What are you playing (or have finished)?

[Nikodile]

Played and finished Nier Automata the past few weeks. What a game, definitely one of my favorites. Felt like it had a lot to say.

[ajazz]

just finished the new movie dlc level for shadow generations - overall, really great stuff! so happy to be in an era where i can unapologetically recommend sonic games to people again with no real disclaimers - never thought i'd see the day.

[GarbCat]

I'm playing Bravely Default for the first time, it's pretty great!!! I knew it was a turn-based RPG from the start but it wasn't until I picked it up for the first time that I realized just how similar it is to an old-school Final Fantasy game, particularly FF5 where both games share a similar-ish job system. Pretty great playing something with the genetics of an old-school JRPG but with the sorts of upsides that come from having abundant cartridge space and developers with modern sensibilities. Particularly, it has a hard mode! You don't usually get that in an old JRPG LOL

[foxmosis]

This year I've focused to play either cool indie games or getting around to classic games that I've always thought about playing but never have despite their status.  Not like the game has to fall into either of those categories but it's how I've been leaning.  So for example I finally played through all of Earthbound this year and gave Katana Zero I spin.  It's been fun!  At the moment I'm playing UFO 50 and Unicorn Overlord.  UFO 50 is a neat time that reminds me of when I would buy random cheap NES games in the 00's and Unicorn Overlord was something I checked out from the library on a whim.  I'm having a good time with them both, and I plan to close out the year with the biggest classic game I've been meaning to get around to: Twilight Princess.  Seems like a very winter-core game to me.

just finished the new movie dlc level for shadow generations - overall, really great stuff! so happy to be in an era where i can unapologetically recommend sonic games to people again with no real disclaimers - never thought i'd see the day.

I'm waiting until after I watch the movie to give the DLC a spin but man Shadow Generations hit so right I'm itching to play it again honestly.

I'm playing Bravely Default for the first time, it's pretty great!!! I knew it was a turn-based RPG from the start but it wasn't until I picked it up for the first time that I realized just how similar it is to an old-school Final Fantasy game, particularly FF5 where both games share a similar-ish job system. Pretty great playing something with the genetics of an old-school JRPG but with the sorts of upsides that come from having abundant cartridge space and developers with modern sensibilities. Particularly, it has a hard mode! You don't usually get that in an old JRPG LOL

Bravely Default is super cool!  I really like how the 3D effect looks on that game.  I never finished it but I've been thinking that I should at some point, maybe I'll take this as a sign to play the game properly next year.

[candycanearter07]

At the moment I'm playing UFO 50 and Unicorn Overlord.  UFO 50 is a neat time that reminds me of when I would buy random cheap NES games in the 00's and Unicorn Overlord was something I checked out from the library on a whim.

UFO 50 is a great game that I suck at :D

[foxmosis]

UFO 50 is a great game that I suck at :D

YEAH SAME YOU GET IT!! 

[invader_gvim]

I've absolutely fallen in love with Star Sector so much that I wrote an essay about my experiences in it and put it on my website.

Its a fun space trading game and you guys should really play it because its awesome. 

I zoom around the cosmos selling drugs, guns, and organs. 

[JINSBEK]

I've absolutely fallen in love with Star Sector so much that I wrote an essay about my experiences in it and put it on my website.

Its a fun space trading game and you guys should really play it because its awesome. 

I zoom around the cosmos selling drugs, guns, and organs. 

@VioletHeaven Yo, are you seeing this? Another Star Sector player! <3 My fiancee loves this game so much she's writing an entire fanpage to it! Honey, you should read invader_gvim's page, I think you'll really get a kick out of it.

[VioletHeaven]

Thank you @JINSBEK! I'm so glad you linked me to this...

I've absolutely fallen in love with Star Sector so much that I wrote an essay about my experiences in it and put it on my website.

Its a fun space trading game and you guys should really play it because its awesome. 

I zoom around the cosmos selling drugs, guns, and organs. 

