LadyCrimson

Patron - a few more tries. That Tech tree is now a giant mess, much of it nonsensical. You get Stone Quarry almost immediately, but can't build stone houses or stone wells until you've gone far far down the research path. Which is a singular path (with some optional side branching). I don't care about about this or that but must research it just to get to stone wells etc. Can't even build a *wheat farm* unless you research a bit down the tree. Major money/time grind. I get that it might be fine/cool if using the "objective goal path" playmode (that didn't exist before). And it's fine doing it once or twice. Different. But for "Sandbox" mode it's just aggravating if you want to play more than one map. Repeating it 10, 20x is just, no. I did however find a cheat table where I can make research instant, so I load up a map, place Town Hall/nothing else, give resources, research everything I care about in 3 minutes, reset resources to almost nothing, save map, exit cheat table. There. It would have made more sense for there to be multiple Tree sections, like this one for housing, this one for production, this one for percentage bonus perks, something like that.

Patron, city builder - Don't take the following wrong, I still find it some fun, but there are gripes, because I'm a cranky old woman. ----Started a new Sandbox-play map (not interested in having questie objectives added to sandbox). Remembered what I liked about it. Then about 12-15 game-years in, I remember the thing that actually annoyed me the most. The never ending population increase forcing you to build ever more houses, quite rapidly. eg, you have zero ability to control the pace of *when* you want to expand a lot. Not even a little. I suppose one could build just six-eight houses and nothing else but Shelters after (they don't procreate if living in Shelters), hm, maybe that'd work. ----I saw a "Map Editor, On/Off" setting, but there is no map editor, at least not in-game? ----the available maps are still not extensive, but at least there's a few more ----The tech tree wasn't too bad at release, now it's become kind of a nightmare regarding being forced to research/take tons of stuff I don't care about just to reach certain housing upgrades. And not being able to click on more than one at a time, argh. ----The main difficulty of Patron is the very start of a map. The first winter or couple of yeras could be a struggle depending on map and choices. but...even after all the patches... ----apparently, in general, the "make 5-10 tobacco farms (plus some food farms ofc) and a few Docks as early as you can" still works. You can just sell tobacco in huge lots for 100k+ before too long, and buy almost everything vs. create it yourself. ----Also, outside of city-scaping and personal goals, there's no real reason to build/use 80% of the stuff in the tech tree. You could make a thriving giant townscape with 98-100 in all scores, with nothing but peasants and wheat/fish, forever.

Caesar4 - I think the biggest advantage it has as a city builder is that (I think) population doesn't age, in terms of available labor aging itself out of the workforce. In C3, after about 10 game years your workforce seemed to age almost overnight and suddenly you didn't have enough workers on a massive scale, even if your population # was the same. There were ways to mitigate/fix it but its a limit you had to remember re: taking too long or on freeplay maps. It's also nice in C4 to be able to have houses here but put industry buildings on the other side of the map if you want, because walker-employment access isn't a thing. Still, C3 is the much better game. C4's pace can also feel tons slower (downtimes) and I still dislike its early 3d map size/building size/other restrictions etc.

Of interest to probably no one but myself: I've been messing about in Casear4's largest "freebuild" map, Roma. C4's mechanics are quite different from C3, and I don't recall C4's nearly as well. So it's taking a while to remember how to be efficient with housing and service blocks vs. terrain. After a few tries over a couple days I had a nice result of 6k population,nothing special, but I thought the layouts worked well/could apply to other maps. Then I curiously looked up an old save file of Roma from 2012 and looked at it. My brain deflated and went "oh, yeah, like that..." I now have a vague memory of doing this - may have even posted here, dunno - but it was an attempt at getting the "highest" supportable population one could get on Roma-map w/resources and all the trade ships available (vs. "pretty"). Which is why at the top of first picture is a zillion gatehouses taking up that whole land area, to suck up excess workers. The point all being, is that totally forgot about and I have no idea how I came up with/managed all that. It must have taken a lot of planning/nerd-ing and my current befuddling brain can't conceive of it. It's just a weird sensation. Also ... 50K+ population plus all those buildings - C4 may not be 2d like C3, but like I said in another thread already, try getting that in newer/current city builders without dropping to 5fps.

Streets of San Francisco, Pilot episode Good old fashioned crime show. I've seen it and a smattering of other episodes of it before, I'd guess in syndication while in grade school, but it was a bit before my time in terms of "following" it every week to see every episode. Think I'll try (slowly) working my way through the first season.

That is still occurring for me, and posted videos. Although I recently discovered that if I click a page back on the thread (eg, page 12 instead of 13), then click back-button to return, they then show up in thread like they should. Edit: the initial thread loading or reloading of a page makes them disappear again.

I don't think I'd associate Alien with Gorns, but nuTrek ... are the Gorn something a lot more scary now or something? Besides being very strong I mean. *google* ...oh.

