Horizon: Forbidden West

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sulphur

Sulphur

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,979
  • #241
    I generally used mounts to get to unknown campfires faster, or if something was just a few hundred meters away and I wanted to take in the scenery. There's skills for mounted combat on the skill tree, but I haven't explored that. Also, I hate collecting stuff in games, so mounts it was for me while I ignored the dye flowers and peppers and whatever; you can collect this stuff while mounted, but it's even slower than on foot. I found myself wishing there was a skill for quicker collecting, but no such luck.

    (And yet I have 700+ medicinal berries in my stash. Go figure.)

    EDIT: it's a setting, hidden in the Settings > General menu. Yeesh, Guerrilla.
     
    Last edited:
    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,374
    Subscriptor
  • #242
    Sulphur said:
    I generally used mounts to get to unknown campfires faster, or if something was just a few hundred meters away and I wanted to take in the scenery. There's skills for mounted combat on the skill tree, but I haven't explored that. Also, I hate collecting stuff in games, so mounts it was for me while I ignored the dye flowers and peppers and whatever; you can collect this stuff while mounted, but it's even slower than on foot. I found myself wishing there was a skill for quicker collecting, but no such luck.

    (And yet I have 700+ medicinal berries in my stash. Go figure.)

    EDIT: it's a setting, hidden in the Settings > General menu. Yeesh, Guerrilla.
    Click to expand...
    The quick-collect was patched quite a bit after launch on the PS4/5. But it is kind of amazing, if less "immersive." She doesn't have to break stride to be able to collect.
     
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #244
    Artichoke Sap said:
    The quick-collect was patched quite a bit after launch on the PS4/5. But it is kind of amazing, if less "immersive." She doesn't have to break stride to be able to collect.
    Click to expand...

    Which is great, because while I love the way the game looks, immersivity isn't really one of its priorities. Stripping fields at speed and whacking shit out of the sky: this is the way.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Xavin and Artichoke Sap
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #245
    Man I wasn't expecting Burning Shores to do a whole ass Jurassic Park tribute. Enjoyed it way more than anything else so far, including the story, which suffers from a contrived premise (let's magically summon a character who should have been in the main game but wasn't even mentioned for <reasons>!), but it's fine. Seyka's character is about decent-ish in terms of how she's written, but the VA's performance flatters the writing quite a bit. Aloy is... well, she's always been a Heroic Young Adult Protagonist in a Young Adult story with most of the personality sanded off, and she continues to be so. Also, keeps talking to herself enough that she must be mildly insane at this point (yes, I know why, and it's still pretty poor in its execution).

    Anyway, it looks gorgeous, as always, there's a laugh or two from visiting LA, and those clouds are phenomenal. Shame they can't move, but I guess that's a drawback of the voxel system.
     
    invertedpanda

    invertedpanda

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,844
    Subscriptor
  • #246
    Started playing this morning on PC; I had touched it when it first released on the PS4, but performance there was so atrocious I bounced off it hard after just an hour.

    Audio design is still solid for sure.

    Turned off motion blur completely; I usually do in most games, but in this case it just causes a lot of weird artifacting with the DoF and DLSS.

    Forgot the whole drama with Aloy being a really awful character in the sequel. She was never 100% likeable in the first, but man.. That bit where she criticizes whats-his-face about his beard is harsh.

    I do wish we weren't back to square one with skills and abilities; I miss my bows and sneaky sneaky skills.
     
    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,374
    Subscriptor
  • #247
    invertedpanda said:
    I do wish we weren't back to square one with skills and abilities; I miss my bows and sneaky sneaky skills.
    Click to expand...
    The removal of the mind-control whistle makes stealth a touch less viable, but you still have rocks to do the same (but that can attract more than one target, so it's not as broken), and the smoke bombs give you a "re-enter hiding" that HZD never had. It stings, but I think it's a better playing game for it.
     
    invertedpanda

    invertedpanda

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,844
    Subscriptor
  • #248
    Artichoke Sap said:
    The removal of the mind-control whistle makes stealth a touch less viable, but you still have rocks to do the same (but that can attract more than one target, so it's not as broken), and the smoke bombs give you a "re-enter hiding" that HZD never had. It stings, but I think it's a better playing game for it.
    Click to expand...
    Oh yeah, losing the whistle sucks.

