That is fair in the case of fishing, foraging and to a lesser degree farming

If one wants to finish it as soon as possible then there is a pressure to not miss something - a bit of a heresy - but Joja Mart route can ignore that pressure, but it does feel better getting the community center up and running though.

I know the T.V. channel that Pam provides is helpful for fishing and for me I try to set up a schedule where I dedicate a day to get a particular item or to improve a skill to make it easier to get a item I am looking for.

My first two years are usually very busy as my farmer is on a “sigma grindset” and approached as a game getting everything sorted.

I do feel that it plays better when I tried to compromise a bit and try to roleplay like start the day, sort out my fields and animals, have regular meals, visit the town, greet everyone, maybe look at the message board - doing something like fishing, foraging, mining or cave diving for a bit, head to the bar at night for a night cap and then make my way home for the night - especially Friday nights.

I break that habit a bit when it is a really lucky day but I can write that off as a day that my character felt like some “me” time or they are focussed on getting resources for an upgrade to the farm or an item for center

One starts to learn everyone’s schedule and you start to feel part of the Valley as familiarity helps build the “community” feel

That reminds me of the earlier versions where the Grandpa would judge you harshly if you didn’t get enough points and in the worse case scenerio would wonder if he should have given the farm to some other relative at the end of year 3.

But Concerned Ape removed that as it went against the spirit of the game - there is only one time sensitive event in the game and is a friendship event with one of the characters that should be done before the end of year one

I missed it for the longest time, but it does help flesh out that character but besides that, the valley is in a proverbial time bubble where everything can be done at your leisure within the time frame - which is usually dedicating a day for something.

I would say that that the desert dungeon requires planning and being efficient with your time to get to the 100th floor in a day though

Just my opinion - but Stardew Valley, for me, is best enjoyed in the same vein like something like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing.

It is like Sims: Rural. I liked the idea of someone being sick of the corporate drone lifestyle and being given the opportunity to start a new life in the country-side.

While I agree, especially in the beginning that the timers do feel restrictive, farming can be a chore when you are starting out and the stamina can be annoying but it has been built towards an idea that

“This is your character’s life and just enjoy a new start in the countryside”

It does get easier, more streamlined and opens up more options when one starts getting into the specialisations in leveling and gain benefits from progress which brings with it more “set and forget” tasks (like ancient fruit in a green house with sprinklers) which are profitable and if farming isn’t your thing I was going to say to try animal husbandry - which starts out with just giving the animals you buy some attention and food everyday ( buy hay or use a scythe on long grass), open the barn hatch in the morning (when not raining) and close it at night and collect the resource either by picking it up or having the right tool for the animal.

Animal husbandry is a lot of initial setup and then animal maintainence to get a resource, which leaves more time to explore other aspects of the game

I guess it is a game best enjoyed to roleplay as one learns about everybody in the valley and make your mark as someone of important as you can either make your fortune, have a family, make friends or just check off the list of collectables

I do feel it is a bit unfair to compare it to something like Rimworld as it is a great colony simulator in its own right with it having the focus of developing a “blank slate” community of random people in a harsh and cruel world where the player is the “architect” as you create the plan and the pawns enact it.

Comparatively, I do feel Rimworld farming is more involved than in Stardew Valley as there is a lot of external factors to consider like fertility, effective crop placement to avoid disease ruining all your crops if your pawns are too slow to contain it, raiders burning it, weather and events that ruin the crops, etc)

While Stardew it is a cycle of seasonal preparation, planting, watering, scarecrows placement to avoid crows stealing crops and harvesting - it is quite simple although more hands-on in practice and some of these steps can eventually be automated.

I guess Stardew Valley is predictable and consistent without much risk and can come across as a chore whereas Rimworld has a lot of external variables that keeps one needing to have a plan in the back of one’s mind when things go wrong.

Fair enough if you do not find it interesting, it might just not be your style of gameplay. Give credit where credit is due that you gave it an honest go at it and if you do not refund it it, maybe you will enjoy it one day

Speaking of Rome: Total War

The power of the flaming pig compels the the elephant to lose its mind

I wish I did, but unfortunately the pc that I used to play on died on me about a year ago and with it the images I kept locally.

It was an experience though seeing the enemy detected indicator breaking. Didn’t think the game had it in it to render all those units at once.

From an audio perspective, Terraria has great a thunderstorm effect - just something that really stuck as weighty and impactful

For the whole experience, Project Zomboid isn’t a slouch either as it has the audio/visuak effects down and feels better with the some of its parts together as individually there are parts that feel weaker but as a whole makes the for an engaging experience if one decides to wonder during a thunderstorm

I am kind of the subborn idiot that initially struggled with the tutorial, but struggled enough to learn what it was it was trying to teach.

I remember and know it from failing, leaning and trying different things seeing what works.

