What are some good offline games to download on - reddit
What are some good offline games to download on - reddit
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What is a free pc game that everyone should get? - reddit
Top 25 Amazing PC Games With The Best Graphics
The 25 best offline PC games in 2021! - Gaming Bell
15 Best Offline PC Games to Play in 2020 | B4Gamez
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best free offline pc games reddit
best free offline pc games reddit - win
Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links Hack
Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links hack community is about all tips and tricks including Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links cheats we can find and post here to get more Gems and Gold. Please respect the community's rules and be polite when posting.
This post is outlining the results of the survey posted on both crucibleplaybook and DTG. The point of this survey was to assess the PvP player base's opinions on the current state of PVP, as well as the balancing of weapons, abilities, and subclasses currently. Credit to u/vSodiumChloride for doing half the work.
Weapons- Overpowered/Overtuned
120 RPM Hand cannons have too much range. People are calling them scout rifles but without the negatives. Could be balanced if longer range maps were introduced or the range kept while reduced RPM to 110 once again. Shotguns- have too much range and lack of aiming for the rate at which players can move. Only an issue with Felwinter and aggressive frames. Felwinters is especially an issue given it's the best shotgun and can no longer be acquired. Swords- These are only used for 3-peeking. This slows down matches in comp and trials greatly. You get rewarded for using a heavy weapon even without ammo and get way too much information for free. An easy fix would be making it first person if you don't have ammo. Snipers- greatly improved with the aim assist changes, but there's still an issue with flinch moving the reticle onto the head of enemies. Mostly an issue from controller players given the aim assist (also a bad thing players can use a controller just for more aim assist even on PC.) Pulse rifles- mainly 340 frames which can 2 burst with forgiveness and high aim assist plus flinch. Sidearms (on console)- have too much aim assist and TTK and push shotguns out with the lower mobility. TLW (on controller)- absolutely worthless without using a controller. Too high TTK and ease of use with a controller. Not a weapon but ammo economy- with 2 scavengers and 3 shots per brick, specials are a little overtuned.
Weapons- Undertuned
SMGs- these weapons are in general straight-up worse than auto rifles. They are especially bad on controller where the stability is too low. The sweet spot in range is too punishing to consider using hand cannons and shotguns. Sidearms (on PC)- also suffer from the sweet spot in shotgun range, less of an issue on console where the aim assist is tuned up and mobility tuned down. Trace Rifles- useless because they have similar TTKs to auto rifles without the ammo economy. They should either have increased TTK so they can beat autos, or they should have much better ammo economy and armor mods. Fusion Rifles- most frames have the same range as the common shotgun, but still require precharge AND aiming for all the shots. Scouts- mostly pushed out of any viable ranges by 120 hand cannons. Otherwise by pulses which have much better forgiveness. Even if both were changed, it still greatly suffers at shorter ranges due to the zoom.
Exotic Weapons- Overpowered
Arbalest- has way too much aim assist to the point of removing the difficulty but keeping most of the strength of snipers. Especially an issue from controller users. Bastion- it outputs way too much damage and has too much range. It acts as a shotgun with much longer range and the ability to fairly easily kill melee supers. (Opinion: I think this could be put into a perfect spot if it only shot 2 bursts) Crimson- this only seems to be an issue on console. It has too much flinch and range apparently. No Time to Explain and Vigilance Wing- have way too much forgiveness and TTK for the ranges at which they operate. Jotunn- this seems to only be an issue for controller users due to the difficulty of movement/mobility to dodge it.
Exotic Armor- Overpowered
Dunemarchers- has way too much range for the amount of damage it puts out, also bugs out regularly and hits more than once - often killing full health players. Mask of Bakris- mostly an issue on console. When they phase shift combined with the chill dodge, it's too difficult to keep track of. Wormhusk Crown- still an issue that you can have an 11-second cooldown for a meaningful health chunk that often changes the outcome of an engagement. It's often enough to make every engagement require 4 headshots vs the 3 from the user.
Maps
Mainly people were complaining about the size of maps- working greatly towards shotguns and being too small for weapon types like scouts to shine. There is no variety in maps since many were removed in BL. The lore reasoning behind sunsetting locations was not applied to all maps (like Pacifica and Wormhaven) so why not keep most of them? No new maps are being added, the most recent ones were from D1 and do not play as well with current D2 gameplay. The vanilla maps were made with 4v4 in mind rather than 3v3 or 6v6. There are too many out of bounds locations that should not be accessible.
Stasis
Overall people are discontent with the rate at which this slows down games. Everyone has to play overly safe or get punished too harshly. They also really dislike how stasis as a whole exists to reduce mobility when mobility is a main aspect that makes this game unique. There also seems to be general agreement that the skill required for good performance was reduced so that you only need to equip a stasis subclass to perform much better than normal. It reduces any sort of reliance on gunplay. Freezing- lasts much too long given that you cannot do anything. Many recommended that the 5-second freezes be reduced to 1.35 while the easy to use ones (currently at 1.35) should be reduced even lower. Otherwise, it could freeze you in a location while still allowing you to aim and shoot. Another answer would be allowing teammates to shoot you out without damage. - Also people dislike breakout being on the class ability key. For hunters it's fine but unfreezing and getting locked into an animation sucks for warlocks and to a lesser extent titans. I saw a recommendation to allow any input key to start the breakout, though I don't see why you don't just auto breakout. This issue is compounded with the bug that doesn't allow you to manually break out (I believe when frozen midair). Slow- acts like suppression with even more negative effects. The strafe speed affects aiming too much. Movement abilities should still be allowed. Essentially people want the move-speed to affect sprinting and forward movement. Dashes and jumps can be reduced in distance, but shouldn't be stopped entirely. Shatter- mainly an issue with the fragment that increases size and damage. People don't like nearby frozen allies being killed and dying with them. Becomes a huge issue with glacier nades and shatterdive (I assumed that titan slides would also become an issue if something happened to hunters). A shattered glacial nade should not kill supers. Duskfield- it should not apply stacking slow and pull at the same time, this combination nearly confirms a freeze. Many think the pull should be moved to vortex grenades instead. The slow should fall off immediately after you leave the AOE and it should not be able to freeze more than once. Coldsnap- tracks slightly too aggressively. Should not spawn another tracker if one person gets frozen. This means that if you already used your jump but it tracked your teammate, by the time you land it'll likely freeze you as well. Glacier- only an issue with the massive shatter size and insane damage output when shattered with the fragment. Should not one shot supers or players who are several meters away.
Hunters
Silence and squall ult- the initial hit is much too big and goes around corners. The tornado (even exempt of the initial hit) slows way too much, moves too fast, and is completely inescapable without being in ult. It also doesn't put spawn locations offline and allows you to spawn inside it. Also goes through some walls. Shatterdive- Specifically an issue in combination with glacier nades and the shatter fragment. See Stasis>shatter. It activates much too quickly to get away from. Slowing dodge and shurikens- are only really an issue with slows and freezes taken into account. If those were nerfed this would be a non-issue.
Titans
Behemoth ult- lasts too long and has too much damage resistance (60% as compared to 53% from striker and other high tier supers. This is going back to Forsaken level super resist that was nerfed when supers were overly problematic.) It can also keep supers permanently frozen and has too much mobility. Shiverstrike melee- very inconsistent hitbox, otherwise it's too strong with the long-range, no charge up time from other shoulder charges, and pretty much confirmed kill from physics. Cryoclasm slide- goes too far and is way too strong for shotgunners. It's too fast to keep up with Bungie servers. Seems to have big issues with rubberbanding and other players being able to hit them mid-slide.
Warlocks
Winter's Wrath ult- tracks around corners a bit too hard. Penumbral Blast melee- the AOE size is too big to be even a 1.35-second freeze. If the issues with freeze were somehow addressed, this ability should be fine. Coldsnap Aspect- too oppressive on smaller maps. Allows one warlock to steamroll a staggered team who is trying to stick near teammates or help them out after freeze.
Subclasses- Overtuned
Dawnblade- too much mobility for such a low cooldown. Some issue with a ranged tracking AOE melee that can completely avoid corners or barricades Spectral Blades- super lasts too long, has too much mobility, too much damage resistance while invis, and much too large hit detection and melee pulls. Wallhacks on neutral (though unsure how this could be touched on aside from maybe making it a single pulse rather than 3 seconds of tracking). Sentinel- not as many results but the shield tracking is way too over-tuned and can be thrown anywhere in a room and wipe everyone inside.
Subclasses- Undertuned
Nova Warp- the ultimate is completely useless. It's almost better to never even pop it and just use your guns. One of the fixes could be to allow the charge to be stored while you're moving/jumping/blinking then allowing it to release when you want. After the super was nerfed, the only thing left on the class was Handheld Supernova which was broken, but now the charge time combined with short hold time make it near useless as well. Tether- given the windup time, travel time, and activation time, tether is really bad. It should either one-shot or instantly suppress on direct hit, and once it hits the ground near a super, it shouldn't take as long to suppress. You should also not be stuck mid-air for as long. The base tether (moebius) should have a larger radius. Voidwalkers- in general are missing something entirely. Something about the low time on devour while using a grenade seems like a poor trade, especially with all the one-shot weapons. Bottom Stormcaller- the super cannot get anything done because it lacks a movement ability. The subclass is subpar given it focuses on rather weak aspects of rifts and teamplay. If you wanted rift uptime, you could use Well (PVE subclass, no real complaints) or arc buddies can be used with getaway without sacrificing from the other arc subclasses. Burning Maul- the animation for the heavy attack is too long, if you use it in front of people with guns they will kill you. This doesn't mean overall it's bad because it's pretty much a roaming shutdown to all melee supers.
General
Bungie servers- 10 Hz servers (apparently) lead to very bad hit registration (larger or nonexistent hitboxes) and many many trades (both players die). It also makes melees EXTREMELY inconsistent with the ghosting (pull to enemy with no damage; point-blank without pull/damage) becoming more and more common. Lobby balancing- "prefer similar skill" means skill-based team sorting and that low skill players still get matched with high skill players. This doesn't work whatsoever when parties or stacked teams are involved in modes like Iron banner. Cheating- nothing really needs to be said here. Lack of rewards and incentives- there are way too many useless blue item drops, and most of the legendary drops are the same ones we've had for years. There is nothing new in the loot pool that's not just world drops you can obtain anywhere. Third-person peeking- through swords or emotes. Swords should only give third-person if the user has ammo. Emotes could be done in first-person or only activate after the enemy team is dead. Ability spam- certain loadouts allow abilities to become the main source of damage. Shatterdive is the main offender here, but even things like 100 int and sitting in the back of the map slow the game down or remove much of the skill involved with gunplay. Game modes- many people feel like the new crucible node feels lackluster and there are not enough game modes. Clash or other deathmatch type game modes being on rotation rather than permanent feels like an oversight, and certain iconic modes from Destiny 1 like rift never returned. Trials needs to be easieSBMM -Sincerely, the people that don't understand that Flawless is supposed to be for the top .01% (credit to u/vSodiumChloride for this line) Sunsetting- this was used as an excuse not to balance pinnacle weapons. Rather than addressing weapons like mountaintop and revoker, they essentially removed 70% of weapons while adding a very small portion back. Revoker still remains in survival. Certain weapons (bite of the fox, gnawing hunger) were added back rather than the old rolls being renewed. Freelance modes- there should be a freelance option for more game modes to avoid 6 stacks in quickplay and such.
