The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (May 22 to May 28)

[ZedClampet]

I'm kind of in a strategy mood. I've been playing Old World and really want to try Civ 6 at some point this week. Am arguing with myself about whether or not to get the new Dune game.

Still playing Farming Simulator 22, still in the same game. I've finally added the new crops for this edition, grapes and olives. They are different and interesting to work, but they aren't very lucrative. I might change that. I just think they require a little too much work for what you get out of them. They are the only crops in the game that you can't hire AI helpers to assist, so you spend more time with them than pretty much any other crop. That's fine. They just need a little more reward to go with that extra effort.

 

[Brian Boru]

You need the Winery and Olive Oil DLCs!

 

[Whitelynx]

Completing 2nd time now Gothic 3 with Alternative Balancing mod. When I was searching for Gothic 3 addons, I found some games reviews and read about tools like Borderless Gaming and Reshade and their usage with games. Unless I've got 45-50fps, after enabling around ten of ReShade filters, I did not expect that Gothic 3 graphics can be improved so significantly, closer to Witcher 2, if not even 3. I did not know previously, that shaders can "add" polygons to ingame meshes, objects, and NPCs to look more detailed. Not sure if I will replay Morrowind, but I've installed Overhaul and tuned it up to almost max detail/visibility range. And the game, along with ReShade, downed fps on my Radeon R9 370 to pitiful 35-40 fps.

 

[ZedClampet]

You need the Winery and Olive Oil DLCs!

haha making olive oil is in the base game, and I have not one, but two winery mods. It just takes too many olives to make oil and too many grapes to make wine.

The harvesters are really cool though. I'd never seen a grape or olive harvester before. I looked up the models of harvesters in the game, and the game harvesters look identical to the real ones, as expected. Would like to see those at work in real life some day.

 

[ZedClampet]

Completing 2nd time now Gothic 3 with Alternative Balancing mod. When I was searching for Gothic 3 addons, I found some games reviews and read about tools like Borderless Gaming and Reshade and their usage with games. Unless I've got 45-50fps, after enabling around ten of ReShade filters, I did not expect that Gothic 3 graphics can be improved so significantly, closer to Witcher 2, if not even 3. I did not know previously, that shaders can "add" polygons to ingame meshes, objects, and NPCs to look more detailed. Not sure if I will replay Morrowind, but I've installed Overhaul and tuned it up to almost max detail/visibility range. And the game, along with ReShade, downed fps on my Radeon R9 370 to pitiful 35-40 fps.

Reshade is great. I don't get the point of at least half the filters, but you can definitely improve your graphics with it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Despite the games I listed above, I'm goofing around with Kenshi this morning. It has a fantastic character creator with one omission that prevents me from making an exact copy of myself--nostrils. The game gives you no choices there, and since the nose is maybe the most identifying feature of the face, that's really a shame. Actually, my character is better looking because of it. My nose is pretty featureless. But it's still a shame that the character creator doesn't have just this one thing that could really make it perfect.

Random thoughties: You ever wonder exactly how other people see you? My wife told me one day that there was a criminal on the loose that looked exactly like me. Then she showed me a picture of him and there was zero resemblance (not to mention he looked like he'd lived under a bridge for 6 months). To this day she swears she wasn't joking, and he looked exactly like me.

Then a couple of times when I've been out someone has told me they knew someone who looked like me, and I always wondered what those people looked like. People's interpretations of looks is interesting.

By the way, here's what I look like:

Maybe a few more gray hairs, but that's it. Perfect match.

(Have to show this to my wife and explain this is what I actually look like. I'm sure she'll agree)

Edit: I showed this picture to my wife, and I may have to call 911. I'm not sure she's getting any oxygen. I expected some degree of laughing...

 

[Brian Boru]

here's what I look like

Aaaaaahhhh… now it becomes a lot clearer. All those scales… yes, indeedy.

Mrs Zed, when you recover next week, I would love to know: why did yo decide to harvest a clam pet?

 

[mainer]

Completing 2nd time now Gothic 3 with Alternative Balancing mod. When I was searching for Gothic 3 addons, I found some games reviews and read about tools like Borderless Gaming and Reshade and their usage with games. Unless I've got 45-50fps, after enabling around ten of ReShade filters, I did not expect that Gothic 3 graphics can be improved so significantly, closer to Witcher 2

I love Gothic 3, actually I love all 3 games, but there has always been something special about Gothic 3 with the huge open world and dealing with the Orc invasion. I have it installed on Steam with the 1.75 community patch and plan to further mod it later this year for a replay.

If possible, I'd be interested in seeing some graphic comparison shots, with & without the Reshade applied. If that can bump the graphics to the level of Witcher 2 or 3 I'd like to give it a try.

 

[Zloth]

Kenshi? Nostrils?? (checks old screenshots) Oh yeah, I forgot it put a character portrait at the bottom.

I guess you can zoom in and look, too.

I played Gothic 3 too early. I liked Gothic 2 a lot and hadn't yet mastered the practice of waiting a year+ after a game comes out before buying. When it showed up, Gothic 3 wasn't so good. PB and many modders had to work pretty hard to get that game into shape.

