The "What are you playing now?" Thread

[Jack Brickman]

Me and one of my buddies ended up getting two randoms who seemed horribly incompetent. They were at some random island that they didn't have a mission for and there was a skull cloud in the sky, so we just took the ship and booked it. They stayed on the island for a time before teleporting back, and then the one guy kept trying to drop the anchor and the other kept slashing at me with his sword while I was on the wheel.

We got to the skull fort and there were two other galleons there already and a third off in the distance heading that way as well. We ended up somehow fending off all three despite having planks on our ship when we got there to do repairs (although we grabbed some from the island).

That was one of the most tense video game battles I've been in. There was almost zero margin for error there. If we had been hit below the water line at any point early on, we would have lost our ship. Instead, the other ships impossibly kept hitting us either above the line or missed entirely.

Sadly, I was without my typical explosive barrel stockpile, but I still managed to stealthily dive into the water and grab onto the ladder on the other side of an enemy ship as it passed. I waited on the ladder for about a minute or so to give my ship time to get some distance so the enemy pirates would let their guard down. I could hear them talking shit about my ship's crew, not knowing that my ship was just playing bait.

One of their guys announced he was going to the crow's nest. I made my move and climbed up behind him. I shot him in the back for a one shot kill. Now, there's no kill cam or kill ticker in this game, so all he knew was that he died and not how. He assumed he was sniped, and I could hear him complaining about aimbot.

I took that opportunity to check out the ship below me. The sails were angled perfectly to allow me to jump down from the crow's nest to the upper deck behind the guy steering their ship. I dropped down behind him and fed him my shotgun. The third guy was manning their cannons. I walked up behind him and gave him the same death. Their last guy was at the very front of the ship looking through his spyglass, and he died just like the rest.

I took out their entire four man crew in about a minute without any of them knowing how they died. Then I dropped the anchor on their ship (I had no way of destroying it and didn't want to crash it into the skull isle, as I didn't want them to be there) and then fired myself out of their cannon onto the island to make my getaway.

I got back on their ship a couple of minutes later and they were all recovering. I heard them trying to figure out why they weren't moving. It took them about twenty seconds to figure out their anchor was down.

We ended up somehow scaring off the other three ships long enough to beat the boss of the skull fort, grab the three most valuable items, and make our escape to an outpost to sell our booty.

Now that was fucking fun. And those no mic randoms somehow pulled through and did just enough to help us stay alive.

 

[BMAN]

Beat Mario, it was great. I keep dying in Breath of the Wild

 

[Chris]

Wasn't hype at all for Far Cry 5 until I watched the opening 2 hours on a stream yesterday. One of the best intros to a game I've ever seen. Game looks way better than I thought.

Will be Day One-ing it I think.

 

[Jack Brickman]

One of the smaller joys of Sea of Thieves is that, if you die in the same area an enemy dies, you both end up on the Ship of the Damned while you wait to respawn. This seems like a small deal, but what it allows you to do is talk shit to a guy you killed if you happen to die shortly after, or if, like me, you're prone to using explosive barrels on suicide bombing runs.

Mind you, I won't talk shit to everyone. If we are the aggressors and I kill a dude, I'm not gonna be an asshole about it. But we had several instances tonight where other ships just kept coming at us and we just kept killing the same crews over and over again, and it was pretty glorious to end up on the Ship of the Damned with them and remind them how bad they are.

Had an awesome crew earlier tonight and we made a ton of money, took down two skull forts, and did several missions. We also had a fun moment where we ran into another ship (a sloop, whereas we were in the larger galleon) parked off the island we were going to. We weren't really interested in PvP at the time, so we ended up talking it out with them. They were there hunting treasure. We were there to kill skeletons. We had a chat with them and let them go on their merry way while we did our thing. However, before they left, another sloop showed up and, for some dumbass reason, decided to open fire on us. The other sloop was leaving at that time, so they were nice enough to lend us a hand and pepper the enemy ship with a few additional cannons on their way out.

Sometimes it pays to be nice.

 

[TyGuy]

I'm having a problem where I just end up with shitty crews that dont talk. I see a chatbox overt heir head, so I can't tell if the in game chat isn't working or they just aren't using their mics.

I'd like to be on a competent crew searching for adventure. Also, is their a separate sensitivity slider for manning the cannons or going into first person view? I play with a lower sensitivity like my other games. It takes about 30 cm of mouse movement for me to do a 360 degree turn. Which isn't crazy low, but the canons are unbelievably slow to move, and so is aiming my hand gun.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I'm having a problem where I just end up with shitty crews that dont talk. I see a chatbox overt heir head, so I can't tell if the in game chat isn't working or they just aren't using their mics.

I'd like to be on a competent crew searching for adventure. Also, is their a separate sensitivity slider for manning the cannons or going into first person view? I play with a lower sensitivity like my other games. It takes about 30 cm of mouse movement for me to do a 360 degree turn. Which isn't crazy low, but the canons are unbelievably slow to move, and so is aiming my hand gun.

