Arcen Games

Other => Off Topic => Topic started by: crazyroosterman on May 14, 2015, 08:02:41 pm

Title: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on May 14, 2015, 08:02:41 pm
personally I got introduced to these fine gentlemen through total biscuits video on tlf which I decided to buy because it aroused my curiosity then I kinda forget about these guys in till I heard about sbr and decided to sign up.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: x4000 on May 14, 2015, 08:08:23 pm
Very cool, I'm always curious about this myself. :)
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Coppermantis on May 14, 2015, 08:22:08 pm
I searched Steam's demo category for strategy games and found AI War. Played it religiously for a while then bought the full game and eventually found the forums, though I don't remember how that ended up happening. They were working on AVWW at the time.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Zebeast46 on May 14, 2015, 08:39:54 pm
I actually got introduced to Arcen just like crazyroosterman, through TB's wtf is video on TLF, realising that it was like mount and blade (which was my favorite game) in space I bought it a month later. Then afterwards I joined the forums but did not get too involved until SBR was announced.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Oralordos on May 14, 2015, 09:49:44 pm
I got recommended over to here by the people at the Achron game forums. This was back in the AI War 4.0 days. Good introduction to the company I think.  ;D
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Pumpkin on May 15, 2015, 03:14:12 am
Browsing IndieDB's strategy filter. I think it was just a MkVI lucky day.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: TheVampire100 on May 15, 2015, 03:36:24 am
I bought Bionic Dues while it was in the weeklong sales on Steam. Because I really liked it I was looking what ither games are there from the developer. I think a month or two later I bought AI War collection when it was on sale.
Since then I bought most of Arcen Games with the exception of Tidalis and Skyward Collapse (which I will buy as well when they are on sale).
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Mánagarmr on May 15, 2015, 03:58:29 am
With the risk of sounding like an "old sod", I don't actually remember how I got here. I joined back when AI War 2.0 had just come out, and ... I don't actually remember how I got introduced to it. I don't even remember if it was on Steam back then and I just saw an ad...It's too long ago xD
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: kasnavada on May 15, 2015, 06:30:00 am
I randomly bought AI war when I had enough money to buy every space strategy game around.

:D

I arrived for 4.0 something if I remember well.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Histidine on May 15, 2015, 08:35:27 am
An acquaintance namedropped AI War and I remembered it one day while browsing the Steam store, heh. This was waaay back in 3.0.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on May 15, 2015, 08:36:41 am
Ah, you know, I dont entirely remember.

I do remember it was during the alpha/beta/gamma/something for the original Valley.... er, I think it was.  Well, that's how I remember it anyway.

That game sucked me in pretty fast, did a ton of testing and probably complaining about it, and things just escalated from there.

And now I'm here on these forums most days.  Though not over the past couple weeks or so, because of IRL derpage.  I hate this time of year, I really do....  At least over the weekend I think I can get back to testing now.  I've not been too useful yet in this one as a result.


....but exactly how I FOUND the first Valley game, uhhh.... I'm not sure.  I mighta heard about it on the indiegames.com site?  Maybe?  Ugh, I dont know.  I have enough trouble remembering what happened yesterday, let alone remembering something that happened a couple years back.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Captain Jack on May 15, 2015, 02:36:16 pm
Friend of mine recommended it to me right around when Light of the Spire came out. I played for a while, got to the point where I could theoretically start winning games, and stopped playing. Always kept a soft spot for the game, but didn't come back to Arcen games until I ran across The Last Federation on TvTropes (full disclosure: I THINK I was looking for The Last Starfighter. Lucky mistake!)
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on May 15, 2015, 02:46:52 pm

And now I'm here on these forums most days.  Though not over the past couple weeks or so, because of IRL derpage.  I hate this time of year, I really do....  At least over the weekend I think I can get back to testing now.  I've not been too useful yet in this one as a result.
I'm glad your going to be getting back into this to be honest I was kind of worried about you.(sorry if that sounds weird but its the truth)

Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Draco18s on May 15, 2015, 02:51:30 pm
A friend got me to play AI War back during major version...2? and I've been on the forums ever since.

