January 2019

Another Dwarf Fortress

stargrace January 26, 2019 No Comments

With my new knowledge of Dwarf Fortress I decided to retire my old fortress and begin a fresh one. This time I picked the wilderness, and I have a waterfall right through my area. There’s also a few rivers, and a few towns scattered around. My fortress is still in the early stages, so only one person has gone insane (he sadly could not complete an heirloom that he wanted to craft, we simply didn’t have the supplies).

In the screenshot above the Elves have just packed up their caravan and are headed back home across my bridge. I have stairs leading down into the fortress, and my pastures and pens are down south. I learned how to set up the trade depot so the next time the elves are over I can trade some animals and instruments from them hopefully. I’m creating lots of junk items in the meantime to trade them.

There are less children this time around, and they seem happier. I’ve managed to keep up with bedrooms, doors, tables, and chairs. They have a temple (yay) and I created a library. As soon as the library was designated I had scholars arrive! It’s pretty exciting.

It’s difficult to keep my dwarves busy, especially the ones that mine, but I’m trying to give them big areas to clear out further down where it takes longer to mine. Their skills are getting quite good, so they keep mining faster.

I’m sure something will happen soon to cause death and destruction but for now everyone is happy. I even made my first well! Oh, and I assigned some jobs. I have a manager now so I can create work profiles, a really hand thing when trying to keep my dwarves busy. I also assigned a head of hospital, and a broker. Still, there’s tones to the game that I haven’t even brushed up on yet. Two friends from Combat Wombat are talking about their own adventures in our discord and it involves vampires, jails, a justice system and sounds exciting.

I’m sure I’ll get there if I keep up with it. The game is a lot like RimWorld in the method that I play, so it’s quite enjoyable. I might even get around to streaming it eventually.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Down Goes the Fortress

It started out innocently enough. A were creature made their way onto my map, transformed, and took out 5 dwarves. Little did I know at the time after my hunters were done with the creature that it had also bitten 3 children.

Those children turned into Were creatures and half my colony was wiped out in the battle that ensued. Needless to say it all went downhill from there. The children (there was an abundance of them for some reason) started becoming acclimated to the gore and death. They started throwing tantrums and fighting with the remaining Dwarves. Their thoughts were particularly dark, they would feel nothing after seeing dead animals or other people and they would get excited when they managed to choke someone to death.

Nothing creepier than having a whole fortress run by scary little dwarven children who want a taste of you, literally.

The fortress hasn’t technically ‘failed’ yet, I still have 50 or so alive (including the children who are still going insane). I have 4 ghosts, one berserk, and a handful of animals. Recovery is probably not going to happen at this point, so I’m just playing through it waiting until the last dwarf falls.

I don’t expect it will take too long, at this rate.

Gaming

WTF Gaming

stargrace January 24, 2019 No Comments

Every so often me or a friend will come across a game in steam that just has to be shared. Not because it’s particularly good, but because it’s such a crazy game it makes you pause and wonder “wtf” – so welcome to “wtf gaming” a (hopefully) weekly column where we look at a few of these gems.

This week it’s a game called Heat. I’m not going to go into the game too much but here are some quotes that will give you a pretty good idea about what this game entails.

Go Forth and Multiply Start a family with other players or NPCs. During the process of love making, the male will have a chance of making the female pregnant. Once pregnant, the female will birth a newborn. The newborn grows to become a baby, the baby then grows up to be a child, the child eventually becomes an adult.

A second option is to adopt from an orphanage by purchasing a baby basket in the shipping catalog. The baby will be inside the basket delivered to you. Adoption is very expensive, but provides a guaranteed outcome, whereas the first option may not reliably result in pregnancy due to the possibility for weak seed.

Once your kids become adults you can equip them with outfits, gear, and weapons. They can help protect you when you are online. However, other players may decide to capture and restrain your adult kin, so best keep them packing heat. Seats of Power As President, you own the Whitehouse, a section of land south of the monument, one intern, a golden gun, and two secret service NPCs. You also get to set and collect a President’s land tax. The Sheriff gets a deputy, and also some firepower to deliver justice. As Chief, you have a section of land, a grand tepee, and 3 warriors. The Governor gets the Cottonwood Plantation, plenty of farm seed, and 3 peons.

Sound like a game that interests you? It’s in early access over on steam.. Personally? I’ll take a hard pass.

Gaming

Finally, a Great Mailbox

stargrace January 23, 2019 No Comments

Even though I haven’t written about it as diligently as I would have hoped, I am still working on earning 5 million gold in 365 days. Last night happened to be one of those great mailboxes that really make me smile. Right now the token on North American servers is sitting at 117,000 gold – so in a single night I made more than enough for a month of game time. My account is actually paid for the next 6 months, but I am hoping that I can reach 5 million as well as cover the subscription with gold for the next year (or longer). Of course that requires actually playing the game a bit and not just logging in to refresh my sales.

I had becoming a bit disheartened with my lack of sales over the past week, but I spent some time in the TSM4 discord and I am really glad I did. Hopefully this marks the end of my dry spell, and tomorrow’s mailbox looks even better.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Just a Little Snipe..

stargrace January 21, 2019 No Comments

I bought this 385 mythic item for 38k – and I’m hoping to flip it, but lately sales have been slow so we’ll just have to see how it goes. I can’t say that I’m actively playing BFA right now because I spend most of my time in the auction house, but at least it’s something. I keep meaning to do this or that, but instead I end up falling asleep, such is the way of parents with toddlers.

Another Dwarf Fortress

Down Goes the Fortress

WTF Gaming

Finally, a Great Mailbox

Just a Little Snipe..

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