Wow, you do the pirate lifestyle, huh? I spent so much time trying to keep my current playthrough above board with all the factions aside from the Path and the Pirates. I have a lot of respect! Pirates is actually really hard earlygame because pretty much every major faction absolutely hates your shit and will go out of their way to murder you (unless I've been playing wrong...?)

Also, it's not just about trading! Did you try the questing and story yet? It's a really good way to earn some extra cash by like, performing scans an' stuff, and when you're strong enough, participating in the faction powerplay!

Oh, you should try the colony system when you're stronger, too. It's a really good way to get a decent amount of passive income if you have enough credits (it took me about a mil and an hour to find a good Terran-extreme world to start), but you'll want a significantly stronger fleet once you get into the Crisises. Turns out, the major factions don't like the idea of a new third party!

...I should probably make a starsector thread, huh? 

I just uploaded some screenshots of my colonies! My home colony, my farm colony, and my main fuel production and mining worlds!

I just play as an independent, I like completing quests, exploring, you know? Sometimes I'll gank pirate fleets. You're gonna love the [REDACTED] if you get to that part.

Well, glad to meet another Starsector player!

[invader_gvim]

Thank you @JINSBEK! I'm so glad you linked me to this...

Wow, you do the pirate lifestyle, huh? I spent so much time trying to keep my current playthrough above board with all the factions aside from the Path and the Pirates. I have a lot of respect! Pirates is actually really hard earlygame because pretty much every major faction absolutely hates your shit and will go out of their way to murder you (unless I've been playing wrong...?)

Also, it's not just about trading! Did you try the questing and story yet? It's a really good way to earn some extra cash by like, performing scans an' stuff, and when you're strong enough, participating in the faction powerplay!

Oh, you should try the colony system when you're stronger, too. It's a really good way to get a decent amount of passive income if you have enough credits (it took me about a mil and an hour to find a good Terran-extreme world to start), but you'll want a significantly stronger fleet once you get into the Crisises. Turns out, the major factions don't like the idea of a new third party!

...I should probably make a starsector thread, huh? 

I just uploaded some screenshots of my colonies! My home colony, my farm colony, and my main fuel production and mining worlds!

I just play as an independent, I like completing quests, exploring, you know? Sometimes I'll gank pirate fleets. You're gonna love the [REDACTED] if you get to that part.

Well, glad to meet another Starsector player!

The name "Bun Syndicate" reminds me of my favorite antagonist :




Unlike Ixchel, Jullie Goode dreams of starting a colony. She wants to retire and be a colonial administrator of somewhere peaceful, prosperous, and safe. Your colonies go beyond her wildest dreams, but maybe she will find success too. She would certainly find this inspiring if she was real and wasn't a video game character.

I like all of the Bun Syndicate's planets. Since each one has tens of millions of people, that means that they rival Sindria for population. Your polity is extremely powerful economically and its a big deal for human history. The entire sector has been backsliding or stagnant for a long long time and just having new major colonies people in the core of the sector know about at all is such a big deal. In universe everyone probably talks about your worlds, since their population has swelled this large within a single lifetime. What is it that your new country offers? Safety? Opportunity? Equity? From what I can tell, you managed to get worlds this big without being commissioned by the Hegemony, which impresses me because it means you have to deal with the fleets they send after your colonies constantly. Think about what watching that conflict must be like for some poor person watching the news hologram on Salamanca. The Hegemony wants to extinguish the newest best hope for a better life and civilization because its not their ancient, outdated model of militarism.

The key to the pirate lifestyle is to have a burn level of 20 so that you can always flee from something you can't beat easily in a fight. A small fleet of phase destroyers is ideal. Alternatively, you can go from system to system raiding like Ixchel with multiple battleships and cruisers. The only system she can't go into is Sindria really, although she has to raid for supplies constantly because its very expensive having so many battleships and fights are not profitable with such an expensive fleet - the money comes from her marines.




