Game Night — Every Saturday at 10pm GMT!

http://steamcommunity.com/id/ferrety111/

I can do GMT 4 to 11 on essentially every day.

I don't particularly care what game is played, (as long as I don't need to buy it), just be aware I will probably play it badly.

Do either of the times posted at the top of this page work for you, Ferrety?

Delta wrote:

Game-wise, I'm going to pitch Space Station 13 and The Hidden — it's been a while since I dusted off The Hidden, but if we could get a server running (Plague?) it'd be a lot of fun.

Anything serverwise, you can count on me.

Delta wrote:

Do either of the times posted at the top of this page work for you, Ferrety?

Yeah, I can do them.

Well then, I suppose the ideal time at this point is set at 10pm to 0.30am GMT on Saturday, I'll add it to the OP, along with the current list of games.

Now, let's talk games. >:} I think that, rather than using the forum's polling system, we ought to number the list of games on the roster (along with any others you can think of that you'd like to play) in order of preference; when everyone's decided on their final votes the game with the lowest total number will be the one we play next Saturday.

Feel free to give more than one game the same number — it'd obviously be a bit much to ask for everyone to make an exact choice between a bunch of games they don't know much about, but try not to assign too many games to the same higher spots — and don't feel your votes are final once you've posted them, just make sure I know you've made a change so that I can take it into account. Finally, a bit of blurb on your choices would be great.
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Here's my list, to start us off:
1- Zombie Panic Source
2- Space Station 13
3- The Hidden, Dungeon Defenders
4- Rig of Rods, No More Room in Hell, Toribash
5- Garry's Mod
6- Minecraft
7- Terraria
8- Gotham City Imposters
9- TF2
10- Blacklight Retribution
11- Moonbase Alpha, Alien Swarm, Desperate Gods
12- L4D2
13- Sanctum
14- Magicka
15- Planetside 2

I've put most of the games I've not actually played near the top; I'm interested in maybe trying something new and I've heard Moonbase Alpha is funny to subvert EDIT: Moonbase Alpha is limited to six players; and into the restricto-slum it goes. Given how busy the public SS13 server I frequent can get on Saturday nights I think it'd be best to only go for it if we can get our own server — I've downloaded the (Bay Station 12 version of the) source code myself to play solo, so I know that if you've got any port open and forwarded — such as for a Minecraft server — then it shouldn't be difficult to get running. The Hidden, too, is there on the condition that we can get something private set up: I know I've got an advantage in terms of experience and I prefer not to repeatedly tear new players to pieces because it's no fun for them, but as soon as there are randoms on the server the gloves are off I have an ego to preserve you will all die.

As I said in an earlier post, I or some other conscientious soul will have to do a bit of testing to see if the eight-player maps on Dungeon Defenders are possible to play with lower-level characters — splitting the group between smaller, four-player games would kinda defeat the purpose of this thread, which is also why I've ranked all the 4-player-capped games so much lower. Dungeon Defenders and Terraria are the only games on the current list that are not free / Minecraft-so-everyone-already-has-it; however anyone who beats the average on the current Humble Bundle but already owns DD will have a spare key going that comes with all the DLC... And besides, the HIB is value for money any day.

I think before I can get enthusiastic about playing Minecraft or Gmod I need to know what we're doing with it; just faffing about gets dull rather quickly as far as I'm concerned — same goes for Terraria, though after so long it might not be all that bad to play survival from scratch. Maybe we ought to refine the Minecraft entry on the roster to something more specific?

I'm not big on straight multiplayer FPS games, so they're consigned to the limbo between the sandboxes and the four-player-only's.

...Wow, that's kinda a wall o' text. Oh well. >.>

1 - The Hidden
2 - Minecraft
3 - Gotham City Imposters
4 - Space Station 13
5 - Dungeon Defenders
6 - L4D2
7 - Alien Swarm
8 - Moonbase Alpha
9 - No More Room In Hell
10 - Terraria
11 - TF2

(I don't own/don't have the following installed, so I can't really rank them..)
- Sanctum
- Garry's mod
- Planetside 2
- Blacklight Retribution
- Zombie Panic Source
- Magicka
- Desperate Gods
- Rig of Rods

1-No More Room In Hell
2-No More Room In Hell
3-No More Room In Hell
4-No More Room In Hell
5-The Hidden
6-TF2
7-Gotham City Imposters
8-L4D2
9-Minecraft
10-Garry's Mod

I'll just do my top 10.

