Spring RTS Engine

Oh yes definitely put those on all your ships, the effects of livability are averaged out across your fleet, so if your flagship is for example 60, but your two other ships are 30, you're still going to have very, very bad attrition from just crossing a short distance.

Later in the game I decided a minimum for all my ships would be 60, and I was able to go a virtually unlimited distance without suffering any effects. A head chef of course is also a necessity, always be on the lookout for new crewmembers. You'll need to tailor your crew to your assignments sometimes, especially early on when you've only got a handful of them. Try to at least always fill:

- chief artillery
- chief chef
- chief physician
- chief accountant
- chief security (you have to scroll down to the very bottom to see)

The last four all directly contribute to your fleet's livability rating, but the formula's hidden. From there, first officer and lead op should be your next priorities since they directly contribute to your peak combat gauge speed. Finally, artillery positions should be filled out to maximize firepower and accuracy. From there, the other positions are "less" important, but still very important to getting the best performance out of all your ships.

In this game, you need to be concerned with your weapons, modules, and crewmembers just as much as your actual fighting. Without the first three, regardless of your skill level you'll have a very hard time.

w00t, metascore's starting to get pulled up by newer reviews. Which makes me realize - the earlier reviews I'd read were right after *I* finished the game, having played it for three days straight immediately after it came out. Like nonstop. A reviewer isn't going to do that. So it's just more proof that the earlier reviews were written by people that didn't even get more than a few hours into it.

IGN gave it a 70 on the same day it was released, with amusing anecdotes like "no way to heal until you rest at a spaceport", "you aren't allowed to reference your current health and energy levels to determine whether or not you should fight", etc. Or, to paraphrase, "I watched over someone's shoulder for 15 minutes as they played, while stoned."

Gamespot gave it a 65, two days after it was released. They compressed 70 hours of gameplay into 48, somehow. Their low score is justified by a mixture of factual errors and "it's too hard :'( No quicktime events anywhere!"

"Games(TM)" gave it a 60 on their April issue. Magazines are usually published weeks in advance of their cover date IIRC/AFAIK. I don't buy a lot of magazines...

NTSC-UK gave it a 50 when they reviewed an import copy. Here are a couple of gems:

"... surely a different class of ship would have a different layout? This would have added that extra feeling of change ..." - Actually, when you install a different BRIDGE on your new ship (the part you see), yes, it does look different. This is one of the things that made me think "wow, they totally didn't even have to do that!" You know why he didn't find this out? Because you don't get your first bridge from a different nationality until 10+ hours into the game, a point he never reached.

"Can never find a battle when more money is needed" - Actually, there's an option in the game menu to increase random encounters in case you find yourself needing money. I tried it once and I could barely survive to go between two planets, there were so many battles. The game's well-made enough that grinding is rarely necessary though.

"One of the more infrequent ways to make money is to discover new stellar objects like supernova remnants and star-forming nebulae." - Actually these make you no money at all. Way to review an import game when you can't read the original language. What a douche.

For one last desperate appeal to the dominant Spring demographic:

- Your main character's name is Yuri. Even in the original Japanese version. Actually this is one of the few names that isn't changed.

- During the course of the game, one of your ingame fans will very likely publish a comic about your ingame character, entitled "Yuri in Space".

- You and your sister appear to be just a little too comfortable with each other.

- The game's developer is Nude Maker.

- As you progress, you are awarded Fame Points. In most relevant sections of the game, these are displayed as FAPs.

- And once again, it's 70 hours long and only costs 30-something. Buy the damn game.

srsly. i have lolled at ALL those things. except the yuri in space thing, i haven't gotten there yet.
i have over 4000 FAPs lololol

Having just gotten back from Yuri's Night at NASA-Ames all this Yuri has additional significance. I will have to purchase the game, despite not owning a DS.

i am too old to own a DS (>12)

I know you're just trolling me, but a used DS lite won't cost you much and with a few careful choices in games you can get a ton of value for your money.

Infinite Space
Chrono Trigger
Chinatown Wars
Clubhouse Games
Fire Emblem
Caslevanias
LoZeldas

Those for a start offer TONS of value for the money and are anything but kids' games.

If JRPGs are your thing of course there's Pokemons, Fanal Fantasies, and lots more. It's a good time to buy since the DS Lite is probably the lowest price it'll ever be (for a long while) and the 3DS will be backwards-compatible.

PSP's an okay system too, if a bit weak on the software, but it doesn't immediately become a "grown-up's system" just because the graphics are better. And frankly, I wouldn't trust Sony at this point to make backwards compatibility a priority on the PSP2 after they've already broken it on the PS3 and PSP Go. Traditional disc drives are a hard sell with how cheap flash memory is now and all the advantages it has. A PSP's like an investment in obsolescence - unless you hack it of course, then it's a heck of a nice toy combined with an expanded battery and 16 gb memory stick.

Don't forget the DS advance wars games. Heaps of fun, can get quite deep. I always liked Dual Strike better, much closer to the GBA games.

I was afraid they'd get grouped together with the "kiddy" games... I guess the second one is brown enough to appeal to a GoW/Halo fan though.

I believe they are called "realistic sepia tones".

HeavyLancer wrote:Don't forget the DS advance wars games. Heaps of fun, can get quite deep. I always liked Dual Strike better, much closer to the GBA games.

I tried to like Dual Strike, but I hated the RPG mechanic - it sucks when you have a nice list of characters to choose from, but realistically you only can use 1 or 2 since all the others are languishing in low levels.

I've heard Days of Ruin is much better, and need to pick it up... except that I'm still endlessly slogging through Disgaea.

Oh, and N+

TBH never got far in Dual Strike, I didn't like the combo system or the dual-battle system or really much of anything. Game itself is fine, like in multiplayer, when you disable all those things, but the campaign mode was sacrificed by Nintendo for the sake of demonstrating that there really were situations where two screens could be taken advantage of. It was a launch title, I think.

The newer one and the GBA ones are the best IMO.

Love N+ but I found the inconsistent difficulty level and occasional "you're going to do this 10 times before you get it just right, no matter what" situations very disappointing.

Have you tried Puzzle Quest? The original, not the space-themed one. It's sort of a Bejeweled RPG, which sounded like a cancer sandwich when I first heard it, but it's actually pretty good. Reasonably long, not much real story to speak of, and great for passing short periods of time waiting at the doctor or whatever. If you can get it used for a fair price it's a safe bet you'll get your money's worth.

neddiedrow wrote:I believe they are called "realistic sepia tones".

I've got some realistic sepia tones on my underwear, I don't need them in my games as well.