In What Electronic Entertainment Have You Been Partaking #18: Reticulating Splines

[PlutonianEmpire]

Spending my days playing Stellaris, Space Engine, or Classic Doom; working on my mods for them, will probably re-install Sims 2 at some point after windows defrag somehow killed it back in April

 

[amadeus]

@PlutonianEmpire, yo! Haven’t seen your name in a while.

Sims 2 is a good game. I had the discs for it many zurls ago. Probably in a box somewhere, but 3 is installed on my laptop. 4, never bought. The last game I bought was probably Civ5.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Hiya! Ja it has!

I played Sims 3 for a year. Graphics were actually a bit too good, as it was hard on my eyes and I got frequent headaches as well. I havent played 4 either. A friend gifted me 4 for christmas a year or 2 ago, but it refused to install since my laptop is a potato

I still have my Sims 2 disks too! I also backed them up to iso in case they ever break. I'mma try to install from those iso to see if I can give my cd drive a break, it's pretty old. I worry about how it'll work on win 10; Sims 2 has always worked for me just fine in Windows 7 (so glad I got that anti-GWX app to block Win 10 spam), so I'm a bit bitter that support ended for Win 7 lol

I got Civ 6 a few weeks ago, but haven't gone back yet after losing the tutorial

 

[thecrazyscot]

I finally migrated my Minecraft server from my Raspberry Pi to Minecraft Realms. We were up to 5 players, with a possible 6th joining soon, and it was starting to have trouble keeping up if we weren't all in the same place. I like how little administration Realms requires, but am frustrated by the locked limited render distance. It might be worth it to not have to worry about any server admin, but we'll see what we think in a month or two.

I finally caved and used /locatebiome to see where the closest Ocean and Desert biomes are (~3000 blocks away and ~6500 blocks away from spawn respectively). The Large Biomes world is really quite cool, but I suspect we could have fumbled around for many more months without finding them, and those are some of our favorite biomes. I justified it as "rumors from the Wandering Trader of a vast ocean and desert in the Hinterlands". We're gearing up to go on an expedition to find the Ocean this week.

In preparation I have finished up my Netherspire, which reaches from just above the Lava Ocean to the ceiling in the Basalt Delta biome, complete with a Respawn Anchor, workshop, and Enchanting table...you could survive there for quite a long time without returning to the Overworld...just be wary of Magma Cubes appearing in the spire's rooms occasionally. After much effort, we also now have a single ingot of Netherite. It wouldn't be fair to give that to a single person, so I think we're waiting until we have at least one ingot per person before we dole them out.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I still have my Sims 2 disks too! I also backed them up to iso in case they ever break. I'mma try to install from those iso to see if I can give my cd drive a break, it's pretty old. I worry about how it'll work on win 10; Sims 2 has always worked for me just fine in Windows 7 (so glad I got that anti-GWX app to block Win 10 spam), so I'm a bit bitter that support ended for Win 7 lol

Getting Sims 2 to work with Windows 10 and NVIDIA was a fun task:

Spoiler :

I did eventually get it working though.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

F. So much pink flashing.

My laptop is so much of a potato that as soon as TS2 hits ~1.7 gb of memory use in task manager, pink flashing galore followed by a crash soon after. And yes the 4gb patch is applied, according to game logs. Still crashes at ~1.7 gb

To think I got the damn thing in 2014

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

F. So much pink flashing.

My laptop is so much of a potato that as soon as TS2 hits ~1.7 gb of memory use in task manager, pink flashing galore followed by a crash soon after. And yes the 4gb patch is applied, according to game logs. Still crashes at ~1.7 gb

To think I got the damn thing in 2014

Graphics Rules Maker or LeeFish's custom graphicsrules files are essential to get it running on modern video cards without running out of texture memory. If those two don't work, someone also found a hack that makes the game run on Vulkan instead of DirectX, which a lot of people (not me) have had luck with.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark

After loafing around in the cabin at the base of Timberwolf Mountain for almost 2 weeks, Bullwinkle still hadn't shown his face. He must know I'm after him. Screw it, I decided, I'm going up the mountain. I had barely started when I walked right into a bear. I was traveling light, in anticipation of having to do some climbing, so I was able to run around and use the terrain to my advantage. I shot the S.O.B. 11 times before he caught up with me. He finally dropped from his wounds only about 20 yards from where he beat me up, which wasn't too far from the cabin. So now I have a bearskin that I don't really need. He'll make a nice rug, I guess.

 

[Sommerswerd]

What

How are roads made then

You build trade caravans like in Civ 2, then assign trade routes to particular cities. As the caravan moves to the target city it automatically lays down road behind it.

So you have very little control of what tiles actually get roads. This also means you often have to choose between making the most profitable trade route and making a road you need for logistical purposes.

