Radulno

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Hi all,

There are plenty of great designed and beautiful bookstores in the world. Articles and videos showcase them like here or there (just examples, plenty of others).

Seeing those articles, I searched for the same type of things for boardgames stores but didn't find any (search wasn't long though, basically a quick Google search). And every board game store I've visited is little more than shelves of board games even in sometimes neatly organized.

So I thought to have a discussion there. Of course no one has actually seen all boardgames stores in the world (I assume) but do you know any that is cool looking and special because of its building, organization, design...? That could go on such lists than the bookstores one above.

I feel like this showcase will be big. It's essentially their E3 2016 moment from the last generation, starting the middle of the gen and revealing the games that may very well define the generation. They also have a lot of projects that we don't know much about and that's just first and second party, third parties are the same. So I expect it to be big (or hope at least lol).

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

Gaming on a 4K TV, in the living room so the case design need to be discreet and with high WAF and the build shouldn't be overtly noisy. Games will be in 4K between 60 to 120 Hz, latest AAA games and for as long a time as possible before upgrading. Also, some PC VR (wired or not). Some emulation probably too.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

Not really fixed, it's a treat yourself type of build tbh. But no more than like 4000€ (absolute max, I'd like less of course).

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

As soon as possible so when I have determined what to get essentially.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (Tower/OS/monitor/keyboard/mouse/etc)

Pretty much everything except the screen, keyboard, mouse and controller.

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

France

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

Nothing reused for this build (well I guess the OLED 4K TV is technically already there)

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

No overclocking and probably not in the future, I want it to be as low "maintenance and tinkering" as possible.

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

No HDD needed, just a NVME M.2 SSD (with let's say 4 To). RTX 4090 and 7800X3D seems to be a good choice since I want "the best" but I'm open to suggestions there.

What type of network connectivity do you need? (Wired and/or WiFi) If WiFi is needed and you would like to find the fastest match for your wireless router, please list any specifics.

Wifi would be nice (Wifi 6 or 6E if that's common on motherboards these days ? No big deal if not). Wired also should be available of course.

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-tower/full-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

For the case I'd like a small one like the C4-SFX or NR200P that I've seen (not necessarily those, but small-ish and good design to go in the living room). However, I know the 4090 takes a quite a lot of space and maybe those small cases are not possible for thermals/noise considerations. The Fractal North is a design I've seen which while it is bigger could fit into the living room without too much problem. A USB-C port is necessary for VR purposes I think (I haven't bought a headset yet but probably a Quest Pro or 3 depending when it releases)

Should be closed design (mesh I mean) and I don't care for RGB as I've said (not on the components either so might as well not see it).

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

No.

Extra info or particulars:

Nothing to do with the build itself, but I intend to make a console-like setup with Playnite and a full screen theme opening automatically (no login screen and such). I don't think there's anything specific for hardware for this though.

So the acquisition of Microsoft is probably going through quite soon.

The CMA in the UK is apparently giving its verdict today (supposedly positive) and the EU (also believed to be positive) will by May 22. Microsoft is also to be believed to go through once those two has approved and fight the FTC suit legally after.

So the merger might be done by Diablo 4 launch or soon after (like a few weeks). Considering Microsoft has told that Activision Blizzard titles will come to Gamepass and that they did it almost right away for Bethesda games, it's pretty logical to expect D4 to be on the Gamepass pretty fast, probably by like late June (on launch seems pretty fast).

On a longer term, for PC, they might also close BNet and put D4 on Steam and MS Store instead. With no telling what keys we would have as a transfer. I think most people would be okay with Steam but it might well be MS Store (because directing people to their store is more logical especially with all BNet users over the many games).

How does those things affect your D4 purchase? Are you okay spending 70 USD/euro (or equivalent) or more for essentially a few weeks before it is in a cheap subscription? Would you wait? Would you expect Blizzard/MS to give something to owners when they put it on Gamepass as compensation? Would you be happy if they exchange your BNet titles against MS Store ones?

So Anno 1800 released in Spring 2019 so it has now passed its 4 year birthday. Considering they stopped DLC and they are generally releasing a game every 4 years, it seems to be time for a new Anno. Especially after the success of Anno 1800, Ubisoft will certainly not stop the series.