3 Quick Tl;Dr Android Game Reviews / Recommendations (Episode 161)
Welcome welcome, my fellow Android gamers, to this weekly tradition where I summarize the most interesting mobile games I have played this week :) This episode includes an awesome samurai-inspired action fighting game, a fantastic RPG with Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired combat, and an old-school turn-based tactical indie RPG with more features and systems than most RPGs I’ve played on mobile. Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below. New to these posts? Check out the first one from 161 weeks ago here. The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.
Let's get to the games:
Ronin: The Last Samurai [Game Size: 310 MB] (free)
Genre: Fighting / Action / Rogulite progression - Requires Online Access Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: Ronin: The Last Samurai is a unique action fighting game with a beautiful "ink wash" art-style and Archero-inspired roguelike progression systems. With only an attack and a defend button, combat seems deceptively simple at first but quickly turns into a game of masterfully blocking incoming attacks and identifying each enemy’s attack patterns. Most importantly, combat just feels great, and any attack or animation can be interrupted to block an incoming attack, which plays a big part in making it feel responsive. In fact, blocking at just the right time allows us to parry incoming attacks, which reduces the enemy’s “Posture”. Once posture has been fully reduced, the enemy gets stunned for a few seconds. The core gameplay consists of a series of one-screen stages that each contain a few enemies, with bosses at every fifth and tenth stage. Every time we level up by defeating enemies, we get to pick one of three available abilities that last until we die, allowing us to gradually grow stronger. We fight until we die, and between deaths, we can then equip or upgrade loot found during combat, or spend gold to unlock random new permanent stat boosts to hopefully progress further the next time – much like in Archero. Ronin: The Last Samurai monetizes through incentivized ads to revive once, an energy system that limits our play-session length, and iAPs for a premium currency used to instantly acquire new loot, buy forging scrolls used to upgrade equipment, and get more energy. If you can live with the monetization and just play the game for 30-40 minutes at a time, it provides a challenging combat experience that is definitely worth checking out. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here
Rivengard [Total Game Size: 414 MB] (free)
Genre: RPG / Turn-based - Online & Offline Playable Orientation: Portrait Required Attention: Some tl;dr review: Rivengard is a fantasy-themed tactical RPG with an interesting turn-based combat system that has us build out a large team of heroes to fight through PvE campaign missions, AI PvP matches, guild raids, and much more, while collecting loot and gold to upgrade our heroes and forge better gear. Every hero has unique stats and abilities, and at the start of each match, we select which to use and where to position them on the hex-grid playing field to best counter the opponents. We get to move every hero on each turn, and attack opponents with normal attacks or abilities if we’re within range, much like in the Heroes of Might and Magic PC games. The terrain even increases the strategic gameplay depth by including bushes to hide in, HP-recovering tiles, and elevated platforms that provide a damage boost, and since there is no auto-combat system, each fight is both engaging and fun. Progression happens primarily through completing campaign levels and quests that provide shards, laurels, and gacha tokens used to unlock new and level up existing heroes. While it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the game, there is an energy system that caps the speed of this progression by limiting our play-session length to roughly 20-30 minutes at a time. Monetization happens through iAPs for a premium currency used to buy chests with resources and items, summon heroes, and recover energy when it has depleted. With lots of game modes and a guild system that the developer is actively expanding, Rivengard is a promising and fun RPG primarily held back by a monetization system that may frustrate some players. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here
Grim Wanderings 2 [Game Size: 114 MB] (free)
Genre: Strategy / Turn-Based / RPG / Indie / Complex - Offline Playable Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Some tl;dr review: Grim Wanderings 2 is a deep old-school indie RPG with turn-based tactical combat, large hex-grid maps, lots of quests and random events, and 25 unique character classes. In either the Adventure or Strategy mode, we travel a hex-grid world to fight enemies, hire new troops in towns, build new buildings, and complete quests or random events – a bit like in Heroes of Might and Magic. Once we’re ready, we can start exploring the many events and locations each hexagon world tile contains. For example, we may travel to a lake and meet a fisherman who we can forcefully ask to share his fish, or even rob. After selecting an action, we're shown eight cards of which we pick one to determine if our action fails or succeeds. While there is already lots to dive into, the developer have an incredible amount of plans for the future, including an arena PvP mode, an endless mode, many more events, and even a game editor that will allow the community to create its own quests and events. The game’s biggest flaw is its complex UI, which, in combination with the overwhelming amount of systems and features that are all available from the beginning, makes the game difficult to get into. There is also no auto-save, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you view it. Grim Wanderings 2 monetizes through occasional ads and a 60-minute daily play-time limit, all of which can be removed through a single $2.99 iAP. If you’re ready to dedicate the time it takes to fully understand the game, it may provide one of the deepest and most unique turn-based RPG experiences on mobile. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here NEW REVIEW APP: You can search and filter reviews and games I've played (and more) in my app MiniReview:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews Outdated (replaced by MiniReview): Sheet of all games I've played so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bf0OxtVxrboZqyEh01AxJYUUqHm8tEfh-Lx-SugcrzY/edit?usp=sharing TL;DR Video Summary (with gameplay) of last week's 3 games:https://youtu.be/188UCN2mcAo
3 Quick tl;dr iOS Game Reviews / Recommendations (Episode 74)
Welcome welcome, my fellow mobile gamers, to this weekly tradition where I summarize the most interesting mobile games I have played this week :) This episode includes an awesome samurai-inspired action fighting game, a fantastic RPG with Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired combat, and an old-school turn-based tactical indie RPG with more features and systems than most RPGs I’ve played on mobile. Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below. New to these posts? Check out the first one from 74 weeks ago here. The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.
Let's get to the games:
Ronin: The Last Samurai [Game Size: 310 MB] (free)
Genre: Fighting / Action / Rogulite progression - Requires Online Access Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: Ronin: The Last Samurai is a unique action fighting game with a beautiful "ink wash" art-style and Archero-inspired roguelike progression systems. With only an attack and a defend button, combat seems deceptively simple at first but quickly turns into a game of masterfully blocking incoming attacks and identifying each enemy’s attack patterns. Most importantly, combat just feels great, and any attack or animation can be interrupted to block an incoming attack, which plays a big part in making it feel responsive. In fact, blocking at just the right time allows us to parry incoming attacks, which reduces the enemy’s “Posture”. Once posture has been fully reduced, the enemy gets stunned for a few seconds. The core gameplay consists of a series of one-screen stages that each contain a few enemies, with bosses at every fifth and tenth stage. Every time we level up by defeating enemies, we get to pick one of three available abilities that last until we die, allowing us to gradually grow stronger. We fight until we die, and between deaths, we can then equip or upgrade loot found during combat, or spend gold to unlock random new permanent stat boosts to hopefully progress further the next time – much like in Archero. Ronin: The Last Samurai monetizes through incentivized ads to revive once, an energy system that limits our play-session length, and iAPs for a premium currency used to instantly acquire new loot, buy forging scrolls used to upgrade equipment, and get more energy. If you can live with the monetization and just play the game for 30-40 minutes at a time, it provides a challenging combat experience that is definitely worth checking out. App Store: Here
Rivengard [Total Game Size: 414 MB] (free)
Genre: RPG / Turn-based - Online & Offline Playable Orientation: Portrait Required Attention: Some tl;dr review: Rivengard is a fantasy-themed tactical RPG with an interesting turn-based combat system that has us build out a large team of heroes to fight through PvE campaign missions, AI PvP matches, guild raids, and much more, while collecting loot and gold to upgrade our heroes and forge better gear. Every hero has unique stats and abilities, and at the start of each match, we select which to use and where to position them on the hex-grid playing field to best counter the opponents. We get to move every hero on each turn, and attack opponents with normal attacks or abilities if we’re within range, much like in the Heroes of Might and Magic PC games. The terrain even increases the strategic gameplay depth by including bushes to hide in, HP-recovering tiles, and elevated platforms that provide a damage boost, and since there is no auto-combat system, each fight is both engaging and fun. Progression happens primarily through completing campaign levels and quests that provide shards, laurels, and gacha tokens used to unlock new and level up existing heroes. While it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the game, there is an energy system that caps the speed of this progression by limiting our play-session length to roughly 20-30 minutes at a time. Monetization happens through iAPs for a premium currency used to buy chests with resources and items, summon heroes, and recover energy when it has depleted. With lots of game modes and a guild system that the developer is actively expanding, Rivengard is a promising and fun RPG primarily held back by a monetization system that may frustrate some players. App Store: Here
5 Quick tl;dr iOS Game Reviews / Recommendations (Episode 69) + Majotori Giveaway (25 keys - check the comments)
Welcome to the first of these mobile game recommendations posts of 2021! :) I've got no less than 5 great games lined up today, so let's waste no time and just dive in. For info on the Majotori giveaway, please check my first comment below This episode includes the League of Legends mobile MOBA, a fun cyberpunk-themed arcade racer, one of the best platform action games I’ve played recently, a casual simulation game about destroying planets with freaking lasers, and a fun action game that mixes puzzle and dungeon-crawling elements. Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below. New to these posts? Check out the first one from 66 weeks ago here. The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.
