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Latest Comments by Philadelphus
A new Civilization VI video shows off England, they aren't talking about the Linux release for now
29 June 2016 at 5:58 pm UTC

Quoting: Mountain ManXCOM 2 was a Day 1 release. Why wouldn't Firaxis do the same with Civ VI? I suppose it doesn't really matter to me because I see no reason at all to prefer Civ VI over Civ V with its expansions, and I really don't like VI's cartoon aesthetic. Besides, the Civilization series just feels a bit shallow after getting hooked on Paradox's ridiculously deep and complex grand strategy games.
I feel pretty similar, although the art style doesn't particularly bother me. While this looks like a quite decent game I already have Civ V and all its expansions, and don't really feel the need for a new version yet (though I like that VI is keeping the archaeology, that was a fun addition in V). Discovering Paradox's grand strategy games two years ago hasn't helped me either. Though having been a fan of the Civ series since Civ III, I might pick it up after release when it goes on sale, or when a major expansion comes out.

Go on a fishing adventure in Marinatide, on Steam Greenlight and coming to Linux
28 June 2016 at 7:14 pm UTC

Cute-looking game, I voted for it on Greenlight. :)

Europa Universalis IV celebrates Midsummer and a million copies sold with a free music DLC
23 June 2016 at 8:07 pm UTC

I don't know Swedish so I can't understand the lyrics, but they're great-sounding songs all the same. They kind of remind me of some of Beethoven's Lieder. They should be a welcome departure from the normal EU IV music.

XCOM 2 - Alien Hunters thoughts, prepare to get frustrated
23 June 2016 at 1:09 am UTC Likes: 1

So, I have the DLC since I got the season pass and have started a game with it but haven't done the cave story mission yet so I haven't seen the rulers yet. I seem to recall there was an option when starting the game to have the cave mission or not, maybe if you don't enable it they can show up randomly? They're not supposed to until after you do it, since it introduces you to them (plus voice logs from Dr. Vahlen). I guess the option is there so you don't need to do the whole mission on subsequent playthroughs, but then maybe the rulers just show up randomly.

Jake Solomon talked about the rationale for making the rulers attack after every action in one of the streams Firaxis did around the time it was released. I think the gist of it was that if you just have a unit with a whole ton of HP, players will set it up so it discovers them on the enemy turn, then take all of their actions on it and take it down in one turn (like people tend to do with Sectopods; they're dangerous if they get a turn off, but set up the encounter right and it's possible to take one down in one turn and have actions left over). Hence the idea was to break out of the usual mold for experienced players, by not letting them simply cheese every fight in the same way.

And hey, if you don't like it, that's fine. I may not enjoy it myself when I get to it, I still need to see. Just wanted to explain the rationale behind it (that it's a way to give experienced players a new type of challenge where their usual strategies don't work as well).

A third of Valve now working on VR, still no Linux support
21 June 2016 at 8:09 pm UTC Likes: 1

I suppose those of us who don't care about virtual reality can look on the bright side: 2/3 of Valve is still working on things that aren't VR! :P

An interview with Paradox Development Studios about supporting Linux
19 June 2016 at 10:45 pm UTC

I've got over 600 hours in EU IV, and I think the only Linux-specific bug out of the handful I've reported was the graphics issue with coastlines looking bad half-a-dozen major versions ago. I only got interested in PDS games with EU IV, right before the point I seriously decided to switch from Windows to Linux, so while my purchase might have counted as a Windows sale I've played >99% of my time on Linux.

Resolution added to the user stats page, please update your profiles
19 June 2016 at 6:16 am UTC

Heh, does resolution get multiplied by the number of monitors you have? 'cause I've got two…though, I guess it would be difficult to account for people with multiple monitors with different resolutions.

(Tongue in cheek, in case it wasn't clear. :)

What are you playing this weekend?
18 June 2016 at 7:36 pm UTC

I may work a bit more on my XCOM 2 run too, then probably some Team Fortresss 2, FTL, then who knows…maybe give Parkitect another spin, or something by Paradox…

The Dwarves trailer has me cautiously excited for this fantasy role-playing game
18 June 2016 at 7:28 pm UTC

Huh. Hadn't heard of this before, but it looks kinda interesting.

A new benchmark video shows Dota 2 with Vulkan performing better on Windows than Linux
15 June 2016 at 7:16 pm UTC

While yes, it's sad that Linux isn't besting Windows with Vulkan in the test, I think a more interesting comparison would be to see whether Vulkan is faster than DX12 on Windows. Because if it is there's hope we'll see more games using Vulkan instead of DX12, which means more games that can be more easily ported to Linux (or developed for it concurrently).

Sure, there will always be the ultra-hardcore gamers who prefer the absolute best performance, and we may not be able to get them to to switch over; but there are also all the not-so-hardcore gamers for whom availability of titles is a bigger issue, and if we can simply get more games on Linux—like, if Linux has 75% parity with Window—I suspect that would give a bigger boost to Linux than trying to woo the hardcore minority. Just my ¢2.