No really, I played way back when "a planet" was so utterly huge there were problems moving ships with different speeds from your spacedock to the nearest wormhole.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Kahuna on May 15, 2015, 03:35:38 pm
I was just browsing Steam for sales if I remember correctly. I bought the Alien Bundle 6.11.2011 (dd/mm/yyyy) when it was on sale. So I was just browsing steam for strategy and indie games and I saw "A.I. War". I watched the trailer and the screenshots but those didn't really tell me what the game was really about so first I discarded it. I returned to AI War's store page a couple of times to read it's description and I liked the sound of it. I've always liked the idea of humans vs machines (not that I'd want to witness it irl) so I decided give it a try. I didn't even try the tutorials I just started playing. Soon I figured out what I was supposed to do.. kind of.. and then I fell in love with this game. Been playing this gem of a game ever since. 3 and a half years ago. I've played AI War for 2509 hours and still haven't had enough.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Cyborg on May 15, 2015, 06:49:28 pm
I started with 2.x, Zenith remnant. I liked the look of AI war from the moment I saw it, but I probably danced around it for good month before I purchased it. Probably got it on sale, since that's what I usually do. What drew me in was the trailer which advertised massive amounts of ships, and it said things like 5x and 2x in relation to speed, basically showing off that it was a technically impressive gigantic space battle. Well, no lie, the thing was indeed impressive, and it could do so much. The more I played, the more little surprises I found, and I eventually made my way over here probably with some kind of question.


After that, figured out that the developers over here were human and decent people trying to make interesting, fun games. As a community, I think we all have a lot in common, and it's the only game forum I bother hanging out in with any regularity. I own all the games here except for the last Federation Betrayal expansion. I'm still trying to master the base game. The only game I bounced off of was Valley without wind, but everything else, to me, is my kind of game. I just don't do well with platforming games. I don't find that mechanic fun. Shattered haven, which deserved a better outcome, I thought was really good, and I am intending on finishing it. I put in hours, but there are a lot of missions! If any of you haven't played that yet, it's worth your time to check out on sale. It's a smart game.


My favorites in order:
Valley without wind-> Skyward collapse-> Shattered Haven-> Last Federation->Tidalis-> AI war


Because we always get a smart game, I'm curious to see where "Stars beyond reach" appears on this list. Can it compete with last Federation? For me it would be really hard to top Tidalis(Best music and art of the series is right here) and AI war (Best gameplay).
I suppose it could seem like a criticism to play favorites, but it really isn't. I admire all these titles, and because I hang out here so much, I'm well aware of the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into making these kinds of titles. Nothing but admiration for the team, and I am going to stick around here if for no other reason than curiosity as to what could be created with this studio. Oh yeah, and the people rock here, also.

This forum post was originally written in one font, but the forum software is messing up, and I'm not motivated to fix it. So hello, Courier font.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: wwwhhattt on May 16, 2015, 11:32:45 pm
2009 was the year I got back into PC gaming via indie games, so I probably heard about AI War back when it was released (almost certainly through indiegames.com) - I remember trying a demo out at some point and deciding that some day I'd learn how to play it. Certainly by the time Valley started getting publicity I knew about AI War, and tried out (and bounced off of) the Valley demo when it arrived.

According to steam I bought the 2011 AI War bundle (but didn't get out of the tutorial), and got the rest of their games in a sale a bit later. Skyward Collapse was the first game I got near it's release and after that I've bought just about everything in its release period (some expansions had to wait).

As for the forums, I'd been looking over here once or twice a year to read about whatever games were being made (something I've never really done anywhere else, probably because of the amount of info Chris and that post here), but only signed up a year ago because my USB ports broke, rendering Bionic Dues really inaccessible.

And I finally played my first AI War campaign a few months ago.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Draco18s on May 17, 2015, 10:26:04 am
I can't tell you when I bought AI War, because I did so via... Stardock? using a coupon (they sent me a coupon for 20% off anything on their store and my friend was like, "AI War.  You won't regret it, also Startdock's the one eating the $5 because it's good for anything, so Arcen will still get their full cut").

I can tell you that Steam recorded that I achieved my Double Godlike on April 15, 2010 @ 8:48pm.  Which it also recorded as my first win.  And I know for a fact that that was Version 3.x, because the look-and-feel of the game was the same then as it is now and the first time I played it was vastly different.