Anyway... I got tempted by one of my own posts and set up Mechwarrior 5 for play again. Spent a couple of hours poking around all the mods, checking out the ones I used before as well as some more drastic mods that I skipped. I decided on using the MechTech mod, which adds a lot of stuff from the tabletop. It makes for a much more complex game.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm tired. Instead of playing games all day, I suddenly remembered I told our lawn guy I didn't need them anymore, so I had to go out and mow the lawn. It was the first time I'd looked at our backyard in awhile. It had a dead tree in it that never came back after winter. So I cut that down. My son was doing his first ever Twitch stream (Chivalry 2), so I left him alone, but I'm not moving that tree to the front yard by myself, so he'll get to help me tomorrow night.

So tomorrow I'm going to play Civ 6 like I wanted to today. Brian has me all excited about it. But I just had more physical activity than I've had since Covid started, and I think I need to go to bed.

 

[Brian Boru]

My son was doing his first ever Twitch stream (Chivalry 2), so I left him alone

Tell Mrs Zed that her clam pet is nominated for DotY—Dad of the Year!

 

[Ryzengang]

For some non-gaming news, I officially graduated with my Masters this past weekend. I learned a lot and I really grew as a person. I really never expected to come as far as I have as some who struggled extensively with mental health problems in young adulthood. But I'm feeling better than ever and I've accomplished a lot.

As for some gaming-related thoughts, I've started to put a bit more effort into working through my backlog. It's pretty extensive at this point and I haven't made a ton of progress these last few months. I'm going to try and make some progress on the Final Fantasy series (I just started VI) and I think I want to start working on Yakuza. I have all the Yakuza games (except like a dragon), so I'd like to start working through them. I've done a ton of organizing within my Steam library lately, so I have a good idea of what I want to get and what I'm not going to bother with.

 

[ZedClampet]

For some non-gaming news, I officially graduated with my Masters this past weekend. I learned a lot and I really grew as a person. I really never expected to come as far as I have as some who struggled extensively with mental health problems in young adulthood. But I'm feeling better than ever and I've accomplished a lot.

As for some gaming-related thoughts, I've started to put a bit more effort into working through my backlog. It's pretty extensive at this point and I haven't made a ton of progress these last few months. I'm going to try and make some progress on the Final Fantasy series (I just started VI) and I think I want to start working on Yakuza. I have all the Yakuza games (except like a dragon), so I'd like to start working through them. I've done a ton of organizing within my Steam library lately, so I have a good idea of what I want to get and what I'm not going to bother with.

CONGRATS! It's amazing what challenges people can overcome.

By the way, for people in the US who are suffering from mental health issues, you should check out Mindstrong. You can see both therapists and psychiatrists virtually over your phone and use their mental health app.

As of a couple of weeks ago, everything, including visits with psychiatrists, are absolutely free. I don't know when/if that's going to change. A friend of mine worked on their app, so I know a little about it, but not what their long-term plans are or anything. I'm guessing there will be some sort of charge eventually.

 

[ZedClampet]

If you've ever wondered what Tennessee (where I live) is like, this sign I found in my farmhouse in Farming Simulator pretty much paints the picture:

If at the bottom of the picture it said in parenthesis, "Also, Jesus loves football" there would be nothing left to say.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

If you've ever wondered what Tennessee (where I live) is like, this sign I found in my farmhouse in Farming Simulator pretty much paints the picture:

If at the bottom of the picture it said in parenthesis, "Also, Jesus loves football" there would be nothing left to say.

What part of Tennessee? Are you the one who talked about living around Chattanooga, or was that someone else?

 

[ZedClampet]

What part of Tennessee? Are you the one who talked about living around Chattanooga, or was that someone else?

I've mentioned Chattanooga before, but I live in Knoxville, which is about 2 hours north of Chattanooga and three hours east of Nashville.

Knoxville is a mid-sized city with a little over a million people in its statistical area. We get tons of tourists because of the Smoky Mountains/Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. The University of Tennessee is here. Discovery Channel, HGTV and a few other cable networks are headquartered here (at one time we had more television shows produced here than anywhere other than Hollywood, but I don't know if that's true anymore) along with Regal Cinemas, TVA, and Pilot Oil. The 1982 World's Fair was held here.

During World War II a secret city was built on the outskirts of town. No one would talk about it or say anything about what was happening there. People were bussed in and out every day. At the height of the war, this secret city was using 1/7 of the entire power produced in the entire United States. Turns out, they were enriching Uranium and Plutonium for atomic bombs. They are still an enrichment facility and there are a lot of DOD companies there. Take a wrong turn in Oak Ridge, even to this day, and you will soon find yourself surrounded by military. There are also places no one can go due to radiation.

There's your Chamber of Commerce presentation.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I've mentioned Chattanooga before, but I live in Knoxville, which is about 2 hours north of Chattanooga and three hours east of Nashville.

I know Knoxville fairly well. I have a few various connections there. I'm from Indiana, and we go through there a lot when we're going to either Gatlinburg or a beach we like to go to in North Carolina. My great-grandpa's family was actually from Knoxville. Also, my wife works for a local trucking company that has a decent sized terminal outside of Knoxville, I think around Strawberry Fields, or whatever it's called. She has to go work down there every once in a while.

