gaming-artificer

[gaming-artificer]

I don't think people realize how absolutely wild Linux is.

Here we have an Operating system that now has 100 different varieties, all of them with their own little features and markets that are also so customizable that you can literally choose what desktop environment you want. Alongside that it is the OS of choice for Supercomputers, most Web servers, and even tiny little toy computers that hackers and gadget makers use. It is the Operating System running on most of the world's smartphones. That's right. Android is a version of Linux.

It can run on literally anything up to and including a potato, and as of now desktop Linux Distros like Ubuntu and Mint are so easily to use and user friendly that technological novices can use them. This Operating system has had App stores since the 90s.

Oh, and what's more, this operating system was fuckin' built by volunteers and users alongside businesses and universities because they needed an all purpose operating system so they built one themselves and released it for free. If you know how to, you can add to this.

Oh, and it's founder wasn't some corporate hotshot. It's an introverted Swedish-speaking Finn who, while he was a student, started making his own Operating system after playing around with someone else's OS. He was going to call it Freax but the guy he got server space from named the folder of his project "Linux" (Linus Unix) and the name stuck. He operates this project from his Home office which is painted in a colour used in asylums. Man's so fucking introverted he developed the world's biggest code repo, Git, so he didn't have to deal with drama and email.

Steam adopted it meaning a LOT of games now natively run in Linux and what cannot be run natively can be adapted to run. It's now the OS used on their consoles (Steam Deck) and to this, a lot of people have found games run better on Linux than on Windows. More computers run Steam on Linux than MacOS.

On top of that the Arctic World Archive (basically the Svalbard Seed bank, but for Data) have this OS saved in their databanks so if the world ends the survivors are going to be using it.

On top of this? It's Free! No "Freemium" bullshit, no "pay to unlock" shit, no licenses, no tracking or data harvesting. If you have an old laptop that still works and a 16GB USB drive, you can go get it and install it and have a functioning computer because it uses less fucking resources than Windows. Got a shit PC? Linux Mint XFCE or Xubuntu is lightweight af. This shit is stopping eWaste.

What's more, it doesn't even scrimp on style. KDE, XFCE, Gnome, Cinnamon, all look pretty and are functional and there's even a load of people who try make their installs look pretty AF as a hobby called "ricing" with a subreddit (/r/unixporn) dedicated to it.

Linux is fucking wild.

[gaming-artificer]

I'm not sure what the general sentiment is regarding Fallout 76 is at this point, but I like it, and I'd like to share how I encountered a cool way that the game gets you to (maybe unintentionally) explore.

Disclaimer: This is from my memory of playing FO76 a while ago, so some of it may be fuzzy. Also, this may not reflect your playthrough, I'm just recounting how it went for me.

Obviously, minor spoilers for Fallout 76 ahead. I'll try to keep main story spoilers to a minimum, but nearly everything in this game is cool story.

I usually play games in a pretty laid-back way. I'm usually not rushing for high-level enemies, and my attitude towards exploration is generally "I'll get there when I get there". I'll explore at my own pace, but this can end in me eventually putting down the game because I find it boring, when there's really plenty more to explore.

So, I found it really cool when Fallout 76 essentially forced me to explore. Not by giving me quests to go into new areas or anything like that, but by simply dropping me somewhere in the middle of Appalachia and letting me wander my way back to the parts of the map I knew, running into interesting locations, random events, and new and high-level enemies to avoid on the way.

Let me explain. Eventually, whether or not you decide to explore on your own, the main story will bring you to Morgantown. if you wander around a bit, you'll eventually stumble onto Fraternity Row, where you'll pick up the Wasted on Nukashine quest, which allows you to find a bottle of Nukashine in one of the frat houses, which you must drink to complete the quest.

Nukashine has many effects, but by far the most prominent is that you will black out, and wake up in a random place on the map (though the possible sites are pre-determined). When I did this, I woke up at a campsite nearby the Sunday Brothers' cabin. Granted, that doesn't look very far on the map, but it's across the main mountain range on the map, which divides a lot of the easier areas from the hard ones:

Now, the game does give you an easy way out. You can simply fast travel back to a part of the map where you've already been. 76 makes this cost caps based on the distance traveled, but it's usually negligible.

