What games are you playing now?

Yeah… it's brutal. They certainly don't ease you into it. Even the first level feels like it's a continuation of the end of the base game. I'll come back to this later. I've had enough of Doom for now.

Exactly how I feel with Bioshock. I just started Minerva's Den (after I did a speedrun through the whole of Bioshock 2 again with cheats, to get the achievements which were bugged the first time). And I'm really feeling burned out on Bioshock. I feel like I'm not exploring at a leasurely pace, but rushing trying to just get it out of the way. That's not a good way to do it, so I think I'm gonna put it on hold for now, and come back later.

I had enough Bioshock these last few weeks to have it come out of my ears. Did 2 playthroughs of BS1, 2 of BS2, 1 of Infinite. It's great, but it's too much.
 
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I don't know if you've played as a Holy Roman Empire country, but the thing is, it doesn't matter how small your target is if attacking them brings in Austria. I've expanded quite a bit and have 100,000 troops.. but Austria has 300,000.

I think he is talking about attacking outside of the HRE.

I am still waiting for a few more patches before I start playing EU4 (I bought the complete collection a few months ago) so what I am about to say may not work at all in EU4 as all my experience is in EU3.

When I played Brandenburg I think the first thing I did was swallow up one my neighbours while Austria was otherwise engaged with Hungary. I also had a few neighbouring territory ask to join under me (not sure if this exists in EU4). In EU3 it can trigger if you have a core on their territory. I then rejected Austria's request for me to return my acquisitions. I don't think this triggered a war but it did the second time I did it but by that time I was large enough to put up a decent defence. Over a long period of time I managed to acquire enough territories to form germany and then I was the dominant military force in the HRE. From there I set about vassalising as many other countries within the HRE that I could and then formed the HRE once I had enough under me. It might play very differently under EU4 if the HRE mechanics are different.
 
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I didn't just start this game. Not counting my vassals, I'm about 5x as big as when I started in 1444.

Attacking outside the HRE doesn't help because I'm surrounded by the HRE with the exception of Poland. Poland is 3x my size and military strength. You can't get claims on countries you can't core. (You can get different kinds of cassus belli, like trade related ones, but you can't conquer territory with those). Forming Germany would require the absorption of at least 40 provinces that all currently belong to somebody in the HRE.
 
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I didn't just start this game. Not counting my vassals, I'm about 5x as big as when I started in 1444.

Attacking outside the HRE doesn't help because I'm surrounded by the HRE with the exception of Poland. Poland is 3x my size and military strength. You can't get claims on countries you can't core. (You can get different kinds of cassus belli, like trade related ones, but you can't conquer territory with those). Forming Germany would require the absorption of at least 40 provinces that all currently belong to somebody in the HRE.

Sounds like it is quite a harder than it was in EU3. The only other thing I remember from my playthrough was that it did take a long time and it wasn't the most interesting game. It was all about waiting for Austria to be overcommitted somewhere else.

In EU4 does the emperor automatically declare war if you don't hand back the territories?

edit: I see this post on reddit sounds like they had a similar experience to you:

gobblegobbleimafrog
8 mo. ago

Expanding in the HRE is now dead. Can't do shit but wait around. Can't vassalize as the vassals have too much dev. Can't take over land because everyone in the HRE will hate you.

I have no idea why the primary goal of so many of these updates seem intent on making eu4 into nothing more than a waiting game.
 
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I don't know if you've played as a Holy Roman Empire country, but the thing is, it doesn't matter how small your target is if attacking them brings in Austria. I've expanded quite a bit and have 100,000 troops.. but Austria has 300,000.
I did but this was years ago.
There were some ways to do it back then but it's been too long.

Also those trade and humiliation wars can be quite useful, as they may allow you T weaken enemies for future wars
 
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In EU4 does the emperor automatically declare war if you don't hand back the territories?

No. If you aren't allies with the emperor (usually Austria) with a good relationship they'll call it "unlawful territory" and demand that you return it. If you've taken more than one province, they probably won't ask for all of it. If you refuse to return it, that province gets a bunch of maluses, like less tax, higher unrest, etc, and you get an opinion hit with everyone in the HRE.

"Also those trade and humiliation wars can be quite useful, as they may allow you to weaken enemies for future wars."

Humiliation wars are indeed helpful, not so much because they weaken their target, but because they increase your own power projection (and maybe prestige; I can't remember). But they are still defensive wars for your target and they still bring in the HRE to defend just like wars of conquest.
 