Faux edit: ha, found the "thanks for your purchase" email.  10/13/09 at 6:06pm.  X or Keith might know what version was live around that time.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on May 18, 2015, 03:09:39 am

And now I'm here on these forums most days.  Though not over the past couple weeks or so, because of IRL derpage.  I hate this time of year, I really do....  At least over the weekend I think I can get back to testing now.  I've not been too useful yet in this one as a result.
I'm glad your going to be getting back into this to be honest I was kind of worried about you.(sorry if that sounds weird but its the truth)

Yeah, it wasnt anything major keeping me away.  Well, it IS majorly annoying, at least.  It's the time of year when my pain level is at it's highest (yay, time for more super strong painkillers, ugh) and I cant do mouse-based gaming much at all when my arm is flared up.  I try to avoid doing too much typing when that's going on too.  But it's better currently (for now).

.....also I was being distracted by Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, because that game is a freaking addiction. 
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Shrugging Khan on May 18, 2015, 05:09:04 am
I read about AIW on RPS, was intrigued, pirated AIW 3.0, didn't get what I expected from having read about it, stopped looking at it for a while, re-tried without trying to make it suit my expectations, fell in love, bought it a few times over.

Just my normal circle of getting to know a good game  :o

So far, AIW has been the only Arcen game that really did anything for me, but I'm still buying everything the company makes. If I don't like it, I give it to others. Either way, I've fallen for them  :D
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Brenda_Webb on May 18, 2015, 05:33:01 am
My brother, who is (or at least considers himself to be) the biggest gamer in the family. He introduced me to it.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on May 18, 2015, 11:06:55 am

And now I'm here on these forums most days.  Though not over the past couple weeks or so, because of IRL derpage.  I hate this time of year, I really do....  At least over the weekend I think I can get back to testing now.  I've not been too useful yet in this one as a result.
I'm glad your going to be getting back into this to be honest I was kind of worried about you.(sorry if that sounds weird but its the truth)

Yeah, it wasnt anything major keeping me away.  Well, it IS majorly annoying, at least.  It's the time of year when my pain level is at it's highest (yay, time for more super strong painkillers, ugh) and I cant do mouse-based gaming much at all when my arm is flared up.  I try to avoid doing too much typing when that's going on too.  But it's better currently (for now).

.....also I was being distracted by Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, because that game is a freaking addiction.
I'm sorry if I sound intrusive but what exactly is wrong with your arm? also I've heard binding of Isaac is pretty good and I've been sorta meaning to get into it but I haven't really mainly because I don't have the time for it at the moment between my current testing ftl and  hearthstone.(although I'm kind of losing interest in it at the moment in till at least the face bullshit ends and fun decks start being used again)
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on May 18, 2015, 12:05:57 pm

And now I'm here on these forums most days.  Though not over the past couple weeks or so, because of IRL derpage.  I hate this time of year, I really do....  At least over the weekend I think I can get back to testing now.  I've not been too useful yet in this one as a result.
I'm glad your going to be getting back into this to be honest I was kind of worried about you.(sorry if that sounds weird but its the truth)

Yeah, it wasnt anything major keeping me away.  Well, it IS majorly annoying, at least.  It's the time of year when my pain level is at it's highest (yay, time for more super strong painkillers, ugh) and I cant do mouse-based gaming much at all when my arm is flared up.  I try to avoid doing too much typing when that's going on too.  But it's better currently (for now).

.....also I was being distracted by Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, because that game is a freaking addiction.
I'm sorry if I sound intrusive but what exactly is wrong with your arm? also I've heard binding of Isaac is pretty good and I've been sorta meaning to get into it but I haven't really mainly because I don't have the time for it at the moment between my current testing ftl and  hearthstone.(although I'm kind of losing interest in it at the moment in till at least the face bullshit ends and fun decks start being used again)

It's nerve pain, mostly.  Which is very annoying as it's hard to tell where it's even actually at.  For example, you could have a nasty pain in your hand, but trying to deal with that doesnt do a thing, because the ACTUAL spot it's from is up in your shoulder.  That sort of thing.  If you've ever heard of someone having sciatica problems (some sort of nerve very low in the spine), which can cause horrible shooting pains down your leg... enough to stop you from walking just because it hurts that freaking much (had that one too, for awhile), it's kinda like that.   

