Love/hate #42 Holdfast (not yet 100% complete achievement-wise)

This is one of those games I picked up due to online hype and it lived up to the hype for once. I think what hyped me was just funny videos of battles in progress, especially that one video of the loud Scotsman taking the fort.

I first played it in 2021 and for some reason played a ton of naval matches.

First game ever.

You can just aim and fire a cannon whenever you want? Sweet!

First game was a win!

There is a FPS mode but it's not amazing.

You can swim if you're near the coasts!

Played a whole game as a musician.

   There are coastal invasion maps as well but these are tough.

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I picked it up again in June and July 2023 and with the help of my nephew cleared a bunch of the achievements.

^ It takes a while to respawn and often you will be far from the mayhem. But this is part of the charm!

I am missing about 10~ achievements, all somewhat do-able but time is getting away from me.

^ A few guys were camped near or spawn point and would challenge everyone to fist fights!

Green riflemen have the best aim and guns but it's almost like easy mode.

So many neat little things you can do, like help move cannons!

Capture points can be really difficult.

The 'hands up' gesture is so funny I die laughing anytime I see it.

Great place to hold out!

One of my very few decent games.

Bunch of guys held up in this lake. Too funny.

A sweet line.

The bridge of death.

Rockets being fired are so pretty <3

Playing an empty map...

I usually go line infantry - solid all-rounders.

Very briefly on top...

An inspiring speech, but I have voices muted so I don't even know.

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The only game I want to play now is Star Ocean 2-R, but will have to wait until November. I may do a run through some of the Final Fantasy games to warm up for that, plus the usual Fallout run throughs when I get the urge to play 'em in autumn.

Civilization IV Appreciation Post (unfinished)

 I haven’t posted any blogs about Civ 4 specifically since my Monarch series in 2018.

I’ve been playing Civ 4 fairly regularly since 2011; I had it with me in Finland and finally sat down and figured it out and glad I did.

There are 9 difficulties in Civ 4, from Settler to Deity. I started with Warlord or Noble in 2011 and promoted myself to Prince at some stage around 2012-2014. I think I was a Prince from maybe 2015-2017 and then became a Monarch around 2018. I stuck with Monarch until maybe 2020 and then became an Emperor. There are only two levels above this, Immortal and Deity, and I think I am almost ready to elevate myself to Immortal soon.

The mark of promotion is playing as a sub-optimal leader and civilization and leading them to victory. This would be someone with no economic traits like Tokugawa and as for the civilization? Maybe the Americans because their bonuses go online so late in the game. But maybe I’ll just promote myself because I feel ready after almost 3 years of being at Emperor level.

My strategy

I play the same way at the start almost every time at the moment. I usually build a Worker, a Warrior and then the Great Wall. I usually try and get Stonehenge as well to pop my borders out. Then the current thing is to spam settlers from my capital and alternate that with buildings. I don't chop the forests around my capital only, though I may try to move away from this. I make my Capital the Great Person Farm and build the National Epic here (100% more Great People Points) and much later, the National Park (+1 free specialist in the city for every Forest Preserve). So I usually save the forests, usually 10-15 of them, build Lumber Mills on them when I get Replaceable Parts and then change to Forest Preserves. Bureaucracy and the general excellence of Capital sites means it stays competitive without any Cottages. I mine or farm or fish any resources that are within the city limits but forests are left alone. Great People are spawned here only while almost every building is built and Wonders are built if possible.

Other than that, I lean on having like 80% of my cities being either Wealth cities (if on coast or have religious shrines) or Research (if inland, on rivers) cities. Both have largely the same buildings, but the Wealth cities will certainly have Markets, Grocers and Banks while the Research cities definitely have Libraries, Universities and Observatories. Usually with Slavery I just get both types to have all of these buildings. Wall Street will be built in my main shrine city and Oxford University in a good scientific city.

The remaining number of cities are Production cities. Production cities depending on map size and type I usually break into 1-4 cities, separated by the 4 Production-Military National Wonders (Moai Statues, Heroic Epic, West Point, Ironworks). They do not build wealth or science buildings usually (well, maybe a couple of money buildings) but they do get the generic stuff like Courthouses and Granaries but crucially they just build Barracks and/or Stables and then alt-click Axemen or whatever to produce an infinite number of troops.

By the time I have a couple of wealth-research cities and 1 military town online the barbarians have had their way with the continent I’m on and I can set about conquering other players or taking barbarian towns. The goal is usually to dominate whatever landmass I’m on ASAP and then if there are other landmasses to get Astronomy and dominate them too. All the while every city is building their respective buildings but make sure to shift click and Archer and a Settler in every town so they all pull their weight and keep expanding that way.