Alien: Romulus - this only makes me think of Star Trek. And the word "nope." Although, there's always the chance it won't suck ... but still, nah. I idly wonder however what an Alien and Star Trek universe crossover would be like. *pause* nvm, just stick with the Borg. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Hm. Well, the title joke is amusing and at least they have original director/actors involved. And Danny Elfman. I loved the first one back then, it was fun, but not sure my nostalgia wanted more. Although, there's always the chance... <---that's my mantra re: everything, now.

Yeah if you needed high safety rating that was a pita. Although I remember if you were by a river you could just build a bridge and mini-wall off the far side of the bridge, then draw walls around your actual city to the edge of the river on the other side (had to go to the water, not a river-rock). That counted. And there were a lot of buildings (farms and such) that most of the time you didn't have to wall off, but I don't remember if you had to wall in almost every single thing (farm workers included) for 100 safety. Once you have cash rolling in you can wall off practically the entire map sometimes, leaving several edge tiles open for invading armies to spawn, but that just gets silly.

I've looked at Grounded many times, because that is closer to my current gamestyle zone, but something about it doesn't appeal. It could be as simple/shallow as not liking the artstyle, but also maybe the child/teen focus. Not sure. I haven't bought/tried it yet, is all I know. I remember at some point deciding I wanted four or five mules vs. more npc's. I probably tried at least once to do the game with six mules and 1 npc but I can't recall if I succeeded/failed. I do remember at certain points getting them across bridges or other obstacles was a major chore. But they were fun/cute/silly awesome.

I think if I was a potential publisher, this might concern me. Depends on what you mean with it's your "source" - lightly or heavily "inspired" by or actually using recognizable chr names, likenesses, situations etc. eg, possible copyright/permission rights getting/costs issues. I'd guess you could always go the Kickstarter/Steam early-access type route vs. being formally published by someone else, too.

Caesar 4: --I found/remember the UI button that turns off the Advisor speech lines. Phew. --I am remembering all the things I didn't find enjoyable re: C4, which includes some UI usefullness irritations (not the speech) and the terribad army/combat stuff and glitches. --I used a cheat (these are dev-built into the game, not 3rd party mods) to "unlock" all campaign scenarios to be visible under the "custom scenario" tag so I can play any whenever I want vs. forced campaign order. --I then used a cheat code to give myself denarii at start of map and have been using every mission map as a freebuild map. This might make me play C4 for longer than two days. Edit: I miss Prima's paper game guides. I still have C3 and C4's, which I have been using to remind myself of stuff like housing stage requirements. So much more useful then some random YT video or poorly organized/used wiki. >.>

For a while now it's mostly been about whether the forum software is functioning properly. ========== In terms of the thread topic. Let's see, I've played fully: KOTOR2, FO:NV, Dungeon Siege 3, Pillars of Eternity 1. The first two were and still are the favorites. Ones that I have purchased but never went much past a couple play sessions: NWN2, South Park, Outer Worlds. I liked PoE1 a fair bit for most of the run but I haven't had a desire to play the sequel at all. I think what I want from, and the reasons I play, any games, have changed a lot, or perhaps it's more that they've reverted (away from RPG's). Although I'm expecting that the odds will be high that I'll purchase Avowed soon after release, more likely because I'm curious vs. a huge desire to play it. Maybe it'll surprise me.

"Take more advil if needed. Could be menopausal related, more exercise (motion is lotion, hey!), diet changes perhaps, wait and see" etc. So no. Most of such care I've already been doing anyway. Menopause hasn't been too bad for me, far as that all goes - dry eyes and some skin issues, I think the sleep sweats are over - but we'll see how that goes over time. I would like to avoid any hormone therapies.

Caesar 4 - every time I open the advisors panel to check something: (animated group of people doing verbalized voice lines) "Our city needs more workers. We do not have enough jobs for all of our workers. More attention must be paid to the city's prosperity. Rome considers your efforts ... mediocre. Our city needs more workers. We do not have enough jobs for all of our workers. Our city needs.. Rome considers... We do not have.. More attention must be.. Our city.." OMG SHUT THE HECK UP, I just want to check how much grain is in the granaries.

lol, I'm becoming a little "bored" of messing around in C3 again, and was considering installing/checking out C4 myself. I never did finish the campaign for that one. Maybe 2nd to last map. Being the early 3D attempt, even some of the bigger the maps felt so small and restrictive, so you couldn't build with great design variety. So near the end of campaign I found it all too fatiguing. Later impressions games, like Pharaoh/Emperor, I did also like, but I couldn't stand the monument building (and never "mastered" them as a result). I'd clear all objectives and then have to sit and wait for stupid monuments to finish.

First I had the bad arthritic knee episodes (mid-late 30's maybe?). Then it was the hands (off and on late 40's?). Apparently, in my 50's, it's now time for ... the hips. It's not constantly painful, but they're stiff and feel weirdly a bit socket locked thus balance, turning, rolling (sleep is sporadic lately) is unstable and certain motions can trigger pain flares like my leg/s is/are tied to a moving horse. Here's hoping it's like the knees/hands where in 6-10 months it may still feel a bit"off," but yet use-abilities are close-ish to normal. Wonder what it'll be in my 60's. Elbows? Good times.