    Smoke bombs is one of my favorite things in stealth games; It's like a little pocket sand to make you disappear :)
     
    Tijger

    Tijger

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,319
    Subscriptor++
  • #249
    Artichoke Sap said:
    The removal of the mind-control whistle makes stealth a touch less viable, but you still have rocks to do the same (but that can attract more than one target, so it's not as broken), and the smoke bombs give you a "re-enter hiding" that HZD never had. It stings, but I think it's a better playing game for it.
    Click to expand...

    Some areas also have mushrooms you can shoot that release a puff of smoke that allows you to hide in plus the skill tree even has a way to turn yourself, largely, invisible.
     
    NervousEnergy

    NervousEnergy

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    10,548
    Subscriptor
  • #251
    I've barely progressed the main questline (just now talking to the singing folk in Plainsong) despite having something like 30 hours played - maybe more. It's amazing how long you can spend skulking around bushes, ambushing machines, trying to farm up that last component for an upgrade. The distractions are endless.

    Just like HZD, though, I'm pretty atrocious at the combat in this game. Machines can close FAST, and you're basically a ragdoll.

    Aloy is still the awkward scientist that also happens to be a top-grade ninja. The VA and writing is like returning to a comfortable old relationship. I anticipate another 150 hours or so to even finish, since those damn question marks MUST ALWAYS be investigated... and there are so many...
     
    • Like
    Reactions: malor
    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,374
    Subscriptor
  • #252
    Backstop said:
    It would be real cool if I could remember to equip the Valor Skill I want right before a fight rather than expecting the game to read my mind. Maybe the PS6 game will have a voice-command thingy for that.
    Click to expand...
    This. A few too many times of meaning to cloak, and ending up burning some other Valor I was trying to tinker with, and so I just stopped tinkering. This is why I ended up using essentially one at a time, sticking with it for a while. Mostly the cloak, of course, but for some of the Big Bois, I would swap to Powershots.
     
    Backstop

    Backstop

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    31,991
    Subscriptor
  • #253
    I usually stick with Ranged Master or the one that boosts Elementals because my gear isn't great. I never remember the cloak exists until I'm halfway done with the rebel camp. I should throw a smoke bomb and then cloak up, that's a thought. At elast I've been getting better about changing outfits depending on what's spraying flames or acid at me.

    NervousEnergy said:
    Just like HZD, though, I'm pretty atrocious at the combat in this game.
    Click to expand...
    That maters a lot less for the mission fights, compared to just bumping into a bunch of machines patrolling a field. Most times there's a LOT of help on the battlefield in the form of log traps and dead Bellowbacks to use as bombs. I just did one last night where there was a Frostclaw circling a rebel camp and I thought oh man but I actually took the bear down with three arrows by staying hidden and waiting for it to get under log traps.

    If you can sneak up to a Bellowback corpse, set a couple of blast traps, get clear and use a rock to lure a couple machines in, kaboom. That's half their health bar right there and you're still hidden.

    I do recommend moving long the story a bit to unlock some better gear if you're struggling as well. A lot easier to Freeze or Burn machines when it only takes a shot or two.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Ashe
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #254
    Never could get the environmental traps to work as well as I'd like (damn physics), so I generally ignored them. Normal traps are pretty good, and combined with stealth gear, the stealth valour surge, and armour that gives you extra silent strike heal (you can easily get >150% your current health this way with one strike), the early game's easier for the patient. This does not necessarily describe me, but I found it useful enough to mention.
     
    invertedpanda

    invertedpanda

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,844
    Subscriptor
  • #255
    Yeah, the stealth valor surge is fantastic... And just balanced enough. I maxed it last night, and love using it to clear small camps or deal with problematic machine hordes. Eliminate what I can from afar with the sharpshot bow, then sneak in and take out whomever I can while hidden until I alert folks, then activate the valor surge and take out the rest.
     
