irongamer

Laser brother fist bump

Going to dump my initial impression. Note my bias, I love clutter looters and this is a Bethesda clutter looter in space with a bunch of additional systems resting on top of that genre.

It’s a space clutter looter

Played 8 hours last night so this is a very early impression. I love clutter looters and didn’t expect much else from Bethesda’s Fallout/Scrolls main studio. The Bethesda crafted areas are excellent if you are looking for what I call a Fallout / Elder Scrolls clutter looter. Lots of stuff to loot, the FPS combat is much better than Fallout 4 or 76. Don’t expect a space sim like SC or NMS this is a Bethesda Fallout/Scrolls style game with a bunch of additional systems on top of it.

First person combat

I’ve played both SC and NMS. While exploring a station in Starfield I thought to myself… this is what SC should have been for their foot exploration. The derelict stations in NMS are rather static environments and never cared for them much. What surprised me about the Starfield AI is they will “flee” or “flank” by running past you at times. I’ve lost track of enemies at times because of this and have had to go hunting for them. If I had to compare a more recent rpg shooter I’d say the combat is sort of close to Remnant 2 but where Remnant 2 combat is more deliberate and paced, Starfield fire fights are more erratic and frantic. I did find myself enjoying hunting down the AI that will run off and setup elsewhere.

Ship travel

There is fast travel. If you are looking for a space flight sim this is not for you. I don’t have an issue with fast travel as I get no thrills from traveling in space 1:1. There is simulation and there is stupid… SC leans a bit too heavy into the latter. Don’t expect 1:1 space travel in Starfield, it isn’t made for that.

Ship combat

Again this is not a space flight sim. Most recently coming off Everspace 2 I do miss the strafing controls and pedal usage, but that game is star fighter like combat. Starfield does have a ship editor and seems to be more about load out than fighter style combat. Think a bit more like Expanse style combat. I don’t have much time in this area of the game so I can’t say a whole lot more about it.

Additional systems

I haven’t played enough to have an impression on the other systems but they are there: ship building, research, resource gathering, surveying, and base/output construction.

Initial impression

I love Bethesda clutter looters and this one is in space. The first few locations are fantastic in their detail, interactivity, and clutter; I going to eat up the Bethesda crafted clutter looter areas. The 1,000 worlds will likely function as a massive canvas for future mods.

It’s a space clutter looter

Played 8 hours last night so this is a very early impression. I love clutter looters and didn’t expect much else from Bethesda’s Fallout/Scrolls main studio. The Bethesda crafted areas are excellent if you are looking for what I call a Fallout / Elder Scrolls clutter looter. Lots of stuff to loot, the FPS combat is much better than Fallout 4 or 76. Don’t expect a space sim like SC or NMS this is a Bethesda Fallout/Scrolls style game with a bunch of additional systems on top of it.

First person combat

I’ve played both SC and NMS. While exploring a station in Starfield I thought to myself… this is what SC should have been for their foot exploration. The derelict stations in NMS are rather static environments and never cared for them much. What surprised me about the Starfield AI is they will “flee” or “flank” by running past you at times. I’ve lost track of enemies at times because of this and have had to go hunting for them.

Ship travel

There is fast travel. If you are looking for a space flight sim this is not for you. I don’t have an issue with fast travel as I get no thrills from traveling in space 1:1. There is simulation and there is stupid… SC leans a bit too heavy into the latter. Don’t expect 1:1 space travel in Starfield, it isn’t made for that.

Ship combat

Again this is not a space flight sim. Most recently coming off Everspace 2 I do miss the strafing controls and pedal usage, but that game is star fighter like combat. Starfield does have a ship editor and seems to be more about load out than fighter style combat. Think a bit more like Expanse style combat. I don’t have much time in this area of the game so I can’t say a whole lot more about it.

Initial impression

I love Bethesda clutter looters and this one is in space. Going to eat up the Bethesda crafted clutter looter areas. The 1,000 worlds will likely function as a massive canvas for future mods.

“And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the [CNET article] passed out of all knowledge.” - LotR Tolkien

Lab cotton could, hopefully, be efficiently grown

While there are not many details this is hopefully a great step toward more efficient cotton production. There are a number of possible reductions from this method (hard to know without full details though), that being lower usage of land, water, pesticides, herbicides, and shipping.

Longer term what I find exciting is the some of these lab grown systems may work well “closed loop” which mean they might work off planet at some capacity or another. That is a much longer term vision though and we have a long way to go before we master that aspect.

Any chance this will allow multiple subjects in a single stack? Right now it is a single query that is only refined to be more specific instead of being additive as subject group.

Example keyword strings:

• space spacex rockets = Exclusively (for the most part) Space X news.
• space rockets = Rocket news and launches for many different companies.
• space = All types of space news, mostly not related to rockets.

Yes I could make a stack for each subject… but if I were to use this as I was hoping it would allow multiple subjects in a single stack. Multiple keyword queries would merge their results into the stack; would love that. I like the UI for sorting content, really quick to save and archive.

It’s stealth all the way down.

Thief Deus ex (you can choose stealth in this game but it isn’t specifically a stealth game imo) Dishonored (superb)

Was surprised to not find these games in the main list. Thief and Deus Ex (I play it stealthy as much as possible) have been my go to stealth games. And no matter how you try to play Skyrim it always ends with stealth archer. 😅

Developers have been trying to put themselves out of their own jobs since the beginning. Automating/scripting things, creating tools, IDEs, etc.

As a developer I always thought this was sort of the point. If the mostly automated system doesn’t require less maintenance, make life easier for the user(s), or require fewer humans, I’m doing something wrong. Always feels a little bit like undermining your position, but when things do break you are also the person most likely to know the fix and fix it quickly.