Or, you can do what I did: wander down the road for a bit, find the Sunday Brothers' cabin, and like everywhere else in Fallout, get fully immersed in discovering what the hell happened here. There are higher level enemies, but, the game has a solution for that! Nearby, in a shed, is a set of power armor, with a battery charged enough to fight some enemies at the cabin before making the trek back to Morgantown, meeting higher-level and more interesting enemies along the way.

As a side note: Fallout 76 seems to have a lot more power armor available to just find than previous Fallout games (though they usually have an almost-dead battery), which I really like for two reasons. First, it gives more casual FPS players (like me) a boost to get through harder areas when needed. It feels like when you flip to "easy" mode in a souls-like game to get through a hard boss that you just aren't making any progress on, then switching back, but it doesn't feel like the game is shaming you for it. Second, it means that the cost of leaving your power armor behind isn't as high. In Fallout 4 it felt like the power armor was a precious item to be coveted, and any outing I did with it had to be planned around being able to return my power armor to my base at the end, but in Fallout 76 I don't care about that as much. I nearly always like giving the player more flexibility in their play style, so not having to plan these things out is pretty nice.

When I drank the Nukashine, it really felt like the game was giving me a not-so-gentle nudge into the harder parts of the map, saying, "See? You can handle them just fine. Now go and explore. You'll have a lot more fun if you do." It was a push that I really needed, just as I was starting to fear a difficulty spike as the quests led me further away from the starting area. I don't know if this technique would work for every open-world game, but it fit into the world of Fallout 76 very well, and I was glad that it happened.

[gaming-artificer]

The most fun I've ever had was in a Tekkit Classic server, using EMC condensers and a quarry to build a turtle army. To, of course, replace the quarry to build more and more turtles.

drama in the mad scientist and wizard communities

[gaming-artificer]

Target audience reached! So, question as someone who played Portia and felt,,, meh about it, in short. What're your thoughts on Sandrock in comparison? I have hundreds of collective hours in the other core cozy games/farming sims so it's not for a lack of interest, Portia just fell a bit flat for me in terms of character and town depth I think, and it was rough around the edges in a good few places :/ But I really want to try Sandrock, cause Portia felt so close to being really cool!! I'm just hesitant, so I'm curious of your thoughts as someone who's played both :D

I think if the overall concept is what you didn't like from Portia, Sandrock is largely the same there. However, in my opinion the characters are a lot more complete, and there's lots of history of the town to dive into, not to mention better graphics (though that may be subjective, the art style is a bit different.) I think the multiplayer is also expanding on the story of the characters and town in its own way, though take anything I say about the multiplayer with a grain of salt (I played the early test versions and haven't had a chance to play through the more recent versions). It also feels like it's had a lot more polish. Based on what you said, I think you'd like it, but if you're not sure, maybe wait for a sale.

[gaming-artificer]

Until recently, it's been a singleplayer RPG. That screenshot is from the multiplayer closed beta test last year I believe is now open to everyone. I highly recommend it! Super chill, gives me similar vibes to Stardew Valley. Honestly, it was so nice during the multiplayer test, coming home from work and hopping online with friends to just chill out and build stuff for a few hours, and the multiplayer is even better now.

I'd like to get this blog started by sharing an aesthetic that I absolutely love, especially in the setting of a game, and one of my favorite games, My Time at Sandrock, which follows it. It's a "post-post-apocalyptic" setting, in which the apocalypse has happened, the world was destroyed or became uninhabitable, but by the time the game (or other media) takes place, people are beginning to get on their feet again. I don't know if there's a specific name for this. I've seen "reclaimed by nature", but while that's often a part of these settings, that the ruins of the world before the apocalypse have been filled with plant and animal life over time, it's not always the case. "Hope punk" is probably the closest.

I'll probably come back to this idea a few times, but for now I'd like to talk about how well I think My Time at Sandrock embodies this aesthetic.

For anyone who hasn't played or heard about the My Time series, they're super chill singleplayer (for now) RPGs where you play as the "builder" for one of the "Alliance of Free Cities" (Portia and Sandrock, in their respective games). They have a vibe very similar to Stardew Valley, where the game is based around days in the calendar year, but you can work at your own pace, build your workshop as you like, complete quests to improve the town, and socialize and form relationships with the NPCs. My Time at Sandrock is one of my favorite games of all time. It's currently my banner image, and I met one of my now best friends during the multiplayer closed beta.

