Arkhive
@Arkhive@piefed.blahaj.zone
- Comment on Day 636 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 2 days ago:
Oof. Some 60 hours late or something. Life got…hectic, for a bit there.
TL:DR tinker with the world settings a lot, maybe check out some mods, and plant flax immediately.
Firstly if you didn’t get a good foothold before summer of year one I would probably restart. Basically if you don’t get a decent flax farm underway quickly the save if going to get REALLY hard come winter. Playing multiplayer can smooth that curve a lot by allowing delegating of jobs. Basically you should always have someone foraging for seeds and small supplies of flax and veggies and then someone else working on the tech progression.
I totally agree with the other comment that mentioned using the map. Being able to quickly navigate to various ore deposits and resources like clay is very important. Also learning proper 3 point navigation can be a huge help. Even though the map has a pip for your character it can help a lot to just begin to memorize the greater area around your settlement. Being able to triangulate based just on surroundings without much need for the map also makes longer expeditions easier and less disorienting.
The other big learning curve for me was the prospectors pick. Learning the approximate size of ore deposits can help a lot. Having sort of learned triangulation without numbers for navigation, now we will be getting numeric feedback to help us. When making a mine after doing area search, periodically mine in node search to scan for your desired ore. Once detected pick an axis to mine along until the node search result changes, check every couple blocks. Step back one block and mine a few holes in the walls of the tunnel in node search mode to see which direction along the opposite axis the deposit is. Now you have the approximate angle to mine to go right through the middle of the whole area and intersect the node perfectly.
Finally I’ll add this. VS has vast vast vast customization options. Sure you can argue the “intended” way to play is the default difficulty setting, but also screw that. Play your way. I personally have tuned the water settings to have slightly more distinct continents that are separated by decent sized oceans, and I’ve extended both the day length and matched up the numbers of days per month to the actual calendar. This makes for a slightly less punishing experience for solo play, while still giving some big challenges when it comes to crossing those oceans just for a resource your continent might not have. This means huge prep time to big expositions, and the need to really amass a base supply of resources to be able to quickly establish other camps and shelters that you will stay while getting what you came for and getting supplies for the return trip. I’d also honestly encourage browsing the mods. The community is very active and has a lot of great options, but if I had to suggest just one (well technically more), it would be a wind mod and a small collection of boat mods. Then really pump the water settings and turn those gathering missions into massive, multi day crossings were you might be in open ocean for 1 even 2 whole in game days.
This doesn’t eat too much of your time because of the extended day and calendar settings, while also still leaning into the sort of “make you feel small” effect the game sort of goes for. It also gives your crops time to grow. Plus having to manage the sailing, even with a very rudimentary implementation, keeps me quite engaged.
The game in my mind, feels really good when I’ve set up a bunch of multi day processes (growing crops, tanning leather, preserving food for example) and also prepped for a trip then run off while all my stuff is working with a new resource for a new age.
As far as multiplayer goes it makes the game a lot easier. Purely from being able to multithread tasks. But it’s also very fun especially if everyone takes a unique class and really leans into building a village with cottage industry specific workshop/home combo builds. It’s just naturally emerges as both the best for quickly walking between each others workshops and a cute village.
That’s a lot of my thoughts on the game. Maybe should just turn that into a post somewhere, but here ya go.
- Comment on Day 636 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 4 days ago:
I’m replying to let you know I’ve seen this, but I can’t type the response I want to right this instant. It’s going to be like 6-8 hours before I probably have the chance, but I’ll totally share some guidance!!
- Comment on Day 636 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 5 days ago:
I love VS!! My go to block game!
- Comment on There are still good people in this world. 1 week ago:
Underrated comment. This is actually so freaking cool. As a printmaker I love this so much.
- Comment on There are still good people in this world. 1 week ago:
Truuuuu. Maybe he’s the one driving the van 🧐
- Comment on There are still good people in this world. 1 week ago:
Middle aged white men with YouTube channels don’t stand a chance.
- Comment on Which wired earbuds do you recommend? 1 week ago:
I’m also going to suggest going down an IEM research rabbit hole, but I’ve got some specific reasons why. I think a big misconception is that this style earbud goes IN your ear. They do not. IEMs go in the opening of your ear canal. This means a few things. The wires over your ear should be doing the primary lifting. Take some time to mold the wires to sit snugly over and behind your ear. Next is the rubber/foam ear tips. These should probably be bigger than you’d expect since the goal isn’t to shove them into your ear, it’s to make a seal against the opening of your ear canal.
Someone else mentioned Crinacle and his channel is a great resource. I have two pairs of IEMs from Truthear, one that was a recommendation of his for the price point and another that is his collab with Truthear. I like them both, but I use the first one, the Hexa, a lot more purely because they live plugged into my desk and the other, the zero blue 2, is for my hi-fi portable audio player.
Not saying these are the end-all-be-all, best choice, just that they were my introduction to IEMs and I’ll never go back to other wired headphones.
