Endgame Viable

I mentioned Kruggsmash a while back. In one of his videos, he plays a game called Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.

It was a fun video. Worth a viewing.

I succumbed to the blatant cross-promotional effort and looked for Cataclsym: Dark Days Ahead (or CDDA if you’re cool enough) on Steam. It’s not on Steam.

I Googled it. It’s an open source game. It’s on GitHub.

Never having seen an open source game before, or even heard of one, except perhaps in the deepest, vaguest reaches of my memory, I downloaded it.

It’s a zip file. There’s no installer. You just unzip it and click the exe file (and then tell Windows it’s safe to run this unsigned, unknown executable, which it definitely isn’t. But no risk, no reward).

I’m here to report that I’ve found a game that’s actually more complicated to understand and play than Dwarf Fortress. I would not have believed this was possible, but it is.

It’s just absurd. After about an hour, I managed to set a readable font size (by manually editing a config file, which turned out to be easier than using the UI), start a “random scenario” game, and get my little guy to pick up a newspaper, then ride a nearby motorcycle around some roads before arriving at a building surrounded by zombies. I drove away, then decide to get off the motorcycle. Then I had to quit because the arrow keys mysteriously stopped working.

I think I had unknowingly gotten stuck in “look” mode while riding the motorcycle. It explains why there was a weird box cursor on the screen that I didn’t understand for the longest time. It renders basic walking movement impossible. Don’t accidentally press any keys. Just don’t. You’ll never recover from it.

(Note: It wasn’t “look” mode, it was “steering” mode. Press ^ to bring up the “vehicle controls” menu and then press l to “let go” of the steering controls. Very intuitive.)

I recommend that you don’t even bother running the game at first. Start with at least an hour of tutorial videos. Perhaps a college course, if one is available.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 23. More posts.

I happened to see a few lines in a recent post from Naithin that inspired this soapbox sermon.

I’m pretty open about the fact I enjoy, if not outright require, variety in my gaming it still feels like admitting to being absent a virtue. Be kind. Be patient. Be diligent. And damn it, finish the games you start.

I have thoughts and opinions about this. I don’t like to preach on the blog but not enough people say this.

I’m of the opinion that it’s entirely the fault of the game if the game does not hold my attention long enough to complete it. If I leave a game for something else, the game doesn’t want me to finish it. The game has clearly indicated that it’s only interested in collecting an up-front fee to cover the cost of a marketing campaign, and doesn’t care if anyone plays the game.

A good game will demand that I not play anything else until I’m finished with it, and leave me wanting to play more after that.

They are extremely rare. At most one a year. Currently, I would unscientifically estimate that up to 99% of released games every year are not inventive enough to hold my attention from beginning to end. I dare say the vast majority of games are factory-produced like cheap Legos knock-offs.

So it’s not at all surprising to me that I or anyone else would bounce around a lot between games. Every game I play is exactly one gaming session away from being dropped for another one.

There may have been a time when I thought that it was a failing on my part that I didn’t finish a game, but that time is long past. Games, like books and movies and television and most all media in 2022, are so commoditized now that there are 999 others to try on any given night if one doesn’t immediately impress.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 22. More posts.

Header Image: I’m sorry, artists of the world, but typing a few words into DALL-E and getting four possible header images for a blog post within 30 seconds, one of which is deeply disturbing and perfectly appropriate, is hard to resist.

In the dream, I came upon a statue of a one-armed woman holding a child. I asked her, “How come we judge ourselves by the actions we take but not by our intentions?”

The woman shifted her stony gaze to me. “This is one of the so-called great philosophical questions, is it?”

“Apparently.”

“You know you can replace the words how come with why do, don’t you?”

“I’ll pass that along.”

The woman sighed. An exhausted sigh. “And who is this we of which you speak?”

“Us, I guess. Humans. You know, people?”

“Have you ever committed this heinous transgression?”

“Maybe. I can’t think of anything offhand. But I’m sure I’ve been disappointed when something didn’t work out in the way I wanted it to. Everybody has. Come to think of it, even as we speak, there’s something I’ve been intending to do for quite some time, but I’m rather disappointed that my actions haven’t made it possible.”

“What’s stopping you from taking these actions?”

“Well, fear, obviously. The same thing that stops everyone from taking actions.”

“And I suppose if you take the actions that are necessary to bring about this intention of yours, and it somehow does not succeed, you would consider this a failure?”

“Of course.”

“So it would hence be better not to take action at all. That is success then?”

I bit my lip. “Not exactly. I still wonder a lot about what would happen if I tried this course of action I was thinking about. My intentions are good. I think it might even help people, and me, especially, to try new things, to grow as a person. To learn skills that would be beneficial in the rest of my life. Maybe it would turn out well. Maybe I should take a chance. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so to speak. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“That is obvious. You would feel bad. That must be avoided at all costs.”

