What are you playing?

I've been playing Elite: Dangerous recently, and really getting into it. I earned my Triple Elite (top rank in all fields; Combat, Trade and Exploration) two weeks ago and have set out to discover just how much I have to learn yet.
In all online combat-oriented games, one of the worst problems are gankers - people who play just to destroy, sabotage or ruin the play of other players. I'm currently working with one of the best gankers and learning from him. He's so stupidly overcharged it's impossible to win, but after every battle we chat, compare notes and discuss strategies. He's actually a pretty good teacher and I'm a VERY good student. My combat skill has easily doubled fighting him - a player with good skill and a horrendously overbuilt ship. I'm learning his tactics, his builds and his thinking. While I dislike losing, I am VERY appreciative of what I'm learning.
;)

I hosted a one shot D&D game where I let the players be absolutely anything they wanted. It was interesting. I got a unicorn, a druid with a dagger and someone else's infant, a Marine from Aliens and lastly, a kid on a skateboard, who may or may not be a character Kingdom Hearts.

Since one character has a skateboard and another is magically horse, the dungeon has stairs. The alarming part is each stair is 13 feet deep and 8 feet high. There are 12 of them. There is, of course, a castle. But it's build inside out around the dungeon to keep the monsters in. Recently, small robotic birds left the dungeon and are attacking the surrounding villages causing a massive influx of people to the castle. They are attempting to build outer walls to protect against the birds while maintaining the inner walls to stop whatever lives in the dungeon from coming up and out.

Oddly, this is based on some Roman history where the Romans laid down a siege on a town or city only to have attackers come up from behind. To continue the siege, the Romans built a wall around themselves and the whole town creating a double siege situation. It worked on more than one occasion, probably because the relief force didn't think to bring siege engines and the Romans scooped up all of the good resources for their siege works.

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Originally Posted by NorthernDevo

I've been playing Elite: Dangerous recently, and really getting into it. I earned my Triple Elite (top rank in all fields; Combat, Trade and Exploration) two weeks ago and have set out to discover just how much I have to learn yet.

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I’ve been curious about Elite: Dangerous. I often like space games with flight simulator aspects, but I also tend to avoid multiplayer games. They often come with a time commitment I don’t want to pay. Do you use a joystick? If so, what kind?

My biggest game playing days were in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. I’ve been rebuying some of my old favorites and related games (for instance, games in the same series) from Gog. In some cases I still have copies on the hard disk or the original working cd, but quite a few were on multiple floppy disks that have disappeared or if remaining have bit errors. I’m now trying out Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I played 1 and 2 back in the ‘90s and for 3 they made some significant changes. Anyway I bought the series 1-5 for 14 dollars. 1 and 2 were enjoyable but not my favorite games, still I’m interested in revisiting them and trying the later games in the series.

Well, honestly I stick to the sims 3 these days. This game is just so cool. I played it before not so much. But these days I really enjoy it.

My daughter has asked for a laptop capable of playing Spore. I know she can play it on Steam, but she doesn't want that. She wants: "Something that just works. Windows XP, A gig of ram. A hard drive and disc reader. I don't need online crap. I'm in school online and I just can cope with more crap."

Spore, that takes me back. Unfortunately, before it came out, there was a preliminary video that led me to think it was a much different game than it really was. The evolution theme was interesting but I wanted to build space empires. Sadly, it took an insane amount of micromanagement to maintain an empire. For instance, terraforming technology would need regular input or a planet would revert back to an uninhabitable state. That got tedious quickly, especially after colonizing a dozen worlds or more. And there was basically one ship allowed, but I wanted a fleet. I gave up pretty quickly, but it could have been great with a bit more development.

And a laptop with XP and a gig of ram? Unless you have one sitting around, I’d go with something a bit more modern. It doesn’t necessarily have to be current but why go with something with an unsupported OS and too little ram to run most modern software? Even used, you can get much better inexpensive hardware.

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Originally Posted by Van Rijn

Spore, that takes me back. Unfortunately, before it came out, there was a preliminary video that led me to think it was a much different game than it really was. The evolution theme was interesting but I wanted to build space empires. Sadly, it took an insane amount of micromanagement to maintain an empire. For instance, terraforming technology would need regular input or a planet would revert back to an uninhabitable state. That got tedious quickly, especially after colonizing a dozen worlds or more. And there was basically one ship allowed, but I wanted a fleet. I gave up pretty quickly, but it could have been great with a bit more development.

And a laptop with XP and a gig of ram? Unless you have one sitting around, I’d go with something a bit more modern. It doesn’t necessarily have to be current but why go with something with an unsupported OS and too little ram to run most modern software? Even used, you can get much better inexpensive hardware.

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The only thing she wants it to do is play Spore. She is 15 and rather singled minded.

I have been playing Empyrion a space survival game.
It's on an 'early access' alpha release on Steam.
You start on a planet with just your escape pod and a few essentials and have to survive and prosper as it were.
I am in the 'creation' mode rather than the 'survival' mode, you get unlimited resources and access to all the blueprints for items, ships and buildings etc.
I have spent the last few weeks modifying and designing ships and stations.
I will have to get round to doing some actual exploring and trading.
If you go multi player you only get the survival mode.