Around 5 years ago, my wife and I went there to see the last season ever of Symphony of the Goddesses, which was the Zelda-themed symphony. It was awesome, but the seating in the symphony hall was very uncomfortable for a 6'2" 240lb guy like me.

 

[ZedClampet]

...but the seating in the symphony hall was very uncomfortable for a 6'2" 240lb guy like me.

I'm not sure which one you were at because the symphony uses two different places, but one of them is a dump and the other is a 100 year old theater:

They've been arguing for at least 10 years about building a new multi-use theater to replace the other site, but nothing ever happens.

 

[Zloth]

Knoxville! That was the city that the Return of the Living dead took place in, wasn't it? I think the city got a little bit nuked at the end. Kansas City doesn't show up in many movies, either, and it got quite thoroughly nuked in The Day After. Hollywood just doesn't like some cities.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'm not sure which one you were at because the symphony uses two different places, but one of them is a dump and the other is a 100 year old theater:

I don't remember for sure if it was the one you pictured or not. I think it might have been. It didn't seem like a dump to me. I think it was somewhere around downtown. Whether it was the better one or not, the seating was pretty cramped for me. Not much leg room or width room. Lucky for me, I was sitting on the end.

 

[ZedClampet]

Knoxville! That was the city that the Return of the Living dead took place in, wasn't it? I think the city got a little bit nuked at the end. Kansas City doesn't show up in many movies, either, and it got quite thoroughly nuked in The Day After. Hollywood just doesn't like some cities.

Funny thing is there are a bunch of movies where the characters are trying to get to Knoxville and they never get here. Bruce Willis was trying to get to Knoxville at the end of Pulp Fiction, for instance.

I don't remember for sure if it was the one you pictured or not. I think it might have been. It didn't seem like a dump to me. I think it was somewhere around downtown. Whether it was the better one or not, the seating was pretty cramped for me. Not much leg room or width room. Lucky for me, I was sitting on the end.

The one in the picture isn't the "dump", but neither is the one I was calling the dump. It's just outdated, is all. They are both downtown.

I'm stupid tall and have the same problems with seating. The worst is at sporting events when the rows are practically on top of each other. My knees and hips absolutely kill me when I'm there. Movie theaters used to be bad, but they've all gone the "luxury" route now and have ample room. At least, the ones here do. Everyone gets their own recliner.

But the worst is my wife's Malibu. I can barely get in it. I think she bought it so I wouldn't want to take her car anywhere.


___________________________________________

What is with modders and the people who play Farming Simulator? I think they all just roleplay being on a small farm and living the simple life. That's the only explanation I can think of for all the cow barns that modders make. Every one of them in the description says something along the lines of, "Maximum 8 cows".

Eight? Seriously? It's hard to get across just how useless 8 cows are to me. I'm playing the game to become the farmer king of the world! The farmer king of the world doesn't have 8 cows. I went into one of the mods and changed the max cows to 1000. Then I built 4 of them. Now we're talking cows. They eat 320,000 liters of TMR a day. And the amount of milk and slurry (liquid cow poop) they make a day is phenomenal.

By the way, the most valuable mod product in the game appears to be pizza flavored Pringles. Some other modder made a Lays potato chip mod and a pallet of those will make you $500. But the Pringles guy? The pizza flavor will get you $14,000.

 

[Zloth]

Speaking of mods - now that I've got Mechwarrior 5 modded out how I like it, there's a new DLC on the way in about two weeks! On the plus side, some of those free updates are sorely needed. On the minus side, they're bound to mangle a whole bunch of mods. I've set the game to not update until I launch, but it's going to be rough for sure.

And the amount of milk and slurry (liquid cow poop) they make a day is phenomenal.

I'm really hoping this is all located EAST of the Mississippi river.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm really hoping this is all located EAST of the Mississippi river.

This particular map doesn't say it's based on a real location. It's an arena map meant for PvP. No idea how you play PvP in Farming Simulator, but you are able to ragdoll people by running over them with farm equipment, so I'd probably concentrate on that until I was kicked from the server.

 

[Ryzengang]

I felt in the mood for it, so I started Dragon Quest XI S yesterday and so far I'm really enjoying it. The graphics are great and the game is really colorful; it has a great fantasy feel. Everything just seems really high quality. Can't say too much about it being only 2 hours in or so, but it definitely captured me rather quickly which is a good sign.

 

[ZedClampet]

I played a little bit of my nemesis, Osiris New Dawn. I'm too traumatized to go into great detail. I spent half-an-hour walking at a snail's pace trying to kill myself. I ran out of oxygen, I ran out of water, I jumped off of two cliffs, I tried to fill my empty oxygen tank with chlorine, I looked for dangerous animals. All I wanted to do was die so my suit would be fixed (I bumped into a cactus at night and it ruptured), and I could move at a normal speed. All the while I was trying to kill myself, I was also looking for a special fern tree that dropped a particular berry that I could use to fix my suit. I never found the right tree. I never died. I finally gave up and logged off.