Image source: A prominent statue in Haligtree Town Plaza, from Elden Ring.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 21. More posts.

Just some random gaming pet peeves I wrote down once.

I don’t know when this started, but somewhere along the way, we stopped pressing a button to interact with doors, or pick up items, or activate control panels. Instead, we decided we needed to hold down a button and wait for a little circle to fill up. To make sure we really wanted to do that thing that we obviously wanted to do. So, so obviously wanted to do.

I’ve never heard of anyone who likes this. But for some reason, it’s still there. Probably because it’s built into the handful of homogenous game engines and developers don’t know how or don’t want to change it.

There might be a reason for it. It’s probably a reason that somebody at game developer conferences gives seminars about, to explain why it’s there, and why it’s important that it’s there, and presumably everyone in the audience nods along sagely.

Another thing that’s slowly seeped into games is the concept of different actions triggering when you tap a key versus holding down the key. For example, in The Surge 2, if you tap the heal key, it heals you. But if you hold down the heal key, it charges the heal supply for later.

Sometimes this kind of control scheme makes sense. For example, when holding down an attack key to “charge” a stronger attack. But I’ve noticed that more and more developers tend to abuse this short-press versus long-press feature in ways that don’t make a lot of sense, as an easy way to fit more stuff into fewer buttons (a la game controllers). For example, the aforementioned The Surge 2 heal button is an unmitigated disaster.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 20. More posts.

It’s 8 PM and I’m exhausted, so it’s far too late for me to write a post tonight, except this one.

I got my second dose of the shingles vaccine yesterday. The first dose, a few months ago, wrecked my arm for about a week and a half, but I don’t remember feeling bad after it.

But after this one, not only does my shoulder hurt so much I can barely lift my arm, but I also feel bad. Not bad bad, but headachy, low-grade fever, general muscle pain all over and just blah. A typical post-vaccine reaction.

I’m lucky I remembered to get the second dose. I got the first one at my doctor, and scheduled the second one to get at the doctor, but I completely forgot to go to that appointment. Then I forgot to make a replacement appointment. Then I noticed that I was pretty close to the end of my 2-4 month window to get the second shot, so I made an appointment at a nearby CVS. It took about two minutes to get the shot, and about thirty minutes to sit in a chair waiting for the shot.

Why yes, yes I did generate the header image for this post with DALL-E 2. It’s the main thing it’s good for.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 19. More posts.

It’s creator appreciation week here in Blaugust, and by coincidence, I just happen to have one to mention.

I’ve been playing Dwarf Fortress again, one of the best impossible games ever made, which led me down several inevitable pathways: Tutorial videos and Kruggsmash videos.

Tutorials because I’ve forgotten how to do anything in the game.

And Kruggsmash videos because I’m obsessed with his Dwarf Fortress videos. That’s all he does, as far as I know. It’s possible I’ve even mentioned him before on this blog.

But you won’t learn how to play Dwarf Fortress from watching his videos. Instead, you’ll be told a story as generated by the game, delivered in a narrative style that uses role-playing, hand-drawn pictures, music, and sound effects that don’t appear anywhere in the game (by default, the game has no sound).

It’s among the finest game-related video content I can think of on the Internet. By far the best sales pitch for Dwarf Fortress out there, too.

If you’re one of those people who thinks watching people play games is boring, these might be the videos for you. It’s a show, it’s not a Let’s Play.

Also, if you want to learn how to create quality game video content in a unique style, these might be the videos for you. (I mean, by now, I’m sure there are thousands of channels blatantly copying this style, but he was the first one I can remember seeing.) There’s probably still a big market out there for “make Dwarf Fortress look enjoyable to play” videos, and if it ever gets to Steam it’ll only grow.

So anyway, Kruggsmash. It’s good stuff.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 18. More posts.

A brief recounting of the dwarf fortress of Limulitred, “Goldbuff,” in the world of The Eternal Everseeing Dimensions. Updated with illustrations by DALL-E.

We arrive to find ourselves surrounded by a desert! There’s no water and almost no trees.

Digging into the sand quickly reveals a soggy layer below the surface, which the dwarves don’t like to dig through. Underground tunnels and shafts fill with water leaking from the walls. By digging some underground channels that fill with water, it’s the only way to provide drinking water for the thirsty dwarves.

Caverns under the fortress

The year begins with a population of 18 dwarves trying to organize their meager fortress.

There’s no rock on the upper layers of the desert to build from, so the dwarves dig straight down through the soggy clay until they reach a ledge overlooking an expansive cavern deep underground with a lake several layers below. Water seeping out of the walls of the vertical shaft pool at the bottom, but the crafty dwarves channel it away so nobody drowns.