To make it more complicated, sometimes when you try to use a caravan to make a road between two coastal cities, the route AI refuses to do a land route and instead does a sea route.

 

[thecrazyscot]

You build trade caravans like in Civ 2, then assign trade routes to particular cities. As the caravan moves to the target city it automatically lays down road behind it.

So you have very little control of what tiles actually get roads. This also means you often have to choose between making the most profitable trade route and making a road you need for logistical purposes.

To make it more complicated, sometimes when you try to use a caravan to make a road between two coastal cities, the route AI refuses to do a land route and instead does a sea route.

Military Engineers can build roads, but each road takes a build charge, so you can't build many which is frustrating. Later they can also build railroads, which don't require build charges, but DO require resources, so eh.

Districts also auto-generate roads underneath them, so a tight-knit empire has little need to worry about building roads.

 

[Takhisis]

I've cleared the part of San Andreas in which it's revealed that certain characters are traitors.
So the game's less heavy now because I'm actually finding out the parts of the story I never knew. But I'm out in the sticks and just driving all those long distances gets boring, especially with the game's selection of radio.

I've accidentally read a character sheet that described OG Loc as a future antagonist and hell yeah, I'll be glad to have a go at him. So far he's made me butcher over half a dozen people to steal some rapper's rhymes because he wants to do everything the gangsta way. Eurgh.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Military Engineers can build roads, but each road takes a build charge, so you can't build many which is frustrating. Later they can also build railroads, which don't require build charges, but DO require resources, so eh.

Districts also auto-generate roads underneath them, so a tight-knit empire has little need to worry about building roads.

Military Engineers also require you to be substantially advanced in tech. Usually in any other Civ game, by the time you are that advanced, you already have roads everywhere.

 

[Lexicus]

HOI4 and I have had an entanglement, it's going to surpass Civ 4 for the most-played game in my Steam library...

 

[Takhisis]

You're cheating on Civ! How're you going to make this up to it?

 

[Sommerswerd]

I recommend couples' counseling. You need to sort out which one of you is in charge of finances, religion, schooling, diet, and most importantly... packing for vacation.

You can still save your relationship @Lexicus! @Takhisis is right! Make amends! OBEY

 

[Lexicus]

Dun worry guys, the hours I put into Civ 4 before I ever had it on Steam probably exceed the hours I've spent playing all other games combined

 

[EgonSpengler]

"+1" to all of the nonsense about roads in Civ VI. It doesn't make me insane, but previous iterations of the game definitely did it better, and the change seemed to be for change's sake (if they had some improvement in mind when they did it, I don't know what it was).

The Long Dark

After loafing around in the cabin at the base of Timberwolf Mountain for almost 2 weeks, Bullwinkle still hadn't shown his face. He must know I'm after him. Screw it, I decided, I'm going up the mountain. I had barely started when I walked right into a bear. I was traveling light, in anticipation of having to do some climbing, so I was able to run around and use the terrain to my advantage. I shot the S.O.B. 11 times before he caught up with me. He finally dropped from his wounds only about 20 yards from where he beat me up, which wasn't too far from the cabin. So now I have a bearskin that I don't really need. He'll make a nice rug, I guess.

I finally made it to the summit. Unlike my previous game, where I was in a race with the Grim Reaper every step of the way, I decided to go up well-equipped and take my time enjoying the scenery. I spent a couple of days in the strange, isolated glen that clearly can't support all of that wildlife. I figure there must have been a path the animals were using before, which got buried in a landslide during the recent cataclysm and cut them off. Maybe the snowpack at the top of the mountain fed a stream that formed a pool there. Anyway, at the top I found...

Spoiler :

...the usual treasure trove of stuff, including 2 Expedition Parkas and 8 MREs. I wasn't sure whether to bring a saw with me, but I'm glad I did. On my previous run, I didn't have any tools, but I decided to risk it and found a saw in one of the wooden crates that I could break down with my hands. This time, there was no saw waiting for me. I'd have been pissed if I hadn't decided to lug one up there with me.

 

[cardgame]

I think the idea was 'stop making the player build all these roads by themselves, it's micromanagement'

I like building roads though...

 

[Takhisis]

Dun worry guys, the hours I put into Civ 4 before I ever had it on Steam probably exceed the hours I've spent playing all other games combined

So civ was your action on the side? Are you going to legitimise any children you've had?

 

[Sommerswerd]

I think the idea was 'stop making the player build all these roads by themselves, it's micromanagement'

Of course, so then naturally the idea is to replace all that silly road-building micromanagement with trade route micromanagement (remember in Civ 4 the routes were assigned automatically)... and even more awesome'ly... 1UPT sliding puzzle unit movement micromanagement!

So civ was your action on the side? Are you going to legitimise any children you've had?

How do you propose he does that? Don't start whining about the problems without offering solutions