Friday Bloody Friday

[Yskonyn]

Jupiter Hell is whooping me sideways.  I reached a major boss (possibly the final boss) and he mopped the floor with me.  I started a new character right away but got stopped just outside the gates of Hell.  Once you get a sense of effective tactics and how to take down tougher enemies, the RNG aspects are quite manageable and you can reliably get a character into the late game in 60-90 minutes...... assuming you're not moving too fast and walking into bullets before you realize you're being shot.   #:-)

On the other end of the roguelike spectrum, I've been slowly learning how to get a character out of the early game of Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.  This game, being a huge open-world survival sandbox, is a bit tedious in comparison.  It easily takes 5-10 hours of progress just to get out of the "early game" phase and get reasonably well-equipped with the skills you need.  Losing all that can be frustrating, but it never feels like total bullshit.  Closest I can think of to a "total bullshit" moment was playing a map I lovingly called "Downtown Killville," since I maximized the city density settings and minimized the forest/natural area settings.  This map was a hellhole and every street corner I rounded would turn up about three dozen hungry looking zombies, and some zombie dogs and feral runners right on my tail.  I went into the city for supplies and ran out of stamina just trying to extract myself back to where I spawned.  Stamina is basically your lifeline in C:DDA, unless you're really lucky or have a contingency up your sleeve for the exact situation you're in.

I might do some wargaming at some point.  Armored Brigade has been my most recent groggy timesink.  The AI isn't great but it's still good fun to generate a battle as the attacker and spar with some AI commie defenders.   

Is there a non-ASCII version of Catalysm around? Seems like an interesting game, but I really cannot handle those ASCII graphics.

[jamus34]

I really hope that gif is you in your off hours, JH. Epic!

Only when he is staying at Hotel Coral Essex

[airboy]

Jupiter Hell is whooping me sideways.  I reached a major boss (possibly the final boss) and he mopped the floor with me.  I started a new character right away but got stopped just outside the gates of Hell.  Once you get a sense of effective tactics and how to take down tougher enemies, the RNG aspects are quite manageable and you can reliably get a character into the late game in 60-90 minutes...... assuming you're not moving too fast and walking into bullets before you realize you're being shot.   #:-)

On the other end of the roguelike spectrum, I've been slowly learning how to get a character out of the early game of Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.  This game, being a huge open-world survival sandbox, is a bit tedious in comparison.  It easily takes 5-10 hours of progress just to get out of the "early game" phase and get reasonably well-equipped with the skills you need.  Losing all that can be frustrating, but it never feels like total bullshit.  Closest I can think of to a "total bullshit" moment was playing a map I lovingly called "Downtown Killville," since I maximized the city density settings and minimized the forest/natural area settings.  This map was a hellhole and every street corner I rounded would turn up about three dozen hungry looking zombies, and some zombie dogs and feral runners right on my tail.  I went into the city for supplies and ran out of stamina just trying to extract myself back to where I spawned.  Stamina is basically your lifeline in C:DDA, unless you're really lucky or have a contingency up your sleeve for the exact situation you're in.

I might do some wargaming at some point.  Armored Brigade has been my most recent groggy timesink.  The AI isn't great but it's still good fun to generate a battle as the attacker and spar with some AI commie defenders.   

Are you playing Cataclysm on your phone or a PC?

[Toonces]

This weekend is going to suck...everyone in the house is sick (not COVID) and my wife is working a 24-hour shift on Saturday. Sick baby + sick 7 year old + sick Jarhead + no wifey = no gaming.

Everyone else enjoy.

Your pain makes everything look better here.

:P

[Toonces]

Well the wind is supposed to howl 30-40mph sustained and gusts to 60-70mph tomorrow so I think I'll skip the yard work and get caught up on my PBEM's and if I find some time to play after that I think I'll dig into Shadow Empire or maybe Flashpoint Campaign Red Storm.

I was wondering how some of you guys on the east coast are making out.*  We had two back to back really strong storms here in SoCal; the last one was a real bear.  They typically only get worse as they move east.  I had good portions of the roof of my storage shed rip off and all sorts of debris in my backyard.  I must have pulled 10 pounds of leaves out of my pool.

*In my surfer's mind there is only east coast/west coast.  That weird middle part...just cut it in half and figure out which coast you're closer to...

[Gusington]

Predicted to get about a foot of snow from the storm coming in this time. It was 7 degrees F when I took the dog out at 8am this morning.

[Toonces]

Yeah, I complain, but really we got 50 knots of wind and a few inches of rain.  It's 60 and brilliantly sunny today. 

Kinda different than that pesky "snow."

[airboy]

Predicted to get about a foot of snow from the storm coming in this time. It was 7 degrees F when I took the dog out at 8am this morning.

Yesterday when I got up at 7:00am it was 20.  When I walked Panzer it was 27 and quite windy.

Now I feel fortunate!

Thanks Gus!

[Tripoli]

This weekend is going to suck...everyone in the house is sick (not COVID) and my wife is working a 24-hour shift on Saturday. Sick baby + sick 7 year old + sick Jarhead + no wifey = no gaming.

Everyone else enjoy.

Sorry you are "Med Down".  I feel for you. I hope the weekend goes well for you.  If the kid isn't feeling too bad, try going 2 out of 3 with him in "Mario Karts"  That is always a great "Pick me up" game for both parents and kids. 

[FarAway Sooner]

Alternately, when your kids get a little older, you can just sleep in and let them play Mario Kart all morning.  That's what I did this morning. 

The wife has been working 60+ hour weeks for about 3 months now and I've effectively been a single dad the last two weeks (includes a full-time job on my side and one child in eLearning!), so I decided today was a day to be a slacker parent!  First world problems, all of these...

[Sir Slash]

Ditto JH, get well soon.  I think if Jar had an Electric Violin it would have a bayonet mount on it. Just saying.

[FarAway Sooner]

Sir Slash, would it have been an Electric Violin with an Electric Bayonet, or just a plain Manual Bayonet?

[Yskonyn]

I consider him the type who kills a boar with his bare hands when out hunting. So definitely a classic bayonet. The electric violin is just to cover up his lack of any finesse that would be needed to play an acoustic one.  :)

[Gusington]

Forecast has changed to between 1 and 2 feet of snow :/

[Jarhead0331]

Thanks guys. Really feel like shit. We all have it and I think we just keep passing it back-and-forth.

As suspected, no gaming today, but maybe I'll be able to sneak a little in tomorrow...