- Joined
- Mar 5, 2021
This trophy crap never benefits the game in any way.
If I like a game, I will "S rank" it. But I'm not doing another Unique Stunt. Not one more Hidden Package. No more RC planes.
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Biggest bullshit in a video game
- Thread starter Ughubughughughughughghlug
- Start date
If I like a game, I will "S rank" it. But I'm not doing another Unique Stunt. Not one more Hidden Package. No more RC planes.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2016
I think the crystal dudes didn't need to breath which meant they could work in an area with a breached hull or you could simply put out fires by opening the door and airing the place out.
Gamepad
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2019
The Crystals do suffocate, just slowly. It's the Lanius that actively drain rooms they're in.
Jimjamflimflam
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2020
I'm gonna come out and say it. FTL isn't that great of a game. It has some fun ideas and mechanics for a light time waster hopping through the universe and getting into space battles but the meta on it seems to be you need the exact ship configuration and RNG on your side to win.
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2021
"It's a roguelike, bro", but I've never understood that argument. When I die in a roguelike, progress will be kept.
I haven't played many roguelikes, so maybe I'm in no place to judge? The original XCOM is much more of a roguelike than the sequel: random maps, bullshit permadeaths. The course of a regular game does get easier, unless it's Superhuman (which is basically Hardcore mode). You will lose literally all progress is Dwarf Fortress, but as we all know, there is no way to "win" at that game.
Jimjamflimflam
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2020
Right. It feels like in those when you lose its because you didn't properly clear a hallway of aliens or you didn't properly setup your floodgates controls. Basically mistakes that you can learn from and adapt.
In FTL if you don't have enough credits to buy (rng roll on battles and events giving you the required credits) the proper component (rng roll for the components sold) at the space station (rng roll on the station appearing) then you're SOL when you get to the end.
I've only gotten to the final boss a handful of times and gotten smoked because I just played, not min/max my ship to the specs outlined in a guide.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2016
It's roguelites that keeps your progress.
I think FTL is fine like that because each game is so quick and it becomes faster and faster the more you play it. I think of it as something similar to solitaire. Spelunky is the same way, sometimes you're dealt a bad hand and it takes a couple of minutes to figure that out.
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2021
Spelunky is as hard as you want it. With practice I can beat it, no problem; the City of Gold, however, violates the Geneva Convention.
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2020
There's a design difference between Spelunky/FTL and something like Nethack/ADOM/DCSS that's more than just the obvious action game style of the former. In most traditional roguelikes, there's at least something guaranteed that you can work towards and use as a baseline:
Nethack: You're always building your Ascension Kit. Sokoban will always spawn, giving you one of two gubbins you'll need for the Kit. The Fort will always have a wand of wishing to help fill in gaps.
ADOM: The Small Cave always has a waterproof blanket, and if you roll a resilient enough character you can bumrush it at level 1 and Benny Hill out before getting murdered. There are guaranteed sources of several skills if you don't get them in character gen, or you can wish for them if you feel you need them later. The Arena and Dwarftown will always spawn, and the altar in Dwarftown will always be your current alignment when you first got there in case you get bum luck and haven't found a co-aligned one yet.
DCSS: The Ecumenical Temple will always spawn between D:4-7, and overflow shrines will fill in between D:2-9 if your god of choice isn't found there, with the exceptions of 1) a race-locked god, 2) a god that you can start with via a class, or 3) a challenge-mode god whose only shrine is found at the end of a branch that itself is guaranteed to appear. You will never get screwed out of having the minimum amount of Runes to access the final area.
Not that Spelunky or FTL don't have concrete goals besides "don't die; win", but due to their nature as shorter and more action-oriented they're a lot more ad hoc as situations crop up. Decisions that you normally have forever to antagonize over how you're going to die in a traditional roguelike have to be made in a few seconds, and in most cases the only things guaranteed are what you start out with. It isn't that they are bad in and of themselves, but they require and promote a different thought process than a traditional roguelike; there's a lot more in-the-moment decision-making, playing the hand that you're dealt, no return to previous areas, almost no long-term stockpiling, and if you suffer a run of bad RNG you feel it immediately due to the short nature of their playthroughs.
Runs of a traditional roguelike fall apart slowly, like a cancer patient; runs of an action roguelike just blow the fuck up in your face, jihadi-style.
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2021
It's pretty much a given that you need to pause-scum. Even streamers do it, which speaks to poor design. You're not supposed to cheese a game unless it cheeses you.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2016
That's all true and it's actually what I like about them, there's only going forward, no backsies, like solitaire. But I'm partial to that style, I used to play a lot of a regional solitaire style called "The Idiot". You're not supposed to win, you're an idiot if you think you will. Everything is stacked against you, it's not even remotely fair. I can't remember the rules but I've completed it once and was shocked, people had been playing it for far longer than me and never won. But it only takes 5 minutes, so it's ok, you can get a couple of games in while drinking coffee.
I used to play Nethack and I wiped early and often but after a while as I got more skilled the games took to long and it felt like I lost something when I died. I didn't like that.