Let's get to the games:
League of Legends: Wild Rift [Game Size: 2.7 GB] (free)
Genre: MOBA / Action / PvP - Requires Online Access Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: [For some reason NOT out in the US yet] League of Legends: Wild Rift is Riot Games’ mobile version of the massively popular PC MOBA, League of Legends. Most notably, its 5v5 matchmaking is incredibly fast, there are already 40+ unique heroes, and the graphics look great without overheating my phone. While there are plenty of MOBAs on mobile, Wild Rift had the best on-boarding experience I’ve tried to date, jumping straight into the action instead of forcing us through lengthy tutorials. And this while still being mindful of explaining the core mechanics as you play your first matches versus AI. Unlike some MOBAs, the combat is nicely paced in Wild Rift, with each match taking roughly 15 minutes, which is perfect for mobile. The lack of annoying pop-ups with quests and login rewards is also a welcomed change. Just like its PC counterpart, the monetization is very fair. The heroes are well-balanced, which means we can easily compete with the heroes we get for free, while purely cosmetic skins and additional heroes can be bought through iAPs. Wild Rift is by far the most polished, fair, and overall most promising MOBA I’ve played in years. App Store: Here
Nameless Cat [Game Size: 92 MB] (free)
Genre: Platformer / Action / Indie / 2D - Offline Playable Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: Nameless Cat is a beautiful 2D action platformer with a mysterious story, lots of interesting obstacles and enemies, and even boss battles that we must overcome without being able to attack. One of the game’s most unique features is the ability to teleport to what looks like tombstones that are found throughout each level. This mechanic is used to avoid enemy attacks, travel distances that are too far to jump, and teleport away from traps, creating a fun experience that feels different from most other action platformers. The peaceful soundtrack perfectly fits the distinctive pixel art-style and creates a truly calming and peculiar atmosphere that makes the game a joy to explore. As we complete the 40+ hand-crafted levels, we also collect cans of cat food used to unlock new cosmetic cat skins. The game monetizes through occasional ads between deaths and incentivized ads to activate some of the checkpoints, both of which can be removed through a $2.99 iAP. $0.99 iAPs allow us to unlock additional premium skins. Nameless Cat is a must-play for any fan of cute, challenging, action platformers. App Store: Here
Neon Flytron [Total Game Size: 118 MB] (free)
Genre: Arcade / Racer / Endless / Indie - Offline Orientation: Portrait Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: Neon Flytron is a forward-movement arcade racer where we control a flying car blasting through a cyberpunk-themed city full of neon lights, skyscrapers, and obstacles in both level-based and endless game-modes. Unlike lane-runners like Subway Surfers, Neon Flytron’s smooth controls let us freely move up, down, left, and right to avoid obstacles, defeat bosses, and pickup powers-ups or gold. Combined with the futuristic soundtracks and shiny art-style, this makes for a truly unique experience. Arguably the game’s most unique feature is just how customizable everything is. Vehicles can be painted with different materials and colors, a custom game-mode lets us heavily alter and control the gameplay experience, and the map editor even allows us to fully customize the colors used for buildings, windows, and more. All customizations cost gold, which we earn through gameplay. Monetization happens through occasional forced ads that can be removed through a $1.99 iAP, incentivized ads to revive or increase our gold rewards, and iAPs for more gold used for customization and to unlock all cars immediately. The monetization isn't heavily pushed, and the game can easily be enjoyed as a free player. Neon Flytron is a runner that doesn’t feel like any other endless runner, and that’s why it’s worth checking out for arcade cyberpunk fans. App Store: Here
Yokai Dungeon [Total Game Size: 58 MB] (free)
Genre: Puzzle / Dungeon Crawler / Acrade / Action - Offline Orientation: Portrait Required Attention: Some tl;dr review: Yokai Dungeon is a cute and simple arcade action game where we fight our way through endless randomly generated dungeons by pushing blocks and bushes into enemies to defeat them. Each dungeon floor consists of multiple rooms full of monsters and a boss at the end, and while we’re free to explore the dungeon in whichever order we prefer, we must defeat all monsters in each room before we can proceed to the next. Monsters drop gold that we can spend to unlock cute heroes with unique health, speed, and luck stats. The controls are a bit wonky and combat gets slightly repetitive after a while as our only offensive ability is to push blocks. But apart from that, it’s a fun mix of puzzle and dungeon crawling that works well as a casual game. Yokai Dungeon monetizes through frequent ads between dungeon rooms, which can be removed with a $2.99 iAP, and additional iAPs to unlock heroes faster. App Store: Here
Bungie, We Collected The Opinion Of 2400 Players So You Don't Have To
Edit: I will look into doing a MUCH more in-depth survey in the future to better gather details. Another user pointed out and explained how some of our questions created some confirmation bias, which is definitely something I'd like to change in the future. A big problem with this survey was also our outreach. Since I am not Bungie nor work for Bungie, I am unable to reach every single player of Destiny 2 but I have some ideas on how to better distribute the survey in the future. This post is outlining the results of the survey posted on both crucibleplaybook and DTG as well as various other places such as Discord servers of large Destiny streamers, Twitter, and the chats of the streamers. The point of this survey was to assess the PvP player base's (those that play PvP for more than just their weekly bounties) opinions on the current state of PVP, as well as the balancing of weapons, abilities, and subclasses currently. Huge shoutout to u/MrTheWaffleKing for typing this summary up. This post in no way depicts my own opinions nor those of u/MrTheWaffleKing .
Weapons- Overpowered/Overtuned
120 RPM Hand cannons have too much range. People are calling them scout rifles but without the negatives. Could be balanced if longer range maps were introduced or the range kept while reduced RPM to 110 once again. Shotguns- have too much range and lack of aiming for the rate at which players can move. Only an issue with Felwinter and aggressive frames. Felwinters is especially an issue given it's the best shotgun and can no longer be acquired. Swords- These are only used for 3-peeking. This slows down matches in comp and trials greatly. You get rewarded for using a heavy weapon even without ammo and get way too much information for free. An easy fix would be making it first person if you don't have ammo. Snipers- greatly improved with the aim assist changes, but there's still an issue with flinch moving the reticle onto the head of enemies. Mostly an issue from controller players given the aim assist (also a bad thing players can use a controller just for more aim assist even on PC.) Pulse rifles- mainly 340 frames which can 2 burst with forgiveness and high aim assist plus flinch. Sidearms (on console)- have too much aim assist and TTK and push shotguns out with the lower mobility. TLW (on controller)- absolutely worthless without using a controller. Too high TTK and ease of use with a controller. Not a weapon but ammo economy- with 2 scavengers and 3 shots per brick, specials are a little overtuned.
Weapons- Undertuned
SMGs- these weapons are in general straight-up worse than auto rifles. They are especially bad on controller where the stability is too low. The sweet spot in range is too punishing to consider using hand cannons and shotguns. Sidearms (on PC)- also suffer from the sweet spot in shotgun range, less of an issue on console where the aim assist is tuned up and mobility tuned down. Trace Rifles- useless because they have similar TTKs to auto rifles without the ammo economy. They should either have increased TTK so they can beat autos, or they should have much better ammo economy and armor mods. Fusion Rifles- most frames have the same range as the common shotgun, but still require precharge AND aiming for all the shots. Scouts- mostly pushed out of any viable ranges by 120 hand cannons. Otherwise by pulses which have much better forgiveness. Even if both were changed, it still greatly suffers at shorter ranges due to the zoom.
Exotic Weapons- Overpowered
Arbalest- has way too much aim assist to the point of removing the difficulty but keeping most of the strength of snipers. Especially an issue from controller users. Bastion- it outputs way too much damage and has too much range. It acts as a shotgun with much longer range and the ability to fairly easily kill melee supers. (Opinion: I think this could be put into a perfect spot if it only shot 2 bursts) Crimson- this only seems to be an issue on console. It has too much flinch and range apparently. No Time to Explain and Vigilance Wing- have way too much forgiveness and TTK for the ranges at which they operate. Jotunn- this seems to only be an issue for controller users due to the difficulty of movement/mobility to dodge it.
Exotic Armor- Overpowered
Dunemarchers- has way too much range for the amount of damage it puts out, also bugs out regularly and hits more than once - often killing full health players. Mask of Bakris- mostly an issue on console. When they phase shift combined with the chill dodge, it's too difficult to keep track of. Wormhusk Crown- still an issue that you can have an 11-second cooldown for a meaningful health chunk that often changes the outcome of an engagement. It's often enough to make every engagement require 4 headshots vs the 3 from the user.
Maps
Mainly people were complaining about the size of maps- working greatly towards shotguns and being too small for weapon types like scouts to shine. There is no variety in maps since many were removed in BL. The lore reasoning behind sunsetting locations was not applied to all maps (like Pacifica and Wormhaven) so why not keep most of them? No new maps are being added, the most recent ones were from D1 and do not play as well with current D2 gameplay. The vanilla maps were made with 4v4 in mind rather than 3v3 or 6v6. There are too many out of bounds locations that should not be accessible.
Stasis
Overall people are discontent with the rate at which this slows down games. Everyone has to play overly safe or get punished too harshly. They also really dislike how stasis as a whole exists to reduce mobility when mobility is a main aspect that makes this game unique. There also seems to be general agreement that the skill required for good performance was reduced so that you only need to equip a stasis subclass to perform much better than normal. It reduces any sort of reliance on gunplay. Freezing- lasts much too long given that you cannot do anything. Many recommended that the 5-second freezes be reduced to 1.35 while the easy to use ones (currently at 1.35) should be reduced even lower. Otherwise, it could freeze you in a location while still allowing you to aim and shoot. Another answer would be allowing teammates to shoot you out without damage. - Also people dislike breakout being on the class ability key. For hunters it's fine but unfreezing and getting locked into an animation sucks for warlocks and to a lesser extent titans. I saw a recommendation to allow any input key to start the breakout, though I don't see why you don't just auto breakout. This issue is compounded with the bug that doesn't allow you to manually break out (I believe when frozen midair). Slow- acts like suppression with even more negative effects. The strafe speed affects aiming too much. Movement abilities should still be allowed. Essentially people want the move-speed to affect sprinting and forward movement. Dashes and jumps can be reduced in distance, but shouldn't be stopped entirely. Shatter- mainly an issue with the fragment that increases size and damage. People don't like nearby frozen allies being killed and dying with them. Becomes a huge issue with glacier nades and shatterdive (I assumed that titan slides would also become an issue if something happened to hunters). A shattered glacial nade should not kill supers. Duskfield- it should not apply stacking slow and pull at the same time, this combination nearly confirms a freeze. Many think the pull should be moved to vortex grenades instead. The slow should fall off immediately after you leave the AOE and it should not be able to freeze more than once. Coldsnap- tracks slightly too aggressively. Should not spawn another tracker if one person gets frozen. This means that if you already used your jump but it tracked your teammate, by the time you land it'll likely freeze you as well. Glacier- only an issue with the massive shatter size and insane damage output when shattered with the fragment. Should not one shot supers or players who are several meters away.
Hunters
Silence and squall ult- the initial hit is much too big and goes around corners. The tornado (even exempt of the initial hit) slows way too much, moves too fast, and is completely inescapable without being in ult. It also doesn't put spawn locations offline and allows you to spawn inside it. Also goes through some walls. Shatterdive- Specifically an issue in combination with glacier nades and the shatter fragment. See Stasis>shatter. It activates much too quickly to get away from. Slowing dodge and shurikens- are only really an issue with slows and freezes taken into account. If those were nerfed this would be a non-issue.
Titans
Behemoth ult- lasts too long and has too much damage resistance (60% as compared to 53% from striker and other high tier supers. This is going back to Forsaken level super resist that was nerfed when supers were overly problematic.) It can also keep supers permanently frozen and has too much mobility. Shiverstrike melee- very inconsistent hitbox, otherwise it's too strong with the long-range, no charge up time from other shoulder charges, and pretty much confirmed kill from physics. Cryoclasm slide- goes too far and is way too strong for shotgunners. It's too fast to keep up with Bungie servers. Seems to have big issues with rubberbanding and other players being able to hit them mid-slide.
Warlocks
Winter's Wrath ult- tracks around corners a bit too hard. Penumbral Blast melee- the AOE size is too big to be even a 1.35-second freeze. If the issues with freeze were somehow addressed, this ability should be fine. Coldsnap Aspect- too oppressive on smaller maps. Allows one warlock to steamroll a staggered team who is trying to stick near teammates or help them out after freeze.
Subclasses- Overtuned
Dawnblade- too much mobility for such a low cooldown. Some issue with a ranged tracking AOE melee that can completely avoid corners or barricades Spectral Blades- super lasts too long, has too much mobility, too much damage resistance while invis, and much too large hit detection and melee pulls. Wallhacks on neutral (though unsure how this could be touched on aside from maybe making it a single pulse rather than 3 seconds of tracking). Sentinel- not as many results but the shield tracking is way too over-tuned and can be thrown anywhere in a room and wipe everyone inside.
Subclasses- Undertuned
Nova Warp- the ultimate is completely useless. It's almost better to never even pop it and just use your guns. One of the fixes could be to allow the charge to be stored while you're moving/jumping/blinking then allowing it to release when you want. After the super was nerfed, the only thing left on the class was Handheld Supernova which was broken, but now the charge time combined with short hold time make it near useless as well. Tether- given the windup time, travel time, and activation time, tether is really bad. It should either one-shot or instantly suppress on direct hit, and once it hits the ground near a super, it shouldn't take as long to suppress. You should also not be stuck mid-air for as long. The base tether (moebius) should have a larger radius. Voidwalkers- in general are missing something entirely. Something about the low time on devour while using a grenade seems like a poor trade, especially with all the one-shot weapons. Bottom Stormcaller- the super cannot get anything done because it lacks a movement ability. The subclass is subpar given it focuses on rather weak aspects of rifts and teamplay. If you wanted rift uptime, you could use Well (PVE subclass, no real complaints) or arc buddies can be used with getaway without sacrificing from the other arc subclasses. Burning Maul- the animation for the heavy attack is too long, if you use it in front of people with guns they will kill you. This doesn't mean overall it's bad because it's pretty much a roaming shutdown to all melee supers.