And along with that is tendon pain and related issues.  Too much of certain motions causes my right arm to flare up, in a similar way to how carpal tunnel works, kinda.  It's alot better than it used to be... there was a period of about a year where I didn't use the mouse for gaming AT ALL because it'd get bad immediately, and I ended up using the controller to control the keyboard and mouse inputs for many games (such as Minecraft, which I got so used to that if I now play it with the keyboard and mouse, I fall off of cliffs over and over or uncoordinated things like that) during that time.  But I've had physical therapy for some time now, so many things are alot better.  That, and pain pills, cyclobenzaprine and Tramadol.

Buuuuuut, because argh, I've also got a bit of arthritis and such around my neck/shoulder (which then contributes to the flare-up; and I'm still young, by the way, shouldnt be even close to having that, but there it is.  Feh), and the other issues there, the weather around here at this time of year, because of the barometric whatsits going bonkers (it storms often here), means that I get the pain really easily right now.  Cant do much about it aside from complain about the bloody weather.  Or at least that's the basics of how it works; my therapist understands alot more and explained in detail, none of which I understood, haha.

So yeah, it was kinda unpleasant over the last month so I havent done much of the mouse stuff, which is kinda annoying. 



Now as for Binding of Isaac, yeah, it's freaking fantastic.  I consider it one of the best games, period.   And I never say something like that lightly.   Uses alot of ideas taken from the very first Legend of Zelda, and the levels play out like the dungeons in that game, except that it's pretty much also a roguelike, as everything is randomly generated.   And kinda like some of Arcen's games it blends another genre into this, as you're shooting things (usually) and dodging stuff, while also doing classic Zelda-ish stuff like using bombs/keys/whatever.  Though what really gets me about it is how the item synergies work out.  There's no other game I can compare this to, because I"ve never seen another one manage this.  You'd have to see it for yourself to get an idea as to what I mean, but it's one of the things that makes the game amazing.  That there's 450+ different items (items mostly meaning things similar to the important things you'd find in Zelda, like the bow or whatever, things on that level, but there's other types too) and that the vast majority of them can interact with nearly all of the others just does so much cool and crazy stuff. 

I could ramble on and on about it, but suffice it to say, I highly recommend it.  Specifically Rebirth;  the original game is great and all, but Rebirth is soooooooooooo much better.  I was really surprised at just how much better it ended up being.  The amount of content in it is just staggering.  The wiki for the game says that it has a good 500+ hours of gameplay in it, and that's pretty accurate (and like with AI War you get players that'll just keep going even beyond that). 

My only problem with it:  you *need* that wiki site.  The game likes to not actually explain what the items do.  It'll give you a single sentence about it whenever you pick one up, which sometimes is obvious as to what it means, like "tears and DMG up" from a couple of simple stat-raising items, or you might get cryptic weirdness such as "tastes like burning" from a particular trinket (the match stick).  A huge part of succeeding in the game is all about making the right decisions (like choosing to take a particular item, or leave it) and it's hard to do that, or even fully use things effectively, when you have no details on just how they work.   


...and I'll stop rambling here, I've derailed it quite a bit at this point I think.  Though, this forum, somewhat par for the course, hah.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on May 18, 2015, 02:13:04 pm

And now I'm here on these forums most days.  Though not over the past couple weeks or so, because of IRL derpage.  I hate this time of year, I really do....  At least over the weekend I think I can get back to testing now.  I've not been too useful yet in this one as a result.
I'm glad your going to be getting back into this to be honest I was kind of worried about you.(sorry if that sounds weird but its the truth)

Yeah, it wasnt anything major keeping me away.  Well, it IS majorly annoying, at least.  It's the time of year when my pain level is at it's highest (yay, time for more super strong painkillers, ugh) and I cant do mouse-based gaming much at all when my arm is flared up.  I try to avoid doing too much typing when that's going on too.  But it's better currently (for now).

.....also I was being distracted by Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, because that game is a freaking addiction.
I'm sorry if I sound intrusive but what exactly is wrong with your arm? also I've heard binding of Isaac is pretty good and I've been sorta meaning to get into it but I haven't really mainly because I don't have the time for it at the moment between my current testing ftl and  hearthstone.(although I'm kind of losing interest in it at the moment in till at least the face bullshit ends and fun decks start being used again)

It's nerve pain, mostly.  Which is very annoying as it's hard to tell where it's even actually at.  For example, you could have a nasty pain in your hand, but trying to deal with that doesnt do a thing, because the ACTUAL spot it's from is up in your shoulder.  That sort of thing.  If you've ever heard of someone having sciatica problems (some sort of nerve very low in the spine), which can cause horrible shooting pains down your leg... enough to stop you from walking just because it hurts that freaking much (had that one too, for awhile), it's kinda like that.   

