"Good Old Games"

Spect · 2011-04-27T16:19:22.000Z

Wait, so UQM is a free remake that is not considered wrong to acquire? Where would one go to obtain it?

DocLazy · 2011-04-27T16:30:40.000Z

I’d highly recommend Spellforce 1 for anyone who is interested in base building. It’s a slightly slower RTS than normal with the ability to kick some ass with your character. Spellforce 2 is kind of the opposite. I could never really get into it.

peterb · 2011-04-27T16:38:19.000Z

Spect:

Wait, so UQM is a free remake that is not considered wrong to acquire? Where would one go to obtain it?

Free remake, you are not violating anyone’s copyright in obtaining it. The content was released by the creators, Toys for Bob, under a Creative Commons license.

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Damien_Neil · 2011-04-27T16:39:02.000Z

Spect:

Wait, so UQM is a free remake that is not considered wrong to acquire? Where would one go to obtain it?

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Disconnected · 2011-04-27T18:34:23.000Z

WarrenD:

Dragonshard looks interesting, but almost all RTS’s look great to me then I buy them and I’m terrible at playing them, I end up wishing they were TBS’s instead.

But I have enjoyed RTS/RPG hybrids before, the two Spellforce games have been a favorite of mine…just the right amount of RTS for me to handle in those.

I’d be interested if anybody here has played either of the Spellforce games and Dragonshard to compare them.

I have played all three, including expansions. DragonShard is a micro-oriented RTS with predefined base building sites. Sure, troops and heroes level, but the hero levelling is pretty much a 1:1 copy of WarCraft3 and the troop levelling is basically a cosmetic variant of the “build engineering bay and research the +1 range upgrade” thing that virtually every other fast paced RTS also employs in some form. The campaign plays almost exactly like WarCraft3’s, and almost entirely unlike any of the SpellForce campaigns.

DragonShard is a pretty & highly polished blend of Battle for Middle-Earth and WarCraft3. Which makes it almost as different from the SpellForce games a high-fantasy RTS can be. Comparing DragonShard & SpellForce is very much like comparing FreeSpace & X3:Terran Conflict.

Which isn’t to say any of those games are bad. But if you don’t like WarCraft3 I really doubt you’ll like DragonShard.

Talorc · 2011-04-27T19:12:51.000Z

On Dragonshard, I got it around the time of release and really didnt find it much fun. I am a 100% singple player only, just here for the campaign thanks RTS player as well.

I seem to recall it being rather generic and boring and really really hard/time consuming to actually unlock anything exciting for the heroes - to the extent I edited my save game at one point just to actually unlock somethign decent.

Although looking back, the RTS/RPG thing obvisouly went on to inspire/influence some better* games like DoW II.

better may actually just mean “attach a far more bloody and interesting licence than Eberon D&D”

WarrenD · 2011-04-27T19:29:09.000Z

Thanks for that Disconnected, I think I’ll pass on Dragonshard, buy Painkiller Black Edition instead.

thrasymedes · 2011-04-27T19:56:56.000Z

I bought Desperados, loving the game, but frequent crashbugs (not even CTD - they’re taking down the computer so I have to restart it) basically make it unplayable. Unless they fix it, I recommend strongly against buying it.

edit: If you play with all the sound things down at zero, it seems to not crash. But this not only flattens the atmosphere, it makes the game considerably more difficult. Still, beats all the constant crashing. :(

Spect · 2011-04-27T22:30:56.000Z

peterb:

Free remake, you are not violating anyone’s copyright in obtaining it. The content was released by the creators, Toys for Bob, under a Creative Commons license.

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Thanks. I got it, loaded it up, had no clue what was going on. Then after zooming around blindly for a bit, I got sucked into a black hole and destroyed by some pulsing probe thing. I guess this is one of those games where you really need to RTFM.

thrasymedes · 2011-04-27T22:56:05.000Z

Spect:

Thanks. I got it, loaded it up, had no clue what was going on. Then after zooming around blindly for a bit, I got sucked into a black hole and destroyed by some pulsing probe thing. I guess this is one of those games where you really need to RTFM.

Fly towards Earth. It won’t answer all your questions but it’s certainly going to give you more of a start than heading out into space will.

Warning · 2011-04-28T04:33:54.000Z

Spect:

Thanks. I got it, loaded it up, had no clue what was going on. Then after zooming around blindly for a bit, I got sucked into a black hole and destroyed by some pulsing probe thing. I guess this is one of those games where you really need to RTFM.

