As chronicled in the appropriate sub-forum thread, I've resumed Daggerfall Unity from where I left off many months ago. One thing I've noticed this return is that my mind has definitely deteriorated since my last extended stay there. Some of that is hopefully nothing more than temporary rust due to neglect. Some of it, for good or ill, is likely that I'm just not as quick-thinking in the heat of damage as I once was. On a positive note, I . . . no, I'll save the rest for the proper thread.

Maleina....I HATE THIS WOMAN! She has stopped me cold in my game! I really wished From Software didn't nerf Black Knife Tish and the Mimic summon. I could really use them at their peak for this fight.
Since they nerf those summons Tish just jumps around the area and does jack squat, and the mimic simply won't heal itself and its suppose to have EVERYTHING you have including having enough flask to heal itself when you summon it.
Yeah I've put the game on ice till they nerf her and the rest of the bosses. I don't like getting gamer rage I have no means of controlling myself when I lose it .

Hang in there, Reaps. Some bosses in Vtm:B are also a b**tch but cool down before the fight and try working out a strategy. Worked for me anyway.

Been playing tons more Daggerfall Unity, which has been or will be chronicled in detail elsewhere.

On the Train Simulator front, here's my most recent contribution to the Official Dovetail Forums TS screenshot thread.

Great shots, Decrepit. The train smoke and forest in the second one is really neat.

Only thing I can do is grind levels and get my strength and health up so I can take more of a beating and dish out more damage. It'd help if From Software removed Melenia's healing when she does damage and buff your summons again.

Edit:
Forget it this game's not worth boiling my blood over, looks like I'm stuck at a difficulty wall, unless I can get some help online there's no way I'm going to be able to defeat Maleina.

Windows Chess Titans stats main computer:

Number of games played: 24942
Number of games won: 23311
Draw: 999

Wow, that's a lotta chess!

That's what happens when I want something to do while watching youtube for about five hours each evening for 14 years

Early yesterday I got a craving for a game I was once good at but haven't touched in decades, Spider Solitaire. No longer having tabletop space for physical cards, I first tried the version provided with Win10. As suspected, it worked well for a few games, then turned into a non-skippable ad-fest (with frequent hints to invest in the "premium" version). So much for that.

Several misleading search attempts later, I found what seems to be an honest free-to-play no-ad Spider. We get to pick between one-suit, two-suit, and four-suit variants. Ever a glutton for punishment with Spider, I cut to the chase and selected four-suit. Played it for hours on end yesterday, all the way up to bedtime. Didn't win a game. Most of the time I didn't even come close. Sometimes I did dismally. I began to wonder if maybe I played the two-suit version back in the day. (It's hard NOT to win the one-suit variant.)

This morning I played two four-suit games before breakfast, losing both. Returned for another loss not long after brushing my teeth. Game four dealt me such an abysmal initial layout and second deal that I abanded it early on. The fifth game was won! Took ages (40+ min) and a lot of effort, being one bad card exposure from defeat a number of times. Lots of fun.

For those interested in this sort of thing, here's the link.

Besides lots of Daggerfall Unity, discussed in the appropriate thread, I played tons of PC Spider Solitaire. Won a decent number of games, though my win/loss ratio leans heavily toward the latter. Two night in a row, the browser locked up on me during a game that would obviously have been won had I been allowed to continue to completion. Ironically, it never locks up during long losing streaks.

Of course

Well now, this is different.

Star Wars: Rebellion


Things are coming along swimmingly. I completely own the Corellia and Fakir sectors and I'm working on one last system in the Sesswenna sector which is the one holding Coruscant. In addition, I'm building Advanced Construction- and Shipyards now as well as TIE Defenders, as many as I possibly can. And I just researched the Super Star Destroyer!

Speaking of Star Wars, the Epic Store has SW: Squadron on it for free for a limited time. I really wish they add a dogfighting mode and more maps.

I saw this. No dogfights? How can a game about flight combat not have dogfights?!

The only dogfighting mode it has is mutiplayer, the only single player modes it has is Story and Fleet Assault and Fleet Assault gets a little boring after a while. This is why Battlefront 2 is the better one for SW dogfighting.

I've been playing mostly DFU and online Spider Soltaire (4-Suits) lately, with little time for railroading.