For the purpose of calculating the totals, I'm going to count that as:

Dark_Plague wrote:

1-No More Room In Hell
2-The Hidden
3-TF2
4-Gotham City Imposters
5-L4D2
6-Minecraft
7-Garry's Mod
8-everything else

It'd be best if everyone could submit their preferences before Friday, so that if we end up playing something which calls for a private server, such as Minecraft or The Hidden, we'll have time to co-ordinate it in advance.

In fact let's make it official: Deadline for casting votes is the end of Thursday; if there's still a game you would like to suggest then speak now! Even if you don't have a great deal of preference, please at least post something to give us an idea of what you'd be interested in playing, and so I know you've not forgotten about this thread in the mere seven days since it was first posted.


I'm also going to add Toribash to the roster; Drago introduced it in the Multiplayer Games thread a while ago, and whilst each individual round is one-on-one servers can queue up any number of players operating on a winner-plays-next-round basis; it's a lot of fun.

Don't worry about adding it to your list if you've already made one and you're not bothered about it; any games you don't add to your list will be assigned an equal bottom value when I count them up.

1- Dungeon Defenders
2- Space Station 13
3- Rig of Rods
4- Moonbase Alpha
5- Alien Swarm
6- Sanctum
7- L4D2
8- TF2
9- The Hidden

Bloody crumpets, that took me much longer than it needed to.

1- Dungeon Defenders
2- Sanctum
3- Garry's Mod
4- Minecraft
5- Terraria
6- TF2
7- The Hidden
8- Space Station 13

aw yissss

1-Space Station 13
2-The Hidden
3-Dungeon Defenders
4-Terraria
5-Sanctum
6-Minecraft
7-TF2
8-Garry's Mod

Dungeon Defenders seems pretty popular; after a check, however, I have found the following:

—The only 8-player maps available are a couple of the challenge maps, which may or may not be DLC.
—After trying out one of the six-player maps on Easy, I've determined that it wouldn't be feasible to use level 1 characters.

If, however, there are any community-made maps out there that support eight players at a manageable difficulty level / a mod to add a lower difficulty level / a mod or tool to edit heroes, such that we wouldn't have to grind in order to play the more difficult missions (I know there are plenty that boost you straight to L99, but that'd be a bit much) then I'd love to hear about them.


Alternatively we could split into two groups, or more if we get anyone else, and play the main four-player maps — perhaps sharing a voice chat between everyone. Thoughts?

Honestly, I'd prefer that we all play on one server wherever possible. My mic is actually unusable right now, so yeah. :/

Delta wrote:

If, however, there are any community-made maps out there that support eight players at a manageable difficulty level / a mod to add a lower difficulty level / a mod or tool to edit heroes, such that we wouldn't have to grind in order to play the more difficult missions (I know there are plenty that boost you straight to L99, but that'd be a bit much) then I'd love to hear about them.

That's easy, bro. You didn't think my Lvl 40 Initiate came outta nowhere, did you?

All we need is:
- A decently leveled Summoner (Lvl 65ish or up preferred, mine's 70)
- an EXTREMELY overpowered tower-boosting pet (I have a robot that fits this job nicely)
- underleveled characters

Instructions:
1. Load up Magus Quarters on Hardcore Nightmare difficulty (make sure at least one player is equipped with the pet)
2. The summoner immediately begins collecting mana (There is only about a minute in build time) other players can help collect if they wish
3. Summoner creates archers around the crystal, and in the middle of passageways if there's spare mana
4. Fight begins, watch as all the enemies get slaughtered by the archers (Players with ranged abilities can step in to help speed up the process)
5. Fight ends, summoner creates more archers with gained mana
6. Repeat until all waves are cleared
7. WIN

This technique usually levels up underleveled characters fairly nicely.

I think what would be ideal is getting a character of each type to an appropriate level and then uploading the save-files for everyone to use; that way we don't have everyone grinding on the night. The main problem would be determining what level is appropriate for the challenges we're aiming for.

Even then the only eight player maps, of which there are perhaps three or four, are actually 'uber-monsterfests' rather than the standard game-mode; the aim is simply to kill all of the mobs before time runs out — I don't think it'd be nearly as fun: it sacrifices much of the strategy and makes many classes less effective.


...An alternative has just occurred to me: What if we hosted two separate games — and had everyone rotate between them? The players hosting would have to stay in their respective games, of course, but what if every wave one person in each lobby switched? There's some decision-mathematics in there that might pose a challenge in order to make sure everyone switched at a regular interval and played with everyone else, but it's an option; what do you think?


