What is noscope? And other "stupid" questions about games you've been too afraid to ask.

[DudeistBelieve]

In Killzone 1 on the PS2, the Sniper Rifle was a one hit kill. It didn't give a targeting reticul when you were scoped though, but then I quickly realized I could just stick a piece of tape on the screen and went about slaughtering people online

....

At least until they patched it to make 100% in accurate when you don't use the scope.

(Fond memories of Killzone 1, I don't know why more people don't talk about that games' online)

I never played the multiplayer, but as I remember it (loved the game back in the day, played through it many times), the sniper rifle in KZ1 did have a reticule. In fact it was kinda distinctive in that it didn't work like a normal one: when you scoped in, moving the right stick would move the reticule around the screen instead of moving the screen with the reticule staying in the center. It was the sort of thing that would have worked just fine with a mouse, but I remember it being kinda challenging with an analog stick, since the reticule wanted to rubber band back to the center.

I usually ended up using the ISA SMG's alt-fire as a sniper a lot because it balanced out as being better than the actual sniper rifle for sniping. The SMG's alt fire had more spread, but the suppressor made it so if you missed, the enemy usually couldn't tell where you were even though they were alerted. They'd try to hunker down instead of returning fire, but since they couldn't tell where they were being shot at from, there was a decent chance they'd hunker down in a position that left them exposed on your side. And of course the scope reticule behaved like a normal scope reticule instead of the weird way the actual sniper rifle's did.

Never beat the campaign, but what I played of it I loved playing as Rico with that massive gun of his.

 

[Zhukov]

[snippety]

[snip]

Thanks guys.

Those were very well written replies.

 

[sageoftruth]

In fighting games, can someone explain what Okizeme means, and what it means for a fighter to have good/bad Okizeme?

Ok so "okizeme" is about the options a character has after knocking an opponent to the ground. Fighting games have so many different ways to attack(lows, highs, cross-ups, throws) that require different defensive moves. After dropping an opponent on the ground, no matter what you get to make the next offensive move and they have to respond to it. A good okizeme character like Akuma in Street Fighter 4 forces your opponent to either guess ahead of time what you're is going to do or respond to it at the very last second. The word "okizeme" comes from Japanese martial arts and was applied to Street Fighter back in the day and eventually became part of fighting game lingo. "Vortex" is sometimes used instead among English speakers, but it means the same thing.

Thanks. If you have a moment, could you explain what gives Akuma in particular good Okizeme? I understand that his air fireball can force people to block as soon as they stand. Would that be it, or are there other things about him that make him a good Okizeme character?

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

 

[syaoran728]

Thanks. If you have a moment, could you explain what gives Akuma in particular good Okizeme? I understand that his air fireball can force people to block as soon as they stand. Would that be it, or are there other things about him that make him a good Okizeme character?

I'm no Street Fighter expert, but I think it has to do with his high mobility. Sorry I can't be much help there.

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

A rougelike game has two main qualities:
1. Death is permanent(Some rougelikes have easier difficulty settings that remove this)
2. The levels, resources, and enemies are randomly generated to keep each game different.

 

[Brennan]

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

There's a fair bit of play in the definition, depending on who you ask, but the basics are:

1)Procedurally or randomly generated maps/levels.
2)Permadeath within a "campaign" (i.e. no respawning, only one save that overwrites with each new save, and in some cases can only be reloaded once before it has to be overwritten with a new save: progress or give up are the only options)

FTL is a roguelike. XCom is a rougelike if you play on "ironman" settings. Dwarf Fortress is a roguelike.

Some more aggressive purists would say it has to be "like Rogue" in ALL it's particulars, such as it has to be top-down 2D, among other things. Personally I'm of the belief that such categories are most utilitarian when paired down to only the most inarguable core elements. I would call "Routine" a roguelike, but Yahtzee would call it a "roguelike-like" and a fundamentalist would call it not a roguelike at all.

 

[sageoftruth]

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

Here's where I first learned about them:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Roguelike

It'll give a far more detailed answer than anything I can conjure up.

