What are you playing?

GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Dave said:
Still playing Grim Dawn and loving it.

But I thought Stardew Valley looked like Farmville as well, @GasBandit. Maybe I need to pick this up. I'm not really that big on the Farmville/base-building type of game.
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It's sure got me hooked. And I hate farmville type stuff. Also there's less "base building" in it really than even minecraft or terraria.

Though, it is rather irritating that to get a decent water sprinkler you literally have to fight your way through hell and back to mine Infernium, excuse me, Iridium. Makes me feel like the sprinklers are powered by the soul of a forsaken child. Which, I guess, makes as much sense as anything, given that they water the crops automatically at 6 am every day with no visible timer mechanism, electrical connection, or water source...
 
Dei

Dei

GasBandit said:
It's sure got me hooked. And I hate farmville type stuff. Also there's less "base building" in it really than even minecraft or terraria.

Though, it is rather irritating that to get a decent water sprinkler you literally have to fight your way through hell and back to mine Infernium, excuse me, Iridium. Makes me feel like the sprinklers are powered by the soul of a forsaken child. Which, I guess, makes as much sense as anything, given that they water the crops automatically at 6 am every day with no visible timer mechanism, electrical connection, or water source...
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Once you hit year 3, getting iridium is easier. Also once you hit the bottom of the mine.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Dei said:
Once you hit year 3, getting iridium is easier. Also once you hit the bottom of the mine.
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I'm getting close to the bottom of the mine. I'm down below floor 100 now, and the elevator is running out of space for buttons. I just hit the lava area. So hopefully iridium soon. It'd go faster, though, if not for the fact that we've gone two goddamn weeks without rain >_<

Also I'm trying really hard to finish the community center tasks before the end of year 2, but I am starting to doubt I'll make it :/
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

GasBandit said:
I'm getting close to the bottom of the mine. I'm down below floor 100 now, and the elevator is running out of space for buttons. I just hit the lava area. So hopefully iridium soon. It'd go faster, though, if not for the fact that we've gone two goddamn weeks without rain >_<

Also I'm trying really hard to finish the community center tasks before the end of year 2, but I am starting to doubt I'll make it :/
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Well... when Dei means it gets easier when you get to the bottom of the mine, she probably means you'll then get access to the place where iridium is truly plentiful. Iridium is still quite rare even at the lowest levels of the mines.
 
Dei

Dei

GasBandit said:
I'm getting close to the bottom of the mine. I'm down below floor 100 now, and the elevator is running out of space for buttons. I just hit the lava area. So hopefully iridium soon. It'd go faster, though, if not for the fact that we've gone two goddamn weeks without rain >_<

Also I'm trying really hard to finish the community center tasks before the end of year 2, but I am starting to doubt I'll make it :/
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That's why you build the second best sprinklers and skimp on the crops. :p
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Ravenpoe said:
I literally got up and left the game paused at the final decision because fuck
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I knew it would be the final decision around episode 3 or 4. I thought about all the things happening and asked myself what the catalyst could possibly be. And then I got upset at just the idea of it BECAUSE THAT'S NOT A DECISION I WANTED TO MAKE.

Even if it was the right one.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Dei said:
That's why you build the second best sprinklers and skimp on the crops. :p
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The real key to making money for me seems to be mayo. Happy chickens, large eggs, gold star mayo, farming level 10 artisan price increase. I haven't churned out this much mayonnaise since I was a teenager.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Games I've been playing:

Grim Fandango Remastered - still my favorite game of all time, and the remastering is nice. Even though I remember all the puzzles, it's still a delight to go through the story and hear all the great voice acting.

Please, Don't Touch Anything - Interesting concept, but it's getting frustrating. I can't say I'd recommend it. It brings to mind the XKCD comic about communicating poorly isn't the same as being clever.

Deep Dungeons of Doom - It's okay. I didn't get very far because it's got a really steep difficulty curve, and it seems very repetitive in the early game. I can't deal with the gameplay of "do this precise timing thing over and over, which is relatively easy once you know the pattern, only to get murdered the moment you meet something new, and then have to repeat the boring part just to get back to trying to figure out a new thing while getting murdered."

Hotline Miami - I can see why some people like this. It's not my thing, I don't think I'll be playing more. I did get a foil trading card out of it, though, which was nice.

Streamline - I don't understand this crap.
 