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I went to war today after I posted my earlier posts. My target was some one province minor that I can't even recall; my main objective was East Frisia, who were allied with my target. Most of their allies were small, with the major exception of Italy (Tuscany was my rival, and they formed Italy). Italy was already at war, and I hoped that they wouldn't be drawn in, at least not immediately. I failed that gamble. I held them and their 150,000 troops long enough not to really lose anything, but I also didn't really get anything either.
 
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No. If you aren't allies with the emperor (usually Austria) with a good relationship they'll call it "unlawful territory" and demand that you return it. If you've taken more than one province, they probably won't ask for all of it. If you refuse to return it, that province gets a bunch of maluses, like less tax, higher unrest, etc, and you get an opinion hit with everyone in the HRE.

"Also those trade and humiliation wars can be quite useful, as they may allow you to weaken enemies for future wars."

Humiliation wars are indeed helpful, not so much because they weaken their target, but because they increase your own power projection (and maybe prestige; I can't remember). But they are still defensive wars for your target and they still bring in the HRE to defend just like wars of conquest.
Hmmm, like I said. It's been too long. Maybe I'll give it a go when I finish Elex again before starting Elex 2. :)
 
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Checked out Slitherine's massive tactical strategy game library, but found nothing that could Über Sanctus Reach, so back to Brigandine!
If you think this game has bad controls, check out the manual /GUIDE section. I just curiously switched to the last of the tips I never read, because the game finishes loading, so I never read the offered 4 tips...

I found MOUSE MIDDLE CLICK gives you the perfect QoL feature many people have asked for. Its the statistical summary in XCOM: UFO Defense, but has game funtions included too.
For example you can see all the Enemy Baddies! I found out that the strongest Big Boss Monster is a dragon at level 20 - right at game begin. Which faction the dragon is affiliated with..
Everybody's strengths and weaknesses are all there in the MOUSE MIDDLE CLICK . AND.. this is rare and more akin to Mega Amazing Help System in Knights of Chalice 1, all table headers are CLICK SORT SENSITIVE!!!

The menu item to look for is called INFO
This means with a left mouse click on a table column header you can sort the Ranked lists and find out:
- Who are the strongest,
- Who has most command points
- Who has highest levels
- Who is questing
- WHERE are they now, at which castle?
Lists for: Bases, Knights, Monsters
- Who has highest mana income and how many monster vassals they have? Latter is intriguing if you set out to kill all their monster servants. :D
I still have to see, if a taken castle or a destroyed knight gives me their LOOT!
I only managed to beat a castle with my overpowered Ruler's party. Since then I was merely experimenting with other parties = the weaker knights.
And.. newly joined knights are the lowest level, so there is a lot of definitive grinding - Ala - strengthening new party members just like in the Pools SSI Gold Box series.

If your knight or monster has an AoE effect magic / weapon / skill, the more enemies you hit with one attack the more XP you receive.

So this game isn't that unpolished as many people claim. Maybe they are like poor me and don't like to READ THE EFFING MANUAL!!!!
 
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Since I'm in a bit of quandary as to what to play next, I thought I'd give Risen a chance, since I only tried it briefly ages ago. And man, once you get over the initial hump of how clunsy it is in parts, especially character models, you really get the Gothic vibes. And the music is so good. It feels a lot like Gothic music. It feels so nostalgic.
 
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Just started playing Dying Light 2. I'm only a few hours in, but I've got mixed feeling so far. It seems to be a step backwards from Dying Light in some ways.
 
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I've been skipping between Risen, Neverwinter Nights and Alien: Isolation.

I'm shocked how slow NWN is. I remembered it was basically my character and the enemies, sidestepping and swinging once in a while, taking turns, missing 50% of the time. But damn, I forgot just how slow fights are. I never got too far into it back in the day, since it really bored me. Aside from the nice character building mechanics, everything else felt subpar: the story, the combat, the world (the fact that they prioritized making modular levels and streamlining level development, for fans I guess, as much as possible, before giving any attention to how unnatural it all looks ... I think this pretty much sealed the fact that most levels just look plain boring. Like a bunch of boxes stitched together). But I'd been meaning to give it another shot. So here I am.