May 2023 general update

 I wasn’t sure what to post for my monthly blog thing so I just went with a short life update.

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I have been studying full-time in-person at a local GRETB facility since September 2022 and part-time online at a local technical university since January 2023. Both courses are in Programming and Software Development. I never knew how to code before starting in September 2022 and honestly after 8 months I am not that much better but my foot is in the door.

I have now completed the in-person course and will do the online course until December 2024. I had originally planned to do the online course full-time and have it done in 1 year, January-December 2023 but elected to switch to part-time early on. It was too difficult to do both full-time. I will have such a light schedule from Semester 2 to Semester 4 that I may go back to work, having left work in July 2022.

The in-person course was only a QQI Level 5 so it was easy enough, some of the modules were no challenge if you’ve been a student before or are old (I am both). The coding was tougher but we walked through everything. As for the online course, it’s a level 8 designed to convert workers from other fields into ICT workers and is way tougher but all the information is provided. I will try and spend the summer 2023 doing a bit of coding. It's something I need to get a handle on.

One bonus of the in-person course was the option to apply for something called Erasmus+, which two of my friends have done in the past and have gone to Finland and Malta respectively. I am going to Malaga on the 21st of May until June 11th. I will be doing work experience part time and just chilling the rest of the time. I'll post some update on my various travels later in the year.

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Arbitrary ‘challenges’ in 2023: the only main one is no takeaway for the year, I can get it if it’s with other people or for the family or whatever but that’s been like maybe 5 times in the last 6 months. I'll write more on this in the usual 31st of December yearly post.

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I have been cycling a ton, 60 cycles since late January. It’s just a short 7km from my house to Menlo and back but is relatively stress-free, I feel good and it’s good for my hip. I was still lifting until recently but have taken a break in May for a month or so, will go back in June. Sometimes a break can be the best thing. I always go back to it with renewed energy and passion. I had also recently reduced the weights of all my dumbbells and the barbell as I am less focussed on getting bigger. It’s just not happening so I will focus on being as healthy as possible.

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Video games - I haven’t been playing as much but when this happens, Civilization 4 always has my back. I am thinking about writing a gigantic appreciation post for what is possibly my all-time favourite game. Earlier in the year I was playing a bit of Resident Evil 1 and 2. I played Doom 2016 for a bit in January but walked away from it. I got a Star Ocean 2 emulator so I played that about ¾ of the way through and got stuck as I was doing an all-mage playthrough, horrible. I did play a ton of Halo in April which deserves a write-up. It’s been mostly Civ 4 so far though so stay tuned.

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Board games/RPGs - I ran GURPS in January, just one session but was OK. I am still playing a D&D 5th edition Spelljammer game every Wednesday. We are level 11 and my character is a multi-class monstrosity: Fighter 5, Bard 3, Warlock 2, Rogue 1. I went to Athventurecon in February and played a Dread Jenga game and a D&D 5th edition game.

I managed to run not one but two games of Britannia this year, finally, after buying it for over a hundred euro a few months back. I was the Yellow player the first time in January and lost narrowly and was Green in February and came third. I did almost everything right as both sides but Red and (shockingly for me) Blue won the two respective games. I am hoping to run it again over the summer, playing Blue (have played at least once before years ago and can’t figure them out) and after that Red (have won with them before, the strongest colour IMO). I will probably post the results of all these games in the coming months and some thoughts on it. I have stats! I have data!

Other than that, hopefully I can get a game of Dead Winter or two and maybe revive T.I.M.E Stories for a campaign. I have yet to play all the original games so may try and make this happen.

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Other than that, just trucking along! Everyone is happy and healthy. I'm trying to grow my hair out.

Love/Hate #41 Golden Sun 1 (first full replay since 2013 or earlier???)

I first played this wayyyy back in maybe 2003? 2004? Apparently it released in Europe in early 2002 but I don't think I got a Game Boy Advance until Christmas 2002 or 2003. So anyway, it's been about 20 years since I first played it. I used the Nintendo Offical Magazine 'guide' to find my way through most of the game and most of the secrets. Some were omitted and the 'guide' was not exactly thorough hence my use of  ''. But I cleared it anyway, so added it to my short list of cleared JRPGs in the early 2000's alongside the Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

I would go on to complete it a few more times here and there from about 2003 - 2013 and then I stopped playing the Game Boy Advance on a whim from then on. At some stage around 2011 onward I discovered emulators and mainly used them to play Pokémon games at 1000% speed by holding down the space bar. Very handy for a quick fix of old nostalgia games. Around 2021 or so on my desktop PC I had acquired the Golden Sun ROM and played as far as Sol Sanctum. I must have gotten bored and wandered off but RETURNED in early 2023 and blitzed through the old favourite.