LordRendar

LordRendar

GasBandit said:
The real key to making money for me seems to be mayo. Happy chickens, large eggs, gold star mayo, farming level 10 artisan price increase. I haven't churned out this much mayonnaise since I was a teenager.
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Get the Greenhouse running, plant cranberries around Quality Sprinklers and watch the money roll in. If you got ancient fruits seed, plant those, stick the fruits into the seed maker and plant those. Stick it all into Barrels. Make Wine. Get Rich.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

figmentPez said:
Hotline Miami - I can see why some people like this. It's not my thing, I don't think I'll be playing more. I did get a foil trading card out of it, though, which was nice.
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The #1 thing I tell people about playing Hotline Miami is that they need to stop treating it like an action game and start treating it like a puzzle game. Things will "click" once you start doing that.

Ravenpoe said:
No, it's straight up harvest moon.
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It's Harvest Moon with a bit of Rune Factory built in.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Dave said:
Are you SURE this isn't Farmville? Because it sounds like Farmville.
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Farmville doesn't let me bang hotties and dungeon crawl.

In related news, finally got to the bottom of the dungeon... NO IRIDIUM. I AM DISAPPOINT.

Also, apparently the wife doesn't help out with the chores every day, just occasionally. NYAGH.

At least my fruit trees finally came in and are producing. And I've got SO many preserves vats.

So, yeah, looks like I'll be doing the Dei special, I'm whipping up 2nd tier sprinklers and the good fertilizer now, getting ready for summer. The plan is to never have to frickin water a crop by hand ever again. I'm thinking... 16ish sprinklers.

Also I got the barn and the cows going, but it's still a long way to getting truffles. Apparently the regular barn isn't good enough for goats and pigs, and I'm gonna have to do the same for the coop if I want that duck feather. And the house needs one more upgrade before I can start having kids.

I dunno if I'm gonna make it. I can feel grandpa's disapproving glare already.[DOUBLEPOST=1482943547,1482943500][/DOUBLEPOST]
Dave said:
Refunded to my Steam Wallet. Not a simulator kind of guy, I guess.
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Ah well.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I haven't stopped thinking about Life is Strange since finishing it yesterday. There's so much about it to unpack, with its themes, imagery, allegories.

I want to discuss the game's final decision, so I'll put it behind a spoiler tag. If you haven't played the game, I implore you not to click it. Or go buy the game now while it's cheap and play it.

For me, the ONLY choice was sacrificing Chloe. But giving you the choice is the game asking if you (or Max) have grown up enough to make the RIGHT decision, even if it's not a HAPPY decision.

Using the photography theme, you're trying to capture the perfect moment and hold onto it. If you ultimately choose to sacrifice the whole town, you're no better than Jefferson, who tortured Max in order to get the "perfect shot." Or even Chloe's dad, who controlled people even if he thought it was the right thing to do. Throughout the game, you constantly rewind in order to get things "just right," but the lesson is you need to just let things happen because you don't have control over everything. This also applies to using photos to travel back to that point. Once a photo is taken, you can never change it. Max tries this but it only makes things worse and worse. And yet her final decision involves the butterfly photo. Which is a time-traveling motif from Ray Bradbury's The Sound of Thunder (referenced in the game). Much like the decision with Chloe's father, your final decision is to go back and choose NOT to try "changing the photo."

It's also a lesson about growing up, about making adult decisions. One hard lesson you learn growing up is that not everything revolves around you. It's not about making everyone like you. It's about learning that your actions, big and small, can affect everyone around you. You hear Chloe's speech in the end, where she realizes this. She doesn't want her mother or other people to die because of her. Being an adult means making hard decisions that you may not like, but it's the right thing to do. A good example of this is all the sacrifices Chloe's parents made in that alternate reality. They sacrificed everything in order to keep Chloe alive and comfortable like moving the big TV into her room or taking jobs they hated because it meant more money. That's an adult thing to do: sacrifice yourself for others.
 
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Denbrought

Denbrought

ThatNickGuy said:
For me, the ONLY choice was sacrificing Chloe. But giving you the choice is the game asking if you (or Max) have grown up enough to make the RIGHT decision, even if it's not a HAPPY decision.