^ I have gotten a few profile backgrounds with the pointy points, and a few forum smilies but the reason I haven't spent many points is 1---to qualify to get the game-related ones one has to have a certain amount of hours played in them, and since I play mostly Offline, Steam thinks I don't, and most of the forum smilies/icons are too minuscule or too game-specific re: forum posting anyway. Their forums is the only social I do. 2---I have not done enough Steam-tasks to qualify for most of the profile-altering or whatever features. Or something. Re: the cards, I meant more that I don't even know how to trade them to others - I think someone tried to explain that, and some other Steam-y social actions, once, but I promptly forgot. I just thought they were some way to make a little bit of wallet cash somehow. I probably would've loved all that social Steam rewards and the like if it had existed back in the mIRC chat days and I was really into only socializing more. 25+ years too late for me now tho.

The Playstation channel link requires YT login, so I had to look for another. Looks good, I never played the first one, so I'll have to research it more re: interest. But yeah, Ian is fantastic. The following is testing purpose: (edit) posting embedded video is visible in post-editor and when first posted it seemed like it worked, but it disappeared immediately with a page reload. I also noticed a video post in way off topic that was similarly a giant blank space. Perhaps it's the forum having fits, not YT/embeds. But it's only recent embeds, not the older/previous postings EditEdit: Another test, a music YT video: ---- nope that didn't work either. EditEditEdit: tried turning off Ublock. Still disappears when I reload a page. Odd. They do still appear on my tablet (like on Keyrock's phone). Could be browser or forum related weirdness.

I think she's very beautiful but I don't disagree re: disproportion vs. average. I've (initially/first glance) reacted similarly when someone has the opposite - a very tiny mouth vs. rest of face - as well. We tend to expect certain average measurement points (ratios?) in faces, seemingly beyond only culture bias. It's why a haircut can sometimes dramatically change what others think of appearance - the hairstyle changes perceived ratios. All kinds of videos/articles/studies on that stuff.

For some reason I can't see whatever (I assume a) video Keyrock posted, it's just a giant empty space. So may I inquire as to the game title?

1 - That Crow remake looks like it's tossing anything that made the original at least a little impactful, outside of fun/otp violence/mayhem, away. Zero interest. 2 - never really noticed/thought about it before, but Kyle MacLachlan's chin does seem like it has extraextra bone protrusion or something. Certain lighting/shadowing makes it really stand out. The guy in the new movies is a little less "weird", but it seems to still be fairly prominent/deep dent between chin and lower lip. Maybe it's considered a requirement for the role.

"War" campaign assignment 10. One of my fave campaign maps, because large but not especially tough enemy army sizes, center lake, native-land to deal with (they buy your goods too, bonus), and various other fun stuff. Long ago I learned you could simply wall in map wolves (top center) and I've done so ever since, so I wouldn't have to build an army of prefectures (police/firefighters essentially) in the first months (or ever) to deal with them. Cheese tactics ftw. Gatehouses as walker roadblocks and one house shanty shack by wall towers to provide "employment" access, included. Ballista towers are/were op'd. The maps I found most difficult - or at least annoying - were the desert ones because fire risk was dramatic and a lot of your work force was soaked up with prefectures. >.> I may still be "too familiar" with the game overall but I'll say one thing about city-builders - if you like the genre, ofc - if you want to kill tons of time, getting absorbed in designing/planning can sure make you not realize how much time has passed. Altho the Julius/Augustus mods have a MUCH faster speed multipliers (up to 400% vs. 90-100% I think?) so that's helped re: any waiting periods. Anyway, still a great game, even without all the QoL of modern ones.

I haven't played that since initial release/purchase period, although it's still installed/been updated etc. I enjoyed it a fair bit but after figuring out how it worked/mastering efficiency (a me thing), which didn't take too long, it was limited and didn't find it super replayable (limited maps/no map generator or editor). I think it does have a map editor now. Maybe it's time to try it again. ============= My biggest irritation with (most) modern 3d/more AI city-builders is drastically decreasing performance vs. population/size of cities (huge fps drops over time or AI glitches starting). Limits designs/expansion re: map sizes even w/beast PC's. Often CPU limitation. Some newer ones it starts to occur even at just 400-500pop depending on one's rig. Where in old ones like C3/Pharaoh it's essentially just limited by map size (even back on pc's of that day). 8000+ pop. in C3 is nothing, good luck getting that in most modern ones. Yes I know, most people probably don't care about filling up entire maps, trying to squeeze just one more little city block in that corner over there. But doesn't mean it's not an irritating gameplay limitation. Not that it stops me from buying/trying, mind.

A Bridge Too Far. Still good, if a little overlong. What I always remember when I think of the film is Anthony Hopkins, and ... "hail Mary, full of grace!"