 

[DoPo]

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

You already got two responses, I'll just try to make it short by covering the etymology: there was a really old game called Rogue - it has random levels and loot (or some sort of random resources) and when you die, it nukes your save. Well, those are the characteristics of a roguelike - they are literally called after that one game. That's about everything you need to know about what roguelike is, really - permadeath, random levels.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

Thanks. If you have a moment, could you explain what gives Akuma in particular good Okizeme? I understand that his air fireball can force people to block as soon as they stand. Would that be it, or are there other things about him that make him a good Okizeme character?

I'm no Street Fighter expert, but I think it has to do with his high mobility. Sorry I can't be much help there.

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

A rougelike game has two main qualities:
1. Death is permanent(Some rougelikes have easier difficulty settings that remove this)
2. The levels, resources, and enemies are randomly generated to keep each game different.

OK, i got one that might be dumb. what exactly does it mean when a game is a "rougelike" or has roguelike characteristics, i assume it's a type of game like "rpg elements" but rougelike is not a genre i know of. anyone help me out with this one?

There's a fair bit of play in the definition, depending on who you ask, but the basics are:

1)Procedurally or randomly generated maps/levels.
2)Permadeath within a "campaign" (i.e. no respawning, only one save that overwrites with each new save, and in some cases can only be reloaded once before it has to be overwritten with a new save: progress or give up are the only options)

FTL is a roguelike. XCom is a rougelike if you play on "ironman" settings. Dwarf Fortress is a roguelike.

Some more aggressive purists would say it has to be "like Rogue" in ALL it's particulars, such as it has to be top-down 2D, among other things. Personally I'm of the belief that such categories are most utilitarian when paired down to only the most inarguable core elements. I would call "Routine" a roguelike, but Yahtzee would call it a "roguelike-like" and a fundamentalist would call it not a roguelike at all.

Thank you!

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

OK, a sort of question I know the answer to. Why the noob hate? Noobs mean fresh blood into your MP game. More players will mean the community you love will thrive longer. Why the short sightedness?

 

[DoPo]

OK, a sort of question I know the answer to. Why the noob hate? Noobs mean fresh blood into your MP game. More players will mean the community you love will thrive longer. Why the short sightedness?

There are two contending definitions of "noob" and I think you (and a lot of other people) get them mixed up. Normally "noob" is somebody who can't play the game and doesn't even want to learn and as a result, overall, pretty much spoils the game for the rest of the team (at least, if not for everybody). All the time. That's why noobs get flack, used as an insult, it is something like "perpetual loser", not just "unfortunate" or "less skilled for the moment".

The other definition is what people misattribute it, namely, a "newb" or a "newbie". These are new players and as result are not that good. Yet. Yes, they can learn and yes, they don't deserve the hate for just joining up. At worse, they can, say, join in a skilled match of some sort and drag the game down. But I don't think they deserve really much flak for that. But what people are confusing them with is noobs. The two are different - so one is a bad player the other is a new player. Sure a new guy could be bad, but that's not unusual and it's, in fact, expected hence the distinction. But to many, the distinction is lost, which leads to the intermixing of the two.

 

[J Tyran]

I have a question: How hot is too hot? I do all my gaming on a laptop (Lenovo y510p), which I have little to no technical knowledge of. If a play games like Farcry 4, with full graphics, it's not quite as hot as a hair dryer in heat, but still kinda hot. Is this kind of heat harmful? I can add a cooling module, I think. Is any kind of heat exhaust harmful? Games that use the Source engine on this laptop are quite cool, but most modern AAA games can be somewhat scalding. Am I harming my computer?

Yes and no, no because if you're using a laptop that can play Far Cry 4 I guess its fairly new (2-3yrs max I bet) and it will naturally start throttling itself once it starts getting towards the kind of temperatures that would damage the hardware and can instantly turn off if it hits temperatures where damage can occur in seconds.

