LadyCrimson

Nothing important, but since HBO is now MAX, I noticed they had some of those true-crime shows I liked from whatever channels they were ages ago. So I'm working my way through some seasons of Homicide Hunter/Lt. Joe Kenda. I remember liking a couple seasons of that, and there's a lot more seasons. They use a persistent actor to play young Joe Kenda during re-enactments. Sometimes it's rather cheesey, sometimes less so, the music is always way over-dramatic, but they're shortish and Mr. Kenda himself has this dry delivery and occasional sense of humor I find watchable. Just one of those good for casual viewing while eating/exercising shows (which seems to be almost the only time I watch video media anymore). There was also apparently a semi-recent Forensic Files 2, which I didn't know existed. I loved the old original one from the late 90's, back before such shows were quite so cheesy/over-dramatic. It was probably mostly what got me on that whole kick in the first place (well that and CSI...). FF 2 isn't as good but it's still better than most modern shows. The first few episodes the new narrator (Bill Camp) was totally overboard and I thought "oh no" but they must have told him to take it down several notches and became at least tolerable. The original Forensic Files narrator (Peter Thomas) had the most awesome voice for such, but he passed.

Patron - got to around 3300 population. The save file takes much longer both to load-in, and when processing exiting game, now. Although save file doesn't seem super huge or anything. But I'm starting to get a little bored with expanding mostly for sake of keeping citizens from complaining about no housing, there's no other motivation at this point. I mean, I'd still love to fill the map but the performance keeps dropping, too, ofc. So it might be time to try another map/try with different land challenges. I think I did figure out why citizens still get grumpy re: no housing even with Shelters - I think they will stay in Shelters for a while but eventually get annoyed and want a proper house, perhaps as part of an "angry citizens may leave or riot" mechanic. Thus kind of negating Shelters supposed no-births growth-damper effect. Only need 3-4 Shelters, because they start to get annoyed before any more will fill up.

I would guess average modern town/colony builders end things/want to start over somewhere around here. Maybe more tightly packed houses. I've been kinda all over the place building those. And then there's the people like me. Sadly I don't think PC will allow filling map entire. That's still only maybe 2/3. At around 3300population now.

Patron - "My CPU might tank at 2000 total population." I was wrong. It's getting close to 3k now with close to half of the map covered and if fully zoomed out it's at 28-30fps (still very playable, a little sluggish if scrolling quickly), at middleish zoom it's 45-50fps. So maybe at ... 4.5-5K then? I can't get any good pictures of whole thing tho because even with photomode, the draw distance is so limited that if you fly upward to try to include more than 1/4 of current spread, everything undraws/disappears. Should be noted that I use a small Steam workshop mod that massively increases warehouse storage. Otherwise you'd end up covering half the map just with stupid warehouses. Pfft. The gold mines/mints are broken if you make tons of them - at this point I could delete all the farms for more houses and just buy all food and stuff.

He liked it. It just looks so good - city builder if you want, a little more rts/AoE if you want, take your pick. Will it be another lone-person dev success story? I may break the 'avoid early access" rule for this one. I also may try buying it on GoG, since it's there, so I can have separate .exe versions for each alpha/beta or whatever. Probably doesn't matter tons to me anymore but that's my biggest annoyance with ea and/or current times of constant game tweaking patches (not just bugz) for 5 years even after full-release. >.>

That SW game is trying to appeal to gamers like me with a cute animal sidekick. But Ubisoft, so no. I think KOTOR2 is the only SW themed game I ever played. I don't' even remember why I picked it up originally, tbh. Probably random "might be fun" grab in the physical store. For some reason liking/loving a movie (or novel) generally has not translated for me into wanting to play a game based in a film universe. Not sure why. Just rarely appeals/I usually don't even look at them.

Yeah that was one of the main things that made me go "ugh" when I learned of it near their ea release. I was hoping eventually a mod would get rid of that. The other thing was their (seeming) focus on combat. I know you can turn it off but point is that could change development focus. I do like RTS/strategy with a bit of city management (Stronghold, mainly) but to me a mainline "city builder" is still a separate thing vs. RTS and vice versa. More and more game genres become so mashed together (City Builder, Tower defense, rouge-lite, political strategy, RTS, post-apoc!) it just feels like a mess/don't like it. Still hoping Manor Lords RTS factor will be something I like - but at least there will be a non-combat mode if I don't. We'll see. Lately tho, while I appreciate the current efforts/genre revivals, more and more I feel like "may as well just play the old games instead."