- Comment on this keeps happening 3 weeks ago:
Is this like a 2 finger pocket situation? Or maybe climbing on jugs? Could even do some hand or fist jamming…
(Yes these are all actual climbing terms.) (Source: me, I’m a rock climber, in fact it is quite literally my job)
- Comment on Im pan so anyone can apply 3 weeks ago:
Hmmmm, yeah, kinda tru tbh
- Comment on Im pan so anyone can apply 3 weeks ago:
So take a nap. THEN FIRE THE MISSILES!
- Comment on Im pan so anyone can apply 3 weeks ago:
What do you mean “trend”? Blahaj Zone has been horny this whole time, y’all just aren’t keeping up!
- Comment on I want to replay Skyrim but 1 month ago:
There’s a slew of mods you can install to really change stuff, but I think the best starting point would be an alternate start mod. There’s two approaches to these, a short questionnaire that is part of character creation which gives your character a bit of background and spawns you in a corresponding location. To start the main quest you simply visit Helgan at any time.
The other approach is basically just random starting locations. This is often used for higher difficulty mods packs aimed for a rouge like experience.
- Comment on PC game recommendation for my partner and I 2 months ago:
I tried to get my friend group into this and most of them bounced off. I tried to convince the “hardcore gamers” of the group that by the looks of it things get quite hard in the late game. Bummed I never really got to experience it to that point.
- Comment on PC game recommendation for my partner and I 2 months ago:
I’ve recently gotten into putting together sort of silly “party” mod packs for my friend group. Things that are meant to be played as a “one shot” with everyone online. Things like full loot randomizers, or shared health and inventory. Just silly a chaotic mods to shift the focus from exploration and sandbox-y things, to “let’s try to beat the ender dragon under very adverse conditions”. So far I’ve only gotten one friend to bite, but we’ve been doing one run a night for the last week or so. Takes between 20 to 60 minutes, maybe more if we really get into it.
Could also look into mods/modpacks that add quest books. That helps take the edge off the “open world, figure it out” paralysis and give some concrete things to work towards.
- Comment on PC game recommendation for my partner and I 2 months ago:
I’ve posted about this somewhere else too, maybe a different account idk.
But for games to play with people that aren’t really “gamers” I actually prefer single player games with light amounts of fast paced action or none at all. The “coop” comes from taking turns with the controller.
This works well with puzzle or logic games with generous reaction time requirements (again, or none at all), as well as story based games with light action. A lot of these games also come with natural pauses in the story that provide opportunities to either swap who is driving or put the game down for the day.
I’ve had a lot of success playing through many of these titles with partners. I’m sorting these roughly by category and then how strongly I recommend them. Some of these games I haven’t actually played yet, but I know them to fit the overall vibe.
Puzzle/Logic - no reaction time required
- Chants of Sennaar (HIGHLY recommend, requires decent notes and map making, so the person not using the controller still has a job)
- Strange Horticulture (HIGHLY recommend, also requires some light note taking to make life easier)
- Strange Antiquities (sequel to above, have not played yet, high expectations)
- Return of the Obra Din (have not played yet, high expectations)
- The Case of the Golden Idol + DLCs (STRONGLY recommend, got a bit burnt out by the end, but very fun, also light note taking)
- The Rise of the Golden Idol (sequel to above, have not played yet, moderate to high expectations)
- Baba is You (HIGHLY recommend, nice learning curve but becomes brutally difficult towards the end of the game)
- Myst (HUGE game, very good, but daunting and little to no hand holding, detailed notes required)Kind of a category within a category, haven’t played these, but they’ve been referred to as 1.5 player games.
- Spiritfarer
- Chicory
- Child of LightPuzzle/Logic - aim and reaction time needed
- Portal 1
- Portal 2 (and its coop if you have 2 devices)
- Portal Reloaded (community mod adding a portal through time with some seriously mind bending puzzles)
- Portal Revolutions (another mod, haven’t played yet but looks fun)
- Viewfinder (HIGHLY recommend, spiritual successor to Portal IMO and a very, very good game)
- Superliminal (HIGHLY recommend, a “Portal-like” that uses perspective as the core mechanic)Story Based - some action sequences requiring aim and reaction time and some puzzling
- Stray (just a cute good time with some spooky, heart rate spiking moments where you really don’t want your kitty to get hurt)
- Alien Isolation (if you’re horror movie people at all this is like an interactive movie)
- Shadows of a Doubt (might be a miss for a lot of people, immersive detective sim)
- Firewatch (played this a long time ago, might not hold up)
- Dredge (spooky but cute fishing sim with good story)
- Summertime Madness (not much reaction time needed, but still some aim or speed based puzzles) - Comment on Help, I'm already addicted XD 2 months ago:
Maybe check out VintageStory or Elsewhere? I also wanted to pivot from Minecraft, due to both burnout and Microslop. Both games are based on relatively famous Minecraft mods/modpacks and recapture some of the nostalgia while also being a new experience. I’d probably recommend VintageStory a bit over Elsewhere, but that is mostly due to my particular playstyle and aesthetic interests.
- Comment on Day 406 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 7 months ago:
If you liked this maybe check out Hi-Fi Rush. Very good third person fighting rhythm game.