Quoting: Mountain ManExcept every DLC release also comes with a free patch that fixes bugs, and in many cases adds new features and content, so even if you never buy a single bit of DLC, you would still benefit from the continued support. And since the DLC is released a la carte, you can pick and choose only the ones that appeal to you, if any.

Of course there is a lot of "fear of missing out" from some folks who have convinced themselves they are getting a lesser experience even if they have no interest in a particular release, and they seem to be the ones who complain the loudest.

Paradox actually benefits from updating the base game too. Problem is that they should maintain all the DLC and more they diverge from the base game, harder it is to fix the broken DLC before releasing the updates. Even with that I assume that there's plenty of bugs and balance problems to fix.

As for the à la carte, problem is that for a newcomer that's quite confusing. As amount of DLC increase, potential buyer has harder and harder time figuring out what is actually essential. If I remember correctly, first fix was to release DLC bundles. At least Stellaris has a starter bundle (which bit more than doubles your cost of getting the game). Next thing has been the DLC subscription, in which case you get all the DLC as long as you pay the recurring fee. Apparently there's also a season pass ongoing.

If you have some experience with the base game, the subscription might not be that bad deal. Assuming you're done with the game in few months and never return to the game. Two months worth of subscription costs about the same than the DLC:s that have bit more substantial content. If you ever get back to the game later, you have to pay for the subscription again or buy the DLC that you liked. Might have to wait quite a while for the complete edition though.

Alternatively wait for a new game to release. No DLC, so you get the full experience for a bargain price. DLC will come, but if you are already busy with some other game, you might feel less temptation to even go back.

Even safer is not to buy Paradox games. Problem is though that Paradox actually makes (and publishes) pretty good games. Which explains why some people might complain about the funding model so loudly. Even worse, there are plenty of publishers that do just fine with even no DLC, so people can clearly see that there are alternatives.

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Kirtai

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: Gamall

Quoting: GuestDon't mean to be rude, but only Decent3? What about 2 and 1!?! I can't play them out of order!!!

They already have fantastic open-source ports.

https://www.descent2.de/
https://www.dxx-rebirth.com/

I think those are game engine remasters, while this one is the actual game. I could be mistaken though.

There's also Chocolate Descent at https://github.com/InsanityBringer/ChocolateDescent

I was very disappointed when I followed that link and there was a suspicious lack of anything about chocolate.

So it went downhill fast.

PS: bit more seriously though, probably the name comes from Chocolate Doom and even has same purpose.

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Quoting: BlackBloodRumI might have to find a less mainstream OS, this is becoming uncomfortable.

There's plenty of obscure ones to try out, HaikuOS has even some recent activity. Didn't check what software actually runs on it.

BSD:s might be boring as there's plenty of software already patched to run on it. Might be too similar to Linux though, so it's better to stick with the obscure ones.

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Quoting: toorThe status of VR on Linux is REALLY sad. Especially considering Valve Index is supposed to be "officially supported".

I'm using Kisa Mesa, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, with an AMDGPU 6750 XT and I tried different combinations:
- Native / Proton
- Latest stable SteamVR / v1.14
- With/Without async reprojection

And none works the way it should.

Native -> No VR at all, not even implemented
Proton & latest SteamVR -> launched in VR, but no possible async reprojection, and it's so stuttering that it makes you sick
Proton & v1.14 -> no stuttering, but doesn't launch properly in VR, and you have the old interface

I'll just continue to use VR on Windows… this is just ridiculous

I can imagine it's even more infuriating when you compare it to Windows. I don't as I don't dualboot and all my Windows machines are for work. To me it seems that it's in state where you can say it works, but quite lot of niceties are missing. There are some hacks that add some unimplemented stuff, like turning off the beacons automatically.

Quoting: EhvisSteamVR defaults to OpenXR now instead of OpenVR like it used to. And you won't find any VR dependencies in the Linux version since they're only in the Windows one.

For me enabling the setting that uses SteamVR as OpenXR implementation (or I think that what the setting was called) fixed Beat Saber. I had to install SteamVR beta to see the setting, though it might be also in stable as I'm affected by bug that causes instability that breaks the settings screen.

I don't know if the setting is now changed for fresh installs. Would make sense if OpenXR requirement is more widespread. I haven't had a reason to dig down deeper if I have more of those games.

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Quoting: toorI wasn't able to run the VR mode from Linux

Do you have OpenXR enabled?