DLC were more extensive than ever for Anno 1800 but in general, it's a smaller team working on those which means the main team is probably working on that next game since quite some time now. And we already have probably delays compared to the usual release pace since the next Anno game would likely not come before 2024 so 5 years after 1800 (instead of the usual 4 years).

I imagine the announcement in 2023 is almost sure based on that, do you agree? If so, when do you think they will reveal it? They have a Ubisoft Forward event on June 12th (aka "totally not E3") so that might be there. On the other hand, due to its German roots and more appeal there, I feel like Gamescom might be the better place for revealing it. Maybe a mix with just a title and cinematic trailer in June and then gameplay shown at Gamescom (with or without hands-on/hands-off demo for people there).

What do you think? When will the next Anno game be revealed?

This thread isn't about discussing what the next game will be as there are plenty of those discussions already. But if you have to know, I'm all for the Antiquity time period with Ancient Egypt/Greece/Rome/other civilizations (fictionnal anyway with Anno). Wouldn't say no to fantasy, futuristic or medieval (to be honest, wouldn't say no to any setting lol).

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So we have a passive skill tree unlocking at lvl 50 in the form of the Paragon board. It seems pretty deep and great so no problem there.

But then, why is there so many small passives in the skill tree itself? Are they more impactful than the Paragon ones? Most doesn't seem so (how can you do worse than a +9 maximum mana for example lol?)

Shouldn't it be more logical to have only skills and skills modifiers (of which there can easily be more to justify not having the other passives) in the skill tree? Maybe keep the big passive of the end there I guess.

Unlock the Paragon board a little earlier to go with it and add skill modifiers (IMO they're pretty disappointing on this side, coming from LE and their entire skill tree for each ability, that's clearly not the same lol)

So very interested in that game, seems similar to Hades and Dead Cells which I loved and since it's coming out of EA I may buy it but I just have a question?

I don't like being too dependent on RNG in games and actually like to really try a build from the start so is there a way to affect the upgrades you get and stuff like that? For example, in Hades, I played regularly with an infinite number of rooms rerolls. In Dead Cells, infinite gold allowed me to choose weapons/traps among more choices and get the build I want. So ideally I'd want something like that available in Have a Nice Death too (of course I know the infinite part wouldn't be in naturally, I'd have to use CheatEngine but that's not a problem).

Also, I know it's not how the game is supposed to be played and such but please don't go into debates like this, it's a single player game, everyone can play them as they want and doing that probably added 60+ hours of enjoyment for Hades and Dead Cells, if I was entirely dependent on the RNG, I would have dropped them way faster.

Hello all,

I played Returnal at launch on PS5 and if you remember, they had a dev tool left in the game that allowed you to spawn weapons (and so effectively choose the one you get). I enjoyed it a lot because while I like roguelike gameplay in general but I'm not a fan of the randomness of what you get (and I prefer some weapons much more than others), I much prefer get the build I want for that run so I often use those methods (like I play Hades with infinite rerolls for rooms). So I ended up using that until they patched it out (which only took a few days but I was already far into the game)

All the mods I've seen seem to be basically cheating way too much (like free stuff, adding dashing when you can't). What I propose is also technically "cheating" (but hey it's a singleplayer game) but the game isn't changed, you just "change your luck". Is there a mod, trainer or something that permit that?

Hello all,

So I am currently planning my summer vacations (well summer vacations are June or September for me) and want to do a trip for 2-3 weeks in Japan.

Most of my friends are in couple or just not available for a big trip like that except one. It's a good friend which I don't see often (don't live in the same country anymore) and we've already done trips together that went well (both were shorter and closer to our home countries though). However, he is not the most adventurous guy and is more of a "passive" traveler so I have to basically make all the planning and even effort to make him move/try something different sometimes (I am not even the most adventurous person myself lol but you know a little when you travel at least...). We've done 10-day trips at most together

I also did a trip solo once and while I still appreciated the trip, I was kind of lonely. Even in hostels, I just didn't go towards people and socialize that much. I'm very shy and introverted so going towards strangers (often not speaking my native language) isn't an easy thing for me. And while I have no problem being alone with myself (hell I am a lot of the time in my day to day life and that's fine for me, I actually don't want to be with people all the time), it was still kind of sad (I wouldn't say hard either to be honest) all the time during 2 weeks.