Yes because thermal throttling just prevents a very rapid burn due to extremely high temperatures and won't protect the hardware from the natural effects of high temperatures over time, heat degrades and shortens the lifespan of electronics so if a PC/notebook is running over 90° or so for a lot of the time you are shortening the service life of the device.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

snip

There are two contending definitions of "noob" and I think you (and a lot of other people) get them mixed up. Normally "noob" is somebody who can't play the game and doesn't even want to learn and as a result, overall, pretty much spoils the game for the rest of the team (at least, if not for everybody). All the time. That's why noobs get flack, used as an insult, it is something like "perpetual loser", not just "unfortunate" or "less skilled for the moment".

The other definition is what people misattribute it, namely, a "newb" or a "newbie". These are new players and as result are not that good. Yet. Yes, they can learn and yes, they don't deserve the hate for just joining up. At worse, they can, say, join in a skilled match of some sort and drag the game down. But I don't think they deserve really much flak for that. But what people are confusing them with is noobs. The two are different - so one is a bad player the other is a new player. Sure a new guy could be bad, but that's not unusual and it's, in fact, expected hence the distinction. But to many, the distinction is lost, which leads to the intermixing of the two.

wow, i've learnt something new there. for me, ive really struggled to find a community ive felt welcome in enough to stick it out n "git gud"
during the day i work, evening, i play single player because i need to be able to pause. by night time, too tired to focus enough to be competitive

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

wow, i've learnt something new there. for me, ive really struggled to find a community ive felt welcome in enough to stick it out n "git gud"
during the day i work, evening, i play single player because i need to be able to pause. by night time, too tired to focus enough to be competitive

All I ask from other players is that they try to win, play the objective. Sitting in your spawn isn't helping your team, you're only hurting the team and being one of the causes of getting spawn camped. I teamkill players just camping my own spawn regularly. Take your lumps and go like 2-20 by playing the objectives and learning the map, you'll get good much faster doing that than going like 5-5 camping. Everyone wants to be that great player that goes like 30-10, but yet barely anyone pays attention to what he/she is doing so they never learn how to play. Shooters aren't hard, it's all about map control and engaging enemy players while you have the superior positioning.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

wow, i've learnt something new there. for me, ive really struggled to find a community ive felt welcome in enough to stick it out n "git gud"
during the day i work, evening, i play single player because i need to be able to pause. by night time, too tired to focus enough to be competitive

All I ask from other players is that they try to win, play the objective. Sitting in your spawn isn't helping your team, you're only hurting the team and being one of the causes of getting spawn camped. I teamkill players just camping my own spawn regularly. Take your lumps and go like 2-20 by playing the objectives and learning the map, you'll get good much faster doing that than going like 5-5 camping. Everyone wants to be that great player that goes like 30-10, but yet barely anyone pays attention to what he/she is doing so they never learn how to play. Shooters aren't hard, it's all about map control and engaging enemy players while you have the superior positioning.

now you see, there sounds like a lot of pressure to perform there. Dont get me wrong, I dont want a team to carry me, but I also want fun and don't wanna feel like if i deviate from the best weapon or play style while figuring out whats for me, i'm gonna get grief

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

now you see, there sounds like a lot of pressure to perform there. Dont get me wrong, I dont want a team to carry me, but I also want fun and don't wanna feel like if i deviate from the best weapon or play style while figuring out whats for me, i'm gonna get grief

I said I don't have a problem with you (or anyone) trying to win, I said going 2-20 is perfectly fine, but going 5-5 is not cool. No pressure, just go out there, have fun, and try to win. I don't think that is asking too much. It doesn't matter your playstyle really unless you try to run sniper (so few can actually play that class properly), support classes (even snipers) can push up just as much as the guy with the assault rifle, noobtube, and frags. You can't be scared to die just like a baseball player can't be scared of the ball. Shooters are simple. You take an objective and defend it the same in every shooter. Most people don't even understand that. You defend an objective by pushing up past it as you want to keep the enemy as far away as possible. Whereas if you just camp the objective, an enemy wave will wipe you all out and then you all have to run from spawn and then it's too late to stop them. Why let them have any part of the map they didn't earn? It's just basic common sense to be good at a shooter.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

now you see, there sounds like a lot of pressure to perform there. Dont get me wrong, I dont want a team to carry me, but I also want fun and don't wanna feel like if i deviate from the best weapon or play style while figuring out whats for me, i'm gonna get grief