General
Bungie servers- 10 Hz servers (apparently) lead to very bad hit registration (larger or nonexistent hitboxes) and many many trades (both players die). It also makes melees EXTREMELY inconsistent with the ghosting (pull to enemy with no damage; point-blank without pull/damage) becoming more and more common. Lobby balancing- "prefer similar skill" means skill-based team sorting and that low skill players still get matched with high skill players. This doesn't work whatsoever when parties or stacked teams are involved in modes like Iron banner. Cheating- nothing really needs to be said here. Lack of rewards and incentives- there are way too many useless blue item drops, and most of the legendary drops are the same ones we've had for years. There is nothing new in the loot pool that's not just world drops you can obtain anywhere. Third-person peeking- through swords or emotes. Swords should only give third-person if the user has ammo. Emotes could be done in first-person or only activate after the enemy team is dead. Ability spam- certain loadouts allow abilities to become the main source of damage. Shatterdive is the main offender here, but even things like 100 int and sitting in the back of the map slow the game down or remove much of the skill involved with gunplay. Game modes- many people feel like the new crucible node feels lackluster and there are not enough game modes. Clash or other deathmatch type game modes being on rotation rather than permanent feels like an oversight, and certain iconic modes from Destiny 1 like rift never returned. Trials needs to be easieSBMM -Sincerely, the people that don't understand that Flawless is supposed to be for the top .01% (credit to u/vSodiumChloride for this line) Sunsetting- this was used as an excuse not to balance pinnacle weapons. Rather than addressing weapons like Mountaintop and Revoker, they essentially removed 70% of weapons while adding a very small portion back. Revoker still remains in survival. Certain weapons (Bite Of The Fox, Gnawing Hunger) were added back rather than the old rolls being renewed. Freelance modes- there should be a freelance option for more game modes to avoid 6 stacks in quickplay and such.
5 Quick Tl;Dr Android Game Reviews / Recommendations (Episode 156)
Welcome to the first of these mobile game recommendations posts of 2021! :) I've got no less than 5 great games lined up today, so let's waste no time and just dive in. This episode includes the League of Legends mobile MOBA, a fun cyberpunk-themed arcade racer, one of the best platform action games I’ve played recently, a casual simulation game about destroying planets with freaking lasers, and a fun action game that mixes puzzle and dungeon-crawling elements. Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below. New to these posts? Check out the first one from 156 weeks ago here. The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.
Let's get to the games:
League of Legends: Wild Rift [Game Size: 2.7 GB] (free)
Genre: MOBA / Action / PvP - Requires Online Access Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: [For some reason NOT out in the US yet] League of Legends: Wild Rift is Riot Games’ mobile version of the massively popular PC MOBA, League of Legends. Most notably, its 5v5 matchmaking is incredibly fast, there are already 40+ unique heroes, and the graphics look great without overheating my phone. While there are plenty of MOBAs on mobile, Wild Rift had the best on-boarding experience I’ve tried to date, jumping straight into the action instead of forcing us through lengthy tutorials. And this while still being mindful of explaining the core mechanics as you play your first matches versus AI. Unlike some MOBAs, the combat is nicely paced in Wild Rift, with each match taking roughly 15 minutes, which is perfect for mobile. The lack of annoying pop-ups with quests and login rewards is also a welcomed change. Just like its PC counterpart, the monetization is very fair. The heroes are well-balanced, which means we can easily compete with the heroes we get for free, while purely cosmetic skins and additional heroes can be bought through iAPs. Wild Rift is by far the most polished, fair, and overall most promising MOBA I’ve played in years. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here
Nameless Cat [Game Size: 92 MB] (free)
Genre: Platformer / Action / Indie / 2D - Offline Playable Orientation: Landscape Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: Nameless Cat is a beautiful 2D action platformer with a mysterious story, lots of interesting obstacles and enemies, and even boss battles that we must overcome without being able to attack. One of the game’s most unique features is the ability to teleport to what looks like tombstones that are found throughout each level. This mechanic is used to avoid enemy attacks, travel distances that are too far to jump, and teleport away from traps, creating a fun experience that feels different from most other action platformers. The peaceful soundtrack perfectly fits the distinctive pixel art-style and creates a truly calming and peculiar atmosphere that makes the game a joy to explore. As we complete the 40+ hand-crafted levels, we also collect cans of cat food used to unlock new cosmetic cat skins. The game monetizes through occasional ads between deaths and incentivized ads to activate some of the checkpoints, both of which can be removed through a $2.99 iAP. $0.99 iAPs allow us to unlock additional premium skins. Nameless Cat is a must-play for any fan of cute, challenging, action platformers. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here
Neon Flytron [Total Game Size: 118 MB] (free)
Genre: Arcade / Racer / Endless / Indie - Offline Orientation: Portrait Required Attention: Full tl;dr review: Neon Flytron is a forward-movement arcade racer where we control a flying car blasting through a cyberpunk-themed city full of neon lights, skyscrapers, and obstacles in both level-based and endless game-modes. Unlike lane-runners like Subway Surfers, Neon Flytron’s smooth controls let us freely move up, down, left, and right to avoid obstacles, defeat bosses, and pickup powers-ups or gold. Combined with the futuristic soundtracks and shiny art-style, this makes for a truly unique experience. Arguably the game’s most unique feature is just how customizable everything is. Vehicles can be painted with different materials and colors, a custom game-mode lets us heavily alter and control the gameplay experience, and the map editor even allows us to fully customize the colors used for buildings, windows, and more. All customizations cost gold, which we earn through gameplay. Monetization happens through occasional forced ads that can be removed through a $1.99 iAP, incentivized ads to revive or increase our gold rewards, and iAPs for more gold used for customization and to unlock all cars immediately. The monetization isn't heavily pushed, and the game can easily be enjoyed as a free player. Neon Flytron is a runner that doesn’t feel like any other endless runner, and that’s why it’s worth checking out for arcade cyberpunk fans. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here
Yokai Dungeon [Total Game Size: 58 MB] (free)
Genre: Puzzle / Dungeon Crawler / Acrade / Action - Offline Orientation: Portrait Required Attention: Some tl;dr review: Yokai Dungeon is a cute and simple arcade action game where we fight our way through endless randomly generated dungeons by pushing blocks and bushes into enemies to defeat them. Each dungeon floor consists of multiple rooms full of monsters and a boss at the end, and while we’re free to explore the dungeon in whichever order we prefer, we must defeat all monsters in each room before we can proceed to the next. Monsters drop gold that we can spend to unlock cute heroes with unique health, speed, and luck stats. The controls are a bit wonky and combat gets slightly repetitive after a while as our only offensive ability is to push blocks. But apart from that, it’s a fun mix of puzzle and dungeon crawling that works well as a casual game. Yokai Dungeon monetizes through frequent ads between dungeon rooms, which can be removed with a $2.99 iAP, and additional iAPs to unlock heroes faster. Google Play: Here MiniReview link: Here
Thanks for all the positive feedback and corrections - I made some edits. Hi everyone! I thought I'd write down some things about BB (Boom Beach) that I wish I had known or realized early on. I don't think I am a BB expert or even a very good player, and in fact I have only been playing for a bit over a year. But I have been following the BB subreddit for a while now, and there seem to be a lot of people that don't know the most basic principles of the game, so maybe this post can be helpful. Some of these things I realized myself over time, but mostly I learned about them from other players in guides, posts or videos. The following is just my selection of beginner's tips. I am not going to say everything that there is to say about each point; look it up, if you want more details. I just think the following is essential BB information you should know about, whether or not you follow the advice. First of all, I am going to assume, that everyone wants to play the game in such a way as to progress fast and potentially go far (on the leaderboard, on the Crab, or with a TF). That assumption might not be correct, and BB lets you play any way you like. If maxing everything before upgrading your HQ works for you, or if you enjoy having 5 green MPs, then that's ok; but don't complain that the game is broken or that you don't progress as fast as you'd like. FOCUS ON OFFENSE This is the best advice anyone can give you, and the most frequent advice appearing in the comments here. Offense is overpowered in BB. You can completely ignore upgrading or even just building your own defenses for a long time, and at any time, you should focus on your offense. When you prioritize offense, beating bases many levels above you is no problem and getting resources is easy. This concept can be hard to embrace when you are new to BB and it might seem wrong to totally neglect your defense, but that's the way it works. Your defenses will never, ever be strong enough to keep you from getting raided. DON'T TRY TO SAVE RESOURCES It doesn't work. This is a big beginner's mistake. You will just get raided and lose a large part, especially with a low level Vault. Instead, it works much better to get all the resources you need for your next upgrade all at once. DON'T RELY ON RESOURCE PRODUCTION - GO RAIDING Your production buildings and resource bases are a small factor when it comes to getting resources. It's best to get what you need by attacking. GET WHAT YOU NEED, START AN UPGRADE, STOP Again, you cannot save resources effectively. Go raiding, start your next upgrade, then don't attack anymore. This way you don't have to mind getting raided yourself, since you won't have much to lose. And you will always get raided. GAINING AND LOSING RESOURCES The amount that an attacker gains is not the same as the one that the defender loses. How much you can gain from a player base is determined the moment you first scout it, with various subtractions and additions being performed by the game. From that moment on the amount will never change. When you get attacked you always lose a certain percentage of your resources (depending on your Vault level), but your attacker might gain more or less than that. The game creates or destroys resources as needed. THE TRIBE RESOURCE BOAT This is actually a way to save resources, although you can't see how much exactly there is on it. The recources on this boat just accummulate indefinately, without a limit. You gain Gold from freed villages and Wood, Stone and Iron from resource bases. You can actually lose some of the resources on the boat when one of your resource bases gets taken, but the boat is still a great way to save resources, so try to not use it every day, but rather save up for later. When you get it is up to you, find out what works for you. CURATE YOUR MAP You can "save" resources for your next upgrade on the map, in the form of player bases that you keep around for attacking. I suggest you just scout bases as soon as they appear, rather than waiting for Fridays or the next Crab, when they might have the highest amounts - they might, but it varies anyway. When you scout a base, have a look at the possible rewards, and put a note/symbol/emoji in the comment field. Find a system that works for you. My suggestion: use a red emoji for a base that you don't want to attack - either because it would yield a small reward or because you think it might be too tough for you at this point. That's the most important part, because you can then exchange the base for another one after 24 h. Use other symbols, if you want, like a symbol for bases with an especially big reward, or a symbol for a base that you can beat very easily without boosting statues. Just get rid of the bases that don't work for you - until you reach a point where you might want to push you VPs (Victory Points) by attacking everyone you can. HOW YOU GAIN AND LOSE VPs You gain VPs from successfully attacking bases. The Cycle of Evil will never give you any VPs, player bases always give you 2, NPC bases give you 1 (and sometimes two, see below). You lose one VP when a new NPC or player base appears on your map, and when your home base gets raided. Don't feel bad about either of these events. It's an unavoidable part of the game. You will always get raided and you will never be able to clear your map and just have it keep that way - the game will always give you new targets to attack (and make your base appear on other players' map, unless you stop logging in for a few days). Invasions are just BB's