Incline Post-decline gems. Non-action games edition.

[Atlet]

Not into action crap nor weebo pedo retardation. Let's start a thread about the essential titles we should look for, and here goes some examples of interesting games:

Battle Brothers
NEO Scavenger
Jagged Alliance 3
Xenonauts
Invisible Inc
Blackguards
Dungeon of Naheulbeuk
Gloomhaven
Solasta
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
EU 4
Rimworld
Tainted Grail: Conquest
Fear & Hunger 2

Troubleshooter

 

[Falksi]

To add to those above...
- Avernum: Escape From The Pit
- Geneforge Mutagen
- Bard's Tale 4 DC
- Hard West
- Shadowrun Returns & Dragonfall
- Underrail

 

[Bester]

 

[Atlet]

To add to those above...
- Avernum: Escape From The Pit
- Geneforge Mutagen
- Bard's Tale 4 DC
- Hard West
- Shadowrun Returns & Dragonfall
- Underrail

What's up about the BT 4 recommendation? What did you like about it? Is the combat hard and tactical? I enjoy puzzles in blobbers, but didn't this one have a fuck ton of retarded shit?

And yes, all the rpg classics should be mentioned, ofc, like Underrail, AoD, Dungeon Rats, Shadowrun Dragonfall, and the lesser played but still fun like MM X, Lords of Xulima and so on.

 

[Abu Antar]

Nox Archaist
Realms of Antiquity
ELEX
Ho Tu Lo Shu ： The Books of Dragon
Drakensang: The River of Time

 

[Falksi]

To add to those above...
- Avernum: Escape From The Pit
- Geneforge Mutagen
- Bard's Tale 4 DC
- Hard West
- Shadowrun Returns & Dragonfall
- Underrail

What's up about the BT 4 recommendation? What did you like about it? Is the combat hard and tactical? I enjoy puzzles in blobbers, but didn't this one have a fuck ton of retarded shit?

And yes, all the rpg classics should be mentioned, ofc, like Underrail, AoD, Dungeon Rats, Shadowrun Dragonfall, and the lesser played but still fun like MM X, Lords of Xulima and so on.

Combat certainly isn't hard, but it is very interesting and rather unique for a 2018 game. I really enjoy it. Both with the combat and game in general, there's a lot of small unique touches which help capture that feel of proper adventuring (e.g. levitation only works if you both learn the skill and equip a specific item, thus meaning you have to think a bit to get your builds right. Although you can respec, which weakens that element somewhat).

It's certainly flawed and there is some dumb stuff in there, but as an overall adventure it's just brilliant and really hit the spot with me. It gave me that sense of epic discovery, which I love in gaming. It's got some good humour, some superbly visual design, the puzzles are great and it's blended very nicely too. Definitely a bit too long, definitely lacking in a few old-school blobber traditions, but for me it did a similar thing which Dragon Age: Origins did, and that's somewhat successfully transition an old school formula into the modern era.

 

[Ash]

XCOM2 is by far my favorite modern turn-based game.

Ironman + WOTC + the correct mods to deepen and refine gameplay even further = turn-based greatness.

 

[Eisen]

Grimrock 1 and Vaporum

No, real-time isn't action.

 

[Ash]

Weird, there was a post asking what XCOM2 mods I recommend, but it has disappeared?

I have 41 mods installed, all mostly small things but help make the game meet its true potential.
Here's some samples. Generally they fall under four categories :

Gameplay depth:

NOTE: some of these make the slightly game easier by granting you more RPG build customization depth, but since I was playing on IRONMAN from the get go and eventually beat the highest difficulty by the time I had these installed, and the game is fucking hard and has the tendency to fuck you over with RNG, I had no issue with that.

More starting resistance order cards: gives you more resistance card choices (perks) to select 1 from. Vanilla would display 2 at random to pick one from, this displays 4.
WOTC mod everything reloaded: allows you to attach weapon upgrades to secondary weapons (pistols and such).
More base utitlity slots: adds an extra utility slot granting you more choices in how to customize your squad. Still has a downside to it in that if a dude is killed and you can't recover his body, you lose 3 utility items instead of 2. If an entire squad of 6 gets wiped out, you lose 18 utility items instead of 12. Know when to cut your losses and emergency evac!
Plot-gated chosen missions: I forget why this is important. But I remember that it is very much so.

Quality of Life:

EvacAll mod: On evac missions, there is a new option added to evac all soldiers in the evac zone so you don't have to do it one by one for no reason.
Still Stop Wasting My Time: speeds up battle animations and geoscape scanning and such. Simply increases the gameplay speed slightly. Doesn't effect actual gameplay just saves you time.
Missclick protection: when choosing soldier actions, prevents you wasting your turn or moving to a undesirable tile (which can ruin an entire run on ironman) if you missclick by adding a double click for movement tile selection.
Cover Damage reduction: if you're in high cover, you suffer -1 damage. If you're in low cover, there is a 33% chance to suffer -1 damage. Small, but helps on Commander difficulty + Ironman, namely things like preventing low level guys from getting one-shotted when they're in cover, have the best possible armor equipped, and hunkering down which is just BS.

User Interface:

Show health Values: numerical display of health instead of having to count pips.
Show buff details: shows for how many turns an active buff will last.
[WOTC] Better Armory Item Stats: Adds hidden weapon information - display of Critical Damage, Armor Pierce and Shred to all appropriate weapons.
[WOTC] Extended Personnel Info: more relevant information about your squad is displayed.
[WOTC] Force Level Display: Shows the current Force Level (alien progression) in the resource bar when in Geoscape.

Bugfixing:

Less overwatch lockups: reduces the game sometimes locking up during overwatch actions.
Better Grappling: Have you ever had that annoyance of grappling points highlighting but not being able to select them with the mouse?

 

[v01]