Community MetaSteam | October 2021 - Guardians of Ashes: Maiden of Empires

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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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Been planning my school subjects all day to give myself more spare time the upcoming week. Feels great.

Also I really wanna finish up Dread this week so I can go back to PC gaming again.
 
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Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
4,918
13,648
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I finally finished Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, and I'm holding myself from starting a new game. I'm not going to say the game was perfect, far from it, some places performance wise were pretty bad, I was hit by some bugs though nothing major.

Now I'm in the mood to play another CRPG, maybe the first Pillars of Eternity :thinking-face:


This week :lampblob:

Nice to see Inscryption doing well.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,303
10,693
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Downunder.
I bought a new controller recently, too.



I actually set out to buy a spare Steam Controller in case my original goes kaputt. Even though it's built like a tank, I used it every day and it must be 5 years old and counting by now.

Sadly, the second-hand prices on Ebay is rip-off territory. It used to be $50 like new. Now it's $50 without the dongle and usb cable lmao. I wasn't even able to buy the liquidated stock during its sale a few years back because Valve insisted on EBGames as their distribution partner.
 

ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,640
5,024
113
Picked up the Monster Train DLC since it received a small discount. It changes the game so much and in some ways it feels easier. I really like the new clan, probably my second favorite.

I never got far, only covenant 10. Game was way too addicting, which is why I shelved it for awhile.

I actually set out to buy a spare Steam Controller in case my original goes kaputt. Even though it's built like a tank, I used it every day and it must be 5 years old and counting by now.
I regret not picking up a Steam controller, especially when they were liquidated. It probably would have been more a supplemental controller rather than my main, which is why I hesitated at the time. I still hope Valve iterates and makes a new one to go along with the Deck (for optional control while it is docked) or for folks to use on its own.
 

moemoneyb1

MetaMember
Mar 29, 2021
365
1,313
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I started my first job out of college recently. So far I have been going through training and I am at home for that. Eventually I am going to be placed at a client and I may or may not be able to continue wfh but I'll find out eventually.

Good stuff coming
 
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xinek

日本語が苦手
Apr 17, 2019
779
1,438
93
Progress in that part of the game is one part learning ways to break the game and one part metaprogression, mostly through the escape room mechanics. Be sure to occasionally poke around the room to see if there's anything you can solve or interact with that you couldn't before, especially the puzzles on the drawers. Not all of it is necessary to win, but some of the stuff can lead to massive boosts in your overall power.

It's also worth noting that the bosses are mostly based around gimmicks. Once you understand them, they should become pretty trivial to beat as long as you play around them. Outside of that, be sure to take your time, think ahead, and if you're going to lose, it's almost always worth it to spend items if they'll get you through. Having full candles when you enter a boss fight is huge for building momentum.
I should have said that I already
solved most of the puzzles in the room including the cuckoo clock (how random was THAT). I figured it all had something to do with progression, but the rewards haven't helped all that much.
I guess I'm just bad? :suicide-blob: I just want to be able to experience what everyone else is spoilering!
 
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Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
4,923
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France
The new views are mostly brought by the discovery queue.

There is a small peak of "direct views" at the start. It is hard to pinpoint what is the reason for what is observed. It could be that the algorithm picked the purple signal ("direct navigation") and boosted it (with the "discovery queue").

What is the reason for the purple signal? It could be due to a streamer playing the game, and then a small surge of page impressions, along with purchases and reviews, hence why there were additional reviews in the following days.



If the dev means that the game reached the threshold of "10 legit Steam reviews" in total, then I understand the situation better: Steam may not recommend games in the discovery queue if there are very few reviews, and 10 sounds like a possible hard-coded threshold. As soon as the threshold is reached, your game is part of the cool club of games featured in the discovery queue.

Good to know: get 10 people to purchase your game asap. Do not send keys to your family members and friends! Make them pay! :)
 
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dex3108

MetaMember
Dec 20, 2018
3,440
15,785
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Worked from home for month and a half, returned to the office. Between being in the same environment and my boss treating it as I am always available I decided it's not for me. Having clear cut between work and personal time and space is better in my opinion. On top of that 20-30min walks to and from work help me maintain my health.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,282
11,713
113
Here's hoping you'll land on your feet sooner than later. The pandemic is far from over and being out of a job is stressful enough without existential dread hanging over us.
Especially because I worked for the Corona/Vaccination hotline ;)
I am currently looking for the names of the 4 companies that are left and trying to apply there. It's not like there is not enough to do, just yesterday, in the evening shift, I did 142 calls in 8 hours. Corona isn't over, on the contrary, it is picking up again in Germany and I can't fathom why the health ministry would downsize so much.

The company I work for offered a market research WFH employment but I declined that because it is only 20 hours. A few days later the secretary of the company CEO called me and asked when I was available for a chat with the CEO, dunno what that is about. maybe for other projects, but normally, CEO's don't try to recruit/hold employees directly instead of HR or Supervisors.
 

Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
930
2,003
93
Excited to see some Halo Campaign footage today.

Also does anyone know of any good deals for GotG, cheapest I could see was 37.49€ at Instant Gaming?
 
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Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
2,460
8,330
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Especially because I worked for the Corona/Vaccination hotline ;)
I am currently looking for the names of the 4 companies that are left and trying to apply there. It's not like there is not enough to do, just yesterday, in the evening shift, I did 142 calls in 8 hours. Corona isn't over, on the contrary, it is picking up again in Germany and I can't fathom why the health ministry would downsize so much.

The company I work for offered a market research WFH employment but I declined that because it is only 20 hours. A few days later the secretary of the company CEO called me and asked when I was available for a chat with the CEO, dunno what that is about. maybe for other projects, but normally, CEO's don't try to recruit/hold employees directly instead of HR or Supervisors.
Good luck mate, hope it works out for you.
 

Deleted member 113

Guest
A question for those that have been following, or have been planning to buy Super Robot Wars 30:

I'm not very familiar with the series, so just to confirm, this is a "disconnected" game (story-wise), that gathers different franchises, right?
In a way, this is kind of like King of Fighters, a game that combines various SNK properties. Or, is it connected to any other games?

I didn't buy SD GUNDAM G GENERATION CROSS RAYS, a similar game, because unless it changed since then there were certain units, and worse of all in-game quests, that were pre-order/early buyer exclusive, which is insanely shitty.

I'm hoping this commemorative game is a good jumping point, since I'm under the impression that it's a stand-alone game.

thanks ;)
 
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Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
4,362
8,857
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20XX
www.seikens.com
A question for those that have been following, or have been planning to buy Super Robot Wars 30:

I'm not very familiar with the series, so just to confirm, this is a "disconnected" game (story-wise), that gathers different franchises, right?
In a way, this is kind of like King of Fighters, a game that combines various SNK properties. Or, is it connected to any other games?

I didn't buy SD GUNDAM G GENERATION CROSS RAYS, a similar game, because unless it changed since then there were certain units, and worse of all in-game quests, that were pre-order/early buyer exclusive, which is insanely shitty.

I'm hoping this commemorative game is a good jumping point, since I'm under the impression that it's a stand-alone game.

thanks ;)
I believe it's just a cross over game with no connection from any of the worlds that the characters are from.
But since I haven't played the previous games in the series I might be wrong
 
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Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
4,923
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France
I have tried the demo of The Last Campfire. It is much better than I was expecting in terms of optimization, graphics and story-telling.

The following dialogue has been screen-captured in French.



Puzzles are on the easy side. That being said, this one took me longer than I would be comfortable to admit.

 
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Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Oct 19, 2018
200
638
93
Ibis Island
This made me laugh a bit:



My OCD wants me to buy it just because, but it's really bad right?
You really should get it just to finish your collection. It's definitely not perfect but you can feel the love even if it doesn't all work out.
The SP isn't terrible as a weekend thing either (Just know to use the melee for the brainer instead "charge" move). There might actually be a small base playing, recently the PS4 version has been seeing some activity.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,870
15,903
113
What ? Reviews from games activated from a key doesn’t count on Steam ?
How to make sure I never bother, SMH.

lol how can fucking Afterburner fuck your game up Ubi?
Jeez
It uses RTSS, and RTSS has been known to interfere with (badly coded) games.
Endless Legend is another exemple. CTD on launch if Afterburner is in the background.

I recently picked up Minecraft Dungeons,

It's the type of game that pretty much anyone can play.
I need to charge my DS4 with faulty USB just to try to coop this with my mother. I’m no snob, but her current diet of free to play mahjong games is saddening me.
 

Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
4,923
13,188
113
France
In the future, voice actors could license a model of their voice. They would record enough lines so that the model is satisfactory, and get the money without working any more through the attached license. If the producer of a game wants a higher quality voice or a more personalized tone, they could hire the voice actor for this specific gig, but it would be much more costly that it is the case today. I believe there is a solution that would make everyone happy, maybe even happier than they currently are.

For instance, when it comes to translation, automated tools are good enough for many use cases, but they do not beat a human-made work by a professional translator. Google-translated card games are the worst! However, some action games can get away with a machine translation, and it is nice that customers get to play a game in their language, e.g. some Chinese games which would otherwise be barely playable for non speakers. If devs are okay with a low-quality translation, AI is fine. If they have higher ambitions for their game, or if the text matters (card abilities, story, etc.), they will go with a human-made work.

It should be roughly the same with voice actors, except that they have the exclusivity on their unique voice, contrary to translators.