And finally, I've been doing a bit more into Alien: Isolation. Hot damn is that xenomorph relentless in hunting you down. I feel I'm constantly getting in and out of closets, waiting for it to come and breathe on me, then it leaves, I get out (and why the fuck does Ripley slam that f-ing door every time she gets in and out? is that why the alien is back on my in short intervals?). Anyway, it's intense as hell. I'm always with my pulse at 100%. And I can't really play that long, and stay stressed that much. But it's one helluva intense experience. And it looks and sounds amazing. I think I might just need to dial it down from Hard difficulty. And I hear there's another difficulty where they disable your motion detector? Holy shit. Actually, I do feel the motion detect is kind of messing with my head constantly, since I don't know where the alien is, either on the same level as me, or in the air vents above. Anyway, it's intense as hell.
 
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EU4, as Brandenburg. It's becoming very difficult to get anything done. Either Austria/the HRE gets dragged into anything I attempt, or somebody like France does. To form Prussia, I need a few provinces that Poland currently has. They're massive and have no real enemies.
I'll give it a go today - but I don't have many hours to play - you said 1444 start, right ?

I'll see what I can try figuring out - although it's been so long I don't remember the details of how to play :D So I doubt I'll do much better.
 
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@JFarrell71
Are you sure you're getting valid cassus belli before fighting ? I don't seem to have issues with Austria if I do... Or did you leave the HRE first ?
Of course I'm sure. I've played EU4 for 350 hours.
You'll have to explain what you mean by no issues with Austria. The Emperor doesn't care if you have a cassus belli or not. If you take HRE territory, they're going to be pissed and want it back (unless you ally them)

I'm also in 1710. In the 1400's, things are a lot easier. Most potential targets don't have large allies at that point.
 
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I tried to take a screenshot, but that was harder than I thought it would be. The screenshot shows the entire world, even though I was zoomed in. Anyway, you can click on the image and zoom in to Europe. I'm the brown blob. If you're familiar with how big Brandenburg is at the start, you can see how much larger I am now. The white all around me to the west and south is Austria. Poland is pink.
eu4_map_BRA_1716_03_08_1.png
 
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I never got very far into Mass Effect 1 back in the day, so I thought I'd give it a shot now with the legendary edition. And man, I'm at the start and already losing steam. It feels so light on anything meaningful or interesting. There's been endless talks about how streamlined the rpg elements have gotten, so I won't drudge up the past. But it's shocking how mind numbing the item management and lifeless choosing characters improvements is. It really feels like they could've just done away with it completely, it's so barebones. And I seem to remember they streamlined even further in the next ME games?

Anyway, the story is also kindergarden and Disney villain stuff. With the obligatory ego stroking for the player character, to try and get me, the player, to feel cool. Really adolescent stuff. I'll try and hold on for longer, but it's really not grabbing me. I keep wanting to get to ME2 since I heard that’s better?

The one thing that shocked me is seeing copyright 2007 on the title screen. It's been 15 years already? Holy shit time flies.
 
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I've been playing a bit of Nevergrind Online, a very basic and pure MMORPG blobber. It's simply a town hub with a stash, trainer and a few stores then you find a party and run dungeons with random rooms. The combat is real-time and cooldown based, resources are mana and spirit.

There's a decent amount of races/classes and each has 12 abilities/spells to train improved ranks in when you level up. Max level is 50 with plans to raise to 99.

I feel like there should be a niche audience, who used to play oldschool MMOs or MUDS, who will actually have a great time with this one.

No DLC, no MTX. Just oldschool dungeon crawling. :)

It's a good time to jump in, if you're intrested, because the Japanese localization was finished and loads of new players have flooded the early levels. Japanese sure do love Wizardry games! I haven't had any trouble finding a full party (as a Human Cleric) but it is also worth mentioning the game can be played OFFLINE and also solo online.
 
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I never got very far into Mass Effect 1 back in the day, so I thought I'd give it a shot now with the legendary edition. And man, I'm at the start and already losing steam... I keep wanting to get to ME2 since I heard that’s better?

I think so, but I've long been in the minority about Mass Effect 1. I thought at the time and still think that it's massively overrated. Mass Effect 2 is my favorite in the series and a lot of people (including people who like ME1 a lot more than I do) agree. I think ME1 is the worst in the series, but the series in general has never meant nearly as much to me as it does to a lot of other players.

ME2 also has the consensus best DLC: The Lair of the Shadow Broker. I've never played it myself, so I couldn't say whether or not I agree.
 
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