A bit of Anno: 117, but mostly Surviving Mars: Relaunched.

Surviving Mars still feels buggy and unfinished, but at least there’s a promise of getting the published game mechanics functioning as intended in the future. One patch after another the devs keep fixing and breaking and fixing the game’s various mechanics. At the moment it would be cool if they could get trains to work as intended, but so far the trains are more like unreliable passages between domes. True to form, the base game’s original limitations are still causing issues. Originally, the game was not designed to work with connected domes, and this limitation has never been fully resolved. It’s possible to have a lot of fun with the game, if one is willing to work around the limitations and unwritten rules inherent to the game. So, for example, I build domes into triangles, so that every dome is always only one passage away from another. I also micro manage workers, mess around with shifts, and block off undesired work slots in otherwise functioning buildings. All to make sure workers, more or less, stay put and keep doing what they are supposed to be doing. Similarly, I don’t even attempt to make any kind of utopian domes, where everyone is satisfied and sane, but instead use officers to keep radicals from becoming a major issue. Still, as far as Mars colony sims go, there’s nothing quite like Surviving Mars, so even though this is a flawed game, it is a good game.

Anno 117, on the other hand, seems to work as intended as far as I can tell. It is more of a bare bones game at the moment, but then again doesn’t have a gallery of hit-or-miss DLC like Anno 1800. The core game play loop feels satisfying. You build houses, build infrastructure to fulfill the desires of different layers of citizens, build increasingly complex supply chains (while keeping an eye on optimizing throughput), take advantage of production building radius effects (with some nice combos between different kinds of buildings), optimize islands for different kinds of productions like you would cities or towns in any number of other strategy games, research (mostly incremental stuff that adds up nicely), and build boats & soldiers for some light RTS flavored fun. The RTS side of the game is robust enough to be entertaining, while not being the main focus (probably will be fleshed out in future DLCs). Currently it’s not hard to keep citizens happy and productive, and it is very easy to play tetris with both homes and production buildings to optimize resource output. With not a ton of content in current game, I’ll probably get a couple of hundred hours out of Anno 117 before waiting for future DLCs.

Arc Raiders

It runs perfectly on Linux and I’m having a great time with it. I’ve only played a couple of extraction shooters before (Call of Duty DMZ, The Circle) and they were generally very hostile, this game is definitely much more reasonable.

Actually my biggest issue is probably The Arc as opposed to the other players, the AI is super aggressive and will chase you down, if you survive it can be quite exciting, but sometimes it feels really cheap, especially when a Rocketeer blasts you in the first 5 minutes.

What kinda smw romhack 👀

After dropping my computer not having wifi for a week, an adapter was finally delivered over the weekend and I got to 100 invasion kills in Sniper Elite 5! I recorded most of the clips since I wanted to see the final stats, my spreadsheet is almost done.
It also unlocked the ghillie suit, but I’ll be playing less frequently since I have a damn game to make.

Just got a Blood Mage (Witch) to maps in PoE2. I just need one damned unique gem to tie the build together and I’m golden. Sadly, the gem isn’t easy to get and very expensive to buy. :(

I haven’t really played anything the past week, beyond playtesting changes I’m making to the TALKER mod for STALKER: Anomaly (the mod using AI to let you talk to NPCs). This little project has grown considerably and I have a lot of writing left to do before it’s fully ready I think. But early signs are positive. I also have some more prompt engineering to do. I’m getting much better and more interesting responses from NPCs now than with the base mod - which had extremely basic and barebones instructions for the LLM.

I play PEAK with friends and Oxygen Not Included when alone. Also some Dispatch

im slow. still ff12. im building based on https://brightrockmedia.com/ff12-job-combos-and-best-jobs-for-each-character/#top-tier-equipment but changed it a bit to get 11 classes (stupid knight makes it hard not to double dip bushi) using this a another reference https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/191202-final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age/faqs/79681/introduction

I’ve restarted Yakuza Kiwami 2 after dropping it a few years ago, but neither the story/sidequests nor the gameplay don’t feel as good as 0 or Kiwami 1.

Demonschool released a few days ago, so I’ve been playing that. It’s pretty good, I was expecting more of an RPG but it’s actually more like a puzzle game. The writing is charming and the art looks great.

This week I’ve been mostly playing Sound Voltex tho, as I finally got the controller. It took me a while to get used to the actual layout, and I’m still having troubles understanding the lasers’ timing. It feels much more fun with the proper inputs. I’m currently trying level 13 songs and clearing them with a bit of trouble.

I’ve been playing Windswept, it’s an amazing little platformer in the spirit of Donkey Kong Country but very unique and incredibly well done.

Also, I just started a little 2D adventure game called Spindle. You play as the new incarnation of death tasked with retrieving people’s spirits. It’s a pretty fun zelda-like so far.

Escape from Duckov also still has me hooked. It’s very addictive, especially after loading up a bunch of mods and quality of life improvements.

Mostly Star Citizen with my buddies, with some Rimworld, Oblivion Remaster, and M&B: Bannerlord when by myself.

Spending most of my time split between Battlefield 6 and Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader.

Started playing War Robots again. There’s an event with a few perks, so I even got premium for 5 days for free.

Gotta finish Metro Exodus at some point tho.