I remembered to take some screenshots. I miss having Dropbox on all the time to take screenshots of whatever and save them. Anyway, here I am at level 23 and with most of the Djinni. As numerous sources and videos will tell you, having the Djinn is almost essential to playing Golden Sun. Take Isaac's 7 Earth Djinn away and he loses like half his HP.

One of my fave mute protagonists. But he's not really mute. I must have accidentally cut the 'c' off the end of his name at character creation, oh well. 'Isaa' is the best character, highest attack, good solid spells and stats all-round and great versatility - he can heal, revive, attack and be useful in dungeons. As a fellow Earth Adept, I appreciate him greatly.

The Overworld is so pretty, I always liked it. Even still looks good 20 years later on a 32 inch curved monitor, full screen. That overworld theme is a bop as well, the composer also did Star Ocean and whatnot so no wonder I like it.

Garet, the fiery best friend. I used to use the code at the start to rename him 'Andy' at least once due to character limits. 'Royce' would fit the character limits now ;) I would usually give Garet the cursed equipment and Cleric Ring as recommended. My last playthrough which I still have on the GBA saved I experimented with mixing Djinn; I had made Isaac and Garet Ninja's I think by giving them mixtures of Djinn because the stats were insane. This time in 2023, I stuck with the vanilla setups.

Ivan, the Air Adept. As above, I kept him vanilla so he just mainly casted spells like Storm Ray and Whirlwind to help out the gang. Some Impacts as well as I experimented more with making Isaac attack more instead of constant Earth psynergy. Ivan is the speedster but is frail, he will be downed at some point in the playthrough but nothing some Water of Life or Revive can't fix.

Good old Mia. I think I renamed her 'Aghna' in an old playthrough. As usual I just had her cast 'Wish' over and over to heal everybody but in this playthrough she contributed quite a bit with spells like Tundra and Glacier to kill enemies faster. Often combat can be resolved throughout the game by just having the 4 adepts spam spells for one round maybe two and win.

Mia's selection of Water psynergy for the field. She can cure individuals and the group, remove poison (almost never used) freeze puddles, create puddles and lift rocks.

Ivan's Psynergy is probably the most useful. Whirlwind comes up a few critical times, never an optional spell. Cloak is apparently an optional, missable spell but so handy for the optional dungeons and some sections. Halt is possibly also optional but useful for a few situations. I gave him the spare Frost gem, he has the most Power Points so no harm in him casting instead of Mia. Mind Read and Reveal are great spells: you can assign Mind Read to a shoulder button - A and S on the keyboard - and read almost every NPCs mind. Cool way to double the amount of dialogue of some NPCs, helps worldbuilding and reveals secrets. Reveal is one of the best spells and reveals hidden stuff all over the world.

Garet starts with Move but I gave him the Force Gem as well which you use a lot about halfway into the game and in some select puzzles. He has the least magic so it doesn't matter really.

The great Isaac has a couple of Cure spells and Revive, which is great. Saves you from using expensive items to revive people. I gave Isaac the Catch beads which are handy for some puzzles and collectibles. He starts with Move and Retreat, handy for getting out of dungeons quickly rather than trekking back.

A sample of Isaac's Psynergy. Ragnorok is single target but relatively cheap and does over 100 damage usually so is a nice one. I like Quake Sphere because it targets loads of enemies but the rest are good too. Mother Gaia is the top spell in my book.

I fought Deadbeard at a fairly low level I think. He's the resident superboss of this game and completely optional. With the help of the Djinni who give you raised Resistance and protections his spells did very little damage. Just use them, then a big summon for a few hundred damage and repeat.

After you beat Deadbeard you get the Cursed Mail and can then get out of the optional dungeon. It's mainly comprised of fixed bosses and no battles otherwise, plus a puzzle on every level bar the last one with Deadbeard. As with most of the puzzles in this game, they are laughably easy.

The world map. I always liked how mountainouse and riverine it is. I stole the name 'Gondowan' from the southern continent here. 'Angara' too became 'Ankhara'. It influenced some of my early Age of Wonders maps which I would have been making around this time, 2002-2008.

I recorded me fighting the final bosses but something happened and the recording went black. I'll include it as bonus material below but it's just the audio for 90% of it.

Isaac's only 'words' in the game. Apparently he talks a lot in the sequels. 

