Recent reviews by geoffhom

There's a lot one could dislike about TTS. The game/tool sometimes bugs me. But when I compare this clunky tool to something like digital Gloomhaven, it makes me appreciate TTS all the more.

With a good mod (like Fantasy Gloomhaven), TTS is like a virtual version of your favorite board game. With some bells and whistles (e.g., scripting). It's like taking something great (a real board game) and adding to it without detracting from it.

Compare that to digital Gloomhaven (the separate game that just got out of early access and is $35). That game has cool animations and fancy 3D graphics. And AI monsters. But it took away agency. If you just want to move a figure from one hex to another for an arbitrary reason, you can't. But maybe I just want to see what it would be like, or I made a mistake two turns ago and I want to correct it, or I want to plan my next move so it helps me to move figures around temporarily where I think they'll be, or there's a bug in the AI, etc.

The point is that TTS enhances play while still respecting you as a player. You have full control to do whatever, including mess things up. If you want to rage quit and flip over the table, you can! But you can also hit the undo button (or reload to a save). Win win!

I'm not a fan of TTS's UI, and I do wonder if it could run faster with some simple changes/options, but beggars can't be choosers. Perhaps someday there will be sleeker, better competitor to TTS (think Facebook vs MySpace). Until then, TTS gets my hours and rec.

I can't recommend this yet. Glad they finally have the campaign done, but it's not the same as the physical game. I want a digital version that enhances the physical version without taking away from it. Digital Gloomhaven forgets that it's first and foremost a board game, not a video game. Digital Gloomhaven should include easy access to a god/edit mode, where one can change anything as easily as they could in the board game.

If I don't like something in the board game, I can change it. For example, if a scenario is too hard, I can adjust a monster's HP, boost mine, etc. If I know I can win a scenario and just want to fast forward, I can just add the xp/gold and clean up. If I wonder how different a scenario would be if an obstacle were moved one hex, or if an enemy were normal instead of elite, I can just do that (without having to do an entire mod).

A god/edit mode would also allow one to overcome bugs or lack of a robust "undo" command.

For now, I'd rather play on Tabletop Simulator, or I've heard some play the physical game via Zoom and that works surprisingly well.

I like it! Played thru on Normal, but took my time. Also spent a lot of time looking at mod options, etc.

I've loved XCOM since the original in the '90s. And I just beat XCOM 2: WotC. Chimera Squad is different but still great. I liked the characters. Some voice acting or dialogue had me cringe, but 90% of it was decent or even charming. I love how each character is unique, not just in appearance and name, but abilities, character, and playstyle. They're also fairly balanced, in that almost all of them can be successful, even if a few may be "top tier."

The idea of Breaching is cool. Interleaved turns are great. The smaller maps and total visibility are refreshing.

Yes, the game has some bad bugs right now. So worse reviews are understandable. But we're also in the middle of a real global problem: not aliens, but a virus. So if Firaxis is a little slower getting patches out, so be it. The bugs can be worked around by mods and use of the console commands. Good thing Firaxis included those options at launch! Also, the xcom subreddit is very helpful.

I applaud the company for taking a risk with new ideas and characters for XCOM. Also, I love the mix of aliens and humans, and playing the aliens is so much cooler than just mind-controlling them in XCOM 2.

Oh, if you want to make a mod, the CS SDK is a little broken and has terrible/no documentation. So that's also buggy and hopefully they'll improve it sooner than later.

I'd love some DLC for Chimera Squad! More stories for this group!

The developer gave an informative talk at GDC once. So I bought Regency Solitaire. It was worth it. This game is not worth it. The problem is the duels. For example, I'm currently dueling against a boxer, and it's a fixed duel (no weapon changes). Difficulty: Very hard. I was expecting a challenge of my wits, instead it's a challenge of patience and pushing the "restart" button. The opponent has similar weapons, but actually they're significantly stronger in all ways. He can also resist stun (which the fists do), and counter. And he has more HP. Very hard, I get it. But he's actually not that smart, so the extra stats are a bandage over weak AI. Sometimes he can play a card but won't. It's like he's taunting me, which gets to the main problem.

The main problem is the game isn't *fun.* It's not designed to be fun. (At least, not designed well.) Is it fun when the enemy breaks out a 12-hit combo? No. Is it fun when they pick up a wild card and just toss it away? No. Is it fun restarting 12 times just to get a good start (or prevent a bad start)? No. Your active powers will charge up if you restart (and play enough), though this isn't explained. This recharge goes away if you quit the game and come back later, so is it fun to feel like, "Gee, I don't want to quit now because then I'll just have to restart 5 times again, so I might as well restart 20 times until I kill him"? No. Is figuring out gear for a fight fun? No. (Poor UI design.) Is it fun when you finally beat someone, and you know you just won because you restarted until you got lucky? No. Is it fun to win because you used 4 jokers? No. Is it fun when the opponent counters and stuns at once, with his better boxing gloves? No.

The game may have positives, but frankly, the negatives counter them all and so I won't mention them.

Sid Meier once gave a talk on Civ (Civ Rev, I think) and how games need to be fun, screw the math. He gave an example of a battle in which, statistically, the human should win 66% of the time, lose 33% of the time, and that was communicated well. However, people still complained that it didn't feel right, that the computer must be cheating. The solution was simple: humans win 75% (or 80%) of the time under the hood, even if the math on the screen says they'll win only 66% of the time. And the customers were happy.

Remember, this is a solitaire game first and foremost. Fun wins.

I like constructive criticism, so: Very hard difficulty should be more balanced for skill vs luck. And above all, fun. Or goodness, flow. The swinginess needs to be lowered, and anything I can grind should be given as a default and taken away by option. For example, just start all my active powers fully charged, and let me always go first; give options to turn those off. (You can call them "turn off these options to waste my time," (sarcastic, yes).) Hardest AI should be *better* than a human player, without cheating (or maybe it can look beneath the cards, who knows?), but have more reasonable stats; perhaps even lower than the human player's. Anyway, those are just ideas. The dev should know better how to fix his machine; I just know it's not working as it's supposed to.

Oh, and the different weapons aren't that interesting. I think you should cut the number in half easily. Or hide/sort/get rid of obsolete weapons.

Or maybe just dump the entire combat system and the weapons and try again, or try something else. Dueling solitaire is usually based on speed, so maybe the solitaire needs to change.

BTW, if it says I've played only a few minutes, it's because I was playing offline, and I guess Steam doesn't track/count that. I've played more than halfway through Very Hard difficulty.

Update: Another idea: By default, make Restarts progressively better. If I'm restarting, there's a reason. Especially if I go first by default (as noted above as a suggested default option). The dev should be able to come up with a reasonable metric for how favorable a deal is. After all, he can always stack the decks. The game should be balanced so that if the player is trying, they can beat an opponent without cheating after 7 restarts. That's already a lot for a casual game; anything more isn't fun. (And masochists can turn the option off.)