I said I don't have a problem with you (or anyone) trying to win, I said going 2-20 is perfectly fine, but going 5-5 is not cool. No pressure, just go out there, have fun, and try to win. I don't think that is asking too much. It doesn't matter your playstyle really unless you try to run sniper (so few can actually play that class properly), support classes (even snipers) can push up just as much as the guy with the assault rifle, noobtube, and frags. You can't be scared to die just like a baseball player can't be scared of the ball. Shooters are simple. You take an objective and defend it the same in every shooter. Most people don't even understand that. You defend an objective by pushing up past it as you want to keep the enemy as far away as possible. Whereas if you just camp the objective, an enemy wave will wipe you all out and then you all have to run from spawn and then it's too late to stop them. Why let them have any part of the map they didn't earn? It's just basic common sense to be good at a shooter.

well, i struggle with what those numbers could mean lol. TBH i'd do my best to get stuck in, a lot of the points i did understand seemed obvious to me and you feel like you'd be reasonable to play along side. i've had some good online experiences, but out weighed by too many anonymous assholes have spoilt it for me over the years.

i remember these Canadian guys I used to play Halo 3 with. we werent great, but we had fun against other teams. stuck to unranked mostly. i remember us getting slaughtered in a death match, and us jeering at the other team, pretending we thought we were the winners. it was stupid but fun, and probably classed as trolling, altough i dunno as it wasnt an intentional loss, we were out skilled plain n simple.
i also had a lot of fun on Awesomenauts before it got too popular.

i think now with less free time, i'd rather go solo and know i'll have funthan risk a shitty online experience

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

well, i struggle with what those numbers could mean lol

Those numbers were kills and deaths. You should get into a good number of gunfights, basically add your kills and deaths together, that's the amount of gunfights you got into. Those guys going like 5 kills and 3 deaths aren't helping, that's only 8 gunfights total, I don't even know how people can play like that and not get bored. Trying and failing is better than not trying and having no chance at winning. If you're playing a board game or cards, doesn't it ruin the game when people are not trying to win? That's the same for competitive MP in video games as well. I always try my best to win in any kind of game I play even if I suck at it.

 

[SantoUno]

I got a good one: Are you actually able to mod the games you buy on Steam? And more importantly, are you ALLOWED? Like it doesn't go against the ToS for Steam? Because a while back I kept hearing of users being banned on Steam for modding SOMETHING but I cannot remember what that was.

It's because I finally got a gaming-capable PC in the house, and I don't want to go on a buying spree on Steam only to find out that I can't install all those precious mods I've been itching to play on Dark Souls, Oblivion, Skyrim, KotOR 2, etc.

 

[Lilani]

I got a good one: Are you actually able to mod the games you buy on Steam? And more importantly, are you ALLOWED? Like it doesn't go against the ToS for Steam? Because a while back I kept hearing of users being banned on Steam for modding SOMETHING but I cannot remember what that was.

It's because I finally got a gaming-capable PC in the house, and I don't want to go on a buying spree on Steam only to find out that I can't install all those precious mods I've been itching to play on Dark Souls, Oblivion, Skyrim, KotOR 2, etc.

Any game which is attached to the Steam Workshop is outfitted specifically to handle and install mods which are put on the Steam Workshop by users. I don't know how it works for the other games you listed, but whenever I start up in my Steam copy of Skyrim it automatically checks what mods I have subscribed to in the Steam workshop. It then downloads and applies whichever ones I have, or you can manually select which ones you want to run.

As for modding in ways which aren't included on things like the Steam Workshop, I don't think Steam really does anything to prevent it. People proudly and freely modded TF2, HL2, and L4D before the Steam workshop existed, creating alternate models and maps and such. The only type of modding I can imagine might be out of bounds is using mods to access things you normally would have to pay for.