The final screen. After the 'point of no return' pictured above there is a short sequence and a lot of shti goes down setting up the next game but other than an extremely brief look at it at some point I have yet to play. Hopefully I cna follow up at some stage with me playing GS2 and Dark Dawn. Have to finish the story, 20 years later!

Love/hate #40 Dark Souls 1 (Unfinished)

 I need to return to this eventually. I played it for a few weeks in March 2022 and got pretty far despite everything. I am technically stuck but like any JRPG, a bit of grinding or cheesing and I can get back on track. I last played in May 2022 but shall return, I must. I had planned to do all Dark Souls starting with 1 and move onto the related titles after that.

So as usual I will share every screenshot I took and provide a slight running commentary, maybe this will push me to go back and finish it maybe in the summer when I am free again.

Here we go...

^ My first character. I read that mages were good so I tried this...

^ Iconic!

^ I do very much enjoy killing stuff in this game. Took a while to beat this first boss dude.

^ OK so I pissed him off thinking I could kill him - big mistake. He's now permanently aggro'd so... I reset. I was not happy being a mage either.

^ All hail my second character, Secunda! Dex-Str for the win.

^ Took me a while to get the hang of melee combat only but I think I got it...

This is quite a gap in progress, but the boss on the walkway here wasn't TOO bad.

^ Here he is dying.

^ Ah tis himself!

^ I tried to sneak passed this dragon knowing full well it would kill me. It did eventually...

^ I loved the boar helmet!!! Also note the Knight Shield and Uchikatana...

^ Every new door reveals more horrors..

^ Had quite a bit of fun trying to kite enemies out to where I wanted them.

^ These pricks killed me multiple times. Maybe 3 times I don't remember.

^ Collecting my lost souls... and some loot

^ Got 'em dead eventually.

^ I personally really enjoyed all the insane NPCs.

^ State of the nation after level 20 or so...

^ I think I eventually killed this prick. Variations of him would cause me trouble later too...

^ This was but a taste of the platforming to come. Do not walk off the edge...

^ I really, really liked how everything was nicely interconnected. Castles gave way to forests gave way to swamps...

^ This took a go or two but managed to slaughter them eventually.

^ All hail the flame... This was the nice secret one.

^ Debuffs are brutal.

^ Take that you giant scum...

^ Another meme character.

^ Returning to my humble roots via this sewer tunnel. Mind the rats.

^ I was following a guide but there is only so much they can help you with.

^ Rescuing this person from a barrel, naturally.

^ Seeing ghouls in the distance, mind the fuckers on the ceiling.

^ The giant rat. Did not fight it to the death as I died at least once.

^ These doors always mean death... Well not always.

^ A gigantic arena???

^ Ah that's why.

^ They were actually grand. I think they killed me at least once but I got them eventually.

^ Side quest for the achievements...

^ Returning to the prison for... reasons. Died horribly in this corridor.

^ Secunda under the armour. Yikes.

^ Goddamn Hydra.

^ Eventually managed to kill it. Hard to get close to it, sending Hydro Pumps at you constantly.

^ Descent into the shit city!

^ Watch out for the poo berserkers!

^ A moment of rest in the poison swamp.

^ Excuse me, madame??

^ Oh right , a demon.

^ She was hard to beat. That and when you die, you respawn on the other side of the poison swamp and have to make your way back to her.

^ Using humanity, I summoned this lady to help me.

^ She helped me defeat her!

^ So many neat little secrets. Little nooks and crannys that must be returned to.

^ Open sesame...

^ Hey kitty!

^ The forest dudes don't attack if I'm in their covenant. Cool cool...

^ SWORD WOLF

^ Debut of the Lizard Snake people...

^ Fukken mimics everywhere.

^ That'll learn you to trick me.

^ Constant man-made horrors beyond my comprehension.

^ Big boi!

^ I fell off.

^ I managed to beat him eventually with the help of a summon.

^ Trying on some mage robes.

^ More NPC fun. 

^ This bro helped me defeat the Iron Giant.

^ The infamous Anor Londo! So bright.

^ I actually really enjoyed this section and did not die (much).

^ Ayo!!!

^ Lmao the guy from earlier's armour.

^ Upgraded my weapons and whatnot here.

^ Please help me...

^ The giant guards are so pesky.

^ Despite my best efforts, I could not beat this duo and got stuck here.

Conclusion - so in sum, quite a fun game, very challenging. The lack of screen shots in numerous parts illustrates that. I played it with a controller and my palms would sweat and I'd grip it so hard! I will return, defeat that damn duo and finish the game!