The three starting default characters all have something they are good at and looking at those - all three are meant to get through the tutorial, although Norg is the most straight forward approach.

As I said before, it is not the best and they could have done a better job, yes.

It can leave one feeling annoyed that their gun character struggles - sure

Can it suck knowing you have to put some token effort into a melee skill if you do not want to sneak around or evade the enemies - indeed

But my point is that, regardless of its poorer presentation, especially when put up against Fallout 1’s tutorial, there is more than one way to do it other than pure brute force.

While I agree the tutorial is rough for something meant to teach, it can be done with different playstyles.

Although having some form of melee combat does make the experience a lot less frustrating and can save a lot on time spent trying to hit the enemies, but I think enemies have like 5 ap or so which one can avoid most of them on an agility build by outspeeding them.

A determined person could probably get through it without fighting as a challenge I guess as an agility and stealth focus.

There is a lock pick and explosive tutorial that are mandatory but aren’t too difficult and then there is a trap room which can be a problem if one is low on perception.

The final challenge can have the guy be talked down with enough speech

For ease of getting through it, strength or agility with a melee skill will make it a lot easier though.

Clearly you didn’t mutate enough :P

Although the mutant aspect is a rabbit hole and a game unto itself once one draws attention to themselves.

Just embrace pure humanity instead and get yourself one of those fancy shields implants hooked in with decent power generation and you too can punch pyramids.

Its also been awhile, but the character that I was able to finish the story fully embraced augmentation in all its glory and was almost as good as a mutant with the benefit of plug and play setup to mix things up as a reward for all the token hunting.

Pathfinder WoTR is an overall improvement, but Pathfinder Kingmaker also has its charms.

It feels like playing a DnD campaign with the developers acting as the DM.

It does require some metagaming if one wants to experience everything, it does have an ending act that drags on for too long, it can feel oppressive with the disaster timers ticking away while one is still trying to figure out a rhythm and it can end up with things spiraling into danger if one doesn’t “rush” and plan around each main act quest.

It is one of those rough games that does have a certain appeal to those that do not mind working through the frustrations for a more grounded adventure - relative to the setting.

Tyranny, from a world building experience was great, felt like it was short an act though as I got to the final act and thought - “wait, what is that it?”

Also it is refreshing to have a game where morality is fluid and open to interpretation and up to the player to rationalise their actions, where the decisions lean more towards following an ideology more than morality

For a Warhammer cRPG, Rogue Trader is something to consider as well as it captures the feel of its setting pretty well

I guess I have the roman fantasy of the metallic square scutum(?), when I did a quick read up was was made with quality layered wood and strategically placed metal trimmings and a metal boss at its center that served both in offence and defence

First thing I thought when I saw the centurion’s shield was if it was an auxilia’s shield, but it makes sense for them to have lighter equipment if they were meant to act as command officers and to inspire confidence in the ranks at crucial times

Interesting read, seems it was different according to prevailing doctrines at the time

I find the discussion around the centurions on the edges - thinking how it could afford better mobility, situational awareness and adaptability without throwing the formation too much out of step if legions were required to lock shields and when charging was required allowed the centurion enough space to lead it if necessary

I cannot be the only one that feels uncomfortable seeing the centurion(?), on the front line with a round, looks like wood, shield, right?

My brain thinks that would be horrible for unit cohesion when they have to lock shields.

I am sure there might have had happened, but I strongly doubt it with the commander watching over the proceedings to assert their displeasure. I am sure the rare times it happened, the commander probably did a bit of shanking himself.

Would not be surprised if they “double-tapped” with the bodies being imspected and finished off with a unceremonious stab or throat cut to show mercy to a convulsing body, to then strip and dump it before moving on.

Just my uneducated guesswork ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Having people use me for their own self satisfaction

Finding out a “friend” is trying to hit on someone I liked after expressly telling them to stay in their lane, as they were very loose in their commitment to a relationship.

Attempting to have a relationship born on open and honest communication, to which it gets misinterpreted which leads to a situation where I would have been more forgiving if they told me about it before deciding to do something rather than tell me the next day about it.

Having one’s decision to accept something, feel bad about it and then come back to that the person and in accepting them again have them brag about something, double back on it and then try to make their own terms to try, with a time limit, to smooth over the offense - basically being tone-deaf to how I was feeling

Being promised something repeatedly, put up with a lot of non-sense, then with the promise in sight, asked not to participate as I watch the dream die in front of me

Being told I do not qualify for a bonus because I was “legally” employeed a month too late and only qualify at year 3

Having someone drag me into a social situation (a group chat room), then then proudly brag about something good they did with someone who I abhor

Working my ass off and my fellow employee taking it easy ( like sitting in the lunch room easy)

Repeatedly reporting a problem and because of the problem having a knock on effect on work efficiency, leads to another problem, that then the managerment is eager to gaslight how it can be a problem. A problem mind you, that the regional manager asked why their aren’t enough people and that I should insist when I am alone - which the manager would never want to have it reported or bother to properly resolve.