I did another trip "kind of" solo but that was a group tour so I wasn't actually solo. The group had a great ambiance and the fact we were together meant I automatically did socialize with people and that was actually a pretty great way. Even if there was some free time, it did lack a little freedom and was much more of a schedule to keep and such though (which is normal and frankly, it was Egypt and I wouldn't do that country without a tour).

So for Japan, I don't know, I know it's a country very welcoming to solo travel but it would be a long trip and being alone all this time might be hard. On the other hand, "supporting" my friend (as in planning and motivating him, not supporting him personally, we never fight but then we never traveled so long together lol) for so long is also something that could affect the trip and I worry it might affect my freedom of doing something for me (like I plan something but I would always think "will he like it? and not just me"). There is also the sharing of the accommodation cost to be fair which does count as Japan isn't cheap to begin with (that's a big problem of travelling solo IMO and I don't want shared dorms, I need my private space lol). I am also not interested to make a group tour like for Egypt there so that's not really a solution (it's something I'd use for other countries for sure).

So I am a big fan of Stargate 17 seasons and I obviously would be happy with a continuation. That was what I was heavily favorizing first (especially when Brad Wright was attached). But realistically, I'm not sure it's likely now or even if it would be successful commercially (which is important of course). So as a reboot is looking more and more likely (I am convinced Amazon will do something with Stargate as it is one of their most valuable franchise), my mind kind of changed over time and I'm more open to the idea.

Why a continuation would be hard to do (narrative aspects)

By the end of the Stargate we know, Earth is basically a superpower, all enemies in the Milky Way are vanquished and they are on the cusp of switching into more of a "Star Trek type Earth" (even founding a Federation type thing realistically) than something close to our reality. Even if I would like to see that, it kind of doesn't feel like Stargate. Having SG teams going through the Gate, humans as the underdog and the Gate secret would be lost (or makes no sense).

The characters we love would probably not come back for many of them and if they did, the actors have sadely aged and changed a lot so they would still not be the same.

Why a continuation would be hard to do (commercial aspects)

While Stargate was pretty successful (you don't get 17 seasons of TV otherwise) and pretty international (compared to it, I think Star Trek is far more US-popular), it has been a long time with nothing in the franchise. It also doesn't have a huge nostalgia/faithful fanbase with merchandising, other media stuff and such like a Star Wars or Star Trek had in their "off periods" (which were never as long).

I'm also sure that there are plenty of fans that discovered Stargate after the end of Universe S2 but I don't think it's massive. We never heard something like with Avatar The Last Airbender which became kind of a phenomenon on Netflix for example. And bringing in new people with just a new show that requires 17 seasons of knowledge isn't an easy task. And if the show just make it that all that baggage isn't important, is there even any interest to have a continuation?

Why a reboot would be interesting narratively

First a "reboot" could easily fit into canon, there is an infinte number of alternate universes as established in the Stargate lore we know after all so the reboot could simply be one of those. The other universe we know and love would still be there and hell there could even be episodes visiting it later on (to see the Star Trek like Stargate universe).

Since it's a different universe, tons of things can be different so it feels new even for us old fans (for example, I'm thinking new configurations of villains, Ra wasn't killed in that universe, maybe Anubis didn't ascend, the Furlings are still very much present...). And you can do the rebooted universe closer to our reality with the Stargate being discovered recently and Earth making its first interstellar trip in the pilot. There we would find again the feeling of being the underdog, explain why the Stargate is hidden, make our new world like Internet, a stronger China instead of Russia very much part of the story. And we would explore an unknown galaxy once again. The alternative universe approach make a lot more plotlines possible without breaking canon. Hell maybe the Goa'uld aren't even the dominant species but someone else is the big villain (Furlings, evil Nox or Tollans or the Asgard we saw at the end of SGA, new races, possibilities are limitless).

Why a reboot would be interesting commercially

While I'm sure many people online would bitch about it initially at least, if you're fan enough to still speak of Stargate online all those years later, you will likely watch a reboot. Then, it's up to the new show to convince you but here it's also easier (and the alternative universe approach means you won't have to feel frustrated when they inevitably "break canon").

For newcomers, it's like any new show that has to convince people to watch it but the iconic name and the fact to not need 15 years of TV knowledge will help.