A Late October Overview

It's been a while since I actually posted about my own gaming.

To be honest, I'm not certain that the post from September 9th actually counts, as it was a complaint about a bizarre dungeon run that never happened. So, I guess it may have been since August 20th that I provided a real update on what I've been doing.*

***

The short answer is "not much". 

Okay, see you next Meme Monday.

You're still here? You actually want some info?

Okay, fine. 

I don't drink much, Balthan. Type 2 and all that, so shush.

I still play video games, and I still play on the WoW Anniversary Servers. I separate out MMOs versus the rest of video game playing because MMOs are a time sink unto themselves. It's just that I keep my video game playing down to bite-sized chunks, so I don't spend all of my spare time consumed by the hobby. That way I can actually work on other hobbies, housework, or family stuff. 

My single player games, Civ IV, Stellaris, Stardew Valley, Age of Empires, and Planetbase, do keep me busy. I can tinker around with them for a while, and I can get a game of Civ IV and Age of Empires done in an evening session. Yes, I would like to play some RPGs, but I also know it will suck up far more of my time than these old standbys will, so I'm very careful about that.

***

Now, about WoW.

As of October 28, 2026.

As you can see, Neve finally reached Outland, and my Hunter, Hoots, is about to reach max level in probably about a week. Like all my other toons, once a toon hits max level I effectively retire them and I switch to another toon on the same faction. In this case, it'll likely be Az, my old Rogue and the namesake of the first toon I made in WoW Classic in 2019.**

"Remind me again why Sindorei leadership calls this
a green paradise." 

Nothing says "strange land" as much as floating
islands does, I suppose.

And for the record, I still haven't named Hoots' owl. It just fits as-is, I suppose.

I don't see my WoW friends very much right now, as work and family activities (it's Fall, so football season for those with high school kids) keep them busy. My Questing Buddy does login, but she typically gets on after I've gone to bed, so I don't see her quite as much as I used to.

Also, I should mention that I do occasionally login to Retail to fish for a bit...

"Sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tiiiiide roll away..."

There are times when I want to passively observe the crowd, whether it's in Stormwind...

Or during an event...

When did the devs add a Burning Man just outside
Stormwind? That's not there in Classic, and in fact it's
location near the Undercity is the object of both
Alliance and Horde quests.

Or, god forbid, Goldshire...

At least my lowbie Rogue can fit under that brontosaurus
there. Mmmm... brontosaurus burgers... I've been
watching too many old Flintstones episodes again...

I still haven't heard anything new about WoW Classic since the opening of Zul'Aman, but I intend to hang around there as long as possible and just let the crowd steamroll their way to max level in Forever. Once people begin to drop there, because that's what WoW players do, I'll actually consider going over.

Which reminds me: I expect the Blue Elves to make an appearance in Retail before the end of Midnight. Midnight is the Elf expansion, so why not? Forever might be a separate leg on the three-legged stool that is World of Warcraft, but that doesn't mean it will have different races from the Retail game.

*Apparently the bots that tend to far outnumber the actual readers of the blog don't mind, since I had that bubble of "views" that appeared in early September. It's still ironic in the extreme that Google and Gemini still don't recognize the blog exists, but I digress.

**Azshandra was also the name of the last main I played in Retail back in 2013-2014.

RTS and Relaxation

I've played my share of RTS games such as Age of Empires and its descendants, and while some require more hands-on activity* than others, I've found that the RTS that focuses on civ and/or city/settlement building is the right sort of RTS for me.

Such as Madruga Works' games Dawn of Man and Planetbase.

Part of my first base in Planetbase. I need to
design better so that I don't have too
many chokepoints.

Dawn of Man is pretty much as it sounds: an RTS where you guide a settlement from the Paleolithic through the Iron Age. In addition to the traditional RTS problems with occasional baddies showing up to attack your settlement, there are issues with food, shelter, clothing, wild animals, and religion to contend with.

My little settlement is doing so well it now
has a satellite fort to the north.

Planetbase is actually older than Dawn of Man and it involves building a settlement on a remote planet. The difficulty can scale up if you unlock enough gameplay in your current difficulty level, but I don't think it's necessary to do that to enjoy the game.

I know the biggest downer that people have with both games is that the pacing may be so relaxed that you have to frequently speed up the game to keep moving forward. Yes, you can manually switch the game speed, and if you've got downtime of a season or so in Dawn of Man, for example, speeding up the game is a really good idea.

Another issue you have to manage that I forgot to mention is that of resources: mines can get played out and crops can contract diseases. People can become sick and die, and if they're a critical person (such as the only person who knows how to repair a robot in Planetbase, for example) that becomes a huge problem that could sink a settlement. Or, perhaps most insidious of all, is having too much of a good thing and have so many people come to join your settlement that your production and crops can't keep up.

Still, for those who --like me-- are happy with a relaxed pace to a game, both titles are worth pursuing. I'd pick them up when on sale --as always-- just to see if it's worth the purchase.

*And stress, especially when there's a zerg rush going on and you don't have quite enough defenses ready to handle it. 

#Blaugust2024