My Time at Sandrock takes place in a frontier town in the Eufala Desert. It's this world's equivalent of a gold rush town, where people flocked to dig up relics and technology from the Old World (the game's term for the civilization who lived before, and caused, the apocalypse). However, most of the town's already scarce natural resources were squandered during this time, and it fell on hard times. Your job as the new Builder is to help the town get back on its feet by helping to build buildings, explore the ruins, defend from monsters alongside the Civil Corps, with the end goal of achieving prosperity for the town, sustainably this time.

The town of Sandrock is built nearby a massive ancient ruin, resembling a shopping mall, called Paradise Lost (a name which I think is referencing the "Paradise Lost" step of the Hero's Journey). This ruin is presumably what a lot of the Ruin Divers were interested in. The game has a cute, cartoony style and I love wandering through the hazardous ruins, fighting cleaning and construction robots, and wondering what they were building before the world was shrouded in darkness.

So, how did that happen?

300ish years before the game takes place, was an era described as the Age of Corruption, when technology had peaked, humans lived the high life, and robots did most physical labor. However, before long was the Day of Calamity, when the technology that the humans had built for war caused chaos and darkness across the world.

For 200 years, humans lived in darkness, mainly underground, under nuclear winter conditions while monsters owned the land above. Finally, a man named Peach built a machine to blow through the clouds, allow sunlight to reach the land, and allow humans to come out from underground and begin to rebuild civilization. This event is commemorated as the Day of the Bright Sun.

The series doesn't give much detail beyond this, but I don't think it should, unless it's the focus of a future game. It's just enough to give context to the settings, as most of their worldbuilding happens in the present, not in the past. Both games take place in a world 100 years and two or three generations after the Day of the Bright Sun. Civilization is being rebuilt, people are prospering, and there is even a religion called the Church of the Light formed around non-violence, cooperation, and opposing the use of Old World technology, as they believe it's dangerous and fear the same end as the Old World had.

Sandrock, though, has gone through this pattern again, in its own way. In their rush to strike it rich on Old World technology, the ruin divers and the city used up all of their natural resources, resulting in the trees all being chopped down, the town's oasis drying up, and the only thing left being the ruins themselves. You, as the town's new builder, are put in the empowering position of lifting up Sandrock from this situation and restoring it to its former glory.

This is the part that I love so much about My Time at Sandrock. The prospect of rebuilding an entire civilization is difficult to achieve as one character. Games like Civilization, RimWorld, and Terra Nil tackle this by making the player essentially omnipotent, giving them control over the whole developing civilization at once (or in Terra Nil's case, with wildly advanced technology). But Sandrock does this differently: By re-creating the reconstruction effort on a smaller scale, with just one town, and placing the player not at the top, in charge of everything, but as the one doing the grunt work to build bridges, buildings, lifts, farms, train tracks, and much more (though some of this has been in the pre-release multiplayer story mode). You slowly get to see this charming frontier town rise back up from the desert. Over the course of the game, you even get things like tourists appearing once you repair the train tracks. It's an absolute joy to watch your hard work come to fruition, and see the town overcome its own mini-apocalypse.

Thanks for reading! This is a topic I've wanted to share for a long time, and I'm glad I finally had the time to do it. I'd highly recommend My Time at Sandrock, especially if you're a fan of games like Stardew Valley, or aesthetics like the one I talked about here It's a super chill game, and I love playing it to relax after a long day of work or college lectures. And, if you want someone to play multiplayer Sandrock with, feel free to message me!

[gaming-artificer]

I'd like to get this blog started by sharing an aesthetic that I absolutely love, especially in the setting of a game, and one of my favorite games, My Time at Sandrock, which follows it. It's a "post-post-apocalyptic" setting, in which the apocalypse has happened, the world was destroyed or became uninhabitable, but by the time the game (or other media) takes place, people are beginning to get on their feet again. I don't know if there's a specific name for this. I've seen "reclaimed by nature", but while that's often a part of these settings, that the ruins of the world before the apocalypse have been filled with plant and animal life over time, it's not always the case. "Hope punk" is probably the closest.

I'll probably come back to this idea a few times, but for now I'd like to talk about how well I think My Time at Sandrock embodies this aesthetic.

For anyone who hasn't played or heard about the My Time series, they're super chill singleplayer (for now) RPGs where you play as the "builder" for one of the "Alliance of Free Cities" (Portia and Sandrock, in their respective games). They have a vibe very similar to Stardew Valley, where the game is based around days in the calendar year, but you can work at your own pace, build your workshop as you like, complete quests to improve the town, and socialize and form relationships with the NPCs. My Time at Sandrock is one of my favorite games of all time. It's currently my banner image, and I met one of my now best friends during the multiplayer closed beta.