And along with that is tendon pain and related issues.  Too much of certain motions causes my right arm to flare up, in a similar way to how carpal tunnel works, kinda.  It's alot better than it used to be... there was a period of about a year where I didn't use the mouse for gaming AT ALL because it'd get bad immediately, and I ended up using the controller to control the keyboard and mouse inputs for many games (such as Minecraft, which I got so used to that if I now play it with the keyboard and mouse, I fall off of cliffs over and over or uncoordinated things like that) during that time.  But I've had physical therapy for some time now, so many things are alot better.  That, and pain pills, cyclobenzaprine and Tramadol.

Buuuuuut, because argh, I've also got a bit of arthritis and such around my neck/shoulder (which then contributes to the flare-up; and I'm still young, by the way, shouldnt be even close to having that, but there it is.  Feh), and the other issues there, the weather around here at this time of year, because of the barometric whatsits going bonkers (it storms often here), means that I get the pain really easily right now.  Cant do much about it aside from complain about the bloody weather.  Or at least that's the basics of how it works; my therapist understands alot more and explained in detail, none of which I understood, haha.

So yeah, it was kinda unpleasant over the last month so I havent done much of the mouse stuff, which is kinda annoying. 



Now as for Binding of Isaac, yeah, it's freaking fantastic.  I consider it one of the best games, period.   And I never say something like that lightly.   Uses alot of ideas taken from the very first Legend of Zelda, and the levels play out like the dungeons in that game, except that it's pretty much also a roguelike, as everything is randomly generated.   And kinda like some of Arcen's games it blends another genre into this, as you're shooting things (usually) and dodging stuff, while also doing classic Zelda-ish stuff like using bombs/keys/whatever.  Though what really gets me about it is how the item synergies work out.  There's no other game I can compare this to, because I"ve never seen another one manage this.  You'd have to see it for yourself to get an idea as to what I mean, but it's one of the things that makes the game amazing.  That there's 450+ different items (items mostly meaning things similar to the important things you'd find in Zelda, like the bow or whatever, things on that level, but there's other types too) and that the vast majority of them can interact with nearly all of the others just does so much cool and crazy stuff. 

I could ramble on and on about it, but suffice it to say, I highly recommend it.  Specifically Rebirth;  the original game is great and all, but Rebirth is soooooooooooo much better.  I was really surprised at just how much better it ended up being.  The amount of content in it is just staggering.  The wiki for the game says that it has a good 500+ hours of gameplay in it, and that's pretty accurate (and like with AI War you get players that'll just keep going even beyond that). 

My only problem with it:  you *need* that wiki site.  The game likes to not actually explain what the items do.  It'll give you a single sentence about it whenever you pick one up, which sometimes is obvious as to what it means, like "tears and DMG up" from a couple of simple stat-raising items, or you might get cryptic weirdness such as "tastes like burning" from a particular trinket (the match stick).  A huge part of succeeding in the game is all about making the right decisions (like choosing to take a particular item, or leave it) and it's hard to do that, or even fully use things effectively, when you have no details on just how they work.   


...and I'll stop rambling here, I've derailed it quite a bit at this point I think.  Though, this forum, somewhat par for the course, hah.
1 my mother years ago had sciatica she literally couldn't go any were without a walking stick and she was 45 or 46 roughly!(ill edit this when I find out the  proper age from her)  so if what you've got is really like that then Christ that sucks(she doesn't have it any more after a surgeon got rid of the disk that was causing the problem but she got diabetes from the adrenaline shots  she had to be on YAY!)(ill edit this when I find out the  proper age from her) 2 I've seen my friend play and it definitely interests me its just that well 1 bla bla bla no time bla bla bla 2 I don't know if it'll run well enough on my laptop for me(I don't think theirs a demo will have to check that) the vague ness  doesn't bother me in the slightest its better than woody in don't starve telling me shock horror that a box is boxy.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: TheVampire100 on May 18, 2015, 05:04:42 pm
I'm pretty much the casual Isaac player: Play a round or two and then stop for some days. A friend of me played it until he got everything (or almost everything, cannot remember) but the game never could me get into playing more than I want. The feeling of loosing everything because you stepped into a messy room wih overpowered enemies and you still having your basic tears... again is too strong for me. That's when I simply have to stop the game, playing soemthing less aweful to me.
I know Rogue likes are meant to be hard and random but I think Isaac is a bit over the top and it all comes down to your luck of "what do I get this time".
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on May 19, 2015, 01:33:30 am
I'm pretty much the casual Isaac player: Play a round or two and then stop for some days. A friend of me played it until he got everything (or almost everything, cannot remember) but the game never could me get into playing more than I want. The feeling of loosing everything because you stepped into a messy room wih overpowered enemies and you still having your basic tears... again is too strong for me. That's when I simply have to stop the game, playing soemthing less aweful to me.
I know Rogue likes are meant to be hard and random but I think Isaac is a bit over the top and it all comes down to your luck of "what do I get this time".