way of matching you with opponents. Over time you can accumulate more VPs, because of the player bases you destroy. You get 2 VPs for that but only lose one when a new base appears, and in the end you can also gain more VPs that way than what you lose by being raided yourself. You also gain VPs from the Diamond Chests that are already there immediately after exploring a new map region, but not from the Diamond Chests that randomly appear throughout the day. MANAGE YOU VPs On lower levels HQ level factors into the matchmaking, but mainly it is based solely on VPs, regardless of other factors, like EXP level, or a players "strength". You will get matched against bases many levels above you. If you focus on offense, that is not really a problem. Just be careful not to rise too high too soon, or you will mostly face very tough or even unbeatable opponents - you will "hit the wall". If you follow the previous advice about stopping to attack when you have the resources you need, then this won't happen to you. Getting rid of VPs is difficult; you can put your HQ on the beach to make yourself an easy target, but without a lot of resources you will be an unattractive target and it will be a slow process. Better to avoid reaching that point. Here's what you do, while you are still at a lower level: You attack the Cycle of Evil events (especially Dr. T and Immitation Game) and NPC bases, and then just as many player bases as you need. You do get more rewards when you move up in the VP range and rank, though: You will get slightly more from the rewards boats and the Supply Chest, and more importantly, the player bases will yield higher rewards. Just move up when you choose, and don't rush it early on. Early on you can use this rule of thumb: multiply your EXP level by 10 - this would be a fine VP range for you. But when you focus on offense, you can also go higher than that. NPC BASES ARE VP NEUTRAL - KIND OF These bases will mostly give you one VP when you destroy them, and since you also lose one when they appear, there is no change in the end. I said mostly, because sometimes they will give you 2 VPs. However, this second VP comes out of a pool of only 200 extra VPs, and once you have received the extra VP 200 times, NPC bases will always award you only one VP. You actually have a higher chance of getting a second VP when there are more still left in the pool. I still think you are better off attacking them before attacking player bases at a low level, even though initially you might gain more VPs in relation to the resources you gain. PLAN YOUR UPGRADES You don't have to plan too far ahead, but think past your next upgrade. Consider the event cycles, and leave expensive upgrades for these times. IT (Imitation Game) yields a lot of resources every Friday. Depending on your time zone and waking/working hours you might be able to do two events right after the other. The Mega Crab on the last weekend of each month can give you a lot of resources, make sure you max your storages for your level by then and if you are at a point where you can only upgrade turrets, then keep expensive upgrades to start during the event. Wait until you collect your resource boats. I already talked about the tribe boat. You can also wait to collect the other two: You have until the next day to collect the daily reward and until the end of the next OP to collect the Operation reward. Spend Diamonds if that fits your real life schedule better, otherwise just be patient. UPGRADE ORDER I already said you should focus on offense - let's be a bit more specific. Upgrade the following, in this order, as soon as you can: HQ (Headquaters - unlock new troops, abilities, LCs, upgrade levels - no downside to upgrading) ARMORY (start this with normal resources, then finish it instantly with Diamonds - that's the best use for Diamonds and allows you to have an Armory upgrade going at all times) SCULPTOR (extra statue slot) VAULT (pulls the teeth out of getting raided with each upgrade) LCs (Landing Crafts - bring more troops; less important at certain HQ levels, depending on your troop combo, but don't fall behind too much. While a LC is upgrading you can still use the troops on it, but if they die you can't retrain them until the upgrade finishes. You might want to save that attack with all troops for your OP attack.) GB (Gun Boat - gain extra GBE; this can make a big difference) Other people might suggest slightly different orders, and those are fine, too. Just try to max all of these as soon as you can. If at any time you have enough EXP for the next HQ, interrupt the cycle and start again at the top. Next, you upgrade what you need/want most. Storages are important, and I recommend upgrading the Radar in such a way that you always have some regions to explore. Turrets are definetely last. ARMORY UPGRADES Try to always have an upgrade going in the Armory. When you get a new level, first upgrade Barrage and Artillery. Then upgrade your main troop combo, then other GBAs (Gun Boat Abilities). Then upgrade troops you might want to use or switch to in the future. I suggest Zookas (especially for OPs (Operations)), Scorchers and Bombardiers as troops that are also good to have, regardless of what you mainly use. Just don't try to evenly upgrade everything, that will take too long and leave you too weak. TROOP COMBOS I won't give you specific advice on what to use. Have a look at what works, see what you like and pick something. Consider that the main game, OPs and the Crab all work a bit differently - e.g. Warriors are a fine choice for the main game, but they won't get you far with the other two, so you might want to also upgrade something else. Personally, I used Warriors early on, then switched to TMed (Tanks and Medics), then added Grenardiers in the mix, then switched to Torcher (Tanks and Scorchers), now adding Bombardiers or useing All Scorchers. That has worked well for me, but it's not a recommendation - e.g. HZ/Hooka (Heavies and Zookas) is one of the strongest combinations in the game, as is RZCM (Riflemen, Zookas, Cryoneers, Medics). Take your pick. Eventually you will have every troop upgraded anyway, but until then, make some choices. HEROES Heroes, their various abilities and how you use them make a big difference in your attacks. I won't go into detail here, I suggest you look up how and when to get the other 3 heroes, and what their abilities are. Focus on maxing the more important of these abilities, rather than spending your Tokens on abilities you don't need and having too few Tokens for the good ones. STATUES This is one of the most important aspects of BB. Let me start with the second most frequent advice one can find in the comments: Don't use green or blue statues. Just don't. Blue statues (Ice) do have a purpose and you will see everyone at the top of the leaderboard using them (and boosting all of them). I won't go into it, but believe me, Ice does a lot less for a lower level base - not enough to justify occupying a statue slot. And green statues (Life) are definately not worth it at all. I already said that saving resources doesn't work and that production buildings are not much of a factor. Since green statues help with these things that don't work, don't use them. They do much less than the percentage might suggest, anyway. Upgrades always keep getting more expensive, but the amount you get from green statues doesn't increase much (just a little bit when you upgrade a production building or gain a new resource base, and there's a limit to both). You are much better off with even a single RR (resource reward) statue. While you would need to waste multiple spots and maybe PP (Power Powder) on several green statues, RR statues boost all your rewards and in just a few attacks you get more extra loot than the greens would have produced for you in a day - that is, if you don't get raided that day and lose the resources again. Don't use green statues. Another statue type that is probably not worth using is PSC (Power Stone Chance). Again, the percentage value of the statue might make it sound much better than it is. Getting Power Stones is important, but you can get enough by playing the game without a PSC statue and have the slot free to put to better use. What you should use are red statues (Magma) which give you either extra TD (Troop Damage) or TH (Troop Health) and purple (Dark) GBE (Gun Boat Energy) statues. While you are still at a low level, purple RR statues are also extremely useful. One RR statue might be enough, and lets you put down more offensive ones, but I suggest you use two, or even three, if you buy Extra Builders. There is no one-size-fits-all recommendation for how many of each of these you should have. You can only have one MP (Masterpiece) of each kind, so definately put out one of each type. If you use SZ (Smokey Zooka) on OPs (or aim to do so in the future) or All Scorcher, you will need a quite a few GBE statues (3 or 4, or even 5). Otherwise you might want to focus on the red statues, especially TD, which will also be essential for getting far in the Crab. It depends on your goals and the troop combos you use - you can easily find more specific advice elsewhere. GETTING MORE RED AND PURPLE POWER STONES You mostly get purple stones from Dr. T events, red ones from IT (Immitation Game) and normal bases, and all kinds as rewards from boats, the Supply Chest, the Crab, Warships and the Submarine. If you follow the advice here, red and purple Power Stones will be more valuable to you than green and blue ones. There is a little trick that lets you get more of them: Instead of turning blues and greens into PP right away, upgrade them to the highest level (Crystal) but then hang on to them. Every now and then the Trader will have a deal where you can convert a certain number of one kind to another. This way you might be able to turn up to 25 blue/green Crystals into 25 red/purple ones right away. Keep in mind that there is an achievement for destroying 3000 statues, if you want that, then build statues rather than converting the stones directly. STATUE STORAGE This is definately not a high priority building, but it can be rather useful. You can store newly made statues here to deploy them later. Just know that you cannot swap out active statues. Once a statue is placed you can only destroy it, you can't put it into storage. That makes statue choices a lot more important - you can't simply swap out TD/TH/GBE as you need it or use those for attacking and Ice when you're offline. Still, the Statue Storage is useful: You can save a statue for your next Sculptor upgrade (when you unlock a new slot), you can save statues to replace others later on (like RR statues you don't want anymore), you can save Ice MPs (if you really must), or you can save TD/TH guardians to swap out when you're trying to go far on the Mega Crab. BOOSTING STATUES Over time you will collect PP (Power Powder), either as rewards, for example from the Mega Crab, or from destroying MPs/converting Power Cyrstals (gaining you 7 PPs). These PPs can be used to boost statues, doubling the percentage of their bonus. This lasts for 3 days on green statues, 8 hours on blue statues and 3 hours on red and purple statues. You can add more time with more PP any time. Use this option wisely. When you can do your attacks without boosting, do so, but use it when you need it. Your TF might require boosts, and it's generally worth boosting when you attack the Mega Crab. I suggest boosting your RR statues, since that way you can easily get a lot from just a few attacks. In any case, find a balance where over time you are still gaining more PP than you use - you might want it later on in the game. TRADER The Trader arrives for every weekend. The deals she offers are mostly nonsense and not worth it, but sometimes you can exchange Power Stones or resources to your advantage. Appart from the deals you can also get Trader Crates, by paying 3 Tickets that you earn by playing the game (the first Crate is free each week). There are differrent kind of Crates, giving you very small or rather large rewards. There is a fixed cycle, and you won't get two huge rewards right after the other. Get these crates when you need them, but if you count on getting a specific extra resource, you had better have a couple of tickets. One nice effect is that the resources you get from crates can overflow your storages. These crates are also your main source of Hero Tokens, used to upgrade Hero abilities. WHAT TO DO WITH GOLD Wood, Stone and Iron are used to uprade structures (buildings, boats). As you level up and upgrade your structures you will see that you need mostly Wood at first, then more and more Stone, then more and more Iron. Gold is used for a number of things: You use it to pay for Armory upgrades - that is one of the most important aspects and you should try to always have enough Gold for your next upgrade (by planning to attack, not by saving up). You also use it to upgrade your Heroes, which is important but should not be done at the expense of an Armory upgrade. Next up is exploring new regions. It's good to always have something to explore so you don't waste Gold, when you have a lot of it, so upgrade your Radar accordingly. No need to go crazy maxing your Radar and exploring everything you can, though. That will just put you on more people's map, which doesn't help you. You can look up specific guides for when you should upgrade your Radar, where to get which Hero, &c. There's even a guide on how to avoid playing against other people for a while, if you want, although that won't speed up your progress. Next, Gold is also needed to attack and to retrain lost troops. The prices for both go up as you reach new EXP levels and upgrade your troops. For me this has never been a problem, just be careful when