Having some fun here and there in Elite Dangerous, debating how far down this rabbit hole I want to go. But it's nice to be able to pop on for an hour, pick some missions or tasks I want to do, and earn a decent income. Now decent for me isn't trying to earn 50+ million/hr. I'm talking anywhere from 500K to 10-20 million in that time framer, but more focusing on what I'm doing. I am aiming to have one of every ship in the game, and realize that is going to be a slow burn. I don't plan to engineer all of them and was told to check out blueprints to make life easier.
I haven't messed with engineers yet either, but I'll get to that point eventually and see what there is to see. For now, I just need to get a grip on combat in my Cobra Mk III (my old dog, original combat and all-in-one ship), Cobra Mk IV (it HAS to be better than this at combat...my skills must really suck...) and my Vulture (pure combat build, or so I thought...). For now, I am not doing so well at combat. I realize some of this is Mouse+KB, but when I went from HOTAS to Mouse+KB before I was able to still do quite well. So I just gotta get back in the groove of things.
I'm also working on my flight assist-off piloting skills...which again on Mouse+KB is a little different. I may have to bust out the CH FighterStick and Logitech G13 again (my old HOTAS setup) at some point. We shall see. But FA off + combat isn't happening quite yet.
But when I'm done getting my arse handed to me in combat zones, or hunting down bounties, I end up doing timed missions, runs, trades, and have been truckin' along in my T6 pretty handily. It does "feel" like the transportation aspect of the game has been sped up a bit from when I last played, which is good. While I enjoy the technicality of having to go through so many steps and procedures to do stuff...I actually don't mind it. Adds to the environment that they're trying to design or develop and that I have always liked, just like landing at a station requires certain steps, etc. I am hoping next month is part 4 or chapter 4 or whatever. I still need to read up on what the previous chapters added/changed. So far, my return to Elite Dangerous has been mostly fun and quite humbling. So far only solo play, most of my friends are over space sims at the moment and I cannot blame em. But Elite Dangerous and Void Destroyer 2 are where its at for me!
Picked up
AIWar 2 EA on steam (it was $13.50 at 35% off), and I gotta say so far I'm enjoying this one more than AIWar 1. It's far more approchable and the work-in-progress UI is so far pretty solid in my quick visit. The graphical presentation and effects are solid and the tutorial was entertaining. Makes me want to go play the completed AIWar 1, but every time I do, I end up getting bored, distracted, or confused and go onto something else. But I really should give it a fair shake. Beyond that though, so far my time with 2 has been much more fun and feels more rewarding. I like how Arcen develops their titles and they tend to make sure their games are supported for years after official release, something that I felt was worth the investment. So far, I've gotten more enjoyment out of this than I have some other finished games I've paid 4-5X as much for.
Last but not least, I've also started playing
Masters of Orion Conquer the Stars. I gave a first playthrough in pure vanilla for about 80 turns, started seeing a couple of bugs (missing textures, commands not seeming to actually work...odd). So I installed the highly regarded UCP and 5X patches. Next thing I know, I'm 80+ turns into my next new game and it's WAY later than I'd intended. This game has presentation in spades, but I can also see what folks didn't like about it. I will say the community patch has made a nice difference and seems to have added more research and complexity. But so far I do gotta say this game is a great way to play a casual and pretty 4X. It is turn-based. I do find myself blowing through a handful of turns between "events". That part is my biggest complaint at the moment, as GalCiv3 has spoiled me so much with Crusade and Intrigue DLC's adding so much stuff to do that every turn feels important and engaging. But giving NuMoO a fair shake here, I like it so far for what it is and offers. Yes it's a little simpler, it feels more casual...and that's why I like it so far. I wasn't a huge MoO2 fan back in its heyday, I was an RTS fan and FPS fan. So I don't have the nostalgia tinted glasses to ruin this experience for me. But overall, I'm having a lot of fun and my 10yo son was watching with interest as well.
That being said, I'm also someone that STILL likes to play SupCom2 for faster matches. Honestly that game is well done for what it offers, my sons, their friends and I still play it regularly. Especially when we don't have time for the 1-2 hour-long games that SupCom FA, Ashes of the Singularity and Planetary Annihilation Titans can all have. That being said we cycle between all of these and have so much fun. SupCom2 comes up the most frequent, because it has just the right mix of everything for inexperienced and experienced RTS gamers in this style of RTS IMHO... there's some economy, there's some land control management, there's small units, there's super units, there's research upgrades, there's base building and management, there's armies and strategies. It's no SupCom FA, but it's no dud either.
I've had a similar pause of about 12 years with this game as well. Very refreshing to play it again. Lots of new stuff.
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