Doesnt come down to that as much as you'd think;  the mark of any good roguelike is that skill can always somehow triumph over the RNG, which is mostly true in that one.  I say "mostly" because there are a few, very few, extremely specific room layouts that genuinely have an element of cheapness to them.   Not the "kill you" sort, but the "you'll take at least one hit here, because derp" sort.   Fortunately with the game's extreme  amount of content, these appear quite rarely, and there's a ton of different items that can be used to protect against the stupid when they DO appear.

Beyond that though, yeah, they can always be beaten somehow.... so long as you havent made really bad decisions and created the sort of build that will screw you over (like one I had where I was firing bombs instead of tears.... which then would turn around and chase me.  Because I grabbed an item that I really shouldnt have, in the context of the other items I had at the time).
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on May 19, 2015, 03:05:07 pm
since this topics been derailed I may as well do so even more what books are you guys reading at the moment? personally I just started watershipdown.(insert name of author here later)
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Mánagarmr on May 20, 2015, 03:10:19 am
since this topics been derailed I may as well do so even more what books are you guys reading at the moment? personally I just started watershipdown.(insert name of author here later)
That's a good, but depressing, one. Loved it as a kid and also the movie, even though it scared the beegeezus out of me.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on May 20, 2015, 04:59:43 am
since this topics been derailed I may as well do so even more what books are you guys reading at the moment? personally I just started watershipdown.(insert name of author here later)

I think we're not even sure where the rail even is at this point anymore.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Shrugging Khan on May 20, 2015, 08:00:54 am
I'm currently reading
From Paradise to Golgatha (Keyes)
Neuromancer (Gibson)
War and Peace (Tolstoi)
How Apollo Flew To The Moon (Woods)
Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students (Curtis)
Raufmahrtsysteme (Messerschmid & Fasoulas)
And a few others that I haven't actively read in the past week.

War and Peace I find highly overrated.
Neuromancer, on the other hand, is excellent.

The others are educational.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on May 20, 2015, 09:34:12 am
I'm currently reading
From Paradise to Golgatha (Keyes)
Neuromancer (Gibson)
War and Peace (Tolstoi)
How Apollo Flew To The Moon (Woods)
Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students (Curtis)
Raufmahrtsysteme (Messerschmid & Fasoulas)
And a few others that I haven't actively read in the past week.
War and Peace I find highly overrated.Neuromancer, on the other hand, is excellent.

The others are educational.
I figured as much apart from paradise that one isn't obvious I've never read war and peace or neuromancer I've been meaning to take a look into neuromancer I've seen quite a few times in water stones but at the moment I've got to much on hand to get that after I've finished water ship down I intend to start reading room before this I was reading look who's back which was very interesting I would absolutely recommend so long as you understand narrative disanensence properly.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Cyborg on May 20, 2015, 09:02:35 pm
I figured as much apart from paradise that one isn't obvious I've never read war and peace or neuromancer I've been meaning to take a look into neuromancer I've seen quite a few times in water stones but at the moment I've got to much on hand to get that after I've finished water ship down I intend to start reading room before this I was reading look who's back which was very interesting I would absolutely recommend so long as you understand narrative disanensence properly.

This paragraph was hard to read. :D
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Shrugging Khan on May 21, 2015, 07:08:20 am
Cormack McCarthy says that unnecessary punctuation is, in fact, unnecessary.