Hubby bought a car. A 14/15 year old Lexus-something (SUV, taller/boxier type, LX maybe,* I dunno/don't care) with 150K miles on it, which re: his back he says is "as good it as it seem like it's going to get." And it was still 18k+. Apparently this is fair/normal market value, maybe even a little lower than average. I don't care how long the engine lasts these days, that's still ridiculous imo it should've been more like $13k at most, but whatever, we can afford it and I know I'm not with the times anymore. That said, he had it checked out by a Lexus dealer and a separate mechanic he's known for years, plus carfax, yadda yadda. Hubby's more like me now - outside of occasional work his miles per year is extremely low so it should be fine. At least I could drive it in emergency. It was long past time to get rid of that old Dodge van anyway, back or not. *Edit: it's GX, not LX. I guess GX's are 60kish new while LX's are 80k-130k, which is just outrageous. GPU's, rent, houses...wtf greed. Yes yes there are cheaper cars. It's still all silly.

Is it fixed now? I had bizarre login issues last night, tried to post a few times, issues prevented me, figured it would be fixed later, whatever it was. Glad it was. Good work. That said, I was amused when the entire thread was inserted into the "reply/make a post" box.

The last couple nights I have woken up to find myself on the floor. Once from my low mattress, once while on the higher couch (hubby walked down the hall to find me sprawled on the floor, blankets strewn around lol). So far I have not injured myself, bruised a hip a little. It's probably more like half-rolling, half sliding off, I suppose. When I was a kid (up to 10ish) I used to roll out of the bed/onto the floor frequently - didn't usually wake me up, I was just on the floor in the morning. Once fell off a top bunk during a trip, that sort of stuff. Ha. At some point in my early teens I started sleeping like a stone, generally never moving, blankets totally undisturbed etc, Apparently I'm reverting to childhood again. Pfffft. Well if I'm lucky it won't continue much. If it does I'll have to put pillows/pads by the bed/couch etc. since I'm not 8 anymore, more likely to injure. Sigh.

Re: Hogwart's - I had a lot of fun with it (even tho for myself, I also had a lot of crash issues ) but it is rather simplistic. To me more of an causal adventure romp game vs. an rpg - no true choices/consequences, no real depth. I've seen the movies (they were ok, nothing that memorable for me), haven't read the books, am not a potter universe person. Game is light fun, but not something one is probably going to replay, as example. But I definitely had a lot of fun with it. =========== Patron journey continues (I have nothing better to do apparently) - to kind of repeat myself, since I'm a city builder "efficiency" person, my main long term goal is usually about just expanding the city/population until it fills a map or performance tanks. I have maybe .05% interest in making realistic/pretty towns. But it's easy to 'master' the loops, and the cycle (in Patron) is about once a year you get more workers trickling in etc. In other words ... it's 2024. Why do modern city builders still limit you to only 10X speed? I think we can handle 20x now. Why? Why? Also, why do ppl in houses complain about no schools when there are three schools other within radius (I build four, overlapping radius), and only the one is totally full? Just go to one of the other ones. Or ppl who complain there's no houses when there are like 10 empty Shelters. Idiots. Bad design/glitchy AI or something. Irritating.

Re: AI - I feel like half the short docs. on YT now are AI-voice generated. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's a little creepy, sometimes I can't tell/could be wrong. But point is, it's feeling weirder and weirder wondering if there's an actual human being behind the narrator. I suppose it shouldn't matter simply in terms of whether I like watching a short doc, but just saying. Feels weird.

