The_Raven on 23/8/2008 at 00:55
Quote Posted by Silkworm
However, by FAR the most difficult learning-curve I've ever seen is Star Control 2 - WOW that game is hard.
I played that a few months ago, can't say I found it that difficult. My main difficulties with Star Control 2 is that the game gives you no indication that Syra is actually known as Beta Copernicus I, and that the final confrontation was a hell of a lot harder because I didn't talk the Pkunk out of rejoining with the Yehat.
Neb on 23/8/2008 at 01:58
Quote Posted by demagogue
(
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/) Orbiter.
It's insane just to get into orbit and dock with a station, doubly insane to transfer from one station to another, off-the-scale insane to go to the moon, and don't even ask about getting to another planet ... oh god and their moons! "The pay-off is astronomical, though." (tm) Seriously, though, I've always felt this sim is in a category of its own.
When you actually do something right it feels so good to see your destination slowly appearing off in the distance and growing as you prepare to rendezvous ... because you know it's not a cheap video game trick. It's real orbital mechanics and you got yourself there.
There's a part of me that wants to go back and try Orbiter again. I never got anywhere with it.
I don't think this qualifies as a learning curve though. More like a shelf. At least with games like Dwarf Fortress you don't need to brush up on a bit of astrodynamics before starting.
catbarf on 23/8/2008 at 03:08
Quote Posted by Neb
I don't think this qualifies as a learning curve though. More like a shelf. At least with games like Dwarf Fortress you don't need to brush up on a bit of astrodynamics before starting.
(
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html)
I've been spending a lot of time on that website over the past few weeks as I write a hard sci-fi wargame, and Orbiter is appealing to me. Is it worth at least a try?
EvaUnit02 on 23/8/2008 at 03:19
Any fighting game really. Learning combos, rock, paper, scissors and all that jazz.
I've always been a button masher and actual action games are the only ones that I've actually bothered to learn combos for, eg Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.
Phatose on 23/8/2008 at 03:42
Eh, you know, that last battle of Sacrifice isn't always all that hard. It really depends on what spells you've got though - animate dead helps out tremendously, just because it takes half a second if that to reanimate a 5 sould monster, but quite a bit longer to collect and recast.
In that battle it's double helpful, cause you've got a long range prevention of getting your souls ganked in addition to a very, very hard to stop army.
You could do it with dragons too, I suppose. But you need 2 of them, and it's much, much harder to micro.
Koki on 23/8/2008 at 06:51
Sacrifice wasn't hard, it was just terribly random - sometimes you'd get your ass handled to you in five minutes, and when you restart the level AI won't do almost anything at all but run around the map aimlessly.
Last mission was just camping your Manalith with Guardian'd ranged units and AoE spells. After several attacks you-know-who will run out of souls and then you can take the map with all-titan party at your leisure(Getting more souls and more titans in the process).
demagogue on 23/8/2008 at 18:51
Quote Posted by catbarf
I've been spending a lot of time on that website over the past few weeks as I write a hard sci-fi wargame, and Orbiter is appealing to me. Is it worth at least a try?
Well, I love it. It's most definitely worth a try.
You just have to understand it's not a game, it's a sim that tries to capture what spaceflight really is like ... periapsis & insertion burns, translation vs. rotation, etc. If that's what you want, then it's easily the best of its kind. I mean the sim itself is cool, granted some parts are unpolished because it's homemade, but it's the tons and tons of third party add-on's that really push it over the top ... ships, tools/UI, textures, sounds, spacewalks, satellites, alien bases and cities, missions ... real and fantasy. And it's regularly upgraded.
Also, it's not as difficult as it looks at first. The consoles handle all the mechanics for you; you just have to learn how to read and use them. Just do the Delta-Glider training missions with a tut in front of you and once you have it down, basically every mission is a variation of that. Another reason it gets easier is because it's all very geometrical; once you get a feel for what an orbit is actually doing, you can start doing things intuitively.
But really nothing compares to the first time you get into orbit and you're coming around the dark side and the horizon turns pink, then orange, and finally the sun crests over the horizon as you're reaching the California coast. Really cool visuals.
Edit: and it's all free. come on.
reizak on 23/8/2008 at 21:35
For me personally Chaos Strikes Back would definitely vye for the title of the most insane learning curve ever, even thought one would think having previously beaten Dungeon Master would be all the training that's required. There are very few games that I've ever stopped playing because they were too difficult; usually it's just boredom. However, CSB just struck me as absurdly, sadistically hard.
suliman on 23/8/2008 at 21:39
VAGRANT
FUCKING
STORY
Yakoob on 23/8/2008 at 21:51
haha, Vagrant Story made me go "wtf?" for the first 10 hours. but once I understood how the stuff worked, the battle system was actually really fun and I adored the cutscenes (brilliant camera angles, action and atmosphere). I didn't know where to go halfway through it, though, and so never finished it :(