EDIT: I've assembled a progression that'd allow everyone, in a looping sequence of 20 waves, to play with everyone else a minimum of once every five waves, with only one pair of people swapping per wave. It looks like this. Using this model a couple of players will have to switch a time or two more than others, but it's the best I can come up with at the moment.

The remaining issue is the fact that three of us currently do not own DD: I may or may not have or be capable of acquiring an extra key from the HIB, but between Plague, Ferrety and Darkshadow that still leaves two people without access to the game; I'll need to hear from you guys about that, should the vote go to DD in the end — Ferrety, Darkshadow, you still have yet to vote.

I think I ranked Dungeon Defenders incorrectly the first time.

1 - The Hidden
2 - Minecraft
3 - Gotham City Imposters
4 - Space Station 13
5 - L4D2
6 - Alien Swarm
7 - Moonbase Alpha
8 - No More Room In Hell
9 - Terraria
10 - TF2
11 -Dungeon Defenders

Aww, and there I was just getting into spreadsheet making and decision mathematics.

The voting system is another thing I'm going to have to review for next week; for now we'll stick with the current system.

Delta wrote:

Aww, and there I was just getting into spreadsheet making and decision mathematics.

The voting system is another thing I'm going to have to review for next week; for now we'll stick with the current system.

Yeah, tbh I don't think the current system is working too well. As I just demonstrated, one person can pretty much screw the chances of a certain game being chosen. I think suggesting just one game and seeing what people think of it could be sufficient. Of course, if that doesn't work, a standard poll is better than nothing. :P

I honestly don't care what's played. If DD was picked, I'd probably be okay with buying it, I guess. My first choice would probably be Alien Swarm (free, looks interesting, never played it), but, really, I'd be fine with anything.

For mathematical purposes, give 1 to Alien Swarm and 2 to everything else.

@Drago: Or we could do it Grand-Prix style; everyone posts a top six and the points system goes '#1=9, #2=6, #3=4, #4=3, #5=2, #6=1' or some variation thereupon — more difficult to subvert a game's chances, and we could actually use the lists people have already assembled to make the determination (splitting up some of the spots I assigned more than one game to myself).

That sounds like a better system. ^_^

My vote for games:

1. Minecraft
2. Terraria
3. Alien Swarm
4. Magicka
5. TF2
6. Planetside 2

Due to my lack of money I didn't actually consider any games I'd have to pay for that I didn't already own. Except magicka, which is only on there because I was considering buying it anyway.

In total, the game with the highest score is The Hidden.

A quick run-down for those still unfamiliar with the game:

DRaGO wrote:

This game involves a squad of marines hunting down an invisible, super-powered enemy. You go in as a group, and one of you is selected to be the Hidden. If the Hidden kills off the whole squad, he wins. If the squad kills the Hidden, they win. Pretty simple, but the games can get intense and nerve-wracking.

Download it here: http://www.hidden-source.com/downloads.htm

If you've not played before, I suggest that before Saturday you attempt to join a server — any server — and if you get an error about 'verifying your Steam user ID ticket' or something along those lines, follow these steps to resolve the problem:

Delta wrote:

1) EXIT STEAM

2) Navigate to Steam folder - C:/Program Files/Steam/

3) Delete ALL files and folders in "Steam" EXCEPT the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe (I backed up the files I deleted, as a precaution)

4) RESTART STEAM

5) REINSTALL HIDDEN (after deleting files and folders from C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\sourcemods\hidden and C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\sourcemods\hidden-4a)

6) RESTART STEAM again.

If you arrive on Saturday having not checked, and find yourself unable to join the server, you shall receive zero sympathy points.
Plague, could you have a shot at setting up a server for us?

Kitty, I seem to recall you mentioning a while back that you'd figured out how to set Skype to push-to-talk; could you enlighten me? It's perhaps not necessary for The Hidden, but in other games like DD which have a relatively poor codec it might be best to use a separate voice-chat.

Delta wrote:

Kitty, I seem to recall you mentioning a while back that you'd figured out how to set Skype to push-to-talk; could you enlighten me? It's perhaps not necessary for The Hidden, but in other games like DD which have a relatively poor codec it might be best to use a separate voice-chat.

Open Skype, go Tools>Options>Advanced>Hotkeys, check this option and bind it to a key:


Just remember to mute your mic everytime you start voice chat, otherwise you'll have the opposite effect of what you want (aka Push-To-Mute)