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Just Playin

I liked to post in the Friday fun threads what video games I've been playing recently. Sometimes I recommend the games, and sometimes I ask for recommendations.

I've always enjoyed talking about video games. But themotte has made me picky over the years. Its not just talk that I want. It is thinking, understanding, and discussion of video games that interest me. Video games are mostly a mental activity for me, and so diving into a mental discussion about them often enhances my enjoyment.

I didn't post in the Friday fun thread about what I've been playing, so I'll post now. And I'd like to know what others are playing.


The post I would have written:

This week I've been hooked on factorio (again). I've done many playthroughs of this game. A few vanilla playthroughs (some multiplayer and some not). A krastorio 1 mod playthrough. A few different attempts at the bob's, angels, and seablock mods (never could get into them, too much work, and not enough reward). A krastorio II and space exploration playthrough.

This week though I have been playing with just the space exploration mod. There has been some hints in blogposts that factorio might have an expansion, and that the expansion might be related to the space exploration mod. I thought I'd try and wait for that expansion. But my patience has failed me.

Playing space exploration without the krastorio II mod has been surprisingly way more different than I would have expected. The major difference in my mind is that krastorio II makes the starting world gameplay last too long, and gives too many advantages. I never thought this would be a real problem, but I've never managed to truly beat a space exploration game before. And I realized part of the problem is that krastorio II ties you to the homeworld too strongly. While space exploration on its own forces you off planet just for the sake of some quality of life improvements. For example, you have to go to space in order to get the logistics network chests. The tech is not unlockable based on ground items alone. I don't remember if krastorio II mod combination forced me to go to space, but I do remember that the belt inserters made so many logists aspects so much simpler that the need for drone based logistics didn't seem as pressing. There were also special ground based fabricator buildings for Krastorio II that were larger and much faster (matching the space based ones). But with just the space exploration mod I'm realizing there is an intentional difference. Either you can choose land based production to get productivity bonuses. (and usually the first steps in refinement for special resources). Or you can choose space based production for speed bonuses.

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K2+SE does indeed force you to go to space to get the logistics network. And also to unlock kovarex, which is a big deal considering that K2 makes nuclear power TWENTY FUCKING TIMES more expensive. I still have no idea WTF they are thinking, as it makes nuclear straight up not viable with the level of production you need pre-kovarex.

Personally, I've been playing a lot of a few things:

  • Xenoblade 3

  • Hardspace Shipbreaker

  • Farming Sim 22

  • Warhammer 3

Xenoblade 3 is pretty good, and I'm pretty close to wrapping that up. TBH I'm kind of burned out on it, it's a long game. I'm close to 140 hours and I think (but am not sure) that I'm in the final dungeon. I'm looking forward to putting it to bed. I think that (so far) the connection to the first two games has been weaker than I would've liked, but it's certainly not ruined the game for me or anything. I also think it's a damn shame that they did away with heart to heart events, which were the best feature of the previous two (especially Xenoblade 2 and the Future Connected epilogue in Xenoblade 1 DE). But I have quite enjoyed the game even if it has gotten to be too long for my taste.

Warhammer 3 has also been an adventure, as the Immortal Empires campaign just came out. I've tried a few campaigns but not found anything I really like so far. I had the most success with Bretonnia, but have discovered that I just really do not like the micro-heavy playstyle they have. You have to be really good at managing cavalry and keeping them from getting bogged down in melee fights, which means either a lot of pausing or great micro. I also tried Karl Franz, but... oh boy he is a hard start in this campaign. I'll probably tackle it again some day, but I kind of bounced off it at the moment. Tried Skaven (Ikit Claw) for the first time and got in trouble so I had to restart, hopefully the second attempt goes better.