Here are some rough categories and hours included.

Builder / Survival

Sounded like you were not that interested in this genre but they can be fun co-op experiences.

• Terraria (850 hours) - Two of my friends I have done two clean slate full play-throughs of this game.
• Core Keeper (77 hours) - Also played through the content of this game with same 2 friends.
• Valheim (344 hours) - Did a co-op play through with a friend on this one. Might do it again with Mistlands or with other updates.

Boss Encounters / Building

• V Rising (79 hours)

Played through V Rising with a friend, co-op pve, and it was a blast. We really enjoyed the different boss battles. We are going to revisit this one soon as they dropped / are dropping new content.

Exploration / Melee Combat / Story

• Dying Light 2 (87 hours)

Enjoyed playing Dying Light 2 with a friend, playing the game turned out to a mix of playing solo and playing co-op.

Platformer

• Trine

Fox mentioned this and I’ll add it as well. Fun co-op platformer with some fun story telling aspects.

MMO

• Guildwars 2

Fox also mentioned GW2 in the thread. There is a ridiculous amount of content in this game with no subscription required. Combat feedback/force has always felt weak imo but there is a massive world to explore and jumpy puzzles if you are into that (love them).

More story focused co-op

Also watching this thread as I’m curious what shows up. I haven’t played many games in this area on PC.

Ok, this looks slick. First thing that came to mind was the IM client, which I used for a long time. I’m looking to consolidate a bunch of information (docs, knowledge base DBs, bookmarks) in this beast.

Naturally.

“250 articles a week…” So they are just transitioning to create creating spam? Never read any of those sites but focusing on output just sounds like spam. #filtered

Paper.wf is using Write Freely. You can see Paper.wf in their instance list here: https://writefreely.org/instances

V Rising was such an amazing co-op play through. My friend and I expect to do it again soon since the new content dropped.

Core Keeper has a Terraria / Zelda: Link to the Past vibe if you are looking for something like that.

I had the exact same issue with the Microsoft Sculpt, it would disconnect much too often. There is a setting in Windows that sort of helped it but not fully. I also missed the standard cursor keys placement (home/end/pg) and the number pad as I will often punch in some numbers or even hit the enter key over there just to mix it up a bit.

The Logitech is a full width/key keyboard so cursor manipulation muscle memory is great, that was something I was still getting used to on the Sculpt. The Logitech does not disconnect as much as the Sculpt and there are no repeat key presses, it does however still disconnect at times and it is most obvious when trying to copy or paste. Overall the Logitech is the board I like best since the natural 4000.

If there was pie in the sky I’d like a full key, ergonomic split, wired, and hot swap keys so I can just fix any key that has an issue in the future. I searched high and low for that combination and haven’t found one that checks all the boxes. There are split mechanical keyboards but they are always missing a feature like: not hot swap, short the cursor keys, have shuffled the cursor keys, or dropped the number pad. There is one mechanical keyboard that comes extremely close but the keys are not hot swap.

While I do not use tenting or physically split keyboards, I have been using ergonomic split keyboards for ~16 years. Not sure if that exactly fits the category you are looking at.

The specific keyboards have been the Microsoft natural ergonomic keyboard 4000, Microsoft Sculpt, and Logitech ERGO K860. I’ve been gaming on the PC since the early 90s and have been in IT and software development for ~26 years.

I have had no issues with carpal tunnel or RSI. While I obviously cannot say it was 100% due to the split keyboard design I believe it has likely helped to keep those issues at bay. Once you are used to a split keyboard design you can feel the pitch and stress on your wrists when using a standard keyboard. I have also always used the riser that rises the wrist end of the keyboard so you fingers are sort of “falling” down toward the keys.

I used that Microsoft 4000 keyboard for years, cleaned out the membrane on it 2 or 3 times before I had to replace the entire keyboard. Then was left hunting for something to replace it; I tried a lot of keyboards. In the end I’ve settled on the Logitech K860.

Everspace 2 (om nom nom, loved it)

Was at a bit of a slow spot. Then I picked up Everspace 2 on a whim. OMG that is a fantastic game; also learned to use button style peddles for rolls. Everspace 2 combat sits at a pretty sweet spot between No Man’s Sky and Star Citizen (or ED). The combat is still arcade like but you can move your ship well in 3d space.

The Rift Breaker (surprise! it’s awesome)

Most recently I picked up The Rift Breaker and wasn’t expecting much… oops. Another fantastic game. Brings back some Total Annihilation memories and Empire Earth to some extent due to the massive build out of bases (if you want). The Rift Breaker somehow continues add in more resources in a way that doesn’t fatigue much. They also removed “it’s a running sim” issue for building your base. Can’t wait to see how multiplayer works out, whenever that happens. If multiplayer works well this will be a must play for our little game group.

Jagged Alliance 3 (like really? a real deal this time?)

Cautiously curious about Jagged Alliance 3. They brought in the director from JA 1&2 and looks like they have really tried to not screw up this installment. Could be good, I’ll likely roll the dice on that day one as I loved JA:1&2 and others in this genre.

Starfield (oh buddy!)

Finally, completely throwing caution to the wind… Starfield. This is the top game on my watch list and I cannot wait to see how it plays out. I classify Bethesda Fallout and Elder Scroll games as “clutter looters” and absolutely eat them up. Whatever Starfield may be, 1000 worlds for mods to drop content on is likely going to give it a very long life. Really looking forward to this one.

I will miss RIF o7 sniffle. Only way I’ve interacted with reddit on my phone for years.