Sometimes it is necessary after all :P
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Radiant Phoenix on May 23, 2015, 10:56:26 pm
I was at college, and some guys I knew were playing an interesting-looking game. It turned out to be AI War. I was hooked from the moment I saw it, so I got the demo.

This was between AS and VotM, back when I needed to run AI War through WINE.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: crazyroosterman on April 20, 2016, 09:41:50 pm
I was just looking at this thread again and it amuses me greatly have many times I said ,I most certainly will, in the last reply I put here but since I never really went detail on water ship down I may as well now

1 the writing was solid nothing exceptional but definitely pretty solid I could actually follow the book properly

2 I liked the authenticity despite the weird thing with the names and mythology's(which I still liked regardless)

3 I particularly liked the one scene were
the hazel and the rest of his group are trying to escape from the general that was pretty sick
.

4 I find it strange that people find the book depressing it gets pretty unpleasant at points sure but I didn't find anything particularly nialistic about it unless they are referring to the ending but I mean rabbits don't very long so that didn't surprise me at all I mean I suppose you would find this book depressing if you read as a wee lad I suppose though.

ps so there's my thoughts on water ship down on a 2 year old thread that hasn't been replied to in a year but I just had the urge I guess.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: chemical_art on April 21, 2016, 12:50:20 am
water ship down was my favorite book in highschool.

The movie rocks as well.

What is not to love about killer rabbits who act somewhat like what a rabbit really would be?
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: tombik on April 21, 2016, 09:31:32 pm
Offrail necroing, my favourite :)

My introduction to Arcen was via my cheapskateness. I paid something to get some games from a trader, tried to get as many games I could with the money I paid, and he added AI War 2014 collection to the "bundle" I was getting. Then I saw that AI war actually had decent reviews, so I checked the wiki. Design principles behind it really made sense, so I was hooked. And I liked how everything was well (even sometimes too) documented, since this scratches my obsessive itch. So I checked the other games that the company produced, and collected all. The only game I got via normal ways, (not from traders) was TLF. My favourite so far was Tidalis, since it is the only game where you don't have to tolerate missing things because it is an indie game. For me it is the one which feels most complete.

To turn back to AIWar, in my gameplay time of 4 hours, I did not even complete tutorial. It has too many micro elements in it, and I don't like this in RTS games. I am not saying this is the game's fault, since I also don't like Supreme Commander, which almost all adores.

I will always keep an eye for Arcen's games, even though I might not be a fan for their projects. I am also trying to design my games a bit, and unique ideas always helps in that. And seeing how attached are they to their work is amazing, and inspiring.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on April 21, 2016, 09:36:19 pm
AI War has micro elements?

Or maybe I'm not quite understanding your definition of that.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Pumpkin on April 22, 2016, 01:47:47 am
SupCom has micro elements? ;D
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Misery on April 22, 2016, 02:25:35 am
That too is a good question.

I dunno about everyone else, but I cant freaking stand "microing" stuff in an RTS.   It doesn't feel like strategy to me.  It feels more like an action game.  The closest I ever get to "microing" is controlling the "champion" ships (I forget what they're called) in AI War, as I get a lot of use out of them and like their versatility, so they often lead the charge for me and I use their shield ability a lot.  I don't mind doing that because that's the *only* unit in the game that I control even somewhat directly like that (as opposed to, say, StarCraft, where you have to do advanced versions of that with EVERY unit), and you don't even HAVE to play with the champions active, you can turn them off if you don't like them (or not buy that expansion). The only other thing close to microing in AI War is selecting some huge blob of ships and pointing them at some specific structure to attack, or moving them near some enemy group I want them to attack.   And really, that's not microing to me.  That's ordering entire fleets around.  Strategic stuff.  No clicking on individual units and moving them back and forth and hitting a million hotkeys... I hate doing that.   The AI handles the individual interactions and movements with individual ships and groups on it's own just fine.  All I have to give it is extremely generalized (yet versatile) commands.

Not to mention one of the biggest things about it: the fact that I can pause at any time, and still give orders and do everything.  THAT is what really sold me on the game.  It said to me "This game is going to be the direct opposite of StarCraft".  Which to me, it is.  And that's a great thing.


SupCom was the same way (without the pause bit).  I *loved* the first SupCom.   It was great!  It was everything I wanted an RTS to be, yet I could never find games like that (this was looooong before I ever found AI War).  Has a lot of the same appeal to me as AI War does though there's not nearly as much to it.   But it's still very good, and has that total lack of microing that I want.

So I don't know where this dislike of SupCom or AI War for their micro comes from...  I is confuse.


This is making me want to play some more AI War here.  Was playing it a few days ago but the last couple of days have been filled with owning a new dog so I've been a tad distracted.  Maybe I'll fire up the game after I have my meal here.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: tombik on April 22, 2016, 01:57:45 pm
AI War has micro elements?

Or maybe I'm not quite understanding your definition of that.

Maybe I am a bit confused myself, but what I tried to say is ClicksPerSecond or simply multitasking is a virtue in both games. I know in AI War there is also time slider to slow things down, but deciding between different 100 almost same ships, or trying to outgame the game's mechanics by local optimizations is not part of fun for my understanding.

Maybe I sounded casual, and maybe I should not be ashamed about being one :) But the thing is, there are some RTS games I enjoyed, but when things get more like rock papers scissors (hard counters), I just find maneuvring things around just to show my rock, papers or scissors each time, a chore.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Pumpkin on April 22, 2016, 03:48:51 pm
This game is going to be the direct opposite of StarCraft
Totally agree.
And +1 for SupCom.

Maybe I'll fire up the dog game before after I have my meal here.
When I first read this sentence, I thought you'll eat your dog. Poor dog. Sorry.

maneuvring things around just to show my rock, papers or scissors each time, a chore.
This kind of micro far from needed at 7/7. It's more a question of hacking and K-upgrading ships to generally counter the AI's ship types. I often look at what it has when I want to upgrade my turrets. Lightning turret MkIV (+tachyon) against the stealth master, for instance.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: tombik on April 22, 2016, 04:02:04 pm
maneuvring things around just to show my rock, papers or scissors each time, a chore.
This kind of micro far from needed at 7/7. It's more a question of hacking and K-upgrading ships to generally counter the AI's ship types. I often look at what it has when I want to upgrade my turrets. Lightning turret MkIV (+tachyon) against the stealth master, for instance.

Well, it happened more than a few times that I lost my ships to some towers which one shot the ships, since I forgot to first use some other ships, before their enthusiasm to jump to their death (autoattack) reached its target.
Title: Re: how did you get intraduced to arcen?
Post by: Pumpkin on April 23, 2016, 04:18:42 am
maneuvring things around just to show my rock, papers or scissors each time, a chore.
This kind of micro far from needed at 7/7. It's more a question of hacking and K-upgrading ships to generally counter the AI's ship types. I often look at what it has when I want to upgrade my turrets. Lightning turret MkIV (+tachyon) against the stealth master, for instance.

Well, it happened more than a few times that I lost my ships to some towers which one shot the ships, since I forgot to first use some other ships, before their enthusiasm to jump to their death (autoattack) reached its target.
Oh, yeah, and that. Guard Posts hit hard when they have their hull bonus. But as they are immobile, it sounds less micro to select the right kind of ships (one click on the right-hand panel) and attack the static target. And fleet ships with the hull bonus can wreak the GPost faster.

Also, what you call autoattack is in fact autodefense mode (V-click), the "intercept" order that you should use only on your controlled systems. The true autoattack mode is X-click. Only use V-click on attack when you are overconfident, like when you clean threatfleet on a neutered planet with an overwhelming fleet. X-click is perfect for attacking a GPost with minimal micro: select the right type of ships and X-click behind the target, provided there is a clear path toward it.

While I disagree on the topic of AIW being too micro, I would totally agree it has a big learning curve, including for the UI and controls.

I'm a bit sad when I hear someone pushed away from AIW by it's apparent complexity. I hope you'll give it another chance, try harder, and finally find the beauty behind inside the difficulty.

Just to let you know, when I first launched my first AIW game (after the tuto), I read about difficulty and thought "7/7 if you already played RTS? Sure I played RTS! It's my favorite genre, and it's only because I don't know you, stupid game, and out of courtesy that I don't begin at 9/9 right off!" Then it took me hours of pain and a good chunk of modesty to progressively scale down to 5/5, make my first win, and slowly climb back to 7/7 and recently (after more than 1,000 hours of game) to 8/8 (I tried 9/9 and got toasted).