    Backstop

    Backstop

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    31,991
    Subscriptor
  • #256
    The camps are definitely more challenging since so many rebels are wearing head protection. You used to be able to snipe everyone. It doesn't seem like Tear works on helmets the same as it does on machine parts. I have successfully knocked off some helmets but it seems to work on a percentage of the enemy's health rather than repeated shots on the helmet.
     
    Kiru

    Kiru

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,711
  • #257
    ^^ Huh, Last night when I was playing, I was able to knock helmets off w/ two headshots, IIRC. The 3rd headshot gave me a kill.

    The big dudes with the energy shields, I've been able to stealth snipe them at range by aiming for the head that's exposed above the shield (or if you can get behind them), which usually gets their health down a big chunk if you're using the appropriate bow/ammo (can't recall the name, but I think it's "strike-through" ammo); I've also been able to snipe their feet, or any exposed area, which was pretty cool.

    I've been completely ignoring traps; I used them a lot in the last game (usually stringing them across bandit camp gates and luring the bandits out), but I'm not feeling traps in this game; I've been doing the sniping thing as much as allowed, rolling from grass patch to grass patch, climbing above enemy emplacements, etc.

    I also really like the glider power, I've been able to "nope" out of some hairy situations by just bailing off a cliffside and floating to another area.
     
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #258
    Yeah, strikethrough arrows ignore armour - and that means helmets too. You can also knock helmets off with one shot or two in my experience (with a sharpshot bow, advanced precision arrows), but the number of arrows to take them down depends on how much damage you can do a noggin with at your current level with the bow and coils.

    I'm not a fan of the gear grind. If you want to get good weapons to beat strong enemies up, a good lot of them are at weapons dealers and not the game's critical path or sidequests. The upgrade path then tasks you with obnoxiously hard to get robot parts the higher you go, so I have to beat a succession of strong enemies up to get them. If I'm being forced to figure out how to fight the big galoots anyway, the upgrade I'm after then only makes future fights with them less tedious; and I can make all of this less tedious by just not fighting them instead and getting on with the critical path.
     
    Last edited:
    Backstop

    Backstop

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    31,991
    Subscriptor
  • #259
    Yeah I really wish there was a skill or some way to get Aloy to specifically salvage a desired part. It's a bit ridiculous that you hove to knock off a Dearwing's fang, rather than just pulling the fang out of the fang out of the corpse if you were careful not to hit the Dreadwing's face).

    The only weapons really worth chasing down are the Legendaries you get from the Arena dealer.
     
    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,374
    Subscriptor
  • #260
    Backstop said:
    Yeah I really wish there was a skill or some way to get Aloy to specifically salvage a desired part. It's a bit ridiculous that you hove to knock off a Dearwing's fang, rather than just pulling the fang out of the fang out of the corpse if you were careful not to hit the Dreadwing's face).

    The only weapons really worth chasing down are the Legendaries you get from the Arena dealer.
    Click to expand...
    Yeah, but then you need things like Apex Dreadwing Fangs to upgrade them. :\
     
    Backstop

    Backstop

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    31,991
    Subscriptor
  • #262
    Oh I forgot, there's an "Easy Loot" setting in the difficulty, as long as you don't explicitly destroy those upgrade items then yes, Aloy will get them with a normal salvage. So that kind of solves it generally, especially if you swallow your pride and turn the actual difficulty way down.

    The other thing you could do is kill a couple of machines near Scrappers, and then let the Scrappers work on the corpse. Then when you take out the Scrapper you get the Processed Metal Block, which you can trade to the Oseram people that give out salvage contracts.

    Thanks to this thread I started using the cloaking device, coupled with the outfit that gives you Silent Strike + I was able to insta-kill a whole widemaw/scrapper group undetected. Wow, that's nuts.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Ashe, Sulphur and NamelessMonster
    invertedpanda

    invertedpanda

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,844
    Subscriptor
  • #263
    Artichoke Sap said:
    Yeah, but then you need things like Apex Dreadwing Fangs to upgrade them. :\
    Click to expand...
    I just picked up the Utaru Winterweave outfit, and had to get some Apex Dreadwing part (that thankfully drops every time).. Was a PITA fast traveling back and forth just to get the Apex to spawn (and that fight was obnoxious - I hate fighting flying enemies so much).

