Creep in the Keep:

The Autarch was in his mob-drop storage room, putting away bones gathered during a recent trip to his skeleton-spawner XP/loot farm. He stopped in front of and opened his upper bone chest. The sound of footsteps continued on another few steps. We at first dismissed it as an acoustic quirk. All Keep rooms, indeed the entire fortress, are adequately lighted to prevent mob spawns. None should appear there. However, we got to thinking on a recent subtle change to the map room necessitated by a lighting anomaly that appeared after installing the Keep roof. That change was thoroughly tested, or so we thought. Still, something might have been overlooked.

To test our theory, the Autarch walked to the other side of the room. Footsteps continued on some paces after he stopped. The Keep was invaded! By what? The absence of any sound save feet pointed to, but did not confirm, that the mob in question was the very one we least wanted to confront where valuable goods are stored; a creeper. It could do much harm to the structure and/or the Autarch's possessions.

There was no guaranty that the mob, whatever it was, was on the map floor. Better there than the floor immediately above us, which houses the Autarch's potion facility. That thought in mind the Autarch climbed the ladder to his Potion Room. Nothing. Up he went to the Map Room. There it was, as we feared . . . a creeper. The Autarch rushed it, landing a solid blow that knocked it back against northeast corner. He rushed it again, but could not take in down before it exploded, blasting a hole in wall, removing all decorative items in the immediate vicinity. Some of those items lay scattered throughout the floor. Some resided on the ground outside the Keep. Some vanished. Our losses turned out to be around five green hardened clay blocks, circa four red bricks, two armor stands, one complete set of armor, the helmet from another armor set, some wood blocks, a painting, an item frame, and a few torches. Thankfully, replacements for these were either on hand or easily made.

Repairs complete, the Autarch went over the floor block by block to find where the creeper spawned. To our surprise, it was not at the floor's north side, where adjustments had been made, but rather its west side, which hasn't been altered since built. One block's light-level dropped to seven. (Most but not all overworld mobs spawn at a light reading of seven and below.) We both scratched out heads wondering how we missed it. To complicate matters, the room's west side mirrors the east. Yet east side light levels remain safe. In any case, an additional torch resolved the issue.

Earlier the Autarch carved out an underground passage between the Hill Fort and his skeleton spawner. He repaired his primary diamond armor, bow, and silk-touch pick.

In Banished, the village expanded by another combo forest/market node. Its population now surpasses 700 and might be nearer 800. I find it hard to believe that things have gone so well. Since day one there have been no starvations, freezes, or death spirals. No tornadoes, praise the Nine. All fires were easily contained thanks to sufficient well coverage. Diseases were easily contained thanks to hospital coverage.

My first village suffered two death spirals by the time it passed the 100yr mark, one so devastating I backtracked to an earlier save to avoid complete catastrophe. I launched that old village to view it in light of what I've learned this play-through. It contains some good design to be sure, but much that is cringe worthy. It's chief problem, as I see it now, is that a great many citizens have to walk excessive distances to find food and warmth or drop off / pick up produce. Is it any wonder the village suffered more than its share of starvation and freezing?

I sometimes think to cease expanding my current village to see how it handles the almost inevitable death spiral. In the end I'm too much of a coward.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 27 2016, 06:23 PM

Well, after reading an article that tore apart the story of Fable 2(which it richly deserves) I got all nostalgic over the game. Traded in some crappy sniper game that I wasn't going to play, so I didn't even need to spend any actual money on it.

Sure, the story's terrible, but outside of the story, it's actually a very fun game, and I've been having a lot of fun playing it. Though it has gotten a little weird.

Fable 2 was the final decent game before the series crashed and burned. Fable 3 was a terrible excuse for a game and is the only game I've ever literally given away.

Howdy folks, it's been a while.

the Fable games were fun, but 2 and 3 I just rented, blitzed through, slaughtered some villagers for fun, and returned without going back.

Currently playing ESO, though Skyrim, Fallout 4, and a little French game called Wargame have been recently played.

Howdy, mr Coin!

Good to know you haven´t lost your gaming abilities

It's been a rough day in Banished. Started in on another village expansion but am not overly happy with it. It doesn't help that almost no trader showed up at our many trading posts with stone. To top it off, a fire broke out in a market node, destroying the market, a trading post, one home, and the brewery. Much of what little stone we had in storage went to rebuilding those rather the expansion.

We're in the enviable position of having more food than we know what to do with. Too many crops go unharvested come autumn. It also looks as if we may need a few more woodcutters. We're not hurting for logs. My current cutters simply can't chip 'em into kindling fast enough to meet demand. We're nowhere near a firewood crisis, and some of our deficit might result from the burned market and trading post (where much firewood was stashed). I'll keep an eye on it and make adjustments if necessary.

Our next expansion might be tailor centric to help clean out an excess of wool in our various barns. Then again, those barns are likely to fill up with coats. Ya just can't win.

For the first time ever the village population shrunk. Not 100% sure why, but suspect it has to do with lack on stones slowing down housing expansion. There's no cause for alarm . . . yet.

Heh, I did the same thing with Fable 3 that I did with DA2 and Skyrim; kept checking all the pre-release info, and decided not to buy them based on what I saw. I'm rather glad that I did really.



Ah, I find Fable 2 far too much fun to blitz, and blitzing it just means you miss out on most of the fun stuff.