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Quoting: CatKillerLegislators getting involved in what you can and can't include in your game, and how a company runs their online infrastructure years after the fact is going to get quite messy, with companies still pushing boundaries and finding edge cases.

Full automatic refunds for every copy when a company kills the game is much simpler, and removes most of the financial incentive for that undesirable behaviour (you've still given them an interest-free loan, after all).

That sure will make any kind of games where players can't host their servers financially unsustainable. Not necessarily bad thing, though will cause major changes in the market.

I'm not sure if that kind of change is easy to push through.

Just knowing when the support ends might help like with phones. If you know that you get two years of support, you know not to buy phones that area close to end of their support period unless you know you can replace the stock OS with something with longer support.

With games things can be bit fuzzy, but at least some kind of minimum support period would be good. Especially with multiplayer and games with mandatory online component. With single player games if DRM allows, there are more workarounds.

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At least demo worked with Proton. Probably for me what helped is that I enabled OpenXR with Steam VR beta.

VR implementation is not as immersive as Alyx. Objects are picked up with a button, which handy as you don't have to crouch as much and you can pickup up multiple objects quickly. It just takes bit time to get used to. Index could do better as with the finger tracking, grabbing things is quite natural.

Full room VR experience is almost practical, my play area is about half of the games room size. So have to utilize buttons now and then to move. There's vignette when that happens, which might help with motion sickness.

I can imagine though that VR could be fun with multiplayer as you can do quite lot of gestures naturally (cartwheel might be one of the exceptions). You can also make quite a mess, though you can also clean up by moving things into trash.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyAmong those, I've just been playing Terraformers. It's pretty decent. The learning curve isn't bad, and it does have a fair dose of that "just one more turn" feel. I'm not sure how much mastery it really takes, though. After only a few playthroughs I'm feeling like I pretty much get it.

I do find one thing rather gratifying--so, like, there's this mechanic of how happy the colonizers are with things. And the game does "rising expectations" where over time, the amount of "support" you need to have increases, fairly steeply. And depending, all the little bonuses you can create, entertainment centre kind of things and tourist attractions and so forth, probably aren't going to be enough. But when you do various things that make Mars a bit more terraformed, it makes the whole population happier, giving you a massive ongoing bonus. So if you're doing a decent job at that stuff, you'll be getting the bad news that "rising expectations" are going to put you in deep, but then you bump up the heat level and the atmosphere level, plant a forest, and the penalty gets totally wiped out and you're golden again.

I have had the game even before the bundle and for me it it hold up for total 6 hours, which was time it took for one playthrough. Playing the prelude might have made the game feel bit less fresh.

Game feels bit like simplified version of Terraforming Mars, though having the board game feel and being about terraforming Mars might have something to do with it.

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Quoting: pete910

Quoting: Anza

Quoting: pete910More crap we don't need,


Instead of spending god knows how much on dlss/fsr spend it on better hardware

Problem is that the better hardware doesn't always exist.

Technology doesn't always advance in sync. Monitors first get higher resolution or refresh rate and then GPU:s need to catch up. Also GPU features like raytracing rise demands for the GPU. Dropping resolution gets the framerate back to acceptable level, but FRS and DLSS offer a good compromise.

Not really anything to do with monitors.
What I am meaning is either better hardware per tier or find ways of making the hardware more affordable at a given tier rather than £1000 odd for a 80 class card which is just **** ridiculous.
I have the money for a 4090 but be damned if I'm feeding the greed of these companies!

Upscaling should help in both scenarios. Though if money is the issue, previous gen cards might offer close enough performance. Every update doesn't always have things that are absolutely essential. New and shiny things take time to be implemented into games. Downside is that hardware becomes obsolete faster.

Also one saving opportunity is to avoid playing the latest AAA titles. Indie games and older AAA titles are less demanding on hardware. Easier said than done though, I still updated to beefier machine, though still I spend most of my time in indie games.

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Did quick testing and first Command & Conquer doesn't work. It didn't work with previous experimental either and game is unstable with most of the previous Proton versions. Same was with Red Alert which I didn't retest. However, remasters are the same games, but better, so these ones don't matter that much.

Tiberian Sun stars, though starting campaign causes screen to go black. I think it should show a menu, at least I managed to click something that sounded like a button.

Red Alert 2 worked nicely. Played the tutorial without issues.

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