you are low on Gold - e.g. avoid this scenario: starting an Armory upgrade you can barely afford, then attacking to gain other resources for another upgrade, only to not have enough Gold to attack/retrain. There's two more things you can do with Gold: You can pay for Submarine Dives and convert it to Raw Crystals. Treat both of these as a way to get rid of extra Gold. The Submarine lets you convert Gold into other resources, Diamonds, Power Stones and Prototype Modules with a small chance to get a Classified Item. Upgrade your Submarine and go for deep dives with question marks, put don't prioritize it over more important things. TRIBES You discover these fairly early, but you can't use them for anything until much later. You can unlock two tribes at HQ 18 and the other four at HQ 20 (with max Radar). As soon as you unlock the first Tribe you also gain the ability to convert any of your 4 resources into Raw Cyrstals, which are used for Tribe Boosts. Use this to get rid of extra resources, but it's not worth spending resources you need for an upgrade. The exchange rate for each rescource gets worse every time you convert that resource, but it resets every two weeks. Raw Crystals can be used to upgrade Tribes and to buy Tribe boosts. Each Tribe can be upgraded to level 5, at which point you can buy its boost 5 times and won't lose out on resources when using its militia. The boosts also reset every two weeks. TRIBE BOOSTS These will be more or less relevant for you each time, but can make a huge difference. You might get more resources, or more Power Stones from attacking, more GBE or a cost reduction for a GBA, various boosts to a single troop (more damage, more health, higher speed, life leech,...), and damage or health boosts for certain defenses. I suggest you focus on maxing the Spiritdancer and Lifewell Tribes, then the two offensive ones, then the defensive ones. Get the boosts you want and can afford. TRIBE MILITIA - DESTROY BUTTON Once you unlock a Tribe you get the option to immediately destroy any NPC bases in the Tribe's area, and once a Tribe is fully upgraded, that option starts making sense. You get all the resources (including extra from RR statues or Tribe boosts), but don't have to waste time attacking it. If you choose to use PSC statues, you might want to attack them manually, anyway, because you can get slightly more Power Stones. And you might want to attack them if your pool of 200 extra VPs from NPC bases is not yet depleted - you don't get any of those from using the Destroy button. UPGRADING TURRETS Even when you play offensivly and neglect your defenses, there will be times when you have no other buildings to uprade, so you will have to build or upgrade turrets to gain EXP for your next HQ level. It's hard to say what the optimal strategy is at this point. You have two main choices. A) You upgrade whatever gives you the most EXP per time to progress as fast as possible- typically that will be lower level turrets. B) You upgrade (and max) the most useful turrets first. I'm not giving any recommendations here. I went with option B and maxed the following for my level, in that order: SLs (Shock Launchers), RLs (Rocket Launchers), BCs (Boom Cannons), CNs (Cannons). The priority order here depends on which troops you want to counter most. High level BCs seem to be a decent deterrent against some players, but that's just my impression. Remember, you will never be able to stop determined attackers, at any level. BASE LAYOUT Since I suggest you focus on offense, this won't matter for a long time. At any rate, the goal should not be to defend against attacks (that doesn't work) but rather to gain Diamonds and Intel when you get raided. Set up your defenses with that in mind. You will get raided, but you can try to cause enough casualties to get the rewards. Its hard to defend against every single troop combo with one layout - try to set up a base that can deal some damage to the most common ones, rather than being good against just one. Hide your mines! This will be next to useless against players that scout properly, but I find that most don't. You can hide mines behind a lot of things - some work better than others. Try Statues, the Iron Mine, high level turrets like STs (Sniper Towers), BCs, CNs, Stone Storages. Group normal mines together in groups of 3, so that Medics can't out-heal the damage dealt to low health troops. Place Shock Mines in the most likely path of Warrior rushes. Put some Boom Mines around the HQ. Think about - and observe - where your attackers will most likely use Barrage and avoid putting any mines in that area. Don't have trees in places where they turn transparent because there is a mine behind them. WEAPONS LAB - PROTOTYPE DEFENSES I won't say much about those, except that you should save your prototype modules rather than place proto defenses as soon as you can. They won't do much for you early on, and it will be nice to have enough modules stockpiled later on, allowing you to place more and better ones. By then you won't need my advice on how to use them. SPENDING MONEY This is a personal choice, it certainly isn't necessary. I don't think that it's ever worth buying Diamonds or the "special offers" you sometimes get, but I have been buying Instant Training for a while now, and that is worth it for me. It definately helps with the Crab. Extra builders let you progress faster; if you consistently get them, you might want to deploy an additional RR guardian. TF TFs (Taskforces) are one the best aspects of BB. Join one as soon as you can. TFs do OPs (Operations) together, attacking the same bases (not at the same time), with the damage done by one registered and saved for subsequent attacks. Just join one, you'll find out how it works. Each OP lasts 24 hours and you only have one attack per OP - try not to miss it! You should find a TF that fits your activity level, experience level and (to a lesser extend) HQ level. When you first join a TF as a low level player you might feel useless, but that doesn't have to be the case. You might be able to finish off a defenseless PC (Powercore), allowing other members to attack a hard target, or you might be able to take out some key defenses or mines. The troops you use in the main game might not be useful for OP attacks - don't bring Warriors. HZ/Hooka might be a good all-around choice, Tanks work in the lower and medium range of OPs and AZ (All Zookas) can be phenomenal, but without Smoke and lots of GBE that won't work too well for a lower level player. Learn from the others in your TF, and follow base notes and instructions in the chat. One thing that can make your attacks very effective, even at a low level, is Cpt. Everspark's Universal Remote, so try to get Sparky as soon as you can. You don't even have to upgrade Universal Remote, it works just fine on the first level, and lets you take out key defenses. MEGA CRAB This event happens every month, on the last weekend of the month. You get 40 attacks, and when you don't destroy a stage in one attack, the damage you caused is saved, just like in OPs, IT, or the War Factory. When you destroy a stage you gain one more attack. You can get a lot of resources from this event. If you want to go far, you will need high level troops and a good statue setup. You can only get a Legendary Trophy if you got a Diamond Trophy the year before. WARSHIPS This is a whole different game mode. I like it a lot by itself, others hate it. Getting to the Diamond tier isn't too hard, though and gives you 500 Diamonds, plus lots of other loot (in the season reward and over the course of it) for the main game. Here are some very basic tips: It takes some getting used to. Just remember that it's about being faster than your opponents - so focus on everything that makes your attacks not only successful but also fast. All Heavies, All Heavy Choppas, Flares, TD, TH, Bombardiers are things to look out for in every season, but there are nuances and every season is different. Set up your Warship not to defend against an attack, but to make it last as long as possible. Look at the tech tree, look ahead and ask yourself what you will absolutely need and what you will not need - choose wisely. Watch your opponent's attacks, and learn from their tactics and base layouts. Generally, try to get to the next ER (Engine Room) level quickly, rather than hanging out at one level for a long time. Many people seem to struggle with the Sky Shield proto defense - you can actually often flare something that seems protected; focus on the lower one of the two circles. There is much more to say, but this will have to do as beginner's tips. CLIMBING ON THE LEADERBOARD Once you are in a position to do this you are far beyond the need of these tips. You will need to reconsider your statue choices at a certain point (saving Ice statues in storage might come in handy). Also, I can't confirm this, but I heard that it's a good idea not to destroy the last stage of Dr. T events, as that is supposed to give you a slightly higher chance of getting a player base in an invasion. USEFUL ONLINE RESOURCES You already know this on (https://www.reddit.com/BoomBeach/), check these out, if you don't know them: https://www.reddit.com/boombeachrecruit/ https://boombeach.fandom.com/wiki/Boom_Beach_Wiki https://hoppernet.net/ There's also many YouTube videos and Channels worth looking at. Have fun playing Boom Beach!
A list of all the mods I love playing with in Battlefront 2 on PC!
PREFACE
To all gamers who joined us via the Epic Games free week, welcome to the Battlefront! If this is your first foray into the game you will find the in-game content fresh and entertaining for many weeks and possibly even months to come. However you can spice things up a lot by trying out some mods from the excellent modding scene this game has developed over 3 years! If you've been playing the game on PC for a while now but without any mods, hopefully my post gives you an idea of what you've been missing out on. Mods for Battlefront 2 include:
UI mods that improve quality of life
Gameplay mods that add or enhance the offline Instant Action modes
Cosmetic mods that add your most desired character skins for existing heroes, troopers and reinforcements
Cosmetic mods that add brand new heroes on top of existing heroes complete with voicelines
If you're new to modding BF2, in a nutshell the steps for installing and using mods are as follows:
Download and install Frosty Mod Manager (FMM) and give it permissions to Run as Administrator every time.
Start FMM and give the path to the BF2 exe file.
Download the mods you want from NexusMods and import them into FMM.
Apply the mods you want in the right panel.
The mods will be applied in the order specified in the right panel. If multiple mods modify the same file, the mod lower in the order will be the one whose changes will be in effect.
There is a non-zero risk associated with using mods in mutliplayer matches. The chances of anticheat picking up cosmetic, UI, sound and FX mods while playing online are extremely low but nevertheless they are there. Gameplay mods or stat/ability changing mods that the mod creators explicitly state never to use online have the highest risk of getting you banned and should only be used in offline game modes. I am not responsible for any mistakes you may make while using mods that could lead to you getting suspended or banned. That said, I have been using mods in BF2 for online play since mid 2019 and I have never been banned or suspended. If you're sensible about which mods you use and when, you will most likely never have a problem. This is a luxury very few games offer.
MY LIST OF MODS
I've listed my mods by the categories they belong to. Each mod's name is the NexusMods link is to the images of the mod to let you directly view the images of the mod as I figured it would be what people would be most interested to see at first. My favourite mods which I consider to be must-haves are marked with ⭐. For some of the mods I've written a few short words. Here we go!
User Interface Mods:
This is my personal favourite category as I cannot imagine playing BF2 without these mods. Most of them are developed by u/Szaby59 and are mainstays in my mod load order.
SmallerHUD ⭐- BF2 has many options to tweak the HUD but this mod takes it a step further. It has too many features to list here and it is the only mod on this list whose options can be configured via an in-game settings menu. It also fixes the game's text scaling to enable crisp text on the HUD on 1440p and above screens.
GameModeInfo and Improved Starcard Loadouts ⭐- Displays the map name and game mode name on the spawn screen and also enables DICE's unfinished star card loadout UI with some fixes.
Accurate Level Names ⭐- Displays the exact name of the map you are about to join in a multiplayer match instead of just the planet name that the base game displays.
Falcon Icon Restoration ⭐- Restores unique portrait icons for each Millennium Falcon. This is not on NexusMods but was shared on Discord by user CosmicDreams.
Tutorial Popup ⭐- Adds a confirmation popup dialog for starting the tutorial. Prevents you from accidentally starting the tutorial while quickly going through the menus. Share by user Cade on Discord.
XP Bars Removed - Removes the white XP bars from the Collection and Spawn menus.
Dusk Naboo - No Purple Tint⭐- Disables the color correction settings that are causing the "purple screen" effect while doing a combat roll on the Naboo CS map.
Clean HvV and Showdown Cinematics⭐- Disables the ugly and fake looking depth of field effect on the cinematic hero entry screens in Heroes vs Villains and Hero Showdown.
Zatmospheric Lighting⭐- Makes several post-processing changes on all maps in the game to make them look more pleasing or more accurate to the movies.