Here is a picture of my usual starsector set up so that I can do tariff calculations without having to minimize my game. I personally prefer type-it-out calculators over button ones because it lets me use functions. I have t_sell for figuring out how much I might make from selling and t_buy for tariff calculations about buying a good. This plus the predicted price widget in the game lets me plan trade routes out pretty decently when I play as Jullie Goode.

[VioletHeaven]

Unlike Ixchel, Jullie Goode dreams of starting a colony. She wants to retire and be a colonial administrator of somewhere peaceful, prosperous, and safe. Your colonies go beyond her wildest dreams, but maybe she will find success too. She would certainly find this inspiring if she was real and wasn't a video game character.

I like all of the Bun Syndicate's planets. Since each one has tens of millions of people, that means that they rival Sindria for population. Your polity is extremely powerful economically and its a big deal for human history. The entire sector has been backsliding or stagnant for a long long time and just having new major colonies people in the core of the sector know about at all is such a big deal. In universe everyone probably talks about your worlds, since their population has swelled this large within a single lifetime. What is it that your new country offers? Safety? Opportunity? Equity? From what I can tell, you managed to get worlds this big without being commissioned by the Hegemony, which impresses me because it means you have to deal with the fleets they send after your colonies constantly. Think about what watching that conflict must be like for some poor person watching the news hologram on Salamanca. The Hegemony wants to extinguish the newest best hope for a better life and civilization because its not their ancient, outdated model of militarism.

Originally, I started the very first colony on Kupe as a respite from the technological extremism of Tri-Tachyon Corporate greed (they will send fleets and bounty hunters after you if you trade too much cargo), Luddic oppression, and Hegemony's forced military service. My main population is comprised of mainly of Luddic refugees on the waterworld of Lapis Lazuli (I wanted to create a safe haven for them), and of all sorts of people seeking a better life for themselves and their families on Umber, Topaz, and Kupe.

I faced immediate oppression from the Hegemony and Persean League as Kupe and Lapis Lazuli started to grow in size, and regrettably I had to colonize Umber, which at the time was a lonely rock orbiting the red dwarf in the binary system I made home, into a military powerhouse. I had to build heavy batteries to fend off invading fleets, several high commands to project massive heavy fleets around my system, and start up the beginnings of several Orbital Works in order to feed my colony (and my own) growing demand for combat focused starships.

The Luddic church was the first to come after me, citing their hatred and disregard for the masses of Luddic refugees escaping the Church (and Paths') constant wars against other factions. I first travelled to the Luddic Church homeworlds to discuss a peaceful solution, as a member of the Church myself. That failed. The only tactic that worked was not simply forcing a Luddic raiding force out of my system; it was to kill them all.

Then the Hegemony and the Persean League, seeing my colonies morale weakened after the first Crisis, sent their own. Again, I tried diplomacy, at the will of my people and my way of life. And again that failed. I had to ruthlessly hunt down every last Hegemony inspection fleet until they saw me as too great of a threat and tried to saturation-bombard our homeworld. After that atrocity failed, bloody and bruised I marched to the High Hegemon himself and ordered him, pistol drawn, to let my people live in peace.

The Persean league was not so lucky. They did not give up until I was forced to tactically bombard their homeworld of Kazeron to seize their Pristine Nanoforge, and only once faced with an existential threat did they back down and offer peace.

Thankfully, by that time the Tri-Tachyon Corporation's risk algorithms decided that I was too great of a force to combat, and offered a trade deal instead of going to war, saving my people from further bloodshed. I have yet to encounter Sindrian Diktat opposition for my fuel exports, but I expect given their military might that they may come for me soon. And knowing how Sindrian Diktat high command works after the powerplay missions... I may have to go to war once again.

My worlds and my way of life offer prosperity, freedom from war and oppression, and cities where everyone has food, clothing, and the right to live the lives they want to live. I wish the other Factions from the Core Worlds had understood that.