Farthest Frontier is still on my list because I like Crate Ent. I trust them to make a good/decent game. That said, from the getgo I wasn't sure if they were making a city management game I'd personally be into. I think you can essentially get a sandbox mode out of it turning dangers and combat off, but still. Not sure at all, even when it comes out of early access. I can't remember if you've played the old Impressions city builders or not? There's at least less of the population happiness management - I mean it's there but it's more of a generalist thing and not difficult to pacify or almost largely ignore (at least in freeplay). Or at least, I didn't find it so. But then I do find some aspects of the "management" part of efficiency "fun" as long as it's not overboard. I liked Banished and I'm glad it rather revived the genre, but I'm tired of the whole "city building survival" concept. I don't care about earthquakes or floods or invading armies or skill trees or research paths. Just give me the buildings and a map and let me figure out what I think is best/most fun. To me that was the whole point of such games - sandbox, not to provide a gamey gameplay RTS challenge with the city building. I also like city builders to be smaller scale myself. Stuff like City Skylines I have no interest in. EDIT: the few building simulators I've seen that are much simulator vs. management are either too mechanics geek tech-y/complicated or too simple (almost to mobile game simple). So yeah...maybe for different reasons but I find if difficult to find modern ones that I like beyond an initial run too. Although some of that may be because I find them all largely too easy to "master" by now. They've spent more time trying to insert more gamey gameplay or difficulty/time roadblocks and zero time on how to make the process of designing a city/layout more fun/interesting. eg, more terrain or resource challenges perhaps. Everything that conceptually worked in the ones from 20+ years ago still basically work in the new ones.

Got to over 1000 total population in Patron. including all the farms and such, that might be about 1/6 of the map. Although one could do much better space management if not trying to cater to citizen needs with churches and multiple schools and universities everywhere as I was attempting. >.> But I'm reaching the point where game performance is dropping (at 4k, from 60+ fps to 40-50ish). Which is better than at release, where I think I noticed performance drop at only 400-ish population. Guessing my CPU would start to uber tank at maybe 2000 population. Typical cpu-bound performance limits aside, the way the game works isn't really conducive to playing the same map "forever" re: any challenges or designs etc. I don't get the same sensation of wanting to continue ala Caesar/Impressions series. You reach the may as well start a new city/map much more quickly. That said, it's still a pretty fun/decent city builder, fairly typical of the current genre workings. I mostly don't like the nonsensical/time sink research tree workings.

@Keyrock Maybe you're in the throes of video-game-diet syndrome? Jokes aside, if the weight loss is simply coming from eating a bit less then usual, I wouldn't be overly concerned yet. Something else that can come with aging - obviously varies person to person - can be phases of "eating is too much bother" or less interest in food as a kind of mental entertainment, so to speak. Although I don't think I've ever had a sense of feeling like eating food itself is offputting, myself. I usually just feel like it's not worth the bother to do the whole process of making food/sitting around eating. The act of eating isn't giving me any emotional enjoyment at times, so I'm totally not motivated to do it, even if the belly is grumbling. I end up kind of forcing myself to eat when it happens. That said, if eating is somehow physically discomforting and/or your weight loss feels disproportional to caloric intake and activity levels, a check-in with docs is always advisable. Or if it continues for too long etc.

Posting just because: 2:26 "Yeah our clothes are now trendy today ... ... because we just never threw them away." Too true. Edit: it is funny how Genx is seems largely forgotten (public references I mean). Ppl go from Boomer straight to Millennial.

Patron - the game rather defeats my attempts mega-expansion, even the smaller/less land maps, because of the way workers have to actually walk/travel from their designated house to workplace. And you can't control where anyone lives. So at the start, when all jobs are close to houses, it's very efficient re: production ratios. Only need a few farms for a long time. But as you try to spread/grow, with new housing areas way over yonder/over a bridge/river, where resources are, the AI will give a lot of new jobs to people who may already live in houses eons away. Occasionally a family moves houses, but not very often. Inefficiency rises, so now you need twice, thrice as much production workers to keep up the same production ratio, simply because of walking distance, making it frustrating. Or eventually a downward spiral. Complain about building/work access/radius etc methods in Caesar all you want, but it's actually much more efficient/flexible for huge cities. >.>

Patron was never a graphic showcase, especially if you do the photomode zoom in close up views/textures, ew. But it has improved visually a bit, I think animations and some added details. Although, straight-down to try and show a whole huge area just looks like every other grid-based Banished clone. Tons of houses. >.> Apparently it takes a lot to "feed, clothe, and luxuriate" ... 300 adults/youth/children - with some excess to sell. There's more farms not in pic. When I zoomed into a town one winter, I noticed someone built a snowman. Some Xmas trees around here and there too, heh.