Instant Action Improvements ⭐- Easily the biggest, most ambitious and most impactful mod of BF2. This mod makes several enhancements to the Instant Action modes and this will single-handedly help this game stay relevant for offline play several years into the future. This mod is a massive collaboration effort among all the best modders in the community originally started by Mophead but now under the able hands of u/CadevsGaming. You must have seen the big things he has been teasing over the past few months on this subreddit such as Ahsoka as a new hero, offline HvV, new reinforcements and so on. Obviously this mod isn't multiplayer safe.
Jetpack Cargo ⭐- Jetpack Cargo was a game mode that DICE had active for a limited time in the past. This multiplayer safe mod adds a button on the home screen to allow you to join lobbies for this game mode! This is possible because DICE's servers still allow lobbies of this mode to be created.
New Heroes - Adds Rebel Iden and 3 heroes from BF2015 namely Dengar, Nien Nunb and Greedo. Not MP safe.
Cosmetic Mods:
Rogue One Stormtroopers⭐- Replaces the awkward looking stormtrooper models in the base game with amazing looking models from Rogue One. A must have for OT fans.
Improved Battle Droids⭐- Adds movie accurate droid models for the PT and several new droids such as the Magnaguard and Aqua Droid. Also has some cool looking droid appearances not necessarily from the movies. A must have for PT fans.
Soundtrack Replacement Suite ⭐- Extensive list of songs and music to replace frontend menu music, hero themes as well as match music. I find it really refreshing to change the front-end music every other week.
And that is my list of mods! It may not have some of the very popular mods out there but this is my personal list. Hopefully this helps those who are new to modding to discover some amazing mods. If you know a mod not on my list that you feel is worth sharing, please do so in the comments.
We live in an era of simplifying games (and therefore often stripping them of their interesting features), greedy developers feeding on unfinished products, shady business practices (sometimes revolving around world politics) and general surfeit of available products. In order to find a significant and memorable gaming experience one must - more than once - turn his eyes toward things created not by the professionals, but Players themselves. Due to a non-commercial and purely hobbyist nature of such ventures, they often come around unnoticed and underappreciated. Among them is Ultima Online: Requiem. In order to fix the unforgivably small range that the project is known in (and to know it better myself), I’ve decided to interview the Requiem’s Team Leader, Sicarius. The idea behind it is very similar to my previous interview with Vanilla+’s Vladmir. Please note, that aside from the chat with Sicarius, I’m in no other way involved in the project’s development, neither have I received any form of payment or compensation, be it in game or in real life. - - - Voidwards: Hello again, Sic. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview. How about you introduce yourself and the rest of the Team?
Thanks for taking the time to do this for us, Void. As you’ve already said, I’m the lead developer and team lead for Requiem. I’ve been involved in the UO community since the original boxed release of Ultima Online: Renaissance way back in April of 2000. I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the UO role-playing community since the early days, having cut my teeth originally on the OSI shards Lake Superior (shout out toCWSandUDL) and Siege Perilous, and eventually moving to the player-ran community circuit once the OSI roleplaying communities began to migrate away from official shards after OSI phased out theSeer program. After spending a good amount of time running around the community RP shards for a while with my group of friends and guildmates, a group of us took a crack at trying to develop our own shard and community that sought to cater to a different niche of roleplaying and atmosphere than what was commonly available out there at the time. Those early efforts snowballed and persisted through over fifteen years, and have ultimately led us to where we are today; the pending release of Requiem: Act VI. As for our development staff, our current team for this iteration of our project consists of six core members of whom each have a unique skill set that play to the collaborative nature of our project well. Starting with the members that have been with us the longest, my co-adminRexis a phenomenal self-taught programmer who works with me to conjure up our custom take on traditional UO elements, and is also our lead liaison for other development communities and projects. Our senior GamemasterAlthas been with us for longer than I can remember and is also our lead map developer and decorator, and is one of the most talented mappers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Co-adminMaldonadohas been with us for years and leads our in-game development and balancing, and does a phenomenal job to help translate our programming efforts in developing spawns and NPCs into enjoyable and balanced in-game content. He also serves as a check-and-balance over the final revisions of developed content that Rex and I work on to ensure that it’s actually fun, intuitive and can be considered balanced enough to implement to the project.
Our newest members to our team includeArchin, who is our lead art asset developer and is a phenom when it comes to creating, developing and implementing custom assets and art to the project. Her addition to the staff has helped us take our project to an entirely new level for this latest iteration of the shard, and I’m truly excited to see the community be able to appreciate her work here soon. In addition to her direct development contributions, she has also elected to work on promotional video marketing, and also personally curates and performs quality assurance over in-game aesthetic content (for example, clothing, equipment and hair hues) to ensure things adhere to our level of aesthetic quality. She has essentially become our lead asset manager and we couldn’t be happier with her contributions during development. Along with Archin,Coty(https://www.cotypolk.com/) is also a new addition to our development team and is a very talented traditional and digital artist, of which we’re thrilled about having on the team. He has been able to take some of our conceptual ideas and put them to canvas, helping us develop new branding for the project as well as developing and implementing custom aesthetics and equipment for the game world. He has also proved to be an amazing conceptual developer and has personally spearheaded the development of a few of our new systems of this iteration of the project, and we’re very fortunate to have talent like his adding to the team of Requiem. In addition to our core development team, we also draw heavily from our community for assistance. We operate a community development team that we’ve invited dedicated veterans of our community to (shout out toBurzandCons!) that help us with development tasks, balancing and design workshopping. We’ve also have a group of community volunteers that help us out with the arduous and meticulous task of map development and decoration, and a few members whom contribute to the project with helping us out with our wiki, contributing lore, and even contributing music to use in-game (thanksLE!).
Not all of our Readers have experienced UO firsthand. Can you give us your description of the game, in general?
Ultima Online is one of the earliest MMOs and originally launched in 1997 to fairly decent popularity. I believe at its peak, it had around a quarter of a million paying subscribers. While that might sound a little low compared to the massive numbers games like World of Warcraft draw today, it’s touted as being the very first MMORPG to reach the 100,000 subscriber mark, and really blew a lot of the other early MMOs out of the water. In its prime, it was truly something special and new; one of the first real popular entries into a genre that was just starting to break ground with PC gamers. MMOs were so new back then that the idea of subscribing monthly to anything - let alone a video game - over the internet was still something that wasn’t at all mainstream.
What made Ultima Online fairly interesting for its time was that it launched as a true sandbox world; there hadn’t been many quests aside from escorting some Seekers of Adventurers around from town to town for a bit of gold, and any content outside of PvM was created by the players themselves. NPC vendors were limited, and the concepts of things such as reputation grinding for end-game loot simply weren’t ideas back then - to get good gear, you had to seek out players and their shops all over the map. Ultima’s aesthetic and game-engine choices had also lent itself to being something rather unique, even to this day, as the game engine is rendered in an isometric perspective just like early Infinity Engine RPGs, Diablo and Path of Exile, every piece of artwork in Ultima is hand-drawn, and even the animations themselves are illustrated frames of artwork as opposed to 3D models. While over the years many games have found more efficient ways of making games and handling equipment and models, UO’s art choices have kept it charming enough that it still ages well as opposed to early 3D games that suffered from simple models and low-res textures. When Origin originally designed UO, they seemed to have had a focus on semi-realism and immersion as guiding principles of their game design. For example, everything in the game world was represented as an item that could be placed on the ground, thrown away, stored in a chest or traded with another player - there were no generic “bag” models for some items the developers didn’t make art for. Building upon that idea, PvP was both meaningful and dangerous; if you lost a fight, odds were you lost everything you had on you, to include armor, weapons, gold, bandages and even the dining room furniture you might have been carrying back from the local vendor. For such an early entry into the genre of MMOs, the game design decisions had really captured a lot of people’s imaginations and interest, as they all culminated together to form something almost like a “middle-ages life” simulator.
The belief that I have that early UO was as much a sim as it was a MMO is further reinforced by the original creators work on UO’s character development systems - where most MMOs nowadays are class or role based, UO had around 50 seperate skills that were rated on a proficiency level from zero to one-hundred percent, which you raised mainly through use, such as hitting a monster with a sword to raise your Swordsmanship skill. You could have any combination of these skills, up to a 700% total cap, at any time. You could also raise and lower these skills whenever it suited you or your playstyle. You also had to raise your stats, Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence, through use and development of these skills. There were no levels or experience points, just you with a sword or a fishing pole trying to raise your skills up. Throw in a few craft skills which gave players the ability to not only craft traditional MMO gear such as weapons and armor, but also more “RP” items like furniture, clothing, musical instruments and food that existed almost solely for decorative purposes, and you were left with an truly unique and compelling game experience that wasn’t like anything else that had ever been on the market at the time. For many of us that cut our teeth with UO, it was an experience that has yet to have ever been recreated faithfully in games that have come after it, and that’s probably why the game’s emulation scene is still active to this very day.
Aren't you afraid that the original game's age could discourage some of your audience? How does such an aged production translate into modern trends and our understanding of game development in 2021?
I think a lot of the early design decisions that went into the initial creation of Ultima Online have helped keep it relevant as a medium for what we on the team of Requiem try to do best; the support of enforced roleplaying. The isometric perspective, the art decisions, the free-form gameplay and sandbox elements of the base-game all come together to make a really strong foundation for a project like ours. Where we can truly achieve modernization and keeping the game relevant is through taking advantage of the community that exists to support and further player-ran UO development. Combining the game’s base foundation with the larger community efforts of private server emulation (such as RunUO and ServUO) along with the excellent work of the ClassicUO client emulation scene (a project that has modernized and expanded UO’s client with new quality of life features for a modern era), we’re able to update and expand upon a twenty year-old game with modern game design decisions and features. We’re not just limited to editing a game through config files and settings when developing our project; we’re actually able to use UO as more of a game engine to house any and every idea our development team can conceptualize and create. Using C# and modern art and asset development tools, we’ve been able to develop and implement new skills, completely custom mechanics, new art assets to include UI updates, new animations, and even custom sounds and music. Only our imagination (and time!) is the limit, and we’ve really taken advantage of this fact with Requiem.
Ultima Online in of itself is also a title that has still remained operational as a live product for more than twenty years now too. It has seen numerous updates, expansions, upgrades and content additions. Our entire development team are also avid MMO fans and have collectively played together in modern numerous titles, ranging from mainstream games such as WoW, all the way to more niche projects such as Life is Feudal. All in all, while the spirit of UO is very old soul so to say, it is not a direct transplant from the late 90s, and neither is the development team working on this project.
All right, but what’s the main concept of Requiem? How does it differ from the “default” Ultima Online?
“Default” Ultima Online is in itself a sandbox MMO in which players are expected to seek out and create their own content, be it anything from harvesting and crafting, fighting monsters and exploring the map, or waylaying unexpecting travelers and striking them down for their belongings. In the early heyday of UO, the idea of structured quests, reputation farming or even raids did not exist. MMOs have come a long way since the early days of UO, and while Requiem owes its DNA to UO, we have tried to lean more heavily into modern game design philosophies than those of the late 90s.