    Now I gotta grind out more parts to upgrade the sucker, so I think it's time I just bite the bullet and use the Easy Loot setting.
     
    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,374
    Subscriptor
  • #265
    MichaelC said:
    Those giant vultures were always a PITA in the first game. I would hit them with rope gun to tie them down, but if you were not quick they would get away.

    In HFW I feel like the rope gun was needed a bit? Seemed like it snapped a lot quicker.
    Click to expand...
    Do you mean the Glinthawks, or the Stormbird? In HZD, the Glinthawks were always hard to hit with the Ropecaster. However, a decent fire bow puts them into a burning state in only one or two hits (usually one, even pretty early in the game), which makes them fall out of the sky and crash, on top of taking the burning damage.

    Stormbirds are a pain. They look at first like large Glinthawks, but they're really flying Thunderjaws. It takes entirely too many Tearblast arrows to shoot off all 6 Engines to ground them, but they're not as dodgy, so a good Ropecaster works okay. The hardest part was underestimating their size, and them being too far to hit, despite filling up so much of your screen!
     
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #268
    Yeah, Burning Shores is more demanding than the main game. Part of the reason why it was released only for the PS5. If you find your GPU utilisation is high, you might want to use one of the upscalers. Take a gander at DF's article.

    One other thing they note is that if you've got an 8 GB GPU, resolutions higher than 1440p will see issues with High/Very High textures because there isn't enough memory to load the textures in seamlessly (this can manifest as lag spikes, stutters, and outright pauses in my experience sometimes).
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Diabolical and malor
    invertedpanda

    invertedpanda

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,844
    Subscriptor
  • #269
    In my quest to farm rare parts to upgrade the Utaru Winterweave outfit, I've managed to find a good location to farm Thunderjaws.

    The big beasts don't like it when you're on elevated platforms that require even the smallest amount of jumping to get on top of, and in this case it's doubly good because you can just go to one side/the other to avoid fire.

    Found a similar spot for an unmarked Tideripper (that's actually relatively close to a marked tideripper location).

    Now I just need my 3 Apex Elemental Clawstrider Hearts and I'll have my level 2 upgrade.. After that I'll work on level 3 (the Slitherfang parts are all that are holding me up there), and then I'm going to resume the main quest (I've got Faro's Tomb up next).
     
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #270
    invertedpanda said:
    The big beasts don't like it when you're on elevated platforms that require even the smallest amount of jumping to get on top of, and in this case it's doubly good because you can just go to one side/the other to avoid fire.
    Click to expand...

    I skipped the harvesting entirely, but I did take down a few for shits and giggles. One of the first places you come up against a Thunderjaw has a rock pillar that you can kite the thing around; it has to manoeuvre around it to fire at you, and it's big enough that while it's doing that you can just move around the pillar to hit it in the tail. I did that a couple of times, got some tails out of it, was a good and daft time.
     
    Last edited:
    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    11,374
    Subscriptor
  • #272
    If you've accumulated a number of Acid Traps (especially the more powerful versions), they're amazingly effective on Thunderjaws. They're like what Freeze was in HZD for shredding heavily armored targets. Bonus if you can place them all, get up to your high ground, and toss a rock to get the party started.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Ashe, Kiru and invertedpanda
    NervousEnergy

    NervousEnergy

    Ars Legatus Legionis
    10,548
    Subscriptor
  • #273
    Diabolical said:
    I am an hour in.
    I am so excited to be back in this world!
    Click to expand...
    It is a very well-done world.

    I'm only a small part of the way into the main plot (just have Whoopi Goldberg up and running, nothing else) and have something like 30 hours already. It's amazing how much time you waste hiding in bushes, waiting for the yellow to go away.

    One thing in the early plot that seems somewhat strange is this... hostility between Zero Dawn and Far Zenith in the end of days. Seems almost like HZD was worried about software copywrites or something. I'd have been stuffing copies of every bit of Gaia, Apollo, etc. in every memory stick I could get my hands on, much less the one serious attempt to leave the system.

