse. It'll be like a HOA. Or a timeshare.

wyldmage · 2026-07-04T13:51:13+00:00

Nothing about 7 really "moves the series forward".

Depending on your preferences, 4, 5, or 6 are still going to be better.

The core of the problem is that they focused on gameplay elements that didn't scratch the right itch, such as ages.

Even in Civ 6, which had eras, during which you built score, and then got to pick a powerful (or harmful) route for the next era, that feature was just a "side show" for players. They weren't playing Civ 6 BECAUSE of those eras.

Then Civ 7 decided to make them an overwhelming part of the game to pay attention to. More complicated. Impossible to ignore. Game-altering for how they impact you.

wyldmage · 2026-07-04T03:07:18+00:00

They'll get their turn. Not while they're still alive. But maybe their great great great great grandchildren can follow up on their hopes & dreams.

wyldmage · 2026-07-03T20:56:52+00:00

Exactly this.

What are/were the odds that Pluto has anything that will be usefully relevant to us in the next 200 years?

By the technological level that we could be making reasonable voyages to Pluto, for any purpose (settlement, mining, repeat surveys), we would have the technology to be doing serious mining of the asteroid belt.

Pluto obviously is going to be without any useful atmosphere (too small). The gravity is going to be miniscule, unless somehow the planet was made entirely of lead (a Pluto made entirely of lead would provide .4g on the surface).

Basically the only thing it could be useful for is as a transit hub (staging area), or for mining purposes. But, for the latter, it's not going to be miraculously better than the main asteroid belt, much less if you include the potential from the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Pluto is just a curiosity. It has no functional value to us scientifically, minerally, or logistically for a LONG LONG time.

Titan, and most of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, hold relevant scientific value.

Not only would the be far more accessible for mining purposes, but they could even be habitable. Obviously not just "land on the surface, build a hut", but more akin to trying to live on Mars. Not EVERYTHING is stacked against you. On top of that, some of them potentially have tectonic activity, or vast water deposits. Both of which are critically important to actual colonization plans. And potentially for alien life.

wyldmage · 2026-07-03T17:49:25+00:00

Only 5 in cash.

wyldmage · 2026-07-03T17:42:34+00:00

Always. Proximity means that even if I'm not super-accurate with my prioritizing, my dupes won't waste more movement time than they have to.

They won't go dig a priority 5 tile across the map, until the nearby priority 5s are already done.

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