As for the concept of Requiem, I’d say that is two-fold. First, Requiem is a project based around the ideas of providing to the community an enforced role-playing environment in which every element of the project, from it’s aesthetics to it’s mechanics, are designed in mind for such an activity. We have sought to establish a community in which we’re not just modding Ultima Online, but creating our own take on it, imagining if it had followed a path that focused upon intricate, pen and paper inspired character development and an enforced role-playing environment. A very small example of this design philosophy that comes to mind immediately are our player profiles. In traditional Ultima Online, role-players were given a small profile window to tell a little about their character, be it their immediate appearance or their back story. On Requiem, this is taken to a much more intricate level of detail; we provide to our players the means to write and save profiles of their characters and to choose graphical avatars that represent their facial features. You can then use a simple command or menu option to look at any player-character in the game and get a window that shows to you the basic bodily attributes the player’s character chose for their persona, such as height and weight, along with their description and character Avatar artwork. While such a feature might sound like a minor thing at first glance, we’ve found that these small quality of life additions help promote and propagate role-playing in our community, and leads to more immersion and more fun.
The second half of Requiem’s overall concept is its story, which has been running more or less for the better part of fifteen years. Where default Ultima Online really didn’t have that much of an overall story outside of founding lore and plot, Requiem is far different. In order for us to have an enforced role-playing environment, players have to know what sort of world their characters are a part of. For Requiem, that world is one that is heavily inspired by a low to medium fantasy concept that draws upon the spirit of Lovecraftian horror, the genre of Grimdark fantasy, and the horror elements of IPs like Diablo. While a lot of people instantly think of knights in shining armor, lithe and beautiful elves, Arthorian legends and the round table, and epic battles against building-sized dragons when they think of medieval enforced roleplaying, Requiem is quite a different beast. The world at large, Eden, is about thirty years into what many believe is the Apocalypse, and large swaths of the Venerated Republic of Decus, the story’s main setting, are consumed by mindless hordes of the undead. Knights and elves are replaced with Templar and Inquisitors scouring the lands for enemies of the Church and Faith, and building-sizes dragons have been traded our for sentient mounds of viscera, hordes of shambling zombies, and daemonic cambions whom stalk the countryside, stalking and hunting unsuspecting adventurers for sport.
You have mentioned – be it on Discord or in the forum posts – that most of your playerbase are grown people with professional and personal responsibilities leading to a very limited amount of time available for playing. How does it relate to the fact that it’s an enforced RP server, full of player-led factions, Game Master-driven, Player-supported events and the world is really living, even when the Player’s offline? Shouldn’t we be afraid of falling behind: both mechanically and story-wise?
This is a great question, and we’ve put a lot of thought into how to support a community that can feel accessible and fair to a spectrum of players, ranging from those who can devote a lot of time in-game and to those that can't. First and foremost, from a mechanical standpoint, our philosophy and game design concerning how a player develops their character is influenced heavily by the concept that if they have become a part of our community, they are by nature a part of our story. Thus, characters have lives of their own that are independent from the physical time their players may be able to devote to them. It can be very discouraging as a player to know that you only have two or three hours to jump in the game and have some fun knowing that you're hundreds of hours behind your peers in terms of mechanical character development. What we have done with our core mechanics on Requiem to help alleviate these issues is the creation of a parallel character development system that exists in tandem with our more traditional mechanics. Known as our Animus system, characters in our game world earn a passive stipend of experience that can be spent to invest in nearly anything related to the development and progression of your character. This includes skill points, stat points, and even special skill abilities. Acquisition of this experience happens every hour, and it’s given a generous bonus depending on a few different factors to include how many other players are online at the time, and more importantly, a bonus if your character is within a local hot-spot that is used for role-playing, such as a tavern or a safe town. What this does is allow for players to spend their time as they see fit - even if you only have an hour or two to log in for the night, if you’d rather spend it just role-playing and catching up on the latest rumors, you won’t be completely neglecting the progression of your character while you do so. This system is extended to offline characters as well, for a period of up to two weeks, so if you have a busy week and can’t make it in-game until the weekend, you still have some built up Animus waiting for you to spend on raising a skill or purchasing some skill abilities. We think that with the incorporation of these two development ideas, our players are able to still make forward progression with their characters regardless of how much time they may be able to devote to being in-game in a given day or week.
The Animus system is also intertwined with everything else in-game that you can do, such as crafting, harvesting, exploration, and even hunting and slaying monsters and animals. Perhaps your ideal character is a legendary blacksmith that sits around town honing his trade in the public craft hall, considering that you don't have the time to go out and explore every inch of the map and claim dominion over every foe you come across. In many other games and UO shards, pure progression through harvesting and crafting would be very hard - in Requiem, it’s easily achievable through our Animus system. You can even use all of that experience your blacksmith has been earning to raise other skills, such as Swordsmanship, allowing you to role-play the idea that in his free time, your character has been taking lessons from a local expert or some such idea. What this does is allow our players to progress in a way that feels comfortable to them. Of course, natural progression through skill gain is still a thing too - and for those players that have a ton of time to devote to playing, the Animus system starts to have diminishing returns within a twenty-four hour period, as to keep things fair for all.
Falling behind with the story-line is a whole different problem, one in which we’ve also taken proactive steps to try and prepare for. First, any major storyline quest or event that our staff holds is held to a standard of requiring at least a week or two lead-time and out-of-character notification to the player base so people can plan accordingly - this gives everyone a chance to try and make it to our big events. Second, we have incorporated a means for our Faction leaders to be able to plan and advertise their own in-game events through in-client tools that allow the rest of the playerbase know when something might be going on or is planned. This allows our players to facilitate communication between themselves in regards to organizing and planning events big or small. Lastly, we have numerous mediums that we use to communicate to the shard what is going on with the story - this includes in-game newspapers, forum update threads, and most importantly our Living Story concept, which is a narratively written novella that we develop and publish to our website that explains our main plot and what the players have done to influence and affect the outcomes of our own internal and confidential plans for the story. This part is especially fun for us on staff, as we’ve a lot of ideas for where we want to go with the story, and depending on what the players do and accomplish in-game, those plans can go right out the window.
HI THERE! I’ve re-created this list, cleaned up some mess and placed many links to their respective sections. This list contains only FOSS apps and most of the links provided here will take you to GITHUB, GITLAB, F-DROID and PLAYSTORE. I'll be adding some hearts beside each application 💖--App is active and is being updated frequently 💚--App is active but updates are a little slow. (Not THAT slow and definitely not dead) 💔--App is abandoned/dead. (Why are dead apps here? Answer: There are some humans out there who love to dig out a corpse and examine it😸) 💛--This link will take you to Playstore 💜--This app...is...uhhh...its either abandoned or the updates are slow as a sloth. IDK what's happing with these apps. (Sometimes its hard for me to point out the app if its abandoned because of the updates....some apps receive updates after a very long time and are not dead. The devs should archive the repo if they're not gonna continue developing it further) These hearts will be added beside each username 💙--The user who suggested that particular app ❤--The DEV of that particular app 🌟SUGGESTIONS TO MORE FOSS APPS ARE WELCOME, when sharing the link for a FOSS app, place the colored heart beside it. I don’t wanna end up placing the wrong colored heart🌟 🌟If any application has a wrong heart beside it OR any link is incorrect OR any app is placed at the wrong section OR if any app goes closed source or turns shady then please do let me know. I'll fix/remove/correct it asap🌟 🌟One more thing...the apps under the sections are listed randomly. Neither of the apps in these sections are ranked from best to worst🌟 ★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆ BROWSERS
AURORA STORE and AURORA DROID💚, this link will take you to auroraoss download section from where you can download both Aurora store(Playstore client without google tracking) and aurora droid(F-droid client).
APPS THAT SAVE BATTERY, ENCRYPTS, HIDES AND LOCKS PERSONAL STUFFS OR EVEN INFORM/ALERT THE USER ABOUT IN-APP TRACKERS OR OTHER FISHY STUFFS COMES HERE 👇
FEED READER💔, Modern desktop application designed to complement existing web-based RSS accounts---u/rat_tat_2_e 💙
FLYM💚, Flym News Reader is a light Android feed reader (RSS/Atom) ---u/Born_Science 💙
FEEDER💖 is a no-nonsense RSS/Atom/JSON feed reader app for Android---u/Some012345💙
READROPS💚 is a multi-services RSS client for Android. Its name is composed of "Read" and "drops", where drops are information drops in an ocean of news---u/Some012345💙
🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴⚫ SIMPLE MOBILE TOOLS💖💛-- Tibbbi❤️ almost all the mostly used applications ranging from Dialer to Gallery is available, they’re all available for free in Fdroid . The playstore version unlocks more and also supports the dev---u/kobeislegend 💙 A friend of mine made a list as well that contains open source applications, there are some apps here in his list which isn’t available in my post. And instead of listing them one by one here’s the LINK to his list, it will lead you to github. This is him: u/Petomeansfart
What are some good offline games to download on your phone before a long flight? 1.6k comments. share. save. hide. report. 96% Upvoted. This thread is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Sort by. best. level 1. 2 years ago. Plague Inc. 2.2k. share. Report Save. level 2. 2 years ago . Unless your planning on flying to Greenland or Madagascar. 1.7k. share. Report What is a free pc game that everyone should get? 10.5k comments. share. save. hide. report. 90% Upvoted. This thread is archived . New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Sort by. best. View discussions in 1 other community. level 1. 4 years ago · edited 4 years ago. ITT: Cave Story. Halo Online. League of Legends. Path of Exile. Actually League of Legends. Dwarf Fortress The 10 best role-playing games that can be played offline including RPGs for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, PlayStation, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows. Here’s our list for best low end PC games 15) Portal 2. Portal is one of the best low-end pc games, and it was a puzzle-platform video game. Which is developed and published by Valve Corporation.The game was released on October 10, 2007, and it is one of the best and original games in the year 2007. The Witcher 3 – Wild Hunt is one of the best offline PC games ever created, many gamers will agree. Developed and published by CD Projekt in 2015, you can play this game on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It’s an open world environment game created by CD Projekt’s proprietary REDengine. The 25 best offline PC games in 2020! One more point for Rockstar. Red Dead Redemption 2 stands out for the same reasons as GTA V, as it managed to improve all aspects of its previous title.The most beloved western of videogames has incredible graphics, photography, and a passionate storyline and also addresses several relevant topics such as racism, immigration, and politics in the United States. Best PC games; Best free PC games; Best VR games; Best multiplayer games; We've only added one new entry to our selection of the best free games for 2020, and it's the first one you'll find below in this (unordered) list. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other, slightly older free games worth your time, no matter what kind of genre you The 20 best offline RPGs for PC! 2021. The Witcher 3 has a total of over 200 hours of gameplay, divided between the base game and its two expansions. There are hundreds of missions, extra activities, and an incredible main campaign. Collect cards, search for legendary weapons, and take on the most powerful creatures by controlling the witch Geralt of Rivia. In this post, we’re going to reveal you the best graphics PC games that you would love to enjoy and definitely need to give a try as they come with unbelievable graphics. 1. The Evil Within 2 The Evil Within 2. Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows; Game genre: Survival horror; Game mode: Single player; Taking the first spot in this roundup is The Evil Within 2 – a Asphalt 8: Airborne, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and FlightGear are probably your best bets out of the 23 options considered. "Beautiful graphics" is the primary reason people pick Asphalt 8: Airborne over the competition. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision.
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![Interview with Ultima Online: Requiem's Team Leader (fan-made) [Part 1 of 2]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/oNxaYgzadg4rOuM8YruYDIcj3QX-zX0QcGvEZ45q8hg.jpg "Interview with Ultima Online: Requiem's Team Leader (fan-made) [Part 1 of 2]")