Star with this: http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/First_Things_To_Do

Tyjenks · 2011-04-28T07:53:54.000Z

I don’t recall, but how does Dragonshard compare to say Warlords Battlecry II (not III, ugh.).

Universal_Leader · 2011-04-28T10:48:50.000Z

Dragonshard isn’t as good as WBC II, but it has a charm of it’s own.

The base building is less involved than in most other RTSs. It’s kind of like Kohan II, where you can only build in certain locations. There is also a whole party-based RPG side to it, as most maps have underground dungeons for your hero units to explore while your aboveground armies fight. The RPG aspects (stats, levelling and loot) are not as involved as WBC II either, but more along the lines of Warcraft III.

It’s not a bad game at all, just one that was overshadowed by other games that do more or less the same thing but slightly better. If you like the D&D Eberron setting you might find it interesting.

Nesrie · 2011-04-28T18:44:10.000Z

Tyjenks:

I don’t recall, but how does Dragonshard compare to say Warlords Battlecry II (not III, ugh.).

Dragonshard had some pretty gnarly end game performance issues. I kind of remember it having some hectic passing at times too.

Dan_Theman · 2011-05-01T16:13:56.000Z

So, I’m planning on picking up the JoWood games that seem interesting during the current sale and downloading them in case they went offline. I played a couple waaaay back in the day, but a few are fuzzy or have simply slipped through my fingers. Does anyone have recent (not rose-colored glasses) experience with any of the following:

[ul]
[li]Alien Nations
[/li][li]Aquanox
[/li][li]Aquanox 2
[/li][li]Nations Gold
[/li][li]Neighbors From Hell
[/li][li]Panzer Elite Special Ed.
[/li][/ul]

If you could weigh in on whether they might be good pick-ups, please do.

Disconnected · 2011-05-01T17:05:10.000Z

I know I didn’t experience any performance issues with DragonShard. I think I played it on a 3GHz P4 with a FXsomething card and maybe 1GB, but I could be wrong about that. How it compares to Warlords#, I couldn’t really say. Only memory I have of any of those games is trying a friends copy of one of them, dying horribly almost instantly, and never trying it again.

I haven’t played Alien Nations 1 or either Aquanox since they came out, but…

Alien Nations 1 isn’t a very good RTS. Its only strong point was its looks. It’s a bit fiddly and does nothing you haven’t seen a million times before. I’m sure you can find a better RTS at the same price. The second Alien Nations isn’t bad, however, but it also isn’t really a RTS game. It’s more a cute & abstract build-a-society game.

The Aquanox games are space sims, set in a high-tech, post-apocalyptic future where the deep sea is the place to be. It’s subs instead of space fighters and movement speeds are slower, but they’re basically dog fighting games like your average space sim. They’re a bit more heavy in the story/fluff department than most space sims, and kind of in-between the free-roaming & on-rails divide that separate most space sims. You might say they’re more open, handle worse and have less cool missions than FreeSpace, but are more confined, handle better & have cooler missions than Darkstar One.

Unfortunately I have never heard of the last two games you’re asking about. Sorry.

Dan_Theman · 2011-05-01T17:28:20.000Z

Thanks, that’s good stuff!

Nesrie · 2011-05-01T20:22:50.000Z

Disconnected:

I know I didn’t experience any performance issues with DragonShard. I think I played it on a 3GHz P4 with a FXsomething card and maybe 1GB, but I could be wrong about that. How it compares to Warlords#, I couldn’t really say. Only memory I have of any of those games is trying a friends copy of one of them, dying horribly almost instantly, and never trying it again.

Well I also played it exclusively multiplayer. That might have been part of the issue which doesn’t necessarily excuse it but might explain why we had such a problem and you didn’t.

Ezdaar · 2011-05-02T01:59:25.000Z

I picked up Panzer Elite SE during this recent sale. I had played it a bit back in the day and liked it a lot and I think it holds up quite well. There has been a ton of work done by modders. They fixed some of the big issues from the original release (such as shells not having any time of flight) and added a bunch of new maps, vehicles and campaigns. There is a sticky thread on the GOG forum with links to the mods and instructions.

Fugitive · 2011-05-03T08:01:13.000Z

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is today’s release. Huh, I’d thought this was an Xbox-only game for some reason.