Not a bar, but plays one on TV - 2021-05-20

« first day (2599 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (901 days later) »

7:59 PM

hello

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

/me waves its pedipalps in greeting.

how is everyone doing

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

A bit meh on the practical RP front (a couple campaigns abruptly died; I tried GMing a new system but I think it's actually getting in the way of the RP for the purposes which the game tries to work with). A bit good on the theoretical RP front (acquainting myself with a bunch of yet-unfamiliar systems, and so far found some interesting bits).

On the computer game front, had a lot of fun over the week with Subnautica Below Zero, but then in the last day or two the gameplay/story shifted too much into the territory of 'now go, no idea where, and get the thing, no idea what'.

8:32 PM

yeah I did do a little bit of "check the wiki to see what thing I need next is"

it's a bit shorter than subnautica though

I have just finished it

1 hour later…

9:46 PM

I saw a bit of the opening story for it a bit ago and wasn't as impressed with what they had at the start as compared to the first game

I understand they have apparently changed it since then but I don't know exactly how

well it was in early access for a while and only a few days ago went 1.0 release

Yeah

what do you remember of what you saw

The player has like, a base already set up on the planet for like scientific study, and lik they have a precursor AI they dug up or something and basically what I didn't like was, they already had it translated

Then it like,... leaves? And it's so big it breaks the above ground base camp or something

Or wtv that was that it did I don't recall it that well

But basically my problem with it is

They revealed what was going on like, immediately

Whereas in the first game you are slowly unraveling that for yourself

huh. Yeah that sounds dramatically different to how it plays out now

9:52 PM

That's all I remember

Cool

I mean, in the context of the game you are still basically going there to investigate what happened to a system of research bases that was previously established

but you do actually have to explore and find out what's going on

Mk

I'm not against that

I just think part of the whole thing that made the first game cool was the mystery in the stoy

the mystery of the planet's whole deal was kind of already done in Skubnautica 1, so they don't waste any time pretending that you don't know what happened there though.

I mean that's fair to a point I guess

It is a new ecosystem and also you don't know much about the precursors other than what they specifically came to the planet for

I think a little mystery about both those subjects is still intact

I will say that I think the game does suffer a bit in that it's easily possible to discover various things in what doesn't seem like a particularly natural order, and sometimes it feels like the commentary the MC makes isn't particularly context-aware.

9:58 PM

That's definitely a pitfall from switching how you do things between games

but the question of what's up with the architects is explored, if that makes you happy

The gameplay itself, what I saw of it, certainly looked good

I think they kept what worked and mostly only made change that made the game better

That being said I don't know what they have tweaked since then

yeah, there's some new constructible base parts that are nice

core of the gameplay is exactly the same as in subnautica

And I only watched both games, I am not sure I could ever play them myself with huge fish that want to eat you

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

It's good, but I want Cyclops back.

10:02 PM

I miss the cyclops but the map is waaaay too small for a cyclops

Yeah missing cyclops is,... an odd choice

like, in original subnautica I actually built multiple bases in different places because the map was large enough that that was a thing that made sense to do

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

The lorry isn't horrible, but it's a step down in almost all ways.

Yeah

Yes I saw like

but BZ is just too small a playable area for that, or the cyclops, to make sense. There's nowhere there would be any point in taking it

10:04 PM

A presentation of the modular sub thing

the tunnels are all far too small for it

yeah, the seatruck.

It's kinda cool that you can customize it but it also seemed clunky that you absolutely have to change it to do different tasks rather than having multiple vehicles for those tasks

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

It's not even really the size that I want from the Cyclops. It's the ability to build stuff inside.

Just give me a buildable-inside empty box module and I'll be happy.

@trogdor I didn't really change it, I just added more modules.

That's fair but that also slows it down right?

it does, and makes it unwieldier

10:07 PM

Yeah that's the issue I saw with it

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Meh, with five modules and a horsepower upgrade, it's about as fast as the bicycle.

but again the map is small enough that the reduced speed isn't really a problem

I never even made a horsepower upgrade

Well I'm not so worried about map traversal

It's more horrible sea beasts chasing you

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

The only upside compared to the Cyclops is that if the tunnel is too small, you just disassemble the train and carry each wagon in your hands.

Oh and it's slightly better at defending against the big beasts.

the worst of the horrible sea beasts do like 30-40 damage to the seatruck and none of those things attack constantly

10:09 PM

Yeah the Cyclops either couldn't be attacked or could and that's all it got as I recall

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

Defensive module activated at the right moment nullifies the damage.

That's fair I guess

I will be honest I had that defensive module installed and never realised it was an activated thing and did not ever use it

I'd just get hit, wait five seconds for the thing to swim away, hop out and repair and then drive on

Lol

I think I would still be too stressed out by being attacked by huge water beasts in the first place

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

10:25 PM

Overall, the two are like this:

'Clumsy' Cyclops: here I have my bed, my potted plants, my fabricator, shrimpbot hangar, my hundred tonnes of personal belongings, and my built-in phone recharger. Also I have external cameras to manoevure around the tunnels. She's a full-fledged mobile base. The only thing of importance missing is an internal reactor, and that is partially solved by just easily hauling the materials for temporary bases (with bio or thermal reactors), and the thermal reactor upgrades.

There also things about the Cyclops that are not essential, but more engaging and interesting. Like the SONAR, silent running and emergency speed mode, and the fire suppression system.

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I'm watching someone play through on YT

although I see spoilers so I'm going to head out of here

@AncientSwordRage I think we're being careful not to actually spoil anything, just talking about the game mechanics

AncientSwordRage

@Carcer I would consider those spoilers for me

ah. Sorry then

fair enough there

10:41 PM

oh that start is vastly different

XD

the fact that your character talks is slightly jarring to be honest

at least coming from the first game

yeah

subnautica 1 very much has a theme of isolation and BZ doesn't, really

I'm watching the same person play it as I watched play the early access version bits

he commented on it as well

because he played the first game I mean

I think he's actually also one of like 3 people I watched play through the first game XD

alright bedtime for me

cheerio

night

« first day (2599 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (901 days later) »

Transcript for

May '2120

Not a bar, but plays one on TV

I'm not a place to unwind after work, but I play one on TV.

movies ponies splorts tv

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile