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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3833 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 19, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'll shill Mechabellum, a recently released autobattler strategy game on Steam. That's not to be confused with idle games, it's a turn-based PvP game. Essentially, you lay out the configuration of your army in the preparation phase, and then watch as your robots fight it out, automatically engaging the nearest enemy like an RTS.

It's a very deterministic game, each player gets the same set of choices. At the start, you each get to choose 1 of 4 randomly picked 'characters' with a special ability (like free unlocks for air units, or +50 supplies each turn). After turn 1, there are 'random events' at the start of the turn that let you pay for a missile strike, or a global upgrade to one of your units, or give a single unit +75% attack and +75% HP... You can see what your opponent might choose and plan around it. I think that a dev lost one too many games of hearthstone to RNG BS and resolved 'never lose to chance again'.

Each turn players get more and more resources but their plans are also more revealed. Units from previous turns stay on the next turn. Generally, you can't move units from previous turns. So if I started the game by putting some single-unit crowd-control Arclights at the front, hoping to counter spam, I can expect that he'll field anti-single unit Marksmen on round 2 positioned to target them. So I could put some cheap spammy crawlers in front of my Arclight to soak up any Marksmen fire.

In between turns, you can research one of four 'techs' for a certain class of unit, giving it extra range, armor that flatly decreases damage taken per shot, new attacks, trading range for damage... Units can also be leveled up if they do a lot of damage, which gives +100% attack and HP for only half the price of a new unit.

There are also two vulnerable towers behind your lines that, if destroyed, will drastically weaken your units for about 10 seconds. So they need to be protected from enemy attack. In later turns, enemies can also come in via the flanks.

The goal of the game is to win decisive victories, where much of your army is intact. That causes the most damage to the enemy's healthbar. If you have only a couple units left, they only lose a measly 100 hp or so, out of 3000-4000. The game tends to build to a crescendo in the later turns, where each army is huge and the victories more decisive. It's very possible to turn a losing game around.

It does feel like I'm playing mind-games with my opponent, countering counters, pre-empting. Do I have enough anti-air? Are my flanks protected? Is the bulk of my army protected from nukes or bombardment with shields? What new unit should I unlock to throw my opponents plans into disarray? Am I advancing towards a nice synergy in my army?

Started it.

Menu is partially in Chinese.

Closed it.

Deleted it.

I like the basic premise of autobattlers, but somehow they all fall short.

I saw that too, it is a little bit off that there's absolutely no information about 'Game River' online, the developer. China has produced some good games though, Dyson Sphere Program for instance.

They all seem short on personality, though. I know, that's a vague and nebulous thing, maybe they do have personality but I'm too culturally illiterate to notice it.

I recently played Boundary, a made-in-China astronaut shooter. Too fast-paced for me, but otherwise not even bad.

How does it compare to the MOBA autochess entries? I tried a bit of TFT and didn’t care for it.

Anyway, in the spirit of “games made out of hating one aspect of another,” check out Your Only Move Is Hustle. It’s a turn-based fighting game. Each player selects a move, and then the game plays out until one of the players is ready to act again. As in normal fighting games, this depends on the choice of move—and you certainly can’t act while getting hit. The end result is all the flair of fighting games, but emphasizing the thinky mind games and anime bullshit instead of mechanical execution.

Also, it feels crispy as hell.

Honestly I've never played any games like Mechabellum. Maybe I'm just describing things that are common to the format.

I suppose it's a bit greedy to wait for a special on Hustle, considering how cheap it is.

Good news is it has a free version.

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