Keyrock

I kind of think the new developer might be better off just starting from scratch. Trying to cobble together something from existing work, probably from multiple sources at this point, and new work is likely to produce an incoherent mess, especially for a narrative-driven game. I'm writing this project off as dead in my mind. On the off chance that it releases and isn't a dumpster fire that will be a pleasant surprise.

I was exploring in Valheim, looking for a place to build my castle. While sailing, I spotted a new biome, the plains, so I decided to check it out. Off in the distance I spotted some huge vaguely wooly mammoth looking creatures. I was pretty far away so I decided to take a shot with my bow to test the creatures toughness. I went into stealth, drew the arrow back all the way, and let it loose. I'm not sure I even tickled the beast. Keep in mind the bow gets a hefty damage bonus from stealth. Right then and there I should have known I shouldn't be here yet. I decided to explore some more of the plains and spotted a house. Upon closer inspection, there were green goblin looking humanoids inside. I took out my bronze atgeir and stabbed one for maybe 10% of its health. It stabbed me back for half of mine. As I was going back to shore a giant insect flew up to me and damn near 1-shot me. It was eerily reminiscent of my first encounter with a cazador in New Vegas. Retrieving my corpse sucked.

I can't possibly top the Kristen Wiig furry pic, but here's a crypt entrance I found in the swamp biome: I almost died multiple times in the swamp, once to a particularly beefy draugr plus skeleton archer friends then later to a blob (essentially a jelly or ooze) inside the sunken crypt. The good news is that I survived both times and I found scrap iron inside the crypt. Once smelted down into bars, iron unlocks a new tier of weapons and armor, and, more importantly, unlocks the stone cutting station, which in turn unlocks stone building pieces. Now my goal is to find a good spot to start building a castle.

^ Spyro?

Don't sell yourself short, Shady. I bet you have the capacity to do great evil if you set your mind to it. I believe in you.

After defeating The Elder, I was full of myself and exploring. So, I wound up freezing to death on a mountain. I had no business being there, I almost made it out of the snow... just chalk it up to stupid. Anyway, I decided it would be faster to go by boat to retrieve my corpse. I didn't wear my backup armor since I was pretty loaded down when I died and wouldn't be able to pick everything up while wearing another suit of armor, so I filled my belly and went naked. I'm sailing along, everything is going fine. I spot a troll on shore so I sail close to the shore just to taunt him. He comes running into the water after me but is slow as **** in water so I just laugh at him. And then... NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

@melkathiHe'll have 3 attacks again since I plan to fight him at least 1 more time. I want to mount his trophy in my house like I did with Eikthyr: I get a kick out of the fact that Eikthyr's trophy **** talks me when I pass by it. Hopefully The Elder's trophy will do that too. I had to hang the trophy I got from The Elder on a sacrificial stone for main quest purposes: Hence, I need to kill him again to get another trophy for my house. I don't mind, it's a fun enough battle.

The summoning altar for Valheim's second boss, The Elder: I don't know if they are called Ents in Norse mythology, but he's for all intents and purposes an Ent. He has 3 attacks, a stomp, shooting a bunch pf vines at you, and making a bunch of roots come out of the ground that attack you.

The best sword fight scene in cinema IMHO: Not the flashiest fight, but in terms of how an actual sabre duel would happen, it's pretty realistic.

There's a barbecue joint across the street ftom the truck stop I'm at in Illinois. I wasn't thrilled by their cole slaw but the potato salad was good and the brisket was great.

With or without raw egg yolk? I always get it with egg yolk. It's one of my absolute favorite dishes.

On top of that, the United States is large enough that the vast majority of climates and geographical features are available all without ever having to cross a country border. So, as long as you don't have anything tying you to a specific location, you can choose to move to nearly any climate and/or geographic location of your desire while staying within the same country, and that's just the lower 48, never mind Alaska and Hawaii.

The main benefit of Tennessee is no state income tax. Also, TN tends to have a slightly lower cost of living, not that NC has a high cost of living. These change on a county by county basis, like anywhere else. Also, Tennessee tends to be more lenient on what you can build on your land without jumping through flaming hoops, though, again, that's on a county by county basis.

@HurlshotGood luck. Parts of California can be quite expensive but that doesn't preclude good bargains. I hope you can find a good and affordable patch of land you can call your own.

I've been driving all over the midwest making all the money I can to build for a downpayment. I hope to buy a house in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains later this year. More likely than not it will be on the Tennessee side, but that's not 100% yet. Mortgage rates are still at very low rates because of the pandemic and I'm one of the few lucky enough to not he crippled by it because of my job, so I want to take advantage of the situation as best as I can. On the one hand it feels kind of weird to try to use a crisis to my advantage. On the other hand, I had nothing to do with the crisis and failing to take advantage of the situation would do zero to help any one else; might as well strike while the iron is hot.

Ah, but that's the guile of Ghandi. He distract me with the threat of nukes. For all I know, he doesn't actually have any nukes, but I have to take the threat of nukes seriously because my wooden palisade defenses wouldn't fare well against them. While I'm focused on the threat of nukes, that's when Ghandi sneaks up behind me and puts a knife between my shoulder blades.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die was a thoroughly promising game from lovable weirdo Swery that unfortunately was never and will never be finished.

I haven't played Exodus yet, but I enjoyed both 2033 and Last Light well enough. Metro's biggest failing is that it's not as good as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but, well, nothing is.

You can't trust that Ghandi. Lower your guard and he'll stab you in the back.

I built a dock and karve: I'm slowly working my way north toward the summoning location of the next boss, The Elder: The size of the world in Valheim is GARGANTUAN. Were I to zoom out the entirety of what's on the screenie above would be a tiny fraction of the whole world. I don't know how big the landmass I landed on is, whether it's a small island or a continent. For all I know it connects to the landmass I started on. I built a quick makeshift shelter while I explore the area:

I thought Suicide Squad was a steaming pile of ****. Were it not for Zack Snyder's brutal and macabre assault on my senses in Man of Steel, I'd call it the worst of the DCCU movies, as it is, it gets second worst ranking. I mean, Margot Robbie was good, but that's about the only positive I have for that movie. I didn't see Birds of Prey, the things I heard kind of echo my thoughts on SS, Margot Robbie is good but the movie is a mess.

I could think of a worse fate.

Going by that trailer, the movie might as well be called Not Harley Quinn. This would be understandable had Birds of Prey killed it at the box office. I don't think Birds of Prey was a complete disaster, but it certainly didn't perform up to expectations. So they're aping a character whose movie kinda flopped. I guess since movie theaters are dead right now and I have severe doubts they will recover even after everyone is microchipped vaccinated, I guess they just need to pump out content to try to justify whatever the monthly fee for Disney+ is. I wonder if they will charge a fee on top of the monthly fee like they did for the awful Mulan remake?

Disney's hilariously on the nose character names like Maleficent and Cruella de Ville were always ridiculous, but at least they fit when those were pure evil mustache twirling villains. The names seem extra stupid when the characters are recast as antiheroes.

Is that all Disney has left these days? Terrible live action remakes of their animated classics and digging up villains that haven't been relevant in decades and recasting them as antiheroes?