A semi-glitch sent from Tomasety:




 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,396
12,484
113
Oh, Steam has a "Social Deduction" tag for those of you who like the "Werewolf" style game as they are kinda called now. Mostly they involve things i am bad at, basically conversations, memory and logical deduction and inference from conversation points but obviously they vary. I loved watching a Gnosia playthrough but i could see where i would be dreadful at the game and games like it.


They also put Among Us and Project Winter in there for example so it's not all dialog analysis VN type games.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,870
15,903
113
I basically ending up playing Call of Cthulhu and Vampire The Masquerade tabletop RPGs because there aren't enough good games with those settings and I'm craving for more :cryblob:
I'm not really into the sanity system unfortunately, it... disturbs me a little. BUT you are in for a treat in terms of sheer content for CoC.
Vampire is more of a mess with the different lines, and surely not that big in supplemental material, but still another quite rich offering.
 

Avern

MetaMember
May 14, 2020
370
1,239
93
I should have said that I already
solved most of the puzzles in the room including the cuckoo clock (how random was THAT). I figured it all had something to do with progression, but the rewards haven't helped all that much.
I guess I'm just bad? :suicide-blob: I just want to be able to experience what everyone else is spoilering!
In that case, here are some much more specific gameplay tips.

Sounds like you haven't cleared the 3rd boss yet, so I'll try to avoid spoiling anything past that.

First off, boss gimmicks.

For the prospector, the goal is to kill the pack mule during the first phase so you have a truckload of cards to use in the second. If possible, you want some empty spaces on your side of the board when the first phase ends so you can immediately start playing things.

The angler is the one that spooks me the most, since the second phase can get out of control fast. Ideally, you want a high cost, powerful card in your hand when the first phase ends. He'll slot in bait buckets across from your existing cards, so you want to sacrifice all of them to drop a huge fatty and kill him before he gets a chance to do anything. During the first phase, make sure you're drawing Squirrels on the turns where he threatens to hook things (unless he's trying to hook a near-dead creature, then it might be best to let him).

I think they trapper may be the easiest once you understand his gimmick. The goal is to suicide cards into all 4 traps, but to do so slowly (otherwise he'll often just kill you before you restock). If you've upgraded Squirrels to Bees, they can be used to set off traps, which is really helpful for preserving your stronger cards. If you set off all 4 traps, you'll have 5 pelts to trade during the second phase, and it should be smooth sailing from there.

Other tips:
Try to avoid spending items until you hit your first backpack event so you can get a free pack rat. In addition to being pretty useful, pack rats are also a rare, and for reasons you may not have seen yet, having a lot of rares in your deck will pay off later.

Once you have the squirrel head wood carving (or the insect head, if you've upgraded to bees), meeting the wood carver and looking for body carvings is a great idea. While not everything you'll find is good, certain sigils are absolutely busted when applied to squirrels/bees. Things like undying, triple blood, the sigil that grants a worker ant on play. Get a good one and you can win the run right there.

During the early fights, never accept a peace branch and always focus on getting as much overkill as you can. Getting a stash of teeth early makes visiting the trapper very rewarding, since cashing in 2-3 golden pelts will make your deck way stronger. Only ever buy golden pelts though. The hare and wolf pelts are just going to lead to a more clogged deck.

Unless you get a way to generate lots of bones easily, you typically want only a couple of bone based creatures, but you do want some. They can help generate momentum in tight spots when you don't have much to sacrifice.

Mantis God is insane. If you can increase one's attack power at a camp fire, you can steal fights left and right, since a 2-attack Mantis God will deal 6 damage on turn one. It's strong in boss fights too.

Certain rares are much stronger in the early game, like Ouroboros and Geck. If you see these near the start, take them (unless it's a choice between them and a Mantis God). Late game, you can probably pass on them.

Some fights can run long enough to make you run out of cards if your deck is too slim, so trying to keep deck size as small as possible isn't a great strategy. That means you also can't really rely on just one super-card to win, so try to make sure you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. (This is why a woodcarving that buffs squirrels/bees is so strong. It's consistent.)

This last tip I didn't even figure out during my playthrough, and it seems way busted. But if you're really stuck, maybe it could help. Apparently, if you visit a campfire and repeatedly send up a poisonous creature, like an adder, then when it gets eaten, it'll kill all the people around the campfire. Apparently this lets you use all future campfires 5x each with no risk of losing your creature. Seems nutty when applied to stuff like Mantis God.
 

Deleted member 113

Guest
New content coming soon to Curious Expedition 2:



Since launch, the game has received continuous support, with plenty of new content, and new modes, being added to the game for free.
Great stuff. (y)

It's one of the games I've enjoyed the most this year, and I find it well worth the price tag. Especially since it's highly replayable, and the addition of new content is the perfect excuse to dive back in, and play a few more games.
By the way, in case anyone is interested the game is currently on sale for a few more hours:

 
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