I'm sorry for the delays on posting new events.

We are still waiting on a patch.

The bright side is that at some point the patching will stop and we'll have no more of these dry spells.


- Sirian

Nudist and PvEers rejoice!

Quote:Skill Training Updates:

• All skill trainers can now sell you any non-elite skill that you have previously unlocked on your account.
  

As I was staring at the main page of the RB forums, I noticed KingOfPain was logged in, and this for some reason triggered a certain memory.

I recall one moment, which was probably around a half dozen years ago, where I joined a variant game with a couple of varianters playing, one being KingOfPain. I believe he was playing his rage-variant character. I just remember hovering my cursor over some impressive items on the ground as I made my way about town.

If any of you would humor me (and the others that may read this thread), please post some of your Diablo memories that come to mind. Any Diablo memories, short or long, joyful or not. As long as they are Diablo-related, I would be glad to read them.

Cheers.

Hi,

I've finally completed the next game of my "Kids, don't try this at home!" series of Civ 4 games. This time, it was a no science game where I was not allowed to discover techs on my own, not via research, specialists, great people, or the oracle - with the small exception of the initial worker techs. Who fears the WFYABTA limit again?

You can find it here if you're interested.

-Kylearan

If you want to talk about Realms Beyond the current game genres, I think this is it. Civ 4 and more, this looks like a time sink to end all time sinks.

Release date late 2006, or so they say.

Of course, the EA tie in may put some people off.

Occhi

The full list of changes in the March 2 update are here.

By now I'm sure most of us have had a chance to have a play around with some of the skill changes and changed builds etc. Going through the list I didn't see too much that would effect the character builds that I usually drag out, but there were a few scattered around in there.

Quote:Updated Adrenaline behavior so that death removes all Adrenaline.

Quote:You are no longer considered "attacking," "using a skill," or "casting a spell" while you are running to get in range of a target.

Quote:Reduced the Lieutenant's Helm Hex duration bonus to 20%, and added it to the PvP character creation screen.

Quote:Energy Drain: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
Energy Tap: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds

Quote:Conjure Frost: no longer removes Enchantments.

Quote:Mist Form: decreased cast time to 1 second.

Quote:Resurrect: reduced cast time to 6 seconds; increased recharge time to 5 seconds.

Quote:Peace and Harmony: skill reworked. Now ends if ally casts a Spell on target foe or deals damage to a foe; reduced recharge time to 30 seconds.

Quote:Live Vicariously: increased amount healed per swing to 2..17.

Quote:Dwarven Battle Stance: now also increases attack speed by 10%.

Quote:Fixed miscellaneous bugs with the wurm monster AI.

This is a picture from a recent single player game.



As you can see my city is not in range of the circled tile - yet this tile is being worked. It is within my own cultural boarders, and I have no other cities near it. I checked on the city screen, and as I expected it was outside the working squares for my city, and not being worked by me.

Obviously Toggy shouldn't have been able to work this tile as its not in his boarders, but it looks like he IS working it. Also notice the water tile above it - this should also not be worked but is. I forgot to ring this tile in red, but its easy enough to see.

Just thought I'd post this here - has anybody else encountered it at all?

Tom

My greatest fear for GalCiv2 was the "Dread Lords". Nothing would ruin the game more certainly than to copy the Master of Orion II "Antarians" gameplay concept.

Apparently, the Dread Lords are only part of the Campaign, where their story line may indeed be a fun one. (I have only been playing single games so far.)

The fact that Brad had the design restraint and good judgement to leave them OUT of the basic game is BY ITSELF worthy of your financial support. (If we want more and better games of this type, then we have to support franchises that are moving forward, even if some elements are not ideal. The same is true of Civ, where I won't hesitate to say that many things could still be improved. Games can only make so much progress in one iterative cycle.)


I am having a good time playing GC2. The "roach race" to spread out to every planet in the game's opening is not much varied in the strategy department. Civ4 and MOO1 are the only games that managed to preserve some of the territorial expansion for much later in the game. Civ4 does it by limiting your empire size in the early going, and MOO1 does it via "hostile environments" planets which require tech advancements to settle.

Beyond the Roach Race™ lies a good strategy game, though. The thing that drove me away from GalCiv1... Well, if you don't already know what that was, then you're better off NOT knowing. Think of it as spoiler info (and don't go looking for it, and if you do know, don't show off by talking about it here, where it may spoil things for others.) THAT issue seems to have been improved in this iteration. How much improved will take some time to tell.

Finding out that there is no more waste with Starship Construction does help a lot. Also, the admittedly flawed overflow with research is much better than pure waste. There have been times when I've been able to reduce micro as a result of knowing where the overflow beakers will be going.

Civ3 was more of a mess on first release than is this game, and we at RB got a lot out of it, thanks in large part to Soren's effective patching process, which drew heavily on fan feedback. Soren is "only" an elite designer and programmer, though. Brad is CEO of his own company, which is a good thing to be as a designer, because you can do things like say, "Hey, we're going to keep patching and updating this game for a lonnnnng time."


OK, enough bloviating for now. I have to get back to my current game, where the Roach Race™ has recently concluded and things are starting to get really interesting.


- Sirian

I have launched the RB Metaverse Empire. I've set it to Invite, so you will need to jump through a hoop or two to get hooked up, but this is necessary to control our roster.

If you have the game, you can start playing Metaverse games within the game, then submit those to your record on the Metaverse. You have to Create a Character on the GC2 site first, though. ... It's not that complex, but you will need to have a Stardock account and input your serial number as part of the process. ... It's less scary than it sounds.

All submitted results will add to our Empire total.

We were the biggest bang-for-buck empire (most points per player) at one point in early 2003, and we cracked the top five, around the time I stopped playing GC1. If you're playing, you might as well submit your results and add to our collective glory. It may be the route by which future valued members will make their way in to our ranks, via contact with us in the Metaverse.


- Sirian