Going into an interview with one of the interviewees showing an attitude of such disinterest that I feel it would have been better to walk out as they clearly show no interest

Having to deal with someone dumping me for an ex( maybe not dump so much as having fallen for someone and then being thrown away after I could not serve a purpose), the moment I mentioned I felt a bit jealous, to then realise that I was only an attempt to get back at the ex for what they did(infidelity), which I did not take well made worse by working in the same place and having said person rub it in my face,essentially, how they are going back out

This then got worse when she showed a bunch of people where I lived which made me, I guess, put me in a dangerous mindset as I felt my actions were putting my family at risk and the “monkey brain” response was wanting to remove that risk. That got directed towards writing an inflammatory letter to her, which the little bitch of a boyfriend came with 2 of his friends to threaten me at work. He threatened violence after work, I got excited, followed by a self realisation of what the hell and proceeded to have a panic attack as tried to come to terms how excited I was getting at the thought of wanting to go out in a blaze of anger and glory.

People telling me they understand, when their actions repeatedly and clearly show me that they, in fact, do not understand

Asking someone to politely, at first, not doing something - like leave crumbs in the margarine (vegetable butter) or margarine in the jam, have it ignored and continue to do it

Using a electric kettle and only pouring enough water for themselves, as the water quality leaves residue in the water and requires it to be thrown out, and in my case given a wipe, when the water is too low. This leads to having to use the kettle twice

Being told to meet someone at a club, be an idiot and wait 4 stupid hours in the cold and rain outside waiting for them, telling me all sorts of bullshit, while they were in the club the whole time

Being told I was an equity employment - I guess for the Americans know it as D.E.I, and told I would basically be stuck at the position I will be applying for. A few years later, I am in essense doing work outside of speciality for the lower position pay, which the company was transistioning towards, I hate it because they are doing everything they can to “extract value while cutting costs” and pushing that narrative and then when I do not perform to satisfaction be rhetorically asked if do I not want to be promoted - which I know is just a bs ploy to try make me work harder because I will never be promoted.

Having my personal social information be discussed behind my back without asking permission - example having someone tell my parents above my relationship with someome in high school.

In high school,telling someome to leave me alone and they repeatedly violated that space, made worse when my parents allowed said person to come near when I expressly displayed in action to not want to engage with them. It ended up with a emotive kangaroo kick when they pushed to far and me going for a very angry through bushes to avoid being followed.

I do not know if all this qualifies, but that is all I can think of off the top of my head, I am willing to amend points that do not meet criteria

Seems I got a fairly good idea from your answer and OPs post.

Seems VP1 is more optimistic in its outlook by comparison as your companions seemed to have already been qualified to be tested to join the ranks for Ragnarök. But seems to place more value on an individual character as it has effect on the meta-narrative value.

I do know that CotP deals with some pretty heavy topics of the reality of the period and I did appreciate that rawness to it as it helped sell the setting and provide sufficient investment to see how far the rabbit hole went.

I have only played Covenant of the Plume - not sure that falls in the franchise - and I recall that game was grounded in human politics and the exploring the personal stories of the characters one interacts with.

It seems to be a more personal journey as the characters that one has access to and what type of story arc one plays is decided by the decisions one makes through the story and having to weigh the value of human life against a backdrop of colourful characters.

Seems the games are similiar in concept and design with some differing gameplay mechanics

Reading that, seems you were fortunately not traveling too fast, as I can imagine traveling along, the sudden stop, falling over face first into the packed snow and just sort of enacting an image of your one foot being propped like a hand trying to pull excalibur from the snow.

I understand that

It was years between the robbery ( headed back home after spending time with my then girlfriend) and the attempted assault ( work decided to have me work around that area) and I would always be uneasy but trying not to look like a too easy a mark again while thinking of “what if” scenarios as it feels like one’s intution is on a fine tuned edge being alert for anything that seems suspicious.

I guess it could be described as practical fear

After the attack, I was insistent and since then do my utmost to keep as far away from that area as possible.

I will admit, I also felt apprehension like how you might have felt like when I started posting details

I was paranoid as I was robbed in that area before to which I froze, but the police were around then and arrested one of the suspects.

The paranoia part comes from thinking that they might have wanted revenge as I ID’d and provided a statement that allowed it to be prosecuted ( got a call from a prosecutor) for the robbery.

So the immediate thought was if it was payback, as they said nothing through the whole ordeal, but realistically, if it was they would have not run away so quickly or took advantage of my poor positioning.

The most rationale thinking in hindsight is that it was a bunch of meth-heads were looking for quick score and by me escalating they decided for a quick and dirty robbery instead.

That area where I used to work is dangerous and I know I got really lucky considering considering the type of incidents that do happen there