If I end up on a shitty crew, I just leave and re-search until I find a group that talks. I mostly haven't had an issue finding competent teammates. Sometimes it takes a couple of searches, but considering that, once you find a good crew, you may spend two hours with them, so I'm willing to spend five to ten minutes looking.

I also make sure to add anyone who I have a good time with as an Xbox friend. I've already added around a dozen people, so I usually have at least one other person to play with who knows what they're doing, which goes a long way.

 

[TyGuy]

If I end up on a shitty crew, I just leave and re-search until I find a group that talks. I mostly haven't had an issue finding competent teammates. Sometimes it takes a couple of searches, but considering that, once you find a good crew, you may spend two hours with them, so I'm willing to spend five to ten minutes looking.

I also make sure to add anyone who I have a good time with as an Xbox friend. I've already added around a dozen people, so I usually have at least one other person to play with who knows what they're doing, which goes a long way.

Can you add them as an xbox friend in game? Or do you have to manually add them using the xbxo app?

How much time do you think you need to dedicate to a play session? Sometimes I only have maybe 30 minutes. I think you might need minimum of an hour here.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Can you add them as an xbox friend in game? Or do you have to manually add them using the xbxo app?

How much time do you think you need to dedicate to a play session? Sometimes I only have maybe 30 minutes. I think you might need minimum of an hour here.

On the pause menu there's a My Crew section. You click on a crew member and then pick the option to open their profile, which opens it in game. There, there's an Add Friend option.

And how long you need really depends on how the game shakes out. If you get into a naval battle, you could be looking at the long haul. Otherwise, most quests seem to be able to be resolved in twenty to thirty minutes, if not less. It just depends how many islands they send you to.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Serious question, and I don't play but have enjoyed this thread. What happens if you gotta take a massive shit? Do your mates play on without you? Is there a 4 way pause until the deed is complete? I might take 20 minutes at times....hope there is patience....

 

[Jack Brickman]

If you've got a four man crew, you can just tell them you need a few minutes and generally they can cover for you. Sailing to islands far away can take five to ten minutes sometimes, and missions can generally be done by one or two people if necessary. It's really not much of an issue unless you're actively in combat with another ship.

 

[TyGuy]

Just don't take a shit if you get rolled up on. Jack, is there something to aiming the cannons? It takes like 50 mouse swipes to line them up.

 

[gourimoko]

If you've got a four man crew, you can just tell them you need a few minutes and generally they can cover for you. Sailing to islands far away can take five to ten minutes sometimes, and missions can generally be done by one or two people if necessary. It's really not much of an issue unless you're actively in combat with another ship.

This game seems hella interesting...

 

[Jack Brickman]

Just don't take a shit if you get rolled up on. Jack, is there something to aiming the cannons? It takes like 50 mouse swipes to line them up.

The cannons do move slower than your regular aim, but I haven't found it to be an issue and it's obviously by design (moving a cannon would naturally take more effort than simply aiming a pistol). Not sure what your DPI is, though. If it's super low, that's probably the issue.

This game seems hella interesting...

It's a lot of fun if you're into co-op games. I wouldn't recommend it if you want a solo experience. You can play it alone, and the sloop is pretty easy to use as a solo player, but the game is clearly designed to be played with at least two people. For one, having someone to watch your back is key, because if you're on an island you'll often leave view of your ship, which means time for other ships to get the drop on you. Additionally, it's just much more fun to have people to chat with during the longer voyages.

Plus, the bigger ship takes some actual work to get moving. You can do it by yourself, and I regularly do while my crew members are on shore to get the ship into a better position for them to return with loot, and sometimes to offer them fire support from the ship's cannons (there's no friendly fire in the game). However, there's zero chance you could effectively pilot the galleon solo long-term. It's just too much work between the three sails, the anchor that takes forever to pull up by yourself (up to four people can work the anchor at once, though, which raises it a hell of a lot faster), and the steering wheel.

 

[TyGuy]

Yeah, I get the design decision about moving cannons slower, but my word is it slow. I'm playing at 800 DPI and I think 1.2 sens in game? I'll have to check when I get home.

I tried bumping up to 1600 DPI and a step switch on my mouse but it still felt too slow.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Yeah, I get the design decision about moving cannons slower, but my word is it slow. I'm playing at 800 DPI and I think 1.2 sens in game? I'll have to check when I get home.

I tried bumping up to 1600 DPI and a step switch on my mouse but it still felt too slow.

It really hasn't been an issue for me. I mean, they definitely move slow, but it's rarely been a deciding factor in anything since, for the most part, you're only getting a couple of good shots off at a time in any given naval battle before your ship and the enemy ship are no longer in a good firing position.

And if their ship is, for example, heading directly at you for a ram, you don't really have to move the cannon anyway and just need to keep reloading and firing.

Ramming in this game, while it seems like a great idea on paper, really is a terrible tactic against a competent crew. Other teams keep trying to ram us with their ship while ours is parked and we just demolish them because you just get free shots at them the entire approach, and then the ram itself does damage to your ship and theirs roughly equally. The difference, of course, is that my ship wasn't eating cannonballs the entire approach and theirs was.