Well, I actually did end up spending some money on Fable 2, to get the dlc. Not off of Xbox Live of course, that would have cost me more than £11. Instead I picked up a preowned copy of the GotY edition for £3.49. Even got a better condition disc and the manual into the bargain

Restarted to play a character focusing on magic, just to see what it's like, and to sample the dlc.

Been playing the beta for The Division. Not as bad as I thought it'd be.

Setting seems fun, everything looks nice. Combat and character controls are a bit clunky, but not bad once you get used to it. Enemy AI is abysmal. 'Open World' is nonexistant - Set in New York but you can't go inside any buildings that aren't related to a mission. Also, despite it being marketed as an MMO you won't actually see any other players outside of the PvP zone.

Honestly they could've just made a good single player shooter instead of an average multiplayer one. Not sure it's worth the price of a full game, but I'd consider buying it in the future when it's cheaper.



On the subject of the Fable games - I loved the first two, and enjoyed the third. Played through them all multiple times, got all the DLC etc. Just downloaded 2 and 3 onto my Xbox One (through the magic of backwards compatibility) so I'll be playing through them again soon.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Jan 31 2016, 02:53 AM

Just played through Street Gangs (NES) again. Lots of kicking and eating


I must say it has to be my best playthrough so far. No real trouble anywhere, not even when fighting the Twins just before the end boss. I always max out Kick and Throw and that makes it quite easy, but one cannot afford to relax at the later stages because you do take lots of damage if you get hit.

Fun!

Earlier this afternoon I played three games of Solitile, losing by two stacked tiles the first game, winning the third. Solitile and I go way back. I received it on a disk of shareware included with one of the first computer magazines I ever bought back in 1989. It is amongst the first PC games I played and remains a favorite. Truth to tell, I'm not much impressed by any of its various tile layouts save one, 'the bridge', but think the bridge a classic. Nor do I play Solitile all that often any more. Until today I hadn't launched it in months. (I own and play the 'modern' Windows version, rather than DOS version from the magazine.)

In Banished, I did not major expansions but rather fine tuned existing nodes, adding barns, wells, a cemetery or two, and in one case a chapel. I debate adding yet another trading post.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 31 2016, 11:03 PM

Would that be Mah Jongg tiles? I love this game and have played several versions, and have seen a 'bridge' layout in more than one Mah Jongg game. Those are tough!

Aye, Solitile can be considered a Mah-Jong / Shanghai tile removal variant, though default tile faces are not Mah-Jong like. Here's the game's web page, where a free demo can be downloaded. The screen capture that appears there is of 'the bridge'. I find the bridge to be very addictive once you grasp how to win, or rather how to attempt to win.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Feb 3 2016, 12:25 AM

WOO HOO !!!!!! KC!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!!!! You have been missed !!!!!!

I installed a new version of Linux (Debian) in early November. Since then I've racked up 2278 games of freecell of which I've won 2251 mostly played while watching Max Kaiser or news about various critical world situations on YouTube.

I started playing freecell to exercise my aging brain but it has almost become compulsive to have a game going while watching anything including movies. my best time is 1min.34secs.

Sadly, playing Oblivion has reached this stage.

That is a very touching letter, bobg. I’ve always enjoyed tales of Angel’s adventures, even the ones that make me cry.

I often think of that letter when gaming with Lothran. It makes me re-appreciate him and our long history together.

-Don´t worry btw, Lothran! We´ll be having fun with some goblins tonight!

Great to see you, bobg! What a poignant letter from little Angel indeed. Indeed, I cannot visit the Anvil guildhall nor walk past Benius Manor without thinking of her. Most especially at breakfast time in the Anvil guildhall, Buffy thinks of her as she asks for some appleberry juice. Perhaps, someday. . . .

I truly wish it were different. There was a time when Oblivion had a 'larger than life' feeling and Angel stole my heart away with her unique approach to living in Cyrodiil. I've tried a few RPGs since then but nothing seems to recall that time. These days my semi-invalid wife requires more of my time and attention so it's hard to really get into the games anyway. She still thinks Angel looks just like her as a girl. I wonder where she got that idea from In October, we celebrated our 53rd anniversary.

Bobg, sorry that you've not been able to get back into fully enjoying Oblivion. I also know what you mean about Freecell being somewhat addictive - it is a fun game that is easy to 'pick up and put down'. I was caretaker to my late wife many years ago and know how draining it can be. Massive congrats on your most impressive anniversary however. Wow!

When time permits, I hope you will continue to drop by and update us on how things are going.

I've been playing Unravel, the new sidescrolling platform/puzzle game that I've been waiting for since it was announced at E3 last year.

You play as a character called Yarny, who is made of a single thread of yarn which gradually unravels as you move through each level - solving puzzles and exploring as you go.

Visually, the game is completely, utterly gorgeous. The soundtrack is also superb, and does such a great job of creating the right atmosphere for each situation.

There is a storyline, but I've only played through the first level so it's not too clear. The game seems to revolve primarily around memories and emotions. Very subtle and thoughtful from what I've seen.

You can really feel how much time and effort the little dev team (Less than 20 people) poured into the game, and it's an absolute pleasure to play.


EDIT: Just completed it. Can't remember the last time a video game moved me in such a fashion. Good gracious me. The levels are all so varied, detailed, and intricately designed that I found myself wanting to explore as one would in an open world game. The storyline (though I hesitate to use the word) is so subtle that you really feel as if you're exploring it yourself, and leaves a lot open for interpretation.

I can't recommend this one highly enough.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Feb 10 2016, 05:58 AM