My Time at Sandrock takes place in a frontier town in the Eufala Desert. It's this world's equivalent of a gold rush town, where people flocked to dig up relics and technology from the Old World (the game's term for the civilization who lived before, and caused, the apocalypse). However, most of the town's already scarce natural resources were squandered during this time, and it fell on hard times. Your job as the new Builder is to help the town get back on its feet by helping to build buildings, explore the ruins, defend from monsters alongside the Civil Corps, with the end goal of achieving prosperity for the town, sustainably this time.

The town of Sandrock is built nearby a massive ancient ruin, resembling a shopping mall, called Paradise Lost (a name which I think is referencing the "Paradise Lost" step of the Hero's Journey). This ruin is presumably what a lot of the Ruin Divers were interested in. The game has a cute, cartoony style and I love wandering through the hazardous ruins, fighting cleaning and construction robots, and wondering what they were building before the world was shrouded in darkness.

So, how did that happen?

300ish years before the game takes place, was an era described as the Age of Corruption, when technology had peaked, humans lived the high life, and robots did most physical labor. However, before long was the Day of Calamity, when the technology that the humans had built for war caused chaos and darkness across the world.

For 200 years, humans lived in darkness, mainly underground, under nuclear winter conditions while monsters owned the land above. Finally, a man named Peach built a machine to blow through the clouds, allow sunlight to reach the land, and allow humans to come out from underground and begin to rebuild civilization. This event is commemorated as the Day of the Bright Sun.

The series doesn't give much detail beyond this, but I don't think it should, unless it's the focus of a future game. It's just enough to give context to the settings, as most of their worldbuilding happens in the present, not in the past. Both games take place in a world 100 years and two or three generations after the Day of the Bright Sun. Civilization is being rebuilt, people are prospering, and there is even a religion called the Church of the Light formed around non-violence, cooperation, and opposing the use of Old World technology, as they believe it's dangerous and fear the same end as the Old World had.

Sandrock, though, has gone through this pattern again, in its own way. In their rush to strike it rich on Old World technology, the ruin divers and the city used up all of their natural resources, resulting in the trees all being chopped down, the town's oasis drying up, and the only thing left being the ruins themselves. You, as the town's new builder, are put in the empowering position of lifting up Sandrock from this situation and restoring it to its former glory.

This is the part that I love so much about My Time at Sandrock. The prospect of rebuilding an entire civilization is difficult to achieve as one character. Games like Civilization, RimWorld, and Terra Nil tackle this by making the player essentially omnipotent, giving them control over the whole developing civilization at once (or in Terra Nil's case, with wildly advanced technology). But Sandrock does this differently: By re-creating the reconstruction effort on a smaller scale, with just one town, and placing the player not at the top, in charge of everything, but as the one doing the grunt work to build bridges, buildings, lifts, farms, train tracks, and much more (though some of this has been in the pre-release multiplayer story mode). You slowly get to see this charming frontier town rise back up from the desert. Over the course of the game, you even get things like tourists appearing once you repair the train tracks. It's an absolute joy to watch your hard work come to fruition, and see the town overcome its own mini-apocalypse.

Thanks for reading! This is a topic I've wanted to share for a long time, and I'm glad I finally had the time to do it. I'd highly recommend My Time at Sandrock, especially if you're a fan of games like Stardew Valley, or aesthetics like the one I talked about here It's a super chill game, and I love playing it to relax after a long day of work or college lectures. And, if you want someone to play multiplayer Sandrock with, feel free to message me!

[gaming-artificer]

Hi! I'm starting this blog partially because I've been lurking on Tumblr for a while and I want an excuse to push myself to interact with people, partially to practice my writing skills, and partially because I have a lot of passionate nerd rants about random topics that my girlfriend says I should share with more people. I hope to be writing a long-form post every week or two for now, but I hope to interact with other people, particularly the wizardposting community, in between. Feel free to ask me (nearly) anything, especially opinions on games of all kinds, TTRPGs, computer science, or arcane constructs!

This is a side blog, my main blog where I reblog random stuff unrelated to this is @dacid44.

Long-form stuff/Nerd rants (will be tagged with #nerd rant):

A post-post-apocalyptic aesthetic, explained using My Time at Sandrock

New: How Fallout 76 forced me to explore