---When you can sleep thru the night all of a sudden, you may sleep for 12 hours one time and totally ruin your sleep/wake schedule again for a while. eg, "oh look, it's dawn again." ---Me: "It just hit me that all your (heavy, cotton, short sleeve) t-shirts are grey/it's all you wear (nearly entire closet is grey). When did that happen, you used to have blues and beiges too at least." ---Hubby: "They fit like I want and it's only color they came in. I ordered some more this week too." ---Me: "Oh - I figured you were color coordinating, y'know, the grey hair." *runs away*

Watched 1st episode of Netflix's 3 Body Problem. I didn't hate it. I didn't like it overmuch, either. More specifically it didn't catch my interest enough to care. Much more typical current US series style/methods, which I'm no longer very fond of. It's not that it's bad per se, it's just boring. At least that Chinese version was above average interesting visually for a while and started out intriguing, even if it became over extended re: run time to sell more adspace or whatever. Maybe it becomes more interesting in a few episodes. Probably won't watch more to find out.

This is going to sound silly but apparently the best hip-therapy move for me so far was: folding a small dishtowel into a narrow rectangle and sticking it long ways under the middle of the extra cushion I have on my deskchair. You know how most office/desk chairs (and car seats, and some living room chairs etc) have that dip/higher sides, or even a slant, like a racing car (which I hate, why do they do that)? My hips are small/narrow enough that before long I have a dip within that dip. Hubby, for example, gets much more even/flat across the chairseat wear. So I buy cushions. They just mold to the chair and simply end up with a dip within a dip too. I would guess that creates too much outer hip pronation or something. I know when I get up after sitting for an hour or more sometimes I feel like my pelvis (walking) is really thrust inward/back. Exercises for "hip pronation" I saw on YT didn't help at all. Anyway, just that tiny bit of extra height in the middle and the cushion feels flat/not dippy, my pelvis doesn't feel pronated when I get up, etc. I've slept through the night several nights in a row. They're still stiff and somewhat achey but they don't want to/feel like they're going to pop out of socket with the barest of motion shifting now. Bizarre. But hey if it works. Maybe exercise/s will be more effective now. When I was younger, body could cope with constant "dippy" chairs, now it can't or something. We'll see.

"Viggo, Western? Maybe." (28 seconds into trailer) "Wait, is this a sappy romance drama of the sort I don't enjoy?" (30 seconds into trailer) **(fully) Written and Directed by Viggo** ....now I must check it out. (and it appears to be a sappy love+revenge movie). I still need to watch Falling, too, which was his directing debut (also, co-writer). But it isn't as much in my potential wheelhouse as a Western, plus I watch so minimal TV/flim now, so haven't gotten around to it, even w/Lance Henricksen as a co-star interest pull. Maybe when this comes out for rent I'll do a double-bill.

Note: I'm a product of my time - while I try not to overuse/buy plastic packaged products, will reuse packaged containers, am aware of microplastics etc, it's pretty difficult to avoid as a consumer, and I'm sure I don't do as well as I absolutely could. eg, I'm a part of the problem, as a consumer, no denying. That said, the mantra of "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" has not taken the "reduce" part to heart at all, especially when it comes to manufacturing. We could go at least go back to glass for a lot of products. I'm not entirely sure if using more paper - eg, liquid detergent vs. powder packaging - is better or worse (trees, processing process), but I'd guess (?) better at least in terms of overall environmental waste/poisoning. Maybe I'm wrong. But for gosh sakes, does stuff like small wires, cpu's, every beauty product ever need to be surrounded with five+ inches square of plastic, and do we really need plastic container "six packs" of tomatoes etc?

The ratio of one to two still largely applies. It's the distance cartpushers or buyers have to go that affect how fast production fills up markets or warehouses. Individual houses only consider distance to markets. Markets tries to get from warehouses/granaries but if not available, they will march directly to the farm/resource buildings, no matter the distance, so if farms or glass makers are far from markets... On the flip side, I find in C4 that you need a lot less warehouses(or none) if tightly packed production areas (glass, furniture etc) since production grabs directly from resource buildings making warehouses redundant. You only need warehouses for storing things to sell or lots placed close to markets so market workers won't travel across the map to grab directly from production buildings. Edit: so doubling down on warehouses/granaries near markets - not production areas - so you have more than one trying to get each type of good - helps to prevent empty markets. EditEdit: multiple markets also helps early on. I typically used two food and basic goods markets near pleb housing blocks. Yet another edit: to clarify, resource buildings (timber, farm) do not deliver resources anywhere, like they did in C3. It's more the opposite. A warehouse/market lady/furniture worker etc, has to go there and take out directly.

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.