    Also somewhat ignores the fact that if they had the tech to attempt an interstellar run for it, they certainly could have stuffed a moonbase or Mars base full of enough supplies and machines to wait out Zero Dawn. Or even LEO.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Ashe
    Lt_Storm

    Lt_Storm

    Ars Praefectus
    16,294
    Subscriptor++
  • #275
    NervousEnergy said:
    Also somewhat ignores the fact that if they had the tech to attempt an interstellar run for it, they certainly could have stuffed a moonbase or Mars base full of enough supplies and machines to wait out Zero Dawn. Or even LEO.
    Click to expand...
    But then they would have had to put up with whatever humans survived / were repopulated by Zero Dawn, something that they did not want. Much better to and leave all the little people back on earth and turn Sirius into a paradise where only a few thousand of the right kind of people live without ever having to deal with... :sick: poor people.

    And, of course, this perspective is exactly what explains the hostility between Zero Dawn and Far Zenith in the end of days...
     
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #277
    NervousEnergy said:
    One thing in the early plot that seems somewhat strange is this... hostility between Zero Dawn and Far Zenith in the end of days. Seems almost like HZD was worried about software copywrites or something. I'd have been stuffing copies of every bit of Gaia, Apollo, etc. in every memory stick I could get my hands on, much less the one serious attempt to leave the system.

    Also somewhat ignores the fact that if they had the tech to attempt an interstellar run for it, they certainly could have stuffed a moonbase or Mars base full of enough supplies and machines to wait out Zero Dawn. Or even LEO.
    Click to expand...
    Honestly the solution that makes the most sense instead of bolting to freaking Sirius is to just terraform Mars. I don't recall whether in Horizon's timeline they had the tech to scope out habitable exoplanets 8.7 light years away from us, but either way it would seem a far less ridiculous proposition than building an interstellar colony ship while the world is ending.

    As for copies of Gaia, makes sense I suppose, but also you wouldn't want it to be freely accessible either, because in the wrong hands it would be easy to wreak havoc with the technology - i.e., the entire FW premise.
     
    Lt_Storm

    Lt_Storm

    Ars Praefectus
    16,294
    Subscriptor++
  • #278
    Sulphur said:
    Honestly the solution that makes the most sense instead of bolting to freaking Sirius is to just terraform Mars. I don't recall whether in Horizon's timeline they had the tech to scope out habitable exoplanets 8.7 light years away from us, but either way it would seem a far less ridiculous proposition than building an interstellar colony ship while the world is ending.
    Click to expand...

    IDK... Mars is a little small to terraform. And one of the early plot elements in Forgotten West is an image of the planet in Sirius that they were planning on terraforming. So the can at least detect habitableish planets.
     
    Sulphur

    Sulphur

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,979
  • #279
    Lt_Storm said:
    IDK... Mars is a little small to terraform. And one of the early plot elements in Forgotten West is an image of the planet in Sirius that they were planning on terraforming. So the can at least detect habitableish planets.
    Click to expand...
    There were only 77-ish people in Far Zenith, per the game. I think Mars could house 'em easily enough. Fair point about the Sirius exoplanet, I didn't remember that.
     
    Kiru

    Kiru

    Ars Tribunus Militum
    1,711
  • #280
    Just found out last night that I can whack parts off of dead mechs after fights. Killed a Ravager, and the laser gun I'd highlighted at the start of the fight was still glowing; whacked it with the spear and it fell of as a usable weapon. SMH.
    Sulphur said:
    I skipped the harvesting entirely, but I did take down a few for shits and giggles. One of the first places you come up against a Thunderjaw has a rock pillar that you can kite the thing around; it has to manoeuvre around it to fire at you, and it's big enough that while it's doing that you can just move around the pillar to hit it in the tail. I did that a couple of times, got some tails out of it, was a good and daft time.
    Click to expand...

    If it's the same area (on the beach before you visit the Quen), I was able to cheese it by jumping into the bushes that are growing on that pillar of rock and squeezing behind some crevices by mistake. The T-Jaw stomped around me as I plinked away at it until it was dead. Brave Sir Robin style.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Jump to latest Follow Reply
    Jump to latest Follow Reply