[invader_gvim]

Originally, I started the very first colony on Kupe as a respite from the technological extremism of Tri-Tachyon Corporate greed (they will send fleets and bounty hunters after you if you trade too much cargo), Luddic oppression, and Hegemony's forced military service. My main population is comprised of mainly of Luddic refugees on the waterworld of Lapis Lazuli (I wanted to create a safe haven for them), and of all sorts of people seeking a better life for themselves and their families on Umber, Topaz, and Kupe.

I faced immediate oppression from the Hegemony and Persean League as Kupe and Lapis Lazuli started to grow in size, and regrettably I had to colonize Umber, which at the time was a lonely rock orbiting the red dwarf in the binary system I made home, into a military powerhouse. I had to build heavy batteries to fend off invading fleets, several high commands to project massive heavy fleets around my system, and start up the beginnings of several Orbital Works in order to feed my colony (and my own) growing demand for combat focused starships.

The Luddic church was the first to come after me, citing their hatred and disregard for the masses of Luddic refugees escaping the Church (and Paths') constant wars against other factions. I first travelled to the Luddic Church homeworlds to discuss a peaceful solution, as a member of the Church myself. That failed. The only tactic that worked was not simply forcing a Luddic raiding force out of my system; it was to kill them all.

Then the Hegemony and the Persean League, seeing my colonies morale weakened after the first Crisis, sent their own. Again, I tried diplomacy, at the will of my people and my way of life. And again that failed. I had to ruthlessly hunt down every last Hegemony inspection fleet until they saw me as too great of a threat and tried to saturation-bombard our homeworld. After that atrocity failed, bloody and bruised I marched to the High Hegemon himself and ordered him, pistol drawn, to let my people live in peace.

The Persean league was not so lucky. They did not give up until I was forced to tactically bombard their homeworld of Kazeron to seize their Pristine Nanoforge, and only once faced with an existential threat did they back down and offer peace.

Thankfully, by that time the Tri-Tachyon Corporation's risk algorithms decided that I was too great of a force to combat, and offered a trade deal instead of going to war, saving my people from further bloodshed. I have yet to encounter Sindrian Diktat opposition for my fuel exports, but I expect given their military might that they may come for me soon. And knowing how Sindrian Diktat high command works after the powerplay missions... I may have to go to war once again.

My worlds and my way of life offer prosperity, freedom from war and oppression, and cities where everyone has food, clothing, and the right to live the lives they want to live. I wish the other Factions from the Core Worlds had understood that.

I didn't know that Tri-Tacheon would be so aggressive! That sucks because I've always been a pretty consistent visitor of their ports because drugs and organs are legal, but the idea of all those scavenged high tech ships is highly, highly appealing. There is something oddly appealing to me about the name Lapis Luzuli.



The fact that political developments have forced you to colonize an undesirable world makes me interested in the colonization aspect also, as it seems you have fascilitated the creation of a space economy and not just several seperate space economies which aren't connected. This reminds me of how Bulgaria became an independant kingdom partyl because of the constant pressure forced on to them by the Byzantines. The Hegemony in a way reminds me of the Byzantines, being old, decrepit, but also powerful and bombastically egotistical. The Persean Leugue has so many cool early game ships and Ixchel looooooooves attacking their trade convoys.

Your conflicts with the church also have a very dark ages vibe to me and it reminds me of how the Orthodox and the Monothosite then late the Iconoclasts and Iconodules had religious conflict that was actually based in politics. Your theology probably isn't that different from wither of them. As you said you are a member of the church yourself, yet they still come after you because you aren't them. Its very very cool how I am able to get absorbed into the history of your system.

How does it feel being the Starsector Mister House, able to threaten much bigger powers than you because of your disproportionate power? Threatening the High Hegemon is something I didn't even know you could do, and thats really really exciting.

