Number crunching & brain numbing computer games
So, I’m an avid EVE-Online player, and since my Optimum Online internet connection has been less than trustworthy this past week, I’ve had to find other things, less dependent upon a stable connection, to play.
My good friend Jim (pictured at his datacenter on the right) has set up a game called Black Nova Traders on his personal website, for private play amongst friends.
It’s not a bad game at all, and it has killed countless hours of boredom. Its built on the idea of the older “Trade Wars“, with an updated spin on things and web-based. From their own website, this is the description:
“BlackNova Traders is a turn-based space strategy game where you start off with minimal resources which you must use wisely to make money, money is power. As the game goes on you upgrade your ship, make alliances and colonize planets to produce more money in your quest for top rank and domination.”
I was off to a slow start there, not being able to figure out how anything works, to becoming dominant and shooting at planets that have decimated me. Oops. – With my billions of credits I have accrued, however, it hasn’t kept me out of the game for long. Which is the good thing about this game; you can get back up as fast as you got knocked down. Right at this moment, I’m all out of turns, so I’ve turned to the blog for occupation of my encephalon.
Figuring out the numbers in Black Nova Traders isn’t all too difficult; you’re messing with percentages and production values, and that’s about it. If you’re interested in installing your own copy, Black Nova Traders is an open-source project, and you can get all the information you require at their forums.
After days of playing this game, and looking for ways to keep busy while out of turns, I turned to another web-based strategy game called Earth: 2025. I couldn’t particularly get all into it, as the turns only re-tick every half-hour, and I was going it alone. I’ll get back to it at some point, with some more people, if possible. That particular game, though, gets more involved with numbers, and lots more management from spies to industry to residents, military, etc. One step in involvement above BNT, and just a tad bit brain-numbing.
Now, let’s take a step back from these web-based games and look at something that has forever boggled my mind. Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday. Wow. Just typing the title of the game sets off little neurons in my brain shouting “Oh no! Not that!”.
Hearts of Iron II is a grand-strategy game, by Paradox Interactive. It’s somewhat of a legend in the community of grand-strategy gamers, but I have yet to ever figure out the first damned thing to do within this game. You can play as any country in existence (circa 1936), and do almost anything imaginable with your country. You control everything, down to politics, single battalions of troops, all naval units, air units, the infrastructure, diplomacy, and taxes. I’ve installed the game at least six or seven times on my computer over time, since it has been released in 2006, and still, it beats me. Every time, I install this this thing, telling myself “This game can’t beat you. It’s a computer game for crying out loud, you should be able to figure it out”, and I just don’t get it yet. I’m bound to try it again later this week, after having taken three months at least, off from it. In fact, I challenge anyone reading this blog to try the damn thing, and if you can figure it out and teach me what the hell I’m doing wrong, I’ll kiss your feet (granted that they’re healthy, clean, and free of any unfavorable scents). There are tons of numbers to crunch in this particular game, and it is the specific reason for the title of this posting. ARGH. My brain hurts just typing about it.
Other games I’m looking into trying, currently consist of:
Earth: 2025 (again)
City Life 2008 (not sure about this one)
Star Trek Online (developers laid off on January 18th... Hoping its picked up again)
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