“an elven caravan arrives in the desert to trade with the dwarves” -DALL-E

Migrants raise the population in the fortress to 32. A military forms, but there are no weapons for them to fight with, since there are no metals to forge from.

Wood becomes scarce, so the dwarves open up a passage to the floor of the caverns, where giant fungiwood mushrooms can be cut down for resources. Unfortunately it also opens up the dwarves to attack from cave crocodiles, and two dwarves are dragged underwater and drown. Their bodies can’t be recovered, and their ghosts haunt the fortress.

Food runs out, and the dwarves are starving, yet the yearly caravan gets stuck and won’t trade their food. Deconstructing the trade depot causes the caravan to flee, and the sand is littered with meat, which the dwarves cook up and eat just in time.

“deep underground caverns where cave crocodiles crawl out of the water and attack” -DALL-E

After the Spring of 253, there are 86 citizens living in the fortress, including dwarves and human monster slayers. 11 are dead or missing.

I think I’m going to retire this one, because everything is completely out of control, there’s no plan, rooms are dug haphazardly and inefficiently, rocks are piled everywhere, everything takes too long, nothing is organized, there’s no metal, and dwarves keep arriving with no place for them to sleep or eat. It’s just a mess and I want to start over.

Header Image: “the dwarf fortress of Limulitred under the desert” -DALL-E

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 17. More posts.

In the dream I saw a vengeful angel looking down upon me. I asked her, “What is more real, mind or matter?”

“A silly question,” the angel said. “Why do humans ponder such questions?”

“I don’t know.”

“Matter is real. Mind is real. There is nothing to this question at all.”

“You don’t have to get angry about it.”

“One simply cannot posit that mind and matter are not real. Both are quite clearly real. It is a trite philosophical question that enrages me. It cannot be possible to have a discussion on this subject. In addition, one thing cannot be more or less real than another thing. All things are of equal real-ness.”

“What if I asked which is more real, brain tissue or consciousness?”

“My answer still stands, wandering human. Both are real. Begone.”

“What about consciousness and the soul?”

“That is more of a religious question than a philosophy question.”

“You know you’re a goddess, right?”

The snicking sword was the last sound I heard.

Image source: A screenshot of Melania, the Goddess of Rot, from Elden Ring.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 16. More posts.

I heard talk about a couple of new MMOs, Tower of Fantasy, and one other one which disappeared so fast I can’t even remember the name of it.

Begin cynical viewpoint!

It never once occurred to me to look into them, or reading posts about them, because it’s been almost ten years now since 2014, the last time any major studio launched a new MMORPG that tried to cater to MMORPG enthusiasts. (One of them already shut down.) At some point you can’t help but notice the pattern and stop falling for it.

If people are still talking about Tower of Fantasy in a month, or the other game I can’t remember the name of, maybe I’ll investigate. (It’s Noah’s Heart, which I mainly know as “that game Bhagpuss mentioned but nobody else has”.)

But history suggests that won’t be the case. Whatever happened to New World? Lots of positive buzz, lots of jumping on the bandwagon, lots of “you know, it’s actually really good,” then it disappeared. That other Amazon game I’m struggling to remember the name? (Lost Ark.) Same deal. Now both seem to be completely gone from the public consciousness, relegated presumably to some company-run community forums somewhere and occasional patch notes.

Instead, most people are talking about–you guessed it–World of Warcraft. Same as always. Scandal after scandal after scandal should have killed them a hundred times over, but they just keep right on chugging.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 15. More posts.

When I started Blaugust with a creative writing idea, I failed to account for how draining spontaneous creativity is day in and day out.

It takes intentional effort and practice to sit down every day and tell your brain, “Okay, create something now.”

Unfortunately, I don’t practice that every day, so coming up with something entertaining and meaningful from a random writing prompt in 30 minutes or less turns into a frustrating chore very quickly. There’s a skill to switching into creative mode that isn’t always intuitive for me, and certainly isn’t habitual right now.

I also quickly became uncomfortable with how personal they were. I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s always supposed to be a facade covering my real self on this blog, and I don’t particularly like my inner thoughts and feelings leaking out too much.

So I hit the eject button on creative writing for the time being. The main purpose of blogging is to entertain me. Not having fun + not learning something + not getting paid = I could be doing something else with my time. Like playing Dwarf Fortress.

That’s not to say there isn’t value in practicing the chore of creating something every day when you don’t want to. It’s just that I’m not a working artist, or particularly want to become one. It’s far easier for me to generate an income through software development.

Writing down a few idle thoughts about something, on the other hand, is less troublesome. You just have to stop before it goes on too long.

This post is for Blaugust 2022 day 14. More posts.