[VioletHeaven]

I didn't know that Tri-Tacheon would be so aggressive! That sucks because I've always been a pretty consistent visitor of their ports because drugs and organs are legal, but the idea of all those scavenged high tech ships is highly, highly appealing. There is something oddly appealing to me about the name Lapis Luzuli.



The fact that political developments have forced you to colonize an undesirable world makes me interested in the colonization aspect also, as it seems you have facilitated the creation of a space economy and not just several seperate space economies which aren't connected. This reminds me of how Bulgaria became an independant kingdom partyl because of the constant pressure forced on to them by the Byzantines. The Hegemony in a way reminds me of the Byzantines, being old, decrepit, but also powerful and bombastically egotistical. The Persean Leugue has so many cool early game ships and Ixchel looooooooves attacking their trade convoys.

Your conflicts with the church also have a very dark ages vibe to me and it reminds me of how the Orthodox and the Monothosite then late the Iconoclasts and Iconodules had religious conflict that was actually based in politics. Your theology probably isn't that different from wither of them. As you said you are a member of the church yourself, yet they still come after you because you aren't them. Its very very cool how I am able to get absorbed into the history of your system.

How does it feel being the Starsector Mister House, able to threaten much bigger powers than you because of your disproportionate power? Threatening the High Hegemon is something I didn't even know you could do, and thats really really exciting.

Love Lapis Lazuli from SU!

Yes, Tri-Tachyon absolutely hates anyone who exports more than three units of commodities. They also become highly interested if you trade them AI-cores, and will often send more aggressive/heavily armed fleets once they know you've secured a number of Alpha cores.
Hegemony and Persean League honestly seem like two sides of the same coin to me! They both often use similar ship designs, but the League is more forward-focused, using faster ships with higher flux potential and more modern armaments (AM-driven missiles, like the Dragonfire and Gorgon, for example) and better built strike packages, whereas the Hegemony wants to return to Domain rule, with every fleet being dominated with ballistic focused battleships that have overwhelming firepower but middling speed and flux potential (Onslaught, Legion).

I always saw the Church and the Path as being almost primitivists in a way? They accept that hyperdrive technology is necessary, but prefer low level ships that replace automation with raw manpower. They reject even the midline weapons that the Hegemony uses for primitive unguided torpedos and ancient mortars. I actually downloaded a mod that lets me rescue crew from battle-damaged ships, because their main warfleet includes Invictus class battleships, which... well, each one is manned by 4,000 crew. That's a size 3 colony. A single Church warfleet is the same size as a Size 4 colony (3-4 Invictus). I couldn't morally handle ending that many lives for a religious war.

I believe the threatening of the High Hegemon is from a story mod? I tried to keep my modlist light so I could experience the vanilla game, but I think that comes from a mod that slightly tweaks how you strike deals with Colony Crisises.

I honestly tried to play the game as a choose your own adventure. I wanted to tell a good story, and I set out with my own ideals, rather than following the "meta" gameplay. I usually took the hard path or the long path to achieve certain objectives to avoid bloodshed, and only defended myself when I absolutely had to. Even pirate lives matter. It feels really good to be able to be an independent faction, being able to strike deals due to my economic potential, and when necessary, having the strength make other factions back down and avoid a fight.

I love the way you made your own story with your two characters, too! It was very easy to be immersed in how your characters think, feel, and the ideals they have. Maybe I'll try a commodities trader run, rather than a faction ascension run. It sounds like fun! 

[candycanearter07]

I have been playing an unhealthy amount of Balatro this month. I can definitely see why it won indie GOTY, it's quite the addictive game, and the mods make it even more wild (cryptid my beloved)

[GhostGrrl]

So i've been playing Bioshock it's been fun. I am defintly not really a shooter guy but I've really liked it so far. For some reason I was convinced that i had heard that the twist was that Altas was actually Andrew Ryan. I don't Know. If you have not played Bioshock don't worry about spoilers because this is not a thing that happens and would in fact make no sense. I have also started neir but have been struggling with the checkpointless opening.