Little is not no, as these captures from my most recent TSC drive show.

Really nice pics, there. I wonder; does something happen when you stop at the stations?

Yeah. Normally, but not always, when you stop at a station and open carriage doors, people enter and leave the train. It's rather rudimentary. Most functioning stations have a few token people on the platform. Once doors open, they move toward the doors, eventually vanishing to represent having boarded. At the same time, other people appear at the doors, then move toward a platform exit, eventually vanishing. Dovetail's more recent train simulation product, Train Sim World, handles this aspect far more realistically. Despite that, for various reasons I'm not sold on it. I owned it in its original release version, played it a few hours, then never touched it. I uninstalled it earlier this year.

I have noticed sometimes in games that when things happen more realistically, it doesn't work for me and the less realistic makes more sense since it's a game and not real life. Hard to explain. I also know that whatever I'm exposed to first and it's something I like, that's what I stick with. If something comes along that is more visually appealing or more realistic, it doesn't matter. It's not an improvement to me.
This is why I, despite thinking the Jeralls never had enough snow, never download mods to make it more snowy. Adding that would in my eyes only make it "worse" despite it actually improving things.


I hope any of this made sense

A lot of that makes game sense. If snow was more realistic, then you, and the enemies, should not be able to run through it, because you would sink in up to your knees, or slide around on the icy surface. For the game to work, it has to be just white ground.

And what is realistic magic, anyway?

Charm, rally, frenzy, for example.
Also, shock if you know where to stick your finger first.

Well, this type of to the letter reasoning can't be applied here. I think you know what I mean.

Star Wars: Rebellion


Things are picking up, just had the first major space battle plus a smaller one. With the big battle I was attacked by the rebels at one of the planets with shipyards. The rebel fleet was massive but thankfully there were enough TIE Fighters and Defenders in place, plus some capital ships, in order to completely destroy them. Though not without major losses on my end as well as almost all fighters got destroyed.

With the small battle I had one rebel fleet pestering the planets in one of the sectors; assaulting them and leaving troops behind. I had a fleet in place so I began chasing them. Both fleet eventually met over one of the planets and since both were of the same size it wasn't given who would win. I did prevail in the end but one of the Star Destroyers and the Interdictor were so heavily damaged I decided to simply scrap them and build new ones.

I have also started building the Main Fleet and although it isn't finished yet it has begun conquering one of the three rebel sectors.

I bought myself The Callisto Protocol as a treat. It's from the makers of Dead Space, so I was super hyped for it. Someone described it to me as people who made Dead Space, but didn't understand why Dead Space worked and.. they're kinda right. I see where the games are similar, but Dead Space was genuinely scary. And the necromorphs are scary in the way that they look disgusting, but also, the process of becoming one is just completely horrifying to imagine. The critters in The Callisto Protocol are scary, but in a generic space zombie way. Some of them remind me of Wrothken after getting a bad sunburn I'm still in the beginning of the game, so maybe it'll get better, but so far it's fine.

I also got The Mortuary Assistant and did an autopsy on Santa Claus. So that was fun.

Star Wars: Rebellion


Things are really starting to heat up! Today I had several space battles, mostly in Fakir sector. The rebels could just not leave me alone and I had to keep chasing them around and beating the crap out of them again and again! I certainly had no choice as every blockade/assault on a system takes away maintenace points, something I have even less of than patience these days

Meanwhile I kept my Main Fleet busy with some blockades/assaults of systems myself in order to gain those oh so valuable maintenance points. Need to keep strengthening the fleet with more Super Star Destroyers!

On a side note I accidentally had Darth Vader captured today, but since I got him out some time later I hope he's not too miffed

Just playing Azur Lane on mobile and Elden Ring on PC.

Decided to start over on Elden Ring and try a different type of build. This time I'm avoiding getting the Frenzied Flame and avoiding the Maleina battle altogether, she's just too difficult and the AI summons don't do a lot to help. Also doesn't help From Software keeps nerfing the player and buffing the bosses like a spoiled brat being a Dungeon Master who JUST HAVE TO WIN.

(link) Captures of two Train Simulator products acquired during recent sales (link)

Neither is state-of-the-art, but worth the modest outlay.