It comes down to a difference in taste I guess.
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2021
Did a suicidal Russian novelist create it?
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Squandog Bunglepuss
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2018
The various COs in the Advance Wars series always had balancing problems. In the AW series, commanding officers don't fight directly but instead alter the properties of their troops and can use a CO power when their meter fills up by beating or losing units (like a super in a fighting game). For instance, Andy's units are all average and his power is to heal his units. Max has strong direct attackers (like tanks) and his power buffs them further while his indirect attackers (like artillery) are weak. Sami has powerful foot soldiers, etc. But among all these COs, none are as broken as Sturm, the main antagonist of Advance Wars 1 and 2.
Depending on the game, he looks like either a robot octorok or a red Darth Vader knockoff.
In the first game, there are actually 2 differently balanced versions of Sturm: the one you fight in the single player campaign and the playable multiplayer one. The playable Sturm's gimmick is that his units' movement is unimpeded by terrain (so his vehicles move just as fast through forests as on roads for instance) and have 20% more defense, at the cost of 20% less attack, a downside well outweighed by his advantages. His CO power is really strong: he drops a meteor on his foes, doing 4 out of 10 HP of damage to everything in a 2 tile radius of impact. Overall he's probably the 1st or 2nd best CO in that game.
The Sturm you face as the campaign's final boss is even more bullshit. His units now gain attack at the cost of defense (arguably a poor trade) but his meteor strike does EIGHT damage, so everything hit by it is down to 1 or 2 HP. A unit's damage is proportional to its HP, so that meteor can effectively render up to 13 of your units useless. And he always drops it where it hurts the most. Just when you think you have him on the ropes he pops Meteor Strike and turns the tables.
This is what the final map looks like, courtesy of the LP archive:
You have 3 armies to throw against him and he'll still kick your ass.
In Advance Wars 2 he's even more broken, easily the strongest CO by a wide margin. His units now have 20% more attack AND defense instead of trading one for the other, and he has the 8-damage meteor which now also boosts his attack and defense even further for a turn when used. The campaign maps you fight him in aren't as tough but now he's just as broken in multiplayer unlike AW1; the only counterplay if your opponent picks Sturm is to smash his GBA with a hammer.
Fortunately he gets killed at the end of AW2 so he doesn't appear in the next game
Depending on the game, he looks like either a robot octorok or a red Darth Vader knockoff.
The Sturm you face as the campaign's final boss is even more bullshit. His units now gain attack at the cost of defense (arguably a poor trade) but his meteor strike does EIGHT damage, so everything hit by it is down to 1 or 2 HP. A unit's damage is proportional to its HP, so that meteor can effectively render up to 13 of your units useless. And he always drops it where it hurts the most. Just when you think you have him on the ropes he pops Meteor Strike and turns the tables.
This is what the final map looks like, courtesy of the LP archive:
In Advance Wars 2 he's even more broken, easily the strongest CO by a wide margin. His units now have 20% more attack AND defense instead of trading one for the other, and he has the 8-damage meteor which now also boosts his attack and defense even further for a turn when used. The campaign maps you fight him in aren't as tough but now he's just as broken in multiplayer unlike AW1; the only counterplay if your opponent picks Sturm is to smash his GBA with a hammer.
Fortunately he gets killed at the end of AW2 so he doesn't appear in the next game
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- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
Modern Warfare 2:
Grenade launcher + One Man Army + Danger Close Pro...
Grenade launcher + One Man Army + Danger Close Pro...
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2020
Good 'ol Paul.Power. That was a fun pair of Let's Plays for a game I couldn't be fucked to figure out.
Regarding Strum, I think the only real bullshit is letting him be selectable in the first place. He's the final boss in a strategy game, why expect him to not be busted as all shit? That's like having a fighting game without perfect-play AI at the end.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2020
Tbf the mission after that is the real BS:
Much earlier than that is Sami Marches On!
- Forced to use the worst CO of the three (fite me)
- Against a CO who is strong in fog of war, in a game where the AI already cheats at fog of war.
- It's a property capture map, but the layout and starting positions massively benefit the AI.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
MW2 had lots of bullshit. The Javelin glitch, Model 1887, and don't even get me started on its spawning.
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2016
This was truly some top tier bullshit. If you want to do well, the plan is literally just to save scum. I love these games, played all the challenge maps, but FoW is broken. In fire emblem games i never feel like the enemy is sniping me from across the map blind. But advance wars fog is utter garbage. I havent played war groove but apparently they also have bullshit missions with FoW, and enemies who spawn behind your lines when you hit a trigger.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2020
Funnily enough, two games later (AW:DS) the game almost doesn't cheat - units in that game can't attack enemies they shouldn't be able to see, but they actually can see your units and won't lead their own into an ambush. Days of Ruin was the first IS game, to my knowledge, that doesn't cheat at all in FoW.
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2019
I think 80% of my runs that have made it to the mothership were successful, but I'd say only about 3% of my runs make it to the mothership.