Using the photography theme, you're trying to capture the perfect moment and hold onto it. If you ultimately choose to sacrifice the whole town, you're no better than Jefferson, who tortured Max in order to get the "perfect shot." Or even Chloe's dad, who controlled people even if he thought it was the right thing to do. Throughout the game, you constantly rewind in order to get things "just right," but the lesson is you need to just let things happen because you don't have control over everything. This also applies to using photos to travel back to that point. Once a photo is taken, you can never change it. Max tries this but it only makes things worse and worse. And yet her final decision involves the butterfly photo. Which is a time-traveling motif from Ray Bradbury's The Sound of Thunder (referenced in the game). Much like the decision with Chloe's father, your final decision is to go back and choose NOT to try "changing the photo."

It's also a lesson about growing up, about making adult decisions. One hard lesson you learn growing up is that not everything revolves around you. It's not about making everyone like you. It's about learning that your actions, big and small, can affect everyone around you. You hear Chloe's speech in the end, where she realizes this. She doesn't want her mother or other people to die because of her. Being an adult means making hard decisions that you may not like, but it's the right thing to do. A good example of this is all the sacrifices Chloe's parents made in that alternate reality. They sacrificed everything in order to keep Chloe alive and comfortable like moving the big TV into her room or taking jobs they hated because it meant more money. That's an adult thing to do: sacrifice yourself for others.
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This line of reasoning also explains why Tumblr players seem very loudly of the "bae over bay" persuasion. They can't work out a very simple trolley problem because they are too busy ogling my wife's double.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Denbrought said:
This line of reasoning also explains why Tumblr players seem very loudly of the "bae over bay" persuasion. They can't work out a very simple trolley problem because they are too busy ogling my wife's double.
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That's the thing that kills me. Chloe's whole speech at the end was about this. Yeah, the town was corrupt, but as you play the game and get to know everyone, you realize there are a LOT of good people living there. And you're sacrificing it all just for one person. Even Chloe talks about this at the end, talking about her mother and even her stepfather. Her asking you to go back and let her die is not much different than when she asked you to end her life in the alternate reality. It's not about holding onto one person for selfish reasons. It's about doing the right thing for them and everyone else around you.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
bhamv3 said:
"Ooooh, I'm gonna browse the Stardew Valley Nexus a bit, see what sort of cool mods people have come up with... wait what, there are nude mods for Stardew Valley? WTF people, WTF!"

(also, downloading and installing now)
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And there are actually probably more ecchi mods for the male characters than the female ones, by the looks of it...
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Dei said:
If only you could take your family into the mines to fight with you.
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If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the most oft-requested features, namely being able to do more unique stuff with your spouse after marriage. For example, you could have adventures in the mines with Abigail, since she's the adventurous one.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Her: "Good morning honey! I fed all the animals for you, I hope that eases your workload!"

Me: "Thanks, Leah! Did you also happen to collect the eggs and milk while you were there?"

Her: "Nope! But I fed them!"

Me: "... So you walked all the way out to the barn and coop, did the least time consuming task there (it literally takes 3 seconds to feed the animals once you are there, they eat from a communal trough), and then walked all the way back, leaving me to still need to walk all the way out there again, collect the actual fruits of our labors - the REASON we feed and keep those animals, and then come back again, thus basically creating the mother of all duplications of effort."

Her: "Yes! Also, I put water in the dog's bowl, even though it is entirely cosmetic and has no effect on the dog whatsoever!"

Me: "... Thanks, babe."

 
Dei

Dei

It's even better when your animals are always outside, or you have the automated feeders. See also: Honey, I watered all the plants! (When you have sprinklers on everything)
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Dei said:
It's even better when your animals are always outside
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Actually I have a question about that...

I've been meticulously opening the animal doors every morning and shutting them every night, because I've read there's a bug where if the animals go outside to eat grass before you interact with them, it raises their mood so high that it wraps back around to them being in a crap mood... so to build those hearts, I allegedly need to pet them BEFORE they go out to graze. Is that still the case?

Also, I'm unclear about how wolf attacks work. I currently have my barn and coop fenced in with a gate... do I even need that? If a coop or barn doesn't have a fence around it, and I leave the livestock door open overnight, do wolves get IN to get the chickens? Or does that only affect animals physically locked out of their shelter?

Basically, am I wasting my time putting fenced yards around my livestock structures and planting grass within, and opening/shutting the doors manually, when what I could be doing is just using a single line of fence to protect the crops from grass expansion and let grass grow everywhere else and the animals can just graze anywhere and I don't have to mess with the doors?
 
Dei

Dei

You need to close it for bad weather, and for nighttime, I don't think you need to pet them before you let them out, though I could be wrong. I think fencing them in is just personal preference though.

I never close the doors at night though, unless it's going to rain the next day.
 
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