Thirith on 28/1/2017 at 19:27
Next week we're returning to Arma 2/Operation Arrowhead for the first hour, followed by some zombie coop goodness in Left 4 Dead 2. Since it looks like Mumble's the better option than Teamspeak, anyone planning to join should install it. More details to follow in a few days.
PigLick on 29/1/2017 at 02:59
I have both of those!
Thirith on 29/1/2017 at 21:40
Side note: Ghost Recon Wildlands looks like it might be cool for four-player coop. In a somewhat Ubisoft way, sure, but I'd still be up for checking that one out at some point.
Thirith on 1/2/2017 at 07:40
Saturday sees our glorious return to Chernarus and Takistan, where we will die in the mud fighting our greatest enemy:
Arma's user interface. However, that's just for the first hour (more or less); afterwards we'll give
Left 4 Dead 2 a try, hoping that the gods of Ping will be on our side. (Depending on how many people turn up, we'll either split into two coop groups or play in Versus mode.)
Date: Saturday, 4 February 2017
Time: 4-6pm UK time
Game: Arma 2/Operation Arrowhead and Left 4 Dead 2Things to note:
* Bring a headset!
And download Mumble! (We're giving good old Teamspeak 3 a break.)
* While we're not using any compulsory mods, client-side quality-of-life mods like sthud are allowed.
* Anyone's welcome to join, absolute beginners as well as old hands. Since
Arma is a bit fickle, perhaps check out the instructions on the Steam group first or send me a PM.
I'll be online a bit before 4pm to set up the server and check who's on Steam. Hoping to see you there!
P.S.: Mumble seems to plug into
L4D quite easily, allowing for... *cue celestial fanfares* ... positional audio. I'd suggest that we try this out, so I'll know which direction to expect the friendly fire from, but if it doesn't work within 1-2 minutes we'll jettison the plan. Anyway, (
https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Positional-Audio) this page explains how it's all set up - it's quite simple, unless like Muggins here you skip the instructions and forget to activate the function...
Thirith on 4/2/2017 at 18:25
Very nice session of Arma II, in spite of technical issues (apparently it's a VRAM problem that was never solved, at least not permanently). Positional audio (thanks to Mumble and mod magic) adds a lot to the game. Also: we played two missions and won both, which must be a first in the annals of TTLG playing Arma.
Malf on 6/2/2017 at 11:45
Yeah, nice to see positional audio working so well, and I'd like to try it in other games, for sure.
As for this coming Saturday (the 11th of February), I'm up for being the host, but what do we fancy?
I'd really like to continue our Satellite Reign campaign, but am conscious that it limits the number of participants to 4.
ZDaemon worked nicely last time, and we can pick co-op servers there that would support potentially many more players than just 4.
As we didn't get around to playing L4D2 at the weekend, I'm willing to give that a shot this weekend if anyone else fancies a go, but again, that tops off at 4 players in co-op unless we go for a "Versus" session, but that doesn't really work without 8 total.
The Mumble server's still up and running on my little Pi. Connection details are in the Announcements section of The Fighting TTLGers Steam Group. The list of games that support positional audio over Mumble can be found (
https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Games) here, and if anyone has a particular pining to play one of those in co-op, pipe up here!
Interestingly, I note Minecraft supports positional audio, and there's a lot of stuff out there regarding setting up a Pi as a Minecraft server. I wouldn't be averse to buying another Pi 3 and setting up a permanent Minecraft server, or even seeing if my current Pi 3's powerful enough to run both Mumble
and Minecraft. Hmmm, project!
Thirith on 6/2/2017 at 13:17
Thanks for hosting the next session, Malf! I'm not sure I'll be there on Saturday, as we've got a friend coming over from the UK, and if I am I might not be there the entire time, so I'm obviously okay letting others decide. I have some ideas and feedback, though.
* Since there are a lot of games that do four-player coop and few that allow for more players, I think it's fair that we don't pick a game for more than four every week - since we've started having someone different responsible for the Saturday session every week, this means that before long there'll be a session where we play a game that accommodates more than four. What do the others think, though?
* Talking of positional audio: if I'm not mistaken, Mumble should provide positional audio for GTA out of the box (we'd just have to deactivate in-game voice chat). That might make the game feel more fresh even for those of us who've been at it for a long time. In addition, depending on how many people are around for a game, it's always possible for a few of them to go off and play or replay a heist mission before getting together again.
* I'd be up for some Minecraft at some point; I've got it for VR but haven't played much, mainly because I don't have enough of a clue how it all works and I'm still mostly stuck in deep space thanks to Elite Dangerous. I could imagine donning the geek helmet (CHA-3) for some TTLG-flavoured crafts and mining, though.
* I'd also be up for more Satellite Reign and some ZDaemon.
Malf on 9/2/2017 at 10:04
Right, a little late with an official announcement, so without further ado...
Satellite Reign
Saturday the 11th of February
16:00-18:00 GMT
This is of course assuming that only four folk attend. If more turn up, we'll look at playing some random co-op campaign over on ZDaemon.
Voice will be on the Mumble server, with details in the Announcements tab of The Fighting TTLGers Steam group.
Thirith on 13/2/2017 at 07:18
Although I was just there for the first time, and the Support guy I was controlling had a worrisome tendency to find himself in the spotlight when infiltrating bases, I very much enjoyed the session yet again. Thanks for organising it, Malf!
I'm still a bit lost with respect to how Satellite Reign's various systems work together, so I've started playing some of the single player to get used to the game. Practice makes, well, if not perfect then at least slightly less bad!
Malf on 13/2/2017 at 10:24
I think the game really shines in co-op thanks to sensible division of tasks. I think it's actually better in co-op to be completely honest. Controlling all four at the same time can wear you down over time, but with 4 people each controlling one character, you get some nice dynamics forming. We really need some bigger guns though, 'cos beyond explosives, the Soldier doesn't really pull its weight until they're available.
Your Support agent's actually in a pretty good place at the moment, with all its core abilities available. You now have deployable ammo packs, the healing ability and the slow time button. You should go for clones with high energy and back that up with maybe the energy generator body augmentation now. Pack Mule's also really useful, but that goes for all classes to be honest.
I may load up my last single player save to get an idea of what we should be aiming for, as my team have all the research completed, all the gear bought and all the skills unlocked. They're pretty much optimised for maximum effectiveness. I just haven't done the last mission.
